Works for Me Wednesday--Shoe Racks

As a family of seven, we have ALOT of shoes!! The kids have good shoes and play shoes. Then when winter rolls around here in the Midwest they also have their boots that need to go somewhere!  

I got one of these racks for their shoes a few years ago when I just had 4 kids! It seemed to work well for their shoes and their boots just stayed on the floor.  The top two shelves were divided into two and then hubby and me got the bottom shelf for our wet shoes.  Well our family expanded and feet got bigger and that meant more shoes or no room for the shoes on the shelf! Which also meant the shoes ended up all over on the floor for someone to trip on going into the laundry room or to use the bathroom! Well I had enough of the shoes all over!  So I decided to figure out a better plan....

The better plan was to TWO of these stackable shelves!!  Now there is room for their shoes and even room now for guests to put their shoes! The best part in my mind is that these two shelves are smaller in height than the wire shelves so it makes things even easier for my little ones to find a spot on the shelves. 

And now the wire shelves are used just for boots! 

So that means that theoretically there will be no more shoes or boots on the floor for me(or anyone else) to trip over and that works for me!


Now I wonder what would work to get my 2yo from thinking that he has to take the shoes or boots off the shelves and walk around the house in them?!?!

For other works for me, head over to Rocks in My Dryer!

Major Project Complete!

I have showed you pictures before of my pantry so I thought I would show you what my hubby and I did this past weekend with my pantry/storage room! This room goes under our stairs leading to the basement. This room is situated in our basement that it has TWO concrete foundation walls along with a regular old basement window. Having the foundation walls helps to keep the temperature consistently cold in the winter time and hence makes a great "cellar". The basement window has been spray painted black so no outside light comes into the room. And now the walls have been painted with waterproofing paint(no we were not having water leaking yet!) and extra paint that we had from other home improvement projects.

Here is a before picture of some of the storage part of the room...


Here is an after shot of the same space...


Here is the pantry shelves after the painting of the walls were complete...


This picture shows a close up of the contact shelf paper that I put on the wood shelves. These shelves were here when we moved into this house 6 years ago and were in decent shape so we have kept them and are just sprucing them up a bit. Putting shelf paper on them was ALOT easier than painting them!


Here is what the pantry looks like now all put back together and organized! Clearing off the shelves of all the goods and then restocking the shelves helped me to see what I had on my shelves that was close dated! I actually found a box of strawberry jello with a best by date of Sept 2006 that I trashed! That was the only casualty! There is a few other things that I will be using in the next couple of weeks so they do not become a casualty as well.


This is a picture of under the stairs. My hubby wired a light for under the stairs and painted the walls a light gray rather than having the cement gray, it really lighten things up!


Here is the items back into their space! Would you believe me if I told you that out of this space I managed to totally remove a 30 gallon flip top rubbermaid container that was full of stuff?? We purged that much plus at least another TWO 18 gallon roughneck containers of stuff just from this one area of the room!!



Lastly, I am now able to have the majority of our out of season clothes in just one area of the storage room! Hubby and I still have some out of season clothes in our closet because it is easier to store them there to the back and hubby will still wear short sleeves in the wintertime.


So this was one of our big "tackles" during the 12 days of hubby's vacation! The other tackle was repainting our main full bathroom!

Mini Bread Fun

I got this idea from Tammy showing us her mini loaves!  I have small pans to do quick breads in and so over the holidays I made several loaves of bread--mini style or kid size! The main reason why I did them is because I thought they would be good size for giving away with my goodie plates.


Well like most of my recipes, my family thinks that they need to try them out!  So I made a few for us to have as a side with our dinner meals.  The mini loaves do not last long around here!


And then of course, my daughter loves grilled cheese and she asked if I would use some of "her name size" sandwiches.  I told her sure why not!  And not only did she enjoy them but everyone enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich on homemade bread with a bowl of homemade chicken rice soup!

I used this recipe and just used the dough cycle...

Honey Oatmeal Bread (breadmachine)

11 1/2 ounces(1 1/4 cup + 3tbsp.) water (80°F) 
3 tablespoons honey
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 cup oats, (quick or old fashioned)
2 tablespoons dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast(can be used in the breadmachine) 
OR
2 teaspoons bread machine/fast rise yeast
Place in bread machine in order starting with water and ending with yeast.Basic Bread Setting, unless using fast rise yeast then you can do Basic Rapid Bread Setting. Makes 2lb loaf
***If you want rolls instead of a loaf of bread, place the bread machine on dough setting. After the cycle is done, take the dough out of the machine and make into 12-24 balls(depending on what size rolls you would like) place into a greased pan. Or for mini loaves divide evenly into 4 balls and roll out into a log and place in a greased loaf pan. Let rise til double in size(45 minutes-1 hour). Bake in oven at 350° for 15-20 minutes or til golden brown.

For more kitchen tips head over to Tammy's Recipes or for more tempt my tummy tuesdays head over to Blessed with Grace.  I also joined in on the over at Blissfully Domestic!

New Button!

Do *you* like my new button???

Back along the way, my friend, Joy had a "welcome to my new home" giveaway over on her blog when she switched over to her own server.  The giveaway had a first and second prize to it. Well I won the second prize, which was a button for my blog!  

I love the button because it really shows the real concept behind this blog!  The real concept being that I want to be a light for Christ!  Even though I talk about frugal living, homeschooling, recipes, and more I want to be encouragement to others. I want to shine for Christ!

A little sidenote story...back in college I was on a team that did street evangelism, every Friday night we would go into the inner city of Cincinnati and talk with people and actually developed friendships with some of the homeless. One of the homeless people that I developed a relationship with started calling me "Sunshine" because every week I would come down there with a smile on my face.  Well the nickname stuck with me and the rest of my team even started calling me "Sunshine".  Also in college is when I started chatting on the internet bulletin boards(back when they were DOS based bulletin boards and not chatrooms) as well and I decided to use my nickname as my screen name.  The name "Sunshine" was already taken so I changed the "u" to an "o"to show others that I shine with God's Son's (Christ's) love and God's grace. 

So back to the button...I really think that Joy did an awesome job!  It will reside in my right sidebar for you to cut and paste and place on your blog if you would like! 

Thanks again Joy for your hard work!

Math Around the House

Are you finding the kids (and maybe you for that matter!) are still not wanting to crack open the school books just yet? Instead of fretting or getting frustrated over them not wanting to hit the books yet, use it to your advantage and involve them in tasks around the house that involve math concepts!

Looking for some ideas as to what tasks you could do with your kids, head over to Happy to be at Home and read the rest of my article, Teaching Math Around the House!  

Also take the time to check out some of the other articles that were written by a couple of the other contributing writers.

Menu Plan Monday 1/4-1/10

**It is the first full week of the New Year, which means that it is back to the regular routine! The regular routine being we are going back to our school schedule and hubby goes back to work! It was fun having the time off to do fun things together as a family along with getting some much needed projects done around the house. ALL the Christmas goodies are either in the freezer for later consumption or have been consumed! Going back to the regular schedule means going back to the lower sugar consumption as well!

Last week's menu plan got a little sticky towards the end of the week as I didn’t have meals planned out so those days were a bit stressful trying to figure out what sounded good with what I had on hand! We ended up eating at home one night and going to Steak N Shake the other night!

Well this shopping trip helped to finish last week’s menus and was enough to start menus for this week, however; it will not be able to finish off the week! Thankfully, there is still grocery money to use from hubby’s paycheck so I will be grocery shopping today to finish off this week’s menus!

There isn’t much to this week’s menus because I like to do my shopping first before I plan so I have planned the meals that I have the supplies for and the rest of the menu plan will immerge after my grocery shopping trip!

Lunches listed are for the kids & me. Unless we are having leftovers, our lunches are served with apple slices or baby carrots along with fruit juice or water. Hubby usually takes a dinner leftover for his work lunch.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check the over 200 other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie's site or look down in my right sidebar for my menu suggestion lists! **

Sunday (1-4)
Breakfast: eggs, sausage, hash browns, and cinnamon rolls
Lunch: sandwiches
Dinner: creamy chicken over egg noodles and a choice of peas or green beans for a side.
Snack: snack basket

Monday (1-5)
Breakfast: french toast (from freezer!) and orange juice
Lunch: leftover burger sandwiches and chips
Dinner: Your choice of bbq pork sandwiches or sloppy joes served with fries and carrots
Snack: snack basket

Tuesday (1-6)
Breakfast: cereal & toast
Lunch: sandwiches and chips
Dinner: ?? probably hamburger helper(from a box) served with a some kind of veggie on the side. (I found a couple of HH boxed meals in my pantry that need to be used due to the best buy dates)
Snack: cookies & milk

Wednesday (1-7)
Breakfast: bagels and cereal
Lunch: leftover spaghetti
Dinner: homemade chicken nuggets served with mashed potatoes and corn
Snack: snack basket

Thursday (1-8)
Breakfast: waffles
Lunch: bagel bites
Dinner: ???
Snack: snack basket

Friday (1-9)
Breakfast: cereal and toaster strudel
Lunch: sandwiches & chips
Dinner: Your choice of burgers or hotdogs served with seasoned fries and corn
Snack: ice cream night

Saturday (1-10)
Breakfast: “Cook’s Choice”
Lunch: ??? probably leftovers
Dinner: homemade pizza
Snack: snack basket or popcorn

Singing Sunday

How Great is Your Love

by MercyMe

My heart is steadfast of God
And I will sing
With all my heart and soul
Music for the King
And I will awake the dawn
With my praise to you O Lord

[CHORUS:]
How great is Your love
So much higher than the heavens
With faithfulness that reaches the sky
How great is Your love
So much higher than the heavens
With faithfulness that reaches the sky
O how great is Your love

Praise the Lord O my soul
And glory to the King
Forever You are robed with majesty
We come to you O Lord
And Lay our praise at your feet

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE:]
Be exalted O God and let Your glory reign
Be exalted O God and let Your glory reign
Let it reign
Let it reign
Let it reign
Let it reign
Let it reign
Let it reign

[CHORUS]

Scrumptious Sunday-Chicken Parmesan

Easy Chicken Parmesan

5 boneless/skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup flour

2 TBSP. italian seasoning

2 tsp. garlic powder

1 TBSP. onion powder

4 TBSP. margarine or butter

4 TBSP grated parmesan cheese

8 oz. mozzerella cheese, shredded

1 jar Ragu pasta sauce (I used traditional style)

Combine flour, italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, and parmesan cheese in a bowl or bag.  Dip the chicken in the flour mixture.  Place in a 9x13 pan. Put little pads of margarine or butter on the chicken. Place in the oven at 400° for 50 minutes.  Take out of the oven pour the jar of pasta sauce over and around the chicken. Place back in the oven until the sauce is bubbly(about 10 minutes). Take the chicken back out of oven and sprinkle with mozzerella cheese. It should be hot enough for the cheese to melt without placing back in the oven. However, it might need to go back in for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese. 

Serve with spaghetti noodles and a green salad! 

For more scrumptious recipes; head over to Happy To be at Home!

Weekly Shopping Trip--Saved $17.36

Well it looks like I am starting the New Year in a no spending mode for groceries! I am just doing shopping for what I need to finish meals and nothing more! I am also going to be working at getting ALOT of the convenience items out of my house and working towards more healthier options! It should be interesting how long it lasts!

So for this week, I spent $28.05 and saved $17.36 at Meijers!

Here is the breakdown...

• 3-32 oz Welch's Grape Jam $5.00
• 4 loaves Aunt Millies Bread $4.00
• 1-4lb bag Boneless/Skinless Chicken breast $7.99
• 2 gallons milk $5.00
• 4.66lbs pork loin $8.81

Grand Total: $45.41

Total OOP: $28.05

Savings Total: $17.36 (Non-Coupon Savings: $14.61; Coupon Savings $2.75)

Just in Case...

Just in case you are wondering where in the world am I...

I have been here but not here this past week as my hubby has been home on vacation. When hubby is home that means there are projects that need attention and computers that don't! So I have been working with hubby to get the projects completed and also keep up on everyday things like keeping bodies fed and clothes clean!

Things will be back to normal around here come Monday, January 5th! So in the meantime, enjoy your weekend! And I will see you all here on Monday with Meijer deals, menus and more!

Its Official!

Along with it officially being 2009...

The 3 Moms have Happy To Be at Home relaunched!!

Take the time to go over there and check the new digs out, including reading my article about writing thank-you notes! 

And while you are over there, let them know what you think of the new design and leave them a comment!