Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Chore Chart...

This afternoon when I had a free minute I searched online for a chore chart that could help keep me on track to get things done. I Found one that I liked but I didn't want to pay for it. So I changed a few things by adding chores that are unique to me and mt family and this is what I came up with! I am hoping that this will work for me.

Take a look Here

Let me know what you think. The Check boxes are missing, they didn't copy over to Google Documents but you get the gist!

Renewed energy and a cool website!

So today I took the challenge of setting the timer for 1 hour and getting as much cleaning done as I can get done in that hour. I must admit once the hour was up I still kept working, which is great! I was able to vacuum and edge my living room, clean out and re-organize my TV cabinet, put a new box of diapers away, pick up all the toys, and hang up a few jackets. Then I moved to the kitchen, I did the dishes, organized my spice cupboard and coffee cupboard, cleaned off the counter tops and I made dinner and got that in the oven! I felt so much better after I got that all done. I still have to do about 5 loads of laundry tonight so that I can pack our bags tomorrow for our trip, but other then that I am going to read my book tonight! I think the 1 or 2 hours a day is something that I can keep up with!

As for this cool website, My girlfriend Tiffanie sent me this awesome website that I totally fell in love with after browsing it for about 5 minutes. It is called eatathomecooks.com. This mom plans out a weeks worth of dinners and puts together the recipes, shopping list, side suggestions and even a dessert! Plus within each meal she has some of the recipes that are for the slow cooker, others you make two of so that you can put one in the freezer for later that week of to portion out for lunches. Also, what I like about her site is that she uses a lot of fresh, natural, healthy ingredients. I think she has about 30 weeks of menus planned. It is so easy all you do is open up the menu that you want to use, print it off and then go shopping! Talk about easy!
If you choose to use this site, let me know what you think!

I am going chopping tomorrow! So I will let you know how it goes!

Monday, December 28, 2009

Staying on task...

Thanks Karen for giving me the idea for this post! I am trying to figure out a routine/organizer/time management/schedule for everything that I have to do around the house. My question for everyone out there is what are some things/tools that you use to stay on top of everything that needs to get done. Everything from feeding the cat, doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms, meal planning, date nights, bathroom cleaning, play time with the boys and relaxation. Do you set one day aside for laundry or do you do a load everyday? Do you clean all three bathrooms in one day or again space them out? Set specific times each day for relaxing, cleaning, cooking, playing etc....?

I am trying, and failing I might add, at finding a way to manage everything at the same time.
Karen, my sister-in-law, gave me the idea that I should set a timer for an hour and do whatever i can in that hour. Or maybe I will do that twice a day once in the morning and once in the afternoon? So I figured I would try it starting tomorrow!

I make all these lists of things that need to get done and yet nothing seems to get done even though I am working on them? I am also known, at least when it comes to things around the house, for saying that I am going to get something done today and then by the end of the day it is only partially done or not at all. Then I get frustrated and then Jason gets frustrated and that is just not good. So any and all ideas are welcome and hopefully I can get into some kind of routine that works and will stick.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Playing with flour!

The other day I was doing dishes and the boys were "helping" me load the dish washer. At one point the door bell rang and Bo & I went to answer it. In the time it took me to go answer the door and get back to the kitchen, Joel moved the chair to the island and dumped my canister of flour that I had out because I was going to make cookies. Needless to say I didn't have any flour left to make cookies.


Ooops.....


Aren't I cute mom!


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Unfinished projects.......

For those of you who know me well, know that I have a problem with starting projects and then starting more projects before the other ones are done. This has been something that I am really trying to fix, because not only will it help me be more organized but it will also cut down on the "project clutter piles" that are around the house. The Misc clutter piles are what have really been annoying me lately. All these different projects are sitting there and every time I walk by them it's like they are calling out saying "Finish Me", but something else always seems to come up. Yesterday I started yet another project, that being, I gave the boys their own bedrooms and did a lot of rearranging upstairs. So today's goal is to finish putting everything away, all the toys, clothes, and the decorations. I also need to clean the bathrooms and while I am at it I need to dust upstairs, I don't think I have done that for the past month or two? In my picture perfect world, everything would get put away after using it, the bathrooms would clean themselves, the boys wouldn't get sick, and the laundry wouldn't pile up.....BUT since we live in reality that is not going to happen. I guess what i am saying is that I need to learn to "roll with the punches" better and not let the little things throw of my whole routine. I need to manage my time a little better so that the projects and house cleaning get done in a timely manner...SO I am now off to tackle the unfinished projects upstairs so that it is nice and clean by the time Jason gets home and then I can really relax playing with the boys, making cards, watching old movies all while enjoying a clean house!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Our Christmas Tree:

For those of you who know me know that I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I love the smells, the lights, the music, the baking, the getting together with family and friends to celebrate Christs birth! This year I got to set up our Christmas tree a little early. I was doing a big open house the day after Thanksgiving and I wanted the house to be all festive and pretty. I always like to do a color theme for my tree. In the past I have done red, silver and black, which I love! I have done red, green and white. This year I did Chocolate brown, red, and green! I love how those colors look together! I get most of my ornaments from Hobby Lobby, they have a great selection and they are always on sale!

I am known for getting tall and fat trees, however this year I was able to find a tall and skinny one that I liked! Well here are a few pictures of the tree, it definitely looks better in person with the lights on at night, I will add some more pictures a little later.







Monday, November 23, 2009

Black Friday Shopping Open House!!!

Holiday Open House

Friday November 27, 2009

Noon-6:00 PM

4509 Boeing Rd

Lincolns Landing Development

Off HWY 161 By Scott AFB

The Pampered Chef

Close To My heart

Party Light

Mary Kay

Handmade Cards and Gifts

And more.

Enjoy one stop shopping to get everyone on your list something special!

Stop by anytime to enjoy special savings!

Door prizes given away every hour!

Enter to win the Grand door prize valued at

more than $50

SPECIAL SAVINGS:

Shop 12:00-12:59 and receive 20% off your order

Shop 1:00-1:59 and receive 15% off your order

Shop 2:00-2:59 and receive 10% off your order

Shop 3:00-6:00 receive free shipping on your order

Enjoy free refreshments while you shop!

For questions please contact Andrea @ 618-406-9478

Thursday, November 19, 2009

To do list part 2

Well I must say that my to do list has gotten a lot shorter! YAY! I have finished everything for the baby shower and it was a HUGE success! Now I am working on everyday stuff around the house and trying to keep up with it and I am also working on my open house that I am having the day after Thanksgiving! More details and info to follow...

Thursday, October 29, 2009

My to do list:

Well this week and next week I have a lot of stuff to do:
So in no particular order:

- Make Bo some gymnastic pants
- Finish hemming curtains for my bedroom
- Work on making a baby gift
- Finish baby shower invites
- Address and mail 45 baby shower invites
- Work on baby shower party favors
- Work on baby shower menu
- Make baby shower bingo game
- Attend Pampered chef meeting
- Plan Black Friday Vendor Fair Open House (at my house)
- Start planning Christmas lists/gifts
- Go shopping for Baby Shower Decor
- Get Ready for Pampered Chef Vendor Fair next weekend
- Clean house for Halloween party on Saturday
- Close Pampered Chef Catalog show
- Prep for Pampered Chef Show
- Put laundry away
- Do more laundry
-Drink lots of COFFEE!!!!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Childrens Museum Part one...


You might be asking... What is on Bos face? Well they had a self face painting station, so Bo drew on his face!


Joel loved the hand puppets!



Gone Fishing!


Sunday, October 11, 2009

TWINS GAME!!!


Jason and his cousin Jared at the game!





Jared made an awesome sign!




This was an awesome play!!! You had to be there. Bases loaded and Delmon Young hit a
GRAND SLAM!!!!




JOE MAUER warming up!!!!

I am in need of a recipe...

So yesterday was one of those cool, fall days and Chicken and Dumplings sounded really good. The problem? I have never made Chicken and Dumplings. So I found a Paula Dean recipe online and thought that it would be a good one. The only changes that I made was I added peas and carrots and did not put celery in. I made the dumplings just like the recipe said and the only difference there was that I used wheat flour instead of white flour. Ok now the soup turned out great! It had really good flavor and was hearty. The dumplings however did not turn out. They ended up being little wheat disks that were not good at all. Could using wheat flour make it turn out bad? So now I am looking for a good chicken and dumplings recipe! Do you have one you can recommend? I would love to try it!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Joel's adventure with Powdered sugar.....and mud!


I thought it was a little to quiet...




Aren't I cute!


Then we walked outside while I was cleaning up the sugar and walked right into the mud...




A rained out Air Show......


Bo loved to climb in the planes!



All Buckled in!!!





Let's go look at that one mom?

Waiting in line to go into the plane!


Soaking Wet. Joel was sleeping so Jason was with him under the planes wing.

Hopefully next year the Air show won't get rained out.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Bo likes Air Planes...

This morning Joel woke up at 7:30, so I brought him downstairs for a bottle and I watched a baby story. Bo soon followed by about 8:15-30 and the first thing he asks for is his airplane. He said "Mommy wheres a airplane" he then proceeds to walk around the house looking for his air planes. All of a sudden he come running down the hall screaming with happiness saying"Mommy look there it is!" He hasn't stopped playing with them all morning. By the way, Gail, Bo loves the airplane you guys got him for his birthday!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Ok Let's try again!


So, lately I have been out of our somewhat normal routine and it is bugging me. I need to get back in the swing of things and in order to do that it is going to make for a very long day.....Usually when the boys wake up I get them ready for the day feed them breakfast put on some cartoons and then I check my email, Facebook and Pampered Chef stuff. Then I work my way to the kitchen and do dishes or I pick up the living room or start laundry etc... By this time Joel is ready for a nap, so I make him a bottle and lay him down. I then go take a shower while Bo is playing in the toy room or watching mickey mouse. Once I am ready, it is lunch time so I make Bo and myself lunch and then he goes down for a nap around 1 or 2. The rest of the afternoon I check email stuff again, work on another chore or do something crafty. Then of course I have the days where I have a bunch of running around to do or a play date for the boys to go to etc... Then comes getting ready for dinner and once dinner is done and we eat, we either go for a walk, watch TV and relax, or we are hanging out with people. That is our typical week. Now of course I have Pampered chef shows, Jason does Boy scouts and we have the occasional date night. But this past week has been so out of whack that it is hard to get back into the swing of things and that is my frustration right now. I don't even now how it got out of whack in the first place? GRRR. Plus now I am having to start getting ready for our trip up to Minneapolis! I can't wait! But for now that means more laundry, cleaning and packing. Anyways, I am going to revamp my blog to not only share craft ideas and family photos, but also how I am feeling, recipes and meal plans, ideas, wishes, Pampered Chef specials, random trivia, photos and the sort! So I hope you enjoy the changes that are going to take place. For now here are a couple photos of the FAM!!!





Tuesday, July 21, 2009

WOW it's been awhile...

Well good news! Jason got me a camera for my birthday! So now I have pictures to go along with the stories I have! YAY. So You may be bombarded with pictures and stories from the past few weeks. Plus I have a few recipes people have been asking me for. So Enjoy! If there is something that you want me to blog about feel free to leave a comment!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Breast Cancer Awareness Quarters Auction!

Pampered Chef
Breast Cancer Awareness Quarters Auction!

May 7, 2009
6:00 pm
Knights of Columbus
Collinsville, IL

All Proceeds go to making strides against Breast Cancer

Bring your friends and your quarters for a night of fun!
We will be auctioning NEW Pampered Chef products ranging in price from 25 cents to $1!!!

Can't Attend???
Submit a $40 order before the auction and receive one of our rubs for free (a $5.50 value) submit an $80 order and receive 2 rubs for free!
Visit my website to place your order:
http://www.pamperedchef.biz/abindewald

Spaces are filling up fast so
Call me today to reserve your table!
618-406-9478
ajbindewald@gmail.com

Contact me for more details!!!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Pampered Chef!

I am sooo excited to tell all of you that I became a Pampered Chef consultant! I have used and loved the products now for several years so I decided to become apart of what I love. Now don't get me wrong I still love to stamp and scrapbook, but I also love to cook and this is a great way to learn easy new exciting recipes! Plus these days people are more interested in cooking at home instead of eating out all the time. Anyways if you or anyone you know would like to host a home cooking show or a catalog show and earn free stuff while helping me get my business off and running, please let me know! What could be better, food and friends!

Click on the link below to visit my website!

http://www.pamperedchef.biz/abindewald?page=home

Oh WOW!

I am really sorry guys, I have been so bad about updating my blog. Although I must say it isn't totally my fault. My mischievous son Bo lost my camera. I have no idea where it is. I have torn this house apart looking for it. Jason thinks he might have thrown it away. He went through a time where he threw everything away and we think the camera might have been one of the things that got tossed. So I am need of a new one, it's really frustrating not have a camera. I feel like I am missing so many photo memory opportunities. Anyways, I was able to get some pictures from family members so tomorrow I will be working on posting those!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Starbucks Via!!!

I signed up to get my free sample and am excited to try it!!! So read on and sign up yourself if you would like to try it!

Introducing Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew – Instant coffee, The Starbucks way.

Today at 9:18am
Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew is our amazing new way to make a truly great cup of coffee, just by adding water. This isn’t like instant coffee you’ve ever tasted before. This is rich, flavorful, aromatic Starbucks® Coffee – in an instant.

Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew is made with the highest-quality, ethically-sourced Arabica beans. We’ve found a way to microgrind them in a way that preserves all their essential oils and flavor – trust us, you won’t find anything like Starbucks VIA™ anywhere else.

As a fan of Starbucks, we want you to be one of the first people to try Starbucks VIA™. Stop by starbucksVIA.com to order a sample. Supplies are limited – so make sure you come by soon.


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Crimped Envelope Card!

I tried this new technique this week and loved it! It was so easy and simple to do, this is not my card, but here are the directions and I will post a photo of my card in the morning! Have fun and happy stamping!

Create a pouch out of a regular envelope.

Supplies

  • A2 size Envelope

  • Paper Trimmer

  • Crimper

  • Adhesive

  • Stamps>>(Gina K. stamp set A Year of Flowers used here)

  • Cardstock (for insert)

Step-by-Step

  1. Step 1

    Seal the envelope.

    Use your paper trimmer to cut 1 1/4" from one of the short sides of the envelope.

    The narrow piece will be the topper and the larger piece will be the crimped pocket portion of the card.

  2. Step 2

    Decorate both pieces with stamps, keeping in mind that the bottom piece will be crimped and the images may be slightly distorted.

  3. Step 3

    Place the larger piece into the crimping tool with the opening to the side, and crimp.

  4. Step 4

    Add stamped/cut images, die cuts and embellishments as desired.

  5. Step 5

    To create the insert, cut a piece of card stock to 4" by 4 1/4".

    For a layered look, cut additional pieces slightly smaller.

  6. Step 6

    Stamp and embellish insert as desired.

  7. Step 7

    As a variation you can scale the project down to create gift card holder.

Your turn! Have fun!