5minutesformom.com Christmas Giveaways!

Ok, I can't believe that I forgot to post about this sooner, but you have to go over to 5 minutes for moms and check out all of their holiday giveaways that they have going on! Here's just a small sample of what they're going to be giving away:

Veggie Tales DVD Collection
Hasbro Giveaway
Shred Sled
Young Scientists Club Science Kit
Wiggles Prize Pack

Now, if you haven't been over there yet, you seriously need to. The deadline to enter is December 4th, so don't dawdle over this. Make it your Tackle It Tuesday! It just became mine!

Tackle It Tuesday

Tuesday, Tuesday...I have a song in my head and it doesn't make any sense, well the lyrics I appear to be making up don't anyway. So, how is everyone this fine, sunny day? I'm doing just peachy, I do s'pose. I have a million things to do and no real idea on where to start. There's probably not a room in this house that doesn't need at least a quick tidy, but really it's all a matter of choosing where to start. I think I may start by ...hmm...well....I honestly don't know! I think I might start by going outside and hauling the last of the pumpkins out to the one flower bed where I'm leaving them to break down.
After that, well, I s'pose I still don't know! Isn't that funny? I'm actually rather amused at myself because usually I have a mental checklist and today I just seem to be a bit la la la instead of focused. Well, I think I'm just going to have to tackle my case of la la la and see what I can get accomplished today!

How about all of you? What are you working on or tackling today? Housework? Holiday preparations? If nickle is reading this, I'm going to personally challenge her to do something holiday'ish and then post a comment here. ;) I miss you girl..and your comments. mwaaaah!

Menu Plan Monday

Hello Hello! It's Monday again and I hope that all of you US'ers had a lovely Thanksgiving and for those of you not in the US, I hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was pretty good, I'd have to say. Like I mentioned way back on Wednesday, I had weekend company and I went to my family's for Thanksgiving.

Jim got here late on Wednesday night. This time I didn't make a bunch of food for him because last time he ate on the way and this time was no different. Yay, me for thinking of that! On Thursday, we went over to my Grandma's house and spent the day. It was really nice except for my poor niece Caitlyn came down with some sort of stomach bug right during dinner. Poor girl. I need to call and see if she's feeling any better. After dinner, we hung out for a while but left around 8 because Jim wanted to make sure we hit Michael's so he could get his Cricuit. That reminds me, I have to go back to Michael's to see if they got any more of the cute reindeer notebooks in stock. I wanted to get one, but Jim snatched it out of my hand and got it for his new girlfriend. Meaniehead. :P

Friday was good. We got up early and went and did a bunch of shopping. Walmart really sucked this year. They didn't have a good chunk of what they were supposed to and we were there less than 2 hours after the sales started. I don't know if they just didn't have it or they just didn't figure people would shop this year. I know a bunch of people were really disappointed at that. I did score some good deals though. Menards had to be the best this year. I got 2 dvd/movie/cd/what have you storage racks for $8.99 each. They're usually $24.99 so go me! After hitting 4 different stores, we called it quits and grabbed some food at Denny's before going to my favorite new thrift store out in Charlottte. Sadly, they didn't have what I was hoping to find but I did get a few things.

Let's see...then, we came back here and took naps. I didn't sleep basically at all the night before and well, he's old and 6 hours of sleep wasn't enough for him, I guess. He was falling asleep at the wheel and nearly got me killed at least once. Naps are good. Then, we got up and went back to Lansing to go see The Blind Side. Fantastic, wonderful movie. I highly recommend it as your feel good movie of the season if you haven't seen it yet. While we were there, Jim got the boys and I a $20 gift card and popcorn bucket so I can take them to the movies over Christmas break. Yay, Jim! I can't wait to surprise the boys with it.

Saturday I tried to sleep in a little because once again, I didn't sleep well the night before. When I did get up, Jim was in a big rush to get out the door and head back to his house. He'd already loaded all of his things into his car. So, after a quick lunch at Swede's, he dropped me off and after helping me put the feet on my current movie rack, he took off. He said it was because he wanted to avoid holiday traffic and all but I think he really had a date yesterday afternoon. Either that or he was just in a big hurry to be away from me and with another woman. ;)

So, where does that all leave me? Well, with a menu I need to plan! Actually, I already had it planned though I did have to tweak it. Jim never wants me too cook...I honestly think that he thinks I don't know how or something, so my weekend meals never happened. No worries, it just means more yummies for me this week.

Monday - Ground Beef Stroganoff
Tuesday - Taco Chicken Packets
Wednesday - Chicken Cacciatore
Thursday - Horseradish Burgers
Friday - Possibly @ Grandma's
Saturday - Possibly @ Grandma's
Sunday - Taco Chicken Wrap

So, how did all of you spend your weekend and what deliciousness is on your menus? I wanna know!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Hi everyone! It's Wednesday and you know that means a photo posting from me for today. I meant to write yesterday but I had to go into Lansing and then I got wrapped up working on the items I'm going to show you here today. I've been working hard on these because they're going to be Christmas gifts. Now, the theme over at Sunday Shutterbugs is orange. I actually have some orange in these and I took them like 10 minutes ago! Woo! So, here we go!

The first little guy there is my snowman that I made for me. The second set is going to a friend of mine as a Christmas gift. It was really great being able to craft again and I had so much fun making these!

This snowflake too me hours! Cutting it out took ages and then stitching it took probably 2 hours. I couldn't believe it. This family of snowmen will be staying here at my house. The boys picked out which colors they wanted for their scarves and hats. I think they turned out super cute and I can't wait to hang them up.

These four handsome/beautiful snowmen will be going to my nieces and nephews. From the time my 13 year old nephew was a baby, I've given each of the kids a new ornament for Christmas. The little guy there in orange is for the baby who will be celebrating his second Christmas this year. Roger picked out the colors for him and I think he turned out soooooo cute.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you're celebrating it and I'll try to post here throughout the weekend, but I am going to see family tomorrow and I do have company coming for the weekend, so no promises!

Menu Plan Monday

Well, it's Monday and actually, I've had my menu planned since Thursday. I had to go grocery shopping on Friday so I decided to go ahead and menu plan for the next two weeks. I only picked out meals, so I still need to "assign" them to days so that's what I'm going to do here. These are all from the Weight Watchers 15 minutes cookbook that I mentioned last week.

Monday-Turkey Barbecue Sandwiches (pg 157)
Tuesday- Taco Chicken Pockets (personal recipe)
Wednesday- Simple Quesadillas (pg 66)
Thursday- Thanksgiving @ Grandma's house (Corunna, MI)
Friday- Ground Beef Stroganoff (pg 86)
Saturday- Chicken Cacciatore (pg ??)
Sunday- Horseradish Burgers (pg 150)

Christmas

Well, it's official. I'm out of options on how to get money for Christmas. My last attempt was to sell my dining room table set to my ex-husband. He's been using it since the divorce and I made him a reasonable offer. $150 for the table and all 6 chairs..except his fiancee said no. Now I don't know what I'm going to do. The boys gave me their lists yesterday and it was ok because I was sure I'd have that money plus maybe a tiny bit more..but she said no. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do. Their lists were full of small things because they knew I couldn't buy them the big items they wanted. They've been saving up for about 6 months to get a WII in the hopes that mom would put in the rest of the money and they know now that I can't do that. What they don't know is that there just might not be a Christmas this year; that the little plastic canvas snowmen I made for each of them this year may be the only present there is to give them. Oh God, what am I going to do? I had planned on taking that money and going black friday shopping to get the best deals I could and now there's no money.

Time for me Thursday

Happy Thursday, world! I don't know how all of you are doing, but I'm doing ok. My energy stores are low but I'm slowly getting back to the point where I'm getting some stuff done around the house again. I tidied up the bathroom last night and I'm working on and off getting some stuff done in the kitchen. I've started a new freecycle box that hopefully someone will grab up so I can get some more stuff out of my house. I did get the newsletter done so now I just have to find someplace I can get it printed out. I'd rather do it here at the house, but I'm fairly certain I just don't have enough ink in the printer and 2 new ink cartridges will be more expensive than just having 35 copies of it printed out. Today I had hoped to get my Christmas cards out to start working on those, but my light has burned out in "the wall" and because of the stuff still in there, I can't get to where I need to for changing out the bulbs. On top of that, it's so overcast today that you'd swear it was after dusk in that room.

So, after all of this, what am I doing for me today? Well, I'll probably just continue working around the house as I can. Organization and clean spaces make me a happy katie and happy katie is a good thing. I think one of the first things I'm going to do is go throw a load of laundry into the washing machine. Then, I can run the other load that's been sitting around waiting for me to feel better. Instead of feeling bad that I haven't gotten more done, I'm just happy to know that every little bit helps, even if it's just done in little bits.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Wow, I almost didn't get this picture in today. I knew exactly what picture I wanted for the Sunday Shutterbugs theme of old and I just couldn't find it. Thank goodness for Flickr and the fact that I had uploaded it there. Ok, again, not taken recently. I took this back over the summer. I seriously need to get out there with my camera and start taking some pictures. Between being sick with strep and letting life just overwhelm me, I haven't done it. Now, no more excuses..hopefully I'll actually follow the rules for next week's theme and take it that week. I guess we'll see what life throws at me with Thanksgiving and company coming in from out of town.

So, this is picture for this week's theme. This is our newspaper office here in Sunfield. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but above where it says The Sunfield Sentinel, it says established 1889. I'd say that's old! Oooh...speaking of old, Happy Birthday, Justin! *grins and goes to hide before he sees this*

Tackle It Tuesday

It's Tuesday and I'm clean! Ok, I know that's random and that nobody really wants to know that I took a shower and now have nice, clean hair. On a not so happy note, today I'm reminded of just how fragile life is. My friend Dave lost his wife 6 months ago and his pain just tears at my heart. I know what it's like to lose someone that you thought you'd have a lifetime with and it's one of the hardest things to survive. I'm also so sorry to hear that Kath's mother has died. I never had the opportunity to meet her, but when I was in Canada, Kath gave me a blanket that her mom had crocheted. It's absolutely beautiful and I'm going to treasure it. I have it on my couch right now and will have to take a picture of it to show all of you.

Now, since it's Tuesday, I'm supposed to be tackling something, huh? Well, I think I'm going to work on finishing up my Christmas newsletter. It's something I can do sitting right here while I wait for a return phone call. It seems there was some sort of a mixup with Ben's insurance and I'm working on getting it sorted out again. We have an upcoming doctor's appointment to have him evaluated for hamstring lengthening surgery and we need to have all of his insurances in order before then.

So, that's my tackle. What are all of you tackling today? How are your holiday plans/preparations coming along? Let me know!

Menu Plan Monday

Welcome back to another Monday here at Crafts By Katie. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling a lot better. Not perfect, but a lot better. I'm hoping that by the end of the week, I'll be back to full strength and getting lots done. There's always tons to be done. I spent part of the weekend working on some holiday plans. I'm going to have to make some of the things that normally I would buy because the money just isn't there this year. For the first time ever, I've considered asking that those who sponsor a family for the holidays to sponsor my boys. I hate that I'm just not sure how I'm going to get them anything for Christmas this year.

But, I'm not going to focus on that right now. I'm going to focus on what I can do and what I can do is plan our menu for the next couple of weeks. I think that I mentioned last week that I really want to work on losing weight. In the past, I did a "bastardized" version of Weight Watchers and it really seemed to work for me so I'm going to try that again. Luckily for me, I do own a few of their cookbooks which should help make this a lot easier. For the next two weeks, I'm going to use their 5 Ingredient, 15 Minute Cookbook.

Monday- Whatever sounds good (nothing thawed)
Tuesday- Taco Chicken (6 pts)
Wednesday- Horseradish Hamburgers (9 pts)
Thursday- Speedy Chicken Cacciatore (8 pts)
Friday- Turkey BBQ Sandwiches (7 pts)
Saturday- Wagon Wheel Pasta w/ Salsa Chicken (8 pts)
Sunday- Taco Chicken Tortilla Wraps (6 pts)


So there you have it, my menu plan for this week. Next week will be the same cookbook. I'm going to be doing a lot of grocery shopping on Friday.