Sharing our contest winner which is a Creamy Orange Ice Cream Recipe – with using orange juice to make it taste like a creamsicle recipe. A few weeks ago we had an ice cream social at our church which dueled as a homemade ice cream contest. If you know my husband you know he’s an ice cream fanatic! He mentioned making orange ice cream and I honestly kind of snarled my nose…I’m a chocolate fan…but I went with what he wanted and I have to say it’s the real deal. It was the perfect balance of creamy, not too sweet, and orange-y flavor – it just was so so good. In fact he won first place…but all of my research of finding the perfect recipe came into me combining two recipes I found. I was looking for a creamy custard like vanilla taste with a touch of orange that wasn’t over-powering or over sugary. So here goes our contest winner recipe! Orange Ice Cream Recipe Ingredients: 9 Egg Yolks 1 c. Sugar 1 1/2 c. Milk 2 c. heavy cream 2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 pinches of salt Zest of 5 oranges 2 1/2 c. Orange Juice Makes 2 Quarts […]
How to grow Fall Tomato Plants
Here in the deep south in zone 8 or 9 – ish we are starting our fall tomato plant crop! We planted our seeds in starter cells at the end of July! Who would have thought, right? This crop will basically be an end of summer beginning of fall crop for us. This is our first year trying tomatoes this time of year but I hear they are tastier and delicious tomatoes! So read on for some easy and simple beginner gardening tips on how to grow fall tomato plants! When we began planting our seeds a few weeks ago in our starter cells we kind of got carried away….we have 72 cells started…a few of the cells didn’t take so give or take we have about 65-70 tomato plants started! If all of these tomato plants grow and produce we’ll be canning tomatoes and putting lots in the freezer – which I’ll talk about on a later blog post, stay tuned! We started our garden from scratch this past spring and fell in love with gardening! We babied our plants and garden and had quite a crop! It truly takes time and patience! How to grow fall tomato plants […]
7 Chores Any 4 Year Old Can Do
It dawned on me one day, several months ago that my 4 year old needed to begin taking on some responsibility in some simple chores around our home. Not in hopes that it took a work load off of me, rather to begin teaching her responsibility…and teaching her to take care of things around our home. So then one day in a few years she’ll be able to take on more responsibilities which will take some work load off of me! Isn’t this how it’s supposed to be? We begin sharing responsibilities around the home, working together…like a well oiled machine! I of course wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted her “chores” to be…so we started slowly and worked our way down my little mental list! A few things I took into consideration when I began making this “mental list”…. Short attention spans: 4 year olds have short attentions spans so I knew the tasks didn’t need to take long! Her attention span wouldn’t allow her to hang with a chore for a long time…hey I’m an adult and I feel the same way some days!!! Family/ Group chores: Incorporate her chores that involved more of the family so it […]
3 Fun Swim Games for Toddlers
This post was sponsored by SwimWays as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own. Incorporating swim games for your toddlers in the pool will not only build their confidence in swimming but it also creates a fun environment to learn in. They will have so much fun playing these pool games when in reality it’s encouraging them to learn to swim! What better win, right? Swim Safety is of course the most important aspect you can teach your child while around water. We’ve been using SwimWays products for the past 4 summers and couldn’t be more confident in their products and pleased. While playing these games we use the swim trainer life jacket , which can be purchased online at Amazon or found at Target and Walmart. These trainer life jackets are U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device for kids. Plus comfy for the kids, easy for moms/dads to buckle from the back where it’s out of reach for the kids! I’ve stepped through the age appropriate Swim Steps Program –> here. This program includes three levels which correspond with your child’s age and the correct product designed for […]
No Cook Refrigerator Sweet Pickle Recipe
I’ve been sharing like crazy over on my Instagram stories all about our gardening adventures! The fun adventure of starting plants from seeds to now reaping a harvest enough to do a favorite No Cook Refrigerator Sweet Pickle recipe! For the first time we started all of our plants by seeds this year. It took a lot of planning and dedication but wow-wee has it been worth it, not to mention truly helped the budget when it comes to gardening! We started most of our garden from scratch this year…we planted seeds back in the winter months and as we crept into spring we found our seedlings becoming plants, where we had to transplant into bigger pots and then soon we were actually planting our vegetable plants in the ground! Now we are reaping the benefits and it couldn’t be more fun…actually I really, honestly think it’s become a true happy place for each of us in our family. It’s a lot of work, dedication and time but let me tell you – knowing where our veggies are coming from is a nice thought! All of that to say we have had cucumbers coming out of our ears – not […]
3 Simple Ways to Teach Your Child to Swim
This post was sponsored by SwimWays as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own. Whether you’ve opted to try to teach your child to swim on your own or you’ve signed them up with a professional swim instructor to learn to swim…regardless, the importance of having your children learn to swim, at an early age, is vital. I’m a firm believer in starting swim lessons at a VERY early age – actually as soon as possible. Why? There are so many benefits of swimming for a child and what it teaches them, how it trains them and how it will promote a healthy confidence around water and water activities. 1- Help your child feel safe in the water By having your child in the water at a very young age helps them feel safe. Using key tools i.e. SwimWays floats will help them feel safe and happy as your little one navigates the waters with the #1 trusted learn to swim brand! SwimWays Swim Step products can be found at Walmart, Target or online at Amazon. So getting a hold of these products is quite easy for you! 2- […]
Pineapple Teriyaki Burgers
These Pineapple Teriyaki Burgers are an all time favorite here at our house. Whether it’s a birthday party, a tailgate party, or a home gating party as we call it..these burgers are a hit at our house! From the young to the old, we all love this meal. I serve it with chips and it’s a complete meal…nothing fancy, but it’s sure to leave you wanting seconds! Without fail, every single time we have made these burgers and had guests over they love them. I sometimes get nervous thinking they may not like them…thinking they’ll just be polite and eat them…but even the pickiest of friends we have fed these to love them! This is what I call a WIN of a recipe! Everyone asks us where we got this recipe. I of course confess and tell them – Pinterest. Right after we had our little Miss E, we decided that going out on date night for Friday nights was easier to stay home! Haha! Yet, we wanted to do something that made the night fun and special, while doing something together. Since we both love hamburgers and my husband loves to grill we decided to start trying unique burger […]
How to Start a Garden from Scratch
All of the secrets out there on how to start a garden yet at the same time starting a garden from scratch can be quite the task. It may even be overwhelming to you and I get that! I’m married to an engineer who truly helps me put my action into a plan – I’m the one that just jumps right into it, he’s the one with the brains that helps me make it actually work and work well! I don’t proclaim to have all of the answers, secrets or tips…I’m just here to tell you what we’ve done to successfully start our garden from scratch with our goal to grow it a bit each year. First off…we did start our garden on a budget and we share all our tips for saving money here. We don’t pretend to have an endless amount of money to get started on a fancy garden…we have dreams, but we intend to start small and actually make sure we enjoy it and stick with it before we invest too much. Like any hobby it costs money, right?!!! How do you start a garden for beginners? 1 Decide where your garden spot will be. First […]
Learn How to Grow Large Onions
We’ve grown onions the last few years in our garden but never have we really gotten our onion sets to grow big for us. That is the goal, right?! So this year we decided to do a little more research and learn a few extra things to see if we could get our onions to get bigger for us! The nice thing about growing onions is they are planted in early February or March, depending on where you live and from our experience they have minimal maintenance when it comes to pests and bugs. With a little planning you’ll find yourself growing onions and loving the process because they really are easy! There are just a few simple tricks/tips that will help you so here we go. Don’t let the steps overwhelm you, I’ve tried to break it down into bite size steps to make it easy to understand and follow. How to Grow Onions 1- Make sure you have prepped your soil with great fertilizer and compost. I’ve talked a little more about getting fertilizer/compost on a budget and you can read more of our tips –> here. 2- Dig a small trench by taking your trowel and creating […]
How To Establish Structure In Your Child’s Routine
Children need routines in their lives to thrive. They help children to understand the management of time, establish habits that are important, learn skills, and even create strong bonds with one another. It helps to take away that fear of the unknown and create a sense of security for a positive and healthy lifestyle. Part of making a routine for your child also means that you have to establish structure. When you create structure you have to be specific and intentional. The structure aids your child’s emotional, social and brain development, as well as providing consistency. Here are some good tips that you can build upon to create and maintain a structure in your child’s routine beyond simple daily tasks. HOBBIES AND CREATIVE OUTLETS Having a weekly calendar that maps out important tasks day-to-day is a great way to show your child the continuity that comes with a routine. Having your child attend regularly scheduled events is helpful for structure. Creative outlets and hobbies that your child can engage in is a great way to have a healthy routine. One of the best outlets for inducing creativity and structure in your child’s routine is weekly music lessons. They’ll have the […]