Some Days It's the Small Things

How amazing that even on days when I've been a grouchy, temperamental mom, it can all be made better just by granting some small desire - in this case, allowing her to eat her evening snack outside in the "fort."

Oh that all future difficult days could be smoothed over so easily.......

How Not To Decorate Cupcakes

As I mentioned in my weekend in review post yesterday, my eight-year-old and I made homemade Flag Cupcakes together on Saturday. We used the One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes recipe from Martha Stewart and the Vanilla Powdered Sugar Frosting from All Recipes. Both were easy to follow and turned out pretty well.

The dilemma came in decorating the cupcakes. We mixed blue food coloring into part of the white icing and my daughter piped the dots onto the cupcakes. The red stripes were supposed to be red licorice, which neither of my girls like. I thought it would be easy enough to substitute a red fruit roll-up cut into strips and laid on top. (In retrospect, I should have just tinted some of the white icing red and piped it on in lines.)

I do buy the packaged fruit snacks from time to time, but don't know that I've ever bought fruit roll-ups - and at this point doubt that I will again. I unrolled one, thinking that I could just lay it across a plate and use a sharp knife to cut it into strips. Nice try - the whole thing adhered to the plate and I could not get it off!

I finally put the plate in the sink and had to soak it in hot water to get the fruit roll-up to come off. Meanwhile, I'm thinking "If it does this on a plate, what does it do to your insides when you eat it???"

My next idea worked a bit better; I unrolled part of a fruit roll-up and laid it on a piece of aluminum foil. After several attempts, I was able to get enough little pieces cut for my daughter to lay three on each cupcake. The finished product looked fine, but I must admit to lifting off the red stripes when I ate my cupcake!

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom and Talk About Tuesday to see what others tackled this week.

Shrimp Scampi

Tried this recipe for the first time last week and loved it! I must admit, I was pretty sure it would be a favorite for me as I enjoy eating shrimp about any way you can cook it. Even the leftovers made a great lunch the next day!

Shrimp Scampi

1 lb peeled and deveined large raw shrimp
1 (12 oz) package angel hair pasta
1/4 cup butter
1/4 finely chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

Prepare angel hair pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add onion and garlic and saute' three to five minutes or until tender. Stir in Italian seasoning and Worcestershire sauce.

Reduce heat to medium. Add shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, 3 to 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Stir in lemon juice. Toss shrimp mixture with drained pasta and sprinkle with cheese. Serve immediately.

Find more recipes at Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

July 4th Weekend in Review

Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! We were blessed to be able to do several fun things together as a family.

On Friday night we went to a minor league baseball game where the girls got their faces painted.....



.....took in some baseball action.....


.....and ended the evening with some pretty neat fireworks.


On Saturday my eight-year-old and I made July 4th Cupcakes.....


.....and late in the afternoon we headed to a friend's house for a cookout and some time for the girls to play with friends.

Now we have a couple of days to clean the house and pack our suitcases before we head off to visit my family for a week!

Accepting and Sharing the "Awards" Love

Sarah at The Fifth Street Palace was so gracious to pass along the following two awards to my blog. I always enjoy seeing what's happening with Sarah so be sure to visit her blog soon and get to know her.


The first is the Awe-Summm!!! Award which requires me to mention seven things that make me awesome. I don't normally associate myself with that word, but here's what came to mind.

1. I am a child of the King and know that God loves me and has saved me and given me a home in heaven for all eternity.
2. I am married to a wonderful husband who is my best friend and greatest counselor.
3. I have been blessed with two precious daughters who make me want to be the best mommy I can be for them.
4. I was given Godly parents who did all in their power to bring me up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
5. My terrific siblings and "siblings-in-law" with whom I love to spend time.
6. A wonderful church family to minister and fellowship with.
7. Friends, both the real-life and blogger variety, who encourage and inspire me.

The second award was the Friendship Award.


This award is bestowed on blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Now I am passing both of these awards along to some of my blogger friends whose blogs I enjoy reading. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Saving Your Cents
2. The Cookie Lady and Sons
3. Daily Dwelling
4. Flower Patch Farmgirl
5. Intentionally Katie
6. Unfinished Mom
7. Jerri's Journey
8. A Stitch of Faith
   

Thanks to all of you who visit, follow, subscribe in a reader and take the time to comment! It's been so nice getting to know you over the past several months!

Great Reads

Here are some articles that I found interesting around the blogosphere this week.

Simple Mom's post on 10 Great Authors in Children's Literature was a good resource for those of you looking for writers of children's books who consistently produce good stories.

Amy at The Finer Things in Life is doing a series on Mommy, Come Home which deals with leaving the work force and becoming a stay-at-home mom. One of this week's posts was perfect for those who may not yet have children but want to prepare ahead of time so they will be financially able to stay at home with their children in the future.

Although it may be a little late to use these ideas for this July 4th celebration, I loved the decorations shown in this post - Hooked on Red, White and Blue.

Finally, do you ever feel like a crabby mom? I do, more often than I'd like to admit. Jessica at Life as Mom has some suggestions for being a more cheerful mom.

I would like to add a few more blogs to my reader so if you have any suggestions or would like to share the link from one of your "must-read" blogs, please do so in the comments section.

Picking Up Publix Sale Items This Week

While my savings percentage wasn't as great as I would have liked for it to be this week, I was still pleased with what I paid for the items I purchased.

I took advantage of the $.50 Publix soft drinks to stock up on those for my husband and also got a couple packages of the ground chuck at $2.29/lb. The Reynolds Aluminum Foil was only $1.18 for 75 sq ft after a B1G1 Free price of $2.18 and a $1 off coupon. Two 8 oz containers of Cool Whip were $.50 apiece after a B1G1 Free price of $1 each and a $1/2 coupon; two blocks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese were $.75 after a sale price of $1.25 each and a coupon for $1/2. I didn't get a picture this time, but I bought 31 items; total spent was $43.22 and I saved $27.73.

Since the girls and I will be leaving to visit family on Wednesday, I won't have to do much grocery shopping next week other than picking up milk and a few other items for my husband to have on hand while we're gone.

Visit these sites to see how others saved this week: Money Saving Mom; The Thrifty Mama; Fiddledeedee; I Heart Publix; Grocery Cart Challenge; and Southern Savers.

A Bit of a Splurge or A Break From Frugal

While I definitely try to watch what I spend, shopping with coupons and looking for sales, there are some things that I fall in love with and on which I am willing to spend a bit more money.

One of the most recent examples is furniture related. For several months I have been wanting to replace the office chair that we brought with us when we moved into this house a couple of years ago. Since our desk with the computer is in the main living area, I wanted to get a nicer style of chair; not to mention, the chair had a torn seat. I had a specific amount of money designated for this purchase and kept it in an envelope in my purse whenever I went out shopping.

There was one I liked at Pier One, but even when it went on clearance it wasn't in my price range. I checked Craigslist off and on but never found anything in which I was really interested. A couple of weeks ago, I was in Marshalls and, lo and behold, there it was. A dark brown leather chair that I thought would look perfect in the space AND it was comfortable to sit in (not rock-hard like some similar chairs I had tested). The purchase price??? One cent less than what was in my envelope! Could I have waited longer and maybe gotten a better deal down the road? Perhaps, but this was in the budget and perfectly met the need.

Secondly, as I mentioned some time ago, one of my favorite places to buy clothes for our daughters is from Boden USA online. They have such cute styles that are different yet age-appropriate and their clothes are of great quality, but they definitely cost more than I am usually willing to pay.

However, on Tuesday I happened to check my secondary e-mail account and saw that they were having a huge sale. I looked through the girls' items and saw two dresses that I had admired for awhile in their catalog. Both were nearly 50% off and I had a $20 credit on my account from their "refer a friend" program. All told, including shipping, I spent $38 for two dresses - a splurge, for sure, but something the girls will enjoy wearing. Another benefit - the resale value on Mini Boden items is terrific! The first dress arrived today, fit my six-year-old perfectly and is so pretty and soft. Can't wait to get the other one!!

Are there certain items that you're willing to pay a bit more for because you love them? Let us know what makes you go outside the "frugal box" a little!

If you're on the hunt for tips on being more cost-conscious than I've detailed here :), visit Frugal Friday at Life as Mom. You can also read about items others love at Hooked on Fridays.

They Love Being in the Pool!

One of the girls' favorite summertime activities....

.........is swimming (or floating or jumping!) in the pool.

This is how we spent part of our day today and we so appreciate our friends who invite us to go swimming at their pools! Because of them, my girls have a lovely tan and are becoming more comfortable in the water!

Thirteen Fourth of July Desserts

Since it's my eight-year-old's turn to bake with Mommy this Saturday, I came up with a list of thirteen Fourth of July desserts from which she could choose one to make.

1. Strawberry-Blueberry Shortcake

2. Patriotic Cookie Pizza

3. Flag Cupcakes

4. Fruited Cheesecake Flag

5. Red, White and Blueberry Cheesecake Tart

6. Flag Sheet Cake

7. Red, White and Blue Dessert Squares

8. Red, White and Blue Dessert

9. Star Sugar Cookies

10. Brownie 'n Berries Dessert Pizza

11. Red, White and Blue Poke Cake

12. Stars 'n Stripes Cookie Squares

13. Jell-O Easy Patriotic Pie

She chose the Flag Cupcakes so, to keep it from being too easy, we're going to do homemade cupcakes and homemade icing. I was personally pulling for the Red, White and Blueberry Cheesecake Tarts or Strawberry-Blueberry Shortcake, but maybe I'll make one of those my own baking project soon!

This post is linked to Thursday-13.

Teach Them Diligently

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 6:6-7

This third verse on my list of five favorite Bible verses related to parenting instructs me to teach the precepts and principles of God to my children as part of our every day life. This helps me know that it is not the church's nor the Christian school's job to plant the words of God into my children's heart, although they may be a help in that area.

My husband and I, as parents, are responsible for teaching our children about God and His commandments. This can be a bit more formal as we sit around the table after supper and talk about Bible principles or some character trait they should have in their lives. It would also involve just being available to talk when they have a question at bedtime about some situation or discussing what they learned in Sunday School during the ride home from church.

The neatest part of this verse is that spiritual instruction can and should happen throughout the day as part of our normal conversation. It's not relegated to a sit-down teaching time, but just happens as we move throughout our day.

I'm certain that I miss so many opportunities to capture teachable moments, but hope that I will focus more on listening for those times to teach my girls about God and His Word. My husband grabbed a quick moment this past Sunday to do just that. One of our girls was talking about taking money to church to put in the offering and my husband took the chance to ask her about why we give money at church and briefly mentioned what our heart attitude should be as we give.

According to these verses, I am to be diligent about training our daughters in the ways of God. My prayer is that I might be more mindful of this responsibility and look for ways to incorporate it into our daily lives.

photo courtesy public domain pictures