September is almost over! Which means I am WAY behind on getting my kids Halloween costumes made… Our family theme this year is going to be incredible, just wait!
Monday, I went grocery shopping, and literally less than 5 minutes in the store I lost my list. I could. not. find. it! So I had to guess what was on it, because I couldn’t remember, I made it Saturday or Sunday and the only thing on the menu I could remember was green chili enchiladas for Taco Tuesday! Hopefully, I am not running to the store a bunch more times this week.
So here it is, ONE STORE! HEB, I got some lettuce, shredded cheese (Y’all I KNOW block cheese is cheaper, but I do not have time to shred cheese or wash more dishes, plus 2 pounds shredded for $5 is a great price.) Chicken broth, and a misplaced can that snuck in masquerading, beef broth, HEB brand Shell Mac and Cheese (I have no idea what we will do if we ever leave Texas, this Mac and Cheese is the BEST EVER, well beside homemade.) More cream of rice, sour cream, diced green chilis, hotdog buns, grapes, tortillas, and two loaves of bread (2 for $2 sale! One went straight into the freezer.) Total spent: $26.16, which leave a grocery roll over of about $20. WHOOP!
This is my final recap of the summer, and as today is the first day of Fall, it is fitting!. Other than the 18 things on our to-do list {Part 1 and Part 2}, we also had plans to travel to San Antonio for a family reunion on my mother’s side.
We are extremely lucky that now, we only live about 3 hours away from my grandparents, my mother’s parents. Growing up we never lived close to them, and never were able to visit as much as my other cousins. Sometimes it make us, my siblings, feel like we are the odd ones out. Since moving, and being older now, I see that really it’s just that they don’t know us as well, but my grandparents WANT to have that kind of relationship with us.
Getting together with all the cousins, I think only one or two was unable to come, and their families was crazy! My grandparents had 5 kids and those 5 had: a total of 14 kids. Of those cousins, 6 of us have had at least 2 babies. I believe the total is now at 15 great-grand-babies! Plus some of my grandparents cousins came down. There was a lot of people at the big party.
Even though this wasn’t our first time to San Antonio, we finally got the chance to do some touristy things.
Like The Riverwalk:
All of us on the new boatsTower of The AmericasLunch at the old restaurant on the Riverwalk, Casa Rio. We enjoyed it!
The Alamo:
Living history on medical proceduresLiving history, on firearms
No, we didn’t have two hats for Mr. Z. At some point before we road the river boats, Mr. Z lost his hat and we had to get a new one. His little dino hat was my FAVORITE and I am still devastated, so if anyone can find a replacement for Baby Hercules to wear send it our way!
Hotel shenanigans
Lastly, we were able to get Mr. Z a set of private swim lessons! He did a lot better this year than last year in the group lessons. Next year, both boys can do them!
Mr. Z: Daddy, will you come have lunch with me today?
Mr. Wonderful: I can’t today, I have to finish a big project. I don’t get to even stop for lunch, I eat while I work on it.
Mr. Z, sad: Soon?
Mr. Wonderful: YES!
The conversation this morning, broke my heart. I remember wanting and asking my parents to eat lunch with me at school, but they always were “too busy.” What does “too busy” even mean when it comes to our children?
This morning I left late to get run some errands, and on my way home I had to drive by a 3 car rollover accident involving a garbage truck, a sports car, and the same make, model, and color compact SUV that I drive. The SUV was the one that flipped.
I was on my way home from a 2 mile walk, sweaty and wanting to shower. Baby Hercules needed a diaper change and I didn’t bring any. After driving past this accident, and seeing “my” car, I needed to hold my babies. Remembering the conversation my two Misters had this morning out the door, I glanced at the clock, decided to forgo the shower, got lunch and showed up for lunch with Mr. Z.
We had a fun little lunch together, and he enjoyed that I surprised him with Whataburger. He also didn’t mind that I needed to hold and love on him.
It is important to me that I let my children know that they are on my “Most Important” list. I don’t want to be “too busy” to go to lunch at school with my kids. If that means, we have to sacrifice the income that me working would bring in, and we eat rice and beans multiple times a week, then that is what it looks like.
This week is busy! I keep telling myself to sit down and write, but I haven’t had time! Hopefully Baby Hercules will nap long enough for me to finish.
I wasn’t planning on shopping this week, but we *think* Mr Z is reacting to oats. Lets just say it’s not pretty. So since all most all of the breakfast foods we have are oat based and a lot of his snacks are, I had to get some non-oat stuff. I went to HEB and Kroger. I went to Kroger only because Ibotta had some deals that HEB didn’t. So don’t judge me on the no produce this week. We have some from last week still.
HEB:
I spent $31.22. We got HEB brand rice krispies (Mr. Z was begging to make rice krispie treats and I caved.), yogurt cups and go gurts, cream of rice, cream of wheat instant packs, 2 things of hummus, carrots, Annie’s crispy snacks (which I thought we more like granola bars, but after Mr. Z eating one they are totally just rice krispie treats…) Clif Kids Zbars and some quinoa.
Kroger:
I spent $22.47. We got some more Zbars (Ibotta purchase, plus the baby likes them and I feel better about these than other soft granola bars), peanut butter crackers x 3, cheese and breadstick dippers x 2, and 5 kid RXbars.
Like I said, almost all of this is for Mr. Z and the next 30 days while we see if oats are what is causing the issues. I needed things that are self stable, and not going to be crushed to bits in his school bag or my purse. This week we spent $53.69, which leaves us about $53 for the rest of the month, which is totally doable.
I also wanted to share the amazing steal I stumbled upon at Kroger yesterday! My store was under stocked in the All laundry detergent weekend sale, so they extended the sale. I got 5 bottles of All for $5.40!! They are the small bottles, 33 loads, but that’s about 5 months of detergent. Whoop!
It’s time for Part Two of our Summer! Missed Part one? Look HERE.
This summer we created a list of 18 things to do. I do this list so that we have something to do other than not melt in the Texas heat. We did not get to everything on the list, but here are the ones that we did!
10: Photo Scavenger Hunt
This was totally my fault, I never put it together!
11: Visit the Brazos Valley Children’s Museum 10 times.
“All systems ready for take off.”
Checking the patient on the way to the hospital.
Brothers
I went shopping. The Ice cream is for me and the veggies are for you.
Building the arc.
“Do I have to pose?”
Light board
Looking for fossils
Craft time!
This is one of our favorite places, it is indoors and air conditioned, and since we have a membership, it’s free! The plan was to go at least weekly, but we didn’t always make it. Then I found out our membership expired in July! We decided that we would not renew with Mr. Z starting full day kindergarten we would not use it as much as we did this last year. We did make it 7 times before our membership expired, plus a trip to the Houston Natural Science Museum and to San Antonio children’s museum the Dosuem.
12: Watch Fireworks
We decided to check out the fireworks at the George Bush Presidential Library this year. It was pretty good. Plus the show had a live orchestra playing during the firework display, so the timing was almost perfect. Mr. Z also enjoyed some fun bounce houses and slides before it got dark.
13: Go to the Physics Roadshow
This one was another one of, mom made a mistake. I wrote down the wrong date on the calendar, and we showed up to the library 2 weeks too late!
14: Sponge Water Fight
I got this idea off pinterest, and Mr. Z loved it! No need for water guns, plus it’s more fun.
15: Picnic at the park
Summer is not the time to have a picnic outside in Texas. It was always too hot, and I just couldn’t bring myself to force us to do it.
16: Go to the Chemistry Roadshow
This one we did make! I think all the fire and “Ooohh! Aaahhh!” factor they have built into the show makes it a favorite for all kids.
17: Visit Washington on the Brazos
This was another one, that we made plans but weather did not agree with us. Once we got rained out and twice it was over 100*.
18: Write Letters to Friends.
This one was a bust. We got all the stuff out a couple of times and then Mr. Z decided he didn’t want to do it, or Baby Hercules would wake up and need my attention and Mr. Z would not finish. I think I’ll save it for next year, it might have been too early to do it this summer.
Next week I’ll post about our Big Trip and about some of the summer dreams we got to do.
Grocery shopping this week, with what happened Monday, was not in budget or really planned. Plans often go out to the wayside when unpredictable things like that happen.
The whole family headed to HEB late on Monday, so it took longer and we got a handful of impulse buys. I was not in the mood to fight for the budget.
At HEB we spent $67.98 (oops! That’s the whole budget for this week!)
$67.98 at HEB
We got, some frozen pizzas (there was no way I was cooking dinner after my morning), lettuce, chicken breasts, oatmeal, lunch meat, granola bars, salad dressing, strawberries ($0.87 a pound! We are going to slice and freeze mosts of them.) Oatmeal digestive cookies (Baby Hercules likes these ones, I got the wrong ones last time.) Hummus, and some cheddar bunnies.
Tuesday, I made it out to Aldi, and after loading up, realized I forget the peppers and had to drag the kids back in. I spent a total of $31.94 at Aldi.
$31.94 at Aldi
At Aldi I stocked up on some things that we need for lunches and pizza night; pasta sauce, pepperoni, trail mix, yogurt, mini cucumbers, yellow potatoes, pretzels, grapes, and bell peppers.
This week’s total on groceries was $99.42. Yikes! If I am careful, I think we can manage skipping the grocery store next week! That will help the budget, and maybe, just maybe give us a small rollover.
I also had a helper today with pictures… Good thing he is cute!
This week has not gone at all how I imagined it would. Last week ended on a really sour note, and then Monday was spent with me in the ER in extreme pain. I am still recovering from, what I believe was a burst ovarian cyst. I woke up to nurse Baby Hercules, and ending crying from what felt a javelin thrust through my lower left abdomen.
By the time we got to the ER, the pain had decrease to a mostly tolerable level, but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any complications, like my ovary twisting. 5 hours later and a male doctor telling me I was experiencing “mittelschmerz” I finally got some drugs, Tylenol, and sent home.
At least they gave us a large room…
I could have given myself Tylenol, and no, ovulation pain, does not reduce a 30 year old woman into a puddle of tears and withering in pain. So completely unsatisfied with my care, we left the hospital and are looking forward to the medical bills for some Tylenol.
Medical care in this country is ridiculous. Women, especially, are treated poorly, and not listened too. Don’t get me started on women of color and how extremely terrible they are treated. Need an example, read about Serena Williams, here.
Last week, I talked about how I have transitioned from trying to control my hair into accepting and learning what it needs. In the almost 8 months I have been a Curly Girl, I have found a few products my hair LOVES and a few my hair HATES. My number one “I love this product” is from Sally’s Beauty Supply, Generic Value Products Conditioning Balm.
It says right on the bottle “Compare to: Matrix ® Biolage ® Conditioning Balm”. Price wise, the GVP version is less than half the price of the Matrix version. Now I have not tried the Matrix product, so I can not compare the actual products, but I do know that paying $19 for a smaller bottle is not going to happen.
Source Regularly $6.79 for 16 FL ozSource Regularly $19 for 13.5 FL oz at Ulta
I like that this conditioner can lather up a little, like a shampoo does. The lathering helps to make me feel like I am shampooing and therefore cleaning my hair. Even though, it is not the lathering that is cleaning, when you co-wash it the the scrubbing of your scalp that does the cleaning.
Some people complain that the conditioner is too heavy and it weighs down their curls. I make sure to rinse it all the way out, and don’t use any leave-in other than the curl cream, Curls Blueberry Creme Brulee.
I use it both for my co-wash and for conditioning, and so I go through about a bottle a month. It has little fragrance to it, so it’s not strong and overpowering like some products.
Another thing I love, is when it goes on sale for buy 2 get 1 free! So instead of spending $6.19 a bottle (I have the beauty card that saves me 60 cents a bottle.) I can get them for about $4 a bottle. Sally’s just recently had this sale so I ordered myself 6 bottles and a couple other things (to get free shipping, all things I will use). I got a salon cape for the boys for when I cut their hair. I also got two sets of clips for root clipping for volume. I spent less than $30 when all said and done! Now, I have enough conditioner for the next 6 months, I hope!
This summer we created a list of 18 things to do. I do this list so that we have something to do other than not melt in the Texas heat. We did not get to everything on the list, but here are the ones that we did!
1: Learn to ride a bike!
All decked out in safety gear to practice.
Mr. Z got a bike for Christmas last year, and getting him to learn to ride it has not been easy. We did get a few practice sessions in.
2: Ride a pony.
The pony
Mr. Z explaining why he won’t touch the horses.
A mom’s group that we are in, has a summer trip out to one of the members home, where she has horses and a pony. She leads the kids around for a ride on the pony. We went, but Mr. Z was scared of the large animals and wouldn’t ride or touch it. I am hopeful, that one year he will ride the pony!
3: Vacation Bible School!
He loved the sport themed VBS.
Mr. Z did two weeks of VBS. IT WAS AMAZING, for us at least! Both were evening sessions and so we got to have time with just Baby Hercules. Mr. Z did enjoy VBS and loved having fun crafts to learn about bible stories.
4: Finish Summer Reading
Summer reading logs
Our library does the national summer reading program, but it is very different from our old library in Pullman. Most of the prizes here are coupons for discounted or free kids meals. But we do summer reading, more for the fun of making sure we read every day in the summer. This summer we read The BFG and James and the Giant Peach. Mr. Z loved them and I think reading at lunch will be a summer tradition for us.
5: One Week of NO TV!
This was one that Mr. Z was not excited for at all. But I knew we needed it. The first few days were hard, but by Wednesday, TV time wasn’t even asked for. We have also carried over no TV Sundays, from this.
6: Visit the 3 Splash Pads.
Mr. Z is great at making friends with everyone at the parks.
This one is one of my favorite things to do in the summer, plus, with Baby Hercules getting more mobile over the summer, he also enjoyed the splash pads. We have 3 splash pads at different city parks. One is our favorite and one we don’t really like, but I don’t like going to the same place every time. So I wanted to make sure we went to each one this year.
7: Find a 4-leaf Clover.
Mr. Z was unsuccessful in his search.
8: Read The BFG!
It only took us 10 days to read.
Like I said in 4, we did read it. It was so fun to read at lunch in the summer. Mr. Z just loved it and if I could, I think he would have wanted me to read it in one sitting!
9: Make Popsicles.
One of our favorite things, we have a couple different molds, and we like coming up with fun fruit and juice mixes. Mr. Z’s favorite this summer was strawberries and blueberries with orange juice.
Next week I’ll post the other 9 things on our 2018 Summer list.
In January of 2015, I decided to start a needlepoint kit stocking for Mr. Z.
By Thanksgiving 2016, I realized that I would never finish it. So I started knitting us stockings.
By Christmas 2016, I had finished one for Mr. Z and Mr. Wonderful.
And I January 2017, I had finished mine.
I started Baby Hercules’ stocking in January this year, and am close to finishing it. Having a stocking for everyone in the family will be great! Especially, since before Christmas 2016, no one had one!
I know it is early to think of what Christmas crafts you have planned, but please share what you are doing! I have some other ones I have been working on, but I can’t share those until after Christmas.
