{Disclaimer: I’m apologizing ahead of time that the pics are annoying. I just didn’t feel like taking the time to figure out how to get perfect pictures of a book and get rid of the flash reflection. These get the point across and saved me time!}
I love finding inspiration for kid’s rooms in lots of different places. My two little ones share a room and 7 months after moving in, we’ve still done nothing in their room. I have paint for the walls and to paint their furniture and art for the walls, but we just haven’t actually done any of it. I have a whole plan in my head, but I still constantly look for ideas I love – there’s just something so fun and whimsical about looking at how creative rooms for kids can be.
I overlooked an incredible resource, though. Amelia is actually the one found the book. I found her reading it on the floor one day and when I looked closer, I realized what it was – the Sunset Ideas for Children’s Room & Play Yards…copyright 1980. We had it right there on our bookshelf. I have no idea where they got it, but I looked inside the cover and apparently my parents gave it to us for Christmas at some point in the past few years.
Holy cow. SO MANY GREAT THINGS.
I always wanted a bed like this with a slide(does this remind anyone else of the old play areas that they used to have in The Children’s Place Stores?):
And I just love how not-so-seemingly-perfect all of the rooms are – they actually seem livable for a kid. Like this one that’s the image in the introduction of the book:
My mom totally painted a rainbow like this across our closet doors when my sister and I shared a room(and she painted the ceiling blue ceiling with clouds – I LOVED that room so much!):
I had a friend who had a raised area in her playroom like this and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world:
Check out this baby bed – the instructions are basically a hanging basket of plywood and rope(for real):
We definitely had these exact sheets at our house(and – HEY! – that’s the crib my babies have! It really is “timeless!”):
I really want to find some of these, but when I started googling, the only options I was finding were SO expensive:
I love this jungle gym(what’s the right word for them now?) and I’m totally saving this for when they get a bit bigger:
So many awesome variations on bunk beds – didn’t you always want bunk beds with a cool little nook like one of these?:
Did you have anything you loved in your bedroom as a kid? I’m loving this book as inspiration from things that we thought were so great when we were kids!
Confession: I have been terrible about menu planning lately. It’s not that I don’t think about it, it’s just that I don’t think about it until it’s actually time for dinner. As a result, we haven’t been eating the greatest. Which doesn’t go well for the whole weight loss thing.
It’s funny how much I focus on food, but don’t have much to show for it. I obsess about nutrition and health and what I buy instead of just taking a deep breath of fresh air and being happy to have food in the fridge and pantry and our bellies are never hungry.
I decided to give myself a break this weekend and stop obsessing about everything being organic and the perfect nutritional content and just make some generally nourishing food that we will all enjoy. I made that decision Friday night and early Saturday morning ran to the grocery store planning to pick up just one thing(HA!). While we were there at 6:30am, the butcher was marking down some meat. I had to investigate and found some unreal deals. I got $22 worth of steaks that my husband is just waiting to sink his teeth into for $7. Plus a metric ton of super lean ground beef(well, 4 lbs is a LOT more than I normally ever buy) for $7.
Now that we have a freezer, purchases like these are much more realistic and I am so happy to have it. I decided to spend time this weekend using the ground beef and other things we already had in the fridge or pantry to get a bunch of meals made and frozen so that I can still plan what we’re having, but not have to do a ton to make it other than make a veggie or salad and throw something in the oven.
Something that I really focused on was serving sizes. A full recipe of most recipes is enough for 2 full meals for 2 adults and 1 toddler, so I tried to split everything and freeze it smaller so that it was 2 meals for us.
So, this weekend I made and/or froze…
-2 Boxes of Annie’s Cheesy Lasagna This made 3 frozen lunches for the husband, 1 frozen lunch or dinner for toddler + adult(a lunch for us to share or an easy dinner for them if I’m out for the night), 1 dinner this weekend for the toddler and 1 dinner this weekend for the husband
-2 containers of Shepherd’s Pie filling. 1 recipe = 2 meals +leftovers. I froze the botton part of the Shephard’s Pie in a container the same size as a pie pan so that I can flip it right over into the pie pan, add some mashed potatoes and throw it in the oven)
-Meatloaf - 1 recipe made into 2 meatloaves for us
-A batch of frozen, cooked spaghetti in individual portions. Not as good as fresh, but easy and quick lunches for my husband to take to work or for me to make for us for lunch in a hurry. It was so easy to throw on a pot of boiling water and cook some spaghetti while I was already cooking anyway.
-Blueberry Muffins – made and frozen. I love having muffins in the freezer. They’re a great snack when I can control how big I make them and I added an extra cup of frozen blueberries to these to beef them up a bit more.
-Onions – I love having already chopped onions in the freezer. Especially if the onions are starting to look like I need to use them, it’s so easy to just chop a bunch when I’m already chopping and throw them in the freezer.
-Carrots – blanched and frozen in medallions and also pureed and frozen in ice cube trays for baby food or to add to a recipe for a veggie boost.
Other things I’m I loving to have in the big freezer:
-Frozen fruit – blueberries, mangoes, strawberries, cherries, bananas(when they get too brown)
-Bread
-Cheese
-Veggies – blanched and frozen in meal-sized portions for us
-Chili
-Soups in general in individual portions
-Chicken stock
-Pesto
-Meat when I find it on sale
-Chicken. Always, always, neverending boneless, skinless chicken breasts…
-Flour (we go through it so slowly, it’s easier to just keeps a few cups in the pantry and freeze the rest)
I’ve become slightly obsessed, but it’s working out well. Ever so slowly, I’m finally feeling like we’re wasting so much less food and saving on groceries and that’s a great feeling.
ETA ~ A few other fantastic posts/links I’ve seen recently on cooking a lot at one time to have in the freezer:
We seriously need to do this more! It was a gorgeous fall day on Sunday and it was so nice to get outside together.
And we didn’t forget the little one – he was just in his own happy spot:
It was just last week that I took this picture of him:
When I took it, even sleepy right after his sister woke him up from a nap, I was marveling at how long he could actually sit up by himself.
Oh, how they grow! In that amount of time(a week? a little more or less?), he is officially on the move. He scoots himself everywhere – quickly. Especially to get himself to something he wants to play with or shove in his mouth. Just one week after being amazed that he could sit alone for longer than 2 seconds without tipping over, I’ve already watched him get himself from his hands and knees to a sitting position all by himself this morning – I stopped counting after seeing it five times.
This smiley, happy boy is officially no longer a tiny infant. Bittersweet for sure, but more on the sweet side. It makes me sad to see my life flashing before my eyes and watching these two grow up with lightning speed, but there’s nothing in the world I’d rather do than witness this process of learning and growing. Plus, he still curls up his legs under him when he sleeps and when he’s having his diaper changed (a la the fetus position), so he still has tiny little bits of him that give me a dose of tiny baby to ease the transition!
Be still my heart ♥ My mom and sister introduced me to Clara and her Great Depression Cooking last night. Oh.MY.GOSH.
She has youtube videos and a DVD of her cooking show that features her mother’s recipes from the Great Depression. She makes simple meals, but there’s so much more to it. She’s 94. She’s so lovely! She shares all sorts of bits of info throughout the cooking – ideas for saving money, stories about when she was younger, general tips. So fantastic. She also has a book, Clara’s Kitchen, coming out soon and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Clara is seriously a must-see/read for all of us who think we “have no money” and still have pantries full of uneaten food for our families!
If you’re hunting, here are some other links for inexpensive, nutritious meal ideas:
It’s no secret that I’m a diet soda junkie. Diet Pepsi is my weapon of choice, but I’ll take any and all and drink them in absurdly massive quantities. So, when I saw that there’s a soda out that’s sweetened with Stevia, it was calling my name to try!
Um, YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM. I’m glad this isn’t readily available in the grocery stores where I usually shop because I’d blow all of my grocery money on it!
My favorites: Root Beer, Gingerale and Orange. SO GOOD.
The Black Cherry and Natural Twist caught me off guard. They tasted SO real, I didn’t know what to do with myself. It’s crazy how we get so used to artificial flavors – these two flavors taste so real and refreshing – they’d be perfection on a hot summer day.
The Diet Cola: I think I’d need to get used to it. It was good, but I think I’ve gotten so used to the fake sweetener tastes in diet sodas that it just doesn’t taste the way my mouth assumes it will taste. So, it’s good, just a flavor I’d need to get used to.
Definitely going to get more of this soda to have around as a treat!
SO MUCH FUN!
How is it even possible that there are already less than 100 days until Christmas?? I’m not sure, but it’s definitely the truth. I hate rushing it all, but I’ve also been trying to be good about planning and budgeting, especially for things like holidays and gifts.
One of my favorite organization sites, List Plan It, officially launched 100 Days to Christmas, “For a daily dose of inspiration & motivation to get you through the busy holiday season.”
Only a few days in, and they already have a ton of great info:
- Links to List Plan It’s Holidays and Occassions Lists
- Ideas for getting wish lists together
- Ideas for budgeting for the holidays ( a huge one for me!)
A crisp walking in the early morning with mommy while daddy and baby brother sleep.
A trip to the grocery store to ride in her favorite “car”(shopping cart) of all time.
French Toast with blueberry syrup.
Her first parade that included a FIRE TRUCK!
Her first carnival along with her first actual ice cream cone.
Puppies at the carnival. Really cute puppies!
Her first up-close view of a helicopter.
And a little brother that wants to crawl to keep up with her and play more than anything in the world.
Life is good when you’re Two, isn’t it?
