Inexpensive Organizing

I have been trying to catch up on some email and blog readings so I'm a few days behind, but tonight I was reading Jill Savage's blog from yesterday. Jill is the founder of the Hearts at Home organization and yesterday she was discussing how to organize toys and children's items! Here is a link to her comments and the discussion http://www.jillsavage.org/2011/04/home-organization-ultimate-blog-party-day-5-discussion-and-giveaway/#comment-4628

As I read the discussion I was amazed at how many of us rely on plastic storage bins of some size and then baskets. Yet, there were a few comments on the price of those organization items( to which I agree can be expensive!) So today here are a few ideas of ways to use things that are already around your home or neighborhood for storage.

Oatmeal canisters - (I have more of these available since I started making our own granola bars) but these work great for refrigerator magnets at our house. The boys have also made them into silos for their farms but that is a different post.  The lids are easy enough for kids to get on and off and you can take the label off and draw or trace what is inside.

Frosting containers - These have worked great for Robert's small lego pieces. They have also worked for crayons for in the car - the container fits into the cup holders (depending on the car). I actually found colored pencils and the mini markers fit into them too so if traveling, you can offer different writing items.

Ice Cream buckets - Oh the uses!!! but they come with lids that can be covered with paper and contact paper with pictures of what is inside or take permanent markers and draw right onto the side of the bucket. Matchbox cars, tractors, playing cars, art supplies, etc. What can you put into an ice cream bucket?

Frosting buckets (from the local bakery) these are 2 1/2 gallon buckets that can be washed out and are ready for use. This is where the bulk of the matchbox cars are kept at our house. Dress up clothes, Thomas the Tank engine trains can be kept in these (most of the track doesn't fit). I'm sure that Barbie doll or American Doll pieces would fit well in these too!!! Oh and the play food!!!

Yes these are all recycled, an most of them round, but they stack well and the kids can get them opened and it is inexpensive!!!! What more could we ask for???

Can't judge a book by it's cover- Children's Sermon

Before I explain the children's sermon, there is a little bit of background. Our pastor announced 3 weeks ago that he and his family have been reassigned churches and that they will be moving this summer. Last week, it was announced who had been appointed to our church. Since the announcement, there has been questions about the new pastor and his family. I hadn't worked on children's sermon very hard this week, but for some reason I wasn't worried about it. Saturday night around 10:30, it came to me and in about 15 minutes, I had everything pulled together. My mom had presented a Children's Sermon similar to this over 20 years ago and that made it all fit together easily.

(Prep work before church- I took my Bible cover and removed my Bible and found a book close in size - it happened to be a cookbook and put it in the cover I also have a Bible that is pink with a brown stripe and a notebook that is very similar but is blue with a stripe - I took all of these with me to church on Sunday)

I welcomed the kids and asked how they were, then I said that I had something very important to talk to them about. I asked one boy, who I knew could easily accomplish the task, to look up Matthew 7:1 using my Bible (and I handed him, my Bible cover with the cookbook inside) He unzipped the cover and flipped it open and then I got this very stunned look. I asked him if he had the verse and he said "no- it's not here" Of course it is , I replied. "No this isn't a Bible it's a cookbook" "Now that can't be - it's in my Bible carrier, of course it is a Bible, let me see" (To which I look at the boy and said April Fool's since it happened to be so close to April 1st) I then talked to the kids about how they all knew that it was a Bible carrier and they all knew what should have been inside, but it wasn't. Then I held up my 2 striped books and asked which one of them might be a Bible. After a close look they found the correct book. We then read Matthew 7:1-2 - "Do not Judge, or you too will be judged...."

I explained that we were going to have a new pastor and (very sarcastically) "oh the things that I had heard" "I heard that he rides a motorcycle and you know what that means - we will have a Black Leather Sunday where everyone has to wear leather."  "or do you know what else I heard, I heard that he likes to hunt, which means that he won't be here the Sunday after Thanksgiving because he will be at hunting camp." And about that time, the one of the girls spoke up and said "We aren't suppose to judge". (I was so excited that she had picked up on this!!!) I answered you are correct, and that is what I want us to remember, that if we are going to judge the new pastor and his family by what they are wearing or by what they enjoy then we need to remember that maybe they might be judging us the same way. So when we get to meet our new pastor and family, we need to remember to not judge the book by it's cover but take the time to get to know him and learn about his heart and his love for Jesus.

We then closed in prayer.

Lesson Learned the Hard Way!

Unfortunately, I have had to learn a lesson the hard way. I'm terrible about backing up my computer and the items on my computer. Well, my hard drive had to be replaced and the files were corrupted. Therefore, everything that I have done on my computer for about the last 5 years (since Garrett was born at least) was on this computer. Now it is all gone.  So I am starting a new practice in my life. With the help of flash drive, I am going to make it a priority to back up our computer files at the beginning of each month. That way if something else goes wrong, I will at least have only lost the most recent items which might be able to be replace instead of the things that I have on the computer for memories.

So how do you back up your computer files? How often and does anyone have a method for their computer clean-up and back ups? Just looking for advice.

Have a great weekend and remember to back up your files!

4-H Day at the Mall

Are you curious what 4-H does in the local area? Venango County 4-H will be at the Cranberry Mall on Saturday all day to share that with you. Stop in and see what the kids have been doing. There will be demonstrations of projects, activities for kids to do and lots of 4-H projects to look at and explore. This is a great opportunity to explore what 4-H is all about. The annual award ceremony will be at 7pm in front of JCPenny's, so stop in and see what the 4-H'ers are doing! You will be amazed if you check out everything there is to be offered!

Cake Balls

Okay these have come to me in an odd way. It started with a college student who made a batch of these for his girlfriend for Valentine's Day. He shared some of the extras with my mom, who asked for the recipe. Who then made them and shared 2 different flavors with me, which I in turn asked for the recipe.

Tonight, I made up a batch that I had added green food coloring for Spring and then bright colored sprinkles for Robert's youth group. Well I had several kids ask for the recipe or bring their mom's over for me to share the directions for these. So since I have shared the recipe with a few, I figured I might as well post it here. These are SO simple & good.

Cake Balls
1 cake mix (flavor of choice)
1 container of frosting (I used vanilla, but here that the Cream Cheese is good too!)
melting chocolates or white chocolates
sprinkles (optional)

Make the cake mix according to directions and bake completely. Once the cake is baked, remove from oven and crumble while warm. Once crumbled add the entire container of frosting and mix together. (I used my hands - it just seemed like the right thing to do!)  Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight if possible. Then take a melon baller for small bite sized balls or a cookie scoop for a bit bigger balls, and roll into bite sized balls. Melt your chocolate and then dip the cake balls into chocolate or completely dunk into a bowl of melted chocolate. Add sprinkles while the chocolate is still soft. Let chocolate harden and you are ready to serve.
These are SO simple and kids would like to make them, but I haven't heard of anyone who has tried one that hasn't liked them.

If you want to see photos or other ideas for these go to www.allrecipes.com and search "Cake balls" they come right up! Enjoy!

Signs of Spring

Well, in the last few days we have had 60 degree weather and it has seemed like spring. With today being the first official day of Spring, it is time to start looking for sings of Spring. For our house we start looking about the time that we tap Maple trees, but they are now easier to find. Garrett has been pointing them out all day today. On our way to the car this morning, he saw a robin "Look, Mom! It's a robin!" on the way to church it was "Look at the geese! They are back!" Then this afternoon, "mom those flowers are almost ready to... they are almost ready!" (He had seen a daffodil with a bud on it).  I try several times in the Spring to take a walk with the boys and point out different signs of spring, but it seems that Garrett is going to point them out to me this year!  And then all I had to do today was watch 3 boys playing in the backyard and then 2 of them riding bikes down the road and I knew - Spring is here! It might hid for a day here and there, but it is officially here!

HAPPY SPRING!!!!!

At The Movies

A new listing of movies at "The Movies" at Cranberry has been released. Here are the upcoming movies for the next few months on the $1 Saturday morning movies! What great bargin movies! Don't forget to print off the coupon for your chance to win a free pair of tickets. Just print off the coupon, take it to the movies when you go to a movie and drop it in the fish bowl for your chance a a pair of tickets. (there will be 2 winners!) click here http://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/2011/03/tickets-give-away-for-movies-at.html for the coupon (it's at the bottom of the page)

March 19	TMNT
March 26	A Bug's Life
April 02	Megamind
April 09	Junglebook
April 16	Wall-E
April 23	Ratatouille
April 30	The Blue Elephant
May 07	The Princess and the Frog
May 14	Up
May 21	Toy Story 3
	May 28 The Little Mermaid

Are you wearing green?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! So are you wearing green? Are you looking for the rainbow and the hidden gold?  In the past I have hidden gold for the boys or we would spend the day making rainbows. I'm not really sure what Garrett & I will be doing tomorrow, but I know that it will be lucky whatever we do!

We have already made a few shamrock's with some very simple supplies.
green paper (any kind)
contact paper
scissors

Take the contact paper and draw on a shamrock (You need 2 of these) While you are doing that have your child shred or tear up the green paper. We used tissue paper and green construction paper. With your contact paper cut out the shape of the shamrock and then peel the backing off. Lay it with the sticky side up and let your child push on pieces of the green paper. Once covered in paper, peel the other piece of contact paper and sandwich the green paper between the 2 pieces of contact paper. Now you have a St. Patrick's sun catcher, if you used tissue paper, or if you just use construction paper, you now have (depending on the size) either coasters or placemats!  And they are cute decorations for the holiday!

Cookie cutters are for more than cookies

I have a large barrel of cookie cutters that are all plastic, that I was given as a gift. I use the holiday ones on a regular basis but I seldom use the letters and numbers. I pulled out the container the other day and Garrett asked to see them. As we were looking at them, I thought about how we could use them, without making cookies. I gave him all the letters and numbers and let him start tracing them on paper. Wow not only was he practicing letters but also coordination of holding with one hand and tracing with the other.  While watching him, I remembered tracing Christmas cookie cutters to make wrapping paper  (which I had forgotten until I was watching Garrett tracing the shapes).

As I watched him, I thought of a game for the numbers. I quickly put the numbers in a bag. We had to pull out a number and then go find that many similar things. For example, Garrett pulled out the 3 and he went and found 3 matchbox cars. I pulled 6 and grabbed 3 pairs of gloves (6 gloves). We played this for a while too.

So what other uses do you have for cookie cutters?

The Music Man Musical

The Oil City High School will be presenting the musical "The Music Man" Friday and Saturday evenings starting at 7:30 at the high school auditorium. I do not know the cost of tickets, but I know that Oil City usually does a wonderful job with their musicals.

Agriculture Minute - Maple Syrup Season

Well, it is one of he first sings of spring here at our house, when everyone starts watching the temperatures to see if it goes above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. When the snow starts to melt a little and we start seeing more daylight. This is the beginning of Maple Syrup Season. This year we started on March 1 by tapping a few trees and then we finished up on the morning of March 2.

Tapping trees is a simple process that actually come from the Native Americans, but for my family it comes from my Paw. As a kid, we would go to Paw's and help bring in sap and help tap the trees. We never got to cook down our own sap until all of us became adults. Mom did get a chance to learn from Paw, but we have learned from Mom and from the things that we can remember. Anyhow, we use the plastic tubing and plastic taps. We take a drill and drill bit and drill a hole into the southern side of a maple tree, about 2" deep. You then put the tap in place and use a hammer to "tap" it into place. The tubing is then put into a bucket or jug to catch the sap. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. But we collect the sap in buckets each day and then I cook it down.

Cooking down is fairly simple process until you get to the end. To start we put the strained sap into large kettles and put it on the stove to evaporate the water content of the sap. This involves opening the windows in the house as it gets very humid in the house. People who make sap for more than a hobby , like us, usually have a "Sugar Shack" where they will cook down their syrup because of the humidity.  but we do it in our kitchen with lots of open windows. As it cooks it goes through several different stages. We learned to "Read the Bubbles" which is a very non-scientific way of making syrup. But as you watch the syrup, it is done when it starts to foam up like the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. The syrup will foam up and then it is jarred. We don't sell our syrup, we use it for gifts and for our own use, but it is definitely better than the artificial stuff that you get at the store.
When I get a chance and my computer back, I will try to post a few pictures of our syrup making. Maple Syrup is a large industry in the states of Vermont, Wisconsin, Michigan but there are producers in most of the New England States.

For videos of maple syrup production and different techniques, go to www.youtube.com and search maple syrup production. There are a lot of videos showing different ways to make Maple Syrup. But now you know how we make our syrup!

Movie this week and give away

This week at The Movies At Cranberry the Saturday morning $1 is Snow White and it starts at 10 am. The rest of the movie listings are available at www.themoviesat.com and then select which theater you are planning on attending for the listings at that location. Remember at the bottom of this old post http://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/2011/03/tickets-give-away-for-movies-at.html there is a coupon to sign up for a chance to win 2 free tickets for the theater when you attend a movie for this month only!!!!!

So hi ho hi ho it's off to the movies we go!

Family Tragedy in Pennsylvania

On Tuesday night a PA dairy farming family experienced a tragedy, that I pray no one would have to experience. My heart goes out to the family and I pray that they will be able to cope and cling to their faith to get them through the loss of 7 children in a house fire. The mother was in the barn and the father was on his milk route when their 3 year old came to the barn to tell mom about the smoke. Until she got there it was too late and she tried to get help.

As my heart aches for the family, I used this as an opportunity to remind my boys about our fire escape plan and what we are to do. The thing was last night we had the opportunity to practice and we failed. I had boiled over something in the oven and forgot to clean it out. Gary lit the oven for supper and he went outside for a minute, when he came back in he said the kitchen was full of smoke, but it wasn't throughout the house. So I asked Garrett, our 4 year old, "What did you do?" He answered "I went to see if the smoke was in my bedroom." To this I just wanted to cry. I asked him what he should have done if he thought there was a fire in the house or even just smoke. He answered correctly, "Get out of the house." But that wasn't what he had done. He was curious, just like many 4 year olds.

We were lucky that all it took was to turn off the oven and open a few windows to air things out. But the grief that the family in Eastern PA is suffering, is something that none of us want to experience. So here are a few things to remind your families, and not just in October for Fire Safety month.

1. Check your fire alarms
2. Change batteries in those alarms - we change at each time change just to be safe!
3. Practice getting out of your house and make sure everyone knows where to meet at!
4. Try a fire drill in the middle of the night, and see if your children will wake up to the fire alarm and time them as to how long it takes to get to your meeting place. This was a post that I had earlier about these drills. http://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/2010/10/fire-prevention-month-and-drills.html
5. Learn how to use a fire extinguisher
6. Practice with the kids on a play phone (fines apply for fake calls) how to dial 911 and what information to be able to give. Full name, full address, full phone number and what the emergency is are the main things to know

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, but let's make sure that none of us are he next tragedy.

Kid's Sunday

This morning we were blessed by the children at our church as they took control of the entire service. They were the praise team, the ushers, the greeters, and then they performed a skit "Got Faith?" for our sermon. Unfortunately I am having a few tech difficulties so I can't upload pictures of this morning, but what a blessing those kids are and I am pleased that our church listens to Matthew 19:14 and lets the children come and we do not hinder them. Once the tech problems get worked out, I'll put up pics and don't forget to print off your movie coupon for the movie ticket drawing!!!

Tickets Give Away for The Movies at Cranberry!

Okay here is the deal. For the month of March for each moive you go to see at The Movies at Cranberry, you need to print the coupon below take it to the theater and put it in the fishbowl. You will be entered into a drawing for a chance at 2 free tickets. There will be 2 winners, so the theater has offered 4 tickets! How cool is this!!! Then on April 1st the 2 winners will be pulled at random - no foolin'!!!

So grab your kids or your honey and head for The Movies at Cranberry, don't forget to take your filled in coupon along and you will have a chance at winning 2 free ticketes!!! Let your friends and neighbors know as this is only for this month and maybe the Luck of the Irish will be with you this month!!!!

Highlight the lower portion of this post and then print selection and you will have your coupon!

______________________________________________________

Schickfunideas Blog Give Away

Official entry form

Name ___________________________________

Address _________________________________

_____________________________

Phone number ____________________________

Email address ____________________________

Dr. Seuss Week

practicing tracing our fish

I really don't think that one day is quite enough

for all of the Dr. Seuss fun stuff.

On day one, we had a lot of fun,

Red Fish, Blue Fish, One Fish, Two Fish

Oh the things that I had wished!

We made our fish from fun foam

And then we let those little fish roam

Behind the chair

There was only 1 pair.

Fishing for our colorful fish

We went fishing by color matching

When our magnet was a latching

Have a great week 

And don't forget to stop back for a peek! 

What is a missionary? Children's sermon

Today we had a wonderful opportunity during our Sunday School hour to have Alissa (Cooper) Sandea, a missionary, and the founder of Heart for Uganda, with us to tell her story from Uganda. Alissa is a former Clarion-Limestone School teacher who heard the call from God to go to Uganda and spread the love of God. In the last 2 years, she has married Pastor Victor Sandea and had little Caleb, and all 3 were with us today. Their mission is Heart for Uganda , where they are working towards a Medical Center and a Children's Village.  But as I prepared for the Children's sermon for during the worship service, I wondered if the younger children really understood what a missionary was, where she came from and what she was doing.

So I took with me a dictionary and a globe. As I started I said that I had heard Alissa speak this morning, but what was she again? A , ah?? (and the kids helped me with the answer) A missionary! When to my surprise, the boy sitting right beside me said real softly "what is a missionary?" Which is what was going to be my next question. So I replied, I wondered that too, which is why I had the dictionary. (Now I had taken a College dictionary because it had multiple definitions) So how do we spell missionary? And the kids started spelling and got the "mission" part but they weren't quite sure of the "ary" part, but we found it in the dictionary. And the dictionary said "A person sent into a newly settled or foreign region to carry on religious, educational, or medical work. Also a person who is trying to persuade others to their point of view." Hum so is Alissa doing educational work? (they answered - Yes) Is Alissa doing medical work? (Yes) Is she doing religious work? (Yes) And is she in a foreign area? (Yes) Okay so she fits the definition, but where is she doing this?

With this I pulled out the globe and we found Pennsylvania. Then where is she serving? (Africa) Yes she is in Africa, but do you remember where in Africa? To which we had some tries but not the answer, so I found Uganda on the globe and talked about it being in the center region of Africa and that it is near the equator so what would the weather be like? (Hot and sunny were the answers that I got) What about snow? Do you think the kids have seen snow - no.

So who can be a missionary? To this one boy answered, that our church had sent out a Mission team to Jamaica. Correct I then asked all those who were on the mission trip to stand and remain standing. But who else, just them? What about the people who have collected cell phones to raise money for missions, would those count? Yes, so if you have added a cell phone to the box please stand and a few more people stood. How about Operation Christmas Child? Is that a Mission? YES! So if you helped in any way with that please stand and more of the congregation stood. And the last one that I think I added was at Vacation Bible School we have a mission project that we collect money or school supplies,or food for the local food cupboard, if you have ever helped with any of these please stand. By this time I had almost everyone in the congregation standing. (Which was my goal) I asked the kids to look at the people standing and explained that we can be a missionary right where we are. Then I challenged them to try to be a missionary this week and to share the love of Jesus with someone, anyone this week.

We then closed in prayer.
So how about you? Are you a missionary in your community? How could you reach someone for Christ this week? Are you up for the challenge?

Phone Books in the car

Have you ever been out and about and need a phone number? A tow truck? A locksmith? How about just someone you know, but only call on occasion. I recently saw a very smart woman who has tucked last year's phone book (yes our phone books are small, not booster seats for small children) into the glove box of  her vehicle. Now if she needs to order supper, call for specific help or call and check on an elderly friend (who could maybe use something from the store) she has their number right there with her. With our cell phones we have phone numbers in our contacts but not always are those the numbers that we might need at that time. So depending on the size of your phone book, you might want to just slip it into the glove box or under a seat - it will come in handy!!

Movie Specials at "The Movies at Cranberry"

This month "The Movies at Cranberry" are having a Valentine's Special all month in which they are offering all matinees for $5 except for 3D's and they are $7. This is everyday throughout the rest of the month. (I know I waited until almost the end of the month - I'll try to pay more attention in the future!) Maybe Sunday afternoon would be a good day for a movie! You can always check their listings at www.themoviesat.com

$1 Movies at the Theater!!!

Did you know that on Saturday mornings at "The Movies at Cranberry" they show a movie for just $1 a person? How much fun would it to take your kids to the movies and not cost an arm & a leg? Here's the deal, they do list the movie that they are showing in Friday's paper with the rest of the movie listings, usually these are older movies but - for a $1 why not go watch an older movie on the big screen.  For Feb 26th the movie is "A Bug's Life" and I believe that it starts at 10am.   So take a morning and grab a movie- I bet the kids will be surprised!

Future movies are:
March 5    Pinocchio

March 12 Snow White

Cell Phones for Malaria

And what shall I do with you?
I will help fight malaria!

Our church is joining together with other United Methodist Churches to raise money to help fight malaria throughout the world. We are currently collecting old /used cell phones. We have a place that will pay between .25- $8.00 for old cell phones. If you have an old cell phone laying around and you would like to donate it, let me know and we will find a way to get that phone from you to one of our collection bins. And maybe someday we can eliminate malaria from the world. 

"No Strings Attached"

The Barrow-Civic Theatre in Franklin had their annual Youth Theatre production. This year they preformed "No Strings Attached" the musical version of Pinocchio. The boys and I went on a "date" this evening and had a wonderful time. The play was about 1 1/2 hours long and there wasn't an intermission, so we went in, sat down and enjoyed the performance. The neat part of this performance is that it is all youth that runs the stage, the lighting, the music and the performers. Robert and Garrett knew several of the people involved with it this year and they were both excited about being able to say that they "knew" them.

There is one more performance of this show, Tomorrow at 2pm in the afternoon.  For tickets or details on other performances at the Barrow-Civic Theatre click this link, http://barrowtheatre.com/

The youth did a great job and it was a kid friendly performance! Thanks for the show!!!

Robert's School Valentine's

With Robert being in 4th grade, I wasn't sure if we still had the Valentine's Day events or not. We found out on Friday that yes they could still exchange Valentine's. I thought maybe we would keep it simple, but Robert wanted to make the "Gum People" that he had made several years ago from the idea in Family Fun. So taking the opportunity to make these with him (probably for one of the last times :(  ) We sat down and got to work. I did forget to take a picture but thank goodness for sticker backed fun foam pieces. We found cowboy pieces at the Dollar Tree and then we found a "girl" bag that ended up having skirts and tanks for the girls, plus tall boots or high heel shoes.  To understand what we did here is the link to Family Fun for the direction, http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/be-my-valentine-gum-guy-cupids-666451/. But mainly we made people out of pipecleaners, 2 sticks of gum and some fun foam accessories. They turned out really cute (again) and I am kicking myself for not taking a quick picture.  Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day and that you had the chance to spend it with the people that you love.

Pirates and Valentine's Day

Garrett was Captain Hook for Halloween and ever since has really been into Peter Pan & Captain Hook. Well Disney channel introduced their new line up today and the new show is  "Jake and the Ever Island Pirates" (that might be the correct name?) anyhow, Garrett was SO excited because it was going to have Captain Hook on too. He has been looking forward to this (thanks to the commericals) for the last week. Last night as I was tucking him in he told me "I'm so excited for pirates, I can't sleep!" But he did finally fall asleep. But how do you combine pirates and Valentine's Day?

Well Garrett got up and was dressed very early and he was offered his Captain Hook jacket but decided he would rather have his pirate ship instead of the jacket today. While he was watching the show, I took fun foam hearts and hid them around the house. When the show was over, I asked if he was ready for a treasure hunt? To which I got an excited "yes." So I gave him a small bucket, that I picked up a few years ago after Valentine's Day, that has a slot in the lid for on kid's desks at school. And off he went looking for his hearts. He really got into this but really it is just an Easter Egg hunt with fun foam hearts. He could have played for hours, but unfortunately I still had errands to run. So maybe we will play more pirate things the rest of the week. But that was how we combined Pirates and Valentine's Day!

February is Florida Strawberry Month - Ag Minute

Strawberries - red, juicy, delicious and healthy too! Did you know that 8 medium strawberries are higher in Vitamin C that an orange? They are excellent in folic acid, anti-oxidants & fiber. Strawberries have no fat and no cholesterol. Wow all of that in a small red fruit. So with it being almost a perfect shape for Valentine's day, and the perfect color for the holiday - lets look at the STRAWBERRY!!!!

There are 3 basic types of strawberries:
June-bearing - which usually produce fruit for 2-3 weeks and have larger berries and - yes they produce their fruit normally in the month of JUNE!
Everbearing - These berries are not really producing berries all the time, but they typically have 2 times of year that they can be harvested. Usually these are harvested in June and later in the early fall.
Day-neutral - These berries produce as long as the temperature is between 35 and 85 degrees. They are usually smaller than the other 2 varieties but are good for limited space production.

Strawberries are ready for harvest when they turn a deep red not just pink.

Here is a link to some strawberry recipes: http://strawberryplants.org/2010/06/strawberry-recipes/ but to keep it simple, just pick up some strawberries and a little bit of melting chocolate. Melt the chocolate in a double broiler and once melted, carefully dip strawberries into the chocolate. Let the chocolate set and you now have chocolate dipped strawberries. What a great treat for Valentine's Day or any time of the year!

For some fun activities for the kids check out this link to the California Strawberry Growers for kids
http://www.strawberryville.com/  take a trip and learn a little bit about Strawberries in Strawberryville. It is a lot of fun!

Enjoy some strawberries and know that they are good for you TOO!!!

Teaching basic words?!?

Garrett has recently been asking "What's this word?" or "Does this spell a word?" as he rattles off a list of letters. So I decided that while he is currently interested that we would start a few words and see where we go. I made him a few simple cards on a ring that have 2 letter words on them. We started with "to" and "go." Now in each story we read, when I come across one of those 2 words, he gets to read them. I have also asked him once in a while how to spell each word, just out loud. And I am planning on having him write the words when he writes his name and make sure that he knows which word is which. Then I think we will add a few more 2 letter words, so that he can start doing some of the reading. Tonight at the book fair he was so excited about finding a book that's title is "Go, Go, Go!" and believe it or not it is about Lighting McQueen and is a reading level 1 book. You bet, it came home with us! SO I'm trying to keep ahead of him! 

Franklin on Ice

Garrett on a dolphin last year

Robert going for a cold ride

Franklin on Ice is a fun time for the kids to see ice carving and sculptures. This is on Saturday February 12 from 10-4 at the Franklin Park. There is food available and a magic show, (but I don't know when , sorry). Depending on the weather even if you are not able to go during the actual event, we have found that the sculptures last for several days if it's not too hot. We have found that an evening walk through the lit park with the ice sculptures is pretty cool too. This is a free event and it is really interesting to actually watch the sculptors while they work if you get the opportunity.

Keystone Elementary's Winter Carnival

Saturday February 12, from 11-3 will be the Annual Winter Carnival. So start counting your Box Tops for Education as they count as .10 each and make your way to Keystone Elementary for a Saturday afternoon of games and free or low cost activities. Admission is $1 for adults and school aged children. This event is sponsored by the Keystone CATS and Clarion County's Promise. There is also a Chinese auction from 11-2 with the drawings being announced at 3pm.

Book Fair Re-scheduled Family Night

Due to the snow and ice that we had this week, the Keystone Elementary School's Book Fair has been extended and the Family Night Event has been rescheduled for Monday February 7 from 6-8pm at the school. This is a great time to check out new and fun books!

Shrinky Dinks Valentine's

A few years ago, Robert found out about Shrinky dinks - yes they are back! For Valentine's Day treats - not really treats but gifts, he made Shrinky dink hearts that once they were shrunk we either put a pin back on them with hot glue for grandparents or we had put a hole in each one and added zipper pulls for on the kid's backpacks. These turn out really cute and the kids seemed to really like them.

Chinese New Year's

February 3rd is Chinese New Year's this year and it is the year of the Rabbit. We have been doing fun things for a couple of year's for Chinese New Year's. This year the boys were at my mom's a couple of weekends ago and she got them started with decorations. They came home with dragon masks, that were made out of a red paper plate and a piece of ribbon and a spoon attached as the handle of the mask to hold in front of their faces.

Tomorrow we will be having some type of stir fry and chicken possibly sweet & sour and egg rolls. Depending on the weather we might get a few chop sticks and give them a try again . And Garrett and I will be making some type of dragon and probably some paper Chinese Lanterns. But since we haven't made any of those yet, check out some cool ideas for Chinese New Year Crafts here: http://familyfun.go.com/chinese-new-year/?CMP=NLC-NL_FFUN_Crafts_012711_chinese-new-year

Snow Days!

Last year I wrote several ideas of the things that the boys and I did on Snow Days! Ideas from last year can be found at the following links:
http://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/2010/02/another-snow-day.html tents inside and shaving cream painting &
http://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/2010/02/snow-day-plows.html snow plows for toy trucks.

This week we have had 2 snow days back to back. So time to get busy! We have been talking about providing little decorations for some folks that we know that are in nursing homes or are living by themselves just as a way to brighten their days. Yesterday was a great day to get started.

I got out the fun foam and the "s'mores" snowman kit that I had purchased earlier this year and off we went. We talked about making the S'mores guys and door hangers so that each of the boys were giving something different. So after about 2 hours of working on them, we have a tray full of really adorable s'mores snowmen and 6 or 8 door hangers that both boys worked on and now we just need to send them or deliver them to the folks we worked on them for.

Pinewood Derby 2011

The Moo Racer

This past weekend was the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby. Robert worked very hard and learned a few new skills this year (how to use the band saw) but he made the Moo Racer!  We had a great time watching some really fast cars on the track this year. Robert won more of the races than he lost but, he wasn't one of the top 3, but that is okay. We are proud of what he built and what he learned. Congrats Robert.

 The pack also had a "Classic pinewood derby car race" where older cars could be brought back to race. So Robert let Garrett race his car from last year "Lighting McQueen."  Garrett won 2 races and thought it was just great!

Garrett with his"Classic car" and Robert with the Moo Racer

Robert's 10th Birthday!

Breakfast of ham & eggs looks like 10

Candles on a cupcake display is interesting

Well the past week has been a little busy, but in the middle we landed on Robert's birthday and he has now reached the double digits of 10. He had a special breakfast that was the number 10, he had a birthday supper (and then soccer practice) and cupcakes for his birthday because he had ordered his cake from Nanny for the weekend when the family got together.  He wanted a family tree birthday cake, which thanks to Nanny turned out very cool, even though it was a tough subject to work with. I decorated the pole in the kitchen with brown paper and added green balloons with family members names for his family tree. Then on Saturday after soccer we had a little get together for cake & ice cream. Happy 10th Birthday Robert!


Robert's Family Tree Cake
Thanks Nanny!



Happy Birthday to you....

Recycled Magazine boxes

Starting box

The angle on the top to the side

All year long, I have baskets sitting around my house collecting magazines. But at the beginning of each year, I try to sort through the magazines and see if there are ones that I want to keep. Gary & I both get magazines that have full sized patterns in them for woodworking and quilting, so I try to keep those that have ones that we want to use - someday. I also keep ALL of my Family Fun Magazines because it is easier to hand the boys a couple of magazines for ideas for Halloween costumes or Valentine's rather than searching the internet. 

Well, it was time to sort the magazines and attempt to organize them, but magazine files or holders are getting expensive, so this year, I took several cereal boxes (the big ones) and cut them into magazine files. You simply take a box, and cut a diagonal across the widest part of the box  from the corner to about 4 inches from the bottom, on both sides and then cut across the end to make those 2 sides match up.

You can then fill the boxes with books and they will stand so that you can read the spines. I have also added contact paper or wrapping paper to dress the boxes up a little bit. This is when I made these for the boys and they were out where people might see them.

The box with magazines in it

The spines and the box will sit upright

Keystone's Book Fair

For those who do not have kids in school, I just wanted you to know about the Scholastic book fair at Keystone Elementary. The Book Fairs runs Feb 26(Yes yesterday) - Feb 2. There will be "Family nights" AKA Open to public buying - tonight the 27th from 6-8 and again on Feb 1 from 6-8. The school will also accept "Box tops for education" for payment of books figuring each boxtop at .10. So grab your kids and head for the book fair, there is nothing better than a good book.

Pudding Parfaits

I remember as a kid loving those little parfait cups that they sell at Kentucky Fried Chicken, but they always seemed expensive, especially if you had purchased the meals already. But recently Garrett has fallen in love with those little parfaits. So he has been making them here at home. Oh so easy and such a great little treat for the little bit of time to make them. Garrett enjoyed making them so much, that he made them for the whole family the other night for dessert, which made him feel very special.

Pudding Parfaits

1 box favorite pudding (Currently chocolate is our favorite)

2 cups milk

whipped cream

cup of some type to layer into

We mix the milk and pudding together in a shaker which Garrett usually likes to jump around while he is shaking it. Let the pudding chill for at least 15 minutes. While it was chilling we got out the little cups and a spoon to scoop the pudding with. Then When the pudding is firm. Begin layering in pudding and whipped cream, we happened to have Reddi Whip, which makes it fun, but regular whipped cream would work too. Layer the pudding and whipped cream until the cups are to the fullness that you desire. We topped ours with a few little sprinkles (for our desserts Garrett topped ours with cherries so let the kids decide) and you have a simple snack or dessert that the kids find cool.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Houses in January?!?!?

I was away this weekend and the boys went to my Mom's. Now she had a great idea that she and I had discussed and it was a hit (at least from the excitement at my end when I returned this weekend.) Robert and Garrett had both been wanting to purchase a gingerbread house kit over Christmas. I explained that I didn't really think that we had the time in our Christmas schedule to make the gingerbread houses and therefore it would be a waste of money. But then Nanny kicked in, she waited to AFTER Christmas and bought the kits at 60-75% off (therefore making them reasonable) and put them into the "when we get the opportunity to make craft." Well Friday night and Saturday were too frigid to go outside and play in the snow, so they set up shop in the kitchen. And you guessed it, they made snow covered gingerbread houses.



Robert's Gingerbread House,
if you look closely on the roof, he added an "S"



The boys had a great time making the houses and were very excited about bringing them home to show me. Garrett just wanted to show me so that he could then start eating it, since Gary had told him he couldn't eat it until I saw it. But they were both excited about their creativeness with their houses. I haven't talked to Nanny about how things went while making them, but they had a blast.



Garrett's Gingerbread House
He was excited about his stop light on the end of the house



The neat part is, they had time to do them well - not hurried as it would have been during Christmas. They had a fun project that they wanted to do, in January and they were on sale so it didn't cost much. So maybe next year we will have Valentine's Day gingerbread houses or maybe just "Snow Day" gingerbread houses, but I'm pretty sure that we won't have it at Christmas time.



Recycled Christmas Thank you's

Right after Christmas, a blog that I follow, Teach mama, posted the following http://teachmama.com/2010/12/quick-trick-fun-with-bows-and-gift-wrap.html where she talks about letting her children cut the wrapping paper as a great way to practice cutting. She also includes ribbons and bows. Well I loved her post, but Garrett wanted to know "why are we cutting the paper into shapes?" Fortunately I was prepared for this question and had figured out that if we cut the shapes out into circles (that worked best for our wrapping paper) that we could then create snowglobe Christmas thank you notes. These turned out great and not only did we practice cutting with Garrett, but we also were able to recycle some wrapping paper and make nice thank you's.

All we did was use a glue stick to glue down a brown piece of paper to look like the base of a snowglobe and then added the circle cut from the used wrapping paper. I did ever so lightly, iron the wrapping paper after cutting it to get out any little wrinkles that were in it.

Andrew's Birthday!

Today we finally got to celebrate Andrew's birthday. The boys were going to go sledding, but it was colder than excepted and they ended up sledding for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and came back in. But here are a few pictures from the birthday!

My headlamp - finally!

All the candles are lit!

Starting to blow out the candles

Ah, they are all out!
Happy (Late) Birthday Andrew!!!!

Bible Verse "addresses"

I just wanted to share a quick idea about how to help kids understand the book, chapter, verse format of Bible verses. Our Kids Klub leader has been calling it the "address." Forr example where is "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." The address is John 3:16.  This helps the kids relate this to their street address, book is the same as the street and the numbers are the similar to their house number. I just think this is a great way to help them think that the location is just as important as the verse, plus I never remember where to find verses.

Children's Sermon - Hot or Cold?

Today we had a guest speaker at our church. I had prepared for the Children's Sermon by asking about the scripture that the speaker would be using.  The following is the Children's Sermon that came from the scripture used by the speaker.

"Good Morning! So today we are going to talk about food. You all like food right? Well how do you like mashed potatoes and gravy - cold? How about ice cream that has been in the microwave for a minute? It's that how we should eat those foods? No, are you sure? So you think potatoes and gravy should be hot and ice cream cold? Well, you are right.

Did you know that there are certain temperatures that food should be served at? (Holding up the picture on the right) What is this a picture of? A thermometer, you are right, but this is a special thermometer. It is the food safety scale or thermometer. And it is showing me that from 40 degrees to 140 degrees is the Danger Zone. Hum, why would that be the danger zone? I know that I like it when it is about 60 degrees outside. Yes, that is a germ on the poster and that is the temperature that germs like the best to grow and make people sick. But did you know that God used this same temperature range in the Bible?  In Revelations 3:16 it says ' So, because you are lukewarm- neither hot or cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth.'

See God only wants people who are hot for him. Those are people who are excited and fully committed to serving the Lord. Those who say "oh I'll do that today but not that" are people who are lukewarm and God wants to spit you out. And those that are cold to God means that they are either non believers or are part of Satan's gang. So let us stay hot or excited to serve God. WE do not want to be the people that God is spitting out. And when we see this Food Safety thermometer remember that anything below the "Danger Zone sign" is really a dangerous place to be with God."

We closed with prayer and then the kids were given envelops of hot chocolate mix so they could find "hot" water to mix it up with.

Cinnamon Ornaments

This year I had several people ask me for the Cinnamon ornament recipe, so their kids could make the ornaments as gifts. Well to be honest, I have never made the ornaments, but the people that asked for the recipe- I did find a recipe and got it to them. But in case anyone else is looking for this recipe, here it is:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup applesauce
craft twine or ribbon

Directions: Blend the dry ingredients together and then stir in the applesauce. It should make a thick paste. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to a 1/4" thickness. Cut it with cookie cutters according to the holiday. Poke a hole through the top, a straw works well. Preheat the oven to 150 and bake ornaments on ungreased cookie sheet for 1 1/2 hours. Let the ornaments cool and then add the ribbon or twine through the hole as a hanger. You can add embellishments with craft paint, buttons & glue, glitter or other small craft items. These are nice ornaments and they could easily be made into pins by gluing a pin back to the back of the ornament and skip the hole at the top of each if you are making a pin.

Card organizer

This morning Garrett had several thank you cards laying on the table and we added them to the Card Organizer. Now we have a card ring that we use to keep the cards that the kids like. It is really simple but it works great for those birthday cards or congrats, & thank you's that the kids receive and they don't want to throw away. It is very simple to put together. All you need is a Book ring (ours is 1 1/4"), a paper punch and cards. Put a hole in the corner of the card and then feed onto the book ring and close the ring. This way the kids can keep their cards (for sometime) and they are not all over the house. I have seen the boys looking through these cards on occassion and asking about the people that sent them or they remember that the card came from such and such friend and that it was a favorite from their birthday. Regardless it is an easy way to organize these cards that kids aren't quite ready to get rid of just yet, and it keeps them picked up and neat.

Weekend trip to Farm Show

We packed up on Friday and took off for our friend's home in Lancaster County where we celebrated Christmas with them. Abby is a real gem and the dress-up bucket was a real hit.

Abby in a bucket!

Watching the rodeo and eating lunch

Saturday it was off to the PA Farm Show. We were able to take in the High School Rodeo, and check out the projects of friends and of course Robert's. The 4-H club that we work with did very well with 2 Best of Show Ribbons. The Farm Show really isn't an expensive trip as long as you don't eat at the Farm Show Building. We packed our lunch and ended up that all we paid for was 1 meal on Saturday, parking and fuel to get there. We are blessed to have friends in the area that we were able to visit and stay with them too. It was a very fun weekend, also very tiring on the kids, but they had fun and learned a little along the way.

Robert with his poster (The poster on the left).
Good Job we are proud of you!

Creative Storage

So as the New Year has come so has finding a place for everything. Years ago Gary had some 2 1/2 gallon buckets at the farm that he asked if I had a use for. He brought me one over to work with. That bucket became Robert's matchbox car and toy tractor (small scale) bucket. I have used buckets for several other things, but as a storage area for the kids has been the most popular. I have found that a better place to find buckets than the farm is the local bakery. The bakery's get their icing and fillings in different size buckets, some of them are square, some are short and round, but regardless you can go and pick up a bucket sometimes for free and sometimes for $1.00 depending on the bakery.

This is the dress-up bucket which is storage and a cute little stool!

This year for Christmas, one of my friend's daughter is big enough to receive a bucket. Her bucket is a dress-up bucket.

I have decorated buckets in several ways. Robert's I took plastic spray paint and painted it red. Then I took material that matched his bedroom and decoupaged little cut outs of the material all over the bucket. Finally, I took matching material and made a cushion for on the top of the bucket.

The bucket that I just finished, I decoupaged material all over the bucket, ran a piece of ribbon around the top edge and then added a cushion with a little bit of lace and attached to the lid with a few pieces of Velcro. This makes it storage and a great little seat for her. To make it a dress-up bucket, I filled it with hats, necklaces, and a few little girl dresses that she can play with and pretend with. A great time to find those dress up outfits is right after Halloween, especially if you have boys who want a fireman's outfit or a doctor's outfit!!!!

PA Farm Show

Starting Saturday in Harrisburg, PA is the PA Farm Show. This is equal to many states State Fair, but PA puts its Agriculture showcase indoors in January. This year Robert has entered a poster and a quilt patch. I have entered a quilt patch. But for those who would like to see what is going on at the Farm Show but can't be there, check your television listing for PCN (Pennsylvania Cable Network) they follow the Farm Show all week. You can check the schedule of events and viewing times at http://www.pcntv.com/farmshow/index.html Check it out if you get a chance, we watched a lot of events last year on PCN that we missed while at the Farm Show or events that happened after we had returned home.

First Fruits?

Gary recently shared with me a discussion that he had with some friends that really got me to thinking. God has asked for our first fruits and it is to be a 10th. Now Gary and I have been trying to tithe and we have steadily increased our giving. But this discussion had a different way to tithe - we give our 10% from each paycheck that Gary receives and if I make some money we add that amount to the tithe. One man that Gary was talking to said that they give everything that they earn in the month of January, it is the 1st month. Hmmm... I hadn't thought about it that way before.

As we do each year, Gary and I will sit down to discuss our finances so that we both know where we are at and what plans we each have or goals for our money that we each have (he is a saver and I'm a spender so we tend to have different opinions.)  But this might be something to discuss with your spouse, what are we giving to God? He has given us SO much and he asks for so little. Trust me the rewards are outstanding.  Just try it start by increasing your giving to God by either a percent or by a certain amount of dollars each month. And remember you can't out give God.

Simple Fudge Recipe

 I didn't post this recipe before Christmas because I didn't want to ruin Christmas for some, since my boys used this recipe for gifts this year. But now that Christmas is over, I will share the recipe.

This Fudge is SO simple that Robert can make it by himself and Garrett can easily help make most of it.

You need:
nonstick cooking spray
12oz. bag of chocolate chips (we have found that different flavored chips work well too)
16oz. ready made frosting (regular, not whipped frosting)
1/4 c. finely chopped almonds optional ( we have also used crushed peppermint sticks, sprinkles, etc.)
9x9" glass pan

Directions:
Spray the 9x9 pan with the cooking spray and set aside
Pour the chocolate chips and frosting into a microwave safe bowl.
Heat the frosting and chips in 30 second increments until melted smooth. Stir after each 30 seconds to check for smoothness.
Stir fudge until smooth and well mixed together.
Now pour into prepared pan
Sprinkle toppings top top and you may need to gently push the toppings into the fudge.
Refrigerate until completely cooled and firm.
Cut into 1" squares and enjoy!

We usually make several different flavors and then the boys wrap up a couple pieces of each flavor and make a fudge assortment in nice tins that I usually pick up during the "After Christmas Sales" the year before.

This would be a great little gift for Valentine's Day so you might want to keep this recipe in mind.

Take time and have some fun with your kids in the kitchen !