Frugal Date - Wine Wednesdsay

My husband and I have a standing date each Wednesday.

We call it "Wine Wednesday".

With 4 kids it's impossible to meet for a date to share conversation and wine. We have a local wine bar we love so we recreate it at home.

At 5:30 sharp the kids head to the living room. We make them a batch of popcorn and put in a favorite movie. They look forward to a mid week treat. My husband and I relax in the study for our date.

Each week we pick out a new wine to try. I take a trip to a specialty grocer and pick out a coordinating cheese to try. I make a fancy cheese and fruit tray to share.

We have a glass, talk and just reconnect. So much of our daily life we pass each other by. This day we both look forward to. I think alone time with your spouse is key to a lasting and fruitful marriage.

For dinner I make a casserole and throw in the oven early and pull out for us to enjoy around 7:00.

Our wine dates at home cost at most $20 (we get the cheap wines). Our favorite wine bar runs $75 for the same experience.

It's truly frugal and fabulous!

(If your not a wine drinker how about lemonade and a fruit tray. The key is quiet time to talk and relax.)

Menu Monday

Can you believe there is only 7 weeks left of school? Where did the time go?? My kids are starting a Disney World countdown. Even though we are moving we decided to keep the Disney trip.

Let's talk food....

Monday: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Tuesday: Make Your Own Sandwich or Hot Dog(Busy night with b-ball practice and dance)

Wednesday: Santa Fe Casserole from Philadelphia Cooking Creme Sample (let you know about this one)

Thursday: Freezer Raid, Chili from my frozen stash. Gotta get rid of the winter foods.

Friday: Lenten Fish Fry

Saturday: Out to eat, late baseball game

Sunday: Family Night Dinner, Chicken Parmigiana and spaghetti

My House Highlights

This is the house we've called home for the last 4 years.

We put it up for sale 2 weeks ago.

(sniff, sniff)

We've decided to move out a bit further and purchase a house with more land and a country feel.

(Note on naked tree: Here in the South we have crape myrtle tree's that we trim in the winter and they bloom beautifully in the spring and summer)

Our master is finally done and we decide to move. That's how we seem to roll. Always moving when the house is looking good.

We had the custom plantation shutter installed over the bed. I like it dark when I sleep. This king size bed is heavenly.

This is Madeline's room. Originally this was our playroom/guest bedroom. As you can see she has lots of toys and tutu's. Just realized I made her bed pretty badly for the photo. At least it's not on the listing.

This is my teenage daughters room. I surprised her 2 years ago with a room redo. She loved it! In the new house she says she's getting a more grown up room. No more flowers. Sweet Caroline's Room. Remember we thought she was going to be a boy so I had to make it a bit more girly.

This room has a 2nd door off the master. Perfect for a nursery. The "dude's" room. He loves his display shelf with model cars and lego creations.

This is where my husband and I spent a lot of time talking. We installed these french doors and closed off a room to make a home office. We sit in the leather chairs and drink wine on Wednesdays.

Each Sunday night we eat in the formal dining room. Many memories in this room. I had plans to put bead board below the chair rail.

Our living room is my favorite part of the house. Our custom built in cabinets are fabulous. Too bad I can't take them with me!

This is the eat in part of our kitchen and my desk area. I spent way too much time blog hopping.

We re-did our kitchen a couple years ago. We debated and put in high def laminate counters. Hindsight I would have put in granite. I love the slate back splash!!

These 2 buildings are my husbands pride and joy. His new Tuff Shed (really we put it in before we thought to move 2 months ago). It's all tricked out.

The big building we finished out inside and installed new french doors. It even has air and heat. It's his man cave. Here's the inside of the bonus building. We finished it out and put paint, carpet, built in cabinets. My husband originally wanted Texas orange walls. Glad we didn't do that!

I think it would be perfect for a homeschool building.

We've got a great backyard with ton's of grass. Love the 8 ft fence we had put in last year.

I won't lie I will be very sad to see this house go. I have mixed feelings about moving. I know with the school situation long term it's what's best.

I will miss our neighbors, friends and the lovely house we made our home.

Well I can't say good-bye yet we don't have any buyers. If your looking in the area and want to check it out email me at jenrudd@sbcglobal.net

Free Popcorn

We love popcorn at our house. It's a daily request. Hey, it's yummy and inexpensive and somewhat healthy... unless you pick up butter lovers.

Head over here to get your free sample of Orville's new pop up bowl. I can't wait to try it out.

Smells like cake!

Nothing smells better than baking at home. However, my waist doesn't allow cake each week.

I was blog browsing last week and came across this.

For a while I've been wanting a scentsy warmer, but just never got around to getting one.

Well leave it to Wally World to make a knock off. Here's my faux scentsy warmer. It was $15 and the bricks are $2 each. It makes my house smells as if I I made this..... (cake for my dear friends baby shower) and this..... (cake for my oldest daughters birthday)

YUM!!! If you know me in real life I'm a bakery girl.

Why doesn't the cake smell stop my cake cravings????

Spray Painting Knobs Update

This post has been one of my most popular. I get emails each week asking how they held up. Well let me show you.... Not so well.... because I eliminated one little step. Spraying the backside of the handle. It led way to chips and scratches.

Since our house is on the market it was time to refresh.

I pulled out my trust ORB spray paint. It's been a while I missed you.

Much better! Nice and fresh.


Remember it's 1990's glory gold?
I also refreshed the kitchen and bath door pulls. After daily wear and tear a quick refresher coat was necessary.

Big News

I've been MIA a bit. We've got a ton going on. The big news is....

We're moving! That is if we can sell our house.

This might be a surprise to some people but we've been talking about it for a while, really more like daydreaming.

We love our current home but it's not the one we picture growing old in. It does make me sad after we finally got the built-in's installed.

When we bought the house 4 years ago we figured we'd stay about 5 years. Well time crept up really fast.

So where are we going?

Big changes! We're moving to a smaller town and planning to buy some land (acres). This is the home we plan to grow old and have the grand kids visit(a long time from now). I guess you could say our dream home. This time it's not so much about the house it's the property. You can always change the house. You can't change the land it's on. So land is #1.

So my blog will change at bit in the near future.

I plan to take you along on the journey and the process of moving.

Spring Time Favorite

Nothing says spring in the south more than sweet tea.

Particularly I LOVE crystal light peach tea.

If you haven't tried some check it out.

My feed burner account is flipping out and has sent some old posts out. I have no idea what's up. I apologize for any junk mail.

Today the high is 74. I'm looking forward to a nice spring break with the kids next week. Looks like we have beautiful sunny weather. We're sticking around town to just relax.

What are you doing for spring break?

Free FryDay

Chick-fil-A, oh how wonderful your freebies are.

Stop by your local Chick-fil-A and mention your here to try the new Heinz dip and squeeze ketchup. Then you will receive..... Fried potato bliss and liquid gold (ketchup).

Winner

Congrats to comment #18 Rebecca O you are the winner of the $15 CSN gift card!

Please email me for the info

Thank you to my wonderful readers who entered.