Seedlings

This is somewhat of a pathetic show of my seedlings. I have about 5 more containers of them in the basement. Most of them are not sprouting b/c I forgot about them with the new baby and such. But there are a few that are doing fine. I hope to plant more seeds outdoors when the frost passes in mid May. Once again this is my year of trial and error.

Random Mushroom Post

I found Morels in my front yard yesterday. There were only 5 but morels nonetheless! Mushrooms are one of my favorite things and I absolutely love the flavor of wild mushrooms. I had to blog about this b/c even though there are only 5 I will enjoy them! Now how should I prepare them?

Super N & W: 20m & 3 yo

Baby J: 2 weeks old

My 3 year old II

W discovered he could open his bedroom window and screen. Fyi it's not a full sized window but a 2.5' x 1.5' window thats higher up on the wall. He has to stand on his bed to get to it. Anyways, he's discovered he can open it and so he started throwing toys out of his window into the driveway. The Hub caught him tossing something out the window when he went in to get him one morning last week. Currently one of Super N's socks is stuck on the roof. That same day we went to get into the van and sure enough there was a pile of toys on the ground in the driveway. It was really funny but boy how frustrating! Apparently our neighbor B saw the whole thing go down and was having a whole conversation with W while he was tossing his toys out the window.

Ahhh!

Momma Had a Baby

I had a baby last week.

I chose to be induced ultimately b/c of the convenience factor. The Hub and I were able to take W and Super N to Gramma and Grampa's on Tuesday night while we prepared to be induced the next morning.

I arrived for my induction at 9am and was started on a pitocin drip at 10:30. My OB, whose office is directly across the street from the hospital, stopped over on her lunch break around noon to break my water. Baby J didn't respond well to this change and so his heart rate dropped pretty fast and he took a while to adjust which worried the nurses and sent them scurrying every which way. But he eventually recovered after they put an oxygen mask on me for 20 minutes or so, had me switching positions every few minutes and they lowered the pitocin dosage.

The labor seemed to drag on and on although one perk was I got to watch HGTV and FoodTV. From 1pm until about 5pm I became increasingly ill and worn out. I hadn't slept for a few days prior and I had a head cold I was recovering from and I hadn't eaten since the night before. The contractions were not awful around 5pm but they were becoming increasingly uncomfortable. I started thinking about whether or not I wanted an epi so that I could sleep since Baby J was taking his sweet time. I then started thinking about Baby J coming out of the Va jay jay and the pain I may experience with that and I realized I wanted an epi at that point. I knew I would be beat after labor and in pain and I knew I'd still have to go home to nurse and spend time with the other kids. I chose to get the epi and try to sleep.

When I chose to get the epi I was progressing very slowly. I had arrived at 2 cm and at 5pm I was only 5cm. The anesthesiologist took 5 attempts at my epi, which btw was worse than the contractions, and then he finally got it in. I had the same problem with my other two kids. After getting the epi in it took effect and although I couldn't feel my legs I could feel the pressure of the contractions and I could feel my feet. After the epi I turned over (well they turned me over) and I fell asleep for about and hour (the Hub said I snored). They checked me, barely changed, and I watched some more tv (Rachael Ray sure has a lot of shows).

At 7:50 the nurses came in (btw one of my nurses names was Beth and my Obgyn's name is Beth so we started to refer to eachother as Nurse Beth, Dr. Beth and Patient Beth) and decided to put me into a "weird" position to see if anything would happen. They flipped me on my right side and bent my right leg up latching my foot into the guard rail. My left leg was put into a stirrup. I looked like I was skipping but I of course was laying down. They checked me again and I was at 6cm. Baby J's heart rate started to go nuts at that point so out came the oxygen mask again. He did adjust relatively quickly though and was fine. I of course felt very comfortable and they kept bringing me warm blankets so I fell asleep.

At 8:30 they came in to check me and the nurse gasped and said "You're at 10! I gotta call the Dr.!". She flipped me over on my other side and told me to breath through the pressure. She got a hold of Dr. Beth who was 20 minutes out and they all told me to "hold him in!". It actually wasn't awful but a bit uncomfortable. I was so excited to meet him that I was just waiting in anticipation!

Dr. Beth got in the room at 8:55 and got situated. She then checked me and said the head was right there, I could see it too thanks to the funhouse mirror and the fry lights that hung from the ceiling. None of us could believe it! So the next contraction they handed me my legs and I pushed. The Dr. yelled for me to stop b/c the cord was around Baby J's head. She lifted the cord and I felt another contraction so she said give me a small push so I gave her one and she delivered him through the cord after 1.5 pushes, he was born at 8:58pm! It was awesome! I was so grateful he was okay. He weighed 7lbs and 10oz and was 21" long. We all figured if they had started to put me in "weird" positions earlier he may have come out sooner.

My 3 year old

I'm not sure what's going on with W but he's been very interesting the last week or so. The hub and I feel like we are going to pull our hair out.

A few days ago he ripped the pages out of one of his books while in his room. We removed all books from his room. He knows this is not okay. He did it again on Saturday morning after the sitter left a book in his room. He keeps asking for us to read the book he ripped apart on saturday but we keep telling him we can't because he broke it.

Also, on Saturday morning he ripped off Super N's diaper and his own. Both had pooped and so there was poop all over the room. I woke up this morning and same thing. Gross! I don't know what's gotten into him. We are finding it very difficult to figure out how to discipline him right now when he does stuff like this b/c we're finding he's very stubborn and doesn't respond to much discipline. At this point the hub is about to duck tape the diapers on and we are trying to use natural consequences (ie. you can't read your favorite book since you destroyed it) to discipline him. We do spank but we found this weekend that b/c he's so stubborn we would be spanking him all day and he still wouldn't respond. I don't know. We're just trying to take it day by day right now and remove ourselves when we feel like our anger has gotten the best of us.

These are some of the times that remind me how difficult it is to raise a child. We don't want to squash him obviously but he needs disciplined. We want to love him but we find it's difficult to not punish him and withdraw from him when he does things that he's not supposed to do. I think we realized this weekend b/c of where he's at right now that we can't change him no matter how much we discipline him but we can communicate what's right and wrong and teach him to be respectful and obey his mommy and daddy all in the surrounding of love and acceptance. These are things he needs to learn in preparation for the real world.

Maybe more on this later as I learn more and have more thoughts...

Potager Gardening in April II

I'm still working on getting pictures on here but I will soon.

Yesterday we were outside all day cleaning up the yard and getting my 2 raised beds in order. Jason also dug the soil out of this old wash tub planter in the yard so it could be moved. Our neighbors helped him lug it over to where my raised beds are and then they hauled the soil over and put it back in. I mixed some of the vermiculite, compost and moss together and combined it with about 6-8 inches of the existing soil. I then planted 15 strawberry plants in the planter. I planted 5 more strawbery plants in separate smaller pots and I still have 30 more to plant! I think I'll just try to find a space next weekend (or have the Hub do it since I'm about to have a baby!) and just plant them in the ground to see how they do. If you're wondering why I purchased 50 strawberry plants it's b/c there was a 50 plants for $20 sale and I figured I'd put them somewhere! We'll see I guess... I did get my blueberry plant into a container as well thankfully.

This morning I went out to the yard with the kids and had hoped to plant some small onions and some Yukon Gold potatoes but I just couldn't muster up the energy. I woke up 3 times last night with the worst raw sore throat. The third time I woke up it had turned into a congested sore throat that was aching. Fortunately the hub made me some tea (at 4:30am) and grabbed me some plain sudafed and some tylenol. The kids have green boogies and coughs so I'm guessing I caught something, I'm struggling today physically.

But in regards to the garden, the kids are going to their grandparents tomorrow evening at 7pm to stay a few days since I have my induction on Wednesday morning. I thought I could try to get some seeds planted and get the onions and potatoes in the ground. This really isn't that difficult just digging a small trench and planting the little bulbs. The seeds I hope to plant are mesclun and bunching onions. I also thought I'd plant some leaf lettuce seeds since my seedlings in the basement died. I think the heat mat was too much for the leaf lettuce plants I read they do better with a cooler environment...trial & error aye!

I checked out my tomato & pepper seedlings and they're doing great! Parsley and a couple of butternut squash are doing great as well. Oh yes I went ahead and ordered two more raised beds online (this gardening hobby has become quite expensive!) so I can have more space to plant. But after those come in the mail and I purchase some more moss, compost, vermiculite, and a wheel barrow we're done! Hopefully my veggies and berries do well and I will be able to freeze them (and maybe can them depending on if I want to invest in that endeavor-more money) and we'll have veggies and berries all through next winter and spring.

A Few of My Favorite Blogs

The Artful Parent: The Intersection of Art and Parenting

http://artfulparent.wordpress.com/

The MotherLoad

http://www.momadvice.com/blog/

Glass of Whine

http://glassofwhine.blogspot.com/

Baby Cheapskate

http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/

Keep It Cheap

http://keepitcheap.blogspot.com/

Cheap Healthy Good

http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/

Money Saving Mom

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

Passionate Homemaking

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/

The Nourishing Gourmet

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/

Tales From Labor and Delivery

http://itsababynotbrainsurgery.blogspot.com/

Please pass on to me some of your favorite Blogs!

Thanks and looking forward to reading them.

Potager Gardening in April

In Mel Bartholomews book Square Foot Gardening, his "magic" mix to get your plants off to a good start consists of 1/3 of vermiculite, 1/3 of compost & a 1/3 of spaghum moss. The hub, kids and I went and got these 3 products today. Hopefully in the fall I"ll have enough compost generated to add to my beds so I don't have to buy more. A side note: I bought a composter at Sam's Club last weekend. It was $40, which is awesome, and a hair bigger than the one I currently own. I'm excited by this since our little family seems to produce an abundance of food waste that I'm having a hard time throwing away! Overall the cost of these 3 products for 3 3x3 raised beds was $100. Quite expensive in my opinion. I had hoped to do 6 beds but I think that was a bit unrealistic with my lifestyle at this point and I'm glad too with the cost and all (that would've been roughly $200!). I hope my composters will generate enough compost soon so I won't have to continue to purchase compost. That will save me a lot of cash especially as i add more raised beds to my garden.

I received in the mail the other day 50 strawberry plants, a blueberry plant, onions, and potatoes. I need to get the berry plants in the ground or in soil asap. So after I take a nap I plan to get on that.

I will take a picture later of my seeds so you can see how they are doing. It's been difficult for me to keep up on them as well as I'd like. But overall I think I'm doing okay. As you'll see from the pics I post later a lot of the seeds have sprouted and should be ready to plant in a couple of weeks after the frost passes. I hope to plant some heartier seeds outside today and just place milk jugs ontop to prevent them from being frozen. I'll take pics when all is said and done.

Silly

I'm paying bills online and W has been sitting behind me the last 20 minutes just chattering away. He was very excited when Super N was done wearing the doggy costume.

The Woman Who Cried Baby

That's how I feel. I've been to L&D 3x over the last 4 weeks and I almost went this week after having contractions all night and being pretty sure I was in labor but nope. I asked my OB last night at my 38th week appt "what's up with my body!" and she said that 3rd pregnancies are like this. You think you are in labor b/c well it looks and feels like labor but it's not AND you don't really change much in terms of dilation and effacement.

In my frustration I asked if was one who believed in stripping membranes and she told me yes but that it was uncomfortable. I said okay, I need to think about that a little more not sure how I feel about it. But she did ask if I wanted to be induced and I was like "yep!". She said how about next wednesday? And I said, "okay!".

As I was leaving I had this uneasy feeling nagging me but I couldn't seem to tell what it was or why. I figured I haven't slept for two days I'm emotional. But I called the Hub excitedly and told him, his first reaction wasn't excitement for various work reasons, which I realized really affected me and made me feel even more weird and confused as to how I felt.

But last night over dinner, and a very talkative 3 year old, we managed to talk about it. And what I came to about how I felt is I don't know if I want to be induced. The convenience factor of it is awesome. No more thinking I'm in labor and rushing everyone around to get things together, trying to get a hold of the Hub's parents and then getting the kids to their house, etc.
But I think I'd just like my water to break or for contractions to start, ones that actually change my cervix.

Overall I think I've communicated that I want this pregnancy done and over with and that I'm ready to get the kid out no matter what. But I'm not sure that's how I feel or my wish when it comes right down to it. I don't really know how I feel or what I want. I guess I can go ahead and schedule the induction for next weds and then when Tuesday comes we can evaluate whether or not I want to push it off a few days to see if I go into labor on my own. Honestly this isn't that big of a deal but since it's my last pregnancy I just want to be sure I'm doing what I prefer and desire versus jumping into a decision b/c I want some sort of suffering alleviated. I just need some more time to think and evaluate my thoughts, I'll take the next week to do that. And in that time maybe my water will break :)!

W's 3rd Birthday Party

W's 3rd birthday was on March 20th but we had a small get together with grandparents and W's Aunt and Uncle and cousins on Saturday.
Back in December the Hub and I found a train cake mold at Williams-Sonoma for half off and W just loved it! When I scheduled W's little get together I didn't realize that it fell on Easter weekend. And I didn't realize how tired I'd be with the pregnancy. Although W just loved the cake I found myself hoping that I'd have to make a sudden turn or come to a sudden stop as I was driving it over to the grandparents house. I desperately wanted to scrap it and just buy a sheet cake! Let's just say I didn't have the energy to invest the time that I would've liked to make it a bit more something. But fortunately W was enamored with it and fortunately the eyes of kids are not the eyes of Martha Stewart.

I had bought Easter baskets last year after Easter on clearance and had hoped to present them to the kids with jelly bean filled eggs and some little dollar items from Target. And I had hoped we would've dyed eggs saturday night. But unfortunately the easter baskets never made it out of the closet, the dollar toys are still in my utility room and the jelly beans are stored away. But we did dye eggs last night and the kids loved it.

Another thing that did happen that was pretty cool was that we had our friends Amanda, Brian and their son Vincent over for Easter lunch on Sunday. Amanda filled some plastic eggs with candy and hid them in the living room for the kids. They really enjoyed that too and I was very appreciative. So it seems that Easter was fun for them after all.

huh...

At about 9:30 tonight I was standing in my kitchen when all of a sudden I felt like I had to pee and then it just poured down my legs and soaked my pants. I soaked through everything and could not control the flow. I ran to the bathroom and stripped then contemplated on calling my doctor's office. I couldn't tell if my water had broke or I'd peed on myself! I pulled out the laptop and started searching online for answers. What I found just freaked me out so I called my doctor's office. The doctor on call said it sounded like my water broke and advised me to go to Labor and Delivery. I did and they checked me and monitored me and no my water didn't break I just peed on myself. What the hell??! I'm so frustrated that I couldn't tell the difference. But apparently this kid is either big (for my sized torso) or a strong kicker.

I'm going to bed now.

A Bit Of Energy

I was up at 2:30am tuesday morning b/c I could not sleep. I started perusing the online ads for local grocery stores and came up with a list of mostly meat that was on sale. Meijer has lean ground chuck for $1.89 a lb from the meat counter this week. They also like last week have B1G1 on their frozen chicken breast but this week it's tenders as opposed to whole breasts. These are $14.98 for 4lbs once again making the chicken $1.87 a lb.

I purchased 15lbs of ground chuck (you should've seen the butchers and the hubs face) but I had a plan! If the ground chuck is $1.99 a lb or less I'm stocking up for now on if I need beef. I also got two bags of the chicken breast tenders, 8lbs for $14.98.

This morning I must have gotten a burst of energy b/c I spent a few hours in the kitchen, while the kids destroyed the house, and prepared a bunch of stuff for the freezer. The meat I bought this week combined with the meat I bought last week should keep us covered for meals for at least 2 months or more.

This is what I put together today.

3 uncooked meatloaves

about 30-40 meatballs, roasted

13 salsbury steak burgers, parroasted

4lbs of browned ground chuck, individually wrapped in 1lb pkgs for tacos, chili, etc.

2lbs of steamed, diced chicken breast, individually wrapped in 1lb pkgs. Hope to cook more but ran out of energy!

10 hamburgers seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper

I diced about 4lbs of idaho potatoes, tossed them with ranch dressing powder and roasted them in the oven until crispy. I then pkgd them equally in 4 pkgs.

I also got to Sams this week and got the Ravioli I like. This is conveniently easy! It requires boiling and I like to throw it in a dish with sauce and cheese and then bake it, yum!

My goal in all this is to have to leave the house as little as possible for groceries. We'll still have to go to the store for milk and some fruit and maybe some veggies but overall the meat is covered for a while. One thing I found out about myself when I made freezer meals for my family while pregnant with Super N is that I don't like to pull completed meals out of the freezer. I like to be able to smell the food cooking and I enjoy doing some of the prep work. What I prepped today gives me options as to what I can cook which I like very much..

Some things I still hope to make, but we'll see how I feel over the next few days or weeks.

Goat Cheese, mozzarella, and parmesan calzones (I'd like to make 4 med & 4 small)

Deep Dish Pizza dough (at least 2)

Hamburger buns and Hotdog buns (found a great whole wheat recipe, easy too!)

Make up some pancake & waffle batter and freeze

Make up some Homemade Bisquick mix (found an excellent version that uses whole wheat flour)

Make a pot of beans to freeze to use when canned beans are needed (we're trying to eat more beans)

Ahh Taxes

I took advantage of the blizzard weather last weekend and did our taxes, well I didn't do the city taxes but I sufficiently passed those off to the Hub.

We were kind of dreading tax time this year b/c we knew we would owe. Fortunately we owed half as much as we thought!

So I guess everyone will be getting rebates this year after April 15th in hopes to "stimulate the economy". Or in other words it's just an advance on next years taxes so put that in a high yield savings account if you can and collect some interest on it!

Although I'll be putting most of it in savings I think we might take a little and use it to fix up our porch (me fix it up, a lot cheaper albeit tiring and a dirty job) or get a new screen door b/c ours has gotten real ghetto looking and acting. Oh yeah I'm still waiting for a concrete lifting company to give me an estimate on raising our front steps, you'd think they'd want some cash but I haven't gotten one estimate after calling 3 companies. Let's hope they're waiting for warmer weather before trekking out here otherwise my steps will not be lifted this year.

Who knows!

Fact or Fiction? You Decide...

My Hub forwarded this to me and I thought I'd post it. I don't know if it's true or not and I haven't looked into it but for those who use any of these companies products it doesn't hurt to check it out.

I use mostly Seventh Generation and Method but haven considered a lot of these others!

Interesting...


Here you go http://www.vegetarianorganicblog.com/2008/03/ocas_study_finds_carcenogenics.html

W and Super N these days

Super N has what appeared to me to be an ear infection. She was digging in her ears one day last week so I noted to myself to keep an eye on her for green boogies or fussiness, etc. She developed some green boogies over the weekend and was incredibly fussy and sleepy yesterday. I decided to call for an appointment with Dr. Barrett so I could get her on meds asap since playgroup is at my house this week and since W's family birthday party is saturday. Also, just in case Baby J comes early I'd like Super N to not be sick. So I got an appt. and we went in yesterday. Apparently she has a viral cold that presents itself like an ear infection. It doesn't require antibiotics, since it's a virus and will run it's course, to which I'm grateful but the length of time this cold will run is around 2 to 3 weeks versus a normal cold that is 7-9 days, yikes! I don't believe she is contagious but sad for her cause she's uncomfortable.



While leaving the doctor's yesterday I let Super N walk as opposed to riding in the stroller. It was so cute to see W and Super N following me around like little ducklings. I think I really like this age and I'm looking forward to the next year of them becoming more independent and talking more.

Seed Planting III

So when I set up my seeds this past weekend in the basement I couldn't get the grow light to work. I emailed the company b/c they are closed on sundays, they immediately responded the next day via email that the bulbs must be bad and they're shipping me new ones asap.

I received the new bulbs today and the Hub put them in and they too do not work. He opened up the light fixture to see what he could find out (electronics engineer major) and determined the light for whatever reason is broke. How upsetting! Now I have to email the company again and wait longer to get light onto my seeds. I'm just hoping they'll be as accomodating as they were with replacing the assumed blown out bulbs.

Fortunately, I checked on my seeds and the majority of my tomatoes have 2.5" sprouts and my leaf lettuce has 1.5" sprouts so some things are growing which makes me feel better as I await for a new fixture.

Tangent:

It's frustrating sometimes ordering stuff online. Most of the time I don't have problems with products but as of late it seems I have.

I ordered some dishwashing detergent through amazon.com back in January when they were doing the 20% off the Subscribe and Save program. I was able to get this particular product pretty darn cheap. Well it came and out of 12 bottles 6 of the bottles lids were broken and the products were upside down so most of the detergent was pouring out of the containers and had filled the box they inhabited and was starting to leak through the outside box. Of course nobody noticed this until it was laying in my living room floor. What a mess! But amazon was great and they shipped me out a whole new box for free and gave me back my money on the other one and let me keep the unopened 6 bottles of soap.

For W's birthday we found this cool wooden toaster that comes with fake toast and butter. It arrived today and we decided to give it to him since he'll be receiving another gift from us on his birthday and then more gifts after that from his grandparents and cousins, etc. Well the bottom of the toaster was all jacked up. So tomorrow I have to call the company and find out what I need to do. Of course I can't take the toaster from him right now b/c he would not understand so I'm not sure what's going to happen. It's just a bit annoying and disappointing.

Life Right Now

I've started to feel a bit anxious over the last 2 weeks or so about having a new baby. I recall when I was pregnant with Super N I was anxious most of the pregnancy. I was so worried about not giving W enough of my undivided attention and I was afraid he wouldn't feel love from me b/c I was so tired and mentally overwhelmed at times with my emotions. I would have fears that would take over at times. For instance, I would picture him at 18 in and out of jail with a substance abuse problem ultimately b/c his mom didn't nurture him enough (b/c she was too distracted with her pregnancy!)

This pregnancy I didn't struggle with these types of fears as much, they'd pop into my head once in a while usually when I would react in anger to W or Super N or yell at them. But overall I haven't felt as anxious until recently. Now I'm having anxious thoughts of bringing a new baby into our little mix. What will it be like? And can I cope? But as well I am getting really excited to meet Baby J and to have the kids see him. I really want to know what the kids think of him and I want to see how they will interact with him.

I'm now 35 weeks pregnant and I don't have much time left before I deliver the newby. I know the next few weeks will fly by. With W's birthday next week I'll be busy thinking about how to manage my time and energy so I can make cupcakes for our playgroup, buy some party supplies for the family party and make a train cake. Also, just maintaining the house and trying to get the kids to the reading/craft time at the library and Cosi, I'd like to get a couple of meals in the freezer (of course I need to shop for the ingredients too) we'll see if all this gets accomplished!

I start my weekly OB checks next week which will make the time fly by as well. I talked to my OB about inducing me a week early and she is totally on board. Now I'm having doubts. I really don't prefer any of the other doctors at my OB's office, let's just say my esperiences with them have not been pleasant. It's actually been a source of stress for me throughout this pregnancy. And I've wanted to pursue laboring in water which is only offered at Grant Hospital and my Doc does not deliver there. I tried a few weeks ago to pursue my friend K's doctor and Midwife but b/c I was beyond 28 weeks pregnant they would require me to go through a process that in my opinion would add more stress and may in the end not end up to my advantage. So here I am considering induction so I can be sure my Doc is the only one who will be, excuse my crassness but, "all up in my crotch". I hope Baby J decides to come when my Doc is on call, wouldn't that be nice and less stressful!

In preparation for Baby J's arrival we have set up a twin sized bed equipped with rails for W. His crib is still in his room and now belongs to Super N. We put W in his big boy bed Saturday night and Super N in the crib in the same room and they've done great! No problems this whole week. W has gotten up each morning, woke up his sister I'm sure, and pulled out toys and played until we've come into free them. I put a childproof doorknob cover on the knob so thankfully that's working to keep them contained. I now need to move a few of Super N's personal items into her new space and personalize Baby J's room before he comes and that's it! Everything is mostly ready to go! What a load off!

We hired a cleaning company that will come tomorrow to clean and every 2 weeks thereafter . I am so grateful and relieved but I feel a bit torn about having a cleaning service. I've been so gungho about paying off debt that I keep thinking "Is this wise?". But in considering our priorities with the soon-to-be arrival of a new baby and having two little people already, a relatively clean house and saving our energy to give to the kids is really important to us right now. I just need to remember that. I guess it's good to some degree that I feel tension about this decision since I don't want to throw my money away, I just need to remember our priorities periodically and also be willing to give up the service when the right time comes (that I hear is the difficult part!).

W is almost 3

Next Thursday March 20th W turns 3. It happens to be the first day of spring as well. I can't believe it's been 3 years but then again I can b/c I feel like I remember most of it very clearly.

After I had W I got so depressed. Having a new baby in the house and all that comes with that completely overwhelmed me. Part of it was the lack of sleep and not being able to latch W on right away. I remember having cracked nips that were bleeding and I'd try to latch him on and I'd be kicking my feet on the floor and just bawling from the pain. I gave up the fight and pain after about 5 weeks and a night spent in the ER with double Mastitis.

When W was 7 weeks old I remember the hub and I ready to lose our minds. We kept having to remind eachother that sleep deprivation has been (and may still be) used as a form of torture. This would make us feel a little better that the emotions and exhaustion we felt were "normal" albeit painful. Fortunately too Will started sleeping through most of the night at 7 weeks, 5 or 6 hours and it increased from there thankfully.

When I was pregnant with W I only gained 7lbs. After I had W I gained 20-25lbs b/c of depression. I cried a lot throughout that year. I remember when we started trying for Super N that November (2005) and thinking is this the right time?? But nonetheless we tried, got pregnant and it was very hard still. Things did settle down but it took a little while.

I sought out counseling for myself in January (2006) and did that until April of that year. A lot of my struggles I remember was with my mom and dad who put a lot of pressure and provided no support at all to the Hub and I. I learned in counseling what it meant to put boundaries up with them and also I made a decision to end all contact with them for a period of time until I could get my head on straight and God could do a work in my heart. I have since initiated contact with them and our relationship is actually a lot healthier thinks to all that I learned and the healing I gained during that time of separation. (Perhaps another blog one day...)

Back to W, the hub has been working on numbers with him lately and tonight he counted to 10 all by himself. I bought some flashcards and he's currently learning his letters and can identify some of them without help. It's very bittersweet to see him change and grow. We hope to put him in preschool in the fall and I know he'll love it and thrive there. It kind of saddens me in that from there on out he'll be in school but again I know he'll love it and I want him to get some time consistently with other kids his age and with teachers that can invest in him. Now if we can get the potty training down he'll be set to go.

Seed Planting II

So I have my whole seedling set up in the basement now. I believe I have over 100 seeds planted and waiting to sprout. Jason and I got the heat pad working thus far but we've not had success with getting the grow light to come one. What's up with that?? I emailed the company though and they are sending me new bulbs asap. They were very fast in responding and did not give me the run around to which I'm very grateful.
I'll keep you updated as things progress!
I had planned on planting a few of the heartier seeds outside this past saturday but my plans were derailed by the blizzard.
I've been collecting our used Milk Jugs so I can cut off part of the bottom and use the jug as a green house to keep the heartier seeds from getting too cold. The pour spout also allows you to water the seeds! I think this idea is wonderful! It's not my idea but a suggestion I found online.

My Sam's Club trip that turned into my Meijer trip

For some ungodly reason my crazy body woke me up at 5am yesterday morning. I went to bed really late the night before, 1am b/c once again my crazy body would not shut down and let me sleep.

So I toss and turn for about 10 minutes and get this idea that I could go to Sam's and buy things that I want to stock up on for when Baby J comes.

Ravioli
Bulk cheese
Coffee (Hub will be too tired to roast for a while I'm sure!)
milk
chicken breast
1/2 & 1/2
bananas
apples
preserves
peanut butter
mac & cheese (totally convenient and easy!)
butter

Well I thought I remembered that business owners get in at 5:30 and regular membership owners get in at/around 8am or something. Well I get dressed wake the Hub and let him know my plans and then I head to Sam's at Sawmill at 5:30am. I get there only to discover they actually open at 7am for business owners and 10am for all other memberships. Duh! You'd think I'd look at my card before trekking out at 5:30am! But I was one of the only people out and I got to listen to NPR uninterrupted and I got a hot cup of coffee to drink in the car again uninterrupted. It wasn't actually awful even though I was tired.

So since Sam's was closed I headed across the street and a little North to Meijer, they're opened 24 hours. I grabbed my list and went about my business. It took me almost an hour and then I had to use the "help yourself" checkout lane. The machine kept boogering up my purchases and then requiring me to get approval, it took forever! It then ate my receipt! The guy that helped me couldn't get anyone to come and help him and so he told me he'd mail me my receipt. I looked at him skeptically and was like "sure you will!" But I got his name and I'll call back in a few days to make sure they actually do mail my receipt.

So I ended up spending $155 at Meijer this week. I planned on not going to the store at all (except for necessities) b/c I have plenty of meals in the freezer from a few months ago to last the week. I discovered this fact this past weekend as I was fussing with stuff in the basement to make the basement accessible for me to take care of my seeds. But I know now I'm nesting and so I'm feeling the urge to get as much in order to make life "easier" for myself, the hub and the kids for now and when Baby J comes.

So let's see what deals did I get?

Starbucks coffee (all varieties including decaf) is $6.99 a bag. It's normally $8-$9 something a bag. At Sam's I'd paid $19.99 (well at least 2 months ago maybe it's risen in price??) for 2lbs and only had the options of House blend, Breakfast blend, or French Roast. I was able to get 5 bags (60 oz) for $9.32 a lb as opposed to $10.08 a lb at Sam's with limited variety.

Also, boneless skinless chix breast (frozen) were B1G1 free. They are 4lb bags so I got 8lbs of chix for $14.98. This ends up being $1.87 a lb!! I've not been able to get chix that cheap in a long time. I do prefer the fresh and "natural" chix but I'm really trying to save money right now and this chicken will most likely be in casseroles, soups, and doctored up someway so it should be fine.

I probably didn't get as great of a deal on cheese but I did get a significant deal on light butter, which is normally $3.99 for 4 sticks. I got it for $1.99 on sale, I grabbed 3 packages.

I believe I spent around the same amount I'd have spent at Sam's, plus or minus a few ounces. But I didn't get the Ravioli. Maybe I can get my dad-in-law to pick me that up since he goes pretty often.

I've not made it to CVS yet. We've had colds around here and aren't feeling like doing much except what has to be done so I may not get there this week. The only thing I want to buy right now are diapers for the newby to have on hand and shampoo for Will's reoccuring cradle cap.
Maybe I'll get a spurt of energy and head out there tonight or tomorrow night.

Poop on the carpet

This past Monday Super N christened the carpet with poop.

The poop is still there if that tells you anything about how my week has gone! But I guess you can say that I've been contemplating how to clean it up. Well I ran across this other moms blog and thought I'd pass her suggestion on for those potty training days or when, like in my case, the full diaper squirts up and out onto the carpeted stairs!

http://armywifetoddlermom.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-to-clean-poop-off-of-carpet-in-3_16.html

Groceries

Last week I ended up going to Kroger instead of Walmart b/c the ads seemed more appealing to me. I however was scared away from Kroger mostly for good unless I'm enticed with a good chicken deal or something.

First, I ended up spending $90 for the week. This in my opinion was still too much money since the majority of my meat I had picked up the previous week. Also, I was growled at by 3 old people, this sucked and I had to bite my tongue to prevent myself from growling back. Don't get me wrong I enjoy old people on a whole (I did Home Health Elderly Care for 6 years and started the Gerontology program that was once at Cols State before it was killed so...).

Let's just say I don't prefer the clientele that mostly visit Kroger. Now I don't believe it's this one store I visited, this is the third Kroger store I've now decided to boycott b/c of cleanliness issues and clientele issues.

I planned on going to Meijer this weekend but we had carryout twice this week and then we are going out to dinner tonight. I have 3 leftover meals that I can prepare and I have a few meals in the deep freezer that I need to use. I'm going to try to just purchase milk, bananas, apples and maybe eggs and try to stretch our freezer meals to next week to save money.

I did go to CVS on Monday night. I forgot the majority of my coupons b/c Super N stole them out of my bag. But even without them I did okay I just wasn't able to buy much.

CVS for the month of March is giving an ECB of $2.99 for Colgate Total, plus whitening. This tube of toothpaste costs $2.99 so that's free. Oh yeah well they're also on sale for $2.50 so actually you get $2.50 for taking them off their hands, unreal! There is of course a limit of 5. I bought those and since I bought 4 tubes of toothpaste last week I'll be giving these to the Xenos Food Pantry. This was another desire of mine in suffering through participating in the ECB program is being able to give extra free stuff or almost free stuff away to others who need them.

What else did I buy...oh yes I did return the revlon makeup and got my $23 back. And I purchased two swiffer mop refill pads. They were on sale for $6.99 each and if you spent $10 on those you get $5 back. I was thinking they would make my life a little bit easier with the baby coming. But now since we're thinking about budgeting in a housecleaner short term maybe I'll return them.

So my total was $27, I had a $5 off coupon and $7 in ECB's from last week. I paid $15.?? in cash and got back $20 in ECB's. And since I returned the Revlon products I got my $23 back to. Unreal (I'm going to keep saying this word fyi.)

Anniversary

Yesterday was my 9th wedding anniversary. Tonight the Hub and I are going out to dinner after we drop the kids off at Grandmas and Grandpas for the night. We are very excited.

The above words from Elizabeth Barrett Browning were scanned from my Wedding schedule. Ironically EBB was born on the day we were married, I didn't know this when I chose to include this piece of writing. I think it's lovely and I feel it's more true today then how I felt 9 years ago.

I remember how anxious and depressed I was 9 years ago and I'm so grateful for how God has used my stable and loving husband to really help me understand love in a deeper way. And how life really is not as chaotic as my home life was. The hub and I have our problems but we have such a deeper understanding of one another and value one another so much more now than we ever had. I'm very grateful for him being in my life and even though this season of our life is chaotic, with almost 3 little demanding people that don't allow us to be as selfish as we wish or to spend that much quality time together, we are having fun most days of the week (of course we're then collapsing in bed from exhaustion!).

I had W and Super N on my lap yesterday reading to them and I was thinking that 9 years ago they didn't exist and how weird that is! Jason and I had thought for our 10 year anniversary we'd go overseas to Italy and travel to a few other countries but where we are at in life with the 3 little people, that's not gonna happen! So the trip will be postponed (maybe the 15th or 20th anniversary??) and we'll do something probably like this year.

Yummy Cinnamon Roll Recipe

I made cinnamon rolls last week. They were mostly good but I put too much cinnamon in them and so W and the Hub thought they were too spicey, they were. But these cinnamon rolls have 3/4 c of whole wheat flour in them so they have some nutritional value and they were really moist and yummy. They appear to be difficult to make, at least I think so since I don't usually like to bake, but they were pretty easy since I used the bread machine to mix, knead and raise the dough. The role I played was roll out the dough, put the yummy cinnamon, butter and brown sugar mix on and then roll it up and cut it.
Let me know if you want the recipe.

Seed Planting...Finally!

I finally was able to sit down and plant seeds. I still have to plant more but the majority are done. Tonight I plan to get them on the heat pad in the basement and hopefully they'll start to grow. I didn't expect to feel so worn out with 5 weeks to go until I deliver Baby J so all my plans feel like their up in the air or have been pushed back sadly. But fortunately it's not that big of a deal and I'm trying to remember this. But yay I got my seeds planted!! I'd hoped to plant some of the heartier seeds outside tomorrow but it seems my plans maybe derailed b/c of the weather. It's looking a bit blizzard like out there right now sadly. Oh Spring how I do miss you and I await your presence with such anticipation...

Grocery Trip Last Week

I forgot to post how much I spent at Giant Eagle & CVS last week, it's been a bit of a chaotic and sleepless week.

At any rate, I spent $120 at Giant Eagle! I will not be going back there for a while unless I have coupons and only buy things on sale. As you can see I went way over my designated budget. Once again the convenience factor of Giant Eagle bit me in the butt.

On a good note though, they did have pork Tenderloin $1.97 a lb and 85% lean Ground Chuck $1.99 a lb for 3lbs or more. I bought 10lbs of the beef and a 5.5lbs of the pork tenderloin. I also got $.60 more off of my gas per gallon which with my recent purchases totaled $.80 off a gallon. I happened to need my gas tank filled right after shopping Monday night so that was helpful.

For my menu this week, courtesy of www.menusformoms.com/ I plan to substitute 2 or 3 of the meals with ground chuck meals and pork tenderloin meals. I'm thinking bbq pork & probably hamburgers (I love a good burger!!).

Fyi, the menusformoms website is such a great resource. Albeit some of the recipes are a bit strange so keep an open mind. This website provides free weekly menus and a grocery list, how convenient is that?! Also, they have past menus archived on their website so you can search for an ingredient you may have gotten on sale or need to use up. This is how I decided on the menu I'm going to use this week, bbq pork & another pork dish etc.

I hope this website is helpful for others.

In regards to my trip to CVS, I was a bit disappointed this week with my experience. I ended up buying

1 container of Boost
a revlon mascara
a revlon eyeliner
some revlon emery boards
easter egg dying cups
a venus embrace razor
2 bags of Organic Soil (only $1 more than regular soil at CVS nonetheless).

My total was: $43.93

I used the $23 in ECB's I got last week and then the $4 coupon CVS gave me via email for signing up on their website and I had a $2 coupon.

So I paid $15.94 & received $7 back in ECB's. Now I'm supposed to receive another $10 in ECB's but for some reason the cash register didn't generate this ECB. I had to wait at the store for an extra 20 minutes Monday night as the manager tried to contact someone on the phone to figure out why I didn't get my $10. I did leave without my $10 but was told someone would call me, they still haven't called me. So in anticipation of this I didn't open any of the Revlon products so that I can return them today or tomorrow.

To explain though why I was to receive $10 in ECB's, if you purchased $20 of Revlon products last week you received $10 back.

Also, the Boost drink was $1 and I received $1 back in an ECB and The Venu Razor was $9.99 I had a $2 off coupon and they gave me $6 back in ECB's.

So when I return the Revlon products I will have spent $5.26 out of pocket and I still have $7 in ECB's to redeem. So stay aware when you are doing the CVS thing, pay attention to what you are supposed to receive in ECB's and make sure you get them.

This week I believe I'm going to go to Walmart to shop for groceries.

Playing in the Dirt in February

I came across an idea on another mom's blog about using whole wheat flour as dirt and letting your kids play with sand toys and cars and anything they can fill and dump with. I liked the idea but I put some whole wheat flour in a roasting pan and it was incredibly messy and seemed too soft and floury to deal with. As I was perusing through my cupboards I saw two large cans of bread crumbs. I grabbed one and dumped it in my roasting pan and it immediately became dirt for W's Dump truck, Digger and his Shoveler (I still don't have all the "accurate" names down like daddy!) W just loved playing in the dirt with his machines and we sat and played for well over an hour. Well to clarify, I distracted Super N and fought her off of W's cool dirt thing and would lend an extra set of machine noises and hands to drive and dump the machines every few minutes or so.

I thought this was a great idea for those yucky days you don't want to go outside or those days when, in my case, you didn't sleep the night before.Sidenote: I didn't have plain bread crumbs only Italian seasoned ones, W thought the green stuff in it (parsley) was grass...He loved this idea

Free Child's Tableware set for filling out survey

Check it out!

http://www.sproutsmart.com/SPROUT/smart/offer.aspx

A Mother Inferior

A friend recently suggested that I must be very organized. I've been thinking about that suggestion for a few weeks. I'm not sure what I communicate from my posts but I'm really not organized. I strive to be organized and there are parts of my life that are now starting to become more organized but by no means would I label myself as organized.

I've written and continue to write about coupons, saving money, roasting coffee, baking my own bread, etc., etc., but these are ways that the Hub and I are attempting to save money. Although we do enjoy the idea of roasting coffee and baking our own bread and it does require us to be disciplined and organized to some degree I still wouldn't label myself as organized.

I feel like I need to back up and clarify why I choose to do the things. Not so much to defend myself but instead to make it clear that I'm a poor Home Economist and I desire to improve at it. I feel like my job since having W almost 3 years ago has become more clear. I'm not shooting for perfection but instead to try to keep my house mostly clean & put dinner on the table most nights of the week b/c our family thrives on the time together. We've found this to be somewhat of an anchor for our little family and can see how it will benefit the kids long term as well as mine and the Hub's relationship. Also, we desire to be responsible with our money and to payoff our debt within the next few years.

I hate clipping coupons (I like the idea of saving money with coupons better...) and I'm not sure the coupon thing will end up working out for me but I've decided to try it out for the next few months. Also, the coupon thing is fueled partially by the fact that someone from the Dispatch showed up at my door with a subscription to the Sunday paper for $4 a month.

I hate dealing with CVS and their ECB's (again I like the idea of it). But overall these things save our little family money. Not too long ago, er all of last year, my grocery shopping trips took place at Sams Club and a run or two to Giant Eagle every week. We racked up $600 in groceries almost every month and we racked up about $300 to $400 a month in carryout from restaurants. This as you may imagine created a lot of stress which lead to a lot of arguments about debt and lack of structure and just overall we felt like crap b/c of the added weight of, I guess you can call it, "excess".

Oh yes, and b/c we were eating so much crap we physically felt like crap!

So honestly God did a number on my heart over the last few months and so I've become more serious about debt, my family and my marriage. So I hope what I write does not cause others to smirk or feel like I'm above anyone b/c I'm not and nor do I think so.

Piles of Laundry

Does anyone have a system down for laundry? Please share if you do. I'm really interested in what others do in this area since for the past 9 years of marriage It's probably been my biggest chore issue. I'm determined to beat the laundry monster and any ideas are appreciated.

Currently I have 5 laundry baskets, they're all full of clothes. One basket is full of folded Baby J clothes but the others are full of of unfolded clothes that belong to everyone else. See I can clean the clothes and dry them but it's the sitting down and folding the piles and the putting it all away that gets me in the end. I never feel like it ever gets finished.

Tonight my plan is to sit on my newly carpeted bedroom floor and attack one unfolded basket after another. I plan to use the floor to sort my piles and then give each person their own basket. I also think I need to have a pile for things that need to go and things that need to be stored. I expect to come away with an aching back and to be tired but also throughly tickled because I completed the folding step!

In regards to getting the laundry put away, I'm thinking if I set the bar midrange and shoot for putting away one basket a day then I should get my laundry put away by sunday night. So I can start next week out with empty baskets to fill with one or two loads of laundry. I'm thinking if I make it a goal to fold at least a load every night after dinner or something then I can keep on top of it.

Oh yeah I mentioned sitting on my newly carpeted floor. Well it's so cozy. Honestly I'm not sure if I like the color and style of the carpet yet now that it's laid, who can really tell when you're buying essentially a square of carpet with no idea what the square times 100 or so will look like?? Ahhh but it's growing on me! The functional aspects that it's provided just the last 24 hours have been wonderful. The noise upon walking up the stairs is so minimal compared to before. The whole upstairs feels warmer and more comfortable and strangely larger in size (carpet can do that?). So if the color and such doesn't grow on me oh well! At least it muffles the noise in our cozy, little abode and allows us to use the space in more ways ie. folding laundry on the floor I'd have never done that before! Strangely the kids keep laying in the stairwell, what's up with that?? Funny little nubbins!

Oh yes please, please share if you have any laundry wisdom or thoughts or you're in the same boat as me.

Potager Gardening and Yearning for Spring and...

I'm officially going to plant my seeds next weekend. I have a grow light, heating pad, peat pots and all of my seeds now. I need to buy soil this week and I will be good to go. I'm pumped!

Most of my seedlings will need to be transplanted around the time Baby J is due so the month of April should be interesting. I'm sure it will be fine but there may be a few losses.

So is anyone else sick of the cold weather?! Enough already! I can tell Spring is coming b/c it's lighter earlier and it doesn't get dark at 5pm anymore. I can't wait to be able to take the kids on walks everyday and be able to play in the backyard.

We're having carpet installed tomorrow and so we have to devote the rest of our evening to cleaning up all the clutter in our bedroom and in W's room. I'm beat and I haven't even started. This pregnancy is kicking my butt! I can tell Baby J doesn't have much space in my uterus b/c my stomach is really tight and it hurts when he moves now. I also have constant heartburn no matter what I eat. I slept from midnight until 11am yesterday morning and then turned around and took a 2 hour nap a few hours later! My hips are achey from all the rest but I just feel like I cannot get enough rest!

I am going to try to suck it up tonight though and go grocery shopping. I have been putting it off all weekend b/c I know it's going to kick my butt. I had planned to go to Kroger but the convenience of Giant Eagle has won out once again. Also, their sales are pretty good this week (not as good as Kroger but...) and I enjoy the gas savings. I will post my final tally if I actually make it tonight otherwise I'll probably go tomorrow evening when the kidlets go to bed. Oh yeah I should hit CVS and see what's going on with their sales.

This may not be your thing but in preparation for Baby J the Hub and I have decided we will stock up on some paper plates and plastic cutlery so we don't have to worry about keeping up on dishes when the babe comes, at least for the first 2 weeks. I've been a bit anxious about it only b/c of the waste factor. But I found recyclable cutlery at Target (Yes I hit Target! They sell an all purpose cleaner I use. It's cheaper to stock up on it from Target than online. I did manage to avoid all the temptations. Well okay I'm lying I did get chocolate covered raisins, coke and some Almond Joy's.) Back to the disposal plates and cutlery, although this will still create waste atleast it's recycled and saving some energy somewhere.

Glue

On Tuesday W and Super N pulled a fast one on Momma Bear. I was studying in the living room, I never do this, and told W that momma is going to take 20 minutes and try to read and take some notes and then I'll read to him and Super N and we'll play to our hearts content. He looked at me with his deer in headlights almost 3 year old stare that seemed to communicate to me that he had no idea what I was saying. But at any rate I was determined to get some studying in so I sent him on his merry way and told him momma will be done soon. I didn't really realize that it had gotten quiet in the house until maybe after about 15 minutes of study. I call Will in the room and he comes in with his hands out, palms up and says, "yucky!" I'm like "oh crap!" I go to see what the yucky is all about and find Super N with a 20 oz bottle of white glue, no cap and it's got about an inch of glue left in it. Most of her legs and her palms were covered in it oh yes and about a 2 foot in diameter puddle slowly soaking into my jute rug. I jumped into mommy mode and pulled the jammies off of Super N threw under the faucet, grabbed a huge cup of hot water and a towel and started trying to dilute the glue. I was crying to whole time out of frustration. Will was thoughtful in that he pointed out to me the large dripping puddle on the windowsill.

Two days later you can't even tell there was a mess! It's all gone. I recall calling the hub after "The Incident" and telling him that he'd better pray for his children b/c I'm about to lose it. I did calm down after crying or was it during the crying, I don't remember fully. And we ended up playing together in the end and no one died.

The Dealio

Okay I was out in the mild blizzard tonight determined to shop at CVS without the kids. This week CVS is offering $15 in ECB's if you spend $30 on a few selected products. I chose to buy 2 packs of Pull-Ups Diapers, a pack of Huggies diapers and two boxes of family sized boxes of Kleenex. The diapers all were on sale for $8.99 (orig. $11.49 each) and the Kleenex were 2/$5 (not sure the original price, i forgot to look). I also had 2 coupons for the diapers, I believe one was for $1 off and the other was for $2 off. I purchased 4 cans of Progresso Soup which were B1G1 free, $2.99 a can is the original price. I had two coupons I used with those, one for $.25 off and one for $.50 off. There was a great deal on Colgate Total that I took advantage of as well. The toothpaste was $2.99 a tube but you get $2 back in ECB's making the toothpaste $.99 (limit 5). I grabbed 4 tubes and used two coupons both coupons were for $1 off 2 tubes. So the toothpaste was $.50 a tube when all was said and done. I also had a B1G1 free coupon for a bag of Dove chocolate and a B1G1 free coupon for a Snickers bar (can you tell what I'm craving right now?!).


Okay my total overall before the ECB's was $51.82. I applied my $7.29 in ECB's that I got this past weekend bringing the total to $44.53. I then received an ECB for $15 (diapers & Kleenex purchase) and one for $8 (tubes of toothpaste purchase). So i received $23 back that I can use the next time I go to CVS. I also printed out a $4 ECB from CVS's website, free if you give them your email address fyi. So I have $27 to use the next time I go.

So the things I got were:

3 packs of Huggies Diapers
2 Family Sized Kleenex's (280 count)
4 Tubes of Colgate Total
2 bags of Dove chocolate
2 Snickers bars
4 cans of Progresso Soup
Total: 51.82
ECB's earned: $23

So i paid $28.82 for all the above stuff.

Also, i went to Giant Eagle this past Saturday for my weekly grocery trip. I got ingredients for this weeks dinners, breakfasts, and lunches for a total of $63.88. To let you know though I had some meat in my freezer already to accomodate some of these meals and so I didn't have to purchase everything. I also had food leftover for meals b/c i honestly only ate Ramen Noodle Soup (I know not the healthiest) while sick this week. Jason ran to Giant Eagle and bought a box of 12 for $2 during the week and I ate 2 bowls each day I was sick. I have a feeling that Giant Eagle will not be the best place for me to shop when all is said and done. Next weekend we will shop at Krogers and see what it will cost to feed us for the week.

FYI i'm writing this to get it on paper so I'll attempt to edit later to make sure it all makes sense etc.

The Bread Machine

Jason is loving the bread machine. He has made a loaf this week and is downstairs now making a loaf. I'm glad he's into it b/c honestly it's one less thing I have to do. Although I'm willing to do it and plan to use it frequently, it is nice that he's so overjoyed about it.

I did make grape jelly earlier out of 100% pure grape juice (on sale for $2.50) and fruit pectin. It made almost 20 oz of jelly and only took less than 1/2 the bottle of grape juice with no sugar added might I add. It was so frickin easy! Hubby wants me to get some whole fruit from the store so we can use the bread machine to make jam soon. We Are Pioneers!! HaHa!

Seriously though this is kind of fun to see what we can make for pennies that ends up being healthier for our kids and ourselves and doesn't require us to be limited by the store's offerings.

On another note, we bought carpet today. I couldn't resist this deal. A popular flooring store in our area is running a deal where select carpets are $1.22 a square foot (included in that price is padding and installation!) I got an estimate last year from a store for 3 times the cost of what we're paying. We've been tossing around the idea of carpeting W's room, the hallway upstairs, our room and the stairway for about 6 or so years. Now that Will is sometimes awakened by the noise created by us as we're showering or just walking up the stairs we felt like we would like to pursue this alternative. The Hubby also believes it's cozier, I think he's right, and so for the bedrooms this will be nice to sink our toes into. I was able to get a neutral frieze carpet (I can't believe I got frieze for that price!!) and so I'm thrilled to have saved so much money! Woot!

I went to CVS to check out the whole ECB thing. Amazing! I got the Hub a razor that was $9.99 for free! And i got a bottle of Gatorade for free! How did I do this you may or may not be wondering? Well I found a $4 coupon for the razor in the Sunday paper so that brought down the razor to $5.99 and CVS offered $5.99 in ECB's on it. So at the end of my receipt was an ECB coupon for $5.99 to use the next time I'm there. Same with the Gatorade, it was $1.29 and at the end of my receipt was a ECB for $1.29. I bought a couple of little things and overall paid $3 and got the razor and the gatorade for FREE! Woot! For the month of February they are offering CVS brand children's chewable aspirin for free (purchase price $1.79 and then you get that back in an ECB) but they were all out of those.

Not at all to be forgotten in my frugal happiness but Super N said "baby doll" and "tooth brush" today. It was very sweet. She's been saying "cup", "shoes","momma" and "dadda" but usually not two words together. She just hit 18 months on the 9th and she's just changing so much. I get caught up in W's world so often b/c he seems to require more attention from me that I feel like I often forget to give my daughter the attention she needs. The Hub and I are more aware of that these days so we are trying to be more intentional about playing with her and engaging in conversation with her overall just spending more time with her... but man it's so challenging! We are tired.

I recently purchased a book that I've had on my Amazon.com wishlist since October. It's titled "How To Really Love Your Kids". It's somewhat of a small book but it's packed with a lot of information that I believe I really need to hear right now in my life. The first part of the book talks about marriage being the foundation for being able to love your kids. (It does address and doesn't discriminate against those who are single parents.) I read the first part of this book and asked Jason to read it too and then we talked about it. It's been really life changing for us. It's changing our thinking and helping us to understand a mom and dad's role a bit better and also how our marriage relationship positively and negatively can affect and does affect our children. The book has a lot more to say about ways to love your kids that I've chosen not to include for now just because I'm not really there yet. I've been contemplating the first part of the book and plan to continue to read through this over the next few months and consider it. Hopefully I'll feel lead to share what I learn as I go, we'll see.

On the baby front, I have some fears about the new baby coming. I know the kids will adjust but just going through those times of adjustment will be challenging.

I keep having braxton hicks contractions continually now. It's painful at times and takes my breath away. I have almost 8 weeks left. This baby feels pretty heavy and often moves so much that he makes me nauseous. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have any more kids so I'm doing my best to enjoy this time of pregnancy but man oh man...I can't wait to meet the little bugger.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm laying here in bed typing with one finger. I've been in bed since yesterday at 11am. Jason came home early for me b/c i felt so ill on tuesday afternoon, he went to work wednesday but came home for me at/about 11am and then just stayed home for me today.

So I'm in bed sick and I'm apparently super tired to have slept essentially 24 hours straight. It seems that my throat, head and chest has been taken over by phlegm. And it came on really fast. I just felt achey tuesday morning and then I went downhill from there. UGG!

Hopefully all this sleeping will help and I'll feel better tomorrow. Jason wants to go on a retreat he was invited on this weekend and I would really like him to go and enjoy himself but if I'm still sick I know he won't go.

I hope to feel better soon too b/c my hips are killing me from laying on them for so long!

On another note, i bought a bread machine last week and it was delivered yesterday. I've read a lot lately on whether or not it's cheaper to own a bread machine or to continue to buy bread from the store. Currently I'm spending around $30-$40 a month on bread right now, no kidding. We like to eat and like the kids to eat bread that has at least 3 grams of fiber per slice. I usually spend $2.50 (or sometimes $1.99 when there's a sale) per loaf. The kids usually eat pb&j every day and we'll have french toast sometimes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner so the bread goes quick in our house.

So during my bread machine hunt did I find whether or not it's cheaper to own a bread machine than to buy store loaves? Well some seemed to believe it was and others seem to think it was a wash after you purchase all of the whole grain flours and other ingredients. But there did seem to be a consensus on homemade bread being healthier than store bought bread.

Overall though I think I will save money. The particular bread machine I bought also makes jam. I spend a great deal on jam monthly. I've been pretty disappointed with all the high fructose corn syrup laden jams and jellies on the market shelves these days. Although I try to buy jams and jellies that don't have high fructose corn syrup in them, I must confess b/c of cost factors lately my kids jams and jellies do contain high fructose corn syrup. I look forward to making homemade jams instead of being limited to the selection in the market and by my check book.

I found a recipe for grape jam that you can make out of pure grape juice on the stove so if you're interested in making your own grape jam on the stove top let me know and I'll pass on the recipe. This will allow you to control what kind of sugar/sweetener goes into the jam as well as the amount. I've read it's pretty easy to make your own jams so you don't need no fancy bread machine to do it for you. I'm however grateful to have found a machine that has dual purpose.

Life

W has continually asked to go to the potty in the toilet. He has been peeing at least twice a day in the toilet and some days more than that. He tried to do #2 but I'm not sure he could figure out how to make it happen. One new experience at a time aye?!

I'm really grateful that he has initiated the potty training on his own. I hadn't planned on starting to work on potty training with him until around October. I wanted to get Baby J sleeping through the night and get some rest myself before tackling such a committment. However it seems that W has other plans and that's great!

I think that we'll be able to use his stubbornness to further our efforts with potty training over the next 8 months or so. Often to get him to do things we use reverse psychology on him. Not that we are so arrogant to think this will work all the time, but it's sure working currently. Sometimes when he's getting escorted upstairs to brush his teeth before bedtime he'll say, "No brush teeth!". So we'll say, "okay" and take him to his crib. Well he freaks out and changes his mind and says, "Brush teeth, brush teeth!!". We say, "okay!" So maybe some day we'll ask him if he wants to potty in the toilet and he'll say, "no" and we'll say, "okay diaper it is" and he'll say, "no diaper!"

On another topic, frugality...we went grocery shopping at Aldi's on saturday. I'm trying to evaluate if it truly is cheaper for me to shop there almost exclusively for groceries or is it cheaper for me to use my coupons, albeit harder work, and head to Krogers. I had planned a menu for this week and then made a grocery list and I had hoped to spend $50 but I spent $53 for the week. And they didn't have I believe 3 things on my list. My budget is a bit higher but I'm really trying to see if I can get my grocery budget down to around $200 a month. I think ultimately it's going to require me to be more creative with my coupons, scour the internet frugal forums and coupon forums for more coupons, find more ways to take full advantage of the coupons out there, and figure out the "magic" behind CVS's ECB's. (Which although I'm getting the concept I still can't quite grasp how these momma's are saving so much cash there!)

I've been contemplating cloth diapering again as of late and have decided to pursue that route with Super N at this point. She keeps getting Impetigo on her butt, thighs and lower tummy and she has been on a round of antibiotics for it already but it keeps coming back no matter how often I change her. She has really sensitive skin it seems and so Jason and I are thinking cloth my be a good idea for her. I got her a wool diaper for night time, it's really cute! It looks just like a knitted sweater that goes on her butt! I also am planning on doing cloth with Baby J, but that could be short lived depending on if I can swing laundry, nursing on no sleep, and watching the other two kidlets daily. I'm keeping an open mind about my capabilities since I don't know entirely what to expect. I plan as well to let W wear some of the cloth diapers during the day that I've bought for Super N, they wear the same size. I'll just put him in a disposable at night and thus cut down on my grocery budget since I won't have to spend as much on diapers. Not sure about what I'm going to do about wipes yet. I used to use baby wash cloths as wipes when I cloth diapered W and Super N early on so I may institute that again, we'll see.

Also, last time I used cloth I went from doing the inexpensive way of cloth diapering, prefolds and simple covers or rubber pants to eventually buying pretty expensive Fuzzi Bunz (which I love btw!) But now I've decided to go back to prefolds and fitted prefolds and simple rubber pants for Super N and Prowraps for Baby J. You can't beat the old fashioned rubber pants(technically nylon) at $2-$3 a pop versus the $18 each you pay for Fuzzi Bunz! Granted I did get a great return rate of about $10 bucks a diaper when I sold them used.

At any rate, I'm currently scouring the local grocery ads in my free time, organizing my coupons, making a menu based on what's on sale currently (I think I'll try shopping at Krogers this coming weekend) and I'm somewhat planning a trip to the local CVS one evening this week to see what the ECB's can do for my budget.

It's Potty Time

The evening is winding down and I just cleaned up the toys and got myself a piece of a fruit tart I made and a cup of milk. Jason is upstairs with the little people giving them a bath. I knew he forgot to take the diapers upstairs for when they are done so I got up to get those for him and at the same time he came barreling down the stairs looking for diapers. He said, "Guess who just peed in the potty?!" I got all weepy (no kidding) and said, "W sat down on the potty and peed?!" Jason said, "No, he stood up and peed!"

I guess Jason asked him if he had to go pee and if he wanted to pee in the potty, he said no. But then Jason peed in the potty and W watched and then decided I'm gonna do it! And so he did!

Now i have to find somewhere to write this down so i don't forget that my baby peed in the potty on Feb 7, 08. It's the little things you know...

Almost 3 and 18 months...

Maybe I won't have to go to Target ever again

So as of late i've taken measures to try to avoid going to Target. Don't get me wrong I love Target but everytime I go in there i come away having spent way too much money. Not anymore! I can purchase my diapers and my wipes and my toiletries and everything else somewhere else. This is my plan.

Amazon.com had this deal going on where if you join their subscribe and save program you get a certain percentage off and you don't get charged shipping fees. Well i signed up to get my paper towels, toilet paper, dishsoap, dishwasher soap, diapers and wipes sent to my home. I know that's a lot of boxes and stuff. But the thing is is that the toilet paper and paper towels come every 3 months, the dishwasher soap every 6 months and the diapers and wipes every month. I ended up canceling the dishsoap b/c there's 12 bottles in a box! I think i go through maybe 3 bottles of dish soap a year, so i guess i'm set for a while with the one box.

The Amazon.com subscribe and save program is in my opinion a good deal. With the percentage I got off of my dry goods and then the free shipping I got a deal! The only thing with choosing to buy this way is that you need to have a place to store your items b/c everything is in bulk. So if you don't have somewhere or a shelf for the stuff you may need to invest up front in something to contain all the goods. I fortunately have three shelves in my basement that we don't use that were intended for a garage sell but not any more! So recycling items i already have cut down on my initial costs of buying items this way.

But anyways you may be thinking well how much did you spend up front to get all that?! Well i believe it was an initial investment of $200. I then divided the cost over the next 6 months and it will come out of my grocery budget for each month.

So for me the convenience factor of not having to think about purchasing these items and/or running out of them is great and worth it.

Another frugal idea to keep me out of Target, after searching online the last few weeks and reading others blog written by moms trying to save money and pay off debt, i realized that a lot of them shop at CVS. Jason and i just recently had a conversation about drugstores like CVS. We couldn't figure out how they stay in business when there are places like Target around. Well ironically I found out how within a few weeks from wondering.

CVS has something they call ECB's or Extra Care Bucks. These are essentially dollars that you collect on your keychain swiper card as you buy certain items and prescriptions from CVS. I've had the card for a few years but it never ever occurred to me that there were benefits to using it other than you get the advertised sale price for an item. I read blogs as of late where moms will have ECB's that they use on sale items and then they use coupons too and they literally come out spending pennies on toiletries and makeup. It's phenomenal and it's got me really excited to peruse the ads when the sunday paper comes. I'm now committed to purchasing our toiletries and prescriptions at the local drugstore, which btw is very close to my house and open late.

I hope these ideas help you with making more frugal decisions or just with making life a little bit easier.

Low Grade Anxiety

I think i'm experiencing low grade anxiety. Two weeks ago i woke up twice at 4am and once at 3am. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if i would've fallen back to sleep but i didn't. Which means I was up from 3-4am until around 10pm. Watching the kids on a few hours of sleep is very painful. I had the same problem this week except it was two days where i woke up super early. I did however manage to get two full nights of sleep but as you may know you can't make up sleep deprivation. I did however feel better but i was still whipped.

I think my anxiety is coming from all the things i have in my head that i feel need done before the baby comes. I look around my house and although i'm incredibly grateful for it and the stuff in it i feel that it's dirty and needs scrubbed clean and i want some of the rooms painted. The reality of painting just seems exhausting though so I'm not sure what to do. Can i just live with it?? I don't know yet.

When i was pregnant with Nora I spent that last month of pregnancy painting my fireplace and wall above it and the stairwell. Oh yes not to forget the many trips up and down the stairs filling in cracks and gaps with caulk and then priming and painting. I was determined to not see cracks when i walked up the steps. But now 19 months later the stairwell looks as if it needs another coat of paint! It's neverending I'm guessing.

Today we do plan to go to Lowe's and purchase a few things to do projects around the house. I received a cool door knocker for my birthday from my in laws back in December. Jason plans to install once we find the appropriate hardware to attach it to the door. I also hope to purchase some paint for one of Will's bedroom walls, i'm thinking turquoise! And i hope to purchase a gallon of high gloss white paint for his trim. His room definitely needs done soon b/c we are moving Nora in there until baby Joseph (due in April) is sleeping through the night.

Today I sold my beautiful bamboo armoire. I watched it being carried out the door and out of my life forever. I know it's just stuff but honestly i am a materialist and i planned to keep the stuff i love until i died or until it died. But my life is about practicality and simplicity now. With almost 3 little people running around and growing bigger we need space and less stuff. And the lady who bought it on Craigslist fell in love with it and is thoroughly tickled by it so I think she'll take care of it. Atlease it won't end up at Xenos where I have to see it every time i go to church. (A story I can tell you another day...)