Wordless Wednesday - Clouds

Looking out my back door

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Tasty Tuesday – Tomato Skillet

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!
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 right side, just under my spiffy new tabbed box.
Don’t ask me what happened to last week’s post, I really have no idea. All I know is Friday I realized that I hadn’t done any sort of post for awhile, oops.
Anyway, here’s a new recipe that I tried tonight for the first time. I’m going to write it like I made it and not how it was written. I went with what I had in the house instead of stressing about what I didn’t have (since I didn’t have any way to get to the store anyway). It turned out great! There’s also an odd little dessert at the bottom, tasty, but odd. ;)

{Ingredients}

• 1 pound ground turkey (or whatever ground meat you like)
• 1 tsp (or more or less) granulated garlic
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 cups diced tomatoes
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cup chicken or beef broth
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups noodles of your choice. I used penne
• 3 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• parmesan cheese (preferably not moldy, oops)

{Directions}

• Brown ground meat in a large skillet. After meat is done cooking, drain and add seasonings to taste.
• Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, Worcestershire sauce, and noodles to skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 12 minutes.
• While that is simmering, steam carrots separately.
• When the noodles are al dente, add carrots and bell pepper. Cook 3-4 minutes until veggies and noodles are done to your liking.
• Add mozzarella cheese and cook until melted.
• Serve with parmesan cheese on top.

Salty Peanut Squares

{Ingredients}

• 5 ounces corn chips, crushed, divided
• 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, divided I used salted because that’s what I had :)
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4-1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, melted

{Directions}

• Place half of the corn chips and peanuts in a greased 8x8 pan; set aside.
• In a saucepan, bring the corn syrup and sugar to a boil. Stir in the peanut butter until blended.
• Drizzle half over corn chip mixture in pan.
• Add remaining corn chips and peanuts to remaining syrup; stir until combined.
• Spoon over mixture in pan; press down lightly.
• 
  Drizzle with melted chocolate. Cool before cutting.
  

Picture courtesy of Taste of Home
~S

Menu Plan Monday – June 28th

Ah, summer, when did you get so crazy? I just wrote out my monthly calendar for July, and there are only a few days that don’t have at least something planned. But I know by God’s grace, we will get through it, and have some fun along the way. Someone please remind me of that when I start losing it, k?

Here's the plan for this week:
Monday ~ Tomato Skillet
Tuesday ~ Mexican Baked Potatoes
Wednesday ~ Lentil Stew with Ham
Thursday ~ Chicken Triple-Cheese Spirals
Friday ~ Cheater Chicken Pot Pie
Saturday ~ Leftover Buffet
Sunday ~ BBQ at the In-Laws for Independence Day

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

Muffin Tin Monday – Breakfast for Dinner

Silly me, we actually did Muffin Tin Monday last week and I completely forgot to post about it!! Oops :/ Gonna let that one go now…

This week, we enjoyed breakfast for dinner for our muffin tin. Both the kids loved it. I made a big batch of Buttermilk Citrus Waffles today, so I figured that would make a good dinner :)

Back row: Waffle cut into thirds
Front row: Scrambled Eggs and Applesauce

Silly girl. I asked her if she wanted scrambled eggs before I made them, then she asked if she could trade for turkey ham halfway through the meal. That was okay, though, because Nate really wanted more eggs anyway.

~S

Happy Birthday, little man!

Wow, I can’t believe my little boy is already a year old! Sniff, sniff… Seriously, I love having a one-year-old, he’s funny, full of life, and constantly learning new things.
For anyone who missed it the first time around, the story of his birth is an exciting one. You can read about it here.
We had a party for him at the park yesterday with good friend of mine’s daughter who turned 1 eleven days ago. You can see more pictures from the party on Facebook. Here’s what he thought of the cupcake:
Um, yeah, can you say “inhaled”? He thought that was about the best idea I’ve ever had.
He’s speed-crawling, sometimes bear crawling, pulling himself up on EVERYTHING (me being one of his favorites), playing with toys instead of just eating them, eating like crazy, drinking a ton of cow’s milk (yep, we’re all done nursing), getting teeth #7 & #8, wearing size 18 month, signing more and all done, loving being read to and flipping through books, and wanting to be with mommy and sister all the time.
I debated about waiting until his other party on Saturday to post his video, but decided I want it to go with this post on his birthday, so enjoy!
I love you, son!
~S

Wordless Wednesday - Pierced Ears

 About 2 seconds after getting her ears pierced for her 3 1/2 birthday

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Piggy Tales – First Grade in New Jersey

This is the third in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
This week, the topic is first grade. That’s my sister, my dad, and I on the roof of our duplex in New Jersey.

When I was in first grade, we moved to New Jersey. We originally moved out there for my dad’s job, but we didn’t know anyone there or like it much either. My dad’s job wasn’t all that my parents had hoped for, so we weren’t there for long. More on that later.

My mom had been homeschooling my sister and I until we moved there. She ended up getting a job and decided to send me to public school. I lasted all of 6 weeks before I was begging to be back at home.

I distinctly remember being extremely bored and feeling like I knew all the things they were going over. I remember that they put me in second grade reading and I had to walk down the hall by myself once a day to the 2nd grade classroom. Then I would proceed to get in trouble nearly every day because I read the entire page we were on before the kid who was reading aloud was even half finished. I wasn’t trying to be rude, I just was a fast reader. The 2nd grade teacher would actually watch my eyes to see if I was staying with the reader. Ugh.

I learned later that they wanted to put me in second grade math and second grade spelling, but were unwilling to move me up to second grade. Seriously? What else is there in 1st grade?

So after six short weeks in the public school system in Mount Holly, New Jersey, it was back to homeschooling with me, hooray! Thanks, mom :)

We lived in New Jersey for 14 months, and moved back to Colorado, into the same house even! It so happened that the people who were renting the house we were living in were just moving out, so we moved back into the same spot, which my parents later purchased. We did visit several fun places while we were there, like the George Franklin Museum, Please Touch Me Museum, Independence Hall, and several other places in Philadelphia, but we were sure glad to be back in Colorado. I can’t really imagine living anywhere else. Visiting is nice, but you just can’t beat Colorado!Not the best picture, but it was the best I could find right now. It was taken 6 years ago with a film camera about 15 minutes from where I now live. 

~S

Great Giveaways #11

This week's giveaway finds:

Nibble Tray from One Little Word She Knew (Ends 7/5)
Silhouette machine from Tatertots & Jello (Ends 6/29)
PlanetWise Wet Bag from The Cloth Diaper Report (Ends 6/30)
Dr Bloom Teething Jewelry from Mama to 3 Blessings (Ends 6/27)
Hemparoo Prefold Diaper from Home Grown Families (Ends 6/23)

Menu Plan Monday - June 21

Last week, we did Vacation Bible School at our church, so there was no menu. We had frozen meals, boxed food, and noodles. Hubby was very gracious and cooked several nights. This week, it's time to get back on track :)

Here's the plan for the week:

Monday ~ Cheater Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday ~ Italian Chicken

Wednesday ~ Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Thursday ~ Out to dinner for date night.

Friday ~ Spinach & Ham Quiche

Saturday ~  Leftover Buffet

Sunday ~ Mexican Baked Potatoes

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

Coming Up...

CSN has graciously asked me to review another item from their large selection.

CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from cookware to cribs and even your most specific needs like LED lighting or laptop cases!

I will also be posting my review on the two items I got from them a few months ago.

Nate is turning 1 this week! I'll be posting his video after his party on Saturday, and some pictures of his smash cake :)

Hi

I didn't fall of the planet, I swear!
We did Vacation Bible School at our church this week and it was a blast!

 Parachute game on the last day (Kahlen's the one with her hair a-flying)

Kahlen and her friend Delaney singing Hah-la-la-la

It was also exhausting. I spent nearly every nap time this week sleeping too. Ah, summer, when did you get so busy?
Hopefully, this week will be a tad bit calmer, although with two birthday parties for my little man, a doctors appointment, date night, and getting K-Bug's ears pierced, I kinda doubt it :)
Anyway, I really want to get a tutorial up or at least pictures of this great craft I did for a friend of mine, so maybe by Wednesday, I'll have some braincells left to get it all together!
~S

Piggy Tales – A sister for me

This is the second in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
This week, the topic is through age 5 or so. After thinking about all the things I could post about, I decided to post about my sister. She is 27 months younger than I am. She lives too far away now, so I only get to see her once or twice a year :(
This is me right before my sister was born. My parents took a road trip from Colorado to California to see relatives and go to Disneyland. My mom was 8 months pregnant, so she couldn’t ride very many rides. I don’t think they would even let her on Dumbo the Flying Elephant (something about the straps not fitting right, sheesh).
After having another successful home birth, my sister entered the world on November 3, 1983. I was there during her birth, although I don’t remember it. Here’s one of the first pictures taken of the happy family of four (my mom is on the other side of the tub, in there with us too)
We had a great time together. Yes, we fought like sisters do, but not as much as some. We never went through long phases of not liking each other, even as teenagers or adults.
My sister wasn’t happy unless she was sleeping with me, especially as a baby. I slept in her crib with her until she was old enough to sleep in a bed, then we slept in a waterbed together, probably until we were about 9 and 7.

Christmas 1984. We liked this picture so much, we reenacted it  18 years later.
Thinking about my relationship with my sister has made me glad that my kids are about the same age apart. They have the potential to be such good friends, which I can already see developing.
See you next week for the next Piggy Tale!
~S

Wordless Wednesday – Vacation Bible School

Kahlen and friends doing an Anchor Pull

The preschool portion of our VBS singing together (~90 kids and associated helpers)

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Tasty Tuesday – Chicken Couscous

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

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 right side, just under my spiffy new tabbed box.

I accidentally just deleted this entire post, darn it. I’m going to try and recreate it from memory, that’s a little scary.

Okay, so I created this recipe out of necessity. We were hungry for something that was simple and a whole meal, i.e. protein, veggies, and a simple carb. Here’s what I came up with out of ingredients I had on hand.

{Ingredients}

• 2-3 chicken breasts, thawed
• 1/4 cup Italian dressing
• 2 cups broccoli
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup couscous
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese

{Directions}

• Cube chicken and cook in skillet with Italian dressing
• While chicken is cooking, steam broccoli in separate pan
• After the broccoli is started, mix broth and lemon juice in a pot and bring to a boil.
• Add couscous, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.
• Fluff couscous with fork. Add chicken and broccoli, stir to combine.
• Serve with cheese on top.

Whew! I think that’s it. I’m learning how to use Windows Live Writer and something happened that I wasn’t expecting. Oh well, I think I figured it out. Won’t make that particular mistake again :)

~S

Redesign All Done!

Well, that took longer than I thought it would! With a small amount of help from hubby (no, really!) and a long time remembering html and web programming (college was 8 years ago?!?), I've added a Multi Tabbed Navigation sidebar and updated my horizontal tool bar too. There's so much more I could fancy up, but I'm going to stop there for now :)

A couple great resources I used:
Horizontal Navigation Bar from Confessions of a Homeschooler
Advanced Multi Tabbed Widget from My Blogger Tricks

I'd love to know what you think!

~S

Pardon the dust...

Rearranging my blog a bit but it's more time consuming and difficult than I thought it was going to be. Bear with me, I think it will look much better when I'm done.
(More like this and therefore hopefully less cluttered)
Looks like I'll have to enlist the help of my favorite programmer (hubby).
~S

Piggy Tales – My birth

This is the first in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to talk about this post with my mom before I wrote it, so there may be some revision later on :) I know the basic outline of the story, though, so here goes:

It was hot in August the summer I was born. My parents had been married for a year and a half, having gotten married on Valentine’s day, 1980. In their small tiny house in Loveland, they had a fan, but little else to keep it cool. Many days would find my mom walking the aisles of the nearby King Soopers just to be somewhere that had air conditioning.

Having grown up not knowing anything about nutrition, my mom battled hypertension and toxemia during the entire pregnancy, something that she completely overcame with a better diet with her second child, my sister.

When she went into labor on August 8th, everything was ready for me to come out, except me. The midwife came over and hung out as midwives are good at doing. They took several trips to said grocery store during that day and the next to get some relief from the heat. I was a stubborn little one and was comfy where I was, thankyouverymuch.

After 42 hours of labor, I finally came. My mom hemorrhaged, which we learned is genetic and happens at the first birth of all the women in my matrilineal line (happened to my grandmother, my mom, my aunt, and me at least). The decision was made to stay home and just take care of it there. Mom and dad were tired, but happy that I was a part of their family now.

I was a healthy little girl at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 21”. My parents were the first ones to give the grandparents a grandchild, so both sets of grandparents were thrilled as well.

I found a photo album of me from the time I was born until the time my sister was born 2 and a bit years later at my paternal grandmother’s house, so here are a few pictures of my first month:

Two weeks old

My mom, me, and my dad when I was 4 days old

My dad's parents and me when I was 16 days old

(As a side note, my name didn’t come from anywhere spectacular. My parents both read a fiction book and liked the name, but not the character, so it was decided)

There you have it, my knowledge of my entrance into the world. Next week, the topic is birth-age 5. See you then!

~S

PreSchool - Zoo Week 1

Kahlen is 41 months old

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. This week was our first week for Zoo Animals (click for planning sheets for this unit). I had a busy beginning of the week, so we only did "school" one day this week (okay, really we split it over two days, but didn't get to as many of the activities as I wanted to)

 Of course, we did our stART project first.
After that, we played Zoo Bingo with some erasers I got from the dollar store and the zoo bingo sheets listed on my planning post.

We both played, and she nearly cried when I won. Which is really why I played too, teaching her good sportsmanship is important to me.

Next, we used some plastic zoo animals to make foot prints

 She was having soooo much fun with this, we didn't have time to do much else!

We also did this Giraffe Shape Counting sheet that I found on MakingLearningFun.com while I was looking for something else. She got bored frustrated about half way through and asked for a lot more help, but we made it all the way through.

 Then she had to color the whole thing, of course :)

We also did our Z is for Zebra handwriting sheet and sang our verse, which I realized is a Steve Green song on Hide 'em in your Heart, Vol 1, which I have, so we listened to that after I spoke the words to her.

This was all from last week. This week will also be light because we went camping with my mom, pictures to come soon!

~S

Wordless Wednesday - Camping at Horsetooth Reservoir

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Tasty Tuesday - Chicken Shepherd's Pie

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

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.

I made two new recipes this week that were pretty tasty. I'll definitely be making them again. The first one was a Linguini with Garlic Sauce that was very easy and delicious, even as leftovers which is crucial around here since that's what hubby eats for lunch.
The second one was also a hit, although I modified it quite a bit and I'll add more veggies next time, 3 cups like I state in this recipe instead of 2 cups like I used..
So, here's my modified Chicken Shepherd's Pie from Taste of Home: Simple & Delicious Cookbook.

(picture borrowed from Taste of Home)


{Ingredients}

• 4-5 red potatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup half-n-half or cream
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cubed
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese, divided
• 3 cups vegetables (green beans, sugar snap peas, green beans, broccoli, corn, carrots, whatever you like)

{Directions}

• Peel and cube potatoes. Place in pot and cover with water. Boil until soft and mash-able, about 20 minutes. Drain. Add garlic and milk and mash to desired consistency.
• Meanwhile, cook chicken in 1 tablespoon butter until no longer pink; set aside and keep warm.
• After chicken is removed from pan, melt remaining 3 tablespoons butter in the same pan. After butter is melted and browned bits are scraped from the bottom, whisk in flour until smooth. Cook for 2-3 minutes until butter starts browning. Gradually add milk; stir in seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 cup Swiss cheese until melted.
• Add vegetables and chicken. Transfer to a greased 2-qt baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes; sprinkle with remaining cheese.
• Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

~S

Menu Plan Monday - June 7th

Didn't stick with the menu at all last week. Life happens faster than I can plan for sometimes, ya know? The good thing about having a menu is that I know what I have ingredients for and hubby can cover me sometimes too. He ended up making the tacos, and did a mighty fine job at it too.
The other good thing is that I have ingredients for the recipes I didn't make which should mean I don't have to buy as much at the store :)

Here's the plan for the week:

Monday ~ Chicken Shepherd's Pie (from my new cookbook)

Tuesday ~ The kids and I will be camping with my mom. Tim will be having spaghetti with sauce (or something else of his choosing)

Wednesday ~ I'll be going to HuHot with a friend. Tim and the kids will be having Bob's Red Mill Vegi Stew with Turkey Ham.

Thursday ~ Out to dinner for date night.

Friday ~ Taco Salad

Saturday ~ Pappardelle with Snap Peas

Sunday ~ Cheater Chicken Pot Pie

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

stART - Dear Zoo

 

Each Thursday A Mommy's Adventures does a great blog carnival. Read a story to your child; then accompany it by art.
Last week, we started our Zoo Animals unit. This was our first zoo book. The funny part about this book is that my library only has it in dual language, English and Arabic. Go figure ;)

We read Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Fun lift-the-flap book about why different zoo animals would be a bad choice as a pet.
After that, we did a sorting activity about Zoo or Not Zoo animals.

Almost all sorted:

Gluing them on...

"Um, Kahlen, why are you putting glue on the animals instead of on the back?" "Because, mommy, they're not zoo animals, so I'm going to hide them" Oh right, makes perfect sense! ;)
The finished product:

 We've also informally been working on sight-words, so we talked about the word Zoo, which is why the words are written on her pages.

Speaking of reading, just took this picture a few hours ago. Kahlen is "reading" Brown Bear, Brown Bear to Nate before naptime.

Her idea, not mine. I just put him up in the chair so he could see the pictures. Awww, how sweet!

~S