It's raining...finally here in VA we really need it.

The rain is falling gently and the house is quiet. I have stew in the pot and brownies in the oven for dinner tonight. The salad is made and chilling. All I have to do tonight is stir up some biscuits for dinner, but I might be able to talk the family into bread and butter! LOL Here is what is in my crock pot today. I'm browning stew beef, onions, garlic and rosemary to go into the crockpot with carrots, potatoes, vegetable stock and later a few peas. Well gotta go and cut the oranges. If I cut them in wedges, the family will eat them. Saves my fingernails too.

Oh, I've decided to commit to putting my dinner menus online. Check the left column and scroll down if you want to see what we are eating this week. I decided to get the best meat deals I could find which means short code dated meat...but if you use it right away or freeze it right away, there is not a thing wrong with it. I found: Filet mignon, shrimp, frozen chicken tender strips, ground pork and turkey all for way, way low in price. I asked today and Thursday Morning is meat markdown day, so I know what day I'll hit the meat market at the grocers!!! Since I am not working now...quit the fabric store, loved it but it was cutting into family time way too much... I think that my job will be to economize as much as possible, do as much as I can with as little as possible, become more aware of the grocery ads and markdowns, thrift shop for as much as I can for things only absolutely necessary stop using so many paper products and that way, I will feel like I am contributing something in a financial sense. This is something very important to me. Whenever I start menu planning, I find that we eat much better, healthier and we have a happy pappy in the house!

Love and much light to all of my friends,
G

Update on the stew: 1/10/08 10:17 pm. The stew was a delicious hit, even with my youngest picky eater. Very savory without being overly salty. Delicious!! The brownies were really good too, If all ya'll ever come to dinner, I'll fix ya'll up a tasty southern meal!! Off to bed now, very tired and the boys did great with their surgeries. The little guy (Cujo) is having a bit rougher time, but he was the first to wake up a bit. The bigger guy slept through the evening.

Talk to all ya'll tomorrow!!! I've got a splittin' headache!