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.