Triple Clicks

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

How I Use My Kindle

Hello hello! 

Last year my husband bought me Kindle Fire (these things are cheap during this season). 

I haven't messed with it too much, but I learn a few new things here and there.  

When Hannah was born, I put Facebook and my email on it-with the intention of taking it back off as she got older... But I never took it off and am enjoying sharing pictures with family and friends.

Of course I use it for an e-reader.  I'm hoping to get a subscription to a homeschool magazine soon and use it on my Kindle rather than having more paper piles piling up around the house-but that's up to Mr. Budget.  I have the OverDrive app, which I use to borrow e-books from a library if I run out of free titles through Amazon-I refuse to pay for an e-book.  If I have to spend money, I'm getting paper.

I do admit to playing way too many games on it-I shouldn't, but I do-one stereotype from my generation I will admit to, the gaming stereotype. 

I use it to check the weather with The Weather Channel app.  I have looked up a few things on YouTube before, so I finally put the app on it so when I do find something to watch on Youtube (usually a tutorial on a new carry with my moby wrap or mei tei), it saves to my profile so it's findable again.  

I read my Bile on it through Bible Gateway. 

Pinterest and FitBit apps are on it. Pandora, too. 

My favorite app has got to be Sermon Audio.  I know I've told y'all about them before.  I can listen to sermons wherever I am-house, car, park... I love it.  

A discussion on a homeschool page this morning is going to send me to Amazon underground to see what I can discover for free school apps.  

How do you use your smart phone or tablet for school?  

Have a great week!

~Tabitha

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Shopping Trip From 11/12

To say there is a lot going on here is an understatement.. So let's start where we left off.

As for my grocery shopping trip last week, it was crazy as usual.  
At HyVee we bought a boneless ham, got a turkey for free.. For getting a turkey we got a free 2 liter of Dr. Pepper. Among other things, our total was $113.76
At Aldi's we got our usual-mostly dry goods along with cheap eggs and margarine. The total there was $134.09
At Sam's I stocked up on my chicken and also baking supplies. Total there was $239.64
At the discount bread store I only needed 6 loaves of bread, making a total of $4.79. 
Finally at the health food store I got a bottle of raw honey for $11.70. 

YOWCH. Grand Total of $503.98.  We usually budget more around November and December if we can because I do try to stock up on a few things and take advantage of the meat sales available. (Aldi's also had bone in ham for .89 cents a pound.)


On to other things. I am making lasagna and cinnamon rolls for Sundays. The lasagna is something I can stick in the oven at noon and it will be done by 4, so I can sit down and listen to the church services (we watch church online).  The cinnamon rolls we have been doing those on Sundays for a few months.  I am simply making them this month instead of buying. We'll see how that goes.  In order to do this precooking that I'm not used to, I had to buy some foil pans with lids as none of my glassware has lids.   

Now, What's happening today (besides grumpy children) you ask? 

I have chili going on in the crockpot.




Half a bag of pinto beans (I soaked those overnight)
1/2 lb ground beef, stuck it in raw
2 cans tomato sauce
1 can diced tomato
1 onion chopped
Chili powder (I just dumped, I'll taste before we eat to see if it needs more)


Stick everything in, set it low and let it go. I stirred everything and broke up the meat about 10 (it went in at 7). 


My big turkey I cooked Monday.. Then I warmed it up this morning and deboned it.  I can't do it when it's cold, the cold just goes up my arms and tenses my shoulders up. I got 6 quart bags and two turkey bacon ranch wraps out of our 13 lb turkey.   What I put in the freezer I'll use for soup or pot pies. 


I think that's everything for this week.  

Have a great week! 

~Tabitha



Thursday, November 10, 2016

Shopping Trip Nov 12

We have officially entered the holiday season. Every year I pray there will be good sales.. So I guess we will see how it plays out the next few months.

I put off my meal planning again, so I'm still working on that.  But we are having some staples-tacos, chili, shake n bake chicken... 

Our biggest meal is, of course, Thanksgiving.  We aren't big turkey people around here, so I get a ham.  Sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn, (skipping the biscuits-there might be a overthrow in cooking lol), pumpkin pie and apple pie.  I would love to skip the regular potatoes and the second pie, but Eva needs food she can eat, so we do both.  

Everybody's biggest question is always what to do with the leftovers.  

We eat as is for a few times. Make sandwiches... I found a really awesome loaded baked potato casserole that's 10x better with leftover honey ham vs loaf ham.  We also do super easy ham bone soup.  

Get creative with your recipes. Utilize Pinterest. Or stick it in the freezer if you start to get tired of it.  Just make sure you label so you know what you have.  

While we aren't really big turkey people..  I do usually take advantage of Hyvee's buy a turkey, get a loaf ham.. It's an awesome deal.  Then I cook and use the turkey for the kids' and I's lunches.  I can cook the whole turkey, then shred or dice and freeze and have the meat all year round.  And if it is cooked right (not dry), hubby is all for eating the meat for one meal.   There are ways, my friends, there are ways.  ;) 

Something I made for the kids this week...

It's a toy basket crocheted from old cut up shirts.  The jury is still out on if they like it... But I think it'd make a great reusable shopping bag. Very sturdy. 


Have a great week! 

~Tabitha

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Vacation Planning Part #2

I told you a few months ago that I would be planning for our Florida trip for awhile (you can read that here)... So here's some more planning to do.


Like we did for our Illinois trip, we plan on doing the meals as cheap as possible. This means we'll need sandwich meat, bread and condiments to be kept cold.  Now with Illinois we used our huge cooler I use for grocery trips and had ice in it. That was a pain in the butt and that trip was only 4 days.  If our van was the kind with a flat cargo area, we could very easily drain the melted ice, but it's not.  It's a welled cargo area as the back seat is made to fold flat (think the Chrysler Stow N Go commercials).  So we are thinking of buying a plug in mini fridge type cooler, we do have an adapter back there.  It would eliminate the need for ice, also. We will still have our little coolers, but those are easy to empty the ice out of.  It's still an idea we are throwing around, so we might change our minds, but it seems like a good alternative. 

I am trying to figure out what kind of containers I want for the snacks.  Something easy to get in, but stack-able (who knew that was hyphenated??!?) to utilize space. Any suggestions? I don't think a lid would be necessary.

I have pillows on my list to make-mostly for the adults as I made kids pillows a few years ago for the car.  Car seats aren't exactly comfortable. 

I plan on stringing twine from the front seats to the back for curtains.  I can hang receiving blankets with clothes pins-it's enough to keep the bright sun out of sleeping kiddo's eyes, and small to store.  

For our hotel stops, I plan on having a duffel bag for each night with clothes for everybody. I will take a few minutes each morning at the car to get dirty clothes in a bin and get the next day of clean clothes where they will be easily grabbed.  That way we don't have to take a ton of bags in if we are only staying one night. 

I think that's all that's going on in my head.

Have a great week!

~Tabitha

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Learning Addition and Potato Soup

Andrew is in Abeka K5 this year.  

As I've told you before, I plan our school weeks two weeks in advance so on the off chance he wants to keep going or do school on the weekends-I know what do to next without a big to-do. 

This week we started a new skill-addition. For three or four lessons I tried to explain different ways and what it was, how to do it. I would get blank stares.  Then a page came that used dominoes.  So we pulled out great grandpa's dominoes and it clicked.  

He loves using dominoes for math and he did 10 math problems by himself simply by going through the dominoes this morning. 




Also today I made me some baked potato soup.  SO GOOD!  The kids looked at me like I was crazy, so I get leftovers for a few days. 

Creamy Baked Potato Soup
2 red potatoes
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
2 cups milk
cheddar cheese
bacon bits
salt
pepper

Make a rue with your butter, flour and milk.  Add cut up potatoes (peel if you want), just cut them small so they get done.  Cook for about 20 minutes until it thickens to your liking.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Scoop in a bowl and add bacon bits and cheese.  I would have loved to add chives-but I'm out. And sour cream adds a scrumptious layer of flavor, but it was already getting a lot of milk product so for the sake of Hannah's tummy and my sleep, I skipped that too.


Hannah is starting to crawl and the girls are letting me do their hair-lots of braiding happening around here.  

Have a great week!

~Tabitha

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Shopping Trip 10/15

So now we have our new budget figured out. We are able to add another $100 onto our previous budget for a total of $450 a month. Praise the Lord for that!  While there is still some budget squeezing, it's not near as bad as it has been.  I only had to take off a few extras and not compromise our meals for that.  

My last trip I only able to do 2 weeks at a time, and there has been some squeezing and supplementing to meet that.  This week I'm doing a full month again.  

Meals include salad, sesame seed chicken, salisbury steak, tacos, baked chicken (homemade shake n bake style...do they even sell shake n bake anymore?).  Soup for the kids and I on the weekdays, chicken strips and fries on the weekends.   

With my meal plans I decided to do 14 meals, then rotate.  It simplifies my planning and I'm not scrambling to find enough recipes.  I'm still trying to stay away from the pasta and high carb foods for Dennis' health.


The weather is changing outside.  Getting colder, but hey, it's winter. 

I made Hannah a new pair of pajamas yesterday. Got them a little big but they'll last all winter, I'll take pictures for next week's post. 

Andrew is learning addition and money in school... So I saved the local grocery add and we'll practice money counting with that.


Are you on Twitter? Come join me! @StayHomeMomWife


I think that's everything that's happening this week. Have a great week!



~Tabitha


Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Rules Are Changing

Our kids think they rule the house.  Hahaha... They are getting a rude awakening this week.  

And they think they are tortured. 

Meanwhile the hubby and I are stocking up on the chocolate. LOL 

I know from older moms that this 'parenting thing' will always keep changing, so just when we think we have it figured it, things will change or somebody will hit a new stage and we'll have to start all over again. 

I also know from my experience that I have a hard time keeping a cleaning schedule.  The few times I have, when somebody gets sick it goes out the window-especially if it's me who's sick.   

I made the kids chore charts this morning.  We have been having issues lately that we will not let continue, and no, I don't feel comfortable "airing out our dirty laundry".. So I will just leave it at that.  Things are changing and they are getting more rules.  Andrew and Eva are old enough to understand and Grace will get there.  

On our chore charts (they are just paper for now.. that might change, that might not) there is 'put clothes away', 'clean your room', 'clean living room'.  Those are the columns. There are rows for each day of the week, the chore columns are doubled. We will check those after school and before daddy comes home-and of course the bed needs cleaned off (because who wants to play on the floor?!!? lol) before bed.  They get a smiley face for each one complete.  If they have put their clothes away and helped with toys in their room and the living room, then they get to go outside.   


In other news... Fall is most definitely here.  I'm FREEZING on a daily basis.. but as I found out yesterday, turn the heat on and we roast in the evening. Even if it's just on for a few hours.  Gotta love the Midwest!!! 

Have a great week!!

~Tabitha