1. Spend the day at the beach
2. Have a picnic
3. Go to a museum
4. Go bowling
5. Make lemonade from lemons
6. Make ice cream
7. Ride a train
8. Ride a bus
9. Go for a bike ride
10. Go for a hike

11. Camp
12. Go on a nature walk
13. Watch fireworks
14. See a parade
15. Play a carnival game
16. Make s’mores
17. Make chalk pictures
18. Play in the sprinkler
19. Have a bonfire.
20. Visit a state park

21. Take a road trip.
22. Go to a festival
23. Go fishing
24. Catch fireflies
25. Visit a county fair
26. Pick berries
27. Look at the stars
28. Paint the sidewalk with water
29. Visit a new playground
30. Ride a horse

31. Make a bird feeder
32. Watch movies outside
33. Wash the car
34. Have a hose fight
35. Watch a baseball game
36. Go for a walk
37. Visit a farmers market
38. Go boating
39. Have a race
40. Have a scavenger hunt

41. Build a sandcastle.
42. Take photos
43. Film a movie
44. Visit family
45. Throw a BBQ (byo)
46. Play horseshoes
47. Play bocce ball
48. Play croquet
49. Climb a tree
50. Play in the rain

51. Have a water balloon fight
52. Have a squirt gun fight
53. Get ice cream for dinner
54. Play tourist in your own town
55. Attend a concert
56. Visit a nearby town you’ve never been to.
57. Drive without a map & see where you end up/use GPS to get home .
58. Watch a demo derby or mud bog
59. Go see a car show
60. Visit a garden

61. Go canoeing or kayaking
62. Visit a farm
63. Host a family for the weekend
64. Play miniature golf
65. Go to a water park
66. Make t-shirts
67. Make a fort
68. Build a clubhouse
69. Play hopscotch
70. Have a backyard carnival.

71. Go to a church festival
72. Take a scenic drive.
73. Visit a period reenactor event/place.
74. Buy sparklers & fireworks
75. Cook over a fire pit.
76. Go to Camp.
77. Go to a pig roast
78. Have a tournament
79. Jump on a trampoline
80. Have slushies

81. Make an Italian ice
82. Paint your face
83. Eat cotton candy
84. Make corn dogs
85. Have an elephant ear
86. Make Popsicles
87. Play follow the leader
88. Go through an obstacle course
89. Plant something
90. Change something

91. Go ice skating
92. Have each person be boss for the day.
93. Visit an orchard
94. Eat something right out of the garden or eat an all local, all in-season meal
95. Eat outside at a restaurant.
96. Jump rope
97. Play hopscotch
98. Go bird watching
99. Plan something to look forward to in winter
100. Start a new tradition

Looking for more ideas on how to spend your summer?   I sat down with both of these e-books last week to work on our summer must-do’s.

I had the opportunity to preview The Confident Mom’s Summer Survival Guide  Calendar and Planner and spent the last week going through the exercises to loosely plan some fun for this summer.   The exercises combined with the monthly calendar complete with links for details on every activity make this a great place jumping point for family summer fun!

If you are looking for a more all-inclusive book, the Summer Survival Guide from Life As Mom has great tips on all aspects of summer planning including meal planning for busy days, planning pages & worksheets, book and movie suggestions and 16 weeks of themed activities!   Now that’s planning your summer .

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links.

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For Memorial Day, I’ve created a Grilling Cheat sheet with information on determining grill temperatures, meat temperatures and burger grilling tips.

Click here to download the Grilling Cheat Sheet as a PDF!

Enjoy!!

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For more great grilling posts, check out the whole series!

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This year, Pentecost Sunday is the same weekend as Memorial Day. What a fabulous opportunity to celebrate two of the biggest holidays of the year in both the Church’s liturgical calendar AND the secular calendar!

Pentecost is the second largest feast day in the Church, coming in both literally and in rank, after Easter. Seven weeks after Easter, we celebrate the day that the Holy Spirit filled the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Memorial Day, created to honor those brave souls who sacrificed their lives for our country, is considered the first weekend of summer. Two huge feasts, one big party weekend.

Read the full article on celebrating Pentecost & Memorial Day together at Catholic Mothers Online.com.

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Everyone loves a good cookout for Memorial Day — even in the great white north, where it’s usually pretty darn cold!   While we generally like anything that can be thrown on a grill, this is our favorite menu for grill-happy holidays!

Main Dish/Meat

• Best-Ever Hamburger Recipe

Side Dishes

• Tuna Noodle Salad for Picky Eaters
• Deviled Eggs
• Baked Beans
• Potato Salad
• Potato Chips or Tortilla Chips with Salsa

Dessert

• Strawberry Yogurt Pie
• Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp for Two

Drinks

• Oberon (beer — for hubby)
• Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola — it’s my only vice.
• Homemade Pina Coladas

I’m looking for an awesome potato salad recipe (we love the mustardy/amish potato salad at the store), a loaded baked potato salad (with a sour cream “sauce”), homemade baked beans (not from a can, but honest-to-goodness from scratch), and a homemade hamburger bun recipe.  If you have one of these, I would love to try it!

For more great grilling posts, check out the whole series!

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Today I’m participating in the Ultimate Blog Swap. You’ll find me posting over at My Favorite Finds about A Trio of Summer Muffin Recipes and I’m super excited to welcome Amy Bayliss from Cajun Joie de Vivre  to Happy Little Homemaker!

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I am a die-hard natural cleaning mama. With four boys and a Boxer who thinks he is one of the children, I have lots of dirt and grime to clean up. Several years ago it occurred to me that although I was cleaning the main surfaces I was overlooking some equally dirty ones. It wasn’t until the umpteenth time that I grabbed a hold of something and realized how dirty it was that I got a clue. I’ll share some of those spots with you.

First, you need a great cleaning All-Purpose Spray. I have my own recipe made from natural, safe, non-toxic ingredients but you can use whatever you are comfortable with.

So what are the spots we shouldn’t overlook? Here they are:

1. Clean your walls.
2. Clean and disinfect light switches, door knobs, remotes, and phones.
3. Clean small appliances.
4. Clean behind and under large appliances. Don’t forget to clean behind handles and the air vents.
5. Clean stepping stools.
6. Clean cabinet doors and knobs. Clean the space above cabinets.
7. Clean range hood.
8. Clean ceiling fan blades.
9. Clean and disinfect trash cans.
10. Clean tracks and rails of sliding doors.
11. Clean off curtains by tossing into the dryer on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
12. Clean and disinfect toilet brushes and plungers. Clean well with a disinfectant like hydrogen peroxide then leave outdoors in the sun to dry.

It is so easy to overlook certain things when speed cleaning but if you add just one of these a day to your chores then you can get them all done twice a month!

Visit Life Your Way to see all of the Ultimate Blog Swap participants!

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When Jen asked that I share a favorite appetizer with her readers, I knew exactly which recipe I was going to post: Spicy Chicken Empanadas. These have been a family favorite for a very long time. I’m cross-posting them on my blog, Comfortably Domestic, where I give step-by-step instructions. If you feel like getting down to the nitty-gritty, you can read about it here.

I really hope that you try the empanadas and love them as much as we do.

Empanadas came into my life at a time when I needed them most. It was summer, and we were doing an inordinate amount of picnicking–as a mother with two toddlers is wont to do–and I was running out of ideas for “portable” lunches/snacks. While my eldest two sons were content to eat nothing but sandwiches or cheese & crackers, I would have preferred to eat large salads, or bagels & lox, or hummus with vegetables for lunch. However, my toddlers were highly suspicious of such things. All I knew was that if I had to eat another sandwich, I was going to lose what was left of my mind.

Kid food will do that to a person.

Thankfully, my sweet Bacon Slayer came to the rescue when he brought home the wrong thing for dinner one night. No, really! I’d asked him to stop at a little market in the Mexicantown area of Detroit on his way home to pick up tamales, but what he came home with was empanadas. Apparently it wasn’t Tamale Day at the little market. Lucky for us, it was Empanada Day! Their empanadas were fantastic! My boys devoured them faster than I could plop them on their plates. I knew at that moment that I had found something to save me from the sandwich-and-cracker-oblivion that was driving me mad.

I guess you could say that empanadas saved my sanity.

As my family has grown over the past eight years, this recipe has evolved to this current incarnation, and Friends–I have to tell ya–these empanadas are by far my favorite snack/appetizer/meal on the planet! The savory chicken filling has just enough heat to compliment the slightly sweet corn dough that encases it.

Empanadas make a great snack, picnic meal-on-the-run, or party appetizer. The dough takes minimal effort, and the filling can (read: should) be made with leftover chicken and pantry items. Win-Win-Win-Win-Win!

And they freeze beautifully for another Win.

Chicken Empanadas

http://comfortablydomestic.com

Makes 28-32 Empanadas

For the Dough:

1 ¾ C. all-purpose flour

1 C. masa harina

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. granulated sugar

2/3 C. milk (add more by the tablespoon, up to ¾ cup total, if too dry)

2 egg yolks

1/3 C. unsalted butter, cubed

For the Filling:

½ C. cooked chicken, shredded & diced

½ C. fresh salsa, drained

2 whole chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

¾ tsp. cumin

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¾ tsp. McCormick’s Montreal Steak seasoning

½ C. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

To Seal:

2 eggs whites

1 Tbs. water

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.
2. Measure the flour, masa, baking powder, kosher salt, and sugar into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse the dry ingredients 5 times to distribute.
3. Sprinkle cubed butter over the dry ingredients, and toss to coat. Pulse 3 to 5 times, or until butter is the size of peas.
4. Add the egg yolks. Pulse 5 times to distribute.
5. Turn the processor on, and slowly pour the milk through the feed tube. Continue to run processor until dough just comes together—about 3 minutes.
6. Roll dough into a ball and rest on a floured surface. Cover with a damp paper towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the filling.
7. Set a small dine-mesh strainer over bowl. Pour the salsa into the strainer and allow juices to drain.
8. Shred and then dice the cooked chicken. Place the chicken into a bowl.
9. Dice the chipotles in adobo and add to the bowl of chicken.
10. Add the cumin, cinnamon, and Montreal Steak seasoning.
11. Place the strained salsa and shredded cheddar into the bowl of chicken and stir to combine; set filling aside while rolling out the dough.
12. Roll dough to a large rectangle, about 1/8-inch thick.
13. Use a 3-inch round biscuit or cookie cutter to cut discs of dough—between 28 to 32 depending on thickness of dough.
14. Divide the discs between the prepared baking sheets.
15. Place 1 teaspoon of filling onto the center of each disc of dough.
16. Whip egg whites with water until frothy.
17. Brush half of each disc perimeter with the egg wash. Fold the dough in half, ensuring the filling stays inside. Press the edges to seal. Crimp sealed edge with a fork.
18. Bake empanadas at 375 degrees for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Notes: Empanadas freeze beautifully! Simply allow emanadas to cool completely, and then freeze in a single layer sealed in a freezer bag set on a baking sheet. To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then remove empanadas from the bag, wrap them in a foil pouch, and set the pouch on a baking sheet. Warm the empanadas in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until heated through. Recipe can be doubled for a crowd.

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Wow; Kirsten has really outdone herself!  I can’t wait to give these a try.  And the fact that they freeze?  Um, yes please!

For more great grilling posts, check out the whole series!

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I don’t know about you, but I am a sucker for cute.  I cannot tell you how many “cute” things I’ve purchased, gotten them home, and sent them to Goodwill a year later because they didn’t work with anything else I had.  I’ve gotten better at passing up “cute” by having a specific style in mind.  Here is how to determine your decorating style….

See the full post at Homemakers Challenge!

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I finally got the final installment of the Big Sky Trilogy, Beyond Hope’s Valley by Tricia Goyer a few weeks ago and it was driving me nuts that I didn’t have time to read it right away.  Argh!!   I hate that!

At the end of the last book, Marianna had to decide whether she was going back to Indiana with her former beau, Aaron.    In this book, she does.   And it’s not at all how she wished it would go.   She has troubles being in a catty, gossippy community where they talk the talk but don’t seem to walk the walk.   Not like the liberal Montana community where kindness and walking with God trumps the so-called rules.   And these troubles cause problems with her to-be-husband, Aaron, who would prefer that she be the quiet, good respectable girl of his youth.  Marianna still longs for Ben and Aaron has a few secrets of his own to deal with.    I’m not going to say anymore because I don’t want to be a spoiler, but wow was it a good read!

I really liked the characters in this book.   Tricia did a great job of portraying the conflict of the characters, especially Aaron and Marianna’s mother.   While side characters, they really had issues of their own that helped Marianna with hers.   She did a great job of tying up loose ends of the main characters but left enough unsaid that I’m wondering about some others — another series perhaps?

This is a fabulous summer read and the last novel doesn’t disappoint.   I would recommend the series to anyone.   And really, I would start with the first one because it’s a fabulous series but the first two are just a {smidge} better.

If you are interested to what others thought, you can check out the whole blog tour and read to your heart’s content .

Celebrate with Tricia and enter to win a custom-made Amish Wall hanging in the colors of your choice … and much more!

One fortunate winner will receive: 

•  Custom Amish Wall Hanging {You choose the colors!} 
• An Amish Doll {Sweet.} 
• Amish-made basket {It’s picnic season!} 
• Doilies, potholder and an Amish cookbook {All items form Bird-in-Hand, PA!}
  
• Three book Big Sky Amish series {Be swept away by this captivating series.}
  

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on May 20th. Winner will be announced at “All Things Amish” Author Chat Facebook Party on 5/21. Tricia will be hosting an author chat (on Facebook and Live from her website) and giving away books, gift certificates and more!

So grab your copy of Beyond Hope’s Valley and join Tricia on the evening of the May 21st for a fun chat, trivia contest (How much do you know about the Amish?) and lots of giveaways. (If you haven’t read the book – don’t let that stop you from coming!)

 

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My favorite party decor? Free printables. Check out these beauties!

Source: piggybankparties.com via Amanda on Pinterest

These gorgeous candles from Martha Stewart might be gracing my table as well. Especially in red and white since Sunday is Pentecost, too!

Source: marthastewart.com via Megan on Pinterest

 

I love this sign that greets guests at the party. Indeed!

Source: mypartypassion.blogspot.com via Lucy on Pinterest

 This super simple but cute decor looks like something I may actually have time to finish!   AND it could be adapted for any event, too.

Source: marthastewart.com via Tina on Pinterest

 

While I may not get to this rockin’ Star Felt Garland for memorial day, I would love to make one for this summer.  I think it’s next on my list after I’ve hit all my writing deadlines!

Source: oopsey-daisy.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Do you have any cool Memorial Day Decoration ideas? Feel free to link to them in the comments below!

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For more great grilling posts, check out the whole series!

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