Keep Home Simple

Twinkle Lights

2013-05-01T20:55:00.003-07:00

Just a few days after this past Christmas, as I was taking down the Christmas tree and all of it's magical twinkle lights, my youngest came in the room and told me how sad our house looked.

"Can we still leave soooome of the lights out mom?" she asked.

I agreed that the house did look rather sad without all the sparkly lights of Christmas.

So I packed all of the twinkle lights away until next Christmas, except for one strand.

I draped the strand around the sliding glass door in our dining room.

Magic.

The house sparkled again with the faint glow of just one little strand of lights.

I thought that after the depressing cold months of winter had passed, we'd take the twinkle lights down.

But more than four months later, the lights are still there and we love them!

They are so peaceful to look at in the evening when we're all tuckered out and hunkered down inside for the night.

They make kind of a sweet night light after every ones in bed too.

Twinkle lights are the best! They can be used all year long and are worth every little penny.

Our Fixer Upper

2013-04-30T23:17:00.002-07:00

*Page in Progress

---------------------------

Welcome to our home!

I post updates on our fixer upper all the time around here, but I thought it was high time that I group all of the before and after pictures of our home's progress in one spot.

So here we go:

Our fixer-upper is a classic nineteen-seventies split level.

We bought it in the summer of 2009 and have been slowly wittling away at fixing it up ever since.

I don't think a single room is completely finished. But we do have plenty of retro "before" pictures of each room and some pictures of each room as they are "now" to share with you.

Take a look...

----------------------------------------------------

The Stairway

Before:

Now:

The Living Room

Before:

Now:

The Kitchen

Before:

Now:

The Dining Room
Before:

Now:

The Upstairs Hall Closet
Before:

Now:

Hallway
Before:

Now:

Master Bedroom

Before:

Now:

Master Bathroom

Before:

Now:

Bedroom Number Two

Before:

Now:

Bedroom Number Three

Before:

Now:

The Basement

Before:

Now:

Guest Bedroom
Before:

Now:

Laundry Room
Before:

Now:

Display Quotes That Inspire

2013-04-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

I love inspiring quotes. Quotes that make you want to be a better person. Quotes that make you think. Especially easy short ones that are easy to memorize so that they easily stick in your mind. I have two large chalkboards in the main living areas of our home. One is on the pantry door in our kitchen, and the other one is made out of a large board that leans into a corner in our dining room. Over the last six months or so, I've been writing down inspirational quotes on these boards. Some of the quotes we have worked as a family to memorize. And some we don't repeat together at all. They are just there to be read on their own. I want the things on the walls in my home to matter, to make a difference in our family's life, to inspire. I have always hoped that by writing down meaningful words for my family to see, that hopefully someday these words would sink in to their minds and they would be of use to them.

Last week, as I was tucking my oldest (now ten year old!) into bed, we were talking about something (I can't remember what now), and I told her, "Just try..." As soon as I said the word try, the words that I have written on the chalkboard in the picture above, came into her mind and she said, " ...a little harder to be a little better!" And I said, "Hey! You've been reading that quote I have on the board in the dining room!" I was so happy and pleased that those words were now in her mind and that she was putting them into practice as we were talking about something that she needed to try harder to be. Someday I hope to have a whole gallery wall, maybe in our basement family room, full of quotes that inspire our family to be better, to be Christ-like, to be the best kind of people we can be.

I love adding to my collection of quotes on my "Quotes" pinterest board. (Found here.) If I ever get that gallery wall full of inspiring quotes made, I'll be sure to share it here.

Do you have any quotes that inspire you or your family? If you do, please share!

Six Cleaning Motivation Tips

2013-04-08T07:59:00.002-07:00

I believe that our homes can be a heaven on earth, our peaceful place from the whirlwind of the world around us. But for me, if my home is messy, cluttered, and dirty, I don't feel very much at peace. I can handle a certain level of messy, but after a certain point, I start to feel crabby.

As the wife and mother, I play a major role in setting the mood around my home. If I am crabby, other family members begin to feel crabby too and that doesn't lead to a peaceful home. So I try to keep my home clean to a point. Not a pristine magazine kind of clean, because there are people who actually live here, but clean enough that there is a sense of order.

However, even though I want a clean orderly home, there are days when I am just not in the mood to clean. On some days, chores feel monotonous. Like, hey, didn't I just make that bed, wash those dishes, sweep that floor, clean that mirror, wash those clothes yesterday?! Why, yes, I did.

Do you ever feel that way?

When I'm feeling unmotivated to clean my home, these are some of the things that help inspire me to get to work:

Play Music: Music makes me happy, it lifts my mood and it increases my energy level so I can get to work. I use Pandora to find the right music to energize my mood. Sometimes the vintage sound of Dean Martin gets me moving and other days the young sound of Taylor Swift does the job.

Pretty Scents: Sometimes just lighting a pretty smelling candle or cleaning with pretty smelling cleaners, like Mrs. Meyers line of cleaners (the basil scent is my favorite!) makes cleaning more pleasant.

Before and After Pictures: I'm pretty sure that most of us like before and after pictures. We see them everywhere on blogs and in magazines. A couple of times I've taken a picture of a room I'm cleaning when it's dirty and disorganized and then taken an after picture when the room is all clean. It's fun to see the difference.

Call and invite a friend over: I don't know about you, but if I know someone is coming over, it totally motivates me to clean. So if I'm not in the mood to clean my home, inviting someone over for a lunch date or a play date, quickly sparks my motivation to get to work.

Reward yourself with a piece of chocolate: this kind of motivation probably isn't the best kind for me, but when push comes to shove, I bribe myself with chocolate. If I load the dishwasher, I get a small piece of chocolate, if I fold a load of laundry, I get another piece of chocolate, and so on and so forth.

Make a list and cross things off. This can make cleaning a dirty house seem less overwhelming as you get to visually see all the progress you're making when each individual chore is crossed off.

Do you have any other motivating tips to clean your home? If you do, please share! I'd love to hear them!

About Blogging

2013-03-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

Blogging...

At one time an avid hobby.

Now, I guess you could say, more of a favorite past time.

Other things (husband, children, church responsibilities), have taken priority ...as they should.

But I want you to know (any of you still out there who occasionally click on over here to read a post or two), that I'm still here.

I still have blog posts running through my mind as I'm loading dirty dishes into the dishwasher or driving kiddos to their various activities.

I still read blogs.

I still add to my pinterest boards.

I document life on instagram.

I just don't have as much time lately to do projects and blog about them.

We're still continuing to fix up our home here and there

and sometimes we concoct crafty little projects. They're just not being shared as often.

But our happy little life still beats on.

I hope you'll still pop by on rare occasions when I do post projects and stuff. Because I really do appreciate your comments and your readership.

Speaking of projects and stuff...

I've been working on a room redo in my sons room that I'm hoping to share with you next week. (Fingers crossed!) Super excited to finally have it finished soon.

Happy Easter Friends!

Another Update on Our Basement Family Room

2013-03-07T14:36:00.001-08:00

I'm here again with another basement family room update! However, today is getting away from me and pretty soon I've got kids to pick up from school, a daughter to take to ballet, dinner to make, homework to supervise and so on. So this post will be mostly pictures.

*****

{Basement on move in day - summer 2009}

Our latest update has been adding built in bookshelves on both sides of the fireplace.

My husband made these with backer board and plywood.

I think the total cost was about a hundred dollars, which is not bad at all for all the extra storage we benefit from.

This was the night the paint on the bookshelves had dried and I was playing around with how to place the books on the shelves. To my husband, this should have been no big deal. Just place books on the shelf and you're done. However, I wanted the bookshelves to not only be functional, but to be a decorative accent to the room too. So I had my husband help me organize the outside covers of the books by color. He may or may not have rolled his eyes at my idea at first, but I think he liked the overall color coordinating affect in the end.

{The basement family room today.}

The pennant banner was the finishing touch.

I love the extra splash of fun color it adds to the room.

This room is finally turning into the room my husband and I always imagined it would be!
The journey has been long but fun.

How to Make a Homemade Pinata for Under 5 Dollars

2013-02-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago my youngest daughter turned 5. She got to have her first ever friend party. We celebrated with a candy land theme. She, of course, wanted a pinata at her party too (what kid doesn't love pinatas???). She is absolutely in love with horses these days, so a horse pinata was the obvious choice for her. My original plan was just to buy her a horse pinata. But I couldn't find a horse pinata that didn't look more like a donkey than a horse. I'm also cheap. So I chose to save myself twenty dollars or so and make a pinata for a lot less money than it would cost me to buy one.

So first keep in mind that none of the pictures in this little tutorial are pretty or cute. I started out this project not planning to blog about it at all, but then changed my mind, thinking that maybe someone else out there might like a little pinata tutorial if they've never attempted a project like this before.

So here we go...

Step one: Find/Buy a large piece of cardboard. If you already have cardboard at home, this project will cost you less than five dollars!

I didn't have any cardboard around. So I purchased a tri-fold piece of cardboard (like what you would use to display a science project) at Target for 1.99.

Step two: Trace your desired pinata shape onto the cardboard (make sure you have the room to do this twice because you will need a front and a back).

Step three: Cut out your drawn out shape. Then use your shape as a stencil and trace it onto the leftover cardboard. Cut the second shape out too (this is your front and your back). You should now have two identical shapes. (Mine were the horse heads you see in the picture above.)

Step four: Cut out 5" wide strips of cardboard to fill in the gaps between the two shapes that were just cut out. The strips can be as long as you'd like them to be. If they're too long, you can cut the excess off and if they're too short, you can cut out another strip until you have what you need.

Step five: Place the 5" strips of cardboard in between the two shapes that were cut out, and, using packing tape or even duct tape, tape the strips to both of the shapes you cut out (in my case, to both of the horse heads).

Here's my horse pinata all taped up.

Step six: Before you fill it up with candy or decorate the outside with tissue paper, make two small-ish holes in the top about 3 inches apart. This is to slide the rope through when you're ready to hang it up for the party.

Step seven: Cut through the tape on the bottom of the pinata and fill the inside with candy and/or little toys. After the pinata is filled up, tape the bottom back up with some strong tape.

Step eight: Use some of those old skills from elementary school to tissue paper the outside of the pinata.

(If you haven't done this in a while ...you cut tissue paper, in whatever color you choose, into one inch squares, put a pencil in the middle of a square of tissue paper, pull the tissue paper up around the pencil and dip the bottom of the tissue paper in Elmer's glue. Then stick the tissue paper onto the pinata and pull the pencil out. Repeat this step about a thousand more times, haha!)

This step takes a lot of time. Like probably 6 hours. If you have some children, ask them to help you with this step. They'll probably think it's really fun. Mine loved helping with this step.

I decorated the rest of my pinata with some colorful streamers for the mane and I cut the eye of the horse out of construction paper.

This actually turned out to be a pretty fun project. It was really inexpensive to make, but the trade off is that it does take some time to put together. But if you don't mind spending the time doing it, it's a great money saver. Personally I like doing simple projects like this while I listen to some mindless tv in the background anyway.

My five year old loved her first-ever-pinata. The next day when I asked her what her favorite part of her party was, she said the presents (of course) and the pinata. She was pretty happy that she got to be involved with making it too.

And now I will end this post by saying that I am really tired of saying the word "pinata," haha.

Basement Family Room Part III

2013-02-06T18:30:00.002-08:00

Hello All!

Just popping in to share some more basement family room progress with you.

A couple of months ago when I saw The House of Smith's wood planked wall tutorial, I fell in love for three reasons.

a.) they were gorgeous

b.) the process looked easy

c.) it was a CHEAP project

I immediately pinned their tutorial and couldn't wait to share it with my husband. I thought it might be a perfect solution to cover up our 30+ year old basement ceiling, which was not in the best shape. It would add a dash of character to the space too ...which was an added bonus.

You may remember what this room started out as three and a half years ago...

Last week, my husband got to work covering up the ceiling in this room. After the old popcorn ceiling was scraped off and the dingy brown beams were taken down, you could see all the sheet rock seams and it wasn't a pretty sight. Since it's a basement, it was also a bit dark in here too. We added eight new recessed lights before we added the wood planks. Adding more light in here has made a whole world of difference. It's so much brighter, warmer, and happier!

The wood planked ceiling was applied using the same guidelines that The Smith's gave in their wood planked tutorial for their wall ...with only a few minor changes to adapt it for our ceiling.

Their wood planks were six inches wide, ours are five inches...

We used finishing nails and liquid nails (it's a ceiling after all and we don't want any of those bad boys hitting us in the head if they were for some reason to come loose).

...And we did a staggered layout of the boards instead of just one plank on top of the other. (Mostly because our ceiling is wider than the eight foot long boards.)

This whole project only took one day and the result is amazing. Buh-bye ugly ceiling.

Here's a before shot of one of the family room walls on our move in day.

And here it is today with the most recent addition of the wood planked ceiling.

Now our predicament is do we paint the planks or not???

Our original plan was to install the planks and then paint them white. But for the moment, we're kind of enjoying the natural color and texture of the wood grain against the gray walls. The paint has already been bought, but maybe we'll just procrastinate the painting for a little while.
I don't know. What do you guys think?

Happy Things

2013-01-17T19:24:00.002-08:00

The month of January can be rough. The high of Christmas is over, it's sooo cold outside, and I'd just like to skip winter all together and head right into spring. I miss the sunshine and I miss spending time outside. But since we are still a few more months away from all the warmth and beauty that spring brings with it, I'm trying to keep my focus on other happy things.

Happy thing # 1: My husband and I just celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this month.

Happy thing # 2: Lately, I get to find cute little horses hiding all over my house. (My youngest is currently obsessed with all things horse related.)

Happy thing # 3: THIS new-to-me useful tip (lemons can take away hard water stains). I've tried it! It's true! It totally works!!!

Happy thing #4: This song/video. I feel so blessed to know who I am ...who we all are.

Happy thing #5: I bought myself a sewing machine for Christmas and finally got around to making some cute curtains for our basement family room.

Happy thing # 6: Reservations have been made for a fun Family Reunion this summer (and it includes horse back riding...my youngest is THRILLED about that part.) It's so nice to have this checked off my to-do list and to have something to look forward to later in the year.

Happy thing # 7: My "baby" turns five in less than two weeks! It's kind of a happy/sad thing for me. I'm so happy that she is healthy and getting so big, but I do miss that she's not a baby anymore and hardly even qualifies as a toddler anymore either.

Happy thing # 8: Uplifting quotes like this one that help me not give up on my New Year's Resolutions ...or dreams in life. (Never mind the finger prints all over the door. Those are just a part of my happy life.) :)

I hope all of you can find "happy things" about your life too!
Happy January friends!

Master Bathroom Makeover

2013-01-11T10:57:00.001-08:00

Before we get started here with this Master Bathroom Makeover, you might want to listen to this song by Mindy Gledhill. The first few lines rang pretty true in my life for about three years when it came to this lovely little master bathroom.

Case in point: No bathroom door. For like the entire three years that we lived in this house.

My kids nicknamed this bathroom the "scary bathroom" and the name fit nicely.

They would literally cry if we told them to use the toilet in here.

The shower was never usable because it was missing tile and the linoleum had seen better days.

A LOT better days.

Our renovation on this bathroom started in October and it took my husband and I less than two weeks to complete.

The After.

New Tile.

Same toilet ...but new toilet paper holder and new white tile around the base of the shower..

New Vanity and sink combo. This thing had me at first sight. I love it. And not only is it pretty, but the cabinets are not very deep which allows us a bit more open space in this tiny bathroom.

I love the new mirror too. It feels sleek and sophisticated.

The light above the mirror is actually a $35 outdoor light from Home Depot.
I love that it doesn't look like a typical bathroom vanity light.
It gives this room a little rustic personality.

We bought a fresh white shower curtain for our now usable shower. I thought white would be the best option because it would make this tiny bathroom seem not quite so, well,
...tiny.
The color of the paint on the walls is Woodlawn Colonial Gray by Valspar. The color doesn't show up great in any of these photos because it's overcast outside and I'm having to use the flash on my camera. But I love the color because it's a really great sort of grayish-brownish color. A little heavier on the gray side.

New White towels and towel hooks from Target. Again, I chose white so this bathroom would feel more light and airy.

And gosh darn it, we finally have a new door for our bathroom too. Woo hoo!

It's really nice to have one more room checked off our Renovation list.

Linked here: The Shabby Nest

Add Color To a Room Without Spending a Dime

2013-01-10T12:37:00.001-08:00

A few days after Christmas, the house was quite. My three kiddos were happily playing outside in the snow together and my husband was at work. So I found a cute cheesey Christmas movie on Netflix (a chick flick type one, that I knew my husband would mock if he were home. ha!) and decided to watch it while I took down all of our Christmas decorations.

After nearly everything was packed away and our fresh tree was set out on the curb for garbage pick up, I realized how empty and bare our living room looked. It was clean and simple, which was fine, but it lacked color. I wanted to add some colorful accessories to the room without spending any money.

Then I remembered that a dear friend of ours had so generously just given us three big boxes of books. They were just sitting in our guest room, waiting to be read and put on a shelf somewhere. I decided to look through them and see if any of them had covers that would match the colors I had in my living room.

I found just what I was looking for. Three greenish-bluish books. I stacked them right on top of each other and, in a subtle way, they instantly added more color to the room.

I was thrilled to know that I didn't have to spend any money to add more color to our living room. All I had to do was find some colorful books!

Twenty - Thirteen

2013-01-01T22:22:00.000-08:00

From our home to yours...

Happy New Year!

A Christmas Tree's Journey

2012-12-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

A long anticipated drive out in the country to a lovely little Christmas tree farm.

Every tree in the running has to pass the sniff test. Does it smell pine-y enough???

Is this the one?

Yup. It made the "cut"!

Old Blue carrying our fresh cut tree home.

The hubs takes care to trim the tree.

Husband strings the lights all through the branches and we all watch "White Christmas" as we decorate the tree as a family.

Our tree's warm glow makes our home both merry + bright.

Do you have your tree up yet?
Do you prefer real trees or fake trees?
Either way, aren't they just magical?

Christ Centered Countdown to Christmas

2012-11-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

We are in full fledged Christmas mode around here. Our tree is up, our stockings are hung, some of our Christmas cards have been sent, and our Christmas shopping is off to a good start. We are giddy with excitement and every night as I'm tucking my three kiddos into bed I get asked, "Mom, how many more days until Christmas?"

The past couple of years, our family has counted down the days until Christmas using paper calendars filled with chocolate hidden inside little windows, red and green paper chains, or even tiny stockings filled with holiday activities to do or service to give to others.

We've loved all of these.

This year, I decided I wanted my family to enjoy the anticipation of Christmas with a scripture countdown. A way of being reminded everyday, what this special season is truly about.

I put together a sequence of scriptures that depict Christ's anticipation, birth + life.

To put this together, I painted an old cork board I had on hand with stripes in two different shades of white. (I know it's kind of hard to tell in these dark pictures.) Then I put number stickers on 25 tiny envelopes. I pinned the tiny envelopes onto the board and stuffed them with tiny little cards with scriptures written on each one. (The tiny envelopes, cards, and number stickers were all found at Hobby Lobby.)

I really hope that we can feel the true meaning of Christmas as we read these scriptures together each day.

I know we're just a few short days away from the first of December, but if you're interested in doing a scripture countdown for Christmas this year too, you are welcome to click on the link below for the list of scriptures I used.

Christmas Scripture List

{*To keep things extra simple, you could even just write these scriptures onto strips of paper and make a scripture chain countdown.}

Airbourne Fruit and Veggie Shake

2012-11-16T10:57:00.002-08:00

Last December my little family and I all took turns with a nasty stomach bug. Some of us got it once, some of us got it twice, and my youngest, unfortunately, had it three different times (one of those times happened to be Christmas day)! It was a rough month.

So this year, I'm doing my best to keep my family as healthy as possible this holiday season.

Three to four nights each week, for the past couple of weeks, I have been serving an airborne fruit and veggie shake with our dinner to pump up our immune systems. Here's how I make it:

In a blender add...

2 Cups cold water

2 Cups fresh spinach leaves

1-2 Airbourne tablets

Blend for 20-30 seconds.

Then add...

1 Cup frozen blueberries

4 Cups frozen strawberries

2 Tbs. orange juice concentrate

1 Tbs. sugar

Blend and serve.

This recipe serves my whole family (2 adults + 3 children).

It's delicious!!!

Of course, if you want to be extra healthy, you can eliminate the orange juice concentrate and the sugar and add something like honey instead.

Also, just fyi, I did notice on the back of the Airbourne packaging that Airbourne is not always recommended for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

..........................................

Wishing you and yours a healthy + happy holiday season this year!

How to Turn Green Tomatoes Red and Freeze Them For Later

2012-11-10T23:02:00.000-08:00

Back in this post, I briefly shared with you that I was going to put all these green tomatoes from my garden in brown paper bags to turn red.

Well... after they sat all nice and closed up in those brown paper bags in my pantry for about three weeks, they looked like this. Nice and red.

But I had so many of these newly reddened tomatoes that I needed to freeze most of them right away before they went bad.

Maybe you've frozen tomatoes before. But just in case you never have, here is how I did it:

First, I rinsed them thoroughly.

Then I chopped off the stems.

After all the stems were cut off, I fit as many as I could in my blender.

(I had a lot of tomatoes, so I couldn't fit them all in at once. Those little guys had to take shifts.)

I chopped some of the bigger tomatoes in half before I put them in, just so they would blend easier. I pureed the tomatoes for just a few seconds.

Then I poured my pureed tomatoes into a colander to get rid of some of the tomato juice. Not all of the juice, just some of it. I wanted my tomatoes to be more of the consistency of a can of diced tomatoes, rather than tomato soup. :)

I scooped approximately two cups of pureed tomatoes into quart size freezer bags and put the bags in my freezer. Two cups is the perfect amount for a lot of recipes.

I can't wait to pull these tomatoes out this winter when I want to make homemade chili or spaghetti sauce. For some reason I always thought freezing any produce from my garden would be really hard. But I quickly realized that it's not hard at all.

Blessings

2012-11-08T09:53:00.001-08:00

"When Upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings;
name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
... So amid the conflict, whether great or small
Do not be discouraged;
God is over all.
Count your many blessings;
angles will attend..."
~ {Hymn: Count Your Many Blessings, by Johnson Oatman Jr.}

This song pretty much sums up how I've felt this past week, especially because of some events that have come to pass in the state that I live in. Times are changing, morals are fading, but life goes on and there is still so much good in my life and that is what I need to focus on.

It's so fitting that this is a month that we especially look for those things we are thankful for.

So, in no particular order, these are the happy blessings in my life that I am so very thankful for:

*Christmas Songs in November

*The Book of Mormon

*Hot Chocolate

*My Family (three healthy, beautiful children and a very supportive husband)

*A cozy home

*Prayer

*Clearance racks at Target

*Fall colors & changing seasons

*The Temple

*Electricity

*Chocolate Chip cookies, fresh from the oven

*Fall Scented Candles

*Great Friends

*Cars

*A healthy body

*Extended Family Members

*My Husband's Job

*Food in my pantry

*Thrift Stores

*The Internet

*A Closet Full of Clothes

*Household Appliances (Dishwasher, Washers, Dryers, etc.)

*A Safe Neighborhood to Live In

*My Savior

*Date Nights with My Husband

*Sleep

*The Opportunity to be a Stay at Home Mom

*Classic Chick Flicks

*Modern Medicine

*Cameras to Capture Favorite Memories

*Our Family Dog, Paco

I wish each one of you a month full of blessings!

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is only two weeks away?

This month is moving so crazy fast!

How to Clean Dirty Blinds

2012-10-29T19:44:00.002-07:00

I posted about how I clean my blinds back in THIS post in 2010.

Well guess what my fabulous friends, I haven't hardly touched those blinds since then.
Isn't that pathetic? Don't answer that.

Anyway, here's a re-cap for those of you who may be new to my blog:

Mix equal parts vinegar + water in a bowl.

Then slip an old sock on your hand, dip your hand (with the sock on it) into the vinegar and water mixture and wipe down each individual slat on the blinds.

Easy.

After every couple of slats, dip the sock on your hand into the cleaner and squeeze it a bit to rinse off the dirt.

It's also helpful to have a second old sock. Once all the slats have been cleaned, slip the second old sock onto your hand and dry off each slat.

The result is beautiful!

Cleaning blinds is not my favorite chore in the world. (obviously)

But cleaning them is really not that difficult.

Especially when using an old sock, which is way less bulky to use in-between all those small spaces, than an old rag would be.

Happy Cleaning!

My New Favorite Cooking From Scratch Recipes

2012-10-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

I am an avid "pinner" like probably many of you out there are.

I love, love, love Pinterest and all of the ideas I get from there.

Lately I've been trying to learn to cook more things from scratch.

I've found some great ideas on Pinterest

So today I thought I'd share with you some of my most favorite "cooking from scratch"

recipes that I've pinned and made lately.

Recipe #1: Crockpot Applesauce.

(Picture and Recipe from mommymakesitbetter.blogspot.com)

Holy, moly this stuff is good!!!! It tasted like apple pie filling.

Bonus: it makes your whole house smell like fall and it's a great way to quickly use up all those apples that are in season right now.

Recipe #2: Homemade Tortillas.

(Picture and Recipe from heart-hands-home.blogspot.com)

This tortilla mix is fabulous! I love it because once the mix is made, it's so easy to use!

Whenever I need tortillas for a recipe or just for a quick quesadilla for lunch, all I have to do is add water to some of the mix and bake them in a frying pan on the stove. Fresh hot tortillas are the best! Even if just eaten all by themselves.

Recipe #3: Homemade Maple Syrup

(Picture and Recipe from barefootinthekitchen.blogspot.com)

We've been trying to eat less cereal in the mornings, so eating homemade pancakes has become a more common breakfast food for us. We love to add fruit and syrup on top of our pancakes and this syrup smells and tastes delish! My three kiddos are big fans and are always very good at letting me know when we've run out. ;)

Recipe #4: Barley Soup

(Picture and Recipe from shape.com)

This recipe is actually for a mushroom and barley soup, but I don't care for mushrooms so I left those out. I'd never made anything with barley before making this soup, but I loved it! I put everything in the crock pot on low for 4-5 hours and it was so easy to make! The whole family loved it!

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Some other recipes on my list to try are:

Homemade hot chocolate mix

Homemade Baked Chicken & Spinach Taquitos

Homemade Wheat Thins

and...

Homemade Zucchini Bites.

Also, last but not least, these turkey wraps (that are not completely from scratch) are delish too. I think the laughing cow flavored cream cheese in these is what makes these wraps so wonderful.

I've been putting them in my husband's lunch for work and the first day that I made them for him I got a text that said, "These are really good! I give them a 10 out of 10!"

I texted him back one word.

"Pinterest."

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(If you're interested in finding out how to make any of these yummy foods, just click on the link right under each picture. For the recipes I included in this post without any pictures, click on the actual name of the recipe and the link will pop up for you.)

Basement Family Room Part II

2012-10-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

We got carpet!!!

In the words of my seven year old son, "Boo-yah!"

The whole family is so excited to have this extra usable space down here.

After waiting and waiting for three years to finally make it happen, it's happened. The carpet is in!

Every room in our home has needed a lot of tender loving care from the get go.

Unfortunately, this room just happened to be one of the last rooms on the list.

Now that the carpet is in, we are excited to add the base molding and other decorative molding on the bottom half of the walls. Also in the plans: a white wooden plank ceiling, molding around the fireplace, built-in book shelves, furniture, and other decorative accessories.

But all in due time my friend.

We take things slooow around here so we don't end up blowing the budget.

And here's just one more look at the before.

Bye - bye ugly room.

Basement Family Room

2012-10-17T10:06:00.001-07:00

This week we are finally getting new carpet in our cozy little basement family room!

Woo hoo!!!

I am beyond excited!

A lot of little last minute projects have to get done in there first though, so we're running at full speed this week to make it all happen.

I have been looking forward to getting new carpet in this area of the house for over THREE years!

About two months ago I got sick and tired of looking at the nasty 70's carpet you can see in the picture below.

So I ripped that carpet out, cleaned the floors, and just primed the floors white.

The floor was hard and cold, but it least it wasn't hideously ugly anymore, ha!

And now, the waiting game is over. We'll have soft warm carpet just in time to enjoy during the cold winter months ahead. (yeah!!!)

I'll be sure to share an "after" shot with you next week.

Life Lately

2012-10-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

{Watching my oldest through the window of the dance studio morph into a graceful little ballerina.}

{It was a wonderful day this past week when we discovered 'wowbutter'. One of my children is allergic to ALL nuts. It's not so fun. But this stuff tastes awesome ...like the real stuff and it has changed our lives for the better.}

{The hubs and I decided our whole family should be regularly trying to memorize new scriptures. We work on it usually during dinner time. We've almost got this one down pat.}

{Chalkboard vinyl. It rocks. And if you buy a whole sheet of it, you can cut it into any shape you want and do all sorts of fun crafty projects. So fun.}

{I get to hang out with this cute little girl all. day. long. while my oldest two are in school.
I love my baby girl.}

{Learning to be a primary president for our ward (church congregation). It's been a lot of work, but super fun to try to pull it all together.}

{I've been clearing out our summer garden. Lots of green tomatoes. I'm going to put them in a brown paper bag in my pantry and use them up when they turn red.}

It's a wonderful life.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Uh Oh and Good Job

2012-10-03T14:49:00.004-07:00

I am blessed with some really great kids.

I think, for the most part, they just came that way.

But at times, they can use a little extra training.

A couple of weeks ago I found the idea of THIS "uh-oh" jar on pinterest posted by Hilary at Happiness Is...

Basically, if a rule is broken, or someone is whining too much, they get an "uh-oh", which is an extra chore to do.

I didn't have any extra cute jars laying around my house, but I did have some extra pails that I got from Target's dollar section last year.

So I paired the pails with some alphabet vinyl I bought at Target last week (found by the poster boards in the stationary dept.), and put my own "Uh-Oh" system into place.

Now when one of my children disobeys, I have to ask them to do something more than once, or they treat someone unkindly, etc., they pick a slip of paper out of the Uh-oh pail.

Some of these chores include:

Vacuuming the living room.

Wiping down baseboards.

Wiping down cabinets in the kitchen.

Dusting a room in the house.

Pulling a bag of weeds from the backyard.

Cleaning a toilet.

Cleaning mirrors.

Etc.

The system is working great so far! It's gotten to the point where all I have to say is, "Do you need an 'Uh-Oh'?" And nine times out of ten they start doing what they are supposed to.

Along with the "Uh-Oh" pail, we also have a "Good Job" pail because I think it's very important to recognize good behavior too. If I catch one of my children doing something kind for someone in our family or being extra thoughtful to try and help me out around the house, we let them pick a slip of paper from the "Good Job" pail.

Some of the things in here include:

A Quarter (they are all working hard to save for a special toy right now).

A piece of gum/candy.

A small little toy (i.e. a bouncy ball).

They get to stay up at night 15 minutes later than the other kids.

They get their back tickled for 10 minutes.

Etc.

So far this system for good and bad behavior is working fantastic!

We've had a lot less melt downs and disobedience.

All three of my children are constantly looking for ways to serve each other and are trying to be a little kinder.

AND, it's been such an easy thing for my husband and I to implement here in our home.

I'm SO grateful to have found this little idea. I (((big heart))) pinterest for all the mounds of inspiration I find on there.

Hello October!

2012-10-01T18:32:00.001-07:00

October is finally here.

Halloween will be here before we know it.

Costumes and trunk or treating fill the thoughts of my three children and their friends.

Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year?

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I haven't been very present on this blog lately. I have a lot of partial posts waiting to be finished and published here on the ol' blog, but life keeps marching on at a beat that I seem to be racing to keep up with. (Hoping that's not the way life will stay around here forever because, we like to keep things simple.)

But despite life being so busy, I just wanted to log on and post something, just to say "hello!".

(... even though I almost burned a batch of chocolate chip cookies while typing this - oh well.)

So...

Hello! + Happy October!

Happy Fall

2012-09-18T10:39:00.001-07:00

:: Fall ::

cool crisp mornings, bright orange pumpkins, happy yellow mums, school routines, hot chocolate, breezy evening walks, comfy warm blankets, mulled cider scented candles, happy holidays and family gatherings, new school supplies, candy corn, college football, soft cardigans, yellow/orange/red leaves fluttering and falling, corn mazes, and pumpkin pie.

I look forward to fall all year long.

For me, it is the happiest season, filled with so many of my favorite things.

Happy Fall my friends!

(well, ...almost)

Linked here: Centsational Girl