. You Pinspire Me .

Easter Egg Crafts & Egg Hunts #KinderMom

2014-04-08T08:59:00.001-04:00

With the very anticipated arrival of spring comes bright colours and Easter crafts. The best kind of crafts are ones our boys can do themselves - even if they don't look perfect.

The first eggs we made were with coffee filters cut into egg shapes. They used washable markers to make designs on them. Then the fun part. They took spray bottles of water and sprayed the whole thing, watching the colours bleed together. When they dried, they looked like this:

These eggs were also very easy. I cut an oval out of construction paper and placed it on a square of clear contact paper. The boys got to choose the colours of tissue paper squares to stick inside the oval. Then we covered it with another piece of contact paper and trimmed the edges. No glue, no mess!

When we were young, we never did much for egg hunts as a family. But the last five years, my mom has started doing an egg hunt for all her grandchildren who are over. She buys the plastic hollow eggs in various colours and assigns one colour to each child. Then we hide them in the back yard and each child searches only for their own colour. That way we can make it a little more difficult for the older ones (ie. up in a tree) and easy for the little ones (on a stair). The eggs are filled with things like candy, snacks, toys, and stickers, and everyone seems to enjoy it. We usually spend the last 15 minutes searching all together for that one missing egg.

Kinder has all kinds of great Easter items this year - aren't they adorable? And they have entire Egg Hunt Kits to make it easy for parents or grandparents organizing a hunt.

Kinder® is giving their Facebook fans a chance to win their own Easter basket kit. Kinder® will be giving away one basket each day to a lucky winner on April 8, 10 and 12. Visit the Kinder® Canada Facebook page to enter. Good luck!

"Once again, Kinder® has partnered with Children’s Miracle Network and will be providing 12 baskets to CMN hospitals. As well, Kinder® will be donating another $25,000 to help support this non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals across North America."

Did you have any Easter traditions growing up? Do you do anything with your own children?

Disclosure: I’m part of the Kinder® Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Lego Party!

2014-04-07T13:37:00.000-04:00

Our house has become a serious Lego centre. Having 4 boys who love to build things, it's a perfect activity for them. Keeps them busy, and is great for fine-motor skills and hand/eye coordination, not to mention creativity, spatial awareness and imaginative play.

I've been pinning Lego party ideas for a number of years, and our newest 7-year old said he'd love a Lego party. It was a great solution, since we couldn't really plan on being outdoors at this time of year. I didn't want to have much of a fuss (with the broken wrist and all), and these ideas seemed simple enough!

We first created a #7 to hang on the door. Then it fell and we had to re-make it. Several times. Then we hung it on the wall instead!

The cake for his actual birthday celebration was nice and easy - a Lego man face. I went really simple, and he loved it.

For the party, we did cupcakes with Lego candies from the Bulk Barn. I also bought some extra candies to put in their treat bags. I also found a great Spiderman MegaBlocks set at Dollarama for $3, which was perfect for their treat bag.

We moved our awesome Lego board into the living room so there was space for all 8 boys to work. We started with about a half an hour of free lego building time. Then we did a timed challenge to build the tallest tower that wouldn't fall down. It was harder than it sounds!!

The next game was using a straw to suck up Lego bricks one by one and put them into a bowl. This, too, was a challenge!

Next was a game of Pin the Mouth on the Lego Man. The boys really enjoyed this one!

The party finished with cupcakes and more Lego building time. There are so many great ideas out there for challenges, relay races, and more. It was a fun party for all, and wasn't too expensive (and I could manage most of it with a broken wrist...)

Have you done themed parties? Do you plan your own, or go somewhere?

Money-Saving Dishwasher Tip

2014-04-03T08:47:00.000-04:00

Just a quick tip this morning. We got a water softener a year ago or so, and they said that we should be able to cut back on the amount of dish detergent we use. But we use the Finish Tabs, so we can't really regulate the amount we use, so we've been using too much. I realized about 2 months ago that I could cut it in half and it would still work just as well on a light-to-regular load of dishes.

This only works with the solid powder tab, not the liquid ones. You need a cutting board and a sharp serrated knife. It takes a bit of practice to cut them in half properly without breaking them in pieces. I store them all in an airtight container and can easily grab them when I need them. But if it's an especially full load or dirty load, I would use a whole tab.

This way you can still have some flexibility in the amount you use. I've read in numerous places that you can use much less dish detergent and laundry detergent than is recommended, even if you don't have a water softener. Just experiment with what works best for you!

Found Online: The Best April Fool's Pranks 2014

2014-04-01T21:54:00.001-04:00

If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings. -Welsh Proverb

I spent a fair amount of time online today following the New and Ingenious products, news reports, and services that were unveiled on this auspicious day. I wanted to show some of my favourites with you, since some of them are really quite clever, and I'd hate for you to miss out on these fun things, it's rare for so many gems to pop up in one day, and for the big (and small!) players to all be in the same game!

PicMonkey: Yesterday's Future Today
PicMonkey, the photo-editing site that we use for our blog posts, will be using locally sourced, hand-crafted engineering methods for editing your pics!

2015 Honda Zamboni® Machine with I.C.E.
Honda's pretty excited about being the official vehicle of the NHL - now they've taken it to a whole new level!

Norwich City Football Club Moving to Hamilton, Ontario
It's handy that this Premier Football League team has the same team colours as the Ti-Cats - we can be a yellow & black city all summer long! Bonus: existing season ticket holders in the UK can fly into Hamilton International Airport to catch the games here in Canada.

WestJet Converts to Metric Time
Effective immediately, all schedules will now be displayed in milliminutes.

A Browser Just for Cats, by Opera
"So much of the stuff on the internet is based around cats, but there is no browser for cats to experience this. We realized we had to fix this...."

LinkedIn CYMK
Not to be left out of the Cat party, LinkedIn announced the launch of Cats You May Know. It's the beginning of feline world domination.

Hamilton City Council Approves Waterslide
A clever fellow from Hamilton that I follow on Twitter posted this first thing this morning. Simple, but well done. One of my faves.

City Council approves waterside from the top of the escarpment to downtown core to be built this summer. #LRT pic.twitter.com/MrXqnxNQlN #HamOnt
— Matt (@rorytate) April 1, 2014

New MOMA App: Iconic Designs Pregnancy Tracker
I love this one! I got sooo sick of hearing how my baby is the size of a grape or a banana or a pineapple - I think about food enough when I'm pregnant, people!

Text & Walk Lanes to be Added to Northeastern's Campus
In an effort to reduce injuries on campus, this university is instituting a lane for those texting while walking to and from classes.

Instagram for Your Windows
The British Government has a new Happy Homes initiative. “The Instawindow is designed to transform even the bleakest views of post-industrial wastelands into picture-postcard visions that you'll be dying to share with your friends.”

British National Trust Resets Stone Circle Twice a Year for Daylight Savings
You think that resetting all of the clocks in your house is a pain?

Googly Eyes Kitchen Bomb
Someday, I hope to be able to introduce you to my brother The Blogger, but alas, that day is not yet here. However, he did do an awesome thing for his kids today: He Googly-Eye Bombed his kitchen.

And last, but not least, my favourite: (I'm a choral geek)
King's College Choir Announces A Major Change

So? What about you? Did I miss your favourite? Link to it in the comments, I'd love to see it!

Pizza Roll Buns & Turbo FAST

2014-03-31T08:35:00.000-04:00

We have homemade pizza every single weekend that we are home. It's a fun meal to make, and everyone enjoys it - like a special treat. And because it is homemade, I make sure that the crust is whole wheat, and it's loaded with veggies, so it's not even unhealthy.

Today was going to be pizza, but I thought I'd try something different with the same ingredients. I've made pizza rolls before, where you roll the whole thing, then bake it and slice it after. This time, I thought I'd roll it like cinnamon buns, then slice, then bake!

I made the dough in my breadmaker, then rolled it out into two large rectangles. I put a small amount of sauce on - if there's too much liquid, it will leak out the bottom. When you serve it, you can add sauce on the side to dip

I chopped the ingredients a little finer than I normally would, so they could stay inside of the buns when I cut them. I did green pepper, onion, and pepperoni. Then I sprinkled it with grated cheese. Again, I used a little less cheese than normal, so there would still be some left to sprinkle on the sliced rolls.

I rolled it, and sealed it. I sliced it into about 1.5 inch pieces and placed them in a warm place to rise for an hour or so.

Then I baked them at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. We put some sauce on the side and served these delicious pizza roll buns!

We had some excitement here when, as part of the #StreamTeam, we got to pre-screen the new episodes of Turbo FAST on Netflix, which will air on April 4. And my brilliant sister/co-author realized that these would make great snails for our Turbo-themed Family Film Night. I just added a tomato for the head and a dot of mustard for the eye. So fun!

It was fun catching up again with those speedy snails and their adventures. They faced an imposter, some jail time, and a battle with spiders! It's one of those shows that keeps the kids' attention, and is still fun for adults. Check out the new episodes airing April 4.

Warden Rudy Guana proves a worthy competitor for Turbo and his stunt team in DreamWorks Animation's Turbo FAST only on Netflix

Win Tickets to See Maple Leaf #MonsterJam in #HamOnt

2014-03-28T15:14:00.000-04:00

Giveaway Time! One of our lucky readers will win 4 tickets to see Monster Jam at FirstOntario Centre (formerly known as Copps Coliseum) for the 2pm show on Sunday, April 6th, 2014.

I don't know a lot about Monster Trucks, but I'll take it at my 3 year old's word that Monster Trucks are So COOL! These 12' tall, 10,000 pound machines will have your heart racing and your feet stomping in this family-friendly spectacle!

Not to be sexist, but if I was you and I won the tickets, it'd be a perfect chance to send my husband and kids out of the house for a super fun and thrilling afternoon while I enjoyed....peace and quiet. :)
Discount Code:
If you don't win, or you want to get tickets for the family ahead of time, OR you want to go see the Saturday show instead of the Sunday show, Feld Entertainment has provided us with a special promotional code to share with you: MUM4 will get you $4 off per ticket, excluding front row tickets, Gold Circle tickets, TAP and VIP tickets. Click here to to purchase your tickets.

Who'll take the tickets in your house? Cheers, and good luck!

This is a quick giveaway - we'll be announcing the winner in the morning of Thursday, April 3rd, and because of the tight turnaround time, we'll need to hear back from you by 9pm on April 3rd, so be sure to check your emails that day! Contest open to Canadian residents, must be able to pick up tickets at box office before the show starts.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Why I Love My KitchenAid Stand Mixer #FavouritesFriday

2014-03-28T08:39:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd share another one of my favourite things with you. My sister/co-author of the blog got her KitchenAid about a year before me, and was very excited about it. I thought it was a really nice-looking appliance, but wasn't sure if I needed one.

My mom came across a second-hand one for me later on, so I figured I'd give it a try, and it is great. First of all, it really does look nice on your counter, and since I have lots of space in my new kitchen, it works well.

Also, it is really easy to use. The kids can turn it on for me, select the speed, and, of course, lick the beaters for me afterwards.

We love using it for bread dough. We have a bread maker, but sometimes it's nice to do the process a little more on our own, and this allows us to do that (still while avoiding having the mess of kneading by hand).

There is a dough hook, a paddle, and a wire whisk, so it's very versatile for all my baking needs.

It is also great for shredding chicken or meat. It's amazing to watch it take a chunk of meat and shred it perfectly, something that would have taken much longer to do by hand!

I like that because it's a stand mixer, you can just let it do the work while you get other ingredients or baking sheets ready.

And it is such a solid appliance. This kind of thing won't end up in the garbage in a year or two. It is going to last me a long time!

Apparently you can also get all kinds of attachments and accessories (like a pasta roller, or a meat grinder), so you can keep adding to it.

Here are a few things I've made in my mixer:

Cinnamon Rolls

Butter

Chewy Chocolate Squares

Do you have a KitchenAid? What do you make with it? Or do you have another appliance that you just love?

Note: I have not been compensated by KitchenAid. I wrote this post because I love the product and would like to share it with you!

Family Film Night with Netflix #StreamTeam

2014-03-25T08:23:00.002-04:00

We don't have cable. Or satellite. Crazy, right?! But I've never seen the benefit in paying $50+ dollars a month for something that we shouldn't be watching so much anyways (and even with those hundreds of channels, there's usually nothing good on!). So when Netflix started in Canada, we were so thrilled to be a part of it. $8 a month for movies, TV shows, and no commercials!

We have worked our way through some great classic shows like Mad About You, and some newer ones like Prison Break and 24. I have also enjoyed re-living my highschool days by watching the never-ending drama of Dawson's Creek.

And our favourite thing to do on Saturday evenings is make some homemade popcorn, and set our supper up in front of the TV for a Netflix Family Film Night.

In case you're not familiar with this ridiculously easy, healthy and cheap way to do microwave popcorn, here's the steps:

Open a paper bag and stand it up on the counter.
Pour 1/3 c of popcorn kernels into the bag
Fold the top of the bag over twice so the popcorn doesn't start jumping out
Place bag (standing up) in the microwave
Set the microwave for about 3 minutes. (Different microwaves have different strengths. I stopped at 2:30 and found that it wasn't quite long enough) but careful you don't burn your it! Open the door when there are only 1-2 pops a second.
Pour into a bowl, and sprinkle with your topping of choice - we love coconut oil and sea salt!

Because of their great selection of family movies, we don't necessarily have to watch something for kids-only. There are so many great movies that the whole family can enjoy.

For our most recent Film Night, we chose the movie The Croods, starring Nicholas Cage, set in caveman times. The kids found it quite funny, and we still quote that hilarious little pet "belt," saying Dun dun DAH!

There is some great new content in the works from DreamWorks & Netflix: King Julien, Puss in Boots, and Veggie Tales - the boys are thrilled about the upcoming programming!

We're also very excited about some new episodes from the first season of Turbo FAST, available on April 4.

I'm looking forward to the next season of House of Cards, and have also really enjoyed Downton Abbey. What have you been watching on Netflix?

Disclosure: I am a member of the Netflix Canada #StreamTeam and receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Spring Has Sprung! ...or at least, we can pretend that it has! Sears Portrait #Giveaway

2014-03-21T12:39:00.004-04:00

LONGEST WINTER EVER.

But. You know what's exciting? Today is the very first Friday of Spring. Yes, it's going to snow several more times before the beginning of May. We may even have another storm big enough to cancel school. But you know what? The days march forward. The calendar does not lie. We're headed in the direction of warm weather, sunshine, budding trees, chirping birds, mud puddles, and trips back to the abandoned play grounds.

And that is enough to make me happy right now. That, and looking at pictures of spring from years gone by. I can't believe how much my kiddos are growing from year to year - which reminds me that I need to start hitting up stores for spring & summer clothes for them. I've been doing my spring cleaning, and as I take out clothes that are too small, their drawers are getting more and more empty. Time to go shopping!

I like to dress my kids up. In this day and age where super cute clothes are so available and so very reasonably priced, there's just really no excuse!

Follow Jennifer VanOosten's board Spring & Summer Fashion for the Fam on Pinterest.
I'm loving that Dazzling Blue is a 'hot' colour this spring, because it's one that I've always liked and never stopped using - but it means that it's a lot more available in stores now! I will be honest, though - I care more about the prices of clothes than the colours and styles - and when you have a choice of several gorgeous Easter dresses at Sears for $14.99? Yes please! That's somewhere I'm going to shop! :) Sears Days are happening right now from March 20-April 6 - they have some incredible sales on right now (those Easter dresses for $14.99!!) - head online or in stores to check out their selection!

To celebrate Spring Fashions, Sears is giving away an amazing prize: A Photo Shoot & a Framed 20x20 or 10x30 Specialty Product! Enter here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
They'll be giving away 1 prize across the 20 #SearsMom Ambassador blogs, so enter now!

We had Hendrik's picture taken at the Sears Portrait Studio in Limeridge Mall for Christmas when he was 10 months old (the only time we've ever been organized enough to get Christmas Pictures taken!), and we were thrilled with the result. For a wiggly, grumpy baby, we ended up with a pretty fantastic photo:

So chin up. Spring will come sooner or later. Until then, start going through those drawers to pull out old, small clothes to make way for the new season.

Disclosure: I am part of the Sears Mom Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Why I LOVE Shutterfly - #FavouritesFriday

2014-03-19T14:52:00.000-04:00

I used to be a scrapbooker. Not a hardcore one. I'd buy dollar store items and cut & glue my stuff. It looked kind of nice, but would often fall apart. And it would take so long to get out all the supplies, not to mention getting the pictures printed and picked up.

Eventually I fell behind, and once you're behind in scrapbooking, it's so intimidating to catch up.

We needed a last minute gift for grandparents one Christmas, so I followed a link to Shutterfly.com - it was a very well-layed out site. In a matter of hours, I had 2 hardcover photo books prepared and on their way to our house. Ever since then, I've loved Shutterfly, and I'll tell you a few of the reasons why!

Easy to use! If you want, you can customize all your pages, or they can auto-fill them for you. I usually go with the auto-fill route, then do a little editing after.
No Clutter! I donated my closet full of supplies to the second hand store. Now I have extra space!
Durable! These are much more solid than my giant scrapbooks. The kids love picking these up and reading them over and over again.
Easily replaced! Even if my kids did ruin these, I can re-order them. Or (and I love this idea) if unfortunately my house were to burn down and I lost all my pictures, I could re-order all my photo books! They're all saved on my account!
Great deals! They are very reasonably priced, and almost always have a sale on (40-50% off). Once a year, usually in the spring, they offer you a free 8 x 8 book (pay taxes, S & H, and I usually pay a couple of dollars for extra pages). Free! I usually wait till the spring to do the previous year (so this week I'll be working on 2013). The free offer is usually good for about a week or so, so that gives me a deadline to get my book done - and I work best under pressure.

Look at all these books I've made over the years. All the same size. Great quality, gorgeous pictures. I love them!!!

I also have the kids trace their hands on the inside of the book and write their name every year. (One year I thought I'd try paint - not a good idea!!).

The best part is that I just got my email today from Shutterfly, announcing their free book! Head over to www.shutterfly.com and create your account. The promo code is STORYTIME and is good for an 8x8 hardcover, and expires on Tuesday. That's why I'm sharing my #FavouritesFriday a few days early. You have to check it out!

Note: I have not been compensated by Shutterfly. I love their product and just wanted to share it with you!

I'm a Pioneer! Or, How I Made Butter for the 1st Time in my KitchenAid

2014-03-19T09:38:00.000-04:00

I've been curious about making my own butter now for a little while. Since I received my beautiful KitchenAid Stand Mixer for Christmas 3 years ago, to be exact. However, it seems to be getting harder and harder to find butter for sale in stores for under $3.00, and we use a fair amount of it. I grew up using margarine for everything, but my husband loves butter and, in the past 8 years, I'm afraid I've become a bit of a butter snob.

Just Plain Old Whipping Cream in the Mixer

I had heard that it's actually cheaper to make your own butter than buy it, so when I found heavy cream on sale at Shopper's Drug Mart yesterday for $0.80/250mL, I thought that I should give it a go.

Watch out - now's the time to cover the mixer!

I read a few articles and blogs online about the process, and they all seemed to say more or less the same things - except that most of the blogs didn't put as much of an emphasis on cleaning the butter as best as you can before storing it in the fridge. This is important, because the more 'buttermilk' that's left in/on your butter at the end, the faster it will spoil & smell like expired milk, even in the fridge.

Skip this step & your kitchen will be MESSY!

<anecdote>Bear with me for a funny story: My mom grew up on a farm in the '50s & '60s, and as the youngest child, she and her closest-in-age brothers would be in charge of shaking the fresh cream into butter. My grandma would pour it into mason jars & seal the jars, then my mom and my uncles would go to work shaking, shaking, shaking until the butter separated from the whey/buttermilk, at which point they'd turn the jars over to my grandma. One of my uncles decided that there was a machine that existed which could do the job a lot better & faster than they could, so he proceeded to convince the others to pour the cream into the washing maching. You can guess how well that turned out for everyone and everything involved. They did not make a habit of doing that again. </anecdote>

Finally: the separation happens.

The process of making butter today (if you have a stand mixer) is simple, easy, & doesn't require an ounce of exertion. Follow these steps, and you'll be a pro with homemade butter in less than twenty minutes! As a note, you can use however much heavy cream you'd like, but you should end up with equal parts butter & buttermilk when you're done. I used 500mL cream and ended up with 250mL buttermilk at the end.

Fresh Butter + Buttermilk

Pour cream into a chilled mixing bowl.
With whisk attachment, mix on med-high speed. It'll take about 8 minutes to get to the next step.
When cream becomes thick/buttery, cover your mixer. It's about to get messy.
Keep it mixing. When you start to hear sloshing & splashing, you're almost there. Let mix for another 2 minutes.
Uncover mixer, put colander/strainer over another bowl, and drain the liquid (buttermilk) into other container. Return butter to mixing bowl, mix on high for another 2 minutes. You want to remove as much of the buttermilk as possible. This step is to help force the excess liquid out of the butter.
Strain again. Return butter to mixing bowl, add salt (I added 3/4 tsp for 500mL cream). Mix again for 2 minutes. Strain over sink. If your'e going to use the buttermilk for baking, you don't want to have the now-salted buttermilk added to your stash.

Continue Rinsing Until Water Remains Clear
Rinse out mixing bowl with ice cold water, fill with ice cold water, & kneed the butter in water for several minutes, squeezing to let out trapped buttermilk.
Dump water, rinse butter, repeat kneading process in fresh ice cold water.
Repeat step 8. This is to remove as much of the buttermilk as possible from the butter.
When water is finally clear/not cloudy, shake off excess water, shape, & wrap to store in fridge. Handle as little as possible with your hands, as you don't want the butter to melt while you're shaping it.
Refrigerate buttermilk for use in a baking recipe.

Ten steps may seem like a lot, but it really is a quick venture. The longest part about it is waiting for the whipped cream to turn into butter. I advocate walking away for a few minutes. You know how they say a watched pot never boils? As soon as I walked away from the bowl to check Twitter, my butter & buttermilk separated.

As for cost: Is it really cheaper?

I got the cream on quite a good sale. 500mL for $1.60. I ended up with 190g of butter.

A block of butter in the store comes is 454g. Gay LeaButter is on sale at Sobeys this week for $2.95.

If I were to buy 190g of butter from Sobeys at sale price, it would cost me $1.25.

Regular price for this butter at Sobeys is $5.79 - so if I bought 190g of butter at that price, it would cost me $2.36.

If you can find butter on sale for under $3, it's probably cheaper to buy it. However, if butter is not on sale but cream is, it's cheaper to make your own butter. Plus, you get the by-product of buttermilk, which is useful in baking and saves you from buying some or using the milk in your fridge.

Lego Marble Maze

2014-03-18T08:46:00.000-04:00

Our kids have really been into Perplexus these days. It's a big 3-D marble maze in a ball, which is really clever and challenging.

So we thought about making our own marble maze. My 5-year old took to it right away. He worked for about a half an hour, perfecting his maze, trying different paths and combinations. He tried with a few kinds of marbles and found that the heavier ones worked best.

Then he gave it to his brothers to challenge them! It was a great activity, and I'm sure we'll be doing this again!

You could do this for a party activity, or just some rainy day fun! You could also try spelling a word on the maze (we think we almost see the word Lego on his maze).

For more Lego fun, check out:

Lego Challenges

Lego Storage

Lego Creation Preserving

#MeatlessMonday: GF Basil Asparagus Pancakes with Egg

2014-03-17T11:56:00.000-04:00

Good afternoon & Happy Meatless Monday! This week, I made my Meatless Monday meal on Sunday, but it'll taste just as good on a Monday - I promise you!

I made these with El Peto Gluten Free Flour, so if you want to make these with white or whole wheat AP flour, reduce the water by at least 1/2 to start with, and see how the consistency is before adding more.

These delightfully green pancakes are a perfect thing to put on the table for a St Patrick's Day supper tonight - but would be tasty any day of the year! Bonus: my (picky eating) kids love pancakes and hate veggies. These pancakes went down without a fight, and I even heard a "Thank you mommy for making delicious pancakes!"

This recipe would really work well with most vegetables that you find on your shelf or in your fridge, as long as they're blanched or steamed. I'm thinking...broccoli, spinach, carrots, beets... Oooh, just think of the colourful pancakes you could make!!

{GF} Asparagus & Basil Pancakes
Adapted from spabettie
Ingredients:

~ 2 cups asparagus, roughly chopped & blanched
2 eggs (plus 1 more for each person to serve on top of pancakes)
2 tsp basil paste or minced basil
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 cup GF flour (I used El Peto AP) or regular flour
1 tsp minced garlic
~ 2 cups water (start with 1, add more as necessary to get a thinner 'pancake' batter consistency

Method:

Heat skillet on med-low heat on stove - I use a cast iron skillet, so it takes a while to heat thoroughly on an electric stove. Grease well.
Place asparagus, eggs, & basil in food processor & pulse until asparagus is completely blended.
Add salt, flour, & garlic. Process until combined thoroughly.
Add water slowly & combine. Stop to check consistency before adding all of the water.
Cook pancakes on low heat (to maintain green colour; the hotter your pan, the more brown you'll see on the pancakes) for 3-4 minutes. Flip carefully & cook another 2-3 minutes. Because of the type of GF flour I use, my batter ended up like a thick mousse - I had to spread it around in the pan to get a thin circle. Fyi.
Cook egg in greased or non-stick frying pan with about 1/4 cup water added, cover with a lid. Cook for about 2 minutes on high heat for a runny yolk. Place cooked egg on top of a stack of pancakes, top with Parmesan cheese (or, as my son likes to call it, "Farmers On Cheese").

If you're skilled at making Hollandaise sauce, it would make a nice addition to the dish. However, because I served my eggs with the runny yolks, it tasted just fine without it (though my Dear Husband did mention that it would have been super amazing if I did serve it with Hollandaise. But then again, his fave food in the whole world is Eggs Benedict, so he thinks that everything should be served with Hollandaise).

Soft Pretzels

2014-03-17T08:29:00.001-04:00

(MR) So as you may have noticed, I've been out of comission lately, with a badly broken wrist (of course, my right hand!).

My broken wrist and my son's 3 teeth that got knocked out

But I figured that I have to do something - I'm getting pretty bored these days. So I thought we'd try some soft pretzels. I was inspred by the successful attempt and pictures of a Facebook friend. And if I can't do it entirely by myself, I have four eager helpers here too!

My friend had used Martha Stewart's recipe with success, so I headed over there.

It is a fairly simple recipe. And since I can't just leave a recipe the way it is, I substituted half whole wheat flour for the white. Oterwise, I followed the recipe exactly. (After having tried them, I think that it was a bit too much whole wheat. I'd do a quarter of it next time)

I had help shaping these - almost like play-dough! They were delicious fresh from the oven, and tasted great with soup the next day.

Good luck with the recipe! And here's hoping that my one-handed typing didn't lead to any typos (even though it took me forever to do!)

#FavouritesFriday: How to be a Clearance Shopper at @TargetCanada

2014-03-14T17:29:00.000-04:00

I fully admit it: I'm a Target Addict.

At first glance, there's not a lot that sets them apart from their forerunner (Zellers). It's a brightly lit store, the brand colours are pretty much the same, and there usually aren't a lot of shoppers around. However. There are marked differences: there are (helpful) staff everywhere; the merchandise is bright, stylish, and well priced, and they price match! The biggest thing that has me coming in their doors, week after week, is their clearance. I found some gorgeous placemats on clearance in the fall for $0.80/each, but they only had 5 in stock - I wanted 8 or 9. A very helpful staff member got on the phone and called all of the other Target stores in the area for me to check to see if they had any left! For an $0.80 product! Now that's service.

Target knows how to clear products off of their shelves.

It's almost as if they actually want to get rid of end of season items. Imagine that! My most recent great purchase was Hendrik's Little Tykes Scooter: normally selling for over $40 at Target, I first saw them on clearance for $29.99. Then $19.99. When I saw them for $11.99, I couldn't pass them up. There were two on the shelf, so I bought them both. I didn't need both. I just couldn't pass that deal up. ;) I've since given one to a friend for her son's birthday.

In September as they were clearing the summer merchandise, I was at the store almost every other day, because they kept putting new stuff on clearance all the time! I bought Puddle Jumpers for $7.99/each! Giant beach balls, water guns for in the pool, water guns for out of the pool, funky sprinklers to run around in.

This inflatable pool/activity centre sells for $50 on Amazon.com - I picked it up for $11.99. Boy, was it hard on Hendrik to put it away in storage until the summer time!!

Swim suits for $3/each, t-shirts for $1.80, backpacks for $4.99!

I covered the next two years of Christmas Pajamas by getting them for $5/set.

I've picked up my Christmas & Valentine's cookie decorating supplies for practically nothing. Wrapping paper was selling for $0.50-$2 a roll at the end of the season, and we picked up gift bags for $0.25/each!

On top of all of this, they have the REDCard, which allows you to save an extra 5% off of all purchases - even clearance! Now, I'm no dummy. I know that they're still coming out ahead, because I really hate the process of taking my kids out of the carseats and putting them back in, so I try to go to as few stores as possible. This means that when we run to Target, we pick up our milk, our eggs, our cheese, bacon, cereal, whatever we need that they sell. And it's true - we don't need everything that I buy there - but I have a 'present box' under my bed, and when I see fun toys for cheap, they go into that box. When we go to a birthday party, I check there first to see if there's something that the birthday child might like to have.

Bottom line is, if you're willing to put things away to store for the winter / summer / a year or two, clearance shopping at Target is one heck of a way to save money. :)

Here's a couple tips for successful Target Clearance Shopping:

Target 'hides' clearance all over the store - so if you don't want to miss any of the clearance sections, you need to walk down the insides of the aisles - where the ends of the aisles meet a wall - they have clearance sections on the end of about every 3rd or fourth aisle.
Know where the seasonal items are being kept, and visit those sections regularly as the season starts to wind down and change - they'll mark prices down, and then down again, until they sell.
Shop often. Sometimes the clearance in a section will come and go in less than a week. Target is one of my fave places to go for a wander in the extreme cold temps that we've been having this winter, so I don't mind frequenting the place. :)
Keep a keen eye on the prices on screen when checking out - I love Target, but I've had to go to customer service way too many times to ask for a refund on overcharged clearance items.
Think twice, and then think again, about whether you need or will ever use the super good deals that you're about to buy. It's not a good deal if it just gathers dust!
Different Target locations are better/worse for clearance. In Hamilton, the Upper James location is the best for clearance - the prices are marked down more frequently & there just seems to be more clearance items in the store. Scout around the different Targets in your area, if you have more than one, for the best one.

Marya and I would like to share our love of Target Canada with you - so from now until next week Thursday (March 20) night at 11:59pm EST, you can enter in the Rafflecopter below to win a $25 Gift Card for Target Canada.

By the way, this post is in no way sponsored by Target. We are not affiliated with them in any manner, nor are we taking part in any social media campaigns for Target Canada. We just really love shopping there.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Garden Theme Birthday Party Ideas

2014-03-13T10:45:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned the other day, I did a Gardening theme for Hendrik's 3rd birthday party. I had originally walked around Dollarama with a shopping cart full of Cars party stuff, but I didn't really know what Cars-themed activities I could have the kids do. I walked past some clay flower pots and thought, Yes! That's what we'll do for the party! And thus, the Gardening Party was born.

Invitations - I just invited everyone via facebook, and used PicMonkey to make some collages.

The cake was pretty easy - I searched vegetable garden cakes on Pinterest and came up with this cake (head over here for deets on how to create this yourself). I served it with home-made Fudge Cheesecake Ice Cream, just a modification of this delicious (and VERY EASY) Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, a scoop of 'dirt' (oreo cookie crumbs), and gummy worms.

The first activity, which inspired the party theme, was also easy. I picked up a clay pot for each of the kids 2 years and up. I grabbed a brightly coloured plastic table cloth for $1 and taped it down to the table. I set 1 pot out for each child, took out the paint brushes, doused some Styrofoam trays with paint, and let the kids get to it (after I robed each of them in a paint shirt, of course!).

We found out that the younger ones don't really 'get' the concept of painting the outside of the flower pot, not the inside of the flower pot, so an easy solution to that problem was just turning the pots upside down for those kiddos. Remember to write the child's name on the inside of the pot before you move it. I moved them to the newspaper lined counter, threw the table cloth in the garbage, and that activity was cleaned up!

The second activity that we did was "Pin the Bee on the Flower". I just took a sheet of the brown paper that Dollarama had wrapped my flower pots in, cut out a very rough flower, stem, & leaf, and glued them down.

For the Bees, I took out my 1" circle punch from Micheal's (I highly recommend having circle punches around for child-crafting stuff - they save so much time & trouble!) and punched a bunch of yellow circles. With my trusty jumbo Sharpie, I drew three curved stripes on each circle, then gave each an eye. I punched as many black or grey circles as I had yellow, cut them in half, and glued them at the top of the stripes to make wings.

Earlier in the week, I picked up a few packs of pre-cut letters on clearance at Target and I used those to letter the game. So easy. I pinned the game up at a child-friendly height, placed a bit of rolled up tape on the back of each bee, and stuck them to the wall above the chart.

It was the first time each of the five kids at the party had played a 'pin the ____ on the ____' game, and they all loved it. I used a sleep mask to put over their eyes, gave them the bee, then spun them around in circles and helped guide them to the wall - we had a few pieces of furniture they could have walked into. I didn't hand out prizes because the kids were having a great time just playing the game.

Supper consisted of Hot Dogs & french fries for the kids and Sausages for the adults. That was it. No mess, no fuss.

For the Goody Bags, I wanted to give the kids things to do rather than just to eat or play with & break. From Dollarama, I grabbed potting soil, some seed packets for flowers & veggies, child-sized gardening gloves, and a 'carrot' filled with orange Reece's Pieces (you could also create the same effect by filling the corner of a large clear cellophane bag with fish crackers, but this was easy & cheap, anyways...). From Target, I picked up some shovels, spades, & rakes (only 1 of the three per child). And, since I'm a #KinderMom and get to spread the Kinder Egg Love around, I threw one of those in for each kid.

And that was it! It was an easy and fun afternoon, though a little chaotic with 14 adults, 5 'big' kids, 3 toddlers, and 2 infants in the house. As much as we could pretend that it was spring during the gardening party, it was simply too cold to spill the party out the front door and onto the porch & yard!

GF Churros with GF Bisquick #LMDConnector

2014-03-12T12:51:00.000-04:00

10 years ago this semester, I was studying in Oxford, England, on an exchange program. 10 years ago this week, I was on 'reading' break in Alicante, Spain. It was wonderful and amazing. We did a great many things there, like climb palm trees and walk along the Costa Blanca for 6 hours, but one of my favourite things that we did was go out for Churros & Drinking Chocolate. Drinking Chocolate is not hot chocolate - it's real chocolate, melted, and thinned slightly so that it's liquid enough to drink. And you dip the warm, crisp, deep fried churros into the drinking chocolate.

Hush. Climbing palm trees is hard work.

I haven't had churros since that day, but this morning I came across a quick & easy recipe for churros made with Bisquick mix! I happened to have the last half of a box of GF Bisquick in the cupboard from our trip to the Finger Lakes in August, so I thought I might as well give it a go and see if the Gluten Free mix works with this recipe! I understand that Gluten Free Bisquick is now available in Canada as well (hip-hip, hooray!), but I haven't seen it appear on the shelves of my grocery store, yet.

I don't normally deep fry things - in fact, this is the first time that I did it on the stove at all (I could hear my mom's voice of concern in my head about oil on the stove the whole time!) - but there's something about a blizzard on the 12th of March after 2 days of 10C weather that just begs for comfort food. So here we go.

Gluten Free Churros with Drinking Chocolate
Adapted from Betty Crocker
Ingredients:

Oil for frying (I use peanut or sunflower oil)
2 oz of semi-sweet chocolate
3/4 cup cream
1 1/4 cup GF Bisquick Mix
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup hot water
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Method:

Heat ~2" of oil in pot until it reaches 375F.
Mix together 2 Tbsp sugar & 1 tsp cinnamon; set aside.
On a double broiler (I use a steel bowl on top of a pot that has 2" water on the bottom), melt chocolate & cream together. Whisk until lumps are gone, and keep warm until churros are ready.
Combine Bisquick mix, remaining sugar, & hot water. Mix until soft dough forms.
Fit a pastry bag with 1/4" star tip & scoop dough into bag with a spoon.
Pipe 5" strips of dough into the oil, cutting end of strip at star tip with kitchen scissor. Cook about 2 minutes, turning over frequently, and remove when light golden brown. Drain on paper towel, then coat immediately with cinnamon & sugar mixture. Repeat process until remaining dough is finished.
Pour drinking chocolate into espresso cups or shot glasses; serve with warm churros.

Looking for other delicious recipes to use your Bisquick mix with? Hop on over to Life Made Delicious: They have some AMAZING and super simple recipes to use it in!

Disclosure: I am a part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger Program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Garden Theme Birthday Cake

2014-03-11T09:26:00.000-04:00

This year, we were flying back from Florida on Hendrik's birthday - so his party got delayed a few weeks. A February party turned into a March party and, since Hendrik is so excited to plant the garden with me in the spring, I settled on a gardening party (not to be confused with a garden party!).

I took my pinspiration from Amy over at Mason Moments, but did the veggies my own way - I didn't have time to be so fidgety with two little ones running around! This cake is incredibly easy for those of us not skilled at fancy cake decorating with icing, fondant, and the like. It takes a wee bit of time (the longest task is pressing all the pretzels into the icing, and that is certainly not a skilled task!!), but not a lot of effort - and, if I do say so myself, the end result is pretty darn impressive!

What You Need
I used the Gluten Free Chocolate Cake recipe from our blog over here, though you could use a boxed cake mix or any other scratch cake. I baked 2/3 of the batter in a 9x13, then the rest in a round cake pan, since we had 16+ people to serve and I wanted to ensure that we had enough cake to go around. You don't need to use chocolate cake, but I think that it helps contribute to the whole dirt thing. :)

Chocolate frosting: you want to have enough to cover the cake with a luxurious amount of icing - you're going to be using the icing on the sides of the cake to hold up the pretzel sticks, and you'll be pushing the candies into the icing on top.

Oreo Cookie Crumbs for the soil on the top of the cake (I used about 1/2 cup)

Candy for the vegetables - I paid a quick visit to the Bulk Barn for this and scoured out candies that could represent veggies. Gourmet orange jelly beans became the carrots, green jelly beans became the zucchini, light green jelly beans became peppers, Swedish Berries became red peppers, and strawberry Runts became strawberry plants and lime Runts became lettuce. I used pretzel sticks for the trellis for the peas (which I just used icing for)

Toothpicks, dyed green with food colouring for holding the red & green 'peppers'

Pretzel Sticks for the picket fence around the garden (and for the pea trellis)

KitKat bars for edging the strawberry & zucchini gardens

Very green icing in a piping bag (I used a disposable plastic one with no tip, just a very tiny hole cut in the end) for adding greenery to your garden and fence.

What You Need to Do
1. Bake your cake in a rectangular pan.
2. Turn cooled cake onto flat surface for decorating (I bought a cake board for $3 at the Bulk Barn)
3. Ice cake with generous amounts of chocolate frosting.
4. Cover top of cake with Oreo crumbs.
5. Line edges with Pretzel sticks (I left opening at front of garden).
6. Lay out your candy vegetables.
7. Add greenery to veg with your green icing in piping bag.
8. Add greenery to the fence here and there. Make sure that your piping bag only has a very tiny hole in it, the icing will curl and loop more as you squeeze it out and look more vine-ish.
9. Add sign for garden, if desired.
10. Show off to your friends and social networks, bask in the much-deserved compliments.

For a very easy extra 'garden' cake, I iced the round cake with the leftover green icing, decorated the sides with gummy butterflies, and stuck a bunch of fake flowers into the top.

Sew Your Own Cash Wallet (For Cash Envelope Budgeting)

2014-03-06T14:24:00.001-05:00

Today, the beautiful Marnie (Queen of the Marniverse) graciously agreed to share her latest project with us - a cash walled for the Envelope System of budgeting! I saw this in person, and it's an amazing project!

I am super excited to have the opportunity to guest post on You Pinspire Me.

I am even more excited because of what I have to share with you.

My New Year’s resolution was to start living on a cash-only budget. Easier said than done. Especially in the digital world, where it is so easy to just swipe a card to pay for everything.

Certain monthly expenses (like rent, insurance, student loan payments) are still automatically paid out of my bank account each month, but my other expenses (i.e. groceries, gas, entertainment, etc) are only paid with cash. However, I wasn’t overly fond of the idea of carrying around paper envelopes in my purse for each of my budget categories. Paper is so flimsy, and I figured that with wear & tear they wouldn't last long. Also, because we carry so much change here in Canada ($1 & $2 coins) I wanted durable pockets that I could close to keep the coins securely in place.

I spent some time shopping for a wallet that would suit my needs, but couldn't find anything I really liked. I decided that the only way to get everything I wanted would be to make my own wallet.

I browsed around Pinterest a bit, and found a wallet on imperfecthomemaking.com that had all of the elements I was looking for: zippered envelopes, lots of slots for cards, and pockets to slip a notebook & my cheque book in. If you want a little variety, you may also find the tutorial for a cash wallet on larkandlola.com helpful.

Here’s what you need to get started: fabric (I used cotton, but if you want something a little sturdier, you could also use laminated cotton or vinyl), zippers, thread, elastic, a button and a sewing machine. If you have a supply of fabric scraps, this is the perfect project on which to use them up. However, if you aren’t an avid sewer you can buy a bundle of coordinating fabric at your local craft or department store, which is what I chose to do for this project.

I’m not going to reiterate the step-by-step instructions in this post. If you want to make your own wallet, you can follow the instructions on this blog. For the wallet I was making, I opted to double the amount of slots for cards, creating space for them at both the back and front. Also, because I was just using plain cotton, I inserted two pieces of thin cardboard before stitching up the outer shell to give it more structure. Here's a look at all the fabric pieces cut out:

The skill level required to make this wallet is moderate. Its mostly a matter of sewing up a lot of seams, and then sewing the individual parts together. There are a few spots where the layers of fabric get a bit thick, but really the most intimidating part was the zippers. I’ve never sewn zippers before. However, following the instructions given, I found it was really quite simple!

I am soooo happy with the finished project:

outside view

inside view

side view

cash 'envelopes' sewn onto the wallet base

hidden pocket :)

labels

The reaction to this wallet has been amazing. Almost everyone I have shown it to has been astounded that I made it. :) I definitely recommend making one of your own.

Library Book Tip

2014-03-05T13:09:00.000-05:00

We've been using our public library for years, and we love the selection they have, and their printout they provide of all the books we have out.

But recently, our older two have also started bringing home 3 books a week from their school library, and they tend to be smaller in size (paperback novels) with no printout. We end up scrambling the night before, trying to remember which books, and what they look like.

I had a brainstorm a week or two ago. As soon as the books come out of the schoolbag, grab the camera (or phone) and snap a quick picture of it.

Now when it's time to get the books ready, go back to the camera/phone, and see exactly which books they're looking for (and what they look like), and they can go find the books! Then delete the picture.

Easy!

Easy Spring Craft: Forsythia Branch

2014-03-04T14:41:00.000-05:00

While looking for a photo of my son from last spring, I bumped into this shot that I took of my Forsythia bush while sitting on the front porch swing with the kids last spring.

My heart ached a little. I love winter. I really mean that. I love it! I love the snow, I love playing in the snow, and I love being warm and cozy inside. I love winter meals and winter desserts. I love not sweating when I make supper. However. It's been really cold for a really long time this winter, too cold to take the little ones out to play too much because there's been an almost constant wind chill warning of -25 degrees. That's frostbite territory. So, we get all bundled up, go outside for 10 minutes, and then head back inside. I long for the smell of wet, thawing earth, for the sounds of water dripping and running through the neighbourhood, for the sights of new life bursting from trees, bushes, lawns, gardens.

So this morning, we decided to make spring come a little early in our house with this easy Forsythia craft.
What you need: Heavy stock white paper (like scrapbook paper), small branches or twigs, squares of yellow tissue paper, glue

I went outside and snapped a very dead branch off of our unhealthy Maple tree in the back yard, and took out some unused but not forgotten white scrapbooking paper. (C'mmon, you know you've got some in that drawer of scrapbooking stuff that you'll likely never use again for its intended purpose. Pull it out for this craft.) Scrapbooking paper works well for this, because it's a little heavier than regular paper, and once you cut it in half, you've got a nice tall, narrow paper.

I snapped some smaller branches off of the main branch, and glued them down. If you've got older kids making this craft, you can let them arrange and glue the branches. I did this craft with a 2 & 3 year old, so I took on that part. You can either wait for the glue to dry, or get out your hairdryer and help the process along - you want the glue to be pretty dry before you start the craft, because the branch will come loose from wet glue pretty easily.

If you're doing this craft with really young ones, you can do what I did - which was to put drops of glue alongside the branch, then your child can crumple a square of yellow tissue, and place it in the glue. If you have older kids doing the craft, you can put some glue in a dish and the kids can dip the crumpled tissue paper into the glue and then place it along side the branch.

That's pretty much all there is to it! Hang it on the wall, and enjoy the bright colours and reminder that spring is on it's way!

GF {& Paleo} Snickerdoodles #LMDConnector

2014-02-28T23:36:00.000-05:00

I seem to be fairly alone in this opinion, but I've never been impressed by Snickerdoodles. The first time I heard that someone made Snickerdoodles for a cookie exchange, I was really excited. I was conjuring up images of melted chocolate, gooey caramel, crunchy peanuts. What I actually ate was a fairly plain flour cookie with cinnamon seasoning on top. Huh. Not bad, but they don't scream Eat Me, I'm a soft, gooey cookie! My son, on the other hand, loves them - not surprisingly, since they're loaded with white flour, which he doesn't often eat.

So many wheat flour recipe favourites just do not translate into the GF world, but when I saw this recipe for Paleo Snickerdoodles the other day, I thought - hold on a second: Snickerdoodles aren't chewy; they don't need to rise or spread. This is a totally plausible wheat-to-gluten-free recipe!

I made a few adjustments (quelle surprise!) to the recipe, but Hendrik and I whipped them up together in 5 minutes, baked them for 8, then let cool for 10. Huge hit. I actually really enjoyed them, because they tasted like the real deal and I wasn't eating wheat - score! Practically guilt-free snacking. ;)

This recipe has the ability to easily be Paleo - the original recipe was, but I can't seem to find my new jar of coconut oil anywhere in the house (grr), I'm plumb out of palm sugar, and I wanted to jazz the cookies up with just a little something extra (hence the Skor bits!), so my recipe is GF but not Paleo. Make the subs as necessary to suit your diet & preferences.

GF Snickerdoodles (Adapted from The Urban Poser)
Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp Skor bits
1/4 cup + 1Tbsp canola oil or coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla

Coating

2 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix together oil, honey, & vanilla, then add it to the dry ingredients & combine thoroughly.
Mix sugar & cinnamon together.
Roll dough into 2" balls and roll in cinnamon & sugar mixture.
Place on parchment sheet & flatten with a flat bottomed glass.
Bake for 8 minutes. Cookies will be soft when they come out, but will be perfection after cooling on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes.

For more super delicious recipes and dinner ideas, head on over to Life Made Delicious: They have some fantastic Gluten Free recipes! Also, have you heard that GF Bisquick is now available in Canada? How awesome is that!

Disclosure: I am a part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger Program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Pinspiration MIA

2014-02-27T21:52:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed a distinct absence of posting on our blog last week. If you follow us on Facebook, you will have seen that my sister, Marya, pretty much shattered her wrist while skating with her kids. Such a simple & straightforward activity. A mis-step to avoid a collision with her son on the ice, and bam. There goes the next 8 weeks. It's her right arm, and since she's right-handed, it's having a severe impact on her day to day life and productivity (have you tried typing one-handed with your non-dominant hand? Yeah. That'd be why she hasn't been posting). She's also not allowed to drive.

Marya's still awaiting word on whether or not she'll be needing surgery, but when she asked the Dr how bad the break was, he responded, "pretty bad." When pushed on it, he changed that to "really bad." She bypassed a 6 hour wait in the E.R. Ouch. So, if any of our readers out there have some tips for surviving parenting life with young kids when your dominant hand is out of commission, I'm sure that she'd love to hear them!

And if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I was in the Sunny South while Marya was hopped up on pain meds and getting her bones reset.

Yes. This is #vacation. And yes, that is my husband in the pool with all the old folks. @thebvo pic.twitter.com/Fab07uIBmM
— Jenn Pinspired (@YouPinspireMe) February 18, 2014

Oma (my husband's mom) graciously took the kids for a week while we jet-setted away to a friend's condo in Fort Myers, Florida, where we met up with my husband's sister and her husband who flew in from Abbotsford, BC. When we arrived, it was a pleasant 10 deg C, but slightly chilly for a t-shirt and I was afraid that I didn't pack enough 'cool' weather clothing (I use that term loosely, since we were escaping -20C weather). However, every day in Paradise was warmer and more humid than the last, such that when we arrived back at the airport at the end of the week it was 98% hum and 25C at 6am.

When I was packing up to go on the trip, I really didn't want to bring my digicam along. I like it, and it's pretty, but common, people, this is 2014: Any device that only does ONE THING is a device that's taking up room in my bags. But, I'll be honest: I wasn't excited about using my iPhone 4S for pics, either - because while they're not bad photos, they're not great. And so, the lovely Elise from Rogers came to my rescue and shipped me a Nokia Lumia 1020 to use for the trip. I don't know if you've seen one of these, but they're kinda big and mostly awesome, with 41 megapixels. Did you catch that, or should I say it again? FORTY-ONE MEGAPIXELS. It's a camera that also happens to be a smart phone.

I did take my iPhone along, but kept it at the condo in order to iMessage and facetime with Oma and the kids in the evenings.

Fort Myers is pretty much a fantastic place to be in February. The weather is fantastic. The people are pleasant if not down-right friendly. The shopping is great (2 outlet malls!). The weather is fantastic. The tourist opportunities are abounding if you like driving along the sunny golf coast. The boating is fabulous. The weather is fantastic. The food is delicious. I should also mention that the weather is fantastic.

We kept tabs on the Olympics, of course, while we were there, and watched the Men's & Women's Curling and Hockey Teams win gold. #WeAreWinter! #EvenWhenWeAreDownSouth

Mostly, we enjoyed the sun, the water, and living on a child-free schedule for a brief moment. Our friends generously allowed us to use their Ft Myers vehicle whilst we were there, so Brian and I went on road trips to Estero Island (next time, avoid that place like the plague on President's Day. Whoops.) and Sanibel Island, and we also rented a boat for a couple days. Since we did this trip on a shoestring budget, neither of us had phone or data plans, but here's another win for the Lumia 1020: You can download maps onto the phone and then use it as a GPS with no data plan! This was a huge boon for us both on the roads and in the water (we had a 40 minute cruise through the bayou before we reached the Ocean, and when we were heading back inland, we definitely made use of the arial maps on the GPS more than once).

I stalked wildlife quite a bit on our trip, and was impressed more than once on the quality of picture that I ended up with when both the wildlife and I were moving at the time of the click! The pictures are crisp and clean and the colours are vibrant and clear. The Lumia 1020 also has a photo burst mode that's pretty fun to play with, and also a great way to catch a surfacing dolphin!

I need to mention one thing about the burst mode of the camera: you can do all sorts of cool effects and edit the pics on the camera itself, but if you want to find a specific picture of the 9 that were taken, there's a bit of a trick. Once you've downloaded your photos to your computer, you'll end up with some files that are .nar - this is where your burst pics are hiding. Change the extension from .nar to .zip, then click on the folder and extract all pics. This will give you access to all of the photos in that burst that you took.

Well, vacation is over, and we're back in the land of the Polar Vortex. Actually, no. We're back to our Very Canadian Winter. The high for today was -12C. Is it too much to ask for a week of weather warmer than -5?

This is not a sponsored post. Rogers very kindly lent me the Nokia Lumia 1020 for use on my vacation, and I'm so pleased to have had it. These opinions are soley mine. I have a bit of a hard time with the Windows operating system on the phone, and some of the apps are a little quirky and not as good as on other smart phones, but that's why I'd call this an amazing Camera first, that also happens to be a smart phone. I'd gladly use it for my day-to-day use, if it meant having that camera on me to capture all of the little moments in our family life in 41 megapixels!

A Month of Less: Organizing Paperwork

2014-02-17T08:16:00.000-05:00

Am I the only one who struggles to deal with the important papers that seem to arrive daily? And now that our boys are at school, there are so many more! I'm always surprised at tax time that I've actually found most of our forms, though it takes a lot of searching.

A lot of my papers get shoved behind the phone - this is my "to be dealt with" pile. But I don't deal with it very frequently, and the pile grows.

So I found a section of our cupboard and put this file holder in it. I labelled one part for taxes, and left the other section for misc. items. If necessary, I can add a third one on top.

It seems to have solved my paper problem for now. All the papers are very accessible, but neatly stored out of sight. And I have a clear counter! Here's hoping it will last!

A Month of Less: The Tuppeware / Plastics Cupboard

2014-02-13T16:56:00.004-05:00

My Tupperware cupboard has been exploding since the day after I cleaned it up in the summer. It was time. I did this one a few weeks ago, actually, because I wanted to see if I could keep it from falling into disarray in the next 7 days. Well, this time, it has made it for a full 3 weeks today:

@YouPinspireMe I'm going with an optimistic 5 days! Looks great.

— momstown Halifax (@momstownHalifax) January 24, 2014

@YouPinspireMe @momstownHalifax two days. trust me! ;)

— Emily Smith (@bestofthislife) January 24, 2014

Despite the lack of faith from my Tweeps, my cupboard today looks pretty much as good as it did the day that I reorganized - it has even survived a fridge clean-out (all those leftovers containers finally getting washed & put back in the stack again...)!

My biggest tip to pass along to you: buy a dish rack from the dollar store. Use it to store all of your lids, with the biggest in the back and the smallest in the front. Keep it easy access so that you can slide it out and find the lid you want right away. I used to use a large plastic container that was in the cupboard anyways for lid storage and then a small basket for small lid storage, but that just wasn't working out.

Sort through all of your containers - ~~throw away~~ donate the ones you hate (let's be honest, you're not using them anyways!!), and recycle all of the mismatched pieces. This time around, I ended up with a crazy amount of lonely lids. Beats me where the containers went. Oh well - into the recycling they went!

Please ask me again in 3 months to take another photo of my cupboard - I'm optimistic that it just might be in good shape still!