Applesauce

My Grammy gave me a bucket of apples from her backyard.  These are organic since she doesn't do anything to them ;) 

They are not real pretty, but Grammy told me they are great in pies.  I had seen a recipe for crockpot applesauce and wanted to try it.

In crockpot with cinnamon and a bit of sugar

It turned out wonderful!

Blended with the hand mixer

In jars, ready for snacks!

SOCKS!

I was going a bit of laundry today, just a load of darks and a load of lights.  Nothing major.

While folding these loads I kept pulling out socks.  I just throw all the socks in a pile then match them when I finish folding everything else.  This is the pile of socks I ended with.

You will notice none of these socks belong to me or my young children.  Yes, that means they are Andy's.  It is a bit difficult to tell how many socks are there, so I matched each pair for you and counted.

14

That is the official pair count.

Then I found myself wondering, does Andy have any clean socks left?  Was I a bad wife who had neglected to take care of her husband?  I went to Andy's sock drawer and found this.

A still very full drawer.  Apparently I only need to wash Andy's socks once a month. :)

The Myth of the Perfect Mother

A book I am reading.

I. need. this.

I cannot tell you if I agree theoloically with this book (I am only in the first chapter), but the few pages I have read have made me say, "Yes! Exactly! This is how I feel!"

Carla Barnhill says, "The real toll of motherhood often blindsides women who grow up believing that becoming a mother will be the greatest thing ever to happen to them. Instead of floating along in a sea of motherly bliss, many of us find ourselves conflicted, depressed, guilt-ridden, lonely, even suicidal. Sadly when these feelings begin to creep in, the last place many of us feel comfortable talking about them is in our churches."

I don't know what this lady is going to recommend, but at least someone understands me now.

Clutter Control

Do you see that pillow? The orange and blue one? It says "DREAMY" and is covered in stars? Yes, that's it, the one that matches nothing in any one's house and serves no useful purpose.

I won that pillow for Andy and a theme park or carnival when we were dating. It has sentimental value. It also left little furry orange fluff around the house. We needed to get rid of it, but I like it...

Thanks to a wonderful tip from my mother, we took a picture and trashed the pillow! Now I can remember how mushy I felt about Andy, but not have excess things in my home!

Do you have things like this in your house? A necklace your son made for you when he was 5. He's 30 now. A ridiculous sombrero from your favorite vacation, but you need room for kids clothes now. A set of drinking glasses your sister gave you and you never use.

You know what organizing experts say- if you don't love it or use it regularly, get rid of it! But there are somethings that mean so much to us because of the giver who means so much to us! Take a picture of yourself using those items, then get 'em out of your house!

I am getting rid of 730 things this year as part of Amy's challenge!

Laundry

Yes, laundry, the dreaded task. I like it in general. The machine really does the majority of the work. I like my cloth diaper laundry. I know that's odd. It soothes me. Maybe because it doesn't involve folding. It's not that I don't like folding everything, just certain items. I like to sort socks and undergarments, I enjoy folding pants. It is shirts that get me. I wish I could just shove them in a drawer, but I would regret it later. Like when I want to wear one...

So that was the background- here is the thought for tonight.

I had been slowly working on folding a load of laundry throughout the evening between facebooking, blogging, watching The Bachelor (yes, I know it is a worthless show), and drinking hot chocolate. All that was left: two of my husband's t-shirts. I thought, 'I'll just leave them here and let him fold them and put them away. Hahaha' (that was sinister laughter in my head.) I knew he would do it if I whined about it.

But then I remembered how wonderful he is and how he is always serving me and our children. I folded them. I put them away. I gave him a kiss and a 'thank you honey'.

Laundry reminds me of one little way I can love Andy.

Falling Snow

In southern Missouri if a weatherman even thinks about snow the rural schools will cancel, so when we got around 5 inches Saturday night into Sunday, there was no hope. Yes, Christmas break lives on! We are going on our second snowday of the week and there is more in the forecast.

My husband is a teacher and I love to have him home, as do the children. Thus I like snow days, but I would enjoy them spread out over a couple months so I can savor them! After two weeks of a break from school this just seems like overkill. But in everything, rejoice! so Let It Snow!

2010 Here We Come!

Today I have been reading blogs about New Year's Resolutions which inspired me to write down a few goals of my own. I love lists because they help me know what needs to be done!

-Save $200/month in a separate account. (This is for a larger vehicle when we someday have more kids.)

-Read my Bible daily
-Do my Precepts study! (These two are related!)

-Work daily with Eli on colors/numbers/letters

-declutter!
-Put things on Craigslist and get them outta here!

'Tis the Season

...for baking!


On my computer these pictures are right side up. I don't know what happened...

We took this plate along with dinner to friends who had a baby last week!

Eli's cookies (he ate frosting off as he worked) Eli loves to help me cook. His favorites- french toast and granola. He likes to sprinkle the cinnamon and put the bread in the gooey stuff.

So fun! More baking to come!

The last Hurrah!

My mom came to visit this past weekend to finish all baby stuff! I had a rather long to do list and just about everything got marked off. I am due August 26, but I am over 38 weeks pregnant now. She could come anytime in the next few weeks!

These are some pictures of the wall decorations in Carmody's room.

Price Matching

Today was the first time I had price matched at Wal-mart. I generally go to one or two grocery stores each week when I shop. I check out the adds and decide which is the best value for my time. This week, however, there were great deals to be had a 4 or 5 different stores. I was NOT going to drag my 38 week pregnant body and 2 year old son all around town!

I had a pretty good experience price matching and I will let you know what I did that made everything go smoothly and what things were problematic.

I made a list of the items I wanted or needed to purchase, then I scanned my ads to find the lowest price advertised. Next to the the item I wrote the advertised price and the store it was at. My list looked something like this:

Highland butter- 16 oz $1.59- SF (Sunfest)
Watermelon 2.99 Jubilee
Peaches/Nectarines .69/lb Jubilee
grapes .99/lb Apple Market
Cheerios, Reeses, Trix, LC- 5/$10 (10-14oz) CM (Country Mart)
Best Choice yogurt- 6oz 30 cents SF

When I got to Walmart I went to customer service to ask a few questions. I asked about store brands. Most of my grocery stores carry Best Choice and Walmart offers Great Value. These are interchangeable! I also asked about store loyalty cards. My Walmart will match those advertised deals, but not if they have to be paired with a store coupon. (Country Mart does this often.) The woman also said that meat is not always price matched because the size of packaging is different. I found the same to be true for produce like blueberries. One store was selling 2lbs for $5 and Walmart had their berries in 11oz containers. This made the berries about $3/lb and Walmart would not match this, but they did match the rest of the produce. Things that are sold per item (like 4/$1 kiwi) or per pound (like grapes .99/lb) they will match.

When I got to the check out I separated my purchase to make it easier for the cashier and me! I put all of the non-price matched items on the conveyor belt first then all the items I wanted to match. I let her know at the beginning of my transaction that I was going to price match. Some stores or cashiers may ask to see the ads, I did have those handy, but today she just asked for the price and store. Since I had this on my list it was very easy to let her know.

Overall I think price matching went well. It does take a little longer and some forethought, but less time than visiting 3 stores! Also, if I were going to use coupons Walmart does not double them like the grocery stores. I will probably try it again!

This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

Work Weekend

My mom came to Branson last weekend to help me get the room ready for the baby. We planned to paint, organize, go through clothing, etc. On Friday evening I noticed that the base boards and the carpet in the baby's room were wet. Just a small section that shared a wall with the bathroom. Saturday morning came with much more work than anticipated! Andy called his dad for advice on locating and fixing the leak. We also discovered mold growing. My mom and I took Eli to buy paint and Andy began tearing out the bathroom vanity. Andy's dad, Mike, drove to Branson from Tulsa to help with the bathroom project that also turned into a bedroom project. Here is what had to be done...

-remove vanity (was molding) and sink
-remove affected baseboards in both rooms
-clean and bleach baseboards to remove mold
-tear up laminate tile in bathroom
-tear up carpet in bedroom to check extent of damage and mold
-cut into the bottom of wall to check structure and insulation for damage and mold
-remove 2x4 from bottom of the wall, replace
-replace drywall
-install new vanity and sink
-tear up all the old carpet and part of the old pad
-install new carpet and pad
-paint
-move a TON of furniture everywhere

I think that is it, but there could be more. We still have to lay the ceramic tile in the bathroom. We have a concrete floor for the time being.

Here are some photos of all the hard work. We should be a remodel team on HGTV. All this was completed on Saturday!


Eli helping. He is standing in the bedroom. The dresser is in the hallway.

Eli and I painting the room for his little sister! Color is hard to see in there pics. It is a shade of yellow!

Andy and Mike working in the bathroom.

A small, slow leak can cause lots of problems!

The end result!

We painted 2 walls the yellow we had bought from Lowe's and used the rest of the paint to mix with white for the other 2 walls. They are a lighter shade of the same yellow. The new carpet was a remant from Lowe's called mocha. It is darker that I had envisioned, but I love it.

Carmody will love her new room too!

Spring Break

This week was Spring Break for my husband, Andy. It was not a break! We were busy all week and I feel like I got less done than usual! Andy's family was here this week so we played tourist with them. They went camping, fishing, shows, dinner, shopping, and more. I did love sleeping in each morning and having a nice family breakfast. An added benefit- on Monday Andy suprised me with pancakes!

This week has been great, but I am ready to go back to my normal slower-paced life!

Touchs of Spring

These beautiful yellow daffodils were growing in my front yard and it reminds be of Spring. I need that reminder because it is now freezing here. Just so you know, the flowers do not grow in the gravel; the neighbor kids ripped them out of the ground.

This is the tree in my front yard. It started blooming the other day. I am looking forward to when the whole thing is covered with little purple-blue flowers.