May Meal Plan

Don't know about you but I love having a month ahead menu list. I try to go to Costco only once a month so this way I know what amounts I need of things, and can plan and hopefully save better. Lately my food bills have been skyrocketing, all three children at home eating thousands of calories a day adds up. Between one working at a physical job, another going to the gym four days a week after school and the other trying to gain weight, suddenly we are always out of things that used to last a week, but no complaints! I'm grateful to be able to provide healthy food for them and grateful they all want to be healthy. Really grateful for that!

I made the mistake of sending my boys to the store to get some things for me, and they returned with that plus a bunch of junk food. "Gotta keep our calorie counts up," I heard. Yeah. So, off I go to replenish and refuel with a little more nourishing choices.

Thur May 1  California Zucchini Bake, Apple Slices and Angel Food Cake w/Strawberries for MyGirl's Birthday
Fri May 2     11 Layer Salad and Garlic Cheese Biscuits
Sat May 3    Chinese Take-Out - the boys have been begging for this for more than a week
Sun May 4   Blueberry Dessert
Mon May 5  Fajitas
Tues May 6  Orange Roughy, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Hash Browns
Wed May 7  Chicken Vegetable Soup, Spinach Salad, Blueberry Muffins
Thur May 8  Chicken Thighs, Artichokes, and Tomatoes with Orzo and Greek Salad
Fri May 9     Homemade Pizzas - pick your own toppings and Green Salad
Sat May 10   Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato Soup,  and Pears  
Sun May 11  Mothers Day - Meal to be determined - Leaving that to Mike and kids
Mon May 12 Turkey Taco Salad and Peaches
Tues May 13  Shrimp Jambalaya and Green Salad
Wed May 14  Minestrone Soup and Homemade Breadsticks
Thur May 15  Parmesan Chicken, Creamed Spinach, Crudites and Red Potatoes
Fri May 16     Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Broccoli Bites, and Fruit Salad
Sat. May 17   Nitrate Free Hot Dogs with Coleslaw and 3 Bean Salad
Sun. May 18   Grilled Chicken, Asparagus Risotto, Greek Salad, 3 Bean Salad, and Orange Rolls
Mon. May 19  Chicken Verde Enchiladas, Green Salad, Refried Beans
Tues. May 20  Tuna Sandwiches, Home Fries, Baked Spinach Artichoke Casserole
Wed. May 21  Broccoli Mushroom Quiche,  Pumpkin Muffins
Thur May 22   Beef Stroganoff, Brown Rice, Blueberry Romaine Salad
Fri May 23      Turkey Meatballs, Cucumber Salad, Potato Salad, Fruit Salad
Sat May 24    Chicken Spinach Pasta Salad with Blueberry Muffins
Sun May 25    Grilled Chicken, Mandarin Romaine Salad, Asparagus Risotto, and Rolls
Mon May 26  Dad's Birthday Party/Memorial Day - Meal TBD
Tues May 27  Mock Chicken Chile Casserole, Strawberry Spinach Salad, Mexican Rice
Wed May 28  Red Lentil Carrot Soup, Green Bean Mushroom Bake, Banana Muffins
Thur May 29  Spaghetti, Green Salad, Bread Sticks
Fri May 30     Salmon Patties, Broccoli, Carrots & Celery/Dip, Home Fries
Sat May 31   Crock Pot BBQ Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, Black Bean Salad, Coleslaw

New Bedding

 Do you remember this quilt I finished last January? It was too big for a baby quilt and I didn't really have anyone who needed a nice lap size quilt, so I hung it over my railing and have enjoyed its bright colors all Spring. My husband expressed the most interest in it.

So, I think its the perfect addition to my new Spring/Summer bedspread. After ten years it was time for a little change. The older one is staying for Fall/Winter, but change is always nice. I found a pillow down in the basement family room that went perfect with both quilts, so that was nice to shop my own house. This picture shows a more accurate blue color. The one below came out too grey when I photographed it.

Pairing the modern colors of the quilt with the damask pattern of the quilted bedspread just feels good to me.  A good balance of modern and tradition. I like that. And, hubby likes it on our bed too. Win!

Some Feminine Cards

Below are some cards for friends, relatives, and even my mother-in-law's mother's day card since I know she doesn't look at my blog. Its more of a challenge to make masculine cards for me and more fun to add all the bling and pretties to feminine cards. 

 This last one is for my daughter. I CANNOT believe she will be 20 next week!!! Where did two decades go? She has not had an easy life, and because she is not like me, it has been a challenge for me on many levels to learn what is needed. She is not like me and yet we are so close. She is gentle, soft-spoken, reserved and so naturally compassionate. Still, she is so good deep inside her and I have a lot of admiration for the strength of her spirit. I have learned so much about life and things that have strengthened my faith by being her mother. We teased her this week that she has at least nine lives, as she's had several miracles in her life that have kept her going when others may not have, starting with her birth, twenty years ago.  The events surrounding the weekend she was born are still vivid in my mind even after twenty years. I also know that when she Finally cried after the cord was so tight around her neck that both a doctor and a nurse had a hard time taking it off of her, that I cried. I knew she was supposed to be here, and that it already had been rough. I had lost my eyesight in one eye at her seventh month in utero, I'd had a bad flu at five months, there was just a lot that was challenging, and there still is, but of course, she was worth it all, and she still is. The head nurse told me if I'd had one contraction with the cord the tightest she'd ever experienced she probably wouldn't have made it. So the Lord worked it out that I didn't. And she did make it. She was born a miracle and she still is one today. I thank the Lord for her life and her heart and her soul. She is certainly a large part of mine.

Birthday Cards

I recently made these cards last weekend when my mom came over. After the Easter cards I just kept going. These are the birthday cards for the men and boys in my life for the next few months. I like to keep them pretty simple, especially when I'm making them all unique. 

Most of the stamps sets are PTI, but a few are CTMH. All the papers are CTMH except for the last one.

Happy Easter Cards

Last month I had the good fortune to win some Papertrey Ink products. I could select anything I wanted, and so I added this cute little stamp set to my list. It has several sentiments, but this is the simple straightforward one I used to make some Easter cards I'll be sending out this week. 

The background papers are all former samples of Close To My Heart papers that I get with each catalog and the little cotton tails are just tiny pieces of a cotton ball glued on with regular old Tombow.

My mom and I were talking and she wanted to come over and make cards, so this was how I spent my Friday afternoon. Lovely it was! And since I had all the supplies out I proceeded to spend most of Saturday making cards too. It was cold and threatening to snow, (finally it did) and I was busy productively producing. What a day! And now I've got all the cards I should need for the year so I can get back to my quilting projects. 

MyGirl's quilt is about 1/3 of the way quilted. I'll share when its finished.

Happy Easter everyone!

Its seems to have gone by quickly since last Easter. No great Easter projects this year, but it has been of year of really Needing the Savior to keep me going, and I am So Grateful for His love, power, and strength! In Primary our lesson is called, "Come Follow Me," for this Sunday so we'll have some great little spiritual treasures and activities to share with our little ones about the Savior and I think it will be a lovely Easter, remembering how much the Savior loves us all, even enough to die for us. How blessed we are to have Him!

Free Steampunk Alphabet

What do you think of the new steampunk trend going on?

Notice this necklace. Certainly unique.

Every time I see this look I immediately think of the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr. . . 

I've read every Sherlock Holmes story there is. I love them. I'm fascinated by the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

That being said, I get that steampunk is a current trend, but its not really my thing. However, there are things about it that are interesting to me, especially the jewelry.

Close To My Heart has a free steampunk alphabet font to download on their website.

I've added the link below or if you want to do a little shopping too, 

Click my paper flower to the right and check out the promotions tab, then click Rediscover CTMH.

Then afterwords click shopping and don't forget While Supplies Last. That's where the best bargains are.

I think I"ll print these alphabet letters onto cardstock then use whenever I need them. 

I can see these being good for initials on cards or pages. Enjoy

 http://cdn.closetomyheart.com/2014/promotions/campaigns/rediscover/1404-rediscover-creativity-download.pdf

Manitou Lake

Spring Break once again went too fast for us. The highlights were seeing the movie, Divergent, which we all really liked, playing games together, and taking an afternoon to get back into nature again.

It only takes about seven minutes from our home to be in beautiful forest with picturesque views and lakes, but during Spring Break we wanted to see new lakes and views, so we headed West into the mountains.

 Bigbuddy remembered a lake he and his dad have passed several times on the way to their favorite motorcycle roads, so we followed his directions and ended up at Manitou Lake. He told us it was a great place to take a picnic so we brought one.

 The picnic area has large red rocks popping up all around. They were easy for our climbers to climb on and added to the unique beauty of the area. Note the grill in the foreground. I think we'll bring some grilling food when we come back in the summer.

 This is facing the north side of Pike Peak. Its the mountain furthest left. In the creek here there were three different beaver dams.

 There was a nice hike around the lake which we all went on. It was a little chilly, I'm not going to pretend it wasn't. It was a warm, 60 degree day, but we've had a wind blowing off and on, and that day, it was on part of the time, so we were glad we were prepared with our warm jackets. When you're up around 9,000 feet, you know to be prepared for cold temperatures.

 The only wildlife we saw were these two geese walking on the ice. And near the water's edge we saw some large cougar tracks. Just glad it didn't make any appearances.

 This is actually a good sized lake, but not too huge. It took us about twenty minutes to walk all the way around it. It would be a great place to come back and fish in the summer. We already told my folks that it's on our list of places to return to with them this summer.

 This is the view from the north side of the trail. The lake is behind me here and I'm facing where the motorcycle trails start further ahead.

 On the northwest side of the lake you can see that this lake is actually caused by the dam here, with water flowing north to the creek that eventually runs down into the South Platte River, which we drove by later that day.

 This facility has two fireplaces and is covered. There were also three different decent bathrooms around.

You can see where the lake is just starting to thaw up at the top. There were a couple of fishermen there while we were hiking around. We saw several more down at the river near Deckers. We'll wait til its warmer for fishing, but it was a beautiful day for a mountain picnic and a drive through some of the more scenic parts of Colorado.