My Menu for this week...

So yesterday, in order to be more organized for our school week, Allison and I did our weekly shopping. We didn't do too bad. I needed to stock up on some staples like flour, eggs, milk, and such but I still stayed under budget. Next week I'll be stocking up on meat. I haven't needed to buy any since I stocked up last month and we're starting to get to the bottom of my freezer.LOL

Here's my menu...

Dinner

Hamburgers, potato wedges, salad
Split Pea Soup, bread
Crockpot Pork Roast w/potatoes, carrots, and onions
Chicken Stir Fry w/rice
Tuna Noodle Casserole w/steamed veggies

Blessings,

Lisa

My Daily Ramblings...

It's been a pretty busy week. Sophia is really getting around now and that's keeping me running and on my toes.LOL She sure can get herself into a pickle! We play the "Where's Sophie?" game all day long. Here are some photos of the week...

Sophia tasting the train set...


It's good!LOL


My three girls on the couch...


Yes, she likes cars too! Isaac will be soooo happy...


Whew, I'm cute!


We made peanutbutter playdough yesterday. YUM!


Even Allison enjoyed the fun...


This is Evie before I noticed she had a 102.8 fever... She kept telling me all day that her eyes were hot. I kept telling her to quit playing video games.LOL Then she told me that I gave her a headache. That's when I decided to feel her forehead, yep she was hot! She's already feeling better today though...


Here's the kids playing video games in Evie's room...Sophia loves being included in the big kid games...


Today's been pretty slow since it's raining buckets. We were going to go to the park but woke to super gray cloud cover. Bummer! I've been trying to take the kids to the park on Mondays or Fridays each week. We couldn't go Monday because of Isaac's surgery, so our plan was for Friday.(He can't go out in the sun until his spots fade.) I guess we'll just have to wait til Monday.

For our Anniversary Eric is picking up Chinese food for dinner and the kids and I made peanutbutter cookies for dessert. It should be a nice evening.

Blessings,

Happy Anniversary

Today is Eric and my 16 year anniversary! It's been a crazy year but what a blessing to go through this year with my best friend. I can't believe it's been 16 years already. God has truly blessed me.

The Days of Our Genevieve...

Look how proud she is...


She just lost her first tooth!


Blessings,

Lisa

My Menu for this week...

This week I'm trying out some new recipes from The Hillbillyhousewife.com for lunch. We've always been a fend for yourself kind of family for lunches but I've found that it eats up extra time and it's not too cost effective. I'm going to try making easy dinner type dishes and if we like them, they'll stay on the menu.

Lunch

Hamburger Pie
Beef Noodle Helper
Buttery Garlic Rice
Sandwiches

Dinner

Chili w/potato bar and salad
Nacho Dip and chips
BBQ Chicken, rice and salad
Fried Rice w/fruit
Baked Chicken, noodles, and steamed broccoli and cauliflower
Tilapia w/Parm rice and veggies (If I pick up the fish since I forgot it.LOL)


Blessings,

The How Low Can You Go Challenge!

This is my last week of posting on this challenge. I plan on keeping up with this in hopes that I can continue to find ways to lower my bill. Some things, I think were a success and some bombed. Here are some things I've discovered...

1. Watching the sales and using coupons works in some cases. I found CVS to be a blessing and will continue to get things from there each week. I was able to save on cold medicines, toiletries, and some grocery items by watching the sales, using ECB's and also keeping an eye out for things on clearance.

2. Going to more than one grocery store costs me money. I definitely spent more, the more stores I went to. From now on, I'll stick to one store a week although I will still try to make it to Food Lion for their meat sales every so often.

3. I really can spend less. I was under the impression that I was doing the best that I could by making a list and sticking to it. I've now found that by checking the sales, using generics when possible, and coupons when not that I can save us a lot more. I need to be a careful shopper.

4. Making from scratch saves money! I don't buy much from boxes and mixes but there were a few items that I still used that were costing me money. I've purged them from my pantry and am making them from scratch. They taste better, and cost less. Some things on that list are; tortillas, french fries, and mac and cheese. I'm still working on making enough bread each week for my family, the supplies cost about the same as bakery bread, so I usually expend my energy making the extra things like rolls, biscuits, muffins, bread sticks and such. That saves us by not buying them premade but I'd like to have all our bread homemade. It's hard without the right mixer, I use my hands right now and it's not that cheap buying the flour in 5lb bags. I may look into buying this in bulk although I'm always afraid of bugs here in the south.LOL And I'll enlist the troops for more mixing help. I'm just not willing to buy a new mixer when hands can do just as well.

So now on to my last grocery week....

I was rushed today and needed to drop three of the kids off at Grandma G's house before shopping and I forgot my list!!!! How in the world could this happen?! Well, since I had poured over that list so many times yesterday and today, I was able to remember everything but one item. I also didn't buy extra things either. I was pretty happy. Sophia, Allison, and I were able to get the shopping done and we ended up spending $210. Not too bad.

For the month I averaged $173.95 a week on groceries! Considering the month before when I averaged $275 a week, I've done well. That's a savings of $101.05 for this month. Almost enough to pay for Sophia's medicines.LOL

As I said, I'm going to keep this up. It's been great to see how I can save us money and I really think it's worth it.

Blessings,

Lisa

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