Family matters (does it???)

It’s Tuesday! Boo… We still have so far to go until Friday. That makes me sad. L
I hope this week has found everyone in good spirits. As for myself…. I have been finding ways to feed our household of 5 people on a small grocery budget. It’s not like we can’t afford groceries. I have just been looking at what we have been spending and good gosh! My husband eats so much food! I don’t know where it all goes! He has at least two servings at every meal. When I say “serving” I am using the word lightly because what I really mean is the plate is piled high. Every plate he fixes has a mountain of ranch, hot sauce, and cheese on top of it. If he keeps going like this one day his health is going to suffer. I keep trying to tell him that. There are some things I simply refuse to buy anymore that were once staples in our house: Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, hot sauce, Mountain Dew, potato chips… The ranch would disappear in a matter of two days. Have you compared the price of Hidden Valley to other ranch dressings? It’s a little expensive. I thought — if we are going to go through that much of it, why am I buying it? I don’t even use ranch! I don’t even mind paying the price. It’s the excess usage of these condiments that becomes costly. I am tired of replacing and replacing. Then one day a light bulb went off. Stop buying these items! I can’t in good conscience buy potato chips and Mountain Dew for three reasons. 1) They are expensive (in comparison to a gallon of spring water). 2) They are unhealthy! <;— Main reason! 3) They have no vitamins or nutritional value. So what is the point in buying these items? They also disappear within a day or two.
All of these factors have led to my new obsession, which is finding healthy, inexpensive recipes for my family while maximizing our dollars spent at the grocery store (I know, my life sure has changed!). One cheap, healthy meal I found is an old fashioned American staple — Pinto beans! For five dollars I fed all of us for three days! I did dress them up with seasonings such as onion powder, garlic powder, minced garlic, onions, salt, chili powder, and pepper. The kids liked it a lot. It’s not a bad idea to cook some brown rice and mix the two finished products together either.
Then I made a lentil soup. It was time consuming since it was made from scratch (except for the corn). Chopping up and preparing the vegetables is actually what took the longest. Paul’s mom helped me with this so it wasn’t as time consuming as doing it alone. It’s a really easy recipe and you can make as little or as much as you’d like. You can add or omit favorite vegetables. It was delicious! The kids loved it. If anyone wants it or is interested in it, let me know and I will share it. Believe it or not I am a really good cook. J
So in the previous paragraph I mentioned Paul’s mom. She is living with us now (did I mention that before?). We didn’t really ask her to come. She just kind of invited herself and showed up. What were we going to say, no? She quit her job in Iowa, pulled out her 401k, rented a Uhaul and moved down here. I was kind of like WTF? I didn’t feel I was asked and even if I was I would have been the ultimate villain had I said no. I think her coming to live with us had to have been part of God’s Master Plan to make me a better person. I say this because it has not been easy. We have definitely experienced some growing pains since she arrived. When she first moved in she started telling my daughter what she was going to do and trying to set rules for her. I immediately confronted the situation and told her although she was family she was still a guest and should behave as such. Coming into my home and trying to run ish… Well, anyone who has a glimpse of who I am knows that is not going to fly. She would do and say things and then when I would confront her or tell my husband she would chalk it up to a misunderstanding. After about four “misunderstandings” I told her the misunderstandings were not acceptable. We are going to have to remember what we say and say what we mean so that no one is misunderstood. Apparently my husband said his mom had a nervous breakdown a few years ago and has never really been the same. She is not good at thinking by herself or making her own decisions. I sometimes wonder how she got by in life as long as she has. She calls me at work to ask me if she can plug the tv in upstairs to see if the cable is hooked up. I am glad she was being considerate, but I am at work. You don’t need my approval to plug in a tv. I always try to remain respectful to her being as she is my husband’s mother. Some days are easier than others. I took her to the YMCA with me the other day because I felt bad that she would be sitting at home alone. I walked out after my workout and she is talking to two guys. Let’s just say that they looked very shady to say the least. I was like — what are you doing? Be careful who you talk to. She went on to tell me how it was broad daylight and there are cameras outside. I just stood there looking at her as she was talking, thinking to myself is she serious? It doesn’t matter if it’s broad daylight! I have tried to remember that everyone is different and maybe she needs someone to show her these things because she honestly doesn’t know. She has a good heart. I don’t think she is 100% upstairs judging by her actions. This is why I tolerate her behavior sometimes. There are two possible reasons for her behavior. Either she really doesn’t know or she is a really good actor pretending she doesn’t know. I tend to think it’s the first one. Anyways, we have been supporting her since her arrival on April 8 of this year. Yeah… It took her a while to find a job. We have been paying her truck insurance, buying her cigarettes, etc. I told her when she got here to be easy on her spending. Like usual nobody listens to me. What did she do? She spent her whole 401k and then needs money from us. She was smoking cigarettes left and right. I finally had to tell my husband, “Hey, I’m not trying to be mean but you need to tell your mom to cut down a little bit on her smoking.” We have been supplying her with gas. Sometimes I want to pull my hair out. I am so glad she starts working on Thursday. You want to know what the real kicker is? With her income it’s not mathematically possible for her to move out. She can’t afford an apartment, utilities, gas, groceries, cigarettes, truck payments, insurance, and whatever else she may need on her income. Looks like she is going to be living with us for a while. I will give it a little while and if I am not satisfied with the situation then I can tell my husband your mom has been here for nine months. I think she has had plenty of time to get on her feet. If things go right, I am not opposed to her staying though. I just don’t want to deal with stupidity.
I am not sure if I mentioned it. There are many holes in my timeline since I don’t blog consistently. Back in February, my husband’s brother, his wife, and their baby came to live with us. If I could describe the entire experience with one word it would be NIGHTMARE. The baby was talking around with bobby pins she had picked up off the ottoman and had them in her mouth. When my husband mentioned it, his brother’s wife got snappy and said, “She’s fine.” Really? It’s fine that your baby chews on bobby pins. The baby is like 14 months or something. The baby mama (let’s give her a name for blog’s sake — Julie) would just sit on the couch while the baby crawled up the steps. She would just sit on facebook on her Droid. I was like, “Uh, Julie are you going to get the baby?” She acted like I was inconveniencing her! My daughter was upstairs like, “Come on back downstairs baby.” I finally told my daughter right in front of Julie to let Julie get her own baby that it wasn’t my daughter’s responsibility. She was fat and lazy and all she ever wanted to do was sit on the couch. I may be a lot of things but one thing I do is take care of my child. She didn’t cook, she didn’t clean. This lasted about two weeks and they finally left because I got upset because the baby was eating in the living room. My daughter doesn’t even eat in the living room and she’s ten! I asked them before they came to please respect our house. We have nice furniture and nice stuff period. I want to keep it nice. They agreed to respect our home when we agreed to let them stay. The rules and expectations were laid out in advance as a condition of them staying. The next day, they packed all their stuff while we were at work and left. Oh, to top it all off they had gotten their income taxes back which was around $4,000 and when we asked them for rent money (they were supposed to be paying weekly) they said they didn’t have any money left. Talk about a sorry mutherfucker! But they had money to pack up at $3.70 a gallon and drive to Iowa. I suppose that experience left a bad taste in my mouth with his family. I don’t feel they want to help themselves. They all seem like moochers who think we are supposed to kiss their behinds even though they stay in OUR house. I bet they wish my husband would have married someone they could run over and tell her wtf she is going to do. I couldn’t believe how ungrateful and manipulative they were.

This post has gotten rather long… I will wrap it up here. Seriously… If anyone out there is interested in any recipes I have, let me know. I will be glad to post them. Good luck trying to make it to Friday suckers!