Thursdays

I think Thursdays are my favorite days of the week.

Mondays - from preschool to quick lunch to (hopefully) nap to Kindermusik to dinnertime to bed.

Tuesdays - We meet my parents on Tuesdays to eat lunch and they watch the kids while I run errands and get stuff around the house done. By the time I pick the kids up and get home it's dinnertime and then bedtime.

Wednesdays - from preschool to quick lunch to (hopefully) nap to church to dinnertime to bed.

Fridays - from preschool to lunch to nap to couple of hours of playtime to dinnertime to bed.

So you see, Thursdays we do... NOTHING. Ahhhh, 'tis glorious! On Thursdays we don't leave the house except on rare occasions (like maybe meeting our favorite Kirbys for lunch!) and I love it.

Today is a great example of a normal Thursday for us. Normally I'd pull something from the freezer for the kids (homemade waffles or burritos are a crowd favorite) but this morning I played my lazy card and made my all-time favorite pancakes from a mix - Tenda-Bake maple burst pancakes! Oh yowza, they are so good!

 Thursdays are all about US so what is more important than making sure we are beautiful right off the bat!?

 Okay, fingernails and toenails are painted. Next it's time to think of others. This piece of art will be going to someone very special in the near future!

 
Uh-oh, time to start dinner! I have an audit to do tonight so that means my dinner that was planned (cube steak) is out the window. Gonna throw something in the crockpot instead! That's good news for Brianna because that means she gets to help me make Brown Sugar Chicken!

 Of course, we do have to do those yucky chores. But it's FUN to do chores when you make your own furniture polish and then use it for the first time! Seriously, our furniture looks so good now.

Alright, Hunter is down for his nap! That means it's craft time for Mommy and Bri! Today's craft was Paper Towel Butterflies and we loved it!

She got a kick out of the butterflies fluttering around her room! :)

Just as Brianna is going down for her nap, Hunter wakes up, so we all read together and then I have to hustle Hunter outside. He tends to sit on the bottom step and mournfully cry out, "Brrrriiiii! Brrrriiii!" It's awful. So outside we go, where we tend to the garden and basically just run back and forth for an hour or so.

I did get to tend to my seedlings... I need to blog about this sometime in the future. Someone remind me.

We got back inside, and shortly after, Brianna woke up from her nap. Of course, she knew how beautiful it was outside, so she really wanted to go out too! We got dressed and ready to go back out!

Hunter got a new outfit from Oma! He may not look thrilled about it, but it's just my camera flash blinding him. No biggie.

A lot of our outdoor time is spent picking up pine cones for Daddy, who is coming home late again tonight. We're going to surprise him by having the whole yard picked up!

Wait Hunter! That's not a basketball net!

Stephen was home just in time for me to go do my audit, and then I was home just in time to help get the kids ready for bed. What a wonderful day. I can only pray that God will allow us enough time on this earth that we can have thousands more of these days. I know that sounds corny but it's the truth. :)

Frugal Valentine's Bash

I volunteered to run the Sweetheart Banquet at church this year, which is always the weekend after Valentine's Day. So you know what that means - I get to decorate at a very cheap price!! I know it's (WAY) after Valentine's Day now but maybe you can use some of these ideas next year.

Please note - I am not a decorator and I have zero craft abilities, so I'm not really sure why I volunteered to run this except the fact that I've never done it before and wanted to give someone else a chance to enjoy the party.

First things first - pink tablecloths are a must. Hello, Dollar Tree. I picked up six tablecloths for $1.00 each, and some rose petals and "table scatter" to decorate the tables with. My friend Lora decorated last year so she gave me the candle centerpieces and candles to borrow. Total spent so far - $8.68.

Off to Michaels, where Valentine's Day stuff is 70% off. I got two  huge felt lips to hang on the wall ($0.59 each), Valentine's candy corn  to scatter on the tables for people to snack on (3 bags at $0.59 each),  and pink card stock (just one piece) to see if I can come up with a  craft using the card stock. Spent $4.14, so total is now $12.82.

Decided  on a craft I can do with the card stock so I return to Michaels to get  16 more pieces (on clearance at $0.29 per sheet). Spent $4.95 so my  total is up to $17.77.

Off to Dollar General to find some candy jars. I'm putting candy in them  and having people guess how many pieces are in each jar. The jars are  $2.00 each so I spent $6.57, putting my total up to $24.34.

I went to Rite Aid to get the candy for the candy jars at 50% off. I got  sweethearts, and a bunch of chocolate. I spent $8.57, which makes my  total spent $32.91.

When I saw the pink card stock I loved at Michaels I started searching  the web for things to do with it. I eventually came across this clip art  at Martha Stewart's website. I printed out the clip art onto the card  stock and then wrote people's names on them. These will be the name  settings for the tables.

Then I searched on the internet for "people in love" images. I printed out my top 15ish that I loved. Then I colored clothes pins to say "kiss me" with a heart. I clipped them onto hemp string and hung them on Command hooks. Price of this was free (I used my own printer and string and clothes pins).

I used the big felt lips from Michaels to put above our couch at church and took a "sweetheart" picture of everyone who attended. I printed them out for each couple.

Stephen hung, my friend Kim straightened, and I modeled. Team work!

Voila!

Some people got a little nuts (i.e. Cindy who publicly attacked her hubby)

and some were silly ("This is how we sit on our couch at home!)

and some just looked good.  :)

Like I said, I know it's way late to be posting this, but hopefully some of these ideas will help you for next year! We did the whole party for less than $40 but it was still really cute and tasteful.

Favorite Books of 2012 So Far

Okay, it seems pretty obvious to me that 2012 is the year of books or something. I have read some phenomenal books already this year. Check these out... literally.

"A Turtle on a Fencepost" by Allan C. Emery

"The Stone Diaries" by Carol Shields

"Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope" by Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen & Whitney Cerak

These three books have absolutely blown me away and they are all totally different from each other, in styles and in every other way. The Shields book is fiction but the other two are non-fiction. Both the Emery and Shields books have the high honor of being placed back on my bookshelf at home rather than sold to our local bookstore... a very rare honor indeed. The other book is not being placed on my bookshelf because I have approximately 1,000 people I know will want to borrow it. Seriously, head to the library and get these, or borrow my copy!

Chocolate Festival and Birthday

A few weeks ago, Stephen finally had a Saturday off, so we went to a Chocolate Festival that morning at a local church. Unfortunately, within just a short time, both Stephen and Brianna were over it, so while Hunter and I wandered around the festival, Stephen and Bri had a ball at the playground.

Okay, those pictures really didn't do the playground justice. Obviously we were having too much fun to take pictures.

After that, we were on our way to a birthday party! It is now clear to me that my phone is not a good camera for motion pictures! My kids barely stayed in one place throughout this whole party so that's why all these pictures are so blurry. But man, did they have a good time!!

Daddy works some "magic" to make the balloon stick to the wall!

Static Girl!!

Autumn, the birthday girl!

Brianna takes a crack at the pinata with the help of Prescilla. Bri with a bat? Now that's scary.

Pictures From Our Life

Oh Hunter, Brianna's church shoes are not a good look on you!! (Will he kill me for this when he's a teenager??)

Love our family pictures! We hardly ever get this opportunity!

The times that Brianna dresses herself in the morning are pretty obvious.

That goes for Hunter too.

"What Santa doesn't bring me Grandma will!" (Immediately texted this picture to Leila, knowing she would really appreciate the message!)

Having fun at Grandpa's!

Spending time with Claire made her obsessed with flags for a short time. Here, she built a tower on top of the slide and then begged Stephen to hold one flag while she held the other.

Fun craft we got at JoAnne's after Christmas. Making your own candy necklaces! The kit was less than $2 and makes 8 necklaces! So. much. sugar.

She loved creating her own necklace!!

Christmas in February

 One of our "traditions" after Christmas is to go shopping at JoAnne's Craft store. We're always in Georgia around that time and I think Leila and I could spend all day in JoAnne's (my problem is I can't afford all the stuff I want from there!) Anyway, it's a great time to rack up on craft stuff that I can do with the kids throughout the year to break up a rainy day or just because we feel like making something!

Enter the Christmas Tree gingerbread kit! I believe I paid around $4 for this kit (it was 75% off) and when Brianna saw it, her eyes completely lit up!

 Step 1: Assemble all cookies and ice them!

 Put on the tiniest little balls of candy you've ever seen in your life. Brianna was extremely careful with them, knowing that every one that rolled away was one she wouldn't get to eat later!

Finished product!

Complete with a star on top and even presents under the tree!

Hey, you can't beat that for $4. Quality time with my girl and we had a lot of laughs during this process!! It was yummy, too!

Not This Time Review

I just finished the book "Not This Time" by Vicki Hinze. Unfortunately I had no idea that this book was part of a series. It is the third in a series called "Crossroads Crisis Center Series". Although the beginning of the book started in intrigue and suspense, I was incredibly confused at the characters and their relationships. I understand that in the middle of a series, the author does not want to go over fine details that were in previous books, but it made me feel lost coming in in the middle.

So with that background, other than the fact that it took me several chapters to get into the book and stop being confused about certain things, the book was very well written and action-packed. Some of the characters were irritating because of personalities but it was an easy read and suspenseful. I think if I had read the other books in the series first I would have really liked this book.

I would recommend this book, but I do obviously recommend reading the rest of the series as well!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

#93 - Purge our freezers at least one time

I have to admit that one thing I've gotten really good at over the past year or two is meal planning. (If you're unfamiliar with my "frugal" blog, check it out here. I blog about my weekly meal plan ever Monday.) But there are still times that I wonder what is lurking in the bottom of our chest freezer, and what's gotten pushed to the back of our inside freezer. Now, our inside freezer is at about 75% capacity, and our chest freezer outside is at about 40% capacity (or less perhaps) so all they needed was a little organization!

Yesterday when I had a babysitter available (the hubby), I completely emptied out both freezers and rearranged them in a way that will hopefully make meals even easier! Plus, we have tons of frozen venison (from the last 3 deer Stephen has killed, I believe), tons of random meats (we buy a huge package from a local butcher), and tons of frozen vegetables (clearanced items and leftovers from our food co-op). It's just nice to know what you have. I mean, I knew we had a lot of venison cube steak, for example, but I had no idea we had almost 15 pounds worth. Same with our venison burger and ground beef. I had no clue that we had over 20 pounds of this stuff. I mean, I never went out and purchased meat, but I just didn't really know. You know?

It's so nice to go to the outside freezer now and see all my pretty freezer meals on top and know that there is a plethora of meat to choose from underneath. All neat and tidy. And only the essentials are inside - breakfast items like waffles and burritos, as well as quickie items like breadcrumbs, frozen berries, and cheese. Never again will I pay full price for cheese wondering if I actually have cheddar hidden somewhere in my freezer. Now I know!