All about "F"

After a couple of weeks of being busy, my daughter and I worked on the letter "F" this week.

We talked about how to escape the house if there was a fire. We talked about not playing with the gas stove or with matches and candles.

We read and talked about two different things from the Bible...Feeding the 5,000 and the fruit of spirit.

We colored several different flags and even talked about the difference of our state flag and the USA flag.

We ate french fries, french toast with a fork, and fruit.

We played leap frog with friends and football with brothers.

We looked at books and colored pictures of flowers and fish. While we were at the doctor's office last week we watched the fish in the fish tank!

We spent time together with family and talked about some day living on a farm.

We did up a mini book on words that start with F along with other letter F activities.

We finished off the week with putting together a file folder into a shutterbook of letter F pictures.

Christmas Homemade Gifts

Do you like homemade gifts from others?

I like to make gifts from my kitchen for friends, neighbors and even my relatives!

Warning: Please keep the drool to yourself! and don't read the sites on an empty stomach!

Mrs. Claus Cookbook

Busy Cooks


Crafty DIY Gifts

Works For Me Wednesday

Are you thinking about getting a new cell phone for Christmas? If so, do you know what you are going to do with your old one? Do you have a cellphone that doesn't work anymore that is just collecting dust? Don't let it sit in a drawer or on top of your fridge collecting dust!

Recycle them!! I know of two places that would LOVE to have your old cellphones!

First...

CellPhones for Soldiers --it is a non-profit organization founded by a couple of teenagers from the Boston area. They take old cellphones and send the phones to a place that recycles them and in turn the teens take the money and turn it into prepaid calling card minutes for the troops stationed overseas! You can find prepaid postage labels at their site along with a printable donation page for tax purposes. OR you can find a local drop off site for your old cellphone. OR you can send them the phone on your dime.

Second...

Safe Haven Ministries--this is a Christian non profit organization that provide a safe place for women that are victims of domestic violence. The money they get from recycling the phones provides every one of their every client who needs one gets a cell phone for 911 use. You can find the address and more information here for this ministry.


Getting rid of clutter by recycling my old cellphones works for me!

To find out what works for others, head over to Shannon's blog--Rocks in My Dryer!

Blessings from a Friend!

So I had a friend that I don't get to see very often email me a couple of weeks ago to ask me if I could use some clothes for my boys! I told her "sure", I could use some clothes especially for my "growing weed" aka oldest son! In her email, she told me that she would be in my area in a couple of weeks, well she came by on Friday with her "loot"! Her "loot" consisted of a 10 gallon tub without its lid, an 18 gallon tub without its lid, and 2 1/2-13 gallon trashbags of clothes!(I wish I had gotten a picture of the stash before I went through it all!)

I feel overwhelmed and extremely blessed by all that she brought to us! It was like Christmas around here for all four of my older kids. I took the time to go through everything and divided it into piles of the different sizes. Here are the results...

Here is a purse/bag that she made out of a pair of old jean shorts and a Land's End parka! My daughter loves the purse! As for the coat that fits my daughter for this winter, which she needed!

These are all the shirts that fit my oldest son! Actually there is a sweater, a hooded sweatshirt, long sleeve and short sleeve shirts. The shirts are either dress shirts or knit shirts!

These are the stacks of 24 dress/cargo pants, 6 pairs of jeans, 5 jean shorts, 4 dress/cargo shorts, and a bathing suit that are for my oldest son, who happens to be in 16/18 slim or 27x30 student size pants!! If you have boys, you know that getting second hand pants with no holes is a rarity! Well out of all of these there was only a couple that really looked loved the rest were in excellent condition! There was even a pair with the tags still on the pants!

This is the stacks that will fit son #2!! There is a sport coat, a hooded sweatshirt along with several shirts and pants. There was a pair of pants in his stacks with the tags still on too!

These are the stacks for son #3!! There was 2 sport coats and a dress overcoat, along with several sweaters, shorts, pants, short and long sleeve shirts!

Now for the results of what I kept and what I decided to pass on because one doesn't need a TON of clothes! Most of the pants in son #3's stash were size 8, which is one size too small for him so those pants I am giving to another friend who has 4 boys!

All those pants and shorts for oldest son, I went through them with him and we are going to be keeping about 1/2 of them! The rest are going to other friends, whose oldest only had one pair of good jeans that fit him.

So while it is sooo fun and overwhelming getting all these clothes for my children, I know that the excess of my blessing will be blessing someone else in return. I told my friends who I gave the excess to that if they didn't want them or couldn't use them they were to bless someone else or make sure they ended up in our church's clothing closet ministry.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday--Pantry Meals #2

I was asked again to bring a meal to a family at my church. When I do meals for others I usually make more of what I am fixing for my family's dinner. However, today I am doing something else to take to the family. I am doing one of my pantry meals! I have talked before about pantry meals and the benefits of having items on hand.

So today I thought I would share with another one of my pantry meals!

On the menu....



Cheesy Tuna Mac

1 box Mac & Cheese dinner

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp. butter/margarine

1 6oz can tuna in water

1 can cream of chicken soup

2-3 tbsp. minced onions

2 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. garlic powder

Cook the macaroni according to package directions; drain. Stir in the milk, butter and contents of cheese packet. Add soup, tuna, onions and spices. Mix togther. Cook covered at 350° for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until heated through.

With taking this to the family, I will have it put altogether and cooked for the 20 minutes so that all she has to do is bake it for the additional minutes to heat it through.

To go along with the main dish, I will have a bag of frozen peas, homemade crusty rolls(do the dough up in my breadmachine and bake it in the oven) and frosted sugar cookies.

French Bread or Crusty French Rolls(2 lb loaf or 18 crusty rolls)....
11 1/2 ounces of 80° water(1 1/4 cups + 3 Tbsp.)
4 cups bread flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast OR 2 tsp. bread machine/fast rise yeast

Add liquid ingredients to bread machine pan. Add dry ingredients. Put the butter/margarine in the corners of the pan. Set machine on dough setting. Once done, place dough onto floured surface. Let rest for 15 minutes. Shape dough into bread loaf. Let rise for 30 minutes. Put on a greased cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 350° for 15-20 minutes or til golden brown.

Notes: I didn't grease my cookie sheet, because of using my stoneware cookie sheet. I used 2 tsp. of instant yeast(some of the 2-1lb.packs that you can get at Sam's Club for cheaper than buying the 3 packs of yeast in the grocery store!)

The cookies are sugar cookies(used a cookie mix pouch that I got in my deal shopping) and about 1/4-1/2 container of store bought frosting for the whole batch of 24 cookies and then harvest/autumn sprinkles.

Just to give a breakdown on the cost of the meal...

• Cheesy Tuna Mac $2.50
• Crusty Rolls $1.00
• bag of frozen peas 50¢
• 12 frosted sugar cookies 63¢

Grand Total: $4.63
**prices are all "deal" prices!**