Sunday Funday.

I'm sure I've said this before but Sundays are a notoriously busy day around our house, especially Sunday mornings.  Andy works his 2nd job 7 days a week and goes straight from his cleaning job to downstairs at the church to start doing sound check, etc. 

Which means grumpy Mama, who doesn't like to wake up early is also in charge of getting myself and the three kiddos up, dressed & fed in time to go downstairs for church by 10am.  This is probably not a big deal for other awesome Moms that can set their alarms and jump out of bed like they mean it.  Not for me.  I procrastinate, I check Facebook, I hit snooze, I complain and then I start running around like a chicken with my head cut off. 

So I'm gonna switch it around on this blog and give you a recipe first!  You might like this if you hate reading my writing or came here just to eat.  Makes sense.  But since Sunday mornings are so crazy it helps if I am smart enough to plan ahead and bake something on Saturday that the kids and adults scrambling to get everything done have something to grab and eat while getting ready.

This Sunday's breakfast was......

Snickerdoodle Muffins! 

I made these ones especially for the Praise Leader of our family since Snickerdoodle's are his favorite cookie.  I also figured all the kids would actually eat them since they don't really contain anything that might be considered good for you.  But oh well, cause they are tasty!

adapted from www.eatmedelicious.com

2 Sticks unsalted butter, room temp.

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla

2 eggs

3/4 tsp. Baking Soda

3/4 tsp. Baking Powder

3/4 tsp. Cream of Tartar

3/4 tsp. Freshly Grated Nutmeg

1 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt

2 1/4 cups AP flour

For the coating:

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbs. cinnamon

[1] In a stand mixer cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  A few minutes.

[2] Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, waiting for each egg to incorporate.

[3] In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.

[4] Alternating flour mixture and yogurt add to your wet mixture.  Starting and ending with flour, scrape bowl if necessary.

[5] In a shallow dish whisk together coating toppings.

[6] Using an ice cream scoop, I like my stolen Jamba Juice "disher" spring loaded scoop.

Scoop the batter into your coating and roll each scoop around till it's fully coated.

[7] Place each ball into a greased muffin tin. 

This recipe made about 24 muffins for me!

[8] Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

So after a good morning of muffins, praising God and fellowship we left to go check out Olomana Gardens in Waimanalo.  Andy has been wanting to see this place for awhile and usually the tours can be a bit pricey.  But being the bargain hunters that we are we found out today was an open house with free tours and a potluck!  Can't beat that. 

Olomana Gardens has a huge aquaponics set-up.  Which I know nothing about but maybe Andy will get to guest blog about this someday for those that are interested.  The tour was pretty cool with lots of information and a beautiful backdrop of Waimanalo Valley. 

We saw their fish tanks, the duck weed they were growing, along with Papayas, Taro, tomatoes & pretty much anything else you could imagine.  The kids got to pet horses, chickens, and a pig so everyone was having a pretty good time!  Jonas was so excited cause he helps Andy a lot with their aquaponics system so he kept running ahead with the tour guide pushing a lot of older Asian men out of the way.  Rude, perhaps.  Cute, definitely. 

The open house was pretty neat too, free beer & aquaponics?  Andy was in heaven.

It's such a joy spending time with our kids as they explore new things, especially things we're interested in too.  And hopefully, somehow, tying it in with homeschool, just so we don't feel guilty for the days we miss in the classroom. ;) 

Made one last stop at Sweet Home Waimanalo to try out their famous smoothies and check out the food.  It's a bit pricey but definitely looked good if you're into organic, healthy, locally grown stuff.

We tried a Peanut Butter Bellows Smoothie & a Local Kale Smoothie and took a beautiful drive along the ocean back home. 

God is so good to us, I only hope that we do him justice in giving him everything he deserves from our lives knowing we can always give more. <3 

Easy Peasy! 5 in 5. 5 Fun Projects under 5 supplies!

I love projects.  Projects to do with my kids.  Projects to eat.  Projects to help me save money, to organize, to clean, etc.  I'm a project kind of girl.

Here are 5 really easy simple ones I have done in the past few days.

More to come. :) 

Try them out for yourself! 

1.  Easy bubble refills!

[1] Empty Container [2] Water [3] Original blue Dawn

The simplest of all the projects is making bubble refills.  I am constantly buying little containers of bubbles for the kids, they love them, they're fun and easy to do outside.  How can I say no?  

But moving back to Hawaii I'm realizing just how pricey this stuff can be so after buying the latest bubble installment of 2 bubble wands and they used them up in about 30 minutes I decided no more!

Besides the waste factor it's just so easy to do with something I already keep on hand, for stripping diapers, plant spray, etc.

Basically just mix the Dawn & water together, each container is a different size so the ratio will always be a little different but it's super easy to tweak.  Try and blow a bubble, didn't work?  Add more Dawn.

Now go have fun!

2. Banana Pops!

[1] Bananas, cut in half. [2] Popsicle Sticks [3] Melted Chocolate [4] Toppings

With all these easy projects they really are pretty self explanatory.  Something I like, sometimes I'm not in the mood to read directions and if I think I can figure it out on my own I'll usually try.

With these banana pops you just cut the bananas in half, insert a stick [be careful depending on how ripe your bananas are] dip in melted chocolate, chips warmed in the microwave work fine here & then sprinkle with whatever toppings you like!  I did chopped almonds for me and sprinkles for the kids.

Then you can either refrigerate them or freeze them depending on your mood.

I did fridge cause it's easier for the kids to eat.  Enjoy!

3.  Home made multi-purpose cleaner.

[1] Empty spray bottle [2] Citrus peel from one fruit [3] White distilled vinegar [4] Water

I have been looking for ways to save money all over, reduce waste in our home & environment and find some non-toxic ways to clean around all the babies.  Vinegar and citrus go great together!

After you eat a fruit, any kind will work and it will give the cleaner a slight smell, lime. orange. grapefruit. lemon.  Cut the peel into pieces that can be put into an empty bottle, make sure you don't have any of the fruit left on the peel, scrape it really well.

Add some white vinegar, a funnel is handy here if you have one.  I do enough to submerge the fruit about halfway and kind of use the end of the sprayer to poke the rest down.

Let that sit as long as you want, an hour or 24 if you feel like it.

Then fill the rest of the bottle with cold water and shake!

I actually don't know if this stuff "goes bad" I clean A LOT and my bottles are always empty before anything funky happens.  I haven't figured out a method to get the peels out of the bottle yet tho either......

4. Grape popsicles!

[1] Popsicle Molds [2] Halved red seedless grapes [3] White grape juice

Being ever thrifty this project is even a free one for us!  We get white grape juice & fruit vouchers on WIC.  Oh yes, thank you Women, Infant & Children.

Fill the popsicle molds with as many halved grapes as you want.  I like mine full because the frozen grapes are my favorite part, the kids only like a few.  Top off with the white grape juice & freeze!

A pretty healthy snack and nice when I'm sweltering to death 5 months pregnant in a 3rd story apartment with no air conditioning.  Boo.

5. Coffee Pot Fish Bowl

[1] Marbles, rocks, etc. [2] Water [3] Old Coffee Pot [4] Fish [5] Fish Food

This one really is as easy as it looks!  I cold brew all my coffee and someone had given us this coffee pot so I just put it away knowing eventually it would be good for something!  A few months later, someone gave us a pregnant guppy, now named Rainbow Dash, thank you Lily & that's the story! 

You can cut the cord off the coffee pot if that kind of thing makes you nervous, I just put tucked ours into the space for it on the back of the maker.  I took the filter out of the top too so I can store the fish food up there and there's no muss, no fuss!

Just keep swimming! 

 Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors,
Deuteronomy 30:8-10