A Little Extra Earnings.

For the past couple years I've been using Swag Bucks as my main search engine on my computer, as a result I have earned over $75.00!

It really is that easy, all you have to do is sign up, and use them as your search engine!  You can also earn points many other ways on their site, like answering a daily poll, surveys, watching short video's, special offers, and even shopping online!

You only earn pennies at a time, but with over $75.00 of earnings so far, I'm ok with it counting pennies!!!!

So here's the link to sign up for a free account!

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/melodiejoy

30-Before-30 #19 Ride A Bike

This spring has been amazingly strange...someday's it feel's (and looks) like summer, and other days we get snow all over the ground.

Thankfully this past Monday, when we were enjoying our day off together, the weather decided to be summer :-) (But Tuesday morning we woke to snow)

So we found all the kids helmets...made sure they all fit properly, and allowed them to ride their bikes for the first time this year!  It was great fun having them all back on bikes ~ and especially now that there are no training wheels for anyone!!!

While we were setting up all 4 of the kids bikes, with pumped tires, and ensuring that all the brakes still worked.  I took spin of 3 of the bikes to make sure everything worked great (no I didn't ride my sons tiny little bike...that would have been impossible :-)  So I rode 3 bikes (yes they were all kid bikes) but none the less I completed another 30-Before-30 :-)

Our youngest daughter "Happy" had outgrown her cute pink bike...so we headed to Canadian Tire and bought her a new 20" bike.  She was so happy to be able to pick out her own, and because Happy is a Tomboy she picked blue boys bike :-)  ~ Oh and we purchased her $299 bike for only $119!!!!  What a pleasant surprise at the store!!!

appreciating our family day together

Melodiejoy

30-Before-30 #27 Have Family Photo's Done Professionally

Today, we did our annual family photo's at Wal-Mart

 

source

This was actually our best photo session yet,
I guess as the kids get older that's to be expected :-)

source

If you have had/have multiple kids I'm sure that you can relate to some photo's being a "tense" time, because for an hour or more, you attempt to get multiple kids to look at the camera, give "normal looking" smiles, and not blink all at the same time.  I know we have had a few very long photo sessions, with kids in tears before ~ and the poor stressed Mom and Dad before us today, had one of those photo sessions :-)  We really ought to be sure to thank photographers lots when we have our pictures done, because I am sure it's stressful for them too have crying kids in and out of their studio all day :-)  

But we had a great photo time!

The kids were so attentive!

The smiled beautifully!

We rarely had to take any retakes!

And the photo's turned out great!

And the best part is, we ended up getting lots of photo's
(2 different poses) and the sitting fee for only $36.00!!!

Happily awaiting the photo's to come in print

Melodiejoy

30-Before-30 #14 Buy a New Espresso Maker, and use it Everyday for a Week

Back in December, a friend purchased me some new coffee syrups for my espresso drinks, and when I turned on my espresso machine the next morning to try one out...my machine died :-(  So sad, this is actually my second espresso maker to kick the bucket since I've been married ~ sigh ~  

So I began the shopping experience of looking for a new one....sadly I purchased not 1 but 2 different espresso makers (from 2 different stores, and 2 different brands) that I needed to return because they didn't work at all!!

Finally however, while we were vacationing in Austin MN, I found an espresso maker at Target!  Because of having to return 2 machines already, I took the machine to my hotel room, and tried it out before travelling back to Canada where I would not be able to return it.   Thankfully it worked great.  So I packed it back up...and a brought it home.

I was happy to be home from vacation, and on the first morning home, I made myself a yummy espresso drink.  Then to keep with my 30-Before-30 goal, I continued on for not 7 but now 9 days, having not 1 but 2 specialty drinks a day :-)

So I will share with you my favourite homemade coffee drink :-)

Hmm, for the sake of this post...I'll call it....

"Melodiejoy's Caramel Mocha"

First you need an Espresso Machine ~ just stating the obvious...because I wanted to show you a picture of my new machine.

Next, compress your grounds into the espresso ground container (or the what-ya-ma-call-it)

Then I start by brewing 4 cups of espresso, into my "brewing" mug... (yes I do love my coffee)

After this I pour 1/4 cup chocolate milk into my "frothing" mug...

and froth it nice and "poofy", till it bubbles over the top of the mug.  (you can also use white milk...but chocolate milk was on sale this week ~ cheaper than white ~ and it tastes sooo good)

Then I pump in some syrup into my "serving" mug  For this drink I use caramel flavoring...but lots of flavors would be great with this, just experiment with what you love!

I then pour the espresso on top the syrup...no stirring needed...but you can if you want too :-)

Next I pour the frothed milk on top...once again no stirring...

You can stop here if you like...because this also makes an amazing drink (it's what I had this morning)
Or you can continue on with whipping cream
This was a "splurge" purchase with my groceries last week :-)

I shoot some whipping cream on top....then drizzle some caramel (ice-cream) syrup on top
-I also sometimes sprinkle cinnamon on top

Finally I serve it with my breakfast...which the morning I took these photos,was a homemade iced cinnamon bun.  mmmm....

Then enjoy your creation ~ just avoid reading calorie content...because it could be discouraging ~ But I don't drink the whipped cream/syrup drinks everyday so I don't feel bad about having them once in awhile.

contently sipping coffee

melodiejoy

Shoes Shoes and more Shoes....

So one of the things about having lots of kids, is you need to purchase lots of shoes.

It's not just enough anymore to purchase 1 pair of runners for kids...you need multiple...you know for indoor and outdoor activities, sports ect.....

Because we don't feel like spending a fortune on shoes I found these runners for $3.33 last week for one of the girls, and I'm sure that they would be fine like this...

but I decided to try something different....recently I've noticed that other bloggers are redecorating shoes like this

or this

I didn't want to start off with too big of a project...So I pulled the shoelaces off and dyed them Purple, (my first attempt with boiled food colouring and vinegar turned them fuchsia....so I boiled more water and added some acrylic paint...this worked wonderfully!)

 They took like forever to dry....so I got out my blow dryer and speed up the process :-)

Then I painted a simple design on the side of the runners using a paintbrush.  Because this is my first shoe painting, I didn't want to attempt anything really detailed :-)

While lacing them up I thought "hmm, they could use another colour"  so I added a couple of cute buttons

And tada Indoor Runners!

 ~Joyfully planning on painting/redecorating another pair of shoes...in more detail ~

~ melodiejoy ~

Master Mix for Bakers

I must share with you a recipe that I stumbled across years ago. It's a recipe that I have baked well over 100 times. (I'm not joking ~ I normally make a batch up for Sunday breakfasts)

This recipe has simplified my life more times that I can count!!

Are you ready????

Introducing:

A-B-C Muffin Master Mix

Click on the link above to go to the  recipe

I know it has about the most boring name ever...but trust me you need to give this a shot.

First you will need a massive bowl (I don't have 1 big enough so I use 2 large baking bowls and divided the ingredients evenly between them)

Then you mix up enough dry ingredients to make 10 dozen muffins.....yep  that's right 10 dozen!!!  

You will then divide them up and store them in your kitchen by mixes that will make 2 dozen at a time - the same size as those packaged muffin mixes you can pay a small fortune for at the store ~ I'm sure I've saved a lot of $ making these over the years!

Here's where it gets exciting...you can just add the basic wet ingredients (eggs, vanilla, water, and oil) and make ABC Muffins (which are a favourite to one of the youth in our church)

~OR~

you can add different ingredients to the dry mix (the recipe includes all these too!!!!) to make any of the following kinds of muffins:

1. Apple Muffins
2. Applesauce Muffins
3. Apricot Muffins
4. Banana Muffins
5. Blueberry Muffins
6. Bran Molasses Muffins
7. Butterscotch Muffins
8. Carrot Muffins
9. Cashew Muffins
10. Cherry Muffins
11. Chocolate Chip Fudge Muffins
12. Coconut Muffins
13. Cranberry Orange Muffins
14. Currant Muffins
15. Date Muffins
16. Eggnog Muffins
17. Fig Muffins
18. Fruit Muffins
19. Garden Fresh Muffins
20. Gingerbread Muffins
21. Granola Muffins
22. Grapenuts Muffins
23. Hazelnut Muffins
24. Incredible Cream Cheese Muffins
25. Jam Muffins
26. Kisses and Hugs Muffins
27. Lemon Muffins
28. Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
29. Mandarin Muffins
30. Maple Muffins
31. Marmalade Muffins
32. Mincemeat Muffins
33. Oatmeal Muffins
34. Orange Muffins
35. Peach Muffins
36. Peanutty Muffins
37. Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
38. Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
39. Pear Muffins
40. Pecan Muffins
41. Pineapple Carrot Raisin Muffins
42. Pineapple Macadamia Muffins
43. Plum Muffins
44. Prune Muffins
45. Pumpkin Muffins
46. Rum Raisin Muffins
47. Sesame Seed Muffins
48. Sour Cream Muffins
49. Squash Muffins
50. Strawberry Muffins
51. Sweet Potato Muffins
52. Tropical Treat Muffins
53. Vanilla Muffins
54. Walnut Muffins
55. Wheat Germ Muffins
56. Yogurt Muffins
57. Zucchini Muffins

~OR~

If you have made these as many times as I have you can just add random muffin ingredients that you find in your kitchen, and mix it all up for tasty muffins!!!!

The recipe also includes 2 different toppings you can put on the top of your muffins or you can just leave the tops plain (which is what I normally do)

These muffins have never failed in our home!  I have not tried all the variant recipes above...but I have tried most of them, and they have all been GREAT!

a 2 dozen batch of any flavour of these go very quickly with the 6 of us (that's only 4 a piece)

A-B-C Muffin Master Mix

~ joyfully sharing a family favourite recipe ~

~ melodiejoy ~

Thanksgiving 2011

Yesterday the prep for Thanksgiving dinner began!!!!

 ~ well by prep I mean I took some stuff out of the freezer to thaw for a few days ~

mmmm ~ this will taste soooo good once it's all cooked

Best part is I got this turkey for free with the purchase of my groceries a few weeks ago!!!

Menu Plan for Monday Thanksgiving Dinner is: Of Course all home-made

• Turkey
• Stuffing (2 different kinds)
• Mashed Potatoes
• Veggies (I'm thinking corn and peas)
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Jam for on the stuffing
• Gravy 
• Pumpkin Pies
• Strawberry-Rhubarb Pies
• Coconut Cream Pie
• Lemon Meringue Pie
• Punch - Coffee & Tea to drink

 ~ Joyfully thanking the Lord for His amazing blessings this year ~ 

~ melodiejoy~

Cooking for 6

Yesterday while at the Grocery Store, a kind gentleman walked up to me, and asked me if I intended on filling both of the super sized shopping carts, that two of my girls and I were pushing J  I smiled and stated that yes indeed I will fill them both.  He was shocked!  We then chatted for awhile about grocery related things... and at one point he commented on how feeding 2 kids must be expensive.  He was shocked again when I stated that those were only half of my kids J  It was then my turn to be shocked when we realized that he and his wife spend the same amount on groceries every 2 weeks that we do! 

Wow, I guess that I never really realized how watching for sales, coupon clipping, and buying “yellow” boxed items made!!!  I mean I knew we were saving money....but feeding 6 for the same as feeding 2 ~ amazing!!!!   Praise the Lord because groceries is still one of our biggest bills each month ~ I should add as well that we have company over for meals at least once a week, so our groceries also covers the cost of feeding another family 2 or 3 times during the 2 week grocery time.

I love saving money!!
~melodiejoy~