Monster Mash

I've started to think our family is more of a cold season group.  Not to say we ski or anything of the sort, but we seem to enjoy the process of coming together and creating things as the air gets cooler.  We are a family of baking and extravagant art projects that we accomplish together.  Everything does seem more fun when you have a partner in crime!

The cooler breezes are sweeping through the city and all the little monsters are getting ready for that one glorious night, Halloween.  The excitement of choosing a new costume, collecting candy around the neighborhood, and, in our house at least, a cookie decorating party is on the horizon.  Decorating the home seems to be a family event that is taken a little serious in our house.  One year our daughter even asked for a Halloween themed birthday party, at the end of September, just because we love decorating so much.  These past few years we have been a little slack on the decorating though because a lot of our possessions reside 2600 miles away from us.  And as most of you home decorating enthusiasts know, going big, isn't always cheap.  We have been slowly building up our decorations again.

This year, as many of you have, I searched Pinterest to find exciting and good ideas for cheap ways to liven up our home this October season.  I found an seriously cheap, we are talking less than a dollar, idea for the front door.  Granted, I had all the supplies laying around my house in random spots, but this door idea was simple.  I was super excited to get the kids involved as well.  As it turned out only the youngest monster was truly excited to help get this project done.  And in his own way, Boots, made this door project his own.

Over at Honey & Fitz there is a super easy tutorial for creating a Mummy Door.  It's cute, cheap, easy, and all the things this mom loves!  When Boots decided to help me we went on a hunt for white streamers.  Unfortunately we did not have any in our house and he refused to make a trip to the store with me.  So in the wake of feeling like my cheap decorating idea was being blown out of the water, he suggests we use black streamers.  Of course to this I said "But Mummies aren't black" and his simple response was "But Monsters are".  The 9 year old wins.  He is true and correct in the sentiment that some monsters are black and in this statement he also saved the day.

We gathered our double sided sticky tape, lined the door, and then began stretching the steamers back and forth.  Boots was rather bothered that he couldn't reach the top, and thus instructed that it was my area to complete.  I would have liked having more streamers, we only had 2 rolls, I would suggest picking up maybe 4 for this project if you don't already have some.  But then I do tend to attempt at overachieving at the most random of things.  Boots believes that once we added the eyeballs, that he made from paper plates, and the mouth, that we cut and colored on a large poster board, it would all come together.  Man he was Right!  I think that our Monster front door is the perfect addition to our other random decorations.  But you can be the judge of that.

The Constant Pinner

My name is April, and I am addicted to Pinterest.  I understand that it is not exactly the most productive spending of my daily down time, but the ease of use and the amount of new plus exciting things I find intrigues me.  I am constantly reading about ways to improve my home , be a little more healthy, or get a good laugh.  I know there are thousands of other things floating around out there on my various boards too that I am constantly updating, going back to and trying out but I must admit, I cannot stop.

I feel that I am not your average pinner.  Many pins that I read come with the caption "pin now, read later".  I prefer the read now, pin if interesting option though.  I suppose in a way this is good for my brain.  I read that constant reading helps improve memory. On a pin of course!  So maybe I am on the right track there.  But I also find in the "read now, then pin" concept, I pin proper links.

I recently read a post about "cleaning up Pinterest" that had some very valid information.  In this post they suggest you revamp your community. Figure out what type of account you want to have and clean out the pins that are no longer relevant, or that have dead links. Also update your profile, insuring that you are representing yourself accurately based on the type of account you have (business or personal).  Today, I plan to do all of these things.

Do you see the addiction yet?  I suppose that there are far worse things in life to be addicted to though.  Pinterest has really cultivated my artistic side. 

Mod Podge I made 

I have found many a decorating ideas that I have utilized in my own home.  Simple, easy things that make my home a little more cozy and were not really huge changes costing a lot of money (I'm always looking for a deal). And I've found a lot of ideas that I probably would have never found elsewhere because I am not a regular online surfer.  

I suppose you could say that I am constantly surfing the net via Pinterest, but I rarely open up my Google or Bing app and type in something I am looking for.  I'm not a big fan of online shopping.  I prefer hands on shopping.  I enjoy collecting ideas from Pinterest and then going out into my community and finding like products to use in my own home.  (on a side note I love shopping at Junkie's here in Reno.  They have some awesome finds at great prices!!)  I think this gives my home a little more character because I often find one of a kind items (which can be frustrating when I was looking for curtains and they only had one panel rather than the 2 I needed) and often these items have that "washed vintage" theme already.  

Along with you, I too am wondering where this post is headed, and really, it is just trying to explain how much I value Pinterest and the good I see that it offers.  If you follow me, you will see hours worth of pins flood your timeline in large blocks.  I'm at home in the day time with my boys and rarely have much more to do outside of cleaning.  I prefer to blow off steam if you will, looking at various ideas for my home and family.  I have found many a dinner idea, party foods, and DIY art projects that I have tried out on my family.  They are my personal guinea pigs!  I wouldn't say that my addiction is really a waste of my time, but I often start sentences with "I was reading on Pinterest".  I guess this could be a bit unnerving to some, but I have also found that most people are excited, head over to Pinterest in their spare time, and check it out themselves.  

I have to say that I have found a ton of wonderful blogs via Pinterest that I would have never found on my own.  And most of those blogs happily source their information back to the places they first read the information as well.  Ahhhh the love of the responsible and caring blogger.  Who really knows exactly where all the information first came about, but I do think it is awesome that we can all share what we read and source it back to where we first saw it.  

Thank you Pinterest for helping me find wonderful, amazing, and loads of information relevant to me. 

Baked with Love

Fresh Fruit Crumble

In a recent attempt to make my family healthier, I have been purchasing more fresh fruit and trying inventive ways to get it into their bodies.  Apples and cuties are a staple in our diets, but I have been attempting to branch out.  A while back I purchased a large container of Blueberries from Raleys on a special $5 Monday deal.  My kids were NOT excited to eat those fresh blueberries as a tasty little snack as I had hoped.  One twin even commented that they were a "weird little fruit" and so I stuffed them into the freezer before they went bad and decided I would eventually find a use for them.
Like an internet supermom I searched the web over for various uses.  I am sure there are plenty of moms out there with the same problem.  Wanting our families to be healthy but happy at the same time can sometimes be a challenge in this fast food world.  Last time I checked Chicken Nuggets from the Golden arches didn't exactly rank up there in the health department as much as they're a kid friendly favorite.
Often times, when I am scouring the internet, I am kicked back to the wonderful site AllRecipes. I think a lot of people find little gems here, but I really hit the jackpot when looking for blueberry goodies.  Who doesn't LOVE the idea of anything that begins with the word Overnight???

  I am not really a breakfast eater (I know it is "the most important meal of the day"). I do not care for eggs, I don't eat syrup really, and I just find cooking in the morning to be an overwhelming task when I have so many other things to do in the day.  But when I found this recipe, Overnight Blueberry French Toast, my family did not let up until I agreed to make it.  It was an appealing idea to me because of the "overnight" but little did I know, it was more work than I thought.
I must admit that this recipe wasn't diffucult, as much as time consuming.  I read all of the reviews on the bottom, I suggest you do as well there's some great tips, and I surged forth in creating this meal.  Now as I stated before, this meal was an Overnight journey, meaning all the preparation is done the night before you are actually going to eat it (I find these kinds of recipes are best for Christmas when you have less time the day of) and the cooking is left up to your oven in the morning while you relax enjoying your Starbucks.

I simply cream cheesed my french bread, tossed in those fresh blueberries (even though they were still frozen), mixed up the eggs, got it all situated into a baking dish and threw it in the fridge.  When morning came, I popped that bad boy in the fridge, made the suggested fresh blueberry syrup while it baked and listened to my family buzz about the glorious smells that were coming from the kitchen.  Those "weird little fruits" weren't so strange anymore!!!
The finished product, well lets just say it turned out better than I could have ever imagined and I actually ate breakfast, and enjoyed it, eggs and all.

Raley's Top-It Pizza made with Love

Recently I signed up for the Raley's Try-It program on the Raley's website. The basic idea of the site is to gain information from regular people like us and help get the word out about new products they are offering.  Right now I don't think I could be happier. My first program that I opted into was for the Top-It Pizzas!!! Anyone that knows my family, knows we LOVE pizza more than most food.  Pizza is always a winner in our house.

Because we enjoy cooking in our house, we seldom purchase pre-made pizza.  We prefer to cook in our own home which makes the Top-It Pizzas an all time winner in our house!  Not only does Raley's offer a Large pizza for $10 (larger than a Pizza Hut large) with red sauce and an herb cheese mix, they offer two Medium pizzas for $8 each (this is the same size as a Pizza Hut large).  The two Medium pizzas offered come in two varieties.  One pizza is a classic thin crust with a herb cheese mix and garlic white sauce.  My favorite is the second Medium selection, it is a whole wheat thin crust with herb cheese mix and pesto sauce. YUMMY!!!

Each of the Top-It pizzas come with your selection of toppings.  That's right, free with each pizza you get to choose your toppings! I have tried them all and have found that classic staples like Pepperoni with cheddar cheese and the Deluxe Veggie mix are our favorites.  They offer others though too like a Fiesta Chicken and the ever popular Margarita topping. I think there are optons for everyone. 

These easy to bake, make it yourself pizzas are so awesome that my kids get excited about making their own food.  This of course makes mom happy that the entire meal consists of preheating the oven to 375*, putting it in the oven, taking it out after 12 minutes and then cutting it.  Perhaps a bit of cleanup after my monsters make their creations, but it is a lot easier than a full blown meal.   

I would highly reccomend everyone trying these tasty pizzas.  This past Monday Raley's even offered the 12" Top-It pizza for $5.  Anyone that doesn't love pizza for $5 is just plain crazy in my book.  Of course as a partipant of the Try-It  program I got a pizza FOR FREE!!!! One free pizza and one $5 pizza on Monday made it a better start to the week than the regular humdrum of any other week.

Clean Eating is Hard Work

You know the drill; Energy drinks and cereal for breakfast. Maybe a pop tart or two. Tasty, bubbly soda with a bag of chips for lunch. Maybe a treat of Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino accompanied by the ever tempting Lemon Iced Pound Cake. 

 

Round up the evening with tacos and some homemade cookies.......oh the unhealthy lifestyle of America. We are all guilty. We have all been there in some way or another. But we need to stop. This sort of lifestyle is contributing to the ever growing obesity in our nation. One family at a time, in your home, is the best place to start. 

We recently decided as a family to eat better. Feel better. Be happier and healthier and set a better example for our children. 

Hubby and I decided together we would Go Big or stay fat. We opted for a Clean  Eating diet with a few variations to help us shed the excess weight. A huge culprit in both our diets was sugar. In coffee, tea, lattes, energy drinks, soda, and juice. Pretty much everything we were drinking was slowly adding to our weight gain. Simply, we cut it out. No sugar. Water, black coffee and green tea have become our daily liquids. Easy, no. Worth it, yes. 

We also cut unnatural or foods with added sugar and switched to natural sugar only. Eating fruit for breakfast has really upped my energy level in way that doesn't lead to a crash later on. Eliminating added sugar, led to taking away processed food in general. We eat a small amount of whole grains a day, with a low amount of added sugar. The higher the fiber, less sugar and calories the better. 

Our version of Eating Clean has brought both of us through some rough patches (detoxing off of sugar isn't pretty) but 2 weeks in, we feel better. I never thought a diet high in fresh fruits and veggies would actually work for me. Don't get me wrong, we eat meat, but lean meat. We avoid dairy products as well. A little cream in the coffee every now and then and that's about it. 

I know this sounds like mania, but honestly when my food is fresh and delicious, it's hard to want to go back to anything in a package. 

Not only have the two of us lost a combined total of 25lbs in 2 weeks, our children have started to ask for sliced apples as a snack, and have adjusted to water only in our fridge. The kids haven't quite adapted the entire idea of eating clean, but little by little they're watching us and making better choices as well. 

Fresh is Better and we are Happier.