Mom I'm Hungry...

Whats for Dinner tonight??

My kids are known to ask me this question as soon as they are leaving for school, and repeatedly during the day(it drives me kind of nuts)!  So  when grocery shopping this week I decided I wanted something different this week, with our schedule our meals can be very predictable!  I decided to cook up some lasagna tonight and not the kind from the freezer section that takes an hour to cook!  When I cook something like this that takes a bit more effort and time I make enough for left overs the next day and a freezer meal for the future!

I bought disposable pans that way I can  just wrap it  in saran wrap (many times before freezing) in the  pan to recook later! These pans are pretty large I purchased them  for under three dollars at Walmart, 11.5 W x 3.5 D x 19.5 L. These are big pans but  work well for my big family.

 I bought most of my ingredients besides the ricotta cheese and noodles at the Sams club,and just  ran to Walmart for those few items.  I just cook up five pounds of ground beef, drain that and sit it aside.  Than I mix the cheese mixture two 32 oz. ricotta cheese containers , one large 32 oz. cottage cheese container, five eggs, and four cups  shredded mozzarella and mix well.  Than I just layer the meat, the sauce, and cheese, plus additional cheese according to the directions on the oven bake lasagna noodles.  Probably the only things I do differently than the box says is I do not add Parmesan cheese to the cheese mixture I just sprinkle some on each layer of the lasagna as I go, and I do not mix the meat with the sauce because mixing the sauce/water with the correct ratio already takes a lot of room!  If you are looking to have a yummy dinner tonight and sometime later in the future this is a pretty easy idea, because making two pans takes about the same time as it would to make one pan.  

Redecorating my daughters bedroom on a low budget

Last summer my oldest daughter and I redecorated my youngest daughters room. My oldest daughter had her second knee surgery that summer so she didn't have much choice but to help, she was stuck with me(insert evil face here).   First I picked a very dark blue, her room is a good size and we painted two walls the dark blue and two walls a light grey that I had left over from a different project.  Then on to the projects to hang on hers walls and such. 

 First my daughter worked on a spoon mirror:

For the backing we used a piece of cardboard my husband had, we put painters tape across the cardboard to divide it into sections.  Then the spoon breaking took place, we used sharp scissors and got cutting.  Once we had a good amount of spoons to start with we  began hot gluing the spoons around the outside of the circle and once we were to the center we glued the mirror in the middle.  It took a lot of hot glue and a lot of spoons!  Once all the spoons were on we painted it darker pink in the center to lighter shades of pink as we went out.  Once it was dry we screwed it to the wall.  I love it!

Another project we did was owl decor with hooks(my daughter is crazy about owls), we had a bunch of boards left over from doing windows so we just cut a rounded part of the top leaving the points for ears.  Than we got to  painting and adding painted washers for eyes. Than I added hooks to the bottom.  Another project that turned out so cute!

Another easy fix I did was upholsterer her vanity seat.  I bought a yard of fabric and unscrewed the seat added the fabric stapled it on the bottom and screwed it back down and HELLO what a transformation!

I also used some left over wood to add her name above her closet.  I picked out a piece of scrap book paper for each letter, got some cheap wood letters, painted the letters and let them dry while I added the paper. To add the paper I simply sprayed adhesive on the boards and than placed the paper on them.  I than had to figure out how to hang them so I just drilled a hole the size of a screw head in the back without going completely through the bard.  Then we glued the letters to the scrap paper and another project was done.

Lets see we also tried to organize the queen of mess's closet a bit. We had some left over metal shelving stuff from our pantry so we added a shelve to put her shoes on than we made some cute hangers from wire hangers to hang sandals and slip on shoes from. We also put some screws under her high shelve to hang bags from.  For not spending any money on this project it was a good solution to an on going problem! Don't mind the messy floor in the picture we were taking pictures as we finished projects, keep in mind we had to clean the closet first(insert mad face here).

Another one of my last minute ideas was a shelf to put sports stuff on.  Our daughter plays sports and although she has some trophy's she mostly has those medals on ribbon which were all in a messy pile on her vanity.  That pile had me thinking how am I going to display those... so again with materials we had laying around: a two by four and some trim. I measured above her desk that we also painted, and decided on the length and got to work.  My son helped me with this one we used a miter saw to cut angles on the trim so the corners fit together.  There is a two by four we screwed to the wall after making sure it was level than screwed another to the top of that, this is the shelve, than we put the trim around to hide the ugly two by fours.  I painted it all white screwed hidden screws to the board that is screwed to the wall to hang the medals from and another project was done!

I also made curtains, just bought fabric at a craft store with there everyday 40% off coupon and whipped these up which add a great pop of color! I just added a 1/4 hem to the sides and a 2 inch rod slot to top and finished the bottom off with a 1 inch seam.   Very Easy do it yourself curtains.

She loves her room and although we added new windows and painted the walls, everything besides the fabric we used to upholster the vanity and make the curtains and the hooks for the owls, we had all the supplies on had.  With ideas we got mostly off of  pinterest and our own imagination we created a fun room on a very low budget!

Excuse her face(insert laughing crying face here) she cannot take a serious picture, but that face I think means check out my Awesome cool room!

I really want my 6 year old son to sleep in his own bed!

I have made an epic mommy mistake of co-sleeping with my last two children, I got my daughter(now 11) to sleep in her bed in kindergarten...but now our son will be going into first grade and still sleeps in our bed mostly.  I have tried my older kids having sleepovers in his room, and me having sleepovers in his room. I bought a fun bunk bed that had a tent on it, my husband cut it down and turned it into and awesome jeep bed!

I mean look at this thing...What kid would not want to sleep in this!

Well its not really that he doesn't want to sleep in the bed... he just doesn't want to sleep in it without me(insert crying face here)!  I haven't pushed the subject much this summer, I mean I want to go to bed, and sleep just like the kids.  Its time though, I cleaned his room the other day, moved some things around so he could (we of course) could sleep in his bed. The bed is so cute and fun for a little guy to sleep in, but little guy I am not! I ended up at the end of the bed where the pillow was one leg sticking out the door one leg hanging over the hood, and my leg was painfully asleep when he happily asked if I was ready to go downstairs!  I hope to have him sleeping in his own bed by the time school starts Mid August, I will put new batteries in our walkie talkies and hope for the best!

So the moral of the story is that although I love co-sleeping with my little ones, I love there cuddles don't get me wrong... but I do not love waking up with shoulder pain or other aches and pains from my child pushing me off the bed(or me ending up sleeping on the end of my own bed).  I am not saying co-sleeping is wrong I truly believe to each there own!  We were remodeling our home at the time and living in a construction zone so it was the safest and easiest solution for us, but I am paying for it now(again it was worth the price). So like the little engine that could "I think I can I think I can" get my kid to sleep in his own bed!

 My name is Lori, I  am a working wife and mom of four, and now I am attempting to be a  blogger! 

Let me start of by telling  you a little about myself, like I said before I am Married, we have four kids, 2 girls 2 boys ranging in ages from 6-17.  Until this year I had been a stay at home mom for the last 10 years, WOW that was a long time!!  Now our youngest son is about to finish  Kindergarten  and I was given the opportunity to work in his class part time, which I love!  Along the way I picked up another full time job, I set my own hours so it works with the kids.   Basically I went from not working to working A LOT!  I am absolutely loving being back to work, although I loved the fact I was able to stay at home with our last two children(my husband is awesome and made it possible for me to enjoy our last little ones), there is something about bringing home a check to help with the bills that is very satisfying to me.

I do not really have a reason for starting a blog, except I have thought about it a few times and decided why not!   I am always on pinterest which usually leads me to reading other blogs so I wanted to share my thoughts and ideas too, and I hope you will enjoy some of my post.