Baking Bread and Preschool

It's no ordinary day in our house today.

DADDY IS HOME!!!!!

Brent has been gone for 3 straight days and he was home when we got home from the gym/grocery shopping this morning. The boys were so excited to see him. He laid on the bed and they played together for awhile before his eyes could no longer handle it.

This is what was in my dreams when I was a little girl!

The boys are now playing together and playing well together. That actually just happened recently- the playing well together part. I love to see them interact, communicate, and imaginate (I know, I know. I made that word up.) together. It warms my heart.

Right before I sat down to blog, a naked Webb came to me and said, "I pee in the hunting club, mom." Dane's hunting club, that Santa brought, stays in our living room (When you are a mom, you decorate with interesting decor) and Webb had gone in there and peed in the floor! Life is anything but boring when you have 2 boys in the house!

Hopefully nudity doesn't offend you. If it does,  don't ever just "drop by" our house.

Here he is telling me. He was unbelievably proud of himself.

I get asked so often if Dane is in preschool. No. He is not. He is 4 years old and my personal opinion is that he should be a 4 year old-- playing at home with his mommy and brother. He has the rest of his life for school. This is my very own personal opinion. If you send your 4 year old to preschool, I do not judge you or think you are a bad mom. So, what does Dane do all day?

 He goes to preschool. He plays, learns, cooks, picks up his toys, play games, sings songs, explores outside, practices using his imagination, learns new words, reads books, we teach basic skills-- like using your inside voice (still working on this one!), sharing, listening, sitting still and paying attention, counting, following instructions, and being kind to name a few. He is at home with me, under my supervision, and learning what I want him to learn. I also instill Bible principles, we restudy Bible lessons from church and Bible study, read the Bible, practice memory verses, and see songs to Jesus. Those are pretty much the only differences.

We sat down yesterday to do some school. It is very low key here, because I feel like he is learning constantly, so sitting down with a workbook page (at age 4) is rare. We did yesterday though and I only had the intention of doing 2 pages before going outside to play. Dane would not stop though. We ended up doing 8 pages before I declared it outside time. I was in need of some sunshine and I knew they had some energy built up. Dane explored with his magnifying glass and Webb played with his big choo choo Santa brought.

 We also climbed trees, rode bikes, looked for worms, and ran around. I personally love having them home to share in all these things with.

I am going back to Dave Ramsey's plan of envelope system. I want to get us out of debt that we got during unemployment, plus be smart with every single penny that is coming in. Right now we have just been flying by the seat of our pants. We have no idea where our money goes each month and we spend it on insane things. I am ready to take control and know where it is going. The grocery budget is what I am focusing on right now. I want to put every extra cent towards debt, so as I look at what we buy (we buy a LOT of food-- feeding boys and a woman that is not afraid to eat requires LOTS of food). Obviously, I cannot not buy food. I just want to be smart with what I am buying. I want to get the most bang for my buck. We haven't bought "organic" since unemployment. Things were just incredibly tight for us and that was an area we cut back on. We bought a few organic items, but mainly, we didn't. We are still not to that point yet. I don't feel like I can breathe with the weight of debt on my shoulders. Therefore, we will cut back as much as possible to get that taken care of. Organic is practically double, so that won't work right now. Plus, I want to save for my van to get fixed!

I buy good bread from Costco and we eat LOTS and LOTS of bread. It is fairly cheap ($4.50 for 2 loaves and it is good, wholesome ingredients). I spend about $20-$30 on bread a MONTH. I wasn't lying when I said we eat a lot. I decided, that is an area I can save on. So, I am back to making my bread. I started today actually.

The worst thing about making homemade bread is we almost eat the entire loaf when it comes out of the oven. It is sooooo much better than store bought. It's all warm and fresh and we cannot stop picking at it. I have got to find me some raw milk in this area. I want to start making my own butter again too because homemade bread and homemade butter has to be what heaven tastes like. OMG. SOOOOOOOO divine!!!!!

I am trying a new recipe with the bread. It is supposed to be a "copy cat" recipe to Great Harvest Bread Company. Super easy and super cheap. I haven't sat down to figure up total costs for a loaf, but I would venture to say, $1.50 a loaf or so.

I sat down to blog to get out of doing what I need to do:

I could tackle this laundry that needs to be folded. (Or I could even paint that section of white wall next to the fireplace that Brent had to fix.)

 I could clean out my sink-- that police car got sprayed with Webb's pee and is drying after its bath. The lunch box needs to be washed out. The ground turkey is for dinner tonight-- I'm thinking homemade chili- and I really could let it be simmering. The large turkey is for dinner tomorrow night/turkey meat for sandwiches.

Or I could even paint this door my husband hung up for me Friday and the trim that goes with it. BUT.. I think I'll wait till he finishes the base boards.

Seriously, there is more I could be doing (like playing with my boys or reading to them), so I guess while my hubby is sleeping, I'll go get those things done so we can hang out when he wakes up.

I hope you all have a happy Tuesday. Please be praying for our family. We have a serious prayer request concerning my mom. I will share more in a later update.