Grocery budgets and what not

I think Adam might have fixed his car, which is wonderful news. I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic because I don't want to assume it's all ok only to have him tell me later that he needs another part. :)

I have been working on our budget today. We got our tax return this morning and I've been trying to figure out what to pay off when and how to budget money to pay off outstanding debts that we can't pay off right now. It's a blessing to be able to reduce our debt, even if we still have some remaining, so I'm pretty excited about all of it.

I looked back in my check register today to get an idea of what I spent on groceries in January. I've been trying really hard to reduce our grocery budget and also limit quick trips to WalMart. In effort to reduce that monthly expenditure, I've been making my own cleaning solutions including detergent, window cleaner, and all purpose cleaner. I still have dishwashing detergent from a small stockpile I accumulated a few months ago, but when that runs out we'll be using a mix of half store bought detergent, half homemade detergent. I still have store bought floor cleaner as well, but will not be purchasing any more and will instead make my own. Though I will greatly miss the scent of PineSol. :) I also purchase a bulk of my meat from Angel Food Ministries, which has been such a blessing for us in the last several months. As a result, we only spent $350 for the month of January on groceries. I know some people spend less than that, some spend more, but I was pleasantly surprised at the amount. My goal is to lower that to $300 each month and this month, I'll actually track the exact amount on food purchases. :) I'll let you know at the end of February how that has gone!

Since today is payday, I've also worked on menus for the next two weeks. I make a list of the meals that I want to make based on what we have in the freezer and what I'll be purchasing from Angel Food later this month. So I made my grocery list based on that and hopefully I'll be heading to the store tomorrow. I hate shopping on or very close to payday, but it's how we do it...just like nearly every other family.

I suppose I could keep typing, but I'll wrap this up so I can clean up the kitchen. :)

I really don't like difficult weather.

So I think I was trying to make this a mostly homeschooling blog, but there's a lot of other stuff going on with us so I'm just going to go along with blogging about everything. The weather has been crazy here for the last week or so. Our heat pump is having a heck of a time trying to keep up and keep the house warm. I've set the thermostat lower than normal and keep a space heater in the living room to keep the chill off. It's working just fine. Unfortunately, the heat pump is located outside, right beside my bedroom. And when it is cold, it hums. Wait, maybe it groans. Loudly. And the noise makes me nervous and I can't sleep with it groaning directly in my ear. So I am sleeping on the couch. Plus it's much less comfortable than my bed so I'm up all night checking on the temperature in the house and covering the kids back up.

Adam drove his car to work on Monday, only to have it break down. Ugh. I hate cars. At first we thought, wait, he thought it was one thing. Then he talked to his friends and they determined it was another thing...a cheaper thing (PRAISE THE LORD!), but now he has to fix yet another thing........ So the car is still broken down, but it's here in the driveway thanks to amazing soldier friends of Adam's, so that's one less thing to worry about. He got one of the parts he needs for it today. That's a blessing. Tomorrow he's getting more stuff. Woo hoo. Then they'll spend this weekend fixing the car, I hope at least. But that's how it goes so I'm not upset about it. Car repairs are a part of life. An annoying part of life. :)

I have nothing exciting going on this weekend. Definitely need to get groceries in the house. We have plenty of food in the cabinets and freezer, just need a few things for the fridge. I want to be sure we get it this weekend as I think we're facing another winter storm on Monday or Tuesday. It worries me a lot because if we do lose power, I'm not really sure where to go. If the weather is bad here, going up north to Ohio isn't going to make things better...just snowier. Not real sure what we'd do. I'm praying so hard that we don't have to worry about that.

And then after we get through this winter weather, we have to deal with spring weather...here in Tornado Alley. In case it wasn't painfully obvious to you at this point, I have weather issues or weather anxiety if you will. I used to be scared of thunderstorms when I was younger. And I'm not so much scared of them now as an adult, I worry more about storm damage and keeping my kids safe. Or keeping them warm and not in the dark.

Oh dear.

Batman doesn't have binkies!

Ok, so this week has been moving along. And lemme tell ya, I'm just excited to be getting back on track. Like a real getting-it-done track. I'm lovin' it! I'm a list maker, always have been, can't help it. Even though Adisson's days aren't crammed full of school stuff, I write down everything I want to get done each day. It has just blessed my soul to be able to look at my weekly plan and see it covered in blue highlighter (what I'm using this week to signify completion of a task). I'm excited that each day we are working hard together. I'm doing my job as homeschooling mama and Adisson is doing his job as my little Kindergartener....and it's WONDERFUL! I'm not saying we're building a Roman empire to scale from lego's, we're just doing what I've selected to do in my FIAR Teacher's Manual, some Math, some reading, some writing, and piano playin'. And it's amazing!!

YAY!!! I'm hoping to post pictures this week of what we've been working on. We're rowing "A New Coat for Anna" and it's going over well with Adisson. He's definitely understanding bartering/trading and he's interested in the process of turning sheep wool into clothes.

I'll overview the week when we get to the end of it, but so far so good and I'm a happy mama!

Otherwise things are going ok down here. I'm blessed because we're still warm enough and have electricity. I'm praying hard that we continue to have these "luxuries" because I hate being without them. Adam's got a cold. He's not handling it well. :) Zander is being just who he is....wonderfully cute and busy. I'm trying so hard to embrace his toddlerhood because I know he's our last baby and I don't want to forget what it's like. Toddlers are just something else. One minute you want to pull your hair out in frustration, the next you are in awe of their complete preciousness. :) I'll miss it when he's bigger and I just don't want to lose sight of the fact that time passes so quickly. So tonight when Zander is up until midnight because he took a late nap, I'll cherish every minute of it. :)

The time is now!

So it's been awhile. For a lot of things. Adisson hasn't had a really good week of school since November. Once December rolled around, we were so busy with the holidays. Then we got home from spending two weeks in Ohio, to me spending three weeks being sick. Like really sick. Fortunately, I have had medication that has been working for the past few days so I'm finalllllly feeling better. I'm not 100% yet, but it's a HUGE improvement...even from a week ago.

So I'm thinking about how things have been going for us as a homeschooling family and I'm less than impressed. :( Adisson's math has been a little intense for us so we've been taking it slow for the whole year. Now I know we won't finish it up before the summer so I don't know whether to keep schooling or to just pick it back up in September when we start school again. Who knows what will change between now and then so I can't really decide. But this week he's going to be reviewing all the things we've learned so far this year in Math so we can move forward next week.

His handwriting is progressively improving so I'm satisified with his work in that area. His reading is also going well. Even when we aren't schooling a lot, he's always reading. I'm grateful for that.

We tried rowing "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge" two weeks ago and again last week, but I was so sick some days that we still didn't get everything done I wanted to. I was really hoping to build a bridge and a lighthouse, so I'm disappointed that we didn't get that in. Oh well, we'll just have to row the book again.

This week, however, we're going to do it right. We're rowing "A New Coat for Anna" and it's going to be awesome! We'll be talking about bartering and trading, weaving, sheep, dyeing, all kinds of stuff!! This is going to be the week that goes back to how we're supposed to be homeschooling, how we're supposed to be living, loving, and learning!

I'll let you know how it goes!!

Been awhile....

Finally! We finally got school started back up again today!

I'm still sick...after three weeks...and exhausted. But we could no longer put off starting back up. Fortunately, I have THE BEST curriculum ever so starting slowly is very easy to do and still makes school worthwhile. :) Thank the Lord for Five in a Row.

This week we are rowing the Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. It's such a great book! We looked at pictures of New York on the internet (pictures I found and pre-approved as safe viewing!), including looking at the lighthouse the book was written about! It was really neat for Adisson to see that the book was written about a lighthouse that truly exists somewhere, even today. It really brought the story to life for him.

He also had math today. Unfortunately, when we stopped doing school work before the holidays, I didn't realize that his next math lesson would be a test. However, he breezed through most of it with little difficulty. :) I was happy and so was he!

His spelling words this week are words I got from the book. He got bored with writing, because he only enjoys writing when it's not for school, so he was allowed to write only half of his words today. Had this not been the first day back to school after a long break, I would have had him finish the list. :)

He also was allowed to pick any book off of the bookshelf for his read aloud book. He chose "But No Elephants!" by Jerry Smath. We both enjoyed the funny book! :)

This week we'll be learning about a few different art techniques, compound words, personification, counting, bridges and lighthouses. We'll also be building our own lighthouse and bridge! That's the topics we'll be covering with Five in a Row. Math will be continuing on with lessons, as we may have to start doing two worksheets a day to finish up the curriculum before the end of the year. Spelling words will be reviewed, with a "test" given on Friday.

Tonight Adisson is out running errands with his dad, Zander is wrapped up in playing with his Veggie Tale pirates, and I am hoping to get the kitchen cleaned up while cooking dinner. Oh and doing laundry. :)

God bless!