Baby Cardinal Update

The baby cardinals are growing so quickly these past few days. Eyes open, feathers filling in. The kids are growing up!

The above picture was taken yesterday. They are getting bigger and more alert. We thought that it might be a couple more days, but...

Today, they are gone...

So sad, but also so happy!

My daughter heard a lot of chirping this morning, hoping that it was just mom & dad getting the kids out of the nest and into the cover of the woods.

Hope nothing bad happened.

The nest was still wonderful to observe these past couple of weeks.

We'll miss the babies!

Babies getting bigger!

Happy Birthday!

Here is a quick picture of the new babies hatched today. They are hungry! My hubby had to take a quick picture because the daddy is in the background wanting to feed these two. We hope to get a better picture soon...

Outside my window...

A Cardinal nest with two tiny eggs. We had a nest close to another window a couple of years ago, but this one has an even better view. They must really like the protection of being close to the house.

We will put up more photos as things progress...

Garden Update--and playing with my new camera!

Here are some updated pictures from my Square Foot Garden. It really has grown quite a bit since my last post. The English peas are gone--they were spent and it is now far too hot. I took all of these pictures with my new camera--the Canon Rebel T1i. I still have lots to learn about the camera.


I can't believe how BIG the tomato plants have gotten! We have lots of blooms and have even harvested a few cherry tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. So far, I have only found one green tomato worm, but it is hard to find them since the plants are so large.

I am waiting on the pepper shown below to turn yellow. It is taking its sweet time...

Cherry tomatoes getting ripe!

I really have no idea why I am still getting lettuce. We have had many days near or at 90 degrees. I can only guess that the plentiful rain is helping and this bed gets some afternoon shade.

I need to pick lettuce this weekend!


Now for some pictures of flowers from around my house. Enjoy!











Have a great weekend and get outside in your garden!

Our Square Foot Garden

This is our second year of having a Square Foot Garden. I have always wanted to have a vegetable garden and have tried many times without much success. We live in Georgia and we have the classic Georgia red clay.

The Square Foot Garden did well last year, so we expanded the garden this year. We just started harvesting the cool weather crops this week.


Here you see part of our crop of English peas. We still have to pick from one of our larger beds (4' x 8'). We will definitely be shelling peas this weekend. We should be able to put quite a bit in the freezer.


The picture below shows some spring onions and lettuce. The lettuce is so tender. Its amazing how much better everything is when it is grown at home. Freshness definitely makes a difference!


We still have potatoes growing and more lettuce and onions. We planted over 30 tomato plants and about 10 pepper plants (a mixture of hot peppers and sweet bell peppers). I also just planted green beans this week, but they are not up yet. Once we finish picking all of the peas, we will take them out and plant more green beans, squash and cucumbers in those beds.


Head over to $5 Dinners and check out more links to Square Foot Gardening!

Macular Degenerates

Here is a look at what a few of the eye surgeons I work for do in their spare time. Love the name!

Click on the video to see full screen:




This video was shot at a fundraiser for blindness.

Great job guys!

Menu Plan Monday 4/26/10

Yesterday, my husband and I did an inventory of our pantry and freezer. I found 23 boxes of cereal, 6 cans of tomatoes, 3 bottles of ketchup, 2 bottles of vegetable oil, 6 boxes of oatmeal and lots more. Needless to say, I need to try and use up some of what I have stockpiled. (Let's not even get into the non-food stockpile--11 bottles of laundry soap!)

I got on allrecipes.com and started searching recipes by ingredient and came up with some menus for this week. I really love being able to find recipes by just typing in what I have on hand. Try it some time!

Breakfasts
cereal with milk
granola bars
instant oatmeal
bagels with cream cheese
toaster strudels
raisin toast
fruit

Lunches
Progresso soups
PB and J sandwiches
Egg salad sandwiches
carrot sticks
fruit
yogurt

Dinners

Braised Balsamic Chicken, rice, steamed veggie
Pizza, salad
Apricot Chicken, sugar snap peas, salad, biscuits
Chipped beef with gravy over toast, steamed veggie
Spaghetti sauce, noodles, salad, homemade bread
Pancakes, Canadian bacon, fruit
Tangy chicken fajitas

Get more great menu ideas from I'm an Organizing Junkie--Menu Plan Monday.

Have a great week!

Free Bath Tissue at CVS!

The Magic Coupon machine at CVS is giving out coupons for $1 off any CVS paper product. I got one last week and another today when I went in to CVS. The single rolls of toilet paper are 2/$1 this week, so I was able to get 4 rolls for FREE.

Gotta love free toilet paper!

Menu Plan Monday 3/22/10

I am going to try to get back into the habit of menu planning. I have been so busy shopping for all the deals, but end up not having everything to make complete meals. I have about $70 left in the grocery budget, so I have plenty to fill in any gaps. I am going to try to use up what I have on hand as much as possible over the next couple of weeks.

Here is my plan for this week:

Breakfasts: cereal with milk, oatmeal, bagels with cream cheese, granola bars

Lunches: Smart Ones, sandwiches, soup, leftovers

Dinners:

Popcorn chicken over salad
Pancakes, bacon/sausage, fruit
Pizza and salad
Chili and cornbread
Hot dogs, corn on the cob, fruit
Spaghetti , Italian bread, salad
Leftovers

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by I'm An Organizing Junkie. Head over and check out other great menu ideas.

My Next Project

Here is a picture of the beautiful hand-painted yarn I recently got at a great price from Tuesday Morning. I am going to be learning to knit socks. Can't wait!

These will definitely be some Christmas gifts this year. I love to give handmade items for Christmas.

Free Cheese! And other great deals.

So I went back to Kroger today. I had more of the $2/2 coupons for Kraft cheese and I also realized I had a booklet mailed to me from Kroger with some March Madness coupons.

I was able to get $1 off the cokes and $0.55 off the Powerade. I also won the Maxwell House by playing the March to Savings game at Kroger.com.

After the March Madness sale, coupons and a $4 catalina, I was able to get everything pictured for $7.43!

That's 33 items:

24 bags of cheese (free)
3 2-liter cokes
3 Powerades
1 Maxwell House coffee (free)
1 8-pack of Brawny
1 Rotisserie chicken

Check out these great blogs for all the deals:

Southern Savers--Friday Finals

Money Saving Mom-Super Savings Saturday

Fiddledeedee-Super Savers

The Frugal Freeloader

Kroger Deals $1.65 Out of Pocket!

On the way home from work, I stopped by a Publix store. I had been to this store last week and picked up a couple of the $2/2 Blinkie coupons that they had for Kraft cheese. I decided that if there were still coupons there I would get a few more. They had two Blinkie machines with Kraft coupons! I got a few more and combined them with some printables I had and headed over to Kroger.

I got 8 2-liter cokes ($0.79 ea on March Madness sale) and 16 Kraft shredded cheese ($0.99 on March Madness sale) and spent a total of $1.65 out of pocket! I was able to get such a great deal by using my coupons, plus I won a free Kraft cheese earlier this week at Kroger.com by playing the March To Savings game. Then I had a $4 Catalina left from last week.

You can learn more about Kroger deals this week by visiting HERE or HERE.

To see how other folks did this week on their grocery shopping, be sure to visit:

Money Saving Mom--Super Savings Saturday

Southern Savers--Friday Finals

Fiddledeedee--Super Savers

The Frugal Freeloader

Financial Peace University-Free Lesson

If you have been curious about Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University, you can sign up HERE to take a free lesson of Financial Peace University. The free lessons will be held the week of April 5th - 12th.

I highly recommend Financial Peace University and Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.
We have been following Dave's teachings since 2007 and have paid off almost all of our debt and have substantial savings. Go HERE to read more about our story.

Cheap Eight O'clock Coffee at Publix

Publix has Eight O'Clock coffee B1G1 Free this week. There is a great coupon for $2/2 bags. Just go to the Eight O'Clock Coffee website and click on the coupon link. You just have to enter your name and e-mail address and you can print your coupon! Be sure to hit the back button to get a second coupon. You can print two coupons for each computer in your house.

The coupon gets you 2 bags of coffee for $1.5o each. So stock up enough until the next sale. I usually by enough for 3-4 months and put the bags in the freezer to keep them fresh.

Super Savings Saturday-I went a little nuts with the cereal...

I went to Publix to take advantage of the 50% off Kellogg's cereal deal. I printed a bunch of high dollar coupons a few weeks back so this was the perfect time to use those coupons.

I bought 19 boxes of cereal! I paid either $1 or $1.25 per box of cereal. I got a total of 46 items and paid $51.45 OOP. I saved $106.66.

Needless to say, we are set for breakfast items for quite a while. Our pantry is actually bursting at the seams, so we are going to only buy fresh produce, milk, and free items for the rest of the month.

To see how other folks did, be sure to visit these great blogs:

Fiddledeedee- Super Savers

Southern Savers- Friday Finals

Money Saving Mom- Super Savings Saturday

Menu Plan Monday-Freezer Cooking Day Edition

This week I am planning on joining Money Saving Mom's Freezer Cooking Day. I will not be able to cook the amount others might, because I will be working 10-12 hours each day. But, I am planning on cooking several main dishes that will get me through this week and have some for the freezer. Here is the plan:

Spaghetti Sauce

Pioneer Woman Meatloaf- check out her book for recipe

Pioneer Woman Chicken Spaghetti

Homemade Chicken Broth

Pork Fried Rice

Vegetable Beef Soup

White Chili

I am also going to try to fit in cooking some Blueberry Muffins.

Check back later in the week for a wrap-up post on my Freezer Cooking Day.

To see more menu ideas, be sure to visit Menu Plan Monday at I'm and Organizing Junkie.

Freezer Cooking Day-Master Plan

I have never participated in a Money Saving Mom Freezer Cooking Day, but I am going to try to cook a few things this month. I have been inspired by Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman. I have a few of her recipes I want to try. Here is my master plan:

The Pioneer Woman- Chicken Spaghetti

The Pioneer Woman- BBQ Meatballs

White Chili

I may only be able to do these few items as I will be cooking after work both days. If I have extra energy I may try to make lasagna. Additionally, I may actually try to start cooking this weekend while I am off work. I will post my progress.

To see what other folks are cooking during this month's Freezer Cooking Days go to Money Saving Mom.

Fiskars Cutting Mat

For those of you who are crafters and quilters, I wanted to let you know of a great deal I got yesterday at Tuesday Morning. I purchased this large (24" x 36") cutting mat for $14.99. I have seen these mats for as much as $50 at JoAnns. I love having a large cutting mat on my fabric cutting table. Tuesday Morning also had smaller mats at even lower prices.


Check out the craft section at your local Tuesday Morning shop. They have many different craft supplies such as scrapbooking supplies, knitting supplies, scissors, paper cutters and beadworks. I try to stop by the shop at least twice a month because the inventory changes frequently.

Dream

I have been shopping it seems non-stop to try and find the last few accessories to complete my daughter's room. After about six stores today, I only found one item. But, it was an important one to my daughter. She specifically wanted a "Dream" sign. The one we found was perfect--burgundy red, on a stand, and rather big. It fits perfectly on the top of her desk. I got this at Ross for $5.99. Sweet!



I also got paint for the antique desk chair and I hope to get that painted tomorrow. Still need a red lamp, throw pillows for bed, a mirror, and a red throw for the end of the bed

Room of Turquoise

Another vacation spent at home and more home improvement projects. For the last few days we have been working on my daughter's room. She moved into this room about 3 years ago when her brother went to college. She has been living with his old lighthouse theme.

We first had to remove the old wallpaper and lighthouse border. Thank goodness that my husband prepped the walls well 12 years ago when we put the wallpaper up. It was fairly easy to remove by using the wallpaper scorer and diluted liquid fabric softener.





My daughter even helped. Imagine that--a teenager actually working!







Then it was time to start painting!




Then we got to put the furniture back and put out the new bedding.

We found a few pictures. The small one on the wall below came from Target. The accent color for the room is red.







The pictures in below came from Kirkland's.



We still need a few more accessories. I am planning on replacing the curtains and painting an antique desk chair red for the room. I am also looking for a couple of small pillows and a throw for the bed in red. Finally, I am going to get a mirror to put above a chest (not pictured). I hope to find one with a red or white frame.

I will post again with the final results!

If you would like to see where we got our inspiration, go HERE to see other beautiful turquoise and red rooms.