Monthly Archives: April 2009

. . . thank goodness we’ve made it this far. Hopefully the rest of his days will go by just as quickly, and he will not be able to do much more damage.

There have been lots of times when money has been very tight for our family, and I have always found that the easiest way to trim our budget has been to save money on groceries.  It is so easy to blow several hundred a month at the grocery store on junk!  However, when I put my mind to it, I can limit our grocery bill (for six of us) to $200 or less.

Well, lately, with Gaylon being in Texas and us trying to become completely debt free once we sell our house, I’ve been trying to be extremely frugal.  So, last week, Alex and I went shopping and managed to come home with everything I needed to cook 30 meals (except for 1 box of quick-cooking barley) for $102.  Isn’t that cool?

We already had a few items, (canned chunk pineapple, spaghetti, potatoes, and so on) so next month our bill may go up $20 or $30, but still, to feed six people dinner for a month, that’s pretty amazing these days!  I grate my own cheeses and make my own bread crumbs, so that saves a little, and I shop at stores and ministries that sell things dirt cheap.  It works!  And my family has wonderful home-cooked meals to eat every night.  There have been several times when there has been someone in need of a meal in our homeschool group or our church, and I have been able to simply grab one of the meals out of the freezer, add bread and salad, bake some cookies, and we’re ready to go.

I have to say, though, that this time I had a LOT of help from my Mom and Faith.  Mom kept the kitchen cleaned up, while Faith helped by bringing me things and stirring meats and sauces and whatever else needed doing.  We have a full month’s worth of meals in our freezer now, and it’s wonderful.

I generally use the “One Month Plan” outlined in Deborah Taylor-Hough’s book, Frozen Assets.  Over the years I have tried lots of different OAMC plans, but that is by far my family’s favorite.  My kids actually request certain recipes from her books, in particular the Mexi-Chicken!  Actually, that was the first thing Gaylon asked about, too!  Anyway, you can check out her blog at The Simple Mom.

My dearest hope as a mother has always been that my children will be close to one another. That they will care about each other and that their relationships will grow closer and deeper each year for the rest of their lives, because I’ve never had close relationships with my brother or sister. In fact, for most of my life, I’ve had very little contact from either of them, and it has been one of the great sadnesses of my life.

So tonight, for me, was wonderful! Kendall and I decided to watch “Harper’s Island” on the internet, and I remembered that Alex had hooked one of his friends’ computers up to our big screen tv to play video games. So, I asked him if he could hook Kendall’s computer up for us. He disappeared for a few moments, then came back with a cord, crawled up behind the tv, and hooked it up. Then Kendall asked him if we could have the speakers from his computer, and he happily went and got those for us!

The two brothers spent several minutes hooking things up and making it all work, while I sat on the couch watching them, with my heart absolutely full! Wow. I am blessed, indeed!

Okay, so it sounds like something off of Star Trek, but it’s not. I am posting a link on here from a news station about how easy it is for someone to tap into your cell phone and listen to your every word, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT USING IT AT THAT MOMENT. Now, I am pretty sure that most of my conversations would bore just about anyone to death, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with someone listening in on them. Anyway, here is the link:

CELL PHONE TAPPING

I am sitting here working on a genealogy website that I’ve been building, and my home is filled with the most amazing music, coming from the piano downstairs. Alex has been playing the piano as well as his guitar lately, and it’s wonderful! Last night, while I was cooking dinner, he played, beautiful stuff that just comes from his soul, and it is so delightful to hear! I love hearing the piano all over the house. It’s been a long time.

Faith has started to make her dress for Easter. She cut out all the pattern pieces this afternoon, and tonight she is planning to cut out the fabric, as well. It is so exciting to see her create such beautiful clothing for herself! And it is also really nice that she can make the most beautiful dresses that are timeless and modest, not like the sleazy stuff they are trying to market to young girls in all of the department stores now.

Kendall is working hard on a personality profile piece he is doing for one of his classes. He is planning to interview Doug Perry, his old karate teacher. Lots of kids take karate, but few are priveleged enough to learn under Sensei Perry. Sensei Perry is the first non-Okinawan promoted to the level of Kudan, or 9th-level black belt! So, now he is actually “Hanshi Perry”. Pretty cool, eh? Kendall will thoroughly enjoy this article, and I am sure he will get another ‘A’.