What I'm Reading...

Earlier this week, I made a batch of this homemade chocolate syrup. It turned out a little runnier than I expected, but still really tasty! We also went berry picking, and the combination of freshly picked strawberries with a drizzle of chocolate syrup was just perfect.

On Pumping And Bottles, Formula And Shame. All of my kids have been breastfed and formula fed. And it's still a hard topic for me. But I will always defend the choice to formula feed when it's the best choice for the family. (Life Your Way)

The Single Easiest Habit Change To Improve Your Life Forever. Jesse and I have both agreed to start watching less television for our evening entertainment, and do other things (like read more) instead. For me, summer is an easy time to do this because there aren't many shows that I watch, but I have a feeling it will be more challenging in fall. (Becoming Minimalist)

5 Things To Remember When Freezing Food. The stuff about freezing veggies is right up my alley. I freeze chopped up produce all the time. (Kitchen Stewardship)

The Quickstart Guide To A Decluttered Home. "I now realize that I always disliked the clutter, but I put off thinking about it because it was unpleasant." (Zen Habits)

Strawberries!

On Tuesday, we went strawberry picking at a farm about 20 minutes from our house.  Berry picking has been on my summer bucket list for the past few years, but usually by the time I get to thinking about it, berry season is already over.  The farm we went to also has peas and raspberries, and raspberry season just started, so we may take a second trip in the next week or two (we'll see if we have the freezer space!).

 We ended up with two boxes of strawberries, nearly 12 pounds! That's a lot of berries at once.

I set up a system to process them right away.

I had a cookie sheet for the smallest berries, which I froze whole. Those will be used for smoothies. I ended up with 2 cookie sheets full, which was about 2 gallon size freezer ziplocs.  I flash froze them for a few hours on the cookie sheets so they wouldn't stick together in the bags.

I had a big bowl for the rest of them, and the white bowl above for the stems.  I ended up just using my fingers to squeeze the stems off, because that was way faster than using the knife! Rinse the berries, core the berries, slice the berries, repeat.  It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would. I did one box Tuesday morning right away, and the second after lunch.

On Wednesday, Jesse made a small batch of strawberry chia jam (just 2 cups of strawberries, 1/4 cup of honey, and a couple tablespoons of chia seeds, reduced for a few minutes on the stove). It is pretty tasty, although it's definitely more of a subtle-tasting jam than we thought it would be.

We also have some blueberries and cherries in the fridge, so a mixed berry jam might happen too.  I used the immersion blender to mash some berries up for strawberry syrup for French toast one morning as well, and that was delicious!  And, of course, strawberry shortcakes for dinner the first night! I don't think a berry picking day is complete without those!

We are just about berried out, but we have plenty left to save for later this summer! Have you ever gone berry picking? What's your favorite strawberry recipe?

Menu Plan July 1-15

Happy July! How are we already at the start of a new month? I was talking to Jesse the other night about menu planning. I really don't enjoy sitting down to do it, but I do know how much time and money it saves throughout the two weeks afterwards. It's just the process that I don't really enjoy. Anyone have any ideas how to make it more fun?

We went strawberry picking on Tuesday, so those will make an appearance on the menu (and in lots of snacking!).

Here's what we have planned for the next few weeks:

Tuesday, July 1
Breakfast: McDonalds (because sometimes Mama is craving a breakfast sandwich)
Lunch: Baked Sweet Potatoes with Bacon, Mushrooms, Peppers, and Craisins (holdover from last week)
Dinner: Leftover Southern Chicken Stew and Biscuits from the night before

Wednesday, July 2
Breakfast: French Toast with Strawberry Syrup
Lunch: Cobb Salads (Ham, Turkey, Hard-Boiled Egg, Tomato, Cucumber, and Cheese on Greens)
Dinner: Hot Dogs and Crockpot Baked Beans

Thursday, July 3

Breakfast: Eggs and Toast
Lunch: Cobb Salads
Dinner: Chicken and Leftover Baked Beans

Friday, July 4

Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Picnic at the Parade (probably sandwiches and fruit/veggies)
Dinner: Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

Saturday, July 5

Breakfast: Eggs with Bacon, Mushrooms, Sweet Potatoes, Onions, and Peppers
Lunch: Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Dinner: Crockpot Orange Chicken with Rice

Sunday, July 6

Breakfast: Eggs with Bacon and Veggies (like the day before)
Lunch: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese
Dinner: Leftover Orange Chicken with Rice

Monday, July 7

Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Pinto Bean and Ground Turkey Taco Salads
Dinner: Chicken Cacciatore

Tuesday, July 8

Breakfast: Whole Wheat White Chocolate Chip Cherry Muffins
Lunch: Leftover Taco Salads
Dinner: Leftover Chicken Cacciatore

Wednesday, July 9

Breakfast: Leftover Muffins
Lunch: Turkey or PB&J Sandwiches
Dinner: Mini Meat Loaves, Broccoli

Thursday, July 10

Breakfast: Eggs and Toast
Lunch: Leftover Mini Meat Loaves and Broccoli
Dinner: BLTs

Friday, July 11

Breakfast: Eggs and Bacon
Lunch: Chicken Salads
Dinner: Homemade Pizza with Bacon, Sausage, Mushrooms, and Black Olives

Saturday, July 12

Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftover Chicken Salads
Dinner: Toscana Soup

Sunday, July 13

Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftovers, Sandwiches
Dinner: Chicken Fajitas

Monday, July 14

Breakfast: Eggs and Toast
Lunch: Chicken and Broccoli Quesadillas
Dinner: Crockpot Jambalaya

Tuesday, July 15

Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: TBD
Dinner: Crockpot Jambalaya

Weekly Coupon Shopping

CVS

Diapers were $6.99, get $3ECBs per pack, with a limit of 5 (usually it's only 1!), so I grabbed those since that's a great price. I did 2 transactions to help limit my out of pocket costs.

• Transaction #1: 3 packs diapers at $6.99 each = paid $22.10 with tax, got $9ECBs.
• Transaction #2: 2 packs diapers at $6.99 each. Used $9ECBs from first transaction = paid $5.68, got $6ECBs.

Walmart

These iced coffees were priced at $1 each at Walgreens this week, with a $1RR on each one. I don't shop at Walgreens much, so the odds of me using up RR before they expire are not good. So I price matched at Walmart, and used my coupons to get them for free there.

• 3 Iced Coffees: price matched to $1.00 each. Used three $1/1 printables = 3 free!
• Since this was along with my regular grocery shopping, I also used $1/2 Jenni-o Ground Turkey printable.

Other Coupon Shopping:

• Target Starbucks: I got 2 free pastries with purchase of 2 beverages, based on a free offer they posted on Twitter (expired 7/2/14)

July Goals

Parenting:

• Get back into daily reading time with the kids, at least 5 days a week. I'm thinking after lunch before rest time is the best time for this.
• Teach the kids another hymn verse. We've taken a few months off from this, and I want to find a good all-season hymn to teach them. I'm thinking God's Word Is Our Great Heritage or On My Heart Imprint Thine Image.

Organizing:

• Put away Hannah's too small clothes and check the next size up to see what we have for girl clothes, and make a list of what we need.
• Check Jonah and Matthew's next-size-up clothes as well, and make a list of what we need.

Personal:

• Finish reading Sugar, Salt, Fat, plus read 2 more books.  I have a couple paperbacks that I've bought over the past few months, as well as one I received for free for a review (I should probably read that one first).
• Make at least 2 craft projects. I really need to start using up some of the random crafty items I've saved for specific projects, so I can condense and organize the categories that are left that I actually use more consistently. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

Blog:

• Post at least one content post per week. This means something besides What I'm Reading or Menu Plans. One project, one rambling thoughts post, one something.
• Find a consistent time each week to work on the blog.

Books I've Read: June 2014

I read something this month (as in June)! Even though the year is half over, I decided to set a reading goal for myself on Goodreads, where I keep track of the many many books I want to read.  I chose 25 for the year, and before this month I was at 5. So I have a bit of reading to do! Here's what I read this month:

Living Clutterfree With Kids in the House by Mike Burns and Jen Burns.

I got this ebook for free through a promotion in March, and finally read it last week. I needed a book to get me in the mood to do some more getting rid of stuff in the kids' room, and I figured this might be a good place to start.

I read about half of it, went and got rid of some of the boys' toys (with their help, of course!), and found a home for the Legos in the bedroom - they have been hanging out in the living room since we moved.  And then I read the rest of the book while the boys watched a movie. 

It was definitely one that focuses on the mindset, the why behind the decluttering, which is always a good reminder for me, and really inspires me to get moving on getting rid of stuff. 

"We all have limited capacity. There are only so many options to consider. Every decision means unchosen options. Every choice to do one thing, is a choice not to do something else."

I also made a little bit of progress on Sugar, Salt, Fat by Michael Moss, and I'm about halfway through Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. Look for those on the book review list next month, along with (hopefully) a few more! I have a 3-month free trial to Scribd, which is kind of like Netflix for books. The selection is okay - I found about 17 books from my Goodreads "To Read" list on there, which I figure is plenty for 3 months. If I actually get through all of those I'll be super impressed.

Iron Craft Challenge #13: Stars And Stripes

Another Iron Craft project! I've missed the past couple challenges because of life getting busy, but I'm happy to be back in crafting mode.  This week's challenge was Stars and Stripes, but didn't necessarily have to include both or be patriotic.  I went back and forth between making a patriotic thing for our front door, and doing something with black and white stripes (my favorite color/pattern combo ever - just look in my closet). And I chose...neither.

I took a couple of metal cookie cutters and wrapped them with yarn, kind of like all those popular wreaths you see on Pinterest.

 One star, and one with stripes!

Probably not the first thing you think of when you hear stars and stripes, but I really like them!