January – thus far

Well, it is already the start of a new year!  I can’t believe it, time sure does just continue to fly by!  This is my first year in a long time that I will not have a baby OR get/be pregnant.  I feel as if I am entering a new stage of life!  This year I will be entering my 30’s!  And for some of you that seems like no big deal but to me it is HUGE!

New Years Eve – We celebrated by going out to dinner at Oliver’s Pizza & Pub.  It has quickly become one of our go to places!  I love the burgers & Dusty loves the pizza & they always have a nice selection of drinks 🙂 Then we attempted to go shopping but turns out most places close early 😦  Then we went and saw the new (obviously) Star Wars movie.  Dusty enjoyed it a lot & I thought it was a fine movie, not knowing any of the past movies it was a little confusing at times 😉

New Years Day – I had wanted to get up and make these Diebles for breakfast b.c. I always had them as a kid the morning of New Years Day…but turns out I don’t have the discipline my mom has/had and I chose to sleep 😀 So we had them with our dinner.  They are a symbol of peace & a fun little tradition I would like to carry on.  They are supposed to be like Dove’s this year they were better than last & hopefully the trend continues b/c they kind of look like tusk-less walruses 😀

Jan. 2nd – we had a light dusting of snow & so I sent EVERYONE out to play in the snow.  This is the first year everyone, ahem…EVERYONE has snow gear 😀  New gloves for Christmas too!  And this gave me the opportunity to get some cleaning done 🙂

Lazy days – And now since Dusty is back at work (he was home for a little over 2wks) we are getting back into routines & we have started to play in the basement a lot.  Although one day I found Dez tired and lounging on Dom’s bean bag chair (hers is the hot pink one to the left) Each of the kids received one for Christmas this year so that has made tv & movie time more fun!

Like I said Dusty is back to work, Gia is back to PreK 3 days a week, Oli is back to Kindergarten 5 full days a week & I am back to working Monday & Wednesday (normally) at Great Harvest.  Dom is back to being Mommy’s buddy & every time I get dressed to leave he says “I Come Too!” It is precious and also heartbreaking, b.c. of course Mommy enjoys time away too 🙂

Anyways here is to a new year & hopefully updating more!!!

Much Love!

 

Living Well Spending Less

Living Well Spending Less….It’s a nice idea isn’t it? While we can all say we live “well” are we willing to cut back to save money, give money & budget money? A friend of mine said she was going to do this challenge for the month of October. Back in August we decided to be more aggressive with paying off our home & student loans. I got a job…YES a job! I can talk about that later though 🙂 While we still had our regular budget for hobbies, food, eating out, clothing, home improvements & etc. I/We would consistently not follow it. So with anything additional I started to pay for that with “my” money. If I had already exhausted the food budget for the week & we wanted to eat out I would pay cash with the money I had earned vs. charging it to the credit card. This helped me be WAY more aware of what we were spending & did I really want to eat out bad enough to spend “my own” money? Anyways this helped us a great deal! We were able to save a lot of money by not spending money on a whim & paying extra on loans.

So, initially I thought do I really need to do this challenge? I have already cut back SOO much! But in the end I was spending that money I was earning, I wasn’t really saving it. I was using it to “treat” the family. Which I LOVED being able to do!!! However with more expenses with Birthday’s, Holiday’s and a wedding I thought in order to keep paying aggressively on these loans I need to save more.

I went through my pantry, refrigerator & freezer and took inventory! I am planning my meals based on what I have. For example I have quite a bit of cereal on hand but I also have a lot of oatmeal on hand. So we are going to start having more oatmeal & eggs for breakfast instead of cereal. I am excited to see space cleared out in not only my pantry but freezer also!!

I have budgeted things for parties, showers, birthday gifts & etc. And I am excited to save money! I love the idea of a challenge – go figure 🙂 I have also set rules for things I cannot buy – Clothing, Decor & Eating Out are my big ones! Because all of that was adding up quickly!!!

So if you notice me being a little cheap or saying hmm better not that is why. I will keep you posted on how I am doing either throughout the month or at the end!

Sausage-stuffed Zucchini Boats

Back in January I completed in a weight loss challenge (to get rid of the baby weight) | lose 6% in 6wks, I went on to meet my goal (minus some!) a few months later and with that I became intentional about the food we ate and tried to be very health conscious. I replaced pork sausage with turkey sausage because seriously have you ever seen how many calories are in sausage?!?! His favorite thing is sausage so you can imagine the happiness when I started using turkey, because although it’s not bad, you CAN tell a difference! I was met with some resistance from my carb-loving-hubby! It wasn’t uncommon to see him look at his plate of food and then at the menu board, over & over…or once he looked at his plate and said “where is the carb?!?!”

That being said we have reached the age of compromise where I still like to eat healthy but am cooking things that I know will be appreciate. So with our eating intentionally comes zucchini boats, with all fresh seasonal items minus the cheese and real sausage not turkey for the hubs.

I should note this is kid friendly | kids ate this well although the idea of ice cream cones (a rarity in our house) may have helped ensure they ate it ALL. 🙂

Chopped | garlic, onion, tomato & zucchini

Sausage + veggies

Pile with sautéed sausage + veggies and top with cheese

Finished product

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

1lb sausage

1 onion | chopped

2 vine ripe tomatoes | chopped (use a serrated knife it’s great!)

3 zucchini | washed & halved lengthwise

2 garlic cloves | chopped

1/2 C grated Parmesan

1/2 C grated mozzarella

dash dried parsley (because I didn’t have fresh)

salt + pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400

while browning the sausage, cut zucchini in half and scoop out inside and roughly chop. Cut tomatoes, onion and garlic. When sausage is done add the veggies and sauté for approx 5min. add salt + pepper.

place the emptied zucchini boats in a 9×13

pile sausage + veggie mixture in boats until used up. Top with cheese and some dried parsley.

cook for 20 min.

\\\\recipe adapted from Food Network – Nancy Fuller | sausage stuffed zucchini boats////

enjoy!

Eating with purpose

I waste SO MUCH FOOD! Do you? After throwing out produce and sour cream, ricotta cheese and etc. I realized I am not intentional about what we eat. I mean I TRIED to be but was failing. This summer I decided to be intentional with what we eat | breakfast, lunch & dinner.

I now go to the Farmers Mkt on Monday mornings and buy local, fresh, in season produce. This is helping me so much! The food seems more meaningful when buying from someone local even though they get the money whether I eat it or how it away, it would just seem shameful to let it waste. That being said I am working hard on being intentional with our menu planning and being flexible if there is food that will soon go bad that I may have forgotten about.

Menu this week:
Sunday | Mac n’ cheese (dusty was gone)
Monday | Steak kabobs + skewers of squash, zucchini & onion
Tuesday | BLT’s + fresh fruit
Wednesday | Zucchini Boats + fresh fruit & bread from the freezer
Thursday | Breakfast for dinner
Friday & Saturday | dusty and I will be in Chicago 😀

My “theme” was zucchini, squash & tomatoes based on what was available at the farmers mkt. I try to integrate different types of protein and different styles which keeps it interesting for me. I also try to keep it healthy for everyone! Planning my meals helps me stay disciplined because honestly I LOVE to eat out!

Anyways that’s what’s on my mind today. Stay tuned for my Zucchini Boats recipe + post.

We went to the ZOO yesterday with A. Mary and Nola so here’s a photo. We had a blast!!

A Day in Pictures

So I have seen people do this before & I always think it is so fun! Don’t you ever wonder what someone really does all day??? I know I do :0)

Anyways I picked what I thought would be a pretty typical Monday for us. I have always fought the urge to do this on a day where we go to the Zoo or something so it looks like we do fun stuff, but this is just a normal Monday, or what I thought would be. As you will see “normal” for a parent really is never normal, a day never really turns out how you thought, so this is actually a pretty good example!

12:30 AM — This would be the first time Dom woke up…Screamed until 1:30 sigh…

Now if I was awake enough I would have taken a picture at 2:30 am when he woke up again..But I was too tired! So missing picture 2:30 AM

6:00 AM — Here he woke up and had a bottle

7:00 AM — Kids are up and watching cartoons

8:00 AM — Kids are getting ready for the day, Oliver leaves for school at 8:30

9:00 AM — On our way to the Gym!

10:30 AM — At the bank, cash for our food budget & suckers :0)

11:15 AM — Checking out at Aldi, the food in the picture isn’t mine… :0) In between the bank & Aldi we had to make a pit stop at Verizon, my phone randomly stopped being able to make texts or call..It was fixed

Noon — Lunch time!

1:00 PM — Kids are napping & I sit down to eat some lunch and check out facebook & some blogs I follow

2:00 PM — Consisted of me taking a nap & laundry

3:00 PM — These are the clothes Gia soaked with pee..notice the previous picture, I had JUST done laundry…

4:00 PM — Oliver coloring he does this ALL the time

5:00 PM — Impromptu trip to the doctors office, Dominic had some sores on his hand that I just didn’t think seemed normal. (The apt. was at 4:30, we got seen at 5:20, sigh..)

6:00 PM — Still at the doctors, they had to culture the sores, he has a Staph infection possibly MRSA, still waiting to hear!

7:00 PM — Finally eating dinner, McDonalds it was tonight! Before I left the Docs office I sent them to get the prescription & then they got some dinner. (we normally eat at 5:30)

8:00 PM — Bedtime!!!!

9:00 PM — watching the Olympics and having some wine :0)

10:30 — Bed time!! (and Dom slept thru the night woke up at 6 for his bottle!!)

Hope you enjoyed!!!

Tunic

This is by far my “biggest” project I have done. It hasn’t taken the longest but it is the largest. It was almost like making a small afghan :0) I ordered this yarn a year ago & for Christmas last year (2012) Mom Funk gifted it to me. My plan was to make a coat out of it but that just seemed daunting & I thought I probably wouldn’t wear it too much. Then I thought maybe I would make a skirt, dress, tunic (normal one)…But I just couldn’t find anything that seemed youthful enough & pretty brainless…Then I stumbled upon a sample catalog for Bergere De France & found this tunic and fell in love! I ordered the catalog (From France! So you know its gotta be trendy, right?!? :0)) And when I opened it up and read the pattern I realized that the yarn would work perfectly! I didn’t have to change the pattern at all, which is a great blessing!

The pattern was easy peasy and great to do while watching tv as it is stockinette besides the borders which are moss/seed stitch. It did get a little boring as the front and the back are near identical and each side measures 27 inches! Anyways, here are the details & some photos!

Pattern: Tunic
Book: Bergere De France
Size: One size fits most – this would be VERY easy to adjust
Yarn: Berroco Vintage Chunky color:6185
Needle: 10.5

Dominic is 5 months

Quick update: Life is good. Life is busy.

Oliver (4) is in PreSchool and goes Monday & Wednesday 8:30-11:30 (He loves it!) he is also in Speech (Tuesdays 9-9:45) He loves that as well. He loves to color, craft, build w/ blocks & legos & do puzzles.

Gia (2.5) looks forward to CBS (Community Bible Study) each week & can’t wait to start pre-school someday! She is busy learning to count & helping mommy do all sorts of mommy things. She currently is into playing with her babies…She has named her Dora baby “Alfred” I have no idea where that came from!

Dominic (5 mos) is the happiest baby around! He literally hardly ever cries unless he is hungry or tired. We started feeding him baby food last week and it has been a real challenge…Today was the first real successful day & it might be because I let him have banana’s instead of sweet potatoes :0)

Dusty is busy with work & still trying to finish that basement (3 kids 4 and under has proven to make this difficult!)

I am busy with the kids, taking them places, caring for them & etc. I look forward to 8:30 when the kids have been in bed for 30 min. and I can just sit and breathe! I am also learning to lean more and more on Jesus as I can’t do it on my own. Being a Mom is hard work & trust in Jesus to give me grace upon grace & more & more wisdom to raise each of my children in the way that best suits them & qualities (and challenges)

Hopefully I can try to keep up more, but we shall see!

Here are some pictures of Dominic I took today…The others joined in also! I tried my best…I was sitting in the living room as the light was coming in and I thought oh perfect! unfortunately I didn’t have him dressed in what I would have otherwise & same with Oliver & Gia…They were in their comfy-cozy clothes & had not been cleaned up after lunch..Oh well :0)

Here we go…

ALmost…

he had just gotten done with lunch (pb&j)

Mommies little helper

Update on Life

Oliver started Pre-School this past week. He loved it!

However he did have a “run-in” with his teacher’s aide. They had playground time the first day and she took them to the small one instead of the bigger one (the small one is probably for like a 1-2 yr old) and so he told me he asked her if they could play on the big one & she said “you’re not big enough” (Oliver’s words) and so he asked me if I could talk to her the next time I saw her & I said I would ask but if she said no then that is that & he can’t complain about it again…He then said “Well I have an idea…” I asked him what that was & he said “We could throw her in THE LIONS DEN!!!” :0)

He also had a hard time understanding that we leave school supplies at school & not every day do you use everything. After his second day he said he really liked it and said “I want to go everyday!!!” So that made me feel good!

Another funny story yesterday while he was napping I heard him sleep talking/yelling (b/c it is so loud) saying “I Know, I know!” I thought hmm I wonder if that is what he did at school!

Gia is feeling very left out & cries when we drop him off & cries when we pick him up because she wants to go to school & play with the kitchen. However, it was so nice just having Gia home yesterday for a few hours!! I forgot how easy one kid is!!!

An update on me. Not much is different. Last week I took myself off bed rest being full-term and also went off of my medicine. I am still having contractions but nothing regular enough to give reason to have the baby. Yesterday during the day until now I have been having a lot of contractions, hard ones…So I am hoping it is leading to something and not just the way it is going to be until Tuesday!!

That is what is going on here, I hope all is well in your neighborhood!

Holding up his sign

Another shot

Gia had to have one too :0)

Oliver filling in his last spot on his behavior chart! We weren’t as into this time so this will probably be the last time…

Complete! This time he said he is getting a “Chocolate Ice Cream Cone!!!” from Cony’s of course

Of course she needed her picture taken as well

Entwined Cowl

Well I promised my next blog would be about the Entwined Cowl (sorry it took so long, I have been a little un-motivated when it comes to blogging). I first saw this at Market in Columbus, OH. I thought it was so cute & thought “Oh, well that won’t be too hard”. It went fast as in it only took a few days to make & assemble BUT it was a slow process. You knit 8 long but narrow pieces until they are about 3 ft long, so by the end it was a little mind numbing & I pushed through so I wouldn’t have to look at it again! :0)

Once I was done I had to block it & assemble it. I thought this would take me about 1 hour…It took 4! AHH…have you ever “braided” 8 pieces before? It is a bit tricky. Non-the-less here are the details!

Entwined Cowl
Pattern by ~ Tanis Gray
Yarn ~ 3 skeins Satisfaction by Simply Sweet (2 Pine & 1 Winter White)
1 skein Whipped Cream by Simply Sweet (Moss)

Next Blog: Either update or Neckerchief (it is to die for!!)

Close up of the colors

It is a one piece joined together, so you just slide it over your head and it’s done!

Here is how the “braid” looks

And here is what it will look like on. It will be great with a winter coat or a jacket at a cool/crisp fall cookout

Pre-Term Labor – Oy Oy Oy (Part 2)

This should answer any questions on my current state or if you just want to know what’s going on or shall I say not going on :0)

Sunday night I started to have regular contractions again (every 2-3 min. lasting 1 min. each). After a little more than an hour I called the Doctor & they insisted I go in (to OSF) and be monitored. So after much reluctancy we went back in. I BEGGED for no IV & they kindly obliged. I was monitored for about 1 1/2 hrs at which contractions had slowed & so after 2 hrs I was sent home – YAY!!! This was still very frustrating though b/c I thought the meds were supposed to make so I didn’t contract regularly.

On Wednesday I had a doctors apt. When I got there they immediately set me up on the non-stress-test — This measures baby’s heart rate while also measuring contractions & I was on that for probably 30 min. The results showed that yes I was having contractions but nothing major (I could have told them that…)

After that I got “checked” (if you don’t know what it means then you probably shouldn’t…) I also got checked for my Group B blah blah blah at this point also (Glad that is done!!) Since Sun. (my last visit to the hospital) I had dilated a “finger tip” I am not sure what that means but I consider it a 1 or slightly smaller than a 1 – this shows that my contractions are changing my body.

Here are some questions I asked:
**How long am I on bed rest? Well since you made it to 35 wks you are no longer on strict bed rest..But you can’t: go out, go shopping, cook, clean, care for your kids & etc. Basically I have roaming permission I can go from bed to couch to chair & wander around my house.
**Can I go to my knitting night? Your what?!?! (with a laugh) my knitting night I get together with a group of ladies & sit and knit…He laughed and said yes that is fine :0)
**How long do I contract at home before calling and heading to the hospital? A few hrs! (YIKES! but at least I don’t have to keep going every other day!)
**Once I am off my medicine at 37 wks and start contracting like crazy do I just have my baby? No. Legally you must dilate to around a 3 to show you are in actual labor & progressing otherwise we cannot operate before 39 wks
****SO I am supposed to sit at home contracting like CRAZY & just deal with it if I don’t dilate????!!!! Yes. But chances are if you are contracting a lot your body will kick into gear & dilate.

Here are some questions people have been asking me…
**Are you really not doing anything? Yes I am really not doing anything at this point as excited as I am to meet my little boy I do not want to. It is for the best interest of our baby that he stays in & so NO I do not do anything b/c then I contract & I want a healthy baby most of all.
**Do you have a name yet? Yes we do have a name. 1st & Middle – No we are not sharing :0)
**Do you still have contractions? Yes. The medicine doesn’t stop contractions it just stops the regularity of them (I don’t normally have them every 2 min. for hours…) but on average I still have about 4 or 5 every hr. and that is with me just sitting on my bum.
**When are you going to have your baby? I don’t know. I am hoping during the 37th wk sometime (somewhere around Aug. 13th). At that point I will be full-term & off my medicine & I really don’t want to labor for 2 wks until I can get to 39 wks. So pray that at 37ish I dilate & can have my baby…Otherwise stay away from me b/c if I have to have regular contractions for 2 wks before having my baby I will not be a happy camper :0)
**Are you going crazy?? No I am not. I knit & watch netflix (Drop Dead Diva..strange show but entertaining non-the-less) God has given me a peace about this is just where I am right now & so yes I get bored & yes I want to help out around the house but when the health of your baby is at risk it makes it pretty easy (for me) to really just stay put. I am truly putting my selfish desires aside & focusing on the bright side of things.

I have started a new devotional 1,000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp & this helps me to keep a positive attitude as well.

Thank you everyone most of all for your prayers, help, meals & offers of help they are all so very much appreciated!!!

next blog: Entwined Cowl (finished knitting project)

xoxo!!!