Menu Planning Mondays

It's Menu Planning Monday!  (Click on the name link to go to The Young Retiree's Monday link-up and find other great weekly menu ideas!)

Pam over at Troop Petrie seems to find some great blog hops and this is no exception.  By the way, if you have a moment to spare, please share some love with Pam and stop by to say hi on her blog, and maybe while you are there, find out how to win a copy of The Hobbit (DVD)!

Without further ado, here's our menu plan for the week (we may switch things around, but it's all good).

MONDAY:
Breakfast ~ Cold Cereal
Lunch ~ Leftover Chili and corn muffins
Dinner ~ Beef Tips w/egg noodles and gravy

TUESDAY:Breakfast ~ Chocolate Chip Muffins
Lunch ~ Soup & Grilled Cheese
Dinner ~ Oven baked BBQ Chicken (if I can find my racks) or Mock KFC Chicken Tenders

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast ~ Hot Cereal
Lunch ~ Wacky Mac
Dinner ~ Homemade Taco Pizza


THURSDAY:
Breakfast ~ Cold Cereal
Lunch ~ PB&J, fruit/veg
Dinner ~ Pizza In A Pot, if time allows homemade bread sticks

FRIDAY:
Breakfast ~ Hot Cereal
Lunch ~ Leftover Pizza In a Pot
Dinner ~ Special Dinner for Baby Girl's Birthday!   :)  

SATURDAY:  ***HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!***
Breakfast ~ French Toast
Lunch ~ Mac N Cheese
Dinner ~ In Planning Mode

SUNDAY:
Breakfast ~In Planning Mode
Lunch ~ In Planning Mode
Dinner ~ Leftovers from lunch

You'll notice that I don't add many sides.  That's because we keep a steady supply of fresh/frozen/even a few "canned/boxed/prepared" fruits and veggies on hand.  We prefer to use up what we have in leftovers first, so unless it's something special that I want with a certain meal we figure it out that day to try to prevent waste.

 Have a delicious week!

Hugs & Prayers,

Miscellany Monday ~ March 25, 2013

Welcome to

This past week has been busy.  We are in midst of serious spring cleaning/decluttering and so it has consumed most of my free time, except for the night I had to continuously give thanks that I had a computer attempt to go wonky on me, lol.


It was utterly beautiful here on Saturday and then came the snow storms.  Okay, I have a confession, it was so lovely watching the snow fall today. The boys and I went out and had a grand time making snowmen and playing in the white fluffy stuff. Darling Groom made his chili for dinner (bonus - I didn't have to cook!) and it was delish. It was such a fun day, only missed having my daughter home.

Enjoy your week!
Hugs & Prayers,
 

Follow-Friday, Four-Fill-in-Fun Blog Hop - Week 100

I am late getting in a round of get-to-know-your blogger with Feeling Beechie's Blog Hop.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, each week, Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for bloggers to fill in (if you don't have a blog, leave a comment!).

This week's statements are:

1)  I can't believe that February is almost over.  Where is 2013 flying to?

2)  I never liked the TV Show Fear Factor.  Seriously, there are a few that I never cared for but for some reason this one was at the top.  

3)   If I were a better blogger I would most definitely keep up the pace here.  (Sorry, all, I have been praying about what to do here and in real life so I'm kind of in a "waiting" stage right now.)  

4)  I craft when I need to relax (though not as much as I should).

If you get a chance, stop by and congratulate Feeling Beechie
on the 100th Blog Hop!   Way to go!

Hugs & Prayers,
 

Feeling Beachie Four Fill-In Follow Friday ~ 10/12

Time for another round of get to know your blogger with Feeling Beechie's Blog Hop.  Each week, Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for bloggers to fill in (if you don't have a blog, leave a comment!).

This week's statements are:


1)  Given the choice of cake or salsa'n'chips for snack time I’d pick the salsa'n'chips.

2)  If you told me I would call my mother weekly, apologizing, sometimes with humor and sometimes sincere (as I raise my children), I would never have believed you.

3)   The last time I cooked orange chicken it came out a bit too orange-y...need to use less OJ next time.

4)  My favorite color is peach.

There ya go!   What about you?

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

Five Question Friday - 10/12

It's Five Question Friday time again. (Again?!?  What happened to the past seven days?  They have flown by!)   In case you aren't familiar with 5QF, every Friday My Little Life puts up five questions.  Bloggers answer and then link up. The most important part of this process is to have fun!

Today's Q&A:

1)  Did you have any homecoming traditions?  Well, seeing as I went to a small inner city school, our homecoming was pretty much the dance.  Got together, hung out with my girlfriends to get ready.  It was my Junior year homecoming prep that we found my first gray hairs.

2)  Do you ask your spouse before spending money?  It depends on what it is for.  We discovered long ago that it was easier for us to have two budgets, a main one and then a micro one for the household needs (groceries, cleaning, clothing) and I handle that one almost exclusively with a set amount he gives me each month.  For big purchases or for something outside the scope of our current budget we do talk with each other and pray about it, or I'll ask him about it and save up for it.

3)  If you could be famous for something what would it be for?  Wow.  Tough question.  If it was for anything I wanted it would be that people would see Jesus in me before they see me.  If it's for an ability or talent or something that I currently have, probably something creative (crochet, etc.) or for my mini apple pie tarts.  Truth be told though, I'm more of a behind-the-scenes kinda gal, and don't often seek the limelight so this is a moot question since I wouldn't seek fame.

4)  Have you ever seriously thought you were going crazy?  SNORT!  Personally, I think most women on the planet have felt this way at one time or another (even if they don't admit it to anyone).  But yes, too many times to count.  Thankfully am learning each day to take thoughts captive!

5)  How do you eat your steak/burger?  (as in well-done, medium, still mooing)   I don't like my meat charcoaled crisp, but neither do I want it still mooing.  I prefer medium well, leaning more to the well-done side with just a HINT of pink.

And that's the info for the week--what about you? 

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

Made It Hap-Pin! ~~ Balloons Two Ways

Today's post is about a Pinterest pin (or two, actually) that I tried over my blogging hiatus.  We had a small surprise dinner for my Mother's birthday.  My brother was in charge of the food (which he rocked!) and I handled the decorations.

In truth, there wasn't much to do yet I wanted to add some fun and quirky touches around to birthday-up the place.  We also wanted something the children could help with (my niece is an awesome balloon-blower-upper!).  So, I logged into to my handy "Party Ideas" board on Pinterest and two balloon pins caught my eye.

The pin to create the flower balloons is HERE, but in the interest of fairness, I believe that this lady also made hers from another site, which she links to on her post (see link in pin).

The second pin, I didn't get a photo of finished project, but it was to create a string of balloons and can be found HERE.

* ~ * ~ *

So, were they worth the Pinspiration?

Totally!   

For the flower balloons, I confess that I eyeballed the size instead of making the templates.  I did end up with two sizes of balloons by accident (9" royal blue, 9" yellow and 12" baby blue).  Because I tried to keep them the same size, the 12" balloon flower came out "puffy".  We had to put tape between the "petals" to keep them together.  On reflection, if I have two different sizes again I will simply make the 12" balloon flower larger so they hold their shape better. Otherwise, we did as she instructed and the flowers came out so cute.  My brother had fishing wire which we used to hang the balloons, and I taped the wire to one side of a balloon petal to keep the balloon flower upright.  If you count blowing up the balloons, it took approximately 15-20 minutes to make each flower.

If you're looking for a great way to hang a bunch of balloons at once or "between" posts, etc., I heartily recommend using your needle and thread (or fishing wire)!   That said, next time I will sew the fishing wire through the actual knots.  I put the needle through the ends of the balloon just past the knots and the balloons slid back and forth a bit too much.  Made it easy to place them, but they wouldn't stay where I put them.

So, these two pins are keepers and I will definitely be using them in the future!


Have you made a pin hap-pin lately?  Please, blog and share in the comments below so I can check it out!

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

My Little Life - Five Question Friday for 10/5

It's 5QF time again!  Yeah, two posts in one day, but it's gray and rainy and my motivation to do much else has fled and is probably hiding in the pile of laundry that you are pretending you don't see (or is that me?).
 

In case you aren't familiar with 5QF, every Friday My Little Life puts up five questions.  Bloggers answer and then link up. The most important part of this process is to have fun!

1)  What album/cd/download are you embarrassed to admit you have?  Oh my.  I just cleared out the cds and albums so there is nothing in that.  Downloads?  You might just have me there since we have one account for the family.  You might think it would be my daughter's music  but I think if I had to narrow it down to a single choice, it's a download that another family member wanted, an entire album of Adam Ant. 

2)  What's the one thing your spouse does better than you?   ONE THING?!?  There are so many, but I will own up now that when it comes to waking up at half past O'dark to handle a child's problem he has always been better at that.  Besides, daddies make better nightmare-slayers and good night prayers, don't you think?  Which is wonderful because he looks so much better on less sleep than I do.  Talk about scary!  EEK!

3)  When do you start buying Halloween candy?  I don't, for various reasons.  Used to start getting it as soon as it came out though, one package or two each paycheck.  We never did figure out how come we still had to purchase more the week before...(scratching head)...

4)  Family closets - Yay or Nay?  Um, no.  Developing a headache even thinking about it.   Seriously though, congrats to those who can do it, we just aren't gifted enough to handle it!

5) Which home/cleaning chore do you hate the most?  Why?  Ha.  Ha ha.  Hahahahhaha....  Okay, in all honesty, I don't mind doing some (translation - I don't hate them), but if I had to answer going by the thing that I struggle with the most, it would have to be the dreaded putting-the-laundry-away chore.  I don't know why.  Perhaps it's because I fear it's all a dream and that there is no truly clean laundry and I want to savor looking at it to cherish those few, brief shining moments when it's clean. 

Speaking of laundry, time to go see if my pesky motivation really did burrow into that pile waiting by the machine.  You all have a great weekend!

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

Feeling Beachie Four Fill-In Follow Friday ~ 10/5

I figure that I'll ease back into blogging by following some prompts. There are some great link-up parties out there and Pamela over at Troop Petrie always finds interesting ones so am following her lead today.  (Psst...If you haven't visited her in a while be sure to go read about her weight loss and new hair and give her a big congrats!)

Each week, Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for bloggers to fill in (if you don't have a blog, leave a comment!).

This week's statements are:

1)  I am very precious.  Confession:  I was going to write "undisciplined", but I am taking a Bible study class on what it means to be a daughter of the Most High God and am trying to remember how He sees me instead of constantly looking at my flaws because He is sanctifying me daily.

2)  I am most comfy in my jammies!

3)  You will never believe what I saw on my way home from work one day.  It's been quite a few years since I've worked outside the home so am trying to remember...one of my most clear memories is the Flood of '93, when I saw the water from the Mississippi up to the Arch stairs.

4)  My morning don't start until caffeine happens.

And there you go, my four for this Friday.  :)

Hugs & Prayers,
Tamara

Five Minute Friday - STRETCH

It's  Five Minute Friday and we're linking up with the Five Minute Flash Mob at Tales from a Gypsy Mama

GO!

Today is my birthday.

Tonight, my husband, children, family and friends stretched my heart to overflowing with love and kindness and just such wonderful blessing I could cry.  But this week wasn't all roses and it reminded me of other ways that I need to stretch myself.

A burned out oven and six dozen cookies waiting to be baked can make one frazzled.  A screen door requiring a special spline which is only discovered AFTER you've taken it apart can make one frustrated.  A package that was not mailed and discovered weeks later can make one feel like a screw-up.  Etc. Etc.

Yeah, I did the whole condemnation scene, until I remembered that there is no condemnation in Christ.  There is correction and learning, and that's what I needed most.  There is love and humility and there is grace.  Grace.

God reminded me through these circumstances that I often neglect to extend mercy and grace over my own mistakes and that is why sometimes they get the better of me.  He reminded me that I do need to learn from them, but most importantly that they are there oftentimes to remind me just how much I need Him.  He's strength to my weakness.  He's grace to my condemnation.

So, tonight, I felt that grace and that love abounding and I hope to carry it into the next week, no matter what.  To model for my precious children that no matter what comes my way, my arms and heart will stretch out for the One who can give peace, understanding, healing, forgiveness, correction and that wonderful, wonderful grace!

STOP!

Frugality in the Fridge ~ Dairy

With the drought hitting over half the country and the disasters around the world, we've all begun to see the prices of foods go up.  I hope to continue to provide you with frugal ways to save money around the house, and this particular post might help give you just a few ideas to save some money on dairy products.  Take a moment and consider what would work for you and your family and perhaps use it as a springboard to come up with your own ideas. 

NOTE:  I am not including instructions.  There are videos on YouTube, and all kinds of sites out there offering the how-tos of some of these suggestions.  I encourage you to seek out these as best you can.

~ If you don't already, consider using powdered milk for most of your cooking needs and use fresh milk for drinking, coffee, etc.

~ If you preserve (canning), consider freezing or canning butter.  It can be done if the butter is clarified.  You can get it when it goes on sale, save a few pennies.

~ Consider mixing your butters with healthy oils.  You can purchase a butter/oil mixture, but did you know you can make your own?  It would stretch the butter by halving it with the oil.  We use the olive oil mixed butter and you cannot tell the taste difference from butter.

~ Make your own ice cream.  Healthier for you plus you can make it special with things to please your family.

~ If you haven't already, switch to lower fat milks or fat free.  They do cost less than their red-capped/blue-capped counterparts and are better for you.

~ Maybe check into nut milks (almond, etc.) and see if the cost will be beneficial.  We don't use them so I don't know about the cost involved, but know people who do and enjoy them.  You can also make them yourself.

Do you have some tips to save on dairy products?  Please be sure to leave a comment and share with us all!

Hugs,
Tamara