Sew God's Grace

I found this project on Pinterest and thought it would be a fun way to connect with Maddie.  She is the type of girl that loves gifts and secrets.  I hid it on top of her pillow the other day.  I wrote that we could leave little messages to one another and then hide it somewhere for the other to find.  I'm still waiting for it to turn up somewhere.  I asked her to use her cursive when she writes, so it will be handwriting practice for her as well! You can download the cute labels (they have one for boys, too) here.   I decorated it by covering the outside entirely with scrapbook paper.  There's a great tutorial for doing this here.   I hadn't thought to use washi tape on the binding--I may have to see if I have any that matches. There are many possibilities for making this cute little journal, but the important thing is just to have something special between you and your daughter. Here's another fun journal-decorating id...

This post is not going to provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to make donuts.  Rather, it's a celebration that the kids and I made them, and it was a big success.  I'll try to provide a few helpful hints, though. I had told the kids that if they did really well during school, we would take a Friday morning and make donuts together.  The kids were fascinated at the idea.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that we were going to do it. I found the recipe here on Pinterest,  During the week, I read through the recipe several times.  I was a little nervous because I had never made donuts before,  I wanted it to be a fun project with the kids instead of getting too long and tedious.  Also, I don't own a deep fat fryer. I was able to get up early to mix the dough.  I added about a cup extra of flour because the dough seemed so sticky.  We were able to get breakfast eaten while the dough rose the first time.  ...

We typically do our school work on Monday through Thursday.  Often, my Friday is spent trying to catch up on the mess from the week instead of spending time with my kids.  Also, we took a couple of weeks off at the beginning of September for a much-needed vacation to Lake City, CO.  As a result, we have been doing some school on Friday to make of for lost time.  Talk about "all work and no play"!  I decided that I wanted to some enjoyable things with my kids instead of always slogging away on schoolwork or telling them to go play while I got something done.  Thus, "Fun-Day Fridays" were born.  We take some time on the occasional Friday to do neat activities together.  On our first Fun Day Friday, we made these tasty treats. I found the recipe from Something Swanky  on Pinterest.  I thought that the kids would really like them.  We made them in the microwave instead of the oven. Sim...