Yarn Along

I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for the yarn along this week.

Here are my Christmas gifts still not completed yet for my oldest and my little princess, which I told them I would try to accomplish before fall so they could have them for apple picking(I guess that didn't happen).  They will turn into apple hats with a stem and a leaf (My idea: my oldest can be the granny smith and my little princess can be the golden delicious) This is my first attempt making a hat and using double-pointed needles, it's going well so far.  I had to adjust the pattern that I used due to size differences. 

I'm reading "the Naturally Clean Home" by Karyn Siedel-Maier and making a list of supplies to get after the holiday season.  I can't wait to start putting this into action.

Our Christmas Tree

Every year we go on a Christmas tree walk on our to find our

tree for Christmas...this year we went the day we came back from our

family Christmas in Green Bay.

There wasn't any snow in Green Bay so the kids got a little distracted

from our mission.  You could follow the snow angels to our tree:)

This is me cutting our tree down this year. 

Zach had to do a small amount of trimming once we got it inside.

I guess I overestimated the size our living room ceiling.

This is the first year my baby was able to help decorate the tree.

She went to the same branch everytime...it was so adorable.

Happy kids...they've been waiting for the Christmas tree

decorating for a long time.

My baby and me. 

My hubby getting the ornaments ready for the baby.

I have never seen this girl happier than decorating the Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree train (ok it's a Caterpillar train)

with the much coveted Hess trucks from

Aunt MaeMae and Uncle Brian.  They're a hit!

Nana's visit

Nana was nice enough to come to Sparta for hunting season,

allowing me to hunt on our land for my first opening weekend hunt.

She learned that the baby stroller she bought for my little princess...

also cart my baby around.  One of their favorite games-

pretending they are part of a parade:)

Everyone was excited for Nana's visit!

While I was hunting, all of the gingerbread men got frosted.

Thanks Nana for being you.  Love you lots!

Hunting Season

We took a family trip to the public land we hunt at to set

up my husband's tree stand.

The walk is almost 1mile in from where we park our vehicle.

The kids were so happy to go on a hike. 

One of the three bridges we had to cross to get to the hunting spot.

We ended up stopping at all of these and the kids enjoyed throwing sticks

into the water and watching them go downstream.

The kids did really well on the way there.  This is right before we climbed

a great big hill to get to the spot.

I had to put this in here...this is the rock face my husband

and his brother climbed while hunting last year.

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.  He hasn't climbed it since.

The kids and mama back taking a much needed rest. 

My honey checking out his spot...he's right on the edge of the hill so

he can see forever!  All the work paid off because not even an hour into hunting

he shot a buck along with his two brothers and sister.  Thank you Lord for the food!

What's for dinner?

Do you ever get to a point you don't know what to make for dinner?

I know I do, but there are a couple of tricks that can make it easier so dinner isn't such a hassle.

1. Menu plan- The way I do it is a little more broad than others, but by doing it this way, it seems to help me not really have a breakdown if I get set back a day or two.  Menu planning saves money and tends to be a lot healthier for you and your family. 

2. Week by week-  My method to menu planning is set up like this and gets adjusted accordingly to what season it is and/or what type of meat we have in the freezer(right now we have pork so most of the recipes will have that in it right now).  I've found that more themed dinner nights are easier for me to figure out what's for dinner.

      Monday- Pizza night          examples: -garden vegetable
                                                               -Hawaiian
                                                               -tomato basil(my favorite)
                                                               -cheese
                                                               -olive and pepperoni
                                                               -sausage

      Tuesday- Mexican night     examples: -bean/meat enchiladas
                                                               -tacos
                                                               -Mexican bake
                                                               -picante and pita chips
                                                               -taco salad

                                                               -wraps
                                                               -bean salad

      Wednesday- Italian night    examples: -pasta with pesto, black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and 

                                                                 Parmesan cheese
                                                               -spaghetti with my canned all purpose sauce 
                                                               -eggplant bake
                                                               -lasagna
                                                               -brusetta and homemade bread

      Italian night is my favorite night because it has three ingredients I don't think I could live without: basil, olive oil, and olives.
  
      Thursday- Oven meal         examples: -casseroles
                                                                -pork chops
                                                                -soups(These are usually made on the stove and in BIG quantities)
                                                                        -vegetable
                                                                        -15 bean
                                                                        -split pea and ham
                                                                        -sausage
                                                                        -lentil soups
                                                                        -chili (with or without meat)
                                                                 -pork roasts(I often do in the crock pot)
                                                                 -venison stuffed mushrooms
                                                                 -roasted mixed vegetables

      Friday- Ham or Turkey     My thought behind this is, if I cook a large ham or turkey on a Friday night, I
                                              can make a number of dishes with the remaining meat over the weekend and
                                              also freeze some for the following months.
                                              If I'm planning on cooking turkey, the meals that usually follow are:
                                                                -turkey enchiladas
                                                                -turkey soup
                                                                -turkey sandwiches
                                                                -turkey salads
                                              The meals that follow making a ham are(most of these meals are eaten for a
                                               few days because I make bigger portions):
                                                                -scalloped potatoes and ham
                                                                -split pea and ham soup
                                                                -cabbage and ham noodle supper(my kids love this)
                                                                -ham and cheese sandwiches
                                                                -plan on using diced ham pieces for Hawaiian pizza on Monday

3. Try to be organized enough to do one big shopping trip a month to the grocery store(excluding your fresh items: produce and dairy). This tends to cut down for me any impulse buys and saves money.  I usually try to make sure I'm stocked up on flour and yeast so that towards the end of the month we can still have fresh bread. 

4. Buy what's on your list...try not to stray.  This is a big problem for me, but I think I'm getting better.   It's a lot easier for me to do this if I don't have the kids(they tend to want snacks and especially when they are asking for healthy things like raisins-it's hard for me to say no), but it adds up if it's not on the list. 

If you have any extra tips, please leave comments.  I love new ideas for cooking and am always experimenting, sometimes to my family's dismay:)  Have fun cooking.