verbalizing, gardens and crazy people

couple of things...
 
why in the world would anyone take their infant, 3 y/o and a preteen to walmart at 0200 in the morning?  what are you thinking?  I know I'm not mother of the year, but I value my children's sleep and HIGHLY encourage it on a regular basis.  And if the items bought were of an emergency-type nature, I could understand some sort of problem in the home/family that necessitated such a trip w/ little ones, on a school nite...but toddler clothes, and school/art supplies?  really?  wow.  that is a new one for me....

anyhow, I got my container garden going.  I have tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, a couple types of lettuce,  spinach and 2 zucchinni going.  I have no idea if they will survive my ministrations.  my attempt at tomatoes last year was abysmal, although I could blame that on the drought if I tried at all.

Bub surprised me yesterday.  He wanted me to get something for him, and was trying to pull me up from the couch, I asked him what he wanted momma to do and he signed AND verbalized "go!"

I was so happy with that I don't even remember what he wanted.  I think it was kool-aid out of the fridge.  and then this morning, Joe asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom before Daddy, and he verbalized "no".

I am a pretty happy girl right now...pretty proud of my Bub.  yayee.

:)

Nubs

He's not big on eating vegetation....

I have discussed before how much I hate grocerying, unfortunately, it is my job, as I am the only one willing to spend the time infront of the PC reviewing the circulars and adding ecoupons on to our grocery store cards, and going thru the coupons my wonderful Mom sends me every week.  I am also the only one determined enough to shop to a budget.

I typically set our food budget to around $150-200 for a 2 week period.  this is not much really for a family of 4 with food allergies... and this also includes diapers, cleaning products, self care products etc... so sometimes it is VERY hard to stay on this budget, and I let not-as-important-things go, like junk food, or fancy cleaning products and get a $1.00 bottle of bleach instead and/or a safe store-brand of cereal and marshmallows and make "cereal bars" in lieu of said junk food that my family craves and inhales at alarming speeds which is another reason I don't buy junk food very often.

so I really love the holiday season where I can take advantage of sales like $.49/lb full turkey.  I got a 22lb turkey today for $10 and change.  this is the 2nd one I've bought since Nov1.  I'm thawing it out in the fridge and since I have monday off, and it will prolly only be fully thawed by then, I will chop that sucker up, cook different portions in different ways and then refreeze the cooked meat for later meals.  these things make me happy on paper...on monday I will be cursing myself for doing this to myself because the only alternative will be to let the turkey go bad and toss it, which will make me even more mad and further cursing of self will ensue.

anyhow, today was the biweekly shopping trip.  I spent prolly around 2 hours on and off preparing for this trip, I went to 4 different grocery stores (not walmart!!!!!!) according to the receipts I saved a total of $82.13 by taking advantage of store sales and about a dozen coupons (diapers and wipes were included in this trip)...I don't typically use a lot of coupons as I find certain store brands are more likely to be safe for Bub and are still cheaper than the name brand with a coupon.  I was under my budget by about $13!  the only thing I didn't get that I was planning on was some chicken, and that was because the store had sold out of it for the day.    so Yayee to me...the madness I put myself thru pays off, even if I am all pissy while doing it. 

after getting home I have the madness of putting it all away & cutting up the bulk meats into meal-sized portions.  Plus I have decided that while I am working days this month, I will pre-make the next day's dinner so all Joe will have to do is pop it in the oven so I don't have to worry about my kids eating hotdogs and instant potatoes every day I have to work...or ramen....This really does happen.
I have to constantly remind Joe to make sure he feeds the kids either a veggie or a fruit w/ every meal.  He's not big on eating vegetation, so he forgets the kids need it...and I get mad when they don't get vegetation at every meal, and me mad at Joe is a thing Joe likes to avoid...so you would think I wouldn't need to do the constant reminders...but I do.
we have lots of canned and frozen veggies on hand to help Joe remember.  lol.


nite.