Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

Jilian is enjoying a fun filled Dr. Seuss kind of day at school today. When we arrived this morning her teacher was even dressed as Thing 1! Super cute! :-)

In honor of Dr. Seuss I baked these cupcakes. I sure enjoy making cupcakes, fortunately for me I don't like cake (except red velvet, dangerous!!). Jilian has a gluten free classmate so I decided to give it a go at making gluten free cupcakes. I have to say, they are pretty yummy and I can't taste the difference.

Recipe: Simple White Gluten Free Cupcakes

1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup butter 2 eggs 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 tablespoon psyllium husk powder

1/2 cup white rice flour 1/2 cup brown rice flour 1/4 cup tapioca flour 1/4 cup gluten free flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mill) 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 cup milk

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flours and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared muffin tin.

Bake at 350. I used a mini muffin tin, bake for 18-20 minutes. Regular-sized muffins will likely be 20-25 minutes. They are done when a tooth pick comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting and enjoy!

Homemade Wonton Soup

Today was a cold, wet day and soup seemed perfect for dinner. A week ago I bought a package of frozen pot stickers so I thought I would turn them into Wonton soup. The result was delicious and even the family loved it! That's a big deal in our house!

Recipe

48 oz of chicken broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
Two cloves of garlic, chopped
Four green onions, chopped
One large handful of spinach, washed and torn into pieces
1/2 cup of mushrooms, chopped
Pinch of black pepper
About a teaspoon of each, ground ginger and powder garlic
One package of frozen pot stickers
Small cocktail shrimp (optional) I had about a 1/4 cup left over from the other day so I tossed them in.

Mixed all into one large pot and simmer on low for about 25 minutes. The soup is done when the pot stickers are warmed through. Enjoy! Serves four.

Simply fun Halloween Treats - No sugar added!

Last Halloween I made these fun little treats for Jilian's class. I wanted something that didn't involve candy since, as you know, there is LOTS of sugar around Halloween! The craft is simple and affordable to make.

Supplies 

Cellophane bags, 1" x 8"** 

Circle punch

Scallop punch

Black ink pad

Orange ink pad

White cardstock

Orange cardstock
Halloween stamp

Glow sticks from Dollar Tree

Adhesive

Glue dots

Stickles glitter**

**Available at Michael's or from Stampin' UP!

How To

1. With black ink stamp as many images as you need, I made 12, so I stamped 12 spiders on white cardstock.
2. Punch out each spider with the Circle punch
3. Out of the orange cardstock punch 12 scallops
4. With orange ink, ink around each circle
5. Glue circles to center of scallops
6. Place one glow stick inside a cellophane bag and close
7. With one glue dot attach each completed scallop to the top of the cellophane bag
8. With the Stickles add a little glitter where ever you like! I added it to the spider's eyes.

ENJOY!

My first born is almost grown

My girl is another year older. I have really mixed feelings about that. Part of me misses the sweet baby smell and the cuteness of little toes but then another part of me very much enjoys engaging in deep conversations with Grace or spending time together doing more "grown-up" things like getting coffee (decaf for her of course) or shopping.

Grace is now TWELVE. I really do not know where all the years have gone! She has taken me on quite the journey! I have learned more about myself from mothering than probably anything else. She is both beautiful inside and out. Creative, compassionate, smart, adventurous, spirited, cuddly (yes even at twelve :-) but man does she keep you on your toes! From the moment she was born she knew what she wanted and she let you know. She has always had a will of stone. The "traditional" approaches to parenting don't work with Grace. You have to be very creative to find something that works.

I can remember when she was two, putting her in her first time out, boy was she unhappy. I thought "ok, I've found something that will help teach her"...HA! The time came for a second time out and she gleefully ran to the time out chair as if it was her favorite past time! Even at a young age she has left me speechless. The questions she has asked, her view of the world or her cut right through you comments. So speechless that the only thing I could do was walk away. Even though it has been rough at times it has been absolutely glorious other times. I would not trade her for anything. I pray earnestly that she will grow into a woman that will use her passion and spark to glorify Jesus. That she will be whole and filled to the brim with His joy.

Shortly after her 12th birthday Grace & I spent an afternoon taking pictures. 

   

Love you!

Creepy Crawlies

As I've mentioned many times, I LOVE Halloween! It is my favorite holiday. I'm already browsing my favorite Halloween idea books and magazines. I can't wait to start decorating! My favorite Halloween magazine this year is from Matthew Mead. He has tons of great (and doable) ideas for Halloween. One of my favorites are the spooky chocolate donuts (top right hand corner). Halloween is on a Thursday this year, the same day as my Bible study, I think I'll bring some spooky donuts for a treat!

On to the creepy crawlies. Last year Jilian and I made these creepy spiders to place around house. They were fun and simple to make. We had lots of fun placing them around the house. We hung them from picture frames or crawling on the dining room chandelier.

For supplies you will need: 

Black spray paint

Foam balls (you pick the size, I used medium)

Black pipe cleaners

A hot glue gun 

A pencil

Step 1: Paint the foam balls

Step 2: Using the pencil punch four holes on each side of the foam ball

Step 3: Using the hot glue gun, glue one pipe cleaner inside each hole

Step 4: Once the glue is dry, bend each pipe cleaner creating the spider legs

Have fun adding some creepy fun to your home!

Perspective

A couple weeks ago I was playing on my phone (something I said I would never do before I had a smart phone!) on Instagram looking at new creative "strangers" to follow. :-) And I came across a creative mom, photographer, artsy kind of person, my kind of lady. I browsed her photos and read her short-n-sweet bio which read something like "living the life I dreamed of...." For some odd reason I was jealous! I thought "Ha, that must be nice! Living the life you dreamed of, aren't you lucky?!" Over the next few days God started to speak to my heart. Why was my response so harsh? So negative? Aren't I living the life I dreamed of? Then like a ton of bricks it hit me, I AM living the life I dreamed of. The life of a wife, mother and homemaker. It is EXACTLY what my day dreams were made of. Then why such an ugly response? It is perspective. My perspective these days has been on the rough patches. I've been missing the beauty. I'm sad to say I just didn't see that my life is what I have always wanted. But it looks differently than I expected. It's messy, tough some days, beautiful the next, fun, sad, exciting, scary. I suspect I believed it would be clean and tidy, easy and breezy (yes, cheesy I know!) but it is the truth. Once I realized that my perspective was off my mood has been so much better and I have even been nicer to my family. The key is to remember. I know I'll forgot, I always do but I pray I'll remember quickly.  

Jilian's 6th birthday celebration

Jilian LOVES to swim and really wanted a pool party. This was the first time I've "hired" a place for a party. It was nice to not have to clean the house before and the after party! Her and her friends seemed to have a wonderful time.

I ordered these invitations from Serendipity Soiree on Etsy. 

(this is the example from Etsy. I'm not smart enough to figure out how to share a .pdf file on Blogger!)

I went with the polka dots and soft pink and blues for the rest of the party decor.

Jilian loves mermaids and secretly wants to be one! She requested a mermaid topper for her cake. I made it with my Cricut machine with the Dreams Come True Cartridge.

Her party favors where sponge "water bombs" each with a small bag of Swedish fish.

The FUN!

Happy Birthday big girl!