Everyday Live Happy

Ever since I was a little kid, I have loved ice cream. I think it's because I had a mom who loved ice cream so we always had some in the house. It's a tradition I guess because my kids all love ice cream too. Creamy, delicious, almost any flavor goodness. It makes me smile just thinking about it. Yum! One of our favorite flavors is mint chocolate chip. So on a recent shopping trip, my daughter chose a bucket of that. (That's right, a gallon bucket of ice cream.) Today after running errands, cleaning and doing chores, we decided to have some. It was nice just sitting with my daughter enjoying cold yumminess on this hot day. She told me about some of her ideas for paintings that she wants to do. We talked about a day trip that we are taking and how much fun it will be. She told me about a book that she just started reading. We just talked. I think that sometimes we forget to just relax and visit with our kids. Our lives have been pretty stressful and packed full this p...

Cleaning the house is not fun. I don't like it. I don't know anyone who does. (I'm sure there are people out there that love to clean. I just don't know any of them.) It's never ending. I think that is what I don't like about it. You just have to keep cleaning the same things over and over again. The chore I hate the worst at my house is laundry. I don't mind washing clothes usually, but I hate putting them away. I don't know why. It isn't hard. I even sort the clean laundry into baskets for each of the kids to put away on their own. I know that there are lots of people who let their kids wash their own clothes. I don't like to wash lots of small loads, so we will continue to do loads together. The kids will wash loads of everyone's clothes as a chore sometimes. They know how to wash clothes, so they won't be lost when they are on their own someday. We do lots of laundry, but it never occurred to me that my washing machine might be di...

Oreos. We love these cookies at my house. A stack of Oreos with a glass of milk is one of my kids favorite treats. Oh who am I kidding? That's one of my husband's and my favorite treats too. What's not to like about two chocolate cookies with frosting in the middle? What could you do to improve upon that? Well they have tried lots of ways to expand the Oreo. There are different frostings - mint, strawberry, cake batter,chocolate, peppermint and more. They have covered them in fudge. They even made a vanilla Oreo cookie. The Oreo section at the store just gets bigger. The other day I saw firework Oreos. They have pop rocks in the frosting! We have a favorite Oreo treat at our house. They are called Oreo Balls and they are "little balls of heaven!" (That is an actual quote from someone after eating one of these yummy treats at luncheon I was asked to bring a dessert to.) We don't have them a lot so that makes them even more special when we do have them. They a...

Laundry. It is not my favorite thing to do. It is never ending. With my family of 5 we sure always have a lot of it. I know in some families that the kids do their own laundry. At my house I hate having only small loads of each person being done. So we wash our clothes together, but I will have them wash lots of the large loads too. If they have something in particular that they need cleaned then they throw in all the rest of the clothes that color too. It works well for us. The thing about washing lots of loads of laundry is how much laundry detergent gets used. I told you that on my "chore" list is do a load of laundry from start to finish everyday. The cost of detergent really starts to add up. For a while it seemed like I was spending a fortune on laundry soap. Pinterest had given me some good cleaning recipes so I decided to look for a laundry soap recipe that sounded easy and worked well. There are so many different recipes for the soap. Which one to pick? I didn'...

We love cookies at our house! Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate crinkle cookies, peanut butter cookies! Our favorite cookies though are applesauce cookies. It has always been a hit at our house with my husband, my kids and all the neighborhood kids at our house. They aren't picture perfect cookies, but they are simple and yummy. This week I walked my daughter through the recipe and let her make them herself. She read the recipe. She measured out the ingredients. She also put them on the pan, put the pan in the oven and set the timer. She did a great job. She still doesn't like to take things out of the oven so she left that part to me. When we were done our entire family started eating them. Luckily it makes a lot so I still had some left to take a picture of them. (Like I said, they are not very pretty cookies, but they are really good!) Here's our yummy recipe Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies      1/2 cup margarine, softened (has to be margari...

I used to be a really big scrapbooker a few years ago. It seemed like everyone scrapbooked for a while. There were entire store devoted to only scrapbooking supplies, magazines with ideas and even convention type expos where you could come to shop, take classes and scrapbook all day and night. Now a days you don't hear much about it. But I would guess that those of us who did it still have a huge stash of supplies. I know that I still have more stuff than I could probably ever use. My daughter wants to scrapbook. I told you that we have tons of pictures at our house already printed off. She wants to use the pictures of her, her pets and her activities to make a book about her. I think that it is a great idea. It uses up pictures but it also means that her pages will be about what she finds important in her life right now. We will get a book from her perspective. That will give us all a glimpse at who she really is. So we pulled out a lot of my supplies and she excitedly went to...

At my house my kids love pizza. I think that most other households agree. It makes for a fast, easy, cheap meal. Especially when you are on the run to any of the activities that your kids do. Usually an easy kids pleaser. At our house my kids favorite kind of pizza is homemade pizza. We hadn't had it in a while and since today was "Tasty Tuesday" we decided to make it. A few years ago a friend of mine gave me her very versatile bread recipe. You can can do pretty much anything with the basic bread recipe. Besides regular bread you can make cinnamon bread, mozzarella sticks, rolls and more. Our favorite way to have it is as a pizza crust. We like it because it gives a thick crust. The nice thing about it is that we don't have to let it rise. We mix up the dough, knead it a little and then split the dough in half. Enough for two large cookie sheet (jelly roll pans) worth. Tonight my daughter wanted to make pepperoni pizzas. We rolled the dough into a large rectangle...

One thing that we really love at our house is photos. We take pictures of everything! I seriously have no room on my iPhone for any  music because there are so many pictures on it! Lots more than a 1,000! Crazy but they are really important to me. I do have to say that I do a great job actually printing out those photos, getting them on a disk or flash drive and then deleting them off my camera. (Yes I have actually deleted lots of photos and still have that many left!) I would be devastated if something happened to any of my cameras and I lost all of the photos on there. I also don't trust my computer to keep them safe for me because my youngest child has accidentally clicked on things that have given us virus's. Our computer has actually had to be wiped before to get rid of everything on it. For that reason, I don't store my photos on my computer either. A few years ago I discovered Shutterfly and quickly became a huge fan! They are an online company that allows you to ...

Yesterday my daughter and I had two separate day camps. My daughter went to one at our church for girls 8-11 years old. She went to different workshops throughout the day. In one they learned about being a good friend. They read a book called "Enemy Pie." It's about how to turn an "enemy" into a friend. Then they came up with their own "recipes" for Enemy Pie. A cup of kindness, etc. In other workshops she went through an obstacle course, made crafts, art projects, and learned more about being a good person. They also talked to them about avoiding pornography and never sending inappropriate texts. All of them helped her increase her faith and know her worth. Activity Day day camp is the best! I went to a Cub Scout day camp for the Bear group (9 year old boys.) It was a fun day for the boys. We went on nature hikes where they observed different kinds of plants and looked for signs of animal and insect life. They made small boats to race. They played ...

I remember as when I was growing up we had a "quiet time" week days during the summer. It was usually for an hour right after lunch. During this time the TV was off and we didn't play with friends or even our toys. It was a time to read or take a nap. I think my mom just needed it quiet so my little brother would take a nap. Or maybe she just needed a break. Either way, it gave me an hour everyday to read. I loved to read. We would go to the library or the bookmobile and get books every week. We also had lots of books too. There was always something to read. As I got older I continued to read for fun. I had gained a love of books. After my kids were born we didn't have a designated "quiet time" because I worked some days. So instead I would read to them after they laid down in bed at night. I have vivid memories of my kids in their bunkbeds listening to my read "The Magic Tree House" books to them as they fell asleep. It was a time when lif...

At our house we like to bake. Well maybe I should say that I like to bake and so that's what I tend to teach my kids to do. We usually make a "treat" once or twice a week. What ever we make does not last long at all. It's usually gone within a day or so. We often share it with others - especially my kids' friends when they are at my house. We like being able to do that. I asked my daughter (S) what she wanted to make. She didn't even have to think about it. Brownies. Now I will say this, usually when we bake we make things from scratch. I even have an amazing brownie recipe from my mom. It's all of our favorite kind of brownies. However, they take quite a bit of time. So when we are just looking for quick brownies I actually reach for a mix. I like Betty Crocker's Fudge Brownie mix Quick and easy. We do like to "dress" it up some though. After the batter is spread in the pan, we put our own spin on the treat. We usually sprinkle some kind o...

I don't know anyone who loves cleaning their house. It is not fun. But I do love living in a clean house. Living in a dirty house is gross and embarrassing. Don't like cleaning and don't like living in a mess do not go together. You are going to have to do something that you don't want to do. Personally, I'd rather clean and then be done with it. Don't like doing it but I really like the end result. So I clean. But I am not the only one that lives in my house so I don't think that cleaning should just be my responsibility. (Imagine that!) Despite what my children sometimes think, I am not their personal maid. During the school year I ask them to do specific chores a couple of times a week, depending on the amount of homework they have. Usually I have them empty of fill the dishwasher or put laundry away. Simple, quick chores. (Even my husband who works all day helps clean the house. He's awesome at vacuuming, sweeping and taking out the trash.) However...

Friday was a great day for us. We went to an area amusement park - Lagoon. That meant a day of rides for our family and my brother-in-law and his son and niece. We discovered pretty quickly that my nephew and his cousin did not think the big rides were fun. So they mostly hung out in the kid ride area. Luckily lots of the kids rides are for parents to ride with them. My husband and our kids love rides! There are a few different degrees of what people will do, but all of us will do most of the rides. My older daughter and son did the biggest roller coaster there. The rest of us weren't quite ready for the crazy high roller coaster called "Cannibal." Maybe another day for that one. We went on all the rest of the rides though. We had fun riding roller coasters, swings, pirate ships and a river ride that left most of us soaked. There were lots of screams and a whole lot more laughs. Then throw in some treats too. Nothing better than that for a truly fun Friday!

I don't know why but making slime is a huge trend right now. They say that in some stores they can't keep white Elmer's Glue in stock. I guess that makes sense since white glue is in almost every slime recipe. There are so many recipes! Literally hundreds of different ones. Search Pinterest if you don't believe me. There are recipes for glitter slime, fluffy slime, smelly slime, edible slime and so many more. My daughter got a recipe at school that she has been dying to try, so we made it. It was a recipe for fluffy slime. She and my nephew made it all by themselves. This recipe had both shaving cream and foaming soap in it to add the fuffiness. The only foaming soap we had was an antibacterial kind. So I guess we made fluffy antibacterial slime.  Here's the recipe that we used: Fluffy Slime 1 cup of water 1 tsp. Borax 1/2 cup glue 1/2 cup shaving cream 1/2 cup foaming soap 2 squirts body lotion 2 Tbsp cornstarch 8+ drops food colorin...

What is about summer and water that just go together? There are only two answers to hot summer days. Air conditioning and water. Of course kids prefer the water. I love that water and electronics do NOT go together! Getting kids off electronics and outside, this is the kind of summer that I enjoyed growing up. Running through the sprinklers and spraying each other with the hose! Simple, memorable summer days. That's what I loved about summer and my kids seem to enjoy it too. Even the ones that think they're too grown up.

Something about summers says smoothies to us. I don't know why because they really are good anytime of the year and I usually use frozen fruit anyway. But my daughter has been begging to make smoothies. So we did. We only had lemon yogurt and she really wanted to have a kiwi drink. So she made an interesting smoothie mixture but it was good. Here's her recipe for Banana Kiwi Lemon Smoothies. Banana Kiwi Lemon Smoothies Ice cubes Container of lemon yogurt 1 kiwi sliced into pieces 1 banana cut into pieces Splash of milk Put all items into a blender and then mix until well blended. She drank a glass full through a straw of course. Then she put the leftover smoothie mixture into Popsicle forms. We always do that when we make smoothies. That way we don't waste any and we have a healthy summer treat for another day. Not a bad idea, right? Those smoothies were okay but here's the recipe for my favorite kind. Berry Smoothies Ice cubes Container of vanilla yo...

The other day I talked about Pinterest and how people have different talents and likes. Today is Make it Monday and my 11 year old daughter showed off her talent by doing something that she enjoys - creating. Unlike me who can copy others creations, she comes up with her own. One of her favorite things to make crafts out of is fabric. We have an entire tote filled with patterned fabric, solid colored fabric, lots of colors of tulle and more. Most of it is left overs from costumes that I have made. (My sewing machine and I have a love/hate relationship. So costumes are pretty much all I use it for.)  She got into the fabric and made it into something that is purely her own design. Unicorn Pillows! She made both of these pillows with things that she found here at home. She started with some chevron material and made both of the pillows. She then used a red thin felt type material and free handed a unicorn head on the opposite side of the fabric which she doubled over to cut out...

We love summer break! I assume that most kids do. Sleeping in and being lazy. No school and no homework. Dance classes and other school year clubs also take a break for summer. More free time. Unfortunately, if we aren't careful then when it's time to go back to school, we'll realize that we wasted our entire summer! Not what I want to find. So we have adopted some great ideas from Pinterest (of course.) We found a fun schedule that has a title for each day of the week. There are lots of different schedules that have different titles. You can pick the one that works the best for you and your kids needs. The one we use is found  here . We have tweaked it a little to fit our lifestyle and this is what we ended up with. Our Summer Schedule Make it Monday - craft projects Tasty Tuesday -  find and make recipes that kids can make alone. Water Wednesday - water games, swimming, water projects, anything to do with water Thinking Thursday -  s...

Pinterest is a site that is right up my alley. I accidently came upon it a few years ago while I was searching for something else. Immediately I was like "What is this?" I have always been someone who tears good ideas out of magazines and printing them off the internet. But what to do with all those after? I had piles of papers with no organizational plan. No way of remembering what good ideas I had found let alone how to find them. So like I said that Pinterest was my kind of site. Pin all the good ideas that I found on boards that are organized by topic. Wow! I immediately signed up. Back then you had to have a facebook account to get a Pinterest account. I had fought signing up for Facebook, but now I signed up without blinking. I now have a lot of Pinterest boards on my account and a lot more than 10,000 pins! Seriously I told you that Pinterest is amazing for me. When holidays come around I can check my board(s) for that holiday and "remember" all those good i...