Author Archives: Sheila

Where did it Go?

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Seriously where did this week go? My usual excuse is work but this week I know that is not the case, work is actually really low at the moment but I just can’t seem to figure out where my time went. So maybe list will  help?

-took down the snow village. I am so sad doing this. But the good news is that we were able to store much better this year so I can purchase a  couple of new pieces for next year maybe 🙂

-Thursday was spent between doctors and IKEA.

  •      Lily has a infection on her face, there is a 60% chance it is MRSA. We decided to stop at the peditricians office on the way to all the kids eye appointments in Matthews (1.5hours south). She missed school on Friday and is on a strong antibodic. We are praying the infection clears quickly otherwise we have been warned that it might require surgery, because of it’s location and size.
  •     Zach has decent vision. There is a slight concern that he may be far sighted but it will be a mild case and currently will just wait a year!
  •     Kendall can stop with patching now. Her vision is unchanging at this point. She did get a new presciption but we were told we could wait a couple of month before switching.
  •    Lily’s vision is improving. She still has extremely poor dept perception, we have to continue patching 4 hours daily and her prescription also changed.  The hope is that her corrected vision becomes 20/20.

-IKEA- we joined the “family card” program for free. It allowed the girls to stay an extra half an hour at the play place, Matt got a free cup of coffee and we also received a free ice cream cone as well as saved 0.50. Not bad for a free card.
          – we purchased a new frying pan, new lights for over the kitchen sink, and several differenet shelves. I think this will be the last shelves needed for the house in a long time. I am excited to have enough storage space and a home for most things now!
         – we daydreamed about purchasing a new living room and kitchen. Never hurts  to dream.

-I have been able to keep up with the goals I established for the year! I am excited to be losing weight slowly and keeping on top of devotions!

Wordless Wednesday- Reorganizing

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Zach grabbed my camera while I was moving stuff and this is his picture.

Our new bedroom set. After Christmas, Matt and I chose this set and some new bathroom towels.

We were able to finally finish the picture wall in our bedroom. I have one more wall of pictures to get completed!

This past week, I have focused on  finishing a major clean of the playroom. This was the orginal living room and after Christmas we could barely walk in it.  We found the top organizers( it is actually 2) at Costco. The bottom wooden portion was a build in cabinet at my brother first house. As you can see we did manage to keep a few toys to play with.

Not Me

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It is Not Me who is writing this post on Sunday night, with hopes to be able to participate in the fun over at MckMama on Monday.

It is Not Me who fed not only my children but also another child; chips (at least they were Multi-grain), salsa and cheese dip for dinner tonight.

It is definitely Not Me who is allowing my kids to watch Nick Jr while in the bathtub simply to get a few minutes of peace without interruption.

It is also Not Me who decided that the weekends don’t count on her diet :).

It also would Not be Me who is so excited because she used the strike out feature in her last blog. That would be very nerdy.

It was also Not Me who after discovering, she had lost 2.5# consumed 3 bottles of water, knowing full well that means I am going to be in the bathroom half the night.

It would also be Not Me who is glad that her husband has finally seen the light regarding the expense of processed/convenient food and is willing to cut every corner imaginable to save money!

Finally it is Not Me who after cleaning out the freezers last week is so happy that they now are incredible full due to the cooking we have accomplished this weekend.

Anyone else what to join in the confessions?

A Productive Day in the Kitchen

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We are a busy family, we need things to be as convenient as possible. We also are trying very hard to be good stewards of the money that God has provide. Combine all of these things for the maximum benefit, the result is a day in the kitchen. I discover Freezer Cooking several years ago, I even used recipes from the site http://www.30daygourmet.com/.  I also have learn what our family likes and adaptive some other things to do to make evening meal especially easier and less expensive. Matt loves bread so of course I made some artisan bread. (Disclaimer: I have not purchase the rights to any recipes, I use google and tried only the free ones from 30 day).

Here is a list of things that have been finished or if indicated will be finished on Sunday.  I am including only one list because we also made a trip to Walmart today and the kids have not been neglected :).

Breakfast- Baked Banana Oatmeal (Confession: this is a site I discovered yesterday, I can’t wait to try out many more of her recipes).
Lunch- Ham and cheese crescent rolls
Dinner- Salisbury Steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and squash casserole.

Frozen Meats- 3 Salisbury Steak (30 day gourmet)
                        3 meals of shredded chicken
                        2 Cheeseburger Pies (30 day gourmet)

Other Frozen things- 5 cans Navy/White Beans
                                9 cans of Chicken Brooth/ I simply threw all the throw away parts of chicken back in crock pot, filled with water to the brim and cooked on low for another 6 hours.

Finished on Sunday            did
To be completed– I will try and remember to list actual quantities after they are finished. These are all soaking and will cook overnight. We will finished up on Sunday afternoon!
                           3 cans Re-fried beans
                           3 cans of Black beans
                           3 cans of Red beans
                            

A Day of Shopping

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I am really interested in the way people shop, especially how you shop if you have a large family. Yes, I know we have a large family but I am often curious if I am doing it right? Can I do it differently, smarter or better? This is one of the reason that I watch TV shows about people with large families. So I thought since I haven’t done a post about a day in my life in a long long time, I would share today.

Preparation- This is the most important part of the trip for me. The more prepared I am the less chance of missing something in the store. I also really dislike running to the store to pick up one item at a time. We usually will start to notice that we are running low on things, look at the calender and decide we need to make a trip to Costco. At that point, I usually place a list on the fridge to add things as I realize I need them. This list went up last Saturday. It also serves as a reminder to me to check out things that we might be running low on.  Next on the list of preparation is checking out the Costco coupons. Are there items we usually buy that I will definitely get  because there is a coupon? Because we simply can’t purchase very thing at Costco I usually have a second list for Aldi or Food Lion. This week happens to be “Super Doubles” at Harris Teeter so I have spent around 2 hours gathering coupons and placing 2 separate orders for this. Matt took the kids and picked up the first list yesterday.  After discovering they did not give me credit for any of my coupons, I spent another 20 minute on the phone and decided to use up some of the value and place an order for today.  In the category, I put things like making sure the cooler is in the car as well as getting all my coupons and list in one spots so I don’t forget them. We also usually take a small cooler with drinks just because someone is always thirsty.

Trip itself- We first window shopped at BabysRUs for a new car seat. We ended up purchasing one at Costco, it is a booster for Lily. Costco had a good deal on pork. Highlights of our purchase include: bag of chicken breast, 3 large pork roast ( at home I divided these into a total of 10 separate meal and froze each individually), 2 packages of pork chops ( these are divided into 2 meal each, we had one for dinner and froze the rest0 6# of hamburger ( I am planning a cooking day on Saturday, this should be 3 meals), 2 gallons of milk, 6 gallons of Apple Juice, 2 gallons of Orange juice and 7 dozen eggs. I did purchase a lot of meat today as well as staples that I have not been able to find cheaper through coupons.  We had lunch at Costco, ran over to Harris Teeter to pick up and then came home to put away everything. I did make a quick trip to Aldi for beans, rice and taco seasoning.

The End- I spent approximately half of our grocery budget this week. Just looking at the meat we purchased this should be the only large trip we make this month.  Since we don’t have any plans on Saturday, I am planning to cook  that day. Items on the list included chicken for stews, beans, 2 cheeseburger pies and 2 meals of Salisbury steaks. Today alone, I was able to divide up the pork roast and pork chops. On average we have enough of both of these items for 2-3 months! So that is exciting to me!

Good vs Bad

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I have heard that if you want to see both side of something that you make a list of the good points and bad points which make them easier to compare. To be honest with you, I am struggling right now.  We are facing several huge financial changes in the next 6 months.  I know in my head that “God has a plan for me” but I am still struggling with doubt and worry. So I am going to write a good vs bad list about the things going on in my life both financial and not. Bear with me, support me or close the page…

Good
– I have been able to not take but 2 hours of vacation time during the month of December. So I should have enough saved for both my trip and our beach trip.

-Zach is doing excellent with potty training. I think* that we have bought the last bag of diapers around here.

-I don’t have any more scheduled days at the nursing home.

-Last year we were able to replace/ repair the majority of major expenses around the house. We currently need to replace only 1 more window and purchase gutter till we will be complete finished with the house as far as major remodeling expenses.

– We have no car payments!

-We have purchased a lot of new electronic equipment over the past 2 months and don’t need/want anything else unless our current television stop working. And even if this is the case, I don’t see us replacing them quickly instead saving for a couple of months.

-We have replaced a ton of clothes over the past several months and should not need anything until the spring/summer.

–“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 
Jeremiah 29:10-12

Bad
-Matt’s unemployment is becoming very unstable, we are reading various statements that indicate that it may end as soon as February or that it will last through June, which is what we originally thought and planned for.

-My work at the hospital has really slacked off. I will only be working 20 hours a week for at least the next 2 weeks.

-I don’t have any more scheduled days at the nursing home.

-We need approximately $1000 to complete both the remaining window and gutters for the house, I had planned to finish during the month of March/ April but it just may not be possible.

-I greatly reduced our tax withholding for last year and we should only expect a refund of $1000 or less. My plan was to use this either for the remaining house repairs or pay upfront for the beach condo.

How I Spent my Christmas vacation…

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I remember doing these in school, the only bad part is that I don’t remember doing anything grand to write about then, pretty much the same as now but at least I am writing it down. I am really focusing on accountability this year, basically if I post it for the world to read, I need to be honest and give it my best shot. In addition to that, please ask me about specific things that way I have some real life accountability as well.
So back to how I have spent the past several days working on my goals for 2012 of course.
                   Dieting-Yesterday, I was conscience of what I ate, weighed in using the Wii, consumed 8 glasses of water and exercised for 30 minutes on the Wii. The down side to this is that I have a long way to reach my goal of 150 by next December but the good news is that I am starting at all!
                  Saving Money/budget- One of the ways we are going to save money on groceries is finally eliminating the need for diapers/pull-ups.  Since last Thursday, we have been attempting to potty train Zach. He was doing really well in pull ups but did not complain when he was wet or didn’t even seem to care. So after buying underwear, he has been in underwear for about a day and half. The results are not as stellar as I would have hope but we do have results: Zach gets very upset when  he is wet, he even thanked me for cleaning up his mess.  We are going to continue to work with him this week, I would be very pleased if he is able to stay in underwear at home and move to underwear in public by the end of the month or as long as we have diapers!  Next I have been cleaning out the freezers and refrigerators.  I actually went shopping in the freezer in the building this morning. I was able to bring up enough meat for an entire week as well as lots of veggies. I did not have any “extra” money this month to work on purchasing the final window or beginning to pay down debt so the plan is to squeeze some of that out of our grocery and dinning out budgets. I have also spent some time searching for ways to use of the remaining items from Angel Food that we really didn’t like. Last night I used some pre-breaded chicken wings to make Buffalo wings for Matt’s dinner, he is planning to use the rest of the smoked sausage for sandwiches. Finally, I am planning to do some cooking this coming Saturday of “conveince meals’ because after looking at our schedule for the month of January it is going to be really easy to get off track.
                Blogging- 2 days, 2 post a really good start.

I was able to get together a donation for Goodwill on Saturday as well as done alot of general cleaning and cleaning out done.  Best of all I have been able to spend time with the kids just being a Mom. Not rushing to get to something or tired from working.

New Year’s Celebration

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It literally has been years since I have made plans for New Year’s Eve. Normally,going to bed by 10pm is the top of my ways to celebrate, other years it is sitting and watching the ball drop on the couch. This year turned out to be a little bit different.
I honestly can’t say whose idea it was, but a group of people from our church met at Chick Filet for dinner and then we headed to a movie. This was a very different group as it include a couple that is older who have grand kids, a couple with one son, who is an young adult, another family that has teenagers and young adults, our friends the Pierces and us. The movie was pretty good. I even got to watch all but 10 minutes which was my one and only bathroom trip. The little ones are learning to really watch and behave, I am even optimistic that we could go once a month to the movies if we wanted. The movie was longer than we expected so as we left the parking lot at 9:45pm all three of the little kids were asleep. We arrived home and I actually fell asleep while watching the news. No ball drop for me!

Today (New Year’s Day) was spent at church and sleeping. I wrote about  my goals for the next year last night so today I am trying to slowly starting working on them. My thought is that if I start slow then I will not be overwhelmed and just give up!

December and Year in Review

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Blogging: .November has 15 post including this one. For the year 132 post, 30 less than last year and an average of 11 per month. My plan is to continue blogging next year so this goal will stay the same. 
Goal: 15 per month

Devotions: Thanks to my sister in law for a sample but awesome Devotional book. I have met this goal for the first time this year! I am going to continue with this goal. With the plan to be success each week and not have to think about it so much!
Goal is 3 a week.

Couponing/Grocery Budgeting: See previous post.

Our Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially:  See previous post.

Weight– This one is going to require serious work and commitment to. I have a goal in my head to be at 150 by next December. So I have written it make it more real maybe!
Goal to exercise 3x a week.

Budget-Year in Review and Goals

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I have had a goal all year of keeping our grocery budget $800 or less, in addition in the last several months I have add to that of getting our “baby” Emergency Fund” at $500. At the beginning of the year last year, I had in mind that we would be out of debt except for our mortgage by this point. I will say up front that I did not met these goals completely but I feel like I have made substantial progress. I want to take an good look at the goals from last year as well as establish new one in the area of finance for next year. Look for the final year in review post on Saturday.

Grocery budget-Goal was $800 or less a month. Our average spending per month was $821! Matt and I both have decided that was a success. I am not going to increase this budget at all for 2012. When I look at the numbers that is $26 a week per person, or around $1.10 per person per meal. Of course I will be so happy to come in under this number but I also want to be realistic.

Emergency Fund- We actually met this goal approximately 2 weeks ago, followed by us having to spend $450 of it on a new dryer when ours stopped working. I have found that the best way for us to accomplish this goal is to move $10 a check to the account and then if we “find” more money push it in the account as well. Our goal for 2012 will be to re-establish this fund and increase it to $1000 by June and maintain it at this amount for the rest of the year.

Outstanding debt- This is the area in which we have made the least amount of progress. In one sense, we have been really great, we have not acquired any new debt this year. This includes unpaid medical bills. My goal was to be complete out of debt so this is a failure. My goal will be the same for 2012. The importance of this goal is more pressing as our income will be reduced in June of 2012.

Where did our money go in 2011:
Disney Trip
Vacation at the Beach for a week
New windows for the entire house.
2 New Televisions for our bedroom
Car and Van maintenance.
Taxes paid for 2010 and 2011