Want a great activity for you kids that takes time, burns energy, and ends up with something useful?
Have I got the activity for you!
HOMEMADE BUTTER.
That’s right! You can do this at home, with stuff you probably have. I remembered doing this at some point during elementary school and thought it was fairly simple. When I looked it up last week, my memory was correct! This could not be any easier.
Instructions:
Add 1/4 teaspoon salt to 2 cups heavy cream.
Shake, mix, churn, dance, etc. until it becomes butter!
Pour off the liquid whey and
Enjoy!!
I decided to try a ziplock bag but then thought that a ziplock bag might not be able to hold under the strength of a 2 year old boy, so I put his back in the carton for mixing.
It was so much fun! It took up quite a bit of time, and the kids loved tasting it at the end.
When we moved to Arkansas, it was just us and our 2 cars so we had to be very selective about what we brought. Although artwork might have seemed like something that shouldn’t have made the cut, there are some pieces around my house that are so meaningful to me and they bring a smile to my face when I look at them.
The pieces I am going to show you are all associated with a time of growth for me. A time when I called out to God and He showed me that He was still there.
This is one of the first pieces I found and held onto. We got this one after I lost my first baby. I didn’t feel much of God’s love at that time, but seeing this reminded me of a time when I felt the closest to Him. It looks like it could’ve been taken in Florida, where I served my mission. So much of my heart is in that place! When I see this in my home I think of miracles, people I love, warm humid air, lots and lots of joy.
This set I made to remind me of all things good! I absolutely LOVE Gordon B. Hinckley and his outlook on life. I was studying some of his words and just knew I needed them in my life!! This quote sums up pretty well his attitude:
“We have every reason to be optimistic in this world. Tragedy is around, yes. Problems everywhere, yes. But … you can’t, you don’t, build out of pessimism or cynicism. You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen. Do not despair. Do not give up. Look for the sunlight through the clouds. Opportunities will eventually open to you. Do not let the prophets of gloom endanger your possibilities.”
He would acknowledge the bad, but always focused on the good!
These words remind me of him and have helped remind me to be grateful and that life is good.
These may just look like dried weeds to you. But to me they are the hope of better days to come.
This summer I went to the mountains specifically for a chance to find happiness. I was having such a hard time finding it anywhere those days, but I just knew I could find some there.
I had missed those Utah mountains so much! There is just nothing like cool mountain air with the sound of wind blowing through the pines and a river not too far away.
It was the week after school started so my family was the only one there. It was cool and peaceful (and I wasn’t getting eaten by mosquitoes). The happiness I sought was there! I felt hope for a chance that I wouldn’t be sad forever and that was a moment I wanted to capture for those rainy days I couldn’t seem to escape.
Surrounding myself with meaningful things and allowing those things to change my attitude has been a big help on my down days.
What meaningful things do you keep around that bring you happiness??
If you’re like me, you’ve had to go straight to screen time for you kids if you want any of the above. If you don’t, disasters strike, like this:
But then there’re the apocalyptic fits they throw when it’s time to the TV off. And every time you look at Facebook there’s another study telling us we are destroying our kids brains with screens, so there’s also a load of guilt.
Is the shower even worth the fight and guilt?
Short answer: YES!! It is worth it. And so is the nap! Those are the little things that can fill our mental/emotional cup. They can provide moments of peace, free from distraction where we can hear the Spirit and our minds can just rest.
If we are constantly running, helping and fixing others, our own minds struggle and one of the ways our minds respond to that neglect is depression and despair. Just like our children: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And just like the rest of our bodies, where there is pain we tend to fix it.
So, we need rest. Drop the guilt. A little bit of screen time, or a lot a bit, won’t harm our kids as much as an absent mother will harm them. Get well. Be present! And they will be just fine.
STROKE OF GENIUS. Or just the Spirit. Probably the Spirit.
My little lady is MASTER of pretend. She plays pretend for hours! If you don’t call her by her pretend name you either get no response or a quick reprimand: “I AM NOT LINA, I AM MARY.”
So when we were deciding how to better incorporate Come, Follow Me this year it hit me! PLAY CHURCH!
So now, we are going to play pretend church every Sunday and each have a role. This last week dad was the bishop and speaker, I gave a testimony, and the kids prayed and taught primary. Podiums and microphones are a must. Oh yes, and a nursery for the rowdy children.
It was the most successful family home evening I think we’ve ever had!
How have you incorporated gospel learning in your home? I’d love to hear it!!
This will be the most basic recipe you’ll ever find that resembles Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden. Does it taste just like the stuff you get there? Not exactly. But it is SO DELICIOUS! My husband even likes it better.
The part I like about this recipe is I that I can change how much kale I put in depending on how “healthy” I want to be! I personally like my soup HEAVY on the kale because this is one of the only ways I can tolerate the superfood.
Honestly, you can change the amounts of ANY of the ingredients and still get great results. I will include the amounts that I had the last time I made it.
Spicy Italian Sausage 1 lb
Onions (optional) 1/2 medium onion
Chicken broth 6 cups
Potatoes 4 medium russet cut into bitesized pieces
Kale 3 large stalks
Half-and-half or heavy cream
Directions: Brown the sausage (and onions if desired), add chicken broth and potatoes to the pot. You cook all of those in the boiling broth until the potatoes are soft. Once they are ready, add the kale and cream! You notice I have no “amount” for the half and half or cream. That is mostly because I pour it in until it looks yummy. Sometimes that’s 1/2 c, sometimes more!
The spicy sausage flavors the soup pretty well, but you can always add your favorite spices!
Extra tips: Cutting the potatoes thinner makes it cook quicker! Which is a definite win for me, because I more often than not, don’t decide what to make for dinner until I’m HUNGRY.
You know how, thanks to the nesting phase of pregnancy, the nursery is usually all cutsie and put together before the baby is born? Or at least dreamed about. Yeah, that did NOT happen for us.
Two months before my baby was born I was still praying fervently for us to find a better, cleaner, safer place to live. We closed on that house 8 days before I was to be induced.
So all that time nesting I focused on purging all the excess rather than getting what I needed for the baby. In fact, when he was born we did not even have a bed for him, just a rock and play. I think we got the crib 2.5 weeks later.
It’s been two month now and this week is the first his room has even resembled a bedroom. He gets the privilege of sharing his room with our “office” so up to this point it has been full of boxes we didn’t get around to unpacking and SO MANY PAPERS that had no home. As well as stuff we shoved in there actually for him.
Last night we moved his crib in there (more so my annoying cough would stop waking him up than anything), and it feels so happy to me! He has a space now! We still have some work to do, but that one step made me smile.
It is surprising to me what things can bring happiness, they truly are the little things!
Today I spent 2.5 hours building this LEGO treehouse. WHILE nursing!
In the beginning, is was internally rolling my eyes, having a bad attitude because: 1- I knew their dad would freak out if we didn’t follow the instructions* 2- There were WAAAY too many unnecessary tiny pieces (I CANNOT overstate this) and 3- The finished product was only going to last .5 seconds.
Fast forward and hour. I was in. to. it. Each step and each page turn was a triumph!! I was SO EXCITED to get to the next step and felt a sense of accomplishment and rightness every time.
And for sure, there were WAAAAY too many unnecessary tiny pieces and the finished product did not stay the same for very long, but I will tell you this: that LEGO treehouse and accompanying pieces was played with for HOURS. And I was had become a master architect.
I would consider this a win!
*Let it be noted: I NEVER followed any instructions playing legos as a child. I rarely follow recipes to this day. Coincidence?
If you’d like to spend your own 2.5 hours feeling successful and having something at the end that will buy you some great time, find the treehouse here!
