Monday, October 27, 2008

When You Ask Boys To Smile for the Camera

THIS is what you get...



And THIS.....




And THIS...



These pictures are from earlier this summer, but they made me smile so I thought I'd share.Why is it that when you pull a camera out around adolescents, they turn into monkeys? The boy in the royal blue shirt is Jake, a friend of my boys. The other two are my boys. Jake lives in Wyoming since last year and was in town visiting his biological grandma (our "adopted Grandma"). The boys have grown up together since Jake was a baby, so it was pretty hard on the twins when he moved. Thankfully they are able to call each other. They had a great time playing, but it seems like it was all too short. Hopefully next year we can get to Wyoming to visit.


This has been a REALLY off kilter day. All last week I had nightmares about forgetting to pick someone up from somewhere. They were really making me upset and uncomfortable since I pride myself on not being "that kind of parent". Want to guess what I did today?!


Yep, forgot to pick up a kid.
Actually, I was only a 10 minutes late, but that was only because hubby called and hung up before I answered. I thought that was really odd, so I called him back and asked him why he only let it ring once. When he replied that he thought I'd be gone since I pick Mark up at this time........wanna know what I said before I slammed the phone and flew out of the house like I had a fire on my backside?


Didn't think so.


Then I tried to call hubby back. Twice. He didn't answer. I couldn't figure out why until he called me to remind me HE WAS IN CLASS. Mind you, he has had class on Monday and Wednesday for the past THREE MONTHS!!!!


This has not been a good day for me at all.


At least I do have dinner ready for them when they all get home from the high school robotics club (hubby is an adult mentor and the twins are club members). Since I have completely went over on what I had budgeted for food this month, I am making more of an effort to correct that from here on out. In the freezer we had a bag of diced potatoes. Combined with a can of Campbell's pepper jack cheese soup and a can of cream of chicken soup (do not use the Healthy Request style), and about a cup and a half (more or less to your taste) of shredded cheese, I made cheesy potatoes as a side dish. We'll have some chicken and fresh broccoli crowns (my kids hate cooked broccoli), and the frozen dinner roils that are thawing out to be cooked--and that is dinner. Easy, and frugal.
Part of the reason I am trying to make sure we get back on budget is the actual amount I discovered we are spending on food. I think I mentioned we are using a program called Pear budgeting that SimpleMom extolls--well, after a full month of making sure I enter EVERY receipt, I discovered we spend $300 more than I thought we were spending on groceries, and $150 more on eating out than I had ever imagined! Now I completely understand where the leaks are! BIG LEAKS! So the next month is going to focus on plugging the leaks. It may not happen overnight, but I am paying special attention to the holes now, so I'm sure we will conquer this monster!
I did spend part of the day baking ginger crinkle cookies --enough for the rest of the week, and I have a cream cheese poundcake in the oven as I type this. These poundcakes freeze really well, so I am going to make another one tomorrow to use up some cream cheese I've had in the fridge but haven't used. I need to use it while it is still good so it doesn't get wasted. Cream cheese is not cheap.
The rest of the week will focus on using what we have in the fridge and what we have on hand. I might have to get creative for one of the boys since he is a picky eater and doesn't like fish, cheese or about half a billion other foods. The rest of the family loves fish, which we just happen to have a lot of in the freezer, so it will just be one kid that is going to be a challenge to feed nutritiously.





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