Taking a short break

As we prepare for vacation, I will take a short break until close to when school starts. 

We were trying to clean out food from the freezer, fridge, and pantry. We did come up with a few things before we left. 

Slow Cooker BBQ Sandwiches (from mashupmom.com)

Whole Chicken with veggies and rice

Be back in a few!

June 15 - 21 Menu

This week, I'm going to have the exact same menu of a blog post from mashupmom.com to compare prices. 

June 15
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Sheet Pan Balsamic BBQ Turkey Meatloaf Dinner

June 16
Lunch: Hubs needed new tires...we went to Buffalo Wild Wings while we waited. 
Dinner: Sheet Pan Parmesan Drumsticks with Veggies

June 17
Lunch: Father's Day lunch at Mexi Wing. 
Dinner: Slow Cooker Black Bean Stuffed Potatoes

June 18
Lunch: Whatever was leftovers
Dinner: Southwest Salsa Turkey Burgers

June 19
Lunch: Hummus and pretzels
Dinner: Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Meatballs

June 20
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Bible Study 

June 21 
Lunch: Boiled egg, cheese, pretzels
Dinner: Sausage, Peppers, and Onions Frittata with Goat Cheese (yeah, we didn't do this. We did pizza instead)



Total: Loads less than her total. It was close, but still less. The receipt got ripped and ruined before I posted. 👎

Her total was: $59.98

June 8 - 14 Menu

I love Aldi. I do not get to go there as much this year as I have in the past. But when I do, I get excited at the GREAT prices! 

June 8
Lunch: We met the Hubs for lunch at Stadium BBQ before we went to Aldi. 
Dinner: Leftovers

June 9
Lunch: More leftovers
Dinner: Turkey Chili

June 10
Lunch: We are having potluck lunch after church to celebrate Vacation Bible School. Hubs made pasta salad. 
Dinner: Hot Dogs and leftover Chili

June 11
Lunch: Whatever was in the house 😀
Dinner: Parmesan Pork Roast with Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes (from mashupmom.com)

June 12
Lunch: Whatever we could find.
Dinner: Naan Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwiches (from mashupmom.com). I shall omit the tomato from mine. The kidlets will as well. Served with fruit. And I added spinach leaves. 

June 13
Lunch: Again, whatever we could find.
Dinner: Bible Study 

June 14
Lunch: Guess what it was......
Dinner: Creamy Gnocchi with Corn (Thing 2 ate this when he was 2 years old and LOVED IT! He was scooping it up in his hands. He LOVES pasta and likes corn, so we will try this again with him). I'm using spinach instead of arugula and milk instead of cream. Served with salad. 


Shopping List:
Original Naan Bread - $3.79
Green Grapes (2.04 lbs) @ $1.99/lb - $4.06
Fresh Mozzarella - $2.79  
Shredded Parmesan - $1.99
Roma Tomatoes 1 lb - $1.69
Ground Turkey 1.2 lb - $3.49
Pork Loin Bone In Chops - $2.82
Pesto - $2.19
Spinach Bag - $1.19
Milk 1/2 Gallon - $1.29
Seedless Watermelon - $3.99
Sweet Potatoes - $1.69
Mango - $0.99
Avocado - $0.89
Yellow Onions - $1.49
Strawberries - $1.29
Brussels Sprouts - $1.99
Cucumbers - $0.49
Blueberries - $1.99
Sweet Corn 2 ears - $0.50
Green Bell Peppers 3 pack - $1.89
Pure Olive Oil - $2.49               
Total: $44.99 (before tax)
Keep in mind, though, that we did not have to buy for Sunday lunch, and we have not bought whatever we need for Wednesday Bible Study. This amount does not cover our breakfasts, lunches, or snacks...nor does it cover what we already had on hand like gnocchi, basil, etc.

During this trip, our breakfasts, lunches, and snacks cost us:
Purified Water Bottles 2 cases @ $1.89 - $3.78
Large Eggs - $1.46 (breakfasts or boiled eggs)
Sliced Provolone - $1.79 (sandwiches)
Shredded Mozzarella - $2.49 (Thing 1 likes to make "cheese roll ups," which is a handful of shredded cheese rolled into a small flour tortilla, microwaved for 30 seconds. Thing 2 likes to make himself "pizzas" with a flour tortilla, pasta sauce, and cheese).
Bananas 2.80 lb @ $0.44/lb - $1.23 (for iced coffee protein shake and/or boys' snacks)
Pasta Sauce - $0.99
Unsweetened Almond Milk - $1.89 (shake)
String Cheese - $2.79 (boys' snacks)
Hummus - $1.99 (to recreate Starbuck's protein bistro boxes)
CinnCrunch Squares - $1.39 (boys' breakfasts and snacks)
Fruit Rounds - $1.29 (see above)
Flour Tortillas - $0.99 
Strawberry Toaster Tart - $1.45 (boys' breakfasts)
Rice Cakes - $1.49 (bistro box recreate - click on my recreations here) 
Gluten Free Pretzels - $2.19 (see above)

For a snacks, etc total: $27.21 (before tax)

Not too bad!

We CAN clean that playroom!

So the boys and I did get that playroom cleaned on Thursday night (2 nights ago). It took a LOT of coaxing and only 4 hours. Well, let's say it would have taken somewhat shorter if both Things 1 and 2 decided to fully participate. They took numerous "snack breaks," "oh! I forgot about THIS" breaks, "I want to play with Legos and not sort them" breaks, and "I want to plan this whole thing out" and waste time breaks. Boys. 

There are still a few things that we need to sort and conquer, but overall, it is finished!

Before - Ewwww

He's excited to be able to play!

A specific purpose for each cubby hole.

Legos to yet be sorted and those already sorted

Much better!

We still need to work on this.

CLEAN futon!!!!!!!!!

Hey, and a place to actually display completed Lego sets!

Let's hope this actually stays clean. Stay tuned. 

June 1 - 7 Menu

I despise menu planning. I like to look at others' blogs and Pinterest to find an already planned menu with grocery list ready for me to print and go. Ha. Not for my household. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are so picky, and a lot of the menus have fish (Hubs won't eat) or something that I won't eat. Plus, Hubs likes to cook. He has the ability to look at whatever we have at home and *POOF* come up with something edible and enjoyable. Me? Not so much. I require a recipe and a detailed weekly menu plan. Hubs says cooking is a stress reliever, so I say... go on ahead, dude. But there are times (like when we are on summer break) that I like to (ahem) help. 

I shall attempt to post what we had for the week. 

June 1
Dinner: We went to Food City to pick up some groceries to hold us over until med-week. We found they had a fruit and veggie tray on sale for $5 each. We got one veggie tray and one fruit tray. It was an automatic $8.98 savings for dinner! And it was quite filling. They looked like the image, but we had for the veggie: carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, and celery (no celery for me!), and for the fruit: pineapples, strawberries, red grapes, and watermelon. 

June 2

We were not feeling like cooking and got biscuits at Bojangles. 😏 

Dinner: Hamburgers

 

June 3

Lunch: Crockpot Stir Fry Steak with Rice

Dinner: Pancakes and Bacon

*I baked the bacon on a cookie rack on top of a cookie sheet on 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I also used applesauce in my pancake batter vs. butter. 

June 4

Lunch:  We ate random stuff around the house 😂

Dinner: Vacation Bible School week - We had "Walking Tacos" which consisted of taco meat, corn chips, toppings such as onions, cheese, tomatoes...all mixed up like Taco Salad. 

June 5

Lunch: Thing 2 had a dentist appointment, so we ate fast food. "Yay."

Dinner: Vacation Bible School week - We had pancakes, sausage, and fruit.

June 6

Lunch: We ate random stuff around the house again. We were super tired and woke up late. 😁 

Dinner: Vacation Bible School week - We had ham, mac and cheese, and rolls.

June 7

Lunch: We had sandwiches. 

Dinner: Vacation Bible School week - We had chicken strips, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls. 

Shopping List:

1 pound ground beef (on hand)
Pack of hamburger buns 
Weber's Grilling Seasoning (on hand)
Yellow onion (on hand)
Tomato
Spicy yellow mustard (on hand)
Sticky Fingers BBQ sauce (on hand)
Pickles (on hand)
Avocado (on hand)
Pepper Jack Cheese (on hand)
Premade Stir Fry veggies at Food City
Sirloin Steak
Precut Broccoli and Cauliflower package (on hand)
Soy sauce (on hand)
Orange juice (on hand)
Red wine
Salt & pepper (on hand)
Garlic (on hand)
Oregano  (on hand)
Rice (on hand)

Total: Well, we threw away the receipt. Bummer.

Hey June!

Today is June 1st! Woah, 2018 is flashing by. 

It is wayyyyy past time to purge *stuff* in this house. Since the kidlets were born, this house has exploded into a giant heap of *stuff* like kid toys, school papers, kid clothes, etc etc etc etc and etc. I thought at least when they grew out of the "big stuff" like high chairs, playpens, cribs, bouncers, and walkers that there would be more room in the house. However, those things quickly got replaced by game consoles, DVDs, games, big boy clothes, sports stuff, books, and Legos. OOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhHHHHhhhhhh, the ever increasing stockpile of Legos. I like Legos. I like them when they are put together....and they STAY together. Otherwise, you have random little Legos to welcome stab you in the heel of your foot or to be lost when you actually WANT to put the Lego set together. 

Mission for today: Find and sort Lego pieces. Yes.

Thing 1 was doing a pretty decent job at this, while Thing 2...well...he likes to make his own creations and not be TOO helpful. He says he's "too tired." Mmhmm. You'll see how "too tired" Mama is when you ask for lunch 😜. 

Good job, Thing 1!

The almost completed expected result

These are the types of things Thing 2 likes to create. This, ladies and gents, is the Solar System. 

What we have done so far is take apart the random pieces that we have found and sort them by color. We have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink/purple, white, brown, light gray, dark gray, and black. I already had the containers from when I used to scrapbook. I had a Mickey Mouse head paper punch with which I punched the specific colors of paper to somewhat label the color of paper I had in that drawer. Well, with kids, I have had to put aside my hobbies and make space for the previously mentioned *stuff.* For example: Paper containers turn into Lego containers. It's alllllll good. 

This is a set that I hope to find and recreate soon.

It has a toilet, which I thought was hilarious. 

The goal is to have all the Legos sorted and around 80% of all of our Lego sets recreated and somewhat displayed. Where? I have no idea. But this is the goal regardless. 

Next: our goal is to tackle THIS. 

I may need a giant mug of coffee for this one. 

Ta ta!

Allyssa

Hello Summer 2018!

Let's try this again. I'm Allyssa. Mom of 2 boys, wife of 1 pastor/director of workforce development dude. I work at a school as an Instructional Assistant. What does that mean? Good question. Once upon a time, I used to blog a lot. It was mostly because I did not have children, yet. I posted some rather ridiculously feisty posts while pregnant, which is sooooo very much not my typical personality. I know, I know, being preggers sometimes does "crazy" things to you, but I really did not have many of those symptoms. Thus, after having Thing 1, the blogging, among numerous other things, stopped. 

I told myself once school was out for summer (go ahead, sing the song, you know you want to) that I would attempt to get back into the habit. Plus, I also used to scrapbook, and blogging was a *sort of* online scrapbook. Another thing was in November of 2017, my laptop "ate" some of my precious photos. Anyone who knows me will know that photos and memories are a HUGE deal to me. So, by blogging my memories, I could keep them safe here on a blog. 

We have been out of school for one week. My goal was to give us a week to "recover" from school and have a few restful days before we needed to get our rears in gear and clean this house. We need to go through clothes, toys, random stuff, etc etc etc. You get me? When Thing 1 and Thing 2 were younger and I stayed home from work, I had 4 tote boxes, labeled Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4. I got all of their toys and sorted them by similarity, for example, we had 3 types of musical instrument things. One instrument went into the "Week 1" tote, the second went into the "Week 2" tote... you get the idea. The motivation was simple, I wanted to free ourselves of extreme clutter, wanted to see what they ACTUALLY played with, and then I could clean and sanitize the toys I put in the previous week's totes. That was a great habit, until they discovered the totes, and all the organized "stuff" went to a mass of mess all over the house. Yay. Not fun. Not a fine Mommy moment for me, either. 

Through the past 4 school years, when Thing 1 started Kindergarten, I went from the mom who dropped her kid off and picked him up...only volunteering a few times to full-time staff at the school. It's quite comical when you see the progression. Be patient...this is long and wordy. 

K: school interaction was drop off, pick up, volunteer a few times (Thing 2 was only 3 years old and went to preschool twice a week). Anyway, I'd volunteered in the school's Santa Shoppe, run by the school's PTO. Apparently, I had a memorable interaction with some of the students, and I only say this because I was told this numerous times. The last few days of school, I happened to be at the school, a PTO Board member grabbed me, and told me I was going with her. Uhhhhh, where? A PTO meeting. Somehow, I do NOT know how, but I left there as the new Volunteer Coordinator for the next school year. How do I get myself into these situations?
1st grade: Thing 2 was in PreK (Monday-Friday until 1:30), so I had more time to volunteer, which was great, because, well, remember? I'm the new Volunteer Coordinator. I spent a LOAD of more time at the school, but I also had more time to grocery shop and personal "me time." "Me time" translates to "there is no noise in the house, I can clean it without interruption, I can go wherever I want without having to constantly watch others (aka children) and hearing them say, 'I WANT I WANT,' and GOSH DARN IT...I can just sit and stare at the wall if I want to." And oooooooh, do I miss my solo SuperTarget runs. Those were the days. I would hook my phone up to the Target Wifi, get a Starbucks (because 'Allyssa' is also synonymous with 'Starbucks.' It's like my Salt to my Pepper, my Mac to my Cheese, my Jelly to my Peanut Butter...), put on some Pandora music, and shop away with NO OTHER NOISE. <insert a long sigh>. But those days were dwindling more and more throughout the school year. More PTO responsibilities...and it had been suggested to me that I be a substitute teacher. After a few months of weighing out the pros and cons, I finally did the necessary paperwork, fingerprinting, etc to become a substitute teacher. It was March 2016, I had just completed Substitute Teacher Training. I had gone by the school to drop off about 3/4 of a birthday cake for Scottamus (the hubs - I never call him by his name, by the way) that we were NOT going to eat. I figured teachers and staff would enjoy that...and they did. But as I had come to the office, telling the Secretary of my plans, she had stopped me mid-sentence and asked if I were on the sub list. I told her I had JUST come from training. She proceeds to ask if I wanted to sub. "TODAY?!?!?!" I asked. So, this deer in headlights person got to sub, with no preparation, in the most wretched, awful, horrible class...EVER that school year. I had heard several teachers say, when they saw me with the class, "Yep, she won't be back." Yes, it was a day straight out of Hades. At the same time, I have a Psychology degree, and I've worked in a Mental Health Hospital. I've been through MUCH MUCH MUCH worse. Not only did I return the next day to sub, but it was with the SAME wretched class. After that, teachers started asking me for my phone number. It really was funny. And to think, these were the 2nd graders who just "graduated" from the school this year. Anyway, long story to show the progression. 
2nd grade: Thing 2 is now in K. I'm no longer the Volunteer Coordinator because that position got "deleted." HA! I am now the Yearbook Guru, among other things. I'm pretty much booked 20 or so days to sub after the first 2 weeks of school. March 2017, I'm asked to be part-time with a PreK child, being their one-on-one staff person. I had this child for 7 weeks. Holy...I think I aged several years due to the stress of this classroom. They were 10 times worse than the previous classroom from my 1st subbing day. I am NOT joking. After the school year was over, I think I had subbed 125 of 170something days. I really did enjoy it. So now, I'm asked to be full-time. 
3rd grade: Thing 1 is at a new school, but Thing 2 is in 1st grade now. I'm still in PTO, doing the yearbook again, but PTO is majorly suffering this school year. I started out being one-on-one with a physically handicapped student (among other disabilities), but I also monitored 2 others with autism. One moved away, and the other had to overcome several MAJOR obstacles. But this one did SUPER and is moving on to the new school next year. My one-on-one, let's call this student "Personalty"...well...I don't want to get myself started. This one made me laugh and cry. Cry for joy, cry for being stressed, and cry for sadness. Geez Louise...I knew I would get attached, and I knew I would cry at the end of the school year. Never once did I think that I would flat out "UGLY cry." But...I did. I UGLY "ugly cried." It was bad. So bad that I hyperventilated. I was happy for the overwhelming progress "Personality" made, but I was also super sad to see "Personality" go to the new school. And.......who knows what I will end up having next school year. 

I say all of this to hopefully encourage any stay-at-home parents who may feel "worthless" to society. Trust me, I know how it feels. I got so tired of being put in a separate social "box" so to speak, being told how shameful I should feel for Hubs having to work while I stay home, etc etc etc, fill in the blank with whatever negative statement imaginable. You may not feel worthy to society, but really, who gives a rat's rear end? Are you staying home for society and their thoughts or for the upbringing of your kids? What was your motivation for staying home? When your kidlet(s) look at you and tell you all the cutesy things they say and do all the cutesy things they do, all of society and their nonsense doesn't matter. Sure, I am grateful for Hubs for sacrificing to let me stay home. Sure, there were MANY MANY days where I desperately wanted to have friends and "non-preschool" conversations. Sure, there were MANY MANY MANY days where I felt guilty for not contributing to the income. However, I do encourage any and all of you to eventually become involved in your kidlet(s) school(s) when they are school age. It will get you out of the house (and your jammies), and you will have the opportunity to make new friends (non-preschool conversations)! Becoming involved in the school and even in PTO will be a great example for your own kidlet(s), allowing them to witness you become a great citizen. And in my case, it allowed me to be able to be on my kid's school schedule while bringing in income. And to top it off, I have made many new friends and a new "family" at the school, for which I will be eternally grateful.