Hello 2010!

Yes, I do realize it's the end of March. I also realize I haven't updated my blog in several months. I only have family hardships and myself to blame. I have a whole new gameplan for 2010 though. Firstly, I am going back to school - full time. My intentions are to finish my degree so I can be a little more valuable to society. I have also started work on a book which may or may not be published in the future, depending on it's outcome and quality.

My life is still hectic. Two kids keeps me quite busy and now, with a third on the way, on top of being busy I'm exhausted as well. I have many things I wish I could talk about and vent about on this blog however I have decided it is my duty as a wife to keep it to myself and hope Ian and I can find some common ground. Other than a few minor hiccups along the way, our family is still the same. Aiden is a loving, thoughtful, energetic demolition site on two legs. He's communicating well and is still way taller than all the kids his age. He's a great eater though. As long as he's hungry and it's edible - he will consume it. Ambria is advancing too. She can cruise along furniture, says mama and dada, is feeding herself cheerios and as of 7 months FINALLY sleeps through the night. (I thought this would never come) We are transitioning her off of bottles and onto sippy cups. And thankfully both of our kids weaned themselves off of pacifiers early on. Ambria still gets one for naps and sleep but other than that, doesn't need one.

Today I am going to sit down and write out a 6 month plan for myself and my family and do my best to follow it. It always helps keep the sanity level when there is some order and organization in life.

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!