in the thicket

Lovely morning... and free "quickpage"

We had a lovely morning with our homeschool co-op at Pullen Park, despite the chill in the air! And since I now have a camera I took lots of pictures, I hope to post some later.

I wanted to quickly share that I posted a free "quickpage" on the creative team blog for Kristin Cronin-Barrow, made with her most recent gorgeous kit. I'm amazed at the number of people who have downloaded it already! (going on 400...) If you would like it, go here to download it... I have been timid about doing stuff like this for creative teams I'm on, but now I hope to do more, it's been fun to get such a great response!

Here's the original page... I tweaked the shadows (I always play endlessly with them for different looks), removed the title, journaling and picture...

And below is the Quickpage I made, just add your own picture, title and journaling in any photo program. :)

"In a pinch" pasta sauce

So, Monday night is spaghetti night at our house. Usually we "stockpile" the brand of spaghetti sauce that we like because we can get it cheapest at Target. However, we don't *love* it, it's just the best in a jar sauce we found that's a good price (less than $2). It does, unfortunately, contain corn syrup, which we do try to avoid. (In the sense that if I'm looking at two products, a lack of corn syrup is a deciding factor, not that corn syrup is never EVAH in our house.)

Anyway, I went to cook dinner tonight, prompted by a phone call from dh informing me that he had gotten caught up in Dick Cheney motorcade traffic despite my warning that they closed the exits on I-40 near his work. (his reasoning: it happened an hour prior, shouldn't the traffic be ok by then? HA!). However, when I went to my amazingly well-stocked pantry in which I can never find anything, I discovered that for real, I had no spaghetti sauce. Being the brilliant person that I am, it did occur to me that maybe, just maybe, I knew enough to concoct my own version given ingredients that I did have on hand.

Well, it turned out really well, dh & I were both pleasantly surprised! The baby demanded "more pease" and "that one!" on several occassions and of course the 4 yo wouldn't try it because she has been traumatized by past experiences eating jarred sauce because of her sensitive palate.

So, for my personal records because I really don't expect anyone to replicate this, nor will I likely do the same thing, here's what I did.

Mama L's (insert German-sounding name) Pasta Sauce (as dubbed by the witty dh)

Generous dribble of olive oil

Handful of chopped onions from freezer

2 spoon fulls of chopped garlic

1/2 sweet pepper, chopped

1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)

1 can diced tomato (15 oz)

Garlic salt

sugar

Italian seasonings

1/2 lb cooked ground beef (cook while sauce is getting started in different pan)

Heat up olive oil in med/high pan. Throw in onions and garlic, get them going a bit. Throw in sweet peppers, saute until they look like they are softening. Add cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir. Add some Italian seasoning and garlic salt to taste, and sugar (I did a few TBS b/c I like sweet tomato sauce but hey that is better than corn syrup!). Bring to a low boil then reduce heat and keep it simmering a bit. Add browned hamburger and simmer some more. Taste and add more seasonings as you desire.

That's it! And I now have confidence that I can modify this recipe easily based on what I have on hand, doing mushrooms instead of peppers, Italian sausage instead of hamburger etc. To me, the onions, lots of garlic and the sugar are key "flavors" in this recipe.

I hope no Italians or persons of Italian descent have been traumatized by reading this ignorant American's spin on pasta sauce. My sincerest apologies if so!

Help!!! Overrun with too many internet recipes!!!

Hi, I'm Elizabeth. I have a problem. I'm addicted to printing off recipes I find on the internet.

HELP!

I am overrun with recipes I either am going to cook in the near future, cooked once and liked, or want to try in the future. I do pat myself on the back because if we try a recipe and hate it, I throw it away so as not to repeat the mistake.

I'm trying to think how to handle this. My current thought is to grab one of the 3-ring binders I have laying around, and start punching holes in all these recipes, and stick them in one of three sections:

Cooking this week

Cooked it and liked it

Want to try it

I have no plans to type out all my recipes by hand, make them pretty, or engage in grand organizational schemes. I'm just trying to keep track of these recipes for now, so I know what the heck I'm supposed to cook if I see "crockpot chicken." If I'm cooking a recipe from a cookbook I usually do make a note to myself where to go find it... because honestly around 5 pm I cannot figure these things out! And I also try to include a couple of meals that are "no duh" and don't require me to follow a recipe, like our Monday spaghetti night or Chili which I've made so many times I can do it from memory. Or hotdogs and baked beans. *blush*

Thoughts? Do any of my readers have a better suggestion? :)

Menu Plan Monday

Yikes, we've got to eat! I've been feeling super-disorganized with menu planning recently, in part because I am coming to terms with both the inability to shop with my 2 yo and the need to streamline my menu planning to both get as many meals on the table as possible (to minimize eating out) and still save money...

Anyway, I'm trying to use up some freezer meats this week!

Here's our dinners for this week...

Monday: Spaghetti & garlic toast

Tuesday: Crockpot or roasted chicken (tbd), wild rice, green veggie and corn

Wednesday: Tacos- use precooked meat from Pampered Chef recipe, grapes

Thursday: Cube steak with onions and mushrooms over rice and TBD veggie

Friday: Homemade Pizza (will try to make crust in my breadmachine!)

Saturday: Grilled pork chops & zuchini

This is my first time participating in "I'm an Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday"! I'm a faithful reader there, not sure why it's taken me so long to jump in!

Menu Plan Monday April 28th

New camera!

Our camera broke a couple of weeks ago... it's been so hard being without it. But in light of the upcoming stimulus check, we decided to go ahead and take advantage of a rebate and get the same camera my brother & SIL have and love... after the rebate, this FujiFilm FinePix 8.3 pixels camera is only $104! Great deal!

I love scrapbooking, but it's been hard recently given my photo shortage... I've been digging deep into my photo files to find pics to scrap for my creative teams. Here's a page I just finished that I love, though! Gwen was about 1.5 yo here...

Credits

Fun with a plastic microscope

It's fun times around here, fun times I tell ya! I got to leave my cares behind and go cruising in a convertible Porsche Boxter last night (my dad's new car.) We now have a basketball goal in our family room, just what my husband always wanted. Also we are now equipped with a grocery cart, and will have fun with some new floor puzzles. And Gwendolyn finally has a replacement copy for her favorite book EV-AH, "Goodnight Moon." We literally wore out our old copy. Poor daddy ended up reading it seven times last night I believe. He hit a wall, had to cut her off after that!

So, anyway, we all enjoyed celebrating Gwen's birthday with our family last night. My best friend was able to join us, and it's the first time she's seen the house since my dad lived in it. It was fun to see her shocked reaction! (people that know me IRL are probably not very impressed by my house when they visit, but if you had seen it when it was occupied by my dad, you would be!)

Every time my brother comes over he has to challenge my poor hockey-loving husband to a tournament challenge on our cheapo hockey table. I think J has beat my brother a couple of times, usually my brother takes the victory for the night. The hockey table is up in our infrequently used "bonus" room, which means that every time Charlotte the cheerleader follows them up there she gets nosy and digs around and finds all sort of interesting things I was attempting to hide from her. Last night, she found an inexpensive plastic microscope that someone had given us. I thought she was too young so I was saving it, however, she was very excited to get it out and mess with it.

We were able to look at the "wing of a housefly" included last night. This morning I came down and found that a dragonfly had died on my kitchen floor! How convenient! So we stuck his wing in there and took a look. Then we decided to look at his leg, and it was neat to see the scales (which looked like fur) appear. I was pleasantly surprised that it actually worked, though it's a bit tricky. It's funny to me, though, because I was obsessed with microscopes when I was younger. I received one as a gift when I was 10 yo or so, but without assistance wasn't able to quite figure it out. I didn't really get adept at using a microscope until I took biology in college. Now I'm getting the urge to keep my eye out for an inexpensive microscope to keep around here... I can think of all sorts of fun things to look at!

The wonder of microfiber cloths

They are just so awesome. I really really love them! I recently read a tip from someone that you could actually clean your windows with two microfiber cloths... one wet, to wash, and then follow up with a dry one. I am completely unable to recall where I read that, though!

Anyway, I'm trying to do a bit of extra cleaning because we are having family and my friend over for a small celebration of Gwendolyn's birthday. So I thought, wow, I really should clean some of my dirty windows. Charlotte of course wanted to help so I decided to try the microfiber tip.

Yep, it really works! I think it looks better than when I use windex or vinegar. Also, I was able to easily remove crayon from the TV screen!

In my bookstack

I have always been an avid reader, but like most moms I find that it's challenging to prioritize reading in my day. Which is a shame, because it is really my absolute favorite thing to do. In some ways it's just a matter of priorities- there are probably times I need to turn the computer off and pick up a book instead. At times though I feel like I simply don't have the mental energy to focus on reading, because I have fallen out of habit. But my love of reading is still there, so it's an easy habit to get back into.

I love that Charlotte Mason so wisely encouraged mothers to make time in their day for "mother culture," to take a moment to read. I am a bit confused about the "origin" of the quote I'm going to share, since I found it in "A Charlotte Mason Companion" by Karen Andreola and on the Ambleside Online website as well, listed as a Parent Review article from 1892-1893...

"The habit of reading is so easily lost; not so much, perhaps, the power of enjoying books as the actual power of reading at all. It is incredible how, after not being able to use the eyes for a time, the habit of reading fast has to be painfully regained. The power to read fast is much to be desired, and the people who read every word are left sadly behind by the people who read from full stop to full stop at a glance. This power is what our children are gaining at school, and this power is what we are losing when we refuse to give a little time out of our lives to "Mother Culture." It is worth anything to get and to keep even that; and to do it, it is not a bit necessary to read "stiff" books.

The wisest woman I ever knew--the best wife, the best mother, the best mistress, the best friend--told me once, when I asked her how, with her weak health and many calls upon her time, she managed to read so much, "I always keep three books going--a stiff book, a moderately easy book, and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for!" That is the secret; always have something "going" to grow by. If we mothers were all "growing" there would be less going astray among our boys, less separation in mind from our girls."

So, I am doing my very best to rebuild the habit of reading. Right now I'm participating in a Beth Moore Bible study ("Breaking Free") so that gets me back in the study of Scripture (something I've also fallen out of the habit of!) I'm also trying to have three other "categories" of books going... a good fiction book, general interest non-fiction, and a parenting/homeschool type book.

The fiction book I'm enjoying right now is "Rose Cottage" by Mary Stewart. I won't say it's the most gripping book I've ever read, but it is slowly drawing me in! And this is a new author for me, so that's always exciting to me to find anew author that I enjoy. The non-fiction book I'm reading is (to me) such a fascinating book... "House Lust" by Daniel McGinn. I highly recommend it if like me you are obsessed with real estate. It really puts things in perspective. I know that we all enjoy a very very high standard of housing here in the United States, and honestly it almost makes me feel ashamed at how much time and energy we devote to making our homes bigger, better, more luxurious. So many resources are used up. At the same time, I can see how the argument can be made that this drives the development of new and better technology in home building, but I wonder how likely it is that it would trickle down to benefit people at large. I know that for me it is a continual struggle worrying and thinking about what our housing situation will be, whether if we buy this house from my dad should we live with it as-is or try to "improve" it. It's good to know I'm not alone in this. However, as a Christian who is very mindful that I'm merely a steward of what resources God has blessed us with, I'm increasingly questioning what home improvements to this house would be an actual need versus a want, and whether it's OK to indulge wants if it's a financially challenging situation. Making a house functional is one thing, but our house is functional so we'd be making it more attractive. I don't know, still mulling over this issue!

The last book I'm reading is also by a new-to-me author, Bonnie Harris. I have just started on this book, so I can't give it a review yet, so don't take this as an edorsement quite yet. "When your kids push your buttons: And what you can do about it." Yep, my kids push my buttons. I hope I can take away something helpful from this one! I think I need to simply just be aware that yes, my kids will "push my buttons" and get more perceptive about identifying when it happens and step away from the situation.

Overspent

Our financial "month" runs from the 20th to the 19th of the following month because of the way that J's pay periods are structured. J has become very good at updating our financials because we've been trying to not spend more on a monthly basis than we earn... well, of course that is common sense! However, we have an extra $800-900 in expenditures every month because of our home we are still trying to sell in Michigan. Thank goodness we have the most wonderful and understanding landlord in the world (my dad) or else we'd be facing an extra $1350 out each month (that's how much we send to Michigan to cover mortgage, utilities and fees), but he graciously allows us to pay less rent to him during this period.

We have been doing our very best to be frugal and stick within our budget... however, last month we "overspent" by $100 despite the fact that we did pick up a couple of hundred from our tax returns. I think a couple of things account for this. Miscellaneous unexpected car expenses, related to a vehicle dying and obtaining a new one. We also bought some small items for our youngests' second birthday. And I bought some new clothes (which I anticipate earning the money for once I do some work for my dad's fiancee, but it hasn't happened yet.) And the biggie, eating out too much.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really embarrassed by our struggle with eating out too much and what it can do to our budget. I'm puzzling over why this is such a challenge for me personally, and for our family. I did not grow up eating out frequently. I don't really recall eating out anywhere other than the hot dog stand down the street from where we lived when I was really little... a hot dog stand where my parents used to work... my mother worked there some when she was pregnant with me, actually! Anyway, other than that and the occassional hamburger from Hardee's, I rarely enjoyed the pleasure of eating out until I was closer to 10 years old. At that point, we would visit Denny's for breakfast on Saturday a few times a month, and once in a blue moon we enjoyed the wonders of the all-you-can-eat buffet at Pizza Inn. (And boy did we eat all we could!)

But expecting to eat out 1-2 times a week? Nah. No way. Kids were fed at home. So I do find myself somewhat shocked and dismayed by how much my girls have been able to eat out.  When they were younger, it wasn't much more expensive sometimes, but now we almost always purchase at least one kid's meal. Which is usually a nutritional wasteland of course and likely dulls their taste buds to the goodness of fresh foods and creates in them an expectation that food comes with a toy. Though I am pleased that I have possibly the only 4 yo in existence who refuses to eat McDonald's food. The only thing she likes there is the ice cream, and she might eat a fry or two. However, she begs to go there when they have good toys.

I'm digressing. Anyway, why is it so hard for us to avoid eating out, especially given I am at home full-time? Eating out is actually not relaxing for me at all, given I have a two year old. Eating at home is! My dh views eating out as a break for me, but really if our kids are there, it's not a break. It's extremely stressful.

I'm very close to saying "No more eating out on my dime until the youngest is over 3 years old!" There may be exceptions to the rule, such as visiting family or ummm visiting family or being on vacation. But I do really think that our family would be so much better off if we stayed home.

But really, when it gets down to it, it's up to me. I'm the cook, meal planner, shopper. I need to step up my game. Even if our grocery budget goes up a bit, I think it will still be cheaper, by far, than wasting gas, money and energy to enjoy an ultimately unsatisfying meal prepared by someone else.

Not really how I wanted to spend half an hour...

We had a pretty busy and mostly fun day today. Gwen had her 2 year well-visit this morning, which was an encouraging visit. She's now "on the charts", the growth chart that is, weighing in at about 22.5 lbs! She's also getting taller, up to 32 3/4 inches tall now. Wow! She's really had quite a growth spurt recently.

After that appointment, I took the girls to a local mall that is near dh's work to let them play. The girls both like their indoor play area, so we did that for about 20 minutes, then went for a walk in the attached outdoor shopping area. They have beautiful (and sometimes startlingly realistic) statues of kids playing in water features, and the girls both enjoy looking at that.

J joined us for lunch, and the girls played some more. Then we headed home for nap/quiet time. After that, I needed to go to the grocery store. At this point in time, I don't enjoy grocery shopping with the girls but it was a necessary evil today. Of course, we got caught in a rain shower on the way in.

Anyway... for a few days we kept finding toys that didn't quite smell right, little people or animal toys. I couldn't figure out what was going on. About an hour ago I was trying to help G find horses in the big plastic bin we got from IKEA... we keep all little people etc in there. Well, I suddenly realized one of the cats had peed in there!!! Oh, I was so angry. I think they peed when it was mostly empty, and then we didn't realize it and put the toys back in there.

I just got finished thoroughly washing and sniffing each individual toy. Ughhh!!! Nasty job and so annoying. I told Charlotte to let me know if she sniffs anything else... she was the one who noticed the cat pee originally, but I thought the toy was peed on elsewhere.

Oh, those darn cats!!! This is the worst they've done lately. At least it was plastic toys and not our couch. But still, it was toys my kids play with! Arghhh.