The Obvious

It seems frugality has become a fad. At least I was on the leading edge of this one. Of course I'm going to hang on to it long after it has passed. I get that the economy has converged with simplicity which has converged with the internet to create what I think of as 'frugal mania.' I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I am just flummoxed at the things people don't know. I see tips and think, um well duh! So in no particular order the things people say that just amaze me. And if these were new to you, I want to be you!

1) Save first-yes, if you don't save you won't have extra money.
2) Eat at home-check the price of a whole chicken, even pre-roasted at the grocery and compare to a McChicken sandwich.
3) Turn off your lights-even my dad was hip to this one in 1976.
4 ) Don't drive so much-why yes, that would reduce gas usage. This of course doesn't take those of us who live 20 miles from
anything (including my kids school) into account.
5) Use the library-I lurve my library. I probably have an unhealthy relationship with my library, but considering the number of
books I could be buying, I'll risk it. That doesn't count music, movies, kids programs, all for free.
6) Disposable are expensive-mop heads, diapers, plates. All of the above. If you buy it to throw it away you'll be hard pressed
to get a deal. Now I have used all of the above when dictated by the situation, but hey, I knew it wasn't cheap.
7) Bring your own coffee-They charge $5 for sugary milk coffee. Bring your own, it tastes better. If you crave the flavor buy a
bottle of flavored syrup.
8) Water-use the tap. A close corollary of #7.
9) Try used-yep, when people can't afford their stuff they'll sell it to you cheap.
10)Try store brands-that's why they list those prices there on the shelf.

Memory Lane

So yesterday I was going through old cassette tapes. Yes, I still had them. And I have vehicles old enough to actually have tape players but I've decided to get rid of them. Anyhoo, going through them I was reminded of all the songs I used to love. This was one of my favorites and when I played it for the kids they said it should be my theme song so.....(and just an aside, how did I get such rule abiding children?)

Is Bigger Better?

OK, get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking family size Everyone should do what they deem best, but don't let your dreams be squashed by 'the norm'.

Menu Monday Again

Breakfasts
cinnamon rolls
french toast
hash browns & canadian bacon
eggs & toast
oatmeal
cereal
ffys


Dinner
Mon-spaghetti & meatballs, hm garlic bread, salad
Tue-corn dogs (fake), hm baked fries, fruit salad
Wed-baked chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots
Thur-tuna casserole, peas
Fri-chili, corn muffins
Sat-chicken tetrazzini, corn
Sun-swiss steak, rice, broccoli

Kinda Late

Mel's first day of preschool on Wednesday.

Just stinkin' cute and playing coy.

Menu Planning Tuesday?

Ok, it's really Tuesday but, it seems like Monday

Breakfasts:
monkey bread
pancakes
sausage&toast
chocolate chip muffins
ffys (fend for your self)
hashbrowns and fruit

Lunch:
sandwiches, leftovers,

Dinners:
Hamburgers, fried potatoes, green beans
pork&noodle casserole, corn
Italian sausage pie, broccoli
cheese pizza
scalloped potatoes, peas&cauliflower
roast, potatoes, carrots

Let Them Eat

CAKE!

Happy First Birthday Sissy Boo!

Double Digits

L hit the big 1-0 yesterday. Double digits!

And to make me feel even more melancholy, Ad took her first shaky steps without hanging on. ~sniff~ My babies are all growing up.

What To Do

Today in the van on the way to the grocery, Mel said "I can spell puppy." Um, right. Sure. Whatever. "Ok, how?"
"P-U-P-P-Y"

Oy, veh! How am I going to keep this child entertained. She can't even start kindergarten until next year. Obviously more TV for this one. Sponge Bob should suck some brains out of her.

The Source of My Pain

The next one takes piano lessons. Or learns to knit.

Good Advice

I'm not much of a rah-rah self improvement type but I liked this from My Super-Charged Life. I know too many adults who haven't got these figured out. Numbers 4,6,10 and 16 I may print on cards to give out. Ok, maybe not, but I'd like to.

I'm OK

I didn't mean to make the last post and then disappear. By Wednesday I felt great, just a little sore. Modern medicine is awesome. I just got busy with trying to fit in lots of fun before the kids returned to school. Yesterday was there first day. I hate they go so early. It's the peak of summer for heaven sake. It's all about the stupid mandated state test. IN, being odd and backward in all we do, gives their test in September. Thus they have to get them back in Aug to try and refresh their tiny memories. Oh, well. Here are the obligatory first day pictures.
Two off to high school. (She is a Jr. He is a fr.)


A 7th, 4th and 2nd grader. Oh, and an extra 7th grader. I've watched her for 6 years and she still catches the bus here.

Just Some Advice

If you have your gall bladder out on Monday, it's better if you don't hit Tuesday at a full run and do everything that you normally do. Just sayin'

Eleven Months

Adeline is 11 months old today~weep~, so in honor of her almost birthday I thought I'd post a little vid of her, um, unique form of locomotion.

Whew

I have a lovely new floor in my upstairs. It no longer reeks of dog (which I don't even have in the house), pee, dust, mites or anything other than a faint chemical scent I'm defining as clean. I even have some of the furniture moved back. More would be moved back but 1) I went through my dd's closet, WITH HER. Two hours of torture people. For both of us 2) I had a Jimmy Buffet party to attend and had to quit cleaning 3) I took E and L to camp today. E is counseling, L is a camper. This necessitated doing much laundry, finding rain ponchos, flash lights, bug spray, etc. Hopefully when I get everything that is going back upstairs in I can post some pictures. I also see a garage sale in my future. How have I birthed pack rats? Me, who keeps not much more than the children?

Back

Vacation was great. So great I really didn't take any pictures. I did get this one of the kids watching a video while waiting for the park to open, because you really should get up at 5:30am when you're on vacation.


I've been crazy busy since we got back. All those clothes, towels and bedding to wash and I've moved every stick of furniture out of the upstairs, ripped up all the 30 year old carpet, swept up 30 years of dust and disintegrated carpet backing and pulled out a gross of carpet tacks. All that in preparation for a new vinyl floor. One that won't absorb pee, vomit or spilled coke. And it's made my living room look so nice.


And of course there is always the need to chase down the little mobile one, the one who figured out how to push open the screen door and escape outside where all the fun is.

R&R

Well, everyone but me will be rested and refreshed. I'll be the way mother's are after driving a 15 passenger van 300 miles full of overly excited kids, spending the day in 95 degree heat valiantly trying not to lose anyone or have them drown, tending to all those who can't sleep because they forgot something vital and repeating the next day. Give me a hotel room, alone, with a cheesecake and a bottle of tequila. I was the only one who voted for that though. Instead we'll be spending the next three days here and sleeping here

We

We are the champions my friend. For the record he had 4 hits and was walked. And he made an amazing catch in the outfield. Not that I'm proud ya' know.

Home

Home from camp with lots of stories to tell.

Nothing Is Safe Anymore

Today the steps, tomorrow Everest

Sum, Sum, Summertime

Splashpark

'Sup

Born into a family of bookworms.

Mmmmm

Succulent organic red raspberries, bursting with juice, picked at sunrise by experienced, careful workers close to home. And I ain't gonna share!

Scenes from a Festival

These of course don't include all the food, games, rodeoing, demolition derbying, fireworking, etc. Whew

Waiting for a parade

Riding in a parade (with trophy)

Running an obstacle course

Playing water games

Balancing eggs

Catching (or dropping) water balloons

Blogversary

Oops, I've wasted four years of your time. We've added on the house and the family in that time. I'm surprised I'm still at it. I have the attention span of a nervous squirrel about most things. My dd made pretend name tags for us once, dh is OCD, 9yo dd is ODD and I'm ADD.

To The Bone

No blogging because I've worked my fingers to the bone, the bone people. The outside of the house looks spiffy, the yard and hedges have actually been tended, the garden is weed free, the lawn furniture (which I found in the basement of our first house 18 years ago) has been painted and the upstairs is a rainbow of blue, red, purple, pink and orange. The next person to write on a wall will wish for death's sweet release. I haven't taken any pictures but I'll get around to it. Here's some views of camp.

Mama's Soup Beans

Over at Frugal Upstate the frugal recipe talk has moved on to beans. When I was a kid, my mom made what she called 'soup beans'. I now know everybody else in the world calls them Ham&Beans, but at our house it was Soup Beans. (Of course we also ate Cheese Toasties v. grilled cheese.) This is one of those things I make which needs no real recipe. It is comfort food though, that always reminds me of my mom.

Soup Beans

1 pound navy beans(soak these overnight)
10-12 C water(depends on how soupy you like it)
1 meaty ham hock(you can throw in ham instead if you have it but hamhocks are pretty cheap, or use the leftover one from a ham)
a few good handfuls of chopped onion(1/2-1 onion)

Bring it all to a boil in a large pot or dutch oven. Turn to a simmer and let cook a couple hours (beans should be soft and splitting)

Serve with the obvious cornbread (we like ours a little sweet, sorry southerners). I eat mine with a sprinkling of fresh chopped onion and tabasco. Everyone else just eats them with the cornbread broken up in the bowl. This is good stuff people.

Camp

My Boys are at this camp. My DS is the one towards the beginning climbing the rock wall in the green shirt. He's a star, LOL



In random thoughts, Mel has been painting alot to fill the hours of not having three brothers at home to bicker with.
Me-"Is that a tree?"
Mel-"No, it's a masterpiece."

Very Superior

If I didn't schlump in pj's and use profanity I might be darn near perfect!

118 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Tuna (fish, not a piano)

Over at Frugal Upstate, the topic is tuna. Well, actually it's cheap meals. Last week was eggs. I could have contributed this recipe then too. Eggs and tuna, two, two, two cheap protein sources in one. This I got from a hawaiian site but I changed some things.

12 large fresh eggs
1 whole fresh clove of garlic-smashed, peeled, and minced fine
1 medium round white or yellow onion-peeled, sliced, diced, and chopped fine
1 large ripe red tomato-sliced, diced, and chopped fine
1 green pepper, diced fine
2 cans tuna fish packed in water
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 pinch salt


canola oil for frying
Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and remove any shell particles.
Open 2 cans tuna and water from can into another small bowl. Use a fork to smash up the tuna into mashed tuna flakes.
Add flaked tuna into mixing bowl with eggs and scramble with a wire whisk. Add salt, pepper and mix well. Set aside.
Heat large frying pan and add enough oil. About 4 Tbsp or so.
When oil is almost smoking add onions, garlic, tomatoes, and green pepper. Saute until vegetables are cooked down and wilted. About 5 minutes.
Add scrambled tuna egg mixture to frying pan. Stir it to mix in veggies.
Keep scrambling the eggs until they are set.
Add more oil if needed. Cooking will continue for an additional 5-10 minutes.
Serves 4 I serve this with
a) toast
b) rice (in which case I add fish sauce)
c) pasta (in which case I add anchovies and capers)

Summertime

and the living is easy. If you weren't the one setting up the pool that is.

Too Much

The kids are out of school and evidently we had to cram all of summer into this first week. Swimming, biking, library summer reading (yes, they are nearly done), ball games, cook outs, whew! I'm looking at the calendar amazed. Next week is Bible school and Cub Scout day camp, the next week Girl Scout Day camp (oldest is helping, 9yo is camping), the week after all three boys go to Church camp, then it's the 4th and our town's festival, Boy Scout residence camp for the oldest two boys, then our little vacation and finally the two oldest girls go to church camp (one to camp, one to be a counselor). Then we wind down with summer band. Oh and we have to finish soccer and softball/baseball season, and 4-H. Oldest dd has a babysitting job every other weekend 2-10 and oldest ds is mowing yards for cash. Lazy,hazy days? No one kid is doing that much, it's just the steady stream when you have more than one or two that takes up time. And it's really not bad when you're doing it, but when you start marking days off the calendar it hits you just how busy we are.

Weekend

Finally, after lots of storms Friday night, we had a nice weekend for weather. It almost felt like May just in time for it to be June. Saturday was 3 soccer games, 1 baseball game and my first sunburn of the season. The baby's too. Ooops!
Flowers are friends, not food!

Sunday was Brownie Fly up. As much as being a leader can be a pain, it's been really cool watching these same girls from kindergarten Daisies to now third grade graduate Juniors. They were all so proud of their program.

School's Out

So, I'm looking with ds for Alice Cooper (who I admit some find disturbing) so I can share a bit of my youth. Which means I dance around the computer to an old song while my kids cringe, when we found this. Which I think is more disturbing than plain old Alice by himself. Who thought this would be good kid material? Did they listen to the lyrics? The song isn't about school exactly, ya' know?

I Don't Wanna Go Back

to real life that is. We had a wonderful holiday weekend. We cooked out, went out with friends for a grown up dinner, flew kites, the kids camped in the yard, took bike rides and generally enjoyed the outdoors. Oh, and we saw the Indiana Jones movie too. And my peachy girl discovered peaches

Just Me

I must be the only person in America who doesn't watch American Idol. That seems to be the top story on the news, my boards and in blogland. I'm so uncool. In other news, $50 to gas just the mini-van. Don't ask what the great big honkin' Amish van costs to fill up.

Still Alive

No, I haven't been killed in a driving education accident. Just busy.
*soccer, baseball, soccer, baseball, repeat
*parent/teacher conferences
*teething baby who must be held
*Blue&Gold Cub Scout Banquet
*sewing girl scout badges on nine vests
*gardening
*8th grader returning from D.C.
Along with all the usual day to day dreck.
School is over next week. Yeah! The minions, er slaves,er children will be home to help.
Amazing what a loving brother and Motrin can do.

My untucked Tiger Cub

Driving Me To ....

I spent a totally fun rainy evening teaching my dd to parallel park. It makes me appreciate the simplicity of changing diapers and the reasons some people may take nerve pills.

Two Non Related Things

Check out this
for a very cool graph about spending. Maybe the coolest graph ever. Of course the section for full service restaurant meals and new vehicles is broken out of my window, but still.
And now for something completely different

Can you tell these two are sisters?

Canoe

My boys went canoeing Saturday. Here's a pic of them e-mailed to me. Don't they look manly.

Happy Mother's Day

Song for a Fifth Child( or Sixth or Seventh)

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Yesterday

Me, migraine, ack!

Brownie Trip

I took my Brownie troop on a field trip today to spend all that cookie money (imagine my sarcasm here, since the girls get a not very large percentage of the take.)
First we ate here.

Our waitresses.

Then we went swimming here.

This is what I now deserve.

Sugar and Spice

The one on the left is sugar, the one on the right is spice.