Spending Freeze - AKA: What's For Dinner?

Sometimes we play this little game around here called, "Spending Freeze". Actually, it's not called that, I just made it up. As a matter of fact, it's really not a game, but I like to make it into a game...games always make life more interesting, don't you agree?

I bet you'll recognize the game after I explain it a little better.

Rules Of The Game:

1 - May not be played until all grocery budget money, or ALL your money for that matter, has diminished. Usually happens 5-7 days before payday.

2 - Everyone in the house must play. It just doesn't have the same effect when everyone isn't on board. The kids will eventually get on board, just give them some time. They pretty much won't have a choice after a day or two=)

3 - Goal of the game: not to step foot into the grocery store until you have been paid, or at least until you run out of baby food (man, that boy can eat!).

We've been playing this game for 5 days now, but praise the Lord, payday is Saturday! I thought it would be fun to share our creative meals, I mean, gaming strategies, with you in case you ever have a chance to play the game yourself!

Saturday: We had pretty "normal" meals but began realizing that we were going to have to give smaller rations of just about every staple around the kitchen. It helped that we had Journey on Saturday night and we have an AWESOME volunteer team that provides food for us!

Sunday: I always buy meat with the discount stickers on them before they expire so I had a good meat stockpile in the freezer. I pulled out a roast to stick in the crock pot with some potatoes and carrots. We also had 1 more can of dinner biscuits to make. Mother's Day Lunch was ready when we got home! For dinner, Josh finished up the last of the pancake mix for our candlelight dinner we had. Throw in a few eggs and you've got a whole meal. My man sure knows how to please:)

Monday: Finished off the cereal and then finished off the Bisquick to make cinnamon rolls for the rest of the week's breakfasts. Lunch was a conglomeration of pretzels (finished off), lunch meat, peanut butter, saltine crackers, craisins, and apples to take on our picnic. For dinner we had wonderful spaghetti and a great salad with some broiled sandwich bread with Parmesan cheese.

Tuesday: The kids are getting a little weary of our little game. We press on toward the goal though. The kids got the last 2 pop-tarts for breakfast, I had yogurt and granola and Josh had oatmeal. Lunch was at Aunt Kelly's house for play day. Dinner for Josh and I was at small group (we made out good today!) and I made the kids grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Micaiah didn't get any fruit today. Just sweet potatoes, carrots and corn.

Wednesday: Breakfast will be oatmeal or yogurt and granola. Lunch will be lunch meat, salad or soup. Dinner is going to be something with chicken, tortillas and rice. Maybe I'll post what yummy meal we get out of these ingredients. I can always go to AllRecipes.com to find a fabulous recipe.

BENEFITS OF THE GAME:

1 - You get to weed out all those little things in the back of your pantry that you forgot about.

2 - You get to be creative in finding what kinds of foods can go together

3 - We all are reminded of how blessed we are to have so much food at the tips of our fingers

4 - The kids have stopped asking for snacks since their options today were "apple or carrot, what'll it be?"

5 - Josh and I aren't snacking as much either. I mean, I would hardly call my pack of tic-tacs before bed a snack! It didn't even come close to fulfilling my craving.

So, now that you know what game I'm talking about...do you ever play?

E.X.P.L.O.R.E

Monday's are our day off. It's just our family. I LOVE this day. Ahhh...

We have realized that it quickly becomes just another day if we aren't proactive in finding something to do as a family.

This week we went on a nature trail near our house. It was AMAZING!

Some parts of the trail go off in the woods...

...other parts lead to streams and ponds...

...we saw crawdads and fish...

...we tasted honeysuckle...

...we took full advantage of nature...

...the trails are endless and we didn't nearly see it all...

...we saw dear and dragonflies...

...now this is homeschooling at its finest...

...even if I did end up pushing bear's stroller most of the way:)

Going "Green" To Save "Green"

Last week I posted that we had been working hard on lowering our energy bill. When we received our last bill it was $100 cheaper than the previous bill!

Now, we are far from experts in this area but, as requested by some of you, I figured I'd share the things we changed or cut back on, to lower our energy bill, and some other things we've been working on for that matter.

1 - Turn Your Dryer Off - Josh installed a clothes line outside. I love it! It actually helps me keep up with the laundry. As soon as I rotate the dry clothes and the wet ones I'll fold them and put them away. The only time I even use my dryer now is for 1 load of underwear and socks, if I don't have room for them on the line or to lay flat to dry somewhere.

And no, it doesn't take any longer on a breezy, "un"humid day to dry than in the dryer.

2 - Turn The Lights Off - We've been working hard on teaching our kids to turn lights off when they aren't in a room. It helps that it is lighter for longer outside, now that it's spring, and that we have LOTS of windows. We rarely even have to turn lights on before 8pm.

3 - Wash With Cold Water - I know this isn't always practical, but I ALWAYS wash with cold water. If there is something that just will not come out I might consider warm water, but cold is much more cost efficient and works for us.

4 - Set Your Thermostat - Keep your air conditioner set on 78*(where is that blasted "degrees" symbol?) I'm not a temperature nazi, but we are very conscience of the tempterature in the house. It REALLY makes a difference. Don't worry, if you come to visit we'll adjust it to make it a little more comfortable if you start sweating. Sorry daddy, we'll do better next time:)

5 - Get Some Fresh Air - I am a window girl and will keep our windows open as long as possible, unless their is pollen bowl sweeping in;)

6 - Turn The TV Off - We rarely watch TV around here. The only shows we watch are Lost and 24 and it's rare when we can actually catch them on the nights they air. We can watch them for free any other time during the week on our computer. Therefore, when we moved in we cut the cable (the 7 extra channels we actually had for basic cable were in spanish anyway). We got one of those converter boxes and have 33 channels now, for FREE, and I even get a weather channel with that! Did I mention that it's FREE?!

Anyway, that's just one thing you can do. We try to keep large appliances off if we aren't using them.

7 - The Rule Of One - I learned from a friend that you can cut costs by only running one large appliance at a time. For example, if you need to do laundry AND take a shower AND run the dishwasher, spread them out and do just one at a time.

8 - Wait For A Full Load - Wait to wash dishes or laundry until you have a full load.

9 - Turn Your Water Heater Down - Depending on how drastic you are with this one, you could even save on your water bill. Cold showers don't tend to be as long;)

I'd love to hear of some other ways that you and your family work to lower your energy bill.

Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Psalm 139:14

The kids were supposed to draw self-portraits in their classes at Journey last weekend.

Naturally, I told the kids that I liked the pictures that they had drawn of themselves and our family.

Irritated, Zeke replied, "No mommy, that is not me. Those are webs!"

Okay, so I suppose that spiderman and his webs are fearfully and wonderfully made too.

BTW: Areyna made me 3 mother's day cards at church yesterday.

One in each service, ha! I felt EXTRA blessed=)

Not Me Monday

I always pay very close attention while my children are eating to ensure they don't choke, so I certainly DID NOT turn my back for a split second to go fulfill a chocolate craving I was having.

Nope, not me.

Not only do I believe that we should never be putting that kind of "poison" into our bodies I would never give into a silly craving such as chocolate. I have way more self-control than that!

Besides, if that were to ever happen, I most definitely would not be stealing the chocolate from Rainy and Zeke's candy stash. Nope, not me!

And since I would never leave my children unattended while eating, especially for that "poison" they call "chocolate", I'm not quite sure who this child is who grabbed his bowl of sticky corn and smeared it all over his seat, and the rest of the kitchen, for that matter, right before I'm supposed to leave for band rehearsal.

That would never happen to me and my child.

I sure hope that mom went and cleaned him up right away, because I would never encourage playing with food. Especially when I am running late for rehearsal.

Nope. Not in this house!

Check out some other "Not Me Monday" stories here=)

Happy Mother's Day

Micaiah went swimming for the first time this weekend.

When my kids are happy, I'm happy!

Thanks for letting me be your mommy...

Happy Mother's Day

all you wonderful momma's out there!

Lilly The Frog

We are going on three days with Lilly the frog.

He's been swimming with the kids each day...

Zeke even helped him go down the slide a few times.

They've made a bed for him and everything.

When I was younger I had pet frogs too so I totally understand their infatuation with this cute little guy. My mom wouldn't let mine in our house though, so I made toilet paper diapers for mine that I taped around their wastes. Didn't do much for their jumping accuracy but the froggy diapers did wonders for the sanitary conditions of our carpet;)

***UPDATE - Lilly has now been released back into the wild to make room for our poisonous caterpillar...wait, he just died from overheating under the bug magnifying glass. He was quickly replaced by 4 ladybugs, 1 black ant, 1 rolypoly (oh wait, he died in his sleep last night), and some other black little critter with white spots that you can hardly see. We will soon have a reputation around the neighborhood and maybe the bugs will stay out of our yard. Better yet, OUT OF MY GARDEN!***

Fun Facts For Friday

1 - Two "good days", Praise The Lord- Two good days in a row with Micaiah, that is! He's been battling ear infections for almost a month. He is winding down his second round of antibiotics. We were doing pretty good on the "every other day I will not whine, fuss or cry/scream just to give you a break for your sanity" but quickly went to "I don't think you need a break anymore so every day I think I'll constantly need you to hold me or I'll scream" days. It has been a very draining couple of weeks. Josh and I have decided that antibiotics make our kids absolutely CRAZY. We aren't anti-medicine around here by any means, but we DO try to encourage somewhat "normal" acting children=) All this to say, we are in search for garlic ear drops to start giving him but in the mean time are finishing up his meds in hopes for 3 good days in a row!

2 - Josh and I have been really working hard to lower our energy bill. We just got our bill in the mail and we lowered it by $100 from last month! What?! Now that's cause for celebration.

3 - We have a dear friend from Charlotte coming to visit this weekend! We are SO excited to have Peri come to see us=)

4 - I have been searching out Publisher's for my book and have been talking to one who seems very promising.

5 - Areyna is reading books now. I just had to say it again because I can't believe it=) We got the Bob books out and she is flying through them.

Words Of Wisdom - Just In Case You Thought We Had Perfect Children

Zeke came running out of his room last night while Areyna was screaming hysterically.

Josh: "What in the world is going on?"

Zeke: "Rainy needs a band-aid."

Me "Why? What happened?"

Zeke: "Rainy needs a band-aid for her back because I bit her."

Me and Josh: "Why in the world did you just bite Areyna?"

Zeke: "Uh...I just did."

Yeah, ya think!