Foodie Friday ::: Two for the Price of One (Steak Fajitas & PW Apple Dumplings

Two recipes a week won't be the norm for my little recipe project, but last Saturday we had two winners that deserved inclusion so I made recipe cards for both of them. The first was a simple recipe for Steak Fajitas that I found in an old issue of Kraft Food Magazine in my cupboard. What sold me on this recipe is the little marinade for the steak - A-1 and a little salsa. Yum. These went over well with my husband who had spent close to eight hours working outside at the old house that day (mowing, edging, trimming, tilling the garden, etc.) He was bushed and this hit the spot for him.



Next up ... Apple Dumplings made famous by the Pioneer Woman. These are unbelieveably simple and amazing. You can read the whole run down on the recipe here on her blog, but know that I didn't change a thing. I feel that the vanilla ice cream on the side is required, but it's completely optional. We had these for dessert Saturday night after our fajitas and had quite a bit left over on Sunday. My family normally joins us for Sunday lunch and we hadn't gotten the lunch plates cleared off the table when my Dad asked if there was any of that dessert from the night before left. (I had posted a picture on Facebook and said it was my treat after getting all four kids bathed). The leftovers were reheated in the microwave and immediately devoured.

If you need a simple dessert, this is your guy. Make these. : )


Happy Friday! We're off to take a little six-month-old boy to the dr. for his check up. This time is going by so fast!

God Gave Us the World

I was recently sent a copy of God Gave Us the World by Lisa Tawn Bergren from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. (I've written about two of her other books here.) This story is in the same vein as her other books in this series - a little polar bear poses a fairly significant theological question to Mama Bear and the resulting answer and dialogue is this book. In God Gave Us the World, Little Bear asks his mama if all bears look just like them. This opens the door for Mama to explain about how creative our great God is, not just with all the different kinds of bears, but also the different environments around the world in which those bears live.

I loved these lines from the book: "...the world reflects God's work. How big, big BIG he is. Goad can do anything. and if he's capable of anything, why would he make us all polar bears?"

This is a wonderful book that would be a very simple resource to open a child's eyes to seeing God's hand all throughout creation. Also, there are a couple lines at the end of the book on taking care of the world that God gave us which gives a nice environmental aspect at a young child's level.

We enjoyed this book and I know we will enjoy it many more times in the future.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. Thank you!

Relationship

My husband and I laughed out loud when we saw this picture. It is a spot-on portrayal of the relationship between little boy and littlest girl. She is a little bit crazy and loud and more crazy and he gets a little bit frustrated. It's all good though. I figure in a few years she will be the only one still fast enough to keep up with him when he really gets going.

Celebrating April Fool's with Reading to Know!

My friend Carrie is anxiously (and I do mean anxiously) awaiting the arrival of her third baby! To make the time pass more quickly she is having a whole slew of giveaways today on her blog, Reading to Know! Her blog is a favorite of mine as we are very like-minded in our reading.

Carrie ... praying that Bookworm3 makes her arrival very, very soon, if not today!!

Foodie Friday :: BBQ Beef & Rice Tacos

Week 2 in my recipe revamp project! This recipe is one that I love and credit for this goes to Kate over at Cooking During Stolen Moments. If you have not discovered her blog, you are missing out. She posts GREAT recipes that are easy and good. And what I most love is that she will break down the recipe into steps that you can take throughout the day to make the recipe so that you aren't trying to prepare the whole thing during the twilight hour. (Twilight hour - defined as that magical hour between about 4:30 and 6 p.m. when children and mama are hungry, tired, irritable, and the world has shifted a little on its axis.) : )

Anyway, this is one that used to be in our rotation very regularly and slipped off. I rediscovered it last week as I was perusing the cupboards for what I could make which the limited groceries I had on hand. Fortunately, all these ingredients are generally staples around here or this can be easily tweaked to work. You can read Kate's original walk-through of the recipe here, but below is the 4x6 card I printed for my own recipe project. (I apologize for the small font ... still trying to figure out how to make this work on one card). I made a few tweaks to the recipe when I made it this week - I was out of frozen corn so I used a can of cream corn, used dried minced onion from the cabinet, and left out the red pepper flakes. Still good!



Happy Foodie Friday! Today is my catch-up day around the house - N1 is off to her tutorial, laundry is whirring, and tonight we are having pizza and family movie night with the movie Tangled. None of us have seen it and to say that we have excited little girls here would be a HUGE understatement!

Flying By

Littlest one is having a slow morning playing with her little people and sporting some seriously skinned knees. There has been LOTS of bike riding when the weather has cooperated and this kid is FAST. Don't tell her she can't keep up with her big sisters. : )

You can definitely tell that last week was spring break ... I have had very little extra time on the computer this week and thus blogging has fallen by the wayside. We have forty days of school left which still takes us in to mid-May, but forty means the end is in sight. I'm also working on school plans for next year ... brainstorming things that I want to do with the girls this summer and writing down each and every curriculum idea that I have for the fall ... which will then be whittled down to what is actually doable. : )

One question I have for those that homeschool out there ... how do you set your school calendar? Do you follow (even loosely) the local school system? Is it set by the co-op or tutorial you are part of? I'm thinking through how I want to plan next year since I will be on my own. I know I do better if I have breaks every so often so I'm trying to decide if I should lay out out our work so that we break every 8 weeks, do a 4-day week and take Fridays off (or make them 1/2 days), etc. Do you have a system that has worked for you? I'd love to hear them!

More soon ... : )

Foodie Friday

Twice this week I have needed to have a dessert prepared for something - definitely not the norm. I typically don't have lots of desserts around the house besides the ever-present ingredients for chocolate chip cookies because (a) I am a salty person and would rather dive into a bowl of popcorn or bowl of chex mix and (b) if there is dessert then I eat it. : )

That said, I remembered this recipe that I had been given and dug it out. Super easy and super quick.




You will want to make sure and lick the leftover drizzled coconut milk out of the bottom of the pan after eating the cake. Yummmmm. : )

I'm working on a project to organize my recipes and I think a little Friday blogging project called Foodie Friday may be born out of it to help me keep up with it. If you want to snag the recipe card above for personal use, feel free!

Read-Aloud Thursdays: The Saturdays

We finished up our latest chapter book last week - The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright. This book is the first in a series of four about the Melendy children - Mona, Rush, Miranda, and Oliver. Set in the mid-1900's (around the beginning of WWII) this book chronicles that Saturday adventures of this creative and adventurous four-some. On a rainy dreary Saturday, the children were bemoaning the fact that there was nothing to do. Randy, in a fit of inspiration, came up with the idea that if they pooled their allowances (giving them a grand total of $1.60!), they could each, in turn, have a Saturday adventure of their choosing. The choices are as varied as the personality of the children. Rush (the musical one) chose a concert, Randy visited an art exhibit, and Oliver went to the circus (with a few mishaps along the way).

As we have read these books from several decades ago, I am always amazed at the amount of freedom that the children had. They go into the "city", ride buses and subways, feeling perfectly safe and confident on their outings. Much different than today!

We enjoyed this story so much that we voted to continue on to book two in the series, The Four Story Mistake, and we'll hopefully report back on it in the near future.

This post is linked up to Amy's Read Aloud Thursday over at Hope is the Word!

Pretties

A few recent favorites:



Pilot Liquid Ink Pens ... I used to be able to find these at Office Depot. Now, I can only find them on Jet Pens website. Love these for scrapbooking. They write like a ballpoint but are acid free.



I love all these banners that I see everywhere now. Apparently this is the latest in decorating and scrapbooking and I love how something so simple can be so versatile. I'm thinking that I need to make me a few notecards and notesheets with some banners across the top. These are from Crystal Wilkerson's latest kit releases here.



I think this Japanese tape is so fun! I have a couple rolls of it, and it's pretty addictive to use. The tape above is from this etsy shop.



I have mentioned before how much I love Crystal Wilkerson's digital designs. She has made a few some digital scrapbooking elements and kits to help a friend who's daughter was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. For as little as a dollar (although you can definitely give more!) you can visit the blog of One Happy Mama and download some of Crystal's handiwork and help a family.



My Dad bought us a Keurig coffee maker as a "new house goodie" and I am a little smitten with it. The machine and I have a standing date around 3:30 in the afternoon when I'm in a serious slump in focus and energy and I don't see us splitting up anytime soon. : ) Totally not something that was a need, but we have thoroughly enjoy it. Thanks, Dad. : )

The Nightstand

Now that the business if moving is behind us and we are enjoying a gorgeous week of weather for spring break, I am just itching to do some reading. But, alas, finding the time has been the issue of late! However, that doesn't mean that I don't have a to-read list percolating. :)

On my want-to read list right now is:
:: The Strong Willed Child by Dobson (A-hem.)
:: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp - it's taking me way to long to finish this and not because it's not excellent!
:: The Moffats by Eleanor Estes - want to preread this for girls.
:: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan - I recently finished the Percy Jackson series and am still on the fence on these books. There's no denying that they are hard to put down but at what age would I let a child read it. (Probably not as early as a lot of kids do read them). I think these could be a fun addition to a study on Greek mythology for a middle schooler if discussed.
:: The Mysterious Benedict Society - I am leaning towards reading the first book in this series with N1 this summer. I can buy the whole series on my Kindle right now for only $9.99 which is a killer deal since I only have the first book. It's calling to me. :)

Well, that's enough to keep me busy for a while now if I can find me a chunk of time to read! Any recommendations that I should add to my list?

Linked up to Five Minutes for Books monthly Nightstand carnival!

What Weekends are For

Lots of this going on around here this weekend. N1 figured out how to ride her bike as a two-wheeler last weekend. Just hopped on the neighbor's and took off so off went the training wheels! At our old house the only place that the girls had to ride their bikes were in the backyard so I'm guessing the introduction of sidewalks, driveway and cul-de-sac has helped with stability so she could make the switch.



First time hanging out in the yard with the girls. I was amazed at how fast he could spin around on his tummy and creep himself over to get at the grass. Ai-yi-yi. Not really ready for him to be quite that mobile yet.



The first grass on our toes. He loved it and kept trying to reach it.






Riding the neighbor's Barbie Jeep out in the backyard / common area. These two were in some state of bliss wheeling around out there.


Happy Monday!