March 2015
  

A Horse Drawn Maple Sugar Bush Tour

During our kids' Spring Break from school, we went to St. Jacobs Farmers Market in Ontario and took a Maple Sugar Bush Tour by St. Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours.  It was such a fun experience and I am so happy that we did it!  I took quite a few photos while we were there and thought it would be fun to share our experience with you.


March 2015 Sharing Time - Week 3

Welcome to March's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap since the last Sharing Time:


Yesterday, I shared this delicious soup recipe!


On Monday I shared a True Meaning of Easter poem that Ken & I wrote,
along with a free printable.



Until the end of the month, there are giveaways happening at the Kinder facebook page!
Details Here.



The doTERRA Introductory Kit giveaway is open until the end of the month!

I wrote about my experience with doTERRA and some of their products here.




Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)


Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!
 ---------------------------------------
If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!










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Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Cheese Broccoli Soup Recipe

My mother-in-law is a fabulous cook.  Today I want to share with you one of our favourite recipes that she makes- Broccoli Cheese Soup!  (It can be made the same way with cauliflower or a mixture of cauliflower & broccoli).  This is a pretty easy recipe and everybody in my family likes it.  I'll share a recipe today that makes the perfect amount for our family of 4, but you can double it for a larger group or (my favourite) leftovers!



Here's What You'll Need:

Easter Fun & Giveaways with Kinder Surprise!

We have been very busy with March break activities at our house this week so I have been quiet on the blog, but I wanted to stop in today to let you know about a contest that's happening over on the KINDER® facebook page! As you all know, now that St. Patrick's Day has passed, the next fun day to come is Easter!

Since we became parents, Ken and I have felt that it is important for our kids to know why we celebrate Easter (and not have the true meaning of Easter fall into the background of the Easter Bunny). That said, we totally love all of the fun of the Easter bunny and didn't want to lose that! So, we've tried to sort of categorize the Easter Bunny and those things as more of a "Spring" celebration than an Easter celebration (I mean really that's what bunnies and eggs and chicks and things like that are all about!)  So, with the first official day of Spring approaching (just a couple of days away!), we've had that special bunny and his treats on our minds!

Easter 2013- cute mini Katrina finding a large KINDER® Surprise Egg during an Easter hunt :)
Did you know that you can Instagram your Easter-themed pictures and tag @KinderCanada and they just might re-gram your photo!

March 2015 Sharing Time - Week 2

Welcome to March's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap since the last Sharing Time:


I wrote about Fridge Organization for School Lunch-Making, which included some tips for organizing in general.


...and I shared an easy meal idea that we tried recently: Naan Bread Pizza.



The doTERRA Introductory Kit giveaway is still open!

I wrote about my experience with doTERRA and some of their products here.



St. Patrick's Day is on Tuesday, so don't miss this awesome collection of Fun St. Patrick's Day ideas!



Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)


Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!
 ---------------------------------------
If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!










Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Easy DIY Naan Bread Pizza

Last week when I shared my struggle with dinner-making and a lot of you shared ideas in the comments for quick & easy dinner ideas- I loved reading them, so thank you so much for sharing those! A popular one was to make your own pizza which is something we did a while ago and I've been meaning to share this very easy idea with you!  I loved it because the kids could help and it was actually more like a fun craft than a chore!




You can actually purchase Naan bread at the grocery store which allows you even to skip the dough-making step of making your own pizza if you want to be faster! (You can also buy pre-made dough at my grocery store which is another way to make your own pizza without starting from scratch).

Here's what we used for our pizzas:

Fridge Organization for School Lunch-Making with Frigidaire Gallery Custom-Flex & A Giveaway!

I've been working on organizing my whole house (it seems to be an ongoing project that never really ends).  I wrote last month about how I've organized my container cupboard so that it actually stays organized and today I wanted to share a little about how I've organized my fridge to make school lunch-making easier.




Organization Tip:

As I continue to find better ways to organize areas of my house, I'm finding it helpful to think about:

- When I use things
- Where I am when I use them
- Which things I use together  

This helps me to figure out the best places to keep things. 

March 2015 Sharing Time - Week 1

Welcome to March's Sharing Time Linky!

Before we get to the party, here's a quick recap since the last Sharing Time:


I shared a tutorial on how to Recreate this Olaf Cake:


I wrote about Working at Happiness.


We unboxed a Kiwi Crate & a Tinker Crate and reviewed them.


I shared another part of our Frozen party (a Snowman Snowball Toss game)


There are 2 Giveaways this week: One is for a doTERRA Introductory Kit and the other is for a bottle of Adult Gummy Vitamins

I wrote about my experience with doTERRA and some of their products here.


...and my struggles with food prep. here.

St. Patrick's Day is coming up in just over a week, so don't miss this awesome collection of Fun St. Patrick's Day ideas!


This week there are two parties- the first is our regular March Link Party & the button below that is just for St. Patrick's Day Ideas!

Now, on to the link party- I can't wait to see what you share! :)


Please join the Raising Memories Sharing Time & add a link to your latest and greatest blog posts
about activities to do with your children or fun projects that you have done!
 ---------------------------------------
If you're participating, please share the button on your blog & "hop over" to at least one other blog post that's been linked up- let's support each other!









Below is a link to a Link Party Dedicated just to St. Patrick's Day Ideas!
(Can't wait to see your green, rainbow, shamrock, & leprechaun related ideas!)




--------><--Only St. Patrick's Day Links!!


Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.

Confession: I Struggle to Nourish My Family (& a Giveaway)

I fall short when it comes to meal preparation and execution. It's something I have had in the back of my mind as a goal to work on for years. I think it remains at the back of my mind most of the time because it's something I just don't find fun. I have friends and family members who love to cook (thank goodness I married one of them!), so I know that it's possible to enjoy it, but I have yet to find that joy when it comes to meals & nutritional foods (dessert-prep and baking on the other hand- the joy has always been right there in front of me & I'm happy to get right into that! ;)

I do, however, manage to make meals ;)  I keep nutrition in mind and attempt to make healthy meals as often as possible. I have a few "staple" meals that I come back to that I know I can make well.  These include lasagna, shepherd's pie casserole, chicken & rice casserole, tacos, and some others. You'll notice that the majority of those involve ground beef- & has anyone else noticed how expensive it has gotten lately? We're pretty frugal so I've been trying to think of other things to cook with!

Another thing that I try to do is to have healthy snacks around (particularly fruits & vegetables). This is definitely a challenge this time of year, since we live in THE ARCTIC (well, not really, but it feels that way..) and fruit and vegetables do not grow around here, this time of year.

So, I do my best at nourishing my family even though I know that I'm not really doing awesome a lot of the time, and I have vitamins around for myself, my husband, and my kids to help make up the difference. We just started using Life Science Nutritionals' Gummy vitamins and we are big fans!  My kids were already using Gummy vitamins but I had never tried gummy vitamins for adults! You guys, I'm supposed to be taking a multivitamin daily (my doctor told me to), but have you seen the size of some of those pills?! I dread taking them (therefore I don't take them). I was pretty excited to try out a Gummy vitamin that's actually formulated with women's nutritional needs in mind (cuz eating the kids' vitamins didn't seem sufficient and I felt bad for using them up... ahem.)

These Adult Essentials Gummies Multivitamins actually won the 2015 Canadian Living Best New Product Award
in the Health category! (I'm not surprised- this is a GOOD idea!)

doTERRA Essential Oils- My Experience & A Giveaway

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that I have some unexplained health issues. I have been having problems with my fingers since about 6 months after Katrina was born (she is now 6 years old). I've been to my doctor as well as a Rheumatologist and a Naturopathic Doctor and have had numerous tests done by my family doctor, specialists, and others. Unfortunately, through all of that, we have been unable to come to a conclusion about what is wrong with me. We have some clues, but nothing conclusive and the consensus seems to be that we won't really know what the problem is until it gets worse. That sounds comforting, doesn't it?

Some Background:

My hands seem to go through periods of time where they feel just about normal, and then they go through flare-ups when they get worse. Sometimes during these flare-ups they are in so much pain that I can't put my own hair in a pony tail or hold my cereal spoon without pain. Always, using my heavy camera causes pain (one reason why I am so grateful to have my new, lighter DSLR!) and this is so frustrating because some of the things that I love to do are causing me pain- and sometimes, everyday activities are painful! I have tried a couple of prescription pain medications and other over-the-counter solutions (none of which have been solutions for me). The prescription medications come with pretty serious risks and possible side effects, so they are not worth using when I can't really perceive any difference in my pain level.

Enter Jenni:

In October, Jenni contacted me after reading my blog and told me about her business that she does from home, teaching people about natural healthcare and doTERRA essential oils.  She asked if I would be interested in trying them and reviewing them on my blog. I had not tried using essential oils very many times before (the only specific times I could remember using them were once when I made some DIY bath salts and used some cheap essential oils (from the dollar store) to scent them and once when my sister-in-law visited, she had me try one of doTERRA's oil blends called deep blue for my hands (but again, I didn't notice a difference- granted I only tried it once, and it wasn't really a "bad pain day").

So, I thought it was worth a try and Jenni said she would send me a custom-blend of oils for my hands in addition to some other oils and products from doTERRA to use for myself and my family. Today (after 3 and a half months with the products), I'm going to share some of our experiences with these doTERRA products with you and you'll have a chance to win some of them at the end of the post, too!  (I'm just sharing a few items, but there are a TON of other oils, blends, and other products available on her website, so be sure to check it out!)



Before I get into my experience with each of the oils, I just want to say that working with Jenni was so great! If you're going to use doTERRA essential oils, you can order through any of their Wellness Advocates, but having worked with Jenni, I can very comfortably recommend her to you! She was always available to me whenever I had any questions and was very willing to help me to figure out what oils I could try for different issues. She also came up with a custom blend for my hands that has been amazing (and I will get into that more in this post after telling you about some of the other products we tried).

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