Monday, December 29, 2008

Menu Planning

I don't think this is my first Menu Plan Monday, but it has been quite awhile. Menu Planning is something that I used to do all of the time and have become a little (a lot) relaxed on lately. I based my menu this week on what we have in the house and that I can easily make this week with out purchasing a lot from the store. I do have to get a few items, but this will be a very frugal week. I hope that I can pull a menu together next week with the same concept.

Monday - Baked Mostaccioli with Sausage (leftover from Sunday)

Tuesday - Oven Fried Chicken with sweet potatoes and broccoli edit: Really good and we ended up having a salad instead of broccoli

Wednesday - Beef Roast with potatoes and carrots edit" we ended up having hamburgers and tater tots, I forgot to take the roast out of the oven in time and it was not thawed.

Thursday - Hoppin John Soup with Rice and Sweet Corn Muffins

Friday - Pizza

Saturday - Baked Potato Soup with Bread Bowls

Sunday - Kathy's Delicious Whole Slow Cooker Chicken served with Rice


Want to see more menu ideas head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie and check out Menu Plan Monday.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

16.5 things to do before I turn 34...

The new year is fast approaching us I am not a resolution person, well, let me say that I am the typical resolution making person, make them on January 1st and by January 15th they have gone by the wayside. This year, I’m not making any resolutions but I am going to make a list of 16-1/2 things I want to do before I turn 34. That gives me 5 months from today. My 34th birthday is May 23rd.

There are many people out there that make lists of things that they want to do or need to do. I am a list maker (not necessarily a list completer) but feel that I need to do this to feel better about myself.

The year 2008 has been a pretty tough year on me and my family. From the flooding of our basement to the most recent of my diamond popping out of my engagement ring and all the stuff that happened in between. I have been pretty hard on myself, my husband, my friends and my kids. I really don’t blame anyone, there is really no one to blame, life happens and it really happens for a reason, what that reason is I’m not sure but I do know that it will be shown to me at a later date.

Here is a list of the 16.5 things I want to complete before I turn 34.

1. Write a list of all the bad things that happened to us in 2008 and burn them in the fireplace. Let’s forget about them and start anew.
2. Pay off 2 credit cards.
3. Make plans to spend some time with my close friends (Kristi & Nancy we need to work on this).
4. Complete 2 of my quilt projects that are started.
5. Read at least 1 book a month for 5 months (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
6. Send a care package of baked goods once a month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May) to an unsuspecting recipient.
7. Make a craft once a month with the boys (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
8. Read 5 times per week with the boys ‘
9. Send birthday cards (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
10. Make weekly meal plans (and stick to it) for 6 weeks.
11. Set up a savings account with automatic transfers from our checking accounts for Christmas next year.
12. Organize my storage closet, the one that houses all of my fabrics.
13. Plan a family outing once a month to someplace fun (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)
14. Do something creative every week.
15. Make a minimum of 1 block a week on my Baby Jane® scrappy quilt. (This one will be a challenge I’m sure!)
16. Hang my coffee cups under my counter. (They have been sitting there waiting to be hung since I received them for Mother’s Day)
16.5 Participate in the Cookie Carnival each month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May)

Some of these will be easy for me…some of them will be a challenge. I’m also going to try to be better about posting pics and pieces of our everyday. As I said above, 2008 turned out to be a really hard year for us, not necessarily bad we learned a lot from what happened to us, but definitely hard to handle. Of course, once this ambitious list is complete, I’ll have to come up with 34 things to do in my 34th year….hmmmm, maybe I should start thinking about that!!

My mantra for the last week (besides the prayer to St. Anthony) has been “All will be fine in 2009” and I truly believe that!