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About Me
My name is Tami and I live in central Illinois with my husband, Larry and three children, Caleb (5), Camden (3) and Emma Grace (10 months). I hope you'll enjoy reading about my life as a wife/mother and about our family's adventures.
Glow in the Dark Shirt
This cute glow in the dark shirt, from Family Fun magazine, is a great craft idea to do with your children. This will be a lot of fun to do with my son, he loves rockets.
Tags: crafts, glow in the dark shirt, children
Works For Me Wednesday - Homemade Vanilla
I’ve decided to finally participate in Works For Me Wednesday instead of just reading all of the great tips.
I haven’t bought vanilla in the store for several years. I’ve started making my own. Here is the recipe. Combine:
- 1 bottle vodka
- 4-5 vanilla beans
Store in a cool dark place (such as a cupboard or closet) for 4 weeks. Shake the bottle several times a week. The vanilla extract is now ready to use. I usually leave the vanilla beans in the bottle or you can remove them.
Go read more Works For Me Wednesday tips at Rocks in My Dryer.
Preschool Open House
Tonight was Caleb’s preschool open house. We got to meet his teachers (who we already know from church), see his classroom and get a packet of information. He was so excited to go, that 30 minutes before we left he had his jacket and shoes on. He kept asking if it was time to go yet.
Every month, his class will have a color day, where they wear that color that day (his class color is yellow), show and tell, birthday parties, field trips and overnights. He is going to love preschool and an added bonus is that his best friend, Fiona, is in his class.
They even have Scholastic Firefly book club that the kids can order from monthly. I loved Scholastic books when I was in elementary school. With our kids love of reading, this will be a great way to add to our book collection.
Tags: preschool, Scholastic Books
My Favorite Cookbooks
I already did a list of my favorite children’s cookbooks. Here is a list of my favorite cookbooks (not related to children).
- Favorite Comfort Food
- Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader
- The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook
- Hallelujah! The Welcome Table
- Iced Tea
- A Taste of the Scofield House
- In the Kitchen with Rosie
- Beard on Pasta
- Morning Menus Inn Style
- Betty Crocker’s Cookbook
- Mrs. Fields Cookie Book
I also have two Gooseberry Patch recipe binders (soon to be three) full of recipes.
Where We’ve Been
At the beach:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
- 2 sticks butter
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup chunky peanut butter
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups unbleached flour
- 1 1/2 cups oatmeal
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Cream together butter, sugars, peanut butter. Add vanilla and eggs. In separate bowl, mix together pre-sifted flour, oatmeal, baking soda and salt. Add dry mixture into cream mixture, blending thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. Chill overnight. Sp0oon partially thawed batter into rounded silver dollar pieces onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 19-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven when baked and rest for 5 minutes, then spatula onto brown bag paper to cool.
Makes 4 dozen 3” cookies. Variation add 2 tbsp. cocoa powder for double chocolate.
Recipe via The Scofield House cookbook.
Tags: recipes, oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, cookies
Mission Moment - Ghana, Africa
This week during VBS, the mission money we collected was going to Ghana, Africa. The pastor from the church in Ghana spoke to our congregation last summer and then our senior pastor and youth pastor went to Africa on a missions trip this past spring. The people from Ghana, Africa have really touched our church family.The kids were so excited to give money this week for our mission. They also had a little extra motivation. The kids had several goals to reach and with each one reached, a VBS teacher and the senior pastor got a pie in the face. We ended up reaching, and exceeding, our final goal and so the VBS director agreed to a get a pie in the face. This was the best VBS weeks we have had for several years. The kids were so excited and had so much fun.One of the projects that we did for the children of Ghana was to decorate a banner (see picture above). The sign said “Jesus Loves the Children of Ghana” and all of the kids wrote their names, messages or pictures on the banner.
Tags: VBS, Ghana, Africa, missions, children
VBS - Fiesta
We are having VBS at our church this week. This is the first year that our son has been old enough to participate and he was so excited to go to “PBS” last night. I have great memories from VBS when I was a child and hope that my children enjoy it as much as I did. My husband and I will be there all week since we volunteer (the baby is in the nursery). I will be helping with snacks and my husband is (for the 3rd year) the official picture taker. He will put together a slide show for the final night. It is always a highlight for the kids to see themselves up on the big screen.
The VBS coordinator always give the volunteers something for participating. This year we got a Fired Up For Faith bracelet.
Our Sunday School teacher asked us last week to bring back a favorite memory from the week to share with the class this next Sunday. So far, it would have to be watching my son sing his heart out and dance to the music. I can hardly wait for the last night to see him perform on stage with the rest of his class.
The Painting Project
I have a list on the refrigerator of the home improvement projects that my husband and I want to accomplish this year. It is now August and we have only started on two of them. One is getting undercabinet lighting for our kitchen, it still is not installed. We need to find a free weekend for this.
The other is a much bigger project. I am in the process of painting the entire first floor of our house. The color we have chosen for the living room, dining room, stairwell and upstairs hallway is toasted wheat. We have not decided on the color for the family room and kitchen. It will be some shade of green. I have discovered that I really enjoy painting. It is very relaxing. The boys go to grandma’s for the day and I get to paint with no distractions.
One of my new finds for this painting project is the Shur-Line paint edger. I’ve never found an edger that worked very well. This one is great. The other tool I still have to purchase is a paint buddy. It makes touch ups easier, so I won’t have to get the paint can out everytime there is a ding on the wall.
Tags: painting, home improvement
Library Day - What We’re Reading
The boys and I went to the library today to get some new books to read.
The boys books:
- Bob Saves the Porcupines
- Bob’s Birthday
- Moon Rooster
- Oliver’s Milk Shake
- Oliver’s Fruit Salad
- Max Cleans Up
- The Night Pirates
- My Place in Space
- Kiss Good Night
- You Can Do It Sam
- Bernard On His Own
My books:
- Nowhere To Run – Mary Jane Clark
- The Main Corpse – Diane Mott Davidson
- Chopping Spree – Diane Mott Davidson
- I’m also starting to reread The Mitford Series
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Miscellaneous
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