Monday, October 27, 2008

Weekly Update

1. Halloween on Friday. Hannah is going to be Cinderella and Audrey is going to be Sleeping Beauty. I have to keep reminding Audrey that's what it's called. She likes to say "Sleeping Goady." It's really funny. She can say it right, she just doesn't unless I remind her. We'll probably take them to my parents' and then to church's HUGE "Fall Fest." It's usually too cold here to Trick-or-Treat, especially when you live in a rural area like we do. My parents used to drive us around in the van. My kids don't know any better, so far. :)

2. Really liked this post on parenting this morning. Nick and I also went to a parenting class at church last night. (On Sunday nights they have "New Life U" where pretty much every week you can choose from around 5 or 6 different mini seminars. They are an hour long and usually three consecutive weeks. The Marriage and Family pastors are doing a parenting one. The third and final meeting is two weeks from yesterday.) Anyway, SO encouraging and challenging. I've always wanted to do more than survive parenting, feeling direction and purpose about what we're working toward with our children. The Grothe's have 4 fantastic grown kids, and hearing about their parenting ideas, it was not an accident. Still pondering on this one...

3. Nick and I started going to a marriage conference they had at church Friday night and Saturday, but after the 2 hour Friday session, decided to skip the conference and have a date on Saturday. (The conference was free anyway.) The content of the conference was terrific, but felt like it was geared toward couples who were really struggling. ("Here's why you should not cuss each other out.") By the grace of God, that's not where we're at. Instead, we went and had breakfast at Whole Foods, and then wandered around town, chatting and enjoying the morning. It was a great way to start the weekend. Fun to have a date during the day!

4. The Jetta is getting fixed today! Yay! Hopefully it won't cost too much and will run well...

5. We had a couple of cooking adventures the past week. I made this pumpkin ice cream. It tastes a bit like frozen pumpkin pie filling. Hannah said it was yucky and then ate it all. :) It's good, strangely so... I also made Runzas for dinner, mainly for Nick. Runza is a fast food place that is mostly in Nebraska. Nick grew up eating these pocket sandwiches, and prior to my gluten free life, I really liked them too. I used dough from this company that Gluten-Free Girl recommended a while back, and made the filling according to the recipe online. I needed to bake them a bit less (the crust got hard), but the flavor was great! We'll have to do those again, and maybe freeze some to heat up later?

6. Things with Maeve are pretty slow right now. We're working on a new project though - boutique clothing! Maeve Bridal is set up under the parent company Maeve Designs, because we wanted to keep our options open to design things other than bridal gowns. So, we're trying it! If you have any contacts that might be helpful, I'd love to have them. I'm guessing we'll have a summer line, which will be ready in the next few months for buyers to look at.

7. Food budget. Um, yeah. We have always prioritized enough money in our budget to buy organic, gluten free food. It's just our way of life. We choose our cars and home accordingly so we can afford it. But lately? $100-$130 more than the budget per WEEK! Prices have gone up so dramatically that it's incredible. Honestly, I'm not sure what to do. I try to keep dinners at $15 or less, with leftovers. Even just oil and maple syrup and things that seem like basics are so much more expensive... I read lots of those frugal blogs, but their solutions are usually to cut back on protein and eat more carbs. While that is definitely cheaper, it's not a good idea for people with blood sugar issues (us) or we'll have bigger problems than being over budget. So, we can't really follow lots of the advice. Arg. Budgeting is so hard... Surely the prices will come back down, right? That whole supply and demand thing? The gas prices followed it...

Alright. Audrey just came to sit on my lap and cuddle, and it's time for yoga (you should see Hannah do yoga with me - SO funny!). And the girls just had a little battle. Gotta help Audrey say she's sorry - this is a process right now... :) Have a great week!

6 comments:

  1. Yeah, we have issues with the food budget too! We're thinking that because of the recession, we're going to be eating only produce that we grow next summer. I'd also like to learn how to can some stuff...

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  2. How fun to have a date during the day.

    I hear you on the food budget. Just for the two of us it has been pretty out of control. We were talking over the weekend about how great it would be to have a community garden.

    I am going to try your pumpking cookies this week. I found a gluten free bakery, I didn't realize how much I missed having a cookie or brownie treat occasionly.

    One last thing...the boutique cloting is a fab idea. I can't wait to see where you go with it, be sure to keep us posted.

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  3. So cool about the clothing for Maeve. Excited to see the new stuff!

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  4. I don't know if this helps, because I'm not sure if it fits in with your diet, but what about beans and rice?

    I know it sounds kind of... "third world":) But, my husband swears he could eat it EVERY day he loves it so much, in fact, we probably do eat it about 4 times a week for dinner!

    Of course I use brown rice, and I usually use a blend of 3 beans such as pinto, kidney and black beans.

    Occasionally I throw in Garbanzo beans, and we sometimes have cheese and salsa or hot sauce.

    It's a complete protein all together.

    You can even try Quinoa in place of the rice.

    Very yummy, VERY cheap, even using organic rice.
    We don't buy much meat anymore, but eat this almost all the time and it frees our budget up for more organic produce.

    I've pretty much just stuck with Apples and Bananas for fruit lately--mostly because I'm trying to eat indiginiously and seasonally as much as possible.

    Hope this helps!

    ps-we do eat salmon or tuna about twice a week which is the bulk of our "meat" budget.

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  5. Flo - Do you worry about your kids getting enough nutrients? That's what I would be concerned about with the beans and rice...

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  6. I suppose doing it even once or twice a week would make a difference. How do you season it?

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