Summer = Awesome

Updated 20 in 2012 post!

I'm reading!
I'm exercising! - Cute story- I started back on the C25K today. Luke said he wanted to run with me and Andy joined in as well. Luke was a trooper. Today was easy but he hung in there! It was so sweet to have him running with me.
I'm sleeping more!
Lots of time with the boys!
Life is good. :)

A  couple recent recipes:

Pretzel rolls by Pennies on a Platter - I read this blog but am trying to pin recipes I've bookmarked so they are all in one place. I finally made these and they were good! I actually took a picture of one I made just for you all to see!
Honey Lime Chicken- Oh. My. Goodness...we love this chicken! We've had it twice. I drastically reduce the cayenne pepper so that the boys can eat it too. I just shake a little in the gallon size bag I marinate the chicken in. The chicken is juicy and delicious on the grill! Make this!

Pinterest Project #2

One of my teammates turned 50 in April. I had seen a cute idea on Pinterest using a small kleenex box & $1 bills. Since she was turning 50 I needed 50 $1 bills! So I collected money from everybody at school. I taped all of the dollar bills together side by side and rolled them up. Fifty $1 bills makes for a big roll! Then you put the money roll in the tissue box with one sticking out the top like a tissue. The sign on the box I found on Pinterest said Don't "blow" it all in one place! (Blow = kleenex for blowing your nose). Cute! But I wanted to wrap the tissue box to make it cuter. She loved it and I was so glad everyone was willing to chip in to celebrate the big 5-0!! Making projects from Pinterest that aren't recipes is part of my 20 x 2012 so I updated the link!

Spring Break Cont'd

So the rest of our week was great! So sad that it is coming to an end BUT that means it is closer to summer! 32 more school days. It is hard to believe we will be out of school before Memorial Day.
* We made a marble rack track using a pool noodle cut vertically in half down the middle. The boys had a blast. It entertained them for quite a while one morning. (found on Pinterest)
* Andy and I had an afternoon date at the mall. Iced coffee, pretzel, new earrings and two hours of just us.
* I saw Hunger Games with Andy, my dad, and my sister. I really enjoyed the movie. Of course the book was better because you know so much more of the story. I'd think you wouldn't quite understand all of the movie without having read the book. I love the trilogy and have read the books twice. It was harder to watch the story than read about it - but it was a great movie!
* We went camping! Due to rain predicted for Wednesday night we just went Thursday-Friday. It was so much fun. I'll admit I was grumpy before we left. It was still raining while we were packing. But as soon as we were ready to hit the road it was bright and sunny. We had great weather! Campfire, smores, star gazing, hiking, and just getting away from technology made for a fantastic time! The boys had an absolute blast. There will be a separate post with pictures soon.
* Easter Egg Hunt at church on Saturday, Easter Sunday, and lunch with my side of the family at my sister's house made for a fun, busy weekend. I got to hold Anna-Grace who is now 4 months old. I think she might be the size of our boys when they were about 2 weeks old. She is absolutely precious! I love babies. :)

I updated my 20 in 2012 post. See HERE!

I love 3 day weekends!

Having an extra day off makes all the difference. I feel like I actually get something done! We've had a good weekend. We were hopeful for some snow to play in but that didn't pan out. So Sunday afternoon we pulled out the couch bed and made popcorn for the boys to be cozy during a movie. It was fun. I cleaned the refrigerator (checked that off my 20 in 2012!). I've been doing laundry and more cleaning today. The boys are playing with a friend right now- Legos, Wii, outside, etc and having a blast. It's loud but they are having fun! I took a nap on Sunday and got to sleep in one morning. It's been a relaxing weekend.  Saturday night my small group prepared dinner for a group of homeless men from our community. Once a month our church hosts Room in the Inn during the winter months. The men come to stay at the church for 1 night and get dinner, breakfast, and a sack lunch. It's a great ministry. My small group has done a dinner for this once a year for the last four years. We always do meatloaf, baked potatoes, oven roasted veggies, rolls, & dessert. I always bring the veggies. I think the meal was a hit with the men! February is flying by- I can't believe how fast it is going. Seems like January just ended to me.

Recipe Binder

So I've had a recipe binder for a while. It has looked like this for a long time. Yep, I once turned on the wrong burner on my new to me then stove and melted plastic onto my ceramic stovetop. Andy thankfully was able to clean it off. Notice all the white papers sticking out the side? TONS of printed recipes that were just loose hanging out. When I looked for a recipe I had to flip through all of those plus the ones in plastic sheet dividers to find what I was looking for.

The dividers weren't wide enough to show past the page protectors. They were invisible. Couldn't ever find the section I needed. Plus I had never labeled them.

 The new goods. I love my new binder I found out Target. IT is a 2inch binder with a brown background and cream flowers. The centers of the flowers are different colors of the rainbow. I bought coordinating folders to use as dividers. The green cardstock is for gluing smaller recipes cut out of magazines so all recipes are 8 1/2 by 11. (Both of those ideas were found on one of my new favorite blogs, here.) I put two on a green sheet when possible to make the most use of each page. Also used the front & back to glue recipes on since the page protectors are clear and show both sides! I spent $18 plus tax. We already had some plastic page protectors.

I opted to hole punch the folders without cutting them in half. Andy did that part. Then I glued them closed so they wouldn't be flapping open as I was flipping through to find recipes.

The three colors of file folders...blue, brown, & green with the coordinating flowers. *love*

I used my handy label maker to make label the dividers. I had clear label tape at first and then had to go buy more and Wal-mart was sold out of clear...had to switch to white. That bugs me a little bit. BUT oh well! These are recipes I have found on the food blogs I read or from Pinterest etc that I print out. I still have some cookbooks and I still have some recipe cards. The cards are organized in a spiral photo album and just tucked into the photo sleeves. I decided to not add them to this binder.

The categories in my binder:

DIY- (homemade taco seasoning, dressings, croutons, etc)

Drinks

Appetizers

Breakfast

Bread

Salad

Sides

Main Dish

Dessert

Top View

Is it bad that the last section (desserts) is the biggest?! The one right before that is main dish, so at least it is somewhat balanced!

Check out my updated 20 in 2012 post!

Pinterest Project #1

So yesterday I made a Menu Board! This was inspired from Pinterest. I bought a 12x12 frame at Hobby Lobby for $5. It was 1/2 price. I bought a sheet of scrapbook paper for $ .30. I bought 2 packs of scrapbook stickers for a total of $3.00. All together- $8.30! Not bad! The stickers are directly on the paper, so they are under the glass. I just used a dry erase marker to write the menu down. Up until now I used a document I created in word and printed it for menu planning but now I just erase! Saving paper and ink :) .  This helps with my 20 in 2012 post too. In case you are interested in any of the above recipes (other than the sloppy joes and pizza- haha) here are some links.
Pasta alla Vodka- was good last night but when re-heated for lunch today it wasn't very good. Boys thought it was spicy.
Bread with Carrabba's olive oil/spices- YUM - for special italian dinner occasions. (found through Pinterest)
Chicken Fingers
Roasted Green Beans- These were pretty good. would make again or just mix fresh green  beans in with roasted veggies. (found through Pinterest)

Stovetop mac & cheese - finally, an EASY homemade mac & cheese that my family likes! (found through Pinterest)

Veggies= weekly veggie tray

20 in 2012

So here is a list inspired by a blog I've found recently via Pinterest. Here are some goals for this year!

1. Get back into running -soon and keep running. I seem to start up and then quit again...I need a long term goal. I finished by C210K and then I quit running shortly after that. So I need a mileage goal for the year. I know some runners will completely laugh at this goal but I'm trying to be realistic. So 300 miles this year. As of now: 59.0 miles complete. I am having a major mental block here. Time to get my butt in gear. :) Just did my first day of C25K! I had two running buddies- Andy and Luke! I'm including biking, elliptical, and running...
2. Read my Jesus Calling daily devotional. I've been reading it already and it is so good.
3. I would love to buy a treadmill to help me with goal #1...
4. make bagels
5. work on decluttering the house
6. clean fridge
7. try to post on the blog once a week doing well so far!
8. begin a prayer journal inspired by the last book my small group read.
9. organize my recipes
10. get pictures of the boys made - it's  been a while
11. buy something from Etsy- I got this scarf I've been eyeing for months! It was on sale for $12.50 this past Wednesday on Facebook!!!
12. plan fun *free* activities to do with the boys. I am with them a lot but I want to intentionally plan some fun things to do such as: bike ride, park, arboretum, make a marble racer like this, paint the snow, hiking, etc.
13. take the boys camping. Now that Ty is 3 I'm ready to try again.
14. try to sell the desk and camper and get them out of the garage. We took these to an Auction House. Hopefully they will sell! They sold and we are so happy to have our garage back!
15. MONTHLY date nights - sometimes with a baby-sitter here and sometimes after the kids are in bed with take-out/movie.
January: hmmm don't remember if we went out to celebrate my birthday or had a date in January or not.
February: Valentine's take-out from PF Chang's
March: Fro-Jo's - super short date but it was just the two of us!
April: Campfire date- star gazing, talking &snuggling by the campfire mall date- shopping, iced coffee/pretzel sharing, 2 hours of just us :)
May: can't remember...
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:
16. get my Uggs cleaned. I've had them for about 4 years and they are a mess!
17. Make at least 3 2 1 Pinterest projects that are not recipes. I have already made several new recipes from pins! Project #1 Project #2 Project #3
18. Intentionally plan dinner/movie/shopping with my sister. We don't get to spend enough time together. We had our birthday lunch together this weekend! We went to see Hunger Games together! We took Ty & Silas to see Toy Story 3 Disney on Ice.
19. Finish Friends. Andy and I have been watching for the last year and we are on Season 8  9  10. So good. I could watch it everyday. After we finish I want to borrow the next season of The Closer from my parents.
20. Read Bringing Up Boys & The Strong Willed Child

I finished the list one time. But there was an error with Blogger...so I redid the last 8 and could only think of 6 of them! So I really wrote 22 goals but two of them are lost. :)