Happy Thanksgiving To All My Bloggy Friends!

I hope that you all are having a great Holiday!

I have had a pretty unproductive day today. I planned on getting much of the food made today, so I plopped my daughter up on the counter while my son was napping and we got started. We did make Summer Salad. Mix one box of raspberry jello, one can of fruit cocktail drained, one large container of cottage cheese, and one container of whipped cream. Very yummy. We have it every year.

Then I cut my pumpkins in half and put them in the oven. I am making pumpkin puree to make my wonderful hubby some homemade pumpkin pies! Here are the instructions. I haven't managed to puree them, but they are done baking.

Once I pulled the pumpkins out of the oven I put the yummy granola in. Too bad I burnt it because I spent too much time watching Jon and Kate Plus 8. That's what I get! I was also planning on making crock pot yogurt so that my hubby could have a breakfast that he really likes, but I forgot to save some yogurt from an old batch for the cultures for the new batch. I really don't know what we are going to do about breakfast now. I might make some more here in a bit.

The last thing I managed to do today was peel potatoes. Not cut them up or put them in my steamer. Just peel them. I have had a hard day trying to get all of this food cooked while I have what feels like a sinus infection.

But one thing I did get done today was I made my entire website for my new business venture - Madison Rose Vintage! :) No matter what I can't keep myself from working on my shop. Let me know what you think. http://madisonrosevintage.yolasite.com/

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I can't wait to hear about it. And to try all your wonderful recipes next year!

Do you smell that?

I feel like I can accomplish anything when I wake up and the house smells pretty. I LOVE for my house to smell good! I don't know what it is about scent that makes me feel so wonderful! Do you feel the same way?

However, I do not feel as good from artificial scents from air fresheners. I love for my home to smell beautiful naturally! Below are some of my favorite ideas on how to help my home smell nice.

1. Nothing smells better than a fresh bunch of roses. Especially if they were a surprise from my hubby. Too bad I hardly ever have these in my home so I have to resort to some of the following to make sure my home makes my nose happy!

2. My new obsession is pretty soap from Etsy. My powder room currently has a new bar that I bought off of Etsy sitting in it's soap dish. Every time I open the door I am greeted with the glorious scent of that soap. It is nice to have something in there that can overpower the scent of dirty diapers.

3. I also love the scent of eucalyptus leaves. I like to hide them in a pretty vintage bowl.

4. Baking can really help to fill your kitchen with lovely scents. I have made peanut butter granola in the morning and had people walk in later that afternoon and ask what smell so nice. Other baked goods I love is bread, pies, and brownies. The crock pot also smells good all day! Especially if you are making taco soup.

5. I like to grind up some lemon slices with ice and baking soda in my garbage disposal to help freshen it up.

Those are my ideas. Do y'all have different ones? I would love more ideas to keep my home smelling fresh!

For more tips, head over to We Are That Family.

Ready to Etsy!

I spent all day today doing my weekly chores so that I could spend the rest of my week with my kids and working on my shop while they nap. The entire house is vacuumed, the bathrooms are scrubbed clean and now smell like my new pretty smelly soap I got off of Etsy, clothes are washed, the dishes that piled up this weekend are sparkly, sheets are changed, and the fridge is cleaned out.

I am not naturally organized and I am terrible at sticking to schedules, so this is a big deal! It would be great if I could do this every Monday so that I could get more done each week. I went out and bought a dry erase board that sticks to my fridge and wrote my daily and weekly chores on it in permanent marker so that I could mark them off and then wipe them off for the next day and week. It is so excited to check off each chore as I do it! If I am behind sometimes I have to write in something just so I will have something to check off. :)

I am very proud of my daughter because she has gotten so much better at her chores! She is three and she picked up everything on the floor downstairs while I cleaned the bathrooms. Then I vacuumed the downstairs and she worked on vacuuming the stairs with my stick vac. We then went upstairs and she picked up everything on the floor up there too and moved all the toys so that I could vacuum under them. She finished up by helping me to make her bed. I was so happy that she did all of this without complaining. I will need to do something super special for her during our fun time this week!

I have also tackled something great in my shop! I experimented with my camera, backgrounds, and props. I finally found something that works for me and I made a banner and avatar that goes along with my new pictures. I am working on taking new pictures of items in my shop and adding new pictures. What do you think?

I am so excited about the direction that my shop and my household are going in. I think I am doing a much better job and I hope that others have the same opinion. My next tackle will have to be waking up with my husband in the morning so that I can take a shower by myself, get dressed, do my daily chores, and make breakfast before the kids wake up. I would love to be able to focus entirely (or mostly) on them while they are awake.

This post is part of Tackle It Tuesday!

The Best Brownies Ever!

It was my turn to take a snack to Awanas this Wednesday. We were learning that God made the moon so I was supposed to bring something moon related. I thought it would be a great idea to take cookies shaped as the moon, however I didn't know where to get a moon shaped cookie cutter so I checked allrecipies.com for moon related desserts. I found a recipe for "moon rocks" which are chocolate cupcakes with marshmallows in them which make them look like rocks.

I had my daughter stay up with me late one night so we could try out the recipe. We had a great time just the two of us which we hardly ever get anymore.

Even thought we had a great time making them, we didn't eating them. I didn't care for them much. I decided to use my brownie recipe instead with marshmallows, but they came out too chewy for 2 year olds. So instead I made brownies. Nothing to do with the moon... but what could I do?

Everyone loved the brownies so I have decided to share the recipe with you all! Let me know what you think after you make them!

2 chocolate squares

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup nuts

Heat butter and chocolate together until melted Mix in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in everything else. Bake in greased pan on 350 for 25 minutes.

That's it! Very easy and very very good!

A Ballerina and a Dinosaur

Thanks to everyone who continues to visit my blog even when I am not posting often. I am so sorry to be absent so much, however I have started working at my Church, I am getting ready to homeschool my daughter, I try to spend time with my kiddos, keep the house clean, and work on my Etsy shop. I am truly overwhelmed, and am trying to adjust. I plan to continue my blog, however I am learning how to adjust to my new schedule so it may be slow here for a while. I love to write and I am not ready to give it up. If you want to follow me on facebook I just made a new fan page on Facebook. I would also be thrilled if you would go check out my Etsy shop and let me know what you think. I have been working really hard on my banner and photos. I do have many photos that I need to retake to go along with my new background.

I hope you all had a great Halloween! We certainly did. My hubby got home early from work and I was getting ready to make dinner. He decided that it might be an awesome idea for him to cook hamburgers on the grill and I agreed! So he cooked while I helped the kidletts with their pumpkins. No complaining there even with all the ooey gooeyness between my fingers.

Doesn't his sweet smile just melt your heart?!?

My daughter is so funny with her silly face! As she would say, "Yer sooo siwwy!"

Once we finished our pumpkins and most importantly our burgers we headed out for trick-or-treating. My sweet little ballerina was so excited. This was her first Halloween where she really understood what was going on. She enjoyed receiving candy, but she also got a lesson in giving by passing out the candy which included a bunch of her candy that I wouldn't let her have because of it being a chocking hazard when we got home.

Yeah... my camera batteries died when I was trying to get a cute picture of my two little angels. So we promptly took photos when we got home from trick-or-treating and they were exhausted from the long walk. You can see how that turned out!

And here is the proud Dada! An awesome end to a great day! I am just so thankful for my family and the time we have to spend together.

Favorite Online Preschool Resources

I went to dinner last night with a group of homeschooling moms from my church. I had so much fun and I am so grateful for the group of moms God gave me to help lift me up rather than tear me down. Other than my blog friends I thought I was the only homeschooling mom. I am so glad that I was wrong!

We got to talking about our favorite online resources so I thought that would be a great topic for my blog! Of course a blogger is always thinking, "I could soooo blog about that!" So here is my list of favorite places to visit when my kids are screaming, "Moooom! I'm bored!" Well, actually my kids are too little to scream that but you know that is what they are thinking when they are fighting with each other and rolling around on the floor playing with the dust bunnies they found under your couch.

Preschool File Folder Games
The Snail's Trail
More from 1+1+1=1
Homeschool Share
Totally Tots
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers -she has a little bit from preschool on up
ABC & 123
ABC Jesus Loves Me
Lapbook Lessons
First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts
DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Kiddie Records Weekly
Montessori Materials
Shephard Software
Home Experiments on scifun.org
No Time For Flash Cards

Bliss is Found in the Sound of Screaming Children

As I came to the door of my daughter's Awana classroom this evening, she came running out proudly holding her new vest, book, and bag. I scooped her up in my arms and told her how happy I was that she had a good time at Awana today and I am excited that she had finally gotten the vest she has been waiting for.

While I had been playing with the two year old Puggles that day she had been having the time of her life. My daughter absolutely loves going to church, and now that I have started working at our church she gets many more chances to be there with all her little buddies. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that she loves being in church learning about God's word.

They switched me out of my son's classroom today because I just can not deal with being in the same room with him. It isn't that I don't love him. I do. I love him to pieces and I think he is one of the two sweetest and cutest children to ever live! However, I can not deal with him being so jealous of the other kids that he tries to steal my lap from them. And when he is unsuccessful at that he starts to slap whatever is in the child's hand or mouth. One of his other quirks is that he loves to push kiddos over because if he does that then he knows he has to apologize. To apologize he hugs because he doesn't know how to say, "I'm sorry" yet,and he just loves hugs. He can be aggressive, but he has a very sweet heart.

Instead of being in my son's class today, I was put in a Puggles class full of two year olds. Not just any two year olds. The kiddos from my class last year! I was thrilled and loved every minute that we had in that class today. I was greeted with the sound of many small screaming children, however we were able to calm down pretty quickly and get to business. Oh how I missed those kids! I got plenty of hugs. I even got hugs from kids who didn't want to hug before since they hadn't seen me in so long. We colored, had snack, and sang songs. I hope that they had a great day this evening.

Once we left our church this evening we were able to scurry to the warmth and safety of our home. There is nothing more wonderful than being in my dream home with my husband and children. I love being a stay-at-home Christian mommy. I do believe that I have found my bliss.

Come visit Mama Kat to see more from her Writer's Workshop.