Food, Family, and more of glasses

Josh has been wanting to make popcorn balls since last month, when I finally bought jell-o after a year or so of not buying it.

He mixed it all up, dissolving the jello in corn syrup and something else.

Then, Lilly wanted to help....I think she ate more than helped.

 Maggie has been busy making pinwheels out of comics.

I think she has made enough now, to make a wreath out of them.

Working more on keeping the glasses on Anthony.

This was during Tangled.

 We started buying the bulk of our groceries monthly a few months ago.

It is expensive to feed a family this large (imagine that), so this is one way to hopefully simplify what we're buying and eating.

I start by writing a month's worth of dinner ideas.

Then, I make a list of ingredients we'll need for it.

I also add in breakfast stuff and snack ingredients and anything else we're out of.

I shop at Fred Meyer and Costco.

They have the best prices for me, and Costco is about the only place I can stand the meat at.

Our monthly shopping is at least $500 each month, but closer to $700 or more.

Then, we only need to get basics each week like milk, bread, and fresh stuff.

When we do this monthly shopping trip, I put the cold stuff away first.

Then, I take almost everything out of its packaging so I can ration out when each thing can come out of the storage room.

My children do the same thing my siblings and I did...we eat all the "good" groceries the first few days, then feel like we're just starving the rest of the month.

Rationing fixes that.

I put dates for when we can open each package of bacon, cracker packages, bags of chocolate chips, jell-o, snacks, pepperoni, etc.

Meat, baby food, and basic baking ingredients don't need to be rationed.

The table below is most of a month's groceries.

The Costco stuff is hidden in 2 of the large apple boxes.

 Andy comes up with funner (is that a word?!) ways for Anthony to get used to wearing glasses.

Tonight, I came up from doing laundry to see Anthony in an apple box with his blankie, Toy Story cards, and a Clifford Christmas book.  So cute! 

Anthony LOVES the Popcorn Popping song.

He'll do about 4 of the hand motions for it, along with lots of "pleases."

We all sang it for him again tonight at Family Home Evening.

He LOVED it.  :)

Our activity tonight was playing Yahtzee. 

The game didn't last long, but we had a lot of laughter.

And, the children are excited about their chores.

Some chores are the same, and some are changing up.