What I Loved About Last Week 17th and 18th Ed.

So, I'm doubling up weeks again, forgive me!

What I loved about July 9-15th:

1. Wet and Wild.  Our local volunteer fire dept. came to the city park to spray the fire hoses for the kids to run around in and have fun.  Surprise, surprise, brave, crazy Ruby was more into it than cautious Ira.  Both of them did have a lot of fun though.

2. Playing together.  Ira and Ruby really do play so well together.  The other day, I overheard them playing with dinosaurs.  Talk about your total boy/girl difference.  Ira was knocking them down and having them fight with each other.   Ruby having the dinosaurs bite each other than give each other a kiss and say sorry.   It was so funny!

3. You may have noticed that the pictures I feature on my blog are on SmugMug (a photosharing/storage site.)  Well, it saved my tushy the other day.  I usually try to keep 2 copies of my pictures for back-up purposes: one on my external hard drive, and one on SmugMug.  Well, I was reorganizing some folders on the external hard drive and accidentally deleted the entire month of December 2011.  (And no, it wasn't in the recycle bin, before I deleted it, it said "this folder is too big for the recycle bin - delete files permanently?")  Luckily, they were on SmugMug and I was able to recover them all in about 4 zip files.

4. Put up 7 quarts of dill pickles!

5. Had a new nephew!!  My beautiful sister had her baby on July 11th and we got to go up to the hospital and snuggle him before he was even 12 hours old.  Man do I love me some squishy newborn!  The kids were absolutely enthralled too.  Come on God, give us one in our house too!

6. Picked out Ruby's hair.  What do you do when you're bored... you pick out your daughter's extremely curly hair to see how "big" it gets.  What do you think???

Girl would've been a rockstar in the 80's... or in Texas...

7. Updated our budget.  It was about 6 weeks behind, and although it's a pain to track every penny - it is totally worth it for us.  It feels really good to know where we stand with our finances.

8. Along those lines, I am so proud of my hubby who got a promotion and a raise!!  We sat down together and re-worked some of the budget to allow for more savings in a few places.  We'll see how diligent we can be!

9. Spent a crazy Saturday going to 4 different events.  1.Met up with a good online-friend who I'd never met in real life.  We also got to snuggle her sweet new baby!  2.Went to an anniversary party for a family friend where I got to catch up with some people that I hadn't seen for 15+ years.  It was a really neat party!  3.Celebrated the baptism of aforementioned nephew.  It is such a beautiful ceremony - welcoming a baby into God's family.  Love it every time!  4.Went out to my younger sister's house and played cards and toured their new property.  It was a full day, but boy was it fun!

10. The day after all that craziness, I wasn't sure how productive we'd be, but we actually got something checked off the to-do list that I'd wanted to do for a LONG time.  After we laid Ruby down for her nap, we set out all of Ira's toys in the basement family room and decided which ones to keep and which ones to chuck (or sell, any ideas on how to go about that?)  We started by asking Ira which toy he absolutely couldn't live without (his drum set) and then asking him to pick one that he absolutely didn't care about at all anymore (a hacky-sack.) And continued asking those same 2 questions until we'd gone through every single toy in the house. If you're good at math - you'll realize that means we have HALF as many toys as we used to!  It's working well for us.  Ira seems proud of the job he did and is happy with the toys he has left.  Combatting commercialism/materialism one toy at a time here...

Before

After.  Kind of hard to tell, but there really are a TON less toys.
All the toy box lids close now!

Here's what I loved about July 16-22

Hmm.... I can't even remember what we did last week really...

I know we took care of Andy's parents' plants while they were out of town...

Ruby got her hair trimmed to help some major tangle issues...

I went to the dentist to get a pesky tooth looked at... it still needs some work...

We welcomed Andy's folks home from their trip and looked at awesome picture of whales and eagles and glaciers...

We played at home...

We welcomed Totus Tuus teachers into our home on Saturday...

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and homemade pizza for lunch on Sunday...

I don't know - apparently last week wasn't that exciting.  I have no pictures, and no notes written down about anything that happened.  So there you have it I guess.  I bet you're hoping I take notes about this week.  Definitely makes for much more exciting posts!  Blessings!

What I Loved About Last Week 5th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (4/16-4/22):

1. Paying off Andy's student loans!!!  Quite some time ago (probably close to two years ago) I mentioned on the blog that we were putting away our extra money each month to pay off our student loans.  When Andy got furloughed, we decided to just keep the money in the bank in case we needed it.  We never did have to dip into it and last week were able to pay off his student loans.  HOORAY!!!!  It feels so good to have that debt off of our backs!  Next up in the debt snowball:  my student loans, followed by our house!  Then we'll be debt FREE!!!!!

2. Ruby galloping.  So often throughout the day Ruby gallops instead of walks.  It is the cutest little thing.  A video would probably be more convincing, but for now, you'll have to take my word.

3. Butterflies on our Salvia.  Talk about the glory of God's creation.

4. Rummage Sale finds.  Twice each year, several of the "supermoms" in our parish host a Rummage Sale to benefit the missions.  They collect items on Monday then have a sale on Tuesday and Wednesday where everything is 10 cents.  I was able to find a pair of uniform pants for Ira and two school sweatshirts in the next two sizes up for him.  I also got an adorable dress and 3 pairs of tights for Ruby as well as some sewing notions, some Little Golden Books, and some kitchen utensils.  I think I spent $2.10.  Seriously?!  Does it get any better than that?

5. Rubyisms.  Ruby has been delighting us lately with all her little sayings, so I thought I'd share them with you.  She calls granola bars "monkey bars."  Her sandals are "shoe schlops."   Dump it is "bonk it."  Band-aids are "ban baids."  An umbrella is a "bunumbola."  When you ask her where something is she says, "I don't knoooooow.... I lose it again?"  And she calls the little pocket in the door of the car "the bathtub."  Ruby - where's you're binky? "In the bathtub."  She's such a goose!

6. The new Muppets Movie.  Ira received "The Muppets" for Easter from Andy's parents, but we wanted to pre-view it before we let him watch it.  It truly is a wonderful, wonderful movie.  We laughed a LOT, I cried, and we even re-watched several scenes after the movie was over that were just too funny not to rewatch.  It's definitely a movie we would let Ira watch.  There were just two things that I thought they could have left out: they said the word "butt" once and "idiot" once or twice.  We'll probably watch it with Ira to make sure that we can voice our disapproval over those words, but overall, wow, AWESOME movie!

7. Ruby helping Andy make biscuits.  It's their little thing together and it is so darn precious to witness!


8. We got the 5th bed for our garden done on Saturday.  I tell you what, that double-digging is some arm/leg/neck/feet/back-breaking work!  We still have two more left to do and I can't wait until they're done!

9. We also got quite a bit else done in the garden on Saturday: finishing up the fence for the peas, putting up fence for the blackberry bushes, and planting: green onions, beets, marigolds, cilantro, chives, oregano, and nasturtium.  The kids were dolls and played outside all day.  It just makes my heart swell to hear them playing together.  After wondering for so long if we would ever be able to give Ira a sibling it just feels like I'm living a dream to hear them playing and laughing uproariously together (because they were throwing sand at each other...still...)

10. Cardinal friends.  We have a very friendly male cardinal in our yard who supervises us gardening.  He'll seriously come within 5-10 feet of us and doesn't dart away when/if we move from what we're doing.  Andy was able to capture a picture of him and his lady friend on the bird feeder just a few feet from our house.

I think that about covers last week!  Also, if I could ask for prayers, Andy and I are trying to get pregnant again, which as you can imagine, is kind of a bittersweet situation to be in.  If you would, pray that we are able to embrace whatever God's will is for our family.  Obviously, I hope that means more babies, but there's that whole "Thy will be done" thing that I try to submit myself to too.

What I Loved About Last Week 2nd Edition

Hello and a blessed Holy Week to "all" my readers!  I'm back with another week in review!  Here's what I loved about last week (3/26-4/1):

At My Parent's house playing on the Plasma Car

1. Eating outside.  We've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather lately by spending the evenings outside.  The kids both love playing outside (in the dirt, on the swings, on their bicycles/tricycles, practicing fishing casts, etc.) and I'm growing to love the outdoors more the older I get.  (I didn't really used to love it outside, mainly I hate bugs (mosquitos/flies) but Andy - Mr. Would-Rather-Be-Outside-Than-Anywhere-Else - is turning me more and more into an outdoor lover.)  So, with all the playing outside, what's easier than fixing dinner (on the grill) and eating outside?  Not much - so it's what we've done several  nights this week.  And it's so easy to clean up too!!

2. Speaking of the nice weather, have I told you how much I love it?  Well, I do.  And I love being able to have the windows open too.  Our house was built just right for having the windows open.  If you open them all, there's a nice breeze that runs through and cools down the entire house - and I (as well as our budget) really like that!

3.  Speaking of the nice weather (Part deux... or is it trois...) we've also been riding our bikes to take Ira to school.  We have a great Schwinn Bike Trailer that we got when Ira was 9 months old that is perfect for Ruby (and Ira too, only this mama's not in good enough shape to pull the 60-70 lbs. of the 2 of them combined for very long - one day was enough for me!)  So Ira's riding his own bike.  He still has training wheels on, and let me tell you, riding a bike with him is a REAL exercise in patience. We've tried letting him go without training wheels and that just doesn't work at all (every time he'd get going, he'd STOP and fall down) but the training wheels are angled far back (so that he doesn't totally rely on them) and he does this crazy, awkward knees-pointing-out pedaling thing that makes me totally understand why he cannot manage to ride without training wheels.  And sometimes he has the focus of a flea, so riding his bike without hitting everything around him (because Heaven forbid he watch where he's... IRA DON'T HIT THE... too late) would be asking so much.  So what if the ride to school is kind of like a circus - we're getting fresh air and good exercise.  He will get how to ride a bike eventually... right?!


4. Sewing.  After getting a sewing machine from my parents last year (2010) for Christmas, I've really developed a love for sewing.  I even made myself an Easter Dress for this year.  It's nothing extravagant, but I'm very excited about it.  I LOVE being able to make modest clothes that actually fit my tall self just right.  It's nice being able to wear a knee-length dress that's actually supposed to be knee length.  As opposed to wearing a knee-length dress that's supposed to be tea-length - not that I've ever done that.



5. Pie success.  Now, because I have no shame, I'll admit that I cannot make a pie to save my life.  I think I've mentioned it before.  Well, I finally figured out that all I needed was a little vodka.  Not for myself!  Yeesh!  For the pie crust!!  (Although, I had to stand up for myself just a smidge when I went to the liquor store to buy it - "Excuse me sir, I promise I am not an alcoholic, but could you please tell me where to find your cheapest vodka.")  According to America's Test Kitchen, it is the perfect moistener for pie crust because the ethanol in the vodka does not turn the flour into gluten (which makes for a tough crust) like water does.  Well, to have a pliable pie crust (which has been my problem all along) you need plenty of liquid.  But if you add too much water, you end up with a tough old heifer, which no one likes - I know - I'm mixing metaphors - it's my specialty.  Well, vodka won't do that because of the whole ethanol/gluten thing - so you can add enough liquid to make a VERY workable pie crust, while still turning out some of the flakiest, yummiest stuff on the planet.  And the alcohol bakes out while it's baking, so you won't even turn your kids into alcoholics just because you want to make a decent pie crust.  Now isn't that a win-win situation?  So I was proudly able to take a homemade Tropical Sunrise pie to our Altar Society Quilt Bingo.  Score one for science!

6. Ruby making "snaremiches."  For her birthday at the beginning of March (which I've yet to post about, I know, hush your mouth) Andy's parents got Ruby a Melissa & Doug Sandwich Set.  It's all cloth (mainly felt) so you can actually stack up a huge sandwich and have it stay together (unlike with the molded plastic junk.)  That's a fact that hasn't been lost on either of our kids.  They both love it because it's actually like making a real sandwich.  And the set is a real winner, including everything from pitas and subs to slices of bread and just about every kind of meat, cheese, vegetable and condiment you could ever dream of putting on a sandwich.  Needless to say, it's gotten played with a lot.

7. Getting our budget updated.  Although we operate on a cash-only system for our groceries and sundries budgets, I track every penny we spend on everything else too (which is actually pretty darn easy with online banking.)  Well, it'd been a couple of months since I'd entered everything into our spreadsheet.  And even though we'd gotten a little off track these last two months (which I knew going into it), it is good to know where exactly we stand and where we want to go.

And I think that's about it for me!

Wishing you a reflective Holy Week,
Michelle

"Soup"vember

Let me start by saying that I am a meal planner.  I just have to.  If I don't, I end up being totally unmotivated to fix dinner for my family.  Which means that we either eat last-minute something or Andy has to deal with the pressure of fixing dinner after he's been at work all day.  Neither of those scenarios are ones that I like to deal with on a daily basis.  (Don't get me wrong, Andy is an awesome cook, I just don't think it's fair to him to get home from a long day of work and then deal with having to come up with/thaw out/prepare a meal.) 

Therefore, I have to plan our meals.  We are "weird" and only go grocery shopping once a month (except to pick up eggs, apples, etc. that we run out of), so at the beginning of each month, I sit down with either a recipe book or a cooking magazine and plan out 15-20 meals. 

It works well for us on many levels.  First off, it takes care of the perpetual "what's for dinner?" question.  Secondly, it allows me to know what we need grocery-wise for the entire month.  And lastly (and perhaps most importantly), it is a major budget-saver.  #1 it seems like the more we go to the grocery store, the more we spend, so the once a month thing helps with that, #2 it allows me to plan a variety of meals, some with more-expensive ingredients and some with less-expensive ingredients all while staying within our overall monthly budget.  Does that make sense?

Well, this month, the cupboards and the freezer were looking pretty bare, and I knew if we stocked up on everything we needed that we would go way over our grocery budget for the month.  So, I decided that I would plan only soups for dinner this month (Dinner, by the way is the only meal I plan.  Breakfast is usually cold cereal, oatmeal, or toast, and Lunch is usually sandwiches for the boys and leftovers for us girls.) 

Soups are just economical in so many ways.  Typically, you can use less and less-expensive meats, or even no meat at all, in which case you can use beans to meet your protein needs.  You can also use a lot of canned/frozen vegetables, which are not only healthy, but a bargain as well! 

So we're seeing a lot of this at our house lately:

And quite honestly, it's been AWESOME to be able to get dinner ready in the morning and have minimal work to do in the evening during the dreaded "witching hour."  You fellow moms know what I'm talking about... that last hour before daddy gets home... aaarrrggghhh

And just in case you were curious, here's our line-up of soups for the month.  Let me know if you'd like me to share any of the recipes!

Lentil Soup

Mother's Nurturing Chicken Soup

Deb's Potato Vegetable Soup

Linda's Spicy Chicken Soup

Barley Beef Soup

Hamburger Vegetable Soup

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Meatball Soup

Split Pea Soup

Jambalaya

French Onion Soup

Minestrone

Cabbage Patch Stew

New England Clam Chowder

Monica's Mexican Chili

Mom's White Chicken Chili

Happy "Soup"vember!