Indoor Pumpkin Craft

(When you apply a face on an upside down jar think it through first)

  This is an easy way to bring that glow into your house!  My disclaimer: I may or may not be a hoarder.  My littlest one hasn't eaten baby food in years.

For this project I pulled out old glass baby food jars and plastic ones as well.  I didn't know which one would work better so I used one of each.  The plastic leftover cups from fruit may work to depending on the height.

  I  addition to the jars you need:

                            tissue paper (and glue)

                                   paint

  The glass jar was painted.

The plastic jar was glued and scraps of torn tissue paper was applied to it.

Orange was the name of the game since these were supposed to be pumpkins.  Red and yellow paint on the glass jar to give me orange and I layered yellow tissue paper first then red on the plastic jar for an orange glow.

Cutout your faces.

Add your light device under the jar.

You now have indoor pumpkins less the mess, and clean up.

Mealplan 10/31-11/3

It's a new week and time to eat!  Last week our favorite meal was

 Fiesta Ranch Chicken Pasta.

I have two days this week that I would like to specifically plan around.  Halloween I want something quick and easy to get our dinner done so we can get out and about and Wednesday as well.

I did miss last week's Thursday meal as Chinese take out replaced that meal so that will be carried over as well. 

10/31  Sausage 

Spaghetti 

11/1 Chicken

http://bowl-me-over.com/chicken-fried-rice/

11/2 Breakfast

http://goldilockskitchen.com/2016/08/corned-beef-hash-huevos-rancheros.html?pp=0

11/3  Crockpot 

http://eatathomecooks.com/2012/03/slow-cooked-brown-sugar-chicken-and-sweet-potatoes-4-ingredients/?m

Two new recipes, and 1 crockpot meal.  You can never go wrong with a crockpot meal!  What at your dinner plans for the week?

Weekly Recap

  Little man was learning the letter f this week.

 

our craft was 

Frankenstein!

I finally finished one book and started a new one.

I followed through with 3 out of 4 meals.  My favorite and new to us was the Black Bean Chipotle Burger.

Happily pushed out 10 miles on my bike yesterday which helps me greatly with biking goals I have set for myself.

What did you accomplish last week or want to accomplish this week?

Letter F preschool

  This week little man was learning the letter F.  F is a fun letter.  It makes you describe just as many things as you can find beginning with that letter.  For example f is for fun and food.  So that leads to everything!

This activity has him follow the phrase I read to him and circle the F's.

A basic math sheet.  He is able to count the objects and circle he appropriate number.

He likes to use the dot makers.  For this activity I try to encourage him to make contact with all circles.  So a slow deliberate movement is involved here.

F is for fingerprints.  A ink pad and the letter f!

This is the first page of his workbook.  It changes with each letter but offers a image to trace and  few of the upper and lower case letters to trace.

This was a first for us with this type of worksheet.  Numbers 1-6 with 6 different colors.  He had to color the number the appropriate color.  Of course he cant read the color but, he can identify the numbers.

Lastly was our Frankenstein craft! Super easy craft, seasonal fun and used with all supplies I had on hand.

Letter F is finished and its time for a new letter next week.

October Ipsy Bag (review)

  You know where social media fails?  In the element of surprise.  If your order a monthly subscription you are guaranteed to see it posted on someone elses page before you get yours.  #disappointment I never look on purpose to the spoiler alerts for the contents or the bag!  Luckily this bag when I saw it for the first time was so darn cute that I let the accidentally view of it slide.

Lets take a closer examination of the contents!

The bag is a light color pink with witches, candy corn, vampire teeth, and other Halloween theme pictures.  The bags are my favorite part of the Ipsy subscription and this bag is my favorite!

Look at the keep ghost charm on the zipper.  He is a little smaller then my thumb.  He is all black with heart shape eyes and is a great way to open the bag!

Shade Y445 was my shade.  This ultra HD foundation was by Make Up For Ever does closely resemble my natural skin tone.  I love how Ipsy nails the perfect color without even seeing me in person!  This sample is left my face feeling light with he makeup on.  The bottle had a pump top!  

My sample of Dirty Girl by Pur was a 0.5 FL oz tube.  This facial mud mask is detoxifying  with pascalite clay.    Apply this to your face and let it sit for a period of time and wash it off.  It does dry on your face like any other mud mask.  Rinse off and feel the results of a cleaner face!

Vintage eyeshadow by Jessica Liebeskind in the shade of vanilla/espresso.

Fierce Flicks by Ciaté eyeliner number 266 shade black.  This liquid felt tip eyeliner will give you the precision you want.

  Lastly is my full size lipstick.  Lets start with the box from Teeez Cosmetics and then the tube itself.  Hello beautiful!  The images are so pretty and pop with character.  The tube is a brilliant gold and clear with more images! My lipstick shade Romantic Red is perfect for the fall!

  That's my Ipsy bag for October.  2 more bags for the year and I look forward to what they have in them (and the bags too)!

Frankenstein is for letter F (craft)

  So we are learning the letter f and I only seems fitting to make an appropriate craft representing the said letter F and in keeping with the season; making it Frankenstein!

He is really easy to make and definitely one "f" related craft I wouldn't have made or thought of in September!

Basic supplies you may already have on hand include:

                    green and black paper

toilet paper roll

a large black pompom

googly eyes

and pipe cleaners! 

Measure your green paper to the wrap around the tube and glue into place.  Cut a small strip of black paper with various jagged edges for the hair line and glue on the top of the tube as well as the eyes.  

I cut the pipe cleaner in half then half again.  I then twisted it and folded to make a t-shape.  I made a hole on each side of the head with the tip of scissors and inserted  them into the sides of the head.

I made stitches for his face.  One large strip with smaller strips placed over them and glued in place.  The mouth is also a black line with more stitches.

Lastly, I popped the black pompom on to the top of the tube to finish it off as his hair!

My son really liked making this.  He likes monsters and shh don't tell him he was learning and perfecting his glue skills, and hand and eye coordination!

5 Reasons to Meal Plan

  There are multiple reasons to meal plan.  It does require some organization but your in charge of that.  Whether you want to have a specific theme every Tuesday (Taco Tuesday) or every week you will have a meatless meal.

  Your plan is catered to your needs.  First look at the week ahead.  Do you have any late appointments and if so planning for something quick those nights will help. Frozen pizza or breakfast for dinner work just fine.

1.  It will save you money.  If you have that willpower to drive past that fast food restaurant at 530.

2.  It's healthier for you.   I can agree with this partially because it depends on what you make.  To me a Chipotle salad rates pretty high in the healthy department. Brown Sugar Pork Chops not so much.

3.  You have time.  It doesn't take hours if you don't want it too.  You can cook what you know and what you always do.  I like to torture myself with new recipes.

4.  You feel lifted as the stress of "What's for dinner?", is taken care of. When you get up to start your day you already have a plan for dinner time in the evening.  All day you can relax because you already know what dinner is going to be.  You have the food organized, defrosting or cooking in the crockpot.  You are as good as done with dinner.

5.  Learning is fun!  The more cooking you do; the more home cooking you do you learn different recipes, styles and techniques.  I have learned new chopping features on my food processor.  Tried Gnocchi (and love it)!  I have even almost perfected my roux skills!

  These are only a few reasons.  I am sure there are more reasons of why to meal plan but let's stick with the basics.  What intimidates you about meal plans?

Meal plan 10/24-10/28

  As I go into another week I can't help but be excited as to all the food that I have cooked at home, the successful new recipes, and that my month is almost over and it's time to go shopping!

  Last week we did eat out for dinner so I picked which meal I was keeping and moved one meal to this week.  It works out as I had two pasta nights and that move made one pasta night for each week.

10/24 chicken
 http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/2014/04/fiesta-ranch-chicken-pasta-bake.html?m=1

10/25 meatless
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/vegetables/black-bean-chipotle-burgerx/

10/26 Breakfast
http://damndelicious.net/2013/06/12/breakfast

10/27
http://goldilockskitchen.com/2016/08/corned-beef-hash-huevos-rancheros.html?pp=0

10/29 Leftovers

There you have it! Atleast 2 of these meals are new to us so we shall see how that goes too!  That's what we are eating in my house; what's for dinner in yours?

Weekly Recap 10/23

  Last week I stayed busy and on task between crafts, school with my son, and dinner!  What was really exciting was starting our week off catching a rocket in the sky!  I missed the shot in the sky but it is forever in our memories!

                     (Photo credit to NASA)

I am still reading The Husband's Secret but hope to be done soon.

On deck is The Silent Wife.

  Do you see a theme here?  I had seen a post for it somewhere and selected this as my next read.

Dinner for the week did include a meal out on Tuesday as it was Pink Receipt Day at Chick Fil A.  I moved one recipe to the next day and one recipe got rolled over to next week.

Salmon Alfredo

Cobb salad (Chick Fil A)

Zucchini burgers

Meatloaf

Crafts were in an abundance to include items I made outside my house.

We made mummies, a pumpkin and ghost!

I had fun at my first ladies night out at Home Depot making this Snowman and  decorated a mason jar at my MOPS meetup

   

School with little man was letter E this week.

I look forward to fine tuning this crafting thing and seeing if I can pull off some crafty gifts for the holidays.  I have read a lot lately and plan on keeping this hobby up.  I would like to change somethings up with little man's schooling so we will see how that goes.  Dinner for next week is already to go and I'm excited to go grocery shopping soon!

I hope you had a good week and good luck to both of us for next week.