A 6 year-old's battle with Leukemia

I haven't been a part of the blog-o-sphere in months and I miss it! Needless to say life has been busy in both good and very tough ways! 

My 6 year old cousin was diagnosed with Leukemia in January and is busy fighting extremely hard to win this battle. He has been such a brave little boy and continues to smile daily. Please visit his Facebook story to learn more about him and his story and to spread awareness. He is in need of so much prayer and support but we know that prayer can make miracles happen. With God all things, even complete healing is possible. 

You can find, like and share Ben's Story at

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bens-Story/202515846618976?ref=hl


I hope to begin blogging more soon but for now it is time to focus on family. 

God bless

Food Friday: Diet Soda Chocolate Cupcakes

Got the itch for baking again but after making strawberry cupcakes for my sister's bridal shower last week I decided to try to save some calories by trying the diet soda chocolate recipes I've seen on the web.

Recipe:

didn't use a specific site and just went ahead and grabbed a triple chocolate Duncan Hines boxed cake mix and 12oz. Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. While I know diet soda isn't good I figure it's not bad to use in small portions especially if it saves calories! I then baked according to the box minus the water, oil and eggs.

For the frosting I made simple dark chocolate ganache, using 1 bag Toll House Dark Chocolate chips and 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream. I poured them together and placed the bowl in the microwave for 1 min just enough to heat the cream and melt the chocolate. Whisk the cream and chocolate together to thicken.

These cupcakes were simple, easy and surprisingly delicious!

Simple Saturday: Bridal Shower

Thought I'd share the ideas I used from Pinterest for my sister's bridal shower this past weekend. First, I began the planning (since I'm the maid of honor) by asking all the bridesmaids if they were able to help and contribute items, time and money to the event. I am blessed and all were willing and able to help. We met once to plan who was doing what, then communicated through Facebook messaging, a spreadsheet and phone calls to make sure everything was taken care of. In the end it ended up being fun to set up and with all the help it was much less stressful!

The Idea: Attached to the invite was a recipe card and instructions to the guests to write down a favorite recipe and then if they wanted to to bring a small portion of that recipe to the shower. Everyone brought something delicious and it actually ended up being WAY too much food! The guests then brought their recipe card and dish to the shower and dropped the recipe card off in a recipe gift box for the bride.

The Decor: ( Again, I'm new to blogging so I didn't take as many pics as I should have!)

We tried to keep it simple with a red, pink and cream color scheme and it ended up being beautiful. The pictures are at the end of this post :)

Gifts for the Bride:

Advice Spoons: (Guests wrote advice on the wooden spoon with a sharpie)

Mugs : (Guests wrote a special note pm two mugs, one for the bride and the other for the groom)

Games

The Pin Game: Guests get a pin when they enter and throughout the party can't say three words related to getting married. Our words were the groom's name, wedding and honeymoon. If someone hears you say one of those words then they get to take all your pins. The one with the most pins at the end of the day wins!

Guess the Panties Game: Buy a bunch of cute panties in the bride's size and stuff them in a jar. Have the guests guess the number of panties in the jar. The person closest to the number wins a gift and the bride keeps the cute undies!

Pass the gift: (my sister found this game, and I'm not sure where she got the idea so I will ask)

Unscramble The Wedding Words: Each guest gets a list of jumbled words that I printed FREE from here and then within 1:30 secs whoever can figure out the most words wins!

Toilet Paper Dress: Divide the guests into teams of 3 or 4 and give them 2-3 rolls of toilet paper then have them dress one member of the group within 3 minutes. The judge or bride get to decide what team made the best dress! The winning team gets a prize!

The party ended up being so much fun and everyone left commenting on how much fun they had and how beautiful it was.

What bridal shower ideas do you have?

Teachable Tuesday: Teaching Emotions

For some children knowing and understanding their own and others emotions can be difficult. Some children have a difficult time identifying emotions properly as well as expressing their own emtoions appropriately. Use the packet I made to help teach and model emotions with your kids or as a class. Classroom management is essential to a thriving, well functioning, stress free environment. Students need to be able to identify emotions and respond accordingly. Before you plan any curriculum this summer make sure you have an in-depth management plan and check out Harry Wong's, The First Days of School. It is an amazing resource for any and all teachers! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't forget to check out all my free products and the other fun items in my store :)

 

Have a happy day!!!

 

Sunny Sunday: Dr. Seuss in relation to our faith!

It is an understatement to say that I love Dr. Seuss and all of his books (especially as a teacher) so I was more than thrilled to find out that this summer our pastor will linking a new Dr. Seuss book to the Bible every Sunday this summer! So EXCITED!

This week our pastor gave an amazing sermon linking Dr. Seuss's book Horton Hatches the Egg to our faith. Here's a quick synopsis on what was discussed this Sunday and how unbelievably true it is!

In the book Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton offers to warm the egg for lazy Mayzie. Horton through trials and largely bad events refuses to budge from the nest and remains faithful to the egg. The egg obviously wasn't his biological egg but he stayed anyway and vowed to be the egg's forever family no matter what. In the end Mayzie watches the egg hatch and tries to take it back leaving Horton feeling defeated and sad. When the egg hatches it is a bird that looks like an elephant! Proving that the egg belongs to Horton. :)


There are two parallels in relation to this story of God's love and our faith:

1) We are God's adopted children. God can be viewed as our Horton. He remains faithful and is our loving adoptive parent who showers us with unconditional love. God's love is persistent and 100% faithful! This truth is so good!

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful one-hundred percent!”
― Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg 

2) Horton can also be the example of the faith we are called to have. Horton remained faithful but can we remain faithful as well? We will have numerous trials and tribulations in our lives just as Horton did but it is in those times and all times that we must trust and be faithful to God. This is also a strong reminder of the story of Job. Job was pushed to denounce his faith but always stood strong and firm in his faith. So...just as God remains 100% faithful so must we as well.

God is so good. It's so easy to say that when things in our lives are the way we want them to be but the statement doesn't change as our circumstances change. God is good. Period. Always. Forever.

What are your thoughts? Please share!

Foodie Friday: Drink more water!!!

We all know that water is essential and that most of us don't drink enough. As I've said before I really don't like water but I figuring out how important it truly is. So... here's another quick water recipe I came up with that I really enjoy. I love flavoring water, it makes me feel so exotic!

Recipe:

3 cups water
Slices of cucumber (to taste)
A handful of raspberries (frozen or fresh -mine aren't quite ripe yet so I used frozen)
2 sprigs of mint (fresh from my garden)
Squirts of lemon juice (to taste)

Mix and enjoy! So simple and so delicious!

Drink more water and feel better!!!!

What are some of your favorite water recipes?

Simply Saturday: Favorite workouts for when you just don't feel like it!

On this crazy journey to lose weight I have found definite go to workouts that keep me motivated. Sometimes I just don't feel like working out, even when I know I will be proud and feel great afterward, getting going can be difficult! On those days I usually choose one of the workouts listed below because I know once I get started I will be happy I did!

Here's my list of 4 favorite workouts:

1) 20min Turbo Jam or 40min Cardio Party Mix 1- I love these workouts because they are extremely upbeat and they fly by. I know by the end that I have worked hard because each and every time I end up sweating like crazy! After the 20min workout I almost always add in another 20min of weight lifting and even if I don't I still feel like I accomplished something for the day :) It also helps if I've had a busy day and can't find 60min for a workout.

2) Run/Walk- I have dogs and I know that they need and love exercise so I feel horrible if I don't take them out daily for a quick run or fetch session. The days that I just play fetch I feel lazy because I know my dogs and I can both get our exercise if we go for a run so lately I've been convincing myself to just get out there and do it! I tell myself to just get out there for 20min and run/walk as needed and once I get out there I find that I always go at least 30-60min instead. I'm not the best runner yet so I alternate between 3/4-1mile jog/running followed by 1/4mile walk and then I repeat. I like to use Run Keeper as an app to track my progress.

3) The 400, 300, 200, 100 workout. This workout is exhaustive but I love it because I know I have accomplished something big afterward and I get to watch TV while doing it! I've looked up each of the exercises completed in this workout and the average person who completes this workout will burn about 1,000 calories! That's a huge amount for me! Anyway, here are the exercises:

400-Jumping Jacks
300- Crunches
200-Squats
100- Push Ups

Break those numbers up into 6 or 7 different sets and you got yourself a killer workout!

4) Frisbee Golf- If you've never been Frisbee golfing before, look it up and get out there and go! Not only is it free but it makes for great exercise!  My last adventure ended up totaling a 6mile hike and over 1,000calories burned and I didn't even really notice because I was busy playing the game!

What are some of your favorite workouts?

Have a happy healthy day!