Nicholas is in kindergarten and learning sight words.

His teacher sends home an updated list every few weeks of the words he is supposed to know.

One of the easiest ways to memorize them is with flashcards.

I like to use PicMonkey software because it’s free, quick, and easy. Shhhh…this is the same method I use to make the graphics for all of my blog posts. Like this one:

STEP 1: Upload a picture to PicMonkey. It can be any picture, it doesn’t matter what it looks like because you are going to cover it up.

Step 2:Go to the Overlays section on the left hand side and choose “Geometric Overlay.” Click on the rectangle option and adjust the size until it covers your entire picture. Change the color of the overlay to white.

Step 3: Merge the layers. Look at the top of the screen in PicMonkey. See the button second from the right that looks like two squares on top of each other with an arrow next to them? Click it.

Step 4: Decorate. Now is the fun part. You can play around with the other overlays to add graphics or put a frame around your image.

I like that they have some pretty cool boy-friendly graphics. We can make sentences for him to read or just put one word on each card.

STEP 5: Save your image. If you are creating several flashcards save them all as separate images.

STEP 6: Put all of your flashcards into a Word (or whatever processor you use) document.  You can insert them into a Word document by clicking Insert and choosing the picture option. Print them from there.

Sunday my middle daughter, Abby, turned four! We celebrated at home with her favorite ice cream cone cupcakes. 

In a very uncharacteristic move, Abby requested a pretty low-key weekend. She asked if we could go to Chic-Fil-A because they have a playground (which we did on Saturday, since they are closed on Sundays), make cupcakes, and open presents. Those were all pretty easy requests to accommodate.

We always make our cupcakes in ice cream cones because that’s the way my mom made them for me when I was a little girl.

It’s very easy to make ice cream cone cupcakes!

All you need is: 

-Ice cream cones

-Cake batter

-The things it says on the box you need in order to make the cake batter (eggs, oil, etc.)

Just make the batter according to the package directions, then fill the cones about 3/4 full with raw cake batter, place them in muffin tins, and bake according to the directions on the box for cupcakes. (Sometimes it helps keep them steady if you bake them in a muffin tin.) We found that 1 box of cake mix made 21 cupcake cones. Top them with your choice of icing and sprinkles. 

The kids love making ice cream cone cupcakes because it is easy for them to help, and they get to decorate and eat them as well. 

After the cupcakes we had a scavenger hunt to find her presents. (Dolls from the movie Brave.)

Welcome to four, Abigail!

If you liked this post, don’t forget to pin it on Pinterest! 

You may also like: 

Well, we did it. We survived the first year after adding our third baby. Miss Penelope (please note that I chose that name BEFORE the Kourtney Kardashian. Now it’s becoming really popular, which I’m a little disappointed about) is now 15 months old! For the past two weeks we have been working on a pretty big milestone and now it’s official: she is weaned.

I was so grateful to be able to nurse her because it was an experience I wasn’t able to have with my last two children. It was a very special time for both of us but I’m also thankful to have my body back, if I’m being honest. An added plus was that when she woke up in the middle of the night Eddie was extra willing to take care of it because if she saw me she would get upset and want to eat just because it was a habit, not necessarily because she was hungry. After two weeks of realizing she wouldn’t get fed in the middle of the night and extra rest for mommy, she is now sleeping through the night for 9 or 10 hours almost every day. I have extra time during the day to focus on my other kids and I’ve noticed that their behavior has been a little better. Nap time is a little harder. She has never taken a pacifier or wanted a special blanket or other comforting object, so she basically just wanted me to hold her the entire time she naps. I’m okay with that for now. Pretty soon we’ll be trading Easter dresses for prom gowns and I want to cherish these moments while I can.

Raising kids isn’t easy, but Chobani Champions is all about celebrating the little victories in parenting.

I’m excited that such a big company approached a few blogging moms and wanted honest feedback on their product. I actually do regularly give my kids Greek yogurt for breakfast. I like that it is healthy, just as fast and easy as a bowl of cereal, makes fewer dishes for me, and all of the extra protein helps keep my kindergartener full until lunch time when he is at school.

Chobani sent us a few yogurt tubes for the kids to try and Nicholas really liked them. I put some in the refrigerator and some in the freezer. They make great substitutes for popsicles.

Together with Chobani, we want to make YOU a winner.

Enter below  to win 1 GRAND PRIZE* of a year’s supply of Chobani and Chobani Champions.  Yep, a year’s supply of that delicious, nutritious, protein-packed parenting victory known as Chobani greek yogurt.  Our grand prize winner will build a custom case for themselves to be delivered to their doorstep monthly, including 1 case of assorted Champions Flavors, 1 case of assorted Chobani Flavors and a bonus case of either Champions tubes, Chobani Bite or Chobani 32 oz cooking sizes.  Every month for a YEAR!*

10 Runners-up will receive one case of Champions Tubes delivered to their doors!

Giveaway begins April 3 and ends at midnight April 8.

Chobani is gettin’ social to find the good, the bad, the ugly… and a REAL taste of life with kids. Join in on the convo!

Follow Chobani at:

@Champions on Twitter

Chobani Champion’s on Facebook

@ChobaniChampions on Instagram

Join all of us on twitter for #spikedpunch Sunday night, April 7 from 9-10pm EST.  Enjoy the party and a chance to win 1 of 2 cases of Chobani tubes!

*Giveaway open to residents of the United States only.  Grand prize winner will choose from products available at http://chobani.com/products/
a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post was originally written in February of last year. Since it was written some laws have changed and some are currently being debated. In light of  current events, I was asked by a lifelong friend to please re-post this today. So I did.

You can view the original post and comments here.

This is not a post about craft projects and there are no pictures of my kids. There is an important issue going on here that I don’t feel comfortable ignoring any more. I haven’t seen my perspective represented anywhere & this is the only public forum I have, so I’m going to talk about it for a minute.

I’m a conservative Christian housewife living in Amish country. I’m a registered Republican. I voted for McCain. I’m strongly opposed to abortion, illegal immigration, and I do think homosexuality is a sin. And this is for my college friend Rene. Not my gay friend, just my friend who happens to be gay. And her wife.

I support gay marriage.

Why? Because to me whether or not our country should legalize the union of two people of the same sex is not an issue of morality, it is an issue of civil rights.

Is it sinful? Yeah, actually it is. It’s also sinful if I don’t go to church on a Sunday or if I cuss under my breath when the wrong contestant gets booted from American Idol. But I do that stuff and so do you.

Do I associate with gay people? Umm…do I associate with any people? Of course I do. If we refuse to hang out with people on the basis that we think they are sinners it’s going to be a pretty lonely existence. Newsflash: all people are sinners. Most of us aren’t being denied basic civil liberties because of it.”Last time I checked my watch, it still said America.” -Tim Allen

In our society right now people are outcast for being gay. You know who loved a good outcast? Jesus. You know who liked to persecute people who didn’t share his beliefs? Hitler. I’m not sure about you, but I’d much prefer to embrace the example of the former.

Did God make gay people gay? Yes. He made every human being and every one of us is a sinner. God loves every one of us despite our sinful nature. Hence, God loves gay people. Get over it Westboro Baptist “Church.” And P.S. Nobody is going to make me stop shopping at JC Penny.

Here’s the thing: it’s not the government’s job to regulate personal morality when it comes to issues that aren’t affecting the safety and well-being of others. That’s pretty much a fundamental Republican philosophy so I don’t understand why it doesn’t seem to apply to the gay marriage argument in real life.

In my mind it works like this:

Murder? Sinful + Harmful= Illegal.

Drugs? Sinful + Harmful = Illegal

Teenagers back talking their parents? Sinful + Not Harmful = Not Illegal

Gay marriage? Sinful + not harmful = _____________

It seems to me the logical answer to the question should be “not illegal.” Actually, it seems to be far more harmful to deny the gay community the advantages of a legal marriage.

My friend Rene and her wife are mothers to one very sweet little girl. They are mothers just like I am. As they have been anxiously awaiting Maryland’s ruling over the legality of their marriage, I’ve been reflecting on the benefits I take for granted as a woman in a traditional marriage.

The life insurance policies I would automatically have access to if something happened to my husband.

The tax deductions we just filed.

The fact that Eddie never had to go through the process of adopting our biological children, despite the fact that we never offered proof that he was their biological father. (Which, I can assure you, there is no question about.) The point is that even if he wasn’t, the hospital just gave him the rights to the children that came out of my body because we are legally married and I said he was the co-parent. When Rene had a baby Lauren had to wait months and pay thousands of dollars to adopt their own child and then go through hell trying to claim the adoption on the taxes.

We also have one adopted child and no one gave us a hard time about filing our adoption claim.

The right to adopt our son from Florida, the state where we were living at the time. I’m not sure about the current policy, but when we adopted Nicholas out of foster care in 2008 it was legal for gay couples in our state to foster children, but not adopt them. Consequently, there are foster children who have been living in loving foster homes for years with gay couples who lose yet another family when they become eligible for adoption and the couple who has been caring for them no longer has the option to do so if the child is to ever find an adoptive family. If the child stayed with the foster family he/she would lose the benefits that came along with being adopted, which at the time in Florida included a free college education.

My grandmother didn’t work, but she lived for years on my grandfather’s pension after she was widowed. What do gay couples do?

I am on my husband’s health insurance plan during these years I am home with my young children. What do gay couples do?

More importantly, what does a person’s sexual orientation have to do with things like health insurance, taxes and pensions?

When did we, collectively, become a society of adults acting like third grade bullies? Effectively, what we are saying is, “You can’t be in our club because you like girls.”

Well, I call bullshit, America.

I am tired of seeing teen suicides all over the news because we are constantly sending our children the message that to be gay is to be less than.

This is our generation’s version of Jim Crow and it is just as ridiculous.

I’m ashamed to say that I almost didn’t post this because I was afraid I’d turn off readers or offend people from my church. Or, alternatively, offend my more liberal friends from college. If I offended you I’m not sorry.

“My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years.”
– Kurt Cobain

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
– Albert Einstein