Eating Out of the Pantry

This month we are eating most of our meals out of the freezer and pantry, for two reasons to use up what we have to make room for the big re-stock shopping in Jan/Feb and to allow the extra food budget funds to be spent on Christmas.

So in order to do this I had to inventory the freezer and pantry to see what we have in the way of food and how was I going to turn what is there into meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I did get the freezer done and made a list of meals, tomorrow I am going through the upstairs pantry as I try to find fun ways to use up all the odds and ends hiding in there. I did do one small for me shopping trip already and it should be all that is needed for food for December except for milk, bread, eggs, a turkey ( Don's request for Christmas dinner )and some Christmas treats.

So the goal this month is to only spend 300 dollars on food and have 200 that I can use for Christmas.

The Season has begun

Christmas in a large family, is fun, loud, and can be done within the limits of a budget.  One of the things that we did was to start traditions that the children look forward to, so that it is not all about will we get as gifts.

We start off our season by the attending our town’s winter parade, then we find time to head out for a tree. We get our tree from a local place that is great experience, you head out to chop down your tree and then your picture is taken and have hot coco and cookies before heading home. We fill the month with Christmas plays, caroling , baking cookies, and making crafts.

On Christmas Eve after church service we come home and have ice cream sundeas with all the different toppings and each child opens a pair of new pj’s, and we have a new family movie to watch that night. Then on Christmas since we are home all day we have a PJ day, yes we eat our Christmas Dinner in our PJ’s something that the kids think is funny.  We use the nice dishes, and have a wonderful dinner while wearing our pj’s. I do ask that they at least brush their teeth and hair.

And what about presents, we have a plan that we try to follow.  When the children were younger and we as parents had yet to learn some important lessons we went overboard. Our budget suffered, my housekeeping suffered (If each kid had 10 gifts that was 50 new things to care for), and the children had a bad case of the gimmies.  Our plan after learning these lessons  is one gift from daddy ( which is the big gift) sometimes it is a toy, usually something useful . In the past it has been cd-players, new bedding, something that we have noticed that the children need, that costs more than the 15 dollar birthday limit.

Then there is the gift from mommy usually something I have made them, or sometimes a fun toy that I am willing to live with. And then there is there box of books, we have a penguin book warehouse sale that I get books for pennies on the dollar each November. The kids also have a stocking that has small gifts that I have bought though out the year.

This plan keeps me from over buying, the house from overflowing, and the children enjoy the season.

Welcome

This is a new blog for me but not the first one I have had two others one on homeschoolblogger but when we sent the children to school I didn't feel that I should continue blogging there, I also have a blog on xanga but felt that it was time for a new platform and the first joint blog with my husband. So that brings us to blogger, and our new blog named What's One More.

That is how we ended up with our 6 children Pat-19 in college, Sarah -17 in high school, Conner 14, and Nolan 12 in middle school and Kathryn 10, and Aidan -4 in elementary. The youngest would get older and I would ask Don " What's one More ?", his answer wasn't always the one I wanted to hear but most of the time we added just one more.

That has also applied to pets we are the owners of 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 hermit crabs, 8 fish ( I think they wouldn't stay still to be counted), all who have joined our family by one or more children asking what is one more ( insert dog, cat, fish, other small animal). We have also had many other small animals over the years that are no longer with us, we have sadly gotten quite good at pet burials.

The idea of What's One More also applies to friends, there has been many a time when a extra plate has been added to dinner, another sleeping bag added to a bedroom floor, or another friend picked up for church.

This blog is going to be about our daily life here, how do we manage it all, feed them all, stay on the budget ( as much as I dislike What's One More applies more to bills then income ), and not go crazy. Both my husband and I will be writing entries, so please stop by and visit us here on the web.

If you would like to know a bit more about us, check out our xanga blog as I work on adding more here to blogger over the weekend. www.xanga.com/midge8

Owl Study Outline

Owls - 8 weeks long 1x per week about 30-45 mintues

1. Intro to owls - using libaray books and
http://www.abcteach.com/free/r/rc_owls_upperelem.pdf - for the older kids 4th and up
http://www.abcteach.com/free/b/birdnotebook.pdf - the younger kids

2.Food Webs - what they are and make a poster

3. Pellets -( and start the workbook that goes with it)
http://www.pellet.com/view_product.aspx?categoryID=1&subcategoryID=4

4.skelton's - glue to paper

5. more time for skelton's and learn about what the owl ate.

6. Movie - Owl Cam the hidden world ( Netflix)

7. Owl report ( each child will get a different owl and do a short report with 5 facts about there owl)

8. Spare week for catch up if needed

More then one blog and summer plans

It's funny I actually  have 3 blogs right now but they all are about different things. This one I haven't been blogging much on as we really are now after school and summer school at home family and I feel odd blogging here about other things. So I will be sharing some of the things we are doing for education this summer here, while my xanga blog is more about day to day life, and being a stay at home mom. And then my blogspot one is just for my family to cover summer  activites.

So on that note what are your educational plans for the Summer ?

We are doing a hour of math a day, then we also have a craft once a week , plus we are doing a study on Owls, and Astromony oh and a study on the Greeks. I will list how we are going to be doing those later this week end. I really look forward to learning with the kids during the summer, just right dh feels that our small country school is were the kids belong.

A giveaway

I am doing a giveaway on my other blog at www.xanga.com/midge8

 

A busy life

The kids are all doing well in school, and we have had some afterschool schooling activies. Mainly reading programs and scouts,and piano lessons.

So if you would like to see more of what is happening in our home visit www.xanga.com/midge8