Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals

 Our holiday centerpiece above, after I put away the fruit on Christmas.  A .50 thing of holiday crackers (bought at the used store this summer) has lightened up the table and we've opened one so far and my daughter got a paper crown (obviously) and a little cloth measuring tape.  I think we'll have fun with the rest over the next week until New Years :).

So, I obviously didn't get a chance to post up that recipe I was talking about on my last post, but no worries as it's a recipe that will work all through the holiday season, so I'll post it up sometime this week.  The last couple of days I've been making it for the kid's sake, barely.  This cold is really taking it out of me, probably because I got it right after getting over another one. 

I hope everyone's holiday was a nice one!  Ours was okay, overall.  The kids liked their presents I made them and their gifts from Santa.  My husband liked his gifts, I got my pie bird and my tea strainer for Christmas, so I was happy and my husband even found me a in-brand-new condition spatula/turner at the used store and got that as a last minute Christmas gift (which was great since my other spatula has been melting a little bit by little bit every time I use it). Oh and he found me a Corelle coffee pot/tea pot with a LID for 1.50 so I grabbed it, snatched the lid off of it (the pot itself is thrashed inside) and put the lid on my sans lid in-brand-new-shape cornflower blue pot in my china cabinet (happy dance :). 

My family sent gift cards for Christmas, so I spent a lot of the last couple of days going through Amazon and finding things we've been needing but putting off getting because of money and such.  The kids will be super excited, I'm sure, to receive the socks and underwear (and my son sweat pants), I'm getting a new brush for my vacuum cleaner and my smurf slippers.  Living large!!!  *Laugh* really, though, I got some neat things for me in with the essentials, like some specialty ingredients that Alton Brown uses in his new cookbook.  Some of the recipes looked really good, so I decided that I was going to order some ingredients to make them. Overall I squeezed every last bit of use out of the gift cards I could, including getting paper towels, vacuum bags and some groceries and feel good about how I spent them.  My family definitely approved when I told them what the cards had been spent on and thanked them *laugh*.

Also, I want to thank everyone who ordered through my affiliate links the last like six months, as I finally got over the 10.00 associate fee limit and was able to get a pressure cooker for like 10.00 after I used my associate fees toward it (a birthday gift to me from my husband...which he knows he's getting it for me.  I told him.  He said, "okay" *laugh*).  Amazon has some REALLY good deals on 6 quart aluminum ones for about 20.00, so I ordered the Presto one.  Here's hoping I can master the skills to use it properly.  Everyone keeps telling me to get an Instapot (my friends all love theirs), but I just can't bring myself to shell out the money to do it.  Maybe one day, but not anytime soon with how much they cost even on sale (same with a stainless steel pressure cookers...those things are expensive!).  I'm looking forward to getting my feet wet when it comes to pressure cooking as seeing how much time and energy it saves, so I'm hoping I can make a go of using a pressure cooker decently often in the coming year (New Year's goal for me :).  I'd like to get away from the "baked chicken" monotony a bit more and I really do think the pressure cooker will help.

Anyway, total thought tangent aside there (sorry I'm feeling pretty cruddy right now), in short we got through the holidays okay and the kid's rooms don't even look like tornadoes hit them, so yay!  My daughter even asked to make handkerchiefs for my husband and I, so we took some flannel, a template cut from cardboard and some pinking shears (so she could do it without my help) and she made the gifts.  I was really proud of her as it was her idea, she picked the colors and she did the work.  Yes, they have character as the lines aren't exactly straight, but you know what?  You know it's home made that way :).

The monthly goals for this month were pretty much centered around Christmas gifts and horray I got those done, so hey, my main goal for the month got accomplished.   This week's goals are basically going to center around getting the house back up and running at close to normal and getting ready for my birthday and things.  So, let's get to those.

Sewing Goals:

• Finish up the few gifts that I didn't get to finish for this year's gifts and put them aside for next year (a couple of pillow cases for the kids and things).
• Mend son's comforter (again)
• Fold and put away left over fabric from Christmas gift making properly (the inside of my fabric cabinet looks like the underside of a lot of children's beds....I was in a hurry what can I say).
• Sew some reusable Christmas gift bags of various sizes and put them away for use next year.

General Goals:

• Figure out side dishes for birthday (we are having the good steaks I got on reduced a bit ago for dinner, having cake from one of the free cake mixes for dessert, so I want to make sure I get my favorite sides to go with the steak.  I'm thinking home made rice pilaf, salad and whole grain rolls with home made honey butter...yum!).
• Figure out menu plan for the week (chicken noodle soup is definitely going to be on that menu plan).
• Start to take down Christmas decorations and take down and put away Christmas tree.
• Keep on top of housework and get laundry sorted and put away.
• Get better (this is #1 goal.  I hope I can accomplish it without aid of a doctor as my husband spent about 200.00 after insurance today going to the doctor himself and we didn't have that to spare.  Medical bills.  Blahhhhh!!!). 
• Mail off insurance paperwork for daughter's insurance and see what happens (I hate waiting for approval/rejection on things)

And there you are folks.  My goals for this week.  How about you?  Got anything planned?