Monday, October 26, 2009

Meal Plan

Here it is:

Monday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Tuesday: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes and corn (comfort food)

Wednesday: Ham and Cheese Omlets and hashbrowns

Thursday: Taco-roni

Friday: Pizza!!!

Saturday: Dinner @ Grandma's!

Sunday: Chicken Stir-fry

This week, I will post recipes after I make them, too make sure that I can endorse!! A couple of weeks ago I made one and Blah!!

'til next time
me

Chicken Tortilla Soup was yummy, I will post that tomorrow!

Illness week 2009





Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Interruption

We interrupt this blog do to the FLU!!!

4 of the kids have the flu, we thought Max did also, but now I am thinking not so much. The teenager is good and everybody else is a mess. Luckily I am ok and so is Brian, except for the finger that he squashed and is now a big red puffy sausage. My whole house smells like Lysol. I have gone through 2 bottles of liquid Motrin, and 2 bottles of Infant Tylenol. And am thinking I might need more. Our counter looks like a pharmacy. I am tired and cranky and praying hourly that I don't get it too. It goes away for a day and then it comes back, it's sneaky and I HATE it!!!

Brian and I came home, after our first long weekend away in three years, to find this starting in our house. My bags are still packed and the laundry is out of control. The dishwasher doesn't want to break apart the washer tabs and the house looks like it threw up (but at least it's only the house throwing up!) I called the doctor because the media says I have to and she said STAY HOME!!!!!

If this doesn't end soon I am seriously contemplating becoming that parent that sends their kids to school sick. If I didn't HATE that parent so much I probably would have already. Seriously though, if it doesn't end soon I am going to have to figure out how to have caffeine pumped directly into this house, because that is all that is keeping me going right now! Do they make caffeinated air?

'til next time
me
(pictures of the poor little creatures when I can remember where I put the camera after using it)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tuesday Tip






At our house we make A LOT of lunches! Which means most time A LOT of sandwiches! A life saver has been making up sandwiches before hand and then freezing them. This works out great for many reasons.
1. It helps the lunch meat stay fresh longer.
2. A frozen sandwich is a great "cold pack" subsititute. Helps keep the whole lunch cold.
3. The morning rush isn't so bad when you can just pull a sandwich out of the freezer.

We don't put any mustard, mayo, etc. on them before hand, I just keep the little packets on hand to throw in lunch boxes.

In these pictures we made 14 sandwiches (2 aren't in the pics.), and that did not make the week for us but it was all the lunch meat that I had! We usually do this on Sundays so we are ready to go for the week. Making school lunches definitly does not rank as one of my favorite things to do but with 4 kids in school full days it would cost me almost $60.00 a week for them to buy lunch!! And most of my kids would pick pizza everyday and where is the nutritional value in that! This way I am saving money and hoping they eat the fruit or veggies that I pack.

'til next time
me

Monday, October 12, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

Meal Plan for Oct. 12-Oct. 18

Monday: Pizza Bake with Green Beans

Tuesday: Apple Casserole with Bacon and Fruit

Wednesday: Potato Soup with Rolls (Yum)

Thursday: Hot dogs and Hamburger with French Fries

Friday: Pizza Day!!

Saturday: Chicken and Rice with veggies

Sunday: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes


Bri and I are going to be out of town Thur-Sun. So those meals will be at Grandma's whim. I will make the Meatloaf when I get home on Sunday.


I have been doing a TON of blog searching in an attempt to find out what makes a blog go BIG! In my search I have found so many GREAT blogs with tons of info and recipes. The highlighted recipes are from 3 of those different blogs. If you have a moment take a look around, they all use creative ways to make fabulous tasting frugal meals!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Thoughts

This post could take awhile and end up being sort of painful to read. You see I have all these thoughts floating around in my head and I am not sure how they are going to come out. Also I am not taking the time to keep this hanging around in rough draft form until it’s ready for public viewing.

This past weekend, after Brenna’s soccer game, I stopped at The Children’s Place. I had a $20 gift certificate from Place Points that I wanted to use to get Alainna some pants. This store is in one of our HUGE! Malls about 45 min. from my house, I don’t make it out there very often, but we were passing right by on our way home. So I stopped. It was 4:30 Sunday afternoon.

My first clue should have been how full the parking lot was. But nope I was really excited to be able to use my free $20. Brenna and I walked into the store and it was insane. The store was packed, we are talking day after Thanksgiving packed, there were people EVERYWHERE! Remember this is a children’s clothing store. Within 30 min I had located 2 shirts for Max, 2 outfits for Alainna and an outfit for Emersyn. Which, because I have to say it, I spent at total of $19.51 on.

Brenna and I worked our way over to the line. The line which had, OVER 40 people in it. I started to get that feeling you know the one where you know you are about to think profound thoughts but they haven’t quite worked their way to the front of your brain yet. I was looking around and what I saw was parents with children who were dressed no better than my kids in their pajamas. These parents were taking things off of the racks and shelves in piles, I am not kidding PILES. Shirts, pants, shoes all getting one glance and then carried off on a quest to find more. Little ones are sitting in strollers sipping on sodas, and ices, eating pretzels sticks or cookies, while mothers and grandmothers and sometimes fathers hurry around in a spending frenzy. I watched one young mother walk back and forth about a dozen times looking for just the right shirt to go with a pair of stretchy pants for her infant daughter.

And my heart hurt. This is me. All about the status, who can have more, who can spend more, who can beat out the person standing next time them. Does the average person think about what the spending sprees are doing to their finances? Nope. Does the average person know what it is like outside of this country? Nope. Do they care? Nope. How do I stand in the middle of this store seeing what I have seen, knowing what I know and not FEEL this? Am I guilty of being American and believe I deserve it. Yes!

Everyday it’s a struggle to change. Everyday it’s a war within me to be different. Everyday I look in my daughter’s face and my son’s face and REMEMBER! Most days I work hard to be different, but let’s be honest here, some nights I dream of a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (Venti) @ $4.51 a pop. And some days I cave. I am not talking about giving up all my worldly possessions and making my own clothes. But being smarter, caring more. Does my 6 year old really need a pair of $40 boots? Where is the line? I am embarassed with how many times I said, “My children will only wear name brand clothes.” Instead Though I will still admit that they do wear many name brands, I most often, but not always, buy them for what I would pay at a resale shop. Because it doesn’t really matter, oh my head hurts, I am growing up!

I NEVER set out to feel this way. I NEVER wanted to become this person. I am not strong enough or articulate enough. I LIKED my little bubble. I LIKED my name brand clothing. I LIKED (LIKE) being selfish. Now people laugh at us. And they make comments behind our backs and I know that. Most we know don’t understand us. But in turn I don’t understand them, how can you look at my kids sweet faces and not want to fix the world for them. I could fill this post with pictures and statistics and descriptions of the things that I have seen. But I won’t . If you know you know, and if you don’t I am not going to change your mind with this post.

I am confused how I got here, all I wanted was another baby. Instead my life changed. I am not the person for this. People don’t look up to me, I am not the type to start a foundation, the words don’t come when I need them to and most days I can’t even shower let alone volunteer. If anything, I am as average as they come, not at all the type to change the world. I can’t even stop the people at the Mall.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Blurry

This picture sums up how I feel these days. Happy but a little bit blurry. It's like everything is a little bit out of focus all the time. Some days I feel so overwhelmed with everything thing that MUST happen on a day to day basis that I forget to think about the little things.

Decisions seem so hard, things the kids do that are frustrating take on more importance than they should. My fuse is shorter than it should be. With having a family of this size I tend to forget about ME. Yes, the capital ME. Time that I need to take for myself in order to make me a better more focused parent. Learn to let go of the little things, know that there are challenges everyday big and small, every-day.

Look around stupid! You have 6 healthy happy kids, a great marriage with a husband that you Love (yup capital L), more than anybody deserves. Does it seriously matter that there are piles of clutter on the counter, that dishes sit in the sink longer than they should, that sometimes one of those healthy happy kids misses a shower for a couple of days?

It shouldn't but some days when my life is fuzzy and not in focus these things seem like all that matter. The edges get blurry and I yell far too much, I try too hard for perfection or just give up and announce I QUIT!

And then a look, a word, a touch, a smile and the focus gets clearer. I look around at all I am blessed with and vow to keep this feeling with me. To keep the FOCUS! I need to keep pushing forward and remember "Mama said there'd be days like this". And in all honesty if there wasn't a little bit of blurry in our lives how would we remember to appreciate the clear days.

'til next time









Thursday, October 1, 2009

Great Fall Recipe

With the weather changing and the holidays just around the corner. It is the perfect time to make one of my families favorites! Pumpkin Muffins!! These are definitely a crowd pleaser around here. Super easy to make and they make a very handy snack. Also, you can freeze them if you have extras (we NEVER do)!

Pumpkin Bread/Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 canola oil ( I use whatever we have here mostly olive oil)
1/2 fat free milk
3 egg whites (makes it healthy, right?)
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. If you are going to make bread instead of muffins make sure to grease the pan. Otherwise use your cupcake liners.

Mix pumpkin, sugar, brown sugar, 3 egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened (if you stir too much the muffins/bread will be very dense)

Spoon batter in to your muffin tin, about 1/2 to 3/4 full. Or fill your loaf pan.
Making muffins check them after 22 min. or so.
For Bread 60 min.

Bake and ENJOY!!

til next time

me