Stocking Up for Summer at the Dollar Store

    Summer is quickly approaching and the kids will be done school soon.  Princess finished school last week.  Depending on what you have planned to do with your kids this summer, it can become quite expensive.  That is when I turn to my trusty Dollar Tree.  Now you may not be able to get everything, but you can still get a decent amount of stuff.   They have everything from picnic supplies to pool noodles, and arts and crafts supplies.    A lot of what I got coincides with my Summer Bucket list here.  Here is what I was able to get on my trip on Sunday to the Dollar Tree.

                          Water Balls - these are great for in the pool or for water fights.

                                                Water Guns - another fun item for water fights.

                   Water Blasters - These are like water guns, but much easier for little ones.

Water Catchers

             Fishing Fun - I plan on putting the fish in our baby pool and letting the kids have fun with it.

Kites - I know there is only 1 in the picture, but the package came with 2 kites.

Bug Kits

Craft Sticks - The package says craft sticks they are actually just popsicle sticks.

Safety Scissors

\

Pooh's Number Match

Crayons

Scribble Pad

Glow Sticks - These came in fun shapes, but they have regular glow sticks there also.

 

That is what I got on my most recent trip to the Dollar store.  Where do you go to stock up for summer?  I would love to hear from you!

 

 

 

Christina

 

Liebster Award Nomination

  


   Woohoo! I am excited to announce that I have been nominated for a Liebster Award.  Thank you very much for this Nomination Mrs. AOK.  I graciously except the award and I am sending the blog love right back at you.

 

     OK so you are probably asking yourself "What is a Liebster award"?   Well I am going to tell you!
   
     The word Liebster in German means dearest or lovely.  The Liebster award is given to new up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers.  While the Liebster award is not a trophy or certificate you are being recognized. This award is a nice way for new bloggers to get to know other new bloggers.

If you are a nominee you are in no way obligated to accept this award.  If you do however choose to except there are a few things that you will need to do. 

 Here is what to do if you accept the award.
   1. Send blog love back to the blog that nominated you and link back to them.
   2. Nominate 5 - 11 new bloggers who have 200 or less followers.
   3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator.
   4. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
   5. Decide on 11 questions to ask your nominees to answer.
   6. Contact your nominees and let them know that you have nominated them for the award after you have posted yours.
   7. Have fun!  Alright I added that one myself!

   Now for the lucky bloggers I have chosen to Nominate for the Liebster Award!

                                          Tan'Chae's Creations
                                         
                                          Dressing Room Diaries

                                          Meredith @ A TIPical Day
                                        
                                         Cristy @  CHill Thoughts
                               
                                         Rachel @ Vintage Honeybee

                                         Nicole @ Diary of an Untidy Clean Freak

                                         Leanne @ Oh My Daze!



The 11 Questions I have to answer are:

   1. Where are you from?   The United States east coast.  I will not say what state for the safety of my children.

   2. Why do you blog?  I blog for myself!  While it is nice to think that I might touch a few lives.  I really do it so that I can remember these days when my kids where young and I was a Stay At Home Mom.

  3. Tattoos?  No!  Never wanted any!

  4. Favorite movie of all time?  Braveheart!  I know not exactly one that you would expect!

  5. If I could live in any era ____?  Renaissance era I just love the clothes from that time period.

  6. What is your favorite blog?  Money Saving Mom I love Crystal's blog.

  7. What book are you reading?  The Virgin Diet by JJ Virgin. This is actually my 2nd time reading it.
  8. Coffee or Tea?   Both, I like to drink a cup of coffee in the morning and tea in the evening.

  9.  Who inspires you? Boy that is a loaded question.  A lot of people inspire me.  God, My Husband, My Children, My Parents, My Sister, My Brother ........ and the list goes on.

10. If you could eat dinner with 3 celebs, politicians, or philosophers who would you invite? {living or dead}  OK there are lots for this one but if I had to choose 3 it would be Ray Charles, Wayne Brady, and Ryan Reynolds.

 11. If you could have one super hero's powers who would it be?  Spiderman or in my case I guess it would be Spiderwomen.



11 Random Facts About Me

1.  I have been in 22 of the 50 states in the U.S.  I hope to see all 50 before I die.

2. Besides the United States I have been to 4 other Countries.

3. I love breakfast food but I think I have an intolerance to Gluten and Dairy.

4. I did gymnastics for about 11 years of my life.

5. When I was little I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast

6. Some days I think it would be easier to go back into the work force, than it is to stay home with the kids.  But I would never trade getting to be with them.

7. I cannot watch action packed or horror movies at night time.  They give me nightmares if I do.  But I can watch them in the day time and be fine.

8. I love to dance.

9. I sometimes feel like I was supposed to be a country girl, but I am not.

10. I love my country music!

11. I never broke a bone until I became an adult.  Then when I did I broke 4 bones at once in my foot.


Questions For My Nominees

         1. What is your favorite TV show?
         2. Have you ever traveled to another country?
         3. Name something you love about yourself?
         4. What is your favorite color?
         5. Who is your favorite President?
         6. What is your favorite type of food?
         7. Do you believe in ghosts?
         8. If you had only one day left to live and you knew about it what would you do?
         9. What is your favorite sport?
         10. Do you fold your pizza in half, keep it flat or eat it with a fork and knife?
         11. What is the craziest thing you have ever done?

       Everybody be sure to go check out Mrs AOK!

Christina

                 

      
    



   

  

Menu Plan for 5/20/13 - 5/26/13 and Diet Update

   I have only been on The Virgin Diet for 6 days now and I have already come to some conclusion about my family and my health.  First of all I definitely have some kind of intolerance.  I will find out what I have the intolerance to in a few weeks.  The results in these 6 days have been amazing.  I feel so much better.  My stomach has not bothered me for 6 days.  I had skin problems, alright I had adult acne, but that has started to clear up.  And I have so much energy more than I have had in years.

   If any of you out there have stomach issues like IBS, I would highly recommend you check out JJ Virgin’s The Virgin Diet.  It really does help.  You can check out her site or buy her book click here.

    Now back to my conclusions my 2^nd and 3^rd conclusions where that I have been feeding my family way to much processed food, and that I have not been feeding them enough fruits and vegetables.  So that is changing in our household.

   Below is my menu for the week.  For Breakfasts you will once again see that I have two different plans for my kids and for my hubby and me.  For dinners we will all eat the same thing.

 

BREAKFASTS
For my husband and me it will be protein shakes all week.

For the kids

Cereal with fruit x3
Oatmeal with fruit x2
Scrambled Eggs with Turkey Bacon and Fresh Fruit
Waffles with Fruit

DINNERS
All of the dinner recipes this week are from The Virgin Diet Companion Cookbook by JJ Virgin

The 5 minute “Insane Man Hunger” cure
Slow-Cooked Coconut Ginger Pork with Broccoli and Brown Rice
Leftovers
Lemon Rosemary Broiled Salmon
Paleo Turkey Bolognese
Marinated Chicken Kebobs with Grecian Salad
One Pot Southwest Chicken Breasts

What is your menu plan for the week?  Feel free to leave a comment!  I would love to here from you!

Christina

Cleaning Schedule

   Cleaning is something that I have struggled with since I was little.  It is not that I do not like the house to look clean, because I love it to look clean.  It is more the fact that I have come to realize my problem is that I am a perfectionist.  I want everything to be perfect all the time.  While that would be nice it is just not ideal when you have three small kids in the house.  Because of this with the birth of each child I have had to re-adjust my cleaning schedule and figure out what works best with the new addition. I have come to figure out that breaking it up throughout the week works best for me.  This allows me to have more time with the kids each day.  Below I have included my weekly cleaning schedule.  At another time I will share my daily and monthly.

Monday - Bathrooms and Changing the Sheets on all the beds.
Tuesday - Bedrooms
Wednesday- Kitchen and Dining Room
Thursday- Living Room and Family Room
Friday - Office, Laundry Room, and Play Room
Saturday - Outdoor work and Errands
Sunday - Rest

Do you have a cleaning schedule?  What is your weekly cleaning schedule like?  I would love to hear from you!

Menu Plan for 5/13/13 - 5/19/13 and The Virgin Diet

    I have had some stomach issues for a very long time now.  I have had all sorts of tests run on me and all they have really come up with was a gallbladder malfunction that I had removed and IBS.   For a while I accepted that I just had to deal with the pain and issues I was having.  But recently I stumble upon information about food intolerance's.  Then my mom told me about a book titled The Virgin Diet by JJ Virgin.  She teaches you in this book about food intolerance's for the 7 main foods and also about why they are bad for you.  I have to say after reading her book I am convinced that I have food intolerance's.  On Wednesday this week I will be starting The Virgin Diet on my quest to see if I really do have any intolerance's. So my menu plan is going to be a little different for the next couple months.  If you want to know more about the book or this diet you can check out the website here.


BREAKFASTS
I will be drinking a protein shake for breakfast every morning starting Wednesday.  I will give you the menu plan for my kids breakfasts.                                

Kids
Oatmeal with fruit x3
Cereal with fruit x4


DINNERS

Breakfast for Dinner
Out
Lemon Pepper Chicken
Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin Roast from The Virgin Diet book by JJ Virgin
Spaghetti Squash "Pasta" with Meat Sauce form The Virgin Diet book
 Grilled Salmon
Chili Lime Grilled Chicken Skewers from The Virgin Diet book

Mother's Day

      Happy Mother's Day!  I am spending mother's day resting.  I wanted to share a funny store about a gift that Princess made for me at school for mother's day.  Princess made me several beautiful pictures for mother's day but at school they also did this questionnaire titled All About My Mom!  Now I imagine that the answers were all probably pretty funny.  Below is what the questionnaire said.  Princess's answers are in between the lines and my responses are in the ().  Hope you enjoy and hope you all have a wonderful mother's day.


All About My Mom!



Let me tell you about my mom!
She is __5____ years old.   (Not even close but it is funny that she thinks I am her age.)

She likes to _______take care of my babies__________________________________________.
  (Um I do not have a clue what she means unless she is talking about her baby dolls.)

The best thing she cooks is ________Egg Salad_____________________.
    (Not the best thing I cook but it is one of her favorites)

Her favorite food is
____________Chicken Nuggets______________________.
    (Wrong but I give her credit for trying to guess.)

Her favorite thing to do to relax is
__________________do her e-mail____________.
     (Probably because she sees me working on my blog a lot.  She thinks whenever someone is on the computer they are checking e- mail.)

We like to ______fold laundry______________________ together.
     (I do not really enjoy folding laundry but she does)

She is really good at ______ironing_________________.
       (This is funny because she has never seen me iron anything)

As you can see my mom is special because
_________flowers_________________.
(LOL um I do not think she understood this question.)

Chores for Preschoolers

  Are your little ones always asking to help?  If they are anything like mine they are.  My kids Princess and Captain Curious are always asking to help.  Princess will say, "Can I help mom?"  and then Captain Curious always follows with, "I help please mommy?"   What do I do when they ask this question?   I find something for them to do of course.  I was recently thinking about giving the kids some chores to do.  Some of these are daily and weekly.  Also some are by themselves and others are with help.  Below is a list of what I came up with.


DAILY CHORES

________   Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket

________   Set table or help set table

________   Clear your dishes from the table

________  Clean up toys

For my older one Princess I have a few extra daily chores.

________  Help dry any plastic dishes

________  Help change laundry around. 

Both of my kids love to empty the lint trap.  But for Princess she also likes when I hand her the wash and let her put it in the dryer.

________  Put any of your laundry away.

Princess loves to put her clothes away.

WEEKLY

________  Help dust

________ Help sweep

Princess sometimes helps with cleaning the bathroom.  But I do not use toxic chemicals.  I only use a white vinegar and water solution, and sometimes baking soda.  I will talk about this another time though.  My point is that what I clean with is safe for her to be around.  I also never force this on her it is only if she wants to help with the bathroom.  Do your kids have any chores?  What do they do to help?  I would love to hear from you!

Christina

  

Menu plan 5/6/2013 - 5/12/2013

I usually love this time of year, but for us so far this spring has been kind of lackluster.  Summer will be here soon, which if you are like my daughter Princess then you just cannot wait for it.  When summer comes my menus will be changing.  I will be doing a lot of stuff that I will not need to cook on the stove or in the oven.  I also am getting ready to start doing some freezer cooking, so that will be changing my menus in the next few weeks. 


BREAKFASTS

Oatmeal with Fresh Strawberries and Bananas X 2
Cereal X2
Homemade Blueberry Muffins and Smoothies
Scrambled Eggs
Out - I do not cook on Mother's Day


DINNERS

Hot Dogs with Corn and Salad
Mexican Lasagna
Spaghetti and Homemade Meat Sauce
Crab Cakes with Rice and Salad
Homemade Pizza
Grilled Tuna with a Teriyaki Sauce and Grilled Veggies
Out

Summer Reading List

 The other day I was thinking about all the books that I want to read for myself or to the kids.  I came up with an idea to do a sort of summer bucket list, except instead of activities it would be for books I want to read.  Hopefully I can make it through all of them this summer. I have separated the list up in to categories and then I choose 10 books for each.

BOOKS I HOPE TO READ TO MYSELF

NOVELS

 
1.   Heart of Gold by Lacy Williams



2.  Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte



3. The Preacher's Bride by Jody Hedlund


4. The Fixer Upper: A Novel by Mary Kay Andrews



5. A Turn in the Road (Blossom Street) by Debbie Macomber



6. The Penny Tree (Nal Accent Novels) by Holly Kennedy



7.Hannah's Journey (Love Inspired Historical) by Anna Schmidt



8. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs



9. Knit Two (The Friday Night Knitting Club) by Kate Jacobs
I know this is kind of cheating because it is a 2 part series, but my feeling is that it is two separate books so it counts.



10. Texas Neighbors: The Key/The Promise/The Neighbor (Heartsong Novella Collection)by Debra White Smith


SELF HELP/ FOR THE HOME/ PARENTING


1. Essential Home Remedies: Staying Healthy With Simple, Natural Home Remedies From The Pantry And The Garden by Sue Woledge



2. The Early To Rise Experience: Learn To Rise Early in 30 Days (Early To Rise Series) by Andy Traub


3. Simply Stylish: How to Revamp Your Wardrobe for Chic Style at Any Age by Carrie Foster



4. The Stress Free You: How to Live Stress Free and Feel Great Everyday, Starting Today by Elizabeth O'Brien



5. Tell Your Time: How to Manage Your Schedule So You Can Live Free by Amy Lynn Andrews


6. How to Sew: Basics by Various



7. The Art of Frugal: Feeding a Family on a Budget by Kaylee Cole



8. Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook (NYM Series) by Jessica Fisher



9. Funny Woman Guide to Get Organized NOW! or at Least Sometime Before You Die. . .
by Isabella McBride



10. How To Take Better Photos - Your Guide To Taking Better Pictures From Any Camera
by HelpMePublishing.com 

BOOKS I HOPE TO READ TO MY KIDS

KIDS PICTURE BOOKS



1. The Bible Tells Me So, Volume 1 (First Steps Devotions) by Paul J. Loth
I actually plan on doing this whole series with my kids.



2. What Does It Mean To Be Green? (What Does It Mean...?) by Rana DiOrio



3. The Ugly Duckling (Illustrated) by Hans Christian Andersen



4. I'll Follow the Moon (Mom's Choice Award Honoree and Chocolate Lily Award Winner)
Written by Stephanie Lisa Tara
Illustrated by Lee Edward Födi



5. Cougar Cub Tales: I'm Just Like You by Sharon Cramer


6. The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling



7. Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann


8. Bear Circus by William Pene Du Bois


9. Julius, the Baby of the World [JULIUS THE BABY OF THE W] by Kevin Henkes


10. Amelia Bedelia Collection (I Can Read Book 2) by Peggy Parish

KIDS CHAPTER BOOKS



1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll



2. The Adventures of Peter Cottontail by Thornton W. Burgess



3.  Strawberry Girl 60th Anniversary Edition (Trophy Newbery) by Lois Lenski



4. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald



5. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes



6. The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by Ernest H. Shepard


7. Junie B. Jones Is a Beauty Shop Guy (Junie B. Jones, No. 11) by Barbara Park



8. Elmer and the Dragon (My Father's Dragon) by Ruth Stiles Gannett



9. Thank You, Logan! (Hopscotch Hill School) by Valerie Tripp



10. Wild Horses (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) by George Edward Stanley

Disclaimer: This post contains an affiliate link. By clicking on the link and purchasing from the site, I will receive a small commission.