Sunday Worship - Peace Be Still

My husband plays guitar in a great praise group.  The first time I heard this song was when his group performed it and I just fell in love with it especially since the girl who sings the lead, Jill, is just amazing . . .better then Lauren Daigle actually and that says alot.  So, enjoy!

Our Week in Photos #5

Our week did not go anywhere near planned.  Why?  We had a "polar vortex" - a killer of a winter storm.  Snow,  temps so cold that boiling water evaporated immediately, and lots of blowing!  We were stuck in the house all week and we had guests just about every day.  I had planned to hit school hard this week as we came back from our semester break but instead, we didn't do anything.

So, here are some photos from our week!

This is what we dealt with all week!  It was cold and snowy! 

 We had snow days all week so our friends were with us.  The sweet girl and I baked a cinnamon roll cake together on Monday while the boys played video games. 

 Here comes the snow! 

 We didn't get much school work done but Nate had to take his MAP test on Monday and Tuesday. 

 We did make it outside Monday afternoon.  We shoveled and then the boys played for a good half an hour before coming in.  The coldest weather didn't hit until Tuesday. 

 Darryl was home with us on Monday so after our friends left early because their parents work closed down early, we all hung out in the warm living room :-) 

 On Tuesday the kids needed to run a note next door.  I couldn't figure out what was taking so long until I discovered they were digging a path to the house instead of just walking in the snow.  

 Then they shoveled off the neighbors deck and by the time they were done - they were cold!  

 So then they spent the afternoon building a fort and hanging out for two hours in their cave!  It was wonderful HA!  

 Wednesday we saw the sun but holy moly it was super duper cold. 

 The moon on Thursday morning was so pretty - it was so clear out (the "second moon" is a reflection in the glass) 

 We also did the boiling water experiment and were in awe as the water basically evaporated into thin air. 

Darryl was home again on Thursday due to the weather so we got our own private concert!  

So, that was our week!  We stayed nice and warm in the house all week.  I finally went out to the grocery store again just last night - my first outing since last Sunday!  It felt good to be out and . . well, seeing all the snow made me smile :-) 

Weekly Menu

So for real, I'm starting at Aldi's and finishing at Meijer this week.   After Josh and I did our little "walk through" last week one night, I now know there is a lot of stuff I can get for less money then at Meijer.  With that in mind, here's the grocery list for the next week.

Friday - Zuppa Soup - this is a carry over from last week.  I'll make Chicken Nuggets for the boys since they do not like soup.  Plus we'll have yeast rolls too!

Saturday - Baked Teriyaki Chicken legs (Josh requested these again!), baked potatoes, and a veggie of some sort - I'll see what I have here

Sunday - Today is the superbowl! So, here's the plan.  After church it will just be simple food - Frozen pizza/Mac and Cheese - whatever is in the house.  Then for game time we will some good food/snacks.  Shrimp Cocktail (thanks to my mom supply extra at New Years!), Sausage Snack Wraps (a family favorite), Chicken Nuggets (more for the kids), Cheese and Crackers, and maybe some fruit and dip.

Monday - Baked Ziti, Garlic Bread, and Broccoli

Tuesday - Chick-Fuy-Lay Nuggets and Fries

Wednesday - I "think" we will finally make it back to AWANA after three weeks of cancellations!  If so the boys and I will eat easy here or get Taco Bell.

Thursday - Tonight is Piano night and dinner is difficulut since we are gone from about 5:15-6:45.  Which means we aren't eating until 7:00.  So, I'm not sure.  Ideally, we would have leftovers but looking back at meals this week, I don't think we will have tons of leftovers so maybe just corn dogs and mac and cheese.

Most of my budget this week, honestly, is going towards our Superbowl snacks - trying to keep it simple with foods that we all enjoy and not going overboard is the key!

January Goals - Recap

My January focus is
Strengthening our Family Finances

Why did I pick this for January?  Because it sets the temperature for the rest of the year.  If we can start strong, we can carry on through the year but if we start behind, we can never catch up. 

Here is what I'm focusing on this month:

1) Become an active Shipt shopper.  For me, this means grabbing 2-4 shops a week.  I think this is doable between evenings and days Darryl takes off since I can only do this while he is home.  Never shopped once. Darryl started driving for Uber so he's working some later nights meaning there isn't a chance for me to go out. 

2) January will be a "no spend" month.  I've written out a calendar budget of all things planned.  Beyond that there is no spending outside of groceries and fuel.  No buying Kindle books, grabbing coffee, or picking up dinner :-)  Just trying to curb the spending and maybe even get a little ahead this month. So, this did not go well!  At first, I was discouraged and was trying to figure out why we were spending some money on unplanned items.  Then it hit me, we had been "no spend" since the end of October due to having one vehicle!  So, the first few weeks of January felt like freedom!!  There were things we truly needed that we hadn't purchased and, trust me, eating out at Taco Bell one night (on a gift card actually) was a long awaited treat!  I'm looking ahead and think we will try the no spend concept again in March and see if we can stick to it better! 

3) Cut the grocery bill.  I feel like I've made some progress on this but I would like to use the weekly add more paired up with mperks coupons and Ibotta.  Ibotta is a great way to earn money just for shopping.  I've managed to earn almost $100.00 and that's with not using it consistently.  I would like Ibotta money to become my scrapbooking fun so it motivates me more to use it ;-)  I did use Ibotta but it doesn't add up as fast as I'd like - still I'm saving it for my scrapbooking money.  Grocery prices went up, as I mentioned in a menu post awhile ago - so saving money has been even more difficult.  

I know it doesn't seem like a lot but I feel like if I can do these three things consistently this month, I can establish a pattern or habit that will continue throughout the year.  

If though that's my main focus, it doesn't mean I'm not looking at the other items on my list - I am.  I have goals for those items as well which might fall more into the "daily" goal concept. 

1) Add exercise to our daily routine.  I'm looking to just take a walk daily  The boys and started walking on a Monday evening mid-January . .then we had Ice Days the next two days HA!  Nothing kills a new "routine" like ice! Then throw in a major winter storm and "arctic cold" we didn't get much done outside of shoveling! 

2) Since this is a no spend month, projects are off limits so instead I want January to be a time I focus on working in the basement cleaning stuff up and out. With undecorating from Christmas and getting back into school, there hasn't been a lot of extra time to do deep cleaning. 

3) Get back to our school routine including Math Minutes and Cursive Writing.This was supposed to be our first full week back to school to do this but due to school cancellations, we've had extra friends here this week!  

4) Have one movie night at home this month Yes!  we've watched several :-) 

5) Find one activity to do this month as a family. I had planned to go to the Auto Show this week but the winter storm caused Darryl to take Monday off and therefore going to the Auto Show wasn't going to work.  

6) This is a no spend month, right? So I technically can't spend on getting one item for our grinch calendar 2019 but I should earn some Mperks rewards so I will plan to use that to pick up the first item. I actually had to use the first round of Mperks rewards to replace a broken Xbox controller HA!  But, I did get a second round by the end of the month and used it to buy the first Grinch gift. 

7) Make sure the Holiday Binder is up to date through New years. This is done!  

8) Scrapbooking - Use what I have here to finish up a few projects.  Also, use this no spend month to work on organizing photos on the external hard drive.  I worked on photos

9) Do the Flylady routine daily, weekly, for the month. Didn't do

10) Work on the first song to sing at church I've listened to some trying to pick one but haven't yet

11) Play piano - just play.  Not really measuring this but I just want to sit down and play. Other than helping the boys, I haven't played

12) I do need to reserve our camping spot for the Family Reunion so I do plan to use Shipt money to do that as soon as I get my first pay day. I didn't schedule a camping spot but I did reserve our hotel (which I don't have to pay for until we go!)  With this being 6 months away, there are just too many variables in place to plan a camping weekend - having a hotel gives us much more freedom on timing and planning

13) This should have technically been number one but I want to work on planning my day.  Taking time the night before and writing out specifics that I want to get done the following day.  This helps me so much on daily focus. I haven't been consistent every day with this but I continue to work on making a list and getting it done! 

14) A must - make sure that I'm two weeks ahead on my Co-Op class as I may not always have a vehicle/way to get to Friday School depending on when we are able to find a car to purchase.  I need to leave the next weeks lesson with my stuff at school each Friday that I am there. Not happening - I am working on the upcoming week now. 

15) Read, read, read.  First, I need to make my book goal list for the month and then I need to read.  I also want to start out this month reading outloud to the boys.  Maybe at lunch . . .I'm not sure yet. I did get some reading done, but not as much as I wanted to. 

16) Create a lunch schedule rotation that not only keeps my boys happy but doesn't repeat lunch and dinner options (such as chicken nuggets) .  Along with this, I want to work on their ability to eat a few more food items.  This is not an easy feat, trust me, but it's time to start stretching them just a little ;-) LOL  (I'm a little "picky" too so it won't be too crazy!) A little - still making progress

17) Complete our Taxes and file them by the end of the month.  Done

18) Help Josh with his gold AWANA sections daily.  He has a goal and I want to help him accomplish that goal! Also, finish January with all things current in school. Work on progress

19) Think about February plans - Valentine's Day and Darryl's birthday.  Lay out a plan, budget, etc.  Don't wait until the last minute to do things for these events. 

I got to thinking as I wrote out the first 15 goals - wouldn't it be great to have 19 goals each month for the whole "19" concept??  Well, it worked this month!  So maybe my focus for "19 in 19" is to try to accomplish 19 goals each month ;-)  

A Trip to Aldi's

As I've mentioned in several past Weekly Menu posts, I needed to try out Aldi's.  As silly as it seemed, it was a little overwhelming to me because, well, I know Meijer inside and out and it was so easy to just keep going.  Well, this past Saturday, in preparation for the big storm, I did the grocery shopping during the day.  I then mentioned that as a "family outing" after a treat of Taco Bell that we go to Aldi and walk around.  Well, only 2 of the 4 of us wanted to.  After dropping Darryl and Nate off at home, Josh and I went to Aldi's and walked around. 

We found some fun things.

 The Peanut Butter Cookies taste just like the Girl Scout Cookies!  I have tried the Mint Cookies and they aren't that great.  I also tried out the Caramels - wow, those are incredible! 

 Josh picked these out.  The trail mix is sooooo good!  He really likes the granola bars too. 

 I had seen these salad kits posted on facebook because they are so inexpensive - guess what, they are and they are super good!! 

Now, I bought this at Meijer - it cost $10.49.  Well, at Aldi, they had some ice melt and it was only $5.49.  Next time, I will get it at Aldi!!! 

Finally, I needed garbage bags since I forgot to buy them eariler.  These were about $2.00 cheaper than Meijer.  

So, yes, I've figured out that I can probably save some money at Aldi's.  Next week I will start at Aldi's for shopping and then finish up at Meijer. 

For me, it helped to be able to walk around the store without needing anything.  I could price shop and just see what types of things they have and what they don't have (like Darryl's yogurt) !!

I did buy Darryl some of his favorite canned spray cheese to try and he hated it HA!  I guess it is trial and error! 

A Snow Day

After a very mild winter, we got hit with a true snow storm on Monday. I can honestly say that I can't remember when the last time was that we had a true "Snow Storm Warning", not just a "Snow Advisory." 

So, I took some "before" photos:

 Most impressive is the beautiful blue sky and the sunshine! 

We had some snow at the end of last week so we weren't dealing with total green grass but we the total so far had only been a couple of inches.  Nothing too impressive.

Then, some after photos from Monday:

We ended up getting a total of about 11 inches on Monday.  

Amazingly, we are under a snow storm warning until Thursday.  Between snow, lake effect snow and "temps colder than Antarctica" I think we will be stuck at home for a bit! 

Origami Week 2

During our second week of Origami class, we started by watching this video above.  It's the story of an Origami Professional.  Nothing really exciting other than being able to hear his story and see his work.  He talks about how he started folding paper by folding paper Airplanes which was the perfect segway into our main project for the week.

This week we stepped away from true Origami and did more paper folding by making paper airplanes.

I used two different resources. The first was from In the Playroom and included these amazing directions for folding.

I also used instrutions show in the front of a Usborne Paper Plane book that my boys have.

Between those two resources, I picked out 4 different folding options for the students to make.

The goal was to fold them, fly them, and see which one went the farthest for each student.  Once they figured out which one went the farthest, they then had to color it for our display table for presentation night.  The others they got to take home.


For the second part of our class, we worked on folding Cootie Catchers.
I thought this idea from Krokotak were really cute to make.

Plus I also supplied this one from Red Ted Art as something extra to do.

All in all it was a good day.


A few photos from our day: