Show off your homeschool linky party

I'm joining the "Show off your Homeschool linky party" hosted by The Joys of Home Educating.


These pictures were taken a few months ago, but the layout is still pretty much the same. Here is Nathan's desk. The computer cart has been moved next to my desk.

This is Claire's desk. We now have a computer cart next to it for her computer. The big dry erase board is my favorite part! I had it for several years, but it didn't fit in the school room at our old house. We use this every day.

The closet. Its very roomy and manages to hold all of our school books and supplies.

This is my desk...

And we usually have our cat, Simba in the room for a bit!

And our yard is our playground! Claire got a swingset for Christmas so she can now play in the backyard. Before that, she played in the front yard. Both she and Nathan love all the trees at our new house. They are always climbing them and claire loved all the leaves in the fall!

We have a pool in the backyard so when it gets warm enough we'll have to have "swim class"!




Check out my current giveaway here.

Giveaway & Recipe

Just a reminder that you have one week left to enter my homemade gourmet giveaway. Click here to enter.

Here's a yummy, EASY recipe I'd like to share with you:

Pineapple Chicken:

3 lbs chicken (can be boneless, skinless breasts, leg quarters, whatever you'd like)
1 pkg. Homemade Gourmet Italian Red Pepper Bread Dippin' Mix
1 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple

(If you'd like to make this ahead of time and freeze or cook it right away. The directions assume you are freezing it, but you don't have to.)

1. Place all ingredients into a gallon sized ziptop freezer bag and SMOOSH. After labeling, "Pineapple Chicken", freeze until the day of cooking. This is a 4 meals in 4 minutes™™ recipe, so your cooking options are:

BAKE: Thaw meat and marinade. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour entire contents of bag into baking dish and cover. Bake approximately 40 minutes or until juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink in the center.

SLOW COOKER: Thaw until meal can slide out of bag. Place entire contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low 6-8 hours.

GRILL: Thaw and discard marinade. Preheat grill to medium high heat. Place meat on grill and cook about 10 minutes per side until juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink in the center.

When I made this I did it in the crock pot. It was really good. The next day I shredded the leftover chicken and used it for toasted sandwiches with mozerella cheese and honey mustard dressing. They were sooo good!

If you'd like to try this recipe you can find the italian Red Pepper bread dippin' mix on my Homemade Gourmet website: www.homemadegourmet.com/aimee

Postcard Friendship Friday #66

I don't know what it is about them, but I've always loved map postcards! I picked this one up on our vacation last year. We went to Phoenix, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon so its kind of nice to have all of our destinations on one card.

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.


Don't forget...there's still time to enter my giveaway. Click here for more info!

Wordful Wednesday

Yea, she doesn't need anything from Pottery Barn...she can just snuggle up with the catalog!

The catalog was actually on the other side of her while she was napping in my chair. I moved it because I wanted to take a picture that looked like she was actually reading the catalog. She wasn't very interested in posing and went back to napping....right there on the catalog!


Wordful Wednesday is hosted by Parenting by Dummies and Seven Clown Circus.


Don't forget to enter my giveaway for free Homemade Gourmet mixes!

Announcement & Giveaway!

I have a big announcement! I just became an independent consultant with Homemade Gourmet®. If you've never heard of Homemade Gourmet® before let me tell you a little about it.
They make wonderful food mixes that help you make a homemade dinner in less time. Who doesn't love a homemade dinner, right? But who has time to make one every night? Not me. I used to, but with the kids' activities now I don't. Claire has gymnastics 3 days a week until 6 pm each night. I've been relying heavily on Homemade Gourmet® on those days!

I've actually been using their products for about 9 or 10 years now. I've never tried anything I didn't like. They have marvelous soups, tasty dips, and delicious desserts. I wouldn't have become a consultant if I didn't really love their products.

You can check out their products on my website here: www.homemadegourmet.com/aimee

I will be posting more about my Homemade Gourmet® experience in the future, including some wonderful recipes, but for now I'd like to introduce you to a couple of their products through a giveaway.

One of my lucky readers can win the Season 'n' Steam Fajita mix and the Roasted Tomato Salsa mix!

Both of these are very easy to make. The Fajita mix even includes a steamer bag. All you do is add steak or chicken, pepper and onion. Then, cook in the microwave or slow cooker in the steamer bag! The Roasted Tomato salsa mix is a nice accompaniment to the fajitas. All you do is add a can of stewed tomatoes and a can of tomatoes with green chilies. Then, blend all together in a blender. Its that easy! And it tastes like salsa you find at a fine Mexican food restaurant!

So here are the details for the giveaway:

Mandatory: Visit the link above and leave me a comment telling me what product you'd most like to try. (1 entry)

Optional for extra entries:
Follow my blog (1 entry)
Post about this giveaway with a link to this post on your Facebook page. (2 entries)
Post about this giveaway with a link to this post on your blog. (3 entries)

Be sure to leave me a separate comment for each entry. If you post about it on your blog leave me a link to that post in one of your comments. It is not necessary to leave your link in all 3 comments.

The winner will be chosen by the Random number generator on Sunday, February 6. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Postcard Friendship Friday #65

Last week I posted my prospector card from the Old West Collection Series. This is the other card from that series that I have...The chuckwagon.

My husband and I went to a chuckwagon breakfast one time in Palo Duro Canyon. It was really cool, but not nearly as rustic as this card shows. We had picnic tables and covered seating! I'm sure these guys would have enjoyed that back in the day!

Thanks to Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday!

My birthday cake

Yesterday was my birthday. My husband usually makes me a cake with Claire or buys me one. I love ice cream cakes. Every year he talks about making one for me. Well, this year he did it! Now, my husband doesn't cook very much. His motto is if you can make scrambled eggs and mac and cheese you can survive! He did a wonderful job on the cake though...and it tasted soooo good! He used mint chocolate chip ice cream...one of my favorites!

Pretty good, huh? I told him I want one of these every year! I guess I can make this #101 on my list of why I love my husband. :) In case you don't know, I listed 100 reasons I love my husband on my 100th blog post. You can read it here. I'm a lucky girl!