Have you ever heard of Free Shipping Day? It’s Friday, December 17th, and there are over a thousand merchants offering free shipping in time for Christmas. Hope of My Heart Designs is one of the merchants.

ALL orders placed Friday will get free shipping, with in-stock designs arriving in time for Christmas on US orders. Customized designs do take longer to process, but there is a LOT of other jewelry in stock already that is ready to ship.

I will definitely be busy this week listing it all. I’ve been adding more as I’ve gotten time, but there is a lot more made up that just hasn’t been listed yet.

Head over to FreeShippingDay.com for more details!

This week is a little more relaxed for us than the past couple weeks have been. I am SO excited about that!

Sunday: crockpot roast, mashed potatoes

Monday: sesame chicken and brown rice (This may change. I’m playing for a choral concert and will probably have a faster supper prepared. We’ll see how the day goes.)

Tuesday: baked rigatoni (similar to lasagna, from the Saving Dinner cookbook)

Wednesday: tacos

Thursday: ham slices, mashed potatoes

Friday: pizza night

Saturday: scalloped potatoes with ham, green beans

The meals without veggies listed we’ll just decide then which veggie to eat from the freezer.

Breakfasts are eggs, scones, oatmeal, biscuits, grits, smoothies, and pancakes.

Lunches are sandwiches, wraps, macaroni and cheese, tuna salad, leftovers, etc.

Snacks are cheese, baby carrots, nuts, fresh fruit, smoothies, etc.

You can read more menu plans over at Orgjunkie.com.

We made a gingerbread house as a school project last week. It was a ton of fun.

First, I bought a boxed kit from Aldi. This is probably a shock to those of you who know me really well. My thinking was that for our first time putting together a gingerbread house, we’d be better off buying a kit instead of me trying to bake and cut and assemble and not crack and. . .

Let me just tell you it was 100% worth the $6.99 I spent on it. I will be buying a kit again next year. It was so nice to be able to just open it up, lay things out for the kids, and build. It got sticky and messy, but it was so much fun. I let the kids eat some of the candy as they decorated too. . .and they were wide open and completely wild for the next hour or so. But it was so worth it.

On to the pictures!

Getting ready to put the roof on. Next time I will wait longer after building it before putting candy on it. Our house started to slide apart because the frosting didn’t harden enough.

Holding the roof in place

The boys started decorating while I finished piping the windows. At one point, the decorating bag I was using popped open, and that thick frosting oozed EVERYWHERE. It made a mess!

The finished house

Those pieces are huge!

This was so much fun, and I’m looking forward to doing it again next year.

Anna did a fantastic job tangling up this garland for me. :O)

This next picture is my favorite though. It captures her personality perfectly.

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted any menu plans. With us going out of town, I didn’t bother to plan for that week. When we got back, we just ate out of the pantry and freezer for a few days.

This week we will start some of our Christmas baking, but I’m not sure what we’ll start with. Sourdough bread is definitely on the list, and probably these White Cookies too.

Here’s our menu:

Sunday: crockpot chicken, macaroni and cheese

Monday: burritos

Tuesday: chicken and barley soup

Wednesday: freezer pizzas (homemade) – recipe here – pizza night

Thursday: smothered chicken

Friday: church Christmas banquet

Saturday: meatloaf, green beans

The meals without veggies listed we’ll just decide then which veggie to eat from the freezer.

Breakfasts are eggs, scones, oatmeal, biscuits, grits, smoothies, and pancakes.

Lunches are sandwiches, wraps, macaroni and cheese, tuna salad, leftovers, etc.

Snacks are cheese, baby carrots, nuts, fresh fruit, smoothies, etc.

You can read more menu plans over at Orgjunkie.com.

Even though this is our third year homeschooling, I haven’t been able to attend any conferences or workshops. That is about to change.

Our state accountability association (required by SC law) is hosting a workshop tomorrow about keeping homeschool records. Now that I type that out, it sounds a bit dry, but I really am excited about going. I have done my best in keeping records, but am definitely looking forward to learning about how other families do and what works well for them. I’m also excited about being able to meet other families here in SC who homeschool. Since we live on the state line, all the families I know personally that homeschool live in NC. That’s not really a problem, but their requirements are different and it will be nice to see what other families with the same requirements do.