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. 

Taking a break to catch up..

Things have been a little slow for me since Aidan has gone back to school and we're all getting used to the new routine. I'm trying to put together my list of things I've been waiting to try but I keep facing road blocks. I've been on the hunt for canning supplies but they are either a hot commodity or just not as popular as I thought.  Today I was out searching with no luck.

After catching up with my Grandma today, I've officially decided to take a step up to actual canning. I was going to stay lazy and stick with freezing everything but I think this could really add up to some savings.  So instead of hunting down plastic ball jars, I'll be looking for a nice big stock pot, which I'm sure I can find in the cooking supply section of Sam's Club for a pretty decent price, so be on the lookout for a post in the hopefully not to distant future. 

It is a fairly slow moving week for me. Things have been on hold a lot since we are still in the process of our loss. Without going too far into detail, I'll just say we are on week three of the ordeal. So I've been trying to stay on top of my prenatals and bumping up my iron. A good nights sleep would be great but is unlikely thanks to teething... My poor daughter cannot catch a break. :-\

I'm kind of surprised of the things I've gotten accomplished and have been able to post about. But my goal is to try and get back my strength this weekend and be ready for some projects next week. Take care y'all!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

No doubt you've seen it all over.  Homemade laundry detergent is making a comeback.  And for good reason too. For one, it'll save you a ton.  Another good reason is its better for you and the environment.  But is it too good to be true? I'm going to try it out and see for myself!

I found a few articles with basically the same recipe. Here are the ingredients:

-Washing soda
-Borax
-Zote (Fels Naptha or Ivory are common alternatives)

Other additives are:
-Baking soda
-Oxiclean
-Essential oils
-Fabric softening crystals

(There are other recipes that make liquid detergent, I feel powder washes better so a search can find you liquid if that's what you prefer.)

The hardest part is grating the soap bar. You'll want a finer grate but I've heard a regular one works fine too. I chose Zote and grated two cups. I mixed it with my hands to break it down a bit more, but that's because I have a dinky little dorm grater. (Some have used a food processer to grate but I've heard its not worth the mess.) Then its a basic 2:1:1 ratio with washing soda and borax.  I decided to just make a small batch to see if I'd like the results. I'm confident though because I have used borax before added in laundry and in the dishwasher and had good results, and I've heard good results with washing soda added to regular detergent as well. Mix well and store in an air-tight container, and that's it! I had a sample of Unstoppable crystals so I threw those in my batch, and I've decided I'm going to get the oxi and baking soda too. The oxi is in most cloth diaper homemade detergents so I thought I might as well.

Here is a link to another homemade recipe. I wanted to post it because she goes into detail about why the basic ingredients are good and how they help get your laundry really clean.

I'll update later with my results!

Coffee Creamer Part Two

I wanted to try the basic coffee creamer recipe you see a lot online. Its basically sweetened condenced milk and milk or half and half. Then you can add flavors.
Here is the link. I went the full yard and made the sweetened condensed milk as well. Basic recipe is:

-1/2 cup boiling water
-3 tbls butter
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 1/4 cup dry milk powder

Put everything except water into blender, pour boiling water over ingredients and blend until thickened. 

I then added about 3/4 cup whipping cream and a cup of 2% milk blending to combine. I halved this base mix and put half in the fridge cause I'm not sure what flavors I will make.  With the other half I added about 2 tbls caramel sauce and about 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.  I think for the other half I will make a chocolate cinnamon flavor, but I have to say this is a much richer creamer then the first recipe.  Good thing I needed the extra coffee today!

Chicken and Noodles

Slightly modified from The Pioneer Woman. Her recipe is here. I love her recipes.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any good sales on cut up whole chicken or even a whole chicken so I had to settle for just whole chicken breast pieces. Still good just not as much "omphf" going into the homemade broth. I followef her recipe but instead of just boiling the chicken, I added about 1/4 an onion, 2 stalks of celery, 3 carrots, and oh about 4 sprigs of fresh parsley. I let it boil for about 40 minutes, pulled the meat off the bones and put the bones back into the pot and let it simmer for about an hr. Then I strained the broth. 

Everything else I followed. Except I wanted fresh homemade noodles too. I followed her recipe here. I did everything down to the T. But come time to put the noodles into the pot, they were horribly stuck together.  So a warning, lay for fresh cut noodles on a baking sheet and not a bowl and go heavy on the flour. GoodNESS. So I ended up re-rolling my dough in quick little batches, and then using scissors (clean, of course) I snipped little strips right into the pot. I wasn't sure at this point how they would turn out but oh my, this was some awesome, awesome soup. Next time we have a cold, this will be made. 

Baby food firsts - Squash and Quinoa

For some reason with the boys I was in a rush to get them on solid food. I bought into the Gerber everything and they were the poster children.  Like most parents, I was like a marketing zombie and thought since it was on the shelves, that's what they had to have. This time I decided to do it different. For Lily, not only did I do extended breastfeeding before introducing solids (she was nine months) I'm also giving her homemade first foods. We started with your singles, steamed and pureed sweet potatoes, squash, peas, carrots green beans. Bananas and avocado are good firsts too, but they only need to be ripe and fork smashed (totally easy, like fast food for baby.)

Well now we're into the mixes. My first mix for Lily was squash and zucchini with quinoa.  I steamed the squashes in the microwave using my steam cooker from Tupperware. I love the thing because ot retains all the good nutrients.  I cooked the quinoa on the stove and then pureed them together using my immersion blender. Sooo simple.  Well, I had a lot of baby food so I made three servings using the (go figure) gerber bowls with lids, stuck those in the fridge and the rest went into ice cube trays to freeze into individual servings, that I later put into freezer bags. You can add water to adjust thickness if needed. Sometimes I toss the flavors up a little by adding applesauce or smashed steamed carrots. But this was a Lily fav for sure.

Calm Down Bottle and Sweat Stains

We are not spanking parents.  I don't like it. I have swatted my kids at times, mostly for trying to do something extremely dangerous,  or because I felt the pressure that this was the only thing that would make my kids listen.  Well, its not my go-to, and I do believe there are better ways. So I think through the struggling to decide which ways of punishing or consequinces was going to work, we lost Aidan's trust.  I really hate to admit that. He gets upset and he doesn't have the skills to calm himself down.

I found a website I really love to reference for ideas in avoiding power struggles. You can find a link here. The site is called Aha Parenting and I absolutely love it. If you feel like you just can't get to where you want to be and you need some fresh ideas, I highly recommend taking a peek. Anyway, I. lso follow them on Facebook and Pinterest, and it was there we found the calm down bottle. I showed Aidan and even he thought it sounded like a good idea. There are many different versions to this so you can do a search on pinterest and see which one sounds good to you. 

We decided to use a water bottle, glitter glue, and regular glitter. I thought about using those tiny toys for the I-spy idea, but I didn't want to bput extra money into it, although we might make extra bottles later.  Aidan helped and decided hev wanted to use all the colors. So it basically reminds me of New Years Eve when the countdown hits one and people are setting of their party things that explode (I don't know what they are called.) We used hot water to melt the glitter glue, and we used three tubes. Then added 6-half tubes of glitter. Then I added hot glue from a glue gun to the cap and sealed it, and shook it for about 2 minutes.  And then we were set. I do have some pictures I would like to post but I haven't figured that out yet. Edit to come hopefully!

Next job for the day,  working on the hubby's work shirts!

Maybe I'm figuring this out a little. The picture is a little out of place but if it works right? Well. Onto the shirt explanation.  I read an article where the lady used a one part dawn dishsoap, two parts hydrogen peroxide, and sprinkle of baking soda mixture, and scrubbed it into the sweat stains with great success. She even used it on a color shirt and had no bleaching.  I have three shirts that needed a good treatment.  One shirt being white, had great results.  The next shirt is orange, not as much. Unfortunately, there was alittle bleaching, so I cannot recommend this for anything other then white. However, I do know Dawn is amazing for cutting grease so for the last shirt, which is a dark, navy blue, I will be first trying just soap. If that doesn't work, i might try some baking soda paste. Will update 

Slow week.. Starting the homemade journey.

I have generally always been a little bit of a Suzie Homemaker.  In high school, friends called me Betty Crocker. Since having kids I'd say the urge doubled. Now being married, quadrupled. Everything I can get my hands on, everything I see, I want to make myself, both for the money saving benefits and the satisfaction of creating something myself. So, for homemade items this week, I decided to try a homemade ranch recipe and a version of the popular Bisquick chicken tenders recipe. To start that is. For the ranch, I ended up not having all the ingredients I needed. I forgot sour cream and the store didn't have fresh dill or chives. Here is a general recipe I came up with. 

Homemade Ranch Dressing

3/4 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. buttermilk
Juice of half lemon
1 tsp fresh chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. dill seasoning
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper

Mix together and refrigerate for up to a month.

I have to say, I do think sour cream would've helped the recipe.  This still was delicious. If you have sour cream, I would do half cup mayo and half cup sour cream. But if not this works too. Yum!

Next, I took the Bisquick recipe and turned it into an Italian seasoning recipe.

2/3cup Original Bisquick® mix
2 tbls grated Parmesan cheese
1/2teaspoon salt or garlic salt
1/2teaspoon Italian seasoning
3boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
1egg, slightly beaten
3tablespoons butter melted

1Heat oven to 450ºF. Line cookie sheet with foil; spray with cooking spray.
2Mix Bisquick mix, cheese, salt and paprika in 1-gallon resealable plastic food-storage bag. Dip half the chicken strips into egg; place in bag of Bisquick mixture. Seal bag; shake to coat. Place chicken on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining chicken. Drizzle butter over chicken.
3Bake 12 to 14 minutes, turning after 6 minutes with pancake turner, until no longer pink in center.

I cut and pasted from the Bisquick website, but I tried to fix any mistakes. I also changed the Italian seasonings I added. The kids ate it up! I thought it was good too although if I make it again I might try a deep fry version.  I don't prefer the flour-y taste of the baked version. Simple and easy dinner though!

Coping

This week has been a tough one that is for sure. With losing the baby, being down about that, and to top it off my grandpa had to have open heart surgery. They are all the way in Georgia, I only wish I could've gone to help out and show my support.  Thank God, he was well taken care of and came out strong. 

Sometime ago, they found that one of his valves was going bad and decided to monitor it for Few months.  Than at a check, they found that in addition to the valve, he had a really bad clog and decided that he needed a double bypass. They didn't want to take the chance with more time and I'm thankful because Lord knows he is a good man and is not ready to leave this earth.

Still in recovery, they already decided he was strong enough to leave icu and go to a regular room. He just had the surgery yesterday! Many many prayers coming from SLC, that is for sure.

Everything else is moving along.  We are waiting to find out more about Aidan's new schedule because school is supposed to start next week. Owen has decided that he is ready to potty train, so I've been working on some trainers. Sewing has really been helping with the pain. I think I will write a few posts on the projects I've been working on in the last week, hoping to be able to post pictures too! Then my new task for next week will be to organize and plan new frugal living ideas because this mommy has been lazy! On to more positive thoughts and experiences!

God has plans. .

This last week has definitely been a test of strength.  About a month ago I took a test and was surprised to find out we were expecting! We were very shocked but extremely excited.  Why not? Our dreams are to have a big family.  The timing is soon, and I had big nerves about being pregnant again so soon. The risks if complications were a little tough to handle. However, talking with my new Doctor calmed me down completely and I finally could start enjoying the idea of another bundle of joy in full force.

On Friday, I started having extremely light spotting.  Having had minor spotting with all the children, I decided not to fret and wait things out. Come Monday, we were having a more consistent spot. I decided it was time to call. Having had a miscarriage before, I was starting to panic a little. What was to come, I was not expecting at all.

They couldn't find the source of bleeding, however, our little bundle hadn't grown in two weeks and they couldn't detect a heartbeat. I was in shock.  I know the statistics, there was nothing we could've done. But having already started to imagine my life with my newest love, my strength was starting to crumble. The doctor I saw, not my primary, made me feel like an idiot. Even though I reminded him more then once that this wasn't my first, and that I wanted to take a natural route, he persisted to force me into one of the "quick" elimination routes. Thankfully I remained strong. Why would forcing the "tissue" he called my baby make this any easier? This was the life we created, we wanted. I have faith in my body. I can't stop thinking about the image on the screen. The methodical tone of the US tech. How routine it must be to tell people they are staring at their lifeless child who they can't ever hold and tell that everything will be ok. Who they can't kiss goodbye. I am struggling with the thought of how unfair it really is.

The past few days have been a blur. Thankfully, the kids have helped take my mind of things.  And Randy has been so wonderful, even though I know he's hurting too. How can I make this better? I can't.  We sat Aidan down to tell him, since he's the oldest and the only one who really knew. We simplified things a bit and he had a few questions. Then off he went to play. I started sewing to distract myself, and for the most part its really helped. But, every twinge, every spot, all reminders of the child I still carry. What is this stage? Am I still "pregnant"? I want so badly to go back and this to all have not happened.  But I know in my heart that this is God's plan. He is true and just and I know there was a reason for this.  It was after my first loss that I walked away from him. I stopped going to church completely. Maybe this is a sign for me to get back to him. I do need Him in my life. 

Each day I feel myself getting stronger. As quickly as we found out, you were gone. We loved you, we will never forget.  You are with God now, I know you are. My unborn child, you and your brother or sister please keep watch over us, you are our Angels.

Oh sweet summer vacation!

Today is the second week into summer vacation.  Its funny because this time last year I didn't want my oldest son to go to school at all, but he was very ready. I'd enjoyed our school time at home. And this year he learned many new things, from interaction with other kids to learning how to control his feelings. We are still working on the latter. He also picked up a few behaviors we are not very fond of at all. Very toddler behaviors I watched other children in his class acting out, that he had never done prior to being in school. Then we moved, and thankfully quite a few of these fits and attitudes have disappeared. 

So here we are. Aidan is preparing for 1st grade.  He is reading well above his age group and his social skills have improved tremendously. He still writes pretty rough but hes a guy. I would'nt expect great writing yet.

Update 7/12: We haven't been doing as much homeschool work as in would've liked. Other things have complicated our schedule. With only about 12 days left til he starts school again, I think we're just taking our time to be a family.  I know he'll be fine once school does start because he loves that environment. I'm just hoping at this point he doesn't get in trouble on the first day like I did!

Updates!!

A lot has definitely changed since I thought I'd start blogging. This time I'd really like to keep up on it. First, we welcomed another baby into our family.  This time a little girl we named Lillian Grace. She is a whole different ball game that's for sure!

We also moved! We left Alaska and landed in the hot suburb of West Jordan, just outside Salt Lake City. We are loving the change and boy is it a change.

Now that we're working on getting settled, I hope to get back to my crafts and a little venting here and there. Going to end this here for now!