Baked Ziti

This has become a family favorite and all the credit goes to Stephanie!

Baked Ziti

1 pound dry ziti pasta ( I use Penne too!)

1/2 onion chopped

1 pound mild italian sausage

2 26 oz. jars of spaghetti sauce

6 ounces sliced provolone cheese

1 1/2 cups sour cream

6 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

2 Tablespoons grated parmesean cheese

1. Cook pasta until al dente; drain.

2. In a large skillet brown sausage.  Add onion the last 5 minutes to brown.  Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 350^oF.  Butter a 9X13 dish and layer the following:

1/2 pasta

provolone cheese

sour cream

1/2 sauce mixture

remaining pasta

mozzarella cheese

remaining sauce mixture

parmesean cheese

4.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until cheeses are melted and bubbling.

Games - UGH!

I have always just stacked the board games on a shelf.

The boxes on the bottom have always collapsed under the weight 

and it has always been a mess!

I decided to re-work the toyroom starting with the games.

I'm sorry I didn't take a before picture, but you can imagine stacks

of broken game boxes.

After some research online, I had two choices:

Game Savers at www.obhenterprises.com/GameSavers.html

and to be honest my organizing heart yearns for these nice, clean, blank

boxes that store board games but the price is too high.  About $11 per game.

Fix the boxes (mostly the corners) with clear packing tape, put all small pieces

in ziplocs, throw away games that had missing pieces and store them like books

on their sides.  Brilliant!  Why haven't I thought of doing that????

Each game can easily be pulled out without dumping five others on top of it.

Each box is only holding its own weight.

Each game can be seen.

Our toy toom will never be the same.  

The dread of getting a game and putting it back is over!

I love these colorful shelves now!  So organized....

Art Display Boards

I have always struggled with what to do with the continuous

stream of artwork my kids produce.  I've had a rotating collection

for 14 years and have always used bulletin boards.

This week, I tried a new approach - art that holds art.

I bought clipboards at Michael's that happen to be 12" wide

but any clipboard will do.  I painted the top 3 inches and Mod Podged

scrapbook paper onto the bottom.  They are cute enough on their own

to hang on the wall, or Ethan can display his Picasso's as he wishes.

Ethan had art going as the paint was drying.  He was excited to use them

and impatient about drying paint!