Bedroom Inspiration

Ok y'all designer-type friends ... I need some advice/help.



Awhile ago we had our bedroom an olive green color with red/olive bedding from Waverly. Then we got tired of it and went with pale blue walls with blue/brown bedding. But many times we still use both of the quilts/comforters so our bed still has both the red and the blue on it most of the time. {Hubby has this thing about not sharing the comforter at night - LOL - or he would say that *I'm* the one who doesn't share well - so he insists we each have our own to sleep with.}


Then, through my Blessings Unlimited business I got this GORGEOUS magnetic board with these adorable little magnet birdies. The birds are in this cute, vintag-y blue and red fabric ... and we hung it in our room and it sorta got my wheels turning ...

So my thought now is that I'd like to recover my current comforter{s} with some pretty fabrics that include both the blue and the red colors. I definitely DO NOT want to patriotic, red/white/blue thing going on though.

I found the following images online and am using them as my inspiration photos ...

I REALLY love the look of this bedding!

I sorta like this one, but think it's a bit too feminine ...

And I love the color combos in this notebook ...

SO, I'm wondering what do you think?

* I want to make sure it's not too girly or feminine, after all, this is my hubby's room too. But red IS his fave color!

* I like a country chic kind of look. A little bit old fashioned looking, a little bit classic country, VERY comfortable and cozy - definitely NOT modern, geometric or anything like that.

* The other trouble I'm having is just finding fabrics I like. So, if you see any, or see any ideas out there in blog / pinterest land - PLEASE forward them to me!

Thanks in advance for your input!

Healthy Veggie Soup

Last night a friend at church handed me this slip of paper with a recipe written on it. She saw my post on FB about trying to eat healthier and had a great recipe to share. I'm telling you people this could be the EASIEST recipe you will ever try and if you're anything like me, you probably already have the items on hand.

Here goes:

1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1 bag baby spinach
1 onion chopped

Saute onion in olive oil. Add all ingredients and heat until spinach is cooked. Add salt, pepper, hot sauce or any other seasoning you wish.

I made a few modifications:

*I used the LARGE size can of crushed tomatoes,

*I didn't have canned corn, so I threw in some frozen corn which worked just fine,

*I did HALF the bag of spinach, but still didn't like it. :( I'm not a fan of cooked spinach and I knew it was a stretch that I would like it in this soup. Next time I might just eliminate it from the recipe.

*I added some frozen, chopped red & green peppers and some frozen, chopped celery,

*I added 2 can fulls of water,

*I did salt, pepper, 1 tsp of Tabasco, and 2 overflowing tsps of Pampered Chef Parmesan/Garlic seasoning, and 2 fresh garlic gloves {pressed through my garlic press}.

I let it sit and simmer for a while on the stove. It may a pretty big pot full. I had some for lunch and it was yummy.

Yummy, healthy and full of good-for-you veggies - what more could you ask for?

Total Language Plus - a Review

This year our family began using a Language Arts program called Total Language Plus. In the previous years we have used other programs that were mostly worksheets and found that our girls were getting a little bored with those. So this year I researched some new options and through the recommendation of a friend came across Total Language Plus.

Total Language Plus is a family owned and operated company that was created by Barbara Blakey and her husband. It was born out of their desire to create an integrated Language Arts program for their own children, who they were homeschooling at the time. Instead of giving their children a separate book for spelling, grammar, vocabulary, etc, they created a user friendly curriculum that included all of those components in one spot.

When purchasing Total Language Plus for your child there are basically just two things you'll need. The first is a book, the second is a student guide that goes along with the book. The books that have been chosen by TLP are outstanding literature based books and many are award winners.

The best way to get started with TLP is to check out their website, and take a look through the titles that are offered. For each grade level there are several different choices, giving you {and your child} some different options depending on what you think might interest them most. The books and study guides are offered for children from 3rd grade all the way through 12th grade - but you could easily use one novel for more than one grade level, simply by adapting the work load for each child depending on their abilities/age.

Each year your child will complete approximately 3-4 books / study guides. They will spend anywhere from 7-11 weeks on each book. This gives them lots of time to read and comprehend each book and to use the book to incorporate all of the elements of language arts learning.

This year, for example, we chose the following books for our fifth grader:
Charlotte's Web
The Cricket in Times Square
Caddie Woodlawn
The Wheel on the School

For our third grader we chose the following books:
The Courage of Sarah Noble
The Sign of the Beaver
The Whipping Boy

These are the books with their study guides.

What I love about TLP is that it's all-inclusive for Language Arts. The study guide provides everything your child will need to study each novel they read. In the front of the book is this handy planning grid. It shows you what your child needs to do each day for each area of Language Arts [spelling, vocab, reading, grammar, etc]. For the most part, it follows a 5 day school week plan, which of course you can adapt in any way you choose.

So for example, on Monday they would do Grammar A, Vocab A, Spelling A, Dictation A, etc. It's very easy for the student to know what is expected of them each day.

Since Caddie Woodlawn has 7 units, we could finish this book in about 7 weeks, so long as we did a 5 day school week every week. There are times we miss days or take days off though so sometimes a book will stretch out for a couple more weeks than it suggests.

One of our favorite things about TLP are the Writing/ Enrichment ideas which are found at the beginning of each new unit. These are fun ways to really incorporate the story into your own life. They offer suggestions such as 'take a canoe ride, try eating succotash, go to a Native American museum, etc' - all of these ideas help the child get a little more familiar with what is going on in the story.

We have found that some of the spelling words are a bit tricky, but the great thing is that they do a lot of practice at reinforcing the words and their meanings. For example, on this page the students match the spelling word with a list of it's synonyms. We have also played flashcard fish and flashcard spoons, all of which help drill the meaning of these words into our memory. [I'm including myself because I've learned some new words and meanings right alongside my girls this year!]

I also love how the Word of God is included in the studies too. Although the novels aren't necessarily Christian stories, they do have good moral concepts and are reinforced with scripture through dictation.

I asked my girls what they like or dislike about this Language program. My oldest, who LOVES Language Arts says she likes it all because it makes learning Language Arts fun and she especially likes the fun activities like doing crosswords and word ladders and such. She said she doesn't like that the novels are sometimes too long. ;)

My youngest does not enjoy Language Arts much at all, no matter what program is being used, but she did say she enjoys the enrichment projects and drawings. She does not enjoy writing stories and said the spelling words are a bit hard. You will notice in one of the pictures below that she doodles all over her page. ;) This is just not her favorite subject but overall she has done really well this year. Sometimes I will allow her to answer me orally instead of writing out her answers and she enjoys that a lot more.

These are some of the fun activities included:
Coded Words

Word Searches

Ball Toss

Crossword puzzles

Overall we have been very happy that we made the change to TLP. The only things you will want to buy on your own to go with the product are some flash cards, a blank notebook for each student and the typical school supplies of pencils, markers, erasers, etc.

The cost varies by each book / unit study, but on average each student guide is about $20.95 and each novel is about $5 to $8. I have found MANY of the novels at my local used book shop though, so if you want to save yourself a couple bucks, you could look for them elsewhere. You will want to order one study guide per student, but the novels are obviously reusable.

The only thing I would recommend that TLP change about their product is that they add some color to their workbook pages or maybe even some illustrations. Everything is black and white and full of words, but no pictures .... which to a child might seem a bit boring and dull. Otherwise I am very happy with the product and the price.

If you're interested in learning more about TLP please visit their website at:

TOTAL LANGUAGE PLUS.

*Disclaimer, I did not receive anything in the way of product or compensation for this post, I simply wanted to share a bit about what curriculum we use and what I like about it.*

You CAN eat Healthy on a budget

Soooo, I've been trying to make some positive changes around here - one being stick to a good budget and another being trying to eat healthier. I will be the first to admit that those two things don't always go well together! It's a fact that healthy, WHOLE foods DO cost more than buying cheap, unhealthy, convenience foods. But who wants to sacrifice good health for a cheaper price tag?

My goal has been to stick to {about} $100 each week for our grocery budget. We live in a VERY expensive state and we are a family of four, so this is no easy task. There are definitely some weeks that I go WAY over that budget and especially on weeks when I need to add household items but on this particular week I was able to get everything you see in the pictures below for $93 and that was with NO coupons.

Also, I DO have some things on hand already, a few things in the freezer and the pantry ... and like I said, I didn't need any household items this week. But overall I thought I did pretty well considering most of it is stuff that is good for you.

PANTRY ITEMS:
1 bag croutons {we are doing a salad bar for dinner this wk and the girls requested these & the bacon bits, otherwise I wouldn't have bought either one}
1 jar bacon bits
1 box sugar free jello
1 box sugar free pudding
2 boxes healthy harvest pasta
1 box green tea bags
1 can peaches {my girls love}
1 bottle of ranch {for my daughter}
1 bag pita chips {hubby's snack of choice with his hummus}

FRIDGE/FREEZER ITEMS:

1 carton unsweetened almond milk

1 bag pierogies {for the girl's lunch}

1 carton eggs

1 bag green beans

1 bag corn

hummus {for hubby}

butter

forgot to put these in the last photo:

1 lb butter

3 Chobani greek yogurt {my fave}

MEATS:
1 whole chicken {not very big but will be enough for a meal}
1 lb ground turkey
1 pork loin
perdue short cuts {wouldn't normally buy but these are for the salad bar night}
3 packs imitation crab meat {another of hubby's fave snacks}

VEGGIES:
1 lg bag romaine lettuce
1 bag spinach
1 {5 lb} bag carrots
2 packs grape tomatoes
2 sweet potatoes
4 cucumbers

FRUITS:
7 bananas
6 Gala apples
1 pck strawberries
6 lemons

Meals I plan to have this week are:

T - Turkey Meatloaf with Sweet Potato fries and Green Beans

W - Egg Salad Sandwiches {on Awana night when we need to get out the door}TH - Whole Chicken with Corn and Salad

F - Salad Bar night

S - Pork Loin with Potatoes and Broccoli

SU - Tacos {daughter's request for her family bday party}


Overall I think I used my budget fairly well this week. I have some good, healthy meals planned and lots of fresh fruits and veggies on hand to encourage healthy choices.

What are some of your tips for stretching your budget to allow for healthy choices??

Valentine’s Day!

Call me corny but around here we like to do it up big for Valentine’s Day. I know, I know … some people consider it such a corny holiday where men are *forced* to buy gifts and cards and overpriced flowers and people feel obligated to say I love you. But I think of it {and most holidays to be honest} as a chance to have a little FUN with our kiddos. I know that someday the day will come when they will think this is all too corny and silly and won’t want anything to do with it – then again, maybe they won’t and maybe someday they’ll enjoy making holidays into fun celebrations with their OWN kids!

So many years ago we sort of gave up the idea of going out as a couple for Valentine’s day – for one thing, I worked at a flower shop for a few years and it was ALWAYS our busiest week which meant I would rush home from working all day just in time for dinner. Also, it’s hard to find someone to watch the kids and the restaurants are usually crowded. Our solution was to make our own at home special dinner. For several years now we’ve done this and it’s always a wonderful night. We decorate the whole dining room and set up the table real fancy. We get dressed up and make a yummy, special dinner and special dessert.

This year, since Valentine’s day was going to be on a Tuesday {which is usually my hubby’s day to work} we decided to do our fancy dinner on Sunday night.

 

I did the decorating. I keep one small bin filled with fun Valentine decor that I pull out each year.

My hubby loves to cook and is SO good at it – so he made us an amazing Shrimp Scampi for dinner! He likes a little more seafood so he also made some clams and scallops for himself. My daughters like scallops too, but I only stick to the shrimp. =)

My little love bugs … they are growing up way too fast!

Hubby’s plate with all his seafood, he was in heaven!

Daddy’s girls … He is SUCH an amazing Daddy to them!

Later that night we watched Courageous after the girls were in bed. It was a great movie with a great message for all Dads. Like I said, I’m so blessed that my husband is such a good Daddy to his girls and is so involved in their lives.

Tuesday morning: On the ‘real’ Valentine’s Day I had some fun little things planned. But hubby surprised me by saying he took the day off and we WOULD be going out to a fancy dinner at night {with our girls}. So our plans changed slightly, but we still had a fun day, actually even better because Bob was able to be with us too.

We started the morning with homemade, fluffy waffles topped with whipped cream and strawberries … and PINK milk!

*I may or may not have had chocolate with Breakfast, Lunch AND Dinner that day!*

We gave the girls these little boxes with a few little treats …they also got a cute bag full of goodies from one Grandma and a card and money from the other Grandma. They are lucky little girls!

My daughter created these little clothespin people for each of us, so cute!

A bunch of the goodies the girls got…

 

My hubby is one of those guys who likes to make goofy comments on FB when it comes to Valentine’s day … a friend of ours got some Choc. Covered Strawberries for V-day and Bob’s comment was ‘there’s a sucker born every day!’    ….. and YET, he got me chocolate AND flowers! {the card was from my girls} I love that even though he thinks it’s funny and probably thinks the whole day is super corny, he also knows what will make his wife happy and feel loved and he’s willing to go out of his comfort zone to make me feel special. {And he knows that I love multicolored roses MUCH better than all red roses!}

So I forgot my camera for the rest of the day, shame on me, I know! But we went to a neat Nature center near us, and took a little hike in the woods, then had Subway for lunch, then came home and showered and changed and went out to a lovely dinner. It was a restaurant that we had never been to but we LOVED it. The atmosphere was gorgeous, with views of the river and boats and the sun going down. And the food was awesome, I can’t remember the last time we had such a good meal out! The girls were wonderful at dinner, they behaved like little princesses and they were the only kids in the whole place!

All in all, it was a wonderful day and we had fun making the most of it. Yep, corny we may be, but we have fun!

A Weekly Plan {Feb. 13-19}

Hmmmm, yeah I'm still here! Sorry for the lack of posts, lack of pictures and lack of discipline in the area of weekly plan posts! Sometimes life just gets in the way!

So, one thing I HAVE been doing lately is studying the book of Ephesians with a group called 'Good Morning Girls'. Every day you just read a couple verses and then take a little time to reflect on them. We are already on week FIVE and I can't believe I'm sticking with it! In the past I have been so bad at keeping a consistent quiet time and this has been such a blessing in my life right now! There are SO many people I know going through SO many difficult situations and making time to start my day with reading God's Word and prayer has been wonderful.

The other thing I've been doing lately is trying to kick my butt into shape. I still am not seeing much difference on the scale, but can tell my body is getting stronger little by little. I am signed up to run a 5k on St. Patrick's Day and have a couple others later in the year that I plan to do as well. I'm thankful that even when I don't see the scale moving I have a healthy, able body.

And our school days continue to plug along too. I have a confession to make. I'm no good at teaching science! Actually, I pretty much stink! I mean, it's super interesting and super fun and there is SO much stuff out there to learn ... but I hate trying to come up with lessons and ideas and how to put it all together. Last year we used Apologia and honestly, I probably should have just stuck with them this year. I thought I could save some money and use a book I already had but I've been a bit disappointed this year. Blah!!

What else? Well this coming weekend we're going to visit some friends so I'm trying to plan my week accordingly - getting our school work done, planning our meals, etc. It's fun to have a little weekend getaway to look forward to!

On the menu this week is:

Mon - Taco Soup {one of my all time faves and healthy too!}
Tues - Valentines Day {hubby is taking us out to dinner! woohoo!}
Wed - Awana night {sandwiches or easy stuff}
Thur - Eggs and Toast
Fri - on the road to Pennsylvania so we'll prob grab fast food or make sandwiches to bring in the car.

Pretty easy week as far as cooking goes!

I just have to say, one thing that this weekly plan has been really good for ... keeping my life in order. It might sound funny but I am the kind of person that gets busy with life and forgets simple stuff like cleaning the bathroom and changing the sheets weekly ... with this chart I have a GREAT reminder to do it every week and I love it! I'm also doing better with drinking more water and tracking it on the chart. So even though I'm not a stickler to every detail of the chart, it HAS been helpful and beneficial around here.

Anyway, guess that's about all for now ... sorry for such a lame, boring post today! hahaha

A Year of Memory Keeping

Soooo, I have this love of scrapbooking, but unfortunately at this point I'm about 3+ years behind and have thousands of pictures still on my computer that need to be scrapped. But the problem I have is that my memory just doesn't work the way it used to and when I do get around to scrapping different events, I've LONG ago forgotten the fun things we did or comments that were said, etc. For that reason, I never really save things like concert tickets because by the time I would catch up to scrapping that event I would have lost the concert ticket a looooong time ago.

But just this past weekend my hubby and I went to a fun concert and as I went to throw out my ticket I hesitated ... I thought it would still be fun to hang on to those sort of things and make them into a memory but not necessarily a scrapbook.

I also saw these cool 'Smash' books at AC Moore a couple weeks ago and suddenly my idea was born!

I'm going to make a memory book for the year and just throw simple, easy things in it at random. Like if we take the kids to the zoo we'll stick our admission tickets in there, or a park map, or movie tickets, or concert tickets ... or any silly memories or thoughts that come to mind, OR for those events that I forget to take photos of - I could simply jot a quick page down about what a fun day it was ... or, put our race numbers from the 5k races we're planning to run this year ... just a whole big, mix-mash of items and memories, thrown quickly and simply into a book. No fancy scrapbook papers or tools needed, no extensive planning - I just add things as we go through the year ...

So here is the Smash book, I was thinking about getting one but then I remembered a web page that I saved MANY months ago with these super cool, super cute journals so I found the link again and went to check them out.





Here is the website if you'd like to check them out ...
Aren't they fun?! I have sold a couple items on my etsy shop and had a little bit of money in my paypal account, so I bought this journal and only had to pay a couple bucks out of pocket for the shipping.

They have several designs but I decided on this one because it's all about me and my life. I also like the one about 'where we live' and might consider buying that one in the future.

When you buy the journal it comes with ALL of these cool papers ... some lined, some patterned, some little envelopes for tucking in little treasures ... just a whole bunch of FUN, FUN stuff!

I really can't wait until it comes in the mail! I can't wait to get started on this and hope that since January just ended I can easily catch up and remember the fun things we did in January before I get too far behind!

How do you keep track of fun, family memories?

WOW!

I'm just blown away today. The Lord always uses things in my life to just knock my socks off!

So let me back up a bit ... a WHOLE bunch of months ago I was sharing with our Bible study group that I've felt such a burden for people's marriages lately. We have seen and experienced SO many people with failed marriages in the past year. Family, friends, Christians, non-Christians - just a WHOLE bunch of people whose marriages have ended. For ALL different reasons - and just for the record, this post is not a judgement of those people or the reason for their marriages ending - it's just to illustrate my point that this issue has been a burden on my heart for a while now.

Then, this past week we had our monthly MOMS meeting and one of our elder's wives talked about Cultivating Your Marriage - which was a fabulous and honest talk which truly encouraged my heart.

Also last week our pastor's wife called to ask me if I would be willing/able to help co-lead a group at our church's Ladies Bible Study this spring - and the group they want me to help co-lead ... the topic is MARRIAGE! {did you guess I was gonna say that?}

I'll be honest ... I was a little terrified and a little flattered! The more I thought about and prayed about it though, the more I realized that there is a reason the Lord has put this burden on my heart lately. There is a reason He wants me to pray for my marriage and the marriages of those around me. There is a reason He wants me to help lead - but also LEARN - these important truths!

I feel so blessed that I get to be a part of this. We had a planning meeting today where all the group leaders gathered together. This is a wonderful bunch of Godly women who are amazing leaders at our church. These are some of the elders wives, some of them have led the women's ministries for YEARS, and all around just an awesome group of Godly women. I am excited to work with them and be part of their team. I'm a little nervous, but also honored.

For those who are interested, the book we're going to study in our group is called 'The Joy of a Promise Kept' and it's written by the wives of many great leaders of our faith such as Max Lucado's wife and a bunch of others. {sorry, their names are escaping me right now!} The book is a pretty easy read so if you feel like you might be interested you should pick up a copy and follow along with us this spring!

Anyway, that's all for now ... just wanted to share! =)