Just Another Manic Monday!

You know you wanted that song in your head! ;)

We had a great weekend! Although our plans did get changed, it was still good. On Saturday we were planning to go to the Peach Festival at Schnepf Farms. My brother, sister in law and nieces were going to come also. However, Kaden didn't seem to sleep well and when he got up in the morning he went into the bathroom and threw up. A little bit later after having something to drink he did it again so I called and let my brother know. We have to reschedule. That was the last time he was sick though and he said he felt fine afterwards, so I don't know what was up. I did a little shopping on Saturday anyway, CVS had some deals for me to pick up. :)

On Sunday we went to church. I really love our church! We are in the 4th week of our End of Days series and it has been Awesome!  For the first time in my life I have heard teaching about it the way I have always felt it was stated in the Bible. Every other church I have been to, when talking about the end times, has taught things that I felt did not correlate to what the Bible teaches. I really dislike when a preacher will tell his interpretation of it when it CLEARLY says something else completely. Our first day of the series we were also reminded about false prophets and what makes someone a false prophet. These are things we know but just don't think about all the time. If a person predicts something or tells you this is going to happen and it doesn't, he is a false prophet, that means ONE TIME. He could be right 9 times and wrong once and he is still a false prophet. We should always check someones word against the Bible. ALWAYS. I may be writing more about all this later.

After church we had lunch and came home to relax. Not a lot going on but enough and we also had some time to just rest and relax which we don't always get to do.

So Monday plans! We are already part through the day here! We went to pick up some raw honey I ordered. The kids have played together with balloons for a bit and had lunch. Now Kaden and Meghan are working on puzzles and Ellie is taking a nap. In a bit I will read to them and Meghan will finish her school work for the day. I have to get paperwork filled out for the cake show I am entering. Meghan is going to enter too. The forms are due tomorrow, nothing like waiting until the last minute. I am really good at that lately! I also have some cakes to bake today and then I will see what else on the list we can tackle!

I have a quick menu plan to post too.

Monday- chef salad
Tuesday- lasagna
Wednesday- homemade pizza
Thursday-chicken pot pie
Friday-leftovers
Saturday-beef roast, potatoes and salad
Sunday- left overs or something simple

I am linking my post up at orgjunkie.

What My child is Reading- May 7, 2011

I have decided to join in What My Child Is Reading this week and let you know some of the books we are reading here. I love to see what others are reading and it helps me find new books. :) Right now I have a trip to our local used bookstore planned so I can look for some of those new books.

So here is what we are working on this week!

We have started the Mandie Series. I read these when I was a kid. I don't know where my set went but I have started collecting the books as I see them and we have books one,two and three right now. They are about a Christian girl (almost a teen)  set at the turn of the Century. Her father passes away and she has a lot of challenges to face but there is also a lot of mystery involves and she is always getting into some sort of "situation". I believe there are a lot more books in the series than I have read so I look forward to getting through the one I have read and reading the others too. I think Meghan will enjoy them. Right now we are reading book one Mandie and the Secret Tunnel.

We are also starting to read American Girl's Meet Rebecca. I have never read any American Girl books but I know they are popular. Meghan got this one for her birthday. We are going to read this one and if she likes it I will get her some more. I know there are unit studies based on some of the American Girl books too so if she likes the books we might try one.

Kaden and Ellie are enjoying this one. :) Biscuits Day at the Beach. We have a couple biscuit books which are a big hit with Ellie in particular since she loves everything puppy right now. I would personally like to share some time at the beach! ;)

We also read these Sesame Street ABC board books a lot. The little one choose which ones they want to read each day. These are also puzzle books so they fit into each other. Sometimes I find them making a "track" across the room. We have had these since Meghan was a baby and she loved them when she was little too.

Giveaway: Little House Cookbook- WINNER!!

The WINNER of the Little House Cookbook is..... drum roll please!  Yes just do it....

Kayla!!! Congrats Kayla!! Please email me your mailing address.

Thank you to everyone that entered and all of the great book suggestions. I did not know there were other books related to this series. I can't wait to look them up! Have a great weekend!

My Cupcakes Were On Sonoran Living!!

Sonoran Living is a mid-day show here in Arizona, for those of you not in Arizona. Jami, owner and fabulous friend, from The Savvy Socialista asked me if I could make some cupcakes for her, to show off some cute cupcake wrappers. I was very excited to be asked and of course said yes! She went on the show to share how to get great deals ad showcase some great products. She blogged today about her experience and shared a bit about the cupcakes too. :) Check out the blog post here and let her know I sent you over. You will love her site!

Here are some photo's I took of the cupcakes before they had their tv debut. :)

Mission of the Month- May 2011

Do you have lots of goals and many things on your to-do lists? I do! I make lots of lists to try and stay organized and remember the things I need to get done. Daily things get added to my lists so writing them down is really important. Just yesterday I received a jury registration form in the mail. That has to be back in 10 days. I will forget if I don't just do it or at least write it down to remember in the next few days. So when Jenn over at Mama Jenn decided to have a monthly mission to help herself meet some goals I decided to join in. You can check it out and join in yourself if you are interested! I really hope that telling you all what I need to do will help me get it done!

So here are my goals for May.
-Organize my scrap area! I have gone through things so much it is a mess and there is no way I can scrap even if I wanted to. Must organize that area.

-I want to do one arts and craft project with the kids each week and share it here. I don't keep up with those fun things sometimes and so I will start small and say we are going to do one a week.

-Decide on curriculum changes for the next school year. I want to look at what we have been doing and what I would like to change or add. Hopefully, I can get that decided and then next month start looking for the supplies.

-Adding onto the last one I want to decide what activities and homeschooling groups we will participate in next school season. Meghan keeps telling me about activities she wants to do and I think the little ones need something too. Plus we need to find a group closer to us for weekly activities like park days. The ones we are in now are kind of too far away to go regularly.

-I am going to be participating in a cake show and a cake challenge within the show. I want to practice some of the things I will be doing for the challenge and get the cakes done that i will be entering in the show.

OK that seems like a lot to me. I will be very happy if I get all that done.

All About Milk

Today we went for our weekly trip to our local farm. It is a raw, organic milk producing dairy farm. Love it! It's not super close so it takes about an hour round trip. We could just find a drop point closer but I haven't had time to look for one. The way they do it is various people around the state offer their homes as a drop point and then everyone around their home can go there to pay and pick up since it is closer. Like I said I have been too busy to find one but I also like going to the farm itself. They have a few people that bring in farm fresh, free range eggs as well. So I normally get eggs too. Plus I just like to go there. The people are really trusting so if someone can't be in the office they tell you to just drop your money in the box and take your milk. I guess that's working for them and they have had no issues. We have been getting milk there about 4 years, I think, and they still do it. If your aren't going to be able to make it before they close (which I think it 2 in the afternoon) then you can call ahead and they will put what you want out in the outside cooler. Again you pick it up and leave your money. It nice to see something working like that still in this day and age.

Today I drove the kids through Chick-fil-a for some lunch on the way home. They were waiting on something to finish so the server was chatting with me a little and asked if we were doing anything fun. So I let her know we had just come from getting our milk. She looked like she wanted to make a face,(although she didn't :)) and then asked me if it tasted different. I told her it didn't. I think told her that Kaden was sensitive to milk and that he has no issues with the raw milk. I told her that most people (which I believe is all but I say most because I don't know for sure, this is just from my own research) who are allergic to milk can have raw milk because the lactose is created in the processing. She was really surprised at that and said she would be passing on the information as she knows a lot of people with milk allergies.

There are so many reasons to seek out raw milk and healthy grown foods. Usually it's one reason that gets you started in researching and then you find out all the other benefits too. Kaden's milk sensitivity started my milk research long ago but now I know that it is so much better for us in many ways. Hopefully, I helped to get someone else started on their journey!

Muffin Tin Monday!

Oh it's been a looooong time friends! My kids have missed their muffin tins too. I asked them in the car this morning if they would like a muffin tin lunch and there was many happy screams and rejoicing. ;)

So I didn't get too creative about it. I am out of practice anyway but here is what we had.

PB and J crackers, sliced strawberries, bunny crackers,

a mini red velvet cupcake with some chocolate panda cookies and cheese circles.

Here they are eating it up! They all ate really good. I gave them each and little fish pick and that cause Kaden to eat cheese which he normally doesn't.

And fun was had by all!

(PS if you haven'ty already don't forget to enter my Little House Cookbook Giveaway!)