Archives

Family Nights

Apr28

Screen Shot 2014-04-28 at 5.58.56 AM

We had Family Nights at our house when the boys were growing up. These were one night a week (or every few weeks).  I think our boys enjoyed these events and they were something to look forward to throughout the week. I tried to look for activities that wouldn’t require a lot of money as that was always a consideration with a single income.

Some of the things we did were:

Short devotions We used a book that was called, Devotions for Families that Can’t Sit Still and it was fantastic! I just checked Amazon and saw you can get the book for a penny! (plus s&h) There is not only a devotion, but a scripture reading and then a fun activity to follow, such as Bible charades, darts, playdoh, and games.

Game Night Board Games, cards, checkers, and Twister were some things we enjoyed. The kids especially liked to see us get all twisted around like a pretzel. We nearly always lost to them since they were more limber than us!

Wii Sports  Some of our favorites were bowling, ping-pong, and sword fighting. (touché)

Movies We took turns on who got to pick the movie and Dad made the best popcorn ever. This is a tradition we still carry on when the family comes to visit.

Dessert Night We would either go out for ice cream or have a create your own sundae bar at the house. You can make your own ice cream, or you can buy your favorite flavor and add a variety of toppings. If you make your own ice cream, it would be a great science experiment to discuss and observe the changes that occur when a liquid becomes a solid. I found a recipe for you to use from How things Work . I added some additional comments and details that I discovered worked well when we have made it.

Home Made Ice Cream

Items Needed:

1 tablespoon sugar

½ cup heavy whipping cream or half and half

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract (or other flavoring)

6 tablespoons salt (kosher or rock salt if possible)

Enough crushed ice to fill the gallon-sized bag halfway

1 glass mixing cup or a bowl

Duct tape (optional)

1 gallon-sized Ziploc bag

1 pint-sized Ziploc bag

 Fill the gallon-sized bag halfway with crushed ice. Add the salt.

Ordinary table salt will work, but salt that has larger crystals, such as kosher salt or rock salt, will work with better results. Mix the salt in with the ice and set aside.

Meanwhile, pour the milk, sugar, and vanilla extract into a glass mixing cup or bowl and stir.
Carefully pour the mixture into the pint sized bag.

Close the bag, making sure it is completely sealed. Seal with duct tape for reinforcement.

Put the pint bag into the gallon bag. 

Make sure the pint sized bag gets buried in the ice. Seal the gallon bag. (Get out as much of the air as possible before closing the bag.)  Seal this bag with duct tape as well. Shake the bags vigorously or roll them on the counter for five minutes. Be sure that the liquid is being surrounded with the salt/ice mixture since this is needed in order for the fat in the cream to solidify. You will want to use a towel and/or gloves to hold them, since they will be very cold and slippery from condensation. If you have several family members who will be joining in this activity, take turns as it is more fun and “many hands make light the work.”

Remove the pint sized bag, open it up, grab a spoon, divide the yummy treat between two bowls and enjoy!  

You can add your favorite toppings to your ice cream. Eat it quickly as it isn’t as hard as the ice cream purchased in stores.

 

 

 

Anyone Else Have Clutter?!

Jun17

clutter-to-cash-263x300It’s crazy to think that  my oldest son is getting married next week. Where did the time go? It would be nice if we could bottle up time along with energy and use them when we need them. King Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes, seems to get wiser the older I get!

Everything Has Its Time

3 To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

2 A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
8 A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.

This week I find myself in the “a time to keep and a time to throw away” era. (verse 6). Yep, I am attempting to clean out my basement and other various areas of my house in order to accommodate my extended family staying with us next week. Pray for me! 🙂 I am reminding myself of a few things as I make my way through the clutter of years of sons’ schoolwork, old furniture, and “I don’t know what to do with this, but I better keep it” items.

1. Break my time up into manageable pieces. I started this unenviable task yesterday and spent an hour in the basement and then set the timer for a 10 minute break and headed back down there again. I didn’t spend more than 2 hours down there yesterday, and while it didn’t feel like I accomplished a lot, I am choosing to look at the progress instead of how much I still have to do to finish this.

2. I am going to be merciless in getting rid of things. My mother-in-law was here last month and I asked her to come to the basement and help me make decisions on throwing/giving things away. We began on one box and when I asked her about this and that she had as many reasons to keep things as I did!  We put everything away and I am going to take the approach this week to find  reasons why I should keep it instead. Yesterday I armed myself with a handful of garbage bags and put the items I am going to throw away in one pile and give away in another pile. I even marched the throw away items out to the garbage can when I took my break.

3. I am going to find a place for everything I decide to keep. I have noticed one thing about my friends’ houses who are showplace pretty. They don’t have a lot of clutter and that makes it easier to clean as well as more inviting to want to sit down. If I can’t find a place for it, I am going to get rid of it!

I’ll let you know how I am doing. Anyone else want to join me this week in de-cluttering? 🙂

Kitchen Organization

Jun3

photo-2

After living here for 17 years and having cabinets and a floor that needed attention, we decided to remodel our kitchen. We have easily looked at 1000 pictures of various kitchens and kitchen products gathering ideas for our home. To say that I am overstimulated with kitchen ideas is an understatement.

One of the areas that has frustrated me over the years is where to put all of the spices I use. I have kept them in various places and have been aggravated with not being able to find the ingredient when I need it. My father-in-law found a solution for us online at a place called Vertical Spice. The kit that we bought has various sliding drawer sizes and it works beautifully! No more grousing and complaining about not being able to find a spice! The price is a little more than a hanging spice rack that can be installed on your pantry door, but I like this so much better! It takes the stress out of looking for an ingredient and saves time too! Who can’t use that when you have a busy household to run? I have included pictures for you to see in case you are looking for a solution for your spices too. Vertical Spice

photo-3

photo

The above pictures are the spice racks that can fit medium-sized spice jars on them or you can stack 2 of the small spices on top of each other if you have the small-sized containers.

photo-4

This sliding rack can hold medium to taller bottles. You can get quite a few spices on the shelves, which is a feature that sold me on it.

photo-5This last picture above shows the widest shelf that can hold bigger items such as cooking oil, cooking spray, and wider containers such as salt. As you can see, I still have room on the side so it could hold something wider that what I have on the shelf.  The shelves are clear and have notches for you to put elastic bands (provided) around them to enclose the containers. If you are looking for a space-saving, easy-to-organize space rack, this might work for you. Happy organizing!

~Lisa

Free Food Preparation, Meal Planning, and Budgeting Webinar

Sep21

The Old Schoolhouse is offering a free webinar on Thursday, September 27 at 7:00 pm EDT addressing the topic of food preparation, freezer meal planning, You can learn practical ways that will benefit you and your family with delicious and nutritious meals. I don’t know about you, but there are many evenings that I haven’t a clue what we are going to eat when I stare into the freezer an hour before my husband arrives. I think this class will eliminate some of the stress that occurs and will help you be prepared for those busy days when you are out of the house or involved in a fantastic school project.

In addition to meal planning there will also be a budget planning and frugal living class to compliment the food preparation class. The webinar has a limited amount of spots available, so be sure and sign up as soon as possible. I registered to attend and it only took a minute.  Click here to register Old Schoolhouse Expo