Going Green?

I realize that I have been a real slacker lately with posting on my blog.  I have so many things swimming in my head.  My husband and I are taking a Dave Ramsey class where we are learning more about our money as well as in my moms group at church I am taking a wonderful class on biblical parenting.  Caden’s been teething and I’ve been trying to keep the house clean.  As well as learning how to stick to a budget and continue to cut corners so that so we can continue to save while we are preparing to have another little baby.

Ah life can be crazy sometimes but I am thankful for my life and what God has blessed us with.  I found this website where I am considering making my own household cleaners.  Most are extremely easy and would save bunches of money plus I believe that they are much healthier for my family.

Growing up in a family like I did I realize that I am completely clueless that you can actually make some of this stuff at home.  Well, here it goes!  Let me know what else you make homemade.  I may have never thought of it before.

Saving Money Shopping online

So in 2010 my new years resolution is to learn as many money saving tips as possible.  One that I knew about but previous started using is shopathome.com click on this link and you should get $5 just for signing up.  You can get between 1% and 30% cash back on your purchases whoo hoo!  If you are going to shop online you might as well get a little money back while doing it!

What’s happening at the Webb’s?

I can’t believe that December has almost flown by. It’s almost Christmas and almost time to unwrap all those gifts that have been sitting in the corner of our closet for bug to open Christmas morning.  It’s been a wild ride this year all the way from January to December.  This time last year I believe that we were hoping that Jonathan would get a job with Mass Mutual doing financial investments.  He did and started last January!  It proved to be a much harder position that we had expected and with much prayer and the fear of having to take out the little retirement we had we decided that it wasn’t the career move that we wanted to take.  Jonathan was stressed and we were going more and more in debt as the months passed by.  Then this summer Jonathan’s dad offered him a job at the library that he runs as an overseer of all the old religious books that sit on the shelves and hopes that Milan, Jonathan’s hometown was going to hire a director of the Chamber of commerce in September.  So we decided that our best option was to move from Nebraska to Tennessee.  So at the end of August that is exactly what we did.  We are still praying for our home to sell in Nebraska.  It still sits there waiting for us like we are going to come back to it.  Empty.  But, I’m pretty sure we will be living here in Tennessee for quite awhile. So here we are looking back.  We’ve lived in Tennessee for several months and Jonathan just had an interview for the Milan chamber of commerce which of course they haven’t hired for yet.   Hopefully soon.  It doesn’t look like they will be the beginning of the year but probably shortly after.  If the Lord chooses not to provide that job for us we will have to once again think through next steps for our future but we are praying that the Lord would provide my husband that job.  We are thankful at this time of year for family that loves us and a healthy baby boy and Lord willing a healthy baby on the way.  We are thankful how the Lord has provided for us since we left our work in missions and we can’t believe how Caden is growing by leaps and bounds.

Caden just turned 15 months old.  He is chattering all the time and often saying short words that we can understand.  He starting to try to climb on things and now plays with his toys like a champ.  He doesn’t take naps so well and doesn’t even really sleep through the night like he once did occasionally waking up, but the poor kid has had brutal teeth problems with those little chompers coming up.  It seems as though he is always teething and then he gets several in at one time.  Caden is all boy.  He loves to laugh and through things and laugh some more. He has this super cute smile where he scrunches up his little nose at us and you can’t ever be mad at him.  He keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing.  He loves to eat and he eats A LOT!  He raises his hands during worship at church and is always praising Jesus.  He loves the nursery at church and can’t wait to play with the kids.  I can’t believe he already seems to understand most of what we see and he often backs off when we tell him NO! unless he’s tired and crabby in which case he often proceeds to test us.  I love my little bug!  I love being a mommy!  We are so thankful once again that we have bug #2 on the way.

Menu Plan Monday (on Tuesday)

Hey!  This week we didn’t exactly get all the meals in that we hoped so here’s our Menu plan until we travel to St. Louis on the 25th to Celebrate Christmas with my family.

Tuesday:  Lasagna, salad, bread

Wednesday: Chicken pot pie

Thursday: Bertoli Frozen Dinner, salad, bread

Friday: slow cooker french dip

Saturday: sausage casserole, eggs and fruit

Sunday: small group Christmas party – Oreo truffles!  Yum!

Monday: pizza with sausage and green pepper

Tuesday: spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, bread

Wednesday: slow cooker orange chicken – thanks to Miranda!

Thursday: Greek chicken wrap

giveaway

Moneysavingmom.com is having another 24 hour give away!  She’s giving away 5 $100 gift cards to the store of your choice!  That’s a great deal if you still have some last minute Christmas shopping to do!  All you have to do is pass by her website to find out instructions into entering the giveaway.  Check it out at moneysavingmom.com Enjoy and goodluck!

Big Blue Eyes

The Blind Side

On Friday night we headed to the fabulous Milan movie theater (The Ritz) to see The Blind Side while Memaw kept an eye on the little man.  However, we came back empty handed because the Milan movie theater sold out?!?! And 30 minutes before the show!?!?!  I was so surprised!  Milan didn’t get the movie until just this weekend which was two weeks past opening weekend and Jonathan and I were dying to see it!  So we checked out the matinee on Saturday afternoon and got tickets!  Ok, now check out this flow…A matinee at the Milan movie theater is $3 a ticket (so 2=$6), a Large popcorn (it is refillable I might add) is $3, and a Large drink is $3 (also refillable).  So our grand total for a new movie was $12!!!  Whoo hoo!  We just love the Milan movie theater.  That is a great way to save money in this economy!

So after once again the initial shock of the very cheap movie prices wearing off we sat down to watch the movie!  This one is five start folks, or two thumbs up whichever you prefer!  It is a very inspiring movie about a Memphis teenager that is given a second chance at life by a wealthy Memphis family who adopts them.    It is a true story which makes it all the more better and even better than that the headstrong momma is a Kappa Delta!  So I have lots of ties to this  movie!  Plus, this story takes place at a Christian school which I can only imagine since I graduated from a Christian highschool.  This one is a tear jerker and a family movie.  Sandra Bullock had a wonderful performance and I think she deserves an award for this film.  I heard talk of her maybe being nominated for an Oscar or this one.  So if you haven’t seen it yet I would take a date night, a girls night, a family night or whatever to you local theater because it’s worth the green.

Meal Plan Monday

Still working hard to get my grocery budget down.  This week I’m going to be shopping at Save-a-lot.  We will see how it goes.  I got a $5 off coupon online for any $20 spent.  I’m sure that I’ll spend more than $20 this week.  I have lots of coupons that I have found that will hopefully make it an inexpensive week. So here on my meals folks!  Enjoy!

Dinner

Monday: Chicken Burritos, tortilla chips, salsa – I usually season the chicken and make them with rice, black beans, cheddar cheese, green onions and any of the normal fix-ens, this is a family favorite my husband loves burritos!

Tuesday: Pizza- order out!  Treat ourselves out night!

Wednesday: Baked Potato bar

Thursday:  Chicken Pot Pie – this is a friend of mines recipes that I am eager to try out!  Buy some ready made pie crusts. Place one in the bottom of the pie pan. In a mixing bowl add 1 can of cream of celery soup, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 can of mixed vegetables, and any leftover chicken or turkey – mix together – put in pie pan on top of the crust. Put the other crust on top and pinch together sides. Bake (you’ve preheated your oven already to whatever the directions on the pie crust box are) according to directions on pie crust – usually about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Everyone loves this and there are never any leftovers

Friday: Sausage Casserole, scrambled eggs, fruit-  also a friends recipe You need 2 cans of crescent rolls, 2 pounds of breakfast sausage, and 1 and 1/2 blocks of cream cheese.
Cook your sausage until done and crumbly – mix in a large bowl with the block and 1/2 of cream cheese. Lay out 1 can of crescent rolls in the bottom of a casserole dish – add the sausage mixture – add the other can of crescent rolls on top (just unroll the crescent rolls so it makes 1 long pastry). Cook according to the directions on the crescent roll can. That’s all there is to it.

Saturday: Easy Lasagna, garlic bread, salad

I use 9 lasagna noodles, 1 jar of Prego spaghetti sauce, 1 container of ricotta (I can’t remember which size – but it’s not the tiny one and not the huge one either – possible 12 or 16 ounce size.), about a 1/4 cup of parmesan, an egg and some parsley and about 2 cups of mozzarella. Boil your 9 noodles – while that’s going mix your ricotta, 1/4 cup of parmesan, 1 egg and a palm of parsley in a bowl. After the noodles are boiled, rinse so you can handle them. Spray a casserole pan with cooking spray and add 3 noodles to the bottom, use about 1/2 of your cheese mixture on top of the noodles, dump about 1/3 of your jar of sauce and spread, then add another layer of noodles. Spread the other half of your cheese mixture, dump another 1/3 of your sauce, spread and add your last layer of noodles. Add the remaining sauce, put your mozzarella on top and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 or until the cheese melts. Very easy and everyone loves this one too.   This is also Vicky’s recipe!  Enjoy!

Sunday: leftovers, sandwiches, etc.

Breakfast

muffins

oatmeal

bagel sandwich – freezer

waffles

Snacks

Pita Chips

Spinach Dip

Cookies

Veggies and ranch

Lunch

Mac and Cheese

tuna salad

peanut butter and jelly

leftovers

BLTs

Enjoy!

Is it a phase?

The past couple of nights baby boy has been waking up and talking to himself for an hour or more (sometimes two!).  Of course, being the light sleeper that I am I can’t sleep at all while he is awake until I know he’s back asleep.  Last night around 3:00 or 3:30 I heard him up again chatting with himself and so by 4am I had to go peak in his room to see what kind of party was going on in there.  I found him laying on his back with his hands behind his head staring at the ceiling.  What a little ham.  He saw me and started pointing at me.  I gave the little guy his paci and rocked him for a minute or two and put him back in his crib.  He of course didn’t go to sleep right away but proceeded to talk to himself.  By the time he did fall asleep I couldn’t.  It must have been 5:30 before I fell back asleep.  I woke up so tired this morning.  I don’t know if it’s just a phase, he’s super curious or if he gets too much sleep during the day but I can’t figure out why he can’t sleep at night.  He’s funny anyway.

Meal Plan Monday

I used to be so organized and I really don’t know what happened.  My new years resolution is going to be saving my family money in 2010 and I am committed to doing it by learning the coupon ropes and planning my meals before I go to the grocery store.  Surely we will save money on our food budget.  If you have any meal planning, money saving tips I would love to hear them.  Our very local grocery store is Walmart so I am going to do most of my grocery shopping there with an occasional trip to Kroger which is a little bit of a drive away. Hopefully I will quickly get in the habit of posting my meals in attempt to help others and to hold myself accountable to my commitment:

Monday: Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken, pasta, Caesar salad

Tuesday: Slow cooker pot roast w/veggies, rolls

Wednesday: soup w/shrimp

Thursday: Cashew Chicken Casserole, canned corn

Friday: slow cooker rice and beans, apple sauce

Saturday: French Fry Casserole, green beans

Sunday: Small group dinner at Blake and Lisa’s

So here it is!  Enjoy!