"At Christmas everyone thinks they're Martha Stewart." - unknown author

Every year I decide three days before Christmas that I need to create something as a gift for someone. My poor family members have been the receiving victims of this need. Most years I make some kind of ornament for everyone. This year I didn't. Instead months before Christmas I decided I was going to search for a gift to make and begin it in plenty of time.

I found something on Pinterest that I thought was cute. It was a link to just a picture though so I had to wing it on my own. The victim of this most fabulous gift for 2012.... My mother!

She's my usual target because I know she will still love me even if she hates the gift! :)

Mom has wanted a updated picture if the three grandchildren. She also always calls her own children's dogs her grand puppies. So this year I combined those to concepts into one gift!

I started with a wooden frame (no glass) that I found at Micheal's. I painted it black as well as the clothes pins you will see on the final project pic.

Then I Mod Podged scrap book paper onto the wood backing. Lining this up was a pain in the tush!!! If I have to do it again, I will DEFINITELY plan this part better. But as you all know when it comes to a project I jump in and just want to finish it to see the final project! (If only I were that enthusiastic about my laundry & grocery shopping!) I also used stencils I had to write Grandkids... of course I "eye balled" this part which left it uneven so I had to free style a little heart at the end!

Then once everything dried, I Mod Podged the clothes pins on the bottom of the frame. Printed the pictures and Mod Podged them onto the remaining scrap book paper and cut them to frame the pictures. But then I couldn't decide whether the little red jewels looked good or not, so I sent a few feelers out to friends and family.  The little red jewels won!! Soooo ....here is the final project!!

I think it looks pretty good.(except that I can't get the pics to turn! Sorry about that!) The Mod Podge made the black and white pictures a little too shiny for my liking but my mom said she really liked it! I'm hoping she really did!!! I'm thinking about making another one for someone else.... will YOU be my next victim?? :)

"It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate – you know someone’s fingers have been all over it."- Julia Child

It's official! The first crock pot meal experiment of 2013 is complete!! And it was .....
 

SUCCESSFUL!!

 
One point for mom, zero for picky eating daughter!
 
What was on the menu you ask? Slow Cooker Bacon Ranch Chicken that I found on this great blog called MomsWhoThink.  I was reading a few recipes and this one looked so easy. As it so happened, I had every thing but the ranch dressing mix. Here's the recipe in case you can't open the link for some reason.
 
Slow Cooker Bacon Ranch Chicken
4 boneless chicken breasts
4 tablespoons of real bacon bits
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 package of ranch dressing mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
egg noodles

Directions:

1.  Place chicken in greased 5-6 quart crock pot (for the record I have no idea how big my crock pot is! but it worked!)
2. Combine ingredients #2 through 5 and mix well.
3. Pour over chicken in crock pot. Cook on high for 3-4 hours
4. Shred chicken using two forks
5. Serve over cooked egg noodles

For the record, I have NO idea how big my crock pot is, but it worked. Also, I only had 3 chicken breasts AND I cooked it on low for 6-8 hours (because I was at work). When I got home from work I boiled some egg noodles....

Stirred the chicken mixture and scooped it on top so it look like this....

And it was a SUCCESS!! Picky Grace loved it so much there was NOTHING left on her plate (see below!!) and she can't wait to have left overs for lunch tomorrow! It's the little things that excite me! :)

 

 

What's your favorite easy slow cooker recipe? Share in the comments!! 

"Happy to You!" - Julianna Wood

I don't normally make new year resolutions because I usually break them before January 2nd. But this year, while perfectly procrastinating taking down my Christmas decorations, I was reading a few Home & Garden blogs and saw a theme on a few. These amazing bloggers, like Layla Palmer of The Lettered Cottage, were talking about their "Word of the year".

The blogs I read described a word these women chose to work on or "see" in their lives that entire year. After reading those stories, I began to think that this was kind of a neat twist on the New Year's resolution thing. So, I began making a list of words of my own. There were plenty of things on my list that I could work on in 2013. Of course I want to work on ALL of them.

But, this is what I do all of the time to myself. I try working on many things at once, and then feel like a failure when I have only finished one or two. In fact, I've come to find that I get MORE accomplished when I work on one thing at a time. Long story short, after many days of contemplating, I chose the word health.

Well that's what I thought I had chosen...

Sunday at service the pastor used the word "seek" (a LOT). As I left service I was thinking that I was excited about seeking my relationship with God this year. And then it hit me.... "Seek"!!

Seek will be my word for 2013! I can seek so many things in life (God, happiness, acceptance, better relationships, etc) and I can't wait to get started! And I look forward to telling you how "seek" impacted my 2013 this time next year!

 What word will be yours for 2013? Let me know in the comments!

"I think it's interesting that 'cologne' rhymes with 'alone.' " - Demetri Martin

Tonight is one of those "self pity, I'm a single mom nights!"  It started when the Kindle Fire that Grace got two days ago wouldn't charge. It's ending with I have to attend another event ALONE!! Although it's a time of holiday spirit and cheer, this is the time of year my self pity sets in. I TRULY can't stand that!! But most of the time I can't stop it.

So Grace's Kindle Fire wouldn't charge and the thoughts began.... I'm tired. I'm truly tired of being alone and having to make every decision. every time, fix everything that happens, and somehow keep everything together. I know so many people have issues that are WAY worse than mine, but I have to say this is EXHAUSTING! Then I responded to a reunion invite, where I will go, on my own, again. Just reminding me that I haven't found the right person yet (AND I'm OLD!!).

Not having anyone to help with decisions, lean on emotionally, financially (especially this time of year), or having that person just to come home to, that will tell you it will be ok. It's hard, but livable. I envy those who have found their soul mates and know what it's like to go home to your best friend every day.

And then I get mad at myself for having this pity party. In my head I'm yelling at myself, "GET OVER IT! How do you miss something you've NEVER had?! This is the life you've chosen. And you need to focus on Grace, your priority!" I haven't done too badly for myself. And God wouldn't want me to envy others, but in fact be happy with what I do have, even the opportunities and things I need to do alone.

And so,  try to focus on that. Focus on the great people I will see at this reunion, and the fact that somehow the Kindle Fire is charging again!! And that it's pretty cool that I'm a girl who can fix toilets, catch mice, and take care of a good kid on my own. Yes.... THAT is where I need to focus. All else will fall into place in time...when it's supposed to.

"Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store."- Grinch

I'm in the Christmas spirit today. After the first Christmas series at church and baking cookies with Grace while listening to holiday music today, how can I not be!?!?

I have read a million blogs and seen pictures in envy of how these people decorate their homes for Christmas. They are beautiful! Literally, they look like they are out of a Pottery Barn catalog! And then I look at our decorated house. You know, the house that looks like Santa threw up all over it because there is so much red! I was jealous of the blogs I read until I really sat down a looked at ours.

This year I have truly fallen in love with the way our home is decorated for Christmas. We mostly decorate with Christmas art projects Grace made in daycare/preschool and things we have inherited from my mom. Our decorating is absolutely family oriented.

One Christmas decoration I adore is our manger. Every year I wish I had the Willow Tree manger set, but then I see this... and the little manger we inherited from mom just makes me smile and I'm so glad we have it.

But my absolute favorite decoration is a gift from my grandmother, who is deceased. One year she seemed so happy to give me Christmas....RABBITS!!! I remember thinking, "What in the world do these have to do with Christmas?!" At the time I thought they were the worst gift ever, but now, I adore them. They make me smile.

Do you have any weird Christmas decorations like that? Comment about them and show us some pics!! :)

"The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you learned this afternoon." ~Anonymous

If you don't know already, I'm a second grade learning support teacher. I've been wanting to share tips I've found or the ideas I get when I need to "wing it" in the classroom because my students are staring at me like deer in headlights! So I thought I'd create "Teacher Thursdays" for my blog. I'm thinking of creating a whole new "teacher blog" but for now I'll just start here.

First, I want to share two of my favorite teacher bogs. I set a goal to be more organized at work, and so I started with Mrs. McDavid who I found through Pinterest here. I LOVE this site and it gave me tons of ideas. Most important is became what I call my Lesson Plan Binder. It has so much more than lesson plans in it!

The other blogger I found through Pinterest was Mr. Smith from Teacher Tipster. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this dude! He's quirky like me and has amazing ideas that he vlogs about to get kids engaged. Make sure you check him out!!

So all that being said, here are two ideas for writing I'm using in my classroom right now.

Many of my students are in OT for writing. They just love to write....NOT!! To encourage neat handwriting and correct sentence structure I found an idea on Pinterest called Spotlight Writer. I got a desk lamp, a clipboard, and a picture stand. Anytime I see good handwriting or good sentences, it goes up in the spotlight!

My students LOVE this and are working their tails off to get in the spotlight.

**Disclaimer** Beware of those that will now take twice a long to do their work because they are working so hard to make it neat!!

The other idea I wanted to share was our How To Writing we did last month. I had planned for the kids to write a How To about getting ready for school. BOOOOORRRING! But, it was easy and I already had the graphic organizer to go with it. That was the plan. Until the morning of the lesson....

That day my daughter was moving slower than a slug and was giving me the "I'm so annoyed by you mother" attitude all morning. That's when I got the idea....How To Drive Your Mom Crazy!! My students LOVED writing this piece!!! They were so into it and are proud that their writing is displayed in the hall that includes a picture of them with their moms! :)  (Of course I forgot to take a picture of the display, so I'll have to check back later! Sorry!!)


So there you have it. Some "Teacher Tips" for you. What do you think? Should I create a whole new blog for teacher tips? Leave your comments!

"After about three days, shouldn’t "clutter" be upgraded to 'decor'?" - Unknown

I have believed that quote to be true... until they started that darn show Hoarders, (which I love) and feel that I have to throw out 50% of belongings every time I watch it! Who isn't fascinated by that show and then motivated to get crap out of your house?!
 
Two summers ago, I was looking for a new hobby to do at home. I did the normal google and Bing searches. Somehow I discovered this lady, Cas. She's from Canada and soooo much like me! She was once a hot mess and has now become an organizing genius! Plus she's hysterical! I love her sense of humor. You can find her website here.
 
Anyway, I discovered one of her videos about her home binder. Do you have a bunch of schedules, calendars, and papers hanging on your fridge?? I did! And it drove me NUTS every time I opened the fridge door and a bunch of papers fell off the fridge and I'd have to keep putting them back on! UGH! Can you say ANNOYING?!?!
 
Well apparently, in the organization world of Stay At Home Moms there is this phenomenon called the Home Binder!! Cas describes her's here. I adjusted and made my own! :)

 

I will share each section of my binder and what I keep in that section just to give you an idea. You should adjust it to accommodate your family.

 

The first section of the home binder is the "Calendar" section. I have one calendar in a clear sleeve for each month. That way I get an invite or something for 3 months from now I can put it in the calendar and I keep the invite or things I may need for that month, like birthday cards, behind the calendar in the sleeve like so....

 

 

Section 2 is labeled "Contacts". Here is where I keep a form for babysitter with emergency numbers, Important Numbers like famly, friends, and physicians, a "address book" of sorts, Neighborhood numbers and Restaurant numbers that we may use (with their take out menus behind it in the sleeve).

The next section is labeled "Finances". I don't have much in this section, because I created a bill/finance binder that is separate recently. However, I still have a quick reference of phone numbers for utilities there for now. I'm sure eventually I'll eliminate that section all together.

  

Section 4 is the "Cleaning and Maintenance" area. Here is where I keep my daily, monthly, and "spring" cleaning lists. I will admit, I've made a daily cleaning checklist on the fridge. This is because I'm one of those out of sight out of mind people. So, if I need to do something everyday, it needs to be in a place where I see it everyday. Plus I LOVE checklists and crossing things off! However,  I still reference this section all the time. If I have spare time I try to do an extra spring cleaning chore per day... OK, week....OK, at least one a month! Jeez! (Feel free to comment if you want to know the items on any of these lists.)

OK we are half way through the binder!! Next section is "Entertainment" where I keep all of Grace's extra curricular activity information and schedules.

The next section is labeled "School". This is where I keep Grace's class schedule, lunch menu, etc.

 

Only 2 more sections! This section is labeled "Daisy". She's our puppy. I was going to make her a binder of her own, but its not really necessary. So I keep her Vet records here.

 

The last section is labeled "Holidays". Here I have worksheets by month where I list birthdays and anniversaries. Behind that I have my Christmas card list because I got tired of sending cards to those who never sent me one, is now I keep track like a moron! Behind that I have a clear sleeve where I keep Christmas gift receipts in case there are any issues!

 


Well that's if folks. Fine tune it to what your family needs!! Promise you will LOVE this system! :)
 
How do you keep our family organized?! Leave a comment!