February Goals Update

I'm keeping track of my goals this year through monthly updates. View my original goals post and my January update.

Read 48 books. If this was my only goal, I'd be golden! I'm right on track with 8 books read through February, 10 if I count 2 books read aloud to my daughter. I'm loving reading classic children's books to her; so far we've read Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales and Winnie the Pooh. I keep track of my books with Goodreads - a fabulous (and free!) website.

Memorize 52 Scripture Verses. My husband and I are going through the Fighter Verses program together. I have 7 out of 9 verses memorized right now. I would like to do better with making this a priority. Even though reading requires quite a bit of mental focus, memorizing takes so much more, and I'm seeing that I can be pretty lazy sometimes! Emma is working through the Foundation Verses and has 6 memorized.

Work on our Adoption. I was hoping to have some big news to share at the end of February, but things are still mostly the same. We are reading and taking in information right now, as well as talking with friends who have experience adopting. While I'd love to have some big progress to show, I also know that rushing into something just to mark it off a list is foolish. We are trusting that God is still calling us to adopt, and so we'll continue to take steps to make that happen!

Organize and Declutter. I cheated a bit on the 52 weeks to an organized home challenge in February. I already had a good recycling system as well as an adress book with everything in one place. I make a menu plan ahead of time most weeks, and when I don't I still have a plan a day or two ahead. And we are working on a HUGE home improvement project right now (well, huge for us, its actually little compared to most I expect!) that will be a great help towards organizing and decluttering. We are hoping to finish up this week and I can't wait to share it with you!

I'm also keeping my highlights from 2012 updated so that we have a way to review the best and most important parts of our year when 2013 gets here.

I'm so glad I'm keeping track of goals monthly; its a great "mile marker" through the year, and it's helping me to see that big things are manageable in small bites!

Paint Chip Labels

We were at Home Depot recently getting supplies for a project, and I grabbed a few large and brightly colored paint chips to bring home. I didn't have a great plan for them, but I was figuring they would become another tot school activity like this fine motor skill color matching one.

On a whim, I stuck one inside the clear pocket of our toy storage bins. Aside from being too tall, it fit perfectly!

I cut each one in half and wrote with a Sharpie to label the bins. Adorable, fast, and free!

This is a major improvement on the white papers I had as labels previously. They had been removed and crumpled several times, and at least half were missing. I also have several extras leftover in case a few of these show some wear. But since they are thick paint chips, I think they stand a much better chance at surviving!

Have you used paint chips for anything fun lately? I have visions of these adorable bins and clothespins holding paint chips that match the room! Probably not for the play area, but it would look great in a spot above the reach of little hands.

Free Dunkin Donuts Coffee & Giveaway Winner

Did you get one of these in your circulars this week?

Starting today and lasting through the end of April, bring this coupon to Dunkin Donuts to get a free Iced Coffee or Tea! I'm not a huge fan of Dunkin Donuts hot coffee, but I do enjoyed their iced coffee! This will be a nice treat as the weather warms into spring over the next month or so.

Congratulations to Sophie, commenter #2, randomly chosen to win the Gevalia Kaffe prize pack. You have been emailed! Thanks to everyone else who entered also. Remember, you can still get a free sample of Gevalia Kaffe from Walmart.

Perfect Square craft

I love that I get the opportunity to stay home with my kids. I'm also thankful that they are growing up to be little bookworms like me! We head to our library nearly every week to check out a new batch of books. But I'm sure anyone with small kids knows that not all children's books are created equal! I'm really picky with what we read...if I don't like it, I'm not going to keep reading it over and over!

We recently came across this great book and both my kids (ages 3 and 16 months) can't get enough of it. Thankfully, I think its great too. This week we enjoyed making a special craft each day to match the different pages in the book.

Perfect Square by Michael Hall

The book follows the "on Monday....on Tuesday" pattern, which made it really easy for us to do a different craft each day. I cut out colored squares to match each day, and then we followed the book for our craft. Can't get much easier than that!

This one was a little more challenging for me to cut, but it turned out really neat.

I never would have thought to use scraps of paper to make such cool crafts, and I just love how each one turned out.

Here's a look at our completed days, along with the pictures from the book. Highly recommend this one for hours (no joke!) of fun!

Have you entered my coffee giveaway? There's still time before it ends tomorrow!

I am not affiliated with Michael Hall or Perfect Square; I just love great books. The Amazon link is my referral. If you make a purchase through it, I get a small percentage of the price.

Gevalia Kaffe Review and Giveaway

I'm a coffee lover, and I've passed that on to my kids already...they ask for "coffee milk" with breakfast! I was thrilled to get the chance to try new Gevalia Kaffe, thanks to Kraft and My Blog Spark. I was given two Gevalia products to try - the French Roast and the House Blend, along with this Gevalia mug.

I love robust and strong coffee, and I normally drink Bold or Extra Bold coffee from Starbucks. The Gavalia French Roast is their dark roast and the House Blend is a medium roast.

I started off trying the Gevalia French Roast, and I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor. It was strong and robust, and while I made it a little stronger than I normally make my Starbucks coffee, it tasted excellent.

I tried the House Blend next, and this ended up being more like I expected. The flavor was mild (translation: a little weak), and I was mostly underwhelmed. 

The Verdict: The Gevalia Kaffe French Roast was a winner. I ask for bags of Starbucks for Christmas every year, so I don't buy a ton of coffee on my own. I would get this French Roast on my own; a much better grocery store option than some other coffees out there! I wouldn't buy the House Blend just because I like darker coffee, but I think it would be great for someone who prefers a more mild coffee. The bag of House Blend certainly won't go to waste in my house! I'll probably drink it when I want a cup of coffee before bed.

Win it!

My Blog Spark and Kraft Foods have provided me with a Gavalia Kaffe Prize Pack for one of you! To enter this giveaway, all you need to do is comment on this post telling me how you like your coffee. And if you aren't a coffee drinker but know someone who is, tell me who you would give this to. Please make sure your email address is enabled in your Blogger profile, or leave your email in your comment so I can be in touch if you win. The giveaway will end Sunday, March 4, 2012 at midnight, at which point the winner will be chosen at random. 

For more information about Gevalia Kaffe, but sure to visit their website or like Gevalia on Facebook. Also, Walmart has a free sample of Gevalia Kaffe available; sign up here.

Kraft Foods has provided sample product to me and is providing the prizes for this program at no cost to me.  This program is not administered or sponsored by Kraft Foods or its affiliates, but solely by Thrifty Living.

Fiesta Lime Rice

Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest? It's such a great way to find new recipes, and I knew as soon as I saw this one for Fiesta Lime Rice that I just had to try it. The original recipe comes from Skinny Taste, and this was a winner for our whole family!

We opted to serve the rice with chicken, avocado, and sour cream on top, instead of just as a side. We also enjoyed it in a tortilla wrap with chicken like a burrito. This rice is so great that there are tons of possibilities.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (use leftovers or make it fresh! 2 cups of water and 1 cup rice)
1/2 can black beans, rinsed and heated (about 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed and heated
1 large tomato, diced
1 large scallion, diced
2-4 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
juice from 1/2 lime (about 1 Tablespoon)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice. Heat beans and corn. Combine rice, beans, corn, tomato, and scallion in a large bowl. Add cilantro and lime juice as desired, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve as a side dish, with tacos, or pile chicken, avocado, cheese, sour cream on top as preferred. A great way for each family member to add what they like to dinner!

Favorite Warmer weather recipes

This week is shaping up to be very mild, especially for February. The changes in the weather always make me think of certain foods and drinks that we usually have seasonally. Here are a few of my favorites.

Cherry Limeade - one of my favorites! I think my recipe takes just like Sonic!

Frozen Strawberry Lemonade - a refreshing mix of sweet and tangy.

Smoothies - all varieties. Recently we've been adding oatmeal to ours inspired by Full Measure of Happiness. I use 1 c. milk, 1/2 c. oatmeal, 5-6 whole strawberries, 4-5 cubes frozen pineapple juice.

I'm also looking forward to trying out a few new recipes. I just spied this one for homemade fruit roll ups from Joy of Jello. Don't they look fantastic?

 (Image)

Any recipes to share?