Pink Lemonade cake

Pink Lemonade Cake

(6 oz) frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate, thawed
White cake mix
3 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Pink or red food coloring ( just enough to make it a pretty pink)

Lemon Buttercream Icing (recipe below)
.
In a stand mixer, add the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, and the pink lemonade concentrate. Mix on low for 2 minutes.

Spray a 9x13 pan and spoon in batter. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick is clean. Cool completely on a baking rack.

Lemon Buttercream Icing
3 cups + 3 Tbsp confectioners sugar
1 stick butter at room temperature
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Yellow food color
Add the butter, confectioners sugar, lemon juice, and food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the icing is fluffy and yellow

* I am thinking about 4oz of cream cheese would be good in the icing too, but I haven't tried it that way yet!

Frost cooled cake and enjoy!

April's Plans

Here are some things on the list for the 4th month of the year, a busy one at the Mullis house!

Celebrate our puppy Sammy's birthday on April 1st. I am going to get Abby to make some homemade puppy treats.

I am going to TN with my mom and sister and the kids get to spend two days with their Gramps! I think fishing and turkey hunting is on the activities schedule!

Watching lots of church softball and ymca baseball

End of the year testing for all three kiddos

A sleep over with some boys from church to celebrate Nathan's 9th birthday!

Egg hunt and Easter program at church

Coloring eggs and making Resurrection bread

Puppet show at Korners Folly on the 14th

Field trip with FHE to the Apple store on the 15th ( I think mommy is the most excited about that!)

Earth Day activities and possibly going to see the Disney movie Earth on the 22nd

Paint a bat house for our night friends

Do a study on Thomas Jefferson.. his birthday is April 13th

Order curriculum for next year and sign up for the NC home educators conference

Celebrate Amy's birthday on the 15th!

Leave for a week in Florida on the 27th and end the week on our Disney Cruise vacation!!!

Enjoy the beautiful spring weather with nature walks and journaling

Esther and I will finish up our Beatrix Potter study and are going to plant a teeny tiny little garden.

Happy April! March is sure going out like the lamb it should after the snow we had at the beginning of the month.

Memaw Ella

I became a little more homesick for heaven today. My sweet grandma went to be with Jesus this afternoon. She had a full life and has not been doing very well physically the past couple of years. I am so thankful the Lord allowed me to see her just this past Friday before He took her home. Please pray for us as we travel to Virginia this week for the funeral. We will miss you, Memaw Ella!

Work Boxes Work!!

I have started using Sue Patrick's workbox system with the kids for homeschooling. It is working sooooo well! It is helping us get so much more accomplished in a shorter amount of time. It is also keeping me accountable each and every day to have all the necessary supplies and plans for the next day. I love looking in the schoolroom in the afternoons and knowing what is waiting on us the next day. Instead of going into details about the system, I posted some pictures and also linked my pal, Heather's blog. She has a detailed description and also a link to other homeschooling moms that are using the system.

http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/2009/03/workbox-system.html

Korner's Folly puppet show

Abigail, Nathan and I signed up to become puppeteers at Korner's Folly, an 1800's historic home in Kernersville. The puppet show is a way to introduce children to the history of the Folly on their level. They usually have preschools and elementary schools come in a few times a month for field trips and they use homeschoolers as the pup Today was our first show....we had so much fun! Here is some information about Korner's Folly. www.kornersfolly.org

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Wordless Wednesday

Simple things

A simple thing, yet so sweet.... we will sleep good tonight! Everyone has clean sheets on their bed...dried in the Carolina sunshine. Spring is here and though it may not last, we are enjoying it! Crazy we had a snow sledding party just a week ago today!

Wordless Wednesday

Recipe of the day

This is a yummy weight watcher recipe that we fix a lot in the winter. It is super easy and and you can double it or triple it to feed a crowd. Plus it is only 2 ww points a cup!

Taco Soup
1 lb. ground turkey (or lean ground beef )
1 large onion, chopped
1 pkg. Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix
1 pkg. Taco Seasoning mix
1 can Pinto Beans
1 can Chile Hot Beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can stewed tomatoes (Mexican flavor)
1 can stewed tomatoes (any flavor)

Brown meat and onions, drain. Mix Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix and taco seasoning mix into meat. Then, without draining, add all of the other ingredients. Simmer 1 hour. Serve with chips, shredded cheese and sour cream

Meal Planning 101

I usually plan my meals out for a month at a time. I have been doing it this way for years just because it helps my mind to see what is coming up and it eliminates a lot of stress on my part. Grocery shopping is easier too. I try to shop for 2 weeks at a time, but I guess I could do the whole month, if I had enough freezer space! :) Here are a few tips of how I plan the whole month.

1. I take a blank calendar and fill in my month. Then I take my home/school calendar to compare and write in the activities that I don't have to cook for...like church events or out of town weekends. I usually fill in a date night on one Friday a month in hopes of getting asked out (hint hint to my dear hubby if you read my blog)!

2. Next, I work the easy meals in. Like Wednesday night dinner that needs to be quick before church or nights that there is ballgame or practice. I have some old standbys like breakfast, grilled cheese and tomato soup, Sloppy Joe's or chili.

3. I like meals that I only have to cook meat once and it will last 2 or 3 meals. A roast in the crock pot is a good example of this. I will cook a roast for Sunday lunch with potatos and carrots and maybe corn and green beans on the side. After lunch ,I will divide the leftover meat and broth into two bowls. In one bowl I will toss the rest of the veggies and a can of tomato soup for yummy vegetable beef soup. The other I will shred the beef, add a can of cream of mushroom soup and some steak sauce. When I am ready to serve that, I will warm it, add a cup of sour cream and pour it over egg noodles for beef stroganoff. Three meals. One roast. Love it! Spaghetti sauce is another meal that you can make extra and have it with noodles one night add seasoning and chili beans and have chili another night.

4. I try to have one or two meatless meals a week. It helps on the grocery bill and they are so easy to make! Pasta is easy with Alfredo or marinara sauce. Beans are not a big hit at our house, but I usually do a pot of pintos or black bean soup once a month....no one complains too much! :)

5.My last few open dates left on the calendar are random ideas. Sometimes we have been studying something in school and we will tie our meal into that. Like Chinese food or pancakes on Fat Tuesday. I may have a new recipe I've clipped out of a magazine to try. If not, I add in some comfort foods like meatloaf or chicken pan pie to complete the month.

6. Another hint I have learned is to always write in pencil. You never know when someone may ask you over or out to dinner....or if your husband decides he wants pizza, by all means... erase that meal and go out.!There are times when Mommy gets to go out for a church meeting/meals or dad needs to cook. I usually rely on the nasty things I cannot eat for those time such as frozen chicken nuggets or ramen noodles.

7. If you are like us and eat most of your lunches at home as well, go ahead and make more and plan for leftovers..if it is not eaten then, it can be frozen for later.

~ If I can figure out how to link my meal calender on to my blog, I will post my meal plans each month for some ideas!

Snow Day!