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Okay, I know, Football is not a Spring sport, but I still miss watching my son play football so I just wanted to include that picture. It is Spring, there have been Spring Training baseball games. We live in Phoenix where we have The Diamondbacks. The weather makes us want to do things! So, today's Friday Fave question is...
What is your favorite Springtime Sport or activity?
Let's start with Maddy, who doesn't really love sports. And it is weird because she has always been the fastest runner of all of my children. But, she does love to swing! She gets that from me because I also love to swing! As you can tell from the collage above, my beautiful grandchildren love it as well. In last week's Friday Fave, I gave you the poem by Robert Lewis Stevenson that I used to recite to my children when we would go to swing at the park. I haven't ever really thought of swinging as a sport, although it does take some effort to get really high. It is such an exhilarating feeling. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, I saw this Swurfer Tree Swing and it looks so amazing! You stand on it and it is like surfing in the air! Even better is that they sell it on Amazon! This would be so much fun to have up at a cabin or something!
I have to put just one more adorable picture of my grandson swinging!
The other thing that I have always loved to play when the weather is nice is tennis! I am terrible at it, and that is after taking classes and lessons, but I still really like to play. I started playing tennis with friends back when I was in high school and we had wooden racquets that looked like this:
Chris Everett was my idol! I even had a cute tennis skirt like she wore. I have a newer racquet now. The head of the racquets today are so much bigger than they used to be, it almost doesn't seem fair! Ha Ha!
Wilson still makes some quality tennis racquets. If you are an amateur like me, here is a nice low priced one to get started with. As you get better, you may want to check out something a little more serious, like this one.
I feel like I need to get out and play now, even though it has been a really long time. When you actually hit the ball and get a rally going, it is a blast!
Alicia chose a sport with a shorter racquet, racquetball! I enjoy that sport as well. It is so much fun to play and a real workout. The nice thing about racquetball is that you don't have to chase the ball so far when you miss! I love to play these games, I am just not very good at them!
Wilson has some nice versions of these racquets, too! Here are a couple of affordable ones!
As you know from reading Renny's Recipes, Lindsey has moved into a new house. It is a really nice house and it has a pool! The weather is into the 90s now in Phoenix, and we are all getting ready to go over and enjoy that pool! Lindsey chose swimming as her sport!
Lindsey was in swim team as a kid and she enjoys swimming! I love it, too! Are you noticing a trend here? I enjoy all of these activities that my girls enjoy! If you can tear your kids away from their electronic activities that they enjoy so much in today's world and get them out doing some of these things with you, maybe you can find some shared interests, as well! It is fun, you can create memories and get in some healthy exercise! What could be better?
I sure do miss the swimming lesson days and the Little League days now that my kids are all grown. I hope I can be close enough to some of my grandchildren to enjoy them again. What activities do you enjoy doing with your family in the Spring? Let us know down in the comments section. And don't forget to subscribe so you can get access to our special subscriber free printables page!Thanks for checking out this week's Friday Faves!
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Sometimes I want something fancy, but I don't want to go to the trouble of making it. Those dishes are usually time consuming and if I had the time it would be great, but I don't.
I feel like I am not alone in this. Am I alone in this? Tell me I am not even if I am. Maybe you don't care and have no struggle creating fancy, involved dishes. If that is the case, let me tell you, you are STILL going to love this recipe and it won't take as long!
I like making chicken cordon bleu. Why? Well I love French food (who doesn't) and when you make it at home you can make it healthier and tastier than any box kind you might get at Costco. Don't get me wrong, sometimes we just need a box of something from Costco. Sometimes though, we just need to make it a casserole.
Let me share with you a little about my childhood. I am part of this blog with my mom and my two sisters, but that is not the extent of my family. I actually have five siblings, so growing up my mom had six kids to feed, and, speaking as her pickiest eater, that can be rough. On top of that there were many times throughout my childhood when my mom served as the Relief Society President. What is that? Well the Relief Society is the largest women's organization in the world and it is an organization that is part of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Every ward, or congregation, will have it's own group of women who belong to Relief Society and there is always someone who is asked to serve as President for a period of time (I'd say usually around 5 years.) Well, my mom has done this on three different occasions and being Relief Society President is very involved. When people are struggling and need food the Relief Society President takes care of that. When people are sad and need someone to talk to it is often the President that is there talking to them. Running errands, taking people to doctor's appointments, attending meetings to talk about how to help all the women in their group, on and on and on. It's very busy. The point of telling you all this is to one, let you know that my mom is the best, and two, to explain why it is that I always think of casseroles when I think of quick meals. How did a busy mother of six make sure that her kids ate healthy meals while running around looking out for the well being of a whole bunch of other people? She'd make us casseroles. Endless casseroles. You saw her recipe for a South of the Border Casserole here. There are so many more that we have yet to share, but casserole is such an easy way to go for a quick meal that can include a protein and some grain and veggies.
The great thing about this casserole is you get all the deliciousness of chicken cordon bleu without the hassle of stuffing and breading each individual chicken breast. Now, I make my sauce with almond milk because that is how I roll and it still turns out nice and creamy. I will admit that I left the butter in, but hey, sometimes you just need a little butter.
So have a fancy French meal made easy tonight. Have Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole.
Have you ever had something that needed to get cooked, but you were tired of doing the same old thing? You pondered it and pondered it and then, BINGO, it came to you at 5:00 in the morning! Then you laid there, awake, planning out the recipe that you were certain would be the perfect solution. Of course, you had to get out of bed and try it out on your husband! This is what happened to me with this recipe and it explains why by 8:00 in the morning, I was exhausted. Luckily, the results were great, so it is a good reason to be exhausted.
If you remember a few weeks back, I had gotten some Orangetti Squash and I gave you a recipe to use it like spaghetti with chicken.
I did the same process shown above the night before I decided to make my Southwest Style Hash browns. Up until this time, I had only used spaghetti or orangetti squash to make Italian dishes, substituting it for the pasta. This time I substituted it for the potatoes! After shredding the squash, I just stored the shreds in a covered bowl like this. (Similar set here.)
I used my Pampered Chef chopper to finely chop my onion . I wanted the onion to blend in well with the squash. I love using the chopper. No tears! Did you know that you can order Pampered Chef items on Amazon? Here is the chopper I have. I love it. The blade turns on its own to give a really good even chop in just a few strokes. I earned mine by having a party. If it is a little too pricey for you, here is another option that looks good.
I also added diced green chilies, and spices like cumin, cilantro, and a sprinkle of Red Cayenne Pepper. Don't forget the 2-3 cloves of garlic pressed into the mixture. I also have the Pampered Chef Garlic Press which I absolutely love because it is heavy and not flimsy, it is large enough to handle larger cloves of garlic and you don't have to peel the garlic before you press it! I have had both the chopper and the garlic press for a number of years now, and they are still going strong and I use them all of the time.
Once all of your ingredients are will blended, you have two choices for making your hash browns. I used my cast iron skillet for that added health benefit to these already healthy veggies. Click on the pictures for descriptions.
When they are nice and toasty brown, here is how I served them.
Here is the button for this nice and healthy, full of veggies, meal!
If you would like to shop this post, here are some of the things I use and love:
I am going to girl's camp again this year! I wrote about the projects I did for camp last year here, here and here. This year, I am working with the older girls, ages 16-18, who actually help to run the activities at camp. They are called Youth Camp Leaders, or YCLs. One of the things they do for the younger girls is give them devotionals every night before lights out. Tonight, we are having a planning meeting where we are sharing ideas for devotionals with each other. Since there are 5 days at camp this year, we figured that if we all shared ideas, the girl's could pick the ones they felt inspired to give. I took a trip to DollarTree to get inspired and here are some of the ideas I came up with!
The theme for the youth in our church this year is James 1:5.
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."
So, obviously, I thought of owls and the fact that they are often used as a symbol of wisdom. As always, click on the pictures for more instructions.
I couldn't find these owl shaped sheets on the website, but they had a lot of them in our store. So, look for them there.
They also have these sparkle owl cutouts! I had some flower stems that used to have cookies on them. The cardboard that the cookie was attached to is still on the stem. So, I wrote a message on the owls and plan to make them into a bouquet. Each girl will be able to take one. You could actually stick the owl to a daisy or something if you needed to.
Finally, getting away from the owl theme, I remembered that I had seen this quote on Beauty4ashes and I really liked it.
"The distance between you and your Heavenly Father is the same as the distance between your knees and the floor."
So, when I found these rulers, I knew in my mind what I wanted to do.
Here is what you will need to make these simple handouts:
Here is the pdf so that you can download and print your own handouts! Just click the button!
If you have any great ideas about prayer, and/or using a survivor theme at camp with prayer as the underlying message, please give them to me in the comments section! I hope these ideas will inspire you!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
April 2024
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