Reusable snack/lunch bags

With my daughter being in first grade and taking home lunch every day I wanted to find some good reusable bags.  Even though we do reuse ziplocks as well.  I have made a post on that a long time ago.  So I found some on Jane.com  a terrible website that has so many good things I have to stop myself from looking at it everyday.    

They had the sandwich size and a snack size.  It came in a pack of two each.  I like them but they are really stiff and hard plastic of some sort.  They function but I wasn't sold on them. 

Then I am part of a group that does monthly buys from a place called frontier.  They have a lot of natural things.  I have loved ordering from them.  We get a better price when we order as a group.    I found some on there and I bought a set a few months ago and have loved them. They are more silicone feeling and easier to work with. 

I have liked them so much I just ordered a bunch more of them for using for the other kids snacks and stuff in the car and when they want a bag of pretzels.  I also found they had a large size one that is like a gallon size ziplock so I will see how that one works out.  

I would like to not have to buy the ziplocks at all anymore.  

I would still have some on hand for meats and stuff like that I don't like to mess with that.  

They had some really cute patterns that the kids love.  I am loving how the ones I got a few months ago have held up they don't show any signs of wear.  

The first ones I got from Jane are a little worn and I don't think will last very long compared to these.  The brand on the good ones are Full circle.  

This is a picture of the bottom of the snack size it has a pretty wide base for a small bag and I am amazed at what I can fit in their.  The sandwich bags don't have the pleated bottom so they are more for just sandwiches or flat things.  

The large gallon ziplock one has the pleat thing.   I love them and the kids love picking the fun designs out.  I love to be saving in one more way.  Highly recommended.  

No spend month

We love Dave Ramsey here and we listen to it a lot.  We follow a lot of his advice and things in his book.  We don't do the cash envelope system. I"m sure it would benefit us but we just aren't that into it.  I hate carrying cash around.  I have gone through phases of keeping track of our money.  Not really a budget but seeing where our money goes helps me to spend less or adjust my spending.  I use an excel spread sheet.  Within the last few years I started using Mint.com and I have liked that it brings in the info from our bank accounts and I can sort them into which category they go in.  I am amazed at where our money goes. Even when I think I"m being so good it still finds places to go.

So I am determined to be better I have heard of doing a no spend week or month.  I am going to see how far I can do it.  I have most of christmas shopping done just a few things left for grandparents and stuff, but the kids are all done.  So I want to do it in dec.
Another motivation to do it is to clean our our pantry, freezer and actually use a lot of our canned food I have made.  I want to use it up and make sure we don't have food going bad in our pantry.
I found a can of evaporated milk in my cupboard yesterday it EXPIRED in 2007!!!  Now when did I have to buy that for it to expire in 07?  I don't even know obviously I don't use evaporated milk often enough to have it in my cupboard.  Things like that. I know I have some ravioli that expired this year and I feel like its still find to eat.  But it needs to be done soon.  So that is part of this no spend month.  I want to use up a bunch of stuff I have in the freezer, help clean things out.

I really really think I can do it if I put my mind to it and really use some self control.  Its only a month.  If I really need or most likely want It can wait for a month right?  think about it, research it for a month and then buy it if I still want it after that long.   I am an impulse buyer and I feel like its gotten a little crazy lately so this will put a  stop to it.  This is for my accountability.

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.