The Wednesday Menu and Volcano Experiment

Last night was out of the norm, we had an awesome friend come over to clip Turbo's nails for me. I owe her another trade item for it but it saved me the anxiety of doing it myself so it was worth it!

Dinner was not photographed sadly. We had chicken thighs cooked in olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon and garlic pepper served over rice. I had put the chicken thighs in the crockpot yesterday morning before I headed to work and so that portion was ready when I got home. I really need to invest in a programmable crockpot. Phillip switched it to warm but it was still a touch on the dry side.

After dinner and baths Logan wanted to try an experiment he heard about, making a volcano.

I had not made one in a long time but it was fun, really the fun was seeing how excited Logan was. We are going to make another one tonight I think unless he has come up with another experiment he wants to test.

Tuesday Night Dinner Equals Brinner

Last night was semi uneventful. I did have to run by the library to confirm a book I turned in was on the shelf. They had it listed as overdue but once I found it on the shelf they took the fine off my account. We did need some milk so I went by Kroger and found some on clearance. I got a half gallon and a quart for $1.69 and 4 heads of "specialty" lettuce for $.50. After Kroger I picked up the kids from the sitter and we went home to have dinner. The fridge and the freezer were stared into and a decision made. I fixed bacon, scrambled eggs and french toast.

 Not the prettiest picture but it was really delicious. I had my french toast with homemade apple butter made earlier this year with apples from Bountiful Baskets .

You might notice a trend with my pictures, cast iron. I have a cast iron addiction and try to pick it up whenever I can at a good price. My mom has also passed a lot of hers on to me which has not made my sisters happy. The pans above are one of my mom's skillets and a skillet pan my mother in law found at a thrift store.

Pinterest Recipe Overload!

I am trying to come up with something for dinner tonight, which involves scanning my pinterest board and possibly recipe books when I get home. Sometimes I am overwhelmed as I currently have 723 recipes on my Food I Want to Try board and tons of recipes in books at home. Sigh, I will come up with something and continue to drool over recipes and add them to my board with the plans of making them one day.

Spring in Texas, Tornados and Bluebonnets

A sure signal that it is spring in Texas....storm season bringing tornadoes and pictures in the bluebonnets. Phillip took the boys out after school and in between rain storms to get pictures in the bluebonnets. This is my favorite picture they took even though they are not looking at the camera or even each other!

Phillip took his childhood rocking chair out to get a picture with the boys and the chair, this one tells the story.

I promise there were actually photos where they are looking and not annoying each other but I think these tell more of a story.

Storms also mark spring here and this year we have had more than a few. The rain was really needed as we have been in a multiple year drought and the lakes have been nearing empty. It has been a mixed bag for my electric bill. The cooler temperatures and nights without electric have made my bill lower, it has prevented me from hanging out my laundry though which usually saves me quite a bit of money. We will see what the bill looks like when it comes next month. I need to go on the website and check as the electric company used to email me a weekly summary telling me how much I used that week. The email has not come in quite some time and I am interested to see what the weather has done to my usage.

Ok, on to dinner news from last night. I cooked one of the steaks in my cast iron pan on the stovetop in herb butter. This was served with baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar and a green salad. I had boiled egg, raisins ( I dried), grated cheese, and croutons on my salad.

I took a picture of the steak but not the whole meal....was hungry once it was completed and could not resist digging in. There were no leftovers so nothing to "make" over tonight from that meal.

April winds down, totals and outlook to May

April is winding down but it is going out with a bang here! Friday I barely made it home before a storm hit with extreme high winds which toppled trees and nearly took out some light poles.
I headed home from work and skipped all errands to make it there before the rain came in. I pulled in the garage and right when I hit the button to close the door the storm blew in. This is of course is when a nut flew off the garage door and the arm dropped. I went in quickly, told Phillip and then came out to find the nut. We got it fixed quickly, helps to have a tall honey so we could take care of it without dragging out the ladder. Once inside I flipped on the news and discovered a possible tornado within a few miles of the house so the kids and I set to work getting the bathroom ready to hunker down if the sirens started going off. Logan was scared but helping me gave him something to do. This was our set up which Logan and I talked about and he is prepared to help with again as this is storm season in Texas. 

The storm ended up passing us by quickly on Friday and after Logan was able to call some friends and make sure they were ok we settled into our regular routine. I made enchilada casserole using part of the rotisserie chicken I had thawing in the fridge. I also used the carcass along with the last carrot, some thyme and rosemary I had on hand and 2 ribs of celery in the crockpot overnight to make stock. This is the easiest way to get a rich stock that I usually freeze in portions for any recipe that calls for it! Saturday I took the kids to the library, which required an alternate route because we encountered this damage from the storm.

After Logan was able to visit with his favorite people at the library and check out some books and DVDs we decided to go by the park where we came across this storm damage.

It was still a beautiful day so we went ahead and made good use of the time. After the park I completed a trade and took the kids to McDonald's for ice cream. Logan of course used the time to play some more. I never want to point things out for a pat on the back but this is something that made me sad so I wanted to tell the story. While we were at McDonald's which is in itself is going to cause controversy there was another family walking in. As they were going in the door their little girl dropped one of her dollars which is all the money the family had to spend for her right then. The little girl who was probably 3 years old just broke down crying because they started back to the car. I dug out some quarters I had in my console so she could go in and get something. I know that they could have spent their dollars in a "healthier" way just as I could have but I was just heartbroken that the little girl could not get something because she dropped her money. The controversy is of course that instead of spending $2.00 at McDonald's I could have taken my kids home and fed them something homemade or less processed. My feeling is though that people really need to step back and ponder how I was going to give them a treat and time/people to play with inside for less than $2.00.

Saturday night I used the stock I had in the crockpot along with some frozen carrots, the leftover corn off the cob, more of the leftover chicken, a couple more ribs of celery, and some penne pasta to make a chicken noodle soup. We were free from storms so the night was uneventful other than I decided to cut Turbo's nails myself. This generally gives me a panic attack since I am convinced I am going to cut into the quick. I just took the tips off and all was well. I will take the tips off again in a couple of nights and work until I get them to the length they are supposed to be.

Sunday was Loralee day as Logan calls it. We go to church and he gets to see his friend Loralee which he loves. Nothing dramatic happened until we got home and another storm started to come in. There were tornadoes spotted west of us and so we prepped everything just in case. Dinner was spaghetti as it was easy and quick. I put some mushrooms I had dehydrated into the jarred sauce with some browned hamburger meat. We enjoyed dinner got baths and other bedtime stuff taken care of. It looked like the storm was skirting around us when the kids went to bed. If only we were that fortunate. I woke at 12:30am to the sound of the neighborhood transformer blowing. The power was out again, which luckily the kids were unaware of since they slept through it. Clark woke up about 4:30 and Logan about 5:00 scared because of the dark. After getting a flashlight to Logan so he could potty they all piled in the bed with us. The crowd at school was pretty thin when I dropped Logan off today, guessing with the power out most parents kept their kids at home. I figured the school had power, Clark had a doctor's appointment, Phillip had an interview and I still needed to go to work so Logan went to school!

For the information I know you really want and I have thus far stalled in giving....grocery totals for the month of April. These are way off base from what they need to be and I am going to deal with my emotional issues and stick to the budget in May.

All $89.00 of SNAP money was used up as of 4-23
The cash total is $209.79 as of 4-27
If I add in the money I spent on the 2 Easter celebrations Logan took part in (school and Grandma's) as well as a birthday present we purchased for the boys' sitter than we are at $252.78.

You can see why I am distraught at this total! This is more than I spent per month when I was not using food stamps! Pictures of the fridge and cabinet are to come. The list for May has already been started and will be stuck to. There is still a ton of available items to use this month from my over purchase. The plan as of now is to purchase a basket from the produce co-o p next week so we have fresh fruit and veggies for meals and lunches. This coupled with all the stuff I dehydrated and put up in the freezer should get us through without additional produce. Some of the money I spent was also at the day old bread store so there are several loaves and some bagels still in the freezer which I will figure out a way to make these last the month of May. Tomorrow I will put a tentative budget for the month of May together. I say tentative as Phillip has interviewed a couple of times recently and has another later this week. If any of these jobs pan out then I will have to increase the amount of babysitting in the budget. Fingers are crossed that he gets something soon and we will be back on the $200 a month budget for groceries.

Tonight the dinner plan are 1 of the gifted T-bone steaks cooked in my cast iron skillet. This is the Rosemary Garlic Butter Steak recipe I have tried before with cheaper cuts of steak and it turns out well so I am going to give it a try with the t-bone tonight. This will be served with baked sweet potatoes from the produce purchase and probably a green salad using up the lettuce from the basket and the last fresh mushroom. Planned pictures to come of this great meal.

Non-Traditional

The more and more I read books by authors who had a blog experiment the more and more I feel inferior in some respects. I am not an author or writer or someone who is devoting my life or one year to an experiment. This is not a social experiment for me or a way to make the world a better place. This is really a sounding board and a way to stay accountable for the life I have been dealt and need to navigate. Being environmental is really important to me and I have tried to cut out most of our processed foods although I admit that Velveeta will forever have a place in our kitchen. Cutting plastics, recycling and reusing objects is something that I am passionate about and you will frequently see on here but it is not something I feel like I am an expert on. I certainly do not feel like I have the qualifications to tell anyone else how to live their lives.

With all of that out there I will just continue to share my life on here. As of now I want to share the "recipe" for the homemade shower cleaner I use. This is super easy to make, inexpensive and works great. I usually trade for these ingredients and since this uses a small amount of each they last for quite a long time. The "recipe" is 24 ounces of water, 4 ounces of peroxide, 4 ounces of alcohol, 1 tablespoon dawn dish soap, 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Mix lightly and then pour into a spray bottle. I keep it hanging on our shower door so I can spray it down as soon as I get out of the shower. Wanted to share this because I used up the last of ours this morning and will need to make some tonight.

I also want to make these Banana Nutella Cookies  tonight as I have a couple Nutella containers with a dab in them that I do not want to waste and some overripe bananas. 

The Grocery Store and Great Recipe

Calling home on the way there last night I was informed that we needed formula for the tiny one so I had to run by the store. There was 1 can left on the WIC card so I picked that up as well as a couple more with coupons and rebate checks. I also found a package of diapers on the clearance rack for $4.29 and I had a $3.00 off coupon.
After this I went home and fixed dinner using the leftover smoked sausage. The recipe I settled on was Smoked Sausage & Rice Skillet with Sweet Peppers. Of course I made some changes to the recipe to fit ingredients I had on hand. Instead of using sweet peppers I chopped up the rest of the fresh broccoli I had from my produce haul and added a chopped carrot. The overabundance of veggies made up for the fact I also did not have a pound of sausage left over. This was a really good dish that was easy to throw together. We went through the usual evening routines after dinner...baths, play time, reading and bed.

Feelings of panic and how I need to deal with this

This month my grocery totals are going to be over budget. I still have about $3.00 left on the SNAP card but I have spent over the budgeted amount in cash. Sunday as I was beating myself up over this unfortunate turn of events and trying to figure out why I keep going over now when the total amount I have allotted myself is only about $11 less than my previous budget. It finally dawned on me and I nearly cried. I have been so afraid of doing without, with not being able to have stuff for lunches or the kids that I have been over buying stuff on sale or clearance. There is basically about 3 months worth of staple items in my pantries right now because of this fear which I did not initially recognize. I was hitting up the sales papers and the clearance section worrying that I might actually have only the $89 one month and would not be able to feed us. This must be how my grandparents felt after the depression. I remember my granny hoarding items in case they would not be available soon or in case she would not be able to afford them one day. Clearly I did not set out with this mentality but it is what my purchasing morphed into. Here is a picture of my spice cabinet I had posted on my FB leftover group before I cleaned it up.

And this is what I said was my next clean up project, my refrigerator door

We are clearly not at the point of starving. You can see part of my fridge contents in the picture and tell it is not empty. I promise to post totals so you can see how much I went off track and now that I am aware of my behavior I will be better about making a list and sticking with it. Next month's plan will start with me cleaning up this and the pantry, listing an inventory and making a tentative meal plan.


As for this week's meals, Monday night we had smoked sausage served with some corn on the cob from my produce haul as well as the last of the fresh green beans. Last night I made fish fillets for us adults and fish sticks for Logan which I served with homemade shells and cheese. This used up the last of shell noodles I had as well as the rest of the velveeta. I have a very small amount of whipping cream left which I found on clearance for 50 cents a container. Tonight I have been thinking about what to make with the leftover smoked sausage. There are a couple of recipes that I usually make, they are either Creamy spinach and sausage or Joleans cheese potato and smoked sausage. I do not have any russet type potatoes and we had pasta last night so I am trying to come up with something else. Will probably peruse pinterest for a bit and see if anything different comes up.

Great friends and no electric

Saturday morning Logan was up earlier than I can ever get him up on a school morning but because Clark was still asleep we convinced him to play in his room and we tried to sleep a little longer. It was not totally successful so we all got up and got ourselves ready for the library. The kids and I headed to the library while Phillip worked on some homework. At the library Logan played on the kid's computers for a little bit while I tried to read. I was not having much success because Clark was climbing everywhere. We left there with new books and DVDs for Logan and found a yardsale on the way home. I only had $3.00 cash on me and Logan managed to find $2.50 worth of stuff he wanted. We ended up with a Hot Wheels car hauler and a cowboy hat with a star on the front. As soon as we got home he got his stick horse and was riding it around with the hat on. Phillip and he had hair appointments scheduled so after some play time they headed out to get haircuts. The tiny one was asleep and stayed that way for about 10 minutes after they left. He is crawling now so he likes playing on the floor for a little while at a time. I just kept moving him from location to location with me as I did the dishes, cleaned up my BBT items, put away clothes that Logan had outgrown for Clark and did a load of laundry. Cleaning up the dog hair and steam mopping where high on the list and I was partially through these when a friend stopped by. She is amazing! Her gift was 4 T-bone steaks, a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs from her chickens. I honestly have never had T-bone steaks in my life so this will be an amazing treat which I will have to take pictures of and post here. It was a nice although short visit as she suspected I would not be home. Once she left I continued working on cleaning up, with my craft items and canning supplies being the next goal. That project was underway when the boys came home with new hair dos. This caused a work stoppage as Logan wanted to play outside in the mud but it looked like more rain was coming in. We passed on playing in the mud for the time being and he pouted. Dinner was taco soup in the crockpot made with the leftover ground beef, black beans and tomato sauce from the soft tacos we had Friday night. I added some pinto beans, creamed corn, ro-tel, and ranch dressing and poof a few hours later dinner is ready. The kids jumped in the bath after dinner, it was cut short when Phillip mentioned the wind had changed direction and picked up. Literally Logan was putting on his pajama pants and I only had a diaper on Clark when the power went out. Logan was scared until Phillip took him to get flashlights and they talked about the storm and the dark. This was a blessing in disguise as the dark fooled the kids into going to bed early and we all hit the hay. I ended up sleeping on the couch though since both kids were in our bed and Phillip is really too tall to sleep on the couch. Sunday we decided to go ahead and go to church even though the power was off. We were not going to get much done at home without electric and we might as well take our chargers to get our cell phone batteries recharged. I was amazed that we still had some hot water but it was enough for Phillip and I to get quick showers and get going. Phillip received a text message about 1 telling us the power was back on at the house. Logan wanted to stay and play with his friend Loralee so he spent the afternoon there. Clark was still asleep when we got home so we followed suit and took a small nap. Once up I ran the dishwasher and cleaned all the leftovers out of the fridge. I really just did not trust them after 15 hours with no power. I had some ice packs which I put in the fridge to help keep it cool and we only opened it a couple of times to get out juice and meds for the kids but I thought it better to be safe than sorry. A little more cleaning and then it was time to pick up Logan. At the meeting spot I discovered a field of bluebonnets. It is time for bluebonnet pictures in this part of the country. After a quick chat with Loralee's dad we headed home and Logan had a bowl of oatmeal. The boys got their baths and then played for a little bit. Once Clark was asleep, I read with Logan and then he played a game on my phone for a couple of minutes so I could finish the chapter I was reading in my book. All this gave way to sleep and then Monday morning!

A day off work in the life of a working mom

I took Friday off work due to an appointment in the morning and one in the afternoon I needed to take care of. Originally I actually planned on coming back to work but the afternoon appointment was the dentist and I am glad I did not come to work! Sooo, I knew this would be a rare chance to get as much done in a day without kids and during the week so less general public out. I dropped Logan at school and then registered him for kindergarten. It was supposed to be a simple prove your address registration since he already attends the school but oh no it turned into a half hour of paperwork. I finished there and then ran back by the house for breakfast and to brush my teeth. I watched a TED talk while eating a bowl of cereal. After leaving the house for the second time I went to check what it would cost to fix my eyeglasses or if the scratches could be buffed out. I need them to drive at night and one of the lenses is pretty scratched up. It turns out they can not be buffed out and I did not want to pay for the new lenses right now. In October my vision insurance will pay for another pair so I think I will get this pair fixed and pick up another pair in October as a spare. While there I ran into someone I know so I chatted with him until he was called in for his appointment. After the eyeglass place I went by a new thrift store to look for summer jammies for the tiny one and check out pants for myself. It was a nice thrift store which I will return to but I did not have a ton of time to go through. After leaving the thrift store I went to my WIC appointment which turned out not to take long at all. I had to show proof of income and that I had taken an on line parenting class. Evidently if you are poor you do not know anything about parenting. After this appointment and scheduling another one I hit up the Goodwill right by the WIC office. Still on the hunt for summer jammies I found 1 pair and this awesome lunchbox for $1.19.

I did not really need it but I love gnomes and for $1.19 I decided to go for it. Talked to Phillip while at the store since he took the tiny one to the doctor. Turns out he has an ear infection so they were calling in an antibiotic for him and since I was close to the Target it was called into I headed over there to pick it up. On the way to Target I got gas, then the medicine. After leaving Target with the meds I headed to the local kids resale shop to see what she had which was nothing that would fit the tiny one. I then got some lunch and started toward the dentist. I was at the dentist a bit getting the first cleaning I have had in 22 years. After leaving there I was still numb, it took 5 hours for the numbness to wear off in case you are planning on some dental work. I called Phillip on the way home and he had already been by to pick up Logan from school so I decided on a couple more errands. I went by Home Depot to pick up some lawn bags because it was across the street from the Mrs. Baird's bread outlet. I picked up some bagels and a couple loaves of bread and then headed by the goodwill closest to my house to make a donation and run through to see about jammies again. I scored one more pair for him and a couple of books for Logan. I had a $10 off coupon so I got out of there with those items and some pajamas for me free of charge. Then to the house I went!  After hanging with the kids for a bit I had them help me clean up and vacuum their room. Dinner was beef soft tacos for us and sweet potatoes with cereal for the tiny one. After baths which were a bit early we worked on cleaning up the kitchen and then going to sleep! I tried this pinterest idea since the tiny one is too big for the sink anymore and it worked great.

It was amazing to me how much I could squeeze into a day when I knew it was the only kid free day I was going to have in a very long time.
 

Try blogging while performing other tasks!

I am trying to squeeze in this post while at work which is turning out to be harder than I thought. Normally there is down time at lunch and early in the day but no so today. I ended up meeting friends for lunch so there was no down time to get this going. Lunch with friends was therapeutic though so I can not be upset about that. Work has some beautiful picnic spots and I have convinced some friends to start meeting for lunch at different spots. This of course is a great help to the budget and my well being. I absolutely love being outside as much as possible when the weather is nice.

Down to the nitty gritty of this week so far though. Sunday I skipped church and stayed home with the tiny one. He has some allergy issues that may have gone to his chest  so we just hung out around the house and blanched veggies from the basket for the freezer. Phillip and Logan went to church and had a good time with the pastor's family. Logan was disappointed that he could not stay and play with his friend Loralee since it was a school night. After the tiny one went back down for a nap I took off to run some errands. I picked up some books another BBT member was donating to our little free libraries at work. I have put most of them out but still a few rolling around in the trunk. I left there and went to trade some tp (toilet paper) for some capri pants that I can wear to work this summer. Final stop was Kroger to pick up a couple of items. I will upload receipts when I get home and work on the totals. This trip required a return trip though as the checker over charged me for a couple of items. Phillip was not super hungry at dinner time as they were taken out to lunch by an amazing man at our church! Uncle Joe footed the bill at Taco Cabana so they could visit and Logan could have his favorite thing, beans. Dinner on Sunday ended up being a free for all.  Monday night I used some mushrooms, carrots, snow peas and broccoli as well as the leftover brisket from Phillip's lunch to make a stir fry and served this over rice. It was really tasty and we ended up with no stir fry left! Tuesday night I picked up the kid's from the sitter and we headed home. I ended up making a chicken pot pie using up the leftover ranch cheddar chicken, corn and green beans from Saturday's dinner. I mixed in some chopped up carrots, mushrooms and a carton of organic cream of mushroom with garlic soup, threw that all in the casserole dish and topped with some crescent rolls with the seams squished together. It was also yummy although a bit heavy on the garlic. Last night the boys were all out meeting a proctor for an exam so I ran a couple of errands which included getting the refund on the over charged items.  I also sold some of the veggies that we were not going to eat so there was a bit of a refund there.

Saturday Activities and Parenthood

I keep having this crazy notion that if I get the yard manicured the way I want, and the house organized then I will have loads of free time to spend doing what I want to. My mind knows this is craziness but I still plan my days with this as the plan. Yesterday (Saturday) I was up at 6:18am with the tiny one, he did go back to sleep briefly but we were completely up by 8:00am. This was fine as I had a busy day planned and I wanted to take care of a couple of things without the kids. Phillip entertained and fed breakfast to the kids while I hit up a grocery store that was having a 72 hours sale, then went by the farmer's market only coming away with a cookie for Logan which he turned around and gave to Phillip as he did not want it. After the farmer's market I went by Archie's for another terrarium plant for Logan and picked up 4 other small plants to put around the yard. After leaving Archie's I went to my produce co-op for this contributions pick up. I purchased a share as well as a freezer pack and a juice pack so we have a ton of fruits and veggies now. This is what $42.00 worth of produce from the co-op looks like

My grocery store purchase totaled $38.60 in food stamps. Between this and the produce I only need to pick up a couple more staples and I should be able to get meals for the month and beyond.

After the produce pick up I headed toward home but came across an Estate Sale which I on a whim decided to stop in at. I felt so many emotions mostly sadness at going through someone's things in their home. The owner of the house had passed away and I assume his family was divesting themselves of his possessions including the home. Going through the house looking at everything for sale, most of it still in the cabinets and pantries where the owner left them just made me horribly sad. I took a picture with my phone which I can not get to download of height marks of the home's children off a door jamb. Those marks made over the course of many years will be cleaned away when the home sells and that history will be gone. I of course never feel this way at yard sales, maybe because the owners are there and have brought their items out of their house. The estate sale did not get any of my money but I told Phillip some of the items that were there and so he went back by and came home with a Star Wars blanket, an original one as well as a paper cutter. They were running 75% off when he got there trying to close out the sale. Once home he went to work on his homework and I took the kids to the library and to McDonald's so Logan could play with other kids and normally I can read. This time the tiny one did not go to sleep so I spent the time wrangling him. Once home I changed into my yard clothes and we made Logan's terrarium, here are a couple of photos. I need to get one of the finished item, hopefully in a little bit.

Once this was finished we did another project for the neighborhood birds and used up some scraps in the process.

After these we planted the items I picked up from the nursery that morning. So for less than $10 the kids and I stayed busy most of the afternoon. Once inside I decide to get started on dinner, I had separated out half the chicken thighs for dinner earlier and put the other half in the freezer, Looking for something new I decided on  Ranch Cheddar Chicken for dinner and served it with a green salad and fresh green beans. Everyone is exhausted by the time dinner is done, the kids take baths and while I get the tiny one to sleep Logan plays on the computer. I get my shower, snuggle with Logan and then read a little after he gets in his bed. I wish it was a great sleep but Clark started running a fever about 4am and was very congested. I ended up reclining on the couch with him asleep on my chest to help him breath. These are the times when you are utterly exhausted and helpless.

Never Grow Up and Penalizing the Poor

Yesterday I was a bit emotional at different points for different reasons. Some FB friends had posted different articles supporting the crack down on benefits to programs like SNAP and TANF cash out of their ignorance I suppose. These laws are passing I think out of the ignorance of the masses which I will admit to being part of until recently. There was a time not long ago which I will admit to being the one judging SNAP shoppers based on what was in their carts. Now that I am one of the community and have taken the time to get to know others who are shopping with benefits I find that very few people are abusing the system. Everyone "knows" someone who is abusing the system, they are the exception to the rule though. Most recipients are families like ours who are trying to get past a rough spot in their lives with very little assistance from the government. In order to get that assistance which in our case is $89 for a family of 4 we had to give up any privacy. Our lives and finances were raked over the coals and each financial decision questioned. Sure we may have received more if a few of our decisions were less responsible but the majority of people I meet are trying to do their best and just need a little help for a short period of time. Based on my past of judging people based on what is in their carts I tend to look at my own cart with a questioning glare. Sure there are fruit snacks in there and occasionally even a steak, the horror. Does the fact that I buy some snacks for my son's lunches and a low end piece of beef to cook at home mean I am "wasting" the meager funds I have been allotted?  Why do we judge? Why do I feel the need to justify my purchases when I am feeding a family of 4 on $89 plus whatever I can afford to spend out of my own pocket? Compassion would go a long way in today's society as well as questioning why we spend soo much time looking at how the poor spend their benefits and not enough time questioning how our representatives in government spend our money.

That was a good part of my morning, stewing over that topic and then my life had to go on. Allergies are worse than ever in this part of the country so we have been swamped at work. Yesterday, after a busy work day I rushed to drop off some books at the library which were due, then out to the grocery store to pick up some paper towels for a trade and again the horror of it I bought some hot dogs to fix for dinner and a package of bird seed I found in the clearance section. The bird seed will feed the birds in the area as well as be used for craft projects with Logan. Anyway, after the grocery store I picked up the kids from the sitter and completed 2 trades close to her house. Once I made it home with the kids I passed them on to their dad, who had to take a break from school work and job applying, while I rushed out to mow the small bit of grass in our front yard before the storm rolled in. We have a reel mower which most of the time I find relaxing to use while the kids play in the yard but last night it was just a sprint to get it done. I managed to beat the storm and get it done in almost no time after which I grilled out hotdogs and made homemade shells and cheese for dinner. The munchkin loves this meal and I can not blame him it is a pretty tasty cheap and easy meal. After dinner, baths and play time it was bedtime. I took a shower after getting the tiny one down while the munchkin snuggled and played on my phone with his dada. By the time I got out of the relaxing hot shower they were also asleep so I carried the munchkin to his bed and laid down to read a little before going to sleep. The night was far from over though, the tiny one woke up at 1:45am and did not want to go back to sleep. As I was sitting on the couch with him hoping he would go back to sleep I also had the thought that I wish he would stay small, snuggly and squishy with fat rolls like he is now. This is silly as I want them both to grow into happy adults but I do love this time when they want to snuggle with me. The munchkin woke up with a coughing jag during this time and needed a drink. About 3:30am I was able to go back to bed and sleep until the 6:18am alarm for the day.

Trades, Dinners and a Trip to the Store

Last night was a semi typical evening for me, I left work and went by the gas station. Gas has managed to go up 20 cents a gallon while I was at work so I only got a few gallons rather than fill up with the hopes it will go down again soon. After the gas station I went by Kroger since the trade I was making was listed as free but I always like to leave something so they know it was not stolen off their porch. There were a couple of good things on clearance, some great digital coupons and a couple of items I was able to get ibotta money back on. Should have remembered to take a picture last night but it had escaped me by the time I got home. I ended up having a wonderful chat with my trade partner and then headed for home. Dinner last night was pork chops that I had put in the crock pot yesterday morning along with some steamed corn and green beans. It was decent but not the best I have ever had. By this time I had missed the results on the Voice which I will have to watch on Hulu tonight. After playtime with the kids, baths and allergy meds it was bedtime. I wanted to finish a book I was reading so I gave it a good try but was just too sleepy so it was on hold until today.

Awesome trade group!

My Beg Borrow Trade group is full of amazing ladies and a few guys that are truly lifesavers! I am picking up 35 pounds of dog food tonight free so Turbo will be set for the next month or so. Last night I traded an old decorative stop light that the boys did not want anymore for some fresh from the farm eggs. I will get a picture of them tonight when I get home. That is 2 more items that I can mark off the grocery list for this month and a little more clutter out of the house!

Catch up, crazy ex and the new month

I disappeared briefly....March started out busy but ok and then my budget went off the rails. Once I was out of the habit of blogging it was hard to get back on here and then there was the added embarrassment of being totally off budget. I had to reign myself back in and say that is what this blog was for, posting my successes as well as failures because no one is as perfect as they sometimes make themselves appear to be. There was some added drama with my ex husband threatening me on FB which had to be resolved the best it could be. We are in the watch and see mode right now. But on to the newest month! I have adjusted my budget to include more cash ($100) and the $89 food stamps. This month I have not grocery shopped for real yet. I stopped in and picked up some Easter items and a birthday gift for the kids sitter but have not made use of the food stamps yet. I am clipping coupons and looking at the ads and other discounts to see what we can swing this month. I want to stock up on a few items for the other months because I have a lot of staples left from my overspending last month. From this day forward I am promising myself not to disappear because of any failures that I am embarrassed of.