Autumn's first day in Kindergarten!!

Okay, I am typing through my tears! My Baby is in Kindergarten today! I have prayed and cried...cried and prayed! My kids are going up so fast! Trent is a Junior! Autumn in Kindergarten! Where is the time going?!
But, this starts a new chapter in both of our lives. Autumn is making new friends, learning new things and going to different places. She is excited and nervous at the same time. She will be great though, of this I have no doubts. When I dropped her off, she was fine. Ready to conquer...me on the other hand....I walked out in tears trying to make it to the car before I totally let loose. I cried all the way home...praying through the tears for my babies to be safe and make wise decisions. Then I reminded myself that God loves them so much more than I. He knows the number of hairs on their head, He knows their heart and He is their Father who let me be blessed with them here on earth. I put my trust in Him!

Vacation

Well, our vacation was a success! We stayed in our local area and had a blast!! Everyone agreed that while we loved the beach, this vacation was just as fun! We went hiking on the Blue Ridge Parkway, played in rivers, and enjoyed all the fun that the mountains has to offer. The only expensive thing that we did was go to Dollywood in Tennessee. We went after 3 p.m. to get our tickets. We didn't have to stand in any lines to ride the rides and the best part was because we got there after 3, the next day we got in for free!!! So, we got a day and a half out of a one day ticket! Believe me when I say...that's plenty! We were all exhausted!!!
I was not looking forward to this vacation, I was upset we weren't able to go to the beach. But, I can honestly say this was one of the best vacations that our family has had in a long time. We enjoyed each other and we enjoyed nature. God is Good!!!

Dreaming of the beach....

Usually our family goes once a year to the beach for vacation. This year...it may not be happening. In fact, as I sit here and type this, I do not see any financial way that we can afford it this year.
I am really struggling with this because the kids really look forward to it...heck, I look forward to it! When we go... we do it frugally, I cook and we do free activities. But, looking at the price of accommodations...Geesh! It's not looking good. Then you add in that we are trying to get out of debt and any of our extra money needs to be going to chip away at that. Well, even if we could find a place should we go?
Again, it makes me so disgusted with myself for allowing us to get into the debt we have. I feel guilty for not being able to give my children special memories. Did I mention the kids talk about going to the beach all year?! Ugh!
I'm looking, hoping and praying to find some awesome and cheap activities for the family to do around here. I'm still bummed about not going to the beach! But, I won't allow myself to wallow in self pity. So, I am in search of cool things to do around here. Now to convince the family and myself that it will be just as fun as the beach....

4th of July Fun!

Autumn had a blast on her slip and slide!

And her and Trent went swimming at their cousins house!



I confess that these activities were done Friday and not on 4th of July...I had to work! :-( But I was able to get off in time to grill out some yummy barq. chicken and feast on some ice cream. Later we all loaded up to go and watch fireworks...so it wasn't too bad of a day!

Menu plan

I have been tweaking my menu plan just a little. I am trying to trim down my meat even more. In the winter it was easy, I just added more soups. Summer is a bit more difficult. We finally have propane for the grill, and I love to grill. But, our budget is not allowing a lot of meat. If anyone has any suggestions....PLEASE let me know!
Now on to the menu plan for this week:

Crock pot Mac-n-cheese and tuna franks
Beefy baked beans and potato salad
Homemade pizza
Stuffed shells (no meat)
Hamburgers (camping with Mom and Dad)
Lemon Pepper chicken (It was a HUGE hit with family)
Tuna casserole
Breakfast casserole

Snacks:
Homemade brownies
Homemade rice krispie treats
Cake with homemade icing
grapes
bananas
cheese

Breakfast:
pop tarts
waffles
Egg sandwiches

Lunch:
Sandwiches and fruit

I found absolutely no deals in meat so far this week! Bummer! But, I want to start learning to cook vegetarian meals. I have no creativity in this area...so I will search for some good cheap veggie meals. My garden is starting to grow and with it being summer, I'm hoping to really stock up on some awesome veggie deals to freeze. I am also wanting to learn how to can veggies. So, we tighten up our belt once again. Gas is starting to go back up and my hours at work has been cut way back. I must confess that I wasn't sticking to my grocery budget for the past month, but now that's not an option. Back to clipping coupons, looking for deals and being more frugal than I was in May!

Getting things ready to freeze!

I spent maybe an hour minus the cooking time to prepare dinners for the freezer. I usually buy the large family size packages of chicken (I use thighs because they are cheaper!).


I cook all the chicken then take the meat off the bone when it is cool. I then measure out a cup of chicken per freezer bag (most recipes only call for a cup of chicken) and freeze flat.


Then I buy the whole chicken (at Aldi these are .89 cents a pound). I clean them inside and out and rub them down with lemon pepper seasoning on the inside, outside and under the skin.

Then I wrap them up in foil and place them in a large freezer bag and freeze.


This little bit of time preparing now saves a whole lot of time when you are in a mad dash trying to fix dinner in the evenings. A lot of times I measure, mix and freeze all of the casserole ingredients in one large freezer bag. Dinner is simply defrosting during the day while you are busy with other things and then placing the ingredients in a casserole dish to cook when ready. This I would have showed you, but due to poor menu planning on my part I didn't have key ingredients for my casseroles! Ugh! Oh well, at least the meat is cooked and ready to go!!

A Gentle reminder....

I am sitting here listening to the rain fall outside my window. The sound is so relaxing and refreshing to me. I try to type the words that express the thoughts going around and around inside my head and the delete button is being used more often than not. I would say I am having a day of reflection...but that wouldn't be entirely true. A day of regret would truly describe my thoughts accurately. I find myself haunted by all my past mistakes. I find myself mourning the things that I missed out upon because of stupid decisions and bad judgements. I wonder about the "what ifs" and how things could be if those mistakes hadn't have been made. I wonder how I could have allowed myself to be distracted and deceived. I think the easy part was forgiving others...now I struggle with forgiving myself. Forgiving myself for allowing my focus to be turned away from God. I compromised. It happened to me so slowly that I didn't realize it was happening at first. But, once realized...the damage and destruction had been done. My relationship with God suffered, friends that I held dear to my heart had been hurt, a job that was loved had been lost and my reputation tarnished. I believed man, instead of searching for wisdom from God. I allowed decisions to be made for me, instead of having the courage to decide for myself. I allowed myself to be controlled, instead of allowing my God to lead me the way I should go. I carelessly tossed away all that God had blessed me with to follow a person. Now, I am left picking up the pieces.
I cry out to the Lord to have mercy on me for putting someone else in His place. He rewards me with the sound of rain falling. It gently reminds me His love will cleanse me. Only He can wash and renew my mind. It reminds me that He can take these mistakes and have me grow and maybe even bloom because of them. So, I sit here listening to the falling rain....