Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Catching up at home!!

After a busy weekend and running around yesterday and then having to get things ready for cub scouts last night I just haven't had alot of time to devote to home. Today I hope to remedy that.

My weekend looked like this:

Friday:
Put oldest on bus
come home get youngest 2 and myself ready to go
go to dh's grams- help her with paperwork
Pick up dh's gram, take youngest son to the bus stop for afternoon kindergarten
Grams, Kara and I head out for a day of grocery shopping
Shop at Sharp Shopper
Lunch
Pharmacy
Walmart
stop for a tea at McD's- shopping weakness of ours *smile*
bank
Martins
Stop at Grams to unload her purchases
Pick up both boys at bus stop, home to unload our groceries
Go back to grams, to bring back her car which we took shopping with us, pick up Kara who stayed with grams then home to put groceries away
Work on groceries till time to make dinner
Make dinner, help dh get him and Oldest packed up for camping trip
Baths and bed for the kids
Bed for us early 9:30 since we have to get early

Saturday:
Get up before the chickens- that is if we had chickens lol - get dh and oldest off to camping trip
Drink Coffee and try to get awake
Call and check on dh's grams
My mom calls and is ready for me to pick her up
Take her to Sears to see about parts for her dishwasher, and Washer
Mom treated us to Lunch and Icecream- super cool!!
Take mom to new Sharp Shopper Store- she's never been
Stop at redbox so Brady could pick movies
Stop at Martins- Brady got to pick what he wanted for dinner since he wasn't old enough to go camping and he picked fish sticks- not great but I promised so whattaya gonna do?? lol
Fill up truck with gas
Take Mom home- unload her groceries and purchases
Brady stays with mom since my brother and his fam were there for a bit, Kara is asleep in the truck so I head on home to let her finish her nap
Mom and Brady came home, Mom brought her laundry since her washer is down
Made dinner of Chicken strips, fries, breaded mushrooms, mozzarella sticks, and fish sticks, watched movies and worked on Mom's laundry
Mom left around Midnight, kids are asleep on couch so I put the baby in our bed, get a blanket and pillow for Brady, lock up and head to bed as soon as Mom calls to say she is home safe.

Sunday:
Alarm goes off at 7
Get up, coffee, and get awake, get Myself and kids ready for church, got to church
Dh and oldest get back from camping and meet us at church
We all head home, dh and youngest stop at dh's grams as she made a ham and wanted to split it with us, I head home with oldest and youngest, peel potatoe and shred them to make ham, hashbrown and eggs brunch
Everyone is exhausted so the boys played a video game and watched a movie and dh and I took the baby and laid down we all 3 napped it was GREAT as we were super tired

Get up, clean up dress and then pick up Dh's Gram and go to dinner
Dinner was awesome!! We ate at King's and italian place so good!!
Drop dh's gram off, head home, kids ready for bed, we watched a show then head to bed

Monday
Up early dh's lunch packed and he's headed off to work
Take oldest to the bus, come home get the rest of us ready then we head in town
went to Joanns, then to Target then still had time before youngest son had to be at afternoon kindergarten so we went to play at the park
Played at the park till time for school then after dropping him off, came home had lunch and put the baby down for a nap, got busy on cub scout stuff, dishes etc
Then picked up boys off the bus, homework/ready for scouts
after scouts we ate quickly the boys went to bed and dh and I relaxed and watched a show

So you can so not alot of housework got done over the weekend so today I am doing laundry, dishes, cleaning and straightening up the house and hopefully will get everything done so we can have an awesome dinner before heading to bed to collapse, lol lol lol

Dinner tonight is Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, hm apple sauce, corn muffins, tomatoes, cukes, onions and peppers cut up- essentially a salad with no lettuce- I put it in the wrong drawer and it froze :(

Have a great day!!
Dana

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Why do they have to grow up so fast???

So my oldest son left this morning at 6:30 to go camping with the boy scouts. He's only a cub scout but in order to cross over blah blah blah, he has to camp so many times with the older boys.

So he is totally excited and rearing to go, me on the other hand...yeah not so much. He even was out of bed before I was this morning, the child who on school days has to be practically drug out of bed. But not this morning, this morning he was up with the chickens, and bouncing around like he had drank a 1/2 pot of coffee, he hadn't of course but to say he was excited would probably be an understatement.

Yes I am happy for him and well I know he will be ok because one of the older boys going, also goes to our church and I know he will take Colby under his wing and look out for him. Actually this older boy is really great with the younger guys. We don't just go to church with him he's a friend of the family and we are quite fond of him.

So why am I worried?? It might have something to do with the fact that the wind has howled all night, its supposed to be 40* and 45mph winds today, or that when he walked out the door it was spitting snow, yes SNOW and they are camping. Or the biggest reason is well HE'S MY BABY, and I don't care if he is 10yrs old, way bigger than his age thanks to the genes he gets from his nearly 7ft tall daddy, what I can't let go of is that HE'S MY BABY and well, I'm not ready to cut the apron strings as they say.

Oh but I gotta let him do 10yr old things, and grow up doing things that kids his age do. AHHHH but its harder than you might think, at least it is harder than I thought it would be. Geez I'm such a softy!!

Thankfully its a one night trip, and he'll be home in the morning. YAY!!!

Lord help me I can fill the gray hairs popping out!!! lol

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Menu for March

In no particular order:





We will have:


Hm Pizza and breadsticks 4x
Breakfast 4x:
Sausage and Pancakes
Sausage and Waffles
Bacon, eggs,and fried potatoes 2x

Spaghetti, Garlic bread
Lasagne made with leftover spaghetti sauce
Fried Chicken Salad
Whole roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans
Chicken and dumplings made with leftover whole roasted chicken
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans
Unstuffed Peppers, mashed potatoes, corn
Italian sausage with onions and peppers served over rice or served on buns with french fries
Tacos/nachos
Crispy Chicken breasts, alfredo noodles, broccolli
Marinated London Broil-grilled, baked potato, corn on cob
Fahitas, rice
Greek Chicken-grilled, baked potato, broccolli
Fish 4x:
Broiled Salmon, baked potato Spinach 2x
Battered Cod, French fries and Coleslaw 2x
Ham slices, fried potatoes, Spinach
Breaded and Baked Porkchops, fried potatoes, corn and lima beans
Ultimate Fondue-hm with hm bread for dipping, hm onion rings and mozzarella sticks- fun food night
Pototo skins, boneless wings 2ways -bbq and buffalo, mozzarella sticks-fun food night
Wor Wonton Soup, hm egg rolls
hm General Tso's chicken, broccolli, rice

This is our menu plan, I hope to curb our eating out some as we are trying to save some money to be able to do some little home repairs and maybe a mini vacation but there will be some special occasions that we do eat out, also if I am lucky enough to have leftovers enough for a meal that will feed all 5 of us then something from this menu will be moved to next month. Leftovers that aren't enough to feed all 5 of us again for another meal are usually lunch for little miss and I the next day or packed up and sent to my mother who doesn't cook for herself much at all since my dad passed.

A busy day at home

Good Morning or should I say good almost afternoon!!

I am sitting here catching up on blogs that I like to read and thought I might as well take a bit of time to update my own!!

I have a busy day planned at home today, laundry as always, dishes, cleaning up, running after/occupying/enjoying/ my little girl while her brothers are off at school. I am still crocheting a baby blanket for a friend at church and have about 2/3 of it done just gotta keep after it and get it done, hopefully by Sunday :)

I have also finalized my menu for March, but still need to make my grocery list and clip my coupons all before Friday when I plan to go shopping, that is if everything goes as planned but with 3 kids and a life in general things don't always go as planned so I am prepared to roll with the punches, as they say.

I am looking forward to getting some fresh pork that we ordered from a cousin who is butchering!! I ordered just a small order of 10lbs of pork chops and 10lbs of unseasoned sausage, dh and I are very interested in making our own sausage so we thought we would test the water by starting with unseasoned ground meat then once we find a recipe we like we can jump in and start grinding our own!!

Speaking of sausage I think that is a good idea for dinner tonight, Wednesdays are normally breakfast for dinner night so Waffles and Sausage links sound good....now where did I put that waffle iron????

Have a great day!!
Dana

Friday, February 17, 2012

Friday 2/17/12

Good Morning!!

Today is shaping up to be a busy day!!
My plan is get our trash taken away, straighten up the house, and begin my grocery list for my shopping trip next week.

My kids have early out today :) and its pizza night!! I know I'll have lots of helpers making dinner tonight!!

I have crocheted myself out of yarn so I hope to pick up some more when the kids and I go out this afternoon to get the food for the cub scout pinewood derby which is tomorrow!! I know my boys are super excited to race their cars!

So a busy day for me, but one I will get to share with my kids so its GOOD!!
Tonight is Pizza and Movie Night, looking forward to some family time!!

Have a great day!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Thursday 2/16/12

Woke up to rain today. Which puts my plan to haul trash off on the back burner. I checked the weather and it looks like tomorrow will be a great sunny day to get it taken care of so that is my plan now.

I was just visiting a blog and found a great link to a tutorial for making french seam pillow cases. My plan is to make pillow cases in favorite fabrics for my kids and my neices and nephews for christmas.

I had bought some Doctor Who fabric to make my boys some pj bottoms for chrismas 2011 but it just didn't work out, the fabric I ordered didn't feel much like pj material and I think its better suited for pillow cases or throw pillows etc, since my boys are Dr Who crazy I think it will be a great gift for them paired with a new pillow!!

For my neices and nephews well I am thinking...
Horse fabric for my oldest neice, sports fabric for my 2 nephews and for the youngest neices which also happen to be twins I hope that when I get their birthday invite in August it will give me an idea as to what they are into at the time. As for my daughter I think I can't go wrong with Minnie Mouse fabric or something super girly!!

Of course I am hoping that I can get all my gifts made well in advance so I can enjoy the Christmas Holiday stress free!!!

Any ideas for brothers and sister-in-laws???
Wouldn't it be nice to have a homemade christmas?? Each year we make more and more of our gifts to give but we've never be able to give every person on our gift list a homemade gift. Its a goal that we are working on though.

My plan for today is to get all my inside work done so that tomorrow I can take the trash away, then for dinner tonight I am going to make Clam chowder and corn bread muffins!!! Mmm soup on a rainy day just hits the spot!!!

Have a great day!!
Dana

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wednesday 2/15/2012

Good morning!!!

Today is another day at home for me!! I am still working on laundry, its never ending,lol I want to spend a bit cleaning and straightening up. Maybe I'll have enough time to do some coupon clipping or crocheting, probably not but its ok, as long as I get the house picked up, I'm good!!

Tonight Mike is going to stop by my moms to check out her washer, its pitching a fit so he promised to look at it for her.

Dinner tonight I think will be Breakfast for dinner, Sausage gravy over toast and fried potatoes sounds good to me!!

Have a great day!!
Dana

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I hope your enjoying your Valentine's Day!!

I am spending the day at home, tidying up and doing laundry, I've got meat thawing to make some meatballs to go with our dinner tonight which is Spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread and brownies!! After dinner we are going to watch Lady and the Tramp. :) I might have forgot to mention that my Valentine's Dinner date includes our three littles!! SO a theme dinner is just the thing!!!

Enjoy your day!!
Dana

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Wednesday 2/8/2012

Good morning!!

Today is a day spent mostly at home, I guess Kara and I won't be completely alone today though since the school just sent out a message that they are closing early due to the impending storm and so Brady won't have Kindergarten at all today and Colby will be home when the school dismisses at 1pm.

I still hope to keep up with my house work and manage to get things done, maybe I'll be able to get the boys to help me!!

I've taken on a head cold and I am miserable, but am working through it so that I can get all my work done since we are going to be busy all weekend starting tomorrow night with practice for Scout Sunday. Then Friday we are having friends over for dinner, Saturday having family over for dinner, Sunday is Scout Sunday at our church so I need to make 2 pots of soup for that and maybe a dessert. Goodness its going to make for a very busy and full weekend!!

So far today I've:
*Packed Mike's lunch and got him off to work
*Wrote checks for the kids lunch accounts at school
*Got Colby off to school
*Made Breakfast for Brady and Kara- Colby eats at school most days
-hoping to curb this some and save some money by having him eat at home with quick meals prepared ahead, like breakfast sandwiches made at home and waiting to be reheated from the freezer so I...

*Started Sausage patties baking in the oven and english muffins toasting in the toaster for hm freezer breakfast sandwiches
*Somewhat picked up the kitchen, it still needs attention.

Still left for today:
Finish breakfast sandwiches and put in freezer
Prep dinner
Clean up kitchen and sweep
Straighten up living room and sweep
Straighten up bathroom, wipe down and sweep
Clean Hall and sweep
Start in Kara's room
Laundry- probably 2-3 loads
Make dinner
Baths
Clean up dinner/kitchen and sweep
Kids in bed
Collapse, lol

What's your day look like???

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Tightening the belt..... digging deep

So I got some not really great news today..... Mike thinks the transmission in my truck is starting to go :( Insert extreme frowny face here!! :(

And we don't have the money to have it checked out let alone to have it fixed so I will be babying it and staying pretty close to home. Its still driveable and he thinks around town, getting the boys back and forth to the bus, little things like that it will be fine, its the mountainous driving where it starts to get fussy, so that will have to be cut out.

I am going to pray about it and I know already from the git go that it will all be ok, we will work it out someway, we always do and I am going to do my best not to worry about it. Easier said than done sometimes but I think its important to show the boys that no matter what happens there is a solution and though it might take hard work and time to save up enough money to have it repaired, patience is a virtue and its a lesson worth living for them to learn it through us.

Its not the end of the world, its just something we will have to work through thats all.

So we will be digging deep and tightening the belt, practicing our patience and most importantly we will be doing it together. And together we can do anything so I know in my heart it will be ok!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

February 2012 Menu

Ok I am a little late posting this but.......Here's our menu for this month, in no particular order





Pizza x4
Spaghetti
Lasagne made with leftover spaghetti sauce
Whole Roasted Chicken Mashed Potatoes, gravy, green beans
Chicken and dumplings made with leftover Whole roasted chicken
Nachos/Tacos
Unstuffed Peppers, Mashed Potatoes, green beans
Hamburgers, FF
Waffles, Sausage Links, eggs
Pancakes, Sausage Patties
Bacon, eggs, fried potatoes
Soup and Grilled Cheese x2
Beef Veg Soup/ Chili with cornbread x2
Fahitas, rice
Hot dogs, Baked beans, mac and cheese
Ravioli, garlic bread
Fish, baked potatoe, spinach x2
Shrimp Alfredo, broccolli
Greek Chicken, baked potatoes, broccolli
Roast Beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans
Pork Roast or Pork Chops, fried potatoes, corn

Breakfasts are:
Cereal, muffins and juice, or Hm freezer Breakfast Sausage Sandwiches, with juice

Lunches are
For dh- Sandwich, chips, fruit, yogurt, sweet treat- normally hm cake or hm pie, or something bought on sale like honey buns, etc

For the boys: either they eat at school or Colby will take a PB Sandwich, or a Bacon Sandwich, chips, fruit, sweet snack, Brady will take a Bacon Sandwich or Bologna Sandwich, chips, fruit, sweet snack

For Kara and I: Leftovers from dinner, or Ramen Noodles

Snack aafter school is usually popcorn, or something sweet made at home like cupcakes, pie, cake, cinnamon rolls etc.

February 1st!!!

Wow!! Seeing the date makes me realize that I need to be better about getting things done. I have a list of things I want to accomplish so that come spring and garden planting time I won't have the housework holding me back and keeping me from the garden. I feel more than ever that I need to make this garden a success so that we can hopefully lower our grocery bills. Everything but paychecks keeps going up so I need to get a handle on it!!!

Today is early dismissal for my kids, so they will be home early today!! Makes for an interesting time of trying to keep the youngest on schedule but we will work it out.

My plans for today are to keep on with the laundry and the housework, its supposed to be in the 60s today so I may wash the bathroom rugs and hang them out, make some freezer breakfast sandwiches for the kids to have as easy before school breakfasts, I need to marinate some chicken for dinner tonight, I have enough lunch meat for tomorrow but I will need to make egg salad for dh's lunch for Friday, when little miss goes down for her nap I hope the boys and I can clean out my truck- its beginging to be a catch all for bits of this and that. Make sure all the laundry gets done and hopefully put away.
Oh and I am sure there is more, I just need to get off the computer and get too it!!

Dinner tonight is Greek Chicken, baked Potatoes, broccolli, hm applesauce and I will make some rice for my oldest who doesn't care for baked potato.

Have a wonderful day!!