After The Rain

We got some much needed rain here in North Texas yesterday before and during church. When we got home this is what we were greeted by.





The rainbow actually went from one side of our house to the other.

Giant Money Saving Sale

Biblical Womanhood AKA Money Saving Mom is having an unbelievable sale! TODAY ONLY you can get an incredible ebook package from MoneySavingMom.com--over $100 worth of money-saving ebooks, homemaking helps, and encouragement for only $5.97! I can't believe she's offering such a great price and I'd highly recommend you Click Here! and check it out.

What makes this deal so good is that this ebook package includes the ecourse Supermarket Savings 101-- I have this course and it alone is worth much more than $5.97 and will teach you how to drastically reduce your grocery bill. If high fuel and food costs are discouraging you and leaving you strapped for cash, you definitely need to buy this ecourse. You'll learn how to cut your grocery bill by up to 50% or more and have fun saving money at the same time!

Another e-book that I am excited to see included in her sale is Home Grown Business, I am always looking for ways to improve my business.

Click Here! to read more about this huge sale! Hurry, though, the price goes up tomorrow--get this money-saving ebook package at a ridiculously low price while you can!


I almost forgot, if you have daughters you will want to make sure to get this for the What To Do While I am Waiting audio.

New Olympic Event: Laundry Fling

OK maybe there is not a laundry flinging event in the Olympics but if there was my son would take home the gold!

I am not complaining, I appreciate not having to go outside when the temp is 101. The first time I saw the line after he hung laundry out I asked him if he knew it was to be put neatly on the line and that those wooden things in the basket were the pins that held the laundry on he line. His reply: "yeah I know, but when you fold it over like this you don't get pin marks. " "Anyways it dries either way." Wow, he was right. Regardless of how he gets it on the line it does get dry and we do not have to turn on the dryer.

Since that day I have not questioned his laundry flinging. I simply smile when he come in. One day he saw me looking outside at the laundry and he smiled and said "don't worry I'm a pro".

Lessons learned:
1. There is more than one way to do things
2. Not to expect everyone to do things my way
3. Everything does not have to be perfect
4. To be thankful for help
5. My son has a sense of humor

Funny how sometimes we can learn the greatest lessons from the smallest things.

Menu Plan Monday with Freezer Cooking

This week I am planning to do some bulk cooking using recipes from Once-A-Month Cooking. It has been several months since I did any bulk cooking and with our home school, violin lessons and choir all starting up again soon I wanted to try and get the freezer refilled for those busy nights when I know I will not have time to put together a great meal.

I do not usually get a full 30 days worth of food made but I do get at least several weeks worth of "meals" and lots of prep done. I dice up a bag of onions, 3-4 peppers from the garden, carrots, celery and chicken breast cooked that is cut and portioned out into usable meal size portions. If you have never tried this you will be amazed at how much faster you can put dinner together with veggies chopped and meat cooked. Before my husbands gallbladder problems I also bagged up cooked ground beef.

This week what I will do is shop Monday and then prep and cook on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also over the next two weeks when ever I can I will make two of what ever I am cooking, such as lasagna.


Monday Lunch Ray and I are going out to eat before shopping
Dinner Chicken and Rice This is so easy so I will probably make 2-3 pans to be used over the next several months.

Tuesday Lunch grilled cheese and fresh fruit
Dinner We are going to a campaign rally; dinner is provided

Wednesday Lunch soup and salad
Dinner Chile Verde in the crock pot

Thursday Lunch Quesadilla's and left over Chile Verde recipe below
Dinner Pasta Milano and Greek salad

Friday Lunch
Dinner Pizza and tossed salad

Saturday Lunch Scott's grilling
Dinner Black Bean tacos. I make these fresh using 3-4 bags of dried beans and then can the left over in our pressure cooker.

Sunday: Lunch subs
Dinner: Lasagna, tossed salad and French bread two will be made, one for now and one for the freezer


Chicken and Rice
Ingredients:
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (Regular, 98% Fat Free or 25% Less Sodium)
1 cup water *
3/4 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Directions:
Mix soup, water, rice, paprika and black pepper in 2-qt. shallow baking dish. Top with chicken. Season with additional paprika and pepper. Cover.
Bake at 375°F. 45 min. or until done.

*For creamier rice, increase water to 1 1/3 cups. After cooking cover with foil and place in a 2 gallon freezer bag


Chile Verde
Ingredients:
8 oz dry pinto beans (1 1/4 cups)
1 lb chicken breasts (2 cups cooked)
1 can (4 oz) chopped Green chilies
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp cayene pepper
3 cups water
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese*
1 dozen corn tortillas*
1 (11 oz) jar salsa*
Rinse pinto beans, soak them in a cold water overnight, then drain. Cut chicken into 1” cubes; cook until no longer pink in small amount of water. Combine the chicken with the chilies and seasonings; refrigerate until needed. At the same time, combine beans, water, bouillon cubes, garlic, salt and onion in a large pot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are soft, about 1 hour. Add more water if necessary. Combine chicken and spices with beans; simmer 10 min more.

Cool and freeze, in a 5 cup container, (or bag). Grate cheese, put in a 1 quart bag and attach it to the freezer container with the chili.

To serve: Thaw chili and cheese. Simmer chili 30 min, stirring occasionally. Top chili with salsa and grated cheese; serve on warmed corn tortillas.

Summary of processes: soak 1/2 lb pinto beans overnight: chop 2 cups cooked chicken; 2/3 cup chopped onion; grate 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese

Freeze in: 5 cup container (or Ziploc bag) and 1 quart bag

Serve with: Tossed salad
Makes 5 servings

Looking for more dinner ideas? Check out Organizing Junkie

Weird But Who I Am

Susan tagged me for this meme. I've never done one, so I thought I would give it a try. Here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged me.
2) Mention the rules.
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself.
4) Tag 6 other blogger´s by linking to them.
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.

So here goes . . .

1. I cannot stand the smell of anything that is super grape, you know like my husbands favorite Welches grape soda or the grape gum my kids love. I honestly get sick! It's almost as bad as fish.

2. I sleep covered up regardless of the temperature and leave on leg out from under the covers.

3. I like everything in the pantry to be lined up and in order, especially pasta sauces and soup cans.

4. My second toe is bigger than my first toe, like you wanted to know that. Sorry... too late.

5. I enjoy sewing but DESPISE cutting out patterns. I pay my kids to do.

6. I have long hair but go crazy if it gets in my face. You know there I am sewing away and then it starts falling down and rubbing my cheeks. UGH, it drives me crazy. I keep it pinned up most of the time to maintain my sanity. It drives my daughter crazy, she thinks long hair needs to be FREEEE and flowing.


Well there you have it... six facts you probably never wanted to know and I never thought I would list on my blog.

I tag these bloggers:

1. While I wait
2. Censible Sawyer
3. Mrs J
4. Keeper of the Home
5. Passionate Homemaking
6. Joy of Frugal Living

TNT Crock Pot Recipes

Normally I save my crock pot for Sunday cooking because I can put something together before church and it is almost ready by the time we get home.

However since temperatures are now normally above 97 daily I am relying on my crock pot more and more. I truly enjoy using my crock pot however it has been a challenge, at least for me, to find tasty recipes. So... I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you all. If you have a favorite feel free to share it or leave a link to it.

Our Family favorite is Sticky Chicken


Chuck Roast Barbecue

Ingredients
1 2 1/2 lb. boneless chuck roast, trimmed
2 medium onions, chopped
3/4 cup Coca-Cola
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon beef bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons butter or margarine
6 hamburger buns

1.Combine roast and chopped onion in a 4 quart slow cooker.

2.Combine cola and next 7 ingredients; reserve 1/2 cup in refrigerator. Pour remaining mixture over roast and onion.

3.Cook, covered, on HIGH 6 hours or until roast is very tender; drain and shred roast. Keep warm.

4.Combine reserved 1/2 cup cola mixture, ketchup, and butter in a small saucepan; cook mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until thoroughly heated. Pour over shredded roast, stirring gently.

5.Spoon onto buns and serve with potato chips and pickle spears, if desired.



Vegetable Soup Crock Pot

Ingredients
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups tomato juice
1/2 tablespoon basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, un-drained
1 cup pasta shells, your choice (optional)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

1 Place veggies and broth into the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or until veggies are tender.
2 Add pasta to the mix during the last hour of cooking.
3 Serve with grated parm cheese.

My Latest Creations

Here are a few pictures of some of my latest sewing creations. The first one is a lady's drawstring skirt with a sash that makes a beautiful bow in the back. I had so much fun making it that over the past week I have made two more out of different fabric. The skirt has a 180" sweep however since my mannequin is only wearing a regular slip not hoop it is hard to get a good idea of just how full this skirt is.




Next is a little girls pioneer dress. It has a ruffle on the bottom and matching bonnet. I love long full dresses, especially on little girls.

The ladies and girls set are listed on e-bay in auction format starting at .99 each plus shipping. You can see all my items in my e-bay store if interested.

I also made each of my boys a pair of pajama pants but they do not want the world to know what they sleep in so alas no pictures of those.

Homeschool items for sale

Just a quick note in case any of you are looking for some homeschool curriculum at a Great price. I have listed some items on e-bay, you can view it all here. Most of it is Bob Jones high/middle school curriculum but I have a few other things including How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesssons. I will also be listing many early readers and starter chapter book later in the week.

And The Winners Are.....

This was sooo much fun! I must admit however I was pretty overwhelmed by the number of people who left comments. Thank you to everyone who took time to visit my site and a BIG thank you to Denise for posting it on her site!

OK, now what you have been waiting for... the winners. First of all I read all the comments and I wish I had enough coupons and stamps to send some to everyone but since I don't I used a random number generater and allowed it to choose: Mrs. J, Jamie, Marin,Michelle H., Mikelle and Tricia. I had to 6 in order to cover all the categories.

Menu Plan Monday

We have a pretty slow week coming up and I am looking forward to it! I have some things I am sewing and need to finish up and I hope to get out in the garden at least twice this week in the early morning.

If you have not already done so be sure to check out the coupon giveaway I am holding


Monday Lunch Veggie Wraps
Dinner Basil-Lemon Pesto (Recipe below)

Tuesday Lunch salad
Dinner Chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice

Wednesday Lunch Quesadilla
Dinner Sydney is making soup in the crock pot for us

Thursday Lunch
Dinner Stir Fry, egg drop soup and fried rice (recipe below)

Friday Lunch chicken nuggets, fries and fruit
Dinner Pizza and tossed salad

Saturday Lunch grilled fish and veggies
Dinner

Sunday: Raviolis and French bread - For this I cheat, I pull a loaf of homemade French bread from the freezer the night before to thaw. I use the frozen cheese raviolis from Kroger, after boiling them I ladle hot pasta sauce on top. Total time is about 25 minutes for a tasty but easy meal.




Basil-Lemon Pesto
Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves
3 Tbs. toasted pine nuts To toast the pine nuts, place them on a baking sheet and bake in a 350°F oven until golden, 8 to 10 minutes.
1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 to 1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:
In a food processor, combine the garlic, pine nuts, basil, parsley, cheese, lemon zest and lemon juice. Pulse until ground to a fine paste, about 1 minute. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper. Makes 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cups.



Egg Drop Soup
4 cups chicken broth, divided
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 eggs
1 egg yolk

DIRECTIONS
Reserve 3/4 cup of chicken broth, and pour the rest into a large saucepan. Stir the salt, ginger and cilantro into the saucepan, and bring to a rolling boil. In a cup or small bowl, stir together the remaining broth and cornstarch until smooth. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolk together using a fork. Drizzle egg a little at a time from the fork into the boiling broth mixture. Egg should cook immediately. Once the eggs have been dropped, stir in the cornstarch mixture gradually until the soup is the desired consistency.


Looking for more tasty ideas, be sure to check out Organizing Junkie

Coupon Giveaway

Note: Giveaway is now over. I will list winners later this morning. Thanks to everyone who left a comment.

Well after getting my coupons organized I found I had a lot that I would never realistically use. I placed them in an envelope so they were out of my way but I wasn't sure what to do with them, that was until I was at the grocery store last week. I remembered how excited I was when I won an Aveeno coupon from The "Cent"sible Sawyer. I immediately started watching for people who were on the isles with me, I glanced over and if I had extra coupons for what they were buying I gave them some. It was so exciting to see them get excited about someone giving them a coupon. It cost me nothing and I felt so good about being able to bless others. Then when I got home I remembered the envelope of coupons and thought of all of you!

I have several different categories I am giving away and each winner will get to choose the ones they want and will receive at least three from that category. All you need to do is Leave a comment and be sure to specify which category you are interested in. Be sure to leave me some way to contact you if you are the winner. For safety reasons please do not leave your address or phone number in the comments section.

Then on Wednesday Morning I will announce five winners and contact them. Easy Right!

So here are the categories: Formula: Enfamil or Good Start checks, baby food, diapers and wipes, training pants, Shampoos, Lotions, and shaving needs.

Also in case you did not see it and are in need of some great coupons I have installed a coupon bar in my sidebar. This allows you print coupons directly from my blog!

Organized Coupons...Finally!

I have been using coupons for at least 13 years and in that time I have saved many thousands of dollars and as many of you do I take full advantage of CVS, Walgreens, Target and Kroger. I send in rebates and send off for samples. I am not an expert but I spend very little on groceries and toiletries thanks to coupons; yet I have never been happy with how they were organized. I dreaded clipping and putting them away, in fact I would sometimes miss out on deals because of how they were set up or because I had not cut them out and put them away. Then came trying to find the ones I needed,that was almost as bad. That is until now.

About two weeks ago I decided to give using a binder a try. After all I had used shoe boxes, clear sterlite containers, recipe boxes, coupon holders and my most recent prior to the binder was two accordion check filers. I am a visual person so the binder idea has appealed to me for some time just for some reason I never tried it. I think some of it was cost, I had in my mind that the inserts would be outrageous and that I would need hundreds, the binder would be heavy, it would take too long to set up yada yada,yada you know how it goes.

First I pulled out an old binder that I had and wiped it off and cleaned it out, then I went by Hobby Lobby with two 40% off coupons and picked up two packs of baseball card sleeves for less that $10. My kids got such a hoot out of the fact that I was buying coupon stuff with coupons. Not sure why they found that sooo funny but they did.

Armed with a clean table and big glass of ice tea I announced that I was going to be organizing coupons, all three kids ran faster that I have ever seen them run. My daughter did come back and snap a picture of me when I was done but for a few hours the dinning room was empty except for me and my coupons.

I went slowly, and to make things easier as I got rid of expired ones I made piles on the table with my same categories. My table quickly filled up and once I had most of them cleared out of the accordion holders I started putting them in the sleeves, that way if it took too long the table would still be usable for breakfast. The stack of papers on the right is two weeks worth of inserts that I had grazed through but never fully clipped. I saved those for the next day.

I must say I am very happy with how it came out! In addition to the sleeves my binder has accordion type pouches for me to keep circulars in, a note pad and a pencil pouch that includes: calculator, pens, pencil and some small scissors.



I can quickly flip through the pages and see exactly what I have, no more guessing and no more flipping through stacks in the store! As you can see in the top picture I even set up a sleeve for CVS! ECB'S right at my finger tips, folded so I can see when they expire.

The binder has been so easy to use that last Friday while grocery shopping I was able to give away coupons I had extra of! It was such a great feeling to be able to bless others! So much so that I am going to give some away on my blog Monday so be sure to stop back by then! They will include formula checks, baby items and lots of toiletries ones!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Independence Day! So far we have had a fun day. Syd and I went to Joann's and bought a cutting table and mat and then went by CVS to score some great deals.

When we got home I set up my table (with help from Ray and Scott).

Then for lunch Scott grilled some chicken and we had baked beans. We had a lot more planned to eat but with the heat no one is terribly hungry so we will eat the rest later for dinner.

Then much later tonight FIREWORKS!!!!

I pray each of you will have a blessed day.