Sugar Scrub

Several weeks ago at church I was handed a gift bag from my friend Rosana.

This bag contained a little Rubbermaid covered dish of Sugar Scrub and it was the most beautiful, soft pink color and smelled delightful.

Amy and I have used it on our hands & LOVE it.

Then I tried it on my feet....Love it again.

Rosana's daughter Emmalyn told us how awesome it is to use when shaving your legs (this is just a like for me ~ she left out the part where it feels like shaving your legs with shards of busted glass...just being honest)

I've tried Emmalyn's suggestion twice and am really not too impressed ~ however Amy loves it.

We got busy, coaxed the recipe out of Rosana, bought the extensive list of ingredients (3), and started mixing yesterday.

The recipe is as follows.....

1 part salt

2 parts sugar

Dawn dish detergent with Oil of Olay

Easy. peasy.

We used 1 cup salt, 2 cups sugar, and about 1/3 of a bottle of Dawn.  You just add enough Dawn to get it to the consistency you want...its a thick, pink, good smelling sludge!

Amy is coming up with a way to change the color but keep the consistency/smell/effectiveness.

I think she has decided on using the white Dawn with Olay, and some squirts of Suave scented bath wash.  We've got different bottles, so I can expect to see a rainbow of colors next time we make it.

We did our recipe 3 times & still have a little Dawn left in the bottom of the bottle.  We refilled our container and filled 11 more of the same size. This took about 30 minutes total for all containers. I'm taking it when we travel this week and gifting it to our family! (shhhh, its a surprise, can you forget before Friday Mom?)

*On our recipe, we used the Kroger brand of the Dawn ~ .60-.70 a bottle cheaper

Rosana found the recipe on Pinterest!

But she tweaked the original and I've shared the tweaked version!

 **Edited directions.........shave your legs, rub the sugar scrub on them, rinse, shave your legs again ~ but not with the scrub!  That little detail would have been great to have clarified up front!

Staying Busy with My Hands

Here are some more goodies that have been crafted for fair projects/gifts!

Crocheted with "string" bracelet ~ still needs to be blocked & starched

beginnings of my crocheted edging ~ I love these colors!

decoupaged trash can ~ will hold my yarn for crocheting

SEW for our sewing room

Amy's painted bunny ~ looks like her bunny Bluebelle

my quilted Kindle case ~ using quilt as you go method

inside the case

large Granny Square baby blanket

Stenciled Tractor for Gregs workshop

In one or more of the Little House on the Prairie books, Laura talks about crocheting yards & yards of edging for her petticoats & chemises ~ and did the same for Mary's undergarments before she went to the Blind School.  So my question is.....How on earth did they find the time to do this with all the other chores, little light, etc?  I've got 2 rows of 3 1/2 feet of edging done & 10 inches of the 3rd row.  The minimum for the fair entry is 3 feet, so thats where my length came from.  This crochet string is silky, slippery and the hook is tiny.  I just don't know how yards and yards could be accomplished with all the other necessary chores.  When finished, mine may be long enough to go around a pillowcase opening.....or it could be bronzed and saved forever (but then you couldn't see the pretty colors).  Just something I was thinking of last night as I crocheted! 

More Menu's + 2 recipes

Here is our menu plan for the week

tonight...
Mashed Potatoes with hamburger gravy
Vegies ~ probably peas, green beans & carrots

Tuesday...
Spaghetti
garlic bread

Wed.
Chicken & Dumplings
vegies

Thursday
Soup or Chili (do in crockpot)
Cornbread

Friday
cookout at Allens in GA

Sat.
dinner at Greg's parents in VA

We are traveling over the weekend & all next week so my menu planning will go on hold for 7-8 days or so.  Since we are splitting up our 13-14 hour trip over 2 days (both there and back) we are going to eat a picnic in the car one of the days (sandwiches, chips) and the second day eat Dollar Menu burgers or tacos.  Friday nights cookout at Allens will probably be hamburgers, Granny's potato salad, baked beans, chips & a dessert.  Most of us are working hard on kicking the soft drink habit, so there will be lots of water, tea, lemonade and koolaid drinking.

Gregs challenge to Amy and I was to come up with a new crock pot recipe every week ~ since Pinterest is our favorite source for new ideas Amy found us a good one and we cooked it yesterday...

Slow Cooker Italian Chicken Alfredo (taken from Carzy Cook.com)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (we used a package with 6)
1/4 cup water
1 packet dry Italian-style salad dressing mix (recipe below for homemade ~ used 2 tablespoons)
1 clove garlic, pressed
1~8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 can cream of chicken soup (we used mushroom)
1 can chopped mushrooms ~ 4.5 ounce can (left out since we don't like them)
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley

Spray the crock of a slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.  Place chicken breast in crock.  Combine Italian dressing mix and water in a small bowl.  Pour over chicken, sprinkle with garlic, cover and cook on low 4 hours.  After 4 hours, whisk softened cream cheese & cream of chicken soup together in a bowl. Pour over chicken, stir in mushrooms. Cover & cook of low 1 additional hour. (Seems like she left out a step...after the 4 hours, we removed the chicken from the crockpot to cut up, whisked the cream cheese & soup together in the crockpot, and added the chicken back in.  Since we used more chicken than called for ~ we added another can of cream soup & about a cup of water)
 Cook pasta according to package directions & drain.
To serve, spoon chicken & sauce over hot pasta and sprinkle with parsley.

**We used wide egg noodles last night.  But decided to try it again with a noodle with "ridges" ~ curly noodles, penne pasta, etc.  That way the sauce can cling to the noodle.
Also, we topped ours with Parmesan Cheese ~ yummy!

Italian Seasoning Mix (from Heavenly Homemakers.com)

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1.4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried celery flakes

Shake ing. together and store in a jar.
To make Italian salad dressing: Mix 2 tablespoon dry mix with 1/4 cup vinegar (she uses red wine vinegar), 2 teaspoons water and 1/2 cup olive oil.

**I did this recipe x 4 since I already had all the spices out.  Its stored in an old spice container from the grocery store)


I think next time I will try it with Cream of Chicken ~ and if I think ahead of time I can use the homemade dry mix instead of the canned.  I didn't have any made up yesterday & wanted to use up what I had on hand.

Happy cooking!

Street Reach

Missions work comes in all shapes & sizes.  It can be done ANYWHERE.  It can cost nothing or 1000's of dollars.  It can happen locally, through your church, community, county, state, nation or abroad.  It can be packing a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, buying food for a food bank/pantry, buying school supplies for under priviledged children, buying a hamburger for a homeless person, giving money to a family in need, or going and serving wherever the Lord calls you to serve.  As Christians, we are called to serve others,  to be "the hands & feet of Jesus", to witness & share.  Sometimes it involves comfy air conditioning and many times it involves getting sweaty, dirty, and down right uncomfortable.  Our youth were way out of their comfort zones last week.  They walked through neighborhoods inviting children to VBS, played games, did crafts, listened to Bible stories & sung songs.  Every afternoon they had different ministry projects for the community ~ played Bingo at a retirement home, cut 9 lawns in one afternoon, cleaned the host church and more.

They had an awesome week!  It was fun to be there Friday morning and witness what they had been doing all week.  I even got to help Amy with her craft station for a little while. And its evidenced in most of the pictures ~ these children just wanted to be loved, held, played with, paid attention too.

They did not want to leave.  And they are ready to go back.  Next summer may not come quite fast enough for them!

I am thankful for our church to have a group of young people that want to serve, get out of their comfortable environment, and serve the Lord in such a special way.

Truth for Thursday

The truth is always available in the Bible ~ God's Holy Word ~ we have to read it, meditate on it, and live if out in our own lives.  The truth doesn't change because we don't like it, disagree with it, fight against it, or ignore it.  Its still the truth~
The Lord created us all for His purpose, His plans & to glorify Himself.



In my own life, I am thankful for both.  There is sweet refuge and relief when life is chaotic & raging but I am calm in the midst of it.  This is a blessing & gift from God.

Happy National Chick Fil A support day!!!!!

Its ultimately not about what WE think is right or wrong Or how WE humans define sin.  What matters is what the Lord God who created all of us thinks and one day we will all stand in His courtroom under His judgement (whether you believe in Him or not).  Anything we do which goes against the Lord, against His rules/commandments, against His leadership, against His counsel is a sin.  We are human and we all sin.  As a Christian, I  try to live a lifestyle pleasing to the Lord.  We try to guard our hearts, our minds, and our eyes from unwholesome images, books, speeches & even Pastors who preach their opinion & not the Bible (there are plenty out there.).  The choices I make in life are either pleasing or displeasing to the Lord. One difference in my sins and many others sins/sinners is I am not publically declaring my sin, asking/demanding rights to justify my sin, spewing hate speech publically, or producing items that promote or advertise my sin and offering them for sale.

If you follow the bunny trail back to the original interview that Dan Cathy (CEO of Chickfila) gave to the Baptist Paper ~ he stated that he personally held the opinion that marriage was between one man & one woman.  This is the Biblical, stated many times in Scripture, opinion.

All of the protesters, hate speech makers, people crying in the streets or on FB about his discrimination need to know the facts.  Our own views whether for or against his statements reflect our own hearts.  Honestly, if you don't like what he said, your "beef" isn't with him its with the Lord.  Mr Cathy was affirming the traditional, Christian view of marriage.  Christians have fallen into the "we have to be tolerant of everyone camp" & "we can't say anything against whatever because we may hurt someones feelings".  Me not saying anything doesn't make it right, its still a sin.  And, why are we intolerant when we voice our opinions and exercise our Freedom of Speech?  Freedom of Speech covers every American citizen not just the ones you agree with.

Our family has signed the petitions saying we will be eating at Chick Fil A...along with almost 600,000 others.  Our homeschool group is meeting up there for a back to school bash.

Genesis 1:27 & 28
So God created many in His own image; in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.  28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful & multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over ever living thing that moves on the earth." NKJV

We believe in the Biblical view of marriage between one man & one woman.

And we support Chick Fil A for the stand they took.

And as the cows say "Eat Mor Chikin".

Meal Planning

I've gotten tremendously lazy with meal planning & massive organization is needed.

The price of groceries is going up, foods are adding more fillers to extend the servings, and healthier fare is needed for our home.  We do have a couple of "boxed" foods that we like ~ Zatarains has a good Red Beans & Rice that we serve with either sausage or chicken Or mixed with ground beef becomes dirty rice...everyone likes it cooked any way & the leftovers are great for lunches the next day. (The Red beans mixture does not have MSG like some of their others) The other Zatarains we like it the Southern Steak Stroganoff..we make it with ground beef & serve with sour cream (otherwise its just a bit too peppery for us).  I know that I can find "from scratch" alternatives for these boxes, but it is nice to have these on hand for busy days/nights.

The other boxed "staple" is Annies Macaroni & Cheese ~ we usually do these for our "school" lunches.  This is one of Amy's favorites.  And the Annie's brand is organic.  We buy many boxes when the sale occurs at Kroger.

And once a week or so, Ramen Noodles make an appearance at lunchtime ~ totally bad for you, full of junk but super cheap and well liked. 

Here is the menu plan for this week, starting today....

Tuesday ~ Tossed Salad with Chicken

Wed. ~  Baked Pork Chops with rice, vegies

Thursday ~ Red Beans & Rice with sausage

Friday ~ Crockpot Pirate Stew

Sat. ~ Mashed Potatoes, *gravy, vegies

Sunday ~ Pinterest Crockpot Meal ~ Italian Chicken Alfredo, peas

* for the Sat. gravy, we make cream gravy and mix browned ground beef with it ~ its one of Gregs new favorites.

The Italian Chicken Alfredo called for dry italian dressing mix, so I went on a quest to find a mix to make and not buy the packets.  I found one on "Heavenly Homemakers"...

1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 Tablespoon onion powder

2 teaspoon oregano

1 Tablespoon dried parsley

2 teaspoons sea salt

 1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried celery flakes

Mix thoroughly, store in an airtight container.

Mix 2 tablespoons dry mix with 1/4 cup vinegar, 2 teaspoons water and 1/2 cup olive oil to make the salad dressing.

Since my recipe calls for the dry mix, I will just use the 2 tablespoons.

I also found a recipe on http://www.cutest-baby-shower-ideas.com/ that I would like to share.

Recipe for Motherhood

1 Heart full of love

1 Head full of understanding

2 eyes in the back of your head

3 heaping cups of patience

1 gallon of generosity

1 barrel of laughter

Mix well,  Sprinkle with kindness, add plenty of faith. Heat with sunshine & spread generously over a lifetime for a plateful of joy.  Add a cup of warm memories!

Happy meal planning!

Now onto the grocery store with the organized shopping list!