Month: March 2015

Snow Day Fun

Snow, I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

southeast missouri, dogs playing in snow

Do you know what happens when a town gets hit with over 7″ of snow on top of a thin layer of ice?  It shuts down.  Especially when that town is not prepared for it, at all.  That’s what happen to us this past week.  So come Thursday morning we enjoyed ourselves a little snow day.

Of course we’re adults, so we had to put in a few hours of work early in the morning.  Afterwards we came home and relaxed.

Actually this exact same thing happened a few weeks ago.  J and I were both off for one day then and now I’m off for 2 days this week.  Poor J had to go to work Thursday morning.  I was pretty worried about him being out in town driving around.  But he made it!

all three playing 2015 Bud in the snow 2015

We let the dogs have a little snow day fun in the backyard.  Bud was the happiest of all.  He ran, jumped, dug and rolled around in the fluffy white stuff.  Tiny was reluctant to let loose.  Once I was outside with her, she finally started to have fun.  Of course, Maggie did her own thing for pretty much the whole time.

The most fun was when the stole my gloves to play tug of war with.  That was great.  My favorite part was when Bud buried one of my gloves.  Yep, buried.  Isn’t that great of him?!  It took me close to 10 minutes to find it and dig it up.  Boo!  He had so much fun trying to beat me to finding the glove.  All he did was bury it deeper, too.

Ugh!

Were you hit with any snow these past few weeks?  We were hit more than average for this time of year with record lows.  I can’t wait for summer!

Slow Cooker Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Recipe

pineapple teriyaki chicken recipe

I love a good slow cooker recipe, which is why I’m a fan of pineapple teriyaki chicken.

Ever get in a food rut?  You know when you find yourself cooking the same dishes over and over.  When that happens you find yourself eating out more than you want.  Then your food choices start to slip back to bad habits.  That’s what was happening to J and I.  We were in a food bore.

I needed to shake things up.  I came across a few slow cooker recipes and  that’s when the light bulb turned on.  In the true-to-myself fashion I combined some recipes to make my own.  That’s how the crockpot pineapple teriyaki chicken recipe came to be.  I’m sure I’m not the first person to come up with it, but I’d like to think I’m special.

NOTE: This slow cooker chicken recipe is amazing and super simple.  

pineapple teriyaki chicken recipe

Here’s what you need to make this delicious pineapple teriyaki chicken recipe:

  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 1/2 bag of carrots (I used organic baby carrots)
  • 1 large can of pineapple in 100% pineapple juice, undrained
  • 1 cup teriyaki sauce
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional, but makes it sweeter)
  • 2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 2 tsp. onion powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. pepper

Place the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker.  Add the seasonings.  Pour the pineapple and juice over the chicken.  Be careful to not wash off too much seasoning from the chicken.

Add the carrots to the slow cooker.

In a measuring cup, pour out 1 cup of teriyaki sauce and mix in the brown sugar.  Pour over chicken.  Place lid on and cook on low for 7 hours.

pineapple teriyaki chicken recipe

NOTE: You could always use 1 small red onion and 4 garlic cloves instead of the powder.  But J does not like onion so when I do use it, I tend to cut it in big chunks so it can be removed.  I didn’t have any onion or garlic on hand so I substituted the seasoning.  It tasted fine to us!

Voila!  There you have it.  A simple chicken recipe that packs a load of flavor.

How to set financial goals and reach them!

how to set financial goals

I love, love goals.  They push us to better ourselves.

To reach for the stars and dream big.  The problem with most goals is that people don’t create a plan for them.  You have to have a plan to reach your goal.

I want to be the best ballerina in the world.  

That’s a goal.  In reality, I have never taken one dance lesson.  I’m too old to learn world-ranking skills and I’m way too out of shape to even try.  See, I don’t have an effective plan.

I want to have $5,000 in my savings account within the next 3 years.

That’s another goal.  I will find an extra $140 every month I can put back.  I will continue to set aside money until I reach my goal.  That’s a plan.  I can reach my goal.

There are 4 rules that can help teach you how to set financial goals that you have to follow:

how to set financial goals

Rule One: Make it realistic.  Know your spending habits by creating a budget.

You have set a goal of saving $20,000 in one year for a down payment of your first home.  You only make $30,000 a year.  Your goal is not realistic.  There are exceptions – you live with little rent cost and food costs.  If that’s the case, then perhaps you can put back ⅔ of your annual salary into savings.  I doubt it.  That’s not reality for most people.

A more realistic goal is to put back 10% of your earnings each year.  So if you setup your bank to automatically transfer 10% of your paycheck to your savings account each time it hits.  It’s realistic and very doable.

how to set financial goals

Rule Two: Stay motivated.  You need motivation to reach financial goals.

Create a sheet that hangs on your dresser mirror of what your big goal is.  That way you see it every morning while you’re getting ready.  Your goal stays on the forefront of your mind every day.  It’ll help the next time the girls call because sushi with the girls sounds like a great idea.  But spending $60 on a random Tuesday night will not help you get to your goals.

how to set financial goals

Rule Three: Have a support team around you.  You need people that know about your goals and want to see you succeed.

They can be your voice of reason when you find a super cute dress on sale.  We all know you don’t need the dress, you want it.

how to set financial goals

Rule Four: Set mini goals.  Baby steps are key when reaching for a bigger goal.

They always say don’t tell yourself you want to lose 40 pounds, tell your self 5 pounds.  Then when you hit that goal just say it again.  “I want to lose 5 pounds.”

It’s hard to grasp a big financial goal, like saving $20,000.  You can start to feel overwhelmed.  When you feel overwhelmed then you lose your motivation.  When you lose your motivation you start to slip on your spending.  You’ll lose sight of your budget.  Then you’ll pull from your emergency fund for non-emergency events.

I believe in the cash envelope system.  It can help you stay on track and keep your end goal in sight.  Just make sure to keep saving a priority.  You don’t have to sacrifice a lot to reach your goals, just the unnecessary and unneeded spending has to go.

 

Celebratory Date Night

You would think because we don’t have any kids yet we would have lots of date nights.  But we don’t.  We usually just grab dinner or cook together, which is always fun.  But we never have an actual lets-get-dressed-up night just because.  So, in the spirit of actually trying to still date one another, we like to declare a date night every once in awhile.

Usually there is a reason to celebrate…

I passed the latest exam in my CFP® courses!  I am so excited!  This one was on income taxation and it was a tough one!  I had to drive close to 7 hours (thanks to a highway being closed and having to take a detour) down to Birmingham, Alabama to attend a 2 1/2 day class.  The class was intense.  9 hours a day of learning and studying, and then after class I got to go to my room to study for another 3-5 hours per night.

I got home last Sunday night and was exhausted.  Then I had to wait almost a week to find out if I passed or not.  That was too much pressure for me.

I found last Thursday that I passed.  AHHH!  Que the singing Angels and the choir singing Hallelujah!

Now I get to move on to the next course.  No time for rest!

date night

To celebrate my victory over income tax J took me to sushi.  We had yummy rolls, crab rangoon and a few potato wedges in my honor.  I also secretly took a picture of J.  He wasn’t too happy that I actually took the picture, but he was too late to do anything about it! HA!

The next morning I woke up feeling refreshed, despite the fact the dog was up all night sick.  This is the second time this week she’s been up most of the night sick.  I feel so bad for her.  I called the vet, but they said there isn’t much I can do because she must have ate something that didn’t agree with her.  BUT after 2 nights now (not back-to-back) I think it’s time to take her in to get her checked out.  That’ll be fun!

Anyway… I felt good when I woke up.  So I took some time to curl my hair and put on my favorite Kate Spade earrings.  Boom!

merelynne selfie

 

Don’t mind the Coors Light shirt.  It was a bar freebie back in college and it just so big that it’s actually comfy.  As a side note – I only drink Budweiser.