2+2=??

I'm beginning to seriously question whether or not many adults would be able to solve that little math problem. I know not everyone is good at math, but everyone should be able to handle simple addition and subtraction and I don't think asking that someone be able to multiply or divide simple equations is too out of line. Here are two examples from my last week where simple math was just too much for some cashiers I had to deal with (really?!? These are the people you trust with your money...)

• We were buying seeds, plants and bulbs for our garden over the weekend. They were selling bulk onion bulbs for $2.99/qt. We purchased a half quart and the cashier had to get out a calculator to figure out that she should charge us $1.50. The really sad part, is that she had to try 3 or 4 times before she came up with an answer - so she's apparently not good at math or using a calculator.
• We were at Target last night so I could pick up a maternity tank top and get Chloe a going home outfit (it's adorable, FYI.) I was paying cash with money from our envelopes - yes, Chloe has her own clothing envelope. The total w as $21.14 and I gave the cashier $21.25. I originally gave her $21 and was rooting around, looking for change. The cashier must have entered "21" while I was searching and then "21.25" when I gave her a quarter, so the register saidthat she owed me $2100.11 in change. She knew this wasn't right, asked if the total had been $21.14, which I confirmed, and then gave me $0.09 in change. It was close to dinnertime, and I wasn't feeling super polite, so I didn't say anything and just left two cents short.

Maybe we'll encourage our kids to learn simple math by banning calculators in our house until they start in on calculus.

Menu Plan Monday

I haven't posted our meal plan in a while, but with the impending arrival of BabyMort, I want to make sure we're still sticking to this as much as possible. My temp job ends this week, so I'll have a lot more free time to try out some new recipes and stock up our freezer meals as well. Plus, I think we have a pretty good menu this week, so I wanted to share :-)

Sunday - NY Strip Steak w/ grilled stir-fry veggies and mashed potatoes (the leftover steak will be used for quesadillas for lunches and the leftover potatoes will be used in another recipe later this week)
Monday - Tacos
Tuesday - Pasta w/ marinara sauce with pureed squash and italian sausage (This was a great idea for getting veggies in, posted over on Lovely Ladies Dish on the Dish)
Wednesday - Grilled Burgers w/ grilled asparagus
Thursday - Mexican Pizzas (We're using the leftovers from tacos, but getting a whole different meal out of it. This is something we want to try to do more, so we don't get tired of eating leftovers.)
Friday - Perogy Lasagna (This is my first day of unemployment again, so I thought I'd try out a new recipe. I'm going to make two 8x8's instead of a 9x13 and freeze one.)
Saturday - Frozen Pizza (My baby shower is on Saturday - hooray for great family and friends!! - so we're not really sure how our day will end up and wanted to stick with something easy.)

For more ideas, head over to The Organizing Junkie.

Three Dogs and A Softie (or 2)

Someone made a comment a few months ago about Nick the dog looking a little chubby. Aaron and I hadn't really noticed it, but then again, we see him every day. Steve the dog still looked fine and Max the dog didn't look any different to us either, so we figured they were doing fine. They all got the same opportunities to eat and exercise, so if the other 2 were fine, then how could Nick be gaining weight??

Fast forward a couple months...Max's owners are in town and stop by the house - immediately commenting on how Max has put on some weight. Really?? We hadn't noticed it... Then we start thinking about how even if Steve had put on weight, we wouldn't be able to tell, because he's so darn furry. And then we discovered that a 55 pound bag of dog food was lasting only 2 weeks. That seemed a little ridiculous. We decided the boys needed to go on a diet.

In comes the softies. Ever since Nick joined the family almost 4 years ago, the dogs have been fed pretty much whenever their bowls were empty, because we never knew which dog(s) had eaten and which hadn't. I didn't want my boys to go hungry and I just kept thinking, how do you limit the amount of food you're giving 3 dogs when you're never sure if they've all eaten??

Then we figured it out. You train them using rewards, just like anything else with a dog. The plan: We'd been given a case of wet dog food by my parents, because Pluto's stomach has gotten sensitive in her old age and it made her sick (which then discovered after buying a whole case of this particular brand.) So, every night when we got home, we'd give each dog 1/3 can of wet food with their dry food so they'd gobble it up. In addition, we'd give them each a cup of food in the morning so they weren't going 24 hours without eating - or at least without the opportunity to eat. Over time, we'd decrease the amount of wet food they were getting until they were just getting dry food, assuming they'd be conditioned to eating at the same time by that point.

We're down to just a few cans of wet food, so we're trying to wean them off. We thought we'd see what they did if we gave them only dry food the other night. And boy did we get our answer - they totally snubbed it!! All 3 looked at us like we were crazy when they realized there was no wet food in their dishes. Then they ate like half their food and walked away.

I haven't decided yet if this means our plan was a failure, they didn't learn anything, or if it means we're still giving them more food than they really need. I can tell you one thing though - Aaron and I will no longer feel guilty, wondering if they've all gotten enough food. They get their chance and it's not our problem if they choose not to eat!!

Stay skinny to go green...??

I saw this article and thought it was interesting. I guess it makes sense since some of the biggest contributing factors to obesity are eating more and exercising less. This means more food production and transportation costs, as well as more transportation costs associated with transporting people more often and heavier people.

I'm always looking for new ways to go green, so I thought I'd share!!

The best thing since sliced bread is...

....three-cheese sliced bread from Panera!! Our usual bread is a whole grain, HFCS-free bread by Sara Lee. It became 'our bread' because of those qualities and because we can find it at the bakery outlet and get it for half the grocery store price, which means we don't spend close to 10% of our grocery budget on bread every week.

It's a good bread, but it gets a little tiresome every now and then. And it's not really the right bread for certain things, like french toast. Well, we had Monte Cristos on our dinner menu one night this week, which is basically a ham and cheese, french toast sandwich (I know, not the healthiest choice, but we replaced an egg with 2 egg whites we had in the freezer...) So, since we've been doing really well with our grocery budget lately, coming in under budget every week, we decided to splurge (but not go over budget!!) on some 'fancy bread' this week.

That's where the Three-Cheese bread from Panera comes in. It is very tasty and HFCS-free (actually free of any sweetener) although not whole grain, but that's fine by me since it's not all-the-time bread. We've used it in our Monte Cristos, as a breakfast bread with an egg scramble on top and for cold ham and cheese sandwich. I can't decide if we should eat the rest or freeze it so we can enjoy it sometime down the road...

If you told me a few years ago that I'd be this excited about a loaf of bread, I'd call you crazy. But I'm really happy for us that we've been able to stick to this grocery budget and even work in ways to 'splurge' every now and then. And it's just plain tasty :-D

A Tried and True Argument: Leaving the Toilet Seat Up

Aaron leaving the toilet seat up has never been something that bothered me. I think part of the reason is that I haven't really had to deal with someone who leaves the seat up on a regular basis. I know that when we only had 1 bathroom, the seat would get left up occasionally, but it was the exception, not the norm. Now that we have 2 bathrooms, I think his seat is up all the time, but it doesn't effect me!!

I've discovered over the last few weeks why this might be an annoying habit though. I work in an office that usually just has another female and 2 males working. There's 1 bathroom in the office (which presents it's own unique challenges for a pregnant woman who seems to have to pee all the time!!) and I swear that 75% of the time when I go in there, the toilet seat is up. I despise having to touch it to put it back down.

But, then I think about a possible alternative. What if they didn't put it up in the first place?? The possible mess there just grosses me out even more. And I suppose there's this argument as well...

Maybe no one else has really thought about this, but what do you think about the age-old toilet seat argument??

"Mortology"

Let others know a little more about yourself, re-post this as your name followed by "ology"

***********FOODOLOGY***************
What is your salad dressing of choice? French - boring, I know.
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Carlos O' Kelly's, Cheesecake Factory
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Chips & Queso
What are your pizza toppings of choice? Italian Sausage and Zucchini
What do you like to put on your toast? Peanut Butter or Cinnamon & Sugar
Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate for sure!!

***********TECHNOLOGY***************
How many televisions are in your house?3.
What color cell phone do you have? Pearl (fancy name for shiny white)
Do you have a laptop? Yup - it's our only computer.

***************BIOLOGY******************
Are you right-handed or left-handed? I'm right-handed.
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? A few teeth...
What is the last heavy item you lifted? Nothing too heavy recently...probably a gallon of paint.
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope.

************BULLCRAPOLOGY**************
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No way.
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I wouldn't. Even if I do have a horribly to pronounce and spell name, I like it :-D
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? I don't think so. I don't really do spicy.

************DUMBOLOGY******************
How many pairs of flip flops do you own? A few - I'm too lazy to go upstairs and count.
Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Haven't had one.
Last person you talked to on the phone? Someone who called in at work.
Last person you hugged? My hubby.

**************FAVORITEOLOGY****************
Season? Spring.
Holiday? Thanksgiving, Christmas.
Day of the week? Saturday. I get to sleep in and snuggle.
Month? Either June or October.

***********CURRENTOLOGY*****************
Missing someone? Yeah, it's been too long since I saw a few of my friends.
Mood? Content.
What are you listening to? The TV and the 'whir' of the exercise bike.
Watching? Nothing really - "Rules of Engagement" is on, but I'm not paying attention.
Worrying about? Finances.

***************RANDOMOLOGY****************
First place you went this morning? To the bathroom.
What's the last movie you saw? Some weird movie about summer camp.
Sleeping Alone Tonight? Nope - I'll have Aaron on one side and my snoogle on the other.
Do you always answer your phone? If I'm available when it rings....
Its four in the morning and you get a call, who is it? Better be somebody with an emergency!!
If you could change your eye color what would it be? I wouldn't.
What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I don't eat there...
Do you own a digital camera? Yes.
Have you ever had a pet fish? Yes. Several, but cleaning the aquarium wasn't really my thing.
What's on your wish list for your birthday? A great weekend away with my husband and daughter.
Can you do push ups? I used to be able to do a couple...but it's been a while.
Can you do a chin up? No.
Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Definitely a lot of both.
Do you have any saved texts? Nope.
Ever been in a car wreck? Nothing too bad.
Do you have an accent? I sound normal to me....
What is the last song to make you tear up? Actual tears...it was a father-daughter dance at a wedding a couple years ago.
Plans tonight? It's tonight already. I plan on watching "Medium" and going to bed.
Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Not really.
Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Nothing - we didn't leave the house.
Have you ever been given roses? Yes.
Current hate right now? Uncertainty about my job status and my constant craving for junk food.
Met someone who changed your life? Of course.
How did you bring in the New Year?Playing the Wii at my in-laws!!!
Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? Maybe, but the whole "butterfly effect" idea freaks me out.
Have you ever dated someone longer than a year? Yup - then I married him.
Do you have any tattoos/piercings? I have one tattoo and I used to have a belly button ring, but I took it out.
Does anyone love you? Shyeah!!! I'm very lovable :-D
What songs do you sing in the shower? I'm usually just trying to stay awake.
Ever had someone sing to you? Yes.
Do you like to cuddle? Uh, yeah - who doesn't??
Have you held hands with anyone today? Yes.
Who was the last person you took a picture of? I think of myself with the self-timer.
What kind of music did you listen to in elementary school? Ace of Base was my first CD...and the Grease soundtrack!!
Are most of the friends in your life new or old? New-ish.
Do you like pulpy orange juice? I'm not a fan of citrus-ey juices.
What is something your friends make fun of you for? I don't know - they're nice enough not to do it to my face.
Have you ever ridden an elephant? No, my life is rough.
Do you like to play Scrabble? Sometimes.
What are you saving your money up for right now? Chloe and possible unemployment.
When is the last time you ate peanut butter and jelly? It's been a while. We go the peanut butter and honey route lately.
What were you doing 12 AM last night? Finally sleeping.
What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? For seriously?!? It can't possibly be time to get up!!

Frugal is my (our) middle name!!

I've always liked being able to find a good deal. And if I can save money, sign me up!! I'm always trying to come up with ideas to save a little here and spend less there. Sometimes, it takes my lovely husband a while to warm up to my ideas, but he's usually pleased with the end result. Here are a few of our latest money-saving adventures.

--We're going to make our own laundry detergent. After a lot of research, we've decided to use the Duggar's recipe. There are only 4 ingredients - water, borax, washing soda and bar soap. We were able to buy everything below for less than $10 and we can make many, many batches of laundry detergent from what we bought.


I think the cost for the portion of ingredients needed to make 1 batch (10 gallons) is ~$2. According to the recipe, we should get about 640 loads of detergent, which means each load only costs about $0.03. Currently, we use the All Free & Clear concentrated HE detergent. A bottle that claims to have enough for 32 loads costs around $7.99, which works out to $0.25 a load. Although $0.22 might not seem like much, if we average 10 loads a week after Chloe arrives (I'm not sure how many we'll need to do since we're cloth diapering...) that's a savings of $2.20 a week and $114 a year. That's pretty good!!

And...if we do average 10 loads a week and 1 batch of detergent has 640 loads, then it'll be more than a year between making detergent, so the time investment is pretty much negligble. In addition, homemade detergent has fewer chemicals so it's not as hard on your clothes or as harmful to the environment. Bonus!!

--We like it when we can be frugal and green at the same time. Along the same path, we like it when we can eat healthier and save money. One of the biggest things we're trying to do to eat healthier is just knowing what we're putting into our bodies and avoiding unnecessary sugars, preservatives, etc... A few months ago, we made our own vegetable stock. We threw all the ends of onions, skins from carrots, brocolli stalks, etc... into a Ziploc bag and kept it in the freezer until we had enough. Then we froze the stock after we made it and pulled it out as needed to make soup this winter. After seeing a great deal on whole chickens at Hy-Vee, we decided to try the same thing - making chicken stock. We didn't have an immediate need for the amount of meat we'd get from the chickens though, so we shredded it and froze in usable portions.

We ended up getting 10 12oz. portions of shredded chicken and 2 quarts of chicken stock. A 12 oz. can of shredded chicken costs $2.18 and a quart of chicken stock is $2.89, totalling $27.58. We spent almost exactly $7 on the 2 chickens, which means we saved over $20!! Our total time investment was probably about an hour - and $20 for an hours time isn't too shabby in my opinion.

--Then there are times when the only way we can spend money, is to try to save some in the process. (I'm not sure if that'll make sense to anyone but me!!) We've been wanting a new bed for a while now. Our bed is over 20 years old and only a full. The size didn't bother us too much until I got pregnant and started having trouble sleeping, which meant lots of tossing and turning, and then the addition of a very large pregnancy pillow. Apparently, the pillow and I don't leave a lot of room for Aaron...

We decided to use some of our tax return to buy a Queen size bed. Aaron did a lot of reading online and decided a Memory Foam mattress would be the way to go. We still had a definite budget to stick to, and we couldn't get the mattress we wanted and a box spring. So my handy husband built us a platform!! We were able to get some 2x4's leftover from another project (thanks Steven!!) We had to buy a couple pieces of plywood, which cost $68. The cheapest box spring we found anywhere was $200, so that's a $140 savings!!

And...thanks to my husband making smart cuts, we'll be able to use the scraps to make a couple shelves for our office. So chalk up another one for the frugal Mortvedt's!!

Yummy!!

We've been trying to use at least 1 new recipe a week from Recipezaar - one that we found either from Gayle at the Grocery Cart Challenge, assuming it will be fairly cheap, or one that I found while searching around through popular recipes. Well, this week's recipe, Crock Pot Chicken, was a hit!! It was super simple to make, not horrible on the nutrition scale, makes a ton and it's pretty versatile.

Aaron came home for lunch and threw the chicken breasts, salsa, black beans and corn in the crock pot on high. When we came home from work, we threw the cream cheese on, turned it to low, and took a walk for 45 minutes. When we came home, we realized the chicken was really 'fally-aparty' (a very technical term) so we shredded the chicken, stirred everything together and threw some rice in the steamer. We ate the chicken mixture over rice and it was very tasty!!

After we ate, there was still about 6 cups of the mixture left, so we froze half of it and kept the other half out for another dinner and a lunch. Others who have reviewed the recipe have suggested using the leftovers to make wraps, which we might try out with what we froze. (We don't currently have tortillas or have any need for them for any upcoming recipes.)

Next time we make this, I think we might try using less chicken, doubling the black beans and corn and using the fat-free cream cheese (we used 1/3 less fat this time). We weren't really sure how the cream cheese was incorporated or how the fat-free would work out texture wise, but since we just mixed everything together, there's no reason not to use the fat-free.

Blame the Dog - for seriously!!

I'm sure I'll be sharing baby poop stories soon. For now, just a dog poop story.

When I let Steve the dog out of his cage on Monday night, he'd left a little 'surprise' for me. I could tell he must have an upset stomach, because it was totally unlike him to go to the bathroom in his cage.

Then all night last night, Tuesday, you could hear his stomach growling and gurgling from across the room so we could tell things still weren't right. We gave him a Pepto Bismol pill and he seemed to quiet down a little.

Tonight, Aaron let him out of his cage. I could hear some cries of disgust coming from their room, so after I let the boys outside, I asked if everything was okay. Aaron said everything was clear, but their room was stink-tastic. We thought one of them must just be gassy, as they often are, which is why we commonly "Blame the Dog." Then Aaron let the dogs in and I almost fell over from the stink. I'll just say 2 things - Steve has longer-ish hair and he must have gone #2 before we left for work today. So...the stink had been literally been hanging around with him all day.

Aaron gave him a bath, was truly grateful that we put in a fancy shower head with a hose, and Steve is no longer stinky. The entire basement still stinks though...hopefully the Febreze Air Freshener kicks in soon!! And I'll love our daughter no matter what, but I hope she's not as stinky as the dogs...