I forgot to get a shot of this on the community buffet table where it was much cuter. :( Forgive the stand in shot from two days later in a non-photogenic spot.
My family goes to a friend's house every 4th of July. It's a large gathering with usually about 100 people. But it's a fun time on a cul-de-sac where my kids can be safe; and, it's at the base of a mountain that fireworks get shot off of so we get a good free seat to the show. At every 4th of July BBQ here the host family takes care of the hot dogs and hamburgers and everyone else brings sides and desserts to share pot luck style.
This year, I just couldn't decide what to bring. Over the years I've made the red white and blue strawberries. I've made a loaded baked potato salad. I've made fun drinks and various things. This year, I just couldn't decide. I couldn't even narrow down my list to either dessert or side dish. It was killing me! So what did I do? Something I'm realizing I frequently do when I'm stressed about choices. I went in an entirely different direction. I made a fancy condiment bar.
Remember, this looked better on a checkered tablecloth, before the tags had drips, surrounded by other barbecue related items.
I will say, I passed by the table several times and overhead people saying things like, "these condiments are da' bomb" and "Have you tried that one yet?" and "I have to get another hot dog just to try the ____". It was affirming. ;) The hosts supplied all the regular condiments, these were just a side dress up for those foodies in attendance.
Here's what I had on the tray:
-Spicy Ketchup (ketchup with Tapatio sauce) - this jar was almost empty at the end of the night
This year is the first year I've ever had a weight loss goal for New Year's. I still don't have a number, just a pile of clothes I need to fit by a certain date. I took my weight and measurements, I bought a fitness planner, but the scale has not been a good guide for me in the past. Because I am hypoglycemic I am going the Whole 30 type route for weight loss.
Since I'm trying to lose weight and continue my journey to less and less processed and more and more whole foods for the family, I am being very meticulous about meal planning. I don't mind making myself something different for breakfast and lunch, but I don't want to make 2 dinners. And really, since we've been eating increasingly more whole foods over the last few years, planning meals that I can eat with the rest of the family hasn't been as hard (so far) as I thought it would be.
Because I'm trying to do this the whole year, not just 30 days, I have a few concessions. I'm allowing myself Paleo style desserts, 1 brown rice or dry bean serving a week, cream in my coffee, homemade ranch, 1 other dairy serving a week (cheese addict here), and up to 2 all natural tortillas a week. Other than that, it's pretty much protein veggies and fruits.
To keep track of how well I'm sticking to things, I'm writing my menu plan in my fitness planner in pencil, and going over in pen when I eat it. That way I know at a glance how many things I planned to eat but didn't, and how many things I ate that I didn't plan to. Not that it's good or bad, just for reference.
Side note- Anyone else's kids go through a ton of food while off for Christmas break? Seriously, I try not to complain because my cart is at least half produce, but wow!
So here's what my menu plan looks like for the week:
Those bottom 4 columns would be the grocery list. Seriously. I've had problems keeping up lately. I used to able to go to the grocery store one time per week. It's hard to stick to that now. Even with the extra fridge in the garage.
Now here's that plan in print that's not too tiny to read ;) : (lunches are just for me since kids and hubby have packed lunches for school and work that consist of sandwiches, leftovers, and bento style lunches).
Monday: Breakfast - kids cereal, me sausage and applesauce
lunch - me - salmon with grapefruit avocado salsa (I'll be reviewing that on here and my Daily Ration FB page)
Dinner - Hamburger chili dish- haven't decided yet if this will be my 1 rice this week or if I will pull mine out before I add rice to it.
Snacks: juice (hubby got me a juicer for Christmas), hard boiled egg, nuts
Tuesday: breakfast- kids breakfast cookies, me vegetable soup
lunch- smoothie and lettuce wraps
dinner- Chicken Prosciutto Involtini from Nom Nom Paleo for the whole family with salad
snacks: smoothie, nuts, fruit
Wedenesday: breakfast- kids yogurt, me sausage and applesauce
lunch: leftovers
dinner: meatball sammies for the family with fruit salad, just meatballs/veggie sticks/fruit salad for me
snacks: juice, hard boiled egg, nuts
Thursday: breakfast - kids cinnamon rolls, me vegetable soup
lunch: wrap on a tortilla
dinner: crock pot taco bowls for the family, taco salad for me (this is an easy substitution, I just leave out the rice and put a bed of lettuce down under the toppings.
snacks: avocado mousse
Friday: breakfast- kids- cinnamon toast, fruit and bacon, me- fruit and bacon
lunch: leftovers
dinner: spaghetti and salad for the family, spaghetti sauce (homemade meat sauce) over steamed broccoli for me
snacks: nuts, juice
Saturday: breakfast- kids pancakes, me eggs or Paleo breakfast bars if I feel up to making them
lunch: vegetable soup with chicken
dinner: out after church - I allow myself to pick a healthier menu choice and don't obsess over every ingredient.
snacks: undecided
Sunday: breakfast- kids cereal bars (Sundays I try to rest), veg omelet for me (at least one of my kids usually end up wanting this too)
lunch: leftovers
dinner: appetizers - we do this every Sunday night with either a football game or family movie. I will have fruits and veggies on a tray as part of the appetizers but usually make the rest based on what needs to get used up in the fridge. Not sure yet what I'll be eating this night other than the fruits and veggies. I might get back to you on that on Sunday.
And on to the winter garden!
I've wanted to do a winter garden forever. I just keep getting lazy. This year I was determined. It probably helped that my Back to Eden style garden has little to no weeds so it has become a matter of just sticking plants in the ground. But I was still late getting it in. I should have planted in September but here we're still getting summer veggies in September and I couldn't bear to pull them out. We didn't plant this until December 4th so we'll wait and see if things actually grow. We planted arugula, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beets and carrots.
What are your New Year goals? Share them in the comments!
These are not an original design. ;) I have been going through my craft room, purging, and trying to use up half my stuff by the end of next summer. In the process I came across this old kit from Stampin' Up!. I thought it'd make a cute and easy little gifty for my three kids' teachers.
I pretty much did it just like the picture on the kit. The pic had only candy corn. I added in other coordinating candy...because we must have chocolate. Also, I swapped out the Bermuda Bay color for the Island Indigo because that's what I had. The sample pic had a stamp that said 'num num' which isn't the same as this one. But I had this one. ;) I actually used a marker to isolate the 'num num' from an entire phrase. It worked.
There were 8 in the set, but I only made three. That means next year I still have 5 for whoever I want to make them for.
And that is how you make cute treat bags in about 15 minutes.
These two weeks cover right after Thanksgiving to mid December. I went mostly with neutral Christmas patterns to fit all the daily life and Christmas color stuff in but also pay homage to the season. I get a little more Christmas festive in my December Daily album. Here's I try to include the main seasonal events but also document the non seasonal everyday life.
Here's the two page spread:
On the left:
-title card
-family picture from our photo shoot - we won free photos!
-My youngest thinks it's fun to copy Leviticus right out of the Bible into her notebook.
- A couple of pretty spaces. The wood tree is from Recollections, the red snowflake as well. The snow globe was from a cut apart sheet. It MIGHT have been the Webster's Pages ones.
- The weeks in review
- Notes my husband put in the kids lunch boxes while I was gone at the National Science Teacher's Association conference in Long Beach for a few days in December
- and lastly a picture of the view out the conference center window
On the right we have:
-A pic from a local church's Christmas Encounter we go to every year...I never tire of the scene with the angels singing and the sheep hanging out grazing.
-shopping for a Christmas tree - I journaled right onto the picture with a white Signo gel pen
- a couple more items from the Christmas encounter
- a pretty space with paper and more glittered snowflakes from Recollections
-the middle kid getting Student of the Month ;)
- my youngest using a Wendy's toy to 'crack a code' - she was enamored with the coded message thing
-another shot of the student of the month group
I'm putting final touches on the last of the pages of 2014 (hopefully tomorrow) and getting started on 2015.
These two weeks were a little more nomal. And by normal, I mean random. ;)
There was baseball, Easter, trikeathon at preschool, ending of job for my hubby...
Here's the left side:
There were quite a few unrelated colors in the pictures so I was using quite a few unrelated papers. ;)
I had a picture of the view from the baseball fields during one of my son's evening games, my daughter's trike a thon lap count paper is above the picture of her doing it, a 24/7 filler card that kind of reflects my One Little Word (embrace), week in review, and the bottom has a pic that is so a personality feature of more than one of my children.
The title card was made of scraps:
Since there were so many colors going on in this spread, I went for a combo of mixing in all the colors and a bunch of stuff that reads neutral.
This is so my kids. I don't know where they get it (it might be from me).
On the right side:
My son was enjoying the mustache straw in his Easter basket. There are a few baseball pics in the middle (notice I used a different page protector to fit these better). On the top right is a pic I took of the kids' latest project. They're digging a hole in the garden. Just to see how deep they can go. Does every kid do this at some time? I remember digging holes.
On the bottom left is a shot of balloons from my husband's work. They threw him a send off before starting school. I actually cut apart one of the balloons and used it as the background for the picture.
On the bottom right is a pic of the kidlets in their Easter finery, and the middle bottom has another Facebook post about that randomness that is our lives. My friends laugh at me because I put raisins and blueberries in the Easter eggs instead of candy, and my kids are plenty excited. I was posting about how my youngest asked if we could put broccoli in some time.
More than halfway through the teen weeks now! Anyone else catching up on PL? Is anyone else even as far behind as I am?
I always have a list, every year, of stuff I want to do. It's a completely unrealistic list. Really. Crafting, baking, outings, etc...I thought I'd share a few with you this year. Just a few, because the whole list would go on and on and on... :)
Fall is my favorite season. It makes me sad every year that we really don't have it where I am. :(
Crafting & Decorating:
-I want to make a 30 Days of Thankfulness album for November. This would be like December Daily but for fall and thankfulness. This one I really plan on doing this year. But my December Daily album is always a lot of work. I love it, I love creating it, but I want something a little more low key for what I'm thinking. I've decided I'm going to do fairly simple pages all ahead of time (I better get on that), and leave a space for the picture and a few words. Then I'll fill in the word space each day, print the pics all in black and white either twice during the month or just at the end, and add them in. That way all the time consuming work is done ahead of time, when November hits hard and heavy.
Did I mention that we have 3 family birthdays in November? My middle child's birthday is actually on Thanksgiving this year. Busy month.
-I'd like to make fall potpourri a little more often. Real stuff, like this recipe on Pinterest.
I normally do it about once a year, but this year I want to remember it more often. I want the house to smell like fall for a lot of the season. It's just hard to match the scent with the season in my head when it's 102 degrees outside.
-Glitter up some pumpkins - I actually have the pumpkins from clearance last year. I just need to do the craft.
- Make cute baggies and fall treats for the teachers at my kids' school. These ones I pinned on my Fall board look easy and adorable.
- Make these velvet pumpkins:
-Decorate the front door area. I say area, because it's a weird corner door situation with no real porch to speak of. But there is a small flower bed right in front that has space to add a hay bale or pumpkin to.
Baking:
-Of course, pumpkin spice lattes. I really want to find a recipe I like. I might have to try a bunch to get one that remotely resembles Starbucks. I think I'll start on this one today. :) If you have any you think I should try, link it in the comments!
- Pumpkin spice latte bark:
-Caramel apple cream cheese bundt cake:
- And a million more recipes - but today those are my top 3. Today.
Outings:
-Apple picking and a picnic. I think I'm going to plan this one this weekend since our soccer games are early. Then we can spend the rest of the weekend making apple sauce, maybe the bundt cake above, etc....
-Pumpkin patch - There's one near my kids' school. We might stop there on the way home one day.
-I'd love to go look at leaves, but around here they don't really turn until January. We'll see. If I can find a copse of turning trees somewhere we might go just there.
Thers's a new thrift store about a mile from my house. I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity go look through it without the kids distracting me. I went one day last week and got some great finds! I will go back another time when I have more time. I was on my way to pick up kids from school and had to limit the time I spent perusing. I was really surprised at the selection since it's kind of a smaller shop.
Here's what I scored, spending a grand total of $8 (including tax!).
By the way, please forgive the messy background and grainy shots. I was using my iphone in my office right after I got the items. I was separating them between my office and home and wanted to get pictures before I forgot.
The two baskets I got because I love the liner and the handles. Baking season is almost here (even though it's still in triple digits where I am) and I plan on using these as I give jars of jelly and holiday goodies. They were 50 cents each!!! That's a great price for giving away!
Some glassware here. The two clear crackled class bowls have a slighly unusual shape. I got them to sort some small scrpbooking embellishments into for my Project Life station. They were 50 cents each. The fall plates I got two of. One of them I am leaving here in my office to put scrappig embellishments on and the other I'm taking home for some cookbook food staging pictures. Those were $1 each.
And last but not least, my favorite piece of the day:
This was a whopping $3.50 but I fell in love with it. I don't know why. It's not my usual style. It is meant to be a vase but I am going to use it for juice I think. ;)
So $7.50 in purchases plus tax came out to just over $8. I think I did well!
Some day in the future, if I remember, I'll post a picture showing the glassware in my scrapping space.
This was the week of Valentine's Day and the Winter Olympics. It has a two page spread and an 6x12 insert.
This view is the two page spread with the insert front. The left side has the title card, pics from the girls' first t-ball practice, the week in review, an olympic thing with the opening ceremony firework mistake, and an instaweather pic showing how we are still having an unseasonable warm winter.
The front of the insert has a photo strip and and stuff from our church's sweetheart night. My kids made cards this year so there's a lot of kid art work in this spread. Here's what it looks like with the insert turned so you can see the back.
The back of the insert has our Valentine's breakfast and part of a card the kids and hubby made me. ;) The right side is mostly cards my husband made the kids.
Here's a closer look at the top left. The title card is a hodgepodge of stuff from my stash. I think all that kraft and red cardstock all over the spread is from Jillibean Soup. The heart doily is leftover from a Stampin' Up! set I had from last year. The pink ticket and sticker button are from a very very old kit I had won from Paper Crafts Magazine. Really old. The letter and number stickers I got at JoAnn.
And here's that middle row from the left side:
Yep, that says 85 degrees on Feb 12. No wonder we have a drought here. The story was on plain kraft paper with little pieces attached from Elle's Studio. I forgot what those little cut apart tag things are called, Lil' Snippets! The butterfly paper was from my old stash and I don't remember who it's from, but that Beautiful Life is the name of it. I liked both the name and design so I saved it from the edge of the page. I do that a lot.
And that is week 6. I'm really not that far behind. I mean, I am far behind, but I just realized week 6 was sitting in my pictures.
The end of one year and the beginning of another. And I'm finally getting around to posting about them. :)
I'm a little bit behind on small touches because my craft room is inaccessable for while (construction going on around it). I'm limited to a tool box of stuff I got out before hand to get me through. I'm making notes as I do stuff about what I want to do for finishing touches when I get back in there so it will go quickly and I don't feel so far behind that way.
But I did get the final touches put on last year's last page.
I combined two photos in one pocket in the top left of my son shooting off a rocket he got with his Christmas money from Grandma and Grandpa. He loves science and this is a baking soda/vinegar thing.
The top right is the date we went on and got his loot from said Christmas money spending.
The family pic is one I had us take on our Christmas card photo shoot day. I saw the idea in another album a while ago and had planned ahead. I cut out "the end" with my silhouette.
In the middle row I have just our end of year stats, and a pull up list of news type events from the year.
The bottom right two sections are what we did for New Year's Eve and the menu.
For 2014
I had a hard time finding an album I wanted. I really liked the one I had last year bu, it was from Stampin' Up! and they don't carry them anymore. I finally decided to get this one at Michael's and deal with the whole front window thing I don't like.
See that stain in the bottom right hand corner? My youngest spilled orange juice on it. I'm going to just stop being mad about that now and just decide it's part of this year's memories. :)Embracing life...though it takes me a few days to switch to that mind set.
I just put a scrap in the window that I like and use my Silhouette to cut the 2014 for it.
I have the title page almost done (just waiting for access to my craft room again), ane weeks 1-2 are in the same state.
