time flies

Time flies when you're having fun!  Or in my case when you are busy and feel totally uninspired to sit and do an entire blog.  My cousin had recently been absent from the blogging world for a time and when I was catching up on her new post today she mentioned that her, "days are spent in small increments... increments that a quick Facebook status update can fill, but a blog entry intimidates."  Exactly.  I READ a lot of blogs and I see these moms writing away while they are busy with life and I think to myself, "I wonder how they do it?"  And then I realize that a lot of them have sponsors on their page and probably get paid to post.  If I got paid to blog I'd be more consistent with it too!

I still wonder who actually reads my blog.  I struggle over the fact that I seem to type and post just for me and that can get really boring.  So if you follow along, let me know.  I'll feel better putting together a post that I know will be seen by anyone other than myself.

the gift that keeps on giving

In December 1983, Helen Mackensen gave 3 month old Brynn Christine Mackensen a $50 savings bond.  Well, I'm sure she gave it to her son and daughter-in-law to take care of and take care of it they did!  28 years later they finally gave it to me for Christmas 2011.  Haha!  I'll have to ask them if they forgot about it, or just hadn't decided to pass it on yet, but either way it was a nice surprise as I don't remember ever hearing I had a savings bond.  The bond was worth just over $100 and I was pretty happy thinking about all the fun things I was going to do with my 100 bucks.  There was a cool nail polish I wanted, my curling iron broke so I thought I'd replace that, a girl always needs new clothes- so maybe I'd save it till I lost some more weight and then reward myself with a shopping trip... oh the possibilities!

Then, just the other day, I came into our room to find Finn STANDING in his co-sleeper, reaching OVER the edge to try and stick his fingers IN the wall socket.

Time to break out the crib.

Geniuses that Jason and I are, when we moved here we put our crib in the very back of our storage unit and piled everything else we own in front of it....

We talked about digging it out- Jason let out a massive *sigh* at that thought.  We talked about buying a mini crib and mattress (seeing as we're short on space and the crib we have is huge) but kids grow out of those too quickly.  And we talked about buying a "full size" crib from Ikea, their cribs are pretty space friendly while not being a mini crib.  We decided to get a new Ikea crib as ours is 10 years old and not in great condition and it's one of those now illegal "drop down side" versions.  We never had an issue with the side falling on its own, quite the opposite- it never went down.  It seemed to be stuck, but you never know.  The move could have jostled it and "fixed" that problem.  We also decided that as Finn had hand-me-downs for everything else: toys, clothes, blankets, high chair, etc. maybe he should get one new thing.  Finn will be in jail the crib for a while still, so it's a good investment.

Issue was we didn't really have the money to buy something new.  Oh wait, who just got $100 for Christmas?

Buh-bye pretty drop earrings, sayonara yellow Crate and Barrel coffee cups.

As much as I like buying pretty little things, I love my kids more.  I really don't want Finn falling headfirst out of his co-sleeper (nor out the side of an old crib) or electrocuting himself.  So off to Ikea we went!

This Christmas, 28 years after she gave the gift, my Grandma bought the great-grandson she never got to meet a brand new crib!

days of thanks

A few friends on facebook had the thought to post something everyday that they were thankful for this month. I decided that this was a fabulous idea! I read somewhere, "What if you woke up only with the things that you said you were thankful for the day before?" Does that hit home for you like it did for me?

We should say thanks more often.

Days of Thanks

#1- I am thankful Jesus loves me.
#2- I am thankful for my parents, for the way they raised me and the Godly influence they are in my life.
#3- today I am thankful for my brother Jake and the fact that even though we don't always see eye to eye, he's still one of my best friends and I enjoy spending time with him. (My brother's response to my heartfelt comment: Awww!!! That's really nice!!! You're my best friend too! And we don't see eye to eye cause you're shorter than me...)
#4- I am thankful for my husband Jason and the hard working, fun loving, God fearing, hugs & kisses giving, daddy and husband that he is! I love you!
#5- today I am thankful for my kids. Even though they drive me crazy, I'm blessed to have them and love them very much!
#6- whoops, missed this day!
#7 & #8- I am thankful for yesterday and todays rain!
#9 - oh dear. Blank again.
#10- today I am thankful for children who (most of the time) say please and thank you. It's a really nice feeling when your 4 year old sits at the counter and says, "Thanks mom for making me a turkey sandwich with mustard!"
#11- today I am thankful for all of our veterans, past and present! Thank you (and your families) for you service and sacrifice!
#12- today I am thankful I have survived 3 weeks with no soda. I've been missing my caffeine!
#13- today I am thankful for biscuits and honey. When you're sick (which I am) there is nothing better. Well, at least in my opinion.
#14- today I am thankful that I appear to be the only one who is sick in the family. Praying no one else gets this.
#15- I am thankful for rainy days, where I can just lounge around in my comfy sweatpants and watch movies with Liam.
#16- no thanks today. This was all I posted-

#17- today I am thankful Jason has a job.
#18- I'm thankful it's Friday...
#19- Mmmmmm, homemade pumpkin spice donuts! SO good! Days of Thanks #19 - I am thankful that my mom was the kind of mom that let me help her make cookies and such as a kid! It instilled a love of baking (and cooking) in me! I need to be better at letting my kids help me in the kitchen, so they develop a love of cooking as well!
#20- I am thankful for red nail polish and 2 sets of tiny toes to paint on the girls.
#21- I am thankful for hugs. There is nothing better than a good squeeze.
#22- I am thankful for a live in plumber. It's so nice to not have to call someone to come change out a faucet, fix a shower head or unplug a messed up toilet.
#23- I am thankful for imaginative children. Even when it results in my vacuum attachment being broken because one of them was pretending to be Poseidon with his trident and threw it down the hall at a Greek foe...
#24- I sang this song for the kids on Thanksgiving and posted the words on facebook. Now... I could have recorded myself singing it, uploaded and edited the video and then posted it here, but I thought I'd just share this rather cool YouTube clip instead.

#25- I am thankful for Turkey Day leftovers!
#26- I am thankful for shopping with the parental unit and that they bought me a cute shirt, hat and scarf as an early Christmas present!
#27- I am thankful for popcorn, hot chocolate and a movie with my family on a Sunday afternoon!
#28- today I am thankful for a bread machine. I can just toss all my ingredients in there and voila, a few hours later I have a hot, yummy loaf of honey wheat bread.
#29- today I am thankful for my happy, happy Finnegan! He's always smiling and is rarely fussy anymore. It makes my day every single time I go to pick him up, or just walk by him, or call his name, or start singing and he grins at me. :)
#30- today I am thankful for you. Yes, YOU! For all the laughs we've shared. The tears we've cried. For all the hugs. For midnight movies and long talks into the wee hours of the morning. For crazy adventures and times of boredom. For old friends from years and years ago and for new friends. For history- good or bad. Whether I know you a little or a lot you've made an impact on my life and for that I am thankful.

pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?  If you have not let me enlighten you.

It's an online site that allows you to find, pin or re-pin and organize all sorts of random stuff.  Or better put, "pin-ter-est (n.) A fun reminder of the clothes I will never afford/fit into, the home decor I will never afford/fit into our small home, the recipes and crafts I am too lazy to ever make, the sayings I wasn't clever enough to think of on my own, the photos I wish I had taken but didn't."

It's a wonderful way to waste spend time (something I don't have) and I am in love with it.



Even though the above saying is mostly true for me (and no, I didn't think of it, I found it on Pinterest...) not all of it applies.

I'm not very lazy about making crafts or cooking- they are two things I really love to do.  So finding crafty ideas that I can afford or a new recipe to try is a real joy for me.

One thing that I found on there was a post about making and storing salads in a mason jar.  I've stored salad in tupperware before but it spoils rather quickly.  I thought this was a fabulous idea as whatever I put in my mason jars appears to stay fresh a lot longer, as they seal better in my opinion!  I love salads but I hate making them every day and I would eat one everyday if it wasn't such a pain.  Tada!  Pinterest.

I saw 2 different blogs about salad jars, on one of them she vacuumed packed her jars and the other didn't.  Since I don't have a way to vacuum pack my jars I decided to just wing it and see how long everything stays fresh.  I did however decide that I should buy a salad spinner to get as much moisture off the lettuce before I "canned" it.  Hello!  10 minute road trip to Ikea!  Introducing my $3 salad spinner-

A fresh bunch of red leaf lettuce, a bunch of spinach, carrots, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, green onion and celery (I know, I'm not very exciting) an hour of my time and I've got 8 jars of salad ready to go.

5 are just a lettuce/spinach mix, but 2 I made special for Jason: a balsamic dressing at the very bottom and some things like raw onions, mushrooms and avocado in his jars and let me just say, he was THRILLED to grab a jar and a fork and head out the door to work this morning!  All he has to do is shake it up at lunch time and he's got a much better alternative to a PB&J sandwich.

I made 3 for myself with the list of ingredients at the top and I just dump it all on a plate, add a little bit of Italian dressing and eat it up!

I'm slowly consuming one now as I work on this blog!

I'm looking forward to trying other things on Pinterest and I'm sure you'll see more blogs with that in mind!  As "they" (whoever "they" are) say, Happy Pinning!

tiny freezer, lots of food

The other day I opened the fridge and it looked like this:

No milk, I think there were 2 eggs in the carton, no fruit or veggies. As you can see, there was bread and salsa, some minced garlic, grape jelly, Hershey's syrup and whip cream.  The only things in the freezer were half a bag of peas and corn and a frozen pie shell.  It would have been an interesting meal.

A trip to the store was sorely needed.  So I went to Sam's Club (I used to have to drive 2 hours one way to get there, now it's 15 minutes away!) and did some bulk shopping.  One of the nice things about living in Austin is that you're only charged sales tax on non-food items at the grocery store and that includes Sam's.  So if you only buy food, you get out of there tax free.  I've never "just" bought food at Sam's, but I digress.

After Sam's I hit the grocery store and got the rest of what I needed there.  Then it was time to go home and cook!

Now, I've done once a month cooking before, see here, but I've always had a deep freezer along with the one that's apart of my fridge.  I've never just used the little freezer before.

Let me just say that after employing some mad packing skills I got the following in there:

2 bags of taco meat

2 bags of chicken tortilla soup

1 chicken and wild rice casserole

3 pans of chicken enchiladas

2 balsamic-garlic pork tenderloins

10 dijon burgers

4 bags of spaghetti sauce

2 bags of meatballs

2 bags of honey-orange chicken breasts

10 twice baked potato halves

12 egg & sausage sandwiches

6, 2-packs of waffles

a family size bag of peas, corn and green beans

(and I have all of my frozen pumpkin puree in there too)

The pie shell previously in the freezer didn't fit, so it was turned into pumpkin pie.  :)

All in all it comes out to about 20 dinners and then some breakfast items.  I had planned to freeze some pizza dough as well, but it won't fit.  Dough is easy to make the same day however, so not a big deal.

Oh and my fridge looks happier better too!

Now that I know I can get quite a bit in my little freezer I will definitely get back into the "bulk" cooking.  It saves me quite a bit, I think it was around $200 for all of this (I used no coupons and I had to replace/purchase quite a few staples that didn't survive the move like balsamic vinegar and a big package of tinfoil pans from Sam's) so that comes to about $10 a meal.  Now that I have some basics, my next trip will be even less.

Phew, I think after all this cooking and blogging I need to go enjoy some of that pumpkin pie!

halloween

Here are some pictures for the grandparents of the kids on Halloween! (Sorry they aren't clearer, I've been having issues with my camera, normally I take a better picture.)

We had a nice evening collecting the most candy the kids have ever gotten and there were only 2 houses that were unpleasant.  Liam went up to the first one and was scared to death by it- the guy at the door was very nice and took his mask off and came all the way out on the lawn to show Liam it was just pretend and give him some candy. After Liam saw it wasn't real he was good to go, but refused to walk up to anymore "scary" looking houses till we checked them out first. We ended our night having a little chat on the way home about good vs. bad costumes and scary home decor. Oh... and we had a little piece of candy as well.

The best part however was that it was 70 degrees outside and I walked around all night wearing a tank top, jeans and flip flops. :)

Katie, Evie and Liam

Liam as Iron Man!

Evie was Princess Jasmine

Katie was a fierce pirate!

Finn was a lumberjack!

Jason rounded out the group as a ninja! 

(And they must not see a lot of ninja's here as he got comments like, "Oh cool a ninja!" ALL night!)

Jason came down the driveway after going up to this house and said I had to check this guy out. I was too scared to ask him for candy as apparently he twitched creepily when giving it to you. As you can see from the video, I was a scaredy cat to even look around the corner. Liam flat out refused to go up to this house and I wouldn't have let him anyway. I wouldn't have let the girls go either, but they ran up before we could stop them. But they came back and said it was creepy but they weren't frightened. :)

new apartment

Well, we are pretty settled in our new apartment! It has 3 bedrooms which is lovely! The girls are in their own room and then both boys will eventually be in a room together. For now Finn is still in his bassinet in the master bedroom and we are trying to find a mini crib for the boys room to use the space efficiently. There are 2 things I miss about being in a little apartment. #1 is my dining room table. We have a bar and barstools to eat at for the next year and I miss all of us being able to sit at the same table. #2, I miss some of the things in storage like ALL of my stamp and craft items. As soon as we can afford some new bookshelves (we sold the first set we had so we had more $ to move) we are going to purchase a couple and put them in the master bedroom where there is space and I will get all of that over here. Here are some pictures of the new place!

View from the front door looking in.

Our little living room.

The kitchen and "dining" area (this kitchen is huge compared to the one in Pagosa.)

Office area.

The boys room (Liam LOVES all the space he has right now!)

Girls room (they love not being in bunk beds anymore.)

Master bedroom

Nice big closet for Jason and I, our last one was tiny and there was so much crammed in it, I could have been on Hoarders. The goal is to not have this closet wind up like the last one.

Master bedroom closet