DIY Tri-Fold White Board {Thoughtful Momma Monday}

Thoughtful Momma Monday

As we dive into the world of Classical Conversations this week (Wow! Already?!), I wanted to be prepared to substitute for any CC class that may need me. In my online searching, I came across this excellent idea for creating a tri-fold whiteboard.

I can use it at home to review our weekly memory work, and if called upon, I can write the week's work on it and tote it to our CC campus to tutor a class! I'm very excited to be prepared and ready to help out.

This Do-it-yourself project can be traced back to the Kids Activities Blog and Suzanne Shares blog. Both Rachel and Suzanne are great examples and an encouragement to my heart in our own home school journey - especially when it comes to using Classical Conversations' method and curriculum.

I think he was more excited to sit on the kitchen table than about writing on his new lapboard :)

While making my tri-fold whiteboards, I found that I needed a bit more clarity than what was offered on either site mentioned above. So I thought I'd snap pictures along the way and share them with you! I hope this helps you out a bit.


DIY Tri-Fold Whiteboard Instructions 
(Makes 2 tri-fold whiteboards and 4 lapboards)

Tools and Supplies Needed:

• Scissors
• A pen or pencil
• One 4x8 Tileboard
• One roll of duck tape (or a variety for fun looks)

 

You can tell I have a little girl in the house :)

Just to give you an idea of the board I purchased for this project.

I purchased my tileboard from our local Home Depot for $15 and I had fun duck tape on hand, but picked up two new rolls for my boards at $3 each. My total bill for 2 tri-fold whiteboards and 4 lapboards came to $21! That breaks down to about $2 for each lapboard and $6.50 for each tri-fold board!


Here's how to have your new best friend (aka store clerk) at your local hardware store rip the tileboard for you:

1. Have them first cut one foot off, straight across the bottom of the board (blue line). This leaves you with a 3x8 foot piece to cut the tri-fold pieces from. The bottom piece that is 1x8' will become your 4 lap boards. 
2. Cut the larger board at, 2 feet, 2 feet, one foot, one foot, and one foot - leaving one last foot. (red lines).
3. Lastly cut the long, thin board by one-foot increments, creating 4 lap boards that are 1x2' each (green lines).

Board Assembly Directions:

Gather up your materials on a level surface - a large table or on the floor. 

 Tape around the outside edge of each board, leaving the insides (that will be taped together) alone.

(the only edge missing boarder tape is the edge closest to me)

To get a great look around the edges - cut your piece of tape about an inch longer on each side of the edge of the board you are working on. 

Press the tape to the back of the board, keeping half of the tape hanging off the edge.

Fold the tape up and gently press it against the very thin edge of the board.

 Fold tape over to the front of the board and press out any bubbles that occur. 

Smooth to the edges and trim any excess off the sides.

 Turn the boards over, keeping the taped edges on the outsides. 

Place your pen or pencil between the center board and a side wing and stick a 

piece of tape next to it to keep the gap in place.

Slide the pen down to the other end and stick a piece of tape there as well.

Remove the pen and tape over the gap, creating the wing effect!

After gaping and taping both wings, turn the entire board over carefully 

and tape down the gap on the front side!

And TADA!!! Your tri-fold whiteboard is ready to go!

 

To make the small lapboards, just tape a boarder around the entire board and hand them out. Your kids will love to draw for large amounts of time and practice writing on them. It's a good idea to give them their own whiteboard pens and a rag to erase that they can keep in a basket nearby. 

My three-almost-four-year-old is learning not to press the life out of whiteboard markers, so having his own set keeps mine fresh to use for school :)

 I would love to hear any ideas you come up with when either creating or using your tri-fold whiteboards. 

And remember, you will have 2 boards -  one to use in your home, and one to bless a friend with! 

Who can you bless today?

 Enjoy and God bless!

Award Winning Apple Pie Recipe

One memorable summer of my childhood, my family was planning to visit our local county fair. Before we headed out to enjoy the sights and sounds that come with a fair, my father had the great thought of my mother entering her apple pie into the pie contest. I think he had to convince her to enter it, as she wouldn't have done so on her own. We all knew that Mom's pies were the best we ever had and that she would do well in the contest.

The day of the contest, Momma took her apple pie to the display table and filled out her registration card. We left it there to enjoy all the fair had to offer and when we returned to the contest area later in the day, we were all in for a pleasant surprise. Mom's apple pie had won third place!

There was her pie, half eaten by the judges and along side it stood a beautiful basket full of fruit - her third place prize! We were all so happy for her and so proud of her pie-making skills. We knew that she had it in her. After a fun day at the fair, we headed home with hearts full of joy and a basket full of fruit. (Maybe another pie in the making :)



Here is a wonderful, simple apple pie recipe that my mother passed down to me. If pies haven't been easy for you to make in the past or you have no experience at all, try this recipe out! You can do it!

Perfect Pie Crust

Ingredients:

1 cup cold butter (2 sticks of the real thing)

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)

5 - 10 tablespoons ice water

Directions:

1. Measure flour into a medium bowl. Mix in salt (if needed).
2. Cut butter into pieces as you add it to the bowl, then mix into flour using pasty cutter until crumbly.
3. Add ice water, a few tablespoons at a time, mixing with a fork, until the dough sticks together.
4. Form a rectangle log with your hands and wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for 20 min or longer (overnight is fine, this dough freezes well too).

Before rolling out the dough, you will cut the rectangle log in half - to make a top and bottom crust.

***A few pie crust tips***

• The less you mix and handle the dough, the better. The less you handle it, the flakier it will be!
•  Before rolling the dough, take the log of dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for 10 min or so, just to take the chill off. The goal is to have cold dough, but not rock hard dough.
• When rolling it out, use a well-floured surface. If the edges of the circle break apart, piece them together like a puzzle. It doesn't have to be perfect to look and taste great!
• If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

In order that the pie crust can sit in the fridge a while before rolling it out, here is the order in which I found it best to make a pie:

1. Mix dough and place in fridge
2. Create pie filling and set aside
3. Turn on oven to correct temp.
4. Roll out dough and place in pie plate
5. Pour filling into the plate
6. Cover with top crust (if called for)
7. Place in the oven to bake!

Award Winning Apple Pie

(adapted from The New Cookbook by Better Homes and Gardens)

Ingredients:

1 recipe for double pie crust (above)

6 cups thinly sliced, peeled cooking apples (I like to use a mixture of half sweet apples and half tart apples - like Golden Delicious and Granny Smith )

1/2 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

1. Prepare crust as directed in recipe above and place it in the fridge.
2. Peel, core and slice your apples and place in a large bowl
3. Add to the bowl sugar, flour, and spices. Gently toss to coat.
4. Turn on oven to 375*. Roll out dough and line the bottom of pie plate with one pastry circle. Transfer apple mixture to pie plate.
5. Cut 5 or 6 small pieces of butter and place on top of pie filling.  
6. Place the second pastry circle on top of pie and pinch edges to seal, trim off the bottom of the edges as needed. Cut slits in top crust (in the shape of a letter if you would like).
7. If desired, brush top of pie with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
8. To prevent over-browning, cover edges of the pie (just the crust) with strips of foil.
9. Bake for 40 minutes, remove foil and bake another 20 minutes or until fruit is tender and filling is bubbling up through the pastry slits. Cool on wire rack and enjoy!

Don't let making your own pie crust from scratch scare you. Once you make it and enjoy it, you won't want to ever return to store bought crust. This is a wonderful dessert to share with friends, served with a cup of tea or coffee (or a scoop of vanilla ice cream).


I pray that your home is filled with love, peace, joy and the sweet scent of apple pie!


Blessings,

A Few Tips for Great Deviled Eggs!

To make great deviled eggs, first you need great hard boiled eggs! Here is a great "recipe" for hard boiled eggs that will be useful this Easter, or any time you want to whip these babies up. Deviled eggs make a great snack, appetizer or picnic addition. They are high in protein, vitamin B12 and Vitamin E and oh so tasty!

Perfect Hard-boiled Eggs

• Place eggs in bottom of medium pan.
• Fill pan with cold water until tops of eggs are covered.
• Turn burner on High.
• When water reaches a rolling boil, cover pan with lid and turn off the heat - leaving the pot on the hot burner.
• Set your timer for 15 minutes, starting once you turn the heat off.
• Once 15 minutes are up, set your pan in the sink and run cold water over eggs. Adding some ice to the pan will help cool the eggs down even faster.
• After eggs are cool, peel and rinse each egg. Then they are ready to cut in half and dress up a bit!

Simple Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:

• 12 Hard boiled eggs
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• Hefty squirt of yellow mustard
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

• Cut eggs in half length-wise and empty yolk into small bowl.
•  Arrange egg whites on a platter or place in an air-tight Tupperware container.
• Add mayo and mustard and sprinkle with salt and pepper (go light on the salt, as mustard is very salty on its own).
• Mash well with a fork until most lumps are gone. (if mixture seems dry, add more mayo)
• Taste the filling to see if anything needs to be added. Adjust if needed.
• Scoop yolk filling into a plastic sandwich bag, filling up a bottom corner first.
• Snip corner of sandwich bag and pipe into egg white boats. Enjoy!

 

Ready to roll!

 Love the color of egg yolks our hens lay! Full of nutrients!

 Sandwich bag and scissors - your best egg-filling friends!

 Placing the bag over your hand like a glove will help reduce the mess 

while filling it with the yolk mixture.

Focus on one corner and squeeze out the air before sealing the bag.

It's a lot like frosting a cake or cookies!

 Snip the corner off - not too small (to allow for little chunks to get out), yet not too big either.

 Arrange your egg whites for filling... you don't want to have to move 

the already filled eggs if you don't have to!

Squeeze the yolk in, swirling as you go.

When finished, toss the bag and clean-up is done!

I hope you enjoy sharing these tasty eggs with your family this spring. Here is a thought to leave you with today...

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." James 1:17 NKJV

Blessings,

Creative Salt Play {Thoughtful Momma Monday}

If your kids like to play and be creative as much as mine, I'd like to share a GREAT play idea with you.

Got a dollar? Here's what you do....

Head to  your local Dollar Tree (or your pantry cupboard) a grab a container of SALT!

Go outside with your kids and set them up with a container to play in, the salt, and tools for creative play (paint brush, spoons, popsicle sticks, beads, chopsticks, cookie cutters, small boxes, cars, trucks, and anything else they will have fun in the salt with). The sky is the limit as to what they can use to play with in the sand.

I laid a couple pieces of colorful paper in the bottom of each tray. This adds color to their play!

 

 Let them dump all the salt into the tray and have fun! The fun play will last quite a while, just beware... if you let them play for too long and they tire of all that salt, it may end up in the air and in their hair  :o)

If you come across some, I know that your kids would enjoy a shoebox lid full of colored sand! I found a couple craft bags full and we added glitter and various beads to ours, then broke out the cars, trucks and marbles. The variety is endless!

Whatever you do with your children today, enjoy their creative minds and innocence. They are growing up too fast!

Blessings,
 

"Winter Birds" Tea Party

After so much fun at our last winter tea party (2 years ago), I decided we must have our sweet librarians over again for another party!

         

December 2011                                  Today - February 22, 2014

Our little girl is growing up too quickly!

I love a good tea party - just a couple friends, some food, and a warm cup of tea.

Lately I've enjoyed looking out my kitchen window each morning and seeing a variety of birds snacking on the seed bell that my generous mother hung on a tree branch in our front yard. These birds come in all sorts of colors and are fun to watch. I think my favorite are the red cardinals.

All these birds got me in the mood for a Winter Birds Tea Party! And, yet again, my sweet mother-in-law let me borrow some tea cups, a tea pot and best of all some beautiful birds to decorate with!

We enjoyed a wonderful morning with warm weather! The high today is 75 and the windows are open! That's a Texas winter for ya.

We sent our sweet brother off to visit Mimi and Pops (armed with a sword to defend the princess). His need to run and play outdoors is HUGE! So he went over to "help" them build a deck for their pool and have his own little tea party with his grandparents. Of course we packed some yummy snickerdoodles in his backpack, along with his power tools  :o)

 

Next, we set the table for six! I always enjoy making name cards and other decorations for the current party's theme with card stock, scrapbook paper and any art tidbits that I have on hand. This time each name card had a bird on it. 

(Yes, I'm from Portland!)

 

On the menu today was: chicken salad croissant sandwiches, butterfly pbj's, banana muffins, grapes, veggies and ranch dip, meat and cheese,  mini snickerdoodles, banana pudding, homemade lemonade, iced coffee, and two types of tea - Chai Green Tea and Mint Medley.

See the sweet cardinal in the middle of the table? Lovely winter bird!

 My mother is a great hostess and a tea-giver-extraordinaire! She prepared our tea in pots today and helped in so many ways.

 

Our dear "Story time Lady", Cessy, and her sweet girls joined us. We missed having our children's librarian with us too, but we thought of her throughout our party. Our friends were very pleasant to visit with and we learned more about each of them! 

It's a great party when the food and company are enjoyable.

 

Here is my first attempt at banana pudding... and of course 

I forgot to include the bananas!

After eating our brunch, we all enjoyed a memory game.

I place many objects that began with the letter "B" on a cookie sheet and each team had one minute to look at the tray and then, by memory, write down what they saw. The mommy/grandma team won!

What fun memories we made today. We missed you so much, sweet Becca, 

and hope to try to party with you again soon!

Here is one last "bird" thought to leave you with...

" ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?... ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:25-26, 34

Blessings from this blessed lady,