The Aldi challenge

Welcome to a place where quality reigns and low prices rule.
A place with no sales to sleuth. No coupons to clip. No discounts to debate.

Welcome to a place where select brand products exceed the quality of big name brands.
But cost up to 50% less.

Welcome to a place where streamlined operations all but eliminate competition.
A place where there is always a surprise in store.

Welcome to a community of smarter shoppers whose expectations for high quality
are matched only by their refusal to pay more for it.

Welcome to honest to goodness savings. Welcome to ALDI.

That's what they advertise. I have shopped there. Much to my chagrin, I did not check the website to see how to shop there before I went. Now if you've never been, it is a store that carries most every day groceries you might need (with the exception of some specific specialty items - like, I wonder if they carry soy sauce or cream or tarter?). They keep costs low by carrying no name brands. You have to insert a quarter into the shopping cart to get it and you have to put it in it's rightful place when you are finished to get your quarter back. You need to take your own grocery bags unless you want to buy theirs for 10 cents or so (or you could buy their reuse-able ones for more). I learned that one the hard way. You will have to let me tell you the story about the toddler, no cart, no bags, 2 prickly pineapples and a watermelon some time.

Here are some reasons why I don't believe this store is an option for my family:

1. That store only carries off-brands. I would like to say that I am not picky. Don't get me wrong, I do NOT feel the need to buy name brands. I do however, know how the Great Value au gratin potatoes taste and know I like them. I am afraid to cook up a box of never-before-heard-of brand au gratin potatoes and have to throw them out. This is the number one reason why I am hesitant to take the Aldi one week challenge.

2. I know I won't shop there on a regular basis. I have a very hard time getting out that way. It is probably about 15 minutes from my house in a direction that I do not go often. I live 4 minutes from Walmart. I live like, half a mile from Tom Thumb (however it has to be really bad to run there for something - "Would you like me to pay you with a limb from my body? It would be cheaper than your strawberries.")

3. I am a creature of habit. This is the woman who does not like to shop at a different Walmart because she doesn't know where the Shake & Bake is in a different location. I like knowing which cashiers will argue with me and nitpick about the advertisements that I price-match. I like my favorite cashier Margaret. Her mom, who is in her 70's is having some very difficult health problems. I like seeing her and asking how I can pray for her. My car almost is on auto-pilot here. I can drive to Walmart and shop my usual routine starting in the dairy and end with the produce. I like doing the same thing each Monday.

4. I have a family of five. My parents would shop at Sam's Club for our family of five growing up. We had to have so much food that they built another pantry. Now, since they were on a teacher pay schedule, they only shopped that way once-a-month so it is not quite the same. I do buy a lot of food though. My husband has expensive (and abundant) snacking tendencies. Apparently, he was not allowed to snack much at all growing up. He is making up for it by eating snacks every single night after the kids go to bed. It's a terrible habit but who am I to tell him not to eat? He is a tall-skinny guy. Honestly, I get tired of hearing about how it looks like he doesn't eat. Don't tell me how he doesn't eat! I see him try to clean out every snack food each night after he eats a big dinner! ... wow. Okay, that was a rant. Sorry about that. Moving on.

So, those are my reservations. Do you think I should do it?

slight musings

*That One said (while dropping off her older sister at church) "We are going to see my peeps."

*When Mommy is sick, it takes 4 times as long to reconcile the destruction than it would take to clean up regular, every day destruction.

*You know you have a superb babysitter when she suggests you have more children.

*I miss having a dog. Sometimes.

*Its funny how, at certain points in your life everyone you know simultaneously blows you off. It makes you qustion who your friends are... or even if you had any - even your acquaintances. Sad, really. It makes you very much depend on the Lord.

*I hate flies with every fiber of my being.

* I miss being a kid. I want to magically transform myself back to the 80's sometimes.

*I have fallen in love with Clinique. Yikes.

* We are having a yard sale it it was my husband's idea. The world came to a screeching halt.

interesting view

At a fancy McDonalds having a Coke and fries.

So, I figured out how to follow my stats on my blog today. Here are some countries that I have views from:

United States- 800something
Canada-12
Japan-2
China-2
Spain-1
Latvia-1
Singapore-1

Now, I am a realist. I know that the majority of these folks stumbled upon my blog via the option "go to next blog" or by Google search. However, if you are reading this whether in Texas or in Alaska or Latvia - I'd love to hear a shout out! I get lonely.

P.S. As promised, I am working up plans for a Christmas card game this year! Be excited, be very excited!

Moratorium: the results edition

It has been one month since I took a moratorium. I have found out who my true friends are. I have been lonely. I have had a blast. I have enjoyed my children more than any other time in my life (or theirs). I have faithfully schooled the children every day Monday through Friday for 2 weeks. I am very proud of myself. I have taken school so much more seriously than last year.

• 'This One' is learning all about the Pacific Islands. The Mister is teaching her pre-algebra and she is reading several history books. She is taking a creative writing class, a science class (complete with dissection happening next semester!) and a class called "dancing through time" where she will learn dances of different era's through history. Soon, she will start up her sewing class as well (she is really very talented). Our home school co-op is hosting an entrepreneurial fair in November in which I hope she will sell some of her homemade puppets/creations to her peers!
  
• 'That One' is learning how to read 3 letter words, working on letter sounds and learning her addition facts (flashcards, yay!). Today we learned about fishermen. We "fished" in the bathtub like real fisherman (the youngest got in on some of that action!).
• 'The Other One' really, really loves Play-Do. He used up all of what we had, so The Mister made him some at home - it is blue, 'The Other One's favorite color. It could keep him entertained for hours! When he is unable to do what 'That One' is doing in school, he asks for the Play-Do and it makes everyone happy!
  

I have to admit that these last few weeks have probably been some of the loneliest in my life.

1. I don't quite fit into the preschool set anymore and I am not quite ready for the grade school crowd either or the middle school one yet, for that matter. I am learning, adjusting and finding a new balance at home.
   
2. I don't feel stressed about getting my household duties done in time to make a play date.
   
3. I don't come home from a play date to find that I feel terrible about coming home to a disaster. I don't feel bad about leaving the mess alone to focus on school instead. I don't have a clean house since I have more time (it might even possibly be messier).
4. I don't have anyone to lean on at this point really except the Mister who finds it hard to understand the SAHM dilemma of social interaction - but that's okay.
   
5. I don't have a great structure (like, we don't get up because we have to be somewhere. We get up at our own pace and do school in our pajamas most the time (but somehow we always get school done even though we aren't stuck to a regimented schedule)
   

I have learned more about my abilities in the last few weeks than I ever knew about myself.

1. I feel capable of helping my kids learn for the first time in my life and I am learning with them.
2. I enjoy their company.
3. I have enjoyed my time away from them more than ever when I have gotten it because I look forward to seeing them again.
4. I have loved seeing them grow over the last few weeks.
5. I really like what I do now.

Those are just a few of my humble musings this week. :-) Have a great holiday weekend y'all!

maybe fingerpaint?

The Mister and I went for a walk last night and he asked me about my spare time and my future. We were talking about long term goals. It is obvious that he has them, though they may not be seen to fruition yet. But he stopped his train of thought and asked what "I" wanted to do in a couple years. To be totally honest, I have no idea what I am doing next month. I mean, I know what I am doing, just not really. I have things on my calendar. I never have really had the luxury of planning out years ahead. I have been a mom since I was 17. I kinda lost my long term goals then (not that I really had the mental capacity to do it before that age). Wes said I should go back to school but I don't really want to. I never did well because of my severe attention deficit and I have lots of problems with math. I am not really the smart, academic type anyway.

I was talking to a friend at "this One's" sewing class and I was telling her how much she loved coming to her house and that it was the highlight of her week because she got so bored. She said "I have never been bored a day in my life." Wow. Now as she said that, I looked at her - and she was sewing- no wonder.

Today, I was supposed to go somewhere with a friend. I had planned my day that way. When things fell through I decided to stay home for awhile and clean out the home school room closet. I ran across some paints and some photography supplies that I used many years ago. It's obvious that I will not have time to do either of these things any time soon. I decided that I needed to do something about them.

I kept the photography things because I couldn't justify giving them away to someone who wouldn't know what a reel, 6x loop and a film loader even were. They'd probably end up in the dumpster. So I kept them. Not really in hopes of using them some day because, lets be honest- I don't/nor will I have a dark room. I won't get rid of them and buy a digital camera because I think digital photography is stupid trash - for the most part. So they are still up in the closet.

This is a box of paints that I inherited from my grandmother when she passed many years ago - though some paints were mine

I decided to go ahead and throw these away since I found one that expired in February of 1996 and the rest were no fresher. I did however keep some of my own things that may come in handy later on.

This is all I kept. A plate that I used, some brushes and some oil paints that I never really figured out how to use (who knew oil painting was so tricky).

Maybe we will finger paint when we start school on Monday. That's exciting.

some words from the "other one"

The kids with their new adorable matching hats

Over the past 8 months or so it has become painfully obvious that the youngest one has some speech delay. After much hemming and hawing and red tape, I was able to get him in to a private pediatric therapy company (I happened upon a friend of a friend who worked at this company). He started seeing "Miss Lucy" late in the spring. Miss Lucy is the highlight of his day because she gives him undivided attention and sisters aren't allowed to participate and she is super fun to play with! When he started, he was only able to say Momma and used that for everything. He could sign 'more', 'drink' and 'all-done'. My how he has grown! Here are some things he is working on:

• He can repeat any word you say like pizza, hot dog, wheelbarrow (I like that one), chicken, meat, zoo, juice, water, tower, zebra, donut, please, push, Coke (yikes, I know), and pretty much anything else including 2 and 3 syllable words.

• He was not working on colors and numbers before now because it was much too difficult for him to pronounce them. Now he is masters 1,2,3,4 and 5 and can recognize blue, yellow, white, black and red.

• Miss Lucy also said the he completely understand pronouns which is really a very good thing for his age. He understands that when you say 'mine' it is yours and when he says 'mine' it is his.

• He is putting two words together now. He came and told me to 'wake up' today! I hear him trying to say full sentences but I am probably the only one to hear them since I am his mother. :-)

• He has very good receptive language and understands most everything you tell him and he follows directions very well. He is very sociable and recognizes social cues. I am sure this has helped speed his progress a long because of his ability to do these before therapy started. For that I am super thankful.
  

I know it may sound like it is a slow progress since he should have mastered a lot of these skills nearly a full year ago but I am so happy with his progress. If this has only been 3 months worth of therapy, I can't imagine where he will be this time next year. Rejoice with me!

♥~Amy

It's the small things in life

I bought this pretty white Crockpot a few years ago for myself. It was a 5 qt oval one that I got for $19.99. I was so proud of that Crockpot. I used it several times a week whether I was home all day or not. Over time, the poor thing has deteriorated. First, it got very rusty inside. Then I had a hard time keeping it clean (DUH, because the inside was WHITE for goodness sakes - what was I thinking?) - plus I have this awesome recipe for black bean burritos. Black beans and white Crockpot don't mix. Then the handle fell off the lid. It sat around and waited to be fixed for a few months. Finally, one day Wes fixed it. Then, I used it and used it again. Then we had the great oven fiasco of 2010 and it was nearly used every day. The screw he put on the handle eventually rusted away and I was left with a gimpy lid again. What is a girl to do? ♥ Buy a brand new one for herself. ♥

PS:Sorry for the crooked picture - I am having issues.
PSS : My, you are so very quiet. Please comment! I love hearing from you!