Great Giveaways #6

Oops, forgot to post these on Sunday :(
I won a few giveaways recently!
5 Little Green Books from Mama to 3 Blessings because I need more books :)
Craft Crazy Lady $20 g.c from Tina Keightley got some cute mini envelopes to use on gifts
VistaPrint 12x12 Photo Book from Free 2 Be Frugal

Here's my finds for the week:
Piggy Paint from Mommy Living the Life of Riley! (Ends 5/10)
Words to Sweat by from A Nut in a Nutshell (Ends 4/30)
Alex and Ani Bangle Bracelet from A Nut in a Nutshell (Ends 5/5)
Letter of the Week curriculum from 1+1+1=1 (Ends 5/9)

Tasty Tuesday - Eggs Benedict in Pastry & LINKY PARTY

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Youngn's!

Please link up your recipe at the bottom of the page. You can post a link to a recipe on your blog or anywhere else. In the title of your link, please leave your name too (especially if it's not a blog post) so I know who it came from :)

Also, feel free to grab my Tasty Tuesday button, it's on the left side, near my other button.

Remember last week when I said I don't typically like Taste of Home recipes? Yeah, well, this week's recipe originally came from them too, heehee.
I modified it a bit because for whatever reason, I cannot make hollandaise sauce. I'll try again later, of course, but the first time I made this, I tried to make the hollandaise sauce and it broke, bummer :(
This time, it was much better, and you'll see why...

{Ingredients}

• 1 package Knorr Hollandaise sauce (found in the baking aisle) My secret ingredient. Yep, I cheated :)
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp milk
• 4 tbsp + 1 tbsp butter
• 2 cups cubed fully cooked ham
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 7 eggs
• 1 package (17.3 oz) frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 tbsp water

{Directions}

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Make hollandaise sauce according to directions on package.
• In a large skillet over medium heat, cook and stir ham and onions in 1 tbsp butter until onions are tender.
• In a large bowl, whisk six eggs and 2 tbsp milk. Add egg mixture to the pan; cook and stir until set. Remove from heat; stir in 1/3 cup hollandaise sauce. Set aside.
• On a lightly floured surface, unfold puff pastry. Roll each sheet slightly so they are 12” x 9.5”. Cut each in half widthwise. Place 1 cup egg mixture on half of each rectangle; sprinkle with cheese.
• Beat water and remaining egg; brush over pastry edges. Bring opposite sides over the egg mixture; pinch seams to seal. With a small sharp knife cut several slits in the top.
• Transfer to a greased baking sheet; brush with remaining egg mixture. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Serve with remaining hollandaise sauce.
• Eat and enjoy! This recipe makes enough for four servings

~S

CSN Stores Review soon

CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from cookware to cribs, bar furniture to briefcases, and so much more!

I've been contacted by CSN Stores to do a review of a product from their 200+ stores. I'll be picking out an item to review soon, but there are so many choices!!

Here are a few of my current top picks:
J Fit Complete Workout Travel Kit
Cap Barbell Neoprene Dumbbell Set with Rack
J Fit Deluxe Slim Pedometer
             These three would all help me in my training goals

VERBATIM CORPORATION 15-in-1 Memory Card Reader for use with my new camera
Annie Shoes Amber in Silver Satin to wear to my sister-in-law's wedding in July

Plus I'm sure there's a whole bunch of other spiffy products that I didn't see yet!
What would you pick?

~S

Muffin Tin Monday

This week at Muffin Tin Monday there was no theme, which worked out well for me since I was at a friend's house for lunch. I saw this recipe for Corn Dog Mini Muffins somewhere, really can't remember where, and I've been dying to try it out. The kids liked helping out, especially poking the hot dogs into the muffin tin. They were a big hit with my daughter, anyway, I think she at 5 of them for lunch plus the rest of her food.

Top row: two mini corn dog muffins, fruit cocktail, corn

Bottom row: one mini corn dog muffin, katsup, veggie straws

Corn Dog Mini Muffins

{Ingredients}

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 or so hot dogs

 {Directions}

• Mix together dry ingredients. Then add the liquid ingredients. Stir until mixed thoroughly.
• Scoop into a greased mini muffin pan, filling the cups about 2/3 full.
• Cut hot dogs into coins. Put one piece in each muffin cup
• Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until the cornbread is a nice golden color.

I'm going to freeze the leftovers and try reheating them tomorrow. Should work, right?

 ~S

Menu Plan Monday - April 26th

Two weeks ago, my hubby and little man got really sick, so we did virtually no cooking. Because of that, I basically recycled the entire menu, which is why I did not participate in Menu Plan Monday last week. This week, everyone is all healthy and back to normal, so in with the menu!

Here's the plan for this week:
Monday ~ Benedict Eggs in Pastry (will share recipe and pictures tomorrow)

Tuesday ~ Chicken with Rosemary Butter Sauce, Broccoli, Lipton Noodle Side

Wednesday ~ Slow Cooker Pork Tacos (A lot of work, but well worth the effort!)

Thursday ~ Silvermine Subs for a mystery shop

Friday ~ Chicken Spaghetti (Haven't tried this yet, but it looks tasty)

Saturday ~ Quick Bolognese (I may or may not make the homemade papardelle this time around, we'll see how my day goes)

Sunday ~ some kind of chinese

Remember to stop by tomorrow for the Tasty Tuesday linky party. Come visit me then!

So, what are you having for dinner this week?
Link up at Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie or leave me a comment!

~S

Tiny Tot School - 10 Months

TINY

Nathanael is 10 months old

10 months feels dangerously close to 1 year! My little man is officially mobile now. He's not exactly army crawling, but something close to it. He can definitely get to where he wants to go now:

Here are a few of his favorite things:

Learning how to drink from a cup.

Playing with friends.

Dumping things.

Riding in the wagon.

And of course, eating, eating, eating! Now, not only does he eat at least 1 jar of baby food per meal (3 times a day), he also eats about a cup of finger food. Whether it's toast strips, tofu cubes, string cheese, noodles, edamame, scrambled eggs, waffles...you name it, he'll eat it. I keep expecting him to grow a whole bunch overnight because all he wants to do is eat!!

~S

Tot School - Birds Week 2

Kahlen is 40 months old

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. For two weeks, we have been learning about Birds.

Last Monday, one of my friends who does our curriculum with us took the kids on a field trip to another friend's house who lives close by and has a few chickens. 

Three friends holding hands as they leave for their field trip

Enjoying their Muffin Tin Monday lunch as a picnic

Our first day of regular "school" looked like this:

When I put my regular bible on the tray, she promptly informed me that she did not like my choice of stories for the day. We read Genesis 8:6-12, first talking about Noah, the ark, and the flood, then discussing the birds that were in this part of the story.

Then she wanted to do the painting one.

Painting with feathers. I tried to get her to do something besides use it as a paint brush, like on its side or something else, but this is what she wanted to do. 

Next we took a baggie full of different colored feathers and sorted them by color. I pulled out these buckets from our Easter unit. She would only sort those colors, the ones we didn't have buckets for all went into the reject pile.

Here's all the sorted ones. I forgot to get a picture of the rejects, but I thought that was pretty funny.

We also looked at a National Geographic article about birds and a Zoo Books about Parrots. She sang Genesis 1:1 complete with signs by herself. She also did pretty good on her handwriting page.

The weather turned on us last week, and it was raining and cold a bunch of the week, boo :( We did manage to get out for a walk between rain showers, it was Nate's first time in the wagon (more on that in another post)

Giving kitty a piggy back ride

Jumping in puddles.

I was actually surprised she was doing this since she usually has a strict policy about getting dirty.

Here's what we did on our second day:

We first did our stART book and project about "What makes a Bird a Bird?"

We then made this birdseed bird. No action shots because I was busy helping her not spill birdseed all over the table and floor.

We also talked about the different parts of a feather using a real feather and a diagram. 

Then we did a simple 1:1 correspondence activity with 1 nest, 1 egg, 1 bird, and 1 worm

She's trying really hard to roll the playdough into a worm.

I didn't even have a tray out for her verse song because she sang it to me as I was setting up. She also sang it to daddy when he got home. So funny how some songs really stick for her and others don't at all.

Woohoo! I made it! :)

Check out other Tot School posts at 1+1+1=1

~S

Tot School - Birds Week 1

Kahlen is 40 months old

Hmm, got a little distracted last week, and completely forgot to write about tot school! I'll be doing back to back posts about our bird unit. I decided to break them up since each week is usually a pretty long post anyway...

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. For two weeks, we have been learning about Birds, which was a nice follow up to the long Easter unit we did.

The first day, a friend and I took the kids birdwatching in a field near our house. 

We didn't see very many birds, but the kids had fun anyway. They picked up long sticks and pretended they were flying.

You can't really tell in this picture, but both kids are sitting on the fronts of the strollers where their baby siblings are sitting/laying. It was a pretty funny way to walk home :)

For our first day of school activities, here's what we did:

We started with a book called The Birdwatchers by Simon James (which I wanted to post as a stART project, and completely forgot). 

Fun little story about a girl and her grandpa going birdwatching.

Then we made a bird feeder from a little plastic bottle, a stick, a ribbon, and birdseed:

It was a little tricky to get the holes in the bottle for the stick perch and the ribbon, but we managed. Filling it with birdseed was the best part, of course.

We hung it on a pine tree in our back "yard", which of course she was very excited about and didn't want to come back in to finish school.

Found this B is for Black Birds on Making Learning Fun. She decided to stamp the front and the back of this one for some reason unknown to mom.

We also did a handwriting page and worked on our new verse Genesis 1:1. She was glad the song wasn't as long as the last one (John 3:16) and really enjoyed it this time. We were going to sing and listen to some other songs about birds, but our CD didn't work, darn.

The next school day, here's what we worked on: 

First we did our stART book and project about nests. That took quite awhile and we were going on a field trip after little man's nap, so we just did another handwriting page and sang our song.

We also watched a couple short videos on YouTube about birds hatching. (That's what the yellow empty tray was for in the picture above) Sorry, I forgot to bookmark them, but you can search for chicken hatching, and come up with a whole bunch.

We also took a field trip to a local farm that's run by the city. The kids enjoyed running around looking at all the animals and feeding them oats.

Here they are trying to get the ducks to eat the oats, the ducks weren't a big fan of that idea.

Kahlen "driving" the tractor. Funny, it's very similar to a tractor that I actually drove when I was a teenager, a 1940's Farmall B (We had a Farmall H names Helga)

Right, that was last week. Now if I can write this week's, I might actually get caught up! :)

~S

Book Review: Beautiful Things Happen When A Woman Trusts God by Sheila Walsh

From Amazon:
"Do you ever question God's ability to catch you when you fall?
Do shame, fear, and brokenness keep you from fully trusting God?
Do you secretly believe your dreams are unreachable?
You are not alone.
Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God is all about trust. How we fight it. How we learn to do it. How it transforms us.
Shelia has lived a life ruled by "hidden places" of insecurity and brokenness and knows the overwhelming beauty of a life wholly handed over to Christ. As you encounter her struggles and triumphs, you also meet ten of the Bible's transformed-Tabitha, David, Paul, and others-who teach us that in spite of overwhelming circumstances, just one trusting encounter with Christ sets beautiful things in motion."

This is the first book I’ve had the privilege of reviewing for Thomas Nelson publishing, and unfortunately, I was disappointed by it.

I thought for a long time about why I was disappointed and why it took me an inordinate time to read. The main problem for me was there was nothing for me to do with the information given. She tells a lot of great stories, but I didn’t really understand how they related to me and how to use the information in my own walk with God.  Also, the writing was formulaic. Each chapter started with a personal story, followed by a thesis statement, followed by more stories, concluding with a lead-in paragraph to the next chapter. While this was comfortable, it was also slightly mechanical.

Would I recommend this book? Sure, it was biblically sound and she brought out some interesting points about the bible characters she covered in each chapter. I liked her use of different translations of the Bible, mostly using the Message which matched her storytelling format better than some other translations would have. It would be a good book for anyone who relishes in a good story. Apparently, I’m just not one of those people.

Would I read it again? Probably not. It just didn’t hold my attention. I had a difficult time reading it all the way to the end because it just felt like head knowledge, not something I could figure out how to apply to my life.
 
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

stART - What Makes a Bird a Bird?

 

Each Thursday A Mommy's Adventures does a great blog carnival. Read a story to your child; then accompany it by art.

This week, we're doing a unit on birds from Hubbard's Cupboard. Watch for our tot school post later in the week (no, really, I'll do it this week, I promise!)

Today, we read What Makes a Bird a Bird? by May Garelick

Description from Amazon:
"What is the one special thing that makes a bird a bird? Is it flying, or building a nest, or laying eggs? In this beautifully illustrated book, May Garelick poses many questions that lead the reader on an exciting search to find out what makes a bird a bird."

The book was a little long for my 3-year-old, but we got through it. The answer to "What makes a bird a bird?" is feathers, so we made a feather collage:

Carefully putting on the glue

Adding the feathers

The finished product. I wonder how many will end up on the floor instead of stuck to the paper once I hang it on our craft wall? Good thing little man can't get near there because of the baby gate :)

~S

Also linking to