Slices of Life

What a fun and easy list assignment this week:  list the things you keep in your purse / handbag.   I typically have a pretty small purse but somehow I manage to put quite a bit into it.  I am one of those people who feels the need to always be prepared "just in case!"   Now I know this list is a bit long but I actually do carry around a fairly small purse- honest! Keys Cell Phone Wallet Small first aid kit/ stash of band aids (I have 3 boys!) Gum Sunglasses A tiny make up kit with lip gloss, blush and a nail file Pen Mini hair brush A Book (usually) A small camera Travel pack of tissues  What do you keep in your purse? Others in this series: Week #1; Words that Touch My Soul Week #2: Greatest Comforts Week #3: Things You Should Be Proud Of Week #4: Current and Future Goals and Dreams Week #5: What You Are Grateful For Week #6: The Ways In Which You Can Love Others Week #7: The Things That Make You Feel Health...

I saw this recipe  a few weeks ago that layered Twinkies, chopped strawberries and cool whip and thought that sounded AMAZING! We ended up picking fresh strawberries Thursday night and with a family reunion planned for the weekend I knew I wanted to make a yummy dessert with them.  I had no Twinkies on hand but the grocery store had had Yodels on sale and thinking I'd make something with them this summer I had picked up a few boxes. An idea started forming.... I love mixing chocolate and berries; either raspberries or strawberries work well paired with chocolate, and so I started to wonder if I could come up with something mixing Yodels and strawberries together. So I started prepping. I cleaned and cut up 4 cups of strawberries and added 1 cup of granulated sugar to them.  I let them sit so they'd made a syrup and turned my attention to the Yodels. I knew I could just lay them out in the pan like they had done with the Twinkies but thought that ...

We've been trying to lighten our load and find our fun, carefree, summer days again. I think we finally did it this week!  We had fun but stuck pretty close to home most days.  The weather was beautiful this week too! Friday we had a lot of friends and family member over for the day; playing in the lake, swimming and having water gun fights.  It was nice to see my boys interacting more with some different friends.  They had spent the morning helping me get ready.  We made blueberry white chocolate chip cookies ( recipe found here ) and the two younger boys decided to drag out some art supplies while we waited.  Evan painted while Alec worked on another Stained Glass Made Easy kit. Evan finished another dragon picture We spent all day anxiously awaited the return of my husband after his long week away at work.  We celebrated with some pizza and pool fun. Monday we met my sister and nephews at the beach.  It was a beautiful...

This week's list assignment was pretty simple: List Your Favorite Meals ... because I am a total unabashed foodie!  I love cooking and trying out new recipes and my list of favorites is often changing too. My only problem was narrowing the list down. I finally decided that much like my favorite snacks list I had to divide my list up. Which means... In SPRING/SUMMER my favorite meals are: cheeseburgers with corn on the cob and salad grilled chicken with grilled potatoes and squash casserole Pasta salad with grilled steak strips and freshly shelled peas Clam cakes and chowder Fish and chips Cold sandwiches and grinders with chips Waffles with cinnamon butter, strawberries, and whipped cream pita chips, hummus and fresh veggies with dip sliced French bread with smoked Gouda cheese and an apple A large garden salad with all the fixings; especially with fresh berries on top!  Anything made with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese; I just love that comb...

I've spent the last week or so working on simplifying our summer even more.  For some reason I am not finding our summer all that relaxing or enjoyable.  I have this constant feeling of stress and being pressed for time... that is not what our summers are usually like at all! Our summers are usually pretty relaxed: My kids take a break from all their scheduled activities and we focus on spending time with family and friends swimming and playing together. We cut back on almost all of our schoolwork and just try to work on a few pages in math and do some reading on those days we have time (3-4 days a week).   We rarely take field trips unless they are to a park or a beach.  We leave the zoos, museums and other "school type" trips for the fall.   We put on bathing suits, play in the lake and enjoy good old fashioned family fun.  But this year I'm finding that even this laid back schedule is feeling stressful.   Partly, I know...

We made some tin can windsocks yesterday and they were so simple and fun!  I just love how this 100 Days of Art Challenge is pushing us to try new ideas each week! To make tin can windsocks you will need: clean, empty tin cans with one end completely opened spray paint hot glue ribbon (we used all different colors and sizes) Popsicle stick (for pushing ribbon into hot glue without burning fingers) Hammer & nail for making holes to hang them up String/ twine  We cleaned out some large tin cans and made sure they were dry before the boys settled down to spray paint them.   They love using spray paint and this time they experimented with using more than one color each.  I stood back and while I gave a few pointers so that they didn't end up with huge drips of paint I let them work on their own.  We set the cans aside to dry in the sun and I had them pick out some ribbon.  We figured the circumference of our cans...

My younger two boys have been obsessed with dragons for quite some time.  We've read so many books about dragons and have come across some really great ones. Here are our 10 favorite books about dragons: 1.   The Dragon in the Sock Drawer -- When two kids find a dragon egg they decide to hatch and raise their very own dragon in secret.  It's hard not to fall in love with baby talking dragon Emee and the kids find that raising a dragon in secret is not all that easy. 2.   How to Train Your Dragon -- We listened to every book in this series on CD and my enjoyed them tremendously (even though they are vastly different from the movies).  They are funny and somehow Toothless and Hiccup manage to save the day each and every time; despite having the odds stacked against them. 3.   Wings of Fire -- My middle son has read all 8 books in this series and is anxiously awaiting book 9 to come out this winter.  Set in a land of dragons with seven disti...