L & R MeierWorks

A couple years ago I was trying to come up with inexpensive gifts for both Luke's and my family. This is a difficult task as we have a huge family and I like to give gifts that are both useful and fun. I prefer not to give edible treats for birthdays and Christmas, I try to save those for Mother's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc. So, I decided to start searching Pinterest.

After posting about a hundred things on a hidden board, it was decided. We were going to make lawn dice for our parents and other homemade gifts for the siblings (more on this later). We'd never heard of lawn dice before, but thought they could be fun. We purchased a 4x4 board from the hardware store, cut and sanded it down into 15 dice, then wood-burned the dots. Both sets of parents received 5 lawn dice, as well as a mesh laundry bag to hold the dice and Yahtzee score cards. (http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~davis/yahtzee.pdf)

We had such fun working on this project together and since making them, had considered making more and improving on the final product.

This idea simmered for nearly two years.


I mentioned that we had decided to make homemade Christmas gifts for siblings. At that time we only had two siblings with children so I decided to make activity books for them and the kids. Again, Pinterest was my main source for ideas which I compiled into a book of over 52 crafts and activities that would be good for kids ages 2-10. Included with the homemade books were a few materials that I thought wouldn't be readily on-hand for the activities - craft sticks, masking tape, Velcro, etc. My sister-in-law loved it and lovingly called it: "Mom's Sanity Keeper - Some Parts Included" this planted the idea of selling them at Christmas bazaars the following year or maybe even open an Etsy shop.


As I don't know what the copyright issues would be to sell these books and knew I would have to replace nearly all the pictures. I decided this wasn't a product I could really spend the time on with an active toddler and baby on the way. (It still may make it's way to our site, but at the current time it's on hold.)

 A few months ago we were brainstorming ways to make a little extra money because Luke's job at Starbucks wasn't keeping up with our growing family and income needs. We had been searching for a new job for about three years and it seemed we weren't going to be able to make a job change soon. So, we started to seriously talk about opening a shop on Etsy. I had some ideas of what I might want to sell on the site; however, I felt a bit intimidated and not a hundred percent convinced my items would be of interest to anyone.

We landed on wood dice for a few reasons: Luke got a new job working for a small construction company and was able to re-purpose some of the materials leftover from job sites, It's a project we enjoy doing together, and Luke has experience woodworking.



Luke was able to put together a few prototypes to show friends and family, after positive feedback we decided to take the plunge and open our store: L & R MeierWorks (lrmeierworks.etsy.com) on April 9th. To date we have over 400 views, 11 favorites, and 4 online orders. Not bad for only being up and running for 2 weeks.
It is wonderful to see how God is providing through this. Right now we're just covering our costs for tools and materials, but nearly daily we're receiving encouragement to keep going. And we potentially have a small game store that may either display, purchase a set, or become a seller. Not sure if that will materialize, but it was fun to have them excited about our product.

Praise the Lord for how He provides!

Home-made Taquitos

I've made these several times before and they probably aren't the most authentic taquitos, but I sure enjoy them. They are also great for road trips and little kid fingers which is a plus.






Cooking time: 15 minutes/batch
Yield: 40 taquitos

Ingredients:

• 2 large Chicken Breasts
• 1 Packet Taco Seasoning (or a couple tablespoons of homemade taco seasoning, listed below)
• 20 Corn-flour Tortillas
• 3 Cups grated Cheese (I usually use Cheddar, but this time I added some Monterey Jack cause I had it on hand and needed to use it up)
• Cooking spray

Instructions:

• Place the chicken and a cup of water in a slow cooker, set on High for 4 hours.

• Once chicken is cooked through, shred using forks and add taco seasoning. Stir and let sit for a few minutes.

• Cut corn-flour tortillas in half. Warm briefly on a skillet, they are easier to roll when warm.

• Scoop a small amount of chicken on the cut edge of the tortilla and sprinkle a little cheese over the top. Roll tightly from cut edge. Place on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.

• Once you have about a dozen on the cookie sheet spray the tops with a coat of cooking spray, then place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Using tongs, flip taquitos over and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and serve.

•  The extra taquitos, once cooled, can be placed in a Ziploc bag and frozen for future quick meals.

Taco Seasoning: (combine all spices)

• 2 parts Chili Powder
• 2 parts Cumin
• 1 part Paprika
• 1 part Cayenne Pepper
• 1 part Oregano
• 1 part Onion Powder
• 1 part Garlic Powder
• 1 part Salt
• 1/2 part Black Pepper
• 1 part Corn Starch

For this child, we prayed...again!

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting our second child!

We had our first appointment today and it is all becoming real this little one is on its way. Discovering today that we were not at 10-12 weeks like we thought, but nearly 14 weeks! 13 weeks 5 days to be exact. Our little one will make his/her appearance around July 16th. I don't think Luke or I have stopped smiling since seeing the ultrasound of Little Meier this morning and hearing the nice, strong heartbeat.

We made our announcement to our families the week of Christmas and my sister was able to catch the Johanesen Family reaction on camera. I'll, hopefully, be able to post that soon. But in the meantime I'll explain how we told everyone:

We brought in an extra gift for Seth to open at the family Christmas party. We let him open the gift as if nothing unusual was happening, just a "secret Santa" sort of gift. Inside the bag was a nice little t-shirt that says "Big Brother," I held up the t-shirt on Seth and said, "Show everyone what it says, buddy." Great reactions from everyone and we're so thrilled to be adding this little one to our family.