Baby food: Stage 2

We are almost all out of baby food at our house so its time for me to get cracking on a new supply. I plan on making my new supply with vegetables of different textures and consistencies. My original supply lasted two months! (Well, I did make some acorn squash, green beans, peaches, and pureed chicken breast along the way). I am hoping this batch will get us through the 'baby food' stage.

Last night I made:
Garden Medley: Green bean, pea, carrot, and corn combo. I purchased a couple microwave steam bags of this already combined and pureed with water.
Cauliflower and broccoli combo: I purchased a microwave steam bag of them already combined, steamed and pureed them with water.
Brussel sprouts: YES. Brussel sprouts. This could get interesting. I bought them frozen and cooked them with a little water in the microwave the pureed them with that water.

I bought some whole grain brown rice, whole grain pasta, pork chops, chicken breast, tomato sauce, and turkey/beef/chicken gravy. I also bought 4 - 8 pack packages of 1/2 cup Glad mini-round BPA free Tupperware. They say they work great for freezing so we shall see. I will make Stage 3 meals by mixing the things listed previously with different veggies (chopping a bit) to create meal combos and freeze them in the containers. I am really excited to get working on that!! I just think the ice cube trays are a bit too small for that task.

Still have lots of other "Stage 2" stuff to make so will be busy this week!

2nd Anniversary

Tomorrow, September 29th, is my second wedding anniversary! I had a surprise celebration for Chris on Sunday. Since we work together I was able to get his shift covered without him knowing. I then purchased Vikings vs. Lions tickets and rented a hotel room at The Marquette in downtown Minneapolis. We stopped for Burger King lunch on the way down. We parked at the hotel and walked to the metrodome. VIKINGS WON! Doesn't get much better then that! We went back to the hotel room to check-in. The room was super nice and quiet. Chris watched some more football on television while I took a nap.

We then wandered around downtown in search of dinner. I wanted a nice steakhouse but couldn't find one. We bumped into a lady on a street corner that could tell I was lost. She asked what we were looking for and she pointed out a steakhouse only a block away. It was "Murray's Steakhouse". OMG it was sooo good. The drunk guy in the booth behind us was moaning and having the BIG-O over his steak I swear. I had to ask which one he ordered (new york strip) and ordered the same. He was right! Amazing!! Went down great with a few beers. The cesar salad is to die for. I will admit I have never spent that much on a meal for two people before in my entire life... but do hope to do so again someday.... SOMEday, lol. The drunk guy and his drunk friend were loud and obnoxious hollering about their sex lives and everything else. I think the restaurant was lucky we got put by them because anybody else paying that kind of money for a meal would have been pissed - we found it quite entertaining.

We wandered around for a little while downtown before heading back to our hotel room. Not a lot going on because it was a Sunday night but it was perfect. Quiet streets, tall buildings, nice cool breeze. It was a nice little stroll. At the hotel we rented 'Prince of Persia'. Chris wanted that one and I was like, no thanks. BUT being its our anniversary I obliged. We brought beer in a cooler so we laid on our big comfy bed in our amazingly clean hotel room enjoying a few beers and a movie. I ended up being the one that really liked the movie. We were in bed asleep by 11pm. I laughed with Chris about how being a parent now the greatest night away from the kids together is laying around doing nothing!

Chris woke me up at 10 am (glorious!). We soaked in the whirlpool tub together for a little while before getting ready to head home. On the way home we stopped at Applebees and totally went all out to top our getaway off with a bang. We ate an appetizer sampler, split a three-cheese penne pasta dish, and ordered two desserts to share. (I think I am still digesting all that food today).

We had a wonderful time. I couldn't have picked a better way to celebrate alone with my husband.

We ran into some friends at the Metrodome

From MN? Try Murray's
Stay at The Marquette (I recommend the whirlpool room!)

A new journey

I want to be completely honest about my personal fear of church and religion. From a young age I remember the whole thing making me extremely uncomfortable. I attended and was baptised in a Mormon church until our family left the church when I was about eight years old. Since then my only experience with church has been weddings, funerals, and a few rare midnight mass attendances in a beautiful large Lutheran church. The members of the Mormon church are all really nice people but it is just not my personal cup of tea.

Since then I have avoided religious discussions like the plague. I do, however, feel it is my duty as my boys's mother to expose them to religion so they can make their own choices in regards to faith and beliefs. If I don't expose them to it I in turn am exposing them to my fears. I am in no way saying I do not believe in God. Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I spoke to Chris about this and he is completely like me in regards to his feelings about church/religion. He also agrees that we should expose our children so they can learn about the Bible. As you can probably guess he and I are in no position to teach them!

I received a flyer in the mail for a "church for people who don't 'do' church". As you can imagine I was interested immediately. They are established in two other locations and were opening a service in my city... of all places the local bar! They host service before the bar/restaurant opens for brunch. I believe it is non-denominational. The flyer says to put on your flip flops and jeans and head over... so we did!

We found our church. When we first arrived Chris and I were insanely uncomfortable. I actually said to Chris "what in the hell are we doing?" We relaxed when we saw everyone in Vikings jerseys and jeans!! Instead of the typical church music they have a band with a girl who has an amazing voice. It was awesome. The way they taught about the Bible was in a way that didn't make me feel guarded or insecure. We discussed proverbs and they compared religion to football. "In order for your life not to SUCK and for you to SUCceed... you need to 1) listen to the coach 2) read the playbook and 3) attend practice. We were challenged to read one chapter of proverbs a day for the next 30 days, say a prayer when we wake up (even if its just "God give me wisdom, Amen"), and attend. Chris and I talked about the experience and we are both certain this is the place for us. We also agreed to follow through with the challenge. I can't wait to bring the boys to Sunday school next week!!

Check out The Crossing Church here

Holy food bill Batman!!!

As previously mentioned I have been working in dispatch at work to help out while they are short handed. This week I have been scheduled overnights and let me tell you, overnight shift in a 911 dispatch center can be quite long (& boring). I decided to check some books out at the library to occupy my time. While looking at cookbooks I came across the book: Feed your Family for $12 a Day. I thought - why not! I can't believe I hadn't looked into this before. I just sat down and calculated all the money we spent on groceries (or other walmart/target expenses like shampoo, etc) and also how much we have spent eating out between August 9 and September 9. HOLY CRAP.

Groceries:   $836.07
Eating out/bar related:  $481.85

THESE ARE NOT TYPOS PEOPLE! WE ACTUALLY HAVE SPENT THAT IN THE LAST 30 DAYS! The sad part is this is typical for us. Nothing extraordinary has happened in the month. We always use our charge card for groceries/going out and then pay it off every payday. We never really paid much notice to what exactly we were spending it on. This does not include ANY of Alec's formula or baby food as I had bought all of his formula on sale when he was a month old and made all his baby food. This is what we spent on two adults and a two year old. We don't eat like complete pigs either. I don't understand where this all is at because we both constantly complain about our cupboards being empty. Our biggest down fall is I NEVER write a list. I just go and pile stuff in my cart. Then when I go to cook something is missing so we run to the store and instead of buying one $5 item we spend $45 on whatever we see. In my defense I did stockpile diapers this month also. Ugh. I could just cry right now. It also doesn't help Chris and I are on opposite schedules right now so we have a lot of "convenience" foods and don't cook often.

The Fix:
I am only 14 pages into this book and I already have come up with several ways to save money. First being writing a weekly meal plan. Then writing a list mapping out all that we need (checking cupboards for what we already have), then scoping out the Aldi which is located 10 miles away. I am also going to look into a Cosco membership and search for online coupons for items I TYPICALLY USE, not purchase things just because I have a coupon. I will also set a certain weekly dollar limit and forcing my meal plans to fit this budget.

ANY ADVICE/TIPS?  WHAT WORKS FOR YOU???

Going cloth!

We are doing it! We are going to try cloth diapers. The first five I bought are medium (20lbs-30lbs) all-in-ones from an Etsy shop with great reviews. I love that these are exactly like disposable diapers, just Velcro them on. No snappi/pins required!!! They arrived today and Alec couldn't wait to try them giving mom a nice poop in the very first one he wore! I was surprised it was really easy to clean. I put the washer on cold rinse cycle with the lid open so it stops after the water fills. I then added baking soda to neutralize the urine. When I change a dirty diaper I plan to just plop them in the cold water to soak until the end of the day. Then I will shut the lid and let the rinse cycle run to get the urine and poo out. Once that is done I can run a regular laundry load with the diapers in warm water with regular detergent. I can dry them in the dryer or hang to dry depending on how soon I need them. LOVE this!! I purchased a slug of one size fits all, all-in-one diapers that will last until he is 36lbs (Carsyn isn't even that big yet!) I will try those on Carsyn when they arrive. So exciting!! So far so good!!! Alec started drinking from his bottle on his own today. Here are some pics of him playing on the floor with his last ounce of dinner (and new diapers!).

I must also add today that Carsyn now calls his baby brother by his full name "Al-eek Danio". Its friggen adorable!