Homemade Fruit Snacks

The kids LOVE fruit snacks, but me well I HATE spending that money on a few little packs of chew sugar basically. So I found this little recipe that I hope solves my problems with the whole fruit snack issue.

You will need:
\3 c. water
1 1/2 c. Sugar
2 packs of Kook-Aid
4 c. peeled, de-seeded and chopped zucchini.

Heat your water, sugar and kool-aid over high heat. As soon as the sugar disolves add the zucchini and bring to a full boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, about 30 mins. Drain well and allow the zucchini to cool approx. 10 mins. Save the reserve liquid for your next batch of chews.

I am hoping that my dehydrator still works, if not I will have to find the recipe again to dehydrate them in the oven.

Couple of ideas

Soooo ... I am addicted to Pintrest ... but hey, there are much worse addictions out there. Anyway I have found some really cool storage ideas on there for the kids playroom. One of my favorites - and the one that I am actually on a search for material for today - is using old milk crates as cubbies! Just bolt them to the wall and you have a perfect little storage area for toys! Also found a site that shows how to take sturdy cardboard, which I am going to cheat and go grab regular boxes from the grocery store, cover those with fabric and make more little cubbies. Use a couple of those L shaped shelf braces (I am far from carpentar status so forgive me) and a sturdy board as a shelf.

My big project though is finding some old pieces of wood that I can sand, finish and paint two quotes on that I found on Pintrest. I have a really neat photo idea for the kids pictures and then same for something to go over the bed in the master bedroom. They look really great in my head, wonder how they will actually turn out!

Be sure to follow me on Pintrest if you are aleady there http://pinterest.com/kenkelmom/ and if you have yet to discover Pintrest, send me your email and I will send you a invite! Just beware, it is very very addictive!

And so it begins ...

I can not believe that 2011 is almost over .. wow. Any idea where it went??? It was defiantly a crazy, but good, year. My little family of three growing to a not so little family of six was wonderful ... the whole losing my job the day before Thanksgiving?  Yea, that wasn't so great. But, such is life and I always say that God closes one door to open another. I now have the chance to spend time with my kids, return to school and do what I truly love, and learn a few new things along the way. Hence, the reason for starting this blog. Mainly for me to look back and see the things that I want to do, what I have learned and accomplished and see where I need to improve. Back to the Bare Bones of Life is my motto for 2012. I hope to learn to garden, can, make my own compost, become more crafty, learn to sew, make candles/soap/salt and sugar scrubs to use as gifts through the year and to cut down on my own cost of these things. I would love to be able to do a few craft shows at some point and sell my canned goods, candles and such. I also plan to do gift baskets to earn a little extra money as I go along. I plan to become VERY frugal and really focus a lot on my coupon's to get us the most bang for our buck. Hopefully the gardening and canning will really help us in this area too. One of my extreme goals for the year is to utilize Swagbucks, online surveys etc to stock up points and cash through the year and HOPEFULLY be out of pocket ZERO dollars next Christmas. Big goals for a year I know, but I really intend on accomplishing every single one of them. I think what ever basics I can teach my kids will only help them along in life, and teach them that money truly is not everything. Show them that the rewards of hardwork can be even better. I have no idea what the year 2012 will have in store for us. I don't try to look that far into the future anymore, because it is better to focus on the here and now. I just know that whatever it takes, I will make 2012 a great year for us all! So, I hope you enjoy following along with us on this bare bones journey ... I am truly excited!!