One of those days...

I really want to make something snacky for myself. Our budget is at a low point and I don't feel like spending nine dollars on a bag of pretzels I will eat but not really enjoy. I don't want fattening snacks all the time, I can make myself peanut butter cookies, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, in a second. I miss snack foods!!! I know, buy rice cakes and peanut butter. I'm sorry, but I didn't even like rice cakes when I could eat all the flavored ones. Fruit - well, I buy that and the kids like it so I don't eat it to save it for them. Cheese and deli meat are gone by day two of being in the house. Ummm, let's see - the one box of cereal I buy for myself (which is always four dollars for a small box while gluteney counterparts are forty nine cents with coupons and sales) I treat like gold, so I don't snack on it dry. I eat one bowl a day and savor my breakfast alone before the kiddos get up. Yes, corn chex are my special treat. Sad, eh?

What's left? I tried making gluten free cheese it type crackers, and after two recipes I found online I realized only cheese its can really taste like cheese its. I want wheat thins, triscuits, ritz crackers, pretzels, something healthy for the love of god!! I know - I can go to any health freak store and spend a million dollars on gluten free food that looks mouth watering and will "suffice" when I open it... but a) we are on a $500 a month food budget right now and b) I don't want to eat food that just barely passes as food! I want the salty buttery goodness of a ritz cracker, the crunch and dry salty wonder of a triscuit. People with celiac disease should be born knowing what they can't eat so they don't taste it, then they won't yearn for real food.

Can you tell I'm having one of those weeks where I'm really food frustrated?

A month later

And we are still doing wonderfully on the home schooling front! We have already breezed through Real Science 4 Kid's Chemistry, it was pretty below my 6th grader. Maybe it's because I LOVE chemistry, but this seemed better for a fourth grader!!! Big kid is eating up Saxon 76 math, loves it, and we have so far covered Canadian and US history (well, up to the war of 1812). We are heading south in our history/geography studies, to start on the Inca, Aztec, and Maya civilizations. I just ordered a set of Science Explorer texts, we are going to use the Life Science book this year. I wanted a more complete science text, and this seems to be a good fit! I am looking into Easy Grammar for language arts, I was trying to find a used copy of Analytical Grammar to check out, but now that I have seen one I think Easy Grammar is more his speed for this year. Maybe next year we'll try AG!

I just found a great site, A Well Trained Mind, and am perusing the forums. I am still so new to home schooling I have no clue what all the abbreviations are! People list their children as dd and ds, what does that mean??? I can't even begin to guess at all the abbreviations for the curriculum they use, they might as well be nicknaming all the fish in the sea...

I was very frustrated today, had to drive to two stores (across town) to get one box of gluten free bread mix!! ARGH! I have been craving bread for a week now, I want french toast!!! Haven't had that in decades it seems, and the stupid Kroger near us stopped stocking the mix. They actually told me to buy Bob's Red Mill mix. Do they not understand how awful that tastes?! I want REAL white bread when I buy a mix to make white bread... not bread that tastes like hummus!!! Good lord, I hate having to eat gluten free some days.

Home Schooling

We have finished week two, and wow am I impressed. Big kid was not only a great student, but I was a)shocked at how much he didn't know after being in the public school system for six years and b)amazed at how fast he picked things up from me! At 11 and having been on the honor roll at school the previous year, he didn't understand how to multiply three digits by three digits, or anything larger. He had no clue where Asia was, or what was in it. We made chinese fried chicken for dinner one night and he made the comment "I really love Chinese food, I wonder what Asian food tastes like". My mouth fell open. His vocabulary prevents him from reading books that are written on a sixth grade level, because he doesn't understand what he is reading. He also reads at a sixth grade level according to the school, yet when he reads aloud to me or even his brothers he is motonous and barely recognizes punctuation of any kind. No wonder this kid hates to read - books are just lots of words strung together for him, not STORIES!

To remedy the reading and vocabulary we have been traveling to the library twice a week. Big kid has been checking out small books that are aimed at boys 8+, and seem a bit below his grade level. He finishes them within an hour, but loves the stories! They are about a child spy named Jack Stalwart, and he travels the world protecting this or that while searching for his brother. I will continue to let him check out the rest of the series, because it is sparking an interest in stories!! I will work in some more complex books, this month I am reading aloud The Darkest Ages series, am on book two. Those books are very Tolkeinish, having people with mythical powers and magical swords and such. He is completely into the story, but he could never read it himself. The names alone would kill him! I hope to someday soon get him to the point where he can read the books he is interested in, not just pick it up and think "I'm not smart enough to read that".

Math is going swimmingly, we are using Saxon Math 67 and he is whizzing right through the book. I love that it is so full of review, he really needs that! Science is really fun so far, we have studied the human body for two weeks and have just moved onto space. Science is my forte, hopefully I can continue to find exciting ways to teach it to kiddo!! Geography is fun for me, sort of boring for him. I moved around so much I never really got geography classes, I had one great teacher named Mr. Festa in Pennsylvania who taught us about indians, but that is all I got! I breezed through three years of world history in one year to get regents credit in NYS so I could graduate, but it didn't really stick with me at all. I hope all of this will help kiddo become a more well rounded adult!

I honestly gave the public school more credit - I am a product of the public school system up north, and I got a good education! However, we are down south now and a lot has changed. It's pretty sad when you think about it!

Savings again!

We have house guests coming next week, so I went shopping for seven instead of five. I got so much meat I could barely fit it in my freezer!! Between Kroger and Publix I got everything we need except for milk (darn, forgot the milk!!). We spent:
Publix - spent $159.80 and saved $81.36
Kroger - spent $88.21 and saved $40.43
I use southern savers to make my grocery lists, and add what else is on our list to the sale items on my lists from both stores. I feel this is a great price to pay for enough meat to feed seven people for two weeks, as well as cereals, snacks, 20lbs of rice, etc. We had so much at Publix things were falling out of our cart! Excellent shopping this week.

Kroger Haul!

I spent $47 and saved $103 on all of this - I was floored. This is what couponing is all about, and I still got a five packs of meat and three gallons of milk! WOOHOO! I'm either getting better at this or I just happened to need everything on sale with corresponding coupons!!!

Daylilies

I have had daylilies blooming for well over a month now out front, and I just had to post a picture! These were all free from our local freecycle list, and wow are they wonderful!

Free Jo-sef Cookies

I posted awhile ago that I won a contest and got a box full of Jo-sef Cookies free. Not only was I ecstatic that I won something, but now that I have eaten half of the boxes of cookies I have to say they are excellent! I particularly like the chocolate square cookies - they taste just like those "famous wafers" in the yellow box! My dad used to eat those as a special treat with me, and it brought back so many memories!!

The cinnamon oreo like cookies and the squares were amazing dipped in milk, and the chocolate oreo types I ate half of and am saving the other half for a decadent homemade vanilla bean ice cream, so I can make cookies and cream ice cream! YUMM!!! I haven't tasted the vanilla oreo like cookies or square cookies yet. I'm saving them for one of those low budget weeks where I don't spend extra money on anything gluten free ;)

I have mixed reviews of the animal cookies. The vanilla ones tasted nothing like animal cookies, but were good as a cookie on their own. They just aren't an animal cookie like you think of, those good smelling kiddo cookies in the circus box. Nothing similar, except for shape. The chocolate animal cookies were or course good, because they are chocolate!

So in the end I was really surprised at how tasty and good these cookies really are! Too bad they aren't sold anywhere around here, I'll have to order more and pay shipping if I want some... which is why I don't buy much gluten free goodies. I can get a package of cookies for $.34 for my family, yet I have to pay $8+ in shipping for a box half the size of what the store carries and twice the price BEFORE COUPONS for the actual box of cookies! Ugh. I guess my attitude is if I am going to spend $13 on fifteen cookies I can make them at home for a much cheaper price.

Father's Day

Hubby is having a good day so far, our oldest bought him a new game, Blur, and they have been busily killing each other racing all morning. The twins each got him a cookbook, one Alton Brown and one full of iron skillet recipes. I love everything hubby cooks in his skillets, most is even better than what I cook! I don't use his skillets... man stuff.

I have decided to stop buying diapers until I run out! I have a TON of diapers stocked up, from getting them either for free or almost for free. I am focusing on getting the last bit of painting done in the house, the kitchen cabinets are next. I love how dressed up a little paint can make a room!

I also traded plants with my freecycle friend yesterday. Today the new plants are wilted and so sorry looking, hopefully in a few weeks they will have settled in and look better. Transplanting when it's 90 out is not the best idea, but she was getting rid of canna and bee balm and I wanted some! They were free, so if they don't work out I didn't lose any money!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful father's day weekend!!!

Kohl's

Wow - just wow! Last week I ran into Kohl's with my mom so she could get a new super nice electric toothbrush on sale, and saw some towels I have been admiring on clearance for $2.99. So I bought towels for our kid's/guest bathroom. At the register we each got $10 in Kohl's cash to use the next week, only good for children's and young adult's clothing. I went back the next day to get washcloths, and got another $10 cash! I went back and got hand towels, and in two more transactions I got two more $10 cash! So I had $50 in kohl's cash!

You can only use one per transaction, so I worked it out so I had five transactions, all for around $10 each. I spent $6.41 and bought six shirts for my 11 yr old, 2 for my toddlers, 1 pr shorts and a pr of swim trunks for the 11 yr old. I was floored at how little we spent, and we had bought ten pieces of clothing!!! Can't beat that, I'll so pay attention for the next time they have a sale like that!

Finally, a good trip to Publix!

We went to Publix this weekend, and saved a bunch! Usually we don't save near as much as we do at places like Rite Aid when we go to Publix, because we are there to buy all of our food for the next two weeks, and there aren't many coupons for things like milk and packages of fresh meat! However, this week I was very proud - while I felt like I was dying from a sinus infection, I still somehow managed to spend $103 and save $56! That is way better than I usually do at Publix or Kroger! I really dislike Kroger compared to Publix, the customer service is miles ahead at Publix, but sometimes Kroger sales are just too good to pass up. Not lately thank goodness!

I had hoped to score some good items for next to nothing at Rite Aid today, but after reading a few posts on various money saving blogs I figured out most of what I wanted was already sold out at the store near us. Sometimes the women who buy the store out of the sale items just get there first! I don't get out of the house early enough to join that race I promise.

Freecycle.org rocks!

Freecycle has struck again - this time we received a beautiful set of vertical blinds to cover our new sliding glass doors! YAY! The curtains we had on the dilapidated patio doors wouldn't work on a slider, so this fit our need perfectly. They are cream colored, which matches anything, and the kids helped me clean them (who knows why it's so fun to clean when you're two, wish that continued!) and hang them up! We have received and given so much on freecycle.org, it's just a great idea. Their mission is to keep items out of landfills, and it is much like a free craig's list. Some areas don't have a very active group, areas like mine the group is bumpin! I love it - clean out the garage, post what you don't want and it's gone the next day. We have received tons of baby and toddler items, and numerous items for our house! You'll hear me mention freecycle often, as we are very active members :)

Mmmmmm gluten free banana bread

I love banana bread, and this was made using my great grandmother's recipe with The Gluten Free Pantry's All Purpose Flour. Have I mentioned I'm writing a cookbook using just their flour? I am so sick of trying to find/use/put up with almond flour, white rice flour, zanthan gum, ew!! I wanted to find one flour to use just like good old gluteny flour, and this is it. The book is two thirds done, and I don't expect to become famous, but at this point I want it for my own purposes (to have all my recipes in one place so I can find them) and to give to a few really good friends who need it. If only there were 48 hours in a day instead of 24...

This is a really simple recipe, from my great grandmother.

*as always, if you are making this as a gluten free recipe check your ingredients to ensure gluten free status! I have brands I am very loyal to, but I still check every time I buy a new container to ensure nothing has changed on the ingredient list.

1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C flour
1/4 C butter, melted
4 ripe bananas
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs. Mash bananas (I just use my hands) and add to mixture, stirring well. Stir in flour and baking soda. Stir until fairly smooth. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for one hour, or until top browns and springs back when pressed.

I Won Something!!!

http://glutenfreegreenie.blogspot.com/

I recently happened across a few gluten free blogs, and this was one I got stuck on for a bit. She is one of the many many gluten free goers that suffer from other autoimmune disorders on top of celiac. My heart goes out to her, I know so many people with "complications" like that! She is also addicted to Diet Coke, and I laughed out loud reading that because I have had to lower my intake of Coke and it makes my entire family laugh out loud when I walk out of a store without a coke, because I will inevitably ask hubby to get me one on his way home! Love Coke, can't stay away from the stuff! And it's even worse now that I have discovered coke rewards, because I get certificates for free coke all the time now! LOL!

She also has some great links to other gluten free sites that I want to check out, as well as some great food ideas. She seems to eat a much healthier diet than I do, I so love my coke and bread... and meat! I love sauce and meat, we had ribs last night and omg hubby had me drooling. I don't even think there were leftovers! I will continue to link to her blog as I have time to read it - just keep in mind I am busy, working from home, learning how to homeschool, speech therapy with the twins, keeping up the house, oh yes but if you are still reading you know just how busy moms are!

SAVINGS!!!

Stopped at Rite Aid yesterday for diapers, and wow what a deal! I bought two packs of jeans Huggies, a coke, a mounds bar, and a bottle of herbal essences shampoo for $6.71 after coupons! Now that's a deal, and to top it off I will make $2 in single check rebates for the diapers! YAY! Great start to June's SCR program. In April I made $40, and in May I made $30 - all in rebates from Rite Aid! Pretty cool!

New Camera

Yep, you'll be seeing many more photos on my blog now that we have a new camera! We were given a fujifilm finepix A920 when the twins were born (two years ago) and it just never really focused properly. It loved focusing on the grass behind my children, or the water they were standing in front of - out of fifteen pictures we might get their faces in focus on three. Not good odds when you are trying to take pictures of your babies!!

We now own a beautiful canon powershot SX120. Hubby has played with this already and loves it, I have yet to touch it. Ah the life of a busy mommy! We found it on sale at target last night, woohoo! I will try to make time to read the manual today while I work from home and try to get some more research in on what science program we want to use for homeschooling the oldest. Moms never get a moment, do we?!

Wow - flowers!

A bunch of my daylilies have started blooming at once, yay! I am so so happy to see them finally doing well and getting established. If you can't tell yet I love gardening but am used to northern climates, all this southern heat gets me confused on what can be planted where! I have covered the front with chinese fringeflower bushes, which I just love, and daylilies. So far the bushes bloomed magenta little fringy flowers in March, and are now a plum purple! LOVE IT!

New Blog To Read

http://glutenfreetasteofhome.blogspot.com/2010/05/giveaway-review-goldbaums-natural-foods.html

This is an excellent site for gluten free giveaways, and to just learn about new products available on the celiac front! I will post more about it later, black bean chili calls for dinner... mmmmmmm!

Car Seat Nightmares

Well, we thought we were in great shape with our car seats for the boys. In January we bought two Recaro Young Sport car seats, and man are they posh! However five months later the EPS styrofoam is falling off the seats, and the company's response was to send us new foam pieces and have us hot glue them in ourselves. Yeah, prove to me that's safe! So I am getting the seats replaced, then will try to sell the brand new ones. Yesterday I tried out the Evenflo Generations seats, but they tore into the boys' necks so much we returned them. We settled on the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite seats, they were within our price range and seemed to be exactly what we want. So far they don't cut into the kids' necks, and the no re-threading harness adjusting is really a bonus. The seat covers are time consuming to get off to wash and put back on, but seem to be great quality. Best of all we bought them at Babies R Us, where they informed us that if we buy the $12.99 insurance on the seats in fourteen months we can return them for the full price we paid to get store credit for new ones! OMG yes, I would LOVE a new carseat every year and a half! Excellent plan - I'll keep those receipts for SURE! Why wouldn't everyone do this?? Well, I did have to call the store to find out about it and am going back today to actually purchase the plans, the salesman who sold me the seats explained it as protection in case the fabric rips... guess I get the bonus for calling!!


*Update 6/1/10
Well, the alpha omegas went back too - the kiddos fell asleep in them and their heads were almost on their knees, which I didn't think was possible in a harness! We have been using the evenflo titan elite something or other, and they are just AWESOME! We'll gladly use these until it's time to trade in, yay! The boys love the seats, they are a perfect fit for two yr old toddlers. They are however huge and don't fit next to each other, so big bro is stuck in the third row seat and anyone who has been in the back row of a Pilot knows there ain't much room for him... and he's so big already! ARGH! I see a minivan in my future... or maybe a suburban? Haven't owned american in years, course I haven't had a car problem since I stopped buying american... isn't that awful?!

*Update 9/1/10
The evenflo seats, while an excellent seat, are down to one. I took the covers off to wash on delicate, in cold water, and one cover came out with the stuffing so stuck to itself it became useless. I called Evenflo and requested a replacement cover at no charge and they said great, but your seat has been redesigned and your cover is no longer available. They told me they would send me a different cover that would work for the seat, and after a month of waiting (borrowing one carseat mind you) I called them back to ask w.t.h. and they said the cover ordered was backordered. Thanks for telling me!! They said they would send me another one, and that never came. Nice. I called in the meantime to the replacement plan, which will only replace your seat if it has a broken part that "compromises the safety of the seat". What??? I can't use the seat because of a fabric defect and it doesn't affect the "safety" of the car??? What the hell ever. I took the seat and receipt back to Babies R Us and got a refund for the insurance, and credit for the seat. Thank you Babies R Us! I was on day 89 of their 90 day return policy, thank god! I am now the proud owner of a graco nautilus. Kiddo loves it, and we realized we will quickly need another since the evenflo shoulder straps don't raise any higher and kiddo is right at the point where he's almost too tall for the seat. Thanks evenflo! I should become a professional reviewer of car seats at the rate I'm going!!!

*Update 12/6/10
We have been happily using our Graco Nautilus carseats since September, they are just awesome. PERFECT! Finally, a seat that will last!!! I have washed them, moved them, and abused them and they are still going strong! Finally...

Pretty Flower, FINALLY!

Ah yes, the first flower finally opened in my garden! I can't wait to see the gardens in full bloom, we worked so hard on them over the last two years, the payoff is finally here!!!

Away time

Yes, I have been away for awhile - allergies whupped my sinuses into a nasty infection, then kittyboo got a UTI. Poor kitty! We have an excellent vet, they were wonderful. Kittyboo is on the mend now, still tripping off the painkillers, but last dose is this morning!

Tried CVS again, usually I can't stand going because every SINGLE item that is on sale where you make extra bucks back is sold out the night BEFORE the sale starts. Yes, they give women sale prices and ECB the evening before the sale starts. That's fair, right? Because everyone can shop at 10pm saturday evening...

Anyway - here's my trip!
bought:
pk jeans huggies diapers
2 right guard deodorants
2 carefree liners
1 schick hydro 3 razor
2 crest pro health toothpastes
1 bumble bee tuna can
bag doritos
2 sodas
pack gum
box U by kotex
12 pk toilet paper

spent: $14.16

I had some great coupons, and this was in five transactions! I flipped extracare bucks for each transaction, so I had some to spend every time I went to the register. Really upset the cashier, but that was not my normal cvs - won't go there again!

I also have been slowly buying deals at Rite Aid, and so far I will be getting $26 in my rebate check the end of the month! Last month I made $41, was a good month in rebates!