Ready, set, go!

Ready!

Set!

Throw!

 GO!  He's a crawler!

SHHHHHHHHH....quiet (books)

Warning:  this post will reveal my inner nerd.  My dweebalicious dorkfulness.  My hidden doofusina.  (Perhaps those weren't as hidden as I'd like to believe.)  But, continue as you'd like...and don't say I didn't warn you....

Christmas.  Since having children, I realize how easy it is to fall prey to the ads, the new latest and greatest gadgets...giving in to my kids' every wish.  But for the last 4 years, we haven't.  I know.  Roll your eyes.  Snort at my stupidity and naivete.  It's just that they are so young and don't know (yet) to ask for the big stuff.  And I KNOW that these days are numbered.  They will soon understand all this DS, IPad, insert-expensive-gift-here hype and want one.  And we'll have to deal with that then. But for now, we are simple.  This isn't bragging.  It's not comparing.  It's just recognizing that while they are young, we intend to keep it as simple as we can.  We are thankful that the true PRICELESS meaning of Christmas still edges out the glitter and excitement of Santa and presents....and we are happy to keep it that way....forever.  Although we're not naive....I was a teenager once, too....and HAD to have Calvin Kleins. [One pair.  That I wore all the time.  That certain girls made fun of me (as if I couldn't hear them) for wearing 2 days in a row.  Gasp.  How could I?  They had 46 pairs and never had to repeat an outfit.  Why couldn't I be more like them?  If they could only see me now: lounging in a hotel bed with 3 other little boys, who are tired and happy after an evening of swimming, arcade, pizza snarfing, watching a movie.  Guess what?  I'm wearing the same jeans I wore yesterday now, too.  Kiss my jeans.  Can't buy this amount of happiness and peace with a gazillion pairs of jeans.  I hope you have on your new fancy $200 jeans and that they still bring you all kinds of happiness...the kind you get from apparently making fun of others......Wow, yikes, guess I'm still a little bitter over that incident.]  Whew.  ANYWAY.....
Get to the point.  Yep.  Ok, I'll get moving.  Gotta get the blood pressure back down.

So, my point is...that while others are getting the cool stuff,  I wanted my kids to have....drumroll please.....QUIET BOOKS.  Is that not the antithesis of all the cool stuff these days?  Yep.  I warned you.  I know you're all thinking, "wow, what a super cool mom she is!  I bet her boys think she is the most awesome "with-it"-mom ever."  Or maybe you're thinking, "What in the world is a quiet book?!?"  Well, they are all over Etsy and other similar sites.  They've been around.  I casually mentioned to my mom a few months ago that I would love to have them for my boys.  They teach skills - lots of skills (as you'll see), and they teach them to sit still and work on the task at hand.  Which, frankly, one of my boys LOVES to do, and another NEEDS to do.  So I was beyond thrilled to see them open these over Christmas.  Ridiculously thrilled.  Like as thrilled as I (thought I) was when I bought my first pair of CK jeans. The boys LOVE them.  Like LOVE them.  Church, car, waiting for food, before naps, before bed, randomly throughout the day.  Love them.  And they are just beautiful. Amazing detail, talent.  Tons of stitches and work, and you can almost feel the grandma love oozing out of them ;)  Here's a few pictures of the books.  Not exactly the same genre as an iPad, but I'd argue they are even cooler...and they don't run out of batteries :)

Spell your name; button

Mail station:  write a letter, mail it. 

Lace and tie.  Farm; open the doors and there are 5 animal finger puppets 

Try on the glove. Buckle up the vest 

Whaddya know?  It fits! 

Counting/adding watermelon seeds 

Snapping and zipping 

Close up of the cute little lady bug 

Complete with tags.... 

The front of RYAN's book 

Snap the apples

Matching, lacing, tying, winding.  And an abacus for counting/adding..or just sliding beads around.

Working on zipping, buttoning, buckling (those are NOT the aforementioned CK jeans!). Lacing.

Weaving, Wallet (velcro, magnet, sorting, etc) 

Close up of wallet.  Too bad that gift card and money is a fake....

Tic-tac-toe!

My Mom's pretty awesome.  If you would want one for a gift, let me know and I'll get the information to you.  They are cuuuuute!

My largest pinterest-inspired project yet.

Yes, I'm a professional copy-cat.  I'm not afraid to admit it.  Why go to all the work of being original and creative when there are so many others out there willing to do the first part of the project for me?  Right?  So, when I saw this:

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

....I knew I HAD to have it.  Now, we had a beautiful sofa table in the area outside the kitchen (what was once the eat in kitchen, I think, but since the kitchen has been extended out slightly and the entry to the sunroom was added, the space really couldn't be "eaten in", so just an awkward open area).  I loved that sofa table....Loved it.  Got it 10 years ago when I bought my first house.  It was one of my first non-Target/Walmart pieces of furniture.  However, it was big, bulky, pretty, but so NOT practical.  It stored about nothing and held about nothing on top.  And I realized that in a house with 3 boys, practical beats pretty.  BUT, this little pinspiration was pretty AND practical.  Me thinks:  'How easy is this?!?  A few bookshelves, a bench, some wainscoting, and a shelf! It will take like 10 minutes to execute.' And then....reality.  Nothing is as easy.  Sigh.  BUT, all things considered this was pretty stinking easy.  Here's mine.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, notice my GRAY walls.  That's GRAY.  Say it with me, "GRAAAAY!" Not smokey lavender, not bluish-gray, not purple-ish gray.  Just good old fashioned gray.  Right? If you ever set foot in my kitchen and call my walls ANYTHING other than gray, I will kill you kindly disregard your ignorance, colorblindness opinion.

Sorry, where was I?  Uh, yes.....Bookshelves (IKEA $30 each), Shelf (Amazon $39), Wainscoting (Home Depot $19, used half), Bench (FREE - it was the nursery's under-utilized toybox), Accessories (IKEA for next to nothing, or stuff we already had on hand), Bench cushion (....well...I underestimated the cost of foam, but got it half off thanks to a Hancock coupon, still...the foam, batting and the material were close to $40).  So for $158, I can hide a LOT of junk.  Mission Accomplished.  Better Homes and Gardens, thanks for the inspiration.  But, I like mine more.  Hee hee hee.   Oh, and there's another little pinspired item in there.  See it?  The shiny tall, skinny box on the right side?  (next to the statuette of those 3 little cutie-patoooooties?) Yep, that's a cereal box, cut down, and covered with scrapbook paper to make a file folder, magazine holder, paper boxy thingy.  That's more my speed that big furniture-organization units.  :)

Custom personalized artwork...LOVE IT

My super talented friend, Abby (click her name...do it, do it, do it...her blog is WAY cooler than mine) has painted one of these for each of the boys when they were babies.  I basically give her an idea and the colors and this is what she came up with:

Aren't they awesome?  Can you guess the theme.  Nope, try again.  Yes, you got it!: football players. Didn't see that one coming, did you?

PERHAPS....

Ryan will become a quarterback (he's sure bossy enough):

Seth will become a running back (he's sure squirrely enough):

Reed will become a linebacker (he's sure big enough...already):

But who cares, maybe they'll all run cross country or something, We I would be okay with that.  But we'll still have these paintings to decorate their rooms.  If you are interested in having Abby do one for you, you can contact her by commenting on her blog.  She does great work - the canvases are BIG.  20x24, but she can do any sizes you'd like.  She is an all around artist, designer...can do anything.  Thank you, Abby! for giving us something we will cherish for years and years! Even after the boys leave the house, I'll probably hang them by my bed or have them made into quilts or something....and sit there and cry and cry, remembering when they were just itty bitty babies.  And maybe when I'm an old crazy lady, I'll crochet some pretty lace things to hang around the corners.  Ahhhh, the possibilities.....

Super Easy homemade dishwasher soap

Of course I stole this off Pinterest, but it was SO easy that I wanted to post it so "all" could see....and to run the numbers on whether it is cheaper. (since I'm in such a numbers-crunching mood, it seems).

Ingredients (all found at Walmart):

2 cups Lemi Shine

2 cups Super Washing Soda

2 cups Borax

1 cup Kosher salt

White vinegar for rinsing aid

Instructions:  mix and dump.  1 Tbs per load.

Cost breakdown:
Lemi shine (used all):  3.77
Borax:  .71
Washing soda:  1.12
Salt (had on hand, but whatever):  1.00
Vinegar (had on hand) : not including because this is a rinse aid
Total cost:  $6.60
Number of loads:  112
Cost per load:  $0.059

Compare to Cascade (75 ounce package):  Cost per load:  $0.65.  BUT, this is per TBS and Cascade recommends more than this per load.

Conclusion:  So it saved a few bucks in all.  And I'm not a scientist...so I can't set whether the ingredients in the Arm & Hammer and Borax are "healthier" than those in Cascade. But I think over the long run this will be cheaper and easier, especially when you only use 1/4 to 1/3 of the boxes of washing soda and borax...you'll only need to buy the Lemi Shine every other month or so.  Makes things easy.


Bigger-Deal Conclusion:  My dishes were cleaner and shinier.  Glasses weren't grimy and "foggy", but squeaky clean and sparkly.  For this reason, I love the homemade dish soap!

Running the numbers on baby food

A big project this weekend was to make baby chow for my loves-to-eat-anything-6 month old.  For all 3 boys, I've made about 90% of their food.  Yes, we do buy some for convenience's sake, its not like we're opposed to the idea.  It is just something I like to do, I can do, and I thought was cheaper and healthier.  Here's what we did.  Yes, I said WE...this time Troy even helped and got his hands dirty.  It made a big (fun) chore into about a 3 hour project.
Step 1.  Shop - bulk is best, but you don't always need bulk.  6-7 HUGE sweet potatoes make a LOT.  And a few bunches of bananas go a loooong way, too.  But bulk apples, pears, carrots are necessary.
Step 2.  Put big boys to bed for a nap.
Step 3.  Unexpectedly, Reed awakes.  Keep him busy with a pretzel rod.

Step 4.  Start peeling and cooking.  I use all 4 burners on the stove for steaming/boiling/blanching/whatevering, and have 2-3 casserole dishes in the oven baking (apples with a splash of cinnamon cuz I'm just that nice; cranberry-apple, pears, squash, etc)
Step 5.  Get the food processor going.  I only have one and my blender wasn't working well at all, so we had a long ling waiting for the processor...but that's ok.
Step 6.  From the processor to individual bowls to cool.  Some people mix them up right away (like mixing strawberries with apples or whatever), but I like to keep them all separate until I know exactly what I end up with.
Step 7.  Put in individual containers. I filled old baby food jars and containers, then used some canning containers to put in larger amounts of the staples - carrots, beans, bananas, apples - that we use more often since these hold 7-8 ounces (about 3 feedings).  Excess went into ice cube trays to freeze.  Once frozen into cube shape, dumped into a NICE QUALITY double-zip bag.  The last thing I want to do is have all my hard work get freezer burn, so I get the best bags they have.  I didn't have enough room or ice cube trays, so this part of the freezing goes in segments.  Freeze in trays, dump in bags, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

To eat:  The individual baby food containers are frozen, then I get out a few days supply at once to thaw in the fridge. They can be warmed up, then the jars are reused by putting in the frozen cubes.  The cubes are 1 ounce, but I overfill them before freezing, so they are almost 1.5 ounces.  2 cubes fit in a small container and 3 fit in a larger container.

So here is the fun part.  I spent $41 on groceries.  Plus to be fair, add in the cost of the bags $6 (but I won't use them all).  The baby food that we would buy (on sale) is $.50 per serving.  I imagine that you can find cheaper baby food, but we like a certain kind and this is the rock bottom bulk price.  Here's what my $41 got us:

268 servings.

So, if I would have purchased 268 servings at the sales price I would spend $134.00, or $0.50 per serving.  I spent only $47, at a whopping $0.17 per serving.  Saving me....grabbing the calculator.....$87.  Doesn't that sound great?  I know it's not hundreds and thousands of dollars, but consider this:  I've done this for 3 kids, and the savings multiply since this is *only* approximately 2.5 months of food.  So I'm estimating that I've saved (or will save by the time Reed moves to solid people food)......

 2.4(there are 2.4 two-and-a-half month-periods in a 6 month period of eating baby food) x $87 savings x 3 kids =

SIX HUNDRED TWENTY SIX DOLLARS

$626

Boom!  Throw in the intangible happy feelings of knowing what you're feeding your baby, the bonding time with your husband in the kitchen...and it really is a priceless activity.  The other part I'll mention is that my food processor was FREE.  Yep, I got it from Troy's Aunt Karen.  If I recall, she got it for her wedding and never used it.  Bonus.  I bet there are lots of unused and unloved food processors out there.  Just go ask around.  Mine isn't huge....having a big one would be a nice Christmas present (hint hint)

And for those of you that are curious about what all I made, the list is below.  This is just the main ingredients.  We did a LOT of mixing based on Troy's taste-testing ideas.  For example, strawberry + apple; blueberry + pear, peas + carrots, and other combos.

1. Sweet potato
2. Carrots
3. Mixed veggies - carrots, peas, something I'm forgetting
4. Mixed veggies - carrots, corn, peas
5. Spaghetti squash
6. Peas
7. Green beans
8. Peaches
9. Fruit blend - frozen fruit package.  Only fruit listed as ingredient (was the most expensive thing I purchased)
10. Bananas
11. Yellow squash (summer squash)
12. Pears
13. Apples
14. Blueberries
15. Cranberries
16. Strawberries

Our kids never liked avocado or kiwi, so didn't buy those this time.  Note: white potatoes - tried it; they don't freeze well at all. 

Thankful for great teachers!

Some thanksgiving crafting! Our boys attend an absolutely wonderful preschool.  We are SO happy with our choice to enroll them in their school. So we made some crafts to say "thank you".  Of course, I did 99.8% of the work, but the boys did pick out the paper and decided which teacher should get which clipboard.  This was a really cheap, fun and easy project to do.

1.  Bought cheap plain clipboards.
2.  Cut out scrapbook paper (already on hand) and adhered (with spray adhesive) to the clipboard.
3.  Modge-podged (yes, thats a verb) over the entire top and sides.
4.  Printed out some funky letters on scratch paper, then used them as a pattern and cut out the same letters on coordinating scrapbook paper.
5.  Adhered the letter to the clipboard and modge-podged over the letter. 
6.  Added a note pad on top, with a letter of thanks, singed by the boys. 

Voila!

Close-up of the letter for Miss Wendy :) Isn't it cute?

Now, wouldn't you want to carry around this clipboard all day?!?

Keep this fun and thrifty craft in mind when you need something quick and inexpensive for someone you're thankful for! AND, wouldn't they be so cute hung on the wall by a desk or organization-station?

AND, I know you can buy cute clipboards, probably way cuter than this....but they aren't personalized, and I'm pretty sure they won't have my boys fingerprints in the modge podge :)