Menu Plan Monday

Last week I did not make up a menu - boy was that a mistake. I began dreading dinner from the minute I woke up! What to fix, what to fix! One night we had cereal, that might not have been so horrible, but the night before we had bacon and cereal. The bacon was supposed to be for quiche, but it never made it! So this week it is back to menu planning. I don't have anything for Monday yet, I have an early mammogram scheduled and then I will do some shopping while in a town that is big enough to have more than 2 stores! I will head to Aldi - my favorite store. I am half German so perhaps that draws me to the store, but honestly, the main reason I like to shop there is the wonderful produce and the good prices on dairy. Oh yeah, I like their paper products too! You just never know what you will find in Aldi!

Monday -
Tuesday- Buttermilk "Fried" Chicken with mashed potatoes and veggie (Jan. 2010 Family Circle magazine)
Wednesday - Shrimp Boil
Thursday - Grilled Buffalo Chicken Strips (Betty Crocker website)
Friday - Sloppy Joe's, homemade french fries
Saturday - Homemade Pizza
Sunday - Pot roast with mushroom gravy, egg noodles, fresh asparagus

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!

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Rite Aid coupon

Rite Aid has a coupon for $3.00 of a $15.00 purchase. The coupon doesn't expire until 3/31/10. I can't wait to see what they have on sale this weekend. Remember to give this coupon to the clerk after the sale is completely rung up and before you give her any other coupons.

Go here to print the coupon.

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Taste of Home Cookbook Sale

I love Taste of Home magazine and cookbooks ! I get hungry while reading their magazine and I am always inspired to get in the kitchen and cook up soemthing new. Right now Taste of Home has a great sale going on - you can pick up cookbooks for just $5.00 each.

If you use Shop At Home, you can get a rebate of 10% of your purchase. First time Shop At Home users get a $5.00 bonus for signing up. Go here to sign up to Shop At Home.

Shop Taste of Home $5 Cookbook sale. Hurry, sale ends 3-5-10.

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A Bit of Spring

My wonderful knitting teacher sent this link to me, I also saw it on a quilting blog. I was happy to get it and play around with it and finally get a chance to see a little Spring, even if it isn't the real thing! When the black screen comes up, hold your left mouse button down and move your mouse around!

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

This morning we shoveled another 8 inches of snow off the driveway. Did it yesterday and the day before! I am getting just a bit tired of it. I keep telling myself to look at the beauty of the snow - but that only works for so long. Our driveway is about 100 foot long, but I think every time I go out to shovel it gets longer! Hope you enjoy the Spring.


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Knitting

I received an e-mail from my knitting teacher, Theresa, letting me know that classes will start again in March. Theresa is a wonderful teacher and a wonderful woman and I enjoy taking class with her. I probably won't be able to attend class until April, but I am still looking forward to it. I realized that I had not done much knitting lately, so I pulled out a shawl that I had started late last year and started knitting again last night. I also decided I wanted to share a photo of a Christmas gift I made for my daughter. I homeschooled my daughter for 10 of her 12 years of school. One day a week (for the last couple of years) we had Tea Time. We would have tea, some sort of cookies or other snack, and then discuss literature and poetry. It was our favorite time of the week. We would snuggle up on the sofa in the living room (one of the few times the room got used) and read, drink, eat, laugh and enjoy each other's company. Two Christmases ago I gave her a teapot and 4 matching cups, in remembrance of our Tea Time. Last year I made the tea cozy for her. She is not a "skull" type person (hope that makes sense). The reason the cozy has a skull on it is because she is fascinated with the Hispanic Holiday "Dia De Los Muertos" which translates to "Day of The Dead". Families use the day, November 1st, to go to the grave sites of family and friends and clean them and celebrate their life. They will have picnics, tell stories, and place commemorative items on their graves in remembrance of those who passed. There is a great site here that talks about the holiday and the history of it.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

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Bad Day/Funny Blogs (Long post)

Yesterday was just not the best day for me. Let me start by saying that I have a neighbor who can be nice and then be very ugly and then be nice and then negative and then ... well, maybe you get the drift of the kind of person she is. Anyway, yesterday we got into a discussion concerning her eldest daughter who will graduate with a BA this year. My neighbor is telling her that she MUST get her MA because if she doesn't stay in school she will have no insurance coverage and what if she gets cancer or some other dreadful thing happens and they, the parents, have to pay for that. I said, that since her daughter was 21, perhaps it was her decision as to whether she wants to go to school or find a job (hence getting insurance). Don't get me wrong, I think it is great that they would help her financially if she were in need, but I don't think that they should force her to stay in school if that is not what she wants. Anyway, after a few more minutes of that type of discussion, she screamed at me and told me she didn't want to argue anymore - I said, I was not arguing and she kept telling me I was, so I did the mature thing and hung up on her! Knowing my neighbor, I am sure I will never hear from her again. I know this because she has told me stories of her ending relationships for less than my sin of hanging up on her. I know that what I did wasn't very nice or grown up, but I am an adult and I don't think that another adult has the right to scream at me (unless I am living with them!). At first I was upset, but now I feel a sense of relief. Sometimes talking to her was so depressing and that was always hard on me, because I am usually a easy going, happy person.

The second bad thing: I found out that I have to have follow-up tests to the mammogram I had a week or so ago. Apparently, things have changed since the previous year's mammogram and I now have calcifications. Also, the masses that were previously there are now larger. I have read about calcifications, and in most cases they are nothing, but one always wonders. I will be happy to find out what is going on.

Anyway, in a need for cheering myself up, I am going to link two sites that crack me up. This past Christmas, my daughter gave me the book "Cake Wrecks" It is so funny! We looked at it many times and almost peed ourselves laughing so hard. Guess what, there is a Cake Wrecks website! Go there, but please relieve yourself first. I told a blogger friend about this site and she agrees that it is really funny. The second site is one I just happened upon this morning. It is called Homemade Hilarity. It shows some homemade crafts that are really kind of funny. I worry that some of my crafts might make it on this site! Anyway, I hope you enjoy them. I am off to finish painting my bedroom!

Here is a preview from Homemade Hilarity. Honestly, is she going to the prom or what???


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Vintage Embroidery Design Catalog

Maureen's Vintage Acquisitions has a 13 page catalog of Vintage Embroidery Designs you can download and print. I love the designs that are in the catalog, many of them remind me of something my grandmother did. I think the designs could be used for many things. I always wanted to do some embroidery on pillowcases. I think it is a neat touch. Go here to see the catalog.

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Yesterday

Yesterday morning I had to get up early, not drink coffee (horrible fate), not eat breakfast (not as horrible as no coffee) and go to the hospital to give the amount of blood that a vampire would drink! I am not good at giving blood - my veins are small and refuse to give it up! Oh, by the way, I was giving blood, not because I am a good person, but because my Doctor says I must! Finally at around 10:30 I was able to get some really bad coffee at the hospital cafeteria and an English Muffin that refused to toast, not matter how many times I sent it through the toaster! Needless to say, I thought my day would go downhill from there. I did some shopping while in town (I live in a small town about an hour away the hospital - we only have a Walmart and Kroger), but didn't really get anything other than some goodies from Target. I really like Target better than Walmart, if for no other reason than the people seem to be happy there. My local Walmart has the crabbiest people working there, one lady hollered at me because I gave her a coupon for a free item and she had to look up the item on her register receipt to find out how much it was! Imagine - it must have been just horrible for her! I am sure it wasn't in her job description! Anyway, by the time I got home I was pooped! I am going to blame it on the lower amount of blood in my system! So, today I have to do yesterdays house stuff along with today's and do some homework for my Color Theory Class (I will post on that later). Thanks for listening to my ranting! Will post more later today and I promise it will be better!

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Target Deals

Looks like there are some good coupons on the Target website. These just came out today, so I would print them and hold on to them for a good sale, many of them last until the end of March or beginning of April. A few that I printed were:

Curel Moisturizer 3.5 or larger $1/1 (on sale for $7.49)
Target Cafe Kids meal $1/1 (reg. price $3.00)
Easy Mac 4 pack $1/1 (on sale for $2.79)

There are also some other great coupons, $1/1 Kraft cheese, $1/2 Kraft Parmesan Cheese, $1/2 Oscar Mayer bacon. Check out the rest of the coupons here.

Tip: Print Target’s Coupon Policy and take it to the store with you. Also be sure to check out Target’s Price Matching and Printable Coupon Policies before shopping to avoid any confusion in store.


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Great Magazine Deals

Best Deal Magazine has some great specials this week:

1 year of Taste of Home for $3.75 with the code WKLYSPEC at checkout
1 year of Weight Watchers for $3.75 with the code WKLYSPEC at checkout
1 year of Parents for $3.75 with the code WKLYSPEC at checkout

I ordered Family Circle and Woman's Day right before Christmas. I paid less than $10.00 for both and the coupons that I am getting from the magazines make up for the subscription rate.

Plus you can go through Shop at Home and earn 15% cash back. And if you are a new member, you will get a $5 bonus on top of the cash back! Just sign up here and after logging in, enter the name of the store in the search box and follow the link to the store’s homepage and proceed with your order like normal. I will be receiving a check for over $30 for purchase I made at the holidays! You get a check from Shop At Home when you reach a rebate amount of over $20.

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New Shoes

No, these shoes are not for me! They are for my daughter,who is a bit of a fashionista (maybe I should say major fashionista). She is the kind of girl who gets up early to put on makeup, comb and do her hair, have the perfect outfit and shoes, all to attend a class at college. All of her friends and fellow female students wear sweats and PJs, not my little girl!! At about age 11 or 12, she told me she just couldn't understand why any girl would want more than one pair of shoes, a couple pairs of jeans and a few t-shirts. Something changed and at age 18 she has about 30 pair of shoes and so much clothing that she only wears certain things once during a season. (She will call me and tell me it is not true when she reads this, but it is!) Of course, it doesn't help that her Grandmother and I are always on the ready to buy her something cute. These shoes were a gift from her Grandmother! I think her Grandmother and I are reliving our youth through my daughter!

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Valentine Wall Hanging

Remember a few posts ago, I posted a photo of a Valentine's Day wall hanging? Well, I finished it on Saturday night! Since Valentine's Day was the next day, I decided to place it on the dining room table for a few days. I am happy with it, what do you think?

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Quilt for Kids

Some of the members of my quilt guild are making quilts for the Quilts For Kids Challenge. I am sure that many of you have heard about this program. I am starting my quilt today, but thought I would take a "before" and "after" photo. One of the guild members will be doing all of the quilting, she just bought a long arm and is enjoying the practice. If you are not familiar with Quilts For Kids Challenge go here to read more about it. They will send the material to you (already cut) or you can use your own. I am going to make the one using the material they provided and then make one out of my stash!






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This week's Menu Plan

Yesterday was a crazy day! I had an appointment for a mammogram on Tues. of last week and had to reschedule to Friday and then I rescheduled it to Monday, all because of the snow. So that meant that yesterday at 10:00 a.m.I had a follow up appt. with my Family Dr. and then run to an 11:50 a.m. mammogram appointment. When I woke up yesterday I was excited, because the roads were clear and I thought the hour long drive to the Doctor would be a breeze. I had also planned on doing some shopping while in that area (we don't have much other than Walmart here). By the time I got out of the Doctor's office to walk to the hospital for the mammogram, it was snowing pretty good. By the time I left the Hospital, it was blizzard like. There had to have been 2 inches of snow on the road! It was so slippery! I hate to drive in weather like that. Well, needless to say, I inched my way to the freeway, which was relatively clear, and made it home. The hour long trip lasted almost 2! I was glad to make it home and was so worn out that I just sat on the sofa and stared at the TV. To make a long story short, I didn't get my Meal Plan posted for the week, so here it is:

Monday - Fritatta
Tuesday - Impossible Cheeseburger Pie, Veggies
Wednesday - Gnocchi, Veggies, French Bread
Thursday - Chicken Pot Pie, Salad
Friday - Pigs in a Blanket
Saturday - Stromboli
Sunday - Roast Chicken, Veggies

The recipe for the Chicken Pot Pie is really great - you wouldn't know it was "healthy"! By the way, both the Bisquick and the Eat Better America website have coupons!

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Contest on Sweet Jeanett's blog

I just entered a contest on Sweet Jeanette's blog. It is for a velvet ribbon bookmark and for a cute stuffed heart. Either one of these would be a wonderful giveaway, but one lucky person will get both. I enjoy looking at Sweet Jeanette's blog on a regular basis, she always has some great crafts, recipes and more. Check out Sweet Jeanette and see what you think!

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Olay $15 Skin Care Rebate

I love Olay facial moisturizers, so I was excited to find out about this rebate. Now through March 12, 2010, purchase 3 Olay Facial Moisturizers, Facial Treatments, Facial Cleaners, Hand & Body Lotions, Body Washes or 6+ Bar Packs of Soap and receive $15 back via rebate. Rebate forms must be completed and submitted by March 26, 2010. Get more info and print your rebate form here.

You can request a $3/1 Olay Facial Moisturizer coupon here.

More Olay coupons will be in the 2/21 P&G insert found in your Sunday newspaper.


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Alarm On My Bed

I am beginning to think there is a secret alarm on my bed. It goes off when I lay clean clothes on it. The only ones that are able to hear the alarm are cats and dogs! I think it may be like the dog whistle, humans just can't hear it. It usually goes off when I am in the shower or when I am putting just folded clothes in another room. I have tried sneaking into the room, but I can't seem to catch it going off. The animals sure seem to hear it though! I wonder if animals have an "in" in the bed manufacturing world?!?!




I think my dog is whispering, "We have been found out!"

P.S. - sorry for the photography - it is not my strong suit

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Coupons Are Worth Clipping

Tonight, I was reading Common Sense with Money's blog and she wrote about an article that she read in the Wall Street Journal tackling whether coupons are worth it or not.

The article does the math and lets you see how much money you can really save by clipping coupons. It is based on the hourly rate you can earn by clipping coupons. When you calculate the hourly rate you earn when you clip a coupon, you have to adjust the it up since you don't have to pay Social Security, Federal or State taxes. I really liked the article because it didn't list the same reasons to clip coupons (we all know those!) it actually had me thinking that my "job" of being thrifty is worth more than I thought!

Article: Doing the Math on Coupons by Brett Arends


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Staying Organized

For many years, I worked as a Secretary. I learned to not only manage my bosses time, but mine also! I carried my time management skills to my home life. While my daughter still lived at home, it was very important for me to keep a schedule. She was always involved in 4-H, Girl Scouts, Dance, TKD, or something - so we had to keep track of things. At one time I had a calendar that was color coded! When my baby went to college, I thought I could give up the calendar, I figured my time was my own and I would get a lot accomplished. I realized that didn't work - I wandered around the house, trying to figure out what to do next and never got anything accomplished. So, I came up with a couple of schedules. One is a list of things to accomplish everyday in the house and the other is a time schedule that lets me know what I should be doing and when. The time schedule is very flexible. Life happens and sometimes I don't always get up when the schedule says, or I get the dog walked later, so I keep it flexible. Today is my "House Project" day, so I will spend the day painting the Master Bedroom. I look forward to it because all of the walls in the house were painted white before we bought it! I love color on my walls so I chose Cafe Au Lait. I used it in our last house and was very happy with it. My hope is that the new wall color will get me more motivated to figure out a design for that bedroom.

Here is my weekly schedule:
Monday - Vacuum, Mop, deep clean sink and counters in kitchen, 2 extras
Tuesday - Bathrooms, clean out fireplace, 2 extras
Wednesday - Dust, windows, 3 extras
Thursday - House project
Friday - Vacuum, 3 extras

My extras list consists of things like: baseboards, ceiling fan, cobwebs, etc.

I find that if I keep to this list, I can be done with house work by noon or 1a.m. and then get on to fun things like quilting, knitting, reading, etc. Hope this inspires you!

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Coupons and great deals

One of the things that I have been wanting to do with this blog is to let readers know about coupons and other great deals. I have been procrastinating on this one - there are so many great blogs out there already performing this service, I thought, why me? I am not sure I can totally answer that question other than to say that using coupons and saving money is a big part of my life and I hope to share some of my success and learn from others. Hopefully, I will get better at this as I go!

Marzetti is offering a $.50/1 off coupon for refrigerated dip, dressing, hummus or croutons. Also, if you sign up for their newsletter, you will receive more coupons. I signed up and received a $.50/1 off coupon for Texas Toast. I love Marzetti's Ranch Dressing and the Texas Toast is pretty good too. I am not too fond of garlic bread, but their's did not have much garlic on it, so I enjoyed it. If you live in a area that has a store that doubles coupons, you can make a pretty good deal. Wait till the product goes on sale and you have a better deal! Hope you enjoy this - look for more coupons soon.

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Meal Plan Monday

This week I am joining orgjunkie.com for Menu Plan Monday again. I have a semi-busy week, so the menu is simple. Tonight I have a quilt meeting, tomorrow I have a mammogram at the hospital in the next city which is about an hour away. There is a Target and Aldi in that area, so I will run to those stores while I am there. The rest of the week, I will be finishing up some Valentines gifts and on Thursday, I plan to paint my master bedroom.

Monday - Rice, Corn, Bean and Cheese Casserole
Tuesday - Chili, Corn Bread
Wednesday - Gnocchi with Cheese Sauce, Salad
Thursday - Tacos
Friday - Homemade Pizza
Saturday - Quesadillas, Hot Sauce, Chips
Sunday - Swedish Meatballs, Egg Noodles, Veggie

Years ago, when I first started to homeschool my daughter, a fellow homeschool Mom gave me this recipe. She said is was easy to prepare, inexpensive, froze well and her family loved it. It is all of those things and more. I use black beans in the recipe, but you can use any bean your family likes. I also like to add a can of green chilies every once and a while to change it up. Hope you enjoy.

Rice, Corn, Bean and Cheese Casserole

3 cups cooked brown or white rice (1 cup raw)
2 cups corn kernels (1 10 oz pkg. frozen, thawed or 1 15 oz. can drained)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese (about 6 ounces)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (or bean of your choice)
1 1/2 cups skim or low-fat milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or more, to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Paprika

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients except the paprika, and mix well.
2. Pour the ingredients into a greased 2-quart casserole. Sprinkle with paprika and bake the casserole in a 350 oven for 40 to 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Frugal Friday (on Sunday)

I have some favorite blogs that I like to read on a regular basis. One of them is www.lifeasmom.com She has a post called "Frugal Friday" which runs every week. The subject is always different and I always learn something new. This week she asked other bloggers what they do to stretch their dollars. Something I do to keep frugal is to stay organized. Having lists for shopping, house projects, things to do, etc., I find that I not only save money, but I save time. I have noticed that last minute runs to the store cost me a lot of money and I come home feeling out of sorts and frustrated. Another frugal thing I do is to use natural cleaners - white vinegar and baking soda are my two favorites. I mix vinegar and water in a spray bottle and use it to clean most things, when used with newspapers it gets my windows shiny and clean.

Go on over to lifeasmom.com and see if you get any great ideas! Have a great Superbowl Sunday!

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Vintage Thingie Thursday

I could spend hours and hours looking at other blogs. While cruising the blog, I came across coloradolady.blogspot.com and got carried away at looking at all of the vintage thingies. So I thought, hey, why not join the crowd and show one of my favorite vintage thingies. I found this Victorian Hair Keeper a couple of years ago while living in a 106 year old house. I was doing a lot of reading on the Victorian lifestyle and was fascinated that anyone would save hair and make art out of it. I was lucky enough to find this hair keeper which is china and hand painted. I recently bought another hair keeper, but this one is still my favorite.



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Getting Ready For A New Storm

Weather forecasters are saying that we will be getting a big snow storm on Friday evening that will last into the weekend. I know that many other states have gotten the same news. I ran to Walmart to pick up some supplies, and boy was it crowded. I think that everyone was thinking the same thing I was - get prepared for the storm. Let's hope it is not as bad as the weather people are predicting. The photo above, is a photo of my daughter, who was on Christmas break, and my puppy. This photo was taken on day 2 of the snow storm, and we still of the opinion that the snow was wonderful! A couple days later we had cabin fever and were not too happy with the snow! Hope everyone out there in Blog Land is safe and warm during the bad weather.

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What I am working on

I guess that I was in the mood for Valentines yesterday. I started making some quilted coasters (found the pattern on Martha Stewart), I got two finished. Instead of quilting in squares like Martha did, I decided to but an X on two and I will quilt an O on the other two - Hugs and Kisses - get it?!? I also put a wall hanging together. I did some stitch in the ditch quilting on it so far. Now I need to mark it up and do some more "fancy" quilting on it. What do you guys think?






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Groundhogs Day - 6 more weeks of winter

The good news is, Punxsutawney Phil is a cutie. The bad news is, he is predicting 6 more weeks of winter! At Christmas time, we had about 2 feet of snow, it lasted for almost 2 weeks! It was beautiful, but after a few days we all began to have cabin fever. This past Saturday, we were supposed to get a couple inches, it turned out to be 6 - 8 inches! I was out shoveling snow again. I am so ready for spring. I saw some Iris leaves coming up on my walk a couple days ago and I got excited, but now Phil has me feeling a little sad again. What about you guys? Are you ready for spring??

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Meal Plan Monday

This will be my first time posting about my weekly meal plan. I have decided to join Orgjunkie.com Meal Plan Monday. I have planned meals for over 9 years. I home schooled my daughter (now a college freshman) and it was necessary to have a plan to feed the family or we would have eaten fast food all of the time! Even though my daughter is away from home, I still plan meals. It is great to be able to wake up in the morning and know what to fix for dinner! I love having one less thing to worry about! So here goes - I won't write breakfast and lunch - I am the only one home during the day and I eat what I want!

Monday - Shrimp Alfredo, salad
Tuesday - Bacon and Mushroom Quiche, French Bread, fresh veggie
Wednesday - Shepherds Pie
Thursday - Macaroni and Cheese, Broccoli
Friday - Hot Dogs, Baked Beans or chips
Saturday - Nachos
Sunday - Sticky Chicken, Mashed Potatos, Veggie

I don't know if any of you have had Sticky Chicken before, but if not, try it! I got the recipe years ago - it seemed to be making the rounds of homeshcool moms. Many of you may have tried it and already have the recipe, but if not here it is -

1 chicken
4tsp salt
2tsp paprika
1tsp cayenne
1tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp pepper
1 chopped onion

Combine spices in a bowl. Rub on chicken - inside and out. Refrigerate overnight in a bag. Put onion in cavity and bake at 250 for 5 hours. After 1st hour, baste and then baste every 30 minutes. Juices will carmelize. Let chicken set for 10 minutes before carving.Pin It Now!