Project 26: Freezer Stock Up

Part of my Summer Organization has been getting some ready made meals stocked up in the freezer.  Many times when we're out at the pool, the beach or hiking we have to leave because I need to get home to plan dinner. I want to spend our summer DOING things.

I don't really like to cook. I can follow a recipe and obviously I do it 20 times a week, but it's not something I have a passion for. I'd rather live off of soup and yogurt. Anything with a straw really. What I'm trying to say is I need some inspiration in this area. I'm lucky to have a friend and neighbor, Chef Becky, that is a personal chef. I've helped her out on occasion when she has a big order coming up or just needs an extra pair of hands. It's been a great learning experience for me, like having private lessons from a professional chef. I've also done some photography for her when she shoots cooking segments for our local TV news station. So I've been able to see some of her great recipes in action.

For our freezer stock up I used many of Becky's recipes including my favorite, Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas.  I actually made three pans of these because we like them so much we could eat it once a week.

I also froze ready made breakfast sliders so if we are heading to the beach I don't have to run through a drive through.  

I made two huge pans of veggie lasagna that I'm having a hard time not yanking out right away to eat. 

This project was labor intensive but it really was easier to just make big batches as I was cooking. I need to remember that in the future so I can keep our freezer filled. Here's to a fun summer with less work! 

Project 25: Getting organized for Summer

I'm a list maker. Not because I'm organized or anything but because if it's not written down I'll forget it 10 minutes later. I rely on a calendar because I never remember upcoming commitments. I make regular efforts to get us organized, not always successfully, but I keep trying.

The kids have 5 more days of school left. I've spent the past week or so trying to get everything organized for summer. I'm hoping this means they won't spend every moment of the beautiful summer days staring at a screen. :) In case you're facing this dilemma as well here are some things we're doing.

A Summer bucket list. Every year we put up a huge list of everyone's ideas of things they want to do. It's usually almost 6 feet long. As we do each item we mark it off the list or make a tick mark if it is something we do more than once, like going to the dog park.

A Summer calendar. Because the bucket list gets long, we start our summer calendar before school is out. By the time summer gets here we typically only have 1 or 2 weekends free. Here is where we schedule in prepaid camping trips, summer school, road trips, camps, festivals, county fairs, birthday parties, annual barbeques and the like. Once the framework is in then we can really see where we can fill in swimming, hiking, kayaking and other fun stuff.

A Summer Schedule. This is my first year doing this. Thank goodness for Pinterest. There are so many cool ideas I don't have to come up with myself. This is a free printable you can download here. I love this idea because so many times things like museums never make it to the bucket list. I'm hoping it also means that I won't be stuck in the circle of "what do you want to do, I don't know, what do you want to do".

A Summer Learning Goal. I used some free printables again for this goal, you can get them here. I really want my kids to understand that learning is a lifetime activity. Not just for school hours but something you're always doing. They choose what they want to learn about and we run with it. My daughter Josie and I have already planned to make life size an anatomy model including removable organs out of felt. She loves to sew and draw so this is a perfect project for her. We'll do online research, check out library books and see where it leads us.

I've also spent some time updating our Bored Jar. I took out things that we're driving me crazy like "eat ice cream" and "watch a movie with popcorn". Sometimes mama just prints out ready make printables and really regrets it later. I added things that include our new puppy and some that include new passions like chalk art and playing the drums. I put in almost 50 new activities. My daughter Lili was so excited she's already dived in. 

Project 24: Harry Potter Kitchen Vignettes

Lately I've been doing a lot of vignette decorating. Doing a little display here or there with things that make me happy. Most of the time when I do this I go "shopping" throughout my house and pick up items that would belong, bring them to the spot and start arranging them. It's something that my mom used to do all the time growing up.

We recently remodeled part of our main bathroom. Previously I had it designed as a Harry Potter themed room. After the remodel last month most of the accessories were put in my craft room (except for the entrance to the Ministry of Magic ;), of course) but I moved them to the kitchen today.

I recently painted the back splash area with the same color that graces most of my home, aqua. It really needed a touch up. Once it was painted I was thinking about adding red to the kitchen so I went "shopping" and started bringing red accessories in. The largest item was my Hogwarts Express sign and that gave me the idea to bring all my Harry Potter items into the kitchen. You've seen this fabric bunting in my craft room redo  and I've moved it around to other areas of the house when I've needed it. I cut some red fabric strips out of my stash to make it fit in here.

Here's some close up shots of some of the items I previously made for the Powder room. They've really held up and still look great. 

This Wolfsbane Potion is actually just salt now. My olive oil container was reused from a cranberry liquor from last holiday season. 

This is the broom I use everyday. I fell in love with it because it looks so much like a quidditch broom. The snitch resided here until I decorate the powder room, now it's back in it's original location. 

I painted this cup at a local paint your own pottery place last year. It's my favorite cup, especially since I switched to a one cup coffee maker. 

This is my Hermione time turner necklace, I actually wore it to the grocery store this morning. When I say I go "shopping" in the house, nothing is off limits. 

It is held on to this vase with painters tape on the back where you can't see it. 

Many times when I'm doing a little redecorating I search for Printables that might fit my theme. This one is from Simply Fresh Designs and is a Dumbledore quote that I already loved since all of my kiddos have varying degrees of special needs.