Thank you 2019!

Good evening friends.

In just a couple of days we will be rolling in the year 2020. Folks are making their resolutions and predictions and ready to usher in the new year. While I am right there with them in my preparing for the new year and all the wonderful goals I plan to set, I must first stop and say THANK YOU to 2019.

This year has been full of firsts, rewards and blessings. My oldest started high school. My youngest finished his last year at city league sports.  I celebrated my 6th year with my employer and was blessed with another raise. 

2019 was also the year we celebrated my moms first birthday without her. The 1 year anniversary of her death came in September. I feel like I have never experienced a greater pain in my life then that of losing my mom. I pray that each passing year will offer my family and I more peace in knowing that she is with Jesus and that we will meet again with her one day.

Perhaps the biggest blessing this year was that I became a homeowner! As a single momma raising a teen and pre-teen, home-ownership seemed far away to me. So imagine my surprise when  the owners of this little home I had rented for 9 years offered to sell it to me. I feel completely blessed and overwhelmed with gladness.  I have some big plans for our home and goals to meet in 2020, but I will save that for another post.

Be thankful for what you have in this life. 

Freezer Sandwiches - Who Knew?

I have been on a journey over the last couple months to stick to a budget. Ultimately, I want to be a homeowner. So.. budgeting is helping me with savings.  I have scoured endless websites, YouTube videos and blogs looking at various ideas to help me in my endeavor.

One thing I have ran across, on more than one occasion, is "freezer sandwiches".  I know what you are thinking, I thought the same thing, SOGGY! That was until I tried it.

I was watching Jamerrill over at Large Family Table on Youtube. She makes freezer meals for her large family. One of the things she makes and often instills the help of her children with are freezer sandwiches. Some are lunch meat and cheese (condiments omitted) and some are Peanut Butter and Jelly.

She has mentioned in her video that someone had asked her if ever she had a problem with soggy bread and she said no. She also mentioned that she uses wheat bread.  Well, I thought I would give it a try.

Its just me and my two children so I didn't need to make too many, but I started with 24. I made half ham and cheese and the other half PB&J. We would take them out the night before school/work and put them in the fridge, then in the morning we could just grab and go.  We did not use wheat bread and guess what? NO SOGGY BREAD!  I could not believe it! And, it was great! Not hard or stale, it was actually rather fresh. And there have been days when I forgot to take one out of the freezer and grabbed straight from the freezer in the morning and it was good to go at lunch time.

Freezer sandwiches save me money from buying quick foods when I am in a hurry as well as time in the morning. Currently I am making them 3 weeks at a time.

What are your favorite goto meals that you can freeze that save time & money?