I successfully completed my closet the other night, it took until 1 a.m. but I did it. Just for the record I ended up with 2 paper grocery bags full of shredded paper, one milk crate full of other recylable paper such as magazines, envelopes, junk mail, etc. I had seven plastic grocery bags full of garbage (nothing gross, just a lot of plastic, packaging, those blow up plastic pouches they use for shipping. 3 empty Pepsi cans (not me, must have been DH), several water bottles, and a box full of cardboard. Oh, there are a couple of boxes DH needs to go through, but I'm not worried about those. It looks neat and tidy, so I'm happy. Plus I have a side of the bed to walk on again, the overflow was pretty bad.

Today the task will be to get the laundry room in order. It is not as bad as my closet was and is a bigger space. I need to make it accessible through the kitchen and not just through the master bathroom. I want to get the repairman out to look at the dryer but I don't want him traipsing through my bedroom and bathroom to get there. Mostly it is unsorted dirty clothes that need to go into hampers, childrens' toys that need to migrate back to the other end of the house, and a lot of cardboard that needs to be broken down for recycling.

It will be a no-spend day. We aren't going anywhere. I made really delicious cheeseburgers for lunch today. My trick is to add an ounce of plain tomato sauce to a pound of hamburger. Makes the burgers stay moist and yummy. Can't add more than that or the burgers will lose cohesion and you won't be able to flip them without them falling apart. Had them on 100% whole wheat buns (delicious)with slices of Tillamook cheddar cheese instead of the old Kraft singles. So good and completely natural.

I'm going to make turkey stock today. I have a bunch of neck bones, so I will throw those in my stock pot with water, onion, carrots, celery, parsley and salt and let it boil away today. Tomorrow I will make turkey noodle soup with whole wheat spaghetti noodles. Looking forward to that.

Turns out ING was on the ball, my CU was just really, really slow to post it to my account. It posted this morning, but with a date of 10/25. I called them and they said they had some bugs in the online software last week, but its all working fine now. I feel better knowing it wasn't ING that fell down on the job.

I'm off to town for my oil change, one child in tow. Not the one I thought, though. Tobias bounced back pretty well, but Rose woke up with a fever. I will spend a bit to pick up a large container of egg flower soup at my favorite no-MSG all natural Chinese restaurant. I could make it myself, but I'm just starting to feel cruddy and mine is never quite as good as theirs.

Can I just say I dislike Halloween again? It always makes me sick going out in the cold like that.

I'm making stew today instead of any more soup. It is far too cold for just soup and I want something more rib sticking. So I cubed and browned up some chuck roast, made a nice rich gravy, threw in some carrots and potatoes and put it in a covered clay cooker in the oven on 225 to simmer away until dinner time with only a few pokes from me throughout the day. Slow cooking is supposed to minimize the creation of transfats in the cookng process.

This will be wonderful for the kids when they arrive home from school today, exhausted and cold beyond all reckoning.

The bus driver laughed at me this morning because I'm sitting out there on my camp chair, wrapped up in my soccer blanket a.k.a. the Ugliest Afghan in the Universe, with my hat and scarf and gloves on, but hey, I wasn't the one sitting in a heated bus, now was I? I was pretty comfy, except for the exposed part of my face and my feet. My feet are never warm outside.

I have to run to town today and buy some organic milk and organic sliced turkey. I'm also going to go into Barnes and Noble and look for a couple of books. I won't buy anything there, I'm just looking to see if I want to buy these particular books or not. Amazon doesn't carry one of them and Half.com doesn't have either one, either. But if I like what I see, I can put them on my Christmas list.

All I really want to do is curl up in bed and go to sleep. Only I'm not the least bit tired so all that would accomplish would be getting me warm and giving me a very lazy morning. Too much to do for that. I could justify lazy yesterday, when I was watching the movie, because I was rolling newspaper sheets and folding them into kindling sticks (see Tightwad Gazette for instructions), and then when I got tired of that I knitted a little. But not today as no matter how hard I try to make them, the dishes simply do not rinse themselves or climb into the dishwasher on their own, and the laundry is even less compliant.

Rose had to go to the orthodontist today. They took out her U wire and replaced it with a W wire. This one is pushing a bit more than the last one did and is really bugging her. Not as much as the first appliance that took up the entire roof of her mouth, though.

That's two visits this month, so there should be a nice sized rebate coming from the doc's soon once they run through the insurance. For those new to my blog, we paid the entire amount in advance last year and then 6 months later our health insurance upgraded and gave us both orthodontics and vision that we didn't have previously. So the doc runs it through the insurance and then we get cut a check.

Didn't do much else. Oh, spent $9.98 for 2 gallons of organic milk.

As for the new eating update:

Breakfast:
Omega 3 organic eggs
100% whole wheat toast
organic banana
2 stalks of celery
organic milk

Lunch:
100% whole wheat bread sandwich with organic peanut butter and organic jelly
organic milk

Dinner:
Tacos made with either organic 100% whole wheat soft tortillas or organic corn taco shells
organic lettuce
organic cheese
hamburger
taco seasoning without trans-fats or hydrogentated fats
nectarines
organic milk

I have $2 to add to the $30 I will be depositing in savings tomorrow. With the auto deposit, that's a total of $42 going in tomorrow.

Oh, I almost forgot, I wrote a check to the chiropractic yesterday for $175. This covers three visits per week for the 4 of us, though we seldom go more than twice a week. That still works out to 9 visits a month X 4 people, so 36 visits, averages to $4.86 per person per visit. Not too bad. If we went through insurance we'd have to pay $15 co-pay for each of us, plus 20%. DH and I both have mild scoliosis and have both visited a chiro since we were young teens. Our kids have always gone. No one wants to end up with the hump DH's grandma had or the one his mother is starting to develop.

I guess that is all for today.

This is my 4th entry today, just as a head's up to those of you that read my blog, you may want to expand the all entries feature.

Yesterday we went into town and dropped the kids off at my parent's house so we could go to the local organic food store, Terra Organica, and read labels and buy some pantry basics and fresh produce. We ended up spending about $100.

We bought lots of broccoli and cauliflower, enough to fill 3 gallon size ziploc baggies and barely be able to close. We bought a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread, a package of multi-grain pancake and waffle mix, 2 pounds of 100% whole wheat flour, 2 quarts of pure maple syrup, 1 pound of brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cornmeal, 8 honeycrisp apples, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, and pineapple. We bought dolphin safe wild tuna, organic lunch meats that had no nitrates or nitrites, sulphates or sulfites, smoked turkey, roasted turkey and non-cured ham. 2 gallons of non-fat milk, a jar of honey and roasted cashews. 1 bag of potato chips (potatoes, peanut oil, salt was the only ingredients) for the kids' lunches. Soy nuts. 1 pound of shrimp. One whole salmon that they filleted for us and cut into family size servings. Bananas. Multi-grain crackers. Cheddar cheese. Apple juice and grape juice, both 100% juice.

I think we did fairly well. We ended up with 2 big boxes of food. Nothing we bought had trans-fats, saturated fat, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, or white sugar. Everything was organic and non-GMO, no antibiotics, no hormones. No sulphates or sulfites, no nitrates or nitrites, no additives, and no perservatives. So $50 was food budget and the rest was pantry restocking budget.

As a few people would like to know how we are all doing with this new method of eating, well DH has lost 15 pounds in a week. Rose has to wear a belt to keep her jeans up and I've lost about 5 pounds myself. Tobias does not need to lose weight but his attitude is worlds better.

Today's food:

Breakfast:
Multi-grain pancakes with pure maple syrup (just a little, that stuff is sweet) for everyone but me, I had 100% whole grain toast
eggs
banana
milk

Lunch:
T had lunch at school and R had a packed lunch
DH and I had:
bowl of fruit (honeydew, canteloupe, grapes, pineapple)
15 shrimp in garlic olive oil
1 slice of 100% whole grain bread
milk

Dinner:
broccoli and cauliflower (yes, my kids love this)
beef chuck roast
potatoes
grapes
milk

Food is tasting better and better by itself as the frankenfood build-up washes out of our systems. My skin is completely clear again. Rose's skin, which was just beginning to show signs of adolescent acne, is comepletely clear again. We all feel better. I haven't had an ache or pain today at all, which is saying something. I sure hope this is the boost my immune system needs and for Rose as well. Who knows? Maybe I will be able to start saving the money for medical that I usually put away each month for something else.

Rose's team won their game today! First time since the jamboree where they won 2 games. And not only did they win, they slaughtered the other team 7 to 2. It would have been 8 to 2 but the ref called offsides. Kind of surprising as he didn't call it for the whole first half of the game despite both teams frequently doing it.

Tobias' team did okay. They managed to make 2 goals. I don't really keep track on the micro-fields as they always get trounced. It was really cold today. The temp was 45 but the wind was blowing so I'm sure the wind-chill brought it down.

Thankfully we had T's blanket, the ugliest afghan in the universe. DH's aunt made it a couple years ago. It is dark brown and light blue and white and looks more like a table runner than a blanket. A very thick, long table runner. A very thick, long, ugly table runner. But it makes a great lap quilt type thingy and its long enough to cover three people sitting in camp chairs, if they don't mind being seen with such an ugly thing on them. And no one cares if it gets dirty, its so ugly. Did I mention it was really ugly?

Don't know where DH's aunt's taste went when she made that. The other two we have that she made are beautiful and look like real blankets, nice colors, nice patterns. Oh, well, it has a purpose that makes it useful. And T is actually quite proud of how ugly it is. Boys.

We did not buy anything at the concession today. Not one thing. We all remembered water bottles and we all ate a good breakfast beforehand. First game was at 9:15 and second game was at 10:20 and we were home by 12:30 for lunch. We made tacos. Discovered that the Schilling taco mix didn't have trans fats or partially hydrogenated anything in it and the Mission taco shells didn't either, so yay. Had stuff on hand. I do have a recipe for making taco spice mix for future, but it was nice to not have to do it today.

Dinner will also be out of the pantry, oven baked chicken, canned corn, broccoli/cauliflower, potatoes and gravy, and fruit. Appropriate portion sizes, everything made from scratch, gravy made with 100% whole wheat flour (no white flour allowed anymore). Oh, and milk.

We are doing a fairly good job avoiding white flour, sugar, trans fats, and unnatural foods so far. I really can see that this will actually be cheaper in the long run. My caffeine headache was bad last night but is almost gone today. I feel lighter. Don't know if I am as this is not the point of eating this way, we're trying to fix our overall health.

I am sick and tired of Rose catching everything under the sun and bringing it home to share with me. She never got sick like this when we were homeschooling. She'd get maybe two colds a year. School is a giant germ factory. But it is where she wants to be. I did notice that Rose's face is less puffy today. Don't know if she lost a little weight or if she was swollen and getting the allergens out of her system made her stop retaining water. Come to think of it, my face is less puffy, too. Hmm...Well, whatever, I feel better within my body, so that's a good thing.

I haven't done the bills yet, but will tonight and do a separate post regarding those.

I'm going through major caffeine withdrawal right now, so hopefully my post will be coherant. Also going through sugar withdrawal, flour withdrawal, and high fructose corn syrup withdrawal. Life is fun.

I do think the new family diet is going to be a good thing, though, both to the budget and to how we all feel.

I was going to log the food on the blog, but I don't think I will, its not terribly interesting, though very yummy. Who knew real food could taste so good?

Today was payday. Only paid one bill so far today, $800 to Bank of America Visa. Will write the rest of the bills tomorrow.

Deposited $10 automatically into savings today, bringing the total to $1106. $19 more and I am halfway to my two month goal of adding $250 by the end of November. Forgot again to bring the rolled coin with to deposit, but we didn't end up going to that side of town today anyway.

We went grocery shopping (DH came home from Alaska yesterday) today. First we went to the farm stand and for $17.55 we bought:

8 kohlrabi
10 nectarines
4 Italian plums
1 head of iceberg lettuce
6 ears of corn
1 package of fajita seasoning dry rub mix (no fillers, just spices)
16 ounce bag of sunflower seeds, shelled (no artificial ingredients, just seeds, canola oil and salt)
1 white onion
1 head of garlic
1 gallon of 2% milk

Then we went to Haggen and bought:

1 gallon organic non-fat milk @ $5.69
1 2.28 lb butternut squash @ $2.03
1 1.85 lb acorn squash @ $1.65
1.7 lb baby red potatoes @ $1.68
5.2 lb value pack beef chuck potroast @ $10.69
1 package of bendy straws @ $0.99
magazine @ $3.50

For a total of $26.61 spent there. The $3.50 magazine was an unnecessary expense, so I will be adding $3.50 to my savings next time I do go to the bank, well actuallly round it up to $4 as I don't like an uneven total, I like whole numbers. The bendy straws are for the sake of everyone's sanity around here. We'll just leave it at that.

We are switching our family diet over to whole foods and made from scratch foods completely now. DH is finally on board this train and I think it is best for us all. It'll improve our health and lower our food bill. I think I can keep us to $50 a week for groceries doing this. Possibly less on the 2 weeks out of every 4 that DH is living at work.

With this new method of eating, I'm going to just throw the daily menu into the blog.

Breakfast:
100% whole wheat toast made with honey
soft-boiled Omega-3 organic egg
milk

Lunch:
freshly juiced apple juice
cucumber slices
chicken on salad
plain yogurt with blueberries stirred in

Dinner:
beef potroast
corn on the cob
potatoes with gravy
broccoli
cauliflower
nectarine
milk

It seems a lot written out, but everything is also portion controlled. Rose in particular can overeat to excess even with her high activity level, so I figure if I'm dishing up everyone's plate ahead of time, she can't complain too much if the portions all look the same. DH will just add in more food for himself later on if he needs it.

I think this will save on our food bill quite a bit. We've been spending about $300 a month and eating way too much junk, so I hope it works like I think it will. I just have to plan ahead more, as it requires a lot more cooking and prep work than boxed pizzas and taquitos. I am pretty sure I can do it, I just hope DH continues to back me up on it.

I cashed out a $3 PTR at ReadRevenue yesterday. I qualified for a $15 market research study, where the product should be arriving this week for me to test. This is the first one that has no strings attatched. They send me the product, I test it, take a survey, I ship it back in the postage paid packaging and take another survey a week later. I'm excited.

I also filled out a qualification survey for another market research company with the same survey company that I'm doing the other one for so I am hopeful this may become a thing. I've been filling out surveys with this company for several months now before I got to this level. They do have paid surveys about every six weeks or so where I'll get a $4 or $5 check, so I know they pay out. Like that in a company.

I received a $25 Shell gas card in the mail today from MyPoints, so I am going to take $25 out of my gas fund and put it in savings this week. I'll make that $1000 one way or another.

Yesterday was soccer and the kids played pretty well. Tobias has the four mini-games and they tied two and lost one 2 to 1 and one 2 to 0. Rose's team lost 5 to 6, it would have been 7 to 6 but two goals were disqualified for offsides. Yet, the other team was frequently offsides and the ref never seemed to see that. Or the pushing. Although he did call the kicking and deliberate tripping. But I digress.

It was a good game and the other team only got their last two goals in the last 8 minutes of the game, usually they were trailing. It was exciting and fun to watch and our girls felt really good about it, considering they all thought if the ref had been calling the plays right on both sides, they would have won. Problem with a twelve year old ref, I suppose, but the soccer club takes what it can get.

We ended up spending $31.89 for dinner out at Round Table Pizza for the four of us. We go there even though it is a little pricier because they don't use MSG in making their pizzas, which Rose is very allergic to and I don't react well to, either. We have got our eating out down to 1 time a week and I am hoping to get it down to twice a week, which is hard during soccer season, with the ultimate goal being one time out a month.

I am doing more cooking ahead and that helps, but when you have to spend all day at the soccer park and keep a cooler in a boiling hot vehicle, I still worry about food safety. Food poisoning is never fun and I've had it often enough in my life that I just prefer to avoid the whole issue. And I don't want to be dragging a cooler around the fields, either. I already have enough to carry.

Still, there has to be some compromise that won't be so pricey each week. I suppose the dollar menu at McD's maybe, but that's less healthy than pizza (at least the way we order pizza). Maybe the grocery store deli might be an option. Well, cheaper but not necessarily healthy either. I'll have to think on it some more.

Finished reading "Smart Couples Finish Rich," by David Bach yesterday. Very good information and I highly reccommend it for both members of a married couple or for anyone living as a married couple with combined finances. I didn't agree with everything he said, but I'd say about 90 percent of it can be applied to my life. DH is going to read it next.

I have learned a lot about how to invest with retirement money and how to invest beyond retirement money. I'm surprised at how clueless I really was before reading this book. Now I think I have a good foundation on which to build.

I started reading "Smart Women Finish Rich," same author, just to see where the books vary and if there might not be something even more specific to me as a woman than me as part of a couple.

Can't remember if I mentioned that we paid out $32 this week for school pictures and sports pictures, for 2 kids, each package being the cheapest at $8 a piece.

I also have to write a check to fund Tobias's lunch account tomorrow, so that will be another $30. It just makes me life easier when he has hot lunch. I know it is an expense I should cut out, but right now, I'm not quite willing.

Not too much excitement today. The autotdeposit was today so savings is $10 richer, putting me at $947.

We loaded $100 onto our Costco cash card and then used it to put $30.19 worth of gas into the car 2 today @ $2.58 a gallon, 4 cents less than a few days ago. It is weird seeing the gas tank on F, or even on the right side of the halfway point, really.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so $15 co-pay and $10 perscription. My kidney infection came back or else its a new one, so I'll be on antibiotics 3X a day for the next 14 days. Oh, joy. Big old capsules, too. Bought organic milk at the store my pharmacy is in so $5.29 for that.

I pulled all the meat off the rest of the turkey bones and seperated it into packages and froze it. I then threw all the bones and skin into the crockpot with 6 quarts of water, a head of crushed garlic, a chopped onion and salt and pepper and am making broth. I will have it going all night and it should be good and rich in the morning when I'll pour it through a seive and then I will make turkey noodle soup to have with supper tomorrow.

I am really into having soup right now. It is very comforting The weather turned on us this last week or so, went from mid to high 70's to wet, rainy, mid 50's to low 60's, and one night got down to 33! Yikes. It hasn't been that cold again, but we really have to drain the pool tomorrow before it happens again.

As for the soup, twice this week we've had homemade chicken noodle at dinner and tonight we had golden potato (DH's great grandmother's recipe), very rich and good, very satisfying and I notice it cuts my appetite for the heavier protein that follows. I still eat the same large amount of veggies as usual, though. But they are cheaper than protein, usually.

I may make a nice onion soup, possibly French onion, but I really don't know if I have the patience to be finicky. I like the ease of crockpot soup. It allows for a large degree of laziness. Which the lousy weather is encouraging. Just want to curl up with a good book under the covers. The current good book I am reading is "Smart Couples Finish Rich," by David Bach. It is very good and I am learning a lot. I had no idea the limits on spousal IRA's for a non-working spouse (when the working spouse has a 401K) had risen so much. Last time I checked, it was a lot lower. This book was written in 2001 and it was $2000 then, so it might be more now, even.

I will have to look into that. I'm not sure when I might be able to fund one, but I want something in my name for my own personal security. My DH is a solid man who I don't think would ever leave me for any reason and seems to think the sun rises and sets on me for some reason and I see no reason I would ever leave him, he is kind, good and a wonderful spouse and father and I kind of think the sun rises and sets on him also. But I still want something in my name. Security is my biggest issue. I want it no matter what else happens. The idea feels right.

Not much else today. Oh, DH took Tobias to soccer and they are having team pictures so that was $8. School photos were yesterday and today so that was $16 for both kids. We only get the 8X10 and scan it to make copies on the school ones, and the 5X7 team photo with the individual shot in the same photo for sports photos. Rose will have her team photo tomorrow, another $8. I wish these weren't all in the same week, but I guess this is a good week for it if it has to be all at once.

Okay, I think that's it then for today. Got in a very talky mood, I guess.

Today has been a very long day. We started out by going to the first service ever of a brand new church being held in our division's clubhouse. I haven't been to a church service in 11 years, so that was weird. Not sure its going to take yet.

Received payment at paypal for the PTR I cashed out a few days ago, so I transferred that to my CU.

Spent the day organizing the kitchen. We found the table, so no more eating in the living room off TV trays or the coffee table. I managed to get my stockpile off the table and into the cupboards. I still need to make an inventory of what is in the cupboards.

I am currently roasting 12 turkey legs, some for dinner tonight and another night and some for lunch meat for the kids this week. They were $0.69 a pound at Fred Meyer in the value packs.

We are going to try rearranging our eating schedule this week. With soccer at 5:30 four weekday nights a week it makes it really late to be eating, so we have decided to have dinner right after the kids get home from school at 4:00. They are always really hungry then anyway. Usually I eat my largest meal at lunch but I'm going to switch it to dinner and see how things go. I don't like to eat heavily late at night, but 4:00 may be early enough to not get that heavy feeling at bedtime.

It may make getting the kids to bed easier, also. My schedule is flexible as a SAHM and DH's is when he is home as he only works when he's up in Alaska, so he doesn't mind changing things around either. It would be nice to just come home from soccer, have the kids take their baths, have them do their homework or reading and then go to bed right away. I hope it works as well as I think it will.

Not much money related today, was there? Oh, well. The money thing seems to be going okay at the moment. Just feel a bit boring today.

This is fairly new, but something I've started so I'll use my blog to plan. This is for family meals so I won't state quantities. We have a higher protein content due to Rose's prediabetes and the rest of us eat pretty much the same as she does and we eat our largest meal of the day at lunch. I can plan to use up leftovers and know what items I need to make larger batches of by writing it out. That's all this post is about so if you aren't interested, skip on.

Day One

Breakfast
organic O's cereal with milk
blueberries
cucumber slices
eggs

Lunch
small salad
corn on the cob
chicken
green beans
milk
homemade strawberry frozen fruit bar

Dinner
chicken quesadilla
broccoli/cauliflower

Day Two

Breakfast

turkey ham
cantaloupe
whole grain toast with blackberry preserves
milk

Lunch

Spaghetti noodles with homemade sauce of tomatoes, garlic, scallions, oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, red bell pepper
3 cheese garlic meatballs
Homemade French bread with homemade garlic/parsley butter
kohlrabi
milk

Dinner
Meatball sandwiches made with the lunch leftovers of sauce and bread
broccoli/cauliflower
apple juice

Day 3
Blueberry Muffin
Frittata (eggs, turkey ham, cheese, chopped broccoli/cauliflower) topped with a bit of leftover sauce from previous day
milk

Lunch
tacos (meat, lettuce, cheese, shell)
blueberries stirred into vanilla yogurt
carrots
ice cream
orange juice

Dinner
taco salads made with leftovers from lunch
milk

Day Four

Breakfast

Homemade beef sausage patties
organic O's cereal with milk and blueberries

Lunch
big beef pot roast
mashed potatoes (make big pot, save out half before mashing) with homemade beef gravy
cucumber slices
big batch broccoli/cauliflower
milk

Dinner
small salad
roast beef hash made with leftover potroast and leftover potatoes
nectarines
carrot/apple juice (freshly juiced)
blueberry muffin

Day Five

Breakfast

Hashbrowns (from saved out potatoes and 1/4 of an onion)
Egg scramble with cheese, low-sodium no sugar bacon, little chunks of broccoli and cauliflower, and onion
pineapple juice

Lunch

Homemade pizzas made with leftover beef sausage, pepperoni, ham, green peppers, onion and pineapple (pineapple only for DH's portion)
rest of pineapple (the rest of us will eat it raw only, not cooked)
milk

Dinner
Last of held out potatoes, pan fried, with salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano
canned salmon over lettuce

Day Six

Breakfast

whole grain toast with blackberry preserves
canned salmon omlette with cheese
milk

Lunch

Cod fish nuggets (homemade, just chunks of cod dipped in milk then in parmesan cheese
Baked potato with cheese and broccoli
vanilla yogurt with blueberries stirred in

Dinner

Meatloaf: dice up and throw in whatever veggies need to be used up as well as eggs, crumbs, cheese and a bit of tomato sauce into a ground beef/ground turkey base

Day Seven

Breakfast

Turkey ham
organic 0's cereal with milk
plums

Lunch

whole roasted chicken
roasted carrots and potatoes
green beans
cucumber slices
cherries
milk

Dinner

Leftover meatloaf sandwiches
cantaloupe
chocolate brownies
milk


For snacks it will vary between peanut butter celery or cream cheese celery, crackers with either cheddar or mozzarella, sunflower seeds and almonds with carrot sticks, air popped popcorn (2 cups at a time) and a bag of Bugles (to be eaten in one cup portions) with a small protein choice, usually nuts, and the bad one, Cheez Whiz on whole grain toast. I allow for a bit of junkiness in the kids's diets, but not much.

And that's all she wrote.

I tell you, the last few days have been so ridiculously hot that I feel like a puddle of wax melted on the floor by eleven a.m. We don't see temps at 100 in North Western Washington, we just don't. But once this week and a couple high 90's and the last two days of high 80's, I just wasn't built for this kind of heat.

Heat like this makes it very easy to eat out, because who wants to cook anything, knowing the stove or oven will just add to the discomfort in the house? So to combat that I have been cooking at night. Last night I made fried chicken at ten and tonight, I just put a pot roast in the oven, on low heat, to slow cook between now and midnight. It is just starting to cool off and we can have the curtains open, the windows up and the fans going to bring in the (finally) cooler air from outside.

We have adequate cooked protein for several days and we are eating a lot of cold veggies, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi and instant potatoes. Sure makes it so much easier. Plus we have sandwich fixings so that's another no cook meal. Having the choice of ready made foods in the house instead of having to decide between cooking or wasting money at a restaurant, it is easier to choose to stay at home.

Tomorrow we will go to town and we will pack sandwiches with us so we don't get tempted to go to Mickey D's. Too many trips there can really break the food budget.

I'm usually up pretty late during the summer, so I might even make a cake after the roast comes out tonight. Then the begging to go get cookies or whatever will hush. It's gotten kind of annoying today.