Wordless Wednesday - Construction Craziness

You can tell Spring is here when all the road construction starts popping up. Here is some of the construction that I have to drive through to get to work every day. Ugh!

For more Wordless Wednesday, head over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

Register that Starbucks Card

This weekend we were out for a family walk when I saw a Starbucks gift card laying there on the ground. It looked sad and lonely so I picked it up and brought it home with me. I figured it probably didn't have any money left on it, but if I was lucky there might be a buck or two left. I could tell that it had never been registered because the pin number hadn't been scratched off.

Later that night I finally got a chance to call the automated system and check the balance. Imagine my surprise when it said that the card had $30.00 on it. As someone else said when I told them about this, "That's a Lotta Lattes."

I took the time to register the card. This way, if I lose the card I will be able to get it replaced. I love this feature of the Starbucks card and I have taken advantage of it in the past. It's completely free to register your card and it only takes a minute. Plus, once its registered, if you lose your card all you have to do is call them and they will mail you a replacement. Again, free of charge. What do you have to lose? Register those Starbucks card. Don't wind up like the poor person who lost the card I found. And, if you find a gift card laying around, it could be worth taking a minute to call up and check the balance. It could just be your lucky day.

For more Works For Me Wednesday, head over to We Are THAT Family.

To Do Tuesday - June 23

This week looks like it's going to be crazy. I know that if I don't have a To-Do List and a plan of attack, things will quickly start to feel overwhelming and I will stress out. Last week I managed to complete 4 of the 6 items on my list. I don't think that's too bad. For some reason I never seem to complete every item. I never have. Maybe I just try to do too much.

Wash, dry and fold laundry
Put away laundry
Clean out email inbox
Balance my checkbook
Complete Menu Plan for next week
Schedule meeting with lender for home purchase

At this point we don't know if we'll have a contract for selling our house or not. There have been some complications with the buyers agent. If we get that worked out and manage to get our house under contract, then I will be adding some more items to our to do list. Until then, I just need to try to relax and not stress out of this whole selling and buying houses process.

What do you need to get done this week? To see more To-Do Tuesday lists, head over to Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

Menu Plan Monday - June 22

I am loving the new slow cooker that I picked up last weekend. So this week I'm planning some more meals using it. It is so nice to come home and have most of the work for dinner already done. There are still a few features on the new slow cooker that I haven't tried out yet. Once I try those out, I plan to post my review of the cooker.

In other news, we just might have a contract on house which would mean that we'd be moving by the end of July. So I really need to use up our stash of food. Our freezer actually has a little room in it now. I've been finding some things that I completely forgot we had, like the kielbasa you see on this week's menu. Of course our storage shelves are still pretty full. We have a lot of food to use up.

Hubby and I have been debating something and I would appreciate any comments you guys can give me on this topic. The new house will have plenty of room for us to finally have a freezer. Hubby has instead suggested that we purchase a new fridge and move the old one to the basement instead of buying a freezer. This way we would have additional freezer and fridge space. I'm not as sure about this. I told him I would think about it. So, which do you think is better, an extra refrigerator or a freezer?

Here's what I have planned for this week:

Dinners:

• Monday - Steak (in the slow cooker)
• Tuesday - Lemon Chicken
• Wednesday - Pulled Pork Tacos (didn't get to these last week)
• Thursday - Kielbasa and Macaroni and Cheese
• Friday - Chicken Salad Sandwiches
• Saturday - Spaghetti
• Sunday - Rosemary Pork Chops

Breakfasts:

1. Cereal
2. Granola Bars
3. Bananas

Lunches:

1. Leftovers
2. PB&J

To see more delicious menu plans, head over to Org Junkie for all the Menu Plan Monday links.

Eating From the Pantry Update

Last month I participated in an Eating From the Pantry Challenge and stated that I planned to continue that challenge into June. Since then I haven't been as good about posting updates. Here we are over half way through June and I haven't updated even once.

I have been doing great with staying out of the grocery stores. I have had so much going on that I haven't managed to track my exact spending. Since we stick with cash I know I stayed under budget so that is a good thing. This week I wound up spending $60 on dairy and produce. That's what happens when I don't even glance at a sale paper before going shopping. For some reason we don't get the grocery sale papers anymore and I just didn't have a chance to go online and check them.

Our freezer and pantry are starting to get a little room in them. Since we're hoping to move by the end of summer my goal is to have our pantry and freezer basically empty by then. As long as we have food in there I will keep going with my pantry meals. I have to say that I'm rather enjoying not running to the grocery store every week. I have been doing quick runs for dairy and produce, but they are nothing like a normal shopping trip. It has been very nice. Once we're in our new house I'm going to have to figure out a way to limit our grocery shopping to once or twice a month.

How has your grocery shopping been going? Do you shop every week or less often? I'm curious how other people do their regular grocery shopping.

Do We Really Need All That Stuff?

I've mentioned before how we're trying to sell our house so we've decluttered and moved quite a few things to storage. Now, I'm not to collect a lot of stuff so our house wasn't too bad, but in the 5 1/2 years we've lived here we have managed to accumulate a few things. At first I was worried that I would miss my stuff so I wasn't crazy about putting things in storage. Amazingly, so far I have only missed one thing. Yet even then I managed without it.

All of this leaves me wondering if I even need most of that stuff we put in storage. Honestly, I don't miss it, so why am I paying for storage? Ok, so I will want the Christmas decorations again come December and the baby stuff may get used again, but there are plenty of other things in there that I am seriously considering getting rid of. Maybe once we're in our new house we can have a yard sale and I can get rid of it. Or maybe I can have the charity truck meet me at the storage unit and take it all away for me. Both ideas are very tempting.

It can be stressful keeping your house clean to the point that its ready to sell. Yet it is also nice to have such a clean house. After we decluttered and cleaned up, hubby and I asked each other "Why are we moving again?" It has been so nice without all the clutter that I am seriously reconsidering just how much of it we really need. I like my house so much more when its clean and open without a bunch of clutter laying around. I need to remember this for when we move to our new house. My goal is to only keep things we need and things we love. All the rest is just "stuff" take up precious space in my house and my life.

So what about you, do you tend to keep a lot of "stuff" or do you prefer a less cluttered house?

Wordless Wednesday - Yard Sale Fun

My daughter has become a serious yard sale addict. This Saturday I drove past a church yard sale and she had a fit. So I wound up turning around and going back. We didn't buy anything other then a snowball there, but she did get to try out the moon bounce for the first time. There weren't any other kids in there so I got in with her and she loved it. Here we are in the moon bounce:

After the church yard sale we hit a couple other yard sales and a church Strawberry Festival and Book Sale before Pumpkin finally collapsed. Here she is after she shopped till she dropped:

Finally, here she is after a refreshing nap, enjoying the Leap Pad we picked up at one of the yard sales. She loves books so much I figured she would love this.

For more Wordless Wednesday, head over to 5 Minutes For Mom and Mom Dot.