Dollar Store Treasures and 5 Dollar Dinners

 I learned a lesson this past Christmas.  I can buy the most expensive toys that they said they could NEVER live without. You know what they resort to playing with?  These swords from the DOLLAR store.  Yup. A buck.  When they break, I go buy another one.  Do you know Chaz got me an awesome belt from the dollar store for Christmas? It originally came from Target but I guess they were getting rid of them and sold them off to the dollar store. I benefited by only paying a buck.  Or...Chaz rather.  Wow!  That is just neat.  I really need to go check those places out more often.  I break so many tights on church days because of my baby or my ring snagging them that I resorted to buying some great name brand ones from the dollar store also.  Who wants to pay $7 every week for a new pair?  I don't. 

• The girls however are totally loving their barbies but they'd still rather go outside and play on the swingset any day.  Ivy is so exhausted from school everyday though that she just comes home and crashes on the couch.  Why, oh, why do they have to make school sooo long?  They come home with homework anyway.  I don't get it.  My kids get up at 6:50am and then finish all their schooling and homework by 5pm.  I just think that is overkill. 

Soooo, I decided to try something that 5 Dollar Dinners was featuring where you can save money on your dinners! I gave it a try and so far I'm loving the simplicity of it.  So basically I put 2 chickens in two seperate crockpots and cooked overnight.  By the next morning I had chicken to make homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch which is a family favorite. The next day I used the chicken to make chicken pot pies.  Then today I made burritos from it and I still have chicken left!  These meal ideas are very cheap and I was impressed.  Making meals was very simple and fast. After all, cooking the meat is usually what takes the longest. Why not just cook it all together and then seperate for meals during the week?  Or maybe freeze them in seperate bags?  Anyway, the recipes are HERE!   I LOVE being frugalicious!

Would you like to see 10 Things Your Grocer Doesn't Want You to Know?  Yeah, some of the things creeped me out a little bit.  Like the germs on the cart and how old some of the food really is.  Bleh. A recent study showed that shopping carts harbor more saliva, bacteria and even fecal matter than public telephones and public toilets.



 

BYW, head on over to Lazy Moms to hear some Lazy Mom Confessions! 

You Did What?!

Lately I've been cleaning after the kids go to bed and just setting out stuff for the next day.  So Saturday night I put two chickens in crockpots and let them cook overnight.  The next morning Chaz walks in and says....

"Mom, what's that smell?"

Me: "Oh, I'm cooking a chicken."

Chaz walks over, lifts the lid to see the chicken and says:

"Well, that's NOT nice!"

I look at him confused and then it dawns on me:

"No, it's not OUR chickens, Chaz!  I got these from the store!"

Chaz: "Oh."

I was laughing so hard and it was before I had my coffee while getting ready for church.  Just the look on his face when he lifted the lid seeing the cooked chicken was so funny.

Sorry if you are a vegetarian reading this.  :P  We love animals in our backyard but also on our plates the way God intended.  We just prefer to buy them from elsewhere to eat.

By the waaay, I just posted about Asperger Moms over on my other blog.  :D

Getting Out of These Four Walls

Tonight I asked my sweetheart son if he wanted to go with mommy to Sam's Club.  I didn't want to go alone and needed a buddy.  He hopped right up and came along.  I love having the alone talks. We even had fun just saying hi to other people in the store. 

That's what happens when you're always at home.....

I went to drop some stuff off at my mom's house and she said, "Do you and Ryan want to go out to eat with Dad and I?" 

DO I?  DO I?  YES!!!!  Of course!!! 

We were way excited. Well, at least I was.  Ryan is always happy to see his Nana and Papa.  We ate out and my mom and I shared a meal (better on the calories).  We treated ourself to a slice of pie and coffee.  Ohhhh, we drank LOTS of coffee.  After 5 cups I asked the waitress to cut us off.  We sound like real partyers huh?  We had so much fun.  Of course I had to call my hubby and let him know where I was.  He was so happy I was getting out.  Seriously, I rarely go spending money anywhere so he was just so happy I was gonna go have some alone time with my oh-so-amazing parents. 

Seriously, these parents rock.  I couldn't of dreamt of my life any better.  You know what I complained about when I was a teen?  That I was over protected.  Wasn't able to go out partying.  Couldn't go to the prom (gee, I wonder why).  And couldn't go out with boys alone at all hours of the night.  Wow.  Life was hard.  Sound like my parents were really stifling huh?  NOPE. They spared me a lot of heartache.  To that I am super thankful. 

By the waayyyyy.... I wrote a post on my other blog, Meet Chaz, and I would love for you to come and visit!

What Would You Do?

..if a stampede came chasing after you?
Funny Prank.

One of my favorite sites is Awkward Family Photos.  I ran into one of my favorite photos EVER!  haha.  Love this. 

Awww.... I know how she feels. I felt like this when I had my first two at only 12 months apart. Straight from one pregnancy to another. (She has twins though!)  Now, with 6 kids, the mess is really hard to conquer. I wish I could come over and do her laundry for her, make them a dinner, and give her a days rest just as a blessing. What a FANTASTIC picture! Love it. This is for all the men that say

"What did you do all day?"

Running a house can be exhuasting!  Unless of course you are my sister Tammy where homemaking comes so naturally to her, she says she gets bored. Seriously, one day my sis says on Facebook, "Man, it's so easy staying at home and keeping the house clean I have nothing to do!"  I can't believe we are related.  So unfair.

A Note of Interest

On a light note, I ran into this neat article giving TIPS FOR IRONING.  I HATE ironing.  I even went out and bought a steam iron at one time.  I don't use that either.  Umm..I'm one of those people that wait for the dryer to beep and then I quickly pulling everything out and lay it flat. I've spent so much time ironing in the past, I might as well have considered it a part time job.  Half my day would be devoted to it.  I WISH I could have those new dryers that will steam your wrinkled clothes for you.  Ahhhh... a dream.  :)  I'm still in love with my front loaders so I can't complain. 

On a sad note and most important to mention.  Can you believe what happened in Australia?  Scores Missing In Tsunami-Like flood.

"Ramia watched as a rescue official pushed through the churning water and yanked the man to safety. Others, including five children, were not as lucky."

Can you imagine the horror of watching the faces of those forcefully being pulled away from you and there is nothing you can do about it?  I can't imagine having that replay in my mind over and over.  What a terrifying thing for people and families to endure.  Not to mention losing everything and just trying to survive. 

On a serious note, isn't it interesting how there are SO many catastrophes happening left and right.  Would you consider that a coincidence?  Years ago do you remember this kinds of stuff happening?  I don't. I remember when something bad happened somewhere, we would talk about it for years.  But now, I can spell tsunami without having to use a spell checker and  I seem to always be waking up to terrible news or something shocking.  It's keeping radio shows talking, TV shows reporting, and causing church goers to ask themselves, WHEN IS JESUS COMING BACK?  A paragraph taken from their website:

"An interesting note here is that Jesus compares all of the signs above, to birth pains. In the birth process, labor pains are typically mild and widely spaced at first, but as the birth draws near, the pains get more intense and closer together. Although there have always been wars, famines and earthquakes, if one were to compare the frequency or number of these events that have occurred in the last five years versus twenty years ago, it would be noticed that they have increased significantly."

Lately, I've had to ask myself, "What influences do I have in my life that could be taking me away from the seriousness of the condition of my heart?"  What you listen to, watch, even friends, can influence and sway you from what you've always deeply believed.  What would you be willing to sacrifice in order to keep your heart pure, minds clean, and your beliefs guarded?  I learned when I was a teenager that it was VERY hard to seve God sitting in the back row with the kids that were always criticizing people, passing notes during the sermon, and flirting.  Eventually, I let go of them and set myself up in the front and center to get away from the distractions and criticism.  Sadly, many of those kids left and never returned.  I am glad I wasn't scared about making a stand.  Even standing alone to focus on God.  Even today, who you hang around can GREATLY influence you.  I am guilty myself of falling into the trap of comparing myself to others to make myself believe I'm alright.  The best thing we can do is measure our hearts by the Bible only.  Not by whats popular today.

Are Boys or Girls Harder?

Wow, I have forgotten how hard little boys can be!  I was trying to read a book on history and Caleb kept coming up and trying to either take the book from me or cover it so I couldn't read it.  (I did get to read at least one page and it was really interesting.  History was always my favorite subject.  Even though it seems I can't retain very much. Hmph.)

(No, Kyle is not picking his nose. Just one of those unlucky moments where you look like you are and it's now on camera.)

At first I tried to pry Caleb's little baby fingers off the book.  Then I thought, "I can read this book any other time." So I picked up my baby and gave him the attention he wanted.  Out of all my kids, Caleb is the most snuggly and needy for attention.  I give him lots!  But he'll do anything to get more.  I'm always pulling him off counters, tables, chairs, desks, stools, bathroom sinks, etc.  This boy keeps me on my toes!  It's been awhile since I've had a boy so I am not used to this at all.

See how Henry the dog lays right below couch? He has saved Caleb from having hard falls many times from the couch. Henry doesn't even move a budge. Caleb used to be terrified of the dog but now he knows that Henry will put up with a lot. He just lays there, like you see in picture, as if a baby isn't sitting right on top of him. (Trying to take mommy's book away).

 Kyle (below) was my last boy before having two girls.  He has a very booming voice and could make leaves fall off a tree with his screams.  I remember when he was a baby and little ol' ladies would come up to the stroller.  They would say "oohhh, what a sweet little baby".  Then Kyle would let out a screech and scare the poor ladies.  Ha ha!  Even when he first came out of my tummy and let out his first cry, the nurse said "Whew!  I feel for you when you get home.  That boy has lungs!" 

Tickling Kyle

Lately I haven't been very good at keeping the house together.  Sure I have chores and the kids have chores.  But I started thinking..... do I have to go crazy about trying so hard?  Sure I might get criticism.  "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."  (I said that in a critical sounding voice in my head).  But lately, I've had sooo many ladies come up to me at tell me how they wish they didn't worry so much about their house and just had fun with their kids. Spent more time with them.  Lately, I just feel really good about the time I've spent with the kids rather than worrying about how messy things are getting.  Kids come with mess.  They just go together like ketchup and mustard.  Salt and pepper.  Men and sports. 

My kids were playing so cute together and I was just thinking about how these moments are so short.  So I secretly set up my camera on the piano to show what our hallway looks like while kids are playing.  It was soooo cute.  I did some silly stuff not knowing I was in the frame where you could see me. Oh well.  LOL. Just playing with the kids.  I know that someday I will look back on this video and yearn for these days.  I already enjoy them immensely so I know I will miss it and the house will look like this....

Orderly

Yeah, I don't think that's so hugely important. Rather have my kids!  Look, even Henry is sad in that picture.  He might've had his ears pulled and his tail tugged on, but he's wouldn't be getting very many snuggles either.  No crumbs to eat that fall to the floor.  No kids' beds to sneak into while they are gone at school. (Yuck!)



Historic Giving for Angel Tree 2010!

Reece and Andrea

I was visiting the Reece's Rainbow blog and was excited to hear that the generous giving resulted in the most successful Angel Tree EVER.  After a last minute New Year gift of $50,000, ALL of the children on the Angel Tree met their individual $1000 grant goal for the first time in their history! They raised more than $305,000 in adoption grants between November 1 and December 31.  This is nearly QUADRUPLE what they raised in 2009 during the same time period.  2000 ornaments were purchased, and 30 children found their families. 

Amazing!

What wonderful news!  Thank you Jon Gosselin and Ellen Ross for doing a shoutout on twitter about the giveaway and thank you to all my friends that passed along the news also!  Even more, thank you for giving to this.  This is something I would like to take part of in the near future again.  There are always kids nearing the 5 year mark, which is something I discussed in this VIDEO about kids being transferred to mental institutions.

Patti, who originally brought it to our attention, even made it more fun by hosting a giveaway for an iPad on her blog.  That was an AWESOME contest.  :D

My Little All Nighters

The other night Caleb was just not tired. At all.  He is by far my hardest kid ever to get to sleep.  He is a very light sleeper also.  Even if you are quietly walking down the hall in socks, he can wake up.  His brother had got in his crib the night before to comfort him and broke the crib.  So we had to put Caleb in his playpen and he climbed out of it over and over till some time after 2am. 

So my husband could sleep, I finally camped inside of Caleb's room till he could fall asleep.  Caleb stopped climbing out since I was sitting in his room so instead he started talking and talking to me.  He is so funny!  Even though I was exhausted, I know his baby days are short.  So we talked back and forth.  He thinks he's carrying on a conversation and he's serious about it too.

So around 1am, Ivy walks in.  Ivy is my next worst sleeper. She and Ashley will talk and giggle till Ashley falls asleep.  Ivy heard us up so she decided to join us. 

She got to stay up till 2am so she thought she got away with something.  Well, she did!  Ha.  I was sooooo tired the next morning but thankfully it was not a school day so it was okay. 

Did I ever tell you Caleb likes to sleep with the light on also?  If I TRY to turn off his light in the middle of the night, he wakes up and cries till I turn it back on.  But because he has a hard time falling asleep, it's just not worth trying to turn his light off.  Goodness!  Thankfully, I have four other kids that are deep sleepers.  Otherwise I would never get to rest. :D

Congrats Mom!

My mom and Ivy

My mom has worked really hard to finish up her Real Estate classes.  She did well and had a really good grade point average in college.

So PROUD of you, Mom.  We had lots of fun going out to Oregano's afterwards and hanging out with you.

 

At first it was so noisy in the restaurant that we could hardly talk.  They even squeezed 9 of us into a 6 person table. We couldn't take it anymore and asked to go out to the patio.  It had a covering, fireplace, and heaters so we took our chances hoping it was warm.  It was way more relaxing and the fire was pretty.  Finally we could talk, be silly, and just hang out.

Afterwards as we were leaving, we noticed that there was a karaoke bar right now door and the window was open.  They were singing a song that we knew the words to.  So we snuck up to the window, stuck our heads in and screamed...

"I LOVE ROCK AND ROLL!!!!"

Haha!  They quickly shut the window since we ruined their contest.  Oh man.  I wish we would of had a video of it!  We were laughing so hard.

Paying to See Snow

We headed to the zoo to see snow since it's a rarety around here! They had truckloads of it brought in. Even my sister-in-law and her family were there! My mom joined the fun (it was her idea) so it was good fellowship and snow playing fun.

Kyle making snow angel

We had Apple cider to bring in the New Year and Radio Disney was there playing their music. I like the music part, although we usually only listen to Christian music here at home.  Plus there was dancing so we stayed away from that part.  They had some fun contest and we were so hoping to win the ice skating party!  That's our next family adventure.

Kyle throwing a snowball

I love the picture that my mom captured of Kyle throwing the snowball.  So neat!  We had snow fights and I think most people just didn't know what to do in the snow.  Sometimes someone else would get caught in our line of fire.

Ashley

Towards the end of the day there all the kids were cold because their socks started to get wet even though they were wearing snow boots. My mom, the genius, brought new socks for them to change into so they could be warm.  Thank goodness.  All my kids were crying and making quite a scene they were so cold.  LOL

Ivy and Ryan

Ivy on snow slide

The snow slide was awesome!  It would have been fun to go down the slide but I just had fun watching the kids faces as they went down.  It was hilarious!  I don't think they expected to go down SO FAST.

Ivy and Kyle on slide

Ivy

Chaz

Charles

I have no idea who the kid is that is ducking next to Charles.  LOL.  But in the end we all had one huge snow fight.  I have a video of us playing but I look pregnant in it because I had put my camera under my jacket and it made my belly look like it's sticking out! 

My New Years Resolutions Made Perfect

Well, being that everyone says New Years Resolutions can't ever be kept up with and are broken, I am going to set some that I assure you.... will be kept.  I know there are those that will say it can't be done but it will be done this year.

•   I, Virginia, promise to never completely have all of our laundry done.  Since usually we do laundry in a rotation and occasionally get deeply behind, I think this can be done. 

•  I also promise to not have a spotless house.  I'm not sure what one looks like but I have seen one or two before.  I usually am not invited to those houses.  (Which I assure you I am afraid to walk inside of). 

• I promise to sometimes make mistakes and not always say the right thing.  Sometimes I am not always wise in my decisions or even say something really dumb to hurt a friend or loved one.  I never do it on purpose but it does happen every now and then.  It's hard being human sometimes.

•  I promise to not be afraid to say no when I am asked a favor and it is just too much for me.  To not feel guilty for putting God first, family second, and others after all that. 

•  This year I promise I will not be perfect in appearance at all times.  It's gonna hurt to not look like a walking doll at all times but I'm sure my husband would agree this one will be a keepable one for me. 

I think those are pretty good for now.  I'm sure I could come up with lots more if I wasn't sitting here typing on my laptop amongst piles of laundry I am working on.  Looks like resolution number 1 is working out for me!  Ha!

The Float Test on Eggs

I know you city slickers, like myself, have always wanted to know how to tell a good egg from a bad egg if you are not sure of expiration date. I thought I would share my (slowly) growing knowledge of raising chickens with you. 

One of my little Rhode Island Reds.  The one above (and below) is my rooster.  He's sooo cute. My son decided to put him next to their toys on the gaming monitor. Helps you see how little he is.

Caleb thought he was pretty cool but I had to quickly pull it away when Caleb almost twisted his neck off.  Poor chicken! 

Alexandra (my friend's daughter above) wanted to learn how to do a float test with the eggs.  So I had her go out and collect all the eggs we can find.  We only washed them because they were going to be used right away.  In countries where they are not refrigerated while being put out for sell, they stay fresh because of the coating around them.  Better to just wipe eggs rather than wash if not being used yet.

I showed her that if you put the egg in the cup of water, if it floats its a bad egg.  If it sinks, it's a good egg.  This goes also for store bought eggs if you are not sure whether they are good or not.  The pocket of air gets bigger the older the egg gets which is what makes it float.

Plus, another way to tell is how healthy the yoke looks when you crack it.  If it looks like this (above) it's healthy.  If you crack it into pan and yoke just lays flat, definitely throw it out.

On this day I had 9 kids so after I showed Al how to tell if they eggs were good, we had delicious cooked eggs for everyone!  Having chickens is actually really convenient. They are easy to care for and it's soo nice to just go get eggs whenever needed. I don't know how many times I would forget to buy eggs for a recipe. Now I just send one the kids out to collect some eggs.  Pretty cool!

Winter Break

Kids are so funny and they say the cutest things.  The other day I was giving Ivy a bath while trying to get gum out of her hair.  Ivy's confession to me:


"Mommy, I'm sooo sorry I snuck into your gum while you were sleeping and got it in my hair. I guess I'm just not a good gummer like everyone else."















Winter break was so fun for us but there is definitely something I haven't heard in awhile. My house crying.  Boy, did my house suffer!  We all stayed up late and slept in.  We're still having fun with our Christmas toys and games.  Chaz is working hard at gaining weight and I am working at losing weight.  We mostly just played these last 2 weeks. 

Another thing I noticed is how MUCH my boys can really eat. They have been eating breakfast and lunch at school.  When they were here, not kidding, my boys each would eat 4 sandwiches and even look for more stuff.  I was shocked.  I know people have warned me about this.  That boys will eat everything in site at some point.  Well, it's starting for me.  I can't imagine the teen years!  Haha.

January Flashbacks!

I LOVE looking  back on my blog to see all the memories I have forgotten about, things that have changed, trials we have come through, and how much the kids have grown.  I am so happy I decided in 2006 to start a blog for this reason. 

In JANUARY of 2007, our house was still being built, Ivy was only a year and a half, I was newly pregnant with Ashley (my 5th child) , we lived in a little 2 bedroom apartment, I got to visit with my old boot camp drill instructor, my husband's house where he grew up burned down, and my childhood friend Stephen passed away while serving overseas,







In JANUARY 2008,  I decided it was a good time for an internet break could only post blogs from my Juno Email.  So I didn't get to post any pictures.  However, I had some photos lost that were of our vacation in the snow!  :(  At that time I was homeschooling and faithfully doing aerobics at the gym and I felt like all of my time was on that.  I was new to homeschooling and I hadn't learned much about juggling at that point.  At least compared to now! I mean, I I had to learn how to get good at it and, boy, it took me a long time. 

In JANUARY 2009, my kids were back in school in hopes I'd find a good program for Chaz, I got a sweet and cuddly little Dachshund that lived only a very short time, we were having a terrible time training our Great Dane, I got my new camera that I'm in love with still, we still enjoyed going to the mall (which I'm not as fond of anymore), had fun at the zoo, and I was newly pregnant with baby Caleb (our 6th)!  Just as soon as I found out I was pregnant with him, my husband was laid off his job in the engineering field and we have not been able to get back in that field ever since. We went through some really scary times, almost losing everything, but God showed us that even if we lost everything materially, we had our health, each other, and a relationship with Him.  That's what truly matters. 

In JANUARY of 2010, I was homeschooling my older 3 kids, having a much better time this go around, Caleb was 4 months old and I was having nursing troubles again, had fun going on our own field trips like the Science Center, I learned how to be more relaxed with kids at home and was still working out a good schedule for us to function with all the kids at home, and having family fun nights.    Probably the best thing that happened in January was having my sister and her kids visit from South Africa.  They come down for a couple of weeks every two years. 


Wow.  Sniff..... most of the memories I had blogged about, were totally forgotten.  I'm so grateful I took the time to post about them.

Overweight Infants

The path to obesity begins even before babies transition to a solid diet, a new study says.

STUDIES show that almost one-third of 9-month-olds are obese or overweight, as are 34 percent of 2-year-olds. 

You know, I have wondered about this for a long time. I see some of these really chunky babies that have tons of rolls and I wonder, "Am I underfeeding my child?"  Every time I take my babies to the doctor they are always in the perfect range so I don't get it.  Finally, this last time, I asked my doctor how my child is in the perfect range, yet I'm seeing all these roly poly babies.  He replied, "What makes you think they are healthy?"  Hmmmm....

There have been times in church nursery where parents instructed me to force feed there babies whether or not they were hungry.  I've always learned that hungry babies will eat.  These babies were trying to turn away their faces from the spoon of over abundance.  I would even look at the amount given to me to give the baby thinking "I don't think she can eat all that".  Finally, I decided that no matter the instructions, If I'm told baby was already fed before service and she/he turns away from even more of a feeding, not to force feed them.  These were usually the really chunky babies like this article talks about. 

Why is it that when kids are young, they are force fed more food than they need?  When we are little we are given ice cream or treats for boo boos.  Then told to eat lots because we are growing (well, nutrition is important!) yet when we are older, we have to suddenly stop all those habits and learn to eat less!  I can see why it's so hard to reprogram ourselves after years of being told to eat everything on our plate and more.  When we've had a bad day at work or with the kids, it feels good to grab the tub of ice cream.  Instead I've learn to eat more quality food rather than quantity.  Learning how to eat nutritionally rather than eating whatever fills our tummy for that moment.  Of course I encourage my kids to eat during mealtimes and snack times because they are growing.  But I also know that food can be used to keep little ones quiet and happy.  Have you seen the toddlers walking around with bottles of Apple juice all day?

I've had to learn the hard way how to push food away at the table and just be happy with my portion size.  My mom was really good about not stuffing our faces thank goodness.  LOL.  She knew that if we were hungry we would eat so I know this has helped me.

P.S. This is not to say that chubby babies aren't super cute. Tee hee....  All babies are cute and cuddly (and squishy).