oh my day...yesterday.

     We had leftover birthday cake for breakfast yesterday. You would think a day that starts with cake would turn out to be a pretty great day right? Wrong. It is true, I gave my kids cake for breakfast yesterday. The day after someones birthday we always have their leftover cake for breakfast. I think this was started more for myself then anyone else. I think I probably wanted cake one year and felt guilty so now its become a thing and we all eat cake. So anyway, like I said you think that would be the start of a good day.

       I had several errands to run yesterday. Our first stop was the library so the kids could turn in their summer reading stuff. They were excited about this because they got a certificate and this little gold medallion thing.  Then it was on to Toy's R Us. Parker had some money to spend and a video game he wanted was on sale there so we went to go get it. Coincidentally they also have their crayons on sale for four boxes for a $1.00. (I may or may not have 16 boxes of crayons.)  Everyone wanted everything when we got there, and I was starting to get a little flustered. This was the second stop we had made and I knew we still had more to do.

        Our next stop was Target. Or so I thought. I was sitting at the a stop light waiting to turn when WHAM, out of no where we were rear ended. Yep. Just me and the kids and I was kinda freaking out. I'm happy to report that no one was hurt. The people who hit me where upset with me. Makes sense right? They hit me and then they were mad at me because they hit me. So then I called the police. I wanted to file a report. So, all the kids, a hot car, angry strangers, a police officer and me. By this time it was past lunch.

        Now, I figured we would still go to Target since all I had to do was seriously run in and grab something and I was going to let Lizzie look at something because she had birthday money to spend. We finished up inside and went out to the car. I got all the kids in and buckled and I went to start the car and of course it didn't start. Of course. I called Ray and he asked me if I was sure I was in the right car. Yeah. I'm pretty sure.

        I'm sweating at this point because we are all sitting in a hot car while I am trying to start it and it is showing no signs of starting. So I start making phone calls to get help. Lucky for me we have great families and I had offers to help from both my family and Rays. My mom came and got me and we left the car there for Ray to mess with later. I'm tired, the kids are cranky, the baby is hungry, I want a nap. I bought the kids pizza from the Target snack bar for lunch because by this time it was way past lunch and I was over it.

         I should mention that when I called Ray he said it sounded like the battery was dead, but I had just had my oil changed and they checked that and it was fine. So he wanted me to open the hood and jiggle the wires connecting the battery. I didn't do it. Like I said, I was over it. Well Ray came down from  work, he works in North Oklahoma City and he jiggled the wires and my car started. He could have been upset about that, but he knew what my day had been like and he just took one for the team. Love him.

        I am thankful that the day before I had made chicken pot pie and stuck it in the fridge for dinner that day. So all I had to do that night was bake it. I'm pretty sure that's all I could have done. So there ya go. That was yesterday. I'll tell you about today, tomorrow. It was payday today which means it was grocery shopping day and technically my grocery challenge as ended....



         

             I'm just going to be honest, we went out to dinner last night so that means I didn't fix dinner. I wasn't going to say anything, in fact I was going to skip completely over Sunday and go right into today. But then the guilt was to much. We had leftover pizza for lunch, and cereal for breakfast and On The Boarder for dinner. There, are you happy.

             Today was a special day because our Lizzie turned 10. Her birthday is the start of the birthday season in our family, and it is the start of the four weeks out of the year that Parker and Lizzie are the same age. Yep, they are both 10. They are 11 months apart. I cried when I brought Lizzie home from the hospital and I sat on the coach and fed each of them at the same time one in each arm from a bottle. But we got past that. Anyway. So like I said it is the start of lots of birthdays. Benjamin's is this Saturday, Rays is in a couple of weeks and Parker's is at the end of the month. Plus there is one of Ray's brothers, his nephew and a cousin all in August birthdays! Crazy.

          So today was about Lizzie and what she wanted for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had pancakes for breakfast. She didn't really pick that, but I know she likes them and we were out of cereal and I just couldn't make a girl eat oatmeal on her birthday. Lunch was boring so I'm just skipping it. Do you really care that we have sandwiches everyday? I think by now most people can guess what we have certain days of the week. Like Friday, whats for dinner? Or Sunday morning, what's for breakfast? So you can probably assume that we are having some kind of sandwich for lunch unless I make them eat leftovers but we all know I didn't cook last night we went out. Shut up about it already.

         On everyones birthday I make for dinner whatever they want. Seriously, whatever. And whatever kind of cake they want I will attempt to bake it. Lizzie picked sliders and homemade french fries for dinner. And then a vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. Benjamin told me the frosting was not good. Whatever. He ate the cake.

      Now I need to start my meal planning for next month. Maybe next month instead of using $300 for the month I should try making it on $250. Right.

from that day to this day...

      So like normal it has been a few days since I blogged. But it has been busy busy around here! For starters Thursday I had an appointment in Oklahoma City and it took forever. I had to leave my house around 2:00 and I didn't get home until 5:30 that night. So dinner was supposed to black bean enchiladas but by the time I got home and the babysitter left the kids were hungry and I was in a hurry. So black bean enchiladas became black beans mixed with enchilada sauce and sour cream and cheese all mixed together with corn tortillas. And my kids ate it. It could have been a case of "I'm starving I will eat anything" or they really liked it. Who knows and truthfully I don't care. They ate. The end.

       Friday was another busy day. I had an appointment to get my oil changed and I had to be there by 8:00a.m. I'm not sure why I though this was a good idea when I made the appointment but for some reason I did. So my kids had dry cereal out of baggies at the oil change place. I'm not lying. Lunch was of course sandwiches and fruit. And the most exciting thing was happening that night. Ray was getting home after being out of town for two weeks. The flight he was originally on was going to come in at 10:45p.m. I think, but lucky for us he changed flights and got in at 5:30. We went to get him at the airport and by that time it was dinner time so we had no other choice but to eat out. Darn.

        The kids were so excited to have Ray home. He brought t-shirts for everyone and like any good dad, he handed out his trip swag to the kids. They got all kinds of things, name tags, water bottles, and things that could be classified as trash but when you are a kid its perfect. They each even got their very own bar of hotel soap. Which they have used. And loved.

          Saturday is my day to fix an actual breakfast. Like eggs, toast, sausage, fruit. So thats what we had. Lunch was same old same old..sandwiches. Dinner was Friday night pizza, but on Saturday. Like I said, we were forced to go out since the time of Rays arrival coincided with dinner time. I totally blame the airport for poor time management. So we had pizza tonight.

           Because of some instances of eating out we are going to last a few days past the end of the month on my meal plan. Well, maybe not a few days, but at least one day. Since it is towards the end of the month we are getting low on some things. Snacks have seen better days. And bread is just about gone. But I can make my own bread and there is always something I can come with for a snack if we need one.

Last couple of days....

     

         It's been a crazy couple of days. I'm just gonna be honest, I haven't cooked since Sunday. I knew this would happen at some point with Ray being gone but I do have some  legitament reasons. Like for starters we had Lizzie's birthday sleepover on Monday night and she wanted pizza but not homemade pizza because we have that every week! So I didn't fix Monday dinner. So my reason for why we didn't do our usual breakfasts choices on Tuesday morning is the same reason I didn't fix dinner Monday night. No one wants to come to a sleep over and have oatmeal. So I bought donuts. I love donuts.

           So now I feel like I need to back track a little. I though it would be easier to have a sleepover while Ray is out of town. Because it just it. So I also thought it would be fun for my friend Leslie to come from Texas with her kids and help me with the sleepover. Bonus. As it turns out I needed her help. I'm not a slumber party girl. And here's a little secert, I hate having birthday parties for my kids. I don't hate my kids, just having parties! Okay, so anyway I needed some help.

          Tuesday was a blur. Sick kids, cranky kids, lots of spanking, putting together a baby bed, rearrange furniture, it was an exhausting  day! So the kids had left over pizza for lunch and sandwiches for dinner. I didn't have to fix dinner for Leslie because she went to dinner with her brother and I didn't have to fix something for myself because we had dip leftover from Lizzie's party and I don't think I need to remind people that I love dip.

           So here we are today. The kids had cereal for breakfast. I bought good cereal since I knew Leslie would be here a couple of days with her kids, but she didn't know I had done that and she brought her own cereal! Love it. She left before lunch so they missed out on Ramon noodles! I once again had dip. I will have dip for every meal until it is gone. Nothing wasted in this house, I'm just taking one for the team.

           On Sunday night I made homemade Mac and cheese for dinner and there was a lot leftover and we eat all the leftovers this month so it's what we had for dinner tonight. I will be back to cooking tomorrow. I have muffins to make and bread to bake and whatever else.

             Molly alert. Molly has been sleeping in our room since we brought her home, she is almost three months old. That is like 2 months and 2 weeks longer then any of my other kids did. I'm a little sad to not have her in here but she is moving in with Lizzie who couldn't be happier. At least someone is happy. That's my goal. Not all my kids can be happy at the same time so I strive for at least one a day and today it's Lizzie. I've got them on a rotation. It works for us.

Exciting news....

      So exciting news. A couple of weeks ago, I guess you could say around the time we started all this, I hid some candy...shocking right. Well I didn't put it in my regular candy hiding places, yes I have those, so when I went to look for it last week it was lost. I couldn't find it anywhere. I thought maybe my kids had found it, or maybe Ray re-hid it just to be funny. I was freaking out. Candy withdraws are for real. While searching for it I did find some stale gum drops that I had also hidden and lost, so that's a bonus. But it wasn't what I was looking for. And then tonight it just came to me. I remembered where I put it. Jackpot. I'm now eating Reece's pieces while I am blogging and like always, I'm not sharing.

       Okay, now back to it. Last night for dinner we had black beans and rice. I made a huge batch of it at the beginning of the month and froze them in ziplock gallon bags to pull out as I needed, well last night it was needed. We had green beans, tortillas, and fruit with dinner. For lunch yesterday we had leftover pizza from our Friday night pizza.

         Today is Sunday which means for breakfast my kids had cereal. I never, never fix breakfast on Sundays! We left church early because I wasn't feeling good...sinus infection. I get them all the time but that's neither here nor there. So because I wasn't feeling well I bought the kids lunch from McDonald's on the way home. Luckily for all of us, I was feeling better by dinner time and we had homemade Mac and cheese. But I wasn't feeling  super great, so that's all they had. Yes, I didn't give them fruit or any vegetables with this dinner.

     So that's that. I found my hidden candy and I'm still on my budget. What up.

Breaking in down...

       So when Ray suggested I try this $300 budget this month for groceries I thought he was crazy. I thought there was no way I could make that work. But so far I have, and here is some idea of how it has been possible.

       For starters I don't use coupons at all. At all. I have tried several time and I have a very patient friend who has shown me how to do it several times, but it is a lot of work, and I tend to be lazy sometimes.  The big key to this has been planning. And I not a planner by nature. I have said before that I usually don't have a meal plan and I never have a grocery list. That has changed. I have both. And I stick to it. Regardless of how I am feeling about it!

       At the beginning of July I went to Sams and bought several things in bulk that I knew we would use for the entire month. Peanut butter is cheaper at Sams. I bought the huge Peter Pan one and I think it was around $9.00. So during the month we will use this for sandwiches, and snacks. I also bought 10 pounds of flour. I did this because I knew I would be making pizza Friday night in July and when I make pizza dough I double the recipe so thats a lot of flour. I use it for breakfast things too and also if we want bread with dinner I make my own french bread. I also bought huge things of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes to make a big batch of pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce which I froze. I still have 10 cups of that left and I think I made 30 or 35 cups.

       We all know that we have had a lot of beans so far this month. I bought a 2 pound bag of dried pinto beans and a 2 pound bag of dried black beans. I make each of the beans the same way every time.  Here is a link to how I do the pinto beans, http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/08/29/recipe-easy-slow-cooker-refried-beans/. I use this recipe for just regular pinto beans and we also use it for refried beans which I use for burritos. This will feed our family several times and everyone usually eats without complaint. Then for the black beans I use this recipe. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brazilian-Black-Beans-20146. I also double both of these recipes. But with the leftovers from the black beans you can make black bean enchiladas, black bean burgers, black bean soup. There are lots of different things. So both of these bags of beans together is maybe $5.00-$6.00. Thats not a lot of money!

      For breakfast stuff, I make a lot of my own things. We have muffins a lot, or biscuits sausage sandwiches. But thats why I buy the big flour, so I can make these things instead of just counting on cereal. But when it comes to cereal, I buy non sugar cereal....generic cheerios usually. Or we have oatmeal. But not flavored oatmeal. I buy the big thing of plan quick cook oats and they can add stuff to it after it is cooked. But like everything else that I fix, my kids have learned they either eat it, or they miss that meal. It didn't take them that long to figure it out and now for the most part they eat whatever they are given. I only have one kid that will miss meals from time to time and its not gonna kill him!

      That brings me to snack stuff. You better believe that my kids eat snacks. But I only buy certain things. This month in order to stay in my budget I bought a couple of boxes of saltine crackers. So with this they either have crackers and peanut butter, crackers and cheese. They can also have popcorn, not the microwave kind, or fruit.

     I do most of my shopping at Aldi, but there are a few things I have to get at Walmart. I try to steer clear of Walmart because I will buy more things then I actually need if I shop there. I buy some stuff at Sams, but not to much. The biggest thing I do is try to plan for leftovers and make the leftovers into something else. It is more work to do things this way, lots of from scratch baking but I don't mind doing that. I enjoy cooking. We also have veggies and fruit at every meal and I think Aldi has the best price for those things. Their milk and eggs are also cheaper, oh and so is their frozen chicken. But we don't eat tons of meat. There are weeks that we may only have meat twice.

     Also, this doesn't include cleaning stuff and toiletry stuff. But that budget shrunk too. This month I was given $50 for the entire month for those things...all of those things! But so far that has been doable.

     Don't get me wrong. There are things I miss buying. I don't have a lot of junk food on hand and I am junk food eater. I love dip, any dip and I am not buying it this month. I also love candy. Love it. I have not bought very much of that either. So with that being said, we are eating healthier because I'm not buying junk.

      And just so I don't leave Molly out, her baby formula is not included in this budget. But its not included because before we had her, I bought lots and lots of formula so it would always be here and I didn't want to have to take it out of my regular budget.

     Oh and one last tip. I buy bread at Dollar Tree! Because it is only a dollar! Or sometimes Aldi has their bread on sale for like .69 cents and I buy several loafs and keep it in my freezer! Hope this gives you an idea of what I am doing. If you want recipes for things or if you want my complete meal plan for the month let me know and I will share it with whoever wants it!

      I think it was in my first blog about this grocery challenge that I mentioned I thought I should get a prize for managing this crazy budget we are trying this month. Well as it turns out Ray thought I deserved something too for my hard work! He bought me a set of Cuisinart stainless cookware! I couldn't be more excited. First because it was a very thoughtful gift, he knows I love to cook and second because I haven't had new cookware in ages, seriously, ages! So now I have fancy pots to cook my beans in and that of course makes my beans taste even better.

      Since we are already talking about Ray, I'm going to continue. He is taking some kind of banking classes in Colorado right now and in his class today he took the Myers Briggs personality test. Well I love those things, so I took one too and guess what, according to our personalities, we are seriously perfect for each other. Which is why he knew I would love those pots and pans, but I would never buy them for myself so he did.

         Okay, enough of that and let's talk food. Yes, I am cooking real meals even though Ray isn't home. This is new for me. I don't usually cook if he isn't going to be here. I acknowledge this is a strange habit, but it's the truth! We usually have junk to eat when he isn't here. But I'm fixing real food to stay on my budget. Last night we had homemade chicken taquitos. I love them. We seem to having a lot of mexican food this month, I love mexican food and since I plan the menu...there ya go!

        Tonight is Friday, what does Friday night mean...pizza night! So that was easy. The last couple of days the kids have had cereal for breakfast, but I made banana muffins today for breakfast tomorrow. See, if I make them have cereal everyday then I will run out of milk sooner then I want to, so I have to have other things for breakfast. I had bananas turning brown, so banana muffins it is. Lunches the last couple of days has been sandwiches. It's easy and for the most part my kids will eat sandwiches without complaint.

           I think I said before that I split my money up so I shop every two weeks. So far this part of the month I have spent $92.00.  I need to have money left over to be able to buy fruit and milk again. We go through a lot of fruit. A lot. So there it is.

          An now just because, here is an update on Molly. She is smiling now, and starting to kinda laugh.  She is still pretty small, but super cute! Oh and she sleeps through the night. Because she rocks at being a baby. Word.

       

Back to life...

        Parties over, it had to end sometime I guess. It's back to cooking for me. We got back today after spending several days at my parents house in Kansas. No more eggs Benedict, no more waffles, no more Cheetos, no more ice cream. I will miss it. I will miss my parents too, but come on eggs Benedict is my all time favorite breakfast. Seriously, all.time.favorite.

        Truthfully I would eat anything that anyone other then me fixed. But my mom is a great cook so that's a bonus.  Anyway. We did have a great trip. It was just me and all the kids. Ray is roughing it in a terrible place right now...Boulder, Colorado. Yeah. Feel real sorry for him. My parents have a farm that used to be my Grandparents. It's a wonderful place. I went there as a child and I love that my kids get to go there now too. They have a pond so we did lots of fishing. And I caught nothing. Nothing. At all. And I fished with a bobber on my pole like I was 6 again. But at least now I can cast it out any time I want and not have to wait on my dad like I did when I was 6. Take that dad.

        No trip to my parents would be complete without a trip to Kansas City to the American Girl Doll store for Lizzie. She had been saving up her money and she bought a little craft kit thing. Of course it was a miserable trip for the boys, but I made them go anyway. I'm that mean. The high light of the trip for Parker would have to be shooting my dads gun. Yep. That's it. Oh yeah, and Timothy got sick. Really sick. So we had a trip to the doctor as well. It was a busy few days.

         And I'm just gonna tell you. The drive home was terrible. Terrible. Terrible. So bad that I could have left a few of them on the side of the road. But Ray is expecting to see all the kids when he gets back and I don't think I would be able to explain that.

       So that leaves me here, blogging instead of planning my meals for the next two weeks. I do have some things planned, black beans three times, three different ways and of course pizza every Friday night. I hate cooking when Ray isn't home. I don't know why. It's not like the rest of us don't eat.

Catching up...

    So I think the last time I blogged was Wednesday, so I'm gonna have to go back a few day! Thursday was a busy day. I can't tell you what we had for breakfast or lunch that day, but I can promise you that both of those meals were eaten! We took a baby present to a friend who is having her first baby, we went swimming at another friends house, oh and then we came home to a broken air conditioner and a house that was very quickly approaching 90 degrees and that sucked. Luckily I was able to get someone over to fix it that same day.

     I had talked in my last blog about whether or not I was going to make hamburger buns for the black bean burgers that we were having for dinner Thursday night. I ended up making them. I figured,  what the heck, my house was already 90 degrees, what will it hurt to heat it up even more when I turned my oven up to 450 to cook the buns. They turned out great, and everyone ate without complaint! They even wanted seconds.

     I'm actually really proud of the kids and myself! I'm proud of Ray too, but he really eats anything without any complaint and he eats lunch out a lot because of work so he has had more variety then we have had. I have even been able to go to Target and Walmart and buy just the things I need and not buy the food I am out of, for instance, I'm out of bread! But I am more then capable of making my own bread, but so far I haven't had to.

      So because the kids have been such troopers and haven't really complained all that much, and they ate oatmeal for breakfast and didn't complain I decided they need a treat. So I made them all dress up like cows to get a free lunch at Chick-fil-a, because it was cow appreciation day. It was great.  And because I have been such a trooper, Ray took me out to dinner last night! The kids had homemade pizza...because it was friday, and Ray and I went to Hollies Flatiron Steakhouse. It was so good.

      Today it was oatmeal again for breakfast and the older kids had lunch a birthday party. I'm making spaghetti for dinner. Then have a  I confession to make. After dinner tonight I will not be cooking again until Wednesday night! Ray is going out of town for a couple of weeks, so whats this girl gonna do...pack up all the kids and myself and go to my parents house in Kansas of course!

      In the few short days that we will be there you better believe I will be eating like a crazy person. Seriously. But then it will be back to our budget when I go grocery shopping for the rest of the month when we get back. This last two weeks has been eye opening. I have learned there are things we can live without, my kids have learned to be thankful for what they have been given, and a bonus, I have lost a few pounds because I can't afford to buy junk food. Word.

running lowwww

      So I'm starting to run out of things. Who would have thought that we would eat 5 pounds of cheese in a week and half. Thats a lot of cheese. We are almost out of eggs, and bread! But I shop every two weeks. I have so far spent $150 for the last two weeks of groceries and in order stay on my $300 budget I have to wait until Monday to spent the next $150. We will make it, I just have to get a little creative! Now that Ray knows it is possible for us to eat on only $300 a month he has been throwing around the idea of making it a permanent change. I blame the lack of red meat for making him totally crazy. I will not be doing this every month. It is fun to challenge myself, and save our family an extra $200 this month, but come on.  The fun can only last so long!

          I mentioned the other day that this week is a week of beans and rice, rice and beans and so on! Last night all of us except Ray had black bean and cheese quesadilla's. Ray had salmon. I hate salmon, so I'm not gonna eat it. I remember as a child my mom making salmon patties and seriously making me eat them before I could leave the table. That was how I learned to eat and hold my nose at the same time. My mom ruined me for life when it comes to salmon. Sorry, Mom but its true!

          Tonight we had rice patties. It was leftover rice from Monday nights meal of black beans and rice. I mixed it with parmesan cheese, and sautéed green pepper and onions and then made them into patties and cooked them in a little olive oil! Big hit. I'm not joking.

         On the menu for breakfast this morning was sausage biscuits, but that just didn't happen. I didn't feel like making biscuits this morning. The end. They had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Tomorrows breakfast will be much better, I made cinnamon rolls today so I wouldn't run into the same no motivation problem that seems to haunt me each morning!

        I did have some complaining today from Benjamin. He asked what we were having for dinner and before I could answer he said, "it better not be black beans again". He will probably be upset when he finds out that dinner tomorrow is black bean burgers, which will probably just be black bean patties because I don't have any hamburger buns, and I already told you I was out of money. So unless I make buns tomorrow, we might just have to do without!

      On the bright side I do have a container of cake frosting I am saving for desperate times. I will eat it, and yes I know whats in it, and no I don't care, shut up.

beans,beans the magical fruit

           As you might have guessed, we had beans for dinner. This week is actually a meat free dinner week. So we will be having beans and rice, rice and beans, beans, and then rice. Not necessarily in that order. And I reserve the right to add either beans or rice to any meal I am making this week. Whatever.

           So today is Monday which just like Sunday means cereal for breakfast. Because Mondays are hard for me. I don't like to get up on Mondays, but I have to because we have so many kids that need someone to take care of them...man. We are supposed to have muffins tomorrow for breakfast, but I haven't made them yet, so who knows how that will turn out.

           Lunch was tortillas and cheese, which was a nice change according to my kids. I had dip. So I have been craving dip, and cake, or anything chocolate. But I couldn't buy any because of this budget, then I remembered today that I could make ranch dip...can I get a hallelujah. So I ate ranch dip for lunch. And it was good. And I hid it from my kids, and I don't feel guilty about it. Now if I could just figure out how to make chocolate cake without any coco powder or chocolate of any kind I would be set.

         Like I said before we had beans and rice for dinner. I fixed Brazilian black beans and it is one of my favorite bean recipes. I will also use my leftover beans from tonight for black bean patties later in the week.

       I am now listening to one of my children cry from their room because they don't want to go to bed. But he has to because he is in trouble. Ugh. I'm thinking about going to the house next door because she is out of town and  we are taking care of her dogs for her and just sit in her house because there are no children over there. Just two dogs that are so old they just lay there. Perfect.

what a day, what a day.

       Since today is Sunday it means cereal for breakfast, and that means complaints. everyone hates the cereal I buy, but its not just  i'm buying gross cereal because my budget challenge this month, its because I buy heathy cereal every month and they always hate it...what a bunch of haters. 

      Today has been an interesting day. We have had a sick child, I mean high fever sick, so Ray took him to the doctor this morning which means we missed church which means I guess they didn't have to have cereal in the first place. But whatever. While Ray was at the doctor with Parker i kept sending him text messages to make sure the doctor checked everything that I thought was wrong. Because come on, what Mom doesn't think she knows more then the doctor treating her child?! As it turns out, my original diagnosis was wrong and the doctor was right...weird. 

      Lunch was leftovers from dinner the night before, except for Parker who has to stick to clear liquid. That is hard on him, he thinks he might starve to death. I keep assuring him that, that is not the case and he will pull through. 

       We also had a toilet incident today. It has been awhile since we have had something strange flushed down the toilet. In fact the last time that happened we only had three kids. So I guess it was time for us to experience that again. My little boys flushed a fire truck. Yep, a fire truck. Then they cried because they didn't want a spanking and they didn't understand why they couldn't have it back. Wow. 

     So pretty much today was a eat whatever you kind find because I don't want to fix anything for you, I just want to eat chocolate cake kinda day. So, thats that. And I'm going to put my kids to bed and eat a peanut butter sandwich and pretend it is something good and hope the rest of this grocery challenge budget thing goes fast because I'm over it tonight. Don't worry, I'll be back on track and enjoying it all tomorrow after I have had a good nights sleep...right, I have a baby! 

Goings on and on and on....

        Well I haven't blogged for a couple of days. First because Ray has been off since Wednesday and when he is off work we are busy doing stuff. And second it is hard to blog about the food we are eating! I keep thinking, do people really want to know what we are eating every single meal of every single day? So since I missed a couple of days, I guess I need to back track to Thursday....

         Thursday was a fun day. We had decided to do something fun with the kids, so we took them to Frontier City. We had breakfast at home that day, it was banana and apple muffins. I guess I could have packed a lunch to take with us, but I didn't. I did pack snacks and water.  We bought lunch at Frontier City. I think that is part of the fun, getting to eat junk food that will probably make you sick.

        So we spent all day there, from 10:30 that morning until I think 5:00. I had planned burritos for dinner Thursday night, but I was planning on making homemade tortillas and that just wasn't happening because I was tired! I decided to make hard taco shells from the corn tortillas I had, then I made a burrito mixture with the pinto beans I made earlier in the week and some frozen spanish rice I had and some tomato sauce. I put that in the taco shells and baked them again with some cheese in top and called it dinner! Everyone ate it, but usually if there is melted cheese on something my family will eat it.

         Friday breakfast was the same muffins from the day before. When I baking things, I always make more then one batch. I just think its stupid not to. It was sandwiches for lunch and since it was Friday night it meant...Pizza! I think I told you before we have pizza every Friday night, so that makes planning easy!

      Today we had biscuits and gravy for breakfast except for Ray, he had oatmeal...super gross! My kids just got done having lunch and it was leftover pizza from last night.  And we will have beef enchiladas for dinner. Except it isn't really enchiladas, because I'm to lazy to roll them. I just kinda dump it all in a casserole dish and call it enchiladas. Who wants to stand there and roll those darn things when they taste the same either way.
   
       It has been a week now of eating on our budget and it seems to be working. I don't think I want to do this every month, but it is possible to do it, at least so far. I haven't gone to Walmart and bought any extra groceries. I have stuck to my menu, and no one is starving and all the food groups are being met, that right there is a success if you ask me.

       Now on to the important stuff....an update on Molly! I don't think I told you how her 2 month doctors appointment went the other day. I was wondering about her weight because she was so small and about how she was developing because she was so early. But she weighed in at a big 8 pounds 12 ounces! And her development is great. Our doctor told me she must have a big brain because of her head circumference, she was in 22% range for that and her height and weight was only in the 2%. I'm pretty sire she takes after me. Ray is smart and all, but come on...

Confession time....

                  I have a small confession. I'm a Walmart addicit. Seriously. I would go to just to grab a few things. Well $30,$40,$50 that is not a few things.  Just to give you an idea of how often I go to Walmart, when my kids get in the car to go somewhere they automatically ask if they can have a cookie when we get to Walmart without me even saying we are going there. When the greeters recognize your kids, you might be going to Walmart way.to.much! So I wanted to see how much extra money I was spending there during the month, so I looked back at the checking account and I spent $252.00 extra dollars at Walmart last month and I have no idea what I bought. It wasn't groceries because that money is spent in cash, it wasn't clothes because like I said I have a separate budget for that. I seriously have no idea what I spent that money on.  Isn't that crazy! Well because I have planned our menu and bought all the food I actually need to make the meals I planned, I haven't been going to Walmart. So I'm saving money there too! Random, I know.

         Anyway, for breakfast this morning there was no complaining because I did not make the kids eat cereal. They had sausage biscuits. So all was right in their world. Lunch was of course sandwiches, and there was complaints about that. And left overs for dinner. Easy day for me. We sometimes eat leftovers, but with my new budget we will eat all the leftovers from every meal and I don't care.

            There were tears from everyone when they asked for a snack today. I told them all to get an apple. Yep, saying "go get an apple" will push my kids to tears. But because I don't really care if they have a snack or not I just sat there looking at them as if they were totally crazy. But in the end no one had a snack...yay for saving apples for another day! And they ate their dinner without complaints. Just added a little ketchup and my little boys thought it was something totally different them they had last night.

          So there you have it. Another day is over and I haven't used any extra money or cheated in anyway. If you could see me right now, I'm literally patting myself on the back.

tonights blog

             So I ran tonight, and that has nothing to do with anything but I just wanted to tell everyone. I don't like running. I actually hate it. I keep waiting for the day I will enjoy it, but I don't see that happening. But I will keep doing it because, just because.

          Okay, on the food! My older kids spent the night with friends last night so I just had two kids to fix breakfast for and because I was tired this morning all they got was cereal. But to make sure this doesn't happen tomorrow I made two batches of biscuits for sausage biscuits and two batches of banana muffins! So that takes care of breakfast for a least a couple of days!

            Lunch in our house is super boring, its really just sandwiches, everyday. Seriously. Or leftovers. Parker likes the beans I made last night so he will eat those for lunch. We got to go swimming at a friends house this afternoon and my sweet friend bought jelly beans because we were coming over! You gotta love friends who have your back when it comes to candy! She also got goldfish crackers for my kids who, I'm not kidding, ate themselves sick because they knew they weren't getting that at our house!

         The dinner I made was interesting. It is a recipe Ray brought into our marriage! Ok, here it is....one pound hamburger meat, like 3 or 4 potatoes, and eggs. You cook the meat, add the diced potatoes and cook them until they are done them add the eggs and scramble it all around. Yep, thats it. My family eats it like crazy. CRAZY! They love it. I on the other hand had left over beans. I'm not as crazy about it as they are. This is not the only recipe Ray has contributed to meal planning. There was this one time he offered to make dinner and he made meat loaf. Oh my goodness, I will never forget it. He used a package of brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal and bbq sauce in the mixture. Then he made potatoes and covered all of it in gravy. It still makes me laugh. But I ate it, all of it. I will never discourage him from cooking, so I will eat anything he fixes!

       Anyway, enough making fun of Ray. Almost. He is just looked at me and started talking about how upset he was that his Greek class is almost over. Ok. Blank stare. Whatever. I'm only using $300 for groceries this month, get over it. I of course didn't say any of that.  But I am glad Greek is over. Greek takes up way to much time. Like part time job time. Like studying for several hours every night time, like drive to Dallas and back time.

       And that was today. I just realized I have yet to mention Molly Kate, or Molly Cake as Ray calls her. She is missing out on all the fun around here. She is of course maintaining her steady diet of formula. She goes to the doctor tomorrow for her two month check up. I can't wait to see how much weight she had gained. I'm sure you all are dying to know too, so I'll let you know on tomorrows blog.

Days three and four...I know, I didn't blog yesterday!

           So I didn't blog yesterday. Sorry. I also didn't cook yesterday, at all! Let me explain. On Sundays if you ask my kids what for breakfast, it's same thing every.single.sunday. And its cereal. And they hate it.  Let me explain. First, I don't cook on Sunday, there is to much going on and too many kids to get ready for church. So they eat cereal. They eat cereal on Mondays too and they still hate it Monday. I don't cook on Monday mornings either because I'm grumpy Monday mornings. But here is the reason they hate it...I only, really I'm serious, only buy Cheerios. But really it isn't even Cheerios, it is its generic version of it. But wait, I do have a reason for that. I homeschool my kids, I don't have anywhere to send my kids in the morning. There is absolutely no way I am going to give my kids sugar cereal and then ask them to sit at the kitchen table with me to do school...that ain't happening.

           Well that takes care of Sunday and Monday breakfast. On Sunday we went to rays aunt and uncles house for a cookout. So I didn't have to fix Sunday lunch! Yippee! Well my kids ate so much at lunch and then after lunch that I didn't need to feed them dinner! I guess they are starting to realize if they want something yummy they have to fill up on it somewhere other then our house!

            Now on to tonight dinner and it was our first night of the beans I have been warning my family about, but as it turns out, both my older kids are sleeping over at friends houses and missed the beans. Oh, but they will get them tomorrow for lunch! I think I have a pretty good pinto bean recipe. And the good thing about this recipe is I can use the leftovers for something else, which I will on Thursday night! So tonight we had them with corn bread. On Thursday I will smash them up and mix them with mexican rice we will use them to make burritos!

And there you have it! I bought a big bag of dried pinto beans for less them $3.00, it will feed our family at least twice, but I'm pretty sure it will be three times. Mixing the beans with rice, another inexpensive ingredient helps make things go further!