Hubby Hits the Kitchen Again

We only have basic cable at our house, mostly because we have our internet service through the cable provider and that would cost us twice as much if we didn't get some cable, too. Crazy, I know. But that's the way they suck you in...

So whenever we are on a trip (i.e. at a hotel or somewhere with LOTS of cable channels) I love watching The Food Network. I think Vince secretly likes to watch it, too, although he always says he's only watching it with me.

But a couple of weeks ago~while at the hotel in El Dorado, AR~he got inspired to cook again! This time it was something I just wasn't sure about: shrimp & grits. Now don't get me wrong, I love shrimp, just about any way you can fix it. But grits? I do have some texture issues and grits falls into that gross texture category for me. But Vince likes grits and he was just drooling over this recipe (from a Throwdown with Bobby Flay episode). So last Saturday he made us some.

Chef Vince

his cast of characters

making the shrimp all spicy

it smelled sooooo good!

look where he put the recipe~on his *crack*berry

it dished up very pretty, didn't it?

And I must say, it was pretty yummy! Even if I didn't really get into the grits, they were a nice compliment to the spicy shrimp. I don't think I could do them alone, but they didn't have a strong flavor~just mild cheeseyness~and they helped balance the very spicy shrimp nicely. Vince did a great job on this dish! Thanks, Hon!!

If you'd like to make this, you can find the recipe here. Enjoy!

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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