Happy Easter

I have been SO busy lately, I just have not had the time to sit down at the computer for even a few minutes!! Life is hopefully going to return to normal soon, but I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Easter.   I will be back here and there this week.  And hopefully the following week will settle even more. 

Hummingbirds

Well, its definately spring, and feels like summer. Like many others I have been working hard to get my yard in order! The other day when we were outside playing, I saw my first hummingbird of the season.  We had not even filled our feeder yet, and the poor little guy must have been starving, because he was trying to eat out of it.  So I filled our feeder, and decided it would be a good idea to share this easy recipe.

First, please do not add red food coloring.  I know it attracts them, but it is really bad for the poor little guys!!!

ok so the recipe, its VERY simple.  1/4 cup of sugar, dissolved in 1 cup of water. 

 I heat the water to boiling and dump in the sugar, stirring until it dissolves.  Then set it aside and let it cool. 

Be sure and change out this food fairly often.  I change mine once a week.  Its sugar water, so it does attact ants yeah ive seen them crawl up the post on my porch and get up there. 

Enjoy, and have a wonderful day all.

100s of Sugar cookies

Yup, the title says it all. Thats how many sugar cookies I have to make over the next couple days!! I am hosting a motorcycle ride/car ride for my church Relay for Life ride.  So I figure I better give the possibly 100-200+ bikers and hot rod loves something to snack on and drink while we walk around and look at each others rides and until its til to ride out.   I am going to try out 3 or 4 different recipes, and I will come back to yall with the best 2!!!! Wish me luck.

Do you have a favorite recipe I should try?? Let me know!!!!

Easy and Fun Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Do you feel like you run out of things to do with your toddler? I know I do.  She still has a pretty short attention span, unless you put on the TV, which I really do not like doing even though sometimes it comes down to it. So I have decided each week to find a simple craft to do with her, and we will share it here with all of yall.  Todays craft was an Easter craft.  Very easy and simple, and we already had all the things around the house to do it, so it did not cost anything, which makes it even better!!! Our craft was glueing cotton balls and colored pompoms on a bunny picture.  She had a blast, and loved putting the cotton balls or clouds as we call them) onto the bunny.  Keep in mind my daughter is 20 months old, but this would be a suitable craft about 12 months to about 4-5 years. Of course I helped a lot, but a 2 or 3 year old could probably do most of it themselves. 

First, we gathered all of our supplies.   

For this project we used this website to get and print out our bunny outline. 

http://www.shininghours.com/creating/bunny_outline.htm.  Then we gathered cottonballs and pompoms, construction paper, school glue, and sissors. 

Start out by spreading the glue on the bunny.  I did this part for her, because last time I let her use glue, we were both covered with it.

Then I showed her how to put the first pompom on, and gave her the next one.  At first she just kinda threw them on there :)

Before I knew it, there were GLOBS of cotton balls on the bunny :)

Finally, she finished ran out of cotton balls.  So we took off all the extra and set the picture outside for the glue to dry

Finally, after it dryed for a white we cut out the bunny

and glued it on some construction paper so it would have a pretty background :)

And here is our finished product!! She wanted to give it to her daddy so we wrote happy easter, her name, and date :)

This is a really great craft for small children, and we had a lot of fun doing it.  Hope you and your child can have fun with it as well

Spiders

Do they make you freak out as much as they do to me?!?  So you could image how freaked out I was when I saw a good size spider in my kitchen window today, where it had set up a web.  I totally freaked out, got a knife, and stabbed it a couple times, then washed it down the sink.  OMG I actually KILLED one.  Normally, I run, and hide!!!

So I went to the internet, and searched natural ways to kill spiders, because harsh chemicals are banned in my house.  I found they hate citrus, baking soda, vinegar, and some other stuff.  SO tomorrow I am on a mission :).  I have actually used a mixture of vinegar, water, and lemon essential oil before, with pretty good success.  First off is to totally clean my house.  Cuz, well lets face it, theres a lot of clutter for the stinkin things to hide in.  Ok seriously, just talking about them is making me itch...... Another great product is diatomaceous earth, or DE for short. Its GREAT for killing ants, spiders, fleas, and other creepy crawly things.  Just make sure you get the food grade kind, and not the pool kind.  The food grade kind is also effective for worming your animals, and some people even eat it, so it is totally safe around kids and animals. And its really cheap too.  It does take a few days to work though, because it "cuts" up the insect, and dehydrates it.  We even dust it straight on our dog to keep off fleas.  Just make sure that if you put it in your yard and it rains to reapply it!!! 

Anyways, anyone have any great tips for organizing the endless amounts of clutter in your house?? I am at a loss there, but it really needs to be done!!! Lets all share some great tips with each other!!!!!!!!!! Oh and if you have any other natural spider killing tips, I am all ears.

Strawberries!!!

Don't you just love spring/summer time???  I know I do.  We spent last weekend getting out garden started, planting seeds, pepper plants, tomatoes, and potatoes in addition to the onions we had already started.  Yesterday, we went to out local flea market, where we get our plants, and got some strawberry plants.
My daughter LOVES strawberries, so I figured they would be a very welcome addition to our garden. So we picked out 7 plants. 

So there they were!! Ready to put into the ground.  We I (thats right, I am taking all the credit, because my he didn't really help me much) took out an area of grass, tilled it up, and got them in the ground!

So there they are!!! In the ground.  In all fairness I will give my husband some credit (he did hand me the plants so I could put them in the ground).  So, now came the fun part.  There were already several strawberries that were ready to pick.  So we got out a bowl, and got my daughter all hyped up about picking the strawberries. 

Thats them!!! Small, but not bad for the fact that we had literally just put them in the ground! Then it was in the house to wash them, and thanks to my daughter they were gone in literally 3 minutes!! Although I do thank her for at least giving me ONE!!!!!

Got A Few?

Ok, first off, I am gonna nag, and ask for a few minutes of your time, to look at my shop!!!! All items are created by me and my totally awesome mom!!!!!  Thanks for taking a minute to check it out!!!!!

www.etsy.com/shop/thisandthat879

Welcome

Hi!! Thanks for taking some time to stop!! Im Rebecca.  I am a SAHM, who is trying to balance life as a mom, christian, wife, housekeeper, and etsy shop owner!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing crafts, and baking, as well as working in my garden, and recently photography!!!!

Anyways, here is my blog.  I hope to be able to share lots of crafts, recipes, and tips as I work through the fun things that I run across while wasting time on the internet searching online!!! :)