Linda's Lunacy

Faith, Home, & Family

Saving Money on Condiments

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My kids love their salad dressing and ketchup and cheese and anything else they can put on top of their food.

I don’t love it when they pour out half a bottle of salad dressing on their plates! Or use mounds of grated cheese!

 

Saving Money on Condiments

I found these little condiment cups at Walmart. They are 2.5 ounce stainless steel cups. They were 97 cents for a pack of 4 (when I bought them). What a deal! 25 cents per cup, and I’m sure they paid for themselves in the first week.

saving money on condiments

I measured, and 2 tablespoons of salad dressing leaves plenty of room for dipping veggies or fries in the cup if that’s what they decide to do.

 

I give the kids their cheese in the cups whenever we’re having tacos, chili, and the like. They love having control over the cheese, and I love using less. I do it for us adults, too. We need to pay attention to our serving sizes as well!

You can teach kids the correct serving size for salad dressing, cheese, or any other condiment while saving money!

 

Re-working My Busy Day

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It’s time to go over my list of dailies, and make it work for me again. I usually have to change it at least 2 or 3 times a year. I add and delete jobs as needed for how are life is at that time, and for seasonal activities. For example, when we get the pool set up, I add testing the pool to the morning list.

I have, also, recently redefined my priorities. They would be God, Husband, kids, home, school, extended family, clothes ministry, and then, anything else. It is so easy to get our priorities mixed up. It’s also easy for our priorities to get jumbled on a busy day. Keeping our God given priorities in order is a daily, minute by minute commitment.

Something that we can not do with out help.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

I know thats the only way I can make it through the day!

You’ll notice that I have Bible study in the afternoon. That’s when I’m better able to focus on studying. Mornings are not a good time for me to study. I’m able to give it my all in the afternoon, instead of being so distracted in the morning.

So here’s my daily list. I do try to do them in order, but very often have to do them out of order. That’s ok, as long as I do them!

MORNING

Make my bed
Pick up master bed, bath
Take dinner out of freezer
Breakfast
Vitamins
Inspect kids rooms & bathrooom
Make sure kids do their morning list
wash dishes
desk duty
School
Online “Stuff”

Clear Hot Spots:
K-counter
washing machine
LR-TV
tables
piano
computer desks

AFTERNOON
Lunch
Vitamins
Make sure kids do their afternoon list
wash dishes
Bible Study
Check school work
Put away School stuff
Start dinner
weeklies
monthlies
Online “Stuff”

EVENING
Dinner
Vitamins
Make sure kids do their evening list
wash dishes
Inspect kids rooms and bathroom
Meds

Clear hot spots:
K-counter
washing machine
LR-TV
tables
piano
computer desks

When I Can’t Sleep…..

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For the last year or so, I have had trouble staying asleep at night. Oh, I go to sleep just fine when I lay down, within a couple of minutes of laying down, I’m out. It’s staying asleep at night, that is the problem.

It doesn’t matter how long I lay there tossing and turning, some nights I’m awake for 2 or 3 hours at a time. So frustrating.

There are a few things that I have tried to put me back to sleep,

– going on the computer for a little while usually makes me tired enough to fall back asleep, but the experts say the bright light will only make you more awake.

– reading, also, will make me fall back asleep. But the light bothers my husband while he’s trying to sleep, even the little bedside table lamp bothers him. Reading by flashlight bothers my eyes.

My solution?

I have started to keep my mp3 player under my pillow, and if I wake up, I just pull it out. I can turn it on without turning on a light, so I don’t bother my husband.

I have Bible verses on there, as well as praise music that I listen to. Just make sure you pick calming music, not rock music. Podcasts would be great, too.

I keep the volume down low, and I lay there resting, enjoying listening to calming music and Bible verses. So even though I’m not sleeping, I’m getting some rest.

Keeping my mp3 player under my pillow for those sleepless nights Works For Me!

For More Works for Me Wednesday ideas, visit Rocks in My Dryer this week.

A Makeover and A Photo Session

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My 13 year old daughter has been trying to talk me into letting her do my hair and make-up.

Well, yesterday was the day!

She took very good care of her dear, old Mom. She didn’t poke my eye out, or anything!

Here’s the new profile picture she took for me after hair and make-up.

Since one of my 2010 Blogging Goals was to include more of me on my blog, here’s my favorite picture that she took.

Yes, I’m silly! And I didn’t edit the clothesline out. But at least you know I wasn’t goofing off all day. I did do laundry!

What’s For Dinner?

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Last weeks menu worked out really well. My son brought home stuff to make tacos, and cooked them. Who am I to complain?! So we didn’t eat the Mexican Skillet last week, but we’ll try it this week.

I have 3 recipes from the The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook this week. We are really loving the recipes from this cookbook. I made the Broiled Lemon Pepper Talapia a couple of weeks ago, and everyone liked it. I’m excited to try 2 new recipes this week.

This Weeks Menu

Saturday – Cheeseburgers with all the fixings

Sunday – Homemade Sub Sandwiches with lettuce and tomatoes

Monday – Asian Chicken Wraps from the $5. Dinner Mom Cookbook

Tuesday – Spaghetti with meat sauce, broccoli, salad

Wednesday – Baked Chicken, Baked Potatoes, salad, green beans

Thursday – Mexican Chicken Skillet from the $5. Dinner Mom Cookbook

Friday – Broiled Lemon Pepper Talapia from the $5. Dinner Mom Cookbook, homemade hush puppies, corn, salad

For more Menu Plan Monday ideas, visit I’m an Organzing Junkie

Clothes Ministry at Church

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We work in the clothes ministry at our church as a family. Today we had a giveaway. We load the fellowship hall tables with clothes, and invite the public to come and get them for free. These clothes all come in as donations!

Here are some pictures we took at a giveaway last year.

This ones blurry on purpose, so no ones faces show. But there were lots of people looking through the clothes.

We are blessed to be able to work in the clothes ministry.

We advertise in the newspapers, and on a local radio program. These giveaways are always well attended. The kids wanted me to take a picture of the people lined up at the fellowship hall when we got there. I took this from the van as it was pulling into the parking lot, so you can’t see everyone. That’s just part of the line, it went off the right some more. The parking lot was almost full of cars.

We counted 83 people that came in, and we handed out at least 50 bags with tracks in them. It was an awesome day!

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