Family Portraits - Long Overdue

24 rolls of toilet paper on the laundry room floor.  This little booger had to open two packages of this while I was making a meal.  The laundry room is close to his bedroom, so I thought he was playing in his room.   He was pouting when he got in trouble.

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

This soup is so good!  I was worried I had lost the recipe from last year.  Looked online and couldn't seem to find the right one.   Enjoy!
1 1/2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 med. onion, finely chopped
14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes
15 oz. can black beans, drained
30 oz. pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 c light cream (I used skim milk)
1 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
coarse salt - to taste
fresh chives for garnish

Saute' onion in oil for 5 min.  Add broth, tomatoes, beans, and pumpkin.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium - low and stir in cream, curry, cumin, cayenne and salt.  Simmer 5 min.    The kids may not enjoy this (mine didn't).  I loved it and my husband said it was pretty good.

Been busy

Hello.  I haven't forgotten about my little blog.  I have been very busy w/ life in general.  Homeschooling is taking a lot more of my time than I expected for my oldest only being in Kindergarten.  She is very strong-willed, so sometimes it takes awhile to get the lessons in.  Some days I just give up.  I get right back on it the next day & do a little more informal learning often, but do not call it school. 

I have also been doing my own version of Becky Higgins' Project Life.  I did buy the journaling cards & special sheet protectors w/ the pockets in them.  I love this idea.  I was once the kind of scrapper that only scrapped for the birthdays, holidays, and big events.  I tended to not take pics of just the little things.  Once I started doing Muffin Tin Meals, I started taking pics of more things.  Of course, I took pics of the kids often when they were doing something cute or wearing a sweet little outfit I wanted to remember.

I have been on the computer much less lately - trying to keep a better home.  Don't know if I'm succeeding at that, but I am keeping caught up with dishes and laundry, taking more time to read (trying to read my Bible every day), taking more time to play with the kids, etc. 

I do plan to share some fun crafty things I have made as well as more muffin tin & bento lunches (we just made our first ones the other day).    So, please don't drop my blog  - more to come very soon. 

Muffin Tin Meals

I have been doing muffin tin meals, but haven't been blogging lately.  Today's theme is trees, leaves, & harvest.  I love to decorate for fall, but can you believe I do not have even one leaf cookie cutter?  I did have a tiny apple cookie cutter & some tree top food picks I got in my winning package from Muffin Tin Mom. 
The kids chose the bear muffin tin silicone liners.  I served them a strawberry kiwi mini muffin, applesauce, apple shaped peanut butter & raspberry jam sandwiches, and vanilla yogurt.   My daughter ate up every bite, but my son left his muffin stump behind.  LOL

 Here is a picture of all of the items we received from Muffin Tin Mom.   The kids were very excited to receive all of these goodies.   Until now, we only had standard & mini muffin tins and one pumpkin tin they would fight over take turns using.  

 Here is a picture of the lunch they had on the day we received the package.  They both had to have a flower, bear, & silly feet silicone holder filled.  They had steamed carrots, sauteed smoked sausage & ketchup.

Until last week, I had never heard of grilled pb&j sandwiches before.  My friend Jac was talking about how her daughter requested them, so we had to try it.  This was our Halloween muffin tin meal from last week's theme.  They had cottage cheese, grilled pb&j (raspberry jam), animal crackers, shark crackers (Aldi's version of goldfish - much tastier!!), and Laurana had an apple, too.  Liam did not want one for some reason.  He normally begs to eat fruit 2-3 times per day.   This meal was not very festive, except that we had the cute pumpkin tin.

Muffin Tin Mom Wilton Giveaway!!!

Go here for a "Super Cute" giveaway from Muffin Tin Mom.   She is sending out a really nice prize to one lucky person - all Wilton products - Noah's Ark cookie cutters, muffin tin liners, silicone muffin tin liners, soft grip flower cookie cutter, dog-themed set of cookie cutters.  I may be forgetting an item or two.  

If you win, you will be able to have some fun muffin tin meals for your little ones or just some more fun things for baking cupcakes & cookies.

You're a Hoot

I made my first card for stampTV today.  This was a color challenge to use brown, kraft, yellow, & red.  I used a Close to My Heart stamp called You're a Hoot for this cute little card.  I raised up my owl to give a little dimension, tied a bow in kraft colored hemp, & distressed the yellow & brown papers.  I hope you like it.