I should check my rations more carefully.

After coming home from grocery shopping, I've found myself with four containers of sour cream and as many bags of shredded cheese in my refrigerator.

I should really make a more thoughtful grocery list.

Not to mention that I may have some issues with over consumption of dairy products.

In other grocery story news, the guy working my check-out line was a quiet talker who commented on every item in my cart. Every. Single. Item. I couldn't hear a word the man said. I started out asking "Pardon me?" or "Excuse me?", then, I'm ashamed to say, as my kids bounced madly all around us, just began asking a mildly frustrated/incredulous "What?!?", before just giving up and smiling and nodding.

The adventures of domesticity never cease.



.

No party like a seven-year-old's party.

The house got a little face lift this weekend.

We're hoping to add a few more things ("things" and "stuff" is as specific as I know how to get when it comes to anything growing - no green thumb here), but it's a great start!




.

The Graduate.

Here is what Dylan's teacher said about him in a note she wrote for his future Kindergarten teacher:

Dear Future Teacher,

Dylan is a sweet and smart boy! He may be slow to warm up to you, but it will be worth the wait!

I'd say that sounds just about right. He's a pretty neat guy. (But then those "middle children" always are, huh Uncle Mike?)

I'm such a child.

Ryan's class made rockets at school. His teacher sent home directions explaining how they made the rockets, and what made them fly.

I read over them, and I've been giggling like a twelve-year-old boy ever since.

Skip right to the second paragraph, first sentence:

Apologies to any readers with more refined humor. (Although you probably stopped reading this blog long, long ago, as I have been known to mention "gases that shoot out of bottoms" that have nothing to do with rockets.)

Consumed.

There are a handful of people walking this planet who just awe me. (Awe me? Is that grammatically correct? I don't know. I just know they do. They awe me.)

They are of various ages. Different professions. All income levels. Vastly different personalities. The "different personality-type" thing can not be overstated.

Some are peace-loving. Some like to stir things up a little. A few aren't happy unless things are stirred up a lot.

Some come from strong, God-fearing families. Some grew up in homes nearly devoid of love, with chaos encircling them the likes of which I can't imagine.

Some of them serve God in quiet ways, with prayer and acts of humble, unseen service. Some serve God in loud ways, with bright lights and the admiration of men.

But for all their differences they have one thing in common:

They are consumed with the Word of God.

They believe it. Run to it. Need it. Find their comfort there, and more than that, their direction and passion and calling. Purpose.

They believe the Word matters more than what they feel, so they don't withhold compassion when they are in a time of personal pain. They don't close their eyes to the needs of others when they have needs of their own.

When coming to the aid of others, they believe God's word offers more wisdom than their own personal opinions; so personal opinions are generally withheld in favor of prayer and Scripture.

They choose to believe the Word for the sake of God's glory, and not for anything they stand to gain.



I want to be consumed.

DIY artwork

We've done zero decorating in our bedroom since moving into this house nearly a year ago. I'm moving at a snails pace when it comes to decor anywhere in the house actually, buying a few things here and there as I have the money and when I find a good deal.


I didn't have immediate plans to do anything with our bedroom....but! Then! Then I found this comforter on sale for $25:

All things cheap.

Some people are connoisseurs of fine wine.

Others know all about gourmet chocolate.

Still others are olive oil aficionados.

A few are experts at discussing the nuances of fine cheese.

I, on the other hand, I am a connoisseur of all things generic and store brand. Cheap.

I know cheap.

Over 10 years of penny-pinching frugality has made me well versed in all things store brand.

I consistently buy the store brand of the following ("Sam's choice" happens to be my choice too. I think we could have been friends, me and Sam.):

Plastic baggies, foil, paper towels, napkins, and saran wrap - I think they perform just fine and the savings are fairly significant.

Sugar, flour, table salt, pepper, broths, cream soups - I always buy generic. (Of course the times I actually use flour and sugar are few and far between, so I might not be the best source of information.)

In my opinion, generic bread, milk, juice, breakfast cereal, syrup, oatmeal, frozen waffles and pancake mix get a passing grade as well. Not up to par with the national brands, but passable when working within a tight budget! (My husband disagrees, so he generally has a secret stash of Quaker Oatmeal and Cap'n Crunch.)

However, in these trying economic times, I feel I must share my wealth of hard earned knowledge about when to NOT buy generic.

Even if you are tightening your belt, trying to save a few bucks on your grocery bill, please still do everything possible to AVOID buying the following:

--Generic Ranch Dressing
This stuff is oh-so-nasty. No one will enjoy it and your family may stage a revolt.

--Generic toilet paper
Don't do it. Be kind to your behind.

--Generic Windex
You might as well just wipe down your mirrors with a dirty diaper. The amount of streaks would be the same.

--Generic Chocolate Syrup
Occasionally my kids want a glass of chocolate milk. Generic syrup does not produce chocolate milk. It produces white milk with strange globs of floating brown stuff that don't taste anything like chocolate.

--Generic Frozen Veggies
Sometimes I can get away with this, if I'm mixing the veggies in a soup or casserole. But if I'm just serving them on the side, I buy name brand. I bought one too many bags of "Broccoli Florets" with no florets - all stems and pieces, that are strangely colored; kind of white with a greenish tint. Not appetizing.

--Generic Dog Food
The dogs has to eat three times as much to get full, and poops three times as much. Totally not worth it.


So, where do you save money on at the grocery store?

Happy Mother's Day!

People tell me I'm looking more and more like my mom.

I take that as a compliment.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

(You too Grandma!)

"Diva Night"

The Clay Cafe here in Lubbock hosts a "Diva Night" a couple times each month. Myself and eight of my friends went tonight and had a great time.

In my opinion none of us come anywhere close to being a "Diva" (can you really be a diva when much of your day is spent changing diapers or sweating profusely in the tee-ball bleachers or cleaning the muddy paws of your stinkin' mutt dog?? (I'm a little bitter toward Raider at the moment.)

Regardless, we had a great time! Thanks Tina for organizing it all!

Here's a pic of the wonderful non-divas I get to share life with. I picked yellow and black for the picture because it's my friend Cheri's favorite color scheme.*


*Or maybe it's her least favorite color scheme. I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

Mess up. Laugh. Repeat.

I may never again sew in solitude. It's way more fun when I have a friend with me.

I'm learning to sew via the power of Google, and it can be frustrating indeed.

But somehow when I was sewing with a friend today, all the little irritations just cracked me up instead of making me crazy.

Your thread is tangled up for the 15th time too? Hysterical. You have to use your seam ripper again too? Nuthin' funnier. I did quite a bit of laughing today. It's quite possible my friend is highly annoyed with me.

This particular friend has known me since we were about 8; she's hung in there with my laughing neuroses this long, so I feel pretty confident that she'll keep on tolerating me.

Danielle's creation:


And the adorable recipient:



And Lauryn's turtle shirt:


The turtle's green hair bow was very strategically placed to cover up yet another sewing mistake. I just couldn't bring myself to do it all over. Again. Nothing wrong with a hair-bow wearin' turtle. Nothing at all.



(Warning: In the near future the comments to this post will likely include include incredulous questions/snide remarks from my best friend Lisa. This is the result of the shock and awe she feels that I even own a sewing machine. Just trust that if you had known me in my early 20's, floundering around in domesticity, you might be shocked and incredulous as well.)

Family Night (Health Conscious Readers, Avert Your Eyes!)

WARNING: Consumption of greasy fast food ahead.

I put Dylan in charge of Family Night planning.

Five-year-olds are awesome.

"So Dylan, whatcha wanna do for Family Night?"

"I wanna do a CAR NIGHT!"

"Okay, cool! What will we do for car night?"

"We'll all get in the car, and we'll.....uhhh....drive around. Umm....we'll drive to all of our favorite restaurants! Yeah! Everyone gets to go wherever they want for dinner!"

"I love it. Let's do it."

"Then! Next! After we get our food! We'll drive over to all our friends houses! I want to eat my dinner at Caleb's house...Lauryn will eat her dinner at Evyn's house...and Ryan can eat his dinner with Bryce!"

He gets points for creativity, but I convinced him the execution of the last part of his plan might be a little awkward. So he settled for bringing our food home, and playing in the sprinkler after dinner.

We loaded in the car and headed out.



We soon realized that the driver's side window Wouldn't. Roll. Down. Seriously? It breaks on the night we're headed out to go through four different drive-thrus? It worked just fine earlier today! Sometimes ya just gotta laugh at the timing of these things. (So for the remainder of this post, please envision Jonathan opening the van door to order, pay, and take our food.)


First up, Miss Lauryn's choice. She was in the mood for beans and burritos. Next up, Mom and Dad. We went with a slighty healthier selection. Dylan came next, no surprises there. And finally, Ryan, who ordered a "garden burger." Huh? We finally figured out he wanted a burger with lettuce, tomatoes, and onions on it.


Then home to eat our respective dinners.

Ryan and Lauryn: "This is awesome Dylan! Great idea! Thanks!"

Dylan: Nods his head smugly, in agreement that he is indeed awesome.





After dinner the kids played in the sprinkler and kiddie pool. Most of their energy was spent trying to coax Raider into the water. They did finally lure him in, but he jumped right back out pretty quickly; just a soggy, white ball of fur streaking past the camera. He's no fool. That water was frigid.

Labels: family night

Picnik

Jonathan just showed me the coolest website: Picnik.

I hopped on the site, and in no time at all edited a couple of pictures from the church musical that Ryan was in last night.





Okay...so obviously the green border isn't all that aesthetically pleasing...and the box I inserted behind the text looks weird....but I never said I had an eye for design!

Here's one that's a little bit better:




I'm sure I will eventually see an image style I'll try to copy (all my so-called "creativity" is really just plagiarism), but until then I was just trying to figure out some of the different stuff Picnik can do.

It can do TONS of fun stuff!

Dylan sang a couple of songs last night too, with the adorable "Wee Praise" preschool choir, right before the Elementary Students performed their musical.

I could easily add text, fade out the image, round the corners, add a border...all kinds of fun stuff.


And now I have the solution to privacy concerns on my blog: Pixel-ated faces!



Except this particular kid happens to be too gorgeous to pixel-ate. (And his mom has her own blog, so I feel quite certain she's okay with me putting his picture on these here internets.)



Nope, I didn't edit or enhance the sparkling blue color of that kid's eyes. They're even more stunning in real life. Future heart breaker, that one is!

Picnik also has a "teeth whitening" feature. But it just made me look like Ross in that episode of Friends when he went overboard with the bleaching...



Go check out Picnik, and leave me a link in the comments if you create any fun pictures!

(Just realized I kinda sound like a paid promoter of their website....nope. Just easily excited.)

A domestically-challenged mom, climbing over mountains of laundry to bring you my stray observations and amusing stories about my kids. (more)

 

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