November Pinterest Challenge: Preschool Edition

When I accepted the Pinterest challenge from Anna Hartman from In The Next 30 Days and Wendy Nielsen from Wendy Nielsen - Writing A New Story, I couldn't leave well enough alone with just doing a recipe challenge. 

All those preschool ideas I've been pinning? Yep, did a few of those, too. 

I needed a bulletin board idea for November for my primary class, which is composed of 11 three year olds who are turning four over the course of the school year. This is the idea I got from Pinterest:

http://tippytoecrafts.blogspot.com/search/label/fall

My version, using the little hands in my class:

I LOVE this! I will say it was challenging to make handprints (let's remember we are painting hands on 3 year old kiddos - loose cannons at best) in the middle of the tree. I literally picked up a couple of them and held them by the waist with one arm while guiding their painty hand with the other. (Never EVER inwardly scoff again when you hear someone is a preschool teacher, thinking they've got it E-A-S-Y.)

Next, we made Indian corn. This is what I saw on Pinterest:

http://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/
indian-corn-craft-and-five-kernels-of-corn-
legend.html

And this is what we made:

Look at her sweet finger!
The Pinterest link showed a child using
the end of a pencil to do this, but I
say go big or go home.

TA DAHHHH!

ANOTHER PINTEREST WIN! 

Time for a pre-k project. This class meets three mornings a week and is made up of 16 four year olds. Our Pinterest project was chosen to replace the same old, tired, turkey handprint project we've been doing for years and using for a placemat for our Thanksgiving feast.

This is what I found on Pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/260575528413395938/
Pinterest won't take me to the site, saying it
looks spammy, so, there you go.
Consider yourself warned.

And this is our finished product:

HOW CUTE IS THAT?!

And now, for a little Pinterest Challenge of my own, I am posting a picture the primary class made of the Mayflower. I got the idea from a Mailbox magazine, but instead of cutting out a handprint for the hull of the ship, I continued my theme of torturing my assistant teacher and, yes, painted their hands, because that's the way I roll:

Now to see how many re-pins I get....

November Pinterest Challenge: Recipe Edition

I have always been a collector of recipes like some people collect things like snow globes. 

Wait, I collect those, too.

Like some people collect Precious Moments figurines (that is DEFINITELY not me).

I collected recipes long before the internet came along. I bought magazines and clipped recipes. I bought cookbooks. I checked them out from the library. And I got recipes from friends and family. I had overflowing shelves and recipe boxes.

 Aaaand, I continued to use the same handful of recipes I had always used. 

A few years ago, this magical thing called Pinterest came along, and my collection became neatly organized on my boards, but I still wasn't doing much more than continuing my hobby as a recipe collector.

Then one of my favorite bloggers, Wendy Nielsen, posted about a monthly challenge by Anna Hartman from In The Next 30 Days to "execute one of the eleventy-billion recipes or projects we're always pinning over on Pinterest." I'm always up for a challenge. Color me IN!

I started my Pinterest Challenge, Recipe Edition, with what I THOUGHT was going to be Crockpot Chicken and Noodles and which turned out to be Incredibly Easy Chicken and Noodles. A little bait and switch, if you ask me, but I made it anyway.

Their version:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/incredibly-
easy-chicken-and-noodles/detail.aspx

My version:

My verdict: Fine, but nothing to write home about. I don't really need a recipe to throw together some chicken, noodles and cream soups and call it dinner. Perhaps the fact that I didn't READ the recipe until I started making it served me right, because had I read it, I don't think I would have made this and instead, would have allowed it to languish on my board.

My next recipe for the Challenge was Crunchy Black Bean Tacos.  I have been drooling over these for, apparently, a year (nice of Pinterest to log when you pinned something, so you know just how very long you have ignored it). 

Their version:

http://www.endlesssimmer.com/2012/04/04/
cornerstone-cooking-crunchy-black-
bean-tacos/#more-33746

My version:

Holy cow, these things were DELISH! Frying them in olive oil was silly, though, as it's (a) expensive and (b) has a low smoke point (both things pointed out by my husband when he came in the kitchen to see how the tacos were turning out). I ended up doubling the recipe and switching halfway through from olive oil to canola oil without changing the taste of the tacos.  I also didn't put the cilantro in because, as I confessed above, I have a wee bit of a habit of not reading the entire recipe before I begin, and I didn't notice cilantro on the ingredients list. My husband, who is a huge cilantro fan, said he didn't miss it at all in these. So there you go.

Chicken Tamale Bake was next. We had mixed reviews about this at my house. The problem with it was the cornbread base. The recipe calls for a box of Jiffy cornbread mix, to which milk, egg, chopped green chilies, shredded cheese, pepper, cumin, and a can of creamed corn was added. Jiffy mixes make a slightly sweet cornbread. Creamed corn is very sweet. Put those together, and it doesn't matter HOW much cumin you add (just an observation, but cumin smells like B.O.), that cornbread base is going to taste very, very sweet. Which was the complaint my family had. I was the least put off by it and ended up eating all the leftovers. I would make this again, but I would make the cornbread from scratch, using very little sugar, and substitute whole kernel corn for the creamed corn. Which would mean I would have to adjust the liquid in the recipe and which negates it being any kind of "quick" meal. 

Their version:

http://www.emilybites.com/2012/01/
chicken-tamale-bake.html

My version:

My last recipe in the Pinterest Challenge was Crispy Quinoa Bake. First of all, it was not crispy, but it might have been if the oven temperature had been 400 instead of 375. And quinoa is an acquired taste. Or texture, anyway, because it really doesn't taste like anything much. My daughter and I were not in love with the finished product, but my husband was. He already had a love affair going with quinoa, and he did nothing but rave about this dish. He thought it had a meaty texture that made him not miss that there was no meat in it. He loved the flavors, the texture, yada yada yada, and wants to see it become part of the regular menu rotation. Yay. 

Their version:

http://www.theliveinkitchen.com/2012/12/11/
crispy-quinoa-bake/

My version:

She's not loving it.

There you have it. I do regularly make quite a few of the other recipes I have pinned. Like lasagna cups. And mini chicken pot pie cupcakes. And slow cooker cream cheese chicken chili, which I don't make in a slow cooker. And cranberry feta pinwheels. Oh, just follow me on Pinterest and see for yourself!

Too Many Thursdays, Found Money, and a Survivor's Story

I thought this week was never going to end. Not that it was a particularly unpleasant one, but I got mixed up on days and thought it was Thursday on two different days, none of which actually WERE Thursday. By the time it really WAS Thursday, it was the third one I had had this week. 

But the week HAS ended, and that means it's time for Ten Things of Thankful. Here goes:

And it was just cool
enough to wear my
first scarf of the season.
Woot!

1. I'm thankful this week is over, because I couldn't take a fourth Thursday this week. 

2. Got to spend a little time with the College Boy. Last weekend was Family Weekend at his school, and we went to a football game (and got thoroughly drenched in a downpour, for which I am NOT one bit thankful). Love that he's enjoying his roommate and suitemates and the entire college experience. We also got to have dinner with him later in the week when my daughter had a volleyball game at a nearby high school (his college is only an hour's drive from us).

3. We ate two meals with our son at the dining hall, because PARENTS EAT FREEEEE with their student. I realize "free" is relative, because there is certainly a pretty hefty price tag on his room and board, but it FEELS like it's free, so eat up, baby!

4. My daughter and I went shopping for a homecoming dress and shoes while we were at Family Weekend (and in the Big City, don'tcha know) and found a sparkly dress for her for $23.00 and sparkly shoes for $12.00. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? Picture next week.

5. My daughter's volleyball team traveled to my parents' home town for a game this week, so I drove up there and attended it with my parents. They enjoy getting a chance to watch her play, neither of them got beaned with an errant volleyball, and we went out for barbecue after the game was over.

6. We made our first attempt to use scissors in my primary class this week at preschool. The results, as a whole, were rather disastrous, but at least I know where they all stand with their scissor skills, and they can only improve from here (because BELIEVE ME when I tell you that for a few of them, there really is no chance that they could get worse).

We were making owls.
Cute, huh?
(This is NOT the scissor project.)

7. I found $25 in the pocket of a pair of jeans that I hadn't worn since spring. Suh-weeet!

8. One of my pre-k boys got seriously freaked out by our first fire drill and has come to school crying (and that would be peel-him-off-of-his-mother crying) every day since then. He also asks, oh, maybe 25 times a day (and by "day" we're talking a 3-hour day, and by "25" I mean probably more like 50) if we're going to "hear that siren today." It's heart-breaking that he has been so distressed by this, but on Wednesday, he came to class without a tear. And on Friday, he not only didn't cry, he didn't ask if we were going to hear the siren ONE SINGLE TIME. Progress!

9. Every fall, just before flu season starts, I tell my preschoolers that my #1 rule is not to throw up in my classroom. We talk about staying home if you are sick, and if you are at school and feel like you're going to throw up that you need to RUN out the door to the bathroom, and we will certainly be curious enough to follow.  On Wednesday, the mom of the same boy from #8, above (he is darling, turned four just before the cut-off date to attend pre-k, so he's the youngest one in the class), told me that Monday after school, she had asked him what the Bible verse was for the week. He said, without hesitation, "Do not throw up in Miss Dyanne's classroom." Good enough.

10. I answered an open call from the wonderful Wendy Nielsen for breast cancer survivor stories for a series she is doing on her blog in October, and she chose me to be a part of her series. I cannot begin to tell you how honored I am that she chose to include me and my little story. She will be profiling 21 different women this month. Do me the biggest favor and visit her blog all month and read these touching, powerful stories. Mmmk? Have you heard Katy Perry's "Roar"? Here are some women who truly have the eye of the tiger.

My friend Lizzi is going to run a 5k to raise money for the Race for Life in my honor. This is such an unselfish act, and if you agree and feel led to give, you can sponsor Lizzi by visiting here. 

Soooo, how was YOUR week? Link up and join in with the TToT blog hop, or just leave me a comment below.

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A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I can say mama, I Want Backsies, Rewritten, Steps into Parenthood, Thankful Me, The Wakefield Doctrine

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Every Survivor Has A Story - Here's Mine

Somewhere, somehow, while trying to make sense of my breast cancer diagnosis, I stumbled upon Wendy Nielsen, a blogger and writer (is that redundant?) and her fabulous "Breast Cancer 101" series and have been a follower ever since. How I wish I had found her BEFORE my surgery! Wendy's story of her own diagnosis and treatment are inspiring, and she is now a devoted advocate for breast cancer research and awareness. 

Earlier this summer, Wendy asked for volunteers interested in being part of a series she wanted to do during the month of October highlighting how life goes on after a breast cancer diagnosis, how it's the beginning of a new story, and much to my delight, she chose me to participate, to be one of 21 breast cancer survivors to share stories of survival and hope. 

I would be so honored if you would visit Wendy's website and read my story. And then come around and read the ones to follow during the rest of October. And make sure you read the first story in Wendy's series, a touching account by one tough cookie, Catherine Brunelle.

Here's the link. Give it a click and a read. Pretty please? 

http://wendy-nielsen.com/2013/10/03/breast-cancer-survivor-quotes/