Simple Girl

While we are in the midst of the advent season, I just want to encourage you to light a candle.  When the days go by so quickly that you can't even grasp them in your hands, candles cause us to pause. When our to-do lists seem unmanageably long, candles give us a moment to reflect. Advent candles have long been a tradition in the Christian church. They help us tell the story of the Birth of Christ. As Christmas draws near, the increasing candle light reminds us of the star that shown over Bethlehem. Our anticipation swells with each additional candle lit. While typically placed in a round wreath, I like to change our candles a little every year to keep them relevant with our lives. This year I took apple red pillar candles and put them in vases from the dollar store.  I wrapped them with green raffia and clipped some chalkboard tags (from Target's dollar section) on each.  I labeled four of them for each of the four Sundays in advent and marked the middle ...

Hahaha!  I am so putting these in my kids lunch boxes tomorrow! Plastic Vampire Teeth stuck in the center of a bagel, topped with candy eyes. There is so much to love about being a mom! :-) HAPPY HALLOWEEN! xo Rachel Source:  Family Fun Magazine

School started yesterday. I'm somewhere in-between Yipee! and Sigh. Where did the summer go? One thing the girls and I love about back-to-school is school supply shopping!  A new school year. A fresh start. Sharp pencils. Crisp, coordinated folders. Who knew office supplies could create so much bliss? While we were shopping at Target, I spotted these adorable little tags:  Chalkboard!  Of course, the permanent chalkboard pens were right by their side. Arielle dressed to impress on her first day of middle school. She handed out apples to her teachers that were tied with green raffia and labeled with these cute chalkboard tags. Ella celebrated her 10th Birthday on the first day of school and attached the chalkboard tags to the ultimate first-day-of-school-birthday-goody-bags:  Clear pencil cases with some super fun (also from Target) school supplies! The possibilities are endless! THIS POST MAY BE LINKED TO:  MONDAYS :  ...

My baby boy turned 17 yesterday. Sigh. Just saying that out loud feels like an out of body experience. Seventeen? That's practically grown up! His sisters are already lamenting the inevitability that one day he will leave them and go off to college. They find themselves in the unending conundrum of wanting their big brother to stay at home forever and wanting to place dibs on his room. The way I see it, they are likely to lose both those battles. Fortunately, my boy still has a little more time at home.  Today he left, not for a lifetime, but for a  week-long missions trip. To Florida. Now, if the suffering is not in the destination, it might be in the transportation. A 27-hour bus ride to be exact. It just so happens that Florida is a lot further away from Minnesota than it is from Atlanta. I know. I'm good at geography like that. Since his birthday was yesterday, I decided it might be nice to send a little birthday treat for the 48 people making the trek - somet...

I have to admit, I have a penchant for cute food. So when I saw these on Pinterest, I knew I had to make them!  I mean, the only thing that could possibly be more fun than chocolate covered strawberries are chocolate covered strawberries that look like carrots!!  I'm telling you, pure genius! Here are a few tips so that you, too, can make these bunny-worthy carrots for Easter! First, wash your strawberries and let them dry on a paper towel.  Chocolate does not like to cling to wet strawberries! Next, pinch the strawberry stems toward the center to make them look like carrot tops! Dip the strawberries into your orange candy melts, covering as much of the strawberries as you can without coating the green stems. To make the strawberries look even more carrot-like, drizzle more orange across the strawberries to give it a lovely striated effect. Make sure you keep an eye on them or some bunny will gobble them up! THIS POST MAY BE...

It's one of those seasons when my life's on plan B. And I'm OK with that. One of the life skills that I try to teach my kids is how to think outside the box to come up with solutions when things don't go the way we plan. And as we know, things hardly ever go the way we plan! Cupcake Decorating Part y at our house for Ella's August Birthday. "Birthday" Breakfast with Santa. Blog-worthy cookies for Youth Night.   Cookies purchased at Church Bake Sale for Youth Night. Shopping done by Thanksgiving . Shopping started December 8th. Delicious Homemade Goodies for Teacher Gifts.  Trader Joe's Peppermint Pretzel Slims. Coffee Cards with Festive Envelopes . Coffee Cards with no envelopes. That's right.  I bought 40 coffee shop gift cards and they didn't have any envelopes. On to plan B! As I was getting a sleeve for my hot chocolate, it occurred to me that the cute little sleeves were just about the same size as the gift cards.  ...

When your kids go to a Sugar Free School, sometimes you have to think outside the box when it comes to birthdays.   I was willing to give up the sugar, but I wasn't willing to give up the cake! This Sugar Free Gum Cake provided the perfect solution for celebrating our teacher's birthday last week! It was surprisingly easy to put together.  First of all, start with two styrofoam cake rounds. (Available at Michael's.) Buy some contrasting grosgrain ribbon and cut each piece an inch longer than the circumference of each cake. Fasten the ribbon with pearl corsage pins (also available at Michael's) at the top of each cake.  I love how the pearls give it some dressmaker detail! You can reinforce the ribbon with a few glue dots. Attach two glue dots to the back of each pack of gum.  Attach the gum around the outside of the cake. For added reinforcement, tie some more ribbon around the packs of gum.   Add more glue dots to th...

My girls are turning into little crafters and so, on their own, they found some Pinterest inspiration and made these cute little glowing milk carton faces. I love Pinterest.  And I love projects that the kids can do ALL BY THEMSELVES! The faces were just  drawn on with a Sharpie.  Cut a hole in the back of the carton to insert the (battery operated) candle. Oh, yeah.  And don't forget to rinse the milk carton first!