Welcome Little One!

Ambria is here! She arrived 5 weeks early on July 23, 2009 at 2:02am. She was 18.75 inches long and weighed in at 5lbs 5oz. We are all home and though there are no major health problems, Ambria does have a diaper rash and a yeast infection which as of yet, we have not been able to conquer. She has quite a pair of lungs on her (must have gotten them from Mommy) and doesn't sleep well at night like her big brother did. She does eat very well and is already up to 6lbs and almost fits in her newborn size clothing.

Meal Plan Monday

Due to certain financial set backs, my normal way of life had been temporarily set off course. We are still playing catch-up (with a lot of catching up to do) but I can finally put together a small meal plan. I was able to buy a few weeks of groceries for $100 so now time to post the planned meals :) Meat was decently priced at the store when I went shopping so I bought sweet sausage, ground beef, chicken, pork, and a roast. Produce was also reasonable so I loaded up on spinach, mushrooms, grapes, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, a few ears of corn, and bell peppers. Thinking back, I wish I would have remembered to buy apples and bananas.

For the past few weeks I have had my youngest sister staying with me to help me out with my son, Aiden. She was very good about getting him up in the morning so I could sleep in for an extra hour or two. Last night, however, she had to return home to clean and pack for a trip to Colorado. Last Tuesday, Ian finally started working again so that means today, I will officially be alone again with the baby. I have so much to do! I have loaves of bread to bake, cleaning to catch up on, and well... you know how it goes. So that's what I'll be doing today.

Tomorrow we'll do some deep cleaning!

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!