Finally a Cooking Day!

With the kids gone today, I've decided to do some freezer cooking. We've been gone nearly every weekend since the kids got their driving permits, and I've missed getting some meals ready and into the freezer. At first I had only planned to do a few things, but that last has grown over the past 12 hours or so!

Hopefully by the end of tomorrow, I will have several each of chicken and turkey pot pies, flaky beef pies, spaghetti pies and stromboli in the freezer, along with a supply of pizza crusts. I may also try Life As Mom's red sauce and pizza sauce. I've had a different recipe for pizza sauce but haven't been too crazy about it. If I get to it, I'll try one batch. If it's a keeper, it will be easy enough to make more later. I have 2 roaster chickens ready to go into the pot. I had planned to roast them in the oven but forgot to get roasting bags, so they'll do just fine on the stovetop. They will be shredded, some used in the pot pies and the rest divided into 2- or 3-cup portions to freeze for future use. I'm also debating trying to make my own chicken broth. I have some carrots and celery that need to be used soon, so I think this might be the day. And why all the pies? I dislike the idea of making my own pie crust, but I hate the idea of paying for premade crust! It's actually okay once I get into the actual making of the crusts, but I just dread the thought of doing it. So by doing these all in one day, I get them done all in one shot. I will also probably go ahead and make a few crusts to have in the freezer for pumpkin pie and DS's favorite apple tart so that I'll have to do is thaw and roll.

I had originally thought I'd spend a couple hours in the kitchen and then do some sewing, but I doubt I will have the energy after completing my list and doing up the dishes. Hopefully this will be a very productive day and will allow for some evening sewing time in the coming weeks.

New Territory

Having my ex back in our lives is new territory for us. I honestly cannot tell you when the last time was that I spoke to him before this week. Sometime last year, at least. It's like the kids and I have been cruising down the interstate, things going fairly smoothly, a few bumps in the road - but hey, they're teenagers! - and wham! all of a sudden we're detoured off onto a county dirt road, being thrown all over the place.

We've all kind of figured that D (the kids' dad from here on out) had some kind of alterior motive. His wife is the product of a divorce with an uninvolved family, and while she has no desire for any sort of shared custody, she has always wanted him to be a little more involved. Well, yesterday I found out. I called DD's physician to make a routine appointment to get her asthma meds renewed, and they informed me that her father has been calling to get information and wants an appointment to talk to her doctor regarding concerns he has for her health. Huh. News to me! Because the kids are on their dad's wife's insurance (sorry, they don't know her well enough to call her a stepmom), he knows when they go to the doctor. It turns out he has gotten her medical records and is "very concerned" about her weight. DD is very petite. She was 5 pounds when she was born and is now a whooping 80 pounds and 4 feet 11-1/2 inches tall. (Boy, does she want that last half inch!) Anyhow, he says he has been concerned for several years now, and even though he doesn't see her very often (his words), he is concerned that she has depression because she is moody and doesn't talk much and obviously not eating. Golly, did he ever think that maybe, if she has depression, that it could be because her dad CHOOSES not to be involved in her life? I told him as much. And as for being moody, I told him, A. she's a teenage girl :-) and B., she's pretty mad at him for basically deserting them. He didn't particularly like that last part, but hey, it's what I hear straight from her. So, to make a long story short, he is making an appointment for him and I to go see her doctor and talk about his concerns. He thinks the doctor isn't treating her appropriately. Personally, I think if he is going to continue to be in their lives (and I have no clue as to whether he is or isn't), then a few sessions of family counseling will be of the most benefit.

Sorry to go off on a rant, but I can't exactly vent here at home. :-) I have been praying for a while that if God desires D in the kids' lives, then He will convict D's heart. D is reappearing for a reason, and now my prayer is that we see that reason. If there is truly a health issue that we're missing, then I pray that God open my eyes to that. And I pray that my words and actions and attitudes towards D be pleasing to God. As far as I know D is still an agnostic, and I feel partly responsible for the stall in his spiritual life that he hit when we were still married. I don't want to do that again! Anyhoo, by this time tomorrow, I would think they would be home. Then I will have a better idea of where we go from here.

7 Years

Seven years....that's how long it has been since the kids' dad has called and voluntarily asked to spend the day with them. So you can imagine our surprise to come home yesterday after an orthodontist appointment to find a message on the answering machine from him, asking if they wanted to spend Saturday with him and his wife. The kids are excited; I'm cautious. While I don't think he will back out or not show up, I'm not sure? curious? hesitant? about how the day will go. The last time he spent more than 2 hours in the same building as them, they were 8 years old, and they spent a day with his wife's family at a water park. He doesn't know them any more, and they don't know him. We all live in the same town, yet it's been 7 years since he's had a conversation with either of them.

Like I said, the kids are excited. I told DD that she has to be nice, polite and actually speak to her father. She hasn't talked to him other than a few words at Christmas for about 2 years. She's stubborn enough that if he doesn't speak to her first if we bump into him somewhere, that she won't talk to him. She says he's her dad, he's the adult, and he should be able to at least say "hello" to her, and she's right, but this time, I've told her to at least try. The day is pretty well all planned out, and the activities are all things the kids will enjoy. I'm not sure what I will do with a Saturday to myself! I usually have one weekend of "alone time" a year - when the kids are on retreat with their youth group, so this will be a different experience for me, too.

I think I'm glad for the kids' sake that their dad has called. I just hope it's a positive experience for them and that he doesn't get upset if his preconceived notions of how they should behave are incorrect. (They're good kids; he just tends to have unreasonable expectations.) There will be a lot of time spent in prayer the next few days, for safety and wisdom and an enjoyable day. After all, it will be hard to tell if it will be another 7 years before he calls again.

Meal Plan for the Week

I've been trying to go through some recipe books that I haven's used very often, if at all, to see if they are worth keeping around. I've mainly focused on two Gooseberry Patch books, Gifts for Giving and From Grandma's Kitchen. Found a few keepers, a few thanks-but-no-thanks and a few surprises that I didn't think DS would like, but he did. I still have a few more recipes to try, but I don't think there will be enough keepers to keep either book around. I've also been pulling recipes from $5 Dinner Mom's book (definitely a keeper!) and my accordian file of recipes I've cut out over the years from magazines and newspapers. And in the next week or so, I'm going to mark dishes to try from my 2 Mennonite cookbooks, Mennonite Community Cookbook (the first cookbook I ever bought!) and Mennonite Country-Style Recepies (a gift at my wedding shower). I will probably keep at least one, if not both, of these books as they each have a lot of basic info plus just some really interesting items, like a menu for a barn raising (115 lemon pies, 3 gallons of applesauce, 50 pounds roast beef!), homemade laundry soap using meat scraps or meat grease and lye, little tidbits today's kids (and many adults!) would never know.

I'm also still having success with how I changed my grocery shopping and staying within budget, which is making me very happy! I haven't been able to decrease my budget, but I think that will come.

So here is what we're having this coming week:
Monday - tropical chicken on the grill
Tuesday - beef and fettuccine au gratin
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - roast chicken
Friday - tuna noodle casserole
Saturday - beef stew under cheddar crust

These are all oldies but goodies that I've missed while trying out new recipes. I plan to roast 2 chickens on Thursday, one for eating and one for shredding. And I may switch Monday and Tuesday's plan depending on the weather. Rain is in the forecast, and that is not very conducive to grilling out!

Gee, I "Saved" a Whole 9-Cents!

This past weekend was hectic. Other than sleeping, I was home maybe 6 hours? So in the midst of all the running here and there, I ran through the drive-thru at Wendy's for a quick lunch. They've been a promo about their Pick-2 offer - you pick a half salad and one other side/drink for $4.99. That's more than I usually spend, but I was hungry and in a hurry. :-) It was after I got home that I looked at the receipt. The half salad rang up at $3.90 and the Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger at $1.09 for the total of $4.99. The thing that got me riled up a bit was the fact that a whole salad (I got the BLT Cobb) was listed on the menu for $3.99! For 9-cents more, I could have had the whole salad, not just the half size. And the cheeseburger rang up at the regular menu price. Lesson learned? It pays to check prices EVERYWHERE, especially when in a hurry! What sounds like a decent deal isn't necessarily so, and when you're rushing from one place to another, it's easy to just "grab and run." Not a smart thing when you're pinching pennies.

Nine Years

Early this week was the 9-year mark of my divorce. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Oh, the divorce itself was necessary, and I don't regret that. I regret the circumstances that brought it about, I regret my disobedience to God in my part of the marriage failure, but the marriage becamse a situation in which I could no longer let my children live.

What I still get hung up on, and definitely should not be, is how different my life is from what I thought it would be by this point. No, that should be, what I WANTED it to be like by this point. When the divorce was finalized, I had this picture in my head of my "happily ever after," and a huge chunk of that dream hasn't even had a whiff or a glimmer of happening. I didn't want to still be living in this house in town, but I bought it with the intention that it was big enough for the 3 of us yet small enough for me to care for should I still be here in my 60s or 70s. I didn't want to still be single at this point, but here I am with no hint that that will change anytime in the near or distant future. I had plans for my financial situation that certainly didn't include the economy tanking and my being further in consumer debt than I started out.

I've been struggling with contentment for a long time. Not for stuff, but for my circumstances. In my BSF Bible study of Isaiah, God warns Judah of their idol worship. We think of that as false gods, of making money, status, stuff more important than God. But in our lecture, our leader warned of us the idol of expectations. It was a knock in the forehead for me. That's what I have a tendency to do - hold onto my expectations and get really, really down and depressed because what I want to happen, doesn't. Some days I'm more content than others, but I really have to work on being content all the time, no matter what, no matter where. I've been trying to pray that God will make His desires, my desires and His expectations for me, my expectations. It's not easy, but I have to, have to, have to remember that He is in control, and it will be much better if I just let Him be and not try to insist on having my own way. That was a problem in my marriage - I wanted my own way - and see where that got me? (No, the marriage failing wasn't all my fault [we shouldn't have married to begin with], but I certainly could have done things differently.) Anyhow, I'm trying to remember that I'm in a fight against the idol of expectations every day. Hopefully that will make a difference in my life before this time next year.

So Far, It's Been a Day of Blessings!

I almost hate to say this out loud! :-D But it's only 4 PM, and it has just been one blessing after another today. I checked my email this morning as my work programs were starting up and found out I had won a tote bag from a giveaway from $5 Dinner Mom. Then I went to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) and had a *lightbulb* moment where I got the correlation of some symbolism in our study of Isaiah. (Unfortunately we had already passed this question, and I really want to go back and share, but it was too late. ) I don't usually *get* symbolism until someone explains it to me unless it's really, really basic, so I know that this was a gift that God gave me. Then, just a few minutes ago, I got an instant message from my editor at work. She had nominated me to for Employee of the Quarter, and I was selected! As a reward, they are mailing out a $100 Target gift card. Wooo hooo! haha That is such a blessing, first of all, to be recognized at work (especially when working at home and it's kind of out-of-sight-out-of-mind-unless-you-screw-up haha), but also to receive the gift card just in time for Christmas shopping. God knew a needed an uplifting day, and I am so thankful to Him for what He has done, not just today but every day!

Inexpensive Day Trips with Teens

We love to travel. When the kids were younger, we were gone more Saturdays than we were home because there were so many places to go and things to do. But around 3 years ago, that started to change. First of all, gas prices started going through the roof. Second of all, the kids became teenagers, and when kids turn 13, in the eyes of most establishments, they become "adults." Or at least, they're old enough to be charged adult prices. Whereas before "The Birthday" we could find a lot of inexpensive (under $10 for the day) outings, once they hit the official teen years, it became downright difficult to find fun things to do that I could afford.

So now that we are out driving pretty much every weekend, it's become my mission that, if we're going to be out and about, we might as well have fun. Inexpensive fun. Cheap fun. Fun that costs less than $10-15 for the 3 of us, not including gas. Preferrably free fun. :-) You get the idea.
This past weekend, we drove up to Lake Erie for the Lighthouse Festival at Marblehead. We've gone before, but it's been several years. The festival marks the last day of tours of the lighthouse, where you can climb to the top and catch the view of what we Ohioans call The North Coast. When we were there last, it was free to climb to the top, and this year there was a $2 charge per person. We got our tickets and browsed part of the craft show while we waited for our ticketed time to climb the 77 steps to the top. DD really surprised me. She has issues with heights, but she has climbed this exact lighthouse 4 times before (we went up twice one year and were actually the last people down the steps before it closed for the season) and only had problems the first year we were there, when she was 7 or 8. This year, however, she only made it half way up before she was promising "never again" will she climb the lighthouse! In fact, I wasn't sure she was going to make it down! The open steps might have had something to do with it, but I was really surprised. There was an Amish lady climbing behind her who really encouraged her, and she found some comfort in the fact that there were several others in our climbing group who promised the same thing - "never again!" when they got to the top!

The view from the top of the lighthouse

We spent some time on the rocky shore, and I truly think this is my kids' favorite part of coming to Marblehead. The last time we were here, both just stood at the shore as the tide came in, absolutely mesmorized. They love just sitting or standing and watching the waves.

DD on the shore

This trip cost us $14 - $6 for tickets to climb, $4 for roasted almonds and $4 for an orange smoothie drink. Both kids got in over 2 hours of driving time, and we have a ton of memories.

80 Days Until Christmas!

It's hard to believe it's less than 3 months until Christmas, yet I'm a little later than usually in getting things organized. By now I usually have a little more shopping done, but this year I've been waiting for my Christmas Club account to mature. I do, however, have some things accomplished. DD has already specifically requested an iPOD nano as her gift, knowing it's not only basically her only gift but also part of her birthday. (How can something so small be so expensive??? Yeah, I know, name, name, name....) I feel kind of bad that that will be her only present, so I've been ordering books off Paperback Swap so she will have a surprise or two under the tree without blowing my budget. I have a few books already for DS that I got with 40% off coupons at Borders a while back, but he keeps changing his mind on what he wants and doesn't want, so it might be a surprise to everyone on what shows up under the tree for him! haha

One thing that I've been struggling with the last year or two has been stocking stuffers for the kids. I've spent way, way too much money in years past and so have set a budget this year of $20 per stocking, but being teenagers, I have a harder time finding inexpensive things for their stockings (and for Easter baskets, for that matter). I've been trying to keep an eye out all year long but haven't been overly successful. DD is a little easier. For example, this week at Walgreen's they have her favorite lip balm, Eos, on sale for $3, getting back $3 in Register Rewards, effectively making them free. Free = yay! :-) I also stopped in CVS and picked up Revlon nail polish for her. It was $3.99 a bottle, receiving $3 in Extra Care Bucks back. I also had a $1 coupon, and found a color she would like marked on clearance for $1.25. So for $1.25 I got 2 bottles of nail polish and 2 Eos balms. A while back I also purchased a Kutless T-shirt for her from their web sale for $5 (and free shipping). This not only is this a really good deal but it will also take up some room in the stocking! DS's stocking so far will have a Christian T-shirt I found for $6, a bike lock that didn't make it into the Easter basket ($2), a mini cookie cutter set - he loves baking cookies - $3 and a book or two, again free from Paperback Swap. Last year I added some tools to his stocking, and I need to sneak into his room and make a list of what he has so I can add to his tool supply if I find a good deal. I may add tools to DD's stocking, too, actually. Girls need hammers and screwdrivers too! Of course, each teen will get some candy; you can't have a Christmas stocking without candy, and I'll continue to watch sales. Stockings has been my biggest Christmas budget buster, so if I can come in at or even under budget, that would be a huge financial win!

And More Driving......

Y'all are probably tired of hearing about this! haha But it is a major focus (obsession for some? :-) ) in our household as of late. Both kids are doing pretty well out in the country and on relatively low-traffic highways. We have not attempted a major highway nor have they done much in-town driving. DD is still pretty nervous, and while she does quite well once she gets going, she has to be really encouraged to get behind the wheel. DS, on the other hand, wants to drive everywhere all the time. So we really need to start working on in-town driving.

Last week we went over to an Ohio Heritage Festival about an hour from home. DS drove over; DD drove home. One thing that DS does that drives me nuts is, he does not give parked cars or objects on the right-hand side of the road much room when he passes them. His theory is, as long as he doesn't hit them, he's okay. Well, let me tell you, a couple times I'm not sure how he HASN'T hit them! That little concern is the only reason he hasn't been driving more often in town, and I'm not sure how to practice that. Once our neighborhood has paved streets again (we've had road construction going since the beginning of May and still are dealing with dirt roads - grrrrr), then we can start driving around here and hopefully, HOPEFULLY!, correct that issue.

In a few weeks, the kids will be doing a defensive driving class through Mid Ohio Sports, a race car course in Lexington, Ohio. I'm really excited for them to be doing this and learning how to drive on ice and wet road conditions, react when the unexpect happens, etc., from someone who is a professional. This is only a 2-hour class (versus their normal 6-hour class), but it is free through AAA (versus $350 per kid for the 6-hour class), and after it's over, we'll get a credit towards the full class, should I decide to have them do that at some point in the future. It's also time to start thinking about driver's ed classes, and I'm leaning towards winter for that, as I think they will benefit from a 2nd opinion (other than Mom!) during that season.

It's supposed to rain off and on this weekend, so I think we'll be sticking relatively close to home, driving through some smaller county towns nearby to help with in-town driving. Baby steps, baby steps..... :-)