It's My Life

I have fond memories of making homemade ice cream as a child. We had an old crank ice cream maker. My Daddy would let us sit on the cold ice  (which was a cool treat in the heat of the summer) while he turned and turned that wheel until we had super yummy homemade vanilla ice cream. My dear friend, Meeghan, also has fond memories of making homemade ice cream. As soon as we committed to a Family Camp-Out, Meeghan wanted to make Tin Can Ice Cream. This is what Meeghan had to say:   We made this every time we camped when I was growing up. I have no clue when we started to do it or how my mom came about the recipe I just always remember doing it. I also remember wherever we were camping if there were other kids around they were always came around to help. It was an easy way to make new friends while camping!   Tin Cans are becoming a thing of the past. So many things that use to be sold in tin cans are now packaged in plastic or cardboard. I was still abl...

I love camping. I love being outdoors. I love cooking and eating outside. I was a little worried that in this day of electronics, a camping trip would be boring. Especially to those pre-teens and teens that were going to be there.  In planning a large family camp-out, involvement was critical. With 35 people, even large group activities become difficult to coordinate. I opted instead to focus on activities that all could participate in but on different levels and at different times.  I decided to pull together a scavenger hunt. A simple Google search will produce several decent examples. I decided to create a photo only scavenger hunt, trying to honor a leave only footprints, take only memories code. The only thing I asked participants to pick up was human trash, and I asked them to take a photo of them throwing the newly picked up human trash into a trash can. The rest of the scavenger hunt was about doing things: making new f...

The Boy's school received a grant and every student was issued an Apple Macbook Air. To take advantage of the technology a lot of his teachers are assigning very creative projects. His Geometry teacher recently required the students to make a video over The Law of Syllogism. If I understand this concept correctly: A equals B. B equals C. C equals D. Therefore A equals D. The inspiration is the current Direct TV commercials. The assignment was due today. The Boy got a 100% on his project. I am a super proud Momma! He did this one all by himself!

My worry in taking a wide range of kids camping is that the younger kids would be happy just playing together but the older ones, the one's in that awkward pre-teen/teen age, would think everything was so uncool they would just sit around and mope. So I designed a few activities that would hopefully get them up, participating, and moving.  I came home from work a few weeks before the Family Camp-out and found my neighbors had trimmed their tree limbs and piled the mess in my yard. I refrained from getting angry. Over a nice dinner, I asked The Husband to help me with a little project. He looked at me in disgust. I was pulling him away from ESPN to help with an unnecessary camping craft.  I admit I did some begging. In the end, The Husband borrowed his father's chainsaw and decided to help me cut medallions out of a limb.  His mood started changing, quickly.{I then begged him to let me try my hand at the chainsaw, but he would not let budge on that...

We just got home from a great weekend camping. We had a great time with great friends, food, activities and even crafts. I am going to share with you one of our crafts: Reversed Tie-Die or Bleached T-Shirts.  The reason I selected these t-shirt is they are easy. They have minimal parts. Low prep work. And so much fun to make! Supplies: t-shirts. I would suggest using 100% Cotton t-shirts. We got lucky JoAnn Fabric had them on sale this past week 3/$9.99. Tacky Spray. I bought Arlene's Re-positional Tacky Spray. Card stock Design. I made my letters using a Cricut Machine and two different fonts: Going Places had the tent that I made into an A. Birthday Bash is what I used for the letters C, M, P. Cookie Sheet and a Rag Bleach. Empty Spray Bottle.  The process is easy. I had about 35 campers and asked ahead of time how many of those would be making t-shirts. I then sat at home one evening and used basic card stock and cut out le...

We are going camping this weekend! What started off as an idea has morphed into a full fledged camping trip weekend. I love to camp. We use to go all the time when we had an RV but we have not gone at all since the RV went away. (The RV went away about the same time The Short Chic came along.) She is older now and is ready for a weekend outdoors. Going camping is always more enjoyable with other people so I whipped up an Evite to send out. Have you ever used Evite? It is a cool website that allows you to create and manage invitations to events. I found an invitation that was perfect for camping.  I added all of our specific information, imported email addresses and sent the Evite out. What I was not anticipating is that almost everyone I sent the invitation to said YES!  So, I have been busy the past several weeks planning a camping trip for 8 families, 14 kids, and a total of 30 people (Katie, I counted you as a grown-up now)!!! Anyone who knows me I knows I am a ...

I use real butter. Yes, real butter. Not the kind made with chemicals. Not the kind that is lower in fat or lower in calories. The real stuff. I leave doors and cabinets open .  I think this has gotten worse over the years. It use to just be my dresser drawers. I would semi close them, just not get them all the way closed. My ex-husband is the one who pointed it out. I have progressed...or digressed depending on how you look at it! Now I leave the kitchen cupboard doors open as well. (And since I am in no space to scold the kids, The Boy does it too! (Sorry Future Mrs. The Boy!) I can not grow finger nails . I so admire women with long, well manicured nails. I just can not grow them. First of all, I have an odd shaped thumbs. Second, my nails just break off when they reach a certain length. Unfortunately, that break off point is rather short. I have tried at times to buy nails. But the upkeep is so much. Not to mention I always find it makes my real weak nails re...

If you know me, you know I love cupcakes! I love making them, decorating them, eating them. Even the site of a cupcake makes me smile! So taking a dessert to my 25 year class reunion was a no brainier. I was going to make cupcakes. I had the time to make the cupcakes but felt a time crunch to make homemade butter cream frosting. I found Betty Crocker's Cupcake Icing in the baking isle of my local store. The can of frosting cost about $4.50. They have vanilla and chocolate.  In the interest of saving time, I decided to give it a try. I went ahead and purchased two cans and I am really glad I did because I ran out faster than I thought I would. I was taken back on my very first squirt of frosting. I thought it would be ...fluffier. It was a bit runny. I gave it a good shake in case I was rushing and did not do it well enough the first time. It still did not get fluffy. In the end, it kinda reminded me of cheese in a can. The process: I am assuming you have two ways of decor...

I just got home from my Twenty-Five year High School Class Reunion. I went to a small 1A school. I graduated with 19 people. Eleven returned for the reunion (one is not in this photo). There were around 300 students in my school: kindergarten to 12th grade. Part of the reunion was a tour of the school. (Who would have thought that one of our classmates would grow up and be on the school board!) As I walked though the hallways and class rooms, it occurred to me that even in a small school, getting through high school was rough. As classmates were sharing stories I realized I must have blocked a lot of what they were sharing from my memory. So, in reflecting, I started coming up with these thoughts on how to survive high school. They are lessons I have been teaching The Boy.   Being New is Hard. I started Kindergarten with this group, then moved away. I rejoined them in fifth grade. I think on my first day in this new school, we had P...