I am a Aunt!

I have not posted in the last couple of weeks. I had a cold which turned into strep throat. On meds now and feeling much better. This weekend my sister in Indiana gave birth to a perfect little bundle of joy. (The first grand baby for our family)

Jayson Scott

1-24-10

7.5lb and 18in

With huge gobs of dark brown hair

Mommy, Daddy and me

Look at all my hair!

Meeting uncle Aaron

Meeting Aunt Tasha

Meal Plan Monday & New Year Goals

I had some down time today while at school. So I decide I would take the chance to get this posted. This year I made Goals rather then resolutions. As we all know that no one ever keeps their resolutions, and it is slightly easier to reach small goals and take baby steps toward progress and change.

Speaking of baby steps, that is exactly what my goals this year are all about. Following Dave Ramsey's baby steps to financial freedom. Aaron and I followed Dave's plan a few years ago and we did great with it. We truly enjoyed the stress relief it gave us knowing where every dollar was going. I am sure you have heard of Dave Ramsey, if not stop on over to Dave Ramsey site.

2010 Goals

1. Make a weekly meal plan & Stick to it!

2. Bring all basic bills current

3. Put $1,000 in the bank for emergencies

4. Pay off $5,000+ in debt (I know not alot, but I wanted to set a small goal to start)

5. Start using coupons again

6. Build our stockpile of HBA & Pet supplies

7. Start a small garden

8. Learn to can (my great mother in law has volunteered to help us in this adventure)

9. Lose weight!

10. Fall more in love with my husband and repair our marriage with God as the center (I left the best for last)

Some of these goals will take longer then others. Some will take more patience and hard work then some. But I hope and plan on obtain all of them, or at least die trying, by the end of 2010.

Here is our first monday meal plan.

I should point out a few things. We eat alot of salad, and make normally everything from scratch with little carb, pork or processed food intake. I am looking forward to sharing some very yummy recipes coming soon too.

Breakfast Staples: Oatmeal (we eat alot of this), eggs and leftovers (why not yet dinner for breakfast, you eat breakfast for dinner. lol

Lunches: We both normally take a salad, wrap or leftovers for lunch so this varies greatly.

Dinners:

Mon - Leftovers from Sunday

Tue - Pork Steaks & Baked Butternut Squash

Wed - Chicken & Salad

Thur - Applebee's (date night is every Thursday after my class for 1/2off appetizers!)

Fri - Homemade Chili (Will post recipe soon)

Sat - Curry Chicken w/ Yogurt sauce (Will post recipe soon)

Sun - Veggie & Beef Stir Fry (Will post recipe soon)

If you would like to join everyone else who is joining in on Meal Plan Monday, be sure to check out Organizing Junkie. You are sure to find some recipes your family would love.

Wool Bag Makeover & Dried Fruit

I am posting this early today since my second semester of school starts today.

I am going to be having very packed days. I have my writing class 8am-10am, Math from noon-3pm and sociology 4-6 on Mon & Wed and a evening 4hour class on Thursday nights for wedding floral design. (I needed a easy fun class).

I figured I will be planning on jamming all my homework and projects into Mon - Thur. Which will leave me Friday and the whole weekend to craft. We will see how long that plan lasts though.

My cold has moved from my chest to my head now. So I will be carrying a box of kleenex around this week with me, oh what a job.

I was hoping to start/finish several projects this past week. Although with my cold it really put a halt to all my energy.

I did manage to work on a small trash to treasure project.

I found this burlap bag at a thrift store in a 90% off Christmas bin. It was stuffed with cotton batting, had broken candy canes, a small dirty stuffed toy and ugly little presents all sticking out of it. But for only 10cents I could see past all that.

I was so excited to rip it all apart I forgot a before picture. lol But trust me it looked awful.

I free hand stitched the word wool, stained and baked it in the oven. Which was my first ever attempt at baking fabric in the oven. I love how it turned out though. No more air drying for me. lol

Here it is. I still need to find some real sheeps wool to stick in there.

I had mentioned in a previous post about trying to dry fruit. Well I need some help from the pros out there. I don't know what went wrong with my fruit. But it all looks burnt! Some looks dark brown and burnt while others are half burnt and half not dried. Urgh!

I did put them in lemon juice before drying them. Any pointers and tips would be appreciated.

I should say that I did not dry these in the oven. I just put them on the cookie sheet below for the picture.

Health & Blessings

Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts for Aaron's job promotion. I am happy and excited to report he received the job promotion! Yay! He use to have a part time contract job through the dealership. He was hired as a employee full time, with at least 16+hours of overtime each week. He is just finishing up his first full week and states he is really enjoying it, even with all the snow and cold weather he has to tackle each day. We bought him new snow boots last night which will help with the snow as well. Aaron being hired full time could not have come at a better time. It is a huge blessing to us and our future.

I woke up on Wed with a sore throat which has turned into a full fledge cold. Coughing, running nose, sore throat, etc. I haven't been doing much since then do to lack of energy needless to say. I do have a growing list of housework and craft projects to work on though.

If anyone has a grungy pantry cake recipe could they please let me know either by email it or leaving it in the comment section please. I have never made one of these, and I can't seem to find a recipe that looks like it would make them grungy.

With what little energy I have had this is what I have been doing....

I have cranberries drying in the spare room. I bought 2 bags of them on sale, I strung the good ones, and tossed the bad ones out to the birds.

I also have fruit drying. Oranges, limes and lemons in the dehydrator I borrowed from my mom. I did put the slices in lemon juice before hand but they still don't seem to be coming out the right way. I will share picture when they are done.

Last night Aaron did pull me out of the house to the store and to dinner.

I picked up some wonderful fabric to use for some valentine day projects that I am starting to work on for a swap and a giveaway here on my blog. So be sure to keep checking back.

This weekend I am going to pull all my energy together and start working on my craft room,

since it looks like a tornado hit.

Check Out This Blog

Stop on over at Seasons of the Past and meet Anne.

She has a wonderful blog, with wonderful pictures and stories of her family and primitive treasures.

She is also having a wonderful Resolution Giveaway.

Make sure to become a follower of her blog and post a comment for a chance to win her great offerings. Hurry though since she will be drawing a winner on Jan 8th!

Recent Thrift Store finds & Projects

For some reason as of late I have jumped in with both feet into trying new crafts and learning how to make all these great prims I see everyone else making.

I have learned I LOVE making stitcheries! Here are the two I made for Christmas gifts.

The santa is my very first one, so lots of mistakes and such. But I gave that to my mom and she loved it anyways. These were also the first frames I ever painted. I love how they turned out. I just used basic craft paint. Painted a coat of black then a coat of dark green or red. The second one is a close up photo of the one I made from a coloring book page I found online for my mother in law.

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree this year. I need to make or find a different tree topper for next year and find a way to keep the tree skirt on since the cats always destroy it the first day. The santa I found at the dollar store and tea strained him. The tags and candy canes were from the Christmas swap I received this year. I made the mittens (my own design) and painted them. I cut the strips of muslin and draped them around the tree. Next year I plan on having them all stitched and tea stained. Plus adding strings of dried cranberries.

I have been in a huge thrifting mood as well. We tried to stop at a few thrift stores and antique shops in Pa but most of them were closed for the week due to the holidays. We did find 2 thrift stores that were open in PA. I also had some time to kill before I picked Aaron up from work the other day. So I went thrifting again at one of my favorite local places.

Here are pictures of all my goodies.

The saltbox house needs to be redone, I am looking for a vintage honey label for the honey jar. The frames will all be redone of course, and I could not pass up that little tin for .25cents to make mini pantry cakes with.

I have been looking high and low for cutting boards. When I went there were 2 sitting right next to each other at the same TS. The uncle sam shelf sitter needs tighted but for only .25cents I snagged him, along with the horn for a whole 10cents!

The white hanging basket I love, but it has been painted with a shiny white gloss paint. Do I just repaint it? Or is there a other way to prim it and get rid of the glossy look?

Dh loves the watermelon the most he says. The heart wreath was a splurge for me. I have been eyeing a twig and berry wreath that just arrived at Joann's. But they want $35! Yikes!

So I decided to settle for this one for now since I do not have any Valentine decor and I figured $4 was much better then $35.

Today I am working on drying fruit, taking Christmas decor down, and I might try making a pantry cake. Depends on how much energy I have. I fell the other day at Aaron's work on the snow. I had parked on a small slope and I slipped right next to the car, sliding half way under the truck. By the time I was up on my feet again I was covered from head to toe in snow. I have been pretty sore since then.