Well, Hello!

Yes, I know...it's been a while. But, the flu has struck our home, the mean laundry fairy came and dropped an unbelievable amount of dirty socks and school uniforms, plus it seemed like a {wonderful} idea to paint the front two rooms of our house....and the porches.

I. AM. DONE.

So, instead of sitting in front of the tv and catching up on football, I have decided to blog. Perhaps a bit of normalicy for the day? We shall see.

Do your kids pack their lunch? Do they bother you to pack their lunch? You want a new approach to lunches? I am with the majority of the vote which thinks school lunches are not what they 'should' be. However, I also do not have the time for creating anything better, so...most times, pizza dippers it is! (honestly, our school's lunches are not too bad. Check out other school websites and you will be amazed! For a while we had tossed the idea of relocating to another state, I checked that area's school lunch menu and I was shocked. Eek!)

 My BFF bought a really cool magazine for me back in August which had a section on bento boxes and lunch ideas. I found a great website and ordered one for each of my girls. You can google or web search bento boxes if you choose, but I just wanted to say, they are a hit in our house. It has cut down on the 'crap' you might normally be guilted in to filling your normal lunch box. Additionally, the reduced amount of waste is a big selling point to me and my girls as well. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! I pair up the boxes with a thermos for drinks (we don't normally buy juice boxes, but from the pictures, you can see dad did the shopping lol) and we also have a hot food thermos for soup, spaghetti o's or mac & cheese.

They all fit in their lunch bags, with no spills, no mess, no worries.   



My kids LOVE deviled eggs. So, to make them a fun packable item, I add cooked diced chicken or tuna. Fill the egg halves and make a little sandwiches. You could go so many ways with this, diced ham, veggies, cheese pieces. I was nervous the first time I tried this but my little red-headed curly girl said some one tried to trade for them and she said no way! {score one for mom!}



Those little silicone baking cups sweeping the fancy cooking stores really come in handy too. I picked a pack of heart shaped ones up at Goodwill for $2 a few weeks back. Put one in your bento box and fill with grapes or berries or freeze applesauce or yogurt in them for an instant ice pack. This is wonderful for kids that don't like their food to 'touch'.  



So, this is the final lunch. My kids do eat cheese sticks like they are going out of style. Yes, it produces waste. Yes, I hate it. But until I can carve mozzarella into the wonderful 'peel-y' strips that cheese stick are, this is what we get. The boxes have a rubber seal around the locking lid. We have not had a spilled lunch yet.
{I just think they are super cute}
; )



So, I hope I haven't bored you. I guess I was a bit wind-y today lol. Chalk it up to being locked in the house for a week! I do have a few ideas brewing for Halloween and looking ahead to Thanksgiving. I am praying we are on the upswing of the illnesses and can get back to creating soon. Do you have lunch ideas? I would LOVE to hear them! Leave me a message!

Love, Emily 

Mod Podge, Paint and Glitter...OH MY!

Yep. It's that easy.




Linked to Tatertots & Jello Celebrating Autumn

Finally, a wreath (or two) for me!

I have been checking out ~a lot~ of Blog Land Fall deco ideas this past weekend. I am not normally too big of a wreath person, but I found two I just had to try. All of the material used, I had on hand, except the eyeballs and I stopped at Goodwill and found a baggie full of golf ball cupcake sticks. For $1. {woot woot!} I had taken a lot of pictures to show my wreaths before and after, but my memory card took a poo and all you get is the completed pictures. Errr. The black one was an already decorated fall wreath. I just took off the styrofoam pumpkins & goards and sprayed away! I am sure the pumpkins & goards will pop up soon elsewhere. ; )

Lace Wreath

Eyeball Wreath

Yes, I must be a loser because I cannot figure out how to grab buttons or any of the really cool Linky things. But here is my attempt to link to the blog where the wreaths came from (under the picture). I am LOVING Craftily Ever After She is 'new' to Blog Land is has me truly inspired. Also, as always, Jen at Tatertots and Jello rocks. Hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather and maybe I can learn to decorate my own blog soon enough! Thanks All!

Love, Emily

A bit of 'Tweaking'

Have you ever set up a system, be it pantry, bill paying or otherwise, only to find that you out grow the system? My school paper organizing has been operating like a well oiled machine......until this year. I am not sure if it is because we have three kids in shool or the homework and papers coming home is higher this year or what! But it just.wasn't.working. So, in typical 'Emily' fashion, I decided to tear apart our pantry and REVAMP the shelving and storage area. Then...in typical 'Emily' fashion...I got bored. (hee hee) So I went outside during nap time and painted some more window trim. By the time the kids were home from school, I had the 'new' shelf up and running in the kitchen. 

I use crockpots about 4-5 nights a week. It is essential they be in my kitchen. I have tried to store them out of the way or in the pantry, but it just irritates me, so they are back for good. The girls are starting to pack their lunches a bit more regularly and everytime we opened the previous cabinet where we stored the supplies,most of the stuff fell out and, yep, you guessed it!...it irritated me. : ) So, I put it all in a basket on the shelf and viola`! Happy place.

To keep the paper clutter in control and help reduce the search time of supplies I put a wicker type tray I had laying around to use and a plastic storage box. I went old school with stickers and card stock for simple labels. It sits high enough on the shelf so my lil man can't attack it, but low enough for my 5 y/o to put her papers in place.

Something fun I have started with the girls lunch packing this year in the use of bento boxes. Silicone muffin holders are a huge help in keeping things seperated in their lunches and you can also freeze applesauce in them and use them as ice packs within the lunch. I stopped at Goodwill today and found a full set of heart shaped one for $2. I nearly did a happy dance.

Here are a few other items I found that just make me smile. The glass dome has been on my mind for a while and normally they are about $2 at Goodwill, but today it was marked for $1 and it was the 'special color' sticker sale, so I got it for 50 cents. Woot! The dish is just a pattern I really love and keep hoping I run into a full set some day. I don't have any mini loaf baking dishes but I do now and it only cost me $1. My Goodwill trip today totaled $6 and some change. It included a foam wreath form and part of my 8 y/o's Halloween costume as well. It was a good day.  

The busy-ness of the weekend is upon us and I 'suppose' I should finish putting the pantry back together. I hope you enjoyed my rambling today, and hopefully you'll stop by again!

Love, Emily