Family night.

I have a weekly budget of $10 for our family nights. That's supposed to cover any decor, extra food, games or gifts. We are having guests over for our family night in 2 weeks, so we're doing our best to save $ on the nights preceding it. So, last night we did camping night.


We started off with tacos in a bag (or walking tacos). You crunch up any flavor of corn chips in their single serving bag & then add tacos fixings. You can then eat it out of the bag w/a plastic fork and have NO DISHES. That's what I'm talkin' about.

We sang campfire songs that Cyra learned at camp & some I know from being a counselor for so many years & from being a Girl Scout leader. We sang Baby Shark, There was a Moose, Princess Pat, Tony Chestnut, Swing Low, OREO and many others.


The kids made ice cream in a bag. You put sugar, milk & vanilla in a small freezer bag. Then take rock salt & ice in a large freezer bag. Put the small one, in the large one & pass it around (shaking it) for 5 min. (you can also do this inside a coffee can & make it "kick the can" ice cream.)We topped it all off w/ smores.

It was a fun (less work) kinda night. I like those kind. All I had to buy was the chocolate bars ($2).


Let me know if you do a family night....I always need new ideas.

Dinner at home costs pennies

I've been posting twitpics of my dinners lately. Not sure why, well actually it's because Brent over at inworship asked me to once...and I just keep doing it.

I decided to start calculating how much I'm spending eating in. I've been trying to convince myself that I really don't need to order out anymore. I've been so surprised that I can feed my family for around $5 a night. That's 2 adults, and 3 kids ages 8, 5 & 2. They don't eat a lot though.

Last night we had Chicken Alfredo. I usually put brocolli in it, but didn't have any. So, I chose the green vege that was easiest to reach in the freezer. Here's the recipe & the costs:

1/2 stick of butter (melted over med. heat)
1 C. Heavy Cream
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
bring to boil, then simmer until thick
Add 1/4 C. parmesan
(you can easily double this to serve 6-8)

I also used about 1 C. frozen peas (or broccoli...whatever really)

I broiled the chicken w/ a little garlic powder, salt & pepper

Prices:
butter - .25(the whole box was 1.99. I buy it on sale & freeze it)
cream - .75 (3.89 for a container which is 4 C)
spices - .25 (estimated)
cheese - .25 (grated, cheap stuff)
peas - .30 (.89 for a whole bag)
pasta - .33 (.99 for a box)
chicken - 2.00 (6.00 for 6 breasts at Aldi)

That's $4.13 for the entire dinner! The cream sauce is heavenly! How much are you spending on dinner? Calculate it tonight and come back & let us know!

I heart The Soup & the iphone

You thought what?

So, I have this friend, who wanted to go skinny dipping with her husband (which is totally ok if you're married, and have a tall fence).

His reply "Um...not today."

Hers "Why not?"

His "Cuz, it's "that time for you"

Hers "So"

His "How CAN you?"

Hers "That's why they invented tampons."

His "Oh, I thought you'd have to wear a swim diaper or something."

Hers "Silence...wheezing...hysterical laughing..."

Authenticity

I see SO many people in the blog world talk about being "authentic'. People throw that word around without really understanding it's meaning (probably myself included).

It does not mean "This is who I am. You get what you get. If you don't like it, sorry...it's just me."

The definition is "made or done the same way as an original". Whom do we think the original is?

Is it really "authentic" to have a foul mouth because "It's just who I am".."I'm being authentic"

Mark Beeson once said that "We should love folks right were there are, but too much to leave them there."

Isn't THAT authentic? Made in His image...doing what He would do.

I'm ALL for accepting people's flaws, but should we really call that authenticity?

Writers Blog (ck)

I've got nothing to write about.

Seems my life is SUPER mundane in the Summer.

I've been doing my best to get ALL my housework done by noon so I can do other things.

One day we went to Lisa Donati's house to swim. We've been to Michelle Wegner's to play w/ her girls. We've been going to the library. We even went to the mall one day where I whipped out my credit card to buy some school clothes for the girls that were on MAJOR sale ($30 for 2 dress tops, 2 dress slacks, 2 headbands & 1 pair of tennis shoes). I haven't used a credit card in over a year! I decided I won't go back to the mall for the rest of the Summer, so I won't be enticed to spend any money.

There's an update on my Summer happenings. If you want a more detailed report, you can follow me on Twitter. I update that every hour or so.