End of week 1

 

 Wowie, that week was not fun.  It included a lot of whining, crying, and complaining.  When I stopped, I turned around to hear more from every one else doing the same thing.  We stuck pretty well to my meal plan.  Well if you don't include orange chicken night that quickly became trip to McDonalds night.  

   Here is a picture of our first nights dinner.  Au Gratin Potatoes with Ham steaks.  Looks pretty good huh?  It was quite delicious indeed.

Lets see, the absolute most challenging thing was keeping control of my kids drinking portions.  In fact, it did not happen.  I had to make a Walmart run for milk.  I just can't stop myself from saying yes to milk.

This weeks meal winner:  Tacos.  I made these with soft taco shells, refried beans, $1 ribeye steaks, cheese.  Topped with Taco Bell sauce that is in our 'bag of sauces from fast food joints'.  For Izzy who doesn't eat tacos, a bowl of refried beans with red sauce that I found in our 'box of random seasonings that say weird things'  it was labeled just 'sauce' so good find.  And a bit of cheese to make it exactly like the taco bell pintos and cheese.

This weeks meal loser:  Orange Chicken.  As I opened the box that claimed to have "dark meat chicken and orange sauce"  I found this to the right.   Zero chicken 100% breading.  And this was in all 3 boxes of Orange Chicken I had purchased.

Most likely to repeat:  Mini Pizzas.   Apparently they sell individual size pizza crusts in a set of 2 for $1, add pasta sauce, cheese, and peperonni ( also purchased at dollar store) and we made our own pizzas to celebrate the last day of school!

While the meals all turned out fine, none particularly delicious, and certainly none particularly nutritious, we are at the core a family of snackers.  I call us hobbits more than once a week.  Because snacks are necessary to maintain a sense of calm in our house it is crucial that we have a good deal of snack food.  Hence, the $25 for dinners and the rest for snacky foods from last week.   Gwin seems to have some sort of sugar issue.  I like to compare her to Paul Blart Mall Cop.  If she doesn't eat every 2 to 3 hours she has a melt down of epic proportions.  In case you ever happen to be going through my purse, this explains the amount of candy and snacks you will find in there.  I don't recommend going through my purse though, today I found a dragon in there.  True Story.  Its a beanie baby dragon, you would think that would be something I would notice, but thats how big and messy my bag is.

In unrelated news.  Izzy graduated from Pre-School last week and Gwin completed 2nd grade.  My babies are getting to be such big girls.  Izzy's school had a great ceremony and I can't be more thankful for the Linkers for not only recommending the school, but saving me so much time and money in transportation this past year.  Gwiny got on the A/B honor roll for the year!  I am so proud of my little big girl.  Its unbelievable for me to think that in a few short months she will be entering 3rd grade as a 7 year old.

Emma claims she graduated from mommy's school.  But in reality, she just watched Mars Needs Moms every Tuesday and Thursday and helped me with the dishes and laundry.  Also, she gets the Jason Mraz stamp of approval for not only helping us grow our veggies in the backyard, but for this awesome hat she was seen rockin' today.

   

Family Dollar Day 1

  I didn't realize when creating this idea, just how difficult shopping for real food at the Family Dollar was going to be.  I should have had a better outlook on this, but like usual, my brain tricked me.   Upon shopping for drinks I realized there would be absolutely no way I could stay in my $65 budget if I had to buy 28 milk cartons and 14 mini almond milks ( i.e. 2 servings of milk for each of my kids).  So I had to improvise.  I decided to spend $35 on food, leaving $20 left for fresh fruit, turkey, milk, and juice at Walmart, and $5 for rice and noodles that I have in my pantry.  I realize this is cheating in the grand scheme of things, but it was really my only choice.
   For the most part I will be leaving out breakfast and lunch.  Breakfast always consists of a granola bar or apples for the 2 of us that eat breakfast. And lunch always consists of either a turkey sandwich with 'whales'  (the dollar store equivalent of goldfish) and fruit, or a Peanut Butter and Nutella ( I have had these toppings in my pantry for months) sandwich with whales, or chicken nuggets of which I bought 4 packages at the dollar store.

Here is our meal plan for the week:

-  Friday dinner-  Au Gratin Potatoes with ham $3 (2 boxes of potatoes and 1 ham steak)

- Saturday dinner-  Make your own mini pizzas with tomato sauce and pepperoni $4  ( 2 packages of 2 pizza crusts, 1 package of pepperoni, and 1 can of tomato sauce, and one of my stockpiled blocks of cheese)

- Sunday dinner -  Steak Tacos  $4 ( 1 package of soft taco shells, 1 can of refried beans, 2 'Ribeye steaks', aforementioned cheese, and Taco Bell salsa from a box meal I bought months ago and never used)

-  Monday Dinner -  Hot dogs with corn $3 ( 1 package of hot dogs, 1 package of bread, 1 can corn)

- Tuesday -  Tostados and rice $3  ( 1 package of tostados, 1 can of refried beans, cheese, and pantry chicken pilaf pantry rice)

- Wednesday dinner - Orange Chicken and White Rice with peas $5  ( 3 packages of orange chicken, 1 bag of pantry rice, and a can of peas)

- Thursday dinner - Hamburger helper with smoked sausage  $3  ( 2 boxes of pantry hamburger helper, 1 package of smoked sausage)

Total costs for 7 nights worth of meals = $25

   As of 8:12 pm we have completed our first day of Dollar Tree living on a budget.

Also, please check out this link.  www.livebelowtheline.com .   I would love to say this is the reason we started this.  But it will be the reason we end it.

5 weeks, 5 stores. $65 dollars

    Only two days ago I was in the food aisle at the Dollar Tree thinking "  Hey, I could use some pasta sauce."  Then I ran past it to grab Emma before she decided to get those 'terrible two' hands on something that could be permanently damaged.  As my husband took the kids back to the car, I got in line with my four bags of candy and whatever it was I had gone there to get.  Without the need to tell a child to stop touching something and the daydream of having a nanny that usually comes while waiting in line, I stared down the basket of the man standing in front of me.  Frozen burritos, 3 cans of spam, some twice baked potatoes.  I thought " Man, that must be awesome to be able to spend $25 on all of your food for the week." And then I became obsessed.  " Why can't I do that?  Sure we have 5 people to feed who are all some of the most picky eaters you will ever come across."  And then I answered myself with a resounding " We can do this!"  I continued to obsess over the logistics of feeding my family for a week on dollar tree food.  What will my husband think of this plan?

    As it turns out, he thinks I am nuts, and he doesn't want to eat anything from the dollar tree.  Especially when he found out the day this plan started hatching, that his raise went through ( Hurray!!).  But this was my challenge and I had already accepted it.  ( And yes, I do realize that talking to myself, answering myself, and telling myself "Challenge Accepted"  HIMYM style is completely insane.)  Imagine his dismay when I come out of the room this morning and announce,  "This is no longer a 1 week project.  I am going to take this particular challenge and apply it to several stores.  Dollar Tree, Walmart, Publix, Sams Club, and Winn Dixie."

   In order to make this all fit together, I have decided to give myself $65 dollars a week.  This will need to cover all food and drinks that I purchase for the week.  Seeing as my pantry is fully stocked with seasonings, condiments, random bags of noodles, and about 40 cans of stuff, I am going to allow myself the use of pantry items that are not main ingredients to meals.  I.e.  I can not use boxes of hamburger helper without subtracting the cost from the weeks budget.  However, I will not be including the cost of other purchases such as diapers, socks, baby shower decorations and the like.  I will blog each evening about what we had for dinner and any odd snacks worth noting.  Seeing as we are an active family, I don't think there will come a week when at least one day doesn't include a fast food run.

   Day 1 begins Friday. Although I can tell you right now, I did my Dollar Tree shop today and I am pretty sure the cookies won't make it.

   

10 things to do before 30

  Recently, I read a list of 10 things to do before you turn 30.  I have 14 months until my 30th birthday.  The list I read was completely useless to me, as I had conquered all of those events before I hit 20.  "  Fall in love" Check " Go abroad" Check, " Live by yourself."  No going back now.  Although it would be pretty great to send my kids to sleep elsewhere.
   The list pretty much said " you need to learn how to become an adult before 30 so you can get married and have children while you are in your 30s."  Well, that does not apply to me.  So I decided to make my own list of 10 things that I cant to accomplish in the next 14 months.

1)  Go on a kid and husband free trip with a friend or two.   Nothing special, just a night away from my job would be really nice.

2)  Find the right career path for myself.  I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  I have always wanted to be a professional. However, I can never imagine a day that I won't want to be home when my children.  Whether it be when they get home from school, summer vacation, spring break, sick days, I want to be here, so I will probably be thinking outside of the box.

3) Lose all of my baby weight.  I have 15 pounds to go till I am back at what I weighed in high school.

4) Teach my children a new language.  I worked on this a little last summer, but this summer we are going to be studying Spanish an hour a day.

5) Put away $50 a month for a special vacation.  Two months after my 30th birthday is my 10 year wedding anniversary.  10 Years!  RJ and I would really like to go back to Las Vegas.  We got married in the Paris Casino and spent 2 days there before coming back home to move for Law School.  And yes, if you have done the math, we got married in Las Vegas when I was 20, not old enough to do any of the crazy things Sin City is famous for, except for the marriage.  I wonder how many Vegas weddings last 10 years or more?

6) Learn to stop talking so much.  I feel like I am too often comparing stories of my life when others are telling me stories of theirs.  Its not something I do on purpose, so it will be very difficult for me.

7)  Be more diligent with writing thank you cards. 


8)  Never have a need to buy another package of diapers for our family.  Emma night time trained by 3 1/2.  I think we can.


9)  Get a full new wardrobe, from a store other than walmart. 


10)  Unpack and organize my whole house.  We still have about 10 boxes lingering around here and we have never been in the attic.  I wonder what kind of storage space we have up there.

As you can tell, I am a fan of bullet points

I assume most people are able to form more than one complete thought at a time. Not me, my brain works like a hummingbird, I hover over here then I hover over there. As of late, I have spent a lot of time hovering over the kitchen sink eating sugary treats. So there we are. Here are some things that have happened around here.

• Today I blew up some bread in a bread maker. I guess I don't have that skill.
• Emma told an excellent joke and didn't even know it. We drove by some cows and she said " Two cows talking together." I said " Do you know what they are saying?" She said " Move over there." Get it... Mooove over there. Ahh, my 2 year old, telling cow jokes.
• Izzy failed another hearing test and will most likely have to have a second set of tubes put in.
• My Yankee Candle Company candle is doing a stand up job of covering my stinky burnt bread smell.
• I got a Tinker Bell movie in the mail today. I got it for $3 by putting in some movie codes into the Disney web site. Awesome!
• I was cleaning the girls bathroom today when the handle fell off my toilet scrubber. Handle still in my hand, scrubber in the toilet. I guess I don't have that skill either.
• We got to spend a week at my parents house a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun. We went to the Track and played a ton of games, we went to the beach, I got to go on base, we had deep dish pizza for my mom's birthday, I'm pretty sure we (Mom and myself) drank 3 bottles of wine. Great times were had by all.
• I am hosting a Nicholas Sparks Party by House Party on April 13. If you come you get a free copy of The Lucky One! Also we will have prizes. I know you love prizes.
• Gwin had 10 inches cut off of her hair!
• I was telling the kids a story about when someone took my art project and threw it out the bus window. The girls asked if we could go look for it. I told them it would be hard to find seeing as it was 14 years ago. Then I freaked out a little while about being so old.
• In related news, I freaked out a little about being so old when I was recently reminded that August of next year will be RJ and my 10 year wedding anniversary.
• Brianna brought me back from hysteria by saying " Even Peeta burned the bread." He did it on purpose, but you have to love a friend that will go all Hunger Games on it.
• I am determined to find a great place for Nikki to have a baby shower.
• Easter fun Saturday. YAY!

I think that is about it for now.

Izzy's 5th Birthday Celebrations

Izzy at 1 year old.

First, let me assure you, you did not miss Izzy's birthday, it is tomorrow. BUT... because her birthday is on a Monday and we have been partying really hard with Grandma and Grandpa all week we decided to take her out for her birthday today. Tomorrow she gets a special visit from Aunt Nana and a trip to the grocery store... Wooo!!!

I started this day off in a relatively bad mood. I guess we could say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. It probably directly correlates with the lack of sleep due to said partying and the hour and a half I spent last night counting cookie money because I just couldn't get it right. To be honest, I don't really remember much of this morning except declaring that I need a new car and saying " I know as soon as we leave we will get the call to bring back the cookies."

15 minutes outside of town, I got that call. And thankfully, our troop leader is understanding and we continued on to Chuck E. Cheese with a purse full of coupons for both pizza, coins, and tickets (didn't know they had coupons for tickets did you? Neither did I but it was a great activity to do with the kids while they are waiting for pizza and it gives them each 50 tickets!). We unload all three girls, I take a picture of a sign saying NO WEAPONS OR FIREARMS next to the inside door to the establishment. And here we are... Chuck E Cheese!

The pizza arrives!!! Somehow Izzy slides down the booth and cuts me in the arm. Who knew they are already hoarding weapons. Artery clogging and skin slicing, nice work. After the pizza is consumed and we are ready to play, I take Emma to the bathroom where I sit down and the toilet seat slides out from under me. While trying to regain my balance I hurt my hip. Then I have to tell the manager. He comes out, gives me some free tokens and assures me that the toilet seat has been fixed. Like this helps me at this point, but he was very nice about it all.

We finish up our games, Izzy grabs a bite of leftover pizza and starts to choke. So naturally, she projectile vomits all over herself and the floor. With a bit of good luck, she was wearing shorts under her dress that were untouched and Gwiny had brought in a jacket. Yes, it was 80 degrees today so maybe it was more than a bit of good luck. As I start to wash Izzy in the bathroom with soap and water, the sink starts to clog and when I try to pull up on the stopper the handle falls off. Oops. I just stick it back in there. No one has to know.

As we drive out of the parking lot we hear " Uh Oh.. I'm okay. " Shortly followed by " Lets go to Target so I can use my credit card to buy a dragon heart."

My super mom day

I feel like my day merits a post. And sense I was 8 weeks behind on the last one.. This really was my day today March 1, 2012

7 am wake up, wake Izzy up, thank myself for having the foresight to buy lunchables as I am packing Izzy's lunch box.

7:25 leave the house to take Izzy to Josh

8:10 get home. Wake Gwiny, thanks again me for lunchables, check Shirtpunch, make coffee, get Emma dressed, throw the clothes I forgot to put in the dryer last night in the dryer and thank Downy for their new fabric refreshers.

8:55 Drop Gwin off at School

9:30 Run in to the girl scout store to get a patch for Gwin

9:45 get a call from Izzy's teacher that she is having ear pain. Promise to get Tylenol and bring it to class.

10: 15 Get to Izzy's class.

10:30 Country dollar to buy Bowtie necklaces for Egan's birthday party.

11:00 Cynthia's place to drop off Girl Scout Cookies. And because she is just the greatest she feeds us!!

12:30 Leave Cynthia's

12:45 get to Sams club's gas station where the car in front of me won't start. So I ask her if she wants to use my jumper cables.

1:30 After the help of 3 guys we finally get her car to start and Emma has been sleeping for 30 minutes.

2:00 HOME!! Emma wakes up.

3:00 2 episodes of backyardigans later I start more laundry, and start picking up the house.

4:00 Get Gwin from the bus and immediately leave to get Izzy and Ava.

4:45 Leave Pre-school for dinner at Earthfare.

6:30 Home and a craft project with the girls.

7:00 Play time. So I fold some laundry.

8:00 1 dragon tales, a game of wipeout with blankets and pillows, read a story.

10:20 Girls are all asleep. So RJ and I eat some king cake, yumm.