Donate some Babylegs

A family that lives not all that far from us lost their son to mitochondrial disease before Thanksgiving. Their story was on our local news because an organization was helping to renovate a house for them to live in to accomadate their 3 year old's wheelchair. Unfortunately, Gavin only briefly got to see this house when he had to be returned to the hospital. He fought a very hard battle. His Mom is collecting baby legs to donate to Dupont Hospital. Gavin basically lived in babylegs because with all the tubing, etc, it made it alot easier, almost a neccessity to go with out pants. Babylegs are leggings that fit up the entire leg. Celia has quite a few and they were so handy when she was really little and needing frequent diaper changing (especially when I would let her go around in her fitted diapers without a cover). I think they are awesome. Now that she wears underwear, they aren't as practical. But we still use them on some occassions. I want to get some of their new tights but I will wait for a sale. I did order her some of their socks, I didn't even know they made socks. In anycase, that is besides the point.

Right now they have free shipping and buy one get one free baby legs. So if you so desire, go on the babylegs site or Target.com and order some baby legs. I don't think Target has free shipping on them.

Use this mailing address:

Karen Owens
PO Box 985
Boyertown PA 19512

Gavin's story is also on the babylegs website. There are some beautiful pictures of Gavin on his website, if you care to read his emotional story. He reminded me some of a few of the students in the Multiple Disability Support program I used to work in, so I think that is what really touched me.

Click on the picture above for more information on the campaign. Here is the link to babylegs. They will match every pair donated up to 5000. So I donated 4 (buy get one free, so paid for 2! and so that makes 8)

Greatly Dissapointed and Two Week Menu

Okay, I know that someone reads my blog. I know that and it made me so sad that no one, not a single person commented on my last post. In anycase, if you wanted to know what the picture was about- Celia was playing baseball in the snow with the noodle. It actualy worked and we had fun.

Okay here is my two week menu, that no one will read again...

We didn't eat the sweet and sour chicken on last week's menu, I forgot some ingredients at the store so we settled for some turkey manwich instead- I had all the ingredients on hand. So here is the next 2 weeks.

Saturday- Plum Island Clam Chowder- the best clam chowder ever!!! I will try to find a link.
Sunday- Turkey Pasta Fagioli
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 minced garlic clove
1 c each diced onion, carrots., celery
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 can great northern beans, undrained (or soaked dried beans)
2 - 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1 can low sodium chicken broth
(1 T vinegar, 1 ½ t salt,1 t Italian seasonings)
8 oz small shell pasta
Brown turkey along with onions, carrots, celery and garlic for 10 min on med. Add remaining ingredients EXCEPT pasta. Simmer for 30 min. Cook pasta al dente. Add to soup and simmer. I think this is more like a pasta dish rather then soup, I haven't made it in awhile. I may try it in the crockpot (adding the pasta 20 min. before serving)
Monday- Lasagna Roll-ups (frozen meal)
Tuesday- Brushetta Chicken Bake
Wednesday- Calzones (frozen in freezer, we didn't eat them last menu)
Thursday- Leftovers
Friday- Spaghetti
Saturday- out/ freezer item
Sunday- White bean and sausage soup
Monday- Creamy Chicken (frozen meal)- I honestly forget where I got this recipe, but it was yummy
Tuesday- Skillet ziti and veggies
2 cups pasta sauce
2 cups water
8 oz ziti
1 package stir-fry veggies
Shredded provolone or mozzarella (about 3/4 c)
Combine pasta sauce and water in a skillet, boil. Add pasta and veggies, cover, lower temp, and simmer for 15 min. or until pasta is tender
Wednesday- Leftovers
Thursday- Blue cheese and dried cherry meatloaf

I have recipes for everything else, if anyone wants a recipe I haven't provided then leave me a comment and I will post it. Though no one comments when I ask. I do appreciate the few comments I have received. It is always cool to know that people are reading!!!

We have a somewhat busy weekend, at least for us. We are going to Longwood tonight to see the lights and then tomorrow Celia and I are going to my aunt's house for a few hours to get together with some relatives. Celia has not even met some of them!! As for me though I need to pack in cleaning, lesson planning, christmas stuff, and some exercise in there. I did (with Pete's help) 3 loads of laundry last night. So only the Sunday sheets and towels wash tomorrow.

Weekend adventures and Guessing Game

So this weekend was tiring but fun. Saturday we had Pete's company Children's Christmas Party. It was really neat, but a bit overwhelming for Celia. She wanted no part of Santa and give him a very tiny wave. She loved the dance room though! We didn't stay all that long because she started looking tired and we wanted her to make it home awake. If Celia falls asleep in the car no matter if it is 5 min or 60 min, she thinks that is her nap.

That afternoon Pete and our neighbor started working on putting quarter round in our living room and part of our kitchen. When we had our floors installed in Sept, we decided to do that our selves to save a few hundered dollars. Next time, I will just have them do it. It was a huge project for them and they didn't finish until today. So while they were working, Celia and I played with our neighbor's daughter, Amber. She loves her and was super excited. It snowed here on Sat too, enough to play outside. I had alot of fun and so did Celia.

Earlier when it first started coming

Okay, so our snowman is a bit pathetic. The pic above Mr. Snowman is Celia making snowballs with Amber's snowball maker. It does a nice job, however Celia referred to them as bouncy balls at first and was quickly dissapointed by their lack of bounce.

Here is the Guessing Game: Can you guess what Celia is doing in the picture at the top of this post??? If you can, well then the prize... Okay the prize is that you won. I will of course acknowledge who ever guesses and if you are a blogger, your blog. My traffic consists of about 5 to 6 people I think so I don't really expect many responses!!

Here is our tree, it isn't much at all. Pete and I got it years ago for about $14.99 I believe (the price gets cheaper in our mind every year) and it is a toothpick on steroids. We like it, it suits us, and it works well in our tiny house. Pete's hardwork this weekend excuses him for getting in his scrooge mood while decorating the tree. Next year Celia and I will do it by ourselves because that kind of thing puts him in a bad mood, go figure. It does every year.

So a good weekend overall, busy, tiring, but good. Oh and I got to go for a run/racewalk by myself, hooked into my ipod and in my own world. It was wonderful.

Menu for the next two weeks

Okay, I thought that I would start posting my menu that I plan for the next two weeks and link my recipes if possible. My Mother in law expressed disgust over the cost of groceries lately and I totally agree with her, especially since she has more people to cook for (her father and my Father in law's mother live with them). So I can't imagine the cost of cooking for 4 grown adults. In anycase, I buy meats on sale. Right now I have a lot of pork and some chicken left from a stock up a month ago. Our local Wegmans has awesome meat sales- I mean something like 10 porkchops for $7 and 5 pork tenderloins for $8! I don't always stick to my budget at all, some weeks are over, due to not enough time to plan, etc. But one of the ways I try to cut down on expense is to meal plan two weeks ahead and often cook double for things that freeze well.

We do eat healthy, I adapt recipes to lower fat and we eat veggies as sides. But unfortunately eating healthy does cost more, it is so worth it!!

Week of 11/29
Sunday- Turkey potpie ( making 3 to freeze 2, cutting some of the butter and cream cheese)
Monday- Pineapple Pork Tenderloin (cut this to only 1 lb of pork and using frozen peppers to save money)
Tuesday- Meatloaf that I have frozen. This is made with ground turkey, it is a cookinglight recipe that I have adapted. So basically 1 lb ground turkey, cook some onions, garlic, and carrots for about 2 minutes, add egg, some bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (1 cup?), worcestshire sauce (1 tb), 1/4 cup ketchup in mix. Top with some more ketchup. I make mini loaves so they cook faster (so personal little meat loaves). They freeze super well and you really can put what you want in it.
Wednesday- Spaghetti with frozen ground turkey meat sauce
Thursday- leftovers
Friday- eggs and toast
Sat- Out/ Calzones that are frozen in freezer (pizza crust, variety of cheeses, and spinach)

Week of 12/6
Sun- Orange Apricot Pork Chops- all on hand, except for mandarins
Monday- Butternut Squash soup (frozen in freezer)
Tuesdsay- Ground Turkey Tacos
Wednesday- Sweet and Sour Chicken pasta (basically orzo, veggies, chicken, sweet and sour sauce- but the recipe is Betty Crocker)
Thursday- Leftovers
Friday- Perogies ( would love to try to make this myself, but for now the frozen kind)

Thank you

Thank you for my little tree hugger. Thank you for our family.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving with my Mom, Pete's parents and grandparents. Our entertainment was Celia of course! She was so good, not overly hyper and well behaved. My turkey turned out amazingly again this year. Yes that is one thing I will brag about, I can really cook a turkey. This year it was a 20 lber!! I brine my turkey and that makes it moist. Pete had to do the lifting of the turkey in and out of the oven this year though.

My Mom as usual did a great deal of cleaning, prepping, and cooking which allowed me to relax. My mother in law and Granny supplied many tasty dishes. At one point I looked at all of the food, and I thought how lucky we are.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Free Turkey

So The Meanest Mom (see the blog links on the side of my blog) commented on the Free Turkey at her grocery store. Well I didn't realize that this past Sat. was the last day for earning the money towards the turkey- otherwise I would have gone shopping. Why is that? I mean you can buy the turkey until 11/28, so why can't you earn your money for it until 11/27?? Oh and not everything qualifies for the points. Anything government regulated- like milk, eggs, etc. doesn't qualify. I actualy think that produce might not qualify either, but I am not sure. I budget and I spend likely around an average of $65 a week, with some weeks going quite over when we need things like toilet paper, laundry detergent, or I am making and freezing a bunch of meals. So this time it hurt me, I am $50 short.

So for the first time in years I have to buy my turkey. Oh and I can't find apple cider, the most important ingrediant in my turkey brining process. So Celia and I will be off to a local orchard today or tomorrow to see if they have apple cider. I will also be price searching to see who has the best deals on turkey, do they make coupons for turkeys??

So budgeting and eating less processed foods ruined the free turkey this year. Next year the free one is mine.

Just a little update

So nothing really new to report on the Celia front. She is still very cute. She is still making trouble at school. Everyone comments often that she is so smart, which makes me very happy of course! A new thing of hers lately is to make up stories which cracks me up.
I am enjoying the fact that she likes Gilmore girls. I love that show, absolutely love it but I haven't watched it really in like a year. I have had some rough days lately and I just wanted to see about 20 min. of it one day. Celia was playing by herself and so I turned it on. She never pays attention to shows like that but for some reason she started watching it. She came and curled up with me and started asking questions. "What is she doing?" or making comments "Hey Mommy, she has pigtails", etc. So today she pooped in the potty and requested Gilmore girls. There was 15 min. left, so I was more then happy to give her that! We settled down together and watched it. She was quite upset when it was done.
For some reason she is enjoying going to the grocery store lately and requests it. I only take her when needed, but it is funny. I was not happy with her this past Wednesday when we went though. She tossed a container of hummus out of the cart and into the aisle, it smashed and was all over the place. She then asked me for more hummus. I was quick to let her know that we were not getting anymore hummus.
So I will update at another time, with some pictures perhaps. Life has been busy and hard these past few weeks, I won't go into detail, but some thoughts and prayers are helpful. Actualy some thoughts and prayers are needed for friends who are going through a rough situation.