Menu Plan Monday

Looking forward to Sunday and all the yummy football food!!

Monday-Peperoncini Beef Sandwiches. these were on the menu for last week, but we didn't have them.
Tuesday-leftovers. Gymnastics night and we have lots of leftovers in the fridge.
Wednesday-Sausage, tators and onions. We haven't had these in a while and everyone likes them.
Thursday-Tex-Mex Corn Chowder. New recipe. I tore this out of somewhere years ago.
Friday-Pizza. I'm thinking it will not be homemade this week since I'll be doing so much for Sunday.
Saturday-Spaghetti. Dart requested it last week, so on the menu it goes.
Sunday-Football Food!! Shrimp, chips and salsa, wings, summer sausage, Beer Bread, veggies and dip, and whatever else strikes me at the store.

I do not make my beer bread exactly like the recipe. I read the reviews and comments and changed it to match some of those and it is AMAZING! Tastes like Tastefully Simple beer bread. I omit the all-purpose flour, baking powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. I also change the self-rising flour to 3 cups and the brown sugar to 1/3 c brown sugar.

Today

I am going through recipes I've printed or torn out of magazines and getting them on recipe cards. Hoping that will make me use them more.

I am accepting the fact that I'm not feeling like making anything. The inspiration just isn't there right now and I'm okay with it.

I am cleaning up and reorganizing some areas that have been bugging me for a while. I figure since I'm not feeling inspired to make anything I will take advantage and take care of some of these things.

I am finishing watching Season 1 of The Voice. A week from today the new season starts and I can't wait!!

I am wishing mother nature would make up her mind with the weather. I am almost 100% my allergies are driving me crazy and it's not a cold.

I am making a menu for the week, including lots of yummy, finger foods for the Super Bowl.

I am finishing up some projects that I started. They don't really require me to do much to them, just finishing touches so the fact that I'm not feeling inspired to make anything, I'm still getting some things done and I really think and feel doing this will help bring back my mojo.

I am finding it hard to believe that when I look at the calendar January is almost over!

I am praying for something that I would love to have happen happen. I'm not saying anything more because I don't want to jinx it.

I am sketching out a plan for a monthly card club idea I have. Still early in planning stages, but I hope to have it all worked out in the next week or so. The basic idea is a client would tell me at the beginning of a month what cards they will need for the next month, example: "I need 3 birthday, 1 anniversary and a baby shower card." I would make those and then if there is a Holiday that month that people tend to send cards for I would include 1 or 2 of those and then a couple of extra cards; thank you, thinking of you, etc.

I am working on designing a class for Operation Write Home! I'm teaching an ink class and can't wait to get my fingers dirty!! I've never taught before so I'm kind of nervous!

At this moment

Listening to-Last nights Project Runway while I work
Eating-nothing
Drinking-Cherry Coke
Wearing-Jeans, MU sweatshirt and tennis shoes
Weather-Crazy. Pretty sure I'm suffering from allergies and not a cold. Supposed to snow though!
Wanting-an extended amount of time alone! A few other things, but that is top on the list.
Feeling-Drained, overwhelmed and excited. Crazy huh!
Needing-time alone, the ideas to keep flowing!
Thinking-about several projects I have on my plate right now.
Enjoying-the challenge of some new ideas
Wondering-how I'm going to get all the things I want to done!

 A new skirt and scarf I made for Audrey! Super easy and quick to make.

Breaking down pictures

Yesterday I sat down with my trusty Sharpie markers and my grid notebook to breakdown my people, places and things categories a little more. I am a list maker and when it looks pretty thanks to Sharpies I am even happier.

I broke down each category into smaller groups so I can 1.make dividers for them 2.find pictures easier later on 3.come up with a plan for the pictures.

Here is the break down for the categories:
People
Dart
Dakota
Audrey
Me
Mark
My family-my dad, my mom and step-dad
My sister Erin
My sister Leslie
My brother Jake
Mark's family(I'm not breaking this one down any more because I just don't have many)
Aunt Shanon and Uncle David
Aimie and family
Byron and family
Aunt Dawn, Uncle Doug and Shea and family(don't have many of these either)
Aunt Cathy and Uncle Craig, Shaila and family, Colin and family(again don't have many of these)
Pope and Granny
friends(this may get broke down more later)

Places
Field trips
Washington
Arizona
Florida
Washington DC
Hawaii
California
Omaha/Field of Dreams
Sea World
Hannibal
Mt. Rushmore/Yellowstone/Badlands
Oceans of Fun/Worlds of Fun
Float trip
Parks
Homes

Things
Christmas
Easter
4th of July
school plays/events
craft projects
items around the house
Weddings
sports
showers(baby, wedding, etc)
Halloween
Birthdays(these I think I'm going to break down by person)
nature
other holidays(things like Valentine's Day and stuff I might not really have many pictures of)

I'm excited to get the pictures broke down a little more! All this messing with pictures and all is making me really excited to do something more with all of them.

A few other things:

• Got the mini book listed in the shop today
• Working on a big idea I've had for a while now. Cards delivered to you each month based on what your needs will be for the month. Working on details and more ideas for it!
• Watching Season 1 of The Voice is making really excited for the 2nd season to start! I am not at all a fan of American Idol, but I LOVE The Voice!

Picture organizing and new products

 Made some good headway on pictures yesterday. I started simple, I was making things too complicated and it was really frustrating me. I had to make things simple, so I thought about what it is I take pictures of. My family, my kids, the vacations we take, the snow, school and sport events, places we go, things I make, and celebrations and holidays. As I listed these things it became clear how to sort them:  people, places and things. Some pictures were easy to sort, some not so easy. The hard were pictures of things around the house, my rooms growing up(mostly because it was things around my room), and sports. Here's what my breakdown looked like:

People-kids, family, friends, pets(okay so they aren't people, but they are part of our family!)

Places-vacations, field trips, homes, parks, school(I will explain school because it appears in 2 spots)

Things-Holidays, celebrations(weddings, showers, graduations, etc), snow/weather/landscapes/nature, craft projects, things around the house, sporting events, school, and birthdays.

School appears in places and things because some things were events and some were just of school. If it is an event at school it goes under things, if it is simply the kids outside school or something like that it went on places. Another tough one was the pictures I took of my room or around the house. I had to ask myself what the picture really was of, the item or the room. If it was the item it went in things because it was a picture of that thing. Some I had to ask myself if a stranger was to look at the picture what would they see, would they see an item or a room? That helped me decide. I had some other pictures that I had to think about those as well.

What about all those "professional" pictures. School pictures went under places(I know it seems strange, but I decided that the picture was taken because of school). Family of course went under people. I had some from when my brother was little and if it had the number of his age I decided it was thing because it was taken because of a birthday.

I had a box full of those that I wasn't really sure about, so I asked myself a few questions. What is the picture of? Why was the picture taken? If a stranger looked at it, what would they see? Those questions really helped on those pictures. I still have a few I'm just not sure where I want them to go, but I think I will get them figured out today. I know it might seem crazy to sort so many times, but I really think starting super simple will actually make things easier. I think before I had too many categories and it made me stress over whether or not I was putting it in the right spot. Now comes the fun part of sorting these 3 categories a little more. I have my lists going and will share those tomorrow.

I also wanted to share just a few new items that will be going in the Etsy shop this week. I am so excited about the Love/Valentine's Day mini book!

The cover and back of the mini book! The colors are very Valentine's Day, but it does not have to be Valentine's Day!

A simple mixed greeting card set!

10 on Tuesday

1. Working on a new organizing system for my pictures. I love Stacy Julian's Library of Memories, but there are parts of it that just don't work for me. So I'm trying to figure out a system that works for me, but still keeping some of her ideas with it. I hope to have it figured out soon so I can share it with you.

2. You have to check out this wedding dance! So cool and funny!



3. I loved this blog post by Seth Godin. I'm trying to be more aware of where I spend time on the computer.

4. I'm not real thrilled with the teams going to the Super Bowl. I don't not like the Giants, but was hoping the 49ers could have made it instead. However, the Patriots I am not a fan of at all!! Go Giants!

5. We watched Moneyball last night. AWESOME movie! I can see Dart being a player analyst. He is so into the stats and knowing the crazy things about players. He spends more time on ESPN checking the stats of what happened in the games.

6. I'm really loving finding new recipes to try. Does anyone have a foodie blog or blogs they recommend? I follow Pioneer Woman, looking for some new ones with fairly easy ideas, nothing to complicated.

7. I tried the Raspberry Hershey kisses last night. Not normally a white chocolate fan, but those are yummy!!


8. Last night Audrey watched a video on making friendship bracelets. She made a very simple one for a friend. I think it's time to bring back my friendship bracelet making skills and teach her! I love that she is so into crafts and art!


9. On Tuesday Dart has choir practice and so Audrey and I usually kill time between dropping him off and school starting. Today we went and wandered around Walmart. She is like me in so many ways, but there are major differences and one that I'm not sure where she gets it from. She spent forever looking at jewelry and clothes. I used to enjoy shopping for clothes, but even then it wasn't frilly stuff like she likes to look at. Anything that glittered, shimmered or sparkled caught her eye. And jewelry, holy cow that girl loves her some bling!


10. I now have a sick Audrey home. So no gymnastics tonight. She is very upset.

Menu Plan Monday

Hopefully we can get back on track this week. A couple of new recipes to try and some old favorites. I am hoping to try at least 1 new one every week. Also this week I have a couple of crock pot recipes. I love using my crock pot. Makes the house smell good and it's nice to get everything ready in the morning and let it go all day.

Monday-Pasta with the works. Great for using up various veggies in the fridge and it has pepperoni so the kids love it.
Tuesday-Hot Dogs and Mac and Cheese easy one for gymnastics night
Wednesday-Taco Soup Looks like this is going to be our coldest day this week. This can be done on the stove or in the crock pot.
Thursday- Italian Chops So easy and yummy.
Friday- Pizza Anyone who likes Mexican/Taco Pizza here's a great recipe for making it at home.
Saturday- Enchilada Casserole This is a new one this week. Looks yummy and easy!
Sunday- Peperoncini Beef Sandwiches Another new one. I love that this one looks to be so easy to toss in the crock pot.

If you want any of the recipes for those that I didn't link, let me know.