The Sophia Chronicles...

We have forward motion! She's such a quick learner! I'm not sure this is working in my favor.LOL I'll try to get a photo sometime this week. It's been pretty busy.

Sophia is starting to feel better. We're weaning her off the decongestant, antihistamine med. She seems less congested than she's been. Next, we'll be moving the breathing treatments a little further apart to see if she's ready. We've tried a couple of times but it's never worked. Prayers that she stays healthy would be wonderful. We're so close...

Blessings,

Lisa

The Days of Our Genevieve...

Today we had a small family party for our special birthday girl....

Genevieve!
Yep, she'll be FIVE tomorrow!

We got her this cake made from cupcakes...


Her very first real bicycle...


And a pinata...


Notice that the older kids weren't too old to participate in the candy haul...


The cupcakes were yummy...


Isaac felt the day went well...


We had a nice day. All the grandparents came over and we ate lunch, opened gifts, enjoyed cake and ice cream, and finally the pinata. I can't believe how old she is! She's also about to lose her tooth. Sad, but true. My Evie is growing up.

Blessings,

Lisa

My Day in Photos...

We played dress up with the girls, wrangled a little boy, and tested out the Christmas dresses.

Here's Isaac getting in on the action...


You ham, you!


Let's get serious, now.


Aww, matching outfits! Too bad they don't make them in Allison's size...snort.


A Christmas Angel...


Isaac's aim is spot on...


A contemplative look...


Today was a hugely busy day. I did the whole back and forth routine to the Y all morning. Made a couple of runs to different Pharmacies, researched curricula for Evie, cleaned a lot, played blocks and cars with Isaac until he destroyed my city too many times, and much, much, more.LOL The older kids went skating tonight after dinner with my Dad and Eric and I took a walk with the little ones and talked with some neighbor friends. Everyone's in bed now and I'll be heading there soon.

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

This was supposed to be Sophia's Christmas dress. Unfortunately, she's outgrown it. We couldn't even button it in the back.LOL We're thinking of photoshopping her into our annual Christmas photo.LOL Doesn't she look like a princess? I bought this dress for her before she was born, on clearance at Sears for $4.00. I thought for sure it'd be big enough. In fact, I remember being worried that I bought it too big. LOL

Blessings,

Lisa

The Days of Our Genevieve...

Quote from Evie yesterday, "Look Mom! I have shark teeth!"

When Jon was little we noticed that his teeth wouldn't fall out until the new one grew up behind it. We used to tell him that he must be related to sharks.LOL Well, Evie is now growing a new tooth behind her old one and Jon told her what we told him. Pretty cute and now she's not as horrified about losing a tooth.lol

I can't believe my baby is going to loose a tooth already! Where in the world does time go?!?

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

Ha! I caught you! I knew it was a matter of time before I got a shot of her newest trick...



Look Mom! I'm doing it!




She's going to be crawling in no time. This is soooo not good.LOL

But Bananas are good.lol


Yep. Very good.


Blessings,

Lisa

The Epic of Isaac...

Yesterday, we decided to take advantage of the cooler temps and go to the park. It was a very nice time and the kids all expended quite a bit of energy. I just wish I had remembered the camera.LOL

On our way home, I dropped the littles off at Grandma G's house. Evie and Isaac had a great time and it was nice to have a break. Once they got home we started filling Isaac up with as much food as we could get in him. He's a really picky eater and very hard to feed most days but we were able to get him to eat some.

Right now, Isaac is at his surgery. I'm very thankful that we were able to give him such a good day yesterday and I'm praying that he does well during his surgery.

Blessings,

Lisa

The How Low Can You Go Challenge!

So I went shopping and did much better this week! I didn't need as much since I had stocked up and was able to get out of the store spending only $127.00. I stuck to my list and bought mainly fruit, veggies, milk, and eggs.

I also went to CVS and used my Extra Care Bucks for medicine, paper towels, and toilet paper. They were also having a clearance on their back to school stuff and I picked up a few items. I got 2yr planners for .25 a piece! Pretty cool.

Blessings,

Lisa

My Menu for this week...

Hmmm...I wonder if anyone noticed that I didn't post my menu last week. Last week, we ate dinner on the fly. I just looked in the pantry and fixed "something" each day. I will never do that again.LOL

Dinner

Pot roast w/potatoes, carrots, onions
Chicken nuggets w/homemade mac and cheese, fruit, and salad
Hamburgers w/spicy potato wedges, salad
Minestra soup w/homemade bread
Chicken salad w/croissants
Leftovers

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

A girl and her pink puppy.


She could also be called The Forever Awake Baby.


Ever since we gave her the first dose of steroids yesterday morning, she hasn't slept.

She's cute though...


Of course, my brain is about to blow up...


Or maybe just melt...


I think I like Photobucket. :)

Blessings,

Lisa

Recipe...

Playdough

1 cup water
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup salt
1 tbsp cream of tartar
1 cup flour

Mix first 4 ingredients together and heat just to boiling in a pot. Add food coloring if desired. Stir in flour and mix quickly. Turn out on table and knead as it cools. It will be a wonderful texture and it doesn't stick in carpeting. I got this recipe long ago from a Preschool activity book.

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

Here's another cute photo. I used the bulk upload from Photobucket this time and it was much faster.

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

I'm trying out Photobucket to see if it's better for uploading pictures...

Pretty cool! I think this may work. It was a pain to upload to Photobucket but it was easy to transfer those images to blogger.LOL Thanks Cindy and I'll post my playdough recipe next.

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

Sophia in her play place.LOL

Some not that great news... Sophia had her recheck at the doctors on Friday and her dr was not happy with her progress. She finally prescribed a steroid and wants to see her again on Monday. Too bad the dr couldn't listen to me two weeks ago, huh. We started the yucky medicine this morning and she took it o.k. I know how awful the stuff tastes from when Jon used to take it but I'm so thankful that she's on it. We should see some real improvement by Monday. If not, she'll be going to a pediatric pulminologist because I'm not going to mess around with this any longer.





In other news...I'm beginning to really not like Blogger. I've been messing around with a Xanga account and I may be switching over in the next few weeks. You know, in my SPARE time.LOL Photos upload a million times faster and I really like a lot of the features. I haven't got it all figured out yet but I'm working on it. I'm just so tired of having to upload one photo at a time and getting errors over half the time. I just don't have that kind of time to mess with it. I need a blog to go up quickly or I lose my blogging window.(sigh)


Blessings,


Lisa

Here's my new Xanga site if you want to check it out...

http://www.xanga.com/Glasfam

My Daily Ramblings...

I made some new playdough after running the kids back and forth to PE this morning and the littles are having a blast! I even colored it blue. lol I'm glad I took the time to make it.

Allison made some Mac and Cheese from the freezer and says it's hot.LOL

Jon's ill so no photos of him. Poor guy, he picks up everything.

Sophia's feeling better! She's back to treatments 3x a day and hopefully we'll even be able to go to 2x if she doesn't catch Jon's cold! What a blessing that would be! She's also trying really hard to get around. I'm thinking she'll be crawling soon and I've already begun training the littles to keep the great room picked up. No more food, small toys, coins, paper, and bits of things allowed in there. She's already getting around by rolling and scooting backwards but soon she'll have forward motion and that'll be trouble!LOL

I guess that's it. Lots of running back and forth this morning and I was able to get some cleaning done in between. Now, I'm resting.lol

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

I tried to get this on film but every time I got the camera out she'd stop.LOL Sophia has learned how to rock back and forth on her hands and knees! She's going to be really getting around soon. No more scooting backwards and rolling sideways to get where she wants, she'll be crawling!

Ack! I'm not ready!!!

Blessings,

Lisa

The Sophia Chronicles...

My little cutie has learned a new trick! She's now able to sit up and play. What fun!

Allison is less sure of Sophia's new trick.LOL

It's been a busy couple of days. Nothing too exciting, just running errands, running the kids here and there, and cleaning. I was able to clean the bedroom carpets yesterday and they look so much better. I just don't know how I was able to have carpet in the days before my carpet shampoo-er. Maybe this bunch of kids are messier? I don't know.LOL

Well, I must wake the sick, sleeping baby to pick up the kids from the Y. I tell you, the youngest never gets a decent nap.LOL

Blessings,

Lisa

The How Low Can You Go Challenge!

I downloaded a course on saving money at the grocery store from Crystal Paine about a week or two ago. I've been slowly working my way through the course and it's pretty good. I have to admit that I've already been doing many of the tips that she shares in the course but if you are new to saving money, this course would definitely help you. You can look it up at SupermarketSavings101 . The biggest thing that she talks about, that I've never been good at, is coupons and going to different stores. I've been trying to incorporate this into my shopping, but I have to say that I keep overspending. Another thing that is different than what I've always done is stocking up on things when they are on sale. I know that should be something that I do but to tell the truth, I've always just stuck to a menu, shopped for that menu, and kept myself from deviating from the menu.lol If I do this, then I know how much I'll spend. When I try to stock a pantry, I seem to overspend.

-

That said, I overspent this week. I REALLY need to get a handle on this!lol

Here's what I did this week....

-

First, we went to Foodlion on Saturday night. We only needed milk, diapers, and Cheerios but I brought my coupons just in case. They had Cheerios on sale 3 for $5.00 and I had a coupon for $1.50 off 3. I also had diaper coupons which I used and got free wipes. They had 3 cans of baby formula on clearance for $3.50 a can and I decided to pick it up in hopes of giving it to someone who can use it because it's never that cheap for name brand formula! Anyway after all was said and done, I spent $82.97 and saved $31.39 in coupons and $15.90 in MVP savings. Yes, I was able to stock up on things that will last us over a month and it was cheaper than if I only bought it as needed but I still needed to do a grocery run for everything else on my list for the week.

-

Next, I went to Publix. They were having sales on Pasta, trash bags, sauce and I bought our fruit from here too. Last week I bought our fruit from Food Lion and we had a massive Fruit Fly invasion. Jon made a better fly trap and was able to reduce our fly population down to only a few per room but still, I can't do that every week. YUCK. All said, I spent $86.33 and saved $33.95.

-

After that, I should have stopped but I wanted to take advantage of the sales at CVS so last night at 9:30pm Eric and I had a date.LOL Now here's the neat thing. Whatever I bought earned me more money in extra care bucks and I only bought things we needed although I bought more than I would normally in hopes that I won't be going back for a while. I'm going to use the ECB's for milk or diapers for the next week or so and that will help our budget.

-

I bought:

Shampoo and got $10 back

Aquafresh toothpaste with two coupons and earned $2.00

Lever with coupon

3 tylenol products with coupons and earned $2.00

Easy up diapers were on sale $8.99 and I had a $3.00 off coupon

Burt Bees shampoo samples were on clearance and I got them for .25 a piece

Sunlight dishsoap on clearance .70

-

Once I was done, I spent $81.65 and saved $76.60 and earned $17.00 for my next purchases and got a coupon for $3 off a $15 purchase.

-

Basically, I went overbudget. I ended up spending $250.95 for the week total. That's what I normally spend for a week but was really hoping to lower my weekly bill instead of keeping it the same. I know that I have a lot of food stocked up now, but I wonder if I'll ever not have something that I'll need to stock up on? Will it ever really lower my bill or will I always need to buy a month's worth of something in order to get the better deal? I'm on the fence. I'm also having a hard time finding places to keep everything.LOL

-

So far this is how things are turning out;

Week 1: $147.00 (just buying sales, generic, and sticking to my menu)

Week 2: $212.51 (buying sales in bulk for a month, couponing)

$49.29 (shopping at CVS and earning ECB's)

Total= $261.80

Week 3: $82.97 (Food Lion)

$86.33 (Publix)

$81.65 (CVS)

Total for week 3: $250.95

-

I'm already seeing that I was saving more by buying just what I needed for the week based on the sale ads. Maybe I won't finish out the month with this trial. I don't think we can afford it right now.

-

For me, going to just one store, making a grocery list and menu based off the sale ads, buying generic when I can, and sticking to my list saves me the most money. Yes, I've gotten things much cheaper the past two weeks and they will last me for over a month but I've not saved money for THIS month and that's what I've needed to do. I've lost sight of that and will go back to my goal this next week.

-

Blessings,

Lisa

The Epic of Isaac...

I love this feature on Photoshop! I've learned a lot just watching Allison these past two days. Now who's home schooling?LOL

Blessings,

Lisa

A Portrait of Allison...

Here is Allison's graphic for the Duckabush Blog. I really hope that Kathy likes it. Allison really learned a lot by doing this.

Blessings,

Lisa

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

I found this on Kristine's blog and thought I'd give it a try. I'm not sure this is me.LOL If you haven't tried this yet, give it a try.

Blessings,

Lisa

My Daily Ramblings...

It's been another busy day. I've run back and forth to the Y all day long and I'm tired.LOL Allison is the only one well enough for activities and it's been hard juggling all the sick people without her. She volunteers at the Y during Evie's PE and then has her own class an hour later. She's really enjoying her time there.








Genevieve is sick today. She was up all night last night coughing and throwing up. My poor dh took care of her by himself last night, then got up early and went to work. I'm sure he'll be extra tired tonight and I'll see to it that he goes to bed early.

Here are some photos of the little ones...

Sophia being serious...

Isaac being cute...

Sophia being silly...

Blessings,

Lisa

Jon's Graphic...

Here is a graphic that Jon's been working on....

I think it's cute but I may have him work on it some more. I think I would consider this a rough draft.LOL

Blessings,

Lisa

The How Low Can You Go Challenge!

So this week I decided to do my shopping at Food Lion. They were having a promotion where if you spent $50 you got a $5 coupon to use next week. I also had some coupons from FL that I needed to use up and I also found that you can download coupons off their website. So armed with my coupons and my grocery list, off I went. I decided to try going on Sunday night as opposed to Monday morning because then I could leave everyone at home and it would give me less to do during the school day. It ended up being the best time to go to this particular store! Everything was marked down. Huge Manager's Specials were everywhere! When all was said and done, I ended up spending $212.51 but I won't need to buy any meat for the rest of the month, including lunch meat. They had chicken reduced for quick sale, pork roasts 1/2 off, turkey lunch meat for 1.53 a package, and tuna 5 for $5.00. I was also able to purchase 3 blocks of cheddar for $4.00 since I had a coupon and it was on sale. Fruit was on clearance and I was able to buy quite a few for .29 a lb. Anyway, I think I did pretty good. My next grocery bill should be very low. I'm making banana bread for breakfast tomorrow and I froze the other ripe bananas for smoothies.

I'm trying to reduce my bill by half and maybe the next two weeks will be low enough for me to meet my goal for this month. So far, I've already been lower for each week. What's so neat is that I've been making this a challenge instead of a burden and it's really made a difference in my attitude. I've been researching and trying to use my money the best I can and I can see a difference. I think this will be something that I can only get better at the longer I do it.

Blessings,

Lisa

My Menu for this week...

Breakfast

Pancakes
French Toast Sticks
Banana Bread w/cream cheese
Baked Oatmeal
Granola and yogurt w/smoothies



Lunch

Tuna and cheddar melts with apple slices
PBJ or Grilled cheese w/fruit
Ramen w/veggies and dip
Oven baked mac and cheese w/homemade biscuits
Leftovers



Dinner

Taco stuff
Chicken salad, cresant rolls
Hamburgers, fries, salad
Saute chicken, oven baked brown rice, steamed veggies
Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread sticks, salad
Pork Roast and roasted veggies


I'm excited since this week I'm in charge of Breakfast and get the week off on making Dinner.LOL I haven't been shopping yet but I'll post how I did once I get back.

Blessings,

Lisa

The How Low Can You Go Challenge!

O.k. so this was my first foray into the CVS Extra Care Bucks program. I looked online to see if there was anything at the store that I needed that was on sale or that I could earn money by buying. Right now, this is what I came up with...

I bought...

2 Colgate Toothpastes that cost 2.99 each but earned me 2.99 in extra care bucks. I think this was the very best deal and I may go back and buy more. Basically, they are paying me to buy the toothpaste.

CVS brand Batteries were buy one, get one free. I bought quite a few since Sophia's swing runs on batteries and so does a few of the kids toys.

2 Crest kids toothbrushes earned me $2 in extra care bucks. I spent 2.69 a piece which means I ended up getting two for 3.38. Not that great a deal but with as much illness in this house, I felt I needed to replace their brushes.

2 Mennen 24/7 deodorants, they were 3.99 a piece but earned me $6.00 total in extra care bucks, so basically I got them for .99 a piece.

2 Nexuss Hair products. We use this normally and they had a deal where if you bought $15 worth you got $5 in ECB, so I bought it.

I also had a spend $15 and get $3.00 off coupon which I used.

So I spent 49.29-$3.00 on these items and earned 18.98 in ECB and got two 2.50 coupons for CVS brand items in the future. I also signed up for their emails and got a free spend $20 and get $4 off my next purchase. I think I did o.k. but can see room for improvement next week. I did spend more than I wanted, but these were things that were on my grocery list and I probably would have spent more at the grocery store and I wouldn't have earned money on my purchases.

Now to work on my grocery list.LOL

Blessings,

Lisa

The Back To School Clean Up Challenge

Congratulations to Dorothy for winning The Back To School Clean Up Challenge! Thank you so much for participating. You did a great job! You're gift certificate has been emailed to you and I hope that you enjoy it.

Blessings,

Lisa

Recipe...

This is for Kathy.LOL

I've found that the best secret to Pot Roast is to start early. I started my roast at noon for it to be served at 5:30. It was so tender, I cut it with a fork.

As for meat, anything labeled pot roast is going to be a tough cut unless you cook it to death.LOL If you're short on time, buy an Oven Roast. Anything labeled for the oven will be more tender even with less cooking. I usually buy whatever doesn't have that weird gummy line of fat running through it (lol) and I buy about 4 pounds.

First, put a little oil in your pot. Get it really hot. Sprinkle your beef with salt, I use Kosher for a better crust. Brown your meat in the hot oil, turning to make sure it gets a nice browning on each side. Don't miss any parts and don't worry if it's a little too brown, it'll be good.

Now add your water. I use about 4 cups at first. Turn your heat down after the water comes to a boil and cover it with a good lid.

Prep your veggies. I use a whole bag of potatoes, almost a whole bag of carrots, one large onion, and a clove of garlic. Chop and peel everything and put it in a bowl full of water. Now add the veggies and the water to the pot. Your pot should be pretty full. Recover, turn the heat up a little until the water comes to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer. Do not touch until 30 minutes before dinner!

30 minutes before serving, taste and season your broth. I usually add about 1 tsp of salt and a good sprinkling of pepper and call it good. I really believe less is more when dealing with roast.

Serve with biscuits and enjoy! It'll be so tender and have great flavor. I usually serve it with the broth over it and some sourcream on the side for dipping. YUM!


*Now, if you want to do this in the crockpot, just brown the meat and then add everything to the crock. Cook 6-8 hours.

Blessings,

Lisa

The Days of Our Genevieve...

Fearfully Impressive, isn't she?

LOL! The kids found my old sparring gear and were giving it a try. Now Isaac is running around trying to hit people. I'm not sure that this was a good idea.LOL

Lisa

My Daily Ramblings...

Can you smell it? That'd be dinner on the stove cooking our favorite meal, Pot Roast. Yum! This is the only meal that I can expect EVERYONE to eat. I sure wish that I could find more meals that everyone would eat. I don't make anything else when someone decides that dinner isn't up to their standards, but it's hard to send little ones to bed without a full meal in their tummies. How much is a typical 2yo supposed to eat anyhow? I think that this age always stresses me out. They aren't that hungry, they are horribly picky, and they want to be in charge.LOL

Today is my crazy-busy day of the week and it's going way better than last week. Getting up at 6:00 this morning definitely helped, but I'm starting to drag and it's only 4:00. The kids were up and running early, so we were able to get a hot breakfast and I even got a shower BEFORE PE.LOL

We got two 12 inch cucumbers from the garden today! Here are some photos.

Would you have thought these were ripe?

I almost forgot to take pictures and had already started cutting them up for tonight's dinner. Whew, I'm glad that I remembered. Jon will be happy to see them on the blog. We have quite a few on the vines so I'm guessing we'll be eating them often until the season is over. I somehow bought a variety that doesn't turn dark green and had been waiting for that to magically happen.LOL Well, good thing I decided to cut one off to see if it was ripe. They were almost a little over ripe. I'm going to try Kristine's recipe and I'm going to try pickling a few. I can't have high fructose corn syrup and I really miss sweet pickles. If you look, every single sweet pickle has this in it on the grocery shelves. Bummer.LOL Well, it looks like we'll be drowning in pickles soon enough.


Here are some photos from yesterday...

Evie under the baby...

Evie and Sophia having a conversation...

Genevieve had a great time at PE again today. She's really growing up. Evie helps me get Isaac out of the truck each time we go somewhere and she really looks out for him. She's always making sure that he doesn't forget his blanket or cars or whatever he had to have for the trip.

Jon is feeling better today! He was even able to get some school work done. What a blessing! He's usually my sick one and for him to begin to feel better so soon, is a real gift from God. I'm definitely counting my blessings now a days.

Allison is really moving in her math challenge! She says that she wants to be ahead "just in case" and I'm so proud to see her maturing in this area.

I guess that's it for now. I need to check on that dinner and serve the little ones soon.

Blessings,

Lisa