Why I love thrifting

I love shopping at thrift stores. I would say that the majority of our shirts, shoes and accessories come from thrift stores or are given to us from others. My kids are thin and it is hard to find thrifted pants. I am picky about what I buy. I like name brands and cute. Sometimes I find quit a lot and sometimes I find nothing. I try to hit my local store every other week and the one in the bigger city every time I am that way. As a result my kids have lots of clothes for a fraction of what they would cost new. 

Now the downside is that there are not always this years styles and sometimes you just want something new. One of those times is homecoming. We took a crew to shop. We wanted something modest but pretty. He we are shopping. 

Then we finally found the perfect one. 

It covers the top well. I would love for it to have been longer but this was long compared to most. 

Family Decisions

Sometimes you have to make hard decisions that affect the whole family. Sometimes those decisions look bad in the short run but can reep benefits in the long run. My oldest is our biological nephew. He has recently gotten into some trouble and while it may not be the worst in the world it is troubling for us. We worry about what the future holds for him and what his influence will do for our family. Because of this we have consulted the outside help of a group home. This place is residential and would last for the next year and a half. It would provide him with help and an environment that we can't give him. It would give him a better start in life. If he is accepted it would be a big change and would definately not be frugal. We are going to have to pray about what we want to do. Life's struggles and decisions are always hard.

The best thing about all if this trouble that we have had is the support of our church family. Many people in our own family are not saved and don't understand why we make the decisions that we do. Having the support of other Christians has made this process easiesr to bear.  We love The Lord and we are so glad that he is always faithful.

Here is our picture from see you at the pole. Our church youth are so on fire for god. I just can't get enough of seeing that. 

Braves Game

Every year Steven's work gives us Braves  tickets. With there being 7 of us and the tickets being so expensive we would not be able to go if they didn't give us these. They also tack on an extra $10 on each ticket for concessions and provide us hotdogs before the game. The weather was great even if the Braves lost. 

One thing that came to my mind while we were there is how different our family is from the main stream. With the extra money on our tickets we bought snacks and cokes while most were buying beer. We just don't enjoy those type of activities and we are rarely in big crowds. We prefer camping to amusement parks and would rather do activities with our church family than parties.  We would rather cook in than go out and would rather watch a movie at home than go to the movies. Since our shift has been more and more Christ like those things of the world don't appeal to us. We have made new kinds of friends and have had to distance ourselves from some family members. 

I am tired and need to wrap it up for bed. I have class tomorrow night and see you at the pole tomorrow. Long day!

New School Year

The new school year is now in full swing. 

This is the first day of school. Don't they clean up well. 

Last day of summer

Well it is the last day of summer for me.  I go back to pre planning on Monday.  I was saying just a week ago that I wasn't ready for summer to end, then yesterday I knew it was time.  The kids are getting bored with no structure.  They also got board this week because I had to go to professional learning and they had to stay home while I did that.  Ashley has been at band camp and is my only other driver, so they are stuck at home.  Today I want to take the kids to the local water park.  It is not big.  It has only two slides, a pool and a kiddie area but the younger kids enjoy it.  I usually get a lounge chair and a book a and enjoy myself.  I might slide once or twice but I mostly just hang out.  If the weather looks questionable we might go to a movie or something.

Yesterday we kept the baby so that my sister could get some sleep.  Oh I do remember the newborn stage and I hated not getting my sleep.

 

We just loved having her.  She didn't make but three noises but you know that we held her and spoiled her.  Fun fun!

 

We also got an addition to our family a few weeks ago.  It is a puppy.  She is really cute but really bad. I forgot how much work they are.  Like a baby.

 

 

Housebreaking is going great with little accidents anymore.  Every once in a while I find a little present but not as much as in the beginning. 

 

 

I thought this was great so I had to get a picture.  Steven is teaching the kids how to care for the cars.  Last night it was checking oil.  She got it pretty good.

 

 

I like seeing the learn new things.  These are things that you can't learn in school.  You have to learn it in real life.  I am just so glad that my husband will teach the kids these things.  They are lucky and they don't even know it.



 



Pantry Challenge update

I did ok on my pantry challenge.  I did end up going to the store and spending over $100 before it was over.  We just ate everything in the house and no one wanted to eat the same foods again.  It wasn't a total flop.  I did have enough money left over to buy some school supplies.

 

I ended up buying 20 three ring binders.  That is a lot of notebooks.  I also bought about 20 packs of paper an a bunch of pencils.  I don't know where these go but they disappear.

 



Today we are keeping the baby for a while.  My sister has some loose ends to tie up at her school before she goes on her maternity leave.  A little baby is my favorite thing so that is fine with me.  After that we are going to talk to my principle about how I would so student teaching while I work.  This is going to be tricky so y'all pray for flexibility and solutions.  Then off the orthodontist.  That should wrap up the day.

Summer is almost over

We are winding summer down around here.  I have had professional learning this week.  I have to say that the classes have been interesting.  I have one more day today.  What amazes me is how fast technology is moving in the classroom.  Every day there seems to be a new a better way to use technology to learn.  It is frightening how hard it is to keep up with it all.

Now that we are about to start school and the crazy schedule that goes along with it we are getting some freezer cooking done.  I like to have several things in the freezer that I can pull out and heat up.

 

Recently I started doing some crockpot freezer meals.  These meals have all of the ingredients layered in a gallon ziplock and then thrown in the crockpot in the morning.  I usually cook it frozen solid.  Then in the afternoon dinner is ready.  There are lots of these on pintrest.

 

One other thing that these kids love is yogurt.  I was buying lots of little containers, then I saw people making their own yogurt.  I tried the crockpot method and was not impressed.  It was too watery.  Then I tried the method that you cook on the stove and put it in jars in the cooler and it worked perfectly.  First heat one gallon of milk to 180 degrees on the stove,

 

Then put it in a sink with a few ice cubes and let it cool to 120 degrees.  I then add a cup of starter yogurt.  I use Yoplait.  I then add a cup of sugar and a few tablespoons of vanilla to make vanilla yogurt.  Then I transfer it to four quart canning jars and put them in a cooler.  I add enough hot water to make it about an inch deep and close the cooler lid.  I then leave it for about six hours.  I then have wonderful yogurt.  So I can make a whole gallon for under $4.00.

 

Well now I have to get ready for class.  Then I have two more days of summer then preplanning starts.