Tuesday and Exhaustion Mixing Even Though They Should Not.

After work last night I was headed to pick up the kids when Phillip called to say he was out of his interview and already had them, perfect!!!
Once home I decided to go with an old stand by because once again I neglected to put something in the crock pot or out to thaw. We had pigs in a blanket and shells with cheese.

This is about the only portion of my evening where I did not want to scream. Logan started with being all brilliant and sweet. He did a science experiment making a geyser see the picture.

After this though he managed to call me a liar twice during the evening. The first time was for telling him the shells in his shells with cheddar were not the "big" shells. I am not even sure what the other one was about. I had to go without speaking to him for a bit or I was going to say some very naughty words. After a little bit we still had to discuss that yes Mama still loves you but she is not happy with you right now and REALLY does not want to speak to you. Then we had the tiny one who keeps waking up and wanting to play. He decided at 5:30 this morning that he was up for good and it did not matter what I was going to do he was going to pretend I was a jungle gym and not a tired mom ready to let him live somewhere else.

I did manage to pick up the items I want to trade because right as I was taking the first picture the battery on the camera died and I had to put it on the charger. Here is hoping that tonight I get dinner on the table, kids played with, baths, bed and some pictures posted before I collapse from the day.

I will also update tomorrow on what the solar company says about our roof being able to hold the panels.

The End of School and Dinner on Monday Night

Yesterday was the last day of school for Logan as well as his field day. Field day had been postponed twice due to soggy fields and so this was the last chance. It made for a very fun last day for the munchkin and that makes me happy. It was a sad day for me and I am not sure why. Mom hormones seem to have no bounds, I was not really sad on his first day.  I was mad that my phone deleted the picture but not sad that he was starting school. His last day on the other hand was emotional for me. Phillip did go to field day and took a ton of pictures. He posted them as quick as he could so I could see how the day went. I am going to post some of my favorites below because I know everyone wants to see how the day went also!

He convinced Phillip to take him home after field day even though he could have stayed until regular release time. They picked up Clark from the sitter and then went home for a day of naps and science shows. I checked out a science book from the library and discovered they have a youtube channel which Logan now watches obsessively.

When I got home last night I went with the plan and made nachos from the previous nights leftovers as well as a partial bag of tortilla chips I wanted to finish off in the cabinet.

Weekend Menu and Grocery Store Trip with Kiddo

Friday I left work and on the way home decided to sprint by Target to take advantage of a couple of sale items while I had no children.

Target Trip:

3 Large cans of formula
3 cans of baby snack puffs
2 bottles of juice
1 pkg chicken legs
1 box yogurt
2 pkgs of shredded cheese
1 bottle shampoo ( I will be returning this, not what I needed)
2 pkgs pepperoni

Subtotals:                                                                 $40.92 Cash
                                                                                 $12.97 SNAP

I went home and scanned the receipts in all the apps I have for money back. Then I fixed bacon and pancakes for dinner. This is something easy, filling and inexpensive especially since I had not pulled anything out to thaw that morning. My fridge and freezer were also packed with items for the family my group was collecting for this month.

Saturday the boys and I set out early for a busy day of errands. Logan would recite this list to a couple of people throughout the day. We started out going by Racetrac to pick up drinks ( loving this cup ). From Racetrac we headed to the car wash, I just could not live with the bird poo on the car anymore. Logan used to be scared of the carwash but he is now in love with it but as we discovered Clark is now wigged out by it. After the carwash we headed to the library to turn in books and pick up some others. Logan did play on the computer they have set up for kids and then we headed out. The next stop was an hour long set up in a parking lot. We planted ourselves for the prescribed amount of time so others in my group could stop by and drop off food donations. This works better when it is not hot and I do not have the kids with me but you have to go with the flow sometimes. After we did the pick up we headed across the parking lot to eat/play at Chick-Fil-A.  Clark was all over the place trying to eat anything not nailed down and even some things that were so I put him in the high chair and kept giving him things to eat. He ate mandarin oranges for the first time and seemed to like them, he also ate non pulverized strawberries as well as puffs, a bottle, chicken and some french fries. All the while Logan played his heart out. After we headed out from there I had 3 trades to complete and then back home we went. Once home Logan wanted to play more, watch TV, play computer games and chase Clark around. Needless to say I only got a little cleaning and organizing done. I got the food donation together, contacted the family and worked on the separate ARC donation also.

Dinner on Saturday night was spaghetti that I made using 2 of the turkey burger patties which are really just flattened ground turkey.

Sunday morning I ended up putting the leftover spaghetti noodles and sauce together in a bowl with some more tomato sauce, stirring and then putting in a casserole dish. I covered this with cheese and once at church put in the oven to warm. In addition to the roast that Phillip smoked this was our contribution to the potluck. After we got home from church/potluck I loaded the food donation up in the car and with Logan for company we headed out to meet the family my group was helping this month. After dropping off with them Logan wanted to go to Sonic so I swung through and got him a grilled cheese. Once home I worked on sorting my massive get rid of pile into things for my trade group, things to donate and kids items I need to get ready for the JBF sale. After a bit of this Clark and I decided to go to Winco to see about sale items and get some tortillas for dinner that night. Logan and Phillip were making cards for his teacher since it was the last day of school today. Clark was able to sit in the basket for the first time I think and he is just a huge flirt. It was not hard to entertain him while I shopped because he was busy staring and waving at everyone. Winco had some items cheaper than other stores including diapers that I had coupons on so even though we do not need them right now I went ahead and bought them. Since summer has begun for Logan and now all 3 of them will be home together I wanted to make sure they had enough snacks and breakfast items.

Winco Trip:
 6 pkgs pecan rolls ( These are ONLY for Phillip)
4 boxes of snack cakes
3 boxes pasta
1 can condensed milk
1 can beans
2 pkgs diapers
1 pkg flour tortillas
1 tea
3 lbs bananas
4 cans biscuits
1 pkg bacon

Subtotal:                                    $12.47 Cash
                                                   $27.55 SNAP

Once home and the car unloaded, the receipts were uploaded to the rebate apps and dinner was started. I ended up using the final 2 turkey patties for tacos. I did the same as for the spaghetti and just treated it like ground turkey so worked it around the pan while browning it with some seasoning. Our tacos had the ground turkey, black beans, shredded cheese and lettuce on them. I completely forgot the sour cream until Phillip mentioned it and I was nearly finished with my taco.

There were enough rebates that I was able to get $11.00 back. I requested the money from paypal today. There was however not enough leftover from last night's dinner to make taco soup today which was my initial plan. I have made the alternate plan of nachos tonight because I can add refried beans and no one at my house will protest.

Today was Logan's last day of pre-K and also field day. I can not wait to hear how that went!

Books June 3rd through June 8th

It was a busy book week. A couple were recipe books that I just perused.

First was The 5:30 Challenge, I liked this one although I am not sure I liked it enough to purchase it. All the recipes had 5 ingredients or less and would be ready in 30 minutes. It was a great premise for working moms but again I am not sure if there were enough recipes that I would actually make in the book.

The second I checked out knowing I should not. I did not like her other books so I am not sure why I went ahead and checked this one out. The $5 Dinner Mom is just a book that I can not get behind.

I did finish listening to Nobody's Cuter than You. This book was funny in spots and sad in others but not really what I thought it was going to be based on the blurb I read before checking it out. I also found the author pretentious in places and for me that is a complete turn off. This is another book I also did not realize was from a blogger. This is a bad habit I need to break!

Dear Teenager If You Only Knew was another short book I finished in a couple of sittings. I have mixed feelings on this one. There was some good advice to teens and some that was way to specific to the author's personal views such as be good in this life so when you come back you will have a good base and do not eat meat because it is contaminating your body.

I finished 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life and I can not stress enough how much this book has touched my life. I will purchase this book soon and start over from the beginning so I can try the 12 steps applied to my life.

I started and finished This is Ridiculous This is Amazing. Another blogger who was published.....The difference this time is that he did not try to write a story that was a bunch of blogs connected in a nonsensical way. The book was set up as 71 lists on all parenting areas. I found the book funny and easy to read.

I was listening to The Job but it was due before I could finish, I am next in line to check it out again.

Currently I am listening to I Heart My Little A-Holes which again is a blogger who wrote a book. This one is amusing so far, we will see how I feel in a couple more days of listening to it.

Since I finished the This is Ridiculous book at lunch and still had some time I picked The September Society back up and will try to finish it before it is due. I really liked the first in this series and I am not far enough into this one yet to know how it will pan out.

A Mother's Shameful Thoughts That I am Forgiving Myself For

I forgave myself for these thoughts finally this morning. On Saturday night I was getting Clark to sleep which was taking forever and the thought just overcame me that he was taking an excessive amount of time away from Logan. I rarely can just be present or participate with Logan because Clark is always in the fray or needing attention. He is too small to understand that my attention needs to be off him for a couple of minutes. The thoughts then went to how much easier things were with just one child. It got worse when I went to snuggle for a little bit with Logan and he had already fallen asleep with the book he wanted me to read with him on the bed. I was upset at myself for not having enough to spread between the two of them and then upset for having the thoughts about Clark. It will not be long before he wants to run away from me instead of hang all over me. Being an oldest child myself I think I am also ultra sensitive to Logan's feelings right now.

It took a couple of days but I have forgiven myself. Things are never going to be like a one child household again and that will be ok. Logan and Clark will both survive and find a balance and may eventually be best friends. Until then my time will never be evenly divided all the time and it will just be ok.

Dinner on a Thursday and Life Lessons for Logan

Last night I fixed hamburgers for dinner with baked beans. I have not made baked beans from scratch in a long time so it was nice to make them again. I used up the last 4 hamburger patties we had in the freezer from memorial day. I do have some more turkey burgers but think those will remain on hold for a little while. There were no beans left and just 1 patty which I think Phillip may eat today.

The life lesson for Logan last night started with him launching frisbees over the fence into 2 different neighbor's yards. I originally told him we would have to go ask the next day and see if we could go in their yards to get them back. It was still light outside and Phillip offered to keep the tiny one company while he was in the bath so I could walk Logan to each neighbor's door. His lesson was he had to ask on his own if he could get the frisbee out of their yard and then tell them thank you. The first neighbor just went to get it and brought it to him, the second neighbor just threw it back over the fence. I had to explain to him that we have nice neighbors but there was a chance that he would not have got his frisbees back.

Logan also wants to expand his play area in the backyard so he drew up some plans. They are pretty ambitious including a faucet. I told him that there was a lot of work ahead of us to get the back yard cleaned up and play areas made and he said ok so we will see how long he hangs with me on this!

Here is a picture of his current play area made from recycled materials I traded for,

the rock area has grown do he can use his front loader and dump truck to haul the rocks around.

New June Totals and Sprouts Shopping Trip

I stopped by Sprouts on the way home last night to do the majority of this month's grocery shopping. I have decided Wednesday is the best day to go because they overlap ads on Wednesdays. The downside is this happens to be one of their busier days because of the double ads. 

Sprouts trip:
1&1/2 pounds cherries
~3 pounds pink lady apples
~1 pound pears
1 head garlic
1&1/2 pounds peaches
1/2 pound fresh green beans
2&1/2 pounds grapes
1/4 pound jalapenos
1&1/2 pounds nectarines
1 pound sweet potatoes
1/2 pound oranges
8 ears corn

1 pkg soba noodles
2 bags potato chips
1 bag tortilla chips
2 chuck roasts
1 pork tenderloin
1 loaf garlic bread

1 bottle dish detergent
1 fabric softener
1 laundry detergent
1 bar soap

 subtotal:                                          $48.48 SNAP
                                                         $14.55 Cash

Totals:     $48.48 SNAP
                $64.43 Cash

I need to work on my menu using all the fruits and veggies I have purchased. Tonight I plan on cutting up the pineapples and washing the other fruit as well as working on the menu.

Originally forgot to post that I ended up making Jolean's Chesse Potato Smoked Sausage Casserole last night with 3 of the smaller potatoes, the leftover cheese sauce and the leftover sausage I had on hand. I skipped the first few steps because I had the cheese sauce and I omitted the paprika. I am not sure why but it was especially good served with garlic bread. There was only a smidge leftover.

More and More Mobility at Our House

The tiny one AKA Clark is getting more and more mobile and things are getting interesting. He wants to be with his brother most of the time so he crawls quickly toward him. He is cruising on the furniture some which has resulted in a couple of spills and bruises. This portion is to be expected, but the funny part is he has become a little thief. He keeps taking things from around the house and hiding them under the couch. My hairbrush was the latest item I had to go fishing for. I bring this up because now if I see him with something and I say his name he immediately throws the item and looks at me like "What, I do not have anything?" The babysitter told me this morning that at her house he puts all the items in her kitchen under one of the chairs.

I know he will be walking soon which makes me both happy and sad. Happy because he can be more independent and carry the items he wants with both hands. It makes me sad because he is the last baby I will have and this is the beginning of the end of him being a baby.

June Totals and Menu Items

The totals for June stack up as follows:

Target: (visit on Friday when I picked up RX)
2 boxes of fruit snacks from clearance rack                                       
Package of 4 fresh turkey burger patties also on clearance                
subtotal:                                                                                                $5.75 

Kroger: (Sunday visit)
2 jars of baby food
1 pkg candy(Free Friday download)
2 pkgs pecan rolls
1 pkg fresh broccoli and carrots 
1 bottle of lemonade tea (Free Friday download)
3 boxes baby cereal
1 pkg lunch meat sliced chicken
4 cases soda ( I know bad for me and unnecessary)
1 case water ( Logan's snack day)
subtotal:                                                                                               $25.74

Kroger ( Tuesday visit)
4 boxes fruit snacks ( Logan's snack day)
42 jars baby food
1 bottle of saline nasal spray
2 pineapples
1 pkg mushrooms
1 pkg flake coconut
1 pkg smoked sausage
1 bunch of mixed fresh herbs
subtotal:                                                                                               $18.39

Total thus far:

cash: $49.88
SNAP: $0


Monday night I was trying to use more of the rotisserie chicken so I fixed this  Creamy Tomato Spinach Pasta dish but added the chicken right before the cooked pasta since it just needed to warm. It was just a touch tangy but it was good, other than cutting the tomato paste I am not sure how I would get rid of the tang.  There was a bit of chicken left and I decided to just give it to Turbo our dog. The next day I regretted that decision because it was enough that I could have made chicken salad for my lunch. Live and learn though.

Tuesday night I cooked the smoked sausage I purchased earlier in the evening and steamed the broccoli from the fresh broccoli and carrots mix I had purchased on clearance Sunday. I made a cheese sauce to go over the broccoli which is always yummy. Phillip ate all the broccoli so none of it to make over but I am thinking of making a version Jolean's Cheese Potato Smoked Sausage Casserole tonight to use up the leftover smoked sausage and the cheese sauce I overmade. I have some of the gifted potatoes to use before they start turning and think this is a wise way to use it all up.

Before you ask yes I did separate out the broccoli and carrots even though I bought them as a mix. It was a pre cut item that was on clearance for 50 cents in the produce section. I bought it because I never could purchase both fresh veggies for that price and bonus I did not have to chop these. Phillip likes to snack on the carrots during the day with some ranch dressing so I kept them out for him and just steamed the broccoli for dinner.

Being a Mom and Using Your Birthday Money

My mom had sent me some birthday money and she kept calling me to ask if I had spent it yet. I told her several times I was going to use it for a pedicure which if you have seen my feet you will understand. If I am not required to wear shoes then I do not, meaning I am barefoot most of my evenings and weekends. My feet are callused enough that I walked to the mailbox with Logan on pavement when it was 90 degrees outside and did not even feel it. Anyway the day set aside for my pedicure was last Friday and if you have checked out the blog then you noticed instead of getting a pedicure and possibly an eyebrow wax because they are also scary I took Logan out for the day. My mom of course is indignant because I was supposed to spend the money on myself. This of course made me think through the day and I do not regret my decision, of course I would love to get a pedicure but I enjoyed my day with Logan. I also remember my mom one year spending her birthday money on some clothes for us at Goodwill when she went there to find something for herself. Priorities change when you are a parent and I am thinking I can probably survive without the pedicure, heck I can probably find 101 tips on pinterest to give myself one.

This memory makes me want to send my mom a gift card so she can go buy herself some clothes now but I know her and she would probably find somebody else something while she was there!

Day off Work with Logan and the busy weekend.

Friday I had asked off work to go to an outdoor event Logan's school was going to have that morning. The event was postponed for the second time because of the rain but since it was the last time for quite awhile I was going to have relief at work I still took the day off. Up until that morning my plan was to take Logan to school and I would go use my birthday money to get a pedicure and grocery shop. I would then pick up Logan from school and we could go do something together. That morning however Phillip asked if I was going to keep him out and initially I said no and then he said I thought you were going to take him on a "field trip". I caved and kept Logan out only I did not initially tell him or we would have never left the house. Actually I told him we needed to hurry so we would have time to go get donuts. He hurried surprisingly and did not seem to notice at all when we left the house without his backpack.

We finished at the donut place way past when he needed to be at school but he was still clueless. Sometimes not having a watch has benefits. As we were pulling out of the parking lot and headed in the opposite direction of his school he finally asked and I told him he was having a mama/Logan day without Clark. It was exciting news for him and so we continued to our next stop which was the unglamorous Winco since it was still too early to go to the museum and I figured we might as well knock an errand off the list. He helped me pick up the items we needed/that were on an amazing sale plus a box of fruit snacks that he wanted. After checking out at the store, which in case you are wondering I did have a cooler bag with an ice pack in it in my trunk for the 1 item (cheese) we bought that needed to be refrigerated. After leaving here we ran next door (practically) to the Racetrac so I could fill my cup. I have more than paid for that cup 4 times over at this point and we still have 2 months to go on the promotion. After that quick in and out of the gas station we headed toward the museum. Getting there went faster than I thought so we went to the botanic gardens and walked around even though it was misting a bit. I snapped this awesome picture of Logan peering in the pond looking for frogs. He calls the lilypads, lilyfrogs which I find cute.

We were only in the gardens for a short period of time and then we went to the museum. He was excited as he kept asking to go to a museum before he knew what one held. I went ahead and added IMAX tickets to our purchase so we could watch a film on tornadoes, something else that he loves. The museum we went to had some great hands on exhibits for the kids which he loved. We played construction worker and train conductor.

After I pulled him away from the trains so we could see the snakes they have and another favorite thing DINOSAURS!

I could go on and on with the exhibits he loved but you get the idea. There were 2 things I discovered about my child that I did not know until this point which also pointed out that he is sooo my child. He is afraid of heights as I am. I discovered this when I was trying to show him some fountains from the second floor windows of the museum. He told me that I was trying to push him out the windows and he was scared so we had to talk about that. This is something I understood so when passing the windows the rest of the day I put him on the inside of me. The second was he was afraid to walk down the stairs, this is because of the fear of heights. I am usually ok unless I can see through the stairs and then I start to panic that I am going to plummet to my death as the stairs somehow give way. Talking through this with Logan as we walked down the stairs helped both of us I think. He almost wanted to bail on the movie because of the stairs and how loud it was at the beginning. He toughed it out though and enjoyed the movie which I knew he would since he has a deep fascination with tornadoes. After leaving the IMAX we went to the planetarium show since I love those normally and Logan likes to look at the stars. This show was seriously disappointing and I will have to find a better one to take him to. By the time we had done all of this is was late afternoon and we were both hungry so on to Chick-Fil-A we went. This allowed him to eat and play some more with other kids while it allowed me to eat and read a good portion of the book I had in my purse. We left the restaurant and then went to Target to pick up a prescription I had called in and a couple of hotwheels for him. After Target we went to the library and he played on the computer for a little bit and then talked to his favorite librarian. Leaving the library we completed one more stop at Kroger to pick up some bananas and some food for the tiny one. While there we discovered they had marked their Florida's natural orange juice down to 99 cents a container so I stocked up on that! I also decided that I was worn out so I picked up a rotisserie chicken, which by the way you can not use SNAP to purchase because it is hot and is considered prepared food. It does not matter that it is the same price as an uncooked chicken and that I can still make upwards of 5 meals with the meat and stock from the bones...I still have to pay for it. At this point I did not care, I bought the chicken and we headed home so he could tell dada about his day and I could get dinner ready. While out a trade had been completed on the porch. I loaned one of Phillip's suit jackets out for a couple rolls of paper towels which were pretty desperately needed.

Dinner was chicken, steamed corn and a green salad. The chicken was immediately broken down and the carcass was put into the crockpot along with some water, carrots and celery still hanging out from my last basket and some herbs. I let the stock cook overnight and strained it on Saturday evening. It produced 8 cups of really richly colored stock that I put up in the freezer for future use. I put it up in (2) 2 cup containers as well as (1) 4 cup container.

Saturday we got up and did a few things around the house while Phillip went to test with another department. After a bit the kids and I went over to a friend's house so she and I could visit and Logan could play with her son. They were having way too much fun and getting Logan to leave was not the easiest thing ever. Of course it was past lunch time and we had not eaten so I took the to McDonald's for a cheap meal and more play time for Logan and even Clark. Clark is now mobile enough to cruise around the tiny tot area with the other kiddos while Logan plays with the older kids. After leaving McDonald's we did a drive by drop off at the library. Phillip had finished his test and was out weedeating the church's property. By the time he got home he was in pretty intense pain so he tried to just shower and take it easy. Logan had napped after the day's adventure and so he helped me make some popsicles from the orange juice we bought and then he was off to play some more. For dinner that night I used some of the chicken from Friday night as well as the leftover corn, a couple of eggs, some frozen asparagus, snow peas and broccoli as well as some dried onions and garlic to make a stir fry. It was actually stir fried rice as I cooked some brown rice and put it in the pan also. It was good although the brown rice does give it a chewier texture than white rice.

Sunday morning we went to church and had lunch with Loralee's family as usual and then headed home. The kids and I decided to go outside so Logan could write on the driveway with chalk for a few minutes and then he wanted to go for a walk. I need more exercise in my life but I am never sure where to fit it in so this was a good idea to me. Off on the walk we headed! Once home I left Logan watching a show on lions and took Clark to Kroger with me to do a return. We of course ended up picking up a couple of items because I randomly remembered Logan's last snack day of pre-k is Wednesday. The evening was pretty normal once we got home and got the stuff from Kroger put up.

Books May 26th through June 2nd

I have not made it through very many books in this time, a little disappointing to me but it will be ok.


I finished Deliver Us yesterday evening. I liked this book although it was sad to hear the stories from so many women who died in one area. It was interesting and a little disturbing since that area happens to be in the state I live.

After finishing up with Deliver Us, I started listening to Nobody's Cuter than You. It is a funny book looking at female friendship.

I am still reading 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life, This is such a good book. I am recommending it to a lot of people. It is a book I will have to end up purchasing because there is no way to digest everything in the time allotted by the library.

I also started The September Society, I liked the first in this series so I thought I would continue and see how it pans out.

May Totals

I am going to post this one as it's own little post...it feels like it needs that.

May's totals of course are more than I budgeted, it ended up being $224.73 instead of the $189.00 it should have been.

I can give a ton of excuses the main one being the tiny one is still using formula for the next couple of months and despite coupons, rebate checks and the clearance racks at every store I know of it is expensive. He will start weaning next month so I just need to do the best I can over the next couple of months.