Once a month cooking will return

check in for the updates maybe Monday or Tuesday!

thanks!

Sonic Ice, Once a Month Cooking, & Strawberries

I am quite in love with the ice that you get at Sonic. Did you know you can buy it buy the bag for about $2-3 dollars....TODAY I also found out that the 1st stop this is just 5 miles away (compaired to Sonic which is 20 miles away) has very similar ice! YEAH!! I wonder how much they would sell a bag for?

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So the once a month cooking is going to happen tomorrow!

Today was the grocery shopping day, but I am not sure how much after that I will get done.

so here is what $203.50 bought -- I am NOT a bargin hunter so I am happy-

I was planning on between $150-175 but in the end I bought two packages of diapers..and canning stuff (see below) so that is about $50.00 in those 4 things!

These will be made useful when I use all THESE (see below)--and make Jam! Yumm!

This is what happens when Strawberries are $1.00 a pound--

First I cut all the tops off--

wash and dry them--I let them dry really well so I don't have to worry about flash freezing them--I don't think it is worth the time!

Makes a cool pattern on my dish towel--just hope it washes out!
This was the results of round 3 of my massive stawberry buying--I think I bought about 13 pounds overall---I should have bought lots more!!

PS: I do NOT know the difference between Jam and Jelly and even if you tell me I will forget.

These were items I had on had, or bought in prep for once a month cooking. I just placed it all in a big tupperware which will become a packing box after tomorrow---and after the baby is born it will become a clothing/diaper/wipe/catch-all storage bin.

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EVEN THOUGH it says Friday and Saturday

this year I am doing it Thursday and Friday since that is when

my exchange student has time to help me! Yeah again for Yeerah!!

So here is the basic start of Once A Month Cooking

Friday Morning
1. Go shopping early in morning for the groceries. (If you can afford/or find on sale—shredded cheese, buy that—Boneless Skinless Chicken—buy that—Meat already cut into strips—buy that—any little short cut that you can use will help, but stay within budget!)

2. Unload Groceries (but don't put any canned food away-put them on my large counter top--you are using them tomorrow anyway)

3. Put meat and freezer/fridge things where they belong--if possible put everything in fridge possible.

Friday Afternoon
1. Chop all veggies
a. Cut Bell Peppers into Strip (For Fajita’s)
b. Cut green peppers into cubes (for Stroganoff)
2. Shred Cheese (if you don’t buy shredded cheese)
3. Wash and chop Mushrooms (beef stroganoff)
4. Wash potatoes (don’t chop or peel until the next day)


Friday night--IF you don't do anything else do these things
1. Clean the kitchen and ALL the dishes
2. Clean out freezer space
3. Have your Master Plan out and ready to use
4. Put as much chicken in the crock pot as possible on low for all night
5. Make an easy clean up meal tonight, so that you can start with a clean kitchen tomorrow. RUN the dishwasher (even if it is NOT full) and put the dishes away--you will be glad when clean up comes around tomorrow that you did.
6. Empty the trash

(Most of this is NOT going to happen for me since we are having out of town guests tonight and I need to get my house in order---so tomorrow you will see some of this happen!)

Like I have said, each person does Assembly differently. I like to get all the meat cooked first so that I only have to assemble after that and not have to stop and cook in-between meals. SO with that being said---here we go--

Some people label the cheese and place the cheese in baggies in the freezer all together/some tape it to the meal it goes with. In this plan I am putting the cheese with the meal since I haven’t tried that before.

TUNE IT TOMORROW (or the next day)

to see pictures and the WHOLE LONG post!

YEAH!

here fishy fishy fishy....

Pepper and Sedona's school has a fishing trip for them once a year.




I love the proud & excited look on her face in each of these pictures!

SO CUTE!



A private land owner stocks his river/pond area with trout and then has the Department of Wildlife is invited to take the Headstart kids to that pond and fish for the day.

After which they give the kids all free fishing poles---pretty amazing if you ask me.

I normally go, but Lucas was awesome enough to volunteer to take both girls, and I got the house picked up. Yeah Lucas!

THE FISHY STORY

as told by Pepper Larson.

"In the first five minutes then I catched the fish and then dad helped me and he said 'what the heck'. So we put a stick in his mouth and put in back in the water so he could be fresh and yummy. Then I said 'I don't think I can catch anymore' and then dad said 'when you are done fihsing come over here' and then dad carried it to the man and I saw his eyeballs. and then the fish was moving his tail in the water, and then he stopped and I think he was asleep and then we ate it and then it was all gone. We don't eat the little white string things (bones) in there"






SO if you need a little translating.


Lucas, Sedona, and Pepper all got to the stop and set up. Lucas got Pepper set up first and while helping Sedona he heard Pepper's little voice "Umm..dad...I think I got a fish." He looked up and suprise, she had caught a fish! First Sedona helped reel in for a minute, but then dad took over. It was a pretty rainbow trout. It had swallowed the fly so Lucas had to use his pocketknife and pull it out. He put a stick through the gils and placed it in the water to keep it fresh. When they took the fish to the Wildlife department man--he said "wow, this one must have been in since last year." It was a good sized fish. They wrapped it in a plastic bag and brought it home. We cooked it for dinner and the girls ate almost the whole thing, being very careful to look for bones. Quite the adventure for a little 3 year old!

Easter

Easter Morning

I really like the tradition that Lucas's famiy did where the Easter Bunny comes on Saturday so that Sunday can be Christ Centered, but this year Yeerah had a track meet on Saturday and had to leave early in the morning so we did Easter on Sunday.

Easter isn't a huge holiday in our house, but it is still fun. We do Easter baskets and then always get some church items--this year coloring books about Christ and the Easter Bunny always leaves us the story about Christs Atonment, death, and resurrection...but in Easter eggs.

After church we dyed Easter Eggs and then had Jeff and the missionaries come and join us for dinner. It was yummy.

Marinda (Lucas's sister) and her husband Steve were in town Saturday so I took most of my food and prepared most of Easter dinner at Pam's house so we could hang out with Marinda and Steve more. They are so fun! Poor Steve is a favorite with the neices and nephew--so he becomes a human jungle gym.

Some pictures from Easter morning....

Not sure why Sedona looks kind of scary in this picture.

Sedona is so excited for Easter morning


Pepper still isn't awake enough to figure out what is happening.

Coloring Easter Eggs that afternoon

Lucas has always enjoyed doing art, so dying eggs is his job--while I finished picking up the house and finished dinner he, the girls, and Yeerah enjoyed dying eggs.

I can't believe I didn't get one picture of the eggs!!

Sorry--

loosing teeth

First Lost Tooth

We are now in the season of loosing teeth

When Sedona came to me and told me she had a loose tooth I went to the computer to see if this was indeed the time for her to start loosing teeth and guess what?! IT IS!

She has lost the two bottom teeth and couldn't be more proud--I on the other hand am already worried about the cost of braces.

She was so excited when the first one fell out she told EVERYONE and we even had to give a call to cousin Asia to let her know the exciting news. (I think Asia and her must have talked at length about teeth because she always associates loose teeth with Asia).

Her mouth is all green because she bit open an easter egg dye packet and got it all over herself.

I had to add one of Pepper--she tells me all the time she feels a loose tooth--or that "I can tell this one is going to be loose".

Letting go of control

I am a control freak.

If you wonder if you are a control freak or not, host an exchange student and you will find out soon enough.

We have a exchange student (for another few weeks), who is a model student. Straight A's, never does ANYTHING that I have to worry about--no parties, no smoking, no drugs, no alcholo, no boyfriend, no stealing---really compaired to SOME of the stories I have heard we are really blessed to have the one we have BUT

I like things done a certain way. I like to live my life a certain way. I like my rules followed and people to understand the unspoken rules and regulations that run a house.

Throw in a teen-ager who doesn't know any of those rules and you have a control freaks delema. Like I said, it isn't her, it is me.

PLUS I have been living pretty much alone (with out adult compainionship) for the last 5 years with Lucas gone so much--so then to have someone there alot is kind of strange. Plus she is a teenager and likes teenager things (make-up, jewerly, and so on), and that is different for me.

SO I have been trying really hard to let go on control this past month. I have learning that I will soon have 3 kids and even less control then I do right now. My focus for this year has been to simplfy and focus. Maybe by simplifying my expectations of self, family, and others I can learn that control isn't all that it is cracked up to be.

I am winning the house battle

not sure if it just me nesting, but for about the last month I now feel like I have 85% control of my downstairs. I know I said I wouldn't blog about my house, but here you go anyway... Laundry, dishes, and the bathroom are my next focus. My mom told me once: "If you can keep up with the dishes and laundry, the rest of the house is easy." I really believe her. But Out of the 7 rooms on the lower level I can pick up 3-4 of them in about 20 minutes. Wow!--I have 7 rooms alone in the downstairs part of my house--maybe that is why I have a hard time keeping up. 1. Mudroom 2. Kitchen 3. Bathroom 4. Master bedroom 5. Dining room 6. Middle Room 7. Parlour/TV room Wow--yep that is 7! Upstairs I have 1. "Landing area"/Pepper's room 2. Toy room 3. Yeerah's Room 4. Scary Room 5. Craft room It makes it sound like I live in a huge house, which to me it is, but it is about 2,500 sq. feet. the rooms are smaller, with high ceilings. SO even if each room took me 10 minutes to clean, I would still be cleaning for over an hour easily a day. I know to most people that is nothing, and to me that should be easy too--- Looking at it that way I think I need to change my attack plan on my house---stay tuned for more because as boring as it is, I can't stop blogging about it!! maybe next time you might even get pictures!