Thrifty Living

Hot Dog Roundup for Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:15:00 +0000

Chances are you'll be grilling out with friends or family this weekend as part of your Memorial Day celebration. I've put together a list of our favorite specialty hot dog recipes...it's not just ketchup and mustard around here!

The Avocado and White Sauce Dog, featuring thick slices of avocado and our homemade sauce

The Texas Ranger, featuring grilled onions, bacon, and BBQ sauce

The Salsa Dog, featuring mango peach salsa

BBQ and Peppers, featuring sweet banana peppers and your favorite BBQ sauce

CornDogs, featuring a that carnival treat made at home

Pretzel Dogs, this is probably our favorite right now! homemade pretzel dough wrapped around your favorite dog and baked to perfection.

What's on your menu this Memorial Day? Give one of these dogs a try or let me know your favorite fixins!

Book Club Activity: Dinner with the Beavers

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Last week's Turkish Delight activity was a big hit in our house. Did you make some too? Not only did I get some great help mixing and stirring,

they had a lot of enthusiasm at the end as we prepared to put in the food coloring and flavor.

Side note: that picture looks remarkably like the first time we made Turkish Delight, except for how much my kids have grown over the past year!

Here is a look at our finished product! We made lemon again, at the request of my daughter. I really want to try almond next though.

The texture was completely spot on this time. Practice makes perfect!

Now, on to this week's preschool book club activity.

We are having dinner with the Beavers, and on the menu: pan-fried fish, potatoes with butter, milk, and a marmalade roll and tea for dessert. We'll likely round our meal out with a veggie side and some fresh baked bread.

The chapters with the Beavers take up a good portion of the middle of this story, so if you are right on schedule reading along with us, you probably have gotten to this part recently! The description of the food for this meal is rich and flavorful. As an adult it made me hungry reading it, and I know my daughter will love the chance to "act out" something from the book. I'm also looking forward to the discussion over dinner; we'll probably grab the book and look back at the pictures of this dinner and talk about the plot twists of Aslan's introduction, Edmund's betrayal, and the big question of 'what do you think will happen next?'.

I hope you'll join us for a warm and homey fish dinner this week. I'm planning to make a marmalade roll using this recipe from the Pioneer Woman.

Spring gardening

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:21:00 +0000

I was a little later starting on my garden this year than I had hoped, but it actually has worked out well! We have a very small raised bed garden that we made a few years ago. I've tried growing a number of different things, and tomatoes have worked the best every year. Which is perfect because both of our children would eat tomatoes all day long if we let them!

We have some nice rows of spinach seedlings appearing now. I really wanted to get these in the ground earlier because they do not do well in the heat. We'll see if the weather continues to be mild!

I also had a few friendly volunteer plants this year. These tomato plants look great! There are several others that have come up on their own all over my raised bed. Today we planted our tomato seedlings from inside, so we should have a garden bed full of tomato plants this year!

This lettuce came up on its own this year and last year. A great surprise! I went out and snipped several lettuce leaves at lunch the other day

and used them for this beautiful salad! Home grown lettuce topped with peppers, mushrooms, avocado, cheese, and cold (formerly roasted) chicken. Delicious!

Are you growing anything this year?

Book Club Activity: Turkish Delight

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:50:00 +0000

We are having a great time reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for our Preschool Book Club. The first activity I want to do along with the book is to make Turkish Delight. Edmond's first encounter with the White Witch the Turkish Delight is early in the story, so hopefully you have already gotten to that part!

We enjoyed making our own Turkish Delight several times last year. I love this recipe because it can be done in the microwave! And while there are many steps in the process, it is full of opportunities for kids to help.

This post has the full instructions for microwave Turkish Delight. I hope you'll make some this week along with us!

We are just one week in to this first book for the Preschool Book Club, so there is still time to get started and join us if you have not had the chance yet. There are 17 chapters in the book and still 25 days until our book club discussion. We have been moving right along, some days even reading two chapters. I hope you are enjoying as much as we are!

Hot Dog Challenge: Pretzel Dog

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:54:00 +0000

Last summer we had a lot of fun with our "hot dog challenge" - going beyond ketchup and mustard to make speciality hot dogs at home. Recently I tried a new recipe that is quite possibly our favorite way to have hot dogs now....Pretzel dogs!

These tasty hot dogs are amazing! The pretzel is fantastic and takes hot dogs to a whole new level. Seriously, these are a must try. The pretzel dough is simple to make, and a quick baking soda bath before baking gives the outside a crispy pretzel finish. The original dough calls for beer, but I've also used water and both ways tasted great.

Mix the pretzel dough and let it rise for about an hour. The dough will make 8 very large pretzel dogs. The first time I made these I thought that the pretzel was actually a little too much compared to the hot dogs, so this last time I made some pretzel bite appetizers ahead of time while we waited for the dogs. I just decreased the bake time to 10 minutes.

After the dough has risen, put a large pot of water on to boil and add baking soda. Watch it carefully! Boil overs can happen quickly with baking soda in the water.

Divide the remaining dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a log about 12 inches long. Starting at one end of the hot dog, wrap the dough around, covering the entire hot dog. Use your fingers to pinch the dough at each end to seal it.

Once all the hot dogs are wrapped and the water is boiling, place the hot dogs into the boiling water for about 30 seconds each. They will sink initially and then float to the surface. Depending on the size of your pot, you may be able to do 2-4 at a time. Here you see how large I roll out the dough, a wrapped dog, and a boiled dog (on the right).

Remove from the water and let sit on a wire rack or cutting board for a minute to dry. Place on a stone or baking sheet (I use our pizza stone), brush with olive oil, and top with salt if desired.

Bake for 15 minutes at which point the pretzel dogs will be golden brown and crispy on top.

Serve with ketchup and mustard! These are even fantastic reheated in the oven for lunch the next day.

Pretzel Dogs (via Karla's Veggie Noms)

For the dough:

1/2 c. warm water

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 c. warm beer (or water)

2 1/4 tsp. yeast

2 Tablespoons oil

4 1/2 c. flour

Put water, brown sugar, salt, beer (or additional water), and yeast in the mixing bowl. Gradually add flour and oil to make a smooth dough. Remove from bowl with floured hands and form dough into a ball. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it rise in a warm place for an hour.

When the dough has risen, boil a large pot of water, adding 1/2-2/3 cup baking soda. I just eyeballed it. While the water is boiling, cut the dough into 8 pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a rope about 12 inches long. Starting at one end of the hot dog, wrap the dough around, covering the entire hot dog. Use your fingers to pinch the dough at each end to seal it.

Remove from the water and let sit on a wire rack or cutting board for a minute to dry. Place on a stone or baking sheet (I use our pizza stone), brush with olive oil, and top with salt if desired. Bake for 15 minutes at which point the pretzel dogs will be golden brown and crispy on top.

Serve with ketchup and mustard! Also great heated up the next day for lunch :-)

Beautiful, delicious, local strawberries!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:59:00 +0000

I took my children strawberry picking this morning at Filasky's Produce in Middletown. It's a great little local farm and we've enjoyed picking strawberries there for several years.

We were the only ones picking this morning and there were TONS of strawberries, all beautiful and ripe. I ran into the main building to have my container weighed before we started picking and a photographer from the Delaware News Journal asked if she could photograph us picking our strawberries.

The kids had a blast posing for the camera and picking the biggest strawberries that they could find. Aren't these amazing looking? And they taste even better!

If you are local, be sure to head out to Filasky's this spring. Their hours are great (7-7 every day except Sunday 7-6) and the strawberries are just $2.15/pound. And if you are looking for a u-pick farm in your area, be sure to check PickYourOwn.Org.

Preschool Book Club

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:54:00 +0000

I love to read. And I'm thrilled to be at a point in my parenting where I am introducing my kids to great books. Not just silly books or cute books or book with favorite cartoon characters, but books that they will remember when they are parents themselves.

Over the last several months I've been purposefully reading chapter books to Emma, who is 3. I compiled a short list of excellent books that I wanted to read to her and we've been making our way through them. We read a chapter or two, depending on the length, before her rest/nap time each day. It's our special time to snuggle together, and she usually gets some sort of little treat to eat while I read.

We've had so much fun with this reading time that I want to share it with you! We want to start a preschool book club that "meets" online. Any child can participate, but because we will be reading chapter books, children younger than 3 might not have the attention span yet. Don't be afraid to stretch your children though! They might surprise you :-)

Every month we'll pick a book and set a date to have it read by. Prior to the book club "meeting", I will post some questions to think about, as well as possibile activities or crafts to go along with the book. The book club meeting with be starter post here on Thrifty Living with our thoughts on the book, Emma's reactions and favorite parts, and activities we did.

For this to really work though, I need you to participate! That means comments on the post with your child's favorite parts of the book, anything special you did to go along with the story, and maybe a linky where you can blog about the story on your own, then link up on the post. One of the best parts about reading a book is talking about it with others! I love seeing what parts my daughter remembers; usually they are very different than what stuck out to me.

I will go ahead and pick the first book, but I'd love to have suggestions for future books books and even voting on the next month's book. I want to keep things "twaddle free", so my preference is usually for older, classic books, although there are still plenty of new books that are wonderful as well.

What do you think?

If you are on board today, please leave a comment on this post letting me know! Or, if you would rather use email that is fine too. You can reach me at thriftylivingde(at)gmail(dot)com. If you want to participate but are not prepared to start this month, no problem. It would still be great to hear from you!

The specifics:

The book for May is The Lion, the Witch, and the Waredrobe by C.S. Lewis. The main reason I chose this one is because I just started reading it to Emma last week. While it is a little longer than some of the other books we've read recently, she is completely enthralled in the story, even asking to read a second chapter in one sitting.

If you are looking for a great copy to read to your child, I highly recommend the edition illustrated by Pauline Baynes. It is filled with lots of beautiful color illustrations which really help to bring the story to life.

The first meeting will be June 7th. Normally I will host the book club meeting at the end of each month, but because this book is a little longer and we are already a few days into May, I wanted to add some extra time. I hope this gives you enough time to read this great children's classic. If you read 6 pages every day, you'll finish in time!

I am so excited about this book club and I can't wait to hear what your children think about this first book!

Thankful

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:59:00 +0000

It was a long week here in Delaware...I'm finally on the mend from a nasty cold, though still losing my voice by the end of each day. We're still nebulizing (I think I just made up that word!) my son 3 times a day, but he's much improved. And the weather has been dreary all week, which has just made things feel a little off.

But I've found that it is usually on these harder weeks that I am able to whittle things down to what is most important and be thankful for the things that I'm quick to overlook when life is easy. So here's a list, in no particular order, of a few things I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful I learned how to roast chicken. Talk about an easy and delicious meal. My husband wanted to order pizza yesterday with our free coupon and I turned him down (turned down free pizza) for this chicken. Love it, love it, love it.

I'm thankful for Goodwill and new shorts from The Limited for $3.50. I always seem to find some great shorts around this time of year.

I'm thankful we finished up our foyer project last week. It was a ton of work but I love it and its making little things like getting our of the house so much easier.

I'm thankful for the Acme kids card. Good for a free bag of apples or a banana for each kid each trip. I love how smooth check out is now that they are so excited to have their bag of apples. Thank you, Acme!

I'm thankful for our public library. I requested about 15 children's books the other day and nearly all are ready for me to go pick up this afternoon. We just love the sweet librarians and a trip to the library is one of the fastest ways I know to turn my kids grumpy day around. And there's nothing I like better than the smell and the feel and the anticipation of cracking open a new book.

I'm thankful for tomato seedlings. My kids are so excited about our tomato plants and they want to check them literally every hour. It's been a blast seeing my children learn about plants and gardening each year.

I'm thankful for my memory. I recently memorized a verse in 1 Thessalonians that says "He who called you is faithful; he will surely do it." And when I'm up to my elbows in chicken juice and kiddos are going nuts because they want to see Daddy and I know I have laundry to fold and a poopy diaper to empty...I can grab those words floating through my brain...He is faithful, he will do it.

I'm thankful for milestones. My 3-year-old had a lightbulb phonics moment this week. She's learned to match letters with the sounds they make. I love the excitement in her eyes and how she laughs when I tell her she got it right.

I'm thankful for pizza. Friday is pizza night around here and I couldn't be happier to have dinner already planned each Friday night. And this family loves pizza :-)

I'm thankful for Star Wars day. Yeah, I'm a total Star Wars nerd and every year May 4th just makes me smile! May the fourth be with you, always.

What little thing are you thankful for this week?

April Goals Update

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:30:00 +0000

This past month flew by for me. I'm happy to report some good progress on my goals for this year, but I'm also starting to get that burned out, disorganized feeling. I'm going to have some time to plan over the weekend and I'm really looking forward to that. Here's the down and dirty report on my goals from April.

Read 48 books. I'm right on goal with 16 books read through April! I slowed things down a bit this month after last month's reading frenzy, only reading Swiss Courier, Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, and listening to The Two Towers. I also three books aloud to Emma, The Boxcar Children, and the first two Magic Tree House books. I have plans for a fun read aloud project that I hope you'll join with me...more details coming soon!

Memorize 52 Scripture verses. My husband and I are working on these together using the Fighter Verses app. I am 3 behind where I wanted to be right now, and I also haven't done a lot of review, so some of the early verses are not very solid anymore.

Work toward becoming foster parents. This is the biggest change from the last month. We originally thought we would go right to an adoption, but are now planning to become foster parents and would still be open to adoption. We have the earliest paperwork and now are ready to take our first steps...exciting!

Organize and Declutter. Yay for lots of progress here! We finished our foyer project (though that baseboard still need to be nailed down) and absolutely love it. I also worked on decluttering a number of different things and did some large seasonal cleaning. We still need to put the garage back in order from this project so the car can have its home back!

Record highlights from each week. I had fallen quite behind on this last month and now am almost completely caught up! I still need to record write down some of what we did last week. Its great even just 4 months into the year to be able to look back and remember some of the fun little things that we did, things I would have likely forgotten if they were not written down. I'm seeing first hand that it's not all about the big milestones. The little things make life interesting. :-)

Here's a look back at my previous goal posts. Are you keeping track of monthly goals? I've really enjoyed this routine and I think that it is helping me to stay on purpose and see the big picture, even while I'm wading through the day to day details.

March goal update

February goal update
January goal update
Original goal post

Foyer Makeover, Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Today's the day...the great reveal!

We've been working on a foyer facelift to turn our white and cluttered entryway into a functional and beautiful space. We started with this BH&G mudroom photo for our model.

After the prepping our space by removing the furniture and baseboard, we taped and painted. What a difference just the paint made! Then we moved some of the existing furniture around and applied a window film to our sidelight by the front door.

Finally, the new entryway:

We love it! It is exactly what I hoped for -- beautiful, functional, and affordable. We are not home improvement specialists by any stretch of the imagination, so it certainly took much longer than if we really knew what we were doing. But it is such a great feeling of accomplishment to have done the whole thing ourselves.

Let me take you on a little tour...

The bench was my first big wish for this area. I used to herd my kids over to the stairs to get their shoes on every time we left the house. Inevitably someone would drop a shoe along the way, pick up two that didn't match, or forget that we were going to put shoes on and run off somewhere else. An entryway bench makes the shoes struggles so much faster and easier. Plus, I love the beadboard above the bench!

Both this sailing frame and mirror were in the foyer previously, though on opposite walls from each other. They go together so beautifully and bring the whole wall together. I also picked the fabric for the bench to coordinate with the black and gold in these frames.

This is probably my favorite part of the whole thing! We hung this Ikea coat rack down low so that the kids can hang up their own coats and hats. Its so much nicer than trying to keep them on a hanger in the coat closet, and they can help get ready now too. I think its fantastic!

Here are a few more shots, just because!

I'll go through some more detailed step by step instructions, but I wanted to get these pictures posted first! We still have to attach the baseboard, caulk the gaps, and give everything a little bit of white paint, but thankfully most of those things are not noticeable until you get very close.

I'd love to hear what you think!

Foyer Makeover, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:29:00 +0000

Yesterday I started detailing our DIY foyer makeover. We wanted to turn our boring, white (and scuffed!), and mostly storage-less entryway into something functional and beautiful. Our inspiration was this Better Homes & Gardens mudroom.

Once we got the foyer painted it was hard to believe we let it go 3 1/2 years! The paint gives the house such a warm and inviting feel, and since the tan is the same as our downstairs it blends the foyer in to the rest of the house perfectly.

After the paint was finished, we moved furniture around to make room for our new shelves. First we switched the entryway table to the opposite wall.

The wooden box under the table is an old Proctor & Gamble box from my husband's family. On the wall by the garage door is a plate rack that I got at Goodwill. Our project notebook makes its home there right now, along with the week's grocery and drug store circulars.

And finally, we got rid of the curtain with the frustrating magnetic curtain rods and replaced it with Gila sidelight window film.

We found this brand at Lowe's, but I'm sure there are other options that do the same thing too. This was fairly easy to use; I measured the size of our sidelight window, cut to fit, then used a homemade solution (in the Gila instructions) to apply the film to the window.

I used an exacto knife to trim the sides, which proved to be the most difficult part. As you can see, the sides are a little ragged. I probably should have gone a little slower as I cut along the edges.

From the outside the Gila film does a great job making the window opaque.

And from the inside, the film creates a nice ripple effect on the sidelight that lets in plenty of light and allows us to see outside as well.

The combination of the new sidelight film and the paint really brightens up the foyer! And since we are building ourselves a storage space, we no longer need to pile shoes under the entryway table and dump the mail on top of it. Success!

Next time we'll move on to the main part of our project...

Foyer Makeover, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:58:00 +0000

We've had a large (at least for us!) home project in the works for quite some time now. It was early March when we started, and then we took turns getting sick, made multiple trips to the hardware store, and learned first hand that the right tools make all the difference.

Several months ago I saw a great photo inspiration on Pinterest for what looked like a doable foyer project for our house. It was a Better Homes & Gardens mudroom project that supposedly was $324 for all the materials. While there were not step by step instructions, Martin and I felt like we had enough details that we could pull it off. Neither of us is a carpenter or home improvement expert, but we ready to give it a shot.

Our foyer area had not had much done to it since we moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago. The walls were still white (at least mostly white...there were quite a few scuffs), the furniture was minimal and not really functional, and even though the mirror and picture matched, they didn't do much for the space. Plus, the small coat closet was not a practical place for keeping shoes; we have to keep the floor of it open so that we can pass through the back of the closet into our storage area. So shoes usually ended up a jumbled mess all over the floor.

Here are a few pictures of the space. Mirror above the entryway table. The table usually became the catch-all for things brought into the house. Keys, etc go in the basket. Underneath we stashed our shoes, but they didn't lay well on the rails and often ended up in a pile.

These pictures were taken right before we moved the furniture, so everything is fairly contained :-)

The other issue with this entryway table is that to center it on the wall, we couldn't fully open the door of the coat closet, which was very inconvenient, especially with all the in and out of Christmas decorations to that storage area.

Our first step after removing the furniture was to paint those scuffed, white walls! See the side light next to our front door? It is covered with a lightweight privacy curtain that really needed to go. The curtain rods were magnetic, which sounded like a great idea until you throw small children in the mix!

Getting things taped and ready for paint.

While I started the taping, Martin removed the baseboard.

It was really simple to do...we used a multi-use crowbar and a small piece of wood to protect the wall.

Everything came off nicely, and then it was time to paint!

Here is my favorite way to paint...roller in one hand, large mug of coffee in the other! We went with the same tan that is on the walls in the rest of our downstairs.

Stay tuned for the next installment...

Salami and Avocado Melt

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:15:00 +0000

I made this amazing sandwich for lunch the other day. It totally reminded me of something that I would get at Panera Bread!

The ingredients: salami and turkey pastrami, half an avocado, sliced, topped with swiss cheese. I spread dijon mustard on the bread and grilled it to make a nice melt.

I think the only way it could have been better is with a thick slice of fresh tomato...mmmm! I always love the challenge of knocking off restaurant favorites at home. Not only is it a lot more cost effective to buy the ingredients myself, but its fun to get to play around with new combinations too.

Do you have a favorite gourmet sandwich combo that you make at home?

Target Shopping Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:09:00 +0000

I had a great trip to Target today! Its always nice when everything is in stock, the coupons scan properly, and the deal is great. Here's a look at what I got:

I love Starbucks coffee, and I was happy to get these two bags for $9.50. I used two Starbucks coupons and stacked them with a Target coupon.

Then I used a $3 off Merona item coupon and a $3 off Mossimo item coupon to get two tank tops for $6! Both coupons can be found on Target's site.

Even though these are great deals, our Target is far enough away that I wouldn't make a special trip, so I'm thankful that I had some other errands nearby and was able to snag these items.

Thanks to Money Saving Mom for the heads up on these great deals. These sales run through the end of the week, so hopefully you can grab some coffee or tank tops too!

Dishwasher detergent experiment, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:28:00 +0000

Last year I compared gel dishwasher detergent to a 20 count of action packs. Both retail for the same price, but the gel gave me 45 washes instead of 20 for the little packs.

The next experiment was to compare powdered dishwasher detergent to the gel. We recently finished up a box so the results are in!

The powdered dishwasher detergent gave us 58 washes, 13 more than the gel. I'd call the gel and the powder pretty close! But the crazy thing is that the 13 washes between the gel and the powder is over half as many as you would get from one 20 count of little packs.

So what is the best value?

This time around I even bought a store brand dishwasher detergent instead of the name brand Cascade, and our dishes came out clean every time.

The specifics:
::We have a builder's grade dishwasher, nothing special
::We rinse dishes if they are going to be sitting in the dishwasher
::We only fill up the detergent dispenser that closes
::We didn't measure how much detergent, so the numbers could be slightly different

Read more of my thoughts on being an active consumer and why I started this experiment.

Spring Cleaning + Easter Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:11:00 +0000

Last week Crystal at Money Saving Mom started a 4-week spring cleaning challenge and I've been having a great time cleaning along with her (great time and cleaning?? crazy!).

Every morning at 9am she posts the day's cleaning tasks. Mostly these are the same each day, but one new "focus" is added. For example, today I cleaned out the inside of our car - threw out the trash, put away the items that don't belong, and vacuumed.

Look at all I vacuumed out of my car!

Every night at 9pm Crystal posts an update on how her cleaning tasks went. It's been a fun way to clean "with" someone...working on the same thing each day. One of the other daily assignments is to get rid of 7 things each day - these could be throw aways, give aways, or sell items. I didn't focus on this last week, but I'm going to this week. I have my 7 things sitting out and just need to move them to my Goodwill box.

After posting about marbled eggs last week, we finally got around to trying them as a family on Sunday. I think I had completely the wrong technique to start! Only 1 of 3 eggs actually "marbled". I didn't realize just how hard I need to knock the eggs to get the cracks all the way through the membrane. It was a great effect on the one that worked. The shell:

And the egg. A far cry from the photos I looked at last week, but we did have a bit of success!

Are you working on any spring cleaning? If not, why don't you join me in working through Crystal's spring cleaning plan!

And if you have had success with marbled eggs, I'd love to get some pointers!

DIY Bow Rack

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:57:00 +0000

I had a lot of fun with this little project last week! I had an odd shaped cheap frame that I could not figure out how to use, so it had been sitting for a while. I took a large piece of scrapbook paper, and that ended up being too small also. So I added two strips of black construction paper to each side.

Then I took three different pieces of ribbon and tucked them in front of the glass but inside of the actual frame. I fastened them to the back of the picture frame as a precaution, but they are pretty snug wedged between the glass and the frame.

Here's a close up: over the glass and under the frame...

Then add on the hair bows!

Before and After! I love being able to put to good use something that was just taking up space before. And this is an adorable wall hanging in my daughter's room now. Best of both worlds!

March Goals Update

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:10:00 +0000

Here is my goal update for March. I was pretty sure that I didn't meet any of my goals this month, but as I went through I was encouraged to see just where I am. If I was not keeping track of my goals this detailed I probably would have given up several after this past month. But now I'm excited to see what else I can knock out in the coming weeks!

The goals:

Read 48 books. I read some great books this month: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Still Alice, A Conspiracy of Paper, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Mr. Popper's Penguins was my read aloud to Emma, and Martin and I listened to The Fellowship of the Ring. This was our audio book for February, but it took us a while because of having to share the CDs. I'm hoping we can plan a little better for the Two Towers this month. As always, I keep track of my books with Goodreads - a fabulous (and free!) website.

Memorize 52 Scripture Verses. My husband and I are going through the Fighter Verses program together. I have 11 of 13 verses memorized for the year, though March had several that were review....so actually I didn't make a lot of progress this month. Emma is working through the Foundation Verses and has 6 memorized.

Work on our Adoption. Some progress! I contacted one of the foster care agencies in Delaware and did not hear back, which means I need to get on the phone this week. We are moving forward planning to be foster parents with the hope that we can adopt along the way. We are excited and nervous, and are thankful to have several friends with adoption experience to encourage us.

Organize and Declutter. I didn't do any of the specific tasks for the 52 weeks to an organized home challenge in March. We had a number of different illnesses and I felt like keeping up on meals, laundry, and regular house cleaning was enough! However, I did participate in a consignment sale through my MOMS club. Over half my items sold! And I was able to list several additional items on eBay. I call that a productive month even though it was different than I originally planned.

I fell behind on my highlights from 2012 in March also. Thankfully it has only been a few weeks, so I need to go back and write those down. I've kept our family blog much more up to date lately, so that will help me remember specific activities. I love that we will have a way to review the best and most important parts of our year when 2013 gets here.

February goal update
January goal update
Original goal post

Fun for Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:50:00 +0000

We had our Easter celebrations with family this past weekend and are looking forward to a quiet Easter with our church family this year. I haven't done a lot leading up to Easter like I had hoped because we have been sick off and on for the last several weeks. Of course, we had a lot of fun mailing our Easter basket pop top can. And Resurrection Eggs are always something I enjoyed doing growing up.

Here are a few simple and easy Easter activities that I hope to get to this week!

Naturally dyed eggs via The Kitchn

I love these creative ways to get different colored eggs!

Marbled eggs via Kimberly Cun

So awesome! I love the pattern you can get from just cracking the egg before dying it. I think these would look totally great as deviled eggs too.

Homemade marshmallow peeps via This Chick Cooks

Mmmmm I love peeps!

Looking for something fun to do after Easter is passed? Check out this great spring preschool pack from Creative Learning Fun.

Do you have a favorite activity planned for this week?

Shutterfly Yearbook Review

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:34:00 +0000

I take a lot of pictures, especially of my kids...the time flys so quickly! I love giving photo gifts to family for Christmas, birthdays, etc, and I often use Shutterfly. I love that their site makes creating photo gifts super simple and fast.

Did you know that Shutterfly now offers Yearbooks? This is a new product, and let me tell you, this is not what my yearbooks looked like! Take a look at some of these pages:

I love the bright colors and designs! In my experience with other Shutterfly products, it is super easy to personalize with your own style, and I think the same is true for these yearbooks. You can choose from a variety of backgrounds and embellishments to fit with your organizations colors and personality. There are also lots of "pre-made" layouts to choose from for each page. You can change the size and location of photos, add text, and make it as unique as you like.

A single 20 page 8x8 hardcover book runs about $30, but their site says prices can go as low as $5 a book. A softcover 5x7 book with 20 pages is only $16. I'm a little out of the loop on the price of Yearbooks, but $30 for a 20 page book sounds little more on the pricey side to me. Shutterfly often offers discounts, so that might bring the price down a little. Also, you can get a bulk discount starting at just 10 books, which is pretty reasonable, and a great number for smaller organizations. Contact Shutterfly on their Yearbook page for pricing options.

I think this new Yearbook feature would be a great way for smaller schools to create a fantastic Yearbook easily. And the possibilites are really endless...preschools, homeschool groups, and even sports teams. This would be an awesome way to document a season for a travel ball team or other long term sport team. I always love flipping through old yearbooks, and I'm sure these Shutterfly books will be fantastic.

For more Shutterfly news about Yearbooks and other great quality products, check them out on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest!

I was given a free photo book in exchange for my participation in the Shutterfly Yearbook campaign. The opinions in this review are my own.

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000

I'm always looking for ways to make connivence foods at home. Not only is it healthier and cheaper, but there is something so satisfying about walking past items on the grocery store shelf that I used to consider pantry staples. I love not having to rely on having a can of soup, a box of cake mix, or a container of yogurt on hand. If I need it, I can make it!

I had never thought much about condensed cooking soups. They have always been a pantry staple for me, especially for a quick dinner. Thanks to Pinterest I found a recipe for homemade cream of chicken soup via Mindfully Frugal Mom. I love how easy it was to make and how great it tasted!

You will need:
1 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup milk

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock (I used 4 cubes of frozen homemade stock) and 1/2 cup milk. Add the liquid slowly while stirring to prevent lumps. Allow to cook for a few minutes until it beings to thicken.

How easy is that?

I used the homemade cream of chicken soup for Cheesy Baked Chicken (I made it in the crockpot instead of the oven too) and it was fabulous.

Next time, I will plan to make a larger portion and freeze the soup in 1 cup portions, about the size of a can from the store. I'm so excited to have this recipe and no longer need to buy cream soups for cooking!

Pop Top Cans 2.0 - through the mail!

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:31:00 +0000

Remember the pop top can treats I made last year? Recently I started thinking about sending them through the mail. What a fun way to get a surprise!

The best cans have fruit in them, because they are easy to get clean inside (not something that sticks like beans!). Remember...open your can from the bottom leaving the pop top intact! Carefully cut the label from the can and use it as a template. I used scrapbook paper, but you could keep things really simple and just use construction paper.

Next you need to assemble your goodies! Since Easter is right around the corner, we decided to send some Easter treats to a friend. We put stickers and candy in some eggs and found a few other fun things from our Tot School bin to add as well.

We also added pretty paper to both ends of the can...trace around the end, then trim to fit!

I added instructions,

and we made an address label out of more scrapbook paper.

Who do you know that would love to get one of these in the mail?

Since we put light things inside it only weighed about 5 oz, which put shipping just over $2. And the post office workers didn't even look at me funny when I stuck my can treat on the scale. Easter was the perfect time to send one of these, but I know I'll be doing more for things like birthdays in the future!

Thanks to Our Best Bites for the original inspiration!

Linking up with these parties:

Crocs and eBay

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:13:00 +0000

We've had the craziest March weather...shorts and t-shirts for a solid two weeks! I just got Crocs for both of my kids, again using eBay!

Two years ago I bought adorable Mary Jane Crocs for $6, then sold them on eBay last year for $7. At the same time I bought another pair of Mary Jane Crocs for $8, and I just sold them for $8.50 (all prices include shipping costs).

Here's a look at this year's Crocs.

I paid $8 for my daughter's Crocs this year.

They are a little dirty since she's gotten to wear them so much already, but the tread is basically brand new. The wear shows a bit more since these are a light color too.

Cute!

And I paid $11.50 for these adorable Mickey Crocs for my son.

I knew that it would be a little harder to get some good boys Crocs for cheap, but I am so happy with these, even though I had to pay a bit more. They are brand new with hardly any wear.

And I know that I'll be able to resell them for a good price since they are Mickey ones!

If you are holding on to some Crocs that your kids have outgrown, now is totally the time to list them on eBay. The prices are higher right now than the two previous years I've bought, and I'm speculating that is because of the warm temperatures. Even so, you can get a great pair of gently used Crocs for $15 or less. I wouldn't normally have bought Crocs this early in the season! If you can sell now and wait a month or two to buy, I think the prices will likely go down a little.

I'm a huge fan of buying and selling Crocs on eBay. I've had a lot of success by keeping some simple things in mind.

If you are buying:
1) Look for something specific - there are too many things for sale to just browse
2) Have a firm "top price" before you bid - use the "max bid" tool to prevent over paying
3) Be ready to let "IT" go - there is always another item

If you are selling:
1) Take a good picture - good lighting, clear image
2) Use a strong title and accurite description - if there are flaws, be honest
3) Low starting price - I started all my Crocs at $0.99
4) Have your item ready to ship before you list - you'll already know the shipping cost

Have you found any great eBay deals lately?

Making Time to Read

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:45:00 +0000

I love reading. It's been one of my favorite ways to spend my time since I first learned how to read. I was one of those bookworms that never spoke on car rides, disappeared for hours (only appearing for meals), and measured time by the books I had recently read.

By the time I got to college, leisure reading was pushed aside for hundreds of pages of textbooks and hours of studying, not to mention club meetings, group projects, and softball practice. As I emerged from each semester, I took full advantage of the time off to catch up on a few good books.

Martin and I were married the summer after I graduated college, and one of our favorite pastimes together has always been reading. We'll have two different books, each read a chapter, then switch and read the chapter the other just read. And we've enjoyed reading books aloud to each other, or listening to audiobooks together.

Having young children has definitely cut down on my time to read, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way! So, I'm going to share a few ways that I make time to read.

Read less news/blogs/facebook and more books. The Internet has a wealth of knowledge, but it's hard for me to find a cut off. There's always another article, another post, another status update. But books have pages and chapters and good stopping points (sometimes!).

Avoid relaxing with the TV or a movie. Oh, I'm so guilty of this. When naptime hits, I often find myself wanting to veg in front of the computer or a movie. But grabbing a book instead (or even just first!) is so much more rewarding.

Redeeming the time. When I'm waiting for water to boil, I'll grab a book and read a few pages. I've been known to read and blow dry my hair at the same time (granted, I don't blow dry often, but multi-tasking by reading gives me a nice excuse!). I found that the greater my desire to read, the more creative I am about snatching those few minutes here and there to get through an exciting book.

Listen to audiobooks. I love that I can be deep in a book while I'm washing the dishes or folding laundry. And Martin and I often listen to the same audiobook -- me at home and him on the commute to work. Usually I prefer my audiobooks to be great fiction, but I know some people that like listening to books on history, current events, or biographies too.

Keep a list: recent reads and to-reads. Goodreads is great for this. I try to write down a few sentences about each book I read within a few hours of finishing. I love being able to look back at my thoughts on each book, and often its interesting to see that what I remember 3 or 6 months after reading a book is slightly different than my initial opinion.

Let your children see you read. They model our examples, so make sure you model what you want imitated. I'm so grateful to have children who love books too, and I know that in large part that is because we place such a high priority on reading as a family.

Side by side reading. This requires training for both you and your kids, but I've found that its great for all of us. I sit on the couch next to one or both kids, set them up with a book (or basket of books!). The instructions are that they are going to read their books and I am going to read my book. I set a timer and we aren't going to talk to each other while we read. When the timer goes off, I usually read a number of books aloud to them.

I started small, just 5 minutes of side by side reading. It's really good for my kids to be able to focus on one task without skipping around, and to be self-sufficient even though I am right next to them. I don't usually set a timer anymore, but I'll tell them that I'm going to read a chapter in my book while they look through theirs. And now that my daughter is a little older, she often asks me about the book I'm reading too!

What is important to you? Most of these tips could apply to whatever activity is important to you. For me it's reading, but maybe for you it's sewing, or a home-based business, or something else. My house isn't neat as a pin, though it probably could be if I spent my reading time tidying up instead. But reading is more important to me than having everything perfectly put away. And I'm happy with that, and I'm so thankful that my husband is too! Of course, there's a point when the bathroom has to be clean and the clothes folded...and thankfully then I have audiobooks!

Is reading a favorite activity for you? I'd love to hear other creative ways you make time to read. And if its not reading but something else that you want to make time to do, I encourage you to set some big goals and break it down into small goals today!

Easy Roast Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Beth Anne) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:56:00 +0000

We love rotisserie chickens, especially from Costco. So juicy and moist, and a whole chicken can transform into several meals. Over the last year I finally got up my nerve to roast a chicken on my own. And I am totally hooked!

Each time I do it they taste better and better and are easier and simpler. I think I actually prefer my own roasted chicken to one from Costco now!

There are tons of options for roasting a chicken, but here is my super easy recipe.

Preheat oven to 400. Rinse chicken, removing any giblets from the cavity. Pat the chicken dry and do a quick check to remove any feathers that are still attached. Place the chicken in a baking dish. I'd love to have a Le Creuset dutch oven, but since I don't I just use a large Pyrex dish.

In a small dish, soften 1 Tbsp. butter (about 15 sec in the microwave). Using a silicone pastry brush (or just a spoon), mix in your seasonings. This time I used about a teasp. of dry parsley and a teasp. of Italian seasonings, along with some sea salt. Brush (or rub) the butter and herbs all over the chicken. You could peel up the skin and rub under also, but I've had great results shortcutting it on that lately! I also stuffed some onion in the chicken cavity, and added some to the baking dish.

Bake for 30-40 minutes. Check how brown the chicken is getting, baste with butter and juices in the pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Check and baste again. Usually at this point I cover the chicken with some foil. Bake for 15 minutes, check, then bake for 15 more minutes. The chicken should be completely done at this point (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours total bake time). Let it sit for 5-10 minutes before you cut and serve to allow the juices to set nicely. Enjoy!

There are tons of variations...basically do whatever your family likes! Add different seasonings to the butter, add lemon juice. Bake with potatoes and carrots, or even oranges for a twist. The possibilities are endless, and I love that there's very little hands on time!

Are you a rotisserie chicken family? It's a great feeling to walk by the chickens in the store and know that one of them can come out of my oven now!