Goals for the week of Feb. 19th - 25th

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great, fun-filled weekend!  My weekend was filled with car shopping, thrift stores and relaxation.  My van is on its last leg and has been in the shop a lot in the last few months.  It's 10 years old and things are starting to break and rust.  I want to try and sell the van while it still runs (and doesn't have any other major issues!).  This weekend we were able to narrow our choices down to these three vehicles: the Chevy Uplander, the Chrysler Town and Country, and the Chrysler Pacifica.  I really like the Pacifica but it doesn't have quite as much room as the Town and Country.  Any thoughts?

On another note:
Every Monday I am going to post my menu for the week along with a list of goals I want to accomplish (above and beyond my normal cleaning routine).  This will help keep me accountable and follow through on things I want to get done.


This week's menu plan


Mon - Spicy Honey Chicken, Roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes, veggie tray (carrots,broccoli,peppers) with dip

Tues - Penne Bolognese, Salad

Wed. - Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin, corn bread, salad

Thur - Dream Dinner

Fri and Sat. - Leftovers!!!


Goals for the week:


cleaning goals:

-Go through, wipe down, and declutter the inside of the kitchen cupboards
-Get new hardware for the kitchen cabinets
-Wipe/clean kitchen cabinets with Murphy's Oil Soap
-finish cleaning the cloth chairs in the kitchen

exercise goals:

-Workout at the gym 3X's this week
-Run 3X's this week

teaching goals:

-Do 5 reading lessons with Alyssa
-Do two crafts or creative activities with the kids
-Read books for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon with the kids
-Practice S writing page with Alyssa
-Do letter flashcards with Malachi 3x's this week

family goals:

-have one family game night this week

personal goals:

-list 5 items on Ebay
-set up family chore board
-work on magnets for my chore rewards (more on this in a post later this week)
-finish knitting baby hat
-have 4 15-20 minute prayer/quiet times



Linking up with Meal Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Valentine's Day stuff #2

I know that Valentine's Day is past but I wanted to share another thing that we did for Valentine's Day this year.  In the weeks prior to VDay, the kids and I headed to Target to pick up a few items and found these cute little mailboxes in the dollar section.  Some of the blogs that I follow were talking about how they decorated these mailboxes and put notes and treats in them for the kids.  I thought that would be a fun idea for my kids, since they are starting to grasp the idea of holidays.  Alyssa picked a pink one, Malachi a blue, I got a red and Leonard got white.  A few days later, I glued VDay scrapbook paper (also from the Target dollar section) on to the boxes.  When the paper was dry, I let the kids glue on gems to decorate there boxes.  We put the boxes on the mantel so they could be filled with treats.  This is how they turned out:

Mine and Leonard's

Malachi's and Alyssa's

All of them on the mantle

To fill the cans, I used these printouts from a link I found on Pinterest.  In the link, there were enough ideas for the first 14 days of Feb.  I skipped some of the days, so we only had about 9 days of goodies in our mailboxes.  Leonard had to open his mailbox first because he had the card with the "clue".  The kids loved this mailbox idea and couldn't wait until Dada got home so they could open their boxes!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!  I know this is a day late but I wanted to share a few things from our Valentine's Day.  Yesterday Alyssa had her Valentine's day party at school.  I found these cute Valentine's on Pinterest and wanted to make them for her class.  Here are how our's turned out.

I made 9 shovels total (three pink and six blue!).  The shovels were from target for $1 each.  I filled plastic bags I already had with a few pieces of candy and cut off the top.  I then tied the bag with curling ribbon to the shovel.  I really wanted to use white cardstock instead of red, but the red is what I had on hand.  I think they turned out cute!