Family Friendly Friday Meme

I'm sure I'm not the only who struggles with trying to please their family's tastes in food, activities, etc. Also, I remember when I was a kid - it was so hard to find things that interested me and also my younger siblings (we were spread out over 15years!). So, I thought maybe this would be a meme theme that would helpful to me and many others. Please feel free to join in: just post a food or recipe (or even restaurant), activity or outing, whatever that your family likes (maybe even loves) and share it with us! Feel free to use the FFF image and please link back to us. Comment on this post to let us know you're sharing a Family Friendly Friday and we'll come visit your blog!

My three-year-old is getting to be picky. Not always. Sometimes he's a bottomless pit! Other times I can't get him to eat a thing! Also, my husband is a little on the picky side - love you honey! So, it kind of makes meal planning and cooking a challenge.

My "Family Friendly Friday" thing today is:

Easy Breakfast Filled Biscuits

1 can Grands biscuits (generic is generally what we use)
4-6 eggs scrambled
1-2 cups cheese
optional:
diced peppers or mushrooms, etc
cooked breakfast meat: bacon, sausage, ham, etc

SEPARATE biscuits. Press 1 biscuit onto bottom and up side of each of 8 medium muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray.

SPOON eggs, vegis and meat mixture evenly into biscuit cups, pressing filling into cups with back of spoon. (Filling will be mounded.)

BAKE at 375°F for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. Continue baking 3 to 4 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown and cheese is melted.

These would be great to make ahead and freeze for use later. This is actually adapted to fit breakfast from a recipe I found on KraftFoods.com.

TT - Things That Make Me Smile

I need a pick-me-up today so Here is my Thursday Thirteen:

Thirteen Things That Make Me Smile!

1. My husband singing and playing our song on the guitar! Its Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight"... love it!!

2. Nate singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". How cute is that?!?

3. Joe babbling. He is making the cutest sounds lately.

4. Business Time...

5. Hanging out with my college girls... I miss you!

6. My favorite movies! Here is a clip from Princess Bride!

7. Mexican food... I'm sorry, I'm a sucker for anything that follows some good chips and salsa!

8. photography - I love taking pictures!

9. blogging - there is just something about it!

10. Vacations... sigh... someday we'll take a real, lay-on-the-beach-and-relax kind of vacation. But for now we'll settle for watching Cubs games and vegging out on the couch together.

11. scrapbooking! I guess it kind of ties into my love of photography.

12. Memorizing bible verses with Nate. He's got three verses down and we're working on #4.

13. Getting mail... you know, real letters from people who love me. Its good stuff!

Reality Bites

We are in the process of trying to get more therapy for Joe. He has been seeing Physical and Developmental Therapists for awhile now but we'll probably be adding Occupational and Speech sometime soon. And hopefully we'll be getting orthotics for him soon too.
We followed the recommendation of the social worker at Riley and applied for supplemental aid/insurance to help with the medical bills that have and will continue to accrue as we try to help Joe and figure out what is causing his delays. We were disappointed to find out that we do not qualify for the aid that we had applied for. Our insurance that we have now is great for healthy people and anything "normal" but anything out of the ordinary is hardly covered at all. Its just frustrating that its so hard to get help when you need it sometimes!
I am not in denial. I am not stupid... I know that my son has developmental delays. We are making the steps needed to help him. We're not trying to pretend that everything is "normal". However, I am having a hard time thinking of this as a potentially lifelong struggle for him and us. It completely overwhelms me to think of him being this way forever. I'm still clinging to the hope that after more therapy he may catch up eventually and lead a fairly normal life someday. Deep down I know that he might not... but I have to believe that its a possibility. If I didn't have that hope I would fall apart (even more than I already do).

Our Winners Are.....

I really enjoyed reading your comments on my party post. I love feedback from readers! As I was reading the comments and thinking about winning prizes it made me think of the movie "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio". Here is what Jeff Shannon said about it:
Based on the true story of Evelyn Ryan, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is one of those overlooked gems that deserves a long life on DVD... As always, Julianne Moore brings subtle perfection to her role as Evelyn, the cheerfully strong-willed mother of ten who compensates for the failings of her alcoholic husband (Woody Harrelson) by becoming the most successful "contester" in the country, entering cleverly-worded poems, jingles, and slogans in corporate sponsored contests throughout the mid-1950s and early '60s. Winning everything from palm trees and pogo-sticks to sports cars and cash, she holds the financially desperate family together with happy smiles and a rock-solid defiance of her husband's volatile temper... Like Evelyn, this movie's a winner.
This movie reminded me that sometimes its amazing how the little things that we do as parents can add up to be a whole lot. My photography business isn't exactly booming... but I do jobs for friends and family here and there and its added up to be a few thousand dollars over the last few years. Not too shabby. My husband does surveys online. Sometimes its $1 - sometimes its $5 - occasionally he'll get bigger ones but those all add up to be a few hundred dollars every year. Not too bad for a few minutes of his time here and there.

Well, while these prizes won't amount to much its always fun to win something! And while I wish I could have sent everyone a prize that would be too expensive! Instead, I wrote down the commenter's names on scraps of paper and blindly picked out three... so, I have a couple of winners and prizes to announce.

C. Leinbach is getting a mini scrapbooking kit (similar to the one in the picture)

forgetfulone is getting misc. embellishments (some of them are handmade) and a scrapbooking magazine

BrineS is getting a couple Yankee candle votives and the handmade apron (I'm not the most skilled seamstress, but its cute)

FYI - both BrineS and forgetfulone are having giveaways of their own so go check them out!
Winners: Please email me your addresses so I can mail you your prizes! Thanks to all those who participated (especially those who posted my blog party button) and I hope to see you all back at Wani's World again soon!

Blog Party!

This marks my 300th post on Wani's World and my 4 year blogiversary. I've really enjoyed watching Wani's World grow over the last four years and especially the last year. I started out just writing about our life to keep in touch with family and friends who lived out of town. But, I think I've grown as a blogger and my reasons for blogging have changed over these past few years. I've so enjoyed meeting other bloggers and reading about their lives, getting tips and encouragement from strangers that share a common interest or struggle has been a real blessing.
PLEASE comment away! I would love get tons of comments from all of you about why you blog, for how long you've been blogging, what you blog about, all that jazz! Hope to hear from alot of you soon!

You have to comment to be eligible to win!! I'll also base some prizes on your blog's main subject. So, if you blog about crafts I might send you the scrapbooking magazine, etc. Feel free to leave your prize preference in your comment.

Prizes to be won:
several Yankee Candle Votives
cute apron handmade by ME!
a Word Search Book
collection of handmade paper-craft embellishments
magazine - parenting and/or scrapbooking

The party will end at midnight on July 28th... so sometime on Tuesday I'll post winners.

This weeks scrappin'

What Scrappin' did you do this week?

TT - 13 Musicals I Love

Over the weekend I went to see Mamma Mia with a friend. It was sooo much fun! We loved it! Here are 13 Musicals I Love:

1. Sound of Music - isn't Julie Andrews amazing? This is one I'll watch over and over again - probably still will when I'm old and grey.

2. Newsies - ah, a young Christian Bale... what a hottie! So many young girls had crushes on guys from this one!

3. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - you gotta love any movie that has a beautiful girl named "Dorcas".

4. Hairspray - I was surprised at how much I loved this movie when it came out. If I was still in high school, I'd be in love with Zac Efron. I haven't watched the old one with Ricki Lake yet.

5. Little Mermaid - one of the first movies we ever got on video, I think we wore out our vhs! I'm watching this one with my 3yr old right now!

6. Phantom of the Opera - one of the best! I loved it live! If we ever have a daughter we're naming her Christine!

7. Aladdin - can you be in love with a cartoon? Nah, but it was a great movie.

8. Holiday Inn - Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby... classic black and white musical. Great Christmas-time movie!

8. Beauty and the Beast - Disney isn't making them like this anymore! I still know most of the songs by heart!

9. Kiss Me Kate - musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare set to music! What could be better?

10. Enchanted - who would have thought a live action/cartoon would turn out so good? Well, having McDreamy in it helped!

11. Mamma Mia - my new fave! Music was great and soooo funny! Great cast!

12. Grease - John Travolta was hot - a far cry from his role in Hairspray!

13. Wizard of Oz - I must have watched this movie hundreds of times while growing up! What little girl didn't want to be Dorothy at some point?

WFMW - Recipe for.... a great meal!

We love mexican food here. Its a staple in our regular dinner fare. Here is a meal that we love to have anytime.

First you have to try making your own Semi-Homemade Salsa. I almost never make it the same. I'm always adding something different here and there. Its fun and sooo easy! And then you nibble on the chips and salsa (or queso if you prefer) while you are fixing dinner! Who doesn't like appetizers?!?

We like to mix it up with our meat and will often have a combination of chicken, pork, steak and shrimp. Sometimes I'll use a purchased marinade (anything from Lawry's is always good), but you could easily just mix up your own marinade or rub on seasoning. Since its summer we prefer to grill out as much as possible. Sometimes we'll even do the vegis ( I like to use cut bell peppers and squash & zucchini) on the grill too. We have a special pan to grill in.

I love what we did the night I took this pix. This is actually designed to be a sundae bar (or something like that. But we used all the containers for all of our toppings. It was for a girls weekend, we do not get that fancy on a normal dinner night!

Now when it comes to condiments my husband and I differ in opinion. We both love to load the tortillas with beans and cheese... then I like top mine off with guacamole (or even just avocado), sour cream, tomatoes, etc. Hubby on the other hand... he's a lettuce and cheese only guy. Well, and hot sauce. Lots of hot sauce!

Let me know what variations you and your family to spice up dinner time at your house!

Check out some other Works For Me Wednesday posts!

T-Tapp Toot!

I posted last Monday that my husband and I were starting a daily workout routine (T-Tapp) together. Well, yesterday was the end of week one/beginning of week two. We were both a little disappointed that we had each gained 1lb but when we went through and measured again Isaac had lost 10inches and I had lost 8in (over our whole bodies)! Yeah! Its a work in progress and we both have a long way to go but its a start!

Swimsuit Sorrows

I myself have recently gone through the "torture" of bathing suit shopping. If you are looking for a cute but modest bathing suit here is a link that gives several websites that sell modest trendy clothes. On a funny note: a friend sent me this story as a forward. I don't know who to give credit to but its darn funny and I can totally relate to it. Enjoy!


> My Bathing Suit
>
> When I was a child in the 1950s the bathing suit for the mature figure
> was boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered.
> They were built to hold back and uplift and they did a good job.
>
> Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a
> figure carved from a potato chip.
>
> The mature woman has a choice...she can either go up front to the
> maternity department and try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming
> away looking like a hippopotamus who escaped from Disney's Fantasia
> or she can wander around every run of the mill department store
> trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer
> range of florescent rubber bands.
>
> What choice did I have? I wandered around, made my sensible choice
> and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room.
>
> The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the
> stretch material. The Lycra used in bathing costumes was developed,
> I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which
> give the added bonus that, if you manage to actually lever yourself into
> one, you are protected from shark attacks as any shark taking a swipe
> at your passing midriff would immediately suffer whiplash. I fought
> my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in
> place, I gasped in horror - my boobs had disappeared!
>
> Eventually, I found one boob cowering under my left armpit. It took
> a while to find the other. At last I located it flattened beside my 7th
> rib. The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups. The
> mature woman is meant to wear her boobs spread across her chest
> like a speed bump. I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward
> the mirror to take a full view assessment.
>
> The bathing suit fit all right, but unfortunately it only fit those bits
> of me willing to stay inside it. The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top,
> bottom, and sides. I looked like a lump of play dough wearing undersized cling wrap.
>
> As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the
> prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain, 'Oh,
> there you are,' she said, admiring the bathing suit.
>
> I replied that I wasn't so sure and asked what else she had to show me.
> I tried on a cream crinkled one that made me look like a lump of masking
> tape, and a floral two piece which gave the appearance of an oversized
> napkin in a serving ring.
>
> I struggled into a pair of leopard skin bathers with ragged frills and
> came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a bad day.
>
> I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jellyfish in
> mourning.
>
> I tried on a bright pink pair with such a high cut leg I thought I would
> have to wax my eyebrows to wear them.
>
> Finally, I found a suit that fit...a two-piece affair with a shorts
> style bottom and a loose blouse-type top.
>
> It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge-friendly, so I bought it. My
> ridiculous search had a successful outcome, I figured. When I got home, I found a
> label which read --'Material might become transparent in water.'
>
> So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water
> this year and I'm there too .. I'll be the one in cut off jeans and a
> t-shirt!
>
> You'd better be laughing or rolling on the floor by this time.
> I hope I didn't go through all this for nothing.

More Scrappin' Pix

Here is what I have done this week. I actually did last weeks challenge - I did a border w/ a watermelon paper. I thought it was pretty cute. I just didn't have pix to go with it just yet.
My to do this week is to buy some albums. I'm embarrassed to say that after I've been scrapping all this time I still do not have any of my pages in albums! I know! Its awful! But since I'm not really doing things in any kind of order its hard to arrange them into books. But I'm gonna try!

For more Sunday Scrappers click here!

Hats....

Lately I have been listening to Hearts at Home workshops on cd (I totally want to go to a conference soon! I'm trying to get some other moms to go with me!). Today I was listening to Karen Ehman's workshop on Keeping Your Ducks In A Relative Row. She has some great stuff on how to organize and manage your household in a practical way. I was checking out her website and found a link to a skit she did at one of the Hearts at Home conferences. Its hilarious! Check it out!

Freebies

Ok, so who doesn't like FREE STUFF?!? I love it! My grandma always said she'd by $hit on a stick if it was on sale. Well, I'm kind of like that with free stuff. If its free I'll take it! Whether I need it or not! I know, its kind of a disease or something. Maybe thats why I like Works For Me Wednesday... its free hints, tips and ideas. What could be better? Anyway, for those of you who are not addicted maybe these links will be helpful and not enabling. Enjoy!

Eat for Free Links

free printable Disney coloring pages

Free postcards & postage @ Hippopost

Homeschool Freebies

More Homeschool Free stuff

Free Attractions in any city in the USA

Free printable calendars

Free printable reward charts from SuperNanny

TT - 13 Reasons I had a homebirth

My husband and I just watched The Business of Being Born. Its a documentary about the way America treats pregnancy and birth. Because we have studied on the subject so much on our own there was some information that we were already aware of but they went into more detail and touched on some things that we hadn't heard before. It just reminded me of all the reasons why we chose to have our second son at home (the first was an attempted natural birth in a hospital that ended in an unnecessary cesarean).

1. FAMILY HISTORY - I am the oldest of five kids all born at home. I was there for sisters 2 & 3's births. It was probably a little more natural for me to choose homebirth than for most women who have not been exposed to it their whole lives.
2. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE - I tried a hospital birth with my first son and was sorely disappointed in our experience there. Hospitals (in general) are were sick people go. They operate a certain way and don't care about the patient's desires, they stick to their plan because thats what they do.
3. RITE OF PASSAGE - For me personally, I felt pregnancy and childbirth to be a rite of passage in my personal journey through womanhood (to a certain degree). I felt robbed when my first son's birth was taken from me and our successful VBAC at home was a very healing experience for me.
4. STATISTICS - The cesarean rate in the US is 1 in 3. If you have already had a cesarean then the rate goes up from there. See the CDC statistics report here.
5. COMFORT - There is so much freedom and comfort in having a homebirth. There are far less interventions so your chances of avoiding an induction, breaking of waters, an IV, etc are better.
6. CONTROL - You are in charge with a homebirth. You don't have a doctor watching the clock telling you your body isn't working according to their timeline and pushing you to have interventions that you don't want. A properly trained midwife helps you let your body and the baby do the work instead of working against what your body is naturally doing.
7. CONVENIENCE - Its much more convenient than having to travel while in the throws of labor. You get to labor and birth in the comfort of your own home, with your own bed, etc. Only the people that you choose will be present, no nurses changing shifts in the middle of your labor/birth.
8. CNM - We were very thankful to find a Certified Nurse Midwife in our area to attend our homebirth. She read the notes from our son's birth and she agreed with us that there was no reason to suspect that my body was less than capable of birthing vaginally.
9. SUPPORT - We also had a doula (labor assistant) and my mother there to help during the labor and after the birth. They were both great support.
10. BACKUP PLAN- I had been to an OB/GYN at the hospital near us and we really liked her. She was supportive of our decision to stay home and she agreed to be our backup should the need to transfer to the hospital arrive during labor.
11. EDUCATION - We read alot about natural birth, VBAC and homebirth while I was pregnant. A few books I recommend are: Homebirth, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth, and Adventures in Childbirth - Tales from Women on the Joys, Fears, Pleasures and Pains of Giving Birth Naturally.
12. LOW RISK - I did not have a high risk pregnancy. When we got pregnant with our second son I actually weighed 30-40lbs less than I did when I got pregnant the first time. There were no red flags during the pregnancy, mom and baby grew very healthy all the way through.
13. UNITY - My husband was hesitant about the idea of a homebirth in the beginning. But he too was frustrated with our hospital experience and after he was more well-read on the subject he and I decided together that we wanted to stay home for the birth. I would never have been able to do it without his full support.

*Disclaimer: I am not saying that everyone should have a homebirth. It is a very personal choice and I wouldn't push it on anyone. However, I do believe that the system doesn't try to educate women on their birth options and that is what makes us "radicals" turn to homebirth. The healthcare system doesn't care about the patient the same way they used to. Its a billion dollar a year industry now.

For more about our first birth experience click here. For more about our homebirth click here.
For more Thursday Thirteen check out: www.thursdaythirteen.com

T-TAPP Day One

So, this is the beginning of a workout journey for my husband and I. We'll have to see how it goes. We're not usually good at stuff like this! We're both overweight and there are obvious health concerns that go along with that. We've gone on "diets" together before and have seen some results. But hopefully this will be the start of something bigger. A real change in our bodies and ultimately in our lifestyle. We took body measurements and weighed in this morning to start off (we even took "before" pictures!). I'll keep you posted on our results - maybe weekly or something like that.
A friend recommended this exercise program called T-Tapp. She said it was the only thing she tried that got rid of her c-section droop (which I have too!). So of course once she said that, I was curious! Isaac and I have both read part of the book and its very interesting how this program doesn't just help with weightloss - it helps your whole body function better. Their website says:

T-Tapp's preventative wellness workouts deliver results inside and out. Instead of just focusing on burning calories and fat to lose weight, T-Tapp concentrates on helping the body rebuild digestion, assimilation, elimination, in addition to improving lymphatic function and neuro-kinetic flow. Increased energy, mental clarity and overall health immediately improve as your body tightens and tones. Faster inch loss occurs because muscles develop like girdles so they can uplift and cinch in target areas of concern. That's because T-Tapp develops long, lean muscle fibers with strength and flexibility for greater muscle density instead of muscle bulk. In fact, T-Tapp can redesign bulky muscles into lean, dense tissue! Best of all, this type of muscle development helps support the spine and joints in a rehabilitative way. Many injuries occur due to muscle imbalance, but with T-Tapp muscles are always built with strength and flexibility. It just happens that this type of muscle development also increases metabolic processing for higher burning of calories and fat even when not working out! Last of all, T-Tapp is a left-right brain, mind-body workout. Most have heard the phrase "if you don't use it, you lose it" but with T-Tapp it's never too late to rebuild fitness and health. Come discover "Yes You Can" with T-Tapp and FEEL the difference while you try some sample movements for free.

Scrapping Sunday Again!

Lehi opened her home up for me, Sniz and Derailed to scrap again last week. What fun we have when we get together! I was ill prepared and ended up having to borrow some basic supplies - but my girls took good care of me! I'll try to do better packing my gear next time! Anyway, here are a few pages I've done in the last week or two.

My ToDo's are:
Do at least a couple single photo layouts this week. I've probably only done one or two ever. I'm usually trying to cram as many photos as possible into a layout.
And to finish my boys' baby pages that I've been working on for awhile now.

** On a side note - Target has a bunch of scrappin stuff in their dollar section right now. Check it out!