Happy Birthday Eric

Today is Eric's birthday. We all miss him so much! It is very hard to not have him here, especially this week as it was my mom, sister, and Grandmother's birthday's this week, as well as Eric's today.
Happy Birthday Eric!

My hair stylist

This is my friend Courtney. She is awesome. She has 11 kids and is a great mom. We have been friends since high school. She came to NJ to visit this weekend without kids, so we had a girls night out. It was so much fun. I wish she still lived in NJ.

-Becky

My birthday gift to my mom

me Sat. morning


from the back Sat. morning

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me Sat. afternoon

My mom has wanted to me to cut my hair for a long time. I have not had a hair cut since Oct. 2002 (except an occasional 1-2" trim.) So for my mom's birthday I decided to go ahead and get a drastic cut (my girlfriend did it for me.) Over 10" was cut off. My mom sure was happy. I like it, but am still in shock.

What do you think?

-Becky

Birthdays

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Today is my sister's, Grandma's, and cousin's. Happy Birthday to all you special ladies. I love you all!

Food Budget

My food budget is now $300.00 a month. It breaks down to:

$10.00 a day

or

$2.00 breakfast
$3.00 lunch
$4.00 dinner
$1.00 snacks

This has to cover food for all above meals and snacks for four people. So it breaks down to:

$ .50 per person for breakfast
$ .75 per person for lunch
$1.00 per person for dinner
$ .25 per person for snacks (all day)

I want to try and keep up with my food goals, as I really want to feed my family real food.

My food goals are:

-no artificial food dyes (THIS IS NONE NEGOTIABLE)
-no high fructose corn syrup (THIS IS NONE NEGOTIABLE)
-no corn syrup
-no white or brown sugar
-no white bread or white food products
-drink lots of water (so that we we are eating when hungry and not actually thirsty)
-organic as much as possible
-5 or more fruits or veggies daily (fresh first, then frozen, finally canned)

I think this will be interesting, especially with my two very hungry, growing boys and with sensory issues regarding food and food dye allergies limiting some of our choices.)

What is your food budget? Do you have any food rules or goals?

-Becky

So good

I managed to squeeze some money from somewhere to go to Wholefoods (plus I still had about $20.00 on a gift card.) I needed my GoodBelly's (priobiotic drinks that help with my IBS) as I had not had any since before hurricane last week. Also after all the junk food we ate during the hurricane, I was craving some healthy food.

Here is what we bought (I also bought the GoodBelly's but didn't count them here):

$5.00 1 lb ground beef
$3.00 organic hamburger rolls
$2.00 5 ears local corn on the cob
$2.50 Feta
$2.50 organic spinach
$3.00 organic romaine
$3.00 local tomatoes
$2.00 organic croutons
$3.00 package chocolate chip cookies
$5.50 coconut water

$31.50 this covers one entire dinner and dessert for 5, plus I can use the rolls to make sandwiches tomorrow for lunch, and then there is still enough salad to have with lunch and dinner tomorrow.

I had a salad as soon as we got home from Wholefoods. It was good. Then for dinner I made hamburgers. I put Feta inside mine and my sister's. It tasted so good, but it was painful on my throat. Still worth it though. I also made the corn on the cob. Fresh Jersey corn is better than so good. I don't even put butter on it, alone it is just delicious. We had yummy cookies for dessert.

I have been missing food as I have been so sick and sleeping a lot. I am still sick, but getting better.

What did you have for dinner?

-Becky

Check out this blog

I read this blog about a single mom who lives in a trailer with her 4 kids. Not a mobile home but a travel trailer in an rv park. This mom lost her good job 3 years ago and has been trying to survive since. Anyway this month I felt like she really needs to blessed. So please pray for this family and go read her blog here.

Also if you feel lead donate a few dollars or more to this family here.

This mom is short on this months bills, plus she has added expenses with 4 kids and back to school. So maybe you can help ease some of her burden?

-Becky