Kalahari 2010

This year was our second time going to Kalahari in Ohio. The kiddos and the parents LOVE IT. Super fun!! And the when its buy one night get one free you got to jump on it. Chillin' by the wave pool.

Watching the boys body board.

Patiently waiting have a try again.

Sweet baby flesh.

Sorry no pictures of Lula she was off playing with Ambry the time I remembered to take the camera out of the room.

Beverage Anyone???

Just kidding.

So I thought I'd try my hand a making homemade vanilla. Everyone is doing it you know! Well at least her and her.

I read the ingredients on my bottle of vanilla- water, ethyl alcohol, vanilla bean extract, sugar. What SUGAR?? WATER??? Gag. Really can't thing be what they are supposed to be. One fifth of vodka, vanilla beans plus six months to age and voila I'll have so REAL vanilla.

Guaranteed to flavor this sweet peas yogurt with out the "extras".

Total price just in case you were wondering Vodka 23 bucks and vanilla beans 20 bucks.

a fish out of water!

Nothing like stretching the snot out of my sweater's sleeve!!! Good thing she so cotton pickin' cute:-)

Jetpack Anyone?

Nothing like a belt and bucket or a belt and gun when you need a jet pack. Just call them MacGyver!

Hopefully next they don't figure out how to make a bomb out of a piece of gum and a paperclip.

squash

So we are still trying to eat more veggies. So I had to come up with a plan and put it into action.

Monday we had Tex-mex squash soup -which used up the butternut and acorn squash.
Thursday was Spaghetti with well used up the spaghetti squash.
All that is left is pumpkin which will be made into custard or plain pie filling tomorrow.

Monday morning I popped them in the oven so they would be waiting for me when I needed them.

All done!!! Cut open, discard seeds, and scoop out flesh. Puree flesh with stick blender until creamy. This cooking before cutting worked awesome on all except them spaghetti squash, it was kind of hard to get the seeds out with out everything else coming out.

So 4:30 rolled around and I cooked up the meat and onion and added the rest to the pot. Yummy!!!

Tex-mex squash soup

1 quart tomatoes

1.5 lbs venison

leftover salsa frozen from this summer

4-ish cups of squash

1 quart stock

taco seasoning and chili powder to taste

Simmer and serve!! So easy and I can pronounce every ingredient!!!

The poor pumpkin will be used up tomorrow, probably pie for my peeps.

Mt. Washmore

This was my action packed Monday!! The next time I think a laundry vacation is in order remind me that I and the baby do not have enough clothes to go more than a couple of days with out laundry let alone a week!!!!

That would be eight loads just in case you were wondering. I didn't even begin on the bedding yet....sigh.

Hooked on Phonics

So we were working on the grocery list together. This is what we came up with.

1.) cetchup
2.) Bhanas
3.) letis
4.) kale
5.) tumatos
6.) cuc- shortened so she didn't have to write too much.
7.) oluv oill
8.) uyens

There were illustrations also just in case I couldn't read her writing!!

Here is the list for you non phonics readers!:-)

Ketchup
bananas
lettuce
kale
tomatoes
cucumbers
olive oil
onions

Operation: Eat More Veggies

So the long weekend is over. I don't know about you but we ate way to much crap.

We even took the kids to McD's for the first time ever this weekend! It was the end prize of the room cleaning competition, boys vs. girls.

So this evening I grabbed a food pharisee in training, Lula, and hit up the grocery store. This is what 42 bucks will buy you. I feel better already. The rutabaga is the "new" veggie for us. The kale is slowing becoming a staple.

Racky the other day, "I'm beginning to like kale chips!" Hallelujah!!! I did hit up Rite Aid yesterday $1.60. They forced me to buy the candy bars, okay not, but she said I had to spend 62 more cents so that is what I grabbed. I'm down $3 UP rewards but the toothpaste alone would have cost $5.49. I hope to get better at making coupons work for our "needs".

(Don't you just love to see what people spend their money on? I do!)

What would you choose?

If given a choice animals will choose the good stuff. What would you choose?

Very interesting article.

Remember these...

They finally have been made into applesauce. What a relief!

Here the math, because I'm a nerd like that.
$3 for lids
$20 of apples

So $23 divide by 60, we got 60 quarts out of it plus they ate mad crazy gobs of it all day today.

.38 a jar!!!!!

Not too bad I do say.

Baby Talk

The other I lay in bed and heard her say "mama" over and over again. It has to be one of the sweetest sounds. (She is 9 months old already.) Now this beauty was saying mama really early, like before 6 months, and she hasn't shut up yet:-)

I love seeing their different personalities come out. They are all so unique. If Benna, the baby, talks as much as Lula I pray that the Lord is merciful and pours out grace to be able to stand all the questions! Or I might just lock them in a room together!

People perform to what you inspect.

So today I was correcting about 10+ of Racky's math lessons. His normal average of 2 wrong has gone up. "People perform to what you inspect."

He had answers like "I don't know what they are talking about??" And "Huh?"

Nice! Why not just ask me?

So I guess I need to start checking his work daily or at least every other day:-) The joys of a homeschooling mother.

Hmmmm....

So I picked up this book from the library. I'm really not sure if I should read it.

I tend to be closed minded and take offense to things that aren't even directed at me. I'm afraid I will judge my sweet man unjustly.

What to do? Do I really want to know.....

Can you tell she's my favorite?

Go read it, she's great!!!

VEGGIE!

The big kids go to school on Wednesday. The hubby gets paid on Wednesday. So the little girls and I usually restock on Wednesday.

This does cause a problem for making lunches come Wednesday morning.

Veggies to the rescue! Slather your bread with butter and pile high with veggies, the more the better!

No meat needed, this is so yummy.

(Do I get a prize for using Wednesday about a zillion times in one post?)

Just so you know..

We bought more butter! 8 more pounds line my fridges door. We're good for a few weeks now. All is well:-)

It's Finally Over!

October is finally over. Hallelujah!!!

I exceeded the budget by way too much! I just can't handle the pressure;-)

The hubby did end up picking up 4 dozen more eggs and a couple of loaves of bread. $17.

I also spent a nice chunk of change on a quarter of a grass feed cow. But we're not going to talk about that because I still don't have the meat and it cost quite a bit.

If anyone was counting here is a rough estimate of a few staples.
12 pounds of butter
14 dozen eggs
13 quarts of yogurt
10 bunches of bananas
13 loaves of bread, including rice bread, Sami's gluten free bread, Ezekiel bread and hot dog buns
1 box of wine (what wine isn't a staple at your house?!?!?)

We have lots of food left too. We only used 2 pounds of the venison, and 2 pieces of salmon. We also have a package of chicken sausages from Costco we haven't even opened. Plus about 18 packages of the chicken sausages from Meijer. Also we have salsa for the the next month or month and a half. And toilet paper we have plenty of that for a while.

The hubby wasn't really into my little experiment. He kept buying chips, and cookies and ice cream. I know if things get to the point that we really do have to watch what we spend that he will realize that those things are optional and are empty calories of no nutritional value. He usually doesn't go to the store that much but I was stuck home with a bunch of kids with the chicken pox so I was at his mercy. He was of a great help this month.

Things I didn't need to buy diapers and toiletries other than toothpaste. I have only spent about 85 dollars of diapers of the baby so far and she is almost 9 months old. Shampoo and soap and other essential are picked up for pennies and horded for future use. Fruit was another thing I didn't buy much of we still have tons of canned pears and peaches.

Because we have the means I stick to buying organic things off the dirty dozen list like potatoes, lettuce and celery. Also meat we try not to buy cheap meat.

We also didn't go out to eat, not once. Now how many families in our day and age can say that?

The numbers:
$720
$23.22 per day
$3.87 per person per day
$1.29 per meal

Well I'm off to Costco to buy more butter!!!!

Let's Talk Butter

This month my sweet family have devoured 12 pounds of butter! TWELVE POUNDS! That's 48 sticks or 1.548 sticks per day. 38,400 calories of butter a month or 1,238.7 calories per day.

That is over 200 calories of butter per day per person. This is just butter and not all the olive oil we've gone through. If I had to guess on olive oil I would say about 5 to 6 tablespoons per day for us. Or another 100 calories per person.

I usually eat three whole eggs and about 70 calories of butter for breakfast. Between the egg yolks and butter most of the calories are from fat.

People fats do not make you fat!!!!!

I am nursing so I get to consume a mass amount of food so this does help. But bring on the cream on top yogurt and eggs yolks, butter, olive oil. Eating a bowl of granola and full fat yogurt to the tune of 4 or 5 hundred calories keeps me from diving head first into a bag of chips or cookies at 10:30 in the morning. Fats digest slow causing you to not have to eat every two minutes.

Full fat milk will not make you fat, skim milk will. Extra calories will make you fat. And you will eat too much if you constantly feel hungry or starved for nutrition. You will eat mixing bowls of ice cream made out of skim milk but try eating more that a thin slice of full fat cheese cake or scoop of coconut ice cream.

Real food is hard to binge on. When is the last time you over indulged on broccoli or carrot sticks. Keep it real and you body will figure the rest out.

More Shopping

You're not surprised are ya?

To the tune of 25 bucks.

The salsas were 50 cents a jar- be picky some contain preservatives and others don't.

Yes that is crap chocolate but at 50 cents a bag and three girls COVERED with the chicken pox it is helping save my sanity.

I also bought three things of toothpaste, per the hubby's request, and rented a movie for the girls so 8 more dollars for that.

I'll be doing more shopping too because we're almost out of eggs. Yes we have less that a dozen eggs left, we ate over 4 dozen eggs this week. I think its safe to say we have a big family and big families eat a ton of food.

Please Go Read This!!!

I oh so want to do the Happy Meal experiment with my kids next to a real hamburger. You know see which one is real by seeing which one rots.

We've looked up the four year old cheeseburger on YouTube that even mold and bacteria won't touch. But now the bakery goods!!! I wonder what would happen to those Costco cakes everyone raves about. GAG!!!

So please go read this WITH YOUR KIDS!!!

If it doesn't rot don't eat it!!!!

Health Store Trip

Here is our Friday midday run to the health store. The bread is delivered fresh around noon so we show pretty close to that. $34. Yes that's more yogurt. That will make 13 quarts for the month! They were out of eggs;-( So the hubby made a few stops for five dozen eggs. Yes that's right FIVE DOZEN. The shear amount of food we devour amazes me.

We also were gifted a deer which we had to pay to have process so $45 for that.

Maybe it because you're watching me but I can't seem to stop spending money. Really the money is flying out like crazy.

Apples Crisp

The apples pre- topping. Don't you just love the color! For the love of butter. Waiting it's turn in the oven.

Half a gallon of granola out. Time to melt that butter.

Time to hunt down little people to polish this off.

SAUSAGES!!!

Can you find the kid in this photo?

She is my official grocery stacker. 51 more dollars. Really I have no restraint! But these were REALLY good deals! My receipt said I saved $171!!!!! I used $65.49 in coupons!!!!

Sausages- $1 (I bought 24)
Olive Oil -Free
Toilet paper -$1.69 each
Cans of MSG - .09 each

I needed contact solution and few groceries, bananas, canned salmon and corn.

More Shopping!

$25!! Well a few things are missing, bandaids and more dishsoap. The dish soap was supposed to be free but I didn't realise until I got home I didn't get my Catalina from it;-(

The Epsom salt and sparkling waters are for my patients. Puddin and Racky have the chicken pox- ugh!!!

The hubby also picked up bread and eggs for me on Friday but it came out of "his" money so I'm not counting it.

Stuff!

We have TOO much stuff!!!

I am forever having to go through the house to get rid of stuff!!!!

If I turn my back it breeds, like bunny rabbits!!!

I sometimes wish I too lived in a simpler time. A time without the plastic trinketty crap. A time of true contentment.

Go here and read this. It is so worth your time.

A Place For Everything!

What are you to do with no place for a clock or a book or a drink of water when you're the one on the top bunk? One thrifted tray and some ribbon to the rescue! Our bed has flat sides with some width to them so this was an easy fix.

Drill a few holes, run ribbon through them and tie them on!!!

All done!!!

Something out of Nothing

One mans long sleeved button up shirt, $1 at the second hand store and one roll of 99 cent ribbon= one bed skirt!!!

It only needed to be on one side of the bed. The front of the bed is a trundle but the side wasn't finished. Lula didn't think the plaid would work but with a little splash of pink ribbon- tada it works.

Okay not really nothing but for pretty inexpensively.

P.S. Bunkbed was purchased off of Amazon and I love it!!! The pottery barn look for way less!!

Love It!

Sorry I know it small but it is hilarious!!

Thanks to my cousin for this beauty, I snagged it from her Facebook page.

Today's shopping trip

Just shy of $21.

My receipt says that I saved 38 dollars??? The cans of MSG, I mean cream of mushroom, are for my mom, she uses them so she might as well get them while they're cheap- 9 cents a can. Canning lids are 49 cents a box after coupon- must hunt down more coupons. Taco seasonings were 14 cents a package- they will be donated. The Franks hot sauce stuff was 15 cents, it is the hubby's new favorite, well that and mustard!

I also had a Meijer $2.50 off any dairy coupon so I bought more butter, well you know we have a thing for butter around here. That sweet darling in the picture eats it with a spoon straight from the dish.

Things I didn't buy but wanted to: garbage bags and mint flavored toothpaste. Whoever came up with berry and orange toothpaste has some serious issues but I will use them up before we get more. As for garbage bags were using paper bags and just dealing with the mess that they make.

Well better scoot off to the kitchen and get food in order for the next few days so we can make lots and lots of applesauce.

Apples!

So I was checking our Craigslist the other day and searched "organic". There was an ad for organic apples, $2 for a five gallon bucket and $3 for a large bag.

Sounds good to me! So the kidlets and I took a 45 minute road trip to pick us some apples. 8 five gallon buckets and one bag later we have lots of apples.

I paid $20 bucks because I didn't have correct change but still that is a good deal. I'm guessing its 5 plus bushels. One five gallon bucket had a 1/2 bushel basket heaping full.

They do have some spots and are small but they can easily be turned into lots and lots of applesauce. Seriously for the price could throw a fourth of them away and still have it be an awesome deal.

Also the kids got to learn how to pick apples. They did really well. We only spent about a 1 hour and 15 minutes and that's with all the kids along.

Okay she really has nothing to do with apples, but look how big she is getting. Last week she pulled herself up on a chair to the standing position. Really baby girl please slow down and be a baby a little while longer.

Birds and the Bees: an Intro

Look at that not so stylish bunch- aren't they cute?

The actual fish ladder that the fish jump up.

So today we ventured to the Fish Ladder to watch the salmon jump. Before we left we read about salmon and spawning in the encyclopedia. Words like eggs, males, females, fertilize and sperm were used. Lula even asked if the boy and girl fish are like mom and dad and always find each other, so monogamous was even used.

You think they are too young?? Ha, these kids have some ideas and questions sometimes.

"Wow God gave Aunt Michelle a baby really quick after they got married! You (me) had to wait a few years before he gave you one." Lula

"Our babies come every two years. I wonder what the next one will be. We're going to need a bigger car." Racky

"Mom you probably saw the baby first because you probably heard her crying." (Like I had been sleeping or something when she "appeared".) Puddin'

See, their little brains are full of ideas and one of these days I'm going to have to let them know how and why.

It was great fun had by all.

The Basics!

Eggs, bread and ice cream:-) Also not pictured a case of rice milk. $47 minus $5 because the hubby used his personal money to support his ice cream habit. So we're down another $42-ugh!!

We were gifted like 10 to 12 boxes of cereal by the in-laws. They wouldn't let me pay for them, I think they think we are destitute. I'm just frugal so we don't BECOME destitute:-) They also gave us a couple of cans of soup and 5 bags of dries apples. Thanks mom and dad!

Homeschooling Ramble

Am I doing enough? Are they learning what other kids their age are learning? Am I hurting or hindering their future? Will they be prepared for "real" life?

Homeschooling is scary and daunting. Easily overwhelming most days. It is also a great mirror for all my shortcomings.

What have I taught my kids? To count, to read, to multiply? Have I taught them to be patience with one another? Have I taught them contentment? How about doing everything to the glory of God. Have I taught them to love wisdom? Do they see God's mighty hand a work all around us? Have I shown them Christ's love. If they could not hear me and could only see my actions what would they be learning?

What am I not learning from them?

Yes they need to know their "school" but somethings are more important....

What will I teach them today?

How we're hangin'

No money has been spent since Costco, yippee!! We are faring really well. We obviously have tons of food in the house right now. We even have 3/4 of a box of cereal left.

Today we ate:
Oat/ rice pancakes topped with butter, lots of butter, and either jam or powdered sugar.

Lunch was left over taco soup, yogurt, corn chips, apple slices and leftover diced potatoes.

Dinner: Salmon casserole (just think tuna casserole)

Snacks were more pancakes and apples with a little chocolate throw in there:)

So far so good.

They make my heart go pitty-pat!!!!

I just love them.

These were take the Sunday of Labor Day. Daddy suggested we go have a picnic in the park.

Flying a kite with a stick widdled with a steak knife because a piece was missing. Being swarmed by bees whenever food was out. And driving home for sweatshirts because it was cold. Sweet memories:-)

Blah!

So it's only the fourth of October and I am almost out of money, how depressing.

If I count half of my co-op order that is scheduled to arrive tomorrow I'll have even less money to work with. Ugh!!!

How discouraging. I'm feeling defeated already, this shouldn't be this early in the game. So should I give up? Continue on? Go find a j-o-b so we can continue eating this way- okay no? I just don't know.

We could still go with out going over budget sure, but we'd have to learn to eat oatmeal, and eat soup at least once a day maybe more. Snacks everyday would be popcorn and raisins.

So really it boils down to the fact that we are spoiled!! Lots of people in the world would be very happy with that.

Okay so that was how I was feeling yesterday. But today is a new day and I WILL keep plugging along. I may fail but at least I didn't give up.

So today was co-op delivery day. Thanks Aunt Jacque for helping me yet again, you are so sweet!!

We got another case of rice noodles, 1 lb of pink salt, 1 lb of cinnamon, 1 lb of fiesta chili powder, 1 lb of pepper corns, 88 oz. of oil olive, and 16 pints of orange rice dream (dairy free ice cream;-) I thought I ordered vanilla ice cream but thankfully they love the orange flavor. It tastes like a push up.

So another $59 for that. (Half of my total because we order every eight weeks.)

Photo Credit.

Costco

REALLY!!!! $150. Butter is up to 9.95 for 4 lbs. Canned salmon was more than I remembered. Frozen salmon is up $4 a bag.

The foil pans are super cheap there. But you have to buy 30 at a time. They come out to 20 cents a piece which is awesome compared to say Family Fare or Meijer for them.

This is NOT Looking Good

So I spent even more money yesterday. 21 bucks more!!! Yesterday was the second of October!!!!!

We, my mom and us, keep getting 10 bucks off anything at Kohl's so we had to go spend those. First 10 off we got Lula 2 pairs of tights and Lettie and pair of sandals for next year- .94 cents- sweet.

Then Racky's turn, lounge pants. Well he happens to be tall and REALLY skinny so the only ones that fit were $17.50 before our gift card, who on earth would spend 17.50 on a pair of pj pants for a kid?? So just under 8 dollars for those- ouch.

Lastly I hit up Family Fare again for more yogurt and some ice cream for the hubby. $12. The ice cream cost more than all the yogurts.

I did turn so of that yogurt into some waffles that the kids love this morning. I must make some more for the freezer. This isn't going so well. I haven't even been to Costco yet.....

October 2 Shopping

Health store $34.

5 loaves of bread, 2 multi grain, raisin Ezekiel, Ezekiel and rice bread. Rice bread is $6.29 a loaf- ouch!! Also a bottle of sugar free ketchup for Puddin', we're taking him off sugar for a week or two. Can't forget the eggs, three dozen.

Next the "meat" store. $85

2 lbs. of ground turkey.

7 1 1/2 lbs packages of ground beef.

10- 4 packs of drumsticks

5- 4 packs of thighs

1 bag of local cherries

Meijer and the orchard

First stop the orchard. $6 for half a bushel.

Then Meijer. $73. I left with $7 off for my next trip. It did cost a little more that I hoped. The Capri Sun %100 Juice were not on sale but I had already told the kids so I caved and bought them anyways. The did produce the $2 cat fortunately.

Boxed wine is the cheapest way to drink wine unless your three old lets it pour all over the floor!!!

Meijer had a 50 cents off one frozen veggie coupon so I bought 18. I would have bought more but this was all they had in the freezer. 50 cents a bag is cheap way to eat veggies.

The crackers were 67 cents a piece after coupons and catalina. I don't normally buy them unless they get me $10 off Hanes products or something like that but this could be a long month. Shh, don't tell the hubby, he does NOT like the kids eating those things.

Well I'm off the make tortilla's for individual pizza's tonight. More shopping tomorrow!!!