Okay, so I have this friend. Her name is Bridgett. She has the cutest lil family. She has a son named Parker and a daughter Autumn. Her son is Autistic. Even though she is an RN, she has renounced modern medicine in a way. She is trying (and succeeding) in healing Parker of his Autism with natural remedies. Recently, she started a new blog. It's all about holistic healing. You can read all about it here .

A few years ago, I was in a car accident. I had a neck injury in the accident. Since then I suffer (and I do mean suffer!!) from migraines. I usually have 2-3 a month. Some aren't so bad. I can still do daily routines and get through the day. But then there are times when I am down for the count from them. Those are the ones that have me throwing up and laying in the bathroom floor in the dark. The docs have put me on so many different meds for them. The only thing that really helps is Phenergan. It's for nausea and it knocks me out. So basically, I end up sleeping the migraine off. The migraines seem to be getting worse over time. They are more frequent now than ever before. Also, a few years back, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. The only symptoms I have are the headaches and the neck pain. The doc touched me in certain places on my body, and it was really painful in the places he touched. I guess that is one way of diagnosing Fibromyalgia. But to me, it doesn't seem like a very good indicator for a disease. I won't take Lyrica for the Fibro. I feel like the side effects would be hurt more than the meds would help. I am weary of medications. Something they say is a miracle drug today will be the next big class action law suit tomorrow. I am going to start researching some natural remedies for migraines and Fibromyalgia. Who knows, maybe I can do some homeopathic medicines to help with the headaches.

It's 10:37 and my kids are STILL awake. They're in the bed, but still awake. I guess I need to get off this computer and make them go to sleep.

My menu (so far)

Monday: (we had) Boneless BBQ pork ribs $7.39 for about 13 ribs.
$1.59 BBQ sauce
Left over potatoes from dinner last night
Box pasta salad $.99
*2 starches, I know... Uggh*


Monday total $9.97

Tuesday: Pinto Bean Soup w/ ham chunks
Corn bread pancakes (we call them fritters here in KY)
Beans $1.99
Ham FREE (frozen from Christmas)
Box of Jiffy Corn bread mix $.59
Fried Potatoes Probably about $2.00 worth (lol)

Tuesday total: $4.58


Wednesday: Chicken tacos (made in crockpot)

Chicken: $5.78 *boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders*
Taco seasoning pks 3/$.99
Burrito wraps $1.99
Lettuce, tomato, onion, sour cream, and shredded cheese $4.00

Wednesday total: $12.76

Thursday: Spaghetti & Meat sauce
Salad
Texas Toast garlic bread

Whole wheat spaghetti noodles $2.99
Jar of spaghetti sauce $2.99
Texas Toast $1.99/ box
Salad $4.00

Thursday total: $11.97

Friday: Don't quite know yet. LOL

I am fortunate to live in a place where the cost of living is low. We have a store here called Save A Lot. It mostly sells store brands. But my family is okay with store brands. We have a few things that we like the name brand of. But very few. We're not picky like that. Greg used to be when we first got married. He would only want velveta cheese (can't believe we used to eat that crap!). We were on a verrrrry tight budget. So I substituted it with the cheap store brand. I just kept the velveta box and I'd put the store brand in it. He never knew the difference. I did that for about 2 years! Seriously. Now he's not a food snob so much. LOL

I made this menu based on what I already had on hand. Next week, I will make my grocery list based on what is on my menu.

So...

I am officially a SAHM now. I am so excited! I went to the store yesterday and bought cleaning and organizing supplies. I plan on tackling my house tomorrow. I have so much to do around here. First, I plan on conquering Mt. Laundrypile.

I'm telling you, it is a shame at how much laundry I have. I found a new blog that had some tips on laundry that I plan to implement. The author has 5 (I think) kids and she keeps her laundry under control, so why can't I? My 3 boys are all old enough to help out here wayyyy more than they do now. Actually, they don't help out at all, so anything will be an improvement. LOL. Before I can get them to help I need to get it all organized first. I am a control freak and it has to be just right before I teach them what to do.

I am getting ready to sit down and plan out a menu for this week. I want to do anything I can to keep the stress level down. And one thing I HATE doing is cooking. Maybe if I plan out the meals I won't dread doing it so much. I want to cut back on what I spend on food also. At dinner tonight, I had my guys tell me some of their favorite meals. Surprisingly, they like the simple to cook meals. And bonus! They like the cheap things. LOL. I found a new blog that has recipes in it. She cooks meals like my guys like. Here is the link if you want to read it. We don't eat much red meat here. And none of us really like to eat meat with bones. LOL. She had some great crock pot meals also. Right up my alley! :)


We never get to eat together during the week. Greg leaves for work at 3:30pm, Chase has basketball practice from 3:00pm to 5:oopm, and Trey has basketball practice from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. So you can see why we never get to eat together. But on the weekends, we try to make it a point to sit down together and eat together. We always do our "best & worst" when we eat dinner together. We each go around and tell the best thing and worst thing that has happened this week. My kids never cease to amaze me at what they think is the best and worst. It makes me so proud of them if they say something like "the best thing that happened to me is that I got an A on my test". But then there are things like this that make me cringe LOL .... "the best thing that happened this week is that I accidentally let a SBD fart in class and no one knew it was me". Yeah, that's my kids for ya. LOL

**note SBD = silent but deadly in case you didn't know.

Happy New Year

I'm not going to make any resolutions this year. I always break them anyway. So this year, I'm just not gonna do it. I do have a few things I hope to change though..... Which I guess, is just a different way of saying "resolution" LOL.



** I want to have more fun this year. I hope to enjoy the little moments in my life. I don't want to let time pass by with out enjoying as much of it as I can!

** I want to get my house organized. I have way too much junk around here. I have been holding on to things that will never be used. I have so many school papers that the boys have brought home over the years. I will weed through them and keep the ones that mean the most to us (I'm going to get them in on the de-cluttering). And the rest, I might scan to my computer and then throw away. I also have a habit of holding on to clothes. I have so many things in my closet that I know I'll never wear again. Even if I lose the weight to get back into them, they are wayyy out of style! LOL

** And I hate to even put this in here... It is so cheesy (lol)... I hope to get healthier this year. I know everyone you talk to says they want to lose weight, or start exercising. But for me, it is all about health. I am getting older, and I now value my health more now than I did when I was younger. I want to be around for my children and my grand children (if I'm lucky enough to have any).

** I want to blog more of my life. I want to be able to look back at this in 20 years when my boys are grown and gone and read over my memories. I want to write about the things that probably won't stand out in my mind. You know, the little things that you let slip your mind because it just doesn't seem important enough to burn into your memory.

2008 was way better for us as a family than 2007. And I hope 2009 is even better than 2008.

Happy New Year friends!


**NOTE**
I'm looking for a new name for this blog. I'm not very creative, so any suggestions will be appreciated.

New year, new leaf

I've decided that I want to live a simpler life. I am going to quit my job.

I know times are hard and jobs are hard to come by. But I don't like the kind of mother and wife I have become. Dinner around here consist of canned soup and a grilled cheese. And my house is a mess. It's never company ready. We live in chaos around here. I go to work at 7:30 am and by the time I get home, it's 9:30 pm or later. I get off work and then pick my kids up from my mom's and we have to go straight to practices, ball games, or academic meets. It is so hectic! I just don't want to live like that anymore.

My husband and kids are beyond excited that I am quitting. I just hate to give up the extra money. But I know that I can make a few changes in our lifestyle and we won't even miss the money. I can start making dinners from scratch rather than using instant foods. For instance, I can make home made mac n cheese rather than buy the easy mac. And it will be healthier to boot! :) Just little changes like that and it will add up.

I also hope to have time to start working out. I have gained some extra holiday weight and I won't be able to get it off at the rate things are going now. But once I don't have to work, I won't have anything keeping me from getting a work out in each day. I am going to take it day by day and see the changes I can make in my life.

And who knows? I might even have time to start crafting again. I might even be able to make a few extra $$ off of it.

I have nothing but high hopes here. Say a prayer that I won't regret this decision.

I thought I'd post some pics of my Christmas tree. We decided to go with the real tree this year. And I love it. The only thing I don't like, is that it is too big. When we got it, we didn't think about the stand adding height. The Hubs kept saying he'd cut the bottom of it off so it wouldn't be too tall. But between working extra hours and his Mom being sick, he just didn't have time. And I was anxious to decorate it. So I just went ahead and decorated it. Even though it is too tall. LOL You'll see what I mean in this pic.

Over the years, the boys have all had a teacher that does the CUTEST Christmas craft with the whole class. She was the best teacher. We all loved her. She even married into our family a few years ago when she married my husband's cousin. :) Anyway, the ornaments are just a plain shatter proof ball ornament. The kids dipped their hands in white paint and made a hand print on the ball. Then, they would paint the 5 fingers into a snowman. You'll see what I mean in the pics. I tried to get all 5 snowmen in the pics, but it was hard to do. And since we have 5 in our family, these are really great.

And attached to each of the ornaments is this tag...

If you can't read that it says:

These aren't just five snowmen

As anyone can see.

I made them with my hand

which is a part of me.

Now each year when you trim the tree,

you'll look back and recall

Christmas 2005.

When my hand was just this small.

These ornaments mean more to me than any other I have. I'm grateful for Mrs. Teacher taking the time and having the patience to do this with my kids.

It's finally starting to feel like Christmas

We have been so busy around here that I just got my holiday decorating done. I actually put my tree up last week. It was an old artificial tree. I had it for years. I put it up this year knowing it would be my last year using it. I was hoping to find a new one after Christmas when they all get marked down. But my tree looked so sad and pitiful, I couldn't wait until next year. So I un-decorated my tree on Sunday morning. Then Greg and I went to visit his mom (more about her in a minute) in the hospital. We were driving by the Catholic church where they were selling real Christmas trees and wreaths. We decide to stop by and get a live tree. I am so glad we did. I LOVE it. It's a bit bigger than I wanted, but it looks so much better than any tree I've ever had. And it makes my house smell WONDERFUL! I am really in the Christmas spirit now. :)

Okay, about my Mother in Law.... She lives in a town about 1.5 hours away from us. My BIL called on Friday night and told me he was taking her to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing. I knew it was something major wrong with her, or she wouldn't have went to the ER. She would have tried to just gotten through the night and went to her regular doc the next morning. So I knew she must have been really bad off seeing as to how she wanted to go to the ER then. I called Greg at work and told him I thought we should go down there. By the time we got to the hospital, they were just admitting her. They still didn't know what was making her so short of breath. She was to the point of nearly passing out if she even stood up. If she just sat really still and didn't talk, she was okay. Still breathing really hard, but she was okay. But if she moved around, it was like she was gasping for breath. They started doing all kinds of testing on her heart. The found it all to be okay. It wasn't until the next morning that they found out the problem. She had a blood clot travel to her lung. Apparently she had DVT for a while, but she hadn't been diagnosed with it. The doctors said that nearly 99% of people that have a blood clot go to their lung dies from it. So we are lucky that she lived through it. I guess God has a plan for her. :) So remember her if you pray. We aren't sure when she'll get out of the hospital. She is so ready to come home.

I still have presents to wrap. My boys will be excited to come home from school and see all the gifts under the tree! I took a different approach to the gifts this year. I told my boys that since Baby Jesus had 3 gifts, they were getting 3 gifts. But of course, I couldn't stop at 3 gifts each. But they DO only have 3 presents under the tree. I put several things together in one box. I know that was cheating, but still............ LOL