Idea Queen Tips & News

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In the middle of the snow storm the other day, we had to make due with supper. I was really wanting to make beef stroganoff with our pound of hamburger, but sadly had no sour cream.

Luckily I managed to find a unopened block of Velveeta cheese, as well as a box of pasta shells. Pasta is pretty much a staple in this house, and I always make sure we have at least some form of it on hand (usually we always have fettucini, spaghetti, angel hair pasta, and egg noodles).

So mac and cheese with hamburger it was, even though I’d never actually made it with hamburger before. I don’t know why, because my mom always made it that way when I was a kid. However, I’m pretty sure her mac and cheese was out of a box. Mine is always homemade.

I did learn the other night there is in fact a limit for the cheese. It was a little too cheesy, which honestly I didn’t know what possible. Oops, now we know! For a regular box of pasta shells, apparently half a box of cheese is plenty.

My regular mac & cheese recipe can be found on the pasta recipe page.  Basically you cook it just as you think you would, slowly adding cheese and milk to cooked (and drained) pasta. Even though there was slightly too much cheese, it was still pretty good. The kids liked it, so that was good enough for me!

I just had to blog about this because my daughter loves these games so much. She’s just starting to read, but can not do a whole lot that requires reading. Playhouse Disney is wonderful for her, since it tells them all the instructions outloud and has a whole lot of great games for them to play.

Bunnytown is one of her favorites, because she gets to “buy” stuff for a bunnytown house, and clothes for her bunnytown bunny. Items are purchased with Carrots, which are earned from the games available in this section. Then they get to decorate their homes and bunnies in anyway they like. There’s even several different types of homes to chose from, which they can change at any time.

You can view other rooms and bunnies of kids online, but there is no real interaction. However, you can send them a message by choosing from a list. I’m sure there’s probably a way to check messages sent, but I haven’t found this yet (of course, I don’t get to play too much because she’s too busy on this site!)

I absolutely love the idea behind this. It’s a safe environment where kids can learn to count up their carrots, and understand the concept of saving and shopping. There’s the appeal of sending email and messages without any risks or getting bad messages (which would be the case on other sites where they can send any message they want).

A small hint though - if you run into a problem where the shopping function doesn’t appear to be working, just right click in the main screen and choose “Settings”. Make sure you allow information to be stored on your computer or it won’t work (it uses a cookie-like system instead of a log in system - another reason I love this site because it’s as simple as possible for preschoolers).

If you are needing a site they can play on without you having to help too much, this one is PERFECT. She can play for hours on the whole website, and especially the Bunnytown section (we’ve got to earn more carrots for more stuff of course!).

Have fun!

I love breakfast foods. Although the idea of cooking a major meal that early in the morning is less than appealing. Sometimes on the weekends I manage to actually cook breakfast, although it usually counts as lunch by the time I’m off my lazy, half-awake rear end. To say I’m not a morning person is putting it lightly.

So I thought I’d actually plan to make breakfast for supper tonight. I picked up some sausage the other day (you know, the kind that comes in a tube) figuring I could do something with it. Pancakes sounded good too, so I found a recipe that looks pretty easy. Going to give this one a shot, and picked up some buttermilk at the store on the way home from school.

Of course I ended up forgetting hashbrowns at the store (grr! Never fails!), and didn’t even think about it until we got home.   I suppose I could make my own, but my potatoes aren’t looking so great. Best I throw them out and just stick with eggs, pancakes, and sausage.

This is not something we do that often, but hoping it will be fun!

Valentine’s day is only a little over a week away, do you have plans?

Unfortunately being single, I have none. While it’s a romantic day for most, it can be a little depressing to me. No big deal though, I just do my best to ignore it all together. It’s just another day, right?

I kicked around the idea of maybe hosting a chat for all us single fokes (moms in particular), but not sure how much interest there would be. It would of course be a controlled chat, unlike so many chat rooms are now.

What do you think? Would join in if you knew of a friendly chat designed to distract us single fokes from the day of depression? I do have a chat room in mind, so let me know!

Today isn’t technically a snow day (not yet anyway), but they are going two hours late. Of course in these two hours, they have the ability to upset my morning routine. This drives me nuts. Not that I’m a real organized person, but my motivation is at it’s highest in the morning. If I don’t get right down to business, the day tends to be lost.

I purposely take Saturday and Sunday as “days off” to spend the day with the kids and give them my full attention. No working and very little housework. What housework and cooking is done on the weekends usually involves them in some way. Hey it’s a family activity, right?

So I know the “working” part may mean different things depending on your current situation. Your main job may be a house wife (and YES that is a REAL job - do NOT let anyone EVER tell you differently!), or you may be like me, working at home on the computer. Regardless, I’m sure snow days can really mess up your day.

When you simply can’t afford to “take the day off”,  how do you handle them?  Do you have certain toys or activities you save for the snow day so you can continue your normal day? Or do you spend the day pulling your hair out?

I’m VERY curious to read some replies!

If you were looking for the weekly update last week, you didn’t find it. Yes I slacked off, lost my focus, and didn’t make any plans last week. Actually, I started to slip a little before that too.

I was suppose to be cleaning this front room/living room two weeks ago. Some of it DID get done - I did manage to clean off the shelf above the TV. After that I’m not sure what happened. It might of been I was just consumed with cleaning the house as a whole, and trying to maintain some sort of non-trashiness in here. Maybe I just got lazy. I’m not sure.

Regardless, I’m going to just start again where I left off. One minor setback is not going to keep me from hitting the goal of having a totally organized house.

The goal for this week - clean this main room. The desk, the coloring book/crayon area, and the “to go box” (where we put papers and other items that need to go somewhere as we walk out the door, like papers for school and outgrown clothes we are passing to a friend). The desk area is the absolute worst in this room, and will probably take the most time. It also must be done if I want to get my taxes done (it tends to be the dumping ground for bills and mail), so there’s my motivation. There’s money sitting on my desk! All I have to do is clean it.

Who’s with me this week, and what room are you organizing?

Most little girls absolutely love the color pink, and love to be the princess too. Here are some ideas on how to transform your little girl’s room into a room fit for a princess.

Walls
I strongly advice against painting the walls pink. They don’t stay little forever, and will eventually want a different color on their walls. Keep it white and use accents or murals. You’ll be glad you did later on.

Example: Barbie 12 Dancing Princesses Jumbo Wall Accents

Window Treatments
Another very easy addition to your pink princess theme room is curtains and other window treatments. It’s not hard to find pink “frilly” curtains for a girl’s princess room.

Example: Princess Flora Valance, ea. 84W x 15L

Lighting
Lamps can be fun and really “light up” the whole room. There are some really fun lamps to chose from now, so be sure to look around. While it’s simple to just choose a pink lamp, you can also pick up one that focuses on their favorite princess (or just princess in general).

Example: Pink Ribbon Table Lamp

Bedding
This one is pretty easy, since you can find pink princess bedding just about anywhere. Two of the most popular designs right now are the Disney princesses and Dora princess. Other pink bedding (maybe with some frills) would work as well.

Example: Princess Bed in a Bag Set, Twin

Another option for the bed is a canopy. This idea stems back to the 16th century, when royalty had canopy beds and beautiful drapes over their bed. You can find the entire canopy and bed all together, or sometimes just buy the canopy. The canopy alone really isn’t all that expensive

Example: Alaina´s Heart Twin Canopy Top

Decor
Here’s where you can get really creative and pull the whole theme together. There is so many different types of princess decor out there, including a ‘general’ princess theme, Dora princess (great for little ones), and Disney princess. Decor would include not just wall decor, but furniture as well. YourKidsDirect has a lot of neat options for various princess decor.

Example: Princess Bookcase

I hope these suggestions and examples give you some ideas on how to create a pink princess theme room for your little princess!