A Little Bit of Encouragement!

It would be great if everything went smoothly and on schedule, but it is not likely to work quite that easily.

I have been busy writing a paper about this concept in one of my classes. It is has been quite the learning experience for me. I have come to understand the different perceptions in a family and how much our choices can really have an affect on those around us and our future posterity.

Every family encounters crises--those moments in which our choices either move our family in an upward direction or create additional, perhaps more serious, problems to address. Crisis is best viewed as an opportunity paired with danger; as the term implies our response to these moments are critical to our further success.

So with that definition, let me ask you a question. How could a family in a middle of a crisis pull it together when it could very well pull it apart?

Not to go into too much detail, but my family had a very crisis moment when I was about 15 years old. I remember the time very well. Things were crazy at home, but I loved how my parents brought us together with the help of our religious beliefs. My parents planned out more family activities and often we would go to church outings together. Even though things were hard, it made dealing with the stress so much easier knowing that my parents loved me and my little brother and sister along with the feeling of love from my Heavenly Father. Now, I'm sure that trying to get me to go to these things was kind of hard. I had so much anger towards everyone in my family, even myself, that sometimes I was really stubborn when it came to doing things that parents knew would help me in the long run, but I just could not see it. We did make it through that time and now are closer together than ever. We help and support each other, even though we do not live near each other. We talk often and say "I love you." And we try to look at the positive things in life, because what's in the past cannot be changed. All we know is that we can change the future by what we are doing today.

If you are going through a crisis time with your family. Think of some ways that will bring you closer together so that when everything is said and done your bond is stronger than it ever was before. Look towards the future and have a goal that is reachable, but challenges you at the same time. And most of all stay positive. Say to yourself, "I can do hard things" and other similar sayings. You are loved and let others show you how much they love you. Be willing to accept help from those around you. Keep up the good work!

Here is a great video about a young lady who survived a horrible plane crash. Her testimony strengthens me and helps me to find the good in every day.

(Via Youtube, Mormon Messages, "My New Life")

Love,
Kenna

Heavy Whipping cream

For my post this week, I really wanted to do some recipes. I have been crazy about Heavy Whipping cream in everything. So I’m going to share some recipes this week that contain heavy whipping cream. So go get a quart of cream, and you will be set for my posts this week.

I’m using some Meadow Gold this week but any kind will do.

My first recipe is easy and maybe you have already done it, if not you are missing out.  It is a simple whipped cream recipe, and it only takes THREE ingredients and five minutes to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Chill the clean bowl of a stand mixer and the whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes. (sometimes if I’m in a hurry I just run cold water on the bowl and call it good) Add all of the ingredients to the bowl and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, about 1 minute. (Alternatively, you can use a hand whisk and a large chilled bowl. Whisk all of the ingredients until medium peaks form, about 2 to 3 minutes.) Serve immediately.

If for some reason you are not making and serving this immediately then change the instructions a little. Only beat till soft peaks form, which is little peaks as you take the beater away but they immediately fall. Then store it in the refrigerator. When you are ready to serve it then beat it to medium peaks.

You really don't want it to be stiff, but soft but still holds it shape slightly.

This is heavenly on anything, strawberries (my favorite), pancakes, ice cream, cakes, anything your heart desires. I wont even tell anybody if you eat by it’s self.

Have fun in the kitchen.

The Yummest, Softest Sugar Cookie Recipe

I absolutely LOVE this sugar cookie recipe. These soft, yummy cookies taste very much like those Loft House cookies, but they are little more dense and a little less sweet...and that makes them simply PERFECT!! 

Even my hubby, yes the one who dislikes sweets, LOVES THESE!!! I leave him a few unfrosted, but he'll eat them both ways.


SOFT SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients:

* 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
* 1/2 cup sour cream



Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a mixing bowl (I use my Kitchenaid) cream butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla--Beat for 2 minutes. Add sour cream and half of the sifted dry ingredients; beat 1 minute. Stir in remaining dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Divide dough in half and roll each portion out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thick. (Make sure they are thick)!!! Cut with floured cookie cutter. Place cookies on greased cookie sheets; bake at 400° for about 8 minutes. DO NOT OVER-BAKE!!!! (They should be a tiny bit golden on the bottom).

FROSTING
*3 c. powdered sugar
*1/3 c. butter
*1 1/2 tsp vanilla
*1-2 Tbs Milk

Cream butter and vanilla till whipped. Add powdered sugar and a tiny bit of milk and mix until it is the consistency desired. Add food coloring & frost!!!

****Store sugar cookies in an airtight container to keep them soft.

A is for Apple Preschool Unit

One of my most favorite preschool units that I've ever done is A is for Apple. I've done it for a few years now, and have been able to tweak it here and there, and narrow it down to the activities that I really love. The kids always seem to have a good time with it too. I usually base my unit studies around a theme (such as apples) and have a story to go with. The story I picked to go with our apple unit was Johnny Appleseed A Poem by Reeve Lindbergh. The poem is cute, and rhymes, but what I really like are the pictures. They are fun, and have little animals all over the place that the kids love to look for while I'm reading.

 

Because I'm also home schooling a first grader and a kindergartener, my preschool time has to be severally limited to one activity a day. So we read the book and then do an activity and call it good. I gear the activities towards my preschooler, but the other two are allowed to participate if they want to, and they usually choose to.

 
The first day we made letter A apples out of cardstock. I had all the pieces cut out before hand, so all the kids had to do was glue it together. My goal this time around, is to make a picture of the letter every time we do one, and then hang them on the closet door as we go, so that the kids can see how their alphabet is progressing.

The second day we played a math game. Each player gets a placemat that has ten apples on it. Each apple has a number 1-10. In my hand I hold 10 apple shaped cards. The person who is it draws an apple card from me, then matches it to the number on their placemat. Once they match it correctly, they get to pick out the corresponding number of fishy crackers (or whatever treat you choose) and place them on the number card. Once all the cards run out, everyone gets to eat their crackers, and you shuffle the cards and start over. It's pretty simple, but my kids LOVED it.

Download the template here. You’ll want to print 2. One for the board, and one for the cards.

On the third day we made Wassail. We usually only make it at Halloween, but this apple unit gave me a good excuse. Here's the recipe:

Wassail
6 cups cranberry juice
24 cup apple cider (not juice, cider)
6-8 cinnamon sticks
1 Tbsp whole cloves

Pour cranberry juice into large pan. Pour in cider. Add in cinnamon sticks and cloves. (You can wrap them in a cheese cloth if you want, or just scoop them our with a slotted spoon at the end.) Bring everything to a boil. Simmer for 25-30 minutes. Serve. Store in a pitcher in refrigerator and reheat when needed.

On the fourth day we did apple lacing cards, which I made by drawing an apple onto a piece of card stock, coloring it, cutting it out, laminating it, and punching wholes around the edges. I used red yarn as the string. Super easy, very entertaining, and they'll be good for sticking in the diaper bag later, when we're at the doctor's office, or church.

For day five we made a paper plate apple art project by cutting off the sides of a paper plate and painting the top and bottom red, and drawing seeds in the middle. Use the sides you cut off to make the leaf and the stem, and either color or paint them green and brown. I did have my kids do the cutting on this part to help with the fine motor skills. It's not a very hard cut. Then, to throw a little science into the mix, we used my plate to label all the parts of the apple, stem, leaf, skin, flesh, core, and seeds. And briefly talked about how if you planted an apple seed, it would eventually grow into an apple tree.

Stay tuned for a B is for Boat themed unit.

 

An Obsession You’re Dyeing to Try

Meet my latest obsession:

 

RIT fabric dye, come to Mama! I’ve been having a blast with these little boxes lately. But first, some back story, so that when you decide I’m off my rocker, you’ll at least know why. ;)

 

A friend of mine recommended the book The Child Whisperer by Carol Tuttle to me. Basically, it’s a parenting book that categorizes children (and everything, really) into four Types, based on their personality, movement, facial features, etc., and then gives parenting ideas based on which Type your child falls under. It was a great book, I highly recommend it. But that’s not what this post is about.

 

Once I found out my children’s Types, I was really curious to know mine. So, I read another book by Carol Tuttle called It’s Just My Nature. Which was very helpful in figuring out myself. That book lead me to a third book by Carol called Dressing Your Truth, which is basically a fashion guide based on the Type system. I have loved this system, and for the first time in my life, feel like I have a clue about my own fashion. It’s been great. And for more information about the system, and a free 8-course video on it, look here.

 

And finally, on to the point of this post…now that I know what colors, textures, and styles I’m supposed to wear, it’s time to overhaul my wardrobe. I can’t afford to go out and spend a million dollars on clothes, so I experimented with the next best thing. Fabric dye.

 

That sounds really final, doesn’t it? Haha! It is, but it’s also a lot easier than you might think. I started out really easy, by dirtying up some jeans.

What you’ll need

• a pair of jeans
• some thick rubber gloves
• 1/2 cup of salt
• something to stir with that you don’t care about,  I use the broken off end of a wooden broom handle
• a 5 gallon bucket that you don’t care about (you can get them from WalMart for like $5)
• RIT powder dye, in the colors  you want

Step 1

Boil 28 cups of water in a large pot on the stove.

Step 2

Pour boiling water into 5 gallon bucket. Take your bucket in the garage, or outside onto a surface you don’t care if it gets dye spilled on it, just in case. Put on your gloves. Add Salt. Add Dye. Stir well, and allow to sit until the dye has dissolved (about 5 minutes.)

 

Dye recipe for dirty jeans: 

1 pkg. Tan for dark jeans

1 – 2 tsp Golden Yellow

½ tsp Dark Brown

(use less Golden Yellow for lighter jeans)

Step 3

Get your jeans sopping wet in the sink.

 

Step 4

Put jeans into dye mixture, and stir with wooden stick for 15-30 minutes, depending on how dark you want the dye to set, You want the clothes to be moving pretty much the entire time they’re in the dye, so that they dye evenly.

Step 5

Wring out the clothing items. Then move them to a sink (stainless steel, the dye will stain a porcelain sink) and rinse with warm water. Then again with cold water, until the water runs clear. This will help the dye set.

Step 6

Wash clothing in washing machine on cold, with a 1/2 cup vinegar. Dry in the dryer, or hang to dry.

 

Ta-da! Dirty jeans.

Here’s what they look like on.

I’ve been pretty much dying clothes like crazy since I discovered this. Here a few other helpful tips.

Only dye white, or really light colors.

Natural fibers dye the best.

You can dispose of your dye water down a stainless steel sink, RIT brand is environmentally friendly.

The best place to order the colors you want is Amazon.

I’ve done a couple more color combos that I’ll share with you.

Bittersweet Recipe – comes out kind of a bright red color, it’s beautiful, but I didn’t take any pics, sorry!

1 pkg Golden Yellow.......1 Tbsp Scarlet

 

Peacock Blue Recipe – For this one I tried the liquid dye, so these amounts are for liquid, not powder. Same directions as above though. I also tried a grey sweater, it stayed gray but had a blue tint to it.

1/2 c. Royal Blue.......1 Tbsp. Kelly Green

 

Rust Recipe – This one has probably been my favorite so far.

1 pkg Tangerine..............1 Tbsp Cocoa Brown

 

Notice how much better this cardigan looks in rust.

 

For more recipes for over 500 colors, visit the RIT dye website and check out their formula guide. It’ll tell you the combos you need to create any color you can imagine.

 

Happy Dyeing!