Spent- Day 2

So here I am on Day 2 of my rejuvenation effort. To be clear, this is more about feeling better than actually a diet to lose weight, but if that happens in the process, so be it (she says with a big grin). I just want to have more energy again, not be achy and sore when I wake up each morning. Yesterday was not too bad. I had an almond butter on Marathon bread sandwich and fresh figs for lunch. I LOVE fresh figs! and these were especially delicious plump ones. Then for dinner we had grilled burgers and zuchinni. I know that probably wasn't purist, but I had ground beef that needed using. I had lite Swiss cheese on mine and only the squash with it, NO chips :). I felt good all day but in the late afternoon I did start to get a dull headache, probably from lack of caffeine. That lasted until bedtime, but appears to be gone this morning.

Day 2: Lipman's assignment for Day 2 is about sleep. Now that sugar is out, and breakfasts are healthy smoothies (more on that in a minute), He wants to focus on better sleep. This is one area that has definitely been a tough one for me throughout the divorce and even now. For months I had such anxiety I could not sleep more than 2-3 choppy hours a night. When it was at its worst, I took 2 Benadryl at bedtime each night just to knock me out. It was desperate measures for desperate times. Now I am sleeping somewhat better, but I often stay up too late at night, just because I'm lonely and don't want to go to bed... silly I know. And I often wake about 3 or 4 and have trouble getting back to sleep. But even so, my body wakes up by about 6:30 each day,however rough the night was. And napping is hard to do in a house with 5 active children.

So, Lipman's advice is two-fold. First, don't use the bed for anything other than sleep. That is hard for me. I have my laptop... read, watch TV in bed. It's my private oasis in the household. I'll work on that. but hie second suggestion is to turn off all electronics at 10pm, to tell your body it's time to wind down. That I can do. Last month I bought a new Emilie Barnes devotional book, so at 10 pm each night at least when home... I will turn off the "noise" and have my devotional at 10, and then turnout lights and try to go to sleep. That's my plan for tonight.

Lipman has not started exercise yet, but I began a 30-day challenge with my Wii Active Personal Trainer game on Monday. I have completed 4 workouts with that, plus an aqua fitness class at the Y. I am a little sore and tired so I will enjoy the rest day that is scheduled for tomorrow!

Today I have worked out and made my smoothie, recipe as follows:

Blueberry Avocado Smoothie

1 c. frozen blueberries
1/4 avocado
1/2 c. unsweetened almond milk
1/2 c. water
juice of half a lime
1 serving scoop of vanilla whey protein powder
1 serving of greens powder
4 ice cubes

Blend thoroughly. I really enjoyed this one, although the "greens" taste comes through just a little bit. The texture was terrific and it makes a generous portion.

Spent

(This is actually a post from Facebook yesterday-Thursday. I have decided to move the progress here to my real blog, since it may be lengthy, too long for Facebook) I found this book at the library when I was taking the kids yesterday. The subtitle is End Exhaustion and Feel Great Again. The last two years have been monumentally stressful and I'm left feeling Spent, as he says. I have been exercising again and eating at least some vegetables :) But I still wake feeling less than energetic, and often drag through the days. So I thought I'd try his 6 week program. It is one of those Extreme programs with NO sugar or processed foods. I will not even attempt to be 100% sugar-free. But I can significantly reduce the amount of bad stuff I put in and try to balance it with lots moe good stuff. He gives daily assignments that all focus around food, exercise, habits, stress-relief. It is a total life system. I tend to be an all-or-nothing kind of girl and I give up if I'm not perfect, BUT.... I am going into this with the knowledge that I don't even want to try to be perfect at this... it's way too severe for me to do while still feeding my kids. I'm going to journal the progress here for 6 weeks. May not be daily, but I hope to check in often.

Day one: The biggest change today is that he is asking us to remove sugars in all forms from our diet. I admit to being a sugar-junkie. I will give it my best effort, but not to the point of being ill. He does offer the option of taking glutamineto reduce sugar cravings. I have not heard of this so I will see if it works. For me, the biggest change from day one will be breakfast. Instead of coffee with fancy sweetened creamers and English muffins..... I'll make smoothies. I pulled out the blender and had a strawberry/pina colada one today with coconut juice, one banana, frozen strawberries, and pina colada flavored whey protein sweetened with Stevia. Stevia is the only artificial sweetener allowed, and I have used it for a while and do like it. That's a relief. It makes terrific lemonade. Wesley and I are off today to buy a few supplements he recommends from the natural foods area at HEB,... hope they have it all.

Catch Up Week

We have been out of school for 4 weeks and this is the first one that I do not have major commitments during. I have so very much to do and have high hopes for the week. Already this morning I have worked out with my new Wii EA Active game. I started the 30-day challenge and plan to finish that out before the end of July! It's a fun mix of cardio, strength exercises, and some fun like boxing. I was surprised how much I liked the boxing.

After that, I took my coupons to the fancy grocery and got a bundle. I also took advantage of their rock bottom meat sales and got four mega packs of round steaks, 8 lbs of ground beef, two whole chickens, and some beef chuck cross rib steaks? which are now in my crock pot with BBQ sauce. I put each of the packs of round steaks in a different marinade in the freezer, holding one for tomorrow night. I am going to make the ground beef into a meatloaf and some patties and put them in the freezer too. I'm hoping I can get Eddie to smoke the chickens for me tomorrow night when he cooks. That makes the best chicken salad!

Now I need to go paint the floor trim in the bathrooms we had floored earlier in the month. THey look pretty bad next to the pretty new floor. And I have to work on some grades to get the last few classes reported. If I get all that done, it will be a successful day :) Happy Monday!

And another Museum

For those who don't know, Dr. Pepper was first invented and bottled right here in Central Texas. About a mile from the zoo is the Dr. Pepper museum and Wesley is a HUGE Dr. Pepper fan. So we went there after lunch.

And we finished off the museum tour with a trip to the old fashioned soda fountain for ice cream.

Here is my little guy, very happy!

Day at the Zoo

This week my whole family is in town from all over the place. My brother lives in Portland OR and my sister lives in SE Texas. But for this week, we all came central and are having a great time. We started the celebration with a Father's Day dinner after church here at my place. I made Italian Beef for sandwiches and bought deli sides to keep it simple. On Monday we went early and the kids went out on the lake in my Dad's boat with my brother and his lovely girlfriend.

Then yesterday we went to a nearby zoo. Despite the temps over 100, we all had a blast! Here are the highlights:

Red!!

I have been wanting to play with my hair color for quite some time, but just couldn't quite get up the nerve. until today.....

Building a Fort

This morning the kids built a giant fort wonderland in the living room... Then played Scrabble Slam in it... read in it...and just enjoyed having a private space.

And it continues...

Red tape is so frustrating. I have two situations right now that are causing way more stress than they should. First, I am trying to get my two oldest in the local junior college for some dual credit courses. It is supposed to be free for us since we live in the district. All along the way, there has been one hitch after another. I thought we finally got it all straightened out. Then this morning when I went to use the phone registration system to enroll them both in fall classes. Bethany's went fine but at the end of Bill's I heard the recording say the payment balance is.........$474/ Ugggh! Now I have to go stand in that line yet again to find out why. sigh.......

The other is much more frustrating. It is a divorce issue which has now been resolved so I am editing out the anger I felt a couple of weeks ago... some things are better not left to read over and over :) But it all goes to show just how inextricably intertwined you become when you are married. Breaking that union is not easy, not God's plan, not ideal. But it happens, and sometimes interactions like this are just further reinforcement. sigh....................again.

Summer

Wow, it's been a month! May is such a whirlwind for me, I rarely have time to breathe. We finished out another school year. That was my 5th in this business teaching science and it was a great one! But I am so relieved that it is summer. I just get so behind during the school year and things pile up. So what have I done since we got out of school?

1- I now have 2 kids in the local junior college, so the first thing we did was spend several days working our way through the red tape of applying, testing, advising, and now registering. They will be taking one course each for summer school and two classes each in the fall. Spanish, writing, math, and creative writing. I'll leave it to those who know them to figure out who is taking which classes :)

2-I also took on a part time temporary job delivering flyers for a local paint company. For about two weeks, the younger kids and I walked thousands of steps, many including hills and stairs, putting them on doors. Still trying to decide it it was worth the pennies per flyer?

3- A while back we had a toilet overflow upstairs. In the cleanup process, we discovered that the floor upstairs was rotten from years of toilet problems. Eddie had to rebuild the whole area, and I got new flooring just last week. We had Lowe's install new vinyl, and since there was a minimum installation fee for that tiny bathroom, I went ahead and got new flooring for the boys' bathroom too. Both were in pretty bad shape after 14 yrs of this family! Still need to caulk and paint the woodwork. I also have to strip the nasty old wallpaper and paint both bathrooms. this will a be a project for July. June is full already!

4- Bethany and I helped Eddie cater a wedding reception for 100 on Memorial Day weekend. That is always a full week of shopping, prepping, cooking, and then a marathon day for the event but I think it went very well and all the food was enjoyed.

5- The next day, we had a goodbye breakfast at Denny's with Eddie and then I went to my sister's over in Southeast Tx. I took Bethany to stay for a while and she is still there! But I'm getting her back on Friday. I miss my girl. We enjoyed playing with Emmalyn who is about 2 and a half now. And I got lots of holding time with Jude, my brand new nephew. He was about 6 weeks when I was there, and just adorable. We played at the Bouncy place, went to a MOPS meeting, went to church, and went shopping. Hard to do much with 2 tiny ones in tow but we had a great time. That Emmalyn LOVES to "go see friends". Cute :)

6- This past week I was home and tried to get some things accomplished. I did get much of my room decluttered from end of the school year clutter. I took the kids to some museums on the University of Texas campus all day on Thursday. I went to school there, so I love to visit now and then, and there are some real treasures there.

7- Over the weekend, I helped Eddie cook and deliver briskets. When he cooks, it is a 2 day process, including 16-18 straight hours with meat on the pit, which has to be checked every 40 minutes. So I often just go hang out with him. We watch lots of Food Network, take mini naps.


When that was finally done on Saturday, we delivered some meat and then went to dinner. The UT baseball game was on and we wanted to find a place to see it since it was on a weird channel neither of us got. We discovered a very nice restaurant, sports bar that is owned by the son of a friend. So that was a lovely evening.

8- Sunday morning church... Bill was leaving for a mission trip all this week, and the others were with their father at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Eddie and I had eaten so much Saturday night, we just had a small lunch at Sonic. Then a nap... always a Sunday nap if I can sneak it in.

9- One of the things I had really been wanting to do was power wash my entry way and sidewalk. It was just so very dirty! Eddie did most of the hard, messy work, but I finished out the sidewalk and even Wesley took a chance. He had a "blast"!

10- All along the way, we've been doing the normal grocery shopping, haircuts, library visits, etc. And I feel like I am constantly driving kids one place or another. This morning, Wesley and I went to the store and saved a BUNDLE. I love using the Grocery Game and the kids like to help me, choosing some of the fun things on the list.

11- Then we came home and the 4 of us (Bethany and Bill are gone all week) cleaned up the playroom and vacuumed it. It gets a mess and I rarely get that far in my cleaning. So that felt good. Now, I am taking a break while I watch Clean Sweep on TLC. It motivates me to toss, declutter, and organize.

This afternoon I need to finish up grades and get them out. We may go to the pool. I promised Wesley a trip to Target. And tonight he starts baseball through the Y. We are trying a summer session since he may not love it and it is a small commitment. I'll keep you posted, with pictures, I'm sure...

Happy Summer!

My Two Minutes on a Soapbox

Okay, I have a pet peeve and I know it is shared by many, but I feel like I am allowed to feel this way, since I have understanding of both sides. I went to a very nice restaurant last night. This restaurant had wine bottles all over, a very romantic decor, quiet music playing. The owners of this establishment obviously want it to be a nice restaurant, and the prices reflected that. Eddie and I had spent all day cooking for 100 for a catering job, and decided to celebrate after we dropped off the food.

All was well, until about halfway through our appetizer, two separate parties with small children came in. The first had 2 preschool age girls. They colored, ate, and looked at their picture books. They were fine! and didn't disturb anyone. But the other party had 4 small children, one of which was a toddler and another a baby about 8-10 months old. They were seated right next to us. And that ruined the rest of our relaxing dinner. The parents (two couples) were obviously enjoying themselves, laughing and talking loudly. They had wine... salads... all the while the kids whined and squirmed. They tried to shush them, but no one ever got up and carried them out so as not to bother others dining in the same dark quiet room. We finally finished up and left, but the whole evening had been tainted by that experience.

This is something I feel strongly about. Now, remember I have 5! children, all in a 9 year age span. So for many, many years, I lived that life. But I tried to do it in a way that didn't bother everyone else, or ask others to suffer because of my life stage. I took my kids out to eat occasionally. Sometimes it was fast food, but we also went to Luby's, Chili's and other family style restaurants, and maybe even to other nicer places. And I took babies out to eat when they were tiny and portable. But older infants and toddlers are not a good match for the nicest of restaurants. And if I found myself in a restaurant and my kids were misbehaving, either their father or I carried them outside to explore so as not to bother others. I see these parents over and over making no attempt to quiet or control their unruly kids, often even allowing them to run around in the restaurant when they are finished eating, but the parents are not. They act like they are oh, so cute.

There are other options for a quiet romantic evening with your spouse or friends. If you cannot afford a babysitter, trade nights out with a friend. Or order in and set up your own cozy dinner in your home after kids go to bed early. I used to be shocked at the people in our country who were blantantly and vocally anti-child. But now, I am beginning to see how some inconsiderate families can ruin it for all the rest of us. And it saddens me. I hate to be cynical, but I am beginning to dread it when small children come into a restaurant where I am eating. I used to see the looks on people's faces when we walked in with our brood. But on more than one occasion, those same people would come to us at the end of a meal and tell us how well-behaved our children had been. Now I know why!

Near disaster

This has been a tough week. Late last week I spilled over half a gallon of vinegar in the back of my van. I carry vinegar often for the science experiments, and the tops are just pop tabs, not screw tops. If it tips, it spills. Usually they are wedged in and might spill a tiny bit. This time, it gushed. It took days just to dry, but now it still smells like vinegar. Plus, it's 9 years old and hauls dirty kids often :) It is quite stinky. So today, I am going to get it detailed, including the upholstery cleaned.

But the real disaster happened about 10:30 Wednesday night. I was grading papers and putting the grades in my computer gradebook. I have 9 classes, over 100 students, with 30-40 assignments per student each year. I have wonderful software that helps with that, and I love it. But it has a learning curve and i still don't know everything about it. I got to thinking about Bill going to ACC this summer, and needing to finish his transcript. So I thought I'd just go over to last year's file and pull up his Chemistry grade. When that was done, I couldn't figure out how to get back to the current year. I searched and searched. I found so many duplicate files all over the place, and yet none were the current school year. I began to panic. I tried to delete old files. Somehow, and I really do not even know HOW, I must have deleted the most current version. Yes, the whole year. Database of classes, students, ALL of it. That represents HOURS upon HOURS of work. I wason the verge of tears. I tried to recreate it and couldn't even get that to work. Finally, at 2 am, I gave up, defeated. I was dreading having to start from scratch.

I went into classes Thursday morning, gathering information as i could. Now I do keep a paper gradebook, so it was really a matter of data entry. But that's a heck of a lot of data. By the time Chemistry came around, Bill was there to help me. He interns in that class with me. He searched for about 10-15 minutes and found an old saved version from about October somewhere in my documents. So, if I can't find anything else, it will at least avoid the initial set up that takes so long in the fall.

It's a good thing my kids are strong and healthy. I'm managing to make a mess of my life all by myself.

Camping

Had a great time camping with the Cub Scouts this weekend. We were with about 10 other families in the primitive group area. We were well prepared with tarps, stakes, etc. This was my first solo campout without someone else there to do the set-up and take down... I did it all and we had a great time! This was one of the many sites we saw, There were cacti, wild onions, ferns, lichen, moss... everywhere. The ground was filled with granite and rose quartz. It was overcast, windy, but pleasant most of the time, with a little bit of drizzle. The kids ran and played and wore themselves out! And I got to know the boys Wesley is in scouts with. Win-win I would say.

Herbs

I love to cook with fresh herbs. It's been a while since I grew my own, in the busy-ness of life. But a few weeks ago, when Spring began to make its presence known, I noticed that some herbs were growing around a tree out front. These were leftover chives and oregano from an OLD herb garden. I mean probably 6 or 8 years ago. I had 5 or 6 herbs growing around the base of this tree. They grew well for a season and a couple of them came back for two or three years. Oregano took over everywhere, so I just let it all go.

Last summer I decided to try some basil in a pot inside. I've always had trouble growing basil well. I see that large beautiful basil in the grocery and I want to be able to grow it that pretty. The inside potted plant did well and lasted over a year. I recently used the last of it to make a tomato and mozzarella salad. The stems were getting very woody and too tall. I guess I didn't cut it back often enough.

But this year, as I walked past the garden area of the Super HEB, the herbs looked so fresh and pretty. They were healthy plants and very affordable. Between my renegade herbs around the trees, and this, I was hooked! I bought lemon thyme (above middle), cinnamon basil (in the square pots), chocolate mint, more oregano, parsley, and several peppermint plants. I put the parsley and oregano out under that tree to resurrect the "herb garden". The mints will grow and take over so I will keep them separate. I put the chocolate mint in a pot, and I think I will put the peppermint plants in a strawberry pot. I know it will grow and spread... I don't have a safe place to put it in the ground.

To the left you can see the chives that have grown back on their own... and the parsley which I put beside it. The oregano is on the other side of the tree. I hope it will take hold and grow in all around the tree.

Meet Jude Michael

This is my brand new little nephew, born Friday morning. Isn't he just precious. I can't wait to get my arms around him!

Please Send Help!

So, last night as I was resting on the couch after all the kids went to bed, I heard something. I looked around and thought maybe the dog stirred...

A few minutes later, I heard it again. A slight rustling noise. Nope, the dog is right beside me.

Hmmmmm... I didn't see anything amiss and no kids in sight, so I laid my head down.

Few minutes later and there it was again. So this time I got up and walked around to the back of the couch, where I found lying on the floor, one of Wesley's little plastic parachute men. Attached to it was a scroll of paper. Still no kid, but I opened the paper to find this:

I don't know if you can read it but it says: " If you get this message, READ it!!! It's hard to breath and I'm hearing Indian drum sounds."

Turns out he was congested from the high pollen counts and Bill was playing the bass on his stereo in the room under Wesley way toooooooo loud. I just thought this was priceless. When I told him he didn't have to drop that so many times, he could have just come and told me, his reply? "But it's a lot more fun this way, Mom!"

Turbo Tax

I did it! Today is April 15th, and I do not have to worry about my taxes. I have never done my own taxes before... and last year I had a CPA do them, since a divorce complicates everything. but this year, I thought I would at least try to do it myself with the assistance of Turbo Tax. I sat down and started plugging things in back in February. It became apparent I was going to have to pay, so I did not finish the whole thing and file... why hurry to give my money away? But when I sat down yesterday, I still had to itemize all the business expenses I have, the most tedious part. Fortunately, that reduced the bill to a manageable amount. Plus, TT estimates my quarterly payment amounts and prints coupons so I can make those payments more easily. It was far easier than I had expected. I can't wait for tax time next year!

Happy 16th Birthday, Bill!!!

Today, my second child turns 16. As my sister prepares to have her second child, also a boy, I am reminded of how he was as a little one. He was so very sweet, but I won't embarrass him by going on and on. This is Bill on his 2nd birthday. Oh, how time has flown. Happy Birthday, Son!

A Rose in Bloom

We have a renegade rose bush out front that I don't do anything to care for and yet each year I get a few blossoms from it. How timely that this one is here for Easter. New life... resurrection....

Good Friday

It was truly a Good Friday here. We had a productive morning in school, despite the fact that the neighborhood kids were knocking on the door. Then Wesley went off to play with them while Bill, Honour, and Rebecca went with our neighbor to the strawberry farm to pick the last of the crop. I didn't make it there this year, but the kids brought back a box of the tiniest berries. I guess today we should do something with those :) Since Bethany and I were alone, we ran a few errands and had some nice time together. Then I came home and went to the Egg Hunt below. That was fun but since the house was practically empty, I decided to clean it. I swept, mopped, dusted, vacuumed. It was all clean at the same time, downstairs at least. And smelled so fresh!

By then, the berry-pickers were back and it was time for supper. We had breakfast for supper, one of their favorites. And since it was a rare night that all of us were home, we played Life. Bill was beating us all..... until..... At the Day of Reckoning I took a chance.... and became...... a Millionaire Tycoon and it was all over. I won! I never win when we play those kinds of games. Then we finished off the evening with ice cream or cake...Perfect!

I had intended to go to the Tenebrae service at church, but it is so nice to have a calm quiet evening with my kids at home. So we remember Jesus' loving act of sacrifice, but we spent our time invested in each other. It was a Good Friday.

Wesley's Eggs

Wesley went over to the neighbor's for an egg hunt today and I caught a cute pic of him next to the fountain with green dye in it:

The Post that Will Not Die

Three years ago, I had an ironing marathon that lasted most of the day. In that time, I was also very actively blogging, so naturally I wrote a post about "how to iron a man's shirt". I took pictures, wrote step by step, and detailed how I do the job. I moved on and have had many posts since then, 434 all told. But for some reason, at least 3 or 4 times a week, I get hits from people doing a search on that very topic. I am amazed that it continues to get that much traffic, even three years down the road. I no longer have to iron massive quantities of men's shirts... a welcome side effect of the sad thing called divorce. But, I can make a mean crease in a sleeve when needed.

You can read that tutorial yourself HERE .

Garlic Herb Monkey Bread

Got a wild hair to try my traditionally sweet Monkey Bread recipe with melted butter and Garlic Italian bread dipping herbs. I bathed the dough balls in it, let rise all day and baked.... Yummy! Wish you could smell it :)

School Days

It's been a while since I talked about the daily routine of our school. These days, it can be hit or miss on the days I teach, sometimes doing math at 5 in the afternoon, or playing catchup on the weekend. But on my days at home, we get LOTS done. We always start with Bible, reading round-robin style as we move through our chosen selection. Thanks to Susan for that idea, which allows me to keep tabs on the reading skills of my youngest ones while not doing a formal "reading" curriculum. All of my kids are good readers, so I just want a small way for them to practice reading aloud skills, and for me to hear them. Our current book is Luke.

Then I dismiss the older two to go do their own thing. They have most of their work as independent work. Bethany is taking Government, Computer Applications, and British Literature out, as well as Spanish and Writing Comp at the local junior college. Bill is taking Pre-Calculus and English IV. I give them health, history, and literature assignments as needed.

Then the younger ones and I settle in for some read aloud time. Most recently we have been reading about mid 1800's historical fiction. We started January with The Great Wheel, a book about the building of the first giant ferris wheel built for the Chicago World Fair in late 1800 something..... Then, we read the first book in the Orphan Train series, which they loved, Since we had to get the second one through interlibrary loan, we read Sarah, Plain and Tall while we waited for it. We now have the second book and are reading it slowly, but surely. About once a week we read history and Fallacy Detective, pre-logic book.

Then they have math and grammar to do close by where I can supervise. Honour is taking my General Science class, Latin, and Writing out so she has homework for that. Rebecca is taking Writing as well, so she has a paper to write each week. Wesley and I are following Honour's science class, which is now covering the Human Body. Today's topic was the digestive system.

This often takes us past lunch time and into the afternoon. Then we might run errands, or go to the library, or have appointments. Today is Wednesday so we had a library run, dropped Bethany off at her college classes, and then came home to make some chocolate tarts (thanks to Singapore Math, in which many of Rebecca's word problems were about tarts. I am about to take her to cheer class, then off to church for choir and Bible Study. THe afternoons and evenings are all filled but I do try to protect those mornings when we can stay close and get school done. Today I also did much grading and record keeping that had been piling up.

All in all, it's not the ideal I had when they are younger and I was home full time. But we are making it work, and it is so much better for our family than the alternative of public school and mom working full time.

Then and Now Scout

Tonight was a momentous occasion. Bill received his Life Rank in Boy Scouts. Thought I'd share a few pictures of his 10 years in scouting. It all began as a Tiger Cub. In those days, the moms did all the work. I remember hosting a meeting during which we made paper mache masks... and coffee can ice cream. Those were iron-on patches for "paws" they earned. What a pain! Now that Wesley is in Cub Scouts, they get a real uniform and different achievements. Bill continued with the local Cub Scout Pack 158 until he crossed over into the church Boy Scout troop, which my brother had also been active in. He wore Uncle Cal's class B (t-shirt) under his uniform and his grandfather's keppie envelope hat tonight for the ceremony.

This is Bill a few years ago, one of his first in Boy Scouts. Once he got to Boy Scouts, they began to do lots more activities. He camps almost monthly, lots of first aid, hiking, swimming, summer camps. This summer, he is gearing up to go to the Philmont Scout Camp in New Mexico.

And this is tonight... Life!

Saving Money on Groceries

It's been a while since I shared any good ideas... but I'm full of them today. I go in fits in spurts about all out saving on groceries, but when I do, I am amazed at the amount I CAN save. Take the last week, for example. I have three key "secrets", which I am more than happy to share with anyone who'll listen.

First, get to know your store's patterns and secret "goody" hiding spot. Most of them have them. Whether it's very ripe bananas by the bag, day old bakery racks, or the clearance meat bin, they are usually somewhere. My local high-end store has a clearance meat bin that almost always has treasures in it. Just after Christmas, I hit the jackpot with holiday roasts, steaks, fancy burgers, and pre-marinated meat. I stocked my freezer well. This afternoon I found some great pork chops for less than $2/lb. As long as you can freeze them, or cook them that night, as I did, it's a wonderful way to save on meat.

Second, look for outlets in your area. I have a Mrs. Baird's bakery outlet close to where I teach one day a week, so about once a month, I stop there afterwards and stock up on loaves of bread, bagels and English muffins, tortillas, buns, and a few treats like coffee cake. The healthy whole grain breads we eat are less than half the price of the grocery and still plenty fresh. Again, into the freezer they go.

Lastly, I know I've mentioned it before but The Grocery Game saves me loads of money when I use it correctly. Just today, at that same high-end store, I saved $67.99, which was 58% of the total bill. This post of mine from a while back tells all about it. It's well worth the investment. Actually, I save more at the high-end store with it, than at my regular lowest prices store, HEB. The more expensive stores run better sales and I can often combine a sale with a store coupon AND a manufacturers coupon, doubled... to really save. Just be sure it's something you'll use :)

One last note, in case you aren't aware. The higher stores also have more of what is called "loss leaders". They are usually on the front and back of their weekly flyers. Mine are in the Wednesday paper, but sometimes also in the Sunday paper and you can pick them up right inside the door of the stores. They offer something at a loss, knowing it will "lead" you into their store, where you'll spend MORE money. The key is to ONLY buy those items. My store like this is the closest, right on my way home from almost anywhere, and milk is one thing they run on sale often---and I run out of often! So it works for me.

Other ideas - Angel Food Ministries, farmer's markets, pick-your-own, wholesale stores (for select items), gardening of course, bulk cooking. So many ways to save. You have to decide where and how you want to cut the food budget. For me, I no longer bake all our bread. Just no time. There was a time..... it is past !

I'd love to hear of any new ideas or success stories, too. Every penny helps.

Woodpecker in the morning...

As I was loading the car this morning, I heard a funny banging noise. We had a monster hailstorm last week and many homes are getting new roofs, so I thought maybe that was it. It was about 8 in the morning, a good time for them to start. But I noticed the pattern was very fast! I began to suspect..... a woodpecker. So I ventured that way down the street, and finally found him, high in a tree but very small. I watched him for a minute and then went inside to get my camera. You guessed it, by the time I got back-------he was gone :( But it was a fun way to start my day. Sorry I can't share pictures with you.

College

So, I haven't shared with the blogosphere that my parenting has moved to a whole new arena. I am now the parent of a college student. We are talking transitional college, here, but real enough for the both of us. B is taking dual credit classes at the local community college. For their last two years, students in our district can take up to 6 hours free each semester and earn both high school and college credit for those hours. She is taking Spanish I and an English Composition class. This has been a great experience for her to have some other outlet besides mom and be in a college atmosphere before heading off to a big university. She has classes on Monday and Wednesday afternoon so it fits in with the rest of the schedule and she is only 5 minutes away, still in the neighborhood. It doesn't get more convenient than that. We'll be sending dsB on for some summer classes as well. They can both get a few basics under their belt now, saving both time and money when the real time comes.

Saturdays

One of the things I like about Saturdays is that no two are alike. Each week brings new adventures and trials to deal with. Yesterday was no exception. I got up early to go shopping with B... we had coffee, hit Michael's and Target, then refilled her constantly thirsty printer cartridge. Along the way, I noticed the brake light was staying on more... it had been flickering, but I was planning to go on Monday. I changed my mind and thought I'd just take care of it. But first, I had promised W to get new shoes and jeans at Sears. That kid just keeps shooting up. We found three pairs of jeans to fit his tall, lean body and a pair of light-up shoes (whoever invented those is a genius and a millionaire). Then I dropped him off and grabbed a book to head to Brake Check.

6 weeks ago, I got a new master cylinder, and it was under warranty so I knew they would check it out for me. I've been a regular there for about a year. See this post for my sordid brake history. After almost an hour, they finally found that the new (rebuilt) master cylinder was leaking so they had to get a new one in to install. So, 3 hrs later I headed home.

My Dad was coming for dinner and I had promised the kids cupcakes. So I set them up with a mix, a tub of frosting, and a HUGE stockpile of gel icing and sprinkles. My Dad brought a friend with him, an old childhood friendship that is rekindled, and she had a good time decorating the cupcakes with the kids. We had taco salad for dinner, including homemade pico de gallo.

Throughout the afternoon, my beau was once again taking care of me, this time in a major construction project. Last week the toilet upstairs overflowed and led us to discover that major water damage over a long period of time has led to a rotten floor in the second floor bathroom. The floor is now cut out, linoleum ripped up all over the place, and a gaping hole where the toilet should be. He is helping to replace the floor and then we'll get to decide what kind of new tile to get. I'm leaning towards inexpensive peel-and-stick flooring we can do ourselves. We will probably extend it out into the girls' room. Their carpet is YUCKY!!

So finally, when the dust settled and the cupcakes were mostly a memory, I kissed my kids off to bed and snuggled up on the couch with my beau. That was a perfect ending to a crazy Saturday.

Teaching math

Here I am teaching math most days again... it seems that is the focus of our time at home. They all take writing where I teach, so that is covered. We do history via literature and read alouds so that is easy. Science is only formal in jr high and above and that is all with me in my classes. That leaves math. I have sent one on to the teacher where I teach since he is doing preCalculus. Next year he'll be taking Physics and Calculus. Way more time than I have to prepare and review to teach :) B has completed her high school math requirements, much to her JOY! That leaves 3 for me to teach. H is doing PreAlgebra, and we are using Saxon for the first time. She finished the Singapore Math elementary series, which was excellent preparation, but a very different format. Singapore Math focuses on one topic at a time, requiring mastery before moving on (at least that's how I use it). But Saxon is a hodge podge of everything in one lesson, using the spiral approach of constant review. I'm not crazy about it honestly. It doesn't feel like she is doing enough to really master the new concepts. And since we haven't used Saxon before, there are few things that Singapore didn't teach ( like prime numbers, least common multiple, etc.) I feel like there is lots of teach time and not much practice. We are having to back up and teach some things we had not covered. It's not enough to make me leave Singapore Math, which I love. And we will use Jacob's Algebra after this, which I also love... BUT we have got to get through this book. It will take a long time but we're not in a hurry, and it will be good to cover all the bases thoroughly before moving on.

At least the younger two are doing math I don't have to work as hard to teach. W loves his 2nd grade book, and did fractions and geometry today. Poor little R is doing 5th grade fractions, too and it's no fun!! But we shall persevere ...

Cooking for a crowd

So, last weekend we went on our annual Church Retreat at a beautiful campsite on the Frio River. We have been going for 13 yrs now and it is the highlight of the kids' year. A few years ago, I began working in the kitchen and that has now grown into being in charge of the food. I am seeing a wonderful man from church whose ministry is food. He has a BBQ business on the side of his day job and has been key in the food ministry at church for several years now. This was his 3rd yr to be totally in charge of the retreat kitchen and my first year to do it by his side. Wow! It is a lot of work to plan, shop, and prepare meals for 300 people for a whole weekend. I am so exhausted, but in a good way. All last week we planned and shopped. Almost $2000 in food and supplies over 4 trips and an order to Sysco.

Then from early Friday morning until late Sunday evening, we transported all the food in a Uhaul and chopped, sliced, baked, and stirred up food. Here are some highlights:

20 dozen cookies
400 cinnamon rolls
50 pounds of roasted potato wedges
75 pounds of brisket
260 strawberry shortcakes from 35 # of strawberries
3 gallons of whipped cream
160 hot dogs
120 taco salads from 40 # of graound beef
400 biscuits
9 HUGE pans of breakfast casserole
gallons and gallons and gallons of coffee!!!

But there were smiling faces so happy to be fed good food. And I got to work in the kitchen with some pretty terrific people.

Can't wait until next year :)

Facebook

Okay, I have succombed. I resisted getting a Facebook for lots of reasons. First, I could barely manage my computer time already, not doing anything on this blog, which I thought was close enough. Didn't really care about the "teeny bopper" image I had in my head of what Facebook was all about. I admit it I was wrong, but I couldn't imagine how I could need that.

Being as how this is Spring Break and I was puttering, I wanted to look at other people's pictures there. Alas, you can only do that if you have your own! So I thought I'll just get a little one so I can lurk. Well, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have reconnected with several people I haven't seen in ages, and wondered where they were. Put old pictures there to share with family. All kinds of action!

I will have to slow this down come tomorrow as I go off to our annual Church Retreat, where we have a great time... This year I am helping with the food for 290+ people. So far we have shopped Sam's twice and HEB once. Today we have to go back to HEB, get dry ice, get a Uhaul, and who knows what else! Be glad to just get there :)

Later.........

Spring Break

Here it is Spring Break 2009. I'm not packing up to go to the beach... or skiing... or even the zoo. Been there, done that one year, never again. NOpe, this year, we are truly taking it easy. This morning I had coffee with a good friend to catch up and my kids slept in very late. THey took a walk and are playing outside. I went to the store to get a few things, mostly coupon items. And now... I'm going to take a nap! Glorious naps!!! I so seldom have the freedom and when I do, I often can't get to sleep. But I'll give it a valiant try. Also, this morning a guy came to repair my garage door opener. It's so inconvenient when it doesn't work, and yet we take it for granted when it does. I'm up and running with that, though.

So.... boring? yes :) and proud of it!!!!

Changes and Acceptance

So, this blog has been lying here for months, with nothing added... after a very long and successful run (for me at least, don't know what others think). But I feel the need to add a post here and maybe change the direction of this blog. When I began it, I was a married mother of 5, homeschooling and working. Now, I am a single mom, still homeschooling and working. There's not much time for blogging, and lots of emotional blocks about it. You see, I'm not proud to be a single mom. For me personally, this is where I need to be and I know I'm in the right place. But it's not easy being single as a homeschool mom. My world is all about family, the family I thought I had, but didn't really. All the years I spent WISHING my family was like others, my marriage was like those I saw around me. I put on a good show. I tried to pretend like it was all okay. But I was dying inside. Once I finally got on the other side of...........divorce......... I am able to begin the healing. And to see that I was going to be okay. No regrets, no looking back.

So if I continue this blog, it will be about the joys and struggles of my life as a single mom, trying to balance all that goes along with that. And I'll start with Spring Break...

The Big Reveal

I can't leave you without showing that I did indeed clean up that MESS. I worked most of July and that last couple of weeks...here are the after pictures. I still want to do a few things, mostly decorative (pictures, window treatments), but it is functional this way and we have enjoyed doing things up there this week.









My favorite part is the nice shelving for the sewing and craft supplies. That whole area has my sewing machines and everything I'll need if I ever find time to sew again.


One of the things I want to do is coordinate all the storage containers. I know it will take time and lots of 40% off Michael's coupons, but these shoeboxes I painted are a start. I glued phrases on them and there are 5 all the same in a row.



I am very proud of all the work this represents, but mostly we are just so happy to have this space. We moved the Wii up there and they can spend time reading on the new futon, games, art...Just a great space.

Mission Organization

I have been working all summer to revamp our former playroom into a teen entertainment/school room. I am ashamed to say it had fallen into disuse simply because it was a total disaster. The show Mission Organization on HGTV is my favorite so I decided to model my effort and this post after that. Here are a couple of before pics...





The first step was to sort and purge. We began this process last Spring Break and got it all sorted off the floor into these many labeled tubs:





And of course the most important tubs of all, which were emptied many times in the job.



We originally had a 6 ft banquet table with two computers, a TV, and a printer. Too much space!!!!!!!!! So I moved a much smaller desk there for the kids' computer and put mine downstairs. dsB proudly set it all up for them.



That's as far as we got during Spring Break, then I had to wait until summer....and you'll have to wait to see the after pictures because W is calling me to do math with him. :)

Computer Woes

I am temporarily on my laptop which is very sick...I have been having trouble for a long time, and last week it came to a head when I couldn't even get online for days. Apparently this computer has "known issues" with the motherboard and the wireless drive...that's all Greek to me, but what it means is that I have to send it in to HP and let them fix it while it is still under warranty. I'll be sending it away today and may not have it for 10 days or more....sadness for me!

So if you're wondering where I am, I'm here, but without my little computer. Maybe I can make progress on the playroom in that time. We got all the sorting done but now I need to purge each category and put it all away.

Proof of existence

Erma Bombeck used to write about how her youngest, as many youngest children do, wondered about his existence as a baby and young child. It's always joked that there are volumes and volumes of pictures of the first child, slightly less of #2, and then almost none of subsequent children. There may be some truth in that, but I'm here to tell you that my littlest guy has his share of pictures in the digital realm. I was downloading off the camera and noticed in the last week alone, I had 3 really good picture opportunities involving W. So here are some of my favorites from the week:

Last week I set him up at a table during class to entertain himself with vinegar, ammonia solution, and cabbage water (a pH indicator which will change color as pH changes). This kept him busy for quite some time.



Later in the week, we went to Shake's for frozen custard and played in the trees of the little seating area. It was a beautiful day and the kids played for a long time even after they finished their ice cream.



Then while we waited for H's soccer game to start yesterday, we rode the little train that circles around the park. W enjoyed the Mom-time as much as the ride--he talked my ear off! But I loved every minute of it too. He's a pretty cool kid.


and


So, some day when he is trying to find pictures of his childhood to show his own children, he'll have at least a few from the spring he was 7!

So much to do...part 2

Otherwise known as "No Time to Blog!"

I did finish my room, then promptly got some nasty virus that left me coughing miserably for days...then we had a church retreat last weekend, for which I was on the kitchen team. We fed 250 people for 3 days. That is no small feat and requires very careful preparation. So now I got home and took all week to recover and try to whip my house back into shape. I spent most of Thursday and Friday in the girls' room. THe car was in the shop getting new tires and a new automatic window motor, so I had nowhere to go. Today I'll be out of town all day and tomorrow is filled with the usual Sunday mele PLUS a soccer game. So, it doesn't look like I'll be getting my room photographed and posted any time soon. How's that for suspense?

Now, I'm hitting the shower and grabbing coffee. Hope you're having a restful, or at least productive weekend.