It's February!

It's the little things.  What makes you happy this first day of February?  The fact January is over makes me happy!  

Mondays - school begins at 8:30am.  Babysitting Teddy and Aaron.  Cleaning the church and listening to my favorite podcasts - Chip Ingram.  Tests, quizzes and grading.  

After school, grocery shopping at Winco for the week.  ATM.  Free frostys at Wendy's.

I tried a new healthy recipe for dinner on Monday.  You can check out the recipe here - HERE.

After the babysitting kids left, the girls and I went over to say goodbye to the Allen family.  They are friends that are moving to North Dakota.  Reagan, their daughter, (the little one in the photo) was our adopted kid for 2 1/2 years.  We babysat her since she was 3 months old.  We will miss this family terribly.  We love you!

Back home then for some reading-The Pursuit of God -  and a little snack.  $.98 at Winco this week!

Tuesday was an early start with taking my husband to the airport at 4:30am.  He went to Vegas for the day to attend Idea Day (for ministry) at Southern Hills Baptist Church.  Then it was off to school, babysitting Teddy and Maddie and church work.

Leaving a clean kitchen is such a happy feeling. :)

After tests and quizzes in school, I tackled the church storage room.  Yikes.  You couldn't walk through the thing.

Before...

After some work, I got it to looking better. :)

After...

It is so nice to have blue skies and sunshine to be able to work.

Treating myself was definitely in order! :)

For dinner, we did $10 Tuesday at Papa Murphey's - this was their Angus steak delite pizza - yum!

When we got home, we sat on the deck and enjoyed that beautiful sun!

Then I worked on my coupon binder - cut and organized my coupons ready for CVS shopping.  I also remade my bed with clean bedding.

Megan gave me her old cookware so I got that washed up and put away as well.

Wednesday was school.  I also was able to get the oil changed and tires rotated on the car.  And visit the chiropractor before our month was up.  After school, I did some couponing at CVS.  Here are the deals I picked up. :)

Dawn dish soap - $.68 each

Pantene shampoo/conditioner/hair spray - $.93 each

Revlon photo ready powder - $8.49

Colgate - $.37 each

Scope mouthwash - $.99 each

Cherry Coke - $.74

Nivea lotion - $2.00 each

Cereal - $1.51 each

Then it was home.  The sun was shining beautifully and I enjoyed it coming in the windows.  I cleared out my files from 2015 for the new year.

Made pizza mac casserole for dinner - yum!  I added pepperoni and fresh mushrooms this time.  Extra good!

We got these sweet notes from my sister and family. :)

Take Addie to youth group, dishes and finished up around the house.  Then time for an early bedtime with heading to the airport in the morning!  Coffee maker is set! :)

Thursday was back up at 4am to take my daughter this time to the airport.  She flew to Phoenix, AZ to attend a youth conference that my sister's church hosts.

Addie is a great young lady for 12 years old.  I would say her greatest strength is her character and work ethic.  Which is one of the greatest strengths to have.  When I got home and we were getting ready for school, Autumn (10) began packing lunches for that day.  I said, Oh, you are packing the lunches?  She said, Yes, Addie asked me to.  Not only does she always do her jobs but she even thought to cover her job when she was going to be gone.  I'm very proud of her.

One of the random situations that happened when we remodeled our kitchen was we lost space to put our garbage can.  I know...that seems weird but there is absolutely no space in our kitchen for a garbage can!  So we have had it in our dining room - to my chagrin.  Thursday, I had an idea and we created a perfect space in a small closet right off our kitchen.  It may seem silly but that made me happy!

Behind the door... :)

 For dinner, I tried another new recipe - Snappy Tuna Melts.  This was a healthier version I found in my Taste of Home magazine and I liked it.  Next time, I may switch up the swiss cheese and add avocado slices. :)  Use whole wheat buns - using only half - you slice calories that way.  I used a yogurt balsamic dressing instead of the normal mayo and the ground mustard gives a nice kick.  I liked the boiled eggs and tomato slices as well!

Add ranch pasta salad for an easy side.

Friday was a rainy day.  We did have a nice rainbow halfway through the day.  Summer said, "It's Jesus's promise!"

School, tests/quizzes, babysitting Teddy, Aaron and Maddie.  Helped my husband do the bulletin for Sunday.

At home, I worked on laundry and housework.  I enjoyed the rain against the window. :)

Dinner was a new crock pot recipe.  I had put it in before school so I just had to make the rice.  It was called Slow Cooker Curry Chicken.  It was good but I need to figure out how to add more flavor and spice to Thai dishes.

Then it was back at 4:45pm to the church to do childcare for Couples Date Night from 5-9pm.  This is a quarterly thing we offer for our marriage quarter.

Then it was off to work for an 8pm-8am shift.  We had a lot of rain that afternoon and evening!  I was glad the temperatures had stayed fairly warm.  During the night, the temps dropped and it turned to snow.  Saturday morning looked like this.

When I got off, I stopped at Wal-Mart for a few needed things.  Jenny had reminded me to check the clearance for Christmas candles and wax melts.  I was glad I did!

The candles were the big ones originally $14.94 on sale for $4 and the melts were originally $2.00 on sale for $.50.  The scents I love are the home baked scents so I bought all they had. :)

I dropped off my groceries at home and then went to the church to finish cleaning and setting up for the week.  This is our Kid City room.

Then home for laundry, housework and winter Saturday indoor activities.  My husband was invited by a man from our church to go skiing with free passes he got so he was gone for the day up to the lake.

He did some videos for me so that was nice. :)

The girls played school with their American Girl dolls...I guess they wanted Belle to join in!  LOL!  She is under that hat.

Our oldest was enjoying the teen conference in Arizona.  This is her with Uncle Josh and Eddie Lapina.

I had planned on a new soup recipe for dinner and when I started to make it, I realized that my tofu was expired.  Boo!  So I was browsing through my new Simple and Delicious magazine and I saw this idea and that is what we had for dinner!

Saute mushrooms and onions and put them in a grilled cheese!

Yummy!  Then it was clean the kitchen, kids into the shower and bed and off to work for an 8pm-8am shift.  Overnight, it started to snow again.  This is what the freeway exit looked like on the way home Sunday morning.

It snowed nearly the whole day and we canceled services in order for everyone to be able to stay off the roads.

Sundays with no church is so odd.  LOL!  It is normally the busiest day of the week and then nothing.  I cut my coupons for the week and organized my binder.

I did make a trip to CVS and got these deals in the afternoon.  

The soda was $2.00 each 12 pack.

Suave shampoo and conditioner

Suave body wash

Tresemme hair spray

Colgate toothpaste 

PB MM's

All free!

Yay!

Pizza for a late lunch.

Then it was over to Josh and Jenny's for praise and worship practice while my husband had a wedding for a new couple at the church.

Back to work tonight for an 8pm-8am shift.  

Have a great week!