One night last week after getting home late from an evening full of my kids' after-school activities, we found that I didn't really have anything to prepare for our family's dinner in the fridge. My kids didn't want to go to the grocery store, so instead of getting calorie-laden (and expensive) take-out food, I decided to prepare our family's meals from what I could find in our pantry. My husband and I had frozen French bread pizzas, and my daughters had boxed mac 'n cheese, one of their all-time favorite meals. To get a little green element in there, I opened up a can of peas. Our Continue reading...
Updated Entry Hall
I should be working on a freelance story I have this week, but the mess in my home’s itsy-bitsy entry hall has just been irking me! My home is almost entirely filled with carpeting. (I would LOVE wood floors, but I know I will never have those, unless I won a home makeover contest or something.) Wood floors are just so beautiful and are much easier to clean! I hate vacuuming and tend to destroy my vacuum cleaners! So in my house, we take our shoes off before coming into the house to keep the carpets clean. I wasn’t used to it at first, but now I like taking my shoes off when entering a Continue reading...
Keeping the Stove Clean
If there’s one thing that drives me crazy about my kitchen, it is how there are spaces between the stove and the countertop. The spaces are just big enough to allow particles of food and spices to slip between the cracks, making it difficult to keep the kitchen clean. I cringe to think about what’s probably accumulated between the stove and my home’s kitchen cabinets! (I am afraid I’ll rip the laminate flooring in my kitchen or cause worse damage if I try to move the stove to clean behind it.) I’ve thought about caulking the space, and have kept a large cutting board over one of the Continue reading...
Welcome, Autumn! (20 Things I Love About Fall)
Now that the weather is getting cooler, I am excited about fall and the fun activities that my family and I can share together the next few months. So to get in the spirit of the season, I decided to share the 20 things that I love most about the fall: 1. Fall walks in the woods and the sight and smell of autumn leaves 2. Watching my kids make huge piles of leaves in the yard to jump in 3. Brewing cups of mulled apple cider for my kids 4. Snuggling under warm comforters on cool autumn nights 5. Fall movie nights with the family and big bowls of buttery Continue reading...
Learning How to Ride a Bike
Last week, when my daughters' schools were closed for two days for the Rosh Hashanah holiday, I was finaly able to cross a big item off this mom's to-do list. My daughters learned how to ride their bikes! My kids have been riding their bikes -- with training wheels -- for a a few years now. I was nervous about the whole teaching-them-how-to-ride-a-bike thing, and wasn't really sure how to go about it. Plus, my kids never really rode their bikes too much (up until last week), so I wasn't sure whether they were ready to make the no-training-wheels leap just yet. Off with the Continue reading...
Sprucing Up a Storage Shed
With the weather so nice the other day, I decided to get some much needed home improvement work done. I posted way back in June about how I planned to get several DIY projects completed, including staining a weathered wood ramp that leads to our outdoor storage shed. My husband and I had the ramp for the backyard shed installed more than a year ago, and unfortunately, we never got around to staining and weather protecting the wood. So with the kids back in school, and the weather bright and sunny, I decided to tackle that project last week. I started out by purchasing a gallon of Continue reading...
Pretty Craft Flowers for a Rainy Day
One rainy day a few days ago, my daughters and I broke out the "Growing Gardens" Kiwi Crate that we received in the mail. My kids had a wonderful time! In the crate was enough craft supplies for my kids to create two adorable craft flowers each out of paper cut outs and pipe cleaners. The craft was simple enough that my girls (both 9) were able to create their flowers completely on their own, without any guidance from me. After they made their flowers, they used the colored clay that comes with the kit to decorate the four Kiwi Crate cardboard pots. I was impressed with the pretty designs Continue reading...
What’s For Lunch: Cookie-Cutter Sandwiches
My kids wanted sandwiches for lunch today, so I decided to jazz up their usual salami/cheese and turkey/cheese sandwiches by cutting fun shapes out with cookie cutters. I simply made the sandwiches (making sure to place the meat and cheese so they will stay in the sandwich once cut), and cut the sandwiches into shapes with some of my cookie cutters. I have a large heart-shaped cookie cutter, and cookie cutters for each of my daughters' first initials, so I used those. I used a smaller heart cookie cutter to top each heart sandwich with a smaller heart-shaped piece of cheese. Below are Continue reading...
What’s for Lunch: Deviled Eggs and Pasta Salad
Now that the school year is here, I am hoping to better manage my kids' nutrition by making lunch for my daughters most school days. In the past, I used to let them buy lunch, since they liked their school's lunches. But, it turns out that this year, my daughters would rather bring in their own lunches, so I am happy! It seems that the appeal of the school's lunches have worn off for my daughters. They also don't like the long lines they have to stand in to purchase a lunch. When I pack a lunch for them, they get to choose their seat in the lunchroom earlier, and get started on their Continue reading...
Kiwi Crates, Fun For Kids
I’ve been offered the opportunity to try and review Kiwi Crate, a subscription service that supplies kids and parents with a box full of fun activities to do each month. We received our first Kiwi Crate in the mail just last week, and my kids are anxious to get started on the projects in this month’s crate! Our “Growing Gardens” crate is filled with two of everything, which is wonderful, since I have two daughters. In the crate are things to create a miniature window garden: Squash and bean seeds, plastic bags to start the seeds in and suction cups for hanging the bags on a Continue reading...
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