Baby #3

Life around here has been steady. I wouldn't call it busy, but we haven't been bored that's for sure. It does seem as though some weeks are busier than others, but it's all good. The pace has been nice.

For those that don't know, I am currently pregnant with baby #3 and it has been torture not knowing the gender yet. The last ultrasound I had was back in December and the baby decided it would hide "the goods". Very frustrating. I am a planner, and not knowing what we were having has been killing me. My last OB appointment, the doctor looked over my chart and told me he was going to order another ultrasound. He said out of curiosity himself as to the gender, but he said that he would use the excuse of checking the growth and development as the main reason. The doctor I go to is fabulous with a great sense of humor and I always feel like a friend, not just a patient or a number. Makes this stressful time of my life a lot easier to deal with.

I was nervous for my ultrasound, mainly because I was afraid I wouldn't know the gender, but I was happy that I would at least find out if baby was healthy, if nothing else. Baby was trying to play hard to see again, but it's a lot harder to hide the goods when there isn't much room in there to wiggle around. The ultrasound tech could only see glimpses, but the baby is developed enough (30 weeks at the time) that there was no mistaking it this time....GIRL! So excited to not be the only female in the house anymore.

Now it is just the long wait until May for the birth. Not looking forward to labor, but I at least know it will be worth it in the end. R is super excited to have a baby sister, even though he still doesn't quite understand that the baby has to stay in mommy's tummy a little longer. He keeps asking when the baby will come out so he can play with her. It's kind of cute. TT has no clue as to what is going on, but I do know he is going to be super pissed when he isn't the baby and center of attention anymore. I'll have to work really hard to make the time to spend one-on-one time with each of the boys after the baby is born.

For those still curious, my diet is still going well and I am adapting well...The rest of the family: not so much haha! They don't mind it too much, but it doesn't taste the same as what they are used to and hopefully they will eventually get used to it as time goes on. I have also been working on making more of their snacks at home instead of buying them. For one, it saves money; and two, it tastes better. I made homemade pop-tarts the other day and they are way better than store bought, but with anything, the kids looked at me like i was crazy when I handed them each one to try. I think they will eventually get used to them. I am refusing to spend almost $3-4 dollars for a box (yikes!) when I can make about 7-8 pop tarts for waaaaaaay less. They can just suck it up :)

The bedroom remodel should be moving along soon. We took a little break from it this past week because of illness and recovery. Should hopefully be back at it this week and weekend.

Lil' Update

* Please click on an ad or two if you get a chance :) *

It has been pretty quiet around here the last couple of weeks. Mostly just trying to get the bedroom project up and finished before the baby is here.

We were finally able to go and get the materials last week and Hubby was able to get the insulation in the walls. It needed it for sure! No wonder the dang room never seemed to be a decent temperature. Still need to seal the windows a little when we are done. This weekend he started putting up the sheetrock! It's getting closer to completion with each step, sooooo excited!

Since I am getting bigger it is getting harder for me to help out, but I try and we also were able to get some rock for the front of the house and hopefully I can start working on that this week...slowly. Slow is about the only speed I go lately. Ha!

My diet is going well and I feel much better than I did. I've been learning more and more how to cook and eat "differently" than what I am used to and it is helping. No pain is a good thing and I feel like I have a little more energy. The downside to this new diet is that it can be kind of expensive. I've been looking at alternative ways to save a little money on some of the ingredients that I need for cooking. Bountiful Basket is still a great way to save money on the produce I need. And I have found that Amazon.com carries a wide variety at decent prices on some of the grains and specialty items that I have been using.

Cooking from scratch takes a lot of time, especially with a lot of these new recipes that I am not used to, but the end result is a lot more flavorful and healthy. Recently I made pita bread and hummus. The hummus turned out well and I have really been enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. My pita bread did not work out as well. It still is "eatable", but it didn't puff up like I thought it would. The directions that I found off of Pinterest didn't explain very well certain steps and so I figured out what I did/was doing wrong about halfway through. Oh well, live and learn. Next time hopefully it will turn out better so I can use it for sandwiches for myself.

I also attempted to try a recipe for sandwich bread (as another way of cutting cost in my grocery budget) and the first try it was a brick. The dog wouldn't even eat it, so I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong, but tried it again the following day and it worked perfectly. The boys really enjoyed the PBJ sandwich I made them, so it must be good! My least favorite part about slicing the bread is that I can never get even slices. Please tell me I'm not the only one that can't slice straight! I'll have to look into a bread slicer helper or something...haha!

Along with eating better, I have started weeding out things in the house that are really not that great for us, like dryer sheets. Made my own dryer sheets that work just as well and I don't have to worry about the nasty chemicals that are in the store bought ones. Not only are they healthier for us and the environment, but cheaper too! If you know me, you know that I like saving money! When I run out of laundry detergent I plan on trying to make my own. I have done this in the past, but with everything that has been going on since we bought the house, just haven't had the time or energy to try and mix up another batch. Found a different recipe on Pinterest that I plan on trying. The last one did work, and our clothes looked and smelled clean, so I will assume this one with as well.

Other than that, our days have been filled with Hubby going to work and coming home and playing with the boys and working on the bedroom and mine have been filled with baking, playing with the boys and cleaning. We live an extra exciting life around here. When we get the sheetrock done I will post more pictures and another update to the bedroom remodel.

What the...?!?

Its been one of those weekends where nothing has been going as planned (not usually a bad thing) and I have turned into a semi-crazy person!

Friday evening I found those nasty little black sugar ants in one of my cupboards. Anyone that knows me, would understand the chaos that ensued. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, came out of the cupboards. I had stuff piled up on my kitchen island and table along with the floor. Dragged my vacuum over and started sucking those nasty things up, all while growling and grumbling at the annoyance of it all.

After taking the vacuum to them, I started to wipe down any and all cracks and crevices I could find with a vinegar/water solution. Let that dry a little and than wiped everything down again with undiluted peppermint essential oil! I use doTERRA (just ask me how to purchase some of these awesome oils if you are interested, link at the bottom of post) peppermint oil and that stuff is STRONG! But, it worked! The nasty little buggers are no longer in that cupboard. I also ended up tearing up some of the warped plywood that had gotten damaged when we first moved in from a broken garbage disposal...can you say yuck?!

However, the ant invasion was not over with that one cupboard. I should have known better, but being pregnant and blonde, I forget things. Went to pull one of my pots out of a different cupboard this morning to make everyone oatmeal for breakfast and they were EVERYWHERE inside. Major freak-out ensued once again. Hubby started laughing until I glared at him and was almost in tears (hormones!). So he stopped chuckling and started helping. Smart man my husband :)

Again, everything came out of any remaining cupboards that "they" might be in and I wiped everything down with the same process as before. The peppermint will clear your sinuses just from smelling that stuff and it's not as stinky as the chemical sprays you can buy at the store. I think I have won in the kitchen, but I know that I will need to do some serious defense on the outside of my house this coming week. Guess I'll be buying some spray to use on the outside of the house along the foundation.

I hate bugs...But my kitchen smells lovely ;)

Here is the link to my doTERRA website:  http://mydoterra.com/kathleenparker1

Remodeling Saga Part 1

Ever since we moved into this house, there have been a couple of things that have been the "WTF?" of the house. One of which is in our bedroom. I'm not sure if the original builders decided to put in the crazy bench/window seat/storage, but whoever did needs slapped.

I have HATED this part of our bedroom from the beginning. Finally decided that it needed to go with baby #3 on the way, we knew that the baby would be spending the majority of the time in our room to start and with the way our room was situated now, there just isn't enough space. Even though we have both been sick, we decided to start the demo of the weird bench thing anyways to at least see what we are dealing with and if we needed to prepare for any major "disasters".

Trying to figure out what is behind the sheet rock that we discovered behind the paneling

Not only did this bench need torn out, but we needed to insulate and drywall BAD! You could feel the cold air in the winter coming through the walls, which made for some rather unpleasant nights. As we started to strip everything off the walls we finally discovered what was behind the strange "columns" that are on either side of the bench. This little 3 foot section may have been an after-thought or an addition because the columns actually turned out to look like they may be cornerstones on that end of the house.

About halfway through the demolition!

Can't take those out! But that's ok, at least the bench is gone and the horrible paneling is off the walls and we can finally see what we are dealing with better. The next plan of action is to remove the bed frame from the bedroom and to store it temporarily in another part of the house and to than tear out all of the carpet from the room.

Oh look what was under the carpet...crappy 1960's glue down tile! At least it came up easy!

Eventually would like to put down laminate flooring, but lots of rugs to shield us from the cold concrete until then.

I'm sure a good weekend worth of work, once we have all of the supplies and materials, should have the walls back up (insulated and sealed this time). And then I can go around and fill in holes with the drywall putty before I sand and paint. It will be nice to have our room looking like how we want with the way that we would like it arranged. Both of our hopes is that this well give us extra space in the bedroom so we won't feel quite so cramped. I also hope to upgrade our 2 dressers into one larger one eventually and hopefully that will help it to not feel so crammed full of stuff as well.

Owning a home is no easy task that's for sure! Along with remodeling the bedroom, we have been working on the yard. I'm not a fan of bushes...at all. And these bushes were never well cared for before we bought the house so they have just been wild and out of control. Not too mention, they harbor bugs, like scorpions, wasps, and spiders. I plan on ripping them all out! Once they are all gone, I will put down weed tarp, sand, and white rock. Hopefully that makes it nicer to walk by and won't harbor the nasty things. Our poor yard has for sure needed some serious TLC and hopefully we can do more this year with it. I'm excited to see the final project.

The front of our house has need of an overhaul as well. I dug up, thinned, and replanted some of the wild bunch of irises that were growing in front of our house.

The attached flower bed that the irises will be going into soon. 

Starting the digging process! 

This area is where all of the mud and water collects during the rainy season and makes it hard to walk to our front door without getting soaked.

I plan on doing the same thing with the front where the irises were with the weed tarp, sand, and white rock. Hopefully it will help widen the path in front of our house when people come by for a visit. And less mud during the monsoon season :)

Saving some Moola!

Who doesn't like saving money? Only crazy people that's who!

Being a stay-at-home mommy I do my best to keep our biggest expense down as much as possible: groceries! For a family of 4, soon to be 5, we all tend to eat a lot. My youngest eats more than I do most days! I try to make healthy meals that everyone will eat, but now that I am on a restricted diet, it makes it a little more challenging.

However, I have some apps on my phone that I use along with coupons that do help keep the cost down. Usually our household grocery bill for the month ranges from $300 to $400 per month. It's a challenge because we do live in an oilfield area so the prices on everything are marked up and my options for shopping are limited because there are literally 3 grocery stores in a 45 minute drive from us.

I use couponmom.com for my coupons. It's a really great site and it's FREE! Free is always a good thing. I try to check it at least once a week because some coupons are only on the site for a week before they are taken off. Granted they don't have coupons for fresh veggies or fruit, but I can get coupons for other staples like almond milk, coffee creamer for the hubby, or graham crackers for the kids. I've been trying REALLY hard to make their snacks, when they get them, as healthy as possible. Or just make homemade snacks like muffins. With my new diet, we always have fresh fruit and veggies around that they are all starting to eat more of, so that's one plus!

For my fresh fruit and veggies, and even our whole grain bread if I'm not making it myself, I use Bountiful Baskets. If you haven't looked into this program yet, do it NOW! I order ours on either Monday or Tuesday of whatever week they run to Hobbs and will pick it up on that Saturday. I know that I will be getting a ton of food that is really good quality for waaaaaaay less than what you could buy at the grocery store. Just the plain conventional basket is only $15 and it comes with a ton of food. All total this week my total basket contribution was about $55, I also bought 5 loaves of bread that are not pictured. Because of this program, I rarely buy any produce at the grocery store, except bananas, I think my youngest is part monkey.

This is just the straight conventional basket ($15). It is different every time.

This is with all of the "add-ons" that I purchased. Lots of yummy-ness to eat for the family!

The apps on my phone that I use are the Wal-Mart Savings Catcher. It does help, even with the limited competition in the area I still end up with money back of some items. My goal with this one is to gain enough money back to have Christmas paid for this year. I'm getting there and should have no problems by November/December :)

Ibotta is a pretty cool rebate app that has everything from alcohol to fresh fruit and veggies. You can look through it either before you go shopping and select the rebates that you know you will use or after and snag the ones that you did. I sometimes only have 1 or 2 rebates, but they do add up. Ibotta is store specific, so you would need to make sure you are in the correct store section before checking off rebates. Also with Ibotta, the more people you have on your "team" the more money you make faster. If you want to sign-up with my referral code it is iphfxoy. Hopefully it works. Ibotta pays out through paypal once you reach the minimum amount of money.

Checkout 51 is another rebate app I use, but it is NOT store specific so you can use it with anyplace that sells what is on the app. As long as it lists the name of the item and the price on the receipt, you'll be golden. The rebates renew every Thursday. I haven't made as much money with this one, but I'm still up to almost $7 for only using it a couple of months. Unlike Ibotta, they do not have a "team" feature.

I recently downloaded Shopkick which gives you "kicks" for just walking into certain stores and scanning (don't even have to buy anything) certain items on their list. If you link your cards to it you can also get points for every dollar. Being that there isn't much competition in my area, I have only used it in Wal-Mart, but it's not too hard. I even get "kicks" for opening the app everyday. Sometimes it's only 1 kick, other times its 4 kicks! The more kicks, the more money towards a gift card of your choice on their list. I'm working towards a Wal-Mart card for Christmas. With Shopkick you can add friends and earn kicks. My link is http://getshopkick.com/cone71089 to be a friend with me on Shopkick.

The last app that I recently downloaded is BerryCart. It is for organic/Non-GMO kind of foods. I figured it would be a good one to try out with my new diet. I haven't had to use it yet, but it sounds like you can earn money with a "team" like Ibotta. My referral link is https;//www.berrycart.com/rf/nQCmRBpmzq. For every friend that signs up with my link we each get a $2 bonus. Don't know if it works, but never hurts to try :) BerryCart pays out through either gift cards or PayPal. Hopefully I can use it more this year.

The other thing that does save a lot of money, but I haven't done it since this summer, is a meal plan for either the week or month. It's amazing what happens when you go through your cupboards and freezer and find food you can use for recipes without having to buy any extra at the store. Hopefully my butt will get in gear and I can start meal planning again, because it really does help, just takes time.

Yogurt Time!

First off, let me jut say that the weather down here is soooo crazy! In the past month alone we were hit with the blizzard of the century, Super Storm Goliath, wildfires in certain parts of the state, along with wind storms with 60-70 mph gusts. Last week we had temperatures in the 50's and 60's with sun. This week it has been below freezing, spitting snow and rain and today it is sunny and warm at 75 degrees. I even went out and did some yard work in shorts while the boys played in the yard in short-sleeved shirts. My poor body doesn't know what to do: hibernate or welcome spring.

In the meantime, I have continued on my lovely diet and am continuing to feel better, just miss my milk and full fat foods :(

So yogurt making in the slow cooker! Super easy and delicious. I will say ahead of time that this yogurt does not have the same consistency as store bought, but I believe that it tastes much better. More yummy good for you stuff, less of the nasty stuff :) This is a recipe for vanilla yogurt. I am not a fan of plain yogurt, although now I am learning to use it to cook with, for eating I prefer the vanilla.

To start you need 8 cups (half a gallon) of, preferably, whole milk. Make sure to check that it isn't ultra-pasteurized because it will not work properly if that is the case. Pasteurized is fine if that is all you can get and a lot of people have access to raw milk; I do not and have to buy it from the store. Also, it would be good to start this about 2 or 3 pm in the afternoon because there are a couple of steps before you let it sit overnight that happen in 3 hour increments.

Milk ready to go!

I use a small 4 qt. crock pot for this recipe. Poor the milk in and turn to low for 2 hours 45 mins up to 3 hours. After the time turn it off and unplug it.

Yes that says Vodka. I make my own vanilla extract with bottom-shelf liquor and vanilla beans. 

Whisk in 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 Tbsp of vanilla extract (the more pure the better) and let it sit for 3 hours.

After 3 hours add in 1/2 cup of your yogurt (this can be either prior stuff you made or store bought as long as it has active live cultures in it!) whisk it in really well.

Wrap the entire crockpot in 1 to 2 beach towels and let it sit overnight, 8-12 hours.

In the morning, spoon the yogurt into a flour sack or cheese cloth lined colander that is sitting on top of a bowl. This will help drain the whey off of the yogurt and help to thicken it. If using a flour sack cloth, dampen it prior to using. I let my yogurt drain 4-6 hours in the fridge, but it is up to you how long you let it sit in the fridge draining.

Finished product! Yum!

Once it is drained off enough to your liking, scoop it out and put into a sealable tub and it's good to eat! Just remember to save 1/2 cup for the next batch of yogurt and you will end up with roughly half of what your started with at the beginning, about 4-5 cups.

This is what the whey looks like.

Also, the whey can be used in different recipes, just have to google uses for it :)

Hopefully you have no issues with this recipe, if you do, let me know and I will try to help work out what went wrong.

*Don't forget to click on an ad or two to help me out :)

New Diet...Yippee

So I know last time I promised to post my yogurt recipe, and I will, but there have been some seriously crazy happenings around here the past week. Last Thursday I woke up with such intense pain that I was hardly able to breath and felt like passing out several times because of it. Hubby rushed me to the ER where they proceeded to run tests and blood work to try and determine what was the matter.

After a couple of hours I was informed by the doctor that there was something wrong with my gall bladder. Instantly I thought surgery, but thankfully that was not the case. He said that I had "sludge" in my gall bladder that would settle and block the ducts once in awhile which is where the pain comes from. If you have ever had anything like gall or kidney stones than you probably know what my pain was like: not fun! Since I am also pregnant, the ER doctor wanted to check in with my OB to get a game plan on helping me feel better. They decided that surgery wasn't necessary (thankfully!) and all I would need to do was change my diet.

I had already changed my diet quite a bit since this pregnancy because certain foods didn't settle well or weren't good for a preggo chick. This new diet pretty much eliminates all of the yummy foods/snacks I would treat myself to once in awhile; like chocolate or ice cream or cream cheese! Basically I have had to eliminate anything that is not low or non-fat, use whole grain breads and pastas, and super lean meats with as little oil to cook with as possible. My fruit and veggie intake has increased, along with my water (which I was already drinking tons with being preggo). I have cut myself back to 1/2 cup of coffee a day! Which has been soooo hard to not have my 2 cups a day with creamer. Drinking it black with no milk or sugar :(

With this diet I have basically had to re-learn how to cook certain foods and sub in different oils and milks. Label reading on foods is something that I did a lot before now I'm obsessed with it because I cannot have anything with vegetable oil or shortening, or anything with trans fat. The nurses in the ER joked that I would basically be eating cardboard and air (ha!).

I'm learning to adapt and am not totally hating the new diet, just get tired of having to constantly check ingredients for certain things. Also, I've had to make some things because it's pretty close to impossible to find muffins for breakfast/snack or ranch dressing in the store that isn't loaded with tons of crap I can't have.

Just made Banana Applesauce Muffins http://www.fromaway.com/cooking/banana-applesauce-muffins from this site I found on Pinterest. They turned out super yummy (even being whole wheat) and were really easy to make. I even subbed in honey for the sugar in the recipe and it worked just as well.

Yesterday, because I've been wanting a salad but can't use the dressing and I'm not a vinaigrette person, I found a recipe online (with the help of a friend that came over the next day after my ER visit to hang out and help me find new recipes I could eat) for Avocado Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing  http://www.cookingclassy.com/2015/06/avocado-greek-yogurt-ranch-dressing/ from this site that I also got off of Pinterest. Tried it out today on a salad and it was not too bad. Granted, it isn't like normal ranch dressing from the store, but it tasted good and worked well for my salad. Even subbed in Almond milk (can't have whole moo juice) and it tastes great. My oldest said it was too stinky though! Ha!

The oil I use, sparingly, to cook with now is avocado. It is supposed to be much better for you and doesn't have a lot of the after taste or smell that comes with olive oil. My hubby hasn't complained so that's good! I've been on this new "diet" now for almost a week and I haven't starved, just learning to adapt to the different changes that are now in my future until the doctor gives me the thumbs up on the gall bladder. Who knows, maybe this diet will stick with me, probably not the coffee part, but I am feeling better and that is what matters the most!

Next time I hope to have the yogurt recipe with pictures!

*Don't forget to click on an ad or two for me :)