Easter Eggs and a Challenge

Today has been a fun day! Caroline and I dyed Easter Eggs! Aaron helped by taking the pictures. :)




(I was really excited to have something to use those birthday cups for! Those are leftover from her 2nd birthday...not her first. The company sent me the wrong ones! Anyway...glad they got put to some use!)






I really enjoyed dying the eggs with her and I think she enjoyed it too. Well, she liked it except for the part where she accidentally spilled the cup of yellow on her leg. She did not like that one little bit! We got through it though. :)

So...now the challenge. I've read a lot about this on Money Saving Mom, but I've never actually attempted it myself....an eating from the pantry challenge. Basically, you try not to shop for groceries for a scheduled amount of time by eating from your pantry, fridge, and freezer. I love to coupon and shop sales, so I do have a pretty well-stocked kitchen most of the time...and right now we're bulging at the seams. My last trip was a week ago. I was able to get 2 HUGE boxes of Corn Flakes for very cheap...not remembering the exact amount at the moment, but cheap enough that I bought them. We don't normally eat Corn Flakes, but Aaron will eat almost any cereal, so I'm not too picky and buy what I can get a good deal on. Anyway....since I have 2 ginormous boxes, I'm on the lookout for recipes that use Corn Flakes. We're having company this weekend (Aunt KK and Uncle Jud!) so I'm going to make Corn Flake cookies. Tonight I'm making a potato casserole I got from my friend Becca years ago when we used to have a supper club. I'm so excited to make it. I had all the ingredients except cream of mushroom soup, but I do have cream of chicken, so I'm going to substitute and hope it turns out ok! :) I'm making sausage balls and eggs to go with it. I've had the sausage in my freezer for a while...it's time to use it!

I also found this recipe for a chicken meal that sounds good. Did you know you can go to All Recipes and search for ingredients you have and it will pull up recipes using the ingredient! I also found this for french toast, so we'll probably be having that for breakfast next week. French toast is one of Caroline's favorites so I know it will be a hit!

As for my Eating-From-the-Pantry challenge...I'm starting with dinner tonight and I'm going to try and avoid the grocery for a week. Yes, that includes having company this weekend...but we're planning to go out for one meal while they're here.

Meals Ideas:

Breakfast:
Cereal and milk
French Toast
Pancakes
Scrambled Eggs with Toast
Oatmeal
Frozen Pastry
Fruit (grapes, apples, strawberries)
Peanut Butter-Banana Muffins

Lunch:
Grilled Cheese sandwiches
Peanut butter sandwiches
Fruit (apples, strawberries, grapes)
Leftovers
Totino's Pizza Rolls (never had these before...got them for free a few weeks ago at Winn Dixie)
Cheese and crackers with yogurt/applesauce

Dinners:
Sausage balls, eggs, and Potato casserole
Spanish Chicken and Rice
Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes
Baked Spaghetti
Honey Mustard Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
Crunchy No-Fry Chicken
Layered Enchilada Bake

OK...thats all I've got for now! Wish me luck!

Contentment

Resolutions.

All around us right now are people asking about resolutions and making resolutions of their own. I've never been someone who makes resolutions much...mostly because I rarely keep them. I finally told myself that what I needed to resolve to do was spend each year growing closer to God, striving to be a godly wife and mother, and loving those around me. Resolving to do those things...each year, was better than making a bold statement about something I was going to change. Not that I have anything against resolutions, I'm just not good at keeping them. However, last year I realized something that needed changing in my life and it was going to take real effort to change it. So, I did resolve to....send birthday cards out to all the members of our immediate family. (parents, siblings, nieces and nephews) I have always been TERRIBLE about sending cards. So, last year I really made an effort to get cards out on time. I think 2 of them were a day or two after the actual birthday...but I still counted them. :) I felt good sending them, and I was so glad our loved ones knew we were thinking of them on their special day.



Aaron and I have been discussing this upcoming year. Making our budget, thinking about things that need precedence and things that can be put on a back burner. We've always had in our minds that we wouldn't stay in our current house for more than 4 or 5 years. We've been here for 3, and we had a long talk the other night about moving. While I'm not going to say that we'll never move, I think we've decided to stay here indefinitely for now. We've been so focused on what we don't have, we haven't spent time utilizing the home we do have. So, we've dubbed this year our "Year of Contentment." We're going to make a real effort to settle in even more into our home. We hope to clean out and give to those less fortunate than we are. We want to open our home to friends and family and enjoy each and every day the Lord makes.



I hope you'll bear with me as I occasionally blog about our goal of being content with what we have and living each day to rejoice in the Lord.