Monday, November 22, 2010

Menu Monday

Monday:
Lunch-Sub sandwiches out-visiting a friend and her newborn today
Dinner- Cornflake crusted chicken, green beans and sweet potato fries

Tuesday:
Lunch-Sandwiches out again-visiting a friend for lunch
Dinner- Tilapia with seasoning, sweet corn and fresh homemade bread

Wednesday:
Lunch-Grilled Cheese and tomoto soup
Dinner- Eggplant parmesan

Thursday:
Breakfast- French toast casserole, grapes
Lunch/Dinner-THANKSGIVING DINNER

Friday:
Lunch- leftover turkey sandwiches with mayo and cranberry sauce
Dinner- Breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, beef bacon, biscuts)

Saturday:
Lunch- Homemade pizza
Dinner- Ground Chicken Enchiladas, black beans, spanish rice

Sunday:
Lunch- Sandwiches, apple
Dinner- Spagehtti casserole, peas and cornbread

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Crafts, Crafts and more Crafts!

I LOVE crafts, it's possible I could spend an entire day and more than our monthly income in the craft store. At present I am working on a new long sleeved dress for K, some overalls for B, crocheting a blanket for B and K (just started B's...my goal was to finish one for each of them for Christmas but not sure if it will happen or not), and some photo blocks for Christmas gifts for grandparents!

 The photo blocks are easy to make and so fun to do! What you'll need is wooden blocks in various sizes (found at both Michaels and Hobby Lobby), a container of Mod Podge, paint brush, exacto knife, cutting board and a bunch of pictures (preferably matte finish but glossy works too, and 4*6 with room to cut) OR you can use a book...I will have pictures of this soon!
Paint a nice smear of Mod Podge on one side of the block
 Place your favorite picture ontop and press down, let it sit for a couple of minutes to adhere/dry.
Flip it over on the cutting board and trim off the edges with the exacto knife.
Flip the box back over and apply a few coats of Mod Podge to the picture, I like to brush down all across and then take the paintbrush and ever so lightly go back over vertically to give the look of a canvas.
Let dry for a good 15 mins and about a week before touching/stacking!

To use the other size of wood blocks do the same steps but place the picture on all four blocks together, (Place all the blocks together, then glue one side and put the picture on them to cover all blocks...I hope this makes sense I'm such a visual person and did not think to snap a picture when I made my first set...I will have full pictures of the book project I'm doing ((see below)) to show you on Tuesday if this is confusing) then use the exacto knife to separate the blocks and thus cutting though the picture. You will end up with four blocks each holding one part of a picture to make up 6 full pictures in total!                                                                     

What I am working on now for K's Christmas gift this year is using 6 blocks and a Dr. Sesus book that we have a duplicate of, I am cutting up words from our favorite for one side, another side will be colours, another side will be matching, yet another will have counting, and then two sides for pictures. I cannot wait and will post pictures as soon as I have it all done...which hopefully will be Tuesday as our activities have all been cancelled for the week due to the Thanksgiving holiday!



I recently finished some frames for a couple of friends. Old book, frame, scrapbook paper, paint, letter stencil and a hot glue gun...I have too much fun making these!


and an awesome Fall wreath for a small wall in the dining room....made from a newspaper, rope, hot glue and leaves/pine cones in the garden!


I love to craft and as often as I can when B is napping, K and I will pull out the glue and paint and whatever other fun things we can find and go to town, her on one end of the table me on the other, working together in our own little crafting world putting together our masterpieces.

Every payday I gather up my craft store coupons, Hobby Lobby puts 40% off in the paper every Sunday, Michaels hands out 40% in email a couple of times a month and JoAnn is hit or miss in the clearance aisle and search out as many fun crafts as I can get my hands on! I have a big ole bag of Christmas goodies I can't wait to start making.

My big plans this year are for K and I to make Christmas balls for the tree, an advent calendar and gingerbread houses! More artsy fartsy posts to come :)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Moving right along...

I feel like I haven't had time to breath lately...and if you'd entered my house not three hours ago you literally wouldn't have been able to breathe since I took the kids outside for the beginnings of our holiday shoot and forgot about the black beans on the stove simmering for tonights dinner, they burnt, the pot is ruined and my house smells like burnt toast...we have been so busy, my brain apparently hasn't had time to catch up to today's activities!

Sunday my sweet little baby boy hit the 6 month mark...he also sits by himself and has TWO teeth! I'm sorry but whoever told him he could grow up can you let him know Mama isn't ready for such a big boy :( 

Oh and he wants to crawl so ridiculously bad that he'll get on his hands and knees and rock and then gets MAD when he can't go anywhere!  
 Saturday we were invited to our first birthday party since moving here, a little boy in K's Church class turned 3 and had a bounce house at the playground. We had an absolute blast and are so thankful to be making new friends!
 In light of being so ridiculously busy and having a bubs that can now sit on his own, bath time has become a multi-tasking event with two in the tub...although I think that makes it HARDER for mama and I end up soaking wet with two kids who think it's hilarious to splash each other and the mama in the process.
Friday I chucked them both in the tub though and they LOVED it!

B is teething, that in itself makes things more of a challenge as he does not enjoy being put down and his mouth hurts :(
Tuesday we went to a craft day...post to come about my fun new project...I spent 8 hrs making this thing in what I could do in probably 2...but B wasn't having it!


I need a catch up day, one for cleaning, one for cooking, one of crafting, one of editing photos, one for movies and snuggles with my kids, definitely one for blogging...anyone got some free time to share? Cause I need some!



On-ward and up-ward...we rally, we make it through the day, we are happy...we'll catch up eventually right?

Monday, November 15, 2010

Menu Monday

Monday:
Lunch- Homemade Bread toasted open with tomato and cheese
Dinner- Turkey burgers and homemade sweet potato fries

Tuesday:
Lunch-Friends place
Dinner-Crock Pot Cherry Chicken, green beans, homemade bread

Wednesday:
Lunch- Cheese and bean quesadillas
Dinner- Church pot luck

Thursday:
Lunch- Turkey/Cheese roll-ups, grapes
Dinner- Chicken Gorditas, spanish rice, black beans

Friday:
Lunch- Toasted Cheese and tomato soup
Dinner- Tilapia with cream cheese and dill, fresh salad

Saturday:
Lunch-Out
Dinner- Teryaki Chicken, Stuffed Acorn Squash

Sunday:
Lunch- Sandwiches
Dinner- Chicken and Vegtable Pancakes

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Wordless Wednesday...

This was 'borrowed' from dance class...it belongs to the dance school and was sitting in the back room, I brought it home and cleaned it up so we can use it at the school...B and I sit for 2 hours a week waiting for big sissy to finish dance so to give my arms a break and him a bit of entertainment we now have this as an option, he LOVES it!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

I organized, I saved...

I felt like I conquered the coupon deals today!! To be honest when I first posted about Coupons almost a month ago I was really discouraged. I don't buy processed food much, no cans, no boxes, no frozen pre-made food...I make it all from scratch. So when I spent time looking at the couponing sites I saw a lot of things that we just don't eat...well we eat but I make them by buying the ingredients instead of the pre-made stuff.

I bought Sunday's paper when I remembered (twice in the last month) and clipped the few things I would use...however this past Sunday Walgreens had a huge coupon release and I felt that motivation again! Ingredients were on sale and stuff we actually used/needed...so I spent Sunday evening and Monday morning organizing our meal plan, sorting through the various coupons I'd collected and clipped and wrote it all out.

Today I had a MOPS meeting and the plan was to make 5 stops on the way home...

1.Toys R Us for a birthday gift for a little boy in Kaitlyn's class at Church where I scored a Thomas the Tank Engine for 25% off and a Candy Land game (for Kait for Christmas) for $3 with a $2 mail in rebate, yep $1 for the game!

2. Library to drop off books
3. Post Office...totally forgot my printed off label so that will have to be done Thursday instead.

4. Walgreens to take full advantage and full advantage I did..
I bought the following:

Pack of 20 rolls of toilet paper
3 Purex 2X 32 load laundry detergent
2 pledge lemon furniture spray
2 Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice 64ozs
3 Dawn washing liquid 10.3oz
2 packs Jet puffed marshmellows
2 Sweet Dried Apricots 13oz
1 can condensed milk
2 5lb bags of Gold Medal Flour
1 5lb Domino Sugar
1 box light brown sugar
4 Ready Pie Crusts
3 boxes Blue Bonnet baking butter
1 Daisy Sour Cream 8oz
1 Cream Cheese 8oz
1 Pure Honey 32oz
2 panty hose
1 carmex lip balm
2 scotch tape
Total = $118.63...saved $52. 23...spent $66.40 and I will not have to shop for laundry detergent, washing up liquid, butter or flour, honey, sugar or tp for a long long time!! That was the best part for me, I am set for probably 3-6 months on some of those items now and really that's what I had to keep in mind that while it's a bill now and some of it seems a bit silly to buy 3 of, I should take advantage of the sale while it's on sale and then store it for the future!

5. Publix, I didn't feel 'as' successfull here but again since we don't buy a lot or any really pre-made foods I think I did okay...

At Publix I bought the following;

3 12 packs of coca cola products (2 coke, 1 dr. pepper)
2 boxes corn flakes
2 boxes honey bunches of oats
1 box granola
2 boxes graham crackers
1 jar of yeast
2 containers of crecent rolls
2 bags English muffins
Olive Oil
2 Jiffy Biscut Mix
2 Green Valley Steamers (peas and beans)
Beef Bacon
2 8 oz cheese cubes (Mozzerella & Colby)
1 Whisk laundry detergent 32 loads
Total= $96.69....saved $24.77...Total Spent $67.92
Publix had a lot of buy one get one today, plus manufacture coupons and my Publix doubles coupons...I think I did 'okay' here.

In the long run this is quite a bit of savings...$77 in two groceries and $82 total for the day...not too shabby for my first time at this!! I think I'll keep at it, grabbing the Sunday paper, clipping what looks good, stocking up on the Kroger deals, scouring the two sites I've come to love and buying when it makes sense!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Menu Monday

Monday:
Lunch-Leftover Chicken Casserole, apple slices
Dinner- Italian Turkey sausage in pasta with a marinara sauce, cheesy bread, steamed brocoli

Tuesday:
Lunch- MOPS brunch today
Dinner- Crock pot lasagna (I didn't make this on Friday so will attempt it tonight!), corn bread and green beans


Wednesday:
Lunch- Turkey and Cheese roll-ups, homeade apple sauce
Dinner- Easy Bake Chicken and Butternut Squash Casserole
 
Thursday:
Lunch- Cream Cheese stuffed Crossaints, grapes
Dinner- Turkey Sloppy Joes, green beans
 
Friday:
Lunch- Yoghurt parfaits with homemade granola
Dinner- Egg and Bacon pie, spinach salad
 
Saturday:
Lunch- Birthday Party!
Dinner- Chicken Pie, Cauliflower cheese
 
Sunday:
Grandparents