Mark had his checkup at Shriner's last week. I had been a little worried about it, since his feet seemed a bit curved in still.
However, Dr. Sussman said that that was normal turning, not relapse, and Mark's feet are very flexible, and his feet are turned out when walking. Mark has been walking since Easter, and he loves to run now. He is very happy, and when he gets all excited about something like blueberries, he does a happy feet dance.
I am so thankful for God's grace in providing us with Mark, and allowing us to live in a time where clubfeet are easily corrected, without multiple surgeries.
It has given me a new perspective on Acts 3.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Menu Planning
What to make for dinner? You have several options if you want to start planning meals, or have them planned for you. Here are a few that I have stumbled across.
E-mealz
Cost: $15 every 3 months, $1.25 per week.
Shopping list: Very nicely laid out, organized by food type, and has checkboxes. The list has staples listed separately across the bottom of the page, and is VERY easy to read. (the font of the staples list is pretty small, but I use glasses and it worked beautifully for me)
Recipes: This is my favorite part!!! The layout an simplicity of the recipes is just AMAZING! There is a single page of recipes, no cards to flip through, multiple pages of clutter in my kitchen, just the single double sided page, with all the recipes on one side, and the shopping list on the other.
Flavor.... This is pretty hard to rate, I find that with every plan, except my own, we don't like at least one meal, and often more per week. On the other hand, we have gotten a few Wowsa!! recipes as well.
Delivery: You must login to their site to print the plan out. Only 2 weeks info are on the site at any time, so be sure to print it out asap.
Samples: Go ahead, check out the samples link on the home page. :-)
E-mealz has menus for individual stores, as well as a regular plan that you can use with any store. Other options include, Vegtarian, Point System, Low Carb, Couples only, and also lots of combos, such as Low Carb Walmart.
Saving Dinner Menu Mailer
Cost: $15 for 3 months, and far a limited time, $27 for 12 months
Shopping List: A bit too cluttery for me. It breaks down the list by category of food, and also includes a special category for gluten free, and kosher options. So if I want to cook gluten free, I simply buy things from that category, and skip the corresponding regular item. This is great if you need this, but it makes it a bit confusing if you don't.
Recipes: This plan comes with all of these options included in the one price, so you can choose a different style if you want to for the week. Low carb, heart healthy, regular, and each has a version for 2 or 4 servings.
Flavor:There are some great recipes here, and some not so great. But with all plans, it is impossible to please everyone. :-) I LOVE the cube steak recipe!
Delivery: an email will be sent each week, that has a link to the menu mailer. Like E-mealz, you must get it right away, since only the current and previous weeks are visible on the website. However, if you save the email, I think that you can see the mailer for much much longer than on the actual site. Of course, you can just save it on the computer.
Sample: You must sign up for their emails to get the sample week. (sample link located at savingdinner.com, NOT savingdinnershop.com)
In a few weeks, they are starting a Custom Menu-Mailer service ." As usual, you will get 4 different menus when you log onto your account. However, as an Elite Member, you can choose which recipes you want out of those 4 menus to create your own custom menu, then click, push a button and you’ll have a customized shopping list to go with the menu you just created." I haven't tried this yet, but it looks interesting. This is listed under News, but I couldn't find a rate or actually check it out.
Menus 4 Moms (free and $5-$8 per month) the free are archived, under the menu plan basics bar on the left.
Cost: free!!!
Shopping list: Simple Layout! Also has an estimate of the cost of each non staple item.
Recipes: Recipes are on the webpage, so must print banners, bars & clutter as well.
Flavor: Just a basic assortment of 4 person with leftovers, 6 without meals.
Delivery: Online archive only for free version.
Samples: You need to create an account(free) and look on the left, under Menu Plan Basics, to access the Menu Archive.
This site was free with emailed menu planners for each week, but they had just too many people to keep up. You can access 6 years of recipes on the site, or if you don't want to have to remember, you can subscribe to one of their purchased plans. We liked a lot of these meals.
You in Bloom (Free info on creating your own streamlined meal plans)
Cost: FREE!
Shopping List: Just the way you like it!
Recipes: Laid out the way you like them.
Flavor: This is your problem... :-)
Delivery: n/a
You must put in a fair amount of work at the beginning, but should be pretty simple once you are set up. I like the laminated recipe cards idea, and the way she streamlines her recipes to only 30 dinners.
My overall thoughts:
Shopping List: I like the layout of the E-meals plan, but I would prefer to use my own recipes. I have set up a spreadsheet in OpenOffice (free version of excel) and have arranged it ala E-meals.
Recipes: simple, one page layout is what I like, and I am in the process of converting all my recipes to this format. I plan to keep a copy of my menu database in my coupon binder. This way, if I am shopping and notice that something I need for a recipe is on sale, I can grab the other ingredients for that meal on the fly.
I am tired of getting out books to cook with in my limited counter space environment, so I would also like to eventually converting over to a box with laminated master recipes in it, and just printing out my meal plan for the week to keep on the fridge.
I also hate eating the same things for lunch each day, so I hope to have a menu plan ready for our lunches soon.
E-mealz
Cost: $15 every 3 months, $1.25 per week.
Shopping list: Very nicely laid out, organized by food type, and has checkboxes. The list has staples listed separately across the bottom of the page, and is VERY easy to read. (the font of the staples list is pretty small, but I use glasses and it worked beautifully for me)
Recipes: This is my favorite part!!! The layout an simplicity of the recipes is just AMAZING! There is a single page of recipes, no cards to flip through, multiple pages of clutter in my kitchen, just the single double sided page, with all the recipes on one side, and the shopping list on the other.
Flavor.... This is pretty hard to rate, I find that with every plan, except my own, we don't like at least one meal, and often more per week. On the other hand, we have gotten a few Wowsa!! recipes as well.
Delivery: You must login to their site to print the plan out. Only 2 weeks info are on the site at any time, so be sure to print it out asap.
Samples: Go ahead, check out the samples link on the home page. :-)
E-mealz has menus for individual stores, as well as a regular plan that you can use with any store. Other options include, Vegtarian, Point System, Low Carb, Couples only, and also lots of combos, such as Low Carb Walmart.
Saving Dinner Menu Mailer
Cost: $15 for 3 months, and far a limited time, $27 for 12 months
Shopping List: A bit too cluttery for me. It breaks down the list by category of food, and also includes a special category for gluten free, and kosher options. So if I want to cook gluten free, I simply buy things from that category, and skip the corresponding regular item. This is great if you need this, but it makes it a bit confusing if you don't.
Recipes: This plan comes with all of these options included in the one price, so you can choose a different style if you want to for the week. Low carb, heart healthy, regular, and each has a version for 2 or 4 servings.
Flavor:There are some great recipes here, and some not so great. But with all plans, it is impossible to please everyone. :-) I LOVE the cube steak recipe!
Delivery: an email will be sent each week, that has a link to the menu mailer. Like E-mealz, you must get it right away, since only the current and previous weeks are visible on the website. However, if you save the email, I think that you can see the mailer for much much longer than on the actual site. Of course, you can just save it on the computer.
Sample: You must sign up for their emails to get the sample week. (sample link located at savingdinner.com, NOT savingdinnershop.com)
In a few weeks, they are starting a Custom Menu-Mailer service ." As usual, you will get 4 different menus when you log onto your account. However, as an Elite Member, you can choose which recipes you want out of those 4 menus to create your own custom menu, then click, push a button and you’ll have a customized shopping list to go with the menu you just created." I haven't tried this yet, but it looks interesting. This is listed under News, but I couldn't find a rate or actually check it out.
Menus 4 Moms (free and $5-$8 per month) the free are archived, under the menu plan basics bar on the left.
Cost: free!!!
Shopping list: Simple Layout! Also has an estimate of the cost of each non staple item.
Recipes: Recipes are on the webpage, so must print banners, bars & clutter as well.
Flavor: Just a basic assortment of 4 person with leftovers, 6 without meals.
Delivery: Online archive only for free version.
Samples: You need to create an account(free) and look on the left, under Menu Plan Basics, to access the Menu Archive.
This site was free with emailed menu planners for each week, but they had just too many people to keep up. You can access 6 years of recipes on the site, or if you don't want to have to remember, you can subscribe to one of their purchased plans. We liked a lot of these meals.
You in Bloom (Free info on creating your own streamlined meal plans)
Cost: FREE!
Shopping List: Just the way you like it!
Recipes: Laid out the way you like them.
Flavor: This is your problem... :-)
Delivery: n/a
You must put in a fair amount of work at the beginning, but should be pretty simple once you are set up. I like the laminated recipe cards idea, and the way she streamlines her recipes to only 30 dinners.
My overall thoughts:
Shopping List: I like the layout of the E-meals plan, but I would prefer to use my own recipes. I have set up a spreadsheet in OpenOffice (free version of excel) and have arranged it ala E-meals.
Recipes: simple, one page layout is what I like, and I am in the process of converting all my recipes to this format. I plan to keep a copy of my menu database in my coupon binder. This way, if I am shopping and notice that something I need for a recipe is on sale, I can grab the other ingredients for that meal on the fly.
I am tired of getting out books to cook with in my limited counter space environment, so I would also like to eventually converting over to a box with laminated master recipes in it, and just printing out my meal plan for the week to keep on the fridge.
I also hate eating the same things for lunch each day, so I hope to have a menu plan ready for our lunches soon.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
All The Rage Raglans
Well, I finally got around to another creativity project. My wee people needed more long sleeve shirts, walmart has switched to summer clothing, and the thrift store was out as well. Once again, I turned to my favorite instant gratification sewing pattern fix website, You Can Make This. I love being able to buy and print the pattern without having to load the children into the car and drive for 30 minutes, etc. 
I used tshirts from the resale store around the corner to make these shirts. After all, it is prewashed fabric, and if you are careful, you can avoid some hemming. Knits can be hard to find locally, and I always balk at ordering fabric online, so this was the perfect solution for us. This is fun too, because you never know what fun print you will find, like Willy Wonka jr, or rockin' guitar... :-)I had never sewn a raglan sleeve before, and was surprised by the ease and speed that these came together. I think that deciding what fabric to use for which part of the shirts took longer than actually sewing them up.
Having an outlet for my creativity really helped lift my spirits. It is easy to get bogged down in the never ending cycle of laundry/home school/fishing the baby out of messes. For me, sewing is peaceful, fun work that doesn't become undone after 15 minutes.
Enjoy The Day!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saving pennies...or subscription spending ??
I promised a while ago that I would do the great coupon experiment, using the Grocery Game, Couponmom and other forms of couponing and let you know how it went.
I first went with the Grocery Game's free 2 week free trial. After that the cost for a 1 store membership is $10 every 8 weeks. A 2 store membership is $15 every 8 weeks, a 3 store membership is $20 every 8 weeks and so on.
I tried out 2 grocery stores and 2 drugstores after my 2 week trial ended. This was a mistake... way too many options. Albertson's, Safeway, Rite Aid and Walgreen's. This was too expensive, and every time you add or remove a store, the membership automatically renews for another month, so by the time I had messed around a bit with switching stores, etc, I was prepaid for 6 months. Whoops. :-(
I also tried Couponmom.com. This site has free coupon shopping lists. They do have less stores listed, but hey, free is fabulous! Couponmom has lists for walmart, target, and the drugstores, and if you are in another state, check the grocery deals by state list.
You need to shop from mon-tues for the list prices of the grocery stores on the grocery game to be accurate. This was hard for me. I homeschool, so Mondays at home are vital to the rhythm of our week. I prefer shopping on Saturday for upcoming week, rather than going early in the week. Also, there are a lot of "Sunday only" deals on the lists that are actually Friday through Sunday deals, but since the lists aren't out until Sunday am, they say Sunday only. We don't shop on Sunday, so we miss all those deals.
The lists for the stores I did were accurate and good.... Did I need them? Well, they got my feet wet couponing, and I liked seeing at what percent off things were considered a good deal. After a month or two of list following though, I felt perfectly able to go it alone, because I had the basics down.
Basic 1. STOCKPILE! If you can get things at a great discount, use all the coupons that you have and buy enough for your family to last about 6 months, this is usually when the sales rotate around again. To do this you need room for things. It can really pay off though, if you get 10 boxes of cereal for free. :-D
Basic 2. GET LOTS OF COUPONS! duh.... Sounds silly, but to stockpile quickly and well, you will need LOTS of coupons. Ideally you want about 1 insert per family member with a spare or two. If you have neighbors, friends or relatives who get the paper, ask if they want the coupons. I have even heard of looking though the small paper recycling bins on trash day. (I would do this, but we have giant cans for recycling here, and I am not getting into them) You can also try asking the store for the inserts when the paper is being changed out. You can get by with just 1 insert, but it will take longer to built a good stockpile.
Basic 3. DOUBLE COUPONS. My local Safeway has ads in the front of the store, and they 99% of the time have a coupon that doubles 4 manufacturer's coupons up to $.50 off.... I use these every time I coupon for an extra $2 off. Albertson's has doublers too, but their ads with doublers aren't in the Sunday paper, and I always have trouble finding them.
Basic 4. BRING THE COUPONS Even while using the list, I occasionally forgot a key coupon, or just left them all at home, so I invested in a zipper binder with some pages to sort my coupons into. This is wonderful! I have them sorted by type of item, canned , baking, paper goods, tp, deodorant etc. Now I have a "No Coupon Left Behind" policy, and I can see at a glance if I have a coupon for a certain item, with or without the list!
Basic 5. SET A BUDGET and stick with it. If you aren't careful it is pretty easy to think "WOW! look at my deals!" and go crazy buying. This will get a stockpile built really quickly, but you will probably overspend for the month. It would be better to budget a certain amount just for stockpiling up deals each week, so you don't overdo it.
""All that work for a few pennies off???"" Well, if I can get 10 boxes of cereal for free, you can too. How did that happen? A sale, with coupons for all the boxes, a doubler or two and a mail in rebate. I had plenty of school supplies for our home school this year.... free or $0.10, kids shampoo under $1 per bottle, free toothpaste and way too much deodorant.
If you don't use packaged foods, and always buy store brand toiletries and cloth diaper, this may be too little savings for too much effort, but I found that the free items made it worth it for me. It also allowed us to buy more luxury items like snacks, paper plates, air fresheners, and ready made lunches that we ordinarily couldn't afford. I also found myself really enjoying the late night shopping trips alone. I was out of the house, and seeing how little I could pay, did indeed, feel like a game.
On a side note, I found that both types of coupon organizing (by insert date or each coupon in a binder by type) took about the same amount of time, and for me the binder allowed me to dash out in the evening without spending an hour choosing and cutting out coupons. If you use a binder you NEED a zipper closure, so any loose clippings won't fly all over the floor at the safeway. I'll do a post on the binder later....
Bottom Line: Definitely worth a try!
I first went with the Grocery Game's free 2 week free trial. After that the cost for a 1 store membership is $10 every 8 weeks. A 2 store membership is $15 every 8 weeks, a 3 store membership is $20 every 8 weeks and so on.
I tried out 2 grocery stores and 2 drugstores after my 2 week trial ended. This was a mistake... way too many options. Albertson's, Safeway, Rite Aid and Walgreen's. This was too expensive, and every time you add or remove a store, the membership automatically renews for another month, so by the time I had messed around a bit with switching stores, etc, I was prepaid for 6 months. Whoops. :-(
I also tried Couponmom.com. This site has free coupon shopping lists. They do have less stores listed, but hey, free is fabulous! Couponmom has lists for walmart, target, and the drugstores, and if you are in another state, check the grocery deals by state list.
You need to shop from mon-tues for the list prices of the grocery stores on the grocery game to be accurate. This was hard for me. I homeschool, so Mondays at home are vital to the rhythm of our week. I prefer shopping on Saturday for upcoming week, rather than going early in the week. Also, there are a lot of "Sunday only" deals on the lists that are actually Friday through Sunday deals, but since the lists aren't out until Sunday am, they say Sunday only. We don't shop on Sunday, so we miss all those deals.
The lists for the stores I did were accurate and good.... Did I need them? Well, they got my feet wet couponing, and I liked seeing at what percent off things were considered a good deal. After a month or two of list following though, I felt perfectly able to go it alone, because I had the basics down.
Basic 1. STOCKPILE! If you can get things at a great discount, use all the coupons that you have and buy enough for your family to last about 6 months, this is usually when the sales rotate around again. To do this you need room for things. It can really pay off though, if you get 10 boxes of cereal for free. :-D
Basic 2. GET LOTS OF COUPONS! duh.... Sounds silly, but to stockpile quickly and well, you will need LOTS of coupons. Ideally you want about 1 insert per family member with a spare or two. If you have neighbors, friends or relatives who get the paper, ask if they want the coupons. I have even heard of looking though the small paper recycling bins on trash day. (I would do this, but we have giant cans for recycling here, and I am not getting into them) You can also try asking the store for the inserts when the paper is being changed out. You can get by with just 1 insert, but it will take longer to built a good stockpile.
Basic 3. DOUBLE COUPONS. My local Safeway has ads in the front of the store, and they 99% of the time have a coupon that doubles 4 manufacturer's coupons up to $.50 off.... I use these every time I coupon for an extra $2 off. Albertson's has doublers too, but their ads with doublers aren't in the Sunday paper, and I always have trouble finding them.
Basic 4. BRING THE COUPONS Even while using the list, I occasionally forgot a key coupon, or just left them all at home, so I invested in a zipper binder with some pages to sort my coupons into. This is wonderful! I have them sorted by type of item, canned , baking, paper goods, tp, deodorant etc. Now I have a "No Coupon Left Behind" policy, and I can see at a glance if I have a coupon for a certain item, with or without the list!
Basic 5. SET A BUDGET and stick with it. If you aren't careful it is pretty easy to think "WOW! look at my deals!" and go crazy buying. This will get a stockpile built really quickly, but you will probably overspend for the month. It would be better to budget a certain amount just for stockpiling up deals each week, so you don't overdo it.
""All that work for a few pennies off???"" Well, if I can get 10 boxes of cereal for free, you can too. How did that happen? A sale, with coupons for all the boxes, a doubler or two and a mail in rebate. I had plenty of school supplies for our home school this year.... free or $0.10, kids shampoo under $1 per bottle, free toothpaste and way too much deodorant.
If you don't use packaged foods, and always buy store brand toiletries and cloth diaper, this may be too little savings for too much effort, but I found that the free items made it worth it for me. It also allowed us to buy more luxury items like snacks, paper plates, air fresheners, and ready made lunches that we ordinarily couldn't afford. I also found myself really enjoying the late night shopping trips alone. I was out of the house, and seeing how little I could pay, did indeed, feel like a game.
On a side note, I found that both types of coupon organizing (by insert date or each coupon in a binder by type) took about the same amount of time, and for me the binder allowed me to dash out in the evening without spending an hour choosing and cutting out coupons. If you use a binder you NEED a zipper closure, so any loose clippings won't fly all over the floor at the safeway. I'll do a post on the binder later....
Bottom Line: Definitely worth a try!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)