rockncook

OK, Buttercup, here's what I have for the week: Purchasing on sale for current/later use: 4 Gallons of milk (will last about 3 weeks) 6 lbs (I think) of cheese (will last quite awhile, will grate then freeze) 10 packages of store brand pasta (will last a few months) 10 lbs Broccoli to freeze (will last months) 4 Half Gallons Ice Cream (will last a few weeks, but it's hot and on sale so I can justify that LOL) Breakfasts (weekends feed six, weekdays feed 4) Sunday Fried Potatoes, Ham, Applesauce Monday Muffins Tuesday Hamburger Sandwiches, hash browns Wednesday Scrambled Eggs and Toast Thursday Chicken Quesadillas Friday Cereal (Have an early appointment so quick breakfast, larger snack than normal) Saturday Cereal (Same as friday) Lunches feed 6 on weekend, 4 on weekdays: Sunday Sandwiches and Salad Monday Lasagne (leftover) Tuesday Goulash (leftover) Wednesday Sandwiches and Salad Thursday Camp Out Chili Dogs (leftover) Friday Chicken Macaroni Casserole Saturday Chicken Salad Sandwiches Dinners feed six plus any kids that get brought home every night: Saturday Pork Chops, Ranch potatoes (Pork bought on sale for $.99/lb several mos. ago, this is the last of that batch. Ranch potatoes just mashed potatoes with ranch dressing mix, made from scratch instead of store bought), creamed corn casserole Sunday Lasagne (Special Occasion dinner, that I'm not paying for) Monday Goulash, Corn Tuesday Sloppy Joes, Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli, baked beans (all from scratch, no mixes except velveeta cheese) Wednesday Camp Out Chili Dogs (Chili serves two purposes, see below, will freeze leftovers of this for several home lunches), carrots, corn Thursday Grilled Chicken, baked potatoes, green beans Friday Mexican Lasagne (using beans leftover from chili making, cheese bought on sale) For DH's lunches, I make a few meals each week and then freeze them into lunch sized portions, plus include any leftovers from dinners that aren't needed for home lunches and that freeze well: Chili Stuffed peppers (I can't stand them, DH loves them, so he gets them for lunches, six peppers make 6 lunches) BBQ Beef Sandwiches using beef brisket bought on sale BBQ pork Sandwiches using leftover pork roast from Friday's dinner that was also bought on sale I try to keep a variety of lunches on hand for him, and normally only make two sets a week, so he has a good variety, but I have been slacking lately, so I have to play catch up. Treats include fruit, the last of my frozen muffin stash, the ice cream that was on sale, at least one day with ham and cheese just cut up like an appetizer thingie, and a few no bake cookie type treats. My son and Mary's 12 year old daughter seem to both be in a growth spurt, so snacks in the afternoon are a necessity, and some mornings. For the family of six, I am spending (just on food) less than $110 this week, including the items for future use that are bought on sale. Part of the reason it's so high is that we are buying 20 lbs of chicken at full price, to cook on the grill and boil, so that we have some prepared meats for other meals, although that might be balanced out if I was paying to prepare a dinner on Sunday. Mary is broker than broke, and can't contribute much to groceries. When it was just her and her daughter, they could make due with so much less, but with DH around, I gotta cook, LOL. So what I spend seems like a lot to them-but if DH wasn't around, the kids and I would have far simpler meals, and eat much less meat. I do try to sneak in at least one meatless dinner per week, though, and this week it will be the Mexican Lasagne. I posted this so you get an idea of how elaborately I plan my meals. Like I posted earlier, I had to learn a long time ago to plan things out, cause other than milk and bread, I only went to the store once a month, and I couldn't justify paying the convenience store prices for anything other than those items. I had to completely plan out my meals or we ended up having pasta and butter for 3 or 4 days at the end of the month LOL. I hope this helps someone to be able to look at their own meal planning and be able to plan around what they can spend. I'd like to get my spending down further, but don't see it happening until I can put in a garden. Have to go, laundry is done! Mommy of 5

I'm in, sounds fun!

lowlander, I agree, but with the heat the way it's been, baking regular stuff has been difficult, and I happened to be on that site anyway, so went to see what they had. Next year I'm gonna bake lots in March so I'll have more stuff frozen on hand.

Found these at the Kelloggs site, and then there is a link at the bottom to more no bake cookie recipes. Apple Snacks Ingredients 2 cups Kellogg's® Apple Jacks® cereal 1 cup (6 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips or 1 cup 1 cup (6 oz.) butterscotch chips Directions 1. Melt chips in heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Add KELLOGG'S APPLE JACKS cereal. Stir until well coated. 2. Drop by level tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper or buttered baking sheets. Let stand in cool place until firm. Blueberries N' Cheese Squares Ingredients 1 1/2 packets Keebler® Grahams Honey 1/2 cup butter or margarine melted 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese softened 1/4 cup milk 2 tablespoons powdered sugar 1 can (1 lb. 5 oz.) blueberry pie filling 1 cup whipping cream 2 tablespoons powdered sugar Directions Roll graham crackers to fine crumbs. In 11 3/4 x 7 1/2-inch baking dish, combine crumbs and butter or margarine, mixing well. Reserve 1/2 cup crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining crumbs in bottom of dish. Chill while preparing cream cheese. Blend cream cheese, sugar, and milk until smooth. Spread evenly over crumb layer. Spread pie filling over cheese and chill while preparing cream. Using chilled beaters and bowl, whip cream and sugar until stiff. Spread evenly over blueberries. Sprinkle with reserved crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Chocolate Clusters Ingredients 1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup butterscotch chips 2 tablespoons peanut butter 4 cups Kellogg's® Corn Pops® cereal 3/4 cup salted cocktail peanuts (optional) Directions 1. Melt chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and peanut butter together in large saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat. Add KELLOGG'S CORN POPS cereal and peanuts. Stir until well coated. 2. Drop by rounded measuring-teaspoon onto waxed paper or buttered baking sheets. Let stand at room temperature until firm. Chocolate Covered Strawberry Crunch Ingredients 3 cups Kellogg's® Special K® Red Berries cereal 1/2 cup broken dry roasted cashews 1/4 cup flaked coconut 1 package (12 oz., 2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/4 cup white chocolate chips 1 teaspoon shortening Directions 1. Place 24-inch piece foil on baking sheet. Set aside. 2. Measure KELLOGG'S SPECIAL K Red Berries cereal, cashews and coconut. Set aside. 3. In heavy 3-quart saucepan, melt milk chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add cereal mixture, tossing until cereal is completely coated. Spread evenly on foil. Melt white chocolate and shortening over low heat, stirring constantly. Drizzle over chocolate cereal mixture. Refrigerate until firm. Break into bite-size pieces. Store in airtight container. Chocolate Crunch Ice Cream Pie Ingredients 1 package (6oz., 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate morsels 1/4 cup margarine or butter 2 cups Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® cereal or 2 cups Kellogg's® Cocoa Rice Krispies® cereal 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1 quart coffee ice cream , slightly softened Directions 1. In 2-quart saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate chips and margarine, stirring constantly until well-mixed and smooth. Remove from heat. Reserve 3 tablespoons mixture for topping. 2. Add KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal to remaining chocolate mixture. Stir until well-coated. Arrange evenly in bottom and on side of 9-inch pie pan coated with cooking spray to form crust. Chill until firm. 3. Add corn syrup to reserved chocolate mixture, mixing well. Set aside. 4. Spread ice cream in pie shell. Drizzle with reserved chocolate mixture. Freeze about 2 hours or until firm. Before serving set pan on hot wet towel for a few minutes to loosen. Serve frozen. Yield: 8 servings Chocolate Pecan Clusters Ingredients 1 package (11.5 oz., 2 cups) milk chocolate morsels 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening 2 cups Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® cereal or 2 cups Kellogg's® Cocoa Rice Krispies® cereal 1 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped Directions In 2-quart saucepan, combine chocolate morsels and shortening. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until morsels melt and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal and pecans. Mix well. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto baking sheets lined with waxed paper. Chill about 30 minutes or until firm. Store in airtight container in refrigerator. Yield: 3 dozen Note Any variety of nuts may be substituted for pecans. VARIATIONS: Add one of the following to chocolate-cereal mixture before portioning: 2 teaspoons grated orange peel, 1 teaspoon vanilla , 1 teaspoon rum extract or 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract. Choco-Mint Candies Ingredients 2 cups sugar 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 cup skim milk 1/2 cup margarine or butter 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/8 teaspoon peppermint flavoring 3 cups Kellogg's® All-Bran® cereal Multi-colored sprinkles Directions 1. In 1 1/2-quart saucepan, combine sugar and cocoa. Add milk and margarine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to full boil. Remove from heat. 2. Stir flavorings into hot chocolate mixture. Add KELLOGG'S ALL-BRAN cereal and mix until all cereal is coated. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto wax paper-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle each candy lightly with colored sprinkles. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Yield: 36 Complete Snack Bars Ingredients 1/2 cup corn syrup 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/4 cup margarine and butter 4 1/2 cups Kellogg's® Complete® Oat Bran Flakes cereal 2 teaspoons grated orange peel 1/2 cup chopped, dried mixed fruit Directions 1. In 4-quart saucepan, combine corn syrup, sugar and margarine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking and stirring 1 minute longer. Remove from heat and stir in cereal and remaining ingredients. 2. Spread evenly in buttered 9 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Cool completely and cut into 3 x 1 1/2-inch bars. Store in airtight container or individually wrap in plastic wrap. Creamy 2-Step Cheesecake Ingredients 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened 1/3 cup sugar 1 tub (8 oz.) tub whipped topping thawed 1 KEEBLER® READY CRUST® Chocolate Pie Crust or 1 KEEBLER® READY CRUST® Extra Serving Size Pie Crust Directions Mix cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer or wire whisk until well blended. Spoon into crust. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Garnish as desired. Store any leftover cheesecake in refrigerator. Plus a huge list of recipes found at this link: No Bake Recipes (Hey, I figured out how to do a URL, LOL) Mommy of 5

I do a week at a time, and go shopping once a week to make sure I catch all the sales. I don't plan the meals around what's on sale necessarily, but I will look in the freezer as I do my planning. Then I stock up on what's on sale. When I was younger we didn't have a car, so my mom would come in to town once a month and take me grocery shopping, and I'd have to shop for the whole month. I learned fairly quickly how to do that kind of shopping, LOL. One thing that I do quite often is what I call meal sharing. Beef Brisket was just on sale here for $.79/lb, so I bought 25 lbs of it. I cooked a bit up in the crock, froze half of what I cooked, and then used the rest for beef and gravy (2 large cans cream mush soup, 2 packets brown gravy mix, 1 soup can full of water, beef of your choice, cook on low for 5 hours, serve over rice or potatoes). Then I used the leftover beef and gravy to make stroganoff (cook 1 package egg noodles while gently warming beef and gravy mixture. Add 1 16 oz package of sour cream to beef and gravy mixture, then mix in cooked noodles-if you need to stretch it a bit, you can add another can of cream of mush soup while it's heating, plus 1 cup of bouillion). I tend to try to cook a lot of things that don't require much meat, or that I can cut the meat the recipe calls for, so we don't do a lot of individual meat servings, we do meats in gravy, soups, and casseroles. I can boil up a chicken in water, use the broth and a bit of the chicken for chick and dumplings, pull out some chicken for chicken salad sandwiches, then have chicken burritoes with the remainder. Not a whole lot of chicken in each meal, but I make sure we have plenty of veggies with it, too, so we're rounding out the meal. I often do eggs for breakfast and lunch if I think we need extra protein, and different types of beans for sides. I made up a huge crock of baked beans on the fourth and froze 3 side portions of them for other meals. When breasts go on sale here we are going to grill up as many as we can afford and freeze them cooked. We can use that in burritoes, pasta salads, chicken salad for sandwiches, as the meat in pasta sauce, etc. Mommy of 5

Mornin, Ladies! Yesterday was a wickedly evil horrible day, but I don't wanna rehash it, so I'll skip it. DH is in the doghouse and it's gonna take quite a bit to get him out. Anyway, today I am searching out no bake recipes and getting my grocery list together for next week. Dinner is a challenge in this heat-sandwiches/salads/light dinners don't do it around here, my 5 year old son has a hollow leg and my husband can put it away, too-if I do something lighter for dinner they are both hungry later in the evening. Been using the crock a lot but we are out of treats that I baked and froze when it was a bit cooler here. I hate buying treats in the store so I'm busily looking for alternatives! Talk to you all soon! Mommy of 5

I will be posting some no bake recipes in a separate thread later today-I'm hunting them out as I sit down this morning. It gets so hot so fast in the kitchen here-I made rice krispie treats today and I'm icky and sweaty LOL...but dang those things taste good before they're fully cooled-just VERY messy, hehe. Mommy of 5

OH Cat, I hope your DD is OK...please letus know how it turns out. We are HOT here. Can I say that again? HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT. There we go. No A/C in the house, which, in the long run is good, cause it messes up my sinuses, but sometimes you think it would be worth it to have a bit of relief! We got spoiled, having an unusually wet early summer, and we went from relatively cool days that clouded up and rained at least a bit in the afternoon to 95 degree days with no time to adjust LOL. This weekend I am going to pick up some craft projects for both me and the kids to keep us busy but sitting still in the afternoons when it's too hot to do anything. I'm also going to make up a big batch of bug oil-the city is spraying for mosquitoes but it seems all that does is drive them inside. Work is still slow, but that's normal for summer. We are moving ahead with our plans and I hope to be out of there by January, actually. That would be SOOOOOOOOOOO nice, but I"ll have to find something else quickly. I have faith that I will, though. OK, I'm off to get a bit of work done!

Just wanted to pop in real quick and say hi, we're fine, just don't have any time lately. Love and miss you all, and hope to be back soon! Mommy of 5

Morning! Well, OK, afternoon. But cause of the arrangement we have here, I can't get on till afternoon. So I thought I'd drop by. I'm so glad Fran is doing better. Today I did some laundry and worked in the kitchen. We got the replacement bread paddle for the bread machien today (I threw out the other one accidentally, LOL, haven't used a bread machine in ages!) so there is sourdough in the machine to go with salad for dinner tonight. It is SO humid. It's one of those days where you have that list of things you need to do running around in your head, but it feels like you're moving in slow motion. This eve after it cools down I'm gonna do some rearranging in the tent, and then we're going to work in the yard. We decided that we would put in a veggie garden here at Mary's and we'll share that, and then I will rent an area to put in a small herb garden. She has just over an acre here, so we should be able to put in enough for our families. OK, back to work!

Well today has started off strange. I woke up with a killer headache, but it's finally easing. Had to do a bit of work, then we're going to work in the yard and in the kitchen. I need to do some laundry, too, but my laundry soap isn't here yet. We are getting into a bit of a routine here, so that's nice. I had to buy treats at the store cause I can't really bake much here-the house is small and the kitchen is right off of my friend Mary's bedroom, and she can't take the heat, LOL. She does have a bread machine, though, so at least we get fresh bread, hehe. I was working on Mary's car yesterday and took it for a drive, and found the land I want to buy. It's absolutely beautiful, very green. Looks like it gets a lot of snowmelt water from the mountains. It's not for sale, but I'm hoping that by the time we're in the position to buy, it will be. I spent the evening with visions of herb gardens in my head, LOL. Today there is a slight chance of thunderstorms, and we will welcome to clouds. I have to do some work in the yard and in the kitchen today. It's so nice to have a huge yard to work in without someone breathing down my neck, LOL. Mary and I have decided we are going to plant some late plants if we can and then split the water bill. If not, we'll at least have the ground ready for next year. OK, I'm off! I hoep to spend lots of time here soon-there's so many posts I want to respond to!

HOt and sweaty here, LOL. Almost all packed. Something in the back of my head told me not to fully unpack, so I didn't. Darn good thing! The landlord has been surprisingly decent, considering. So everything seems to be going well. DH isn't in a very chipper mood, but I'm not terribly surprised, he was a bear last time we moved, too. OK, my break is over, I'm off to pack more boxes!

I finally got to read Alas Babylon. Then I went and rented "The Day After" LOL. It was a destruction weekend. But, now I have a better idea of what to do-and why we need salt so badly!

Thanks everyone! I had tears in my eyes when she walked up to the stage. It was such a beautiful ceremony!

With a new baby, I think a timer and a blender are essential. Y'all know how babies can be distracting, LOL. The blender is good for making your own baby food, although a processer is better, but more expensive. I always just used a blender. Even if she doesn't want to make her own baby food, she'll find, probably, that she does use the blender as the baby gets introduced to grown up food. I would also include freezer bags for saving leftovers.

It's so good to be home! I have had very limited internet access for the last several days so I couldn't make it here. We kind of have a temporary fix in place and will be fully up and running maybe by the end of this week. Anyway, we had 2 soccer games this weekend, plus company. I got a big chunk of the yard worked on-it's not finished but even now it looks tons better. Today I am playing catch up at work, but I had to pop in and say hi and read a few posts-need a little bit of sanity in my life, hehe. Also working on the kitchen. I was on call at work all weekend and was actually pretty busy, so nothing got done. I think I need to work on training DH to help with dishes again, LOL. He's good for awhile then just kinda slacks off. It's cloudy and overcast here, but they're not sure about rain. I know, as soon as I finish watering this evening, it will start pouring LOL. OK, I'm off to go do some more dishes, then get busy with work again! I missed being here sooooooooo much!

...is being inducted into the National Junior High Honor Society. I am such a proud mommy! The dinner is Wednesday night. We get fed and everything LOL. Woohoo!

Well should you ever decide to take your trip, you're welcome to stay here for awhile. DH and I will camp in the front yard and you can have our room LOL. WE live in Trinidad, almost in New Mexico. The mining towns here are quite different, though-COAL mines. Although we have spent quite a bit of time wandering around the remains of one town, Ludlow. There's quite a bit of history there from when they tried to unionize down here. It's also interesting to drive through Cokedale, which is near one of the few still active coal mines there. It's a study in opposites, old houses next to new ones, but still on the same small lots that were allocated to the original coal workers. It's interesting to look at the changes-the coal workers used to be some of the lowest paid anywhere, now, here at least, they make way more than the average wage earner does. The Sangre De Cristos are every bit as beautiful as the San Juans, tho!

Morning everyone! It's actually still morning! I made some pantry items today, brownie mix, some cream of chicken soup mix, and some granola. I am almost out of baking cocoa now, but there's a batch of brownies in the oven, LOL. I'm going to make a breakfast pie in a bit for breakfast tomorrow, and a big batch of pancakes. We're having a sleepover this weekend so I"m sure they won't last long! It's cold here, got down to freezing last night and actually snowed in Denver. The first year we were here it snowed June 2. I actually kind of like these surprise cold days when it's been so warm-gives me an excuse to bake all morning, LOL. It's not helping my allergies, though, LOL. I just sneezed about six times! I MUST get some local honey at the Farmer's Market. Dinner tonight was supposed to be pork chops, but I think with it being so cold I'll do chicken and dumplings instead and save the pork chops for tomorrow night. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Aww, thanks! Where is it? LOL.

Well thanks, Ladies and Cavey. I appreciate the thoughts of some cooler heads on the subject. After all of this, she didn't even show last night. If she comes tonight, or any other night for that matter, I'm going to tell her that I have to work and can't take the time to meet with her (which is true). I will add that she is required by law to give 24 hours notice, so once she gives me notice she's coming by, I will be happy to re-arrange my work schedule to accomodate her. In pulling a weed today I dislodged part of the rock wall. Not sure how THAT is gonna fly, LOL, but I was just doing what I was told. I also got one of the flower beds cleaned out-boy I have the makings of a great compost pile, but I'm certainly not starting one for THIS house, and that's something I don't particularly want to move LOL. This evening I'm gonna dig up some more dandelions. I went through yesterday and picked all the heads off of the ones that were up (cheating, I know!) and this morning there was a good 15 new ones! One of the things she had complained about were grasses growing through the fence that are in the neighbor's yard. He has this immaculate yard that extends about 20 ft from his house, and beyond that, everything else is overgrowth and dead stuff. So I'm going to tell her if she wants that problem solved, she's going to have to go over there and talk to him LOL. I did pull out what had come through the fence, though. OK, I have muffins coming out of the oven in six mins, so I'm off. I'll try to be back later this evening!

Tuesday evening I had a discussion with my landlord about how long we intended to stay in the house. I told him that we wanted to stay here until we were ready to buy land, which was a few years off. We've lived in the house for 8 mons. now. Our first lease was six months and then the one we just signed is for a year. We have taken care of many of the small repairs ourselves, without billing the landlord for labor or any of the parts we've needed. We rebuilt the fence ourselves when we first moved in, as it was not in a state to keep our dogs contained. We have taken the kitchen sink apart and put it back together several times to clean it out, as the "p-trap" they have underneath the house is a coffee can with a divider in it, so it doesn't quite work right all the time and has to be repaired often. The owners of the house live in Denver, and if we were to call them with a problem, they'd have to call their family here, and we'd have to wait until it was convenient for one of their family members to come fix what needs to be fixed. Friday night, the landlord's sister in law, who has on occasion ran messages to us from the landlord, came over and told us the landlord has made her manager of the properties they own here. She then proceeded to lecture me as if I was an idiot child about the improvements that need to be made to the yard. I was instructed to remove all the weeds, mow both the front and the back, and clear out the easement areas by Tuesday. I pointed out to her that the back yard was landscaped with rock which hasn't been put on plastic to keep plants from growing up through the rock, and that I wasn't running a lawnmover over rocks. She replied "Buy a weedwhacker." We had Friday evening, the weekend, then Monday and today to do this. Both DH and I worked, and we had company come in over the weekend. WE of course did what we could do, but didn't get everything completed. Now, prior to the end of the conversation, and disregarding the time frame, I believed that most of her requests were reasonable. I had already been doing some work in the yard, and can tell you that it hasn't been tended for some years. I am having to dig 8-12 inches to completely remove dandelion roots, so they've been there for some time, just mown over instead of pulled. There is a rock wall from the sidewalk to the yard at an angle (our yard is about 4 feet lower than the sidewalk) and there are many weeds growing out of it from the concrete in between the rocks being old and cracked. Add to that, that we live on a street with heavy equipment traffic, and even a new rock wall would have a lot of stress. The yard needs a tremendous amount of work, certainly more than can be done over a week end with no notice. The other issue is that between crab grass, stinging nettles, dandelions and ragweed, the yard is about 60% weed. If I take her at her instructions to remove all the weeds, there will be NO yard. However, I don't MIND doing this. I love working in the yard, and building up a pretty yard that actually has grass instead of weeds would be a thing of joy indeed. I was completely thrown off by the lecture I received, though. My children were playing outside and she tried to scare them by telling them if they didn't help me in the yard we would get snakes that would bite them. She repeated herself multiple times and found several ways to throw into the conversation that her husband was a cop, and that I could get fined for having a messy yard (I bet that's news to the people down the street from me who have four rusted out vehicles on blocks in their front yard). while I have seen code enforcement around, I don't think this city has the money to pay someone to ticket for every little thing that larger cities do. I was also thrown off by the time frame. 4 days to undo years of neglect. Then, she tells me, after the conversation I had JUST had with the landlord, that they are planning on selling the house when our lease is up, so she would like our cooperation in getting the house ready for the market. I am unsure of how to deal with this situation in the long run. I have already decided that when she comes today, I will simply tell her that we had commitments already for the weekend, but that we worked on it as much as we could, and will continue to work on it daily until it looks better. But for one, I'm not sure how to deal with her on a regular basis. She is the type of person that makes me not like people, LOL. Second, as renters, while it's our responsibility to mow, pull weeds, etc., it's not our responsibility to fix the mistakes of previous renters who were not held to their own responsibilities. Third, it's certainly not our responsibility to prepare a house for market. This is weighing heavily on my heart. The vindictive part of me is tempted to pull out the 60% of the yard that is weeds and just let her deal with that. But I'm trying really hard to let the vindictive part of me die, even though it's fighting every step of the way, LOL. I am going to point out to her today what is weeds and what isn't and let her make the decision. But I really don't like the notion of having to deal with her for 10 more months. I don't appreciate being bullied into things. I didn't say anything Friday when she was here because I was so angry I knew if I started, I wouldn't stop. One of my goals today is to not let her make me angry. I guess I'm asking for advice on handling this situation in a manner that will be beneficial to everyone. I'm disappointed that the landlord himself couldn't notify us that they were selling the house, but I don't wish him any ill will. Now I just want to be done with it. I know we can't get out of our lease without it becoming a court issue, and right now we can't afford to move anyway, so the point is moot. I have no desire to take them to court anyway, especially since they live in Denver and would have to travel all the way down here, and at this point, they haven't broken the terms of the lease. But I also don't want to spend the next 10 months of my life being bullied by someone who, I guess, has some issues of her own to work out. Thanks in advance.

I got 10. Lots of yard work!

WE go through a lot of papertowels, but, we make our own baby wipes here. I dont know that it ends up being cheaper than buying wipes, but this way I control exactly what's being rubbed on the baby's skin. As for around the kitchen, I do use paper towels for draining when I fry things, and dh uses them on his nosey nose, LOL, but other than that we don't really use them. I clean up spills and such with wash cloths.

Is it Friday already?!?! Holy cow! Cat, my thoughts are with you. Stargazer, I'm glad things are working out for you! I'm tired and can't remember the other posts, LOL. I seem to be perpetually tired this week. I had a deadline on a website I was designing and got it finished just in time. Phew! I did, however, get work things organized so now I know what needs to be done when. I'm very excited about the way things are moving in my life right now I'm just filled with joy, albeit exhausted joy, LOL. I've even resigned myself to my daughter going to live with her dad. It's what she feels will make her happy, and that is what I want for her. Nothing particularly exciting is happening. My son tried to bury the youngest DD in the dirt yesterday. She was COVERED, and her pretty pink dress was ruined. Not a "good" dress, but nonetheless-certainly one I can't donate, LOL. DH is working overtime again this weekend, which makes the soccer schedule kind of weird. But we will figure it out. Today I've done nothing exciting except finish that website. There will be several updates next week, but they wanted the skeleton of it up by today at least. Everything else can be added on later. OK, I'm off to read some more posts. This is one of those days I'm desperate for grown up contact, LOL.