Mari Cate's Birthday

We gave Mari Cate her presents before school on Wednesday, even though her party will be on Saturday. She is having a pottery party at River City Pottery. Each girl will get to paint a piece of pottery of their choice. It is really a cool place. I will have to share about our visit there back in the summer--I totally forgot about it. So anyway, she got a bunch of High School Musical "stuff" and a Nintendo DS. That is actually a box of flavor packets for bottled water with the High School Musical characters on them in that first picture! Pretty cool to take to school to add to her water! I made cupcakes for her class and I checked her out of school at lunchtime. Not a bad birthday I don't think!!

Happy 9th Bithday Mari Cate!

Just a little video highlighting Mari Cate's past year. Hope you enjoy it!!

Hope you have a great birthday baby girl!! We love you bunches!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Meal Planning

I started meal planning last year when I was pregnant, then as the pregnancy progressed, my meal planning ceased. Actually, much of my cooking ceased as well. Well, in light of the rising gas prices and food prices I am trying to go back to my meal planning and make things a little "simpler". One of the most important things I can share about meal planning though is to make it make it simple. Not necessarily the food, but the planning. You will just get yourself too bogged down if you try to complicate it too much! So one of the simple tools I found to help in the planning is this little weekly calendar I found at Michael's, for only $1.00 and they even have a magnet on the back so you can post it on the fridge if you want! I am not sure how many pages are on a pad, but probably at least 25.

On Monday or Tuesday we always eat with Frank's family, Friday nights are Praise Team Practice at Church, so we usually go out after that and the weekend I kind of leave open for leftovers or whatever we can make from the pantry. I think I will try to start sharing my meal plans for each week to help keep myself accountable for doing it also.


So here it goes for this week:
Monday--Pork Chops, Mac-n-Cheese, Corn on the Cob (thanks to James' garden!)
Tuesday--Eat at Frank's Mothers
Wednesday--Biscuits with Hamburger Gravy, with a vegetable
Thursday--BBQ Chicken with Rice
Friday--Praise Team Practice

Do you meal plan? Please share your ideas with me!!

Our Weekend

Every fall our family enjoys making a trip to our local apple orchard to get some apples and some of their homemade goodies. Last year because of a late freeze, they were actually having to bring in apples from other orchards across the country. Very sad for a family run business, but this year the apples were all over the trees and it was a pretty sight (wish I had gotten a picture of that!) But anyway, I got a few others of us.

I know I am going to use some of the apples to make applesauce for Hayden, but be sure to watch for some new apple recipes!

Do You Remember Where You Were?

I was at a Women's Bible Study on the morning of 9/11/01. It started at 9:00 est, so we had really just gotten started and someone came in to tell our teacher what was happening. Immediately we went into prayer and then they were broadcasting it over the big screens in the sanctuary, so we went in to see what was going on. Mari Cate was just 2 years old, so she was in the nursery and Conner was at 1/2 day Kindergarten. I can remember all I was thinking was I want to get my babies with me and make sure that they are safe. However, I did go home and let Conner stay at school with much hesistancy. I remember it was a gorgeous day with a bright blue sky as I drove to pick him up at noon and felt so much better to have him with me. I also remember looking in the skies and wondering if I would see any military planes flying over, which we did sometimes during the next few days. It was an eerie feeling. Frank was still working for the police department then, so he was pretty much on standby 24 hours/day over the next few days. I couldn't wait for him to get home either though. Funny how you can remember vivid details about some events that happen in your life and nothing about others. Do you remember where you were or what you were doing?

Remember to say a prayer for those families that lost loved ones during the tragedy and remember to thank God for the men and women who risked their lives to help the others.

(Originally posted 9/11/08)

A Free Cookbook

Well, I know that I LOVE to get something for free! And I love cookbooks, too. I don't experiment nearly enough with them, but I love having them on hand, just in case. So here is an offer I found on All Things Frugal for a free cookbook (actually the offer is for TWO free cookbooks!!) Click here if you would like to receive a free cookbook too!

Family Pictures

Just a sampling of our pictures we had done on Saturday. Everyone cooperated beautifully!