Warmly

Why is it, do you suppose, that even though there is ample floor space in the living room here...

and here....

...that the children would cramp themselves in this teeny tiny corner to play?

Because, you see, if you look closely by Judah's head---you will see that there is the grate in the floor that just so happens to be directly on top of the woodstove in the basement.

Smart (and warm!) children.

Squeezing that Grocery Budget 'til it squeaks.

 

This years Code Orange financial lockdown has been....interesting...(yeah, that's it) thus far.  To reach our financial goals for 2013, I had to reevaluate an already modest budget to squeak as much extra money out that I could.  The object is, of course, to use our pennies wisely and spend them very carefully.  The less we spend, the more we save. 

As Dave Ramsey is fond of saying (and I am fond of quoting) "Live like no one else now so that later you can live like no one else." 

We'll certainly be living like no one else.  I basically cut our spending in HALF, hoping to use the other half to build wealth (by building our savings or by paying off the mortgage sooner.)  Half is huge, people.

Wanna know my grocery budget?  It is $100.00 BIWEEKLY.  That is $50.00 a week for a family of six, in case you missed it.  So yeah- huge.  

Even more challenging is that I am passionate about giving NOURISHING, HEALTHY food to my family.  Especially now with me trying to lose weight, I try to have plenty of good-for-you snacks to munch on.  And let's face it- that can be expensive!

All other categories of spending that were able to be cut were cut in half too, some of which were already parched as it is.  Our "non-food necessities" envelope is $30.00 which was used entirely up in one shopping trip the day I needed diapers, wipes and saline all at the same time.  And the time before that, it was used up in only restocking the VITAMINS. 

The month of January was easy sailing.  I put some new strategies into play and I thought "Hey- this isn't so bad!"   Then February rolled around and I was sucker punched.  The thing is, I had a nice little food reserve going on~ all sorts of groceries stockpiled and a full-to-the-brim fridge of deliciousness in the beginning of the year.  By mid-February, though, that reserve was GONE and the cupboards were bare and $50.00 a week barely covered our DAIRY needs for two weeks.   I realized I was going to need more than just a few tweaks here and there.



 I have had to become even MORE creative and even more fickle toward my purchases.  I am not saying I am the authority on the subject, far from it~ but if you are hoping to cut your grocery spending, maybe it would be helpful to share?
 
Here are some things that have helped me cut my grocery bill in half with (a little bit) less sting and a few things I plan to implement which I know will ease the transition even more:

~ Biggest, most helpful change so far has been NOT grocery shopping every week.  We get paid bi-weekly, so now I shop bi-weekly.  On library day (on off weeks) I do go to a local store to pick up gallons of milk- we go through three or four a week and my fridge couldn't accomodate two week's worth.)    Being in stores half the time helps me to save half the money, I can assure you. 

~ Stick to the stores you must go to.  I used to love grocery day.  Go to Aldi.  Go to Walmart for what I couldn't get at Aldi.  Go to Target because it is right across the way and I LOVE Target.  Maybe, if there is time and the kids are cooperating, let's go to the craft store and take a gander there.  And while I am out....    

You and I both know if you shop like that, you are looking for things to buy.  I would walk out of each store with SOMETHING (even something small) but rarely anything NECESSARY.  And I had grocery day every week back then, so I was shopping around a lot.

~ Write a list of items you need from each store and do.not.deviate.

~ From the above, you'll probably guess this one:  Plan your menu!  I make a two week menu plan and stick with it.

~ Use from your 'stores'.  If any of you "puts up food" (freezing, canning, dehydrating) you probably already understand this dilemma.  Sometimes you forget you have something.  Five years later, you find a freezer-burned ham at the bottom of your freezer.  Even if you don't often freeze or can, I am sure you have found something at the back of your cupboard that you had long since forgotten you had.  While I make up my menu plan, I try to use up things I know I have stored up.   You don't need to buy hamburger and beans for chili if you could whip up some zucchini soup instead, from ingredients you already have on hand.

(This, incidentally, helps immensely as I am also trying to be more hospitable having company over for supper.  Before, I would look for yummy things to make and buy ingredients for it.  Now, I have been looking at what I have on hand and making meals based on that.  I can tell you, the company hasn't minded one bit!)

~ No Leftovers Left Behind.  Food is precious once you have so little money to spend on it.  DO NOT LET IT GO TO WASTE.   Have leftover nights.  Eat leftovers for lunch.  Use any little bits of leftovers up in other ways- add them all up and make soups.  Even freeze them.  Also- go through your fridge often so nothing gets lost and forgotten about until it is too late.

~ Bring a calculator and use it.  Maybe it is dorky to walk around at the store with a calculator- but I am a dork and proud of it.  It is the only way to stay within budget. 

~ Use cash.  Debit cards are beautiful things.   You can decide last minute to pick up dinner on your way home- or add a bag of chips or a half gallon of icecream for a 'treat'.  Yeah.  They are beautiful, dangerous things.

The only thing I use my debit card for now is for buying gas so I don't have to 'prepay' every time I am at the pump.  (The gas, too, has its own virtual "envelope".)

~ Buy in bulk, when it saves you.  (But make sure it does!)  And when a sale is great, buy as much as you can afford.  When 3# bags of carrots go on sale at Aldi for 79cents, I buy five bags.  

~ Don't spend money on boxed foods.  A box of Rice-a-Roni is cheap, sure, but it only feeds your family once (if you are lucky.)  Buy a big bag of rice and it will feed you much longer.  This is true for pretty much all convenience foods.

~ Eat lots of cheap, healthy foods and often.  Rice, dried beans, pasta, bags of potatoes, popcorn, and bananas are all CHEAP to buy AND filling. (SCORE!) There is nothing wrong with eating potatoes several times a week because that is all you can afford.  In fact, I think if instead of food stamps, our  churches gave out rice, bean and potato certificates, the world might just be a much better place! 

~ Make homemade yogurt, instead of buying it.  We eat this a lot and would save so much making it!  (This is one of those TO-IMPLEMENT things.)

~ Make your own hummus, instead of buying it.  We eat this a lot too! And laziness has made me pick it up at the store instead of making it like I once did.  (Another change to implement soon.)

~ Buy popcorn kernels in a large bag- not in those microwavable pouches or worse-already popped!  If you don't have an air-popper invest in one- OR, you can use lunch bags to make homemade microwavable popcorn bags.  But then you have to buy the bags...

~ Make from scratch.  This is huge. Bad for you food SEEMS cheaper but it really isn't.  Instead of bread, buy flour.   Instead of canned soup, buy cornstarch and bouillon cubes.  Instead of cookies, buy sugar. Then, make them at home.

~ Avoid the snack aisle at all costs!  Don't buy chips, bagged popcorn, fruit snacks, cookies, candy, etc.  You know, all those delicious things!  Most of these aren't good for you and when you are on a tight budget, there is no room for them anyway.  The only "snack" foods we buy anymore are crackers (for peanut butter crackers, hummus, cheese crackers or soup.), marshmallows and raisins.  Once in a GREAT while I will get honey pretzel rods from Aldi.   Oh- I always try to have a bag of tortilla chips to eat with our home-canned salsa.

Some of our go-to snacks are air-popped popcorn.  (Homemade) Cookies.  Raisins.  Marshmallows. Granola bars. Bananas.  Banana and apple chips (from our dehydrator) or the aforementioned crackers.  ;-)

~ Use coupons- only if it is worth it.  There are plenty of coupon guru's who can get free or more-than-free stuff all the time.  I was one of them, once upon a time.  I do it less often now because I don't want to go to store after store after store every week, hauling four children behind me, but I realize it can be worth it.  BUT.  Just because you have a coupon for it doesn't mean it is worth it.  Don't buy things you wouldn't ordinarily buy and don't buy name brand (with a coupon) if you can get a store brand cheaper anyway.  Coupons take plenty of time and plenty of wisdom but they can be helpful.  

~ Cereal can be SUCH a rip-off.  We have it once a week, on Sundays when there isn't much time to make a home-cooked breakfast before scurrying off to church.  Our usual weekday breakfasts- eggs (in all their many forms), scones, oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies, toast, muffins or cornmeal mush.  All healthy and all much more cost effective (and filling!) than a box of cereal.

~ Fix soups.  A LOT.  In the summer I fix salads often- having a big garden outside my door helps make beautiful salads.  In the winter though- there is nothing better to warm you up, use up leftovers or create INEXPENSIVE meals that to serve soups.  Think about it- it is mostly water!  I try and include two soups a week, once for supper and once for lunch.  Eating it more often, will save you even more money.

~ Who needs paper towels?  Dishrags work fine.  I do have some leftover paper napkins from a party once-upon-a-time, for the odd case of the throw-ups.  Anything else gets a towel.

~ Eat vegetarian at least once a week.  Our freezers full of our home-raised beef and pork are fast dwindling.  In order to conserve until the next batch, we are eating more vegetarian than ever.  Adding vegetarian days to the mix really lessens the financial load- meat is expensive!  It isn't that bad- if my meat-and-potatoes man can do it without compaining- anyone can!

~ Eat Seasonal.  I am not going to try to convince you (or myself, for that matter) that eating "seasonally" and "locally" (the two big buzzwords these days) are somehow more holy than eating otherwise.  I like my bananas too much.  I will say, though, that there is something to be said for being without for a time- it makes you appreciate it when you have it that much more.  Strawberries never taste so good as the ones in June, after a winter without.  And garden tomatoes- don't get me started on those.  Not to mention- strawberries in January are seriously hefty prices for seriously cardboard taste.  Am I right or am I right?  

~ Prepare in advance for Lean Times.  Finally- as any reader of this blog for any length of time knows, I do a lot of "putting up".  Just take a gander at my sidebar over there ----->; and you'll see I have a lot of sweat equity put by.  Having a large garden is a saving grace to the summer food budget and freezing/dehydrating/canning the excess is the saving grace to a winter food budget.  It is how we can have huckleberry pancakes in February and summer squash gratin in March and pesto at Christmas and fruit, in some form or another every single day of winter.

I simply COULD.NOT.FEED.MY.FAMILY on this tight of a budget without the preparations from last summer.  PERIOD.

It's a lot of work, sure, but there is a whole lot of reward (and peace of mind) too.

 

Now it is your turn~ do you have any good suggestions for how you keep your grocery bill down?  

Even with all these strategies in place, it can still be a challenge to stay within our grocery budget.  I would certainly love to hear about things that have helped you. I have 10 more months of this- I could use all the help I can get!

Come garden season, come!

February in Review

The month of February, in a nutshell.

• Wrote and mailed 10 letters/packages (not including the donation packages, of course.) 

• Lost 4 more pounds.  (It took me weeks and upping my calories to finally break my plateau but it happened just in the nick of time to lose something before the month was up.  18 pounds lost so far.  ;-)

• Overpaid the mortgage, but not as much as I had originally planned.  I have made a big change here to my thinking.  Fact is, I am worried about the economic future and not just a little bit.  After reading/listening to a few reputable economists on the subject, and considering their recommendation to NOT prepay a fixed rate mortgage but to instead save that money, I have prayerfully decided to change my goal for the year in this area.  From now on, my monthly goals will be to overpay the mortgage by $300.00 and set the rest aside for savings.

• I finished paying off last months' electrical work job.  I had to use this months' car fund money, just like last month- but now it is done and over with and I can focus on getting a car fund started.

• Books read~ The Country Chronicle by Gladys Taber, The Paideia of God by Douglas Wilson,  G.K.Chesteron- The Apostle of Common Sense by Dale Ahlquist, and I started Bringing in the Sheaves by George Grant.  No classics, unfortunately, because I was on a rather unpleasant library-loaning hiatus thanks to a lost library book.  

• We didn't have any company over this month.  :-(

• Thanks to {P,H,F,R}, I am taking pictures every week again!  

• Matt got $40.00 all to himself.  He has quite a little pile stacked up already.  I wonder what he will do with it?   

• I didn't FINISH making anything for myself this month- but I am *working on* knitting myself a pair of fingerless gloves.  But since I am a novice, it is taking me...oh, three times so far to get the cuff right. 

Just a few of my goals for the year.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

{pretty} 

I can count this as my 'pretty' this week, but certainly NOT my happy.  The free knitting class at my local library is great- and I seemed to be a natural the first few classes.  Those were the dishcloth days though.  We started using double pointed needles and ummmmm....it isn't going well.  I have had to rip this project out twice already.  But the yarn is pretty- so that is something.

These will be fingerless mittens (just in time for summer!).  That is, presuming I get my act together.  I will say, this third try SEEMS to be going better for me.  It looks semi-normal, anyway and I am not adding stitches every time I move needles, so that is a plus.  ;-)

{happy}

Well, I told you about my monster dollhouse dilemma in an earlier {P,H,F,R} post so I thought I might as well share the after.  It is never good to leave the last impression with the BEFORE picture.

I moved the Spare Oom fabric shelves to free a space for the dollhouse and I moved the fabric shelves to where the dollhouse WAS, in the hallway.  A good old-fashioned switcheroo. 

Frankly, I don't know why I didn't just do this from the beginning.  The hallway looks more "decorated" now in a weird way and the dollhouse is so nice and bright and inviting!  Plus, my fabric will not get faded as quickly, not being so exposed to the sunshine.  And then there is the added benefit of not needing to shimmy through a four-inch space when trying to pass through the hallway when the dollhouse doors were flung open. 

Needless to say, I am very HAPPY for the change and HAPPY that it is DONE.  ;-)

 

{funny}    

Didn't you know?  Tongues definitely make you paint better.

{real}   
There is a gas well pad just beyond our hill and as the gas pressure increases at the site, they have to burn off the excess with this huge flame thrower thingy in order to reduce pressure.  We have seen them up close before but being tucked back behind the woods makes it that much more eerie. It feels/looks/sounds very much like a forest fire coming to envelope the house.  In fact, the first night the littlest ones were SURE we were going to burn to death.

One of the not-so-lovely things about living on this hill.

 

Join us? 

  (Yes, Miranda! DO!) 

Monkey See

Lots of baby boys being born lately... at one time I used to think that girls were the "fun" ones to make things for but, really, I think I was just being small-minded.  Boys have an awful lot of cuteness potential themselves, it turns out.

Two babies born recently were born to more label-conscious ladies.  They might not appreciate handmade gifts as much as storebought ones so I set my cheapskate tendencies aside for a moment and went searching for gifts they might like.  But the cheapskate in me can only be pushed aside so far...and a strict budget prevents anything excessive anyway.  How happy was I, then, when I discovered at Old Navy these adorable little monkey sleepers on sale for less than $5.00 a piece!

I snatched up two of them (seriously, how cute are they?!?) and then immediately envisioned monkey hats to go with them.   Ravelry, of course, never disappoints.

Two, naturally.

Honestly, who cares if the mothers appreciate the handmade hats or not?

They were MADE to be together. 

While I was stitching them up, Andrew came by and lamented the fact that his handmade hat has been long since outgrown and passed on to his little(r) brother, and it occurred to me how profane it is for one of my children not to have a handmade hat to keep them warm when they have a mother who is perfectly capable of making one for them.








Then I did something I have never thought to do before.  I dug up a few (like fifteen!) patterns on ravelry and gave the Panda his own choice as to which he would like.  (Why have I never done this before?)  He chose this one.    (The pattern is excellent except it doesn't write out the color changes-so you have to choose your own stripe pattern.)

And the colors? He chose the ones already on the table.

So very pragmatic.

Good Samaritans

Back in December, back when everyone was hustling and bustling to and fro and spelunking into echoing cavernous wallets for Christmas presents for their little (and big) dears; right when all the once-a-year expenses float in the house sandwiched between Christmas cards and people are feeling their poorest~ I came here and put my heart right out there.  I did the unthinkable.  I asked for money.

Not for myself.  But for some of our dearest friends.

And back in December, when I knew that it was the worst possible time to ask, I was amazed at every.single.person whose name popped up each night and every little red cent that was given.

Of all the people who donated, I had only actually ever met ONE of them.  ONE. 

All these strangers giving of themselves at the worst possible time and for whom?  Strangers.

It was so incredible to SEE the spirit at work and not just hear about it.   One of the great hallmarks of Christianity is charity and compassion and when we exercise these gifts, God is revealed in us and through us. 

I have never been more proud of you.

Not to mention- I promised prizes and postcards in January but the busy-ness of the holidays lingered on and days passed and turned into weeks, until finally it was FEBRUARY and I (finally!) made my way with pink and green and white stacks to the post office--- did anyone send me hate mail?  Did anyone send me polite reminders or sweet "Where the HECK are they, Missus?" emails?  Not once.  You guys are the greatest.

I just had to tell you what you have done...

It was YOUR dollars and YOUR pennies that allowed me to send my friends a check on your behalf for...

$793.00!!!  

You did that!

Thank you for heaping me with grace as you waited for life at Hopestead to slow down to a brisk jog instead of the sprint it always is around the holidays.  Thank you for showing Christ to me (and my friends) in a real and tangible way- with prayers AND pennies.  Thank you for being modern day (good) Samaritans. 

Thank you, thank you.  I just can't thank you enough.  

Good Stuff

A few "CAN'T MISS" things.  That's all.

 

A really inspiring book by a really inspiring girl, Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson is the kind of book that you crack open and don't stop reading until you've read the last word.  She and her husband were the sole survivors of a plane crash that left them both scarred, physically and spiritually and emotionally.  It is a coming-to-grips story and the story of renewed life and the struggles/pain that an entire family must overcome.   I bawled my eyes out when I re-lived, through her words, the knife in the heart stab of her chidlrens' rejections of her.  Oh.My.Word.    One hugely profound thing I got from this book is how Stephanie's siblings gathered around her and offered themselves in beautiful and not-quite-beautiful ways.  The love that her brothers and sisters showed for her in her time of need is what I pray my own children will show theirs.  A tearjerker of both happy and sad tears.  Loved it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being television-less, we tend to get our news a day or two later than most.   Yes.  We hear the news.  (I don't want any hate mail.  Kay?)  We have plenty of opportunities to get the news from the radio and the internet and we stay fully informed about what is going on.  Don't worry, we don't have our heads in the sand. On the contrary- sometimes I think we know TOO much.

Last week I finally got around to hearing the Presidential Breakfast speech given by Dr. Ben Carson.  I wouldn't have bothered tuning into a Presidential breakfast speech ordinarily even if we DID have a TV, until that is, I heard who was the speaker.

What a speech.  It was great.

If you, like us, don't have a TV~ or even just missed watching it- you really should. Anyone who starts out a national speech with four scripture references is worthy of a listen.




 America the Beautiful, the book Dr. Carson references in his speech (Dr. Carson co-wrote it with his wife) is the next book I am going to read.  Very excited.

In case you have no idea who Ben Carson is, here is a great movie based on his remarkable life.   When we watched it last year, we LOVED it.  Watch it sometime- a great movie for a family movie night!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever heard of George Grant?  An incredible man.  Our pastor introduced him (and by 'him', I mean his lecture series) to us a few years ago and I have since become quite a groupie.  I've been listening to his astounding lecture series (which I fully intend to use as our high-school history curriculum) in order to re-learn the history that I never retained in my own schooling...or, as it turns out- learned WRONGLY.  Coming from a sound Christian worldview and revealing things that aren't in most history books, THIS is history worth learning.  (They are super-pricey at this point but well worth it.  You can also hold out- they are preparing a more cost-effective downloadable/streaming option soon!)

He has written over 60 books and now you know why my TO-READ list is now growing exponentially.  Those, unlike the lectures, are FREE to read thanks to interlibrary loan!  ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of George Grant, his blog The Quick and the Dead is a powerful and profound blog exposing Planned Parenthood for what it really is.  It is hard to read, it is hard to think about...but the more the message gets out, perhaps the number "3,300 children murdered each day" will begin to lessen?  Please, Lord?



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And on a much more jovial note~

Those of you familiar with Lamplighter Theatre- there is a SUPER sale going on right now that you don't want to miss!  SEVEN Dramatic Audios for $7.00.  They usually go for almost $200.00 a piece!  (I got both sets 1 and 2!)  You don't want to miss it- and it ends tomorrow at 11:59 EST.  So HURRY!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

I have to say, I am really enjoying this weekly challenge.  I think I can safely say I am hooked.

{Pretty}



  Valentine's Day usually comes and goes just like an ordinary day, except we eat pink and red foods (beet potatoes, anyone?!) and wear pink and red clothes and make silly little valentines for one another.  I don't often get any valentine's myself, even though I kinda sorta live for that sort of woo-ing.

I usually pretty much hate it when people show off amazing Valentine gifts on their blogs~ my color turns green, the monster Jealousy can't be tamed and my spirit isn't too lovely to look at either.  "Show off!" I mutter.  "Stinkin'....stinkin'!" Grumble, Grumble.  It isn't them- it is me, unsuccessfully squelching my discontent.

Well.  It just so happens I need a "pretty" picture for this whole Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real post and the only "pretty" pictures I have taken were of these orchids- so you are going to have to bear with me as I turn into one of those stinkin', stinkin' bloggers.  Take comfort in knowing things like this RARELY happen to me.  Or ANYONE, for that matter.  'Kay?

Matt brought me home the most beautiful (and large!) orchid ever and a wedge of gouda on Valentine's Day.  All I had asked for were some words scribbled out on a note, like the olden days...  so it was very unexpected.

I have an affinity for orchids.  

You'll probably be seeing more of this lovely in the future.  (Just so's you know)

{Happy}

  

 My mom passed this little vest down to me because it could still fit a certain little Bear.  It is handknit, so you know I love it.  It was one of the last things my Oma knit, so it is very, very special.  I wanted to get a picture of Judahbear in it before his big belly outgrew it.  (Well on its' way, as you can see.)



{Funny}
 

I looked up yesterday and what did I find?  A poor little frog on the ceiling.  I know not how he got there or how long he was stuck, but I do know he looked very unhappy indeed about being
there. 



 {Real}

Now you know.   

We are one of those crazy people that hang quilts in doorways to keep out the winter chill.  What is especially worrisome is when the quilts MOVE in the wind.

 (Never a nice feeling.)

Be Mine and a Homemade Crayon Tutorial

Valentine's Day was SO last week...but I took pictures on that day, so I must blog them. :-)




 

The children made heart crayons to pass out for Valentines' Day this year (they have a surprising amount to pass out between cousins and church friends!).  We made three batches before I forced them to call it quits.  The entire dining room floor was covered in crayon wrapper bits- it was time.

Then they raided the scrap basket for fabric bits and stapled (we are Martha Stewart like that) it up.

A few weeks prior to Valentine's Day I overheard a conversation going on in the backseat of the car, basically re-living all the Valentine's Days the two biggles had seen (SO many.) and deciding which was the best.  I thought it was funny that they remembered all the silly little Valetine-y things I had done.  Then, when they had both picked their favorites Corynn sighed and said "Isn't it awfully special that Mama makes us each a Valentine?" and Andrew said something like "Yeah.  I can't wait to see what she does for us this year."

This conversation struck me because:

#1 Valentine's Day hadn't even crossed my mind at that point, and more striking-

#2- they CARED that much.

I mean- they TOTALLY noticed my (little) efforts and, it turns out, APPRECIATED them.

Talk about refreshing. (Motherhood isn't exactly known for its' return of appreciation.)

You'd think that with all that pressure, I would have wracked my brain for a great Valentine idea for them to knock their socks off- but I didn't.  I waited, like I always do, until 10 minutes before I had to give them out in order to come up with something-and QUICK!

 

Nevertheless, their socks were knocked.   I love my children.  So easy to please.

{ How to Make Homemade Crayons }

1) Unwrap all the broken bits of crayons that inevitably break within the first five minutes of opening a new box.

2) Put them in a silicone mold.  The best ones, I have found, have at least one light color (yellow, white, etc) each.  They turn out pretty.  To make SUPER pretty ones, add a few bits of broken SPARKLY crayons.  LOVE those.

3) Bake at 275 for about 8-10 minutes until all the wax is melted.

4) Let cool and pop out of their molds.  

It is a great way to use up those broken crayon bits and a great kiddo craft and a great kiddo GIFT to give.  Win. Win. Win.    

The Mister

 

The Mister had a birthday~ but you knew that already thanks to my frantic whining about such things.  I am happy to report that his gift DID arrive, with 18 hours to spare!  (Thanks for asking!)

His gift was a photo book entitled Remembrances from Hopesteads' First Year, where I printed all the pictures from ALL the projects that Matt did to the Place this past year.  He often gets overwhelmed at all there is still left to do (you people with fixer-uppers know what I am talking about!) so I wanted to encourage him to see all that he has DONE. It is easy to forget where you came from when there is still so far to go but bound together with paper and thread, it is REMARKABLE all that he accomplished.

And you followers of this blog for any length of time must know by now the birthday tradition of Matts' shaving before presents?  Well, THIS year, he got out of it.  (For a day!)  ;-)

I love the man.  

PS.  The food was good too.  :-)

{Pretty, Happy Funny, Real}

{Pretty}

I made a tulip hat for Adele' last Easter to match her dress and never actually showed it to you.   She wore it for thanksgiving and it was left at the hosts' house and was only just returned to us.  We didn't have it for much of the winter, but I have a feeling we will be making up for lost time.  (The free pattern is here.)

{Happy}

They made snowpeople and wanted me to see...and awwww------ it was so sweet! It makes me happy to see children loving babies, even snow ones.

{Funny} 



Two funny stories, perfect for Valentine's Day...

Funny Story #1~ but first, let's set the stage.  (The stage is very important, as you will soon see.)

Matt was working out on a barn alongside HIS FATHER and HIS BROTHER.  MY father-in-law and borther-in-law (in case you missed it.)  The children were working/playing nearby.  They were chatting about something that happened last night (perhaps insinuating things, perhaps not), when Corynn pipes up triumphantly "I know what you and Mama do at night!  I know ALL about it. I hear you!"  to which Matt, rather nervously replies... "Oh- yeah?  What Corynn?"  

"You and Mama have tickle-fights!  I hear Mama screaming and laughing all the time!"

WOW.  Really?  Did that just happen?  In front of my father-in-law?  Greeeeeeeeaaaat.

Funny Story #2~ We were working on "awesome alliterations" and Corynn was sitting at the table coming up with different ones.

"Awesome Andrew"
"Great Grammar"

all very safe.  Until she came up with this one:

"Mating Mattie"

It's all very innocent, I assure you.  But nevertheless, it scares the bejeebers out of me. 

{Real}

As if the above stories weren't 'real' enough for you, you get breakfast this morning!

Have yourself a Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Natal Days

Mom singing to Adele' and Adele' soaking up her attention.

           My Dad grew another year wiser a few weeks back and I had their family over for supper.  I have been trying to get copies of old photos from both sides of the family in order to create a "Heritage Album" and also to get some old pictures up on the wall, so I just happened to have a few photos from when my dad was a little guy~ this little factoid worked splendidly in helping me to create the best birthday dinner table-centerpiece ever.    Wasn't he an adorable baby?  Awwww, Dad.

 Speaking of birthdays-  Matt's is on Wednesday!  His requested birthday meal:

Soup Course (now there are soup courses!):  French Onion Soup

Dinner Course:
Marinated chicken breast
Glazed fruit salad
Three bean salad
Mashed potatoes
Baguette bread

Dessert Course:  White cake with peanut butter frosting (naturally.)

Not a terribly difficult meal, nor a terribly expensive one...a perfect choice! 

As for his present:  I have never waited so long to get a present around for him and now I am waiting on pins and needles for it to come in the mail.  It should have come on Saturday, but didn't (I figured maybe the storm?).  It really should have come on Monday, but didn't (for no good reason at all) and now I am OFFICIALLY panicked. 

I procrastinate on a lot of different things, but never on gifts (well, unless I am making them).  I know how it feels to be forgotten on birthdays and I don't ever want the people I love to feel that way. Ever.  It is rotten.  So basically, I make a poor procrastinator for gift-giving and I fully intend NEVER to wait this long again.  My stress levels can't take it.  )  Please, mailman...come TODAY bearing gifts.  Or... A gift.  Pretty pleeeease....