It's Amazing what a difference the simple task of making your bed changes the whole look & feel of you bedroom. When the bed is made the whole room just feels put together! 



Quick note: Did you know that your bed is where you get the most important down time of all?  it's where sleep and relaxation for the next day happens. 



Have you ever tried to teach/tell your kid to do something & all they do is look at you like your a crazy person?   Well that's us, lately! We kept telling V to make her bed before she went to school.  You know what she wouldn't do it most days and the days she did it wasn't without a fight.  Now that the end of the school year is coming I'm reflecting back on this and thinking you no what I totally don't blame her for not wanting to make her bed! Yep, you heard that right, neither one of us made our bed so it makes sense.  Who was the role model?  So I decided to take action by becoming consistent with Making my bed so I can step into authority & who knows maybe She'll notice! Kids learn best by watching.   (and so do I) 


Action Step: Tomorrow morning make you're bed & see the difference your day brings!

Tip: Add a little luxury to your space.  It could be as simple as spraying a sent that smells nice on your sheets, in your room,  or as complex as getting all new bedding! Just change something that makes you excited to make your bed.

Note: Think making your bed doesn't matter? Studies show those who make their bed every morning tend to be more productive.  Small Win = improvement spillover

Got any good tips for us? leave a comment below

Well I bet you're wondering how we did aren't U?

Here's the rundown:
Total spent on food $83.99
Total amount of coupons used $202.33
65% total savings
Total spent out of pocket 4 everything $167.64
Rebates received back $108.98
Rebates Submitted $25.00
What we learned from the pantry challenge Priceless
$18.99 over budget goal amount of $65.00
Not bad 4 us it cause it was mostly baby food, milk, eggs and bread.
If you consider that we got $108.98 back from December's rebates and subtract it from the total spent then in all reality all we spent was DUN DUN DUN ...$58.66 and that makes us $6.34 under budget how's that 4 a challenge! (Man I Love #'s)

Stay tuned for a pantry cleaning & inventory post.......

We had a pretty fun week. We tackled cleaning out the freezer to stock our new to us deep freeze, and in the process I found out that what I had planned for some of my menus, I really didn't have. We improvised A LOT this week no beef strips for beef & broccoli (mac N cheese instead) no canned chicken for chicken pot pie ( I could have used regular chicken but at the time I was to hungry to care so we had good old canned soup) I haven't tackled to clean out the pantry yet, so I couldn't find the dried can of apples that I swear I have (No apple crisp).

Here's a fun & yummy recipe for you:
Shaun said it kinda tastes like a churo.

The IMPORTANT thing is not how
fast we go but in what DIRECTION!
Author Unknown

Mur·phy's Law / ˈmərfēz/ a supposed law of nature, expressed in various humorous popular sayings, to the effect that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Does this ever happen to U when you try to accomplish something new?
You get all geared up, organized & ready, it starts of going great. It's exactly how you pictured it would be & then Murphy shows up 2 test you he wants to see just how dedicated you really are.

Well that was this week. 1st off V's 2 year molar's decided to peak out of her
gum's (Sleep Deprivation oh Yeah!). That made this week MORE of a challenge than last week. I, being the stubborn one determined not to give up, continued on with the challenge.
My shopping trip to Walgreen's & Albertsons mainly to get eggs & Milk it was a huge success Totaling in at $5.89 after coupons awesome huh! Later on in the week I bought some yogurt that cost $0.60 so what's left in my budget is $24.10 I baked hamburger buns on Friday 'cause I realized that we didn't have any like I thought we did & I didn't want to go 2 the store. Every once in a while I like to incorporate a new recipe in every once in a while. This week I chose a new recipe that didn't quite turn out but I told Shaun It's fine as long as you scrape out the middle
(Which he knows in Melinda lingo means I wouldn't eat it if I were U).
I think he had cereal for dinner that night.
Sorry I'm not going to share that recipe until I tweak it a bit.

The yummy food we ate that I manged to remember to take pictures of:

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal
~Henry Ford~

Pantry Challenge update Part 1
Our pantry challenge went well this week Here's what we ate:

My first shopping trip was on mon. the 4th Mainly to get V some baby food we were totally out, yikes! I spent $27.42 on food so I have $30.59 left of our $65 budget. .
We ended up with only two eggs on saturday I wasn't ready to go to the store yet so I moved a couple of meals around we had leftovers on Friday and angel hair alfredo with shrimp and a salad on saturday & no eggs with sunday's dinner :( guess I'll be back to the store on Monday for milk & eggs.

We're getting prepared for the challenge starting January 1st. What a great way to start the year and get our organizing goal going. If U want to join in on the challenge they're also posting on facebook
our goals for the challenge are:

1. Take inventory of what we have, & organize it to meals
(Menu Plan will be in full affect)

2. Spend a total of $65 or less during January for perishables
(milk, eggs & veggies)

3. Donate extra pantry items we wont use to a local food
bank or shelter.(which ever we can find)

Here's what our pantry looks like now:At the end of each week in January, we'll have a post to share with you about what we ate from our pantry the past week and how the Challenge is going for us so stay tunned.........