Things I have made off of Pinterest

I have heard people call pinterest "online hoarding" or "another time sucker".  Those terms might be true.  I'm not gonna lie!  But I also find it full of useful information.  Here are some of the items off of Pinterest that our family has tried:

The first recipe I tried was Double Crunch Honey Garlic Pork Chops

I don't have a picture of how mine turned out.  But let me tell you that I will NEVER buy premade honey garlic sauce ever again.  I was licking this sauce out of the pot and it is lucky that it actually made it onto the chops.
The next thing I tried was Nutella Hot Chocolate

OMG.  I drank half of the kids and had to make more.  1 cup milk. 2 spoons nutella. Saucepan. Heat medium. Blend. Whisk frothy.  Could it get any easier?

For Christmas, we decided to make our Teacher gifts this year!  Here is the Pinterest "Sample":

And my army of snowmen.  We added $10 Tim Horton's gift cards to them for their teachers. 

For the kid's Christmas parties I made gingerbread men.  I decided to change it up this year "a la pinterest".  Here is the inspiration:

And here are my masterpieces:

For Valentine's Day, the kids decided to make homemade Valentine's for their friends.

Pinterest "sample":

Emma's real Valentine:

Pinterest "Sample":

Terry's real Valentine:

Honestly, for both kids it cost me $5 for a package of cardstock, we already had ink in the printer, and some time working in a photo editing program!  Emma's didn't scan very well but we were able to use the photo editing program to enhance the color to make it look really cool and she was very happy with the results!  The kids then wrote To and From on the backs and decorated them with heart shaped stickers!  Score!  We also have 3/4 of a package of cardstock left for other projects!

There are many other things on Pinterest that I have managed to use.  I have printed activities for the kids, I have organized my pantry, I have stopped losing all my bobby pins, and I have tried some new hairstyles.

But mostly, I have fun!

To follow everything I like, join me on Pinterest!

How do you know?

Recently, someone very close to me split up with their significant other after being together for four years.  She asked me how I know that I did the right thing when I married my husband, especially after some of the troubles we had in the beginning.  So I started thinking, how do I know?  My husband is far from being perfect.  He annoys the ever living hell out of me some days.  Sometimes I am envious of other people's relationships because they seem closer to their significant other and spend more one on one time with them.  But with all that, I just know.  Here's how:

After six years together he can still make me laugh, cry, roll my eyes, listen with interest, miss him, want to smack him, want to yell, stick my tongue out, surprise me, and make me feel special.  But most of all, when he kisses me, he still makes my toes tingle.  I am the most content I have ever been my whole life and when I watch him with our kids it makes me fall in love with him all over again.  The best part of my day is when he comes home from work and half the time he is on the phone with work and ignores me.  But he comes home.  Everyday. 

So, how do I know?  I just know.  Do I know he will be my forever?  No.  I can't see what will be in 20 years or 30 years.  But I do know he is my right now and when I imagine life without him it makes me hurt inside, not curious. 

How do you keep things interesting in a long term relationship?  Do you text dirty messages?  Do you go on romantic getaways?  Do you have weekly date nights?  Or are you more like us, where you just make every moment count and call each other a million times a day just to say "Hi, I am thinking about you".

One. More. Day.

One more day until school starts!  Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Actually, I have had the best summer ever and am actually incredibly sad to see it ending.  My kids have been driving me insane the last few days but I think a lot of that is the excitement of the start of school!  I am rather relieved to have my routine back but at the same time it's going to be rather boring!

In other news, I am going to start babysitting a one year old two days a week!  Yay!  Maybe I can get one more kid then I will be able to stay home from work!  I also managed to find a new renter for our revenue property (I don't know why it's called that when we are actually losing money on it!  LOL). 

Now I just have to lose a few pounds and life will be great.  Low carb diet, here I come. 

WFMW: Saving Money on Back to School

Every year I spend too much money making sure my kids have what then need to go back to school.  This year we are broker than broke so I was trying to come up with ways for them to still have what they need without breaking the bank.  Here is what I did:

• First we went through their old school supplies to see what they could re-use from last year.  (we do this every year, but this year I was a little more firm about re-using rulers, backpacks and such)
• Then we went to a dollar store and bought as much as we could from there.  Why pay $0.79 per duotang when we can get them 4/$1.00?
• Next we watched the flyers and bought things on sale and bought store brand over name brand.  If their teacher wants to specify "Crayola" pencil crayons then they can buy my kids supplies!  Sheesh!

Of course, as with every summer, they both grew a meter over summer vacation!  It must be all that fresh air!

• We went through their closets and pulled everything that was to small and set it aside to be donated at a later date (usually when the bag is full)
• We checked sales at shoe stores and department stores
• We bought jeans and some tops at second hand stores.  I managed to get both kids name brand jeans for $3.99 - $8.99 a pair!  I even picked myself up two pairs of jeans (since my pre-pregnancy jeans still require either spanx or a hanger to zip myself into them.  Ooops) 
• I allocated some of their birthday present budget to a few new outfits that weren't on sale.  They hate it when I do that, but do they really need more TOYS!  No.

Now my kids are ready for back to school and I didn't have to use a single credit card!  Score!

See more tips at Works For Me Wednesday!

School starts in 2 weeks?

How did that happen?

We have added some more fun to our summer!  We hit the beach, I updated some old worn end tables with some paint, we visited family and we have been going to playgrounds and doing crafts!  I can't believe summer is almost over already!  My first summer off in 10 years and I feel like it flew by so quickly.  It's really too bad the weather wasn't more cooperative.  We really didn't get very many hot days.  I am not sure it hit 30 even once.  No week long heat wave where you are ready to kill each other because it's hard to sleep (which I suppose isn't such a bad thing).

My 2nd wedding anniversary came and went.  We aren't big on celebrating, we tell each other we love each other at least once a day and do small things to show appreciation very often (like him bringing me coffee in the morning)  I bought him a $50 gift card for his favorite coffee shop and he bought me this charm for my charm bracelet.

It says Eternal Love around the band.  Actually for my husband, it's unusually romantic.  :)

I have decided that I need to get more adventurous in my cooking.  Over summer it has become BBQ Chicken, BBQ pork chops, hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese (on cold evenings) etc.  Same old, same old.  I am kind of excited that fall brings stews, chilis, roasts, and casseroles!   Bring on the comfort food!  What's your favorite comfort food recipe?  I feel like I have spent my life looking for the perfect mac and cheese recipe!