WEEK 3 - Holiday Planning 2015

So much to do, better start here!

Holiday Planning - Week 3- Main Bathroom & Office - Focus: Me & Mine

September 15 - 21

DEEP CLEAN:

Upstairs Bathroom

Downstairs Bathroom

Stacia's Desk

Jordan's Desk

ZONE 3 - BATHROOM & ANOTHER ROOM:

Reorganize Downstairs Wall Cupboard in Bathroom

Reorganize Hall Medicine Closet

Reorganize Stacia's Desk

Reorganize Jordan's Desk

Clean Desktops

Clean Desk Shelves

Clean Out Desk Files

Clean Underneath Desks

PLANNING AHEAD:

Seasonal Spruce Up  (Form)

Double One Meal & Freeze Half for the Holidays

Setup Christmas Gift Wrapping Center

Buy Supplies to Make Handcrafted Gifts

Sort Supplies for Each Gift So They Are Ready To Work On

Buy Camera Batteries & Charge All Batteries

Buy Camcorder Tapes & Charge Battery

Purchase Mailing Labels

Update Mailing List

Print Address labels

Purchase, Order, or Print Christmas Cards &/or Letters

Plan Mom Pampering Sessions(s)

Set up a Gift Closet/Boxes Area(s)

Choose New Christmas Cookie & Baking Recipes to try & type in Cookbook

Make copies of recipes and place them in the Christmas Notebook.

Print poop gifts.

HOLIDAY POOP GIFTS

Halloween        Pumpkin     Candy Corn or Mini-pumpkins
Thanksgiving   Turkey         Raisinets, Malt Balls, Reeses Bites, Milk Duds  
Christmas         Reindeer      Junior Mints, Raisinets, Malt Balls, Milk Duds
                          Snowman    White Chocolate Covered Candy, Marshmallows
Valentines        Cupid           Something Red, Junior Mints?
St. Patrick’s     Leprechaun  Junior Mints, Gold Coins, Something Green

WEEK 2 - Holiday Planning 2015



Well to have the holiday I would love to have I better get moving on a few things, this is my week 2 plan, hoping I can get some help with some of this from my dear daughters, especially the one that likes to bake a lot!

September 7- 13

Holiday Planning - WEEK 2 - Kitchen (Cupboards) - Calendar & Creativity

Kitchen Upper Cupboards on Sink Wall

Kitchen Lower Cupboards on Sink Wall

Kitchen Upper Cupboards Snack Bar

Kitchen Lower Cupboards Snack Bar

ZONE 2 - KITCHEN:

Remove all Counter Clutter Deep Clean Counters

Reorganize Cupboards

Reorganize Drawers

Reorganize China Cabinet

Reorganize China Shelves

Reorganize China Shelving

Reorganize Cupboard of Bookshelf

Reorganize Mini Bookshelf of Everybody's Stuff

Reorganize White Shelves

PLANNING AHEAD:

Create a Seasonal Calendar

Plan Holiday Travel

Hold Scheduling Session

Start Tear Files

Update Shopping Lists

Inventory Craft Supplies, Unfinished Projects, & Ready to Use Projects

Begin Gift to Make Lists

Buy Extra Sugar, Shortening, Baking Chocolate, Candy Sprinkles, Etc.

Discuss Gift Responsibilities with Family & Note Them on the Gift Pages.

Buy Extra Scotch Tape, Ribbons, Gift Tags

Double One Meal & Freeze Half for the Holidays.

Find &/or Buy Christmas Cards

Plan Decorations for tree (Gold & White with Disney Decos)

Divide Gift Needs into 3 lists. Buy 1 list each month for the next 3 months.

Start pinning Elf Antics for ideas on Pinterest

Develop ideas for gifts, decorations (See Christmas Notebook, Magazines, & Books) See Pinterest!

Schedule:

Week              Dates                              Focus Area                                      Zone

Week 1   Sept 1 - Sept 5       House Exterior & Entry/List Week           1

Week 2   Sept 6 - Sept 12     Kitchen (Cupboards)                                         2

Week 3   Sept 13 - Sept 19   Main Bathroom & Office                          3

Week 4   Sept 20 - Sept 26   Master Bedroom & Bath                           4

Week 5   Sept 27 - Oct 3      Living Room/Stairs/Halls/Family Room       5 & 1

Week 6   Oct 4 - Oct 10       Kitchen, Pantry, & Freezer                        2

Week 7   Oct 11 - Oct 17     Bathrooms & Hall Closets                         3

Week 8   Oct 18 - Oct 24     Boys Bedrooms                                                   4

                                                Week 1 - Get Organized

Week 9   Oct 25 - Oct 31    Living Room & Halloween Deco Final             5 

                                               Week 2 - Reality Check

Week 10   Nov 1 - Nov 7    Un-decorate/Entry, Stairway, & Hallways        1

                                                Week 3 - Gifts & Giving

Week 11   Nov  8 - Nov 14  Kitchen (Thanksgiving Prep)                             2

                                                Week 4 - Get Cooking

Week 12   Nov 15- Nov 21  Bathrooms & Guest Room                                 3

                                               Week 5 - Decorate

Week 13   Nov 22 - Nov 28 All Bedrooms                                                     4

                                               Week 6 - Celebrate - Thanksgiving Week

Week 14   Nov 29 - Dec 5    Living Room, Family Room & Entry            5 & 1

Week 15   Dec 6 - Dec 12   Kitchen                                                               2
Week 16   Dec 13 - Dec 19 Bathroom & Desk                                      3

Week 17   Dec 20 - Dec 26 Master Bedroom & Kids Rooms                4

Week 18   Dec 27 - Jan 2    Entry/Living Room/Stairs/Halls/Fm Rm       5 &  1

Week 19   Jan 3 - Jan 9     Kitchen & Store All Items                         2

WEEK 1 - Holiday Planing 2015

WEEK 1 - Holiday Planing 2015

If I am going to achieve this... I need to do this weeks list & every following week, time to get moving!

Anything that has a line through the step to take is something I have finished, I'll have to update soon when I have a little more accomplished, got to love catch-up, at least I am only 1 week behind the start this year!!!

September 1 - 7

Holiday Planning - Week 1 - Entry- Focus Planning & Paperwork

DEEP CLEAN:

House Walkway

Exterior Entry

Interior Entry

ZONE 1 - ENTRY:

Clean Windows & Screens

Clean Window Sills

Clean Outside Entrance Area & Walkway

Clean/Touch-up

MAKE, PRINT, & DO  THE FOLLOWING:

Setup a Holiday Planning Center

Setup a Holiday Savings

Print Houseworks Holiday Plan Forms

Master Gift List (Form)

Holiday Budget ( Form)

Family Values Worksheet (Form)

Holiday Traditions  (Form)

Chore Checklist  (Form)

Room-by-Room Decor  (Form)

Weekly Checklist  (Form)

Individual Room Pages on HGP Cleaning Checklist  (Form)

Weekly Planner 1  (Form)

Weekly Planner 2  (Form)

Christmas Card List (Form)

Calendars (Form)

Get Organized Week  (Form)

Reality Check Week  (Form)

Gifts 'n Giving Week  (Form)

Get Cooking Week  (Form)

Decorate Week, Celebrate Week (Form)

This Years Christmas Countdown Calendar  (Form)

Kids/family Gifts

School & Church Gifts - Teachers & Kids Friends

UPDATE LISTS:

Shopping List

Christmas Card List

Decide How Many Cards to Buy

Set Dates for Parties/Entertaining

Make a Planning Section For Parties

Fill in Calendar Dates in Day Planner & On the Family Calendar

Buy Canning Jars for Gifts in a Jar

Baked Goods for Sharing/Gift. Decide how much to make & divide It

Decide How Many Halloween Parties to Host with Kids

Determine Who Will be at Thanksgiving at our House

FILL IN CHART FOR BAKED GOODS:

Cookies Needed

Cakes Needed

Candy Needed

ITEMS NEEDED:

_____ Flour                  _____Baking Powder             _____Choc Chips

_____ Sugar                 _____ Baking Soda                 _____ Mint Chips

_____ Cocoa                 _____ Shortening                   _____ White Chips

_____ Butter                 _____ Butter Shortening        _____ Mini M&M's

_____ Veg Oil               _____ Baking Spray               _____  Color Chips

_____ Eggs                   _____ Brown Sugar                _____ Dark Chocolate

_____ Vanilla               _____ Powder Sugar               _____ White Chocolate

_____ Lemon Ext         _____ Peanut Butter               _____ Sucker Sticks

_____ Almond Ext       _____ Cooking Spray              _____ Sucker Bags

_____ Mint Ext            _____ Peppermint Ext             _____ Peppermint Ext

Stacia Lynn's Herbs

This is my Herb Garden & yes we grow several herbs at our house & we use even more than what I grow.

Sage & Oregano Dried on Stem

Closeup of Our Labels

Sadly, with the changes in the population in our home my plants are out producing what we can use & I hate to waste them so I continued to dry herbs like mad. When my husband saw about 20 bottles of just 1 herb he told me "We can't use 20 bottles of oregano". LOL True, so on a long trip we discussed the idea of starting an herb business with what I have already dried this season & expanding our herb garden this next spring if it goes well. This was in about mid July so by August I had created labels, found packaging to start with, researched pricing and a few selling venues.

Closeup of the dried product packaging

 We participated in our County Fair this year in August & our herbs were Award Winners!!! I am especially happy with my sage, these are our entries:

Oregano

Dill

Sage

Parsley

Marjoram

The fair was a lot of fun, my youngest 2 entered every baking contest through the week & won a blue ribbon & $25 for a cooking with peanuts entry, Mini Peanut Butter Cups with Peanuts added to the filling & crumbled on top with Sea Salt, YUM! That was one of my recipes. Her sister earned 2 red ribbons & $20 for an entry in the Chocolate Baking Contest with my husband's Best Chocolate Cake Recipe which she added chocolate chips to in case cocoa powder alone was not enough. She also entered a cooking with cheese contest that she earned a red ribbon for cheese puffs which is a recipe she found on her own. There were also winnings in a contest for Critter Crafts from recycled materials, 3 entries and 2 of them won first & second another red & blue ribbon so she beat herself out & won another $25 bringing the grand total to $45 for the older sibling. I entered one of my 4th of July Cookies which won a blue ribbon, this was in the open cookie contest at the beginning of the week & here are my cookies:

Patriotic Spiral Cookies

My Baking Contest Winners!

There was other fun at the fair too, elephants to learn about & ride, train rides, animals to see, & so much to look at that everyone else entered, we have plans to enter more next year!

The Elephant Encounter

The Train Ride, Faking Asleep!

In August I started going to our local Farmer's Market every Saturday morning to sell my herbs armed with my blue ribbon bragging rights! I did okay the first week which was really windy so not the normal customer flow. I returned again & did well again, the next time my youngest decided she should come with me so now I had a helper. In the meantime I started looking into other herb related products I could sell. I found that infusing herbs with dried herbs was another avenue so now I am doing that as well, sold my first infused oil on my 2nd day at the Farmer's Market & I have since made a few variations & sold 3 bottles on my last trip, YEAH!!! The first week I had my helper we entered the raffle & she won, check it out!

Farmer's Market Raffle Winner!

Her dad was able to bottle these into 13 quarts of peaches, they are delicious! This is also part of why she wanted to go back the next week, with 2 friends in tow!

So now we have a weekly place to be on Saturday mornings & hopefully a growing home business to keep the girls & I busy for now. We have dismantled our deck & rebuilt stairs on the back of the house & my DH has decided that he will be building me planter boxes with my wood from the original deck so there is the garden expansion, YEAH!!! Can't wait to start on plants for next season & a website to expand our customer base!

4th Of July 2015

This is the 4th of July at our house every year, the foods vary, however they are always red, white, & blue plus a Barbecue of course!

Jell-O with a layer of Lemon Flavored Cream Cheese/Cool Whip Center, so good!

There is always lots & lots of food!

Shortbread Flag Cakes, Spiral Sugar Cookies, & Layered Jell-O, so fun to make!

Great Friends of Course!

There are the fireworks in the street infront of the house, since the yard didn't work so well 1 year! OOOPS!

Jell-O Marshmallow Pops, Kids LOVED them!

The City Fireworks easily viewed from our driveway, near the treats!

This cake actually looked like an American Flag on every slice, when it wasn't falling over!

A movie sometimes the night before since nobody is sleeping as fireworks have begun already!

This was frost your own cupcakes, tri-color baked cupcakes, YUM!

Layered Jell-O, so much fun!

Stained Glass Jell-O!

My son actually asked me last year to teach him how to make this Stained Glass Jell-O, I've made it with Orange & Purple for Thanksgiving & it turned out well too!

Patriotic Trifle

 The Trifle is made from red, white, & blue cake left over from other baking projects like the top of cakes that are cut to be flat, add strawberries, blueberries, & cool whip & you have an easy trifle!

Patirotic Deviled Eggs

I did these last year, the color came out much better this year, I was thrilled with this one!

We had family, old friends over & added some great new ones local and visitors from out of town that were staying at hubby's hotel, it was a lot of fun & I always love hosting this get together at our house! Can't wait to do next years, I have a schedule in mind to make it a little less stressful & less last minute prep to do, NICE!