Meal Plan Monday

Running behind again this week, but at least it is still Monday for a little while longer. LOL!!

Sunday - leftovers
Monday - pumpkin french toast
Tuesday - butter chicken and rice
Wednesday - Halloween buffet
Thursday - tuna melts
Friday - english muffin pizzas
Saturday - hamburger helper

A fairly easy week for cooking this week, but maybe that will help me get back on track. No matter what I do lately I seem to be getting further ehind and not accomplishing some things at all. So will be taking things easier this week and hoping that will help things work themselves out.

This is what I will be doing to make this week easier
- breaking every job into very smll chunks
- easy dinners
- girls are ahead in their school work so just doing a bit to keep them ahead but not much
- Halloween party has been scaled back alot, just family and almost no decorations, which means minimum set up and clean up
- Tracey is here and David has tomorrow off so they are doing alot of the preparation
- making sure I get my sleep, which is why this post is done, I'm going to bed!!!

Good Night!!


Gratitudes
1. That my kids never have a problem helping out.
2. That all my kids and their friends love to spend time together no matter the age difference.
3. That Rob has Halloween off this year and is taking the kids trick or treating at the mall, much warmer and safer for them.

 

Pinterest

I found this on pinterest and thought it would be fun for the girls to make.

 

So this week the girls made acorns out of donut holes, chocolate icing, chocolate sprinkles and pretzel sticks. They had a lot of fun making them and then eating them. The boys really enjoyed the eating part too. LOL!

 

 

 

Gratitudes

1. That we found such a wonderful piano teacher for the girls.

2. That Rob and Joe had a safe trip out to Brooks.

3. That it isn't too cold today.

Wordless Wednesday

Gratitudes
1. That we have a new furnace that I can depend on to keep us cozy warm on cold days.
2. That I started a women' bible study last night, it sounds like it will be great.
3. That we have a reliable vehicle and can take Joe to Brooks tomorrow for his work stuff.
 

Meal Plan Monday on a Tuesday

I'm late again, big surprise. LOL!!  I had the menu done just got distracted and never got around to posting it. Oh well here it is.....

Sunday - chicken nuggets
Monday - chicken ceasar salads
Tuesday - spaghetti squash
Wednesday - hamburger helper
Thursday - spinach quiche
Friday - nachos
Saturday - leftovers

It has been getting cooler here and we got out all the winter gear this weekend. Good thing too, we woke up this morning to 6" of snow.  Heavy, wet snow, so I will be going out to shovel it after lunch, it is too heavy for Rob to do.

The twins had fun at survival training this weekend, they kept warm but got very muddy. Boys!!

The girls had lots of fun at their week long sleepover.

One night we brought the blow up pool inside and they filled it with blankets and slept in that. Another night I made a ball out of streamers and some treats we had laying around the house and they took an hour to unwind that.

 

 The last night we gave them large boxes and told them to make them look like cars, they had a lot of fun painting them. Afterwards they used their cars to go to the drive in movies. They really liked that one!

Gratitudes
1. That the girls are very excited about the snow.
2. That it isn't too cold out.
3. That the weather held off until the twins got home.

Sunday Links

A Lesson in Laziness :: A visual lesson

Give Yourself Grace Momma :: I haven't ever covered the dirty laundry up but I have covered up the mountain of clean laundry on the couch occasionally. LOL

I Know You Can Cheer for Motherhood  ::A good reminder.


Gratitudes
1.That the boys will be home from survival training today.
2. That we had a good morning at church.
3. That I have a wonderful man in my life.

 

Friday

Another one of Emily's pictures. When she is bored she will use my cell phone and take pictures. Alot of pictures!! That kid can even get good shots out of a moving vehicle window. I don't know how she does it.


Gratitudes
1. That I got the grocery shopping done before 11am, and the stores got busy.
2. That the girls are having fun painting their boxes.
3. That it is really windy and blowing the leaves are blowing out of our front yard.

Wordless Wednesday

Emily taking pictures. Maybe she will be a photographer?

Gratitudes
1. That I got the job and it is even better than I thought. I chose what classes to teach and when I want to teach them.
2. That we met with the girls facilitator and she is very pleased with how much work they have completed and the quality of their work.
3. That Rob has a date to go back to work now, next Monday.

Terrific Tuesday

14 jars of yummy salsa

I am heading out the door in a few minutes for a job interview so not much of a post today.  I am interviewing to start teaching the Wilton cake decorating classes at our local Michaels Craft Store. Very excited, will let you know how it turns out.


Gratitudes
1. That the girls had fun sleeping in a pool full of blankets and pillows last night.
2. That I have a job interview today.
3. That Rob did the dishes last night.

Meal Plan Monday

Here is the menu for this week ::

Sunday - leftovers
Monday - spaghetti squash
Tuesday - hot turkey sandwiches
Wednesday - hamburger helper
Thursday - tuna melts
Friday - fish and rice
Saturday - leftovers



Gratitudes
1. That this coming weekend is survival training for the boys and they are excited about it, as always.
2. That I had energy and time yesterday to get all the corn canned, now it isn't taking up space in the freezer.
3. That the girls are excited about an all week sleepover, so they are working really fast.

Sunday Links

Quick and Easy Blender Salsa :: I canned salsa and the recipe I used was good but I tink I might try this one next time.

Save Lives Do Not Drive Distracted :: A reminder to drive safely not only for ourselves but for everyone else on the road.

 Kool Aid Popcorn :: How fun would this be for the kids!! You could use different colours for different themes or holidays.


Gratitudes
1. That Rob got to come to church with us again today.
2. That there was a great potluck after church.
3. That I painted my nails, it makes me feel so pretty.

A Slow Saturday

Today I am taking it easy and just puttering around the house. I have the pressure canner going for the salsa, the boys left early this morning to go gliding with the cadets,  Rob is sleeping and Emily is playing in her room. I am going to go over our budget in a little while and watch a movie. Rob said something about driving Joe out to Lakeside for a meeting this afternoon, so it is basically me and Emily by ourselves all day. I love quiet days like this.



Gratitudes
1. That the salsa is almost done.
2. That the boys get to have some great opportunities through cadets.
3. That Emily is such a quiet child, every once in awhile she comes out but she even talks softly.

I'm still here....

Frank hard at work.

Sorry, I haven't been posting, I have been busy with the girls, the house and just generally life. I have been bus cooking and getting ready to can again. A lady from the church asked if I wanted tomatoes, I said I can always use some tomatoes. She stopped by that night with a whole box of them. Yikes!! I looked up some recipes and decided to make salsa after I gave away 2 bags of them. So the last few days have been spent getting the skins off of the tomatoes, and then chopping tomatoes, onions, garlic and peppers. Today they stove is covered with simmering pots of salsa. Later today I will start canning them. Hopefully we will have it done tonight, and then I will have more pictures to post.


Gratitudes
1. That we have been given so much food and that I have the supplies needed to preserve it.
2. That Rob sees the doctor today and hopefully he will be cleared to go back to work, because he is really getting antsy.
3. That we have been having such beautiful fall weather.

All Done!!

A few days ago I made the last of the liquer. I did 4 jars of the orange liquer and 1 jar of candy cane liquer. Rob is very excited to try them out. They won't be ready for a few weeks though so he will have to wait.

 

Gratitudes

1. That Rob is taking the pop bottles back today.

2. That all the tomatoes are ripe so I will be making salsa soon.

3. That supper is in the slow cooker and will be done soon.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

A wonderful Thanksgiving here and I got alot accomplished too.

I cooked a ham, packaged all the meat and boiled the bones for broth, and then pressure canned the broth. We got 6 bags of ham in the freezer and 6 jars of ham broth.

6 jars of ham broth

I cooked a turkey, boiled those bones and canned that broth too. After dinner we packaged up the leftovers and got 4 bags of turkey meat and 10 jars of turkey broth.

10 jars of turkey broth

Rob peeled too many potatoes again, he does that every year. LOL!! Apparently he needs supervision when you hand him a potato peeler. After dinner we packaged up the leftover potatoes and we got 10  ziploc bags of those too.

I also managed to get my corn cob jelly and corn cob syrup done today too. The jelly we just left plain and to the syrup I added vanilla nut extract. Everyone tried it and said it is delicious, so now we need to make some pancakes and try it out.

5 jars of corncob jelly 

7 jars of corncob syrup with vanilla nut flavouring

Menu for this week is

Sunday - leftovers
Monday - turkey
Tuesday - split pea soup
Wednesday - hot turkey sandwiches
Thursday - fish
Friday  - leftovers
Saturday - spaghetti squash



Gratitudes
1. That my kids were all here for Thanksiving, I love all being together, even though it gets really noisy.
2. That I got alot accomplished today.
3. That we have so much to be thankful for.

Sunday Links

Operation Christmas Child 2012 :: We are going to start on ours as soon as Rob is back at work.

Being Cynical Accomplishes Nothing

Benefits of Tiny HouseLiving



Gratitudes
1. That we got our family pictures done today, and while we were waiting we found some clothes that the kids were in need of, and they were in sale.
2. That Frank bought everyone lunch after the pictures.
3. That we all went to church together today.

Corn is Finished

Every year one of the local farmers takes all the corn that is left in his fields and dumps it into the Mormon church parking lot. They leave it there for a few days so people can come and take what they need. Fortunately for us we have a friend that knows the farmer and he always calls us so we don't miss it. This year we went up and got alot of it, some was too old and had to be thrown away and we gave a bunch to Shirley (Rebekkah's mom), Kathleen(our neighbour) and Lynne (a lady from the church). This is what we had left after husking it.

Each bag is about 3 cups of corn and we got 33 bags. So we should have enough for the whole year. 

Gratitudes
1. That we have lots of corn in the freezer for the year.
2. That Rob husked all the corn last night while I was sleeping. Love that man!
3. That it snowed today and even though I don't like the cold, the looks on the girls faces was worth it.

Thankfulness

Yesterday was a busy day, on top of schoolwork for the girls and regular chores and working out I had a few other things to do. In the afternoon I was asked to help make cabbage rolls for the church harvest supper. It was alot of fun working with the other ladies and not only did I help out but learned how to make them myself. Another dinner we can add to the dinner menu and I lke the fact that I can make this one ahead and freeze, making it healthy fast food.

The church is holding a Wednesday evening bible study so I decided to go to that too. I even covinced Rob to come with me. I had to clean the church after so Jake decided to come over and get started on the cleaning while we were at the bible study. Emily came and was going to play in the nursery and Frank was at work. Emily ended up getting bored so she hung out with Jake and helped him clean, the two of them managed to get almost all the cleaning done before we finished up. I have amazingly wonderful kids.

Anyways, the bible study was on thankfulness, something I have been focused on lately. A few months back I came across this picture on the internet.

 

It had a huge impact on me, and since then I have been making a point of thanking God as much as I can. It is the reason I started doing the gratitudes on this blog and it is the reason that I start all my prayers with thanks now. The bible study just helped reinforce that.

We have so much to be thankful for and with Thanksgiving right around the corner, what better time than now to to start being more aware of all these amazing things that God has blessed us with.

Start a gratitude journal or a bulletin board, like my neighbour did. If we don't focus on these great things in our lives then we are focusing on the bad. God doesn't want us to be unhappy he wants us to be joyful and the more we are thankful the more good we will find.

I am thankful for.......

-my own home
-an amazing man in my life
-wonderful children
-a really cute grandson
-a large and loving extended family
-pets that cuddle and amuse me
-warm clothes
-food in our cupboards
-church family
-money for all the things we need and some of the wants
-our health
-Frank's healing
-Rob's surgery going well
-that I am able to homeschool
-our new furnace
-that the church and school let me and the kids cover for Rob while he was off, so we still had some money coming in
-and so many more things, but I would be writing forever if I kept going.


 

Wordless Wednesday

Gratitudes
1. That we have warm sweaters, blankets and socks, because it is starting to get chilly out.
2. That I have a big pot of hot turkey stew on the stove.
3. That I am drinking a cup of hot tea.


Can you tell I am cold???

Thanksgiving Craft

I needed a quick craft to do for this week, so we decided on doing these turkeys. They used a toilet paper tube for the body, and then traced their hands onto red, yellow and orange constructon paper. They wrote something they were thankful for on each finger and then cut them out and glued them onto the body. Then they decorated the faces how they wanted too.

They had fun and we got managed to get an art project done when I wasn't sure we would be able too.

 

 

 

Gratitudes

1. That the boys got promoted at cadets, they are now Flight Sargeants!!

2. That we got alot of corn yesterday and I found a lady selling some canning jars for a great price.

3. That the dog woke me up this morning since my alarm didn't go off.

 

Meal Plan Monday

Sunday - leftovers
Monday - turkey
Tuesday - hot turkey sandwiches
Wednesday - fish
Thursday - leftovers
Friday - pancakes
Saturday - spinach quiche


Gratitudes
1. That the boys are happy and goofing around right now.
2. That we get to go and pick up free corn today.
3. That I have lost 4.2lbs this week!!