One of the most nerve wracking aspects of Sjogren's Syndrome is that there is no predicting when the symptoms will strike and how bad they will be. I woke up in the middle of the night last night shivering and feeling horrible. I had a fever, my head was pounding and my neck hurt. I was still able to bend my chin to my chest but it was painful. Hubby hopped right out of bed and made a mad dash for the medicine cabinet (which is quite well stocked in our house) to get me the Prednisone. This has definitely been my worst "attack" since I was hospitalized in April and my poor husband is a wreck. I woke up feeling a bit better this morning (the joys of steroids) and my temperature is back to normal but I am completely wiped out. Purely exhausted and there is no energy or motivation to be had. This makes me so thankful that I am able to stay at home. No boss to get angry if I call in sick...the worst that will happen is that the daily cleaning & laundry may not get done. I am so blessed to have a supportive husband and great kids who will pitch in and help out when I'm laid low by my SJS.
Now on to updates on monthly grocery shopping and the homemade journey. On Monday I attempted to make a few loaves of bread for use in French toast and sandwiches. The texture was wonderful but I'm going to have to get used to the fact that the homemade stuff isn't going to be the same size & shape as the store bought stuff. Does anyone have any suggestions on getting it to turn out more like the store bought stuff?
The rest of this week will be relatively easy on the homemade front. Today I will whip up my first batch of homemade laundry detergent. Tomorrow I need to make some buns for the hearty Italian sandwiches I will be making for dinner. Friday I will do the next week's desserts...I'm thinking homemade Thin Mint cookies. Num!
Here are a few of the crafty projects I've undertaken recently.
Mason Jar Mummy
This was a super easy project that simply required Modge Podge, a mason jar, sterile medical gauze and googly eyes. I have a LED tea light in the jar.
Thankful pumpkins
I still think these would have looked better with white pumpkins but I couldn't find darker letters.
And finally, Aidan's winter scarf for this year
Oh and a grocery shopping update: I didn't plan well enough in regards to shredded cheese & peppers so when I make my run tomorrow for milk and eggs (in the last week & a half we've gone through 4 1/2 gallons of milk and almost 34 eggs!) I will have to pick some up. It'll be another $30 added to my grocery bill for the month but still much better than the $600 I would have normally spent in the past!
I would call that an oxymoron, no? One has only to think of chemotherapy to know that sometimes in the medical world doctors give you a treatment that makes you far sicker than you originally felt in order to combat your illness. It seems backwards to me but I'm not the one with the medical degree. I am currently on 2000mg a day of a prescription whose main job is to suppress my immune system. Lovely! Just in time for flu season and I'm coping with my first cold since the medication started. The only physical difference I've noticed so far is that it seems to be lasting longer than a normal cold lasts but it has made a definite difference to my social calendar.
Let me explain my husband for a moment. Jimmy is amazing (of course, I am a bit biased), loyal, generous, caring and protective. I can't even imagine how he suffered during my first hospital stay for meningitis. I lost consciousness on Monday evening and didn't regain it until Wednesday. He kept vigil over me, praying nonstop and pacing. Our church family was wonderful and lifted us up in constant prayer which I know helped carry Jimmy through the ordeal as well as my best friends giving him all the support he needed. You can imagine that my illness (as well as how lightening fast it struck) made him a bit paranoid. Even worse, it continued to happen. Our oldest kid jokes that I scarred dad for life. He won't go visit his friends on the other side of the state unless a friend can stay with me (yes, apparently at 36 I still need a babysitter!).
So...because we aren't sure what my colds will look like on this medication and we don't know if colds will morph into something like pneumonia, Jimmy has gone into full papa bear mode. We had a weekend full of plans that we've had to cancel. Instead of the high school Homecoming game last night, we stayed in and watched Snow White & the Huntsman. Today instead of doing a Komen 5K with my daughter and some friends, I made a batch of homemade yogurt, an Oreo poke cake and dinner rolls. And finally, instead of celebrating my nephew's 8th birthday tonight, I've been knitting and watching college football. I do definitely enjoy quiet weekends at home with my family, but I am sad that I had to miss out on all the fun stuff we had planned. It is worth staying healthy but there are days when I just want to throw a temper tantrum. Oh well....at least I've read three books in the last few days....that can never be a bad thing, right?
For those of you who don't know me or are just joining me on my blogging journey, I get meningitis. Too much. Well actually, once is more than enough don't you think? Anyway, it started in early December of last year when I spent four days off work, at home and miserably sick. Fevers, vomiting, and piercing headaches. My doctor's PA said it couldn't be meningitis because I was still able to bend my neck. Of course, she didn't realize how atypical I am...a medical oddity if you will. Less than two weeks later, I was rushed to the hospital via ambulance due to a high fever, vomiting, blinding headache and "shigors" (extreme shaking rigors from the fever). At that point, I most definitely could not bend my neck. Within hours, I lost all capability of speech and eventually I lost consciousness and didn't regain it until two days later. All of the tests turned up negative (see above comment on medical oddities) and I was sent home on ten days of very strong antibiotics. I was hospitalized again two days later for three days and then a few days after that for another seven due to complications of the illness/treatment/tests. Finally, all seemed clear. Until January 22nd that is when the fever, vomiting, shigors and headache started up again. Another week in the hospital with a whole bunch of nothing on the test results. Thankfully I saw my Rheumatologist for a regular check up in February and once he heard about my odd cases of meningitis, he realized that I was experiencing a very rare symptom of my disease, Sjogren's Syndrome (SJS). Apparently meningitis without infection can plague people suffering from SJS but it is extremely rare and therefore none of the doctors treating me at the hospital recognized it. My Rheumy put me on a new medication that was meant to keep the SJS in remission and lower the symptoms (in addition to the meningitis, I have very dry eyes and mouth along with parotid glands that swell and shooting pains in my nerves due to neuropathy). Minus the side effects of the drugs, all seemed well until April 1st when I landed back in ICU with another bout of meningitis. He put me on a new medication. An anti-rejection drug that organ transplant patients use in order to trick their body into not rejecting the new organ. In my case, it's supposed to suppress my immune system so that it stops attacking my body which is what causes all of my fun symptoms. Since I've been on the Cellcept, I have had at least four occasions where the meningitis symptoms have started. Thankfully, I have a standing steroid prescription and within 24 hours of taking them, the symptoms begin to go away. That being said, no one likes taking steroids. Especially not in the doses I have to take them in, as well the fact that I have to take them for long periods of time to wean my body off of them.
I went in to see my Rheumy yesterday for my check up (these have been every month to two months since my SJS symptoms have gotten out of control) and he has increased my Cellcept dosage to 2000 mg (I am currently on 1000 mg) a day. Ugh...lovely side effects are coming my way! I have a standing order for blood work because of course, drugs like steroids and Cellcept can wreak havoc on your body. Due to my SJS, my white blood cell count (and therefore my immune system) is already naturally lower than a normal persons. Right now it's hovering at 3.75 but if it hits 2.5 we are in the danger zone. This increase in Cellcept will likely lower it even more. If this dosage doesn't work, he will move me to Imuran which is another drug similar to Cellcept. I have only two more oral medication options before we move to an IV drug that is similar to chemo (on the bright side, that would give me the excuse to shave my head again!).
There are days where I don't think about my medical ailments at all. There are times where I freely enjoy life without any symptoms hindering me. But then there are times where I will have tooth pain, or limited vision due to my dry eyes, or swollen & painful joints and I will think....WHY ME? This morning, my devotional was spot on though and it is something I will write down to keep in mind always. "God can remove our illnesses and change our circumstances in an instant-the moment they are no longer needed for His divine purposes. Until then, or until He takes us home, we can rest in the fact that our illnesses are part of His good purpose for our lives. God truly uses all things." AMEN! He uses our health and our circumstances, whether good or bad, for His glory. Who am I to argue with that?
Enough of my medical drama....on to the homemade stuff! Yesterday I attempted to make homemade yogurt in my slow cooker. I also made cinnamon toast crunch cupcakes. When you have been on a roll of a lot of new recipes turning out great, it's always such a downer to have a few flops. Or learning opportunities..... The cupcakes turned out great...but when it came time to decorate them, the frustration began. It was suggested that the frosting be piped on. I have zero artistic skill and have never attempted to use decorating bags and tips. The first cupcake turned out ok:
But after that point, the frosting wouldn't come out of the bag. I've come to the conclusion that the crushed pieces of cereal clogged the tip and I ended up frosting the rest in the plain old fashioned way I normally frost items.
As for the yogurt....once it was done it was definitely yogurt and thick enough, until I added maple & vanilla to the batch. It started to thin and got even thinner when I blended some with strawberry for hubby's lunch. I'm going to research other recipes today and see if I can find a work around to this. No one in my house will eat plain yogurt..it only gets used for cooking. So I definitely need to be able to create vanilla and a few other flavors of yogurt that does NOT have the consistency of milk. Any suggestions????
Kidism for the day: Hubby & I recently talked to the kids about finances. We explained that since I am no longer working, our budget would look and feel very different than before. We asked them to be understanding as well as helpful in coming up with money saving ideas. Later that evening, I found our letters notebook (see this post about a notebook my daughter & I use to write letters to each other) under my pillow. My baby girl had tucked in $2 with a note that said "I have been saving this money for us. Please don't give it back, you need it more than I do." It can be said that I will cry at the drop of the hat, so it should be no surprise that Ani's little note brought me to tears. My daughter is so generous and giving. This is a memory I will forever cherish.
Whew! I have spent the last two days doing enough grocery shopping to last us a month. I spent most of last week reading suggestions on how to do this, coming up with meal plans, seeing what I have in stock here and making up shopping lists. On Sunday, we picked up the newspaper so that I could also go through the ads and coupons. I feel confident that the next time I do this, it won't be as time consuming and it will definitely be more efficient.
This time around, I wasn't always sure which store had the best prices. I took the advice I found in both blogs and in the book "America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money" by the Economides and started noting the price and size of certain items (like flour, sugar, cornstarch, etc) at each store. I also had to go on a scavenger hunt to find the supplies I will need to make my own laundry detergent, fabric softener, household cleaners and hand soap. This resulted in going to both Apple Valley Health Foods and Harvest Health Foods. I won't need to pick up those supplies regularly in the future and now I know that Harvest Health Foods is the place to go. I'll also be looking online for a good resource for essential oils since HHF did not have all of the scents that I wanted.
All in all, the shopping spanned over two days, at eight different stores and probably took me about seven hours including unloading and putting away. Yesterday I hit Target, Meijer, the dollar store, Apple Valley Health Foods, Harvest Health Foods and Sam's Club. This morning I finished my shopping out with a trip to Horrock's and Aldi's. Because I am way too particular, I had to put everything away as soon as I came home from each trip. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of all of my great finds...but here is one from my final trip to Aldi's this morning:
This was my largest trip and took the most time to put away. Now it feels like every nook and cranny is stuffed to overflowing and I feel like I've accomplished something!
Here is our back freezer....I don't think I could fit much else in.
And some of our pantry cupboards
I tallied up my receipts and it came out to a total of $437. It went over my budget of $400 but it's not bad for my first trip. I also bought several items that I won't need to buy every month like all of the supplies for my laundry detergent, etc etc. In addition, Aldi's had boneless turkey breasts for $7.99 and we always get one for Thanksgiving in addition to a 16-18 pound turkey so I just couldn't resist for that price!
In further homemade adventures, I started my very first attempt at making yogurt this morning. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!
Yep, that's what my BFF (and yes, I still call her that..or bestie...how old am I?) has started calling me. She is convinced that I have gone over to the domestic dark side. Don't think she won't use this domesticity to her advantage though. She has issued a challenge that I just had to accept to create baby chicks out of deviled eggs like so....
It is highly coincidental (nudge nudge) that my nephew's birthday party is this coming weekend and said nephew just happens to adore deviled eggs. Yep uh huh....
Enough of that...I will post pictures (if it turns out!) once I create the baby chicks.
Life has been busy here in the Chase home. We had our full family together this weekend which always involves lots of cooking and dishes as well as laughs and good times. I took all the kids to see Finding Nemo in 3D. We all love that movie and most of us can quote it by heart("I will call him Squishy and he shall be mine. He shall be my Squishy.") It was neat seeing it on the big screen but it definitely was not worth the 3D ticket prices for 3D. After that, we all watched Snow White and the Huntsman which is one of my new faves.
In my homemade adventures I made my own taco seasoning, baked some delicious and ridiculously easy crusty bread (recipe here), and made my husband some peppermint mocha coffee creamer (he is addicted to the York creamer). This week is also our first attempt at doing our grocery shopping only once a month in order to be better stewards of God's money. It feels like I spent all morning shopping and I still have two more stops to make tomorrow. On the other hand, it'll be great to not to have to go to the store two or three times a week. I will still need to get milk but only once a week or so. We tend to go through about three gallons here a week and it would be impossible to store it for an entire month. I will share tomorrow about all my finds and how close I stayed to my budget.
And on a completely unrelated note.....Aidan & I had a conversation about college today. On our way to his PT session, we saw a city bus dropping off several students at one of the downtown campuses for GVSU. Aidan asked me if it would make me happy to have him go to a local college. Of course!!!!! He then proceeded to ask how far away GVSU was because he wanted to make sure it wasn't too far of a drive for me to drop him off at class everyday! LOL I find it absolutely adorable that my pre-teen boy thinks I will be driving him to class when he's in college.
Have you ever plotted your course, laid out your plans and pushed full steam ahead with whatever you wanted to do? That is me to a T. I am a planner by nature and a control freak by genes. My husband used to joke that I knew our vacation schedule for the next ten years...and my friends frequently refer to me as the tour guide or social planner. It's not just vacation and social plans that I make though. I plan EVERYTHING. If this gives you any idea, I am currently three gifts away from being done with our Christmas shopping.
This may all sound grand and wonderful, but as a child of God, I should be leaving the plans up to Him. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 Why is it that I struggle so much in giving up control to God? And then, when things don't go the way I planned or hoped, I flounder and stress and try to plan my way through the chaos. Now I know, truthfully I do, that I need to hand the reins over to God and trust in Him. My favorite verse talks about it and I even have it tattooed
"I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation."
I was reading 40 days with Jesus yesterday and a few key quotes stood out to me:
"Sometimes My blessings come to you in mysterious ways: through pain and trouble. At such times you can know My goodness only through your trust in Me. Understanding will fail you, but trust will keep you close to Me."
Or even this not so gentle nudge...
"I want you to embrace all that I am doing in your life, finding your security in Me alone."
Every time I feel that I am growing and maturing in my faith, something comes along to shake me to the core. I know this is a lesson from God and I need to buckle down and learn it. Trusting in God is so very difficult for me, but He is the only way I can make it through.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9
I am so weak Lord, please forgive me and enfold me in your loving arms so that I may rely solely on your strength.
One of our favorite times of year in this family is fall. Fall means football, trees on fire in bright reds and oranges, chili in the crockpot and roast on Sunday, fires in the fireplace and the smell of pumpkin and cinnamon scented candles throughout the house. Fall also means Halloween and our family really gets in to Halloween. So much so that we seem to decorate for it earlier and earlier every year. This years decorations went up yesterday and the kids are loving it!
First we have a new addition to my Boney Bunch collection
Then it is some of our Halloween night lights
The kitchen witch and other assorted cute things
Our new, dimensional bats
And the rest of my Boney Bunch
Now it's time to light some scented candles and get down to some fall baking!
One of the things that is important to hubby & I is that we build fun family traditions to share with our kids. Some traditions are small and simple, like going to church every weekend or having pizza every Friday night. Others are typical like having a family game night. What are some of the traditions your family has?
Thanksgiving is HUGE in our family. We start the morning out with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Then while I start the meal, hubs gets the Christmas tree out and starts to put it together.
When we have Jimmy's girls for Thanksgiving, it's Rain's job to stuff the turkey.
Yeah, her dad thought it was pretty darn funny...mainly because he won't touch raw meat.
Ani bastes the turkey
Anii & Dez help Daddy put the tree together
Another tradition is that we have a football/pumpkin party every year with some of our closest friends.
She swears it tastes just like chicken! Ewwwww
Then there is the same crew for a Christmas party that may or may not involve messy cookie decorating and ornament making....depends on the host!
While I'm on the topic of Christmas, we have the Christmas tree cinnamon rolls. This was a tradition I grew up with and I love carrying it on for our kids.
And a tradition that Jimmy & I started with the kids...Jesus' birthday cake!
The reason traditions came to mind is that I'm going to start a new one with my baby girl tonight. A brilliant (I think!) idea that I, of course, got from Pinterest.
I picked up this adorable notebook at my favorite store today and wrote a short letter to Ani in here. I've slid it under her pillow & when she gets home from Youth Group tonight, I'll let her in on the secret. We can take turns writing to one another and hiding it under our pillows. I think it will be a great way to keep our relationship as close as it is now and it will be a great memory for her to have when my time comes. She can share the idea with her daughters if she is so blessed to have them.
"Honor your father and mother, so that you may live in the land the Lord your God is giving you." Exodus 20:12
Our church just recently finished up a series on the Ten Commandments and our pastors did a fantastic job making each Commandment applicable to our lives today. Going into this series, I knew the one I would struggle with the most was Commandment number five. Please understand that I love my parents deeply but my mom & I have a rocky relationship.
Right about the time that the sermon series on the Ten Commandments began, my mom & I had a falling out. This in itself is not unusual...one can never tell what will set her off. The only difference is that the falling outs have gotten worse in the last few years. My mother is ill. Mentally. I am not being sarcastic when I say that. She is bipolar as both her brother and father were. This problem is compounded by the fact that she refuses to get medical help and that she uses her illness as an excuse to act worse than she really is. She reads things into situations that aren't really there, hears words that aren't spoken and puts her own twist on nearly everything. Our largest problem is that she has an unexplained loathing for my stepdaughters. She imagines that I treat them better and love them more than my own two children and she resents them for that. Mind you, she lives three hours away and has only seen us all together as a family maybe 8 times in the last 7+ years so how she has come to this conclusion I have no clue.
We had a horrible falling out over the 4th of July last year where she said some horrible things about my youngest stepdaughter. It was bad enough that my husband & I packed our kids up at 1am and made the three hour drive home. We did not speak for a month and then gradually started speaking but mostly it was her calling me to yell at me (not only at home, but she would call me at work as well). She accused me of picking my stepdaughters over her but admitted that she was trying to force me to choose. I explained that she would not like my choice. The Bible tells us to cleave to our spouse and my stepdaughters are part of the deal. I love them like they were my own kids. Our relationship was strained for months and in December she told me that she had written me a long letter that I would not like because it told me what an ungrateful and bad daughter I was. Shortly after that, I nearly died from meningitis and that seemed to completely change things. Mom acted as if that strife had never happened and things went back to normal.
Of course...that never lasts. She got angry recently because she tried to tell me what to do with my kids in a certain situation. This is pretty commonplace for her. She feels that she has the right to tell me what to do. I don't mind her sharing her opinion on what to do, but she cannot tell me how to raise my own kids. I told her that and it degenerated from there. She was calling me names and telling me that I never loved her....and so on and so forth. I did my best to keep my temper. I continually try to act the way God would want me to but it is so very difficult in light of the things she says and does. Shortly after this conversation ended, she called me back to tell me that my Dad had overheard and didn't agree with her so he left for work early. She said that they were getting a divorce and it was all my fault so she hoped I was happy. See....another reoccurring theme in our lives is how my mom is convinced that my dad & I always side against her and love each other more than we love her. I've heard this from about age 10. My Dad & I are very close, but the problem is that we are both pretty logical while she is very unreasonable. This is why it appears that we are taking sides against her.
A week or two goes by and then she starts to act as if nothing had ever happened again. Even though she said horrible things and then went two weeks without speaking to me, it was back to the status quo. In the meantime, during the two week period, some big news came up that I shared with my Dad. Since Mom wasn't speaking to me, I didn't talk to her about it. I also assumed she would hear from a different source because she usually does. By the time she started speaking to me again, it was old news and it didn't cross my mind to share it. Yesterday in a phone conversation with my Dad, the subject was brought up and she realized that we both knew and didn't tell her. Here we go again.....
Dad called to warn me but I didn't hear from her. She ended up calling after 9 last night and I just wasn't ready to deal with it emotionally so I let it go to voicemail. She of course left a harsh message about how she is excluded from this family and how furious she is. After that, she called my daughter's cell phone repeatedly. My kids are in bed by 8:30 on a school night and it bothers me that she was trying to bring my baby girl into this. I need to call her today but man, I have no idea how to handle this situation. God made it clear that we are to honor our parents but how do I honor her without allowing her to treat me poorly or run my life?
"God states no qualifier. He does not tell us to honor them only if they are honorable. Simply because they are our parents, we must treat them with respect.......Granted, honoring parents can be difficult if Father is a drunk or Mother is a lying thief. Their actions may sometimes be dishonorable, but because they are Dad and Mom, they are to be respected. The Commandment has no loopholes." From Bible Tools
I'm sorry this vent is so very long but it has been on my heart and mind since her call yesterday. If anyone out there does read this....please pray for wisdom and discernment for me so that I may say the right words and respond correctly. Please pray for peace for my Mom.
Thanks!
My Monday started out way too early as my boy had a physical therapy evaluation scheduled for 7:30. That appointment only served to further busy my week by adding twice weekly PT sessions for Aidan for the time being. From there it was dropping the boy off to school and seeing the hubby off to work. I spent my morning cleaning and working towards my goal of a homemade pantry, and spent my early afternoon painting our deck.
My first steps toward stocking a more homemade pantry were a pancake mix, homemade instant cinnamon roll oatmeal, sprinkle muffins & pumpkin muffins (a good substitute to Hostess cupcakes in kids lunches!).
My ingredients:
The pancake mix that should hopefully last me at least a month:
I found the recipe for the pancake mix here
The rest of my goodies from this morning:
I bagged hubby's cinnamon roll oatmeal in portions in snack baggies, that way he doesn't have to worry about measuring things out in the mornings.
I was just forewarned that Aidan's buddy J & his lil bro are planning on joining us again for dinner so I'm off to make sure there is enough food for everyone!
I was just dishing up dinner for the fam tonight-some pasta, meatballs and a little thrown together Parmesan garlic pull apart bread-when there was a knock on the door. To my absolute lack of surprise, it was my seventh graders best friend, J, and his little brother. Let me explain something about J. We love him. We joke that he is our adoptive son and child numero cinco. My boy has never done well with friends and his social skills are not on par with his age level in general. It thrilled us to pieces to have J in his life. He is a great kid, he is polite, cleans up after himself and he stands up for my boy. What mom could ask for more? But back to the knock on our door. I am pretty sure J has an internal radar that alerts him when there is food to be had at our house. I get the feeling that meals at his house aren't at all like ours. He is always so geeked at anything I make like it is the most exciting food ever.
Since the dessert I had planned was not enough for four kids, I had to throw something together quickly and so the idea for Mama's Cheatin' Dessert Pizza was born. I'm sure someone else has thought of this recipe but it was the first time I tried this one myself.
Dessert Pizza
1 pkg. of crescent rolls
Margarine
Cinnamon sugar (I mix up a shaker jar of this myself)
Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk
1. Preheat the oven to 375 & spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray
2. Unroll the crescent rolls and lay them out flat on the cookie sheet
3. Spread margarine on each roll & sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
4. Bake the crescent rolls for 10 minutes
5. While the crescent rolls are baking, mix up the glaze adding more milk if necessary until it is a thin consistency
6. Once the rolls are baked, drizzle the glaze over each piece
Viola!
In the past week or so, I've read a few different blog posts about how these two families do amazing things with their grocery budgets. One family, with six members, only spends $200 a month on groceries! HA! I had to read her "how to" blog twice to make sure I read it right. We have a family of four + two (one weekend a month, a week at Christmas, February, Spring break and two weeks a month in the summer) and we spend way more than that. Try $350-$400 more a month. Seriously. Now I must admit, part of that is my own fault. I make a budget but it's pretty......fluid...if you know what I mean.
That being said, hubby & I have talked and agreed to try to cut our grocery budget. One of the things our Pastor talked about this morning at church was stewardship of the gifts God gives us. I am a far cry from the horrible spender I was in my early 20's, but I'm far from where I should be in my stewardship. It's time to change that and I know it can be done. "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13
Some of the tips I picked up in my recent blog surfing makes me want to slap my forehead in a big "DUH!" moment. Things such as the "quick runs" to the store to pick up "one or two" items costs you far more than you planned. So true. One blogger literally only goes to the grocery store ONCE a month-amazing! I actually went back and looked at what I spent solely at Meijer in August and it was over $800! I went there at least 15 times in one month. That also doesn't count my stops at Target or Aldi's. I technically have a meal plan that allows me to shop once every two weeks but I am going to try to stretch that.
Another tip that is sooooo deceptively simple is grocery shopping with cash only. I never really thought about it but I've always set a grocery budget but when I use my debit card, I don't mind going over because the money is in the account. That most definitely adds up. Some weeks I may budget $50 at Meijer but I spend $70 or $80. I know most of the prices of our every day items so it shouldn't be hard to estimate how much cash to bring with.
A familiar theme in these brilliant budgeting blogs is....wait for it......homemade! Theoretically I've always known that if you could make several of the items you stock in your pantry regularly, you would save money...but I never had the time or inclination to put it into practice. Seriously though, if I buy hubby's favorite cinnamon roll oatmeal I will spend $3.00 for 10 small packets. If I make it, I will spend $2.20 on a big container of quick oats and the rest of the items are already in my pantry. Do you have any idea how many servings that will make? I don't.....but I will! I plan on making a premixed pancake/waffle mix, ranch dressing, taco seasoning, bread, hot dog & hamburger buns, oatmeal and a lot of treat items like fruit snacks (100% real fruit!) and muffins. I'm even contemplating making my own laundry detergent and household cleaners.
So over the next few weeks I plan on stocking up on pantry staples and making some basics. I'm hoping to make my next grocery trip last me 3 weeks instead of 2 with no store stops in between. I'll post my progress as it goes along.
On a completely unrelated note...I spent Saturday afternoon hitting craft stores with my baby girl. She's as addicted to Michael's and Hobby Lobby as her mama.
Here is what we made yesterday:
It's a Thankful Tree. On the backs of the patterned paper, everyone can write down things that we are thankful for. It's currently geared towards fall but this is not the only season to be thankful in so I think I will transition it to reflect each season as they come.
That's what my 12 year old boy tells me I've been doing to him and his little sister lately. He was referring to the way I've been channeling Martha Stewart, Betty Crocker & Pinterest. Not working has given me a LOT more time and it's allowed me to do many things that I've only contemplated in the past. God has indeed blessed us.
So yesterday when Aidan walked in the door from school, he smelled one of his favorite scents....something sweet baking. I swear, that kid has the nose of a hound dog. I had found a cute idea on Pinterest and decided it would be simple and easy to make for dessert (and lunches!) last night.
My ingredients: chocolate cupcakes & chocolate fudge frosting along with Oreos and M&M's
After you frost the cupcakes, open up the Oreo cookies carefully and place the frosted halves on the cupcakes like so:
Then you add the M&M's as the eyes and nose and voila! It's a cute big-eyed owl.
The kids loved them though they would be way too chocolate-y for me.
Every time I would pass the doughnut pan in my local Target store, I would pick it up and contemplate putting it in my cart. Inevitably I would put it back though, thinking that baking doughnuts would be too difficult. Finally though I caved because I figured that as long as I'm off work, I would have plenty of time to bake and try new things.
Here was my first attempt: Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
Recipe:
2 cups cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs,slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 3/4 cup full.
Bake 7-9 minut4es or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes before removing. Finish the doughnuts with chocolate glaze, cinnamon sugar, confectioners' sugar or a topping of your choice. Doughnuts best served fresh.
Makes 12 doughnuts.
Cinnamon Sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
4 tablespoons melted butter
In a shallow bowl or plate, stir together the sugar and cinnamon. Dip the baked doughnut in melted butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat.
Today is one of those bittersweet days in the life of a parent. The first day of school always makes me both happy and sad. This year is a new experience for me because this is the first time I've been off for most of the summer so I know I am going to miss having the kids around now that school has started. It is also a big day for us because it's the first day of our baby's last year in elementary. I'm not quite sure where the time went but it is definitely flying by!
To make it a special day for the kids, I decided to surprise them with a "Back to School Breakfast".
They loved it and my son was really digging my first attempt at homemade doughnuts (I'll add the recipe in my next post).
First, we saw our new 7th grader off....
And next it was time for our fifth grader to go.....there may have been tears involved.
Now what to do with myself during the days? Hmmm I think I see lots of reading, cooking, writing and volunteering in my future.
Here's to a wonderful school year filled with learning and fun!
My symptoms started at 15. At first it was a swelling of my cheek along my jawline that would get hard, sometimes red and always very painful. You wouldn't believe the litany of oddball ideas that doctors tossed at me. First it was mumps but that came back negative. Then it was due to my wisdom teeth though it continued to happen after they were removed. After that it was a "pre-arthritic condition" with no cure. The worst was the ENT doc who told me it was due to extra loops in my salivary glands. His cure? To stick something similar to fish wire into my salivary glands inside my cheeks and "flush" the loops out. Ouch. Finally, nearly ten years later I was given the correct diagnosis by...wait for it.....an Urgent Care doctor! Who knew? My previous experiences in Urgent Care were all about waiting too long to be referred on to my regular doctor. This brilliant man asked me if I had ever heard of Sjogren's Syndrome. Of course, I had not. Most of the world hasn't. After I tested positive for SJS, I was referred on to a Rheumatologist and there my journey began.
After my initial diagnosis I was pregnant with Annika and could not take any of the medication that would have been prescribed. Instead, I went to physical therapy to assist with the symptoms and to help me with the Fibromyalgia that I was also diagnosed with. Over the next few years my SJS spent a lot of time in remission, but there were bouts of symptoms such as not being able to sleep at night, having many dental problems, my jaw continuing to swell and dry eyes.
The older I got, the worse the symptoms became. I spent nearly a month one summer legally blind in one eye and almost legally blind in the other due to the dryness problem. Minus that incident though, my illness was still quite manageable, if annoying.
Then, in December 2011, something strange happened. I was hospitalized for meningitis only they couldn't find any cause for it. The cultures from my LP (lumbar puncture...i.e. spinal tap) were negative, I had no viral infections that could be causing it and suddenly I became a perfect patient for Doctor House. I was hospitalized five times over the next four months for a total of almost 30 days. 10 of those days were spent in ICU. Three of those visits were for meningitis. I had seven spinal taps, multiple MRIs, CAT scans, EEG's, three PICC lines and up to 14 pokes a day in my poor, bruised arms. After my second meningitis stay in late January, I happened to have a check up with my Rheumatologist. Luckily, he was able to give me a reason behind the reoccurring cases of meningitis. Unluckily, it was a very rare symptom of my SJS and therefore, there is no cure. The best they can do for me is treat my symptoms in an effort to keep the meningitis at bay.
During this medical drama that was my life, I became completely addicted to Laffy Taffy's. If any of you have ever had meningitis, you will know how miserably sick to your stomach it makes you. I lost 20 pounds in the first month of my illness because nothing sounded good and I could barely keep anything down. For some odd reason, I craved Laffy Taffy's. I mean, I had always liked them but now it seemed like they were one of only a few foods that could calm my stomach. Over the past eight months or so, each time the meningitis symptoms begin, I reach for a bag of Laffy Taffy's. I should probably own stock in them by now and this addiction is a standing family joke.
To begin at the beginning...well that would be silly. Not only would it take AGES but really, who wants to hear all about me growing up as an only child in a small Chicago suburb? All there is to know about that is that I had a happy childhood (even when my parents forced me to move to the Mitten) and that I was raised as a loyal Bears fan.
Now that I'm all grown up (still living in the Mitten and still a Bear's fan), I'm loving the life of being a mama & wife. My amazing husband, Jimmy, & I have a blended family with four children and two pugs (who are just like toddlers if you ask me!).
We have our oldest, Rain, who will be 16 this fall. Ugh!
Then we have pre-teen numero 1, Aidan, who will be 13 in February.
And our second pre-teen, Desiree, who will be 13 next May.
Then comes the baby (this was taken post-Halloween, she is not normally allowed to wear makeup), Annika, who is 11.
And finally, our toddler pugs, Fiona & Panda
Now here's to hoping I can actually keep up with this blog. I always have the best of intentions but life tends to get in the way. Our family has been on a wild ride for the last year or so and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. So if you are so inclined, feel free to join us on our journey of faith, love, family, chronic illness and Laffy Taffy's (those are a story for another blog)!
