Menu Plan Monday and Project Updates

Since I wrote about Menu Planning last week, I am committing now to post my weekly plans here on my blog. I'm doing this so that 1) I know that I will have them ready to go and 2) others may find some ideas too. I am also going to link to Orgjunkie's Menu-Plan Monday where more than 300 gals link to their menu-plans. There's lots of inspiration so no more excuses! Let's get going!

Here's this weeks plan:

Monday: Dijon Baked Chicken with Rice and Broccoli

Tuesday: Beef Taco Skillet

Wednesday: Planned Leftovers

Thursday: Cheesy Tortellini (frozen cheese tortellini with bottled Four Cheese Pasta sauce baked with shredded Mozza and Parmesan)

Friday: Pizza and Ceasar Salad

Saturday: BBQ Steaks with asparagus, mixed green salad and baked potatos

Sunday: Baked Ham with Schwartzie's Potato Casserole (I make a half recipe at a time), Peas & Carrots

Yummy! And it's so great to know what's for dinner each night and what I have to shop for. No guesswork and no stress! Love this!

As for my projects, I am happy to report that they are going well and are pretty much up to date!

Project 365: I missed one or two days taking photos but took fill-in photos of things that happened that day later on. My Project 365 album is current up to the middle of April and I just have to get photos from the last couple of weeks developed and added in. I LOVE THIS PROJECT and will enjoy looking back on it down the road!

Layout A Day (LOAD): I am only four days into the project but I am up to date! You can see all LO's here, but this is today's LO which I finished up this morning:

"Happy B-Day!" by Noreen Smith. 12 x 12 Digital Layout. Storybook Creator Plus Software and Best Buds Digi kit by CM.

The Creativity Project: Lisa Day says "...be creative with your thoughts and your actions. See everyday as a new adventure. Start each morning with the thought “what can I do that’s fun and creative today?” Totally uplifting! So for me this project is more about thinking about and focusing on creativity as opposed to making something every day. In this spirit, I have been revisiting some of the books I used when I taught art and journaling about creativity as much as I can.

My BPS Library of Memories Class continues for another few weeks, but I now have the past 8 years of photos sorted and stored in storage binders; favorite photos have been pulled, sorted and stored in category boxes and 4 out of 7 boxes of memorabilia have been sorted, purged and organized for use on upcoming layouts. Pretty good work if I do say so myself!

Finally, today is the first day of the Spring Cleaning Party over at Simple Mom. In just two weeks I will have this place overhauled and deep cleaned and ready for the spring and summer! We got a great start on the weekend by cleaning and organizing the garage - a much needed and long overdue task - so now I am in the zone to get the house done too. I will report progress in the next few days.

Alright already...enough blogging for today! Have a great one!

Happy Scrapping!

Noreen

NSD Giveaway!

May is National Scrapbooking Month and the first Saturday of May is widely recognized and celebrated as (Inter) National Scrapbooking Day! So Happy NSD! Officially I will be celebrating it on May 23rd with a bunch of other CM consultants and our great customers, but there is lots of excitement in online scrapbooking communities and websites, so make sure to surf around a little!

I even have a little NSD giveaway to offer! All you have to do is tell us WHY YOU LOVE SCRAPBOOKING in the comments section below. You have until tomorrow evening (Sunday May 3) at 10:00 pm. Good luck!

Even though I am not holding or attending any NSD events I definitely will be scrapping today as I am participating in Lain Ehmann's LOAD (LayOut A Day) challenge for the entire month of May! I am already planning today's layout in my head and I have a list of other layouts I want to prepare page kits for to make some of those crazy days ahead a little easier! Here was yesterday's LO...the first of 31!

"I Can Create!" 12 x 12 Digital LO by Noreen Smith. Storybook Creator Plus Software and Elementary School Digital Kit by CM. Scrapkids and Arial fonts.

This was a quick and easy digital layout I did up at about 10:00 pm last night (a definite advantage of digital is the speed which you can put a simple layout together and get it posted online!) The journaling reads: "You love to create, and I love seeing you have fun with paint, crayons, scissors and glue! You are proud of everything you make and you love to see it hung on the fridge for everyone to see. A budding artist? Perhaps. Go ahead and express yourself any way you like, my little Picasso!" This layout will definitely be going in our "Things We Do" album to celebrate creativity!

I may not get around to posting every day's layout on the old blog here, but you can click on the blinkie on the sidebar to see all up to date layouts. I have high hopes of getting lots accomplished this month, so wish me luck!

Happy Scrapping and Happy NSD!

Noreen