Weekly Menu and Food Prep

Food Prep.  Yes, it is a great thing but man, it takes me hours the day after shopping to get it all done!  Garden season is coming on strong so there are tons of fresh veggies and fruits in the market.  It's great for eating but a lot of prep!

What is pictured:  Watermelon, Blueberries, Strawberries, Carrots, Celery and Cucumbers for dipping plus a bowl of cucumbers I will add vinegar/water/sugar too to make "pickles" for snacking, Corn on the cob, Chicken breasts - some for eating this week and some for next week and a pork loin, divided, some for this week and some for next week.  My fridge is FULL!

This past week was extremely hot but we had to eat at home as much as possible due to finally caving in and buying a second a/c window unit  (I wouldn't really say "cave" but more like having the discretionary funds to buy a small unit finally happened.) BUT we did eat out if the Heat Index hit 100 degrees or higher :-/  I'm still without my crock pot so our two options were the stove top or grilling . .. grilling was our best optoin (so thankful for the small gas grill that was given to us last year!!) and ate a lot of Chips and Salsa.  This time of year, I have a hard time planning a menu - my kitchen is so warm  . . .I really don't enjoy cooking.  I'm already looking forward to the first really cool day in the fall so I can make a great pan of lasagna :-)

Here is what we have planned for eating this week:

Friday - Tacos - this is supposed to be the lost 90+ degree day - I figure I can cook the meat early in the day and just reheat it.  We would grill but they are forecasting some big storms!

Saturday - I'm going Scrapbooking for the evening and eating dinner there; I'll leave it up to Darryl what to "serve" for dinner. 

Sunday - The Beach :-)  Even on days my husband works, we have found that we love going to the beach.  We got our favorite pizza last week so this week, we'll do a picnic and get ice cream.  I'm thinking about doing Sandwiches this week - "gourmet" for Darryl and I and PB and J for the kids along with some chips and salsa, fruit and pickles. 

Monday - Crispy Cheddar Chicken, Mashed Potatoes w/gravy, corn and biscuits

Tuesday - Hot Dogs, Macaroni Salad and chips (supplied by my mom since I'm going scrapbooking during the day and my parents are coming over for the day)

Wednesday - Darryl has practice so the kids and I will get something out, assuming Darryl's car is fixed - I'll have some Mac and Cheese on hand just in case.

Thursday- Pan Fried Pork Chops, Mac and Cheese, green beans, and bread

As far as sweets . .. I still have a cake I would like to make if the weather is cooler as well as a couple of pies I'd like to try otherwise it will be store bought cookies and ice cream :-)

July Goals - Just continuing on with June

In June, I posted a list of goals that had started with my making a couple of lists that were my "brain".  I also went through my 101 goals to see what I could add.  I'm going to update that as far as what I got done and the rest will carry over into this month.  July is also the hottest month around here usually so I don't tend to get a lot done during this month.  :-)

Craft Related Plans
1. Organize my scrapbook paper bag - it got accedently dumped one day by my husband and I haven't taken time to fix it since that time.
2. Erase tabs on my picture dividers
3. Organize Memorabilia for each year so it is ready to go in the scrapbooks
4. Finish up the boys albums including ordering the last bits and pieces
5. Finish up2008 album - just page protectors - hoping to be able to order enough to finish this album :-)
6. Finish up my first blogging book and budget to order it
7. Birthday Board - MUST get moving on this :-)  - Clean out the bin downstairs and get a new one that is clear; make the birthday banner that is in one of my posts
8. Finish saving photos from Memory Manager; delete stuff off of my computer; install new updated programs
9. Make our chore chart and get moving on that concept (tied into our new daily pick up times above)
10. Read Sections 1 and 2 in "How to photography your baby" and do it!!!
11. Make a list of 100 things about me
12. Finish up the John Deere blanket - which will be Nate's truck blanket
13. Purchase racks to hold 2-3 scrapbooks on the wall in the living room
14. Make Seatbelt pillows
15. Make two summer wreaths
16. Quite books - complete the barn page I'm off the quiet book kick - my boys are starting to get "out of that stage" 
17. Make Boo Boo Bunnies
18. Make Beach towel blanket We just used our beach towels and I found, because we use beach chairs, a blanket isn't really needed.
19.  Get letters for "Wash your hands" sign
20. Get H-L and decorate them for my ABC Wall

Travel/Vacation
1. Read through Disney stuff and make a goal date to take the boys
2. Go through camping stuff and start packing
3. Pick up all needed supplies for this camping trip (next trip is in August)
4. Make Travel bags for our vacation
5. Print off maps/daily stuff/budget/ etc for our vacation
6. Pick our anniversary get away weekend
7. Look at reasonable ideas for our vacation in November so we can start saving

Paperwork
1. Do Feb-May gas receipts (got a little behind on work paperwork oops!) 
2. Get Dental Insurance After pricing it all out - we decided to be our "own" insurance and are just putting a little money away towards our dental costs.
3. Order Word a day calender
4. Subscribe to our local paper
5. Make one $25.00 payment on the truck

Homeschool
1. Plan our June and July calender (yes this should be done but since I'm writing my goals a week earlier then this will post . . this still needs to get done!)
2. Go through our school bins and clean them out
3. Print out 4 theme units to use this summer on rainy days
4. Put together about 8-10 crafts to be able to pull out on any given day
5. CLean out the "junk" basket in our classroom
6. Check out the Alligator Sanctuary and Mooville for a fun trip
7. Prep our calendar for next school year to complete all of our lessons.

Yardwork
1. Weed by the garage and lay down mulch.  Find something to plant under the crab apple tree - maybe a few Hostas.
2. Clean out the patio "bed" - would like to plant something there that is hardy and pretty.
3. Power wash the house
4. Paint the house (at least part of it - not sure how far we will get in June)
5. Plan out something new for the front of the house so we can maybe plant some stuff this fall

Organization
1. Finish the basement - my nemesis.  It isn't for lack of trying, trust me. 
2. Set up the play room (the boys are asking for it all the time)
3. Organize our tax documents in our file
4. Put together the car organization kit
5. Organize our DVD's.

Classroom-to-Office area transformation
1. Get carpet laid (someone is giving us nice carpet that they are replacing in their home so we just have to have it "laid".)
2. Measure, measure, and measure for what I want in there and then budget it out at IKEA.  Can't WAIT to be able to get my stuff.

Home Projects - a lot of thinking more than anything
1. The Living Room - we've lived in this house for 10 years and I'm ready for a change :-)  I have ideas of what I want but I want to really put together my idea board so we can tackle this project this winter.  Need to really budget this project out starting with flooring (Yikes!)
2. The kitchen - need to do the countertops and the floor.  :-) I have prices for them but have time to save since we don't do major indoor work in the summer - too hot!! (Paint never ever dries in this house in the summer!)

Lots and Lots on the radar this month.  I like to have lots to choose from knowing when I start that I won't get it all done.  Especially with a camping trip and a vacation thrown in (Which means any project that costs money most likely will get put off . . and just planned for  . . except maybe painting the house - we have to get moving on that one! )

Too Cute Not To Cute

Hello!  This past week I spent a lot of time cleaning - between vacation and a week with a great holiday well, the house took a back seat.  I mean, between cleaning the kitchen or an impromptu trip to the beach - which would you chose? So, with that in mind I thought I would start out this week with a link to some homemade cleaners.  I'll be honest, I'm not into homemade cleaners usually; why fix what isn't broken, right? But I have used one of these - the vinegar and dawn dish soap, and it really does work well.  Little Ms Robinson shares a whole list of cleaners, where she got her cute bottles and even printable labels :-)

Since so many people post links on Pinterest that go no where or only show a photo, I'm going to embrace it when I see an idea I like.  This is another cleaning tip (only on Pinterest) for carpet cleaner.  I can't clean my carpets in the summer (too humid + no A/C = carpets that would never dry) but I do plan on trying this solution in the fall.  :-)

Don't hate me but this post from Inspiring Pretty gives all kinds of great ideas for . . .Halloween!  I know, I know, it is still months away but some of them you might to plan for like this ghost idea :-)

This last idea comes from Diet Girl and is more of an inspiration then a craft.  It takes about 21 days to establish a habit so, whether you are trying to drink more water, take a walk every day, or read your Bible daily, this Post-it idea is great.

Happy Crafting!

Homeschooling - K4

It's hard to believe but we are starting school today.  I've spent the last week putting finishing touches on some lessons for the next 6 weeks, setting up our homeschool corner in the dining room, ordering a few things from Amazon and making my list of what is needed for when Nate also starts in about 7 weeks.  During this first 6 weeks, Josh will be the only one doing official lessons; Nate's curriculum has 10 less weeks of lessons then Josh does so there is not a need for him to start yet.  I still need to order our Bible curriculum along with a few other things as well.  I'm setting up work boxes to use with the boys which will give them some freedom to do their own work and review and free me up to work with them individually.  This is the first year I'll have the boys doing different work so that will be a transition as well.  I'm hoping that by working with just Josh this first 6 weeks, he'll get into a routine with his work that will enable him to work independently with some of it as we move on to future lessons.

I have an idea in my head to have one day each week that we do something together - a craft, baking, ect.  It takes extra planning and work so we'll see how that goes.

Here are a few pictures from my planning this week.

 I'm turning one corner in the dining room into our "school" corner which includes, at this point, just our calendar and a poster.  I do have a fe other posters to hang and am in the process of getting two 10 drawer carts that will be for the boys to house their daily work. 

 This is what I worked on all week.  I cleaned up a lot of misc. piles by finally getting all of this stuff put together.

 This is my idea binder.  The "July" paper on the front is actually a bucket list of sorts for the month with ideas of things to do.  I have one for each month and change them out as appropriate.

 Inside is filled with ideas.  I tend to print ideas off from blogs, pinterest, etc or they get lost.  I then have filed them in this binder.  It's a great resource and I'm sure I will be moving to two binders soon ;-)

 Finally, this is our daily calendar book.  I'll be working on this with all of the boys and will share more as we get into using it.

Some Things I've Tried

Originally I was going to post about our success (and trials) with potty training now that we are almost 100% there but as I was writing the post, I just didn't "feel" it.  If you happen to be someone who is struggling with potty training a kid, please send me a message and I will encourage you ;-)

Periodically, I like to post some random things I've tried that either have or have not worked.

As you probably know, I love the beach.  If we lived closer, the boys and I would be there every day that it was above 80 degrees and not raining.  I've seen an idea on Pinterest for awhile using this simple item --

What is one of the most difficult things to do when leaving the beach and getting in the car?  Getting all of that sand off your legs, feet, and arms.  Supposidly, if you used Baby Powder, it would brush right off.  I happened to remember to grab the container and throw it in the beach bag when we went to the beach on July 4th to try it out.  Once we got back to the truck, I shook some out on the boys shoulders and guess what, the sand brushed right off!  My feet were COVERED in still damp sand so I dumped some powder on my feet . .. the sand brushed right off.  Plus it makes you smell good too :-)  This is an item that will remain in the beach bag so I always have it when we need it!

As always, I love trying out new frozen drink recipes and this one I found on Pinterest - -

It is a Lime/Strawberry drink and was really good but a small glass is good ;-)  It's pretty tart but very refreshing.

The recipe is:  Blend 1 can frozen limeade, 1/2 can sprite, 2 cups frozen strawberries and the pulp of two limes. 

I cut the recipe in half . .. but ended up still using 1/2 can of Sprite Zero and left out the lime pulp. 

Recently, my husband told me that his favorite sweet treat is actually cupcakes.  I have to admit that baking cupcakes are not my strong point.  They tend to turn out dry or flavorless.  I found a recipe on Pinterest from Keep it Sweet Desserts for a Vanilla Cupcake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing and decided to try it.

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes and the batter worked out perfectly.  That never happens.  As you can see, the frosting didn't cover all 12 of my cupcakes . .. oops!  I have to say, we didn't care of these. The cupcake is very dense and heavy . . .not a light cupcake at all.  The frosting is fantastic.  I will keep that - next time I will make a box cupcake and make it "homemade" with the frosting!

4th of July

We had a fabulous 4th of July Holiday!  I like this holiday a lot because it signals the half way point of summer.  I'm not a huge fan of heat and humidity so I start to look forward to fall just about now.  With that said, I do love the beach and the water and summer days to do fun summer things .. .. just not sweating to death trying to clean my house.  I think if I had central air and a pool I would enjoy summer a LOT more.

Our local fireworks were on July 3rd this year which was great because that meant Darryl could stay up without worrying about being tired the next day since he gets up at 3:30 am for work.  This is also the first year that we let the boys stay up to watch them and to say they were excited is an understatement.  All day people were setting off firecrackers and other fireworks and the boys would exclaim, "I hear them, mom, I hear them!"  We also planned to catch lightning bugs for the first time too! 

 We headed outside about 9:00 - just when the fireflies were waking up :-)

 Josh was trying to get the courage to catch a firefly but he just couldn't do it.  He has been stung by bees already this summer and to him, every bug has a stinger. 

 Nate, on the other hand, is the karate kid of fireflies.  He sees one, reaches out and grabs it in one swoop.  Now, the poor bug is a little worse for wear but still, can you catch one like that? HA! 

 Putting the bugs in the jar and watching them light up - this was something Josh enjoyed!

 We had a "great outside party" on the deck too.  We LOVE our new deck- this is the first year since we bought the house 10 years ago that we didn't have to drag chairs out to watch the fireworks (which we can see from our front yard).  Instead we just all sat on the deck, drank chocolate milk and ate popcorn and cupcakes :-)

Then on July 4th, we continued with our normal tradition and headed to the beach. We slept in a little (well, the boys didn't but they did let me go back to bed once they were set up for the morning).  Had a good brunch and then hit the road with our towels and a picnic :-)  It was kinda funny because we stopped at Speedway in the next town over to get ice.  I said I wanted a frozen coke because I love them so Darryl said he would get us all drinks.  Twenty minutes later we finally left HA!  Nate, the picky child, wanted just a lemonade.  Of course after paying for it, then getting ice, THEN filling our cups with slushies, Darryl found that there was no lemonade on the fountain so then the had to go back and buy a bottle of lemonade for poor Nate HA!  We thought we were finally on our way until we hit a huge traffic jam.  Our normal 1 hour and 15 minute drive took over 2 hours.  We were VERY happy to get to the beach!!

 The weather was perfect and the water wasn't too bad, for Lake Michigan.  :-)  Josh loves going out in the water.  As much as he has a "fear" of pools, he loves the lake because he can touch bottom. 

 My little sand bug, Nate.  Always covered with sand.  He's not such a big fan of the cold water and prefers to stay close to shore.  (He'd rather swim in a pool any day!)

 The beach was full but not nearly as crowded as last year when it was 105 degrees.  This is our favorite spot in the world - this whole general area.  We want to live in this town.

 We got out our kites and it was a perfect day for flying!  Josh had his high up in the air and love it.  Nate's liked to take nose dives but Darryl eventually got it up in the air.

 The boys eventually came back to the water and Darryl helped them build sand castles for a bit before we all went back into the water before heading out for our picnic.

This was our picnic spot.  We were too hungry for me to take one before we ate :-)  My kids love picnics so this was the best thing ever.  For our picnic we had Cheese, Crackers, Salami, Pickles, Potato Salad, Greek Salad (I was inspired by a Pioneer Woman episode), Hummus, Chips, and Strawberries.  It was soooo good!! 

 Once done with our picnic we headed to Ruth Anne's Ice Cream shop - our favorite place to stop after going to the beach. 

 Don't you love that chocolate face?  I do!!!

We had a fabulous day.  We even stopped and picked up info on a few houses and were greatly encouraged by what we saw.  Don't worry, we have a 5 year plan at this point but we do have a dream :-)  I'd love to be 10 minutes from the beach . .. ..

Food Friday - Weekend Egg Biscuit Casserole

Weekend Egg Biscuit Casserole
adapted from At Home With Lady B

I have a thing about Breakfast casseroles.  I like them.  A lot.  Isn't that weird?  I'm always on the lookout for a new twist even though I have a few favorites already.  I'm one of those people who would rather eat something savory for breakfast - like left overs from dinner - and then make a big breakfast for dinner.  Anyway, this casserole caught my eye because it looked simple and it was just that, simple.  It is something I would make again but I would either use a cheaper, smaller biscuit (like the blue can Pillsbury that sells in a pack of 4) or cut the Grands Biscuits in half .  I used Grands Biscuits and it was a bit too much biscuit compared to the rest of the ingredients.  

Weekend Biscuit Egg Casserole

Ingredients

1 can of buttermilk biscuits (8 count)-  (I used open nature biscuits as pictured but have also used Pillsbury Grands Biscuits) 

1 pound of any breakfast sausage roll (browned, drained, and cooled)

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

5 eggs, beaten

2 egg whites

3/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 °F. Crumble and cook sausage in s skillet over medium heat until browned. Drain.

Line bottom of greased 8 x 8 inch baking dish with biscuit dough, firmly pressing perforations to seal.

Sprinkle with sausage and cheese.

Whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a medium bowl until blended; pour over sausage and cheese.

Bake 30 minutes or until set (A knife should come out clean when inserted in the center). Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into squares; serve warm. Enjoy!

**To Avoid burning or excessive browning on top of casserole, cover with foil for for half of cooking time (first 15 minutes)**