Versatile Blogger Award

Lisa from Easy Frugal Living awarded our little blog with the The Versatile Blogger Award this morning! Thank you Lisa! That was very thoughtful of you and such a nice surprise! Now it's my turn to pass this on to 15 bloggers.
 Here are the rules according to Lisa:

Rules for accepting the award:

1) Thank the person and link to their page
2) Select 15 bloggers who you follow regularly or have recently discovered & share the award
3) Share 7 things about yourself
4) In their posts of acceptance have them include this set of rules
5) Let each blogger know they have been nominated by leaving a comment on their blogs.


Here are (almost)15 blogs that I chose to pass this award on to:
I will add more as I have time to "pass" them out!

Enjoy these blogs!
The Homesteading Wife
The Gaerte Gang
New Life On A Homestead
The Prairie Homestead
Little House on the Prairie Living
Libbie Grove
Thy Hand Hath Provided
Raising Homemakers
On Just A Couple Acres
Deep Roots at Home
A Rural Journal

Learning the 50 States

Learning all 50 states, their capitals, little facts about each one, and their geographical location is no small task for kids to tackle. We are not ones to drill information in our household. I don't like it, I didn't like it as a kid, and I can't go through it again, or put my kids through it. So, we have fun with it....aaaahhhh.....sigh. Less stress. I love it.

To accomplish learning the 50 states and everything in between we use a variety of different items. Puzzles are a big hit. We have a few different ones that we take out from time to time. We have puzzles at different skill levels and different sizes. Such as our floor puzzle of the 50 states. Sometimes they will work on a puzzle quietly alone, or with me, or a sibling. They quickly become familiar with where the state is located and it's general shape and size. When they're tired of it we put it away. No pressure. I want them to enjoy it. They will come back to it. They always do!

We love to play the Scrambles States card game. So much fun! Hours of laughter!
This game enforces quick identification of population, size of state, geographical location of the state, and more.

My oldest enjoys, yes, I said enjoys, state flashcards. I don't know why, I don't ask, I just run with it. Reading The Arrow Book of States, which is shown in the above picture, was a huge help in teaching the 50 states. My oldest read one page a day, which is equal to one state a day, and identified the state using a picture given in the book. Reading this book was what gave us a jump start on the flashcards. When we flipped through the state flashcards for the first time, my oldest new all but five.
When asked how this could be I received the simple response of, "I read the state book."   Oh right, of course, how could I be so silly!

Also among some of our other choices for learning the states are coloring books, lift a flap board books, and using library books to get a more in depth look into the history of each state. We also try to get in the kitchen and whip up a few desserts or dishes that come from a particular state. That always gives the kids great pleasure in trying something new!
This approach makes it easy for us all, no matter what our age is, to learn together and have fun!

When kids learn at their own speed and pace, with tools that they enjoy learning with, learning is not a chore, or a dreaded experience. It's welcomed with enthusiasm and a desire to take it to the next level. Of course, only when they're ready.

Shepherd's Pie for Kids

I couldn't resist making the kid's shepherd's pie to look like a woolly lamb. Normally lamb is used in a shepherds pie, but I used beef. I mixed the beef and chopped veggies with Simply Organic's beef gravy mix since it's non dairy.

I topped the beef mixture with mashed potatoes, also non dairy. I placed peas for the eyes and a carrot for the nose. I did not add the ears until after they came out of the oven. The ears are oval slices of provolone cheese. I didn't want the ears to melt away to nothing that's why I waited till the end to place them on top.

I have made shepherds pie before for my kids and they were not really thrilled with it.
Since then I changed the gravy mix to Simply Organic, dressed it up, and now they wolf it down...oops. No pun intended...! :)

Good Egg? Bad Egg?

Our darling girls have not been laying as they should be. We were coming up short quite a few eggs each day. They free range just about every day unless there's work going on in the barnyard that poses a potential danger to them. Like, let's say a digger digging up mounds of dirt etc. No place for a chicken. We were a bit perplexed about the loss of eggs each day considering they have finished molting and should be right on track.

We've been checking around the yard, under bushes, in the grass....kind of like an Easter egg hunt! Nothing. We couldn't find a thing. We wanted to make sure there were no eggs being left around for a predator to sniff out and realize he could have eggs for breakfast and chicken for dinner. Not to mention we were running low on eggs. We realize this is a chance you take when you let chickens free range, but the good out ways the bad, so we continue to free range them.

A few days ago my youngest comes running in with "good news"!

My youngest found this clutch of eggs underneath a beam in our barn. Thank goodness for little explorers!

Hurray! The girls are laying! Just not in their boxes!! Hmmm....now, to figure out which ones are good and which ones are bad! We are unsure as to when they were layed, so that is the first thing we need to figure out.

Figuring out if an egg is bad or good is very easy. We filled up a large bowl with water and placed a few eggs in at time.  If it sinks to the bottom you're good!!! Wash that egg and put it in the frig! I placed my hand in the bowl so you could see that the egg was not floating and see the depth of the water.

If your egg floats, toss it. Well actually don't throw it away.

 If you have pigs give it to them, or cats they love eggs too. Our cats go wild for eggs! Sometimes I like to spoil them and I'll make them scrambled eggs with the cracked eggs, or in this case with the floaters.
If you don't have any takers on these bad eggs you could always compost them, or put the egg shells in your garden. They keep snails away-so I've heard. We do not compost our eggs because we don't want to see any ferocious beasts looming over the property, licking their chops, and staking out our chickens.

All in all we only had 4 out of 14 eggs that were floating! Not bad. Since we have removed their eggs from their little nest they made for themselves they have not laid in that spot anymore. We are watching our egg count to make sure they don't run off and find another place to lay their eggs.....

Cake Pop Ice Cream Cones

We made these cake pops a while back and just haven't had a chance to post about them, but with April Fool's Day right around the corner we thought this might be a cute dessert to make.

I found these to be easier to make rather than putting them on a lollipop stick. I know, it sounds crazy because these look so much more involved, but they really were easier and much more forgiving if you make a mistake!

Follow cake pop directions here! Follow the directions until you get to the part about rolling the cake into balls. Then follow the directions below.

To make the cake pops look like ice cream cones, you will need to get ice cream cones, chocolate wafers, sprinkles, and peanut M&M's. If you don't want to use peanuts due to allergies just use a regular red M&M. It will still look cute!

Cut the tops of your ice cream cones off. Set the tops aside. I had plans to make something with the tops, but the kids got to them first....sigh.....

Make the cake balls a little bigger than you would normally make them. You want them to sit nicely on top of the cone. Test a few out to make sure you got the right size for your cone.

Once you have your cake balls made put them in the freezer so that they firm up. Just put the cake in the freezer, not the cones.

You can wait 20-30 minutes, or wait till the next day to make these. I made them right away! I couldn't wait to do this with the kids.

I melted the chocolate, got the sprinkles and the M&M's ready to go.

I dipped the bottom of the cake ball into the chocolate and set it on top of the cone.

Then I spooned the chocolate over the ball and let it drip down the sides to look like melted ice cream.

I sprinkled the sprinkles on right away and placed the M&M on top.

We also made "vanilla ice cream cones" by melting white chocolate wafers. We followed the same steps as above only after I added the sprinkles I poured a teaspoon of chocolate over the top of the white chocolate and then placed the "cherry" on top.

The kids were thrilled with these! I was too! I liked using ice cream cones that had a flat bottom because it made it easy to decorate them and leave them standing to dry.

They were scrumptious!!

I think these would make a cute dessert for any occasion, but it's kinda cute for April Fools!

Homemade Bunny Rolls

We've been on a bunny kick over here lately! We made bunny rolls just to see if they would work out the way I was hoping they would, and they did!! Perfect for serving with lunch on the blessed Resurrection Sunday!

For the dough I used:
3 1/2 cups of flour
3 tbs. of olive oil
1 egg
dash of salt
3 tbs. of sugar
1 1/4 cup of warm water (110 degrees F)
2 1/4 tsp. of yeast

In a glass measuring cup add 1/4 cup of warm water, the sugar and the yeast. Gently stir it and let it sit for 10 minutes.

While the yeast is rising, in a large glass bowl, add the 3 cups of flour, olive oil, egg, salt and 1 cup of warm water. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl and stir with a spoon until you can't stir it any more. Now use your hands to knead the dough. You could also use your dough hook on your mixer if you have one. I have one and I for some reason still my hands. Use the other 1/2 cup of flour to keep your hands from getting stuck in the dough. Sprinkle over the dough as needed. Need for 5 - 10 minutes.

When you have finished kneading it cover with a cloth and let it rise for an hour to hour and a half.

When it has finished rising it will have doubled in size.

Punch the dough down and knead some more. If you have any flour left over from the half cup you will need that to sprinkle over the dough so you can pull it away from the edges to knead it. Grab more flour if you need it to keep your hands floured.

After kneading the dough turn it out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin. Grab a bunny cookie cutter to cut out your shapes.

Place your bunnies on a baking sheet and cover with a dish towel. Let them rise for at least a half hour.

Place them in the oven at 375 degrees F. Bake them for 15 minutes, or until they are golden brown. If they finish sooner than 15 minutes just take them out. I am working with an old Tappan oven from the fifties-ha! So I always hesitate on baking time. I'm sure every one's "modern" ovens bake a little differently! ;)

Here they are little golden bunnies! Place them on a cooling rack.

There you have it! Cute little bunny rolls!

These are the perfect size for kids. We used them for pb and j sandwiches, tuna fish sandwiches, and we buttered some.

Homemade Strawberry Milk

While I was at the store the other day I thought it would be nice to bring home a little something special for the kids. I was thinking strawberry syrup to make strawberry milk! Yum! Loved that stuff when I was a kid! Do they have a healthier choice these days I wondered......

I could only find the artificial strawberry, high fructose corn syrup, red #40 kind. I remember loving this stuff when I was a kid, but I couldn't bring myself to buy it.
 I scoured the shelves for a healthier alternative and could not find anything.

I challenged myself to come up with a way my kids could enjoy strawberry milk and keep it natural and wholesome.

When I got home I got right to work. I boiled down 7 cups of strawberries with 1 cup of sugar.

Boil the strawberries for at least 10-15 minutes on medium heat, It should get good and foamy (pink foam gathers on the top). Remove from the heat and let it cool. Once it has cooled a little, taste it for sweetness. If it doesn't seem sweet enough add another 1/2 of sugar while it's still warm so the sugar will dissolve nicely.

In a blender pour the strawberries into it and puree.

Once I had the strawberries blended to a nice smooth syrup-y texture I poured my strawberry puree into a mason jar for easy storage in the frig. I cooled it down for a few hours. You don't want to pour the strawberry at this point into the milk because it just makes the milk warm and not very nice.

Once the puree was good and cold I poured a 1/3 cup of milk into a jar and added 1/3 cup -1/2 cup of strawberry "syrup". The strawberry had a very thick consistency. It wasn't watery. I secretly wanted to dump the whole thing down my throat. It was sooo good all by itself!!!

I stirred the milk up real good! Then asked my quality control team to come in and taste it to see of I got it right....

The results are in and it is thumbs up all around!! Big smiles!! And they drank glass after glass until it was completely gone!

The milk remained it's same consistency. It didn't get thick and hard to drink. The kids drank it through straws and were blowing big pink bubbles with the milk. The strawberry "syrup" blended nicely with the milk. I simply used a spoon to stir it.
Just like store bought syrup. The only difference with the flavor, compared to store bought, is that it tastes like real strawberries and it's not overly sweet.

This works nicely with soy milk as well. It blended the same as the regular milk did.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Sunday Morning Pancake Bunny Tushies

We have seen quite a lot of bunny tushies flying around the web these last few days, and we think they are just adorable. Of course, some of the projects we've seen are way beyond our area of expertise so we decided to simplify the idea of a bunny tushie into an easy and fun to make, pancake breakfast.

We used our homemade pancake recipe to make these pancakes.

We poured a regular sized scoop of batter to form just an ordinary pancake.
Then we poured a small amount of batter to make two smaller, more oval shaped pancakes for the feet.

Simple, right?

To dress up our pancakes we added a slice of a strawberry to each foot. Then we added 3 egg shaped sprinkles to complete the "pads" on the bunny feet. You could also use chocolate chips for the pads of the feet.

We gave it a spritz of whip cream to make the tail, and we were finished!

So quick, easy, and super cute! Perfect for our skill level!!

Hope you are having a beautiful Sunday!


"God be merciful to us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

Psalm 67:1

Bunny Boston Cream Donuts

We couldn't resist making Boston cream donuts in a bunny shape. It just seems so right for this springy time of year.

Follow this Boston cream recipe here! When it comes time to roll out the dough and cut out your shapes just use a bunny cookie cutter instead of a circle.

Place them on a cookie sheet, cover them, and let them rise. When the bunnies have risen it's time to drop them in the oil! After they have taken their quick dip in some hot oil they are ready to be filled! I filled these with chocolate pudding! Wow! Yum!

Glaze them with the chocolate glaze and then sprinkle them with spring inspired sprinkles! You could always leave them plain too. The bunny shape is cute all by itself!

Dot to Dot for Math and ABC Practice

Dot to do is such a fun and natural way to introduce kids to their ABC's or 1, 2, 3 's. The books are fun and colorful. It seems to be a more positive alternative to drill and kill methods. Dot to dots can be done on the couch, on the floor, in the kitchen, or under the apple tree. (One of our favorite places to be.;) ) It keeps learning fun and playful, not monotonous and painful. The kids will sit for 30 minutes or longer doing page after page! That beats a 10 minute drill session any day! No pressure on them or me!

 
Dot to dot is a fun, one on one activity to do with the kids, or a nice quiet activity for the younger kids when you need to spend time with maybe an older child. When my kids were first learning their Abc's I would do the dot to dot and say the letters (or numbers) as I connected the dots. They loved our time together as did I. We would color the picture together when I was finished connecting. They would let me know when they wanted to take over and connect the dots themselves. There was no pressure and no drilling. We love to learn through these natural situations. Just playing and having a good time. Although they no longer need my help with their dot to dots we still enjoy doing them together.
 

 
Now that some of the kids are older we have really enjoyed The Greatest Dot to Dot Books in the World. They have a wonderful series that is fun and challenging for older kids.
I love doing them myself! You really have no idea what the pictures are going to be before you start. The numbers go up into the hundreds and they have special directions you have to follow on some of the pages for connecting the dots! Fun!
These books just continually reinforce counting and number sequence, patterns for the older level books, and of course the best part is showing the kids that learning can be fun!

Spring Salt Dough Wreath

We are having such warm weather here in the north! We've got all the windows open and are very much enjoying the warm breeze that passes through the house. We've got buds coming out on the trees, and flowers opening up in the garden....it's been a lovely first day of spring! To spruce up our front door I thought some springy colors were in order.
Things are still a bit brown (code word for muddy) outside. No leaves on the trees yet, but the grass is starting to look like a happier shade of green. The kids have been coming in covered with mud every day for the past week or so. They could not be happier!

To celebrate the first day of spring we made a wreath out of salt dough.

We cut out spring time shapes such as, butterflies, flowers, an egg, and the letters, s-p-r-i-n-g.

Since this was going to be hanging on a door that has a lot of through traffic the wreath had to be able to handle the opening and closing. Since we were going to be layering our pieces it was going to have some weight to it, so we needed to make sure we weren't going to lose any pieces.

I took this into consideration when cutting out our shapes. I placed the shapes the way I wanted them to look when the wreath would be done. I decided ahead of time that I wanted to attach the salt dough pieces to the wreath with raffia (not sure on the spelling of that word ;) ). In order to do that I needed to decide where the holes were going to be so that I could attach them in a way that made sense. In the end I didn't end up using all the pieces I cut out, but that's okay. I'd rather have extra pieces to work with than end up not having enough and not being able to finish.

Once you have made you dough, see recipe below, and cut out your shapes, lay your pieces out the way you would like to see them on your wreath. Place them in a circle about the size of the wreath that you will be using so you can be sure you have enough pieces to go around.

Take a tooth pick or bamboo skewer and poke holes through the pieces where you would like to have them attached to the wreath. If you are layering the pieces, poke the hole directly through both pieces. This way they will line up perfectly when you go to assemble your wreath. Make sure you open those holes up. Turn the piece over and run the tooth pick through the opposite side to make sure the hole is clear of any doughy obstruction. Once they bake you can't do anything about the size of the hole, so make sure they are big enough to fit the raffia through if that's what your using to attach them to the wreath.

Now lay the pieces out on your baking sheet and bake on low temp, 200 degrees F, for a few hours. We did ours for about 3 -4 hours. Then I let them sit out over night for some extra drying time.

Once the pieces were dry, we chose some springy colors and got to work painting!

Now it's time to attach the pieces to the wreath! I started by tying a knot in one end and pulling it through the hole so that the raffia would go under the wreath and then come back up and go through the next hole. This will hold the piece in place securely.

I worked with a piece or two at a time. Then I would cut a new raffia piece. This made it easier than working with one long piece for the whole thing. It allowed for a more secure fit of each piece.

Continue weaving the raffia through the pieces till you have finished all of them.

You can cut the excess raffia pieces off if you want a more cleaner look. I liked the wispy pieces, so I left them.

For a wreath this size I used 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cups of salt. Mixed it together and slowly added 3/4 cup of water to the flour mixture. If it's too dry add a few drops of water at a time. If it's to wet sprinkle a little more flour on it.

For more information on salt dough look here!

Have a happy spring!

Chicken Pot Pie

My kids are not huge fans of pot pies. They don't really care for cooked veggies, which is fine by me, (raw is better) so I decided to make their pot pies with just chicken, gravy, and corn for those who wanted it.

I thought maybe they would be a bit more excited to try it if it looked a bit more enticing.

 Using your favorite pie crust recipe, or your favorite pre-made pie crust, cut out a circle that will fit nicely over the top of your ramikin, or pie plate/dish.

I didn't use any crust on the bottom of my pot pie. I spooned the chicken, corn, and gravy, right into the ramikin. I placed the pie crust on top. I used ramikins that are for individual servings.

I used a red pepper, a piece of corn, and an orange pepper to create the chicken.

Needless to say they were a huge hit and they gobbled them all up!

I made these pot pies non dairy using a non dairy crust and gravy. I just recently discovered Simply Organics has a chicken gravy mix that has no dairy in it! Hurray!!

I made the gravy mix with a cup of chicken broth instead of water. I had roasted a whole chicken in the oven earlier in the week and I can never bring myself to throw away all the drippings and such that come off the bird, so I saved it. It makes the best broth for chicken soup and made the gravy extra tasty. Such yummy flavors!


For what ever reason you may not want to make a pot pie, but you like the chicken on the pie crust, you can use this same chicken "design" on a dessert instead.

Inside this personal sized pie are apples. I cooked the apples, sugared and spiced them, and spooned them into the ramikins. I placed the crust on top and baked it.

I did not embellish the pie till it came out of the oven. Then, I used a piece of an orange starburst candy, a tiny chocolate piece ( a mini chocolate chip would work good too), and the apple skins from the apple to make the face of the chicken.

 Really simple! Hope it adds a little bit of fun to your dinner table!