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.

Been craftin'

Eliza's been busy crafting this week---below is a "Valentine Bouquet" she made. We got the idea from Kids Craft Weekly, a great site from a girl in Australia and you can sign up to get her emails with craft ideas.

First she painted and glittered a piece of construction paper. Then I covered the paper with some contact paper, traced hearts with a cookie cutter, and she cut them out.

Lastly, I got a branch out of the yard and hot-glued the hearts to them. We decided to take the bouquet to my grandmother, who was in the hospital last week. At first we weren't sure if we would be able to fit all the hearts onto the branch, so we decided to pick the "prettiest" ones to put on first. Eliza was insistent on putting the one with the cross on there, because as she said:

"We have to put the cross on there, because the cross is for Jesus, and GG is sick, and Jesus is a good healer."

Melts my heart.

Then we took her Valentine money to Hobby Lobby and got this little craft. Oh my, this brought back some memories. I remember doing these when I was little. That smell of melted plastic coming out of the oven totally took me back.


Finally, she made this picture for me for my birthday. It's our house, with she and I pretending to be princesses. See our itty bitty crowns?

I've been busy craftin' too, just by way of stationery. Here are a few cards and invitations I've made recently. I was so pleased with how they all turned out!

Our Valentine card. And yes, being the genius that I am, I put 2008 on it. I rarely write the date on anything so I'm still stuck in last year.

A rehearsal dinner invitation:

Birthday invite for a girl-version of a Curious George party:


A bridal shower invite. Love this!

Now I must get busy on Eliza's Easter dress. I have this delicious stack of fabric just waiting to made into something adorable...

Inspiring blog

Every now and then I'll come across a blog that is totally awe-inspiring and humbling, and thanks to my friend Suzanne, I found another one of those this week. Kisses from Katie is written by a 23 or 24-year old girl who moved to Uganda straight out of college to teach kindergarten, and has since adopted 11 children there. Wow. And why do I ever complain about my life and how busy it is??? She has incredible faith, and her joy and excitement for God and how He is moving will inspire you. If you have a little extra time, check it out!

Finally...a food Big D won't eat

Davis loves to eat. It's up there on his list of favorite things to do, along with playing with balls and banging stuff with long objects (baseball bat, Eliza's baton or broom, and sticks). Until recently, he would pretty much eat anything you put in front of him, in large quantities. There are some days he eats as much as me, and he always eats more than Eliza. But last week I decided we needed some more green leafy veggies in our diets (thanks Betsy!), so I made some creamed spinach. And by "made", I mean put frozen creamed spinach in the microwave. But let's just say Davis was not a fan.

Discovery Center fun!

After being inspired by an article in Family Fun about "staycations", we decided last weekend to adventure out to Murfreesboro to the Discovery Center for kids. I'd heard good things about it, and it didn't disappoint. It was about a 45 minute drive, and only cost $15 for our family, which I thought was great. Eliza and Davis had a great time. Here are a few highlights of the trip.

An antique fire truck, complete with real hats, coats, and boots to try on, and you can climb all over it. They both loved it!

A two-story "super-slide". Eliza did it a LOT and was really proud of herself.

They had several train tables and block stations. Davis liked this one the best.

Thank goodness we don't ride bikes like this anymore!

Digging for dinosaur bones and fossils.

Antique car for climbing on. Because of the Nissan plant nearby, there were several car centers to play in. We'll definitely go back when Davis is a little older.

Evidently Davis knows more about changing a tire than I do...

Ugh, this water table was gigantic (this is only one small corner) and really cool, but Big D got SOAKED TO THE BONE. Not so much fun when it's 35 degrees outside and mommy didn't bring a change of clothes. And the water was a little stinky. But man, they loved playing in it.

Gigantic magnetic wall. I think Stephen liked this one better than anyone :)

W-I-N-T-E-R Bingo

I know I've mentioned before how much I love Family Fun magazine, and I just thought I'd share this idea I got from the February issue. You can print out the templates here, and since mini-marshmallows have pretty much become a staple on my weekly grocery list (hey, they're small, non-messy, and provide that little bit of sweetness I crave after every meal), we had all the supplies handy. Eliza LOVED it, and it was a great way for her to pracice sounding out words. Just thought I'd pass this on for one of these cold, rainy days we seem to be having lately!

John Piper on the economy

I saw this on our pastor's blog, and thought he gives such good insight into the current economic crisis.

Tooth fairies and Tennessee basketball

Well, Eliza's had a lot of excitement around here lately. Last week she lost her first tooth, which was quite dramatic, as most everything is with her these days :) Finally she let Stephen pull it and the tooth fairy paid her a visit. Below is her new toothless grin and her rendering of the tooth fairy.



Then this past weekend we took Eliza, along with Gram, to her first Tennessee basketball game. This little girl LOVES her Tennessee Vols, so she was jumping up and down with excitement for the several days leading up to the trip. Davis stayed behind with Mimi and Grandaddy (thanks!).

Our seats were in the nosebleed section, but we made the long trek down to the student section to get a picture with Smokey. And just let me add, I walked right by the usher guarding that section, while he stopped Stephen. He mistook me for a student perhaps??? Or maybe it was that Stephen was carrying Eliza that gave him away. I choose to believe the former :)
Eliza was very brave (overcoming her fear of large stuffed animals, i.e. mascots) to give him a high five and get this pic.

She was having a great time cheering, until about the end of the first half, when she started this.

Laying on Stephen's lap. But some cotton candy at halftime perked her up.

But that perkiness was short-lived, as by the middle of the second half, she began chanting "I wanna go home. I wanna go home. I wanna go home." But I distracted her with the world's longest game of "Guess the animal", which lasted for the rest of the game.

She had a great time, especially spending the night in a hotel, which she thinks is the greatest thing ever. We look forward to more trips like these as the kiddos get a little bigger!