2010 Meal Plan #4

It's one of those weeks where we are beyond broke. Life has a way of doing that. Both Jacob and Julianna had holes in their shoes on Friday, so they both needed new shoes. The aquarium heater broke. Not very realistic not to have one of those in January. The laptop, though fixed, took another chunk out of ye old budget.

Thankfully, I've been meaning to use up more of what we have. Life will force my hand and make me do it. With stocking up, buying pet items and Aveeno items for the rebate, I'm already at my grocery limit for the pay period. I'll be doing my best not to grocery shop at all until next Friday. With that in mind, here's what we'll be eating this week.

Sunday lunch: Chicken tacos, sweet corn cakes
Sunday dinner: Waffles, ham
Monday (dance): Grandma's chicken and rice casserole, green beans, wheat rolls
Tuesday (late dentist appt., piano): pasta w/sauce, salad, bread from the bread machine
Wednesday (dance, scouts): leftover beef barley soup, bread
Thursday: Tuna noodle casserole, bread from machine
Friday: Spaghetti dinner at school

Hmm, interesting that every meal has bread. A good, cheap filler and not bad on these freezing winter days. I've checked some bread machine books out of the library, maybe I'll give some of those recipes a whirl.

Hope you have a great week.

Check out organizing junkies for more meal plan ideas.

365 Project Week 4

It's been a rough week. When I sat down to do this post, the 365 project was something I was prepared to let go of. I don't feel like I've done a good job. There's been way too many times that it's late, I haven't taken a picture, and I take something lame. I don't like that.

Then, I sat down and worked on one last 365 update and I realized how much I like looking back through my week. It reminded me of some of the fun things that happened and I knew I'm not ready to let go of it just yet. So, I'll keep going. I'll try to do better and we'll see where it goes.

January 21, 2010
I've always had a thing for calico cats. I've no idea why beyond the fact that I think they're beautiful. Right now we have a beautiful calico. We got her from a local pet shelter several years ago, with a littermate who unfortunately, soon disappeared. Butterscotch appears to be here to stay, thank goodness. She's an awesome cat. She keeps us in our proper place, rules the house, but also is very affectionate and will come running when we call for her anytime.

January 22, 2010
Rebekah played a jazz concert with the high school jazz band at a local coffee house/music hall.
It was a lot of fun.
Yet another of the many things I will miss next year.

Easily my favorite picture of the week.
You don't get to see her mischievous side often, but it's definitely there. : )

January 23, 2010
True to my new year's resolutions, I've been knitting again. I spent most of last Saturday being tutored. I love this knitting shop, it's straight out of a Debbie Macomber novel, I wish it were closer to my house, but it's probably good that it's not.

January 23, 2010
I had to throw this picture in for Saturday too. These are the moments I treasure in my mind about our family.

January 24, 2010
I teach Sunday School.
Third graders.
Completely out of my comfort zone. Seriously.
Fortunately, this Sunday's lesson went well.
One week at a time.

January 25, 2010
The upside of a broken laptop, welcome back books.

January 26, 2010
I'm getting really, really tired of my couch looking like this.
Really tired.

January 27, 2010
It's back!

January 28, 2010
Can you see how tired this girl is? Me too. : )

That's it, a snapshot of our week.
Check out Chris' blog for more Project 365 participants.

Have a good week.

Hosted by Chris

Off Air

So, last week Jacob came home very excited about a new website kids at school were enjoying. We checked it out, he loved it, he played...

Our laptop is now out of commission. Very sick. I was hoping for a slight cold, but it's looking more like a bad virus...as in won't log on at all virus. *sigh* We'll be off to the doctor later this morning, and I'm really hoping 1. there's a cure and 2. we can afford it.

Hopefully, it's only temporary that we get to find out the answer to that horrible question, "what would we do without our laptop?"

We do have a desktop as well, but it's in our basement Family room and I don't tend to be able to get on it much. Therefore, I'll still be checking in once in a while, but I guess I'm finally going to earnestly work on that New Year's Resolution. Divine intervention?

PS Can I just say that I'm really, really not happy with our anti-virus, anti-spyware software?

à bientôt

2010 Meal Plan #4

Things got re-arranged a bit last week, using up leftovers. I know that's a good thing, and I'm trying very hard to convince myself it's yummy to eat leftovers. It's a hard sell. *sigh*

To save money on my groceries this week, I'm trying to take advantage of what I have frozen and in-pantry. I've been utilizing leftovers. I'm still trying to find the balance between curtailing grocery spending and stocking up on good-buys at the grocery store. Balance. It's a recurring theme, isn't it?

Back to Basics Update: Grocery Spending so far, I spent $203.00 at Walmart. I still have a list for Whole Foods for groceries this week. I stocked up on Aveeno products so I could take advantage of a $10 rebate. I'm happy to say I've gotten quite aggressive with Julianna's skin and it's doing much better. I can tell if I let up though we'll be right back where we were. Everyday she has at least two flares that need treated with hydrocortisone cream. I'll be so happy when I can get her in to her dermatologist.

I also got dog and cat food as well as kitty litter. I had to buy a snack for Sunday School, my class regularly has 20 kids, so that adds up as well. Finally, I bought 20 bars of soap for Mark's cub scouts to practice on as they work to earn their whittling chip. I think I'll always wish I had spent less, but in light of the almost $85.00 in "extras" on the list this week I think so far, so good.

I also tried something new for me this week. I bought 20 coupons for $2 off All laundry detergent on Ebay for $3. Big Lots has All on sale this week for $2.50 a bottle, plus a coupon out for 20% off your total purchase. Obviously this could work out to be an awesome deal, but I have a feeling it's not going to be that easy. I'll let you know...

Updated: The All deal didn't work out as well as I had hoped. I learned some things for next time however. Big Lots deals sell out FAST, but Target and Walmart will sometimes price match. I wish I had known that. As it is, I got 15 bottles of All for $2 each after coupon which is not a bad deal. The Electrasol deak worked out awesomely. Kroger has boxes on sale this week for $3 a box when you buy 10. I bought 20 $2.50 coupons from eBay for $3 and paid $13.40 for 20 boxes of Electrasol. Fantastic deal. I'll be keeping my ear out for more deals like this.

One lesson I learned to watch out for: Walmart will price match other grocers in our area. Giant Eagle had Barilla pasta 10/$10. I love Barilla pasta. I think it's far superior to other products. I took my GE ad planning on having them price match the pasta as well as GE's sale on Paul Newman's pasta sauce 4/$10. Well, to my surprise, the Paul Newman's sauce is regularly $1.81 at Walmart. Whole Foods had Herdez salsa on sale 2/$5. I was going to have them price match that as well, but again, Walmart's regular price beat the sale hands down. It's amazing to me how low Walmart's prices can be. I don't particularly like shopping there, but at this point in our lives I can't ignore the financial reality that it saves a lot of money.

Sunday lunch: Chicken Gyros w/tzatziki, oven fries
Sunday dinner: Meatball Subs, salad
Monday (dance): Salmon w/mustard crust, roasted vegetables long grain and wild rice, asparagus if it's a good buy, brown sugar roasted carrots if it's not
Tuesday: Mom's night...Mark's in charge
Wednesday (scouts): Soup Night! Ina Garten's wedding soup
Thursday: Orange Beef w/rice, szechuan green beans

Friday: Sweet & Sour Chicken, white rice, sugar snap peas

Check out Organizing Junkie's for more meal plan ideas, and check out Erin at The Many Days of the DiCarolis Family for grocery budgeting tips.

Pad Thai Recipe Review

This week we tried Family Fun Magazine's Pad Thai. It was one of those night where I was not in the mood to cook. At all. Yet, I really didn't want to spend money or time going out, or to waste groceries; so, I sucked it up and cooked. Yes, there was whining involved. I'm a work in progress.

I've never made Pad Thai before and I confess it was one of those recipes that I was excited about when I bookmarked it, but then the enthusiasm wore off the closer I got to making it. The kitchen was feeling cramped and in fact when I drained the noodles I ended up accidentally sending 1/3 of them down the drain. I took the bean sprouts out of the fridge, sprouts that were dated sell by Jan. 20th (I made this the 18th), by the way, and they were a oozy, rotten, gross mess. You're welcome. Not sure what happened there, if you have any tips on handling bean sprouts for me I'm all ears. Anyway, I was definitely not feeling the mojo is what I'm sayin'. I believe it's the first time I've ever put a meal on the table and before anyone even has a chance to take a bite announced, "you don't have to eat this, but I want everyone to try it". To say I did not have confidence is an understatement.

Well...it was pretty good. I'm not claiming it was authentic Pad Thai, but it was quick, easy, and very well received. I will definitely be making it again. I had doubled the amount of chicken in it and next time I will double that to a full pound. Jacob would also like me to double the egg--he loves the scrambled egg in fried rice and this. The kids loved the chicken and could not get enough. Julianna also liked the "spaghetti". Jacob thought the whole thing was good, Mark and Rebekah gave it their seal of approval as well. There was more sauce than I would have expected, but that's probably due to so many noodles literally going down the drain. It didn't have the heat you would expect from Pad Thai, but since I was serving it to my whole family that was a plus. A bottle of Sirachi on the table solves that problem. If you're a Pad Thai fan, or if you're just looking for something slightly exotic and different to introduce your family to, I encourage you to give it a try. (That's Family Fun's image, by the way, mine was not that pretty.)

Sweet & Sassy...PSF

Julianna, being the girly girl that she is, has been begging for quite a while to get her hair cut. I thought her hair was fine, but she wanted it cut, and I understand wanting that pampering. Part of the reason I've been dragging my heels is that I really don't have someone to cut her hair. The woman who cuts Jacob's believes little girl's hair should be long and straight, which is fine for some people but that's not what compliments Julianna's hair.

About a year ago, a "salon" opened at the mall for little girls, Sweet & Sassy. It's one of those places that offers haircuts, mini-manicures, mini-pedicures, facials, make-up applications, etc. for little girls. I have no problem with the haircuts, but seeing a child-sized salon full of kid-sized equipment was a little creepy. While we were there a party of four year olds came in for their pedicures. It's funny, for a special occasion I could see doing that, maybe, for seven year olds, but it was just weird, for me, to see such little ones participating. Don't even get me started on the whole facial and make-up services. That, to me, is insane for any age child.

Still, I can definitely see the appeal of the place, especially to my girly-girl, so I decided to call them and see what they're like and what their prices are like. I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that their "sassy cut" is half-price Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and that Julianna could get her hair washed, cut and sassy-styled (whatever), for $12.48. At that price, it was easy to be the fun mom and say yes.

We went on Monday when the kids didn't have school. I wish I had taken my camera, I didn't want to seem too odd, so I didn't, but this place was certainly a sight to behold. In truth, she had a lot of fun and felt like a princess through the whole thing. Who doesn't enjoy that? I'll admit I was a little taken aback when I returned from checking on Jacob, who was happily playing his DS the whole time, to see Julianna's hair being flat-ironed, but I figured once in a while it's not going to kill her hair, and she sure did enjoy everything about the experience.

At the end of the haircut there's a lolly pop, glitter cheek stars, glitter hair spray, and cotton candy fragrance for the hair. Oooh la-la indeed. Honestly, it's not 100% my thing, but as long as they run their $12.48 special, I'll be happy to accommodate her desire for pampering whenever she needs a trim.

Sadly, it wasn't my favorite haircut, I didn't think it showed her hair to it's best advantage, like this (much more expensive) haircut did. To be fair I should point out her hair never looked like this again after she slept on it.



As any woman knows however, getting our haircut is as much about the experience as the end result and it was fun to be able to offer that to her. I could see for a birthday surprise, maybe someday giving her a mini-mani and pedicure. She would certainly love it.

By the way, if you're interested, they do birthday parties...they start at $249.00, most are in the $299.00 - $399.00 range, for 9 girls, limo extra. Sadly (surprisingly? oddly?), they book plenty.


Hosted by Cecily

365 Week 3

Rebekah got seasons 1 & 2 of Gilmore Girls for Christmas. We've worked our way through every episode now, seasons 1-8. I'll really miss hanging out with her in the evening next year. I'll miss watching Gilmore Girls. I'll really miss my girl. We sent in her housing contract this week. *sigh*

Good thing I really think she's going to love OU.

January 14, 2010

At the risk of sounding a hundred years old, don't kids use paper and pencil anymore?
January 15, 2010

Two of my favorite people. Sad occasion, but so fun to have them in town unexpectedly.
January 16, 2010

It's not just women/girls. Everyone's hairdressers apparently don't know what "just a smidge off" means. Luckily he still looks very cute, but we did specifically say to barely touch the bangs.
January 17, 2010

How cool is that? Thanks Lego Atlantis for all the moments of joy you bring my boy.
January 18, 2010

Finals Week. Studying, studying.
She's inching closer to ending her high school career. *double sigh*

(Okay, this week I finally learned how to turn off my flash, but now most of my pictures are coming out blurry because the shutter is so slow to compensate for the lack of light. Ideas anyone???)

January 19, 2010

Quinn, one of the little guys I watch. That's one happy baby.
January 20, 2010

Hosted by Chris

Love In My House

This week's You Capture theme was love in your house. I had all kinds of ideas for photos...the special dinner I made for Mark Sunday after he had to work all day, a thankfully once-a-year occurrence. Making pancakes for Julianna even though I really didn't want to. Jacob and Julianna playing on the floor, together, enjoying the same project. Unfortunately, I didn't capture any of those moments. Hey, I've said it before, I'm definitely a work in progress. I'm learning that I need to keep my camera in a handier place and USE IT. :)

What I did capture was Jason and Lily. There's definitely a lot of love there, and it even got to be at my house. Sadly, Lori had a death in her family last week. They had to come in to town for the funeral, and we loved the opportunity to be with them. I was glad we could help them by watching the kids when they needed us as well. It's always wonderful to be with family.

Check out other You Captures at Beth's of I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Random Dozen

1. Question: If you physically lock in one age for yourself, which would you choose and why? Hmmm, 25. I was in the best shape ever as an adult. I would love to be in the shape I was then. Plus, who wouldn't want to be 25 again?

2. What is the best dish that you cook or bake (your piece de resistance?) Hmmm, I'm a pretty decent cook, this one's hard. My hubby loves my stuffed cabbage and Beef Bourgignon. The kids enjoy chicken parmigiana, chicken piccata, lemon pasta, chicken and dumplings, Crockpot shredded chicken sandwiches...I think I must be hungry. Anyway, point it, I make a lot of things, some fairly well, but I'm not sure that I have a true "piece de resistance".

3. When you feel blue, what is one strategy you use to help yourself back to normal? I take a look at how much sleep I've been getting. Typically if I'm really blue, it's because I'm sleep deprived. I try to recognize that and tell myself I'll feel better about things in a day or two. Luckily, I do.

4. When was the last time you danced in public? Oh my goodness...five and a half years ago at Jason and Lori's wedding.

5. Do you consider yourself a realist or dreamer? Is this like optimist/pessimist? No, I guess not exactly. That one's easier for me, optimist, for sure. I have a harder edge than I'd like, but I think I fall down closer to the dreamer side of things. Okay, after sleeping on this one, I realized I'm not really a dreamer, but definitely a realist. At first I saw optimist and realist as being mutually exclusive, but then I realized they're not.

6. As a parent, what is one thing that you have done well? My four children. Seriously. I treasure every single one of them. More specifically, my relationship with each of them. It's wonderful to feel close to my 25 year old. To know he's important to me, but that I'm also important to him. I love being so close to my 17 year old. Teenage years? I'll take them. My two who have been there have been fun to be around, respectful, loving, family-oriented. True blessings.

I feel like I'm so lucky that I've gotten to do this parenting thing the way I have. Once upon a time a doctor told me I'd most likely only have one child. When Rebekah came along we recognized her for the second miracle she was, and never really thought we'd be lucky enough to have more children, let alone two more. I'm so blessed, and so privileged that I get to keep doing the more important thing in the world to me. I wouldn't trade my relationships with my children for anything.

7. Which is your favorite character on the Andy Griffith show? This one's really hard. Just not a fan. Sorry.

8. On a scale of 1-10, how much do you know about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Probably a 2 or 3. Sad. I wasn't raised in a home that shared the dream. A fact that Mark and I work very hard to correct within our own family.

9. Have you never been mellow? Have you never tried … to find a comfort from in side you? (Sorry, Jorge was singing that song just now, and it just seemed to be perfect timing as I was creating this week’s questions.) REAL question: What is your #1 driving pet peeve? I love that song! I love Olivia Newton John.

Driving Pet Peeve? The one thing that's truly driving me bananas lately is school drop off. When I take J&J to school inevitably there are parents who park right in front of the only spot we're supposed to drop kids off that's connected to a sidewalk. You know, so the kids don't have to walk through snow or ice or mud or muck and get dirty or wet or worse, injured, on their way into school? Well, inevitably there are the parents who pull right up to where the sidewalk meets the road and park. If your child needs/wants you to walk them into school, fine, no problem. Pull up, or better yet, use the parking lot, and don't block the only spot to reasonably drop kids off. Makes me crazy.

10. Which color best represents your mood today? Care to elaborate? Yellow. Peaceful, sunny, happy.

11. If your spouse were an animal, which would he/she be? By choice? A Koala bear. Cute, cuddly, sleeps all day and only wakes up to eat and do other grown up things. :)

12. What activity takes up the bulk of your time on an average day? Um, blogging. Duh. Yes, I'm working on it, baby steps. lol

I Screw Up So You Don't Have To...

Okay, so you know I'm doing my best to save money around here. I had a $10.00 rewards card from Gap that I was dying to use up before it expired and I had seen some cute things there I was interested in for Jacob and Julianna. I knew if I spent $100.00 I could get free shipping, so I googled "Gap coupons" and came up with a 20% off code. Score! Now, one more thing, I decided to see if

could save me some money. (If you're interested in checking it out, click on the button, if you join you'll earn us both $5.00. I think. I'm new at this. :)

Anyway, I was very excited to see GapKids listed as one of the merchants on the ShopAtHome site. Double Score! I'd receive a 5% rebate on my purchase.

I went to GapKids, over-ordered (shut up, so NOT the point), and was feeling pretty good at all the money I had "saved".

Then, curiosity hit. You see, I also use Ebates.com to earn rebates on my shopping. In fact, it used to be all I used. Then, when I was taking advantage of the Office Max deal, I discovered ShopAtHome.com and since then, it seems like they always have the better deal.

Well, as I said, curiosity hit and I checked to see if GapKids was affiliated with Ebates also. They are. Only, Ebates offers a 10 % rebate.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Not only did I over-shop, I missed out on getting another 5% cash-back.

Moral of the story? Sign up for both ShopAtHome.com and Ebates.com and check both before you order. You never know which is offering the better deal.

Valentine's...

So, Mark and I have a bit in common with Anderson Cooper. We bought our current mattress and box springs 12 years ago when we bought our house. It's probably getting to be time to think about getting a new one, she whispers lest the mattress-wrecking Gods hear her.

In all honesty, I love our bed. I love our current mattress and box springs, but I am cognizant that it's days are limited.

So...I'm blogging about a contest over at from dates to diapers to win a new Sealy Posturepedic set and I'm very excited about the possibilities.

I'm really looking forward to Valentine's day. I'm planning a date with my hubby to see Valentine's Day the movie as well as dinner out to use up our Anniversary gift card. Winning a new mattress set would truly be icing on the cake.

2010 Meal Plan #3

Things I learned this week: when a recipe says to use a 13x9 pan, don't think you know best and substitute an 8x8. Really. What was I thinking? I thought it was similar to another recipe I have made in the past. I thought there was no way there was enough to fill a 13x9. I was wrong... note to self: clean the oven. Yuck.

I also learned I really, really dislike leftovers. I need to pay more attention to how much I'm making because, while I love having lunch the next day for Mark and the boys I watch, I don't enjoy having any leftovers beyond that. I'm too practical to throw stuff out, but it makes me grumpy to have leftover upon leftover laying around. I have to work on that. One night last week we had a leftover buffet and then I pitched whatever was left after that. There's a limit to how much leftovers I can handle.

I'm still working on using up what we have in the freezer and pantry. I had $85.00 to shop with for this week. Considering I needed Mark's coffee and laundry supplies, I was a little worried. :) Well, I went over...but, I'm still pretty happy. I put off buying coffee, there's enough to wait until next week, and while that's not normally how I like to shop, because I have to go to a different store than I usually shop to buy it, it's not a big deal to put off that trip until payday. I spent $85 at Walmart, $17 of which that I didn't "have to" spend--light bulbs, sympathy cards, cookies for my grandson (a Nana HAS to have cookies, and yes, I could have made some, but it was far easier to buy the on-sale Oreos). I also spent $35.00 at Whole Foods on milk and meat. While that definitely busted my budget, I was able to take it out of our miscellaneous money for the week, so I didn't negatively impact our overall budget or next week's grocery budget. If I weren't watching so closely, and documenting what I spent, I know I probably would have spent much, much more. I learned "good buys" are an area where I need to watch myself and everything at Whole Foods is always a temptation. I did a great job at Whole Foods this week though and only bought one thing not on my list. Knowing I'm going to account for it, helps keep it in the forethought of my mind to not over-indulge.

Update: Sunday, we had company this weekend and I ran out to replenish a few things...spent $20 more dollars, but used a gift card so it still didn't impact overall budget. I know these are still the kinds of trips that wreck my budget. Ironically, didn't end up needing any of the things I bought, so I'll hold them over for next week.

Over budget for two weeks: $55.00.

This week's meal plan:
Saturday lunch--Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salads
Saturday dinner--Pasta w/sauce, caesar salad, garlic bread
Sunday brunch--waffles w/ham,
Sunday dinner--Baby back ribs, corn pudding, cole slaw, raw veggies for kids
Monday--Sweet & Sour Chicken, white rice, sugar snap peas
Tuesday--Ham, candied sweet potatoes, , crescent rolls for piano teacher, Cooking Light Salisbury Steak, buttered noodles, Brown sugared carrots for us. (Bumped from last week for leftovers.)
Wednesday--Soup Night! Ina Garten's wedding soup
Thursday--Family Fun's Pad Thai
Friday--BBQ Brisket Sandwiches, Fritos, raw veggies

Kid's lunches:
Julianna: tuna, soup, tuna
Jacob: ramen noodles, PB

Check out Organizing Junkie's for more meal plan ideas, and check out Erin at The Many Days of the DiCaolis Family for grocery budgeting tips.

The Mouths of Babes...

I've been watching a lot of reality TV lately. Completely not like me, but there you go. It's cheap and easy so to speak...nothing to think about, no investment to make.

So, Rebekah and I were watching Wife Swap today (shut up) when she made this gem of an observation..."You know, if it were husband swap, I don't think it would matter that much, nothing would really change."

I cracked up. So sad, but it does have a ring of truth in it, doesn't it? All right, I admit it, I'm still chuckling.

Oh, and if it's Mark reading this...of course this isn't true of our family honey. Not at all. ;)

365 Project Week 2

January 7, 2010
The girls here for senior lunch. School got canceled while they were here and they didn't have to go back. To say they were very excited is an understatement. :)

January 8, 2010
We cleaned Jacob's room today. Halloween candy anyone?

January 9, 2010
The makings of my favorite lunch. Mmmmm.

January 10, 2010
So good to have Harry back where he belongs.

Jacob just finished a fantastic class project where he wrote a book about the experience of losing Harry. I'm so thankful to have him back. Neither one of us were ready for him to be gone for good.

January 11, 2010
Julianna's ballet/tap class

January 12, 2010
My Lego-maniac

January 13, 2010
I dug my bread-machine out of the mothballs. Stephanie inspired me. I'm glad to have it back. If you have good bread machine recipes, pass them on. :)

Hosted by Chris

Haiti--a way to help

Did you know if you text the word "Haiti" to 90999 you will make a $10.00 contribution (billed on your cell phone bill) to the American Red Cross to help with their disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

It's a small thing to do, but imagine the big impact it will have if lots and lots of people do it. I love things like that.

Winter in Worthington

My winter means dirty ceramic tile.

Cold birdies.

Snowy jungle gym.

My lens wasn't dirty, it was very snowy.

Snowy dog.

A pot of chicken and dumplings bubbling on the stove.

Weather forecast that happened to be true...this time.

Did you know if you wear your jammies inside out and backward you greatly increase your odds of a snow day? Try it, it works.

Cold, but beautiful.

Thanks to Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Hosted by Cecily and Carrie