Friday Favorites {Halloween Alternatives}

For several reasons, our family has chosen to opt out of celebrating Halloween.  Like most things, I know that people have strong feelings for and against the celebration of Halloween, so I am not going to get into that other than to say that neither my husband nor myself grew up celebrating Halloween, and we have chosen to continue that with our children as well. And in addition to that, both of my children (but B in particular) have developed a pretty strong fear of masks and scary costumes, so I don't think they would have let me take them trick-or-treating tonight even if I had wanted to.  In fact, they are actually afraid that trick-or-treater are going to come to OUR house and be dressed in scary costumes.  I have had to talk them down from the ledge a lot already today!

So, for those of you who don't celebrate Halloween--or for those who have children who are afraid and don't want to participate--I have some of my favorite Halloween alternatives.  Who says avoiding Halloween means not having any fun??!!

Candy Corn Supper

I basically took an iconic Halloween candy and created a meal around it.  I made a homemade pizza with concentric circles of cheddar cheese on the outside, pepperoni, and then kept the middle mozzerella.  I served the pizza with corn (naturally), and we had cupcakes with candy corns on top for dessert.  It was fun and yummy!

Church Fall Festivals

Church Fall Festivals have all the fun of Halloween without the scary.  Kids are usually welcome to wear a costume and there's lots of candy.  Typically, scary costumes are discouraged, but it is impossible to control what outside kids wear, so there are occasionally some gory costumes there.  Many church festivals offer games and/or bouncy castles and slides which my kids LOVE!  We briefly visited a local church's fall festival on Wednesday night, and it was lots of fun--complete with face painting and grilled burgers!

Journey with Jesus

Last year, our church did one of the best Halloween alternatives ever--the Journey with Jesus.  Kids wore costumes--mostly Bible character or Bible related (My kids were David and a duck.)--and were able to go door to door within the church.  But there wasn't just candy on the other side of the door.  Each door was a different location from the life of Jesus.  There was a person at each place to tell the story of what Jesus did in that place.  My kids talked about the Journey with Jesus for weeks afterward and were looking forward to it this year.  But for some reason, it didn't happen.  :(

Family Movie Night

I love to do a fun, themed movie night, and this would be a great activity to do at home on Halloween night if you aren't trick-or-treating.  Just pick a favorite movie, put a meal together and name the foods after some of the characters in the movie, eat the meal and settle into the couch together as a family to watch the movie.  I did lots of these to count down to our family's trip to Disney World last summer, and actually had planned to do a Monsters Inc. one, but didn't get to it.  I might have to pull that one out next Halloween--it seems fitting.

So there you have it!  I hope everyone has a fun and exciting night tonight whatever you choose to do.  And if you are looking for a trick-or-treat alternative, give one of these a try.

His Hands, His Feet, and His Mouth

So, the last few weeks have been Sickness Central at my house.  As much as I would love to say that I handled it like an award-winning mom who is completely emotionally stable, that is not at all the case.  I will start at the beginning.

On Saturday, September 20, B started running a fever.  I wasn't too worried since he sometimes will run fever when his allergies are acting up.  But our family had tickets to attend a fund raiser at church that night, so it did alter my plans.  The Hubs and C went on the event, while B and I drove up, grabbed my meal I had paid for and left.  While we were there waiting for our food, our pastor's wife S came over to speak to us.  I told her we weren't able to stay since B was running fever.  She responded that her youngest was home with a fever as well--but she also had one kind of red eye.  She peeked through the window and noticed that B had a red eye too!  About that time, another friend walked over and said her son felt warm.  And, you guessed it, he had a red eye!  Well, C woke up with a fever the next morning, and my friend's daughter developed a fever a day or two after that.  After a trip to the pediatrician with both kids, it was determined that what they had was viral--more than likely, viral conjunctivitis which I did not even know existed.  Well, let me just tell you people, whatever this virus was, I don't ever want to see it again.  My children were each sick with high fever for SIX DAYS!  It was miserable.  And on top of the fever, B's eyes looked like they belonged in a horror movie.  This is what they looked like toward the end of the virus:

B was finally fever free on Thursday, and C woke up that Friday with no fever, so they went to Pop and JuJu's house like they normally do on Fridays while I prepared for my sister-in-law H and friend T to come stay with us while we celebrated the Hubs's parents' 40th Anniversary.  The kids got home from my parents, H and T arrived, my in-laws came over for dinner, lasagna is in the oven and I'm working on a salad when C starts crying about her ear hurting.  Are you kidding me??  She's never had an ear infection before--ever.  In fact, in all my six years of parenting experience, I have only dealt with one ear infection, and that was with B back in May.  So I left H in charge of B and dinner and headed out to the after hours clinic with C.  Sure enough, both ears were infected.  So C started on her very first round of antibiotics ever.  Thankfully, she did not complain about her ears any more and was better by the next day.  Mother of the Year over here ended up leaving her "must be refridgerated" Amoxicillin in my car the next Friday and had to take her BACK to the clinc to make sure she didn't need any more meds.  She got the all clear.

Then four days later on that Monday, I went in to check on C before going to bed and she felt very hot--another fever.  Since the Hubs was on Fall Break, he took B to CC that Tuesday and I stayed home with C.  I took her to see my friend K who is a PA at a local urgent care clinic.  After a negative strep test and flu test, she decided that it was either viral or just a throat infection and prescribed Penicillin just in case of infection.  I started her on the meds that night, and she woke up the next day fever free.  K decided it might have been strep any way since she responded so well to the antibiotics.  Well, wouldn't you know B came home from Pop and JuJu's on Friday running a fever.  So we got some meds for him.  It must be strep just like C, right?  After three doses of Penicillin, B starts complaining that his toes itch during lunch on Sunday.  I look, and his feet are covered in little red pin dots!  Great, I think--it must be a reaction to the Penicillin.  So we stop the penicillin and start him on another medication.  BUT the itching and spots don't go away.  JuJu came over on Sunday while the Hubs was at his football coaches' meeting, and I left the kids with her to go pick up the new Rx.  I returned and had a total emotional meltdown complete with sobs and snot.  It was not pretty.  Through my sobs and tears, I told her that I felt ridiculous crying over strep throat and an ear infection while there are mothers out there with children who are chronically sick and even dying!  I mean how petty, trivial, and selfish could I get?  Sometimes we need a reality check even in the midst of our own trying times.

By Tuesday morning, B's rash was still there and turning into blisters even after completely discontinuing all meds.  A harried trip to the pediatrician determined that he did not have strep after all--he had hand, foot, and mouth disease.  In all my years of hearing about that and having friends whose kids had it, I had never known it to itch.  I always thought it started with painful sores in the mouth--of which B had NONE!!  Dr. E said that it was possible that C had also had hand, foot, and mouth, but it just never got to her hands and feet, but there was really no way to tell since she was better now.  So, we stopped all Rx with B and were able to just wait it out. He did eventually develop two small sores in his mouth.  This is what he feet looked like on Sunday when I thought he was having an allergic reaction:



And this is what they looked like the day after his official diagnosis.

So after getting the all clear from the dr that he was no longer contagious, I breathed a sigh of relief and took the kids to Chick-Fil-A.  As we stood there in line waiting to order, I looked down as B and smiled.  It had been a week of uncertainty, wondering what was wrong with both of them, how to treat it, and how long it would last.  And to be honest, it was a week that tested my faith--my kids are normally very healthy.  Why had they been sick?  And why had it seemingly been non-stop--one illness or ailment after another?  Why had God allowed this?  Didn't He know I was tired and worried and had been filled with anxiety?  (Please excuse how melodramatic this is--as I mentioned above, I had had a reality check and know it could have been worse than I even care to think about, but just roll with me here.)  As I looked down at him and looked at the sores on his hands, I felt the Lord whisper gently in my ear, "Don't forget to be MY hands, MY feet, and MY mouth."

That was all He said--but it was enough.  I can only imaging the bizarre look on my face as I had that quiet moment with my sweet Savior right there in Chick-Fil-A, but I felt myself smile.  Now, don't get me wrong--I am not saying that my kids got sick so that God could teach me a lesson.  But I do believe that he uses circumstances to teach His children, just like we do with our own children.  So I smiled.

I smiled knowing that He loves me.

And I smiled knowing that He loves my children.

I smiled knowing that He loves the people I will come in contact with, even the people I don't know, and that He wants me to show them His love--even if I am hesitant or it might mean doing something "weird."

And I smiled because I enjoyed having a gentle reminder from Him of my purpose on earth.  He has called all of us who believe in Him to be His hands, His feet, and His mouth to those around us.  Everywhere we go.

So that has been the sickness saga for the past month at our house.  I am thankful that as I type this everyone is healthy and well.  And I will continue to be His hands, His feet, and His mouth...even if it means sharing my little blog that has served as my private journal until now.

Pancake Pumpkin Breakfast

In all honesty, I have not gotten around to doing a lot of the fun activities with the kids that I usually do.  The kids have been sick, and as any mom can attest, when your kids are sick, you are exhausted.  So I just haven't been up to putting forth the effort.  But now that everyone is on the mend, I decided to do a repeat from last year--my pancake pumpkin breakfast.

I mixed my basic pancake batter using the recipe below and added 3 drops of red food coloring and 6 drops of yellow food coloring to make them orange.  I cooked them as silver dollar pancakes because it makes them easier to stack them to look like pumpkins and stick them with a green toothpick to serve as the pumpkin stem.

I tossed some bacon in the oven on 350 to cook while I made the pancakes.  By the time I was done with the cakes, the bacon was perfectly cooked and crispy.  Some pretty green napkins from my stash and milk in re-purposed Starbucks Frappucino glass bottles with orange straws, and we were ready to go.

The kids are always up for pancakes, and they really like the pumpkin theme I added in.  And I love doing fun little meals like this with the kids!  Happy Fall, Y'all!

Basic Pancake Batter

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup self-rising flour
1 Tbsp of butter, melted

Combine all ingredients and cook in a saute pan or griddle on medium heat.  Makes about 10-12 average size pancakes or 24 silver dollar pancakes.

Enjoy!

Momfessional's Recipe Club {Crescent-Topped Cheeseburger Bake}

Have I got an easy-peasy, family-friendly meal to share with you today.  This is so yummy and so easy, you will be making it all the time, I promise.  I wish I could remember the original source for this recipe because I did not create it myself--I found it online one evening in a moment of desperately needing something new to make.  It has been a weeknight staple at our house ever since.  And of course, as most mom-cooks do, I have modified it to fit my family's size and taste preferences.

Crescent-Topped Cheeseburger Bake

1-1.5 lbs. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
Black pepper to taste
7 slices of American cheese
1 can crescent rolls
1 egg
Sesame seeds

Brown the ground beef with the chopped onions.  At this point you could add chopped bell pepper if you want--I abhor bell pepper, so I don't add it, but I think the original recipe called for it.  Drain and stir in the water, ketchup, mustard, and black pepper.  You may want to add a bit more ketchup depending on how much ground beef you are using.  Pour beef mixture into a greased 11 x 7 pan.  (I don't have a pan that size, so I use a 9 x 13 pan.)  Top with the American cheese.  I have found that I can fit two rows of 3.5 slices of cheese across the pan.  Roll out the crescents with a little flour so they will seal together and fit better in the pan.  Cut pieces of crescent roll to fill in the holes if necessary.  Brush with egg and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.  Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes until the filling is bubbly and the top is browned.

Viola!  Add a salad or an easy side like corn, green beans or peas, and you have yourself a great dinner for your family.  My kids LOVE this casserole and clean their plates of it every time I make it.

A few notes from the cook:  our family of four can easily eat this entire casserole, so don't count on having leftovers unless your crew is made up of light eaters.  I have been known to completely double the filling part of the recipe (using maybe 3/4 cup of water instead of a whole cup) just to add a bit more bulk to the recipe and make it more filling.  The original recipe also called for chopped pickles in the filling.  While my husband would love that, I don't like pickles, so I leave them out.  Pretty much any burger topping besides lettuce could be tossed into this filling and be pretty good.

Enjoy!

Be sure to link up your own recipe with the Momfessionals Recipe Club!

Church Fall Festival

Before I launch into this post, allow a disclaimer--I did a HORRIBLE job taking pictures!  Ok, with that out of the way, Sunday was our church Fall Festival and the kids had a blast.

Immediately after church the fall festival got started with selling hot dog plates and lots of games for the kiddos.  There was also a jumping castle/slide and a little train that my kids absolutely adored.  I am pretty sure C would have spent the entire afternoon on that train if she had not had to get off every so often for others to ride!  And B informed me as we were walking up that they had too much to do and would be "too busy to eat."  I love that kid!

The kids played a couple of the games, but they weren't really interested in those.  They stuck to the train and jumping castle.  B did get a minion painted on his face--while C adamantly insisted that she DID NOT want to get her face painted.

Around 2:15 the games and food stations started to shut down in order the start the auction we were having to raise money for the mission trip our youth are taking next summer to Cambodia and San Fransisco.  Last I heard, they made about $6000 that day which is GREAT!  I was a super fun day!  But it was also a LONG day.  I was at the church from 8:15 until after 5:00 with the kids only being there about 45 minutes less than me!  Needless to say, some of us couldn't make it home without collapsing from sheer exhaustion.

Until next time!

Favorite Things Party {Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice Cookies}

I fully realize that what I am about to say is basically a sacrilege, but I am not a huge fan of all the pumpkin spice flavored stuff that is so popular this time of year.  Now, before you all start wielding your torches and pitchforks, let me explain...I am just not much of a coffee drinker, and most of that pumpkin spice/pie flavored deliciousness is connected with coffee.  For a girl who really loves (almost) all things pumpkin, I struggle to admit it, but I just can't fully hop on the pumpkin spice everything bad wagon.  HOWEVER, there is one thing that I really love for this time of year:  the Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice Cookie Mix.

The bag of cookie mix is less than $3 and makes lots of cookies.  The problem is that it usually is only on the shelves from September to Thanksgiving, so stock up!  I usually snatch one up the minute I see them before they are all gone.  The package gives directions for making large cookies or small cookies.  I made the small cookies last year (pictured), but I may give the big cookies a try this year to see how they are.

Last year C loved them, but B not so much.  I am hoping they will both love them this year!

So get to your local grocery store and snag some of this yumminess before it's gone until next fall!

I am linked up with Andrea at Momfessionals.

Easy Sunday Lunch

In all honesty, our family usually goes out to a restaurant for lunch after church on Sundays.  BUT during the fall when the Hubs has to be at a football coaches meeting by 2:00, sometimes it's easier to us if I plan a lunch at home.  This can be tricky since we are at church until at least 12:30.  I usually do something in the Crock Pot, but I came across this easy recipe by Rachael Ray that, when mixed with some leftover lima beans and the easiest cookies in the world, turned out perfectly for a yummy, healthy Sunday lunch.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Rachael Ray

1 cup basmati rice
2 cups chicken stock
1 lemon, thinly sliced
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 whole chicken, 2.5-3 lbs.
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Pour the rice into a 9 x 13 pan.  Add the chicken stock, lemon slices, thyme sprigs, and some salt and pepper, stir to combine.  Place chicken on top of rice, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast in a 400 degree oven for one hour or until the chicken and rice are done.  Let the chicken stand for 5-10 minutes, carve and serve with the rice.

I could not find a chicken that small.  The one I cooked was about 4 lbs, so it had to cook for a little longer.  I should have put more stock in the rice because it dried out just a little, but it was still good!

Easy Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Ree Drummond aka The Pioneer Woman

1 tube of Refrigerator Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
24 mini Reese's cups

Slice the cookie dough into 6 equal slices.  Cut each slice into quarters so you have 24 pieces of dough.  Put one piece of dough into each cup in a mini muffin tin.  Bake at 350 for about 6-8 minutes until the cookies are almost done.  Immediately after pulling them out of the over, press in a mini Reese's cup.  Allow to cool completely before removing the cookies from the muffin tin.

These can be done with pretty much any cookie dough with any mini-sized chocolate candy you like.  Ree's recipe is called Quick Candy Cookies because she had made them so many different ways.  My family enjoyed the cookies immensely.  However, I should have baked them for 10-12 minutes.  They were not completely done, so it was hard to eat them.  But who doesn't love cookie dough??

So, take a little time to prepare an easy Sunday lunch for you family!

Big Girl Bed

Last weekend we brought my old bed in from the shed and set it up in C's room (formerly our old bedroom) and took down the crib that she has slept in for 3 years.  It was a bittersweet day to say the least.  Pop and JuJu supplied a new mattress, box springs, mattress pad, sheets and pillows which was a HUGE blessing for us!!!  So all we had to do was wipe down the headboard, footboard, and bed rails, and get is set up.  She is so proud to be in a big girl bed and absolutely loves sleeping in her new bed.

I wasn't quite sure how the transition would go that first night and was pretty certain that it would be a fight to keep her in her bed, but just a few minutes after bedtime, I went in to check on her and found this.

Oh, how I love this precious girl!!  Now I've got to get started on making her room 'hers' but then again, I haven't really done much with B's room, so maybe I should tackle that one first!

Pumpkin Patch 2014

Well, this week has proved to be an interesting one.  Sickness just seems to be invading our home for the last few weeks, and I am sick and tired of it.  Late Monday night, C started running a fever, so I stayed home from CC with her, and the Hubs took B.  But she was feeling better by Thursday, so we were able to go with our CC group to the pumpkin patch for a field trip.

I adore the pumpkin patch, so I was so glad that she was feeling better and everyone was up for the trip.  For just $5 per person, we got a hay ride, all the jumping castle fun we could stand, a new water pump game, and a mini pumpkin.  It's pretty hard to beat.  Other items included in the price that we did not do were a spooky trail, a corn jumper, and a cotton jumper.

So as soon as we got there, we snapped a picture among the gorgeous sunflowers while we met up with our friends.  I was thrilled that it was actually cool enough to need a jacket--but that didn't last long.  By the time we left, it was pretty hot.

Then we snapped some pictures among the pumpkins while waiting for our class's turn on the hay ride.

Before hopping on the hay ride, the kids enjoyed playing this water pump game.  Each pump was connected to a track make of PVC pipe.  You put a little rubber duck in front of your water pump and you could race the ducks with the other pumpers.  B could have played this game all.  day.  long!  He loved it!

Then we got on the hay ride.  Mr. Glenn our driver taught us all about how pumpkins grow, taught us some of the different names of the various types of pumpkins, and showed us what the inside of a pumpkin looks like.

After the hay ride, the kids took another turn with the water pumps, jumped in the jumping castle, played on the playground, and ate a picnic lunch.

I do enjoy some of our fall favorites, and the pumpkin patch is definitely a fall favorite.

Five on Friday {Fall Edition}

Those who know me well know that I absolutely adore fall.  All thing autumnal just make my heart sing.  I love the cool weather that leads to snuggling under a warm blanket with a warm beverage.  So here are my top five fall favorites.

Pumpkins

I have a bit of a collection of pumpkins that I display each year from September until Thanksgiving when I pull out the Christmas decorations.  Most of them are corn husk pumpkins like the ones in the picture, but I have a few others that I love to sprinkle about the house as well.

Mums

I have a VERY brown thumb--if I buy any sort of plant or flower, it is pretty much a death sentence for said flower.  I don't buy many plants because it's just a waste of money, but I always get yellow mums every fall to set outside the front door.  (I use the excuse that I am supporting educations when I buy them from the high school my husband teaches at when they sell them as a fund raiser.)  As you can see from this picture, my mums were already getting a little brown by the end of October last year, but I love them none the less.

Gourds

I don't go all out with the gourds, but I do grab one of those mesh bags of gourds from the grocery store and pile them up in a bowl for a dramatic, fall centerpiece.  They are just so much fun!

Fall Festivals

September and October are the season for carnivals, fairs, and festivals of all kinds.  They are very kid-friendly, but as an adult, I love them too!  My kids look forward to them every year, and for me they just symbolize the ushering in of fall and the holiday seasons.

Pumpkin Patch Visits

So, my first item made it pretty clear that I adore pumpkins.  That means that visiting a pumpkin patch is basically like the mothership calling me home.  We have an absolutely fabulous pumpkin patch about an hour from our house, and the kids and I visit every fall.  Some years, the hubs will join us!  They have jumping castles, boiled peanuts, sunflowers, a corn cannon, hay bales, hay rides, and more pumpkins that you can count.  I look forward to the visit every year and can't wait to go with the kids this year.  And lucky for me, they love it as well.

So there you have it.  My five favorite things for fall!  Happy fall, y'all!

Be sure to link up your own Friday Favorites: