Menu Planning Monday 6/29

Here it is, Monday again. I want to thank everyone who’s been helping me decrease my grocery bill. We had a blast at the store yesterday. We ended up saving over 85 dollars on groceries. Our bill was around $136 but we ended up with 5 or 6 buy one get one free meats, so we’ll have plenty of meat again for next week.

I thought I’d start sharing my meal planning with you all, so you can follow along (and give me some hints along the way).

So here we go:

These meals are in no particular order. Part of the problem with setting a meal schedule is my husband’s schedule is so irregular that I have a hard time sticking to the meal plan. So I’ve set up meals, but we’ll play it by ear when we’re going to have what.

Asian PorkWraps (Igot this recipe from the Woman’s Day month of menus for July)
Canteloupe

Sloppy Joes(manwich was on sale and we had a coupon so they ended up being about 50 cents each)
frozen corn

Turkey Breast (BOGO)
mashed potatoes
green beans

Macaroni Grill Box Meal (with leftover turkey in it)
veggies

Grilled Salmon
veggies

BBQ chicken (got chicken quarters for 50 cents a lb 10 lb bag ~will make 5 meals for us)
pork and beans

Steak shish kabobs (smallsteaks on sale and bogo)
salad

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Calling Frugal Moms ~ Can I Feed a Family of 3 on 5 Dollars a Day?

I *know* a lot in my head about living more frugally, but somehow making it show up in my life has not been such a success.  My business is doing pretty well, but my husband’s construction business is pretty slow. In fact, he’s out running a combine for the local farmer for some extra money.

Somehow we still continue to eat like we both had great full time jobs. I think it is the one place we can cut back and not feel it quite so much. In my head I know a lot about saving money, but it doesn’t seem to translate into actual action.

From all you frugal moms out there ~ can you give me some tips, some hints, recipes, websites anything to get me on the right track?

What do you think is the lowest realistic amount I can spend on feeding my family of 3? There are a couple things I have to work around ~ we have to be able to eat meat ~ hubby is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I would also like to keep the preprocessed foods to a minimum.  I know that makes it a lot tougher ~ when I was buying prepackaged foods it was much cheaper but it just didn’t feel like we were as healthy.

Can you help me out? Can you lead me to some great resources where I can figure out how to not only “know” this stuff but implement in my life as well??  If  you have any ideas or thoughts you’d like to share with me please leave them in the comments area below!! I’d really appreciate it.

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A Wahm Afternoon

One of the great things about being a Wahm is when you’re work is done you can go out and play ~ no matter what time it is. (you can even play hookie for a whole day without havning to answer to anyone!!)

Anyway ~ today I got my work done by 12:30p (the big stuff anyway) so Hanna and I grabbed lunch and then we went to the POOL!

She LOVES to swim. We usually go to the lake since we have a lake sticker and it doesn’t cost us anything to swim, but today there was just something about crystal clear water, with waterfalls and all kinds of fun water things that called to me.

She was having a blast ~ I got a couple pictures (no I didn’t forget the camera this time ~ my mom is still not letting me live it down that I forgot the camera for the Combine ride ~ yikes)

Just a couple minutes after this photo was taken ~ she jumped out of the pool and promptly fell down skinning both her knees.

After I scooped her up we sat under the big umbrella in the water to see how bad the wounds were I asked her if she wanted to go home ~ and she said YES.

I said, ok, but let’s sit down and get your knees to stop bleeding first and then see how we feel.

We sat over next to the lifeguard (who never moved a muscle) and he said “oh I saw you fall down over there ~ are you ok?” (and then asked me if there was blood over there on the pool deck). She started to warm up and milk the knee wounds for all they were worth.

Finally she decided she wasn’t quite ready to go home. We played in the little toddler pool, and went into the big pool as well. It was a lot of fun ~ a great way to spend a couple hours.

Saturday we created these great t shirts for Father’s Day. We made one for her dad, and one for one of her grandpas.   She had a blast and we used the rest of the paint to make some wrapping paper for the gifts.  The instructions said you have to iron in the paint so it won’t come off in the wash ~ however, I was totally unable to get the red paint off the outfit she was wearing. (what was I thinking doing this whole project with clothes on her??) I did iron the paint in and they turned out great.

Here’s Hanna and her dad on Father’s Day after we got home from dinner.

Well that’s about it. Hanna’s in bed, and I have an accountability call in about 30 minutes. So I guess I’ll go enjoy the silence for a few minutes.

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Hanna’s First Harvest

We live in Kansas. Our home is surrounded on all 4 sides by wheat fields. We see a LOT of combines running around this time of the year.

Last night one of the local farmers came by and asked if my hubby could drive a combine for him for harvest. He said yes, and took off to be “farmer Lee” about 8pm last night. I don’t know what time he got home, it was well after I was asleep I’m sure. He was up bright and early again to get back out in the big green combine.

This is all very exciting news for Hanna. She LOVES combines. Every time we see a combine in a field or on the road, she  points and yells ~ “There’s a combine!!”

(which on a side note, makes me giggle a little. I wonder how many 3 years olds in America know what a combine is)

So today Ryan invited us to come over and let her ride in the combine with him. She was pretty excited about it. But I wondered because as the combine came toward us from the field (a pretty long way out in the field still) she started screaming it was gonna get her and to get her out of there!

But when Daddy got down and helped her up she was all about it. She not only got to help him cut the wheat, they also got to pour the wheat into the back of a wheat truck. I’ll probably be listening to this story for the rest of the summer ~ ah well. It was a treat to see my baby girl in that big green machine, smiling and happy to finally be “driving a combine”.

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Yanni Voices Live 2009 WOW!

Last night the last part of my Mother’s Day gift came together (after much difficulty) and my mom and I went to see Yanni Voices.  I’ve always liked Yanni’s music and wondered how it would come together with voices.  One word: Beautifully.

There was some interesting interplay between Yanni and all the singers and musicians, and after the intermission, the show took a definitely sexual overtone, but the music was amazing.

Each of the four singers had such different qualities.

Chloe ~ the brunette  ~  a poweful seductive voice, very sexy.

Ender ~ lyrics in spanish ~ was very enthusiastic. I’d say his voice was the one I connected with the least, but it was still beautiful.

Leslie ~ the blonde ~ her voice was mystical and lyrical. Her lyrics poetic. I particularly liked her.

Nathan ~ lyrics in Italian (I believe) a stunning voice that literally took my breath away each time he sang. Powerful, strong, but lyrical and gentle. AMAZING.

If you have a chance to see Yanni live I’d definitly grab it while you can. If he’s not coming to a town near you, grab the Yanni Voices CD, it’s an amazing compilation of talent.

Speaking of talent, we haven’t even talked about the musicians yet. OVER the top. Amazing. From the violin, cello, guitar, to a harp solo like nothing from this world. Even a rockin guitar solo. The trumpet player was so amazing there really are no words. When all of it came together it was a 3 (yes, 3) hour show that rivals anyone I’ve ever seen live.

If you’ve never heard of Yanni or Yanni Voices, Yanni is an instrumental composer. He’s never used lyrics or the voice as an instrument in his work before. For this project, he found 4 up and coming vocalists and had them create lyrics for his compositions. What was created was 4 completely different types of music, each one incredible in its own way.

If you haven’t heard Yanni, here’s a little taste.

This is Leslie ~ The Keeper

Here’s Nathan with Enchantment (turn this one up as loud as your speakers can handle. It’s much better that way.

Enjoy!

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It only took me 10 years . . .

I’ve lived in this house for 10 years. We’ve lived 2 miles from the lake for 10 years. So why on Earth did it take me 10 years to figure out there was an awesome swimming area with a playground at the lake?

For the last couple years ~ since Hanna figured out how much fun the playground is, we’ve been driving at least 20 miles each way to get to the playground.

As a work at home mom this can be tough ~ it really comes down to a 2 hour chunk of the day if we decide to go to the playground.

This new playground find means I can easily take her to the playground more often and just “cuz”.  She has a rough time in the afternoons sometimes, now we can just jump in the car for a quick change of scenery.  Maybe a quick picnic lunch and swim before I get to the afternoon’s tasks? Sounds great.

Today, since it was the first day we found the place, I got all my work done early and we grabbed the neighbor and her kids and headed out to the lake. We ended up spending the whole afternoon. AAH the kids had so much fun. Playing in the water, digging in the sand, sliding down the slide.

I forgot to take my camera but I won’t forget next time.

The only problem ~ we got home late in the afternoon and while she was eating a sandwich Hanna fell asleep in the kitchen chair. Hmmm… maybe a new secret “get her to sleep” method??!

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Reclaiming My Garden Space ~ Got Any Tips?

We have this crazy patch of space in the middle of our walkway. When we moved in I filled it with Iris. For some reason, my husband didn’t like it and at one point I took them all out. Then the space just ended up being a big weed pile.

A few years ago, a couple random trees showed up, and Ryan “planned” to pull them out, because we didn’t really want trees that close to the house. However, that never really happened. Now we have two nice sized trees in this space, and some of the iris have come back from no where. AND some Holly Hocks have magically appeared there as well.

The Holly Hocks started showing up a couple years ago, but Ryan didn’t know they were plants and mowing them down with the weedwacker. This really annoyed me because they were the only ones I had in that color. (a delicious magenta).

So this year I’ve decided to reclaim my garden space. It’s my plan to turn it into a nice butterfly and bird (pretty much perrenial) garden.

Some bermuda grass has crept in the irises, and I’m going to have to do something about that. A neighbor mentioned that Grass be Gone could get rid of the bermuda and is safe to spray on flowers. (Although they mentioned Iris might be one that it could kill ~ so we’ll have to see??)

I was going to make a big bird bath to go in the middle, but then realized I have had this piece of wood laying around since we moved in (10 years ago) because I think it would make a perfect garden bench. Instead of creating a tall bird bath I decided to go ahead and make the bench and set a small birdbath right on the bench. It looks just lovely.

The Holly Hocks are getting ready to bloom, so I’m working around them, trying to get the ground tilled up and more flowers added. Just not sure exactly what I want to put in there. I do like things that are low maintenance, and colorful. I have a finch feeder hanging in one of the trees. I have been attracting more and more birds lately, and would love more butterflies as well.

Here are some pictures of what it looks like right now ~ I thought I’d keep posting as it comes together so I will have a record of its progress ~ and so you can give me some ideas and tips as I go

Like I said, if you have any hints or tips ~ I’d love to hear them.

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