We received some much needed rain last week (along with some wicked storms and a near tornado). According to our rain gauge, we receive 1 1/2 inches on Thursday evening and another 1/2 inch on Sunday morning.
Of course, that meant the ground was too muddy to go in the back yard and separate dirt and rocks, so instead I spent some time early this week pulling weeds out of the front flower beds. Why is it that my plants struggle to survive in the heat and the weeds seem to flourish?
Today the ground was just right for digging in the rock pile, so I spent thirty minutes making a very small dent in the pile, but at least it is a dent. I hope to get out there on a more consistent basis to work on the pile so maybe it will disappear faster.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The Little One Is Growing Up
Our little girl turned 13-months-old last Friday, but today is the first time I have been away from her for an extended amount of time (by extended, I mean more than 4 hours).
Since our next little one is due to arrive in the middle of November, I know that there will be a need for little one number one to stay overnight at the grandparents' house. To ease into this idea, I decided that she should begin spending an entire day at her grandparents' once or twice a month. I had a dentist appointment this afternoon scheduled during the her naptime, so I decided that today would be a good day to have her stay at the in-law's house.
I met them at 10:00 so they could take her back to her house. The plan is to meet them again at 7:30 to bring her back home. Nearly ten hours without my little girl. I have to admit that I cried after I dropped her off and I am eager to see her again tonight.
We are extremely fortunate to have both sets of grandparents live so close. With her current status as the only grandchild on both sides of the family, both sets of grandparents anxiously wait for their time to spend with her.
I have gotten quite a bit done, but it is entirely too quiet around this house.
Since our next little one is due to arrive in the middle of November, I know that there will be a need for little one number one to stay overnight at the grandparents' house. To ease into this idea, I decided that she should begin spending an entire day at her grandparents' once or twice a month. I had a dentist appointment this afternoon scheduled during the her naptime, so I decided that today would be a good day to have her stay at the in-law's house.
I met them at 10:00 so they could take her back to her house. The plan is to meet them again at 7:30 to bring her back home. Nearly ten hours without my little girl. I have to admit that I cried after I dropped her off and I am eager to see her again tonight.
We are extremely fortunate to have both sets of grandparents live so close. With her current status as the only grandchild on both sides of the family, both sets of grandparents anxiously wait for their time to spend with her.
I have gotten quite a bit done, but it is entirely too quiet around this house.
Our Weekly Menu
Here is our menu for the week. Right now, I still mainly just plan the main course and leave the sides up to chance. We are not adventurous eaters, so our sides mainly consist of a rotation of vegetables like corn, green beans, peas, and potatoes.
Lunch
Grilled cheese
Leftovers
Refried beans and tortillas
Chicken tenders
Dine out
Leftovers
Bean and Bacon soup
Dinner
Cheesy chicken
Cheeseburger pasta
Grilled chicken
Papa Murphy's pizza
Sloppy Joes
Chicken Tenders
Chili
Lunch
Grilled cheese
Leftovers
Refried beans and tortillas
Chicken tenders
Dine out
Leftovers
Bean and Bacon soup
Dinner
Cheesy chicken
Cheeseburger pasta
Grilled chicken
Papa Murphy's pizza
Sloppy Joes
Chicken Tenders
Chili
Monday, June 13, 2011
Budget Week Two
So far so good with sticking to my plan to stick to our grocery budget. I did my grocery shopping last Tuesday, and I kept the total just under my goal for the week. I have also done a good job this last week of only buying what we truly need and not buying any extras.
One issue I came across last week as I tried to prepare the meals I had planned for the week was not having the items in my pantry I thought that I had, so I had to change a couple of meals for the week, but I made a point of using the items I had and I did not go to the store to get what I needed.
We also have avoided making a big purchases this month, and we are almost half way through the month. Since we are in process of preparing our house for the arrival of a second little one, we have a wishlist of items that we feel would improve our storage situation (we do not have a basement) as we move our office out of the third bedroom to make room for a nursery. Even though we have patiently looked at Craig's List waiting for the right items to become available at a lower cost, we do not absolutely need any of these items. I am hoping that we will be able to hold off on these purchases for a few months and save up some more money in the budget.
One issue I came across last week as I tried to prepare the meals I had planned for the week was not having the items in my pantry I thought that I had, so I had to change a couple of meals for the week, but I made a point of using the items I had and I did not go to the store to get what I needed.
We also have avoided making a big purchases this month, and we are almost half way through the month. Since we are in process of preparing our house for the arrival of a second little one, we have a wishlist of items that we feel would improve our storage situation (we do not have a basement) as we move our office out of the third bedroom to make room for a nursery. Even though we have patiently looked at Craig's List waiting for the right items to become available at a lower cost, we do not absolutely need any of these items. I am hoping that we will be able to hold off on these purchases for a few months and save up some more money in the budget.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Useful Ipod App: Mealboard
I realized that as I wrote about how much I liked my iPod touch, I did not give very many specific details about the apps that I like and why I like them. As I would tell my students, I need to provide more specific information, so I thought that I would devote Fridays to highlighting apps that I like to use.
For people who like to plan their meals out in advance, Mealboard is a useful app to have. This app gives users the opportunity to plan meals a week at a time for as many weeks into the future as they want, and it lets users add their personal meals to the different categories. The app also gives users the option to change the categories to whatever categories they wish.
The app comes loaded with a few recipes and some basic categories like meat, poultry, veggie, salad, pasta, and dessert. To help with planning different meals each day, I added a lunch and a breakfast category, so instead of having to search for meals under the traditional categories, I can quickly look at my lunch list and decide what we will have for lunch each day.
Users can adjust what day of the week the meal plan begins on, which I find helpful for planning shopping trips. Since I usually do my grocery shopping on a Tuesday, I have my meal plan set to begin on Wednesdays. That way I can look at the upcoming week and know what items I need to buy.
One feature that I do not use is the shopping list feature. When users enter a meal, they have the option to add the list of ingredients needed and the directions for the recipe. Users do not have to enter this information, but if they do, they can run a report for the meal week that will tell them all the ingredients that they need for the week.
My planning usually just consists of the main dish for the meal but not the sides because I am doing good just to plan out the main dishes for the week, but users who like to plan every last detail can enter it all into the program.
One last feature that I also have not used is the template feature, which allows users to save a specific week's meal plan as a template to use again later. I probably should use this feature as it would say quite a bit of planning time if I just had a handful of templates to choose from each week instead of creating new plans each week.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this app an 8 because it is easy to use and it serves it purpose well.
For people who like to plan their meals out in advance, Mealboard is a useful app to have. This app gives users the opportunity to plan meals a week at a time for as many weeks into the future as they want, and it lets users add their personal meals to the different categories. The app also gives users the option to change the categories to whatever categories they wish.
The app comes loaded with a few recipes and some basic categories like meat, poultry, veggie, salad, pasta, and dessert. To help with planning different meals each day, I added a lunch and a breakfast category, so instead of having to search for meals under the traditional categories, I can quickly look at my lunch list and decide what we will have for lunch each day.
Users can adjust what day of the week the meal plan begins on, which I find helpful for planning shopping trips. Since I usually do my grocery shopping on a Tuesday, I have my meal plan set to begin on Wednesdays. That way I can look at the upcoming week and know what items I need to buy.
One feature that I do not use is the shopping list feature. When users enter a meal, they have the option to add the list of ingredients needed and the directions for the recipe. Users do not have to enter this information, but if they do, they can run a report for the meal week that will tell them all the ingredients that they need for the week.
My planning usually just consists of the main dish for the meal but not the sides because I am doing good just to plan out the main dishes for the week, but users who like to plan every last detail can enter it all into the program.
One last feature that I also have not used is the template feature, which allows users to save a specific week's meal plan as a template to use again later. I probably should use this feature as it would say quite a bit of planning time if I just had a handful of templates to choose from each week instead of creating new plans each week.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this app an 8 because it is easy to use and it serves it purpose well.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Selling Books: Not Sure It Was Worth the Effort
With a second little one on the way, we need to transform our current office/storage room into an actual bedroom. That means we need to go through our five bookcases filled with books and thin out our collection so we can then move the remaining books to new locations around the house.
Until today, we had set aside about three diaper boxes of books (diaper boxes are great all purpose items to have around the house). I decided to take the books to a local used bookstore to see if they would buy any of them. I did not figure we would get much out of the books, but I figured a little bit of money would be better than no money at all.
The lady who helped us must not have been having a very good day. Even though my books and my sisters where the only books she had to go through, we had to wait over thirty minutes for the process to be completed (the store was not that busy either). I had the little one with me, and she was not to happy to be stuck in her stroller for so long in one place.
In the end, we received $10 for a few of our books. The store has a book donation box outside of the store, so we just put the rest of the books in there. Now I have to decide if I want to take future books to the store to sell or just save my time and donate the books to begin with.
Until today, we had set aside about three diaper boxes of books (diaper boxes are great all purpose items to have around the house). I decided to take the books to a local used bookstore to see if they would buy any of them. I did not figure we would get much out of the books, but I figured a little bit of money would be better than no money at all.
The lady who helped us must not have been having a very good day. Even though my books and my sisters where the only books she had to go through, we had to wait over thirty minutes for the process to be completed (the store was not that busy either). I had the little one with me, and she was not to happy to be stuck in her stroller for so long in one place.
In the end, we received $10 for a few of our books. The store has a book donation box outside of the store, so we just put the rest of the books in there. Now I have to decide if I want to take future books to the store to sell or just save my time and donate the books to begin with.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Yard Disaster
Here are some pictures of our yard, some of the work we have done, and examples of much of the work that we still need to do. This 100 degree heat has not really helped our situation any. I don't want to go outside to sort rocks in the heat and all our plants are drying up.
As you will see in the other pictures of our backyard, there are four different types of fences. This awful looking fence in the front of the house is standing up by prayers alone. We have had to put in metal posts to help support the fence for the time being. We hope to replace the fence soon with a much more attractive and traditional one.
In the first shot below, you will see some crazy snap dragons that came back volunteer this year even though they are supposed to just be an annual. The remaining shots are of the various planting beds we have in the front of the house. The two main beds did not have the paths of rocks until we created the paths a couple of years ago. I like the paths because they help break up the beds and make it a little easier to manage. I have just about all the plants I plan to plant in the back bed of the south planting area. I just hope that they will survive the heat.
As you will see in the other pictures of our backyard, there are four different types of fences. This awful looking fence in the front of the house is standing up by prayers alone. We have had to put in metal posts to help support the fence for the time being. We hope to replace the fence soon with a much more attractive and traditional one.
Here are some pictures of our back yard. As you can see, the rock pile is still there waiting for me to come out and begin digging and sorting again. Unfortunately, with all of this heat, the dirt is going to be especially hard and difficult to separate from the rock. I hope we get some rain soon to soften the dirt.
In these two pictures you can see our poor attempt at growing grass. Part of our problem is that we are horrible about watering the grass seed once it is planted. We are looking into having a sand well installed so that we can water the lawn without worrying about the cost. If you have any thoughts on that issue, we would be happy to hear them.
In the first shot below, you will see some crazy snap dragons that came back volunteer this year even though they are supposed to just be an annual. The remaining shots are of the various planting beds we have in the front of the house. The two main beds did not have the paths of rocks until we created the paths a couple of years ago. I like the paths because they help break up the beds and make it a little easier to manage. I have just about all the plants I plan to plant in the back bed of the south planting area. I just hope that they will survive the heat.
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