Today we officially “moved”. I’m so sad. It’s funny how I have complained about different things that drive me crazy about living here, yet I love so many things about living here as well.

My house is small, but cozy. The houses are all the same, yet so different. My house was built in 1950 so it doesn’t have all the modern luxury of new homes, but it’s quirky and solid. My house is in a city just north of Detroit, but my city has that small town feel in the spring, summer, and fall. My neighborhood is full of busy people but when you see them outside, they take the time to say “hi” and get to know you. I have neighbors that look out for me and my children. We live in a neighborhood that feels safe and we can take a walk to the city offices, library, police station, and fire station. My home is nestled among large maple trees, lots of rabbits and squirrels, crickets, and a host of other neat creatures.

I’ve always told Matt that summer is my favorite time of the year, I think living in this city during the summer is what makes it so special. I keep telling myself “this is just a house”, but after bringing each of my babies here and living here nine years, it’s more than a house, it’s my home.

The other day Peter was looking at a picture of my girlfriend/his godmother’s wedding picture. She got married on a freezing day in January 2001 at the Basilica at Notre Dame. The picture was of the wedding party outside at the grotto.

Peter asked, “mom was this picture taken outside”?
“Yes it was honey”.
“was it snowy outside”?
“yes it was honey”.
“mom, were you and daddy there”?
“Yes we were”.
“was this before or after you and daddy got married”?
“after we were married”
“were we there with you”?
“no honey, this was before you were born”.
“was this taken before or after the dinosaurs died”?
“after sweetie”.

We are still watching our pennies, and doing well I might add. For three weeks running my grocery bill has been under $60. They have been $57.07, $55 and change, and this week I splurged a bit and came in at about $57 and change. This past week I eyeballed my list and guessed I would come in at $47. My total was about $45 but reminding myself I have $70 budgeted, I bought a few extra items. As you read this you probably think I’m crazy, I’m not crazy, just frugal, very frugal.

We are moving in two days so I’m in middle of packing, but I’ll post some shopping lists and menu ideas soon. One other helpful hint, review your most loved recipes, what are the “essential” ingredients, what can your recipe taste great without? If you can skip one thing or two, you can use that money for something else.

I’ve been asked to blog about my grocery savings in the past, so I’ve decided to give it a shot.

I have a weekly grocery budget, most of us do. When we had one child with one on the way my weekly budget was $40. Yes that included diapers. I stuck to it and managed well. It was hard, but we did it. At the time we were struggling financially (hence the $40 budget), but we also received WIC, which made a huge difference. If you or anyone you know is in need of assistance, check out this program, it is wonderful. You may have to swallow your pride, I had to, but it was worth it. As the years went by and the children came, my budget increased, but not by much. It went up to $60/week for a few years, and about three months ago it was increased to $100! Wow, I felt so extravagant when I went shopping. I tried to come up with more things to buy, and get the “fun” type of food. The week I just let loose, I spent around $80.

Well, we’re tightening the financial belt again to decrease other debt. I have (self imposed) decided to go back to the $60 weekly budget. When I tell people about our grocery budget I’m often asked “how to you do it”? I’m going to share how.

Last week I bought groceries for the family (seven of us, yes two are babies, but they still eat food) and I spent $55 and change. This included six lunch and dinner meals, a very large bag of cereal, and diapers for two. Today I went shopping for the week. I eyeballed my list and guessed I’d spend about $57, my total was $57.07. This included six lunch and dinner meals, diapers, and two gallons of milk.
You may be wondering why I only buy for six lunch and dinner meals, that’s because leftovers make great Friday/weekend meals and they’re already paid for.

How is this done? Meal planning for lunch and dinner. I include a few vegetarian meals, so this saves me money because I don’t need as much meat. I serve a few soups as the main dish suppers, they are humble, filling, easy to stretch, and made from scratch. Making things from scratch isn’t that much harder and depending on what you make, you can save quite a bit of money. I also try to look over my menu and plan on making meals that require some of the same ingredients. So, if I’m going to buy carrots, I just make sure they go into my soup, I make them as a side, and I puree them for baby food. When I buy meat, it is almost always ground turkey. I rarely buy anything else, and I buy it in three pound packages. A normal package of ground turkey costs about $3 or $4 for 1.25 lbs. I get 3 lbs for $5.97, it’s 85/15. For those of you who want leaner meat, cook the meat fully, place meat in a colander and rinse it with hot water. This can be done with ground beef as well. You’ll greatly reduce the fat content and have spent less money. I got that tip from the Hillbilly Housewife.
I used to do The Grocery Game, but I found it a lot of work, and too much money. I was spending money on the newspaper (for coupons), my subscription to get “the list” from The Grocery Game website. The system did get me some very good deals, but mostly what is on sale is junk or stuff I wouldn’t normally buy, so I was buying more because it was such a great deal. It was similar to when we had our Sam’s Club membership. I went there to save but always came out with stuff I really didn’t need but bought because it, too, was such a good deal. The day I decided that this way of shopping was not for me was when I had a .40 cent off coupon for Kraft mayonnaise. The mayo was already on sale and with my doubled coupon it was a super deal. By chance I grabbed the Farmer Jack brand, just to compare costs. Despite the doubled coupon and the store sale price, the store brand version was almost .80 cents less than my “super deal”. Why would I pay so much more for the national brand when the store brand tastes the same (in some cases better, Meijer cottage cheese and vanilla yogurt)? For the fancy name? The fancy package? There was no good reason, so I bought the store brand and left the “great coupon” for someone else.

I know some households where they go through a gallon of milk a day or every other day. I am able to keep the fresh milk in the fridge a bit longer by using it for drinking/cereal only. I buy powdered milk for cooking. I find that it tastes very good in recipes and has a long shelf life. When we were on the $40 budget I stocked up on canned veggies when they were on sale. They make me sick to my stomach now, because I ate them for so long and often, but they add fiber and some nutrition and they are better then nothing. Right now my “ace in the hole” is the Value brand at Kroger. The Value brand is the absolute lowest priced of anything. Everyone keeps talking about the rise in groceries, I’m getting Value brand for as many items as I can and I’m saving money. Honestly, it tastes just fine. Today I needed diced tomatoes, I found the Kroger diced tomatoes for .91 cents a can, then I found the Value tomatoes at .49 cents a can, they weren’t diced but if I can get two cans for about the cost of one of the Kroger cans, then I don’t mind chopping them up myself.

I need some sleep, I’ll post more as the days go by.

Today is Peter’s birthday and last night as I was putting Evelyn and Peter to bed. I had hugged Peter goodnight and somewhat sadly said I was hugging my five year old goodnight but would have to hug my six year old in the morning. After that I told them that six years ago my body was expecting a baby and my body had decided that it was time for him to be born. They then asked different questions about me and when Peter was born. I looked at Peter and asked him if he remembered what I looked like when I was pregnant with Margaret. He had said no, then paused, and stated “yeah I do remember what you looked like, you looked like a blowfish but with legs, arms, and a tiny head”.

After I stopped laughing, I kissed them goodnight, turned out the light and thought, “I need to post that one”.

I told Matt what Peter said and I was laughing so hard, that I was crying and I could hardly finish the story. I love being a mother.

The other day Peter and I were talking as I was making lunch. He asked me what water was made of and I said oxygen and hydrogen. He asked me what those were, and I said they were elements. Peter paused a moment and said , “mom, what are elements?” Evelyn didn’t miss a beat and said, “Peter!! You know what elephants are!!!” I did my best to keep myself under control as a laughed at the innocence and sweetness of her response.

**for anyone technical, I know that oxygen and hydrogen are gasses. Sometimes, you just give any answer when you’ve been asked 300 questions in 2 hours.

Today the children and I broke in our new Detroit Science Center membership (thanks to the Freeman family). Mommy, with my five under five spent the day looking at nifty displays, trying out nifty gizmos, walking through the U.S. Steel fire tunnel, and exploring the great new Kid Town. For those of you who haven’t heard or tried Kid Town out yet, GO! GO! GO! It’s wonderful! We’re going back next week for Peter’s birthday.

For the Fourth of July weekend Matt and Peter were invited to go up north with Grandpa and Uncle Kevin, so they were sent off Thursday night.

On Friday at 4:30 in the morning Evelyn woke up crying, saying she hurt her shoulder, I thought she fell out of bed. We cuddled, and I put her back down to bed. Everything is all better, right? Wrong. An hour later Evelyn comes back down crying about her shoulder. We cuddle, all is well. The next morning, she wakes up crying more about her shoulder. Oh, no, I think it’s broken. After calls to the doctor and the urgent care, I pack up all the girls and we’re off to the urgent care for Evelyn’s shoulder. While we are waiting for x-ray results, the girls are talking and snacking, I looked at Lily and noticed she was acting strange. She was stiff, her arms and legs were curled in, she was breathing deeply, her eyes were fluttering. She was having a seizure. This was scary! I called the x-ray tech over, told her what was happening, and started to cry. Lily ended up having at least three more seizures. She was quickly examined, and I was told she could go home, but needed to have an EEG and see a neurologist. Saturday Lily had 6 seizures in a row. Sunday she had none. Monday she had at least 6 seizures, and today she had between 6 and 8. It’s crazy, I’m trying to figure out what might be triggering these seizures.

While waiting for Matt to come home, Lily vomited once (on both of us), and got diarrhea which leaked all over.

The past month has been filled with the children getting sick, sharing colds and such which has culminated this weekend with the following results:

Peter - has pink eye, a bad cough and possible asthma
Evelyn - has pink eye, and a strained shoulder
Mya - has a nasty cold and pink eye
Lily - has pink eye, probable asthma, a bad cough, and random seizures
Margaret - has pink eye and a nasty cold

Thank goodness we don’t have to hibernate this winter, hopefully we’ll build up our immunity a bit and be able to be healthy again.

Just a little bit of American history/legend, from The American Revolution.  Enjoy.

————————————– 

History of the American Flag

Betsy Ross showing the United States flag to George Washington and others

According to popular legend, the first American flag was made by Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress who was acquainted with George Washington, leader of the Continental Army, and other influential Philadelphians. In May 1776, so the story goes, General Washington and two representatives from the Continental Congress visited Ross at her upholstery shop and showed her a rough design of the flag. Although Washington initially favored using a star with six points, Ross advocated for a five-pointed star, which could be cut with just one quick snip of the scissors, and the gentlemen were won over.

Unfortunately, historians have never been able to verify this charming version of events, although it is known that Ross made flags for the navy of Pennsylvania. The story of Washington’s visit to the flagmaker became popular about the time of the country’s first centennial, after William Canby, a grandson of Ross, told about her role in shaping U.S. history in a speech given at the Philadelphia Historical Society in March 1870.

Read the rest