Happy November!

Yeah, I know it's been a long couple months, but I have been crazy busy! I have a job! :) yay! I really REALLY enjoy it! Doing all the secretarial things I knew I could do, plus stretching to do some new and innovative things! It's really cool! Keeps me on my toes, and really I have had to Re-LEARN a lot of things becoming a working mom- my hats off to all you working moms! :) I surely take my "days off" or my "work at home" days much more seriously and try to throw in an extra load of laundry, etc!

But it's not just me who's busy around here! My 13 yo daughter is really REALLY busy at school.....FCA, Just Say No club, Jazz Band (practices after school), Student Council...... I think that's it! LOL She will be trying out for "Mid State" Band December 12, so she is busy working on her pieces and trying to get them right. She is learning at a young age what overscheduling can do, but trust me.... I held her back from getting into MORE things! ;)

My 11 yo daughter is pretty busy too! She tried out and got into the Chorale group at school, so they have weekly after school practices, along with her "Girls Only" club meetings (with the school counselor and one other female teacher) teaching 5th grade girls proper body maintenace, etc... it's a really good group ran by really great women. Not only is she doing this, but she has a GREAT teacher this year, along with getting help for her Dyslexia, so her grades are on the A/B honor roll! :) yay! I'm so proud and happy for her!

My 9 yo daughter gets to relax still! ;) she's in 3rd grade so, not many "groups" for her... but maybe next year she will get into the art club...she's pretty good! She is struggling with organization (hmmmmm surprise! NOT!) but overall her grades are doing well. So, she is having a great year too.

I have never had my kids in so many "things" and wanting to do so many "things" like the football games, dances, having to go to the PTO meeting for performances, etc. It's beena real juggling act. Not to mention the fact that most of the time we have to pick up the 2 girls on the same day, about 30 min apart! :) makes life interesting..... most weeks I have 3-4 days of things to do! I've never carried a pocket calendar, but I do now, so I can have it at my desk and remember, or else you know I would forget! ;)

Having a little bit more money has afforded us to be able to pay off some bills, thank goodness, or at least get caught up. We have a spot more money for food, but some weeks are leaner than others! :) Like this week! We spent most of my check on some great deals at Big Lots (Wii and Nintendo DS games for $10!)for Christmas, had to get new tires for hubby, etc...it's still a juggling act, but it's not so many balls in the air! I spent about $85 on groceries for the week, and will let you know our menu in the next post.

I will say one thing that has helped us immensely has been that we lucked up on a great deal on chicken one week. I got 150 lbs (?) at least of chicken for about $120! My freezers are full, I seperated a lot of it (100 lbs) so that it was family portions, and yeah, I think we are gonna grow feathers, but I try to break it up with cheap options along the way! The other night I fed our family of 5 for under $2 for the entire dinner! 95 cents for a bag of frozen broccoli, 49 cents for a dozen eggs (aldi!) and 60 cents for a bag of rice! We had rice with the fried eggs over the top (and butter/salt/soy sauce), and broccoli on the side. Everyone was satisfyed and so CHEAP! :) So, that was one meal w/o chicken! Thank goodness my kids love chicken! :)

We also had 2 Halloween parties in October, one for oldest daughter, one for the other two combined! All told we spent about $125 for all the food between the two parties! The rest was elbow grease getting the house ready! ;) I will put a menu up of our cheap party food so you can use it anytime!