Life's Accidental Journey

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Doodie Plops

Beth asked if the cookies I mentioned yesterday were no bake. They absolutely are!

They are quick, easy and frugal (notice I did NOT mention healthy anywhere in that). They are also made with ingredients that I usually have on hand. Which is always a plus. These can also be made without cocoa and the peanut butter plops (as we call them) are delicious in their own right.

; )

You must have all the ingredients measured out beforehand. Down to having the waxed paper ready to go. You simply will not have time to do this otherwise.

Doodie Plops

2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 stick (I know) of butter
3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

Mix all together in a large pot over medium high heat. Stir until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Remove stirring instrument and allow mixture to hard boil for exactly two minutes. Set a timer. Trust me.

At exactly the two minute mark, pull the pot off the heat. Working *very* quickly as this will set up super fast, add:

1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix (quickly, again, trust me here) until peanut butter is almost totally dissolved. This should take no more than 10-15 seconds. Then quickly dump in:

3 cups oatmeal

Stir as fast as possible. As soon as it looks mostly mixed (again, not more than 10-15 seconds) "plop" these out on waxed paper.

They should be ready to eat in just a few minutes.

If you want something prettier, you can always pour them into a pan and then slice them like cookie bars.

After writing this out, it sounds complicated and finicky. It's really not. It's super quick and easy and I can usually get this made for my family in under 10 minutes, including clean-up time. Don't let all of my "warnings" scare you. This is definitely worth learning to do.

Wednedsay Meals

Breakfast:
Eggs with peppers, onions and garlic cooked in olive oil and butter, bacon
$2.00

Lunch:
Me-flax cereal
Girls-Apples, peanut butter, cheese and crackers
$2.75

Dinner:
Girls-leftover stir fry chicken dish wrapped in a tortilla
Mike and I-leftover pork dish from the night before
$.25 (for the tortillas)

Total: $5.00

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Water in my Trunk?

It's a good thing! Really.

I'm a HUGE believer in drinking water. So much so that I tend to have appr. 40oz *before* even a cup of coffee in the morning. I'd heard years ago that that sluggish feeling that people had in the morning could be related to dehydration. Made sense to me. So the first thing I do, while my coffee is brewing, is take my vitamins with *lots* of water. I have this huge plastic glass that I use and I know it's appr. 40oz. I try to drink it all before the coffee is done.

I digress.

When I'm out of the house for a large part of the day it's way too easy to run through a drive-tru and pick up a diet this or that. How often do we order water when we go somewhere? Not enough here.

So a while back I found the flats of bottled water at Sam's. They're less than $4 for 24 bottles. Think how much you'd pay at a convenience store.

And it's what we do now when we are out and need a drink.

Just remember that when people find out, everyone will be asking for bottles of water!

Last Weeks Total

Last week's food total seems to be about $66.00.

Please realize that I do tend to round the numbers a little. Everything isn't going to come out exactly at the quarter dollar mark, but for simplicity purposes that's how I add it.

Our grocery bill is significantly higher than $66 a week. Of course we purchase other things in our grocery cart (toilet paper, soap, razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc). We also purchase some things to drink which I haven't mentioned or added in to our grocery list here. Coffee, teas, frozen juices, bottled water (that I keep stored in my van - more on that in the next post), and sometimes things like V8 juice or small bottles of Gatorade as treats. We'll also buy Slimfast drinks at Sams. I don't drink them but sometimes the girls or Mike will if there isn't time for a proper meal.

I've also not mentioned dessert. And my children have it several times a week. Ice cream or I'll make a cake or brownies or these *fabulous* cookies that are super simple, quick and easy. We call them "Doodie Plops".

I'm also not figuring in snacks. And we do snack here. If supper is going to be late. Or if someone is just hungry for some reason. We keep nuts, cheese, olives, pickles, fruit, Mike's trail mix, etc. And I'm sure that adds significantly to some days budget.

Tuesday's Meals

Breakfast:
Girls- cereal, milk and fruit
Me-Health drink
Mike- His trail mixture and fresh fruit
$3.25

Lunch:
Girls at a homeschool function
Cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese, cheese cubes
Me- Hot flax cereal
$2.00

Dinner:
shredded bbq pork with turnip greens, bean medley and baked sweet potato chips with cinnamon sugar sprinkle.
$11.00

Total: 16.25

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Monday Menu

Breakfast:
Steel cut oatmeal with butter and turbinado sugar
Me-hot flax cereal with butter
$0.50 (the oatmeal was leftover)

Lunch:
Jillian has co-op on Mondays and Julia is here on her own pretty much working. I tend to run errands. It's a hodgepodge.
Chicken noodle soup (thermos), cheese, crackers, apples - peanutbutter
Me-healthy drink
$1.25

Dinner:
Onions, peppers, broccoli and (leftover frozen) chicken sauteed in olive oil with homemade chicken rice.
$2.50

Total $4.25

Monday, January 08, 2007

Sunday's Meals

Breakfast:
Eggs with all the trimmings, bacon
$2.00

Lunch:
Family had a big bowl of steel cut oatmeal (it was rainly and cool and that's what they wanted) with turbinado sugar and lots of butter. (I make this up in a big pot, and make enough for a week or so at a time because it takes about 30-40 minutes to cook it. I'll count the total on the day I make it and then the other days will be $0)
I had my hot flax cereal.
$3.00

Dinner:
Prime Rib slices pan seared in olive oil, cabbage cooked in olive oil and butter, burgundy mushrooms and green olives stuffed with garlic.
The girls had taco's at youth.
$16.50

Total:
$21.50

Sunday, January 07, 2007

New Years Thoughts

I suppose I'm one of the odd ones. I tend to make resolutions. And I tend to keep them. I look at it like a promise to myself. And I like keeping promises to myself.

It's simple things. Eat better. Grow in my relationship with God. Take the time to make each of my children feel as important to me as they truly are.

I've read many "un" resolutions this year. Things that people are not going to do. I think that's great too. I think that's probably harder to do. I'm almost scared to say things that I'm not going to do.

On my accidental journey I've found that so many times when I say that I'll never do this or that, it's exactly what I end up doing. Either because I'm put in a situation that I feel I have no choice. Or there is temptation there to do it where it was never there before. Or perhaps it's just God's way of showing me who is in charge.

I admire those that say they "won't" and then they "don't".

When I was in my 20's and even into my early 30's I thought I had it pretty much figured out. ; ) I was living my life in such a way that I would have no regret. Or so I thought. I used to boast to people that each decision I made, I did it was serious thought to that decision and that I made the best choice at the time with the information I had. And I believed this.

How ridiculous.

Not that I did anything that smacks of blatant disregard for anyone's wellbeing. But some of the decisions I made were purely out of self interest. Or laziness. And I do feel regret. And shame.

But, as my preacher pointed out today, to wallow in that is another form of sin. It's not honoring God to continue to look back and let that be the controlling factors in my life.

I fall down but I get back up again. I brush myself off, knowing that I'm forgiven and that I simply (ha) have to learn to forgive myself.

So I won't say I "won't" do any specific thing. Not yet.

But with God's help, I will say that I will try to get there.

Saturday's Menu

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs with 2 kinds of peppers, onions and garlic with olive oil and butter, bacon
$2.00

Lunch:
Fresh fruit and nuts
$3.00

Supper:
The girls ordered pizza (pineapple cheese) and Mike and I went out to dinner because we had errands to run and because it was my birthday. : ) We brought home chocolate cherry ice cream (which is the only part I'm counting toward the grocery budget and it was buy-one-get-one free)
$2.50

Total:
$7.50

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Friday's Meals

Breakfast:
hot flax cereal for me
boxed cereal for the girls
hubby had this incredible fruit and nut mixture he make (I need to make a picture of that too)
$4.00

Lunch:
Out of house, we used our Christmas gift cards at the mall
(just to document, Jill had a slice of cheese pizza, Julia had Chinese chicken and I had a healthy drink)
$0

Dinner:
Pork slices pan friend in olive oil with onions and peppers, topped with Parmesan and cheddar cheese
Huge green garlic stuffed olives
Fresh avocado slices
The rest of the family had leftover rice dish as well
$3.25

Total:$7.25

Friday, January 05, 2007

Thursday's Meals

Just to document.

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs with onions, peppers and jalapenos cooked in lots of olive oil and real butter, bacon
$2.00

Lunch:
Me-hot flax cereal
Others-Apples, cheese and peanut butter
$1.75

Dinner:
A rice and pasta dish that I threw together to go with leftovers.
$1.00

Total: $4.75

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Thursday Things

There are some things I'd like to keep track of here.

I've always been a little proud of my ability to budget. Particularly grocery budget. I happen to really like to cook and we eat a diet that I consider extremely healthy. It's *not* what many others think of as healthy.

We tend to eat very few carbohydrates. And the ones we eat are whole grain. We eat as much protein as we desire. And we eat as much fat as we want too. But only certain kinds of course.

I do not think that "good" fat is "bad" for you. I think that sugar is bad for you. Pretty much any kind.

Where did I get all these weird notions?

Well, I started off with a nutrition class. ; ) Then I looked at a diabetic diet (a good friend of mine has insulin dependent diabetes). Then it was mostly trial and error. Things that worked for me and my family in the area of weight control (something I've struggled with my whole life), blood sugar, mood swings, ability to concentrate, and then of course the "major" things like blood pressure and cholesterol, iron levels, etc.

Whew.

And let me just say that we are *far* from perfect. We have sweets here sometimes. We eat the "bad" stuff around the holidays like fudge, cake, cookies, etc. We eat fast food sometimes. But overall we try to eat healthy.

A typical food day generally looks something like this:

Breakfast:
steel cut oatmeal
or
scrambled eggs with garlic, onions and peppers cooked in olive oil and butter with either bacon, sausage, or meat that was left-over from the last nights supper
or
an "instant" hot flax cereal (for morning that we have no time)

Lunch:
Leftovers from last nights supper
or
tuna or chicken "salad" with raw vegetables
or
apples and peanut butter
or
canned soup

Supper:
some type of meat and vegetables (most often cooked in the crockpot in the winter or on the grill in the summer)

Snacks are usually cheese cubes, olives (preferably with garlic), a homemade fruit smoothie, frozen juice pops, a piece of fruit, a spoon of peanut butter (the real kind), etc.

Nothing spectacular I know. But it seems that the grocery budget has gotten bigger and bigger. And it's time to scale it down if possible while still following our convictions on nutrition. And I fully realize that it may not be possible to do that.

But I hope to have the fortitude to bore you to insanity with first, what we've eaten the day before. And then to be disciplined enough to do a grocery menu a couple of weeks in advance (to be followed loosely).

So. Yesterday.

Breakfast:
eggs with onions, peppers, garlic in olive oil and butter with bacon.

Lunch:
hot flax cereal for me and ham and dressing for everyone else (leftover)

Supper:
We ate out last night at a little Thai restaurant that we've been wanting to get to. The girls were at a youth function.

Total: $4.50
(Not including the meal out or the leftovers. With the leftovers, I will count the whole meal in it's entirely the day it's made. Subsequent days will be $0.)

Anyone else want to share a typical day's menu?

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Wednesday Wisdom

I don't really have time for a proper post today. I slept in for the second day in a row. I'd not slept well for several nights and then the last 2 night I've fallen into such a deep sleep that I can't seem to get up before 9:30!

I awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs. My wonderful husband had made breakfast for everyone (including my lazy self) and had the girls started on a pretty deep cleaning of the downstairs.

Tell me I'm not a lucky wife.

I'm not really sure where this blog should go. What direction it should be heading. I've been here for several months now, and I've met some really precious women. I've said it before, but it seems like most of the Christian moms that post here are so *young*. And I happen to think that's great. But I can't seem to find where I belong among them. It's hard *for me* (not that it should be for you) to feel like a peer to women that are my daughters age.

And it's not that I don't admire and respect them. I really do. I suppose I'm just in a different season of my life. Yes, I still have what I consider to be young (9 is my youngest) children. And I homeschool. And I stay at home. But I also have a daughter who will be 20 this month. And I'll be 41 in 3 days.

Somehow it seems to matter. I'm not sure why.

Wow. Where did that ramble come from?

Anyway, I like the rhythm of blogs. So for now (or at least today ; ) Wednesday is going to be Wednesday Wisdom. I've got lots of things I'd like to share. Things I think about as I go about my day. But they never seem to gel together in a way that is working for me. So the wisdom can be anything from a household tip to something profound that I've learned in my 21+ years of marriage.

Yours to take or leave as you wish.

Todays Wednesday Wisdom is certainly the former.

Does anyone not know the absolute easiest way to clean a microwave? When I clean the kitchen I run a few inches of very hot tap water in the sink and then pour in a couple drops of dish soap. I use this to clean everything in the kitchen. When I work my way around to the microwave, I put the very damp cloth inside the microwave and turn in on for 22 seconds (your microwave may vary). Leave it closed for about 5 minutes to let the steam come off the cloth and get the inside of the microwave all moist and steamy. Also this allows the cloth to cool enough to handle.

Please be careful as this cloth can get *very* hot.

Most anything in the microwave can then be simply wiped out. Depending on how long someone has left the fried spinach in the microwave without a cover and blown bits of spinach to the ceiling of the microwave and ignored it for 4 days as they continued to warm their tea and various other holiday goodies...you may have to repeat the above process a couple of times.

But it certainly is, in my opinion, the easiest way to clean a microwave. AND...no harsh chemicals to inhale.

That's my wisdom for today. Profound huh? ; )

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Lovely

It was such a nice Christmas. The only thing I didn't get do that I really wish I had was to make lots of pictures. I had the camera back, so I really have no excuse. We did video it for the most part though. We slept in until 7:30 which is *wonderful*. No more 4am Christmas mornings! The girls were all happy with their gifts. They got these new cell phones that they have absolutely not let out of their hands. It's pretty sweet.

I got a heated blanket! I'm in love. I tend to always be cold and I drift off like a baby when I'm warm. So this is a perfect gift for me. I also got candles and many gift cards. So lots of shopping in my future! Mike also always renews my B&N member card. I love that.

My aunt got me this little chocolate pot that melts chocolate for you. Now this would be a lovely gift by itself, BUT it's funny too. I used to make molded chocolates for Christmas for everyone. Boxes and boxes of chocolates. With all different kinds of homemade fillings. It would take 2-3 full days and the kitchen would look like a disaster area. But it was so beautiful and *so* good (if I do say so myself). This is the 3rd year that I've not done it. It has to be done not more than a few days from when you want to give it (so very close to Christmas) and that is such a hard time to commit that kind of time to a project. So the chocolate pot was a subtle hint. LOL Well, that and then asking me flat out where the chocolate was this year. I suppose I'll have to find some way to do it next year. And I love the chocolate pot.

We took the tree down yesterday. It's early I know. But late for us. We usually do it on the 26th. We've been known to do it on the 25th before. I like to get my house back in order. So we got all the Christmas stuff put up for another year. Or 10 months at least. ; ) And I cleaned for an hour or so. I plan to do some more cleaning today. And do a little grocery shopping.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

And So It Begins

We've already had our little Christmas get-together with part of my family. That was this past Tuesday.

Today we go to the in-laws. I was up early making a cake. I made some slaw last night. I think I have everything done. LOL I hope so anyway.

Tomorrow morning is church, of course. Then it's Christmas Eve with my great-aunt.

Lots to bake and do and even groceries still left to buy. It's going to be a busy few day.

And I'm so looking forward to it.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Today

Today is my 21st wedding anniversary.

Where have the years gone? They slip through your fingers like water.

In honor of this day I'm going to list 21 things that I love about my husband.

1. He's smart.
2. He's the sexiest man I've ever met.
3. He has an incredible sense of humor. He "gets" me. I "get" him.
4. He has a huge heart, though he tries to hide it at times.
5. He has the best work ethic of anyone I've ever known.
6. He's determined.
7. He's persistent.
8. He is fierce with his love for our girls.
9. He loves dogs.
10.He loves Christ.
11. Though he probably gets scared, you'd never know it.
12. He never seems to mind handling any bug that happens into our life.
13. He's enthusiastic.
14. He loves my cooking.
15. He warms my side of the bed at night before I come to bed.
16. He always has words of encouragement.
17. He has a calm, soothing presence.
18. His arms. Always have loved them.
19. He roots for the underdog.
20.He won't lie.
21. He listens.

The list could go on, but in keeping with the theme, I'll stop there.

I'll just say that after all these years, he says he still feels like I'm too good to be true. That he's waiting for the other shoe to fall. And I happen to feel exactly the same way about him.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Looking Up

Well, it looks like things are looking up around here. The girls are better (and we've not gotten it yet). They're still coughing this deep chest cough, but they *feel* good now and that's a good thing. Plus the fevers are all gone.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

AND...my camera came back in the mail today! There may be Christmas pictures after all!

I took some pic's of our gingerbread house that Jillian and I made while she was feeling poorly with my digital camera. I'll try to post that later. Though the quality will be poor.

Julia has an overnight tonight, and we have to get a birthday gift for the little girl. We also have 3 other last minute gifts to get and some dog treats for their stockings (I know, we're insane).

Normally, I would feel a bit stressed to have to do this so close to Christmas, but today I just feel so blessed that we're all able to get it done. Perspective is everything.

Note to self: Write about our Christmas party with my family.

Friday, December 15, 2006

This Week

The girls finished their co-op school this week (and Jessica finished her college exams), just in time to get sick. : (

Jillian came down with some type of fever/sore throat thing on Wednesday and is *still* not feeling well. She's been in bed since then and I know when she's in bed, she's not feeling well. Plus, the fever is still there when she's off Tylenol for more than a day. And I would just try to let the fever run it's course. I'm a big believer in the body healing itself. But unfortunately, my girls are like me and get sick (tummy sick) with *everything*. Including a fever. So....in order to keep fluid in them, Tylenol it is.

So about 5am Julia got up with a fever too.

They're both so disappointed because they had the pretty rare sleepover tonight that it looks like they'll have to miss.

Hopefully this will all be gone before long.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Just Another Manic Monday

It's shaping up to be a busy week. Well, its not really "shaping up" to be a busy week, it's *been* a busy week on the calendar for some time now. This week we have something to do outside the house *every* *single* *day* (and many days two different things-including one overnight) until late Saturday.

And then everything abruptly stops for the Christmas weeks. Well, we have our anniversary next week. And a Christmas party with my mom. And the girls and I were invited to the beach for a couple of days at the beginning of next week (that I seriously doubt we'll do, it's just too close to the holiday). And it's my oldest daughters boyfriends birthday.

Nevermind. It's going to be busy right up until Christmas it looks like.

Better get this day going.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Update

Well, BestBuy can't fix the camera. : ( BUT...the part this is messed up has been recalled so Sony will fix it for free! Yay!

But it will no doubt be after Christmas before we get it to them and they get it back to us. After we get it back from BestBuy of course.

I have a 35mm that I can use, but I never realized how SPOILED I am with my digital. I will surely appreciate it more now.

Another lesson learned.

GirlScout cookie meeting tonight for me. Julia has a party for her Spanish class tonight as well. Better go make the cookies!

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