It's finished! I finished my second Cereal Bible.  It has 40 pages of trivia, activities, teen discussion starters, and so much more.  It is $3 from TPT. I hope you enjoy it and be sure to leave feedback.

Check out my freebie on Genesis.

FREEBIE: Learn about Genesis with the Cereal Bible

I wanted a unique way to share the Bible with my daughter who is a hands on leaner. After seeing a Pinterest post where they used a cereal box with a hodge podge of pictures to help review books of the Bible,  a light bulb went off. I created a printout for Genesis. Then I realized,  I just had an empty box.  So I made cards that fit in the box.  they include mini coloring pages,  a quick guide to the stories in Genesis,  a fact sheet, activities pages and so much more.  We've been having so much fun that I thought I'd share.  My eventual goal is to do a box for every book in the Bible.  My Genesis printable is free. It is just a small portion of what the other boxes will have in them.   It can be downloaded for free from Teachers Pay Teachers. Please let me know your thoughts and ideas for cards.

The printout is made to fit an an individual size cereal box.

My Baby Story

Eloise was born at 24 weeks and 5 days.  I had a very normal pregnancy until week 23.  Friday, March 25th, I woke up very early, around 3am, and felt something was wrong.  I quickly found I was bleeding and got very scared.  My husband was out of town on a church retreat so I was home alone.  So, I called my parents who called an ambulance.  I was rushed to the hospital.  My husband was finally located and rushed back to to town by a friend. 

            The doctors found that my normally low blood pressure had sky rocketed so I was kept Friday night for observation.  I also received a steroid shot so that Eloise could develop a little faster since the doctors felt she would come early.  Saturday afternoon I was sent home with blood pressure medicine and put on bed rest.  Early Monday morning I woke up again with back pain; not an incredibly unusual thing.  Unable to sleep I went to the living room and took some Tylenol.  Within an hour, I had a horrible headache and decided to wake my husband up and head back to the hospital.

            My blood pressure was once again very high.  I was diagnosed with preeclampsia in the 2nd trimester.  The decision was made to transfer me to another hospital that specialized in high risk pregnancies.  When I arrived, I was immediately placed on magnesium and more blood pressure medicine.  We were told I would be here for the duration of the pregnancy which hopefully would be a few weeks.  My husband stayed all that week until Thursday when I insisted he go to work.  Thursday afternoon, I was sitting in the hospital bed visiting with my parents and my pastor when the doctor came in.  She explained my blood work that morning didn’t look good. My liver was having issues from the blood pressure which was staying around 170 though had been around 200.  The pregnancy would likely only be a few more days or, at worse, hours.  My husband was immediately called back to my side.

            Late Thursday night, I was about to take my evening medicine and my husband was getting into bed.  The nurse had left for a moment and I stated the room just spun around.  My husband asked lots of questions but I couldn’t really give him an answer.  He told the nurse this when she returned.  Within minutes, I went into a seizure.  My husband was taken out of the room while nurses and doctors worked on me; shortly after I went into a second seizure.  The pregnancy was now too dangerous to continue and an emergency c-section had to occur.          

          I was wheeled into an operating room, unaware of what was going on.  I delivered my baby girl at 1:27am Friday morning… just one week after any signs of preeclampsia and hours after eeclampsia.   I was the first person in my family to have preeclampsia. We have no history of high blood pressure, diabetes, or seizures.  There was no way to know what was going to happen. 

   In early July I received a call from my OB/GYN who wanted me to come and do a full blood work up.  2 weeks later they called back and told me that something was wrong and I was to go see a specialist who could tell me what was happening.  It was discovered that some of my genes were not normal.  Recently connections have been shown between this particular abnormality and difficult pregnancy, in particular, eclamptic pregnancies.  So Eloise will likely be our last but our perfect little princess.  We were so thankful not to know about the gene before, otherwise we wouldn't have tried to get pregnant in the first place.

            After 115 days in the NICU we were told our little girl was finally able to come home.  We were thrilled and terrified all at once.  We were able to stay our first night with her in the hospital.The next day, we packed up our home for the past few months (at the Ronald McDonald House) and drove home…. This time with our little Eloise.

            Eloise has dealt with a lot in her life so far.  She has faced many of the typical preemie issues: PDA, lung issues, NEC (that was scary!), multiple blood transfusions, bradycardia, etc.  She also had some issue gaining weight early on.  She has gone through physical therapy and multiple cast for her club foot.  Such a minor thing considering all the obstacles she has already overcome.  At 6 we learned she was also autistic and has ADHD.  But she is a spunky little fighter. She is living proof that God still performs miracles.  She brings joy to a room and I wouldn't want it any other way. 

Read Aloud: “Mouse Scouts: Make a Difference”

“Mouse Scouts: Make a Difference”

By Sarah Dillard

Buy it on Amazon 

Rating: 10/10
Age: 5+

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

The world of the Mouse Scouts takes place in our world... but on a miniature level. The book follows a Mouse Scout troop as they begin the next level of scouts.  The scouts have a new troop leader, rumored to be very tough, and the girls are nervous.  This girls start their scouting year be creating a garden.  Like any project, there are setbacks and things the girls have to work together to overcome.  The mice make for a great example of using their resources wisely, taking care of their community, and teamwork.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:    

Each scout has very different personalities.  One of them is a bit of a mean girl, but she has redeeming qualities and does still work with the troop.

REVIEW:

This is a lighthearted book about friendship and of course, being a scout.  It is neatly written and you will enjoy reading through it as much as your daughter.  There are lots of fun pictures to accompany each page as well. A fun bonus with this book is that your daughter (and her troop) can earn a badge alongside the mouse scouts. You can technically earn the badge by just reading the book, but it's more fun if you do the printable activity kit. 

What my young reader most enjoyed was the similarities to her own scout troop. At the end of each chapter is an excerpt from the Mouse Scout Handbook. She loved reading their handbook and seeing the mouse uses of everyday objects. For example, the use of a fork as a mouse rake.

WHO SHOULD READ IT?

Girl Scouts! And really any girl. The chapters are short and could easily be read at a troop meeting. I would think ages 5-11 would most enjoy this book.

IF YOU LIKE THIS…

"Mouse Scouts" is the first in a series

Buy the badge

Printable activity kit from the author

Book website

Family Movie Night: Unicorns or Noah's Ark ideas

My daughter loves unicorns.  I decided that this month's family movie night would be centered around the unicorn theme.  As I made my plans I realized that all the unicorn foods were mostly just rainbow foods.  As such, this meal would also be the perfect accompaniment for the Veggie Tales' "Noah's Ark" movie as well; thus making it the perfect night for all ages.

It all started with this recipe.  Like me, you may have seen the Pin for "Quick and Simple Unicorn Noodles" on Pinterest.  I knew I had to make them.  Bonus, the chef explains the chemistry behind the different colored noodles in the blog post.  In our home, my husband and I call that "secret schooling." It's those little hidden lessons that we love. We chose to use a pesto sauce for the noodles which added a fun green shade.  I thought the red sauce would be too overpowering for the pale noodles.

We like to do a craft on family movie night as well.  We are currently creating an alphabet with animals on them.  I saw this as the perfect opportunity to create the U for Unicorn. It may not be a real animal, but it is too cute an opportunity to pass up.  I even found an adorable blog for inspiration.

After that recipe I started digging deeper into the world of unicorn food.  There are a lot of cute options out there.  We made a few alterations to make our meal slightly less pricey and more fitting to us.  For the spaghetti, we did not use the more difficult to find and expensive cellophane noodles.  However, this may be a common thing in your area (lucky).  We made a Unicorn Poop veggie dip but I altered it to be the more traditional ranch and sour cream dip since we don't like greek yogurt.  We used carrots for dipping but referred to them as unicorn horns.  We go all the way with our themes.

For a second side, I opted for a super colorful fruit salad.  It kept with the rainbow theme but added an extra tasty side that seemed needed.  Add in your families favorite fruits.  Bonus: Turn it into "secret schooling" by making this with your kids and talking about the colors of the rainbow (who remembers Roy G Biv?)  You could also use this as a guide and turn it into a cute Bible lesson.

Now for the desert! Best part of the meal, right? I found a recipe for Rainbow Unicorn Dip.  It's really just cheesecake dip with graham crackers.  This recipe also makes suggestions for more natural food coloring. 

Below, I have listed our movie night meal, activity and movie.  Enjoy!

Meal:
Quick and Simple Unicorn Noodles
Easy Homemade Pesto
Unicorn Poop Veggie Dip (with carrots for dipping)
Fruit salad (the more colorful the better)... call it "Unicorn Salad"
Rainbow Unicorn Dip (with graham crackers for dipping)

Activity idea:
Paper Unicorn 
Follow and Obey God's Colorful Way (fruit salad activity)
Noah's Ark Doorknob Hanger (We made this when my daughter was younger.  It's a big hit.)

Movie:
Unicorn- "The Secret of Moonacre"
Rainbows- "VeggieTales: Noah's Ark"

Read Aloud: “Upside-Down Magic”

“Upside-Down Magic”

By Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle and Emily Jenkins

Buy it on Amazon 

Rating: 9/10
Age: 7+

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Nory Horace’s world is much like our own; except everyone has magic.  Each person fits into one of 5 categories which they call the 5 F’s.  These include Flickers (can make self and things invisible), Fliers (they fly), Fuzzies (they are good with animals), Fluxers (they can shape shift into animals), and Flickers (who have fire magic.) Unfortunately for Nory, she doesn’t fit neatly into her category. Her magic is upside-down.  Now that she is in 5^th grade she will have to begin her magic training… which means dealing with her upside down magic in a classroom full of other upside-down magic kids.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:    

This book gives an age appropriate look at bullies, making new friends, big life changes and learning to accept yourself.  There are some things to consider before reading this book with your child. Early in the book, you will learn that Nory’s mother passed away.  This has a big impact on family dynamics in a not so positive way.  Her dad has mostly left the raising of his children, cooking and care for the home up to Nory’s oldest sibling while he throws himself into work.  Nory has a lot of pressure early on from her dad and siblings.  

REVIEW:

I thought this book was very sweet.  I felt Nory was an excellent role model.  She makes mistakes but always tries to fix her mistakes. Overall, it is a well crafted story. The characters are interesting and they make you want to cheer for them.

My young reader also loved the book and insisted we start book 2 the moment we finished.  I didn't worry about forgetting to read a chapter because she always had the book ready to go. 

WHO SHOULD READ IT?

This book is great for kids struggling with bullies and finding their place. I think both boys and girls would enjoy this book.

IF YOU LIKE THIS…

Upside Down Magic is the first book in a series.

Read an excerpt

Play online games about the book 

Teacher’s Guide

Buy it on Amazon  

Stay Date: Painting!!

I've heard lots of people over the years talk about the importance of dating your spouse. Many say you should go on a date once a week. I 100% agree with that idea. However, when you have a young family and/or a small budget, that isn't always the easiest thing to do.  So what do you do? How do you date your spouse with no or very little budget? How do you date without a babysitter?

The solution? A stay date after the kids are in bed. I've been thinking a lot about this option lately.  Then, one day as I wondered down the aisles of Dollar Tree (you never know what you'll find), I spotted some small canvases. It reminded me of those fun painting stores that charge an arm and a leg to teach a bunch of people how to paint the same painting at one time.  But, how could I do that at home? I'm not a painter, neither is my husband.

Enter Youtube. After a quick search, I found a fun channel that walks you through a painting in a simple but fun way. I gathered up the random paint I had from various craft projects over the year, some sponge paint sponges and cue tips.  I set up all my supplies on our kitchen table and set up my phone to play the video (shout out to my Popsocket).

Once my daughter was safely tucked away in bed, I grabbed my husband and announced my stay date plans. He was game, thankfully, and we began our little adventure.  We had to pause it a couple of times so we could go at our own pace.  We had fun talking as we painted and joking about our inability to make our cue tip brushes work in the same way the Youtuber did.  We didn't have the colors the painter had, but we used what we had without issue.

We were pleased with our finished work.  They were much better than we expected... which is saying a lot.  Next stay date is on him.

If you want to purchase all the materials for the stay date or just one or two you might not have, you can purchase them from Amazon or your nearest Dollar Tree:
Acrylic paints
1 inch paintbrush
Paint canvas
Cue tips
Rubber bands

The video we used was "Wisteria Willow Tree Q Tip Painting Technique for BEGINNERS EASY Acrylic Painting" by the Art Sherpa