Homemade Thursdays

On vacation a couple of months ago, my sister in law was crocheting soap saver bags for missionaries. She was using beautiful rainbow colored yarn. But what got me really excited was that the yarn was 100% cotton and you can buy it at Wal-mart for $1.47! I came home, picked up yarn and a couple of needles and got to work. That's another thing that is great about crochet, you only need a couple of supplies!

All you frugal couponing ladies are very familiar with buddy bars I'm sure! Well here is a home made version. I did not use a pattern, I just made this one to fit the little baby bath bars in the picture.

There are tons of patterns on the web to chose from. Check out some here. I have learned a lot from Teresa's blog Learn To Crochet. Her video tutorials are VERY helpful! I also like Lion Brand Yarn's website. They have a lot of free patterns from beginner on up. I'm working on this now.
One of my goals for this year is to complete one crochet project a month. I have a pretty good head start:0) Go be inspired on Homemade Thursdays and make yourself something!

How We Handle Laundry

I' m not sharing this because I think everyone else will need to follow our schedule, but because this type of organization does not come naturally for me. My natural tendency is to let things get to emergency status. "Who needs socks and underwear today?" Well, in an effort to stay ahead of "mount laundry" I have posted this daily laundry schedule on the refrigerator. What would we do without a refrigerator to stick everything on?!

When we follow it, we all have clean clothes and we feel in control of the laundry. When we don't, it gets away from us quickly!

Everyone keeps a basket or two in their room to collect dirty clothes. It is easier to wash, dry, and put away clothes from each bedroom than mix everything together.

EVERYONE helps with laundry. There is no other way to keep up. Tommy (Daddy) is a huge help with laundry. Our kids learn at a young age to run all appliances;)

Monday-Mom, Dad, and Rose

Tuesday-Abby and Anna

Wednesday-Wendy and Lily

Thursday-Jacob and Samuel

Friday-catch up day, sheets and towels

Towels and cloth diapers are done as needed. A load of towels are done almost everyday. The number of loads done daily varies. Yesterday five loads went through. We have two washers and dryers, one set upstairs and one set in the basement. We are trying to hang dry as much as possible to cut drying cost.

I hope this is helpful to someone else. It is so simple, but not for someone as organizationally challenged as I am!

Read more Help For Growing Families at Ship Full of Pirates.

Morning Routine

I want to join the challenge by Crystal to follow a morning routine. I do these things every day, but not necessarily in the proper order to be most productive. `I'm easily distracted and get off "course" easily. To keep on track, this list of five things to do first thing will be on the side of my fridge by the coffee pot.

1. Get ready for the day, personal hygiene
2. Start coffee, drink water, take vitamins
3. While coffee brews, start laundry that is scheduled for that day, change Rose, check cloth diaper supply for the day
4. Bible reading, have coffee
5. Read email, nurse Rose, make to do list for the day

Note of encouragement.... The older kids all have a specific morning routine also. While I am following my morning routine I have to meet the needs of Wendy, Lily, and Rose and guide the older kids through their responsibilities (mainly keep them from talking too much) so school can begin on time. With that said, I remind myself that my family is my ministry and focus. This post by Laura says it so well! EVERYTHING I do is interrupted and there is no absolute schedule to this routine. There are no "scheduled breaks" for spills, potty breaks, dirty diapers, bickering and discipline, a sock in the central vac, etc. :0) It just is not possible to follow a set timed schedule with littles. Notice that I did not set an exact time for this to begin or end or a set time for each chore. I just need something to come back to in order to refocus. Don't be a slave to your list, use it as a guide! We do have goals of finishing tasks by a certain time while remaining flexible. The Lord will bless our effort.

Menu Plan

Tuesday-
B-banana nut muffins, orange slices
L-turkey and cheese sandwiches
D-one skillet stroganoff with ground turkey, mixed veggies, rolls
to do- put pork roast in crock pot to cook on low overnight

Wednesday-
B-oatmeal, bananas
L-ham and cheese sandwiches, orange slices
D- pork bbq, rolls, veggie

Thursday-
B-cereal, milk, bananas
L-beans and cornbread, make extra beans for chili
D-baked chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed veggies
prepare stock pot for soup

Friday-
B-oatmeal, eggs
L-chicken and rice soup, bread
D- calzones with ricotta, ham, and broccoli, with homemade pizza sauce
to do-thaw chicken

Saturday-
Brunch-pancakes with all the fixins, orange slices
D-baked chicken, fettuccine alfredo, brussell sprouts
desert-lemon bliss cake
thaw ground turkey and beans, set out crock pot
Sunday- B-oatmeal
D-chili, chips, and cheese
snack after church-cereal with milk and desert

This Week...In Pictures

Afternoon tea...Celestial Seasonings Coconut Chai with cream and a little sugar!

The girls are enjoying their new hot sticks that Abigail got for Christmas!

Lily knocked on the bathroom door to Jacob after his shower stopped

and asked, " Are you curling (emphasis on"rl") you hayah (hair)?"

funny, funny little girl!

Josie and Dee Dee

"What?! Us?! That wasn't us you heard barking at the neighbors who might possibly

have been coming or going or doing nothing to make us bark at them?!

Our "new to us" furniture.

Lemon Bliss Cake

Jacob and Josie

Abigail and Rose

This Weeks Savings

CVS

started with $19 Extra Care Bucks

spent $0.69

ended with $12 Extra Care Bucks

Food Lion

8 pounds of oranges

(2) 5lb. bags of potatoes

1 bunch of bananas

1 pack of hot dog buns

1 pack of hamburger buns

1 loaf bread

1 pork roast

1 package deli turkey

3 pounds black forest ham

1 pound chicken patties

1 1/4 lbs. ground turkey

total after sales and food lion printable coupons $27.58

Kroger

6 boxes of Kellogg's cereal

4 packs of toilet paper

2 gallons of milk (free with cereal purchase)

1 Sunday paper

total...$15.23

Grand Totals

Total before coupons....$119.05

Total out of pocket.........$42.81

Saved..............................$76.24 or 64%

Go to Money Saving Mom and Southern Savers for the links to great coupons at all these stores!

Goals for 2009

Instead of New Year's resolutions, I have made some written goals for myself. There is something very motivating about writing a list of goals and sharing it with others! Some of these things have already been started! There are long term and short term goals. I hope to finish even the long term goals before the holidays, knowing that I won't be motivated to organize when I really want to bake or decorate!

Personal Goals

• Read from the Bible everyday
• Keep a prayer and praise journal
• Read a book every month
• Continue learning to crochet, complete a project each month, if I get tired of crochet, I may try knitting

Long Term Goals

• Clean up my bedroom (started) organize my closet, organize my clothes,organize baby clothes, spot clean carpet, put up curtain rods and curtains, organize linen closet and stockpile from all the CVS shopping
• Organize school room, get rid of excess, organize what we need
• Paint the living room (if I can decide on a color...these decisions are torture for me...any suggestions are welcomed) and trim, possibly add crown molding

Short Term Goals

• sell/donate excess clothing (started)
• I still want a clothes line
• back up my picture files on the computer (Can you believe I still haven't done this?)
• organize coupons(started)
• set up my files beside my desk. This will hopefully allow me to keep my desk clean. I need a system better than my current "make a pile system"

I will post on my progress! Happy New Year!