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.