First Day of School

Ok, obviously we have been back in school mode...as you can tell from my lack of posting in a month and a half. Thought I would share pics of the kids' first day of school.

 My big 3rd grader. Only one more year at the elementary school!

 

My kindergartener! He is so excited because he and his best friend will be in class together!

Lettered Mason Jars



One of my favorite blogs to follow is Tip Junkie. While looking there this morning, I saw these letter mason jars...a wonderful idea that I think I will start working on! I could easily use these around the house!! I love the idea!! Hop on over here to see how she did these.

Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day

Today was Chick-fil-a Appreciation Day. In light of what has been going on in the news lately, this was HUGE!! I wasn't sure what to say about this because I have friends who are homosexuals. Although I don't agree with their lifestyle, I still like them as people. It's not that I am judging them. I just simply don't agree with them. We can agree to disagree, right? I had a sorority sister who posted on facebook, and her status said it better than I ever could...

DeAnne Walters

4 hours ago

Yes, I went and ate at Chick-Fil-A today! Not because I hate anyone who is gay, not because I am judging people, not because I think I am better than anyone, not because I am mean or disrespectful to your beliefs! Because......I am a CHRISTIAN and an AMERICAN and I can!!!! If that offends you I am sorry.

I am a Christian who believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that is the way I am teaching my children. By being an American in a country that was founded on God's truths, I have the right to say this and shouldn't be subjected to anyone else's hate...and I actually ate at Chick-fil-a twice today!!

A Few More Pictures...

These are just a few more pictures from our family photo shoot with Natalie Ragsdale...these are a few of my favorites!! 

 My Miss Attitude!! Love this girlie!!

 Our "kissing" picture!!

 My sweet Mr. Blue Eyes (no editting done on this pic!!)

 My parents!! (They've been married for 37 years!!)

My brother, Randy, his wife, Irene, and daughters Mikayla (6) and Miya (2)

Family Pictures

My brother and his family are here to visit this week, so Momma decided she wanted family pictures taken. She hired a friend of mine, Natalie Ragsdale, to take the pictures. We've only seen one that she posted to facebook, but it's great!! I am positive the rest will be just as good...here's the one we've seen!!





I'm a little behind...

...but I will catch up soon! Last week our family was on vacation in St. Louis (we had a blast!!) and this week my brother, sister-in-law, and 2 nieces are here from North Carolina...will update with pics later!!

Happy Birthday, America!!

Well, our family has already been doing things around the house this morning. I finished my inventory of the freezers for the pantry challenge and started on the cupboards. I also made Mississippi Mud bars, chocolate oatmeal no-bake cookies, and jello (Randall's favorite snack). Randall moved the tv in the living room for me, so now I have a little cleaning to do. We are going to head to Momma and Daddy's later. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ronnie will be coming up from Stuttgart, so we are going to have hot dogs and chips and dip. There will be no fireworks because we have had no rain in a while and are currently under a burn ban. Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!!

Walgreens shopping trip

I am attempting to look closely at sales papers and get some good deals without spending lots of money. I would LOVE to become an extreme couponer, but I just don't have the time to give to that, so I am doing the best I can. I went to Walgreens yesterday, and look at what I bought...

My total should've been $55.41. I paid $19.71. That is a 63% savings!! I was very proud of myself. I even got the Ivory soap for FREE...yep, Free!! It was $0.99, and I had a coupon for $1! I had $10 worth of coupons, as well as $10 Register Rewards. The Gillette soap was buy one get on 1/2 off, as was the sunscreen. I was very excited! Hopefully I can do more of this in the future!!

The Pantry Challenge: Inventory

Ok, I officially started the inventory today. I finished the freezer in the top of the fridge, but didn't finish the deep freezer or the cabinets. However, I realized that we have PLENTY of meat in the freezers to get buy without buying meat for a month (there is a TON of deer meat that we can use!!) The picture below is the start I have on my inventory. I plan on finishing up tomorrow, then hopefully making a better list and organizing everything a little better so I can work on menu planning!!

The main reason for doing this pantry challenge is to use what is already in the fridge, freezer, and cupcoards as well as making a concentrated effort for stretching dollars as far as they will go!!

The Pantry Challenge

Okay, it's July, and I am going to try the pantry challenge that I found over at Good Cheap Eats. I know we have a ton of deer meat, fish, etc. in our deep freezer, so I plan on doing an inventory tomorrow while Emma and Mac are at church for Day Camp (after I go to the gym, of course!!). I want to try to start using more and wasting less. I have cut down on wasted food over the last year and a half or so by only buying groceries once a month, but I want to see how this works. I want to see if I can skip a month of buying groceries by only eating what I can find in our freezers, fridge, and cupboards. I won't have to plan for the next 2 weeks because we will be having supper next week at VBS, then we have something up our sleeves for the next week. (check back for pics, updates, etc.)

Check back later for updates on my pantry challenge, as well as my shopping trip to Walgreens today!!

I love chalkboard spray paint!!!

Today, I decided that Emma and I would have some craft time because Mac was at a friend's house. I had seen on several blogs that chalkboards were very "in" right now, so I decided to make some. Emma and I headed to Hancock's Fabric just to look, and we lucked upon a rack of scrapbook stickers for $1 each. We also looked at ribbon to hang 2 of the chalkboards (the ones for Emma and Mac's bedroom doors), and the ribbon was 50% off. We spent a total of a little over $8 at Hancocks, then ran to WalMart to find chalkboard spray paint. It was $3. We headed over to the Dollar Tree to look for cheap picture frames and bought 2. My total spending today was $13, and this...

is what I bought!!

I started out only going to make 2 chalkboards, one for Mac's door and one for Emma's door. I decided to leave Mac's frame (which was actually a mirror) the brown color it was because his room is decorated in camo. I took the mirror out and gave it 2 coats of the chalkboard paint, put it back together, and decorated it with a few of the stickers. I also added brown ribbon to it to hang it with. The finished project for Mac's room...



I also worked on Emma's board. Her picture frame was black, and she wanted it white. I spray painted it white (with paint I already had at home) and sprayed the glass from the frame with the chalkboard paint. Once it was all dry, we put it back together and added zebra ribbon to hang it with. I let her decorate with the stickers. Her finished project...

I remembered that I had a few extra frames in my closet that we weren't using, and I decided that they would look cute as chalkboards, too. I only took a picture of one of those. I am planning on using it as a menu board in my kitchen...

Overall, I had a great time doing this project, and I play on doing more!! 

Emma's haircut

Emma has been begging for several months to get her hair cut like we did when she was in kindergarten (stacked in the back and angled in the front). I told her that we really needed to wait until softball season was over so we could pull it up while it was so hot. Granted, she really needed a haircut. She has stringy hair when it gets long, so I think that short hair suits her better. Well, today was the big day. We had an appointment with Mrs. Sherrie at 9:00. Emma was so excited she could hardly wait.

Before the haircut...long, stringy hair!

After the haircut...much better!!

The back...beautiful!!

My Craft List

Ok, it's a Sunday night and Randall, Mac, and Emma are all asleep. I am trying to come up with different ways to decorate around the house without spending much money, or by redoing what we already have. Check out a few of the things I want to do:

1. Our drab filing cabinet in the office: Tip Junkie
2. Wall Art: Tip Junkie
3. Redecorating containers: Modge Podge Rocks
4. Traveling with kids: Tip Junkie

Slurpies

I love finding quick, cool treats for the kids for summertime. This morning Emma and I made slurpies, which I found over at My World Made by Hand. The kids and Randall really liked them, and you can change the flavor to make it your own.

Ingredients

1 packet of Kool-aid (we used blue raspberry lemonade)

2 cups club soda

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups ice

Directions

1. Blend Kool-aid, sugar, and 1 cup of club soda on high until sugar is dissolved.

2. Add the ice and blend until the mixture is smooth.

3. Add remaining club soda and blend.

4. Pour mixture into glasses and place in freezer for 30 minutes.

5. Enjoy!!

 



Nutella Popovers

I got this great recipe for the blog Shaken Together. Although I made 8 large popovers instead of 24 small ones, they turned out great. Randall turned his nose up at them at first, but once he tried them, he thought they were really good!!

• 1 can Pillsbury honey butter Grands refrigerated biscuits (8 biscuits)
• Mini chocolate chips
• Nutella

Roll out each biscuit until it is about 1/4 inch thick and spread with nutella to the very edge. Then sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. Roll up each biscuit like a burrito and cut into three pieces. Place each piece (with the spiral cut side facing up) into a compartment in a mini cupcake pan. (To make 8 larger popovers, place all 3 cut pieces in one compartment of a regular sized cupcake pan.)

Bake according to the package directions. While the popovers were hot, I stirred together a little powdered sugar, milk and a smidge of vanilla to make a glaze to drizzle on these sweet little mouthfuls!