Theme of the week: Love

This week our Lesson theme for church is love so I decided to incorporate it into some fun crafts as Valentine's Day is coming up. We stopped at Walmart and picked up a package of foam hearts that link together. A package of 30 hearts was less than $5.00. I picked up a couple extra fine tip Sharpie markers to write of the hearts.

I had the boys look up the Bible verses in several translations of the Bible.

Cameron used his Deep Blue Kids' Bible in the Common English Translation and copied 2 verses on to the hearts alternating white and red.

Nathan used the Children's NIV to look up verses and write on his hearts.

He wasn't happy with me, but showed me his hearts anyway. (gotta love that face)

My crazy guy showing his hearts (he kept moving them)

We will continue the hearts this week and next and then display them across the dinning room windows.

It was a Meatless Monday

 Quick and easy was the key to this lunch.
I warmed up 2 Spicy Black Bean Burgers to create a simple healthy lunch wrap.

A layer of loosely chopped lettuce, a couple grape tomatoes, 2 Spicy Black Bean Burgers , a bit of crumbled feta cheese , and a squeeze of fresh lime.

A quick and easy lunch wrap. Next time I think I will chop up the burgers a bit before I add them to the wrap.

It was really that easy.



 I'm a BzzAgent and that I received a product sample, coupon, collateral or other special premium from BzzAgent.

A ring for Mommy

Nathan came in the house from the shop with a surprise for Mommy.

a custom made ring. He created it using a bushing and some solder, He also made the box for it would of duct tape and cotton.

It is too small for my pinky, but that is ok I wore it on a silver chain around my neck so it sits close to my heart.

It is a treasure for sure, because my 7 year old thought of the design and put it together all by himself so Mommy would have new ring for Valentine's Day.

I'm a pretty lucky Mommy to have a special little guy (actually 3 special guys)

Family Favorites: Enchiladas made simple

A couple of years ago I came across a recipe in a Sunday Coupon slick using Campbell's Cream of mushroom soup to make enchiladas, my family loved it. Since then I have modified the recipe and it has become a family favorite.

6 large tortillas
2 cups shredded chicken (I used frozen chicken I had packaged earlier this month from a rotisiery chicken I bought)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups grated  cheddar cheese  divided
1 small can green chilies (mild for family)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup salsa (I used homemade but you can use your favorite)
1 1/2 cups salsa or enchilada sauce

Nathan helped me make dinner tonight to show of the recipe

I love my old school grater especially for cheese. This bowl is the other half of the cheese from the recipe , it will be used for topping.

Combine everything except half the cheese and the salsa or enchilada sauce

Fill each tortilla with about 2/3 cup of filling, roll each into a long casserole pan (I think this is a 9 x 13)

I usually end up with 6 enchiladas, I will often double the batch and freeze one tray for later.

Top with salsa or enchilada sauce

Cover enchiladas with the other half shredded cheese.

Place in a 350' oven and bake for 20 minutes (mostly just to heat everything up and melt the cheese)

Each of the boys will eat 1 , Mike will eat 2 1/2 and I will eat 1 1/2. When the boys get older I'm sure it will be a double batch when I make them.

Serve with salad for a complete meal!

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday Bouncing back into Co-op

Back to Co-op 

Bouncing is always a fun activity to do

V is for Vintage, a field trip

We took a field trip to a local antique mall but before we stopped at our local Walmart for a Subway lunch. Nathan loves going to Subway because he can make his sub exactly the way he wants it.

We arrived at Lafayette Schoolhouse Antique mall as a history lesson. Thankfully there were not a lot of cars or a lot of people at the mall today.

Nathan was captivated by the vintage cars, he was thinking he might like to add a few to his collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.

Mommy on the other hand was dreaming of a new to me couch for the living room, hey a girl can dream can't see.

Nathan found a gate leg table like we have in our hallway, he thought this one was better because it had a drawer in the middle to hide treasures in.

He also found an old Playskool brand wooden take a part truck he thought would be lots of fun, even if he is a little old for that.

Overall he learned about toys and treasures from by gone days and we talked about when the various toys were made and what kinds of things were happening during those eras. 

100 Bible Verses in 2013 week 4

Here we are at week 4 already! I'm including some extra images this week thanks to Marcy from BenandMe
This journey is based on the book 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know' by Robert J. Morgan in 2013. 
This week's verses are both from Romans 


Romans 5:8 
⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9

King James Version (KJV)

⁹ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

I love how Marcy is keeping it simple with index cards and colored pens to write the verses.

Hope you have a great week.

A sneak peek, God's Great Covenant

We received our first review product for the Tos Crew, God's Great Covenant  Old Testament volume 2. We will be using is for Bible as well as part of our History reading.
I am excited to start using this with the boys, listening to the book on cd as well as the student study guide.
Stay tuned for our complete review.

Be My Valentine Marriage Challenge ~Week 1

I am so excited to share this awesome Marriage Challenge from WomenLivingWell.org
Week 1 is simple Take the Initiative and praise your husband.
Courtney suggests simple things such as praise your husband in front of the kids, send him encouraging text messages, offer to say prayer at dinner and praise God for your wonderful husband, if your husband is on Facebook post a public praise on his wall or post a status update praising him.
After I thought about that a little more, I would like to suggest Twitter as another way to praise him publicly  While my husband is not on social media, I can still praise him on social media and on my blog.

I love this man, he has known me for more than 20 years, and stuck with me for the last 10 years of a crazy roller coaster ride we call marriage.

He was there beside me the entire time bringing our first child into this world.

He was beside me and acted as my voice when it came to bringing our second son into this world.

He holds me together when I seem to be falling apart at the seams and he lifts me up when I step out of my comfort zone knowing that it will bring us closer as a family.

He even tags along and drives so I can attend blogging events, I don't know many guys willing to go stand around and listen to a bunch of bloggers talk about food.

Mom's Kitchen Science

This originally appeared December 18, 2012 on Unionvale Mom's Spot , we decided to start sharing some of the fun Mom has in the kitchen here as well. Creating in the kitchen is something Mom loves to do.

A couple of weeks ago I won a collection of Salts of the World during a twitter party. I was pretty excited as I don't win during twitter parties usually.
The package arrived last Friday and has been patiently waiting for us to start using it.
My husband tells me that when I start playing in the kitchen I am like a scientist at work perfecting my next experiment, especially after this summer and all my fermentation fun. When the salts arrived in test tubes we had a good laugh over the forth coming experimenting.

Today I had Pot Roast on the Menu so I took a roast out of the freezer and thawed it for a few hours on the counter and then into the crock pot it went. I seasoned it with The Hawaiian Red , Italian seasoning without salt (good for when you want to play with salt flavors)2 small yellow onions , a a toe of Elephant garlic adding about 2 cups of water and covering it.
As I continued to work on my blogging and social media work for the day, I was continually distracted by this amazing smell coming from the kitchen.

I decided to continue the same salt flavor through the rest of the meal using some to season the potatoes for mashed potatoes and a touch to seasoning the gravy, I will also add a pinch to our veggies.

the orange specs on the potatoes is the salt

There are 6 different salts in the rack, so I figure I will share a different recipe for each one.

While I was given the salt rack as a prize during twitter party, this post and the forth coming posts are in no way sponsored and are something I decided to share with Mom Spot readers.

100 Verses in 2013 Week 3

Week 3
This week's theme is the plan for salvation which worked well with a review I wrote for The Old Schoolhouse Website.

Romans 3:23

King James Version (KJV)

²³ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23

King James Version (KJV)

²³ For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As the boys and I study together we are blessed to know that Christ overcame death and sin on the cross for all of us.

Math Monday with Vintage 3M bookshelf games

I decided to take it easy for Math today, I pulled out a vintage Bookshelf game from 3M I remember playing when I was little, Quinto. I scored this copy of the game at Goodwill awhile back when green was the color of the week so I paid $1.50. The object of the game is to lay down number tile that equal 5 or whose sum is divisible by 5. Playing a fun game of Quinto worked on mental math skills for both boys although Nathan got tired of the game quicker than I had hoped.

We didn't keep score this time as this was the first time either of the boys had seen the game, we just played until all the tiles were played.




Since the tiles are smaller than say scrabble tiles, I held mine in my hand and the boys layed their's on the table hidden from the other one.


Cameron enjoyed himself and is already asking when we get to play again.
Math Mission accomplished for this week! Fun game while working on math facts and improving mental math skills.