Organizing for the New Year

I love a new calendar!! Every year I enjoy putting together my new calendar and this year was no different. I get out my stickers and special calendar pens and write away. I love the potential of a new year and creating a well-organized calendar. It truly is one of my joys.

Here are some of the things I do to make my calendar more organized:

Use different color pens.
* I use green for birthdays and anniversaries. I also use them for births and weddings as they will go into the birthday/anniversary category next year.
* I use red for school events. That includes sporting events at the area middle schools and high schools (I'll talk about organizing these later) and for my husbands deadlines at seminary (this helps me keep him on track without nagging).
* I use blue for any church events. This includes middles school and high school church youth club activities, meetings that take my husband out of town, women's ministry meetings and events, church worship service changes or something we're participating in that Sunday, and anything else church/work (for husband) related.
* I use black for our family stuff. If there's something that involves cooking deadlines I usually put a box around it and if it's a doctor's appointment I circle it twice so it stands out. That's something I don't want to miss.

Use stickers.
Over the past several years I've purchased calendars that included stickers. This year my calendar didn't come with stickers, so I'm just going to use my leftover stickers from previous years.

Put phone numbers next to appointments.
I know the ped's number by memory, but not the ENT, ophthalmologist, plumber, electrician, etc. I always put their phone number on the calendar by the apt. so that if I'm running late, they're running late or I need to change the apt. I can call them easily without having to take the time to look the number up.

Daily schedule goes right on the calendar.
I am using a desk calendar this year so it's easier to do. I use the left-hand column reserved for notes to put a printout of my daily schedule. It's just a quick reminder for me. Also, I put the library hours, weekly cleaning schedule on the non-numberd days of the calendar. Another friendly reminder.

Highlight special birthdays/anniversaries/weddings...
For special days that require more than just a card, I put a little doodle around the day. This helps me to easily see if there's a gift I need to purchase or a special phone call I need to make. Otherwise I'll forget. I also put the date next to certain birthdays/anniversaries. This helps me to remember if it's a milestone that needs to be celebrated as well.

Ok, on to the organizing of sports schedules. My husband works full-time at our church with middle school students. He also helps out with the high school students, and so do I. We think it's really important to show our interest in the students outside of "church" time and it's a great way to get to know parents and the community we're serving. Our students attend different schools in the area, so we try to make it to at least one game of each school/gender/activity. We even try to go to games that our students aren't actually involved in because we know there will be students and parents there that we know. And it's fun. Our oldest son must think he's going to an NBA game when we go to a middle/high school sport. We get to have popcorn and cheer with an excited crowd. It's a fun thing to do as a family.

So, this is what I do: I print out all the schedules of the actvities: boys basketball, girls basketball, wrestling for middle school and high school (this year it's mainly two schools). I then print out a blank calendar using Microsoft Publisher (I use the basic black and white calendar). I use different color pens for each event boys and girls. I write out all the home games on the days we would be able to attend (no Thursdays as that's our designated date night). This makes it easy to see the events better. Here's our game schedule for this winter:

Jan 5 - AHS 9th boys basketball
Jan 9 - AHS 10th/varsity boys basketball
Jan 12 - GHS 9th/jr varsity girls basketball
Jan 16 - GMS 7th boys basketball
Jan 26 - GHS 9th/jr varsity girls basketball
Jan 31 - AHS wrestling
Feb 2 - AHS 9th girls basketball
Feb 3 - GMS 8th boys basketball
Feb 6 - GHS varsity girls and boys basketball
Feb 9 - AHS jr varsity boys basketball
Feb 10 - AHS jr varsity/varsity girls basketball
Feb 23 - AMS 8th boys basketball

Mind you, the kids and I won't be going to all the games, but my husband will.

And here's an issue that I really struggled with this year:

Desk vs. Hanging Calendars
After a long deliberation, I'm converting back to a desk calendar. When I was a nurse at the hospital, I relied on a desk calendar because I could take it with me so I could write my work schedule down. But since I've been at home, I haven't really "needed" a desk calendar and have enjoyed having it hanging in the kitchen. But this year, I'm finding myself making appointments that require me to have a calendar along (doctor appointments, church meetings, etc). I don't want to have to bring my hanging calendar everywhere, so I decided to make the switch. I think I'm really going to like it. I will still have a birthday calendar hanging in my kitchen (my sister made me one from Snapfish). That will be a helpful reminder for sending cards on time and she put some great pictures on there.

Well, that's my calendar excitement. Like I said, I really love a new calendar. I look forward to creating ways to make it more organized so I can be more efficient and productive with my time. It's just fun for me!!

Anyone have any exciting calendar ideas?

Simply Romantic

Tonight my husband and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary. We went to a nice restaurant and spent 3 hours dining. It was great! We just talked and reminisced and planned together. We reviewed our hardest times and thanked God for getting us through them. And we laughed over the good times...and the not so good times. It's nice that we can laugh about certain "hurts" that were such a big deal when we were first married. God has been good to us!

Something we invested in several years ago and are still using is Simply Romantic Nights by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. We actually got it for my husbands parents when we got married. They're pretty romantic already, but we thought they'd appreciate the gift. It's a nice way to reconnect and it was especially helpful after we had our first son. We just needed to refocus on our relationship and this is a great way to do it. Basically, it's a year of dates in a box (two dates a month one planned by the husband and one planned by the wife). We each take turn picking a date idea out of the box and then plan away. We usually do a date like this once every other month or so. They're really fun and really tasteful. It's a great way to get to know eachother again.

Peanut Blossoms

These are the cookies I made for my sister's fiance. They were really yummy which made them a little hard to give away. ;)


Peanut Blossoms
makes about 6 dozen

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
sugar
Chocolate Stars

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar together. Add egg and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking soda and salt. Shape into balls and roll in sugar (I used colored sugar) and place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and place Chocolate Star on each, pressing down so cookie cracks. Return to oven and bake another 3 minutes.

Homemade Christmas Gift

My youngest sister and I decided that we wanted to do a homemade Christmas this year. Her fiance asked for peanut butter and chocolate cookies so I made him Peanut Blossoms. And I made her a blanket. I really wanted to do something with pink and black since she likes that...but I couldn't find two fabrics that I really liked. But I found these two fabrics in thermal fabric and they were really cute together. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I really didn't know what I was doing when I started, but it turned out great! And my stripes are even straight all the way down!She made my husband and me a calendar from Snapfish. It's great because there are pictures that correspond with people's birthdays and anniversaries. Fun!!

I also started sewing a little something for myself. It's supposed to be a table runner, but I didn't want my little people pulling it off the table, so I just made something to use as a center piece. I don't have any batting right now, so I'll have to wait to stitch the batting and backing on, but I really like how it's turning out. I found some fun Christmas fabrics that were on sale. I'm also making a mod log cabin table runner for a friend...don't know who yet, but it's super cute!!

Review of Our First Week

I think I'm just going to review my homeschool weeks and give you the good, the bad, and improvements I could make.

Here's our learning poster for the week (our memory verse is "A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs15:1)
Here are the books we read and discussed (I starred the ones that he favored):*Rodeo Ron and His Milkshake Cows
*Millie Wants to Play
*Moo Who?
A Particular Cow
Daisy the Firecow
Moonstruck: The True Story... (don't recommend, too wordy and confusing for little kids)
The Cow Who Clucked (the pictures are really artistic and a good way to introduce some art, but on some pages it's hard to determine what the subject is, you'll have to point some stuff out)

Other books we enjoyed this week:My Truck Is Stuck
Little Smudge
Alphabet City
Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners

My son doesn't want to "do school" right after breakfast because he wants to go play cars. So, we'll have to rearrange his schedule and see what works better. I'd like to get it done right away in the morning, but that doesn't seem to work for him. Also, I'm going to do a better job of reviewing the books before we read them together. The book "Moonstruck" was not a great book for a 2 1/2 -year-old. I guess I'm learning along with him.

Oh, for the Letter of the Week Preparatory Curriculum we have an index card with the number of the week. He gets to put the same number of stickers on the index card. I didn't know what I was going to do with the cards, but I found a 4x6-inch picture album for $0.99 at Wal-Mart and it works great. I just made my own cover.

Say Good-bye to Handmade Toys

Yep. And I don't like it one bit. It makes me sad to think that there will be no more handmade toys sold because of the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. It's great in theory: no more lead-laden toys from China. They have to be tested by a third party before they can be sold. But this isn't just for China...it's for everyone making and selling handmade toys and clothes. This includes my husband's cousin's husband (that sounded way more confusing that it really is). He makes wooden toys and it would be too expensive ($4000 per individual item) to have testing done on them, so it's likely that he won't be making toys anymore.

Here are a few posts by other bloggers about this topic:

Heard In the Slammer: "I Used To Make Homemade Toys."
We Need Your Help to Save Handmade Toys
Handmade Toys Alli

I don't want my kids ingesting lead, but I want them to be able to play with handmade toys too. There has to be a better way. Please consider writing to your congress persons and senators to add an amendment to this law. I'm not one for writing to government officials, but I will do it this time. There are even sample letters if you're not sure what you're supposed to say. Follow the instructions on Cool Mom Picks. (You can add the button to your webpage/blog as well.)

Thanks! I'll get off my soapbox now.

Chicken Enchiladas

I haven't made this recipe since we were first married and living in our little apartment. My mother-in-law was over for the weekend and we made this for lunch after church. I remembered it tasting good so I thought I'd give it a try with the boys. And they liked it. It makes for great leftovers.

Chicken Enchiladas

1/2 cup onions, browned in 2 tbsp margarine or butter
1/4 cup pecans (opt)
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp cumin
2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
6 tortillas (I used Azteca Homestyle Flour Tortillas)

Topping:
1 can cream chicken soup (I used cream of mushroom)
8 oz sour cream
1 cup milk
1/2 can green chilies

Mix onions, cream cheese, milk, cumin chicken and 1 cup of cheddar cheese. Place 1/2 cup mixture per tortilla, roll, and place seam down in greased 9x13-inch pan.

Mix topping and spread evenly over tortillas.

Cover and bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and top with remaining 1 cup cheddar cheese. Bake uncovered for an additional 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I topped the enchiladas with lettuce and tomato. I also served Hy-Vee's Restaurant-Style Tortilla Chips with Black Bean and Corn Salsa (that I got free!! with the purchase of the chips!).

PS. I have to admit this isn't my favorite recipe for chicken enchiladas. If you have a chicken enchilada recipe, I'd love to give it a try.

Gramma's Homemade Buns

My husband's Gramma is a wonderful cook! I'm going to treat you with her recipe for "homemade" buns using a bread machine.

Gramma's Homemade Buns

1 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar, divided
2 tsp yeast (regular or bread machine yeast)
2 tbsp softened butter or margarine
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour

Heat the cup of cold water in the microwave on high for 13 seconds. Pour into the bread machine pan and add 2 tsp of the sugar and the yeast and let it activate. Then add flour, sugar, butter and salt. Gramma's machine has a feature of "First Rise" in which the machine mixes and rises only once (takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes). Take bread dough out of machine and form into buns and let rise until double. If using a convection oven: bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes. If using a traditional oven: bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Gramma's notes:
Most bread machine recipes have you put the yeast in without letting it activate in sugar and warm water but I found that the yeast did not always dissolve and you get a better rise doing it the "old fashioned" way. It is important that the salt does not get into contact with the yeast. That's why I add the salt last or between cups of flour. The first loaf I made with my machine was only 4 inches high, after that i never followed the book instructions!! Sound like a Gramma thing?

You can make them small to serve with a meal or you can make them a little larger to use for sandwiches. They're really great because they're crusty on the outside and chewy in the middle. I was skeptical of activating the yeast because I'm a rule-follower, but it worked well and the buns are delicious.