Ash of All Trades

While the rest of the country is preparing for the end of the school year we are just beefing up some activities for the girls to enjoy these next few months - but more on that later.  For now I wanted to get working on a flannel board so we can use some felt cutouts for our upcoming themes. Without further ado: Materials: 24 x 30 Foam Board, and 30 x 34 Piece of Flannel in a solid color, hot glue gun. Step 1: Center the foam board on the fabric. (You may want to iron the fabric if it is wrinkled).  Then glue the edges down making sure it is tight. All done. Yep one step. Add some felt cutouts and voila - a perfect learning toy. Less than 10 minutes and less than 10 dollars later!

Well hello all!  Hope you are enjoying this beautiful new week and having a great Memorial Day.  I want to say a special thank you to all of our military men and women AND their families - thank you for all you do and the sacrifices you make you have one huge fan over here!  Now to our menu: Breakfasts: Cereal, Bananas, Peanut Butter on a Spoon Breakfast Out - Thanks Mom and Dad! Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Nectarines Scrambled Eggs, Toast, Strawberries Smoothies and Toast w/Peanut Butter French Toast and Nectarines Syrup Pancakes, Yogurt, Strawberries Lunches: Nada since we had a later brunch! Sub Sandwiches, Chips Pasta with Pesto (leftovers), Salad Egg Salad Sandwiches, Strawberries, Crackers Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Apple Slices, Cheese Hot Dogs and Mac N Cheese Tuna Sandwiches, Avocados, Wheat Thins Dinners: Out at a Wedding (Congrats Jeff and Kim)! Chili's Beef Fajitas , Tortillas, Rice Italian Sausage Sandwiches Chicken Stir Fry with Fried Rice Las...

Happy Friday all!  Just wanted to end the week with a new feature - every Friday I will be posting activities we have done in the previous week - all related to a theme.  This is our newest "home school" adventure as we dive into helping Little C and her possible speech delays.  We are striving to enhance her learning by repeating many common words and working on basic concepts such as colors, numbers, shapes, etc.  Big C will also be way involved and so far is loving the play based nature of this schooling!  So without further ado our first theme: Bears. We started the week by reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears .  Then we reenacted the story too many times to count...seriously more than 20 times.  We had different sized bowls, spoons, Tupperware, they used different sized pillows for beds and we all took turns playing different characters (we actually played this everyday for the whole week).  So fun! Another day we had a teddy bear picni...

1/2 Pound Artichoke .0078 lbs of Chives .148 lbs of Kale .703 lbs of Kale .391 lbs of Romaine Lettuce .0078 lbs of Sage .03125 lbs of Snap Peas .0234 lbs of Strawberries .32 lbs of mixed veggies. Total Weight: 2.135 lbs of Vegetables!

This book was given to me as a gift and let's just say the title and cover both scream "Ashlee Book" - very loudly.  Add in the fact that this story is about a Japanese American shortly after the pearl harbor attacks but told by the male in the love story and I was completely sold.  Honestly I read this one in three days and it only took me that long because well I have two kids and a husband that take up my time!  The masculine narration was very well written and maybe a bit too mushy for what a guy would really say but I enjoyed it because it's what I often imagine guys would be like if they didn't try to act all MACHO.  The formatting of the book was especially well written going from present day to past history in a well transitioned method.  While I think Lisa See 's books are still my favorites this is one book I will give two thumbs up!  (PS Lisa See has a new book coming out soon)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What good reads have you been enj...

Here is our favorite tortilla soup recipe - although we never make it exactly the same every time.  We love the thick base and veggies!  Step 1: Our Secret Ingredient - Cut 2 Corn Tortillas (or 1 flour tortilla) into pieces. Step 2: Chop Half of an Onion and 2 Cloves Garlic. Step 3: Saute Garlic and Onion In Olive Oil in Dutch Oven or Large Pot Stirring Frequently Step 4: Get ready for next step when garlic and onions are soft and brown. Step 5: Add 1/2 tsp Cumin and 1 tsp Chili Powder, Stir Step 6: Add one can diced tomatoes and stir. Step 7: Add 2 Cups Chicken Broth, 1 cup Water, Cut Tortillas, Stir Bring to a boil then simmer 10 minutes. Step 8: Using a stick blender - process the soup mixture until smooth. Step 9:  Add one can re fried beans, 1 cup of frozen veggies (corn bell peppers, zucchini, etc) and 1 cup cooked diced chicken.   Step 10: Spoon into bowls and garnish with cheese, cilantro, and tortilla chips. Makes 6-8 Servings.

Happy Monday all...sorry for the delayed post this week but we had a fun jam packed weekend and I wasn't able to get in my normal blogging time!  Here are the meals we plan to eat this week! Breakfasts: Chocolate Chip Pancakes (of course!) English Muffins, Eggs, Peaches Cereal, Kiwi, Peanut Butter Granola Bars, Apple Slices, Milk Waffles, Bacon, Pears French Toast and Peaches Breakfast Burritos and Canned Fruit Lunches: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Leftovers, Baby Oranges, Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Carrots w/Ranch Egg Salad Sandwiches, Carrots, Apple Slices Quesadillas, Tortilla Soup, Peaches Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Pears Bean and Cheese Burritos, Snap Peas Hot Dogs, Crackers, Carrots Dinners: Pepper Steak Sandwiches w/bell peppers, Baked Beans, Salad Spaghetti With Meat Sauce , Garlic Bread, Salad Sticky Lime Chicken , Squash & Zucchini, Herb Roasted Potatoes Chicken Taquitos, Beans, Corn Italian Sub Sandwiches (meatball style but with sausage), Peas...

Homegrown Chives @ a Whopping .008 Pounds Sage and Snap Peas - What a Delight! (More on them later) .406 Lbs of Romaine Lettuce - Yum! Ahh yes Fresh Sage @ .023 Lbs Sugar Snap Peas - I am soooo excited for these little guys - a delicious afternoon snack! .055 lbs of Snap Peas! Little Strawberry # 1 Little Strawberry #2 We also picked three or four leaves of kale and some fresh thyme but hurriedly threw them into our meal rather than photographing them! The food scale I use is from here   and we LOVE it.  I buy meat in bulk and weigh it out into meal sized portions, measure herbs and spices, and of course do our garden updates with it! So a total of .492 lbs of weighed produce this week! Our plants are really starting to fill in with little zucchinis and squashes outside, many more snap peas, tons of kale (of course), tomatoes the size of cadbury eggs, yes it is turning into heaven! What's everyone else growing right now? Ash of All Trades

Hope this week is treating you all well - I know I am thrilled to have a huge project done!  The canvas art for Big C's Room!  These were a lot of fun and a lot of work - while they didn't come out looking "professional" I do feel that they turned out awesome - considering I am not artsy (craftsy yes artsy no) and have NEVER EVER painted anything before!  So we started with four 20" x 20" canvases from Michaels (they were 40% off and only cost $29 total!) you can also get them on Amazon.com ( Art Alternatives Original Cotton Stretched Studio Canvas - ) To paint them a solid color I just poured paint all over then used foam brushes to even it out!  We just used the big bottles of Acrylic Paint like this . A couple of finished ones - we thankfully had a huge box left over from our new shed!  Kept the mess to a minimum and kind of kept it out of the kids way! Now these are in no way free handed - we used a projector  and computer printouts to draw ...