Menu Planning August 2

This summer I did horrible at menu planning... and it showed. I ate horribly and as a result was more tired than when I was in school.

Here's to jumping back on the wagon:

Monday - Dinner with friends at a local restaurant or Mac and Cheese with broccoli (depending on if my little one is feeling better)

Tuesday - Side dishes - French Fries/beans/fruit

Wednesday - Frozen dinner with the hubby at work

Thursday - Homemade Fried Rice

Friday - Shrimp and Grits

Saturday - Cookout with Friends

And so it beings....

My daughter has been going through a stage lately. At least I hope it's a stage. She's up at least once in the middle of the night.

Tonight she got up around midnight and ran into our room. I'm OK with that. Well... right around 3:30 this morning she fell in between the pillows on our bed. This means it scared her half to death and she woke up screaming. And then she was wide awake. Which means I am wide awake. At 3:30. It's now 4:35 and she is still going strong. I am suppose to get up in 25 minutes. Here's to running on adrenaline my first day back at work!

Oh - I was reading some old posts and saw quite a few typos. Sorry about all those :)

A new year is upon us....

This time of year is bittersweet for me. After spending the summer with my family, a new school year is here, and that means it is time to go back to school.

I love my job. I get to teach math to middle schoolers :) But I also love spending time with my family.

Here are some of the things we did this summer:

~ Went to the beach (which the little one hated)

~ Got some major organizing done

~ Had quite a few playdates with kids

~ Did some school work

~ Started our family notebook

~ Completed a Bible study with some wonderful ladies from church

~ Got some GREAT jewelry from my friend Angie

And now.... work starts tomorrow.

My mind is blank

I got nothing....

In the last week

In the last week I have.....

~ worked more than I thought possible during the summer

~ cleaned the whole house (except for mopping, I hate mopping)

~ bought some new cloth diapers to try

~ joined a gym

~ worked out in above mentioned gym

This week I will rest :)

Saving some money!

I read a great post over at Money Saving Mom today. Who is money saving mom you might ask? Only one of the best money saving resources ever!

Money Saving Mom is written by a mom named Crystal who is constant giving money saving tips and ideas. As a matter of fact Crystal and her husband are so committed to being debt free that they saved up 100% of a mortgage. That's right folks! They saved up for a house and God provided them a way to be mortgage free :)

I came across an article here about the things that this family does in order to stay debt free. After reading her article it made me stop and think about all the things that my family and I currently do in order to save money.

So in no particular order.....

1. Make our own soap

2. No Paper towels

3. Cloth diapering (this one will be started up again as soon as we find some new ones we like)

4. Keep our air set around 85 in the summer

5. Keep our heat set on 65 in the winter

6. Use the cash systems for our groceries

7. Use a weekly menu plan

8. Grocery shop using a list

9. Shop consignment sales

10. Replaced our dryer sheets with tennis balls

11. Wash clothes in cold water (except for the cloth diapers)

12. There are also some more things that I do to save money but they border on the crazy side so I'm not going to list them for now :)

I realize that we do alot of things to save money, but there are some more things we could be doing

1. No more candy bars and soft drink snacks

2. Eat out less

3. Eat less meat

4. Fans only instead of AC

5. No cable

6. Line dry clothes

All in all we do pretty well, but could always do better :)

Yummy :)

I just made the best homemade BBQ sauce ever! That's right folks... I cooked something from scratch and take it from me I will never by BBQ sauce from the store again :)

Here's the link :)

Happy Cooking