Yesterday I stopped at Aldi after the gym. I spent $9 and bought mushrooms, popcorn seasoning, butter, eggs and blueberries. So far I've spent $56 on groceries. Hoping I can continue to keep it low.

I picked up the boys after school and managed not to spend any money at all. We came to my house, where they helped me get the Christmas tree down to the basement, and I rewarded them each with a cookie. Then we went to their house, where they did their homework, and then we watched TV until DIL came home from work.

This will be a busy week with events for the boys. Tonight there is a MLK performance by the 5th-graders; tomorrow night the fifth-grader is playing with the high school orchestra (a yearly event), and on Friday afternoon, the 2nd-grader will be in his class' MLK performance. Not sure when the sports are starting up again.

My new schedule for babysitting will be Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school -- subject to change, as DIL is having a hard time pinning down her own schedule. Her company (event-planning) has a big conference coming up and sometimes she just has to work extra.

Meals today -- the very last of the pea soup! Yay! For breakfast I'll have blueberry pancakes, and for dinner some borscht and carrots.

Let me explain about the pea soup. I started out with a normal amount, but then I added some fresh peas and some chunks of ham in the interest of using those things up. So I had a lot of soup to eat, and I didn't really want to freeze it, as it had been frozen before. So I just decided to have some every day until it was gone.

I might be facing the same thing with the borscht (which I am thawing now). Except I will not do anything to expand it. Looks like I will have at least three servings out of this container.

Maybe the lesson here is to freeze things in smaller containers!