Easing Into New Ideas and Routines

I can't think of a better reason (or easier way) to change up some of my current routines (and habits) than moving into a new house. One of biggest things I have been focusing on lately is cooking.

Now, don't laugh. I know I am moving within half a mile of my Mamaw who is well known in our family (extended family too) and community to be the best cook EVER, but I don't expect to be eating there every meal every day.

Mom and Dad go every day for lunch which started as a way for them to keep a check on her when some health problems came up a couple years ago. The health problems resolved, but their lunch routine stuck. How often I join them is something I haven't decided yet.

One of the most important reason I like going over for lunch is that I actually get to arrive early and join her in the kitchen to prepare the meal. This summer when I was staying with mom and dad basically all summer, I did this every day and LOVED it! One day we would cook something big, the next have left overs, and once or twice just did something simple as tuna fish sandwiches. Doesn't matter to me what we fix as long as I get to "learn" more cooking skills from my Mamaw. Not to mention just the conversations and the time spent together is greatly treasured!

My own cooking routine at home has left something to be desired for years. Why? It would take me a year to explain, but somehow we became an "eating out" family. Well, not just "eating out" but "quick" meal family. It got to where I realized the only things I cooked were "packaged foods". Now I am to the point of "gross!" Not to mention unhealthy!

I have been looking at some different blogs about cheap meals. With a bigger house payment and our new town having... well, not sure how many places to eat out but much less than our current town I know, we are looking at eating cheaply at home. This leads to finding more time in my daily routine to cook meals. Breakfast, lunch, and supper.

Now don't get me wrong, lunches are easy. Sandwiches, soup, or leftovers. Breakfast isn't much of a problem either... what kind of cereal/oatmeal/poptart do you want? Even tho most days I am up at an early hour and busy all morning, I don't like big projects (cooking a full meal, a large cleaning task, or a trip out of the house) before 1 PM. So supper is the biggest meal task of the day for us.

In my blog research, I have come across people talking about saving time and money on meals with preparing ahead and stocking your pantry well. I need lots of lessons on these! I plan on gradually starting some freezer meals and proper planning. Expect some blogs about this in the future, I hope!

I started with some freezer meals by accident a couple weeks ago. I bought some hamburger meat in bulk to break down and freeze in smaller size bags. I didn't, right then, have time to do it so into the fridge it went. A couple days later, I opened the fridge to see this big package of meat staring me in the face with that day's date as the sale by date. Don't smirk. You know you have done this too. With good intentions and all. So I thought quick. I fried it all up. Then I separated it and made a pan of Manwich, a pot of chili, some spaghetti sauce, and some taco meat. That all went into the freezer. Thaw, heat, and serve. It was the easiest thing ever! Later that week, when once again, I waited too late to think of what to have for supper, I realized I had some ready made meals.

It didn't take any longer to do those 4 meals than it took to cook 1 meal. Left me thinking what else can I do this with? I found the answer. Almost anything! Take chicken fajitas. Buy the ingredients, put the chicken in a sealed bag (cooked if you want, or uncooked with seasoning packet separate), onions and peppers in a sealed bag, then place them into a bigger bag together with tortillas and seasoning and seal it up to go into the freezer. Make sure to label your bag. When looking for supper, all the stuff is there and ready to go (minus the sour cream, lettuce, and salsa which I keep on hand anyway.)

I do have a FoodSaver that I love for this stuff bc it prevents freezer burn so well! Lots of people seem to do this once a month and have their meals planned out for the whole month, but I don't see that happening anytime soon for me. I may build up to that point, but for right now just having a couple weeks worth of meals ready (or just "put together") is great! What's worse than waiting until the last minute to decide what to cook and then not having all the things you need?

Anyone have some simplified and/or budget cooking ideas?

Food, Baths and Trash

Here we go. Another blog that one day I will re-read and truely miss these days (and consider this a note to myself to remember that I miss it when the future comes!) Would anyone really believe that this is a TYPICAL day with the kids? I truely mean that most days are just like this one...

James made the comment that I was "complaining" about things at home too much. I kindly (well, kinda kindly) informed him that I am NOT complaining. I am just telling him the truth about his kids while he isn't home. I do not mean to sound like I am complaining. When he calls in the middle of me trying to clean up a mess, I am honest and tell him what I am doing. I know while I clean up this one, another is being made somewhere. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy being at home with the kids. It also doesn't mean that I am going to lie to him and tell him that the children are playing quietly in their rooms while I sit on the couch enjoying a cup of coffee and my favorite tv show. That just doesn't happen around here.

Take today for example...

Well, we will start last night and before. I am sick. I went to the doctor on Monday and I have bronchitis, a sinus infection, and fluid built up in my ears. This means I can't breath and I can't hear. Last night, as a last resort, I took my cough medicine at 1 AM so I could actually go to sleep. It knocks me on my butt so I hate taking it unless it is a have to situation.

KL woke me up at 3:45 AM and said "Mom, I am up for the day. I have already tried to go back to sleep and can't. I am going to lay on the couch and watch tv." In my drugged state, as long as she was laying down, being still, and quiet that was fine. She will wake me again if she needs anything, even as simple as a drink of water. Bet she falls asleep because she usually does if she sits still watching tv at night.

6 AM I get up and she is for real still awake. Oh my! I get her off to school just as AC wakes for the day. No laying back down for 30 minutes or so for me which doesn't exactly make me happy, but she woke up in such a good mood, I couldn't be upset with her.

Now, AC has learned to "escape" out of whatever barrier we try to use to keep her in the living room. I guess she has fully explored that room and knows there is a whole house out there with lots of stuff just waiting for her to get into. In fact, the only reason I keep the short barrier in the path is so that it slows her down.... well, did slow her down until today. I went into the kitchen to get her breakfast ready and as soon as I pulled her food out of the pantry (5 seconds? maybe?) she was pulling up on my legs. Tomorrow I bet she beats me to the kitchen, haha!

Breakfast is eaten and we return to the living room for some play time. I play with her and she slaps my face and claws my eyes numerous times. I repeatedly tell her NO! but she laughs and thinks this is a pretty funny new game. I finally give up and turn to the clothes I got out of the dryer earlier. I get them all folded and stacked nicely on the couch (out of her reach I think) and run to get a drink before I put them away. I return to the living room to find all the clothes in piles on the floor. AC is laughing and having a lot of fun playing with them. I redirect her attention, quickly refold and put them away this time.

The rest of the morning goes pretty smooth. She seems happy unless I stop her from getting into something she shouldn't and then she.... well, I guess she has learned to throw a fit. When I pick her up and she is mad I interrupted her, she will basically throw her body backwards and scream. Not cry, just scream like she is frustrated.

Lunch time is my favorite part of the day. It means that she is going to eat, get cleaned up, play briefly and then have her one and only nap for the day. Luckily, we have this down pretty well now and it will last almost 2 hours. Amazing! This child has not napped her whole life and has finally learned that she has to sleep sometime! So, I get out her lunch and put her in the highchair. I feed her 2 bites and the 3rd lands on my shirt. The fourth (different food) bite lands down the front of hers. This means a bath for sure (for both of us) before nap time. She woke up early this morning, so she did sleep for 2 hours this afternoon. I was VERY thankful!

KL came home from school and it was time to deliver some Girl Scout cookies. Being sick, I could only do about half the deliveries today. We will get the other half done tomorrow. Looks like an early supper and early bedtime tonight since KL woke so early and AC had her bath early (and is growing quite cranky I might add.)

After supper, KL decides it is a good time to make AC jealous. She thinks it is really funny to come sit by me and love on me while AC is in the floor playing. AC will come over and "fuss" at her. It really is funny and one day we are going to know what she is REALLY saying. I can tell ya, from the look on her face it isn't nice! At the same time, I so enjoy being able to cuddle a little with only KL too. So tonight, I am not feeling well anyway, so I lay down on the couch and KL lays beside me. We being talking about her day some more and all of a sudden AC appears out of no where. She had spotted us while playing with her blocks. She proceeds to crawl over and hit KL on her nose with a block. Looks like she may have a black eye. I felt horrible!

After this, I decide it really is time to get ready for bed so I put KL into the bath tub. AC keeps going in there wanting another bath, but I have no energy (again only because I am sick... any other day I would let her) to do that again when she isn't dirty. I finally realize she is perfectly happy outside the tub reaching in to play with KL. KL is old enough to watch her (even in that situation) for a few minutes. I remind KL that I don't think she will reach over enough to fall in (because she is still too short), but just in case she does immediately pick her up, make sure her head is above water, and hold her. The bath water isn't that deep and KL holding her in her lap until I got in there would keep her head above the water. So I walk out of the bathroom and into AC's bedroom (right around the corner) and start taking out her trash for trash day. I hear KL scream. I immediately run into the bathroom and see KL jumping out of the tub and AC still on the outside of the tub laughing. Apparently I should have started with the bathroom trash because AC was steadily throwing toilet paper from the trashcan into the bathtub.

All I could do was pick her up and sit down in the hallway and laugh... and laugh... which led to coughing... and laugh... and cough. I haven't laughed that much in sooooo long! I put AC in her crib (where, yes, she screamed the whole time!) and cleaned up the bathtub so that KL could take a CLEAN bath. This part of the situation wasn't funny for me at all.

Finally at 9:30 they are in the bed and the house is quiet again. I only say finally because that is late for us. When I type this, am I complaining? Absolutely, positively not! I love it. I love every second of being home with my kiddos. Who else would put up with their food fights, dirty baths, and fits? Generally, my kids are good kids. They are half of their father, so what else can I expect but to have some rough patches with them? LOL. And again tonight, I will call my hubby and say "you will never guess what your children did today!"

$5 Dinners

I will post more on the reason for my "research" later, but as most of you regular readers have heard, we are in the process of buying a house. What does this mean for us? Tighter reigns on spending around here!

I found a pretty interesting website tonight (thanks to a magazine article) that seems pretty interesting. It is http://www.5dollardinners.com I haven't done a lot of checking, but what I have looked at looks pretty good!

Who can't use some good, cheap dinner ideas?