Tip for Tuesday

We've made it to April!  We are all thinking about the joy of Spring arriving, warmer weather, flowers...  
But what about Christmas?  I really don't want to be thinking too much on that yet, but there is something I do all year around to prepare for Christmas.

This tote is always in our storage area in the basement.  But, it's not used for regular storage.

I keep Christmas gifts inside it.  Whenever we are in a fun store, traveling, or I see big sales, I check for possible gifts. I do stockings for our kids and grandkids.  If you have to do them all at once around Christmas, it's hard to find things and can be expensive.  This way I can get good deals and often find things that are not standard stocking stuffers.
I keep a little notebook in the tote and write what I get and who it's for so I can keep track.

So, that's my tip for today - keep your eyes open for gifts all year long and you'll be thankful you did it when the Christmas season comes around.

Butterflies are Blooming

Last week, Bob and I went to Frederik Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park.  Our daughter and SIL gave us a membership again this year and it's so nice to be able to enjoy different events they have going on, even when the garden section is under snow.
Every year they have a butterfly show in the 5 story, 15,000 square foot conservatory.  It's the largest tropical butterfly exhibit in the United States. There are over 60 species of butterflies exhibited from Africa, Asia, Central and South America.

As I mentioned, this is also a sculpture park, and you can see different sculptures as you drive in, outside in the gardens and inside as well.
This one is set outside the building and is a fun one.  You can see different faces on it, depending on the angle you are looking at it from.

Here's the conservatory from the outside.

As we walked to the conservatory, we came across this cute little sculpture.

Then we saw these cool cacti.

As soon as we entered the conservatory, we started seeing butterflies.

Can you see those spots of brilliant blue?  Those are our favorite butterflies; the Common Morpho from South America. They are so beautiful!

Here's a spot where the cocoons hang and you can see some butterflies hatching.

 

We enjoyed seeing some beautiful flowers in the conservatory too, even though the butterflies were the main draw this time.

When you leave the conservatory, you have to go through an air lock and check to be sure no butterflies are sneaking out on your clothes or bags.
This glass sculpture in on the ceiling in the cafe is by Dale Chihuly who is known for his blown glass sculpture.

I had this yummy sandwich and salad at the cafe.  Then it was time to head home.

We had a great time and both of us remarked about the beauty God has given us in His creation; from the mountains, canyons, trees, to the tiny things like flowers and butterflies of all colors!

Butterflies also remind us that just like the butterfly is completely changed when it emerges from the cocoon, we are also changed when we accept Christ!

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"    2 Cor. 5:17

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

Today's recipe is a twist on taco's.  These little taco cups go together quickly; they are fun and taste good!  They make about 18 taco cups, but freeze well.  Then you can just heat up the amount you need.

Wonton Taco Cups

1 pound ground beef, browned
1 envelope taco seasoning
3 tablespoons water
1 can Rotel tomatoes with chilies, drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
36 wonton wrappers
Taco toppings - cheese, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream..

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 18 cupcake tins with cooking spray.
Stir together ground beef, taco seasoning and water. Bring to simmer and stir in Rotel. Remove from heat.
Place one wonton wrapper in each cupcake tin and press to shape.
Place a small scoop of meat mix into wrapper and sprinkle cheese over top. Place another wrapper over meat and cheese, rotating it so points of wrapper are not in the same spot as the previous wrapper.
Add another small scoop of meat mix and top with cheese.
Place in oven for 15 minutes.  Watch closely so wonton wrapper doesn't get too dark.  (I didn't watch mine close enough!)
Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
Serve with taco toppings of your choice.

Wednesday Photos

 

Spring has finally arrived here!

However, this is what the next day looked like.  We know the nice weather is coming though!

Girls Day Out

I had such a fun day with my daughters on Saturday. They had planned this day to celebrate my retirement, but we wanted to wait until it was a little nicer outside.  So, Saturday it was!

Here we are in Grand Rapids a little before 11am.  The place we planned to start at was full, so we headed off to visit some of the cute shops around the city.

This shop was full of beautiful, handmade leather things, and also some great smelling candles. We smelled lots of candles and yes we bought a few too!

The sun was shining, but it was only 33 degrees.   Even in the cold we enjoyed walking in the city.

I love this old church we passed.

Isn't this a beautiful, old building?

We went to this excellent restaurant for lunch.  It's called Tupelo Honey and it serves Southern food.  We really enjoyed it.

Here's my girls enjoying their brunch.  They had some fun coffee drinks too.  Laura had a mint chocolate cold coffee and Heather had a Blueberry Mocha, which they enjoyed.

After lunch we went to the place we originally started at.  It's called Aroma Labs, and you can make your own scent for perfume, soap, lotion, air freshener...

These scents were divided into floral, nature, food (spice) and one other that I can't remember.  :)
We had to smell each bottle and set aside the ones we liked.  We had coffee beans to sniff occasionally to clear the scents.

Here's Laura trying to narrow down favorites.

And Heather, choosing hers.

After you choose some favorites, you put drops from 2-6 scents on a sample stick to see how you like them blended together.

When you come up with a blend you like, you can place your order and take it home with you! We each got a small bottle of perfume and they all turned out good.  This was such a fun activity.

Here's something funny.  We got out of the Aroma Labs place and had to figure out how to find where our car was parked.  Laura had her GPS on her phone looking where the street was.  We joked that us country girls can't handle life in the city!

We found our car and went to another part of the city that had some cute shops.  This was our last stop.  It's called The Established Home. There's a show by the same name on Discovery and The Magnolia Network showing homes that the owner has redone.  I have watched several seasons of this and enjoyed it.  If you want to check it out, you can find links here. This shop was full of beautiful things - but most were too pricey for me!

Then it was time to head home as it was getting close to suppertime.
We had such a fun time together and I loved spending the day with my girls!

Last of the Valentines

 You may remember that on Valentine's Day, Alaina and Ruby gave us a package filled with tiny little envelopes that each had a little drawing or message for us.

We've been faithfully opening one of these little envelopes each day, and last week came to the last one.

Here's a bunch of them, we had a month's supply!  We enjoyed each one, from the simple to the more detailed ones.  I had to take a photo so I could remember them and thought I would share.

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

Here's a quick and easy meal for you. You can get it put together and baked in about 30 minutes.  The recipe calls for ham and swiss, but you can change it to your liking; turkey and swiss, ham and cheddar or even roast beef.  We've tried several versions and always enjoyed it. 

Ham and Cheese Sandwich Roll

1 can Pillsbury Pizza Crust (13.8 ounces)
6 ounces sliced deli ham
6 ounces sliced cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons mustard, optional
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.  Roll out pizza dough on parchment paper, to about a 14x8 inch rectangle.
Mix softened butter and Italian seasoning and spread over pizza dough, leaving one inch border. If desired drizzle mustard over top.
Lay ham over butter spread, then place cheese on top.
Roll up dough on long side.
Brush top with beaten egg.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden.  Slice and serve hot.

Wordless Wednesday

 (Seed pods from last years Rose of Sharon blooms that have hung on through the winter)

A drive to the river

Last week, I was out driving on a sunny day and decided to drive to a recreational area on the Grand River near our home.

To get there, you have to drive down a gravel road - my favorite kind of road!  This road is beautiful in the summer and Fall when the leaves are on the trees.

There's still a little snow in the woods.

Some areas nearer the river are a little flooded from snow melt, but I thought it still looked pretty with that bright blue sky.

And here's the river! In the summer, this place is full of people putting boats in, but during the winter you can hardly get back here, and on this day I was the only one here.  You can see a little ice still on the water, but it will soon be gone.

Next time I'm here, this tree should be green and the water warm!

Fun with Cassie

Last week we had Cassie overnight because Connor had to have a small outpatient surgery.

We started out the evening by making a Squishie.  I have a kit where you mix 2 things, stir in coloring and pour it into a mold.  It hardens so you can open the mold and you get a squishie little animal of some sort.

Here's Cassie with her finished red bird.  She loves doing this when she comes over.

The next morning, she was up bright and early; about 7 am when it was still dark out.  Here's Cassie and Bob, ready for breakfast. She always wakes up cheerful and talking a blue streak.

Shortly after that I got this picture from Heather.  Connor was looking cute in his gown, charming the nurses and blissfully unaware of what was in his future.

After breakfast, we did something fun. In honor of St Patrick's Day coming up, we made some Shamrock treats.  My friend Carrie, at Northwoods Scrapbook, shared this last year if I'm remembering right.  I saved them, thinking they looked fun and easy.  You put the pretzels in a shamrock shape, put an unwrapped Rolo in the middle and put them in the oven for about 5 minutes, then press a green M&M in the middle.  Put them in the frig to harden and you have some cute little Shamrock treats!

In the middle of working on these, Cassie leaned over and gave Bob a spontaneous hug.  I was glad I had my phone ready to capture that.  It made his day!

Here's what they looked like when finished.

Cassie was pretty proud of them.

 

After we finished that, we headed outside. She's been waiting for the snow to melt, so she could play on our playset.

She was so happy to be on that swing!

We had to run a few errands, so we did that, and then stopped at her favorite place for lunch.  Chik-fil-A!  

The one we went to had a play area, which was so very exciting.  She played there for about 30 minutes, and then we headed back to her house.

Here's Connor, back home and a little sleepy.  We had a fun day with Cassie, and Connor is doing fine.