Craft Time

Here is an quick and easy craft to keep little ones busy for a bit.

 I used some left over crumpled up tissue paper and white copy paper to make a counting craft project for my little one. I wrote out the numbers 1-5 and drew the appropriate amount of circles for each number. The idea is to paint glue on the little circles (fine motor skills) and glue the crumpled tissue paper in each circle (counting practice & number and color recognition). Big sister also had fun getting to play teacher for a while.

Christmas Candy

 We saw this recipe on Money Saving Mom and I wasn't really impressed with the ingredients. I mean candy from saltine crackers? Doesn't sound very good, but after reading all the wonderful comments about how addicting and marvelous it was we decided to give it a try. The finished product was, well, it was saltine crackers with butter, sugar, and chocolate on top. Surprise! I'm still not very impressed and the good news is I'm not addicted either! This candy is nothing fancy, but it uses common ingredients and was easy for my daughter to make. If you need a quick and easy dessert it would work out well. I think adding chopped nuts to the top would make a nice addition. Enjoy!

Christmas Candy

1 sleeve saltine crackers

1 stick of butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups chocolate chips
chopped nuts - optional

Lay out saltine crackers on a cookie sheet. Melt butter over low heat and stir in brown sugar until nice and gooey. Spread butter/sugar mixture over the crackers. Bake at 350 until hot and bubbly. Pour chocolate chips over the top. Let sit a few minutes so they start melting. Spread chocolate out evenly with a spatula. Place in freezer for and hour or two until hardened. Break into bite size pieces. Store in refrigerator.

Weekly House Cleaning Schedules

 Back in the days of one small child I was able to keep my house clean, laundry clean and put away, and dinner cooked without a schedule. I didn't wake up and wonder what needed to be done that day. I just got up and did it. Fast forward to now~four kids later~ it takes a lot of planning for me to stay on top of things. Without a schedule I will wander around in circles not knowing what to do. Well, maybe I know what needs to be done. It's just overwhelming to think about or maybe when I do think of a task to do I get distracted and then forgot what I was doing. One of my new year's goals is to get back on schedule! I find a weekly cleaning schedule works best for me. Mine looks like this:


Daily~
Make bed.
Start a load of laundry
Empty dishwasher
Spend 30-60 min on one specific cleaning task


Monday~ Bathrooms  (I only clean my own bathroom, the kids are responsible for theirs.)
Wipe down sinks and counters. Clean mirrors. Scrub toilet and bathtubs. Empty trash. Clean floors.
It's a good idea to keep some cleaning supplies under the sink so you can do a quick touch up if needed during the week. Spend 10 min. working on a deeper cleaning job~ under sink, baseboards, etc.


Tuesday~ Bedrooms (kids are responsible for their own rooms)
Wash sheets. Clean clutter off dressers. Dust. Look over closet and straighten up clothes. Spend 10 min. de-cluttering.


Wednesday~ Kitchen
Empty and wipe out refrigerator. Clean all clutter off counters and wipe down counters. Wipe out microwave. Sweep and mop floor. Wipe off the fronts of appliances and cabinets. Empty trash. Pick one cabinet or drawer that needs organizing and spend 10 min. working on it.


Thursday~ Vacuum
Vacuum or sweep all floors. Dust family rooms and any other rooms that need it. Spend 10 min. de-cluttering and organizing these spaces.


Friday~ Extra Rooms and Meal Planning
Write out next weeks meal plan. Catch up on any missed cleaning. Work on laundry room, pantry, guest room, and/or playroom. These rooms should have been dusted and vacuumed on Thursday, but might need a little more attention.

A clean house just seems to make for a more peaceful home. Maybe I'm just a nicer mom and wife when everything seems clean and under control. :) If you are behind on your cleaning you might need to spend a couple hours each day for a few weeks focusing on each specific area to get it under control.

Check out this website for a more detailed weekly plan.

Rare Egg Coupon!

You can print a coupon for $.55 off 2 one dozen cartons of eggs at cellfire.com under 'printable coupons'. This will double at Kroger to $1.10! 

Star Wars Legos @ Aldi

We stopped by Aldi yesterday and found these Star Wars Legos marked way down.

 Legos never go on clearance so this was a pretty exciting find. I guess they had these in stock for Christmas and are now trying to get rid of them. My kids *love* legos and so do their friends so these will make great presents for someone. They had other lego sets marked down too. I went by Target last night and looked to see what these were selling for there:
Freeco Speeder  Aldi~ $6.99   Target~ $24.99
Snow Trooper  Aldi~ $3.99  Target~ $11.99
Check at your local Aldi soon to see if you can find some great Lego deals.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

I took advantage of the pumpkin deal on Amazon and now I am in search of great pumpkin recipes. This is one of my favorites. These muffins don't taste like your typical pumpkin recipe because they lack all the pumpkin pie spices. They freeze well too.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 16oz. can pumpkin

1 1/2 cups oil

3 cups flour ( I like to use 1 cup unbleached all purpose white and 2 cups freshly ground wheat)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups chocolate chips

In a large bowl beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil. Add in dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill muffins cups 3/4 full and bake at 400 degrees about 10-15 min. Makes 36 muffins.

Homemade Playdough

I came across this playdough recipe the other day and decided to give it a try. It's the best playdough recipe I've tried. You can add in food coloring, spices, glitter, or extracts. We added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and some glitter to ours. I wouldn't recommend adding the spices if you have little ones. My 2 year old thought it was food. It did smell like a cinnamon roll. 

Homemade Playdough
 1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
1 T. vegetable oil
1 T. cream of tarter
1 c. water
Mix all ingredients together in saucepan. After you've mixed them together turn heat on medium high and cook, stirring constantly, until dough forms into a ball. Remove from heat and knead until smooth. If the dough is too sticky you can knead in a little more flour. Store in a covered container or plastic bag.