Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the weekend!  Kevin has been in New Mexico all week for work and he gets home today.  It's been a wild week of over flowed toilets, a sick cat, crazy weather, organizing, me doing all the things and I'm ready for back up.  We've all missed Kevin this week.  I rewatched Emily in Paris and am watching the newest season of The Crown now.

Did you catch my blog posts this week?

Easy & Affordable Meal Planning

Indoor Snow Day

Now on to my favorites!

1 // Spring Wreath

I found this beautiful lavender wreath at HomeGoods this week.  It was just $29.99 and also came in a larger size.  It is so full of flowers and greenery.  I knew I couldn't make it for any cheaper.  I can't wait to hang it on my front door this Spring.  Lavender is Olive's favorite and I'm always looking for ways to incorporate more purple in our lives these days.

2 // School Friends

Fletcher got invited to a school friend's bowling birthday party and he was so excited to go!  He loved shopping for his friend and had the best time celebrating with his school buddies.  He actually bowled 2 strikes, 1 spare and beat all the other kids.  He was beaming!  We are all working hard to make new friends so this made my heart so so so happy.  I went to the party with him and actually ended up making a new friend, too!

3 // Grocery Store Flowers

Kevin surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of grocery store flowers before he left so I'd have something extra to smile about all week.  Surprising me with flowers is his favorite.  They are the prettiest color.  We have called them sunset roses all week!

4 // Airport Goodbyes

While saying goodbye isn't my favorite, I LOVE living so close to the airport.  The kids and I were able to drop him off at the door and I'm so glad we could send him off on his work trip.  Thankfully his travels were uneventful and he had a fun week in New Mexico.

5 // Ski Day

Kevin squeezed in a ski day in Taos, New Mexico.  Skiing is his favorite so I am glad that this worked out for him.  He sent us some really cool pictures of his adventures in New Mexico.  I've only been there briefly so maybe I'll get him to recap his trip on the blog next week.

6 // Cozy Kitchen

I've been working on adding lamps around the house for some cozy lighting.  I found this tiny lamp at Target for just $12.99.  Lamp light in the coffee corner is my favorite.

7 // Daily Walks

Leo and I walk together almost every day.  My goal is 30 minutes of fast paced walking.  We had to skip due to wind and a day where it rained the entire day long.  It was warm and freezing all in the same week.  Our walks are one of my favorite parts of the day!

 

8 // Jordan Bakery Box

I added some new favorite cookies to the menu this month - Hershey Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Valentine M&M Cookies.  I got some fun order this week for cookie trays and then smaller cookie boxes.  Baking for others is my favorite!

9 // Organizing

I've been working on organizing my kitchen drawers and decluttering all the things.  A friend suggested that I used a box to contain my mason jar lids and it worked perfectly!  I like to save those small sturdy boxes that note cards come in for free organizers all over my house.

10 // Lunch & Dinner dates

We enjoyed a break from our routine this week and had some lunch & dinner dates.  Jason's Deli is one of our family favorite spots.  The kids love their pasta.  I love the salad bar and Fletcher is here for the ice cream.  He gets his own and he is very proud of his soft serve skills.

11 // Movie nights

The kids and I have been enjoying watching shows together in the evenings.  Candy Corn (popcorn + candy) is one of our favorite snacks.  We finished up Dance Monsters, the new Matilda, Night at the Museum and Sheriff Callie.  What are your family favorite movies or shows right now??

12 // Book Shopping

Kevin's mom took us on an outing to get new books this week.  The kids LOVED going through Barnes and Noble and picking out some new reading material.

 

13 // Kitty Snuggles

Leo is becoming sweeter with the cats and it's so cute.  I found him snuggling Pearl this week.

14 // 1-2-3 JUMP

I hear this phrase all day long.  Leo getting ready to launch himself off of something.  He's pretty cute when he's tight rope walking the couch, but all that jumping makes my heart jump.  I'm ready for Dad to be home to help me be Leo's body guard.

 

I hope you had a great week & have fun plans for your weekend!  We have a low key weekend planned and I couldn't be happier about that.

Linking up with Momfessionals

Indoor Snow Day

Do you have snow where you live?

We got snow before Christmas, but it's been a pretty warm January in Indiana.

The kids loved playing in the December snow, but our temps were in the negatives.  They decided to bring snow inside and had the best time doing an indoor snow day.  Doesn't it feel like the mom jackpot when you find an activity that all of your kids enjoy doing?  All three - ages 2, 6 and 9 - loved playing with snow inside.

You might need gloves, bowls, tiny toys, barbies or construction vehicles.  The kids used spoons and cookie sheets to dig and contain the snow.  The big kids went outside and gathered bowls full of snow - one per kid.  They had so much fun and no one froze.  The big kids made snow forts, hid tiny toys like Hatchimals in the snow and rescued them, built tiny snowmen and really enjoyed their indoor snow day.

We will definitely do this again with the next round of snow.  Thinking of all of you up North and out West that are buried in snow this time of year!  I hope this could be fun for your crew :)

They were determined to feel what -7 felt like in real life.  It was COLD.

Leo stuck with construction vehicles, spoons and eating snow.

These two loved building igloos and doing search and rescues for their Hatchimals.

 Save this idea for your next snowy day!

Easy & Affordable Meal Planning

How is your meal planning system working for you?

Do you have a good system?  

Or are you just doing the best you can every week to get dinner ready for your family?

Either way - I've got some meal planning pointers to share with you today!  Hopefully they will make your life a little easier, give you good routines for meal planning and make this area of your life less stressful.

My Meal Planning Tips:

1. Go to the store regularly so that you always have good food options at home.  I utilize grocery pick up at Walmart and Sams to make my life easier.  Then shop in store at Aldi or a local store like Meijer or Schnucks as needed.  We eat the majority of our meals at home and I pack lunches all week long.  This saves us TONS of money.  Eating out is so expensive.

2. Figure out your most affordable grocery prices for the items you love.  For me, Aldi has great prices in my area and then I can pick up favorite brands on sale or at other local stores as needed.  These are not the cheapest meals that you can make for your family, but they're affordable and healthy!

3. Write out a menu of options every week to take the guess work out of meal prep every night.  I'll show you mine below.  I don't assign food to every night.  I just write a list of 7 dinner options for that week and we decide each morning what sounds best to eat that night.  Then once you make a menu be sure to stick to it.  That will save you money!  Prep food on the weekends or at nap time or whenever you have the time.  That will set you up for success when you need to cook after a long day.

4. Eat the rainbow!  Add in veggies and fruit to your dinners to save money from making a huge amount of meat or a huge main course.  Buy the fruits and veggies that are in season and on sale for another way to save money.

5. Ask your family for menu ideas.  Ask your husband or your kids what sounds good for the week.  That keeps you from feeling like you have to be the only one thinking about meal planning.  I usually plan some type of tacos for Taco Tuesdays and then I mix it up the other days.  We usually do Door Dash once a week and I cook the rest of the time.

 

Dinner plates from my house to yours!

1 // Homemade Chinese Take Out

Buy the Shredded Beef Steak at Aldi, season it with your favorite teriyaki sauce.  Serve it with stir fry veggies, rice, lo mein or egg rolls.  It's so good and so much cheaper than ordering take out. 

2 // BBQ night

We grabbed some pulled pork that you just have to reheat and I made sides fresh.  I've gotten the Jack Daniels brand from Sams and Kevin finds different deals to have BBQ shipped in from Southern restaurants.  They're both good.  I did roasted red potatoes and green beans and onions for sides.  My kids love to eat these potatoes dipped in ketchup and I like mine loaded.  We each added bbq sauce and toppings to personalize our plates.

3 // Chicken Picatta

This is one of my favorite dishes!!  Yum!  I bought thin sliced chicken from Walmart.  Then I very lightly breaded it with flour, bread crumbs and seasoning and cooked in on my stove top.  I made a lemon sauce with tomatoes, green onions, scallions, lemon juice, sugar and capers.  Let that all simmer together.  Cook pasta and top with the sauce.  Kevin and I love this!  The kids at plain chicken and pasta.

A friend gifted this lemon pasta to me for Christmas and it was SO GOOD.  I'd definitely buy it again.

4 // Taco Night

I make all the taco fillings - meat, cheese, veggies, salsa, sour cream, pico, etc.  Then everyone makes their tacos how they like.  The kids usually want hard shells, Kevin likes nachos and then I opt for a taco salad or nachos or soft shells.

5 // Toasted Sandwiches

I tried these Deli Rolls from Aldi and they were pretty yummy.  They didn't seem as soft as the name brands, but they worked for this meal.  We each added our own toppings - hot ham and cheese, grilled cheese & BLTs.  Served with chips and apple slices.  We all enjoyed them!

6 // Breakfast for Dinner

My family always love this.  I switch up the carb - pancakes, waffles, biscuits, etc.  Then always serve scrambled eggs and a meat option.  This time I served fruit and or a smoothie.  The kids loved it!

7 // And a few lunch/snack options:

I love a breakfast taco for breakfast or lunch.  If you're making breakfast for dinner, make a little extra and save the leftovers for an easy lunch the next day.

Greek yogurt bowls - full of protein and yummy!  I like to do vanilla greek yogurt, granola, berries, bananas, chia seeds and cinnamon.

Nachos!  Sometimes after Taco Tuesday we will have leftovers.  I like to do nachos or a taco salad the following day for lunch.  This day I had tons of pico so I did nachos loaded with pico.

You can never go wrong with a BIG SALAD for lunch.  Buy enough ingredients to have the same salad several times throughout the week.  It'll make your life easier and healthier.

8 // Keep your menu format easy!

I write mine out like this most weeks and then we have meals to look forward to.  I keep it on the side of my fridge and we talk about what sounds best each day or what needs to be eaten first.  It gives us good food to look forward to eating all week long.

Let me know if you have any questions or need any help in the meal planning department.

Happy cooking!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, Friends!  I hope you had a good week.  Ours was busy with school work, crazy weather and getting back into our routines for the new year.  Both big kids got invited to school friend birthday parties this week.  We are working hard to make friends in our new city so this was exciting.  We had some wild weather this week - woke up to big storms and hail Thursday and wild winds throughout the week.

Did you catch my blog posts this week?

Charcuterie Family Dinner

2023 Word of the Year

Must Make Appetizers

 

Now on to my favorite things:

1 // The Perfect Rug

Remember a few weeks ago when I said I was hunting for the perfect rug for my porch??  Well it took me a year, but I found one!  It was from Walmart online.  I measured to make sure it would be oversized, but not too big and it fits perfectly!

2 // Five Below

Olive & Fletcher got Five Below gift cards from our friends for Christmas.  They could not wait to go shopping.  They love browsing the store and selecting a few treasures to bring home.  Olive came home with new Squishmallows and Fletcher picked out a mix of prank toys and a Squishmallow.

 

 3 // Celebrate

We got to celebrate a cousin birthday some some of our favorite great grandmas.  They're the sweetest, kindest, most stylish 80 year olds.  I always look forward to seeing them.  Leo looks forward to CAKE.  My other kids aren't big cake eaters so it cracks me up that he shouts for joy anytime he sees a big cake.

4 // Snuggles

I love when the kids pick out cozy spots around the house.  The cats love it, too.

5 // Chesskers

Leo loves to be included with big kid activities.  His current favorite game is Chesskers.  He takes all the checkers and cheese pieces out of the box and places them on the board.  Puts them all away and repeats over and over.  It's his favorite.

6 // School lunches

I surprised the kids with fancy caramels and have been making my life easier by packing similar things for both kids.

7 // Back to Teaching

Kevin headed back to the classroom this semester after a year off from teaching.  He has been focused mostly on administrative tasks so this will be a good addition to his schedule.  He's a great professor and he's teaching one of his favorite courses. 

8 // Treasure Hunters

Fletcher & Leo are determined to find treasure in our yard.  Fletcher got a metal detector for Christmas.  They've loved looking for things and digging them up.  His biggest find yet is this very heavy, rusty metal object.  I googled it and can't figure out what it is.  Can you help us solve the mystery?  Bonus points for anyone who has gold or treasure in their description :)

9 // Cinnamon saves the day

I don't love greek yogurt, but I do love it when I add cinnamon to it.  This is my favorite combo - vanilla greek yogurt, bananas, berries, cinnamon, granola and chia seeds.  It makes a great breakfast or a great snack.

10 // Adventure Pearl

She's our most curious kitty and she scares me all the time.  I find her at the very tippy top of the cabinets or the furniture often.

11 // Jordan Bakery Box

Regular Chocolate Chip cookies were on the schedule this week.  You can't go wrong with my favorite cookie.

12// Bible Study

Leo and I are back to Bible study and it feels great!  One week he goes with me and the other week he goes to his preschool class.  We both love it.  We are studying John & the Proverbs 31 woman.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your people!  My kids have a 3 day weekend so I'll see you back here on Tuesday.  Linking up with Momfessionals