Wordless Wednesday

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Sheila

Or how we have spent most Tuesday evenings this summer so far..

Kendall getting some last minute encouragement!

June in Review

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Sheila

Financial goals: In June the focus was to reduce the overall debt we owed. I was able to pay $750 overall this money. I did realize that when planning my budget in July that I would be $240 short for the month. I have already paid ahead $100 of this, my plan is to use the remaining gas money from June to cover the rest. One of the reason, June was an awesome month for us was the fact I picked up several extra days work at the Nursing home.

Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Made an extra payment on this. (see above)
Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– No new debt incurred!
Emergency fund to $2000– Did not add to it this month.
Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well!
Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month Ouch, Ouch and ouch. I currently set at $860 for the month. This does include Kendall’s birthday cake, stock up from Bath and Body Works as well as an order from Zaycon foods that will be picked up in July. I did find and check national averages this month. My understand is that groceries in this average are considered only food. Everything purchased at a Grocery store, drug store or Costco I count in this. The national average for a family of 6 with children the same ages as mine, considered “thrifty” was $748! So I should not feel as bad, at least that is what I am telling myself. I hope to get the average down by the end of the year but I don’t know that it will happen prior to school starting again. In July we will be purchasing meat so that usually throws the entire budget out.
Gas- I am adding this category. The goal each month is to spend $450 or less for gas. We spent $340 this month. I am going to use the remaining money to cover regular expenses in July. Hopefully in the future I will be able to place in our auto fund as Matt is picking up more work to cover the short fall in our regular budget.

Blogging: Goal: 15 per month This is post number 14 for the month. I am excited because I feel like I have gotten into a good grove with post and am able to post more frequently. Our schedule for the past 3 weeks has been insane so I also think that as things slow down, I can post more.

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. To be honest, I have not even address this goal this month. I have not gained the 10# I lost but there has been no progress.

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Sheila

: Gutter damage

Last Thursday, we had a storm with strong straight line winds. We actually were attending a swim meet and came home to find this. Thank goodness the damage is minor!

Graduation Sunday

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Sheila

Yes of course Zach is hiding in the coner!

Today was a very special day for us as we celebrated Haley’s upcoming graduation at church. One of the major requirements for graduation in NC is the completion of a “graduation project” which includes a research paper, product and presentation to a panel of 6 to 8 community members. Haley chose as her product to sew dresses for Lily and Kendall. In honor of her hard work both the girls wore her dresses to church today. I received several compliment on how well they turned out!

Awards Day for Class of 2013

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Sheila

On Friday May 24th, myself, both my parents, Amanda and my sister-in-law attend Haley’s Awards Day. This is very different from most of these days as it was for the class of 2013 only. The seniors who will graduate in 3 weeks walked in wearing caps and gowns. I took my camera and extra batteries, however most of the pictures ended up very blurry . Let me just restate how upset I am that my camera failed!

Haley actually received recognition for several items, she was awarded an FFA scholarship, a white cord (Science Academy) and was recognized for maintaining a B average for her “track” during her high school career. In my opinion this was actually more important than Graduation as they announced all the scholarship received by this class, over 1 million worth, and where each student was planning to attend college. I am so very proud of Haley but so disappointed in my lack of pictures!

Random Thoughts Thursday- 5/16/2013

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Sheila

Both little girls had eye appointments last week and we received some good news, Kendall’s eye are stable, corrected to 20/20 with glass so she will not need to be seen again for six months! Lily’s weak eye has improved as well and she will no longer be patching! She continues to need to be seen every 3 months but she is so excited to stop patching after 3 year!
All of Zach’s dental bill have been processed by the insurance company and after requesting refunds, which I will turn around and pay on the remain bill, we only owe an additional $93. This is a huge relief and praise as the original bill I received last week was $696
Budgeting this month has gone really astray. I am struggling to get a grip on the coming in but more importantly on the amounts we are spending. I know that a significant amount is school/end of the year related but man I wish it would slow down.
Haley is fast approaching Graduation from high school. She presented her final English project today and has a presentation next week that is very stressful for her. But she is counting the days till she walks across the stage. She also is searching for a job for the summer.
Matt has been working on the car, Haley purchased from Amanda, hopefully it will be completed and ready to drive by the end of May.
I have a student who is shadowing me this week and starting next week will be “taking over my caseload” to complete her education. I did not realize until this week how difficult and stressful my job can be! But I still love it!
The only success I had with starting my garden from seeds this year was the cucumbers. I hope to replant the other items this week.

Day of Cooking 4/13/2013

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Sheila

One of the things that I have not done in over a year is spend a day preparing food that then is easy to heat up and serve as meals. I have done this several times a year in the past. With our focus this month on reducing all expenses, I decided to spend my day in the kitchen. I purchased a total of 12# of ground beef from Costco on Thursday and Matt had picked up an order of Chicken from Zaycon Foods on Tuesday so I knew we probably had everything I need to cook most of these items. I spent a total of 8 hours in the kitchen today including clean up time and I took several breaks. I was able to assemble 15 different meals. I have a list of these meals along with all the different other meats we have on the fridge. We will mostly like have one or two a week and then wait a week before having the same item again. I find it much easier to prepare a larger quantity at once. I first heard of freezer cooking several years ago, most of the recipes I use are from 30 day Gourmet, I have not purchased any of their books but printed out a ton of recipes from their site. Here is a list of what we have, most have recipes with them.

1 pack of cooked ground beef this will be great for chili or another dish
2 meals of Chicken Fried Rice this is Haley favorite meal of all time.
2 Cheeseburger Pies
4 Packs of Salisbury Patties
4 packs of Taco Rice – one of these is actually to take with us to the Beach in August. It was a favorite last year.
2 meatloaf This is a recipe from my mother, I will place at the end if you are interested. I have taken one of Matt’s sisters idea (cheese) and add to make it even better!
1 Baked Ziti For our lunch tomorrow

We had one of the meatloaf for dinner tonight along with Pineapple casserole and Paula Deen Mac and Cheese

I plan to finish the night by making a Baked Oatmeal that I will set for the oven to bake first thing in the morning!

I started by making a huge batch of Rice since I planned to make several items that called for it. I also browned up 6 lbs of ground beef at once and spread between several dishes. I like to clean up as I go. So I was able to use my Kitchen Aid mixer for several things after a quick clean. I will say that it made especially the Salisbury patties much easier. Currently I am just under $200 left in the grocery budget for the month. I have a list of 35 main meal items on the fridge so maybe I can keep our budget way down and transfer the money to other needs!

Do you have any good recipes to share along these lines if so leave a comment!

Meatloaf
1 ½ Lb ground Beef
¾ cup Bread crumbs
1 T prepared Mustard
2 T Ketchup
1 cup Milk
1 sm onion 1 cup Cheddar Cheese
Blend onion and milk in blender. Mix together all above. Place half in loaf pan. Cover with layer of Cheddar Cheese. Place remaining meat mixture on top be sure to round the ends so that the cheese is sealed. Top with the following, after mixing together
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups Ketchup
1 ¼ tsp prepared mustard
¼ tsp nutmeg

Overwhelmed- Zach’s Dentist Vist

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Sheila

I am going to start out by saying that I do understand that this really is a minor set back for us. I also know and are praying for several families that have much more serious health issues to face but at the same time this is huge for a 3-year-old and quite a bit for his parent to deal with at the same time. I could not even get this out yesterday but today I am feeling much less overwhelmed and more of God’s in control. Finally at the suggestion of the dentist, we are limiting the discussion regarding this around the younger gang, instead it is planned as a dentist visit for Zach at the hospital. Feel free to comment or call with question but also understand the need for us to keep this as low-key as possible around the 3 younger kids.

Zach at the coolest detist office I have ever seen!

Zach at the coolest dentist office I have ever seen!

The very last day of January, we had 5 dentist appointments scheduled. This would be Zach’s first appointment as our dentist refused to see him prior to age 3. The hygenist took one look at him and spoke with the dentist who referred us to a Pediatric Dentist. So yesterday 2/21, Zach and I head to his new first dentist appointment. First, I am informed that he has “Enamel Hypoplasis” This is a condition were for either genetic or environmental reason the enamel does not form or only forms a little over teeth. Zach currently has 2 teeth that are severely decayed to the point that they may possibly not be able to be saved, 2 teeth are decayed and need immediate attention, 2 teeth that have cavities and 2 teeth that need silver caps to keep them working until he is 10-12 year old. After some discussion, it was decided that the best way to take care of this woudl be a 2 plus hour dental surgery as an outpatient at a hospital. The good news is that the surgery is schedule for Thursday March 28th, I will already be off work. Zach should be back to his normal self by Friday, in time for Easter!

After scheduling the surgery, pre-op appointments and post op appointments, the financial impact starts to take over. We had chosed to lower our dental insurance this year because of the significant decrease of cost and at the time the decision was made no thoughts of this type of situation entered my head. So after my dental insurance covers the dental aspect of the surgery, we are expected to pay $1900. I emptied my med flex saving account for the year and pulled the rest from our Emergency Fund. I am expected to also have to cover part of an anthesologist bill and the actual charge for the surgery room from the hosptial. The estimate I was given was $3000 out of pocket. We should be able to cover all ths with our Emergency Fund as well as moving money from our travel fund so at least, we can proceed with the scheduled surgery date.