It's official, I'm moving

Hubby finally said, "what's really preventing you from moving the blog? You complain enough about blogger..."

And we talked about it. And I  moved.

Come find me at http://mamarachael.wordpress.com/

The day we said goodbye

Today, we said goodbye to Hank. We noticed this afternoon that he hadn't peed all day, and got worried. So, we googled it. And it wasn't good. So, we called the vet and got Hank there quick (it was 4:45 pm, end of the day and it was either quick get there this evening or wait for tomorrow morning).

And the vet confirmed it wasn't good. Sometimes, male cats find they can't pee for particular reasons, which I'm choosing not to go into here. Its fatal when you can't pee. There were options for "fixing" the situation, but it was going to cost more than we were prepared to pay. And it wouldn't have really fixed anything.

So, we made the hard choice. Hank went to sleep about 5:00 pm. We brought him home, dug a hole, and buried him in the back yard. We both, Hubby and I, cried quite a bit. Peanut was mostly oblivious, but when I had put Hank in the hole, Peanut pointed and squealed as he usually does when he sees the kitty.

Now, where is that Peanut?

 We will miss this kitty. Hank was a good cat. He was a snuggler and liked to sit in laps. He liked to chase his rope around the living room while we pulled and flicked it. He liked to tease Peanut by laying down to entice Peanut, then get up and run just far enough ahead that it would take Peanut a moment to get there. Hank liked to sleep on my hair, and sleep under the blankets on the bed. But if windows were open, he was in one or the other. In fact, he hadn't done much sleeping on our bed at night lately as the windows have been open so much.  He loved tuna juice and would come running if the can opener was moved around or taken out of the drawer. He liked to sleep on top of the TV cabinet, especially if we were watching a movie in the living room. He liked to drink bath water, though he learned to avoid Peanut's baths since Peanut splashes so very much. He always wanted to go outside, but never knew what to do if we took him out.

On top of the TV cabinet, under the turkey bacon box (his very own hiding place)

Hank, we aren't sure what the fate of kitties is, but we know you are much more comfortable now. And we are glad about that. We love you, Hank and will miss you.
 

Peanut loved chasing the kitty.

Reflections on Motherhood

Since its Mother's Day, I figure its a most appropriate day for this post. Its been brewing in my mind for several days, so here's to hoping to pans out to be all that I hope for it to be!

Motherhood Expectations

I has this vague idea, before Peanut was born that I when I would find myself home full time, I'd have time to be roaring successful at being a stay-at-home-mom. That included things like vacuum once (or maybe twice!) a week, sweep the floor each week, dust occasionally, cook dinner each night, and still have time to do a bit of sewing, gardening and other "domestic" style things.

When Peanut was little-bitty, I had a bit more time to do these things.

Now, I don't!

I don't have any real complaints. Yeah, I get a little frustrated when I myself stepping on powdered muffin in the dinning room. But much of the time I *could* be sweeping the floor is given to... blogging, checking email, playing with Peanut, gardening, chasing Peanut down, or re-directing Peanut's interest into something better than plugs and electrical outlets.

This is fairly normal Mommy time struggles, and I figure I'll be laid back and chill about it. Afterall, if I was to get all worked up, would it make anything better? But I also find it interesting, and this is a tad self-centric, I'm just like all the other mothers out there. (yes, yes, I'm wonderfully unique, just like everyone else**)

I'm enjoying today. Its been a fun day. My Dad and his wife left this morning, after a whirlwind trip down for Peanut's birthday party yesterday. I got chocolate at church and a long nap at home.

Now I'm off to sweep up the muffin powder Peanut left for me after his afternoon snack.

Loving the window. Longing for outside.

**don't hear me being too serious on this. I'm just reacting to today's culture trying make sure everyone has a 'good self-image'. I got strengths and I got weaknesses, lets be honest and forthright about them.

A crappy evening

Yes, yes... I feel like an unbelievable dork, and a horrible mother. I know its not the worse thing that could happen, but its so downright gross that's it hard to imagine something grosser.

This evening, Peanut is crawling around, having fun... when... oh, its bad... we find he has something... brown... all over his hands and ... really gross... around his mouth.

Yep... he found a poopy diaper I'd left in the bathroom to deal with at a later point. I'll let you imagine from here, no need to provide details. But then, that might be worse.

blah... shiver... shake... can it get any grosser!

We got him cleaned up. We washed his hands with soap. We washed his face, with soap. We "irrigated" his mouth (not with soap). I got him to brush his teeth, with toddler safe toothpaste to encourage him to actually use the brush end (he has a tendancy to just chew on the handle end of the brush).

This makes me think of a friend who found her toddler boy in the bathroom, using his hand to drink from the toilet. When he saw her, his mom, he started drinking faster.

Baby's just have no sense of "gross", do they?

No picture of that, because that's just gross.

Personal Reflection: Am I really a tightwad?

So, the other day, Want What You Have asked for readers to write out their own frugal story and email it to her. She will feature someone's story on Fridays. I was interested in writing up my own story, but then I started thinking, "Am I really a tightwad?"

This thought process has been complicated as I read my two Tightwad Gazettes (books 1 and 2) as I realize how many ways I've drifted from my tightwad habits.

For example, I thought it would be fun to have a small kid's pool for Peanut to play in. I went to Walmart and bought one. I did not garage sale for it, nor did I even look at a thrift shop.

On the other hand, I made bone broth from the scarp bones from when we purchased the quarter of a cow.

I don't reuse coffee grounds, though they do go in the compost pile.

I do cloth diaper, but I also used my dryer regularly.

I garden and can produce, but I will also buy blackberries and blueberries (but only when they are less than $2 a pound -- I guess that is somewhat tightwadish).

So, I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool tightwad, but I have my frugal ways.

Grocery Budget Update

So, I finally sat down with my various receipts and figured out what we've been spending on food. Oh, goodness, I feel like such a spendthrift.

I've also been reading my Tightwad Gazettes. I have book 1 and 2, and discovered there is a book 3 as well. Instead of buying The Complete Tightwad  Gazette, I think I'll spend $0.01 plus $3.99 shipping for just book 3. So, I'm motivated to see --how low we can go-- within reason. For example, I won't drink dry milk, nor can I do legumes (beans and such). I know legumes are cheap, but I can't do the texture.

So, what did we spend... prepare yourself, its not pretty.

Sept 2011 -- $214.67
Oct 2011 --  $373.65
Nov 2011 -- $335.33
(no Dec 2011 numbers)
Jan 2012 --  $475.62 (ouch!)
Feb 2012 -- $323.90
Mar 2012 -- $344.05
Apr 2012 --  $772.65 (includes $410.13 for the quarter of a cow)

That averages out to $405.69 a month. Take out the cow... $347.11 a month.

I'd like to average less.

On the plus side, the quarter of a cow ended up being a tad over 118 lbs (estimated), so it came out to a tad less than $3.50/lb. Yes, I aim to spend less than $3.00/lb for meat, but we did get some really nice cuts which I would normally never buy.

So, here's my plan. I'm starting up my price book again. I will figure out the cheapest place to get the various items I buy. Then, I can really *know* when a sale is a good price.

And off I go to figure out some unit pricing on items I buy often.

And for pure enjoyment --

Post stir fry

Need help: chicken fried steak questions

With the purchase of our quarter of a cow, I'm exploring options that I've never tried before.  Tonight, I tried making chicken fried steak, and it was okay, but not great.

The recipe I used was from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. After tenderizing, I dipped the bread in egg-milk, then in bread crumbs. Then, following the recipe, I surface fried the steaks. Then, the recipe had me return the steaks to pan to cook for another 45 to 60 minutes, until meat is tender.

It was all going well, until time to return the steaks to the pan to cook until tender. My pan wasn't quite big enough and required me to stack the steaks, and as they cooked, the previously crunchy fried bread covering got soggy. I think that even if I'd been able to lay the steaks in the pan without stacking them, after 45 minutes, the bread covering would be soggy.

Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps a better recipe? Could I, after frying the steaks, put them in the oven to finish? Or can I treat them like the "unfried chicken" that enjoy?