Menu Plan Moday

Menu plan Monday is being guest hosted at The Happy Houswife


In no particular order:



~Tacos & Fresh Fruit



~Asian Chicken Salad(from a free mix I was given to try) and wontons



~Chili and Cornbread



~Chili Dogs and Fresh Fruit



~Grilled Steak and Pesto Tortellini Salad



~Pancakes, Bacon, Fresh Fruit & Scrambled Eggs



~Leftovers



I'm going to throw in breakfast and lunch options this week. We are pretty loosey-goosey when it cames to these meals but we are getting in a rut.



Breakfast:

yogurt & granola, cereal, peanut butter toast, cinnamon toast & fruit



Lunch:

sandwiches- tuna, pbj, grilled cheese, & ham

chicken nuggets



Another thing for the week is that I'm not hitting the stores until this weekend. We have lots in the pantry/freezer(canned and frozen fruit/veggies) and I'd like to get these items used up as they have been in there a while. I did pick up some milk and strawberries & bananas at Costco today but that will be it. Wish me luck!

Day 5

I have just completed day 5 of my planned menu. Not to pat myself on the back, but I'm very proud of myself! I normally would have succumbed to the kids by day 3 and made mac & cheese or frozen nuggets. But not this week...I prevailed!! I did have to shuffle one dinner around though so tomorrow is leftovers as we had the pizza on Thursday, and Thursdays dinner tonite. LOL. We got carried away in taking things to Goodwill and ended up doing a major clean up in the garage. It was a great though. I had a lot of stuff from when we moved in a year ago that I haven't touched. So I followed the rule "don't use/need it in a year, get rid of it" and downsized a lot.
There was a bit of extra incentive though with cleaning stuff up out there. Troy has agreed to get a small upright freezer! We have @!*& side by side and I abhor it! I have to take everything out just to find the thing I'm looking for and I'm unable to really stock up on things. Plus my girls are playing soccer this year through October and I want to be able to double up and freeze some meals for a quick meal on busy nights. I can't do that now with such a small freezer.
And all of this cleaning on Thursday continued today. I swapped out dressers in Sophies room and then preceeded to clean every nook and cranny of her room. She is a little hoarder and I'm trying very hard to keep up the purgin in there. I love the dresser change and have had some brainstorms on further decorating her space. I also helped in Maddies room. It wasn't as bad as Sophies but she needed some help in her closet. I'm excited for her because I'm going to repaint her desk and chair! It's going to be PINK ! She is heading into the tween stage and is totally up for funky and different. I plan to post pics of the before and after!

More Bathroom Stuff

I made this for $1! The plaque is from the Dollar Tree, the image from cricut Home Decor cartridge, and the paint I had. It will go in the bathroom on the wall above the light switch. i plan to make two more, one with a floral and one with a word. maybe "simplify" or " beauty" or something like that.
I stopped at Michaels today and noticed that there was a major sale going on. They had all the paintable wood(like a clipboard material) for 60% off! I got a small clip board and a house shape for less than $2! Better than the Dollar Tree!

I'm getting frugal......Again

So Troy is tightening the cash flow a bit so I'm really trying to do my part by planning my spending. The first step for me is menu planning. I have a love/hate relationship with this task. I love making lists of ingredients on hand and coming up with meals from the list. It's like a food scavenger hunt to me I guess. The part I don't like is actually having to make a meal EVERY night. You see, Troy works till late in the evening so it's just the kids and I at dinner. The kids don't enjoy these time intensive meals that I like to make so it sort of feels like a waste when Troy isn't here to enjoy the meal with us. I'm sure they would be happy with a bowl of cereal every night but then I'd feel like Troy is being cheated from a nice meal when he gets home.

Anyway, so I'm back to meal planning and for this week we have:

Monday~Hamburgers, corn, and fresh fruit
Tuesday~grilled chicken Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad ( i will take liberties with the recipe though due to an allergy)& strawberries

Wednesday~Grilled Rib eye, roasted potatoes

Thursday~ Meatless enchilada casserole, refried beans, fresh fruit

Friday~homemade pizza & salad

Saturday~leftovers

Sunday~Stir fry with rice and wontons

There is a wonderful website here: I'm an Organizing Junkie and I'm joining her "Menu Plan Monday" which is why there is a Mr Linky on top of this post. I'm hoping to be part of this every week. I'm doing this for two reasons: 1) It will help me stick to meal planning(hopefully) and 2) I will branch out by trying new recipes.

Bathroom Re-do

So This is probably the best photo pf the bathroom we just re-did. It's small and has no window so the coloring is a bit off. So what we did:

-paint is Benjamin Moore Lemon Souffle- Troy was a little scared when we first started painting because it was really bright. But we love it now! The black and white really tone it down. The reflection in the mirror shows the color the best.

-next we changed the faucet out. I love the two handles. The previous faucet had the single round knob that you twisted left or right. This is much more user friendly.

-Changed out the shower curtain of course.

-removed the towel bar and replaced it with 3 robe hooks

-added a few decorations-the black bucket was yellow , but the wrong color so I spray painted it. The silver tray is from the dollar tree store and the yellow bird is from michaels-clearanced at 2.50 I think. And there is a rub on saying above the towels hooks that says "Celebrate every moment"...When I first put it up I realized people could mis-read it as "celebrate every MOVEMENT" LOL...Oh well, gotta find humor in everything.

-We also changed the light fixture. The original was a long bar of big round bulbs. Ugly not energy saving.

i still have a few things I'd like to do: paint the cabinet black, install a chair rail that will run behind the towels and add some decor-ish things behind the toilet and to the side of the mirror. I might also frame out the mirror in black...

Busy Busy!

(These two photos were from Sophies birthday)

Wow, this month has totally flown! Between the 4th, a birthday and a girls weekend away, I have been swamped!

Our holiday was really low-key. Friday the 3rd we watched fireworks at a local park. That was fun...but short! They only lasted about 10 minutes! The kids had fun though and to me, that's all that matters. On the 4th, Troy had to work so the kids and I just hung out. Did a little craft organizing and bbq'd. We watched with the neighbors while they did fireworks. We provided the sparklers.

Then it was Sophies 6th Birthday. She had a great time and was so fortunate to have great friends to celebrate with her. We had a ladybug theme that we carried over to the decorations, the craft & the cupcakes. I still need to get a day of photos of my now 6 year old.

A really fun part of July was my first overnight without the kids or husband! I drove to a cabin in Tahoe with friends from work. The owners of the store have access to a family home that is just beautiful! 4 stories, an elevator, gorgeous view, and lots of friends. There were a total of 16 of us and it was wonderful being around these creative ladies again. I truly miss them!

Our last activity for July is tomorrow. We are going to the Jelly Belly factory tour. It's a short drive and free! We'll be meeting our great friend Diane and her family and will grab a bite to eat together when the tour is over.

School starts in 2 weeks and soccer starts next week. This is the first time either of the girls has played and Maddie is really excited. Sophie is hard to read...she was stoked to begin with and was the one who asked if she could play. Now that it's upon ius, she is showing a major lack of enthusiasm. We told she has to complete the season regardless of how she feels about it. I think she is just getting nervous about doing something new and different.

A Verbal Sneak Peek of our Home

We've been in our home for almost one year and I really wanted to start changing things right away but my wonderful, wise friend Diane advised me to live in the space for awhile before making any major changes. I'm glad I listened.

We started easy- painting the girls rooms. I love love the colors- Benjamin Moore sky blue for Maddie and Ben Moore ballerina pink for Sophie.

Then it was time for the front living area of the house. This was challenging to me(all things decor are) for two reasons. 1.) the family room,dining room, and kitchen are all connected in one large room. 2.) I am not overly fond of our couches. But, hey, they were generously gifted to us and we were being careful with the monies. And they are the biggest pieces of furniture and I had to use a color from them. Blech. So I found this awesome warm gold/brown color from Behr(had the paint mixed through Valspar though) . To separate the kitchen from the living/dining room area, I had the same color lightened by 25% , changed it to semi-gloss and painted the two kitchen walls. This was a stroke of genius I tell ya! It is a subtle but noticeable difference. Exactly what I wanted !

My husband Troy fancies himself a carpenter. Not having built anything before, I was a little anxious about his skills in regards to something practical yet decorative. But two of the main components of a good marriage is belief and trust in your partner. So he built a bookcase for Wyatts room. And I was pleasantly pleased at the outcome. Very practical and useful and well built. He even used his saw thingy to cut out car shapes that we will paint and attatch to the sides.

I was impressed with his skills so I asked him to build me a bookcase. We have a short wall that seperates the family room from the dining room and I wanted something to fill the wall space in the dining room that I could use for craft/school/supplies. This was a major piece-6ft long, 3 feet tall and 16 inches deep. He completed the piece in record time and now I need to find baksets/bins for the shelves. We have very little storage options in the house so I needed something functional and stylish. He delivered once again. Ahhhhhh....

We took a little time off but in the last week we have: pulled up the lawn, removed the rocks, and leveled it to ready it for sod.

In the last two days we have laid sod, painted the front bathroom, replaced the light fixture and faucet and hung robe hooks instead of the towel bar. I am aiming for "whimsy" and will decorate with black and white.

I'm loving all the changes and I'm so grateful for the chance to turn a house into our home.

Pics to come!!