Tag Archives: family

Jul 29 2011

Frugal Friday:Ideas for Cheap Family Vacations

So, I’m on vacation now.  At the county fair!  Anyway, it’s Friday and that combination got me thinking about what other vacations a family could take on a tight budget.  Here are some suggestions:

  • County Fair – yes, I’m serious. Book a cheap hotel nearby and walk to the fairgrounds.  Bring plenty of your own food to keep in your room to avoid super expensive fair food. Enjoy the animals, entertainment and have the convenience of a place for the kids to nap and a clean bathroom!
  • Trip to see Relatives or Friends – anytime you can go somewhere and stay with friends or family and not have to pay for a hotel is great.  Be sure that they really have enough room for your family to stay, and don’t over-stay your welcome. A few days of your kids running amok in their house is plenty.
  • Camping – camping is cheap and is an excellent chance to teach your kids about nature.  Borrow a tent if you don’t own one.  If you make the investment in the gear you can have numerous cheap and often beautiful vacations.

Get out there and have some fun before summer is over.  With a  little planning you can find that perfect trip for your budget.  Even if it’s just a long weekend, the change of scenery will do you all good.

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Jul 28 2011

Packing For A Family Trip

OK, so maybe it's not THAT bad, but still...

I love getting to go on vacation, even if it’s just to my parents’ house. But, I hate packing for all of us.  Somehow, even though my kids are preschoolers, we still seem to have a ton of gear to bring.

Right now, I’m packing for our trip to the fair.  I know that seems like an odd place to take a vacation, but this has been a tradition in my family dating back to when my mom was a kid.  We were all involved with 4-H and later FFA, so we would spend a week every summer at the fairgrounds showing and selling the livestock we raised.  To make it easier on everyone, the family started staying at a local hotel a block from the fairgrounds. It made it easy for us to be there early (5:30 AM!) to feed and clean stalls, change into our uniforms and basically live at the fairgrounds for a week.

We no longer stay for the week since we are in between generations on 4-H age kids.  My brother’s older daughter will be the first of the new group in two more years.  The family tradition of 4-H and staying at the hotel nearby will live on in the third generation.  Back when we were kids, our grandma would come with Mom to help out.  She would bring her sewing machine, ironing board, and her quilting to work on during the day.  She helped mom with the laundry and pressing our show whites.

We have the trip down to a science now.  We bring all kinds of stuff with us.  Tonight I packed a big bag with crackers, dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter, paper plates, plastic utensils, cups, instant mac-n-cheese, cookies and a roll of paper towels.  I also need to pack some booze (hell, yeah!), some fresh fruit and soda. Yes, there is plenty of food available on the fair grounds, but fair food is expensive!  Today’s online addition of the local paper showed “what to eat at the fair”.  I browsed and was shocked at the way prices have gone up.  They want six dollars for a corn dog?  Highway robbery I tell you.  We will probably sample a few things, but I have no intention of trying to feed the family fair food for two and a half days.  We also have the option of a local family diner restaurant across the street.  We will eat there at least a couple of times during our stay.

Besides packing the food and drinks, I also have to gather the clothes.  This means several changes of clothes for two small kids and myself (Paul packs his own stuff), plus pool gear.  Yep, it’s not a hotel stay without spending plenty of time in the pool.  So we have floaties, suits, beach towels and flip-flops for all of us.

There are other things too, the camera, for example.  The kid’s Leapster games – which I will keep hidden until I need a good distraction.  I’m not sure if I’ll be brining the kids’ pillows.  I always do that when we visit my mom, but I’m thinking we will be short of space.

With such a long list of items I did what any sensible computer geek would do – I made an Excel spreadsheet with a list of everything we could possibly need, with columns for each family member and color-coded labels.  Yes, I love Excel. I used to use it all day long in my former worker bee life so it is my natural go-to for making such things.  I also re-did my awesome chore chart on it the other day. Complete with clip art!

Okay, enough rambling.  If you’ve stayed with me this long, then thanks, and I’d best get back to packing.  We are leaving tomorrow!

 

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Dec 1 2010

Thankful at Thanksgiving

extra long table set for thanksgiving

Yes, that's one VERY long table.

We had a wonderful time visiting with my family for three days over the Thanksgiving weekend.  The meal was delicious!  My mom’s 27 pound turkey was one of the best tasting ever.  She opted for a fresh free-range turkey through the local grocery store and it was far superior to the regular.  She also opted for breast-up and basting (the turkey, not Mom) which turned out a beautiful looking bird.  Was it better because it was a free-range turkey?  Hard to say.  Sometimes the quality of organic products is better, but many times they are not worth the extra money.  I’m not a big fan of the current green, save the planet, organic movement.  It’s become a sort of religion, a holier than thou quest to be environmentally correct.  But that is a topic for a future post.  Anyway, on to the bird…

Thanksgiving turkey

We had 15 adults and 6 kids at my parents’ house this year.  That’s actually small by my family’s standard.  In addition to our own family, my parents usually invite friends who would otherwise be home alone to join us.  We’re a fun bunch, at least we think so.  As I said to one family who was with us, “Yes we’re crazy, but we’re not dangerous!”.

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Nov 24 2010

Potato Rolls for Thanksgiving

Homemade potato rolls are a must-have item in my family for Thanksgiving.  My mom always goes all out for the Thanksgiving meal, so I offered to make the legendary rolls this year to lighten her load.  I’ve helped make the rolls twice in the past but have never done the entire thing on my own.  These rolls are my favorite part of the meal.  I had a lot to live up to in my first attempt.  And the results?  Success!

freshly baked potato rolls

Freshly baked potato rolls!

 

These rolls are a lot of work!  The first step is to peel and boil the potatoes.  Then mash the cooked potatoes and save the cooking water.  The yeast is mixed with some of the potato water to get it going while mixing all the other ingredients together.  After mixing the dough the rest of the flour has to be incorporated by kneading.  Once the dough is finished it must rise.

Dough rising with help from a hot water bath.

 

The house was cold so I had to put the dough in the oven (oven off) with a pan of hot water below to help it rise.  You can see my blue lasagna pan in the background.  Once it was doubled in size I punched it down, covered and put in the refrigerator over night.

Bread dough in bowls

Ready to go in the refrigerator. It was 11 pm!

 

This morning I brought the dough out and punched it down again and got to work forming the rolls.  We do a knot style roll, but I’m sure any shape would work.

I rolled out half the dough (one bowl) and got five dozen rolls!

Then I had to let them rise again until double in size.

They were slow to rise because the house was cold.  I was impatient and turned on the oven to start warming up the kitchen.  I let them sit on top of the range and get some heat that is vented from the oven.

Finally, they were ready to cook.  Beautiful golden brown and light as air. Yummy, I had to try one, or two!

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