Links

Some blogs I read have a weekly list of links to check out.  I couldn't do that - I don't spend that much time online!  Once in a while, though, I'll read something that I think is worth sharing and I save it up for you... Enjoy!

A couple on things that are good for you:

Go Outside

52 Reasons to Go to Church  (From Pastor Darren)

A couple on family:

How to Talk to Your Daughter About Her Body (Spoiler in one word: Don't.)

Why You Should Date Your Husband

And a couple of funny 'unreal childhood' ones:

My Imaginary Well Dressed Daughter

Warped Childhood Restoration Hardware Style

For Your Browsing Pleasure...

The kids and I had a fun morning out yesterday with our good friend Holly (or Honey, as Nolan says it!) - Monday and Tuesday I was out for playdates with friends with little ones and M stayed home, so it was nice to have her as part of our out-playing time.

The library downtown had two pianos inside in their art gallery, one like this one outside, and one that was tiny and Nolan sized... the echo and reverb and lighting in the gallery made it a great place to hang out and play and be noisy.  :)  This one outside was better for photos, though.

We are having a nice summer week, nothing too newsworthy or crafty or inspirational going on, so here instead are a few links for your browsing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Did you know there are softie-makers out there who custom make toys based on children's drawings?  They are awesome!

A whole bunch of ways to clean with vinegar.  Cheap and non-toxic...

Some good parenting advice and refreshing reminders from a long time pediatrician.

Good (and funny) marriage advice from a guy who's been divorced twice.  Worth a read.

Interesting Links

Have you ever heard of yarn bombing?  I saw this done once in a tree in front of our favorite candy store, but didn't realize it was such a big movement...

You don't have to be on Twitter to check out the tweets from Chris Hadfield; he's the new (Canadian!) commander of the International Space Station and posts lots of photos of Earth from orbit and interesting information about what it's like to be an astronaut - all the daily bits I've never thought about.

Quick Vegetable Side Dish Recipes - 91 of them!  I saw this on Pinterest & just went through them all and saved a bunch to my meal planner.  Nice to be inspired and get alternates to the usual veggies we have in rotation around here.

Menu Planning: Solved!

I don't generally have a hard time with menu planning, except that there are only about a month's worth of meals we like and so juggling meals so we only eat them once a month sometimes takes skill.  My posts on menus are here, including our standard 4 week rotation.

Normally I do my planning Monday morning, but because of a Sunday afternoon Costco run, Sean was at the table with me Saturday night when I was making up the menu for the week.  He commented that there must be some online tool to keep your recipes in that would automatically generate a shopping list based on all the ingredients needed - he has some good thoughts, that man!  I'm sure there are a few, but there is one that I'm familiar with, and it's pretty slick.

It's called Plan to Eat, and it's got a place for all your recipes (adding them is even easy!), a drag and drop menu planner, and a grocery store assistant for your mobile.  I first heard about it through Kat at Inspired to Action - I've mentioned her before because of her Prayer Calendar for Mothers that I use every day (via twitter).  She had posted about it in the fall and I had checked it out then; I was impressed, but didn't feel I needed it at the time.  I still don't feel like I have a big need for change in this area, but I have been wondering how I can better organize the recipes we do use, and low and behold, Kat is this week offering a Meal Planning Boot Camp - walking people who want to use the site through it with tutorials and assignments and stuff.  I wanted to let you know about it in case it might be something you are needing to help organize and simplify your life.

The nitty gritty:  Using Plan to Eat costs $4.95 per month or $39 a year, but there is a free one month trial, and there is a coupon for 30% off on Kat's site.  So it's quite reasonable.

Check out Plan to Eat.

Check out the overview for the Meal Planning Boot Camp.  It's only day 2, so you can still jump in without having too much homework to catch up on!

Let me know if you jump on the wagon - I'll add you as a friend over there and check out your recipes.  :)

Commenting to Save Lives

I followed a link on Twitter today to a blog that was part of something called the Shot@Life Relay.

Turns out Shot@Life is part of the United Nations Foundation, and is a "movement to protect children worldwide by providing life-saving vaccines where they are most needed."  In August (Blogust), 30 bloggers are writing posts and each comment left on those posts makes $20.  Twenty bucks.  That covers vaccinations for the 4 deadliest diseases for one child.  One comment = one kid protected.  Pretty sweet deal.  I've been reading blogs and commenting since Nolan went to bed, even though I planned to blog about something else.  Oh, well, I can't remember what that was, anyway.

Check out Shot@Life to see all the bloggers participating, visit one (or all of them!) and leave a comment!

40 Books Every Child Should Read

Follow this link to the Half Price Book Blog's list of favorites; they've got it listed by book covers & seeing them will bring back memories for all you readers out there, I'm sure. 

I'm going to try to read them all this year.  How's that for a fun goal?!

What were your favorite childhood books?  Share, please; I'd love to add them to my list!

Homemade Christmas

Thought I'd share some of the gifts I made for Christmas and where I found the ideas... maybe you'll get inspired for next year!

I already mentioned Flubber...

For some of the nephews I also made Reindeer Food

Reindeer Food

6 cups Rice Chex cereal

1 bag (12 oz) white vanilla baking chips - couldn't find, used white chocolate 

1/3 cup coarsely chopped peppermint candy canes (14 miniatures)

1 - Crush candy canes in large ziplock bag

2 - Melt chips (plus 1/2 tsp oil) in microwave

3 - Stir all together

...and printed out some Paper Star Wars Characters for them to cut out, tape, and play with.  (Found here.)

I made my brother's kids this tent (following the instructions I found here):

I made some stuff in the kitchen for the siblings - cookies in a jar and popcorn seasoning.

Cheese Lovers Popcorn Seasoning

1/4 cup cheddar cheese powder

1/4 tsp mustard powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

salt & pepper to taste

Indian Popcorn Seasoning

1 tbsp curry powder

2 1/4 tsp ground tumeric

2 1/4 tsp ground ginger

tiny pinch cayenne pepper

Pizza Popcorn Seasoning

3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

3 tsp ground dried oregano

1 1/2 dried tomato powder

(The tomato powder is hard to find - I used a Knorr tomato vegetable soup mix and strained out the bits.)

I also made some family dinner conversation starter packages.  I found questions in a couple of different places, put them in a word doc that I'll send you if you're interested, then cut them into little cards and put them in decorated old coffee and tea tins.  I hope they have fun with those.

I also had fun making ornaments. I didn't take pictures of mine, but the inspiration came from these (all found on pinterest):

Another printable I sent to a couple of nieces was one to make this nativity set.  You can find the downloads here for both the colored and color-yourself versions.

I think that's all I made - oh, except for an awesome photo book for Sean about his race car.  That was a winner.  All in all a very satisfactory gift giving Christmas!

Last Minute Birthday Gift

You know how some people always have great gift ideas?  Yeah, that's not me.  I've had my moments of brilliance (like the year I made dress up clothes for every party she went to), but coming up with something for a party is more often painful.

Madeline is going to a birthday party tomorrow.  Tonight I asked her if she had any idea for a gift, since right after supper she was going to youth group, then to sleep over & spend the day at Grandpa's while I am at the ladies thing at church, which of course ends in just enough time for me to pick her up to go to the party, leaving no time for shopping...  And of course neither of us thought of it before the last minute...  But she had a good idea just off the top of her head, so that saved the day.

"What about a origami $10?" she said.  Nice.  I can do that.  $10 has always been our limit for what we spend on gifts - cheap, but if you get creative, you can still come up with something.  Last year we were going to give money as a gift (less personal, and zero creative, but practical - I love getting money!) and I had a brilliant moment when I decided that I could origami it into something so it was still a cool gift, even though it was just cash.

And I, with no cash ever in my wallet, just happens to have a $10 bill today.

So here is my masterpiece:

I think folded this way it looks like a bad Hawaiian shirt.  I'll have to try 'face in' for the next one.  If you'd like to give it a try, this is where I found the tutorial.

And since we needed a card to give the gift in, and I don't know if she'll find stuff to make one at Grandpa's tomorrow, I raided my stash for a few that she can pick from.  These were in my 'copy before I give them away' pile, so I did the smart thing and took photos.  Now I can actually use them, and still make more, and I can share them with you, too.  The cards are plain ol' white cardstock - I bought a ream of the stuff - and the patterned papers were in a pack of Japanese papers I got for Christmas last year.

 

 

Do you have any good standbys when it comes to birthday parties?  I'd love for you to share them with the rest of us.

Our Week & a Few Links

Very actively playing Wii.

Today is an 'empty square' day - nothing on the calendar!  We slept in, Sean made brunch, we played a little frisbee dog on the Wii all together, and now he's out trying out the new shaft on his driver at the driving range.  We've kept the Wii going and later we'll head to the in-laws for supper.  I'm trying to get behind the camera today as I'm a little behind in my class - gotta get playing there.  It's a great day.

Our week has included:

• Shopping for school supplies & school clothes
• Sean switching cars around, putting the new one in the garage and taking the old one out to pasture at Sheldon's acreage
• Madeline helping with VBS at church for Thursday and Friday
• Sean getting 9 holes in with his brother
• Schooling M in basketball at the school yard down the street
• Date night - dinner out at Brown's Social House

Links:

I am a big fan of weekly planning;while I don't do too much other than Monday's weekly menu and groceries, I do  have lists for cleaning and M's chores.  Maybe once school starts we'll tidy those up and start to use them again.  Summer is pretty relaxed.  I bring this up because of a link on A Holy Experience today - a whole bunch of great printable planning helps.  Go check it out and maybe find something that would work for you.

I have spent a couple nights this week downstairs playing & making stuff.  Big Picture Classes, where I'm taking that camera class, has a free two week Festival of Ideas I signed up for, and I've actually made 4 of the 6 projects so far.  6x6 pages are so little and simple.  I'm adapting it to a 'being pregnant' theme, so that adds to the fun.  I'll post the finished product when I'm done.  (You can sign up for this until the 27th if you want to join in!)

Pinterest.  Have you checked this out yet?  I've killed an hour or so looking around on this site.  The link is to Elisha Snow's account - she's the one teaching the camera class I'm taking.  I don't know if I want to request an invite or not - it seems like it would be a great way to keep track of all the cool ideas I see online, but since I don't spend that much time surfing and looking, or even all that much time on the computer, I don't think I'll jump into it just yet.

Birthday # 12

Twelve years ago I became a Mom.  What a feeling - having a little one to love and care for... I should do it again.  Hmmm... maybe that will be another post.

This one is about Madeline.

We got home from picking her up at camp about mid-afternoon yesterday, and spent the rest of the day getting ready for today's festivities.  After church today we did some last minute prep, then sat back to wait for the girls.

I had decorated around her seat at the table last night so she'd have a nice surprise - this is her at lunch in her birthday outfit from Auntie Carla, and the bunting I sewed up last night.

 

When the girls arrived, we headed down the street to the park for a little photo shoot, and took the bunting along...

 

We headed home for a little water balloon fun in the front yard, then M opened her gifts.  Thoughtful friends...

 

From there I put them to work!  Here they are decorating cupcakes - they had a great time and came up with some real crazies.  This was a great activity with this age.  We had the family over for supper after, so they were decorating for both parties.

 

And finally one showing our happily full backyard - 26 people: the 3 of us, 2 grandpas, 4 aunts and 5 uncles, 8 cousins and one "almost family" family of four.

 

Note the bunting in the back... and there's some along the fence to the right as well.  It may have been my favorite part of the whole day!! (Besides the people of course...!)  Besides the cupcakes, the menu for supper was a yummy pulled beef on buns, marshmallow salad, bok choy salad, pasta salad, veggies and dip, and chips and pop.

Oh, and the one I almost forgot - Jello Slices.  This was a good one.  I saw a link that showed these great colorful treats (check it out quick and then come back so you'll know what I'm talking about).  I had a bunch of grapefruit to use up (the recipe called for oranges, but I figured these would work).  I made purple, orange and green, not all six, and they turned out looking so impressive!  I forgot them in the fridge till after a number of our guests (and the smaller kids that I actually made them for) had left, but all who were left were game to take one and try...

I played a good joke and didn't even know it - the grapefruit flavored the jello and the jello was STRONG and TART...!  It was awesome and funny and I might never live it down, but it was worth it.  I still have half in my fridge and am wondering who else might I get to try?

All in all, a good day.  M is downstairs watching a movie with the one we are letting sleep over, and we are just about ready to crash.

My baby is 12, and we celebrated well.

Family Day, How We Love You.

You made it alright that I had to work on Saturday.
You made Sunday into another Saturday (minus the work).
You made it ok to stay up a little late on Sunday.  We didn't, because we were still so tired, but we could have.
You gave us another sleep in day.
You gave us time to experiment with breakfast.  Yummy smoothies.
You gave us a chance to go to the church for Lattes & Bouncy Castles... good visiting.
You gave us a weekday to go out for lunch.
You gave us hours to do work around the house and time to play and time to browse around online...
Family day, you are fabulous and we appreciate you.

M's off to bed now, and Sean will be home soon from golfing (yes, indoor).  That means soon we'll be pressing play and working out, but I think I have a few minutes to share some online finds.

This video caught my eye and imagination - color is a wonderful thing.

I love this scraproom transformation (it belongs to Donna Downey).  The 'before' would be amazing, but I love the brightness and colorfulness of the 'after'.

 

I downloaded a couple of quotes to print off from Becky Higgins' blog.  Wise words.  You can head there for the stories behind them.

 

Oh, and I did a bit of online shopping over the weekend!  I figured if Sean can order stuff online all the time, I shouldn't be shy about it, either.  :)   I like shopping for scrapbooking stuff in person, so I can see the whole thing and the textures and details, but there is nowhere to shop around here, and shipping is less than travelling!  Especially if you're shopping somewhere like Crafty Steals, where stuff is 50% off or more.  Thrifty, that's me.  I'm sure I'll be letting you know when the package at the door has MY name on it for a change!

I think that's all for now.  I'll save the photo of how M did my hair for another day...

Leave a comment - I would love to know what special or fun things you did today.

Homemade Christmas

Christmas is wonderful - celebrating what Jesus did for us by being born a human, and getting to see family.

The gift giving side of Christmas is not high on my priority list; my love languages are more in line with physical touch, words of affirmation and quality time; gifts is at the very bottom.  (A hug and sitting around the living room?  Perfect.)

I do enjoy giving gifts when I can come up with something homemade and perfect (it's hard being a perfectionist)!  I love being excited for someone to open the gift from me because I put thought and effort into it, rather than being half apologetic because I couldn't think of something better.  (It's also true that I think too much.)

I also like a simple life, and am trying hard to come up with ideas of things I can make without getting frazzeled by 'the list'.

Today I thought I would share with you my strategy for this year:  the in-ter-net.  I just googled 'gifts to make' and got a great idea for the boys.  I found something online a couple of weeks ago that I just had to make for K, and bought enough supplies to make some to sell at my craft sales.  I found something for just about everyone on my list; now I just have to get making!

I do recognize that not everyone appreciates homemade, and don't worry, I would rather spend money on something someone will actually use than give them something I made that will be junk in their home.  I am as concerned about usefulness as well as being frugal.  :)

I'm not intending to go on a big rant here; I don't want you thinking that you have to give me something homemade or I won't appreciate it.  I would be happy to open anything, because I know it comes from someone who cared enough to think of me.  I would be very happy with a mixed CD or baking or a family photo for my wall.  I would be honored to know that someone gave a donation to a charity (water projects or education in Africa?) in my name.  I would laugh if we got money to go towards our kitchen renos...

Here are a few sites to check out:
Advent Conspiracy -  be sure to check out the video.  Our preaching series for Advent is going to be on the four themes laid out in AC - Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All.  I'm very excited to see if our church grasps the idea.
How About Orange - fun stuff on this one.  I like the printables.
Instructables - "Homemade gifts are the best" is what they say!
whip up - I like that most of these blogs have a list of blogs on the side so you could get lost in crafty-blogginess for a good long time.
Craftster
Craft Gossip

At Thanksgiving, playing the family trivia game I made for Christmas last year.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Christmas gifts, family traditions, or sites where you find inspiration.

S is for Sean's Birthday. And Scrapbooking.

Who knew that the S post would fall on Sean's big day?  They had cake at work today for him, and we're celebrating at the Keg tonight as a family.  For the record, he's all caught up to me, now, for another 5 1/2 months.

Scrapbooking:  Haven't done too much lately - a handful got started at our craft social, so there may be some to show soon.  Instead of finishing those, though, I may spend any free time in the next couple of weeks picking and printing pictures and planning layouts, because we're off to a scrapbooking retreat at the end of October.  The same one Carla and Elizabeth and I went to last year, except this year it's us 3 plus four more!  I was downstairs in my 'studio' last night making a list of pages I could do, and started to get excited about it.

In other scrapbooking news, I joined up with a bunch of ladies across Canada to be a part of the Canadian Paper Trail.  It's a blog where each month there's a different topic and each day in the month there is a different Canadian artist featured with their project.  You can follow that link to the current content, or check this one for My August Project.  The girl who started it and is running it has come up against some tough times, so I'm not sure if one month is all this is going to get...  It is a good idea, and if it ever gets off the ground again, I'll be sure to link you up to see my stuff and the other projects.

Sunny Sunday

A nice warm weekend - so nice to have the sun out.  I've got my lawn mowed and flowers potted and put out & had a good outdoor BBQ tonight at a friend's place with lots of families and lots of good visiting.  M was at Girl Guides camp and Sean was racing - a good weekend all around.

Here are some cool links for you:

The Best World Cup Calendar

Some Fantastic Art

A Clip from Martin Luther King Jr. on Serving