Our weekly menu!

I have done menu planning for quite awhile now and its a true lifesaver!! I make a dinner menu on Saturday or Sunday before grocery shopping so I have 6-7 dinners planned for the week! I then pick and choose whatever I feel like making that day!  I also find doing this we have a way better variety of meals, rather than the same ole same ole week after week! I will admit I am addicted to food blogs and cooking sites but with all that stalking I find lots of recipes to try out on my guinea pigs, err, I mean family!  :)   I am really trying to make more and more from scratch instead of the processed crap out there and this meal planning helps with that as well!

Awhile back I started my own "cookbook" of recipes that have become our favorites and keep those in a binder!  That has helped so much since I get recipes from all over the internet, other cookbooks, friends, etc and SO frustrating to remember a meal you loved but yet cannot find the recipe ANYWHERE!?!

Meal #1 Roasted chicken, green beans, rice pilaf.
Meal #2 Spagetti Casserole, salad, sinful bread
Meal #3 Spicy Buffalo Chicken sandwiches (Everyday Food-Jan/Feb11) fries, grapes
Meal #4 Chicken w/ garlic & sundried tomato pasta, salad, baguette
Meal #5 Pizza bombs, mozzerella sticks, salad
Meal #6 Slow Cooker chili chicken tacos , spanish rice, chips w/ salsa
Meal #7 Parmesan Chicken Sticks, cantelope, carrots

A few little extras to try this week:

Cinnamon Raisin bread
Dolly Madison Cookies

Some snacks we tried recently that went in the "keep it" pile for sure :)

pudding pops (we made the strawberry cream!)
smores granola bars
granola (we left out cashews since we dont like them, I used sliced almonds instead of slivered & we added flax meal) *even Dave liked this, which speaks VOLUMES if you know my hubby!!!*

Girlfriends ROCK, no matter how old you are!!

I have had a crappy couple of weeks! Savannah got sick with the stomach bug and took her a full week to get over it....my car battery dies to the tune of $100 to replace it.......then Savannah is back to normal and I am cleaning and disinfecting everything I can get my hands on.......think we are in the clear then I come down with it in the middle of the night...then the very next morning Emerson wakes up with it :( No fun because we all know that mommies do not get sick days and its doubly hard to have a sick kiddo when you are sick yourself! Not to mention trying to do childcare in the midst of all this craziness so my parents don't all abandon me!

Finally 2 weeks tomorrow and as of today we have kicked the nasty bug outta our house (knock on wood here!!!) Although I still feel like I see germs everywhere since I have felt like a walking germ going on for-EVAH now.........Dave somehow escaped it all, lucky jerk ;) I kept telling him if I were him I would go to work then stay at a hotel but of course I wont let you do that because you should suffer along beside me, I mean we took vows and everything MR, welcome to the "worse" part! HA! HA!

Back to my point......I was brought 2 meals and an amazing goodie basket from some wonderful women in my MOMS Club...what a way to brighten your spirits and show the light at the end of the tunnel! I am the last person to ask for help or admit I need it so it was totally unexpected but so appreciated!

A shout-out to all my girlfriends out there near and far...love you all & couldn't imagine life without ya! Girlfriends are special and you never outgrow needing your girl time!!!!

Glamorous job of being a mom!

So.....as we all know being a mom is not always the most glamorous job in the world.....Like for the past week I have had my nurse AND more importantly hospital orderly hat on.....cleaning up puke for a week straight since Savannah has had a nasty stomach bug going on............but 1 sweet little gesture from her now that she is all better is all the payment I need and made all the grossness go away, or at least helped me forget about it! Here is a little note she wrote me yesterday that I will keep forever!

It reads "Dear Mommy you are the best mom I could ever have I am glad you are my mom your friend Savannah"

Coupons!! Coupons!! Coupons!!

Getting so excited for an upcoming couponing seminar next week put on by two great blogs I follow! I plan to go with several other frugal girlfriends so it should make it a fun afternoon!

I am That Lady & My CNY Mommy

Here is my latest sale/coupon score! Not anywhere near most of these couponing geniuses but I was pleased nonetheless :)

3 BOUNCE dryer bars & 2 POUNCE cat treat jars

$4.97 total (that is less than the normal cost of 1 dryer bar!)

The secret room!

We have had plans for quite awhile now to expand the girl's playroom. When we first converted storage space into a playroom when Savannah was 2 we never could imagine needing MORE room for toys...but with 1 more daughter and several more years of adding more toys we are there! I am reminded by my in-laws more times than I can count that my girls live in a toy store.... I prefer to focus on the fact that we are so blessed as parents to be able to provide so much and they are so lucky to have so much! Both my girls truly realize how fortunate they are & both have very big and giving hearts so I am really not concerned with how "spoiled" they are! Not to mention we work our butts off to provide a great life for our girls and 95% of their toys are garage sale, craigslist or freebies!!! :)

Here are some pictures of the orginal playroom being built and completed (with painstakingly painted murals!!)

I follow way too many blogs (just ask Dave!?!?) I think it was my sister Paula who actually pointed me to this one (trust me when I say that Dave thanks her everyday for introducing me to blogland ;) Anyway....this Nannygoat blog post grabbed me and I knew we would be copying it for sure! Since we had just added on our garage and the playroom was at just the right spot! PLUS, how fun is it to have a small little secret room with Alice in Wonderland type doorway! I can already imagine the fun and imagining that will go on in there!!

So over a year later we are nearing the finish line at last and the girls could not be more excited! We (and by we I mean Dave!) have done all the work ourselves up to this point to save $$ but doing it yourself adds way more time to the job too! :(

New Years day Dave cut the hole into the playroom wall to connect the 2 rooms, until this point the only access was through the super small door in the hallway near the girls bathroom..Dave had been wedging himself in and outta there to work on it! Here are some pictures to show progress and we hope to be able to hire someone to finish the sheet rock since that's the least favorite part & so incredibly hard if you are not trained to do that! Then paint and carpet and we are set! I already have BIG plans for painting and decorating this new space...all about a magical secret girly girl playroom!!

Daddy with 2 very happy little girls approving of his job so far!

Tiny little doorway from the hallway

just inside the small secret door

Completed photos to follow sometime in the hopefully near future! We plan to build a little roof peak out over the small door in the hallway and post a welcome sign there! Lots of other little cute fun ideas that will take life once the sheet rock is finished & the paint and floors are done!