Geocaching

I have been seeing lists that say "8 things to do with your boys", "50 summer time activities" on Pinterest.  Well, my mom is really into something called Geocaching.  It's basically a world wide scavenger hunt, but not.  People hide things ... go into the website that's like a data base for the caches.  They log the coordinates THEN you go out and see if you can find it and what type of item they hid.  You write that you were there, log it in the data base (which is kinda like a facebook-ish website without the wall and status updates).  
That's what geocaching is in a nut shell, BUT they have things called challenges.  Today my girls and I did a challenge.  We went to this wilderness park and did a hike.  The challenge was to find something strange on the trail.  Madd Hatter had a wooden giraffe with her and left it in the middle of the trail.  I picked it up AFTER taking a photo of it as my something weird.  It just makes an outdoor thing FUN! I remember growing up my mom would say "Let's go for a walk" UGH! WHY?!!!!! But then she'd point out stuff.  One time we found these baby lizards with everything, but their heads in the dirt because it was soooo cold.  She always had us looking.  Once we saw a bunch of cow carcasses ... Yea that was gross, but made the walk interesting.  So today's thing 1. got us out of the house and 2. gave us a purpose.  "Why are we walking?"  "Because we need to find something weird" THEN the hunt was on.  The bug was weird,  the spot on the bridge was weird, a flower growing sideways was weird.  They were looking and paying attention.  SOOOO if you would like to do this (I haven't found any actual caches yet, but WHO doesn't like going to look for things) the website is geocaching.com  Like I said they are ALL OVER THE WORLD! My mom is going to Korea next month and will find several over there.  I'm sure she has some pegged in Germany by my other sister because GOD KNOWS she already has 5 pegged around my house here in Texas LOL That's just around my house ... not counting Austin! HAVE FUN! Especially on those days that you want to get out of the house, but not spend any or much money (there IS membership for $30 a year, but you don't have to do that and you need GPS, but I just uploaded a $10 app onto my iphone).  The challenge I did today was $4 to enter into the park.  Not bad! AND my kids are QUIET and not bugging ME or each other =) HAPPY CACHEING! 

Ooooopsy

Ok SO I didn't blog yesterday, BUT I did do a Pinterest activity.  I did this ravioli red cream sauce dinner.  The sauce was good, but I didn't like the ravioli.  I will make the sauce again, but I will use angel hair pasta instead.
Here is the blog - http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tuscan-pasta-with-tomato-basil-cream-10000001646355/
It was REALLY fast.  I mean if you want something GOOD that isn't run of the mill sketti this is a good twist to it.  I did this on dance night and we usually eat out on dance night because we don't get home until 530 then homework and blah blah.  This we were eating by 6.  If we didn't have the chaos of coming home and unloading then it would've been sooner.  It was good, but for me I need less noodle I guess. LOL


Today I made good ole fashion mud for dessert.  I saw it pinned, but I didn't pin it so I don't have a link.
What you need - chocolate pudding
                           crushed oreos
                           gummy bugs (I used sour worms)
                           small cups

So I just mixed the pudding and filled the cups 2/3 way full.  I needed 2 packages of pudding to make 8 cups.  Then I crushed oreos in a bag.  I used a whole row and I needed that.  I could've used a little more.  Cover the pudding with the cookie bits.  Then I stuck the worms in there.  They went into the fridge until after dinner.  They were a BIIIIIG hit. 

Do YOU have kid who needs an eye patch?

So it's basically $50 a box for those adhesive sparkly, fun eye patches.  I buy 2 at a time.  $100 for eye patches (BTW no sparkle is the same price).  This is my first attempt and she will be wearing this until I can make my true vision which involves body tape ... 


Ok, she's had one like this before that I bought for $15 at the doctors office.  It was felt and had and had a butterfly on it.  I made a felt one also. Here's the blog I got the idea from.  I did do the flower, BUT then I remembered I had some cloth diaper tags and she liked those better.


Ok I just drew around one of the adhesive patches that I find randomly on the floor, stuck on walls, on the flush handle on the toilet.  You know the NORMAL places eye patches should be.  I made it larger though because it needs to form a cup around the eye.  Then I cut a rectangle large enough to be sewn around the lens.  this a tiny rectangle to hold the earpiece.  THEN you need to cut 3 slices.  You should REALLY look at the original blog for the first couple of steps.  

After the main cup is made with ear loop thing.  I didn't hand stitch at all.  I put that square on with a sewing machine making sure to go as CLOSE to the edge of the square as possible.  ONLY on the top and bottom.  Then you slide the glasses in and you have a patch.  The original blog had a flower.  We put the flower on ... Bulky ... cute, but not cute for a 2nd grader.  THEN I remembered I have bought these cloth diapers patches and we happened to have one she liked SO I cut off the bulky flower and hot glued the patch.  Hand stitching for me is always a LAST resort.  I hate it.  Looks cute, but hate doing it.

How I made the template

Sewing the pieces to make the cup

After you sew the ear loop in

How I did the square on the front

the flower

what we ended up doing =)

 

Pictures ...

SO! I guess I'm following several photographers on Pinterest because there have been TONS of tips.  PLUS, I have a friend here in Texas who took pictures of her beautiful kids in the Bluebonnets and another friend (whose a photographer) told her some tips.  I took those tips and went out to put MY kids in the Bluebonnets.
Murphy's Law is ... it's everywhere until you want it.  I could ONLY find nice patches along the road or busy street.  I FINALLY found a huge patch between homes in the more rural area (if you can get farther from things in my town) We go out ... girls in their pettiskirts, son in his cute jeans and T-shirt.  Taking pictures and then ... I look up, Bubba is rolling off a CACTUS! I didn't understand that he was ON a cactus for about 2-3 minutes.  He wasn't crying he was just brushing himself off.  So then I guess the pain set in and started crying.  End of photo shoot.  


TIPS from my dear friend.  She told me to go about an hour before sunset and have the sun at the kids backs or across their faces.  I am NO photographer AT ALL! I do have a wall in my living room mainly of pictures I have taken of my family.  I would say they are photographer quality, but LUCK! LOL So what I like in pictures is just capturing my kids doing their thing.  Even the few shots of them today, I can look at the photo and see what my kids do.  If that makes sense.  SO go take lots of pictures and try the SIMPLE tips that people post.  Those more complicated ones just don't make taking pictures fun.  It should be a fun thing you do with your fam. HAVE FUN

Headband

I ended up making the end part smaller
by folding in the corners and sewing

I have been seeing a lot of kid headbands on Pinterest.  Also today I went to workout at the YMCA today. No lie, ever 3rd woman that walked in had this simple cloth headband.  I thought I COULD DO THAT!  The only difference I MIGHT do for my next headband would be to make it narrower at the part that attaches to the elastic.
You need fabric (12 1/2 inches by 5 1/2)
                          Elastic
                          sewing machine
Ok. I didn't put the length of the elastic because it'a all on how big your head is.  I sewed the elastic on one end and before I finished I "fitted" it to my head to get the length.  Ok the rest of the blog will be photos.

The strip with the elastic on the right hand side

I always have my elastic sticking out a little so it doesn't pull as much I guess

This is finishing up on the other side.  Make sure you do a zig zag stick at the end to hold the elastic holding strong

I zig zagged all around

The finished product.  Again I would narrow the bottom section a bit.  Don't mind the dead LaLa Loopsy in the background LOL

Compost time

So I went to the nursery yesterday and saw some roses that reminded me of my grandma.  She had these roses along her house that were alway big and pretty.  I always loved her front yard.  Her house was U shaped and in roof was level with the street so her house kind of hidden from the road. You had to drive down to her house.  ANYWAY! I got three bushes one for each of the kids.  I got yellow, white and red with white stripes.  The yellow reminds me of my grandma so I planted it up front and center.


OK! Soooo that was background on my compost blog.  I now have roses that need next to perfect soil! They need fertilizer and feed and all this stuff.  SINCE I can't just go into someones stables and get some manure I created a compost.  I always wanted to, but was scared because it looked a little complicated and guess what? Nope! Super easy! AND the blog I got the info from says that 40% of everything we throw away can probably be composted.  


What you need - A bin with a lid 
                           dirt (I used top soil from Walmart)
                           garbage
So I got a small-ish garbage pale from Walmart ($15). It has wheels so it will be easy to move around so if I want to move it closer to the plants to shovel the dirt onto.  You then need to make some air holes, but they can't be so big that flies can get in.  You also need to put the compost where it can get sun.  The heat is supposed to help the process.  The blog says TOO MUCH heat can be bad though.  Not sure what too much heat is though.  

Ok I did air vents on the lid and around the top of the actual bin.  I put some top soil in there. I hope you can see the vents I made in the photo of the lid.  THEN I cleaned out my fridge. HOLY MOLY the stuff I found in there.  I then put more dirt on top of that.  You want about 50/50 dirt/rubbish ratio in your bin.  I heard of some people putting warms in there to help the process.  I probably will once this process is going well.  I printed out the list below and now have it in the kitchen.  You'll want a little bin by your sink or something so you can through you banana peels, egg shells and so on in and at the end of the day dump it in you compost.  You also want to turn the soil IN the compost to keep everything mixed.  Also shake it every once in awhile to air circulating.  The blog also said if it starts smelling your ratio is probably off so add more dirt.  Here is the blog if you would like to reference  http://gatheringinlight.com/2007/10/15/how-to-start-a-compost-bin-in-the-city-with-little-money/
So that's the compost.  THEN you can take a shovel and get the new fabulous soil out and put it around you plants in your garden once stuff has broken down.  I have seen actual compost bins ... those things are MONEY! I can't see paying $80 for a bin with vents when a steak nice to a trash can worked great! You might be thinking,  What can you compost?  Here's a loooong list of things you can compost! HAPPY COMPOSTING!
Paper napkins 
Freezer-burned 
vegetables 
Burlap coffee bags
Pet hair 
Potash rock 
Post-it notes 
Freezer-burned fruit 
Wood chips
Bee droppings 
Lint from behind refrigerator 
Hay Popcorn (unpopped, 'Old Maids,' too) 
Freezer-burned fish 
Old spices 
Pine needles 
Leaves 
Matches (paper or wood) 
Seaweed and Kelp
Hops 
Chicken manure
Leather dust 
Old, dried up and faded herbs 
Bird cage cleanings 
Paper towels 
Brewery wastes 
Grass clippings 
Hoof and horn meal 
Molasses residue 
Potato peelings 
Unpaid bills 
Gin trash (wastes from cotton plants) 
Weeds
Rabbit manure
Hair clippings from the barber 
Stale bread 
Coffee Grounds 
Wood ashes 
Sawdust 
Tea bags and grounds 
Shredded newspapers 
Egg shells 
Cow Manure
Alfalfa 
Winter rye 
Grapefruit rinds 
Pea vines 
Houseplant trimmings 
Old pasta 
Grape wastes 
Garden soil 
Powdered/ground phosphate rock 
Corncobs (takes a long time to decompose) 
Jell-o (gelatin)
Blood meal 
Winery wastes 
Spanish moss 
Limestone 
Fish meal
Aquarium plants 
Beet wastes 
Sunday comics 
Harbor mud 
Felt waste 
Wheat straw 
Peat moss 
Kleenex tissues 
Milk (in small amounts)
Soy milk
Tree bark 
Starfish (dead ones!) 
Melted ice cream 
Flower petals 
Pumpkin seeds 
Q-tips (cotton swabs: cardboard, not plastic sticks) 
Expired flower arrangements 
Elmer's glue 
BBQ'd fish skin 
Bone meal 
Citrus wastes 
Stale potato chips 
Rhubarb stems
Old leather gardening gloves 
Tobacco wastes 
Bird guano 
Hog manure 
Dried jellyfish 
Wheat bran 
Guinea pig cage cleanings 
Nut shells 
Cattail reeds 
Clover 
Granite dust 
Moldy cheese 
Greensand 
Straw 
Shredded cardboard 
Dolomite lime
Cover crops
Quail eggs (OK, I needed a 'Q' word)
Rapeseed meal 
Bat guano 
Fish scraps 
Tea bags (black and herbal) 
Apple cores 
Electric razor trimmings 
Kitchen wastes 
Outdated yogurt 
Toenail clippings 
Shrimp shells 
Crab shells 
Lobster shells 
Pie crust 
Leather wallets 
Onion skins 
Bagasse (sugar cane residue) 
Watermelon rinds 
Date pits 
Goat manure
Olive pits 
Peanut shells 
Burned oatmeal (sorry, Mom) 
Lint from clothes dryer
Bread crusts 
Cooked rice 
River mud
Tofu (it's only soybeans, man!) 
Wine gone bad (what a waste!) 
Banana peels 
Fingernail and toenail clippings 
Chocolate cookies 
Wooden toothpicks 
Moss from last year's hanging baskets 
Stale breakfast cereal 
Pickles 
'Dust bunnies' from under the bed 
Pencil shavings 
Wool socks 
Artichoke leaves 
Leather watch bands 
Fruit salad 
Tossed salad (now THERE's tossing it!) 
Brown paper bags 
Soggy Cheerios 
Theater tickets 
Lees from making wine 
Burned toast 
Feathers 
Animal fur 
Horse manure
Vacuum cleaner bag contents 
Coconut hull fiber 
Old or outdated seeds 
Macaroni and cheese 
Liquid from canned vegetables 
Liquid from canned fruit 
Old beer 
Wedding bouquets 
Greeting card envelopes 
Snow 
Dead bees and flies 
Horse hair 
Peanut butter sandwiches 
Dirt from soles of shoes, boots 
Fish bones 
Ivory soap scraps 
Spoiled canned fruits and vegetables 
Produce trimmings from grocery store 
Cardboard cereal boxes (shredded) 
Grocery receipts

Eating breakfast together on Sundays =)

I believe I have seen this on Pinterest once, but I learned this trick from my mom.  One thing I remember about my mom making breakfast when I was little is she alway ate last.  She said if you make breakfast like pancakes and bacon then you usually eat last because you can only fit a couple of those things in a pan at a time.  THEN came the griddle, BUT if you want to make some for the WHOLE family at once you need a MASSIVE griddle and you can't do french toast and bacon at the same time on those things SOoooo! Breakfast at my house usually goes like this ...



I put the bacon on a cookie sheet and stick in the oven at 350 until they look good.  EASY right?  It's so easy and once the bacon is done get rid of the grease and then throw away the tin foil.  No more standing in front of the skillet.  SINCE this was such a short Pinterest I'm going to let you in on another tip from my mom and it's french toast.  Ok ... Sooo we now know how to cook bacon all at once and here is how you do french toast all at once.  The hubs doesn't like almonds so I do one batch with and one with out.  
Here is a french toast recipe that is GREAT and Mom can eat with the family -

1 14- to 16-inch long soft baguette

3 large eggs

2 cups milk

¼ cup butter melted

¼ cup sugar

¼ tsp pure almond extract

Cut the bread into slices about 1 inch. The bread needs to be dry or hardish. I just leave the entire loaf out over night OR you can put your slices in the oven for a little bit 250 for 5-10.    Then, take the pieces and kind of smash then into you baking pans.  I ALWAYS need 2. Mix eggs, then milk, butter slowly, sugar and almond extract.  Pour over bread.  Chill, covered, until bread has absorbed custard—about 1 hour or overnight. I usually just do it until most of the liquid is gone.

For the topping mix 1 large egg white and 3 T sugar.  THEN mix in ¾ cup sliced almonds until well combined.  Spread mixture over bread.  Bake at 350 until they are nice and golden, 25-35 minutes.  

I wish I had more pictures of this for you, but I don't because I didn't make this this morning.  SO now you can bake french toast and bacon together!  I actually had to google THIS photo for you LOL Have fun eating breakfast as a family on Sundays =)

Pecans for breakfast!

This morning I made these breakfast rolls.  I didn't READ all the way through, but you can make everything the night before and just bake in the morning ... What I should've done


What you need - dough - 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 package)
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 cups flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened

4 oz soft cream cheese

Filling - 1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup melted butter, divided

Frosting - 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3-4 tablespoons milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Ok, you have to put the yeast, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and water in a bowl.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes so the yeast can double.  It will look like cream almost.  Frothy.  Then mix everything but the flour and cream cheese.  Mix it together.  Then start with the flour.  I don't have a mixer so I mixed with a wooden spoon.  I figure you should work out a little bit before these rolls! I just add it slowly, a cup at a time.  I also don't have sifter so I didn't have sifted flour. Mix in the butter after you've mixed all the flour in.  Since I did it by hand I kind of sliced the dough with the spoon to get the butter in there. I scraped the side and made the dough in a mound in the bowl, covered and let sit for 90 minutes.  Dough needs to double it's size.

So once it's doubled put the dough on a super floured surface and knead it a little bit so it's no longer sticky.  Then roll it out.  The recipe says 12x12, but I did more like 16x16.  Then you spread soft cream cheese over it.  As I was eating my roll I think this step can be skipped.  I didn't notice it at all and I even looked for it and nothing.  Maybe it adds to the richness or something. You fold the dough in 3rds and then you fold that in 3rds so it looks like a square.  Roll that out until it's about 16x16.

Spread the filling all over.  The original recipe says to coat butter over the dough with butter and then put the filling in.  I got excited and didn't READ all the way down so I just added the butter to the sugar mixer and didn't coat the dough with butter. THEN you roll the dough into a roll.  

Cut the dough.  Mine were about 1 1/2 inches thick.  The recipe says the best thing to cut dough with is a dough cutter (YA THINK?!) I don't have one so I just used a bread knife.  It worked.

GREASE your pan and put those bad boys in there.  Don't forget you can pop them in the fridge for over night.  Then put them in the over 375 for 25-35 minutes.  Mine maybe took 25 minutes.  They are HUGE! I cute 1 1/2 inch pieces they came out 3 1/2 inches EASY! They are yummmmmmm! One and I'm FULL! They are even good without the frosting.  I made a little one to cook faster for my son and I tasted it ... It was good!!! 

Here's the blog where I got it! =)

http://chocolatechocolatemorechocolate.blogspot.com/2012/03/cream-cheese-cinnamon-rolls.html