Hope you all have a bright and merry Christmas season!
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Cruzin' Thru...Life, Love and Health |
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I'm so excited that Christmas is almost here! I'm super-glad that we are just about done with all of our shopping - a few more things and it's a wrap! I'm so glad I got started with my planning and shopping earlier this month, and let me tell you - it feels great to have the holiday shopping stress off my shoulders! I'm looking forward to lots of fun times with my family, sharing traditions and creating new memories. I hope to have lots more time to devote to RACK, and have my kiddos help so that they can really see that Jesus is the reason for the season. Anywhoo... I digress. :) I'm also super-pumped to have my monthly menu all set out. It really saves so much time to do it all at once. The best thing about it, is this menu is very flexible which is perfect for a month like December, when we have so much family coming in from out of town, so it is uber-important to be flexible since even the best laid plans can get a little off-track! Hope you all have a bright and merry Christmas season!
© Cruzin' Thru | 2015
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Ok, if you're anything like me, you love the looks of surprise when loved ones open their gifts at Christmas! But, it can be a real pain to try and keep your gifts and what you're shopping for a secret! I used to tuck mine in what I thought was a safe spot and then had family members find it!
But, the past few years, I have really loved my Gift Plan App that I purchased from the iTunes Store - best 99 cents I've ever spent! I love using this for my holiday shopping lists, but it can be used for other occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. If you use the calendar in the app, it will give you friendly reminders of an occasion that's coming up also. Each person gets their own "profile" if you will, with the option of listing out ideas as well as taking pictures, important info like purchase price and where bought! BUT, my favorite part of this whole app, is that it is password protected! No one can get in there except for me (cue evil laugh! bwahahahaha!) Except that I hope to God I remember what my password is lol! Any-whoo, it's a great way to help organize my shopping lists and a great way to help me stay on budget! I hope you will give this app a shot. If you're not keen on spending $0.99 for it, there should be some similar apps that are free, so try them out as well! XOXO- Jess Usually, I'm lucky if I've even started my Christmas shopping at the end of November... most of the time, it's usually after the first week in December. And by that point, we're all running around like crazy trying to find the perfect gifts for everyone, that we aren't able to truly enjoy the magic of the season with our family and friends. This year will be different because I came across this little gem of an idea from Kaley over at Cha-ching On A Shoestring! Essentially, she starts planning for Christmas in November. Well, duh, what a concept! *Light bulb going off* So, it may sound a little crazy, especially given our busy and hectic schedules and still trying to plan birthdays and Thanksgiving - but I'm going to give it a shot! I used Kaley's ideas from her 20 Minute Missions, tweaked quite a few of them and using an excel calendar, created this very simple calendar to try this year. It is editable, so please feel free to download and tweak how you feel best. I do have quite a few personalized gifts that I'll be ordering/making this year, so that will be taking up a considerable amount of time. Also, I plan to try and do as much shopping online using Amazon. Since I'm currently a student, I was able to take advantage of the student Amazon Prime rate, and in my opinion, the best feature is the free two-day shipping! Whatever I can't order online, I've got a day dedicated to shopping the weekend before Thanksgiving. My ultimate goal is to have everything ordered, purchased and wrapped, packages that need to be shipped to out of town family and Christmas cards in the mail by the end of November! I'm ok with a month of craziness now, if that will better enable us to enjoy the Christmas season for all it's worth, with thermos' full of hot chocolate, checking out the Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music and celebrating the birth of our Savior with my family! Wish me luck, I have a feeling I may need it! Wishing you all a blessed holiday season!
© Cruzin' Thru | 2015
November is going to be a busy month for us, with a family birthday, continued sports activities, family coming into town, Thanksgiving and getting ready for the holiday season! Let the craziness begin :) So glad that dinner is planned for the month, this will help save my sanity!
© Cruzin' Thru | 2015
I absolutely love October, it's when the cooler weather starts coming in, leaves start changing their colors, but the sun is still golden warm so it makes everything seem magical! This month's menu is below, will try to link some of my past recipes here as well. I realized after I drafted this month's menu, that I don't have much of the "in-season" fruits and veggies, so I'll definitely be adding those in where I can - if it happens to be in the form of pumpkin bread, that a sacrifice I'll just have to live with - haha! Hope y'all enjoy! Let me know what you think of the menus, if there are any recipes or themes that you would like to see featured here!
© Cruzin' Thru | 2015
Part of being an organized family is making sure that all of the events for school, family, etc are in a central place where everyone can see it. Personally, I live by my google calendars - but since they're on my phone and not in a place where everyone has easy access to it, it's not helpful to all of the other members of my family. So, several months ago I created a two-month-at-a-glance calendar. It was really pretty easy and super cheap! I purchased one of those cheap poster frames for $3 or $4, some extra-fine dry-erase markers - and that was it! I printed out the calendars at home, and ended up using some cute wrapping paper for the background. I had some leftover 3M command strips and used that to stick the poster to the wall. Quick and inexpensive way to organize our family's goings-on! I mentioned earlier that I live by my google calendars. I have separate calendars for appointments, family fun/events, running events, kids-school, my step-daughter's shared calendar with her mom, menu-planning, my training schedule, my class schedule, etc. And each calendar has it's own color - so for the information that goes on our family calendar, I used the same coloring system on this calendar below as I have setup with my Google calendars. Since I'm already used to it, why create a whole other color scheme and create confusion?! On our calendar below, we have family fun/events, appointments, school, running events, birthdays, sports, and holidays. My whole family loves this, my step-daughter knows what her schedule with her dad will be, my son knows when his practices are, both kids know when school events are, everyone knows each other's appointments are as well as fun family events! Having it visible, at least for the kids, gives them something to look forward to! They like to be in charge of their schedules too! © Cruzin' Thru
Well, we survived the first full week of back to school! I don't know about you, but I seriously feel like that first week was a whirlwind of pure chaos! Not only did our kiddos start, but fall sports also started with practices several times a week, as did my classes, so it's definitely been a bit of a juggle for my husband and I and making sure everyone and everything is taken care of and ready to rock and roll! Needless, to say, I am looking forward to getting back on point with our monthly menu planning. It helps my sanity (lol) to know that dinner is planned, I've got all of the groceries, etc. Our schedules are going to be pretty chaotic over the next few months, so it's nice to get back to the routine! We will definitely be using the crockpot at least once a week, if not two or three times, some simple sandwich nights, quick meals, etc. I'll be doing a lot of Sunday prep work at the beginning of each week. The beauty of these meals, is that I can make more than enough, so that my kids, husband and I can use the left overs for lunch the next day. Homemade and healthy! Please feel free to use this menu to help guide you through your month! Also check back to see some of the delicious recipes that we will be making!
© Cruzin' Thru
I have recently come across the greatness that is Miss Poppins's blog, check it out here. On her blog I found a great chore binder system which is chock full of awesome printables. The entire bundle is only $10, and is a great way to implement a chore system at home with kids, without stressing mommy and daddy out! We already have a pretty good system at home, so I didn't necessarily need the entire thing, but I did see the Family Council printables and instantly loved it. It has some good thought behind it, and is a way to efficiently tackle everything coming up in the next month, as a family. I love that it starts out with everyone mentioning one praise or good thing about each other, which is huge in terms of building people up, especially our children! It opens the door to what is working well in the family, and what could be better, and the solution to make it better. There are outlined goals as a family, wants & needs, as well as family planning. I borrowed a lot of the information that she already had, created this printable, but also added areas for meal-planning and special requests. I love it, thinks it's a great way to get some awesome conversations started and also ensure that everyone feels like they have a voice in our family!
Last year, I created a fairly comprehensive list of fun things to do around our area, as well as things to do each day to help keep the boredom away for our kiddos. We all enjoyed it so much, I've decided to do it again and have update our weekly themes for this year! Just a refresher of how I planned out our weeks: June 8 - 12: Baseball
Monday: baseball string bracelet Tuesday: library: books or movie about baseball, players, etc Wednesday: ball park food - hot dogs and cracker jacks Thursday: water balloon baseball Friday: Head to Omaha for the College World Series! June 15 - 19: Fathers Monday: Father's Day Gifts/Cards Tuesday: Library - books about Dad Wednesday: Dad's favorite treat Thursday: Water gun fight! Friday: Dad's choice! June 22 - 26: Fishing & Camping Monday: build an old-fashioned, cane pole rod; Mini Marshmallow Shooters; water gun painting for our toddler; Make a rustic picture frame Tuesday: Library - books/dvds about fishing & camping Wednesday: homemade fried fish and s'mores, of course! Thursday: PVC Sprinklers Friday: Let's hit one of our local state parks for some fishing and camping June 29 - July 3: America The Beautiful Monday: Pipe Cleaner Fireworks red, white and blue tin can luminaries Tuesday: Library - books about America, fireworks, Independence Day Wednesday: homemade apple hand pies with ice cream; flag cookies; RWB rice krispy treats Thursday: Slip 'n Slide time! Friday: grillin', swimmin' and watchin' the fireworks! July 6 - 10: Shark Week/Ocean Monday: sand art painting Tuesday: Library - books about sharks/ocean/marine life Wednesday: shark/beach (banana) pudding or jello cups Thursday: Pinaqua (think pinata meets water balloon!) Friday: visit the aquarium July 13 - 17: Airplanes Monday: assemble paper or foam airplanes and fly them; or fly kites Tuesday: Library - books about airplanes Wednesday: In Flight Snack Mix (Chex Mix); french bread pizza planes Thursday: Sling Shot water balloon & target game Friday: Visit the American Airlines museum or see if there is an airshow in the area July 20 - 24: Friendship/Giving Back to the Community Monday: Make cards for seniors at the senior center, sweets for police/fire fighters, friendship jewelry or tokens for friends, and help packets for homeless persons Tuesday: Library - books about volunteering and friendship Wednesday: Start some Amish Friendship bread and pass along Thursday: Swimming at the Rec Center w/friends Friday: take cards to the senior center; take donations to the pet shelters and homeless shelters; treats to police and give our friends our gifts July 27 – 31: Circus Monday: Face painting Tuesday: Library - books about the circus, clowns and carnivals Wednesday: Homemade cotton candy Thursday: Ringling Bros @ the AAC! Friday: Circus games at home and in the pool! Aug 3- 7: Pirates Monday: Find your pirate name; Talk like a pirate; make a treasure map to use on Friday's hunt Tuesday: Library - books about pirates and treasure Wednesday: Pirate Pizza Thursday: water balloon pinatas; walk the plank Friday: pirate treasure hunt, ending at the ice cream shop Aug 10 - 14: Western Monday: Leather stamping on a belt, bracelet, book mark, etc. Tuesday: Library - books about the Wild West, maybe watch a "western" movie or Wild, Wild West! Wednesday: Grill some steak and beans, like in the 'ol days Thursday: Water gun shootout!!!! Friday: Mesquite Rodeo I'm really excited about this summer lineup! A lot of it is similar to what we had last year, but I did make some changes to a couple of weeks to give some variety to the summer. What are some things that you enjoy doing with your kids to help make sure they're not bored? Do you have any favorite weekly themes that you would like to see published here? Just drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you!! © Cruzin' Thru | 2015 Last night, I turned our family command center (which usually has menu info, appt/practice reminders, etc) into a fun ideas for summer center. I listed a lot of places that have been favorites of ours, but since I was limited in space, it's not comprehensive. But I love that anyone can go to the board and say "let's do this!"
What I like about it, is that if/when the kids say I'm bored, I can direct them to be bored to find some things to do: Been creative? Outside play? Read? Exercised? Done service? I also had created an "I'm bored" jar a while back, so will be revamping that to add some newer, more fun ideas to help keep the kids out of the summer slump. What are some fun things that your family enjoys? © Cruzin' Thru | 2015 |
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