Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts

Monday, September 27, 2021

We Are Nearly Through 2021!

Fall has arrived. Sounds crazy for someone in Texas! After all, it isn't quite October yet. However, weather in Texas has been unusual this year. It is already starting to cool off again. For me, this means that planning is in full swing. There are some birthdays in October I have to address - one of them being for my son who is turning 13! 

*insert a shudder here* 

I am about to be the mother of a teenager already. Scary thought! We laugh about it though. He's already breaking out with acne. His voices squeaks and breaks, even though he tries to force it to stay deep all the time. He mentions having "changes" that he is embarrassed about and that he needs to talk to his Dad about. When that happens, I immediately tell him that he's right. "Talk to your father, because I can't help you with that." More like I don't want to... unless I have to. I like having his Dad take over that responsibility. I'll handle the girls later on. Oh yeah, and he's growing a mustache. Well, more like the fuzz above his lip is becoming noticeable. So he feels quite proud of himself for that. 

But I'm getting away with myself, aren't I? After October rolls through, I will face November. My youngest is turning 5! Again, reaching a milestone for one of my children. She will be leaving toddler-hood behind in exchange for being a little 'kid'. This girl is something else. She amazes her father and I with her smarts quite often. Some days I think she's already on a head-start path for being smarter than he and I both! Since we started homeschooling this year, she has been on a fast track of learning her shapes, colors, numbers and letters. She can recognize her name. At one point, I would have sworn she knew math already. She can add plus 1 to numbers easily. But this one time in particular, she stumped her father and I by saying something like, "If I'm 60, then after 4 more years, I'll be 64." If she had spun her head around on her shoulders, I don't think we could have been more surprised! She says things like this to us often though! Makes me wonder sometimes just how high her IQ will get. After all, both her parents are triple digits. She is also an accomplished gamer. Can't tell you how proud I am of that! All my kids are gamers of some sort. All of them are accomplished readers. Even Megabits! That girl has her own collection of books that she likes to "read" or have read to her. She has me reading one to her now that is about a place called Dinosaur Cove. My mom had sent it to the kids. She will bring it to me, climb on my lap and sit still until a thrilling moment occurs while I'm reading. Then she will get excited, bring her balled fists to the sides of her mouth as she lets out a squeal. It is adorable! 

After her birthday, I'll be making our family's first only us Thanksgiving! I'm excited. I already have ideas of what we will have on the menu. Sadly, I have to include stuffing. Or dressing, if you prefer that word for it. Personally, I don't like it. Never have. But my husband does. So I'm getting the boxed kind just for him! 

Finally, we come to a great month. I have my moms birthday in that month. I'm making her a gift this year. Something personal for her new home in Florida. A way of showing off to her friends, how blessed she is as a Mom and a Nana. December is also a month that has a gift-giving celebration that will, hopefully, be held with extended family. I've already created my shopping list. Sadly, most of the people on it will have to be happy with gift cards. Seems to be the safe route to take with people who have everything, or are always talking about getting rid of stuff, or that you just don't know enough about to give them something personal. I guess some would argue that that has its own personal touch as you have to know a person well enough to know which one to choose, right? 

For those that are getting something more personal, I'm making some pretty cool things. I just finished my little sisters' gifts. She plays with Barbies and has a house for them that my daughters drool over. But she needed things to add inside. So I made them!




My daughters have even enjoyed some of my creations with their Barbies. I can't wait to see pictures of my sisters dollhouse after Christmas! 

What about you? Do you have your last months of 2021 in the planning stages already? What is your biggest plan so far?? Let me know in the comments below.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Prepping for the Party!

First part of getting ready for a party, always has to be the invitations and guest list. We will be having a party for his friends to come to at our house and then head up to his Nona's for a family party. The first thing I did was write up a list of the people I thought he might want to invite and then ask for his input on them and any others he might want to ask over. I'm keeping it small since it will be on a Wednesday night (school night!). Then I went looking for some cool, free printables to turn into invitations that will follow his choice theme. I came across these on Family Shopping Bag. The picture was too small and I wanted to print multiple at once, so I copied the picture and put it into a Word document and made some tweaks. After my adjustments were made, they were card-sized and ready for envelopes.
I had to make envelopes. Since I didn't have small ones that fit these, I took regular big letter envelopes and cut them in half.
Then these cards fit into them and I taped up the sides and back. Looks cheap, but it works. Thankfully, I did not have many to send. Next task is to try and make at least one game and possibly some decorations. Can't believe that we are past the halfway mark in January already!

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Only 45 days left?!

Time is speeding by. My list of things to prepare for the wedding dwindles down, but I feel the need to pick up the pace and start the remaining projects with haste. While visiting my future in laws this past weekend, we were able to see how well my fiancés jacket will fit and add his com badge with rank pips to it.
He is now ready to captain the Enterprise. Okay, not entirely... His pants are all that is left. My sister and sister-in-law both have beautiful dresses ready to go. As does my mother-in-law who had a dress made and altered to fit the theme a little more. It is quite exciting!
This week, I will have my hands full. I have my second child needing at least 3 appointments, some bubble wands to turn into light sabers, job applications to put in, counseling on Wednesday.... so much fun, right?!
The bubble wands will be for our send off. Our guests will be able to hold them up or blow bubbles at us as we walk away. Plus, it will be great fun for the kids after the wedding.
Oh yeah. I also have a wonderful playlist started. I decided to share it with you all. So once I have it complete on YouTube, I'll post it on the blog.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Only 52 days left!

Wedding preparations may have slowed, but certainly not stopped. And now that we are less than two months from the day, things are starting to pick up. Last minute details are taking form.
I'm so glad that I had started purchasing some of the things we were going to need while I still had my job. Otherwise, I may have scrapped more of the smaller details I had wanted. But I also have had both sides of the family pitching in to help. My mother has given us money towards the wedding as a wedding present. Being that we both came from homes stocked with most of what we needed, there aren't a whole lot of gifts we can ask for on the registry that people want to get. So money towards the wedding itself is perfect! His family has contributed to items needed as well. My dress is in the process of being made, his jacket and pants are being completed, the cake is being worked on by his mom (only wish I was able to taste test the ones she is practicing on!). Overall, I'm really excited about how things are lining up!

So what other things have I added to the finished details? Well, I've finally created the galaxy jars.
And let me just say here... I won't try that again. I'm not so crafty, for sure. No matter how well I try to follow the video. I found said video on Pinterest. Do you know how dangerous that site can be?! So many great ideas! But of course, then you want to try everything...
Anyhow...
It took me hours, not 20 minutes like in the video, but several hours to finish my 12 jars and 1 test jar.
And they still didn't come out exactly as the video. I still like them. And when I get those tealight candles, they will be complete. As an added bonus, I even had the idea to add the canning stickers that came with the jars to the front. Each sticker has my fiancés name and mine, divided by the year. Below that is a space for our guests at each table to write a single word that describes one or both of us.
Just a little something to keep people busy for a bit while adding to our story later on.
There will be more projects I'll share with everyone soon. This week is a busy one, but I have some light saber bubble wands to create! Some bouquets to share (Michaels had flowers 60% off!)

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Wedding planning continues!

I had a question posed to me in the comments of my last wedding post. I'd like to take a moment to respond to that question before addressing the next part of our plans.

So the question is:
"I understand wanting a nice wedding. Here's my question...if you know you're going to do it, why wait? I just don't understand people who wait. A wedding is for those getting married and not so much others who attend. Just my thoughts."

My reply is this...
For us, there are a couple things having us wait. For starters, finances. We are doing it when we will have funding for everything. As I'm currently part time, I only have so much money to cover all the bills every month. Not much is left over for anything extra.
Secondly, is our desire to make it our perfect day. Regardless of who is there, we have imagined a day for us that is to our liking. We have put much planning into it. We want a day we will remember for the rest of our lives as one of the best.
And lastly, there are certain people we want to share that day with. So picking the time that gives them the chance to be there is important to us. I want my family from Florida to come in. I'd love my best friends to be there. And he has a brother in the Marines that he would like to serve as his Best Man.
Waiting and planning will give us this accomplishment. We can truly enjoy the act of being joined in matrimony and starting a lifetime together.

Now for the next step we took in planning the wedding...

We had to hire a photographer. Okay, maybe we could've had a family member taking pictures. And truly, we will need someone to video the ceremony as that doesn't come included. But this way, family and friends can enjoy the day without being assigned such tasks. We also had a special photographer in mind for this part of the planning. Lene Griego is the proud owner of Master Photography by LG, LLC. We had very special reasons for wanting her to be our photographer. I've known her for over 8 years now. I've seen her work through Facebook. And also because she has a wonderful green screen. My plans were to utilize her green screen so that every guest has the chance to put themselves in a professional photograph with a background of their own that they get to take home as a favor. My fiancé and I have gotten to try this out at a couple comic cons. That's where we got this beauty done.

Master Photography has a physical location now that we hope to get our newborn pictures shot in. If you are looking for a fun or nerdy Christmas card this year, its not too late! You can call or stop by her location.  210-860-9005 or come by 8521 Blanco Road, inside the Mad Crafter Gift Shop.
Let me know what you think of our idea. Would you do something like this at your wedding?

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Money and time saving meal planning

I really dislike shopping with my kids. It's a lot of, "Mom! I want that!", "Mom, I'm tired.", "Can we go home and play Mario Kart yet?" Or even just straight up "Waaaahhhhh" from being too tired. So I decided to plan my meals ahead. Anywhere from 2 weeks to a whole month, depending on my financial status. I have a list of meals that I know my family loves. I have a list of things we need that I've been writing as things diminish in my pantry and I know we use often.

Knowing your family and their favorites is the most important part. Knowing your schedule is another important factor. I work part time. My husband has a time-consuming Lego hobby. Plus there are the daily tasks and chores of keeping house and home schooling. On the nights I work, my husband has to do the cooking. On the nights I'm off - I pick it up. So when I'm picking meals I have to pick the easy ones for his nights alone. I also try to incorporate things we get on WIC. We get beans, brown rice, cheese, fruits and vegetables, among other things. All healthy stuff. Beans and rice are one of my easy choices for my husband to cook. He likes to add sausage and onion to it.  None of us really like brown rice. So to compromise, we mix half white and half brown. Even my kids love it. It also makes the bag of white rice stretch farther.

When I'm planning, I also check the sales and try to match my meals with them. I print coupons based on what we use and try to match them with stores sales.

So here's how you get started. And yes... It's going to take time and effort, but it pays off later.

Start by making a list. Write meals that you know you and your family eat regularly and love. Know your ingredients or list them with the meals. I keep mine in a notebook but you could use a binder. Especially with the clear page covers so you can just flip through while planning.

Step two, is knowing your budget. We know when big bills are due and plan around them. I prefer to plan at least two weeks at a time, but maybe you can only do a week per stretch. Once you know your budget, count the days and pick a dinner for each one. Throw in a couple of lazy meals. Some days you aren't going to want to cook. So make it something easy to put together or make that the take out night. Either way, writing it into your list will remind you. Then pick breakfast and lunch items to fill in. I always keep peanut butter on hand. Tuna works well too. Snack things like chips, cookies, desserts - whatever little things you need to have on hand get added to your list next.
Now if you're really on a roll and want it super organized, take it a step further and actually list the items by category i.e.- meats, frozen, can aisle, snack aisle... You get the idea? I don't often have the patience and I'm still getting used to my stores here, but sometimes I aim for the ballpark. This makes your trip easier and faster. Also organizing your coupons to match your aisles helps too.
Now the fun part (not) of shopping! Coming home, you might have a kitchen looking something like this picture.
Another thing to keep in mind is how much storage space you have around your kitchen. We are fortunate enough to have a large pantry. But we are limited in freezer space. We don’t buy a large amount of freezer foods at once. Sometimes we have to go back to the store for things like bread, fresh veggies and fruits, or more freezer items.

Sometimes when I buy onions and bell peppers, I will chop them up and keep them in the freezer. Just remember that when you pull them out to cook not to let them stay thawed. They can get a little mushy. Cooking them right away tastes better.
I hope this is helpful in getting you started on meal planning. Be sure and leave a comment on anything you think I missed! Love hearing from you all.