How I Make Money From Home

I keep seeing these posts on how to make money from home.. they give you all these great ideas, but I have to be honest, not many work for me.  

You've seen the ads on my blog, but in order to get paid, enough people have to click... So I would love to say that writing gets me paid, but it doesn't.. 

I have tried many different sites, from a transcriptionist site, to a secret shopper site-but apparently I don't have the stuff it takes for those. So for now, I just stick with survey sites (yes, the links here will make me money if you join and get to so many points)...  While it's not big money, it helps a little.  So I'll share with you my favorites.  

Vindale Research, there are some surveys you get through them but they are mostly a trial and review company.. Meaning you pay a low price for something (we've done coffee and books) and you get paid for the review you provide.. Yes, that requires money out of pocket the first time around, but you get paid quicker doing the product reviews than just the surveys. To get paid, you have to get to $50.. I haven't gotten there yet, so I can't tell you how quick it is, but my husband has gotten paid twice from them so it is legit. http://tryvindale.com/ViowMkJy
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Mommy Talk Surveys is one of my favorites, but it does take awhile to get to the thresholds. They have a lot of different options for payout and it is strictly a survey site.  I've done it a few different ways, $50 paypal and $25 amazon gift card... Both ways it takes them about 6 weeks to get the payment to you... the $50 I hit about once a year, $25 about twice a year, but it really does depend on how much time you are willing to give to surveys. No referral link here, but if you want to give it a shot the website is www.mommytalksurveys.com

Inbox Dollars is really my favorites because there's many different ways to earn and they even have some free stuff available.. There's surveys, product trials, discounts to buy, internet searches and paid emails. You have to get to at least $30 to cash out with them and they send a check or load it onto a prepaid card which you keep around for next time.  http://www.inboxdollars.com/?r=ref13994113

Bing is also one of my favorites.  I get about $5 from them every month.  Bing, you search. That's it. On the computer, you can search up to 30 searches a day and 10 searches on the phone if you have a smart phone. Plus they send out emails with bonus searches and have different opportunities to earn extra each week.  While their cash out options are limited, we find a lot of benefit in the Amazon gift card option.   https://www.bing.com/explore/rewards?PUBL=REFERAFRIEND&CREA=RAW&rrid=_2bbfb1ad-d7ab-589a-01cb-7029fa1cbf9

My Points is also a favorite.  They send out paid emails and offers for many different, have a few surveys available and also pay to search.   I've cashed out with them once and gotten a gift card to Sam's Club. For that one I have to have somebody's email to refer, but if you want to try go to www.mypoints.com. 

Ibotta is an app I've been trying. Even though my smart isn't hooked up anymore, I'm still able to use a few of the apps through the wifi.  It's an online coupon app basically.  You go through and upload coupons of things you bought (you have to watch a commercial), then when you have your receipt, you sometimes have to scan the product code sometimes just the receipt. You get the money back for however much the coupon was for.  I haven't cashed out on them yet, but I know the threshold is $10 and I'm almost there. You can find the app in the Google App store, I don't know if they have one for apple. https://ibotta.com/r/eqpameo

Another app I used is called Receipt Hog. You scan your grocery receipts and get so much money back-it depends on how much the receipt is for.  I haven't cashed out on them yet, but I'm halfway there.  The referral code for them is STRAY857. Just find the app in the Google App store, I don't know if they have one for apple. 

If you join Inbox Dollars first, they have links to a lot of these and you get money for joining the other survey site.  My husband tried pay to click... that was tedious and a little annoying. 

Like I said, this isn't big money... I've also gotten surveys to enter survey communities-which guarantees me money every months-which is nice... I've made $160 this year...so it's been enough to help with dry goods things we can online, or I bought school supplies from Dollar Tree with a Inbox Dollars payout.  

-Tabitha

Cloth Feminine Pads

This post is about how I made my light days/panty liners pads... Minus the snaps.. because I'm arguing with Amazon over the payment method.... 

So I made my pattern through measurements I got through the Amy Nix videos on YouTube. That was a lot simpler than it sounds.. Take two computer paper sheets, fold in fourths.  I wanted these pads 8 inches long, so I made a mark at 4 inches, then a mark about halfway down at 1 1/2 inches to get my pad three inches wide, the wings were measured at 3 inches to make sure I had them wide enough to fasten underneath.. Connect all your dots. For your seam allowance, you want to measure 1/4" from the first line. Cut along the outside line and unfold your papers.  Take your second paper, draw a line to cut the wings off, then mark 1/2" inside that line and the edge. (I did 1/4", it was too long.) Cut along the last line made, this is your liner. I marked them both since I plan on making more than one pattern. 

My finished Pattern

 I used flannel for the outside, traced around my pattern making enough for 12 pads.

 Here's the tracing of my inserts, I used cotton for this-old cloth diapers and a tshirt. 

 Here's all my pieces cut out. 

 You pin however much you are comfortable with. For me, it just took enough to hold it in place. I did an assembly line, so one step at a time.. Can you see how there's not much room between the liner and the outer layer? That caused a few issues later on.   A lot of the instructions I have seen, women use a zig zag or decorative stitch for this part-makes it fancy.  So if you have a fancy sewing machine, go for it. I did use a different color thread on some of them... but then the thread decided it didn't want to cooperate with the bobbin.

 My 80 year old sewing machine I'm still learning how to use. :) The only thing I miss is the zig zag stitch some days. 

 My helper. Both girls love to help pin-makes me nervous! LOL 

 So when you get the liners sewed on, you want to sew the right sides together, making sure you leave a spot  (about 2 inches) to turn it right side out, a lot easier on a straight side. 

Here's the two pieces sewn together.   

Instructions I've seen also said to clip the corners, being careful not to clip your stitches, there won't be as much bulk when turned in the seams this way. Personally, I haven't seen much difference, I clipped some and I didn't clip some. 

Here it is after I turned it.  A lot of people use a chopstick to help make sure they get everything flat, my hands are small enough I don't need the extra help-at least with these.  It's also recommended you iron to get the seam flat after this step, but I didn't-mostly because of the little finger help I had.  

And here's the finished project. After you turn, you want to top stitch to keep everything flat and to get that turning spot closed.  If you have snaps, now is the time to do those. Fold the wings around, mark where they overlap and then follow the instructions for your snap pliers/press.  

For now, I'm just using a diaper pin, a little uncomfortable, but until Amazon processes the gift cards, I'm stuck.  

Hope this helps any who are thinking of making their own pads. 

Tabitha 

Mamacloth Information

Fair warning, if you're a man and you're reading this-you might want to stop, because this could get uncomfortable very quickly for you. (Don't say I didn't warn you if you keep reading.) 



Mamacloth 

photo credit goes to sewnpads.weebly.com

Also known as cloth feminine pads. 

Now before you start in on 'eewwww', think about it this way. It's a GREAT money saver.  Even buying enough fabric at the store to get your supply going or buying them already made, we're talking $30-$40 for the rest of your life-or, at the very least, years depending on if the cloth wears down or not.  Is there a certain ew factor, yes, I would have to agree with that, but it's not really that bad.  

There are many different styles, from the "stuffed" ones like in the picture, to All In Ones (AIOs), where everything is all together and you just have to put it on. 

(Now for the personal part..) Since I started using cloth-still only part time since I just now found a pattern I love and it works great-which will be a different post-the length in periods has gotten shorter, the cramps are going away... All in all-it's a better week for everybody in the house. Sure I still get the PMS symptoms and mood swings, but even I can tell it's not NEAR as bad. 

Switching to cloth can be pretty simple. If you sew, you can make your own very simply, or you can buy them already made. There are a ton of ladies on Etsy, Luna Pads, Kawaii Babies has some (I know I'm missing a ton of the big ones).  Pretty much any place you can buy cloth diapers, you can buy mama cloth.  

Making your own is simple, too once you find a pattern you like.  I first started off using Hillbilly Housewife's pattern. Simple, but not quite what I wanted. After much searching on Pinterest and Youtube, I found a tutorial to show me what I was doing wrong and am now working on building my cloth pad stash.  Amy Nix does awesome tutorials from how to make your own pattern, to what you could be doing wrong that your pads aren't turning out how you want them to.  There are even some groups on Facebook to get you going (Isn't there a Facebook group for everything?).   If you choose to make your own, you have to decide what you want to make them out of. You need an absorbent layer, I've seen everything from bamboo to flannel. Personally, I like flannel..mostly because I have it in the house just sitting in my huge scrap pile. So that's the core... Then you have the front layer (layer against your skin), you obviously want this to be soft, so something cotton or flannel (again lol) would work just great.. Now comes the back layer. For the 'just in case' scenario, you'll want something that will keep your clothes clean.  You can do PUL (a waterproof fabric), or you can do fleece. While fleece doesn't have the waterproof way that PUL does, it seems to work just fine for me.  

Most people use snaps to hook them together, those fancy plastic snaps you know-they are a lot easier that the metal ones.. I just have to save up for the tool and the snaps.  Right now I'm using a diaper pin...that has to be situated just right or it's very uncomfortable.. You can use velcro, or I've even seen buttons. It's really up to you. If you don't want wings, you don't have to have wings. If you need them longer, wider... There are entirely customizable-as is anything homemade. 

Sew all your layers together, insert the snap if you have them and you're ready to go. 

To wash, some people wash in the sink after putting them straight in a pail of cold water to minimize staining.  I just throw them in with the cloth diapers and wash at the same time.  

Cloth pads do have more than just the monetary value, there are no chemicals against your skin and they are less abrasive-not to mention you don't have to worry about toxic shock syndrome.  If you have issues where you have to wear a panty liner all the time, it really is a money saver.  

Leave any questions you have and I'll see if I can find the answer! I'll follow up with a blog with pictures on how to make your pattern (straight from an Amy Nix video) that was as easy as pie and what part of my final stash looks like. 

~Tabitha

Stroller Bag

Beginning of the summer I found out quickly I needed to make a bag for my stroller to hold my things. So I dug through my scraps and found some material that would work (old slacks and jeans) and bought some heavy duty snaps.  

It turned out pretty good, but Not quite even because when I went to cut the straps, I cut from my front piece and I didn't have any more of that material. OOPS. But it works. :) 

I measured the distance on my stroller handle to find out about how wide I needed then added an inch (1/2" seam allowance on each side). 

The first thing I did was measure my phone and make a pocket (the one on the right). 
Then I took some flannel and made pockets for credit or debit cards, I also labeled these with sharpies once I got everything done.. because I can.. and it was fun. 
The elastic straps are for a water bottle to hold it still. 

Then I realized I wanted a pocket for a pen and miscellaneous things, so I added a pocket with a button.  The two straps with snaps are for keys, they are just the right size that I can loop a key chain through then snap them in and keys are easy to find. 

That's it. After all this sewing, I sewed the front on, and the straps, which are situated catty-corner on the top corners. I looped in on the stroller handle and marked where the snaps would go. I put two heavy duty snaps on both straps just to make sure they stay in place. 

I'm loving this bag!  I think I'm going to add a closure of some sort along the top this winter and it looks like I need to resew the elastic.  But everything is easy to get to and the bag doesn't get in the way when getting in the basket for other things. 

Have fun sewing! ~Tabitha

Shopping Trip 8/27

I'm a little on the happy side this week. I actually came in UNDER budget on our grocery trip. I think I heard the checkbook singing. :D 

We did get a few premades and extras this month, but I only paid for 4 things that weren't on my list-and those were at Dollar Tree.  

Sam's we spent $147.  The instant savings gave us $10 off-AWESOME, didn't see that coming and I also had a $10 gift card from a survey site.  This is where I got my 'cheat food' lol.  I had planned on getting ravioli, but they didn't have any-not even the fresh stuff. Disappointed reigned, but we did find already made chicken fried steak, so got a box of that-and we'll get more meals from the same amount I would have spent on ravioli.. The kids and I have been craving pizza, so I got a carton of single pizzas. It'll only be a few meals worth, but it's something easy for when we're running around and talking walks.  Since my trips to my parents will be resuming, I also bought Dennis some pizza for when we're gone.  It's better than fast food (a little, anyway).  

Hyvee we spent $137. Not many convenience foods here, but oh my are eggs expensive!!! 

Dollar Store we spent $20, Mostly tortillas. The tortillas they have are a little smaller, yes, but just as good as what you get at the grocery store. They don't hold a candle to fresh-but that's another story as my tortilla making skills are nil.   This is also where we got our extra-I'm a sucker for the chocolate isle and the kids know it.  I also got Andrew and Eva a couple marker boards for school. I'm not sure we've spend more than an hour since we opened them that they have stayed in the drawer.  Best $2 Ever spent!! I was looking for an ABC chart and came across a laminated USA map, so I bought that-now I don't have to use ink to make our own. :)  

The bakery outlet was my favorite.  We got our bread, and for customer appreciation day we got a free loaf of Sara Lee's new bread. It LOOKS good and is cut texas toast style-perfect for garlic bread to go with our spaghetti.  $6 at the outlet, 11 loaves of bread and a box of muffins (also free).  

Over all, it was a good day.  Although for lunch we learned the hard way that Taco John's chicken nuggets are spicy, Grace was a trooper and ate a few though! :) 

School has started in our house so I feel super busy.  To finish this week, we are reviewing the letters and sounds we've been through. Next week we start with letter E and get back into the full swing of things.  

As soon as i can get back to my sewing machine, I'll let you know how my new skirt is going... 

Have a good week!! Tabitha 

Vacation Rundown!

So we got back from vacation Monday. We had fun, the kids had fun and we came in under budget from what we had saved-which means we have that much we will save for the next vacation.   

So here's the rundown.. 
We drove down to Springfield, Illinois and back home, taking backroads and avoiding four lane highways and interstates when possible. 

I spent about $150 before we left on snacks and toys for the kids to keep them occupied. Our plan was to get hot sandwiches from a fast food restuarant for lunches and eat the chips and drinks we had in the car from my shopping trip. I put together a homemade happy meal for the kids, complete with a toy for the lunches.  

For breakfast, we made sure we stayed in hotels that had a continental breakfast which we took advantage of all but one morning. That one morning, we went down to breakfast and the breakfast bar was packed, so we decided to swing by Mcdonalds and grab sandwiches. 

Suppers we ate out.  Usually the kids ended up finishing their food at the hotel, but hey, either they ate it or we ate it for them.  

The entire trip was more about the drive and what we found than what was in Springfield when we got there, although we did enjoy seeing the Lincoln sites in Springfield.  We are family genealogists, so when we saw a graveyard, we stopped and perused.  The kids weren't so sure about it, but after awhile they figured out what we were doing and had fun spotting graveyards.  

Before we went, we tried to find as much as we could that was free to help with the costs.  We did do a few things that cost money, but I would say those few things were worth it.  I do have to say, while we did write down how much we needed for those and figured more for parking, a few of the costs were wrong so just make sure you have a cushion for fees that are more than websites said they would be.  

The big towns we hit were, St Joseph Missouri. We drove around the historic district and took some pictures-especially the house where Jesse James was killed.  The next big town was Hannibal, Missouri where we took pictures of anything Mark Twain we could find.  We then went on to Springfield where we did everything Lincoln we could find.  After Springfield we drove through Carthage and Nauvoo for Mormon history.  We spent our third night in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Drove through the Amana Colonies-which we TOTALLY planned wrong because we went through those on early Sunday morning. We drove through Ames and stopped at the Historic Fort Dodge in Fort Dodge, Iowa.  We spent our last night in Le Mars, Iowa and ate at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream shop/museum before we headed for home.   

Andrew's favorite part of the trip was parking underground in Springfield. He just enjoyed that! Eva's favorite part was her 'superhero ice cream' in LeMars. I honestly don't remember the actual name of it, but she certainly enjoyed.   

All in all costwise, we spent about $800, which isn't too bad for a family of 5 on a 4 day vacation.   We had fun, and that is the important part.  

We also have a ton of snacks leftover. :)

-Tabitha 

Grocery Trip And Homeschool Stuff

So we went grocery shopping today. HyVee has some good sales this week. 

I'm loving the idea of planning 7 meals and just doing a rotation. So That's what I'm doing again. HyVee has pasta 10 for $10 so we are going mostly with pasta meals. Chicken was also on sale.  I did decide to splurge a little and get charcoal for our grill, because it will save the house from heating up. 

All in all, I spent $330 and a little extra for perishables and some extra snacks we decided we wanted for vacation. 

For those of you who are school shopping, go check out Dollar Tree. I know Walmart and Target run .50 or $1 sales right about now, but if you can't find what you want or need there for cheap, check your local Dollar Tree (or you can buy a case on their website and have it UPS delivered).  I found some great worksheets at ours today. And they have little marker boards I'm debating about grabbing next month. 

On my homeschool sites, I often see questions about teaching kids to budget.  In my opinion, budgeting is a must. Everybody (unless you're a millionaire) needs it. So might as well teach our kids early. And I think they learn best when led by example.  If you don't want your kids helping with your grocery list, give them some random amount and the grocery ad. Tell them they need to meal plan and make a grocery list that fits within that amount. If it doesn't fit, it can't go on the list.   The grocery ad is good for all areas of basic math and life skills to boot. 


That's all to report for now.


I'll be back in a few weeks with vacation tips. 

-Tabitha

Vacation Food Shopping

Well, we made an unexpected trip to the city today, so decided to do most of our vacation food shopping. I'll hide the goods in the office so the kids don't eat them. 

We've decided we prefer something fresh (Subway or the like) or something hot (think Arby's sandwiches or KFC type).. So we'll get the entree off somebody's dollar menu and use out of our stash for the rest of the meal.  Most everything will last us beyond vacation, but that's ok.

I got variety boxes of cookies and chips and we all love Gardettos, so I got those for a salty snack. Now normally I just a big bag then portion it all out, but in this case, I just bought the boxes of single serving packs. 

Hubby and I (ok..more me) love our coffee.  So since Sam's had the Starbucks Frappucinos on sale, I got a little case of those. Also got Dr. Pepper for him and 7 up for me.  The kids got a case of juice boxes and I grabbed a flat of water. If we need more water, we'll just find a grocery store and grab another flat.   

I was going to get the kids those squeezable applesauce pouches (they love those things), but I couldn't find just applesauce, so I got a variety pack.   

Now, since the plan is to NOT get kids meals, we also made a stop by Dollar Tree. We got a toy for lunch for each day we plan to be gone. One of these days during nap times, I'll put them in paper bags we already have with name on the bag.  New toys are always a good distraction.   We also grabbed a few new coloring and activity books. 

All of this will get stashed away until vacation next month. But I ended up saving $10 by getting it now. 

Have a good week! 
Tabitha

The Next Month

The next month will prove to be a busy one... like I ever have non busy months. LOL

For meals, I've decided on a 5-6 meal rotation. For the most part (unless somebody gets sick from a meal), it's going to be Spaghetti, tacos, stir fry, pork chops, bbq chicken, leftovers.  Then we start all over again.  I am trying to keep dessert of some sort in the house in case somebody doesn't get full on the supper.  

Around the house we have been cleaning and will be prepping for a garage soon.   There's just so much stuff!  

I am doing my homeschool lesson plans, getting everything ready and we'll start again in August.  Still Kindergarten things, but Andrew is determined to learn to read, so we have to learn all the letters and their sounds.  

Lots of sewing projects and still working on the stockings...still on my first of six, I forgot how tedious cross stitch is. 

I'm also planning furiously for vacation this month as we go beginning of August.  I'll go to Sam's soon to grab some snacks and drinks while they are still on sale and then stash them in the office until needed.   One of the biggest vacation expenses is always food.  Our plan is to get hot sandwiches of some sort, then have drinks, chips and cookies in the van and either eat in the van or have a picnic and let the kids get some energy out while we eat.  The van also needs vacuumed and the car seats washed before we go.  

I'm way behind on laundry. I'm really trying to not use the clothes dryer, and that has put me behind with laundry as we have been blessed with many rain showers this last week. 


We'll get to pick our mulberries this week, the kids are really excited. They seem to be small, but are turning black so they are ready. 

That's about all the excitement happening here. Hope you are having a good summer, too. 

Tabitha

Shopping Trip June 4th

Yes, I know I'm a little late, it's been a little crazy around here. 

The ads looked like normal, not too much on sale.  My predicted amount put us way over our wanted $300-with no extras, but we have to eat, right? And with the apparent bird flu (according to the news anyway) killing chickens, our meat of choice is going to go up.  I'm not looking forward to that.  

Since I can generally get chicken around $1 a pound at Sam's (it depends on what I get-whole, whole organic, breast, tenders, legs, thighs....) we decided to experiment this month. I'm going to try some sort of stir-fy style for the most part for suppers.  Weekend lunches are hamburgers (40, 1/4 pound pre-frozen patties at Sam's for $30, I just add some homemade seasoning) and homemade french fries on the weekends, chips on Sundays (because I don't have an hour to mess with french fries).  We also have fish and we're experimenting with vegetarians meals using quinoa.  Lunches for the kids and I are whatever we can scrounge up around the house-my canned food cupboard is overfilling. Dennis is eating salads.  

So Friday and some of Saturday was spent chopping and portioning all the chicken and the vegetables so I can just get them out and thaw when needed, I'll have the whole meal there minus the rice-but that's easy enough. I'm loving the simplicity of these meals already.  Throw the chicken in with garlic, ginger and coconut oil, cook until done, remove from pan. Throw the veggies in, cook for about ten minutes, then put chicken back in until veggies are done. All the while the rice and sauce are cooking ride beside. Easy as pie and the kids seem to be loving it-which is always a plus, but my picky eater comes next week so we'll just how interesting this will get.  

Today I still have some prep work to get done for Dennis' lunches. Chop the broccoli and the lettuce and put it in containers or baggies so it's ready for his lunches. I cut up melons Friday, so those are ready to go.  But other than that, it's mostly done.  

I did get very frustrated at Fareway stores again. To the point where I'm DONE. I will NOT be going back there-I don't care how good the sales are.  There were two things that impressed me about Fareway two years ago when they came to Sioux Falls, I was told that it was local meat (yeah, not the case-it's Tyson, which is anything but local...and I just don't like Tyson, so like Farmland products I avoid unless I can't avoid).  This last time, they had in their ads Oscar Meyer lunchables (just the simple ones with meat,  cheese and crackers) for $1 each.  Get to the store and it was Armour brand, apparently a 'misprint'. Yeah, not cool. Usually I don't mind off brands, but the Armour brand just doesn't have as much. Fareway was the last grocery store we went to so I because of what I had planned for lunch while driving, I didn't have too much of a choice at this point.  If something is going to be printed in their ads, they need to honor that ad. If they don't have that product in the store at all, there needs to be signs-on the door, where the product should be at that they don't have that, but this brand would be honored for the sale price-no such notice at Fareway Foods.  To top it all off, the guy that took the cart to car decided it was a good idea to fill my toddlers' car seats with groceries-he reached over the back of the back seat and put them there instead with the rest of the groceries in the back of the van. I have no doubt that if I didn't ask him SPECIFICALLY to NOT put the frozen foods on my hamburger buns, I would have had squished hamburger buns. Sorry Fareway, I'm done with you.  

Have a good week! 

Tabitha

Planning For Vacation

Sometimes I plan too much. I can admit that. But the planning keeps me sane.  

We are planning on taking a  vacation in August which will include a  nine hour road trip-and that's just one way, straight driving. 

A few months ago, hubby and I went through Google maps and found points of interest along the way,  put towns into a trip planner.  Depending on kids, how we're feeling and what not, we might stop and eat lunch.. Well, we'll eat lunch, the kids can play at a park or rest stop, or we'll eat in the car.  While we have a rough itinerary written down, we're not sticking to too much of it.  

I'm keeping track of everything in a notebook.  It's all in one place and if I find something else we might want to explore, it goes in the notebook.  Honestly, it really does a hinge on how high gas gets and the hotel price as to what else we can do.  But we do have quite a list of free things to do to make it fun for everybody.  

This morning, I sat down with my notebook and wrote down how I want to pack the van.  

In the back seat with Andrew and Eva, they'll have their toys, notebooks with school worksheets (my kids are geeks, what can I say?), coloring pages and crayong and pencils.  Blankets to cover with (they are weird), extra blankets for sunshades if the need arises. And under the seat will be towels for spills or accidents, simply because we will have a van of littles and you never know.  

In the middle seats will be Grace, snacks and drinks in a small cooler for easy access, the atlas, toys blankets, snack cups, drink cups, and the diaper bag with a change of clothes for the kids so I don't have to dig through the suitcase if the need arises.  

The front seat will get what hubby and I will need, MP3 player and charger, phone charger, Tom Tom and charger, camera.  

The back is going to be challenging. Suitcases-one for me and Dennis, one for the kids.  Big cooler, extra snacks that don't need the cooler, stroller, play pen. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it's all big stuff.  

I'm still working on the meal plan, but we are planning on taking most of our food to help with costs.  


-Tabitha

Winter Has Returned

Well friends, with as busy as it looks my summer will get I can't promise I'll make it on here all the time.. Case in point-look at the last month.  

Unfortunately for my garden, it seems that winter has decided to return.. Snow just 50 miles north of us, while a tornado has destroyed a small town about 50 miles south of us. 

My garden was planted beginning of last month, so things should start sprouting soon.  I haven't been brave enough to take my sprouts out. Broccoli and Tomato are sitting next to my sewing machine waiting to make sure the weather will stay warm.  

Next week I hope to get all the saplings cut down or dug up for somebody to plant in their yard with help from my dad and mom.  Lots of those to get cleared. 

We bought a new lawn mower as ours bit the dust... Now we just have to figure out how to work the bagger.   


On the inside of the house, I have many sewing projects.  I'm also finding new recipes and working on getting the diet more rounded.  Or at least the suppers.  The hardest part of that is finding money for more fruit and veggies, so we've been looking into Bountiful Baskets and Fruit of The Month Club.    At least with the cold weather I'm getting caught back up on inside chores.  

Busy Busy Busy

Whew it's been hectic around here! 

Had a Jamberry party (love those now!).  

My oldest came up for Easter and we had her birthday party. She turned 10 this year. 

This weekend we'll do my son's birthday party. He's turning five, where did the time go?!?!

The biggest is we are making some health changes around here.  Hubby is going on a diet, which in our house, that means everybody is going on a diet.  It certainly can't hurt any of us to eat healthier.  

We started off by looking in Atkins, but now are wondering if we should combine Atkins with Paleo.  We're still looking into possibilities and recipes, trying to find a happy medium with all the allergies in the house-and enjoying our last month of junk food.  I went shopping right before we decided to do this, but I think I'll end up making a mini trip to get some more veggies and fruit. I was really surprised, and disappointed, to find the Atkins didn't allow for much fruit at all.  I know that fruit as a lot of sugar, but it's not processed and easier absorbed by your body than eating junk food. Fruit is not something we are willing to give up, limited as it may be with what Eva can be-it's just not going to happen. Which is why we are thinking to incorporate the paleo approach into this-that and it had better looking recipes. 

I spent yesterday looking around Facebook trying to figure out how to put homemade foods into the Atkins daily diet plan. Man was that a pain, we spent 2 hours last night doing that! We also cut a bunch of foods just from looking at that first day.  

This morning I'm looking into paleo and downloaded some free ebooks I'll print off to read as I'm able. Lots of information out there, but it seems to be easier than anything else we've looked at and a lot easier to fit into a tight budget-which is important. 

Unfortunately, school has been put on hold for a few weeks until we wind down again.  I am making notes on my calendar, so I know when to plan vacation days. (Speaking of school, Eva is sitting beside me with the Google TV keyboard copying my finger strokes as I type.) The kids love the Heart of Dakota preschool curricula, but I'm going to try putting together my own curricula for when this book is out and see if I can do it. I know I have plenty of worksheets I found for free, it's just a matter of planning.  

I have found, despite following the instructions on the seed packets, I planted way too early, so I'm hoping I can keep the plants alive until time to plant-come on spring! My broccoli seems to be faring is it came up great. My poor tomatoes have been cut in half because they molded. (who knew?) My green peppers did not take when they were transplanted to a pot and my garlic molded too. Seriously, what is it with my poor plants and mold? I'll put garlic straight in the garden soon when I plant the rest. I also bought marigolds on the advice of a friend to plant amongst my vegetable plants.  It's supposed to help with pests.  

Well I think that's all that's going on around here. Not much at all! lol. 

Tabitha

Getaway Weekend

This weekend we are attending the Red River Bible and Prophecy Conference in Moorhead, Minnesota.  Surprise! Honey, we are getting away next weekend. 

Right now, I'm just praying I will be able to hear most of the preaching. Although we will be missing one day, since it was a last minute decision, we will be there for one full day and Sunday services.  Have you ever attended a conference with three toddlers? 

Yeah. Didn't think so. I'm crazy, right? 

So. I'm planning. Today we're making cookies, then freezing them so we have them for this weekend, otherwise we'll eat them all.  Other than that, I have no idea what we're doing for meals other than continental breakfast provided by the hotel.  I think the plan is to hit up the dollar menu at nearby restaurants.   Also today, I'm putting together fun notebooks for Andrew and Eva.. Color pages, letter practicing, just some blank pages. I'll find some cool stuff for them.. That way they can't make a mess with the papers.  They'll have little backpacks full of toys, as will Grace. We'll have a backpack full of books, because my kids love to look at books.  Hopefully all this will ensure I'll be able to hear some.  

I do plan on going to the store before we leave Friday, getting diapers (I usually don't keep disposables diapers in the house) and wipes, soda, juice boxes and maybe some crackers-not positive. And water-a case of water bottles.  

For Dennis and I, I'll be taking along sugar, creamer and coffee flavoring. That way we can just get black coffee and put in the extras ourselves, that will save money-especially if the hotel has coffee makers.  I can't stand the hotel coffee black and hubby doesn't like any coffee black-thus the need for flavoring. 

To say I'm nervous about my children's behavior is an understatement.  But I'm trying not to be, because the more nervous I am, the more they feed off that energy. 

Any suggestions for keeping my babes entertained? I'd gladly take them! 

Tabitha

Gardening!

I'm still a little skeptical that spring has actually sprung for us. Regardless, I am taking advantage of the warm weather by walking with the kids and starting work on the gardens. I enlisted the help of a friend in town considering our proximity to the highway and no fences in the front yard, it's nice to have a female to talk to and having an extra set of eyes for the kids.  

I have major garden projects going on this year. I plan on clearing out the front yard gardens so we can get the saplings out of there and the dead mini trees (not sure what they are, some sort of evergreen).  I will have to have help with those-somebody with a chain saw. :)  I have on spot almost completely done and found some flowers starting to poke through.. I have to be patient to see what those are.  

The backyard will be the big project. I have to till up some ground for my already flourishing garden.  The tilling in itself will be a feat as all I have is a hand tiller.  But we will get it figured out! There is also some sort of vine thing taking over the back yard that will meet it's demise this year. Eventually in the back yard we plan to build a patio, clothesline and maybe a swing set for the kids (have I mentioned we have a small back yard?).   

So far I have planted green peppers, garlic, tomatoes and broccoli. The green peppers and garlic came from what i had in my kitchen, I'm hoping the green peppers survived the transplant they endured.  The garlic is flourishing as is the broccoli. Still waiting for the tomato to sprout, but then it hasn't even been a week since those were planted.  So being patiently and keeping the cat away.  

Time to get your garden going so it's ready to transplant in May! 

Yummy Recipes!

Dennis has been wanting some new snacks, so I took to Pinterest and have been testing some out. 

The thought of Cinnamon Sugar Almonds really appealed to him. So I found a recipe for the crock pot. Yeah. That didn't work. I found another for the oven and oh my. They are good. It's going to take all I have to not eat them all. 

Here's the original recipe. 

Cinnamon Sugar Candied Nuts
1 large egg white
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups almonds

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. 
In a small bowl, whisk together egg white an 1 tablespoon water until frothy (about 2 minutes). 
In a medium bowl, combine sugars and cinnamon, set aside. 
in a large bowl, combine almonds and egg miture until well combines. Stir in brown sugar mixture until evenly coated. 
Spread almond mixture onto prepared baking sheet in an even layer. Place into oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring at halftime. 
I also stirred when they were taken out of the oven, then 5 minutes after sitting out. 


The kids (even Grace!) absolutely LOVE this one. 

You can find the original recipe here

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup honey
3 cups old-fashioned oats

melt peanut butter and honey
stir in oats
press mixture in 9x9 pan 
cover and let harden overnight


Have fun making yummy snacks!

Naturally Cold Remedy and Road Trip

Many things going on this week, we'll see what gets done with the impending snow storms-those always throw a wrench into things. 

Grace had her birthday on the 17^th. How can my baby be 1 already?  The cake was just a regular box cake, I substituted the eggs (called for two) with two 4 oz jars of banana baby food, each jar was mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking powder.  Tasted pretty good. 

We went car shopping and got a new van. It was time, it's nice to have one reliable car in the house although the payments mean more penny pinching until we get it paid off.

(excuse the messy garage...)

 I love it, although I do feel very small (like I'm driving a truck) and have a feeling I'm going to making a pillow to sit on so I can see out the rear window properly.

Grace caught a bad cold. She's been raspy and lost her voice for three days now (writing on Monday). Nothing touches it. Nothing. I have tried everything I can think of, not even commercial cold medicine could help her sleep. It seems the only thing that does help is eucalyptus oil, even if it is briefly. Eucalyptus helps break down mucus so you can breath easier (along with many other things). I have some mixed in coconut oil with lavener and peppermint for a homemade vapo rub (2 drops of each per 1 tablespoon of coconut oil), which she gets lathered in every diaper change, much to her dismay. I hav also been dripping four or five drops on a towel and keeping it close while she nurses. She is still coughing some, but is able to sleep on her own with no medicine with an end of the crib mattress elevated (I put the boppy pillow under there). 

We are hopefully going to Nebraska again this weekend to see Adrianna and my parents. This will be the first of many road trips in the Sedona.

What I do to prepare for road trips with a 4 year old, 3 year old and 1 year old.

Prayer

Food

Kid Songs

Leave in the middle of the night

LOL That about sums it up. I have my MP3 player loaded with kid songs, but we also have a trial of Sirius XM in the van that I will be using. :D

I make cupcakes of some sort for breakfast, make sure the kids have a bottle of water (Grace still gets cheerios), I get coffee and also have extra snacks of whatever is around the house for later and extra water.

We leave early, then hope the kids go back to sleep.  Both us and Nebraska are set for winter storms this weekend, so the trip is up in the air. 

Ads Are out! Shopping Trip 2/12

Whew! Ads are out again! And I'm very happy to say my shopping is (at least for this month) back to early Thursday morning. Stores won't be as busy. I'm happy about it. :) 

Enjoy your ad shopping. 

Hy-Vee
Fareway
Sunshine Foods

 My menu plan isn't so grea this month, in fact, I only have half my meals planned-but I'm getting plenty of yummy meat so it shouldn't be a problem.  

For Breakfast: Eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, toast, pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, cold cereal 

For Lunches: Tuna (of some sort...), salads for hubby, mac & cheese, quesadillas, cheese sandwiches and chips

For Suppers: tacos, chili, Creamy chicken and broccoli, lemon mustard chicken, pineapple chicken stir fry

One of our supper meals is birthday dinner for Grace (she is turning one on the 17th!!!) and for Hubby.. Since Grace is too little to really care what we do, we are doing the meal that Dennis wants (his mom bought steak) and the cake for Grace. I'm also going to get Dennis some GOOD ice cream (all we have local is Blue Bunny and limited flavors) and pray it doesn't melt on the way home. 

I just finished my list and am pretty sure I am not missing a thing, I'm set to be right around $303 again.  I figured high on the chicken, because I never know how many pounds whole chicken or chicken parts are until I'm at the store. 

No Egg Recipes

My mother in law was kind enough to make my cake, so I had to change my blog post for this week. :) 


I've discovered more allergies in our family. Grace is having issues with eggs, so I'm looking at alternative recipes and egg substitutes.  

With pancakes, I can just leave the egg out and they turn out perfectly fine.  

I attempted waffles. That didn't work out so well.  I tried again today and they turned out better, but the recipe still needs something.  I have a friend who has offered recipes, so I'm messaging her today for help.  

Not too much is going on around here.  Going a little stir crazy in the house, but we are geting through it. 

Have a good week! 

~Tabitha

Birthdays, Birthdays and More Birthdays!

The first four months are chock full birthdays around here.  In January we have Eva's, my dad's, mine and my mom's. February we have Grace's and Dennis'. March has Adrianna's and April has Andrew's.  

The kids get to tell me what kind of cake they want and what decoration they want. We also do their favorite food for lunch (that way they have time to run off the sugar of the cake before bed time). 

For Eva's birthday, she wanted a Thomas the Train cake and pizza for her birthday.  So we got frozen pizza to bake and the kids 'helped' with the cake. (Read as: they ate icing as I was trying to decorate.) 

I was really excited to try out my new cake pans. I finally have round cake pans so I can do a little more with cakes rather than just rectangles.  I wasn't able to get as fancy as I wanted because Grace was sick and getting very grumpy in the high chair. But Eva loved it, and that's the important part. 

I did discover I needed more icing than I made.  There just wasn't enough to my liking. :)  But then, I do have a sweet tooth.  I also didn't realize how little room there was on a round cake and should have put the train on before I wrote the letters, but oh well.  

Hard to believe my little girl is 3 already. Goodness knows she has the attitude to go with it.  


I have plans for my cake, just hope it turns out ok.. That will be next week as we are doing it early... Then the week after we'll do my parent's cake... As long as they let me make it at their house anyway. :)  Just so many cakes going on! :) 

There's my birthday girl.  Complete with pizza sauce. 'Scuse the messy floor behind her. 

Shopping Trip January 17, 2015

Things continue to be crazy around our house. My husband went through a period where he didn't want me to meal plan, just use what we had.... I'm going a little crazy, so back to meal planning. 

There seems to be a few good sales running around stores this week, so it looks like I'm going to be hitting a few more stores to get the sales.  Hopefully Andrew holds up and doesn't go crazy on me. At least the weatherman says it will be a little warmer, hopefully it will. Then the kids can just bundle in sweatshirts and hats and we won't have to take coats on and off half a dozen times. :) 

Well, As it is. Ads are out for this week. I don't have my meal plan made out.. but I do have a few meals in mind, so we'll see how they fit with the sales.  

Here's your ad links

Hy-Vee

Fareway Food Stores and this one too

Sunshine Food Stores and this one too

Happy Ad shopping. If you use HyVee, don't forget to check out the digital coupon section on the site. They download straight onto your fuel saver card, so when that gets scanned for fuel saver points, the coupons come off and you don't have to remember to give them to the cashier. 

Stay Warm!  Our 'high' is around 40 this weekend, hope it gets that warm lol. 

Budget Saving Ideas

I'm sure it's no secret by now we try to save money wherever we can.  One of the biggest things that always plague budgets is TV. Satellite or Cable? Well now there's new options.  

A year ago we found a little box called a Google TV. Amazon has their name brand and Roku also has one. It basically allows you to get online through your TV and watch things, play music.  I even got on Facebook a few times through it. It's come in handy. I think it cost us $100.

A few months ago, my husband found the Google Chromecast stick.. yet again Amazon and Roku also has their own, but Amazon videos don't work well unless you buy theirs, so if you watch a lot from Amazon Prime, keep that in mind. This handy little dude plugs into an HDMI port in your TV and you download an extension on your browser to cast or mirror (depending on the site) anything on your internet browser to your TV. It's pretty awesome. There's also an extra extension to put on your browser that casts things that would normally mirror (including Facebook videos), but make sure you put on the adblock plus extension before visiting the free movie sites or you'll go insane with the popups.  

Just to be clear, "mirroring" means it still plays on your computer, but you can watch it-with the sound-coming through your TV. "Casting" means it sends whatever your watching to your TV and you just have to keep the browser up. 

Hulu mirrors, while Netflix and YouTube cast. YouTube also lets you create a playlist to cast to your TV.  This little stick cost us $30.  Netflix and Hulu subscriptions are $8 each a month. 

Now, we are weird people and listen to music at night, so that's been our major stumbling block here.  We had found a surround sound speaker system we bought initially for the TV...but it didn't work like we thought it would and thought we had wasted $130.. But now that we have it figured out (we aren't exactly technically savvy around here), we have our night time music problem solved. It is a wireless system, we hook in the MP3 player or an old smart phone through our Wifi network on Pandora and let the music go. It will put music in both the kids' rooms, too, because we bought extra speakers.  

We're all set now to give Dish Network the boot... we barely watch TV anyway, it's almost all Netflix or YouTube. We are just waiting for the power cords to come in to keep the smart phone with power all night. 

There are cheaper speakers out there.. or you can just chromecast Pandora through your computer if you don't want it in your bedroom. Once we get rid of Dish, our monthly TV cost will be $16.  It still remains to be seen if Dennis will want to pay to watch Football next season, but it's not a very big fee through ESPN.com.  

The site we use that's free, has a HUGE database of movies and new shows is www.primewire.ag. You want to add the AdBlock Plus extension before you go there. Just do it. You can turn the extension off and on by clicking on it. In the Google Chrome browser, click on the three little bars in the upper right hand corner, go into 'settings', on the left hand side there is an option for 'extensions'. Click it then find Ad Block Plus. 

The only show I haven't found through any of these ways is 19 Kids and Counting. That's because TLC is stingy :( So I'm impatiently waiting to be able to see the new episodes.  

We're hoping we can get on the network web sites after we cancel Dish.. But as for now, it's blocking us out because we have to sign in through Dish... But I have friends telling me they can watch episodes on the sites. 

Hope this helps somebody else.

Tabitha