Catching up, yet again.

It's been another long hiatus from blogger. I've thought about switching to a new blogging program, but I think this will be good enough for a while. I am so glued to my phone, and I'm frustrated that I can't post more pictures from it, but, alas I will have to get more familiar with using the computer.

Now, I will give you a brief update to what we've been doing in the last few months!

First, our decision to homeschool has paid off tremendously. Aidan had to go through an adjustment period, which was understandable, especially since I did as well. We've experimented with a few different curricula and have found our niche with Mater Amabilis (more on that later.) Along with that, I've put together a sweet little combo Catholic preschool for Owen! He won't start till next year, so for now we're just having fun learning through play with Montessori and learning fun songs. So far, their favorite is the itsy bitsy spider, of course!

Next, I've come again to the point where my health is down and I'm ready to make the change. It's frustrating that I have to "come to the point" all over again, but what can you do when it's in your genes. I would've said 10 years ago that I'd give anything to be blessed with a high metabolism and be super skinny effortlessly, but I've since learned that every body type has its issues. Mine, clings to fat like white on rice. I've been here before though, and I know what I'm capable of. I will also go into detail on this later.

Lastly, our family had decided to make more big changes! I'm hesitant to go into this until I have more information but I'm so ready for it happen! Alright, I'll catch up with y'all soon!

Saving money, Part One

Everyone is always looking for tips on how to save money. There are so many things that you can do, and if you only change a couple things, over time it all adds up. We've tried different things, especially with having a couple more children, our expenses have evolved.

One of the biggest things is learning how to control your splurges. Of course we like to treat ourselves every now and then, but we went from buying every new movie released, to buying a couple a month, to buying one a month, to buying only around holidays. Generally, we rent and redbox really is a great way to treat yourself to a new release. We usually only rent once or twice a month. With a little digging, you can usually find a code and in the end your only paying cents or nothing. Sounds like a good deal to me.

We have been renting, so we're stuck with certain utilities. We have to have cable, kids channels, sports channels, my channels. The complex having everything prewired means they can charge an arm and a leg. We took advantage of the free movies offer and agreed to a year contract. That gave us two discounts, plus an additional discount for bundling. Why not stream you ask? Because the only other internet company they would let us use totally bites. Here, is actually shared so your downloads are unlimited. We have fairly good equipment so we rarely have low strength, but I can't get too much into details, because I'm not geek enough.

We have two children in diapers at the moment. I can't even imagine how much we would be spending in disposables if that's what we used. Using cloth has saved us literally thousands. Added bonus, I made half of our stash. I do have tips on how to cloth diaper on an extremely fixed budget, and honestly some of the less expensive ways are definitely tried and true.

Another way we've saved in regards to the kids is they all were breastfed. The boys both for a year and a half, Lily is right at a year and going strong. Obviously this is only something you can only commit to before you have a baby. I'm also pretty educated on this topic and know a ton to help with troubleshooting. There are a ton of glorified goodies you can get, but at the end of the day, none of it is needed.

We saved a lot with Owen because we saved so much baby stuff from Aidan, especially the clothes. And with Lily, we pulled out the.gender neutral colors and still.had the crib and baby gear. That definitely helps, but since she was our first girl, shes gotten some hand-me-downs from my niece. Some are squeamish when it comes to used clothes but the hard thing to understand is most baby clothes is almost brand new. They grow so fast it really doesn't wear out.

Now into the more day to day spending. For groceries, it really helps to do some searching, learn the sales, learn your necessities. We know that we can get quality at the grocery store. My children don't do artificial food colors, flavors, or preservatives. That helps alot because I can make a lot of yummy snacks they like a ton myself. Another way we save is buying in bulk. Don't be fooled, a plus membership is not necessary. We spend $40/year. Since we have moved, we go to the wearhouse once a week. Different things last a month, but things like bananas and milk are a dollar less or we save even more. Stock up on your staples!! They come in handy, trust me. I never thought I'd go through 5 lbs of flour in a month, but alas, anything is possible.

I think I will wrap this up here and make another part soon!

Montessori

I really enjoy reading new things to the kids by learning through play and what better way to hone in on those found motor skills then Montessori learning.

We've been collecting milk caps for quite a while, and Owen slips them through the opening in an empty wipes box.

Another way he plays is by copying mommy in the kitchen. Mommy is cooking dinner, so Owen is cooking with a bowl and a big spoon. Usually Lily helps here as well.

I also made my own lacing games for him. I drew a couple shapes (train and a mitten) then punched holes in them along the edge. Then he takes a shoelace and weaves it in and out.

We use legos alot for our learning, and another big favorite is our dress up toys. The kids dress up and play construction with hammer and nails (we have one that's Fisher price, one that's Melissa and Doug).

There are a few different ways we practice sorting. Cards, legos, race cars. I have to keep it bigger because of Lily, otherwise good options world be pom poms and pony beads.

My next project is to get a pool noodle and I'll cut it down to giant pony beads, and he can string them on a rope. Another thing on the to-do list is to take a old code tin and cut holes in the top, then he can push pipe cleaners through the holes.

I'll try to get some pictures up.soon!

This week in Homeschooling...

Things hav been so busy around here, but I'm loving it. I always go through a transition period when I add another thing to the mix. So I thought maybe I'll try and wrote a post each week on what we're doing for our homeschool. Our family thrives on structure and order. Its become so obvious that going all un-schooling wouldn't be for us.

This week we decided it's time to include Owen in our school day. I have a lot of preschool workbooks from when Aidan was 3 and 4, so there are plenty of things to get him started on. I've also been collecting items to make Montessori style learning games. I'll write a separate post about those and include a link.

Here is a list of what we're working on this week:
Language Arts-Vowel pairs, rhyming and compound words, punctuation and capitol letters and ABC Order
Math- Patterns and symmetry
Science- Seasons and how the earth changes for them
Social Studies- Respect

Aidan is so far ahead in language arts, we're basically still reviewing to catch up. The biggest topic is our seasons unit, I try to tie science in with everything else. I really like these little booklets I've found online so since today we we're talking about winter, Aidan did two books, one on hibernation and one on migration. One book had a game about rhyming, the other had an activity with abc order. I love finding cool stuff online.

Yesterday, we did a lesson on respect and how our words can hurt. I drew a person on construction paper. We talked about mean things we say. Every time he said some thing man, I ripped off a piece of the person. Aidan didn't like it. So we taped her back together. I told Aidan these were the "I'm sorries". Even though we taped her back together, you could still see the tears. I told Aidan that even though we apologize, our words still leave scars, because people don't forget mean Words. Today, we watched an online animation of the story The Crayon Box That Talked. I had Aidan color a picture with only blue. Then another one with any color he wanted. I then asked which he looked better. He picked the colorful one, then we talked about how boring it would be to live in a colorless world. I found these ideas online as well. It worked out great. here is a link to some great respect activities. 

Next week we will.be starting fractions and Dolch sight words. I'm sure the sight words will be extremely easy. I'll probably start alot of fraction activities in the kitchen, then we can have some fresh cookies and learn through play at the same time.

With Owen, we started to practice cutting with scissors and learning the alphabet. He's stuck on the color blue and he can get to the letter e pretty clearly. Its a start.

Coffee creamer part 3

I love a good creamer. Especially a good fresh, nice and thick creamer. I loved the sweetened condensed milk recipe, and I still do. But what if you want a more syrupy, coffeehouse style creamer? Well, this lady nailed it. From my old stomping grounds of Alaska no less. I can't wait to try her other recipes but first I'll share this one. Salted Caramel Creamer.

Chicken Stock

There just hasn't been a lot of time to write everything I've been doing since we decided to homeschool Aidan. The one thing I certainly didn't think of was having his curricula in order first. So I've been spending most of my time researching everything I want him to learn for first grade. Buying boxed curricula was definitely not for me.

Anyway, last week I made a big pot of chicken stock! I've tried this a few times and it never really stuck. I made a big batch and let the thing sit out spoil, or I added way too much parsley and the broth came out nuclear green, but in hindsight, I probably couldn't made another batch and mixed them together and had even amounts and a lot of stock. Oh well, live and learn.

Chicken Stock is one of the most basic, easiest staples you can make yourself, there is hardly anything you can do to mess it up, except going heavy on the seasoning that it :-). One of the most common tips I've learned is save your veg extras! Carrots, celery, onion, parsley are the most popular and you can make pretty good stock on those alone. Other good additives are parsnips, parsnips, whole peppercorns, rosemary, and well, most anything you want! I like to keep mine basic though, so I add the first four and some ground pepper, maybe some Italian seasoning and we're good to go.

First, clean your chicken! A good cold water bath and I always rub it down with a paper towel to get that weird filmy stuff off and maybe extra feather bits. Chicken in the pot, and fill with enough cold water to cover the chicken. Watch the top though cause if it's really full its boil out. Then add your veggies and spices, bring to a boil and you'll want to boil it for about 40-50 minutes. I have never had luck bringing to a boil them simmering for the remaining time, I always end up cooking way longer and the meat will be really dry. So this works for me. Sometimes I put the lid on for the last 20 minutes. If the water is getting low quickly, turn the temp down to medium-med.high, it'll still boil but not as rapidly. After your chicken is cooked, pull it out and turn the temp to low. Let your chicken cool, then pull the meat off the bones, and toss the bones back in the pot. Its ok if there is still some meat on them though, it'll help add flavor. Depending on the water level, you might want to add some more water at this point, enough to cover everything in the pot. Being to a full boil, cover and simmer for about 4-6 hrs. After it has simmered, take all the solids out. This part is a personal preference, to help boost the extra flavor, I like to reduce the liquid a bit by boiling for at least 20 minutes. It helps intensify the flavor, but it's not necessary to have delicious chicken stock. Using a fine mesh strainer, make sure you've gotten all chucks out, that shouldn't been before reducing, sorry! Ill have to come back and edit this... Pour into a container that you can cover and let it cool on the counter for bit, then refrigerate overnight. In the morning there will be a layer of fat on top of the broth, skim that off and put your stock into any kind of storage you like and it'll freeze well for about six months. It'll refrigerate for about 5 days. I like to put about 2-3 cups in quart size baggies so I can lay them flat to freeze, it helps with freezer space.

Homeschool vs. Public School

This thought has weighed heavily in my mind ever since Aidan started kindergarten. I didn't think I would be this parent but then again its not like a child comes prescripted either.  Everyone knows that some children learn differently and I'm beginning to really realize that our son thrives on more one on one contact.  Of course there are reservations, will he have interaction with other children, will he be able to meet the standard requirements, is this something I'm fully commited to. I've done the research and even looked into the specifics for our area and I believe with my whole heart this is what's best for him.