COFFEE DATE:: Slow Mornings, Frozen Watching & Cuddles.

We take our Fridays pretty serious around here. Slow mornings filled with coffee and cuddles while watching Frozen. My son recently has discovered this movie, and I think he has a little crush on Elsa. Most mornings we mosy on downstairs and he eventually will say;

"I wanna watch Elsa." And we oblige. Today was one of those days. 

If we were having coffee today I'd tell you that it's been a week! My daughter started back up with school after having 3 weeks off. So we're slowly getting back to a routine around here after being very lax over the holidays. 

I'd tell you that I'm trying to be more intentional about getting my kids outside and playing, and doing other activities instead of staying inside and watching movies. 

My hubby and I snuck in a date night last night and caught a pre screening to Old Fashioned. 

I'd tell you that as we head into the weekend, I'm praying for peace about a few things in my life. We've got some decisions to make about Ava's schooling for the next year, and some other things in our lives I'm not yet ready to dive into. But, I know that peace comes from God and he will give us the wisdom and peace we desire. 

If we were having coffee today what would you tell me? How has your week been? 

Creating A Family Binder

Welcome back! So Monday I shared with you all the FREE printables for your home binders! Today I'm excited to share with you how I use and put together my binder. Let's take a look at the binder itself first shall we? 

I choose this 8.5x11 3 ring binder, I found it on WeR Memory Keepers. Here's a link to it here. 

I love that the corners are reinforced with hardware making this binder a little extra durable! The gold polka dots help at all for cutness.. LOL! 

Ok, let's take a look at the inside and see it in action.  The two parts I wanted to section off were the "meals" and the "budget." I used some paper file folders and cut them in half and used some stickers to write the section names. 

I've already started to fill our our family's favorite meals and I can already tell how handy this is going to be for me. The grocery list is tucked behind this, I printed off a bunch just to have on hand. 

Budget worksheets, and my 52 week savings plan worksheet are behind the "budget" dividers. 

I also placed a clear pocket on the back of my binder to hold receipts. If you missed the free worksheets click on this post to download and print them. 

If you've already downloaded them I'd love to hear your thoughts and how you're using them. Tell me in the comments below.

Our Family Binder FREE Printable Collection

Happy Monday friends! I'm excited to share with you today something I've been working on especially for me and for you! For a long time I've been wanting to have a "home binder" where I can have a few different items readily available for my Husband and I to look at during the week when we need to, a place to keep some important home info as well. 

I decided to create a home binder for this. Today I'm sharing the first of many FREE printables you can add to your home binder as well. Most of these were created out of my own need, but I have a feeling that you will find them useful as well. Let's take a look. 

Keep your account info all in one place with this handy worksheet for usernames/passwords.

One of my most dreaded times is meal planning. So to help conquer this I created a worksheet with our family's favorite meal ideas, for easy reference when I'm meal planning and hopefully it'll make it a lot easier to meal plan. With that, I also created a grocery list to take a long.

A baby sitter worksheet, for you to use when you need to make special notes for the sitter.

Our family budget worksheet, each month my Hubby and I use a "zero budget" method. I've been writing them in little notebooks, but thought it would be nice to have this in the binder with our weekly savings plan worksheet. 

I hope these worksheets help you get organized for this new year! I'm using just a regular 8.5x11 3 ring binder to hold them all. Download all the printables in this post here. There's also a cover page in there you can download as well. Come back Wednesday and I'll show you how I put my "home binder" together and how I use it! 

Christmas Card Books

I absolutely love getting Christmas cards in the mail each year. I love seeing how our friends and family have grown, changed and added new members to their families. I put so much effort into my own Christmas cards each year, so when I get one in the mail I know just how much time and effort and money went into them.

Since 2011 I've been making little books out of the cards we get each year. I put them away till the following year and then I bring them out and place them on the coffee table or kitchen table to flip through during Christmas time. 

A few supplies I use to make them:

hole punch

stickers or any kind of embellishment

binder rings of various sizes, depending on how many cards you get you'll have to see what size you need.

cardstock, I choose a Christmas themed one but you could use whatever you like.

I start by sorting them by size and matching similar sizes together. Then I stack them all neatly smallest to largest so they open nicely when placed together. I then punch a hole in each card, some books I've done two holes and use two binder rings to hold them together, and others I've just punched a hole in the corner of the card and placed them through the binder ring. You can do what ever you like, see below for examples.

Once I've got them all together I use some of the card stock to make a front and back cover for my book. One the front cover I use the stickers and embellishments and decorate the covers. I like to put the year on the outside cover.

I also use ribbon and tie it on my binder rings for some extra fun! 

During the month of January each night when we sit down for dinner we grab and handful of cards and pray for each family that sent us a Christmas card. We do this each night in January until all the families are prayed for. 

I love doing this with my family, especially my children. It teaches them how to pray and care for others. It's a wonderful tradition that we started a few years ago and it's something I very much look forward to at the end of the holiday season.

What do you end up doing with your holiday cards? Do you throw them away or make something similar? I'd love to hear in the comments below.

Mini Egg & Ham Muffins

I made these quick and easy mini egg and ham muffins a couple weeks ago. They are delicious and a great breakfast for me to add to my morning coffee and protein smoothie. They were also a great way of using up the leftover Christmas ham. 

I'm planning on making more this week. I used a mini muffin pan and put them in the fridge for the week. It makes it really quick and easy to pull them out in the mornings and pop them into the toaster oven for breakfast. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

4 eggs, beaten.

1/2 cup of ham, diced.

1/2 cup spinach, chopped.

Spray your muffin tin with coconut oil, mines from Trader Joe's. Pour your egg mixture into your muffin tin. Place in over, bake for 20 minutes. 

Store in an air tight container. They will last in the fridge for about a week. 

Eat & enjoy! I love having these in the mornings.