I was thinking about how easy it is to just jump in the car and hit the drive-thru on these nights when I just don't feel like cooking (which is really every night). If we go to a drive-thru, most often McDonald's, we (me and the kids--with Corey it adds about $6-$9 to the bill) order from the value menu if possible. Usually I get the 10 piece chicken mcnugget ($3.89) for the kids to share and 4 cheeseburgers ($0.99 each) for me and Westley and Caleb. Sometimes, if I'm in the mood, I get 2 small fries, which are also $1 each. That adds up to about $11 with tax. Then I come home and make the chocolate milk ($1.75/gal plus a couple bucks for the chocolate syrup) and cut up apples, pears and bananas (about $0.20 per fruit, so less than a dollar) in a salad. So the whole meal would total to be about $15.
While I was cooking dinner tonight, even though I didn't feel like it, I thought in my head how much the meal was costing me. I made spaghetti with canned green beans and my usual fruit salad and chocolate milk and garlic bread on the side. For my spaghetti, I use 2 cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of paste and one seasoning packet in the 1 pound of ground beef. 2 cans of tomato sauce are about $0.64, one can of paste is about $0.58, the seasoning is about $0.78 and the ground beef I bought at 1.67/lb a few weeks ago. So the sauce was $3.67. The spaghetti was about $2 for the package and the package lasts our family for about 4-5 meals. Let's say 4 to make it easy--so $0.50 for the noodles. The canned green beans were about $0.67. And the fruit salad is the same as I listed above, about $.65-$.70. The milk and chocolate, considering the amount used would put that at about $1.25 for the family. I made the bread by using some Texas Toast, which was $4 for the loaf, but we only used 4 slices, so about $1 worth, and I buttered it and put garlic salt and then lightly toasted it in the oven. If you figure in about $.30 for the garlic salt and butter, the whole meal together was about $7-$8. We have enough leftover for another meal later this week too.
So $15 for a meal from McDonald's versus $7-$8 for a nutritious homemade meal. I guess I'll take the extra 30 minutes and make the food. Figure, if someone ate out every night and substituted a meal like the one described, they would save 50% on food every single time!
I guess a homemade meal sitting around the table as a family, talking about our "highs" and "lows", beats the faster drive-thru any day!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Halloween 2009
Halloween this year was good. We aren't huge Halloween people, mostly because Corey isn't really into it, but I do like letting the kids get dressed up. Westley was very excited because he had started planning his costume in the summer, even drawing up plans. He wanted to be Wall-E, from the Disney/Pixar movie of the same name, and he had it all figured out. We helped him create his Wall-E costume out of a moving box during the week that Corey had off between his training in CA and the interviews for the new stores.
Caleb had wanted to be a ghost, but changed his mind on his birthday when he picked out the construction tool set from Grandpa and Grandma. Since the set came with a hard hat and orange vest and tool belt, he decided to be a construction worker.
Travis chose an easy costume--Spider-man. All he had to do was sort through the costume box and find the Spider-man costume closest to his size (we have three of them!).
Eliza was supposed to be an angel. I bought her costume several weeks in advance, but on the day of the ward Halloween party, which was Wednesday the 28th, I put it on her, or tried to, and it wouldn't go on--way too tight (even though it claimed to be a 2T, which is a size she doesn't even fit into yet!). Fortunately, I had a princess costume that I bought for her in the after-Halloween costume sales last year with the intention of giving it to her for Christmas. It was still so huge that I decided to save it for her birthday this year. Well, she needed something right away, so I pulled it out and she went as that. I was able to return the angel costume, but they didn't have any other ones. Now I just have to figure out a different birthday present for her...
The Santa pumpkin was for a pumpkin-decorating contest for Westley's class. It fell on a week when we had absolutely no money and he was lucky to just get a pumpkin. The night before I happened to have just used a cotton ball for something, so when we were brainstorming ideas, Santa Claus just came to me. I'm so glad we thought of something fun that only required cotton balls, red construction paper and markers, all supplies that we already had. It was so easy and he got an honorable mention.
Westley also got to be in his school's Halloween costume parade. That was really fun to watch, as some of the kids really had great costumes. And Westley was the only Wall-E!
Caleb had wanted to be a ghost, but changed his mind on his birthday when he picked out the construction tool set from Grandpa and Grandma. Since the set came with a hard hat and orange vest and tool belt, he decided to be a construction worker.
Travis chose an easy costume--Spider-man. All he had to do was sort through the costume box and find the Spider-man costume closest to his size (we have three of them!).
Eliza was supposed to be an angel. I bought her costume several weeks in advance, but on the day of the ward Halloween party, which was Wednesday the 28th, I put it on her, or tried to, and it wouldn't go on--way too tight (even though it claimed to be a 2T, which is a size she doesn't even fit into yet!). Fortunately, I had a princess costume that I bought for her in the after-Halloween costume sales last year with the intention of giving it to her for Christmas. It was still so huge that I decided to save it for her birthday this year. Well, she needed something right away, so I pulled it out and she went as that. I was able to return the angel costume, but they didn't have any other ones. Now I just have to figure out a different birthday present for her...
The Santa pumpkin was for a pumpkin-decorating contest for Westley's class. It fell on a week when we had absolutely no money and he was lucky to just get a pumpkin. The night before I happened to have just used a cotton ball for something, so when we were brainstorming ideas, Santa Claus just came to me. I'm so glad we thought of something fun that only required cotton balls, red construction paper and markers, all supplies that we already had. It was so easy and he got an honorable mention.
Westley also got to be in his school's Halloween costume parade. That was really fun to watch, as some of the kids really had great costumes. And Westley was the only Wall-E!
First Snow
On Monday, October 26th, we had the first snow here in Utah since we moved. The three kids at home loved it. I put them in all their snow gear to try it out and see how they would do. Eliza wasn't sure about it all, but the boys loved throwing snowballs at me.
Westley was greatly disappointed because there was no snow when he left for school, it snowed during the day, and then it was mostly melted by the time he got home. It snowed again yesterday all day, but because I was gone at Relief Society Super Saturday all day and Corey was home with three other sick kids and the backyard had mounds of dog poop under the snow because we hadn't made it out to pick it up before the snow started, Westley couldn't go outside (out front) unsupervised to play in it yesterday either. Today it melted down quite a bit, so I'm sure it will be gone by Tuesday and the kids won't be well enough tomorrow to play in it either. I keep telling him there will be more snow, I just hope we get a little more while he's off track and after the kids are better.
Westley was greatly disappointed because there was no snow when he left for school, it snowed during the day, and then it was mostly melted by the time he got home. It snowed again yesterday all day, but because I was gone at Relief Society Super Saturday all day and Corey was home with three other sick kids and the backyard had mounds of dog poop under the snow because we hadn't made it out to pick it up before the snow started, Westley couldn't go outside (out front) unsupervised to play in it yesterday either. Today it melted down quite a bit, so I'm sure it will be gone by Tuesday and the kids won't be well enough tomorrow to play in it either. I keep telling him there will be more snow, I just hope we get a little more while he's off track and after the kids are better.
Little In-N-Out Girl
Eliza is so cute in her In-N-Out shirt and matching bows in her pigtails. We were going to have her wear this ensemble to the opening party this week, but she lost one of her bows in Walmart last week and I have yet to find another set of red-and-white bows. That first set was hard enough to stumble across!
Moving Box Fort
After having moved in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and now 2009, we have quite a collection of moving boxes. Most of those boxes are only good for about 4-5 moves and because Corey likes to load them up super full and heavy, they really are quite fortunate to have survived this long. We had quite a few big boxes that were just not sturdy enough to keep so we decided to build a big fort out of the moving boxes for the kids to play in.
Corey and I worked together on putting the whole thing together. We used about 7 large boxes plus pieces from about 2-3 other boxes. Caleb designated the spots for the windows. Then I went to Walmart and bought a roll of butcher paper and we
covered up most of it and then the kids drew on the paper to decorate it.
As with anything like this, it was more fun to create the fort than to actually play in it. But it was fun while it lasted.
The fort lasted about 3 weeks before they took great joy in destroying it.
Corey and I worked together on putting the whole thing together. We used about 7 large boxes plus pieces from about 2-3 other boxes. Caleb designated the spots for the windows. Then I went to Walmart and bought a roll of butcher paper and we
covered up most of it and then the kids drew on the paper to decorate it.
As with anything like this, it was more fun to create the fort than to actually play in it. But it was fun while it lasted.
The fort lasted about 3 weeks before they took great joy in destroying it.
Messmaker
Eliza is my little messmaker. She is always pulling the DVDs off the shelves or the CD's or dumping out all the puzzle pieces. I found her sitting in the middle of all the books from the kids' bookshelf a few times too. While it's not all that destructive, and actually there are worse things she could be doing, (and when I caught her with the books, she was actually looking at them carefully), it sure is not fun for me to clean up!
Playing Cars
When we got our film developed recently, there were pictures from last year that I found. These were from a car mat that I made out of paper for the boys to play with. I was especially proud because they asked me to add a food place, so we decided to make it an In-N-Out, and that was their favorite part of the mat.
Caleb's Birthday Pictures
I promised I would post pictures as soon as I got them. After using all the film in the camera, then having to get through a whole week where we were waiting for a reimbursement check from In-N-Out for the move, then I finally dropped off the film, only to discover that they no longer had one hour processing, but that it would take a whole week to get the pictures back. Fortunately, I was on the ball enough to have them put the pics on a photo CD, so I didn't have to spend hours scanning them all in (I'm so glad I remembered to do that!).
Without further ado--Caleb's birthday pictures:
Caleb used the birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma to buy a new construction tool set, and he loved the paper airplane that came in the card.
We went to the Hogle Zoo for Caleb's birthday.
Without further ado--Caleb's birthday pictures:
Caleb used the birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma to buy a new construction tool set, and he loved the paper airplane that came in the card.
We went to the Hogle Zoo for Caleb's birthday.
Caleb's turtles
Blowing out the candles
Friday, November 13, 2009
Movie Days
We have all been sick here this week, all but Corey that is. Westley is on school break, so it's been a bummer that we've all been sick and homebound. I had big plans to go to the zoo, go to Thanksgiving Point, go to the Bean Museum at BYU, etc. But we have been unable to leave the house. I decided to try and make things fun despite that, so on Monday, we came up with the idea to have "movie days".
Westley and Caleb picked out 6 movies they wanted to watch. Then Westley and I sat down and drew and colored the "movie posters". Basically, I just drew the main picture from the DVD cover and the title and then Westley colored them. The DVDs we picked were: Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Cars, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, 101 Dalmatians, Snow White, and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.
After that was done, we made a concessions poster offering bottled water, candy and popcorn. I used images I found online for that. We also made a schedule of the movies to span Tuesday and Wednesday--with showings at 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Then we made movie tickets using my Print Shop program. I made a wallet for each child out of construction paper and then Westley and I gather up all the 5's and 1's from the Monopoly money and passed out 5 1's and 2 5's to each person. I popped the popcorn and set up the concessions stand and we had our "movie days".
I know, I know, letting the kids eat all that candy and popcorn all day, shame on me. But we enjoyed our "movie days" and had some fun even though we were all sick!
Westley and Caleb picked out 6 movies they wanted to watch. Then Westley and I sat down and drew and colored the "movie posters". Basically, I just drew the main picture from the DVD cover and the title and then Westley colored them. The DVDs we picked were: Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Cars, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, 101 Dalmatians, Snow White, and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.
After that was done, we made a concessions poster offering bottled water, candy and popcorn. I used images I found online for that. We also made a schedule of the movies to span Tuesday and Wednesday--with showings at 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Then we made movie tickets using my Print Shop program. I made a wallet for each child out of construction paper and then Westley and I gather up all the 5's and 1's from the Monopoly money and passed out 5 1's and 2 5's to each person. I popped the popcorn and set up the concessions stand and we had our "movie days".
I know, I know, letting the kids eat all that candy and popcorn all day, shame on me. But we enjoyed our "movie days" and had some fun even though we were all sick!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Battle of the Black Widow
This morning Westley opened the sliding door to let Snoopy out. Then he said, "oh look, a spider!" For the next 5-10 minutes, I was helping other kids get ready, and kept hearing him stomping by the door. I looked over from the other room and saw the door still open.
"What are you doing? Close the door!"
"But Mom, the spider won't die!"
So I went over to the door and saw, of all things, a huge black widow spider in the runner of the sliding glass door. It was struggling, but mostly seemed like it was trying to climb out of the door runner.
"That's a black widow spider, Westley!"
Westley instantly jumps about a mile from the door, and I start shaking. I'm terrified of spiders, more specifically, poisonous ones. Having experienced trying to crush a black widow with my shoe before and having no luck--those things just don't die!--I grabbed the hammer from the tool kit in the kitchen and started pounding away. The head of the hammer was just big enough to not fit into the narrow door runner, and therefore did little but scare the spider further into the door runner. So I went back to the tool kit and grabbed a Philip's head screwdriver and proceeded to jab the spider until it curled up and the guts started coming out.
"Was the spider outside when you first opened the door?"
Westley points to the door runner and shows me that she was already in the door runner, only a few centimeters from inside our house!
Time to get some pest control going on!!!
I now have a dead black widow spider in the corner of the door runner. And now I will be paranoid and unable to sleep at night with nightmares of black widow spiders coming in all the doors and windows.
"What are you doing? Close the door!"
"But Mom, the spider won't die!"
So I went over to the door and saw, of all things, a huge black widow spider in the runner of the sliding glass door. It was struggling, but mostly seemed like it was trying to climb out of the door runner.
"That's a black widow spider, Westley!"
Westley instantly jumps about a mile from the door, and I start shaking. I'm terrified of spiders, more specifically, poisonous ones. Having experienced trying to crush a black widow with my shoe before and having no luck--those things just don't die!--I grabbed the hammer from the tool kit in the kitchen and started pounding away. The head of the hammer was just big enough to not fit into the narrow door runner, and therefore did little but scare the spider further into the door runner. So I went back to the tool kit and grabbed a Philip's head screwdriver and proceeded to jab the spider until it curled up and the guts started coming out.
"Was the spider outside when you first opened the door?"
Westley points to the door runner and shows me that she was already in the door runner, only a few centimeters from inside our house!
Time to get some pest control going on!!!
I now have a dead black widow spider in the corner of the door runner. And now I will be paranoid and unable to sleep at night with nightmares of black widow spiders coming in all the doors and windows.
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