October in Review

Blogging- Goal is 5 times a week or 20 a month. I am staying steady in this area, I have blogged a total of 17 times this month, one less than September. We are finally achieving the balance that allows me time to do things I enjoy.

Reading my Bible- Holding stead in this area as well. I am reading a devotion at least 3 times a week. The goal is for me to have a devotional time 5-6 times a week. One of the things that we are trying to add is a couple devotional time. We had done so twice this week but I would hope this becomes at least 3 times a week.

Preschool with Lily and Kendall- This continues to be an area of excellence in our house. I am spending about 2 hours a week getting everything set up. I also get to "teach" usually one day a week. A school readiness person started coming to the house 2x a month to work with all 3 little ones. Matt really enjoyed this time and learned alot from Mrs. Melissa. Lily is work on numbers to 100, she is also learning about money, so far she has learned pennies and nickels. I checked her on the Kindergarten sight word list this past week. Lily recognizes/ reads 7 of the 30 words. Matt continues to work on reading with her in the evenings as well. Kendall is learning by leaps and bounds now. She recognizes a circle and counts to 10. She has started to memorize the ABC song.

Budget-Overall we did well on budget this month. Groceries still remain a huge challenge for us but after looking at it realistically we will be increase the monthly grocery budget to 800 or 26 a person per week. During October I spent around 550 so that is below the budgeted 600 even. We are continuing to eat out of the pantry until at least we leave for MI.

Halloween... Lily style

Lily and Kendall both LOVE to dress up! The can spend hours at a time changing and playing dress up. Thanks to a wonderful couple at church, we have probably close to 15 outfits not counting various shoes and accessories.

Lily is have a blast this year because she was given 3 chance to dress up and "go out in public." Wednesday night, the kids club had a Princess and Pirate party. Lily chose to go as "Sleeping Beauty." Tonight the initial plan was to go with our friends to a Halloween carnival and then to several "Trunk or treats" but both Zach and Kendall were sick. We decide with the cooler weather it would be best to keep them at home tonight so that we could possible enjoy the church event. But our friends took Haley and Lily with them. Lily was a Barbie cheerleader tonight and return with a bucket of candy.

I have personally never been a fan of Halloween and until the past couple of years just avoid the whole thing. But Matt enjoys making costumes as well as apply just the right make up so he likes to have several people to work on. Lily and Kendall both like nothing better so Halloween is now a fun time just because we get to all dress up. This year our church is have a "family" costume contest and we are going as The Wizard of OZ. Amanda is Dorthy, Kendall is Toto, Zach is the Tin Man, Haley is the Scarecrow, Lily is the "cotton candy" good witch Glenda, Matt is the "wizard behind the curtain' and I am the yellow brick road. I hope to get a couple of awesome pictures to post.

PINK IT UP!

Yeap, I know that is not grammatically correct and sounds strange to boot but that is what today was officially known as at least that Haley's High School. I am very proud of her today and wanted to share just how awesome she is.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. No one in our immediate family has been affected by this disease but Haley has several friends who have been. She was upset to learn that her school had no intention of doing anything to acknowledge this month so she decided to do something about it. She went to the principal and talked about it. This was the first of several meeting with the principal, followed by meeting with student government. Haley was able to not only convince her principal to acknowledge this day but she even worked out that anyone who was wearing pink today in support got an extra break. Haley is still amazed that she is given 100% of the credit for this event and she was excited to take part it in today.

Congratulations Haley, I know that once you can about something you are not ashamed to stand up and be recognized!

It Pays to Eat Pasta

This is something I have never done before but you know a year worth of free groceries or for us 6 months of free groceries are worth it. Click the link below and I get an extra chance to win. Please and thank you


IT PAYS TO EAT PASTA

Wordless Wednesday

Last year was the first and only year that I have dressed up for Trick or Treating with the kids so I thought it was worth a post

Random Thoughts Tuesday

Boy do I have alot of these....

We are going to enter the family costume contest at the church on Sunday night. I can't give away too much but all seven of us are going and we have a theme. I promise pictures next week for sure.

I am working ALOT this week. When I say alot I mean that I am schedule for both the hospital and the nursing home every day this week. This will not last long as of next week I am down to 2 days a week at the nursing home until December. With the change of rehab directors I am unsure how much of the schedule will last but at least for this week I can complain of being tired.

Matt and I are starting a couple's devotional time. We hope this will help deepen our faith and keep our marriage strong.

I have already started a list of things that need to get done before our trip and it appears that it just may be a smooth transition because of the busy week is the one just prior to our trip so I have to get as much done ahead of time as possible.

Potty training with Kendall is frustrating. We think she is starting to get the idea then then she pees in her panties 3 times in an hour. GRRRRR I was so hoping to have her trained prior to the trip but I seriously wonder if this is possible.

Kendall and Zach are now in the same room. We are only using the room for sleeping so it is not a big deal. Nap times are a nightmare. But after falling asleep they both slept at least 8 hour straight last night which is better than average prior to moving them in the same room.

I have decided that we are all are affected by the dreary weather because the mood around here tonight is YUCKY!

Grocery Budget...the good...bad and ugly

I have been really trying to get us on a strict budget this year. One of the areas that I seem to continual struggle in is grocery shopping. As you know, Matt and I decided to clean out our cupboard/freezer starting exactly a month ago. I have been sticking to shopping only for things we are out of and of course CVS. Unfortunately on Thursday we were in town with Costco and went to pick up the items on the list. I can say that we stuck very closely to the list and only add things after discussion. The one exception was "gluten free" crackers we found and bought but Zach because they are delicious and he loves to have crunch foods. We bought drinks for Haley and I at lunch, cleaning wipes, swiffers, milk, eggs, bread, bananas and bacon. Our total was $120 that pushes the total for the month to $420 and with the $40 Matt just took to Walmart for Formula and creamer and diet coke. We are pushing $500 for the month. At this point we are starting to consider if the budget of $600 a month is realistic or should be increase that to $800. At $800 that is approximately $125 a person or $29 a week per person. Looking at the number $800 sounds like a lot but when you take that down to $30 a person a week that seems reasonable, especially when you include diapers for 2, formula and Gluten free foods for Zach and household cleaning products. So I am pretty convinced that I will again increase the budget to set it at $800 a month. But since finding 5 lbs of Hamburger and getting Angel Food in this week. we are also both convinced that we will continue to eat out of the freezers/cupboard until we leave for our trip at Thanksgiving. I am planning on having the first Monday off after arriving home and we most like will make a HUGE trip to Costco at that time unless we realize that we have enough food to go another week. :) Any thoughts or suggestions?