Life in Texas

Friday, November 14, 2014

Golden Sweet Cornbread

This is the easiest to make and some of the best tasting corn bread I have ever had. I got the recipe here.

Golden Sweet Cornbread

Ingredients

Makes 1 - 9 inch round pan

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup white suger

1 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Baked Cotton Balls and Thanksgiving Games and Crafts

Twice a month, I teach the 4 and 5 year olds at Caden's co-op. There are 18 kids and I'm constantly looking for fun ways to teach them. Yesterday I decided to have a Thanksgiving theme. We fed a turkey while practicing our reading, practiced manners, and thought of ways to be thankful. I made some baked cotton balls to feed the turkey. Here's how to make baked cotton balls.

Baked Cotton Balls

1 cup flour

1 cup water

food coloring

Line a cookie sheet with foil. In a bowl, mix the flour and water. Adjust water and flour as needed to make a smooth paste. Then separate into bowls and add food coloring to each dish and mix until desired color. We made 3 colors, Caden wanted to make orange, blue, and purple. Dip each cotton ball one at a time in the mixture. Place cotton balls on the cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes. Once cooled, you can write on them with a sharpie if you want. I wrote thanksgiving foods and let the kids read the foods if they could read, if not they could name a food they liked or I'd read the word for them. Then they got to feed the turkey.

Caden loved helping me make these and enjoyed feeding the turkey. Gracie even had fun feeding the turkey. The kids liked it at the co-op as well. I took an empty gallon milk jug and cut the top off, added felt for the face, and taped paper for details. I taped everything to it. I was thankful that it lasted through the co-op.

For the manners game, I printed off these pictures and taped them to plates. I would start and ask the child next to me if he/she would like some of what was pictured on the plate. They would say "yes, please," or "no thank you." Then they would ask the person next to them and so on. I have to find the link to where I found the pictures.

I also had a thankful bag. Inside was some different items. We'd pull one item out at a time and ask the kids why we would be thankful for the item. I had a Bible, flower with a ladybug on it, empty water bottle, pumpkin, and socks. After we went through these items they got to draw a picture of things they were thankful for.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Halloween, Drew's Wedding, Life

I don't seem to ever have enough time to blog anymore. So when I do, I try and combine a few things in one. Gracie enjoyed a fun 1st Halloween. I didn't purchase her an official costume but had a cute tiger suit she wore along with a Halloween onesie. Collin needed to make a trip out to see his parents who live 13 hours away. Since a 26 hour round trip car ride would be too much for a baby, he and Caden went together and had a fun guys trip. Caden dressed up as a dragon this year and I was told he wore his costume for a few minutes. He told me when they got home that he wants to stay home for Halloween next year. They did have a good time, though. I wish Gracie and I could have gone but I am so glad they both go to go and visit his parents. They are precious people!

While they were away, I invited my friend, Emily, over for dinner and to watch a fun and silly Halloween movie. My cousin had come over earlier and she and her new baby stayed as well. We ate pizza, passed out candy to all the cute kids in the neighborhood, and watched a movie after I got Gracie to bed. It was a fun girls night in.

Before Halloween, I had taken the kids to Boo at the Zoo twice! Once with my sister and once with Collin. We also had a pumpkin carving party at our house and attended one. So we did several Halloween things before Halloween. I was sad that Caden missed the two Halloween parties with our homeschool friends but I know he enjoyed seeing his grandparents.

My younger brother, Drew, just got married. His and Kristyl's wedding was last weekend. On the way to the wedding, Caden threw up! We had to turn around and I helped him get undressed while Collin cleaned the car. I decided that Gracie and I would go ahead and attend since my other siblings were unable to make it. It was a beautiful wedding and they are a sweet couple. I'm so happy that all of my siblings are happily married. Caden never had a fever and seems better. I'm thinking it might have been something he ate.

My sweet niece, Avery, was just released from the NICU last week. She spent the first 7.5 months of her life there. She's still on oxygen and has a feeding tube but she's home. They have to really limit contact with her so I haven't seen her out of the NICU yet. I hope to soon.

I took the kids to see the play, Snow White a few weeks ago. This was Gracie's first play. She fell asleep toward the end. Caden enjoyed it. We're loving the cooler weather and have gone to the park with friends and are enjoying being outside. Our co-op group is growing and I'll post a picture of most of the people. That was the one day we had to miss this year because of the play we went to.

Here are lots of pictures from the past few weeks!