Favorite Finds Friday -- Kids Books and Mom blogs

I didn't blog much this week. This week really seemed to fly by and yet it was a pretty uneventful week. Although I did have some good moments with my Mother-in-law on a shopping trip to St. George and my sister-in-law Becky, as we sat and chatted and enjoyed a beautiful spring day.

However, I do have some favorite finds for you this week.

Three Cups of Tea, Young Reader's Edition
I am currently reading Three Cups of Tea. What an amazing uplifting and moving story that teaches hope, service, gratitude and the power of education. There are moments while reading this book that I have been literally choked up with joy. I discovered there is a young reader's edition and it is now on my son's and daughter's reading list for the summer. This is such a powerful story and I feel that it has a really powerful message for our children.

These are my kids chocolate creations made from the wonderful book Chocolates and Candies to Make by Usborne books. This book is also on my list of books to buy. Becca checked it out from the library and what a fun cooking book for kids. Each step includes a picture and the recipes are relatively easy. If you want the recipe to these fun little guys check out my post at Pantry Eats.

I have also found several blogs that are great for Mom's who have a blog or product they want listed. I love these sites because I like to check out Mom made products or sign up for the giveaways. Check out Mommadethat.com and themomblogs.com

Have a Wonderful Easter!

Favorite Finds Friday

I have not done a favorite finds post in so long I am actually excited to share a few finds with you.

1. Because I started my own food blog I am quickly becoming an extreme foodie. One of my new favorite blogs is realmomkitchen.blogspot.com. I love this lady's site because all her food is so family friendly. I have already made three of the 26 crockpot recipes she has listed and loved every one. If you have a weekly appointment with your crockpot and are looking for different recipes check out her site. Her crockpot orange chicken is mmm mmm good. I also love foodbuzz.com which is a foodie network.

2. My second find is the Royal Dutch garden catalog. As I was angrily staring outside at the snow storm today I decided to do a little flower shopping. Royal Dutch has unbelievable prices. I ordered 4 Hosta plants for the price one would cost me at Home Depot. $1.99 for a Hosta is unbelievable. I also got 2 new blueberry plants, 10 bulbs of some cool red flower and these beautiful unique columbines. All of the prices were unbelievable and they charged me a flat shipping rate for everything. Plus, I get a year's guarantee on the plants which is way better than any store or nursery around here and they threw in 2 free day lilies. You can check out their site here: Royal Dutch.

3. Did you know blogger has a spellchecker for your posts. I guess I am just a little slow. But I discovered that is what the little check mark in the post toolbar is for and I am so happy to have that little tool. I was finding way too many misspellings in my posts.

4. Last night I rediscovered one of the good perks of my Mom job. I know it's crazy but I love kissing my kids back to sleep after they have had a bad dream. Of course, it is not my favorite when they wake me up in the middle of the night, but hey if I am already awake, I will take this job anytime.

Favorite Finds - Kids' Math site and garden find

Flash Reader http://exstatica.net/flash/psychic.swf-- Ok the first find is courtesy of Isaac. He came home from school and showed me this incredibly fun math site for kids. Isaac spent at least an half-hour on it. The whole time he was adding and subtracting -- practicing math for fun. Isaac seriously hates math. But he loves this site. What happens is you do this equation and the answer corresponds to a symbol. You do the math in your head without telling the computer what equation you are doing and then the computer's "crystal ball" guesses what symbol corresponds to your answer. My explanation may sound complicated but it is way simple. And it totally freaked me out, because the website picked the right answer every time. Tom is like, "it's just simple math." Whatever accountant. I don't know how it works but it is really cool. Isaac was even playing phone tag about the site with his friends while they were playing it.

My second favorite find this week comes from the gardening catalog Dutch Gardens. I love to garden but I am no green thumb when it comes to containers. I can't lay out my flowers beautifully. They don't grow all that great. It is just frustrating when I see everything else in my yard growing just fine. Well I found this handy little container helper. The bulbs come all laid out in the bulb tray and apparently grow to look like this. Plus bulbs come back every year. I totally love the look of Alliums and have ordered some for other places in my flower beds, So I ordered this little helper. I plant them in my pots this Fall and so the work is already done come Spring. They have tons of other flower combos and you can also put these trays in the ground. If you need help with your pots too go visit Dutch Gardens at http://www.dutchgardens.com/Allium%20Bulb%20Bed%20for%20Pots/22738,30790,default,cp.html. I am still trying to figure out how to make my links into words.

Favorite Finds - Crockpot Bread and Purple Daylily

This week I had a victorious moment. I made homemade bread. It rose. It tasted delicious. I am still reeling from the shock. I am not a bread baker. I just can't seem to make it work. I made this recipe in the crockpot. I am going to post it here because I think, if I can do it -- well anyone can do it. It does come out shaped like a round cake and is a really hearty bread. But hey, I can't make cake either so, I feel like I just killed two birds with one crockpot.

Honey Whole Grain Bread.
2 Cups warm whole milk (not hot)
2 TB canola oil
1/4 Cup honey
3/4 tsp salt
1 pkg active dry yeast
3 Cups whole wheat flour/divided
3/4 to 1 cup all purpose unbleached flour, divided.

Spray 1 quart casseerole, souffle dish or other high sided baking pan w/nonstick cooking spray. In large bowl or electric mixer combine milk, oil, honey, salt, yeast, 1 1/2 cups wheat flour and 1/2 cup flour. Mix at medium-low spped for 2 minutes

Add remaining 1 1/2 cups wheat flour and 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup flour. Here is the trick, getting the right amount of flour. I add the flour slowly until the dough is less sticky. Transfer dought to prepared pan. Place pan in slow cooker; cover and cook on High about 3 hours or until edges are browned. Remove from slow cooker and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

My second favorite find this week is my deep purple daylily. I love day lilies. My yard has them in at least eight different colors. I like to find things that are a little different.

Last year I ordered these purple daylilies and they just bloomed for the first time a week ago. They are gorgeous. I ordered them from a catalog/online gardening site which has some unique flowers.
Here is the website www.waysidegardens.com
This particular daylily is called jungle beauty. They have some amazing varieties of standard plants.

Favorite Finds

I got behind a little on my blog but I wanted to post the link for the Utah Kids registry. http://www.kidsregistry.utah.gov So this is how it works. If you are a Utah resident (sorry non-Utah people) you sign up any of your cell phone or e-mails that you or a minor might have access to at the above link. This is a free Utah government program designed to help protect kids from inappropriate messages. Within 30 days any business that sends out adult-oriented advertising to cell phones or e-mails is required to scrub your contacts from their list. Of course this is not a fail safe plan to keep all those inappropriate junk mails out of your e-mail box. Not every business in the world is law abiding. Still, I signed up because I think every little bit helps. I'm also writing an article on the registry for Wasatch Woman magazine.

My second favorite find this week has to do with the Crocs shoes. Many of you probably already know this little tidbit. You can recycle those Crocs at the store you bought them from. For example if they break, as mine did recently, you just take them back to the store. They send them to the manufacturer who melts them down and remakes the shoes to be sent to people in Africa.

My third favorite find this week happens to be our new Honda Pilot. OK its actually used. I thought the Pilot would be too small for our family but it turns out that it works great. I love my new leather seats (no more melted crayons permanently melded to the seat cushions). I love my sun roof and my seats that fold into the floor. I often need extra room for things like plastic swimming pools and scooters. I love that it has four-wheel drive. I am really tired of getting stuck in the driveway after a snowstorm on school mornings. But I especially love that it is not a Dodge and that Honda's have such a good track record for quality. Our van finally bit the dust a few weeks ago and we were able to arrange a trade-in with the dealer we bought the van from 10 years ago. It was a small trade-in amount. That's what happens when the engine breaks.