No Peek Chicken

I spend my Monday's giving piano lessons from about 2 pm until 6 pm with

no time to make dinner.....so on Mondays I need a meal

that is easy to prepare and cooks itself....

This is a favorite "Monday meal".....

Ingredients:

1 box Uncle Ben's Long Grain Wild Rice (original recipe)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can water 

(You can add another can of water for moister rice.)

Chicken breasts or tenders

In a greased 9 x 13 pan, mix the box of rice, cans of celery and mushroom soup and 
one can of water.  I always add the extra can of water because I like moist rice.

Arrange the raw chicken on top of the rice mixture....

Cover and seal with foil......

Bake at 350 degrees for 2 1/2 hours and "Don't Peek!"

Your house will smell amazing!

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St. Patrick's Day Ideas

For some, St. Patrick's Day is know as one of those "lesser" holidays...

celebrated by some and ignored by others.

Growing up....my family basically ignored it and then, I met my husband!

St. Patrick's Day ranks right there behind Christmas in his mind!

I'll never forget our first married St. Patrick's Day....I had never before

set my eyes on corned beef or Irish potatoes!

Let's just say that it was the LAST time I ate corned beef!!

Here's some Pinterest Inspiration to get you inspired for St. Patrick's Day this year!

{Key-lime Shamrock Cake}

{Shamrock Cakeballs}

{Rainbow Pudding}

{Minty Milkshakes}

{Printables}

{Party Favor with free printable}

{Treat bag with printable}

{Party Printables}

{Preschool Activity Kit}

{Lucky Bingo}

{Math games and more}

{Paper roll shamrocks}

{Crocheted Shamrock}

{Rag Wreath}


So glad that there's a lot more to this holiday than corned beef!

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Winner of the Minky Blankie!

Congratulations to....

Kimberly said...

I let Faith know you sent me on Facebook (Jason Rubio).

Woohoo!!  Kimberly, you win the Minky Blankie!!  I'll be contacting you soon! 

If you didn't win, don't fret!  Faith is offering Thrifty Decorating

readers 20% off their ENTIRE ORDER!!! 

Just enter the code "ThanksThrifty" until March 12th!

You can head over to Mom's Creative Touch and 

design your own custom blanket today!

There are 16 Minky options, 27 satin options and 

17 cotton options to choose from....all at 20% off!!

Thanks so much, Faith!

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Sheet Music Wreath

I should have posted this months ago, but, I just forgot!

If you have an empty space on your wall that needs to be filled, you can fill it 

for pennies using a sheet music wreath?  My friend, Jenny, made one for over her fireplace.

Just cut a circle out of a piece of cardboard and start gluing!  HERE is 

a tutorial for how to make it using wire coat hangers!

I'll be picking a winner of the Minky Blankie tonight!!  You still have a 

few hours to leave a comment!

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Friday is the last day....

Don't forget that Friday is the last day to leave a comment

to win one of these adorable Minky Blankies from Mom's Creative Touch!!

Go HERE for all the details and to leave your comment!!

I'll pick a winner Friday night.....

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Thrifty Thursday #48

Welcome toThrifty Thursday!!  It's time to get the party started.....


It all started with paint shared this amazing board and batten bathroom....WOW!

A Blossoming Life shared this recipe for DIY vanilla....I'd love to try this sometime!

Knick of Time created these Restoration Hardware knock-offs from paper stencils!

Loopy Loop Creations made this pretty spring wreath from felt pinwheels....

The Turquoise Piano turned her $20 thrift store table into this beauty....

The Crafty Blog Stalker shared how to make this cute ruffly apron....

Scout's Stitches linked these yummy peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes....

If you were featured this week, feel free to grab one of my buttons!

Here are some very simple suggestions for the party:

1. Please become a follower (would you Linky Follow??) of Thrifty Decorating.

2. Be sure to link to your POST and not your blog.

3. Please copy and paste my link button somewhere in 

your post or blog so that others can link back.

You can also party with Johnnie 

at Saved by Love Creations!

Or Erika at Thrifty and Fabulous!

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Homeschooling. . . .Assignment Books

Repost:  I wrote this post almost a year ago.....since then my blog has really increased in 

size, so I wanted to share it again with all of you who homeschool or are considering it.

I definitely get  a lot of interesting responses when people find out that I homeschool......I once sat beside a woman at a spaghetti dinner fundraiser....she was a complete stranger who looked at me and said, "What makes you think that you are qualified to homeschool?"  Hmm....how do I answer that one? 

Another frequent question that I am asked is.....how are you able to homeschool multi-age/grade levels.....I find this question very interesting because it make an assumption about the public school classroom....it assumes that all 20-something students in a public classroom are operating at the same skill level in the same grade.......which they are NOT! You can have a very wide range of skill and reading levels....especially in an elementary classroom. 

Honestly.....one of my fears about homeschooling was looking at the minimum 6 subjects per child and multiplying by 3....that would be 18 subjects per day??  How would that be possible??  Wouldn't I completely lose my mind trying to do that??

I came about our current system that we use by accident....My son spent a couple of years in public school and his first grade teacher had a great idea for how she had students complete their morning work....each morning she would have a "to do" list on the board. 


Students would work their way through the list and check-off the work that they completed.......the problem that our son had was that he would finish his work very quickly and then spend the rest of the morning making 11 trips to the library to check-out books.... he ended up spending a lot of time in class "waiting" for the other students to get their work done.

I use a variation of my son's first grade teacher's "To Do" list.....

I write out a daily list of work for my kids to complete....I make little check boxes that they cross off (or scribble out!) when they finish that assignment.  I always write History and Grammar or Science and Grammar last because they complete those assignments with me.  They also always do Math with me.


I have combined my kids together for science and history so that cuts down on 2 subjects for each.....and a lot of their work is completed independently with me looking over their shoulder and making corrections.

I also keep a master lesson plan book for each of my kids.  Usually in March or April, I start to plan for the following year.  I pull together all of their curriculum and start writing lessons plans.  Donna Young has amazing free printables......here is the link for the lesson plan forms.

 

My plan book keeps me on-task and helps me to see the bigger picture of where I am going....assignment books allow my kids to start their work even if I get tied up throwing in a load of laundry (or writing a blog post??).

How do you making homeschooling work in your family?

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Beef Taquitos

Last week, I shared my recipe for "homemade" salsa.....you'll

need that recipe for these beef taquitos.

You can use ground turkey or ground beef.  I have only been using ground

turkey for the past couple of years and my family has been protesting, so

I made these with ground beef.

I made a "kid" version and an "adult" version.....the kid version had only

beef, a little bit of taco seasoning, and cheese.

The adult version had about 1-2 Tablespoons of salsa mixed with 

2-3 Tablespoons of cooked beef and then sprinkled with sharp cheddar cheese.

After trial and error, I found that it's best to spread a thin layer

of the mixture over the entire tortilla and then pick a side and roll

from that side otherwise all the meat is in the middle.

To get the tortillas crispy, my trick is to spray them with non-stick canola oil.

I baked them at 425 degrees keeping a close eye on them until they were browned....about 10 minutes.

I just added some guacamole, sour cream, corn (leftover from the salsa) and my "homemade" salsa and it was a dinner that was a hit!

What are your favorite family dinners?

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