Sunday Sunday

The weather has been super hot lately so Sunday after breakfast & a quick meeting with our Children's director at church we went to service.

Afterward we set up the pool & had a great time!

Mother's Day Gifts

Here's a fun little peek at the gifts our Moms got this year for Mother's Day.


You can see the whole book here

Piggy Bank

I've had an opportunity come up that would allow me to stay home with Molly part time. *Insert happy dance here!

Along with part time work comes part time pay. *Insert financial stress face here

So I've made some efforts in the last couple of weeks to really look at where our money goes. I mean I know we make it, and Lord knows we spend it, but on what exactly? I started reading this blog. Where this family of 6 is living on $28K/year. She's got some great practical tips and is very inspiring. But sorting out a budget (I mean a real one where you don't just toss it out the window halfway through the month) is a little overwhelming. So I poked around on Pinterest and found a few different budgeting forms.

This is my favorite

These would work too but I wasn't up for spending any money

Then I came across something about the envelope cash system. Which I have sort of done in the past I just didn't know that's what it was called. All my fixed bills were paid first (rent, utilities, etc) then whatever amounts were budgeted for the other categories I put onto giftcards. Grocery budget went on an HEB gift card & gas budget on a gas station gift card. When it ran out it was out. I'd have to decide if I wanted to use "entertainment" for it or not. If there was anything leftover it ran over to the next month and I could put the difference into savings.

So I've decided for experiment's sake to give it a try again this month. I filled out our budget and I'm going to make envelopes for my store specific cards. (I know you're suppsed to use cash because it's harder to spend than "plastic" cards but I'm being realistic here) I'll need 5:

HEB (groceries)

Target (diapers)

Wal-Mart (gas)

Dining Out (cash)

Entertainment (cash)

We'll see how it goes this month. Maybe this budgeting thing won't be excruciating so hard after all. And if I get stressed I'm going to go to these for comfort

Because when it comes right down to it....

This is what's really important!

DIY iphone Case

I just loved the idea of one of those fancy personalized phone cases but realistically it's not in my budget. So I made my own!


I bought a clear case from Amazon for $1.95+ shipping.



I found a pattern online that I liked and used Microsoft Word to lay a text box with my initial over the (2.3in x 4.5in) patterned space. Next time I'll probably just buy a piece of patterned scrapbook paper but I couldn't find any in this color scheme that I liked on my last Hobby Lobby trip. Then I cut around it and used a hole puncher to cut a space for my camera lens.

Super easy and took less than 5 minutes.

Mother's Day

This year I was blessed with an AWESOME "first" Mother's Day. I woke up to this sweet little one.

Yes my sweet girl and her daddy hit up Jared's for Mother's Day and gave me the most beautiful Ruby ring (Molly's birthstone)

After I opened my card & present we headed out to our favorite Sunday breakfast spot. Then we ran around getting the house ready for company. Today at church we were blessed to be able to join with our family (30+ of them) and our congregation as we dedicated Molly to the Lord.


Church Service



After service everyone came back to our house for BBQ.

Wednesday Weigh In...on Thursday

Favorites
With Cinco de Mayo being this week I was really in a margarita-y mood. With this mix you only have to "pay" for the points in the liquor. I'll take a 4 pt margarita any day.


Read about this one on Hungry Girl and finally found it. So yummy!


All about a "free" dessert. Jello has some really great flavors out right now. I guess JELL-O is gettin' ready for summer too.


Tips & Tricks

This website has such a great layout for a family/team challenge. It's more about getting motivation from those around you and devloping healthy habits than loosing weight but I'm excited to start this. If you wanna join me just print it out & play along starting June 1st


Recipes
Tamale Casserole
Ingredients:
1 cup shredded reduced fat Mexican cheese blend, divided (I used Weight Watchers brand)
1 (14.75 oz) can of corn, drained
1 (8.5 oz) box of corn muffin mix
1 can of Bush's Grilling Beans Black Beans, drained
3 chicken breast
1 pkt Taco Seasoning
1 can chicken broth

Place chicken breast, taco packet & chicken broth in crockpot on low for 6 hours. Shred. Bake corn bread according to box. Add canned goods to chicken and stir. Pour on top of cornbread. Top with cheese. Bake until melted.


Motivation


Stats
lost this week: 1
total loss since Molly was born:45
Lbs left til Pre-Molly Weight: 5

Dancin' to the Music