Memorial Weekend Exhaustion

pickleawart.blogspot.com

Due to recent flooding rains, we had to re-plant our pit-style garden... not exactly my first pick for Memorial weekend festivities! I also got some clothes hung on the line Saturday and Courtney managed to do some construction on the big chicken house so that we could move in the wee little ones... that's right. ALL the chickens are shackin' up with one another. Oh mercy.

We did manage to fit in some time to play this weekend as well. Days of swimming, grilling, running, chasing, and garage saling wore a few of us out. Grace was so tired she passed out right there at the dinner table. Even Zelda started feeling the call of the sandman.

And then there was Garrett's first experience with watermelon. That boy LOVED watermelon and was a sticky mess head to toe when he was done... which meant he went straight to the bathtub (for MORE fun of course!). Grace enjoyed her's as well but had to fight off Zelda for it. And then there was Courtney... who is just a ham. 'Nuff said.

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Home-Made Stain Remover - EASY!

picklewart.blogspot.com

I've been waiting to run out of my Shout spray so I could try my new home-made version of stain spray. Well, it's finally happened. The Shout bottle is empty!

Home-made Stain Remover

1 part ammonia

1 part water

1 part dish soap

Simple. Simple. Simple.

Mix all three ingredients and pour in a spray bottle. (I re-used my Shout bottle - extra green!)

I started with 1 cup of each. I guess you could make up larger batches and store them in old rinsed-out bleach bottles or milk jugs to use for refilling later as well.

Happy savings!!

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Garrett's First Day in a Pool!

picklewart.blogspot.com
First time splishing and splashing in the pool. Need I say more?

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Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

picklewart.blogspot.com

Recently, I made a "thank you" cheesecake for my friend Heather... it was one of her favorite flavors - Cheesecake Factory's Dulce de leche Cheesecake. It was my first attempt at making a homemade dulce de leche sauce (like a heavy caramel sauce), so I hope Heather hasn't had to spit it out!
I had many requests for the recipe from my FB friends, so here it is!
(Fair warning: This is not a quick recipe. The sauce alone requires about an hour of your time to prepare!)

Dulce de Leche (Caramel Sauce)

Makes about 2 Cups

1 qt whole milk (1/4 gallon)

2 C granulated sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch of cinammon

Combine ingredients in large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook without stirring until mixture boils, about 20 minutes. Briefly remove from heat.

Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently with a spoon - about an hour. When mixture becomes a caramel color and is thickened, remove from heat.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

Crust:

1 C graham crackers or vanilla wafers - crushed

3 TB melted butter

Filling:

3 (8 oz.) pkgs cream cheese

1 C sugar

2 TB flour

2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

1/3 C whole milk

1/2 C Dulce de Leche sauce

1. Preheat oven to 400 F

2. Mix crust ingredients together and press into bottom of 9" springform pan. Bake for 10 min. Remove from oven and cook to room temp.

3. Reset oven temp to 325 F

4. Beat cream cheese, sugar, and flour until well-mixed and smooth. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time and beat. Add milk and mix until well blended and smooth.

5. Measure 1/2 C up cheesecake batter and set aside in small bowl. Add Dulce de Leche sauce and stir until well combine (can hold back some of the Dulce de Leche sauce to drizzle later).

6. Pour plain batter over crust. Top with Dulce de Leche batter. Gently swirl the cheesecake layers with a knife.

7. Bake 45 - 55 min at 325 F until center is almost set. Remove from oven and run a knife or spatula around inside rim of pan to loosen cheesecake (helps prevent from cracking). Cool 25 min before covering and cooling in refridgerator. Refridgerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight before serving. Serve with a drizzle of Dulce de Leche if desired.

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Taking City Life for Granted

picklewart.blogspot.com

After doing our new role-playing game with Grace, it dawned on me, I'm taking it for granted that my kid knows anything about "city" life. Here I grew up in the city and she's never lived in one! Well, needless to say, we had to discuss the concept of a recycle pick-up truck (we drop ours at the center in town) and an ice cream truck (unheard of around here). I even had to explain the mail trucks in town usually are little white Jeeps. Oh the things you take for granted... but she had fun pretending like she was the mail man dropping off letters in mailboxes, the recycle truck driver, and, her favorite, the ice cream man stopping to bring kids like her ice cream. Now, if we hear a ding-ding, ding-ding out here, our ears will perk up for sure!

We got this printable game at Kaboose! Lots of printables here - and we chose to cover our game in contact paper to make it more durable.

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Area Events for June!

picklewart.blogspot.com

Summer's almost here, and it's time to get outside and have some fun!
I thought I'd post a few local area events that some of you may be interested in. I know I am!

• June 5 - Mt. Vernon City-Wide Garage Sale! Now, if you've never been to Mt. Vernon's city-wide, you've been missing out. I've been to many city-wides, but Mt. Vernon's is one of the biggest I've seen. These people are SERIOUS about saling! (I was recently told there is also a city-wide in Aurora this same day! SALE-A-PA-LOOZA!!!)
  
• June 11 - "Broadway Nights" in downtown Monett. Businesses will be open until 8 PM or later with many special events planned! Art, music, concessions, and a carnival are to be included.
  
• June 12 - Pierce City Arts Festival and wine tasting event. 10 AM to 5 PM on the main drags ;-) - Walnut and Main in downtown Pierce City. If bad weather occurs, they'll have it in the Central Elementary School.
  
• June 12 and 13 - Free fishing at Roaring River State Park. No license or trout tags required. Well, really, it's state-wide FREE fishing weekend...
  
• June 15 - Interested in bees? The Southern Missouri Beekeepers of Monett meet at 7 PM in the Monett HS Vo-ag building. (This one's more for my hubby than for me!)
  
• June 19 - Aurora's "Light the Night" at the Baldwin park in Aurora, MO from 1 Pm to 9 PM. Music, bingo, kids' games, baseball, hot air balloon glow display, and fireworks at 9:20 PM!
  
• June 19 through July 31 - Cassville's Barry County Museum will host the Smithsonian Institute's "New Harmonies: Celebrating Amercian Roots Music" exhibit! This is part of the the Museum on Mainstreet tour the Smithsonian does. What a wonderful opportunity to see Smithsonian history right here at our back door!

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Easiest Omelet EVER!

picklewart.blogspot.com

I found this idea on one of the blogs I follow - Mennonite Girls Can Cook.
It's the Zip Loc Omelet. I've heard of mixing ingredients and doing prep with zipper style bags, but I had no idea you could BOIL them! What a great idea. The hardest part about doing omelets, is getting everyone served at the same time with the omelet still hot! It also makes it so easy for your little ones to participate in the cooking process.
This solves so many issues... I can't wait to try this!

The basic idea is to put two eggs in the bag and mix them. Then throw your "toppings" into the bag and finish mixing them. Store in the fridge until ready to cook. To cook, add bags to boiling water and cook about 15 min. Remove and let cool a bit. Cut top half of bag off and peel out your omelet!

Go here for Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog post with pictures and details on how to make a zipper bag omelet!!

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File Folder Games and Other Preschool Games to Make!

picklewart.blogspot.com

We've been making a few preschool games here at home. Since spring is here, and rainbows seem to be a big hit, so we have a few of those, some bugs (also perfect for our warming weather) as well as an apple sorting game. I got most of these from the Confessions of a Homeschooler pages on rainbows, caterpillars & bugs, and apples - (I apologize now for not remembering where I got this game, but I know a quick search on apple sorting file folder games will turn up quite a few). There are TONS of ideas and games with links for easy printing in the above links!

Sorting and lining up objects from smallest to biggest (or vice versa) is always fun - and at our house, they inevitably turn into a train! We have both rainbows and bugs for this one. (size recognition)

Rolling dice makes ANY game more fun - especially if they're big. In this game, you "build" a rainbow by rolling the dice and getting the number you need to build the next layer. (numbers, colors, size recognition)

And this file folder game not only has your kiddo matching the apples up, but has them put them in the correct pockets! (colors, matching, fine motor skills)

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Anatomy Preschool Lapbook

picklewart.blogspot.com

Man oh man am I behind on putting some of our preschool stuff up here!

Our latest lapbook is our human anatomy lapbook. Most resources for it came from Homeschool Share's site and the unit on anatomy. It pairs well with the creation story from Genesis. It certainly lends itself well to the creation of Adam and Eve - from a rib... and so on. LOTS of questions came of it with my 3 yr old!

We pair it up with an anatomy book from The Discovery Series of Scholastic that is perfect for engaging preschoolers in anatomy. We bought our anatomy book through Amazon. I have some other anatomy books, but they're geared more for 3rd grade and up... but the pictures are great for Grace to look at, so don't be afraid to get out an old encylopedia or something like that! Since I'm doing Radiology again, I'm going to bring home some x-rays to show her as well. She'll get a kick out of that!

Below is the lapbook video:



My friend Kara also has a blog and recently posted her new Muncha, Muncha, Muncha! lapbook. It looks cute and is perfect for spring. If you like lapbooks, you might check her's out too!!

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So how did it REALLY work, you ask?

picklewart.blogspot.com

This is an update to my previous posts regarding some of the make-your-own products. Awhile back I made laundry detergent (the liquid version) and fabric softener. Since I've had a few inquiries as to how it worked out, I thought I'd post it out here as an update.

I have to say, the liquid detergent has worked remarkably well thus far (I ended up adding some essential oil of orange). We've been using several weeks now without any issues. The fabric softener works fine, but I'll admit, I do miss the smell of Snuggle and Downy. But functionally, it has worked just fine.

My next project will be to make my own stain remover and dishwasher detergent. As soon as I get low on my store-bought brands of those, I'll whip up some batches and post the "recipes" and instructions... and a review later of course...

because who cares how much money you save making your own stuff if it doesn't work, right?!

Have fun coming up with your own "recipes" and let me know if you have any ideas!!

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7th Anniversary Video of the Pierce City F-3 Tornado

picklewart.blogspot.com

This video will be shared with our church on Sunday to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the F-3 tornado that nearly devestated the small historic town of Pierce City, MO.

We moved to this area after the tornado. We did not experience the struggle of rebuilding this town and community. But after doing the research to make this video, I have discovered several things... the people here are dedicated, resilient, faithful, and generous!
We are so very blessed to call this community our home.

Due to some copyright issues, the sound has been disabled... this version is a silent video.




and now an FB video embed that may work better for some of you...

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