$75 Grocery Challenge (Sort of)

To make a long story short(er), we've been spending too much money on groceries (okay, on everything) & I found this challenge on Owlhaven via a magazine article a couple of weeks ago. Technically, the challenge was for the month of September, but we started on Friday. Since we get paid every two weeks, we will base our budget on that. I had been figuring groceries & household items seperately, which is silly because I usually buy them together, so now I will combine them. Most people participating in this challenge are doing $75/week. We will be doing $237.50 for 2 weeks, which is $118.25/week. Nearly twice as much, and here's why: we do not have a garden, a fully stocked or even partially stocked pantry, we have 7 people to feed (my mother is here for awhile), and just a few weeks ago our extra freezer died leaving us with the nearly useless freezer on our side-by-side. Not to mention that we're used to spending at least twice to three times that. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame. This will be a stretch for us, but we are going to give it the old college try. I will keep you posted on how this is going, and certainly feel free to join me in my money-saving endeavor.

Monthly Budget: $475.00
Total Spent: $137.76
Total Remaining: $337.24

Are YOU ready for some football?

I LOVE fall. The cooler days, the changing color of the leaves, and football. Of course, here in Texas we only get one of the three, but it's a big one. Ever heard of Friday Night Lights? Yup, all about Texas and their obsession with football. Not being from Texas, we don't really have a college team here that we follow (Go Montana State Bobcats! Beat those Griz!!!), but both my parents attended Texas Tech, so that's usually who we root for. We don't know anybody who plays high school football, but we are always glad when they well. Professional football is a totally different story. We LOVE NFL football. I am a Dallas Cowboys fan through and through. Please do not think that I just jumped on the bandwagon when we moved to Texas. They've always been my team. I had pictures of Emmitt Smith hanging on my wall in college! DH is an Oakland Raiders fan. Please don't hold that against him. He always has been (even through the bad years), and he always will be. However, he enjoys watching the Cowboys do well, as long as its not against the Raiders and vice versa. Thanksgiving should be loads of fun at our house this year.

But for the past 2 years, we've experienced football of a different kind. Pop Warner Football. If you are unfamiliar with this, its full contact football for kids. Yes, we skipped right past nice safe flag football for our precious child and threw him right into giant shoulder pads and full-on contact. Bug loves it! We love watching him, and I'm learning more about football than I think I wanted to. LOL Last year, their team didn't do so well. This year, they've already won their first two games! Go Mitey-Mite Trojans!!

As for Lil' Coconut, she has joined the Pop Warner Cheerleading. She is, of course, really good at this. Usually the loudest, can remember cheers, and absolutely adores it. This year, she gets to be the lifted! This is both exciting & scary...for me. It's not very high, she just stands on people's legs, but still. This commitment is not for the faint of heart. The first two weeks of practice are 5 days a week, 2 hours a day. Then we switch to 3-4 days a week for 1 1/2 hours a day. Games are every Saturday. Some are at home. Some are 1 1/2 hours away. Still, they love it, and we enjoy it.

The first set of pictures is from our pep rallies and a scrimmage. Basically, the pep rallies are just for the girls to show the football players and parents new cheers and routines they've shared, and to award the cheerleaders with the spirit stick and "diva" award. The coaches decided to name the cheerleaders the "Trojan Divas" this year. As you can imagine, I am not impressed with this. There are some things I expect from letting my children participate in such secular activities, but am truly annoyed by this. Anyway, aren't they just so cute?

The next slideshow is of our first two games. Bug is #32. He usually plays nose guard. (NOT the defensive center, as I was calling him. DH corrected me. However, it IS the middle of the defensive line, so technically....) :P At both games it poured down rain. Luckily it was at the end of the first game, so the girls got to cheer, but they spent the whole time cheering down at the end of the crowd, so we didn't get any good pix. The second game it rained pretty much the whole first half, and then some. The girls didn't cheer at all, even they are supposed to, so at one point when it wasn't raining too much, Lil' C and Pinky Lee did a little cheer for us. Too cute!

The last slideshow is of Bug's "professional' pictures. I put it that way because I take them to the photo shoot, but I don't pay for their pictures. Even with my camera that is close to literally falling apart, I can take better pictures for free. FREE people! Who wants to fork out hundreds of dollars every year for pictures? Not me. So here's my version for this year. I plan on taking some of my favorites and touching them up in photoshop and then distributing them to those who want them. When we do Lil' C's I will post those.

Pep Rally & Scrimmage Pictures

First 2 Football Games

Bug's Football Pictures

Homeschool for Free!

If you are on Facebook, there is a page called "Homeschool for Free" that you can join, and they send out announcements when they find free things on the internet for homeschoolers to use. Sometimes there's some good stuff, so add them! I haven't been on Facebook for awhile :0 but today saw this link for a Christmas Lapbook. I hope this is the right link. I just copied and pasted from Facebook. I've never done a lapbook before, so I think we might use this one (or a version of it) as a break from our regular studies over Christmas break. If you've used a lapbook before, let me know what you think, and if you have any tips. Happy Lapbooking!

It's only hair, right?

My precious little Boo Boo Bear has been blessed with the gift of quick growing hair that the rest of us have. Unfortunately, that means frequent hair cuts. This is not easy to do to a toddler. He's already had his hair cut 4 or 5 times at least. We'd been stalling this time though, since last time had kind of been a big ordeal. It started to get kind of long, but still like we were aiming for the style that all those boys on Disney Channel seem to have. Then, for awhile, he sort of looked like David Cassidy with the feathered hair. LOL Then it evolved to this: Not the best look for a boy. Not only did he look like a girl most of the time, he was starting to look like a neglected little girl. Oh boy. So one night, we grabbed the clippers on the the longest setting and got to work. I'm thinking there might have been something wrong with the guard, because what we ended up with was this:

It's all gone. All that beautiful hair. As you can see, he's recovered from the ordeal. I have too, mostly. We both cried a lot that night. For several days it was as though I had lost my scruffy haired, hippy boy & had him replaced with military baby. He seriously looked like a different child. What do you think?