The kids start heading back to school this week. BOOOOOO!!! Oldest child leaves today, classes begin for him on Monday. Honestly, it's been great having them home. I've really enjoyed it. They really do get along well with each other, now that they are young adults in their 20's... Let's not think too much on their younger days.
My plot to throw out or get rid of 23 things a week hit a snag when I took my first bag of stuff to the local thrift store and was turned away. They are overwhelmed with crap right now. (I guess I'm not the only one who set the resolution to get rid of stuff!) So, the bag of stuff is out of my house and in the trunk of my car, but not actually gone. Instead of counting that bag, I'm counting the very large black plastic trash bag I filled with stuff. I lost track of how many items are in the bag. I think it's safe to say that AT LEAST 23 things were in that bag. If we want to get picky, I threw out at least 23 items every day between the day after Christmas and trash day yesterday. So, that's 12 days, times 23 things = 276 items. Seriously? I hope this gets a little more challenging as the year goes on. I hate to think that it's going to be this easy to get rid of stuff.... you know, that I have THAT much trash laying around the house.
Dinners this week have been simple. We've finished off the Christmas Ham, and have been happily chomping away on some new delights. We tried a Cuban Rice and Bean Recipe that you can find here. I had a freezer meal that was a Teriyaki Chicken Mix in the chest freezer. I cooked it for dinner one night, but we were not terribly big fans of it, and had A LOT left over. I saved out the chicken and carrots from that mix, and threw away everything else. I re-purposed the chicken into a White Chicken Chili the next night. Let me tell you, that white chicken chili more than made up for the disappointment of the Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken. I have one more Teriyaki freezer meal in the freezer. I think I see another white chicken chili in my very near future.
I made a big pot of bean soup last weekend (Split Pea soup). I tossed the leftovers into a casserole dish layered between corn tortillas and enchilada sauce and topped it all off with leftover salsa from New Year's Eve. I know it doesn't sound all that good, but either we were really hungry, or it really was good because we didn't have any leftovers!
The kids made a batch of pizza dough yesterday. We pulled the roasted tomato sauce that I froze earlier this fall to top it with. It was beyond phenomenal. (They were kind enough to make a batch of gluten free dough for me. I didn't have to make it myself this time!)
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| Having fun with Siri... |
I did find an awesome sale on beans at Harris Teeter. 10 cans for $6. Over the course of the week, I stopped by 3 times and picked up 30 cans of beans for $18. I'm a happy camper! That's a lot of quick meals for us! While I was there, I also picked up rice. Rice is always a phenomenal price, and I was happy to find pounds for .
The heat is back on, so our low heating bills for the year are over. The name of the game now is to save as much electricity as possible over the next couple of months until the weather warms up again.
As you read this, we are heading into the marathon birthday season. Husband's birthday has already happened, and all 3 of the kids have their birthdays over the next week. How did we ever manage to have all 3 kids in a week of each other?
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