Groceries for the month

Wow! It's been an entire YEAR since I have posted. How terribly sad!  I don't know what my excuse is...maybe that I am now watching five children (3 infants and 2 toddlers!) plus doing preschool work with my daughter. It's a lot, but I'm loving it!

So, I tried this idea I found on Pinterest: getting all your grocery shopping done at once for the entire month!  And I actually did it...one trip to Costco and one trip to Kroger. The only things I ran out of by the last week of March, were fruit and milk!  And for this busy Momma, not having to go grocery shopping every week was a real blessing:)

This is what I did:
1.) Went through all of my Pinterest recipes I've been wanting to try and make a list of about 25 dinners.
2.) I made a list of all the groceries I needed for those recipes, including items for lunches, breakfast, beverages and snacks.
3.) I plugged in the items from my list to this awesome app "shopping list" on my iPhone.
4.) Took a big trip to Costco. I had to go to Kroger the next day because I ran out of time.
5.) Put my crazy load of groceries away!!

Some tips I found useful:

1.) Split up your meat and cheese before you freeze it.
2.) apples and oranges will last all month, as will pears if you keep them in the fridge, so use any berries or bananas first, then grapes.
3.) Milk does freeze and thaw out perfectly! I was really skeptical about this!!! I also bought unsweetened, non refrigerated almond milk.
4.) you will need a separate freezer.
5.) you may need to rearrange your budget for this rather expensive trip!

I know it takes some prep time, but it made my whole month so much smoother. I had tons of recipes to choose from, plus all the ingredients on hand:)

Let me know if I skimmed over something or if you want more info

Date Night Gobblet

Recently on Pinterest I have found a couple sites with ideas for dates with my Hubby!  A couple just had lists, but one had a really cute mason jar with color coded sticks with dates on them.  Mine is not nearly as cute because I was at the dollar store and all I could find were these really bright popcicle sticks, and they weren't tall enough for a mason jar, so I had to use a gobblet instead.

I borrowed and stole ideas and threw in some of my own that I knew we would enjoy.  Below are the categories and dates for each!

Blue sticks: $150-$500 dates that we will have to save for

*  Couples Massage

*  Sports game: Good seats and the works!

*  Weekend away

*  Fancy Restaurant

*  Bed & Breakfast

Yellow Sticks: Cheaper or Free out-of-the-house dates

*  Tour Detroit

*  Dessert only at a nice restaurant

*  Mexican...Shannon's favorite

*  Scenic Drive...Get out of the suburbs

*  Go to a movie...Amazing how little we do this!

*  Bowling

*  Volunteer Somewhere

*  Coffee House

*  Window Shop...Maybe buy a little something

*  Museum

*  Take a hike

Red Sticks:  Cheap or free stay-at-home dates

*  Livingroom campout

*  Picnic...outside or in the living room

*  TV show marathon

*  Game on TV and make superbowl snacks

*  Chopped Challenge...I was thinking we could make a basket for each other, but we have to have a

    meat, a grain, a veggie, and something else...should be interesting!

*  Write a bucket list and discuss how you can make some of them come true

*  Hell's Kitchen taste test...You know, when the chef's are blind folded? may require a trip to the

    grocery store to get some interesting things

*  Play PS3 games...I'm not good, but he can teach me!

*  Chick flick...obviously this is for me

*  Make pizza together

*  Spa night...Mani-Pedi and massages

*  Creepy Movie...Shannon loves zombie movies, gack!

*  Make a fancy dessert together

*  20 Questions to learn even more about each other

*  Break out the board games.

Stuff

Well...it may seem as though I have fallen off the earth. I swear I haven't, but I'm pretty sure my brain has! I've become crazed with things to do, people to have over, books to read, holidays, birthdays, my 975 pinterest ideas, and so on and so on!!!

Anyone else in this boat to the looney bin? Is it just spring?? Am I the only one?

I've also decided to start another blog too! This one will be focused on Family Ethnic Food Night...Yay!!! Our little family is going to start in the European country of Lithuania (my hubby's choice...weird, right?) we are researching and cooking foods from there! We'll develope it as we go...so excited. I figure, if I can't travel right now, I want to simulate the experience!! I'll post the blog once it's up so you can check it out if you're interested:)

Hunger Games...Hello! Love. One of my recent obsessions. Just saw the Movie Friday with my niece and her best friend. Awesome time!!!

Housekeeping: okay,(pinterest ideas) so I tried baking soda and vinegar on my stove plates, but I'm pretty sure it was the elbow grease that got them shiny again. Rubbing walnuts on scratched furniture doesn't work if all your furniture is espresso colored...

However, I have tried many recipes and fun ideas for Aliyah, all awesome!!

Im not sure how this works, but if you'd like to follow me, my pinterest name is Christy King or sdcrking????

New Home!!!

Here it is!  The house was built in the early 1950's.  It has some unique aspects, such as sliding doors everywhere, a giant cement sink in the laundry room, and a car port!  I swear someone could film a period piece in our neighborhood.  We may not stay here forever, but we are so happy and feel so safe here.  Sooooo thankful:)

I've been taking pictures at random times.  Some from before we moved anything in, some before and after paint, some with Christmas decorations, etc.  We still have so much cosmetic work to do.  The entire house was painted dark brown.  I mean, besides that Aliyah's room was white and the den/extra room was a yellowish, the ENTIRE house...front room, kitchen, bathrooms, and master bedroom.  I am still not finished painting, and we have more windows and wall space here, so we are a work in progress.

Front Porch

Back Yard...Needs some work! (Starring my nephew!)

Front Room and Dinning Room (Starring Buster)

Kitchen (Some before and some in process!)

Notice the brown walls...a kitchen should be light and airy

Here's the kitchen table area.  I've painted and started decorating

the most exciting part...the pantry!!!!

Master bath, before and after paint...Definately needs some decore

Master bedroom...Have barely done anything yet, but I'm planning on making it a beautiful romantic haven for us!  Check out the closets...at our previous house, we had literally only a fourth.  Shannon takes up 1 and a half closets, and he still needs more room!

Linen Closet in hall

Undefined room at the moment

Aliyah's Room (Hahaha! Apparently I have no pics of her beautiful pink room on my computer, so here's a little smile instead:))

Basement...lots to imagine...scrapbooking center, man cave, play room...

There you are, a little tour...I wish I could see all your homes!!! Get some ideas!!!