Quitter

For the past few weeks I have been trying to save money on groceries. As of today I officially quit. Here's why.

Harris Teeter is currently running a "super double" coupon promotion. For those of you out of the loop, this means that they will double any coupon up to $1.98 face value. HT is not my usual grocery store. (That would be Wegmans, which I love.) I figured that this was a good enough deal to drive a few miles out of my way for. So I loaded the two little ones into Lucille and drove about 10 miles to the nearest HT.

I got my little envelope of coupons together and hustled everyone into the store. It was almost immedietly apparent that this had been a wasted trip. The prices were all higher than at my beloved Wegmans. In fact, most of the prices were so high that the doubling of my coupons would only result on the shelf price at Wegmans. The few products that would have been a good deal were all completely sold out.

As I was driving home, frustrated and hungry, I thought about the whole process. I had spent over an hour driving around, wandering through the store and waiting on line to save something like $8. This was time I could have spent playing with my kids, cuddling with my baby or heck, even cleaning my house.

So I'm giving up the pursuit of savings ... Or at least the pursuit of extreme savings. I'll probably still clip coupons and I'll still scope out Target a week after the major holidays. Fact is, I'm never going to feed my family on $10 a week, so I'm done running all over Virginia trying to.

This will give me more time to clean the house....or not.


Hey-don't forget to leave your comment to win free cereal coupons.


- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

The Mommy Machine

I'm totally in love with my new car. It is, in fact, not even a car, it is a VAN. I never really pictured myself as the minivan person, in fact I was sold in buying an SUV...this is until I saw Lucille. She is by far the most fabulous piece of engineering I have ever had the pleasure to spill coffee on. There are storage bins everywhere, plugs for Nintendos, a DVD player with wireless headphones (do I need to say it again....WIRELESS HEADPHONES!!), LATCH hook-ups galore and the backs of the seats are footprint friendly wipe-off-able plastic.

The biggest difference is how I feel driving the thing around. I feel like a serious mommy. No more pretending that I'm some hip single gal in my little sedan. No way...I'm driving a minivan. Look out!! I finally feel like I belong when I pull into the giant spaces at Target or expertly open my automatic sliding doors to unload kids in front of the elementary school.

Once upon a time I was the kind of woman who could confidently mix up complicated chemical solutions, clone organisms hell bent on killing me and statistically analyze mountains of data. I'm pretty sure that I could still do all of those things, but I really don't want to anymore. I have aquired a whole new set of skills. Mommy skills, like continuing to grocery shop as a 2 year old screams from the cart because he wants cookies NOW. I have learned how to successfully navigate the intricate social hierarchy of the elementary school pick-up lobby. I can dose a screaming toddler with 5 ml of Amoxicillin with my eyes closed. My diplomatic skills have been honed to a razor edge by tough negotiations involving the consumption of such things as cauliflower and pesto. I have changed diapers that would make war-hardened Marines weep.

That's right people....Look out! I'm a mommy of three boys. Nothing you do can scare me. I even have the vehicle to prove it.

To do list Tuesday 1/5

Whew. Tuesday again already. The last two weeks have been insanity! Boy1 is back to school, hubby is back to work and I'm trying to get back on schedule.

This weeks list is going to finally finish up all the holiday crazyness.

1. Make one last sweep of the house to find and put away all the christmas stuff. This would include plates and dish towel that had to be washed as well as the new stuff I bought on clearance.
2. Declutter the hotspots that I previously cleaned. The buffet, tv thing, breakfast bar and dining room table have suffered under a barrage of food, cards, and other festive clutter. It's time for all if that to go.
3. Get rid of the cookies. With the possible exception of the biscotti, any cookies not consumed by Friday are destined for the compost bin.
4. Organize food containors. Any orphaned lids or bottoms or anything that has seen too many hours with spaghetti sauce is getting the boot.
5. Paint outside woodwork. Hahahaha! Who am I kidding? Hire someone to paint outside woodwork.
6. Figure out how to make blog layout 3 columns. I have some plans....
7. Photograph and blog about photo wall. I had totally forgotten about this during all the madness.
8. Make one contact for walk to school week. The event isn't until October, but some places need nine months notice.
9. Return library books. Seriously, the library police are going to be knocking on my door soon.
10. Make doctors appointments.

Yawn. Sort of a boring list after the fun of the holidays, but whadda ya gonna do?

Don't forget to submit your cereal memories to my free cereal contest!


- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

Dear resolutioners

Every year around this time my gym is innundated by resoulotioners. These folks show up on the first Monday after new years (aka today) to start their new work out routine. Great, good for you. Now get out of my way. We all know that 80% of you will be gone by March. And while you are here you will crowd up the showers, make me wait for a treadmill and arrive at yoga class late and think you can jam you mat into the 6 inch space between me and the mirror.

So that I don't have to kill you, here are some handy tips to follow for the next 3 months.

1. Treat the locker room as though it were your own bathroom. You don't leave wet towels on the floor in your bathroom, don't leave them on the floor in the lockerroom showers.
2. Wear a damn towel. I don't care how fabulous your butt looks, I don't want to see it.
3. Don't color or perm your hair in the lockerroom. You know all those reasons why you don't want to do it at home, well that is why I don't want you doing it in my lockerroom. If you just can't stomach the mess in your own bathroom, pony up and get it done professionally.
4. Don't chat on your cell phone while you are on the treadmill. This us just a personal pet peeve.
5. Yoga starts at 4. If you arrive late you screw with everyones chi.

Thank you for your time. Enjoy the next three months and I'll see you again in January.






- Posted by Krista from my iPhone

Menu plan Monday - Cozy food for a cold week

It's been rather cold this week so I'm cooking up some of my favorite warm and cozy comfort foods. One thing always in my menu is cereal - don't forget to enter my contest for two free boxes!!

Sunday - Minestrone Soup and Brown rice with Andouille, corn and Red Peppers

Tuesday - Spiral-Sliced Ham with Cherry Port Glaze. We are taking advantage of after holiday ham sales here.

Thursday - Chicken lo Mein. This got bumped last week because my hubby made gnocchi.

Saturday - Thai Chicken Salad. Not really a warm dish, but oh so very yummy!

Sunday - Braised Short Ribs. These need to be started a day in advance and are NOT lowfat.

Hmm..I'm getting hungry just thinking about it all. Since the Thai Chicken Salad is just so crazy yummy, I'm going to reprint the recipe here. I think that as long as I tell you that the original source is Cook's Illustrated that this is okay. As I have mentioned before, I love Cooks Illustrated and receive no compensation from them (though I would be their shill at the drop of a hat).

THAI STYLE CHICKEN SALAD WITH SPICY PEANUT DRESSING

3 - 3.5 pound whole chicken (You can also use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and skip step 1)

1/2 cup canola oil

3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons water

3 small cloves of garlic minced or pressed through a garlic press

2 teaspoons finely grated ginger

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons hot red pepper flakes

1 cucumber pealed, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch cubes

1 medium carrot grated

4 scallions sliced thin

3 tablespoons cilantro leaves

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

1. season the chicken with salt and pepper. Roast at 375 degrees until instant read thermometer inserted in the thigh registers 165 to 170 degrees, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. When cool, pull the meat off the bones in 2-inch shreds, discarding the fat and sinew. Reserve 5 cups for this recipe; set aside the rest for another use.

2. Puree oil, peanut butter, lime juice, water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, garlic, ginger brown sugar and red pepper flakes in blender until combined. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. Add the cucumber, carrot, scallions and cilantro to vinaigrette. Toss to combine. Add chicken and toss gently to combine. Let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and sprinkle with peanuts.

1. 
   

Cereal

A few weeks ago I bemoaned my inability to provide a hot breakfast for my children. As fate would have it, soon after I received an email from blogspark touting the benefits of good old fashioned cold cereal. There were a number of facinating tidbits like the fact that folks who eat cereal consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than those who don't. Cereal is jam packed with vitamins and minerals. Cereal, even those sugar cereal that your kids my kids okay, I love contribute only 5% of sugar to kids diets. I know from personal experience that feeding kids cereal is one of the best ways to get fiber into them (and everything else out).

So that I can continue my love affair with cereal, General Mills, via MyBlogspark, sent me 4 coupons for a free box of General Mills cereal. Each coupon is good for a single box of cereal up to a $6 value. I don't think I've ever seen a box of $6 cereal, but you can bet your butt that I'm gonna try to find one.

Since I'm totally a giver, I'm giving two of them out to one of my blog readers. Here's the deal, leave a comment below with a cereal related memory from your past. On Monday, January 11th I will randomly choose a winner.

Here is my most vivid cereal memory. I still remember it like it happened yesterday. It was my sophmore year in college. I had just finished my last final of the spring semester. I poured myself a HUGE bowl of Lucky Charms. I poured the milk in and settled into our old green vinyl lounge chair. I dug into the cereal. After the first bite I realized that the milk was sour and my entire bowl of cereal was ruined. I was so upset and had been so looking forward to that bowl of cereal that I cried.




Okay- your turn.

Goodbye 2009, you have been a year to remember. This year has brought more of somethings and less of others.

This year have done much less knitting than in previous years. With the exception of a bunch of baby knitting in the first half of the year, I have not completed a significant project since July.

This year has also brought so much more love and laughter into our home with the arrival of Boy3 in July.

There has been less sleep and more snow. Less sanity and much more laundry.

Boy1 and Boy2 have continued to bring a happy level of chaos to our home, which seems to be getting smaller by the moment.

Here's hoping 2010 brings more of everything...except maybe the laundry.