Garden Hand Scrub

I have been trying to come up with a teacher gift for teacher appreciation next week. Yep, ya’ll that’s next week!

Most of the teachers in my children’s lives have a vegetable garden or enjoy working in their flower beds. So I decided to make a garden hand scrub.

I used 8oz. jelly jars and filled them ¾ full of sugar, approximately 1 ½ cups.

Then I added liquid dish soap until it almost reached the top.

I was going to use my Mrs. Myers dish soap but saw this Dawn one with Olay in it and thought that would be perfect. And it smells divine!

Stir to mix soap and sugar together.I found that a butter knife worked best. You want the consistency to be paste like and not too runny or firm. So you may need to add more sugar/dish soap to get the correct consistency.

I added a cute label and ribbon and we are good-to-go!

To wash the dirt off your hands, use a small amount and rub. The sugar works like an exfoliate removing the dirt while the soap washes it all away.

* **Update- The labels come FREE with the jelly jars!***

 Don’t forget a hand written note thanking them for all they do.

I will be sharing this at these fabulous sites Made It Monday - Show off your cottage - Junkin' Monday - The DIY Show Off- Toot Your Horn Tuesday - DIY Day - Show and Tell- Get Your Craft On - Trash to Treasure

A PEACE Out Birthday Party

My girl was turning 10 and wanted a PEACE out party for her birthday.

It was a bit hard coming up with PEACE items that were not really “groovy” PEACE but more along with the popular clothing store, Justice.

She had a few ideas. She wanted me to bake a pink PEACE sign cake.

She wanted Mac-n-cheese.

And mostly she wanted to have fun.

I picked up the invites last year at my favorite discount store, Wall’s Bargain Center for $2.84 for 20 invites. I found a PEACE sign font for free at my favorite free font site. And printed them in multi colored ink.

We picked a Saturday evening trying to work with everyone schedules. Ha! And guess what? All 15 girls showed up! I had really only planned on about 10. I was a bit over whelmed, as Ryan was on the road that weekend. And we already had a crazy schedule of me driving them all over kingdom come.

I used two box white cake mixes and a few colors of gel food coloring to make the cake. Along with my homemade butter cream frosting.

Using a gift box I blew up the number 10 in PEACE sign font cut it out and Martha glittered it up! It worked great for a cake topper. I cut out a few more peace signs to go around the base of the cake. While at Wal-mart that afternoon I found the flowers half off so I picked up two bunches at $2.50each.

I had hoped to take a cute picture after we cut it, but something about passing around the knife did not sound like a great idea.So I kept on cutting the cake. Here is what was left...

I mixed up 5 boxes of craft Mac-n-cheese and added about ½ pd. of Velveeta to it. Talk about cheesy…de-lish!

We had all of Hannah’s favorites like fresh veggies and fruit.

REAL potato chips, cheese puffs and yummy Nathan's Hot Dogs.

It was her idea to have an ice cream cupcake bar. So ahead of time we scooped vanilla ice cream into waxed cupcake wrappers and put them back in the freezer. I placed them on a cupcake holder with toppings all around.

Hannah had a PEACE sign Christmas tree this year so I got in the attic and pulled all the goodies down to decorate with. We added a few tie die balloons.

Gabe’s favorite was the punch ball balloons.

Does it show?

This is a growing boy. I did my best to keep him from devouring all the grated cheese.

That he swore he did not touch… see the dropped evidence on the kitchen top!

I was trying to plan all kinds of crafts for them to do when Hannah just asked “mom can’t we just PLAY?” Wow, now there is a novel idea! So that’s what they did.

We did a few things "old school" I had a matte for everyone to sign and paint pins to draw on plastic cups.

Ending the night with a few games of Truth or Dare and M.A.S.H.!

I will be linking up at these great sites Mom's The Word- Show and Tell - Get Your Craft On- Toot your own horn Tuesday - Soft Place to Land - Frugalicious Friday. Come stop by when you get time.

Hot Dog!

If you have a Sams’ wholesale in your area, have been lately to their snack bar they have?

 Have you gotten the Hot Dog combo for a $1.70?


They serve a ¼ pd Nathan’s Hot Dog that is to die for.


A few years back I asked about buying a pack. They DO NOT sell them in their main store. However, you can purchase a bag of 20 and 25 buns from the snack bar for $14.00!

Hands down one of the best hot dogs I have eaten. These are nothing like the tiny little Nathan’s that you can pick up at your local store.

These dogs are about the size of 3 Hot Dogs combined.


They are perfect for any kid’s party or back yard BBQ you are going to have.


I grill mine up outside then bring them in and assemble them, wrapping them in a sheet of aluminum foil.

Preheat your oven to warm and keep them ready till it’s time to eat.

Makes a party run so much smoother.

Linking up to these great sites stop by if you get time Tempt My Tummy - Tuesday at the Table - Tasty Tuesday

A New Tradition!

I used to love to scrapbook, guess I still do. But life has somehow sucked all my free time right out from under me!



I have books after books documenting Hannah’s first few years of life.


Then Along came the second one and well I have yet to tackle his baby book, he’s 5 1/2.


One late night in deep thought {LOL} a light bulb went off…Shutterfly!

I can’t believe I haven’t thought of this before. For the past year I have filed away pictures of Hannah in her very own birthday file.


Creating a documentary of her life as a 9 year old.

She loved it! Not only was it much less time consuming than the scrapbook. It’s smaller and will be able to travel with her easier when she moves on with her own family {sniff, sniff}.


Knowing one day that her kiddos are going to get a big kick out of seeing their mommy at the age of 9.

My new tradition is to create a birthday book for each of my kiddo’s birthdays every year.

Happy B-Day Hannah Banana!

Today I have been a parent for an entire decade!

A DECADE, people!

{3 months old}

It's hard to believe our “little” blessing turns 10 today. She is only one shoe size away from me and I’m women’s 10! Let’s take a moment of silence and pray that she grows into them.

                            { Age 2 - Cookie pop in pocket with Determination }
My pregnancy surprised us both and even more so when we learned she was a girl.

It took her all of about 30 seconds to have her daddy wrapped around her little finger, for life.

{Happy 8th Birthday}

She has such a sweet and loving sprit about her. Always putting others before her {even her little brother... sometimes}.

{Happy 6th birthday}

She walks in Christ and that makes our hearts sing.

{age 3}

She has taught us patience, that children thrive on consistent parenting and to learn to love the color pink.

{Happy 4th birthday}

She adores cupcakes, angel food cake and her mommy’s cherry
jell-o salad.

{ Happy 2nd birthday}

We cannot imagine our lives without her here. And can only dream what she will teach us and where she will take us in the next 10 years.

{Happy 3rd birthday}

For these are the children God has given me. God has been good to me. Genesis 33:5

{Happy 7th birthday}

Happy Birthday to our little Hannah!

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies...Even Better!

Every so often a sweet little soul will drop by my office with the most amazing Chocolate Chip cookies.

Finally one afternoon I asked her what her secret was. She said “Dear, it’s just the tollhouse recipe from the side of the bag”

What? I have been making those for years and mine have never tested this de-lish!


“Well, I change it up just a bit.”


Please, do tell?


Guess what she does?

Adds an additional ¼ cup of flour, 2 tsp vanilla {rather than one}, and all shorting.

I gave it a try and have never looked back. It is by far the easiest, consistent best tasting chocolate chip cookie I make.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies…Even Better!

2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Cup Shorting {no butter flavor}
¾ Cup sugar
¾ Cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 Large Eggs
2 Cups Chocolate Chips


Beat sugars and shorting to well blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix dry ingredients together and then mix into sugar mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.


Bake @ 375* for 10 min.

Meanwhile, as I was baking us a batch of these on Sunday afternoon, Gabe realized he could drag Hannah up and down the wood floors while she wore her new pink Snuggie.


I am thinking of getting a patient on this baby.

“Get your floors cleaned in one big giant swift{er}!”

I will be linking up at these great blogs today stop by if you get time
Tempt My Tummy - Tuesday At the Table - Tasty Tuesday

Goodwill Grandopening

It took my local Goodwill a few weeks after it’s “grand opening” to get back to normal.

And I am still trying to get used to the new lay out and feel of the store.


Before it was more like a true “dig through and find it yourself” kind of place. When they relocated it became more like a Dollar Store than Goodwill.


But now it is slowly turning back to the way I remembered it.


Here are a few things that I picked up this past week.

A nice set of glass vases for $4.00.

And a chair that spoke to me, and only $8 bucks!

I can’t wait to paint it and add some cushions to it. It’s going to look perfect in the bay window in my bedroom.

I will be linking up over here today here too!