Good Bye January and Hello February

Good Morning, more snow on tap for us today!! Hip, hip hooray!!!!

 January has gone by so fast and yet about a week ago I thought it was crawling by.

As some of you know I gave my family a challenge for the month of January. Don't you just love a challenge?

Our family's challenge was to not eat out or order take out for the month of January!!!

I know you are wondering how we did. We achieved that challenge!!!  It was harder for some of us. In the beginning, I think Tommy thought I was joking, but he quickly learned I was serious. It meant that I needed to make sure I had Tommy's lunch packed and ready for him to go. If we are going to be honest, he did travel and had to eat out but that wasn't from our pocket so it doesn't count right?

Ballerina hated the fact that we could not eat out. She declared a dozen times that she does not like the month January. She got use to it!!!! Speed Racer had no complaints. It was my challenge so I was going to make sure I achieved my challenge.

I thought I was going to have a hard time with not ordering in. There are those days when it's a challenge here and the last thing I want to do is cook. I kept the menu simple for this month. That helped a lot!!!

When the kids and I had our outings I would pack several snacks and our lunch. The good thing about doing this challenge in January is the cold weather so I could pack yogurt. We did also have the option of peanut butter and jelly.

I decided that I like this monthly challenge a lot and  every month I will assign our family a new challenge. (Makes life fun!!)

This month's challenge is....

Ready?

Are you sitting down?

Here we go..

We'll be back after this commerical break.

Hahahaha, don't you hate when they do that on TV? Me too!!

Anyway, our challenge is from scratch.

All of our baked goods will be made from scratch. That means I will be making all of our cookies, desserts, waffles, breads, rolls, pancakes, etc. I draw the line at making my own pasta. This challenge will also allow me to involve the kids. They love to help me bake.

This challenge will be begin when I run out of the product for instance I still have half a loaf of bread, pita pockets, and 6 waffles left. When they are done I begin baking.

To prepare for this challenge I went to BJ's and bought myself a 10 pound bag of flour.

I am so ready for this challenge. Oh wait I just remembered that means ANOTHER month with no bagels!! Oh, and how I love me some Mountain Lake Bagels. And after February 18th my bagel dealer I mean supplier will no longer be in the Parsippany area!! Oh what's a Jewish girl to do?

February is going to be a fun month with all my baking!! That means I will have lots of recipes to share!!!

February is also bringing our family several exciting endeavors and experiences.

I will share the endeavor as soon as I get the green light, but because of this new endeavor we are going to get a chance to have a great family experience.

I am so excited and yet so nervous!!!

Last night I booked Tommy, the kids, and I a flight down to Florida.

You may or may not know this about me, but I don't like to fly. Flying with the kids is going to be crazy but I am excited.

We are not telling the kids ANYTHING about this trip. The whole thing is a surprise to them.

When we wake up on the day of the trip we will tell them we are going to my parents house because Pops wants to take us some place. Then when we get to the airport we will tell them we are flying on a plane. I know Speed Racer will be so excited and probably tell everyone that we are flying on Daddy's plane.

We plan on spending time in Orlando and visiting Tommy's grandfather.

I haven't been to Florida since I was pregnant with the kids. I had such bad morning sickness when we were down there, that every time I think about it, it makes my stomach turn!! Yuck!!!

Now, I just need to figure how to keep my excitement/nervousness contained, so the kids don't start questioning me. I also need to figure out how to pack without them finding out! Another challenge!

I hope to have another post for you today with a cookie recipe and a Valentine's Day Project we did on Sunday!!

Have a great day!!!