Riley's Art

Riley has been participating in an art class with other home-schooled kids nearby. A Korean lady, who owns a gallery, is teaching them. So far they have don't two watercolor pieces, an acrylic piece and a collage. I thought it would be good to show off some of her artwork. Please keep in mind that I help her draw out the picture and then she paints it. I think she's done a great job so far. What do you think?

Watercolor #1 - Leaves (inspired by the photo below the painting)

Acrylic - Hearts (inspired by the photo below the painting)

Watercolor #2 - Butterfly (inspired by the photo beside the painting)

I didn't get a picture of the collage... which got stuck to her sketchpad and we had to tear it off of the paper above it... oops!



On another note, Riley's girl scout troop went for a visit to see the working dogs (a part of security forces). I got a great shot of the group of them...

 

Being a stay at home mommy

What do I do in a day, you ask? EVERYTHING!

We have chosen to home school our kiddos so a few hours of my day goes to teaching. We are using a curriculum from Alpha and Omega Publishing called Lifepacs. Riley is taking Math, Science, History/Geography, Bible, and Language Arts from this curriculum. Here is more information about that part of her curriculum. She is also taking Horizon's Health, Horizon's Penmanship, and Horizon's Spelling and Vocabulary. To give her some other electives, she is taking piano lessons from her dad (they are using Alfred's Basic Piano Course Level A (theory book, lesson book and solo book), ballet lessons at the youth center, and art classes through our home school co-op. To add even more fun into the mix, she participates in Awana's every Wednesday (3rd year) and is also a Girl Scout Daisy (2nd year). Throw in a few field trip with the home school co-op and you have one busy schedule for a six year old!

I am also taking classes through American Military University. I am working on my Associates Degree is Computer Applications, which I should finish up this coming year and then I am re-enrolling and going for my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting. That's a tall order for someone that has been out of 'normal' school/college since 2004, but I am really excited about it. Right now I am in week 15 out of 16 in two classes, Anatomy and Physiology as well as Spanish (at AMU via Rosetta Stone). If you want more information about AMU go here.

As you know, by all of my previous posts, I am up to my elbows cleaning and organizing our home. We have so much stuff that needs to be purged and I am determined to get through everything before we leave here in January.

Oh and just in case I have some free time... we are on an exercise kick. We spend a lot of our exercising time at the parent child gym that we have here on base, but we also have an elliptical at home that holds me over until we can make it back to the gym. We're hoping to get a nice set of weights so that we can do even more at home.

I know you're wondering... what do I do with all the 'free time' in my day... hahahahahaha.... I don't really have much of that with two kiddos home all the time. But when I do... We take time to enjoy the playground, I'm getting ready to start a great quilt that has a book to go along with it, I read in my kindle (sometimes this happens at the playground), I make freezer meals, and I spend as much time as possible with my hubby (who is also taking classes).

Oh and we have a new toy to introduce Elijah to... MILITARY MEN!!!!

 

Aha! There is a clean house in my near future!

For the past few weeks I have been working on cleaning up our home and getting rid of as much junk as possible. As of now, I have cleaned out the laundry room (with the exception of the cabinets.. cuz I cant see the mess, so I will get to this chore after everything else looks nice), Elijah's bedroom, Riley's bedroom, our master bedroom (which is getting a NEW bed frame TOMORROW!!!!!!! SOOO EXCITED!) and the pantry/fridge/cabinets in the kitchen. So lets see... that leaves:

*Reorganizing the kitchen counters

*Dining room/homeschooling room/craft room/office area

*Living room rearranging

*Hallway closet

 

I think I can ACTUALLY do this!

 

Here's the pictures for the places that I have recently finished organizing/cleaning:

Riley's Room

Riley's Room with a sleeping Ry bug hehe (I'm stealthy like that)

Gotta love the door! She's quite the decorator.

On to the master bedroom...

I finally organized all of my beauty supplies!!

More master bedroom... excuse the blue bag... it lives under the bed but since we are getting a NEW bed frame tomorrow it is hanging out by the closets =)

And now for the kitchen cabinets:

...that's all folks!

 

 



Happy Saturday!

What have I been doing, you ask? Cleaning and organizing and cooking and I FINISHED WORKING OUTSIDE THE HOME!!!! Woohoo!! I'm a full-time stay at home mom now! This past week I accomplished a few things. I re-organized Elijah's room and vaccumed/cleaned. I re-organzed Riley's closet which meant FINALLY getting rid of the rickety dresser that she has had since she was a baby. (It came in a set with the crib and changing table, both of which have been long gone!) I still need to cleanout the rest of her room. Enjoy the photos of my week!

Elijah's nice clean room:

 

Riley's organized closet:

 

A sneek peek of our homeschooling space that is currently getting put together:

 

 



Oh Mr Laundry Room.. I WILL get you organized

Ah..... I have almost finished reorganizing our laundry room... The floor is clean, everything has a home... well, as long as you don't look at the counter or in the cabinets, but I'm getting there. The last time I posted, I was showing off my super unorganized laundry room, so now that most of it is finished, I will share it again.

Here is the area above the washer and dryer nicely organized:

 

Here is the cleaned up floor/moved freezer:

 

This is the organized shelves above the freezer:

 

Last, but not least, this is the laundry sorting area behind the door:

(Since our 6 year old is in charge of sorting the kids laundry, notice the color cheat sheets on the wall)

 

See! I can clean! Hahaha!

 

We also recently had a fun game of hide-a-kid. Fun times! Enjoy the pics!



 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Lets get organized.. organized!

Aye! So, it is becoming very apparent that we will be PCSing in just a few months and the time is definitely going by quickly. We have managed to sell a ton of kids' outgrown clothes and have given loads of stuff to charities. With work finishing up for me on THURSDAY I am starting to make my plans for deep cleaning the house and purging all the rest of the junk that is stashed everywhere. Today I started it off by cleaning out the pantry and tossing anything that is expired (a larger amount of stuff than I would have liked) and started cleaning out the laundry room. HOW ON EARTH DID WE GET SO MUCH JUNK!?! Anyway... Here's a pic of the cleaned out pantry.

And now for the not so finished part... the laundry room...

The washer/dryer are cleaned off and wiped down, and we went through and tossed/gave away all the nearly empty/empty/never gonna use supplies that were on the shelf. It just needs organizing now.

The rest of the room is still a ways from being finished though... I want to move the freezer under the shelves and clean everything else out of the floor, move the shop vac in and organize our tools on the counters/in the cabinets... Here are the before shots.. I will post after whenever I get it finished...

And yes, I have two set of mop buckets... one is my wonder mop (love for the bathroom type tile) and the other is my sponge mop (works great on the kitchen/dining room/hallway tiles since it has a scrubber attached). *sigh* So much work to be done.

 



Mini Omelets, Mini Gorilla Breads, and Pumpkin Bread



Breakfast... it has to be fast and easy around here!

 



During my investigations for freezer cooking I came upon a few ideas on breakfast/snack ideas. Mini Omelet Cups are SUPER easy to fix! Mini Gorilla Breads are a little more work and a whole lot of mess, but taste wonderful! Lastly, Pumpkin Bread is just in a class of its own. I know that fall is coming when the pumpkin bread starts finding its way into my kitchen!

Mini Omelet Cups:



I make two batches with different flavors, but the recipe below is for one batch:

 

You will need:

8 eggs

1/2 c. milk

things to add in (bacon bits, cheese, onion, green pepper, etc..)

 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Line a muffin tin with the FOIL AND PAPER liners

Mix eggs and milk together in a bowl. (It should look barely frothy)

Spoon egg mix into each liner evenly.

Sprinkle in whatever additions you want..

(I like bacon and cheese or onion and green pepper and cheese)

Bake for 25 minutes.

Cook completely then place in freezer bags labeled with today's date.

(These last about 2 weeks frozen)

To reheat... Remove FOIL liner and reheat in the microwave.

Remove paper liner and enjoy!

 

Mini Gorilla Breads:

Lets talk about YUMMY! These are like cinnamon rolls with a cream cheese filling!

 

You will need:

1 (8oz) block of cream cheese

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 Tbs. ground cinnamon

1 stick butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 rolls of refrigerated biscuit dough (10/tube)

1 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans, but walnuts are okay too)

zest of 1 orange

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (LINE YOUR OVEN BOTTOM, these are MESSY)

Spray 15 muffin slots on muffin tins

Sprinkle a few nuts in the bottom of each muffin slot

Cut cream cheese into 30 equal pieces.. set aside

Melt brown sugar and butter in small sauce pan until well combined

Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon well

Dredge both side of 15 biscuits in cinnamon sugar, then place one piece of cream cheese in the middle of the biscuit and close it up inside the biscuit then place in a muffin slot

Sprinkle orange zest on top of each biscuit

Spoon the brown sugar/butter goo onto each biscuit

Repeat with the second set of 15 biscuits placing them on top of the first set

Add more orange zest

Add more brown sugar/butter goo

Top with more nuts

Bake for 18-22 minutes

 

*I choose to freeze half of them and refrigerate the other half... so to do that:

Once they are nice and cool, wrap them in sets of two (or one slot worth) with cling wrap.

When you're ready to reheat, unwrap a thawed bread and microwave for 1 minute.

 

Pumpkin Bread:

Yum... just yum, yum, yum!

 

This is the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook Recipe...

 

What you will need:

3 c. sugar

1 c. vegetable oil

4 eggs

3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (not the pie filling stuff)

2/3 c. water

 

Direction:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease/flour whatever pans you are using (I used a mini loaf pan(8) and a 9x5x3 loaf pan).

In XL bowl beat the sugar and oil with an electric mixer on medium speed.

Add egg and beat well; set aside.

In another large bowl, mix flour baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Alternate between flour mix and water adding to the sugar/oil/egg mixture, mixing between each addition.

Beat in pumpkin.

Spoon into prepared baking pans.

Bake 55-60 minutes.

Cook on wire rack for 10 minutes.

Wrap and store any loaves overnight before slicing... the mini loaves should be good to eat now!

 

I love the mini loaves because the hubby can take one to work with him or I can grab one as a snack for the kids on the way out the door since I wrap them individually.

 

Enjoy the recipes!