Meal Planning, Week #1

Today I want to share with y'all how we plan our meals.   I usually plan our meals out for two weeks in advance and I'm keepin' it real by saying usually.  The past month or so I haven't done this and we've been all out of whack when it comes to dinner time. 

So, to hold myself accountable I'm going to share our weekly, or bi-weekly, menus with y'all.  First - let me explain my system.

The only thing I plan specifically is our dinner meals.  Breakfasts are usually varied and consist of a choice of the following:

• Annie's Bunnies cereal (I've gotten a different kind every time)
• Organic Pomegranate-Cherry Toaster Pastries and Scrambled Eggs
• Grits and Eggs
• Spiced Vanilla Sugar Toast & Eggs (the Spiced Vanilla Sugar from Savory Spice Shop has forever changed our traditonal cinnamon toast breakfast)
• Oatmeal with Dried Fruit & Nuts
• Pancakes (on occassion)

Lunches for Kalyn are usually a ham or turkey & swiss sandwich and either fresh cut veggies or fruit.  Kalyn is on a particular kick with Swiss cheese - I don't know what it is but that's the only cheese she wants lately.  We use Hormel Naturals lunch meat without preservatives, just in case you wanted to know.  Dave and I will have a sandwich or leftovers for lunch.

Ok, so with those meals out of the way - supper is the challenge!  This is a chart I made for how to organize my meals.  Sometimes I just print out the chart and handwrite our meals in and sometimes I type it up.  However, there is always (with the exception of the last month, of course) one on the side of our fridge. 

This week, I printed out the chart to fill in.  Here's how it works for us -

I fill in the meals we want to have in the larger rectangles and leave the outer small rectangles blank.  I'm not disciplined enough or something enough to plan out what we are going to have for specific days, so this gives us freedom in the meals we plan and shop for.  There are some days that I know exactly what we will have so I write the date in the smaller rectangle next to that meal.  Mostly though, I plan a few days out at a time.  I do this for a couple of reasons - well, one in particular.  In the past, I would plan out specific meals for specific days but when something would come up and we needed to switch things around, my 7-year-old's world would get thrown out of orbit for some reason.  This saves our family some drama when things come up and we need to move things around.  This way, I know what we're having but we're not too committed. 

Anyways... When I'm ready to shop I use an awesome grocery shopping app called Grocery Gadgets.  The most very coolest part of it is that I can update any of our grocery lists from my computer at home to our iPhone - no matter where it is.  When my husband is at work, I can create a list of things for him to pick up on his way home, with a picture of the exact item and quantity, and it syncs wirelessly up in the clouds.  Instantly.  It's beautiful.  

I make a separate list for each meal that we will have on the list and all of the ingredients needed for that meal.  Then when it's time to shop, I go onto the computer and merge the lists together that I want to shop for.   See (below) where it says manage lists?  I can go there to clone and then merge all of the lists I want to shop for.  I do it this way so that the meals I make regularly always have a list with all the items needed for them. 

Say I was planning on making blueberry muffins, Pad Thai, and Ginger Chicken... I merge all of those lists into one.  Once I do that, I go through the (now) master list and delete the things I have on hand.  And did I mention it automatically, instantly updates on my iPhone?  Then I go shopping and bring home what I need for the next few days! 

See- I can merge this list with any other I have created and voila!  A new list!

 

It may sound complicated - and it did take awhile to get it set up - but it has been so worth it when it comes to actually planning for meals and shopping.  It now takes about half the time to plan my list and see what I need. 

This is how I plan our meals...now for what we will have in the next two weeks.  Here is our menu!

I know some of the items are hard to read - I'll work on this for the future!  Also, I take into account that on most Sundays I will make a meal for dinner and we will have something for supper as well.  It's typically leftovers, but this way I can make sure I am covered. 

Do you plan meals for your family or do you hit the grocery store before and make a decision there?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Nothing to Talk About

It's been a few days since I last wrote.  Well, sort of.  I've started a few updates but didn't finish them.  I'm going to update right now (since my house is clean, the touch-ups on the bookcase are drying, my child is playing with her friends...).


1.  I had been putting off doing ironing and a huge pile had developed.  And laundry.  In an effort to finish the chair last week, I had not done a load of laundry every other day.  This is normally how I keep up with the laundry.  It never ceases to amaze me how fast laundry accumulates.  At this moment I am caught up and back in my every-other-day routine.  Also, the ironing is done and put away- yay!

Well, until later this week.



2. Here is my current reading list:

Radical, by David Platt
Bringing up Girls, by Dr. James Dobson
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
a couple of G.K. Chesterton books
Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe

3.  About Radical.  This is one of the most challenging books I have ever read.  As a Christian, I want to do everything I can for God's glory.  I've been challenged to think about how to do this in each moment of my life.  More on this next week.

4.  I love teaching the preschoolers at my church on Sunday mornings!  I've been preparing Sunday School lessons for the next three months this past week and I am so excited about the upcoming units!  I cannot wait  to share with these little ones the importance of God's Word as we learn about the characteristics of the Bible as a special book. 

5.  Being in the military, it is important to have friends where you are that are like family.  I am so blessed and thankful to have friends here.  Friends that do school carpool and give advice on house projects, those that pray with me, the ones that meet for coffees that turn into lunches, the ones for late night pizza and games, and those that love me even when I am not so lovable.  I am so grateful for the people that God has placed in my life and if I haven't told you and you are reading this - I am thankful for you!

6.  I love this time of year in Colorado!  There is just the hint of fall coming in the air.  I say this at the beginning of every season, but I do really think fall is my favorite.  So many things are special things that happen (or did happen) in the fall- when Dave and I began dating, our wedding anniversary, K's birthday, football...  Again, I could go on and on - but I love this time of year and am so glad that God gives us seasons of the year and how they remind me of different seasons in life. 

6.  And last, I linked my reupholstered chair up to a challenge this past week and made the Top 10!  Yay!  If you haven't had the opportunity to see the winner and the others in the Top 10 - not to mention the 150+ other Pottery Barn inspired project, go check it out!  Loads of great ideas. 

I hope everyone is having a blessed and relaxed weekend like we are.  Check back next week for some book discussion, more crafting and thrifting posts, and maybe we will actually blog about some food next week!

Thrifty Treasures #1

Who loves finding a good deal?  I do!  No matter where it's found - garage sale, yard sale, thrift store, Craigslist, Freecycle - I love finding things for our home on the cheap!  I usually go looking for some particular items for our home, but there are definitely times I find a cool vintage item I just have to have. 

Lately I've been scouring all of the places mentioned above for picture frames.  I have an idea for the hallway going up the stairs and it's going to require a lot of frames!  I've collected about 6 so far (Goodwill and yard sale purchases) and spray painted them a nice satin brown.  I know what you're thinking....spray paint again?  I love, love, love to spray paint things - it's quick and easy and provides instant change.  

Here's a picture of some I've already done (there are two small matching oval ones somewhere as well...).

I think they turned out nice, they're just kind of plain.  I've been on the hunt for some frames that have character and/or texture.  Last week - I hit the frame jackpot.  I procured (I love that word!) about 20 frames that are now in my garage and I paid a total of $6.43 for all of them.  Now, to be honest, I got the majority of them free from posting an ad on Freecycle.  I did get five of them for $6.43 at Goodwill.

Here are the five I got at Goodwill...

And here is the box of frames I got from a Freecycle Friend.  Well, these are the ones I am probably not using for this particular project, but I think I have plans for them already! 

There are some good ones in there - they are all 4x6 or 5x7 and I needed a few of the larger ones. 

Here are the Freecycle Frames that I WILL be spray painting along with my Goodwill finds tomorrow.

I love find great items that can have another life!  So - here's a final picture of tomorrow's project (sorry that it's a tad out of focus).

I know everyone loves good deals so with that, the question is.....what's your thrifty weakness?   Is there a particular item or collection you always look for or do you look for things that catch your eye? 

PS - my sister scored an awesome find this past weekend, too!  A super-nice Ethan Allen head- and footboard at a garage sale.  It was a good weekend!

I'm linking up to the Southern Hospitality blog and her Thrifty Treasures link party.

Book Case - Almost Ready to do the Finishing touches.

Well - if you go back a little while in the blog you will notice that we asked for help in choosing a color for the bookcases we got off Craigslist. We chose yellow. I have primed most of it and have it ready to go into finishing stages.  Here are a few things to bring you up to speed about . After I had completed tthe fun things going on around here.  After the first round of priming, Erin decided to complete her first ever graffiti and she got all delinquent on the back of the bookcase. Take a look.

The picture is a little out of focus because the little one took it, but I am sure that you can make out what it says. Erin looks at me after I saw it and said, "I have always wanted to do that and I finally did it." This was pretty cute but I did have to paint over it and move on with the project. I was tempted to leave it there permanently when it was pushed up against a wall but I couldn't do this and not go all the way with it. So here is what I am calling Stage 2.

Now when I started this project I found that using the spray primer was just not going to cut it and I had to move back to OLD FAITHFUL when it comes to primers. KILZ 2. What was I thinking?  Trying to cheat my way through this project? Naah. That spraypaint is not gonna cut it so I do not recommend anything other than KILZ 2 when it comes to primers.

If you guys didn't know either (because I didn't) Martha Stewart has a new line of paints at the HOME DEPOT. Well guess what Martha? I am not paying an extra four dollars for your name to be on my can of paint. So the paint person at Home Depot let us know that Glidden makes the Martha Stewart paint and that she could shade it to exactly that color for us and it would save us money. So if you want Marthas colors but don't wanna pay her price just get some Glidden paint. If you already knew this then I applaud your shopper savvy-ness.

Well hopefully next weekend I will have this complete and will be able to show you the final pictures. Until then God bless and have a great week.

Dave out.

Just makin'..... A List of "Do's" for our Home

While browsing some craft and design blogs this week, I came upon an awesomely cute idea for a list of "do's" for a home.

I fell in love with it and decided to do my own version. I wanted to use the same words found on Design Intervention but use a technique I found on the blog, Tatertots and Jello.

I began by printing out the words for the project .  Here is my stack of paper and my canvas.

I then cut out the words and made sure they fit onto the canvas.  I'm so glad it was perfect because little did I know, the next step would take up my entire day!  Here is a picture of the words laid out onto the canvas. 

The next step took sooooooooooooooooooo loooooooong.  And that doesn't even remotely convey how long it took.  I traced all the letters onto contact paper and cut them out with craft scissors and an Exacto knife.  I thought it would take me an hour or two to do this - but it took all day!  I then adhered the contact paper letters to canvas and spray painted the canvas blue.  I let the paint dry and removed the contact paper and this is how it turned out....

This was an inexpensive project because I used many things I already had around the house. 

Here is my list of supplies:

Contact paper (already had on hand)
Spray paint (already had on hand - I had painted a lamp in my living room this same color a few weeks ago)
Stampin' Up! Crafters Tool Kit - This was a life-saver!  It had so many useful tools in it that I used for this.
18" x 24" Canvas - This was the only thing I bought for this specifically.  I purchased a 2-pack at Michael's for $14.99 and had a 40% coupon.  It ended up being less than $5 for this one canvas. 

I hung it up in our family room.

I'm not sure how I feel about it here, but thank goodness it's moveable!

It's Finished! We did it!

I am so excited to be able to share these pictures with y'all!  I am so excited how my first reupholstery project turned out.  Would you like a little sneak peek?

How about another? 

This turned out so much better than I imagined it would!  Remember how it started?

It is now perfect for Kalyn's room!  Well, it is the first part of perfect for Kalyn's room.  We are going to slowly replace some things in her room over the next few months - some I will make, some things will be repurposed, some purchased - but this chair is the first.  Kalyn's room renovation started with a discussuion with my sister about updating Kalyn's room and we found a PBteen quilt that was the inspiration for this chair makeover. 

Picture from PBteen

These are two other PBteen items that inspired my choices for this chair...

I thought that the woodwork was similar (and I'm using this term reallly loosely) to the small PBteen chair,but I loved the idea of the bold zebra print. 

So, how about another peek at the finished project!?

And, well, ok...here are a few more pictures!

 

I'm so proud to put this in Kalyn's room!

Later this week I will delve a little more into some of the details about the project, but here are some of the steps we took at the beginning of the project!

I very carefully and meticulously  removed the old fabric pieces - and when I say carefully and meticulously, I mean it!  I took the pieces off one by one and numbered them as I removed them.  I also photographed each piece as I removed it so I could reference the pictures when I put the new pieces on the chair.  But that's not all!  I also wrote down everything about the piece as I took it off - information like how it was attached, if and how it was sewn , and other various details. 

Once the chair was taken apart, I gave the wood pieces a light sanding and then came my favorite part! 

Spray painting!!!!!!!!!!!  I spray painted (with Rust-Oleum Ultracover 2x) a primer coat first and then a glossy black!   I then used a spray polyurethane - Varnathane's spray Indoor Heavy Use.  I ended up brushing on some polyurethane as well.  The spray polyurethane would be great for a smaller project or just for the detail parts of the chair (such as the spindles).  I ended up brushing on some of the same polyurethane (from a can though) because it would have been costly to buy enough of the spray polyurethane to give the chair a good three or four coats. 

Next came the fabric and trim...  But I will save those details for later this week.  Here is a picture of the final product!  Again, I'm so proud of how it turned out!  It has inspired me to not be afraid to tackle some larger projects and learn from them. 

Here it is!!!!!

I'm linking this up to the CSI Pottery Barn Inspired Challege. 

Southern Happiness

I would like to steal a line from the rapper Jay-Z for this post "That boy good!!!". This line comes from his song Empire State of Mind. You can only hear it in the song if you listen really close and you are listening for it. Just to let you know I am the PITMASTER of this home and the champion of the grill. Tonight when I arrived home I found a wife who was in distress from not being able to sew the chair pieces together because the Singer wasn't working. Guess what boys and girls. Push the gas really hard on your car and blow out the carbon, and so it is with Singer Model 417 sewing machines. I pushed the pedal on this old machine for about a minute and then guess what? It was running like a brand new Corvette. Erin is now excited and putting together Kalyns new reading chair.

Now on to supper. Because Erin was so upset before I fixed the sewing machine I made supper. Supper was a salute to my roots and Harris Jerry Flanders. The king of making something out of whatever was in the pantry. As a sidenote, we have been married for ten years and this was the first time that she let me cook okra and tomatoes my way. This shows how distressed she was. For supper I made Pork Chops, Okra and Tomatoes, and Black Eyed Peas. Here are some pictures of what this good ol' SOUTHERN BOY was up to this evening.

Just to put you on notice. This is how you pull off this dinner. The cast of characters includes THICK CUT PORKCHOPS!!!!!! Don't cheat yourself with the skinny ones. Be a MAN!!!! It takes about 40 minutes to cook them on the grill but if you do it right you will savor every bite. Before you grill cover them with a little bit of Kosher Salt and Pepper (freshly ground) on each side. The Kosher Salt keeps the moisture in the meat and keeps you from burning them. If you wanna look like a man in front of your lady you had better own your grill and not let it own you.

The rest of this is pretty simple. Okra (frozen), tomatoes (crushed). Put them in a pot bring them to a boil and then let them simmer for the entire time the porkchops are cooking. Black Eyed Peas, pour out of the can and follow the same directions for the Okra and Tomatoes. Once you have everything simmering dice half of a VIDALIA ONION (not a red onion turkeys), and place half in each pot. This should cook down nicely and after your PORKCHOPS are done you will have won her over with a wonderful taste of the DEEP SOUTH.

This is a meal that happened in my house growing up many times but Dad always used the smaller pork chops. When I discovered the THICK CUT PORKCHOP it made this meal off the chizzzain, crazy good. All I am saying is that if Erin likes my Okra and Tomatoes you can only imagine how much she loved the porkchop.

Ladies and Gentlmen "The PITMASTER has left the building."

Postponement

My reupholstery project is suffering from an unexpected postponement.  I think most things that are postponed are done so unexpectedly though.  Disappointment set in this afternoon when I got ready to sew and instead of winding the bobbin, my machine gave an uncharacteristic whirring noise that sounded more like a cry for help than a machine ready to sew.  I keep reminding myself it's just a bump in the road and it is going to be copacetic because I have wonderful friends who have extra sewing machines that I'm going to be able to borrow.  I was hoping to have the project finished by Thursday and maybe that can still happen - we will see! So, in the meantime, I thought I would share something exciting and fun!

Kalyn made Star Student last week at school and had to complete a poster about herself over the weekend.

I couldn't get the stinker to really smile for a picture.  So, about our Star Student (in her words)...

• 
  
  When I grow up, I want to be a olmpic (olympic) swimmer.
• 
  
  My favorite subject is Social Studies.
• 
  
  I am a star student because I participated and listened.
• 
  
  I am proud of myself because I do my work correctly.
• 
  
  What I like most about school is my teacher.
• 
  
  I am good at math. 

Way to go, Kalyn!

I'll end with a few pictures of our precious daughter that I snapped while she we were working on the furniture this past Saturday. 

Input Wanted...Yep! That Means You!

OK friends, if you are reading this then we want your input!  Your advice!  Suggestions!  Yes, we want them all!  We found some bookshelves on Craigslist this week and have started stripping and priming them for a fresh coat of paint and hardware before they come inside.  Here is a picture of one of the bookshelves we bought.

Dave reminded me to take a picture before he started and I kept putting it off.  By the time I grabbed my camera he had already taped off the edges of the glass.  There is also a smaller bookshelf.  It was two shelves instead of the four this one has. 

So here is where you come in!  How should we paint these!?!?!?!?!    What should we do to these?  Here is what we know...

• The third shelf needs new glass.  Easy fix.
• We are going to paint the inside of the shelves a light color - in between white and cream.  I can't remember the color we grabbed - but it's pretty.

And that's all we know.  We haven't been able to agree on a color for the outside of the shelves!  We could do an ivory with a glaze on them.  That could be nice.  Or something that really stands out - like a robin's egg blue with the white shelves.  Or an espresso brown .  Or RED!  That would be fun!!  There are so many choices - help us out!  What do YOU think would look good?  One more thing - these bookshelves are made of a mix of solid wood and a composite wood product so I'm NOT going to refinish them by sanding them down and restaining.

Oh!  I found some hardware today at Oh So Charming (the ladies there are great, by the way) and Dave tried it on the shelves when we got home to make sure the scale looked nice.  They added a welcome change to the nondescript hardware that was already on them. 

Here is a look at one of the pieces of hardware.  I snapped the picture before Dave removed the hardware to prime the shelves, but didn't get a picture of the others.  All the hardware we got was fairly similar, but there are only two of each piece.  We will use a mixture of the hardware once we are finished. 

Alright.  You've seen the bookshelves and some of the hardware.  How should these be painted??

Before the Weekend

This week has flown by!  I was afraid that with Kalyn back to school this week, I would be bored.  However, I have been working on a reupholstery project to occupy my time and it is going great!  Well...in the interest of full disclosure, it was going great until yesterday when I noticed some fibers from the dropcloth in the polyurethane coat on the wood pieces of the chair.  Ugh.....

I can't bring myself to go check it because I don't want to have to sand and touch up and re-apply the polyurethane.  Does anyone have any suggestions for this?  The pieces were not moved around and the garage door was closed to prevent wind from blowing stuff onto the wet polyurethane.  It is like it magnetically jumped onto the top of the pieces I worked on as they were drying.  By the way....can fibers really magnetically jump?  I ran a cloth with mineral spirits over it (as recommended) to clean the chair off before I applied the polyurethane.

So, since I haven't already, let me introduce you to my current project!

Little (boring, but pretty) Shabby Chic-Kind-of-Chair

I saw this chair at Oh So Charming's monthly antique event.  I thought it would make a good replacement chair for our bedroom.  However, when we got it home the scale was not right for our room.  It is much to small to go with the rest of our furniture, so it is in the process of becoming Kalyn's new reading chair.  She has outgrown her reading chair in her room and loves to curl up with a good book.  This will make a perfect chair for her as she grows.  I have painted the legs and arms glossy black and am in the process of cutting out fabric for the reupholstering.  We have white walls in our house so the white on white on white was not looking so good! 








I will give you one picture today and maybe a few in the coming days to see some of the changes coming for this little chair.

Alright - I think I'm motivated now to go work on my project!  Oh!  One more thing!


If you are in the Denver metro area and like antiques/repurposed items - check out Oh So Charming's August event this weekend!  They are in located Littleton and only open for one weekend each month.  Also tomorrow, August 14th, is an Old Town Market Saturday in the Littleton Historic Downtown area. 

Friday Night Fun

We haven't had a Friday Family Fun night in a while because frankly, during the summer, every night is a fun night.  With Kalyn starting school this week it has been a week full of early mornings, early bedtimes, and adjusting back to a school routine.  Last night was a great Friday night.  We made homemade veggie pizzas that we grilled.  They were AWESOME!  We used the Pioneer Woman's pizza dough recipe and a sauce recipe from Tasty Kitchen with some slight modifications.  We made about eight personal sized dough rounds and froze what we didn't use for another time (which - they were so delicious ended up being Saturday lunch). Dave made some incredible pizza sauce after I realized we didn't have any.  I don't think we will ever buy a can of pizza sauce again.  It was too easy to make it and so delicious.  For your viewing pleasure:

This is my pizza.  Onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and basil..mmmm.  There were also mushrooms available, but only two out of the three of us choose them.  Can you guess who didn't??  It's a little obvious, right?  Dave grilled the pizzas two at a time over indirect heat on our grill.  He lit the two outside burners and cooked the pizzas in the middle of the grill. 

As we ate our pizzas, we began the first of three rounds of the following game:

This game was so much fun!!  We've been looking at getting it every time we go to Target but never actually purchased it.  We happened to find it for $2 at a thrift store earlier in the week.  We checked to make sure all of the pieces were theres before we purchased it and only needed to replace the Cranium Clay with some of our own play-doh!  Sweet deal!  It also provided us with three hours of awesome family fun! 

We finished off our last round of Cadoo with some homemade warm banana pudding.  A sweet ending to a great Friday night!