Loving Life
Recipe: Pizza Cups
Pizza Cup
Our family enjoys pizza cups. This main dish contains only 4 ingredients and easy to put together. You can make them from scratch or if you have leftover spaghetti or lasagna meat sauce you can make these pretty quickly. These are simple, fun, and delicious for the family to eat for dinner (plus you can use up some of your leftovers). The girls like helping put these pizza cups together and taking them to school.
Pizza Cups:
- 1/2 pound lean Ground Beef
- 1/2 (12 oz) jar Spaghetti Sauce
- 1 (8 count) can Biscuits
- 4 oz shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- Pepperoni Slices (optional)
Brown the ground beef in a pan, drain the excess oil. Add the spaghetti sauce to the meat and heat until begins to boil then turn down to simmer. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the biscuits in half, flatten them, and press them into a greased cupcake cups (16 count). Use an ice cream scoop and put the meat mixture into the biscuit cup, sprinkle shredded cheese over it, and bake for 10 minutes (or until the cheese melts).
Whole Biscuit
Cut the biscuits in half
Biscuits pressed into a cupcake pan.
Scoop meat sauce mixture into the individual biscuit cups.
Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over the meat mixture
Baked Pizza Cup
Family Activities: Enjoying the Simple Things in Life……
Jake pulling Brina and Karlie in the wagon (Brina’s waving at me).
When the weather is beautiful you’ll often see our family outside. After more than a year without the mower we finally were able to get it fixed. My Dad and Grandpa actually found a local mower repairman that fixes older lawn mowers in his garage (we were thankful for the help in locating someone to get the mower repaired for a reasonable price, isn’t family awesome). You don’t realize how much you use a mower until it is broken.
When there isn’t the extra funds to fix it or to buy a new one you make do with what you have. We did purchase a walk behind cylinder mower (the one with just the blades, no motor) for a $6 dollars at a yard sale that helped hold us over until the mower could be fixed. With the push mower (and you really had to push with all the weeds in our yard) and weed eater we were able to keep the weeds down and made the front yard presentable which bought us some time.
Since the mower was working again and the girls had been helping they were given a ride in the wagon. It is amazing how just a simple ride in the wagon can bring out the giggles in the kids. If you take a simple activity like pulling the wagon behind the mower and make it an adventure the kids will have fun.
It didn’t take much of Jake’s time to give them a ride around the yard but it meant a lot to the kids. Even if you cannot do something big or fancy for your kids taking a walk, pulling them in the wagon, collecting funny looking sticks, or playing catch can be great opportunities to spend time together. The point is to deliberately spend quality time with your kids everyday. These precious memories are ones that you will look back and smile at because before long they will be all grown up. What are some fun activities that you do together in the yard?
Family Activities: Yard Clean Up Day
Karlie Kool Kat bringing down the compost and helping in the yard. Both girls are wonderful helpers (for the most part) when it comes to doing chores around the house and yard. Karlie picked out her “outdoor” outfit complete with her fancy hat. She cracks me up….peeking out from underneath her hat!
Brina Bee bringing down some drink refills! It is amazing how thirsty you can get when working out in the yard hauling branches.
The fire was too big and hot to cook over so Jake cooked up some yummy hot dogs for everyone to enjoy.
We have had some funky weather over the last several months in South Carolina. One afternoon we had a tree and several branches come down in the yard and our neighbor had one of his trees fall on the edge of his workshop. We gave away all the good fire burning wood to a local family for the winter since they had a wood burning stove. When all that wood was picked up we still had all the limbs down so it was decided to have a family yard clean up day. The girls helped pick up all the branches so we could burn them in the fire. As it got dark and cooled off we rounded out the night with marshmallows and hot chocolate around the fire. I love being able to work and rest together with my family. We got a lot done working in the yard that day!
Family Outings: A Walk in the Park
Brina and Karlie pausing “briefly” on our walk so I can snap a picture!
Every once in awhile when the girls are off school and it is a beautiful day we get to meet Daddy for a quick picnic and walk in the park. Legacy Park is pretty close to Jake’s work so he can pop over and meet us over his lunch hour. I think the girls get more excited about going for a walk around the park then eating, ha!
Legacy Park has paved paths for walking, biking or jogging plus a playground for the kids, beach volleyball, and a big open field perfect for flying kites or playing soccer. On those hot days they have plenty of shade and restrooms (which are very nice for little kids). I treasure these moments when we get get together over the lunch hour to grab a bite to eat, walk, talk, and play together as a family. I think it is important to have some relaxing times built into our schedules. Not only do we get a few extra minutes together as a family we get fresh air and some exercise which is beneficial for all of us!
Do you have a park you enjoy going to for a picnic or to play?
Song: “Beautiful One” by Jeremy Camp
As women we love the word “beautiful” and long to have that unfailing love. This song talks about the most beautiful One in our lives. “You opened my eyes to your wonders anew” so often daily life becomes about me and not Him the one who created me, His continual work in my heart, and joy of experiencing a life committed to Him. He extends love and mercy to me every day when I stumble. I like the phrase “Captured my heart” because it is when my heart is captured and focused on the real priorities in life He can work through me to make a positive impact on the lives of others. Here are a few lines of this upbeat and encouraging song for you to enjoy:
Wonderful, so wonderful
Is your unfailing love
Your cross has spoken mercy over me
No eye has seen no ear has heard
No heart could fully know
How glorious, how beautiful you are.Beautiful one I love you
Beautiful one I adore
Beautiful one my soul must sing.You opened my eyes to your wonders anew
You captured my heart with this love
Because nothing on Earth is as beautiful as youIntentional Living: Weekly Goals
Last week was busy with Jake having a couple travel days with work and everyone fully back into the regular schedule with work and school. As we move into the middle of the first month of 2012 I am reminded of all the goals that I want to accomplish this year. The best part about staying on top of the goals (weekly check ins) is it points me back to my true priorities and provides stepping stones to where I want to be in the next year, 5 years, and more.
Here is the update on last weeks goals:
Family Goals
Spend 1-on-1 time with each child everydayRead a book to the girls everyday- Have each girl read 1 book to myself or Jake 5 days this week – we did four nights so not quite 5 this week
Set up a Date Night for Jake & Iand a Date Night for the Kids – got Jake’s set up but need to get a date on the calendar for the girlsThank You notes written and sent for the Christmas Gifts– written, stamped, and addressed will go in the mail Tuesday 1/17
Personal Goals
Exercise – walk at least 5 days this weekYAY! I stuck with it this week and did it!!! 🙂- Go to bed by 10:30 pm or earlier Monday to Thursday – need to work on getting better on this one
Finish reading The 60-Minute Money Workout by Ellie KayRead and listen to the next section of Desiring God: Finding Complete Satisfaction and Joy in God by John Piper (our church Community Group is going through this book together).
Home Management Goals
All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one dayWeekly Dinner Menu planned and written by MondaySpend 30 minutes every day picking up / cleaning the houseDinner ready by 5:30 PM (Monday through Thursday)Spend time re-organizing and de-cluttering the office
Business Goals
Pay all bills that come in the mail this weekWork on ideas for upcoming blog postsSpend 10 minutes a day cleaning and organizing my desk- Plan new implementations for blog – just didn’t get to it this week with all the other activities
Schedule client meetings at least 2 weeks in advance
Ministry Goals
Email our weekly Community Group update including upcoming events on the calendar, praises, and prayer requestsMeet a friend or family member for Breakfast or LunchWrite and send out Meeting Notes from our January Alms & Legs Team Ministry meeting
Financial Goals
- Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4 – went over $40 budget but had enough cash to cover the groceries
- Emergency Fund – start saving 3 months worth of living expenses – started working on it this week but not completed yet
Here are my goals for the upcoming week:
Family Goals
- Spend 1-on-1 time with each child everyday
- Read a book to the girls everyday
- Have each girl read 1 book to myself or Jake 5 days this week
- Go on my Date Night with Jake (we got free movie tickets so excited to enjoy some time away together)
- Get the girls Birthday Party Details Started
Personal Goals
- Exercise – walk at least 5 days this week
- Go to bed by 10:30 pm or earlier Monday to Thursday
- Finish reading Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Read and listen to the next section of Desiring God: Finding Complete Satisfaction and Joy in God by John Piper (our church Community Group is going through this book together).
- Get my Travel Visa Application Sent
Home Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
- Weekly Dinner Menu planned and written by Monday
- Spend 30 minutes every day picking up / cleaning the house
- Dinner ready by 5:30 PM (Monday through Thursday)
- Spend time re-organizing and de-cluttering the office
- Update Family & Friends Contact Information
Business Goals
- Pay all bills that come in the mail this week
- Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
- Spend 10 minutes a day cleaning and organizing my desk
- Plan new implementations for blog
- Work on 2011 business taxes
Ministry Goals
- Email our weekly Community Group update including upcoming events on the calendar, praises, and prayer requests
- Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
- Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4
- Emergency Fund – save 3 months worth of living expenses
- Start working on our personal 2011 taxes
I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true. When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals. Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick). Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.
Why Share My Goals?
- To keep me accountable
- To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
- To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
- Create healthy habits in my life
- To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn
How did you do this week on your goals? Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.
The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results
Worrying is like a rocking chair…..
Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4
It was a wild week, our family has a lot of fun adventures coming up so I am trying to stop on top of everything. Hopefully I will be able to share a little bit more about our upcoming plans before long. I was not able to get to the grocery store until late on Friday but thankfully was able to pick up almost everything I needed this week even if I did got a little over budget. Here is my weekly update on our Groceries $40 for 4.
Groceries from Save A Lot | Rite Aid, Walmart, Ingles, and Walgreens
Save A Lot | Rite Aid Groceries:
- $7.90 at Save A Lot | Rite Aid for 2 boxes Blue Bonnet sticks of butter, 2 boxes Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, 1 container Butter Spread (3 lb), and 1 bag Carrots (2 lbs). (All the items were on sale or clearance.)
Walmart Groceries:
- $0.00 at Walmart for 1 bag Whole Wheat Sandwich Rolls (on clearance), 1 bag Everything French Bread (on clearance), 1 bag Chocolate Chips, 1 box Popcorn (8 count), 2 liter Mountain Dew (price matched), and 1 box Idaho Potatoes (free product coupon). (Bought items on sale or clearance and paid with a gift card so the total was zero.)
Ingles Groceries:
- $42.84 at Ingles for 1 jar Peter Pan Natural Peanut Butter, 1 can Tuna Fish, 1 Starkist Tuna Fish, 2 boxes Pop Secret Popcorn, 2 loaves Laura Lynn Bread, 4 bags Laura Lynn Shredded Cheese, 2 blocks Laura Lynn Sharp Cheddar Cheese, 2 Laura Lynn sliced Cheese (16 count each), 2 boxes Breakfast Biscuits / Pancakes (on clearance, 10 count each), 6 containers Fresh Blueberries (on clearance), 3 bags Snow Peas (on clearance), 1 container Cherry Chocolate Covered Pretzels (on clearance), 1 container Roasted Soybeans (on clearance), 2 bottles Bare Naked Fruit Drinks (on clearance), 2 Laura Lynn English Muffins (6 count each) and 2 sweet Yellow Onions. Not pictured 3 bags of chips we purchased to take over to a friends house. (Everything I bought this week at Ingles was on sale, marked down, or on clearance. All the produce was marked down to $0.99 cents, I was able to pick up some more cheese on sale, and used some coupons for the items purchased!)
Walgreens Groceries:
- $0.65 at Walgreens for 2 dozen Eggs, 1 S6 Power Bar, 1bag Domino Sugar (4 lbs), and 1 two liter A&W Root Beer (everything was on sale, I used $9.59 in coupons, and I received $1.89 in Register Rewards back to use towards my next purchase.)
This week I spent $51.39 on groceries. Even though I was over on my budgeted amount for the week I was able to stock up on some items at the same time plus I had a little extra to spend since I had come under budget in previous weeks. I was thrilled to stock up on produce (blueberries) and diary items as well as other great fridge & pantry items this week. I hope that next week is better week and we can come under budget!
It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks! As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me. I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too. The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.
Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances. Life doesn’t always go as planned. We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given. Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life. A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others. There is so much more to life than having all the stuff. We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.
Family Fun: Rocket Sprinkler
One of the benefits to living in South Carolina is you still have warm days even in the Fall and Winter. Yes, last week it got down to 14 degrees at night but the by the end of the week we were enjoying 60 to 70 degree weather. To help everyone think “warm” thoughts this cool winter I decided to post a fun warm weather activity that you can look forward to doing with your kids before long.
Rocket Sprinkler blasting off! Jake had a sprinkler similar to this one growing up (his was a clown). At the end of summer we bought this rocket. Since we have a girl that LOVES rockets when this sprinkler went on clearance for a couple dollars I decided it was worth trying it out!
The rocket sailing through the air! The girls love spending time outside playing. The sprinkler provides a great source of entertainment (when it is warm enough). It might be a few more weeks….
Brina and Karlie running around in the sprinkler and getting ready to shoot the rocket off again.
The girls have a fun time playing in the yard splashing around in the water, climbing on the jungle gym, running around with Skipper (our black lab), drawing with chalk, riding bikes or many of the other fun outside activities. I am thankful to have a yard were they can run and play. I am looking forward to even more fun activities as we move closer to Spring and the weather continues to warm up, maybe even a couple “snow” days too.
Family Activities: Enjoying Time with Extended Family (Part 2)
There are so many things I have to be thankful for in my life with family being one of the top on the list. As a child I had the privilege of knowing and having wonderful memories with all four of my Great Grandma’s. All four of my Grandparents are still healthy and are now able to be a part of my girls lives. It is exciting to see my girls spend time and with their Grandparents and Great Grandparents because I know these precious times together are memories they will cherish. I posted a few other pictures in an earlier post. Here are a few pictures from our most recent visit with our Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles in South Carolina.
Great Grandpa CE reading books to Karlie and Brina. The girls were super excited about all the fun playing and book reading while everyone was visiting us.
Uncle Josh helped the girls put together a huge marble mazes! They were quite impressed with his building skills and loved racing the marbles through the maze. Karlie is racing her marbles while Uncle Josh helps Brina put hers together.
Grandma Penny coloring with Brina. Thankful for a time to relax and enjoy spending time with family. Brina’s was thrilled to have some time coloring with Grandma Penny.
Karlie is quite pleased with the lego, marble maze, and horse farm that Uncle Josh helped her put together.
We had a blast with everyone visiting for several days. The time flew by quickly and before we knew it everyone was leaving. The girls did pretty well with saying goodbye to everybody but as they watched the car drive away they started crying….. When asked why they were crying Brina said “I had so much fun I wasn’t ready for them to go yet.” and Karlie said “It went by too fast…I don’t think it was really 4 days…” I am thankful for the opportunity to spend time with family; these moments spent together become treasured memories for the entire family.
