Pictures of the Past Week

Eric has a new love, Oreos. Unlike his mama who eats Oreos just by mouth, Eric also ingests by osmosis.

Toothless in Illinois, Cara lost her first tooth on her own. She has lost her two bottom teeth, but they had to be pulled because of permanent teeth already in place. You'd think the tooth fairy would remember to visit. Hubby says we need to fire our tooth fairy. At least she is fair and pays interest.

We have two playing soccer this year, Cara and Joanna. Joanna is into it more than Cara who aims an occassional kick in the direction of the ball. Joanna is more gung-ho sometimes overly but it makes for amusing entertainment.

Is That a Challenge?

I read an on-line article and watched the video for a local article about raising awareness for the area food banks and raising funds. I have no problem with helping out so that isn't the issue. Things happen and change in the blink of an eye. I realize that there might be a time I need help.

What gets me is the article and attitudes expressed which is why I had to comment on the article. The article/video "$25 Challenge" comments how hard and near impossible it would be to live on $25 per person per week. I find it really realistic as I do that every single week for my family. I even blogged about living for under $100 a week for my family in my Cornbread & Cookies blog.

That isn't what I budget normally for food alone, but I wanted to find out if my family could make do on less if required. We can. It takes time and planning which is one problem I perceive with people not being able to make it for $25 a week per person. We are busy people. Forget the busy as a bee cliche. It needs be busy as a human. Society as a whole seems to have a I-want-it-now-I-can't-wait attitude.

What does that have to do with the article? People buy convienence. It may because we over-schedule ourselves. It may be we just don't know how to cook from scratch or plan a menu. Those all can create havoc with the food budget.

The reporter said she tried the challenge. The first two things I noticed that set her up for failure are (1) she went shopping without a plan (no menu, no list), and (2) she went shopping at one of the higher priced grocery chains in the area. There is an Aldi right across the street from that Kroger she used. I find some great loss leader prices at Kroger. Their brand chocolate milk is the best (when on sale). Their brand of milk also freezes well when I stock up on a good buy. So I do shop Kroger just not only Kroger.

Other things I have issues with (I got a lot of issues actually ;P) is the reporter's comment of having to buy store brand or generic. There is nothing wrong with that. There are some items I do buy name brands because of quality or whatnot. Some generics are gross and poor quality. I got that. Not all of them are though.

Another issue is the Food Bank Director saying how unrealistic $25 is. Yet when I watched the video I saw Chex Mix (love the stuff btw). It never struck me that was a staple and neccesity. No wonder the budget is shot. Junk food will eat the budget up fast. Do I have junk food? Yeah, sure I do. Sunday nights are for sundaes in my house so I have ice cream and toppings. I have pretzels in a jar on the counter for snacking along with animal crackers in another. Off-brand Honeycomb are in a third jar. My kids snack on those, and I don't have to answer the I'm-hungry-what-can-I-eat question seven times an hour. I do buy junk and snack foods. I just don't buy a lot for nutritious reasons as well as cost.

How do I cut costs? One is where I live. I live in the midwest in an area that has a lower cost of living than say the east or west coasts. I grow my own produce and herbs. I buy locally for things like produce and fresh meat. While meat might costs a little less at the store, I find the quality makes it far suberb in taste. We drink "clear kool-aid" for dinner. That is our nickname for water. I tell the kids it has no added sugars, colors or preservatives. It was funny until a wiseguy added flavor to list of don't haves. LOL! Almost a funny as the time we did really serve clear Kool-aid. The kids' reactions were hilarious when they took the first swallow.

I also don't generally cook meat and potatoes meals. A grilled steak or pork chop tastes good, and boy you gotta have it sometimes. I find that taking that same steak and making Fajitas or Broccoli-Beef are also yummy meals. I use up leftovers as a different dish. Oren says it is a leftover for a reason. Haha ... Leftover green beans and mashed potatoes become Shepherd's Pie. Leftover roast is shredded to make BBQ Beef Sandwiches. I use leftover scrambled eggs and bits of veggies to make Fried Rice.

I plan. That means I make a menu though some weeks are better than others. I check out the local ads. I can do that on-line even. I find what is on sale and plan my menu around it. Right now I have a freezer full of meat so I haven't had to buy too much meat lately. Then I check my pantry to see what I have and what I need. The shopping list is made and off I go. Another budget saver is using area programs like AngelFood Ministries. For the units I bought (3 of them this month for $90), I will get 14 dinners out of them for my family. I plan how I can best use what is included. With the leftover money in the food budget I supplement with fruits/vegetables and other perishables I might need. I also use SHARE foods which supplies me with 3-5 meats and fresh fruits/vegetables for $16 a unit.

There are classes offered at local churches, home extension offices, libraries to teach these things. You can find inforomation in books, magazines and the internet which are all offered for free at libraries. There is a wealth of information out there that can help living on $25 a week a bit easier and very realistic.

A Day of (un)Rest

I knew I would be watching 4 extra children this morning. I was to get them to church. That was it. As the story of my life goes, that changed as fast as the weather here.

I got a phone call from my hubby at 5:30 a.m. saying that the extra children were on their way (an hour earlier than planned). You see I watched these kids yesterday too. Their mother is expecting twins and was put into the hospital with pre-term labor this week. Their dad is military and had drill this weekend. I volunteered to watch the children. I was the only one with a big enough vehicle to haul everyone in one trip so I figured I qualified.

The reason my hubby called me is because he left for Vegas yesterday afternoon. The children's dad called him to let him know. Unfortunately, Vegas is 2 hours different so Clint got the phone call at 3:30 his time. So the message was relayed, and the children arrived just after 6 a.m. The reason for the phone tag was the hospital had called our friend with the news that his wife's water broke. She is just 30 weeks gestation.

So I had to feed 11 children breakfast. We had French toast, bananas, apple juice. I got them all ready for church or at least the ones that needed help. We were not only on time but ten minutes early too. We took up a whole pew. Charissa was at one end while I was at the other. That was to block any wandering strays.

Back to getting ready ... I went to check on Eric. Complete nastiness awaited me. Eric had a major, major blow-out. It was smeared all over the bed and him. Did I mention how nasty gross it was? So in the tub Eric went. After he was ready and clean, I had to do a load of wash. Then I got ready while Eric ate some dry cereal in his chair. The carseats (5 of them) went into our 12 passenger van. That took some planning arranging seats. I had to take into account of who fights when together and all that fun stuff. I couldn't have any "His leg is on my side!" or "She's looking at me!"

I get through church which I had a lesson to teach too. I got as many kids in the van to go home as I did coming. I think they are the same ones too. I made some pizza for lunch even. Whoever said neccesity is the mother of creativity is right. That sauce I had in the freezer was not tomato sauce as I thought (lesson on labelling things better). It was enchilada sauce. Ya know what? With some Italian Seasoning it makes good pizza sauce. I had just enough cheese and toppings (crumbled leftover breakfast sausage, canadian bacon & pepperoni) for a meat and a cheese pizza. I was even told it was the best pizza.

So now I am about to take my well-deserved nap. To be sure that I get it, I told my oldest that if she made sure I had at least a good hour nap, I would lift her computer grounding. I think I am going to get a good nap.

Creepy Crawly

Eric is on the move. Despite his odd way of getting from Point A to Point B, he is fast. He is also my floors-need-mopping indicator. Or vacuuming as the case may be ....

More Niagra Falls Pictures

Is that your final answer?

No. I would like to change it to ...

Two

and a half

with an assortment of branches

We are really blessed there is no damage. The heavy portion of the tree missed the garage because it snapped higher up on the trunk. Any lower and we would have had damage. I am glad tree number two fell into our yard and not across the road and on the neighbor's trailer. At least the third tree split on that side away from the house. We did lose a patio chair. The leg was broken when it was thrown off the porch. At least we will have plenty of firewood. Clint might not think that a good thing when he has to cut it in the heavy humidity we have been having.

Thunderstorm

Thunderstorms are fairly common here in the midwest. A really good one sends us scurrying to the basement pretty quick. We had another one last night. The wind is what woke me up. My first thought and question was how many trees would go down. Then I heard the older two girls whose room is upstairs haul their pillows and blankets downstairs once the thunder and lightning started.

When checking the news this morning, I found we were on the outskirts of the storm that moved through central Illinois. Some areas received penny-sized hail, 60 mph winds and lost power. We just had this to deal with ...

The answer is one, by the way.