Creatively Homemaking

5 days left!!

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:14:00 +0000

Ok people..I'm getting nervous. I have 5 days to finish my challenge of getting an entire room organized..and I'm not sure I'm going to make it! We're in the middle of a kitchen make-over and it has been consuming my time. The painters were supposed to be done last Tuesday which would have given me all last week to get my kitchen back together. Well, they weren't done until Friday. (I'm not completely surprised). So I tried to bust it this weekend and get most of the kitchen finished so that I could work this week on the room. But I didn't get as much done as I needed. It will probably take me the rest of the day to finish the kitchen..which leaves only 4 days for the other room. I'm not sure if I'll make it. But I'm sure going to try! (I hope!)

Have any of you decided to take on this challenge? Or even just a re-organizing project in general? We'd love to see before and after pics once its done!

-Larra

28 Day Organizing Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:50:00 +0000

I am a huge fan of Laura at OrgJunkie. She has great ideas about organizing. If you thought we were obsessed with it, you should see this lady! SHE is OBSESSED!! But, she's great at it and doesn't spend a lot of money doing it. Every year she holds a 28 Day Organizing Challenge and I've decided to participate this year. I wanted to invite you all to participate and post your results at the end of the month. If you are interested, go here to read all the details. At the end of the month, if you have a blog, you post your before and after pics and link to them on her blog. There are prizes and everything! It can't hurt to participate..you can tackle a small area or an entire room in your house.

I've decided to tackle the one room in the house that gives me the most grief. Our youngest son's room was our garage that we converted to a bedroom. So the laundry area is in there, plus a door to the backyard and driveway. So his room is very multi-purpose and really needs to be organized. I want him to have his own space in there while still being functional for laundry. I have a few ideas and can't wait to get started. I have an entire month to work on it so I'm hoping to make myself take it slow so that I'll get better results.

So what do you say? Are you in? If so, let us know! At the end of the challenge, I'll have my results posted on here for you (and the judges) to see.

-Larra

Quick and Easy Budget Tool!!

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Budgeting. A lot of you may cringe at that word. I think its fun! I know, weird. I like to sit with my husband and talk about where we are spending out money and how much we should spend in each area. I like making a pretty spreadsheet to outline everything. I know, it might be a sickness. However, I know a lot of people aren't like me. You want to stay on a budget but don't know how to keep it organized. Or how to really know how much you're spending in each area. I've tried a few different methods but I think I've discovered the golden nugget. A very simple process that literally takes less than 10 minutes. But first I'll share ways I've tried in the past to show you what didn't work for me.

We bought Quicken Home & Business a couple of years ago. I thought this would be the missing link to solve all of our budgeting problems. It said it had this fancy import tool that would import all of your banking activity straight from your online banking. However, that required a special password and you had to pay a fee. Not worth it to me. So I decided I would manually input each and every transaction every month. The plan was to set aside one nap time per week to do it. It started out ok. But then it got a little stressful. I started getting behind and when I went to catch up, I was overwhelmed. So that led me to stop doing it. We still wanted to live on a budget, so I would frequently check our account online but it was hard to tell exactly where everything was going.

Next I tried Quicken Online. They have a system similar to mvelopes.com, except its free. Its completely online so you don't need any software for this one. It basically monitors your checking account. When you sign in, it updates your transactions and even assigns which categories it THINKS each purchase is. For the most part, its right. It knows that McDonalds is dining, Kroger is groceries, etc. But for transactions it doesn't recognize, it assigns random categories to or leaves blank. It was making my budget reports all wrong. For example, I knew I didn't spend $1000 in groceries one month! I spent a lot of time having to go in and re-categorize everything. Plus, after deciding to make sure we were being safe with our family online, we decided we didn't want any outside website having access to our checking account. Even reputable sites such as Quicken. I will say though that I liked its notification feature. You could set it up to email you if your account went below a certain amount, or if you had spent more than the budgeted amount in a certain category.

So, recently I found a new system. And it really works for us. Its quick. Its simple. There's no software to download. And no outside website involved. Most banks have the option to download your account activity. I use 2 banks (one for personal and one for business) and they both offer this option. If you click the option to download activity, it asks you to select the date range and the format to download in. So, for example, say you want to check on your budget every 2 weeks, and today is January 16. Select Jan 1-15. That will give you about a 2 week range. Select CSV as the download format. This is an excel file.

When you open the file, it shows you all the transactions in the specified date range. Here's how I use it. There's an empty column next to the "amount" for each transaction. In that spare column, I mark dining, groceries, medical, etc next to each purchase. Then at the bottom, I total each category using the SUM function. Seriously, this takes me like 5 minutes, especially if I do it every 2 weeks or less. I guess if you buy a lot of things then it might take you a little longer. At the bottom, I have all my totals for each category so I can see where we stand so far for the month. I save it as January1 and the next 2 weeks will be January2 so we can keep up the total for the month. I created a sample below. Obviously, the transaction detail from your bank download will be more detailed, but I erased my info out and placed sample info in.

There are a TON of resources, software and ideas out there on budgeting. Everyone finds something different that works for them. But if you're in search for a simple, free method that doesn't take a lot of time but ultimately gets you results, this one is great! I'm sure most people today know how to use excel and simple functions like SUM, but if you don't, feel free to leave a comment and we can help you!

Jungle Themed Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:37:00 +0000

This year for my son's 2nd birthday, I wanted to put a little effort into it and try to do a lot of creative, homemade things. It was my first attempt and believe me, it wasn't one of those parties that you see on blogs and think "Wow, I want to hire that lady to throw parties for my kids!" But for my first try, I feel like it turned out pretty cute. I thought I'd share it with you in case anyone needed any party ideas for the future.

Brody's Jungle Themed Party - 2 years old

Jungle Animal Cupcakes

YouTube How To Video

The little guy wanted to help with the baking

We made a lion, monkey, tiger and zebra. We set them up among green crinkled party paper to look like grass.

Close up on the monkey because it was my favorite.

I set up toy jungle animals among them on the table.

Because the animal cupcakes were somewhat tedious to make, we made 16 animals and decorated the remaining cupcakes normal for the adults.

Behind the cupcakes you see the treat bags for the kids. Those included animal crackers, a jungle animal finger puppet (pkg of 6 at Dollar Tree for $1), mini playdoh, and bubbles.

Activities

(Being that it was a 2 yr olds' party, these activities are low-key. I would definitely recommend other things for an older child.)

The party room was set up with 2 children's tables. I covered the top with brown paper so the kids could color and do activities on the paper without damaging the tables, and also to allow for a fun coloring space.

Target sells a balloon animal kit in the kids' party section. A friend told me about them and they were the kids' favorite thing.

I printed off monkey mask templates and cut them all out BEFORE the party. I bought bracelet/necklace stretchy string at Hobby Lobby for around $1.

Other not pictured activities were giraffe paper bag puppets, jungle coloring sheets and safari puzzles. Recommendation: If you plan to use the balloon animals, I would save those for last if you want to do any other activities. All of the kids at our party LOVED the balloon activity and were not interested in doing much else. So it would have been a great activity to save until the other things were done. However, I don't think any kid really missed not getting to do the other things.

I really had fun creating my own jungle themed party and not spending a fortune on those party kits. You definitely appreciate it more when you put forth the effort to do it yourself. And its a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to perfecting my cake/cupcake decorating skills and getting to do numerous fun parties as my children grow up.

-Larra

An Organized 2010

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:30:00 +0000

Welcome to 2010 Everyone! How do we say it..is it twenty ten? Just ten? I'm still not sure.

Everyone likes to make New Year's Resolutions and start fresh each year. While I didn't really make new years resolutions, I did want to start fresh in my home. Last week I started reorganizing most of the rooms in our home. I didn't realize how bad we needed it! I thought I'd share with you what I did to give you a little motivation to organize your home if you need it. I am still not done..I need to finish my pantry, bathrooms, and youngest son's room. Oh, and our kitchen. But that's a major work in progress. We are in the process of giving it a facelift with new paint, tile, backsplash, etc so it will be a while before I can put it back together. But when I do, it will be really organized!

So here's what I've done so far. First task was my files. I'm definitely a file person. I like everything to have a place to go instead of just landing on my desk. In the past, I've always had handwritten file folders. I don't have the prettiest handwriting so I have always wanted a labeler. Well, knowing my personality and my love for organizing, my mom gave me one at Christmas! I was so excited. You can see my labeler in its place on my desk below. You can pick these up at Target/Walmart for less than $20.

Next was my desk space in general. After our second baby was born this summer, we had to move our "office" into the dining area. So I like to try to keep it fairly tidy because anyone that walks in our home will see it. Plus, I just need it clean for my sanity. It easily gets things piled up but with my new system, it has seemed to stay pretty clean over the last week. Hopefully we can keep it up. There's no magic system I used here. Just straightened and put a tiered file organizer next to the printer. That definitely made a huge difference. I wish I had some before photos to show the difference. What isn't shown in the photo is I added a mail sorter (that I found in a closet and completely forgot I had). I labeled each section with deposits, bills to be paid/filed, and outgoing mail.

The next room may seem like nothing to most of you. However, if you've ever been in my bedroom, you know that this is a great improvement. Before last week, we had this beautiful green armoire/entertainment piece in our room. It was at the end of our bed and took the place of a dresser or chest of drawers. We love the piece of furniture and it has served many purposes over the years. (Leigh Ann and I used it as a dresser in college, then Matt and I used it in our apartment and rental house for an entertainment center, then it went back to being a dresser in this house.) It was beautiful but LARGE. And our bedroom isn't. It took up a lot of room and was not what I wanted long term as our bedroom furniture. So for Christmas we asked for

IKEA gift cards in order to purchase a dresser we had picked out. However, we didn't want to part ways forever with our beloved armoire, so Leigh Ann offered to bring it to her house to make a craft cabinet or for other storage. (I'm really hoping it turns into a craft cabinet!) That

way, when we move we could get it back if we had the space for it. Soo...long story to show you our newly organized bedroom. Having to move clothes to the dresser allowed me to purge my entire closet. And now the closet is nice and organized as well.

And last but DEFINITELY not least, my oldest son's room. It has been a thorn in my side for months. I tried a couple of methods of organizing his toys but was never happy with any of it. I attempted a toy box and now know that I am not a fan of those. If you like to just have one place to throw everything and hide it, then this is the method for you. And that's ok. But I'm not one of those people. And my son didn't like it either. When he was looking for a toy and couldn't find it, he didn't like that. He's only 2, but he's definitely got some of my tendencies haha. Over the last few months, I started visualizing what I wanted to be able to accomplish in his room. I needed bins and a bookshelf. I wanted a place for puzzles, craft supplies, crayons, cars, blocks, etc. I started picking up bins on sale and even asked for some for Christmas. Some of you are thinking "Seriously? Storage bins?" And I'm sure you can guess who came through with those..Leigh Ann, of course! So here it is. In all its glory.

Top: Shelf where we keep the puzzle rack, crayons, coloring books, sketch pads, games and much more. Bottom: Bins in his closet. The large one is FULL of cars. These slide in and out when needed. And what's better..he knows to clean up one bin before getting out another bin. So the bin method really works for us! And it literally takes 1 minute to clean his room!

His book nook. I frequently find him sitting in his bean bag reading books. Its where we sit together and read during the day and before bedtime. I don't know what it is about having a designated reading spot but he loves it and it really gets him to want to listen to books.

I am so excited to already have accomplished so much in my home and its only the second week of the year. Like I said, I have a couple more rooms to finish and I should be able to wrap that up in the next week or so. Have any of you started off the year with any organizational projects? Blog about them so we can see!

-Larra

Sharing Recipes

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:48:00 +0000

A while back, my friends and I started a recipe blog to share recipes that we enjoyed at each others homes. It is a great way to add variety to your menu and you know you will love what you cook, because you already have tried it!

You should start one in your circle of friends and then share the link with us!

Happy recipe swapping!

Here is the link to our blog:
http://yummyrecipeswap.blogspot.com/

Also, you can see recipes that Creatively Homemaking has tried on our left sidebar. Enjoy!

-Leigh Ann

Meal Planning {SeRieS}: First Baking/Freezing Day

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:23:00 +0000

Today, I (Leigh Ann) had my first baking/freezing day. A few weeks back, I posted about a new way of cooking meals one month at a time. I know, that sounds like a lot to tackle, so I started slow by only cooking a couple meals.

Today I made:

Lasagna (doubled)
Taco Soup (doubled)
Banana Bread
Gingerbread Muffins
Granola Bars
Berry Cool Pie

See the recipes on the left sidebar or here.

Ways to be more productive next time:

A second large pot would be helpful if I am making doubled recipes of soups or sauces.
Make sure the meat has plenty of time to thaw out.
Read all recipes fully, and if some call for items to set for x number of minutes, then do that first when starting that recipe.

End results:

40 Gingerbread Mini Muffins
2 loaves of Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
2 pans of Lasagna (9 x9)
1 loaf pan of Lasagna
1 serving of Spaghetti Sauce (leftover sauce from Lasagna recipe)
2 loaves of Blackberry Granola Bars (Slice when ready to eat. I did not use the 8 x12 pan only because I did not have one, so I use 2 loaf pans.)
6 containers of Taco Soup (5 cup Rubbermaid Take-Along containers, 1 container = 1 dinner for our family of 3)
1 Berry Cool Pie

Overall, I had a great first experience cooking all day. I was organized and had all the ingredients I needed for each recipe, which I think is KEY. It would have been so stressful to not have something in the middle of cooking, especially since I was doing all my cooking during my son's naps today. He naps twice a day still for about 2 hours a piece, so I had a morning cooking session with all the baked goods and an afternoon session with the taco soup and lasagna.

Here is the spreadsheet I created called 'Freezer Cooking Day- Blog Edition' to help me organize my cooking day.

**The spreadsheet includes more meals and ingredients then I cooked today. I wanted to start slow, but also already had a couple Broccoli Rice Casseroles and Chili made up in the freezer. I still am planning to make the waffles but I am going to have to borrow a waffle maker from a friend.**

I am also working on an expanded spreadsheet of the one above to include the estimated cost per meal. I would love to know how much each meal costs to make, because I think it would give me more motivation to cook and eat at home more often. The thought of having food, already made, in our freezer, is so exciting to me and I am ready to see how our grocery budget will reflect the savings of not eating out when I do not feel like cooking one night.

Here is a helpful inventory sheet from Once-a-Month-Mom.

What do you think? Are you going to try it? If you are or have, then let me know what you think, if you saved money, ate out less, and any tips to be more productive. Let's help each other out to be better home managers.

-Leigh Ann

Aquafresh Iso-Active Toothpaste {Product Review}

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:50:00 +0000

A few months ago, I signed up with SheSpeaks.com. Its a website that wants to hear what women think about certain products, etc. After using a product, you go to their site and leave your opinions on the discussion board and take a survey about your experience. You aren't required to blog about it, but I thought I would. This past week, I received my first product to review. Aquafrest Iso-Active Toothpaste. I have used it twice and already am very impressed. Its a foaming toothpaste so my entire mouth was covered in toothpaste. It was great. After using it, my mouth feels very clean and fresh. I like that even after a few minutes of brushing and spitting, there is still a lot of toothpaste still in my mouth. It is a whitening toothpaste, but I haven't used it long enough to know if it will make any type of difference. I have always used a whitening toothpaste but have never really noticed that they make much of a difference. Maybe this one will be different.

Another factor that I was impressed with was the dispenser. It comes in a can like shaving gel and cleanly dispenses onto the brush.

I have not been to the store to purchase this product, so I don't know how it compares in price to other toothpastes. If you want to give it a try, there is a $1 off printable coupon at the link above. If it is higher in price, it will affect my decision to use it in the future. But overall, I am very pleased with this product and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in looking for a new toothpaste.

Recipe Link

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:18:00 +0000

Creatively Homemaking as added a recipe link on the left side bar of our blog. Go check it out! More recipes to come!

Meal Planning {SeRieS}: A New Way to Cook

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:39:00 +0000

I want to apologize for the long pause in this series of posts. Blogging had to take a bit of a backseat this last month due to so many things going on with my family, but I am slowing down a bit and had some time to catch up on my reading, brain storm new ideas, and write. I am so glad.

On a side note, this series will probably be an ongoing one because how we cook, plan meals, grocery shop, etc. seems like it is always changing and we are always coming up with new/better ways to do it then we did before. As of now, I don't see an end in sight.

Getting on with today's topic:

This week, I have been learning about "once-a-month-cooking," baking days, and freezing meals. I am eager to give it a try, but I think will start slowly. I want to try a few recipes first before making them in bulk and see how they turn out after being frozen. To be honest, I am a bit of a food snob. I will eat leftovers, but only the next day. After that, it typically just sits until we clean out the fridge. What can I say, I like fresh food.

But the idea of cooking once or even twice a month and freezing several meals, is so amazing to me. It would allow more time with my son each day. It was save me time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. And maybe even some money! I already freeze my spaghetti sauce, chili and lasagna and those are super after being frozen. Plus, I know exactly what ingredients are in each recipe and there is nothing I can't pronounce. Good news!

If you are interested in learning more cooking in bulk and freezing go here:

Once a Month Mom Once a Month Cooking

Money Saving Mom Tackling Meal Planning One Month at a Time

Money Saving Mom Tips on How to Freeze Without the Burn

My mom will be visiting in a couple weeks, so I may try this for the first time when she is here and can help me cook and help with Cole. Then after I know how and what I want to, it should be easier to do it on my own next time. Or I might always do it with a friend! Cooking with friends is always fun!

What do you think? Do you cook in bulk, freeze, or have baking days? Let us know how you do it, what recipes are your favorite and any tips you can give for all us that are just starting this process. Who wants to try it?

Leigh Ann

Teaching a Toddler

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:18:00 +0000

My 21 month old son LOVES to learn. He could spend hours a day sitting with me doing puzzles, coloring, pointing out things in books, making animal sounds and more. He absorbs so much and we are constantly amazed at how much he knows and how fast he picks up on things. Lately, I've been trying to come up with some sort of organized plan for activities for him. However, I can't seem to find much information about what kids his age can understand right now. I have a list of things we need to work on such as colors, letters, numbers, etc..but I don't know when is too soon to start. Don't worry..I am not trying to make my 2 year old a genius who knows the presidents in order. (have you seen those kids on tv?) But he WANTS to learn things. He is constantly asking what things are, pointing at things and looking at me for a response, etc. So I want to teach him.

I want to be careful not to push him too hard or expect him to know things that he can't understand right now. I feel like he should be saying more things than he does. For example, he can point out every animal in a book, but the only ones that he'll actually say are dog and duck. Even simple ones such as cow he seems either uninterested in trying to say or he doesn't know how. He can point to the cow if you ask him or says "MOOOOO" but never tries to say it. I have no idea if this is normal for his age or not. So I want to learn more about this. About how to help him learn because he is inquisitive and loves learning with mom by his side. I just don't know where to go from here. If there are any education majors, teachers, or parents who have already been through this stage..I would love your input! Please share ideas, links to helpful websites, books, etc. My growing boy would definitely appreciate it!

Internet Safety {PaRt 2}

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:33:00 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks I've researched ways to keep your family safe, while still using blogs, facebook, etc. Below I've listed a few ways that you can help keep weirdos from finding your blog.

1. Keep your blog private. Blogger allows you to send invitations to people to view your blog. Those are the only people that can see it and must be signed in to view it. (We actually didn't do this with ours bc we didn't think our grandparents would sign in to a google account every time they wanted to see pictures of the great-grandchildren.)

2. Don't put your last name on your blog. I learned this from a Marine friend. He has the scoop on intelligence stuff and he told us a while back how by just knowing your last name, people can find you easily on the internet. So make sure your blog address, title, description, profile, info, etc. do not include your last name. We make sure to only use first names when writing about ourselves and children.

3. Don't let others link to your blog. If you only want those who know you to read your blog, its smart not to let your friends have your link on their blogs. The more links are out there, the greater the chance of blog stalkers to come across yours.

4. Make it unsearchable. This is my favorite feature of blogger. It allows you to make your blog unsearchable using Google, Yahoo, etc. So if someone knew your name and googled you, your blog will not show up in their search results. I'm sure other blog platforms such as Wordpress allow this too. Even if someone wasn't searching for you specifically, but let's say they typed "baby photos" in Google. If you mentioned anything about baby photos on your blog, your link could potentially come up in their search results. Scary huh?

5. Don't post city or address. This one may seem obvious, but be sure not to post what city you live or your address. Again, just by knowing your town and last name, someone could walk right up to your front door. On this same note, never post which parks, malls, etc that you take your kids too. If you want to plan a play date, don't use specific info on your blog but instead have those interested email you.

We made all these changes to our family blog lately (except #1). We completely changed our blog address, made it unsearchable, etc. Then I sent an email out to all of our family and friends with the new address. I asked them to save it in their Google Reader or as a bookmark, and to take off the link from their site. By doing this, we are hoping it will decrease our traffic to only those who we have given the link to instead of it coming up in google searches, etc.

As far as Facebook goes, the jury is still out on this one. I have been researching but still am not sure if there's a way to guarantee only people you know see your info. I have all my settings on "friends only." This means that no one besides people that I have approved as friends should be able to see my news feeds, status updates, photos etc. And here is a crucial point. If you upload photos of your kids to share with high school friends or whoever, be sure to go into Album Security and click friends only. If you notice, on the sidebar on FB, if you have a friend who is tagged in an album, you can view the whole album, even if you don't know the person who owns the album. This will prevent that from happening. It should also prevent your friends from sharing the album.

While doing all these things can help, its still up to us as parents to use discretion and common sense when it comes to the internet and the safety of our families. It's sad that we have to be so worried about all this. My next step is to make sure that my photography information that's on the web gives as little info as possibly while still allowing interested clients to contact me.

I'm hoping our next posts will be lighter in nature :)

-Larra

Internet Safety {PaRt 1}

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:40:00 +0000

This is going to be a 2 part post. Part 1 I will share some thoughts and questions I have about Internet Safety and Children. In Part 2, I will share some research I've done, solutions and ways to keep your family safe while still being a part of social networking and blogs.

My husband and I have been talking a lot lately about internet safety. I'm sure we got on the topic after a CSI episode or something, but whatever it was, it really got us thinking about blogs, facebook, etc. We have a personal blog where we post pictures of our children, their milestones, funny stories, etc. They are so young (21 months and 3 months) that we wanted to really capture all of these memories so we can look back on them. (Did you know that you can upload your entire blog to a website and it will make a photobook out of it so you can put those memories on paper?) Plus we wanted grandparents and other out of town friends and family to be able to see how they are growing.

However, last month I got some weird text messages and phone calls from a strange dude. And we've had a random person that we don't know leaving comments on our blog about how our baby was beautiful and his "fans" would really appreciate it if we'd post more pictures. It just seemed strange..it wasn't a normal comment just saying they thought our kids were cute. I've just really noticed lately how the internet can be a scary place and sick people can do some crazy things. So we started talking about how we could maybe be a little more wise in this area. Believe me, we are not extreme, jump on the bandwagon type people. However, we know the world is a sinful place and the safety of our children is extremely important. So what do we do....Do we totally eliminate the blog? Go through the tedious task of allowing only certain people to view it?

And what about Facebook? I admit that I love FB. I love seeing what's going on in people's lives. And I like sharing what's going on in mine. And, it helps my photography business by putting up photos that so many people can see. I have photos of my children on there bc I want to share them with friends from high school, etc. And my photography business...I have a website, Google ads, Facebook page, and blog that all have my contact information on it so that potential clients can contact me. (I think that's how the weirdo found my phone number). Are these type of things a danger to my children?

These are all questions right now. I have started researching this to see really what could be a danger and what isn't. I've got a post coming that will share what I've learned, what we've decided to do as a family, and ways you can keep your children safe as well. Maybe you've already taken all precautions possible and know that there's no way crazies can find your family. If so, please share! We'd love to hear!

Meal Planning {SeRieS}: 4 Menus

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Please remember that this is a learning blog and improvements to our systems are always happening. Like today! Each month, I would sit down, pick meals, go to excel and write down all the ingredients and form a grocery lists. It works well for me but I always was trying to find a way to do it faster. Today, I finally figured it out. I made 4 menus, with all the ingredients, and grocery lists. These will rotate every 3 months, so now all I have to do is open excel, print off the current month, and go to my pantry, freezer, and refrigerator to see what I already have or need to buy. The lists are long but also are all inclusive, so hopefully, ingredients will not be missed. If you would like to download my menus or just get an idea of what they look like to create your own, then go here.

To help you keep track of items you need or run out of during the week, go here and keep it on your refrigerator.

Please let me know if something I have said has not made sense or needs more explanation. Let us know what you think, what you do to plan your grocery shopping trips, etc.

Recipes to come.

Diaper Box Creations

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Leigh Ann and I have both seen some crafty moms do some really creative things with diaper boxes. I've seen a fort and she has seen a pirate ship. These moms are talented. We go through a lot of diapers around here ( I have a 2 month old and 20 month old). So I buy in bulk of course. So we are always trying to find ways to reuse the diaper boxes because they are sturdy and have handles. Brody used to climb inside them but he got big and bored with that after a while. So I decided I would try to use them for fun things for him. I had an idea a couple days ago that I thought he might like. I had no idea how much of a hit it would be! Brody is in LOVE with cars. He drives them all over the house and brings them when we go anywhere. I bought him 3 used hotwheels for $1 in Roundtop and he was the happiest kid on the block for hours. So, I decided to make him a road with the diaper box. It wasn't a very adventurous first attempt, but I'm hoping to work up to some totally rad (that's right, I said rad) diaper box creations.

I cut the box apart, saving all the sides and flaps. Then, just painted them black with white dashes down the middle. See, nothing adventurous. I did it during naptime in no time at all. I just had to wait for the black to dry before painting the white.

We used the small pieces to make turns in the road. And pieces that have folds we use to make hills. He loves those becaues he likes to see the cars go fast down the ramp.

I know this isn't as fancy as a store bought race track or something..but for a 20 month old, this is the best toy in the world. Plus, I love it bc to clean up I just stack the pieces and set in his book basket and its done. I have a few other ideas for diaper box creations. So this may turn into a little mini series. If any of you moms have made anything cool out of cardboard boxes, please share in the comments! I'm always looking for fun, free toys!

Meal Planning {SeRieS}: October's Menu

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:46:00 +0000

A typical month has 30 days but in reality, we are going to be out of town, not able to cook every night, have leftovers or go out to eat with friends every once and awhile, so therefore, I only plan about 15 to 20 meals a month. I look at my calendar and see when we will be out of town or have a special event that will not allow for eating at home, etc. and make my plan accordingly. We have a small group that we attend on Tuesdays and host about once a month, so I have to plan for that as well. I do not plan a meal for Tuesdays because we are not home that night and if we are then we are hosting a large group, so I plan Tuesdays last minute. Your family is going to have their activities as well that will affect your menu planning, but hopefully, all of this will be helpful, save you time and money.

Breakfast:

1. Cereal
2. Smoothies
3. Fruit
4. Cinnamon Rolls
5. Eggo's
6. Biscuits and Sausage

Lunches:

1. Leftovers from the day before
2. Sandwiches and chips or fruit

Snacks:

1. My version of chex party mix
2. Cheese and Crackers
3. Chips and Salsa
4. Apple and Peanut Butter

Dinners:

1. Cajun Chicken Pasta
2. King Ranch Chicken
3. Chicken Broccoli Rice
4. Grilled Chicken Rolls
5. Chicken Caesar Salad
6. Meatloaf
7. Beef Tacos
8. Spaghetti
9. Baked Ziti
10. Chili
11. BBQ Chicken
12. Breakfast for Dinner
13. Roast
14. Pizza
15. Chicken Enchiladas
16. White Chicken Chili
17. Chicken Noodle Soup

Meal Planning {the SeRieS} : Grocery Run #1

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:18:00 +0000

This morning, I needed to make a quick grocery run so that my son and I could eat lunch today. Yesterday, we ran out of bread for our typical sandwiches so it was a must that I go before his nap. My plan was to get bread, milk, lunch meat, a couple pieces of fresh fruit and a couple snacks for my husband to take to work with him. That's it, a quick, small grocery run, the typical weekly purchases. Well, that is not what happened. Usually, I am not a fan of going into the store without a plan or a list of some kind because if I do not have a list and stick to it, then I spend WAY too much money and buy things I don't NEED. BUT, today, I think I did okay because I did have an idea of what I needed at home as far as meat and a few other items and my HEB store was having great meat sales this week. My stock of meat in my freezer was getting low, so I have been waiting for a sale to happen. For most of the year, I only have to buy chicken, fish, pork, and beef roasts, because my husband is able to provide us with ground meat from his hunting trips. But it is has almost been a year since his last trip and we are down to our last pound, so I have been waiting for a sale on the extra lean ground meat.

Fruit:
-Bananas 1.34lbs $0.66
-Honeycrisp Apples 1.55 lbs $4.63 (Please don't judge me, they are really good and only out a short time. This is the first time to buy them this season and probably the only.)

Meat: Total = $26.82
-Deli Lunch Meat $4.67
-2 Bags HCF Boneless Chicken Breasts 4lbs each $5.96/each (Usually, $9.96 each)
-93% Lean Ground Meat 3lbs $2.99/lb
-Pepperoni slices $2.50

Cheese: Total = $20.59
-5 bags of Shredded Cheese $1.69 each (Usually, $2.19+ and all expires Jan '10 or after. This is not a one month supply.) Total = $8.45
-6 boxes of Sliced Natural Cheese $1.19 each (Usually, $2.50+ and all expires Feb '10 or after. This is not a one month supply.) Total = $7.14
-3 blocks of Mild Cheddar 3/$5.00 (Usually, 2/$4)

Snacks:
-2 bags of Goldfish $1.86 each
-1 bag of cookies $2.00
-1 box of granola bars
-1 box of peanut butter crackers

Dairy:
-1 gallon of whole milk $1.99
-1 large carton of vanilla yogurt $1.79
-8oz of sour cream $0.79
-1 box of stick butter $0.65

Other:
-loaf of bread $0.78
-2 cans of non-stick cooking spray $1.49
-1 box of pizza sauce $2.67

Shopping Total: $78.85
Saved: $17.59 (no coupons were used)

So about $48 was spent on meat and cheese alone. That is a lot of money on only two of the food groups, BUT I also will not be buying meat or cheese for months. A 4lb bag of chicken lasts at least a month at my house, because there are only two adults and a baby. I currently have 2.5 bags of chicken, so I should not have to buy again until mid-December. I will, however, watch for sales, so I am not stuck paying full price when I am out. Like I said in the first post, you have to make this work for your family. My budget allowed me to do a little bit of a stock pile today and I also had the space in my refrigerator and outside freezer to store all of the extra meats and cheeses.

In the first post, I talked about choosing which store you shopped at and how often you shopped. I do a mixture: a big stock up once a month and weekly trips for fresh items and things we run out of, and I also shop at two stores.

Store #1: HEB

It is the store I tend to go to on a weekly basis. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Convenience
2. Good Store Brand
3. Overall Good Prices

As you probably noticed in the pictures, almost all my items that I purchased were HEB brand or Hill Country Fair Brand (which is another store brand only at HEB). Of course, there are items that we do NOT like and stick to the brand name, but for the most part HEB brand works well for my family. The downside to buying store brand is there aren't many coupons unless they come directly from HEB, which they do have several coupons around the store for buy this, get this free, etc. but most of the time I do not have coupons to use. The upside though is the items I do tend to purchase there are because it is the best deal that I have found so far.

Store #2: Kroger

For my big stock up trip once a month, I go to Kroger. Here are a 2 reasons why I shop there too:

1. They double and triple coupons.
2. They have a shoppers card.

How do I choose what items to buy where? Well, at the end of the month, I make a menu for the upcoming month and list out everything I will need for each meal. **I will get more detailed in the next post.** Once I have that list together, I break it down into two lists: one for HEB and one for Kroger. Since I go to HEB weekly anyway, I tend to pick up the items needed for the month on my next trip and then head to Kroger another day. There are times that I go to both stores in one day, but not always, most days that is too much, especially if I have my son with me.

With your family's schedule, buying your groceries at two stores may not be doable and that is okay, just decide which store gets you more for your money and go from there. I could use manufacture coupons at HEB for items I buy at Kroger but I choose not to for the sole reason of Kroger double and tripling them.

More to come.

Maybe Next Year

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:07:00 +0000

You know when you have your hopes up for something...you think its going to be great...you have creative ideas flowing from everywhere..and then the big day comes...and its a total let down? Well, that's how our Roundtop trip was this fall. Well, at least for me anyways. I had a list of items I wanted to get to decorate and organize my home. I was so excited to find some great deals and have some projects to create when I got home. And it was a total bust. First of all, it was 95 degrees. We were miserable and our babies were even more miserable. Poor Carson (my 2 month old) had an episode while we were trying to eat lunch bc he was hungry and hot and just wasn't into being in the heat. So I feel like we spent more time trying to cool ourselves and our babies down than we did actually shopping. Plus, there were less vendors. Maybe that's how it always is in the fall? There seemed to be less bargains and less cool stuff. I ran across a couple of things that I was interested in but wanted to keep looking in case I found a better deal. I never did..but never went back to get the first ones either. So maybe when the antique fair comes back in the Spring I'll have better luck. I'm thinking no babies would be nice as well. I did come away with one great find....fiesta ware salt and pepper shakers to add another splash of color to my kitchen.

I'm thinking I'll add some more pieces in this pretty green if I find anything I need. So ladies...if any of you live close to us and went to Roundtop, did you find any good deals? Or if you don't live close, tell us about your experience at these type of things. Did you find any pieces to repurpose and use creatively in your home? We'd love to hear about them. If you posted about them on your blog, link to it so we can see!

Meal Planning {the SeRieS} : Getting Started

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:39:00 +0000

Every family plans what they eat at each meal differently. Sometimes, it is decided what to eat the minute you are hungry OR your meal is thought out and planned in advance. If you are anything like me (Leigh Ann), then if it is not somewhat planned out, then I am likely to spend money and eat out somewhere. Please do not get me wrong, my family enjoys a good meal out every now and then, but we do try to limit ourselves to once a week. By doing so, it saves us money, but that also means I have to plan. I like to plan and organize, so I do not know why it took me almost 3 years of being married before I stared a thing called Menu Planning. What a novel concept?! A few friends and other blogs I read started talking about it and I thought I should give it a try and see if I liked it and if it worked for my budget and family.

Since I had our baby in the summer of 2008, we are now living on a single income, so planning out our budget and how much we spend on each category, such as food, is important to us. Planning out each meal also helps me not waste as much food, because I buy only what I need and also get creative to use what I have before it goes bad. All that said, I have decided to write a short series of posts on this topic because I think one long post would be a little overwhelming for people who have never attempting planning a menu.

10 Tips to Get Started:

1. Make this work for YOUR family.

2. Start with planning 1 week at a time.

3. Start collecting coupons if you do not already. Here are a couple ways:
-Sign up for your local paper for Sunday only if available.
-Print free coupons here from Coupon Mom.
-Link your Kroger card to P&G Saver .

4. Be flexible with what you buy.

5. Watch grocery ads that come by mail on Wednesdays. Look for meat sales and other good deals. Sales run from Wednesday to Tuesday each week. Go early in the sale period to get the meat, it will be gone quick.

6. Get your Kroger and CVS cards.

7. Make a list of meals you like to make for your family: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

8. Set your food budget. What does it include (i.e. paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc or just food)? Do you have a separate eating out budget?

9. Decide when you will grocery shop. Once a week? Once a month? Bi-monthly? Mixture (i.e. large shopping trip once a month and then weekly for only fresh foods)?

10. Decide where to shop. Multiple stores? One store? Which store will give you the most for your time and money?

I will leave you with that to think about today and start working on. I am in the process of planning my meals for October, so I will share that with you when I am finished.

Until then...Enjoy!

Shampoo Free?

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:26:00 +0000

Have you ever consider not washing your hair with shampoo? Yeah, me either. Last weekend though, I was hanging out with my mom and she told me that dry shampoo is coming back and she has been using it on occasion. I did not know it ever existed. Ladies, did you? Then tonight, I was checking up on all the blogs I enjoy reading and Simple Mom had post about going shampoo free! Have you heard of this? Have you try it? Is it back?

I have never even considered shampoo being a harsh chemical. It has been used to clean my hair since before I can remember, but like other things in my home, I am trying to find ways to save money, be more environment friendly and simply be healthier. Let's face it, I am not getting younger each year, so it is about time I get serious and take care of the body God has given me.

Well, let me know your thoughts, if you have heard of this, or if you think it is just too extreme. I have a ton of baking soda, so I may give it a try sometime.

P.S. Speaking of trying to get healthy, I bought a jogging stroller a couple weeks ago and had to make a few improvements, but it is officially ready to go and I am hoping to get started on a new, daily workout routine. I will kept you posted!

-LeighAnn

We've Missed You!

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Sorry we haven't posted in a couple of weeks. Leigh Ann and I have both been busy being moms, family lake days, photography stuff and just life. I promise we have some good posts in store for you. I have a few ideas written down and plan to post them soon. Plus, we're headed to Roundtop this coming Monday so I'm sure we'll have some great finds to share with you. In case you're not from around here, Roundtop is a huge antique fair that comes twice a year that stretches for miles..you could spend like 3 days there. We're only going to be able to handle 1 day...pushing 3 babies around that place won't be easy! I am excited because I have very specific items I'm looking for. We hope to be able to share our finds and show how we are going to repurpose them. Hopefully we'll be able to inspire you to be creative with random treasures you may find at antique fairs or garage sales.

I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to post again before our Roundtop trip. I have a lot of photography work to finish up this week. So if you don't hear from us, look forward to next week for sure!

Being OK with imperfection

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:50:00 +0000

Last night, I had a plan. I was going to get up early today, make breakfast for Matt before he left for work, do my quiet time BEFORE the kids woke up, and enjoy some time to myself. Then, the rest of the day was going to be a productive cleaning/organization day. I had an itemized list of everything to be done.

Then, last night happened. You know, the one night that the baby who has been sleeping GREAT at night, decides his tummy hurt all night and didn't want to sleep. So needless to say, mom didn't wake up as early as planned. So dad left for work without a homemade breakfast, my quiet time did not happen before the kids woke, and there was no time to myself. After getting Brody his breakfast, feeding the baby and grabbing a pop-tart for myself (real nutritious, right?) I was able to sneak away to get my reading in. Brody was strapped in his high chair enjoying some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (don't judge me) so I was able to sit back in my room for some quiet time.

My day didn't start off how I planned, but it still came together and hasn't been chaotic like I thought it might be. I have cleaned 2 rooms and organized those 2 closets. As I was changing the sheets on my bed, I was reminded that we need balance in life. I love my house to be clean. I love when my day goes perfectly according to plan. When everything has a place. When my kids act like angels. When I get everything accomplished that I wanted to. But I realized something, these are NOT the most important things in life. We love this blog and its goal is to share ways to accomplish all these things. But its not meant to make anyone feel that our homes are perfect by any means or that your home should be.

What should be more important to me is playing with my children each day. Reading the Bible with Brody. Praying with him. Singing his favorite songs. Loving on Carson. Who cares if I don't get around to mopping the floors today. An imperfect home is a lived in home.

Re-Organization/De-Cluttering Week

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:08:00 +0000

For some time now, I have wanted to get my house more organized, less cluttered, and running more efficient. So I decided that this is the week that I am going to tackle this enormous project. It has been put off for too long, but that is why I am going to spread it over this entire week. It is a big project and that is one of the reasons I have procrastinated doing it because it is a bit intimidating to me. My house is not blessed with a lot of storage space so I have to be creative and use the space I have more efficiently. The focus for this project are all the closets, including the pantry, and garage. I realize that the garage is typically the man's space, but my husband and I do most of our home improvement projects together so there are many ways I see to make the space better for both of us. When telling him about what I was planning, his response was, "sounds good," so I think I received the go ahead from him.

The goal for the project is to keep it attainable for me. I am a mom of a 13 month old and we enjoy our play time together so I do not want to squash that, so the plan is to tackle the garage a little each day during nap #1 and then come in to get cleaned up before my baby wakes up. During nap #2, I will clean out a different closet each day. Some days 2 closets may be tackled if on the smaller side.

Here are a few things that I know I want to accomplish:

1. Properly dispose/recycle of all empty or previous owner's paint cans. When we moved in, we painted almost every wall in this house and now, since we have been here 3.5 years, I know that we have painted every wall in this house, including trim and ceilings. We have a TON of paint cans in our garage just taking up valuable space. If you live in my area, then go here to find out more information about where to dispose/recycle your paint cans.

2. Set up and put to use my recycling center. A few months ago, our neighborhood changed trash services and delivered us a recycle bin, so there is finally no excuse not to use it. But right now, all it is doing is gathering junk, so I hope by cleaning up/organizing/de-cluttering the garage the recycle bin will be up to its full use. All I have to do is fill it up and put in on the curb. Simple. I can do this, right?

3. Gather items to sell either at the upcoming neighborhood garage sale, consignment shops, used book stores, etc. I know we have a ton in our closets that I don't even know is there because we haven't looked at it or used it since we moved into this house. What can be used, re-purposed or sold? The rest is going to goodwill or in the trash. Hopefully, little in the trash, think green!

4. Set up binders with all our manuals to everything we own. I keep them all for reference, so it would be great to have them in one place and sorted by category. School just started so there should be some sales on binders and dividers, hopefully.

Today, I worked on the garage gathering all the paint cans and labeling the ones that are still in use. Also I cleaned out the recycling bin so it is ready to be put to use. The hall closet has also been completed and half of its space was made available. It now includes a whole shelf for garage sale items. I do planned to store my binders in there as well, but they are not made yet, but there was a space created for them.

How do you make your homes run efficiently? How often to you feel you need to reorganize or de-clutter? How do you do it? Any tips as I go through my week?

Leigh Ann

I Heart Walgreens

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:18:00 +0000

I've actually never shopped at Walgreens..besides just running in for a prescription or something. But I heard from a couple of different blogs about the $2 off Huggies Wipes coupons they have in their store right now. And these can be combined with any manufacturer's coupons. So I went through my stash..and I had 7..some $1, 75cents and 50cents. So I got excited. I ran to Walgreens on Friday and guess what..they were sold out!! I was so disappointed. We went out of town this weekend to visit my parents and the first stop I made on Saturday morning with my mom was Walgreens. Fortunately, people hadn't heard about this sweet deal in their town. So here's what I got:

7 boxes of wipes for $2.79 each.

$2 Walgreens coupon (1 coupon can be used for ALL the wipes you have in your basket.)

(1) $1 off

(2) 75cents off

(4) 50cents off

Grand Total: $1.11

$1.11 for 7 boxes of wipes! I was so thrilled..and wanted to go to another walgreens and get more! Except I didn't have anymore coupons. But, now I do thanks to the people at church who leave baby coupons in the pre-school for us. So I will be making another trip this week before the Walgreens coupon expires on the 29th. Did any of you take advantage of this SWEET deal?

Mama Always Said...

noreply@blogger.com (creativelyhomemaking) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:24:00 +0000

So the last few posts have been about saving money so I thought I'd change it up a bit today and give your brain a rest. I know soaking up info about saving money and using coupons can be overwhelming. So I wanted to switch gears to housework. I know that most people probably hate this topic even more..or at least its equal to the money topic. (Unless you're like LA and I who get a high from saving money and organizing our homes. I am actually getting so addicted to finding good deals that I want to go to the g-store like everyday now! But that's not today's topic)

So..housework. Some love it, some hate it. For those of you that hate it and just want to hurry up and get it over with, I wanted to share a major tip with you that has really helped me. I say that I like doing things around my house...but let me be more specific. I like organizing, decorating, re-organizing :) , and I like when everything is in its place and my house feels clean. I enjoy those things. However, I don't necessarily enjoy sweeping, mopping, scrubbing toilets, washing dishes, etc. But I do them to because its just part of being a SAHM and helper to my husband. And its just gross if you don't. So, to help me get those necessary, but not so fun chores out of the way..I have a system. Here it is:

1. It must be naptime.

2. Turn on the iHome. (if you have an ipod, you must have an ihome so you can rock out at home..or you could just turn on your itunes on your computer.)

3. Make a list of the cleaning I need to get done

4. THE MOST CRUCIAL STEP FOR ME - SET A TIME LIMIT FOR EACH TASK. This is where the title of this post comes in. My mom always did this and passed this on to me. And it seriously helps tremendously. I write down a time limit next to each chore and I must complete it in this time period. If I think it will take 15 minutes to clean the kitchen, 10 for the living room, etc, I write that next to each thing. If I want everything done in 1 hour, then the total of all the tasks will equal an hour. And then I stick to it. Its really cool how fast I can get things done when I know there's a clock. I even set my kitchen timer. This really prevents me from getting distracted and wandering over to the computer, or worse, moving to another room before finishing one. This is a bad habit I have bc I'll bring something to another room to put away, and get distracted with things that need to be done in that room. But if I know I only have 5 minutes left for the original room I was working on, it encourages me to put away the item and get back to what I was doing. I can seriously get my entire house very clean in a short amount of time. (My house isnt very big, but you get my point!) If I get finished before my time is up, I just move on to the next room sooner and get finished with everything sooner.

I know everyone has a different system for getting their cleaning done. Some don't even give it this much thought haha. But I'm a system person. I need structure and organization. And music. I love music.

Do any of you do something specific that encourages you to get the monotonous, routine housework done? Please share!