Last year for Christmas I made these altered clipboards for my best friend and my sister-in-law. I love how they turned out!  I saw the paper again at Hobby Lobby the other day, so I think I may make one for myself this year!

I had so much fun making these last year that I made one for Teal and Becky (our brownie co-leader at the time) and all my kid’s teachers.

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This is the inside of the card. These were super easy and fast to make. Which was a good thing, because I waited until the last minute to make them!

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I made a summer version for the kid’s teachers last year.  And I added cute matching bookmarks as well.

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Not only does she have earrings for today’s give away, but she’s got the 12 Days of Junkie shop-a-thon going on!  Laurie promotes Mom-preneur’s from all over the web.  Go check it out for yourself!

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My kids are like most kids and that they don’t like to eat a wide variety of veggies.  So I’m getting pretty good at sneaky some into the foods they normally eat.  Right now my favorite to add is sauteed onions, garlic, and eggplant.  I add it to anything with a tomato based sauce.

To prepare I peel the eggplant and chop it up into small pieces.  I only use the pieces without the seeds- I don’t want to get caught!  I then chop up the onion and saute it and the eggplant in some garlic and a little oil.

My kids (and husband) have never been able to tell the difference!  I feel like my kids are eating a little bit healthier.

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2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut up into bit sized pieces

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1Tbsp minced garlic  (I think everything is better with some garlic added)

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 to 1/2 cup butter

30-40 buttery round crackers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 9×13 baking pan.  Place chicken in pan.  Sprinkle with seasonings.  Mix soup and sour cream and pour over chicken.  Dot with butter.  Crumble crackers finely and sprinkle over top.  Bake for 30 minutes.

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This year he is testing the growth of lima bean seeds in contaminated soil. He has contaminated 30 pots; 10 with brake fluid, 10 with paint, and 10 with detergent. Then he has 10 pots that are not contaminated. Because the pots dry out so quickly, he has to water them daily. But other than that we’re just waiting to see what happens.

My daughter’s project with testing different types of paper and seeing which kind starts decomposing the fastest. She has chosen toilet paper, newspaper, typing paper and a magazine page. She’s been watering her project daily as well and next week we’ll dig it up and see what happened.

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I really like to double the recipe when I’m making casseroles. Or sometimes I make a single recipe of a casserole that makes a 9×13 and place it in 2 8×8 pans. Then we have one for that night and another one for a later date. When it’s something like Chicken Spaghetti, I just dump it all in a freezer bag and lay it flat in the freezer to freeze. Then I can stand it up on end or lay it flat, depending on how much room is in my freezer.

But when it’s a layer casserole, like Baked Ziti, I can’t dump it in a freezer bag! That wouldn’t be too pretty! First I spray the bottom of my baking pan with vegetable spray. Then I form a criss cross pattern with aluminum foil leaving extra to fold over the top. Then I spray the inside of the aluminum foil with vegetable spray. I next assemble my casserole like normal in the pan. Finally I fold the ends of the foil over the casserole, pinching the seams together. I put the pan in the freezer for a few hours- or most times I forget it’s there and leave it overnight! When it’s frozen solid I turn the pan over and pat the bottom until the casserole pops out. I then place the casserole in a freezer bag and stick it back in the freezer until I need it. I normally write on the bag what type of casserole, how long to bake it and at what temperature. Now I have a meal for the future and I haven’t tied up my baking pan!

When I’m ready to bake my casserole, I let it thaw just enough so that I can peel the foil off of it. I then put it in my baking pan and thaw completely before I bake it like directed.

When I’m ready

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This is a great recipe to double and freeze one for a later date.

1 (16oz) package ziti pasta

1 pound mild Italian sausage casings removed (I used ground beef instead)

1Tbsp minced garlic

2 (26) jars marinara sauce

1 1/2 tsp dried basil divided

1 small onion chopped

1 cup chopped eggplant (the kids don’t even know it’s there!)

12 oz ricotta cheese

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, divided

1 dash salt and pepper (I don’t use these)

1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Saute onion and eggplant with garlic in a large, deep skillet.  Set aside in a bowl.  Then in the same skillet place sausage (ground beef).  Cook over medium high heat until evenly browned.  Drain and mix together with onion and eggplant.  In a large saucepan, heat marinara with 1 tsp basil until bubbling.  In a medium bowl, mix together ricotta and 1 tsp Italian seasoning.

Spray bottom of 9×13 pan (or I used 2 8×8 pans).  Spread pan with sauce.  Layer 1/2 of the ziti, 1/2 the meat, 1/2 of the ricotta and 1/2 the mozzarella.  Spoon half the sauce over top.  Repeat layers.  Sprinkle top with remaining 1/2 tsp basil and Italian seasoning.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

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After doing a little searching online and using a little creativity, we implemented a bee themed “rule” idea and the girls were very receptive. Everyone participated and came up with troop rules and wrote down on our bee paper.

After doing this, we discussed having a “bee sheriff”. I don’t recall where I found this idea and have searched for it again so I could offer credit, but have been unable to find it. The idea behind this is to give the girls in the troop a little authority. The “sheriff” will raise their hand when a girl is not following the rules. When the leader acknowledges them, they will say, “______, please pay attention, or ______, please clean up your mess.” The girl not following directions must apologize to the troop and then follow the rule. We were very clear to not tattle and to be polite. After trying this for the first time at our last meeting, we realized it may be better for the sheriff to simply raise her hand with the girl scout sign to be quiet. It’s a learning process. The sheriff gets to wear a cute little badge.

Although we’ve only done this once, it appears to have had a positive effect on the girls in the troop. Hopefully our future meetings will continue to be productive.

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1 Pork Roast
6 White or Red Potatoes, cut in cubes
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 15 oz. can tomatoes or 4 fresh from the garden
1/2 cup Peas
Water or Broth

1. Pour 1 cup water into crock pot. If you have broth, by all means give it some extra flavor! Place cut potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes on the bottom. Place roast on top. Cover and cook 6-8 hours, whichever you prefer. Baste roast after a few hours to get some extra flavor on top!
2. Cook peas and serve with roast and potatoes.
3. Save/freeze juices and any extra potatoes/tomatoes for future beef stew!

There are more yummy crock pot recipes over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

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Monday
Baked Chicken & Acorn Squash
rice
broccoli
homemade rolls

Tuesday
Crock pot Pork with Apples
asparagus
red potatoes
salad

Wednesday
Beef Stroganoff
green beans
zucchini boats

Thursday
Crock pot pork roast & potatoes
peas
homemade rolls

Friday
Cornflake Chicken - Kristen’s new favorite chicken dish!
corn
broccoli/cheese rice

Saturday
breakfast for dinner

Sunday
sandwiches or leftovers

Stumped with your menu plan? Check out Org Junkie!

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Our most popular item that caused the longest bidding war was for one student to spend the day with our custodian, helping him do his job during the school day. Following that in popularity, is the staff vs. students kick ball game. This works best if it’s limited to ten older kids, for example, 4th and 5th grade. Our principals even get in on the action! And closely behind that, would be lunch on the roof for four kids with the principals! Teachers offer “mystery dates” or an outing to lunch and a movie. Our librarian offered a student from each grade level to be the librarian for the day. Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers offered an ice cream party for five kids.

In our silent auction, we have also had success with selling “reserved seating” to upcoming school programs. That’s worth a lot to the parents who don’t want to arrive an hour early just to get a close seat!

I’m sure there are many more creative and fabulous ideas out there. Leave a comment so we can all share some great ideas.

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Our more popular games included the cake walk and book walk. Hair painting is always a hit. We had karaoke going on in the cafeteria, which was something new we tried this year. It was quite popular and there was a line for the duration of the carnival, as well as entertainment for those eating in the cafeteria.

Of course, the dunk tank outside is the most fun. We have some great teachers who offer to sit in the tank and taunt the kids. Every now and then they go down!

Other games included a “mad science lab” where the kids would feel “body parts” in boxes. Peeled grapes for eyes, cooked spaghetti for intestines, a peeled grapefruit for the brain, etc. A talented parent made a wheel of fortune game. We opened up the climbing wall in the gym, pulled out the Wii, did fingernail paining, the duck pond ring toss, a saucer toss and had bounce houses outside.

The games were a huge success. We sold over 12,733 tickets at fifty cents each.

We also had some great items in our live auction. I’ll fill you in on that tomorrow!

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The game was easy to make, thanks to the help of my husband. It took him all of five minutes to hammer together some 2×4’s and plywood on the bottom. He then spray painted it brown. Then I used scrapbook paper and spray adhesive to create the water and grass look. I love mod podge and thought of covering the water and grass with it, but ran out of time!

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The girls had such fun dressing up and trick-or-treating. My son hung out with his buddies and didn’t come along with us. My sister dressed up as a gorilla and her husband was a banana. We only got a picture of her, the girls and the dog. Yep, we dressed Circuit up, too and he loved every minute of it. He kept his costume on the entire time we were trick-or-treating!

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Check out other tackles here.

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This week my oldest daughter decided that she wanted to give her teachers a treat for Halloween.  She did at least give me a couple of days notice- that’s better than last year.  Anyways, I found these cute Peppermint Pattie spiders at www.splitcoaststampers.com.  They are super easy to make and I think really cute!

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Crockpot Potatoes
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Dash of garlic powder
16 ounces of Velveeta cheese cut into cubes or a jar of Cheez Whiz
2 pounds bag Southern style hash browns
1/2 stick butter or margarine
Mix in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
You can add onions or green peppers to this if you want.

And speaking of good, we made Christine’s Artichoke Chicken last night for dinner and my entire family loved it. I don’t know what it is about her main dishes, but they get a thumbs up at my house!

Diary of a SAHM has more crock pot recipes. Check them out and add yours to the list!

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I’m really trying to match coupons with sale prices at the stores.  So I was very excited to see so many items that we use on sale at Albertson’s this week.  They have Honey Nut Cheerios on sale for $1.88 a box.   Which by itself is a good deal considering the regular price is $4.19 a box!   But I made it even better!  I had a store printed coupon for $1.50 off three boxes of any type of Cheerios.  Plus I noticed on one of the boxes there was a coupon stuck to it from the manufacturer.  It was for one free box (up to $4.00) of any kind of General Mills cereal with the purchase of two boxes of cereal!  So I looked around to see what kind of cereal that I liked that was close to $4.00 a box.  I choose a box of Honey Nut Chex cereal for $3.49.

So with the sale price and the two coupons, I got 4 boxes of cereal for .65!!!  I’ve read about people who do this all the time.  And now I’m one of them- at least for today with my cereal!

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