Author Archives: Nora

September Grocery Review

03 Monday Oct 2016

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This is the highest month we’ve had in a while.  But, I think the restocking post move is largely complete and that should balance out eventually.  The bulk of our shopping is swinging back towards Stop & Shop.  The seasonal sales that I stock up on are starting up and Wegman’s has stopped sending their coupon cards that offered $7-8 off each week.  With the farther distance to Wegman’s (though shortened by the move), those %7-8 mattered.

  • September TOTAL: $1,399.49
    • Stop & Shop: $542.09
    • Wegman’s: $337.41
    • BJs: $186.69
    • Other: $333.30
      • Local: $135.43
      • Star Market: $145.18
      • Trader Joe’s: $19.90
      • Target: $32.79
      • Other: $0

Grocery shopping is getting smoother; our ongoing issue is milk consumption.  There’s just a limit to the number of gallons one can buy at a time.

Tuesday I went to Wegman’s.  I also got two boxes of cereal and raisins, but they didn’t make the picture.

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I also went to the farmer’s market on Tuesday.  The raspberries were gone the next day.  The basil and tomato are used up.  The other items will be eaten early this week (except the apples which will last a bit longer).

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On Thursday, I went to Stop & Shop.  I had to go through twice as one could only purchase one roast per checkout and get the lowest price.Cheese was on sale; I would have bought more, but this was all they had.  The frozen veggies are for the baby.

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Friday I went to the farm stand.  The bread is for weekend french toast, though we decided that while different was nice this probably wasn’t our favorite french toast bread.  Since the picture isn’t so clear, that’s one pear, two apples, and three tomatoes in the lower left.

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Finally, Sunday we were at Wegman’s again to restock on milk.  The dozen gallons of milk are not shown, just the odds and ends we picked up at the same time.

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And, finally, this week’s menu.  The soccer schedule has changed yet again as it gets darker at night and they need to limit themselves to lighted fields.

Saturday:
Pot roast
Carrot soup

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Popovers

Sunday:
Veal parmesean
Garlic & herb pull apart bread

Monday:
Kids: Mac n cheese
Adults: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Chicken pot pie
Green & wax beans

Wednesday:
Baked cod
Carrots & sugar snap peas
Bread

Thursday:
Kids: Chicken nuggets
Adults: Homemade mac n cheese

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

The Things You Find these Days – Cutlery

29 Thursday Sep 2016

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I was in the grocery store a month back and stumbled across this set:

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I admit that on the rare occasion I need to pack cutlery I’m still using the cheap, disposable variety.  But, I was surprised to see Chopsticks as part of the set.  I’m also not sure if you’d take the whole set with you each day (with the substantial plastic case) or just what you need (as in the picture).  I didn’t buy one, but frankly they look pretty good.

Then, last week, at a different grocery store I came across these:

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Apparently the sounds are no longer sufficient.  It wouldn’t surprise me if other colors are available (only this when I was there) and/or if a train version exists.  I also suspect this would rapidly turn into a toy with all the extra places for babies to grab the spoon while you try to feed them.

I haven’t actually tried either.  But, looking strictly at the packaging and imagining the functionality, the cutlery set looks like a winner but the airplane spoon does not.

September Accomplishments

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

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It’s been a while since I posted one of these.  The start of the school year has been hectic.

  • Preschool started
  • We went for mini golf and bumper boats.  This was supposed to be a summer activity, but it hadn’t happened yet.
  • Soccer, swimming, fall baseball, and bike club started
  • We got the play structure fully put together

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  • The replacement dishwasher was delivered.  Unfortunately it hasn’t been hooked up yet.  I’m not sure which is worse – waiting for a new dishwasher while the broken one leaks or knowing that a new one is in the garage, but you can’t use it yet.
  • The elementary boys had their school photos – very early in the year so they’re in shorts.
  • We had elementary back to school night.

Grocery Update & Menu Plan

26 Monday Sep 2016

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Shopping is getting a bit more regular lately.  I think I’ve finally restocked those items we used up prior to the move so I’ve had fewer “I forgot X” trips.  That being said, I barely squeezed in a BJs trip on Monday so I took the picture of the pile in the car trunk and back seat.  If you look closely you can also see that it was raining.  I try not to go shopping when its raining because I don’t like loading/unloading in the rain, but sometimes it can’t be avoided.

 

On Thursday I went to Shaw’s.  They were out of pizza cheese last week so I mostly went for that.  But, oatmeal is also on sale for $1/box ($1.79 off), which is a pretty good deal so I bought the max (8) allowed for that item too.

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I also went to the farm stand on Saturday.  I’m pretty sure all of this is local.  I don’t usually buy yogurt there, but doing so saved a trip elsewhere.
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Finally, on Saturday I went to Wegman’s.  This was largely a restocking effort.  The cookies were for a dessert/appetizer pot luck that night.  The older bananas were to top off my supply at home so I can make two loaves of banana bread plus one banana cake this afternoon.

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And, the meal plan.  I went easy this week and bought a few pre-made items from Wegman’s.  This is still cheaper than take out.

Saturday:
Chicken cacciatore
Bread

Sunday:
Braised pork
Carrots
Mashed potatoes

Monday:
Spaghetti with Sunday Sauce
Bread
Raw veggies

Tuesday:
We have afternoon and evening activities so: Take out pizza

Wednesday:
Tacos

Thursday:
Kids: Macaroni & cheese
Adults: Tuna noodle casserole

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

Grocery Update

19 Monday Sep 2016

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I made two trips to the grocery store this week.

On Friday, I went to Shaw’s.  This is a huge trip there for me, but they had lots on sale.  The grapes and bananas are for soccer snacks.  They didn’t have any pizza cheese.  I learned Italian wasn’t a great substitute.

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On Sunday, I went to Stop & Shop.  I find myself doing more weekend grocery shopping lately.  It’s a bit hard to predict the weekend menu with sports and weather.  Since we like to BBQ when possible, the current path has been to wait and shop day of.  It’s not an extra trip, just another thing to squeeze in on the weekend.  The fish is for dinner.  The ham is for school lunches.  The frozen veggies are for the baby – she likes these.  Pasta was on sale along with ice cream, cheese, goldfish, and applesauce.

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Argh – the Dishwasher

15 Thursday Sep 2016

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With the new house came all new appliances.  So far I’ve been happy with everything, except the dishwasher.  It washes fine, but it leaks.  At this point I don’t know if its an installation issue that can be fixed, or we got a lemon that will need to be replaced.  I just know that it needs to be babysat to dry up the fluid that comes out.

Here you can see the beads of water forming on the cabinet while the dishwasher is running.  (This isn’t too bad actually).  The second photo shows the moisture on the door once opened.  Obviously the black control panel should not be wet since its outside the gasket.

In these photos you can see the moisture build up on the underside of the counter.  You can also see the steam condensing on the side of the refrigerator.

All of this moisture then runs down – both inside and outside the door – and drips out onto the floor below.  So, its a constant effort to keep things dry while the dishwasher is running.  And, if one doesn’t run the dishwasher for a few days it dries out and stops leaking.

So, here’s what I know.  I have all new Kitchenaid appliances.  The Whirlpool (parent company) service guy came out, but didn’t see the dripping because the instruction was to stop using the dishwasher when it started dripping.  Since the service guy took a week to appear, the dishwasher was dried out and didn’t drip for him.  It took another few days to start dripping again.  Unfortunately, this is what taught me that I have to keep it running.

From dry, I have to run about 10 cycles to trigger the dripping.  This takes time.  It can be any cycle, though the dripping isn’t always the same.  I think this is because of the different amounts of heat in the different cycles, and because the water finds a different path each time the unit dries out.  So, I’m waiting for another service visit, but I have to keep running it and drying things while I wait.  It’s been a week now since I requested a second service call and no response yet.  I’m getting rather irritated by this!  (Hence the post.)

 

Grocery Update and Menu Plan

12 Monday Sep 2016

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I’m not quite back in the swing of things.  I’ve been feeling like I’ve been grocery shopping every day for a while now – mostly for lack of planning.  At the beginning of the week, I thought I had gotten past this phase.  But, then we ran out of milk, so a forth trip was required.

On Monday I went to BJs.  The baby is phasing from Puffs to Cherrios.  The two round containers are banana chips (left) and shrimp (right).  It’s a bit odd that they look so much alike.  The paper wrapper is cod, which went into last week’s fish stew with the shrimp.  The dark chocolate chips were to make a peanut butter pie.  It came out well, and tastes exactly like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  But, that’s a bit much in a pie.  I also got 8 gallons of milk and two 24-packs of Gatorade that didn’t make the picture.

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Tuesday I went to Stop & Shop.  Most of this was on sale.  Though, the trip was driven by the yogurt which I had forgotten that I needed to make banana bread with my seconds bananas purchased last week.

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Friday I went back to Stop & Shop to prep for the weekend.  Ground turkey was on sale.  Soup was on sale for 50¢ each if you bought 12.

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I also went to the farm stand.  The raspberries and tomatoes are local.  The others not so much.

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Then, despite buying 8 gallons of milk on Monday, we were out.  So, I went back to Wegman’s on Saturday and picked up a few other items as well.  This time I took a picture of the milk before I took it out of the car.

 

 

This is our first week with a full slate of fall activities.  So, its a bit of a trial run.

Saturday:
Hamburgers

Sunday:
Indian Take-out

Monday:
Spaghetti

Tuesday:
I’m going out so they’ll have take-out pizza.

Wednesday:
Tacos

Thursday:
Kids: ???, but it will be fast
Adults: ???, we’ll see how the week goes

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

Red Boot Review – Kamik Heidi

09 Friday Sep 2016

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I bought these a year back specifically to deal with the cold wet that accompanies fall soccer.  As it turned out, I never needed them last year so they were still in their box.

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Now, I’ve been out watering the new grass.  After my feet got soaked one too many times I decided to open the box.  I am happy to say that they do exactly what I bought them for.  They’re slightly warm for summer, but not bad.  They’re comfortable and true to size.  Most importantly, they keep my feet entirely dry.

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Some Random Thoughts to End Summer

08 Thursday Sep 2016

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I had a few more random photos to share from the summer, but not much to write about any of them.  So, this post will be bits of this and that.

For the second summer, two kids went to video game design camp for a week.  Over the course of the week, they learn to program the movement, characters, backgrounds, music, and other parts of a simple video game.  My guys usually make 2-3 in a week, with 10-15 levels per game.  It was interesting to see their game thought development from last summer to this.

When we started unpacking, our oldest presented me with a box to throw away.  I couldn’t figure it out at first, but it turns out these are his participation trophies.  It’s a rather ridiculous number, I think.  He kept a few that he’d earned for winning something specific, but didn’t feel the need anymore for the clutter of the participation ones.

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Grocery Update and Menu Plan

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

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Yes, today’s Tuesday.  But, yesterday was a holiday.  I also should be including our August numbers in this post, but I haven’t found the box with the receipts in it yet.  Since the older boys have a real week of school this week (yes Monday is a holiday, but last week was 2 holidays, 2 half days, and only 1 full day so it hardly counts) and the preschooler starts this week (with a similar warm-up period), I should have time to find it this month and get that info out to you.

Tuesday was the first day of school so I went to Target & BJs with only two in tow.  I didn’t take a picture of the grape juice (6) I got at Target.  I had to put the perishables from BJs away quickly so I didn’t get a picture of them either, but here’s the non-perishables.

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Wednesday I went to Stop & Shop.  Granola bars & Oreos were on sale; the rest is for this week and restocking.

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I also went to the farm stand.  The paper bag is full of seconds bananas.  I took them out so you could see how many I got for $1.50.  They’re pretty uniformly in ok shape.  Sometimes the bag is more mixed with more that are good for eating.  These will all be used for baking.

The apples aren’t local yet; hopefully soon.  Everything else is.

 

And, the meal plan.  Evening activities kick off again this week so you’ll start to see the split dinners reappear.

Saturday:
Tenderloin steaks
Creamed spinach
Baked potato
Salad

Sunday:
Shepards pie
Green & wax beans

Monday:
California fish stew
Bread

Tuesday:
Asiago chicken
Salad

Wednesday:
Beef & Broccoli stir fry

Thursday:
Kids: Macaroni & cheese
Adults: tuna noodle casserole

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza