Grocery Shopping, menu planning, slightly overwhelmed

When I went to bed last night I knew today was going to be crazy! I got going at 7:30 am and I am dead tired!
There were no amazing deals to be gotten for me today, in fact it felt a little odd at the stores today.  Prices have been rising and I expect that with the gas prices, but it was odd finding something things just not there…. I am sure there is not going to be  huge problem, but it makes me thankful for the extra food I have. At one store there was almost no vegetables on sale!!<p>
I went to Costco and there was no rice, no beans, no bananas (and it sounds like those will be hit and miss as the quality has been bad)…. the other store that had cheap pasta was almost all gone and weird stuff like that. I always have sort of felt like food shortages are made up, and I still do, but this was weird feeling.  <p> I did join this thing that  I think is a great thing for these problems. It is a local barter program that has been organized and set up here in the valley. There is all kinds of stuff from trading fruits and vegetables  and haircuts to lawyer services! It is pretty amazing!  It is a really neat thing, and I would encourage everyone to check it out, I will post the website sometime. <p>
Menu:
Wednesday: Chicken and rice soup/bread
Thursday: Bierocks
Friday:  Black Beans and Rice/ salad
Saturday:  Oven Round Steak/ baked potatoes                            
Sunday: Chicken and Rice casserole
Monday: Potato pancakes/ applesauce
Tuesday: Chili/ cornbread<p>
I am feeling slightly overwhelmed,  but the boys helped me tonight and cleaned up their mess in the basement.  I need to get things all organized, some more shelves in the basement in the laundry room so I can put some storage on them. I have some extra food  that I want to put down there. <p>

31 cent ice cream

Baskin- Robbins is hosting the 31 cent ice scoop again this year. It is  a great thing they do to support firefighters, I think you can buy up to 10 scoops of ice cream for .31 each. It sounds like a fun family outing. It is this coming Wednesday, April 30th, from 5-10 pm. You can read about it here in this link

Busy days!

When are they not? The last several have seemed more so that way though!  i was babysitting,  tired out and just generally did not have time to do much!  Today, we finally got the living room and dining room pretty clean and we bought, hopefully the last things we really needed to buy at the hardware store, except for paint.  We want to replace a toilet as the one in there uses alot of water, it is just a guest toilet, so we just bought a cheap one, a closet door thing and some other misc stuff. I bought a new thermostat too, hoping I bought the right kind to get the money back. <p> it felt like alot of money to spend! <p> It was warm here today finally and I got some clothes dry on my new clothesline! It is so nice! They smelled so good and fresh! <p> Anyhow, I am once again totally brain dead, so not thinking real clearly about posting! <p> i have a long list tomorrow to accomplish! I want to work on organizing the toy room and office…..we’ll see!

Home again!

We are home again safely! I am really tired so this may not make much sense.  <p> There are so many things going on in the world, the state and then just in our own little families right now, I just feel like we need to be in prayer alot. <p> This week was very nice,  there was alot of spiritual battles  within me though too. <p> We have alot to do this next few days, once again, but I am very glad I got home safely.

Vacation!!

I am going on a short vacation of sorts to go visit my parents for a couple days! i have so much to do, but I have not been up to visit in over 4 months, and sometimes it takes some time to take a breather from all I have to do!

We took care of my sister’s dog yesterday, it is funny to watch how our family would be with a dog. My husband does not really like animals, or so he says, he was so worried about the poor dog, in the cold, making sure it was okay, going potty etc. and the first thing he said when he woke up “Did anyone take care of the dog?”!!! the boys enjoyed running around with him outside too, even though it was 25 degrees out there! We got a few inches of snow yesterday and a dusting last night, I hope it warms up a bit!

I am hoping to find a bunch of food deals at the amish store this week and stock up my pantry. The boys have been eating more, are on a growth spurt or I am just tired and it seems like food is going quick! I would love to get some sun dried tomatoes if I can find them as I like them in salad!

Moving pictures

I did not get any of when you were loading etc as, well, I was busy loading!
P. has his 10th birthday here too which here is a picture of his ice cream cake.

The pile of boxes started out small!
Then it got bigger!!!AND BIGGER!
Moving is very messy!
And people still have to eat!

Little boys still needed baths

But we finally made it! Our first day here!

It is an adventure to get the couch inside. It was my sister, F. and I, but we did it!
This is our new dining room…..
This is our living room

The boys playing on the rope swing in the yard! We have made it into a tire swing now.

Anyhow, I will post more pictures, there is still boxes everywhere and things are still messy, so excuse the messes in the dining room and yard!

Menu Plan – catching up

I am trying to get back into the swing of things  and since I got my dryer hooked up, so I was washing clothes all day. Funny thing, my dryer works much better here than the other place, any ideas why? Anyhow, more efficient! <p>
Menu Plan:<p>
Tuesday: Baked Potato Soup- crackers
Wednesday: Taco Pie (It was supposed to be, but after a very tiring day ended up, PB and J sandwiches, yogurt and leftover soup)
Thursday: Taco Pie
Friday:  Cabbage rolls (in the crockpot), mashed potatoes
Saturday: BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, coleslaw
Sunday: Black beans and rice, salad
Monday: Burritos (made with leftover beans etc)
Tuesday: Meatball sandwiches (I have homemade meatballs in the freezer, and will make a pot of sauce)
<p>
So, hopefully that is good?
I have been grocery shopping, but not seriously for the last couple weeks so this was my first good trip in awhile. We did try to be frugal even though it was harder, but some wonderful people brought us dinner too. I discovered my third son, who is very picky, loves Sloppy Joes and baby carrots.  He ate like three of them and he does not eat!!!  The homemade ones are not too bad for him either! I just cannot tell him there is tomato juice in it or he will cease to eat it, I am afraid!
Whole chickens were .58 a pound so I got a couple of those. <p> We did our first real whole school day today, although i have not  found my second son’s math book, but we had it last week so it should be here, so he was a little lacking, but my oldest did a good school day and we went to the library.
I am hoping to get H. reading level up so that next school year so he is reading really easily. <p>  I read some interesting books this past while. Two books stood out to me that were juvenile historical fiction.
One was called Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson
If you follow the link, there is a teacher’s guide to the book. It was a great historical book talking about the time period, the winter of 1912 when all the workers were on strike at the textile plants. It was well written, I felt and a easy read for a 5th-8th grader. <p>
The other was called Captain Kate by Carolyn Reeder
It was very interesting to me as I had not read much about this way of transporting goods with a mule boat.
It  did have the young lady who had a bad attitude towards her family and she does something  without telling her mother, but through it realizes  it was wrong, her attitude, doing that without telling her mom etc. so I felt it was excellently done. The history was great! It again, would be great for 5th-8th grader. There is also a teacher’s guide for it, if you follow the link (click on teacher’s guide)<p> I am getting alot of running in, up and down the stairs it seems!  It can really give you a workout! I love stairs for this reason, I tend to run up and down them, which  may be why I broke my foot once on stairs, but hey, these are carpeted and not so steep!!

Did I drop off the face of the earth?

Not really! I am all moved though! My Internet got shut off early so not enough warning for me to post a message on it! It was actually kind of nice to be without it in some ways and other ways it made me very thankful for it!

We are trying to get settled, I just got my stove hooked up yesterday so the past two weeks have been without a stove! I got really adventerous though and cooked alot in the microwave. It was fun! Did you know you can cook rice in the microwave really well? It cooks really nice and even, very fluffy, if it boils over, then you just wash off the tray!!! F. and I were trying to hook up our water to the fridge, but gave up for tonight! The dryer is hooked up too, we have a phone now, internet, most of shelves got finished today…..so what will I do with myself? We are back to normal, maybe?

Anyhow, I am hoping to post pictures too, so if anyone is still checking here, they will enjoy them!