Oh, Dear!

Dear Cigarettes,

` I would be lying if I said I didn't miss you. You are such a dirty little thing. I refuse to let you win this time. Your sweet talking if I just have one.... is not going to work. I saw what you have done to others, first hand, and I refuse to be your next victim. Go tempt someone else!

S

Dear Binky and Tigger (the cats),

` Next year when you start to lose your winter fur, can you take a lesson from the snake? It sheds all it's skin at one time. That would save me so much housework. I wanna know how the two of you can possibly produce so much fur?

S

Dearest oldest daughter of mine,

` When I ask for your dirty school clothes, I mean all of them, not just one outfit to get through the next day. It would make my life so much easier if you could help out with this. The weekly Monday night fight is just not working. We both have better things we could be spending our energy on.

S

Grocery Budget $75/week

Mainesource

5 lbs. American Cheese- $7.99

10 lbs. ground beef- $18.82

2 dozen eggs- $ 1.78

total- $28.69

Riccardo's

18 lbs dad's dog food

4 cans GG corn

2 cans tom paste

3 jars salsa

3 boxes taco shells

1&1/2 lb ground beef

total- $15.39 and $1 off next purchase

Giant

Goodlife cat food

12pk hot dog rolls

friskie party mix cat treats

1 bag tortilla chips

2lbs bananas

1 beef BBQ

1 Ham

2 bags steam veggies

2 16 oz coffeemate french vanilla creamer

4 boxes kelloggs corn flakes

total- $21.16 and $3 off next shopping trip

total $65.14 I am sure I will use the rest for milk and bread throughout the week. My total before coupons and sales was $111.21.

Free Summer Movies

I am so excited!!!! The theater by me is not having one free kids movie a week but 2! Here is the list. The only thing I am sad about is every couple of years they do The Wizard of Oz. I wanted to take time off of work to take the kids and never made it. I would love, love, love to see that in a theater.

Things to work on 5/9-5/15

Cleaning

According to flylady this week will be the kitchen so I coincided my extra cleaning objectives to take place in the kitchen.

Monday- Top of fridge

Tuesday- inside fridge and freezer

Wednesday- microwave cart drawer

Thursday- utensil drawer

Friday- stove and drawer under stove

Financially

Using Monday as a quit date, stop smoking. If I make it through the week I will use the money to go to yard sales on Friday. Which I will do armed with a list of stuff that I can use to help avoid the... Oh isn't that cute impulse.

Bringing God in and Quality Time With Kids

Today I read a blog about National Day of Prayer. I discussed it with my children and came to learn that although my oldest said she prayed at night, the two younger ones said they did not do this at all. For this week I will take 10 minutes a night and pray with my children. We will be attending church Sunday afternoon and then again Saturday evening.

Menu

Sunday- FIL is cooking Yeah!!! I have been cooking since I have been home. We have not eaten fast food once. That in itself has been a major accomplishment. I will be attempting homemade pretzels.

Monday- Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup with noodles

Tuesday- Sweet and Sour Chicken

Wednesday- Taco's

Thursday- Scalloped Potatoes and Ham, Salad

Friday- Hamburg, Macaroni, and Tomatoes

Saturday- Chicken A La King

Learning

I want to devote more time to my bible study and this week I will attempt to learn how to make homemade bread.

Crock Pot BBQ Pulled Pork

` This is a family favorite. It is also a very cost friendly dish. I do cheat and use Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce which I stock up on in the summer when they go on sale 10 for $10. I generally cook for four adults and three children as a minimum and this is always plenty.

Ingredients

3 lbs pork (I usually use boneless roast or center cut pork chops whatever is on sale)

1 bottle Root Beer soda

1 small bottle Sweet Baby Rays

1. Place pork in Crock Pot.

2. Pour in Root Beer til pork is covered.

3. Cook in Crock Pot several hours til pork is tender enough to shred with a fork.

4. Drain Crock Pot leaving about 1/4 of the liquid in it.

5. Shred pork return it to Crock Pot with reserved liquid and 1 bottle sweet Baby Rays. Cook for about 1 hour on high or until ready to serve.

I usually serve this on hard rolls or potato rolls. I would like to try making my own buns eventually.

French Onion Soup

`I hate to see food go to waste and the produce I have been getting from the grocery stores lately does not seem to have a very long shelf life. Here is a recipe that I came across in a very old fund raising cook book (when I find it again I will list the name). I have made some changes to it. I like to buy the bags of yellow cooking onions, after I remove what I need for other recipes this is what I do.

Ingredients

Onions

1-2 TBSP butter

garlic

beef cubes

Worcestershire sauce

Peel and slice onions.

Heat Skillet. Add butter, garlic, and onions. Cook for about 5-10 minutes on medium depending on how many onions you have.

Transfer mixture to Crock Pot. Add water til onions are completely covered. For every cup of water you added add a beef cube. Add a few shakes of Worcestershire Sauce. Set Crock Pot on low for about three hours.

This recipe is a great way to use up onions before they go bad!!

Schedule

` Now that I made it through my sons 1st Holy Communion and party. which I hosted at my house, it's time to develop a schedule. I've been debating doing this, because part of me is overwhelmed by the whole idea, but I think things will go more smoothly if I bite the bullet here.

` I am going to start out with a weekly schedule that I will put together on Sunday's. I am going to add church, which I hate to say we have not been doing, and batch cooking. I would love to do the OAMC but with a weekly budget of $65.00/week and 4 adults and 3 kids there is just no way. I have also come to the conclusion that I am going to have to up my food budget until I get my pantry built up.

` Part of my weekly schedule is going to include my weekly budget. I messed up last week by not taking the cash out of the bank for his party, so now I have no real idea of how much I spent since I added the food to my grocery bill, etc. From now on cash it will be.

` As far as cleaning goes, I have been trying to do flylady. I had started it before so I kinda fast forwarded the baby steps and jumped in where I left off. I have also started picking one additional chore a day that I can complete in 15-30 minutes time.

` For cooking, which I am finding out, is taking up the majority of my time, I decided on Batch cooking. I am going to get some index cards and a box to put them in. As I add things to my freezer I will put it down on an index card. When it is time to menu plan for the week I will be able to go through my index cards of what I have made already and put them in the front of the box.

`I plan on posting my entire weekly schedule on Sunday nights for the following week. Hopefully this process is like the budget and will get easier as time goes on.