Awana Grand Prix

Elijah and Emmaline had so much fun building their grand prix cars for Awana!  They spent a bit of time on the internet with Mark looking at ideas and picking what they wanted to do.  Emmaline settled on a Strawberry Shortcake car and Elijah picked Mater (from the movie Cars).  Mark cut out the cars, then Emmaline and Elijah did all the painting themselves!  I was so proud of them!  The Grand Prix was last week, Elijah didn't win anything which he was pretty disappointed about but Emmaline won an award for "Most Colorful Car"!  Ha! 

The actual Grand Prix was a fiasco, I thought it was crazy last year but this year was really bad.  We actually came home and talked about our options for someplace different to go for Awana next year (It was BAD).  I guess we will see how the rest of the year goes, but we have not been very pleased with things this year and the Grand Prix is the proverbial straw that broke the camels back!  Pray for us to have wisdom in this decision!

Boys Dresser

I'm in fixing up mode!  I have big plans for everything that I'm going to fix, paint, or otherwise change this year (including painting furniture, kitchen cabinets, walls furniture, replacing flooring and furniture and generally rearranging and organizing the whole house!).  We'll see how much I actually can get done!

My first project this year was to paint the boys dresser black.  Elijah asked me to paint it black for him almost 2 years ago and somehow I never got around to it, partly because of finances and partly for lack of time.  So, 2 weeks ago I broke down and bought a gallon of black paint and some polyurethane.  Here's how it looked post painting.  Not too bad, just a little worn from use. 

I removed the drawers hardware, sanded down the whole dresser, moved it to the family room and started painting! 

We didn't get through the process without any mishaps though.  Micah stepped right in my container of paint!  What a mess!  Good thing I put down drop cloths!

After painting I put on 2 coats of poly, then let it dry for 5 days before reassembling in the boys room.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out, although I'm not sure if I should paint the handles silver.  Any opinions?

Pantry Challenge, final week

Well, here we are on the last week of the pantry challenge and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with my outcome!  I only go shopping once a week, on Tuesdays, so I can say for certain that I won't be spending any more money for the month.  This week we bought pizza for my hubby and some disposable diapers (I use both cloth and disposable, depending on the day, whether we are at home or going out, etc.).  I didn't end up needing any thing fresh, we have enough of everything on hand to get through the week.

Final total for the month:  $279!!! 

 Here is our final weeks menu:
Thursday
Breakfast -Hot cereal. 
Lunch - Sandwiches, fruit, vegies.
Dinner - Chicken and Rice, vegies. 

Friday 

Breakfast - Cold cereal
Lunch -Sandwiches or leftovers, with fruit and/or vegies
Dinner - Homemade pizza 

Saturday
Breakfast -Homemade Biscuits and Sausage Egg Gravy
Lunch - Leftovers (Smorgasbord!)
Dinner - Homemade Mac N'Cheese, Fruit, Vegies. 

Sunday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal.  We always have cold cereal on Sundays, we leave early for church and cooking something has proved to be completely impossible.
Lunch -  Hamburgers and Homemade Fries
Dinner - High Tea!  Yum!

Monday
Breakfast - Hot Cereal
Lunch - More leftovers
Dinner - Easy Lasagna (I'll make 2 of these and freeze one), vegies

Tuesday
Breakfast -Hot Cereal.  We will choose between oatmeal, baked oatmeal, cream of wheat, polenta, or rice with milk, fruit and sugar.
Lunch - PBJ, fruit and/or vegies
Dinner -Tostadas

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Meatloaf, Potatoes, vegies.

Snacks
We don't snack much, mostly on fruit and vegies.  I stock up on them whenever it's on sale, usually we have apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, and celery on hand.

Drinks
We go through around 4 gallons of milk a week here, roughly $8 when it's on sale.  I will buy as much as can fit in my fridge when it's on sale, it usually lasts till the next sale.  I purchase soda on sale and keep it on hand for Mark on Friday nights, otherwise we don't drink it.  (Notice I keep it on hand for Mark, not the rest of the family)  We have juice with breakfast on the weekends ($2) and water the rest of the week.  Water with lunch and with dinner, except occasionally when I make iced tea (.20 a batch).

I've been racking my brain trying to come up with tips for feeding your family frugally but I really haven't come up with anything that others haven't taught.  The biggest things are 1) Use what you have (So someone gave you something you don't like?  Cook it up, it's only one meal and then you will have been a good steward of the resources God has provided for you!), 2) Don't throw away food, use up your leftovers in creative ways (This goes hand in hand with the last one).  3.)  Be flexible about your meals, if someone gives you 20 pounds of onions find a way to use them, if something has been sitting in your fridge for a bit, use it up!  Most Importantly, BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU!!! You may not be able to eat exactly how you would like but you DO have food, be grateful for it!  This has been a lesson that I have had to learn the hard way.  If you can learn from my mistakes it would be so much easier for you! 

Hope you have enjoyed this series!  If you have any more questions about how I feed my family for just over $300 a month be sure to ask!  I love to get comments!

Pantry Challenge, week 3

*Sorry to be posting this a day late.  Had a busy day yesterday and didn't get this done on time.*

This week I spent $20 on milk, fruit, and vegies.  I'm still within my budget, the total for the month now comes to $253.  However, I might not make it because my hubbies birthday is this week and he has asked for pizza, not homemade but bought from a pizza place.  Between that and fresh stuff we might go over a little.  Guess we'll see.  Still, right around $300 for food for a family of 7 is nothing to sneeze at!

Here is my menu for this week:

Thursday
Breakfast - Bagels with cream cheese, grapefruit, and scrambled eggs.
Lunch - Leftovers.
Dinner - Taco salad and fruit/vegies. 

Friday 
This is the birthday day (that doesn't sound quite right but you get the idea :-)).  In our house the birthday person gets to pick what they want for meals.
Breakfast - French toast with syrup and powdered sugar, bacon, and pineapple orange juice.
Lunch - Hot Dogs with all the toppings, baked beans, BBQ chips and soda.
Dinner - Pizza from a local place called Louie's, my husbands favorite. 

Saturday
Breakfast - Coffeecake
Lunch - Leftovers (Smorgasbord!)
Dinner - Soup, Fruit, Vegies. 

Sunday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal.  We always have cold cereal on Sundays, we leave early for church and cooking something has proved to be completely impossible.
Lunch -  Hamburgers with leftovers from the birthday (chips, beans)
Dinner - High Tea!  Yum!

Monday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - More leftovers
Dinner -Chicken Ritz Casserole and vegies (this casserole was made ahead some time ago and frozen.  I always forget to use up meals that I make ahead and put in the freezer.  This one Needs to be eaten, it's been in the freezer for quite awhile...).

Tuesday
Breakfast -Hot Cereal.  We will choose between oatmeal, baked oatmeal, cream of wheat, polenta, or rice with milk, fruit and sugar.
Lunch - PBJ, fruit and/or vegies
Dinner - Nothing planned for this meal.  Usually by this time in the month I have enough leftovers that I can make something from them.  So, I will decide when it gets closer but it will probably end up being a stir fry of some sort.

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Soft shelled Tacos.

Snacks
We don't snack much, mostly on fruit and vegies.  I stock up on them whenever it's on sale, usually we have apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, and celery on hand.

Drinks
We go through around 4 gallons of milk a week here, roughly $8 when it's on sale.  I will buy as much as can fit in my fridge when it's on sale, it usually lasts till the next sale.  I purchase soda on sale and keep it on hand for Mark on Friday nights, otherwise we don't drink it.  (Notice I keep it on hand for Mark, not the rest of the family)  We have juice with breakfast on the weekends ($2) and water the rest of the week.  Water with lunch and with dinner, except occasionally when I make iced tea (.20 a batch).

If you missed my first posts in this series, you can find week 1 here and week 2 here.

Pantry Challenge, Week 2

*The blog I follow that suggested this challenge is stopping it due to some difficult life circumstances, however, I will be continuing the series through to the end of the month*

So far, so good!  I'm well within my budget for food for the month, $300 for our family of 7.  I spent $40 this week on milk, vegies, and some foods for my hubbies upcoming birthday.  That puts my total for food for the month to $233.  Not too shabby!

Here is my menu for this week:

Thursday
Breakfast - Hot Cereal. I'm thinking about trying a polenta. Update: I did try a polenta recipe from a cookbook called "Family Feasts for $75 a week" and it was really good!
Lunch - Sandwiches.
Dinner - Pasta Mama (pasta, eggs, meat and vegies, cooked on the stovetop) and vegies. 

Friday
Breakfast - Bagels with cream cheese, and grapefruit.
Lunch - Soup and Homemade Biscuits.
Dinner - Homemade Pizza. 

Saturday
Breakfast - Pancakes (my favorite!)
Lunch - Leftovers (Smorgasbord!)
Dinner - Soup, Fruit, Vegies. 

Sunday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal.  We always have cold cereal on Sundays, we leave early for church and cooking something has proved to be completely impossible.
Lunch -Beans and Rice.
Dinner - High Tea!  Yum!

Monday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - More leftovers
Dinner -Baked Potato Soup and rolls.

Tuesday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal (This many days in a row of cold cereal gets really OLD, but my hubbie had an early appointment and since we always eat as a family there wasn't time to make something.)
Lunch - Leftovers (For some reason we are swimming in leftovers right now.  Good thing we don't have picky eaters in our house!)
Dinner - Spaghetti & Meatballs, green salad, rolls.

Wednesday
Breakfast - Oatmeal
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Mexican chicken, vegies, rice.

Snacks
We don't snack much, mostly on fruit and vegies.  I stock up on them whenever it's on sale, usually we have apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, and celery on hand.

Drinks
We go through around 4 gallons of milk a week here, roughly $8 when it's on sale.  I will buy as much as can fit in my fridge when it's on sale, it usually lasts till the next sale.  I purchase soda on sale and keep it on hand for Mark on Friday nights, otherwise we don't drink it.  (Notice I keep it on hand for Mark, not the rest of the family)  We have juice with breakfast on the weekends ($2) and water the rest of the week.  Water with lunch and with dinner, except occasionally when I make iced tea (.20 a batch).

If you missed my first post of this series, you can find it here.

Dollhouse First Year

Here is how my dollhouse looked when I first got it.  Just a giant, HEAVY box, full of wood.  Not very impressive...

And here is is after quite a bit of work sorting all the pieces out and painting a few of the walls.  Nothing is glued in place here, it is all held together with masking tape.

And finally, here it is after 1 years worth of work.  Most of the exterior is done, which was my goal for the year.  (The addition on the side was not part of my goal for the year.  Not sure when that will be done...)

I'm looking forward to next year and what I can accomplish!  My goal is to complete the egg carton brick foundation, the living room, and the kitchen.  So much to do!!!

Snowman!

Elijah and Emmaline took advantage of the snow we got a few weeks ago to make their very own snow man!  They were so proud of themselves!

Pantry Challenge

For the month of January I am participating in a pantry challenge, to feed my family for $75 a week!  I go shopping once a month for the bulk of what I need and then pick up the perishable stuff that we need on the in between weeks.  So my goal is to keep the monthly total to $300, if possible.  Yesterday was my shopping day and the total for the day was $193.  Not too shabby for a start but we will see how the rest of the month goes!

So, here is my tentative menu for the month.  I usually plan out my menu for the month but we are extremely flexible in what gets made when, or even gets made at all.  I cook based more on what we have on hand than anything else.  With all that said, here is the menu, it has been updated to reflect our actual meals for the week:

Thursday
Breakfast - Cold cereal. I'm not much of a morning person and getting up and making breakfast is really difficult for me thus we have cold cereal fairly often.  I figure this costs us about $2 for the whole meal for the 7 of us.
Lunch - Sandwiches. Not sure what kind, we will use whatever we have on hand.  I bought the bread at the day old bread store for .60 (100% whole wheat!), 1 loaf will feed the family for lunch, plus whatever it costs for the filling and fruit/vegies served with it.  Probably around $1.50 - 2 for the whole lunch
Dinner - Tostadas and fruit.  Not sure exactly how much this meal costs, I package of shells will last for 2 meals, 1 can of refried beans is around $2, plus all the toppings (tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, salsa)  Actual Meal: Beef Stew &Rolls.  Cost is about the same as what I planned to make.

Friday
Breakfast - Baked Oatmeal
Lunch - Sandwiches, fruit and/or vegies Leftovers
Dinner - Homemade Pizza.  This is probably the most expensive meal of the week but it's our family tradition and we all love it.  I figure it costs me about $7 (ouch!).

Saturday
Breakfast - Homemade Biscuits and Sausage Egg Gravy.  $3 for everything with leftovers!
Lunch - Leftovers (Smorgasbord!)  Free!Tostadas with all the fixings (See Thursday night dinner above.)
Dinner - Homemade Mac N' Cheese, Fruit, Vegies.  $3 for everything.

Sunday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal.  We always have cold cereal on Sundays, we leave early for church and cooking something has proved to be completely impossible.
Lunch - ?  I'll decide when I get home from church.  :-)  This turned out to be more leftovers.
Dinner - High Tea!  Yum!  This is a very inexpensive meal, around $2.  We were invited to a friends house for the afternoon and evening so I didn't have to cook, Yay!

Monday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - More leftovers
Dinner -Baked Chicken, vegies, fruit.  $4

Tuesday
Breakfast -Hot Cereal.  We will choose between oatmeal, cream of wheat, or rice with milk, fruit and sugar. - We picked Oatmeal.
Lunch - PBJ, fruit and/or vegies
Dinner - Enchiladas, green salad.  $4.50

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal. Fruit and toast.
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - BBQ chicken, rolls, vegies. green salad $4.50

Snacks
We don't snack much, mostly on fruit and vegies.  I stock up on them whenever it's on sale, usually we have apples, oranges, and bananas on hand.

Drinks
We go through around 4 gallons of milk a week here, roughly $8 when it's on sale.  I will buy as much as can fit in my fridge when it's on sale, it usually last till the next sale.  I purchase soda on sale and keep it on hand for Mark on Friday nights, otherwise we don't drink it.  (Notice I keep it on hand for Mark, not the rest of the family)  We have juice with breakfast on the weekends ($2) and water the rest of the week.  Water with lunch and with dinner, except occasionally when I make iced tea (.20 a batch).

I think that about covers it.  Not sure how close I am on my prices but I did the best I could.   I'm linking up to Large family living in a small family world pantry challenge.