Simple Things Sunday No. 5

Architecture

One of my very best friends introduced me to architecture, helped me develop a love for it. For that, I am thankful. Without her, I would have LIVED in Oak Park, IL, the residence and workplace of Frank Lloyd Wright, without having ever appreciated the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Without her, the genius behind Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead would have been completely lost on me.

With that being said…this week I am celebrating the joy of architecture. Sometimes it’s difficult when we live in our little suburban cubes, not being able to differentiate one from another. But, on our way to an ice skating party with friends, I made my kiddos stop to snap an image of this breathtaking building front.

Look around…you just might spy something beautiful!

Meal Plannin’ Mondays

Sorry, no pictures from this past week. BUT…I’m super excited ‘cuz we’re working on sticking to our budget this year and I’m being diligent about ONLY buying what I will absolutely need/use for each week. Which means…a cleaner, more organized kitchen to boot! We’ll see how long it lasts, but I’m optimistic right now. =)

I used my optimism to go through my cook books. Do you really use any of your cook books? Especially with lovely Pinterest? The only one I really use on a regular basis is my Better Homes and Garden cookbook. It’s pretty much my cooking Bible. But otherwise, I haven’t opened the others in years. So, I thumbed through them, gave away about 4 to good will, and kept one or two. This was one of the keepers:

It’s a Time Life Book and I was super encouraged because many of my go-to recipes are from here, and I didn’t even know it! Woot! Go low fat! =) Click on the picture for the link, it’s super cheap, like $5 for a hard back copy, awesome! My other bonus? I’m pretty sure this was a wedding gift, so when I had originally thumbed through, I only felt like I could cook a handful of the recipes. Now, there’s a whole new world (sorry…you can go listen to something else on Pandora now, you KNOW the song is stuck in your head). How far I’ve come from having a Clueless moment in the grocery store, not knowing what a clove of garlic was. Happy dance!

Moving right along. One of my recipes this week is one that I hadn’t tried from this cookbook. Stay tuned next week to find out which one! So, here goes my meal plan for the week!

Monday: Sloppy Joe’s and A+ Cookies for dessert!

Tuesday: Soup Leftovers (Good Greens Winter Soup)

Wednesday: Cheesy Chicken Benchiladas

Thursday: Cheddar Chicken

Friday: Stir-Fried Pork with Sesame Green Beans

Saturday: EAT OUT (mac ‘n cheese at home for kids)

Sunday: Ground Chicken Taco Burgers

See ya on the flipside!

Simple Things Sunday

The “simple” thing I’m celebrating today is…

The word of God*Side note* Don’t mock my bookmark…I’m a Napolean fan, it makes me smile =)

I recently had a conversation in the car with my son about talking to God. Upon hearing the song “Live Like That” by Sidewalk Prophets, he asked, “What’s this song talking about?”

I replied, “They’re talking about living how God wants us to live.”

He said, “How do I know how God wants me to live?”

I said, “Well, we pray to God, ask Him, and listen to Him.”

My son follows up with, “But, I can’t hear His voice.”

“I know. But that doesn’t mean He doesn’t talk to us. He talks to your heart, you’ll know.”

“But mom…my heart can’t hear.”

“No, but just like when you feel emotions, God speaks to you through your heart. The other way we can hear what He wants to say to us is by reading the Bible. Those are words directly from Him, so in that way, we can hear Him. And it teaches all kinds of things about how God wants us to live. For example, He wants us to be kind to others. Obey our parents. And tell others about Jesus.”

And…out of the mouths of babes…"I’ll try mom, but I mess up sometimes.”

“We ALL do honey! That’s why Jesus came to save us!”

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This was a great reminder to me how amazing the Bible is! The actual breath of God, that I have the freedom, the ease of reading, whenever I so desire!

So, while I’m not into New Year’s Resolutions, I’m looking forward to reading through the Bible in chronological order this year. I’ve done it once before and learned so much!

How about you? Will you celebrate the word of God with me? Even if you don’t believe it, you can still revel in it’s ancient traditions, historical references, and continuity across years and years. Seriously…romance, adventure, battles, heartache, victories, sci fi…it’s epic! You certainly don’t have to read it in one year (in fact, if you’re just starting, I wouldn’t recommend it)! But broken down into stories, you’ll love it! Here’s a link to a list of popular Bible stories and the references. Read to your heart’s content!

Friday Fave - Goldilocks & the Three Dinosaurs

Cooper just recently received this book as a gift for his birthday, and it proved true that we are certainly Mo Willems fans! We love the Elephant & Piggie books (in fact own probably too many of them), but hadn’t come across this particular Mo Willems book yet.

It’s a hilarious take on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Even prompted me to read it in a funny little accent AND character voices! There are glimpses of Mo Willems famed pigeon throughout the book and the dinosaur house has some fun dinosaur-specific items scattered here and there.

Lastly, I came across these fun related activities put out by HarperCollins Publishers. The first is probably my favorite. Alas, if only I could draw! =)

Seeing that my SON is just 4 years old, his “endings with a twist” would probably all end with either a light saber fight or some potty joke, but hey, it still promotes imagination, right? Have fun reading with your kiddos!

Thank You Notes (and a life lesson)

Here’s the thank you card I designed for Cooper to send out.

**CONFESSION TIME**

Notice, it’s Cooper’s 4th birthday, and this MAY be the first time I’ve actually sent out thank you notes. I know, shame on me, what a terribly rude person! I’ve felt guilty about it, and have some legitimate excuses (the gifts got opened when I wasn’t around, i.e. didn’t know who gave what, was SO busy and didn’t get around to it, struggled with how to write the thank you note – as if I’m writing it from my son who has no idea what to say, or just write it from myself, the mom?, etc.), but there really is NO excuse.

So, it was my goal this year to get them out!! And, now that Cooper is old enough, he helped me write them. Cue: Life Lesson!

Essentially, I had Cooper dictate what he wanted to write to each guest, and how he wanted to say thank you for each present. What an awesome, amazing lesson for him! He discovered that he was, in fact, truly thankful for each and every gift. Not that he wasn’t thankful for gifts in the past, but it helped him really focus. AND, he realized how many gifts he received (spoiled boy! =), and realized how blessed he is. And again, I’m probably making excuses for myself, but I’m kind of glad I waited until this year. (Eek! Did I just say that out loud?) I think in past years, he truly would not have understood what he was doing. But this year, he actually ENJOYED doing it! I want him to enjoy saying thank you to people, not feel forced to do so. He himself signed each and every one (which was a feat for my little 4 year old, he’s not hand-written-ly gifted =). Here was one of my absolute favorite dictations (I sort of wish I would’ve saved them all…you know, that whole “out of the mouths of babe” factor)… 

So, take rest if you are one who neglected to get thank you notes out after a party (and don’t judge if you are an on the ball mom who always have them done the night of the party, we all have our weaknesses! ). But, make it a priority and weave an attitude of thankfulness into your little ones. What a blessing I tell ya! That’s all folks! I’ll do an Octonaut party round up tomorrow, and then I’ll try and post some blogs on everyday stuff.

Wearing my clothes – Day #76

Seriously? (I know I overuse this word by the way..because my son says it. Doh!) I love my husband. He snapped this picture of me before running out the door for book club. It was raining out and I said, “If we don’t take a picture now, I’m gonna end up having to take one looking like a drowned rat” (it’s raining out).

I was rushing him and he said, “But, we’ve got to get a good one, it’s a cute outfit.” What?! That’s an amazing husband for you right there! Nonetheless, we snapped two and here’s a good one. =)

Shirt – Old Navy (recently scored for about $9 – and already got a few compliments after one wearing, SCORE!)

Pants – Macy’s – Guess

Shoes – Marshall’s

Earrings – Premier Jewelry

Wallet – Kohl’s

Had a blast at book club, the book wasn’t fabulous, but made you think. We read “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. IF you read it, know ahead that the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book is difficult to get into and quite dull. The last third of the book is awesome! It’s essentially about the life of an African American girl named Janie and the road to her living out her life, the men she meets along the way, and how those around her view her decisions. I’m not SUPER consistent about book club, but always love that adult intelligent time when I do follow through with reading. I’ll let you know what our next book is soon. =)

Books, books, and more books!

In this post…

#1. Rain Gutter Bookshelves

#2. We Give Books

I never dreamed my household would be so obsessed with children’s books, but I’m thrilled we are! I’m sort of addicted to buying them for my son. I keep trying to lighten the book load, so to speak, but when I look through our “library”, he really does read almost all of them! So, we just enjoy housing them.

I also figured I’d make art out of them and took a stab at the interweb-famous rain gutter bookshelves. I think I used this tutorial, but I sort of winged it anyway, because the rain gutters I got didn’t have the same sort of brackets. We just screwed the actual gutter itself directly into the wall. Here’s how mine turned out! Oh yeah, I painted them red to give the wall some color without having to paint. My son’s room is sock monkey themed. =) And here’s Cooper enjoying the book display! So far they’re holding up. I was a little worried about little hands pulling them down. But they’re still in great condition over 2 months later.

My next new and exciting find is We Give Books! I just discovered it on Pinterest (I FINALLY caved and joined) and it’s AWESOME! Basically, it has a catalogue of 167 books (and growing) available for you to read online. For each book you read, the foundation donates a book to an ongoing campaign. What could be more awesome than reading with your child AND teaching them about needs in other parts of the world?

They even have a book in their library called Hope for Haiti. I’m looking forward to reading it with my son to attempt to further explain his dad’s trip to Haiti a little over a year ago. You can add books to your own library so you can read them over and over, with a book donation EACH time you read it! How cool is that? So what are you waiting for, hop on over and check it out!

Just added to our library are titles such as:

and…

Seriously…aren’t you soo excited? =)

Beach Memories are Unforgettable

Our first full day in LA was dedicated to going to the beach! Cooper was very excited to play in the sand and build big sandcastles. The idea was courtesy of 2 of his favorite books:

How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long

I purchased this book for Cooper’s first birthday, thinking it may be too long for him. It is long for that age, but he loved it from the get go! It’s a fantastic pirate book invoking fantastic imaginative play.

AND…

Olivia by Ian Falconer

While we love this book, and will probably be purchasing more (now that I have a girl), Olivia is quite mischievous, potentially displaying undesired behavior to your child. But who are we kidding? Our children get that plenty from other places as well. So, why not take the opportunity to discuss it together while reading? In this book, Olivia becomes SO good at building sandcastles, she builds a skyscraper! =)

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We were a bit worried when we first arrived to the beach, it was raining!! We even had to ditch our normal breakfast spot and go to IHOP. Clearly, Cooper was disappointed:We walked down the pier and obtained our traditional HB bench pictures, first one with Allie! =) 

Cooper was still pretty dead set on playing in the sand, so we decided to give it a go and…surprise…we ended up with nice weather! We went from this: Brrr!! To this…Unfortunately, I didn’t get too many pictures. (my camera may have been caught by surprise by a rogue wave). But, repeated life lesson on my blog, be flexible. Who knew with rain in the morning that we’d end up with fun in the sun. Some more fun pictures from our day…

 

 

 

 

 

 

How cute is she in her suit!! Eek!

June 16th, 2010

Organizing Recipes & Meal Planning

  More nesting, ladies! As mentioned in my blog description, I was VERY naive when it came to cooking prior to getting married (okay, I’ll admit, even after getting married…maybe still). However, I was determined to figure this whole cooking thing out and I’ve been cutting recipes and trying new things for quite some time now. I’m definitely feeling more comfortable in the kitchen.

With baby #2 due VERY soon, I’m recognizing that cooking is going to feel that much more challenging…again! In an attempt to make it less of a challenge, I reorganized all the recipes I have found to be “tried and trued” so I can plan meals quicker. I had begun this form of organization awhile back, but needed to expand after adding recipes to my repertoire.

Recipe Book

Here’s the final result. A 2” binder (I think) – pictured above – with about 9 different “sections” as follows:

(The pictures are the file tab pages separating each  section, 8 1/2” x 11” paper with about a 3 1/2” square “cutesy” label, pictured below. Some of them don’t have the same “titles” because I had made them prior to expanding my recipes)

• Appetizers & Sides
• Salads, Soups & Sandwiches
• Poultry
• Beef
• Pasta, Fish & Vegetarian
• Desserts
• Drinks
• Breakfast

(This was an entirely brand new section, so I don’t yet have a cute label for it yet)

• 3 sheet protectors that house recipes I want to try: apps & sides, main dishes, desserts On the back of each section, I put an alphabetized list of the recipes in that section (the recipes are also alphabetized, for now at least). Here’s one example: The recipes themselves I’ve typed on a 3”x5” piece of cardstock and put them in photo pages (I also laminated the cardstock so they stay clean when I take them out to use). Here’s what they look like and here’s a link to a sample of the photo pages: I’ve even thought it’d be cool to use the side pockets for notes or comments about the recipe. Yeah…don’t know if that’ll ever ACTUALLY happen, but it’s a cool thought.

Meal Planning

Trick of the Trade #10: Meal Plan

Meal planning is crucial for so many reasons. Saves money, keeps me eating healthier, keeps the hubby happy, etc. My meal planning routine each week is to sit down with my recipe binder and my schedule and figure out what I’m going to make each night. If it’s a relatively easy week, I’ll throw some new recipes in there from my “stockpile”. I found these helpful little magnets that I use to put up the recipe cards on the side of my fridge. That way, I’ve got it ready to grab AND my husband can peek at what’s on the menu. I pull out all the cards and make my grocery list from that.Notice the pizza coupons nearby, too. I do actually PLAN to go out or order in as well. Come on, we all know it’s gonna happen! =) Hope this helps motivate you…as well as keep me motivated to continue cooking after baby arrives!  

Harold and the Purple Crayon

My son LOVES books! So, I tend to have a weakness when it comes to adding to our book collection. I recently gave in and joined the Borders Rewards Plus program, which gives you an additional 10% on each purchase, on top of their already fantastic coupons, and you get free shipping for a year. It was only $20, and you get a coupon book immediately that includes a $10 coupon, a free coffee beverage, and more!

With that said, I bought a few new books – one of them was a Richard Scarry, which are always a hit, another was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson: 50th Anniversary Edition. If you haven’t read the Harold books before, they’re basically about a cute little boy who creates his own adventures using his big purple crayon. He then interacts with what he has drawn. After reading them for a few days, Cooper and I headed out to our driveway to “reenact” a few of the scenes. Cooper had a blast! Here’s what we came up with (all the scenes happened to be from “Harold’s Fairy Tale”):

Scene #1:

 Scene #2:

Cooper even got so into it that he continued to “climb” the stairs, in various ways:

Scene: #3

 

 Scene: #4

  

And, I’ll look forward to pulling out other ideas from this book as Cooper gets older. Having him come up with his own “Purple Crayon” Adventure. There are lots of lesson plans associated with this book, and while I don’t plan on home schooling, there’s nothing that says we can’t have fun with our books, AND learn, right? ;)

And while we were out having fun, some neighbor friends came over and we “sailed” a ship in the gutter. I know, sounds gross. But they had been playing with water, so it was clean, hose water. How adorable is Cooper and daddy?

Lame-o mommy alert saying up ahead…

I just want to nibble on those bare piggies! ;) Anyhow…life lesson? Get out and start enjoying the nice weather! (If you live on the west coast that is…sorry to all others).  It will be worth it, even though you sometimes feel like your dragging your sorry butt out there (oh yeah, have I mentioned I’m pregnant and due in one month? hehe) Happy Sunny Days!!