Apron and Bonnet Giveaway

I have been busy the last few weeks making lots of apron and bonnet sets. Some for Halloween, some for field trip but most for play time dress up.

I can still remember when Sydney would play dress up. She always looked so cute and it kept her content for hours. Creative play like that is so much better for children in my opinion than computer games or tv. Instead of being told what to think by an outside source the child is able to roll play using what they have been taught by their family and witnessed being roll modeled to them.

I am so glad my daughter read good books and enjoyed playing pioneer girls with her friends instead of rock star or who know what else tv and the world would have had her embrace.

So in the spirit of cultivating more fun and imaginative play for the little girl in your life I am having an apron and bonnet giveaway. The apron and bonnet will look like the one in the picture however the dress is not included. I will work out the colors with the winner. If you are interested in the set in the picture I have shown it is a set I sell on e-bay and Etsy.

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment with your favorite way to entertain children that does not involve electronics. I will choose two winners on Friday using a random number generator. Be sure to leave me some way to contact you.

Menu Plan Monday

Right now I have a sick daughter, a son who getting better and we are in the middle of some pretty major home renevating so my menu is pretty simple and most of it will be made in the crockpot.

Fine Print: subject to change without notice

Monday Lunch Chicken noodle soup, grapes and wheat thins
Dinner Three pepper pork chops, mixed vegetables, roasted taters and rolls Recipe Below These pork chops are deliciouse and easy

Tuesday Lunch grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit
Dinner French toast, strawberries and scrambled eggs

Wednesday Lunch Chicken salad and mixed fruit
Dinner Black Bean Soup served with warm tortillas Recipe Below

Thursday Lunch quesadillas and left over black bean soup
Dinner Spaghetti, french bread and tossed salad

Friday Lunch Fend for yourself, AKA clean out the fridge
Dinner Sticky Chicken, Scalloped potatoes and peas

Saturday Lunch we have more work to do on the house so I am not sure what we will do for lunch. Maybe chicken strips or something of the sort that is quick and easy
Dinner Pizza and salad

Sunday Lunch Subs and salad
Dinner Bean burritos and Spanish rice

Three Pepper Pork Cutlets

1 pound pork tenderloin
2 teaspoons paprika, sweet Hungarian
1 teaspoon dried whole thyme
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried whole oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 large garlic cloves

1.Trim fat from pork. Cut pork crosswise into 8 slices. Place between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and flatten each slice to 1/4" thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Combine paprika and next 9 ingredients; stir well. Rub pork with paprika mixture. Place on a rack coated with cooking spray; place rack on a shallow roasting pan. Broil 5 inches from heat for 5 minutes. Turn pork over, and broil and additional 4 minutes or until done.

2.Yield 4 servings.


Black Bean Soup

2 tablespoons extra- virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 fresh bay leaf or 1 large dried bay leaf
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 cans black beans (15-ounce) I make my own
2 tablespoons ground cumin, a couple of palm fulls
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander, 1/3 palm full
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons hot sauce, divided (2 to 3)
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1 can diced tomatoes (15-ounce) diced tomatoes with peppers and onions, or stewed tomatoes

Heat a medium soup pot over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil to the hot pot, then onion, garlic, jalapeno, and bay leaf. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, then add red peppers and continue to cook. Drain 2 cans of beans and add them. Use a fork to mash up the beans in the remaining can. Stir the mashed beans into the pot and season with cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and 2 to 3 tablespoons hot sauce. Add stock and tomatoes to the stoup and bring to a bubble. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes over low heat. Add the lime juice. Remove and discard the bay leaf


Be sure to head over to the host of Menu Plan Monday organizing junkie

Catch Up

A Big sorry to everyone. I can hardly believe I have not posted in over a week. We have been busy with home improvements, sewing, church activities, trips to Bass Hall, doctor visits for check ups and then last but not least a nasty respiratory infection thing for two of my kiddos.

I will try hard to get some post up tonight and Monday to catch you up to speed on all things exciting and not so exciting from the Smith household.

Great Big THANK YOU!

When last time we tuned in my blog was in great distress... or at least I was.

In case you have not noticed my blog header is changed and I owe it all to Andrew from gusgraphics. Andrew stepped up and offered to help and I am very grateful and impressed by his work.

I made the image but could not get it to show up when I placed it in my template. I gave Andrew my info late Thursday night and when I woke up Friday morning it was up and working! All I can say is wow!

If you are in need of graphic work please consider using gusgraphics.

Passion or Obsession?

It can be a fine grey line. Right now, among many others, I am reading Blogging for Dummies. When I came across this I had to share it with you all. “If you're not careful, customization of your blog can become an obsession." Hmmm.... has he visited my blog! Well if has he would not be impressed but if he visited regularly he would see that it is always changing; only problem is I hate the changes and never can find just what I want.

I make a change on Monday and by Wednesday it is back to how it was. I have tried templates but because I host on my own site via blogger I have to use classic blogger templates, this really limits me. Then my bigger problem... I have adobe Photoshop and dream weaver however I can not figure how to get what I make in them to work with blogger. It's a nightmare!!!

I have a header I like however for the life of me I can not get it to work. I have the image hosted and uploaded but nothing! I have spent hours playing with it and trying different tips I find on the web but nothing works.

Ugh... I am about ready to pay someone to do it for me. I fear my passion is beyond healthy and closer to an obsession!

Feeling Feminine Challenge and Prayer Request

I am sorry I did not get the last two days posted of the challenge, I have a bad back it started acting up Wednesday night and by Saturday I was not much good for anything but staying in bed.

I stayed home from church Sunday and iced it several times; it is feeling better today but it still hurts to sit or stand for long.

If you think about it say a prayer for me because we have a very busy day tomorrow and none of it can be cancelled. I also see the doctor tomorrow in hopes of getting some semi permanent relief.

Free Tote and Natures Bounty Coupons

Follow this link to sign up to receive a free tote and coupons for Nature's Bounty vitamins. The site shows it will take 4-6 weeks for your tote and coupons to arrive.

These vitamins often go on sale at CVS and Kroger.

Hurricane Ike

Rain, rain and more rain. That is about all the D/FW area is receiving. We have had a lot of wind but nothing damaging so far.

I had to take Syd to work and other than a few branches in yards the worse damage seems to happening at the gas pump. What's new.

I have managed to get some work done in the house which is a good thing and I know with all this rain the garden will sure be beautiful in the next few days!

We are definitely praying for those who were and are in the path of the storm.

Day 5 Feeling Feminine Challenge

Today seemed to rush by. Before I woke up I was running late! I have no idea what happened but I fell back asleep after Scott left for work and did not wake back up until 8:45 am.

Today I wore one of my favorite skirts! I love wrap around skirts; I always place a few stitches further down the opening to keep them from flying open. When I bought this one I was not sure if I liked it or not but after walking around the store awhile I decided I rally liked it a lot! It goes great with so many colors and can be casual or dressy. I enjoy clothes that can pull double duty!

Anyways here is what we did: Met with a math/PSAT/SAT tutor, school, lunch, bowling party, kids to work, clean up house, dinner, sew, pick kids up from work and now blogging! Whew... it was a fast paced day. I am ready for the week-end!

The pictures today are compliments of my son Ray.

We had pizza tonight and these are those pictures:

Dough Mixing: I use a Bosch blender so making my own crust is quick and for the most part pretty easy to clean up


Dough balls: I usually let the dough rest a few minutes before rolling it out.


Pizza before cooking

Day 4 Feeling Feminine Challenge

I failed to get any pictures for Thursday but I did wear a skirt! I wore a black A-line skirt with a peach shirt.

I did not do too much because of a back ache.

Day 3 Feeling Feminine Challenge

Well Wednesday started out rainy, windy and with my annual exam. I must say I was feeling anything but feminine or modest but what must be done, must be done and boy am I glad it's done!

I must admit I wore a more in my opinion feminine skirt and it did add some fun to the day and I received several comments on how nice it looked. That never happens in jeans and t-shirt.

Other than my exam I went to grocery store and picked up some sale items that I had coupons for, cleaned our room, put away laundry, weeded a small area in our herb garden, started dinner and taught Wednesday night Bible class at church.


I have some more pictures but they are on Syds camera so I may edit this later and add them.

Day 2 Feeling Feminine Challenge

Well day two was another rainy day! I wore a long denim skirt that has a zipper and button waist very similar to jeans. The morning started out cool and rainy and progressed to hot and rainy.

I kept my hair down most of the day even while sewing.

So, what did I get done yesterday in a dress? Took the kids to choir rehearsal, library volunteering, trip to Jo Anns to shop and drop Syd off at work, the post office, cleaned house and sewed. The same things I do every Tuesday. The only time I wished I had on pants was when the dog ran by me outside and got my legs wet and muddy but I suppose in pants it would have been about the same.

Day 1 Feeling Feminine Challenge

I had wanted to get this up last night but time did not allow. With school back in full swing I do not have much "free time".

This is just a simple denim wrap around skirt. I wanted this week to be a little more feminine but with rain looming all day yesterday and much to do out and about I felt like a practical skirt and shoes were needed.

No comment is needed for how VERY white my legs are!

I will try to get today pictures up tonight but with school, library, choir and household stuff it may be tommorow before I do.

Feeling Feminine Challenge!

I have been challenged to spend everyday this week in either a skirt or dress. Who made this challenge? Well if you know Sydney you will not be surprised to know it was her, my own daughter.

Please, do not get me wrong, I believe in modest dress and never wear things I feel would be revealing or immodest however as of late I almost always wear jeans, a t-shirt and my hair pulled up in a clippy. Far from feminine.

I guess for the last six months or so I have spent very little time worrying about my looks. My excuse.... I am too busy, no one notices, I do not have enough skirts, all my skirts are nice and for church, the list goes on and on.

So I decided to take my daughter up on her challenge. This week we will both be sharing our daily outfits and activities with the world.


We both spent sometime this week-end making a skirt. As much as I sew I can not remember the last time I made anything for me. I am not sure if I like the skirt I made but I had fun working with Syd and if nothing else I can wear it around the house.


So stay tuned this week as I take the feminine challenge.

Missions: Go or Send

I am very excited, tonight starts our missions conference. Even before I got saved at our former church, (it took me 5 months of preaching to get it) I enjoyed reading missionary letters and listening to their burden for where ever it was they were going. After I got saved it was even better, I understood the full impact of what they were trying to do and why.

I was burdened to start sending one evening after a missionary spoke and then our former pastor got up and spoke to the congregation and the missionary. He said something like wouldn't it be nice if we could add this brother to our list of supporting Churches, everyone amened, he then went on to say yeah, only if it was more important to you all than your daily latte or fast food lunch. He went on for awhile. All along I was thinking of my daily coke at work. I spent $1.00 a day buying a coke. Our pastor said he wished that occasionally someone besides him had to look a missionary in the eye and say we can not help you save souls right now. Wow, I could not imagine how hard that was for him to have to do. He has such a burden for missions and for lost souls.


I had never given to missions before that day. I figured we couldn't really afford a big offering and that my few dollars wouldn't matter. That next service I put in $5.00 and I continued to do that weekly until over time I found ways to increase it.


The burden for missions became very strong for my entire family. We became active in our churches missions program and started finding ways to help. All along wondering would God send our family.

Well, to this day he has not called us to go but he has called us to be a wittiness for him here in Texas and he has called us to help send other missionary families. For a Christian I believe those are the only two choices, go or send.

I use to feel that sending was not as important that was until I saw it was Biblical, you need people willing to "abode by the stuff". 1Samuel 25:13. Also just the financial side of it, God uses men to help others, without people sending it would be tough on the missionary to get by financially. Am I saying God needs my money? No, but God has set up systems by which he works and I believe he is showing in Luke 6:38 that he uses Christians to help others.

My challenge would be two fold for anyone reading this post: first pray for missionaries, they need prayer as much if not more that finances and second start giving to missions even if it is $1.00 a day, that adds up to $30 in a month.

On a side note I never did miss giving up my daily Coke.

WHat I Have Been Up To

Well, it sure has been a busy 2 weeks for me! We started back to school, my husband started some home improvement projects, and then I got flooded with sewing orders. All in all things have gone pretty smooth. God has definitely answered my prayer for energy and a clam spirit, often I get grumpy when I feel overwhelmed, but not this time. It was definitely God answering prayer because even when I felt overwhelmed a quick prayer helped!

So... here is some of what I did.

Some elastic waisted culottes for a friends little girl. I could not find a pattern that would fit her (she is tiny) so for the first time I made my own pattern!

I also made some I made her some solid black ones and a pair of pink ones that have brown polka dots but did not get pictures. They are adorable!








Some gowns I sold on e-bay. I saved the quality too low so the images are not great but you get the idea. The other one is the first image of this post.



I also made a pinafore, some mop caps and bonnet sets.