Prayer Pumpkins

So I was at Lowe's a couple days ago, and they had their mini pumpkins clearanced out. I got 2 bags full (maybe 9 or 10 pumpkins) for $1. 

I love pumpkins. I don't know what it is about them (and squash and gourds) but I think they are so beautiful! And I don't see any reason that they should only be out for Halloween-- to me they go with the Thanksgiving theme perfectly.

So... I let my daughter paint a couple, but I wanted to figure out something cool to do with the others. I kept picturing writing on them with a Sharpie, but I couldn't really decide what I wanted to do. 

Today the idea came to me: Prayer pumpkins! 

What are prayer pumpkins, you ask? Well, they are pumpkins with names of people we are praying for written on them. 

 Emma and I sat down and I wrote on the pumpkins while she came up with the names. I would start with something like, "I'm writing Aunt Julie. Who is in Aunt Julie's family?" Then as she came up with the names, we would talk about relationships, like he is her husband and he is also their dad. They are brother and sister. That sort of thing. 

I made a different pumpkin for each family of my sister and my husband's 2 brothers. Then another pumpkin has the grandparents on it, another has our family on it, and another has random friends and family on it. I still have a couple left, so as we think of people we can add more names.

Anyway, now when we sit down to pray for a meal, we can pick up a pumpkin and pray for a few people. Most of the pumpkins have about 6 names on them, so that isn't too much for my little almost 3 year old to handle.

Costumes

We don't really "celebrate" Halloween. I mean, we aren't against the kids dressing up, but other than that, we just aren't into it. And really, my kids like to dress up any day of the year.
So this year, I didn't buy any costumes. I had picked up a cute costume for Trevor at a yard sale for $1 during the summer, but hadn't gotten anything for Emma. Once Dan and I talked about things, we decided not to buy one for Emma, and to just stay home and hand out candy instead of going out ourselves. This seemed like a good way to save money and also teach the kids about giving.
Well, my kids are amazingly cheerful givers. Every time the doorbell rang, they ran squealing and laughing to the door, where I let them take turns putting candy in the kids' buckets. They had SO much fun!
Well, I went ahead and got the monkey costume out, and pulled out Emma's old costume, too, and it barely fit her. Here are some pics.

Fall Wreath

I really wanted to do a cute wreath for my door for fall. I'm working on being crafty, but I'm not that great yet. I kept seeing cute fabric flowers on Pinterest, so I figured I'd try my hand at those.
They turned out cute, but I'm not sure how anyone gets them very big. When I tried to make a bigger one, the fabric kept slipping down the sides of the flower, and it looked horrible. Oh well.

Also, I just want to say that hot glue guns are hot. (I used to frequent a coffee shop that had "Hot coffee is hot" printed on their cups, due to the whole McDonald's hot coffee thing, and it always made me laugh). Pretty sure my thumb is burned down into the bone. It sure hurts.

Crowdtap Party

I was chosen to do a party through Crowdtap for the new movie Hotel Transylvania.
There ended up being 13 kids, which was kind of a strange coincidence!

The kids colored  pictures from the downloadable party pack that Crowdtap provided for my party use. They also gave me the idea of doing monster cupcake decorating. So I baked a bunch of cupcakes and let the kids decorate them with candy. They didn't end up looking much like monsters, but the kids had a great time!

Thanks, Crowdtap, for choosing me as a party host!
If you're interested in joining Crowdtap so that you can have a chance to do some of the fun activities they offer, click on the link below. If you have facebook, the sign up process takes only a few seconds!

Crowdtap and Old Navy Sample Share

If you've been reading my blog for long, you know I'm a member of Crowdtap. You've probably also seen my posts about some of the cool opportunities I've been given by Crowdtap and the Old Navy Style Council. 

There was the swimsuit sample share that I blogged about HERE 

and the Bottoms Bonanza that I blogged about HERE.

Well, I was recently chosen again and this sample share was even better!

 

I was chosen for an Old Navy Cardi Party! Now, I'll be honest with you, I have a couple of cardigans that I love, but I've also seen an awfully lot of cardigans that look like an old lady, to me. So I was a bit hesitant. I knew I would be able to bring along 3 friends. For me, choosing friends is always the hardest part (besides choosing between which 2 items I want for free!). I want to make sure the group will be comfortable together, but this time I just picked a couple people randomly. My sister-in-law, Emily, came along. So did my friend Ramona, and my mom. And you know what? We had an awesome time!

I was so excited when the coupons came in the mail a couple days before the party. Not only did we each get a free cardigan, but we also got a free scarf AND a free skirt! Seriously, Old Navy is VERY generous to Crowdtappers.  Here are some of the fun outfits we tried out.

There were a lot more, but here's a little idea. It was so much fun! After we shopped, we went out to eat at Carino's. It was a nice shopping trip and it was so great to be without the kids for a few hours :)

Fresh Pizza Sauce

Every summer I think, we will not buy as many tomato plants next year. But then spring comes around, and I get gardening fever. I go to buy my plants (I used to start my own, but I'm too lazy now) and I see that it's cheaper to buy a 4 pack than it is to buy a single plant. And I like variety! So by the time I pick out some type of cherry tomato, a Roma, an heirloom, and an Early Girl or Big Beef or something, I've already got 16 plants.

16 tomato plants!!!

So I always end up with too many tomatoes.

We eat pizza a lot. Too much, really. But if my hubby had it his way, we would alternate between hamburgers and pizza, and that would basically be it. So our compromise is pizza once a week. I know, that's a ton (we alternate between pepperoni, chicken alfredo, and bbq chicken, but still....).

So I try to kill 2 birds with one stone by using some of those tomatoes for fresh pizza sauce.  And I usually make this times 5 or 6, and then I freeze the extras in ice cube trays. After frozen solid, I put them in a ziploc bag and just pull out as much as I want.

This is the easiest pizza sauce EVER!

1 clove Garlic
1 Tbs. fresh Basil
1 tsp. Salt
pinch of Pepper
1/4 tsp. Sugar
1 tsp. dried Oregano
2 Tbs. Oil (I use Olive)
2 Ripe Tomatoes
Tomato Paste to desired thickness

Blend the garlic and basil in a food processor-- you may have to scrape the sides a couple of times. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend without liquifying.

That's it!

Funny

I saw this on Pinterest, and I had a good chuckle, so I'm sharing it.

Woolite Sample Share for Crowdtap

I had the privilege of being chosen for a sample share event for Woolite Extra Dark Care.

I received 10 samples in the mail, and each one had a $1 off coupon with it, as well.

Woolite Extra Dark Care is formulated for jeans, dark clothing, t-shirts, wool sweaters, you name it. It works great! I loved the way my jeans felt after I ran a load. 

I kept one sample for myself, and then gave my other 9 samples away to family, since we have had a lot of family things going on lately, and I figured that would be the best way to distribute them. So far, I've heard back from a couple family members, and they also loved the way their jeans came out of the wash (no one I have heard from has washed anything else with their sample). The only negative feedback I've heard is that Woolite is kind of expensive, even with the coupon. For some reason, it never seems to go on a good sale, and as couponers, most of my female family members wouldn't pay $10 for 25 loads of laundry. SOOO, if a good sale happened, I bet we would all snatch a bunch up!

If you are interested in becoming a part of Crowdtap, so that you can be eligible for awesome sample shares, parties, and more (all while earning Amazon gift cards and giving money to a charity), visit the following link. The sign-up process is simple and fast, and the earning is so easy!

 

Paper Wreath

I just finished making a wreath, and I LOVE how it turned out.

I basically followed the tutorial you will find HERE, but I used a 12" wreath form, since that's what I had on hand.

For my embellishment, I freehanded cutting out a flower in 2 sizes from a felted sweater that used to be my daughters. I didn't like the way it fit her, but I liked the texture and color, so I felted it and put it away in my fabric drawer. I knew eventually I would find a great craft for it!

I used 6 sheets of 12"x12" scrapbooking paper, but I ended up with about 70 extra loops. You just cut the paper into 1"x4" strips, hot glue them in half, and hot glue them around the wreath form. The tutorial I linked is fabulous!

The only change I made to it was adding a 1" wide strip of paper around the center of the wreath, because you could see my ugly green foam wreath form, and it didn't look too cute.

So there you have it! I love my new wreath!

Praying the Psalms

Okay, I've done terrible on blogging my Psalm prayers.
I apologize. I've been praying them, but some days they are very personal, and other days I just have a hard time finding the time to sit down and write a blog, with my wild 2 year old, and my whiny 1 year old.
And I guess part of it comes from the fact that I'm getting no feedback about it-- is anyone even reading these posts? Because if no one is, then I won't feel guilty for just reading and praying the Psalms, but not blogging them!

Old Navy, I LOVE YOU!

For those of you new to my blog, I've written about Crowdtap here, 

and the Old Navy Style Council sample share I was chosen for here.

I was so excited to take my sister, Julie, with me for our sample share. We each got to pick out a swim suit for FREE!!! thanks to the Old Navy Style Council and Crowdtap!

We got our husbands to watch the kids and had a girls' day out, which was such a blessing! I love my kids, but they have been a bit rotten lately, and I really needed the day off. Julie and I had a blast! I swear, the people working at Old Navy probably wondered what was going on, we were laughing so hard in the dressing room. We were trying to get into some of the smaller sizes of Control Max swimsuits, and it was taking both of us and some crazy motion to make it happen-- but, dang! they really did some super controlling! Plus they were pretty cute!

Unfortunately, I didn't get very good pictures. I meant to take my camera, but since our Old Navy is an hour away, I was stuck with just my old school camera phone, since my newer phone is dead. 

We tried on all different colors and styles, and finally found a couple of cute suits. 

What I really wanted was this swim suit in black or grey, but they only had it in sizes x-small (do people who fit extra small even need control max?), small, and x-large.

 

What I ended up getting was this other Control Max swimsuit:

My sister picked out a wild but cute bikini:

I even found a super cute shirt that I had to add to my wardrobe.

It was super fun. My only complaint would be that the selection was pretty picked over by the time the coupons arrived, and that the coupons arrived with less than 10 days until they expired. But as my parents always taught me, beggars can't be choosers! 

Thanks, Old Navy and Crowdtap for the opportunity!!!

And if any of you are interesting in getting chosen for some awesome opportunities like this one, or like the McCormick Grill Mates party my husband won, join me on Crowdtap! Just click on the icon below, and you can sign up in only maybe a minute using facebook:

June 18th: Psalm 18

Lord, I love You! You are my rock and my fortress! You deliver me! You are my everything, and I thank You for giving me salvation.
You are worthy of all praise, Father, and I thank You for listening to my prayers. Even when I feel overwhelmed by everything that's going on in my life, I know that I can trust in You to deliver me.
You hear me when I am distressed- when everything seems to be going wrong in my life. On the days when both kids are crying, I'm feeling stressed and tired, and I can't seem to get anything done, You are there for me!
Father, help me to keep Your ways, and to do the things You desire.  You save those that are humble, so please, Lord, don't let me get full of myself. Keep my lamp burning-- turn my darkness to light!
You are perfect, Lord, and Your ways are flawless. You protect all who take refuge in You.  I find my strength and protection in You alone.
I praise You, oh Lord! You are amazing! You are my rock and my fortress!
Amen.

This Week's Menu: June 18-24

I was totally planning to share my monthly menu, but then I got invited to be part of a freezer meal group, and that kind of screwed up my month last month. I say that in the greatest way-- it was awesome!- but it caused me to seriously stray from my menu.
So I'm just sharing this week, instead of the whole month.

Monday: Grilled Chicken Salad. Made with romaine lettuce, grilled chicken breasts, sliced tomato and cucumber, and ranch dressing

Tuesday: Black Bean Pesto

Wednesday: Cilantro Lime Chicken

Thursday: Dr. Pepper Beef

Friday: Shredded beef enchiladas using the leftover roast

Saturday: Homemade pepperoni pizza

Sunday: Leftovers

Black Bean Pesto

This might sound really weird, or even gross to some of you. This was a meal I was served by a vegetarian that I used to babysit for. It looked gross, but my parents taught us to ALWAYS eat whatever we are served. And it turns out, it was really good. This is actually one of my favorite foods.

1 1/2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Large Onion
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 3/4 Cups Black Beans, drained and rinsed
3/4 Cups vegetable broth (I use chicken broth instead)
1 Cup Peas, fresh or frozen
2-3 Tbsp. Pesto (I usually use quite a lot of pesto, but I really love the flavor of basil)
salt and pepper to taste
Linguini, cooked according to the package
Sliced green or red peppers
Mozzarella Cheese

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add onion and saute for 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Place beans and broth in food processor (or blender) and puree until smooth. Poor into skillet with onions and garlic.
Heat over medium-low, adding peas, pesto, salt and pepper, and cook 7 minutes, stirring often until mixture thickens slightly.
Serve over noodles, and garnish with peppers and mozzarella cheese.

Shredded Beef Enchiladas

3-5 lb Beef Roast
1 Tbsp. Oil
1 Large Onion, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1 can Tomato Sauce
1/3 Cups Water
6-10 Flour tortillas
2 Cups Grated Cheddar, divided

Cook Roast in crock pot for 6-8 hours. Shred the beef with a fork.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Heat oil in a pan, and saute onion and garlic. Add the chili powder, tomato sauce, and 1/3 Cup water.
Add the cooked shredded beef and 1 1/2 cups cheese.
Fill each tortilla with the mixture, making sure to leave enough mixture to spread a little over the top. Put each rolled and filled tortilla in a casserole dish (size depends on how big of a roast you used). Cover with the extra sauce, and remaining cheese.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

Creamy Cilantro Lime Chicken

4 Chicken Breasts
2 Cups of your favorite salsa
Juice from one lime
1/4 to 1/3 cup Cilantro (use less if you're not a big cilantro fan)
1 Jalapeno, chopped
One packet of taco seasoning
16 ounces of Sour Cream

Mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the sour cream together in a crock pot. Cook over low for 6 hours. Use 2 forks to shred the chicken, and mix all the ingredients together. Cook for another 30 minutes or so. Stir in the sour cream, and serve over rice.

June 17th: Psalm 17 & Father's Day

First off, I would love to say Happy Father's Day to my amazing husband! Dan is the greatest father-- he is patient but firm, loves playing with the kids, and always treats the kids and me with respect. We couldn't ask for more (unless maybe he could be the same guy but a rich doctor?).
So, Dan, thank you for being my best friend and for helping me raise our rowdy kids!

Psalm 17

 Lord, please hear my prayers. I'm losing patience with my kids, and I'm so tired of not getting enough sleep. I'm not asking you for any evil or selfish reasons, but I need You to hear my prayers! I can't be a good mom when I'm not getting any sleep! 

I call on You, my God, for You will answer me! Turn Your ear to me and hear my prayer. Show me the wonders of your great love, You who save by Your right hand those who take refuge in You from their foes. Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wing. Give me rest, Lord, and let me see Your face.

Amen.

June 13th: Psalm 13

I read through this, and felt like it said it perfectly, so I'm just including Psalm 13 from the NIV translation.

Psalm 13

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him, ” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.

Amen.

June 11th: Psalm 11 & a Sweet Boy's Birthday

Today is my baby boy's first birthday! I can't believe it has been a year-- it's flown by, and yet I feel like he's always been a part of our family. I sure love his cute dimply smile, his courageous, determined personality, and his amazing hugs.

Psalm 11
Thank You, Lord, for being my refuge. You protect me and make me whole. It gives me comfort to know that You watch over me and that You know everything about me. How can anyone doubt You, Lord?
Please, Lord, let me find favor with You. I want You to see me with love, kindness, and mercy, not with hate like You see the wicked.
Oh God, You are righteous! Thank You for loving justice! Please, Lord, let me see Your face!
Amen.

June 10th: Psalm 10

Lord, I don't understand why it seems like You have abandoned me.
Sometimes it seems like the wicked are the ones that prosper. Like those who waste all of their money prosper, while we keep budgeting and budgeting, but things like Trevor's surgery and a broken fridge at the rental keep happening, so we never seem to get ahead!
Don't forget us, Lord! Please notice that we are trying so hard to be good stewards of Your resources, and bless us! Maybe then, others will see our blessings and hear our story, and they will turn to You.
I know that You care about our troubles, and I thank You that we can trust in Your provision. Even though we've suffered some setbacks, You have been faithful, and we haven't had to go into debt over them.
Thank You for hearing my cries and for filling my heart with encouragement. I pray, Lord, that You would send extra blessings to those who read this today.
Amen.

Fun Yard Sale Finds!

Can I just say that I LOVE yard sales?!
They are so much fun, and it's like bargain shopping to the max.
Today I found a great yard sale with a bunch of toddler boy clothes. The lady had the clothes marked for 25 cents each! She had a box of coats sitting nearby, so I asked how much the coats were. Her answer? 25 cents!!! For coats in great condition! Woo Hoo!!!

So I picked up a 2T and a 3T coat (who knows what size Trevor will be in-- he's almost a year and already wearing 18 & 24 month clothes). I got 2 jackets, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of Osh Kosh shorts, a pair of swim trunks, and a sun hat. And I spent a whopping $2.50!!!

Follow Me

Obviously, these are Christ's words, and they had a much different meaning when He said them, but if you wouldn't mind following this blog, I would really appreciate it! When people follow my blog, it gives me more opportunities to attempt to make money through my blog.
Thanks!

June 8th: Psalm 8

Oh Lord, You are so amazing! Everywhere I look I see Your glory.

I hear You in the amazingly beautiful things Emma says, and in the intricate way Trevor was made. How can anyone see Your creation and not believe in You?

I am so amazed that You would create such beautiful things-- the eclipse we saw a few weeks ago; fingerprints on my babies before they were born; the geological wonders that we see everyday-- and yet You are still interested in me. I'm floored by that, Lord! What is there in me that You could possibly find interesting? 

 

Thank You, Lord, that You are not only interested in me and my life, but that You sent Your son to die for my sins-- to redeem me! You are awesome, Lord!

Emma's Kitchen

After spending time looking at ideas on Pinterest, and spending more time trying to decide what exactly I wanted to do, I have finally finished a project!!!

I turned an old end table into a kitchen for Emma (and Trevor, but mostly for Emma).

We have an old TV that is very heavy. It is definitely NOT a flat screen. It is right at the level that little fingers love, so we have had an end table in front of it for quite some time. Not a beautiful fix, but it keeps the kiddos from pulling the TV over on themselves and crushing them. So this same end table got a dressing up, and now it is functional for the kids, better looking, and still very strange to have in front of the TV, but oh well! :)

Here are some of the cute ideas I used as inspiration.

 

And here's my finished kitchen:

It's actually a dark blue, although these pictures make it look almost black. I let Emma pick out (with some direction from me) the fabric for the curtains.

My goal was to try to buy almost nothing to make this, but instead to use things we already had around the house. Obviously the end table was used (I think it actually used to be a vinyl album holder). 

My husband was awesome about helping out. He has a stack of old cabinet doors that he got for free, so he helped me screw one to the back of the end table. We also cut a chunk off of the door to use as a shelf for under the "window." 

For the window I used a picture frame, and mod-podged a piece of scrapbook paper to it. 

 The stove burners are some cardboard coaster I had from a houseparty I had. I hot glued 3 coasters together, and then I used hot glue to make a ridge in circles so they look like burners.

 It was a lot of fun, and the only costs ended up being the fabric I bought for curtains, and the spray paint. 

And I have to send out a big THANK YOU! to my amazing husband-- this project could not have happened without his help!

Are any of you doing any fun recycling projects? I'd love to hear what you're up to!