Big Hunk Dip

I had a little mishap with a made up recipe in the kitchen the other day, what I was going for just wasn't happening but by a happy mistake it was still good and with just 1 more ingredient it was super!

Only 3 ingredients in this, super easy and fast dip!

1 small container marshmallow fluff

1/2C melted peanut butter

(Chunky or Creamy)

1/2C chopped peanuts

Mix fluff and melted pb then stir in nuts!

That's it, not healthy but super delish on apple slices!

Meal Plan Monday

It's Thanksgiving week, and I can't wait to hang with family and do some shopping on Friday! The kids are home from school and we have no big plans. 

This is my favorite type of week, more family time.

Monday~Ham and Potatoes

Starting off the week with a meal made to have leftovers!

Tuesday~Chicken Tacos

If I remember in the morning I am going to do crock pot shredded chicken for tacos.

Wednesday~Leftovers

Then I don't plan on cooking much. Between leftovers and activities I don't think I want to attempt to grocery shop so we will see what we can come up with for meals using what we have in the pantry and freezer.

20 Minutes to Clean Bedrooms

Bedrooms!

Lately, these have been the rooms that have been neglected big time. We have been in this house 3 weeks now and I haven't really touched them. I shared earlier this week a picture of how bad they are, SO bad, you can see them HERE.

I have been feeling anxious and sad and just not my normal. I think a big part of that is the chaos of every room so far. Getting back on track in the bedrooms with this list should help!

~Pick up toys

hopefully the kids have been sticking to the 1 toy out a time rule

~Clean off nightstands, dressers and other flat surfaces

~Dust

We have a feather comforter, SO MANY feathers!

~Wipe down flat surfaces

as needed, I just use a baby wipe

~Change Sheets/Make Bed

Then put the stripped sheets straight into the washer

~Touch up mirrors and windows

only as needed

~Vacuum

Also only as needed, we are a no shoe house so the carpet isn't horrible

I pick up each room, then dust each room so I am not picking up the duster more than once. I do each task in all 3 rooms before I move onto the next task.

Hoping I get to share nice tidy, organized bedrooms tomorrow! It's been a rough week!

Laundry Room Savings~No Coupons Required

I really meant to share each month for the whole year how we are doing with our goals, but life happens and honestly some months I didn't feel like we had made any progress or have any huge set backs, so I didn't share as much. One of our main goals is getting rid of consumer debt. We haven't made any huge progress the last couple months but I did want to share a little more about how we save money around the house. That saved money goes right to debt and can rapidly add up! I've shared some of these before, using them all together saved us quite a bit the last year!

We still don't use coupons, so keep reading to see if some of these might work for you too!

The first REAL frugal thing I ever did for us as a family was make our own laundry soap, I think this might be the go to for saving in the laundry area.

What am I doing now?

~if you use store bought soap, use a little less each time until you find the right balance to get clothes clean. For us this was just over half the recommended amount. Buying laundry soap every other month instead of every month meant a whole month of a payment to a credit card in 1 year. That 1 littttle teeny change gave us a month sooner of not owing Target anything!

~Keep that change from the dryer, cash it in the 1st and put it towards debt, maybe it's only $5, that is still $60 a year!

~We use these dryer balls! I swear they have made a big difference in the time it takes for the clothes to dry and clothes are SO soft!
 

Also safe for super sensitive skin! No icky chemicals! 

~Wash full, but not overfull, loads. Less loads=less energy and less $

~Do the quick wash or rapid wash on your machine for everyday laundry.
Save the long wash cycles for stained loads.

This one I am torn on, sometimes I do it one way and other times I do it totally opposite.

~Do all the laundry on 1 day and take advantage of the dryer being warm from the previous load
OR
~Do a load first thing every morning and let the dryer help warm the house up
They both have their pros and cons.

To help you get started on your laundry savings, I am giving away a pack of the Woolzies
Enter below through the 25th and share with your friends!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Meal Plan Monday

I honestly am so overwhelmed with unpacking that I am not planning any meals this week. I am taking some chicken and hamburger out to thaw and I will just cook what sounds good at the time. 

This Chili has been sounding good so I am sure I will make that

All this cold weather we are having makes me want soup and hearty meals. Chicken Bacon Wild Rice Soup if we have everything we need.

Maybe I will just throw together random stuff from the pantry!

Have you tried anything new lately?

Organizing Friday~before & after bathroom

Last Friday I showed y'all this embarrassing picture of our master bathroom counter! Ugg moving is not my thing. Unpacking seems so difficult!

I spent a little time each day sorting, purging MORE, even though I just did when I packed! Having stuff packed for a month sure is an eye opener! I didn't even THINK about one of the boxes. So much stuff I didn't need but had. This whole moving thing is surely a lesson in needs vs. wants and simplifying.

We have this very large built in cabinet. The tall shelves are perfect for keeping stuff out of kids hands! I've got medications sorted into types and together! No more digging for cough medicine at 3am! I keep supplements up there too. I fill our medicine holders up in the bathroom, it's just easier to keep them near.

I was going to get rid of a lot of towels, but there is plenty of room so for now I am just leaving them for now.

Our old house we had just enough storage for clothes in our bedroom, this one is a little smaller and we are down 2 large pieces of furniture that held a lot of clothes. Because the bathroom has so much more storage that would otherwise be empty, I moved all the socks and undergarments as well as pajamas and stuff into the bottom drawers. We each have our own space for stuff that can easily be organized and it frees up a drawer in the 1 dresser we have now.

This week I have got to get a handle on these kids rooms!  I know there are still boxes of stuff in the garage, I don't want to bring anymore in until this disaster is a little more managed.

And yes those are our sleeping babies, they each have a bed, but Finn always tries to sleep in some one's bed ❤️

20 Minutes to a Clean Bathroom

Wednesday is my least favorite cleaning day! Bathrooms.. ugg

Thankfully, I don't spend much time doing it, 20 minutes for both of them, that's it!

~Spray showers, sink and toilet with magic bathroom cleaner

(dawn and vinegar)

~Dust

~Wipe counters down

 ~Touch Up Mirror and Windows

No need to clean the whole thing, just the spots

~Change Towels

~Stock q tips and TP

~Change Scentsy

~Spray Shower Out

 ~Clean Toilet

~Shake Rugs out

~Sweep 

What is your least favorite room to clean?!

Meal Plan Monday

It's that time again already! 

I am HORRIBLE at unpacking and I am really not loving it or feeling settled at all

I've been putting off unpacking by doing so much other randoms stuff instead!

Thankfully, cooking is one of those things I would rather do than unpack!

Monday~Chicken Spaghetti

I didn't make it last week 

 

Tuesday~Spicy Chicken Quesadilla

 Red Chili sauce makes these delish and spicy!

Wednesday~Spaghetti

Thursday~Tacos

Friday~Chicken Tortilla Soup

Saturday~Chicken Parmesan

Sunday~Baked Potato Soup

Organizing Friday

I really need to get back to organizing on Friday! We don't have all the boxes out of storage yet but I have to start somewhere! There is a lot of strange storage in this new place. I'm going to start with the master bathroom. Our old one had decent storage but nothing like this one!  Y'all I am so embarrassed by this before picture!

I have just been leaving them there because I don't know what to do with them yet! And the mess underneath is even worse!

Medicine and stuff that can harm the kids has to be up for my comfort. I've used some dollar tree bins and separated each bin into type of medicine. We have
cold/cough/asthma,
stomach/heartburn,
skin, and
One for everything else

I asked on Facebook the other day about towels, how many did others have, thinking our 25+ was too many!

Hopefully now that I have shared this disaster I will be motivated enough to share the better version next week!

20 Minutes to a Clean Home~Part 3

Tuesdays for me are cleaning the Family Room, 1/2 Bath and Entryway day.
While you might not have a set day each week that you clean a certain area, I hope this 20 minute list will help someone.

Usually I try to stay in 1 room at a time, but toilets and showers can always use some time to get some cleaning action going, I start with those.

~Start toilet cleaning with whatever you use
  We use a couple different things here, but the toilet bombs are my favorite!
 Lots of different recipes on Pinterest.
~Spray sink
I use the equal parts blue Dawn and Vinegar mix on pretty much all of our sinks and showers.

~Turn Scentsy warmer off
So I can dust it and change it later

Then I get to work in the Family Room

~Pick Up
Anything that got missed during tidying

~Dust
All of the black furniture and the ceiling fan especially show dust

~Glass
Just the obvious fingerprints on windows

~Wipe down tabletops
There are always coffee cup rings :) 
I just use a baby wipe cause we always have them

~Vacuum
Only if it really needs it. We are a no shoes, no food (for kids)
on carpet so it can go 2 weeks and be fine. 

Then I get to the Bathroom, not much different order from the Family Room.

~Dust
One of my pet peeves is how much dust TP makes!

~Glass
Touch up the mirror, get any spots off. You don't have to clean the whole mirror every week.

~New Fluff
I change the hand towel and scentsy, make sure the TP is stocked.

 ~Counter, cabinets & sink
Wipe counters off then most of the time, I just rinse the spray off the sink and it's fine, but if it needs extra attention, I just wipe it out with a baby wipe. Spot clean cabinets for fingerprints.

~Toilet
Again with the baby wipes, I just  wipe down the outside and seat and then flush, keeping up on it means it never really gets bad enough to require scrubbing.

~Floors
I shake the rug out and vacuum or sweep. If the floor needs it I will steam mop.
I try to catch the wild boy messes before steam mopping is necessary. 

The Entryway is really not too much work, it's small.

~Glass
Spot Clean the windows for finger (or mouth) prints

~Floor
I just do a quick sweep, or vacuum if it's still out.

 
That is IT! You can do that in 20 minutes!
Set that timer and it will be done before you know it, and you will feel good about how it looks!

 

Office Organization

 New House means new organizing. We had our little office in a cupboard before. I needed to find a way to keep our day to day life organized. Somewhere for the permission slips to be seen, bills and calendars to be managed and our Home Management Binder to be kept. I couldn't handle the chaos, most of it in my head, that seemed to be happening so after 3 short days here, the office in a cupboard is back! I already feel a little better about the whole not being unpacked thing.

Our photo boxes are the perfect size to hold excess office supplies, extra checkbooks, envelopes and wax sealer along with other mailing supplies, and then I have one for my planner supplies and one for camera accessories. Keeping just these small boxes helps me from going overboard on the office supplies and keeps things together. I really should label them already!

The magnetic board is just a piece of tin than I put a piece of scrap booking paper over, it's only held on by magnets.  We use the command strips and the little hooks to attach it to the cabinet. 

The printer and paper are in the cabinet below, they are rarely used so I don't mind hauling them out if I need them.
 Even when the rest of the house is a mess, or in boxes, this little area usually stays tidy. I think that is why it is my favorite!

Do you have a home office? A whole room or just an area?

Linking up HERE

Meal Plan Monday

Our new kitchen is a MESS! I am slowly, very, very slowly getting it organized. The pantry is going to be a hard adjustment. I already miss our big walk in pantry!  

I am also pretty sure we still have a container of food in the storage unit. I am still going to attempt a plan this week and see how it goes. I feel like such a crazy person, haven't made a meal plan for the month, went grocery shopping and I swear I didn't really get anything. I don't think I was prepared for how hard moving was going to be for me.

Monday~Chicken, rice and green sauce

I am probably going an easier route and just using green enchilada sauce (with some blended spinach in it, don't tell the kids) instead of homemade sauce.

Tuesday~Bacon Mac 'n' Cheese

I am going to try to put together a new dish, no recipe so we will see how it turns out.

Having salad with it.

Wednesday~Chili and Rice

Thursday~Chicken Spaghetti

I love how easy this is to throw together in the day as I have time, then I can just bake it as we get close to dinner!

Friday~Grilled Cheese

 Have you tried any new recipes recently that were super? Share them please!