Home*made Chicken Soup

Maybe it is the weather, but I have been craving some soup. Chicken rice soup to be exact. I just wanted to go with what I felt I wanted int he soup and not by any recipe I found. So I started with cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, boiled one thigh in water, used that water as broth, better than bouillon, Knorr chicken stock, seasonings, minced garlic, etc.... Most of it was not measured out, it was just added to what I thought would be nice and taste good.

My 2 favorite things to use for cooking:

I have used Better than Bouillon for awhile now, but only the last year
the Knorr Stock!
I cooked my jasmine rice in my rice cooker and added the rice at the end, before putting the soup in the fridge. I brought it to work for lunch.
I added an all seasoning I read off Paula Dean's Coleslaw recipe.
I only used what I had in the house, otherwise I might have added celery & carrots. I do admit it turned out delicious...

Mama & Me Journal

I am going to make these for all my girlfriends!! I think it is the best idea ever!  I got it from a blog that has homeschooling, it was a link on the one a subscribe to.

Click on her name and it will send you right to the post. I will have all the information here as well.

Danika & I put it together ourselves. I explained to her what is was and she was excited about it.
What exactly is a “Mama & Me” journal? Well, it is basically a journal for my daughter and I to share. We write letters back and forth to each other.  My hope is that these seemingly simple letters to one another will become a book of memories to treasure for a lifetime! 

I told Danika, we will write in them and then put it on the others pillow when we are done. That way we can read & leave. This may be a little smaller journal & so we will just have to add to our collection. Maybe this is for the year of 2013. 

All I can say is that I LOVE this idea!!  

Directions: Print the label and cut it down to the desired size. Then cut the scrapbook paper a bit larger than the label. Layer the paper and glue them onto the notebook. (As an option, you could just print the label onto sticker paper and then just stick it to the notebook.) I glued the label to scrapbook paper and then added it to the top of the journal. I also did scrapbook paper on the backside also. That way it all matched, the only thing is the binding- I did not mess with that!  

Here is the link to print up the cute label, she has one for mama & her boy(s) also..
Download the girly “Mama & Me” label AND the boyish “Mama & Me” label from my Writing Printables page.

Making my own Breadcrumbs

I make sandwiches every day during the week, for my boyfriend & my daughter. I have a lot of ends left over. I also cut out my daughter's sandwich into shapes- mainly heart, sometimes a star. This way she does not have to eat the crust. I came up with this idea, because I ran out of store bought breadcrumbs. I needed them for a recipe and was bummed I did not have any on hand, then I realized I throw away bread every day. DUH!! I started saving the ends and the cut out parts. I wanted to give this away for Christmas as well, but I did not get to it in time. So over the last 2 months I made 4 jars- I had to throw 1 of the jar away, 

 Since that was burned. The first batch I made I did differently than I did the second batch. I first chopped up all the bread crumbs in my nifty little magic bullet. Then added seasoning, then baked it! The second time around I toasted all the bread first, let it sit and cool, chopped it into a blender magic bullet, added seasonings & DONE!

I printed up labels, but once again did not use stickers. I used regular paper and then MOD PODGE it on there.. The first batch, my girlfriend loved it! It has mainly wheat bread in it. A little white bread but not much at all. So it is healthier for you, I think! 

I used a whole bottle of Italian Seasoning with Garlic Powder- no measuring just by the eye.

I am impressed with myself, I must admit. I am glad I will not have to buy my breadcrumbs from the store anymore. I can make whatever flavoring I want & I usually always have left over bread!

Chore Chart

I have been thinking... The time is now to start giving the girls chores.  Almost 3 days, they get  a donut and juice before school- we stop at the donut shop or 7eleven. Our special day is Friday, we stop at Starbucks.
Are these girls spoiled? They need to learn some responsibilities & add to the family. Plus, it does help me out. I usually run the whole house, as you well know most mothers do. I also work on top of that & try to squeeze time in their for my love, the girls & a little for myself- not much time though for myself...

I have been searching on Pintrest & Google for different ideas on chore charts for kids. I have a whole bunch that I semi-like, but I found this magnet one and my favorite is sold on eEtSy. But, guess what? I can DO IT!! I will show you one example, maybe 2 of what I really like: 

The one on the right is with pricing (how much each chore will pay you- I don't like that part) and can be bought on EtSy. She has different colors for the lettering and a chain rather than ribbon, if you would prefer- but this is totally doable!! I have bottle caps that I have been collecting for a couple of years that I was going to use for different magnetic/embellishments for crafting & have not used them yet. This would be PERFECT!! Spray them white, put a chore inside, add a magnet & DONE! 

Last night, I went over to my girlfriends house & guess what she wanted me to check out on her hall wall??

A magnetic chore chart!! Yes, almost identical to the one on the right. She used the metal, added the girls names on the top with stickers, and then she ordered round wooden circles & magnets. Great minds think alike!!

For now, though before I start my project- I do want the girls to start learning responsibilities, so I grabbed a printable one that looks like this:

Our chores are:  feed the cat, cat box, take trash out, make bed before leaving for school, brush teeth, before bedtime clean up room, etc... I have a BONUS area also- that has sweep, dishes, clean counters, etc..  You can do the BONUS for $$... But the rule is: You must have all regular chores crossed off before collecting any $$ for BONUS. We do chores, so we can make "special" trips in the mornings. This is the 2nd week, the first week they only did 1/4 of the chores for the week. They are not use to them so that is was ok for the 1st week. We all had a talk on Sunday, the deal is- the chart(s) for each girl is posted on the fridge, you know you need to do it. If it does not get done, then we do NOT got to Starbucks on Friday. End of story! This whole week I bought little items for their breakfast, so they can eat it in the car- so NO stopping! So far this week, the girls have done all their chores, very proud of them. I also told them that I will NOT remind them, they have to do them without reminders. That is what responsibility is all about, no one reminds me to pay my bills, to fill up my gas, to make sure I have lunches for the family......

As soon as I do my magnet project- I will post that. Thanks for reading!! 

Valentine's Day is coming...

I must admit, this is NOT my Holiday at all! The only reason I like this Holiday is because of my daughter. Otherwise, I would not bother at all. So I will have to say, last year I wanted to do so many thing and just did not do it. I just ran out of time. So last minute trying to throw something together, did not make me happy. BUT this year is different! I am ahead of the game, due to buying the stuff last year!
I have 2 things we will do with the girls and I have one cute idea for my honey!

~V Day is over!~ So here are some of the ideas I put together & did for both girls..
Keep in mind, I started these in Jan. I bought crayons at the dollar store last year, for this project and never got to it. 2 packs of 48, broke up and make our own heart crayons.

 I bought these heart trays from Target last year to realize when I saw them again this year, they are ice trays. I don't think they said that last year,but they still work! 250 degrees for about 8-10 min. Do not do any longer or any hotter! The girls got a kick out of them! The girls got to make 4 of their favorites and keep them! My favorite site had the labels. You can also google it and I just found some for boy/girl.

Click HERE for pdf printable..

 My Next project was for my man.. I got the card deck at the dollar store- 2 for the price of 1! I kept it in order and just wrote a bunch of things that I love about him & BAM- that was done! I even printed one with his face, because I wrote "I love when you smile". It was of course, one of him smiling, which is rare!
~ He loves desserts too, so I got the rootbeer float basket and printable card for him!!

 Now for Hailey, I looked up things for a 4th grader or Tween age girls. This was cute idea. I got socks at Target in the dollar bin. And the lips are from Michaels. On Valentines day I found a printable I liked even more than this one- it was with the lips too.. I looked for days on the whistle valentine, but kept coming up with this one.. So the other one says, "Read my lips, Happy Valentine's Day".. That was cute. The one on the right, I only made 6 for her to give to her closest friends at school. "You rock my socks off Valentine"... Isn't that the cutest! Love it.

I did not have a lot of money to spend, so I had an old composition book that I had not used, and I had a $5 See's Candy gift card that I won at a party. I do not really care for chocolate and was not going to See's anytime soon. So I figured maybe Danika's teacher would enjoy it more. It is the thought that counts, right?
So, I decorated it with scrapbook paper, added some embellishments and had Danika sign the Valentine's Day front cover.. I hope she can use it!

I found this on pintrest!! LOVE IT.. I had both girls join in the fun. We got Jolly Ranchers, put them on a pan with foil- bake 200 degrees for about 10 minutes.. and here they are Lollipops!
Then I had to take a picture of Danika with her hand out like she is giving you the lollipop. I used regular paint software and added the hearts and the Happy Valentines Day.. I had to put a heart above her head to get rid of the light switch- so it has her teachers name there for her class....
 
Now the last thing we did for Danika was very simple: BOOKMARKS! Her school mascot is an Owl, so this is what I found.. Yes, on Pintrest!

This was the easiest of them all.. I did not print them on card stock, I glued them to card stock. I had a heart little punch, so I used that and then ribbon for the top part of it. To make 30 of these, I had Danika tie the ribbon, after about 14 she was done. Good thing I started these in Jan. Or I would not get them done.  I found this in Tip Junkie.. in my email!

If you click on the logo above- it will get you to the pdf to print! Very colorful and easy, cheap idea! Love it!!


~I went to the dollar store to get picture frames about a week before Vday and I found the best little drawstring bags for Vday. We can put all 3 items in the bag and hand them out! I think I may have some left, so I will take a picture and add those. I was proud of myself to start it early and get done all the cute things we did! It was all really fun to do. The girls really liked the lollipops, of course!!

Christmas Gift- Custom Coasters

I got  this idea off the web, I am sorry I search and look for tons of things!
I found her, she was on pintrest- which I LOVE!! If you Google homemade coasters, there are tons of ideas all over Google! I actually just found some to do soon!

Stamped Coasters from Bathroom Tiles

I did 3 sets, but only took pictures of 1 of them! If I do it again, I want to buy a paisley stamp and use that!

So I bought the letter stamps at Michaels with my 40% off coupon.  I stamped them with the last letter of the family name..

I did this about 5:30am in the morning, while the girls still slept. They dried while we got ready. One of the girls at work was taking the week of Christmas off, so she was not going to be there on Monday. The other 2 girls were going to be in the office on the 24th, so I had time to do theirs on the weekend.