Verdict - Sausage Pasta Skillet

This recipe worked well for our family. The boys like sausage (will rarely touch hamburger) and macaroni. I served theirs' with sauce on it, instead of the veggies andcheese sauce that the recipe suggests. I just put that into mine. Because Alex and Landon are also creatures of habit and any kind of macaroni should be served with red sauce on it. Only.Red.Sauce.Always.

Good dinner, good leftovers too. It's a keeper!

All the live long day

I'm finishing up the train costumes today. I have to; trick of treating is this weekend. Why I chose to be an overachiever and make costumes, I don't know. But someone, PLEASE remind me next year that even though it may cost a little bit more it may be so much easier to BUY the costumes (especially when one's strength is not making crafts)
J is coming for a visit this weekend. To trickk or treat with the boys. Look for an update in the Marriage Chronicles on how this visit goes. I'm going to try to write my letter, outlining my expectations, tonight so I can share with him over the weekend. On my therapists suggestion. Apparently I have a ton of thoughts on the subject in my head, but I'm not very good at sharing them. And, it's only fair for him to know exactly what my expectations for future work on our marriage are.

Happy Halloween.

Pictures of costumes, pumpkins, and trick or treating to come next week.

November Meal Plan

1 - Spinach Artichoke Pasta

2 - Chicken Stuffing Bake, vegetables  (OAMC - Make two, freeze one for December)

3 - Toddler Cheesy Potato Soup, sandwiches

4 - spaghetti and meatballs

5- Frittata, hash browns, toast

6- Goldfish pizza, veggie sticks

7- fish sticks, vegetables, noodles or rice

8- pierogies, vegetables

9- spaghetti and meatballs

10- chili, veggie sticks, breadsticks

11- unstuffed shells, salad

12 - rigatoni with greens and beans (see October for recipe)

13 - Bacon Alfredo casserole

14 - chunky soup with rice or biscuits

15 - cheeseburger macaroni, veggies (Alex SWORE he would eat this - we'll see)

16 - spaghetti and meatballs

17 - fish sticks, vegetables, noodles or rice

18 - Make ahead sausage casserole, smoothies

19 - Breakfast biscuit bowls, fruit

20 - Macaroni and Cheese with Beef, salad

21 - pierogies, vegetables

22 - Cream cheese chicken, rice (frozen from October OAMC cooking) (crockpot)

23 - spaghetti and meatballs

24 - Thanksgiving Dinner

25 - visiting family

26 - visiting family

27 - visiting family

28 - Sausage Tater Crescent Pizza, fruit

29 - Pasta with Spinach and Sausage, garlic bread

30 - spaghetti and meatballs

I've been working on the railroad

Last night we began working on making the boys Halloween costumes. They've both decided that they want to be Thomas and James, trains from the Thomas the Tank Train series. Not conductors, or train passengers, but actual trains. So my thought was, "how in the He*! am I going to do this?"
I am probably the least crafty person around. When I make something it always appears that a four year old constructed it. I am great at drawing stick figures but that's about it. So, how do I build a train costume and make it look halfway decent?
I searched the Internet and found some great directions. We had two boxes in the house so last night we cut them, and taped them into the proper shape for trains. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself after this first step - they don't look half bad!
Next step is painting them. Which the kids want to help with. Which should be rather interesting (read: messy)
We're headed to Wal-Mart tonight after dinner to buy the paint; and may start painting tomorrow. Well, if they end up looking terrible I think I'll still have time to go out and BUY a costume.

Always Heart Breaking

We traveled to Grandpa's for the weekend to take part in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk with some family (more about that later). We visited with J. The boys had a great time.
I came home feeling torn, and sad. I never imagined our marriage would be this way - I didn't ask for this. And, it makes me so angry that J's decisions caused all of this. And if it were just me I could walk away from him in a moment's notice. But what makes it so hard, and makes me cry, inside and out, is when I hear my 3 year olds tell their daddy that they love him. And, then tell me that they miss their daddy and they want daddy to come back and live at our house again. It breaks my heart into a million pieces every time I hear the boys say things like that.
I wish that I could feel like it would be "safe" for that to happen.
I wish J never put our family in this situation.
I wish I knew how to explain this all to a 3 year old.

Therapy is awesome

So, I've been seeing a therapist for about two months now to help to sort out thoughts about the future of my relationship with J. As I mentioned a while back J has some serious issues that have yet to be completely resolved and I am still not sure how I should be handling the issue.

Therapy is a great thing - for any of you who have never been. It is so refreshing to be able to just sit, open your mouth and let everything out, with no filters like you may have when talking to family or friends. It really makes things far clearer than when they are muddied up with filtering. Kind of like the air conditioner filter - you take it out and it is full of gunk. No filter, no gunk to cloud things.
I give J credit for taking it upon himself to go to rehab, for the fourth time, back in July. And he did it on his own - no legal mumbo jumbo forcing it. But now he's been out since the beginning of August, living with his family, and I still do not see any evidence of steps he's taking to deal with his addiction. Sure a 30 day stint is a good thing - but what about after-care? Isn't that the most important part of recovery? Things you do every.single.day to keep yourself on track? He does nothing. Which is what he's always done. Which make me fairly certain we'll end up with the same result we've always gotten - relapse.
I have ideas in my head about what I think potentially successful reocvery looks like - I think I'm going to share them with J. I just don't want to get further down the road, with him continuing to do nothing, and then drop a bomb on him that I can't work on our rleationship unless he's taking what I believe to be some positive steps toward recovery. And, while he can make his own decisions about what steps he feels he needs to take - I also have to make my own decisions about what I can live with confortably

FREE arrid deodorant

I rarely find deodorant that is either for female use or gender neutral for a good stock up price, let alone for free. So I must get some of this this week.
Looks like we'll be making a trip over to Walgreens.

Thanks Money Saving Mom!

Wordless Wednesday - Frosting Face

Free Listerine Total Care Mouthwash

Print off this coupon for $2.00 off any Listerine total care mouthwash. Take it to your Walmart and you could score some free mouthwash, plus possibly even make a little change depending on your store's prices.

Thanks, I heart the mart!

Verdict - Cream Cheese Chicken

We had the cream cheese chicken this weekend while my sister was visiting. I let her pick three items off our October meal plan that she wanted to try. First thing I loved about this recipe was the simplicity! I threw a pound of frozen chicken breast into the crockpot. No need to thaw! Then covered that with one packet of dry Italian dressing mix, one can of cream of chicken soup, and one 8ounce container of cream cheese. Put lid on, set on low, and you're done.
8 hours later - with the house filled with a delicious aroma, we sat down to have dinner.
We had this over rice and it was awesome!You could even add some frozen peas toward the end of the cooking time to round out the meal.
While the kids are not big meat eaters yet and I still needed to give them some picky-eater pre-schooler staple like fish sticks, I did mix some of the chicken bits and sauce with the rice and Landon ate three servings of rice.
This was a hit and will definitely be added to a rotating monthly meal plan.

Free Tissues

You can get a FREE box of Kleenex cool touch tissues and also send one to a friend. Since I feel like I'm getting cold this weekend this couldn't come at a better time.

Request one here

Thanks Living rich with coupons!

Wordless Wednesday - Getting Big

FREE Progresso Soup

Right now Progresso soup has a rebate for a free can of Progresso Rich and Hearty Soup, any variety (up to $2.68)
Purchase must be made between 9/1/11-1/31/12
You can find the rebate form here.

Love soup in the fall and winter! Wish I could get the kids to like it more - maybe in time.

Thanks, Krazy Coupon Lady!

$1.00 off any 4 Scotties

$1.00 off any 4 Scotties tissues. Love these coupons - they had some great printable ones on their website a while back but for now they are gone. I do check now and then to see if they will bring them back - those were $0.50 off one which, doubled, made for free tissues.
For now I'll take this one, makes them only $0.75 each at my store.

Thanks, Printable Coupons and Deals!

QOTW - What do I love about fall?

Fall is my absolute favorite season. Something about the cool, crisp weather, the colors of the leaves changing, the fall holidays, and pumpkin anything. I even picked the first day of autumn as the day to get married.

I think my favorite thing about the fall season is the sense of renewal I feel. I know that most people view the spring season as the season of renewal but I think fall is the season of renewal. I think about the new school year starting and that fresh start you get from that. I work now in a organization where our year kicks off in the fall - so again - a new chance to reach goals, achieve things, begin something new.
The sound of a football game taking place, the smell of pumpkin pie, the taste of a juice sweet apple just picked from the tree, and seeing the kids jumping in big piles of colorful leaves brings me joy.

October Menu Plan

As a single working mom with two busy kids I thought I'd try to take up menu planning. I have some friends who are great at it - and I've been taking some advice and tips from them. Plus, menu planning is a BIG step in couponing and saving money. So, we're gonna give it a go. And, I'll do my best to give some reviews of new things we try. Since a lot of my menu planning will be focused on families with picky eaters.

1- Breakfast Biscuit Bowls, fruit

2 - Pizza Chicken, noodles (crockpot)

3- Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread

4- Pierogies, vegetables

5 - Cream Cheese Chicken, rice (crockpot) (OAMC - make two, freeze one for November)

6 - Baked Mexican Penne, (OAMC - make two, freeze one for Nov/Dec)

7 - Goldfish Pizza, veggie sticks

8- Sausage and Pasta Skillet

9- Fish Sticks, rice or noodles, fruit

10- Spaghetti and Meatballs, garlic bread

11- Breakfast Burritos, yogurt fruit smoothies

12 - Ham and Pasta Skillet

13- Chicken Lickin drumsticks, rice, veggies

14- Unstuffed Shells, salad (OAMC, freeze one for November/December)

15- We're all staying at Grandpa's for weekend

16- We're all staying at Grandpa's for weekend

17- Spaghetti and Meatballs, garlic bread

18- Savory Italian Sausage Stew, pasta

19- Pierogies, vegetables

20- Chunky soup with rice

21- dinner out

22- Sausage Stroganoff (using Hamburger Helper)

23- Grilled Cheese sandwiches, soup

24- Spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread

25- Salisbury Steak, potatoes, vegetables

26- Frittata with broccoli and cheese, fruit, toast

27- Crescent Dogs, fries

28- fish sticks, rice or noodles, fruit

29 - Rigatoni with greens and beans (omit red pepper)

30- Pizza (Takeout)

31 - Monster Claws

Deals

best deals I found for myself today:

http://printablecouponsanddeals.com/2011/09/1-off-one-any-flavor-yoplait-frozen-smoothie.html - will be great with my breakfast for dinner day

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/2011/09/26/brita-pitcher-only-3-97-at-walmart-6-00-money-maker-after-rebate/ - already have one of these BUT it is a $6.00 moneymaker so may need an additional one.

Thanks, Printable coupons and deals and Krazy coupon lady!

Pork with Sauerkraut Recipe

Pork tenderloin - had a $1.00 of coupon for these making total less than $5.00
two bags sauerkraut - free from our Fun on the Farm excursion over the weekend
one apple - $1.00

Put all in crockpot. Cook on low for 10 hours.

Dinnner will be wiating for us when we get home. Just boil some water for some Idahoan bag potatoes.

Deals 9-26-11

My Deal of the day was Walgreens 24ct maxi pads - I paid $2.00 and got a $2.00 RR
Gotta love FREE.

Fun on the Farm

The kids and I went to a fun event this weekend called "Fun on the Farm." Every year a different local farmer hosts it and they have a tour of the farm, local farmer vendors, food samples, and education and awareness of farming. I figured since the boys love animals it would be a fun thing to do together.

We got to sample local apples, strawberry milk, and apple chips. And some cheese, which before I realized it, I gave Alex a sample of roasted garlic cheddar. I was fully expecting him to spit it everywhere but to my surprise he told me it was, and I quote, Yummmmy!

The kids played some fun farm games, like bowling with cabbage, and ring toss over milk jugs, and we won some bags of sauerkraut, and string cheese.

We saw some cows being milked and got to pet a baby calf.

We did not take a hay ride because Landon informed me that tractors drive too fast.

And, when we were leaving Alex told me that while we were in the milking barn he was sure one of the cows was going to start chasing him. What an imagination!

On the way back to the car we stopped at some HUGE tractors which they loved - anything trucks, cars, or machinery is amazing. Definate male mentality.

It really was fun on the farm. And we got to get out of the house, learn some new things together, and enjoy a beautiful fall day.

Deals 9-25-11

I only found one deal I was interested in today. A new coupon for $1.00/3 Furmano's canned tomatoes - I use these to make spaghetti sauce in big batches that I then freeze for the month.

http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com/2011/09/new-13-furmanos-tomatoes-coupon.html

Thanks, Living Rich with Coupons!

Deals of the day

I check a lot of couponing websites on a daily basis to help with my couponing "habit". There are more deals out there than you could imagine. I wish I had known about all of these tips sooner - could have been saving a bundle for years.
I'm going to share my top 3 deals of the day - look under the deals of the day tab for these posts.
Happy shopping and saving!

Shopping 9-23-11

First trip was to Rite Aid - where I got pull-ups, wipes, tampons, tissues, and dishwasher soap. I am fully stocked up on the tampons, tissues, and dishwasher soap now for probably 3 months.
Total retail value was $77.48
My OOP was 32.37
savings of 55%

Then Walmart - I never really save a huge percentage on my walmart trips because they are big trips, meant for a purchase that will cover two weeks of food, and the kids are with me (and they are now able to throw things into the cart that they want - like yogurt smoothies, cookies, extra grapes, etc)
Between price matching and coupons I was able to save 13% off this trip as well.
Not too shabby.

You say it's your birthday....

Happy Birthday boys. I can not believe that you are 3.years.old Time goes so quickly - sometimes I look at you and I still can't believe that you are here. Other times, like when you're fighting over a toy, or WWF wrestling in the living room, the noise in our house makes it very clear that you are here.


I will never forgot what it was like to have a silent home.


And, I'll take the noise any day.





Happy Birthday. I love you both very much!


Mommy

4th Blogoversary

Tomorrow is my 4 year Blogoversary. Four years since I started writing as a way to sort out my feelings of despair as J and I struggled with infertility and how we would ever build a family.
I now struggle sometimes with continuing to blog - although I do love to write and always have found that I feel I can express myself best in writing. There are so many issues with maintaining a blog - time to write and whether or not anyone is interested in what I'm writing are the two main ones for me.
It is so often difficult to write, trying to raise two small children alone and maintain a household as well. So many times, I think to myself, "OMG, I'd love to tell the world about this." But by the time, we finish whatever it is that we're doing, and the boys get to bed, and I actually have some time to sit down and write, I'm often too exhausted to sign on to the computer and put our story down on virtual paper. I should try harder because 1. I hope that someday my children will be able to see this blog as a virtual memory book and 2. I don't want to use the excuse of having to raise two children alone as an excuse for not doing something. There are probably millions of people doing the same things every day - and I try to live by the idea that if something is important to you you will find time for it.
I guess the bigger issue for me now is whether anyone is interested in what I have to say. I guess I don't always feel like we have the most exciting life - I see it more as pretty average. With the one small difference being my children are twins. So most posts are about them and where they are at developmentally, pictures, etc. Nothing extraordinarily exciting. Except to me and the people who know and love them.
Before my blog turned into a parenting multiples blog the writing came so easily for me - I could spew off post after post about my subject matter - infertility - and I had such clear opinions on the subject. I also felt really confident in my knowledge of the subject matter - I felt like I was an expert on infertility - having been in the trenches for nearly 7 years. Now, with the parenting multiples blog, well, I'm not a parenting expert. I'm not an expert at raising kids. Hell, most days I feel like I don't know what the hell I'm doing and my kids will be lucky if we can get through to adulthood without major mistakes on my part. I yell sometimes when I probably shouldn't, I let them watch maybe too much t.v, and eat junk food snacks instead of apples, I just don't know how much I'm doing right or wrong.
So, that makes it even more difficult to write - like what the heck does this chick know about raising multiples?

But I do know that I am learning more and more about parenting multiples each day and maybe someday I will be an expert. Maybe I'll publish a book about raising twins and all the joy and chaos that goes along with that. Even if I'm not a one-day expert though, at least my children will be able to look back on this blog and have some evidence of the mistakes I made to use against me - and some evidence of my love for them as well.

Deal-breaker

I've been DVR'ing and watching Dr. Phil at night after the boys go to bed. It's my me-time (sometimes a drink, almost always potato chips, and Dr. Phil or a book - on the kindle)

Last night Dr. Phil said something that resonated with me -- "There are a few absolute drop dead dealbreakers in a marriage."

What J did was, according to Dr. Phil, a dealbreaker - so why can I not be more angry? Should I be? Every day I wonder if I'm handling the situation the way I should be. Everyone I talk to about it is biased - they are my family and friends. So, I've decided to seek out the opinion and help of a professional counselor. I need to make sure I handle this situation in the best possible manner for the boys and their future.

Savings 8-14-11

Grocery shopping trip this week included shopping at Rite Aid, Top's and Walmart - plus ordering pull ups from Amazon

Amazon - $21.11 for 96 count pampers pull ups - 21cents each

Total merchandise - $277.00
Total OOP - $202.00
Savings of $75.00 or about 27%

Wordless Wednesday: Learning to Ride

Staycation July 2011

We had a staycation this past week. Tons of fun! We did so much and it completely stunk going back to work. And try explaining to two 3 year olds why today is a work day and not another vacation day. Not fun.

To start off the week we spent the weekend at Grandpa's house visiting. We went to the beach - but once again the boys were not willing to go in the water, or even near the water for that matter. So, needless to say we didn't stay long in the 95 degree weather. I don't understand my children and their obsession with keeping their socks and shoes on. Must come from J. I prefer to go around barefoot as much as possible.

On Monday we visited Grandpa with the beard and then drove home, with Aunt Stef, to our house. This was the first visit with Grandpa with the beard that Alex did not cry at (those beards are a scary thing you know). He even was willing to ride next to Grandpa in the golf cart.

Tuesday the boys did go to daycare so that Mommy could car shop - the car is in desperate need of being retired. And we were able to find one so we should have it soon.

Then for the rest of the week we did different fun things.

We went to the fair, and saw all the animals, attempted rides but were too scared, and won a nemo fish by playing a ball toss game. Sadly though, Nemo wanted to go back to the ocean to visit his own Mom and dad so we sent him there by way of toilet flush the next day. We went to the play museum and saw Big Bird's nest, rode on a train, and shopped at the pretend grocery store. We went to the playground and the beach and actually went into the water (although we did keep our socks on) and had fun building a sand castle. If I tell my children I need their superpowers to help build the castle they are much more willing to go close to the water.

There was one incident where we got a little too tired and had a major meltdown. But luckily no one actually called the police on Mommy - they just thought I was abducting Alex from Walmart as he screamed at the top of his lungs, "No, No, Go back, No, I won't get in the car! I NEED a Toy!!" Good thing he threw in the last part about the toy or I seriously might have been sitting in a jail cell while Aunt Stef went to get the boys birth certificates for my proof of parenthood.

They say marriage is for better or for worse. So is parenthood I guess.

All in all it was a great staycation.

Wordless Wednesday - Hiding