{Not Quite} Wordless Wednesday: Congrats Class of ‘13!

May 22, 2013 By 27 Comments

On Monday night, I got to watch my Mom get her Associate’s Degree in Art!

Graduation 2013

{Finding her was like a real-life version of Where’s Waldo where everyone was wearing the red & white striped shirt.}

I’m so proud of her for following her dreams & so glad that she’s doing something that makes her happy.

Graduation Walking to Get Diploma

Technically she got her degree after the winter semester, but after waiting decades to get that diploma, I’m sure waiting one semester to actually walk felt like nothing.

Graduation 2013 Balloons Cascading

She actually started working on her Bachelor’s at the University that I went to this last semester so I’m excited to watch her walk again in a couple of years!

Congrats to the entire Class of 2013- but especially my Mom!
Filed Under: memes, wordless wednesday Tagged With: , , , ,

10 Minute Craft: Nature Bags!

May 21, 2013 By 1 Comment

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Elmer’s. I received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

Shane & I love doing crafts together. Unfortunately, I’m not that crafty & prefer to do simple projects. Fortunately, he isn’t picky & will happily sit down to do anything that involves craft supplies. Just getting to play & experiment with glue, scissors, special papers, stickers, glitter, pom poms, whatever is fun to him & so I try to do at least one craft per week {although we often do more}.

Since the season is changing & lots of things are happening in nature, I thought we’d make a super simple Nature Bag craft this week! The goal is for him to take the bag with when we go on walks so that he can easily collect nature items that he finds, like leaves, rocks, or flowers. I used to collect these things as a little kid so I wanted him to have the chance to do the same.

My Nature Bag- Materials

Materials:

-Paper Bag {preferably one with handles, but all we had were lunch sacks}
-Elmer’s Naturals Pourable Glue
-Assorted nature-themed objects {we used feathers; you could also use pressed flowers, leaves or twigs}
-Pictures of nature items {I searched for “flowers”, “pinecone”, and “leaves” on Microsoft Word’s clip art section but Google Images is another great resource}

My Nature Bag- How To
How To:

Present your child with the materials & assist them {if needed} with gluing them on however they want. Allow glue to dry fully before taking on your next journey! As an added bonus, you can go through their “treasures” once you’re home & teach them about each object.

10 Minute Craft- My Nature Bag! by @NotQuiteSusie
We love nature, so this project was great for us. Whether we’re recycling, growing {or trying to grow} our own plants, enjoying the flowers in our backyard or using natural ingredients in our everyday lives, we try to be conscious of nature whenever possible. {Yes, I was raised by a hippie. But I’m glad!}

Lots of companies lately have been switching to more natural ingredients, using less harmful chemicals & more sustainable materials. Elmer’s is one of those companies, who has a line called Elmer’s Naturals. The line includes both pourable glue & glue sticks and works just like the stuff you grew up with.

Elmer’s Naturals Pourable School Glue: Consists of 99% natural ingredients. The primary ingredient is plants-specifically, American-grown corn, which is a rapidly renewable resource. Even the bottle is made up of 25% post-consumer recycled materials, and the label contains 20% recycled paper, is printed with soy-based ink, and is applied with a natural rubber adhesive.

Elmer’s Naturals Glue Sticks: Made up of more than 88% natural ingredients, this soy bean based formula also includes a rapidly renewable resource. The sticks are made of 25% post-consumer recycled plastic, the labels are printed with soy ink on FSC-certified paper, and the card is made from 100% recycled paper board.

I love that we can now feel really good using a product that we already use all the time, just by using their Naturals line that has the same efficiency as the Original line. &Shane loves that the label is green, so there’s that.

Right now, Elmer’s is hosting a Pin to Win sweepstakes where you can win a Elmer’s Naturals prize pack & a $100 gift card! It’s easy to enter, just follow the guidelines below:

Elmer's Pin it to Win it contest

How do you include nature in your life?
Filed Under: crafts, eco-friendly Tagged With: , , , ,

Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Pizza #GrilledAndReady

May 21, 2013 By 10 Comments

Note: I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

I love to cook, but I still take shortcuts when I do. If something says to cook for 4-6 minutes, I always pick 4 {&check to make sure it’s fully cooked & safe to eat}. If there’s an ingredient required that I’m not crazy about, I’ll skip it. &If I have the option of buying one of my ingredients already ready to be used in a recipe, I often buy it. Whether it’s pre-cut vegetables or pre-cooked chicken, I’m all about using easy foods to save time in the kitchen so that I can spend more time with my family.

Helping me grocery shop

This is how Shane helps me grocery shop, apparently.

Last weekend, we went to Walmart to pick up some ingredients for dinner. {You can view my entire shopping trip here.} It’s swimsuit season, so we’ve been eating lighter, which means we’re trading in our breaded chicken fingers for our newest discovery- Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken! It’s a lighter, pre-cooked & pre-cut chicken that you can eat by itself or in recipes. All you have to do is put it in the microwave for a few minutes & it’s ready to eat! It saves a lot of time versus having to dice, cut or chop chicken yourself & then cook it for several minutes on the stovetop, so it’s a great alternative for a weeknight meal or if you just love saving time in the kitchen like I do.

Tyson Grilled & Ready varieties

The Grilled & Ready chicken comes in several varieties, including Chicken Breast Fillets, Sweet Asian Chicken Thighs, Southwestern Chicken Breast Strips & several more. But are they healthy? Frozen foods can be hit or miss for nutrition but these are actually really good. Each variety is slightly different due to additional ingredients {breading in some varieties, sauce on others} but as an example, the Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Fillets are 98% fat free and have no preservatives.

Since we’ve been focusing on eating well, I’ve of course still had cravings for some less healthy foods. So I decided to make a recipe featuring a couple of my current not-so-good-for-me cravings, but lightened up. Rather than indulge in the buffalo wings & pizza I’ve been thinking about, I put together a flatbread pizza featuring the Tyson Grilled & Ready Oven Roasted Diced Chicken Breast. It was a really quick meal solution &satisfied my cravings for a lot less calories!

Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Pizza by @NotQuiteSusie #GrilledAndReady

Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Pizza

Ingredients:
1 thin crust pizza flatbread*
2/3 cup Tyson Grilled & Ready Oven Roasted Diced Chicken
1/2 tbsp Buffalo sauce
1/4 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese
1/4 of a medium tomato, diced
1/4 cup shredded lettuce
Optional: Ranch as desired

*Cook times for flatbread may vary so bake according to directions on your package. This recipe will describe how to make it using FlatOut’s version.

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Microwave Tyson Grilled & Ready Oven Roasted Diced Chicken for 4-6 minutes in a microwave-safe bowl
-Add Buffalo sauce and coat chicken well
-Pre-bake flatbread for 4 minutes
-Add toppings to flatbread in the following order: cheese, buffalo-coated chicken, lettuce, tomato
-Bake for 3-4 minutes, or until flatbread is brown
-Drizzle with ranch, if desired

Serves 1

Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Ingredients featuring Tyson #GrilledAndReady

If you’re looking for something quick, light & easy, be sure to try these! For a fun family night idea, you could make them as part of a pizza making night & let your kids make their own flatbread pizzas while you enjoy this yummy one.

Buy It: You can find Grilled & Ready products in both the frozen & refrigerated section at your local grocery store.

&Be sure to keep up with Tyson on Facebook for news, updates & recipe ideas!

What’s your kitchen shortcut?
Filed Under: recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m a Delta Mom Ambassador! #WomansIn2ition

May 20, 2013 By 9 Comments

I participated in an Ambassador Program on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Delta Faucets. I received a product sample and promotional item as a thank you for participating.

This time three years ago, we were in the dreaded purgatory that is escrow. Since we officially got the keys, we’ve been doing upgrades here & there- starting even before we moved in. Whether it’s something small like replacing faded & dated golden cabinet handles or something bigger like making over an entire room, our house has been a fun project that has us really making it our home.

One of the projects I have been wanting to do since we moved in was replace our shower head. The one that was here when we moved in was already dirty & gross, and though I clean it, it has some lime buildup that I can’t quite get. More importantly, I wanted a detachable showerhead so that I could clean the shower easier- it’s my absolute least favorite job but I figured being able to rinse all the cleanser off with the showerhead would make it at least a little more tolerable.

As much as I wanted the showerhead, it wasn’t a priority since ours worked, even if not as well as I wanted it to. But now I have the chance to upgrade, thanks to being a Delta Mom Ambassador!

We received the Delta In2ition Two-In-One Shower Arm Mounted Showerhead and I’m so anxious for Justin to install it! He will be doing that this weekend but in the meantime, I’ve been checking out all of the features. I just can’t believe that a showerhead can do all of this!

delta handheld showerhead

Features:

-It has Delta In2ition technology, meaning that the detachable handshower can work separate from or at the same time as the showerhead base. That means that even if you’re using it as a handheld, you won’t be freezing in the shower as you can opt to use the showerhead base at the same time!

-The In2ition handshower lets you choose your spray, so you can choose if you want a relaxing massage or invigorating spray.

-The handshower has a pause setting, so you can conserve water by setting it to trickle when you don’t need a full stream {like when you’re shaving}.

-It also has H2Okinetic technology, so it has an internal system that controls the speed, movement and droplet size of the water exiting the showerhead- so it feels like more water is coming out without actually using more water.

I’m so excited to have a new, clean showerhead that will help me keep the entire shower clean, too. &Since Shane is afraid of showers because he hates water on his head, I am planning on using the handheld part for those times when he needs a quick wash but a full-on bath {&the thirty minutes of play that entails} just isn’t an option.

I’ll be posting about our showerhead once it’s been installed & we’ve put it to the real test, but for now be sure to connect with Delta on Facebook & Twitter {#WomansIn2ition}!

What was the last upgrade you made in your house?
Filed Under: ambassador, homemaking, reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Turn Any Moment Into Movie Magic! #MagistoMoms

May 17, 2013 By 5 Comments

Note: I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Magisto. I received a promotional code for premium features to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

I’m lucky enough that all of Shane’s grandparents live in town & get to see him fairly often. That said, we have several family members who live all across the country & it’s harder for them to keep up with what’s going on with Shane. Even the people who do live here don’t get to see him much- my Mom’s in college & the rest of our parents all work, so it’s a bi-weekly thing at best. I don’t have a lot of time to upload pictures & videos to Facebook, so other than the blog, I don’t do a lot of sharing. But I just discovered the Magisto app that makes it SO much easier!

magisto

Magisto is a video creation app that lets you pick the videos & photos you want to include and then uses artificial intelligence to pick which moments are the highlights, and then makes the video around that. It will crop videos, add special effects, and even add music! I played around with the app for a bit, and then was able to make a video in under three minutes. It took a few more minutes to create & process the video before I could watch it, but it was so easy to make! &When I saw the video, I was really impressed at how high-quality the editing was. &I got to personalize it with a theme & music so I’m going to have a lot of fun playing with that.

Magisto just held a contest for Mother’s Day where they gave away several awesome prizes. Users had the option of adding the #MagistoMoms hashtag to their video to enter the contest, where the videos with the most likes won prizes like tablets & Joan Osborne’s new CD. You can view the featured Mother’s Day videos here!

Speaking of Joan Osborne, she just did a benefit concert this week where Magisto was on hand to create videos of the performance! The company also made a donation to the two charities the benefit was for: Somaly Mam Foundation & Save the Children. Joan performed her new song “Born to See You Through” at the show, which is also available for listening on the Magisto app.

Download it: You can download the Magisto app in the App Store, Google Play Store, or view it on the web. As a bonus, you can use the code MomsRule through the end of May to get 3 free downloads!

Who will you make a video for?

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