Celebration Weekend

This has a been a weekend to celebrate indeed!

Thursday afternoon, Ryan wrapped up his first year of medical school! We are truly amazed at how quickly the year has passed. He's worked so hard, so diligently, and the Lord granted him great success for his first year. In a nutshell, he spent the past year learning about how the body works, at least how it is supposed to work! Next year, he'll learn all that can go wrong and how to hopefully fix it! We're now looking forward to a summer break--Ryan begins his summer research project tomorrow, but when he comes home at the end of the day, he'll be done! No studying in the evenings or the weekends! He does plan to continue reviewing material from the past year just to keep his mind engaged and serve as ongoing study for boards next year, but there isn't anything that's actually required.

Despite the celebration of Ryan completing his M1 year, he was also a bit sad that evening as he considered the fact that he would have graduated this year had he been admitted the first time he applied. And yes, while that would have been amazing, this is where God has us now, and the past 3 years were where He wanted us then. We considered all we would have missed had he been admitted that first time: Ryan's friendship and growth from his time with the guys in the Watchmen group, the incredible bond we formed with our potluck groups back home, even the possibility that we wouldn't have our sweet boys had our life played out differently. And, even if we did have them, had we not had those intervening years to save a significant portion of our income from that time, I wouldn't have the blessing of staying home with them now, as we are utilizing that savings to cover our living expenses while Ryan is in school. As we reflected on the past several years, we were so thankful for the time we had back in Peoria and to be here now. I am so certain that God knew what He was doing and am so thankful for His provision!

Anyway, continuing with our weekend: Friday, we spent the day at home. Ryan played a lot with the boys while I cleaned and did some food prep; we had some friends over for a casual dinner that evening. It was just a low-key, enjoyable day!

Saturday Ryan turned 26 years old--his golden birthday! We were going to let him sleep in and bring him breakfast in bed, but Abe was so excited he could hardly contain himself! I finally relented and let him go in to wake up Daddy. Abe told him it was time for his "Birthday Breakfast" (which I had hardly started!). But Ryan didn't mind; he spent some time snuggling with the boys while I prepared his meal--Fluffy Golden Pancakes and pineapple (which happened to be a Del Monte Gold). The pancakes were really good! It's a recipe I've wanted to try for some time, and this seemed the appropriate occasion! Abe was a bit concerned that I "put fire on daddy's straw" and then that I stuck the "straw" in daddy's pancakes!

The Birthday Breakfast:



That evening, Ryan wanted to use some of his birthday money to take us all out to Kopp's for dinner. Kopp's is a fabulous burger and custard shop in the area. The prices are reasonable, the food awesome!

Daddy and Abe:



The enormous cones we got to share:



But Abe had other plans:



I did sneak a few spoonfuls, but he actually ate most of it himself! He's usually quite willing to share, but he was pretty stingy with his cone.

It took him so long to eat it that his cone got soft and ended like this:



Abe was surprisingly unaffected by the spill--instead he thought it was hysterical--he kept calling himself "Mommy's messy boy" :)

Sunday was a wonderful morning at church, a relaxing afternoon, and a praise singing in the evening with the CMA group.

And today is a holiday, so Ryan is still home! We are SO enjoying this! Ryan let me sleep in, and then we enjoyed a late breakfast. We considered going to the zoo, but there was a strong chance of rain so we opted to just stay home. Ryan and Abe played outside while I did some ironing and Charlie napped.

Riding his trike:



Checking out an ant hill:



The bouquet Abe brought me:



We rearranged the boys' room, and now, they are both soundly sleeping. It's been such a wonderful weekend! Happy Memorial Day!

Grocery Update #2

Time for the next grocery installment!

I'm super excited about some of the deals I got this week--Pick 'n Save had a "Double Double Daze" day on Saturday where they allowed shoppers to double 10 coupons (usually you can only double 5), so I definitely took advantage. They have a generous coupon-doubling policy--coupons up to $1.00 will double, so a $1.00 coupon becomes $2.00 off! Each item on the Pick 'n Save list is reflective of the amount after doubled coupons and store coupons. Anyway, here's what we got:

Aldi
1 gallon Skim milk: $2.19
1/2 gallon Whole milk: $1.79
1 yogurt cup: $.39
1 dozen eggs: $.78
2 3-pk. colored bell peppers: $1.98
1 pt. grape tomatoes: $.69
1 bunch bananas: $1.03
Total After Tax: $8.85

Pick 'n Save
1 bag whole grain Goldfish: $.98
1 jar Planter's peanut butter: $.39
2 boxes Teddy Grahams: $1.98
1 can Red Gold tomatoes with green chiles: $.09
2 packets Chi-Chi's mexican seasoning: FREE
1 box Post Honey Bunches of Oats: $.50
1 can pink lemonade concentrate: $.78
2 half gallon cartons of Kemp's Ice Cream: $4.00
1 bag McCain's frozen sweet potatoe fries: FREE
1 bag West's frozen green beans: $.78
3 jars Beech-Nut baby food: FREE
1 pkg. Johnsonville Italian sausage: $.50
1 gallon Skim milk: $1.99
1 jug Sunny-D: $1.00 (this was a special buy for my husband who thought I couldn't pass up this price--I told him it wasn't orange juice and was basically like drinking sugar, but he looked it up online and informed me that it got an A- for health, since it's the same calorie content as pure OJ and contains 100%DV Vitamin C--I'm still not sure I buy that, but I got it for him!!)
Total After Tax: $13.96

Grand Total So Far: $116.41

And for our meals:

Breakfasts:
scrambled eggs with peppers and spinach, toast
cereal, fruit
cinnamon toast, fruit
crepes with strawberry filling
steel cut oats with apples and raisins
strawberry smoothies with spinach, banana bread (made with yogurt, skim milk, berries, banana, and spinach-you truly cannot taste it, and Abe just gulps these down, so I've started putting spinach into all our smoothies! It's such a good way for him to get some healthy greens!)

Lunches:
orzo pasta salad with chicken and spinach, oatmeal rolls
roasted red pepper hummus with tortilla chips and carrot sticks
BBQ chicken sandwiches, cucumber salad
PBJ, apples, carrot sticks
chicken-spinach wraps (from leftover BBQ), apples


Dinners:
beef chili mac with cheese, cilantro, and avocado
sausage and bell pepper saute over penne pasta
chicken and black bean quesadillas with homemade salsa and avocado
frozen pizza, spinach salad
leftovers
CMA cookout-took a bag of chips

Snacks: brownies, popcorn, fruit, etc.

Can you tell I had a big bag of spinach to use up?!?! It seems to have appeared in a number of our dishes! Anyway, end of Week 3. Thanks for following along!

Week Without Abe

Last week, Abe got to spend some quality time in IL with his grandparents, without us! Because we were already there for the graduations, my mom asked if she could keep him for a few days and bring him back up to us on Thursday. I was a little nervous to leave him that long (we'd only ever left him for 1 night before!), but he seemed to do so well! After he got back home on Thursday, he jabbered on and on about all he did....he got to sleep in Uncle Isaac's bed, he got to go to the zoo, he got to go to the park, he learned how to make a "cheese face" with Aunt Aubz, he got a cool purple ball from Aunt Andi, and on and on!

For us back here in WI, life was pretty dull without him. It actually reminded me of when Ryan and I were first married and it was just the two of us. With Charlie still sleeping a fair amount and not running and shouting and stomping and jumping (like my dear Abe...), it was just so quiet! I think Ryan actually missed him even more than I did; he got teary-eyed whenever he talked about him/prayed for him!

For me, it was a good lesson in just trusting my son to God. It's not that I didn't trust our families and their ability to take care of Abe, because I did completely. It was just the fact that I wasn't there--I didn't have any control over him while he wasn't in my care. How that applies to all of life! Right now, we hold a pretty tight reign over our boys, but how quickly the time will come when we can't do that any more. We can only trust them to the Lord, recognizing that they are His children anyway--we just have the immense blessing, privilege, and joy of being their Mommy and Dadddy.

Anyway, while he was gone, I got so much done! I tackled some deep cleaning projects that I had long been avoiding and did a bit of freezer cooking. Since I enjoy being in the kitchen, I'm not one of those freezer cooks who works like crazy for 1 day so they have meals in the freezer for a month. Still, it's nice to have a few things on hand for hectic days.

Certainly the highlight of the week was my visitors on Monday--our potluck girls from IL came to visit me!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so wonderful to spend time with them. We had lunch at our place, talked, went for a walk along the lake, took an accidental tour of downtown Milwaukee,and talked some more! While I'm so thankful for the friends we've made here, I just still feel so connected to those back home. We missed Ang Braker's presence, but it seemed that Arkansas was probably too far a drive for a day trip...

The four of us (plus Molly and Charlie!):






Molly and Charlie hanging out:



This picture reminded me of another, so I thought I'd throw it in too--For those who don't know, Molly is the daughter of our friends Robey and Angie--she and Charlie were born just 3 days apart. Their son, Abel, is about 6 weeks or so older than Abe, so our children are quite close in age! Anyway, here is a similar picture of Abe and Abel when they were around 5 and 6 months old:



To Betsy, Angie, and Natalie, thank you so much for coming--it meant the world to me!


Lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed giving this little guy some undivided attention. He is just so precious!





All in all, it was a good week! We are so glad to have our boy back with us again, even if there is a whole lot more racket! :)

Graduation Weekend

This past weekend we were back in Peoria again for Alex and Andi's high school graduation. I can't believe our youngest siblings are done with high school!

Abe kicked the trip off to a great start by prolonging our trip by 1.5 hours! Yes, it took us 5 hours to get to Peoria from Milwaukee. He was begging to get out of his carseat when we still had over 2 hours to go, so can you imagine how wonderful of a trek it was?! But, we eventually made it and enjoyed a really fun and really busy weekend.

Some photo highlights of the trip:

The HUGE fish Abe caught on his little plastic pole!






Aunt Erin, Oliver, and Charlie (Oliver was quite smitten with Charlie the whole weekend!):




Then Abe had to join in:




Alex:




Andi:



Alex and Andi, we are so proud of you both! We love you and trust that God will use you each in beautiful ways!

We returned home to Wisconsin late Sunday night, just Ryan, Charlie, and me. Abe got to stay back in Illinois with his grandparents for a few days! I must admit, it made for a peaceful, 3.5 hour ride back home, but oh how I miss my boy! More on our week without Abe to come... Thanks for reading!

Grocery Update #1

Just a quick recap of the past week! Again, it was a strange week in that Ryan had an evening meeting one night, and we headed back to Illinois late in the week for Alex and Andi's high school graduations. Thus, not much in the way of groceries or meals. In fact, most of the things I got were actually to use in some meals I have planned for next week.

As I sit here typing, my dear brother-in-law is looking over my shoulder saying, "Why are you writing a blog post about groceries?!?!" My husband is over in the other chair snickering, "Yeah, who do you think cares how much you paid for a whole chicken?!?!" Haha....good questions! Well, I guess it's because as a budget-conscious wife-of-a-med-student and mother-of-two, this is something that I have to think about often! Additionally, I hope to one-day reflect back on these entries at this time in our life and see how we lived. I pray that our need to be on a rigid budget is not just due to Ryan's schooling and our desire to keep a low-debt ceiling, but that God uses it to equip us to handle our resources wisely and be good stewards of our money.

And, while I'm on the subject of student debt, Ryan just discovered (as I write), that he was gifted some financial aid awards from his school!! He was given two interest free loans, one at $6,500 and the other at $8,000. With current interest rates, the estimation is that we will end up paying 2-3 times the original amount just in interest alone. SO, we were essentially gifted $29,000 since the loans are interest free!!! What a tremendous blessing!

Anyway, I'll now go ahead with my grocery post :)

Aldi
Cucumber: $.49
1 doz. eggs: $1.05
Flat Leaf Spinach:$1.89
Bananas: $1.13
Mandarin Oranges: $.69
2 Containers Blackberries: $1.58
2 Avocados: $1.18
2 Mangoes: $.98
Garlic: $.99
Dried Cranberries: $1.39
Feta Cheese: $1.99
Powdered Sugar: $1.49
Brown Sugar: $1.49
Granulated Sugar: $2.99
Total After Tax: $19.33

Pick 'n Save
1 bunch Cilantro: $.79
1 bunch flat leaf Parsley: $.99
1 gallon Skim Milk: $1.99 (after coupon)
Total After Tax: $3.77

Grand Total So Far: $93.60

So far, I'm doing amazing on the amount spent! This is probably due in part to our crazy weeks and being gone for a few days this past week, as well as a decent stock pile of frozen and non-perishables. Technically, had I been abiding by all the rules of Once a Month Shopping, I would have bought the sugars at the start of the month. But I neglected to assess all my baking supplies before my last trip and therefore ended up buying them this week instead. Overall though, not bad.

And for the meals we ate:

Breakfasts:
granola with blackberries and milk
smoothies, banana bread
baked oatmeal with apples
cereal, bananas

Lunches:
pb&j, apple slices, carrot sticks
homemade hummus, baked corn tortilla chips (made from remaining corn tortillas from last week), carrot and celery sticks, cucumber slices

Dinners:
penne with chicken thighs and marinara, herbed peas and carrots
ham and broccoli frittata, soaked whole wheat pancakes (froze extras from breakfast last week), fruit salad
orange veggie stir fry over brown rice
leftovers

End of Week 2! Coming soon, a post on our second trip to Peoria in 2 weeks!

Grocery Plan

Warning: Long Post Ahead!

It's the beginning of May, and that means my grocery budget starts over. Though I thoroughly enjoy planning our meals and grocery needs for a month, it's always a challenge to ensure that I'm feeding my family a healthy, balanced diet on our monthly budget, and allow a little wiggle room for treats and stocking up too. I've found the grocery budget the most difficult to keep, because it's hard to predict how much we'll actually eat, particularly with young children, and also because you cannot always anticipate cost fluctuations.

I've decided to try doing the cash-only system again--remember how I did this last year? We did it for a few months, but I slowly fell off the bandwagon. I would head out to the store to get groceries only to realize once I was there that I forgot to stop by the bank to get my cash! So, I'd just use my debit card, and eventually, I started using it exclusively again. While I still usually managed to stay within budget, I don't think I made the wisest choices, and it was easy to fudge a bit here or there--there is just something about using cash that really makes you consider each purchase. The real key may be to leave my debit card at home so the only thing I have is the cash! That will force me stay within budget!

In addition, I'm implementing another new approach: Once A Month Shopping. The idea is simple: plan an approximate month's worth of meals and purchase all you'll need for the month, spending the bulk of your allotted money in one big trip (around 70%). Weekly "mini" trips allow you to purchase perishables and take advantage of any good deals. So far, I think I'm going to like it, though I actually played it quite conservatively this time in order to see how far everything goes. I was scared to spend too much up front and then run out as the month progressed!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post about the experiment, documenting the groceries I got and the meals I fed our family each week. You all can keep me accountable! Truthfully, I'm a little nervous to expose all I buy and what we eat, but anyway, here goes!:

My 1st Trip of the Month:

Aldi
Limes: $1.29
Celery: $.99
2 lbs.. Carrots: $.99
6 Kiwi: $.69
Cucumber: $.49
3 cartons Strawberries: $2.97
1 bunch bananas: $1.16
3 lb. Bag Gala Apples: $1.49
All-Purpose Flour: $1.79
2 Dozen Eggs: $2.58
Corn Tortillas: $1.19
Flour Tortillas: $.99
1 box Ramen Noodles: $2.05
1 bag Sliced Almonds: $2.29
1 box Raisins: $1.29
1 canister Oatmeal: $1.99
2 cans Black Beans: $1.58
2 lbs. Salted Butter: $4.58
2 gallons Skim Milk: $4.58
1 1/2 gallon whole milk: $1.39
single-serve Yogurt Cup: $.39
Total After Tax: $37.04

CVS
2 Liter of GingerAle: $1.33 (Impromtu run for our sick little boy--an attempt to give him some fluids and calories!)

Pick 'n Save
Brown Rice: $1.88
King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour: $3.50
29 oz. can ChickPeas: $2.18
Barilla Whole Grain Pasta: $.29 (after coupon)
Red Baron 4-Cheese Frozen Pizza: $3.00 (after store coupon)
Home Run Inn Pepperoni Frozen Pizza: $4.00 (after store coupon)
6 lb. Whole Chicken: $4.82
3.5 lbs. Split Chicken Breasts: $3.52
5.7 lbs. Chicken Thighs: $5.68
Kraft sliced ColbyJack cheese: $1.99
Land o' Lakes Unsalted Butter: $2.39 (after doubled coupon)
CoffeeMate Natural Bliss refrigerated creamer: $.12 (after doubled coupon)
Marcal Napkins: Free + $1.01 overage (after doubled coupon)
Total After Tax: $32.42

Total Spent so Far: $70.50

Meals this Week (I actually didn't end up cooking much this week, as Ryan was away two nights and a crazy day on Friday resulted in a frozen pizza that night! Abe was sick with a fever and had very little appetite for a few days, so he didn't eat a whole lot either.) At any rate, here's what we ate:

Breakfasts:
steel cut oatmeal, oranges
oatbran muffins, strawberries
strawberry-banana-kiwi smoothies, cinnamon toast
yogurt with strawberries and homemade granola
granola with milk
soaked whole wheat pancakes, warm cinnamon apples

Lunches:
grilled cheese and tomato soup
peanut butter and jelly, apple slices, carrot sticks
salad
leftovers

Dinners:
oven roasted garlic-lemon chicken, parmesan potatoes, steamed green beans
oven pancake with berry sauce
chicken tacos, corn and black bean salad
cheese pizza, tossed salad
leftovers

Snacks:
fruit
caramel corn (most of this was actually eaten by the Bible study guys!)
oatmeal raisin cookies (baked 1/3, froze the rest in ready-to-bake dough balls)
chocolate bunny graham crackers
kettle corn


And, thus ends the first installment of the new grocery plan! The weekly updates that follow should be much shorter :)

Trip to Peoria

I definitely meant to get this up at the beginning up the week--it's been a bit chaotic around here!

This past weekend we headed back to Peoria, IL for the first time since Christmas! It was definitely long overdue. For many of our family members, it was the first time they were able to see Charlie, so we were excited to show him off! The reason for our trip was actually for Ryan to attend the Apostolic Christian Medical Fellowship conference, which was conveniently held in Princeville, IL this year. It made for a great time to spend with family! Sadly, my camera battery died early on Saturday and I didn't have my charger, so the pictures are minimal.

Ready to hit the road!





En route:



Both boys were SO good! Charlie slept the whole time, save when we stopped to grab lunch and I fed him. Then he fell right back to sleep!

When we got in on Friday, we headed to Ryan's parents' home. Unfortunately, Ollie wasn't feeling well on Friday night or on Sunday, so our boys weren't able to play together.

Alex and Abe:



Saturday Abe and Charlie got their pictures taken in the morning while Ryan went to breakfast with his brothers. The boys and I then spent the rest of the day at my parents' home while Ryan headed out to the conference.

Aubs and Abe:



Andi and Charlie:



I did get the chance to sneak away while the boys napped to see Dusty and Erin's new home! It's beautiful!

Sunday, we went to church and thoroughly enjoyed it. It just felt so good to be there--of all the many things we miss about Peoria, church is toward the top of the list. It's always so good to go home, and yet, we really do love being up here in Wisconsin too.

On the way home, Ryan and I had a wonderful opportunity to talk together. We listened to a sermon by K.P. Yohannan and were challenged by his approach to living a simple, modest life. What does that look like for us? I feel like my heart continually flip-flops. K.P. stated that at many points in his life, he wanted to take a vacation, but when he stopped to think about how many souls could potentially be eternally impacted by giving that money to Bible distribution instead, he always changed his mind--he's never taken a vacation. And I get that. I see where he's coming from. But then, can't that be applied to everything in life? Should I only feed my family rice and beans, because it's a cheap meal and would allow more of my money to go elsewhere? I wrestle with this. I don't want to live in fear all the time, that everything I'm doing could potentially be done more simply, less expensively, etc., and I don't think God wants me to either. I believe that all good gifts are from His hand, and He has given them for us to enjoy. However, I also don't think that I'm entitled to a "better" life than so many countless others. How do we strike a balance? Is it Satan's lullaby, an effort to put the church to sleep, by convincing us that it's okay to take our ease and have a nice house and car and vacations? If I really, truly believe that God is better, that heaven is better, that the rewards there are so worth sacrificing for here, why is it so hard to let go? In my almost 26 years of life, I am seeing already just how fleeting it all is, and yet I still try to keep things for myself.

In the end, we concluded that it's about seeking Him with all our heart, knowing that if we do so, we will know how it is that He wants us to live. It's about receiving the blessings He gives with thanksgiving but having open, generous hands at all times. It's about being willing, not just in word, but in action, that whatever He asks, we drop it all in an instant, without turning back even if it's going up in flames, lest we become like Lot's wife and turn into pillars of salt. It was a really good but really difficult discussion!

Lastly, another picture of Charlie, because it's so stinkin' cute! 10 Weeks:



Thanks for reading :)