HI, just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a wonderful weekend and let everyone know we are good and had no storm damage.  Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and emailed to check on us.  We have lots of fun things planned for this weekend that I will be sharing on Monday and I will have Sentimental Sunday up late Sunday afternoon so look for it then. 


God Bless,

Pasta Salad



HOW IN THE WORLD IS IT WEDNESDAY

ALREADY?!

Do you ever sit down to plan your day and realize you are two weeks behind already?

This has been my life the last week or two and will continue for a couple of more weeks.

It is all wonderful fun stuff and I want to enjoy every minute, so if I am nowhere to be found on this little blog of mine, know I am out doing research for new content, ha.

Yesterday was the last day of our Homeschool school, say that ten times fast. 

The girls uniforms are washed, dried, folded and put away.....until next year.

I can not believe another year is over, we have had so much fun and grown in so many ways.  I plan to do a recap of the year in a week or two when things settle down and I have time to reflect.  For now I want to share with you my

Pasta Salad Recipe.

Yesterday, in the class I teach we had a party and one of the things I made for it was Pasta Salad,

I had several people ask for the recipe so I thought I would go ahead and share it with you also.  It is a very easy recipe and one that you can add or take away ingredients with out a problem, well you may want to leave in the pasta, ha.

PASTA SALAD

1. 1 box Rotini Pasta, cook according to package, drain and cool

2. Cut 1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes in half

3. Peel, remove seeds and slice 1 cucumber

4. Cut 1/2 a cup of pepperoni in halves

5. Slice one can of black olives

6. Mix two packages of Good Seasons Dry Italian dressing with 1/2c. vinegar and 1/4c. olive oil mix well

7. Pour everything into a large bowl and combine

8. Find someone to share it with

9. Enjoy

Here is a peek inside my classroom yesterday.

We had so much fun, I have loved having the honor to teach each of my 36 girls this year, they have taught me much.  I am thankful that God has called me to this job, and feel very blessed.  Thank you to all the moms who shared their girls with me. 

I am linking at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Vintage Butterfly Print

Hi Ya,

hope you are having a beautiful day.

I wanted to stop in this afternoon to show you how I made my Vintage Butterfly art for my Spring Mantel. 

1.  I printed off a copy of it from This Blessed Nest, thanks Kellie.

2. I cut it into 4 equal parts

I loved the way this looked but knew for it to work in the frame I had it would have to be bigger.

3. I enlarged each of the four pieces to a full 8 1/2 x 11 page of card stock 

4. I trimmed all the edges

5. I spray painted a picture and frame that I had in storage.

Yes this is a picture my daughter painted, she painted it for her room a few years ago but then she wanted something different and was going to toss it.  I saved it knowing it would be used for something in the future, so please don't think I am a mean mommy.

6. Then I did what all professional framers do......

I grabbed some packets of Truvia and measured off where I wanted each of the prints to go.

7.  Then I used double sided tape to attach each of the prints

I love how it turned out and think it is the perfect Spring picture for my mantel.

I am linking this project at these great places

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Weekend Wrap-up at Tatertots and Jello 

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple

ShowOff our Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans

Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville

Be Different ... Act Normal Show and Tell Saturday

Mexican Meatloaf

This morning I thought I would share one of my families favor things to have for dinner

Mexican Meatloaf

I have never been a fan of meatloaf in the traditional form, something about the the slimy ketchup top has always grossed me out.  If you love it I promise we can still be friends and I am very aware that I am weird and this is probably just another example of my weirdness.  Oh back to my story, then one day my mom told me about this meatloaf that one of her friends was talking about..........

it had salsa in it.

Well that did it for me, just mention the word salsa and my ears perk up and my taste buds start dreaming.

So I got busy trying out different versions, until I came to the one we use now.

So with no more of my rambling involve,

I give you

Mexican Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef

1 pound ground turkey

2 eggs beaten

1 cup fresh salsa

1 & 1/2 cup crushed spicy cheese crackers

1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

Here is where you have a decision to make, I started making this recipe long before we started reading labels on food and for that reason I have always made it with Cheez-It Hot and Spicy cracker and I get the best result out of them.  You could however use a more naturally made cracker and add your own hot sauce.

Once you make your decision

pour the crackers in a bag and go to town crushing them.

Add to a large bowl

ground beef

ground turkey

eggs

crackers

and salsa

Mix ingredients just until combined

Fill a loaf pan with the mixture and sprinkle cheese onto the top.

Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until it is no longer pink in the middle.

I always double the recipe and remove one from the oven 10 minutes early, cool and freeze.  Then I have it to thaw and reheat for a meal on a busy night.

We love to eat Mexican meatloaf with corn on the cob and green beans.

Huuummmm, so do you like traditional meatloaf or do you make a different version like me???

I am linking this recipe at

Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff

The Shabby Chic Cottage's Tranformation Thursday

Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up

Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday

Firefliesand Jellybean's Show Off Your Stuff

Tales From Bloggeritaville's Thrifty Thursday

Be Different... Act Normal's Show and Tell Saturday

What a Fun Week

I just wanted to drop in tonight and remind everyone about the giveaways going on at The Shabby Chic Cottage.  My sweet friend Gina is celebrating her two year blog anniversary in style, she is having 5 giveaways.  

 1. Rachel's Handmade Natural Soap

2. Studio Jewel

3. Cha Cha's Treasures, Your truly

4. Bag Full of Posies

5. Easy Canvas Prints 

Head on over and enter each of the giveaways while there is still time,  then take a moment and tell Gina Thank You for inspiring us for last two years.

Spring Mantel, Butterfly Print

Good Monday Morning!

I hope you had a great weekend.

We had a wonderful weekend , one filled with....

rest.........Going to see Children of Eden (a musical)........

eating slushies (our first of the season)........

worshipping with our new church family........

and shopping for a new sofa.

We think we have found the one for us, it is not what we/I thought we would do but I think it is the right one for where our family is at right now.

This means I have to get busy today taking pictures of the room the way it is now.

Because we all love a good before and after, right.

But before I get busy making over our family room, I wanted to fit in a Spring Mantel makeover,

Spring is my favorite time of year to decorate. You can read about and see  Last year's Spring Mantel
This year I wanted something light and airy with a nature theme.

I love the way it turned out.

These three milk bottles are recent gift from a friend, she knows me well, and the sweet eggs inside are from my sister and the butter churn--the butter churn has been used in my family for years, oh my I will end up turning this into a Sentimental Sunday post if I am not careful.

The jar on the left is a gift from a dear client, sorry I can't help it--I am a sentimental fool.

And this botanical print it is a gift from my dear friend Kellie, the even better news is she has gifted it to everyone, just click here and go get your own copy.

Thank you Kellie.

I will be back later this week to show you how I made my botanical art,

and tomorrow I have an awesome recipe for Mexican Meatloaf to share.

Until tomorrow,



Sentimental Sunday #20 Wonder Horse

Hi Lovelies,

I has been one of those weeks..........

you know the kind where most everything goes wrong.

My knee and back have been acting up and I have spent far too much time bonding with my sofa.

No progress has been made on anything,

if you have met me for more than 5 minutes then you know I like to be productive.

The good news is I am feeling better and I have had plenty of time to plot and plan my next project.

Enough of my whining, lets get to the good stuff.

Today

I have a Wonder to show you

A WONDER HORSE

This sweet horse was mine when I was a little girl.  I had forgotten all about it until a few years ago when we went into my parents storage shed for something else and I saw it.  Needless to say I drug it out and cleaned it up.  I tried to find a place in the house to put it but had no luck, not wanting it to go back into the storage shed I decided to make it a home on the front porch.  Kids love it, every little one who comes to the house finds it and begs for a ride, and I am here to say 30 something years later my wonder horse is still going strong.

His handles have gotten lost somewhere over the years, but he is still a handsome steed.

He is still fuzzy and I love the saddle detail.

I hope my wonder horse made you wonder about things from your childhood.

What are you sentimental about this week?

Just grab the button off my sidebar and link up!

Consolidated Gold Mine - Dahlonega, GA

The girls and I took a field trip to Consolidated Gold Mine in Dahlonega, Ga.

If you have the chance to be in North Georgia I recommend this as a fun family adventure.

You can spend an afternoon there for less than $20 per person and in today's economy that is a rare find.

Each person is given a pan filled with sand and minerals and a quick lesson on how to get the sand out but keep the minerals in.

You spend you time over this trough  of water getting the sand out  until you get to the bottom and can see some flecks of gold,

REAL GOLD

the girls thought they were rich.

Here Faithful is working hard to find gold

Graceful worked hard for her gold also.

The excitment builds as the kids can look through this door into the dark hiden mine below.

You should have heard the theories these kids came up with for what they thought it would be like down there,  lets just say I did not trip over a huge gold rock.

The view going down into the mine.

You have to walk down these stairs into the mine and there is a fair amount of walking, so keep that in mind if you are traveling with little ones

Anywhere water is running it turns to rust because the iron content is so high.

 Tour guides are with you while in the mine, they are great at telling the story of the mine and also good with answering kids questions.

And this,

this big ,

huge,

hole

is the

GLORY HOLE.

This is were one of the largest veins  quartz containing gold in the world was discovered. 

Here our tour guide telling us how the rock was moved around in the mine.

This is one of the drills they used, becuse of this drill the miners would go deaf after the first month of work, frightening.

One of the holes dilled into the rock.

We had a day filled with learning and fun.