Eleanor and Park Book Review

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was recommended from another blogger so I added it to the list at the library...not knowing anything about it.  She did tell me that it was a youth book but that was it.  I was interested to see why the reserve list at the library was so long and I had never heard of the book.  Not that this is totally uncommon because I don't seem to hear about books until years after they are out.

The book started in August of 1986 with sixteen year old Park who was riding on the bus to school and trying to avoid all of the people who often start trouble.  Eleanor gets on the bus and no one wants to let her sit with them but Park finally moves over and lets her sit down.  Sitting on the bus and reading comic books  is the start to their friendship that develops very slowly because Park doesn't want to be linked to someone different because that might get him picked on.  He has spent his time in school keeping his head down because he feels that being Korean in an almost all white school makes him stand out enough.  Park is trying not to be noticed but by picking Eleanor as a friend with her bright red hair, funny clothes, and larger figure, he is bound to be noticed.  The two navigate through school together with a growing relationship sharing comics, music, and friendship while hiding from Eleanor's abusive step father while spending as much time together as possible.  Their small world blows up in an instant and both of their lives are changed forever.  I don't want to ruin the whole story but pick it up and I know that you won't be disappointed.

I loved the book!!  The author really made you feel like you were in both characters shoes and understanding how their lives were going.  It makes me think back to my childhood and the experiences to try to fit in on the bus.  I think that it is one of those rights of passage because the young kids sit in the front and the middle school kids were in the middle and the high school kids in the back.  Of course, by high school I was living out in rural Maryland and the bus ride to school was over an hour so you had to figure out how to keep your head down or fit in because that was two hours of your day 5 days a week!!  I think that most people could find something to relate to in this book from their childhood and I think that it is a valuable book for young adults to read.  I would read it to review appropriate content before handing it over to my child but loved it as an adult.  I hope that you pick it up at your local library or bookstore (but be prepared for a wait because there are still 100 people in line to get the 17 copies at my library).  If you read it, let me know what you think!

Thrifty Thursday: Needs versus Wants For Clothing and more

My husband and I are very thrifty and don't often have a lot of wants anymore...don't think that I am saying that we were always like that because we used to spend a lot more money but that is also when we had a lot more income.  We made the decision together for me to stay home and live on only his income.  We had to make a lot of cuts in the budgets on what we needed and what we wanted in order to live within our means.

Do you often go to the store and come home with lots of things?  Target is my week spot.  My friends and I used to go into Target and spend hours.  I remember long before kids, my friend called her husband (maybe even boyfriend) when we were heading into Target using the logic that if she called him then he wouldn't interrupt her shopping.  He called a long time later and asked where we were....we answered, at Target.  He said (in very boy logic), "Well, then where were you when you called before?"  Umm, Target.  We were probably there for three hours and spent at least $100 each (probably $200 unless the husband's ask in which case a good friend would cover for you).  Can I tell you now what we bought or what we were shopping for...nope!  We were just having fun and getting things that we wanted.

When you start to budget, you need to cut out the trips to get things that you want and think about what you need.  This goes for everything- clothes, shoes, and more.  If you are always tempted by more clothes and shoes, you need to take a little bit of time and stay out of those stores.  Just like any other addiction, if you stay away, it might get better and it might get worse but here are some ideas to help.

Clothes: 

I know that everyone needs clothes but not everyone needs new clothes.  I have a closet full of clothes.  Most of which I don't wear. Wear what you already have in the closet and rearrange things so that you aren't always wearing the same shirt with the same pants and you have a totally new outfit.  Add to the clothes when you need to by getting huge sales or shopping at thrift stores but don't shop just to get more clothes.

My son is the person that we do the most clothes shopping for because he is one with no clothes since he is still outgrowing all of his clothes.  We get some stuff from hand me downs but not as much anymore because as the kids get older, they are wearing out clothes before outgrowing them.  We bought some at consignment sales when you find something for a low cost.  I got a Polo t-shirt for a quarter at a sale the other week and it is in super great shape.

The other idea is to shop the clearance racks.  These are great at the end of the season to get clothes for the next season.  Summer is over and cold weather is coming in so it is the perfect time to find next years shorts and t-shirts.  My mother in law bought these pants last winter and I had them in the crate in the closet for clothes that don't fit yet.  They are pretty neat and even have a lining.

Check out the tag! She paid $2.40 for a pair of pants that went into the wash and got put into the drawer for my son this year. 

If you go crazy and buy a few pair of pants and a few shirts under $3 each, you can get the items you need under the price that one item might cost.  Remember that you don't need to have tons of clothes so limit yourself and know what you have, especially when stocking up a season ahead.

Shoes:

My sister in law really likes shoes.  I personally don't get it but I am also wearing plastic flip flops that I have had for years so I am not winning any awards with my foot wear.   I have a bunch of pairs of shoes but if I had to do it again, I would get a lot less.  I am currently wearing shoes until they are worn out and getting rid of them.  I am going to dig through the closet and find another pair because I know that I do not need anymore shoes for myself.

My son is still growing out of his shoes and we try to get him really nice shoes at Stride Rite.  Nice shoes don't have to cost a lot of money.  I got my son two pairs of shoes the last time that we were at Stride Rite outlet.  They had a buy one, get one half off event.  He picked out the shoes that he liked and I got them in his current size and then up a size.  At the beginning of the school year, I pulled out the new pair of shoes and I already had a brand new pair of shoes for school at half the price.  I know that this is harder to do when kids get older because they are picky about the shoes that they want but I know what my son likes and I get what I know he will wear.

There are also discount shoes at Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Ross.  These are often name brand shoes with great fits and long wear.  There are also sales to be found at most of the big department stores after season of different shoes.  We got a pair of blue rain boots for my son at Sears after the rainy season and he wore them for the snow and throw the next rainy season.  They might not have been the cheapest that we could find but they were only $12 and they have lasted a long time and look like brand new.

Other

My best tip for ideas is to set up an Amazon wish list.  I add the items that I think that I might want to the Amazon list.  I have one for myself, my husband and my son.  This means that we put things on here that I think that we might like.  I can review it at anytime and take off the things that we no longer think that we want.  It puts a nice waiting period on the things that we might want to get and also works on a holiday gift list at the same time.  Now when the holidays come around, people ask what we want and it is all listed out (hopefully edited before shopping starts in November).  I think that it makes getting Christmas gifts that much better because it is something that you really want and have left on your list for a long time.  Amazon has a great way to add items from other websites or you can add a note saying that you want a particular item at a certain store.  These might be wants and not needs but at least you have waited to make sure that it is something that you are going to enjoy for a long time to come.

Kid Reading and Arts and Crafts: Halloween Decorations to practice cutting

We came home one afternoon from school and my son was ready to craft after reading a bunch of his Halloween books.  I had to think on the fly but I came up with a few projects from things around the house. Do you ever find yourself digging for craft projects around the house when your child says that they want to do something?  I am never prepared because I come up with ideas and he wants to do a million crafts so I have to come up with more while he was working on his first project.

The first was a ghost.  I used a plain white piece of scrap paper and rolled it into a tube to see how big it would be.  Then, he drew a face in the middle.  My son glued the edge and held it with his hands.  This works on his patience and his hand eye coordination to make sure he is holding the right part.  I stapled the top just in case.  He folded another piece of paper into four even (ish) pieces and cut along the line to make four strips.  We glued and held each strip on to the ghost.  Then, we attached a string to hang up the ghost.  My son named him ghost.

Next, he wanted to make a bat.  Well, I didn't have any bats ready to go so I drew the outline of one and he drew on the eyes and cut it out.  I quickly went to the computer and printed two different bats.  He cut out the black one and we punched a hole in top and hung them from the chandelier.

I had enough time to make it ahead of the game so I got the paper to do a jack o lantern pumpkin.

I also grabbed the supplies to make a ghost.

He decided that he wanted to make the ghost first.  We drew the outline of the ghost in white crayon and my son decided that he should have crazy eyes.  We used the regular glue because I thought that it would stick better then the glue stick. 

We stretched the cotton balls and stuck them on the ghost so that you could still see the eyes and the mouth that got drawn on at the last minute.

We went to the pumpkin next to make an interesting jack o lantern.

He drew the outline on the orange paper and then cut some shapes.  We didn't attach them until he could move them around and decide what would be each part.  He colored the one eye orange after it was all done.  He used the glue stick to get them put exactly where he wanted it.

We then moved on to Ii because he was doing it in school and Jj for jack o lantern.  He used the dot markers to make the letters in designs.

He was having such a fun time with the dot markers that I made another picture for him to use the dot markers on and trace the letter J.  Yup, I told you that when he starts crafting that he likes to keep going and going.

Then, he used the dot marker to color the other bat.  He was going to make dots and then he used it to color in the whole bat before cutting it out.  We hung this one up with the other two bats.

I ran out of steam and just couldn't do anymore but I decided to pull together a few more to do on another day.  We did a bunch of Halloween activity sheets with mazes, dot to dots, and find the differences on another day.  The next day we did some more dot marker Halloween pictures.  He was busy with lots of Halloween crafts through the last week and I think that he is going to be super excited to finally get to Halloween!!

Remember to get a few good Halloween books from the library or get a few books that you get to pull out every year.  We got some of these at yard sales and book sales and I get to pull them up each year and my son thinks that they are brand new.  Hope you read a few Halloween books to inspire the Halloween crafts.

Shared on Blog Strut Halloween at We Made That

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Do you have pumpkin pie spice in your cupboard?  I don't and I have never had it.  Of course, there are a number of recipes that call for it so you have to figure out what to do.  I think that I used to just call my mom to see what to do but now I needed to have pumpkin pie spice for a recipe so I looked on pinterest.  I found this recipe.

I usually just make it up for the recipe that I need (my mom's standard suggestion) and I did take the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves out of the cupboard but I am always in search of the quantity to mix together to make pumpkin pie spice. Many recipes also call for allspice which is another spice that I don't have and have never used.

I want to make sure that my end product is tasty even though I am too cheap to go out and buy another jar of seasoning when I have enough spices to mix together.  I needed 2 tsp for the recipe so I mixed 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ginger, and 1/8 tsp cloves.  With my math skills, I added the fractions to get to 2 tsp ish..... see why math is important so that you can make it up anyway :)  I added the spices to the dry ingredients.  POOF, pumpkin spice.

For Every Season Book Review

For Every Season: Book Three in the Amish Vines and Orchards Series by Cindy Woodsmall was the next in the series and it happened to be on the Blogging for Books list.  I was really excited to have finished the Christmas book by Cindy Woodsmall and get a chance to read this one.  I was really excited which made it seem like forever before the book was delivered.

The third installment started with a brief overview of the first two books just in case you didn't read them or if you wanted a quick refresher.  This was the a great example for other books because sometimes it is super annoying to read a book that spends the first few chapters reviewing what you might have missed.  This was more like television giving you the scenes from previous shows.

In this book, Rhoda Byler is working with the King family to develop the new Amish community in Maine as well as their new orchard.  She is in a relationship with Jacob King and their relationship becomes strained because with his long absences, she grows close to his brother, Samuel.  Rhoda is trying to work hard and maintain her life while her relationship is crumbling around her.  Jacob is dealing with issues from his past with the construction company that he was involved with when he was in the Englisch world and having lawyers help him to put his past behind him. While Jacob is away, Rhoda's life is crumbling around her and she relies on her friendship with Samuel and the trouble starts.  When Jacob returns, he finds their relationship changed and Rhoda moves to the neighbors house while none of them are on speaking terms.  There are lots of ups and downs and you should pick up this amazing book to see what happens in this third book in the series.

The plot was great and continued on from the previous books without missing a step.  I loved it as much as the first two books in the series.  I hope that you start with the beginning of the series and work your way up to this book but they are all wonderful books with great characters that you really can relate to (even if you aren't Amish).  Make sure you check out the first two books even if you started with this book.  Please let me know what you think after reading this one or any other book in the series!!  Many people are saying this is the last book in the series so that makes me a little sad but the series is worth picking up and checking out!

*Please note that I was provided a free copy of this book through Blogging for Books for my honest review.  I have posted this review on NOVA Frugal Family, Good Reads and Amazon

Menu Plan Monday 10/21

Monday- Philly Cheese Steak Pasta
Tuesday- Grilled Buffalo Chicken Wraps with mac and cheese
Wednesday- Worcestershire Grilled Chicken with chicken rice
Thursday- Soup and Grilled Cheese or Paninis
Friday- Tacos
Saturday-Leftovers/Breakfast for Dinner
Sunday- Pumpkin Party/Whatever is leftover from the party or Little Caesars

This is the first week that I looked at on the calendar that wasn't totally filled in at the beginning of the month.  I guess I got as far as filling in most of the rest of the month but then got stuck and didn't fill in the rest. So I started filling in the spaces...but then I realized that it was empty because I was going to figure out when our Pumpkin Party was so that I knew when to work that into the plan.  Now that is on the calendar, it was much easier to fill in the blanks.  After filling in all the blanks, we made Olive Oil Pasta on Saturday night because my son wanted spaghetti and he ate three plates full so it was a good call to change things up so I put another pasta dish in on Monday instead.

Luckily, the weather is getting cold so I added soup to the menu and I am super looking forward to having this yummy dinner!!  What new things do you put on the menu when the weather gets cold?  I add back in soup with grilled cheese and spaghetti with meatballs.  I can't wait for some of this warm comfort food!!!  Hope you have a great week planned.

Easy Take Out Style Pizza Sauce

I had a few jars of pizza sauce and we really enjoyed them.  I used them on pizza and for dipping sauces and they were all gone.  I thought before that spaghetti sauce was the same as pizza sauce and it really isn't.  I decided that I had to make some but I wanted to make sure that it was different from my spaghetti sauce that I already made.  I was searching around on this blog and found this recipe.  There are bunches of other helpful hints on A Time to Freeze so you should check out other recipes and see if this might be your start to freezer cooking.

The neat part of this recipe is that it takes no cooking.  All you have to do is pull out all the ingredients that you already have in your pantry.  If you don't have any, quickly add them to your shopping list.

I also got out my freezing supplies... a lot like canning but without a lot of the extra cost.  I use the Hefty One Zip bags because I got a great deal at the store so I have an entire cupboard of them.  You can write on them in pen but I like to use the Sharpie because it makes it easier to read later when they are in the freezer.

Next, open cans.  This is a challenge for me sometimes because I have to find "my can opener."  Yup, my husband and I have different can openers.  I tell him that his doesn't work left handed but I just can figure it out because it only takes off the top but I have had a lot of trouble with can openers because I am left handed.  Any other lefties out there feel slighted by the can opener?

Then, start mixing!  I decided since I had everything dirty that I would do double the recipe.  I was going to do more but since I hadn't tried it, I didn't want to go overboard.  I mixed one container of tomato sauce and the two containers of tomato paste together first and added the spices.  I was a little leery that it was enough garlic but trust me that it was perfect!!

I got crocks out of my cupboard and opened the plastic bags over them so that it would be easier to pour.  If your don't have crocks, coffee cups are also a good size as long as the handle doesn't get in the way.  I did three at a time and was able to pour directly into the bag.  I mixed everything in a container with something with a spout...not that always helps me.

These are winter snowman crocks so they are certainly festive but I am not sure that I have plain ones so now that I have come up with this great method, I will most likely always be using snowman crocks.  Two were a little smaller then the one in the middle but I really liked how I could pour everything in and not have to balance the bag.  I decided that I would do it after going to Let's Dish the second time with my friends because the crocks there make it so much easier to batch cook.  Check out how the bag spreads out and you get it in without getting it all over the top of the bag...okay if you have better aim then I do.

Then, I put the bags on the towel to make sure that there were no leaks on the outside of the bag and make sure that they didn't get anything on them from the counter.  I folded the bag in half and squeezed the air out before sealing.

I made five bags for the freezer and saved the last serving to put on a homemade pizza that night. 

Since I had everything ready, I decided to put it right on the dough that we were making for dinner.  Check it out on the pizza that my son and I made.

Okay, that is just the sauce... we did put on cheese and then pepperoni on half and sausage on the other half.

It was amazing with just the right flavor and my son and husband both loved it.  The pizza was a hit and I can't wait to make more pizza sauce to fill the freezer and use the rest of the tomato sauce and some tomato paste in the pantry that I got super cheap to turn it into something that can be used for a meal straight from the freezer.

I changed the recipe a little because I guess I like my sauce thicker.  Don't forget to check out the original recipe on A Time to Freeze but to see the recipe that I made, check below and I hope that you add this to your list to make soon!!  Simple, easy and no cooking needed.

Pizza Sauce

Makes 6 1-cup servings.

Ingredients

• (2) 15 oz. tomato sauce
• (2) 6 oz. tomato paste
• 2 clove garlic, minced or 1 tsp jarred minced garlic
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together.  If you feel that it is too thick, add up to 1/2 c water to thin.
2. Freezer instructions: Label 6 quart-sized zipper bag and line a small crock with them . Pour evenly into 6 bags. Fold bag over and get as much air out as possible before sealing and put into freezer.  Lay flat until frozen and can stack for easy storage.  If you want to keep them together, place smaller bags in gallon zipper bag to keep together.
3. To thaw, place in the refrigerator overnight or place in a bowl of water to thaw quicker. When ready to spread, cut a small opening at one of the bag’s corners for easy squeezing.

Shared at:

 

It's Fall Y'all at Posed Perfection

Church Super at Everyday Mom's Meals

Saturday Night Fever at Yummy Healthy Easy