Gingerbread homework

Confession:  I like when Eli has homework.  It's typically a fun project like this:

So...we cut out & reinforced this gingerbread man.  Then we brainstormed together to figure out how he should look.  Albeit, we couldn't do that until Eli had a bowl of pretzels & hot chocolate in front of him (with Christmas music in the background).  Once we were settled in, we got him figured out.  He looks a wee bit elfish...don'tcha think?  Eli insisted upon "eyes that wiggle when you move him" and a purple nose.  He also had to have hot chocolate like us and cookies to go with that.  It's really fun to have one on one time with my Eli.  We had a lot of fun on this project--like we always do.  He's a great little man.

Upon the completion of his gingerbread man, he had to have a photo shoot.  We found a starry background in the cover of a book.

Then, of course, Eli had to pose with his finished project...whose name slips me.  It was definitely not in English.

He had to see his picture, then wanted to take another...

Both were pretty darn cute.  :)

Lingering thought of the day:  I need to make sugar cookies & hot citrus punch in the very near future.  Unless I can get my mama to come do that for me... Gotta go scheme now!

Booyah, Grandma! They're done!

Finally & at last, I have finished our stockings.  This has been a work in progress (& running joke in our house) for a very long time.  I've talked it up, bought the materials, and...  Yep, that's where it ended.  Until this year.  This year, I really did it.  The stockings are finished and hung with care!

I started by gathering my stuff & sketching out a pattern.  I wasn't sure which style I wanted to do, so I sketched out a hybrid and decided at cutting time.  Deciding on the fly works well for me.

So, with a little help from Clifford (and whomever else wanted to trod upon my project), I started cutting. I cut the pattern, felt, and cuff fabric.

Then I stitched, trimmed, turned, embellished, and hung.  Ta da!

It was a super quick & easy project.  It took about 2-3 hours total.  The actual cutting & construction took no time.  The dang fringe, however, was a total time suck.  Boo for embellishments.  Ok, fine, I like embellishments...a lot, actually.  That's why I proceeded with it.  But I really want to not like it due to the high-maintenance aspect of it.  So there.

Anyway, I'm somewhat relieved that they're done.  Now on to my next 85 Christmas projects...

Lingering thought of the day:  After being REALLY sick for days, it's nice to get out of the house.  But it takes a total fool to make Walmart the first outing.  Geez, Louise.  I don't like the place when I'm fully functioning.  What was I thinking?!?

It never hurts to ask...

Thursday night, Eli's ear looked like it had had some drainage.  Then his eyes got really goopy & pink.   He said he felt fine & had been acting normally.  Friday morning, I took him to the doctor.  He had a double ear infection & double pink eye.  Begin quarantine.  While we were at home chilling our heels & keeping our eye germs to ourselves, I realized that I really needed to email a few companies about things that had broken or malfunctioned.

The first two have not yet responded.  If they do, I'll let you know...don't hold your breath.  :)  The company that responded first & completely wowed me was Fisher-Price.  For Eli's last birthday or Christmas, he received the Imaginext Batmobile.  He has played with it 24/7 for a year.  The child loves all that is Imaginext, but I digress.  A couple months ago, it stopped going.  The engine would rev...then nothing.  No more noise.  No go.  We changed the batteries.  Still nothing.  It looked a lot like this (but was the model before):

While we were just as "no go" as the Batmobile, I figured it would be a good time to email the company:  see if recalls existed, ask for replacement, so on & so forth.

I got a response on Monday (wow!).  Although they have no replacements for that particular Batmobile, they'll be sending me a $23 voucher for Fisher-Price/Imaginext toys to use as I will--whether that is to replace our Batmobile with a new one or expand his collection.  I was so impressed!  They did not have to do that, but they did.  That's really, truly great customer service; they made this customer very happy.

When we get the voucher, I'm going to go get a new Batmobile for my little man...one that will rev, make noises, and go zooming across my living room.  I'm so excited for him to have a functioning Batmobile again.  No, it wasn't the end of the world that his car no longer went.  He's still played with it.  But he's asked me to fix it time & time again...and this fix is beyond me.  They're fixing that for me. For that, I'm incredibly thankful.

Lingering thought of the day:  I was trying to come up with something brilliant, witty, profound for my lingering thought.  I failed.  However, I did manage to reach the conclusion that these little lingering thoughts are quite similar to Chuck Lorre's vanity cards.  They're random thoughts at the end that just flash by, make you chuckle (occasionally, if worthy), and leave you with a thought totally unrelated to what you saw before (usually).  Big Bang fans, you get what I'm talking about, right?  
Slight turn in direction:  That man needs hope. Real, true hope.  He has none, and he's shouting out questions about humanity, life, love, spiritual things.  Every episode, I panic for him upon reading his words.  I want to reach out & help him.  He needs answers--TRUTH.   Yet, how many times in life do people flash the same things before us?  Friends, family, co-workers.  They allow just a snippet, comment, or question.  Then the moment passes so very quickly.  We're back to the silly, programmed norm.  I'm tired of missing it when people dance around the questions, looking for answers, looking for hope, looking for something real.   I want to snatch up those moments and truly make them count.  It's time to stand up & find the courage...
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  Phil. 4:13

Grocery Games--Part 2

Although the meat section is currently my favorite to shop, as it's the most entertaining, I found a few other deals worth mentioning over the past few weeks.  I'll spare you all the details & finds, but here are some of my highlights.

After major holidays, so I'm learning, great produce deals can be found.  Post-Thanksgiving produce is abundant & ridiculously cheap.  

Celery--Originally $1.75, Purchased $.25

I bought three...and had trouble not buying more.  Celery is one of those things that I use quite a bit--soups, chicken & dumpling, etc.  However, I use a stalk or two and forget about the rest of the bunch.  So...I thought I'd see how well it freezes.

Green beans (2lb. bag)--Originally $3.99, Purchased $1.99

I HATE fresh green beans...as green beans.  But I LOVE "real" green beans in soups and such.  I can't get enough of them that way.  So, I bought one big bag, cut them & froze them.  

About the celery & green beans, this is going to make for some wonderful "lazy lady soup nights."  It's two less things to prep...much like the frozen onions that I keep for the same reason.  Ha cha cha.  Dinner just keeps getting easier.  Anyway, Eli & I had a lot of fun with these.  While Kate napped, he helped.  I cut & scooted.  He put into the salad spinner & spun (to remove excess water pre-freezing).  The whole time we worked, he talked...and talked...and talked...and talked some more.  And I loved every minute of it.  Bonding moments like these are my favorites.  I so enjoy his company & getting to spend one on one time with him.  He's a truly fabulous little man.

Sweet potatoes--Originally $.99 lb?, Purchased $.19 lb (2 ginormous taters)

This summer, we grew a little garden in the back yard.  I bought okra plants (to enhance lazy lady soup night).  However, after growing a bit, the okra plants turned into sweet potato plants...or they were in the wrong section at Lowe's & I didn't know any better.  Whatever tale tickles your fancy...  So, we grew sweet potatoes.  Sweet potatoes are terribly obnoxious plants to grow, but they're fairly delicious when fully grown & multiply nicely.  Long story short, my hubby developed a recipe for a mean sweet potato fry.  Oh my goodness, they're delicious.  Our two huge sweeties will make sweet potato fries for two meals.  Yay for cheap & easy sizes...that also happen to be quite vitamin rich!

Butterball turkey breast--Originally $10.99, Purchased $6.99

Easy crockpot meal, I think yes.  Enough said.

Butterball sub starters--Originally $5.99, Purchased $2.00 (after sale & coupons) 

We bought two.  We're doing the whole low carb thang.  These make for easy lunches.  Ta da!

Progresso recipe starters-creamy roasted garlic with chicken stock--Originally $2.49, Purchased $1.35

It was an 18 oz. can on the clearance rack.  There were no dings or dents.  It doesn't expire until 2014.  I bought four.  No, I've never tried it.  It sounds like an easy base to something tasty when I'm in a "need dinner super fast" pinch.  Therefore, I bought four.  In the words of Peggy Hill, "What the h?"

Hormel chili--Originally $1.39, Purchased $.09

We've been eating quite a few bunless chili cheese dogs on our diet.  This was on sale for $1.09, then there was a sale that took off .50 per item.  They also had a coupon dispenser above it with coupons for $1 off 2.  You bet your best boots, I stocked up on it.  Good grief, they were giving it away!

I've discovered that if you go through the store with a careful eye, you're bound to find great things for super cheap.  Sometimes I use coupons, sometimes I don't/can't, but great deals can be found either way.  I've had so much fun with my new shopping game & have saved some major dollars by just looking a little more carefully.  :)

Lingering thought of the day:  I'm thinking it's about time for Kate to hop on the potty train.  She's showing the signs.  Target had teeny, tiny panties for super cheap--Dora, princesses, Elmo, etc.  I bought 4 packs (3pr each).  Now I just need to pull out the teeny, tiny potty and make a chart.  Here we go! 

Let the grocery games begin!

So...it's been over a year now.  I'm not sure how to begin again, but I found some inspiration that takes my blog back to it's roots and it's name.  Here we go:

My groceries each month have been the death of me.  It's a constant battle.  I stick to my list and spend too much.  I avoid a list and spend too much.  I've revamped my shopping and cooking style about 500 ways in the past year.  Nothing has worked well for me.  I've been reading up on it and have found many solutions, thoughts, answers to this dilemma.  My response to most was eh, ew, or what?!?!

One of the "Ew!" items, however, was the one I've found to work best for me.  Somewhere on some blog, article, or whatever it may have been, suggested looking for clearanced out meat at the grocery store.  My knee jerk reaction was less than ideal.  Who wants old meat?  Seriously?  Not gonna happen.

 Then I found the clearance meat at my Kroger...I decided to eat my words.  It's a very small section of the meat department that I've passed unnoticed time & time again--until I went looking for it.  It's FAR less scary than I anticipated.  The meat in this section is still a few days away from it's sell-by date and beautiful.  It varies by week, even day.  It's typically the more expensive cuts of meat and the organic stuff for about 1/2 price.  Here are a few of the things I've found in the past week or two.  There are more, these are just what I can remember prices & all.

Top Round Steak--Originally $9, Purchased $5
I've been using these for a few different meals, but my favorite is, by far, the beef & broccoli recipe that I found on Pinterest.  This one is ideally marbled without any big fatty edges.  It looks delish!

Roast--Originally $23, Purchased $11
This ginormous piece of meat will spend a day in the crockpot, hanging out with some veggies.  That night, I'll probably make gravy & eat it as roast is intended to be eaten.  However, there will be leftovers for a few meals.  Our favorite leftovers from roast are:  barbecue beef, beef nachos/quesadillas, or shredded in soup.  

Eye of Round Steak (family pack of 8)--Originally $18, Purchased $9
I'll probably smother these in sauteed mushrooms.  Scott's will have onions too (ick!).  We'll have two meals, for us & the littles, with leftovers...probably to make Scott a fancy pants salad for his lunch.

Filet Mignon--Originally $20+, Purchased $8
There were two.  They were huge.  It was one totally delicious meal.

This discovery has turned grocery shopping into a glorious game for me.  Once I scope out the meaty deals, I decide what we'll eat for the week, what we'll freeze, and what'll go with it all.  Then I'm off on the hunt for the accompaniments and other bargains.  The past few weeks of shopping have been so much fun...yep, I'm a dork.  Anyway, it's turned drudgery into a game.  I'll take it.

After I realized these deals were to be found, it created a monster. It was a "if you give a mouse a cookie" kinda thing.  Then I thought I should look for similar deals in produce.  That made me think to look in dairy.  And if you find a deal in dairy, you're going to need to look at the canned goods.  You get my point?  Good, I'd hate to put you through more of that.  :)

Maybe I'll do a post soon about the other sections of the store?

Lingering thought of the day:  My hubby just keeps getting better with age.  I love that man with my whole heart.  I was gonna say some other niceties, but he distracted me...

Eli's first day of school

I know I'm really, really late on posting this, but I just found the pictures from Eli's first day of preschool.  This did occur in August, but I'd still like to have them up here! 
Eli was so excited to start school.  For weeks, before it actually started, he'd ask me if he got to go to school that day.  So, on the first day, he was ecstatic!  We packed his backpack with extra clothes and such, took the first day of school pictures, and left for school.

This is a total daddy face!  Isn't he cute? 

We headed downstairs to his classroom.  (It's only been a couple of months, and he's walking down the stairs like an old pro now.)  He gave me big hugs and kisses.  Then told me to leave...  I'm so proud of my big, independent boy!  We'd been talking for a long time about the first day (and how I'd leave him there to play then come back for him), and he was ready!

We like the Noah mural.  This picture cracks me up every time I see it!  He looks like a little Ark Cruiseline tour guide.  Love it!

He had a great first day!  Eli still loves school.  He loves learning, making things, and playing with the other kids.  It's so good for him! 

Lingering thought of the day: I am so very thankful that I get to stay home and take care of my babies all day.  I LOVE it.  I'm living my dream!

Eli's 3rd Birthday Party (Part 2)

Cake and presents!  Cake and presents!  Everybody loves cake and presents!

Anyway...now that I've gotten that nonsense out of my system, let's talk more party talk.  I made Eli's cake.  Eh, it's ok.  One of these days, I'm going to get around to taking a class.  For now, this will suffice.  So, I made the cake Friday and frosted it Friday night.  I thought I'd get a leg up and be extra ready and stress free pre-party Saturday.  It was finished.  Then we woke up Saturday morning.  There were about two minutes when I was out of the kitchen, and the birthday boy made his move.  There was a track.  There were cars.  There was sugary goodness.  I'm not sure why I expected him to be able to resist.  He didn't.

Yep, he took the cars and drove them all over his cake.  They'd torn through the track (literally).  As I walked into the kitchen, they were spinning out in the infield.  I'm not gonna lie.  I kinda flipped.  In hindsight, I should've just put a car upside down in the infield and another with it's front end stuck in the road.  Eli likes the crash scenes in Cars.  He probably would've loved it.  However, that idea didn't come until I'd fixed the frosting.  Thankfully, I had kept the leftover frosting & Oreo crumbles.  All of the pictures that follow are of the second go around of frosting.

The cake consisted of four 8" square cakes.  To try to give a little variety, I made four different types of cake.  They were:  white, strawberry, funfetti, and chocolate.  It shocked my socks off, but almost every child asked for white cake.  I did not anticipate that.

Eli has been singing "Happy Birthday" for weeks, months, years... That may be a slight exaggeration, but he sings it all the time.  He sang it all morning in anticipation for the party.  But when everybody sang it to him, he looked a little surprised by it all.  He picked out his candle himself.  He really wanted a number candle.

After cake and playing at the stations, the kids migrated outside to play.  I didn't want to drag them all back in for presents, and it was gorgeous outside.  SO...the presents moved outside. 

Eli's friends (and their parents!) were so sweet!  We really enjoyed having them all over to play.  Eli was so excited about them all coming over, and we had a lot of fun.  We had the party a little early for his daddy's schedule.  It was the weekend that worked best this month.  I can't believe our little man is going to be three already.  How did that happen?  He's a big boy now.  He is so very, very precious to me.  I love being blessed with him every single day. 

Lingering thought of the day:  I have a teensy little spider who lives in one corner of my shower.  Her name is Tess.  I'm going to go read for fun now. 

Thanks, Kim, for taking all of the awesome birthday pictures for me!  I appreciate it very much!