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Monday, May 7, 2012

Hooray for Teachers!

This week is teacher appreciation week at our elementary school, and since I am involved with the PTA, I actually knew it was coming a little earlier than in previous years.  My kids have the most amazing teachers this year, so I decided to make a little something special them.  I found instructions for a darling country candle here.  I have made these before, super simple, and super fast.  (I did this project in one afternoon.)  I did change it up a little, made apples instead of hearts, only ONE apple instead of two, and since we can't be lighting fires in school - I filled them with the teacher's favorite treat.  That way, they can use them to hold pencils or whatever later.....

I also found a cute little card to print out here.  I printed one out landscape, and one portrait.  The portrait one came out smaller, and I like it better that way :)

Here are some pictures of my process:

Cute apple, eh?

Starting to paint....


























I ended up putting 3 coats of the brown on - that's what happens when you buy cheap paint ....





Red paint......


Plumb paint......


I couldn't find the pen she used in the instructions, so I used this paint pen instead.





Finished jars with the cards....





Have you thanked a teacher today??







Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Losing a leader - and friend

I am the chorister for the Primary in my ward.  We sang a beautiful song on Easter Sunday.  "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" has always been one of my favorites, but it has never meant as much to me as is has recently.  This past week, we lost our Stake President, and friend, in a tragic accident.  As I have pondered the reasons for God to take such an amazing leader and wonderful person out of the world, this song keeps popping into my mind.  I have decided that the message is that God knows more than I do, and He must have had something that needed to be done - and only Mitch Shaw could do it.  Heavenly Father truly does love us, and this song has reminded me of that again and again during the last week.  Whatever difficulties you may face, I hope this song will help bring you through as well.  God bless....


 My Heavenly Father Loves Me

Whenever I hear the song of a bird or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face or the wind as it rushes by,
Whenever I touch a velvet rose or walk by our lilac tree,
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart.  I thank Him reverently
For all His creations of which I'm a part. 
Yes!  I KNOW Heavenly Father loves me!

He loves me.


I can't add the file I have of my Primary kids singing, but this link will take you to Mercy River's version.  They do a beautiful job.

My Heavenly Father Loves Me

The story of our Stake President can be found here:



Donations can be made to his family here:

Pledgie.com

Friday, April 20, 2012

B's Banana Bread

So J has a scout camp out tonight and he has to bring his own food for dinner and breakfast.  Dinner is easy.  Tin Foil Dinner.  Bam. 
Breakfast.......huh.  What travels well and will not result in 3rd degree burns when a 12 year old tries to cook it???  HA!!  Banana Bread :)
Well - in this case Banana Muffins.  With Chocolate Chips.  Mmmmmmmm.  This recipe is a combination of my Mom's banana bread  - which is nummy - and a fancy banana loaf recipe - that is divine.  (I suppose that makes this bread divine numminess.  ba-dum-bump.)

I make this bread with my KitchenAid stand mixer.  It's my best friend.  It needs a name though....thoughts?  Anyhoo - here we go.

Mix together 1/2 cup of butter - - REAL butter.  C'mon people.  Friends don't let friends bake with margarine. I always use unsalted butter, but if you prefer the salted use it. - - and 1 cup of sugar.  Mix for a couple of minutes until its fluffy.  Add 2 large bananas - I just peel the bananas and throw them right in the mixer.  That way there are little chunks of bananas in the bread.  If that does not appeal to you, put the bananas in a separate bowl, mash them up with a fork, and then add to the butter/sugar mixture.  Mix well.  Add 2 eggs, one at a time, until blended.  Add 1 tsp vanilla.  Mix.
Now here is where you are supposed to get a separate bowl for the dry ingredients and mix them together before you add them to the butter mixture.  Fooey.  I have to wash the dishes when I am done here....who wants MORE to wash??  I put the dry ingredients on top of the banana mixture and mix the dry ingredients together with a spoon then put the mixer down and mix it all together.  Works every time.  The dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp. salt - if you used salted butter, leave this out! 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. allspice, and 1/4 tsp. cloves.  Mix well.  Now here you can have a little fun.  Add chocolate chips, walnuts, raisins, whatever you like.  Pour into a loaf pan and bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes.  Today I added chocolate chips and instead of a bread pan I used a muffin tin, which bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.





B's Banana Bread

Mix together:
1/2 cup unsalted butter and 1 cup sugar
Add two large bananas.  Mix
Add 2 eggs, one at a time, until blended.
Add 1 tsp. vanilla.  Mix

In a separate bowl mix together:
2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. allspice, and 1/4 tsp. cloves.  Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and mix well.  Add chocolate chips or nuts if desired.  Pour into a loaf pan and bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes.  Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

and the winner is.......

My son loves Michael Jackson.  Loves.  He has never had a dance lesson, but watches MJs videos all the time and just does the moves.  Just like that.  It's sick really.
Anyway, a few weeks back he auditioned for "Bell Idol" which is like "American Idol" just at the Jr High level.  He made the finals :)  There were 12 finalists in the judged competition and cash awards!  Wahoo!!  1st place $100, 2nd place $50, and 3rd place $25.  J was AMAZING and took 2nd place!  (This proud mama was screamin louder than the Jr High girls - hahaha)  I have posted a link to his performance - enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fkYKl6kP-4

Hello :)

So, now I'm a blogger.  Why not? 
I have an awesome family and I am a jack of all trades - crafts, cooking, cakes, etc.  I get asked all the time, "How did you do that??"  I have decided that instead of explaining things a hundred times, I will just blog about it.  Stay tuned :)