There are a few of my favorite things….

In an effort to focus on the positive instead of the negative floating around in my head, I thought I would take a few minutes and share with you some items I am currently loving. A few things that make my hectic life a little sweeter.

Dial Vanilla Honey Yogurt Body Wash This has replaced my more scented body wash. It’s moisturizing, yet rinses off well. It doesn’t feel like I’ve taken a dip in a vat of petroleum jelly!

DesignLine Press It Straightening Cream I realize I have already professed my love for this product here, on this blog. However, it is still working for me….therefore, I still love it!

Bigelow Vanilla Chai Tea. This is simply scrumptious! Lately, I’ve been drinking this in the evening. Usually when I want a snack but don’t need one. That would be pretty much every.single.night. It’s not easy for me to find in my podunk little town though. Which disgruntles me. A lot. Way more than it should….but I digress.

Equate Face Lotion. (Cannot locate link, sorry!) I like this product mostly just because it doesn’t aggravate my already troubled skin. This product does make my skin oily, so I only use it in the evening. It contains alpha hydroxy acid and SPF 15. The SPF is important, however I also receive coverage from my next product:

Everyday Minerals foundation. Awesome coverage, awesome colors, awesome price, awesome service. I love everything about this product!

Febreze:Lavender Vanilla Comfort. I just discovered this scent is also available in a non-aerosol spray(pictured)! Yea!  Usually I purchase the Air Effects, which is an aerosol spray. Bad, I know.

And lip stuff! I love me some lip stuff.

Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm is my favorite. My go-to lip balm.

 

E.L.F. This is what I use when I want a little color. It smells good and tastes good. Which is important because, dude, it’s on my lips! Since I’m not a lipstick girl, these light color ‘glazes’ are just perfect for me.

 

What are your favorites?

Menu Plan Monday

This is the plan I made out last Thursday. However, after the weekend (hectic) and this morning (grumpy kids/exhausted mom)…it may not come to pass. It’s shaping up to be a very busy week for me. My family may be served sandwiches all week. Let’s hope not.

breakfasts: baked oatmeal, Farmer’s Casserole, oatmeal muffins, waffles & pancakes from the freezer, fruit, oj, yogurt or milk

lunches: leftovers, tuna salad with crackers, sandwiches: pbj or turkey, soup or chili from the freezer, fruits

suppers:

*pasta fagioli, Italian cheese bread, salad, fruit

oven roasted chicken, veggie saute (zucchini, yellow squash, red onion in olive oil), brown rice, sorbet

taco salad, Spanish rice, brownies

*spaghetti carbonara, salad, fruit

lazy lasagna, salad, fruit

homemade pizzas, salad, ice cream

*I’m also trying to incorporate a few meatless meals. My husband may not be quite thrilled with the idea, but he is not one to complain. We’ll see how it goes. Yes, I do realize there is bacon in the carbonara. However, it is not enough to be considered ’meat’ by anyone in this household! 

Click on over to Menu Plan Monday to see what others are planning.

Menu Plan Monday

 

It’s here again folks! Time to plan those meals. We purchased quite a few cantaloupe from a  fruit stand this weekend. The scent is so sweet and so strong that we can smell it when we enter the house! I love fresh fruit. We also picked up a watermelon and it is delicious as well. We will definitely be stopping by this particular stand more often.

Well, here is what I have put on the menu for this week:

Breakfasts: pancakes, oatmeal, breakfast burritos, cold cereal with oj, milk, fruit and yogurt while it lasts!

Lunches: supper leftovers, soups from the freezer, tuna salad w/crackers, bean burritos, salads, sandwiches with fruit.

Suppers:

salmon, wild rice, steamed veggies, cantaloupe

taco salad, Spanish rice, bean burritos, watermelon

ham steak, cabbage, watermelon/cantaloupe

beef stroganoff, green beans, corn on the cob, watermelon/cantaloupe

homemade pizza, salads, whatever fruit is left

Friday we’ll be celebrating my son’s 8th birthday! He will probably request hot dogs & chips. And of course, birthday cupcakes!

Sunday is never planned. We usually just have a big lunch and snack dinners.

And yes, we have homemade pizza and salmon nearly every week. It is something that everyone loves. If it ain’t broke….

What is on your plan for the week? Need some ideas? Check out Menu Plan Monday for some inspiration.

MPM

Wow, it’s already Monday again! Time for MPM!

We made it through last week just fine. Praise God! He always provides!

Here is the ‘plan’ for this week”

Italian goulash, salad, watermelon

Swiss steak, rice, pears

roast beef subs, chips, grapes

salmon, wild rice, steamed broccoli

homemade pizza, salad

Friday we will dine out to celebrate a birthday!

What are you cooking this week?

It’s Menu Time

Conversation on Saturday….

dh: I think I misappropriated some funds.

me: K.

dh: No, seriously. It’s going to be tight.

me: K.

dh: Do you hear what I am saying?

me: Yeah.

dh: What am I saying?:

me: ‘Don’t spend a dime until further notice.’

dh: Oh. How can you listen and type at the same time?

me: I’m just talented like that.

Since ’we’ have somehow ’misappropriated’ funds…I’m not going to the market this week. It will be challenging to create healthy, filling meals and then make it all last through the week, but I’m going to try! 

Notice how I didn’t say ‘well liked’? Yeah….my kids noticed that too when I posted this list on the calendar. Actually, it’s not that bad. Last week my daughter was away at church camp so there is food left from the last shopping trip.

Breakfasts will be a choice of the following: oatmeal, eggs & toast, toast w/pnut butter, cereal while it lasts

Plus: oj OR a fruit, yogurt OR milk *This is where most of the whining was expressed. They think it’s unfair that they cannot have both. They are so deprived!

Lunches: sandwiches, nachos, homemade soups from the freezer, bean burritos

Suppers: chicken & dumplings, pears *use 1/2 chicken

spinach salad (incuding eggs for protein and bacon bits from 2 strips of bacon I have leftover), watermelon

breakfast casserole (made from potatoes, eggs and 1/2 lb sausage), sliced apples

chicken enchilada casserole (other 1/2 chicken), spanish rice, pears

homemade pizza w/sausage (other 1/2 lb) and veggies from the garden, spinach salad

frittata made with garden veggies & eggs, fruit

tortellini & spinach soup from the freezer, crusty bread, fruit if there is any left!

When the gallon of milk is at the halfway mark, I will add a packet of dry milk & water. The kids balk if they see me do this….but I’m sneaky! They won’t see it and they won’t know!

Anyone else making do with what you have on hand this week?

Menu Pan Monday

Inexpensive ways to conquer Mt. Neverending

As promised in my previous post, I’m going to talk about laundry and give you a recipe/instructions for making your own detergent. I know, you’ve been waiting on pins and needles. Yes, you have. Don’t lie.

So….laundry. It kind of sneaks up on me. It’s not my favorite chore, nor is it my most hated either. It’s fairly simple, besides the putting away. But that is one of the reasons I had kids. Just kidding. Get it, KIDding? I kill me.

Anyway, I already mentioned that I don’t dry all of my clothing. Thus reducing my electric bill. There are still a few more tips I have up my sleeve. Again with the pun-i-ness. Ha!

Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar has an excellent post on how to make your own detergent. Not only does he list the cost comparison, but also a side-by-side performance comparison. Our recipes and methods are similar. However, just for kicks I’ll list mine, tip #1:

• 5 gallon bucket or seal-able container
• several pots of hot water
• 2 cups Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
• 2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax
• 1 bar soap * I prefer Fels Naptha 
• essential oil, optional

<If you prefer dry detergent, grate the bar soap and mix with the washing soda and borax in a container. Use a few spoonfuls for each load of laundry. You will most likely need to allow the washer to fill and agitate a bit to dissolve the detergent before adding your laundry.>

For liquid detergent:

Heat several large pots of water. I use all of my burners equaling 4 pots. Grate the bar of soap. (I use my Salad Shooter for this. It works wonderfully!)

To the 5 gallon bucket, add the Borax and Washing Soda.

Add the grated soap, a little at a time, to a large pot of very hot, but not boiling, water. Stir to dissolve and continue adding soap, a little at a time, until it is all dissolved.

Pour the melted soap/water into the bucket. Stir well to dissolve the powdered substances. Add remaining hot water until the bucket is nearly full. Stir often while allowing mixture to cool. Once cooled, you have laundry detergent! Go you! You can add essential oils to cooled detergent if you would like your detergent to have a scent. Once detergent is completely cooled, it will probably congeal. Just stir it around before using.

Now this is a bit more labor intensive than you may like, but my husband attached a nozzle to my bucket. It allows me to fill empty vinegar bottles, more on that later, with detergent before it cools. This makes the detergent easier to store and manage. I can just pour the desired amount into the washer. Voila!

Why wouldn’t I just use the nozzle to dispense the needed amount? Well, we tried that. However, because the detergent congeals or clots, if you will, it doesn’t easily flow from the nozzle.

Why do I have an excess of vinegar containers? Aha! That leads me to tip #2, Vinegar! I use a lot of vinegar. It makes an excellent laundry softener. Just add a little (1/2 - 1 cup) to your rinse cycle. No, your clothes will not reek, nor will you smell like a pickle. I promise.

Tip #3, I also use vinegar for cleaning. For a quick cleanup in the bathroom, I just dampen a washcloth with vinegar and swipe the counter/sink/faucet. It easily dissolves hard water stains and mineral deposits.  There are tons of recipes online, feel free to google. 

So, there you have it, an inexpensive way to climb the laundry mountain.

Happy Washing!

Gas prices are making me cheap!

I’ve always been frugal, really. Since I was 15, I’ve had bills to pay. I know and appreciate the value of a hard-earned dollar. This has caused me to (usually) spend wisely and sometimes do without. My friends, and especially my daughter, snicker at the things I do to save a buck in general. However, along with the rest of the country, we are starting to really feel the pinch of rising gas prices. In turn, I’m becoming cheap rather than frugal! Here are just a few small & easy examples of how I’m saving money:

• Shopping sales with coupons. If you haven’t read already, there is much well deserved hype regarding CVS. Money Saving Mom has a wonderful tutorial teaching you how to use your coupons on sale items and find the best deals at CVS. In addition, The Simple Dollar has several entries regarding coupons. If you are going to embark on the Great Coupon Adventure, be sure to read his One Month Coupon Strategy.
• Making my own/Cooking from ‘Scratch’. This is by far the easiest of all my tips. All baking/cooking mixes are way cheaper to make than to buy. Sure it takes some time and effort. Honestly, though, it’s not that much time and the savings are by far worth the few minutes of work. They are also far more nutritious than store bought items. Some things I make instead of buying: laundry detergent, dryer sheets, cleaners, frozen pancakes/waffles/breakfast burritos, soups and any mixes i may use in the kitchen.
• Reducing the electric bill. Aside from turning up the air and turning off lights, this is a hard one for me. Since we homeschool, we are home a lot! Something is always running. The children use the TV /DVD players for school and 5 people make a lot of laundry! However, we have found some things to help. My husband installed radiant barrier sheeting across the decking of our attic. So far we have only covered the west side of the house, which happens to be our bedroom, and have already noticed a difference. Since the dryer uses electricity and heats up the house, I only dry sheets, towels and my husbands work clothes completely. The other loads are hung to dry. Another benefit is that the clothes will last a bit longer.
• Reducing the gas bill. This is an obvious one. I am careful to plan my trips into town. Translation: We stay home more.
• Redbox. We have a Redbox at our local market and Wal-Mart. They carry the latest movie releases at $1.00 per 24 hour period. Can you say DEAL? Also, if you enter your mobile number, they will text you a free movie rental code every Monday. Yes, it really works! A major plus is that the movie can be returned to ANY Redbox location. So I can rent on Mondays and my husband can return them on Tuesdays near his place of employment, preventing me from having to make a trip into town. Score!
• Careful shopping. I only shop clearance aisles and Goodwill. Seriously. You can giggle. My friends do.

In the next entry, I plan to post some recipes I use for the items I’ve mentioned.

Until then, are you feeling the pinch? How are you dealing with it?

Star Spangled

I hope you and yours had a fantabulous 4th of July holiday weekend. Ours was relaxed and uneventful. Just the way I like it. We hosted our yearly par-tay with much fewer people than usual in attendance. There was swimming, overeating, sparklers, overeating, fireworks and more overeating! Even with all of the overeating…I still threw away food. These are my favorite shots from our celebration.

 

 

 

And because I like to give credit where credit is due: my daughter took these pictures. 

Also, there are no ‘people pictures’ because my camera stayed in it’s bag the ENTIRE day.

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Unsliced bread is inferior, you know.

This gadget is amazing. Life changing. Click here to check it out for yourself. It will change the way to operate, save you money, abolish unwanted facial hair and create world peace. Ok, ok. Maybe not those last two. However, it really can change the way you operate & save money. I promise! So, go. Click it. You know you want to.

 

 

Summer………………..School

It’s almost summer time for most school aged children. Summer is my favorite season! I just love the sun and the smell of chlorine and spreckled* little noses. We usually spend our summers swimming and doing unit studies. This summer however, will be different.

~Queue dramatic drum-roll please.~

We will be schooling. Yep, that’s right. Schooling. Not unit studies or fun learning projects, plain ole school.

This is my fault entirely. I’m not sure how, but we’ve fallen behind. There is no good excuse for it either. Unlike last year, we’ve experienced no traumatic events. I suppose I’ve just gotten lazy. Sure, I could use that line that lots of other homeschoolers use: “We aren’t really behind because we set our own schedule.” But no, that’s not it. This wasn’t planned, nor should it be so. But it is. It is so. And I will pay for my laziness!

Before you feel sorry for my kids….don’t. They will still get to swim and spend time with friends. I’m sure we will have our share of Friday night parties and get-togethers. Not to mention that they really don’t mind doing school through the summer because they get bored otherwise. It’s me that will suffer. Don’t you feel sorry for me? No? I didn’t think so.

 

*Son-speak for freckles:Spreckles. So precious!