Monday, January 27, 2014

Quote of the week

opportunity takes work.
Isn't that true! This week I am reminding myself that I do have to do the hard work so the opportunities in life come. Whether it's work, home or myself it's work. We can not be lazy and think everything will come to us but get out there and work for it. The best thing is, it's rewarding! When you get that goal you've worked for so hard,it's a feeling of self accomplishment and no one can take that away!
So this week when you have some hard work to accomplish just remember the OPPORTUNITY it will give to you!

14 Weeks of organizing your home! Week 3!

I am challenging myself to a 14 week organizing my house. I got the challenge at: http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2012/08/home-organization-101-printable.html
abfolbutton



We are into week 3 full steam ahead! It's Laundry Room Time! Lucky for me it's the smallest room in the house. I took everything out of the room,except the washer so that I could scrub the top of the shelf. As I starting putting things back in the room I asked myself "Do we use this?" or "Would this fit better in some other part of the house?" 

With the inside of the washer I used some vinegar  to clean.



1. Kitchen
2. Pantry
3. Laundry Room
4. Bathroom
5. Office
6. Master Closet
7. Master Bedroom
8. My Son's Bedroom
9. Step-son's Closet
10. Dinning Room
11. Living Room
12.My Daughter's Room
13 & 14. Garage

Saturday, January 25, 2014

TourdeCure

I thought I's share this with you. My Very good friend Shane is riding his bike for a good cause, Tour de Cure logo. Visit his site and help fight Diabetes!


Why I Ride...

It's pretty simple.  I see people every day who suffer from the effects of diabetes.  I lost my uncle to diabetic complications and I know others who have passed too soon because of what this disease can do.
This is my opportunity to make a difference.
I'm guessing that you know someone whose life has been changed by diabetes, and I'm asking you to please help me do some good, to raise awareness and education, and to generate a little money for a huge cause.
This is my second time to ride the Tour de Cure.  Last time I rode the Tour I barely made the minimum donation requirement, and while every bit helps, I want to do more this year.
My goal is $1500.  I put in $26 of my own to get started.  I'm not asking you for that much, just a few dollars - one, five, ten - whatever you can spare to help me make a difference in the lives of so many.
This year I'm dedicating my ride to Jay Ganz and my Uncle Kyle, two lives cut short, two souls that are dearly missed, and to my friend Pam Fitzgerald, quite possibly the funniest diabetic on the planet.
Thank you for your support!
 - Shane
http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?px=7275687&fr_id=9399&pg=personal

About me and why I am blogging

As a Mother of Teenagers that still works 40 hours a week outside of the house there are days when there are not enough hours to do everything that needs to be done. It was getting frustrating and I wanted to just throw my hands ups and try to do the bare minimal. 

However something inside me said “NO” I starting searching the internet for ways to improve my time with everything and still be able to spend time with my family.

I have a To-Do List I work on every night for the next day and I follow it to the letter. On it I put my daughter’s wok hours, School functions, Kids Chores, the craft I am working on (ad how long I will be working on it), Reading for 30 minutes a day, and all the extras it comes with running a house. (Dinner, making the weekly menu, coupon night, Coupon match up with my grocery list, E.C.T.)

 I even made a separate laundry list that I framed and everyone goes buy. Since I started this I have managed my time extremely well!

So for all of you don’t give up because you’re feeling overwhelmed, it can be managed. Find the system that works for you and use it for 21 days! It will make a difference and it will become a habit.  

Valentine's Wreath

Here is a super easy craft I did over the weekend. For the supplies I went to Hobby Lobby and Brought a Wire wreath and 3 different types of ribbons(2 of each ribbon). The supplies cost 20.00


All I did was tie a knot with the ribbon,alternating 3 ribbons. It took about 2 hours to make. This was my very first wreath and I am so happy with the way it turned out.


Thursday, January 23, 2014

14 Weeks of organizing your home! Week 2!

I am challenging myself to a 14 week organizing my house. I got the challenge at: http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2012/08/home-organization-101-printable.html
abfolbutton
Week 2 was reorganizing my pantry. Now we live in a house built in the 1940's. There was no built in pantry back then. What we did was use one of the cabinets in the kitchen to hold all of our dry food. Thanks to my wonderful husband he hung a new cabinet for me this week for all our dry foods. What this did for my kitchen space was wonderful! It actually didn't take all week to do this project. What did take the longest was making out my pantry inventory. Every time we use a can from the pantry we mark through the list or if we buy more dry food we add to this. The idea for this was to make it easier when I had to make the weekly grocery list. I must say I got to use it last week and it work! It cut having to go through everything to see what I had. Because my Pantry was organized and I had my list it only took 20 minutes to make my list!
I only took an after picture.


I am so looking forward to completing week 3 and sharing with everyone!




1. Kitchen
2. Pantry
3. Landry Room
4. Bathroom
5. Office
6. Master Closet
7. Master Bedroom
8. My Son's Bedroom
9. Step-son's Closet
10. Dinning Room
11. Living Room
12.My Daughter's Room
13 & 14. Garage

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

This week's Quote

I am running a bit behind. We had a lot of company this weekend and I did not have a chance to get back to my computer. This weeks quote goes on with what all happened this weekend. My daughter came home from college to let us met her new boyfriend. I entertained them all weekend long instead of working on my projects. By Monday I revamped myself back into gear. The most important thing this weekend was having my whole family here at the house and making memories! NOW BACK TO WORK DONNA!

lettering

Tonight I've gotten a lot done and it feels GREAT!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Thursday Family Meal - Bratwurst Hot Dogs

This was actually the one meal I was worried about when I planned my menu. I had never cooked bratwurst Sausages. My husband just told me to make sort I cooked them at a low heat so they don't spilt. I had purchased the sausages at Albertson's because of a great sale each package (which had 5 sausages) was .99. So I figured if it bombs here at the house I didn't spend that much money.
I did cook the sausage on a low heat using my trusty skillet and it took 30 minutes for them to cook all the way through; but man it was worth it! They were a HUGE hit!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Wednesday Family Meal - Turkey Dinner!

Thanks to my dad! He had brought me a Turkey breast when he came up to visit New Years Eve. For this meal I followed the directions on the Turkey breast package.
Thanks to Albertson for having a great sale a few months ago on Stove Top Stuffing.(I mean what's Turkey without stuffing)
Believe it or not the most expensive part of the meal for me was the Green Bean Casserole. and you guessed it, I follow the directions on the fried onion package I had bought.
YES we had a basic Thanksgiving meal in January, so we can remember to be Thankful everyday!!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Tuesday's Family Meal - Lasagna!

For the sauce  please see my previous post! For this recipe you will need (in addition to the sauce)

8 uncooked lasagna noodles
15oz ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 TB oregano
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat you oven to 350.
Cook and drain noodles (as directed on package.)
In a small bowl mix:
 ricotta cheese
 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
 oregano





Using a 13x9 ungreased glass baking dish, spread half of the sausage mixture.top will 4 noodles.Sprinkle with half the mozzarella cheese. Repeat  layers ending with mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan Cheese on top.

Cover a baked for 30 minutes. Then uncover the wonderful Lasagna and back for addition 15 minutes. After you pull it out of the over let it stand for 15 minutes and the ENJOY!!!!

One word about my picture it was taken after half of the Lasagna was gone it is a family favorite here! The leftovers made a great lunch at work!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Monday's Family Dinner- Spaghetti!

For Today and Tomorrow's meal I actually started Sunday making the sauce. A good sauce for Spaghetti and Lasagna take a while to make. I doubled everything because I was using this for 2 meals.

Homemade Sauce:
1lbs Italian Sausage
1lb Ground Turkey meat
1 Clove Garlic (finely chopped)
2 TB spoons Parsley
1 TB spoon Basil
1 teaspoon Sugar
2 cans Whole Tomatoes (Drained)
2 cans Tomato Sauce
1tbl spoon Vodka (optional)


 In a skillet cook the sausage, turkey meat, and garlic until meat  is no longer pink. Drain the meat.

 Transfer to a large pot and add the Parsley, sugar, Basil,Vodka, Tomato Sauce and Whole Tomatoes , breaking up the Tomatoes with a fork or snipping with kitchen scissors.

 Heat to a boil stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer uncover for at least 45 minutes. (I let mine simmer for 3 hours)

That's it for the sauce!

Just cook your spaghetti noodles and add sauce to the top. My family likes meaty sauces that is why I added both Sausage and Turkey Meat.

14 Weeks of organizing your home! Week 1!

I am challenging myself to a 14 week organizing my house. I got the challenge at: http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2012/08/home-organization-101-printable.html
abfolbutton
I had to take their list and change it a bit because it's January, it's cold, and my garage will be a 2 week Family Task!
Going room by room and getting rid of things we do use or that have expired and cleaning as I go! First take a picture of before and then take a picture after. Use 4 baskets for keep, donate or garage sale, trash,other room. Here is the 14 week list of rooms:

1. Kitchen
2. Pantry
3. Landry Room
4. Bathroom
5. Office
6. Master Closet
7. Master Bedroom
8. My Son's Bedroom
9. Step-son's Closet
10. Dinning Room
11. Living Room
12.My Daughter's Room
13 & 14. Garage

This is not something that can be done in 1 day. So if you choose to do this take baby steps.
 Before I started I went to the Dollar Tree and bought different containers for organizing!
They have a great selection and only a buck who can go wrong!

The 1st day I decided I would clean the top of our fridge (and outside of it too) and use the cabinets that are above the fridge for things we use seasonally. The goal was to get as much stuff off the top of my fridge.







 Day 2 was the microwave area and cabinet under the microwave. I wanted to put my spices in a draw so that they were easier to get to and take all my tupperware and put it in the cabinet under the microwave. After I was done I could see a huge difference and that's when it hit me how great of a thing this 14 week project was!









Day 3 I did all my lower cabinets. Got rid  of baking pans that were way to old and wouldn't clean up.







Day 4 was all the drawers. This was the big test! I had that junk drawer that I just wasn't looking forward into cleaning out. I went through it and thought "do we really need this?" What ended up happening was most of the drawer found it's way to trash.






Day 5 Upper Cabinets. I live in a house from the 1940's it didn't come with a pantry. One of my upper cabinets was being used as part of our pantry. My goal was to get the canned goods out and to be able to used it to hold my baking stuff.
  Also I love, LOVE dishes! I has to go through and put into a garage sale pile dishes I'm not going to use. After I finished I was very happy with the result!





 Day 6 counter tops. It actually got easier and easier to organized as the week went on because I started to think of where I wanted everything and how I wants it to look. I wanted A LOT of stuff off my counter tops. and because I had organized the rest of the kitchen it was completely easy. This was maybe an hour job!




Day 7 Fridge and Freezer. We all need clean out our Fridge's at least once a month. I hadn't done it in 6 months so this was chore. I also did this on a very cold day that made me not very happy! LOL

 After I was done I was amazed I had fallen in love with my kitchen again! I was and am so inspired to head into week 2!

Quote of the Week

I have been writing in a journal and using a quotes I find each week. This weeks quote is:

                                  A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skillful Sailorr
So when I am having a rough day I just remember this and think of how it will make me skillful in what I am doing and not to give up.So many times it's is easier to stop what your doing and walk away. That is when we need to take the time to reflect and find out why something isn't going right. Sometimes it's a matter of changing your perception of what your doing to see things right.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

January Time to get Organized!!!

Getting organized! First step for this to happen is putting together my family planner.I searched all over the internet looking for something that would fit my needs for a planner. I did have a planner on my Nexus 7 until it died then I realized I didn't know what was going on or when. That is why I have choosen the old pen and paper method! That is the one reason why most planners fail, they don't work for the person using them. I strongly suggest to take time and look at every page and ask yourself "Will this planner realistically work for me?"
 There are tons of sites that offer free printable sheets. At one point I was even toying with printing a pages at different sites that will work for me. I found a planner that had everything I needed. It was a AHH HAA moment. I was so thrill looking over the pages that were offered. This is where I got my planner at, even the title says it all "My Life Notebook" http://www.bringingcraftyback.net/the-life-notebook/

Now it's all printed in color(something my husband doesn't get he thinks black and white it ok), hole punched and put into my new binder I have been tasked with filling everything out! For the past week I have been using it and it seem to be working great for me!

However there are really cute planner pages for free all over the net! I liked this one as well
that I found here laurathoughts81.blogspot.com

cleaning schedule
This is another page I thought was great for people workingout.
adayinthelifeandmind.blogspot.com

Useful planners

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Something for the Family NEW YEARS!

I came across this yesterday while on Pinterest.

 My thought was "Hey that's a cute idea to do at breakfast this morning." So I quickly printed up the 3 sheets and got them ready for everyone to fill out.
The kids filled their out and put them on the fridge and I put mine in my organizer so I can see it everyday!
Even though New Years has past this would be a great thing to do this weekend with people you love!

Here is the link to the website, ENJOY! http://www.homesweetfirsthome.com/2013/12/2014-goals.html

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

How to Save Money through the year

                                                          52 Week Challenge


     Saving money in this household can be a challenge. When I came across this website I was intrigued.
http://stuckathomemom.com/52-week-money-challenge/the-52-week-money-challenge-you-game/
 Could this work for my family? Could we stay focus and not touch the money in the jar?The answer is YES we can! This is good lesson in Disciple that I feel we all need.
  
  

 The Money Challenge





What's so great about this is it reminds me of "mom's egg money" You know that cash mom hide in the kitchen.
    So come join me in the 52 week money saving challenge!