My new love---E-mealz!

Thank you to my friend Susan for introducing me to E-mealz.com! One household task I dread every week is planning meals. As I've said before, I'm not much of a chef, but I do enjoy sitting down to a good meal every night with my family. I just hate taking the time to search through recipe books or websites trying to find something that looks good, healthy, and easy. So I end up in the rut of making the same meals over and over again.

Then, E-mealz came into my life. And I'll never be the same.

For $5 a month, you get a weekly meal plan, complete with 7 meals, recipes, a shopping list, and the prices for everything so you can budget. You can even tailor the meal plan to your grocery store of choice (they have plans for Wal-Mart, Aldi, Publix, or Kroger); or for a low-fat, Weight-Watchers, vegetarian, or couples instead of families. Here is a sample of what you get every week:

I've been doing this for about 4 weeks now, and everything I've made has been delicious. I just put each week's plan in a plastic page protector and stick it to my fridge. That way I can see what we are having for dinner each night and the recipes are right there so I don['t have to go digging for them. At the end of each week, I put that week's sheets into a binder to keep for later use. I LOVE IT.

If you LOVE to cook and plan meals and it's the greatest joy of your life, then this is probably not for you. But if cooking is a just a means to a meal and time with your family, then you might just want to check it out. Click on this link below, and if you sign up, I'll get referral credit. THANKS!

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

Mud cake, anyone?

Well, we had a beautiful day here on Monday, so we headed out to the backyard that morning to enjoy it. Before I knew what was happening, Eliza and Davis were both digging in the dirt, and Eliza asked for a cup of water. Here is the result: "Mud Cake"

They had a ball, and I was able to keep my mess-induced anxiety to a minimum and just let them go at it.

But then Davis put that mud-encrusted finger IN HIS MOUTH, yall. And licked it. I could hurl right now just thinking about it. I never thought I would be scraping mud off of my son's tongue with a towel. But I guess that's what little boys are made of, right? He didn't seem too bothered by it.

When they'd had their fun, I literally hosed them down with their clothes on before I would let them inside. They thought that was fun, too.

But now that we are back to winter weather and sleet today, we'll have a to wait a few more weeks before making any more mud cakes. Thank goodness :)

Meet Charlie

Here's our new puppy, Charlie. He's an 8-week old Whippet. Isn't he adorable??

Here's some video of him in action.