Lisa: Thankful!

Hello, again!  I hope everyone had a terrific weekend.  We did here with our foot of snow that fell from Thursday night till Sunday morning!  We made snowmen, forts, igloos and lots of snowballs!  There was even talk about sleeping in snow caves but I think we'll leave that for another time.  We didn't do sledding yet.  We are waiting till there is a nice base on our favorite hill up American Fork Canyon.  (Shaun, wanna go with?)  That is a favorite tradition in our home.  We sled and sled until everyone is thoroughly sick of it and then we have some homemade soup that we packed up with us.  Good times!

Two weekends ago, my family got to participate in a 5K in support of my husband's Uncle Dean who was just recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.  

Dean, on the left, with some of children and their spouses.

This uncle and his family are amazing!  Instead of looking at this as devastating, they have decided to pull together and be grateful for all that they have.  Being a family of runners and iron man competitors, they put together an opportunity for everyone to come out and support Dean with a Team IronDean 5K!  

My kids and their papa in the background!

My girls and husband after the race.

It was a cold morning but they had over 450 people out in support of Dean.  It was wonderful to see them and see their attitude.  They are inspiring!!

It was a great opportunity to have especially right before Thanksgiving.  It helped me to remember how an "attitude of gratitude" can change a life!  Earlier in the year, my family and I started a gratitude jar. 

 We write things we have done, things that are said and, overall, just things that we've experienced as a family and are thankful for.  We plan on opening it on Thanksgiving and reading them out loud.  

As the quote on the jar says, "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of Life!"  

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Lisa

Lisa: Election Night

Hello, everyone!  Happy Election Day to you all!  My family and I are very excited about this time of year and today most especially!  My daughter got upset yesterday when she thought I was going to turn off the news because she just wanted to hear as much as she could about the elections!  It probably helped that when our ballots came in the mail this year, I let my two youngest help me fill in the candidates that we are voting for.  They feel invested and interested which is what I'd like to teach them about elections in America! To help all my children (and my nephew who is now living with us!) understand the importance of voting and our democracy, I have a few other plans for tonight.

First of all:


 I found a map that the children can color red or blue as the exit polls come in and we can tally the electoral votes.

Another thing is to have a dinner with red and blue themes:


Drinks of red, white and blue.

I have some food planned but no pictures yet!  I'll post them when I do.

Don't forget to get out and vote!  Have a fantastic day!

Lisa

Lisa: Eyeball Pie and Some Ghostly Friends!!

Hello!!  I am very excited about this time of year!  I love the fall and the beginning of the Holiday Season.  The cool weather, nice storms and the excitment for our traditions just makes it so enjoyable! 

I have a few traditions that my kids, my husband and I have formed over the years.  I tend to be the room mother of one of their classes so we have Halloween Parties at school that I am incharge of.  I try to have four stations that the kids rotate through: a craft, a food, and two game stations.  One of the crafts that we do that is very easy and popular (because it invovles candy!) is:

Tissue Paper Ghosts

These are super easy, especially for the younger children.  I think my sisters will remember these because we use to make them growing up!  They are simple but so fun for the kids to make and decorate the house with! 

Supplies:
Kleenex Tissues
Lollipops
Ribbon/Yarn
Sharpie/Marker

Directions:
Cover a lollipop with a tissue.  Tie around the top of the stick to keep the tissue in place.  Draw a face onto the tissue.  Easy.  You probably didn't even need instructions!
 
Another tradition that we do during the month of October is Halloween food.  We love to come up with scary/gross food to eat.  But not too scary or gross!!  I thought I'd share with you one of those recipes.  This one is called:

Eyeball Pie   

























Ingredients:
1 medium potato, shredded and drained (or just squeeze out the juice)
4 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/4 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 c. butter, melted
salt and pepper to taste
4-8 eggs

Directions:
Take 4 mini pie tins and divide the shredded potato between them.   Press the potato up the sides and bottom of the tin.  Drizzle 1-2 teaspoons of butter over potatoes in each pie tin.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake in 425 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes begin to crisp.  Then, into the hashbrown crust, sprinkle bacon and cheese.  Over the top of the pie, add a cracked egg or two.  Salt and pepper the egg, to taste.  Finally, drizzle the remaining butter over the top of the eggs and put back into a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  It is really a nice breakfast treat.  My picky child even declared she wanted this every morning (but to be honest, she'd say that about anything with bacon!).

And finally, what is Halloween without decorations?  I love Halloween decor but not the scary stuff.  I prefer the cute!  One of the things I got last year were these

 Mummy Blocks

These are so cute and easy to make but they are one of my kids' favorite decorations!

 

Supplies:

Wood of any size

White craft paint

White fabric, torn into 1" wide strips

Googley eyes

Black craft paint

Sponge brush

Glue gun

 

Directions:

Take you wood pieces and paint white.  When paint is dry, wrap blocks with fabric, making sure to put a little bit of glue under the fabric each time your wrap it around the side of the block.  Next take your black paint and just dry brush the edges of the block and bandages, in the manner you see above.  Finally, glue on your googley eyes and there you go.  Simple and awesome!

 

Well, there are a few of our traditions for this time of year!  Hope you enjoy!

 

 

Lisa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa: A Quick Post

Hello, there!  I thought I'd sneak a quick post in before Allison gets her's posted.  I have been a slacker.  We've had some situations arise (some expected and others not expected) that I needed to give my full attention to!  But, hopefully, those situations are now under control and I'm ready to begin again.  I'm sad I've missed so many great opportunities to post because fall is my favorite time of year, just as it seems to be all of my sisters!!  Well, I'll be posting some of our favorite traditions, crafts and food coming up in the next few weeks.  Hopefully that will make up for my missed posts!  Have a wonderful week!

Lisa

Lisa: Being a Scout Mom

Hello again!  Sorry, everyone, about last week.  I'm not fired, am I?!  I'll pretend I'm not. :)

So this week I thought I'd give you some of my ideas on being a Scouting Mom.  I have two boys, as you may know, and both are involved in Scouts.  My eldest got his Eagle rank last year and my youngest is still in Cubs.  With all that scouting, I have found a few things that really work for me in keeping organized and helping my boys!  Hopefully they are a help to you, too!

The first is clear nylon thread. 



Now, as you may also know, I am not the best seamstress. I try but don't really sew straight! This thread is the perfect solution for me.

See?  You can't really notice it.  Well, if you look closely you can but not from a distance!

 

It is available at most stores in their thread section.

Another useful thing is tot use baseball card holders to keep the blue cards they give with the scout awards.



 When the boys go for their Eagle, they have to prove they earned their awards and know the dates they were awarded their different ranks and badges.  This is perfect to keep the blue cards organized and have all that information when they need it.  Plus it is nice for them to look at and see what they need to earn still.

 

Here's some of my oldest boy's cards in the holders.  I just kept it all in a three ringer binder along with the merit badges he was working on and camp info. and projects, etc.  It is a little easier now that everything has gone digital but it is still nice to keep a hard copy in case a badge goes missing or isn't awarded.  I found these at Hobby Lobby.

 

The last thing I'd like to show you is a mother's ribbons that I got from our local scout shop.

 

 

It has one side for all the Cub Scout Mother's Pins and another side for the Boy Scout Mother's Pins (These are someone else's ribbon, by the way. I don't have a picture of mine!).  Like I said, I bought mine but these could be very easy to make and it is a lot easier for the boys to pin onto rather than their mom's shirt!

 

There you are.  A few ideas for how to help as the mom of a Boy Scout!  See you next week!

 

Lisa

Lisa: Caprese Chicken with Balsamic Reduction

Hello, again!  Anyone else ready for fall and cooler weather?  I cannot wait!  We just had our Fall Festival at my children's school and I was going to post pictures of the Bake Sale portion that I was in charge of but, unfortunately, I didn't get any taken because almost right away, my youngest son broke his arm while getting out of the bounce house!  I won't give you details because it still makes me queasy but we spent part of the night at the ER.  He was really brave and didn't cry or make a fuss.  At one point, though, when he had to sit up for an x-ray he turned pale and he told us "Um...I kind of feel like I'm going to fall asleep right now!"  We took him right away to lay down so he didn't pass out!  Needless to say, I'm ready for no drama!  I'm ready for cool, snuggle-down-with-a-warm-blanket kind of days.  For stay-indoors-and-avoid-bounce-house kind of days!  Hopefully fall comes really quickly and brings those sorts of days! 

As summer is winding up around these parts, I thought I would share with you a recipe that my sister-in-law made for me once: Caprese Chicken with Balsamic Reduction.

 

 It sounds fancy but is really quite easy and so tasty!  If you like balsamic vinegar, then this is the recipe for you!!  You can find the recipe here. 

Well, that's it for me this week.  Next week I'll try to be more creative!!

Lisa






 

Lisa: Moving and Eating!

Well, here we are.  What a difference a week makes!  My family and I have moved from our little house in the wilds and back into suburbia.  I have to keep reminding everyone not to yell and be to wild since we have neighbors now.  We like our little rental and are glad to be done lifting, packing and moving but we also long for permanence.  I guess, though, with all this moving about, we are creating adventures for ourselves and our children!!

This weeks post is another easy one but such a delicious salad, I just had to share!!  Here at my house, we have certain days in the week for certain foods: Mondays and Thursdays are fish, Tuesdays are salads or soups, Wednesdays are meat free, Fridays are fun days like tacos or burgers or pizza, Saturdays are the days my husband and I go out so the kids make their own meals and Sundays are our big dinners of the week with a roast or something like that.  I like to try to find easy but delicious salad recipes, since that sometimes doesn't seem like a meal (at least to my teenager!).  This one is perfect and such a good light summer meal. 

Teriyaki Chicken Salad with Avocado and Mandarin Oranges

1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2-1 bunch green onions, chopped
2-3 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped
1/2 bag of coleslaw mix cabbage

*Combine and chill.

1c. Teriyaki sauce
1 lb. chicken breast

*Marinade the chicken for at least 15 minutes.  Cook on grill or in a pan until cooked through.  Set aside.

1-2 avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
1-2 cans of Mandarin oranges, drained
your favorite sesame dressing
slivered almonds, optional

*To serve, place the lettuce mixture on a plate and top with chicken, avocado, mandarin oranges, and almonds, if desired.  Pour over your favorite sesame dressing and serve. 

It is delicious!  All of my family loves this one, although some don't like the avocado.  If I serve this for lunch for my hubby and me, I usually don't have it with the chicken and it still is so good.  The lettuce mixture of cabbage, Romaine, cilantro and green onion is perfect for a side for the rest of the week, as well.  It's an all around great meal!!  I hope you enjoy!!

Lisa

Lisa (on behalf of Allison): The Most Amazing Post Yet!

Lisa here!  As you might have guessed, our dear sister, Allison, has had her beautiful little girl, Norah!

 

Welcome little one!!  What a sweet little thing this new baby is!  Both mother and baby are doing well and are busy resting.

Allison and little Norah!!  I believe with this little one, Allison has won the craftiest sister of the week, month and year awards!!

 

What a wonderful little family!

 

Well, Allison.  We all hope your recovery is swift and easy!  Send lots of pictures of your new one and her older sister!!  We love you all so much, Allie!!

 

Lisa   

Lisa: Favorites on Pinterest

Hello, again!  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  We did here with the start up of soccer season for my kiddos and an extended family party for my husband's side of the family!  Very fun weekend but now, back to work!!  We are packing like mad at my house and nearly have the basement done.  On to the main floor tomorrow!  Whew!  Who knew I was such a pack rat!  My husband consoles me by saying that I would definitely not make it onto the Hoarders show!  Well, at least there's that!

For this week's post, I am taking the lazy way out!!  I want to show you some of my favorite pins from Pinterest this week.  I am addicted.  I have considered getting another account just so those that are currently following me don't think that I do nothing but pin.  I just have a lot of free time, like, at stop lights and waiting in the line at the grocery store.  Just kidding!  I have never done those two things (I think!) but I do love Pinterest so here goes!  (Some of the following do not have links but I have provided the ones I do have!)


Bring on fall!! This Roasted Sweet Corn and Tomato Soup sounds like a great fall dinner!




Raise your hand if you know where this is!



(It's Haystack Rock, FYI!)

The hours spent watching these movies and reading the books!!  Time well used!




This is awesome!




I have had this Raspberry Jello Salad and it is delicious!!





There's not much privacy here but what an amazing view!




A Bored Jar .  When the kids say they're bored, they have to pull out a slip and do what it says.  It may be to clean their room or do something fun.  Hmm.... the possiblities!


 

These boots would be so perfect for the sloshy, muddy mess we get around these parts with any moisture!

 

Well, there are a few of the ones I liked.  Funny, but I noticed a trend towards fall and home.  I think I'm ready for cooler weather and no moving!!  See you next week!

 

 

Lisa

Lisa: Baby Blankets and Carmel French Toast

Wow, that weekend just flies by, doesn't it?  I never get everything done that I want to in a weekend and now we've got our children's sports events, school and all its activities and a move thrown on top!  Yes, we are moving but just to temporary housing until our new house can be built.  We were going to wait to move until our new house was built before we even put our current house up for sale but some very nice people came up and asked if they could buy it.  Well, long story short, we agreed and have to be out in a week and a half!  I'm trying not to stress out and instead look at this as a blessing!  In the meantime, we are a little busy here!  But really, a full, busy life is better than an empty, boring one, right?!!

So, last week I told you about some projects I completed.  I had to wait until I had mailed them but I can now show the baby blankets I made for the new babies coming to our family!

Katrina and Allison's baby blankets made with a granny ripple stitch!

These were super easy to do with the tutorial found here.  I'm not an amazing crocheter but I found these instructions easy to use and (with lots of photos) they were very easy to follow along with.

All my kids have now asked for a blanket with this stitch for Christmas!  I think I know what I am doing with my weekends from now till then!

Now on to my real post: Caramel Sour Dough French Toast (the longer the name, the better the recipe is what I've heard:)!!

For birthdays around my house, we do requests.  Usually those end up being crepes, chocolate gravy and biscuits or a favorite pancake recipe (and bacon, of course)!  Well, this year there was a request for sour dough french toast which I don't have a recipe for so I thought I'd wing it.  I think in the future, I'll bake these but I'll give you the recipe as I made it.  Warning: These are very sweet and rich!!  Most of my kids only had one piece but they loved them! 

Caramel Sour Dough French Toast

1 loaf good sour dough bread, sliced into 1" thick slices

8 eggs

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, finely chopped

Combine eggs and milk.  Add vanilla.  Place bread cut side down in a large baking dish and pour egg mixture over the top.  Let sit for a few minutes.  Turn them over and let sit for a few minutes again.  All the egg mixture should absorb into the bread.

While the bread is sitting, combine brown sugar, cinnamon and butter.  (If baking the french toast, just sprinkle over the top.)  Next, just dredged the bread into the brown sugar mixture.  You might have to press it into the bread to get it to stick!  I then heated my flat top to 250-300 degrees.    On the flat top, the brown sugar mixture made a nice caramel coating to the french toast.  I still flipped the french toast when slightly browned, like you would with normal french toast.  If baking, heat oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 35 minutes or until light brown.  We topped with whipped cream because no birthday can pass without it!  Delicious!

Have great week!

Lisa

Lisa: Bruschetta

Welcome to another week at Five Crafty Sisters!  I am very happy because I finished two projects this past weekend!  This is big for me because usually I get 3/4 of the way into a project and get distracted or bored and don't finish.  Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but not too much!  I will show you the finished project maybe on Friday but for sure by Monday.  I first have to mail them to their prospective recipients.

For today's post, I thought I'd show you a terrific use for all those summer tomatoes that are in abundance this time of year: Bruschetta.  Now, this is a dish that I think everyone has a recipe for but this is so fantastic that I thought I'd share it with you anyway!!  Most recipes I've seen don't have garlic in the tomato mixture so if you don't like raw garlic feel free to leave it out!

Bruschetta
5 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
5 large leaves basil, diced
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 French baguette, sliced to 1/4"-1/2" slices
1/4-1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

Place sliced bread onto a cookie sheet cut side up.  Place under broiler until bread is lightly toasted.  Take out of oven and turn bread slices over.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and put back under broiler until bread is lightly toasted.  Set aside.
Combine chopped tomatoes, minced garlic, diced onion and basil in a bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir to combine.  Serve tomato mixture over your bruschetta for a delicious and light summer treat! 

Hope you have a fantastic week!

Lisa

Lisa: Cleaning Tips Revealed!!

Good Monday morning to you all!!  I hope you had a fabulous weekend!  We had a superb one with a baptism of our nephew, date night with my hubby and me and a wonderful get together at our house with my in-laws.  It was great! 

Well, I have the results of my cleaning tips that I am ready to share with you!  Some were really worth the effort and others are no different that putting a little elbow grease into it.  So without further delay, I give you the results!

1) Cleaning the grate from a gas stove top with ammonia.



Results: Definitely worth it!!  I wasn't thinking but my grates are twice as big as this one pictured so I put all three of them in a large garbage bag and poured the ammonia in.  I twist tied the end and made sure there were no leaks.  I left and was ready to let them sit overnight.  Well, my husband went downstairs and discovered after three hours that, of course, the ammonia had leaked through the bag.  We pulled the grates out and discovered that the parts of the ammonia that had gotten a good soak were super easy to clean.

 We just had to basically wipe off the crude instead of scrubbing forever to get a bit off.  The parts of the grate that didn't sit in the ammonia were really messy,still, and hard to clean.

 I think next time, I'll put them in a tote tray and pour the ammonia in and cover them over night.  But over all, I am really pleased to have so easy a solution for such a hard problem!!

2) Soak your knives in lemon juice to get rid of rust spots



Results:  It kind of worked.  It did make it slightly easier to remove the rust stains but it still required a lot of scrubbing.  I guess any help is good, though, right?!  Here are my before and after knife pictures.

Well, I guess this cleaning tip got me to clean my knives, so....success??

3) Using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean off my cookie sheet.

Results: Failed!!  It did not help and using a green scrubby seemed a whole lot more successful at getting the pan clean than the Magic Eraser.  I had high hope for you, Mr. Power!!  I also heard that if you put some in your toilet bowl, it would clean it over night.  It didn't.  But, as always, the Magic Eraser worked wonders on cleaning off the walls and moldings in my house.  It even got rid of the black scuff mark on my garage door where someone karate chopped the door close.  Nicely done, my Ninjas! Nicely done!

Well, that's it for me!!  Hopefully this helped anyone who wanted to know!  See you next week!
Lisa

Friday Favorites: Cleaning Tips/Tricks

Welcome to another Friday!  Today's topic kind of shows the lack of motivation I've felt this week.  At the same time, it's a little ironic, because I'm not a cleaner.  I am an organizer, but NOT a cleaner.  I'm pretty good at keeping things surface clean, but deep cleaning is not something that I've ever been good at.  Just ask my husband or past roommates.

This is a pic from the link... I wish mine looked this nice,
and this is her before picture!

But this week, I'm going to share a tip that I'd heard about from others, but didn't actually try until I was so fed up with the problem that I finally did something about it.  That's usually how I roll.

We have a flat-top stove.  I hate it.  Our last place had one too, but at least that stove top was black.  You could see the burnt-on food stains, but you could pretend they weren't not there for a little while.  Our current stove top is white.  WHITE!!  Who would do that?  Every single drop of food shows up and I hate it.  I can't wait to have a gas range or even those ugly spiral burners.  Anything would be better.

Having never experiences a flat-top stove before, I took our previous landlord's advice and used the scrub he left for us.  It worked good enough, but took some elbow grease and usually resulted in some sore arms the next day (sad, I know).  In our current house, I found some cleaner at Wal Mart that has more or less got the job done, but takes SO MUCH WORK, that I usually let it go until the entire surface of each burner is disgusting and embarrassing.  Then I found a pin on Pinterest that saved me.  Here is the website it linked to.  The basic idea is to sprinkler baking soda on the stove top, cover with a warm cleaning rag, and let it sit for 15 minutes.  It creates this kind of paste, and then you scrub it around the stained areas.  THAT'S IT!!  Seriously?  I felt kind of dumb after seeing how much easier it was.  Most of the stains come off pretty easily.  Some still took some scrubbing, but eventually came out too.

I'm so glad I found this tip/trick!  It's probably not new to anyone else, but there has to be at least one person out there who has the same problem, and is as clueless as I was.  :)  Hope this helped!  Have a great weekend!!

Allison
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Nice, Allie!  I'm going to have to try that on my gas cooktop.  It always looks a little less than sparkling clean! 

Well, for my turn on this post I thought I'd share with you a couple of cleaning tips that I had heard about but haven't tried yet.  I'll try them this weekend and give you the results on Monday with my weekly post.  They are tips I've seen on Pinterest (love that place!) but seem too good to be true!  First let me say, I really don't like to clean!  I love a clean house but always seem to have a hard time maintaining the level of clean I'd like.  Maybe it is because my beautiful babies/teenagers haven't mastered the idea that they should clean up after themselves!!  So, anytime I can find a shortcut to hours of scrubbing, I'll take it!!

1) How to clean the grates on your gas stove.


This one appears relatively easy.  Just put the grate into a gallon sized zip bag and put a little ammonia in with it.  Let it soak 12 hours and rinse.  Easy.  Hopefully it works because I hate scrubbing those things!!

2)How to remove rust spots from your knives.


Just put the knives in with some lemon juice, let them soak, do a quick scrub with a green scrubby pad and done.  I hope it is this easy!

3) How to clean your stained cookie sheets.

I don't have a picture for this one but they recommend scrubbing with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  I do love how amazing those erasers are!!

So, there you are.  I'll let you know the results!!  Hopefully it is magically cleaned!!  Have a great weekend!
Lisa

Lisa: Olympic Medals

Olympic Medals

Hello, hello!!  What a fun week with the Olympics coming up!  We are very excited here to see, hear and read about our favorite events!  One of the things that I did for my kids was to make them Olympic medals.  They are super easy and a fun way for kids to participate and feel part of the Olympic Games!

Supplies:
Licorice Ropes (I couldn't find them so I used individually wrapped licorice taped together)
Chocolate Coins
Glue or Tape

Directions:
Tape or glue the ends of the licorice rope together and glue or tape on the chocolate coin.  Easy and fun. 

My kids each declared that they were the gold medal winner and posed for some fun photos!

Hope you are enjoying the Olympics and GO USA!!!

Lisa