Sad Post

Well friends, as much as I hate to write this post, I'm going to be done blogging for awhile. I love doing this, but by holding off for awhile it is one less thing I have to worry about right now. Between being a mom of three active adventurous boys, a wife, house duties, and working full-time, this is one less thing to worry about for awhile. I have fallen behind on some of my everyday duties, so I thought this would ease the stress a little if I let one thing go for awhile.

I will be back, I'm just not sure when, and don't want to put a time limit on it until I feel I have more time.

Thanks for reading and following along! Until then.................................

Supper Menu

I decided I'm going to try something different this week for my supper menu post. I'm stuck on repeat!! I need some ideas on supper menus, so I'm asking for your help! Please post a family favorite dish.

I have a few stipulations though: A) my husband is a picky eater B) I also need kid friendly dishes.

I'm very excited to see your posts, and hoping you can help me get out of the "repeat" supper menu posts. I feel like I'm making the same dishes over and over. I love trying new dishes, it is just hard for me to find some dishes that I hope my husband will like and the kids will eat. Anyone else feel this way?

Thanks for your help friends!

Money Savings Monday

Tip #2

Some of you may find this gross, but we reuse our shower and bath towels before washing them again. We use them twice and then wash them. I know my mom finds this gross, but my theory is your clean when you get out, right? We each reuse our own towel, and don't worry if you stay at our house you will get a clean towel to shower with.  

This saves on doing probably two loads a week for us at our house. Brandon and I started doing this in college when we were scrounging around each week for quarters to do laundry. 

This money saving idea saves on water, laundry detergent, and electricity! Plus our time of doing and folding the laundry, score! Any less laundry we can do each the better! 

Supper Menu

Here is our supper menu for the upcoming week:

Sunday- Lasagna, garlic bread, and roasted broccoli and cauliflower

Monday- BLT's with chips fresh fruit

Tuesday- Pancakes and sausage

Wednesday- I work late, so Brandon will have to come up with a plan for supper

Thursday- Sloppy Joe's, onion rings, and corn. 

Friday- Frozen Pizza

Saturday- For the Memorial Weekend we have a family outing this day. Yay for three day weekends!

Money Savings Monday

So if you know me, you know I love to budget! Everything we buy is based off of a monthly budget Brandon and I have come up with. We revise our monthly budget every month based off of what we have coming up in the future.

I love sharing our money saving tips with people because I think I feel these days it is hard for families to save money and get ahead sometimes with all the expenses we have in life. I thought I would come with Money Savings Mondays and pass along some of the tips we use to help with our budget.

I would also enjoy to hear from you on what you do to help cut expenses. 

Tip #1:

This past weekend we had to travel and stay over night for a funeral, so one thing we do to help with our budget when we travel is we pack most of our own food. I don't usually pack meals because it is too hard to keep the food fresh sometimes. I have tried that, and I feel like we wasted more food that way, and then still had to pay for meals on top of what we packed. We pack a cooler with milk, juice boxes, water, and soda. We also pack a basket full of snacks for the kids and ourselves.

Packing our own food helps us, so when we stop for gas, we don't end up going into the convenient store and spending $15 extra dollars on food and drinks. We also don't go out to the vending machines at night during our hotel stay. We all know vending machines can suck our money right out of us! Another great reason we pack our food is it also helps our kids eat a little healthier on the road. I feel when we travel it is so easy to fill out mouths with a bunch of junk food, so packing our own food has helped with better food choices. We do pack some junk food, don't get me wrong, but I do like to throw in strawberries, grapes, blueberries, carrots, apples, or any other fruit and vegetables that are quick and handy for packing. My favorite junk food road item are Twizzlers! We do usually have to pack about 2 packs of Twizzlers on any road trip we go on since my love for Twizzlers has passed down to the boys and Brandon.

Supper Menu

Here is our meal plan for this week: 

Sunday: Taco in a bowl with chips and queso 

Monday- Brody and Brayden have their track meet so we will just come home and make a frozen pizza

Tuesday- I work late, so it will be Brandon's night to pick. I'm guessing scrambled eggs since we have an over abundance of eggs right now 😀

Wednesday- grilled pork chops with grilled vegetables 

Thursday- homemade mac and cheese with fish sticks 

Friday- eat out

Saturday- I've never made steak fajitas, so this is my something new this week that we are going to try out. I always get excited and nervous at the same time when I try new recipes. Excited for new things, but nervous they won't turn out. Then comes in the back up plan of peanut butter sandwiches! 

Benny Keith Turns 1

This past year has been such a blessing for our family! I had bittersweet emotions celebrating this little child's birthday. I've been so happy to watch him grow this year, and watching how much love his big brothers have for him. However, at the same time, I was brought to tears at how fast the year as has gone and realizing he is not a little baby anymore. Such bittersweet emotions each time my child has a birthday.

Here are some pictures from Benny's birthday celebrations.

This is the gift I give to my boys for their first birthday. I create a picture book of their first year. I was not good at doing baby books, and keeping track of when their first tooth came in, or what the first food was they ate---so I do a 12x12 picture book of the first year. Brody and Brayden have loved looking back on their "First Year Book".

Here are the birthday celebration photos:

The Cousins

My Birthday Buddy

Daddy diving into the cake

2nd Birthday Celebration

The theme: Little Man-- so mustaches were a must!