Cooking Day

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Sheila

The weather here in NC has been less than pleasant in my opinion. I still have several things that I want to get done outside but with the temperature close to 50 and pouring rain, I decided to go a different direction on Saturday. Cooking.

The picture above is one of the 3 pans of pull apart rolls that I made yesterday. After taking a bread making class a couple of weeks ago and realizing just how much of the bread we buy gets wasted, I decided to take the plunge an attempt to make my own bread. I have decided to try this for one month to see if it will work in our life. I do have a Sour Dough starter that I am feeding and making weekly but I also wanted something extra to pull out if needed. These rolls turned out awesome. The plan was to have with our Easter lunch instead the kids all asked for “party sandwiches for dinner” So we ended up using over have for dinner. At least the other 2 pans are in the freezer for now.

In addition to the bread, I was able to make 2 dozen muffins that will work as both snacks and breakfasts with the kids out of school. 5 real meals have been frozen to be heated up during the next several weeks as the end of the school year brings a flurry of activities and things that seem to add to our days. I also made 2 casseroles for Easter Dinner/ Lunch.

After all the cooking today, my plan is to spend a total relaxing day for Easter with little to no cooking involved!

Individual Time= Busy Weekend

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Sheila

One of the hardest things about having a larger family in addition to have 3 kids so close in age (8,5 and 4) is finding time to spend with each child individually. Zach is the easiest for this to happen because during the school year he is at home with Daddy most of the week. Usually at least one Thursday a month, I am home and try to spend some quality one on one time with him as well. This weekend, both Lily and Kendall were about to get some quality alone time as well.

Kendall is usually a very quiet and well-behaved child but she has struggles some this year at school with talking. This week she was able to achieve 3 of 4 day with excellent behavior. I decided to reward her, to take her to a bread making class that my Sunday school class was sponsoring. She loved it! The class was really informal and all the ladies including the teacher made her feel special. She was able to spend about 3 hours with just me on Saturday. I decided to ask her what was the best part? Eating of course …

On Sunday, our church reserved most of a theatre to see the movie “God’s Not Dead”. I had initially purchased tickets for all five of us to go and planned on letting Zach and Kendall use their mobigos and our phones for more entertainment. However at lunch my sister-in-law, volunteered for the younger guys to come over to her house this afternoon. Their family had watched the movie last weekend and she figured that both of them would have a hard time staying entertained during the movie. Both Kendall and Zach were excited to spend the afternoon on the farm. Lily became an only child, she was able to enjoy watching the movie with her friends but also got to get some special time with both of her parents.

I really enjoyed the individual time with each of the girls. It just is really hard both time wise and money wise to develop individual quality time with each kid but I hope they remember and enjoy it!

Wordless Wednesday-Random Beach Pictures

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Sheila

Long Weekend

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Sheila

We had an awesome long weekend at Myrtle Beach. When we left around lunch it was 70* and sunny. We arrived home to 45* and showers. I wish we could have brought the awesome weather with us. The internet at the hotel that we stayed at was horrific to say the least. I was unable to read any of the blogs that I keep up with so posting anything was just out of the question! I did take lots of pictures with the intention of sharing so keep checking back to see pictures of our fun. I will try to post links as I plan to post in a series, so you wont miss any but for now here are a couple of the view from our hotel room.

Random Thoughts Tuesday

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Sheila

I am so tired of cold and water that I can’t wait for Spring. In the past 2 weeks the kids have had 2 early dismissals and 2 missed days because of ice. Enough already give me some sun!
I never realized how much a tooth could affect your life. I had a cavity filled 2 weeks ago with a root canal last Thursday, every day I come home drained and climb into bed. Today is the first day I have not taken medicine at work. But now I am dealing with an awful headache
I am so looking for to our long weekend. I just need some time to sit and think! Hopefully I can enjoy the sounds of the ocean at least once while we are there!
I need to find myself something to wear in our family pictures that are scheduled in 2 weeks!
I don’t plan on using Thred Up again to resale clothing, I did send in one bag and was given a fair but small price for the bag. I did not realize that in order to get a payout, it would require waiting 2 weeks and a PayPal account. Last night I finally just found some summer clothes for Zach so that I am done with this for good!

ICE Storm 2014

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Sheila

Yucky, nasty! Those are the two best words to describe the ice storm we experienced this past Friday, March 7th.

I actually headed in to work around 8am because I had decided I like to get paid for watching the nasty weather. However, God had different plans for me. I dodged several trees on Beck’s Church Road and even felt the back of my car slid a bit. At that time, the roads were covered with around an inch or so of ice. However, the thing that actually sent me home was when the police officer told me to turn around because of down electric lines in the road. On the white knuckle drive home of less than 4 miles, I watched several trees fall over, slide in the ice going up a hill and did a lot of praying.

Once at home, I decided a good cleaning day would be great especially with the business of the next two weeks. However again God’s plan are always better than mine. Our power went out around 9am, we are very fortunate that my parents that live less than a mile away still had electricity and in fact were part of the 4% of the county that never lost power. Matt and I packed an overnight bag, grabbed our electronic and dinner that was in the crock pot and headed over for a visit with the dog and kids in tow. The rest of Friday was spent watching television, surfing the internet and even a couple of games of Uno. The kids had a ball and I am betting my parents enjoyed the time as well. By Friday evening, the ice turned to rain! We received a total of over 3 inches of precipitation on Friday.

On Saturday we had a planned day of shopping in Winston. We left my parents house around 8:30 and returned home with Rugar (our dog) around 5pm that evening. We were really surprised at the amount of snow instead of ice that was received just 30 miles north of us. I plan to give more details of my deals in another post!

Our electricity was restored around 11 am on Saturday. We are so thankful and blessed. The temperature on Saturday rose to around 70* and the only evidence of the massive ice storm are the abundance of trees that are laying everywhere. We have no trees in our yard so we are among the few that don’t have clean up to complete this week.

Here are a couple of pictures…

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Random Thoughts Thursday

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Sheila

It is sleeting outside again. I am seriously really really tired of cold and nasty. Matt even joked today about how cold and long this winter has been. I keep trying to remember that Spring is in 2 weeks. It really can not come fast enough for me!
We had a significant bump up in income this month, Matt has gotten two additional web sites. This is awesome news but it also put some things in perspective as decided to list out all the “unbudgeted” expenses I can think off till the end of June. Not a happy picture but at least one that we can work on making better.
Our septic system is going to have to be repaired this year. With the expense in addition to the ruining of the entire yard in the process, I am not looking forward to this at all.
I am focusing on making ahead some breakfasts any chance I get. Today I was able to make 3 breakfast meal prior to my dentist appointment. This helps keep some thing from going to waste and makes my morning so much easier.
My dentist appointment was not cheerful. I had a “significant” cavity filled and given a list of instruction to try and prevent the need for a root canal. I almost cried.

Random Thoughts Tuesday

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Sheila

We have all been sick. The crud as I like to call it. I was able to sleep it off this weekend with 12 hours of sleep, Friday night, 2 long naps on Saturday and another long nap on Sunday
We have received both our tax refunds back. I am trying to get all the numbers in order before sharing!
I planted broccoli seed this weekend. It is only 8 weeks till our last frost date.
I am going to try to start several different items from the seeds I already have but if they don’t work I have no shame in throw out all the remaining seeds and buying plants from now on.
I ordered another 16 bags of “Mel Mix” to complete the filling of the garden with dirt!
This is the last week at work that I have a student, which means next week I get back to my regular schedule and have to start working a little harder again. I really have enjoyed the extra time to read/research and complete several other task over the past couple of weeks
I am really disappointed that in addition to taking a week to ship the items I just ordered from Threds Up! They are also taking 6 weeks to process a bag of clothing I sent them. I seriously doubt I will be using this again!

Random Thursday Thoughts 2/20/2014

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Sheila

I have lots of things that I would like to share but none is enough to really make a full post so I am going to share some of these random thoughts today!

Budget things- I have one week left in our February budget. So far for the month, we have spent $601.30 on groceries. I decided not to do any shopping until next Saturday. That does mean I will be missing the Harris Teeter Super Doubles event.
-I have a second receipt from CVS this week that shows 100% savings. This time I used 2 coke rewards coupons. 2 12 packs ended up costing me $0.51. I again made the decision not to purchase any additional.
– I am enjoying my gift fund. I have already purchased Haley’s birthday present in addition to most of Easter and re-stocked part of my gift closet using the fund!
– Our hair fund is again empty. I went today and got a color. I would never have guessed that this fund gets the most use. I am very lucky that our hair dresser is very budget friendly but we average $50 a month on hair for the 5 of us!

I have been able to get to the Y to exercise 3 times this week. I am averaging 2 a week but to make it 3 times is an achievement for me . In addition, I have lost 3 pounds so far this month.

Our water heater in the main part of the house is slow not working. This means we will need to purchase a new one in the next 2 months. Gas is not an option in our area but we are considering a tankless electric one. This will be a huge expense but one that is needed.

I have purchased the little girls matching dress for Easter and a matching tie for Zach. Hopefully we will be able to coordinate everyone for a family picture! The goal being using it as part of the “collage” over our bed that we want to create.

Matt is picking up several more jobs which will be a nice boost to our goals this year. I just hate the waiting part of this process.