Oatmeal Packs

Eating my morning breakfast I realized it has been a while since I posted anything so in my hunt for a topic I thought what better than to write about than my breakfast. I actually have a few breakfast tips but today let's cover oatmeal.

Do you hate spending tons of money on instant oatmeal.  I know I personally hate buying instant oatmeal,  I love oatmeal but I have a lot of trouble justifying the high cost and let's be honest who really only eats one pack for breakfast? I would like to meet the adult that gets full and isn't hungry 10 minutes after eating just one serving. 

Growing up we rarely had the instant stuff in our house my mom always made her own maple and Brown Sugar regular oatmeal whenever we had it.  Before I had kids whenever I wanted a warm yummy breakfast I would just make oatmeal the way my mom does. However once I had kids I found it harder juggling the time to cook the oatmeal in the morning not to mention the extra mess while taking care of the kids.  So I came up with a solution, my own "instant" oatmeal packs!

I just take my entire container of oatmeal and a bunch of ziplock bags. I measure out the oatmeal serving size I would like into each bag along with 1 tbs of brown sugar per 1/4 cup oats.  Seal the bag and whenever you are in the mood for oatmeal just add the required amount of water and microwave. No mess oatmeal in a minute and half!  The best part is I get about 22 single ADULT servings per oatmeal container so this is a ton cheaper and you only need 1 to fill you up!  You can also customize the portion size for mine I do the heart healthy portion since Sophie loves the oatmeal we split it but even then I still get 15 portions.

This is also completely customizable if you want to add different ingredients such as craisins or nuts you can do that as you make them.  Also if you like instant oatmeal for the texture you can run this through a food processor and it will mimic the texture of instant oatmeal.

Don't forget to save the bags to reuse next time! I also store as many of the pouches as I can in the empty oatmeal container with the directions on the lid.

Hope you enjoy
Karen

25 Books of Christmas

I love Christmas time and this year I was looking for a new family tradition to start. I was hunting on Pinterest and came upon this idea. I must say I am pretty excited about this one!

This year I started a christmas book advent calendar.  I bought 25 christmas/winter books and wrapped them. Everynight once Jameson goes down Sophie picks a book from the basket, opens it, and we read them.

So far we did this the past two nights and she seems to really like it. She loves books and I figured this also gives her a chance to practice  unwrapping presents :)

Now when I first decided to do this I knew there is no way I could purchase 25 brand new Christmas books it would cost a fortune so on a whim I decided to check eBay and scored on a lot of 23 Christmas/winter books for $32.99 so if you are interested in starting this in your house I definitely recommend starting there.  You could also check them out at a library just don't forget to renew!

I figure every year I will  incorporate a couple new books and since they are wrapped it is a surprise as to which ones are new. Wrapping also keeps the favorites from being chosen all at the beginning!

I still haven't decided whether after a book has been read if we should keep it out in case she wants to look at it again before Christmas or if they should be put up to avoid destruction.  With the age of my kids we will probably be putting away all books that are not the cardboard type, but with older kids it may be good to leave them out so they can be read all day not just at bedtime. 

Hopefully the kids continue to enjoy it as much as I do!

Happy reading!
Karen

Felt Christmas Tree

Let's start this blog off right with a crafty project that I am super excited about!

This Christmas I was very concerned about my almost two year old and our Christmas tree and I was on a mission  to find something to help keep those curious hands out of it. I stumbled upon some photos of felt christmas trees on Pinterest and thought I could definitely do that! It turned out great!  This was a super easy project that only took a few naps to complete and I actually made 4. Pictures at the end of post

Interested in making your own,  here is all you need:

- 1 yard of green felt

- various sheets of colored felt (hobby lobby sells felt 4 for $1)

-glue gun

-glue sticks

-storage container for ornaments when they aren't on the tree.

On a side note I spent under $10 on all the materials for each tree including the box.

Here is what I did:

1. Decide on a height for your tree.  I went with 48" I wanted them to grow into the tree.

2. Fold the tree in half lengthwise and draw the outline of one side of the tree.

3. Cut  along your outline leaving the felt folded this will make sure your tree is symmetrical.

4. Now decorate!  This doesn't have to be complicated literally just different circles would work.  Use hot glue for ornament  and present embellishments.  There is no need for velcro or anything since felt sticks to felt.

5. Hang it up ( I used command strips) and play till your hearts content.

Hopefully this makes life a little easier with the Christmas tree up!

Karen