Gratitude Friday...

Happy Friday, y'all!  

I'm a big fan of Fridays.  Pumpkin goes to school, which she adores, while Homeboy and I get to hang together.  Now that he is sitting up, he's totally down with grocery shopping with me.  Which saves me from having to do it at 8:00 pm some night.  Today, we went to the grocery store, home for a nap, a feeding and play time and then Chris came home for lunch.  We left after that for one more grocery stop (gluten-free is not just anywhere) and a quick run into the Dollar Tree.

We're hosting small group this week and then the ladies are staying behind for an Oscar Watch Party.  I needed a red carpet and a prize for the person who picks the most winners.  Dollar Tree is perfect for both.

Now I just need to print out the ballots.  Somehow, I see that happening Sunday afternoon.  

Grocery shopping is one of my favorite pastimes.  I love having my little guy there with me.  He's so serious and honestly, I get a kick out of it when people mention his solemn mood.  It's like we have this little secret.  You see somber baby here but I get all kinds of giggles and smiles at home.  

Oh, my little man.  He owns me.  

Back to grocery shopping.  Without a doubt, I get my love of food and thus shopping for food from my parents.  I've shared in the past how my tiny little family get togethers always felt like royalty might stop by.  That's impressive considering we were gathering from all four corners of our own house.  

My dad is the chef in the family.  When he had time, he was always creating something in the kitchen.  He taught Mom how to cook.  Honestly.  They love to tell the story of her boiling the water out of the pot.  She literally didn't even know how to boil water.  

I am a lot like my dad, in so many ways, but specifically in the kitchen.  I like to create.  I may read a recipe and I might even follow it the first time, but not likely to ever follow it again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm no chef.  Our meals are pretty simple as well as Chris and kid friendly.  But I know how to take a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make a meal.  

These days, our grocery budget is really tight.  With Rhys' increase in food, we've had to go up some but that's only because he's eating almost our entire food budget all by himself.  That leaves the rest of us.  I've read a zillion blog posts on how to cut your grocery budget but let's be honest, I'm not giving up cheese.  

What I can do is make sure every morsel of food is used.  So if I have just a little bit of taco meat, a little bit of rice and some peppers in the fridge, I can pull those together for meal.  It may only be a lunch for myself but it's good stuff.  

I'm also trying to pass along my love of cooking and creating to Aubrey Kate.  It's not too much of a challenge because she loves to help.  When we were kids, Mom would help us make (ha!) pizza bread. This is cheap and a great way to use up bread that's moments from going stale.  Pumpkin loves to put the cheese on the bread.  We don't do this often but when cheese goes on sale, I stock up.  

These are pictures from almost a year ago.  My little girl is growing up so fast.  Look at that baby face!

This is my Valentine's breakfast for Pumpkin that she didn't eat.  Cute, huh?  Apparently, food is not her love language though.  Such a shame.  But I bet she grows to love food like the rest of us.  

All that to say, I am so grateful for my parents and how they loved us with food.  No way I would even begin to know how to make something big out of something little without them.  All those Saturday nights of food creativity paid off, Dad.  I'm not a great cook but I like to play.  And thanks to you and Mom, I'm not afraid to play.