Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: baby food, Ethan, homemade, stay-at-home mom, Thrifty, Young Married's Group
My son, Ethan; has been eating baby food since he was about 5 1/2 months old. I have been spending probably about $20 a week on just the solid food–that doesn’t include his formula either! I usually buy a ton of it when it’s on sale so I don’t end up actually buying it every week. But no matter how you look at it–baby food is expensive! I would love to feed E. off my plate now that he is 8 months old, but he just doesn’t understand how to “chew” or “mash” his food, so I’m not totally comfortable with that yet.
So I think what I’m going to do instead is—start making my own baby food!
Why didn’t I think of this before?!!?
Now I am totally NOT a healt nut or “crunchy” but I am trying to get better at being thrifty.
And of course along with saving our family money, it would be better for E. to eat fresher foods with less additives! I’m excited to go to the grocery store tomorrow and shop around for new and interesting things to mash up for him! I have been doing my “homework” tonight on what I can and cannot feed him.
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On another note–I did end up making chili for our Young Married’s Group and it was a huge hit–everyone seemed to like it! Someone else was supposed to bring a side dish item, but they ended up not showing up, so the only thing that we had was the chili–thank God I brought the macaroni noodles too!
Tomorrow:
Grocery Shopping
BABY FOOD MAKING!!
The second and fourth Saturdays of every month the “young marrieds” group meets. Right now we are reading a book called, ‘Men Are Like Waffles and Women Are Like Spaghetti” It is basically a Christian spin on the Men are from mars book–for the most part I think the book is OK, haven’t really gotten that far into it. It is definitely a fun book to discuss with a large group of 20-something couples though! I know that I am getting insight into my husband’s mind 
I bring up this group because we are supposed to take the main dish.
My mom showed me how to make chili last week when she was here and so I was kind of excited to try out that recipe. Maybe I could do a chili-mac and take macaroni noodles, cheese, and sour cream. But would that be too much work?! Not too much for me, but that is kind of a lot of stuff to take with us–plus Ethan! I really enjoy cooking for other people and seeing them enjoying the food I made. That is very fulfilling!
I could make like a casserole or something like that, but I kind of need a lot of food because there are quite a few couples and then most of them have children too! Maybe I’ll take some pictures and post the recipe too That will be Saturday though!
Tomorrow:
Jason & Karen’s wedding
Filed under: crafts | Tags: Art, crafts, crafty, free time, new year's resolution
I USED TO BE SO CRAFTY!
I wonder what happened to me?! I would love to blame it all on having a baby and being pregnant…blah blah blah….but my loss of desire for crafting starting to dwindle long before Ethan was in the picture! If anything, Ethan helped me get back into it for a brief moment–just enough time to decorate his room:
Wall hanging in Ethan's room
Hand painted wooden alphabet pictures! An alternative to alphabet blocks!
Top of Dresser!
See–I do know how to be crafty, I just don’t feel the drive to do it. I got a ton of scrapbooking stuff for baby shower gifts and for Christmas, but all I did was buy a storage container for it all–haven’t touched it since! What’s frustrating is that Ethan allows me plenty of time in the evening to do these types of projects; afterall, he goes to bed at 7:30 and doesn’t wake up until the next morning. We have taken thousands of pictures, so that’s not the issue either.
My original New Year’s Resolution was to not use anymore credit cards (so far, so good on that front!!!!) but I think I’m going to add on and say that my “first quarter resolution” is to become more crafty. To take on an art project. SOMETHING!
Wish me luck
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ally, Baxter, Ethan, grocery shopping, Schedule, stay-at-home mom, struggles
Yesterday my mom called me and said, “are you missing your phone?” I had no clue what she was talking about. Apparently when I got my hair cut on Monday night, my phone fell out of my purse. I just assumed it was in the bottom of my purse somewhere and I just hadn’t gotten any phone calls or texts.
So that leads into my day today–
What I planned to do:
Get up at 7–feed Ethan
7-9–Play w/ Ethan, make bottles, clean kitchen
9-11–Ethan naps and I would make a grocery list, clean the LR
11-?–Feed Ethan, go get my phone, grocery shop
and then be back home by 1pm for another nap and so on…
What I actually did:
3:45–get up and feed Ethan
4:00–Put Ethan and myself back to bed
7:00–Feed Ethan again
7-9–Sat on the floor and made sure E. didn’t get into anything. We need a baby gate system BADLY in our house!
9:00–E sleeps for 1/2 hour (I started to clean the kitchen…didn’t get that far)
9:30-10–Ethan whines unless I’m holding him.
10–Feed Ethan
10-11–Ethan naps and I don’t make a peep for fear he’d wake up
11:00–E wakes up starving just as I remember that Baxter has been outside on his leash for way too long and he’s howling and yelping at the backdoor.
12-100–Strap Ethan in his seat and head over to Cost Cutters to pick up my phone–E cries the whole time so I choose to skip grocery shopping and go home and put him back to bed.
I guess that is all part of being a stay-at-home mom. I have never been the type of person to rely on a schedule and a plan so much, but since having Ethan I live and die by our schedule and I’m afraid that Ethan does too. Everyone makes such a HUGE deal about “training” your child to have a schedule…so we did that–and in a way it’s been a struggle. Whenever we get off schedule just a little bit, Ethan falls apart and then I fall apart right after him! haha….it’s something we’re working on!
Oh my gosh…I am so glad that it is finally starting to get un-gray out! I’m loving the sun shine and the cool breezes. Today I actually got both myself and Ethan dressed before noon today–which is rare! Haha, but anyway, we went outside in the backyard and I sat him down in the grass for the first time ever. He didn’t really know what to think of the grass as it was dry and kind of ‘pokey’ on his little hands. He did not even try to move–he just sat in the same spot the whole time.
Here are some pictures:
Ethan grass!
Well it was a great day and I sure am glad I remembered we had this awesome camera on a day like today! I need to do this kind of thing more often. Kind of like last night, we all took a nice long walk and it was great. Ethan was kind of cranky but it wasn’t quite time for bed, so we strapped him in the stroller and off we went. He immediately calmed down. He was very tired by the time we got back and he slept like a log until early this morning. Normally I would have just given him a bottle and put him to bed, but not this time. He wasn’t hungry…maybe he just wanted a change of scenery! He’s such a good little boy. We are very blessed!
Finally! I’ve got our blog all set up and it only took me 8 months!! I’m excited about this because I think it’ll be a great way for me to keep in touch with family and friends and for them to also check in and see how we’re doing! We will try to update as often as possible and post many pictures too!
