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Saving Money with Prescriptions-

The other night on our drive home from some where we were listening to Clark Howard (http://www.clarkhoward.com/) on the radio. He was talking to a caller about saving money on prescriptions and my ears perked up. We are a family that does not have standard health insurance. We use Samaritan Ministries (http://samaritanministries.org/), which is great by the way and if you're interested I'll tell ya more about it! Since we do not have standard health insurance we pay out of pocket for all of our prescriptions, which seem to be ridiculously priced. Sometimes it can be $10 and other times it can be $90 and if you are in need of those prescriptions every month, that sure is a lot of money per month. I always worry when someone is going to get sick, and how much that is going to cost us out of pocket. Clark Howard mentioned on his radio program that you can go to places and get their cost per prescription list. Since I knew Wal-mart offers the $4.00 prescription program, I decided to call them today. The pharmacist was very helpful on the phone and said they offered a list in the pharmacy that can be picked up at anytime. Since I had just come from Wal-mart, I asked if the list was also offered online, and she helped me find it easily on the website. I think this is great advice on saving money for your family and I will be carrying this list with me the next time we go to the doctor to cut down on our prescription prices at the pharmacy counter. Since we are on one income and we also are trying to do better with our monthly budget, this will help us year to year save on our prescription medications.
 Here is the list for you!
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/if/hmp/fusion/customer_list.pdf


-Happy Saving!
Kristy G.

One Jar

There is but one lone quart jar sitting on my shelf downstairs in the basement. This one in particular is old and a blue mason jar, a hard to find piece. It is not good for canning, because the neck of the jar is a little short, making it hard for the jar to seal, so I cannot use it for canning. This is the first year I have used almost all of my jars. I might have one more thing to do and that is potatoes, if there are enough for me, but that means I'll actually have to buy some. It's so great to walk downstairs to see my full shelves for our family. It's a lot of hard work, lots of burns, as I even endured one today when I was canning applesauce. But the last of the jars means the end of the summer for us. I know it's October, but the canning season is officially over, so summer is officially done. Now we get to enjoy the bountiful harvest that God provided for our family all throughout the winter, spring and into the summer. And next year will be around the corner before we blink. I just wanted to count and see where all those jars went, so I tallied everything up and here's the final score for canning this year:
6 quarts of applesauce
16.5 quarts of green beans
12 quarts of dilly beans
12 quarts of tomato soup
10.5 quarts of peaches
14 quarts of carrots
11 quarts of tomato juice
39 quarts of grape juice
16 quarts of tomato sauce
12 quarts of apple pie filling
We also put away sauerkraut in our freezer, we have 10, but as a family (with Kyle's parents, grandparents and  brother, we put away 81 quarts)
I can't remember how many quarts of corn I have...

So the total without the corn: 137 quarts of homegrown love!!
I am so thankful that we are able to do this every year. I really enjoy it! The only thing I did not do this year was strawberry jam, but I added this year apple pie filling and peaches!
What a blessing that God has provided us!!
How did you do with your harvest this year?

The Overture

I love the sound of an Overture, the beautifully arranged medley before a musical begins. I love listening in anticipation of the songs that are to follow in the play that is going to begin. The ups, downs, crescendos and fortes of the musical accompaniment that encompasses a musical.  I know at the end of the overture, my favorite moment will happen, the curtains will open and the play will begin. A little silence or hush comes over the crowd and we're all at the edge of our seats and alert to see what will unfold before our eyes. 

I had the opportunity once in high school (can you believe it?) to be in a musical. I loved it and I am so thankful for the opportunity, though I had no voice experience, I was thrilled to wear a pretty dress and dance and sing on stage. The overture, and listening to it in the wings was my favorite part. The overture featured little hints, but never gave away any part of the musical. 

As I was getting dinner ready tonight and listening to The Sound of Music begin, I could hear my daughter, who is 4, singing along with the Overture. She only knows bits and pieces of some of the songs, but she loves it! She is a huge Julie Andrews fan. She loved her on The Muppet Show (we have some of them on DVD), then Mary Poppins and now in The Sound of Music.  As I stood there, busily getting things ready, I was thinking about my daughter who is about to begin K-4 and school for the first time. I was thinking about how this time at home is the beginning of who she is and who she will become. Just little hints of her. I do not know what the future holds, but now she loves singing and dancing, but I do not know if she'll grow up to be a singer  or dancer. She always proclaims she will be a chiropractor like her Daddy. She makes me laugh everyday, and she has a wonderful sense of humor. She is silly and giggly. She's kind and caring. She loves movies, musicals and music. She loves finding the "girl's part" in songs and will sing that part only and her Daddy will sing the "boy's part." She likes dolls and Disney Princesses. She likes planting and watering flowers, playing outside and getting dirty. She likes riding horses, riding the gator and swinging. She's my little twirler, we're always twirling. She loves others and gives great snuggle hugs. She is a helper and a good big sister. She loves praying and reading her Bible. These are just little hints of my girl. This is just her Overture, only the beginning. 

I feel as if the curtain is beginning to be drawn and I am standing in the wings as my daughter is rushing to the stage for play to begin. All these things I have learned about her, have been her Overture in her life, the beginning of her musical. The rest is beyond the curtain. How my heart waits in anticipation for the musical to begin. 

The Mixed Tape

Maybe, by the title above, you have no idea what I am jabbering about to even begin. In the generation before you, one of the best gifts to give someone was a mixed tape. It wasn't expensive, just the cost of the cassette and your time putting it together. What defines a mixed tape, you may ask? A gift to a friend would be your favorite songs from the radio or songs here and there from your tapes or c.d.'s. A gift to your beau would be songs of love, of course (never gave or got one of those). It was fun to see what someone threw together for you, all the while thinking about how much fun the person would have listening to it in their car or at home. I remember when I got my first c.d. player and it had two tape decks, on one I could just listen to a tape and on the other I could record. I remember even in middle school, when we were working on our final tests in our science class, our teacher asked us to make a mixed tape to bring in for our last days in science. I was so curious to see the different genres of music that people listened to and how they mixed up their tape. How those songs all mixed up together showed a little side of them that maybe a few people knew about. All this to say brings me to a fun find today. 

My kiddos and I were at my parents today and my mom went through a bunch of old tapes to give to my kids to listen to in the car. You know those old favorites: Wee Sing Silly Songs, Wee Sing Bible Songs, and many others. One tape that she found just had my name on it, most likely so it wouldn't get mixed up with all the other tapes, and I would know it was mine. We popped it in and laughed out loud! Many of the songs were from our area Oldies station--which were so fun to listen to and my kids immediately started dancing to them. As the tape went on, we heard some awesome country songs as well, by Allison Krauss, Toby Keith, Tracy Byrd, yea, the old country (though on the tape the radio station was called Young Country 96)! I listened to that one almost all the way home. What cracked me up the most is that I did not stop recording in between songs, so I know the weather for that day, 86 degrees, the local traffic report (there was a wreck by the Beach Waterpark) and upcoming ticket giveaways for concerts (John Michael Montgomery)! It was like a step back in time in my drive home. I enjoyed hearing those old songs. One of my favorite country songs, was the One Boy, One Girl. I am not sure who sang that. That one was on there at least twice. 

The mixed tape is sort of a lost art, now that tapes are pretty much out of existence. Since my car is a 2002 it still has a tape deck, which is literally the only place we can listen to cassettes anyway. I remember making mixed tapes for friends and for myself, especially for running or working out. 

What were some of your favorites on your mixed tape?

Iron Skillet

So I figured it out! What always made my grandma's fried chicken taste the best...it was her iron skillet. Tonight I did a little experiment...because I was making a casserole and forgot to cook my chicken beforehand. And what do you do with 3 large chicken breasts all cut up into small bite sized pieces...well, you make fried chicken, of course. I made one big pan (my non-stick pan) of fried chicken and realized that I had enough for a small pan and low and behold I found a medium sized iron skillet in my pan drawer gathering dust. Now, don't believe what you hear about not using iron skillets (or even using a pressure canner) on a flat top--you can...just be careful not to move it around on the flat top stove or it may scratch. 
After the chicken was done, I tried a bite of each--one piece from the iron skillet and one from the regular non-stick pan. There was no comparison. They both were well cooked, well browned on both sides with a crunch as you bite into them, but there was something about how the butter browned in that skillet. As I am sure most cooks know, that overtime the iron skillet only gets better. I believe this skillet in particular is the same skillet my grandma would make her cornbread (it is after all perfect cornbread size) and I only wish I knew how to make her cornbread to this day! However, as I am writing this I am realizing that my current cornbread-sized skillet may have been her sister Sue's skillet and could have very well been her mother's, my great-grandmother's skillet. 
All this talk about the iron skillet brought me back to my time with my grandparents, one week, every summer from second grade to senior year in Wartburg, TN (yea, you've never heard of it)...it's definitely off the beaten path, but it was like a second home, or a summer home. I loved that time with my grandparents. I really knew them, I got to spend time with them and I miss it! Sometimes when you are going through things in life, why do we not appreciate them until that part of your life is over? O I long for the day when I could come back from my great-aunt Sue's house to find my grandma cooking in that little trailer kitchen her fried chicken, greasy beans with red potatoes on top, creamed corn and cornbread. And I think we had that almost everyday, since most of the times that we were there was during the bean-picking time. I never cared, I love that meal and no one could make it like she could, not even me.
Isn't funny how a little household item can bring your memories back to a sweet time. O how I miss my grandma today. I will again be cooking using my large iron skillet any time that I am making my grandma's fried chicken!

No writing

To be called an official blogger, I would think that you would need to write more than once every two months. So I am going to try to start this again...writing more often...I know it's hard to believe, but I am going to try to write more. My goal when starting was to have a log of my kids growing up, and I do that that through pictures and my journaling I do for them...and of course the journaling has taken the back burner. And this is always the last. I feel like in the last two months, there have been lots of huge things happening, one that our daughter turned four! Four, that seems so huge! And she is now eating like a child, not a baby. I can actually fix a plate for her and it's all gone and she asks for seconds. Where is my baby?
And then there's our son, who is now 15 months, almost 16, who we have yet to have his 1st year pictures taken...grant it, it has been cold, wet, snowy and raining I think since January, so we have had very few days of no rain or wetness to be out with the photographer...but I am chopping at the bit to get out there! But as Kyle reminded me, I do have pictures of him on his birthday and that's what matters (and lots since then).
Someone asked to see our house, it's not for sale, but when someone asks, you have to be willing to show it right? So we were busy preparing a house to be shown...but I am not ready to move. I have the memories of each part of each room of our house that I walk into and remember a special time or special memory of holding a baby or child or sitting with my husband as a newly married couple. What is a house? It's just a place where all our stuff is, a place to call home, a place where memories are hidden. It's earthly, it doesn't last, can I let go of it. God had to really work on me on this one. I know I adore our blue house with the red door, with the red porch swing, and back patio. As I am a person who likes to know endings and how things are going to work out--a planner, an organizer. We still don't know where we stand on the house with these potential buyers, but I know that God has a plan. A wise friend once said to me when I was looking to change jobs, she said and I quote, "You have to be willing to stay, before you are willing to go." I guess that can be turned around to I have to be willing to go before I am willing to stay. I had to realize the through this, just someone looking at our house, that God is in control of our lives. As always, he knows the best path we are to take. I need to let go.
These are just a few reasons I have been absentee from my blogging. In this next year, year two, I hope to write more about my family, my kids and post more pictures. And as you know gardening and canning will be starting up before you know it! So get your first crops in on those dry days!!
Thanks for reading friends, stay tuned for more to come!