the back door

this is me...the baby that is. i must have been just a few months old when this was taken. you can see my brother sitting next to me. the one holding me...that is my grandma - my dad's mom. we had an interesting relationship to say the least. last weekend i was at my parents house and started digging through a box of pictures. when i found this one i had to have it. for those of you who know me well, you might think it odd. let me tell you about my grandma...and i'll start with what i remember... this grandma lived with us from time to time. when she did, she poured orange juice on her cereal. she ate applesauce on her toast. she ate cold fried chicken (she loved the extra crispy from KFC) and cold corn on the cob. she would set her teeth on the table while she ate. she watched wheel of fortune and jeopardy and she crocheted - LOTS!!!! but i never thought she liked me. she would often tell me i was fat and ugly. and would tell me i needed a spanking. even when i

i've been in a bit of a funk lately. not quite myself. there are a lot of reasons that i won't disclose here, but i'm working through them. as thanksgiving approached i really asked God to search my heart. boy, it stinks when He really does, doesn't it? He found all sorts of things to call me on. it was good though - real good. this has been a fall that has probably tugged on my heart the most. i have experienced hurt by others and i have experienced hurt for others. both hurt - just differently. but it is good - real good. it has been somewhat of a lonely season. i've missed the fun of friendships and fun girlfriend days. but it is good. it has been a season of blessings - just needing to look a little further than normal to find them. and they have been good - really quite good. i have had several times in my life where i felt lost and needed direction. times when i would call my dad or seek out friends. this time i guess i need to do it alone. but that's okay

so i had a request to share a few tips on how i cut my grocery budget... first off...here is my entire 3 week total: 229.28 for food items and 23.09 for toiletry type items...this is more than usual, but i had to buy both of my kids battery powered toothbrushes (that is for another post) and my hubby is particular about his soap and i'm particular about my face lotion...unusual needs for this month....but when you total that i'm about at $85 which is 10 higher than my goal...however according to my grocery list i should be able to do this week for under $50. that would bring me to my actual $75 goal....so all in all i'm doing good... here are my tips... use what you have - pick a week and use up what you have in your freezer and pantry. shop for meat sales and buy only for your week. when using milk in baking use half milk/half water bake snacks drink more water in your house (not bottled...invest in a purifying pitcher and fill it from your tap...then pour it in your g

last weekend i got to go home! that may sound strange to those of you that know me. i live at my home, in my hometown...so going home shouldn't be all that exciting right? well, this was a different kind of home. the one that just feels right. the place that is hidden so deeply in you that it is safe. it is where you belong.... spring hill is the place that changed my life. it is the place where God chose to speak so clearly to me. it is the place that God gave me a calling for this life. it is the place i saw Him work in such incredible ways. it changed me inside and out. i returned there last weekend with a group of 15 5/6th graders. we had an awesome time and i was so excited when we turned off the interstate. i got this giddy feeling in my stomach. it is like i could audibly hear God say, "welcome home, child!" the camp had changed dramatically since i was last there - over 10 years ago!! i couldn't believe all the buildings that had been built and the upgrades

so i was fixing our children their lunch today. mapboy was sitting at the table and started telling me he knew how we could save some energy. he told me we needed tv that plugged in. i kindly told him our tv already does plug in. not what he had in mind.... "no, i mean, you plug it in to this thing that you have to sit and peddle to make it move. kind of like the thing at grandmas house in that one room (an exercise bike)." i kind of chuckled and then told him we would probably all be skinny if that is how tv's worked - he had a good idea. then he said..."and we would probably have a lot less global warming!" at that i lost it.....geesh...he is only 8! so i asked him where he heard of global warming. are you ready for his answer??? "on pbs shows....like fetch and arthur and of course the news!" geesh.....i love that kid:)

so a little while ago i blogged about being inspired, partly out of necessity, and party out of the challenge, to get my grocery budget down! way down!!! so i began the process by researching frugal blogs and gleaning great knowledge. then i cleaned out my freezer and made a list of what i had in it. then i started back into meal plans. and i made meal plans based on what i had in my freezer. then i looked at the flyers to see what things we on too good of sale to pass up. then i made a list. then i stuck to my list! when i say groceries i include all toiletries as well. so i knew i'd been pretty close to my target of $75 each week. i had been spending around $110 or sometimes more each week. this includes breakfast for 4, packed school lunches and hubby and i eating lunch at home and dinner for 4. but as i totaled all my receipts for the past 3 weeks i was shocked!! i mean shocked folks... my grand total for 3 weeks is 160.77 - or an average of about $54 a week!!!!!!

so it has been a rather interesting week around here. here is a sampling: Sunday: hubby to me: "i think i'm going to keep my distance..." yes, i had woke up with a nasty head/sinus thing. mapboy at supper time: "i don't really want to eat." yes....he was getting sick!!! oh boy!!! princess, mapboy middle of night: "mom! mom! mom!! MOM!!!!!" oh joy:) Monday: mapboy at 5 am "ohhhhhhhhh" yep, he's home for the day!! princess at 7:35 am "mom, when are you going to get me up?" me, "you can get up!" her, "i don't want to" me, "okay" her "i'm up!" princess at 7:50 "when are you taking me to school?" me in my head, "what on earth. she kept me up half the night. why does she want to go to school????" but i took her! mapboy at 8,9,10,1,2... "ohhhhh....." princess at 3:30 - "i don't feel good! my ear, my ear MY EAR!!!!!!" o

when i was a litle girl my mom made me take baking in 4h. to be honest, i loved it and even won grand champion with my cookies - grand champion folks!!! but she had this white tupperware bowl that we used for our cookies. lots of other things too, but mostly cookies. anyways...that bowl was perfect. it had a wide flat bottom which allowed for the best mixing. it didn't splatter. it was perfect. i loved that bowl. then i get married...and get a set of glass bowls. i use them and find them just okay. i often comment to my mom how much i'd like her bowl. she always tells me she uses it and refuses to hand it over. well, this fall she went to a flea market. yes, friends...there at the same flea market was a perfect tupperware bowl. being the good mom, she bought it. my dad gave it to me with a look that said he didn't get it. but i squealed with delight and hugged it. yes, it is true, ask my hubby! since then i've also received a smaller version from my

i have to chuckle when i hear that our economy is taking a dive. now, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of us out there that have lost jobs and are truly struggling, but as an overall picture, we in america don't appear to be diving along with the economy. i had speciality coffee twice this week. hubby and i grabbed lunch at a panera the other day while working. as we sat there i noticed the line as out the door. hmm....i thought we were all broke??? now, hubby left his job in august and we said we were going to cut back. the reality is we really haven't. i think we have maybe eaten out as a family a bit less, but nothing else has really changed in our world of economics. but as i pay our bills, and even though we have had more income than we expected, i realize there is a need for us to cut back - but beyond eating out, i wasn't sure where. with both of us working from home doing without internet doesn't work. we can't cut cable because we don't

when i was growing up my dad had his own seed company. for some strange reason, my mom, and most times that meant me as well, would travel with him. she would patiently (i usually wasn't so patient) wait in the car while he had meetings. or she would sit in the car and call off seed varieties. or she would walk through the fields with him. i sure thought she was nuts!! but yesterday, hubby mentioned he was going to a nearby town to do some "research" for one of his national register listings today. it is a district, which means several houses and buildings. he quietly asked if i wanted to go. i had a meeting set up and turned him down. this morning i got a call that the meeting needed to be pushed back until tomorrow. realizing that the list of things i had planned for today could be done quickly and then finished tomorrow i offered to go along with hubby. he smiled and said that would be great. so we loaded up and headed out. we had to drive about an hour to

this saturday morning i woke up feeling a bit nervous and excited. for the past 9 weeks i've trained to run this 5k race. i have never ever run a race. about 3 years ago i did a summer training program where i learned to run for 20 minutes. in that 20 minutes i never even made it to 2 miles. and well, that was 3 summers ago... so i took the challenge....and the day had arrived. i enjoyed my normal cup of coffee and and made an english muffin with peanut butter. then my friend arrived and we were off. it was a chilly morning, but sunny. the place was busy and there were a lot of people i knew there. the excitement was definitely in the air. we signed in and pinned our numbers on. we stretched a little. we talked a little. we waited. we grinned. we lined up. we positioned ourselves near the back, just in front of the walkers. we had timed ourselves on thursday so i could tell if we were running a good pace or not. they yelled go and we were off....we giggled with

the pumpkins are finally carved.... now for the really good part!! a night of trick or treating!!!!!! Can you guess what they are???????????