Streeeeetching the budget.......

Like every other family in this economy & more importantly out of a desire to honor God with the time, money & resources He has given us, we are trying to do more with less & live life more simply. One of the ways I can help my Hubby make this work for our family is by being wise with our grocery budget. My goal is to feed my family healthy, budget friendly but delicious meals! It makes me ridiculously happy when my Hubby & my little girls love what I cook for them & especially when they continue to say how delicious it is the whole meal through! I LOVE to hear, "Mommy, this is the BEST dinner you've ever made!" which happens almost every night not because I'm a great cook but because I have a very sweet & grateful family! Although there are plenty of times when Mommy's "creativity" doesn't quite agree with everyone....... : ) As I said before, I get very excited about this so I wanted to share how we did this week. When I say this week I mean the week to come. This morning I made a crock pot full of boneless skinless chicken breast that is the foundation of most of our meals this week. Here are the meals I made & the breakdown of each item & how much it all cost. I only made 4 "real" meals this week because we eat a more simple dinner on care group night, on Sunday nights, our tradition is breakfast for dinner & we will go out for a date night one night & our girlies will eat something "fun" with our babysitter that night.

Meal # 1 ~ Roasted garlic parmesan alfredo sauce w/ shredded chicken & rotini pasta

Meal # 2 ~ Shredded "crock pot chicken" over rice

Meal # 3 ~ Shredded chicken tacos and/or "Scoopie"

Meal # 4 ~ Homemade chicken noodle soup

I made all of these meals for 6 people with one 3 pound bag of boneless skinless chicken breast. We had veggies and/or a fruit to go with each meal which I already have on hand so I didn't include it in the cost.

3 pound bag of chicken $7.00

Alfredo sauce 1.88

Rotini pasta x 3 boxes 1.12 each = 3.36

Chicken stock x 2 boxes 1.50 each = 3.00

Crm chicken soup x 2 cans 1.40 each = 2.80

Toast (for entire loaf) 1.00

Rice 2.30

Taco seasoning x 2 packs .75 each = 1.50

Shredded cheese 1.70

Sour cream 1.00

Tortilla chips/taco shells 2.00

Total: $27.50

$27.50 divided by 4 meals = about $6.85 per meal divided by 6 people = about $1.15 per meal per person!

I was so excited to see that God can & does make our budget stretch & also allows our family to eat healthy & delicious food! Yippee! That makes me so happy! : ) I know all you other Mommy's desire to do the same & probably are already doing the same thing for your family. I want to encourage you that it is worth the effort, love & time you put into clipping coupons, actually USING the coupons, meal planning, cooking ahead if you need to & doing the very best with what God has given you, be it little or much, for the amazing people God has put in your life, your awesome family! Obviously this can & should extend into serving the other people God has put in our lives too through sharing hospitality. I am RE-convicted not to let our budget be an excuse for not practicing the art of biblical hospitality! Nothing makes me happier than to see my amazing family happy & showing God my gratitude for all He has given us! Happy cooking, budgeting & simplifying! : )

Pictures, Pictures EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!

Okay, I have this problem & it's a really big one! I take bazillions of pictures of my precious little girlies & then I get so overwhelmed because I can't decide which to use for my blog, facebook & to print out for myself & family, which to delete (oh my goodness, I can't believe I just said that! ; ) !) & which to just leave in my folder unnamed to look at "later"!!!!!!! I think I should tell you exactly how bad it is! We were out as a family this past weekend & I grabbed my camera to take a picture of an adorable moment (I guess that's part of my problem, I think ALL moments with my little girls are adorable ones! Hey, I'm their Mama, what can I say?!) : ) ANYWAY.......I grabbed my camera hoping to capture this amazing moment & the "memory card full" message popped up onto my screen. I was very annoyed (um, I mean angry, let's call it what it is, why don't we!) & I thought, WHAT??????? how can this be, I didn't take THAT many pictures! So, I handed my camera to my awesome & very gadget savvy Hubby to fix thinking that it had to be messed up! He looked at me with.......you know.......THAT look & said, "Baaaaaaabe, you have taken 1400 pictures!" YES, let me spell it out ~ fourteen hundred pictures! YIKES! Needless to say, I was a little embarassed! UGH! Me & my obsessive picture taking! So, it's gonna take me a while to get the pictures up that I talked about in my last blog! I really don't know where to start & I'm praying for lots of God's grace! : ) I'm VERY open to suggestions on how you other picture taking Mommy's do this!? : )

Needing & Loving God's Amazing Grace! : )

We've had so much going on that I don't even know where to start! Randal, our girlies & I are doing well & even though we've been busy God continues to give us His amazing grace!

My pregnancy is going well & I'll already be 8 weeks tomorrow! I have been feeling great besides a little queasiness in the early morning, late afternoon & before bed. It is not bad at all & I am SO grateful! Our girlies & I have enjoyed our weekly updates from "babycenter.com" about our new baby. Let's see......so far our baby went from the size of a poppy seed to a sesame seed to a lentil bean & last week he/she was the size of a blueberry! We look forward to our updates every Thursday & our girls can't wait to hear how big our baby is in terms of something they can see & understand! I still laugh when I think of our girls going around Walmart telling people, "my baby is the size of a jumbo shrimp" when I was pregnant with Ava! It totally cracked me up! : ) They are such cute little girlies & they always make Mommy laugh!

On March 1st it SNOWED!!!!!!! Our girlies had SO much fun playing in the snow, "sledding" on a toy box lid (you gotta make do when you don't get much snow & you aren't prepared : ) !), building their own & quite amazing igloo (all by their cute little selves!) & building adorable little "snow people"! Since we don't own snow bibs we had to stop playing 4 different times to come in, warm up with some yummy hot chocolate & change clothes! I was thoroughly surprised & impressed that my girls could play out in the snow for hours on end & never complain about being cold or wet! They have WAY more stamina than Mommy and YES, they had THAT much fun! : ) Mommy had to MAKE them come in to warm up! I have lots of fun pictures of our girls' fun in the snow that I can't wait to share! : )

Randal's parents, our girlies' very loved Poppy & Gram came for a visit the 2nd week of March. We had so much fun with them! Randal was only able to take 3 days off while they were here but we totally loved having him at home with us!!!!! While Daddy was at work, Poppy did a lot of things around the house to help Randal! What a huge blessing that was! One of our girlies most special treats was that Gram took each of them on their own special date with her! They had SO much fun & they are still talking about their dates! Randal & I got to go out for an awesomely fun date night with Dad & Mom while our girlies stayed with some of our favorite babysitters (we love you Alexander Girls : ) !) ! We went to a really cool Carribean restaurant in downtown Greenville called "Chicora Alley" & then we had ice cream too! Our week with them came to an end way too quickly! Once again, after they left, I found myself with 4 very sad, very emotional, very teary eyed little girlies who miss their Poppy & Gram!

On Sunday, March 15th, my very loved Grandma passed away. She had a major stroke the Wednesday before which left her in a coma. She died very peacefully on Sunday night & went to be with Jesus. I got to drive up to Franklin, NC to spend some time with my Grandma in the hospital on Friday night/early Saturday morning. I got to hold her hand, love on her & tell her how special she was to Randal, our girls & I! It was a very sweet but sad time for my Grandma & I alone in the quiet night of the ICU. I couldn't control my tears as I said goodbye. Since my Mom died 15 years ago, my Grandma has been like a mom to me. She stood in my Mom's place at our wedding as my Grandpa gave me away & she was there to celebrate when each of our babies were born. It is hard to put into words what my sweet Grandma means to me. My heart aches that she is gone! My girlies were very close to my Grandma too, she was more of a Grandma to them than a Great Grandma. They have greived for her too & I am sad to think of how they will miss her being a part of their lives! One of my very favorite memories is that my Grandma used to call our girls her "doll babies" ~ I used to love hearing her call them that! She was an absolutely amazing wife, mom, grandma, great grandma & woman of God! She loved & served the Lord & her family with all of her heart! I am so blessed that I was able to have such an amazing woman in my life! I am so sad to think about my sweet Grandpa trying to live every day life without his love! They were married for 65 years! He fell in love with my Grandma when he was 15 & a soda jerk at a drug store where he would make her favorite drinks. He has loved my Grandma unendingly for the past 72 years! I am comforted knowing my Grammy is with Jesus but she is deeply loved & terribly missed!

I have LOTS & I DO mean LOTS of pictures to share but I will be busy for the rest of the week with my Grandma's memorial service. I can't wait to share them with y'all as soon as I can! My sweet girlies are such an amazing gift to Mommy (& Daddy!)! They make my heart happy, keep me laughing & they make me need Jesus to be a better & more godly Mommy every day! : )

Unfortunately our sweet, amazing & extremely hard working Daddy has been missing a lot of fun lately! He works SO hard at work & he is taking a very intense & difficult school load this semester! He got straight A's last semester & all of his girlies are so proud of him! Randal just started his last semester & will graduate in May! We are SO excited!!!!!!!! Our girls & I are sad when he has to miss special family times but I am so grateful to God that he is working so hard to provide for our girls & I! : )

That's what's been going on at the Palmer Home! I know it's long & I'm working on being more concise! Sorry y'all!!!!!!!! I tried, I really did! Hope you still love me anyway! : )