Food, Food and More Food!!!

If you're on Facebook at all then you've noticed lately how much I've been posting about making food. Part of the reason is I've been finding really great deals on bulk amounts of produce through a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. So far I have canned dill pickles and salsa on my own and apple pie filling with a friend using food from the co-op. I have also canned blueberry-lime jam with some friends because the blueberries were on sale.

 All my pickles minus 2 jars. Andrew keeps asking if he can eat them yet.

 I made 1 batch of each type of salsa, so I have 4 varieties.

 

 Aren't they pretty?

 All my salsas set up for my salsa tasting open house. :)

 

Yummy!!!

 

I totally stole this idea from my friend Amanda.

 What better place to store my canned food than in the kitchen?

 

Most of the apple pie filling. It's still on my counter since we just canned everything yesterday.

  

The rest of the apple pie filling.

 

 
I have also started once a month cooking (OAMC) with another friend. We've only done it once but we're  already planning our meals for next time. In fact we have a blog specifically to discuss and plan our meals: http://freezercookingexperiment.blogspot.com/. The reason I've finally been able to do OAMC is because I found an awesome freezer on craigslist for a reasonable price. I love being able to buy meat when it's on sale and stock up our freezer.

My lovely craigslist freezer (it's frostless)!

 All stocked up after cooking all day and meat sales.

Yummy meals ready for eating.

I Love My Baby Swing!!!

Baby swings are the greatest invention ever! Peter naps in his during the day and sometimes at night it helps him go back to sleep so I can go back to sleep. Most swings are battery powered and if you want a non-battery powered swing you have to pay more money. Andrew figured out a way to bypass spending the extra money. We got a battery powered swing and Andrew gerryrigged it to use wall power. It's awesome!!! I love my engineer husband!!!

What on earth is this?

A close up of the swing controls with the converter attached.

The swing all rigged up with power.

Peter sleeping in the swing. His arms are sticking straight out; it reminded me of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Again he's sleeping in the swing this time only one arm sticking out. Andrew said I should caption this picture with "zig heil" (sp)

My Baby Burrito sleeping in the swing. It has white noise to help him sleep.

Random Thoughts in a Numbered List

1. Maternity overalls sound like a good idea right? They're nice and loose and don't bother your belly. I thought so too... until I decided to wear a pair the other day and I litterally had to use the bathroom 10 times that day when I finally decided to change into something else less cumbersome to wear, and ironically once I changed my clothes I didn't have to go to the bathroom as much.
2. I've been doing a lot of "crafting" recently in addition to the things that I've posted about already. I've been crocheting a blanket and making Thank You cards, I even made a wrap so I can wear my baby. It's just been a very crafty time. Yesterday I said to Andrew, "You really like me doing all this crafty stuff, huh?" He said, "Yes." And then I said, "It's because it helps to justify having a room full of crafty stuff." He again said, "Yes."
3. I found a really cool website while searching Frysfood.com (Fry's is our local grocery store in the Kroger family, the one by our house is a Market Place which just means it's bigger, similar to a Fred Meyer or WalMart) for the sales to make my weekly shopping list from. The website I found is called shortcuts.com and basically you register your loyalty shopping card with the website and "clip" coupons online, then the next time you use your card at that store and buy that item the discount will automatically be deducted from your total. I haven't tried it yet but the next time we go grocery shopping (probably tomorrow) I will test it out. There are only certain stores that participate so it may not be available to you but it's a great way to clip coupons and save money. Though I think the hard part will be not having the physical coupon to remind you to use it.
4. This past week I am to the point in my pregnancy that it has started to get particularly uncomfortable. I was sitting on the floor cutting fabric and really got annoyed that my belly was in the way and I couldn't quite reach what I was doing comfortably. I actually had Andrew cut the fabric for the wraps because it was so long.
   
5. I really enjoy walking with our walking group on Thursdays, it gives me a chance to get out of the house and get to know the ladies in our ward that are in similar situations that I am or else that I soon will be in. I also really enjoy the walking it's really good exercise and one of the ladies wanted to up the walking so we're going to go walking on Monday's too. I'd love to do it daily but I don't know if I can handle that much walking right now. The last time I went walking my pelvis really hurt, just like the first time I did the walking. Maybe I need to walk more to help prevent that... I'm not sure.
6. I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. We're doing it at our house and we're having Ham. I can't wait to have all that yummy food. I get to eat more this year because I'm "eating for two". :) I am trying out a couple of new recipes so I will be sure to share them afterwards if they turn out okay.
7. I'm constantly thinking about things that I can blog about. I don't always end up posting what I've thought about but it's still fun to think about. Sometimes I will tell Andrew what I'm going to blog about and then I remind him that he's allowed to blog too. The typical reply to that is, "Yeah, I know... mumble, mumble, mumble."
   

Things I'm Going to Make Next

I think that the next thing that I'm going to make is an extra cover for my Boppy pillow. It came with a super cute cover but I think that it would be nice to have an extra cover or two on hand for when the others are in the wash. Plus the fact that an additional cover costs from $10 - $20, and since I already have fabric it will be way cheaper to make it. I think that I will just use the existing cover as an example and figure it out from there.

I also think that I will crochet a baby hat. Babies need to keep their heads warm and I feel like crocheting some more. I found a pattern for this super cute Santa hat. Even if the baby comes after Christmas I will still put the hat on the baby.

Nursing Covers

Andrew and I sat down recently and made a list of baby things that we still want/need for the first 3 months of baby's life and on that list is a nursing cover, because you never know when you'll need to nurse when you're out and about. So today I decided to google "nursing cover tutorial" and I found a really awesome one with pictures and everything here. After I found the tutorial I went and looked through my fabric to see if I had anything that would make a good cover and lo and behold I did! Andrew likes the top left, top middle and bottom right. I like them all. :) Though the bottom middle and bottom right are more of a "quilting" cotton as opposed to the others which are more of a jersey cotton/cotton blend.

I used my awesome JoAnn's coupons to get the notions that I needed to make the nursing covers and since I already had the fabric I'll be able to make more than one for a serious fraction of the cost that it would take to buy one in the store. I'm really excited to have my next sewing project; I almost want to start tonight, but I know I'll have plenty of time during the day. :) I'll be sure to update you with pictures of the finished product.

Awesome Cheap Baby Clothes!!

There is a store down here in Tucson called Twice as Nice; it's not a thrift store but more like a consignment store except the clothes are bought out right instead of waiting until they sell. It's kind of like Plato's Closet except for all ages and not just teens. I've heard people talk about it and what awesome deals they have, so today I finally went and checked it out. Holy Moly they were right!! I got a TON of adorable baby clothes in lots of sizes and most items were either $0.99 or $1.99. Then later I went to Savers, a thrift store, to compare what they had to what Twice as Nice had and got a few more items.

All together I got:

2 T-shirts
4 Long sleeved onesies
9 Short sleeved onesies
5 Sleeper gowns (no legs just a stretchy hole)
3 One piece sleepers w/no feet
13 One piece sleepers w/feet
3 Infant hats
1 Bib
1 Receiving blanket

That's 41 items for $66 (including tax) which is an average of $1.61 for each piece.

Cloth Diapers

I have decided to use cloth diapers for our baby. I actually got the idea from a couple of ladies in our ward. I'm not crazy. :) So far I only have 3 diapers (I got them on Craig's List) but I'm planning on getting more. The website for this particular brand recommends getting a minimum of 24 diapers. This makes sense especially for newborns that have been known to go through 10 or more diapers a day. So that would mean doing diaper laundry every other day. I can handle that. But more importantly these diapers are one size fits all. They can handle 5-35 pounds and they have snaps that make them shorter or longer depending on the size of baby. It's a big up front investment, but I won't have to buy diapers again. Another thing that's nice about cloth diapers is babies who wear cloth diapers potty train earlier.

Andrew is worried about having to clean the diapers off into the toilet. There is a sprayer that we can get that attaches to the plumbing behind the toilet specifically for spraying down diapers. There are also flushable diaper liners that we can get to put between baby and diaper to reduce the amount of "gross" cleaning that will have to be done.

I'm actually excited about these diapers, not because they're better for the envronment, which they are, but because we won't have to spend as much buying diapers. Like I said it's a larger up-front investment than buying one pack of paper diapers at a time but it will pay off in the long run.

These are in the newborn position.

Coupons Are Super Awesome!!!

I have recently developed a love for coupons. A childish part of me really likes them because it gives me an excuse to use scissors and cut stuff out. I remember in elementary school I was once complimented on being very accurate with my cutting and staying right on the line. Also when I was younger I really liked paper, I used to make my own money and checks and IDs and everything. I guess we all do weird things as kids. Anyway, coupons are really cool especially when the store allows you to combine in store coupons with manufacturer's coupons. The best is when you find a coupon for something you were already going to buy.