Hip Hip Hooray,, It's Payday!

Ahhhh.....every other Thursday I breathe a big sigh of relief.   Because that is the day Ben's check goes into the bank.   :)  
I really need to start doing a better job budgeting our spending money over the two week time period.  The problem is we tend to go a little crazy the first weekend he gets paid and then we are broke the next week and a half. 

Irresponsible you say....well yes maybe a little but in all honesty we never have that much money to begin with.  You think, now wait a minute,, your husband is in a supervisor position,, you should be doing fine.  Well yes, he does get supervisor salary but his place of employments pay is crap!  He makes a lot less than most of our friends/family that don't even have a supervisor job!  We have 5 people in our family and a LOT of bills.  I have a childcare business but that doesn't pay the bills.  The money I make pretty much goes to Ben for his spending money and the rest is for groceries.   We just can't keep up with "the Joneses",,, it's impossible. When I see people that I think are in a similar situation spending and getting things I find it hard to understand, but then I just need to remember....they have more money than us.  haha... It's fine I don't mind.  Although I do think people think we have/make more money than we actually do. 
Ok,,,don't know how I got off on that ramble, but what I was getting at is budgeting the money better,,, normally I pay the bills Friday online, then over the weekend try to get groceries that will last us close to the two weeks,, then with the money left we usually go out to eat or do something extra with the kids,, things like that.   This last week has been really tough,, we spent to much money the first week and we have been out of toilet paper for the last three days!  (Don't worry,, we've been using Emma's babywipes,,:) )  Plus short on food, I've had to be creative with the meals the last couple of days.  Yes there is money in the savings account, but I'm trying my hardest to not have to dig into that, and after last weekends trip to Ft.Wayne and our out to eat with the extra kid at a place we thought kids ate free and found out we were wrong, after we got the bill, i had already had to transfer money over to the checking account and I didnt want to do it again.  So I waited until today when Ben got paid.  Tonight I will go out and get some groceries and dog food---we ran outta that to but I have been feeding her leftovers and hot dogs so she hasnt been starving, and toilet paper!  Woo Hoo.  haha,, the thing I will not do is let us go out to eat tonight.  I've decided that maybe we should wait til the second week when he doesnt get paid and if we really wanna go out then if there is extra money left we can. 

Ive been trying to put one to two hundred extra dollars into savings for Florida every other week also and that has been working out.  That is where part of our money is going. The resort is already paid for,, I think I have enough money in there for our tickets for the parks now,  so now I need to concentrate on getting enough for spending money, gas, and food.  I've got 2 in a half months left so I think its all gonna work out!  

I was thinking, I've done pretty good getting the money for this trip.  Now after the trip I can put all that same hard work and get the rest of the credit card bills paid off!  Maybe that should be my goal for next year.....all credit cards paid off in one year!  Think I can do it?  We will see.

Final zoo trip

We made our final trip to the zoo this year on Saturday.  I had one of my childcare kids here so she got to go along too.  She loved it.  It was pretty chilly in the morning but once we got there the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.  The childcare kiddos dad was so scared I would lose his kid, lol,, I told him I haven't managed to lose one yet.  It was quiet crowded when we arrived .  So I decided to try out the buddy system.  I put Jess in charge of Emma and Gary in charge of Bree and said everyone was to stay with their buddies the whole time.   Of course Ben and I were right there too.

 Here is Emma and Gary all tangled up in the netting,

 Emma finally got it to where she would pose for me,, the netting had to be just right.

 Emma wanted to ride on the peacock this time,,

 She just loves those goats.

 Here is us around the fire pit..... since we purchased it we have been out there every single weekend night.  This isn't a very good picture but you can see Ben roasting the marshmallows.  We also had smoked sausages over the fire for our dinner.   Its so nice sitting out there relaxing.  The kids run around in the dark playing hide and seek and everything else they can think up. 

Today were going to go to mom's house and their gonna ride the go kart.  Emma has a serious need for speed already!  Then were gonna watch the Colt's game!   I'm not feeling to hot today,,kinda tired and just feeling bummed for some reason.  Hopefully getting out will perk me up. 

Pumpkin Picking

We went pumpkin picking last night at Grandma's house!  First we went to mom's and had dinner and then off to Granny's we went.  Cousin Mira was there and the girls got along nicely!

 Grandma planted pumpkins in her garden this year and the patch grew very nicely.  It was just like picking pumpkins from the pumpkin patch but these were FREE! Woo HOO!

 Isn't she just the cutest thing,, that's her cheese smile.

 There's a story behind this picture... Emma wanted to carry the pumpkin to the car by herself but then said it was to heavy, so Mira said she would help.  It was so cute they were both carrying it so nicely, so I grabbed the camera to shoot a pic but of course by the time I got it ready they were done wanting to carry it together so we tried to get them to pose but it didn't work out. :)

So now I've got a bunch of pumpkins and some corn stalk and a bale of straw and hopefully tonight I can get out and decorate the front lawn a little.   I just love this time of year!

Carmel Apple Pork Chops

This is what I made for dinner last night, Carmel Apple Porkchops,
They were super yummy and the whole family devoured them! I doubled the recipe so there would be enough.
I also made sour cream apple bars yesterday and here as soon as the kids lay down for a nap I'm gonna get to peeling and coring and cutting some apples to make applesauce in the crock pot!
I've been going through my cookbooks looking for apple recipes,,I'm thinking apple bread, apple muffins,, I really wanna try to make apple dumplings. I've found a few different recipes but was wondering if anyone has a tried and true one they would like to share with me.? Or any of your favorite apple recipes that you would like to share would be great!

An apple picking we will go

We made our annual trip the the apple orchard Sunday. Such fun! I love going to that place. Here is Emma with the caterpillar she found right when we got there. My 3 lovely babies. If you look back through the archives you can see how much these little ones have grown over the last 3 years! We've went each year

Emma and Daddy, he was truly such a great sport there!

Daddy is very strong! He can lift Emma way up in the trees,

Mommy, not so much, haha,,,, there was a a family beside us that had a long tree picker thing so you can reach way up and get the good apples. They offered it to us but we said, no thanks, it's more fun to lift up the kids ourselves. :)

Emma is becoming more and more daddy's girl!

We were one week to early to get a hay ride to the pumpkin patch but they still had the wagon set up with lots of hay in it. Emma loved it, we could barely get her outta there.

A rare pic of us together

My sillys

So much fun!!!!! And now I've got loads of apples to do lots and lots with!

Use what you've got

The other day we ran out of shower gel. It was the middle of the week so I was hoping to not have to run to the store so I decided to check the cabinets to see what we had. OH MY, I found lots of little trial sized shower gels. Jackpot! Then that got me thinking.......I wonder how many duplicates I have of some items. After looking around the house I decided I have a overabundance of things and I need to stop buying them until I actually run out of that particular item! Doing this will help me free up some space and save some money!

I took a little inventory of items and made out a list,, here it is:

Hygiene:
-lots of little sized shower gels,,,none bought buy me,,, most were given as gifts or just given to us by family not wanting them any more.
-lots of body lotion!
-3/4 gallon jug of hand soap refill, bought at Sam's Club

Laundry:
-around 2 cups homemade powder laundry det.
-1/2 full big bucket powdered Wind Fresh laundry det. from Sam's Club
3/4 container Wisk liquid laundry det.
-Big container Downey fabric softer, just recently bought from Sam's Club

Now I know what your thinking....who has 3 different open containers of laundry soap??? Well,,, me, lol, I have a little obsession with laundry and various smells and seeing how cheap I can go with it still working good. I love Tide but hate the price tag. I have had mixed results with the homemade soap. I think my main problem is it not having a smell to it,, that's the same thing with the super cheap WindFresh I bought from Sam's,, so I decided when I use the cheap-o soap I just need to use a good smelling fabric softener to be happy. I'm going to finish off all of these detergents and then try the liquid homemade version I think. :)

Air Fresheners:
1/4 bottle Febreze Downey Fabric Refresher
3/4 bottle Febreze Hawaiian Aloha air refresher
1/4 bottle Glade Cinnamon
*like I said,m I'm obsessed with smells

Cleaning Products:

Furniture Polish:
1/4 bottle Great Value polish
1/4 bottle orange glow almond polish
1/8 bottle Murphy's oil soap wood cleaner

Windex:
1/4 bottle

All purposecleaner:
1/2 bottle arm and hammer essentials

Toilet bowl cleaner:
1/2 bottle The Works

Bathroom/Tub cleaner:
-1and 1/2 bottles Comet
-Full Kaboom Foamtastic
-1/4 bottle soft scrub deep clean
-1/4 bottle the Works tub and shower cleaner
*that's a little embarrassing, lol, to my defense I am constantly trying new products because with Ben working at Dalton's the dirt and grim that comes off his body when he comes home and shower is disgusting and very hard on our bathtub!

And last but not least I have something from shaklee, its called Basic H . Almost a full bottle and u dilute it when you use it.. It would probably last me a year or more!!!

So as you can see I have a LOT! I am making a vow to not buy another one of these things until I am down to my last bottle and its empty! It might be awhile before I ever have to buy a cleaning product. so is this normal? Do you have a lot of cleaners around your house? Do you want to use it before you buy like me?

Our weekend and a marriage breakthrough

We all had a very enjoyable weekend! No dunes trips though, even though the kids asked to go again. The weather was to chilly I thought for swimming in Lake Michigan. Saturday my Dad and Merry spent some time with the kids while Ben and I went golfing. It was very windy and cold and I had the worst day of golf in my life. It was still nice and fun to get out though. Then after dad's we stopped by mom's house. We call that killing 2 birds with one stone,,, getting our visiting done in one day. :)



Sunday we hung out around the house, I went grocery shopping at Alidi's and saw they had the fire pit we've been wanting for 2 years there. I called Ben and we decided to splurge and get it. Well worth it in my opinion. Sunday evening we got it going and ate smores, sat around the fire, drank and told stories from our youth. HaHa. Poor Gary got to hear all kinds of stories from when Ben was growing up and all the trouble him and his brothers used to get into. Jess missed out cause she spent the night at nana's house. We stayed out there til around eleven! Emma lasted til around ten then told me she was ready to go to sleep so I brang her in and put her into bed. It was great and I hope we can do it again this weekend!

Those are some pics from my phone. Remember my cameras broke :( :( :( I sure am missing it.

Monday was Labor day so both Ben and I had the day off! He got a lot accomplished. He fixed some air vents under the house, replaced some screens in the windows, and mowed the grass. All without me asking him too!

I've had a realization over the last week, and after following it our house has made a turn around! While I know as far as our marriage goes, I'm not the only problem,, but I was part of the problem. My husband feels hated by me and feels that I think everything he does is wrong. That's no good. Can you imagine feeling like that? NO wonder he has no desire to please me when he feels like its not going to matter to me anyhow. I did some research on being a wife and looked into some biblical scripture. I found this to be very helpful to me http://www.gotquestions.org/roles-husband-wife-family.html and this http://www.bibleriches.org/2002/marriage1.html#wife

I am making a concisence decision to be a submissive wife now. He is the leader of our household. I am a stay at home mom and he is the breadwinner. He should make the final decisions in matters. Don't get me wrong, if he is making a destructive decision you'd better believe I'll be stepping in, but for the most part he is the leader and I told him that this weekend. He needs to feel like "the man",, and he needs to feel loved and respected. That is just the way it is and as long as he's being a good father/husband/provider, then I will follow him. I am not a doormat, but I am his wife and it is my job to make him feel loved and respected.

Anywho....things have been going great since I've realized this.

Ben starts his bowling league tonight. I've got a whole chicken in the crockpot roasting,,, it smells so good! Then later this week we will have homemade chicken and noodles again! The family was very excited to hear that!