Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Baby Love

From the Heart ~ We had fun taking care of my friend's sweet baby (8 months)  for the week while she and her husband went away to celebrate their wedding anniversary. It was easier to fit her into our lives than I thought it would be, especially since she slept through the night! The girls really enjoyed having a sweet baby to love on. One of them even suggested that we give our credit card to my friend so that we could adopt sweet baby. Oh, if adoption was only so easy and painless! (She is currently a foster baby so may not be for keeps even for my friend. However, it looks like she will get to adopt her.)

Summer Fun ~ We are almost done with our "summer". This coming week is our last week of break from school. This week we went to the nature center to see the butterfly exhibit, and we went back to Splashville at our local city park. Wow, talk about baby love! With all the pictures I took this week, hardly any of them are of my kiddos. They are mostly sweet baby and I can't show lots of them because they reveal too much of her identity.

Flat Stanley is doing the rounds so he will be ready to visit those of you who volunteered to host him. Get me your addresses. If you are interested and missed that post, let me know.

Sweet baby had no fears of the water. She learned quickly that she could put her hand in the water and splash the many girls who were fawning all over her.

Learning Time ~ Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood passed a major milestone this week. Both of them learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Little Red Riding Hood is about 60% there (she has trouble getting going and moving around obstacles) and Goldilocks is 100% there!! Now we just have to teach Tom Sawyer!

Living Frugally ~ I am really finding it pretty easy to keep our groceries under $100 a week thanks to our scratch and dent organic grocery store. Here are this week's purchases for $95. I still need a bag of ice, plus vinegar and mayo so it may come to a little over.

Menu ideas ~

Dinner - Spaghetti with ground turkey spaghetti sauce, mashed potatoes with cabbage and turkey bacon mixed in (an Irish dish), omelets, homemade salsa with nachos, chicken with rice dish, potato soup with rye bread, grilled cheese sandwiches and BLT's (with veggies from garden).

Lunch - Tuna fish sandwiches, mac and cheese, leftovers, biscuits with nitrite-free lunch meat, and tomato sandwiches.

Breakfast - Biscuits, cereal, fruit and hard-boiled eggs.

While the boys were in Tomatis the last two weeks, the girls and I hit all the consignment and thrift shops in that area. We only shopped from the clearance racks. I decided that we are going to try to only spend $2.50 or less for each item of clothing. I found some really great buys and really did well with the "stuff a bag for $10" corner. This is what I got for $17.89. Some of the clothes still have their tags on!

Most of these clothes will be saved for future years, and if they are out of style, my homeschooled children won't even know it. LOL

Blessings, Dawn