My Little Artist

The weather is dreary today, the baby is sick and fussy and our 3 year old is bored out of her mind. I decided she needed a project. I pulled a canvas out of my art supply closet along with some paint and brushes. I dug through my husbands tool chest for some tape and I made a big letter A on the canvas with the tape. I then set my daughter up with some paint on the back porch. She had a blast painting the canvas and mixing all the colors. When the paint is all dry we will remove the blue tape to reveal the letter A for her name Addison. It was a fun project and killed about an hour of our time today. Now I don't feel like such a failure of a mom today because in my little girls mind she just got to create a masterpiece!

How I get ready in 10 minutes

For those moms out there you know how hard it can be to get ready in the morning. If you are like me with an energetic child running around asking for everything but the kitchen sink and a baby who just isn't happy unless being held, getting ready can seem impossible. I however have found a few simple ways that make my life so much easier and get me looking somewhat presentable for the day. I used to spend about an hour each day getting ready. This was of course before I had children. Once my first baby came I had no idea how to juggle trying to shower, blow dry my hair and take care of a fussy baby who never wanted to nap when I needed her to. There were many days where makeup never touched my face. I was lucky to even get a shower in and blow drying my hair became a thing of the past. Now I have 2 beautiful children and things seem to be a whole lot simpler, believe it or not.

Here are my secrets to getting ready in the morning...

First thing, SHOWER AT NIGHT! That's right! Put your precious babies to bed at a decent time, I recommend 7-7:30pm. This has worked wonders for our family. My babies sleep much better with an early bedtime and I get some "me" time at night. I love to take a long, hot uninterrupted shower right before bed. Once I'm showered I brush my hair and put it up in a bun. I do not dry it. Yep, I sleep with wet hair tied up. It has never made me sick, I believe that is a myth. And since it's tied back I don't get my bed all wet at night.

In the morning, usually while my little girl is sitting on the potty, I pull my hair out of the bun, brush it and give it a quick blow dry. This usually takes less than a minute since my hair is somewhat dry but damp. I also have very thick, long hair and this doesn't take long. I then brush my teeth, grab the baby and 3 year old and head downstairs. I usually don't get dressed yet because my little ones like to wake up before 7am. I don't usually have anywhere to be that early.

Around 8am my baby goes down for a nap. That's when I get dressed and ready for the day. Since I'm already showered and my hair is dry it takes me less than 10 minutes to get ready. I usually don't wear a lot of makeup but I do wear mineral foundation, eye shadow, eye liner and mascara. I slap my face together in just a few minutes. Then comes my hair. While I am applying my makeup my flatiron is heating up. After my makeup is done I clip my hair up in sections and run my flatiron through my hair. I used to spend a long time making sure each and every strand of hair was perfectly straight. Now I don't mind a little way. It no longer bothers me and adds some bounce to my hair. Now I just tame it a little by running the flatiron through it. It looks much more put together and less frizzy. I top it off with a little hair spray and I'm done! Easy as that!

I think once you become a mom you do things a lot faster and don't stress over the little things. My husband used to hate waiting an hour plus for me to get ready. Now he likes that I can be ready so fast and we can get out the door on the weekends in record time.

Tinker Bell 3rd Birthday Party

Our little Addison turned 3 years old this year! Hard to believe she is already 3 and full of sass! This years party theme was Tinker Bell. We decided to rent the large indoor Gazebo this year for her party and forgo the madness of having a party at our house. I'd like to say having the party at the Gazebo was less work but sadly it seemed like more. There were very heavy table and chairs to put up and take down and a lot of cleaning up after the party. However there was a lot of space for the kids to run, play and scream their little hearts out. Our little girl had a blast! If you notice the picture of her crying and think that I am a bad mom for taking it then you obviously don't know our little Addison. She is one very emotional little girl and can break out in tears faster than anyone I know. One day when she looks back on these pictures I have a feeling she will laugh.

As for the party we went with very simple food to please all of the little children and their parents. We did hot dogs in the crock pot, which was an AMAZING idea, thanks Pinterest! I loaded the dogs in the crock and cooked them on low for 4 hours. They came out great. I also, made my family's famous carrot cake recipe. It was to die for! The adults at the party gobbled it up! The kids preferred the cupcakes which was fine by the adults because that meant more carrot cake for them. We also had macaroni and cheese, fruit, chips, beans, veggies and dip to go along with the hot dogs. It wasn't an expensive feast but our guests seemed to enjoy it.

For entertainment for the kids we did a pinata, bubble machine and my husband made balloon animals. The kids had a blast running around with their balloon swords and popping bubbles. They are so easy to entertain at this age. All in all I think the party was a success and I was one tired momma. Thank goodness birthdays only come once a year. I swore after this party I wasn't going to do another large birthday party again for a long time however I know myself and I have a feeling I will start planning for next years parties before the end of this year.

Planning a Month of Dinners on a Budget

My husband and I had a big reality check last week. We were spending way too much money on stuff we don't need when we could be saving a lot each month. I decided we needed to be on a tight budget instead of spending money left and right. I started by planning out our dinners for the whole month of June! That's right and after I did my shopping for 30 nights of dinners I only spent $239.54! Sounds too good to be true, right? Here is how I did it...

First let me start with telling you about my one of my favorite little things. My recipe box. My grandmother gave me this little recipe box years ago, well before I was married. At the time I couldn't see why I would ever need this little box but now I couldn't imagine life without it. I keep all of my prized recipes in this cute little box. It sits nicely next to my stove. Whenever I find a new recipe I like I scribble it down on a little card and put it in the box. I often steal recipes from friends or find new ones online. This may seem old school to many but for me it works great. It really helps in planning meals to have all my families favorite recipes at my finger tips. I only put the recipes we really like in the box. I don't bother with things I will probably never make again.

Second, I made a blank calendar on my computer. I then pulled out my recipe cards and plugged in each date of the calendar with a meal from my cards. Now since my husband is in the Coast Guard he has to stand duty every 4th day. Some of those days he has to stay the night at work. On those days, his "duty" days, I plan simple meals. I usually make soup or something easy on the chance my husband won't be home that night. I never feel like cooking a big meal if it's just going to be my 3 year old and myself for dinner. If my husband doesn't happen to have the overnight on his duty day then he just gets to enjoy a simple meal with us. Some days do not have meals that come from my recipe cards, such as tomato soup and pizza. Those things I obviously don't need a recipe for. After my calendar was all filled out I hung it on my refrigerator.

After I completed my calendar of meals for the month I made my shopping list. I wrote down everything I need for the whole month of meals. After I wrote my list I went through my kitchen pantry, refrigerator and freezer and crossed off anything I already had. This helped me save a LOT! I used to go to the store and just buy stuff randomly without thinking of what I may already have at home. I was actually surprised to find I had a lot of stuff I already needed for my meals. After I crossed off what I didn't need to buy I hit the store. I managed to get everything I needed for $239.54. Now these are also Alaska prices, which are much higher than the lower 48. However, they are also our Commissary prices and so the meat prices are usually pretty good.

This may seem like a LOT of work but once I figured out a system it was actually very easy and now I have my meals planned for the whole month! It saves me on multiple trips to the store, which is not easy with a baby and 3 year old. I also don't have to go through the "What's for dinner tonight?" conversation I usually have with myself every afternoon. This frees me up to spend more time with my babies and less time trying to figure out what to feed them. I also save a LOT of money because I'm not buying unnecessary items at the store. We waste less food because every meal is planned out ahead of time.

So far I love our new system. I hope to keep it up and save lots of money and time in the future! I'd love to hear how other people meal plan and save money at the same time. 


How Planning Ahead Saves Us Money:

1. With a plan and a shopping list I spend less money at the store. There are less impulse buys.
2. Everything I buy gets used so there is less waste.
3. By planning meals I have better portion control which equals less waste.
4. My husband hates eating the same meal two days in a row for dinner but he loves leftovers for lunch the next day. This also saves us money on lunch food and less waste again.
5. I use what I already have. Some meals can be planned around what I already have in my cupboards.
6. I also pack my husbands lunch for work every day. This saves us a LOT of money! I make his lunch the night before and put it in his lunch box in the refrigerator. If I pack him leftovers this makes my job that much easier. I just pack his lunch as I'm cleaning up after dinner.