Sorted and stored

I get a ton of hand me down clothes for the youngest girl. (Totally awesome, by the way.)  The bad part is that we get them at random times, not necessarily coordinating with what size baby girl needs. Also, we have decent closets...but not enough to hold all these things. They had been piling up in our classroom/spare room. Then got shuffled to the dining room and finally to my room in random stages of sorting size and season. Today, I finally made it through them all and got them into bins in the attic! I am so happy I can see my bedroom floor again...and I should be able to find the clothes when we need them. What a relief! Not pictured are the 5 bags of things that were too small or not our taste. We pass them to another girl when we are done. So blessed!

Time flies

I recently had a friend ask me to check out a geocache he had placed. My family and I have been funloving geocachers for a number of years. Since 2006, I believe.  Of course I said SURE! We headed out after a pool party and found it without too much trouble.

I went online to log the find, and realized we had not found a cache since 2011!!! I knew we had felt pushed for free time, but wow!

The good news? There are tons of fun new caches hidden in our area. We are going to have to hit the trails soon!

Graduation favor

A cousin of mine graduated high school today. I made this cute little favor for his party.

Ouch!

Today has been a sick day for me. I was hit with a migraine in the wee hours of the morning, and had to close the childcare. I will say it has been quiet here, since my two slept late.  My granny has been here to take care of us.  While I was resting, and looking fabulous in my black sleeping mask, she has done laundry and dishes and swept the floor.  The pain finally broke around 1pm, so I am trying to get back to normal.  I hate being sick!

Daycare Bathroom

I'm still failing at the evening meal planning. (Just in case you care!)  But, I did make time for a craft project today.

I wanted to make some changes to the daycare bathroom, and I thought I might paint the room dark blue.  I changed my mind about painting when I found this cute owl shower curtain on clearance at Target that coordinated with my already yellow walls!

 

Once I got the curtain up, I felt like the room was still pretty empty.  But I did not want to spend a bunch of money for matchy-matchy accessories.  One friend suggested I paint an owl on the wall. I decided that a canvas would be easier to move and repurpose if (and when) I change my mind again.  Cinderella told me which colors she wanted me to use.  The canvas is 16 x 20, and fills the space nicely.  Now I just need to find just the right something for the opposite side of the room.  There is a plain towel bar on the wall now.  I want something practical...but cute. I may have to search pinterest for some ideas.  This craft was done using paints I already had, so my only real cost was the canvas.

Planning Slump

So...I have failed miserably at the last month of meal planning.  I made it almost to the last week of February.  We went out of town for a couple of days, and I totally have not been doing any real planning since then.  I consider a few other things that have taken up my time.  One was finishing out a season of Upward basketball and cheerleading as director.  My kids have hit a slump in school, where they are not completing work without numerous reminders and devoted guidance (and I am having to put so much energy into this! - who knew?).  A few spring-like days have pulled me into doing some outdoor maintenence tasks.  My husband has started his own plumbing company, and this has required me to take time to figure some things out financially and otherwise. I have started a personal journey to train for a 5k race later this spring, and must have time to train.  My daycare has been running at maximum capacity most days, which is nice, except it adds more to the workload.  I need about 14 more hours in a day!!!!!!!! 

Resolution and Challenge....Pass or Fail?

I challenged myself to finish out the month without major grocery shopping, and what I did need to be less than $60.  I guess I technically failed. :)  I spent $111 dollars to finish out the month.  But, here is my disclaimer:  I spent less than the $60 on milk and produce.  A couple of things came into play that I did not take into consideration.  My guys had a cake baking contest to enter, that I did not have all the ingredients on hand.  They spent about $10.  Also, Harris Teeter and IGA had a few specials come up for items that are major staples in our home.  I figured it was worth it to fail my challenge to stock up on staple items at lower than my target price. (Pasta sauce, eggs, frozen pizza, and cereal). 

So...overall I think I did pretty good overall. For a family of 4, plus the childcare food, I spent approximately $450 on grocery store food & I still have a pretty full pantry. We will see how it compares to the future spending.

I am not going to give myself a challenge for February spending, but I am going to use some time to evaluate and itemize what kind of food we are spending on, to see where it all goes! 

The Resolution has been easier to maintain...but a new page on the calendar means I need to get busy planning again!