Homemade Spice Mix: Jamie's Spice Mix

 Making your own spice mixes is a great way to save money and skip a trip to the grocery store during a #PantryChallenge or any day. This one helps me make pizza sauce for our weekly pizza and movies night on the cheap.

#FeedingTeenagers

#ManCrewHouse @ Las Cruces, New Mexico

My Word For The Year: 2019

   Do YOU have a word for the year, or a motto, or a special verse? I have joined this movement in recent years and I like the idea of having an overall focus or goal for the year. However, choosing that word is sometimes difficult as I have too many ideas for what I want to work on in the coming year, or conversely, none at all. This year's pick took me a while to really settle on and I think it's a good one. In fact, I think the last several years worth of hard work have led me to it. From retiring my #PlateSpinner hashtag and replacing it with #NoLongerAPlateSpinner a few years back, learning to say ENOUGH (that one took a while) and last year's goal of Progress, it's been a circuitous route, but here I am, ready for something new.

    This year, I'm focusing on me: my attitude, boundaries, and personal growth...things under MY control. I've learned so well over the last few years that my attitude as a mother and a wife truly affects my people, my job, and my home. And since it is under my control, so I should make every effort to use that to bless people. I can choose to use my powers for good or evil. I want to choose good. And so I shall.

   
    My word for this year is CHOOSE. I will choose to work hard, love harder and bless everyone I come across, all year long. I will choose to smile when the days are long. I will choose to speak gently in love when I feel like screaming. I will choose to pray when I feel like worrying. I will choose to take time to spend with my family. I will choose to feed my people good, nutritious meals when fast food is an easy way out. I will choose to read my Bible and spend time with Jesus, so I know where He wants me to work on me, and how He wants me to share Him with others. I will choose to make time for Dan and I to be together just for us so as we face the coming years, it will be as a team, not as two individuals pulling in opposite directions. I will choose to say no to good things, so I can save my YES for the best things.

   My goals for the year are as follows:

*Personal Health*

• Fix my foot
• Eat veggies 2x a day
• Drop 3 sizes
• Hike "A" Mountain

*Spiritual/Intellectual*

• Read the New Testament
• Pray from a list
• Read 52 books
• Serve in our church
• Continue with our Community Group

*Marriage/Family*

• Help The BIGS move out as they are ready
• Go on 1 family weekend-camping, Grand Canyon, Cloudcroft
• Continue Pizza and Movies on Sundays
• Date Night with Dan monthly

*Home*

• Finish garage
• Repair Breakfast Nook roof
• Reduce our Possessions by 30%

*Finances*

• Save $1000
• Stay Current on bills

*Hospitality*

• Host/Attend a gathering once a month
• Call a friend 1x a week
• Send a handwritten note 1x a month

*Homeschool*

• Finish the 2018-2019 school year well, complete our curriculum AND our 180 days with good attitudes and good grades (focus on comprehension, not completion simply for the sake of completion)
• Enjoy our summer break filled with outdoor fun, lots of reading, and family time
• Start the 2019-2020 school year on time, and work hard to make progress all year long

*Travel*

• Visit IL to see #BabyThea soon after her birth and celebrate #BabyCaden's 2nd birthday (His hashtag will become #ToddlerCaden)
• Send Dan to IL for Mambo's 80th birthday
• Visit Laura Hepker in Austin
• Visit Cindy in Phoenix
• Start saving for a family trip to IL in 2020

 I'll try to post in once a month and update my goals. I'll try to have good news in at least one category every month. ;)
 

Pantry Challenge 2019: Starting Soon

It's that time again, my friends! It's time to slash our grocery budgets for the month and get back on track financially after the excess of Christmas. Time to dig through what we already have on the shelves of the pantry, fridge and freezer. I'm joining Jessica of Good Cheap Eats for Pantry Challenge 2019. I'm starting a few days late since we have guests for a few days. But it's time to get prepared, take some inventories, and start mentally meal planning for our start in a few days.
What's on your kitchen goal list for this year, starting with the Pantry Challenge? I've got several ideas for our yearly goals, and a few for th is month of Pantry Challenge meals. I'll be posting here and also on Instagram, @kristy_mamak, using the Hashtags #PantryChallenge2019 and #FeedingTeenagers. Come join the fun and savings!

Here are our goals for the Pantry Challenge month, followed by a few for the year as well.
~Pantry Challenge month goals:

1. Reduce our grocery bill by half of our usual $800-$850 by only purchasing produce and meat.
2. Eat at home every night once our guests leave. 
3. Pack lunches every day for work (DT and I)
4. Bake our bread 

~Year-Long Goals:

1. Get back to having 4 well thought out, well prepared dinners at home each week, 1 night of leftovers, and 2 nights that are "Fend for yourself" nights. With 4 teenagers/young adults under our roof currently, this gives Mama K some time out of the kitchen instead of cooking 24/7. 
2. Serve Veggies at EVERY lunch and dinner
3. Use tech to streamline some of the hassle of getting dinner on the table, such as using Wal-Mart's free grocery pick up, utilize Amazon Pantry occasionally, and of course, showering my IP/Crock Pot/Kitchen Aid with daily use and affection. ;) 
4. Have one freezer cooking day per month, rotating between breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts. 
5. Try 2 new recipes a month
6. Ditch aluminum foil, ziploc baggies, and plastic wrap and replace by slowly purchasing some glass baking dishes, reusable silicone ziptop bags, and replacing foil with Bees Wrap. 
7. Reduce our monthly grocery bill by 10% by year's end. We are currently averaging $800-$850 on non-holiday months, and $900 during big holiday months. This also includes all our pet food and TP which accounts for about $80 a month.

If you decide to join the Pantry Challenge, or if you want to share your kitchen goals for the year, please share in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

2019...Already??

WELCOME, 2019!

Did 2018 fly past or is that my imagination? Seems like it was just a few days ago that we celebrated the start of 2018 and that it is impossible that we are about to welcome a fresh new year, but my Dad always said that time moved faster as you got older, and as with most other things, he was correct.

So, are you ready for the coming year? I know I am not feeling ready to embrace a new year, but it comes whether I’m prepared or not, so it’s time to bid a fond adieu to 2018 and plan to have the best year ever. What’s on your self-improvement list for the year? Tell me in the comments.

 

2018 Goals Recap

Friends, this year was long. There's just no other way to say it. I fell down and dropped the ball on so many of my goals, succeeded wildly in others, and completed ones that I didn't even have at the beginning of the year. So I'll just pop a quick overview and then start working on 2019's goals. Updates to each goal will be in GREEN. 

Spiritual:

• Make a new habit of praying WITH Dan as often as he is willing. This happened only twice. Dan was unwilling.
• Read the Bible every day. Dropped the ball after January and never got back on track.
• Make a prayer list and pray more often and more specifically. I did well on this, and will continue to improve in 2019.

 Health:

• Instead of specific numbers/servings/grams, etc. I am adopting a eat-to-live attitude instead of my usual live-to-eat policy. I'm trying to pack simple healthy lunches each day, get more veggies in than in the past, and make sure I get my water every day. By end of year, I want to be able to hike Dripping Springs, A Mountain and Aguirre Springs. That's it. I did well on my eating policies for the first half of the year and then slowly got out of the new habits for the second half. Aaaaaaand, I never went hiking even once. Oops. (2019's goal will be to get my foot fixed and then slowly work on hiking.)

Books: 

• Read 52 books (or approximately one per week) hopefully along these lines: Only managed 32, but frankly, I'm not too upset about it. It's more than last year and I'm slowly working on putting my phone down and picking up a book instead.
  
  • 6 marriage 4 read
  • 2 financial 0
  • 10 novels 10 read
  • 1 magazine subscription 1 read
  • 2 gov't 1 read
  • 3 history 1 read
  • 10 read-alouds with DT 4 read
  • 2 book club choices 1 read, 1 started
  • 1 spanish 0
  • 10 Christian Living 3 read
  • 10 books that I had on my list from last year 3 read

Family:

• Start eating together at the table at least twice a week Only managed this a handful of times
• Get away together for at least one long weekend and 4-one day trips. Nope. Not even once.
• DE-CLUTTER the whole house. I mean it. For reals.I worked hard at this, and did well. Or so I thought until The BIGS moved back home and I had to condense my collection of SCHTUFF. Turns out I had mostly re-homed my things, instead of getting rid of them. I'm adding this to my 2019 goal list for sure.

Cultural/Social:

• Attend one cultural/social activity per month that's inexpensive or free~ Game Night does not count, no matter how much we love it. Did great the first quarter. And then, nope.
• Attend 1-2 BIG events this year (Newsies, Lion King, TobyMac, etc) YES! TobyMac with Dan was AMAZING
• Participate in #NoPantsApril2018 and #100HappyDays Totally owned this one! Every Single Post went up on FB, still working on transferring them over to the blog.

Personal: 

• Wear Make Up 1-2 times per week No. Managed to slap on some mascara about once a month overall.
• Slowly upgrade my wardrobe with an emphasis on high quality classics with a few trendy pieces thrown in for fun (Limit t-shirts with writing on them) I was gifted some clothes throughout the year, almost none with writing on them, and added a few pieces from thrifting and am pleased with the upgrades.
• Plan meals and cook 4 times per week, plus pack healthy lunches for DT and I at work. With just an occasional slip-up, DT and I carried our lunches all year long. Boom!

Financial: NO TO EVERY PART OF THIS. As of this writing, Dan has been out of work for 51 weeks. There's no financial goals met this year with the exception of still owning the house and no one going hungry. However, that credit goes to The BIGS, who moved back home in October to  help us keep the house.

• Get back on track once Dan gets a new job and stay current on the bills
• Save 50% of my monthly earnings to start and grow our emergency savings
• Tithe more generously (not just to the church, but to our community)
• Pay off Dan's Honda
• Put up a clothesline, repair the breakfast nook roof/ceiling, install raised garden beds in the back yard, get a coop and 4-6 chickens, and plant dwarf fruit trees along the rear fence line. (probably only 1-2 two of these will happen this year and that's OK)
  ***Edited in January of 2021 to add, Dan still doesn't have an official job and it has been THREE YEARS this week. BUT, we still have the house. Yes and Amen. We have saved and used our $1000 emergency fund 5 times since this post was created. We paid off Dan's Honda and then sold it. Dan fixed the breakfast nook ceiling, we planted a small #VictoryGarden in the front yard, and currently have 9 laying hens, but still no clothesline. Dwarf fruit trees are on the agenda for Spring of 2021. 
  

It's The Little Things: Day 365

I want to focus on the good things this year.
All the things people get right.
All the times that everything works out just perfectly after we assumed disaster had already struck.
All the times that the right word was spoken at the right moment.
So, let's celebrate those little moments together, shall we?

• 'Shua and Lauren bought me a plane ticket to come see them in the New Year after #BabyThea is born. I am so blessed, and tickled pink! 
• My dear long time friend Lauren is on her way here and will be here in time to celebrate New Year's Eve with us tonight. 
• Dan and I decided not to throw a party this year and just be cozy at home. That's a decision I can live with all year long. 
• I don't have to work tomorrow. Hooray for sleeping in once in a while!

 

 

 

What's on YOUR little things list today? 

It's the Little Things: Day 284

 

I want to focus on the good things this year.

All the things people get right.

All the times that everything works out just perfectly after we assumed disaster had already struck.

All the times that the right word was spoken at the right moment.

So, let's celebrate those little moments together, shall we?

• It is a really good day of school after a few that chased rabbit trails and ended up being more character training than following our curriculum.
•  It is having a new friend over for dinner, even though it was unplanned.
• It's having a free evening to host company since our community group was canceled this week. 
• It's having your grown children bring their friends over for you to dress their wounds when they've had an unfortunate experience with bare skin and a rough sidewalk. 
• It's having Hercules eat at the table with me two nights in a row. 
• It's the major rearranging that's been going on all week being finished and the dust settling now that everything is in it's new place. 
• It's having the house ready for Dastroyah, PattyCakes and NayNay to each have their own room. 

What's on YOUR little things list?