Our cloth diaper journey: Types and our decision

It was definitely easier to decide to cloth diaper in the past because you didn't have near as many options as you have today.  It's easy to get overwhelmed in a sea of different options.  Snaps, velcro, and prefolds, oh my! There are three main decisions that you will eventually make as a cloth diapering parent: 1) Do I want my diapers to close via snaps or velcro? 2) Do I want my diapers by size or one-sized diapers? and 3) What type of diapers do I want to use? - prefolds & covers, AIO, AI2's, pockets, etc.  I will cover a brief overview below of each question and our decision about each. 

Do I want my diapers to close via snaps or velcro?
Ok, so in cloth diaper world it's called aplix or hook and loop, but it's velcro to the rest of the world.  I know that at first glance the lazy person in me was like 'Sign me up for the velcro, duh!' strictly because of perceived ease of use.  However, after a bit of reading I found mixed reviews and saw a lot of questionable pictures of the aplix after a certain amount of time and it looked seriously janky.  There were several instructional videos on how to replace the aplix but I knew that I wouldn't be interested in doing that.  There were a lot of good reviews on the snaps from any company that we researched and from what I read and saw on YouTube it looked easy to replace a snap should it break off or come loose.  We decided to go with a majority snaps and a few aplix diapers for when my parents watched Isabella or when we were feeling lazy at night times or something like that.   The picture at left is a BumGenius aplix diaper from http://www.fullcirclebaby.com .  I would have used one of our diapers as a model but we don't currently own any aplix diapers.  The diaper to the right is a Kawaii from http://theluvyourbaby.com - at any time at least a third of our stash has been a Kawaii diaper.   

Do I want my diapers by size or one-sized diapers?
This one seemed like a 'duh' moment as well!  Why would I choose to re-purchase my entire cloth diaper stash three or four times throughout my child's diaper years?  One sized diapers typically have two to three rows of snaps where you can control how tall/long the rise is, along with one or two rows of hip snaps.  They are usually advertised by the community as 'from birth to potty training'.  I have an issue with both ends of that spectrum because my kids have both had less chunkier thighs and just didn't work as a newborn in one sized diapers.  Also, the other day we tried to put a one size diaper on Isabella and at approximately 31lbs she had exhausted the limits of that diaper.  You can see how big the Kawaii goes in the picture above when none of the rise snaps are being used and this is the same diaper snapped all the way down: 

 

You can also look for some brands (not sure of the brand on this diaper or the site that we bought it from) that offer the cross over snaps to make the waist even smaller:



I am going to spend a sentence or two (or ten) on FuzziBunz in this section because I have some familiarity with their system.  FuzziBunz offers a unique (I don't know of many other systems that offer this - but I'm certainly not a cloth expert!) system in that instead of rise snaps they offer the user the ability to size the diaper by moving stationary buttons into different button holes on an elastic band placed inside of the diaper.  At first glance this seems daunting.  The elastic band has numbers on it near the holes and you have to get them sized correctly for your child in order for the fit to be correct and for the diaper to not leak.  The good news is that your child only has to sit still for this process one time and then you should be able to size your diapers the same as that one.  Once Silas gets too big for that one size I go in and just move the buttons up one hole and it seems to work out well.  In the pictures, the back elastic is being sized, but there are also elastic bands along the leg holes as well.  One sized FuzziBunz diapers seem trim to me on our son - these are my favorite diapers. 

 

 

Conversely, sized diapers are usually more trim than one sized diapers and offer some babies a better fit because they are based on weight.  You will also have to take into account though your babies thighs and waist to ensure that you are getting the proper fit.  Even though we were originally against a sized diaper we now have more than 5 of these in our stash.  They are convenient if you want to avoid the 'fluffy butt' that some diapers give the babies or if you need a more trim fit for something.  I like them but they definitely come in second to one sized diapers for me because you don't get as close of a fit with sized diapers, at least with my children.  You can see in the diaper below that there is no insert so the diaper is shaped a bit funny but a sized diaper only has the hip and waist snap rows and not the rise snaps.  This is a FuzziBunz size small.  My 23lb son can still wear this diaper comfortably. 

What type of diapers do I want to use?

• Prefolds are the typical cloth diaper that any lay person knows as a cloth diaper.  Most everyone has seen a prefold if you have seen those Gerber diapers.  These are usually flat white square pieces of material that you fold differently against your baby's skin depending on their age, gender and fit. You put these on your child, fix with a pin or Snappi and cover with some type of outer layer.  I know that some people don't use a pin or a Snappi but I don't know that I would feel comfortable with that unless the cover was tight.  This outer layer can be lanolized wool or a PUL cover.  There are other options I am sure, but I am most familiar with those two. 
• Pocket diapers are the most popular type of diaper, in my opinion.  They are in the same shape as a disposable diaper.  They have a microfiber, hemp, or other type of insert that fits inside of a pocket that opens in either the front or the back of the diaper.  These are easy to use and you can usually surprise a cloth diaper naysayer with one of these to show how easy a cloth diaper really is to use!  Our entire stash currently is pocket diapers with microfiber inserts. 
• AIO diapers have the insert built into the 'pocket' part of the diaper.  These are the easiest to use but take FOREVER to dry, especially if you are line drying.  We have had some of these in the past and the extra dry time wasn't worth the ease of use. 
• AI2 diapers are a similar system in that they have an insert and a cover, however, different in that the insert actually touches your baby's skin instead of being in a pocket.  You can re-use the cover, provided that it doesn't get soiled for multiple inserts.  You can change out the insert when you change your baby's diaper. 

The breakdown of our current stash is this:

• 13 Kawaii one size
• 8 One Size FuzziBunz
• 3 one size BumGenius with snaps
• 3 'no name' one size diapers
• 4 Medium Perfect Sized FuzziBunz
• 3 Small Perfect Sized FuzziBunz

There is also at least one diaper hidden in our car. 

Next: Cloth diaper accessories and the continuation of our story. 

Our cloth diaper journey: Our Beginning

One interesting tidbit of information about our family: we cloth diaper...one of our children. 

In early 2010, we found out that we were pregnant with our daughter, Isabella.  Corry and I had spoken before we got pregnant about how we would be interested in cloth diapering our children.  He had been interested in it when his older kids were babies but had never convinced his previous wife to go along with it.  I was game so off we went into the black hole of the Internet.

Got a spare 19,000 hours? Try googling cloth diapers.  It is straight up the most overwhelming thing that I have ever researched online.  What is a Fuzzi Bunz?  Who or what makes a Snappi?  Do you still need plastic pants over the diapers?  Am I going to stab my daughter with one of those over sized safety pins?  Warning: brain overload approaching... 

Lucky for us and millions of other parents, these are not the diaper's from your grandmother's day.  Cloth diapering has changed a lot in the last 20 years and is now working it's way into mainstream culture.  Gone are the days of the only options being the folded Gerber diapers with HUGE safety pins.  Let me stop and say that those pins being called *safe*ty pins is comical because I have used them before and stabbed myself with one.  Unsafety pins is definitely more like it.   

Now you have SO many more options.  Snaps, Velcro, AIO, AI2, fitted, prefolds, microfiber, bamboo... I could look at sites for about an hour at a time before I felt like I had just taken the SATs -my brain hurt so bad!  Every time I would google I would see different sites and different information.  Some people use different terminology for what I felt was the same item... and there was seriously an entire new language to learn.  What about wool?  What is an insert?  Do I need doublers?  How will I know if my child will be a heavy wetter?  I have never had so many questions in my entire life about anything...

This is when I started really watching 'mom vlogs' online.  I searched on YouTube for cloth diapers and was taken instantly to videos of women explaining the differences and similarities of different brands, types and styles.  They talked endlessly about the colors that they liked, brands that they hated, wash routines, and general information about diapers.  It was like getting information from your friends but about something useful and not what the neighbor was wearing yesterday while mowing his lawn.  Eureka!  This was perfect! We were finally starting to make some headway in our research of what we liked and what we felt would work best for our family.  Until we started talking to people about it...

My mom was skittishly on board.  My father actually asked if we were the only people in the world that were going to be using cloth diapers.  The rest of my family rolled their eyes and probably talked negatively about it behind our backs I'm sure, but seemed supportive to our faces.  My friends were less than helpful and some were downright disgusted.   I was sad because this was something that I actually was excited about.  I hate when people can't just be fake excited for you.  We didn't let it get us down though and we stayed the course...

Next: researching different types of diapers

Camping Part II: The Good, The Bad, and The Injured

The Good: 

My kids love camping.  This is a blessing in that they will run themselves ragged when we are camping just being outside and collecting rocks and sticks and leaves.  They love the rocks and the dirt and the bugs and the sleeping on any surface that seems like a bed at the time.  Oh and they especially love the way that bath time is almost non-existent while camping.  We have usually convinced my parents to go with us and they bring this wagon that my kids love.  It's an awesome time.    
 

My husband loves camping for different reasons.  He loves the campfire and just being away from the house on a mini-vacation.  He loves hanging out in the camping chairs talking.  Hell, he loves camping so much that we bought a travel trailer last year. 

The Bad:

Bugs.  Who would have known that there were so many bugs in the world?  I despise bugs.  Especially when they crawl on you in the middle of the night or outside when it's dark.  Now I have that creepy crawly feeling thinking about it.  It's just gross. 

I can't sleep when we camp.  It's not my bed.  It's not my mattress.  My kids are weirded out sometimes because they are not sleeping in their beds either, so they are acting funny.  Plus, I am usually so tired that by the time I go to bed I am too tired... I don't know if that even makes sense, but I can't sleep when we camp.  Around the third day this makes for an awesome experiment in behavioral studies of patients who don't sleep.  I look and act somewhere between a zombie and death warmed over. 

The Injured:

Now on to my least favorite part.  It never fails that someone will get injured when we camp.  Normally it's me.  The last time I pinched my finger hard while putting up the awning.  The time before that we had the scariest time in my life as a parent when Silas took a tumble out of my parent's camper.  Luckily he was fine but that was a six hour trip to the only minor emergency clinic in Mt Pleasant, TX to see the oldest doctor on the face of the planet, who should have stopped practicing medicine like 95 years ago. 

Since becoming a parent I will admit that my anxiety has increased like 4 fold, but if you take that anxiety and add in a camp fire, uneven ground, random holes, bugs, rodents, stairs and open bodies of water, I pretty much become the most stressed out human alive.  Keep repeating:  They are kids.  They will get dirty. They will fall down.  They will get back up. 

Camping & Sara:  It's a love/hate relationship. 

Prepping Journey: the beginning

I used to follow a woman on YouTube named JennyHatch.  I first began watching her for her ‘mommy vlogs’.  I knew that she was “crunchy” and I knew that she was LDS.  I put “crunchy” in quotes because she wasn’t doing it to be cool.  Crunchy, in today’s world, can be used to describe anything from home-steading, attachment parenting, cloth diapering, baby-wearing, home-schooling, unschooling, non-vaccinating, any of the above, all of the above, etc.  She wasn’t doing it because it was the next big thing to breastfeed your kids, wear your babies and put them in cloth diapers.  You could tell that she was doing it because it was her calling to lead her life in this way, and she never referred to herself as “crunchy”.  She made her own bread(s), had some of her children at home and did a lot of work with birth networks helping other women to see that you had a choice besides being “gutted like a fish” for your birth.  One day when I was bored I looked at some of her older videos and she had videos of her 72 hour kits, long term food and long term water storage.   I couldn’t help but watch all of her videos on these subjects and a lot of the related videos – common curiosity got the better of me because I couldn’t help but wonder what she was preparing for or what did she think was going to happen.  I had done a bit of research on the LDS church growing up but had never paid attention to their beliefs on preparing for disasters and food/water storage.

 

This was INSTANTLY interesting to me because, as your average American, I had no idea that people were ‘hoarding’ food and water for long term storage or that people were making these 72 hour kits, or bug out bags or anything of the sort.  Yes, according to the American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/home-family/get-kit they recommend that you have a 2 week supply of food and water at your home, but I don’t recall ever learning this while growing up, at school, or in the news.  Similarly, FEMA requests here: http://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit that you have at least three days worth of food, water and supplies.  If you take a step back, it makes sense because in the event of an emergency the Red Cross or FEMA isn’t going to be able to instantly get to your house and fix everything.  If we have learned anything over the last few years from the major disasters that we have had, it’s that you, as a family unit, should be prepared for yourself for at least a week if not longer.  Now does this mean that you need to go crazy and immediately stock pile a year’s supply of food?  Possibly not since the expense for that is great and logistically that might not be the best idea for your family.  For instance, my husband and I are renting the house that we are in right now.  With that situation, it is feasible to prep a bit with food and water, however if we have to move, I don’t want to move multiple 55 gallon drums of water.  We have decided that we will do multiple different food storage plans, a year round garden, and two weeks worth of water storage.  Depending on the outcome of those items, we might do more – we might revamp what we do along the way...         

 

Since then I have been reading everything that I can get my hands on and watching videos from random people who call themselves ‘preppers’ to get a better idea of what they have stowed away or in their bug out bags.  The same way that on a previous post I compiled a list of items that I felt like we needed to buy for our “survival list”, I am going to start a list of items that we need in our 72 hour kits/bug out bags.  I will be using those terms interchangeably in my blog because I want them to accomplish the same purpose.  I am going to start with a compilation of FEMA + Red Cross and their recommendations and adding or deleting as I see fit.    

 

I would like to say that I hate how the media portrays most people who publicly prep today because it’s like they just want the attention and don’t want to do anything to stop the fact that they are all seen as radical extremists who give all people who prep a bad name.  All you hear about recently is “prepper has over 90 assault rifles” or they have been on that Doomsday Prepper show.  It doesn’t matter if you have one gun or 19, or one gallon of water or 550,000, they will make a case against you that you belong in a mental institution.  While I understand that we, as a group, feel the need to spread the word and get others to prepare for disasters themselves, most of the time I feel like we should just stay quiet to avoid the public ridicule.  The more that the media portrays preppers as crazy; the less likely you are to be able to get people to seriously join in and become a functioning member of a future disastrous state.   

 

Now I admit that I have watched these types of shows numerous times and have learned some lessons about what to do and not to do regarding food and water storage.  I think that watching shows like that can be an invaluable resource because you can learn from others mistakes since there really isn’t a lot of information out there on long term food storage to the general public except what you read on the Internet.    However, with as much awesome information that they could show on that television program, they choose to show the gentleman who has spent like 60+ years making his own fall out shelter out of abandoned school buses and wants to take your children in the event of a radioactive issue but won’t let adults come…. Creepy and scary.

 

I am constantly trying but we should all be trying to alter the way that we are viewed by the public, because ideally, an overall intelligently prepped population would make any disaster easier on us all than one person with a radioactive bus shelter.      

My other blogs on this journey will be on http://suburbanhomesteadandprepper.blogspot.com

- Sara

Camping Part I: The Prep

My children and my husband love camping.  I think that the three of them would live at a campground like a weird combination of nomads and homeless people and not even feel sad about it.  My kids are your typical toddlers and LOVE getting dirty and picking up sticks and rocks and Lord only knows what.  The picture to the left shows Silas's last camping trip so I was excited to see how he reacted this time.  I will admit that now that he can walk, camping is a bit more enjoyable for everyone because he has something to do.  He is awake about 7 total hours during the day and walks about 6 hours and 45 minutes of that time so he is content just walking around.  Plus, he gets to be completely dirty and doesn't have to take a bath, etc.  Camping is his deal. 


 My daughter is a hoarder at the tender age of two.  If you saw anything at our house in her areas then you would fully understand what I am talking about.  She has, at any moment, like 15 different toys, stuffed animals or random items in her crib that aren't blankets.  While we are camping she focuses on one item and picks up all of them that she can find.  The last trip that we made, pictured to the right, was to Dangerfield State Park and she collected pine cones.  She has probably 20 of the miniature ones in our garage right now and we found some of them that she stowed away in our camper when we unpacked the chairs this time.  This time it was a little bit of everything - sticks, firewood, rocks, charcoal pieces from the fire circle, etc.      

We decided at the end of the week that we were going to go camping for one night with my parents at a local campground.  Let me admit that I am not a camper.  We camped like 4 million times as Girl Scouts growing up and to say that I am burned out on camping for life is an understatement.  Most of the time that we camped as Girl Scouts it was in tents or shelters, so I will agree that our style of camping now is a bit different.  Rarely do we not have some sort of media available and we have heat and/or A/C readily available.  I don't hate it as much as I used to but the majority of the time that I agree to go it's because I know that they love it so much.   

A camping trip takes a lot of preparation.  That statement is SO ridiculous on so many levels because camping, in itself, is meant to be a relaxing vacation.  Why would it take so much work?  And this is not just me saying that it takes prep because I am in love with making lists, Type A personality, etc.  It could be because I have two children under three and EVERYTHING takes a lot of prep work.  Hell, it even takes me more than 30-45 minutes to leave the house to go anywhere with the two kids. 

We got an awesome deal on a travel trailer last year, so that takes some of the prep work out of the equation totally, since you always know that you have somewhere to stay.  We were only looking for a few weeks and ended up with something that we really enjoy.  We knew that we wanted a fold out couch, and bunk beds in the back for guests or our teenagers or whoever wanted to put up with our sleeping habits while camping.  We ended up with a Jayco Jayflight 27BH.  Our first camping trip on the right - floor plan below.     

To help with the preparation, we leave a lot of items in our camper so we don't have to worry about
re-packing those anytime that we go.  For a list of those items see below.  The idea was to get to the point that we just had to bring clothes and food and were ready to go for that trip.  We are close to that, which will take a lot of stress off of me.  I am a chronic over packer of clothes.  I am always worried that I won't have enough clothes for me or my children.  I usually lay out clothes for my husband and he inevitably puts back about half of what I lay out for him.  I would rather have too much than not enough.  This applies to food as well.  We usually bring back more than half of what we packed to eat.  Even though we usually get combined meals with my parents or my sister and her husband, we still plan more than we eat for some reason.  One of my goals is to lessen the amount of food that we return with because it isn't often that we incorporate that food back into our regular eating for that week and it ends up going bad. 

List of items that remain in our camper year round:

• Sheets, pillowcases, blankets for all beds - washed and replaced after every trip
• Pillows for all beds
• Toiletries including toothbrushes, toothpaste, body wash, hand soap, hair ties, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, etc
• Wash clothes, bath towels, hand towels and kitchen towels
• Bag for dirty clothes - washed and replaced after every trip
• Toilet paper appropriate for campers - different than just regular toilet paper for your home
• First aid kit - restocked and replaced after every trip
• Radio
• Art supplies (for kids)
• Random age appropriate toys
• Booster seat
• Cleaning supplies, paper towels,
• Cooking spray, paper plates, plastic ware, plastic cups
• Cheap pots and pans
• Random kitchen supplies - cutting board, sharp knives, can opener, oven mitt, etc

Tomorrow I will cover a second post: Camping - the good, the bad and the injured. 

-Sara

Camping break

Last minute camping adventure this weekend. I'm returning tomorrow with some new blogs. Hope y'all had a great weekend.

A marriage reminder from an unlikely source

I don't plan to do this very often because I don't want to talk bad (publicly) about my husband's ex-wife but today I honestly couldn't help myself.  I am sure that at some point I will forget this rule but I would like to not talk about my husband's past life as a husband to someone else.  It should be pretty easy to do since we don't regularly communicate with her except about the children, however today was one of those random days when something so funny happens that you just can't help but talk about it.   

Today she shared the following picture on her Facebook wall:

 



This is instantly humorous to anyone who knows her because if you have ever met her and spent about 15 seconds with her you know that she is incapable of not violating all of these "rules" in any relationship.  She cheated on my husband for years before they were divorced and has cheated on almost every man that she has been with since they split up.  In fact, she is currently living with a guy while she is still married to another man.  Classy. 

As funny as this activity was today it did remind me that these "rules" are important and should be the groundwork to any good relationship.  Two of the five should be "duh" rules: stay faithful and don't flirt with others.  If you can't or don't want to follow these two rules then you have no business being married, at least in my opinion.  The others, I will be honest, require some work.  Not that I don't want to make my husband feel loved and wanted but I will admit that some days definitely require work.  Not because my husband is hard to love or difficult, but because I have a full time job and two small children and often times our marriage takes a backseat to all of that.  I don't want it to be like that but it's the one thing that I don't have to constantly babysit to make work, so often times I forget that it takes love and nurturing as well. 

Part of my resolutions for this year is definitely to rekindle #5.  We have talked a few times before about wanting to go on more dates with each other without kids.  One of the things that you don't think about when you have kids is that you will never eat normally until your children are about five years old, possibly later than that.  Once they can eat food(s) you have to spend the time ahead of time thinking about what they are going to eat related to what you are going to eat, or you have to think about what from an eating establishment that they are going to be able to eat.  Then you have to either feed it to them or figure out how to get it in a form that they can eat once it comes to the table; after you figure out how to re-arrange all of the nonsense from the table to where it isn't in any arms reach of either one of your children.  Why do servers insist on putting stuff in front of babies?  Ridiculous... Anyway, after enough days of that you realize that you need a break from that to just be a couple.  I am striving to do more of that this month. 

I say all of that to say that I love my husband.  I love him more than I ever thought that I could love someone in a relationship.  He is the love of my life and the father of my children and I will never love another person quite like him ever in my life. 

-Sara

I have failed...

I don't normally like to post negative things or overall negative posts but I feel the need to confess some items that I am currently not doing awesome at in hopes that if I see them then I will do better.  There are definitely more - this is just a few:

1. Meal planning for this week was non-existent.  I was just lazy this weekend and didn't ever get around to it.  As a result, there has been more stress on my husband these last three days to come up with something after he gets home from work.  Let's just say that I have heard my fill of it. 
2. Exercising according to my resolutions.  Still hasn't happened.  I'm just going to leave this one alone.
3. Paying bills according to the schedule.  This one is awful and going to get me in trouble with my budget but I am just in a funk the last few weeks.  Our water bill came today and was late last month.  We had the money to pay it; I just didn't pay it for some reason. 
4. Going to be at a decent hour.  This one is the hardest thing to do because of how late I get home and what we want to do after I get home.  I feel like I want to spend time with my husband and my children, which is hard to do when you want to be in bed before 10pm and your kids start going to bed before 9pm.  Usually we get in bed after 11pm which is trouble because I wake up at 4:55am. 

I am exhausted today and have just completed a big work project so I am mostly brain dead.  Thank the Lord it is my short day tomorrow.  Let's all hope for a more positive Sara tomorrow. 

-Sara

Never-ending work commute

Webster defines commute as "to travel back and forth regularly (as between a suburb and a city)".  It makes it sound so pleasant.  To travel... like you are going to visit some far away land where magical things happen.  They should really alter that definition to include more of the "real world" experience.  Here are two of my ideas:

- to sit in an un-ending sea of other cars with the most pissed off other workers in your town for hours per day,
or
- to drive in a car that costs too much to a place that pays me too little to deal with people who should have been evaluated for a mental disorder years ago

I like the second one the best, but I doubt that Webster's will think it's near as amusing as I do.  However, after my day at work today, I am likely to be considered one of those mental patients.  Luckily, I can almost always come up with something to say... now whether it is witty or intelligent or even remotely legible is a different story.  When you drive three hours per day you have a lot of time to think. Why don't I think more about what I am going to blog about that day? I have to admit that most of the time I sit down at my computer with no inspiration to write about anything.


Everyday that I go to work I spend almost three hours of that day in my car.  That's twelve hours per week, forty eight hours per month and a whopping 576 hours per year just driving.  That is ridiculous when you break it down like that.  I really need to come up with a safe way to record my ideas while I am driving.

In the mornings, I leave my house at 5:30am so I am lucky to be awake while I am driving and probably look like a zombie to most of the other people on the road at that time.  I have been at this job for almost 9 years and have always worked at a similar time of the morning.  You would think that I would used to getting up at the crack of dawn, but no.  I still have to prep so much at night time because I am lucky to get up in enough time to get dressed and brush my teeth before heading out the door.  If I want coffee and lunch packed, it has to get made or prepped the night before or else it's so long to that.  I have enough time in the morning to wake up on the way to work fully to be able to communicate with others if I had to, but luckily since I go in so early I don't have to show how truly anti-morning that I am to anyone until about 7:30 in the morning.  And that guy thinks that I am bad at 7:30 - he should talk to me at 5:30! 

 However, in the evenings, I am really just trying to decompress after a long day at work.  Since I live so far away from my work, I work a schedule roughly based off of a 4x10.  I actually work 11.5 hours per day three days per week + my three hour commute makes for a LONG DAY.  At the end of those days, I am usually perfectly content to sit in total silence while I drive home.  Somedays I have the radio on but the majority of the time it's just me and my own thoughts.  I really try to not project any of my work stress on my family, so I am grateful for this time to think all my stress and frustration through...This is the time when I usually run into traffic - yes, rush hour traffic is still going on in DFW well into 7pm.  I don't mind though because I know that I'm off work and headed home to be with my family.  Speaking of - I'm off to spend time with them right now. 

-Sara

Taking my own advice and admitting one of my faults

This advice is hard for me to say outloud because I am one of the worst people with this topic.  This one idea is applicable in almost every situation that one comes across, and you will almost never be in the wrong for remembering to do this.  Ready?  Mind your own business.  That's it.  It sounds so simple, right?  Trust me, as a self-proclaimed busy body - it's not. 

I am a gossip.  I don't like celebrities at all (partially because I don't understand why most of them are famous), but I am quick to gossip about a lot of other people/subjects.  It's not 100% bad but it definitely is almost always 100% destructive.  Even if you start out with the best of intentions to not beat someone down with gossip, it's like your brain gets total control and you end up going crazy. 

I was reminded of this again tonight while watching the most recent video of one of my favorite YouTube mommy vloggers (dreamflight6000).  She is the mother of two cute little boys and the eldest has been diagnosed within the last year with Type 1 diabetes.  She shares a lot of details about their struggle as a family with his diagnosis, and some of his day to day operations with it, which I appreciate even though I don't have it and I don't know anyone else who does.  She is very informative and she is an awesome teacher.  They had a scare this week with her child's medicine, and had to end up calling 911 for an ambulance to come to their house for her little boy.  It was very scary for everyone and traumatizing for both Amy and her family.  In her video she mentioned that she did not want to explain what happened because she gets a lot of hate comments on her diabetes videos normally and doesn't want to make that any worse, which I totally respect.  When she said that, it just broke my heart, because she is dealing with this diagnosis as well as can be expected and works hard everyday to ensure life is good for both of her boys.  Who are these people to post hate on her videos?  Who are these other people to presume to know anything about his medical condition and give potentially deadly advice re: different medicines that they should try or different alternative diets that they should put him on to "cure" diabetes?  Can't we just give support and butt out?  Why is it that, as a society, we have to project our thoughts and opinions on other people who are just wanting to tell us their story?  Can't we just mind our own business?  It makes me embarassed as a person who watches her videos on behalf of these people who can not just watch and leave positive comments...

Thinking futher about this though made me remember and realize that, while I am not guilty of projecting any negativity and hate towards Amy and her son that I do "hate" on whole groups of people for random reasons.  Never racial or anything like that, but I will detail one of those below:






Parents who don't ERF (extended rear face) their children in car seats.  Let me start by saying that I don't say anything to anyone's face re: this subject unless approached by the person to talk about our situation.  I don't chase parents around in the parking lot of stores with brochures showing decapitated children or anything like that, but I do say things outloud in my car anytime I see a small child foward-facing in a car.  I don't care how many times I hear that someone's kid screams bloody murder in the backseat, or how their child was too tall to sit rear facing, it is still PROVEN safer for children to sit rear facing as long as their sit still fits them for weight and height than to be turned around.  It's not uncomfortable for your children to sit like that past one year no matter how tall they are.  Now, I understand that every parent has the right to make decisions for their own child and that there are people out there who turned their child around at (insert inappropriately small number of months) and their child was fine, but seriously, why is this like a badge of honor?  Leave them turned rear facing.  Your child doesn't know what they are missing.  Why would you want to take your child's safety for granted?  My children are 28 months and 13 months and they will remain rear facing until they outgrow their seats.  We have a Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL in grey and a Diono XTSL in grey camoflauge. 

I feel justified by talking about these parents because it's better for their children, but when I start to think about it, I am no better than those people hating on Amy and her family.  They probably feel that they have her son's best interest at heart but in reality are just as annoying as I probably am about the ERF topic. I can't vow to alter my way of thinking because I will never change that, but I can resolve to stop being so negative about parents that choose differently than I do.  I am making an effort to be better.  I can't promise anything but an attempt, but I will definitely work on it. 

-Sara

Mall stroller napping

Im tired. This is late, but still in the deadline.

My kids never nap in the stroller. Ever. I don't even understand how that happens to other folks.

I will recount the weekend tomorrow in a post as I want to share our other purchases, but let me just say that both kids took a nap in the stroller unprovoked because of how tired they were. And I have pictures to prove it!!

- Sara

Search for heart shaped silicone pan = over

When silicone baking pans first came out, I was un-amused.  I didn't cook back then at all.  And I mean, at all.  I made one dish and it was something that I made up that had chicken breasts, spinach, and a tomato dressing/marinade baked for a random amount of time.  Looking back it was awful.  Back to silicone pans... I was un-amused when they first came out because I didn't understand the potential.  Baking scared me and they didn't have one that was for making a grilled cheese or queso or something like that. 

I now am ridiculously curious about using them.  I know that the learning curve can be a bit high when they are used for baking, but I will rise above said curve!  I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to get a silicone pan in the shape of a heart to make my family a heart cake for Valentine's Day.  Try looking that up online or on eBay and you will be amazed at what people want you to pay for a single silicone heart shaped pan.  It's highway robbery.  I gave up and figured that I would formulate a plan later on in the month. 

Who would have thought that I would find an inexpensive one at Ikea?  Well, I found one today at Ikea for $8.99.  Hard to believe? Yes.  Totally worth it?  Absolutely.  I will post cooking adventures with a silicone pan in less than a month. 

I'm off to veg out on the couch until I need to log in and do some work in about an hour. 

Silas's One Year Doctor Appointment

They should really tell you that after all the torture and awesome-ness of pregnancy, labor and delivery that you are up against another un-named number of years of pain in the form of "well-child check ups".  The first one is probably fine because your baby is too young to know any better.  After that first one though, they are wise to it and make it impossible to even go near the doctor's office without flipping out. 

From what I have come to understand, at least at my pediatrician's office, a well child check up consists of these things:

• height
• weight
• head circumference
• doctor's oral examination on you about food(s) your baby is consuming, activities your baby is doing (vocabulary, standing, walking, etc), and other items (how often they use the bathroom, etc)
• doctor's physical exam on the child
• vaccine(s), if you are getting any.  I will advise of my choices regarding vaccines but this is not going to be a vaccine debate and I will never have that debate because I believe that whatever choice a parent has made for their children regarding vaccines is right for their family. 

My daughter and son are those children that are fine in the waiting room and then the second that their names are called a few things start to change immediately.  You can tell instantly that their mood changes and they become anxious.  Isabella begins to try to find a way to escape.  I learned that she can not be trusted to walk around in the waiting room because then you can't wrangle her back in to go back into the back.  Once they get in the back they cry, whine, shake and almost hyperventilate until we get back into the stroller and are ready to leave.  The super crunchy part of me ridicules myself every time for putting my children through this, especially since most of the time we don't get a vaccine. 

Today was Silas's one year appointment.  I left Isabella with my mother because she doesn't understand that she is not the object of the torture for today.  Let me leave a side note right here that I don't perpetrate the stereotype for them that they are going to be tortured at the doctor.  I never joke with them that I am going to give them a shot; I never threaten them with the doctor, and have tried my best to prepare them for most of their appointments in the last six months by likening them to my daughter's favorite show Doc McStuffins.  She loves that show and she loves to talk about what they do at the doctor, but going there still means that you potentially might die while you are there. 

Silas started off the experience right by peeing through his diaper, through his clothes, down his legs and onto my lap while we were waiting in the waiting area.  This was 100% my fault for letting him have a bottle on the way there AND for noticing that he needed a diaper change when we got out of the car and not doing it then.  I love putting him in Fuzzi Bunz when we leave the house because they are a lot trimmer than our other cloth diapers and they fit him a lot better in the legs, however, they don't hold our biggest, thickest inserts and so they can leak if you don't notice the first time that they pee.  So, I had to go to the common area bathroom, change his diaper and change every stitch of clothes that he had on.  Awesome.  On top of that there was also a saucer sized wet spot on the front of my top thigh.  More awesome. 

We were called back while we were having a wardrobe change, so they saw us to the back as soon as I re-entered the waiting area.  And he has to completely disrobe again... for the second time in five minutes.  He was as excited about this as I was about it doing it.  He weighed 23.2 lbs which is 50th percentile for weight and was 30 inches tall which was 60th percentile for height.  Now for the amazing part: 19.5cm for head circumference.  My son is well known for his enormous head.  >95% for head circumference.  I guess you have to be the best at something!  Now he doesn't have like a freakishly cartoonish looking big head.  You would just look at him like a stranger and think "damn that kid has a big head." 

Everything else looks awesome.  He is ahead in speech, ahead to average in capabilities like walking, grabbing for items, etc.  We didn't get a vaccine this time because he has been sick recently.  We had a few conversations about what he is doing, like super sleeping > 15 hours per day, eating everything in the house, and using the cloth diapers because of his potential latex allergy.  He then went through the normal torture activities like looking in his nose, in his eyes, looking in his diaper (not sure what they are looking for), and making sure that his overall body and muscle tone looks good.

Come back at 18 months.  Appointment time: 9:45 back in the car 10:15. 

I have a secret...

This is a secret that I normally don't tell people.  I wouldn't dare say this to most people at work because of the stigma that it carries with people for making you sound crazy and potentially unintelligent.  Ultimately, I don't like to be so devoted to this but I can't help it. 

I love conspiracy thoeries. 

Judge away.  I love them.  I don't subscribe to all of them, of course, but there is something addictive about conspiracies.  I think that it is the feeling of "the government is not telling us the truth on something" that potentially makes you feel like a detective on Law and Order.  It's even better (or worse) that we also now have constant access to Netflix and Hulu and the never-ending supply of documentaries about controversial subjects. 

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't go on crazy websites or boycott certain things because of my beliefs.. I just like to read articles and watch documentaries about JFK's assassination, the moon landing, and 9-11.  I definitely wouldn't say that I am a doubter and I certainly don't try to convince anyone (except maybe my husband) of anything that I have "found" during my research.  If all of history could have been a conspiracy theory in class (some people believe that it was!) then I would have definitely received a better grade.  I'm addicted.. 

I do want to point out that while I think that there are a lot of suspicious things about 9-11 and more recently the Sandy Hook school shootings, that doesn't mean that I disrespect the folks who died those days or their families.  Wanting to know the truth about these subjects doesn't mean that I don't care about the people who lost their lives or have any less respect for the day.  A lot of people make the mistake of saying that conspiracy theorists have no respect for the dead and that we should just believe the government's story and let them rest in peace.  I think that those two ideas are totally unrelated...

- Sara

My mouth is on fire!

My husband had to work late tonight for his job and I get home later than most Americans, I think, from work which stinks especially considering that I leave my house in the mornings around 5:30am.   Because of this we decided that Chicken Express was going to make an appearance for dinner. Bad, I know, but still so good.  I must confess -  I am super excited (sarcastically) about cooking when I get home from an 11 hour workday and a 1.5hour commute each way.  Pretty much the only thing I am excited about after work is seeing my family, vegging out on the sofa and convincing my husband that I am not going to fall asleep watching television.  We have been together since 2007 and I would say that on average I fall asleep watching television at night at least 3-4 nights a week... for some reason he doesn't just leave me there.  I'm not going to lie that if I had to gripe to someone to get off the sofa and go to bed everyday for 5+ years, that I would be sleeping alone and they would be on the sofa!!

 

For all those who aren't swooning right now about our dinner, or those who live under a rock and are unfamiliar, Chicken Express is a fast food chicken place with awesome sweet tea (unsweet now for us), chicken and sides.  Up until today I had a love/hate relationship with their chicken tenders, okra, yeast rolls, and jalapeno poppers.  Now it's more of a straight-up hatred.  They have changed their recipe or started using only the seeds in their poppers or something.  Normally you got one really hot one in a batch and the rest just have the awesome flavor of cheddar cheese and jalapenos without the insane heat.  That was refreshing because you could get the heat but still taste the rest of your dinner.  The last time we ate there all four of them were BURNING hot.  I do not appreciate spicy foods to begin with, and especially not hot enough food where I feel like smoke is coming out of my mouth.  I like the taste of jalapenos and I like to cook with jalapenos but that's where I draw the line.  I don't need to cry while eating my food and I don't need to have my tongue burned off in order to feel like I had an awesome eating experience. 

Now, after five of them, I think that my tongue has been singed and is potentially going to crumble to ash in about five minutes.  Not a good feeling.  Now that we know this little piece of information, will we continue to order them?  In all honesty, yes, because they are awesome.  If I could figure out how to make these at home, we wouldn't eat there nearly as often and I would still have some feeling in my tongue. 

-Sara

52 in 52 #2 - Taco Pasta Bake

Pinterest project - 3                                                                   
Pinterest projects to go - 49




This. Is. Delicious.  So apparently, I have a problem with cheese, as evident with my meal plan for this week.  That will be on next year's resolution list. 

I found this recipe on Pinterest for this week and decided to give it a go.  My husband picked it from the meal plan for tonight and had it ready when I got home.  The following answers are straight from Corry's mouth with no censoring:

1. Was this recipe easy to make? Yeah
2. Did you enjoy this recipe? Yes
3. Would you make it again? Yes
4. Any additional comments? Add some jarred queso to it as it seemed a bit dry before it went into the oven. 

"Are you interviewing me?"  Not anymore!

Taco Pasta Bake:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of large pasta - we like Penne Rigate
• 1lb of ground beef
• 1 1/2 tbsp homemade taco seasoning
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 pkg of cream cheese
• 1 1/2C shredded cheese
• 1/2 cup jarred queso

Directions:
1. Boil pasta until al dente and drain
2. Brown ground beef
3. Mix together taco seasoning and 1C of water, pour over cooked beef and let simmer for about 5 minutes until the liquid has reduced
4. Add the cream cheese to the beef mixture, stir until melted and combined, and remove from heat
5. Put pasta in your casserole dish and mix in 1C of the shredded cheese and spoonful or two of jarred queso.
6. Top pasta and cheese with beef mixture, gently mix until the pasta is coated
7. Top with remaining 1/2C of shredded cheese
8. Bake at 350 uncovered for approx 30 minutes 

Original recipe here:

http://www.canadianmomscook.com/2012/07/taco-pasta-bake.html

I'm a TV addict, I think

When I was growing up at my parent's house, I never really cared that much about TV.  We never had cable.  I 'missed' it growing up because all my friends had cable.  It seemed, at the time, like everyone else in the world had cable.  And we didn't.  Cue the sad teenage violins.  Even though we didn't have cable, television was always on but mainly just as background noise.  I rarely remember watching any specific shows or series programs or anything like that.  If you ask my parents today, they are strictly devoted to several shows about celebrities dancing or singing or ice skating or something else ridiculous. 

Throughout my younger 20's and up until just a few months ago I have done that same thing, except with cable.  Once I got my first apartment, I got cable.  Rebellion from your parents: party of one!  Rarely though did I get involved in any one TV show especially a current show because I can't ever remember what channel or what time it's on.  I would get involved in the Food Network any time of day or night and could always get sucked into those marathons of Law and Order: SVU.  Who doesn't love 19 straight hours of Benson and Stabler?   

Corry and I have always had cable since we moved in to our first apartment together.  However, since having kids, I have now become more aware of the shows that my children watch on television.  Before we go any further, I will say that my children watch television and they have learned an exponential amount of awesome things from educational television.  I am not a follower of the 'no TV before age 2 or your baby's brain will rot and fall out' mindset, nor do I believe that exposure to violent or sexual behavior on television shapes the way that we grow up.  I love SVU, but that doesn't mean that I am going to go out and assault someone.  I digress..

Before we moved into this newer house, in an effort to save money, we talked about getting rid of cable.  We didn't have that much spectacular stuff with our current cable package and it was well over $100 a month including taxes and fees.  Ridiculous.  And what's even worse is that we watched like 5 channels on a regular basis.  Even more ridiculous. 

My husband couldn't have been happier when he saw a NeoTV box on the Black Friday deals in our area.  I, of course, didn't know anything about it but was quickly schooled that it could stream Netflix and Hulu.  Sold.  I originally missed live television, but now I can't even tell you that I notice it.  Plus, I get to become involved in shows that I never watched before, like Survivor.  I have become a Survivor crazy person.  How did I never watch any of the first like 24 seasons of this show? 

I would like for one of the positives of this year with my new exercise resolution to be that I get more exercise, yes but possibly less television.  I want to not be one of those parents that entertains my children with television.  I want them to remember that we went to the park, and out to the zoo, and that we played games, and not that they knew which channel Cailou was on everyday.  I'm working on it... as soon as Survivor is over! 

Cheesey Chicken Spaghetti recipe

A few observations for a Sunday:

First, Sunday comes WAY too early in my weekend.  It feels like yesterday was Thursday and here I am back to dreading going back to work tomorrow.  How does this happen? 

Second, Lemonade Vitamin Water Zero rocks my world...until I saw the ingredient list... It's supposed to be a water substitute - why does it have ingredients that I can't pronounce? 

Third, when my children don't get their scheduled naps, being a mom who drinks wine out of a sippy cup and pops pain pills doesn't seem so bad.  Silas missed enough of his normal nap(s) today that he fell asleep during dinner tonight.  Big problem.  Anyone who has had to wake up a child like that knows the Hell and torture that is to come until you can get that child back to sleep.  Luckily, he loves sleep like Corry and I do so he was right back to sleep after his bath and a bottle. 

Today was supposed to be productive.  I had an unstated to do list that was mostly done.  There were several items that had to get done:

1. Section out that bacon and ground beef that I bought yesterday and get that in the freezer.
2. Do at least a few loads of laundry.
3. Make at least one freezer meal. 

Chicken spaghetti it is.  This recipe was adapted from the Pioneer Woman's awesome chicken spaghetti.  Sometimes I will go back and make hers but usually I tweak it to our family's interests.  We have recently discovered roasting our own Poblano chiles and so we include a sizeable amount of those in our adaptation. 

Cheesey Chicken Spaghetti
3 cups cooked spaghetti - broken in half
2 chicken breasts - cooked and cubed
2 cans cream of "something" soup - you can use your favorite mixture of mushroom, cheddar cheese, or chicken)
1 cup chicken broth
1 jar diced pimentos, drained
1 small onion - diced
roasted poblano peppers to taste - we used two whole peppers this time and it was a bit spicy
1.5 tablespoons seasoning salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
2.5 cups shredded cheese - we Colby Jack but have previously used cheddar/mozarella blend

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 13x9 pan and set aside.
-Cook chicken until done then cube.  We boil on the stove.  Place in large mixing bowl.
-Add salt to same water used to boil chicken and cook broken pasta according to directions on package.  Drain and put in same bowl with the chicken. 
-Add both cans of soup.  Normally we use one cheddar cheese and one cream of chicken but we have also used one cream of mushroom instead of cheddar cheese soup and it turned out great as well. 
-Add your broth, pimentos, onion, peppers, seasoning salt, cayenne, salt, pepper and shredded cheese to the pasta and chicken mixture.  Stir until well combined. 
-Pour into greased 13x9 pan and place in over for 45 minutes or until bubbly around the edges.  Allow to set for at least 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Let me know how you like it!!

Meal Planning Week 1

First off - I understand that this is not the first week in the year.  This is the first week of my actual meal planning.  We try to meal plan every week - some weeks we are totally successful and feel like we have this stuff together and then other weeks we don't make anything on the list. 

Second - I am not one of those planners who decides that on Monday we are having this and on Tuesday we are having that.  I know that I have to plan for seven meals and I let us pick as the day arrives.  Three of the seven days my husband makes dinner for the family before I get home from work so I like to have several things on the list that are able to be made while two kids under three are either having tantrums or trying to lock one another in the laundry room or are trying to open the oven door.  My husband is an awesome cook and I am lucky that I don't have to dumb down recipes for him... if anything I feel like he should be doing that for me sometimes. 

My meal plan and grocery shopping this week is adventerous for a few reasons:  1) I am behind on my 52 Pinterest projects in 52 weeks, and 2) I am bored with some of our recent favorite meals.  I planned seven meals for this week:

1. Chicken spaghetti - this is adapted from the Pioneer Woman's version and it is a hit everytime.  I will do a recipe post on this because of how awesome it is. 
2. Cheeseburger pasta - this will be one of my Pinterest posts for this week.  My sister pinned this but I don't know if she has made it yet... either way, it looked awesome. 
3. Bacon cheeseburgers and tator tots - my husband requested bacon cheeseburgers last week and it didn't happen so this is to make up for that.
4. Chicken logs, rice dish and veggie - this sounds weird but it's really awesome and horrible for you.  It's a stuffen chicken cordon bleu frozen entree from one of our grocery stores. 
5. Baked tacos - second item from Pinterest this week.  It looks awesome.  We don't usually eat this much red meat during the week but it's what sounded good
6. Pulled pork on burger buns, tator tots and veggie - this is a recipe also adapted from a previous recipe from Pinterest.  We always have pulled pork in our freezer.  We used an approx 8lb pork shoulder the other day and made about 6 different meals out of it; one that night and five freezer meals for later. 
7. Country style pork ribs, pasta dish and veggie - pasta dish will be this cheesey, garlicy, buttery wonder that I found from Pinterest as well. 

After a review of our pantry, fridge, and freezer, it was determined that we needed a lot of items this week.  I like to keep a stash of some items that we were going to use this week, so even though we had some I still bought as if we didn't.  We were also going to buy some extra items from a local grocery store (Brookshires) that was doing a "Buy one get one for $.01" on a lot of different items.  We try to buy most of our groceries from Aldi for cost purposes, but items that we can't get there we normally get from either Walmart, Trader Joes, or Brookshires. 

Aldi:
Spaghetti pasta x 2
Cream of Chicken soup x 2
Colby Jack cheese - block
Chicken broth x 2 paper containers
Approx 3 lbs ground beef
Poblano peppers- 15 (my husband roasts these and we freeze them for all year)
Tomato Sauce x 2
Sour Cream
Chicken logs x 3
Veggies - corn, peas, green beans x 9 (3 each)
Hamburger buns
Sliced cheese - Colby Jack and Pepper Jack
Tator tots x 2
Paprika
Onion Powder
Sandwich bags
Milk
Eggs
String cheese
Veggie Chips
Taco shells
Arizona lemon teas in the can x 3

Total: $58.74

Brookshires:
Toilet Paper - B1G1
Yellow Mustard - B1G1
Smoked sausage - B1G1
Breakfast sausage - B1G1
3 lbs Bacon - B1G1
Windex refill
Yogurt x 6
Parsley
Lemonade Vitamin Water x 2
Pimentos
Black Olives
Frozen Chicken breasts - 3 lbs -B1G1

Total: $64.14

Trader Joes:
Cookie butter - we have never had this before and my husband said it was amazing
Oatmeal Chocolate chip cookies
6 mixed beers
Apple Cinnamon puff snacks
Tarter Sauce
Caramel corn

Total: $22.57 - we didn't need any of this but it was a matter of being in the area and being bored. 

All in all a decent week and I set myself up well for at least a few extra week's worth of protein with the smoked sausage, chicken, and breakfast sausage.  I also have a stockpile of dried rice and pasta so this week I will be looking for extra recipes to make side dishes.  I have a small stock pile of canned and frozen veggies so this could be no shopping for next week! 

- Sara

My husband is a genius

My husband has some questionable ideas.  Let's face it - if you are married, there are sometimes that you're husband comes to you with this idea and on the outside you look like you think it's a good idea and on the inside you are wondering how he manages to get out of bed on his own everyday.  And don't even get me started on how many ideas he will have that end with some type of sexual overtone.  Luckily for me, since the beginning of the year, my husband has had some legitimately awesome ideas.

 The most recent idea being that he would try to investigate what happened to our broken washer prior to buying another one.  Let me preface by saying that our washer would fill, drain and spin but not agitate.  A simple review on google yielded a million different options of how to fix this issue but none that seemed to be applicable for our washer.  When you included our model of washer, zero decent suggestions. 

Of course, when our washer decided to stop agitating it was at the beginning of a wash cycle and so there were dirty clothes in the washer that had just been hanging around for a few days and were now just starting to take on this weird smell.  Last night after our trip to the Sears Outlet, we decided to at least run those clothes through a cycle with detergent to rid the house of the smell.  Let me say first that I remember various other times throughout my life that I have been in that place and seen better prices.  I don't know if now is the time of the year when washers and dryers start to break but they did not seem as reasonably priced as I remember.  The focus of our conversation then turned to how we could live with a temporary washer until tax returns came back.  While washing that load of clothes, he was letting me hear the noise that it was making and had an "Aha!" moment and said "I think that the coupler is bad!"  Possibly a washing machine fix it man in a past life? 

Excellent!  Verdict:  Bad coupler.  Cost of the part: $7.50.  Prior to deciding to buy a new one I looked up and it would have cost $75.00 just to have someone come out and try to tell us what the problem was.  I am obviously in the wrong business - you would imagine that we would have paid more than $100 to have someone fix that washer for a $7.50 part.  The markup on that is insane.  Nevertheless, I am excited by my husband for figuring this out and taking less than an hour to replace the part and get the washer going again. 

I am confident that sometime in 2013, we will again return to the ideas that culminate with a sexual overtone or ideas where I wonder if he has a monkey's brain, but it's nice to start off the year on the right foot! 

-Sara

Tales of being a grown up

Remember when you were a kid and your biggest stress was a spelling test or having to go to bed before you felt like you were ready.  Well, those days are long gone...  Now there are bills, and kids, and bills for kids... and my favorite: unexpected things that break. 

I have owned a washer and dryer since 2005.  Since then, this washer and dryer has done countless loads of laundry and has held it's own.  I haven't had any concerns and they have both been good appliances.  Until Monday...

Small bit of back story:  We are ultimately some of the luckiest people in the universe because my mom watches our children at our house while Corry and I go to work.  She also can't not do things around the house while she is there, like laundry, etc.  We are ridiculously grateful.  I digress... I receive a text Monday while I am in a meeting at work:  Washer won't agitate.  Stress and panic ensue.  We don't have the money for this saved up (bad, I know, but the truth behind why one of my resolutions is to save more money this year) and tax return time is like two weeks away - why couldn't this have happened two weeks from now? 

This would normally not be anything that I would stress over because, after all, you can always use a laundromat.  However, three months ago or so our son was diagnosed with a contact latex allergy and we have to use cloth diapers with him.  Cloth diapers have to go in the washing machine.  I am positive that it would be possible to wash cloth diapers at a laundromat, however, is it something that I want to try?  Not really...

We cloth diapered our daughted on and off and never really had a good wash routine set up.  Now that we have this new issue with Silas, we have developed a wash routine but it is nothing that we could replicate outside of our home since we soak our diapers during a wash cycle. 

So off we go to look for washers... uhhh, when did washers get so freakin expensive?  What is this washer going to do for me to make up for the fact that it costs $900? 

This wouldn't be a problem if my money tree in my backyard would grow faster. 

In the interim time Corry has monkeyed around with it enough and thinks that it is a small inexpensive part and easy to fix.  If he is right about this, it will be his second big idea of 2013.  The second will be detailed in a future blog post as I am really excited about it and really proud of him for thinking about it. 

Resolution Update Week #1

Well, we are a week into the new year.  For most of us that means that we are still writing 2012 on any documents and starting to lose that beginning of the year motivation for our resolutions.  I have made it over a small hump with the resolutions that I have made but have come out more positively than I went in.  Here are the updates:

Personal
1. Be more "girl"y, i.e. wear makeup, do my hair, etc.  -  Prior to 2013 I wore makeup probably 20 times or less per year.  I have never really been a makeup and do my hair type person, especially since I had kids.  However, that is something that I want to pick up on, if for nothing else, then to make sure that my husband doesn't get bored.  I have been trying to do my make up everyday.  This week I have been very sick and ridiculously tired when I wake up in the mornings so makeup was a no go, but there is always next week. 
2. Blog everyday.  -  This I have been doing ok at.  Yes, I have blogged everyday, but are they the caliber blogs that I would like to putting out?  No...  The type A part of me wants to have a schedule and stick to it, but the lazy, tired, mom part of me is lucky to get out a blog like yesterday. 
3. Go on more dates with my husband.   -  I have some things planned, but no updates as of yet. 

Home
1. Do 52 "Pinterest" projects for the year.   - I have made several recipes from Pinterest so far this year.  The oatmeal was a bust, but the frosting for Silas's birthday cakes was another recipe from Pinterest that turned out awesome.  I need to pick something for this week. 
2. Stock freezer with prepared meals once per month.  -  So far, all I have added to my freezer this year has been this awesome meatball recipe that I found on Pinterest  and a baked ziti that we love.  I need to further this. 
3. Create a monthly budget and stick to it.   -  I have been in a money slump for the past week or so because of the money that we spent on Christmas + some money stresses around our house.  I would like to not be stressed about money for the majority of the year like I was last year.  This is my ultimate idea behind this resolution. 
4. Save more money every month.  - See above.  I moved money into our savings this month.  Was it as much as I would have liked? no. 
5. Do 52 acts of preparedness.   - So far the only acts of preparedness I have done is start a blog for this and watch videos of other people.  Corry and I did talk the other day and we are going to start buying one thing every time we go to the store from a list that we formulate of items that we would like to stockpile for emergencies/prepping in the future.  We have no desire to be like those crazy loon preppers on TV, but if you think that it is unnecessary to be prepared for emergencies/ life in the future then you have your eyes closed. 

Health
1. Stop drinking sodas.  I am proud to say that I have not had a soda since Dec 31st.  I drink a coffee in the morning from McDonalds usually and at least one glass of unsweet tea per day besides water.  The first day was murder because of the caffeine headache, but after that I had no issues without the caffeine.  I will tell you that the lack of high fructose corn syrup has been worse than the caffeine.  If you are a soda drinker you know that taste that you get from any soda... you can't mimic that taste with any other drink unfortunately.  I am almost to the point where I don't want it.  A few more days and I should be good.  I am proud of myself for this. 
2. Do some form of exercise 5 days per week.  - Let's not speak about the fact that I have failed completely on this one.  I will get better next week. 

All in all I think that I have done a fairly decent job.  This is a lot more resolutions than I normally make for myself, but ultimately the more organized and the more diligent that I am, the more than I should succeed with this list. 

I hope that everyone is having an awesome week!! 

-Sara

Things I love

1. My husband
2. My children
3. My family
4. God
5. My job
6. Trash tv
7. Pinterest
8. Sleep
9. Scalding hot baths
10. Chocolate

Convalescent Home

Everyone in my house is sick. I have learned a few things over the last couple of days:

1. I am more of a baby when I am sick than my husband.
2. One should not take NyQuil unless one wants to be in a coma the next full 24 hours.
3. Sleeping in the same position for over five hours makes you have numb hands.

More tomorrow when I feel better..

-Sara

Successful items from Silas's first birthday party

        So let me start this post off on the right foot - I am not a chef by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, for anyone who knew me about five years ago you would swear that I could NEVER learn how to cook.  Everything that I used to cook was a failure - even if I followed the recipe word for word. 

         Once I got married and had children I started to become more aware of my need to provide sustenance for my family.  It seemed like an almost overnight switch where this light came on in my brain and I began to be able to differentiate recipes that I could be successful with and recipes that maybe were not the best fit.  I started small and have worked my way up to a small repertoire of recipes that have numerous lovers - because anyone can like their own cooking. 

         I now begin my search on Pinterest, of course.  In my opinion, if your recipe has numerous people that have pinned it, it must at least sound good.  I knew that I wanted to make most of the food for Silas's party myself.  Normally for my children's parties I use this awesome cake woman near my house.  Heather from http://www.asweetfix4u.com has made several cakes for us in the past.  She is inexpensive for the quality of cakes that she provides and they have always been a hit.  She has always been able to take my crazy spaced out ideas and turn them into an awesome masterpiece that was exactly what I wanted.  Unfortunately, Silas's party snuck up on me and I was too embarrassed to call the week before and ask her to squeeze us in. 

         So began the search for a cake pan to match his star theme http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=2105-2512  and a recipe deserving of the party.  Now I have made several cakes before from scratch and countless cakes from a box mix - not nearly as awesome and/or brag worthy.  However, none seemed to be awesome enough worth repeating.  Luckily I found an awesome sounding chocolate cake: http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/2012/04/easy-made-from-scratch-you-cant-stop-eating-it-chocolate-cake.html that turned out to be AMAZING.  Unfortunately, when the back of the star cake pan said it took a normal cake recipe to fill it, it meant that a normal cake recipe was going to overflow and be way too much in the pan.  Luckily, this did not alter the taste nor the texture.  I decided that I wanted Silas's smash cake to be vanilla and so another recipe had to be found.  After about an hour reviewing recipes that contained either items that we didn't have or didn't sound like the taste that I was looking for, I resorted to a vanilla boxed cake and it turned out fine.  I did make two full recipes of vanilla buttercream frosting as well:  http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/03/buttercream-frosting/  This is the standard recipe for vanilla buttercream that I have always seen but I wanted to give credit to the source that I used.  It was awesome and had many compliments. 

          We also had "copycat" Pizza Hut pizza sauce for dipping with two pepperoni pizza rolls made with Rhodes bread dough, pepperoni, mozzarella, olive oil and spices.  Both are always a hit and super easy to make.  I also made cake balls which is a super braindead item but it takes SO much work.  I don't like them but I always make them for other people and it really is too much work.  I have always told people that I could train a monkey to do it, but people love them. 

The good news:  We all survived the party.  Silas had an awesome time with his family and friends.  We ate some awesome food. 
The bad news:  We all have super bad allergies today and have been in general the mopiest family this side of Texas. 

Until tomorrow:

-Sara

Silas's first birthday party

Today was little man's first birthday party *tear*. Thanks to all who came for your presence and gifts! He had an awesome time and loved his cake. Post tomorrow with recipes of items made for the party - they were all a hit!

Teething baby + Sick Toddler = awesome day

Silas turned 1 on December 31st.  He is my last baby.  We will cover the sadness around that subject sometime in the future.  For now, let's just say that he is enduring the worst part of baby/toddlerhood - teething.  Specifically cutting molars.  I have always told someone that if it was possible for babies to cut all of their teeth in like two days, I would much rather that happen.  Unfortunately it does not. 

We are currently on day 5ish of molars coming in.  Let's regress a second and relive our lives months ago when Silas cut his other eight teeth in like two weeks.  He gets a fever, is up ALL NIGHT, and just generally a ridiculously cranky baby for days.  Isabella was never a problem with teething.  No fighting, no crying, no whining or anything.  We always attributed it to the amber teething necklace that she wore.  I have told my husband that we should have Silas look like Mr. T with so many amber necklaces to combat his teething.  We have one on him that he has worn solid since he was about 2 months.  Please don't judge - I am the worst amber owner ever.  I don't take it off of them ever... I don't wash it... I don't sun it... he just wears it.  I am currently researching how I should go about washing it but I am kind of afraid to remove it because of how he will react.  Currently he doesn't even seem to notice it and I don't want to draw attention to it in any form or fashion. 

So, we are on about 5 days of not sleeping for Silas, me and my husband.  Needless to say our house is in an awesome mood. Because the universe sometimes likes to throw all kinds of fun at you at the same time, Isabella woke up this morning and said that her ear was hurting.  I got instantly anxious because she has had HORRIBLE double ear infections before and not said anything about pain.  After a doctor appointment for the both of them it is determined to be nothing serious except teething for cranky baby, ear infection for Isabella and totally shot day for mommy.

Today is the day before Silas's first birthday party.  I have a million and one things to do.  I am finally getting a second to breathe after making a cake from scratch, cake balls, prepped fruit salad, prepper the dip for tomorrow, cleaned the kitchen, made the banners and got as much prepped as possible for the food tomorrow.  I hope to be able to take some pictures and post them tomorrow.  For now, I am going to pass out while the second cake cooks. 

-Sara

52 in 52 Pinterest Project #1 - Overnight Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Pinterest project - 1                                                                   
Pinterest projects to go - 51

I am always on the look for a breakfast recipe that I can "cook" overnight.  This has been my second failure so perhaps the universe is trying to tell me something. 

I was perusing Pinterest the other day and came across this pin for overnight apple cinnamon Oatmeal - original website/recipe found here:  http://bestfoodpins.com/archives/7022

Several things immediately struck me with this pin:

1. I LOVE using the crock pot.  I had never cooked anything overnight in it, but I figured that there has to be a first time for everything.
2. I LOVE apple cinnamon oatmeal.
3. I had all the ingredients on hand and none of them were "weird" or seemed like they needed to be babysat.  I'm not sure if anyone else does this but anytime I read the ingredients to a recipe I always skip over it if it has an odd ingredient or requires too much attention, like stirring constantly for over 10 minutes - who has time for that? 

So we begin our journey.  I pull out my trusty crock pot, assemble ingredients exactly as stated except that I used steel cut oats - what I had on hand.  After an hour I put Saran Wrap over my crockpot under the lid because my pot doesn't seal as well as I would appreciate. 

Our one year old crying woke my husband and I up approximately eight and a half hours into cooking time, which should have been fine.  Upon opening the lid, the most amazing aroma was released.  It smelled like a hot apple pie... *drool*.  I spooned it into a container to take to work and my husband took a bite.  At this point, even though we have been married 4 years, I wasn't totally sure how he felt about oatmeal, but he didn't seem impressed.  He said it needed sugar, which I thought was odd because it seemed like enough while I was putting it together and I used a sweeter apple.  I figured that it was just his lack of appreciation for oatmeal and went on to work. 

Opening the container while at work, I noticed that the aroma did not travel with me to work, which was disappointing.  First bite - it's glue-y.  And tasteless.  And like wallpaper paste with chunks of apples in it.

I want to cry.  My first Pinterest project is a failure!  I have had such success with different pins in the past and the first one that I am going to document is a miserable failure.  Normally I would try to make it again to see if I could tweak the recipe to obtain a better outcome, but this one seems so hopeless that I don't want to waste the ingredients trying it again.   Let's hope that the next 51 have a better outcome. 


- Sara