Project 365

A friend of mine has started doing something called a project 365 this year, she will be taking a picture everyday and posting it to a flicker account.  The goal behind it is to become a better photographer.  She even joined a group online of people doing the same thing.  I know myself and my schedule and making that kind of commitment would be nearly impossible.  However, I love the idea of having a picture taken everyday and at the end of the year having an album of pictures showing our daily life.  So, I am going to try and start my own album without signing up for the support group.  Then if it gets to be too much I can just drop the whole idea without feeling guilty or like I’m letting anyone down.  I will try and add one picture for each day(not necessarily added individually though, more likely all at once, once a week or so) although they may not get posted here.  I will also be posting them to my FB account. 



This is the picture I choose for my first one.  I took all kinds of pictures, from piles of laundry to kids on the computer to Mark holding Malachi but I loved this picture.  It shows Micah’s quirky temperament and silliness.  :)  I know it’s not a great picture but I loved it all the same.
For anyone interested in joining the group (who’s more motivated then I am!) you can find more information here.  Also, the pictures will be uploaded to this Flickr account https://www.facebook.com/PeasAndCarrotsStudio

Spilled Milk

This past week Emmaline spilled her milk on the table, just a small spill really, but it looked so cool we just had to show you all!   Here is our happy ghost!  :-)

No, we didn't alter this in any way, this is just how it fell on the table!

New Dryer!!!

After only a few weeks without a dryer we were blessed with one by someone at our church!  Mark was able to get it installed and it's been working great!  I'm still using my clothesline and loving it, so between the dryer and clothesline I'm able to really keep on top of the laundry, which is so nice!

Dryer Woes...

Our dryer died 2 weeks ago.  It has been interesting, to say the least, trying to keep up with the mountains of laundry in our house!  My children must be quite messy/dirty because we have between 15 and 20 loads of laundry a week normally!  (This includes around 3-4 loads of sheets and towels.)  I also use cloth diapers, and the total doesn't include those loads.  However, since the dryer broke I have been using only disposables because I can't keep up with all the laundry that needs to be done.  There was one day where Jeremiah had no clean pants at all left to wear, so he just wore a diaper and shirt!  Thank goodness it was warm that day!!! 

This past weekend my Dad came over and put up a clothesline for me and it has been sooo nice to have!  I was able to get a few loads done, and they dryed so much faster outside than in the house! 

The past few days have been cold and wet so I haven't been able to use it but I'm looking forward to using it today since the weather is warming up again.  We won't be buying a dryer until we can find a good deal on craiglist or at goodwill, but we are not able to spend more than $100, so it could be a long wait.  Now that I have the clothesline though it shouldn't be too much of an issue, it is such a blessing to have some way to dry the clothes!  :-) 

Game time

The other day the kids decided to get out a game and play it all by themselves.  I was so proud of them, I just had to take a picture!

It's so wonderful that the kids are able to do things like this by themselves now! 

Sickness in the house

This past week our whole family has been laid up with a nasty cold bug.  We all have been coughing our brains out, combined with gunky runny noses.  Yuck!  Micah got it particulary bad, he spent a great deal of the week sleeping on the couch (next to me...).  :-)

Fortunately, we are all getting over it now and starting to get back into the normal swing of things.  Being sick/having sick kids really does throw a wrench in how the house runs and it's nice to get back into our routine! 

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!

Crazy Hair Night!

This past week was crazy hair night at Awana.  All the kids got their hair done in a crazy style, including the little ones that don't attend because they wanted to be included.  I just spiked all the boys hair and made it look messy.  Emmaline got ponytails all over her head, actually it was pretty cute.  The kids all had fun!  :-)

Kid Pics

Some pictures that I took of a few of the kids this week.

Micah.  He came in from playing out back with the mark on his cheek and no one seemed to know what happened. (of course!)

Jeremiah.  What a cutie!

Emmaline.  I just had to get a picture of this!  She looks so feminine with her hair up and then she has the gun in the holster on her hip! (play gun of course)  You can tell she only has brothers!

Jeremiah had fun in the dirt!

Big sis and baby brother.  Only baby brother isn't so little anymore!

All the kids are fighting off a cold, thus the runny noses in the pictures.  Just so you don't think I never wipe my kids noses, they had all been wiped right before the pictures were taken.  :-)  And they are not normally so dirty either, that's why I took pictures is because they were dirty!

Day with Grandma

Once every couple of weeks my mom will come over for the day, just to spend some time playing with the kids and chatting with me.  :-)

This time Mom spent some time doing crafts with the kids.  Here she is tracing around their hands onto paper to cut out.

And here is a classic picture, Grandma and Granddaughter.  :-)

A weeks worth of meals

I thought some of you out there might be interested in knowing how I cook for our family. 

And I didn't have anything better to post about, but we don't need to mention that...

Anyway...

First off, a bit of background info. 
1.)  I have a Very limited grocery budget, $340.00 for the month for our family of 7.  This is all our family can afford right now.  However, thanks to the wonderful training from my mom when I was growing up, I'm able to make this work. 

2.)  We are not on any government assistance at all.  We have received benefits from WIC in the past, but I'm not comfortable with the amount of influence they want to have in our life and for that reason we have stopped receiving it.  But, I do occasionally visit a local food panty when a month is really tight.

3.)  Due to our budget restrictions, I don't buy organic, or even "all natural" unless those things come up on sale for a GREAT price.  I have had to come to grips with the fact that it is more important for my family to have enough to eat over not enough but organic.  Please understand that I am not saying that I have a problem with organic anything, it is simply not an option for us at this time.

All that said, here are the pictures of our weeks worth of meals.

Wednesday :  We decided to use some of the coupons that the kids earned from the summer reading program to go out for dinner.  There was only one problem with our plan, the restaurant that we chose to go to was no longer accepting the coupons even though they weren't expired!  "Note to self, call to confirm restaurant is accepting coupons before going!"  Our local Del Taco was having a special, 29 cent taco's, so we went there for dinner.  We don't normally go out to dinner so this was a GREAT treat!

Thursday:  Spaghetti, fruit salad (made with all the bits and pieces leftover from other meals), bread and butter, and a green salad.  And water to drink.  We drink water with almost all our meals.  No dessert, we are trying to cut back on the sweets.

Friday:  Pizza.  I didn't get a picture of this but you're not missing anything.  I didn't get to make my normal homemade pizza because we had company stop by right as I was getting ready to start the dough and by the time they left it was too late to make homemade pizza.  Thank goodness for Little Caesars $5 pizza!

Saturday:  I usually do a "smorgasbord" meal on Saturday, aka: leftovers!  This is a great way to make sure all the little odds and ends in the fridge get eaten up!  Also forgot to get a picture of this.  Obviously I'm not the best at planning out my blog posts!

Sunday:  On Sunday evenings we always have tea.  So, menu: tea, crackers, tomato slices, cucumber slices, and pizza bites.  Sometimes I will make scones but this was not one of those times.

Monday:  Cheese tortellini with spaghetti sauce, green salad, cantaloupe.  I'm sure you're seeing a pattern here...  We use up what we have on hand, it's one of the great secrets to making a budget work!

Tuesday:  A real winner, hot dogs and watermelon!  I spent most of the day shopping and by the time we got home at 6:15 I just wanted to get something on the table and get it over with.  Yet again, forgot to get a picture.

On second thought maybe I shouldn't post this after all.  It was quite an atypical week, I forgot to take pictures, I want to impress you all with how well we eat, etc., but... well, I guess I'll post this anyways.  :-)  

Hope you all enjoyed this little peak into our life, if you have any questions about anything feel free to leave a comment and I will try to get back with you!  :-)

Our Week in Pictures

We had a nice week, laid back and easy.  It wasn't quite as hot so it was much nicer for me.  I get awful headaches in the heat that make it hard to function.  We bought an air conditioner for the living room and that helps a lot.  :-)  Even though it was cooler the kids still had fun playing in the water.  Elijah figured out how to fill up water balloons and the kids spent many hours filling and throwing them this week.  Here, Elijah is watering my flowers in between balloons.

No, Josiah is not taller than Emmaline!  He is standing on the back step.  :-)

"These look like fun...!"

Even Micah got in on the action!

We celebrated my brothers birthday this week at my mom's house.  The whole family was together, even my sister was able to come!

My sister and her husband, such a cute couple!

And some pics of my brother opening his gifts.  Still haven't gotten the hang of night time shots, so sorry for the bad pics. :-(

Back to School!

Monday was our first day of school!!!  It went surprisingly well, the kids had a good time and I was organized enough to get through all the subjects smoothly.  :-)

I made sure to get a picture of the 4 kids that I'm doing school with this year!  Jeremiah still doesn't do much accept color pictures but he loves to be with all the "big" kids all the same.

 I took over 20 pictures and this is the only one that turned out even halfway decent.  :-(

We changed one major thing this year and that is where we do our schoolwork.  I set up this table in our living room and designated it the "school table".  It has worked soooo well.  I'll give it another couple weeks before calling it a permanent addition but for now I'm loving it!

The curriculum we are using for the two older kids this year is My Father's World, and so far it has been great!  It starts out slow and builds up to all the subjects, which makes it so much easier to get going.  :-)  I'll let you know at the end of the year whether I would recommend it or not...

Our Week in Pictures

My Mom and I spent one afternoon having tea with friends at their house while Mark watched the kids.  We had a great time!

It was wonderful to catch up on all the news!  We have been friends for a LONG time...

The plan is to start school next week so I have been working like mad trying to get everything ready.

More school prep...

Mark and Elijah working on a model car while Emmaline and Josiah look on.

"Sharing" tea! :-)

Craft project.  It was supposed to be a puzzle but Emmaline painted each of the boards individually.  Oh well!

Emmaline and Jeremiah, hanging out together

Success!

Our garage sale went MUCH better than expected!  We ended up making $240 and my mother-in-law made almost $100!  I'm so happy with how it went!

Mark made this clothing rack for me last year and it works so well!  It really helps to move the clothes, a hard item to sell, by making it easier for people to find what they want.  I sort all the clothes by size and have paper dividers to make it easier for my customers.

I also try to keep like items together, creating a "kitchen" section, "decor" section, etc.  All the big stuff I place on the side where it's easy to see and will hopefully make people want to stop.  By the end of Friday most of the big stuff was gone though... not really a bad thing!

There were a few toys that the kids didn't want to part with but I wanted gone.  This Dora game was one of them...it ended up in the house more than once before being sold!

Emmaline was my big helper at the paying table, she helped me hand out change to all our customers.  She is wearing a hat and coat because Friday morning it was only 50 degrees till late in the morning.

I take all the little toys that are too small to sell alone and I make "grab bags".  These sell really well, especially with 7-12 olds.

All in all it was a GREAT sale!  After it was all said and done we took all the leftover items to Goodwill, so our garage is much cleaner!  Yay!!!