Fell Off The Face Of The Earth

Holy Guacamole! I literally fell off the face of blog-world. Welp- Guess who's back?!

It has been over a year since my last blog post so let's recap-

1. I started a business from home. This is the main reason I stopped blogging for so long. My business took all of my spare time, as I wanted it to. I started this blog during deployment to keep Lovie up to speed, to have a hobby, and because I like having a blog. But when I decided to start a business it filled the gap of having a hobby and something to do. 

2. Erik came home from deployment!! When I last posted, we were about 7 months away from homecoming. The summer took for.ev.er. but as the fall came along and the holidays were nearing it seemed to get a little easier. Also, with the new business, it really seemed to help make the weeks go by quicker. Thank goodness!

We intentionally saved money during deployment so that when Erik came home he didn't have to go back to work, and other than my business, I didn't have to go back to traditional work either. So we went from a year without seeing each other at all to 9 months of seeing each other all. day. every. day. What a change =) It has been such a blessing for him and little man to be able to spend so much time together, and I am so grateful we got to take it slow this year and really enjoy family life. I truly have enjoyed it.

3. Now little man is about to have his 2nd birthday. ... just a second while I wipe away tears haha. More on how he's doing and toddler life.

4. Now that Erik is home and inactive military, he will be staying with little man during the day. I will be returning to work, at least part-time, maybe full-time. (we'll see what offers I get) But I would like to be more consistent with blogging, at least for a journaling purpose that perhaps we can have as a time capsule when little man is older.

Good night for now =)
xo JC

"Up" Inspired Father's Day Care Package

Hello there!

I feel like I've been so distant in the blogging world the past two weeks or so. =( I've definitely been slacking about posting which makes me sad because it is something I really enjoy and want to stick with especially while Erik is deployed. I just gotta keep myself motivated and just push through the times when I feel like it doesn't matter and I really don't feel like doing it. I don't really worry about followers or becoming a success or anything but it is encouraging to know that you enjoy it here at Mission: Atlas. =) So thanks for stopping by! Stay awhile.

...Enough of my rantings. I had so much fun putting Erik's first Father's Day care package together! I used some Shutterfly credits to get some really cute photo gifts, but I can't show you because he hasn't gotten them yet. But I did add in some handmade cards, girl scout cookies, snacks, ChickFilA sauce, jalapeno chips, pretzels, you know... the important things in life lol.

I wanted to use a wrapping paper for this box but actually couldn't find any Father's Day wrapping paper. Does it even exist? So I changed paces and went with colorful balloons inspired by "Up". I just love that movie. It's so precious.

I can't believe it's Erik's first Father's Day! I do wish he were here to spend it with little man and his dad but it's still amazing that he is such a great daddy to our little guy and I love to watch them talk and laugh together, even if through the computer screen.

Hopefully this give you some ideas for Father's Day or future care packages throughout the year. Get your Father's Day packages out soon, if applicable. It's right around the corner and I don't know about you but my boxes have been taking reaaaaaaally long to get to him so I wanted to get this one out extra early.

The cost for this box really wasn't much. I'd say I spent $8 on stuff from Shutterfly basically just for shipping because I had coupon codes and credits for a few different items and the snacks are things I already had waiting to be sent so maybe another $10 or so for those. The box of cookies and the gift take up a lot of space in the medium sized box so not much room for other things. He just got two huge boxes from his mom though with tons of snacks so he isn't in need of a lot right now until his stockpile gets low again.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

xo JC

Homemade Edible Finger Paint

Hello again.

I knew for Erik's first Father's Day I wanted to do some homemade art of some sort from little man and I found this recipe for homemade edible finger paint and thought it looked easy enough to try.

In the link I shared she is right that when you first pour the water into the corn starch it seems like it will not work out to be paint, but as you keep stirring it magically turns into a thicker sticky paste which is perfect for little kiddo finger paint.

I'm not sure how but I ended with with a lot of paint mixture. I need to find some little-handed friends to give some finger paint to before it goes bad.

Little man had a fun time with the paint, even if it only lasted 10 minutes haha. He really liked squishing it in his fingers and wasn't too sure why I was trying to get him to put his hand on the paper, but we made it work.

He did put the paint in his mouth (and all over his high chair), which I expected, but he didn't like it very much so it wasn't like he was actually trying to eat it.

Notice my old T-shirt and hair pulled back attire for the morning- I had no idea how much of a mess I would be dealing with. It really wasn't too bad though. He was really into squishing it and thankfully didn't have a fit and throw it all across the room. In due time I guess.

My original plan was to have him paint on the box itself and paint on paper so I could cup it up and use it as the lining for the care package, but once I saw the cute first artwork I got all choked up and couldn't bring myself to do it so one went promptly on the fridge and the other two went unharmed into daddy's care package for Father's Day. Once it was on the fridge, I stepped back and smiled and oohed and ahhed and then thought to myself, "Oh no! It's happening. I'm 'that' mom!" Lol. I know he won't even remember and didn't even know what was going on, but you can't help what things are special and what things about being a mom make you tear up and making his first finger painting I guess is something that rendered as special to me =). 

We barely used any of the paint so there is still a ton left so hopefully we can find a friend to share it with and make some more art before it goes bad. I'm not sure how long it lasts but it didn't take that long to make nor was it costly so I guess even if we got one use out of it before I have to throw it away that's fine with me.

xo JC

Tie-Dye Sprinkle Flower Child Cake and some AMAZING Berry Cobbler

This post heading was a mouthful- literally and figuratively.

Every time I go visit the in-laws my little sister in law loves to bake do crafts with me so I was excited to help her make a tie-dye cake she wanted to make. She purchased the Chef Duff Tie-Dye Cake Box and we got to work. The cake was not vanilla flavored so she didn't really like it but we had fun dying the batter different colors and she wanted to dye the icing and use sprinkles and flowers to decorate it.

The other thing I baked a few days ago turned out absolutely AMAZING! I ate the entire thing but one serving. It was this delicious berry cobbler. Unfortunately I have no idea what recipe I used because I was going back and forth between like 4 different ones and totally winged it, but man it was delicious. Anything with berries, baked dough, and homemade whipped cream is heaven in my book.

I used a premade pie crust that I had leftover in the freezer and thawed some frozen mixed berries from the freezer as well. I tossed the berries in a little bit of cornstarch and sugar, and added some lemon juice and vanilla then poured them over half of the pie crust in this baking dish and used the other half of the pie crust to weave on top.

This is the first time I had purchased the whipping cream from Trader Joe's and I was excited to try it because of the storage life. It was in a little carton and could be kept in your pantry until ready to use for a few months, so it was nice that it didn't take up much needed fridge space. I whipped it together with some powdered sugar and lemon extract. I usually make homemade whipped cream with vanilla, but I thought the hint of lemon would be a nice touch with the already very sweet cobbler, and boy was I right!

This dessert was by far the best I've had in a very, very long time! I can't say any more about it without drooling uncontrollably, so I'll just stop there. ;)

Have you done any baking lately? Are you obsessed with homemade whipped cream too? It's so much simpler than it seams, promise!

xo JC

M.I.A

Hello friends.

I feel like I've been completely M.I.A. in the blogging world and I really miss it! I've been doing good since lovie left blogging every 2 or 3 days or so, and sometimes even more frequently than that! I haven't fallen of the face of the earth, although at certain points during the past few days I wish I did...

Exibit A-

I got my wisdom teeth pulled last week =/ I am doing okay, but still pretty sore. I pushed it off for so long but thankfully because of that 3 of the 4 teeth that were pulled were already out and visible so they weren't a huge deal.

When I got my teeth pulled I went and stay with the in-laws so they could spend time with little man and keep him company while I was on meds =)

Little man obviously wasn't opposed =) And while we were there I didn't bring my laptop so I couldn't post anything, nor was I really in the mood to do so. But I am back and ready to get back to you all and back to our regularly scheduled program.

I finally felt better to drive back yesterday, my first Mother's Day, and my little vagabond baby was worn out and sleepy for the ride home. I just love how he fell asleep holding on to my luggage bag. For my first Mother's Day I still didn't feel like eating much but I went out to eat with the in-laws and then drove home (about 45min) to my parents house and hung out with them while they cooked out on the grill. Very low key and very enjoyable. It made me miss lovie though. I wish he was here and we could've spent the day as a family and enjoyed the beautiful weather together, but I know we will have plenty of beautiful days together when he comes back.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday!

xo JC

I Miss You A Latte Care Package

Hello!

Just as I thought as the deployment is moving along lovie is starting to actually ask for me to send him things. First on the list is that he missed coffee. They do have coffee over there but he doesn't like it. We also are both big tea drinkers so he asked for some tea and honey as well. Lastly, he'd already eaten all of the snacks I've sent him in previous care packages, so he asked for some more snacks, specifically Clif Bars, that he can eat while on patrol duty.

I was more than happy to be of assistance =)


I kept is simple again, using green construction paper as the background and cut out coffee mugs from white computer paper and used a (dying) brown marker to color the sleeve. On the side panels I wrote just a little love note =). I've actually had this one decorated since before he even got to Afghanistan haha.

Remember a few weeks ago I sent him some sweat pants? This time I added in his footie pajama pants that I handmade for him for Christmas two years ago.

Little story about the PJs...He was visiting family for the holidays and strangely I was a complete nervous wreck. I balled my eyes out multiple times during the two week period for no apparent reason so I needed something to keep my busy so I choose to sew him these pants. This was a project that I thought would take me his entire trip to finish, but I felt so crazy that I stayed up all hours of the night finished them in less than three days. Right when he got back is when we found out we were pregnant and I was, "Ohhhh, maybe that's why I kept crying uncontrollably at every little thing." =) Oh hormones, how you perplex me.

Inside this care package:

• Maxwell House coffee (our fav) -$4.99 or so
• Various teas - already had on hand (we are always buying tea when it's on sale)
• 2 box Clif Bars- $4/ea I believe
• Honey -$3
• Annie's snacks- purchased on Easter Clearance here
• Toe Warmers -$1/ea

What do you think? Is there anyone you miss/love/appreciate a latte? Right now I'd just love a Chai tea latte personally ;)

xo JC

You Are My Souper Hero Care Package

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful last few days of April. I've been feeling a bit hectic lately re-adjusting back to not working part time. I had been staying home for about 10 months, then got a part time job for about 1 month, and am now back to staying home while working on starting my own business. Despite the freedom of being a back to a full time stay a home mom, any little change requires some adjustment it seems so I have reorganized and refocused to switch things back to staying a home. I'm the kind of person that has to reorganize my thoughts any time there's a little change, but I love change, and I love the process of reorganizing lol.

Ok, enough about me- I am so excited to share my care package today!

I knew that I wanted to do a Super Hero theme and honestly struggled quite a bit with how to interpret it into something I actually could do. I'm unaware if lovie has a favorite hero, and since I bought the Avengers little containers I felt compelled to go with that theme, but I knew I didn't want to attempt to draw any of the Avengers. I also really know very little about the story lines of the Avengers characters so I wanted to do something a little more generic, but couldn't quite figure it out, and couldn't figure out how I could include the contents in the Super Hero theme as well. Oh the things us military spouses stress about ;) or maybe it's just me. I really get into it.

The solution- SOUP. My man looooooves soup. Especially Cup of Noodles. I can hardly consider that something to nourish oneself, but hey he loves it. He had asked for it and surprisingly Target has a very small selection of Cup of Noodles and I don't think carries Ramen at all, so it took a little while before I made a trip to Wal-Mart to get them when it hit me- Souper Hero!

 

I kept the panels pretty simple as I wasn't in the mood to do anything elaborate. I used a plain blue gift bag that had too many wrinkles for me to use for an actual gift so I cut it into strips and cut out a few super hero shapes. What exactly do you call those "pow" shapes? Onomatopoeia bubbles? I have no clue. I thought it still needed a little something extra, but nothing a trusty sharpie couldn't fix. I added some dots around the shapes and some extra lines. 

Inside is:

• 4 Cup of Noodles - $0.28/ea
• 2 Velveeta microwave pasta - $0.89/ea
• 1 Campell's Soup at Hand- $1.50
• Avengers containers with candy - about $2.00 total on Easter clearance that you can see here
• I'll probably add some homemade beef jerky- post coming soon
• And some homemade cards and my letters

What do you think? Do you have a Souper Hero in your life?

xo JC