This is the easiest and most delicious pasta salad ever! It is perfect for a BBQ, shower, or my personal favorite – dinner at the lake!

Here is what you need for the salad:

• Noodles
• 2-3 Chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
• Good Seasons Salad Dressing packed mixed per directions but using olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Red onion
• Green onion
• Red Pepper
• Green Pepper
• Cucumber
• corner Olives
• Shredded Parmesan Cheese
• Garlic Salt
• Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

First I cook the noodles and the chicken. If you let the chicken set for a few minutes before shredding it, it will stay more moist. Shred the chicken and mix the dressing. I add the chicken to the top of the noodles and add the dressing right over the chicken so it soaks up a lot of the dressing and vinegar flavor up. Add whichever vegetables you have on hand or like and toss with the noodles.  Season to your tastes with garlic salt and Lawry’s and refrigerate for several hours. Taste and add salt as needed.

One of the best things about this salad is it almost better the second day so its easy to make a day in advance! So excited summer is coming up right around the corner!

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A few weeks ago I was about to leave to take my son to preschool and my sister showed up to deliver me some strawberries I had ordered.  I had COMPLETELY forgotten that I had ordered them and that they were being delivered that day.  These were local Organic Strawberries and when they were delivered were completely ripe and needed to be used within a a day or two.  I really wanted to do some freezer jam out of them, but I wasn’t sure I was going to have the energy.  So, being that we make a lot of Smoothies, I decided to do some of both!

Here is the best way I have found to freeze strawberries:

 Start off by washing the strawberries good!

Then you’ll want to trim up your strawberries.  Large strawberries I like to cut in half. I then stick them on a paper towel and let them air dry for a little while (like 20 mins).  I then just take additional paper towels and dab the top to get any remaining moisture.  You don’t want your strawberries to be wet when you stick them in your freezer.  If they do, then they’ll get a little frost crust on them.  They don’t have to be perfect, but you for sure don’t want them considered “wet.”

 Cover a pan in plastic wrap and then lay out your strawberries in a single layer.  I’ve tried other liners to cover the pan, but I’ve found that they stick the least to plastic wrap!

Put in the freezer for a minimum of 1 hour up to overnight!  I usually just do mine for a couple hours.  Then, divide them up in Freezer Ziplocks and Freeze away!!

The day I was going to go freeze the strawberries I woke up and one of the blogs I follow daily, Food Storage Moms, had posted this NO SUGAR – NO PECTIN Freezer Jam Recipe.  One of the reasons I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tackle Freezer Jam, was because I knew I did not want to use the recipe I had made in the past that used an extreme amount of sugar.  We have really been trying to eat smarter in our home – and the regular freezer jam recipe was not that.

I hadn’t prepared to make any Freezer Jam, but this recipe only uses the Strawberry Puree, Honey and Lemon!  Only 3 ingredients – sign me up!  And, I had everything I needed on hand!  So, I dug through my tupperware cabinet and fished out a bunch of random some containers I could use to store the jam in!

For the full recipe and directions – head over to see Linda’s tutorial HERE!

With my last 1/2 of crate of strawberries I decided to just puree the strawberries, so that next time I needed to make my family some Jam I would have the strawberry puree all ready!

So, in total I ended up with 4 Gallon Ziplock Bags of Frozen Strawberries, 2 batches (12 cups) of Strawberry Puree and 7 pint containers and 3 1/2 pint containers of Jam .  Not bad for a few hours work!  Again, a major thanks to Food Storage Moms for the awesome Jam recipe!  I’ve been super super happy with it and my kids have totally loved it!

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Nutshell Library

Beauty School Dropout

Matchbook

Carnevalee Freakshow

Brannboll

Blue Highway

Seaside Resort

Honey Script

Governor

Blessed Day

Dalle

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Check out all our other free font collections here!

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Last Friday Night I was blessed to have a heart to heart about parenting with some amazing women- Pam, Jessica from Pretty Providence, Kelly from Dixie Dollar Deals, and Heidi from One Creative Mommy. We spent a lot of time talking about how social norms are making it hard to be a parent. Sometimes doing the right thing for your kids can be judged as harsh and cruel. We all loved this article from Living Well Spending Less, but you can tell from her disclaimer at the bottom that she has received some really negative backlash. I was surprised when I had received some negative comments on my Object lesson in Honesty post.

I feel sorry for this next generation of children growing up.  It seems that our generation as parents are terrified of depriving our children of anything or allowing them to feel any disappointment whatsoever. I look back at my childhood and recognize that the hard times I went through made me such a better person, a stronger person. My husband says the same thing. The trials we went through prepared us to handle disappointment and the monotony that sometimes life has to offer. I wish life could always be fair and kind to our children but the reality is – it can’t be. If they never experience any sort of disappointment until the age of 18 how in the world will they be able to handle it! Life is not fair and it’s selfish of us to teach our children that it is.

My Mom always told us she went to mean Mom school. She was strict and she made us work. Sure there were times I hated it as a child, but now I feel so blessed because I know how to work hard. I can problem solve and I’m not afraid to fail and keep trying. I once had someone tell me that they were surprised that me and my brothers did not rebel against her strict rules and hard work ethic. I finally found what I believe is the answer is in a parenting class at church. The teacher said –“Rules without a relationship will equal rebellion.” It hit me like a freight train. My Mom was strict and probably by today’s standards somewhat “abusive,” but she loved and played with us just as passionately. She was the “cool” Mom that took us toilet papering and everyone in the neighborhood played at our house and liked to be there. She was fun! For me that has become the key and the model I am trying to follow. I am strict, but I am also a whole lot of fun!

I have added my own little part to the saying:

You can also download it as a vintage poster:

Don’t be afraid to be a good parent and break some of the scary directions parenting is taking us right now. It’s okay to say NO to children. It’s okay to make them work. Just remember it’s just as important to love and praise them!

I don’t have all the answers, but I do know this, being a parent is hard. I don’t love some of the changes I have seen in parenting norms. I am breaking a lot of them by being mean, making my kids work, holding them responsible for their their choices, and heaven forbid correcting them when they are wrong. I want strong and resilient boys, not boys who can’t handle the challenge of life. I have experienced criticism for it at times, but hey I’m strong! At least I can handle the haters! And for that I thank my mean Mom!

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How about a Summer Fun Calendar to go with the Summer Chore Charts?  I am not 100% sure I’m going to use this on a weekly basis, but for sure on our slower weeks!  Being that my boys are just 3 and 5, if they are needing some motivation to keep up on their Summer chores, then I’ll use this as a motivator!  We’ll complete it each week and if they both do their daily chores, then we’ll get to do the next days activity!

I went ahead with 3 different  11×8.5″ designs for this!  I’ve compiled the list of ideas from our posts listed below, as well as my Childrens Activities and Crafts Pinterest Board!  I am offering each design with the bottom “ideas” section blank, so if you prefer, you can complete that yourself.

I’ll be laminating my Calendar and hanging it on my fridge and then using a dry erase marker to complete it each week!

Yey for an organized and FUN summer!

Looking for LOTS and LOTS of great ideas to do with your kids this summer?  Check out these posts:

12×36 Summer To-Do Lists

What do we do in the Summertime 2013

What do we do in the Summertime 2012

What do we do in the Summertime 2011

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