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Sew Cute: I have been busy with the typical seasonal sewing and hair bowing for the upcoming kid-friendly celebrations of St. Valentine's, spring, and even a little of St. Patrick's day. However, I have been having even more fun with my new toy. Here is a peek at it:
What is it? What does it do? Just wait and see. I have so many clever ideas and projects in my mind that my head may just burst if I don't get some of them out soon! I don't scrapbook AT ALL, so all of my ideas are for home decor and other craft embellishment uses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Taste Test: Here is a quick and tasty recipe that I enjoyed while at a friend's home recently. Sometimes the simple recipes surprise you with their belly-warming comfort. This is not one of the "healthy" items to add to your regular menu but it is an easy appetizer with only 3 ingredients and would make a terrific afternoon/afterschool snack. I call them Mushroom Pinwheels. Here's what you'll need to keep the kids full until suppertime: 2 rolls refrigerated crescent rolls, 1 bar cream cheese, softened, and 1 can mushrooms.
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, open your can of crescent rolls, and here we go.
2. Open the rolls onto your workspace and flatten them into a rectangle with your rolling pin as shown. 
3. Spread the dough with half of the softened cream cheese.
4. Sprinkle generously with half of the mushrooms. (This was the part my kids enjoyed). Have your ungreased baking sheet standing by. 
5. Beginning at either end, short or wide does not matter, roll up the dough rectangle. I prefer to start at the long side, which is NOT what is pictured here.
6. Using your sharpest knife, carefully slice through the rolled dough layers. This is similar to making my cinnamon rolls here. From this point you will place the slices on your cookie sheet and bake as directed, usually about 13 minutes. These are best enjoyed while still warm. I hope you like them.
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Family Matters: This school year has really been buzzing by. Between music lessons, park days, field trips, museums, libraries, errands, Classical Conversations, and friend's houses we are out of the house at least 3 days per week. Having a plan for each trip in the car is essential to my sanity. I keep the fighting and whining knixed and take comfort in knowing that car time will not be wasted time by taking the following steps:
- Be prepared: it seems so simple but this first step is the key to the whole puzzle. If you're enjoying a baby during this season of life, keep the diaper bag refilled and ready to leave as soon as you return from the last trip. Hang it on a hook by the door. You know, a place for everything and everything in it's place. The same goes for tots. Have a special bag with toys, snacks and books that are for car rides only. Grab their cup and you're out the door.
- Use your library's reservation system to provide you with a world of educational resources such as audio books and language CD's. Audio books were such a hit with the kids that I began to look for other audio resources. To my utter amazement I found everything from multiplication table music, historical textbooks in story form, biographies of famous musicians, missionaries and inventors, to life sciences on CDs. To top it off, several of the resources had included activities for further study via games we were able to enjoy in the car. This prompted our discovery of many more games and tools for learning every subject imaginable while on the road.
- Limit your vehicular video viewing. I know almost every car has a DVD player now. So? Just as you would not allow limitless viewing at home, don't plunk your kids down in front of the set every time you get in the car. Set guidelines for enjoying videos so that they will remain a special diversion. My kiddos know that if we're going to be in the car less than 2 hours we won't be watching a movie. It also helps stave off that "entertain me" mentality many young people seem to have. This has proven so beneficial for us. We have many of our most meaningful and memorable discussions of life, faith, and just plain fun while in the car chatting freely with each other. We've also been know to enjoy more than our fair share of Karaoke-style singing in the car too. Don't act too shocked if we pull up beside you at a red light one day and everyone in the car is singing full throttle!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keeping Hearts and Home: I am gathering my notes and resources as I plan to discuss courtship in my next post. I will primarily focus more on what courtship is not vs. a "this is what you must do" approach. Every courtship looks different, that is the beauty of allowing God to write your love story.
See You Soon,
Melissa
