Champion Family Weekly Menu (a little late)

Hey y'all, I was thinking of ways to share our everyday family life with you, and ways to share more ideas, and one of the things I came up with is to share our weekly menu planning process. Now on Sundays (except this week, because I was slacking a little, we had a trip to Six Flags with some awesome friends) I am going to post our family menu for the following week. Hopefully this will help y'all to come up with some different ideas, and also help me actually follow and STICK TO our weekly meal planner. So here goes... 

Breakfast - Choice of cereal, fruit and oatmeal, or a bagel with cream cheese

Lunch - Right now the kiddos are at school, so I really just find whatever sounds good at the time, lol

Dinner - 

Monday: Chicken Cacciatore (a real fancy way of saying chicken spaghetti)

Tuesday: Yummy Bacon cheeseburgers/ Homemade french fries

Wednesday: Barbeque pork tenderloin / Broccoli and cheese rice

Thursday: Leftovers (yeah, I know...really creative, hehe)

Friday: Ramen Noodles w/Hamburger / Green beans

Saturday: Eat Out Night!! Yay, NO COOKIN!

Sunday: Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets / Mac-N-Cheese / Corn

Hope y'all got some good ideas, and if you would like any of the recipes from the menu, just ask in the comments section, and I will gladly give 'em up!

Till next time...

Movin, Movin, Movin...

Good morning to all you beautiful bloggers and blog readers and followers of blogs out there.   What a beautiful morning it is here in Missouri. Heather and her family are all moved into their new house. I say all moved in with tongue in cheek! Getting it moved in is the easy part.  Now is unpacking, putting away, and in place, which can take a week or two.  It's been an exhausting week for them. Packing, moving, unpacking, arranging and organizing again.

Moving can be overwhelming, but it does not need to be.  Being an" Ex-Military Wife", I know just how traumatic moves can be.  When you are being moved by professional movers,  it is a little easier because you don't have to pack anything.  Then comes the unpacking;  moving company packers tend to pack everything from different rooms together.  YIKES!  At least that was my experience with them.


Over the years of moving often, some long distance and some not so long distance I have developed my own set of rules for moving.  Heather thought it would be fun to share them and then have you tell what your moving experiences have been like and any other ideas, tips, or advice you might have.  So here we go...

FIRST:  Always make a list of things that need to be done prior to move.  (And then follow it....tee hee)

1.  Sort and throw out everything you no longer want.  (Example:  kids broken toys, mismatched socks, clothes that no longer fit).  You 'd be amazed and how many bags of "STUFF" you can get rid of by either donating or throwing them out.

2.  Make a menu for meals up until the day of the move....this way you can pack all the dishes, pots and pans and staple food items you won't need until your actual moving day.


3.  Next start a tote or suitcase for each  family member.  Include enough clothing items, toiletries, toys etc.  for the days prior to move.  Then everything else can be packed.


4.  When we have moved ourselves I like to pack each room separately (as much as possible). Then I mark the outside of the boxes with the room and contents of the box.  (Note:  It helps to list contents as you put them in or you find yourself unpacking to see what you put in the box).

5.  If you find you have space left in boxes of things like knickknacks you can always put pillow cases, hand towels, doilies and such in on top.


6.  I always try to pack one box that contains one set of sheets, blanket, pillow cases, etc, for each bed at the new house.  This makes it much easier the day you move in....saves a lot of search time.  I also put in towels, wash clothes and personal bath items for each person.


7.  My children and grand-children always say I can pack more in one box than they've ever seen anyone do.  I always get a laugh out of that.  Guess it comes with practice and moving so many times over the years.


I was going to do a very detailed list, but I ran across a list of moving tips from Movers-Edge.com . This is a great list for all kinds of moves and I would recommend you print it out to use if you are faced with a move in the near future.  And if by chance you are... " HAPPY MOVING".


    Until next time Hugs and Best Wishes

                           Nanny

Introducing...Nanny's Corner

So I had this brilliant idea, well...at least I think it was brilliant. I am going to have a guest blogger once a week, who also happens to be my gramma, we call her Nanny. So let me introduce you all to my Nanny....here goes our first Nanny's Corner:

Hi!  My name is Karen, but everyone calls me Nanny.  I am a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother 17 times.  Wow, never dreamed I would have such a large family. 

Having such a large family has given me so much joy and happiness in my life.  I never tire of having little ones around and all the giggles, and fun we have together.

Since I have retired I have filled my days with sewing, knitting, crocheting, crafting of all kinds, scrapbooking and quilting.  I am in the process of making quilts for all our children. I will then start on the grandchildren.  I am hoping that these will be heirlooms  they will pass on someday.

I was so excited when my granddaughter asked if I would like to add some grandmotherly tips and quips to her blog.   I have now added yet another fun thing to fill my day.  Thought I would share things with you like “Tips of the Day”, recipes and ideas for re-purposing items from your home instead of throwing them out.

Okay so here we go: 

One of my favorite sayings is “ Anything worth doing is worth doing right”.

Nanny’s Tip of the Day:  Don’t forget to check the batteries in your fire alarms.I always do mine in the spring and fall…which reminds me, I better check ours!

With Halloween right around the corner here are some ideas for decorating and making pumpkins:

I saw a really cool idea in a magazine the other day where you paint the pumpkin black first (after you have cleaned out the insides of course) then carve leaves on them.  You use an actual pattern of a leaf from your yard for carving.  It was really beautiful.

                Ladies Home Journal

Another way to make pumpkins is:

Take a brown paper bag  (one you get from the grocery store) stuff it with wadded up newspaper, tie near top to make stem, then squish it down to shape you want. You can come up with some really ghoulish shapes or traditional shapes.  Then you can paint and decorate it any way you desire.  Have fun with it.

    Somedaycrafts

                                Karey Ellen Designs

Till next time…hugs and best wishes, Nanny.

Halloween??? Ohhhh Yes!

Halloween always starts early at our house...really early. My kids actually had our front door decorated for Halloween Mid-August. I know, that is really early...but we Looove Halloween! All of the spooky decorations, the dressing up as someone else, it is a blast! So, I have been trolling the web for some cute and easy Halloween Ideas. I figure i will find them, and then when we actually try them out, I will share them with the rest of you. (along with our experience of making them..good...or bad). So, to start things out, I will show you all our front door decoration. This photo is of the door in the daytime, I will try to get a night time pic when I charge my camera battery...and I am obviously a procrastinator...giggle... giggle... Oh, and by the way...Crayola Window Markers, 8 pack, $4.00. Can't beat that!

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Till next time...