School 'Stuff' Shopping Time!

It's that wonderful time of the year again.  School shopping time, woo hoo....yes some of us love it, some of us dread it.  I am somewhere in the middle. It doesn't matter if you are shopping at Wal Mart, Target, K-Mart, Old Navy, Goodies, Amazon (lucky bastards),  I prefer to shop alone when it comes to back to school stuff, but unfortunately that never seems to happen. 

When I say I'll do the back to school shopping the husband whines "You neeeever let me go shopping with you on stuff for the kids"  (whine whine whine make me look like the bad guy....of course).  Everyone jumps in on his behalf, oh you should totally let him get involved and help, he's their dad after all and your husband.  (Really ladies?  REALLY?   How many of YOU do the shopping by YOUR selves a great deal of the ones telling ME to let him help, glaaaadly shop by themselves...kid free...for the same school supplies I am going after).  So whatever.  FINE....FINE FINE! He can go.  But he has to PROMISE not to whine, complain, gripe, rush, ANNOY, or get short with the kids (or me).  Oh yes of COURSE he promises all of this stuff. (Hahaha, yeh we all know how it REALLY goes down...) 

We take ONE step into the store and it's almost instantaneous...I have a husband complaining about how much stuff we need, how expensive it is, how much this is going to cost, and then freaking out because OMG we still have to get toilet paper and laundry soap and trash bags, and just does it ever end???  The kids are trying to grab "All the coolest stuff' to shove into the shopping cart because they just want it all.  They are fighting over who is going to PUSH the cart (thanks but I got this one guys) and are running into each other...and almost into others because they aren't paying attention and my husband is too busy whining about the cost of stuff and do they REALLY need that particular item??? (And wait...did I get 4 of each color of folder?  Did all of them have the prongs in the middle?  Damn it...were those the washable markers or un washable?  Where the hell is the 8 count markers?  What is my husband whining about now?)
 
Me?  I'm just trying to focus on the damn list in front of my face and read what it is saying and not get the first and second grade lists mixed up so I don't end up getting the wrong stuff for one of the kids.  TRYING not to lose my cool as I try to keep the kids in line and the husband hushed. 
SOOO glad when it was over.  I let the husband handle the check out lane.  I ditch him and I take the kids to the little arcade part and give them a handful of quarters..knock yourselves out kids so Mommy can sit right here on this bench and weep into her Dr. Pepper she swore she was trying to quit, but hey they don't sell vodka at the check out lane....  And the husband can have the melt down at the register when he sees the total.  (It wasn't THAT bad...)

They have back packs, lunch boxes, folders, markers, pencils, erasers, glue sticks, note books, binders, scissors, crayons, dry erase markers, regular markers (sorry they aren't the 8 count because the store here doesn't SELL 8 count they only have 10 and I am not driving myself crazy over stupid markers, just be lucky that 2 out of three of my kids actually ended up with the washable kind, and forget the fact that I bought one sons supplies a week ago and didn't realize they needed to be washable markers, and I just bought regular Crayola markers.  I am NOT going back to fix it.  I'm just..not.) 
 
It's bought, we're done, moving along now!

Yes we bought the cheapest nose tissues to use in the classroom, why yes it will be like wiping their little noses with sand paper, I think they will survive, I always did.  (I save that soft aloe kind for home use thank you very much)   8 boxes of facial tissues to go off to school with my kids. 

 

Antibacterial wipes, hand sanitizer, gallon zip lock bags, and all of that other hoopla.  The joys, the JOYS of back to school shopping.  I ran into so many other parents and grand parents doing the same thing my family was doing.  Mourning the loss of our pay checks on school supplies, and scratching our heads at the requests of the teachers, and going "Where the heck is that stuff at in this store??"  Most of the moms wore the same look as me, most of the dads wore the same look as my husband, and the kids...well they were all itching to get into everything or complaining they were hungry or tired or bored (a symphony of phrases I was hearing from my own kids).  At one point my husband says to me "I'm going to go hide out in the video games..."  (another dad joined him)  Seriously?  After all the whining my husband did to get to come along (aaaaand drag the kids along), and then he's going to bail on me and leave me WITH the kids to search for the damn blasted specific dry erase markers???  NOT cool dude, not cool. 

 

My daughter only needed 4 prong folders this year so my husband allowed her to pick out cute ones because it didn't specify a certain color or type.  So we let her choose whichever four she wanted as long as they had prongs down the center.  Her name is boldly written on the outside of each folder, and my husband has already said if SHE isn't the one using those folders this year and some other kid ends up with them, he's going to have something to say about that because he isn't buying folders for our kids, and then them going to other kids.  (Last year all of the folders were put in one big pile and the teacher just wrote names on them and handed them out to kids, but last year they specified colors and the amount of each color for each student no cool folders or anything like that for first grade, so we sent the specified color prong folders and then they were put with the others and handed out for the purposes needed).  Apparently second grade is a little different?  We shall see, either way...my daughter has 4 prong folders like the paper requested, with HER name written BOLDLY across each folder (and inside it as well).  We also let her pick out two cute note books, because again, it didn't specify, and again, her name is written on them big and bold.  Ok so her name (and my sons names) are written big and bold across everything this year (cept my sons folders which will be used like my daughters were last year). 

 

I understand having trouble buying school supplies, my daughters first year of preschool...and her first year of kindergarten, we struggled.  I was freaking out! We DID manage to get all of her school stuff together and were quite thankful for a program in town that helped, thankfully we had most of her stuff already.  Since then, we've worked hard to buy all of their school supplies on our own.  They may not have the fanciest back packs or art boxes but they have them, and we bought and paid for them with our own money, and that makes us feel good.  Not like we're better than anyone else, because like I said, trust me...we know the struggle is real, been there done that for sure! It just makes us feel good as parents that we can provide those seemingly 'simple' things for our kids.  Even if we do moan and complain about it. 

 

I remember back when I was in elementary, all you needed was a back pack, folder, note book, some pencils, a bottle of glue and a box of crayons and one eraser, and a pair of scissors.  You needed gym shoes for PE and other than Kindergarten (where you needed a beach towel or nap mat) that was all you needed.  Now?  You need sooo much more and I know that MY kids are lucky with their shopping lists, some schools have it way way worse than my kids do so I honestly cannot complain too much.  Here's a run down of what my kids needed this year. 

 

First Grade (x2 since I have twins)

• 1 Package of #2 pencils
•  
• 1 Box of 24 crayons
• 1 Plastic school supply box
• 6 Glue sticks
• 1 Pair of scissors (blunt tip)
• 4 Plastic folders with prongs (red, yellow, blue, and green)
• 3 Boxes of facial tissues
• 1 Backpack (large enough for 8x11 folders)
• 2 Soft pink erasers
• 1 Three ring plastic binder (1" only)
• (not transparent plastic)
• 1 Package of fine point dry erase markers
• 1 Box of washable broad tip markers (classic colors)
• 1 Spiral (wide rule, at least 70 sheets) or composition notebook
• 1 Package of antibacterial wipes
• 1 Box of gallon sized Ziploc bags
• 1 Bottle of hand sanitizer

 For Second Grade (x1 kid thank goodness, haha)

• 1 Package of #2 pencils (no mechanical pencils)
• 1 Box of 24 crayons
• 1 Plastic school supply box
• 4 Glue sticks
• 1 Pair of metal scissors
• (5"pointed Fiskar)
• 4 Pocket folders with prongs
• 2 Boxes of facial tissue
• 1 Backpack (large enough for 8x11 folders)
• 1 Soft pink pencil eraser
• 1 Three ring plastic binder (1 ½" only)
• 4 Thin dry erase markers
• 4 Broad tip dry erase markers
• 1 Composition notebook (wide-ruled)
• 1 Box of 8 felt tip markers (classic colors washable)
•  
• 1 Package of antibacterial wipes
• Please also bring at least one of the following items:
• 1 Package of ink pens 10 count (red, blue, or black)
• 1 Package of pencil top erasers
• 1 Bottle of hand sanitizer

 So it isn't really that bad, I talked to other moms from other school districts near us that have waaaay worse shopping lists!
I'm still not really sure if my daughter ended up with the correct pair of scissors this year. I think it's insane how it has to meet everything down to the inches and brand and tips and oh my.  I'm all like...well...as long as they cut the paper...isn't that what matters?  Back when I was in school the biggest struggles kids faced was finding a pair of left handed scissors if they needed them or heaven forbid if you were in art class and the art teacher got out the art room scissors and everyone got to them before YOU did and you were a righty...stuck with the one and only pair of lefty scissors in the bucket, and there was no one in your class left handed that could trade you.  That stunk, and seemed to happen to me often. 

I also probably have enough erasers and #2 pencils in my house to last my kids till middle school. 

Next up on the agenda?  My LEAST LEAST favorite part of back to school. 

CLOTHES SHOPPING. 

You try shopping for school clothes for a daughter who has sensory issues and freaks out one second that she hates one type of clothing so you move on to what she likes, and then bam a month later that clothing sets of her sensory triggers and she can no longer wear it without wanting to crawl out of her skin and bang her body against the floor because her clothes are "HURTING" her. 

It's a mess.  Jeans.  Are.  A.  Nightmare. 

Socks are hell too.

Underwear for her aren't nearly as bad as they used to be (THANK GOD!)

Dresses, skirts, and tank tops are her favorite items.  However, we live in Missouri and you cannot wear those all year long, especially when you have to stand at a freezing cold bus stop of a morning!

My sons may be twins, but nooo they never are in the same size of clothes, one is always in a bit smaller than the other.  One son has NO butt or hips whatsoever, so his clothes fit him COMPLETELY different. The other son was blessed with his moms butt and hips.  Which can be a whole new challenge. Plus making sure they don't end up with the exact same clothes because I do NOT want to dress my twins identical.  They are FAR from the same child.  However, they have several of the same interests so we have to keep it unique, without them ending up with the exact same thing.  Yay.  How fun is that?

At least we already bought their winter coats, hats, gloves, snow pants! Got those when they went on sale the beginning of the year (thank you income taxes!) 

Then there are the beginning of the school year check ups.  Dentist, pediatrician check up, eye appointments, hair cuts, did I miss anything?  I'm sure I did!  I haven't even begun scheduling those yet.  In fact my daughter has already missed her eye appointment, it was last week and I just now realized it.  Fabulous.

I have a lot of phone calls to make tomorrow.

OH and not to mention that I have to start planning my daughters 8th birthday which is in September, and I'm also planning our first official camping trip too.  Not to mention the fact we'll be having soccer and football games soon too. 

Geeze.  Being a mom is hard work. 

OH and the fact we're starting to squirrel away Christmas gifts. 

*WEEP*  But it's a good thing!

Last year was really hard for us.  I hadn't found a job yet, I was still a stay at home mom (well I had been back to work briefly but my place of employment closed down as so many places in this town seem to do).  So I was jobless again and just staying home with the kids again, babysitting during the week and photography hobby on the weekends when I could.  It was a low blow when my husband was fired from his job literally two weeks before Christmas (If that, I think it was more like a week and a half before Christmas). 

I was devastated. 

We had a small income last year anyway and wasn't going to be able to get much for the kids anyway, but now...it was going to be even less.  I remember I was in the living room watching a cheesey Christmas movie on Lifetime.  The kids were still at school, and I was wrapping the items we had just picked up from lay away, one big item per kid (if $30 per kid is a big item, it was/is to us!)  I was wrapping those big ticket items that the kids had asked for.  I was so happy. 

My husband walked in the door which was odd because it was too early for him to be home, and he was crying.  I was instantly worried.  My husband...doesn't cry. 

He broken heartedly told me had been let go.  My Christmas spirit dried up and withered right there.  I went from Christmas gift thoughts, to OMG how are we going to pay the bills next month??

I was crushed.  My husband's mom had abruptly moved out the day after Thanksgiving (it had been a long time coming, but the way she chose to do it, was really rough and left us in a bind).  So we were still reeling from that the month before, and then to lose the job, the only source of income, other than my babysitting was devastating to say the least. 

I was sad, and depressed. The toll it took on my husband was a million times worse though.  He's always worked so hard to make sure we had what was needed, and this was such a low blow to his self esteem.  He felt like a failure to me, and to our children.  He felt like he wasn't good enough anymore and he had let us down.  It's amazing how quickly things can go from keeping your head above water fairly decently most days to "OH NO WE'RE DROWNING!!!!"  Just like that.

Our family received some beautiful blessings from some close friends, acquaintances, and even some perfect strangers.  I never expected it, but it was so appreciated and such a beautiful gesture. I cried a lot of happy/thankful/appreciative tears last Christmas! I don't think enough thank you's in all of the world could ever truly say how much the kindness of others meant to us.  I hope everyone knows how truly touched we were by the kindness and love others showed to us.

Life is hard.  It knocks you off your seat sometimes and leaves you just barely hanging on.  That's why when you CAN accomplish things on your own, it's a great feeling.  To know YOU bought all of your kids school supplies, or school clothes, or Christmas presents.  However...it shouldn't make you feel ashamed if you need a little help with these things once in awhile.  It doesn't mean you aren't trying, it means that sometimes...life is just hard. 

I am so thankful I was able to find a job (by complete accident, it literally fell into my lap right before Christmas, but I didn't start until after Christmas).  My husband's job fell into place just a couple of months ago.  It was tight, but we made it (so far! We just keep swimming!)  We are so very thankful each and every day for our jobs and how perfectly the schedule works for our family.  I remember crying myself to sleep all December praying to God that we would find something and that it would work so we could still see our kids and not have to ship them off to Day Care or a sitter all of the time.  I remember feeling so helpless and like it was never going to happen, but then knowing that God was greater than our struggle.  It was hard to give it all to God.  VERY hard.  Keeping up the faith was difficult, but I am so glad I did not give up.  God had a plan, and he is great even during the storm, and during the rainbow too!

Tonight my daughter had a couple of friends over to play.  I wasn't really expecting anyone to come over because I was sitting in the middle of the living room surrounded by school supplies writing names and sorting items into back packs.  I had supply wrappers and plastic bags all around me and I kept losing my permanent markers under my legs, and under bags of school stuff.  My sons were leaning all over me asking what was this or that or can we help or can I have that or can we play a video game, or can we watch a cartoon.  Can I have a cookie?  Etc.  You know the drill.  When you are busy, and the kids aren't. 

So no, I wasn't expecting my daughter to come in towing two friends behind her, who I've never had in my house before. 

"Umm hi girls...can I help you?  I'm a little busy right now" 

"Oh it's ok mom we're just going to go in my room and play with my doll house and Barbie's, don't worry we'll leave the guinea pig alone" 

"Ummm ok???" 

The girls went into the bedroom and played for quite awhile, but my daughter the little hostess that she is had to give the girls the 'tour' of the house, and offer them a drink and a snack (sure why not...).  At this point I was in the kitchen trying to tidy up (thankfully we had eaten out tonight and I didn't have to cook).  The girls came in and were standing there staring.  Which is always awkward. 

I asked if they needed something.  They just said "no, we're fine, we just really like your kitchen and your house"  I told them thank you, it's a little messy right now because I've been at work and then we went straight to shopping so I haven't been able to clean up."  The girls didn't think it looked messy. (even though my computer desk and dining room buffet thingy are completely covered in random papers and crap that I need to sort, shred, toss, whatever.  I recently made a joke about how I was choosing my daughters friends by the comments they made about my house.  If a friend comes over and says my house is "messy" because there is a blanket on the couch and 3 pairs of shoes in the living room and a pile of Lego's in the dining room, a Barbie and Barbie car on the table, and a few dishes in the sink...they aren't ever invited back.  If they come over and say the house is awesome and fun...they can come around any time.) One of the girls made me giggle with her next comment "I love your house, it looks like you are rich"  (at that point I decided that girl could be my daughters BFF, haha)
I literally laughed out loud at the girls remark. 

"No, " I said, "we are far from rich when it comes to money! But when it comes to love and laughter we're the richest family in the world!" 



Trust me, we are far from 'rich' in the ways of money.  This is my living room on a fairly average day.  Most of our stuff came from yard sales or friends getting rid of stuff.  Our couch and love seat is used but we love it.  The photos on my walls are ALWAYS crooked thanks to my daughters bed being on the other side of that wall and always being bumped and making the stupid pictures crooked no matter what I do.


I learned a LONG time ago when I was growing up in a single parent home where my Mother didn't work due to her disability and that's the only income we had.  That life is hard.  REALLY hard.  Thankfully we owned our home, so we never worried about having a home over our head, but often times we didn't have a car and we lived 12 miles away from a big enough town to get what you really needed (though the local country store was helpful in a pinch!)  Sometimes in the winter our pipes froze or the ice made the electric go out, and sometimes gas was so expensive my Mother couldn't fill the gas tank outside to heat the house, so thankfully we had a wood stove back up.  Then we had to get wood for the stove. We had our own garden and canned our own veggies and fruits and had a freezer full of deer meat most of the time.  When I was in lower elementary my Grandma made a lot of my pretty dresses and clothes that I had, she was very talented and I loved everything she ever made me.  I never felt out of place and was proud of my hand made clothes.  My Grandma often helped my Mother with my school supplies, and I'm so glad she did.  I didn't hardly ever have a cool back pack or the nicest tennis shoes, but I always had what I needed.  That's what counted. 

I *do* try to give my kids a little bit nicer than what I had growing up, but I don't make it be all about having the nicest stuff or getting the nicest stuff.  My kids play soccer in  Wal Mart cleats, or ones bought second hand.  Most of the time their clothes are from Wal Mart or yard sales, or consignment stores, but sometimes I find good sales on clothes other places too. I figure...why go broke buying them all the nicest clothes when they out grow them in a few months anyway or stain them the first time they wear them (and I don't know about you but when it comes to getting out stains, it is sometimes IMPOSSIBLE to get them out no matter how quickly you wash them or what you use to get them out).  Sometimes...a shirt is just a gonner.

So now, I'm not going to break myself just buying them the biggest and most expensive stuff to make them happy.  Right now they don't care, and I hope as they age that they stay level headed about it, and are just grateful for the things they DO have.  Knowing that SOME people struggle quite a great deal MORE than we do, and that our life isn't all roses and butterflies either, but we still have it so much better than some people do.  Be thankful.

As I remind myself to be thankful tonight, I have to stop and be thankful for my beautiful children...and all of the crazy silly (sometimes gross) antics that they pull. 

Tonight, after bath time, one of my sons (who shall remain nameless, haha) had quite the little confession to make to me. 

"Mom, when I get out of the shower my butt crack is all wet so I use everyone else's towel(s) to dry it and put it back, and they don't know!"  (Followed by fits of giggles) 

Seriously?  What the hey man.  How many butt crack towels have I ended up using and not even had a clue?  Boys are so gross. 

My other son...who shall remain nameless.  Also had a post bath time confession to make.  "Mom, when I get out of the bath tub my butts all wet, which mean I have soggy poop, and that's so funny!" 

What the heck?  Seriously?  What's up with all the butt crack confessions??? All I want to know is that you are scrubbing that sucker and getting it CLEAN, and that you are wiping it properly when you poop.  Other than that...I don't want to know.  Boys. 

I pray I'm not the only mom who deals with gross boys.  *sigh*

I wouldn't trade them and their gross antics for anything though.  But I am going to start making sure I use a clean towel EVERY time I take a shower, no more using the same towel two days in a row.  You know, it cut back on my chances of getting a 'butt crack towel'. 

I better hide the tooth brushes, heaven knows what he is secretly doing to those when we aren't aware!
Never a dull moment. 

Mom Circus

It's a FOOD Blog Today

I love to cook.  I grew up helping in the kitchen from the time I was very small.  My Grandma was an amazing baker, and could cook some of the most delicious meals I've ever had.  Unfortunately...I'm no where NEAR as good as my Grandma.  For instance...ask me to cook rice...like in a PAN on the stove rather than in a rice cooker and my answer will be NO.  I cannot cook rice.  I ruin it.  Don't ask me HOW but I do, unless it's in a rice cooker, and that can even be iffy because on more than one occasion I've forgotten to turn the dumb thing on. 

I also can not melt chocolate.  I can't.  I just cannot melt chocolate at all.  I've tried every tip, trick, direction in the book.  So save your ideas and suggestions, because I can promise...I've tried it and I still managed to screw it up.  To be fair...my Mother can't melt chocolate either, but my Grandma could!

I can make cakes and decorate them quite nicely I mean I'm no where near a professional cake maker/decorator but my kids never complain, and my versions never look TOO far off from the Pinterest versions, so thankfully I don't have too many cake fails from Pinterest *whew*. 

I don't usually get a chance to be creative with foods.  Of a morning it's all rush, rush, rush.  Have a bowl of cereal kids, and out the door you go to the sitters (My Mother in law who doesn't cook much either).  SOMETIMES if they are lucky, during the week they will get oat meal and I will toss in some dried fruit or chocolate chips or peanut butter or something. 

Lunch is usually just something packed up the night before for them to eat at Grandma's.  Last night my daughter asked if she could make their lunch this morning and I was all like SURE! Go for it!

So she made bologna sandwiches (blech!), banana chips, cheese stick, black olives for herself as they are her favorite, apple slices for her brothers, and a big dill pickle for each of her brothers.  I figured, eh it'll do, it could be worse.  They had dairy, fruits (and veggies), and meat, and grain.  All the food groups were there, so I didn't say a word and she was so proud of herself. 



She has been very active in helping me in the kitchen lately.  This past Thanksgiving she made the home made noodles all by herself for the first time.  She did really good! I remember when my Grandma taught me how to make the noodles and getting to pass it on to my daughter was absolutely AWESOME!

Some nights things are chaotic and I'm tired after work and I'm just like NO, I don't want to cook.  Kids...make whatever you want.  Usually they go for cereal, or PB&J.  IF we have corn dogs they ask for one of those.  Some nights it's hot dogs and chips. 

Yep.  Sometimes suppers are lazy around here. 

Some nights, I actually work hard on supper! I feel proud of my accomplishments, mostly.  Of course my least favorite part is the clean up! Right now I have a mess in the kitchen to clean up but I don't want to.  *sigh* Alas, my kitchen does not clean itself.

I've felt motivated to cook lately so here's a few things I've cooked recently! Besides, when you work somewhere, where the kitchen is full of men, and they all brag about how well they can COOK. You get tired of hearing about it, so you may or may not...try to show them up a little bit.  Cook a fun meal take a pic go to work and be like "BAM" how's that for an awesome meal?  Sometimes, it shuts them up for a LITTLE while.  Until they find something ELSE to go on about.


Above and Below:  BBQ boned pork ribs.  With home made mac and cheese and baked beans.  I was feeling BBQ-ey, but the weather outside wasn't cooperating! Too much rain! I'm generally more of a "country rib" kind of gal, I don't like bones in my meat when I cook, but these weren't too bad.



Above and Below:  Thick cut sliced pork loin, breaded with white cheddar Cheez-Its that I sent through my food processor and mixed various seasonings into.  Dipped the pork loin into milk/egg mixture and coated in the crackers.  Baked in the oven.  I used a box of Annie's Homegrown Organic Mac and Cheese that my kids absolutely LOVE and so do I.  I prefer to make my mac and cheese home made, but if I DO use a boxed variety, Annie's is the kind I go for! Also served with a side salad and avocado slices (I looove avocado's and when I find a good deal on them I buy a bunch and have them with nearly every meal!)



Above:  A yummy dessert I've made for quite awhile, but this is a slightly different variation.  I sliced up some apples (we have a surplus of apples at the moment).  I sliced up about three of them and baked them in the oven with some butter, brown sugar, a little bit of regular sugar, and some cinnamon.  When they were tender I placed them on top of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with some of the sauce in the pan from baking them, and I sprinkled dried cranberries over it (You can put pecans or walnuts or other fruits on top too).  I didn't have any vanilla ice cream in the fridge tonight, but I DID have a couple of vanilla ice cream sandwiches, sooo I peeled the graham cracker part off (NOT as easy as you might think FYI) and used those in our dessert.  I really SHOULD make sure I have all of my ingredients before I decide to cook something! Good thing I don't mind improvising!

ABOVE AND BELOW:  This was supper tonight.  I buy a couple bags of frozen five cheese ravioli when I go shopping, it isn't expensive and one bag can feed our family of five.  One of my sons loves the beef ravioli so once in awhile we'll get that one, but the rest of us prefer the 5 cheese one.  I used veggie spaghetti sauce, as meat sauce isn't a fave around here.  Some times if I have time I'll make my own spaghetti sauce, but I rarely have time to do that.  Sometimes when I'm feeling energetic I'll make home garlic bread (after digging out the instructions to the bread machine!) but I didn't feel up to that and didn't have time.  Nor did I feel like digging out a frozen French bread loaf that I buy on sale and freeze to use for garlic bread or bread pudding later on. So tonight I just used regular wheat bread and made my own garlic butter and toasted the bread in the oven on a cookie sheet.  It worked.  The asparagus I bought fresh at the store and roasted in the oven, it didn't come out quite as good as usual, I had the oven up too high and I burnt the tips and slightly over cooked them, bummed because I LOVE asparagus and so do my kids.  My daughter requested cottage cheese so we had that on the side as well.  I had planned on a side salad, but forgot we ran out of lettuce! (We go through a lot of lettuce around here!



Above:  Meatloaf is something my daughter could eat EVERY single night.  None of my meat loafs are ever the same, and they are usually always pretty good.  I wasn't too happy with this particular meat loaf, and  the kids agreed, the texture and taste were off.  I used white cheddar Cheeze It's in there this time instead of oatmeal like I usually use.  It messed with the texture and flavor and we weren't that fond of it, but it wasn't awful.  Everyone went back for seconds anyway! Served with freshly prepared turnips (mmm!! They were a first for my kids and they loved them!), cottage cheese, and garden fresh tomatoes, and sliced avocados, and home made pasta salad.


ABOVE and BELOW:  I LOVE summer time and all of the fresh foods you can find at the stores, and farmer markets and the over abundance of stuff people have in their gardens that they gift to you.  I'm always accepting of garden over flowage! HA!  My OWN gardens never work out sadly! These fresh green beans came from the store though as did the baby potatoes.  We snapped them ourselves and put them on to boil.  I also made home made Salisbury steaks to go with the meal, unfortunately I had to rush back to work and work a double shift so I didn't get to get a pic of the Salisbury steaks because they were still in the oven when I had to run to work.  But I did steal myself a bowl of beans and potatoes before dashing off to work! Later my husband and sweet kids surprised me at work, they brought me dinner all boxed up for me! It took me awhile to get a chance to eat it, but it was super good.

Below:  Country fried steak and mashed potatoes with white gravy (husband doesn't like home made white gravy so he requested the packaged gravy), (and the potatoes were REAL ones not the instant variety my husband *TRIES* to sneak in once in awhile, ew).  And green beans (Tried a different kind of green bean, it was in a pouch.  Normally I get fresh or frozen I do not like the taste of green beans from a can, they taste like the can no matter what you do to them).  I have to say though I still wasn't that fond of the green beans from the pouch either so I was a little bummed.  Actually made this meal the beginning of last week, it was really good!


The above picture also is of my old kitchen plates! Which over the years...we have officially THREE of these plates left.  I figured it was time to retire these old plates! (That I loved because no matter how my kitchen was decorated...they still matched!)  However it was time for these plates to go.  I'm a proud shopper of the Dollar Tree store, and I had been eye balling some pretty cute plates in there for awhile.  So I decided it was now or never so I went in and purchased a set of plates.  They all match.  They are all there, and I love them, the green place mats are new too.  I love my little kitchen table, it's so cozy (to us anyway)!





The glass vases serve as our 'fruit basket' on the table.  Filled with real apples and clementine's.  The kids love being able to pull out a fruit anytime they want. The glass vases I found on sale at Wal Mart after Valentines Day and I LOVE glass vases!  The little owl, my kids found for me at a yard sale and they know how much I love collecting owl stuff so they bought it for me, for a quarter, and now it proudly sits on the kitchen table (it matches the plates and the apples and oranges, what's not to love?) 

 MOM CIRCUS

Summer is Starting to Wind Down

Can't believe July is half way through already.  Time flies! School will be starting back for the kids in about a month, they are both excited and not excited, and so am I.  I always get excited for the beginning of school, mostly because that means fall is just around the corner which is my absolutely FAVORITE time of the year.  Everything about fall just makes me so darn happy.  So school starting...is just the prelude to fall.
 
Unfortunately there is always a down fall to back to school.  A part that always rains on your parenting parade. 

 

Back to school SHOPPING.  (c'mon can we get a collective sigh here??) 

 
I dread the supply shopping, and clothes shopping.  Blah.  I mean, seriously.  WHYYYY?!

 

I understand why the teachers ask for what they ask for, and thankfully the teachers at our school aren't bad at all on what they ask kids to bring in, they make very reasonable requests in my opinion.  However, all of that times three is so much fun....

 
When my kids were babies...they were so much cheaper.  Seriously.  Even with the price of formula and diapers and wipes (thankfully with my sons I cloth diapered and did the whole home made baby wipes things and I breast fed all of my kids as long as I could, which wasn't nearly as long as most people do or what I would have wanted, but it was better than nothing, we made it 6-7 months anyway!) 

 

My daughters crib, while it did cost $200 was also a gift, a greatly appreciated gift that's for sure! We went through a program that is open to everyone in the community to get the car seats.  Most baby products were picked up at yard sales or second hand stores and were all in like new shape.  AND they could be re used with the next kid (or not as all of my daughters stuff got ruined in storage and we had to start all over again by the time I was pregnant with the boys!!)

 

They didn't have a lot of little extra "surprise" expenses when they were little. 

 

Now? 

• School supplies (clothes, and other supplies)
• School pictures
• Extra curricular activities (Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts, sports like Soccer, Flag football, and softball and basketball) 
• FOOD shopping (we always always run out of milk and bread and CEREAL)  We are doomed the older these kids get, they are going to eat me out of house and home. 
• Gas money running them to and from things (and considering at the moment we are 'sharing' my mother in laws van, and that is a SUPER big pain in the ass)
• Bills.  Yeh, the older they get the more water and electricity they use up, which makes your bills higher.  More laundry, more of them forgetting to turn lights off and stuff and what not. Thanks kids.
• Hobbies. Yeh.  Lego's are fun to buy....so are video games.  (not that they get too many of any of those! And they certainly do NOT get brand new video games, thank you Game stop for your used game section, and they are still in that cheap video game stage where the games are like $4-$5 in the bargain bin). 
• Vacation/Outtings.  It takes more to go on outtings.  Hotel if you are going too far out of town, buying up more snacks, stopping at more places to see more kid friendly things....now they are all out of that "kids under 5 are free" age so now I have to pay half price for them.  *sigh*  I didn't take advantage of that FREE UNDER FIVE thing nearly enough ha! So even eating at a buffet costs more now.  Thankfully we've never done much eating out anyway.

I'm sure that's not all of the hidden costs (ok so they weren't really hidden we knew these things would get more expensive the older they got). 

However, watching them grow and love school and learn, and blossom and grow into amazing people is worth every dime invested in them, so I generally don't say TOO awfully much when we pay for something for the kids to do.  I do joke with them and tell them it's time to get a job and help pay for the stuff they want to do, which they are like Hey yeh! That sounds like fun, ha!

As our summer is winding down and I'm scrounging up pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, whatever I find in the bottom of my purse, and in the couch cushions....to pay for school stuff again this year, (yeh I know whose with me on that one?)  We are still trying to squeeze as much fun out of the last bit of summer as we can.

We FINALLY got to have that squirt gun fight in the back yard with some neighbors.  It's been raining so much that our yard has been a swamp.  Now we are in scorching hot temps and the humidity is so bad you can almost literally cut the air with a knife.  Perfect time to send the kids out into the shade of the back yard for a squirt gun fight, right?  They loved it.  We gave them the icy cold water in the water cooler left over from our trip to the drive in on Saturday night to watch the Minion movie.  Hearing them squeal and giggle over the icy squirts of water was hilarious.  They declared it the best squirt gun fight EVER. 

My daughter had a sleep over this weekend, and we are still planning for the boys to do something this weekend with a friend. They don't think it's fair their sister gets more sleep overs than they do, and I have to agree, buuuuut I also know my sons and their friends...and sometimes the boys just aren't ready for a sleep over.  So we've agreed to a 'night' over, where the boys hang out until about 10pm and they play games and all the things that boys do.  When 10 hits the boys will all go home.  I think that will work out nicely.

I hope.

*fingers crossed*

We finally got a phone call from the college about the Art on the Block event we went to in June.  Turns out.... Circus Son #1...well he won FIRST PLACE in his age category! I am so proud of him.  He won a NICE blue ribbon, a certificate, and a SUPER nice 126 piece art kit.  I am just so super proud of this boy! He worked so hard on his chalk art and had planned out what he wanted to draw ahead of time and had drawn several drafts before the event.  He is usually a pretty quiet easy going kiddo.  He has a sweet nature, and is generally kind and caring and has been seemingly ok with his younger twin brother stealing the spotlight for most of their life.  He has just ridden in the passenger seat letting his brother take the wheel.  I have always known that this sweet boy would get his chance to shine, and boy has he found so many chances to shine! He is doing so good in school (loves math, and loves to read!)  He doesn't need as much help on his IEP as they had originally thought and we are both thrilled about that.  He SHINES in soccer, he has truly found HIS sport, and I am so happy for him and I love to see him shine on that field.  When he won that art contest, his confidence boosted so much more and he is just so happy with how well he did, and is really taking a shine to art again (which is something he has always loved to do but his sister kind of chased him away from everything 'artsy' much to his dismay and my hard work at continuing to keep him active in art!!)  This has really prompted him to keep trying. 

My daughter...was ticked off.  She didn't win, and she was mad her brother one and she was on a rampage about it, and so I had to promptly sit her down and have a talk with her about losing gracefully, and that she is NOT the only artist in this family, and that while she didn't win THIS time she might win at something some other time that her brothers do not, and that's ok.  That I was proud of her art and she should be too, and to never compare her art to anyone else's.  She needed to be proud of her brother and congratulate him.  It took her a bit, but she finally agreed that I was right, and she was being mean about it all.  So she finally told her brother she was proud of him, and he hugged and said it's ok and asked her if she'd like to use his art kit with him sometime soon. 

Circus Son #2 was a little miffed about it too and so I had to have a talk with him too.  He got over it MUCH quicker though thankfully. 

In the adult category....

I kicked my husband's BUTT. Whoop  whoop! I got 2nd place and he got 3rd.  Now, it would have been an even SWEETER victory if I had gotten first...buuuut I will take second and be happy about it, because well I still beat my husband.  (We had been picking on each other the whole contest on who was going to win between him and I, and honestly neither one of us expected to place at all, we just wanted to give each other a hard time and compete against each other, because well....to be honest we are both a TINY bit competitive...sometimes...when the mood strikes!)

We got ribbons and certificates too, but no art kit that was only for the first place winner. 

So our family cleaned up nicely at the Art on the Block event, I think!

We had a lovely 4th of July which I shared about in the previous blog.  The kids are in another Vacation Bible School and are loving it, and are enjoying a library program this summer too. 

Otherwise?  The husband and I are just working our butts off.  *sigh* The kids don't like our new schedule.  One of us has always been home with the kids.  We've always managed to have it to where I worked one shift and the husband worked the other shift, well now we both work the same shift.  The kids have to go to Grandma's...and they are not happy about that.  They've never had a regular babysitter before.  My sons, have basically never ever had a sitter before and they are NOOOOT handling it well.  Especially Circus Son #2. 

They say Grandma's house is boring.  I wish she'd watch them at their own home at least 2 days out of the week but that won't happen, and it really makes them sad. So we've been struggling with a few attitude issues with all three kids here and there.  They will adjust, and it's only until school starts.  Once school starts, we will work while the kids are at school and be home in time to get them off the bus, they will only see Grandma on early outs and school holidays (and the rogue weekend we pick up extra hours at the same time).  I can't complain about my work schedule, it's a pretty sweet one. I know a lot of people who would love to have it, so I am very thankful for it.

I try not to talk about work often, because well, work is work. 

Days are hectic, but we still find time to hang out and have fun as a family.  Tonight we are all camping out in the living room because the kids wanted to snuggle with Mom and Dad, and because their bedrooms are just TOO hot (their words not mine, and I do have to agree that the boys' room is a bit on the warm side tonight).  I don't mind snuggling and camping out in the living room with my three favorite children of all time.  I'm so happy to be there mom.  Tonight we had so much fun reading books and laughing and joking and watching classic Felix the Cat cartoons.  Just soaking up the rest of our summer.

Mom Circus

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July! I know it was a pretty good one here for my crew.  We kept pretty busy that's for sure! Our community put on a good 4th of July, and we had plenty of fun in our own back yard too.

We had originally decided we weren't going to buy fire works, but by Friday afternoon we broke down and took the kids out to pick some up.  We got a good deal, and the kids were sooo beyond excited. 

When we got home I threw together a quick back yard party plan.  I re arranged the back yard furniture and we created our safety buffer zone to shoot off the fire works and keep everyone safe.  (We also completed our yard work that was in DESPERATE need of getting done thanks to all of the rain we've had!!) 

We ran to the store picked up some marshmallows, hot dogs, buns and cookies and chips and invited over some neighbors and their kids and we all got together and fired up the fire pit and lit the tiki torches! Glad we could invite neighbors over to hang out.






The kids had a blast roasting marshmallows and hot dogs over the fire pit, and then doing a few sparklers and watching my husband shoot off the fire works.  I have this big thing with letting kids shoot off fire works, I'm completely against it.  I don't even like sparklers, but I try to lighten up a LITTLE bit.  Sparklers (lit by an adult), and snap pops, and yeh...that's all they get to shoot off right now!! Otherwise...they sit and watch in safety.

Meh.  I don't care. Say what you will.  At 7 and 6 my kids are too young to be shooting stuff off, I would like them to at least make it to age 10 or 12 with all of their appendages and eye balls in place.  I've witnessed far too many fire works injuries in my life time (several of them their own father...) to allow my kids to shoot stuff off on their own any time soon.

We wrapped up our evening with ice cream cones and then everyone went home!

Saturday we got our day rolling and while it didn't start out the absolute best....we quickly got that changed and got our 4th on! We had a blast at the park, we rode the mini train, and we splashed around at the pool for an hour before it closed.  The kids loved that, we haven't gone to the public pool in awhile and we all had a lot of fun.  The kids went down the slides and had a blast (well cept my daughter who wore her terrified face the entire time, but she did it, and that counts for something!!) 

Circus family riding the mini train through the park! It's rare we get a family shot of all of us together, so huge thanks to my friend who happened to be at the train station when we were!

Above:  Daughter Circus contemplating going down this slide with Dad Circus.  She was eye balling it, she wasn't so sure about this!! But since Daddy was with her...she figured she'd give it a shot. 
Below:  On the way down?  She is wearing her TERRIFIED face! Clinging to her Dad's arm (he said she has one heck of a grip!!)  (Mommy doesn't do water slides, no thank you, I hate them very much so if they want to do water slides, they have to go with Dad!)  I was proud of my daughter for accomplishing going down this water slide! She didn't go down it again, but at least she did it once.  Later my sons went down the twisty slide by themselves with Dad at the bottom to catch them.




Two (three) family photos in one day?  Sure! Thanks to my OTHER friend for catching this shot of us at the local pool!


At the pool, doing what I do best...talking....imagine that? 

Bounce house fun!



Above/Below:  My sweet kiddos!



Face painting, yay!!



We picked up some neighbors so they could see the fire works later and we also saw an air show, and then watched some awesome city fire works set to music, loved it! When we came home our neighbors shot off their fire works, and well, that was the end of our 4th.  It wasn't anything extravagant, but it was just perfect for us.  We loved being home and having a simple 4th.


Waiting for fire works to start after the air show!




Above:  hanging with my husband waiting for the fire works to start, I think at this point we were still watching the air show.
Below:  FIRE WORKS TIME!!! They were awesome! They were set to music, and it was amazing!




Although I do miss the summers where the kids and I would travel to visit my Mother for a week and have a blast at her place! There was so much for kids to do there and they loved it. Plus it was great to see everyone back home.  Will have to get back home again sometime.

Above: My daughter in 2011 when we went back home to visit my Mother for a week.  Here she was in a local pageant.  She is wearing a dress I made her for the 4th of July.  She finally out grew this dress last year!! I was so sad when she couldn't wear it anymore! Love that dress. Below:  Standing with Mom during the pageant.


Above:  My boys in the local 4th of July pageant one summer when we were visiting my Mother.  My sister helped me out with them.

We added a new addition to our home today.  Our hamster passed away a year ago, and my daughter had wanted a new one, but one of my sons wanted a rabbit.  I wasn't sure which one we should get, but I knew I wanted to get SOMETHING. 

By chance....a gentleman that comes in to where I work was talking to me and asked me how old my kids were and if they were old enough for a pet.  I laughed, and told him how we already have three dogs and two cats and have had a hamster and a beta fish.  He proceeded to tell me about the guinea pig that he knew of that was in need of a home or it was going to be abandoned.  I could NOT let that happen. 

So today we went and picked up this little sweet heart.  (who we do not know what her original name was the guy that had her when we picked her up only knew that she was two, but didn't know her name).  He was kind enough at least to care for her, and to find her a home (for a family member of his). So for that, I thank him very much for keeping her safe!  We are happy to have her!

Unfortunately, she had been kept in a basement, and then in a garage, and all of last nights fire works going off scared the living day lights out of her, soooo she's going to need to calm down and get used to our home for a couple of days poor sweet baby! She is/was used to being handled but hasn't been handled AS MUCH over the past several months so I'm hoping we can get her back to where she was.  She is two years old.  I had guinea pigs growing up and they are the sweetest most social little critters! They look like a hamster and are the size of a small rabbit so I think it was a good compromise for everyone, right?!

I can't wait to fix up her big ol' cage and get it full of toys and fun things for her to do! LOVE guinea pigs!

Now that my weekend is done...I get to head back to work tomorrow.  Oh yay...*sigh*  Days off go by way too quickly.

Mom Circus