Summer Fun Activities!

We are fast approaching the end of summer vacation around here. School starts in less than a month. Boo! I gathered up a few easy and fun activities and crafts to do with the kids. I need some inspiration on how to make this last month count!  

Gold Glitter Slime. So rad!

These Marshmallow shooters are smart and cheap!

Since all our flowers are dying from the heat I thought these accordion style ones would be fun!

These flying fish are inexpensive and really easy to make! 

There are some really intense versions of these on pinterest but this is a good basic one I think! Kiddie car wash! Throw that bad boy on a dry patch of grass and let the kids go to town!

This is RAD! DIY solar smores. This might be my favorite one so far.

My kids are to the age where they don't eat play-dough but this would be fun for them anyway! Incredible Edible Playdough. I love this! Plus play-dough keeps my kids entertained for hours.

Magic Potion! These use dry ice so adult supervisions is definitely required but look how cool!

Who doesn't love bubbles? Everyone does. And these ones don't pop! Well really they are harder to pop. They even say they bounce.

Late summer nights will shortly be coming to an end around here. So I want to enjoy them. I love this idea for Glow in the Dark Ring Toss. My kids would get a kick out of it!

Then off to bed in their glow in the dark party teepee! 

 Anything I am missing? How are you trying to stretch out the last bit of summer?

Award winning homemade Crock Pot Pasta Sauce

This sauce is GOOD! We use is as our sauce for lasagna, baked ziti, cheese ravioli etc. It makes a lot so its likely you will have left overs to throw in the freezer which is always nice.

Crock Pot Pasta Sauce

 1 pound sweet Italian sausage

 1 pound lean ground beef (we use ground turkey)

 1/2 cup minced onion

 2 cloves garlic, crushed

 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

 1 12oz can tomato paste

 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce

 1/2 cup water

 2 tablespoons white sugar

 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves

 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

 1 tablespoon salt

 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned and place in your crock pot.

 Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning,salt, and pepper.

 Simmer in crock pot, for approx 3-4 hours on high, stirring occasionally. Enjoy!!

Pinterest Buster Recipe

Pinterest Buster! HEYO! I am testing out some recipes to use for December. I want to freeze a bunch of meals because I will be working 6 days a week. I have a feeling I will need some relief. And I think I found one to freeze! These Lasagna Rolls are awesome! Not too mention they are pretty healthy.

That picture at the top is mine. The one just up above is from Skinny Taste where the recipe comes from. Which is a really great website for healthy delicious recipes. The only thing that I changed is that I added spinach because I love spinach. It was great. The whole family loved them. Which is a true test of a recipe for me. Make it tonight!

Do you have any great recipes that freeze well? I am pretty pumped about getting some frozen. 

Free First Day of School Printable!!

Friends!! Where is the summer going?? I had to have that talk with my girly's about getting our sleep schedules back in order. (It takes 30 days to adjust your bodies sleep patterns they say.) Woah! Its flying by...Are you freaking out? Would a free printable help you feel better? :) Here is a darling sign you can have your cute kidlets hold in the "first day of school" photos. Free for the taking from the ever adorable Miss Lily. (Gabby)

You can print it any size you'd like up to 11x14.

Download the Printable!!

Also, somethings to think about...

1.  Now is a great time to buy/stock up on art supplies for Christmas presents for all the artists on your gift lists while prices are lowest. 

2. if you are planning on giving gifts in a jar now is a good time to buy the jars while they are readily available. 

Check out some ideas from Tidy Mom here...

Gift in a jar

AND

3. If any of you want to make homemade vanilla extract to give for Christmas, you should start that soon. It takes a few months to brew.

 Here's a link for the how to/recipe... 

Homemade Vanilla Extract

(I haven't made any before but I sure want to!!) 
PS be sure to read the reviews!! 
There's some great advice and tips! 

Our Garden

 Any gardeners out there? Put your hands in the air like you just don't care!! Having a garden is one of the all time most satisfying things I have ever done. Like in my life. No joke! Planting little seedlings and then watching them grow into something that can sustain your life is pretty rad. It amazes me how a little seeds can become veggies. It blows my mind! I wanted to share it and my total obsession! 

This is our humble garden. It is in great need of some weeding but life gets in the way of that sometimes. Whomp whomp. I love walking out, talking to the plants and checking on them. Am I getting a little weird? We built the garden boxes a few years ago. I think that an upgrade is going to be necessary next year but for now they are just perfect. 

These tomatoes are Cherokee Purples. They were grown from seeds by kids at my sons school. I really love that! What a cool thing to learn.  

These are yellow bell tomatoes. They are crazy good. I have been eating them straight off the plant. These also came from Nicco's school.

Oh tiny little jalapenos! I am in love! They are only like an inch long right now. Some are even smaller. It is so neat to watch them start to appear out of their tiny flowers. 

Sweet Bell Peppers. I was expecting these peppers to be bigger but they are growing to be the size of my palm. Little and yummy. I was hoping to cook these up in some recipes but so far we are cutting them up and eating them. We can't seem to wait long enough to cook them! 

Zucchini! This is a Black Beauty zucchini plant. I am so pumped that these bad boys are growing. A lot of people aren't zucchini fans but we really enjoy them around here. I actually wish that we had planted two plants! 

                            
This is a spaghetti squash. Which is actually my favorite plant that we grow. I can't get enough of it! When these little squashes start showing up I am going to do a little dance!

                           
                            
This one is a cucumber. This is our first year doing cucumbers. We have done lemon cucumbers before with great success. So we decided to go for it.

And last but not least, our T-Rex. He watches over our garden and keeps it pest free. A little concrete bird watches over our garden as well

I have a couple tips to share:

• Sprinkle eggshells in your garden. Our grandpa always did this so I always have as well. Turns out it keeps slugs and snails at bay.
• Use a sprinkly sprinkler to water your garden. I always put it on really low and then move it as needed through the garden. The water soaks in better than if you just put the hose on. I actually really want to get an irrigation or sprinkling system set up but for now the sprinkler works. 
• Water at night.
• You can use a mixture of water, dish soap and cayenne pepper to spray as a natural pesticide. Bugs hate it! Just don't forget to wash your veggies really well.

Do you have any gardening tips? I am still a novice and would love to hear!!

Happy Pioneer Day!!

We are celebrating our Utah Heritage today with our families! See you tomorrow for a new post! 

I am hopping on the bandwagon

This blurry picture was taken by my son. I am sad to say that it is one of the ONLY pictures taken of me in the last few months. Literally. I like to be behind the camera not in front of it.  

Emily's post yesterday about DietBet made me think. It reminded me of the one pull up goal I made and then promptly threw aside. Well in all fairness I did do the upper arm workout once. ONCE! Ugh. I am here to recommit to my cause! No more waiting around for it to be cooler, hotter, morning, night, after dinner, before breakfast etc... I have an excuse for any time of day. The only time I have is now. I intend to use it more wisely.

As a family we have decided that it is time to stop eating sugar and fast food. Solidarity! We decided to do that mostly because my husband and son have sensitive stomachs that can't handle it. Really though we all need to lay off the sugar and fast food. Their poor stomachs are a great reason for us to make better health choices. None of us really feel well and that is largely due to what we put in our bodies. I am excited for the challenge of not having sugar. I am also scared shitless! The inevitable weight loss will be an excellent side effect but really I just don't want to feel like crap anymore. I feel like I need to say that we will not be giving up sugar entirely. Our plan is to cut it way back so when we have a special dessert it is a treat instead of an everyday occurrence.

Plus also as well! The time has come to recommit to my one pull up challenge. At the very least I need to be doing some kind of workout. So yoga with an emphasis on planks, lots of push ups, dumb bell rows, bananas and reverse bananas and inverted rows. I want to feel strong. Of course some cardio thrown in there too. Probably walking and jumping rope.

It feels empowering to take back your life. I have a long row to hoe. There are going to be times that I want to quit but I am hoping I can keep the enthusiasm up! Or at least fake it until I make it.

What do you do for workouts? Do you have any good recipes? Help a sister out!

-AnneMarie

 

Is this it?? YES!! I can do hard things and I am going to prove it! Weight loss journey happening here!!

So...I need to lose weight. Boo. Actually I am officially down 23 lbs but by basic accident. I have been trying LOTS of different programs, I mean LOTS and I think I have finally (I sure hope so this time)found what is working for me. I am drinking lots of water, avoiding carbs, attempting to keep them under 50-100 max a day, increasing fruits and veggies, limiting sugar (back to the carbs thing) and exercise.4 days a week. I have promised myself that I will stop eating when I am full, at the first inkling even. You'd think that would be an obvious thing but it hasn't always been that way for me. I also promised myself if there is anything I really want to have I will just have it. No denial. Starting with 3 bites. I am finding that usually after 3 bites of that naughty food thing, it sometimes wasn't all my mind had it cracked up to be so I can leave it and if it is I eat it. Hopefully avoiding the spiral into binge land when I can't stand it anymore and eat far beyond what I should to satisfy the craving.

ALSO...

I found a rad new game weight loss website!! You can click here to go check it out. Its called diet bet and the concept is that everyone playing puts in $30 and all who lose 4% in 28 days gets to split the pot!! HOW FUN?! They also have 6 month games if you are interested. Go check it out!! You can even start your own game if you want with your friends and family!! 

PS I am not being compensated by diet bet..I just think its cool and want to share.  They have a game that just started today so go and have some fun!! Lets do this together!! 

LOVES!!

Em

Stamped Tea Towels

I posted last week that our family has been making a conscious effort to reduce our waste by using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins and tea towels instead of paper towels. I bought plain white cotton tea towels for everyday use. And I love them!  I am a serious lover of all tea towels. You can find some rad ones on the site To Dry For. Cutest play on words ever. They know their business and have really great tea towels. My personal favorite is this one.....well right now anyway! 

For fun I decided to make some stamped and handpainted flour sack towels. At a buck a piece I couldn't go wrong. 

My supplies! 

Not pictured is the thick black foam I made the mountain stamp out of. I also used a paintbrush to make the dot and star pattern. I used plain acrylic paints, not fabric paints. They will probably fade but I don't mind that. I only stamped about a third of each towel mostly just because I loved the look of it. I researched whether acrylic paint is food safe. I found out that it is non-toxic, BUT and a big but at that, I will not be using them for real use with food. So I will lay them over bread dough when it is rising but I will not be using them for rinsing out fruit. You know what I mean? 

Black polka dots was the first pattern I tried out. I used a pencil eraser. Perfect little circle! I eyeballed the placement of the dots. You can measure it out but I like to live wildly! I re-dipped the pencil eraser for every one of the dots. I wanted them to be really saturated.

This pink star pattern was by far my least favorite. But it was a great learning experience. The stars are hand painted and I wish I had used a stamp. It was hard to get an even distribution of the paints with the paint brushes.  

Mountains! I do live in Utah after all. This one and the polka dot one are tied for my favorite. I used thick black craft foam for the stamp. I just eyeballed the mountain shape when I cut it out. I brushed the paint directly onto the foam. It makes for a more even stamp. Then I just stamped away. Awesome!  

They are imperfect and I really love that. They make me smile every time I look at them. I can't wait to start using them. 

Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

YUMMY! This is a tried and true recipe for potato salad. You and yours will love it!

Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

1 pkg dry ranch dressing mix

2 C mayo

3/4 C green onion Sliced

1 lb bacon cooked and cut into bite size pieces (can use 12-16        slices of pre-cooked bacon)

5lbs red potatoes

	stir together the ranch dressing mix, mayonnaise and green onion. Cover, and refrigerate for about 2 hours to blend flavors Bring water to a boil. Add whole potatoes, and cook until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain, run under cold water to cool, and chop into 1 inch cubes and put in a large serving bowl. Stir the mayo mixture into the bowl of potatoes. Add the bacon and stir. Serve and Enjoy!

I have to share this!

I had to pop back in here really quick and share this cute teepee giveaway. Totally cute teepees. Plus also those cute poster printables! Oh man I love them! And they are free. What?! I am more excited about the posters that the teepees. Which is crazy go nuts because I love a good teepee. But I think the Let's Be Adventurers one needs to be in my kids room like yesterday. Head on over and check it out. Then stay a while and enjoy the whole site because Rae has made it a beautiful place to be!

cloth napkin tutorial round up

We use a lot of napkins and paper towels around our house. They are convenient and easy to use and killing our planet..... dun dun dun! But seriously they are bad for the environment. I feel guilty every time I throw one away. So I have been gathering cloth napkins that I find for a good price to replace our paper napkins. We have also started trying to get into the habit of using plain white tea towels instead of paper towels. I have been buying them like a sucker! Why not make a bunch? I have a ton of scrap fabric that I need to bust through. So this weekend I want to sew a bunch up. Using one of these tutorials. To be totally honest I will probably try one of each and whichever one is that absolute easiest that is the one I will use. Keep in mind that these are just a drop in the bucket of the amount of tutorials that there are for cloth napkins on the webs.

This is a great tutorial from Gingercake. 

I love the simple explanation of making mitered corners in this tutorial by Nicole's Classes. It made it click all of the sudden for me!

This one from A Beautiful Mess isn't totally a tutorial but there is a quick explanation of how to make them. I love the mismatched napkins and the cute basket to hold them!

And if you don't feel like making any:

I had to add skull ones because I love them!!

These unbleached cotton ones are beautiful. 

Last but not least simple white ones!

Would you or do you use cloth napkins? Have you made them or bought them? I am so excited to make some and start using them. Now how to store them is my next quest.

Crockpot Country Baked Beans

These are awesome! Give them a try!

 Great for all your summer barbecue needs!

2 cans pork and beans

1 large onion diced

1 cup ketchup

1 lb bacon cooked or 12-13 slices precooked bacon cut in bite       size pieces 

3/4 C brown sugar

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1 TBS horseradish sauce

1 1/2 TBS prepared mustard

1 1/2 TBS Worcestershire sauce

Mix together in a crock pot. Cook on low for approx 6-8 hours

ENJOY! 

Pinterest Buster Recipe!

 I love these pinterest busting posts! I am actually using my pins. What?! That is the point of it right? I love trying out new recipes. We need new fun recipes in our rotation. Luckily three out of four of us are pretty easy going and willing to try new things. Lola is in that picky stage of hating everything. I can't wait for this stage to end! It bums me out. Any suggestions? My guess is that it is a wait it out type of thing.  

So here is the picture of the Creamy Chicken and Rice from Natasha's Kitchen. That is a beauty! Here is my original pin and here is the link to the actual recipe. While you are there you should totally check out the rest of the website. Natasha has amazing recipes and beautiful photos.

Here is mine. Whomp! HA! It doesn't look appetizing but man oh man it is delicious. I loved it! Plus one out of two kids liked it. And quite frankly that is a huge success around here. The only changes I made to the recipe is that I used chicken breasts, brown rice and more chicken broth instead of white wine. The brown rice for sure changes the cooking time. It was worth it to me because I love brown rice. The nutty flavor is worth it. It adds a half hour to the cooking time. One major thing I love about this recipe is that it is a one pot meal. Less dishes= a happy mom!  

Have you tried any new recipes lately? Have you tried any recipes from Pinterest? Any success? Any failures?