Kid's Workshops

We love going to these workshops. I like to let my older kids try to do the project on their own. This gives them a chance to work on following directions. If they skip or alter a step their project won't turn out just right. I'm hoping this is teaching them to pay closer attention to directions.

You can make this window birdhouse at Lowe's on April 23. The birdhouse sticks to your window so you can actually see the nest. Pretty neat. Sign-up here.

Home Depot will be offering this planter/basket on April 2. This looks like a fun spring project. I'm picturing it filled with herbs in little terra cotta pots. Find all the info here.

Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day

Mark your calendars! Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day is April 12, 2011. We rarely go out for ice cream, so this is a special treat. In the past, our local Ben & Jerry's took donations for a local charity and offered customers extra scoops for each $1 donation they made. You can get all the details here.

Free Apron from Red Gold

Sign up here to get a free apron courtesy of Red Gold! This offer is only available to residents of KS, MN, MO, OK, TN, or TX. Available while supplies last.

Kale Smoothie Recipe

I love this kale smoothie recipe! In fact, I have cravings for this smoothie. It's strange how our bodies know good food and crave it. I usually make this in the morning and it gives me lots of energy for the day. My kids also love this smoothie, except my oldest, who was pretty much raised on a processed food diet (my own fault). I'm realizing how important it is to start your kids off on a whole foods diet!!

Start by adding 1.5 cups of coconut milk and 3-4 leaf/stalks of kale in your blender. Blend these together for about 1-2 min, or until you can't see any bits of the Kale.

See how you can't see any bits of Kale? I don't like leaf chunks in my smoothies :)

Next, add 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and blend them for a minute or so. (blueberries will leave little blueberry skin flecks in your smoothie if they are not blended well) Then, add 7-8 frozen strawberries, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 3 Tablespoons of honey. Blend until mixed throughly.

Enjoy!

A whole foods diet can be expensive. Here are some tips to help save money and eat well.

Kale~ Kale one of the cheapest and healthiest lettuces available. I think I paid $1.19 for a whole bunch. That will make about 6 smoothies.

Frozen Berries~ The best place to buy frozen berries is a Sam's or Costco. You can also buy them in season at Aldi for cheap and then freeze them.

Coconut Milk~ There are lots of printable coupons out there for coconut milk and I almost always find coconut milk marked down at my Kroger. I combine the mark down and a coupon to pay less that a dollar for a 1/2 a gallon.

Honey~ I buy local honey by the gallon directly from the farm to save the most money. 

How do you save money on a whole foods diet?

Future Christian Homemakers ~ Lesson 1

Update: Future Christian Homemakers is now charging for their e-book. We will no longer be using this material as our guide, but their lessons are wonderful. The moms in our group will now determine what we cover in each class. I will continue to post about our lessons here. Enjoy!


Lesson one is all about eggs! You can find lesson one here.
Some things we made sure to cover were:

• Wash your hands before cooking
• Pull your hair up, nobody likes hair in their food
• Wear an apron to keep your clothes clean
• Cracking eggs
• Beating eggs
• Egg safety & salmonella
• Washing dishes and clean up

Beating egg mixture

The girls enjoyed making french toast. We fancied up the recipe a bit by adding vanilla and cinnamon. We also used homemade bread. Yum! They served the french toast with orange wedges.

French toast sprinkled with powdered sugar

Clean up time!

Teaching girls to become successful homemakers

Update: These lessons are no longer free :(

I have spent this past year looking for a home economics course and was SO happy when I discovered Future Christian Homemakers! Their FREE lesson plans include cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Did I mention they're free? My daughter is working through the lessons with a small group of girls and their mamas. They have had so much fun cooking together and serving their delicious creations to their siblings. Would you like to join us on this journey of teaching our daughters to become successful homemakers? Please meet us here twice a month, starting Saturday, as we follow along this path together. You can find the first lesson, Cooking with Eggs,  here.

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness."

                                                                                                                                                                                    Proverbs 31:27

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Seeds Monthly Song Download

If you are looking for a way to help your children (and yourself) hide God's Word in their hearts, you need to check out Seeds Family Worship. We love Seeds! You can download the song "Servant of All" for free here.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Mark 9:35

Free Sample of Jergens lotion

Go here to request a sample of Jergens lotion.

Book Review: The Dragon and the Turtle

My kids were very excited when this book arrived in the mail. Who doesn't get excited about dragons and turtles and mail? This was a super cute story about a dragon named Padraig who befriends Roger, the turtle. Roger is lost and trying to find his way home. Padraig lays aside his own plans to help his new friend find his home. We loved the discussion questions and Bible verse included in the back of the book, but our favorite part was the recipe for Chocolate Chip Snappers, Rogers favorite cookie. We had fun reading this book together and then enjoying the cookies we read about afterwards.

Making the cookies

Chocolate Chip Snappers

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All opinions are my own.

Free Tomato Seed Packet

Need help getting started on your veggie garden this spring? Well, sign up here for a free Heinz Tomato Seed Packet courtesy of Heinz and Red Robin.
Thanks, The Big Red Pot!

FREE Gardening Planner Printables

5 Dollar Dinners has some great garden planner printables available. I can never remember when I planted certain things or when they were ready for harvest. The Garden Harvest printable will solve this for me! I just have to remember to fill in it. She also has a garden planner, square foot gardening, and container gardening printable.