Happy Thanksgiving

I know it is a day early but I won't be on here tomorrow.  Happy  Thanksgiving to all my friends in the blog world.   I hope everyone has a safe and fun Holiday. We will be spending ours with my husband's family and eating too much food as always. 

On Friday my daughter and I will venture out to do some Black Friday shopping.  I know there are lots of opinions out there about Black Friday shopping but my daughter and I enjoy it.  We spend Thanksgiving with our family and then get up early for shopping.  Do we save a lot of money ? Yes/No, Some are good deals and some are not. Last year I ended up getting everyday items and not much Christmas shopping.  We just enjoy going out and spending the time together. I know she won't always be home so I am enjoying it.

Happy Thanksgiving !

Day 26 - Hard time staying focused

I have had a hard time staying focused on publishing my daily Thanksgiving post. It seems like this month is just slipping away.  Here are the days I missed plus my weekly menu.

Day 22:
           Thankful for our bowling group. Hubby and I started bowling on a Friday night league this year. Hubby has bowled for years but I have only done it on a league a few years before my daughter was born. We have a lot of fun and just hang out. It is technically a competitive league but no one makes it that way. We all encourage each other and reward each other when someone has a good game. Nobody takes it too serious.  It is something that just Hubby and I do. The kids come along but all go watch a movie together at the owner's apartment that is attached to the building. 

Day 23:
           For our vehicles. Hubby and I both have vehicles that run. They may be older but they are still running. Hubby's truck is paid off and my van is getting closer.  I am thankful that we are able to afford two vehicles. It makes transporting kids a lot easier that both of us have a vehicle.

Day 24:
          Relaxing Sundays: Sunday is my favorite day of the week. We usually try to make Sunday a down day. We go to church and try not to plan anything else for the day.  I try to have all the housework down also so we can just relax. This doesn't always work out but that is the plan. Some Sundays I make a big dinner ( I enjoy cooking so this doesn't seem like work) and then some Sundays we just have sandwiches. It is football season so we usually have a game on or we pick a movie to watch.  Sundays is family time. :)

Day 25:
           Food. :) We had a huge Thanksgiving potluck at work today and I was so full that I didn't need to eat dinner last night.  It was nice fun event at work. Everyone in our department brought something and we just sat around and talked and ate. Of course we had to work in the afternoon but  I think we all really just took a nap because it was very quiet yesterday afternoon.

Day 26:
          Short Work Weeks.  I am one of the luck ones that I don't have to work on Thursday or Friday so this is a short week for me. It has been a busy couple of weeks at work so i am ready for a few days off.  We are going to my sister - in laws on Thanksgiving and then my daughter and I are venturing out for Black Friday shopping.  My daughter loves to go so I am taking her. I am not sure what all we may find but we have going. I know I know some thing we are crazy and we are but it is something we do together and enjoy.  she is 15 and I know that eventually she won't be here to go with so I am making the most of it.

Weekly Menu:
            Monday: Sandwiches
            Tuesday: Spaghetti & Garlic Bread
            Wednesday: Ham n Beans. (That is if I remember to soak the beans I keep forgetting)
             Thursday: Thanksgiving. All I have to do is the green bean casserole. Yay me !
            Friday: Bowling night, and everyone is bringing food. Will feed the kids before we go so they are taken care of .
            Saturday:  ??
            Sunday: ??

Day 21 - I missed a few days

          I have not done very well the last week with my thankful list. I would think about sitting down and writing one every day but just didn't take the time. It has been a crazy busy few days. Here is what I am thankful for in the past week.

1.  My youngest son. M2 - He is still in that little boy stage ( 7) but wants to be a big kid. Even though he wants to be a big kid he still welcomes me home everyday with a great big hug. Sometimes he almost knocks me down because he launches himself at me. Those are the best hugs ever.
2. My daughter - She is 15 years old and going through Drivers Ed right now. She tries my patience at times especially with her driving :) but I love that she is growing up to be a very special young lady. She loves school and already knows what she wants to do after HS. She wants to be a surgical nurse. 
3. Friends - I am not a very outgoing person and I tend to be very shy. I don't have a lot of close friends but I truly cherish the ones that I have. There are a few that I can relax around and tell them anything.
4. My House - I live in Central IL and several communities within 20 minutes of my house were hit with an EF- 4 Tornado on Sunday. My sister in law lived in one of the communities and was luck they only damage they had was a tree came down on part of their front porch. I know several people that live in the area and none of them lost their homes but there are hundreds of homes that were lost in our are and it just seems unreal the damage that is done. Our small town had heavy wind and some rain but the heavy stuff missed us.
5. First Responders - Be it  Fire , Police, Medical there was a huge show of support on Sunday.  There was so many Medical personnel that showed up that they eventually had to say we have enough Dr and Nurses. 
6. Electricity Lineman - We lost power on Sunday before the worst of the storm hit.  We ended up being without power for about 12 hours.  The Lineman were out quickly and worked all night to get power back on to the affected areas. We got ours back around midnight. In the town where I work there were lineman working for two days to restore power. I know they are paid well but it is still time away from their families and it is a hard and dangerous job. 
7. The Volunteers - The amount of people that have turned out to Volunteer and contribute help to the Tornado victims has just been unreal. I have not made it over to the affected area yet but our church has been sending in supplies. There was a group that drove up from Louisiana to feed the volunteers and victims yesterday. It restores my faith in people. 

With everything that has happened in our neighboring community my list of things to be thankful for could go on forever.  It makes me realize how much it is the little things we should be thankful for.  Hold close to your loved ones they are what  matters most.

I hope everyone else is having a good week.

Day 11 and Weekly menu

Today I am thankful for all the veterans past and present that have served our country. I want to thank one special Veteran, my dad. He was a MP in the Army and stationed down in Panama. I don't know the exact years but I know he was proud of the time he served.

Weekly Menu: I only have through Thursday figured out but here is what I have so far.

Monday: Pulled Pork from the freezer.

Tuesday: Meatball sandwiches.

Wednesday: Ham n beans ( this didn't get made last week) 

Thursday: Salisbury steak and potatoes

Friday:  

Saturday:

Sunday: 

Day 10 of Thanksgiving

   Today I am thankful for my health.  I am 39 years old and I am healthy. I may have some weight to lose but other than that I am healthy. Today in our area was the annual Jingle bell Run/walk  which is a money raiser for arthritis research.  Our company pays the $20 entry fee every year for any employee that wants to participate.  This year I participated in the walk portion which was walking 3.2 miles, 5K. 

    There were a lot of people participating today. I don't have a number but the starting line was very crowded. There was also a lot of people out there that couldn't walk or run because of arthritis that positioned themselves along the race path to encourage the walkers and runners.  It was a nice sight to see all the people out for the event. Some were in groups from work and there were some doing it as a family. There were a lot of young kids walking with their parents. One boy even rode his bike. I don't know how old he was but his bike still had training wheels on it.  

    I do have some members of my extended family that suffer from arthritis. It attacks the young and old. I know my participating was just a drop in the bucket but every little bit helps.  

Day 9 of Thanksgiving

    Today I am thankful for Nature.  Our family spent the day hiking at a state park. It was perfect weather and we got to see some beautiful sights.  The park is filled with several canyons and overlooks the river. The colors of fall were out in full force. The best part was being with my hubby and 3 kids.  After we got home we spent a relaxing evening hanging out and enjoying homemade pizza. It is the simple things.
    Here are a few pictures.

Overlooking the river from the eagle lookout.

One of the Canyons. When it rains there is a waterfall.

Another beautiful canyon. Lots of stairs involved getting to the bottom of these two canyons. Going down was not hard going back up was another story. Our family had a blast.

Day 7 and Day 8

      I am behind a day it has been a busy week.

 Day 7: I am thankful for my son's love of sports. It may keep us very busy running to practices and games but I am glad he likes to be active.  It is so much better than sitting in front of the tv. Please don't get me wrong he loves to watch tv but he gets bored if he is not playing a sport. he is in the 6th grade so he is still trying all the sports out.  He plays baseball, football and basketball. We go from one sport straight into another. He always wants to try something new. 

Day 8:  today I am thankful for our small community.  My husband works for our small town so he knows everyone. :) Living in a small town has good and bad but I think the good outweighs the bad. Whenever their is a need in our community it is amazing how many turn out to help. 

  This has been a very busy week with our daughter starting drivers ed and our son starting basketball practice. We have a very busy weekend ahead, I hope everyone has a good weekend. 

Day 6 of Thanksgiving

      Today I am thankful for my Dad. He was hard working and went out of his way to do anything for us. He led by example and showed us how important it was to keep God first in our lives.  He has been gone for 6 years now and I miss him everyday. He was the best dad and the best Grandpa anyone could ask for. He loved spending time with his grand kids. My oldest was 8 when he passed away and she does remember him. My oldest boy was 5 and has a few memories. He would follow grandpa around everywhere. Unfortunately my youngest was only 1 when he passed away so he doesn't remember him but we tell him stories and knows who he was from pictures. 

      I have struggled with the fact that he died all too soon , he was only 66 when he had a massive heart attack and died in his sleep.  I know God has a plan we don't always understand. I cherish all the memories I have.  

I Love you Daddy! 

Hope everyone had a good Wednesday !

30 Days of Thanksgiving Day 5 and my first craft.

I am doing 30 days of thanksgiving. Just as a warning some of my entries are serious and some are fun ! I think it is important to be thankful for even the simple things.  Today I am thankful for Facebook. Yes you read that right. If it wasn't for Facebook I never would have connected with my ex sister in law Melissa from House Full of Searls . Melissa opened me up to the world of blogging after reading her blog. She also inspired me to start getting us out of debt with many of her money saving tips. She also inspired me to start crafting .

Here is the first thing I made, a burlap wreath for out front door.

I got the idea off of Pinterest. Here is the original pin, Burlap Wreath. I didn't get any pictures during the process I completely forgot to do it. The wreath cost around $12 to make. Originally it cost me $2 but I tried using some leftover burlap and cutting it down to strips but I didn't have enough to complete the wreath.  I ended up buying 6 inch burlap ribbon and redoing it. I found the ribbon on a 50 % off sale at Hobby Lobby. 

30 days of Thanksgiving

I haven't blogged in quite a while. I have still been reading everyone's blog but haven't felt like sharing. I felt like my blog was getting boring. I am still struggling with our debt and our debt did increase over the summer because of poor planning on my part. I am back on track though.

On Facebook a lot of people do a 30 days of Thanksgiving, posting something everyday they are thankful for. I decided to do it on my blog. I will play catch up with the days I missed and then try to post one everyday.  :)

Day 1:  Family. I am thankful for  my husband and my 3 kids. They are everything to me. We don't see much of our extended family because of differences so it is very important to me that our kids are close. They may argue some times but our kids are all pretty close when it counts.

Day 2: God. I know not everyone believes in God but I do. I grew up in a Christian home and I am thankful for that.

Day3: My Job. I thankful that 4 years ago when I was laid off I found the job I have now and I was only off work for 6 weeks. I work with a good group of people. I may not always enjoy what I am doing but without my job we would not have a roof over our head or food on the table.

Day4: Food in the freezer. With so many people in the world wondering where their next meal is going to come from I am thankful that I have enough food in the freezer that my family won't go hungry.  We may not be eating steak every night but I know I can feed my family.


My daughter starts Drivers Education tonight so that means 3 nights a week (M - W) I have to drive her to class from 5:30 - 7:30. The class is about 30 minutes from our small town so I won't be going back home. I will be finding something to do for those two hours.  Our High School doesn't let Freshman take drivers ed because they don't have enough teachers so we have to do private lessons if we want her to have her drivers license on time. In Illinois a student has to have their permit 9 months before they can get their license.  Since I am taking her to class my husband is at home with the other two boys. He will be fixing the meals while I am gone and taking my oldest boy to basketball practice so I am trying to make things easier for him and have the meals planned out. My husband can cook but I am the one that buys the groceries so I know what we have available.

Here is my menu plan for the week.

Sunday:  Meatloaf , Potatoes , Green beans.

Monday: Spaghetti & Garlic Bread

Tuesday: Hamburgers, Mac & Cheese, Carrot Sticks.

Wednesday: Italian Beef Sandwiches ( Italian Beef made in the Crock-pot)

Thursday: Eggs, Bacon/Sausage/ Toast. 

Friday: Ham and Bean Soup.  ( Crock-pot)

Saturday:  Homemade Pizza.

Sunday:  Leftovers or Pork Chops on the Grill.