It's That Time of Year

It's the time of the year to start thinking about what you want to accomplish for the next year. I've been thinking about a few different ideas about what to do for next year. Here is my top two ideas
* No eating out for an entire year...
* No buying anything new for an entire year... maybe this should just include books, clothes, toys, etc. Not cooking related items?? Or school items?

My other goals are as follows-
*I want to get rid of all my aluminum cooking ware...I'd have to order new pots and pans as well as a couple stone ware items. Unfortunately that would be buying something new unless of course I can convince my hubby to buy it for me for Christmas. Or I could have Pampered Chef party and try to earn enough to at least get my stone ware.
* I really want to get rid of our trash pick up. We have greatly reduced our trash but I'd like to not need it at all.
* I'm hoping to expand our garden and my canning in attempt to can or freeze enough until the next harvest season. I would like to avoid the grocery store for most of the Summer.
* Reduce our electric usage. I would like to cut our bill by 50% by the end of 2010.
* I would love to save $3,000 by 2010 or maybe even more. I need to realize that just because something is a great deal I don't need to buy it!!

What are some of your goals for 2010?

Monday Happenings

Today we went to see Santa and for the first time ever all five of our kids were in the picture!!! It truly was a Christmas Miracle!! After our visit we headed over to Build A Bear workshop and the older three girls made bears. We then went to visit the Lego store for my son and he created three Lego characters. The kids had a great day.

Our dinner however was not the highlight that I was hoping for. It turned out nasty. Maybe it was the sauce? I know I won't be making this again. I hate failed recipes...we did manage to scrounge up enough fruit and yogurt to eat so we avoided a trip to Wendy's.

Menu Plan Monday

It's the week before Christmas and things are getting exciting around our homestead! We're off to see Santa tomorrow, there's a Nerf War on Wednesday, and our first Christmas of the season on Saturday. I'm going to rely on my crock pot this week to avoid eating out! Here's what's on our menu for this week.

Breakfast-
baked peanut butter oatmeal
banana muffins/yogurt
waffles/eggs
hash brown patties/eggs
pancakes/bacon
snicker doodle coffee cake

Lunch-
leftovers or
mac and cheese
grilled cheese/baked potatoes
bread sticks with sauce

Dinner-
Sweet and Sour Chicken in the crock pot with steamed rice and broccoli
Meatloaf/mashed potatoes/rolls
Pulled Pork in the crock pot/ cheese fries
Chicken and Noodles over mashed potatoes
Order Pizza!! It's a Christmas baking day!!!!
Head to the in-laws for Christmas

For more menu plans check out I'm an Organizing Junkie

School's Out!

Our home school is officially on Christmas break. What does a home school family do on Christmas break? Here's a list of things we're going to be up to-

* Going to see Santa on Monday
* A Nerf war on Wednesday followed by hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts at our house
* Making fudge, buckeyes, Christmas cookies
* Reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
* Making crafts
* Making homemade play dough for friends
* Creating gift baskets for friends, family, and neighbors

I love this time of year. We're getting our Christmas tree this weekend and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm Finished

That's it...the last gift has been bought. Late last night I order my last gift online and that completed Christmas shopping 2009. I was blessed to find out about a Target deal yesterday and bought my little girls their presents. The total for Christmas 2009 is $300.00 for all five kids. I also bought them each one item that they really really wanted a sewing machine, an American Girl doll, fancy Nerf gun, and a nice wooden kitchen for my two little girls.

This is the first year that we're giving three gifts per child and we decided to have on big gift per person ( or for example my two little girls are sharing a large gift) and then two smaller ones.

How is your Christmas shopping going? Are you finished or just starting?

Meal Prep

There's been a huge change in our home...we have given up cereal. As in there is not one single box of cereal on the cereal shelf. You know what that means? I have to make a hot breakfast every single day- no matter how I feel! One of the ways I manage to do that is by preparing as much as possible ahead of time. I try to start our breakfast right after dinner while I'm cleaning the kitchen. For example, tomorrow we're having waffles so I whipped up a batch of waffle batter and put it in the fridge. If we're having snicker doodle coffee cake I put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then I just have to add the wet ingredients in the morning. I'll also spend a day making doughnuts from scratch to have for snacks and breakfast the next day.

Starting breakfast the night before works for me

Hot Deal on Leapfrog Didji

Kids Woot has a deal on the leapfrog didji...it's the stars wars clone edition that includes the Didji hand held system and the star wars game for $27.99 (including shipping)

Hope that helps your shopping!!