Family bonding; family date nights jars, and couple date night jars.

We have been spending a lot of time trying to become closer as a family and couple . With school, kids, military requirements on time, its easy to get swept up in everyone doing their own thing. We have started having family dinners, we had gotten away from this, it was normally the kids eating together, and than my husband and I trying to eat together when he would get home, or sometimes we ate in shifts. So thats where the freezer meals really help! I am able to just pop something in the oven or crock pot and work on other things while its cooking. We also made 'date' jars. We have them for the family and as a couple. What dates you have will depend on what your personal tastes are and what you have in your area but I am listing the ideas that we have in our jars right now. 

First up is our couples jar.

 We have two jars one is at home date nights after the kids are in bed, and then we have ones that need more planning, and a baby sitter :) These were submitted by both my husband and I

Up first is the free jar;

wii bowling

travel scrapbook

question night - come up with a list of fun questions

arts and crafts

Movie night his pick

movie night her pick

house vision board - all the projects you want to do around the house, with pictures and price ideas

romantic night in the back yard - dessert, maybe some wine, star gazing, cuddling around a fire

photo shoot

plan a couples vacation

Dancing we like to pick our favorite songs along with some special ones from the wedding

wipe out on the xbox

card or board game his

card or board game hers

set goals for the month, week, year :)

killing up stairs he has some shooting games like 007 and others, not really my thing but thats the point (I put that one in :)

Bucket list

Italian night we would like to go to Italy so food, and trip planning along with games to teach us the language 

Karaoke night

cooking class he isn't much of a cook where as I LOVE it 

Planning required jar;

Breakfast in bed

go to the gym together

Dance lesson

redo our first date, as much as possible

paint pottery

Shooting range

Jazz in the park - local winery has Jazz in the park every weekend in the summer, not really Jazz music though

river walk - our downtown has a beautiful walkway along the river, with a great view a park and some other fun events through the summer

Movie in the park - local park plays movies each weekend through the summer

Kids have the same concept, jar for at home and jar for out and about in the area

First free jar;

plan a family trip

park

fly kites (we got a couple kites at the dollar store)

living room dance party a favorite of both our 7 and 2.5 year olds

family vision board things we want to do together

karaoke

spa night for just the girls

boys night out

wii game night

picnic

family walk around the sub - our sub is huge! we have lived here a year and still haven't gone down all the side roads

Planning required jar;

river walk

chuck e cheese

zoo

hands on museum

hit a local resale shop and everyone picks out one toy/game/ dress up item to share with the family

we have a few other items in this jar that are local to our area. 

We are always adding new ideas to the Jar as we think of them or see something that we think would be fun. Please feel free to share any ideas you might have with me always looking for more :) 

Happy bonding

Jillian 

Hawaiian Chicken and Teriyaki Chicken

I started my freezer cooking for the month Today! As its getting warmer I am making more with the crockpot in mind for the summer. Today I made Hawiian Chicken and Teriyaki Chicken. I didn't get pictures durning the process for the Teriyaki chicken (sorry!) I ended up making one batch of the Hawaiian chicken for dinner tonight. 

Hawaiian chicken is so easy, I had my daughter write on the bags, little misspelling issue there :) Few chicken breasts, can of pineapple chances no juice and a full bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce tossed in a bag, so easy! 2-3 hours on high 4-6 hours low

This was after about an hour in the crock pot, I served it over rice was a big hit. 

The Teriyaki chicken was the same concept. Toss chicken, veggies, I used carrots, mushrooms, green papers, onion and pineapple. 1 cup teriyaki sauce, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar. All into a bag freeze and on the day you want to eat it dump it in the crock pot with an addition 1/2 cup of Teriyaki sauce serve over rice. 

I prepped the rest of the veggies and got all my meat cooked as well very productive day :) 

Happy cooking

Jillian 

Homemade cheese 'goldfish' crackers

So Todays plan had been to clean up the office/ guest room but they decided to give me a huge window for when they were going to bring the new dishwasher out so that put my cleaning plan on hold. So I decided to work on crackers. My son is a huge fan of goldfish crackers and I found a recipe to make my own at home and love t so much better than the store bought ones! 

What you need 

8 ounces of cheese shredded

4 Tablespoons butter cut not cubes

1 cup of flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons of water

Thats it! 

Put everything but the water in a food processor or if like me you don't have one a stand mixer works very well :) 

after it looks like the first picture kind of like sand, you can add water one tablespoon at a time.  wrap it up and let it chill for 20 min or so. 

roll it out and cut into cute shapes. I made flowers and hearts this time. I only roll out a small amount at a time. 

they do puff up a little bit so I roll the dough thin. The original recipe I found said to bake for 15min, Which burnt mine to a crisp! I go more for 8-10 min tops. 

Totally worth a try if you like to make things yourself and control whats going into them. My son seems to enjoy these even more than the store bought ones.

Happy Baking!

Jillian 

Cleaning and organizing the Kitchen!

So my kitchen was a little rough in the first place but I pulled everything out of the kitchen and cleaned out the cabinets and everything, its so clean and fresh! Love it. I just love the fresh clean smell. I think only being able to really do it when the kids will let me helped it take so long, at least thats what I am blaming it on :)

 Yeah we had some major clutter issues! The fact that our dishwasher died last week and a new one won't be here until tomorrow has helped some. Not that I mind washing dishes by hand but we don't really have the set up for it to not be a bit of a pain. 

TA DA! So much better! 

I Love this list! Really helps with my cleaning and organizing :)

Making a grocery list now for the next big freezer meal prep weekend. Will hit the store this weekend and working on filling the freezer this coming week.  

Going to make some gold fish crackers tonight for the toddler, and some teething biscuits for the baby. Got a load of cloth diapers to sort and put back together as well. 

Another fantastic day in paradise

Jillian 

Cleaning and organizing the living room

Nap time for the kids yesterday seemed like the perfect time to clean up the living room. 

The living room before  

After, the toys never really go away but they do get picked up :) Dusting, vacuuming, even busted out the carpet cleaner.  

 Toy corner 

afterwards, its at least neater :) 

I think today I will tackle the kitchen which I hate to admit needs it, the clutter has taken over!