What's for dinner

Growing up, my mom taught me the value of sitting down and making a plan for dinners.  It helps with grocery shopping, we can consider balanced meals, we can have a variety of meals, and it's amazing how much time we save when we don't have to figure it out at last minute.
Here is this week's plan:

Monday: Ham slice, summer squash, homemade mashed potatoes and side salad.  Strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.
Tuesday: Rotisserie chicken (save 1/2 for tomorrow), corn on the cob, green beans and side salad.  Strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.
Wednesday: Southwest chicken soup and cornbread.  Watermelon for dessert.
Thursday: Slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches with French Fries and baked beans.  Dessert TBA
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Church cookout - bring a potluck dish.
Sunday: Taco Salad. Ice cream for dessert.

Frozen Pizza Review

I am a pizza snob.  If I had my way, we'd eat pizza at one of those fancy smancy brick oven places all of the time.  But, we can't since we live in a small town and are on a budget.  My husband on the other hand, will grab any ole pizza from the frozen section of our store.  This sent me on a quest to find one I like.  Atlas! I have found one!  When my husband saw the pictures of our lunch in my photos, he asked me if I was going to blog about it. Ummm...yes?  "Do you think we had a nutritional lunch?" he asked me.  "No, but that wasn't the goal here," I responded, secretly questioning myself as to posting or not. 

So, here is the pizza that I really, really like! 

It's Freschetta's Naturally Rising Pizza. I bought it at WalMart for $5.27.  You may notice that one side has pepperoni and the other is just pizza, it's because I moved the meat to one side to make it half and half. 

Here is the nutritional panel if you are interested:

Try it, and let me know what you think.  Or better yet, have you found a frozen pizza in the store that you and your family really like?

Life Changes

A few weeks ago, I went into Toys R Us to find a birthday gift for my son.  I saw this neat butterfly kit, but I didn't buy it at the time.  Later, I found it again at TJMaxx for a cheaper price.  I also had a gift card for TJMaxx, so I went ahead and picked it up. 

You have to go online (or you can send it by snail mail) to order your caterpillars.  We got three in the mail.  Remember to open it up quickly because they are living creatures inside. 

The critters come in a neat cup that has gooey stuff on the bottom (that's their food). 

My son named is caterpillars, which I thought was cute. They soon became like pets. We checked in with them every day to see how much they grew.  In about 10 days, they began to make their cocoons. chrysalis (thanks Sara)

Once they have spun themselves into their cozy new homes, you need to open the cup and gently take them out.  They will be fixed onto the top of the lid which has a thin piece of paper.  Take the paper and safety pin it onto the mesh container. 

They will remain in this state for about a week or more.  You want to keep checking because once they have hatched from their chrysalis, you need to start feeding them sugar water. Here is Ben waiting for them to come out.  He's playing peek-a-boo with them. 

So, the big day arrived and one by one they emerged. 

Now, following the directions, you pick fresh flowers from your yard (or get some from a friend or store) and put droplets of sugar water on them.  The butterflies feed off of these.  Ours were so hungry, the minute I put the flowers in, they landed on them and went to town.  I guess they did go through a lot of hard work to break free from their cocoons ...er...chrysalis :). 

We went to the library to find a book about butterflies that a 3 year old would understand.  I found a cute one called the "Crunching, Munching Caterpillar."  It's about a caterpillar that notices all kinds of animals that can fly and wishes he could fly too. 

So, after a few days (remember to add the sugar water daily), the family went out to our small garden and released them. 

One landed on our dog Maggie!

This was one of the neatest things we've done together as a family. It's very simple to do. If you can't find them in the stores, you may want to go online and see if you can order the kit directly from the company.  We enjoyed doing this so much, I'm sure we'll do it again next year.

Have you ever done this? I'd love to hear about your experience. Or do you have another idea of a fun science project for a toddler?

I serve a risen Savior!

Happy Easter Everyone!
I wanted to share with you a book my Sunday School class read this year during the Lenten season. We're actually finishing it up next week. 
It's called "24 Hours the Changed the World" by Adam Hamilton. Amazon's link to the book.
I have discovered so much about the Holy Land and the time of Jesus. I wish I had read the book before our trip over there four years ago!
Pastor Hamilton takes viewers to special Holy Land sites. YouTube of Adam telling you about his book. The book and video are very easy to follow and are eye-opening. He has done his homework! 
For instance, I learned that a cross wasn't the entire cross. One only had to carry the middle part. The tall, lengthy part was already in the ground at the destination. And a cross usually weighed about 100 pounds. I told one of the kids at church that and she exclaimed, "Yowza, that's the size of my big brother!" 
I hope you all have a blessed year. And remember that the Good News is not a secret. It's somethings we should be excited about and tell everyone we know!