Mommy of Many®

It’s been a long day of really Good Stuff! I had fun maximizing my buying power-I traded in 1, not-so-attactive-sweater for 3 adorable sweaters, 1 winter coat and a belt! Then I headed into a store with a coupon that was good for $10 off of a $10 or more purchase. I walked out with 2 stocking stuffers and did the same at 1 other store. Shopping is never so much as when it’s nearly free!

Now I’m filling up my evening time with whatever I can think to get done so I don’t fall asleep. I need to head out around 11 to start picking up kids at the train station AND the airport. I made some treats with the kids that we will pass out in the next couple of days. I’m not much for baking, but there are some simple treats I like to make and give out.

White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate melts

Old Fashioned Peppermint Sticks

Dip the Peppermints in the melted chocolate (we were using a spatula to get a better coating on each stick)

Add Sprinkles while each stick is still freshly dipped and let dry. Easy!

I’ll add some of these to plates of cookies to give out to friends, neighbors and teachers.

As I’ve written, I’ve realized that I better take a nap until it’s time to go. I’m just too worn out to try to stay up. But I know there will be plenty of energy once I get to the train station and the airport! It’ll be good to have everyone here! Tomorrow JJ will get here in the evening and then we can finally decorate the tree! It’ll finally feel like Christmas is here.

Doing the Dance of the Children-A Little Sleepy, But So Grateful~

Grocery shopping-It’s not my favorite chore. I’ve blogged about the huge task it is and how I hate the number of times I have to touch my groceries before they’re actually on my shelves and ready to be used. BUT…after the last 19 days of making due with what was in the house, I was EXCITED to go! I’d been making an ever-growing list as I used things up and I was ready to go. Today I hit Trader Joes and Costco. I still need to decide if a trip to the commissary is in order or if I should just pick up the remaining items at Vons. But that will have to wait for another day or two. Long list-VERY LONG list!

And what did I learn from not grocery shopping for all that time? What items should a house always have? What can we live without?

Well, it’s true that the basics are needed! If I hadn’t have had bread or tortillas things would’ve been a lot more difficult. Milk, pasta, beans (I had canned kidney, black and refried stocked on my shelves when I began), butter or oil, frozen chicken, eggs, sugar, oatmeal. These are all the things I really fell back on. It was handy to have a few frozen meals that didn’t take any thought.

I learned that I could live without cheese. We ran out pretty early on and it’s usually added to a good portion of our meals, but things tasted fine without it. I also learned that I could be creative. We made cookies out of the ingredients in the house when we ran out of snack items. There was lots of thought involved, but all the food I prepared was good.

All-in-all, I am patting myself on the back. It’s good to know I can make due and it’s even better to know that my kids weren’t too difficult to please. We spent more time together over food prep. And it’s good to go through and use up what you’ve had stored. BUT…now it’s time to restock. This means BIG shopping trips and more $ put out than normal. I’m wondering if it all balances out. Did I save $ by using what I had when I am ending up needing to replenish it? Hmmm…Let’s look at it as Spring Cleaning of the cupboards, freezer and fridge.

Doing the Dance of the Children With 2 Shopping Carts & Full Cupboards~

I woke up this morning with all the stress of trying to figure out how Christmas was so close. I haven’t even decorated the house yet! Last weekend was retirement and the school week was full of Christmas programs, Ladie’s Club Gift Exchanges, meeting up with friends who’ve moved out of the state and are visiting and a Silpada party. So…here it is! Go time! But it’s not just a matter of stopping everything and focusing on getting shopping and decorating done. No! There was a water polo tournament for 2 of my girls, a church to be cleaned, a daughter to get to work and 4 lil kiddos who wanted something to fill their time on this Saturday.

I think I was hitting my breaking point and my 18 year old son could hear the, uh, tension in my voice. He broke the day up for me, took on the church cleaning and told me to go do something “fun” with the lil ones. God bless the kiddos who tune into M.O.M.’s human moments!

So I loaded up the 4 youngest and my daughter who needed a ride to work. We dropped her off, sat down with some hot chocolate at Starbucks for a little bit and then were able to go out and catch the last game of the girls’ tournament. Now that they have hit the showers and can take a little time to relax, I think I’ll take the lil ones out to a Holiday Carnival that’s going on nearby.

Hmmm…none of that actually solves ANY of my Christmas decorating or shopping issues, but it did diffuse the tension I was feeling. We have an event this evening, so maybe after we get home I can sit with a glass (or 2) of wine and start addressing those cards. One of these years I think I might just make 1 card, scan it in, post it and wish everyone a Very Merry Holiday Season. Hmmm…

Here’s to kiddos who help M.O.M. and ease a little stress and here’s to remembering what this season is all about. I need to remind myself sometimes!

Doing the Dance of the Children~

Now that Black Friday is over and we are in full, “it’s time to think of gifts for the kids” mode I wanted to share a great gift idea for those looking for a fun and educational idea for their younger kiddos.

Jump Start Pet Rescue for wii! My 3 youngest have been having a blast with it. And I’m truly surprised at the fact that it’s not only fun but educational. It’s recommended for ages 3-6 but my 7yr old and our 8 yr old friend have been enjoying it too.

The kids have been enjoying JumpStart.com for awhile now and getting Pet Rescue was another way for them to have fun and learn with all that the Jump Start family of products has to offer.

Good luck with all the holiday shopping! I hope all your gift choices can be as easy as this one!

Have a great day~

As Thanksgiving approaches and the stores and ads are filled with all the shopping enticements, I’m having to spend a little extra effort keeping myself focused on what’s important and what the spirit of the Holiday Season is really all about. I’ve already found myself in moments of feeling down because I can’t do things a certain way or fulfill particular gift wishes. This season really requires balance and focus! I look around and I want to get caught up in all the frenzy of shopping myself into oblivion and then feel overwhelmed because I know that I can’t. Then I have to take a big, deep breath and remember all that’s in front of me. The beautiful people who touch the lives in my family each day. The friends who step forward to lend a hand. The kind and thoughtful gifts that are brought on random days, just because. The people who have shared their time and talent with my family. I have to think of our health and the fact that everyone is safe and free to speak their mind. I need to remember that each member of my family will be together on Christmas and that it isn’t about what’s going to be under the tree or in the stockings but the fact that the feeling of the season will be alive.

The media and stores work hard to get us to forget all of that! They bring on a HUGE guilt trip if we can’t fulfill our every desire. After-all, it’s the Holiday season, it’s about shopping our pockets inside out.

I’m just trying to keep reminding myself that the important thing about this season that’s upon us is the beauty in our lives, how we live and seeing the blessings in each day. I challenge each of you to keep focused and to enjoy the true spirit of this time.

Have a great day~

Yesterday, I took Gabi and Lex to run some errands.  We had finished the produce shopping at Henrys and headed to the check out.  They usually have balloons ready to be handed out at each check stand and the kids were excited to see them waiting.  They each picked their color, I paid for the groceries and we headed for the car.  Both the kids have had enough balloons disappear into the wild, blue yonder to know to hold on tightly to their strings.  They were very careful to keep their balloons close while I loaded the groceries.  We successfully got ourselves buckled in with a balloon at each child’s side.  Happy kiddo faces!  It was a beautiful San Diego day and we were ready to go home and unload those groceries.  Happy, happy, happy!

Hmmmm…….that blue sky sure is pretty! I think I’ll open the sunroof!  

Whoosh!  In one moment I undid all the happiness and hard work of my 2 year old.  

Good going, M.O.M!

Have a great day~

With less than two weeks left before Santa’s big night, I can’t help but look around and feel like I’m not quite ready. There’s still plenty of shopping to take care of, Christmas cards to be addressed, the tree to be bought and trimmed and all those holiday cookies to be made.

The key is going to be to take a deep breath, look around and enjoy the artwork from years gone-by and the fact that all my kids will be together by the end of this week. The feeling that this time of year brings can’t be matched but if we let ourselves get overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of all the things that surround this season, we can easily miss the joy and warmth of it.

So, I’m making my lists and getting ready to tie up the loose ends. Wish me luck!

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I warned you! Yesterday I had to go back to the store to replenish the milk and a few other items.

Milk-4 gallons
Cereal-6 boxes
Bagels-2 dozen
Peanut Butter-2 jars
Fruit-various
Bounce Dryer Sheets-1 box

And a couple odds and ends. Bottom line-$75 more spent. Why do I bother budgeting?!

Max poured his own cereal this morning! Linebacker?! Seriously, does any 5 yr. old need THIS much cereal and milk?! He sat there until it was gone.

Have a great day~

A few years ago (4 or 5) we went “all cellular”. When we looked at our phone bills and what kind of calling we were doing, we decided that we didn’t need a land-line and that we would save $ by just having the cell phones. It took a few months of tweaking everything so that our plan fit our usage, but it’s worked well for us for years. Fast forward to 2007…………..now we have 6 cell phones, 1 for each of the 3 oldest kiddos, 1 for Clay, 1 for me and 1 that is the “home phone”. When I got the bill, due for January, I wanted to fall over. We paid almost $200 for texting, alone! I went to the cell phone store and fixed the plan so that it won’t happen that way, again, but it still leaves me with a HEFTY phone bill, right after Christmas. YIKES!

Now, if you were to ask members of the family, under 30, how to pay for the extra large phone bill, you might get answers involving “magic money” or “the money tree”. Ask Clay or me and you’ll hear this; Well the only place to really pull “extra” from would be the food budget. So, the only way to pay for all those SUPER, important texts that HAD to be made, is to shave off of the food budget. So, yesterday I armed myself with pen and paper and sat down to write out meal plans for the next 14 days. Now, breakfast is easy because you can always have hot cereal or cold cereal and everyone feels like they’ve had a choice. And lunch, well PBnJ for 2 weeks will have to do. It’s the dinner-time plan that’s the most challenging. I was able to come up with 9 dinners, using mostly what is in the cupboards and freezer. Now the really challenging part is picking my brain for the other 5 meals and trying to keep it all under $150. Here’s where I get to revisit the past. (memory sequence………………..)

It’s 1994, we’re living in military housing at Camp Pendleton. We have 3 kiddos (and depending on how far into the year we are, we have one on the way) and we are now living on one income and have one vehicle. I suddenly went from working full time to being a full-time stay-at-home mom. We had sat down with the budget the year before and made the decision that putting 3 kiddos into daycare and buying a second car, for me to continue working, would not pay. So, we decided on complete breast-feeding (I was about to deliver Baby #3), cloth diapers, stick with one car and agree to watch the soon-to-be new baby across the street when that mom went back to work. Whew! But the budget was still VERY tight. I had $300 every month for food. The real kicker was that the budget only allowed for the money on the 15th. I couldn’t use ANY of the money from the 1st paycheck of the month for food. I learned by trial and error, what foods could be successfully frozen and how long things kept in the fridge. BTW-don’t freeze oranges. But, I have to say that we were never hungry and our meals weren’t terribly boring (however, looking at old photos, we were all much thinner). Times were simpler. We couldn’t just jump in the car and run errands or pull into a fast-food restaurant because it was easy. I took walks with the kids and they played, happily with what they had. There are times that I miss the way it was (ok, I don’t REALLY want to have to give up Starbucks or putting exciting new foods into the basket, but the simplicity was nice).

So, I feel confident that I can pull from my memory and whip together a few, well-planned, meals. And a couple of weeks of “light” meals won’t hurt any of us (check the pictures!)

Have some great, simple meal ideas? Share them!

Have a great day~

“Hey Jen!  You’re show’s out of order.”  Yes, I know I should be releasing show #6 today, but show #7 it is!  Just think of it as one of those “insider” things that you’ll know someday when Mommy of Many trivia comes out and you’re able to answer the question, “which 2 Mommy of Many shows were released out of order”.

Christmas is around the corner!  This week I talk about getting ready and the importance of making your list before hitting the store.  Remember that it’s the Spirit of the Season that’s important and not how much you can cram into the next few weeks.

Thank you for stopping by the site and I hope you enjoy the show!

 

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I have been working hard to get all of this podcasting stuff in place. Some of that means that I am trying to move this blog to another site. You would still be able to access it here, but when announcing it to the public, there would be another website. So, yesterday I was working on doing that when, BAM! My whole site disappeared! I was sick! It took me hours to get it republished and lots of “on-hold” time on the phone. Anyway, it all made me realize that I haven’t got the slightest idea what I am doing. I just wanted to throw my hands up and say, “ok, you’re right, I’m in over my head and I quit”. But I didn’t and here I am today. I just really know NOTHING about how computers work and talk to each other and how moving things from one site to another works. It seems like so much to think about when all I really want to do is share stories and be connected. Ok, one hurdle at a time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, Clay and I are going to the ball (annual military function) next weekend. This means a new dress. So, I took the 3 little ones, while everyone else was in school and headed to the mall. You can imagine that I didn’t get very much accomplished. I grabbed several dresses and headed to the dressing room. Thank goodness the large one was open, because I had the stroller with the 2 little ones in it and Max following along. Now, I should mention that I wasn’t feeling the normal dread I feel, when about to try on clothes. The baby is getting older and I am busier since the oldest kids are gone (not as many people to delegate tasks to) and this all means less snack time for me (I’ve also found that since canceling cable, I don’t sit in front of the TV late at night with a snack). I’ve started to shrink a little. A couple people have even commented on it. So, I grabbed those dresses in a size smaller than normal. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!! The ones I did manage to get on had to be zipped by Max (4 yrs. old) and if you’ve read any of my other posts, you get the idea that he’s a straight talker. Well it was no different in the dressing room. When he was asked to zip one dress with a side-zipper, he tried with all his 4 yr old might and then stepped back and said, “There’s just too much side”. Point taken! I grabbed the matronly, black dress with an easy, up-the-back zipper and promptly checked out. Whew! I guess the accessories will have to speak of the beauty I hope to feel that night, ’cause the dress says , “there was just too much side”.
Good night~

Dun Dun Dun Dun Duh! Today was full of adventure! We started off by leaving the house for school (an 8minute drive) and hour early so as to find a parking place in the madness of the first day. I drive a 15 passenger van, so you can imagine parking becomes important. Everyone got off to school just fine and had a nice first day (1/2 days the whole first week). Then home for the 3 hours before we had to go back and retrieve the children. I had to do some paper work and you can see what Gabi and Luke-Xavier found to keep themselves busy (for all of 5 minutes). When I saw this, I kept thinking (and singing in my head),”Follow the white-diaper road. Follow the white-diaper road. Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the white-diaper road”. After cleaning up the neatly-laid diaper road, it was back in the van to drive in circles for 1/2 and hour waiting for a parking spot to open up at the school. Ugh! I forgot that the trick is to either leave REALLY early or get there 10 minutes late. Tomorrow! Got kids home and fed them a lunch of last night’s left-overs rolled in tortillas. I love tortillas! You can roll anything into a tortilla with a little sprinkled cheese on it and it’s good. But more importantly, the kids will eat it. The one good thing about 1/2 days is that you don’t have to pack lunches and can serve left-overs. Then back in the van for errands. Hooray! I got to go to not one, but 2 stores looking for the last item on our school-supply list; colored chalk. Not to mention looking for neon fishnet stockings (my old pair was getting worn out). Ok, they’re for a runway show that Mariah’s class is putting on. I see interesting people walking around in such items on a fairly regular basis. Just try shopping for some. Not easy! Came home without the lovely fishnets. Maddi was kind enough to make dinner while I was running around, so we fed the kiddos, signed a bazillion papers for school and then……..back in the van! I was trying to be a good mother and fulfill Kateri’s away-at-college request for dried mango and individual soymilk boxes by going to our local Trader Joes. So, I buckled the 3 youngest into the van and off we go to Trader Joes for the items and to find Pokey (a stuffed fish hidden in the store that earns you a prize when found)! Yea! Yea! Yippee! Again, I drive a 15-passenger van AND I live in a beach town. Parking is at a premium. This parking lot is tiny and most-likely built only for those golf-cart style cars that locals like to drive to prove that they never really venture far from the beach. I drove around and then made people behind me really angry while I waited for a couple to vacate the perfect-I can get out of that spot-parking space. Whew! Finally! Open the doors on the van VERY carefully so as not to bash the cars on either side of us and squeeze through. Guess what?! No individual soymilk boxes OR dried mango. All out! I did manage to buy $36 worth of other items though. Max and Gabi love tomatoes and they just couldn’t resist putting the Heirloom tomatoes in the cart, “Mom, there are purple ones and ones that look like watermelon!” We made our purchase, retrieved our prizes for “trying really hard” to find Pokey and headed for the van. I didn’t bank on the baby grabbing our precious tomatoes out of the bag and spilling them all over the parking lot! Apparently he likes tomatoes too and just couldn’t wait. Forget it, they are staying on the ground and we are smooshing into the van and heading home! Fun tomatoes will have to wait for the next trip. At least waiting for the perfect parking spot paid off and I got out of there easily. Now the little ones are in bed, the bigger girls are preparing for tomorrow and I am ready to face tomorrow’s “Super Mama Adventure”. Wish me luck!
Good night~