I know you moms out there will be jealous but . . .

. . .  my kids have been obsessed with cleaning lately.  Hailey, as of late, has been begging me to clean.  Thankfully we make our own cleaning supplies so I don't have to worry about her cleaning with toxic products.  She is constantly cleaning the windows, scrubbing the floors, you name it, and I am not about to tell her no.  Then when she starts cleaning, the others follow suit and join in.  Here is Carson pitching in by sweeping the floors with baby in tow.  I put these extra pictures of him on here because he just developed this new idea of throwing his head back as far as it will go when I go to take his picture.  I don't know where he got the idea, but what are you going to do!  Oh, and yes Carson is without pants.  He just kept sitting down to take them off so I finally just gave up! :)

Happy National Blueberry Pancake Day!

Yep!  It's true!  It's National Blueberry Pancake Day!  Give you one guess what we had for dinner . . . did you figure it out?  That's right!  Blueberry pancakes.  We deviated from our normal pancake recipe and decided to try something new, oatmeal blueberry pancakes.  You can find the recipe here.  They turned out pretty good, but the original recipe didn't call for salt so I would definitely add salt to it next time.  I added it on the recipe that I posted on our food blog.  Also, if you are trying to eliminate high fructose corn syrup from your diet like we are you know how difficult it is to find syrup without any in it!  Poor Mrs. Butterworth will no longer be found on our shelves.  Her sweet, thick,  buttery goodness will surely be missed but we found a replacement.  It doesn't have the buttery flavor, but it tastes pretty good.  My kids can't even tell the difference and let me tell you, they are picky eaters.  So what's our secret.  Mapleine.  Yes, you heard me right!  Mapleine.  You can find it where you would find vanilla and it comes in this old school container. 

I know it sounds weird, but it's good.  Trust me!  You boil a cup of water, mix in 2 cups of sugar, and then stir in a half a teaspoon of mapleine.  Come on, just try it! You know you wanna! :)

You might be a homeschooling family if . . .

... you go for lunch at the Japanese Steakhouse and end up teaching your 6 yr old niece a Chemistry Lesson by putting ice on the grill, and explaining...solid to liquid to gas!  Her mom, my sis-in-law scolded her when she saw her putting her piece of ice on the grill and she said,  "But Mom, we're doing chemistry, see ?!"

... you are in a grocery store with your six year old who is reading signs and a lady comes up, asks how your daughter knew what the sign read and the daughter answers, "Well, with some of the words I used whole language and with some I used phonics, but the little ones were all sight words I learned a long time ago."

... setting the table for dinner involves finding another place for the cardboard box of baby chicks that were rescued from a nature walk, then  getting up frequently during the meal to monitor the  temperature in the box, interrupting the meal to look for an alternative heat source because the temperature in the box had dropped below 85 degrees. (The hanging lamp over the dining room table had been lowered to the box on the table to keep the chicks warm.  Moving the box, meant leaving their source of heat.)

... you pack up a van with 3 other friends and drive through three states to a place that offers used computers, craft and paper supplies, and used office furniture because it is all FREE!  :-)

... visiting grandparents far away and school just continues.

... Your son skins his knee, and after making sure that he is okay, you encourage him to notice the different epidermal layers!!!

... Instead of the song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes", you modify it to "Cranium, Mandible, Clavicle, Scapula; Clavicle, Scapula"!!!(or in our house we do different languages)

... you are always asked "Why aren't your children in school?" to which you reply "They are." when you are out and about.

.. Your 4 year old tells your mother that butterfly caterpillars make a chrysalis, not a cocoon. He knows this because he watched it happen. Your 12 year old can name 20 species of butterflies and has seen, and or "raised" most of them.

... your kids are outside on a sunny spring weekday making plaster Paris animal tracks while all the other kids in the neighborhood are in school.

... your bookcases look like the reference section of the library.

Just thought these were pretty funny and oh so true!  I know that our formal dining room is no longer a dining room.  It is "lovingly" called the classroom! :)

Happy National Chocolate Cake Day!

That's right!  You heard it!  It is National Chocolate Cake Day!  A total and 100% legitimate thing.  So it gave me a great excuse to make chocolate cupcakes.  Like I need an excuse to bake something! :)  So here are the most scrumptious, moist, rich . . . are your mouths watering yet . . . cupcakes in the world.  Alright, so maybe not in the world.  But in my world they are.  If you want the recipe just check out my recipe blog.

I've been tagged!

I have to admit I have already done this tag before, but my friend tagged me and it's an easy tag so I thought I would do it again.  Plus, I just cleaned out my computer so it will be a different picture this time.  Here's what you do . . . Go to my pictures, go to the fourth file, and post the fourth picture.  So here you go . . .

I just posted this picture yesterday on our homeschool blog.  This is the girls making their bunny faces after reading The Velveteen Rabbit.  They turned out super cute, but I won't show you the finished product since I am only supposed to post the fourth file, fourth picture.  So if you want to see that you'll just have to check out our homeschool blog.

Now I tag . . . 

Janna Grossnickle

Kim Myers

Rachel H.

Kate Sautter

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

So I don't normally post recipes on this blog.  I usually put them on Our Family's Favorite Recipes blog.  But I decided to put it on here because there is a story that goes with this bread.  Last night after the kids went to bed I put the bread in the oven.  Now, normally I make our bread for the week on Sundays so the kids are pretty used to the aroma of our normal bread.  But this time around the heavenly aroma of cinnamon and sugar filled the house and all of a sudden Robb and I hear our oldest at the top of the stairs.  Now mind you we thought she was asleep, but alas, she was not!   So this is what we hear . . .

Hailey: "Mom . . . Dad?"

Us: "WHAT!!!????"

Hailey: "I smell something!"

Us: "Go to bed!"

Hailey: "But I smell something!"

Us: SHHHHHH!!!!!!

Hailey: "It smells like cinnamon and sugar."

Us: (holding back a laugh) "Go back to bed!"

Hailey: with a depressed tone "O.K."

Us:  "Goodnight, Love You!"

We thought it was so funny!  You can't blame her though.  It smelled amazing and tasted even better.  O.k., so I guess I won't post the recipe on here.  For the recipe visit our recipe blog.  

Homeschooling

For those of you that follow our homeschool blog I know we have been MIA for a while, what with the holidays and all that.  But don't worry!  We have still been doing the work, just not the blogging.  It has just been that one extra thing to worry about.  But guess what?  We're back!!!!  So if you are even remotely interested check it out!  That's all!!!!

Quality Time Together

Robb was a little curious about the whole chocolate mask thing so the two of us did it together.  I think he secretly liked it, even though he kept asking, "When can I wash this off?"  Then, thanks to one of my friends, we each had a piece of chocolate cheesecake.  And to finish off the evening, we found a $5 movie at Walmart and are about to go watch it in bed.  You can't get much more quality than that, right?  Maybe one of these days we will actually find a babysitter and venture outside of our home for quality time.  But for right now this was really fun and so relaxing.   Not to mention tasty . . . the cheesecake, not the mask.  :)

Spa Night

So last night I hosted a spa night!  I don't know about those that came, but I had a great time!  I made all of the treatments at home and most of them were awesome.  Here are the recipes that I used . . .

Foot and Leg Scrub

This is pretty much amazing.  My feet and legs even this morning still felt soooo soft.  And it's so easy to make.

Needed:

Brown sugar

White sugar

Almond oil

Orange essential oil (optional)

Mix one cup brown sugar with one cup white sugar.  Slowly add almond oil to the sugar until it starts to look like a thick paste.  Add a few drops of orange essential oil, fragrance oil, or soap fragrance until it smells just right.  I use orange essential oil and it smelled awesome.  Orange scent is a natural antidepressant so we were a bunch of happy ladies after this. :)

Avocado Honey Mask

I didn't try this one, but those who used it (if they could stand the smell) liked that they could feel it working.

Peel and slice 1 large, ripe avocado and puree it in a blender with enough honey to make a paste.  Apply the mask and leave on for 20 to 30 minutes then rinse off with warm water.

Chocolate Mask

This one is amazing.  It was very soothing.  I also wanted to eat my face.  It was like applying brownie batter.  

1/3 cup cocoa

2 tbls. or more of heavy cream

1/4 cup honey

3 tbls. oatmeal powder.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Mix the ingredients together until you achieve the consistency of pudding, suitable for applying to your face.   Allow the mask to sit for 20 minutes then rinse of with lukewarm water.

We also made our own lip balm.  This was kind of silly and a bit of an experiment.  I think that it works pretty well though. All you need is beeswax, coconut oil, and if you want Vitamin E capsules for preservation, and any scent you might want.  I like just the plain coconut scent though.  I used equal parts of beeswax and coconut oil and melted it in double boiler.  I think I would probably add more coconut oil next time to make it a little softer.  After melting, cut your vitamin e pill in half and pour it's contents into your wax, oil mixture.  Then add any scenting you want and then pour into suitable containers.  

I really liked making my own products because I know exactly what's in it.  NO WIERD CHEMICALS.   

Again, it was a lot of fun and I hope those that came had a good time.  

Confession

I have a confession to make.  We are huge Mario Kart fans!  We use the excuse that it is our kids that really want to play, but they're not the real reason.  We LOVE Mario Kart!!!!  When we play we sound like complete nerds.  I didn't realize how nerdy we sounded until we had some of my family come and visit and we were using actual Mario Kart terms.  We play online with my husbands family every Thursday following The Office (another confession about The Office to follow) J/K!!  I know there must be others out there like us, but sometimes it gets lonely as an addict. :)  Maybe we could start a Mario Kart Anonymous support group!  Anyone want to join?

Request

We have had a few requests to put pictures up of this so here it is.  This has been our most recent project.  Well, on going project.  We are changing all the trim in our house from oak to white.  We decided to start in the living room.  About 8 months ago we painted the living room in two tones with the intention of putting up chair rail.  Well we never got around to putting up the rail.  So a couple of weeks ago, I told my husband that if he wouldn't commit to helping me put up the chair rail and change the molding that I was going to paint it one color.  He didn't want to do that so he committed and we finally got it done.  Here is the finished product.  I love, love, love the wider base board.  I was a little nervous about my color choice, but once we put up the chair rail I fell in love.  The pictures do not do it justice.  It looks awesome, if I do say so myself.  I can't wait to do the base boards in the rest of the house.  But the retaining wall in the backyard might need to come first before we continue on.  We'll have to see. 

Finally a page!

I finally got adobe photoshop so I was FINALLY able to do a page!  So of course I had to do a twilight page!  This is a page about the Breaking Dawn book signing my sister and I went to.  Kind of simple, but I thought it was cool that I could find free digital twilight scrapbooking stuff online.  Too much fun!

Dang it!!!!

I can't tell you how annoyed I am right now at myself!  I threw my back out!  Right in the middle of painting a ton of trim, painting the guest room, cleaning the house, trying to get a cake company up and running . . . there are just to many things to list.  It's my own fault though.  My own stupid, idiotic fault.  I tried to pick up the coffee table in the living room without removing any of the stuff on it that was so perfectly placed.  I know what you are thinking, STUPID!!!  I told you stupid and idiotic.  Well, now I am paying the price for my idiocy and am walking like my father.  I never thought it would come to this.  I am young and walking like I am an old woman.  I can't stand it.  I only hope it goes away soon.  The entryway to my house is calling me to paint it and I don't know if I am patient enough to wait!

What do you do for New Years?

This is what we did! :)  My dad, as of late, has been collecting guns.  While we were visiting he bought a new one.  It is from WW2, includes a bayonet, and actually works.  For New Years we were at my parents house and we had some friends over and of course my dad had to show off his new gun.  

Here is one of my best friends from growing up!  I am so glad I got to spend some time with her.  We had a lot of fun.  Well, at least I did!

We were going to put the girls to bed earlier, but they were having so much fun with cousins that I didn't even realize what time it was.  I think it was around 10:30 when they finally started to run low on energy.  They didn't even get cranky, they just sort of curled up and fell asleep.  We all had so much fun and thanks mom and dad for hosting. 

The Big Wait

This is Christmas morning.  When we woke up the power was out so there was a rush to get candles lit, lanters out and put in a call to the power company before the festivities could begin. So here are the kids waiting to go downstairs to see what Santa left for them.  One of the cousins isn't in the picture because she was still asleep.  Can I just say how jealous I am of my sister-in-law who has kids that sleep in?  Amazing!  Anyways, they did really good at being patient at the top of the stairs, but were very glad when they were finally allowed downstairs.  Oh . . . and might I add that these girls have awesome morning hair.  They look amazing! :)

Santa Came

Here is the loot that Santa left behind!  The real hit was the cozy coupe car that Carson received.  He didn't want to get out!  It was pretty cute.  Hailey's big gift was a barbie motorhome and Emma got a playdough work station.  We had a lot of fun, but by the time we were done we were all exhausted as evident from the picture of my sister-in-law Amanda and nephew Mason.