Day 7 Epic Life Challenge

Happy Sunday - hope everyone is having an amazing weekend! The weather today is lovely the windows are open and the kitty's are just loving listening to the sounds of nature outside!

Day Seven Breakfast is an encore of the Apple Pecan Crumble from Day 4 - its a fan favorite for me!  I cannot wait for peach season to be here cause I would love to try a warm peach crumble for breakfast too!

Day Seven Lunch is an encore of the Poco Picante Salad from Day 3!

Paul was away this weekend and returned this evening so needed a supper that would be quick and easy to time for his return as with traffic coming home from the GTA he is never sure how long the commute home might take - so a tasty Cheeseburger with Angry onions and side salad. Recipe for the Sweet Potato burger here.

 

Sunday's Move More challenge started off the morning followed by a lovely hour in the pool with the lovely aquafit instructor Grace - she is always fun for a good laugh while you workout which makes getting up early on Sunday and heading to the pool totally worth while!

Tomorrow's Monday and it looks like it is going to be the only nice day this week cause a front of rain is moving in!  So the goal for tomorrow is to spend as much time outside having fun at the park as possible. We are going to multi task an errand in the morning to drop off some ready to go meals and creative art supplies for a dear fellow home childcare friend, who is struggling with end stage renal failure and still rocking balancing full time work and her family, with checking out a park in that lovely neighborhood since we will be over there anyway!

While we are on the topic of my friend - she and thousands like her everyday are in dire need of LIVING donors to help save their lives. If you are not already registered to be a donor I strongly recommend visiting Be A Donor today and finding out more about both living donor and end of life donor options! You choice to be a donor could help save a life or up to 8 lives.

Have an amazing day! 


Margaret
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
Be Totallyawake4-life

Elf on the Shelf - Community Candy Canes

This year the program is closed this week but thought I would share a couple of Ian the Elf ideas from years past ... this one is a particularly fun one for the crew cause they LOVE riding the city bus as a treat. Sometimes we do not even have to GO anywhere afterward they are happy to just ride the route and watch out the big windows at all there is to see in the community and come back home! 

So this challenge is particularly fun for them because we do just that sitting at the front of the bus and passing out a Candy Cane to the riders as they walk past us after getting on the bus and signing some Christmas Carols while we travel around the route. Sometimes we get off at the grocery store or the mall and do our choosing of either the Food Bank challenge or Angel tree during this particular multi tasking challenge and than we head back home! 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life 

 

Elf on the Shelf ~ Random Acts continued

Everyone all busy shopping for the holidays is a perfect time for doing the pay it forward with the leave the correct change challenge! 

My daycare crew loves to do this one as well ~  they love the idea of being given money to be in charge of even if they are in charge of paying it forward to someone else! 

This is also an amazing act of kindness that is easy to do ALL YEAR LONG ... not to long ago I was struggling myself in a dark parking lot to get the correct change to get a ticket out of the machine getting a little stressed at running late to my appointment, being in a dark unknown to myself part of town alone in a parking lot and along came a guardian angel who put the proper change in the machine and went on alone there way! It totally MADE MY DAY a small act of kindness but a huge impact on my day.

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Grain Free & Tasty Chocolate Chip Cookies

So this week Ian the Elf has sent us with the challenge to bake something tasty for a community helper ~ so we opted for some tasty Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

Ian the Elf ~ Share a Treat to Eat

Policeman, Firefighters and soldiers where no cape

But they work real hard to keep us safe

Protecting us for a better tomorrow

Our many unsung community heroes!

So this Christmas season is the perfect time

To let them know that they really are divine

They work long hours away from home

Often leaving their families home alone

So why not make them a special treat

Something ooey gooey and fun to eat?

Let them know they are appreciated

And for all their work they should be congratulated!

These cookies are just yummy ~ so easy to whip up. The recipe makes about a dozen which is perfect for the daycare group size but if you want more for leftovers you will need to double or triple it!

 

Grain Free and Tasty Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Makes 12 cookies

 

What You Need:

• 1/3 cup coconut flour ~ more if needed to get consistency correct
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt - optional

What You Do:

• Preheat your oven to 350F.
• Mix the coconut flour, salt, eggs, coconut oil, honey, and vanilla extract together thoroughly with a whisk. Will start out runny but firm up as coconut flour soaks up your liquids. If it feels too runny add more coconut flour a tbsp at a time until it is a cookie dough thickness
• Add dark chocolate chips and mix to distribute evenly.
• Roll into balls and spread evenly on parchment lined or greased baking tray ~ makes about a dozen cookies should do the trick.
• Pat down with your hand as they do not really 'spread out' like a normal wheat based cookies
• Bake on the centre rack for around 10-15 minutes ~ depending on the texture you want ~ less for chewy and more for crisp. 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life

Elf on the Sehfl ~ A Gift of Art

Being active out and about in the community is a large part of our program ~ it offers the children a chance to learn about new things in a meaningful manner that might not have come up if we remained in the home setting day in and day out. 

We are blessed here that we have access to all sorts of community run programs that help the children connect with the comunity. Our Ontario Early Years programs are spread out all over the London area, plus we have programs that connect kids with Seniors, we have the London Children's Museums and a short drive away the amazing Kitchener Children's Museum as well, when we want to get active we have Adventures on Wonderland and Kidscape and our local Library offers amazing options and than there are our local farms that offer seasonal fun ... we love the Great Lakes Farm and the Greenview Aviaries  and of course our Storybook Gardens is an awesome treat!

So Ian brought us an invitation this week to create a work of art to share with one of our favorite playgroups ~ so while we made our art we need to decide who to deliver it too once we are sure that we are all healthy!

We opted for an encore of a favorite ~ wine work prints with a 'masking' trick on a little canvas ... so I placed a paper heart with removable adhesive in the middle of the canvas and they painted as they desired as a group effort to help cover the whole thing and than when they were done I removed the heart ~ when we decide who we want to give it to than we can write in the heart the name of the organization for them. 

 

A Gift of Art from the Heart using the Masking Technique

A Gift of Art from the Heart!

Ian the Elf ~ Giving the Gift of Art poem

Santa heard you like to visit community centre's where people come for fun,

Where there are awesome group leaders

giving of them selves to everyone!

So his challenge today,

should you choose to accept,

Is to make them a lovely work of art

He knows you can do it, you are all very adept!

Than wrap it up in some Christmas paper

and tie it with a bow

and leave it at a community group

 As a wonderful gift of art for them to show!

As always you are more than welcome to leave me a comment and share what your Elf has been up to in your home or if you do not do the Elf what you've been up to enjoying this time of year! 

Have an amazing day!

Margaret

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Be Totallyawake4-life