February 6, 2015 at 9:56 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: attitude, celebrating, child, children, college, family, fun, growing, kids, life, nba, parenting, positivity
My kids are three of the most important things in my life. Ever since they were born they relied on me, their mother, for everything. While they were young, there were times when that was exhausting. If you are a parent you know exactly what I am talking about.
- Late night feedings
- Middle of the night illnesses
- Waking up early because as soon as the sun hit their window they wanted to bound out of bed and play
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Laundry
- Doctor’s appointments
- Playing whatever they want
- Watching whatever they want, as many times as they want
- Teaching them everything you can about life and the world
Exhausting? YES! Worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!!!! I have delighted in being there every single step of the way with our kids. Luckily I was able to be at home with them or on the same schedule as them for over 10 years while they were young. This made them rely on me even more for things though, since there were a lot of times that Daddy was at work and I was there with them. I was the first one they asked to do something or for something. I was also a lot of the time the one that they wanted when they were upset about anything. I was at all of the school programs, and PTA/PTO meetings. I wanted to do everything in my power to give my children everything they wanted and even more. Isn’t that what all parents want for their children? Of course it is!
Sure there were moments during all of the craziness and stress that I just wanted and needed a break. But I never once wanted my children to not want or need me. Even when I was not with them, I was still thinking about them no matter where I was at the time. Each of them was always on my mind. I wanted to know what they were doing, if they missed me, if they needed me, and if they would be upset that I had been away from them for this period of time.
The emotions that I described in the above paragraph has not changed. I still feel exactly the same about my children. When they are at school, or at a friend’s house, or when I’m at work … I miss them. My heart aches to spend more time with them and to enjoy every moment. Actually, my heart hurts for this time even more now than ever before.
My oldest daughter is turning 16 in a few short months. She is a sophomore in high school. She used to want to sit with me and sing songs, color, play games, watch TV, and just snuggle. Now she is busy with her friends, extra curricular activities, and looking at colleges. She is in the beginning stages of making plans to leave the nest. She is strong, confident, and independent. She asserts her ability to think for herself and make her own decisions and be her own person. That’s exactly what we wanted for her, right? We wanted to teach her how to grow into a strong, caring, compassionate, intelligent, hard-working, and all around amazing adult, right? Then why on earth does it hurt so badly?
My son is 13, and he is such a funny character. He used to love to spend his time in my lap or snuggled up under one of my arms doing just about anything. He would run and play and laugh at just about any given moment. Now he is about to finish up his 8th grade year and embark on the journey that is high school. He is already talking about what college he might want to go to and what team he will want to play fro when he gets drafted in the NBA. He’s got big dreams, and a big personality to match. Once again, he is growing into all we had hoped he would be. And still it hurts …
My youngest daughter is 11, and she is quite the pistol. She has always been my snuggle baby. She was constantly wanting to play, or learn new things and be with me no matter where I was. It hasn’t happened all the way with her yet, but I’ve now been through it twice so I see all of the signs. She’s growing up just like her siblings did, and she too is pulling away from me and becoming so independent.
They are all doing exactly what they are supposed to do. They are growing up, and becoming independent. They can’t rely on me for everything forever. But the thought of them leaving and going out into the big, bad world all on their own is more than terrifying. Not because we haven’t prepared them for it, but more because I know what’s out there and I want them to just stay with me …
“Stay with me, the world is dark and wild. Stay a child, while you can be a child … with me.” The Witch in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.
Here’s hoping that we can enjoy lots more fun before they all run off and leave me behind in the dust to move on to all of the bigger and better things that life has in store for them.
Leave a Comment
July 21, 2014 at 3:27 pm (Celebrating, Kids, Life, Outdoors, Parenting, Planning)
Tags: children, easy-going, family, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, planning, positivity, relaxing, small stuff, summer, vacation
I have spent many a summer trying to keep kids entertained on a tight budget. Here are some of my favorites that we have done through out the years!
Fun In The Sprinkler
This is probably the easiest Way to have fun during the summer. The only additional cost is a bit added on to your water bill. However, your yard probably needs to be watered anyways, so why not let the kids play while the yard gets watered! Get the kids into their suits and put on plenty of sunscreen. Make sure you get into your suit and get your sunscreen on too. I know I can’t resist playing with my kids, but more often than not they will fall and need me to come and rescue them from being sprayed by the water at some point or another, so I always like to be prepared to get wet myself. Play time in the sprinkler is a great way to play with water guns and beach balls as well.
Craft Projects
Summer is a great time to play outside in the sun. However, many times it is just too hot to be outside. For days like this, find a great indoor activity! Crafts are a wonderful and inexpensive way to enjoy being indoors. Here are a few of my favorite summer craft projects!
1. Patriotic Crafts – With all of the patriotic holidays that happen to fall during the summer, it is a great time to work on patriotic crafts with the kids. This gives you an opportunity to explain the meaning of these holidays and he significance of the craft project for that holiday.
2. Outdoor crafts – These are crafts that are not necessarily done outdoors. They are crafts about the outdoors. You can make suns out of construction paper. If you live near the beach, you can make beach scenes in bottles with some sand and sea shells that you gather during a beach trip. You can gather flowers and press them or dry them. You can even make flowers from construction paper for an arrangement that will never need watering!
3. Sea life crafts – It is so fun to make underwater creatures as a craft. Fish, octopus, starfish, shells, you can make tons of different undersea animals and you can make tons of things from those animals! Picture frames, mobiles, calendars, the possibilities are only as limited as your imagination!
Summer School
I know the last thing that the kids are going to want to think about during the summer is school, but school will be back in session before you know it. You don’t want them to forget everything they learned the prior school year, and if possible you want to get them ahead of the game for the next year! It is a good idea to take a little time each day to go over the thing they learned next year and to prepare them for the new lessons coming in the next grade level. Reading books is a good way to keep them learning. You can also print out worksheets for them in a variety of subjects. There are several home school web sites that have free print outs available for you. You can also purchase a summer workbook that will have daily activities for your child according to their grade level.
Go on an Outing
A change of scenery is a good way to break the boredom. This change of scenery can be as simple as going to a park for a picnic. You can also go to a community pool, to visit relatives out of town, to the local zoo, or a children’s museum. If your kids are older you can even take a trip to a history museum or an art museum, these are great ways to keep them learning during the summer and have fun doing it!
Mix it Up
Normally you are the person making breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mix it up a bit, and have the kids help out with making the meals! You could choose one meal for them to help with each day or just one day that they get to help, whatever works best for you and your family. My kids love spending time helping out in the kitchen. Give them a task that is age appropriate. It could be measuring out some ingredients, cutting up ingredients, mixing up a batter or putting items into the bowl or pot. You can even let them help pick what you eat. This is a great Way to make grocery shopping with the kids easier too! They will be on a mission to get the items they need for their special meal!
Five simple tips, five days in every week, just pick a tip each day and your summer will fly by! You know what they say, time flies when you are having fun! With these tips, your summer will be more fun than ever before and it will all be inexpensive! Enjoy your summer filled with fun!
Leave a Comment
July 21, 2014 at 3:24 pm (Inspirational, Kids, Life, Love, Parenting)
Tags: attitude, calm, children, easy-going, family, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, love, marriage, parenting, positivity
I am the mother of three great kids. It amazes me how when I am with each one individually they are so different than when the other children are with us. Sometimes it seems that I am dealing with three little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s. The problem is they are all wanting my attention and my attention gets stretched out as much as possible, but at times it still isn’t enough to go around.
I began to try to figure out ways to help fight back against sibling rivalry in our house. Here are a few tips that I have found extremely helpful!
Comparisons
Let me start off by saying that “never” is not a word that I use lightly. So when I tell you this tip, please realize how serious it is. Never compare your children to one another. This is so easy to do and not realize that you are even comparing them. Think back to the last time you told your kids to clean their rooms. One child got the job done quickly, and the other child took much longer. When you check in on the slower child, what did you say? Did you say something along the lines of, “I am so glad that you are taking your time and getting the job done the right way.” Or did your statement sound more like this, “Why is this not finished yet? Your sister/brother finished her/his room over an hour ago!” If you said something similar to the second statement, then you were comparing your kids. Even if you are the perfect parent, your children are going to compete against one another. That is inevitable, however, the better we can get at not comparing our children to one another, the less the children will feel the need to be better than the other. The best thing to remember is that each child is different and one child may be better at one task than the other, but that other child is going to be great at another task. Recognize these differences, and acknowledge that your child is doing their best at each task, or push them to strive for their best no matter what the task is! All you want is that child’s personal best, which may not necessarily be the same as your other child.
Falling into this same category, is playing favorites. This can not help any sibling rivalry situation. The only thing that playing favorites will do is make things much worse! Beware of favoring a certain child over another. Your children do notice it no matter what age they are, ad chances are they will not forget it.
Cooperate, don’t compete
Let’s use dinner as an example for this tip. I know I have children who like to dawdle at the dinner table. Instead of having the children try to beat each other to finish first, set a timer. The children can each try to beat the clock and finish eating their dinner before the time is up. This way they are not competing against each other. This works the same for picking up toys, books or clearing the table. Whatever the chore or task, this timer trick will work. Not only does it keep the children from competing, but it also helps them to cooperate with each other on many occasions. An added bonus with the timer trick, it turns just about anything into a fun activity. Cooperation works when it comes to fun projects too, not just the difficult stuff. If you are having the children make something for a holiday gift, have them all cooperate to make one gift instead of having each of them make their own gift. This way each child can use his or her own strengths and not feel like someone else did a better job.
Routine
If you find that your children are arguing at the same time each day, then it may be a time to change your daily routine. Something as simple as moving dinner up by half an hour can make a huge difference in the way your children react to one another. Making sure that you have a set schedule for your day makes children feel secure because they know when to expect meals, bath, bed, and any other activities that your family does on a daily basis.
Attention
The main reason that siblings bicker is because they want the attention of the parents. It does not matter what kind of attention they get, as long as they are getting attention. To a child, any attention is better than no attention. So a child will get attention any way that they can. Sometimes children will achieve the attention they crave in positive ways, other times in negative ways. You need to teach your children that negative attention is not the appropriate way to gain time with you as a parent. Negative actions will have negative consequences. The same must happen for positive actions, reward those with a positive reenforcement. There are always going to be circumstances when negative actions will happen. No child is perfect, and they will do bad things. This is one of the many ways that a child learns. It is our job as parents to help guide them toward making more positive choices rather than negative choices.
Family Time
An easy way to fight back against sibling rivalry is to show your children how much fun you can all have together as a family. Family time is a blast for everyone. Decide on a weekly or monthly activity that you all can enjoy as a family. It could be a ball game, a day at the park, a trip to the zoo or museum, a movie, or even a game night. See my other articles to find great ways to enjoy family time together.
Time & Space
Children need to have individual time to themselves or with a parent. Having time alone to do what they want without a sibling joining in or tagging along can change a child’s attitude around completely. I know that I need time to myself on occasion and this can be important for children as well. Each child should have their own time in their own space and not be interrupted during this time. Also, time just you and each child on an individual basis is just as important. Sometimes children are more willing to open up and discuss situations that are troubling them or even things that they are proud of if it is only you and your child. They need to have solo time with each parent so they have time to connect with each of you and feel important to each of you.
Even if you follow each of these tips, arguments will happen between siblings. The best thing to do in this situation is to sit and talk with your children about the best ways to handle conflict. This varies from one family to the next. Some families prefer children to work things out on their own, other parents want to be involved in the solutions. It all depends on which way works best for your family.
Even with sibling rivalry, my life would not be the same if I didn’t have my sister, and your children’s lives would not be without their siblings. I can’t imagine growing up all alone, without my sister. Life just would have been missing something! Arguments or not, siblings are something to be treasured and loved. Remind your kids of that when conflicts do arise. One day they will appreciate these life lessons that they were able to learn early on thanks to their siblings!
Leave a Comment
July 21, 2014 at 2:29 pm (Kids, Life, Love, Marriage, Parenting)
Tags: children, easy-going, family, family fun, family game night, fun, game, game night, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, love, marriage, parenting, positivity, small stuff
For the past few years, my family of 5 have had a weekly family night. I am sure we had family nights before this, but it was not necessarily a weekly occasion. This family night has become something that our children look forward to each week. We chose Friday as our night for family night. It seemed to work best for us and our schedules.
Since starting our family night, we have done a variety of things to enjoy this family time. Our favorite thing to do by far is play games! Playing games together is such a wonderful experience. It is a great time to teach your children about life, and a great time for you to learn from them as well. Here are some of our favorites.
Yahtzee
The game of Yahtzee has been around since 1956. It is a classic dice game. The object of the game is to get as many points as possible by rolling 5 dice into certain combinations. Some of these combinations are 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, full house, straights, and Yahtzee (also known as 5 of a kind). There is also another way to earn points with the dice, by rolling as many of each number at a time as possible. If you were to roll four ones, you would choose whether or not to count that as 4 of a kind, or as your score for your ones. The game is over once all of the score boxes are filled. If you do not roll a certain combination then you take a 0 for that score box. This game is by far our families favorite game to play on family night. The kids learn about numbers, counting, and winning and losing. They have a blast rolling the dice. Even our youngest enjoys the game! Amazingly, she wins most times that we play. It must be beginners luck!
Uno
This card game was introduced in 1971. You must have a special deck of cards in order to play. The deck has 4 different colors and special cards. The object of the game is simple, be the first one to use all of your cards! Just don’t forget to say “uno” when you only have one card left, or else you will have to draw two cards. This game is a great game for all ages. My almost 4 year old can play with only a little bit of help. This game can be long, so make sure you are prepared for that. last time we played I was hoping for an early night and we played Uno for several hours. It was a blast the whole time though!
Life
That is the game, of course! This game was first on the market in 1860, however was revamped to the version we all know today in 1960. This was one of my favorites when I was a child. You get in your car and literally move your way through life. You go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, the whole nine yards! It is so much fun to play with your children even when they are small. They giggle and laugh about all of the different things that The Game of Life throws their way.
Pictionary
This team play game is a blast for those families out there with artistic ability, or even families without it! Your team has to guess what you are drawing. This can be much more difficult than you would think!
Scattergories
This game is best for families with older children. The rules say it is for ages 12 and up. This is a fast paced game where you must think of items in certain categories that all start with the same letter. It seems easy, but it is actually rather difficult at times. It is so funny to hear what each team comes up with each round. I have played this game and laughed so hard I was crying. It truly is a blast for any family to play!
Charades
To play this game, you do not need to buy a special deck of cards, or even a board or dice. It is all about your own creative imagination and how well you can act out your thoughts. This is also a better game for older children. I have tried to play it with my younger ones and it seems to just frustrate them more than they enjoy it. This is another game that will have you all laughing until your sides hurt.
Battleship
I know, this seems like it is not a family game. It is originally meant for only two people. However, my family of 5 loves playing this together. We will get into teams and play against each other. The teams decide together where to place the ships and where to hit next. It really is a great game to play as a team. the game doesn’t take that long to play either so you could even play more than one round if you wanted!
Twister
This is one for everyone to get up and get moving with! It is a mat with different colors and you have to contort your body in order to put your hands and feet on the right colors without falling. The last one standing wins. Of course, many times this winds up in a big pile up which is just as much fun as winning! This also should be played with players that are all about the same size. If there is an adult falling onto a smaller child, someone could be hurt.
Sorry
The game is called “The game of sweet revenge”, it is family night need I say more? What family member won’t enjoy sabotaging another family member’s game? It is just a blast to play this tricky board game!
Jenga
A tower of toppling blocks make for a very tense time! Each player takes turns pulling out a block from the tower. as long as the tower doesn’t fall the game is still on. You make the tower fall and you lose. This game is great, because each time you play there is only one loser, so everyone else wins. Plus the game does not take a long time to play, so several rounds can be played in the same night.
No matter what game you play, whether it is one of the games I mentioned above, or some other game that your family enjoys, Family Game Night is the perfect way to spend time together as a family!
Leave a Comment
July 21, 2014 at 1:12 pm (Cooking, Life, Planning, Product Review)
Tags: book review, busy family, calm, children, cooking, cooking from scratch, dinner, family, food, freezer meals, happier place, healthy living, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, marriage, menu, oamc, once a month cooking, planning, positivity, product review
One day a few years ago I was talking with a good friend of mine. I mentioned to her that I was considering trying out freezer cooking. she told me she had the perfect thing for me. She gave me a book called frozen Assets: how to cook for a day and eat for a month, by Deborah Taylor-Hough. I was totally intrigued! I could not wait to start reading the book.
I sat down and started reading through the book as soon as I got home and settled. The first page in the book is tons of praise for this book and the plan that is inside of it. This only excited me more. As I read through the introduction and the first few chapters my mind began to race with all of the possibilities. I have always loved cooking for my family, it was something that my mother always did for us and I wanted to continue this with my family. However, many nights myself and my husband were just too worn out to cook anything, or had forgotten to take something out of the freezer to thaw out. We started getting take out or getting bored with convenience foods from the freezer section of the grocery store.
The first time we tried cooking for the freezer, we were mere novices. We purchased several whole chickens from the store while they were on sale. Came home and processed the meat into our own home made chicken nuggets. Fried them, cooled them and then froze them. it was simple, but it took us forever to just accomplish this one bag of home made frozen chicken nuggets. Now whenever my kids wanted chicken nuggets, I could just pull our home made nuggets from the freezer and heat them up. This was the beginning of our love of freezer cooking, also known as once a month cooking or OAMC.
My husband was sitting next to me in the living room as I read the Frozen Assets book for the first time. As I read I kept speaking out loud saying things like “Wow”, “Oh! that is awesome!”. “how easy!”, and other countless exclamations. He stopped what he was doing and was allowing me to share all of these tips with him as I read them. He was just as excited about this as I was. The idea of saving money on our groceries was thrilling for both of us. Especially with the constantly rising costs that come with raising three children.
Their are so many wonderful things about this book. It is really hard to break it down into one short article. I am going to go over some of the main points that make this book the best resource for freezer cooking.
FAQs
If you have questions about anything to do with once a month cooking, this book will answer them. All of the questions I had were answered withing the first few chapters. I even had questions answered that I didn’t have yet! She goes over each and every thing in detail. the questions range from my freezer is too small, all the way to what tools you will need to cook the meals. Deborah Taylor-Hough has this down to a science and she is sharing all of her knowledge with the readers of this book.
The Plan
The third chapter of this book is probably my favorite part of the book. She describes in detail her monthly cooking session. She begins the chapter with planning out her monthly menu. She goes on to describe how she prepares for her big cooking session right down to how much money she spent at the store for all of her supplies including a list of everything that she purchased! This shows you how much money this can save you. It is truly money saving and that is clearly explained in this book. No more wondering about saving money by freezer cooking! There are also several tips for how to plan out your meals and how to do your shopping as well as many other countless tidbits!
The Recipes
What I find so amazing about this book is the volume of recipes! Deborah lays out the recipes, the grocery list, and how many meals each recipe will make. She tells you how to prepare for each recipe. However, one of the best things is how the recipes are set up in the book. Not only will you find recipes for individual freezer meals, but you will find full thirty day meal plans. It is literally a step by step guide on having your first month of freezer meals done. All you have to do is follow along with the book and you are done in a weekend! She even has holiday meal plans, so you won’t get over extended during the holidays either!
Whether you are a seasoned freezer meal maker, or someone just thinking about getting started with OAMC, this is definitely a book for you! You will be sure to find helpful tips on every page! It has changed how I cook for my family, and I am sure it will change your ways too!
Leave a Comment
April 27, 2013 at 2:31 am (Cooking, Healthy Living, Inspirational, Kids, Life, Parenting, Planning)
Tags: cooking, cooking from scratch, diet, dieting, easy-going, family, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, healthy living, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, menu, planning, positivity, relaxing, small stuff
I just want to say how much fun it was waking up to breakfast already made each morning. However, four nights in a row of cooking again after dinner really tired me out! I do plan to make crock pot breakfasts again, but I will limit it to once a week or possibly every other week, or once a month even. Depending on how my kids did on their standardized tests … I may do the whole week again on testing weeks. But I’m not certain on that just yet.
Here’s a wrap up of the menu from the week of crock pot breakfasts,
Tuesday – Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole
Wednesday – Crock Pot Cinnamon French Toast
Thursday – Crock Pot Breakfast Cobbler
Friday – Crock Pot Breakfast Potatoes
The only recipe that was not liked by my entire family was Tuesday morning’s breakfast casserole. However, with some tweaking I think I could fix it to make it liked by all of us. I have asked everyone in the family and the votes turned out to be almost unanimous.
Grace – Cinnamon French Toast
Cameron – Cinnamon French Toast
Melody – Cinnamon French Toast
Larry – Cinnamon French Toast
Me – Breakfast Cobbler
The Cinnamon French Toast came in a VERY close second for me though. Larry said he can’t make a good vote because he didn’t get any of the Breakfast Cobbler.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about this week, was having a theme to blog about for several days in a row. I am still contemplating on what my next theme will be. If you have any suggestions on topics that you may want to hear about, please comment and let me know your thoughts.
Leave a Comment
April 26, 2013 at 1:50 am (Cooking, Healthy Living, Inspirational, Kids, Life, Love, Marriage, Parenting, Planning)
Tags: attitude, calm, cooking, cooking from scratch, diet, easy-going, family, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, healthy living, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, menu, planning, positivity, small stuff
The Crock Pot Cobbler was a BIG hit! It was super delicious and I wish I had more of it ready so I could eat it again tomorrow. Definitely try that recipe!!!!!
Tonight we made Crock Pot Breakfast Potatoes. Here is the recipe.
Crockpot Breakfast Potatoes Recipe
What You Need
• 4 potatoes, sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces American or cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
What To Do
1. Prepare inside of crockpot with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Layer potatoes, butter, onion, bacon, cheese in crockpot. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, ending with a layer of cheese.
3. Cover crockpot and cook on low, 8-10 hours.
My hubby is incredibly excited about this one. He loves bacon and he loves potatoes. I’m pretty sure that this one will be his favorite of the whole week. We shall see what the verdict is tomorrow though! Thanks to http://www.allcrockpotrecipes.com/breakfast/crockpot-breakfast-potatoes.shtml for this recipe.
tune in to tomorrow night’s post for everyone’s opinions of their favorite recipe for the week.
Leave a Comment
April 25, 2013 at 1:04 am (Cooking, Healthy Living, Inspirational, Kids, Life, Parenting, Planning)
Tags: attitude, calm, cooking, cooking from scratch, diet, dinner, easy-going, family, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, healthy living, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, menu, planning, positivity, relaxing, small stuff
Yesterday’s recipe for Crock Pot Cinnamon French Toast was a HUGE success! It was delicious and got rave reviews from my entire family. All 3 kids loved it, and the hubby and I loved it too! We will definitely be making this one again sometime soon.
Tonight I will be putting together a Crock Pot Breakfast Cobbler. We are pretty pumped about this one. The kids are thrilled because cobbler sounds like dessert to them and they think dessert for breakfast sounds like a wonderful idea. Ha ha! The flavors in this dish sound so comforting and delicious to me and it also has lots of healthy stay with you food in it and that makes me happy! After they eat this breakfast, I know their beautiful brains won’t starting wandering off during the big test thinking about food because they are hungry.
Here is the recipe:
Crock Pot Breakfast Cobbler
What You Need
• 4 medium apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 cups Granola cereal
What To Do
1. Prepare inside of crockpot with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Add apples to crockpot.
3. Mix in remaining ingredients.
4. Cover; set crockpot to low and cook overnight, 7-9 hours. (Note: Cooks in 2-3 hours on high.)
Serving suggestion: Serve with milk.
Thanks to http://www.allcrockpotrecipes.com/breakfast/crockpot-breakfast-cobbler.shtml for this recipe. I will post a review of this recipe tomorrow night. Last night’s recipe was kid tested, mom approved, and dad approved too!
Leave a Comment
April 24, 2013 at 1:30 am (Cooking, Healthy Living, Inspirational, Kids, Life, Love, Marriage, Parenting, Planning)
Tags: brain food, breakfast, calm, control, cooking, cooking from scratch, cup brown sugar, diet, dozen eggs, easy-going, family, food, french toast casserole, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, healthy living, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, love, marriage, menu, planning, positivity, relationships, small stuff
In yesterday’s blog post on the Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole, I promised to let you all know my kids’ opinions on the casserole. All 5 of us ate the casserole for breakfast this morning. However, only 3 out of the 5 of us liked the casserole. My older 2 kids both said the casserole tasted good, however, they didn’t like the texture of it. I think that next time I will let the bread dry out a bit before I put the casserole together. Maybe that will help with the texture issue?
Tonight I am putting together Slow Cooker Cinnamon French Toast for tomorrow morning’s Brain Food Breakfast. Here’s the recipe:
Cinnamon French Toast Casserole
Ingredients:
2 16oz. loaves cinnamon swirl bread, sliced into 1/4’s and left to dry over night (or for a few hours)
1 dozen eggs
4 cups milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
Directions:
Spray the crock with non-stick spray! Place all the bread in the slow cooker.
Mix all of the remaining ingredients together and pour it over the bread.
Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. Admire the smell while it cooks! The last 1/2 hour or so, remove the lid to let the moisture absorb some. Dust with powdered sugar, a dollop of whipped cream and/or drizzle with syrup when serving!
Thanks to http://newbaltimore.patch.com/blog_posts/slow-cooker-cinnamon-french-toast-casserole for this recipe.
I plan to cut this recipe in half because I’m only serving the 5 of us. I can’t wait to taste it because it sounds delicious!
By the way, today was a wonderful day. The kids all feel like their first day of testing went very well. Work went well, and I had a nice break in the middle of the day. My hubby took me out for lunch! We just went to a fast food place so it wasn’t anything fancy. However, getting to spend even 30 minutes with him in the middle of the day makes a bad day better, and makes a good day great. I know, we are a mushy couple and that annoys a lot of people. We love it though. We feel so happy that we have a connection and relationship where we can show affection and enjoy each others company all of the time.
Yesterday’s tip was to enjoy the small things. Today, I am telling you not to be afraid to show love and affection to the one that you love.
Leave a Comment
April 23, 2013 at 2:21 am (Cooking, Healthy Living, Inspirational, Kids, Life, Parenting, Planning)
Tags: attitude, calm, coffee, cooking, cooking from scratch, diet, dinner, easy-going, family, good day, happier place, happiness, happy times, healthy living, inspirational, inspriational, kids, life, menu, planning, positivity, small stuff
This week my kids have standardized tests. My hubby, Larry, and I wanted to make sure the kids had a good hearty breakfast before their big tests each day. However, I am not at all a morning person and my husband leaves long before we get up. That meant we had to find another way to get them that good brain food breakfast. I turned to my favorite appliance that I believe every busy mom should have, my crock pot!
I searched on Bing for Crock pot Breakfast Recipes and found a multitude of ideas and suggestions. I let the kids pick which recipes they wanted us to try. We decided to start with a Crock pot Breakfast Casserole. Larry and I just finished putting the casserole together in the crock pot. I will tell you guys how it tasted in tomorrow’s blog with tomorrow’s recipe.
Here’s the recipe.
Crock pot Breakfast Casserole
What You Need
• 6 eggs, eggs
• 10 slices of bread
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 pound sausage
• Salt and pepper
• Yellow mustard (optional)
What To Do
1. In a skillet, brown the sausage and crumble. Drain fat.
2. Spread mustard on one side of bread and cut bread in quarters (or just cut plain break into quarters if you’re skipping the mustard).
3. Beat eggs and milk together, along with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Spray nonstick cooking spray on inside of crock pot. Layer bread, cheese and sausage inside crock pot.
5. Pour milk/egg over top. Cover. Cook on low 8-12 hours.
Thanks to the web site http://www.allcrockpotrecipes.com/breakfast/crockpot-breakfast-casserole.shtml for this recipe. I can’t wait to hear what the kids think about this breakfast. I really feel like it’s the small things like this that leave an impression with my kids. Sure they remember the big stuff, but I love it when they come to me and say “Hey mom remember that time … ” and they are 80% of the time talking about one of the small moments that we have shared together as a family.
Take time for the small moments. You will cherish them forever.
Leave a Comment
« Older entries
spinningonthewebb 