Try try again

Well, it is the end of the month and I really didn't stick to my $400.00.  I spent around $550.  I don't think that is too bad considering that I have teens and that there are 7 of us, but I really want to cut it more. I am doing some more baking and trying to find one meal a week that I can incorporate dried beans in.  Steven did kill a deer a couple of weeks ago, so that helps with the meat.  Well, we will try again this month.

Tomorrow is Halloween.  We don't trick or treat or any of that stuff.  We are having a fall festival at church and the little kids are dressing up for school.  I don't buy them any costumes,  we just put stuff together with what we have at home.  Emma is going to be a coygirl and Evan is going to be a hunter.

We are winding down soccer this week and I am glad.  The schedule has gotten a bit out of hand.  I hope we can slow down during the holidays. Ha ha.

Football Friday Night

Tonight is the homecoming football game with our school.  Steven and I will work the concession stand since the band gets the money, plus it gives us money off the participation fees for band.  It is alot of work, but I do enjoy seeing all of the kids and helping.  My feet will definitely be tired tonight!

We started getting calls from teachers that my nephew who lives with us was not behaving in school.  I then called the school and the counselor told me that they had already put him on a behavior plan.  What?  No one even informed me that there were issues until last week and he is on a plan?  You would think they would want to involve the parents.  So, now we have to work on our behavior.  I am taking him Monday to see about getting him some meds for ADHD.  He just seems so hyper sometimes and just talks and blurts out stuff all of the time that I don't know how much he can help, so maybe some meds are in order.  I guess we will see what the doctor says.

I haven't really been grocery shopping this week.  I spent $25 at Wal-mart the other night, but nothing else.  Tomorrow I will go to town and get some things, but not too much.  Evan shot a deer last weekend on youth day, so now we have lots of deer meat.  We grind it up and eat it like ground beef.  I also have two whole chickens in the fridge so that can become something.

Well, I guess I will fold a load of clothes and unload the dishwasher before we go to the game.

Camping

This weekend we went camping.  We went to a state park about 30 minutes away and had a great time.

This is Emma and Evan standing in the water.  We went to an animal park a few miles away.  We all love animals and this place is free.

This is us on a wooden alligator.  Steven was taking the pictures.  This is the baby squirrel that the kids found.



I was the mean mom and wouldn't let them keep it.  I love camping because their is no TV and we are outside. We have to talk to each other and we have to interact.  The kids play ball and hide and seek and at night we all sit around the campfire talking and drinking hot chocolate.  No, it is not all fun and game.  Kids will be kids and they fight and get on each other's nerves, but it is usually only for a few minutes.  I love that the kids all have to work together.  You might not know, but the older boy is my nephew, and it was the first time that we have taken him camping with us.  I think he had a good time.  He loves the outdoors.  We are all learning to live with him, and he is also learning to live with us.  I often have to remind myself of that.

The only bad part is the laundry that is so stinky when we got back.  I went ahead and made myself another batch of laundry detergent.  I was afraid that I would run out after washing every one's clothes and sleeping bags and blanket.  I also made a pot of chili, a batch of bread, and some oatmeal cooking.  I was just enjoying being in the kitchen.  That is what I miss when I work.  Just being at home and doing kitchen chores at a leisurely pace.  Now Steven can have the leftover chili for lunch tomorrow and the bread will start us out for the week.

Redoing the budget

I know that I am not the only one, but the continuing dragging economy and high gas prices have really been a drain on our family's budget.  The prices of our heath insurance, our taxes and everything else has gone up in price, but our income hasn't really budged.  Now don't get me wrong, I thank the Lord every day that my husband hasn't lost his job, and that I have a good job in our school system, but we have not really been saving any money, and that has to change.

We are currently spending about $600-$700 a month on food which I don't think is too bad considering that we have five kids and two of them are teens.  We rarely go out, but we eat alot and the kids love snacks.  Add to it that now I work full time, we are eating alot more prepacked stuff than we did in the past.  I have been buying individual bags of chips, fruit snacks, packs of crackers, etc when I used to bake cookies, granola bars and homemade snack mix all of the time.  Well, I have decided to make some more time out in the weekends to make some more of this.  I often make a double batch of muffins on the weekends and we can eat that for a couple of mornings or for snacks.  I also like to make banana bread or other quick breads.  My goal for the next month is to get us under $400 for the month.  I hope it is doable.

In celebration of this I want to post what we will be eating.  On school days we either pack a sandwich or eat at school, so I am not posting those lunches on my menus/

Monday:  Breakfast:  Leftover biscuits, scrambled eggs, fruit\
                Dinner : Cream cheese chicken in crock pot over pasta, carrot sticks

Tuesday :  Breakfast:  Bagels or cereal, fruit
                 Dinner : Chili and Frito's

Wednesday:  Breakfast:  Oatmeal or cereal, fruit\
                     Dinner :  Pancakes and sausage for a crowd before church (the kids bring friends home for a ride to church)

Thursday :   Breakfast:  Cereal (teacher work day, kids are off.)
                    Lunch: Sandwiches, chips, fruit (I will be working)
                   Dinner:  Tacos

Friday and Saturday we are going camping and I have not bought the food for that.  We usually will roast hot dogs and cook some beans one night and then do grilled chicken and mac and cheese another night.  We will make PBJ sandwiches for lunch with chips. Breakfast will be eggs and bacon one morning and sweet rolls another.  We will bring apples, bananas, and trail mix to snack on and we will have marshmallows and smores at night.  We usually bring lots of coffee and hot chocolate and I will get some cases of bottled water, Gatorade and some individually bottled juices.  Yummy!

I have already been shopping this week, but I am starting my $400 for the month on Friday.  I will post how it goes.

Feet up

I am sitting back chilling tonight with my feet up.  Steven has gone to the football game to chaparone the band.  They have an away game about 45 minutes away tonight so I didn't go.  I stayed home with the younger kids and let them each have a friend over.  The friends have now left and we are relaxing.  They are watching TV and playing on I-pods.

Work is going good and I am learning alot.  I like that the sped teachers will listen to me when I talk and take what I say into consideration.  The only hard thing is that I really can't tell anyone specifics about school because of privacy issues and such.  This is a small town and it wouldn't take long for talk to get around, so I am careful about what I tell people.  We do talk among ourselves in the special ed room, which is good.

Tomorrow Steven is taking the the boys to the Georgia game and Ashley and Natalie are volunteering at church, so I will just have Emma for a while.  I think we will go shopping.

Busy

School, work and life in general have been busy.  It is a good kind of busy, but busy none the less.  Emma is playing soccer, Ashley is in the marching band, and all three girls are doing dance right now.  I went to a women's conference in Atlanta last Saturday with Kay Arthur as the speaker.  It was so good.  I was gone all day, but the guys kept the house in pretty good shape.  I have been playing catch up from that all week.  Oh well, it was worth it.  I learned so much!

Tonight is church.  The kids bring home friends and we take about 10 kids to church on Wednesdays.  Fun to have a house full of kids.  I usually make a big pot of soup and some grilled cheese sandwiches or muffins or bread and off we go.  I use my crockpot so it is ready when we get in at 4:00.

I have to go get the troups ready for school.  Tyler takes forever to do his hair.  I think it is time for a haircut.

First Week of School

We had our first full week of school last week.  The kids were fairly excited to go.

 

 

 

It was also my first week of working all week.  We survived it, but I have to do better about getting some baking done on the weekends.  I overspent my budget this week on groceries, so I am trying to get it back in line.  I didn't make it to the medium sized city for shopping at Aldi, so I went to Wal-Mart and Ingles, which is just more expensive.  I did go and stock up on pasta at Kroger for 50 cents a box and I got some goldfish crackers and some cookies for afternoon snacks. 

 

I am working at the little kid's school as a special ed para pro.  Basically I go into the classrooms and help with the kids that need some extra help.  It is pretty good but busy.  I do like the job and the school.  I am just trying to figure out what I am supposed to do with these kids and what is the best way to help them and the teacher.  It is a learning curve for sure. 

 

In other news we got Tyler's custody worked out.  We went to court this week and now we have custody of him until his is 18.  I hope we can teach him like we have taught our others that school is important and that the love of the Lord should be the primary focus in  his life.  It is good to have that settled.

 

Well, I have to go put bread dough in some pans and take me a nap.  I love Sunday afternoons.