Party of 9 Grocery Challenge

With our super fun and super full house, the grocery shopping might seem like a big pain and an even bigger expense. Enter 2 great coupon-clipping minds like Jennie and I and you've got a fantastic grocery challenge on your hands! We've decided to feed all these peeps for $200 in September! We have spent $64 so far. Mostly on milk (organic 2%, regular 2%, skim and goat milk that we mix with carrot juice and flax oil for the little boy) and produce. To be fair, we do have a freezer full of meat AND the pantry is well stocked at this point. The challenge will really be figuring out what to make with all of our plenty.

We have done two things so far. The first was a baking day. We made pumpkin muffins and a loaf of bread to add to our store of already frozen banana muffins. We use these things for a quick breakfast on school days. The second thing we're trying is a neighborhood hotdish exchange. Jennie and I along with 2 other mommies will each take a Thursday this month to make 4 hotdishes. Then between 5-530PM we deliver the dish to the other families. PRESTO! A hot, homemade and ready to eat dinner once a week! I've attached a couple of pics. One of baking day (when we also made a coconut curry sauce for our dinner) and one of the preparations for the first hotdish night (which I would call a smashing success).

Everything else is going great! Ava stuck a pea up her nose last night but Aaron promptly got her to blow it out (shooting it across the room!) We're heading into the long weekend where we have plans all 3 days to eat and eat and eat with good friends! I love this last summer hurrah! More to come, stay tuned...

And then there were nine...

It's a really exciting time here at the ol' Marlowe household! By some stroke of luck, Jennie and Joe were BOTH able to transfer with their current jobs to brand-spanking new Dallas locations! So, until their house in Kansas City is sold, they are staying with us! For those who are counting, that makes 4 parents, 5 kids, 2 cats, 1 dog and 1 fish. A fine bunch if you ask me! AND, except for a yucky case of strep throat that made its way through the 3 littles, we're all doing great!

Claire (3rd grade) and Emily (1st grade) started at the elementary school and Ava (pre-k 3) started at the early childhood school. That leaves Julia and Holden home with me to play and snuggle (and wash a little laundry and make dinner when possible) and drop-kids-off and pick-kids-up from school.

The funniest time of the day, by far, is meal time. Particularly breakfast and dinner. I can't believe that everyone gets fed every time and most times the kitchen gets a swift cleaning, too! We started a neighborhood hotdish exchange to make life a little easier. The routine is settling in and now we anxiously await the arrival of our new niece/cousin, Lily. Only 4 weeks to go! For the record, Lily's family is not moving in with us, but we would love it if they could. A newborn is a little demanding, but she comes with 2 parents! That would help even the score a little bit.

That's what is going on here. Stay tuned for my next post about our "Marsen" or "Hanlowe" household grocery challenge. We're going to feed all these peeps for under $200 this month!