Food Storage Site Giveaway

Over on Food Storage Made Easy they are having a giveaway for this wonderful food storage binder.
The drawing will be made on Thursday April 9th. This binder will help you to get and keep organized with your food storage. This is what is included in the binder:

• Instructions for how to make it cute and functional, exactly like ours!
• ALL 26 Baby Step Checklists (no more waiting for the next list!)
• 100 pages of detailed information about each of the ten Baby Steps
• Our very best posts, handouts, and extra information
• All the spreadsheets and documents you need to plan your 3 Month and Long Term Food Storage without needing a computer
• Recipe Appendix including all 33 recipes that we encourage you to try out in the Checklists
• Sections for additional research and personal notes to be added in
• Cute cover pages and dividers (because you know we have to make it fun)

This is a $17 value but worth so much more. Go check it out and put your name in the drawing. I am really wanting to win this one. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Weekend, Homemaking Mondays and Menu Plan Mondays

This weekend was a good one. I didn't get all that was planned but that is cool. Alan ended up working on Saturday so the planter boxes didn't get done or any of the other projects I needed him to help me with. But work is good to have!
Coco and Talmage came over to hang out. It was a good day in all. Saturday night Alan, Kyle and Dallas went to the Priesthood Session of conference. After they were done Dallas went out on a date. Alan and Kyle went and got a bite to eat. Coco and I were going to wait to eat with them but we were so hungry we ended up going to get Sonic. So the guys went out for fish and chips and came home with flowers for us. I know I have a great man! Sunday we watched conference. Coco and Talmage came over and then Kyle after work. I made dinner, brownies with walnuts and divinity covered chocolate. Oh my good but sooooo sweet!
Now it is Monday and on with my week.
Homemaking Mondays: Establish a house of order. I found this little saying that I love
"Out of dreariness
Into it cheeriness
Come we in weariness,
Home."
By Stephen Chalmers
This is one of the things I have been working on lately is trying to establish a house of order. Most people are more productive and happier in a home where thing are orderly, systematic, and reasonably structured.
I am reading a great book called The Ultimate Career The Art of Homemaking For Today, by Daryl Hoole and Daughters. It is a book on being a homemaker and taking pride in our great calling.
There are many blogs and sites to get organized but we each need to tweak them to make them fit our lives and families. Look around for ideas write them down and then make a plan with them. Use them for a while and see what makes thing easier for your life.

Menu Plan Monday:

Beef Taco Skillet
Mexican Salad
Corn

Beef Stroganoff
Green Beans
Rolls

Chicken Enchiladas
Left over Mexican Salad
Fruit

Turkey
Mash potatoes with gravy
Veggies

Homemade Pizza
Salad

Date Night

C.O.R.N. Clean out the fridge night!!

Off to get kiddos to school and workout. Going to the Ranch market to get fruits and veggies, quick shopping trip to Wal-Mart for items on my list and home to make freezer jam, do wash and other house blessings. Have a great Monday! Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Holy Snap It's a Shaq Attack

It is Friday and what a nice day it has been. Here in Arizona it is a wonderfully breezy day and hubby was off work this morning. We had a good breakfast together, worked on our first things first planning and then did the budget together. It is hard to make a budget when you aren't sure how much you will have coming in or if you will have a job then next week. But fear not I have the greatest faith in our Heavenly Father that things will work out and all will be well. We had a nice lunch together and then he had to go off to a side job he has been working on. See the Lord knows what we need and will provide.
During lunch I got a text message from Dallas with this picture:
This is Mr. Shaquille O'Neal of the Phoenix Suns. He was my favorite basketball players when he played for the Lakers. He is a reserve police officer in Tempe, Arizona. Shaq went to the EVIT school where Dallas is in Fire Fighting, to give a talk to the students. Now Dallas is a tall boy at almost 6 ft. tall and he chopped off the top of Shaqs head because he is so tall. Dallas was about a foot away from him in this picture.
This is Shaq on stage . I thought this was really cool that he would do this for the school.
Tonight is date night. Hubby might be taking the little girls to the movies in the early evening and then when he get's home we will do our date night.
This weekend in our church is General Conference. I am looking forward to this weekend it is always a wonderful time to be filled with the spirit all weekend with uplifting and informative information that betters us if we put it into effect in our lives. Durring the break in between sessions we are building a large planter box for our garden, similar to this one of Coco's . I am excited to get a garden in.
Just to fill you in on what has been going on Thursday was more organizing and homeblessings. I am very happy to get our house in order.
Off to read blogs and get caught up on what is going on with all you wonderful people.
Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Whatcha Working on Wednesday

Gabby was doing much better with no breakouts this morning so she went to school. She had scratched herself so hard in her sleep that behind her poor little knees there are major scrapes and she said it hurts to bend her legs to far. I felt so bad for her it did look really painful. We put on some medicated anti itch lotion and it seemed to help.
The schools here in Arizona are having the AIMS testing starting today. I think they should have planned it state wide that when they have the students all ready to take the test the yell out APRIL FOOLS!! And don't make them take the test. I think it would be funny.
It's here again Whatcha Working on Wednesday . I have my needs and wants ready for today. I decided what I would do is work 20 min. then take a break and come back and work on that way throughout the day with every 3rd time I do something that is a want to do (craft project or something along those lines). Kind of a little game with myself. I have some major organizing to do all over the house. I am not happy with the way it runs so things need to be moved and improved, clutter thrown away or given away, with those things that I or the family just doesn't' love anymore. I also am working on this project that my daughter Coco had. She had this great idea (not sure if she came up with it on her own but I love it) to save space and have DVDs in an orderly fashion use a CD case and put all the movies in it and get rid of all the bulky cases. Movies that are a PG-13 Rating (these can only be watched by the 13 and above crowd with Mom and Dad's approval) will stay in our room. This is the bag of those cases
Dallas wanted the cases so I am taking out all the extra little flyer's and the picture part on the case like this. There are some of my favorite movies so I decided instead of throwing the covers away I am going to make a collage with them for my craft room.
This is the case for the family movies I then have one like this for the PG-13 and Christmas & Holiday movies. I also have one that is half this size with my exercise DVDs in. I think this is a great way to save space and keep things organized. Now what to do with all of those VHS movies that are taking up space?
I am all caught up on wash, kiddos are at school so it is time for me to bless my home and myself. I will be listening to Mindy Gledhill sing for a while, As A Man Thinketh book on CD and The Rush Limbaugh show throughout the day.
I also wanted to share a book I started yesterday called "The Jackrabbit Factor The Story" by Leslie Householder . You can get it as a free E-book download at the link. It is real good so far.
Well speaking of jackrabbits I am off like one to get to work. Have a great Wednesday. I will try and check in later. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Hives, Today and Picture

I appreciate the well wishes for Gabby and her friendly little hives. These crazy things are getting better but not going away completely. There were a couple things out of the norm that she did or drank before the hives came around. She was at a friends house and wore a pair of her pj's and blankets. I was also informed that she drank tons of pink lemonade. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. Alan ground oatmeal for an oatmeal bath and that seems to help along with the Benadryl (sp?).
E'lyse had an uneventful day at school. Yeah!
I didn't get my list done. Hubby and I did a bunch of talking and more talking so it was a fun day.
Since the beginning of the school year I have wanted to get a picture of Dallas in his turnouts for the EVIT training for Fire Science (fire fighting) he would never let me take some. So today I am looking around my file on my computer and I found some pictures to share.
I really like this one.
After fighting fire.
Dallas and buds. He is the one with the beard at 16!!
Flames must have been bright. he he
This last one I just like. He is wearing my dew rag
Have a great evening! Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Bomb Scare and What I Accomplished

I got all but 5 of the items on my list done. I was happy with what I did get accomplished considered my time to get it done was cut short.
Yesterday I was plugging away at getting things done on my list. And I receive a phone call from one of E'lyse's friends mom telling me I need to turn on the news. There was an explosion at their school. So I listen to the news and call the school. They read the press release to me and I found out that E'lyse and her friend weren't injured. The school is on lock down. When the schools go on lock down no one is allowed on campus or leave campus, exception the police. Then I got a call from the nurse at Faith and Gabby's school that Gabby has broke out in hives. So I went to pick up her and went home to give her medicine. While I was at her school the principle called me into his office. His son and E'lyse are good friends. He told me they had moved the children to the School District office and I could go pick her up there.
I went to the office and it was a nut house. I got there and the parking lot was packed and there were cops everywhere. They were busing the children from there school and keeping them in the gym at this office. I waited from 1:12 when I arrived till 2:45 to get her. They were not prepared for this type of evacuation. Hopefully there will not be a need for this again, but this was a good way to see they weren't ready.
It turns out a child filled a 2 liter bottle with drain cleaner and mixed something else with it. It was kicked across the what I belive was the lunch area and it exploded. There were 8 children injured due to this. It is sad that this has to happen, but we can only learn and teach our chilren what not to do and they have their free agency. I feel sorry for the children injured and the family and boy that did this. This is somehting that probably won't be soon forgotten in this area.
Today Alan is home from work and we are going to work on somethings that need to be done and he has a job this afternoon that he and Dallas will be going to. I have Gabby home today still covered in hives and sleeping. I am going to grind up some oatmeal for a bath and I think this will help her feel better.
I am also planning on getting the cookies made that I didn't get to yesterday and work on my craft room. There are things that need filed so that is the biggest job in there.
Off to do homeblessing and spend time with hubby and Gabby. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

New Wonderful Giveaway At Sugar Pie

Now the secret is out over at Sugar Pie Farmhouse there is a homemakers dream giveaway. Ruth Ann just had her blog renovated and it is beautiful. She is giving away some cook books, an darling apron that I would love to win and some other items. Please go check it out and enter the giveaway.
I know I have posted a lot today it is like my blog got into my Diet Coke. he he
Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Wonderful Quote

While reading blogs today I was reading Modern Molly Mormon and there was a quote put on by Military Molly that I just love and I think this is one ALL women should read.

I must admit I fail often of this just letting myself look like a windstorm blew me in. This makes me want to try harder to be more like an angle. Heavenly Father knows each of us and loves us. We are made in his image and we are all beautiful, maybe not to the media standards but in Gods eyes we are. May you were the beauty that is in your heart on your outside. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Making My Home Sing Monday

I found another wonderful blog that can be a blessing to all of us. It is Mom's The Word. It is a way of listing the things to make your home sing. Kind of like Whatcha Working on Wednesday but on Monday. So go on over and check out out Mom's blog it is great and sign up to join in.
I love being a homemaker. Sometimes I am better at it than others. Last week was a not so good week for me. I let my schedule get way off track and things have piled up, but this week is going to be a good one I can just feel it.
In "Making My Home Sing" today I will do the following:
Wash: All wash from hubby and I including bedding
Dust house throughout
Vacuum House throughout including the stairs
Wash E'lyse, Faith and Gabby's clothes in their hampers they brought down
Fold and put away clothing
Sweep and mop tile throughout the house
Unload dishwasher
Clean up girls room to get it organized (AGAIN)
Clean out master closet of clothing that hasn't been worn for over a year
Go to grocery store and do light shopping trip
Fix snack for girls
Clean up craft room from weekend neglect
Fix dinner and make chocolate chunk cookies
Prepare lesson for Family Home Evening
I will be working in my mind throughout the day The Law of Attraction.
That's it for today other than eating lunch. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Homemaking Monday and Menu Plan Monday

For my Homemaking Monday I would like to refer to my post from Sunday for the French Vanilla Raspberry Muffins . These are very good and easy to make.

Menu Plan Monday
Chicken Pesto
Sliced Tomatoes
Salad
Oranges slices

Keilbasa Skillet Stew
Corn Bread
Salad

Homemade Pizza
Family pick toppings
Salad

Pigs in a Blanket
Homemade Mac-n-cheese
Salad
Peaches

Spaghetti Carbonara
Garlic bread
Salad
Green beans

Date Night

These are not in any particular order. Hugs, Bobbi Jo