Even though the books have been wrapped for about two weeks, I'm just now getting around to writing about this year's countdown the night before. This has become a really fun tradition for us and with Michael loving books even more, I see this lasting for several more years.
Over the past several years it seems that every where you turn, you see something about Elf on the Shelf. Let's be honest, those elves are creepy looking. Plus who wants to clean up after the shenanigans that some of the elves do to the house? Here's the alternative that we've been doing for the past two years.
I'm pretty excited about this. The last four years we've been doing a Christmas book countdown which is always fun. I decided last year, after I realized I had finally purchased just enough movies, that I could also do a Christmas movie countdown.
Congratulations on already booking your vacation to one of the many Disney Parks in the world! Such an exciting time preparing for the magical trip that awaits. Here's some of my tips on things to pack or purchase as soon as you get to the parks from a fellow Disney Addict!
Looking for a simple and fun way to bring Halloween to your child's school Halloween party? Last year when the list came out of the items that were needed for the class Halloween party, I quickly signed up for the cheese balls. The class moms had also asked for us to be as creative as possible. Here's how I was able to do just that!
This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
Do you have children who love
VeggieTales? Do you love VeggieTales? I'll admit that I probably love VeggieTales more than Michael. I mean, I did name my first car the Junior mobile after Junior Asparagus. Oh, and had Junior hanging from my rear view mirror. Because of our combined love for VeggieTales when I was looking for a family devotional last year, I was hoping to find one from them. Unfortunately, the Family Christian Store I was out was completely out.
If you read my post
Planning a Family Vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC, you know that we decided to stay at Captain's Quarters for our vacation last year. We had a great time and have a vacation already in the books for this Summer. Here's all the reasons why we chose Captain's Quarters for our family, friendly Myrtle Beach vacation.
Even though Summer is quickly coming to an end, we are in vacation planning mode. We will be making another trip down to Myrtle Beach and I have been thinking about all the different meals that we can make while down there. When you're on vacation and you're planning on cooking, you want the meals to be simple, cheap, and quick. I have made a list of some recipes that I have here in my virtual recipe box that I think would fit just that.
It's been awhile since I've posted about our grocery trip breakdown and meal plans. Well, it's actually been awhile since I've posted. I'm going to try and get back in the swing of things starting with this week's grocery trip and our dinner meal plans.
Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I
would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would
occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will
put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of
my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish
and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will
have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with
Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point
out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I
would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would
occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will
put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of
my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish
and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will
have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with
Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point
out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I
would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would
occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will
put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of
my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish
and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will
have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with
Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point
out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I
would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would
occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will
put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of
my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish
and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will
have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with
Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point
out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
Last summer my mom handed me several of my brother's t-shirts from his childhood. Some of them I have added to Michael's t-shirts, but she had asked for these three t-shirt to be made into some type of wall art for her Christmas gift. The big thing was that she didn't want the shirts cut. So, what to do when you are not allowed to cut them? Here's what I came up with and I think it turned out pretty well.
Since it's supposed to be Spring, even though the weather doesn't seem to feel like it, the birds should be starting to show back up. We actually had some birds that were hanging around the neighborhood back in January and decided to make them some feeders so they'd be able to survive. Here's how we made them.
I ended up making this Easter egg garland for a Bunny Hop at Michael's school. Don't know what a Bunny Hop is? Well, look for a post about that later this week. Last year I had no idea so this year I was prepared. Here's how I made this pretty cool looking garland that I'm sure we'll use for many Easters to come.
With the weather slowly starting to turn to Spring, I thought I would share with you some of the outdoor toys that Michael has played with in the past and some he still plays with. Ever since Michael started walking, he's been loving playing in the backyard with all the awesome toys that he's received as gifts or items that I've been able to purchase via consignment sales. Outside play is a must so why not invest in some good toys that will last for several years.
Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I
would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would
occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will
put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of
my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish
and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will
have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with
Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point
out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
Because we were getting another snow storm on my normal shopping day, we went shopping after Jon got off work on Friday. I would have rather just gone with Michael on my normal day. Here's what I planned for dinner this week:
Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I
would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would
occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will
put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of
my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish
and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will
have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with
Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point
out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
So, last week was a flop with getting to the grocery store. Luckily we had food in the house to be able to make some meals. Others were drive-thru. With that being said, we had double the amount of money to work with this week. Since we were starting to run low on some items, we ended up going shopping on Saturday instead of my usual Monday. Here's what's planned for dinner this week:
Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I
would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would
occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will
put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of
my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish
and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will
have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with
Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point
out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
Plus a giveaway of Sarah Young's Jesus Today: Devotions For Kids!
I had planned to actually write a post about this several months ago, but life got the best of me. Back in September I had decided that since it was a new school year that I wanted to start doing some family devotionals. At Michael's preschool he is getting chapel weekly where he learns about God and all the different stories in the Bible, but I wanted to start something at home for all of us to participate in.
So, as with all "New Year's Resolutions" they only last so long. We started out fairly well and then by the end of the month I just didn't feel like cooking. Here's what was planned for the month of January:
Last week we weren't as good with sticking to the dinner plans so there are some carry overs for dinners this week. Here's what we're looking at:
Music has always played a large part in my life. I had great music/band teachers that helped teach me about music and increased my love of it. If you come to my house, you'll see tons of CDs of all genres. It wasn't until High School that I truly found a love or a passion for Praise and Worship music.
I hope this a sign of good things, we did a wonderful job last week on staying with the dinner plan. That's my goal this year in hopes to help us eat healthier by not doing drive-thru all the time and saving us some money. Fingers cross this continues! Here's the plans for dinner this week:
Last week I was folding clothes and noticed that it was extremely quiet on the main floor of our house. Anyone who's ever had a child knows that this is something that should be checked out immediately. I was right to be concerned because Michael had decided to take the regular markers that he got for Christmas and use them on his dry erase board.
It's a new year and we are back at doing our weekly dinner meal planning and grocery shopping. As before, our weekly grocery/household budget is $50 a week. Here's what I have set for dinner this week.
Welcome to the new year! I'm going to be up front with you, we did really bad at keeping to our meal plans for the month of December. This is one of our goals for 2016 - stick to the dinner meal plan. It will not only save us money in the long run, but will also help us to eat a little healthier. Here's what we had planned for dinners during December.
