Recently I’ve noticed a lot of talk in magazines and whatnot on stretching your dollar. Specifically when driving (stretching that mpg!) and shopping. I was pretty interested in the shopping part. It’s been such a challenge feeding my family a healthy diet on the budget we have with the rising costs of things. Spending $6 on a gallon of organic milk and $3/lb for organic apples and whatnot.. things really start to add up.

So articles like “Meal plans for a budget” etc really catch my eye. Because granted, I can most definitely afford to feed these guys steamed broccoli (or for less $$ frozen broccoli) and grilled chicken and that will be healthy and affordable. But it’s going to get pretty old pretty quick.

So in the past week I’ve read some stuff online and picked up a couple magazines.. and the verdict? I’m not so impressed. One of my complaints is that they just aren’t that healthy. Jarred alfredo sauce? Ramen noodles? Yeah, those things are affordable and I totally get that. But seriously? Now, in no way am I dumping on ramen noodles. They’re tasty. But healthy? MM.. not so much.

My other gigantic beef with some of these articles and meal plans that I’ve read in Family Circle and similar magazines are that they call for things that you would mostly buy specifically for those particular recipes, then you don’t see them again. Not in all cases.. for example, in Shape several of the recipes call for baby spinach. Great! I know I can buy a bag of spinach and use it before it goes bad. But cans of things that only call for half the item? Or worse yet, just a half of cup of the item. I’m not saying you need to find 12 recipes that call for tomato paste because you needed some for one recipe that only called for a 1 tablespoon, but there has got to be a better way than waste. And I’m not even talking about condiments and spices because they generally have a long shelf life, and unless it’s something you just don’t care for and use often (in our house it’s curry.. eew..nasty) it’s not going to be a terrible waste to buy it.

But unless you plan to make hummus often, it’s probably a better deal to buy pre-made hummus than it will be to buy cans of chickpeas and a can of tahini, which can be expensive and doesn’t have a great shelf-life. Just an example.
So I’ve decided that the best thing? Start ignoring all those magazines that only seem to waste my money further. I mean, I love that a recipe is going to be inexpensive, but unless it’s a healthy bet for my kids, it’s not worth it to me. And unless it’s a meal plan that flows, making the most of the fresh and expensive groceries that I have to buy, it’s not doing me any good.

We’ve recently made a pact to be better about using all the fresh things we buy and also using leftovers. So we’ll just start doing our part to stretch that dollar a little more. We’ve already cut down on eating out considerably. Of course, the fact that taking the girls out to eat right now is insane is helping a bit. We are also not doing the “what do you want for dinner” thing as opposed to the “hmm, what have we already got in the kitchen that I can use” thing. Going to the store to stock up on the stuff for specific meals last minute is a GREAT way to spend unintentional money from your budget.

Now if I can just kick my Starbucks habit..

Set the scene: Grace is running around with no diaper and no clothes… and I’m warning you.. this isn’t pretty
Chris: “Why are you holding yourself?” (It looked like she had to go to the bathroom)

Grace: “I don’t want you to see my vagina!”

(laughing parents)

Chris to Me: “Are you going to blog that?”

Me: “No!”

Grace: “I’m going to BLOG my vagina!”

(Yeah, it all of a sudden turned blogworthy)

Chris: Now say you’re sorry for saying you don’t like me

Grace: I’m sorry I don’t like you

I’ve had a hard time gathering up the desire and drive to update my blog. But someone commented recently that they didn’t know what was up with us because I wasn’t updating. Oh well. Here you go. A full family update.

Grace started preschool last week. She is doing Tuesdays and Thursdays at the same school she was at last week. We just love her school so we’re thrilled she’s back there. But this is a smaller class and so far Grace hasn’t made any BFF’s (best friends forever) in this class. Yesterday she told me she played with Annie, the only other girl in the class.. so I was thrilled about that. I think Annie is a sweet little girl.

She’s going through some growing pains as she tries to gain a little control over her schedule. The result is that she fights us on just about everything. She’s getting into that “why” phase. Everything is “why?” She’ll resist and fight us on taking a nap and then all of a sudden will stand up and say “I’m going to take a nap now” as though it was all her idea to begin with. Totally normal thing kids do at this age as they struggle for some kind of control. She won’t eat much unless it’s a treat of some sort but she does love fruit. And for those of you who know she was a vegetarian (or practically), she has finally started eating turkey and ham and will even eat ham on her pizza.

She seems to be developing an interest in dancing.. so I’d love to get her into a class of some sort but I haven’t seen many that will allow them to still be in diapers. Which brings me to that.. she still wants nothing to do with the potty. So dancing and gymnastics, which I think she’d be very interested in.. will have to wait. Until she’s not in diapers anymore.

Cate is a pretty typical 15 mos old. She talks in grunts and gestures more than words though she is an expert at saying ‘mommy’ and ‘hi’. She can wave and point. She shakes her head no and yes (though not necessarily at the right moments). She’s a big comedian and loves to laugh. She and Grace love to chase each other around.. as of last night Grace decided that Cate’s new name is “Alaska” (because Grace really wanted to say the word Alaska) and they chased each other around for 30 minutes giggling and shrieking.

Cate is very physical in that she loves to take things apart and push buttons and pile things up and take things from drawers and what not. Nothing is safe around here. She requires a constant eye on her. So while Grace is busy squeezing diaper cream onto the floor and spraying conditioner into tea cups.. Cate is dragging all my utensils from the drawers in the kitchen and pulling the dvds out of our cupboards. Full days we have here…

Cate is a big eater. She will eat just about everything. It would be easier to tell you what she doesn’t like than to tell you what she likes. She does NOT like eggs. She doesn’t like chunks of cheese but does like string cheese. She does not like onions. I honestly can’t think of anything else she doesn’t like. She pretty much eats what you give her. Fish, chicken, veggies, all fruits, snacks, etc.. We told Grace that this food must not be so bad if Cate eats it.

They don’t like to share and we’re having some challenges with that. Grace especially seems unwilling to share either here at home or at school. Of course alot of that is the normal habit of wanting to play with the thing the other one is playing with.

My mom is visiting Seaside in October. That is near Monterey. I think I might have posted about this already.. but oh well. She got approved for the final section of this class she’s been taking on composite drawing. So her work will send her. The girls and I will go with her and stay with her that week. Love Monterey! She’s traveling to Ireland this week and I’m so jealous! But I can’t wait to hear about her trip when she returns.
Then in November we will be going to Phoenix to stay for a couple weeks for Thanksgiving. We will be staying home at Christmas, thank goodness. Traveling at Christmas is just too difficult. Easier to travel at Thanksgiving and stay home for Christmas.

We’re not moving this October, as was the plan before. Because of some things going on in 2009 we’ve decided to stay put right now.
Big things on the front for the coming year but it’s not really anything I can post about here anytime soon. And no (Goodness no) I’m not pregnant. And no, we’re not moving back to Phoenix.

Okay.. so I think that’s it. I probably have about a months’ worth of pictures stored up in the digital camera. I should probably upload those soon. I will, I promise…

Today Cate got a booboo of some sort. I wasn’t right there for the initial booboo.. she was in her room with Grace. But after she started crying I came looking for her and she toddled over to me with her arms up (that is toddler speak for ‘pick me up and make it better’). Once I picked her up she puckered up for me to kiss her. Now, she is getting pretty good about giving kisses. Sometimes it’s not even open mouthed. But this time she put her lips together, pouted a bit and leaned in for a big ‘ole smooch. Sigh.

This is one of those moments that I had when I just knew I needed to put that down.. remember it. I find so little time these days to put any creativity into blogging. And I know some day I’m going to regret not having put more effort into it (of course, forgetting that instead of blogging I was spending time with my kids)… but I definitely knew I needed to remember that moment.