Always Room for a First- even for Mommy!

Yesterday was my first experience with chicken drumsticks. Not my first experience eating them, but my first experience buying & cooking them. I saw this yummy looking recipe on a blog i read & the boys love drumsticks when Mema cooks them, so i wanted to try it out, mostly wanted to anyway. Most of you know i am weird about touching raw meat & especially that with bones in! YUCK! Anyway, i passed these .99c/lb drumsticks last week & passed them over because even though i wanted to, i just didn't think i could do it! So yesterday when i was shopping again, i saw them still on sale for the last day & decided to bite the bullet! After all, i was going to be getting 2 meals out of a $4.20 purchase so my squeamishness was overruled by my frugality! When i got home, i called a friend (thanks again, Randi) who helped me through pulling the skin off of the legs. (I am about to gag even now as i type this!) Honestly, the gloves helped a LOT & i did dry heave once, but i made it through pulling that TOUGH (as a bird) skin off! So that was really the only hard part, then it was onto breading which was a breeze. But the problem again came back when it was time to eat it (which i thought might happen), i could only eat one, & i didn't finish it. It was good, but when i cook meat like that, i have a really hard time eating it after i have done all that mess with it! But i will most likely do it again, at least once to use up the other half of the package i froze, & maybe i will graduate to making a whole chicken or something??? Maybe, or maybe not! But for the record, i am so proud of myself (& i know my mama is too!) So the proof is in the pudding..... and here's the pudding.....

And when Randy got home from work, dinner was ready & waiting & as i was beaming with pride waiting for a reaction to this new dinner, he says, "Oh, we are having Shake & Bake?" To say the least, i was ever so slightly deflated... But he recanted with "What? I like shake & bake" But he also likes Hamburger Helper so this isn't saying much! I clarified for him exactly all i had done to make these beautiful legs (of 3 and a half chickens!- let it go Rach, let it go!)

10 Reasons Why We are Frugal

I have been asked recently WHY i am frugal & WHY i am all of the sudden being more thrifty. I thought about this & decided i would post about it. These are the reasons:
1- Randy's job situation in the fall made it important for us to watch our spending & so the couponing began more out of necessity back then.
2- it has become a hobby & a challenge to see how little out of pocket i can spend & get the most for it.
3- i want to be a good steward of what the Lord is blessing us with & not knowing where the money is going is not being a very wise spender.
4- I like math- & so i like a budget. I like knowing how much money i have to go towards certain things & at the end of the day sticking to it. I like the "control" of a budget, not meaning that it is controlling me, but that by using it, I am controlling where the money is going (rather than wondering at the end of the month where it all went!)
5-My goal is to live debt free. When i say debt free- i mean initially, debt free except a mortgage & hopefully at some point debt free including NO mortgage. I am beginning the dave ramsey snowball debt plan, and am very hopeful. I am proud to say that right now we are consumer debt free (credit cards, etc) & only have to work on our Jeep & student loan.
6-I realize now that our society is set up for us to dig ourselves deeper & deeper into debt, & i refuse to go down that road again. It is stressful, it is wasteful, & the bottom line for me is that takes NO DISCIPLINE. The problem is that we have to learn to say, "no" to things we can't have at that moment. Not saying we can't have it, but that if we can't pay for it, then we can't pay for it, & we shouldn't pay extra for it by putting it on a credit card & paying interest on it. Save for it!
7-I want to help others. I have never been in a financial place in my life (granted i am only 28) to financially help others. There are always announcements at church, or through friends, i hear about people who need. I want to be in a place to say, "you need something? Here you go..." The Lord has blessed me & so i want to give God the glory & bless others. And this doesn't even have to be financially, i can give away all the freebies or almost freebies that i get on a weekly basis.
8- I want to teach my children the value of a dollar. I want them to see us living within our means (or less than our means) & begin to understand that by delaying gratification, we will be in a better place later. I don't want them to start out their lives with credit card debt from all the companies that target college/young students, & i want them to understand that if we want something, we pay for it, right then, not on credit. If we start early, hopefully this will just be second nature to them. I want to hopefully have them learn to save for things too- a lot of times when you have to save for something one of two things happens, you take better care of something once you get it, or you decide you really didn't need it after all.
9-Debt Free means to me: Money Stress Free- meaning- if Randy loses his job or we have a major medical emergency, we won't have to worry as much about the financial side of things. So many arguments (not just in my own marriage but in most everyone's marriage) are about finances & I am excited to see where my marriage will grow from this.
10- i don't want to say that by living frugal & getting out of debt that i won't have to depend on my Lord or trust that He will provide for me, but what i am saying is that the Lord is giving me the strength & open mind to live like i feel He would want me to live & i give Him all the glory now & will do so probably MORE so when i have no one to owe! Won't that be nice???

My New $40 Menu Planning....

So some of you are interested in my menu planning so i will let you know that this week is the first week of my attempt at a $40 menu. So far, this has been pretty tough- but i think this is mainly because i see things on sale & i have a coupon which makes it pretty cheap & then i feel i have to get it- which in turn- bumps my budget up! So i actually paid around $70- but i got way more than just what i needed for my weekly menu. I got some things for NEXT week too! SO maybe next week will be less than a $40 week. (But i am doubting it will be a $10 week, but who knows!). I decided this week to make my grocery shopping trip while i was already out so i planned the night before, putting my coupon binder, list, reusable bags, & cooler bag into the car so that i would have it all handy once i dropped Jackson off at preschool. Then i had promptly an hour to hit Lowe's Foods before i had to go back to the school for the Mother's Day Tea. I got two deals that i was so excited about: One was the salad- i had planned on getting a bagged salad to go with a couple of meals i had planned this week but was dreading the price (even with my coupon) but when i got over there they were marking down ones that needed to be sold quickly (their sell by date was the next day) to .99c! So i had a coupon for $1.00 of two, so i got two & decided that for .50c a bag, i would rework my menu to have the salad last night & tonight so they wouldn't go bad. (I know Randi F. is smiling right now) The other steal was my milk. It was the same thing- i had a gallon in hand & realized that there were some that were marked $2.00, so i checked the date & it was because it was a sell by date of 5.11.08, but when i compared it to the date of the milk in hand- it was 5.12.08! So i got the marked down milk because i KNEW my boys would have that milk long gone by may 11th! I am hoping that maybe tuesdays are the mark down days at Lowe's Foods & that i will be able to get deals like this weekly, but i am not sure. I did end up going over to Wally World to finish up with things i knew were way overpriced at Lowe's, (tomato sauce, mushrooms, can chicken, etc), but i am really beginning to hate Walmart more & more. I told Randy when i got home that it is almost worth it to me to pay more for the groceries to be able to have great customer service & be able to find everything. Everytime i go into Walmart, everything is moved around, everyone is grumpy, things ring up wrong, & it takes FOREVER to check out (& they act like the reusable bags are a problem- don't sell them then!) By the time i leave, I AM IN A BAD MOOD! I ended up getting extra's of what i needed there just so i wouldn't have to go back next week! (thus adding to the extra money spent this week as well!) I did take a picture of my Lowe's foods groceries for an idea of what $38 in groceries (what i spent there) looks like for me, so i will post that as soon as i get to it..... plus i have a post i want to write about my first experience with chicken drumsticks (thanks for the help, Randi!)....

Praise the Lord! His Ears are CLEAR!!

Oh, how i am so excited & thankful today! I took Eli back to the doctor for an ear recheck & much to my surprise, they were clear! The Lord was looking after him for sure because we had a TOUGH go of it with that antibiotic & i would venture to say that we got less than a quarter of the overall 10 days worth of doses in him. He hated the taste & would gag, spit it back out, or just clamp down so hard that we couldn't get it in him. I even tried hiding it in ice cream, cool whip, & pepsi & STILL he spotted it & wouldn't get it in. I finally gave up trying & figured when we went back in today they would just have to give him a shot if they were still infected, but PRAISE be to GOD they are CLEAR! I can't tell you how much of a relief this is & i pray that they continue to stay healthy with the summer months coming up so we won't have to get tubes.

Happy Birthday to You!

Tomorrow on Cinco de Mayo, Aunt Becca will the the official 3-0! Happy Birthday to you! We hope thirty is your best year yet! And enjoy the rest of that beautiful cake Sherri made for you- it was YUMMY!

Always full of surprises....

So, here is yet ANOTHER post of how i found Jackson asleep in his room. I walked in Friday afternoon to check on him & his leg is all i saw...Once i got closer, he looked really uncomfortable. But he must have been cozy because we had to wake him up in order to make it to Grandma & Papa Evan's house for dinner.

With Jackson, you just never know what you will find! Sweet Dreams!!

Let's Go Fly a Kite....

Aunt Rebecca is so lucky because she is close enough to walk to the town park! We love to go here & let the kids ride bikes, play a while, & sometimes have a picnic. Yesterday, we decided spur of the moment to have a picnic lunch at the park & let the kids fly kites since it was such a nice day... And they had a blast. Jackson was unsure at first about flying one, only wanting to chase it, but then i figured out why; He hates holding balloons outside because he has lost so many by accidentally letting go. Once i convinced him that if he let go of the kite, it would just fall down, he was all game! Eli didn't fly one of course, but he was as tickled as he could be to chase all the "tails" of the kites & run with the kids as if he were flying one. After we finished with the kites, we let the kids ride bikes, etc around the loop while we walked & poor Eli was so tired, that he just pulled his lawnmower behind him rather than actually making the effort to push it. When we got home, he ended up sleeping for 3 hours!

Buzz Lightyear really IS flying!

Eli got so tickled by all this kite flying!

Jackson's kite catching some wind...

too tired to push the mower, he had to drag it....

Pit stop for a potty break...we made our own little traffic jam...

One word for you: C-U-T-E!

Here is another adorable picture of my child courtesy of Grandad. He is always snapping shots of the boys & yesterday he just got this great one of Eli... Is he irresistible or WHAT?? I could just EAT him up!

Something to Pray About...

Well, to those of you who already know the job situation with Randy, then you will want to know that next week he starts a new "part time" job in addition to his full time job! This is a "trial" period to see if he likes the job, they like his work, etc before being offered a full time position. So pray that the Lord steers us in the direction that He wants us to go. We are pretty sick of the gas mileage that is associated with a 70 mile round trip drive to work for him each day (that is $20 a day in gas for his *paid for* truck people!). Not to mention the instability of the current job (he went back to this same job 6 months after being laid off because the company was lacking work), or the ever so worsening insurance premiums ($390/mo plus a $2000 deductible HSA that his employer is not contributing to). Don't get me wrong- this company he is working for has been incredibly wonderful & provided for our family for 7 years now, & they are like extended family, but we have to look at what is best for our family NOW, & we feel like the current job isn't it. We just hope that the Lord will place an opportunity in front of us for change, even if it isn't the "part time"position. This position will only be 2 days a week (of course, two of my busiest evenings of the week- so pray for my stress level & patience too!) but it is half the distance as the full time position so hopefully even if he takes this on full time, the difference in gas mileage would be like a pay raise!
So i just thought i would update you all on where the job situation is going currently & please say a huge prayer for us as we possibly embarq on a new journey!

Mommy Guilt

I am sure i have many more years of mommy guilt coming my way- but right now i feel pretty guilty since i took the pacifier away from a SICK child. And the reason Eli FINALLY got it back was because he screamed half the night or so we thought it was about the paci- but it was because he had an ear infection! And on top of that, he also has croup to boot! Poor guy! I guess we never got rid of the ear infection fully from 2 weeks ago or else he has just developed another one! (sigh) This illness thing is quite frustrating & this time the dr. said that if he continues to keep them then we would have to think about tubes. But for now we are sitting tight since this is technically only his 3rd one- but boy have they been doozies! So 10 more days of antibiotics (plus 3 days of steroids for the croup) more sighing....