Easy Friday

Diapers are in the washer. I'm stripping today. I try to once a month or so. Gabe is off school today, so I'm letting him watch his shows. I normally let him watch a couple a day, but I was wiped out today. I made a huge playlist of  his shows and movies. I took me until noon to get it to work though...

I'm making garlic bread in the bread maker for dinner along with spaghetti. Using up our pasta stash some. Oh we went out for dinner last night. We were following the rules though. My grandfather came for a visit, and took us out.

I think tomorrow we're going to go see a movie at the cheap theater. We'll probably get popcorn and pop, but if we avoid the food court we'll be doing well. Although we are spending Christmas money, so still not breaking the rules.

It's yogurt!

So we haven't eaten any of it, but it looks and smells like yogurt. I don't really like plain yogurt so hubby will have to test it. He's at Gabe's school today doing his watch D.O.G.S. day. That's a dads group that each dad takes a day, and does lunch duty, and pretty much whatever needs to be done. Gabe gets out of school at 3:30 so they should be home by 3:45. Then we're going to head to the library. Gabe got the first Magic Tree House book for Christmas and they read it in two nights!

I need to make bread today, so maybe afterward I'll throw the dough in for pizza. Gabe loves to make pizza and our friend left us a big pizza pan when she moved. I've been thinking about it. We have lots of pasta at the moment, but we also have a pasta machine. Gabe would love making pasta! We haven't done it in years. Perhaps it's time to start again.

Yogurt

I'm attempting to make yogurt today...wish me luck! My son just asked me if I could make yogurt from breast milk. Hm...I'll have to look that up.

We're using DH's parent's old Salton yogurt maker. It's actually pretty easy I think. We'll see if I did it right. The directions I found used a thermometer with actual degrees and this one just has lines that say add starter.

Saturday mornings start at seven I guess

Both kids were up at seven as usual. Oh well we didn't need sleep right?

I did two weeks worth of shopping yesterday as it was pay day, and my usual shopping day. The house is full of produce once again. Avocados and mangoes were on sale this week so we have those along with bananas and the usual suspects. I ended up spending 135 at Meijer for groceries and a few personal/household items. I went to Target in the morning too, and found the steal of the year. They had boy's coats on clearance. I got Gabe's coat for next winter for 5 dollars! Cyan's I think was 13, but the tag when I got it home said 18...I pretty sure I looked at the tag on a different size and grabbed this one. Either way she is set, and I didn't pay full price. I also bought some of those Gerber yogurt melts. We usually make all her food, but they looked interesting. She really likes them, and they kept her happy while I was grocery shopping. I just wish I could figure out how to make them. Freeze dried yogurt is not a do at home process I guess.

I do plan to make yogurt this two weeks. We have hubby's parent's old yogurt maker. I bought yogurt too, but it's fruit on the bottom which has lots of sugar, and I want some for Cy.

Confession...Gabe and I ate and had coffee at Starbucks yesterday in Target. It's sort of a ritual on payday Friday for us. I thought about saying no we couldn't do it, but it's something that Gabe really enjoys. It used to just be him and I, and we would sit and talk while he had a cookie and milk for breakfast. I couldn't take that from him even if his sister is thrown in now. He only has until September anyway, and then he'll be in school full time on Fridays too. I'm actually not sure how I'll get stuff done then. The bus comes at the same time as hubby needs to be at work. I suppose I'll figure it out. I always do. :)

I'm not sure what we're having for dinner tonight. Hamburgers maybe. I splurged a little and bought Nature Well beef. I got a bunch of stuff for cheap or free working the coupon angle. It makes it a easier to splurge a little.

Gah!

I messed up the bread! I somehow forgot to add most of the flour. What a waste! My brain is elsewhere today I guess.

I feel so accomplished!

Bread for tomorrow is in the machine. I have dinner kind of planned. (We're having chicken, but I haven't exactly figured out what I want to do with it yet.) The kids and I are eating lunch. I got the fish tank running again yesterday! I am cruising!

I am so glad our friends had bread machines. We had a small one that made mini loaves for two people. It was nice when there were two of us. I'm making bread for Gabe's too now, and I need a bigger loaf. I was doing bread by hand, but it's time consuming with a baby that doesn't want to be put down...ever. Our friends called and said they had an extra and asked if we wanted it. Yes! It's missing a couple of feet, but I figured out I can put a plate under one side and two hot pads under the other. Then it stops shaking during the mix cycle. Hubby says he can make new feet for it. Until we get to that project it's set!

We seem to be a reuse kind of family. Most of our computers are second hand rebuilt. We have several...one upstairs we bought seven years ago with student loan money. It's had many pieces replaced over time, and is mostly used for streaming tv at this point. Downstairs we have my laptop which is an old hand me down from DH's work. If was his work laptop three laptops ago, and they told him he could just keep it at this point. We also have a computer with Linux hooked to our tv. We got rid of satellite in August. The box itself is another take it or it's trash from hubby's work. (He works at and ISP...lots of computers floating around.) We also have a server in the basement. We just upgraded that with a 1Tb hard drive with Christmas money. It holds all (well at some point) of our DVD collection, pictures and music. This was also built with second hand stuff. With the exception of the new big hard drive, and maybe a couple other pieces we have bought over the years. Hubby also has his work laptop. Really it's the newest computer to enter the house in a while. It's at least two years old I would say now.

Our other second hand stuff...our couch we got for free last year. I don't like it the pattern, but at some point it'll get a slip cover. We have two chairs that are second hand. One was my grandmother's then my Dad took, then me. It's old and yellow, and on it's last leg. Perfect kid furniture. In it's prime it was an incredibly comfortable chair. Now it no longer reclines. At some point I'll get a new used one for hubby I think. I could make a huge list of the furniture around our house that works fine, but someone didn't want anymore, and now belongs to us. Tables, chairs, tvs, hell even the fish tank I mentioned before I bought off ebay! It's ninety gallons, and came full of cichlids for 500 dollars! The fish were done in when the cat knocked the fish food into the tank and poisoned them. It sucked!

When our friend moved on Friday she gave me her pots and pans and two storage containers full of flour and sugar. Now I have a set from Ikea, but needed a couple more for bread flour and wheat flour so now I have them! It sucks that she couldn't take them, but I will put them to good use. 

A few more days and still going strong

We haven't eaten out yet. We had to do some shopping yesterday, but we somehow ended up only spending 55 dollars for a week. Probably because we already had two meals here in the house.

I frogged a knit hat that me Aunt found at a yard sale for the baby. It was way too big, and not in a style I liked. The yarn is still usable though, so it's going to be a new hat soon. I have tons of projects waiting for me. Including Christmas gifts I need to finish/start.

Baby girl is taking a nap in her favorite place...my arms. Not that I mind. I wish she slept upstairs, but at the same time it's a good excuse to stay here and blog. ;)

Easy dinner tonight

So tonight I'm just making pasta with spaghetti sauce, but I decided to make some garlic bread in the bread maker to go with it. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com The loaf is a little on the small side, but it's just a dinner loaf anyway.

I talked to our friends today and my heart just bleeds for them. They are going through do much right now. The boys are so upset, and she has barely enough money for this move. Not to mention some low life is profiting by buying her washer and dryer from her for super cheap, and will probably resell them. I told her to bring them over here, and then we can sell them for her on craig's list. Then I'll send her the money. She needs that money!

I didn't get to go running last night. I didn't feel well. Tonight maybe...

More Soup!

Well ok it's stew. On Sunday I found out that our friends are pretty much out of money. They are moving at the end of the week, and things just aren't going right. I made another batch of potato and ham soup. One batch fed three adults and three kids! Granted Gabe and his bud only ate half a bowl, but the eleven year old ate two a half bowls. Seems like a winner to me.

Last night we had mac n cheese. The good kind with onion and Garlic. Tonight is beef stew. Once I finish up the potatoes, carrots, and celery from Christmas I think I'll scale back my soup making. They are just cheap and we had the stuff. I made a huge double batch of this stew...lunches? Lots of lunches.

I'm actually pretty impressed that we haven't caved.

Tonight I'm going to try very hard to figure out a schedule so I can start running again. I'm supposed to training for a road race in May. Getting my Velcro baby to stick to daddy instead of me has been a trick though.

Relaxing

So we called our friends today. They are moving in a week, and we wanted the to boys to come over and play together. We ran to Gamestop and picked up a used game for the kids to play. We got Crazy Taxi. We figured they should be able to play it, and if it doesn't pass our inspection it's used and can go back. Gotta love that about Gamestop. We both used to work there once upon a time, and as long as you understand their policies it's a good place to shop. I used to love being the only female at the store. All the parents came to me with their lists, and I could let them know which ones to cross out when their kids were trying to get them to buy something way too adult.

Anyways, the boys are coming over. We went to Meijer after Gamestop and I picked up some ready made cookie dough. It's just faster today. Plus, three boys and three adults means lots of cookies. I'm going to make some hot chocolate too. That I'll make from scratch. Milk, sugar, cocoa, and little salt I believe. It's on the cocoa container. I also have some marshmallows I can throw on top. The soup I made last night turned out well. I think we'll probably eat leftovers tonight. We have frozen egg rolls from Schwann's so I may heat up some of those tonight too. So far we're doing pretty well on not wanting to eat out. Days like to today make it a tad tougher since we're home, and want to go out and do stuff. I think staying home until we getting used to not eating out is probably our best bet.

Ham and potato soup

My wonderful hard working husband is stuck at work babysitting. He works at an internet service provider that also has a data center. When people need in an engineer has to let them in and stay with them. Today a company is doing major work including running cables. They need 12 hours worth of work done to be exact, so that's where hubby is.

The kids and I are home of course. I was not getting the kids up at four to get the car. I have dinner partially in the crock pot though. The potatoes, ham, and friends are in there cooking away for now, and the white sauce will be added before eating. It's missing onion though. Ours was growing a little green. I was hoping to keep out of the grocery store for a little longer, but I have tons of stuff that needs onion on our food list.

Last night we had hamburger helper with venison instead of beef. It was ok. This is the first venison we've had in a year or so though, and we were getting spoiled on the elk that my dad gave us this summer from his freezer. I'll put more venison in chili at some point in this couple of weeks. It's better in chili or sloppy joes any way.

We got our gas bill today. Holy cow! It's been a cold over cast month here, and the bill was almost 200 dollars! I ran over turned the heat down and put socks on myself and the baby. It's sunny today anyway and we're getting some heat though the windows. It's been awhile though. We need to make a better effort to turn the heat down at night for the next couple of months. Heating bills seem to decrease for us around March. I would love to ask our landlord for new windows and maybe a door, but he's not working all the much right now. Not much construction in Michigan at the moment. Plus, the other side our our duplex has been vacant since July. Our big metal front door lets out massive amounts of heat though. Sucks! We're talking about new curtains for drafty windows. Thank goodness for the sewing machine we bought last year.

Hubby made one half diapers yesterday. We have a dozen Econobums, a few others, and now four daddy diapers. He'll probably finish the other tomorrow I'm guessing. I like his pocket diapers over the store ones. We're considering selling a few once we have a dozen for ourselves for our vacation fund. I really need to take pictures of them. They are so cute, and nice. Better than I could do that's for sure.

Day one

Ok so it's only ten a.m., but we bought groceries yesterday. I bought a bunch of stuff to make big batch stuff like soup and chili. We need lunches for hubby out of our dinners. Dh has almost always taken leftovers, but having more than one portion leftover is always nice.

We had our last eat out meal at Mc Donald's yesterday. Not really what we would have chosen, but we were out. It was there, and we starving! We took that time though to explain to our son what the plan is. He had just watched something on New York , and said he wanted to see the statue of liberty. It couldn't have been better timing. We explained that for two meals we skip eating out we're paying for a ferry ticket, train ride, tank of gas...I think he got it.