Menu Planning

I like to try to plan my dinners.  I hate to go home from work and stand in front of the fridge or pantry trying to figure out what's for dinner while the kids are raiding the snack box looking for something to eat.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge planner and I haven't always done it, but I'm trying to do better.  I need make some things in my life a lot easier than they are now, if that is even possible.  Darn it, I should get an A for trying!

At the end of 2011, I came across a good deal on Groupon for E-Mealz. I can't remember who introduced me to E-Mealz so I can't give them credit for it, but I knew about the website and what it was about and knew it was run by a couple of ladies in the area where I live.  E-Mealz is a great website.  You pick the store, lots of dietary plans, small family meal plans, etc.  Each Wednesday, in my Gmail inbox, I get a plan for 7 meals and attached to it is a complete grocery list for the 7 meals. It's done for you. How easy is that?  I still have 6 months left and I will probably renew for another year!

So, I chose some of my favorites from E-Mealz and Pinterest and this is what I came up with for 2 weeks of dinners for my family:

Saturday, June 23 - BLT wraps  and oven baked fries - I tweeked the wraps a bit.  I added ham to ours and the kids only had ham, bacon and cheese.  Also, instead of using dried tomatoes, I used the tomatoes on the vine and I cut them up and chopped some onion and mixed that with the mayonnaise.

Sunday, June 24 - sandwiches for lunch and for dinner, Mike was working so I treated the kids to cheese dip and flour tortillas at a local Mexican restaurant.  That's our favorite meal!

Monday, June 25 - we went to dinner with Anna and Mark, Norm and JoAnne and Kristi and Jared for Anna's birthday.  We celebrated at PF Changs!  YUMMO!!!

Tuesday, June 26 - Chicken Roll Ups, green beans and mashed potatoes

Wednesday, June 27 - Kristi and Jared had us over for dinner and it was so yummy!  We had grilled chicken, fried okra, homemade mac and cheese, salad with homemade topping and a mango key lime pie!

Thursday, June 28 - Italian sandwiches and baked chips - I got this recipe from one of my Aldi meal plans from E-Mealz.

Friday, June 29 - loaded baked potatoes

Saturday, June 30 - Sour Cream Chicken, black eyes peas and a salad

Sunday, July 1 - Beef Mexi-Bowl and chips - I also got this recipe from one of my Aldi meal plans.

Monday, July 2 -Crock pot Zesty Italian Chicken, au gratin potatoes and green beans

Tuesday, July 3 - Breakfast for dinner

Wednesday, July 4 - Happy 4th of July !!!

Thursday, July 5 - Beef Tips and Rice, veggies

Friday, July 6 - Crock Pot ranch pork chops, corn and a salad

I was real excited when I did the shopping for 2 weeks, minus a handful of things Aldi did not have, I only spent $95!  Whoop Whoop!!!

I can't link back to my E-Mealz recipes because it's a paid for service, but if want the recipe to something that sounds good, let me know and I will be glad to share it.  They are sent to me in PDF and I save them for future use!

Until next time.....

Decisions Decision

There are several things I could blog about right now, but I have to choose just one.  So I'm going to tell you about our Saturday at my friend Kristi's mom's pool.  It was a hot hot day and the pool felt fantabulous.  It was me and my two girls, Anna and her two girls and Kristi and her boys.  Her little was in the house sleeping and poor Riley was outside with all of the girls.  He's such a sweet boy, he just goes with the flow!  Maggie swims just fine, but Sarah can't swim very well, but she is getting there and she isn't afraid to get out in the deep water with her life vest on.  We kept telling her to go off the diving board that she wouldn't go under water (which she does just fine anyway, but I think it was little scary jumping off the diving board) and finally Kristi just threw her in and from then on she was unstoppable!

We had a very fun and relaxing day and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I appreciate Kristi inviting us and hope we can go back soon!  Here are some not-so-good snapshots from our fun day at the pool!

Come back tomorrow to see what I've got planned for dinner the next couple of weeks!!!!  

Maggie's Rock Star Birthday Party

Although Maggie turned 11 on May 31, I didn't have her birthday party until June 16.  Having a birthday around a holiday and the ending of the school year, I always just wait to have her party.  She doesn't mind at all.  I wanted to make sure she had a fun birthday with her friends because last year we were out of town and we never really did anything for her birthday.  I looked and looked on Pinterest for birthday party ideas and I finally found the one I wanted to do.  We decided on having a Rock Star party.  They could sing with the Wii games, dance and play Guitar Hero.  I found the idea from Hostess With The Mostess.  If you haven't come across this blog, you should definitely check it out!  There are party ideas like you can't even imagine!  I will for sure be going back to their blog to get all of my party ideas!

I went to Paper and Cake and ordered all of the printables I used and I was able to customize them.  I was so excited about this party and I think Maggie was too.   Here are a few pictures.

Grape Jello with Cool Whip and raspberries

Now I get to plan Sarah's sleepover birthday party for August!!! I can't wait!!!

Take Me Back Thursday

I totally made that up, but it may be a good post for me to do on Thursdays.  I have some pretty fun pictures of way back when.  The picture quality isn't good, but whatever.  I loved cheering for youth football.  We rocked!  We always had the best girls, some of them went on to cheer in high school.  There was an elderly lady who made all of the cheer uniforms and there were a lot to be made.  I mean you are talking 10-12 girls on each squad, and there probably 8 squads, or could have been more.  Girls from kindergarten to eighth grade.  I remember going to her house to be fitted and there were piles of uniforms in her sewing room with our names and squads pinned to them.  She made the vest, the shirt and pleated skirt.  She did that every year.  I'm sure she passed away long ago because she was pretty old when she was making the uniforms.  I can't even remember her name, but I see her in my mind and I think of her quite often.  I'm weird like that.

I have so many fun memories of cheering for youth football and it wasn't just about football. We went to cheer competitions and we were the best of the best.  We always placed and a few times, we won!  I remember one particular competition, I was the only one who could do the side to side splits instead of the front/back splits.  So, at the end of our cheer, I did a dive roll into the splits, IN THE MUD!  It was cold and rainy that day, I remember it like it was yesterday.  I remember our parents were upset because we were facing away from them and they couldn't see us. I believe that is one did pretty good at.

We had slumber parties at the rec center, us girls were always joined at the hip.  I remember once Lori's parents took me, her and Kim to Burger King or somewhere after a game to get lunch.  Lori is blond headed, Kim is red headed and I'm a brunette.  Someone asked us if we were sisters and that just cracked us up thinking we were sisters. Good times........  I will always cherish this time in my life.  

Circa 1979 or 1980

Stayed tuned or next Thursday's Take Me Back Thursday!  

Peace!

Mount Laundry At Its Finest!

There are no words...

15 Interesting Facts About Me

I don't know how interesting they are, but here ya go.....

• I like a tomato sandwich, but I don't like tomatoes on a hamburger or any kind of sandwich with meat.
• I do not like the crust on sandwich bread.
• I've had "brain" surgery.  I have a VP shunt.
• I have been to the Cayman Islands 4 times.
• I like Rocky Road ice cream.
• I am a legal assistant.
• I wished I could play the violin.
• I was in a wreck and flipped my car and only had bumps and bruises.
• My dream job is to be a personal assistant to someone famous.
• I am very sentimental.
• I used to smoke.
• I love watching shows like "Hoarding: Buried Alive" and "Bizarre ER".  
• I can write backwards in cursive.
• I love the smell of Scotch tape.
• Once I become friends with someone, I'm always friends with them and I will keep in touch with them.

Have a fantabulous day! 

I'm Cleaning House!

Oh Yes I Am!!  My life is busy as I've previously whined talked about.  I'm no different than any other working mother and certainly not a super mom by no means.  I have been trying to find the perfect, or near perfect cleaning schedule.  Is there even such a thing?  When the house needs to be cleaned up, it's total chaos because it's like everything is messy at the same time.  We try to keep the hardwoods swept and the dust bunnies off the stairs.  I'm a bit of a snot nose little brat when it comes to cleaning the house.  I work all week, I'm gone from the house for 10-11 hours every day and I don't want to spend my weekends cleaning, plus the fact that cleaning with kids around is nearly impossible.

So after looking and pinning LOTS OF CLEANING SCHEDULES, I finally found one that I like.

I found it on Pinterest but I can't link back to it because it was deemed inappropriate or spam.  So I just created my own.  I found these cute little letters on AllSorts and I printed the letters I needed and taped them on a piece of paper, then I made a photocopy of them and then typed out my chore list.  

It's not the best picture cause I took it with my Crapberry phone (2.0 mpx, but anyway, this is my chore list and I'm hoping I can stick to it. I really don't see how I can fail at this, but where there's a will, there's a way! 

Unfinished Business

Yes, I have some, but not the kind people usually think of.  I am bad about starting a project and not getting it finished.  I certainly don't do this on purpose, but it happens.  Life happens.  I hate that I don't have any time to do the things I WANT to do because my time is filled with the things I HAVE to do.  I work all day, I get the kids, go home and make dinner, make sure stuff is ready for the next day, clean the kitchen after dinner, then there's the endless piles of laundry, then it's time for the kids shower and bed, then an hour or so later, I go to bed. It's like this EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!  I don't get a break to sit back and do things I want to do like work on my crafts THAT ARE FOR THE HOUSE, I would like to scrapbook again someday, get some organizing done.

For the last week or so, I have been trying to get caught up on cutting and organizing my coupon stash.  I had fallen off the bandwagon of my couponing and  I'm trying to get back at it.  I had ALOT of coupons to cut and organize and weed through the ones that were expired.  Then I had to get all of the expired ones out of my binder.  That was a task, let me ya!  I would work on it while cooking dinner or between other things I was doing, but apparently, I was not doing it as fast as some people would have wanted me to do it.

I can't get anything done because I'm constantly being pulled away to do something for someone else and it really pisses me off.  I'm like why can't I finish just one thing?  Just one!  That's all I'm asking for.

So yesterday after "some people" came home from helping a friend with yard work (friend has a blown knee), he went into the dining room and saw this.......

made a face, like well, I guess I'm going to have to do this myself and proceeded to finish it while I finished dinner and sat down with the kids to eat.  It's my stuff and I will finish it.  Just because I don't finish it in the time frame said person thinks I should finish it doesn't mean it' going to get done.  It really hurt my feelings even more than normal because said person had just told me the day before that it really irritates him that it takes me so long to finish a project.  

I do the best I can.  I have so much on my plate and so much that I want to do.  I found myself literally walking in circles the other day in the kitchen because I had so many things on my mind that I needed to do right then I didn't know which way to go so I was walking in circles.  

Again, I do the best I can, I have everyone to take care of and a million other things to do.  I don't know, I need serious help, time management, or something......Any suggestions?  I open for them!  

Photo A Day June Day 4

Here is Day 4 (I skipped days 2 and 3 by accident) of Fat Mum Slim's Photo A Day!  Post your pics via Instagram, Twitter, on your blog, etc.  I want to see your "Close Up"!  Let me know if you join in on the fun by posting below and letting me know where you are going to post your picture of the day! Remember, if you post to Twitter, use the hashtag #photoadayjune!

I'm posting here on my blog and on Twitter @oneandonlylisa.