Back to school... so, what's for dinner?

My kids ask me this question every single day. Most of the time I answer "I don't know". Then I start scrambling at around 6:00 pm to throw something edible together. During the summer, it's usually okay because the kids can stay up late. But on school nights, bedtime is 8:30... even for the teenagers. They don't necessarily go to sleep at that time, but they have their teeth brushed, faces washed, jammies on and laying IN bed reading a book or something.

I decided that I don't want to think about dinner anymore. I want to know what I'm making, have everything on hand, and have dinner on the table by 5:30 without stressing. I have made weekly menus before, but I wanted to go a lot further because no matter how much I try, I never stick to the weekly menus. I know a lot of people struggle with the same thing, so I thought I'd type up a post to share in the hopes that someone else could use it too!

Pinterest has been a great place to find a lot of really good recipes for me. I made a list of my favorites from there (plus some of my Pampered Chef recipes and some from my Taste of Home cookbooks) to get me through a month. I then divided them up into weeks - 4 per month. I'm going to use this 4 week schedule and start over at the end of 4 weeks. I figure if I make something and the kids don't care for it, I can swap it for something else or just make them eat it... It's only once a month, after all.

Here's how I did it:

I purchased a binder and some sheet protectors. I typed out each weeks menu and put those in sheet protectors.

Then I went through each recipe and made up grocery lists for each week. I typed those out and put in the sheet protectors. When I go grocery shopping, I just remove these from the binder (still in the sheet protectors) and use a dry erase pen to mark things off the list as I shop. It wipes right off when you're done and you put it back in the binder.

I also printed out all of the recipes I decided to use and put them in order in the binder.

And because my kids always think they are starving I seem to have trouble keeping food I purchase specifically for a recipe from disappearing. To aid in that, I bought 7 clear plastic tupperware bins and wrote a day of the week on each one. Now, when I am putting my groceries away each week, I put the dry ingredients I need in the bins instead of in the pantry with everything else. When it's time to make dinner, I pull out the bin for that day and most of my items I need to prepare the meal are already there. And the kids know that the food in these bins are not for snacking!

I also happen to have a separate refrigerator in may garage. So the refrigerated items I need for dinners go out there. I have found that if the food is not inside my kitchen, the kids won't eat it. Going outside and out to the garage is too much work :)

As an added bonus, this has saved me a lot of money. My grocery bill this week (including food for lunches as well) for our family of 6, was just under $165.00. I know this isn't super cheap... I don't clip coupons, but I could definitely save more. I do bargain shop, buy things on sale, compare price per ounce, and buy store brand. This is a great savings for us. In the past I have walked out from my weekly shopping trip spending around $300. And I still didn't know what to make for dinner! Now, I ONLY buy what's on my list and get it on sale when I can.

Giveaway Winner!

I'm sorry for the delay in choosing the winner for my birthday giveaway. I was on vacation in beautiful Maui! It was wonderful and relaxing, but I am sure happy to be back.

I used to scientific method of choosing a winner, which was to ask my daughter to choose a number between 1 and 9... She chose 2! The winner, then, would be my sister! Alexis, I have your address and I will get this in the mail to you on Friday! Although, I happen to know your favorite color is purple. So let me know if you'd rather have a different color :) I already have some mason jar cozies in purple and I can easily whip up a new zipper bag.

Birthday Giveaway!

I recently had a birthday. It just might have been the greatest birthday of all time, thanks to my sweet friends that I have never actually met. You see, I was invited to join a birthday club (#favoritethingsbdayclub in case you want to see our photos) with some ladies on Instagram. By the way, if you haven't joined Instagram yet, you absolutely should. Anyway... this birthday club was put together by my friend, Bonnie (You can find her fabulous blog HERE). There are 12 of us - one lady for each month. We each put together a wish list and everyone purchases something from the wish list to send the birthday girl on her special day. I was overwhelmed with the amount of packages and amazing things that I received!

 If you want to see what's in the packages, you'll have to follow me on Instagram - I'm @fourchicksfarm over there :)

All the generosity of my friends inspired me to have a birthday giveaway. I'll send this zipper bag and mason jar cozy to one lucky winner! I have a few other fun goodies to add to it, but those are a surprise. If you'd like a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post telling me about the greatest gift you've ever received. That's it! You can follow my blog or like my facebook page too if you like, but it's not a requirement to win. Th giveaway will be open until midnight (PST) on April 30th.

Getting Close

It is spring break here and I have been busy getting the studio ready. I have some before and after shots to share! We finally chose colors and I am really pleased with how it looks.

 Obviously, these are the before photos. It's a huge space with lots of white and pretty darn boring. It is one of four (yes, I said four) garages on my property and it stored cars, car parts, and riding lawnmowers for a very long time. Making it girly was no easy task. This is my sewing corner where I have my personal machines set up. Super ugly and not at all cheerful.

 This spot was a little better because there was some color here. It served as my cutting and ironing station. But not super functional simply because the space on the shelves was being utilized all wrong. Bicycle helmets and hot rod magazines DO NOT belong in a sewing studio :)

I knew I wanted a spot to sit and relax so I moved in a loveseat and a coffee maker. But still... not the best set-up. Behind that quilt hanging up is an awesome peg board that could be used for all kinds of things, but I hated the red so I covered it up.

Ready for the after?! So much better, I promise!

DRUMROLL PLEASE!

 Ta Da!!! I switched the cutting and ironing station with the loveseat and coffee area. It makes so much more sense. Now I am using the peg board to hang scissors, rulers, cutting mats. The shelves above the loveseat now hold craft magazines and books for folks to look at while they hang out and have a cup of coffee. 

I still have a bit of cleaning up and organizing to do, but I'm mostly finished. My favorite part of the room is, by far, my fabric shelves. I had my fabric spread out in different places around the room. Shoved in cabinets, crumpled up in baskets, folded in tupperware bins... Now it is all in one place and out where I can see what I have.

Now it is time for me to start sifting through all the ideas in my head and come up with a class schedule. That will be finalized and posted within the next week or so. Be watching for it!

Bible Cover

I have had The Message Remix Bible for a long time. I bought it because it puts the Bible in contemporary language that we can really understand. I don't know about you,but I have a hard time comprehending some of the things the Bible says, and because of that, I don't read it as much as I probably should. Well, this Bible sat and collected dust for several years because I decided I didn't really care for the language style after reading it a bit. It felt almost too contemporary - if that makes any sense at all... It was just SO different.

I started reading it again recently with fresh eyes and an open heart. I have decided that I love it. And since I love it, it needed a cover. Now, I don't have a pattern for this. I just made it up as I went along and figured out fabric dimensions by laying my Bible on top. Real technical.

 I added a pocket to the front so I have a place to carry my pens.

 The front and back slip into these pockets to keep it in.

And here it is, open and laying flat. Which is another reason I love this bible. It might seem silly, but I need it to STAY open when I open it without having to hold my page.

I have made these covers for several of my Bibles, and all of my kids' Bibles too. They are really handy and would work great for any book or journal as well.

And So It Begins

I am slowly moving things around to figure out an arrangement. The trouble I'm having is that this needs to be a functional classroom, but still has to be where I sew too. I won't have room inside my house for a sewing space until my kids start moving out, and I'm in no hurry for that. For now, I'm just trying to get a layout of the room in order. It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle...

 This insulation on the garage door needs to stay, but it's so ugly. I'm thinking of taking it down and wrapping it in some pretty fabric before I put it back up. Or even cover it in batting for a design wall of sorts.

 Once I have everything situated where I want it, then we will begin moving it all out. Then the cleaning and painting will begin. There are many things in this room that belong to my husband. So I'm waiting for him to make a space for his things somewhere for his things. I don't really think basketball trophies and car parts fit in with the theme I'm going for.

Baby it's Cold Outside!

I went on a youth group retreat with my two oldest girls this weekend and it was such a great time! We went to Leavenworth (no, not the Federal prison. It's a small Bavarian village in Central Washington.) where it was covered in a beautiful, thick blanket of snow. Everyone was thrilled because we haven't gotten ANY snow this year! We played outside, had snowball fights, sledding, and a very cold and wet game of capture the flag. Camp Camrec was the name of our facility, and it was a wonderful experience. Right before we were ready to board our bus and head home on Sunday, we heard that our town got over a foot of snow! At that point there was a grumble spreading through the crowd of kids. I think they were wanting to be done with the snow :)

This was my son's reaction to our epic snowfall. I think that he was pretty excited to finally have some of that powdery white stuff to jump around in.

My ladies in the hen house, however, are not nearly as overjoyed. I found an egg in their coop that was completely frozen solid. We decided to peel it and see what a frozen egg looked like.

That first photo is kind of blurry, but it was really weird. It almost looked like a hard boiled egg, but it was solid and slimy. Pretty gross!

My dog is also not enjoying herself. She didn't understand what the snow was. There was so much of it that it was even with the porch. So she stepped off the porch into the snow, and poof! She sunk right down into it and it scared her. Honestly, it was pretty hysterical. We got her in right away and warmed her up.

This is after the jump. You can see that big dip in the snow on the right.

I have some sewing to do to keep me busy while it's too cold and wet to do much outside. One thing I'd like to complete before spring comes is my Chicopee quilt. I have the top finished and all sandwiched together with the batting and backing fabric.

I made this using the Jelly Roll Race Method. It is so fast and fun! I added borders to my top since this particular jelly roll came with much less than the normal 42 strips of fabric.

I'm hoping the snow melts before too long, but we'll enjoy it while it's here and use it as an excuse to get some things done inside.