Love family time!

Wednesday we took the day off from our chores and went to Mt. Vernon, IL to go to Lonestar Restaurant, Hobby Lobby, Petacular Pet Shop, and a pet store inside a dog groomers on the west side of Mt. Vernon.

The Lonestar food was really good. I ordered the Perfect Chicken sandwich, my oldest son ordered the fish and chips, my youngest had the chicken strips and fries, and my husband ordered a burger and fries. I love their rolls too. I just don't care for the price.

I'm so glad Mt. Vernon got a Hobby Lobby. All we did was window shop, but I love to check out that place!

Petacular Pet shop and the other pet shop are small pet stores, but they have fish, guinea pigs, rabbits, birds, and reptiles. The pet store on the west side is going to expand soon and offer more pets.

I am doing really good this year keeping my garden weeded and my pepper plants and tomatoe plants look great! So far we've gotten one jalapeno and it was good! I went blackberry picking yesterday and got 1/2 an icecream bucket fool. I made blackberry pie the past two nights. I rinse the blackberries, place them in a bowl with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, mash and mix it up, pour it into a pie shell and then place a pie shell on top, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. It is so good! Everyone in my family loves it! One night I served it with icecream on top and another night we used whipped cream. I think I prefer the whipped cream.

Here's some of the things we've been eating this week that I would like to review:

 

These were only 89 cents at Save A Lot. I found out my boys don't like them anymore though. They said the chicken does not taste like chicken, so I won't be buying them anymore.

 

 

 

I bought this on sale, but after trying them I will not buy the beef and peppers anymore. There just wasn't enough sauce, but it did taste ok.

 

Our whole family loves the Buffalo Style Chicken Strips that you can buy at Save A Lot.

 

Everyone, except my youngest enjoyed these Chewy Fudge Mini Brownies. They package says it makes 12, but I was able to make 16 Brownies :)

 

My boys did not like the Chili Cornbread, my husband said he wasn't sure if he liked it or not, but I loved it.

 

Today I played Sorry and Checkers with the kids.

 

Saturday we went to Long John Silvers for their free fish and fries and ordered hushpuppies and small drinks for the four of us and it only came to $8.60 I love paying only that for a family of four. Afterwards we went to the movies to see Transformers. I had a Fandango gift code for $10, used my AMC stubs card to avoid the $2.50 convenience fees, plus Amazon sent me 2 free Amazon music codes to use, plus I split it into 2 orders, so my husband got 2 free Amazon music codes as well. The movie was awesome! We all loved it!

The shrimp popper without the shrimp

The paramedics visited us today at summer camp to explain about CPR and the equipment they use. I feel like everyone; adults and children should take a CPR and First Aid class. A month ago, I renewed my CPR/First Aid certificate.

This morning we had Cinnamon Rolls with icing that I bought from Save A Lot. They were really good.

For lunch, I made Nachos with cheese and we had shaved turkey lunchmeat. It was a quick and easy lunch and tasted good.

 

When I heated up the soup, I just did not add the milk when I heated it up and poured it over the tortilla chips.

 

For supper, we had fish, shrimp poppers, and hushpuppies. The problem with the shrimp poppers I bought is that it is all breading ........ you can't see a single piece of shrimp. My youngest, says, "Mom are you trying to be like Michelle Obama and feed us shrimp poppers made totally of wheat?" LOL

 

 

I did think the hushpuppies and the fish were good though :)

 

My oldest son did his mowing today for my mom. He is saving up money to buy the Xbox One. I believe it is never too early to teach children to have a good work ethic and to work for what they want.

 

 

Loving summer :)

Today I played Uno, Twister, and put together an Angry Birds 3d puzzle and an Avengers 3d puzzle with a great group of kids at summer camp.

I came home and made my family Spam for breakfast. I love the stuff! It is cheap and I had several coupons, so I stocked up on it.

I worked on cleaning our pool. Our cover fell in this year, so needless to say it looked like pond water. I have placed about 15 packets of shock in it, a bucket full of sanitizing tablets, ran the filter, changed it several times, and used the net on the pool for the past week. It is finally starting to look like a pool again.

My husband and I weeded our garden. I didn't have to water it today due to the rain. I love it when it rains :)

For lunch, I fixed Banquet Hot and Spicy Wings and Save A Lot's Hot and Spicy Chips. Everyone loves it at our house.

 

For drinks today we had Lipton tea and I made some generic Lemonade for the boys.

 

I did my 20 reps of each part of our weight machine today. I'm really trying to do that every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That's the same day that my some lifts weights at school to get ready for football.

 

For supper, I made Save A Lot pizzas and we had Mandarin Oranges with it. The pizzas are only 99 cents and are delicious.

 

I'm still reading the 2nd Game of Thrones book. I love it and the tv series. I feel like the books give me a better insight as to what the characters are feeling.

 

My husband and I caught up on some of our dvr'd shows like Penny Dreadful and Devious Maids.

 

I cleaned out my closet yesterday and was able to put aside 4 large armfuls of clothes for a rummage sale and 1 big box of books. I keep telling myself, if I don't love it, get rid of it!

 

The Japanese Beatles are loving my cherry trees. Luckily when I spray them with Seven spray, it keeps them off.

 

Well I am off to clean our bedroom while my husband watches wrestling and my boys play their video games :)

 

 

2nd Week of Summer Break & Summer Camp

My 2nd week off from being a Teacher's Aide has come to an end. This week I have cleaned my bathrooms and started cleaning my closet. I feel like I always get behind through the school year, between working, chauffeuring my boys to different activities, household maintenance, helping with homework, going to games and practices. It's hard to balance working, being a mom, and being a wife.

Second week of summer camp went well. The boys have enjoyed making paper airplanes, playing Mario Cart, Wii Sports, and Mario Superstars on the Wii, and drawing and cutting out super heroes for pretend play. I drew Super Dog for the boys to play with today :)

I have kept my garden weeded and watered and placed the cages around my five tomato plants. Yesterday I trimmed some of our trees and cut off the damaged fabric from our gazebo.

My find this week I'm proud of is the Kool-Aid canisters that say 25% more free. It's not much, but it makes an extra half gallon for the same price. I didn't find anything at the rummage sales this past Saturday. I'm hoping I do tomorrow though.

My mom placed paint stripper on her latex walls and that seems to be helping take the paint off.

Ramblings from a mom on summer break :)

My first week of summer break went really well. As I said in an earlier post, I am working part-time as a summer camp counselor. We have been playing the Wii, Uno, Jenga, Twister, coloring, cutting, using glitter glue, making paper airplanes, playing kickball, Candyland, Crazy 8's, doing the Avengers 3D 100 piece puzzle, etc. It has been a blast!

With my own family, I have still been helping my mom scrape Latex paint off of her walls. It has been a chore. I saw a Youtube video about using Ammonia and water, applying it to the walls, let it set, then scrape; it was supposed to be really easy, but it didn't work either. Now my mom is using a paint remover, applying it, and letting it set. Hopefully, this will make the job easier.

My boys have been playing a lot of video games on their Xbox 360. Because they had good grades, they received coupons for free rentals from Family Video. I love this program. I believe children should be rewarded for good grades. At the end of each quarter, I give my boys one dollar for every A and 50 cents for every B. They don't receive anything for anything less.

Yesterday I tried a new recipe. You mix one banana with 2 eggs and cook in a skillet like a pancake. It doesn't taste as good as pancakes, but I'm sure it's much healthier as long as you didn't cover it in syrup.

Today I used a dollar coupon for Secret deodorant at my local Dollar Tree and only had to pay 8 cents for it. I love couponing!

I love Dr. Pop soda. It tastes really close to Dr. Pepper and is cheaper. I know I need to try to give up sodas for my health, but I really only drink a few a week usually.

 

I found a really quick and convenient lunch to feed my family.

It only took about 5 minutes in the microwave and tasted great. I love to cook, but sometimes quick and easy is the way to go.

 

 

Of course, this is our quick and easy breakfast above for my boys. Although sometimes, I cook eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, or potatoes for breakfast. Cereal is also good for breakfast or a lot of times we eat it as a snack.

 

Enough rambling for now...................... until next time.

Summer Break - Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Saturday we went to see A Million Ways to Die in The West. It was funny, but not as funny as the previews. Usually we just try to see action movies at the theater because of the cost, we like the stereo effect of the theater, and when available we like seeing it in 3D.  I always use my AMC Stubs card to save money. Afterwards, we ate at Tequila's Mexican Restaurant and shopped for plants for our garden at Bucheit's. We bought tomato plants and pepper plants. We still have pickles and salsa canned from previous years. We got home and my husband tilled our garden, then I planted our garden. It's small, but I love the feeling of accomplishment I get from planting our own food.

We have been helping my mother scrape latex paint off of paneling. It's not an easy job, but we are making some progress. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make this job easier?

Breakfast for yesterday: Hot & Spicy Sausage & Fried Potatoes
Breakfast for today: Bacon & Fried Potatoes
Lunch: Tony's pizzas
Supper: Aldi's Buffalo Chicken Chunks with Ranch dressing
Dessert: Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Brownies
I bought Totino's Buffalo Chicken Pizza Friday and it was delicious; just the right amount of spiciness.

I started cleaning my house for the summer today. I got my knickknacks above my kitchen cabinets washed, the top of the refrigerator, bagged all of the trash, cleaned mirrors, dusted, mopped, vacuumed, weeded my garden, fed the rabbits, and did dishes. All of this, plus I worked 2 hours today as a summer camp counselor.

I've also made more progress on the second Game of Thrones book. I love the characters. I also watch the series and play the game on facebook.

I also worked out today on our weight machine and did 20 reps of everything. I read that once you turn 40, you start losing muscle mass, so I thought it definitely can't hurt :)

I've been catching up on Cougar Town, Salem, Resurrection, Penny Dreadful, Sign, Sealed, Delivered, etc. I love watching TV series and movies.

I played the Xbox 360 game, White noise Friday night for the first time. I found 3 of the 8 recorders, on normal level, before I died. I don't think I did too bad. My son wanted me to try it. He says it is scary if you play it by yourself in the dark.