No Sew Quiet Book

Put away the sewing machine and get your hot glue guns ready! I am not a sewer; I can get a button on, but beyond that, I'm useless. My middle school FACS teacher would be highly disappointed. But that didn't stop me from wanting to create a quite book for my niece (and any future siblings she might have).

First, I scoured Pinterest and other blogs for ideas to make plans for my book.

Then, I headed to Walmart for supplies. I spend under $25 for the whole book. I did have some thread and sewing needles at home already. But I only used them to loop sew the pages together.

I used a yarn needle to bind the book together when it was finished. I am so excited to give the quiet book to my niece for her 18-month birthday! Hope she loves it!!

It won't turn the right way! :(

40 Bags in 40 Days

I know Lent has already started, but I found this 40 Bags in 40 Days and I want to see if I'm up to the challenge!

White House Black Shutters

 I have made my list, only got to 30 places to clean so far. But I'm thinking I can find 10 more to declutter!

March - Goals Update

My husband and I made some goals for 2014. We are going to do our best to attain these goals. Each month, I will update this blog on how we are doing on our progress!

1. Continue to build our 72 Survival Kit - started, need to complete
2. Floor the attic - need the storage! -- If not the attic, we need to take advantage of our extra deep garage
3. Update the kitchen appliances we have - dishwasher, stove, microwave --Saving up to replace the stove & microwave
4. Put extra money toward paying off our house (Dave Ramsey's Baby Step #6) -- Putting an extra $250 a month toward the principal on our mortgage and any "extra" money we have at the end of the month
5. Be intentional about finding place/people to give to -- This is also part of my Lenten goal
6. Continue to save for a vacation ($719.07 saved as of March 1, 2014)
7. Continue to save for a "new" vehicle ($6,445.97 saved as of March 1, 2014) -- Had to use some funds to fix our car from the accident
8. Bret to buy a sidearm, a holster, and an AR (maybe!) - using overtime money to pay for this -- Bret has worked 8 hours of overtime this week alone, so hope to make a purchase soon
9. Take a short trip together somewhere - may be difficult with Bret's new LEO schedule -- We have many weddings this year so we might have to tack on a vacation with wedding destinations

Kitchen Upgrade: Dishwasher

We have wanted to upgrade our kitchen appliances for a while now. Since we are on the Dave Ramsey life plan, we don't go out and buy whatever we want, whenever we want. We opened a Home Improvement account and have been saving a little each month. When we had enough saved, we headed out to find a new dishwasher. Installed Saturday and we are in love! It matches our clean steel fridge and runs so very quietly, there's even an 'Eco' setting. Next on the upgrade plan: stove & microwave :)

2014 Goals Update - February

After making goals for 2013 and working hard to achieve them, my husband and I made some goals for 2014. We are going to do our best to attain these goals. Each month, I will update this blog on how we are doing on our progress!

1. Continue to build our 72 Survival Kit - started, need to complete
2. Floor the attic - need the storage!
3. Update the kitchen appliances we have - dishwasher, stove, microwave --Bought a dishwasher in January!! So excited about that! Saving up to replace the stove & microwave
4. Put extra money toward paying off our house (Dave Ramsey's Baby Step #6) -- Putting an extra $250 a month toward the principal on our mortgage and any "extra" money we have at the end of the month
5. Be intentional about finding place/people to give to
6. Continue to save for a vacation ($689.07 saved as of February 1, 2014)
7. Continue to save for a "new" vehicle ($5,875.97 saved as of February 1, 2014) -- Had to use some funds to fix our car from the accident
8. Bret to buy a sidearm, a holster, and an AR (maybe!) - using overtime money to pay for this
9. Take a short trip together somewhere - may be difficult with Bret's new LEO schedule

Paint Updating

We updated our kitchen/dining room/stairwell. For the last four years, since we moved into our house, we have has blue-gray walls. It took a while to decide what color we wanted. We narrowed it down to three teals, see the picture below:

 

I'm in love with the teal (#1) we chose. I'm thinking we are going to add wainscoting along the wall in the dining room. Final products (for now):

 

Icy Night Leads to Baking!

School got out and it was ICY outside. We had students slipping and sliding all over the place on the way to their parents' cars. I got home just before 5 (loaded down with lesson planning resources) and decided I was staying in for the night as the hubby is at work all evening.

As dinner (chicken alfredo) was cooking, I looking through my pinterest dessert board. I found this great recipe for Gooey Neapolitan Bars. I am not a fan of neapolitan ice cream as strawberry ice cream is not my thing. But strawberry cake is a different story!

Preheat the oven to 350* and line a 9x13 pan with foil (spray with nonstick spray). Start with box strawberry mix, 1/2 cup of oil, and 2 eggs. Mix that together! Pour it in the pan and spread out. Cook for about 10 minutes.

 After the strawberry cake has cooked for a bit, top with marshmallows and throw it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Keep a close eye on your dessert so the marshmallows don't toast, just brown the top a bit.

Take the strawberry and marshmallow goodness out and top with chocolate chips. They will melt from the heat of the cake and marshmallows. Let it cool and enjoy!

Happy Friday - Car Troubles

This is the call I received when I got from work today: Come get me, I just broke an axel in my car! Oh jeez. We had just made plans to go out to dinner with two other couples and had to push those plans back a bit so we could get a tow truck to take our car to the repair show.

Hope your Friday was better than ours!

Goals for 2014

After making goals for 2013 and working hard to achieve them, my husband and I made some goals for 2014. We are going to do our best to attain these goals. Each month, I will update this blog on how we are doing on our progress!

1. Continue to build our 72 Survival Kit - started, need to complete
2. Floor the attic - need the storage!
3. Update the kitchen appliances we have - dishwasher, stove, microwave
4. Put extra money toward paying off our house (Dave Ramsey's Baby Step #6)
5. Be intentional about finding place/people to give to
6. Continue to save for a vacation ($659.07 saved as of January 12, 2014)
7. Continue to save for a "new" vehicle ($6,086.09 saved as of January 12, 2014)
8. Bret to buy a sidearm, a holster, and an AR (maybe!) - using overtime money to pay for this
9. Take a short trip together somewhere - may be difficult with Bret's new LEO schedule

Too Cold for School, Cooking Instead!

Well, no school for me today! That means new recipes to try and treats to make for me :)

The first thing I made was pull-apart (or monkey) bread. We had some extra Pillsbury Grands Biscuits on hand and I searched Pinterest for a treat to make. And this recipe was SO EASY! Basically, you cut the biscuits in fourths, roll them into balls, then roll each ball in sugar & cinnamon, plop it in your Bundt pan, top with a brown sugar syrup, and bake for 30 minutes at 350*. For the full recipe, visit Main St. Cuisine.

 

In my crockpot right now is Hash Brown Potato Soup! The best part of this recipe is the simplicity of it. Instead of peeling and boiling potatoes before even beginning the soup, you only have to use frozen hash browns. Such a time saver! To get the full recipe, visit Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour.

Organizing in the New Year

After having time off work for winter break, I thought I would tackle organizing under my bathroom sink/drawers. I have many lotions and hair products as well as BirchBox product samples. I headed to Walmart to get a plastic drawer organizer. Each drawer is for a different product: hair, face, lotions.

Before:

 

After: