already the end of the month?

Hi everyone!  What a whirlwind of a week it's been.  First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving last week.  My boys were out of school for the entire week and we had a great time!  They had friends over to play and spend the night, they were able to go see friends, and we had some great quality time.  My youngest son asked for tickets to a Falcons game for Christmas...it was really the only thing he wanted!  So, we gave him an early gift and all went to the game on Sunday.  It was a great day -- our boys first NFL game to go to -- and was a treat for all of us!

Our XBox 360 power cord was messed up and didn't arrive until Friday afternoon so it was a great few days without video games.   We had lots of family time and played football in the front yard (kids beat the parents!) and worked puzzles.

All in all, it was a perfect week. 

It's already Wednesday and already the last day of the month!  Yikes!

Here are my goals for the rest of the month!

Vacuum the house
It hasn't been vacuumed in a week and the carpets are a mess!

Call about the heater

We woke up this morning to the house being 58* when the heater was set for 68*.  I need someone to come look at it!

Call about the A/C
Last week when we had muggy temps in the upper 70s we turned on the A/C but no cold air was blowing, so I'll have them check on this when they come check on the heater!

Go to Bible Study
Yea!  We had some conflicts with a neighbor last week that are still lingering.  I'm looking forward to a 3-hour Bible Study to help get some peace with the situation at hand.

Wrap 3 Christmas gifts
I order almost all of my gifts on-line and have been trying to get them wrapped as soon as they are delivered.  My kids are smart enough to look at the return labels and see where the packages are coming from and figure out what they're getting.  So, I need to wrap up what go delivered yesterday!

Return cologne and water bottle
I ordered some cologne for Mr. Steady and received the wrong order.  So I need to return it.  Also, I ordered a water bottle for my son and it has a hole in it, so that needs to get returned too.   Thankfully, both companies were very responsive and easy to work with on getting everything returned and exchanged!

November Budget
If there is time, I need to wrap up our finances for November and plan the December budget.


So - that's my day.  Wednesdays are busy days.  Bible Study is from 9-12 so I'm only left with a couple of hours before the boys get home from school.  Then basketball practices tonight from 7:15-9:30!

How does your day look?

thanksgiving eve...

Things to do today!!!!

Make chocolate pie
Set table
Sweep & Mop
Vacuum
Take son to try out guitars
Get craft supplies for fun T-weekend projects
Get new power cord for XBox 360 -- oh, the horror if it weren't working all this weekend!
Make sure I have all ingredients I need for tomorrow!

What does your day look like today?  Any stress going on?  I hope not!

food waste friday - about $3 wasted

It's been a looooooooong time since I've participated in The Frugal Girl's Food Waste Friday.  But since our grocery bill has been crazy expensive the last couple of months, I'm working to eat what we have and to serve leftovers for lunch and the occasional dinner!  We didn't do too bad this week!  A half loaf of bread went stale before we finished it and I'd marinated a tomato that we never ate.  And now it looks gross, doesn't it?  Anyway - here is our waste for the week!

How are you doing with your food wastes?   Are you throwing too much in the trash each week?  If you are, I encourage you to take note of it for a few weeks and you'll be surprised at what a difference it makes when you're more aware of what you're throwing away!

getting ready for christmas cards

Today's the day!!!

Haircuts?  Check.
Clean outfits picked out?  Check.
Location picked?  Check.
Bribes ready?  Check. check.

Guess what we're doing this afternoon?!?  Taking pictures for our Christmas cards.  Each year we take pictures of the boys at a mill in our town that we use for Christmas cards.  And today's the day to get that done!

I use Shutterfly for an awful lot of photography projects and I'll be using them to make our Christmas cards this year.  Each year they come out with so many new designs that aren't too expensive, and they're always having a sale which makes the cards even more affordable.

Mr. Steady is out of town this week so before he left, we took a look at cards we liked.  Here are 3 of our favorites that I'm deciding between!

I wonder if the parents of these kids had to bribe them also?!?  All I know is that the promise of a Peppermint Milkshake from Chick-Fil-A works wonders for my boys when posing for me!

Besides the cards, I'll also be using Shutterfly to make calendars for the grandparents.  My Father-in-Law absolutely loves this gift and tells me every year that it is really the only thing he wants.  In fact, before I knew how much he loved his calendar one year I didn't make him one.  He let me know how sad he was that he didn't get it, so I made him one very quickly and got it to him before January! 

I'm also thinking about making a photo book for my Mother-in-Law.  She went to Disney World with us this summer and while I e-mailed pictures to her, it's not really the same as having them in your hands to look at.  So if I have time, I'd love to make a photo book for her with the pictures from our vacation.

And then the one other gift I'd like to have made is something for my parents.  My sister and nephew were here last month and I have a great picture of my boys and nephew at Stone Mountain.   I think I'll either have some sort of gift made or have an enlargement made of the picture and just put it in a frame.  There are some pretty cute ideas on the Shutterfly website.

So - these are a few things on my to-do list for the week and once complete I'll be able to mark them off my Christmas To-Do list as well!  

the week ahead

Last week was an extremely productive week for me and I'm so glad that I made the decision to take the week "off".   Having that extra hour of sleep last week, gave me that little ump needed to tackle some projects that I'd started but not yet finished.  So....I took the week off from blogging, meeting my friends to exercise (although I did exercise on my own), and I took the week off from my Bible Study group.  The only organized thing that I allowed myself to do last week was attend an informational meeting about a Master Gardener group that I want to be a part of.     I found out that you can't just join, but have to apply and be interviewed.  There are 10 spots available with about 40 people wanting to be a part of it.  They even asked for 3 references!   So...today I'm turning my application in to the Extension Office and will wait to be interviewed.  They hope to let the applicants know by mid-December who gets in.   Anyway - if accepted, I'll share more details with you then!

So...what did I get done last week?

I had a ton of stuff that needed to get returned to different stores.
I bought and mailed my mom's birthday gift.
Returned library books.
Finished taking out the summer clothes from everyone's closets and drawers.
Packed up clothes that the boys have outgrown.
General cleaning of the house.
Made birthday cakes and prepped for my oldest son's birthday gathering.
Cooked dinner every night -- except the night of my son's birthday.
 -- Had I been blogging, I would've shared a picture of him on his day!
And several other things that needed to get done around the house.

OH!  One huge project that I worked on was clearing the dead tree limbs and vines that border our woods.  It's a project that is going to take me probably 100 hours, but I spent 8 hours on it and it's already looking much, much better.  And part of that project was clearing out the litter and the toys that my neighbors continue to throw into our woods.  I've let the Mom know that they throw their toys in there but she never does anything about it to make them stop or make them clean it up.  So -- I cleaned up beer cans, coke cans, water bottles, a bike helmet, 4 bats, 2 basketballs, a pair of in-line skates, a football helmet, many many baseballs/golf balls/tennis balls.  It was a wheelbarrow full of stuff.  The stuff that was ruined I threw away and boxed up the rest and took it over to their house....where it still sits in their driveway.  Hopefully it doesn't end back up in our woods, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.   Sorry to vent!!!

So this week I'm hoping to be as productive as I was this week.  Here's what I want to accomplish:

List on e-bay some clothes that the boys no longer can wear but are still in great shape.
Thrououghly clean the bathrooms.
Mend a football jersey.
Hem a pair of sweat pants.
Mend a zipper on a golf bag.
Put away my sewing machine!!!!
Finish a collage I've been working on of recipes/pictures of Mr. Steady's great-grandmother.
Take and order Christmas card pictures.
Exercise 3-4 days.
Work on one particular tree in our woods by removing the vines growing on it.
Turn in Master Gardener application.
Return some clothes that I bought for the boys that don't fit.
Buy a birthday gift.
Edit/email youth Super Bowl pictures for son's team.

If I get nothing else done on the list except the sewing (which I don't enjoy so much...) and the Christmas cards (in order to take advantage of a sale...), then I'll be thrilled!

Hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to a productive week also!

financial priorities - part 2

Monday I talked about a book by Kathy Peel where she challenges you to determine your financial priorities.  While I was able to answer some of her questions quickly, others took a little more thought on my part.  Below are 7 of 11 questions taken from Peel's book The Family Manager Takes Charge...along with my answers.
Action Steps to Determine Financial Priorities

1.  List five things that you value most about your life today.
Living where I do... My boys can play outside without me worrying.  They can walk 4+ miles (round trip) to the "corner store" and be perfectly safe.  And our public school doesn't know that there is a "separation between church and state". 
My family.
Being healthy.
The fact that my husband is employed.
Having good friends and family who I can count on.

2.  List five things you want that money can buy.
Pot rack for my kitchen - $200
Screen door for my pantry - $250ish
Canon EF 100-400mm zoom lens - $1600
Rosetta Stone Italian - $179
Netbook computer - $500?

3.  List five things you want that money can't buy.
For my children to outlive me.
To be a good wife, mom, sister, friend, and daughter.
To slow down every now and then and just sit...or walk.  To be outside and enjoy nature.
To be healthy when I'm "old" and be able to be active with my grandchildren.
For my husband and I to enjoy our Golden Years together.

4.  How much is enough?  I feel okay about money when we have 3-6 months living expenses in the bank.  I'll be content when we have 15% of our gross income going towards retirement.

5.  Where would you like to be financially in 12 months?  In 5 years?  In 20 years?
12 months - I'd like to be saving 15% towards retirement.
5 years - To have saved at least 1 year college tuition for our boys.
20 years - I plan to have my boys through college (paid for in cash), to have our house paid off, have our retirement account funded, and to be deciding where in Italy we want to live 3-6 months out of the year once we retire (if we haven't retired already).

6.  Complete this sentence:  If I had more money, I would spend it on making & preserving memories.  Sometimes looking at what we want to spend money on and where we actually spend money can help us do some shifting without increasing the amount of money we spend.

7.  Fill in the blank:  If we suddenly found ourselves in a financial crisis, I could do without eating out and DirecTV.

So what now?  I plan on printing this out for myself and posting it in a couple of places around the house.  When I am struggling with a financial decision, I can look at my list of priorities and see if what I want to do is in line with what is important to me.  Also, for some of these things that I want & can buy, maybe - just maybe - I can find ways to save some of my "blow money" to put towards items on my Wish List.  

Feel free to link up, copy the questions and answer them on your own blog.  

letters from the president

For my Grandmother's 92nd birthday I requested and received a Happy Birthday note from President Obama.  I didn't know that you could request a congratulatory note from the President for special occasions until 2001 when I was pregnant with my youngest son.  I requested a note after his birth and received one from President and Mrs. Bush.  My second request for a special note was this spring when I requested the letter above for my grandmother.  I sent my request in February for her April 12th birthday.  The note didn't arrive on time, BUT it did arrive during her birthday month.  I was very excited!!!  Two requests...two notes!  Not a bad record.

So, how do you get a VIP note for special occasions?

Here's the info...

The White House will send greetings to U.S. citizens only for special occasions, as outlined below.

• Advance notice required.  Your request must be received four weeks in advance of the event date.  Every effort is made to honor every request, but there is no guarantee of a greeting if this guideline is not met.  (Greetings generally are not send after the event date, except for wedding congratulations and newborn acknowledgments.)
• Anniversary greetings are extended only to those couples who are celebrating their 50th (and subsequent) wedding anniversary.
• Birthday greeting cards will be sent only to individuals 80 years of age or older.  A special card is sent for those who reach 100 years of age.
• Other greetings: A limited number of special occasions other than birthdays and anniversaries exist for which the Greetings Office will send appropriate recognition to U.S. citizens.  These include:

1. Wedding (send your request after the event; include couple's married names)
2. Baby's birth.  Send request only after baby's birth, include baby's date of birth, and full names and address of baby and parents
3. Eagle Scout Award
4. Girl Scout Gold Award
5. Bar/Bat Mitzvah or equivalent occasion

The following information much be included in your request:

1. Name and home address of honoree(s)
2. Form of address (Mr., Ms., Mrs., Dr., etc.)
3. Exact date of occasion (month/day/year)
4. Age (birthdays) or number of years of marriage
5. Your (requestor's) name and daytime phone number
6. Any specific mailing instructions if other than to honoree's address

Send your request to:

The White House Greetings Office

Room 39, Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Washington, DC 20502

When should you expect your greeting?  "In most cases, greetings will be mailed from the White House approximately 10 days prior to the event.  If you have made a special delivery request, every effort is made to honor that request."  (Note...It took 4 1/2 months to receive my note after my son was born, and then I received my grandmother's note the month of her birthday)

So - next time you need to send a unique gift to someone consider requesting a letter from the President.  I think it makes a great memento (regardless of your political affiliations)!  The notes are free and if you wanted, you could frame for the honoree to hang on his/her wall! 

financial priorities - part 1

Hello my friends!  I am taking a much needed break this week from blogging and other organized activities in order to wrap up several pending projects.  So, this week I'll be repeating some of my favorite posts.  Enjoy and I'll be back next week!


Financial Priorities - Part 1 of 2

Last week I went to the library and checked out The Family Manager Takes Charge by Kathy Peel.   I've read Kathy Peel books before and enjoy what she writes.  One section of the chapter titled "You're the Accountant" really stuck out to me.  Mainly because I feel like the " head accountant" in our family!  My husband and I work together on making and reaching our goals, but managing the day-to-day budget is in my hands.

Peel basically says that we need to determine our financial priorities.   "Unless we've made some decisions about our priorities, it's easy to lose perspective about what's really important to us and end up making impulsive decisions."  In this chapter, she lists Eleven Action Steps.  Some are questions that I've considered and answered before, and others are things that I haven't spent as much time thinking about.  Here are some of Peel's questions. 

Action Steps to Determine Financial Priorities

1.  List five things that you value most about your life today.

2.  List five things you want that money can buy.

3.  List five things you want that money can't buy.

4.  How much is enough?  I feel okay about money when we have______________ amount in the bank.  I'll be content when we have ___________________.

5.  Where would you like to be financially in 12 months?  In 5 years?  In 20 years?

6.  Complete this sentence:  If I had more money, I would spend it on ______________.  Sometimes looking at what we want to spend money on and where we actually spend money can help us do some shifting without increasing the amount of money we spend.

7.  Fill in the blank:  If we suddenly found ourselves in a financial crisis, I could do without ______________.

Feel free to link up, copy the questions and answer them on your own blog.   I'm going to put some more thought into my answers and will make a "part 2" post in a few days.

thanks!

A special THANK YOU to my top referring sites for the week.  This week I had three because two were tied for second!  :)  Thanks for sending readers my way!

The Canadian Saver

Sharon @ My Year of Spending Less & Living More 

No More Spending

 

And a special welcome to my newest Follower:  

Niki

I hope you'll stop by often!!

Have a great day everyone!  For those of you who had the time change last night, I hope you either enjoyed an extra hour of sleep or an extra hour of doing something fun!

soup's on!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE making soup this time of year!  I love it for several reasons.  One...I can make it ahead of time and keep it warm in the crock pot until it's time for supper.  It's great for the night's the boys have practices!  Two...it's a great way to sneak in vegetables that the boys will eat.  Three...if it's a cream based soup, I can generally make a low-fat version.  And Four...normally, it's inexpensive!

Last week I tried a new soup and we all loved it!  It called for beef sirloin, but since my youngest is allergic to beef I substituted the beef for cubed venison.  It was perfect and delicious!

Here's the recipe...I wish that I had pictures to go along with it!


Cowboy Steak and Veggie Soup

3/4 lb. boneless beef sirloin (I used 1 pound of cubed venison instead)
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbsp. oil
2 cans beef broth
16oz jar salsa
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, pealed and diced
1/2 cup red or green bell pepper, chopped
15 oz can Great Northern beans, crained and rinsed

Cut steak into bite sized pieces.  In a medium bowl, combine meat, basil, salt, pepper, garlic, and oil.  Toss to coat.  Cook this mixture in a Dutch oven or large sauce pan over medium high heat for about 4-5 minutes until it's browned.  Remove it from the heat and set it aside.

Then, add the broth, salsa, onion, potatoes, and bell pepper to the Dutch oven and bring it to a boil.  Cover and simmer it for about 15 minutes.

Return the meat mixture to the soup, stir in the beans, and cook it for 5 minutes or until it's heated through.

Serve with a loaf of buttered French bread.  Yum, yum!!  Dip the bread in the leftover soupy sauce and it's amazing!!!

And that's it!!!   So, what about you?  Do you have a favorite soup recipe?  If you do, feel free to link up to it in my comments section today.

bloggy secret santa

Have you seen Serendipity's post about the Bloggy Secret Santa?  I signed up and hope you will too.  I think it's a fun idea and the spending limit is $15, so it won't break the bank and it'll be fun to send a little something to a fellow blogger!  What do you think?  You can sign up here and see the rules.

You can sign up through November 5th with Serendipity and then just make a little post about what you like.

Here are some of my favorite things!

• love to read.
• love to listen to music on my iPod.
• chocolate and red wine are two things I cannot live without.
• love being outside...exercising, hiking, working in the yard.
• throw blankets are something I can never have too many of.
• and surprises are the best thing of all!