Sunday the Fun Day.

For some reason I was compelled to glance back at my previous blogs to recap what I've blogged about and to see how far off on a tangent I had strayed to. I noticed that the amount of pictures I included with each of my blogs has severely declined and how saddening that is! I love pictures. After sorting through my dozens of pictures of dinner (to find the best ones) I realized why this has picture-dwindling has happened. Over half of the pictures I take with my camera turn out slightly blurry.

I currently use a Fujifilm FinePix A500, which I thought to be a decent camera. Perhaps it was at one point (when I first received it 3 years ago) but the quality in it has worn thin. Hopefully Santa will bring me a nice new camera this year. I'll ask the hubby to remind him for me. *wink*

I have a stack of magazines and TONS of homemaking webpages that I've saved/added to favorites that I am going to shuffle through today in hopes of updating and filling out my HMB. It's already in pretty good shape but there is no such thing as too much information. I'm not all about borrowing ideas though, and will also print out some of the things that have worked best for me.

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In other news, Aiden's existing 2 teeth are gaining a 3rd companion. His top left is coming in which is good news for someone, I'm sure. This new delighful addition caused my darling son to wake up screaming his head off at 2am, also making him nearly inconsolable. I gave him a dose of Children's Tylenol and 5oz of cold milk to help with the pain and Ian and I took turns rocking the poor guy. He finally fell back to sleep around 3:30am. Whew! I have $30 to use towards groceries that need to last us for the next 2 weeks so once I get my necessities purchased and if there is any money left over, I will buy an infant toothbrush in hopes of teaching him decent hygene at a young age.

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To draw our day to a close, we will be driving out to Desert Hills to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday Thom!

Eating Healthy

Upon organizing a stack of "needs to be organized" I came across my HMB (Home Management Binder) which I diligently spent many hours on while I was pregnant with Aiden. I included a section for a comprehensive year long calendar, schedules for each family member (which also had daily to-do's), a menu section, a children section compromised of many different informational magazine clippings and ideas on raising children of all ages (organized by age), budget to help organize home finances, an "Other" section, contacts, and finally an unlabeled section. I was flipping through the pages and when I reached the unlabelled portion I got caught up reading some of the info I had there. The very first few pages discussed "Super Foods" that everyone should include in their diet. When I found this article the first time it had encouraged me to buy barley (one of the super foods) and I learned that I actually love barley! I decided to add it to tonights dinner which was Bean Casserole - here is the recipe - because this article said this about Barley:

This filling grain stacks up favorably to rice and potatoes. It has 170 calories per cooked cup, respectable levels of protein and fiber and relatively low fat... Studies show that barley efectively lowers cholesterol by up to 15% and has powerful anti-cancer agents. Scientists say it cures constipation better than laxatives - and that can promote weight loss, too.

Excitingly enough, beans were also on this list of foods to eat being sited because,

"Beans are one of the best sources of plant protein. They have the most protein with the least fat of any food ad they're high in potassium but low in sodium."

So tonight's dinner was quite pleasing both because of the immense flavor but also because of the internal satisfaction that it merited. I served some of my homemade bread (sprinkled with garlic powder) on the side and the whole meal really hit the spot. The next time I go grocery shopping I am going to try to buy most of the ingredients on that list and incorporate them into meals as often as possible.

I really would like to go back to following my HMB as closely as possible so throughout the week I think I'll set some time aside to update it and slowly work it back into my schedule. So check back for updates!

Lean, Clean, Earth-friendly Green Floors!

Although the idea of Eco-friendly or "green" lifestyles has become significantly more popular in the last few years, it has been the way of life for many people for generations past. The best part? Living green is surprisingly kind on the wallet! Not only are household cleaners competitively priced with non-green cleaners but there are other alternatives to explore for those of you who are looking to leave the smallest stamp on the planet: reducing wasteful packaging, and using materials that are gentler.
Here are some of the cool products I've found and the categories I've separated them into:

::Cleaners::
For greasy, no-wax floors:
1 cup vinegar
1/4 cup washing soda
1 tablespoon vegetable oil-based liquid soap
2 gallons hot water
Combine all ingredients, stirring well to dissolve the washing soda. Mop as usual.(From Clean and Green)

All-purpose floor cleaner I:
1/8 cup vegetable-oil-based liquid soap (usually coconut oil-based, found in health food stores and called all-purpose or dish washing soap)
1/2 cup vinegar
2 gallons warm water
Put soap and vinegar in the bottom of a bucket. Fill the bucket with warm water, swishing the ingredients around a bit to activate the soap. Wash the floor as you normally would.

All-purpose floor cleaner II
1 cup vinegar
1 pail water
Wash the floor as you normally would.(From Bastyr Center for Natural Health)

::Floor Tools::
For mopping, there has always been the never failing bucket and wash rag on your hands and knees method, but these days who really has the back for that? Especially when science has discovered how to attach that rag to a stick? Recently, we have implemented the same idea for sweeping to help reduce the fly-away dust and hair and heaven knows what else that gets propelled into the air while using a broom. The cloth-on-a-stick method clings to the normally airborne debris far better than a conventional broom which inevitably reduces the frequency of dusting and improves air quality. (Yay!) We've all seen the Swiffer Sweeper and Swiffer Mop. You can make your own washable cloths for these tools at home, which means nothing to throw away. There are TONS of great sites that teach you how to make these, however my favorite site happens to be a fellow blogspot site run by Karin who came here 16 years ago from Germany. Here's how she makes them:

1.Get a package of microfiber towels. You can find these in the automotive section of most stores. They are made of 80% Polyester and 20% Polyamide.
2. If you are using a green Swiffer (dry) all you have to do is trim the towels to fit your swiffer and stick the ends into the holes on top. You can serge it if you like but microfiber generally does not fray.
3. If you are using the purple Swiffer (wet) all you have to do is tri-fold the towels and sew a few lines across to turn the towel into a pad. I do two rows lengthwise and 3 across.
You won't need many rows - just enough to keep the pad stable once it gets wet.The purple Swiffers have Velcro on the bottom that sticks perfectly to your microfiber pad and will hold it in place without you having to sew Velcro to your pad itself.

It takes less than a minute to make the wet pads and will be a big money saver if you have laminate or tile floors and swiffer a lot. The microfiber attracts dust and hair when dry and when wet mopping is very absorbent. It also is easy to wash and quick to dry. A very economical solution to reduce waste and save money!
Depending on your floor it may take a little more 'push' to wet mop with this pad. I have found no difference on my ceramic tile floor but I have to push a little harder on my laminate floor. On the plus side though the disposables never got my laminate clean. As soon as it dried I could see little greasy hand prints again! With the microfiber pads I get it clean in one swoop. :)The pads can then go in the washer and dryer to be used again.
Karin

For something that might be far easier can be found on the ehow.com site and implements using pieces of felt! Click here to see it.

Tipnut.com also has a bunch (15!) different ways to make reusable swiffer cloths and you can find them here.

Let's get to work on our floors today! For those of you with kids, I know this can be a never-ending journey but sweeping and mopping on a daily basis will sure help to reduce the grime and slime that comes with having young ones around the house. Good Luck!

Ambria and Misc.

*IN THE NEWS*: I had my OB visit today and amongst the madness, I've learned that our baby girl is coming early! 6 weeks or less. I can't wait to see her. My iron count is still horribly low which leaves me fatigued 24/7 but hopefully it will level out after Ambria is born.

I've done some digging and found a bunch of frugal-based sites and options for homemakers and also found some great links to sites that can help you keep your home in tip-top shape. I know I've gone off on a more personal tangent with this blog so I intend on getting it back to the homekeepers guide to sanity that it once was. For starters I will separate topics by green or non green since I have followers of both varieties. I'll also have homework (housework) projects that will be due on a daily or weekly basis. Sometimes things are just easier to maintain if a deadline is implemented. So lets start at the beginning.

My family is in a financial crunch right now which means discounts, sales, and bargains of all shapes and sizes (along with sparing) goes a long way.

If you haven't yet looked into a great resource for saving money on groceries, please check out:
www.couponsense.com

I save SO much money with this website because it pulls ALL of the grocery items on sale at all of your local stores and posts them. It also helps you organize coupons for those stores to maximize on the sale by getting more money off of the already on sale item.

I do not subscribe to the newspaper (yet) so instead I write down my grocery list and find as many of the things on my list as possible and then go to my local Wal-Mart to do my shopping. Wal-Mart will price match their competitors prices. All you have to remember to do is take in the weekly grocery ads that come in the mail. My main rule of thumb is to NEVER purchase any meat products (ground beef, chicken, pork, etc) unless I can get it for under $1.99 per pound. This is a great deal since I ONLY buy extra lean meats which are usually $4.99 per pound. When meat is on sale I stock up and usually buy around 25-30lbs. Assuming I am paying $1.99 (even though it is sometimes less) this means I am spending $50-60 bucks a month for meat which is outstanding!
Another great money saving tip is pasta. You can buy 6-8 servings of pasta for under a dollar. If you buy the premade sauce this is also usually only $1-2, however if you make your own you can do it for about 60 cents. That's a full meal for a family of 4 (including leftovers) for super cheap! If you add meat, it only raises the cost of the entire family's meal by less than $2.

More to come!

When life throws you lemons....

I'm sick of lemons! Unless you put them in a wonderful Lemon Meringue, I'm not interested! Our family is going through an extremely trying time right now. All I can do is pray that we will find our way. I love my husband and support him and pray that he can find work in this economic travesty.

Aiden is healthy (and quite the eater!) however he has a weird bump that appeared on his outer thigh. I'm going to continue watching it for a few more days and if it doesn't clear up we'll be headed to his pediatrician to identify it.

Ambria's arrival is also nearing and I couldn't be more excited. She is still small though and my iron and protein levels are horrifyingly low. Tomorrow is my doctor's appointment with the OB to see how things are going. Although I love my family and the new life we have brought into this world, Ian and I are DONE adding to the population for a few more years. I need a break from being pregnant and time to rough house with the kids. Perhaps enjoy time riding the horses, or relaxing in a hot tub - things you can't do while pregnant. I mostly want to have more energy. Growing humans takes a lot out of you. In 2011 (unless i'm lucky enough to get the opportunity to go sooner) I will also be able to finish school. I know I could still do this if I were pregnant but this way it will just be easier. I'll try to post on the findings of the doctor's evaluation. Have a great Wednesday night!

Back to Reality

Well guys.. my blogging vacation has come to an end. It's been a very weird few weeks for me, but enjoyable all the same. I have been able to spend every minute of every day with my husband and our son doing the things we enjoy. We even got the kids' rooms painted! Aiden's room was repainted with a light cream color (Behr's Artist's Canvas) with a blue accent wall. Ambria's room was done the same except her accent wall is a beautiful lavendar color (Behr's Purple Pansies) I was able to organize my scrapbooking room, the upstairs entertainment room, and even go through and sort more of Aiden's clothes. The time hubby and I have spent together has been priceless. We have been staying up until 3am nearly every night this week either watching a movie, things recorded on our DVR, or playing on our computers together. Needless to say I was drained when I dragged myself out of bed at 6:45am to collect and feed my crying child. Astonishingly, Ian got up shortly after and migrated to the couch to lay down in our presence. I continued my morning routine while leaving the boys in the living room. When Aiden started getting fussy, Ian jumped to the occassion and took care of him, and got him off to bed for a nap. Exhausted, I laid down and within minutes, I was out.
When I came to, it was nearly 10am!! I felt like such a slacker, but I was well rested and in good spirits. The house was quiet. Very quiet and I slinked out of bed and into the living room just to find that it was empty. I rounded the corner into the kitchen and stopped dead in my tracks. My jaw dropped and I was rendered immobile. There in my kitchen was my husband Ian. Dishes (from the past few days that had piled up) all washed and put away. Counters and sink scrubbed. The kitchen was sparkling and he was to thank. I asked if he was ok, if he had done anything wrong, if he wanted something, and if he was ill. His answers were Yes, No, No, and No. His head revealed no fever. I was dumbfounded. Ever since we first met he had never offered to clean anything and here we were, almost 3 years later and he was cleaning my kitchen. I was so greatful. His act of kindness has put me in the best mood I have felt in a long long time. To top it off, he even bought me The Sims 3! He can be such a sweetheart when he actually tries.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow he will be returning to work and my days of constant, never-ending housework and cheerio duty will continue. I have also picked up more work with my Mary Kay business and will be working more often than just Saturdays. Hard work pays off though and our goal is to have our monthly expenses down close to $2,000 per month. Here's hoping :)