July 30, 2010 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
We budget $180 a month for fresh groceries, and $100 for storage items or things that we’d take a while to go through.
Thats about $45 a week on fresh food. I try to spend the $100 early in the month, all in one go, so that it doesn’t get whittled away by budget emergencies or impulse buys.
What do we spend our money on each month? I thought we’d find out 🙂
Yes it is an odd month. My mom will be visiting, we’ll have a new baby and no energy for food prep, possibly some meals brought over by friends. But honestly, every month could be defined as a weird month—there is very little room for perfection in this chaotic life of mine 😉 So, this is a typical weird month’s budget, itemized:
Storage
(Total July 6th: 100.84)
Assorted Herb Plants: 2.92
Pam: 6.99
Peanut Butter: 5.49
Honey: 15.99
Raisins: 7.29
Wheat (125 lbs): 28
Oatmeal (75lbs): 24.15
Flour ( 25lbs): 9.9
Groceries
(Total July 3rd: 23.16)
Milk (2x): 9.82
Eggs (2x): 4.56
Nectarines 3.13 lbs: 2.41
Peaches 3.1 lbs: 2.39
Bananas 5.07 lbs: 3.87
(misc plastic bags and gst: .11)
Groceries (Total July 6th: 20.90)
Butter (2x): 5.94
Cheese: 9.99
Bananas 4.93 lbs: 3.32
Tomatoes 1.87 lbs: 1.65
Groceries (Total July 10th: 34.37)
Carrots (5lb): 3.48
Broccoli (4 bunches): 1.98
Bananas (5.34 lbs): 4.07
Strawberries (2lbs): 1.74
Mini Cucumbers: 2.98
Red Onion (1 large): 1.99
Peaches (1.3lbs): 1.25
Nectarines (3.3lbs): 3.23
Pineapple : 2.98
Cantaloupe : 2.48
Eggs (2x): 4.56
Whip Cream: 3.47
Bags/Tax: .16
Groceries (Total July 12th: 21.26)
Tortilla Chips (908g): 4.99
*Salad Dressing(950mLx2): 7.58
*Molasses: 4.19
Bananas (6.17lbs): 4.25
Tax: .25
Groceries (Total July ?th:0—Thanks Grandma! Sorry we don’t eat much meat 😉 )
Nectarines (6-8?)
Bananas (6-7 small)
Eggs x 4
Ham
Chicken
Burgers
Hot Dogs
Buns
Groceries (Total July 16th: 9.91)
Cheese
Milk
-superbucks
Groceries (Total July 19th: 38.30)
10lb potatos: 4.99
bananas: 5.05
nectarines: 2.49
watermelon: 4.99
grapes: 4.08
tomatoes: 1.30
butter x 4: 11.88
pkg meat x2: 2.38
buns: .99
bags and tax:.16
Groceries (Total July 22nd: 10.84)
eggs x3: 7.47
cream: 3.37
Groceries (Total July 24th: 17.43)
Milk
Trail Mix x 2
? (Thats what I get for not keeping a receipt, and then having a baby the next day 😉 )
Groceries (Total July 28th: 27.95 )
milk: 4.91
watermelon: 3.97
nectarines: 7.20
eggs x 3: 7.47
bananas: 4.29
*should have been storage, if I had thought and planned that far ahead
TOTAL: 27.95+17.43 +10.84 +38.30 +21.26 +9.91+34.37+20.9+23.16=204.12 On Groceries. Not bad! About $25 over, which could be attributed to buying storage items with grocery money (about 20 dollars worth). Also, the fridge is full, so this food will carry over to next month as well.
July 16, 2010 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
On Sunday a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on our backyard swing with Giant.
Trying hard not to work in the garden.
I was pointing out all of the green strawberries on the plants and telling him that soon we would have lots of red ones to eat.
I was trying hard not to notice the weeds that needed pulling. So easily. But not on Sunday.
Then as we were heading inside, my traitorous feet took me closer to the strawberry beds, and I noticed this:
It’s red!
And there are lots more where this came from (Yes, this picture is sideways. Please try to ignore that. Please also try to ignore the abundance of weeds growing among my strawberries. I know, it’s hard):
Then, maybe a week or so later:
Our first load of Strawberries!
(Sitting on top of our not so first load of lettuce. Did you know that sowing a 4ft x 20ft garden bed with lettuce grows really a lot of lettuce?)
YUM!!! Why did I not plant my whole garden in strawberries?!!
July 16, 2010 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
I really like having my established routine. Or rather, I really like having a plan.
Thus, when my routine is interrupted, I can still insert schooling into the day. Not ideal (my kids, and I, do better with uninterrupted routine). However, life is chaos and teaching kids to be adaptable earlier in life is probably important for their growth and development.
Right?
So we started the morning with a story of Jesus, bringing Jarius’s daughter back from the dead. We talked about how Jesus made it possible for all of us to have life again after we die. Giant thought this was good news 🙂
Then we did our message. I asked Giant how boats move. He came up with a few ideas (sails, winds, motors), and then he ran and grabbed yesterday’s Gospel picture. The one about Jesus calming the seas. And pointed out that paddles (like the one in the picture) also move boats. Talk about connecting ideas!
I told Giant that today’s project was making paddleboats, which would push the boat through the water.
Ettin amused himself by sticking chalk in his toes:
Then friends came over! We had lots of fun playing together and practicing sharing 😉
Mommy also made cute snacks:
I think my skill at creating thematic snacks is developing nicely. Thankfully the kids actually noticed that they were eating sailboats before they scarfed down the apples and cheese and begged for more (No, I did not make more sailboats. I just tossed them hunks of cheese and pieces of fruit and cookies. I have only so much energy.)
Life carried on throughout the day as usual. Then right before bathtime, Giant asked me when we were going to make paddle boats.
Question:
Is it helpful to tell the little ones what you planned for the day’s fun project?
Or not?
Because they remember, even when I don’t. Which is both handy, and not so handy.
As it wouldn’t take me much time to throw together a paddle boat (2 dowels taped on either side of a drinking bottle. Propeller made of egg carton taped together and stuck between an elastic suspended between the dowels), I told him we’d make it for baths:
I’m not sure I could have planned it better!
(And the boats (of course I made 2) actually worked quite nicely for a quickly thrown together project.)
July 16, 2010 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
Yay! Have I mentioned that…..Grandma’s Here?!!!
Morning chores went quite nicely:
(Thanks Grandma!)
We pondered the story of Jesus calming the seas.
Doesn’t that look like an intense pondering face?
On second thought, I do believe he is just biting his nails, like usual.
Ettin is also involved in his usual:
And:
At least he wasn’t eating the chalk today!
We spent the morning outside in the garden, as it was a lovely overcast day.
Which meant I didn’t get to lesson time.
I debated doing it after naps, but that really just doesn’t happen.
So I cleared a spot at the lunch table and carried on:
I mixed up a small batch of edible pb+honey+milk powder dough. Handy when you have an Ettin that eats everything, and it also doesn’t have to be boiled like a lot of playdough recipes (which means an unprepared mother can have playdough in 3 minutes, instead of 1/2 an hour).
We were testing pressure and force, and how the more a force is spread out, the lower the pressure. Because we like trucks. And some trucks have wheels that spread out force better. Which means there is less pressure causing the trucks to get stuck in the mud. Or something.
First we tested coins:
Then skinny wheels:
Thicker wheels:
Even Thicker wheels:
And Caterpillar Treads:
I was quite delighted that my untested experiment (using Giant’s toys to try in the “mud”) worked perfectly. The skinny wheels got stuck and the Treads hardly made any tracks .
Ettin was quite delighted that he got to eat the dough:
July 16, 2010 - Posted by CayleenRae - 0 Comments
We decided to tempt the fates of baby labour and head out to Calgary and Science World this weekend. Oh, and PICK UP GRANDMA!!!!!
After picking Grandma up on Friday, staying the night at Clinton’s wonderful Aunt and Uncle’s home, getting great deals on a crib mattress and bouncer and blocks at a Saturday morning garage sale, and enjoying a yummy pancake breakfast at the nearby LDS chapel, we went to the Calgary Science World (oh man I love that guy! Yes, I am waddling at a slightly slower speed behind my crew):
They had a body works exhibit taking up most of the centre. As this was recommended for older kids, and as we had come to play with our kids, we just went to the Creative Kids part of the Centre. We stayed for about 3 hours and had a wonderful time!
There were amazing lego exhibits everywhere:
This is Giant’s racing face:
Blocks everywhere! Ettin was in heaven:
There were things to colour and paint, things to hit, things to make music with, things to pretend with, things to climb, and things to explore.
Here is Ettin making music with his feet:
They also had art workshops hosted throughout the day. We skipped the cowboy hat making one (mom wasn’t up for paper mache hats to try and take home), but Daddy took Giant to the workshop for making Zip-Line Gliders:
They took them to the tallest point in the Kids gallery:
(I love it when my hubby takes pictures 😉 )
And let them go! (the glider is now behind me. I’m still watching for it on the line. Just a little slow on the uptake)
Ettin played in a bubble.
What you can’t see is him repeatedly smushing his face into the bubble walls while saying, “haa, mom-me.” I was amused. I think others around me were disturbed.
They also had an astronaut cut out for kids to stick their heads through and take cute pictures:
Some mothers might look at this picture and think, “*Sniff* so many possibilities. My child could be anything he wants to be!”
I’m afraid I look at it and think, “Noooooo!!!! I can’t rescue him from there!!!!”
Children are not allowed to grow up, are they?
Oh, and sweetest of all, Daddy took Giant to see the “Artist at Work.” A lady was making beautiful jewelery where kids could come see what she was doing and ask questions. Giant and Daddy also got to make a stamped a copper disc pendant for a necklace (it has “MOM” with some metal stamp shapes hammered on it). It is my new favourite piece of jewelery.
All in all, a wonderful trip.
And no, no baby yet.
