The randomly selected winner of the free poster print from digitalroom.com is...
A couple weeks ago I posted my peach syrup recipe. I included a photo of the syrup on top of vanilla ice cream sprinkled with my homemade granola. [Editor's note: Yum!] Amanda asked in the comments for my homemade granola recipe. So Amanda, here it is!
This recipe, like most of mine, are a combination of several. I've tweaked it be a good compromise between what my picky eaters will eat and still have it healthy enough that I'll let them eat it. It's sometimes a hard balance to find in our house.
Homemade Granola Recipe
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup barley flakes
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup water
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Mix together all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the mix to add the wet ingredients. Toss the combined ingredients until they have an even mix. Then spread out the granola onto cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.
Bake for 40 minutes stirring two to three times while baking. Let the granola cool completely. At that point you can add dried fruit.Do you make your own granola? What do you do differently?
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It's been well documented that I don't eat out for lunch. Once a month.... maybe. I'm quite well known around the office for my PB+Js. The main driver here is frugality, but there are two attractive side-effects:
Yesterday someone asked the Mr. and I about using cloth diapers and how much we saved from using them. I had to admit that I had not looked at the numbers for awhile. After opening the excel spreadsheet and pulling up our last update post I can see why! Our daughter has been in the same size for over 500 days!
Why do we celebrate birthdays? How do we celebrate birthdays? I find myself pondering these questions over the past few years. It seems like birthdays (along with most holidays) have been hi-jacked by our commercialized world.
People used to celebrate birthdays because it was a big deal to have made it through another year of life. Children and adults alike were not as blessed as we are to have access to healthy food and medicine. They also did not have huge blow out parties with 30 kids at an expensive location outside their home while expecting their child to be showered by $20-$40 gifts.
I decided that enough is enough. I'm putting the breaks on this train wreck. I'm not letting my children's birthdays be hi-jacked. That is when I started thinking... Now that sometimes gets me into trouble but this time I think I came up with a great way to make their birthdays special while making it into a learning experience. Here is what we did.
Starting at 6 years old we decided that a child has finally developed enough socially and mentally to understand sharing and giving. That the world is bigger then them and not centered around them.
At six years old they can handle not getting gifts from friends for their birthday. Instead, we let our daughter pick out a charity to request gifts for. This gives us an opportunity to talk about all the need there is in our own community. People need food (local food pantry), animals need food and treats (local animal shelter), people need items for their home (local emergency shelter), parks can always use trees and plants, and some parents can't afford to buy their babies anything at all (local Birthright center). After talking about all the different needs in the community she got to pick who SHE can help by having her friends bring items (wrapped like presents) to the birthday party.
You might think that our daughter would have been crying and devastated by this blow of no presents from her friends but she was not. She understood that her parents and grandparents would still buy her gifts and that she could help someone else. She decided to help the babies in need. I was amazed at how excited she became about it. Weeks before the party and before invitation where sent out she started to talk to all of her friends and their moms about not buying her a present but to instead bring a newborn item for a baby.
She was so excited to see all the gifts come in and kept asking to peak inside to see what baby item they brought. You would have thought that they were for her baby! The excitement was still there during the present opening time but the focus was not of the greedy green eyed monster wanting the next fad toy, but instead the excitement of a baby having something they would like and look cute in.
After the party was over she could not wait to deliver all the presents to the local Birthright office. She wanted to make sure they got them fast! It was hard to keep her at bay until Tuesday but what a wonderful way for her to see that she could make a difference and help someone. Walking in there with a huge bag of items to donate make her proud and gave her an even deeper giving spirit. Now the question she keeps asking is not what type of party she wants next year, but instead "Who should I get presents for when I turn 7?"
It's amazing to see the giving spirit in her growing. When you give your child a chance to give you help them to grow spiritually in ways we will never fully understand. I'm proud to say that my favorite tradition is the gift of giving to others.What unique birthday tradition does your family have?Find more great ideas on:
Works for me Wednesday
image from supercoolbaby.com
DigitalRoom.com has generiously offered to sponsor a giveaway here on Not the Jet Set for a FREE 18x24" Rolled Poster Print. Which we, of course, accept!
We will be using our high quality poster print in our living room. The blown up photo of our daughters will be one of the center pieces for the new "Family Wall" we are creating to help bring a more causal feel to the room. It's also an inexpensive way to add art to your walls!
The Rules:
There are several ways to enter to win the giveaway. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. You can enter three ways, but use each method once per giveaway. So you can have up to a total of three entries per giveaway.
This contest ends on Sept. 28th at 5:00pm EST. The randomly selected winner will be announced on Sept 29th. An email will be sent to the winner. They will have 24 hours to provide the needed information. This giveaway is open to US residents only. FREE UPS Ground Shipping is provided.
Thanks for checking out our giveaway!
This giveaway was sponsored by the digitalroom.com. If you would like to sponsor a giveaway we are open to sponsors. Please email us for details.
Reusable shopping bags have been around for decades. But they really became en vogue a few years ago. Today, nearly every major retailer has their own bags for sale, and there's instructions readily available to make your own. Reusable bags make so much sense that the city of San Francisco as well as many countries around the world have banned or now tax plastic disposable shopping bags.
We're not here to convince you to make the switch - that case has already been made. No, this is a post about what happens after you've bought the bags.
We were out running some errands the other day. We went to check out with a few small items and the Mrs., as always, said, "oh, and I have a bag."
Now typically, that's followed by a nod from the cashier, a few beeps from the register, cash, change, a receipt, and a "have a nice day". But not on this day, with this cashier.
No, on this day we got a very different response. The cashier looked up as the Mrs. unfurled the shopping bag, and said, "Those are so smart. You know, we bought several of those, but I never remember to take them to the store." The Mrs., quick on her wits that day, replied with, "Yeah, I had that problem too, but then I started making myself turn around and go back to get them." The cashier was impressed, as was I. We finished the transaction and left.
Now this lesson is not a new one, but has a similar result. Lets look at what the cashier said - we bought the reusable bags, but yet don't use them. He bought the bags. So what's the problem? It all falls down by the simple act of forgetting them at home. It's not about a mechanical solution or a magic pill. It's about your behavior, and a life change like this requires a change in your behavior.
Where have we seen this before? It's the cash envelope system. I've heard from countless individuals that cash doesn't work and the envelopes are a pain. It's only a pain if the behavior doesn't change. It doesn't work when you spend mercilessly. None of it is worth anything without a plan and constructive behaviors.
Again, the solution is only 20% head knowledge - the other 80% is behavior. Back to our talkative cashier. Knowing that reusable bags are the right thing to do and buying them only got him 20% there. And there are very few arenas where 20% is considered passing. He didn't change his behavior, and thus failed.
Like the Mrs. said, if she forgot them at home, she'd turn around and go back home. Left them in the car? She'd drag the kids back out to get them. Success only came after behavior change.
Success with cash, and with bags.
It's hard to believe that our oldest daughter just turned 6 years old! The time flies by so fast. She has been wanting a bunk bed for almost two full years now. Of course we said the usual "Not until you are 6." bit. Well, she is now six years old and her little sister is ready to bust out of the crib.
Time for a new big girl room for the girls to share. As you know we are not made of money, but I still wanted a room the girls will love. It did take a lot of time to do the searching but with a little luck, Craigs list and spray paint I was able to accomplish my vision for their bedroom. If you didn't get a chance to see the inspiration rooms feel free to take a peek at yesterday's post.
Click through for the video tour!Here is what their room looked like prior to the makeover.
And here is the final product!
Instead of rambling on and on about everything we did to the room I decided to make a video tour. I hope that you enjoy it!
All weekend long the Mr. and I felt like we were on Trading Spaces with just two days, two people and a small budget. To go along with that them we decided to capture the big reveal on video. It was so adorable to see our daughters reactions. It was just like on Trading Spaces! It was priceless.
We spent a total of $864 which includes all the furniture, paint, bedding, and much more. I'd give you a breakdown of the prices, BUT, I'm going to save that for a new "Price My Space" post. I'll also be posting some tutorials and specifics on how we made some of the items in the room out of scraps we had laying around.So what do you think of the room?
For more DIY and home decor ideas visit:
Tackle it Tuesday
DIY Day @ ASPTL
Make your Monday
Before I reveal the girls' new room I wanted to share with you my inspiration and prep work. As many of you know already, it is VERY important to make a plan before starting any project. This one was no different. I gathered all my inspiration photos, created a budget, and a time line. In the end I was actually surprised how well the plan came together. In our house things don't always go as planned when we tackle remodeling projects so it was nice to have this small room makeover go so smooth.
Here was my inspiration pieces:
Microfinance is rather broadly defined as
"financial services for the poor or low-income"This definition includes say... a community-based savings bank in Cambodia. The intent of such banks was to serve those that traditional banks could not or would not reach. Not going to find B of A there any time soon, and thank God. In more recent years though, this theory has taken to the web and spawned several microcredit services. Kiva, MicroPlace, and Prosper have all popped up and attempt to
"We're also looking into microfinanace - where we can lend as little as $25 to help people in third world countries"There is so much wrong with that short statement that I nearly fell out of my chair.
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