May Update

FINANCIAL
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account- life's unexpected things are making this hard. It is still a goal but is starting to look unachievable this year.

2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- Well, Aaron had to have his wisdom teeth removed in April. Although this was a planned expense, we were not planning on having to pay 100% up front and then file for insurance afterwards. So, this money went towards help pay for this expense and when we get reimbursed from insurance, the money will go towards this goal.


3) Make 1 extra house payment- Slow and Steady wins the race. An additional 6%


4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)-


5)Never use a credit card - We had some work expenses in April that we used the card for but we plan on paying off in full when we receive the bill.


6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- WE DID IT! Aaron bought his new chainsaw on Mar 4th. He has already used it a couple times.

7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have now realized we can not fix the lawn mower. So, we are selling it on craigslist and getting a new one. Right now we bought a push mower to get by. Let the savings begin

8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer-

9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. Replaced by 9b.
9b) Pay off minivan in 12 months- 35.3% complete thanks to selling the Aztek

10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)- DONE in February

11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- Sold the Aztek which pushed us way over. We also sold the hitch haul.

12) Start a savings account for a new car- well we were able to put $1000 down with the money that we started to save. but this goal is now complete


FAMILY

1) Go on two weekend family vacations- No real vacations this month.

2) Visit both families at least once- Waiting for July and starting to look into the winter holidays

HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer- We made our first batch of beer on May 23rd.
2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer-
3) Grow a successful garden- Its in partially. I will call it a work on progress.
4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc. -


SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight-
2) Make two dresses for Hannah- I made 4 dresses thanks to Walmart fabric. Hannah loves them.

3) Learn a new hobby-

4)Make 2 books on picaboo- I am updated on Titus's baby book and have worked a little on the other.

5) Read the entire bible-

6) Get more involved at the church- Still searching for my place.

7) Read 7 books - Well I have ten great books i want to read. Again, its just finding the time. I hope to be better about this.

AARON

1) Hunt something- Done thanks to a pig in our yard
2) Process one animal - Done thanks to the same pig. We now have 32 lbs of sausage in our freezer.
3) Make a rocking horse


OTHER

1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- None is May.

2) Make 52 new recipes- Up to ~24 that i can think of. I'm sure there are more but i didn't write them down.

Recipe Catch up

so I have not had the time to take pictures and blog bout every new recipe we have tried this year. I really wanted to and then life happens. But here is a quick overview of the recipes we have tried the last few weeks.

12 honey oatmeal bread from the bread machine- good and easy
13 lemon roll cake- YUM!!! thanks mom for helping
14 peanut butter cups- good and healthy. They are from good and lite. A nice alternative to icecream
15 mexican lasagna-YUM!!! one of our new favorites. We will definately be making this again.
16cranberry breakfast cookies- they have a weird taste which i think is from the dried cranberries i used. But Hannah loves them so she gets to have cookies for breakfast.
17 raspberry bread- Ok taste but the seeds are weird to me.
18 strawberry bread- good. would make again
19 whole wheat blueberry streusel muffins- YUM!! I will definately make these again. but i did follow the advice of the commenters. Increase the oil to 1/2 c and increase the sugar to 2/3c. It made 15 for me.
20 sausages. So really this should be 6 or 7 different recipes but since this also fulfils another goal i felt like we were cheating by countingit both places. So they only count as one recipe. But we made....
breakfast bulk sausage
italian bulk sausage
maple breakfast sausage links
polish sausage links
hot sicilian sausage links
southwestern sausage links
(there may be one more but that is all i can think of)
21 Vanilla ice cream in my new ice cream maker. Milk, cream and sugar has never tasted so good in only 30 minutes.
22. Whole wheat tortillas- Aaron made these and they turned out great. Truely better then anything you can buy in the store. My plan is to start making them fresh instead of buying. And thanks to Jesse and Alica, we now have a tortilla press to help out.
23. Broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken breasts

April Review

FINANCIAL
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account-

2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- Well, Aaron had to have his wisdom teeth removed in April. Although this was a planned expense, we were not planning on having to pay 100% up front and then file for insurance afterwards. So, this money went towards help pay for this expense and when we get reimbursed from insurance, the money will go towards this goal.


3) Make 1 extra house payment- Slow and Steady wins the race.


4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)-


5)Never use a credit card - We had some work expenses in Aril that we used the card for but we plan on paying off in full when we recieve the bill.


6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- WE DID IT! Aaron bought his new chainsaw on Mar 4th. He has already used it a couple times.

7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have decided to not buy a new lawnmower. We are working on fixing our old one.

8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer- After some research I have realized $500 will come nowhere near to buying half a pig of cow. But, this is still something i wish to do.

9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. Well, we bought a minivan in April. I love our new car, but we had to get a loan. I am hopeful to have this paid off in 1 year. I am pushing to try and have it paid off within this year, but we'll see.


10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)- DONE in February

11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- none this month

12) Start a savings account for a new car- well we were able to put $1000 down with the money that we started to save. but this goal is now complete


FAMILY


1) Go on two weekend family vacations- No real vacations this month.


2) Visit both families at least once- we have officially planned to visit both families in June and July.


HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer-
2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer-

3) Grow a successful garden-
4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc. -


SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight- April was not a lot better. But without much work on this subject I am now 25% of the way to my goal


2) Make two dresses for Hannah-

3) Learn a new hobby-

4)Make 2 books on picaboo- Maybe in May


5) Read the entire bible- Stil nothing in April. I hopeful that in May i can get part of it read. I am also thinking abuot listening to it on book on tape.


6) Get more involved at the church- Still searching for my place.

7) Read 7 books - Well I have three great books i want to read. Again, its just finding the time. I hope to be better about this.

AARON

1) Hunt something-
2) Process one animal
3) Make a rocking horse


OTHER

1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- None in April

2) Make 52 new recipes- I now have ~18. Recipes to follow

March Review

FINANCIAL
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account-

2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- still waiting to see how everything with the tax rebate falls. Hopefully we will have money to set aside for this.

3) Make 1 extra house payment- For some reason, i did not have to make a house payment this month. I think when we were on maternity leave, i got one payment ahead. So, this month when i tried to go online and pay, it told me no. So, when i am allowed to make my house payment, i will hit it with some extra money.

4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)- I have decided to drop this goal. I never could get started keeping a record of all the applicable purchases and i think its too late to start. I am still doing whatever i can to save money. March was full of some great deals at publix (spend $20 save $100+). I will continue to find these great deals and stock up when prices are good.

5)Never use a credit card - We did not use it in March. YEA!!!

6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- WE DID IT! Aaron bought his new chainsaw on Mar 4th. He has already used it a couple times.

7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have decided to not buy a new lawnmower. We are working on fixing our old one.

8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer- After some research I have realized $500 will come nowhere near to buying half a pig of cow. But, this is still something i wish to do.

9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. (Only have some medical bills, but i want to keep it this way)- As of now, we still have no debt. Aaron and I are going back and forth on getting a new vehicle, so this may change, but i hope that it doesn't. p.s. If anyone would like to donate us a excellent condition minivan, we would graciously accept it.

10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)- DONE in February

11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- none this month

12) Start a savings account for a new car- still waiting to see how the tax return is divided and see whats going on with my not being able to make a house payment. If all things work in our advantage, we may be able to have some money towards this goal.



FAMILY


1) Go on two weekend family vacations- We went on our first family minivacation on March 1st and 2nd. We had a great time in Orlando (yes, even through the pneumonia and cramped hotel room)



2) Visit both families at least once- we have officially planned to visit both families in June and July.


HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer-
2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer-

3) Grow a successful garden-
4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc. - we did can tangerines but that's it so far.

SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight- With travel, family, and sickness, I did not have a chance to weigh in. I will hopefully be better on this in April.

2) Make two dresses for Hannah-

3) Learn a new hobby-

4)Make 2 books on picaboo- No more done. Hopefully in April
5) Read the entire bible- I never seem to have time. But i need to make it. I am still keeping this goal up here and hope to be better about it.
6) Get more involved at the church- Still searching for my place.

7) Read 7 books - Well I have three great books i want to read. Again, its just finding the time. I hope to be better about this.

AARON

1) Hunt something-
2) Process one animal

3) Make a rocking horse


OTHER

1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- I did buy croissants this month, but do they really count?

2) Make 52 new recipes- Well i only got to 11 officially. Really there were many recipes i tried but never thought about to blog on. I will though and then will all count towards my April total.

Recipe #11 Cinnamon Rolls from the Bread Machine

I found this recipe on one of my favorite blogs i follow daily, LifeAsMom. Jessica also has a great food blog Good and Cheap Eats. One recipe she makes often are homemade cinnamon rolls where the dough can be made in a bread machine and the rolls can rise overnight int he frig. This way, in the mornings all you have to do is let them sit on the counter top for 20 mins and then bake for 20 mins. They are really good too (plus you can make them 100% whole wheat and they taste great).

Here is the recipe. And here are some beautiful photos of my cinnamon rolls. I made them the morning of our yard sale as a special treat. I also have a batch in the frig waiting to come out this morning for us to eat this morning.

Hannah thought it was cake and ice cream because

1) it does kind of look like cake, and

2) I asked her if she like the icing and she thought i meant ice cream

So naturally, Hannah at all of hers and half of Aarons.

A new goal (Am i crazy?)

Hey everyone, so after a lot of thinking, I want to add another item to my personal goals list.

Read 7 new books this year. Audiobooks do not count.

To help with this goal I signed up for booksneeze.com. It's a website that give free books to bloggers to read and then review. Hopefully by the end of May you will see my first review.

Sally

February Review

So here is a summary of how we did in February.


This month a couple things happened to help push us forward.
1) We filed our taxes and got a large return (yea second baby!)
2) Work suprized everyone with raises
3) After much worrying, it looks like the PA Department of revenue is not coming after me for tons of money. But, I'm still waiting on the official word.

FINANCIAL
1) Save 9-10% of your annual income in a savings account- some of our tax return may go towards this. We are still waiting to see where it is going to go.

2) Save $1000 to go on a honeymoon/5-year anniversary- We are hoping to accomplish this with our tax return. We are still waiting to see if the car needs fixed and other things before we officially designate the money towards this.

3) Make 1 extra house payment- Put an additional 9.6% towards our mortgage. Total ~15%

4) Spend less that $3000 on groceries and household needs for the entire year (does not include baby things but does include toiletries and cleaning products)- I still have no idea. One of my goals for March is get this in order

5)Never use a credit card - Again I had some work expenses (booking stuff for a trip) that I put on a credit card. But we have not used it for any personal use.

6)Save enough money to buy Aaron a new chainsaw- Thanks to our tax return, we have money set aside for a new chainsaw. Aaron will probably go pick it out in March

7) Save enough money to buy a new lawn mower- We have money set aside and are now actively looking for a great deal on a used lawnmower

8) Save $500 to buy a 1/2 cow or a pig for the freezer


9) Have no debt (other than the mortgage) by the end of the year. (Only have some medical bills, but i want to keep it this way)- Still no debt-YEA!!!

10)Pay off all medicals bills from 2009 (Thanks a lot kidney and face)- I put the check in the mail on the 24th to pay off the balance. I love not having this hanging over me anymore.


11)Make $500 from selling things (yard sales, craigslist, etc)- Our yardsale was good, but not wonderful. It rained all morning so the turn out (both people selling and looking) was low. But in 2.5 hours, we were able to make $100. We still have a lot of stuff that didnt sell, so it is going into the closet for Augusts big commuity yardsale.

12) Start a savings account for a new car- This is getting moved up as a huge priority. Our Aztek is starting to cause us some problems and will need to replaced within the next year.

FAMILY
1) Go on two weekend family vacations- My job is sending me to Orlando Mar 1st and 2nd. We have decided to go a day early and make it a little vacation. We plan on visiting the Orlando Science Center, playing in the hotel pool, and having a great time. (check it out, i finally learned how to use the linky thing. Yeah me)

2) Visit both families at least once

HOBBY
1) Make at least 2 batches of beer- no beer yet, but we have read up on it a lot. Hopefully this spring

2) Make at least 1 batch of root beer- Not yet. Aaron did get a book on this for his birthday so hopefully in March or April

3) Grow a successful garden- We started some seedlings inside for broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and spinach. We plan to plant them outside in March.

4) Can 6+ months of corn, green beans, pickles, spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc.

SALLY
1) Get back to pre-Hannah weight- not a good month. Too much baking. March is going to be much better


2) Make two dresses for Hannah- no time in February but this is still very important to me

3) Learn a new hobby- Still no idea what

4)Make 2 books on picaboo- i didnt get a chance to update the books for February. Hopefully in March.

5) Read the entire bible- not a single chapter in February. BAD SALLY

6) Get more involved at the church- Still looking for the right place. Please pray for my guidance to the right area

AARON

1) Hunt something- no opportunities this month

2) Process one animal

3) Make a rocking horse


OTHER

1) Make our own breads (so my real goal is to not but any sandwich bread or breakfast breads for an entire year)- We did not buy any bread this month. YEAH!!!. I am getting better about having bread on hand. Aaron has also helped out a lot with this goal. I have also started using my bread maker to make the dough so all I have to do is form it and bake.

2) Make 52 new recipes- I now have a total of 12 new recipes. I still need to post the 12th one.