Pics of the kids

I just wanted to put some more recent pictures of the kids on here and maybe a video if I can figure out how, so those of you who are interested can see my cuties!

Bean Soup

Hello again and welcome to this Friday in Autumn.  I just love a cool crisp day in the fall, one that dawns with so much possibility and excitement, one that seems to say "christmas is coming, christmas is coming..."  I love that.  The best thing one could possibly do on a cold day like today is to take ten to fifteen minutes in the morning to make a pot of soup for dinner.  This not only is a gift to your family but to yourself as well; one that gives all throughout the day.  First of all dinner will roll around and you will be hungry, instead of dragging yourself into the kitchen and making a huge mess all the while snacking so that your not actually hungry when you sit down for dinner, it will be ready for you with minimal mess; just bowls and spoons.  Second your entire house will start to smell amazing and this wonderful aroma will continue the entire day.  Is there anything better then coming in from outside, your cheeks rosy with cold, to the delicious smell of a hearty soup just simmering away?  Third it will sound good all day, now stick with me on this one.  If you use a crock pot (which is what I suggest for worry free all day cooking) after a couple of hours the steam and heat will cause the lid to rattle, just slightly as if to remind you that there is something wonderful and secret going on in the kitchen.  Now I recomend cooking a batch of refridgerator biscuits (which far as I can tell taste better then homemade and can be bought on sale quite frequently) and serving those with honey along side your soup and you have got yourself a healthful, tasty, and satisfying dinner to say the least.

Today's dinner will be particularly satisfying because my Grammy and Papa are coming for dinner.  They are amazing, I mean amazing!! Papa is so wise and funny Grammy is loving and kind and sweet and together they are just about perfect.  My Grammy and I have been special friends practically since I was born.  They are among my biggest blessings and I cherish all the time I get to spend with them.  Plus they love my boys and isn't it great to be around people who genuinely love your children?

This is my recipe for Bean Soup, which is what I'm having today:
Mix together in a crock pot
1 Jar of Randal's white Beans
1 package of chopped ham (very cheap and can be bought near the lunch meat)
.5 Cup of Brown Sugar
A bunch of chopped celery (leaves included)
1 onion chopped
1-2 Cups (to your desired consistency) of chicken stock (which is way way better then chicken broth and  the left overs can be stored in it's box-container for at least a week)
salt and pepper
Let cook all day and enjoy!!

My Grocery Bill

I thought these pictures of Hunter eating were appropriate for todays topic. These are a pics of his space ship bday cake which turned out ok.

Here is a pic of Hunter eating an "elephant's ear"

I am in charge of the grocery shopping and so when I watched Julie and Julia the first thing that popped into my head was, "how in the world can she afford to buy all those ingredients?" I mean butter alone while a staple in my fridge isn't cheap and fresh herbs and spices...good grief. Sometimes I take my mad money just to buy a block of "fancy" cheese from our local farmers market store.

I like to cook, but I have to keep it all in balance in order to stay on budget. This last week was a disaster. Brian and I take out cash for our food we call it the "food budget" because we not only use this money to buy groceries but to go out to dinner or run for Dairy Queen etc. I never want to use the entire thing up at the grocery store because I like to have a safety net in case we run out of diapers or something and we always eat lunch out after Church on Sundays. So imagine my surprise when after pre-buying diapers, light bulbs, and some other things with my baby sitting money, and sitting down and making a very conscious effort to plan "cheap" meals that not only did I go over what I normally do, I used up all the money every last cent. If Brian hadn't been there I would not have been able to pay the bill (I had left my purse and credit cards at home). I was horrified totally steamed and I felt like such a failure as I consider this a part of my stay-at-home duties to buy thrifty.

What caused this balloon in bill you ask? I have no idea I have been over it and over it. There were a few things that could have been cut out, craisins and almonds, and some things that we don't buy every week dog food, toilet paper, olive oil (which I get cheap by the way) but even if you added all those things up we'd be back where we normally are and normally we buy diapers so then we're right back to using up all the money. To quote my current favorite show "what the frack?"

Since Conner has been born we had to add in more diapers (though Hunter is only wearing his to bed now) and I have made a real effort to buy more fruits and veggies. I know fruits and veggies aren't cheap but they're so good for you and what is the cost of your health if you don't eat well? Please don't think I stock my kitchen full of chips, cookies, sodas and snack cakes we don't ever, only for very special occasions and this week was not one of those occasions. I buy almost all off brand unless the brand-name is on sale (my mom would die if she knew I don't buy JIFF, but meijer brand really does taste almost as good and is like half the price) and really try to stock up on staples when they're on sale...So what's the deal?

My poor husband has already upped the food budget twice since Conner was borne, I mean I really feel like we're not poor or anything. I just feel frustrated. And after two days of thinking about it over and over I read one of my favorite blogs (Hazelnut Cottage) and she was talking about her dream to own a small home and showed a picture of a house where she lives that is a little smaller then mine that was listed for over $600,000! Her husband is a teacher so they're probably making right around what we are. And I know that God provides for us we have some angels that send us a little money every month, without which we would "get by" but that is all we would be doing...God has a way of asking us to count our blessings doesn't he? It's like every winter when they do a "families turning down the heat because of the cost of oil" segment they always show the family turning it down to like 72 degrees which is like what?! We keep ours at 68 in the winter I always wonder "who are these poor two car giant home owning people that have to put on a long sleeved t-shirt to stay warm?" (sarcasm dripping from my thought FYI) But now I see I am one of those. I had a bad grocery week, big deal, I'll do better next week and so what if I have to add in some of my own mad money, I need to stop feeling so self righteous about it and realize it's our money and I am helping my family, and God has blessed me with this ability. (Still would it kill them to cut the cost of nuts?)

The County Fair

enjoying his first corn dog

yummy!!!

this thing is made out of legos! how crazy cool is that!

Don't giant pumpkins just make you smile?

smartest animal on the farm.

Ok, I am on a roll. I have all these great things to talk about because they have been building inside of me for a few months now so here is another before it becomes to late to make sense.

I am a country girl my husband is a city boy (this is beginning to sound like a Jon Bonjovi song) and we don't always "get" each other. One prime example is the county fair. I love it!! He thinks it is the weirdest thing in the world. The first time I took him to the fair he walked around with this look of bewilderment on his face the entire time. So anyway the whole summer I kept saying we have to take Hunter to the fair he will love it. But as time usually does it sped by and we missed our fair (or maybe my hubby failed to mention it to me). So when my parents came up for Hunter's birthday they were saying they missed a good 4-H fair (apparently they don't have any out where they live) so we looked online found one pretty close to where we live and decided to go.

I can't remember the name of it (and I mean no offense to every one else by what I'm about to say because I know that the fair can be a source of great pride to the community) but it was truly the nicest fair I have ever been too. It was so clean even the poultry barn didn't smell. The bathrooms while rustic where clean and the paths were great no problems with the strollers at all. We went on band day so there was the distant sound of local marching bands in the air; it was just awesome. The food was so good. It was a perfect day. I'm hoping that mom dad the boys and I can make it a tradition, part of Hunter's birthday celebration. And next year we are making Brian come.

I was right Hunter did love it. All the animals and the food. He was so excited to eat an elephant's ear (yes he really thinks they're elephant's ears, but we told him they grow back) And his favorite thing was the rows and rows of classic tractors. He went running from one to the other "look at this one, look at this one" and then he pointed to a sea do and said "a space ship" like that was the most normal thing in the world.

Ok so here is my theory about fair food. You can not get everything at one vendor. If you do will certainly get one thing that is good and one that is bad. You can't go to the corn dog place and get your french fries. You have to divide and conquer one person goes to the corn dog and sausage stand, the other goes to the fresh cut fries stand, and someone else gets lemon aid at the fresh squeezed stand, this is how you experience truly great fair food. Let your food settle walk around a little more and get your elephant ear (they don't have those where mom and dad live, can you imagine never experiencing an elephant ear?) then as you leave pick up a bag of cotton candy.

hello again

Well I can't believe how incredibly long it's been since I've even looked at this site. I think my life just seemed like it was too much and I was just worn too thin. I think it's been like two years! A lot has changed... for one I'm not sure I can call this blog confessions of a young housewife. Now that I have another baby (yes another boy) I certainly don't feel young, and my body certainly doesn't look young. Thirty is now looming closer then ever.

I'm not sure why I stopped and I'm not sure why I'm picking it up again. I guess I've been feeling the need lately to put things down in words and that feels good after such a long time of having nothing to say. And then I went and saw Julie and Julia, what a sweet movie that was, and was inspired to look and see what I had wrote in the past and boy am I glad i did. There is so much from Hunter's first year that I don't remember and this blog is such an amazing record of what was happening with him and me. I am so thankful that this website doesn't erase your entries after a long time of inactivity.

Hunter is three now and potty training and our second and last child is seven months. It's funny that I am starting this back up in almost the same place I began last time. Night after night of interrupted sleep, baby food, nursing, and tons of laughter and tears. I am a much more relaxed mom now but I am also twice as stretched out and chubby! Oh well the price of motherhood is high but it's rewards are immeasurable. I hope you will enjoy my journey and maybe get to laugh a little too. I have a lot to say and maybe there is someone out there who will be interested in hearing it.

So here is my funny bunnies taking a walk toward me. I know that these have been short entries but I wanted everyone to see how amazing he is. Love ya all.

autumn

11-5-07

Well what a rush this autumn has been, warm and busy. I can hardly believe that I haven't blogged since sep. I mean I haven't even told you how awesome Hunter's first birthday cake turned out to be. That was fun, it seriously took me like five hours to decorate his cake and three bags of powdered sugar to make all the frosting it was crazy!! It went really well though the party was very nice and it was so good to see my family.

Then we had Halloween Hunter went as the cutest dinosaur ever known to man.

And finally Hunter is now walking!! He took a few steps for his dad and then nothing for like three weeks. Then all of a sudden he started taking really stumbly steps toward me and then today he's walking everywhere all by him self it's crazy.

It's finally getting colder here and Brian is annoyed because I'm listening to Christmas music and itching to get the decorations out.