Reading Corner 2013: Book 2 of 12

1022 Evergreen Place - By: Debbie Macomber




Dear Reader,

Guess what? I'm falling in love! With Mack McAfee.

My baby daughter, Noelle, and I have been living next door to Mack since the spring. I'm still a little wary about our relationship, because I haven't always made good decisions when it comes to men. My baby's father, David Rhodes, is testament to that. I'm so worried he might sue for custody.

In the meantime, the World War II letters I found are a wonderful distraction. Both Mack and I are trying to learn what happened to the soldier who wrote them and the woman he loved.

Come by sometime for a glass of iced tea and I'll show you the letters. Plus I'll tell you the latest about Grace and Olivia, my brother Linc and his wife, Lori (who tied the knot about five minutes after they met!), and all our other mutual friends. Oh, and maybe Mack can join us….

Mary Jo Wyse

Debbie Macomber is one of my favorite authors for light, fluffy reading.  Most of her books have a similar plot/story line and they almost always end up the same way ... happily ever after.  This one, however, didn't for one set of characters in the book, so I'm anxious to read the next book in the series to see what happens.  I think that actually made me like this book more than any of the others of hers that I've read.  1022 Evergreen Place is the 10th book in the Cedar Cove series.  I highly recommend starting from book #1 and working your way up.  I guarantee you'll become attached to the people of Cedar Cove just like I have. :)

Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan

I found this recipe on Pinterest (shocking, huh??).  We finally tried it tonight and it was soooo good!  You can find the original recipe here.

Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:

1 (25 oz) jar of spaghetti sauce

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

1 1/2 C of Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 egg

1/2 C milk

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried basil

2 TBSP vegetable oil

1 C shredded parmesan cheese

1 pkg of spaghetti noodles

Directions:

1) Spray slow cooker with Pam or use a slow cooker liner

2) Pour in jar of spaghetti sauce

3) Get out two shallow bowls - in the first one mix together the milk and egg.

4) In the other bowl, combine the bread crumbs, oregano, garlic powder and dried basil.

5) In a large skillet, begin to heat up the vegetable oil.  White the oil is heating up, get your assembly line set up to make this go a little faster.

6) Dip each chicken breast, one at a time, in to the milk/egg mixture first and then the bread crumb mixture.

7) Then add the chicken to the hot skillet and brown each side.  You don't need to cook them as they will cook in the slow cooker.  You just want both sides to be a nice brown color.  

8) When they're browned, add them to the crock pot on top of the sauce and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

9) Approximately 15 minutes before serving, sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top of the chicken breasts and re-cover.

10) Serve over cooked spaghetti.

Crafty Monday: Footprint Snowmen

Today was the last Monday in January, so it's the last week for "snow" related crafts with the kids.  Next week we start Valentine's Day!  I *think* I may have seen something like this on Pinterest, but last night I was trying to come up with one more cute snowman craft and that's when I thought it'd be cute to do one with their little feet!  After all, who doesn't love little baby feet?!

All you need is:

~ white washable paint
~ black card stock paper
~ markers (for eyes, nose, mouth, buttons and any other decorations - we did a scarf also)


We put the paint on the bottoms of their feet and then they stamped their footprint on the black card stock.  Make sure you put the toes down at the bottom of the page as they will the base of the snowman/fallen snow.  The heel part is the head of the snowman.  Then I just let them use their fingers to put snowflakes all around the paper.

After they were completely dry, we decorated them using different colored sharpies.  They're absolutely adorable and a great way to remember what their tiny little feet looked like! :)

 

(The top is Jacob's and the bottom is Henry's.)

Crafty Monday: Snowman Milk Jugs!

One of my goals for 2013 was to do more crafts with the kids this year.  I decided to dub Mondays as "Crafty Monday".  We don't have school that day, and I figured it would be a nice, easy transition in to the week with a fun craft each Monday.  Today we made Snowman Milk Jugs!  This was pinterest inspired, naturally. :)

I had these small milk jugs that I had saved from some drinks we had brought home from PA one time when we were up there recently, so that's what we used.  

Before we glued anything on the front of  the milk jug, I cut a flap in the bottom of the jug, so I could place an LED tealight candle in there when we were done.  Then ,we cut out two ovals for the eyes and five circles for the mouth, both from black construction paper.  We glued them on with a glue stick (and some of the sticky residue leftover from when I pealed the label off).  Then we cut out a triangle from orange construction paper for the nose and glued that on as well.  The top hat is cut from black felt.

 

 And, here is what the snowman looks like with the tealight lit up on the inside. :)

 

It was a quick, easy project, but we still had fun with it.  Jacob LOVES art projects and so does his mama!

Reading Corner 2013: Book 1 of 12

So, last year I had planned to read one book a month.  To some people that might not seem like much, but I can't seem to fit the time in to read, and it's something I really like to do, so I've been trying to make a conscious effort to do so.  I only got through 9 books last year, so this year I've set the same "challenge" for myself.  And, I just finished book number 1!

Hannah's List - by: Debbie Macomber




On the anniversary of his beloved wife's death, Dr. Michael Everett receives a letter Hannah had written him.

In it she reminds him of her love and makes one final request. An impossible request. I want you to marry again. She tells him he shouldn't spend the years he has left grieving—and she's chosen three women she asks him to consider.

First on Hannah's list is her cousin, Winter Adams, a chef who owns a café on Seattle's Blossom Street. The second is Leanne Lancaster, Hannah's oncology nurse. Michael knows them both. But the third name is one he's not familiar with—Macy Roth.

During the months that follow, he spends time with these three women, learning more about each of them…and about himself. Learning what Hannah already knew. He's a man who needs the completeness only love can offer. And Hannah's list leads him to the woman who can help him find it.

I started reading this book right after John's surgery back in October, and right BEFORE my sister passed away suddenly.  For the first month after she passed away I couldn't really read this too much since it was about death (sort of).  Then I started to get in to it more over the next month.  I'm just a slow reader, in general.  I lose interest and have to put it down and come back to it later.  This happens even with the most interesting of books.  I'm working  to change that, though.  I'd love to read more!

Anyway, this was a pretty interesting read, I just wish the endings weren't so darn predictable!