What We are Eating

I went through my photos looking for a photo of something I've cooked recently but realized that even though I've made quite a few new recipes, many of them have been mediocre so I didn't take photos.  I tried a Chicken Thigh recipe in the crock pot last week for the sole purpose of not turning on the oven; it was ok, but not great.  I tried a cake recipe a few weeks ago that was ok but it didn't turn out the way the photo looked at all and wasn't anything to write home about.  I tried another recipe that I can't even remember at the moment and that speaks volumes.

So, there are no pretty pictures or recipes this week but I do have some new recipes to try soon!

Teacher Tuesday - We are all set up!

This past week, my parents made the drive over and brought us two desks.  I used one of my days without kids to unpack their school boxes, set up their desks, and set up the computer.  You may wonder why I did this without the boys and quite simply, because it make it easier.  The boys love to help but sometimes, their help is helpless.  HA!

We are about ready for school to start.  I have an instructional video that I still have to watch but otherwise, I think we are good!

 The boys new desks.  Their desks hold their specific school items, books and supplies.  The carts in the middle hold other art supplies like extra markers, crayons, glue etc as well as art books, painting items and more.  The desk on the left, the white one, my mom picked up from a friend at a garage sale and the one on the right, the brown one, was my mom's many years ago and has stayed in the family.  It is the same desk that I took to college with me and was most recently housed at my brother's house until they moved back in June.

 I have more books than the boys do!  This little shelf holds all of the teacher manuals for both books.  I'm curious how much I'll have to use these throughout this year or if I can figure out K-5 and 1st grade work on my own ;-)

 For now, we've set up the boys computer on a table in our dining room.  We need to work on how much they use it verses using their I-pads for school to determine if we need a better set up later.

 One of the benefits of this new setup is that I get to put a tablecloth on my table again!  When our table was our school "desk" I couldn't keep a table cloth on it since it made it difficult for the boys to do their work (hard to write on top of cloth!) but now, I can keep a tablecloth on it and my beautiful candle on it too!

Finally, the piano got moved to the opposite wall which I like better (for now).  It seemed to really crowd the walkway before and now it is more out of the way. 

Make It Monday - "Making Fun" and "Making Clean" and "Making Projects"

So, we've been making lots of stuff lately. 

1) Making Fun.  Darryl and I had the opportunity this past weekend to hang out together and celebrate our anniversary.  I took my camera but took no photos!  This is what we did:  We went to Good Will (I know, crazy).  We never, ever, ever shop at Good Will - I just have zero luck so I never go.  Well, on this particular day, Darryl found shorts, pants and a shirt; I found a pair of shorts; and I got dress shirts and pants for the boys for the winter - all really nice name brand stuff.  From there, we went into Grand Rapids to the Downtown Market.  It's a really cool specialty market but beyond that, a brand new BBQ just opened there so we decided to try it for lunch.  The food was pretty good.  We also stopped at the awesome bakery and each got the most amazing cookie ever.  Then we headed out to the brand new Tanger Outlet Mall.  It was a total Zoo HA!  We, amazingly, got a parking spot by following people headed to their vehicle (total stalkers, yep!).  We did enjoy walking around and checking out some stores but, for the most part, the stores did not have any deals.  I did manage to get a couple pair of shorts at an amazing deal and Darryl found a pair of tennis shoes that he really needed but otherwise, I'd rather go to the much less busy mall.  Lets see, we then got coffee, stopped at Best Buy to ask some questions and price out options to possibly "cut the cord" on the dish and then went to Olive Garden for dinner.  It was a beautiful night so we drove around and checked out various neighbors where we might like to move someday and ended the night by getting some the best ice cream  at the coolest ice cream shop! Yep, we had fun! 

2) Making Clean - Since the kids are at Papa and Nana's for a few days, I wanted to wrap up some really big cleaning projects that needed more than the 15 minutes I can usually dedicate to them.  I finished up the project in the garage which included loading the truck with the final stuff for Good Will (a full truck load!) AND totally cleaned the garage.  I mean totally.  We got rid of stuff that has been on the shelves for 10 years and organized everything else.  Normally we do this project twice a year (spring and fall) but, since September 2013, it hasn't really been done so there was a lot of work to do!  I do have a bunch of stuff to now list on the local garage sale site which I will do bin by bin over the coming weeks.  I also took time to vacuum out the truck and wash it plus put in new car mats that I bought six months ago but never got around to putting them in HA! 

3) Making Projects - My kids.  Oui.  They have gotten into making "projects".  For two boys who wanted nothing to do with art projects, the past few weeks have transformed them into Art kids.  They have painted and glued.  They have dug through stickers and paper scraps.  They have found Popsicle sticks, cotton balls, pipe cleaners and every other art supply I had stuck in a drawer and created.  It's been fun and I've been informed that they each want a million stickers for Christmas :-)

So, yes, we've been "making" a lot of stuff which means . . .life is good. 

Things My Kids Say

* Josh has all of a sudden started calling Papa, Pop.  It made me smile to hear him say, "Hey, Pop, I will shine that flashlight where ever you need me to." or, "Pop, let me help you carry that desk."   Why, cause I've called my dad "Pops" forever so it all fits right in :-)

* I bought the boys some new PJ shorts on clearance the other day since they.  When I showed Josh his, he said, "Mom, those are the exact shorts I've wanted for 100 years!".  Yes, prone to over exaggeration, that kid.

Family Fun - The Fair

I've mentioned a few times in past posts about our local Free Fair.  It is the largest Free Fair - but I recently asked Darryl how it was free.  We had to pay to park and pay for every single thing in the Fair.  He pointed out that it is the fact that there is no fee to get into the Fair - I guess I never realized that you normally paid to get into a fair! 

We went to the fair two years ago with the boys but they were both still so young they were very limited on what they could do.  Last year, Darryl was in the midst of recovering from his back surgery so we didn't go.  The boys started asked several months ago about going so we knew we had to take them!  It was awesome.  They are at the perfect age and were able to ride just about every ride they wanted to because they are just barely tall enough.  I was pretty impressed with all they did!

 This was their very first ride (Josh is on the yellow slide and Nate is on the Green).  We arrived at the fair at about 11:00 on Saturday morning hoping to beat the heat.  Thankfully it was cloudy and breezy which helped alot!  We bought the boys each a ride bracelet which gave them unlimited access to all of the rides.  We probably made our money back 4 times over with the amount of rides they rode! 

 Because we came in at the front, they started on these little "kiddy" rides.  They are the rides that they were able to ride two years ago. 

 This car ride was hilarious.  It had really hard turns and the first time the cars came around the turn, the boys screamed and then, couldn't stop laughing the whole ride.

 There were two roller coasters - this "little" one (the boys are in the yellow shirts) which they were not impressed with at all.  Why?  Because there was a big one that they were not big enough to ride without an adult.  Darryl and I did not have tickets to ride so they have to wait until next year to ride the big one!

 Nate went on this ride by himself the first time.  I can't remember where Josh was at this moment but . . .

 It didn't take him long to make his way over to ride again with Nate!

 The "Cliff Hanger" was a favorite ride.  This is a ride that Nate was barely able to ride - good thing his hair was standing on end ;-).  It was actually one of the more peaceful rides since all they did was glide through the air!

 This huge pirate ship was a favorite.  They rode it five or six times ending by sitting in the very back row where it went the highest.  Nate claimed this as his favorite ride.  It was about this time that the sun came out and we were all ready for a break not to mention that the sun came out and it got HOT!  We headed back to the truck and went to McDonald's for a snack before heading home to relax in the cool house.

 After dinner, around 7:00, we headed back to the fair.  We really wanted the boys to enjoy the fair at night because of all of the lights.  They didn't disappoint, it wasn't long after we were there that the boys noticed, and talked about all of the lights!  This time, when we got to the fair, the boys wanted to ride different rides so Josh with with Darryl and I took Nate.  Nate had been waiting to ride the swing - he was so serious the whole time watching everything about the ride - I think trying to figure out how it worked.

 This was one of the "extras".  We gave each of the boys $5.00 to try out the bungee.  I didn't get a photo of Josh but he had more success than Nate - Nate's little legs got tired and he ended up stopping before his time was up yet he talked about how much he loved this activity.

 This was the final ride of the night - it was a HUGE ride that went up super high and yes, that is Josh sitting in the seat.  I was amazed he went on it by himself.  He was sitting next to the nicest lady who he talked to a lot HA! 

Look how high this ride goes!  Whew!  Josh loved it though and Nate said he won't be scared to ride next year :-)

The fair was a total success.  We are already looking forward to next year :-)

Weekly Menu - Our Anniversary Weekend

We are continuing on the whole Spending Freeze idea but this week we have a few planned times to eat out.  Planning is always the key!  The kids will also be gone for a few days with my parents and I really don't like to cook when they are gone - or cook as little as possible! 

Saturday - Darryl is working today and I plan on working on two main things - the garage and getting the boys desks set up so I don't want to plan dinner.  It's usually cheaper for Darryl to bring something home then for us to go out so maybe he'll bring home Tacos from our favorite place in Grand Rapids. 

Sunday - Today we are going out for our anniversary.  The plan is to go to a brand new BBQ place that has opened in the Downtown Market for Lunch.  Dinner is still up in the air :-)

Monday - The kids will still be gone so we are going to go to Applebees to get their 1/2 priced burgers so we can both eat there for about $10.00. 

Tuesday - Everyone is back home!  It's burger time - Hamburgers on the Grill and French Fries

Wednesday - Crock Pot BBQ Chicken, Mac and Cheese, Broccoli, and Garlic Bread

Thursday - Pork Chops on the grill, Corn on the Cob, Amish Butter Noodles, and Crescent Rolls

Friday - You guessed it . . .Tacos!!! 

Spending Freeze - What we did and How we "survived"

Darryl and I put ourselves on a self-imposed spending freeze somewhere around mid-July.  Now, this isn't the first time I've done this but we did it differently this time.  A little background.  I've read many blog posts and articles about taking a break from spending and they all have had great ideas, hints, and strategies.  Everyone has a different take though.  Some people set a specific budget for things like groceries and, if they hit the last week of the month and have $2.00 left, they survive on $2.00.  That's not for us.  Instead our spending freeze was just that - spend nothing on anything that isn't 100% necessary.  It also meant using up some food in the fridge/freezer to keep the grocery budget down; not going anywhere to keep the gas budget down; not eating out to keep the unbudgeted spending down.  I think you get the idea.

So why did we do this?  Here are some key reasons:
1) We chose to go camping once a month this summer.  Camping costs money.  I will say that our last camping trip in July was the cheapest camping trip we've ever done.  The campground offered so much to do (swimming, playgrounds, bike riding) that we never left the campground which meant no eating out or stops at overpriced ice cream shops.  Instead we ate the food we brought, enjoyed the campground, enjoyed the campfire, and treated ourselves to an ice cream bar from the camp store.  BUT, camping still costs money.

2) Loss of Income.  This came in two parts.  One, the above mentioned camping.  Darryl is self employed and I babysit so neither one of us gets vacation days which means when we take a day off we don't get paid.  Yes, I planned for this but it still hits the budget :-)  Two, Taxi Driving usually takes a hit in the summer.  We are aware of that after this many years but, in the past few years, July has been profitable.  This is because the drivers have to renew their licenses by the end of June and normally many drivers miss the cut off which means instead of 40 cabs on the road, there might only be 15 for at least 1/2 the month.  Well, this month, that didn't happen so we've been running behind average.  Added to that are things like a root canal for Darryl and car repairs on Darryl's car . .well, you can see what happens!

3) Self Control - I mentioned in a previous post how easy it is to go out to eat or just "grab" something.  A spending freeze breaks the habit on all that spending.  From dinner out to buying books (for my Kindle) at the drop of a hat.

Our original goal was just the last two weeks in July in order to try and catch up a little but, it was such a good test that we decided to carry it through into August. Plus, since July was so extremely tight, we need to continue to work to catch up! 

July went really well.  We ate at home, and didn't buy anything unplanned without some serious thought.  Our pool pump died during the third week of July.  We have a small Intex Inflatable Ring pool so it could survive without a pump for a little while but we noticed it was starting to turn green so we knew we couldn't wait.  Thankfully the pump was already marked down at Meijer so it didn't break the bank :-)  We had planned to attend the Ionia Free Fair and attend we did!  We knew ahead of time about what we would spend and we stuck to that budget.  The boys aren't into Fair Food yet so that saved us a lot of money.  I took water/Juice Boxes in a small cooler and other than getting Josh a $1.00 ice cream cone we spend no money on food.  Instead, we went to McDonald's after the fair and got us all a good snack for 1/4 of what food would have cost at the fair.

August.  Besides using the freeze to help us catch up a little on some bills there are a few other items on the list that have to be taken care of.  Darryl has his last (hopefully) dentist appointment for his Root Canal and we need to pay that off; We are signing the boys up for Tae Kwon Do through our Local Homeschool group which requires a very small fee; Of course, we are camping near the end of the month so we have to put money aside to finish paying for our site and for a couple day outings on this trip.  I have one other activity I really want to take the boys to at the end of the month but, that will all depend on funds.  I have quite a few things I'm working on selling on our Local Garage Sale Facebook site which will be used to help with these out of budget items.  Our main goal in August is to end the month ahead so that as we enter September we can begin saving for Birthdays and Christmas!