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Being poor is getting old! We are managing to get by without going hungry or anything like that, but it is HARD WORK for me in the kitchen!

I'm very glad that I know how to cook. And I like doing things like baking my own bread, making my own stock, and doing home-made pasta. But I like to do those things because they taste better, and I always do them when I have a little extra time. I don't like it that I HAVE to do them now because it's cheaper (and isn't it wierd that the cheaper option is nicer?). Yesterday I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen. That's a lot of time for a woman who doesn't like to cook family meals that take longer than about 25 minutes to prepare.

The cooking thing really is the most difficult part of being tight with money. How do you make your budget stretch far enough? What meals can you make that still taste nice and will fill everybody up and stretch for lunch the next day? Menu planning is a nightmare, while at the same time being a masterpiece of creativity and ingenuity. This week it looks like this:

Monday-we had lasagna because I already had all the cheese I needed for it in the fridge, along with an already opened jar of pasta sauce. To stretch the sauce a bit, I browned my meat with shredded potatoes, onions, and garlic. Then I added tinned tomatoes, grated carrots, and a red pepper. I always do hidden veg in my pasta sause to sneak some down Dylan's throat! Then, I made vegetable stock with the peelings.

Tuesday-Leftover lasagna for lunch and cabbage soup for dinner, using the veggie stock that I made yesterday and the minced beef that I didn't use in the sauce for the lasagna because I stretched it out with potatoes (thanks for teaching me that one, mom).

Wednesday-sandwiches for lunch and a really nice dinner. We have a beef joint in the freezer so I will do roast beef with mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, steamed carrots, and broccoli.

Thursday-hot beef sandwiches for lunch, maybe with some bubble and squeak, and scalloped potatoes for dinner. One drawback to these--no leftovers for lunch!

The rest of the weeks is planned, but I won't bore you with the details. Next week will probably involve roast chicken, then chicken noodle soup, etc.

Seriously, knowing how to cook and how to be creative in the kitchen is a skill I'm so glad I learned. I'm really glad that my mom taught me how to be frugal and that she taught me how to do "housewife" stuff like sewing and cleaning and other basics. They've been such valuable skills to have!

Even with the stress of our current financial situation, we are doing really well. The kids continue to be a joy and a constant source of entertainment. Dylan is doing really well with the potty training, though we haven't really made it more than a casual effort. He likes sitting on his potty and loves getting stickers for his reward. He won't go number 2 on the potty yet, but we're working on that today. I'm a bit nervous about that--really don't want to have to clean THAT off the carpet--but I'm sure it'll be fine.

We've even started planning a tentative camping trip for next month, when our finances won't be so tight. We are thinking about going to the lake district and taking Dylan on some short hikes. Edith will be carried, of course. Most likely by me. But it should be a lot of fun. Planning camping meals can't be any more difficult than planning meals from nothing!

We are taking full advantage of our season pass to Normanby Hall and enjoying the bounties of the hedgerows with wild plums and blackberries. Dylan is having a marvellous time right now, and Edith is blissfully ignorant that anything is wrong.

Speaking of Edith, she is now having banana and baby rice in addition to my milk. And yesterday she tried carrot for the first time (since I didn't have either of the others). She wasn't sure about it at first, but she came around after a while. And she was stuffed full of food last night, so she slept all through the night. She and Dylan woke up at the same time this morning-5:30am. But SHE went back to sleep until 8:20. As of last Wednesday, she weighs 16 lbs. 4 oz!

There will probably be more pictures soon since we are spending so much time outside and it's really beautiful right now. In the mean time, keep those prayers coming for us and our pitiful lack of money. And don't worry--we're doing just fine!