Healthy Popcorn Balls...What?!

Hello everyone! Okay, so today's Thanksgiving activity was to make Healthy, Harvest Popcorn Balls! We ended up making only half a batch because, with exception of popcorn kernels, I was low on ingredients!

Here's our recipe:

Ingredients

10	cups	air popped popcorn
2/3	cup	agave syrup (or honey)
1/2	cup	sugar free peanut butter
1/4	tsp	salt (optional)
1/2	cup	pepitas
1/2	cup	chopped, unsweetened dried fruit of your choice

Method

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper. 2. Heat the agave, peanut butter and salt in a saucepan, until it comes to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 minute.
3. In a large mixing bowl, coat the popcorn with the peanut butter mixture.
4. Add the pepitas and the dried fruit, stirring until combined.
5. When the popcorn mixture is cool enough to handle, use lightly greased hands to press firmly into balls.
6. Place the popcorn balls onto the baking tray to allow to cool completely.

 The air popper makes the boys gleeful.

Once again, the rotation didn't transfer, but you get the idea...delicious.

Thanksgiving is on its way!

For those of you who know me, I love Thanksgiving (most holidays, really, but I love this day for sure)!  And, as most of you also know, I love celebrating to the most, so for the next thirteen days, we'll be doing a fall/Thanksgiving activity to mark the passage until turkey!  Today, we made pumpkin scented play doh!

Pumpkin Play Doh

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 tbsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp pumpkin spice
Food coloring of choice
 
Mix all ingredients together in a pot, except for food coloring and spice.  Stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken and form a ball.  Then, remove from heat, and knead in spice and food coloring (we chose to make orange, of course-2 drops red, 18 drops yellow!).  Knead until soft and pliable and enjoy!

 Yes, I know, the little one is stirring at the stove.  He's actually very attentive to anything hot and keeps a respective distance, lol! Notice how far away he's holding the spoon.

Okay, I couldn't get this picture to rotate but it was just too freaking adorable!

 Dave's face...need I say more?

Manitoba Girl

I admit, at times I have a love/hate relationship with Manitoba.  But, when the weather turns crisp and the leaves change color and the smell of dust and burning fields fills the air, I know why I love living here and why it'd be hard to be without.  September to January have always been my favorite months.  School starts and the sounds of children walking to and from ripple through the air, the wind is pungent with the aromas of harvest, drying leaves and woodsmoke.  You start putting on slippers and warmer pajamas and possibly change over you sheets to flannel.  Crockpot meals, soups and hot bevvies start making regular appearances on your menu.  Thanksgiving arrives to herald the rest of the year's festivities, brought in by family gathering, smells of turkey, pumpkins and leaves decorating the house and then leading into Hallowe'en. All Hallow's Eve; the holiday for spooky decor, costumes, candy, newly empty trees, crunching leaves, more pumpkins and then the snow settles.  And a quiet hush falls over the province as the trees and some of the animals go to sleep for the next few months and then Christmas.  I'm not going to even go into Christmas yet (we know it's great) because I'm just going to revel in Autumn!

Time For a New Post

Do you ever have a time in your life when it's time to reinvent yourself or start afresh? Well, it's one of those times for me.  Today is the one year anniversary of my weight loss journey and I wanted to start the next year of toning and muscle building with treating myself right every day...making sure to clean my face and moisturize, use my stretch mark cream, put on a little make-up; look nice, even for myself.  I also want to dedicate more time to my husband who gets pushed back due to the kids, the house, all my little projects, etc.  I want to be a little more patient with the kids and I want to cut out the long line of future ideas for right now and focus on the important one; the one that means the most to me...my writing.  I have a chance to maybe get a job doing massage again which I have to look into and with that, I want to actively write.  And that's all I can concentrate on for right now.  I just want to focus on being healthy, fun, and funky.  I'm excited about the upcoming months and hope to blog my journey!

Okay, so I really don't have anything important to say except that I really do want to start posting more...and I finished Lost.  I was skeptical before I started but it was truly amazing.  The last episode was perfect; I am very happy (and I cried frequently).

Quick Post

So, there's no Before and Afters because I forgot but Dave and I did a seven day tooth whitening thing with natural tooth whitener and I give it a thumbs up....it didn't hurt my teeth and it made them feel really clean.  I don't know if there was a huge difference but they definitely feel better.

Alright, I did not forget about my goal to get firm, glowing skin on my legs! I just was on hiatus for awhile....results are in! Jergens Body Firming Glow lotion is awesome! It doesn't smell gross, it doesn't streak and it looks natural, while leaving my legs smooth.  I recommend it highly!

Also, I will not be posting this week on the underarms, because while I've been faithful to the body scrub, I keep forgetting the lemon, which is a natural bleaching agent and thusly a big part of the regime! However, I accidentally, on purpose started in on my facial regime this week, as well and it's been going awesome.  I've been thinking a lot about how even though I'm not freaked out about turning 30 next year, I don't want to start looking like I'm in my 30's (at least not yet).  I wanted to get a jump-start on wrinkles, etc but have not been able to afford to really splurge on skin cream, cleanser supplies and then my awesome friend Kim, who sells Mary Kay, had an open house to which I went exploring, and she set me up! I walked out of there with an arsenal and didn't pay her a dime (I will, but I get to use the product now! So this is what my face regimen is now:

Morning:
Use the Skinfoliate electric brush with cleanser to scrub away oils, dirt, make-up, etc
Spray some freshening spray on a cotton ball and work onto face
Apply Hydrate cream
Apply eye cream

Night:
Follow same routine, adding a demo Micro kit (with three more tubes of scrub/lotion) and then twice a week, I add a mask to the nightly application (to be washed off before freshening).

It sounds like a lot, but it only takes fifteen minutes and my skin felt softer right away, the make-up comes right off and I think it's really going to help keep those wrinkles at bay!

Here's to skin care!

Underarm Charm

Okay, sorry I haven't written in a month and a half.  I have been not even that busy; just enjoying not being busy...working on my new calendar for the grandparents, doing some kid crafts, knitting a pair of gloves, reading for book club, etc.  And of course working out and trying to stay on track that way.  Plus, the entire family had the flu this week so that slowed us down! But, I haven't forgotten about my body improvement; it just got waylaid for awhile.  Still doing good on my feet and legs and now it's time for armpits.   I have always had dark underarms so I was reading up on natural and easy ways to lighten them and I decided on rubbing lemon wedges sprinkled with turmeric on them, scrubbing them with a brown sugar/olive oil mixture to exfoliate and of course, moisturizing.  I think I'll do this treatment every day for a week and then just cut out the lemon part to once a week.  So here's the start....let's see how it looks in two weeks:

December 23rd and 24th.

Well, we got too busy to do any crafts but we did do our Christmas activities on these two days; on the twenty third, we made out cards for all the businesses in town and me and the boys dropped them off and Christmas Eve we looked at Christmas lights and did a light scavenger hunt.  We finished the book on Merry Christmases around the world and then on the 24th, we read a poem kids' version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clark Moore.
Hope your Christmas was awesome, ours was!

 

Writing out our Christmas Cards (Yes, I'm wearing the same thing two days in a row).

 

Handing out a card to the girls at the Credit Union.

 

Our scavenger hunt list.