Easy Creamy Chicken

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 2-4 hours (4-qt. slow-cooker)

Makes 8 servings

 

8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

lemon pepper to taste

10 3/4-oz. can cream of chicken soup

3-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

8-oz. carton sour cream

1. Place 4 breasts in bottom of slow-cooker, Sprinkle with lemon pepper.
2. Mix soup and cream cheese together in a bowl. When blended, fold in sour cream.
3. Pour half the sauce over the breast in the cooker.
4. Repeats steps 1-3.
5. Cover and cook on High for 2-4 hours, or until chicken is tender.

You can serve this over rice

Technorati Tags: Chicken,slow-cooker,easy recipes

It is finally Friday!

This has been a very difficult week for us me. Everything has been trying my patience and honestly I’m glad tomorrow is Saturday. The only thing scheduled is baseball at ten. All week I have been absent minded and nerved. I either have the paper and not the pencil or have the pencil and not the paper.  I am looking forward to next week though. There will not be baseball games and only a few practices. I enjoy the excitement I see on their faces when they play ball and meet with old and new friends. I enjoy the nachos and cheese, Italian ice, sunflower seeds and Gatorade. And even though I feel totally guilty about it, I need a small break. Baseball hit us full throttle and my body wasn’t ready.

Of course, we still had good points to the week such as all the boys has won at least one game, slow-cooker meals have saved me time, we have three caterpillars that have built a cocoon in our bug habitat and my new washing machine is great awesome and it deep steams.

Small Glance at the boys week…

• Dylan decided to start reading The Magic Tree House books and this week started his second book. He read “Summer of the Sea Serpent” first and now he has started back at number one, “Dinosaurs Before Dark”.
• T.J. has found a new collection of books he enjoys, Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter, and has read three this week. His reading skills have really kicked in high gear. I was getting worried despite everyone telling me it was normal and he just needed time.
• Tommy also found “Biscuit” books and has read two this week. Math is his stronger points. He has been practicing skip counting and beginning multiplication.
• Wesley has read a couple random books but mostly he sticks to his Hooked On Phonics program. He mostly checks books out of the library from the adult side. He fell asleep watching a documentary movie about Abraham Lincoln. He loves The History Channel and Discovery.

Easy Slow Cooker Soup

Beef Vegetable Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 6-8 hours
Ideal slow cooker size: 4-qt.



1lb. chuncks of stewing beef
28-oz. can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 tomato can of water
16-oz. pkg. of your favorite frozen vegetable
half a 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped onions
1 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4-1/2 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (optional)

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on High 6-8 hours.


Double this recipe (using 7 qt. slow cooker).
Freeze any leftovers for a quick second meal.

Not Enough Protien

I was making chicken noodle soup and crackers for the boys at lunch. Wesley decides he does want chicken noodle so he comes up with a plan.

Wesley: "I would rather have eggs for lunch."
Me: "I have already made you chicken noodle."
Wesley: "Chicken noodle doesn't have enough protein in it for me."
Me: "Yes it does, chicken has protein."
Wesley: "Well, I can't eat chicken noodle soup because I'm not even sick."

Baseball has hit us full throttle. Last night was T.J. and Dooley's first game of the season. They won with a score of 11 to 8! They were so excited. They really gave it their all. I love to see them get so excited. Here they are in their uniforms. So Cute!

Lapbooking

I always shied away from lapbooking because it seemed it would be very time consuming and expensive. About a month ago I received a free one from currclick.com (one of my favorite sites). It was “Where the Wild Things Are”. We already had the book to read so I read all the instructions and decide to try it. To my surprise, the kids loved it and so did I. I surfed the Internet for books and tips on how to get started. I found a few pointers and gathered supplies. I found a lot of lapbooks on currclick.com and we went at it full force. I wish I would have had the courage to try them sooner. I would have been doing them the entire year.

Since then, we have done speedy lapbooks on snakes and all the continents.

I am already planning the lapbooks I want to complete next school year. I don’t want them to get burn out on it but I now have a lot of ideas to keep them new and different. We used plain m folders on the one we have done so far but I plan to purchase multi-color packs and print on colored paper.

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Saving Money On Groceries

I am always trying to find ways to save us money and one of our big expenses per month is the cost of food. Here are a few ways I have found saves money at the grocery store.

• Find a grocery store with a rewards card. I use Bi-Lo and for every fifty dollars I spend I get five cents off per gallon of gas. Now, this adds up very quick for us and I usually get around seventy cents off per gallon on a tank of fuel.
• Find one that has e-coupons. They load to your card and you don't have to dig through printed coupons. I usually forget I clipped the coupon or forget it at home so this saves us money since I am so forgetful.
• Set a budget and stick with it.
• Always pick up an sales ad to see their current specials.
• Make a list before you leave the house and stick to it. I had a bad habit of grabbing this that weren't on my list and two weeks later they still remained in my cabinet.
• Do an inventory of the items you already have so you can plan meals with those items.
• Eat leftovers. I often heat leftovers for lunch the next day.

I think the best thing I have done to save money, time and stress is make out a menu for a week, bi-weekly or monthly. I use a step-by-step process I found online. It comes with forms to complete each step. It has been so long now I am not sure of the site. I provided these forms below if you choose to use them. When you first start using this it is time consuming but after the first time it goes much faster.

1. Make a list of the meals I usually prepare. I write down every meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) I can think of. I write the three columns at the top of the sheet and flip it over to make an list for snacks. I keep this list to add meals and so I can use it the next month.
2. Plan out four weeks of menus. I printed a form that comes with the menu planner.
3. You can transfer step 2’s form to My Weekly Menu Planner form if you choose.
4. Make a master shopping list for each week including all ingredients needed for each meal.
5. Now you are ready to go shopping.

 

Step 2 four week menu form.

Step 3 My Weekly Menu Planner

Step 4 Master Shopping List

Blogger Labels: Money,Groceries,expenses,cost,food,leftovers,menu,meal,breakfast,dinner,sheet,snacks,Plan,planner,Step,List,coupons,meals,menus,grocery

Organization

Having some organization in your home is almost essential with four children. I have seen a lot of nice and neat organizing ideas but most of the ideas we use are simple and easy for the entire family. One of my favorites are our little bins with school supplies, weekly work and complete work. I picked up collapsible bins, pencil holders and folders for each child. I used a permanent marker to mark their names on each and sat them by the table where we do most of our work. I like this method for several reasons and a main one is it works for us. They are also easy to move from room to room or even outside if needed. Inside each bin they have a folder with any work for the week, a folder for completed work, small dictionaries, assignment book and school books. I keep the books that are used in unit studies for all the children. I also filled a pencil pouch with pencils, ruler, glue, scissors, erasers, calculator etc...

I scrambled around every morning with one or more child looking for something. It only took a trip for supplies and few minutes to put together but it saves us loads of time during the day. I have wondered why I didn't think of this before. Easy organization.

 

Quote!

"A guilty conscience makes for a heavy pillow."

Easy. Simple. Fun

It seems each month I look for easier crafts and projects to complete. This happened last year too! We take our time during the beginning of the year and then as time goes on we start to rush especially now with so many lessons left to do before this school year is over. Another part is because baseball has started back and every evening we are at the ball park. I'm not complaining about that but it leaves little time to get all the chores, shopping and school lessons done during the day. Recently we have been trying on hand in paper mache and although it is a lot of fun, even for me, it is time consuming. Our first project was a globe of Earth to go along with our study of the continents. This project took us over a week to complete.
For Our St. Patrick's Day craft I decided to do something simple. We colored rainbows and glued a cloud on one end of the rainbow and a pot of gold on the other. Easy. Simple. Fun.

Interview With T.J.

I did the last video with T.J. last night but didn't get the chance to load it until this morning. Baseball practice ran over and we didn't get home until late. These videos are more cute than funny so I have decided to create my own list of questions and redo them. I will be working on that.

Audio Books

I recently started using audio books especially for the kids. I attended a book sale and purchased several. I love them! My only regret is not buying them sooner. These are a few I bought the younger kids.

And for the older kids I bought:

 There are several different ones of Henry and Mudge and Rowan. My favorite is Raggedy Ann and Andy because I remember reading them when I was a child. Having these has been great. I always worried if I used audio books it might send them a message to take the easy way out. I worried they might not read as much and therefore not learn as much and I was wrong. I would never go back. It hasn't replaced their reading on their own but when I know one child needs my extra help I will set the other children up with audio and ear buds. I take audios to the ball park to occupy anyone not practicing. They are great for the doctor's office and long trips.


I also purchased a few adult audio books like:

 Of course, you only get the audio tape/cd with these and that is what I wanted for myself. I found a few websites that offer free audio books for adults and children (booksshouldbefree.com and Storynory.com) but my kids need the book to follow along and for it to keep their attention. I try to keep up with some of the "new age" technology and although I do like these for the children and myself they could not take the place of sitting outside under a tree reading or curling up with a blanket and book.

Interview With Dooley!

Here is the video of Dooley when I asked him questions about me. I was a little worried about doing this at first because you never know what kids might say and I wanted to record the discussion one time with questions they haven't been asked before. So I ask  Wesley the questions Monday with the other kids outside and Dooley today. I thought they would be funnier without any guidance from their brothers.

Interview with Wesley!

I was on Pinerest on day last week and saw a pin about questions to ask your kids. I decided to take Monday and interview my six-year-old, Wesley, and share the results with you. On Tuesday I will interview my seven-year-old, Dooley, and Wednesday will be T.J., which is my eight year old.

Here is the first interview:

Quote!

"It is those who never do anything who never make mistakes."

It is funny now!

When my youngest son was 4 years old, he came running in the house. He was out of breath and very hard to understand. He ran up to his dad and said, "That scared the hell out of me!" We were shocked and my husband asked, "What did you say?" Weasel again repeated the same sentence. My husband asks, "Do you know that is a bad word?" Weasel answered, "Yes, but that is what it did to me?" We still to this day don't know what it was that scared him enough to say that.

A very busy day!

This week has went by very fast and it's probably because we had too much to do. My most memorable day of the was Wednesday. Let me tell you about it.  I already knew when awoke it was going to be a busy day. I had several things to take care because I had put them off for days. I knew we also had to get our school work done and go to baseball practice.

Everybody is up, breakfast is over and we are 30 minutes into getting dressed for the day. I am still yelling, "CLOTHES, SOCKS, SHOES." I count heads as we load up, 1,2,3,4  and off we go. First stop, insurance company. This stop went well. Our agent is complimenting on how well the boys are behaving. I was so proud. Next stop, DMV. The line was really long but I finally reached the woman handing out number tickets.  Lady: The form you filled out is out of date.  Me: Really?  Lady: Fill out this form, come back and then I will give you a number.

This was our first dilemma. Our first was when I had to get out of line because little square gum pieces were falling all over the floor.  Anyway, after filling out the correct form, getting a number and making it to a counter, she informs me that I am missing a form. My thoughts were, you have to be kidding me! The second place I went gave me the form and I have everything I need. Back at the DMV, I'm back at the counter and right when I was wishing this place was bigger, my 7-year-old, Dooley shouts: "Mom, I got hair on my privates now!" I just stared and blinked and stared and blinked. I didn't want the look of all those people in my mind so I forced my myself not to look around.  Well, I hope it is a very long time before I have to return to the DMV.  It is funny now but on that day, it was not.

Penpal Excitement

Dylan received a letter from his penpal. He was excited and ran to his room to start on his reply letter. I was working on phonics with the other boys and lost track of time. Then, I noticed a hour had went by. I thought to myself, he must be writing a long one this time but when I went to check him, I noticed he had received a painted note from his pal. It was already hung on the wall. He was making an origami dragon to enclose with his reply letter.He had been so antsy waiting for this letter and I thought after he got the first one he would calm down but now he is worse. I am happy for him and it is good to see him this excited about something. I hope they become great friends. I decided to make a trip to the post office and pick up an extra book of stamps, lol.

Now, Dylan was fired up but T.J. was a little down. He hasn’t received a letter from his penpal yet, even though he mailed his out before Dylan. I explained to him that because his pal is further away, it takes longer and told him to not be sad. He checked the mail again before we left to go to ball practice, just in case the mailman just forgot to put out in our mailbox and came back when he noticed,lol.

T.J. and Dooley had their first baseball practice yesterday and they have their second today. I'm wondering how they are going to work together on the same team. Maybe it will turn out better than I expect. Last year, Dooley was on the same team as Wesley and they also share a room and stick together. Dooley has the kindest heart and would give anything he owns away but T.J. is a loner.

Quote of the week!

I have always been drawn to quotes and would like to share some of my favorites so once a week I will post one. I chose this one for my first quote of the week post because it is my best-liked so far.
" You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

My Second Post

The two oldest boys, Dylan and T.J., have been waiting for a letter from their first penpals. They wrote their first letters last week and as I read them I couldn't help but laugh a little inside. They were short and sweet. I'm sure they will get longer after they get to know their penpals better but I'm just glad they are so excited about it.

We have been studying up on Native Americans this week due to the boys are going to search for arrowheads and other artifacts on an old reservation, at a friends, on Sunday. They have been talking about it all week after seeing the pottery and arrowheads that have already been found there.

This week has seemed like two but as I said before, I feel we accomplished a lot. It is about time for summer and baseball to start distracting them away from their school work so I always feel a sense of relief when we complete every planned assignment.

It's Friday!

Well, it is the end of another school week. We have accomplished a lot this week and I'm pleased to actually get everything planned for the week completed.

Tomorrow is our first baseball practice of the year. We are super excited! I have missed being at the field everyday. Wesley will be on a team without any of his brothers this year. He is nervous about it but hasn't said he doesn't want to play. I was worried at first, I almost didn't want to tell him.lol He has always been so shy. I am proud of him because he has came a long way from around a year and a half ago when he would cover his face until we reached the car at wal-mart just because someone said hello.