Am I late getting my post up today or what?

Wow I am super late getting my menu plan and my 5 minutes a day post up today. Goodness. So let's just merge them into one big post today shall we?



First let's do our menu plan for this week. As usual we're doing Menu Plan Monday over at OrgJunkie.

Monday: Baked Potatoes, Salad
Tuesday: Marinated Chicken, Green Beans
Wednesday: Cheeseburgers, Fries
Thursday: Beef chuck steaks, butter beans
Friday: Meatball Sandwiches, Fries or Mac & Cheese

Breakfasts:
Pancakes
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Coffecake Muffins
Toast

Lunches:
Hot Dogs
leftovers
Teriyaki Noodles


And now 5MAD!


Today's task is to clean out your kitchen sink and wipe it down.

What we had for dinner

I've been slacking a bit with my blogging and I apologize. There hasn't been much going on to blog about. Tonight I figured I'd at least get some kind of post up so let's talk about what we had for dinner tonight. Yesterday we went to the grocery store and they had whole chickens for something like $1.39 a pound. I really should've bought more than one and I might run back and get 1 or 2 more before they go off sale. I got a while chicken for less than $3. Yes they are smaller chickens but we'll get at least 2 meals from one.

I put the chicken in the crockpot and put 2 big pats of butter under the skin and 3 small pats on top of the chicken with some herbs. I used Penzey's Bavarian Style Seasoning but any mix of herbs will work. I let it cook in the crockpot all day until cooked and tender. Man did it make my house smell good! Then for the sides I chopped up some potatoes, carrots and onions. I put them in a pot of water with some butter and some seasonings. (I used Penzey's Bouquet Garni Seasoning. And no these aren't affiliate links, I just happen to love Penzey's) I also added a cup of the juices from the chicken. I brought it up to boil, put a lid on the pot, turned it off and let it sit until we were ready to eat. They were nice and tender but all the veggies held their shape really well.

Come back tomorrow for MPM!

8/13 5 Minutes A Day

Good Morning! Here comes the weekend. Are you doing anything exciting? Well before you take off to start your weekend activities let's do a 5 minute task.

Today we're going to spend 5 minutes cleaning/decluttering a spot in your house that collects clutter.

So excited!

I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

I am really excited to see how CJ does with the T4L website as I have heard great things about the program.

8/12 5MAD

Good morning! Isn't it a fabulous Thursday? I haven't had much time to blog this week but tomorrow I'll do a longer post about our week.

So today's task is to clean out your refrigerator. Or at least work for 5 minutes on it. Clean out all that old food and mystery containers and make room for fresh groceries.

8/11 5MAD

Are you ready for our 3rd 5MAD? Did you finish yesterday's task? My front door is looking extra pretty!

So today's task is simple. I want you to take 5 minutes and go outside and enjoy your surroundings. Take a deep breath, look around and just enjoy the world around you.

I will definitely be doing that today as we're about to head out to spend the morning in the water! Have a great day!

8/10 5MAD

Good Morning fabulous ladies! Are you ready for a new 5MAD? Did you complete yesterday's task?

Today's task is to wipe down your front door.

5 minutes a Day

5 minutes a day is a daily series I am going to be doing here at At My Sink. The goal is to do one small task every day that takes around 5 minutes to complete but helps to improve your life and home. Make sure you have a timer handy. I hope you all will join me. Be sure to leave a comment letting me know you're playing along!


Todays "5MAD" task:
Set the timer for 5 minutes and dust the walls in one room.

Menu Plan Monday 8/9

It's that time again! Time for Menu Plan Monday. :-)

Monday: Sloppy Joes, fries
Tuesday: BBQ Chicken, mashed potatoes
Wednesday: Baked Mac & Cheese, Salad
Thursday: Homemade Pizza
Friday: Marinated Chicken, roasted carrots

Check our our new series "5 Minutes A Day"

And don't forget to "like" our page on Facebook! When we hit 100 fans there will be a giveaway. At My Sink on Facebook

Totals for this week

I went to 2 different stores this week, Food Lion on Friday and WalMart on Saturday.

Food Lion $32.44
5# sugar
Pop-Tarts 2 boxes on sale for $2 each
potato chips
Baked Beans
hamburger buns
hamburger 4.5#pk
chicken breasts 2pks
lettuce
fries

Walmart $59.48
toilet paper
paper towels
5# sugar
coffee
clothes hangers
tea bags
salad dressing
sour cream
popcorn
chef boyardee
flavored powder for milk
macaroni noodles
spanish rice mix
cheese
carrots
butter
cilantro
cereal
green peppers
cucumbers
lettuce
tomatoes 3pks (pack of 3 tomatoes for $1)
hot dogs
limes
bacon bits
bbq sauce
taco sauce
bananas
tortillas
hot dog buns
hamburger buns
bread
tee-shirt

Coffee with Friends

Good morning friends! I just found the most wonderful little blog called Home Sanctuary and she has a series called Small Things. It's all about doing the small things to make your home into a sanctuary. I am thrilled to be participating.


Tonight for dinner I'm planning on making Pioneer Women's Tequila Lime Chicken. I love all things mexican food so I am so looking forward to making this dish. Topped with some fresh pico de gallo and sour cream. YUM! For now though we're about to head out to the lake.

Funny how life works out

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you plan to do nothing and then all of a sudden you have something every single day? That has been us this week. It's our first week of school so I had a planned a quiet week at home getting CJ into a nice little routine but as is life, that has not happened. Monday and Tuesday went basically as planned. Tuesday I was just exhausted though! Do you ever have those days? You wake up tired and nothing you do makes you have more energy? Well that was Tuesday for me. We did spend an hour or so up and down from the table coloring and practicing writing his name. We started writing the letter C but he insisted on finishing it out and writing CJ instead, but that's ok by me. I did little to no housework Tuesday though. Wednesday we made a day of it and went down to see my Mama. My van has been in the shop so I went to pick it up and spent the rest of the day with her. We went and got some goodies from a local bakery and met a cousin to loan her a Moby wrap for her new little one. On the way home I picked up KFC for supper (Thanks Mama!), came home, ate supper and did little else the rest of the day.

So then that brings us today. My husband was unexpectedly home today so I took advantage of having an extra pair of hands and got a few things done that I couldn't do myself. The backseat of our van has been sitting in our living room since we moved into our house in June and CJ's bed frame has been sitting on the front porch waiting on a 2nd coat of paint. It's just been way too hot to get it painted though! Both of those things are now in their proper homes. Then last minute we were invited to lunch with his parents for his aunt's birthday. My house was a mess and I needed a shower so I opted to stay home and clean while he took CJ with him to lunch. My house thanks him for it too. I had about 6 loads of laundry to do, dished piled up and a living room that looked like a tornado went through it. I'm almost done with my to do list though, just waiting on the washer and dryer to do their thing, so I sat down to plan next week's menu and blog.

Tomorrow we're planning to spend most of the day out at the lake with my best friend and her little girl and have a picnic lunch, then CJ is supposed to spend the night with my parents so I might get to enjoy my clean house for at least a day!

Days 1 & 2

We completed day 2 of preschool today. So far so good. We worked on writing the letters A,B & C, we colored a picture of a farm, worked on recognizing letters and practiced walking in a straight line touching toe to heel. Here's a few pictures from the last 2 days.

Kitchen organization

The kitchen has to be one of the hardest rooms to organize. It needs to be functional while still being pretty. Ours serves not only as a cooking space but also our dining area and school room so I'm constantly trying to figure out a new way to make it that much more organized. One of the hardest things to organize are my spices. I have lots of bottles of spices but they are just kind of everywhere. I can't use a spice rack because all my bottles are different sizes and shapes. So currently my most used spices just sit on my counter and the rest are in a plastic container on top of the fridge.

Today the plan is to get in the kitchen and do a little more organizing so I'm not constantly back tracking and everything flows a little better. So tell me how YOU organize your kitchen to make it more functional for you and your family.

Week 2 Detailed Guide

Here is our Week 2 detailed guide.

Theme- Under the Sea
Life Skill- Table Manners
Physical Skill- do the Hokey Pokey
Cooking- Help make muffins
Vocabulary- Letters D & E
Reading/Oral Language- Read a book out loud together
Math- Numbers 1-5
Hands on- Trace Square
Handwriting- D & E
Craft- paper plate Fishbowl

Monday-
Introduce life skill- Table Manners: sitting at the table properly, asking to be excused, etc
Handwriting- Show how to write letters D & E. Practice writing these letters
Coloring- Color a picture of sea life. Talk about different types of sea life

Tuesday-
Physical Skill- Dance the Hokey Pokey
Vocab- Recognize letters. Worksheet- find and circle the letters D & E

Wednesday-
Math- Sort shells into groups of 1-5
Reading- Read a book outloud. Encourage child to repeat words or sentences.
Craft- Make a Paper Plate Fishbowl (color a plate blue and draw fish or use stickers)

Thursday-
Hands On- Trace Squares
Cooking- Make muffins together
Bible Lesson- Read the story of Jonah. Color a picture and talk about the story.

Friday-
Review the lessons for the week

Menu Plan Monday

Yes I realize today is Sunday. But I'm putting my menu up now while I have a minute since we have company coming later. Over at orgjunkie.com Laura has Menu Plan Monday. I will be participating in MPM this week! Any blogger is welcome to join so if you menu plan I recommend joining.

Sunday- Beef chuck steaks, mashed potatoes, Eclair Cake
Monday- Taco Salad
Tuesday- Chicken & Rice
Wednesday- homemade Pizza
Thursday- Sloppy Joes, homemade fries
Friday- marinated chicken, potato salad


And just a little self promotion here. lol We have a brand new Facebook page if you want to become a fan HERE

And one last thing, We are raffling off a Red Bilibo on AMH! Bilibos are great toys to get your child(ren) using their imaginations. You can find out more info HERE