Featured EtsyBlogger!!! TulipsTreasureBox

I can't even begin to imagine the amount of time, talent and patience this takes but I'm in awe and I SO admire her work! She's featured for a good reason! These amazing works of art come from Tulips Treasure Box at Etsy! Please go and visit the shop! :D The blog is TuLipsTalking.blogspot.com

Back to school- EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival!!!

So, the subject of what 'back to school' means for you came up and I thought it was a good time to talk about it here. :D

'Back to school' is pretty much just another day at home. Since we're homeschoolers and we go year 'round, this is just something we say in the morning. Before we actually started our homeschool journey, I had a system in mind for how it would go down. We would start in the fall and end in the spring and then promote to the next grade level! No big deal!

We received our first grade curriculum on May 17th in the mail and as I looked through it, Madeline just got more and more excited to start! What do you tell a kid who is over-the-moon about learning? "No, you have to wait until the fall! The FALL is when you're allowed to start learning!" Um, no thanks. I have no desire to break a kid's heart. LOL I get a LOT of 'YOU MAKE YOUR KID GO TO SCHOOL OVER THE SUMMER??????' outrage, but they just don't understand how it is. I have a 6 year old who reads at the 9th grade level and comprehends at the 9th grade level. She's a stinkin' sponge! If I wait a little longer to get school started, I'm absolutely HOUNDED by her to get started! I had to convince her to take a day off on her birthday!!! LOL

Our youngest just turned 4 and will start pre-k curriculum in September. She's a different kid so she might need a different schedule and we'll cross that bridge when we get there. :D Either way, it's my life's passion to homeschool. It's my absolute joy and privilege. I'm good at it. No, I'm excellent at it! Hang out for a little while longer and I'll still be patting myself on the back. LOL J/K

I have plans, ya know!

I really do plan on getting back on track with my shop. I've had too many blog posts here saying I am and to watch for new stuff. Then I get off the computer and forget or I end up cuddling with my kiddos and it's just not my priority. My very wonderful cousin sent me some cute, CUTE fabric today and I'm planning on making some dresses or shirts with them. I'm going to offer some new styles, too! I'm so excited to get sewing! I need a long weekend where my computer and TV spontaneously stop working (just for the weekend though! OMG, can you imagine? HAHA) and I do nothing but sew. Maybe I could get the hubs to take the DVR and my DSL modem with him while he takes the kids out for an adventure! HAHA I'm seriously addicted to TV. It's pretty sick. I have every episode of Project Runway recorded but I haven't watched any of them because I'm so far behind on my TV watching. I had to totally drop Days of Our Lives because there just wasn't that extra hour in my day to watch it. Oh, wait... Etsy... That's what I'm supposed to be talking about.

So, anyway, I'm going to take Friday night and Saturday and just sew like crazy.

Oh, hey! Guess what I made tonight!!! You know the cheese rangoons from Panda Express? I made my own and they were A-MAZING!

1 packages cream cheese, softened
6 green onions, minced
1 tsp sugar....yes, sugar!
1 tsp salt
couple grinds of pepper (or dashes, whatever)
Wonton wrappers!

Peanut oil
water

Keep your stack of wonton wrappers under a damp paper towel while you roll the other ones.

OK, mix up all of your ingredients except the wontons, obviously. Take a wonton wrapper and wet 2 sides. Put about a teaspoon of cheese mixture inside and then bring the wonton together, corner to corner to form a triangle. Then, bring the 2 end points (assuming your triangle is pointing up) to the middle. Secure with a little water and pinch closed. Try to work all of the air out while closing up your wontons and pinch the edges so that they're really secure. I had some poppers and man, that cheese burns SUPER fast! OK, drop them VERY CAREFULLY into your hot peanut oil. You're deep-frying here so don't be chinsy on the oil! Make sure you have a place to put them when you take them out of the oil, too! Don't be like me with all the panic and the OMG's and the PHIL GET ME A PLATE!!!! I totally burned my fingers. That's not part of the recipe, btw. I think you get the idea. These rangoons are best paired with Panda's mandarin sauce. I'm going to attempt to make that this weekend. I'll let you know about that one. ;)