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!