October 2011 – My Crazy Blessed Life!

Wax Paper Mini Leaves

October 21, 2011 crazyblessedlife

This is the first year I’ve done wax paper leaves with my girls, but I did it growing up with my mom and decided it was time to give it a try with my 3 and 4 year olds.

First we took old crayons in shades of turned leaves (yellow, brown, red, green and orange is what we used).

Next we put a long sheet of wax paper on the table and used a grater to shave the crayons onto the wax paper.

Then we put the wax paper with the shavings onto an ironing board on the floor with a towel on it.

Then we covered the wax paper and crayon shavings with another piece of wax paper and then paper towels.

Then we ironed it (without steam).

The wax will come off onto the paper towels some.

When all the crayon wax is melted let it cool.

Next we took some fall mini leaf cookie cutters I had and traced them onto the wax paper and cut them out.

We taped them to our back glass slider doors for fun fall decor!

I had a blast doing these with my kids, thanks for stopping by 🙂

Johanna

Thankful Thursday, Uncategorized

Thankful Thursday: Women of Faith

October 20, 2011 crazyblessedlife

Today I just wanted to post a simple blog of gratitude. Sometimes I let myself become overwhelmed by life, children, cleaning, cooking, activities, youth group stuff, Bible Bowl coaching, crafting, etc. I forget to stop and be thankful for all the blessings that surround me. So I decided to start taking Thursdays as often as I can to post a quick blog about something I am grateful for. I have many blessings in my life, but I’m going to attempt to stick to one specific blessing per post.

Today, I stopped to think about what I’m most thankful for in my life right now. It came to me over and over, I’m blessed with so many great women of faith around me and supporting me. At all times in my life as I’ve grown and matured in my faith and life I’ve encountered women God had placed in my life as amazing examples and encouragers. Growing up I had my own Mother, teachers, youth leaders, Bible Bowl coaches, Aunts, and of course my best friend in all the world my Grandmother. As I moved on to college and a new environment I gained a “second mom” who cared for me just as much as if I were her own, and wonderful professor’s wives who guided and encouraged me. Once I’d left college and entered the ministry with my husband I gained more women friends and motherly figures which I needed desperately since the ministry rarely affords a family to live near extended family.

Every time of my life I look back on God has brought strong, loving and most importantly Godly women into my life. They have all loved me, encouraged me, guided me, supported me, prayed with me, cried with me, laughed with me, and pulled me through when times get tough. I can’t possibly thank God enough for bringing me these women to help guide me. I’m tearing up just thinking about how much I’ve needed them and they were there for me. I’m blessed beyond what I deserve. Titus 2:3-5 in action. I hope some of these women read this, if so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your love has done more for my life than you could ever know!

Domesticity, Recipes

Individual Pumpkin-Shaped Pizzas

October 18, 2011October 18, 2011 crazyblessedlife

I really enjoy making fun meals with my kiddos. We always end up laughing, making memories and a mess! This is something my mom did with me and stuck with me as important bonding time and made me feel important to her. I hope my kids remember it the same someday. Being October, I usually make all homemade pizzas pumpkin-shaped.

Yesterday for lunch though I decided to make individual deep dish pumpkin-shaped pizzas and it went over so well with my kids I thought I would share.

My recipe for pizza dough that never fails me is:

2 Cups of warm water
1 Pkg of rapid rise yeast
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 Tablespoon of salt
5-6 Cups of all purpose flour

Mix the first four ingredients and let sit for 5 min. then mix the flour in slowly and knead until smooth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 45 min to an hour).

After the first rising I shape the individual dough balls (my recipe made 8 mini pizzas) into the pizza shapes and then let the girls spread the sauce on each one with a spoon. Then I let them sprinkle each one with shredded mozzarella first and then shredded cheddar (to look more orange like a pumpkin). Next we arranged the olives like eyes, nose and a mouth. We left 2 with just cheese for my husband who really dislikes the olives. I usually do his pizzas with pepperoni but didn’t have any, I think the new mini pepperoni would be adorable on these pizzas.

We had a blast making and eating these and they tasted great! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Johanna

Domesticity, Recipes

Fall Leaves Cupcakes

October 17, 2011 crazyblessedlife

Last week Katie and Bella had the same snack day (which I loved, because they get jealous of each other when they aren’t on the same day). I decided to make something fall themed with them. I love involving the kids in their snack so that they can take some ownership for what they bring to share with their friends.

We made fall leaves cupcakes with pretzel stick and chocolate candy corn rakes. I originally wanted to do these with mini Reece cups cut in half as the bottom of the “rake”, but many kids in my girl’s preschool are allergic to peanuts. So I adjusted it with the candy corns as a rake. I made yellow cake and added orange food coloring, then we iced them with green icing to look like grass. Then sprinkled them with leaf sprinkles. I think they turned out cute so I wanted to share 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

Johanna

Domesticity, stay-at-home-mom

Homemade Soft Scrub

October 5, 2011 crazyblessedlife

So I’ve been seeing a recipe floating around Pinterest for homemade Soft Scrub. I love using Soft Scrub, but the price is a bit high so a cheaper do-it-yourself version got my attention. It seemed too simple to be true, but I gave it a go anyway. I recently cleaned out our garage and realized our cooler lid (which used to be white) was pretty gross. So it became my test for the homemade Soft Scrub. Please excuse the dirty garage floor, I did this in the garage last week while I was doing the garage sale between customers 🙂

Next I mixed baking soda and bleach in a glass bowl and found a dollar tree toothbrush and mixed it.

Then I scrubbed just one side of the cooler to see the before and after effects…

I was pretty pleased with the results! Thanks for stopping by and reading 🙂

Johanna

craft, Kids, repurpose, stay-at-home-mom

Relax Bottle/Time Out Timer

October 3, 2011November 20, 2013 crazyblessedlife

Sooooo… I have a three-year-old little girl who is full of drama. Probably not the only one in history, but one of my current dilemmas. When time out time comes for bad behaviour I find myself with a little girl on the bottom step screaming, kicking walls and not able to even calm down enough to learn her lesson. This was getting worse and worse until I told my husband, “there has to be a better way, I’m going to research this.” So I went online and read other mom’s advice, dr’s advice, psychologist’s advice, etc. Nothing was really working. Finally I saw something called a mind jar. This was a mason jar filled with water, clear gel glue and ultra fine glitter. You shake it and the glitter settles slowly as you watch you relax. The original ones I saw were to teach children to meditate (not my goal). I loved the idea of getting Bella to focus on something else and relax. Then I saw on Pinterest that some moms were using it as a timer for time out also. Genius! So I didn’t have to watch the clock or set a timer, and it would calm my Bella. Well, I did not like that it was a glass jar (she is three, and who gives a three-year-old glass?).

So I found a water bottle (Smart water was the brand) that was totally smooth and not too big around for little hands to hold.

I removed the label with goo gone (it was very sticky under that label)

Next I filled each bottle with about 3/4 (* edit 5-3-12, I used hot water so that the glue “melted” better… room temp or cold will cause it to stay separate) water, an entire bottle of glitter glue and a small tube of ultra fine glitter. I kept playing with the mixture until the glitter settled at about 5 min. I added more clear gel glue to make it go slower or more water to make it settle faster. Then I had my sweet husband (who knows when I handle glue I tend to glue body parts together accidentally) to super glue the lids on. Another thing I didn’t like about the mind jars I saw, the mason jars were not glued shut and knowing my kids they would just open them and spill or drink them (glue and glitter… not something I want my kids drinking). Here are the finished jars.

Here is one settled and one in the beginning stages of settling…

Here is one of the bottle half settled at 2 1/2 minutes and the other totally settled. Sorry they are purple and pink, those are my girl’s favorite colors (right now) but you can make them with any color glitter. I’m sure blue, purple or green ones would be really cute too.