Cleaning Challenge

I finally finished the kitchen, though it is already in need of basic clean up but what kitchen is not when there are so many people in the home. I will take pictures of the other side in a bit and post them. I am going to work on the living room and the girls room today. The living room is mainly pickup kids things and fold clothes (my least favorite thing ever). The girls room is another story. I have things (boxes and such) still in there and I have to get them out and put of the girls dresser and such.

Shopping challenge

Yes that's right shopping. Oh the joys of shopping esp when you have four kids and you know at least one of them is going to go with you. So how do you plan shopping? Well what I have been doing doesn't seem to be working so I have to change it again. So here I am doing it all out in the open.

So how is that going to work you ask? I'm honestly not completely sure. I have recently purchased a membership to Sam's Club hoping to aid in my shopping. We are starting to follow actual serving suggestions instead of just what we want to eat. I have been buying the paper again, clipping coupons, and taking my reusable bags where it will help (Target and Whole Foods). Yet still with the allergies we have to avoid it makes it very hard to make the budget last the whole month.
So what do I do now? Our foods to avoid are dairy, soy, oats, gluten, chocolate, and eggs. We are waiting to see if there our other allergies as well.
I know that I can go to Whole Foods use one of their coupons and a manufactures coupon on the same product. I can also get a case and get a discount for it. I can also apply both coupons to every item in the case and that help. But I do not have many items I have found that are going to get used in case sizes or that I can get coupons on. So even with this knowledge what do I do?
I am going to be working on it and brain storming. If you have any ideas please comment with them below.

Friday's Food Challenge

Things have been changing around here again in the means of food. I have become aware of the fact that I am not tolerant of eggs as well, and we are waiting to see if G has more allergies. So it adds more questions of what is going to be for dinner tonight?
So tonight I opened up a bag of sweet potatoes I had purchased and started peeling and cutting. I sliced them into large steak fries and put some sea salt on them. I then got some burgers and put some onion powder, garlic powder, and white pepper on them and started cooking. I have the fries on 425 and it take about 20 mins. The burgers I have learned to keep from breaking them up and smashing the mess out of them adding a lid to them works wonders. We add the appropriate cheese to each patty and ketchup and mustard as wanted. Though I regret that we do not have lettuce and tomato right now.

Half way done

Yes just half way. I moved the stove out and had a huge job in front me. I have not moved the stove since well I don't think its ever been moved. I am so thankful that while I was away from my blog that we purchased a Shark Steamer. I have one that will be a floor mop or hand held. All I did was load up my Shark put a drop or two of a special formula I found and get to steaming. The floor looks like the rest of the kitchen now (well a bit more sparkly) and the stove its self is shiny. Now to take a break and move to the other side.

BEFORE

AFTER

Ok time for Cleaning Challenge

So my kitchen has once again become unruly. I started on it last night but it is not at all expectable yet. So I'm going to to turn on my music and see what we can do about it. Here are some before shots.

Presents

So today is my mom's birthday. I have four children, but only three old enough to work on anything. So I thought this year for her birthday I would help the kids work on something for her. So D and I went out looking for something to make her. At Walmart we found a set of three wood boxes that would fit inside of each other. I was going to allow them to paint them but I could not find the paint. So I allowed them to color on them instead and I think they turned out fairly well considering.

Ok I'm back!

Things have calmed down around here and I even now have a camera to be able to show you all what I'm working on. So let the posting resume.