Good morning on a Monday.

This is a picture of my beautiful sister and a couple of her chickens. As you can see the Negotiator is totally in love with the birds also. My Grandma loved her chickens, I guess that's where my sister got her idea that they make great pets. I am not a huge fan of chickens. Well actually I'm not a huge fan of any barnyard birds. That is to put it mildly. They freak me out! However I do enjoy farm fresh eggs. Talk about some good eating. I have kinda slacked off on the posting lately because I've got alot of balls in the air. I have decided to go to school part time in the spring, attended tons of soccor practice/games, and I've been working as a sub for our county. I have so far been a substitute cafeteria lady, and twice filled in as a custodian. I recommend it to anyone who needs a part time job or has kids in school during the day and need to be home in the evenings. There is so much you can help your local school with. I thought that since I didn't have a teaching license I couldn't be a substitute teacher but you can in the state of Va. Good luck to ya!

Life hands you lemons.

Sometimes in life you realize that you may not get to do what you want, sometimes you do what you have to. The hard part is sucking it up and not letting yourself feel crummy or angry about it. I have been on the sub list at my kids school and so far I have helped once in the cafeteria and today and tomorrow scrubbing another school. I don't particularly want to clean, scrub, and miss time with my kids but I need the money. I mean you can't turn away money when you need it.

Hamburger three ways.

My husband bought a huge package of burger. I browned some for sloppy Joe's for last nights dinner. Made six hamburger patties, separated them with nonstick foil and froze. Then put the remaining in a big bowl with meatloaf fixings for tonight's dinner. There is three no think meals ready to go when I am. I love it when there is a little meal planning, it just makes things so much easier on me.

Yummy quick dinner

Yesterday was a day and a half. In other words I was trying to fit a lot into too few hours. So when we got home at seven thirty I still had to make dinner. We had a good semi quick meal. I opened two cans of corn and heated it with a little butter and pepper. I had two pick taters from my husbands garden. They had already been baked and were left over from a previous dinner. I cubed them and threw them on my big skillet with some leftover bacon grease and salt and pepper. I had pork chops but no seasoned flour, so I crushed up some croutons and yummo what a nice coating! It was done in around twenty minutes and my kids ate everything. It's amazing what you can throw together when you're in a hurry and hungry! Don't forget to save that bacon grease, works great when frying taters, meat, or I even used it once for making tortillas.

The pros and cons of public school.

This list is just for fun. In no way has it been endorsed by our local school board office.
Pros: 1. The bus picks them up.
2. They can eat breakfast there if needed.
3. They can buy lunch there.
4. The teachers really seem to care.
5. They form relationships with other people.

Cons: 1. They pick up other kids bad habits.(to add to their own I'm not raising saints ya know)
2. They find out about sex.
3. They get poked in the eye by another child who is coughing and has snot on the front of his shirt.
4. They can chose to eat only yogurt for lunch if they want.
5. The bus brings them home. That is only a joke the real number five is I miss my boys all day long.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I hope everyone has a great and frugal holiday weekend! Sorry about being horrible in the last post, but as we all know sometimes life is not all sunshine. I am sitting at home sipping coffee and eating a brownie and waiting on the rain. For lunch today I had cucumber and tomato sandwiches and then an afternoon snack of carrots out of my husbands garden. Yumm!

Being broke is depressing.

It seems to me that sometimes I feel a little bit sorry for myself. Like now for instance. We seem to be in a financial rut that we can't seem to climb out of. It sooooooooo depresses me. It is hard to live on one income. It is very hard to live on one income and always be happy and cheerful. I get tired of making do sometimes. I want to go to the store and go wild!(the grocery store thank God I'm not into clothes or I would seriously depressed) I want to get up sometimes and put on nice clothes and meet someone for lunch or coffee. I want to slip away and see a movie with my husband or maybe go to a bookstore. I have to remind myself that I am doing the right thing. I am home with my little prissy ruler of our world, I am home when the older two get off the bus. I know what my kids are doing. I take them to practice with my husband and never plan on missing a game. I read to them, cook their meals, and try to enforce homework. If I got a real job how much of that would I miss. I keep telling myself just a couple of more years but sometimes when money is really tight that isn't so reassuring. I lose faith in God. I lose faith in my husband. I lose faith in myself. I am not materialistic so don't get me wrong it's not things I want, just peace of mind. I feel for all parents out there trying to make it and only scraping by.