What's for Dinner???

I forgot to post yesterday because I was so stinkin' busy. Wednesdays are a little crazy for me because I am taking a pottery class. I used to take pottery before I got married (remember all those ceramic hearts I made for the wedding) and had babies. We moved to Akron and I didn't have the time. Now I live like a half a block from where the class is so I signed back up. I am so excited about it. The plan is to make all my Christmas gifts again this year. This time they will be some sort of pottery. So, if there is anything you would like, please let me know now. Not only is it cool to be back in creating mode but I've been reunited with some of my old pottery buddies. When we'd meet for class we talk about life and what is going on. Amy & Sue remember when I met Jake (he also took one session of pottery with me before marriage) and the excitement of all that. So, it is cool to have a little history.

So, yesterday when I got home from pottery I packed up the kids and headed off to Crown Point. Alicia went with me because her family is interested in signing up. It was a nice drive. By time be got back I was starving and normally I would have gotten a quick fix but luckily I had planned ahead and whipped a veggie & chicken stir fry in no time at all. I had some instant rice (I do have a stockpile of rice) that cooked in 10 minutes. It was yummy. Jake went on a trip yesterday and didn't get home until almost 8 PM so I didn't have to feed him. Which is nice because the plan is to eat leftovers tonight. It will still be new to him.

Tonight I am having a Stampin Up party. If you weren't invited it was probably because your invite was lost in the mail. I mailed them last week at the post office by my work and people weren't getting them until Monday. I spoke to a couple of people who said they didn't get them at all! Pooey. Anyhoo.....I am having this party so Jake gets home last night and almost immediately starts getting the kids ready for bed and I hit the dishes. After the kids get settled in I shampooed the carpet. Aren't you tired just reading this? Either way, I think my house is pretty clean and I am not going to kill myself making it perfect. So, if you want to buy some rubber stamps come on over and you can see just how clean my house is......

Well, have a fabulous day. I am off..................................

Happy Belated Birthday to.....

My Blog. I can't believe I missed it. September 20th. That's all.

Today...

It isn't even noon yet and I can't believe all I've gotten done. Don't you love when that happens? Since I have a little more time now, I am trying to get everyone on a schedule. Well, my kids are already on one but I guess I mean I need to get on a schedule. I work most Monday's (my schedule is always changing) and I am off on Tuesdays. After the last two weeks of constantly doing laundry (it is never ending) I have decided to have a laundry day. Growing up my mom always had a laundry day and now it makes total sense. I told Jake if he can't go a week without washing jeans to go out and buy some more (cheap ones, of course). Tuesday is laundry day. So far it is going well. I've been keeping it going most of the morning. I am hoping to finish it soon and have it all put away, instead of having piles of clean folded laundry laying on the basement table all week. My personal favorite when I came down stairs last week (kinda what made me decided to have ONE laundry day) and found THREE baskets of unfolded, clean laundry sitting on the folding table! When we buy our dream house I am going to have 2 washers and 2 dryers.

Tonight's Dinner: Creamy Chicken & Broccoli Soup w. Wild (well my aren't so wild) Mushrooms, Cornbread & Fresh Peaches.

BTW...Last Nights dinner was really good. We tried some squash we hadn't had before. You should try it if you can find it. I did save the seeds, if anyone is interested in growing some.

This is Delicata Squash.

This one is called Sunshine Squash. It looks like a pumpkin but it isn't. It was sooooo good. It makes all other squash look bad. So if you can find it buy it and try it.

Let me know if you have had these before.

Saving Money...

So, Jake and I finally sat down yesterday and went over our budget. It made me want to throw up. It seems like we work so hard yet, there is never enough money. We have a pretty modest budget for food but it seems like one of the only areas that are negotiable in the budget. I decided that I am going to use what I have in the house before I buy anything else. The only thing I will purchase are the things that spoil (milk, cheese, bread, sour cream). I don't have any bread or cheese in the freezer but I do have tons of other stuff. I am going to see how long I can go without buying real food. I bet I could go at least a month. I will try to keep you updated. I may be exaggerating a little because I don't have the stockpile I used to have but I do have a lot. Last week Stephanie explained how she stretched a chicken for 5 meals. I HAVE TWO FROZEN CHICKENS IN MY FREEZER. We also get food from Crown Point Ecology Center, where we are CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members until the last week of October. Right now we are getting a lot of "winter" items...squash, greens, onion, potatoes. They do have pick your own peas right now. I only picked a few last week. I need to get out there and get some to freeze. Either way, I think if we are vigilant about our food purchases we can really save a ton of money!

If you are wondering what's for dinner tonight.....
Mushroom Steak, Kale, Delicata Squash & Grapes.

Have a great day!

Goodwill Shopping...

I am having a little dilemma with Elise's wardrobe. She is in the 5th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. 12 month pants are too short but too big in the waist. 18 month pants fit better in length but because they are so big in the waist they fall off her and she ends up walking on them. What is a mom to do? Jude usually fit perfectly in all his sizes. I decided I would run over to the Goodwill by our house to see what kind of one piece or overall outfits they have for cheap. Well as soon as we walked in Jude saw the Halloween costumes. He already told me he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear this year. He was Woody last year. Remember he has a little obsession with Toy Story. We looked on the Disney web-site and they have their costumes on sale for 50% off. The Buzz costume was still $20. I told Jude we had to wait to buy it. I am so glad we did because as we looked through the costumes we found a Buzz costume for $1!!!! I love when we find great deals like that. So we shopped for close to an hour. Elise was a little fussy but Jude did great. Here is what we ended up with.

• Buzz Lightyear Halloween costume
• 18 month Osh Kosh overalls
• a pair of workout pants (more on the working out in a post coming soon)
• a practically brand new pair of Disney Power Ranger PJ's (Jude has never watched this show but he was so excited when he found them)
• Memory Game
• Steve Madden Clogs (almost brand new - leather)
• American Eagle leather shoes (look like they were never even worn)

I cleaned out the garage yesterday and took all the stuff I had saved for the big Garage Sale I was planning to have so they gave me a 20% off coupon. So my grand total for all of that stuff was $17.56! Can you believe it? I was so excited. I rarely get out to the thrift stores but if you have time to look you can find some great deals. I will admit this is my first time buying shoes at a Thrift store but I used some Lysol on them last night and this morning they were dry.

I guess my three people aren't doing my tag. Oh well.

Tag...you're it.

My sister-in-law Stephanie has tagged me. Here is what I have to do:

Grab the closest book you can find. Open it to page 123. Find the 5th sentence. Type the next 3 sentences, the book title, the author's name and tag three more people.

The Wild Girl by Jim Fergus

Now suddenly the girl looked me fully in the eyes and her moan turned to a hiss, a kind of snarl, and she sprang away from me wtih remarkable strength, crabbing backward into the corner of the cell, where she squatted and peered out at me through her hair like a trapped animal. She began to speak then her own language, a low, guttural ancient tongue that sounded like the mutterings of earth. "La chica esta loca," Jesus whispered.

I tag....Hubby Jake, Cousin Kelly and Correction G.

Have fun. I haven't actually read that book yet...I am saving it for vacation but now I just can't wait.

Where have I been????

Okay, so it has been a while since my last post about life. I thought I would take a few minutes and give everyone an update. Last week I was sitting at work basically daydreaming when Josh came into work. I have been seriously bored out of my mind lately and I have a thousand things at home piling up. It is annoying. But I need money so I have to work (I know, I know, I have told you already). Well, Josh says he needs to talk to me. When your boss tells you he needs to talk to you doesn't it kinda feel like you are in trouble or something? Trust me we have had many "talks" since I started. My schedule and pay scale has been changed several times. I think of it as a work in process. Typical of my life. The end result of the talk was that I am now working 2 days a week. I feel so relieved. I am still going to be bringing home about the same amount of money because I will be paying the babysitter considerably less. She is okay with it because I am willing to work around her schedule. Josh benefits because he isn't paying me to blogvertise or to answer the phones all day. I did tell him I would work one Saturday a month. It also benefits me (a great day to make sales) and him (he doesn't have to come in). So, I think this will work out best for everyone right now. My kids are happy that I am home today. We spent the late morning/early afternoon cleaning the basement. I still had things in boxes from our move at the end of June. I organized my crafty/ art stuff so it is usable again. I feel so much better. I am getting ready to tackle the kitchen and vacuum the carpets. We are having our friends over for dinner...something I have wanted to do for a while but like I said before I had pretty much given up cooking because of time. It feels good to be back!

Revolve Pics....

Okay, we had 2 nose rings, 3 lip rings, 5 home schoolers, 4 middle schoolers, 11 high schoolers, a lot of pink (ehhwwww...the hot pink kind too!), home-made t-shirts and a lot of fun. Check it out for yourself.......................

Revoloving with My Girls...

So, I spent the better part of my week-end on a bus with a load of teen-aged girls. Back in July I was asked if I could take some of our girls to the Revolve Tour . It is "Women of Faith" for girls 7th - 12th grade. I said yes without even thinking...I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Luckily for me the church hired a youth pastor shortly after I committed and his wife (Nikki) jumped right on board for this trip. The conference was in Columbus (about 2 hours away) and we really didn't know where we would be staying or how we would get there when we first purchased the tickets. It wasn't long after Nikki came along that we decided to include Suzanne as a chaparone. So, three adults 15 girls. We ended up hooking up with another church who had a bus and we all rode down together. We stayed at a church that wasn't too far from Columbus. We all slept (well...we were supposed to sleep) in the youth room. The church is where our youth pastor's father is a pastor. Anyhooo...we had something like 40 teen girls in one room. I have never seen so much pink. Revolve was as awesome as I had expected. The topics were so relevant and they really hit home with some of our teens. Last week we had extra tickets and we weren't even sure who was going and who wasn't going. In the end, I think everyone who was supposed to be there was. I got to take Caitlyn (Melanie's daughter), Brittany (old neighbor), Desarae (Brittany's sister), Hannah (their friend) and Nicole (a respite girl most of you know and love). I think they all had a lot of fun. The only one out of my group who ever goes to church is Nicole so I was slightly concerned the rest of them wouldn't like the whole "God" thing BUT they really liked it. On friday night Natalie Grant was singing. I looked over and they were all clapping and dancing around. I can't tell you how nice it is to see teen girls happy. Our world is so messed up- you don't see happy girls everyday.

Well, I am still tired (I went to bed at 3 AM on friday night) and I want to get going. I will leave you with 10 things I learned this week-end and then some pics.

1. Teens can (and do) make a difference. 3 out of the 5 girls I had in my group sponsored kids for World Vision.
2. The Bible talks about cutting. I can't believe I never knew this. Matthew 5:5
3. Even the skinny teens girls EAT A LOT.
4. Do not mess with Nicole while she is sleeping. (You trifflin' is that how you spell that word?)
5. I can't listen to a girl talk about painful things like suicide, cutting, being used by boys, etc... without crying. I've turned so soft.
6. No matter how many times I hear Tammy Trent's story....I cry and I always will.
7. Hearing the truth about boys from a hot guy makes it so much more believable.
8. It takes a lot longer than 2 hours to get to Columbus with a bus load of girls than it would driving in a car by yourself.
9. Natalie Grant is awesome. I never even paid attention to her until Women of Faith and even then I didn't know how cool. Girls are lucky to have her around. She rocks.
10. Being old isn't so bad after all. I think I still relate.


Poo...the pics aren't working now. I will post them later.