3 in 30 September Update - #3

This is the progress I made on my 3 in 30 goals for September:

1. Organize fabric. Most of the fabric I use for projects are in bins grouped by color. However, there are some pieces of fabric that are in bags that I want to put in the bins. Also, I'd like to go through all the fabric and donate the pieces I don't care for any longer and/or plan to use.

Homeschooling took the majority of my time this past week. Also, on two days there were a variety of servicemen who were here fixing and/or installing things around the home due to water damage; and trimming  trees outdoors. I'm very pleased with all the things that were done with homeschooling and home repair. 

One of the guys who did the tree trimming used this fork lift

to move trimmed branches and limbs from the trees to the fire pit.

By the time they were done trimming trees, the fire pit 

grew to be about 10' wide x 12' tall. 

There's going to be a BIG fire once more rain falls and 

it is safe to have fires again.

I want to organize all the fabric by the end of September. I plan to work on this on tomorrow and Sunday so this project can be crossed off my list.

2. Begin to organize taxes. Last month when I cleaned my office, I came across an expandable file. I had set it up one year to put receipts and other documentation in for each category for taxes (e.g., health care, mortgage payments, homeschooling expenses). I'd like to take what I have saved thus far and put them in the appropriate categories to make tax-time easier in 2013.

I completed this task last week.

3. Plan meals for the month. Sophia will be making food as part of her Eastern Hemisphere curriculum; Olivia will be making food as part of Five in a Row; and both the girls will be making food as part of the Cantering the Country curriculum (U.S. geography).  So, each week there are more lunches and dinners being prepared through homeschooling than there are from what I have on hand. 

I need to schedule these homeschooling meals and balance them out with food that I make so that the girls aren't cooking for each of the meals. This also will use items that we have on hand so we aren't wasting food.

On Sunday of the third week of September, I created a meal plan for the third and fourth weeks of the month. The recipes were from cookbooks that tie into three curricula we're using: Five in a Row, Cantering the Country, and Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere. I also used Eat Your Way through the U.S.A., and two Chinese cookbooks.

Egg rolls that Sophia made this past week.

This was part of her Eastern Hemisphere study.

Unfortunately, after doing the meal plan I balanced the checkbook and then looked at anticipated costs during the upcoming week (I had several home repair jobs scheduled to address water damage issues).

Needless to say, I had to re-do the meal plan and look at the food that I had on hand. If I could substitute or skip an ingredient or two in a recipe, then it remained on the meal plan. If it needed key ingredients that I didn't have on hand, then it is scheduled during October.

Although this was frustrating, it also has been a way to use up what I have on hand and be creative in the kitchen.

Some of the new recipes we tried this past week included stuffed pizza rolls:

Stuffed Pizza Rolls. 

All the pizza toppings are inside the buns.

The topping is garlic powder and Parmesan cheese.

To eat, we dipped the pizza rolls into warm pizza sauce.

and paella:

Olivia made paella to tie into the book Ferdinand

(a book that is part of the Five in a Row curriculum). 

This is a child-friendly version of paella 

with chicken, shrimp, and pepperoni. 

Traditional versions have more varieties of seafood that 

typically aren't available (or fresh) in Minnesota.