Back to life...trip over...using what we have.

We went on our vacation to Rhode Island. It was a massive amount of fun and good times for the kids, my DH, and myself. We left Sunday morning after I got out of work, and drove nine hours, to arrive at the hotel at 6 pm.

We celebrated Christmas with family and friends. We went out to eat A LOT with family, friends, and just the five of us. We did a lot of swimming in the hotel pool and spent time in the hot tub. We went to the ocean to get pictures of the five of us.

We left Rhode Island Christmas night around 8 pm and drove back home to VA. I went to work all weekend.

Last night's meal was french toast. We had a lot of bread crust in the freezer that needed to be used. I used three eggs, some reconstituted dry milk, vanilla, and cinnamon and made French toast for the five of us. We topped it with pancake syrup (finished the last bit on one old bottle).

This morning, I put a whole chicken in the crock pot with some frozen corn, peas, several potatoes, and half an onion. I added some poultry seasoning, bouillon cubes, onion powder, garlic, pepper, and sage. It will cook for several hours in the crock pot.

I have two small containers of chicken stock in the freezer. I took them out to thaw. I will be making chicken gravy to serve over the veggies tonight.

Dinner tonight

We had black beans and brown rice that I steamed. We also had 5 bratwurst links fried with sliced red, yellow, and orange peppers, and sliced onion. I sliced off the "skin" and fried the meat in small "chunks".

HEAVEN!!

Last night's dinner

I made a HUGE cheese pizza for the kids. We had our own ingredients for dough in the AMB, I added crushed garlic, onion powder, basil, and parsley to it. It made dough for three hours and rose. I took the dough out of the AMB and managed to roll it out into a 13 x 9 baking pan and added the last 1/4 cup of spaghetti sauce (I had two jars in the fridge that were almost empty), used some deli cheese ends I bought a while ago, and topped it off with more onion powder, basil, parsley, and garlic.

I also took a pound of ground turkey our of the freezer. I made turkey meatballs and made a "Sweet sauce" of sorts. I chopped up a red and yellow pepper, half an onion, and two cloves of garlic. I added the veggies to the thawed out turkey, along with one egg, some Worcestershire sauce, and some breadcrumbs. I made 24 meatballs and baked them in the oven.

I had scrapped out the last of the spaghetti sauce that didn't' get used on the pizza. I had some older BBQ sauce packets in the fridge, along with some raspberry jelly that seen better days. So I combined all of the "sauces" into one, mixed them together in a bowl, and heated it up in the microwave.

When the meatballs were finished baking, I added them to the sauce, and made plates for the five of us. Each plate had two small pieces of cheese pizza and a few meatballs on it.

There's nothing left and the kids loved it. It also emptied out some of the condiments that were lurking around.

Been very busy...

I'm working. A lot. We are getting ready to go to our parent's home in Rhode Island on Sunday morning after working all night. My husband will be driving. I will be sleeping. The kids will have to tough it out in the back seat.

Between working all this overtime, attending online classes and making sure I meet all the deadlines for school work, I found that my blog has taken a back seat. I'm hoping to keep up with this and get it to at least every other day.

So, what have we been doing? My DH went to the dentist to get his cavities filled. 159 dollars. We went Christmas shopping for the kids at Best Buy; $$$$$$, but I paid for their gifts with cash that I saved from working all the extra hours. I am almost finished paying on my mother's utilities. I have 184 dollars left to finish off the sewer bill. I did tell her that this is the last time I will be able to assist with paying her bills.

My DD went back to work this week. She was out for two weeks due to low production ratios at the factory. They are closing again the week of Christmas. I had to tell her that she's going to have to budget her money to make sure she has stuff she "needs" while she's home. She does have to help at home with chores, animal care, and her siblings.

Tuition for my next class will be due in February. I'm saving up now for this expense. Graduate school is EXPENSIVE! Each class is 5 credits, and it's 445 dollars a credit. I'm attending one class at a time, since it's what I can afford (barely afford, but I refuse to take out a student loan). I'm still overpaying my mortgage, and my student loan from my bachelor's degree.

Dinners:

My DH has contributed to the stocking of the pantry and freezer. He sold some of his "collections" of comic books and figures. He has bought a lot of frozen prepared foods for the freezer. He has been told that when I am working night shift, he's responsible for cooking dinner for the five of us. He's done a good job with having something available. I can't complain since it's frozen prepared stuff, at least he's making the effort to feed the family. He's not a from scratch kind of guy. He does take pride in showing me everything he bought.

We had a prepared stir fry meal (chicken, water chestnuts, broccoli, peppers, rice), pasta and sauce, subway sandwiches, one night we had marinated chicken thighs and steamed veggies (OMG HEAVEN!), frozen pizza, and pancakes.

I am getting ready to take my ACLS re certification on Wednesday. Friday, I have to re certify for CPR, and I am scheduled to work Saturday night...then we leave to go to R.I.

I have lots of frozen bean soup (pinto/great northern beans, onion, carrots, potato, ham stock, water) that I made in November 2014. I have several plastic containers in the freezer. I took a bunch of them out this morning, and put them in the crock pot with a container of from scratch chicken stock. I added a whole chopped onion, the last three carrots I had, a container of chopped ham (I forgot was in the freezer), and three chopped up potatoes. I am going to let this simmer all day in the crock pot. I am doing to make a small salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, pickles), offer a plate of cheese and crackers, and dinner will be made for the five of us.

Using what we have...

We have some green leaf lettuce and two roma tomatoes that need to be used up. We have a few eggs, and a pound of turkey bacon that is in the fridge. We have a few hamburger rolls that need to be used. 

I'm going to make BLT's for the adults for dinner. The kids don't really care for them, so they will get fried egg and turkey bacon sandwiches. 

We are going to Rhode Island the week of Christmas and I want to clear out as much as possible from the fridge. 

What's been happening...

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging. I worked 60 hours last week, started my first week of my Master's program online, and have been sleeping. Since school started, I've been busy with homework and studying.

My kids are doing well. We went out last week to Clearbrook Park for a Winter Wonderland Festival of Lights. How much fun it was. It was five dollars a person admission. We had a blast!!

Dinners, well my DH and kids have been cooking. We had beef strips, rice and red beans one night. My DH bought the beef strips. We had white rice and boneless chicken strips stir fried another night (my DH cooked). We had pasta and sauce another night, and homemade pizza one night.

I got home from work yesterday morning and went Christmas shopping for the kids. They are finished with the exception of stocking stuffers. I'm seriously considering giving my DH a gift card to the book store and some cash.

I paid in cash for my first class. It's an awesome feeling. I need to save for my next class that begins in February.

Dinner last night was a pan of beef stew (using beef strips, potatoes, carrots, bouillon, onion, and garlic. There was not much left over.

Tonight we are having a small pork roast I found on mark down at Food Lion. I put it in the crock pot with a jar of German sour kraut. We will have some mac and cheese (boxed) and herb stuffing from Aldi. I will also steam some veggies form the freezer.

It's December!!

I cant' believe that it's all ready December. Time goes fast when you are living, working lots of overtime, and spending time with my favorite people, my DH and kids.

I worked all weekend and slept until 4 yesterday. We ended up making scrambled eggs and toasted bagels for dinner last night. My DD had a doctor appointment to get to at 5 last night.

I started my first class at Walden University towards my master's degree yesterday.

We were talking last night about life. We've decided that after mid January, I would cut back again on the overtime. I'm exhausted from working so much. My DH and I have started bickering back and forth. I don't want this to start again on a regular basis. I am scheduled for four 12 hour nights a week until mid January. I can't get out of the overtime now, since I am all ready committed to it and the schedule has been updated.

Dinner:

I have a medium size fatty piece of pork that went into the crock pot this morning. I bought pork when Aldi had HUGE roast for 1.99 lb. I sliced one whole onion, three cloves of garlic, and the last bit of Sweet Baby Ray BBQ sauce, combined with the bottom of one bottle of tomato based "sweet salad dressing". I am going to let this cook all day until later this afternoon. We have some mashed sweet potatoes to finish from Thanksgiving. We will have some steamed green beans or broccoli with this meal.

I am working tonight (one shift) and this will equal 24 hours so far this week. I have five shifts (60 hours) total this week to get through.