Another apology

Yes, yes, I know. I'm absolutely terrible. I'm truly sorry, but things have been crazy busy (still are, for that matter), and things are in an upheaval. I hope to be back to give an overview - at least of the budget - by the end of the month. AND that would make it the end of this year! :)

Hello

I'll be back again sometime, but right now just isn't the time. Sorry.

Hello, again!

Your lackadaisical blogger is back after yet another crazy week. I should probably stop making promises that are practically impossible to keep, like, "try to do better" ... :P No promises are contained in this post! It's just a quick update:

Sunday evening we ladies of the house headed to Dickson and were gone until Wednesday afternoon-ish. We had a friend over from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning, and Mama and I went grocery shopping yesterday. So, the grocery budget total is now: $381.64.

This, That, and The Other

I'm a terrible blogger, I know. Life happens and I end up wanting to do anything but sit at this computer and type out menus and budgets. So I won't make any excuses - I really have none. I'll leave you with a promise to try (and more than likely fail) to do better next time. The budget? It's at a healthy $800.17!!! And finally, here's today's menu:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want

Lunch: I made Kyle and myself tortilla pizzas. We're really enjoying the fresh tomatoes! I thinly slice tomatoes, add a little fresh chopped basil, throw on some mozzarella, add pepperoni, and throw on a little more mozzarella. It's delicious!

Dinner: We had 3 pork chop left from the pack we bought a few weeks ago (I used the rest of the pack on the "stuffed" pork chops I made on Mama's birthday about a month ago.). What's a family of 6, including 1 teenage boy and another almost there, going to do with only 3 pork chops? Then it struck me! Don't use them as pork chops! So I cubed up the meat, marinated it for a while (sherry, sesame oil, white wine vinegar, honey, soy sauce, garlic, salt, pepper, powdered ginger), tossed it in flour, browned it, and then simmered it in the rest of the marinade (plus chicken broth, red wine vinegar, molasses, more ginger, crushed red pepper, and some cornstarch to thicken it - which I don't know that it really needed). Yeah, it made a huge mess of the kitchen, but the end result was pretty close to what I was going for, and wasn't bad, if I do say so myself! I served that on top of rice, with fried apples and roasted bell pepper and squash on the side.

Yes, yes, I'm terrible...

I know I said I was hoping this week would be better, and here I am again after 2 full days of no posts. Here are my excuses: Tuesday was grocery shopping and a late-night class after which I was exhausted. Yesterday I finally succumbed to the illness that has been lingering in our house for a month or two. The symptoms are an extremely sore throat, off-and-on fever, chesty cough, and major fatigue (some also have congestion - I don't... yet), so I spent most of the day sleeping. Thankfully I'm doing much better this morning; I'm quickly becoming a believer in Thieves Oil! I've had 3 drops down my throat, and it's far and away better than it was yesterday morning! I kind of suspect it's helped with the fever as well!

Anyway, because of the last two crazy days, I'll not try to come up with the past 6 or so meals. However, I will tally up the grocery total since we went grocery shopping the other day: We spent $360.43, bringing the total to $392.68.

Weird week

Or perhaps it was a weird month. I don't know, but whatever it was, I was a terrible blogger. I hope to be better this week/month. Part of being so terrible means that I got behind on the grocery total. We spent (hopefully this was all that was unaccounted for in the previous total) $206.06, bringing the total to $316.11. *Sigh* I was hoping to have more than that; I believe this next shopping trip is going to be... somewhat major. Perhaps I'll get paid soon; that would be good!

I'll try to keep up with the daily menus better this week, but for now, I really don't remember everything we ate in the past four days. So with that, I'll be back, Lord willing, tonight or tomorrow morning to reveal to you all the feasts that were today's meals (and yes, I'm probably exaggerating - it's Monday, peoples!).

Silence ensued

Just FYI, fellow foodies, this blog will be silent for the next week or so. I'm headed north to Iowa for a nation-wide, Covenant Presbyterian shindig, the likes of which occurs nowhere else. I expect utter and complete awesomeness. So, laters!

Be Back Later

Hello, hello, hello! We've had a truly wonderful time these past few, flew-by-far-too-quickly days! Our dear friends have abandoned us once again. Starting tomorrow, Lord-willing, I will be back to posting here regularly. This is just an FYI, I-haven't-fallen-off-the-face-of-the-world post.

Well, guess what?

I got the stomach bug Sunday morning. That meant I missed church, and I didn't eat anything. I did manage to drink a bunch of Powerade, and I'm so thankful for my wonderful friends who brought me some carbonated water! Thankfully, the stomach thing seems to last only 7-10 hours, so today I've been able to eat, although I'm very sore from yesterday. TMI? Sorry. All that said, I really don't know what's been eaten and what hasn't in the past couple of days. I think the church had spaghetti for lunch, and I believe I understand that we're going to have left-over chili for dinner tonight (well, those of us who can handle it...).

Please continue those prayers!

Quickly about today

Today was the biggest day in our church's Reformation celebration, so we were with some of our favorite folks all day!

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: Barbecue catered by Whitt's!

Dinner: Chili

As it's 10:45, I will be brief, but I wanted to ask y'all to pray for our church family, friends, and community. There's a stomach bug going around, and I'm sure the sick ones would appreciate prayers for a quick and full recovery. Also, there are several of us who haven't gotten it yet, and we would most definitely appreciate your prayers that we would somehow continue to avoid it and whatever other sicknesses are around.

Thanks!

Playing Catch-up. Again.

Well, hello there! Life happens. Sometimes crazily. Monday we went to Nashville, and I was utterly exhausted when we got home. So no post here. Yesterday our internet was somehow exceeded. I swear it wasn't me. So again, no post here or anywhere. I didn't even check my email yesterday afternoon and evening. Catch-up time!


Monday:

Breakfast: Hazelnut-cinnamon scones

Lunch: Left-overs, as we walked out the door to go to Nashville (Cheekwood isn't open on Mondays; just FYI)

Dinner: Mama made delicious potato soup!


Tuesday:

Breakfast: Quesadillas and left-over hazelnut scones

Lunch: Quesadillas - they weren't left-over; Mama and Claire are just enjoying having tortillas and cheese.

Dinner: Stew - left-over from Sunday (fixed up)

Forgotten Transaction

I was beginning to get rather worried last night. I totaled what I thought was what I had left in the grocery money, and realized... I don't have $190. Not a good feeling. I spent all my conscious evening/night trying to figure out what else we'd used the grocery money for that I'd forgotten to post here, and I could NOT come up with anything! Thankfully this morning Mama reminded me of a food co-op order that we'd picked up on a Sunday. After looking through the archives here, I believe I forgot to post that total. So, hopefully the correct grocery money total is now $148.95.

An Explanatory Link

So, it's been a while; HERE'S WHY. And I don't have much idea of what's been used up around here in the way food stuffs. For the record however, I believe while I've been dealing with the illness, only $20 has been subtracted from the grocery budget, bringing it to $258.69. Oh, and I got paid again yesterday (found out the pay schedule is now going to be on the 15th and the 30th/31st, I believe), so that makes the true total (hopefully) $758.69! Woohoo! One month down, eleven to go!

Lord willing, I'll be back to posting as usual before too long, but I thought I'd drop in today and give a reason for the lack of posts.