MOPS MILITARY SERVICE PROJECT and a Recipe for Once a Month Cooking...

Hello! Happy Thursday! In December, I decided to pull my 4 year old out of her Pre-school program. Each week when I took her, it ended up being a fight to get her to stay. She wanted to come home with me and be with the other children and be "home-schooled" too. She thought she was missing something. I didn't have her in Pre-school for the academic part, I had her there for a bit of social time and so I could have a few hours to focus on the other children. Since I took her out of Pre-school, I still wanted her to have a chance to play with other children outside of her siblings and to get her out of the house, so I joined MOPS (Mothers of Pre-schoolers). I was part of MOPS several years ago and was part of their Steering Team for our local group in the past, so coming back was an easy fit for me.

For this MOPS project, I designed 8 different cards for 12 packages for the moms of our group to make card bundles to Encourage Military Moms and Their Families -
KidsLink Downrange is a service project for MOPS groups to help military children connect to their deployed parents by creating card kits. Military moms and dads who are deployed overseas, love getting mail from home, and they especially love personal notes from their children.
MOPS groups will design card kits that contain everything a military child will need to write to his or her parent throughout the year. Anyone can choose to be a part of this project — all it takes is a little time and creativity.
Once your card kits are completed, all you have to do is send them to Cadence International. After that, Cadence staff will send the kits to Fort Hood, Texas. The Military Children’s Ministry staff at Fort Hood will then disperse the kits to children with a deployed parent in cooperation with on-base school counselors.
Because of the large numbers of families affected by deployment in the Fort Hood area, there is an imminent need for MOPS groups to help create card kits for kids there. Our goal is to send 5,000 card kits to the 70,000+ kids living in the Fort Hood area.
Deadline to send card kits to Cadence: March 31, 2009
Distribution date at Fort Hood, Texas: May 6, 2009
Cadence International is accepting KidsLink Card Kits through March 31, 2009. Find out more about this project at KidsLink Downrange. Register today to let us know how many card kits your group will create for the moms and kids at Fort Hood. Ideas for card making and PDF download instructions are all available for quick and easy printing. Encourage military moms and their families through the Card Kit Project!
Pledge your participation today!

This is not quite my normal card style, but I wanted it to be easy enough for even the Non-stamper to be able to make a nice card in a short amount of time. We have 45 minutes to make 96 cards (12 of each of the 8 designs). All of the boxes are packed and ready to go for the MOMS to create these cards to bless those families whose Dads are serving in the military. It actually fell into place this week, I was concerned because my three youngest children have been very sick this week and I had been sick last week and not feeling my best even this week due to lack of sleep from caring for them in the middle of the night. Praise GOD, my friend Melisa came over Monday morning for a 2 hours, and helped me by organizing some things, and coloring a few images to make the whole process go faster today.

I am praying that these cards will be a blessing to those who get to send them as well as those who recieve them.

Here are the details of this card:

Stamp Set: Chocoholic by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Cardstock: All SU Raspberry Tart, Close to Cocoa, Rose Red, Pink Pirhouette, Whisper White

Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, White Ribbon,

It has been awhile since I have posted a recipe, so I thought I would share one with you today. We made this recipe this past month and to be honest when we made it, it was a lot of work but made A LOT of food. I wasn't sure about it, but wanted to try it. We have a friend who is a PICKY eater, so I thought I would try it out on him.

Pepperoni Lasagna Casserole
Makes 12 servings.
6 hard boiled eggs
1 pound large curd cottage cheese
1 pound ricotta cheese
2 foot long pepperoni sticks cubed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
4 cups mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons sweet basil
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon pepper
1 cup chopped spinach
2 pounds rigatoni noodles
2 large jars spaghetti sauce
Cook noodles, drain, put 2 cups sauce in and stir so noodles
won’t stick. Set aside. Add all other ingredients in a large bowl
except 1 cup mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. In a lasagna
pan put sauce in the bottom, then noodles. Layer with 1 cup
Mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, cheese—mix noodles and
repeat. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Put the rest of the mozzarella
cheese on top and bake for 5 more minutes or until melted

Everyone LOVED it! This recipe makes a REALLY large pan or I actually divided it up in 2 - 9x13 pans. I am having company over this weekend and made 2 more pans Sunday, put them in my freezer for Saturday night.

If you like make this recipe and like it - post a reply here!

Have a great day!