Thrifty and Thankful Thursday

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Veggie Sticks, Apple Slices, and chocolate milk.

Thursday is my grocery day, so my menus will tend to run Thur-Wed.

Here is my plan for the week, incorporating my new menu planning theme, with a change. "Soupy Saturday" will be "Something New" Saturday until colder weather gets here or unless I am in the mood for soup.

Thrifty and Thankful Thursday: see above
Fancy Friday: Homemade Pizza with Pancetta and Mozzerella cheese
Something New Saturday: Hearty Grains with ground beef and marinated bean salad
Sandwich Sunday: Bacon and Egg Waffle Sandwiches
Mexican Monday: Nachos with Cheese and Taco beef
Tomato-y Tuesday: Cheese ravioli with Tomato Basil Sauce
Wild Card Wednesday: leftovers!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

It was a beautiful weather day here in Georgia on this Saturday, February 20th. I got my blackberry rebate in the mail this morning, and then headed out to run errands... grab groceries, and look for some stuff to organize my new school supplies. I was looking for a craft sorter for our Math-U-See Blocks. The curriculum uses them for 7 years of the program so I wanted to find a permanent and convenient home for them. Unfortunately, Wal-mart had nothing I could/would use and I was sad to put it off. But then, while we were clearing space out in the basement for the freezer (more on that later) I found THIS!!!!
Now, I will know who my true contemporaries are if you had one of these....

It's a CABOODLE! I guess I got in about the 5th-6th-7th grade or something. It held makeup, hair supplies, etc. Since then, as you can see, my parents used it to store other things when I discarded it to THEIR basement many years ago. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be the PERFECT thing for.....



Our Math-U-See blocks!!!! YAY!!!! I am so happy they already have a home! We are switching to this math program this week!

Now, on to our next wonderful contribution to the world of reusing and recycling!

We finally have a freezer!!!!!!!

I just noticed that we took this photo before the last shelf was back in...the one in between the basket and the next shelf.

We got our tax return last week and a freezer was HIGH on my list of must haves! So I started perusing the Craigslist ads. We found one we were going to get that was listed for $75. It was about a 5 or 7 cubic storage chest style freezer, not frost free. That was actually a pretty decent deal, but it turned out to be older than we thought and the lady went several days without confirming pick up with us, so even though she had agreed to take $50 for it, we found this one in the mean time and MOVED ON!

It's a relatively newer model Kenmore FROST FREE and as you can see, it is WAY more than 7.0 cubic storage. We are thinking maybe even 20! Corey is 6'6", so that shows you how big the thing is! ONLY $75!!!!!!!
We just cleared out room to get it through the garage and to a resting spot. We'll plug it in tomorrow and let the filling begin!!!! YAY!!!!

Welcome August!

We finished week #3 of our school year today. 15 down, 165 to go.... I am unusually preoccupied with the counting this year since it is our first year of reporting attendance..sorry!

It has been an extremely busy summer! The kids have been working on a musical at Graceland on Wednesday nights, Noah's t-ball was every Monday and Tuesday, and I had book club every other Monday night. Combine that with Corey practicing until very late on Wednesdays and *something* going on about every other Thursday and THAT made for a fun-FILLED summer that breezed by entirely too quickly!

Noah's t-ball has ended, and there are only a couple more weeks of practicing left for the musical. We have really enjoyed both of those things, but it will be nice to have dinner at home more than once a week for a while! Soccer will just be one weeknight and then games every Saturday, so hopefully that will keep us at home more.

So many of my friends are posting (on facebook) how sad they are that summer is gone. Well, I don't know where they live, but it is just now about to be August, so summer is FAR from gone here! In fact, it will be summer all the way until September 22nd and I am betting it will still feel like summer for a while beyond that point as well.

With all that being said....I have to say... Welcome August! Welcome to meals at home together and soccer season.

Welcome to another month of school and days of learning, playing, and just being.
I want to say another welcome to a dear friend of ours as well. Welcome HOME Andy! He got home yesterday from a 5 month deployment in Afghanistan, so I know he is enjoying his homecoming and we can't wait to see him soon! Head over to Bethany's blog to post a message to him if you want... I know I am so thankful and proud of him for what he has sacrificed!