chalkboard calendar

I love this chalkboard calendar idea from ohdeedoh. The purple wall reminds me of my purple kitchen that I had when we lived in the basement apartment. Such a bright, fun color!

Menu Mondays: puffy cinnamon ornaments

Our new little family of four is having fun being snowed in this week. Lots of movies from the library. It looks like my hubby will have off all this week due to the snow. Gotta love the perks of being a teacher! What a perfect time for him to have off work...with me not back to 100% yet and having a newborn and toddler in the house to take care of. Counting last week (the week we had our baby) and this week (off because of snow), and next week (off because of Christmas break)...he'll have a total of 3 weeks off.

If you find yourself snowed in this week and needing something to do, try making these puffy cinnamon ornaments. They are perfect decorations for on a tree or for on the top of a wrapped gift. They also make the house smell really Christmas-y and wonderful!

another advent calendar

I LOVE this one that my mom made for my sister. So colorful!

simplifying

Instead of spending a lot of time cutting coupons every week and driving myself (and sometimes my husband) nuts, I decided to adopt a variation of this method. Let's just say, after simplifying my couponing by doing it this way for two weeks now, both wife and hubby are very happy.

After taking the coupon flier out of the newspaper tonight, sliding the whole thing into my coupon binder, printing off the Sunday Coupon Preview list, and closing my binder while exclaiming, "I'm done couponing for the week!" my husband exclaimed, "WHAT?! You're not only tackling today's tasks, you're pulverizing them!" haha

He said, "What's happening to my wife?" and my reply was, "Your wife is getting ready to have another baby, so the name of the game is SIMPLIFY!"

easy labels

One more tip from Woman's Day:

Make your own see-through labels by following these 4 steps:
1. write your label using a sharpie permanent marker on white paper
2. press pieces of clear packing tape over the front of the words; cut out the labels
3. put the label in a bowl of water and with your fingers, wipe off the paper; the ink transfers to the tape
4. stick your label

fridge and freezer

Another helpful tip from Woman's Day:

Pick up a $5 fridge thermometer at the supermarket to check your fridge and freezer temps. They may be cooler than they need to be, which costs you money.

FRIDGE:
--should be 33-38 degrees F
--it's important to have it at this temp because pathogenic bacteria grows at 40 degrees or higher

FREEZER:
--should be 0-10 degrees F
--it's important because the same air runs through the freezer, then the fridge. If the freezer's too warm, so is the fridge.

"book" advent calendar

In case you aren't as crazy as my husband and me and don't want to cut out a million little felt pieces to make an advent calendar, here's another great idea for young or old kiddos! Try this "book-a-day" idea from ohdeedoh.