Thanksgiving Eve

Things I am thankful for in 2010(in no particular order):

my bathtub
extra virgin olive oil
news that my township has brought recycling levels up 60%*
Potty-trained 20-month-old
Public School Back Up Plans
BROWN RICE PASTA
Bio-degradable plastic trash bags
health
my scheduled phone calls
creeping jenny and all her friends in my pot(see pic)
great deals at target
the ocean
MW2, and now Black Ops**
my Sherpa/faux mink blanket
paint on my basement walls
a new roof
solar powered things
silence
bath robes and slippers
my husband and how far we've come these 6 years
not being allergic to bee stings anymore!
memory foam
conversations about eternity with my son
"tea" and "coffee" made by my daughter
never having to clean up puke--seriously.
new homes for pets
wonderful bible studies
weekend getaways
my pioneer girls
hot and sour soup
walks with a friend on warm summer nights
purex 3-in-1 sheets
Bird-E towels
finally printing off all the pictures for Evie's album
Sufjan Steven's music
"Parenting isn't for Cowards"
the opportunity and privilege to parent my children
the wonderful family I have been blessed with


all the life lessons I've learned--including;
Being sure of important decisions I've made and then realizing I don't know what I am talking about, and getting over the guilt associated with that.

Dealing with issues head on, instead of letting them linger and get way worse.

Assuming the best of people and giving them a chance to redeem themselves!

That forgiveness can sometimes only be possible with the help of Christ who has forgiven an eternally larger wrong than what I am facing.

That making peace isn't always about letting things go, or overlooking problems, but dealing with them correctly--and how freeing that will be.

That sometimes I talk to much about recycling and that may make people even less likely to give it a real try!


Last May



*After the new HUGE bins had been introduced--this according to a man I spoke with from the township
**Because I get to play it with my hubby and I get better every day :) :)

Surely there must be an antidote to the lumps?

So ever since my hubby found out he had high cholesterol things have been changing around here. I love a challenge, and this is definitely a big one for a family on a tight food budget. I have been roasting Chicken and Turkey breasts, slicing it for lunch meat and making soup with the leftovers. He was eating Healthy Choice-type frozen dinners for lunch--which were economical, but loaded with fat and sodium. Now I make sandwiches with lots of lettuce tomato and onion, no mayo...some super good, Drew's Italian dressing, and some feta sprinkled on the meat. He loves it! I also make him tuna or Salmon, I used plain yogurt and the same dressing as the creamy base...along with the cucumber and stuffs. He has been taking a lot of fruit too, and Light Baby Bels...he always needs cheese!! He really enjoys his new lunches, and I am so glad!! His night snacking has diminished a lot too, now he is really into eating carrots, celery and nuts. This is helping me too, I have been making sure I cut out the prepared foods and have also been making Red Swiss Chard for him...which he loves too! I really hope it helps bring his levels down.

I finally ordered prints from when my daughter was born 2.5 years ago!!! 299 prints are on there way and I am going to buckle down and get her baby book done! I have been feeling guilty about it since she turned 1! I finished my son's on his first birthday!

We started watching Little Dorrit on DVD and I am really enjoying it! We also started watching The Walking Dead...which is well done for a zombie show. It gets disturbing though.

So today a dear friend I've known since birth had her first child, and it's so exciting! Babies are such amazing miracles and blessings. I can't wait to hold this little one, and am so frustrated with this head cold that will definitely prevent that from happening anytime soon!

If there is one thing that I can't live without on Thanksgiving, it's stuffing.

After the Baby Book, I have getting my passport on the list.

I got Disney's Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition BD/DVD Combo for $9.99 today with $15 of coupons at Target! That was awesome. $5 off the coupons was from targets own printable coupons on their website, and you can put it toward any Disney movie, including the Toy Story 3 BD--on sale for $19.99...so pretty good afterwards! This ends on the 24th though so hurry!

Family is watching Adventure Time, Lets go party Ice King!

hi

Dear Blog,

Please forgive me for ignoring you for so long. I have been busy with a lot of things, but not entirely too busy to blog once in a while. It's already the latter half of November and I happen to be listening to Joy to the World (by Sufjan Stevens)as I type this. Its a shame for me to go so long without updates, because then I forget all the cool things that happened or that I want to blog about :)

Asa was upset with me today when he left for school. We all woke up late and I rushed everyone to get dressed and eat, and being the easily distracted five year old that he is...he didn't do what I told him too in a timely manner and only ate a squeezable yogurt as he walked to the bus. I was pretty angry at the kids too, yelling a bunch.. I think that hurt his feelings; he wouldn't wave, hug or say goodbye to me.. in fact I saw him on the bus through the tinted windows looking down instead of over at us :(

It's amazing how something like that can change the whole day for me. I love my little one so much. He's pretty sensitive. Evie on the other hand isn't. If I yell at her she'll figure out a way to talk herself out of getting in trouble!! And then go and find some snacks.
I am sad though, I feel like a jerk.

I have to dye a tee-shirt for his Thanksgiving program today...He is really excited about and sings his song a lot. It's very precious. I sometimes feel that this part of life must be the climax, the spot where everyone wants to get to--maybe because once you get past it, it's kind of less exciting because you've experienced the main "life changes"(Though I realize I am thinking this before I've experienced a whole life) So this is probably also the hardest part of life, because it's tiring and draining and emotionally challenging. I think about how it'll be easier when the kids are grown, but then think I'll be sad when they're grown because life will be getting away from me, and I'll wish I enjoyed them being kids longer. I definitely enjoy it, but I do get very tired sometimes. Hubby mentioned last night about how nice it'll be for him to retire with me. It's funny because 6 years ago I would've never imagined that we would be looking forward to the latter half of our lives...it's just weird. I think one moral of the story would've been to wait a bit before having children. Three months of marriage wasn't enough time together. Granted we always had my step son, but still. I hope I don't sound unthankful for my amazing, beautiful children, because I would give my life for them, I just wish sometimes that I had waited. I know God has the best timing so I am actually just wasting my time thinking and talking about it, who knows how long our lives will be.

Something I wanted to do differently this holiday season, was to get as many handmade and/or local gifts I could find for family members. I am having so much fun looking on Etsy. I really would like to receive some re-usable fabric sandwich bags! and a bar of handmade organic shampoo--like a bar of soap.
Gotta go get some housework done

fall

Is is just me or was it in the 80's and 90's less that two weeks ago? I am so cold now. I was contemplating putting the heat on last night. Asa took his leather jacket to school today.

Asa is now in school, the local elementary school. He is doing really well there, only complains of it being too long of a day--but he's been learning and working and his manners have even gotten better! I miss him terribly, but love cuddling with him when he gets home. It's so much harder going through it yourself than thinking about sending your child off to Kindergarten without actually having gone through it. Evie misses him too, but things are settling down here and I know it's the best option for us now.

Our roof was leaking last week when the remnants of TS Nicole hit town. We quickly had it replaced. I wish I could see the new roof better so it could maybe make me happy after spending so much money on it! Oh well, it's the peace of mind I guess. I picked up a solar powered attic fan to help with energy costs mostly in the summer. Love the fact that it costs nothing to run it!

It's amazing how you can train yourself to be more efficient and self sustaining. I think by not buying things that are disposable you can really change the way you look at everything. Recently I was somewhere where so many plastics and disposable items were thrown into the regular trash in front of me and I was cringing!! I hate plastic bags (ziplock) and try not to look when recyclable containers are disposed of incorrectly. I don't want to sound like a snob either because I religiously used them until I was turned on to being less wasteful and the reality of how when we use a plastic bag once then toss it, it'll be around forever in a pile under the ground!!!
Right now I am debating in my mind whether Corn based plastics are better than bio degradable plastics. I know that the type of biodegradable plastics I use will not biodegrade anywhere but the landfill--but that is where most if not all of them will end up. They are superior strength which I think is important because it is more efficient than using more than one bag when one rips and falls apart(which is more likely with the corn based products which also cost significantly more $$)
The good thing about (some)corn plastics is that it'll biodegrade anywhere, in water, in dirt, in a compost pile, a landfill. They won't last as long though, they may fall apart on you if a lot of food products have been able to sit in them.
I'm all about lessening our dependency on oil and biodegradable plastics--while they do use some recycled plastics to their batches--still require oil.

It's a hard call, I am not sure which is best, but I am thankful that either kind will not last forever in the landfill!

I have been doing great with having the one bag of trash a week again! I know strange things tend to make me happy, and most people may not understand it, but it feels great to be efficient, I save a lot of money this way too :)

We are getting new windows soon and I am thrilled about the fact that we should be feeling a lot warmer this winter because of them! That and the fact that they are double hung which will feel like a luxury for me :) :) :) :)

I am getting over some sort of illness, but I feel so great mentally! I am thrilled to know that the sun is shining brightly above the rain clouds. The sky is perfectly blue up there, and it's bright(and warm?). Sometimes I wish I could fly on days like this just to reiterate this feeling! The end of the week is supposed to be warmer again and sunny :) :)

Making things

I've been making a lot of things lately. It feels good to make things. Something kicked into gear in my brain and I was able to let go of some of the laziness inhibiting my housekeeping skills. The house, laundry, finances and other things are all organized currently. This is the longest streak I've been able to keep up so far. It feels great though. I love being able to do just minimal house work and have a neat house and spend time with my most precious possessions: Evie and Asa.

Asa turned 5 last week. We had a small family party. Small is subjective however, it was just family, but still around 15 people. I made an ice cream cake:

24 Ice cream sandwiches
1 container of cool whip
1 Jar of Hot Fudge

cost me 6.50 and it tastes GREAT

I just layered the Ice Cream sandwiches with fudge and cool whip twice, then sprinkled sprinkles on top and froze it. I let it thaw out a bit before serving. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it! Love easy, tasty, inexpensive things like that!

I had a hard time on Asa's birthday. I don't see the changes he goes through unless I step back and realize how much he's grown in the past 5 years. I still have the new mom mindset. My heart was really aching realizing how quickly time goes and precious that time is. I hope I am growing up at the same time as him, getting wiser and such. When he was really little I was pretty young still, him being my first, I was adjusting to not being so self centered and I had a really hard time getting used to the changes in my body. While I remember loving that time, I also remember getting really down and feeling sorry for myself a lot. I also though I was in control of motherhood and knew exactly what I was doing. So foolish! With Evie I was better because I tried to enjoy even the hard times with her since I knew how quickly the hard days of new baby-hood go. I feel like I was just telling myself I have a lot of time before he goes to school. Now he is being home schooled..something I was sure I wouldn't do. I love this little boy beyond words. He is an interesting little character. He is beautiful to me and I love his brain. I wish he didn't have asthma, allergies and eczema, but it has given me extra time with him that I wouldn't have in the administration of medication :) He is very VERY strong willed, and I feel I will have a hard time with adolescence but I am praying and trying to develop a healthy parent-child relationship with him so that it will go a smoothly as possible. I want the best for him. I feel so bad for him when I see him get jealous of his little sister and bewildered when his cool big brother chooses her side. I know he'll be OK though. I love being his mom. I love all the important lessons I would never have learned without him. I love his beautiful eye color and his amazing ability to beat me in Castle Crashers and other video games. I love how he is starting to read even though he tries not to very hard ;) I love his love for animals and bugs. His love for building legos and drawing with chalk. His crazy obsession with certain songs until another takes it's place. Much more too..

On a completely different note:

Recently I was thinking about trash. About how it sits outside--or inside(if you only have a bit) and SMELLS in the summer. Especially meat containers, wrapper and papers. YUCK! I was thinking of ways to get rid of it. Could I leave the chicken pads and papers and foam out on a table to bake in the sun? Then it won't rot in the trashcan? haha I was also thinking about grinding up scrap foods from meals and flushing them? Am I crazy? It's so hard to eliminate waste!

I have been shopping at a grocery clearance outlet and reduced my food by 25%+. The only problem is there aren't as many choices when deciding what to get based on packaging.

I recommend checking out:
Green Genius trash bags
New Dress a day

I really want to try these:
UncommonGoods Garden Bon Bons
and these:
(from REI)

summer

Summer is well under way. It's been a scorching one too. I turned 26 a few weeks ago. It feels old. Comparatively speaking I know it's still young, but when I tell myself I am 26 I feel like I am past the prime of my youth.

My kids are getting bigger and learning so much--so quickly! Asa is learning to read from the book I am using called "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" It really works, seriously. It's totally different from the way I was taught, but it's good and he gets it really well! Evie likes to sing songs about everything, she reminds me of Frances. Songs like: "I'm walking down the stairs, I'm walking down the stairs" "It's raining on my arm, it's raining on my arm!" She's very original in her lyrics.

When I am 52 my youngest (as long as there are no more) will be 29. I think that is crazy and good. Hubby just celebrated his birthday as well, though it felt like it lasted forever..birth-week it should be called. Growing up we had a saying "birthday brat" Everyone became the birthday brat on their birthday, this is how I am defining the Birth-week...the week of too much attention on one person given by themselves and others and causing a serious case of the birthday brattiness.

I bought these cotton towels recently that work like paper towels only are washable and re-usable! I love them and now I see the woman who makes them has new ones with different colored borders which I am interested in to designate certain towels to certain jobs. Blue for Bathroom, Green for kitchen etc etc..

I also started making paper. I figured out how to make the seeded kind which you can plant in the ground. I was going to use it for invitations to a large shower, but now I think it'll be a bit too much work!! Time is running out. When the shower is over I will make a post on all the details. I am so excited for it, it's going to be great.

This summer has been pretty quiet so far though. Vacation is in August and I am so excited for that.

I have been only throwing out 1 to almost 2 bags of trash a week for our entire family..kitchen sized trash bags mind you. Someone asked me how I did it and honestly it's just being aware of all the waste that is generated from everyday use of everyday items. It was prompted by the smelly trashcan out back, I didn't want to sit on my patio near it. So I decided to be careful with what I threw out and it became pretty easy. I am saving more food instead of scraping it into the trash, compacting every little thing I can and of course recycling everything I can recycle. It's fun and worth it. I like to go easy on the hardworking trash-men who come out every week in the heat and carry heavy bags of smelly waste to their trucks.

I recommend:

being conscious of the packaging of your weekly purchases; buy the least amount of waste possible.

cotton Bird-E towels

Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

More stuff...

I have a hot dog cutter called the Guard Dog which scores the hot dog horizontally but keeps it intact. That way when my kiddies bite into the hot dog it'll fall apart into small pieces they won't be able to choke on. It's a lot of fun to use and I was really excited to see it mentioned in The New York Times!
It was invented by the creator of Pop Corn Chicken and Steak Umm's: Eugene Gagliardi of Creativators. They cook really well once they've been scored...it actually tastes better!

It's always great to have easy food options that are kid friendly and safe!

Another thing I wanted to talk about was the 7th Generation dishwashing tabs I mentioned before. Though I only used the Free and Clear type, I really didn't like it at all. I probably wouldn't try the scented kinds because they are all lacking rinse aid. They cost more than other brands which include it. Oh well! Back to my old Cascade Tabs!

I am still loving the laundry detergent though, bought it again and love how little I need! My washing machine has been staying nice and clean too since I've been making sure not to use too much soap!

Next plug: GoGo Squeez Applesauce pouches.
What a great idea! I love the no mess idea. So great for packing a lunch too! The kids like them too and the different flavors are great! About 50 cents a pouch but nice for a treat!
My baby turned two a few weeks ago. She is 95% for height! I can't believe it, she seems so petite to me! She is really getting verbal though. She loves colors and told me her flip flops were purple and pink today...I was shocked!

I sure love having a girl. She enjoys helping with dinner and calling in the boys for me. It's so amazing how differently male and females are wired even from birth.