car saga

Well after spending $1300 on our expedition's fuel system and Nate totaling our Durango Then searching for a month for a new car, or cars because the expedition had been acting up again- it died.

The transmission blew on Nate's way to work, ugh!

Rental car and marathon car shopping trip this weekend here we come...

Another however long being stuck at home with no car for me...

I've been stuck at home since December really. The expedition had been broken for over a month, and the Durango was also having work done to it, Then we had one vehicle done and Nate went back to work and school with it... Then for a blissful week or two, both vehicles were running and on the road, I could go to target, and run errands and visit friends during the day... pure bliss. But then, My Durango was totaled. One car is doable, not fun. Particularly when Nate heads to work at 5:30 am and he works 40 minutes away, so its not like I could even bring him to work and have the car for the day.

I'm not looking forward to having a car payment again... on the expedition we have a minimal car payment, well secured personal loan, but that will be gone soon.      

The plan is (I think) to get another vehicle that fits the whole family, and get the expedition fixed, then we will have a backup. I don't know if we are going to have a car payment on this new family vehicle, but are going to wait until the expedition is paid off (thank God) to get a third, commuter vehicle.

Easy and fast chicken tortilla soup

I rarely use exact recipes for things like soups, preferring to add things to taste or until it looks right. In fact I do most of my cooking that way. This soup is a mish mash from years of trial and error, trying different things.

Chicken, now when I'm in a hurry I use a large can of chicken, drained, but usually I use leftover chicken in it, one chicken breast or so, shredded.

One can of black beans

a carton of chicken broth (for this I use low salt)

half a bag of frozen corn

and a cup or so of salsa (I get the big jar and use half)

a bag of tortilla chips

shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or other cheese)

I add it all to the crock pot (or soup pan if I'm in a hurry) except broth, chips and cheese and stir
then I take the empty can and add a couple cans of water (more if you want it less salty)

then stir it all up and add the chicken broth until it look as 'soupy' as you like it (remember once you add the tortilla chips it will soak up a lot of broth. Heat it until hot on stovetop or in crock pot.

to serve crush tortilla chips in bottom of bowl ladle in soup and add cheese. Enjoy!

When I make it I get to enjoy the whole thing myself usually, well sharing with the baby. M and C (my two younger stepsons) will also eat it if they are here.

Family Vacation wish list

I LOVE vacations! I love travelling and seeing new places, and trying new things. Nate and I love road trips, and we took our first big one last year with the kids. When you have 5 kids you kind of have to take a road trip wherever you want to go as a family, airplanes are so expensive!

I've read lots of articles about the best places to take a family vacation, but I have my own list. I'll blog about these places as we go.

Boston

6 flags new England

Philadelphia

Washington DC

Wisconsin (to see my family)

dude ranch

Yellowstone

cruise

paradise island

Williamsburg

Disney World FL

Germany (to see where Nate lived)

great American road trip in an RV

I'd love to do an extended Europe trip

Puerto rico

myrtle beach

Indoor water park

Arkansas to see their uncle

how to decorate a really cool kids room

Find a theme- figure out a theme for the room, there are so many ideas for kids. my boys room is going to be Car/garage, I'd love to do a Paris theme in a girls room, but S doesn't want that. We have a Paris room on the way for our bedroom because I have all these things from our trip to Paris, but an adult room is not as much fun as a kids room.

Pick a color scheme- do you need to paint, if so, figure out what colors for the walls, main decor, and accent colors. Have some fun with it.

Wall decals and diy artwork are great ways to inexpensively accent the room, and to bring your theme in, especially in a kids room theme like.... Ninja turtles, which could get expensive.

Accessories, Diy accessories are the less expensive option for decorating. I'd have the kids help make the accessories then they feel like they are a part of it. If you choose to buy accessories let them come and help pick them out.

How to never have to sort laundry again

With a family of seven, four being little boys, three wearing similar sizes. sorting laundry can be difficult, tedious, and time consuming especially when the sizes on the tag are worn off.

We do have the kids help fold clothes, and our twelve year old does her own laundry usually. Even still seven people make for a lot of laundry. We found a way to make it easier. we bought a laundry basket for each boy, (well other than the baby), and have them put their dirty clothes in them, when the laundry basket gets a little full we throw all the laundry in the washing machine (using color catchers to prevent colors bleeding), then in the dryer, then back in the laundry basket for the boys to fold and put away completely eliminating sorting.

This method also gives the kids some responsibility in doing laundry, because they give me the basket when its full then, fold and put away their own clothes.  As they are tall enough I will also show them how to work the washing machine and dryer.

Ideas for a really cool boy's room

use (like we do) Rolling tool chests as dressers, they are sturdy, roomy, reasonable and very cool looking for a room, especially a boy room with a car or truck or racing theme, they also sometimes come with a warranty and should last so they can be used for actual tool chests as the kids get older.

use a 5 gallon bucket for toy storage, or a hamper. I use a 5 gallon bucket as a hamper for the baby's clothes. this works well because I can fill it up with oxy clean and soak clothes if need be. I also will be adding to the boy's shared room a 5 gallon bucket for toy storage for their trucks (if I let them keep them in their room.) You can find some with pretty cool designs (like the Patriots ones I found at Lowes) you can also get them for free.

A metal trash bin as a hamper works great! its semi decorative, will add to any garage or car themed room, or really any boy themed bedroom. I'd use this for E and M if I wasn't going another route, but when I get to C's bedroom I may  give him one of these. I may also use this for the toy room as toy storage, or even in M and E's room as a stuffed animal bin, not that they have many stuffies (maybe 3  each), and they do keep them on their beds now, but this is just such a cool feature and would add so much to their theme.

Car prints can be obtained by taking a trek to a drive in (not the eating kind) and a camera. I can name at least 5 drive ins (or cruise ins) that happen in my area all summer. You can get prints of hot rods, classic muscle cars, antique cars, new high performance cars, and just plain odd cars at these. Its very easy to get pictures of different features of these cars, or taken at different angles can make really cool, different pictures for walls.

Curtains are very easy to make, and you can pick any color and pattern fabric to make them from, all you need is a way to cut it, thread and a sewing machine (and hopefully someone who can sew).

I'm making the boys a lamp for their room, well customizing a lamp shade. I am taking hot wheels of all their dad's favorite cars and making a track around a black (or another color) lampshade using a silver (or another color) sharpie, and gluing the cars onto the track.

I'd love to figure out how to make their closet door look like a garage door, I saw a garage door looking closet door on pinterest and can think of little else since, what a cool idea.

They have interlocking mats at Sams club that look similar to some made for a garage floor, I may use these over the wood floor in the boy's bedroom to keep it from being damaged. Plus, it would look cool.

Glow in the dark stars are a must for any kids room at one point or another. E and M have the wall decal stars on their walls now. They will probably be keeping most of them if not all when we redo, but mostly on the walls and ceiling right by their bed and on their metal bunk bed.

A rug with a race track on it is a great way to cover a floor and add décor. Not very original, but still a great tip, and you can find them very reasonably.

license plates on the wall are a great idea! I even found one in mexico when on vacation, those are going on my boys' wall

a diy painting of a car or gas station symbol. I'll be doing a shell symbol for my boys.

Old fashioned gas pumps are an awesome decoration idea for a car themed room with extra space. I really wish we could do this, but have no space in the boy's bedroom.

Highway signs, or highway sign recreations for the walls. It could be as easy as printing out on paper. I'm thinking of doing a stop sign above the bed, and a yield sign at the hamper

hubcaps are a great thing to put on the wall. 

an oil catch pan makes a perfect theme catchall, place on top of the dresser to catch ipod, kindle, Ds, glasses, keys, and anything else.

use a thread spool organizer or a fishing lure organizer (that's what we use) for toy car storage the lure organizer has different length spots so it works for different cars.

February challenge

I'm challenging myself in two areas this February. I've posted before about Facebook free February. No Facebook for the entire month, a few of us are doing it. I also will be doing No Soda February. I've been drinking way too much soda lately. A couple friends did this challenge in January and my plan had been to join them. I failed, the very first day! In my defense I had a stomach bug January first, and nothing settles the tummy quite like coke or ginger ale. Anyway, instead of starting late and finishing into February I decided to wait until February to give it up for the whole month.  This will be a little tricky, because we have Valentine's day and February Vacation. We always do root beer floats with the kids for Valentines day, and I LOVE Root beer floats, and really just any root beer. Nate and I also go out for dinner for Valentines Day. On this date, because it's special I'd usually get a soda instead of water, I refuse to get coffee out to eat because they charge ridiculous prices for not so great coffee. I'd rather pay $4 for a Starbucks, than $2 out to eat for yucky coffee twice. I very rarely drink anything but soda or water when out to eat. On occasion I will have a glass of wine, or a beer, or a margarita, but that is maybe once a year. That won't change because of my no soda challenge. We also do fun things with the kids over February break. Again one of those things being root beer floats, and another one being out to eat. Usually when the kids get a soda to drink (which is very very rare) I will end up taking a sip or two, and if the family goes out to eat together I'll usually get a soda. I also get soda when we go to eat somewhere I know has yucky water... I think we are going to one of those places tonight.

Signing off... No soda and no facebook for Liz

Boy's room -dressers

We got the boys new dressers today. We've been keeping an eye on Craftsman rolling tool chests for a good sale price, and finally today we looked and there they were, the bottom four drawer cart for $81.99 and the middle chest for $49.99, Yesss! We got two of each. The sale price was for the black and not the Craftsman red we had originally wanted, but for $30 less than the red, black it is!

 Boys are notoriously rough on their stuff, so we thought why not use a tool chest as a dresser, not only does it look cool (and it really, really does!) but its very sturdy, and comes with a warrantee. It also gives them more space than their previous dressers. Oh, and you can move them easily for cleaning, because they are on wheels!


They are also going through a kick where they love to get stuff they can use when they are adults. It started when we got a lifetime hunting and fishing license for M (the middle boy) for his birthday, They should be able to use these tool chests for tools when they grow up, a fact which they loved.

Their room is on the small size and with two dressers, plus their bunk bed there isn't much room for anything else. I'm moving the bookshelf to their brother's room across the hall for the time being.  Their toys have again accumulated in their room, and when replacing their dressers I'm going to purge clothes and the toys. The toys we are keeping will be rehomed downstairs to the toy room. They will get to keep their Legos, their cars, and maybe their monster trucks in their bedroom.

They absolutely love antique cars and hot rods, so with these as dressers especially, that will be my inspiration for their room.

They are already planning on giving their room a name. M came up with mini man cave, E came up with the secret hideout.
I'll be blogging the whole way.   I am also planning on doing some DIY artwork for their room and some photography.

Facebook Free February

A friend and I decided to go Facebook free in February in order to spend more time with our families and with God. It seems like I spend too much time on Facebook, and the internet in general. My cousin gave up Facebook for Lent last year and I figured, if she can do it for all of Lent I can surely do it for a month! I also have to catch up on my yearly Bible reading plan... I've been slacking.

Anyway, I'll be blogging about Facebook Free February here and tell you all what adventures we've been in instead!

Latte Loving- espresso

Part of making a great latte like I posted here is the espresso. Trust me, if you try a good shot and a bad shot you CAN tell the difference. If you want to make your own espresso at home and have it taste like a coffee shop I can tell you how.  First, the coffee grind for espresso should be a few notches finer than a 'normal' coffee grind. you should fill espresso cup for the brewer and lightly tamp down the espresso lightly is the key, if you go too hard the water won't stream through well. affix the espresso cup and brew.  when a properly brewed shot is done there should be three distinct parts, with the top layer being crema (a light froth) this is created from the tamping down process. The shot of espresso should be used or drank immediately, as the quality of the espresso will decrease rapidly (15 seconds and its rather gross) a fresh proper espresso shot should be rich and caramelly and smooth... you can taste the difference if its not done just right!

I posted about the cost here

spending $200 a month on groceries for our family of 7 meat and dairy tips

I was posting on a facebook page I belong to, and we were talking about grocery budgets, I said for a family of 7 we spend about $200 a month on groceries... The uproar was amazing... everyone asked how we do it, what our tips are. I don't usually coupon, so that made it even more interesting for people. I thought I'd share some of our tips in a series of posts.

We shop between five stores. The majority of our shopping is done at Hannaford grocery store and our local IGA. IGA has the best prices on meats, cold cuts, deli cheese and bakery breads. Hannaford is good for everything else, unless IGA has a sale. they frequently do 10 for 10 or something similar. When those sales are going on we stock up.

Meat and dairy are the most expensive things in our grocery budget. We go through at least two gallons of milk each week. That's $16 off the top of our grocery bill, we generally buy milk at the gas stations that sell at state minimum pricing, and get the generic of our favorite brand. They are bottled in the same place, and are the same milk, but Smileys is sold at gas stations for state minimum, and Oakhurst is sold at grocery stores for more.

Meat, we buy pork at no more than $1.99 lb. pork chops or cutlets we can often find for less, but tenderloin or other pork roasts we buy when its on sale for 1.99 and stock up. We buy boneless chicken breasts at no more than $1.99lb as well. Lately I've been getting it for 1.79 lb and stocking up. Hamburger we only get when it goes on sale, and we buy the large family pack to get additional savings. Beef roast we can get for 2.99 lb sometimes and we stock up then. we often buy the reduced steaks (the ones that are about to expire) and cook them that night, other than that we buy London broil or sirloin steak cuts that are less expensive but not as tender and we marinate them.

The biggest sales on meat are generally around Thanksgiving (turkey), Christmas (ham, roasts), and Easter (Ham) we stock up seriously around these times. one good sized turkey can feed our family for a week easily, often longer than that, same goes for a ham. I'll post more about tips on making a turkey last here and more about making a ham last here.

Latte loving- Make your own coffee shop lattes at home

I posted about saving money by making coffee shop lattes at home for myself and friends here now I'm going to tell you how to make a great latte.

As stated in my other post you need an espresso machine. I guess you don't really need an espresso machine. you could microwave the milk instead of steaming it and make espresso in a regular machine or keurig, but no promises.

Turn the espresso machine settings to steam so they heat up, when its ready steam the milk (about 20 ounces of it for a large, or venti, 16 ounces for a medium or grande, 12 ounces for a small or tall). start steaming the milk

Then get espresso ready, fill espresso filter cup, and lightly tamp down the ground coffee (coarser grind is better for espresso) attach to espresso machine and brew into two shot glasses. While brewing pump five pumps (or capfuls) of syrup into your large (20 oz or above) cup, 4 pumps (or capfuls) for your 16 oz  drink or 3 pumps or capfuls for a  12 ounce drink.

Add the two shots of espresso to your 16 or 20 ounce drink and one of the shots to a 12 ounce drink unless you want it strong. Then fill the cup with the steamed milk. (milk should be between 140 degrees farenheit to 180 degrees farenheit. Then you sit and enjoy!

Latte Loving - the cost

One of my favorite items in my kitchen is my espresso machine. My mom got it for us for our wedding. I am the only coffee drinker in the house, but I have an addiction.... to the dirty S expensive coffee word. I Love Starbucks! Nate HATES the price.

I still get one once or twice a week, but to supplement I buy the syrups at Starbucks and make my own. I did this before, when I was living in Wisconsin, an hour away from the closest Starbucks and no local coffee shops to make my yummy latte for me. I used that espresso machine (one I bought from Starbucks) so much that I burned the motor out in a year. Now I do it here, whenever I want.

  When Nate and I met I was buying one or two (sometimes more) Starbucks a day, at $4 a pop that's 8 dollars a day, $56 a week, $224 a month. This couldn't continue once we got married because our budget was stretched further.This is a great way to save money and still get that Starbucks treat.

 the syrups cost about $12 apiece and you can get at least 30 venti size drinks out of it, which is $.40 per drink

You can find pretty reasonable espresso makers, ours was a gift, but it would have more than paid for itself with the savings.

Espresso roast coffee or really any dark roast you can get reasonably, but if you want Starbucks espresso roast you can find it for $12 a pound. Other espresso roasts and dark roasts you can get reasonably, I even scored some Starbucks French Roast and Café Verona at a local discount/salvage store we have here at $3 for a 12 oz. package. For a venti you need two shots of espresso which is about half an ounce of coffee. at $12 for 16 ounces that's $.75 an ounce or $.38 for a venti size drink.

Milk at $4 a gallon is the only other necessary ingredient you can get 6.4 venti size drinks out of one gallon Which is $.63 per drink. I'll teach you how to make a great latte in another post.

That makes  $1.41 for a venti drink, instead of the normal $4-$5.

We have friends over at least once a week, on Fridays, and make lattes for everyone. I keep at least two syrups on hand, vanilla and cinnamon dolce. Cinnamon dolce is the hit on our Friday night get together, I made 5 lattes with cinnamon dolce syrup last Friday. I use the inexpensive Starbucks dark roasts I found and fabulous Haitian coffee that one of my friends got on a mission trip to Haiti, so mine usually costs even less to make. Hear more about her trip in a future post. I also buy the chai mix that they use at Starbucks, Tazo chai concentrate occasionally to make chai lattes. I have found it at another discount store for $2.50 a carton, it usually goes for about $4 per carton. I like my chai lattes with cinnamon dolce syrup in them too.

Introductons

I guess I'm a little late with the introductions, that probably should have been my first post.

I am a mom, I love Jesus, reading, baking, shopping, and COFFEE, lattes, espresso, or the regular stuff, flavored, or dark roast are my favorites, shoes, and coach.

Nate is my hubby, and best friend. He just went back to work as a planner. He loves cars, snowmobiles, 4 wheelers and the like. He's a bit of a gear head. He is also a financial guru. He really is great at finding good deals and making finances work, even with a little budget. He's helped me to become more financially aware and although its a struggle I'm continually working toward spending less, and I'll be sharing some of my struggles with this and some of his tips for financial health, and what we've done. He's also helped friends with their budgets and spending, and some have told us his plan worked better than that other financial guy out there.

  We have 5 kids as I've mentioned before.



I have a beautiful 12 year old daughter, She's a bit of a diva, she loves to read and she dances, she's on the competition team.

 I have three stepsons (life gets a little crazy with them).

E is a 7 year old. He plays soccer and has yet to decide on any other sports, He loves animals and is the enthusiastic helper around the house.

M is the mad man of the house, a bull in a china closet, but very, very caring, he plays soccer and basketball so far, I'm sure there will be more sports for him.

C is mostly sweet, a bit OCD, ok very OCD, He LOVES watching football and hockey. Loves wearing sports outfits, and plays soccer, I'm sure there will be more sports in his future.

The baby S, is 15 months old and he's ours. He's a sweet little boy that loves to get into everything, snuggle with momma, play with his siblings and his animals. He also loves to play with balls and cars, and to eat!

We have a crazy life because there are so many of us, and so many of them are active boys. We also have two dogs, a cranky ten year old Papillion, Toby (he's mine I had him before we got married). We have a Black Lab, Mari Alice Tibbetts, she is the best family dog ever. She tolerates every torture dished out by the kids with a thumping tail and a smile. We also have a cat, Puffy, a tiger kitten who is wild and crazy, yet sweet and snuggly. Our outside pet is a sweet unassuming goat named Junie, she's aDS Nigerian dwarf doe. We also have chickens.

We just recently lost our other goat, Mayo and our mini potbelly pig, Johnny cupcake within a week of each other to an illness, which was so, so sad. We are so glad that Junie lived through it, but is very lonely without her friends.

This summer I want to start doing more than just egg chickens. I'd like to try some meat birds. We've been talking about getting another potbelly pig... One that will be more like a dog. Johnny cupcake was getting more friendly but wasn't socialized enough as a piglet so never would have been the dog like pig we wanted, but we still loved him lots. Mayo was a baby goat that was taken too young from his mother, he was not the most healthy of goats to begin with, but I loved him and bottle fed him myself.

 

 

This is us, I hope you keep coming back to get to know us better!

Taking a weekend away without breaking the bank

When you have a family of 7 it is much more expensive to do anything. Going out to eat suddenly costs astronomical amounts, even at fast food places. there are many ways to save, as simple as dollar menu over those kiddie meals, but I'll get into all that in a later post. Taking a reasonable weekend away is difficult for families our size because many hotels don't have rooms that accommodate 7, which sometimes means two rooms and double the price. We are taking the kids away to an indoor water park this year for two nights, and as notoriously expensive as they are it is possible to have a somewhat reasonable trip. The first expense is the actual indoor water park hotel. We have three to choose from, a very small free one that requires two rooms, and two large expensive ones that require either two rooms or extra tickets. at $40 a pop that's a lot. for us the most reasonable way to do it with 5 kids is to get a family loft with a water park package. We found a deal on Groupon for a discount rate on the family loft that includes 4 tickets to the park. This means that with the baby so young we only have to buy two water park tickets.

The gas money to get there is a necessary evil, as is the loft and tickets. The best way to save money on this particular trip is on food. I always pack snacks on a road trip anyway. That saves on stopping at least once. I'll bring snacks and drinks for the trip, and peanut butter and bread for PB sandwiches, and probably cold cuts and cheese for sandwiches for lunch at the hotel room. This is great for two reasons, number one more time at the water park! number two saving money, between the bread and peanut butter for us it will cost about 5 bucks, a trip to fast food even eating off the dollar menu will cost at least $15 for all of us. Our family can live on sandwiches for the two nights, but we will probably eat out at least once, maybe at a sit down dinner, maybe at a fast food, maybe one of each. when going out to eat at a 'real' restaurant we try to go to a kids eat free day. Then hubs and I get a meal and we can let Diva (My 12 year old daughter) get an adult meal so we get three free kids meals for the three older boys. The baby gets to share a little of everyone's. If we can't go to a kids eat free we will usually have the three boys the Diva and the baby share two or three adult meals if it costs less then buying them each their own meal, or we buy bulk (if its available). We also give the kids the lower priced options, and we drink water, as drinks at restaurants are so overpriced.

The rest of our trip should be fun for the kids without ever leaving the hotel room, because the room will likely have cable (which we don't have at home) and the kids get their electronics pretty much whenever they want on the trip (the electronics are usually very limited at home). With the access to the pools and slides limited to one day this trip is not for everyone. Our kids will be disappointed they cant go to the water park all the time, but when we do go it will be so much fun!

edible landscaping

I know plenty of people who incorporate things like blueberry bushes into their landscaping plans, we do live in Maine. I didn't realize that edible landscaping was 'a thing' until just recently when a friend posted about it on Facebook. I've been thinking a lot about what landscaping I want to do in front of our house. I need to get the farmers porch fixed before I start, but the edible landscaping idea intrigued me. I started thinking about all of the perennials and shrubs that are edible that I could incorporate. Obviously blueberries had to be added, I'm planning on planting asparagus anyway, maybe I could add that. If the rhubarb that I planted last year comes up I could replant some of that. Lettuce would be a neat ground cover... My mind just keeps going. I'm excited about all the possibilities!

Back to work

After a year of being unemployed, Nate (my DH) just got a job. Today is his first day, time for me to get used to having the house to myself again. I'm thinking a lazy day today, snuggling with the baby, watching my shows (the sappy shows that Nate wont watch with me) and coffee! Ok maybe snuggling with the baby is just a wish... chasing after him picking up his messes is more likely, let the toddling ensue! As for right now, I'm planning out my garden! I've tried for the last three years to have a garden. the first couple of years we didn't get loam or till in time. Same as last year, but last year I did containers. I planted tomatoes and peas in containers and got a great crop of tomatoes. The peas started out great, I harvested three and had tons on the vine, but the goats found them. so much for the peas. for some reason the goats did not like tomato vines, but the pig loved the just ripened tomatoes, and ate most of them before I could pick them. This is the year I'm going to actually do my real garden, with a fence around it. If I start planning it now maybe it will actually happen. I don't know which varieties I'll plant yet, but I want to plant mostly heirloom so I can try my hand at saving seeds. Here is the list green beans sugar snap peas cucumbers to pickle cucumbers to eat zucchini summer squash normal peas (the kind you shell) sugar pumpkins watermelon butternut squash jalapeno spinach romaine butter lettuce maybe iceberg I also want to plant asparagus, even though it takes three years to yield. I can't wait to see if the rhubarb I planted comes up, I'll try that again if it didn't. we already have raspberries and blackberries (if the goats don't eat them all again) I'll post about the edible landscaping I want to do tomorrow. =