Getting the Kids Involved

As many moms do, I often find myself wrapped up in my daily routines.  I feel guilty that I don't spend as much time doing fun activities with my kids as I would like to.  I have been making more of an effort to do that lately, and to do it inexpensively.  I have been reading books and blogs on the topic and taking notes on what does and doesn't work for my family.

Beau often asks for a hot breakfast in the winter.  We have accrued about 15-20 boxes of cold cereal because of WIC, which she is usually OK with during the rest of the year.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am not a morning person.  Unless it's something easy - or unless I've been up for an hour already and had my morning coffee - I don't usually cook.

I found a great solution for breakfast!  And it gives Beau a feeling of responsibility by allowing her to do a little more cooking.  She's quite responsible and careful, and if she has any questions she's sure to ask.  I used a "universal muffin" recipe and figured measurements to use some oatmeal I had in the cupboard.  I based the rest on what my family likes.  Their favorites are blueberry, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate chip.  I've expanded on the chocolate chip a bit by adding about 1/3 cup of peanut butter to it.  We only have crunchy on hand, but that adds a little extra texture too.  This week I also figured up lemon poppy seed muffins with chia seeds added.


The kids helped me with this.  Scrappy and I measured and mixed up all of the dry ingredients.....

.... while Beau measured and mixed up the liquids. 

I found quart jars are just the right size for the dry stuff, while the pints work great for the wet. 

When it's all mixed up, it makes a dozen regular muffins in 20 minutes or 2 dozen mini muffins in about 13 minutes.  (Even hubby usually gets time to eat a couple before he leaves.  We've been doing mini's most mornings because those seem to be the better size for Scrappy.)  Now, in the mornings, Beau knows she can turn the oven on to 350, grab a jar out of the cupboard and one out of the fridge (all are labeled so we know which liquids go to which dry.... we've been doing 3 at a time and don't make more until all 3 are gone, which has been working well), mix the 2 together, and there's breakfast!

The kids also asked for some dessert that evening.  Since I had all the mess out anyway, I decided to keep going.  We made "rocky road" brownies with a box of fudge brownie mix I had found in the cupboard.  We added about a cup of mini marshmallows, half a cup of chocolate chips, and a quarter cup of pecans to the mix.  After it had baked, it was hard to tell there were chocolate chips in there, and the marshmallows had caramelized and seemed to have risen to the top of the mix. But they were still really good!!!!

Since I had soup on the menu for a few days later, I also made a starter for sourdough bread.  That sounded like it would be good with soup.  It was my first time, and I didn't realize that it would rise and bubble up so much.  It overflowed and made a mess on top of my microwave!  At least it was sitting on top of a towel.  I thought the end result was pretty good even though my hubby said it didn't taste like sourdough.  I guess that means Beau and I will have to eat it then!

Scrappy has his Valentine's party at daycare tomorrow. (He currently goes to my neighbor's daycare on Thursday mornings when I have my TOPS meetings.)  He wanted to make his gifts and cards, which worked out pretty well.  He wanted to make "big crayons" for his friends.  (Beau has a Crayola crayon maker that she got for Christmas a few years ago, but I decided to try someone else's method and made them in an old muffin tin.  It was a lot easier than the crayon maker!!) 

I found some outlines online, printed and cut them apart, and he decorated them. 

We were very happy with the final product of the crayons!

He's happy too.  I can't wait to see what his friends think :)

Christmas

It's the day after.  Everything is simmering down.  For the next week I have both children home.  We may be getting to go play outside later this week because of the unusually warm Minnesota weather - it's been over 40 degrees!!  A Christmas without snow makes it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit though.  I haven't been feeling it much this year.

However, I am happy to know I am partially responsible for giving someone the best Christmas present they wanted:  My mom wanted all 4 of us kids together for a picture, and also our kids and significant others.  It's the first time all of us kids have been together (other than Little Warrior's funeral, but that was not the time or place to do it) since my husband and I got married a little over 4 years ago.  Here we are (and yes, most of us are in pajamas since that was the theme this year.  My hoodie and pj pants were the best I was going to be able to do.... hubby passed on the pj idea):

I know the two pictures look almost the same, but as I was checking them out, I noticed something interesting.  Look in the first picture, you may notice some floating spots or orbs in the picture and one right above my husband's head.  In the second picture, we see the orbs again, and this time there is one right on my stomach. 

Now, I'm not majorly superstitious, but I've learned that there are signs in life and it's a matter of if we choose to see or not to see them.  Like I had said last week, I believe that the sun coming out to shine was a sign that our Little Warrior was watching over us and knew we were there to visit him.  I think the orbs in these two pictures are there for a reason.  I think it's his way of letting us know that he knows we're thinking about him and he was there with us.  I think God lets those special people close to us give us signs that they're ok and they're watching over us when we need that comfort and peace.  I told my mom that I thought it was sign from him, and she thinks so too.   When I asked my husband about the orbs, he laughed at me and told me that people would think he was strange if he said what he thought.  But that's because he agreed with me and thought the same.  We have our own guardian angel watching over us.

I spent a somewhat 'lazy' day today with Scrappy hanging out at home.  Beau spent the night having a sleepover with our cousins and rode home with Daddy when he got off work.  Wait - I take back that 'lazy' comment.  I don't think getting 1 1/2 hour workout in counts as lazy, even though it was fun and it was with my new Wii Fit Plus game.  My stomach (someday possibly to be known as my 'abs' - if they truly are buried in there somewhere!!! lol!!) is a little sore from working those muscles.  I've been hesitant to do any abdominal exercises for the past few weeks, but since it's been 6 weeks since my surgery, I thought it should be ok now to try at least a little.  Especially since I consider that to be one of my 'problem areas.'

Since both kids are home for the next week, I have a lot less running to do on a daily basis.  I do have an appointment tomorrow morning, and since we'll be out we need to drop off some payments and run to the grocery store for milk.  I try to only make one trip out, or go when I pick Beau up or drop her off at school I try to get all my running done then and schedule appointments accordingly.  It really makes things easier if I already have Scrappy in the car and don't have to get him out and in the house, take off his coat, hat, and boots, then put them all back on 15 minutes later.

I also told Beau that we need to sort through and get rid of some of her and Scrappy's old toys.  They got plenty of new toys for Christmas, so some things have to go to make room for the new.  They have WAY too many toys.  When I have my garage sale in the spring, there are going to be PLENTY of toys to go.  I'm not going to bother with all the stuffed animals and a lot of the small stuff.  Thankfully the Epilepsy Foundation will be picking up next week, so hopefully I can get a bag or a few bags out for them.

**Note to self - (Since I'm thinking of it right now, I'm gonna write it so I don't forget)... After the 1st of the year, I am going to need to keep better documentation of a few things for tax purposes, especially because of my business.  I need mileage for both vehicles as of January 1.  I'm going to keep a binder with all of Scrappy's medical appointments at Mayo since we can write off the mileage on those too.  I'm also going to create a file for donations since I'll be doing a lot of sorting out and we'll be donating quite a bit.  I need to print out the kids' care sheets too so I have a copy of those on hand for 'emergency reasons' - you never know what's going to happen!  And I suppose I should call to check on the deeds for our cemetery plots.  I thought we would have gotten them by now..... hmmmm....

Well, there's a lot on my plate for tomorrow...  Wish sleeping in was on the list, but that's not in Scrappy's book....  Hopefully after some cleaning, some time with Zumba will be on my plate!!

Christmas Eve

We had to run to the store this morning so I could get a few things I needed to make goodies to take to my aunt's tonight.  We also decided we're going to Christmas Eve service at 4pm today so we don't have to fight with the kids tomorrow to get them away from their toys.  Pastor said both services will be the same.  Plus, with there not being Sunday School, I think the kids will be more cooperative this afternoon.

So what easy treats am I taking today?  My super easy fudge - one batch with nuts, one without (I honestly don't remember where I got the recipe from) and a pan of cream cheese bars that I got the recipe from a former coworker.  Oh yes, I will be posting the recipes :)  Breakfast tomorrow will be Amish baked oatmeal with bananas and raisins since I can mix it up tonight and just bake it in the morning.

We are trying to decide exactly how to keep with our usual tradition.  I always let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve.  For the past few years, we just spent a quiet Christmas Eve at our house.  So the dilemma - do we let the kids open a present before we go to my aunt's, or after we get home?  It's not unusual for the party to last into the wee hours of the morning.  Being the party poopers with 2 young kids, our plan is to be home around 8:30 or 9.  We still have more presents to wrap and I'm sure the kids will be up pretty early.  We have Scrappy's treatments to do too, which adds another half hour to the schedule.  I wonder which of the kids will be up first? (My bet is on Scraps - he rarely sleeps past 7!)

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas Eve!!

Secret Santa

Hubby got home about 9:45 last night from work.  I waited for him, then headed to bed around 10.  I didn't have much energy yesterday afternoon.  Scrappy refused to nap, instead going up to the room he and his sister share and they played Barbies while Mama took a short snooze in the recliner.  After supper, the two of them headed back upstairs to play while I vegged out in my recliner and wrote my blog and watched a little tv.  I skipped my workout because I could hardly stay awake to write my entry.

Today was Beau's first day of winter break.  Scrappy crawled in bed with me after daddy got up and slept for a while but decided 7:40 would be a good time to get up, which is ok except I was hoping to sleep in a little more since I wake up quite often during the night.  I'm not a light sleeper - hubby says I can sleep through almost anything.  Except the sleep doesn't last long.  It's not uncommon for me to wake up 4 or 5 times during the night.  I usually have no idea what time it is since I can't see the clock without my glasses or contacts.  It seems to take forever to get back to sleep though.

After the kids had breakfast, I read a little more on my favorite blog (which I discovered a couple months ago - but I'm going back and catching up from the beginning, just a little at a time!) and they went upstairs to play again.  After a little while I dozed off again, only to be woken by Beau yelling at me about how mean her little brother is.  He was crabby and wanted his way, and she wanted to complain about every little thing he did.  Finally I told them if they couldn't play NICE, they weren't going to play upstairs or with Barbies anymore.

I didn't get my workout in this morning either (maybe that was today's problem!).  My back was sore and I was tired (excuses, I know).  I was supposed to head over to my bestie's house to help her make Christmas treats this morning.  I waited for her call to say she was ready.  She didn't text me until 11:45 to say she had JUST woken up! LOL!!  I was in the process of making lunch for me and the kids - leftovers.  Scrappy hasn't been wanting to eat too much lately, but for some reason pb&j seemed to hit the perfect spot for him and he ate almost a full half of his sandwich!!  I finally talked to her after lunch.  We had to pick up some meds for Beau since she's still kind of barking from her bout with croup.  It was 3:30 by the time we finally got over there.  We had a good time making treats, in spite of neither of us having much energy.  (Hubby thinks that if I would have done my workout, I wouldn't have been so tired.  Probably right.  And I probably wouldn't have been so tired if I would've made my pot of coffee before noon too!!)

We have our Christmas shopping done, save for a few more stocking stuffers.  I have to make the goodies to take to my aunt's house tomorrow too.  It doesn't feel like Christmas though.  And I don't mean because of all that has happened.  I mean because there is NO SNOW on the ground - and for Minnesota, that is very odd!!!  And it's supposed to be 40 degrees on Christmas Day!  That's just not right!  But there is definitely plenty of Christmas spirit going around and it has traveled to Minnesota.  I've been hearing and reading news articles about 'secret Santas' who have been paying off people's layaways at various stores, particularly in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and a few other places.  Well, we had a visit from a secret Santa of our own!!  One of hubby's co-workers (who doesn't have children of his own) bought and wrapped some presents for our kids, as did his mother-in-law, and signed them from Santa a few days ago.  Today, hubby went out to his van after work to find a couple more presents - these ones unwrapped - sitting on his van with a note saying they were from Santa.  His boss said he saw the gifts sitting there, but has no idea where they came from, and either does anyone else.  It's nice to see the Christmas spirit spreading so much.  I just wish there was something we could do to thank the person who gave it to the kids.

It really looks like this Christmas is going to be a special one for our family.

Doing it!

I've been keeping quite busy in spite of the emotional turmoil.  It's been a month today since we lost Baden, but I'm holding up as good as can be expected.  I had to go to the college today to pick up some paperwork to appeal 2 classes that I failed so they won't affect my GPA.  According to the counselor, my appeal should be granted based on the circumstances.  It's still hard to believe....

I've been pushing myself along.  I stuck to my workout plan until Thursday.  The kids were at Grammy's, so I took advantage of the time and spent the afternoon wrapping Christmas presents since I can't always count on naptime and Christmas is quickly approaching.  The tree looked rather odd without anything under it too.  There's an imbalance of gifts - Beau seems to have more than Scrappy, but he has some bigger (ie, more expensive) than she does.  Quite a few of hers are smaller gifts.  But they all come out to about the same amount.  I think next year, we need to be sure to set a limit on the dollar amount.  It just seems too easy to get "just one more" thing for one, then for the other.... it's not working for our plans for saving money.

Friday I honestly just didn't have the motivation to do anything, let alone my workout routine.  Saturday morning I woke up with a very, very sore and stiff knee.  I broke my left ankle when I was 2 and believe I had messed up my knee at that time, since I've ALWAYS had problems with my left knee as long as I can remember.  Then, my senior year in high school, I was in a bad car accident and buried my knee in the steering column of my car, which was totalled.  I must seem old, because I can usually predict a change in weather based on how my knee feels.  If it hurts to walk up or down stairs and feels like it's going to give out, it means something's up.  The pain didn't go away until Monday morning, so I resumed my workout on the Fit and upped it to an hour, followed with 45 minutes today.

I've been trying several different strategies on how to cut down on costs since I'm still not back to work yet.  My plan is to start up again in January - hoping my clients agree!!!!  In January, I'm due for an upgrade on my cell phone.  Unlike many people, I'm going to do just the opposite and downgrade.  I have a smartphone right now - Blackberry Curve - which I love, but realistically the costs are just CRAZY.  I need to check into other plans for the smartphone, but I know the cheapest way to go right now with our provider is to eliminate the data plan.  That will free up some of my meager pay to go towards other bills.  I've also eliminated another $35 monthly bill by giving up my storage unit.  I have had it for 5 years, and much of the stuff in there has never been touched.  There are totes upon totes of toys that the kids don't even know they HAVE, and the ridiculous amount of stuffed animals and too small clothes.  My plan is to have a garage sale in the spring, or maybe 2, and then try to consign some of the stuff that doesn't sell and donate some to the Epilepsy Foundation.  I love donating to them, particularly since they will pick up donations curbside, rain or shine.

I have become absolutely addicted to a frugality website I found when looking for a recipe for homemade baby wipes.  No, I didn't make the wipes, but I've found many of the tips Heather posts to be quite helpful.  I'm currently undertaking her Pantry Challenge which has actually helped with my menu planning.  I've started cooking some things I haven't made in a while.  The only exceptions to the challenge for me right now is that Christmas is this week, so I will have to do some cooking to take a few treats to my aunt's on Christmas Eve, and the fact that we get WIC, which cover some of the items listed, but there are a few other items on there that aren't "staples."  My husband isn't on board with the challenge, but I'm going to do my best anyway.  For example, yesterday for lunch Scrappy and I had homemade pork fried rice made completely with on hand items and using up leftover pork roast from a couple nights ago.  Last night I made chicken enchilada casserole.  I didn't have any enchilada sauce, but with a quick online search, I found a recipe for a homemade one and I had all the necessary ingredients on hand :)  I had leftover sauce, which I'll try to use later this week, and honestly it was a LOT better than the store-bought packages!!  I would LOVE to make homemade bread, since that's one ingredient that's not listed as a staple, but my husband prefers store-bought bread for sandwiches :( Maybe I'll make it anyway, and maybe he'll change his mind....  Maybe....  Beau was upset that she didn't get any fried rice, so tonight I made chicken fried rice to placate her.  My poor family - they may be eating a lot of oatmeal and rice the next couple weeks since we have both coming out our ears :/  So, like I said, I'm trying the challenge with a few modifications!

I need to go check out the local second hand stores in the next couple weeks.... my vacuum sealer decided it wanted to die on me now that I finally FOUND it again.  So that is going to need to be replaced.  I had called my mom to see if I could borrow her bread machine to see how much I would use one IF I had one.... but she doesn't have it anymore.  She traded it to my aunt.  So maybe I'll see if I can find a used one for cheap.

And I know I've said it before, but I'm trying to get a schedule set to do some blogging more often.  I'm happy that I've been doing pretty good with organizing and sorting throughout the house.  It helps that I do my workout in the mornings - I have SO much more energy to get other things done.  I've been trying to get 2 workouts in when possible.  I do my morning one while Scrappy is doing to nebby and vest treatments and try to get the second one in when he is napping.  (For those who don't know me/my family personally, Scrappy has Cystic Fibrosis, which is the main reason we decided to sacrifice having 2 full-time incomes for 1 full- and 1 part-time... and he's been a LOT healthier!!)

The last 2 weeks, I've gained a total of just over 4 pounds at TOPS, and I'm not too happy with it.  Hopefully all this work will start to pay off soon.  And the fact that I've really cut down on how much Coke I drink and been cooking healthier.  Now only if I wasn't eating so much... time to break the chia out!!!!