Reading El Libro de Mormon

I finished reading the book of mormon recently and so it was time to start again.  I used to read it in spanish every other time I would read it and maybe its just been that long since I finished it.  It seems like its been years since I read it in spanish though.  I think it was maybe 2011.  Anyways I decided that I really wanted to do it.  So I started reading in spanish, I was reading out loud and it was taking forever but it was good.  Then I started listening to my gospel library in spanish its much better. Especially because I am trying to read it by the end of the year and I started about the first of November.  So in two months.  I decided I could use the reading help.

 I won't lie I have been lacking on my dedication to reading my scriptures daily.  I can't do it in the morning because I work until the kids wake up and then its get the kids to school and preschool.  Then the day just gets away from you.  Night is hard because I am just so tired by then.  I can come up with a million excuses.   I shouldn't because I remember thinking on my mission  how can people not spend time reading everyday?  How do you stop reading them?   well I know now.... I am that person.  So this has been a good kick in my pants to get me launched back into it.  I get my daughter off to school and then while Max is doing his preschool I take that time to read.   I have made it a priority, and I can tell the difference.  I need to make that a life long goal.

I love that when I read it in spanish I get different things out of the same book.  It just means something different.  Or you perceive it differently, that is one reason I like to switch reading english and spanish.  I don't know why but some songs are better in spanish too.

Another part I like to have it a chart.  It helps me see how far I need to go and how far I have come.  I am a list maker so this is so fun for me.   I also like to color how much I read each day with a different color so I can look back and see some days I really had a lot of time to read and some half a chapter.  Its great.  We started this chart with all of the beehives in our young women.  So we all have a chart together but going at different rates.  Its fun to do things as a group. 

Homemade belly butter

I have always liked the belly butter I have used before with my previous pregnancies.  I used Bella B tummy butter with my other three.  This one I wanted to try something home made to save and to know exactly what was in it.  I have really gotten into making my own skin products as you have probably noticed with all of these blog posts.  

I found this one from Wellness mama and I had most of the ingredients anyway. I had to buy ginger root and that was it, so I thought I would give it a shot and so far I love it.  

Here is the recipe 

• 1/4 cup Shea Butter
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 3 Tablespoons Apricot Kernel Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Calendula flowers (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried ginger root
• I added some Doterra oil called Immortelle its supposed to really help with anti aging and wrinkles just overall good for the skin.  I figured this was a perfect place to put this oil and try it out.  

You do a double boiler where you put the measuring cup inside of the pot of boiling water and melt down the butter, oils and I already had some Calendula infused oil made from previous recipe so I just added the already made oil.  

Then I put in the ginger root and waited until it cooled off a little before I added in the immortelle oil.  

  

I use a skewer wooden stick to stir my stuff usually.  It works really well.   It turned out really nice. I was a little runny for a week or so but then as the weather got colder it has firmed up a little bit.  Its still pretty soft and easy to apply.  I put it on at least once a day if not more.  If I can remember.

I'm not terribly worried about stretch marks because I already have some from having three babies already but I really like it for the itching and not feeling so stretched out.  

I feel like this is great for my skin and it smells good too.  

 This jar was half full when I made it and its getting close to the end. I probably have maybe another month so I will have to do another batch that should last the rest of the time.

Homemade probiotics

I have been looking for a good vitamin for my kids, and for me.  Ones that only have the stuff I want in them none of this added extra sugar or weird ingredients that don't need to be in there.
I finally found a good recipie that the kids like and actually love.  They make sure to tell me to get them out in the morning. 
They are from the wellness mama of course. That is where I get all of my good tasting recipes.
This one has 4 simple basic ingredients.

• 1 cup pure juice.  So we have been using grape juice that we canned just a few weeks ago.  Or some apple juice.  
• 8 teaspoons gelatin powder.  I got the one she uses and its great. I bought one from the store before and it did not taste good and it left it gritty almost. This one has great ingredients and it gels up nicely. 
• 2 tablespoons honey if you want.
• Then you can add probiotics, vitamin c, magnesium.  Whatever vitamin you want.  We usually do a probiotic in one batch and a vitamin c in another.  I found somewhere that she said 2 teaspoons of which ever vitamin you are using per batch.  

The probiotic that I use comes in capsules so I have to emtpy them out and measure them out.  It is a great probiotic though so its worth it.  

Then you heat it up and add the vitamin after its cooled down a little bit.    

Then I got these silicone molds that I pour them into and each batch fills three of these trays.  

So we have a bunch to make it fun.  The kids love to choose the shapes. That is half the fun of the vitamins is what shape they get to choose.  

These are the ingredients for the probiotic ones 

These are the vitamin c ones. 

I have been really pleased with the results the kids love to take them and I feel like they are getting a better vitamin than any I could buy.  I know exactly what is in these.  They are quick and easy to make and very inexpensive.  

The kids also love to help poke them out of the molds once they have firmed up.  I put them in the fridge for probably 5-8 hours.  I line the molds with coconut oil so they wont stick and it works wonderful.

These are some of the fun shapes we have.  Dinosaurs, animals of course, stars,  seashells, robots, hearts, small hearts and gummy bear shaped one. 

I am really hoping these vitamins will help keep away all of those colds this winter along with other things we do.  

Here comes #4

Here is part of the reason I have been such a slacker for a few months.  

We are excited to be expecting baby #4 at our house.  The kids were so excited when we told them.  Lexi has been asking for a baby sister for a while, so we will see if we can make that happen.  We haven't been able to see it yet despite trying for the last two appointments.  I guess "it" wants to remain a mystery for a while more.   The suspense is killing me though. I just want to know.
I am lucky that I am never terribly sick with my pregnancies.  Usually if I just eat little snacks all day long I can feel pretty good.

It has been a great fun summer but I have been so exhausted and tired.  I don't ever remember being this tired when I was pregnant.   I don't know if it's just that I have 3 other kids running around needing my help or just that I"m older. haha or both.   Luckily I was able to take a few naps here and there.  The kids were nice enough to play nicely for a little bit some days.

Everything with baby appears healthy and good.  So that is good.  I plan on doing a natural birth again with the hypnobabies method. I loved it and thought it was so much better than the previous two births.  I have been listening and practicing my hypnobaby tracks and remembering how to relax and take time to dedicate that time to me and the baby.  Its always nice and relaxing just what I need these days.   I really look forward to seeing how this birth will be different and the same as some of the others.  I also REALLY look forward to snuggling that newborn baby they are so sweet and little.  Its seems like forever since Sawyer was a newborn.  I miss that stage.

I am excited to see how the kids will be with  a new baby.  Max is so sweet with his little neices and nephews it will be cute to see him with our own baby.  Sawyer is old enough to help out.  It will be nice to have  him be older than any of my others were when we have a newborn.  I know Lexi will be great and will be such a help.  I am excited.

So we found out that its a baby girl. Lexi was thrilled to say the least and so was I.  I wanted to use all of those cute girl clothes that Lexi wore and I have accumulated a few more since then.  I also have been hording some other girl things like blankets and cute leather shoes.  My sister has started a bow business and I'm excited to have girl things again.  It will be great.  We are all super excited to finally know the gender.

We are a little over half way and I am still loving and enjoying every minute.  I am lucky to have pretty easy pregnancies overall.  I am glad that I can enjoy it.  I have started to really feel her kick and move around.  I love feeling that. I remember after Sawyer was born I really missed feeling that.  So I am glad to feel it again.

So here is to our next big adventure.  We are all excited and ready.

Bathroom make over

So now that the rest of the basement is done I can start on the bathroom down there. I painted the walls and  got some cute decorations for it.  We put up towel hooks for the kids.  

  I found this milk paint that is easy to paint over the cabinets without sanding and a lot of crazy work.  This you just have to clean them good and then paint.  So I tried it out on this bathroom first and I was amazed at how easy and forgiving this paint was.  It was pretty easy and you can still kind of see the wood grain so I like how it looks

Here is the before shot

It didn't take terribly long either Maybe 3-4 hours total.  I took off the knobs on the drawers and the doors off.  I put two coats on and it looks good.  I feel like its such an upgrade from the oak color.  

I love how it matches the rest of the decor.  Its great.  

I do need to put the top clear coat on.  That will just protect it from getting antiqued and chipped.  That should be a quick job too.  I really like just how easy it was.  I was worried it would look patchy or streaky.  It doesn't though I used a foam craft brush.  I have read that you can use a foam roller.  So maybe next time I will use that since I have one and i might as well try it.  

I liked it so much that I did it to the main bathroom upstairs as well.  It looks good too.  We already had gray in the color schemes up here so It was a perfect match with everyrhing else.   

My husband has liked how it looks too and he is a huge cabinet nazi. haha  He used to install cabinets for Lowes so he has a reason to be picky.  He said you should do it to the kitchen ones too.  So that is on the list of things to do but I want to perfect the painting before I attempt that HUGE project but I can just imagine how nice it would make the kitchen look.  It would take a few days since there are so many more cabinets in there.    It also makes me want to do our kitchen table because its a light oak color and with kids it has taken a toll.  There are so many crayon, pen, marker marks on there that I cannot scrub off no matter how hard i try.   So I want to do a dark brown top that would match the color of the cabinets and white legs.  I think it would look great.   Thanks to pintrest I have a good idea of how I can make it look.  

I love these kind of house projects. Its so fun to see the change and improvement.

Basement update!!!

We have been hard at work on the basement.  I have been painting the trim and doors lately.  Just do a set every day so when Jared has a day off or we have a weekend free it will all be ready for him to cut and put on.  I went out and picked out a carpet that will work its not quite as nice as we wanted but I can't afford the kind we really want.  Carpet is soooo expensive.  I just have to remember this is the last big expense to our house remodel till one day we are up for doing the kitchen and bathrooms up here.  (not for like 5 years at this point)  
I am so excited to get it done and have it all done.  We can have a somewhat empty garage again and the rooms and closets upstairs wont be overflowing with stuff that is supposed to go downstairs.  I will be able to get into our storage room again.  I know I have a lot more cleaning out to do when we move it all around again and that makes me excited.   I know exactly what  I want.... well I have an idea in my head anyways.

Fast foward a few weeks. 

Yay its done.... We finally got the carpet and everything done.  Its wonderful.  After a long time we are finally done and its feels great to not have the HUGE project hanging on us.  We love it the kids love it, everyone does.  I am doing the finishing touches on the bathroom down there. I just finished painting it saturday.  I am going to try out the milk paint on the cabinets and see how that works. I"ll do a post on that later, and let you know how that went.  I"m hoping for the best.  Pintrest makes it sound easy and quick so well see.

We still have a few random little things to do.  Like add the light covers on the can lights and a few door knobs.  But that is easy quick stuff.  It looks pretty good having it done.  We just almost doubled our house size haha.  Its nice. 
I have been trying to clean out and organize it while I am spreading our stuff around the house.  I have a whole back of my car full of DI stuff.  Its amazing how you can keep getting rid of stuff.  There is so much we try to hang on to for that one day.  We really don't need to so a lot of that stuff is going.  If we haven't used it since we moved over 2 years ago then I probably won't.


Have I said it feels GREAT yet?!?  haha

No sugar canning...

Its that time of year.... canning season and I am ready for it.   We had planted three peach trees when we moved in and two have died.  I need to take them back to the nursery and see if they will replace them.   Its weird they died.  Anyways so we don't have peaches yet hopefully next year.  Our one surviving tree is pretty small still.  I am hopeful.  We did get some apricots this year and I canned a few and ate a bunch.  

I participate in a vegetable/fruit coop every other week and they had peaches for a really good price so I took advantage of that and got some and ate a ton fresh.  Nothing is better than a fresh juicy peach.  I did can some and I looked up some ways to can them without using sugar.  I thought they are so sweet as they are why add sugar unless you have to to make sure its preserved right.   

I found a blog that they used lemon juice and that was it. So I tried it.  You could either use a tsp in each quart jar and then top off with water or use 1/2 cup per gallon of water.   So I did the gallon of water one.  

I had lemons so I juiced them in my handy dandy hand juicer.

Then I put some water in a pan and added the 1/2 cup lemon juice and kept it on warm while I cut up the peaches and then filled up the jars with the warm lemon water. 

I haven't tried any of them yet but they look delicious and healthy.  I love finding ways to cut down on the sugar and be a little healthier.  I found another way with honey but my mom said her mom did that and they weren't as good they just had a funny taste to them.  So we will find out soon enough how the lemon water did.