I hope you all had a great 4th of July! We didn't do much around here. We found a video of last year's fireworks show from New York City on YouTube...the kids lasted about 10 minutes. And we spent the weekend consoling at least two kids a night from all the noise. The cat and dog were a little worried, but they were content as long as they could see a human.
As for my shopping trip, we did pretty good. Went to Sam's, Aldi's, HyVee, Dollar Tree and the bakery outlet.. Oh and the honey place at Wall Lake.
Sam's I spent 176.06
Bacon, cod, Vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, avocado), cinnamon rolls, chicken breast, cheese, canned fruit and some cooking staples.
Dollar Tree I spent 5.33
Soap. That's it.
Aldi's I spent 77.89
Broccoli 1.69 each bundle (2 crowns) 4 bundles
Chicken tenders 7.25
4 pound bags of sugar 2 at 1.49 each
lemons 2.69
flour 4 pound bag 1.24
Dressing 4 at 1.29 each
Miracle Whip 3.44
Tartar Sauce 1.29 (it doesn't taste very good in my opinion)
Green pepper 3 pack 1.79
Cucumbers 4 at 1.29 each
Mac & Cheese 10 at .33 each
Yellow Onions 1.59
Vinegar .79 (16 oz container to keep in the kitchen)
Olive Oil 32 oz 2 at 3.19 each
Protein Meal Bars 4 at 3.99 each
Garlic .89 (3 bulbs)
And some plastic bags since I forgot mine. I think my favorite finds at Aldi's are the protein meal bars-mostly for hubby, but I eat a few-they are cheaper version to Slim Fast and the olive oil.
HyVee I spent 94.90
HyVee has been rearranging and making my usual store more like the new ones. So more organic, and more bulk. While that's great and awesome, I kept going to HyVee (the one on Marion in particular) because they had a cheaper option of most things. That brand is now gone. While the store is not done rearranging, the shelves they are done with are not stocked with the cheaper version nor is there room leaving me to to conclude they are done with that system. So next month, we go back to Fareway Foods. Their prices were similar so the cost shouldn't be much-if any-difference. Now, if you go to the new HyVee, stop at customer service and ask for a list of where everything is. I asked for a layout as to which department is where, but they didn't have that. Instead, they had a list of what is in each isle. Super helpful still if you don't know where things are.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Triple Clicks
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Shopping This Week
We have decided to do our shopping on Saturdays as a family so I have help with the kids... Where's my happy jump emoji? Just picture a minion doing a happy dance, that's me. My husband seriously made my month when he told me that.
I did some more recipe looking as I was making my shopping list this week. As much as we loved the constant salads, the budget wasn't so happy, so I am still in search of recipes that are healthy but more budget friendly.
You can stop laughing now.
I haven't had much luck, unfortunately. A friend suggested I try looking for recipes suggested for bariatric surgery patients and a few other friends gave me more suggestions for blogs with low carb, budget friendly recipes.. So we're trying. We won't be eating AS MANY salads, but we'll still have quite a few salads.
My boards on Pinterest are providing our meal recipes this month.
Merissa from Little House Living gave me tips on what she shops for at Aldi's, she mostly uses them for budget friendly produce and condiments so I'm going to go with that suggestion and also check out the items on my list for HyVee since I will be there. The rest of their prices pretty much mirror Sam's prices.
We had fun with my aunt, uncle and mom visiting. Went to Mitchell to The Corn Palace one day, then Sioux Falls the next to see the Falls and the USS South Dakota Memorial. This end of the state does have some good sites to see!
It seems like this month is not a good month for the house. Broke pipes trying to fix a sink drain... Then I blew fuse in the kitchen and don't have a new one...waiting for nap time to end to rectify that situation.
I'll share my shopping trip next week. Have a great week!
~Tabitha
I did some more recipe looking as I was making my shopping list this week. As much as we loved the constant salads, the budget wasn't so happy, so I am still in search of recipes that are healthy but more budget friendly.
You can stop laughing now.
I haven't had much luck, unfortunately. A friend suggested I try looking for recipes suggested for bariatric surgery patients and a few other friends gave me more suggestions for blogs with low carb, budget friendly recipes.. So we're trying. We won't be eating AS MANY salads, but we'll still have quite a few salads.
My boards on Pinterest are providing our meal recipes this month.
Merissa from Little House Living gave me tips on what she shops for at Aldi's, she mostly uses them for budget friendly produce and condiments so I'm going to go with that suggestion and also check out the items on my list for HyVee since I will be there. The rest of their prices pretty much mirror Sam's prices.
We had fun with my aunt, uncle and mom visiting. Went to Mitchell to The Corn Palace one day, then Sioux Falls the next to see the Falls and the USS South Dakota Memorial. This end of the state does have some good sites to see!
It seems like this month is not a good month for the house. Broke pipes trying to fix a sink drain... Then I blew fuse in the kitchen and don't have a new one...waiting for nap time to end to rectify that situation.
I'll share my shopping trip next week. Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
New Foods and Heat
Boy it's hot up here this year. Usually we don't get this hot and humid until July or August, but man it's coming early.
We are working on figuring out this new diet. I have figured out I need more protein and carbs, it's just not enough for nursing. But I'm starting to love salads.. And that broccoli salad? AMAZING!
So let me share some of the foods we've been eating that we are loving.
Broccoli Salad
2 heads of broccoli
1/2 red onion
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
cranberries
raisins
sunflower seeds
1/2 cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
Chop everything into small bite size pieces-small, keep in mind what else is in the salad, I cut it too big the first time. Shred your cheese and throw in the bowl with the broccoli (the recipe I found said to chop in small bites, I decided to shred), cut your onion and put in the bowl. Put in the cranberries, raisins and sunflower seeds, I also substituted the cranberries and raisins for cherry tomatoes-good either way but the kids preferred the cranberries and raisins. Mix it all together and make sure the amounts are even (or at least as even as you want them). In a separate bowl whisk the mayo, vinegar and sugar (if you want it less sweet, use about 2 tablespoons honey), then pour over the salad. Now it's ready to eat. :D This amount fed us for meal with a bit of left over.
Grilled Chicken
Cut chicken breasts in half horizontal (you want two skinny breasts instead of one thick one). Then season-I put tenderizer, garlic, onion, paprika on it-both sides. You want to marinate for at least an hour. Obviously the longer it sits, the tastier it will be. Grill until done, about 20 minutes. Now you can do whatever, eat plain, cut up for salads.
Sriracha Lime Chicken
The link is what it's supposed to look like...
That's what is turned out like. But still good.
So here's what I did different. The chicken was marinated from the recipe above, it didn't fit on the grill over the weekend so needed cooked. I cut the pineapple up. Used the onion stems from home grown red onion instead of the bulbs. I also just made a pesto with olive oil, white vinegar and cilantro instead of the vinaigrette recipe it comes with. The kids got raspberry vinaigrette and no avocado with hers.
This is my other favorite. I have a strict coffee shop budget-sad but true... So when I want to go and have to stick to my budget, I make my own iced coffee. About 8 ice cubes in a 12 ounce cup (I think, the one that came with our Bullet blender), add the flavoring hazelnut (liquid stevia from Azure Standard) and chocolate syrup, add coffee until about 1/2 full, then half as much milk-gotta leave room for blending. Blend and enjoy.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
We are working on figuring out this new diet. I have figured out I need more protein and carbs, it's just not enough for nursing. But I'm starting to love salads.. And that broccoli salad? AMAZING!
So let me share some of the foods we've been eating that we are loving.
Broccoli Salad
2 heads of broccoli
1/2 red onion
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
cranberries
raisins
sunflower seeds
1/2 cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
Chop everything into small bite size pieces-small, keep in mind what else is in the salad, I cut it too big the first time. Shred your cheese and throw in the bowl with the broccoli (the recipe I found said to chop in small bites, I decided to shred), cut your onion and put in the bowl. Put in the cranberries, raisins and sunflower seeds, I also substituted the cranberries and raisins for cherry tomatoes-good either way but the kids preferred the cranberries and raisins. Mix it all together and make sure the amounts are even (or at least as even as you want them). In a separate bowl whisk the mayo, vinegar and sugar (if you want it less sweet, use about 2 tablespoons honey), then pour over the salad. Now it's ready to eat. :D This amount fed us for meal with a bit of left over.
Grilled Chicken
Cut chicken breasts in half horizontal (you want two skinny breasts instead of one thick one). Then season-I put tenderizer, garlic, onion, paprika on it-both sides. You want to marinate for at least an hour. Obviously the longer it sits, the tastier it will be. Grill until done, about 20 minutes. Now you can do whatever, eat plain, cut up for salads.
Sriracha Lime Chicken
The link is what it's supposed to look like...
That's what is turned out like. But still good.
So here's what I did different. The chicken was marinated from the recipe above, it didn't fit on the grill over the weekend so needed cooked. I cut the pineapple up. Used the onion stems from home grown red onion instead of the bulbs. I also just made a pesto with olive oil, white vinegar and cilantro instead of the vinaigrette recipe it comes with. The kids got raspberry vinaigrette and no avocado with hers.
This is my other favorite. I have a strict coffee shop budget-sad but true... So when I want to go and have to stick to my budget, I make my own iced coffee. About 8 ice cubes in a 12 ounce cup (I think, the one that came with our Bullet blender), add the flavoring hazelnut (liquid stevia from Azure Standard) and chocolate syrup, add coffee until about 1/2 full, then half as much milk-gotta leave room for blending. Blend and enjoy.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Shopping Trip June 8
I was so excited for Aldi's open! SO excited. But clearly I need tips on what to buy to save money, whereas we did save a little, not near as much as what I know you can save... So I've been pinning some things to read later on.
In the meantime... Our meal plan this month is more than a little different. We started tracking calories with FitBit and we are eliminating as many carbs as we can.. which means no pasta, no taco shells, little bread. I have so many salad plans it's not even funny. I've also taken out the usual hamburger and fries we do on the weekends and replacing it with grilled chicken and a salad of some sort.
Aldi's, while I know we picked up some extras (cereal mostly), we spent $117, which wasn't too bad.
Sam's we spent $150.
HyVee we spent $70, and for being a Perks card member we won a $10 gift card for next time (I dunno, the receipt said it was a perk, that's all I can tell you).
We still have to pick up a few things at the local Dollar General because I couldn't deal with Andrew and Dollar Tree, but other than that we are done.
Pinterest was my best friend for meal plans... Completely going against what I usually do, almost everything we are eating this month is something new. So here's the links to what is on the plan and where I found it. Have fun. :D
Caprese Chicken I had originally seen this recipe on Facebook, which cooks everything in a pan on the stove, but I like this one better.
Southwestern Chopped Salad
Breaded Chicken Salad-breaded chicken strips, lettuce (mix of romaine and iceberg), croutons, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, choice of dressing
Chicken Shake n bake-chicken pieces coated in light breading with whatever seasonings I grab (usually a base of garlic, onion and paprika), side salad
Shrimp and Avocado salad
One pan chicken and brown rice
Chicken Salad-just simply grilled chicken cut up in a salad
Cherry Coffee Cake-this is for breakfast while we have company. It will be made ahead and warmed up when we eat it.
Grilled chicken and Broccoli salad-the chicken will be marinated in tenderizer, salt, pepper, garlic an onion for a day before.
Sriracha lime chicken
Lemon Pepper Chicken-chicken pieces coated in lemon pepper and olive oil then baked and a side salad.
Honey mustard Chicken-chicken pieces coated in honey mustard and baked, side salad.
Garlic butter Shrimp and Rice-we've actually ate this before my husband says it reminds him of gumbo.
Chicken fajitas-chicken cooked in fajita seasoning, bell peppers and onions cooked in fajita seasoning and everything put in a tortilla with mozarella cheese and sour cream.
Do you have any tips for me for shopping at Aldi's?
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
In the meantime... Our meal plan this month is more than a little different. We started tracking calories with FitBit and we are eliminating as many carbs as we can.. which means no pasta, no taco shells, little bread. I have so many salad plans it's not even funny. I've also taken out the usual hamburger and fries we do on the weekends and replacing it with grilled chicken and a salad of some sort.
Aldi's, while I know we picked up some extras (cereal mostly), we spent $117, which wasn't too bad.
Sam's we spent $150.
HyVee we spent $70, and for being a Perks card member we won a $10 gift card for next time (I dunno, the receipt said it was a perk, that's all I can tell you).
We still have to pick up a few things at the local Dollar General because I couldn't deal with Andrew and Dollar Tree, but other than that we are done.
Pinterest was my best friend for meal plans... Completely going against what I usually do, almost everything we are eating this month is something new. So here's the links to what is on the plan and where I found it. Have fun. :D
Caprese Chicken I had originally seen this recipe on Facebook, which cooks everything in a pan on the stove, but I like this one better.
Southwestern Chopped Salad
Breaded Chicken Salad-breaded chicken strips, lettuce (mix of romaine and iceberg), croutons, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, choice of dressing
Chicken Shake n bake-chicken pieces coated in light breading with whatever seasonings I grab (usually a base of garlic, onion and paprika), side salad
Shrimp and Avocado salad
One pan chicken and brown rice
Chicken Salad-just simply grilled chicken cut up in a salad
Cherry Coffee Cake-this is for breakfast while we have company. It will be made ahead and warmed up when we eat it.
Grilled chicken and Broccoli salad-the chicken will be marinated in tenderizer, salt, pepper, garlic an onion for a day before.
Sriracha lime chicken
Lemon Pepper Chicken-chicken pieces coated in lemon pepper and olive oil then baked and a side salad.
Honey mustard Chicken-chicken pieces coated in honey mustard and baked, side salad.
Garlic butter Shrimp and Rice-we've actually ate this before my husband says it reminds him of gumbo.
Chicken fajitas-chicken cooked in fajita seasoning, bell peppers and onions cooked in fajita seasoning and everything put in a tortilla with mozarella cheese and sour cream.
Do you have any tips for me for shopping at Aldi's?
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Things Keep Getting Interesting....
Dennis and I have decided we want to start May over again and do a redo. Anybody with us?
Our fridge has been going out for awhile. A friend suggest we defrost it, so tried that it helped for a few weeks... Then the freezer went out. I had forgotten I had cabbage in the freezer until I came out and smelled it rotting. I hate that smell.
Fortunately, it was Memorial Day weekend when it got bad, so we put it off for a few days and were able to take advantage of the sale. $1400 Kenmore side-by-side fridge for $800 plus tax, free delivery from the city (45 miles with where the store sits). Not too shabby.
Unfortunately, they can't deliver until the 6th. SO.... shopping every couple of days and using the cooler I use for grocery shopping trips in the meantime. The old fridge is still somewhat good, but it's a guess as to which day it's going to behave and which day it's going to freeze everything... So things like eggs and lettuce I have to be careful about leaving them in the fridge.
It also means I can't do a big shopping trip until the fridge comes...so it's gonna be a couple weeks before y'all get that. And it also means I most likely won't have the help to go through Aldis like I wanted. Oof, that's gonna hurt, but I'll make it (with or without all my hair is the question).
Our second car also bit the dust. We took it in for an oil change and a once over, they drained the oil and found metal shavings everywhere.... The same thing happened with our old Focus before it blew up... twice (long story involving an incompetent mechanic). So..... in the driveway it sits until we figure out what to do with it. But we really didn't do too bad with it. It's a 2003 Saturn Vue. We bought it used with around 105,000 miles on it in 2011 for $5,000. We've put just shy of 100,000 miles on it (seriously, like 200 miles just shy of) and it has only needed two major repairs since we bought it. Not too shabby I would say.
So we are down to one car.. Which is just perfectly fine, this month is just a little hairy with the going back and forth to be able to have my oldest with us... So when we have to go somewhere, we have to load all the kids up at 5 AM, take hubby to work then be back at 2 pm to pick him up. Oof and ugh. Coffee is my best friend this week.
On a happy note! I'm super excited about a new coffee shop opening in town! If you are in the area you should come check them out! The Homestead The link is for their Facebook page, great little family that's running it and they are local sourcing a lot (if not all) of their ingredients-which makes them even better. :)
Have a great week!!
~Tabitha
Our fridge has been going out for awhile. A friend suggest we defrost it, so tried that it helped for a few weeks... Then the freezer went out. I had forgotten I had cabbage in the freezer until I came out and smelled it rotting. I hate that smell.
Fortunately, it was Memorial Day weekend when it got bad, so we put it off for a few days and were able to take advantage of the sale. $1400 Kenmore side-by-side fridge for $800 plus tax, free delivery from the city (45 miles with where the store sits). Not too shabby.
Unfortunately, they can't deliver until the 6th. SO.... shopping every couple of days and using the cooler I use for grocery shopping trips in the meantime. The old fridge is still somewhat good, but it's a guess as to which day it's going to behave and which day it's going to freeze everything... So things like eggs and lettuce I have to be careful about leaving them in the fridge.
It also means I can't do a big shopping trip until the fridge comes...so it's gonna be a couple weeks before y'all get that. And it also means I most likely won't have the help to go through Aldis like I wanted. Oof, that's gonna hurt, but I'll make it (with or without all my hair is the question).
Our second car also bit the dust. We took it in for an oil change and a once over, they drained the oil and found metal shavings everywhere.... The same thing happened with our old Focus before it blew up... twice (long story involving an incompetent mechanic). So..... in the driveway it sits until we figure out what to do with it. But we really didn't do too bad with it. It's a 2003 Saturn Vue. We bought it used with around 105,000 miles on it in 2011 for $5,000. We've put just shy of 100,000 miles on it (seriously, like 200 miles just shy of) and it has only needed two major repairs since we bought it. Not too shabby I would say.
So we are down to one car.. Which is just perfectly fine, this month is just a little hairy with the going back and forth to be able to have my oldest with us... So when we have to go somewhere, we have to load all the kids up at 5 AM, take hubby to work then be back at 2 pm to pick him up. Oof and ugh. Coffee is my best friend this week.
On a happy note! I'm super excited about a new coffee shop opening in town! If you are in the area you should come check them out! The Homestead The link is for their Facebook page, great little family that's running it and they are local sourcing a lot (if not all) of their ingredients-which makes them even better. :)
Have a great week!!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Getting Back Into A Routine
Our little one is five weeks old tomorrow. I'm amazed every week because she seems to have inherited my genes. She is bulking up a little bit, but nothing like the three middle siblings-they have definitely taken after their daddy. It's been awhile since I've had a baby stay in newborn clothes for more than a few weeks! For my arms, it's nice. She's a little cuddle bug and with all the storms we are getting lately she wants nothing more than to be held and rocked. I'm trying to write this post while she sleeps, but we had a low pressure system move in last night which means this momma needs lots and lots of coffee.
I'm working on getting us all back into a routine. Less TV time, playing learning games and the all important cleaning schedule. Along with that, I'm getting lesson plans ready and school things organized and rearranging the dining room to include room for the homeschool stuff and find a place for the baby swing, I'm missing that and it seems Hannah likes to rock so I'm hoping she'll like the swing.
One of the big things on my list this week was to clean the van. It gets too cold up here to do more than keep the trash picked up and the toys in their little toy baskets during the winter, so once we get the spring thaw I deep clean the van. Our van is designed so there's basically two carpets, the top carpet on the entire van floor comes off in pieces, the bottom carpet basically stays clean. So I'm loving cleaning the van when needed and I do better at keeping it clean in the summer. One of the things I still need to buy for the van is plastic sealable containers to keep blankets, extra clothes and diapers in that fit under the back seat. This will keep them handy when needed, but clean and out of the way until needed.
My meal planning is also getting revamped-I'm working on that this week and next as well. My shopping trip is getting postponed until next Saturday for two reasons.. Our new Aldi's opened up in the city and I want to go in the first time with as few as kids as possible. And the power company decided it needed to shut off the power for five hours next week... So we need to get away from the house anyway. As for the meal plan, we got Fitbits to help (more my husband, but I have one to help support him) us keep track of calories, exercise and such. I need a diet rich in protein to help my blood pressure and with nursing Hannah, I need the extra protein to keep going. My husband needs a diet lower in calories, which sounds simple, but he's a bigger guy so we have to balance it out so he's still getting what he needs, but lower than he's getting now.
That's what's happening this week.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
I'm working on getting us all back into a routine. Less TV time, playing learning games and the all important cleaning schedule. Along with that, I'm getting lesson plans ready and school things organized and rearranging the dining room to include room for the homeschool stuff and find a place for the baby swing, I'm missing that and it seems Hannah likes to rock so I'm hoping she'll like the swing.
One of the big things on my list this week was to clean the van. It gets too cold up here to do more than keep the trash picked up and the toys in their little toy baskets during the winter, so once we get the spring thaw I deep clean the van. Our van is designed so there's basically two carpets, the top carpet on the entire van floor comes off in pieces, the bottom carpet basically stays clean. So I'm loving cleaning the van when needed and I do better at keeping it clean in the summer. One of the things I still need to buy for the van is plastic sealable containers to keep blankets, extra clothes and diapers in that fit under the back seat. This will keep them handy when needed, but clean and out of the way until needed.
My meal planning is also getting revamped-I'm working on that this week and next as well. My shopping trip is getting postponed until next Saturday for two reasons.. Our new Aldi's opened up in the city and I want to go in the first time with as few as kids as possible. And the power company decided it needed to shut off the power for five hours next week... So we need to get away from the house anyway. As for the meal plan, we got Fitbits to help (more my husband, but I have one to help support him) us keep track of calories, exercise and such. I need a diet rich in protein to help my blood pressure and with nursing Hannah, I need the extra protein to keep going. My husband needs a diet lower in calories, which sounds simple, but he's a bigger guy so we have to balance it out so he's still getting what he needs, but lower than he's getting now.
That's what's happening this week.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Our Curriculum Is HERE!!!!
Our School Curriculum arrived yesterday and I gotta say, it feels like Christmas. Charlie Brown's "Christmastime Is Here" was playing through my head yesterday.
For Andrew, we are starting with Abeka. After looking through their magazine I decided he would do best in K5. After getting the books and looking a bit, I do think I picked the right now. While age-wise most would say he's a little young, but that's a beauty of homeschooling, you can go at the individual child's pace. This is right where he should be. Yes, he'll have some easy days, but that's ok. I did decide to order the teacher's books along with the workbooks-especially for phonics-because I want the planning and the teaching tips and phonics is not one of my strong points so I need to make sure I'm teaching it right. Abeka has child kits and teacher kits, but I decided not to get the entire kit and just get the individual books-but that's a decision for each family, too. We also bought a Bible curriculum that all the kids will do together. I just bought the teacher's manual for this. It has Bible memory verses and a story to read then ask questions about to make sure they understand-and songs (some hymns, some kid's action songs). I figured I didn't need the separate workbooks for this as Bible stories are pretty straight forward and there are awesome resources on the internet that have free coloring pages. The plan for Andrew's workbooks is to make copies and to keep reusing... I am a little worried about that possibility with all the color in the worksheets, but I'm going to try.
For Eva, she is still learning the basics so she's still on the preschool book. We have one of those preschool books you can find at Walmart... It will be supplemented with other worksheets and counting, understand that numbers have a value (hello dinosaur counters-we thought they were bears, but they are not oh well!) and whatever else she needs extra help with.
For Grace, she's just getting busy work so I can help the big kids. Alphabet and Bible coloring pages. Sorting colors and an electronic Leap Frog toy she got for Christmas will be in her school box.
With the organizing stuff and miscellaneous school supplies, along with the curriculum, we have spent $200 on school stuff this year. A lot of that will be reused for many years to come so it was just a one time purchase. Some of it, I'm waiting until school things get in stores and I'll try to stock up on some it when it goes on sale after school starts.
Now comes the tedious part-the planning and making sure everything is ready to go. Because I know me. If I don't have it ready to go, we'll have issues. So I want to get the whole year ready to go. I'll do a post on how I'm going to do that later.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
For Andrew, we are starting with Abeka. After looking through their magazine I decided he would do best in K5. After getting the books and looking a bit, I do think I picked the right now. While age-wise most would say he's a little young, but that's a beauty of homeschooling, you can go at the individual child's pace. This is right where he should be. Yes, he'll have some easy days, but that's ok. I did decide to order the teacher's books along with the workbooks-especially for phonics-because I want the planning and the teaching tips and phonics is not one of my strong points so I need to make sure I'm teaching it right. Abeka has child kits and teacher kits, but I decided not to get the entire kit and just get the individual books-but that's a decision for each family, too. We also bought a Bible curriculum that all the kids will do together. I just bought the teacher's manual for this. It has Bible memory verses and a story to read then ask questions about to make sure they understand-and songs (some hymns, some kid's action songs). I figured I didn't need the separate workbooks for this as Bible stories are pretty straight forward and there are awesome resources on the internet that have free coloring pages. The plan for Andrew's workbooks is to make copies and to keep reusing... I am a little worried about that possibility with all the color in the worksheets, but I'm going to try.
For Eva, she is still learning the basics so she's still on the preschool book. We have one of those preschool books you can find at Walmart... It will be supplemented with other worksheets and counting, understand that numbers have a value (hello dinosaur counters-we thought they were bears, but they are not oh well!) and whatever else she needs extra help with.
For Grace, she's just getting busy work so I can help the big kids. Alphabet and Bible coloring pages. Sorting colors and an electronic Leap Frog toy she got for Christmas will be in her school box.
With the organizing stuff and miscellaneous school supplies, along with the curriculum, we have spent $200 on school stuff this year. A lot of that will be reused for many years to come so it was just a one time purchase. Some of it, I'm waiting until school things get in stores and I'll try to stock up on some it when it goes on sale after school starts.
Now comes the tedious part-the planning and making sure everything is ready to go. Because I know me. If I don't have it ready to go, we'll have issues. So I want to get the whole year ready to go. I'll do a post on how I'm going to do that later.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Weekend Lunch Prep
I've been thinking of doing a blog like this for awhile, so now I finally am.
My husband gets up early. His alarm goes off at 4:15 AM, I make our breakfast and get his lunch together while he gets ready for work. The mornings go a lot smoother (and I burn the bacon less) when I have his lunch foods ready to go. So here's what I do on the weekends.
For lunches and snacks through the day, I pack a salad (with dressing, croutons, bacon bits and sunflower seeds), a whole pickle, a bowl of fruit, macaroni and cheese or garlic butter macaroni and nutty bars.
For the salad, I have a bowl that used to be a salad shaker (got it at Walmart years ago). The lid latches on great and portion is perfect. That's usually the only thing that has to be put together in the morning as I only have one bowl and it gets washed every night. But I make sure I have lettuce cut for the next day at least (I cut a head at a time) then all I have to do is fill the bowl and put it in his lunch box.
I fill up 5 dressing containers. We have these little containers from Dollar Tree-they usually don't leak as his lunch box stays upright-that fit about 3 tablespoons of dressing.. Yes, I know that's more than one serving, but in all fairness, his lettuce is more than one serving. It's the right amount of dressing for him for the amount of lettuce he gets and it's a vinaigrette so a little healthier than some dressings.
I also try to get five pickles in snack bags-but I gotta say, I don't always remember to do that... So I usually have a hand that smells like pickle juice for a few hours-cuz that smell doesn't come off.
For his fruit I only have 3 containers that don't leak. These are the only containers I have bought specifically for his lunch. We usually buy the canned fruit as we don't have to worry about it spoiling (the local selections aren't great for fresh) and can buy what we need for the month. So I fill up what I have and refill as they get washed.
The macaroni and cheese is part of his lunch. I make it from scratch and fill up 5 containers from one 16 oz bag of elbow macaroni.. If I'm out of cheese and make garlic noodles, it only lasts for three days, so I really prefer the mac and cheese on that count. These I use 8 ounce sour cream containers as they fit perfect in the top section of his lunch box.
For his salad toppings I use the 8 ounce sour cream containers that are flat (green lid). They fit awesome in his lunch box and fit a serving (according to the package) of each: croutons, sunflowers seeds and bacon bits.
The nutty bars come prepackaged so he just gets one package of those.
Everything that needs the fridge goes on a shelf so it's easy to grab in the mornings. That's my lunch prep for the week.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
My husband gets up early. His alarm goes off at 4:15 AM, I make our breakfast and get his lunch together while he gets ready for work. The mornings go a lot smoother (and I burn the bacon less) when I have his lunch foods ready to go. So here's what I do on the weekends.
For lunches and snacks through the day, I pack a salad (with dressing, croutons, bacon bits and sunflower seeds), a whole pickle, a bowl of fruit, macaroni and cheese or garlic butter macaroni and nutty bars.
For the salad, I have a bowl that used to be a salad shaker (got it at Walmart years ago). The lid latches on great and portion is perfect. That's usually the only thing that has to be put together in the morning as I only have one bowl and it gets washed every night. But I make sure I have lettuce cut for the next day at least (I cut a head at a time) then all I have to do is fill the bowl and put it in his lunch box.
I fill up 5 dressing containers. We have these little containers from Dollar Tree-they usually don't leak as his lunch box stays upright-that fit about 3 tablespoons of dressing.. Yes, I know that's more than one serving, but in all fairness, his lettuce is more than one serving. It's the right amount of dressing for him for the amount of lettuce he gets and it's a vinaigrette so a little healthier than some dressings.
I also try to get five pickles in snack bags-but I gotta say, I don't always remember to do that... So I usually have a hand that smells like pickle juice for a few hours-cuz that smell doesn't come off.
For his fruit I only have 3 containers that don't leak. These are the only containers I have bought specifically for his lunch. We usually buy the canned fruit as we don't have to worry about it spoiling (the local selections aren't great for fresh) and can buy what we need for the month. So I fill up what I have and refill as they get washed.
The macaroni and cheese is part of his lunch. I make it from scratch and fill up 5 containers from one 16 oz bag of elbow macaroni.. If I'm out of cheese and make garlic noodles, it only lasts for three days, so I really prefer the mac and cheese on that count. These I use 8 ounce sour cream containers as they fit perfect in the top section of his lunch box.
For his salad toppings I use the 8 ounce sour cream containers that are flat (green lid). They fit awesome in his lunch box and fit a serving (according to the package) of each: croutons, sunflowers seeds and bacon bits.
The nutty bars come prepackaged so he just gets one package of those.
Everything that needs the fridge goes on a shelf so it's easy to grab in the mornings. That's my lunch prep for the week.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Friday, May 6, 2016
Shopping Trips Week of May 6th
Well, hello there. You may have noticed the title of this post is a little different, that's because we had a few different shopping trips this week.
Yesterday we went and bought our school curricula for next year and did part of our grocery shopping.
Today we finished up our grocery shopping.
So let's start with our school shopping.
We have decided to use Abeka curriculum. For me, it gives me the lesson plans. I need that structure. We also liked it because it's a Christian curriculum and you have the option to start right off with cursive. While you can find used books through Ebay, Facebook groups and a few other sources, we are choosing to spend the money and buy new. The plan is to make copies of the workbooks and reuse them for all the kids... But once we get the books in we might decide to just reorder workbooks for the next child, that's something we will decide once we see what we have exactly. For this year, we just ordered K5 Cursive Edition for Andrew. I'll do a post just on this when we get our books in and what I'm doing for lesson plans. I also added the teachers books (it has lesson plans and how to teach the phonics-not my strong suit-along with other teaching tips), daily Bible lessons and beginner social studies lessons. We will get blank index cards for phonics flash cards, I'm told by other Abeka moms that these are an awesome resource but as the books have everything, to just buy the blank flashcards and make my own-so I'm taking their advice. We also need to buy math manipulatives, which we can find at garage sales or on Amazon. Along with buying a set of base 10 blocks, I'm going to buy some of those teddy bear counters, one set for Eva and one set for Grace (who will be sorting by color, but it's something that should help keep her little hands busy). On just the books, I spent $170. The rest will cost no more than $30 depending on where we find them at.
Now to move on to the grocery shopping. Aldi's opening missed this month's trip by 6 days. Boo! lol Next month. We'll hit them up next month. I've spent $360 this month, which is on the lower side thanks to finding meat in the freezer.
Dollar Tree I just needed tortillas and some moisturizing conditioner. I bought extra dish soap the past couple months to make sure there was enough when baby came, so I still have the extra. I also had laundry baskets on my list, but I guess they were out of stock, so onto Dollar General we go next week. I buy the cheap ones for the kids, get two for each and double them up to make them last longer... Not as big of a deal when they break that way.
At the bakery outlet we just bought bread. We have decided to spend a little more money on the better tasting hamburger buns and hot dog buns when needed from Sams or Hyvee.
We also picked up honey from Deep Creek Honey over by Wall Lake. Fresh honey is the best. :D
At Sam's I spent $230 on our usual stuff. You know you go around the same time every month when all the employees come say hi just to see the new baby.
At HyVee I spent $90.. Now wasn't that a fun trip. Our HyVee (Sioux Falls Marion Road) is under construction-they are redoing the ready to eat food section and reorganizing the rest of the store to be like the new ones. So everything is a mess, but once it dawned on me how they were organizing things, I could find about everything-but they had associates ready to help whomever needed help.
Our meal plan is using a lot of things we have in the freezer...because it's getting freezer burnt and needs to be used.. We are also doing a few new things... Gyros (sort of) and meatball subs. Now, I'm cheating on the gyros...because I didn't want to hunt down ground lamb.... I'm using a gyro seasoning recipe I found on Pinterest and just putting it on roast beef (days of working at Arby's)... Still gonna make me want to go to Nick's Gyros and get some REAL ones, but we'll see how it turns out-can't be TOO bad, can it? For the meatball subs, it's really pretty simple.. I bought meatballs-because buying that much meat to make the meatballs from scratch would make them really expensive-and they will be cooked in my homemade spaghetti sauce, stuck in sub buns that I bought, topped with mozzarella and toasted. Sounds yummy, right? My hubby has such good ideas. :D The rest of our meal plan is our usual meals.. Using up pork chops and chicken fried steaks from last month. Chicken Alfredo, spaghetti, smothered burritos, tacos and fish.
In other news, I still have to get the garden tilled. It should be warm enough... My mom planted tomatoes for me, hopefully I don't kill them when I transfer them. and I'm going to attempt onions and carrots again. It's worth a try, right?
Baby Hannah is growing-slowly it seems-but growing. My last three babies have been chubby and Hannah is very much a skinny little girl, I'm not quit sure what to do with this skinny little one! :) She wasn't too happy about being in the car seat so much this week, which made for frazzled nerves for me.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Yesterday we went and bought our school curricula for next year and did part of our grocery shopping.
Today we finished up our grocery shopping.
So let's start with our school shopping.
We have decided to use Abeka curriculum. For me, it gives me the lesson plans. I need that structure. We also liked it because it's a Christian curriculum and you have the option to start right off with cursive. While you can find used books through Ebay, Facebook groups and a few other sources, we are choosing to spend the money and buy new. The plan is to make copies of the workbooks and reuse them for all the kids... But once we get the books in we might decide to just reorder workbooks for the next child, that's something we will decide once we see what we have exactly. For this year, we just ordered K5 Cursive Edition for Andrew. I'll do a post just on this when we get our books in and what I'm doing for lesson plans. I also added the teachers books (it has lesson plans and how to teach the phonics-not my strong suit-along with other teaching tips), daily Bible lessons and beginner social studies lessons. We will get blank index cards for phonics flash cards, I'm told by other Abeka moms that these are an awesome resource but as the books have everything, to just buy the blank flashcards and make my own-so I'm taking their advice. We also need to buy math manipulatives, which we can find at garage sales or on Amazon. Along with buying a set of base 10 blocks, I'm going to buy some of those teddy bear counters, one set for Eva and one set for Grace (who will be sorting by color, but it's something that should help keep her little hands busy). On just the books, I spent $170. The rest will cost no more than $30 depending on where we find them at.
Now to move on to the grocery shopping. Aldi's opening missed this month's trip by 6 days. Boo! lol Next month. We'll hit them up next month. I've spent $360 this month, which is on the lower side thanks to finding meat in the freezer.
Dollar Tree I just needed tortillas and some moisturizing conditioner. I bought extra dish soap the past couple months to make sure there was enough when baby came, so I still have the extra. I also had laundry baskets on my list, but I guess they were out of stock, so onto Dollar General we go next week. I buy the cheap ones for the kids, get two for each and double them up to make them last longer... Not as big of a deal when they break that way.
At the bakery outlet we just bought bread. We have decided to spend a little more money on the better tasting hamburger buns and hot dog buns when needed from Sams or Hyvee.
We also picked up honey from Deep Creek Honey over by Wall Lake. Fresh honey is the best. :D
At Sam's I spent $230 on our usual stuff. You know you go around the same time every month when all the employees come say hi just to see the new baby.
At HyVee I spent $90.. Now wasn't that a fun trip. Our HyVee (Sioux Falls Marion Road) is under construction-they are redoing the ready to eat food section and reorganizing the rest of the store to be like the new ones. So everything is a mess, but once it dawned on me how they were organizing things, I could find about everything-but they had associates ready to help whomever needed help.
Our meal plan is using a lot of things we have in the freezer...because it's getting freezer burnt and needs to be used.. We are also doing a few new things... Gyros (sort of) and meatball subs. Now, I'm cheating on the gyros...because I didn't want to hunt down ground lamb.... I'm using a gyro seasoning recipe I found on Pinterest and just putting it on roast beef (days of working at Arby's)... Still gonna make me want to go to Nick's Gyros and get some REAL ones, but we'll see how it turns out-can't be TOO bad, can it? For the meatball subs, it's really pretty simple.. I bought meatballs-because buying that much meat to make the meatballs from scratch would make them really expensive-and they will be cooked in my homemade spaghetti sauce, stuck in sub buns that I bought, topped with mozzarella and toasted. Sounds yummy, right? My hubby has such good ideas. :D The rest of our meal plan is our usual meals.. Using up pork chops and chicken fried steaks from last month. Chicken Alfredo, spaghetti, smothered burritos, tacos and fish.
In other news, I still have to get the garden tilled. It should be warm enough... My mom planted tomatoes for me, hopefully I don't kill them when I transfer them. and I'm going to attempt onions and carrots again. It's worth a try, right?
Baby Hannah is growing-slowly it seems-but growing. My last three babies have been chubby and Hannah is very much a skinny little girl, I'm not quit sure what to do with this skinny little one! :) She wasn't too happy about being in the car seat so much this week, which made for frazzled nerves for me.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Baby is Here!
Our new little girl came to meet us last week. Thursday morning, Hannah Faith came to meet us at 8:21 AM. She was 6 pounds 6 ounces. Cute little bug! :D
We did a home birth, and I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to go straight to my own bed and take showers in my own bathroom versus worrying about nurses coming in every half an hour. And the bigger kids didn't have to be without mommy at least to come get quick hugs. I'm still resting and forcing myself not to lift anything heavier than little Hannah so I can heal. We are blessed that Dennis could schedule his vacation time around baby coming-although that prodermal labor through a loop in it, we do have him home to help for the rest of the week as I get my strength back.
We've also been blessed from different friends and family to have help with meals and birth cleanup.
My sister was my doula, I can't tell you how nice it was to have a coach other than Dennis who could concentrate on just me-and baby-and was also here to help with the cleanup that I couldn't. Check her out at Extraordinary Birth, Doula Services, or on Facebook. She's guest posted on here before. She also helped a lot with relaxation and natural pain management that I had no idea about.
Next week is going to prove to be busy, but we'll get through it and I'm sure the kids will help once they get the hang of it. Hannah has Andrew and Eva wrapped around her little finger-although Andrew disappears when the diaper changes come. :) Grace is learning to share momma, and getting used to it a little at a time.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
We did a home birth, and I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to go straight to my own bed and take showers in my own bathroom versus worrying about nurses coming in every half an hour. And the bigger kids didn't have to be without mommy at least to come get quick hugs. I'm still resting and forcing myself not to lift anything heavier than little Hannah so I can heal. We are blessed that Dennis could schedule his vacation time around baby coming-although that prodermal labor through a loop in it, we do have him home to help for the rest of the week as I get my strength back.
We've also been blessed from different friends and family to have help with meals and birth cleanup.
My sister was my doula, I can't tell you how nice it was to have a coach other than Dennis who could concentrate on just me-and baby-and was also here to help with the cleanup that I couldn't. Check her out at Extraordinary Birth, Doula Services, or on Facebook. She's guest posted on here before. She also helped a lot with relaxation and natural pain management that I had no idea about.
Next week is going to prove to be busy, but we'll get through it and I'm sure the kids will help once they get the hang of it. Hannah has Andrew and Eva wrapped around her little finger-although Andrew disappears when the diaper changes come. :) Grace is learning to share momma, and getting used to it a little at a time.
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Staying Distracted
I tell you what. This baby is keeping us on our toes already. We thought it was coming a few weekends ago (that's why no blog post last week), but it changed it's mind... So with my wonderful husband back to work and my doula back home, I'm trying to stay distracted and keep up with housework.
I'm making daily to-do lists right now, because my brain is gone. It has left the building... It seems I can barely finish a sentence right now-let alone remember what I'm supposed to do. We also have a long list of things that need to be done outside once I get my strength back and can.. Some of those require hubby's help, some do not (the dog just a couple of nap companions-Mickey and Minnie Mouse, courtesy of Grace) so I'm making a list so I remember everything I'm thinking about as I'm sitting here resting.
We have a few household projects that I'm hoping both will get done this summer-one definitely will, we'll see about the other. The carpet needs pulled from the kid's room.. There is a hole in it (BEAUTIFUL hardwood underneath, I'm just praying it goes throughout the room) and true to kid form, they pick at the hole, as does the cat and it's not in a place where we can just cover it up.. So that job shouldn't be too difficult, but it also dawned on me that floor will be very cold come next winter, so I'm finding another use for all these fabric scraps and will crochet rag rugs. I'm working on cutting those strips as I can, we just need to make it down to the local thrift store to see if she has a huge crochet hook. The other project is to make a play room under the stairs. We convinced my dad into crawling into a circulation vent hole to check out under the stairs for us, and it's mostly finished under there! A friend had confirmed that there used to a walk through pantry there (it's now a bathroom...and my pantry is a set of shelves)... So all we have to do is cut open the drywall, put something up to cover the hole to the bathroom and reuse some of the good carpet from the kid's room to put on the floor-or some soft, easy to clean flooring. While it seems very simple, we are still learning the basics to carpentry so are trying to convince my dad to come at least supervise-that and we need his saws-all. :D
I did get some fabric cut for a baby-in-a-bag outfit to sew....Then realized I can't reach the sewing machine...So... my cut fabric and instructions sit beside the sewing machine, just a-waiting.
Our little boy turned 6 last week. He picked pizza and a superhero cake... So since I didn't feel like making a decorating a cake, we went and bought an ice cream cake, then had him pick out his favorite little superhero guys to go on top.
I think one of my biggest conundrums right now, is finding a year round homeschool planner I think will work. I'm at the point where I'm sure I'll have to buy one-at least this year-instead of coming up with my own, but the question is.. what do I want? I can picture it in my head-just don't ask me to explain it, so I'll just have to go looking I suppose.
That's all to talk about this week! Have a great week (or two)!
~Tabitha
I'm making daily to-do lists right now, because my brain is gone. It has left the building... It seems I can barely finish a sentence right now-let alone remember what I'm supposed to do. We also have a long list of things that need to be done outside once I get my strength back and can.. Some of those require hubby's help, some do not (the dog just a couple of nap companions-Mickey and Minnie Mouse, courtesy of Grace) so I'm making a list so I remember everything I'm thinking about as I'm sitting here resting.
We have a few household projects that I'm hoping both will get done this summer-one definitely will, we'll see about the other. The carpet needs pulled from the kid's room.. There is a hole in it (BEAUTIFUL hardwood underneath, I'm just praying it goes throughout the room) and true to kid form, they pick at the hole, as does the cat and it's not in a place where we can just cover it up.. So that job shouldn't be too difficult, but it also dawned on me that floor will be very cold come next winter, so I'm finding another use for all these fabric scraps and will crochet rag rugs. I'm working on cutting those strips as I can, we just need to make it down to the local thrift store to see if she has a huge crochet hook. The other project is to make a play room under the stairs. We convinced my dad into crawling into a circulation vent hole to check out under the stairs for us, and it's mostly finished under there! A friend had confirmed that there used to a walk through pantry there (it's now a bathroom...and my pantry is a set of shelves)... So all we have to do is cut open the drywall, put something up to cover the hole to the bathroom and reuse some of the good carpet from the kid's room to put on the floor-or some soft, easy to clean flooring. While it seems very simple, we are still learning the basics to carpentry so are trying to convince my dad to come at least supervise-that and we need his saws-all. :D
I did get some fabric cut for a baby-in-a-bag outfit to sew....Then realized I can't reach the sewing machine...So... my cut fabric and instructions sit beside the sewing machine, just a-waiting.
Our little boy turned 6 last week. He picked pizza and a superhero cake... So since I didn't feel like making a decorating a cake, we went and bought an ice cream cake, then had him pick out his favorite little superhero guys to go on top.
I think one of my biggest conundrums right now, is finding a year round homeschool planner I think will work. I'm at the point where I'm sure I'll have to buy one-at least this year-instead of coming up with my own, but the question is.. what do I want? I can picture it in my head-just don't ask me to explain it, so I'll just have to go looking I suppose.
That's all to talk about this week! Have a great week (or two)!
~Tabitha
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Shopping Trip April 7th
Nope, no baby yet.. To say I'm impatient is a severe understatement.
So we went grocery shopping today. I'm 39 weeks pregnant, grocery shopping with an (almost) 6 year old, 4 year and 2 year old. You can imagine how much I had (insert sarcastic tone).
I can tell you one thing. I am SO GRATEFUL for Hyvee's online Aisles shopping and pick up service I can't even express. You go on their site, create an account, then pick out what groceries you want. You pick the store, and a pick up time for pick up times available at that store.. They do the shopping for you, anything under $100 has a fee, over $100 is free (at least for our store, I don't know if that varies or not). They also have delivery, but we are too far away for that. So that's what we did this time.
I skipped the bakery outlet and Dollar Tree. I just didn't have the energy to deal with them and the kids. I was zapped after Sam's. I paid extra for the few things we did need from those two stores or found a way to do without. (like a magnetic notepad-I'm using scratch paper and a magnet, and new laundry baskets-I get hte cheap ones for the kids, I just added more tape to them lol). What bread we did need, I just paid extra for at Hyvee.
Yes, we paid more for groceries this month, but it was so worth it!
Hyvee total was $205
Sam's total was $205
Sam's I got so many 'make easy' meals my freezers are stuffed. Yes, we have premade food, but there are also some that are just easy meals to put together... Honestly, I think the most difficult on my meal list is the salsbury steak (totally from scratch) and the chicken fried steak (Sam's has awesome precooked 'steaks' for this, all I have to do is cook those and make the sides). I have been completely tired and not wanting to cook at all the past few weeks, so having easy, throw together meals will help that feeling.. and if I decide to skip the salsbury steak, I can do anything with hamburger.
So that was our adventure today... Time to rest now and wait for help to get the rest of the groceries put away.
Have a great week-and hopefully I'll have a picture of a baby to share next week!
~Tabitha
So we went grocery shopping today. I'm 39 weeks pregnant, grocery shopping with an (almost) 6 year old, 4 year and 2 year old. You can imagine how much I had (insert sarcastic tone).
I can tell you one thing. I am SO GRATEFUL for Hyvee's online Aisles shopping and pick up service I can't even express. You go on their site, create an account, then pick out what groceries you want. You pick the store, and a pick up time for pick up times available at that store.. They do the shopping for you, anything under $100 has a fee, over $100 is free (at least for our store, I don't know if that varies or not). They also have delivery, but we are too far away for that. So that's what we did this time.
I skipped the bakery outlet and Dollar Tree. I just didn't have the energy to deal with them and the kids. I was zapped after Sam's. I paid extra for the few things we did need from those two stores or found a way to do without. (like a magnetic notepad-I'm using scratch paper and a magnet, and new laundry baskets-I get hte cheap ones for the kids, I just added more tape to them lol). What bread we did need, I just paid extra for at Hyvee.
Yes, we paid more for groceries this month, but it was so worth it!
Hyvee total was $205
Sam's total was $205
Sam's I got so many 'make easy' meals my freezers are stuffed. Yes, we have premade food, but there are also some that are just easy meals to put together... Honestly, I think the most difficult on my meal list is the salsbury steak (totally from scratch) and the chicken fried steak (Sam's has awesome precooked 'steaks' for this, all I have to do is cook those and make the sides). I have been completely tired and not wanting to cook at all the past few weeks, so having easy, throw together meals will help that feeling.. and if I decide to skip the salsbury steak, I can do anything with hamburger.
So that was our adventure today... Time to rest now and wait for help to get the rest of the groceries put away.
Have a great week-and hopefully I'll have a picture of a baby to share next week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Getting Ready for Baby
I realized I forgot to do a blog post last week. Sorry. My brain has vacated the building. Baby is due anytime and we are getting very impatient waiting for it to make it's appearance.
Normally, I'd have a hospital bag packed and waiting in the car.. But we decided on a home birth this time. So here is what I'm doing around the house.
I've washed the bassinet and a few sets of clothes for boy and girl, but mostly just the gender neutral clothes. In the bassinet, I'm collecting everything we'll need for the birth and baby right away. It's all in one place and easy to access. I'll probably rearrange it at least ten more times before baby comes.
I can't remember where the camera is, or I'd take pictures lol... so Sorry, no pictures.
(warning men, you may not want to read the next few paragraphs lol) I have the baby quilt, nursing tanks, and baby wipes done. I have not finished the baby in a bag outfits... but only because I'm struggling to get normal house work done, let alone anything else. Also in the bassinet I have chux pads, feminine pads, sterile scissors (since we plan to let the placenta drain all the way before cutting we won't need a clamp), two dollar tree quality plastic table covers (for the bed..because you just never know), an old sheet and a package of newborn disposable diapers... Because that way I won't have to worry about laundry for a day or two, Grace will also be in disposables.
In an end table for our bed, I have the baby's cloth diapers-mostly homemade prefolds thanks to a friend, but I do have some flats and All in Ones that are newborn size. The covers for the diapers and snappis-which may or may not be needed considering the covers, but I want them handy just in case (snappis are the 21st century version of the diaper pins I LOVE them). I also have two nursing nightgowns thanks to a friend-can't wait to use those, all my nursing pads-which I'm already using-but also disposable so I don't through AS MANY shirts while my milk evens out. The boppy is stuffed in the bottom of the bassinet, covered with a crib sheet so it doesn't get all furry from the cat. Lanolin, although I'll use coconut oil first, I wanted lanolin available just in case. And Lavender essential oil is patiently waiting in the bathroom cupboard for calming effects.
Downstairs we have the new rocking chair that is OH SO COMFORTABLE!! And we'll put the play pen up with the bassinet so baby has a place to lay downstairs.
As far as the family goes, we have plans for somebody to come be with the kids, along with a back up plan. Easy meals (and numbers to the few places in town hubby can go pick up food if wanted or needed), paper plates, plastic ware, precooked bacon-gotta have the bacon lol. We are blessed that my husband's work is understanding, while he did schedule vacation time, his boss understands that when it actually starts depends on when baby decides to come, that way he can be home for two weeks after baby comes instead of sitting here all day being impatient with me, he's being impatient at work while I'm impatient at home.
I did realize I forgot two very important things. Frozen berries for smoothies (GASP, really gotta get some berries) and ice-which we can run and pick up when I go into labor... because I love ice water when I'm in labor...and that's about the only time.
In the meantime, I'm sitting here looking at my lonely sewing machine and feeling lazy with the huge pile of projects on a shelf nearby, but I'm sitting here, typing this and trying not to fall asleep-because I can't sleep at night, but during the day when my kids needs me, yep, I'm all over that sleep thing.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Normally, I'd have a hospital bag packed and waiting in the car.. But we decided on a home birth this time. So here is what I'm doing around the house.
I've washed the bassinet and a few sets of clothes for boy and girl, but mostly just the gender neutral clothes. In the bassinet, I'm collecting everything we'll need for the birth and baby right away. It's all in one place and easy to access. I'll probably rearrange it at least ten more times before baby comes.
I can't remember where the camera is, or I'd take pictures lol... so Sorry, no pictures.
(warning men, you may not want to read the next few paragraphs lol) I have the baby quilt, nursing tanks, and baby wipes done. I have not finished the baby in a bag outfits... but only because I'm struggling to get normal house work done, let alone anything else. Also in the bassinet I have chux pads, feminine pads, sterile scissors (since we plan to let the placenta drain all the way before cutting we won't need a clamp), two dollar tree quality plastic table covers (for the bed..because you just never know), an old sheet and a package of newborn disposable diapers... Because that way I won't have to worry about laundry for a day or two, Grace will also be in disposables.
In an end table for our bed, I have the baby's cloth diapers-mostly homemade prefolds thanks to a friend, but I do have some flats and All in Ones that are newborn size. The covers for the diapers and snappis-which may or may not be needed considering the covers, but I want them handy just in case (snappis are the 21st century version of the diaper pins I LOVE them). I also have two nursing nightgowns thanks to a friend-can't wait to use those, all my nursing pads-which I'm already using-but also disposable so I don't through AS MANY shirts while my milk evens out. The boppy is stuffed in the bottom of the bassinet, covered with a crib sheet so it doesn't get all furry from the cat. Lanolin, although I'll use coconut oil first, I wanted lanolin available just in case. And Lavender essential oil is patiently waiting in the bathroom cupboard for calming effects.
Downstairs we have the new rocking chair that is OH SO COMFORTABLE!! And we'll put the play pen up with the bassinet so baby has a place to lay downstairs.
As far as the family goes, we have plans for somebody to come be with the kids, along with a back up plan. Easy meals (and numbers to the few places in town hubby can go pick up food if wanted or needed), paper plates, plastic ware, precooked bacon-gotta have the bacon lol. We are blessed that my husband's work is understanding, while he did schedule vacation time, his boss understands that when it actually starts depends on when baby decides to come, that way he can be home for two weeks after baby comes instead of sitting here all day being impatient with me, he's being impatient at work while I'm impatient at home.
I did realize I forgot two very important things. Frozen berries for smoothies (GASP, really gotta get some berries) and ice-which we can run and pick up when I go into labor... because I love ice water when I'm in labor...and that's about the only time.
In the meantime, I'm sitting here looking at my lonely sewing machine and feeling lazy with the huge pile of projects on a shelf nearby, but I'm sitting here, typing this and trying not to fall asleep-because I can't sleep at night, but during the day when my kids needs me, yep, I'm all over that sleep thing.
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
What We Pack For A Road Trip
Our road trips are pretty low key around here... We don't pack a lot of entertainment for the kids-actually, they do much of their own entertainment packing.
When we went on vacation last year, I did pack some extra entertainment that they never ended up needing.
Usually on our road trips (6 1/2 hour drives to see grandparents, big sister and usually some cousins), the kids get a basket of toys that they fill up, blankets for hide and seek, sun shade and just in case they're cold, and their car pillows. A bottle of water and some snacks handy.. The rest is up to them.
My mom made these awesome toy baskets from plastic grocery bags-washable, durable and cheap.. Don't ask me how she did them, I don't know other than crochet lol. They fill them up and take them to the car the day before (or the day) we leave. I use an old cooler that doesn't keep things cold anymore to keep all the snacks and drinks together and within easy reach for me. We also have a couple of little coolers Dennis got from work that I have started using for the kids' snacks. Keeps them in spot and if I need to, I can strap them to car seat.
We are headed to a Bible Conference in Fargo soon, so I have been planning on how to keep my little goons entertained for a 3 day Bible Conference. Now I know I won't be able to keep them in the conference hall the entire time, I'm also hoping it won't be snowing so we can run off some energy in the hotel yard. Here's hoping. I decided to stay low key with this, too. I grabbed 4 new color books, we'll grab the crayons in soap containers and they can sit for a sermon at a time. I'll keep drinks and snacks in the car, so the sermons they get restless during, we can have a quick snack if wanted-but that way it isn't sitting there tempting them.
I'm still working on my sewing list for baby.. Getting out baby stuff this week and cleaning the car seat. Eva lost her favorite stuffed animal, so that hunt has been added to my list.
Have a good week!!
~Tabitha
When we went on vacation last year, I did pack some extra entertainment that they never ended up needing.
Usually on our road trips (6 1/2 hour drives to see grandparents, big sister and usually some cousins), the kids get a basket of toys that they fill up, blankets for hide and seek, sun shade and just in case they're cold, and their car pillows. A bottle of water and some snacks handy.. The rest is up to them.
My mom made these awesome toy baskets from plastic grocery bags-washable, durable and cheap.. Don't ask me how she did them, I don't know other than crochet lol. They fill them up and take them to the car the day before (or the day) we leave. I use an old cooler that doesn't keep things cold anymore to keep all the snacks and drinks together and within easy reach for me. We also have a couple of little coolers Dennis got from work that I have started using for the kids' snacks. Keeps them in spot and if I need to, I can strap them to car seat.
We are headed to a Bible Conference in Fargo soon, so I have been planning on how to keep my little goons entertained for a 3 day Bible Conference. Now I know I won't be able to keep them in the conference hall the entire time, I'm also hoping it won't be snowing so we can run off some energy in the hotel yard. Here's hoping. I decided to stay low key with this, too. I grabbed 4 new color books, we'll grab the crayons in soap containers and they can sit for a sermon at a time. I'll keep drinks and snacks in the car, so the sermons they get restless during, we can have a quick snack if wanted-but that way it isn't sitting there tempting them.
I'm still working on my sewing list for baby.. Getting out baby stuff this week and cleaning the car seat. Eva lost her favorite stuffed animal, so that hunt has been added to my list.
Have a good week!!
~Tabitha
Friday, March 11, 2016
Shopping Trip 3/10
To start off this post, I spent more this month.. I fully expect baby to be here within the month... and even it's not, I'm utterly exhausted and just wanted more convenience foods. I also picked up some extras for what we will need when baby comes (paper plates for instance). Any foods we need, my husband said he will just go to the local store and get.
I was going to use HyVee's grocery pickup service (I've used it before when I'm this far along, it's a back and sanity saver for a $10 fee-completely worth it I think)... But they didn't have any open slots available, so that didn't work. The kids went a little crazy with mommy's slow walking, but they survived.
I am proud to say I kept better track of my list this month.. so I didn't forget anything I could find lol. The few things I couldn't find, I blame on HyVee rearranging one whole corner of the store.
So we started off our trip at Sam's like normal...
I bought french fries instead of making my own this month-which I've been doing for a few months now, I just bought them in Sioux Falls this time. I can't order from Azure before I run out of laundry soap, so back to ALL laundry soap we went. A huge pack of foam plates-we'll use them all eventually. Precooked bacon, so bacon will be easy for me or Dennis when baby comes. I only got half our bacon precooked and a package of regular bacon. I also got a case of juice boxes, partly for a trip to Fargo next week, partly to make it easier on me so if we run out of juice, I don't have to go to the store as fast (we get juice on WIC, which typically means a weekly trip locally). Oh and chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese....because.. I'm exhausted. Sam's total 277.56
At HyVee, we picked up four rolls of cinnamon rolls for Sunday mornings-a lot easier on this momma than making waffles two mornings in a row.. Refried beans for the burritos-in case I don't feel like making homemade. The rest was normal spending. HyVee Total 106.07
At Dollar Tree, we grabbed some new coloring books for the kids for the conference next week, tortillas, worcestershire sauce, italian dressing and air freshener. Dollar Tree Total 13.78
The Bakery outlet was awesome. :D We got our normal 8 loaves of bread, some donuts (because I was lazy and didn't make coffee cake last weekend-so hubby needed something with his breakfast, raisin bread (I blame that one on the baby lol). They were giving away free samples of their artesan bread (REALLY YUMMY, especially as cheesy garlic bread) and since I spent $10, I got a free loaf of the same thing.... So Basically, I spent $13 and got about $25 worth of bread. Oroweat Bakery Outlet total 12.72
So total grocery spending was $410.13... Over budget, but that's what happens when I buy convenience foods... and the $20 in extras (plates and laundry soap) didn't help much.
Things are going a little crazy around here... We got new furniture, a new love seat, it's a rocker/recliner on both sides with a console in the middle.. Original price was around $1100, we got it for $799. Not bad, eh? A bunk bed for the kids, I don't THINK it was on sale, but we got it for around $179. And a twin mattress for that which they gave it to us for $99... We think we did pretty good spending $1130 on that (sturdy frame construction) including delivery and assembly. Another $120 for a new rocker/glider with footstool for me from KMart.. That one's original list price was $160, but with the sale and getting it from the Kmart closing in Mitchell, gave me a good discount. That stuff came Wednesday, so this weekend we have some rearranging to do to get end tables how we want them and get my sewing stuff and the kid's school stuff figured out.. Along with hopefully getting the keyboard back out.
Have a good week!!
~Tabitha
I was going to use HyVee's grocery pickup service (I've used it before when I'm this far along, it's a back and sanity saver for a $10 fee-completely worth it I think)... But they didn't have any open slots available, so that didn't work. The kids went a little crazy with mommy's slow walking, but they survived.
I am proud to say I kept better track of my list this month.. so I didn't forget anything I could find lol. The few things I couldn't find, I blame on HyVee rearranging one whole corner of the store.
So we started off our trip at Sam's like normal...
I bought french fries instead of making my own this month-which I've been doing for a few months now, I just bought them in Sioux Falls this time. I can't order from Azure before I run out of laundry soap, so back to ALL laundry soap we went. A huge pack of foam plates-we'll use them all eventually. Precooked bacon, so bacon will be easy for me or Dennis when baby comes. I only got half our bacon precooked and a package of regular bacon. I also got a case of juice boxes, partly for a trip to Fargo next week, partly to make it easier on me so if we run out of juice, I don't have to go to the store as fast (we get juice on WIC, which typically means a weekly trip locally). Oh and chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese....because.. I'm exhausted. Sam's total 277.56
At HyVee, we picked up four rolls of cinnamon rolls for Sunday mornings-a lot easier on this momma than making waffles two mornings in a row.. Refried beans for the burritos-in case I don't feel like making homemade. The rest was normal spending. HyVee Total 106.07
At Dollar Tree, we grabbed some new coloring books for the kids for the conference next week, tortillas, worcestershire sauce, italian dressing and air freshener. Dollar Tree Total 13.78
The Bakery outlet was awesome. :D We got our normal 8 loaves of bread, some donuts (because I was lazy and didn't make coffee cake last weekend-so hubby needed something with his breakfast, raisin bread (I blame that one on the baby lol). They were giving away free samples of their artesan bread (REALLY YUMMY, especially as cheesy garlic bread) and since I spent $10, I got a free loaf of the same thing.... So Basically, I spent $13 and got about $25 worth of bread. Oroweat Bakery Outlet total 12.72
So total grocery spending was $410.13... Over budget, but that's what happens when I buy convenience foods... and the $20 in extras (plates and laundry soap) didn't help much.
Things are going a little crazy around here... We got new furniture, a new love seat, it's a rocker/recliner on both sides with a console in the middle.. Original price was around $1100, we got it for $799. Not bad, eh? A bunk bed for the kids, I don't THINK it was on sale, but we got it for around $179. And a twin mattress for that which they gave it to us for $99... We think we did pretty good spending $1130 on that (sturdy frame construction) including delivery and assembly. Another $120 for a new rocker/glider with footstool for me from KMart.. That one's original list price was $160, but with the sale and getting it from the Kmart closing in Mitchell, gave me a good discount. That stuff came Wednesday, so this weekend we have some rearranging to do to get end tables how we want them and get my sewing stuff and the kid's school stuff figured out.. Along with hopefully getting the keyboard back out.
Have a good week!!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Quilted Booster Chair Seat Cover
The kids moved up in car seats... Andrew's seat needed a new seat cushion, so I figured we might as well make it fun for our little super hero lover. Remember that Marvel Comic fabric I bought a few weeks ago? Well this is what it was for.
The cushion turned out pretty good, and Andrew loves it! It is a little too wide, but that's ok.
So here's what you need to make your own (especially if you don't have the original cushion to take apart and trace). I used four pieces of copy paper from our printer, taped them together, laid it on the booster seat then traced the imprint of where the original lay (just... don't forget to add seam allowance...like I did lol). I also used an old hand towel for some absorbency, he's a kid, spills are gonna happen. The batting is what's left over from the baby's quilt for a bit of cushion-but not too much to keep it safe. Along with 1/4 inch elastic.
So here's his booster seat. After I had traced the ridges (see the ridges?), I turned it over and marked where the hooks were for the elastic that hold those cushions on.
My pattern... minus seam allowance, because I forgot... (don't forget) See the circles? That's where my elastic will go, Once I marked the circles, I measured from where the cushion ends to the hook, took off about 1/2 inch and put that measurement on my pattern to know how long to cut the elastic.
Then I sewed the towel (...yeah no seam allowance, but I did cut the main fabric with a seam allowance) onto the wrong side of the fabric, this is the bottom.
The OTHER half of the cushion got the quilting. I cut it just to the approximate size so I had plenty of room for some scrunching when I machine quilted it (REALLY, REALLY don't like machine quilting). For the quilting, I took my ruler and measured 2 inches between each line-lengthwise and widthwise.
After both pieces were done, I sewed on the elastic...the wrong way.. Yeah yeah, I blame it pregnancy brain.. Just make sure your elastic goes towards the inside of the fabric, not like I did DON'T point it out.. it's a pain to undo and fix.
After getting the elastic on, I pinned to two pieces, wrong sides together and sewed except for the straight edge to it would be easy to turn around.. See you you can see the elastic? You shouldn't see the elastic.
After that I turned right side out and top stitched. Then we put the cushion on top of the booster seat, stretched the elastic to make sure I made the loops big enough to go over the hooks on the bottom, sewed those loops and we were done.
Pretty simple, really. (If you look close you can see the square from the machine quilting.)
Lots of projects still going on around here. Getting a few done at a time as my energy allows. Although some days it seems my energy allows more than my back does. We have about a month before baby comes, so let the countdown begin!
Have a good week!!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Planning, Planning and more Planning
I have a confession. I'm a great planner, I can plan until I'm blue in face...but when it comes to the follow through, I have issues. And yet, I can't stop planning. It's a vicious cycle.
The past week my sewing machine has been at a stand still forcing me to choose what projects are essential to get done before baby gets here.
I have to finish my mama cloth and the baby blanket. Andrew's car seat is getting cushion, Eva has a skirt that needs fixed, and my husbands's footstool is in desperate need of recovering-which will really be more stapling onto the wooden frame than actual sewing. I would absolutely LOVE to get the baby clothes, wipes and nursing camisoles done, but I'm not counting on it anymore. I can only sit for so long and considering the amount of.....help (yeah, let's call it help from my well meaning kids who are learning) I get when I sew, my patience and nerves only last for so long. Grace LOVES to put her fingers where they don't need to be. So we'll see how far I get.
I also have to clean out our room where the bassinet and rocking chair go (including shampooing the carpet) and have baby clothes easy to get to... Girl and boy since we don't know what we are having.
I have a few meals to get in the freezer (lasagna and stuffed shells..possibly waffles, we'll see).
Anybody else overwhelmed yet?
On top of all the baby stuff, we have home school (my crazy kids about had a heart attack when I mentioned the word 'break', so I'm getting extra worksheets ready for when I can't help along with the daily work) needs attention, we have the normal daily household chores... And we added a trip to Fargo in March. They are having their annual Red River Bible and Prophecy Conference. While I didn't get to hear much last year, and doubt I will this year, I can always turn the live stream on and listen that way while the kids get their energy out. Meeting the pastors (visiting with ours and his family from Missouri was fun!) and being able to be there was great.. So we decided we'd go again this year. We are both completely looking forward to it, but it's a little extra planning for me-quiet activities for the kids, snacks that are Eva safe (learned the hard way last year).
While I won't start planning the next school year until we get the materials around May or June, I'm looking into different ways of organizing everything. It's so much easier on me to have everything planned out and ready to go than to fly by the seat of my pants.. So I'm on Pinterest almost daily looking for ideas.
...SOOO... like I said.. anybody else overwhelmed yet? ;)
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
The past week my sewing machine has been at a stand still forcing me to choose what projects are essential to get done before baby gets here.
I have to finish my mama cloth and the baby blanket. Andrew's car seat is getting cushion, Eva has a skirt that needs fixed, and my husbands's footstool is in desperate need of recovering-which will really be more stapling onto the wooden frame than actual sewing. I would absolutely LOVE to get the baby clothes, wipes and nursing camisoles done, but I'm not counting on it anymore. I can only sit for so long and considering the amount of.....help (yeah, let's call it help from my well meaning kids who are learning) I get when I sew, my patience and nerves only last for so long. Grace LOVES to put her fingers where they don't need to be. So we'll see how far I get.
I also have to clean out our room where the bassinet and rocking chair go (including shampooing the carpet) and have baby clothes easy to get to... Girl and boy since we don't know what we are having.
I have a few meals to get in the freezer (lasagna and stuffed shells..possibly waffles, we'll see).
Anybody else overwhelmed yet?
On top of all the baby stuff, we have home school (my crazy kids about had a heart attack when I mentioned the word 'break', so I'm getting extra worksheets ready for when I can't help along with the daily work) needs attention, we have the normal daily household chores... And we added a trip to Fargo in March. They are having their annual Red River Bible and Prophecy Conference. While I didn't get to hear much last year, and doubt I will this year, I can always turn the live stream on and listen that way while the kids get their energy out. Meeting the pastors (visiting with ours and his family from Missouri was fun!) and being able to be there was great.. So we decided we'd go again this year. We are both completely looking forward to it, but it's a little extra planning for me-quiet activities for the kids, snacks that are Eva safe (learned the hard way last year).
While I won't start planning the next school year until we get the materials around May or June, I'm looking into different ways of organizing everything. It's so much easier on me to have everything planned out and ready to go than to fly by the seat of my pants.. So I'm on Pinterest almost daily looking for ideas.
...SOOO... like I said.. anybody else overwhelmed yet? ;)
Have a good week!
~Tabitha
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Fabric Shopping Trip 2/16
A good friend gifted me a JoAnn's Fabric gift card. :D So the kids and I went shopping yesterday. While we did have a few different stores on our list, we only made it to JoAnn's.
My belt broke on my old Singer sewing machine...so we were planning on going to the Singer dealer to get a new one. The problem? Nobody showed up.. so I went in search on the internet and found it. :D All sewing is halted until that belt comes in, so I'll be cleaning and twiddling my thumbs until Monday.
The money for the belt came out of my thrift store money (seriously need some sweatpants here), but since I couldn't go to Singer I couldn't go to the thrift store...you see how this is going? Yeah, so we made it JoAnn's for fabric and such, Walmart for vitamins and diapers and Firehouse Subs for lunch-you gotta eat there SO GOOD and their soda machine is awesome.
Anyway-here's our takeaway from JoAnn's. The only thing that wasn't on sale were the snaps-but I had a 50% coupon for them. :D We need fabric for the baby's quilt, fabric for a footstool, fabric for a car seat cover, fabric for cloth wipes, white thread, a pattern and heavy duty snaps.
So here's a rundown of what we got for fabric. Minky, denim, Marvel comics, and scrap flannel.
2 yards of Minky. My sister introduced me to this fabric. So soft, warm but not too warm.. In my opinion, PERFECT for the backing of a baby quilt. :D Originally priced for a total of 29.98, on sale for 8.99 a yard. Total of 17.98. $20 for a homemade baby quilt. I think we can deal with that.
Scrap Flannel. I found a pattern on Pinterest I fully intend on making and it will be a blog post. You take terry cloth and flannel and make a cute, absorbent and soft on one side wipe. After 3 in cloth diapers, I think I deserve some nice wipes (and we have a bathroom towel with holes). I really wanted something more baby fabric-type (those cute little feet and hands pattern or something), but I also knew getting a remnant would make it a little cheaper. It was a remnant, so cheaper to begin with, but still on sale after that. Originally 6.99, sale price was 2.40 at just under a yard.
1 yard Marvel Comic. We have a car seat without a cover (don't ask, it just doesn't have one). Now I wouldn't want to sit on a hard plastic seat, so I'm not going to make Andrew. So he helped pick out his favorite. I'll make it a little cushiony with the leftover quilting batting from the baby blanket. Original price was 10.99, on sale for 6.59.
Miscellaneous... Heavy Duty Snaps, thread and a pattern.
Andrew's chair I did a few weeks ago needs more snaps, so we needed to get more heavy duty snaps. This was the one thing I got that wasn't on sale. But I had a 50% off coupon. Originally 6.99 for 7 snaps, I got for 3.50.
White thread. I'm getting a little low and since I'm sewing some things that matter what color of thread I use, I wanted that specific color-white. Although in retrospect I'm wondering if I should have picked up some brown since I got brown Minky fabric. Oh well, maybe I can find some at the local thrift store. Two spools of white thread. Originally 3.99 each, on sale for 2.39 each.
The pattern. I searched hard for a free pattern for a baby in a bag. Found a few free ones that were printable.. So printed them off and took them to my mom's... We attempted..but the neck just didn't look like it should and comparing it to one I have already, it just doesn't look RIGHT. So I decided to spring for a pattern. Since I was paying for a pattern, I got one that had the footy pajamas in it-I swear toddlers go through those so fast, you blink and the feet are full of holes. I might have to scale down a bit for a newborn, but I bought the bigger size for the footy pajamas. The baby in a bags will be a blog post too. The pattern was originally 13.95, on sale for 8.37. It is cheaper on the Butterick website, but I didn't have a gift certificate to the website. :p
In all, I spent $64.02 at JoAnn's. I would say that isn't too bad for all that. I saved 45.50 by shopping during the sale. Which is AWESOME.
Until next week!
~Tabitha
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