Menu Planning and Other Matters

It's been awhile since we did our budget.  Bed rest, early baby, and crisis mode threw us some financial curve balls, but now that things have become more and more settled, it has become more and more obvious that we need to get things figured out.  And, now that the school year is rapidly drawing to a close, our income is going to change yet again.

So after about two hours of crunching numbers and setting goals, we finally have a plan.  It is very like this one that I posted last year, but the notable exception is fun money.  We are going to try to make it to summer using no fun money beyond the cash from Christmas and our birthdays that we have saved.  There's not much wiggle room in this new plan, but hopefully we will have my car paid off by the end of the school year!

The other big piece of the budget is grocery.  We are returning to our $50/week budget (which we deviated from since Christmas).  We just put an eighth of a cow in our freezer, so I'm hopeful that between using that meat and continuing to shop from the sales ads and at Aldi, we will be able to stick to our budget.  And that leads me to:

I do so much better with a grocery budget when I have a plan.  And for this week, my plan is to eat out of the freezer, fridge, and pantry so that I don't need a trip to the store.  So here goes:

• Chicken Enchiladas - I have a whole chicken thawing in the fridge as I type.  I'm going to cook it in the crock pot while I'm at school tomorrow and use some of the chicken for the enchiladas.
• Vegetable Beef Soup - I have been planning to make this for weeks and haven't gotten to it.  I need to hurry up because it's starting to feel like spring around here, and my husband hates to eat soup when it's warm out.  I'm going to document making this meal and post the recipe, because it is so delicious.
• Homemade Mac & Cheese - this is the perfect Wednesday night meal.  Two of us have to be at church by 6:30, so this quick, filling meal is perfect. 
• Leftovers - I'm guessing we will have plenty this week for leftovers.

Payday is at the end of the week, so if I can make it until then without a trip to the grocery store, we should be in good shape!

My Sad Story

Every year at school, when it gets to be Easter time, I tell my kids "my sad story."  I preface with the fact that it is sad - so sad, in fact, that I may cry in the telling.  I will definitely cry in the writing.

I told it something like this:

"Easter is one of my favorite times of year because my entire family, like, all 150 of us, get together at my great-aunt's house.  We do all the normal Easter stuff - Easter egg hunt, egg toss, marshmallow fight, you know." They look confused, and a few kids even said, "Uh, Mrs. Stones, I don't think anything is normal about a marshmallow fight."  I guess I can see how that might be true.  But we do, and it's awesome.

I continue: "It's one of my favorite family times all year long.  Of course, the first thing we always did was find my great-grandma and give her a hug, right?  How many of you guys do that first thing when you arrive at a family gathering?" Three-quarters of the hands went up in the air.  I'm glad to see that.  I tell them, it's about to get sad, people.

"When I was a junior, I had just turned 16, which of course means I had just gotten my license.  When I hugged my great-grandma, she said to me, 'Randi, I know you just turned 16 and you can drive now.  Why haven't you been out to see me?'  The honest answer?  I was 16.  I wanted to hang out with my friends.  I wanted to go shopping.  I wanted to do things that didn't matter.  I was 16.  I don't remember what I said, but she responded with 'You need to come out and see me.'  I responded with 'Okay, Grandma, I will.  I promise.'

"I promise.  That was in April.  Guess what happened in June?"

There was a small pause in each class before one or two kids responded with:
"She died."

"Yes.  She died.  Guess what I did not do?"

Pause.  "Go see her."

"That's right.  I didn't go see her because I was young and selfish and I didn't care enough.  And now, I can never ever ever get that moment back."

By now, in most of my classes, I am in tears, and several of my kids are as well.  A few even wiped their eyes.

"So, if you would, could you please do me a personal favor this weekend?  It's Easter.  How many of you will see an elderly realative of some sort?"

Three-quarters of the hands went up again.

"Please, please, please take some time, even if it's just five or ten minutes, and sit down and spend time with that person.  I know sometimes it doesn't feel like fun, and sometimes you'd rather be playing outside or running around with your cousins, but someday, they won't be there.  You won't see them at family gatherings or be able to hop in the car or pick up the phone.  They will be gone.  I know it's hard to understand that at this age, but look at me?  I'm crying in front of all of you today because I wish I had done it differently.  Please just trust me on this - if you don't do it now, there will come a day when you wish you had.  There is no way for me to correct my mistake, but if you learn from it, maybe you can avoid a similar story.  It doesn't fix my problem, or make me regret my actions any less, but it does help to know that perhaps you might not repeat my mistake. Can you do this for me?"

A chorus of head-nods.  I hope so.  The kids packed up, we went to the library, and I sent them on their way.

I'm blessed in many ways, and one of them is that there are truly very few things in my life that I regret.  This is one of the huge ones.  I wish I could turn back the clock, drive my beat-up '95 Buick Century down Auburn Road, pull into my great-grandmother's cracked driveway, step on to the hand-woven rug, get an ice-cold tea in the plastic textured cup, complete with ice from the way old-fashioned ice tray that you had to crack with the crank, and sit on the faded couch and visit with my great-grandmother for hours.  I wish I had asked about being a mom to six girls.  I wish I had asked about what the Great Depression was like.  I wish I had asked about my grandmother.  I wish I had asked about my dad and my uncles when they were little.  And I wish I had asked her about how she fell in love with my great-grandpa.


Life is full of stuff and things.  Some are important and some aren't.  Take time to do the things that matter.  Forget the things that don't.

Spring Break To-Do List Check-In:

• Clean the shower (my least favorite household chore) DONE!
• Enjoy our mini family vaycay to Coco Key and the Omaha Zoo DONE! Read about it here and here
• Make phone calls - the ones I can only make on days off because they don't open until after I'm at work and they close before I get home Umm...fail. I didn't do it.  I'll have to try to remember next week over my lunch break.
• Finish Divergent When I make to-do lists, I circle items in progress.  I would have circled this one if I could have figured it out. I didn't finish.  I made a good dent, but I guess I was banking on it being a better book.  It's not nearly as interesting as I hoped it would be.
• Start my daughter's scrap book - I selected pictures and uploaded them to a website to be developed...so I'm calling this one done!
• Continue potty training with my son! - A resounding YES!  He has done such a great job! And even when we were out of town he kept it up.  And today, he POOPED on the potty for the first time!  When we started the week, his potty chart looked like this:

And now, it looks like this:

I am so very proud of my boy!

And my last goal:

Spend some good, quality time with my family

Done.  I was reminded again how very blessed I am.  My children are beautiful, healthy, well-behaved (for the most part) and happy.  My husband loves me and works hard to be the best husband and dad he can be.  I could not ask for more.

Mini-Family Vaycay Part 1: Coco Key

Back in September, DealGarden had a deal where you could purchase a 2-day stay at the Ramada in Omaha for a family of 4. The deal included passes to the indoor water park adjacent, as well as breakfast and dinner for everyone both days.  The total? $150.  We sprung for it back then and scheduled it for Spring Break, knowing we would be a family of 4 by then.  To be honest, I wasn't terribly excited about the trip because our mini-vaycay from the summer proved to be such a let-down.

Fast-forward to Tuesday morning.  We packed up and headed for Omaha around 10 AM.  Our kids were AWESOME on the drive up.  Charlie played with toys and the iPad, and Lucy either slept or was her usual, quiet, content, and perfect self.  We stopped at a Sonic in Auburn, NE that was INDOOR.  I had no idea they had INDOOR Sonics, but once we realized that's what it was, we had to see.  I wish I had gotten pictures - you walk in and instead of a counter, there were windows, just like at a regular Sonic.  There are booths and tables just like a regular fast food place, but at each table was a PHONE. You picked it up, pushed the red button, and they brought your food out when it was ready.

Charlie watching "Lucy" (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) on Daddy's iPad)

We were the only ones in there at first, which was nice because Lucy was ready to eat, but by the time our food came a crowd of elderly folks from a neighboring nursing or retirement home had come in.  They were just tickled (to use a phrase my grandmother would have used) with Charlie, and he was basking in the center of their attentions.  He said his name, his address, John 3:16, and told them the names of everyone in his family.  He even sang for them.  When we left, he hugged one of the gentlemen and said "Good-bye my friends."  He is so stinking cute.

So adorable in her swimming suit!

We arrived in Omaha at about 1:30.  They had told us check-in was at 4, so we were planning to see if they had a locker room or something so we could change and get to swimming, but they checked us right in and sent us up to our room.  It was nice, with two beds and a mini-fridge with a freezer compartment.  We weren't expecting that part, and it was a welcome surprise, as we had carted about twelve bags of frozen milk for Lucy and weren't totally sure how we were going to keep it cool.  We unpacked, changed, and headed downstairs to the water park.

Charlie was mesmerized.  He loves swimming and could not believe all the cool things there were to do!  We couldn't believe there weren't more people there!  Apparently, spring break in Nebraska was the week before - SCORE!

Charlie got to go down the slides over and over and over again without waiting on anyone.  We played for a few hours, went upstairs and cleaned up, went to the restaurant for our free pizza, and then did it all over again!

Lucy is behind Rick...we didn't just leave her in the room :)

By the time we got back to the room, he was beat.  He didn't quite understand the concept of hotel rooms and kept trying to tell us that he was ready for us to go.  He finally went to sleep but woke up around midnight totally disoriented.  He yelled several times and I was worried he was going to wake Lucy, but she's so good she slept through it!

We went down again the next morning and the place was virtually empty - I think there may have been one other family there and we didn't even cross paths.  We played in the lazy river, went down the slides, and just walked all around in the water fall jungle gym thing.  He was in heaven.

 And little Miss Lucy enjoyed herself, too!

I give the Ramada and the resort two thumbs up.  It was wonderful!

Blog Milestones

My blog is now over a year old. I began it with my first post in January of last year, and now, 195 posts later, I just hit the 10,000 hits mark.  I started this blog because I like to write, and, other than the occasional short story or expository paragraph for my kids at school, I don't have much occasion to do so.  So, for the heck of it, I created the occasion.  My mother also compiled my blog into a book using this site and I could not BELIEVE how thick the book was.  It was so much writing!  I hadn't realized how much I had done!

Since it's Spring Break, I've had some time to review my posts, and here are some of my favorites, including some of the goals I had set for myself:

• Making Charlie's Birthday Cake
• Coaching an Upward Basketball Team
• Why It's a Good Thing that Life Isn't Fair
• My Husband's Graduation
• Finding Out about Baby #2
• Adios-ing our Son's Binky
• My Trip to LA
• New Outlook on Teaching for Year 7
• Bed Rest...Ugh
• The Birth of our Baby Girl
• And Bringing her Home
• Christmas
• Goals for 2013

Keeping this chronicle of my life has been therapeutic.  Looking back, I find I get so wrapped up in what's going on in my own life that I forget to take time to think about the fact that life goes on outside of me and mine.  It's important to remember that life is bigger than just me.

Spring Break To Do List:

• Clean the shower (my least favorite household chore)
• Enjoy our mini family vaycay to Coco Key and the Omaha Zoo (if it's warm enough!)
• Make phone calls - the ones I can only make on days off because they don't open until after I'm at work and they close before I get home
• Finish Divergent
• Start my daughter's scrap book
• Continue potty training with my son!

(He's actually been doing very well with the potty.  Almost every time we sit, he goes.  He hasn't started telling us that he needs to go yet, but I'm hoping that part comes soon.)

And my last goal:

Spend some good, quality time with my family

I Have A Problem

I am really good at not spending money.  I've had to be because I'm married to a 10th year student. :)  I buy things used at garage sales, thrift stores, and online.  I accept (and in some cases, request) hand-me-downs, and to be honest, my little boy is just as cute in his second-hand name-brand stuff as the other boys are in their first-hand name-brands.

Enter my girl.  Oh, my goodness.

I cannot believe how many adorable things there are for little girls.  We went to Target the other day and made the mistake of "just looking" at the girl's clothes. We ended up with the two 3-piece outfits pictured above, two onsies, and a pair of pants.  To be fair, we are a little short on clothes that fit her (my 5-month-old is officially in 6 months!), but not that short.

And, since we're going on a mini-vaycay next week, I ordered this little swimming suit for Lucy (with gift cards, so I wasn't really spending money).  Isn't it so adorable?  I can't wait to see her chubby little arms and legs sticking out of it!


Oh well - I'm calling it the rest of my Christmas money and deciding to enjoy it. :)

My Medical ISNs

Last year I posted about Interactive Student Notebooks and how they have changed my instruction forever.  I applied the concept to my children's medical information, and oh my goodness, things got SO much easier!

 Every time we go to the doctor, we take these notebooks and record information.  Anytime we receive paperwork, we glue it in to their notebooks.  It's also helpful when the doctor asks questions, like "When was his last ear infection?" or "Where is she on her immunizations?"  If I don't remember (and I usually don't), it's at my fingertips.  There is a table of contents in the front:

And it helps keep me organized.  Of course, Lucy's is almost full at 5 months old, where Charlie's is only about half full!  When we went to the doctor for Lucy's NICU followup, the nurse practitioner (whom we LOVED - she was amazing) introduced me to a student who was shadowing her by saying "This is the most organized mom ever.  She was the mom with the notebook.  I had to talk slow so she could write everything down."

What a compliment :)  And someday, when they are old and grown, I will just hand them their notebooks, in case they ever need any of the information, or if they want to compare themselves to their kids.

Back to Menu Planning

I've been trying desperately to get back to menu planning, but things have been so hectic that I haven't had the time.  But my favorite money-saving site did a series called 25 Days of Slow Cooking, and since my mother-in-law gave me a programmable crock pot for Christmas, I am itching to try a few recipes!  I don't normally crock pot cook because I'm gone for 9-10 hours at a time during the week and very few recipes require that much baking time.  But now I can set my crock pot to turn off and just keep warm until I get home!

So these are the recipes I've selected for this week:

• Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup - this is seriously the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had, and I love that it is made with a whole chicken, as they are so easy to work with, they yield so much meat, and they are MUCH cheaper than buying chicken breasts!  It's a little bit of work to de-meat the chicken, but one of the great things about this recipe is that I can take half of the chicken and stick it in the freezer for another meal!
• Ham and Cheese Rolls - these are based on this bierocks recipe from my favorite cooking website, Everyday Homecook.  One day we ended up with some ham and so, instead of using beef and cabbage, we used ham and cheese.  These are one of my husband's favorites.  I'm going to try this recipe for sauteed corn, bacon, and scallions that I found on Pintrest as a side dish.
• Crock Pot Pulled Pork Sandwiches - This recipe kind of scares me, but since Boston Butt Roast was on sale this week at HyVee for $1.08/lb, I decided to try it out.  We'll see!
• Crock Pot Maccaroni & Cheese - I asked my husband to pick two of this week's meals, and he picked Ham & Cheese Rolls and Mac & Cheese.  This recipe is new, but I'm going to give it a try!
• Leftovers - This is going on the menu because it's quick and efficient!

We grab dinner on Thursdays because of our schedule, but other than that, I am going to try to stick to this! I am also going to make Vegetable Beef Soup for our school potluck lunch this week.  I will (assuming I remember to take pictures :) do a post on this recipe, because it is delicious and staple at our house.