Schools in session....

       Well this school year is going to be different. Really every homeschool school year is different. But this year instead of me teaching all our kids at home, I'm only teaching some of them! Today was the start of the second week of public school for Benjamin and Timothy and the first day of our homeschool year for Parker and Lizzie.

          When it comes to school we have literally done it all.  Homeschool, private school, public school,  Christian school in another country. You name it, we have done it.  But my little ones have never gone to school and I didn't want to teach Benjamin to read. Don't judge me, I have taught all my other kids to read, I think I deserve a break!

          I have to say that I started our second week of public school with a fail....I sent one of my boys to school without underwear on.  This is just what happens when you have five kids, someone is always gonna forget something, and in this case it was underwear.  I can promise you it will happen again.  Whatever.

           We have changed homeschool curriculum this year too.  And by change I mean I have gone back to a curriculum I originally abandoned  for something more care free and fun only to realize I can't do care free and fun. I'm back to a more structured curriculum this year and its working better for me. But it's only been one day.  I'm sure that by day 101 I will be sick of my curriculum and sick of the kids and I will consider sending them all to public school next year...these thoughts cross my mind every year towards the end of our homeschool year. It's just the truth.

The weekend is already gone....

        I had suregry on my nose on Friday morning. And now I feel like my nose is completely full of boogers and they won't come out. They won't come out because I can't blow my nose. For real, I'm not supposed to. It's kinda making me crazy. Let me back up and explain.

         I get sinus infections a lot and antibotics don't take the infection away. So I have a build up of infection stuff in my sinuses. That's gross. Then I found out my septum is in the shape of an S so it's blocking the breathing on both sides of my nose. Then there was a couple of other things the doctor was going to do, but I don't remember what they were called because they are fancy doctor words! So that was Friday morning.

          When I came out of surgery the doctor told me that I had to "rest and take it easy", I'm pretty sure my doctor doesn't have five kids. My list of things not to do are cooking, cleaning, laundry, and picking up kids, including Molly. So far I have done everything on my list of not to do.

         I had to cook because Benjamin turned five on Saturday and I needed to make his cake! Not just any cake, he wanted a fire truck cake. So that's what he got. A pink fire truck cake. Yes, I had trouble with the food coloring. I also tricked him into a birthday dinner that I knew was easy to make since I wasn't feeling super great. We had mini bagel pizzas. He wanted barbecue food for dinner, so I put bbq sauce on his and called it good.

        We all went to church this morning, and my nose started to bleed during Sunday school. Fun. But it was promotion Sunday and  Benjamin who starts kindergarten this year got to go on stage and get a bible with the rest of his class this morning.  He was very excited.

         Speaking of kids changing grades, I need to order homeschool stuff for some kids and get some other kids enrolled in school and buy school supplies, well everything but crayons. And then I think I have million other things to do. Man where did the weekend go. See, take it easy and rest is never gonna happen. Not in this house.

        So now I'm sitting here with crusty junk up my nose and I can't do a darn thing about it. At least for a couple of days and then they take the splint things out of my nose. Ray wants me to bring them home. Weird.

Success....

        Well we did it, and by we I really mean me. I did it. I grocery shopped for my family for a month for $300. I didn't go over. I think keeping a blog kept me accountable and I would have felt like a liar if I went over. Or a failure. I'm critical of myself I guess! So we did it and here is what I learned...

      1) We would normally throw away a lot of food every month. Seriously. Before this we weren't really leftover eating people and every few weeks I would pull stuff out and wonder what on earth it once was. But not now, now we eat all the leftovers, or I will freeze them and use them later.

    2) There is so much I can live without. Yes, I like would a bag of cherry sours everyday but I have learned that I don't need it. Unless it has been a bad day then you bet your booty I need it.

     3) Meal planning works. At least for me. I think this has been the biggest thing I will take away from this. It has helped to save me money. I can shop more effectively when I know what meals we will be having. Smart huh.

    4) I am a terrible speller. I really already knew this. But most of you reading this might not know. I can't spell at all. If that red line didn't show up under my words telling me I was spelling things wrong then you people reading this would never have any idea what I was talking about.

    So there you go. There are just a few of the  things I have learned in my month of eating on the cheap and blogging about it. I went shopping for my groceries for the next two weeks already and I took out my regular amount of cash. I didn't spend all of it. I'm going to try to keep our budget less then our normal $500 because I know its possible. I'm not gonna be as strict about it as I was last month, but I'm gonna try. I did buy a huge thing of ice cream. And I am eating it.