Menu Plan Monday

It's a perfect time of year to take advantage of the local farmer's market. I bought all this organic produce and 32 eggs for $15 except the rasberries that were given to us by our neighbor. I included everything in our menu this week!

Monday-B-bagels, cream cheese, juice

L-turkey, ham sandwiches

D-hot dogss with chilli, fries

Tuesday-B-oatmeal with fresh rasberries

L-mac-n-cheese

D-taco salad, made with black beans and ground turkey(make double for Sat.)

Wednesday-B-bagels, cream cheese, fruit

L-egg salad (make extra for another meal), PBJ

D-men at baseball banquet, girls night out!

Thursday-B-eggs, toast

L-bean and cheese burritos, cantaloupe

D-chicken with summer squash and zucchini over whole grain pasta

Friday-B-whole wheat rasberry muffins

L-egg salad, PBJ

D-burgers, baked beans, cole slaw, watermelon, blueberry pies for desert

Saturday-B-cereal

L-leftovers

D-Taco Salad

Visit Laura's blog to see more menus!

A Chat With Lil'

While snacking on craisins.....
Lil'...."You wike my shoes Mom?" (not mommy, just Mom, she's so grown up:0)

Mom...."Yes, they are beautiful, love them!"

Lil'..."Where did you get these shoes for me, Mom?"

Mom...."Umm, not sure."(I had never seen them before, she pulled them out of a bag of hand-me-downs in the garage)

Lil'..."You pwobwee bought them at CBS for me." Interpreted...you probably bought them at CVS for me, it's such a great place to shop you know?!

My Favorite Things....Baby Edition

I'm joining Sarah at Fiddledeedee, sharing my favorite things! One of the most helpful baby things I own is my Boppy nursing pillow. It helps support baby while nursing. I can't say enough about it, I'm using it right now as I type one handed, something I have become quite efficient at doing! I have a cover that can easily be removed and washes well.
I take it anywhere that I go that we will be staying for a while. I take it to church with me and leave it in the nursery until I have to go in to feed Rose.
It helps little ones "hold" baby and baby feels more supported and secure. This is our little friend Andrew holding Rose on his first visit to see her!

Simply Cutting Watermelon

I came across this video from a link on Like Merchant Ships a while back. Meridith's blog is one of my favorites! I thought the video's instructions for cutting melons was interesting, but wouldn't work. I often dread cutting fresh things because I'm lazy that way and it makes such a mess. I decided to try cutting a watermelon this way, just to see how it would work. This is how...


First cut the ends off and set the watermelon on one end. I tried a couple of different knives to see which one cut through the easiest.
Then I continued to cut off all the rind.
I was surprised how easy and how fast this went and how little waste there was of the actual fruit.
Another good thing I noticed was that very little juice was lost until I started cutting into chunks. This made for a much easier clean-up compared to my usual method.
This was a perfectly ripe melon and we enjoyed it very much. I will dread this chore less now!
Be sure to read more great tips at Tammy's Recipes for Kitchen Tip Tuesday.

Making Your Home A Haven Monday

Monday is always "extra" busy here. There is lots of laundry and clean up from the weekend, but thankfully I am usually a bit more motivated after a weekend "off". Here's a to-to list

1. Wash Wendy and Lily's laundry (started)
2. Fold and put away clean laundry from Friday
3. Make a menu and grocery list (done)
4. Run errands...library, vitamin store, Kroger, dollar store

I'll update tonight how the day goes....Read more at Biblical Womanhood.

**updated** We made great progress yesterday. Lists and errands are done! Laundry is a work in progress. It's never done. We got behind last week, so we will play catch up all week:0)

"Take Me Out ToThe Ball Game" Re-Mix

Take me out to the ball game,

When we all come it's a crowd,

Buy me some popcorn and freezee pops, We don't care if we ever get back,
'Cause we'll Root! Root! Root! for our bubba's and sissy,
If we don't win it's O.K,
It's One Two Three strikes or goals,

And our Daddy's the coach and we've all had fun,

At the old ball game!

My Favorite Things...Baby Edition

My sling...a baby sling. I have used a sling to carry my babies for a long time, with the last 6 babies. I would have used one with Jacob, my first, if I knew they existed. I have big fat babies that grow really fast. I love them and their rolls and I love carrying them around so they can be a part of what we are doing and evidently the view is better because baby loves it too:0)

The sling allows you to carry the baby in several positions. Rose loves to "ride" like this...

This light blue one is a Nojo brand. You can find them at Wal-mart. We bought it recently at a yard sale for $2.


This is a picture of me carrying Rose at a recent Festival. After the first few minutes of looking around and smiling at people she was happy to snug in and sleep for a long time. I just can't say enough about how comfortable it is to "wear" your baby this way. I was also able to protect her from the sun. The black one is a SlingEZee by Parenting Concepts. This one is my favorite. It comes in small, medium, and large. I was also blessed to find this one second hand several years ago.
I plan to join Sarah at Fiddledeedee for more favorite things!

Window Mistreatment

I have been reading and admiring the creative work of "The Nester" at "The Nesting Place"for several weeks now and I have finally found the courage, time, and energy to do my first "mistreatment". A mistreatment is a quick fix window treatment. The nester says it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. I love the way she gives us permission to do things a little different. I'm not very creative, but I'm a pretty good copier. So I loaded up the girls and all six of us headed to Wal-mart with high hopes of finding some fabric and upholstery tacks! Just follow me here...

The supplies...fabric, fringe for trim and upholstery tacks for hanging, notice no curtain rods....
Here's the really bad before picture. It's a wooden, wallpaper covered valance with some sort of gold painted thing on top. Nice, huh? Yep this is what we look at when we're goin' potty!
Here's the pretty fabric that I chose with lots of helpers...I bought about a yard and a half and folded it in half like this.
Next I pinned on this pretty fringe and sewed it on the bottom of the folded fabric.

I climbed up on a step stool and folded the top of the fabric over about two inches and started tacking onto the top of that wood valance. Every little bit I folded a generous pleat and tacked that. This was so easy and quick! And so pretty. I can't wait to sit and look at my pretty mistreatment.

Look, isn't it pretty.

So we don't disappoint the Nanas and so you all can see my adorable assistant here's a shot of little Rose. We were getting before shots of our next project, the upstairs bath.

Curtains, Shmurtains, just look at my tongue, it's my new trick!

Stay tuned, I'll be mistreating the upstairs bath next!