Project 365 {February Favourites}

Project 365 is going strong!  I completely forgot to post my favourite photos last month.  I missed 4 days in February but I didn't even notice until now and I am kinda bummed that I didn't take a photo on February 29th.  I guess I was too busy doing leapy (yes, that's word...) kind of things.  Annnnnd, I realized that I haven't used a real camera in a month!  As great as my camera phone is you can't print and frame those photos.  So now I have added another dimension to my project: take a photo everyday and use a real camera more often then never.

I think that is an attainable goal. ;)

If you put a wooden spoon over your pot of boiling water, it wont boil over!

Great Papa and Red

Red found a hole in the floor! I PROMISE he was not as hurt as his face would suggest! He was sticking his arm in there all morning! I barely snapped the photo before he pulled his arm out and then stuck it in again! LOL

Ginger's buildings are becoming more detailed.

Our one and only snowman of the year. It wasn't even that cold out, I put snowsuits on them because it would be wet out.

Baking "spicy cookies" (A.K.A. Ginger Snaps)

We are getting pretty good at the back wrap

Our 1st Bulldog's Hockey game, as a family.  We scored seats for $10 each!

At the Hamilton Children's Museum. We borrow a family pass, from the library, and we get in for free!

Do you use a "real" camera or your cell phone camera, more often?

How Jesus Loves Me {Sunday School Unit}

This was a three week unit.  It can be difficult for a four year old to understand how to have a connection to a person they have never met.  This unit was a short intro to who Jesus is and how he loves us.  I am not very good a keeping track of where I find all our resources.  The only thing I made myself (for this unit) is the take home sheets.  I used a lot of ideas from Kids Sunday School for this lesson, too.

The three topics are:

• I am special to Jesus
• Jesus is my healer
• Jesus is our shepherd

Lessons:

I am special

Jesus is my healer

Jesus is our shepherd

Crafts, Activities and Stories:

A chair for a crown - game

I am special - craft

Jesus is our healer - story

Who is the lost sheep - game

Bible verse:

I found these printables from a website/blog called 1+1+1=1.  She has so many homeschooling and Sunday school resources!

Poster

Memory verse activity

Take home sheets:

I am special to Jesus

Jesus is my healer

Jesus is our Shepherd

March Meals {Week of March 19/12}

Cooking.
Meal planning.
Budgeting.
Bleh!

Well, I think I have found my groove!

We using our bread maker almost every week, there is always the right ingredients in the cupboard and the kitchen is organized!

I am always trying to find ways to save money on food. First I thought I would do some research and see if anyone suggests how much I should be spending in the first place.  I have figured out two numbers.

1. Your weekly budget should be $3-$5 per person, per day.
2. You should expect to spend 11%-14% of your take home, families income.

What does that look like? (Yearly income) × .11 ÷ 52 = weekly food budget.

Right now we are spending about 11.5% and I think it would be awesome if I could manage 10%.
Now I just need to figure out how to do that!

I have slowly but surely figured out a few things.

1. No Frills will price match. This was the first week I tried this. I felt a little disorganized - I grabbed the wrong name brand of frozen corn, forgot to get grapes... but I know it will go better next time.
2. Make food from scratch.  This one is tough.  I remember working a 9 hour shift in Oakville and the 3 hour commute - there is no way I would have been able to make everything from scratch.  Now, I have a lot more opportunities.  I only work about 15 hours outside of the house and about 4 hours at home. Red is sleeping through the night.  I have a bread maker (even though it is technically my husbands!)
3. Buy in bulk.  I had to hyper-organize the kitchen to make this work.  I needed to have the room to store all that extra food. 
4. Buy when things are on sale (even if it isn't needed yet).  I don't seem to get a big benefit from this one. I am trying to eat clean so I don't food that is full of preservatives; that has a long shelf life.  Right now, this only seems to apply to my husbands shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and toilet paper.
5. Cooking meals once a month and freezing them.  I have just discovered this amazing site that gives you detailed instructions on how to do this.  I just got all the ingredients for the March menu today.  Including our extra snacks, meats and dairy purchases I spent $175. I am hoping this will last us 2 weeks - with a little left over for milk and such in the second week.  Instead of using this menu as the site suggests (spreading out all the meals for the months), I am going to cram it all in for two weeks.
6. Participate in a Freezer exchange group. If you are on Facebook, there is fan page that explains the whole idea.

So, what's on the menu?

Breakfast:

• Apple Spice Oatmeal
• Peanut Butter and Banana Oatmeal
• Pumpkin and Nut Oatmeal
• Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins *
• Pumpkin Biscuits *
• Fruit Smoothies

Lunch:

• Mini Vegetarian Meatloaves *
• Broccoli Cheddar Biscuit Muffins *

Snacks:

• Mini Zucchini Muffins
• Pizza Dippers
• Rice Cakes
• Roasted Chickpeas
• Popcorn

Dinners:

• Salmon Frittata and Salad (2 meals)
• Veggie Pizza and Salad
• Zucchini/Meat Burgers, Spaghetti Squash and Broccoli *
• Asparagus and Mushroom Quesadillas *
• Broccoli Cheese Stromboli *
• Spinach Meatballs and Pasta *
• Chickpea patties and Veggies *
• Greek-Style Quinoa Burgers with Pitas and Veggies *

* www.onceamonthmom.com

Here's hoping this works!

Project Simplify {week 2: the pantry & fridge - the finished product}

I did it! A complete overhaul of every cupboard in our kitchen! Phew! It took three hours and I am SO glad that no one was in the house all day.  I was able to focus and make all the noise I needed to (without worrying if Red was about to wake up!).  Have you heard of Project Simplify?  We are on week 2.

Lets start with some before and after photos...

The counters don't always look that bad (more often then I would like them to, though) but the cupboards are always that bad!

First I washed all the dishes, emptied all the cupboards and organized all the stuff into piles.  Boy, was I happy to find this!



Spice Cupboard
I had zero money to purchase a spice organizing system so I just kept moving things around until it made sense.  We made this jar of spice rub from Father's Day last year and now we can access it better.

We have a useless skinny cupboard beside the sink.  I put the spices that we use most often  on the bottom shelf, multi vitamins on the 2nd shelf and cake decorating/toothpicks on the top shelf.

I put a bright green label on the inside of the cupboard to indicate what spices were in there.  We have more spices than magnetic tins so now we won't be riffling through baggies of spices every night.

Any left overs that we rarely use or unopened packages were put into containers and shoved the very back of the highest cupboard.  I found we had a few duplicate bags of spices.

I am super excited about this discovery!  This is Playtex bottle that uses a plastic liner - so there is no bottom.  I was looking for containers to fill the Bulk Barn bags of spices with and saw these.  There were no nipples for these so I think this is the best way to re purpose them.  This way, I can take the baggie to the Bulk Barn, fill it and then just drop it into the bottle.

Pantry

The bottom shelf of the pantry was particularly offensive.  So many random bags of flour and baking things I had no idea what was in there!

I was searching the web trying to come up with ways to re purpose something to store everything in.  The problem is that we are trying to choose our groceries that has the least amount of packaging.  That means the only usable containers we have are medium sized yogurt containers.  We go through a glass jar of apple sauce a week and they are the perfect container. I created round labels for all the containers, and took out rarely used baking supplies and put them in the newly cleaned out cupboard above the stove.  If you would like the labels, I have added them to my Google Docs for you to download.  They are formatted to be used with Avery round labels.  I also left some of the labels blank for you to customize.

• Page one
• Page two

I taped the cooking instructions on the back of the jars so I would always know the ratios for the beans and such.

Finally, I cleaned up the command center.  Here is our menu board, recipes, coupon folder, paper organizer and pens/scissors.
Well, last week, I didn't do any of the project.  This week I didn't finish the blog post in time to join the link up.  I think come next week I will be on top of things! LOL  If you are looking for more kitchen organization ideas head over to Tsh's blog. Next week challenge is a big one - closets!