Is Anyone Out There?

I just need a moment. A moment with a glass of wine, some dark chocolate and a weepy chic flick sounds GREAT.
To say I am overwhelmed these past few days is an understatement.  Preparing for this move is so much harder than I had anticipated.  Having Donny traveling so much would be challenging anyway,  but add to that home repairs (they never end), packing, trying to get this house ready to rent, keeping my kids entertained and caught up on school work, cooking meals, cleaning and doing laundry, chasing after our dog who like to make a break for it at least once a week, trying to find us a house to rent once we get there, researching schools....you get the idea.  
Every time I feel like I am making headway, 5 more things get added to the list, or something breaks, or someone gets sick, or our dog scratches up the white doors I just painted. 
Plus, I am an emotional wreck.  I go back and forth between being super giddy and excited to just feeling sad.  Tomorrow the property management company comes to take interior pictures of our house, and carpet is getting installed in the extra room downstairs.  Oh, and did I mention I am trying to sell things on Craigslist as well?  Yep-gotta deliver a headboard tomorrow..that is, if I can figures out how to take it down.
  Anyone want to come over one of these nights and have some wine and pack with me?  It may sound silly, but to me that sounds like a good time.  Thanks for letting me vent. :)

That's my girl

Our little one Avery keeps me constantly entertained.  She is a sponge and seems to soak up and remember song lyrics, lines from commercials and tv shows, etc. and then spouts them out randomly.  One example is when Donny and I were gone and Auntie Becca and Uncle JT were babysitting.  When I got home, they told me about the little song she had been singing over and over to them.  "Don't you wish your girlfriend was HOT like me.." I still haven't gotten over that one.
Today, her word of the day seems to be funky.  As in, "Mommy, that lady sure has funky hair" or " This cereal tastes funky" or my favorite,  " I think my dress looks funky good!"  :)

Cute quotes of the day....

Just had to share a few of the sweet and funny things our kids had to say today.

Avery- "You are my cute little fat mommy!"  (I didn't know whether to laugh or cry over that one!)

Reece- "Quick Mom! Get me a beach towel so I can lay out and sun bask!" ( I think she meant sun bathe) :)

Tyler- "Watermelon is so good.  It tastes like summer squeezed into a fruit!"

My Current Project,

INTRODUCING…

THE 30 MEALS PLAN!

Guest post written by littlenannygoat.blogspot.com. Thanks for sharing your great idea with us!

Okay, this is so simple and yet SO BRILLIANT!
The idea is to find 30 meals that your family loves MOST and compile those meals/recipes so that they are easy to access. Then make a master list of all the ingredients you would need for all of those meals, so you can keep your cupboards (and food storage) stocked! On any given night you can pick a meal and whip it up in a jiffy or plan a week/month at a time… easy peasy!
The beauty of this is that you still have a great variety and you can shop the sales, stock up on those ingredients, and make less trips to the store! This in turn saves lots of time and $$$$! Plus, no kiddos complaining, “This is disgusting”… you can now make everyone happy and get the kiddos involved in planning the 30 meals!
STEP 1:
If you’re like me then you use a lot of the same recipes over and over again. I have several cookbooks and an over-flowing recipe box, but honestly I make maybe 15 of those recipes on a regular basis. So the first step is to step out of your comfort zone and find 30 recipes your family LOVES. Experiment with some new recipes and make it a fun project! I obviously picked all 15 of our “standard recipes”. Plus, we’ve been trying out new recipes regularly to start building our 30 meals.
Every night, after dinner, we go around the table and vote on whether or not we should add this to our 30 days of meals.

STEP 2:
Put your recipes/meals on individual cards. Even if you don’t have ALL 30 of your recipes picked out yet (it may take awhile to find 30 meals you LOVE) go ahead and start copying the ones you have onto individual cards.
There are several ways you can do this, but I wanted to have them on my computer, so that I could reprint the cards and easily email them to friends and family. I found these free recipe card templates here. You could also use a word processor and print them on your printer or even hand write them onto index cards.

This is what our cards look like– and by the way, if you love Cafe Rio Sweet Pork, you should totally make this recipe! It’s awesome!
After we printed them, we laminated each card.

Then we punched a hole in the top left corner and put all of the recipes on a ring.

At the beginning of the week we can pick the meals we want to make for that week and stick them on the fridge in a cute little holder we made!

STEP 3:
Master Ingredient List
This step is why I wanted to do the 30 meal plan in the first place… it just makes sense!
It’s great to have all of my recipes compiled, laminated, and ready to go, but I can’t make any of those yummy recipes without ALL the ingredients…
Melissa and I thought and thought about how to do our MASTER INGREDIENT LIST we proposed this and that, but then it hit us and here it is…

I used Microsoft Excel to make this lovely table (this is just a piece of my table) with the names of the meals on the left and ALL of the ingredients needed to make those 30 meals across the top. I separated the ingredients into sections to make it easier for shopping, i.e. meats/proteins, carbs, dairy, veggies, spices, etc. I think I will go back and alphabetize those sections to make it even easier.
The beauty of this is you can see EVERYTHING you need (and how much) at a glance.
Also, if you are at home looking in your fridge and thinking you need to cook up the chicken ( or veggies, etc) before they go bad, you can just pick up your Master List and check out the chicken column to see which meals you could make to use that chicken quick.

STEP 4:

Okay my “30 meals” friends, I hope you are working on your 30 meals and your master ingredients list and hopefully you are starting to reap the rewards of all of your hard work.
I know I am and I am seriously LOVING IT!




So, this is the final step….


Create a Binder to keep yourself organized. Inside my binder I have several sheet protectors which I am using as pockets. I just took a sharpie (because I’m fancy like that) and wrote on the front of each of the sheet protectors. This is what I have so far:

1. Recipes to add to my 30 meals. (btw your 30 meals may eventually be 34 meals… nothing wrong with that).

2. Recipes I want to try. Now, don’t put just any recipe in here! You worked hard to simplify, so don’t go making things crazy again. But, if your bff goes on and on about a meal that her family gobbled up with lots of “mmmmmm”, and “yummy”, and “mom you are the best cook ever!” then you should definitely add that recipe to this pocket and try it out.

3. Special Occasion Recipes. In this pocket, you would put special recipes you make just a few times a year (ex. Holidays, summer salads, winter soups etc.)

4. Side dishes. Eventually I will type these up and put them on their own ring, but for now my funeral potatoes and vegetable recipes etc. will be found in this pocket.

5. Desserts. Again, eventually I will take all of my FAVORITE desserts and type them up and add them to their own ring (might need 2 or 3 rings, lol), but for now they go in this pocket.

6. Breads/ Appetizers/ drinks

7. Other Recipes. This pocket is for those recipes that didn’t make it to the top 30, maybe the kids nixed it– but the adults loved it.


The beautiful thing is once I’ve gone through all my recipes and divided them among the pockets, I can finally THROW AWAY all of those recipes that are crowding up my cupboards! Yay!


(If you want to print off this cover page for your binder, just download it here.)

It's Official...

We are moving to Arkansas!  Our trip went great, Donny and I really loved it there.  I am so thankful we had the opportunity to visit before we made a decision.  We will be moving this summer, probably in July, to the Bentonville/Bella Vista area of NW Arkansas.  It has a really cute, small town feel, but with all the amenities like shopping and restaurants that a bigger city would have.  Definitely very country, I haven't seen that many horses and cows in a long time, but it is beautiful, the people were warm and friendly, and we quickly felt very comfortable there.  The biggest task now will be trying to sell/rent our house as soon as possible.  If anyone out there knows someone who would be interested.....=)  Also, we need to find a home for our dog Bella.  She is a sweetie and we would love her to go to a home where she can get lots of love and attention.
That's all for now, we will keep you posted along the way!  Feel free to email us at: [email protected]  with more questions!

Changes

 In one week from now, Donny and I will be on a plane flying to Arkansas to check out what may be our new home.  For those of you who may not know, Donny was offered a promotion through his company that would require us to relocate to NW Arkansas this summer.  We have been giving it a lot of thought and prayer, and thankfully we have the opportunity to go check the place out before we decide for sure.  During our visit we plan to see some rentals with a realtor, visit a couple schools, go to a church, and do lots of driving around and exploring.  I would also really like to go to a grocery store to check out what the prices are like.  I am so excited to have this time with Donny, we haven't had any time away just the two of us in a long time.  I am looking forward to some nice dinners out and sleeping in past 6:30!  Please pray for us to have wisdom and a really clear feeling of what we should do. It is such a difficult decision,  leaving so much family that we have here, but it is also really exciting to think about what God may have in store for our family.  Talk about taking us out of our comfort zones!  But maybe that is the whole point.....

Ever have a song that seems to speak right to you? This is mine.

 

You look around and staring back at you

Another wave of doubt

Will it pull you under

You wonder

What if i'm overtaken

What if i never make it

What if no one's there

Will you hear my prayer?

When you take that first step

Into the unknown

You know that he won't let you go

So what are you waiting for

What do you have to lose

Your insecurities

They try to hold to you

But you know you're made for more

So don't be afraid to move

Your faith is all it takes

And you can walk on the water too

So get out and let your fear fall to the ground

No time to waste, don't wait

And don't you turn around, and miss out on

Everything you were made for

Gotta be, I know you're not sure, more

So you play it safe, you try to run away

If you take that first step

Into the unknown

He won't let you go

So what are you waiting for

What do you have to lose

Your insecurities

They try to hold to you

But you know you're made for more

So don't be afraid to move

Your faith is all it takes

And you can walk on the water too

Step out, even when it's storming

Step out, even when you're broken

Step out, even when your heart is telling you,

telling you to give up

Step out, when your hope is stolen

Step out, you can't see where you're going

You don't have to be afraid

So what are waiting, what are you waiting for

So what are you waiting for

What do you have to lose

Your insecurities

They try to hold to you

But you know you're made for more

So don't be afraid to move

Your faith is all it takes

And you can walk on the water,

walk on the water too

Hello, my name is Alicia, and I am addicted to couponing!

This post is dedicated to my Grandma Mickey who is an absolute genius at couponing/refunding.  She has been my inspiration.  I have only been getting into the whole couponing thing for a few months, but I have to admit I am completely addicted.  Here is a picture of my success today.  I only spent $8.96!!!  I don't think I'll be running out of laundry detergent anytime soon. =)  Avery is my little helper who is always asking me, "Mommy, do you have a coupon for that?"

Avery's 4th Birthday!!

Last Wednesday was Avery's 4th birthday.  She decided more than anything else, she wanted to spend the day at Ikea, one of her favorite places.  So, we took along our good friends Leah and her daughter Kate, and headed to Ikea where the little girls played in the kid's area and had a great time.  You can't go to Ikea without having meatballs, so we had lunch before heading home.  Here's a couple pictures of the rest of her day.  The highlight was definitely taking her to pick out her first bike! Of course she chose Barbie, the pinker the better.

Here we go again...

We're Baaack!  I'm going to give this blogging thing another try.  I realized how nice it is to have a way of connecting with family and friends who we don't see very often, or at all!
This past weekend was really fun for our family.  Since Donny left today for Alabama for a week, we wanted to try and do something special.  Friday night we went out to pizza, something we rarely do, and we all left stuffed!  Why is it pizza tastes so much better when you actually eat it at a pizza parlor? =)  Then Saturday we used a free pass we had to go to the nickel arcade.  Donny grew up going to this place, and I have to say, I have grown to really enjoy it too.  There are actually very few video games, it's mostly ticket games, and then the kids get to turn in their tickets for prizes at the end.  The girls left with an inflatable Dora the Explorer and a stuffed monkey which Reece quickly named Monkey Man.  Tyler got some of those popper things you throw on the ground and they make lots of noise, and he also got a parachute guy.  Afterward we went to McDonald's for lunch and to let them play.  By the time we got home they were worn out...bonus! =)  Later that night we decided to have a game night and had a very intense hour long game of Uno.  It was Reece's first time playing on her own, and she won!! She was so happy she started crying.  It was honestly one of those moments I think Donny and I will remember forever.  She was jumping up and down and had tears streaming down her face.  Pure joy.  So cute.
This morning we took Donny to the airport and then headed to church.  There are some Sundays when I just feel like a sponge, soaking it all in and I walk away feeling renewed for the week.  I am so thankful everyday that our family has found a church body that we love so much.
The rest of this week should be interesting.  Donny is gone until Friday night, and my parents (who live super close to us) are also gone to Hawaii for 2 weeks. I am praying for patience, patience, patience.