Last night I finished my 6th book of the year.   The cold weather has me reading and reading……..

Astrid & Veronika – Linda Olsson – 4/5

Time to get groceries.  I am on a bit of a budget crunch so am only buying for one week this week.  I hope to stay well under my budget of $80 for the week.  I think I will very easily.  My list in hand and my tummy full of breakfast I should do well!!   I tried to plan the menu around meat I already have in the freezer, which really saves money. 

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SAT –  Slow Cooked Steak/Bakes Pots/Mixed Vegetable &  Apple Crumble 

SUN – Roast Beef with Potatoes & Carrots – (crock – 8 hours)

MON – LEFTOVERS – CAFE NIGHT

TUES –Breaded Pork Chops – Rice – Veggie (Bake 375 for 35 minutes)

WED- Ham and Cheese Wraps/Pasta Salad (15-20 minutes?)

THURS – Baked Ranch Chicken – (Bake 325 – 45 min)

FRI – Chicken Fillet Sandwiches

SAT – BBQ Ribs – Oven Potato Wedges – Corn – Cole Slaw

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For more menu plan Monday fun, head on over to Laura’s at I’m an Organizing Junkie!  Save time and money.   You will not believe now easier life is with a bit of planning.  Give it a try, You won’t be sorry!

Time to shower and off to work.   Tommy doesn’ have school today so he is going to work with me for a bit.  All the other social workers love him and he loves to visit them.  What blessing to work for such a flexible employer.  I will complete a copy of things in the office and then grab some paperwork to work on over the weekend.  So far this week I only have worked 36 hours.  I hadn’t meant to take off yesterday………….but at least I am home with my children when they need me.

Have a great day……once home I have to clean up the house!

The one word to describe life in Minnesota today

…..BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!  

I didn’t go out much this afternoon except to take Tommy  to the Dr.   This evening I went to the information night/ Open House for the school that Tommy’s attends.   I love my son’s school and I can’t be thankful enough for being led to enroll him there or to have a hubby who values education and faith enough to make the sacrifice for private school.   He is going into the 1st grade.   As of tonight, the first grade is full.  20 students are enrolled and 19 of those students are coming from Kindergarten.  I am so happy see so many families are continuing their child in the christian school.  Previously many families would have their children then for the Full-Day Kindergarten and then move into Public School. 

We are so blessed to chose this option for our son.  The foundation and the work that God is working in his young man is amazing.  I love listening to him tell me about his day, etc.  He will talk about the girl in Guatemala that the school sponsors.  He tells me about the different missions he is doing.  This month they are collecting mittens.  He is learning one valuable lesson that there is more to the world than just himself and to care for others.  

I can’t speak enough about the community of the school and the families.  It is still a bit hard for me to socialize too much.  It has always been hard for me to just chit chat with people….I am a bit self conscious I guess.  I want to be friendly and inviting, but it is so painful.   But I did make a point to have a few conversations.  I will always volunteer to work.  I am good at that…I feel comfortable cooking or flipping pancakes.  That is my gift….

Off to read Tommy a story and snuggle until he falls asleep.  Stay Warm!!  Good Night!

I would like to ask for you to pray for my great nephew, Harley.  He came to the cities for a special surgery to have the bones of his skull un-fused.   He has returned to North Dakota and was put right back into the hospital.  He continues to be very sick.  He had a port put in for feeding again.  Hopefully he will begin to improve. 

Harley was born with many complications in April of 2007.  He is the son of my nephew, Jesse.  Harley’s parents are very young and certainly have their hands full.   Harley was born with a harelip, Cleft Palate and only one kidney to mention a few of his complications.   I was able to see him when he was here…he is a sweetest baby.  

Please pray that God will guide the Dr’s to help this little guy.  He has already been through so much. 

You may meet my great-nephew on his caring bridge site. 

**UPDATE: Sorry didn’t realize the link to Harley’s caring Bridge Site was not working….should be now!

Unexpectedly Home Today…

Hubby commented last night that Tommy’s eye was really red.  It was still red and weepy this morning so we are off to the Dr.  I am not sure if it is just his cold or pink eye.   Since I was home this morning I did sleep in a bit and finished my book I was reading…..

The Rest of Her Life – Laura Moriarty – 4/5 – Good Book…very emotional but I liked it.  It is sad…

Well off to warm up the car to head to the Dr.   Tonight we have open house at the school for Tommy.  Later!

UPDATE:  Home from the Dr – He prescribed some drops for Tommy’s eye.  Hubby will pick them up and some cold medicine for Tommy after work.   I need to be home to meet Erik’s school bus.   I will need to run into work tomorrow to pick up some work for the weekend.   After Erik gets on the school bus, Tommy and I will run to my office.  I have 4 hours to work yet this week to have 40 hours in.   I had planned on working 8 today.  Since I hadn’t planned on being home today I don’t have anything with me to work on, except to answer emails etc. 

I had a great night of sleep!  Gotta love waking up and feeling ready for the day for once!   I slept in until 8:00, which was nice.  I got up and started doing some laundry.  I love the quiet moments of the day before my family is up and turning on the TV, etc.  I sat on the couch reading my book and enjoying the quiet of the morning.  Of course the silence was disturbed at about 9:15 by the telemarketer calling.  ARGH!!  That woke up the rest of the family.

Today is an official government holiday so I don’t have to work, but I need to.  So after getting my third load of laundry going for the day I am in my bedroom getting ready to work on completing dictation on my caseload.  My goal for today is to get all caught up so that when I go into the office tomorrow I am concentrate on something else.  This is something that has been hanging over my head for a bit again.   I was going to go into the office for the day, but hubby wanted me to be at home.  I always find it hard to work at home as I see other things I rather be doing.   I only plan to do some laundry while I work….that is it!

I am going to watch a movie and type, type, type……so hopefully by the end of the day I will feeling good about getting caught up in work.  First movie of the day…..The Nanny Diaries…I read the books a while back. 

Check in with you all later……

I had a great night of sleep!  Gotta love waking up and feeling ready for the day for once!   I slept in until 8:00, which was nice.  I got up and started doing some laundry.  I love the quiet moments of the day before my family is up and turning on the TV, etc.  I sat on the couch reading my book and enjoying the quiet of the morning.  Of course the silence was disturbed at about 9:15 by the telemarketer calling.  ARGH!!  That woke up the rest of the family.

Today is an official government holiday so I don’t have to work, but I need to.  So after getting my third load of laundry going for the day I am in my bedroom getting ready to work on completing dictation on my caseload.  My goal for today is to get all caught up so that when I go into the office tomorrow I am concentrate on something else.  This is something that has been hanging over my head for a bit again.   I was going to go into the office for the day, but hubby wanted me to be at home.  I always find it hard to work at home as I see other things I rather be doing.   I only plan to do some laundry while I work….that is it!

I am going to watch a movie and type, type, type……so hopefully by the end of the day I will feeling good about getting caught up in work.  First movie of the day…..The Nanny Diaries…I read the books a while back. 

Check in with you all later……

This week has just flow by.  I am feeling pretty pulled in all directions to handle everything, but know what it will be lessened by the end of February when we have staff to assist. 

MONDAY –  Our last day to have staff to assist with Erik and I was able to work 12 hours that day!   I was gone from the house for 14 hours, but took some time off during the afternoon to visit my great nephew at the Children’s Hospital where he had surgery.   He had to have cranial surgery as the bone in his skull were fused.   You can follow my great nephew’s recover at his Caring Bridge Website.  He sure is a cute little guy.  He will be coming back to MN to have his lip repair redone and have his cleft palate repaired as well.   The lip repair done in North Dakota were wasn’t that good the surgeon here in MN said. 

TUESDAY –  I worked a full 8 hours on Tuesday.  Hubby came home early to meet Erik’s bus.  We had the Independent Living Skills worker coming that evening to meet Erik and us.  He will work on social skills and other skills with Erik once a week.  He will be coming on Fridays.

WEDNESDAY – I work a partial day and then came home to meet Erik’s bus.  I worked on my bible study for our evening class at church.  I started feeling ill in the evening and ended up not going.  Josh had called in sick from work as well as he had terrible stomach pains as well.  He and I hung out on the touch and watched TV.  We all love to watch the first few episodes of American Idol.  That is always alot of fun. And of course we had an intake meeting with a new PCA agency.  That went fine, but they don’t currently have any staff for us. 

Erik went to church and Tommy and I stayed home.  Erik is excited as they are going snow boarding next week for his small group activity.  I had asked him to come home with the details of when, where and how much, etc.  He did pretty good.  We aren’t clear entirely on how much it costs, but will send him with hopefully enough.  His answer was is costs between 40 and 70 dollars.  ARGH!!   I always worry about sending him with too much money as he will always make sure he comes home with none. 

THURSDAY –  I was feeling ill still on Thursday morning so I called in sick.   I just laid around most of the day.  I was home for Erik to come home and meet with the CADI Waiver worker about changing services for Erik.  It is all a bit overwhelming. 

FRIDAY – Since it was my birthday I didn’t plan on working . I didn’t do what I planned on doing, but did get some things around the house done.  I paid bills and worked on some budgeting.  Started getting some more things ready for our tax appointment.  I was home for Erik when he got off the bus. 

Erik went to visit with his mom for the weekend.  We celebrated my birthday by going out to eat at Bucca de Beppo.  It was very busy!!  The food was great as always.  Which reminds me I have leftovers to eat for supper tonight.

SATURDAY –  Our day didn’t really turn out as planned but all are happy about the change of plans.  I finished up my book reviews for the Cold Nights Hot Reads program at the library and then we headed off to the library.  We picked up a number of movies at the library and planned on staying in the house and watching movies for the day.  We also went to Kohls as my hubby needed some new work pants.  I found three new shirts for Erik on clearance and one pair of pj’s for Tommy.  I also bought three pairs of gloves for next year for Tommy.  Gloves and hats were 75% off.   As a treat we ate at the mall food court at Burger King. 

We came home and dropped Tommy off at home with Josh for a bit.  We planned on running to rent a Wii game.  We got our game and then thought we would go look at TV”s.   How we plan large expenditures is to live within our budget each month and come tax time we receive a HUGE tax return as we have extra withheld as part of our savings plan.   Each year we purchase one new larger thing for our home.  Last year we bought a new wall over unit.  Over the last few years we have replaced all of the appliances in our home.  This year we had talked about replacing our last appliance, our cooktop.  Now most of the appliances are really more important to me as I am the one using them.  The oven really was a health hazard as we had it tagged by the gas company as needing repair, but the stove was not tagged.  It is very old and ugly, but works.    

So hubby and I were chatting about another item he and Josh have been advocating for as our one large purchase from our tax return his year……a big screen TV.   Now mind you not something I want or need, but hubby would love this.   Hubby has done wonderful this last year living within the budget we made and we have no outstanding bills this year to pay off with the tax return.  I was even able to pay off all our hospital bills this year within our normal budget.   So I really believe Hubby and Josh deserve to have their choice this year.   We were at Sam’s club and looking around at all the TV”s they have on sale.   In January Sam’s always has zero percent financing so it worked great for us.  We purchase the item and when our taxes come in February we pay it off.   Since we wanted to shop around a bit, we went to Best Buy to check out the price for the same model there….YIKES!!  Twice as much!!!

We purchased a 52 inch LCD TV to wall mount in our living room.  We had told Josh we were going to stop off at the grocery store to get some things and asked him to watch Tommy longer.  This gave us a chance to buy the TV.   I called Josh from the store to tell him to get his shoes on to help his dad with groceries as it was really cold.   We get home and he comes out side….he is crabby about it all.  He opens the back of the Blazer and has a few remarks to make!!  LOL!! I can’t even repeat them here!   He was very surprised and very very happy. 

Hubby and Josh are just finishing putting the wall mount unit up and getting ready to hang the TV soon.   We will need to rearrange the living room a bit but it will be very nice.  I guess we plan on watching movies in style tonight!!

Now while most people want to receive all their money with each pay check, we tried that and it didn’t work for us.   We rather claim single 0 and have the government hold on to our money for us.   It is a forced savings plan for us.  When it comes to our tax return we know we will never owe in and can expect at least $8,000 or more back each time.  We ear march that money for things we need through out the year.  We pay our entire year of car insurance and any other bill that we can pay yearly and receive a discount.  

Well I am off to clean up the living room about and hopefully check out the new TV!

What a sweet boy……….gotta love em!