Good Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, I am 24 years old now! Seems like the older I get the more I don't care what I do on my birthday. My son's birthdays are ones that I look forward too now.

Usually we would do a little pizza party at Walery's or something along those lines, but this time I just wanted a low key day. The day started off just like any other day, with the exception of all the birthday wishes.
Ben worked until 5, so I knew that we weren't going to do anything extravagant, which was just fine with me!
He ended up coming home about an hour early, then he left to take care of a few "things". Came back around 6 or so with a beautiful bouquet of my favorite flowers(stargazer lilies). My sister was able to watch Josiah with the help of my Mom. I love having family around to help take care of my little man.
We went up to Portland, shopped around a little at the Clackamas Mall, then we went to eat at Stanford Restaurant Grill in the area. Good place to eat btw! I always love to try new restaurants and this was one of the good ones.
After that we made our way back over to Salem and on our way stopped at Bridgeport and watched 5 Year Engagement which was hilarious! Rated R movie because of the very crude humor but overall super funny. Probably the funniest one that I've seen in awhile which was great for me.
After the movie it was time to go home, we didn't get home till 2am and I was super tired for church this morning. But that was totally OK, I had a great night.

Oh, yeah, I also wanted to point out that the last 3 1/2 weeks I have lost 8 pounds! Yay!

I decided that it was time to get back into a healthier lifestyle and so far it's been good. I haven't been doing anything extreme like working out every day or super dieting 

Just a few simple things like cutting out soda, white foods, and sweets. I'll probably do a more detail summary of what I have done. 8 lbs may not seem like much, but for me it's HUGE. Being a SAHM can really add some pounds to you especially if you don't have the motivation or desire to do so. Also, having a husband working at a fast food joint doesn't help either. :) I'm really excited to get back down to my goal weight before I got married. I want to be confident about my body again and look smokin! lol.

Love, Jess

Grovia Fluff Mail Haul

I love getting fluff mail (a.k.a cloth diaper mail). To me it's like a shopping spree at home! I bought two new Grovia One Size AIO's that were for $30. Normally I wouldn't spend $15 a diaper, but the prints were soooo cute! I couldn't resist!

Owls!

(Excuse the water rings) ;)

 Airplanes!

Who doesn't like airplanes on a little boy?

AIO with snap in soaker pad 

Made with organic cotton-which, btw, is super soft.

I love the blue stretchy tab sides

For being AIO's, they fit better than most.. Others that I have tried don't fit as well and these are the winner! Are there any new diapers that you have bought recently? How are they working out for you and your baby?

Love, Jess

Savings with Laundry Soap

If you are a fan of Pinterest you should know by now all the recipes that are offered to make homemade laundry soap. The one I use is on the Duggars website. With a drooling messy toddler my laundry load has doubled and so has the stains on the laundry. 
This soap works and although my cloths don't come out smelling like a perfume factory, I have fresh clean cloths for cheap!

How much am I actually saving? 

So I do about 6 loads of laundry a week, sometimes this changes depending on what is going on that week. Also, this does not count my diaper laundry (I use a separate detergent for that)

I wash my sheets once a week and Ben's greasy work clothes twice a week. Everything else is regular wash.

Time to do some math here-

If I were to buy laundry soap I would use...

Walmart - All Free&Clear: $11.97 for 96 loads-4 months
Estimated amount for Homemade laundry soap: $2.00 per batch 3-4 months

By-the-way each batch is about 10 gallons.

I use a little under a cup per load. I can't give you an exact estimate but if you think about it you are still paying less!

Savings:  $30 per year!

This factor could change if you use a different detergent with different prices and such, so you could actually be saving more than you may think.

The savings would increase if I had a HE washer, and with plans of having another baby that's even more of a savings. Like I said, there are many different kinds of ways to make your own laundry detergent, this is just what works for us Barrows'.


Research, take a look out there, try different ones to fit your life style. I'll be posting a video on this soon so that maybe you can get a better idea of how to DIY!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned!

Love, Jess

Savings with Cloth Diapers

Most of you know that I save a ton of money. But there are a few of you that actually don't know. ;)

I just wanted to share with you what kind of changes that I did in my family's day-to-day life. They are easy and they work, also most, if not all are eco-friendly.
A while back my friend Britney asked if I could make a post about how much I save by doing cloth diapers. I've been slacking quite a bit lately on my postings for this. 

I'll also narrow it down to the detail of the comparison on my homemade products to the store bought products that most people use. Hopefully this will help my fellow bloggers to maybe save a few bucks. :)

How much do I actually save on cloth diapers?

My husband and I use to shop at Costco for the Huggies disposable diapers. Every once in a while we'd get a $5 off coupon, but sometimes we don't. We would still get them there because even without the coupon, they were a little bit cheaper.

1 box of Huggies diapers range from(depending on the size)-$35-$40 monthly

Even getting the Costco brand they may be a few dollars cheaper

but not much. These last us about a month-give or take a few days.

Huggies baby wipes at Costco are $35(Kirkland brand is $30)

These lasted us about 3 months so about-                              $10 monthly

I use cloth wipes now, some which I bought online and some 

which I made from the overflowing of flannel blankets that I got

at my baby shower.

So every month I was literally throwing away about-               $50 a month

That's $50 I could be putting towards debt, savings, or a new outfit maybe?

OK, it doesn't seem that much but what about in a year? $600 per year

...and how long does it take to potty train your toddler?

let's do and estimate of 2 years-                                    $1,200 for 2 years 

I know that it varies for 

everyone, but I wanted to give you the best case 

scenario of potty training. 

So you can give or take some months if you'd like.

Also, let's think about if you decide to have more than one child, I'll let you do that math on that one. ;)

It takes a little money to start cloth diapering, and it's not for every one. Some parents are willing to deal with the poo and washing. Some parents just don't have the time.

I cloth diaper because I am a stay-home-mommy, I have the time and the energy and I like finding new ways to save money and be eco friendly. I don't mind the poo, the washing, the drying and the maintaining of the diapers. These extra chores may be something to consider before you decide to cloth diaper. Even the energy cost of washing and $$ cost of detergent is still cheaper than sposies.

Just for fun, here is a pic of the little man in one of his cloth diapers :)

More on what I do to $ave in later posts! 

Stay tuned!

Love, Jess

                                                               

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

I love this recipe because it is more healthy. Let's just say that its probably one of the better recipes out there for you. 

No Butter

No Shortening

No Corn Syrup

Pinterest inspired

I did end up tweaking it a little bit because I had no cranberries and I still wanted some kind of crunch texture.

My recipe:

1 c. crunchy peanut butter

2/3 c. honey (local honey from The Honey Girl)

1/2 c. coconut oil (many great things about this, stay tuned for blog post)

2 c. oats

1 1/4 c. chocolate chips

Melt on med-low heat the coconut oil, peanut butter and honey in a med saucepan

Unmelted

Melted

Then you need to add the oats and the chocolate chips to the mixture

Stir until completely combined and all the chocolate chips are melted

Pour into a casserole dish, you can grease the pan with oil. I didn't because I thought that the coconut oil in the dessert would've helped with that. Which in this case it didn't, :( so unless you want your granola bars sticking to your dish, grease that sucker!

Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for about an hour, or till it hardens.

Store leftovers(if there are any) ;) in the refrigerator. I cut it up into cubes so that its ready to grab and go.

Now it's time for you to enjoy those mostly healthy homemade granola bars! 

Yum!

Sensory Box - Oatmeal

My friend Kayla posted on her blog about the Sensory Boxes that I suggested doing for toddlers a week or so ago. I have been so busy lately with trying to get the house reorganized that I forgot to mention the new box that I created for my son. I made one for Easter with recycled grass and plastic eggs with all sorts of different toys and healthy snacks in the toys. It was my Easter gift to him.

After about a week he was getting a little tired of the Easter theme of the box so I knew that it was about time to change it out. I only have one large Tupperware container right now, so I'm going to have to switch them out frequently till I can get another box.

This box contains:

-A big ole' bag of instant oatmeal that I got out of a food box.

(Which was a very long time ago and I totally forgot about it till I was spring cleaning my cupboards!)

-A shovel (motor skills to pour)

-A sifter (for sound and learning activity)

-A plastic fish (for color)

Kinda looks like a sand theme. I put a blanket underneath for an easier clean-up, which kinda worked.
The oatmeal won't be a big deal if he accidently ate it(edible) and is easy to vacuum in case he does get it outside of the blanket.

Checkin out the fish

Shovel experience

Sifting the oatmeal, it sounded really cool when I sifted it for him and it looked like it was raining oatmeal. He loved watching it fall.

Let's just say that he loved it!

Also, I never thought of this before, but it's such a good idea that I'm literally going to buy one ASAP!

Remember my friend Kayla that I talked about earlier? Her son was throwing out the ingredients of the Box that she had made just like Josiah, then someone suggested putting the little tub into a larger tub! Now why haven't I though of that?! So she used a mini swimming pool that she already had. Great idea! 

Thanks Kayla!

More information on Sensory Boxes

Love, Jess

Almond Milk

Make your own almond milk!

Check it out here on Youtube!

Easter Day Adventure!

First, I want to show you how I colored my Easter eggs. I didn't want to use the store bought dye and even food coloring I was not happy with. So I used whatever was in my house. All I had in my house was tea and morning coffee from earlier that day.
Weird? Yes...well...maybe?
Anyway, It was a lot of fun playing around with the few things that I had, next year I'll more likely go all out on the colors. It'll be more fun when Josiah is 2 and understands the concepts of color and art! That is something that I look forward too!

Ok, so here's what I had

Teas...

...and coffee!

Look how pretty they turned out!

The bottom ones do not count, they are just regular ole' brown eggs

close ups...

this is the purple colored looking tea after about 3 hours in the fridge

The green packet tea

Finally the coffee!

It dosen't take much, just look around the house and I'm pretty sure that you can find some pretty neat colors!

Next year I'll be doing a much larger selection like the ones on Pinterest(inspiration).

Just for kicks I added an Easter pic of my sweet son.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you all had a great fun-filled day like I did!

Love, Jess

Homemade Baby Soap

Before the long morning of taking Josiah to the Doctor and then taking him to Walgreens and getting his prescription filled. I had some time on my hands before his appointment with the Doc. I remembered that I really wanted to make some soap for him, because of his eczema I have to be careful of the soap that I use on his skin as to not irritate it further. So I made a trip over to Lifesource and got a bar of soap, i was happy to see that they had a special "Baby Mild" unscented bar soap on the shelf. I'm not a fan of bar soap sitting out and using it on my toddler would be a nightmare, but I had a recipe at home on how to make liquid body soap and I really wanted to try it with Josiah. So I bought it!

Here are the ingredients you'll need to make your liquid baby soap

  Cheese Grater

1 8oz Bar of Soap

2 Tablespoons of Glycerin(found at any drug store, grocery store) 

1 Gallon of Water(not in pic)

I was really trying to find a Mrs. Meyers Bar Soap because that's what the recipe from Pinterest asked for. The place that I used to get it from, doesn't sell it anymore, so I went with the other best thing Dr. Bronner's! However, you can use just about any kind of soap for this project. I prefer Dr. Bronner's because of the organic quality.

(Sorry about my camera, I am not the best at picture taking. :/)

See the label? Notice its Unscented Baby-Mild logo? Also ORGANIC! Yay!
Perfect for what I'm using it for.

Grate up all your soap and put into a pot like this

Blurry :/ I know, just go with it. :)

Then add your gallon of water and glycerin

I just used an old milk container to measure the water, notice how I didn't fill it all the way? You'll want a little room for the extra melted soap. But if that's not a concern, you'll still want something to store your soap in. Also, you can add a little more water later.

After you combine your ingredients, turn your burner onto med-high heat till the soap is completely melted.

My soap is pretty clear looking, just remember that the soap that you use may look different. Don't freak out if its more cloudy than mine.  Soaps with scent tend to be a bit more cloudy.

After you are done with the melting, you can either move it to another bowl/bucket or leave it in the pot that you cooked it in. I have limited space and I needed the pot I was using for dinner.

Next, the waiting game. You need to wait 10-12 hours or until it hardens


This is what it should look like when you are finished, use a spoon or hand blender to help smooth it out. If the soap is a little too hard to your liking just add very little water till you reach your desired consistency.

I poked it a couple times, can you tell? ;)

Store all of that wonderful soap into your used milk jug.

That's it! Refill your soap dispensers as needed!

It's that easy and so much better that buying all that ready made soap, and it's cheaper!

Make sure you label it too! My husband thought that it was spoiled milk and nearly threw it out!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention...you can use this soap on yourself too! I personally like lavender, or citrus smells for body wash, so my suggestion is explore a little and choose what scents that you prefer. My husband really loves the citrus, because it's more "manly" than the lavender or the almond. ;)
 Just thought that I'd throw that out there! Hope this can work out for you as lovely as it did for me!

Love, Jess

Sensory Boxes

Lately I've been amazed at how much my son is learning, everyday is something new. When I start singing to him or when I play music he claps his hands. He is learning how to pick up items and put them into there places. He mimics us when we laugh or make funny sounds. The list goes on and on. Since watching him learn so much, I really wanted to start him on something that he could understand. 

So lately, I've come across sensory boxes.

These attract your child by being:

• visually appealing (so many colors and bright fun objects to look at)
• textually appealing (anything from soft pom-poms to grainy rice, pasta, when the child is older sand and rocks can be added to the list)
• audibly appealing (the crunch-crunch of objects being buried into small pasta or rice and the soothing sound of water or sand being poured)

What are these you ask? Well the above bullets pretty much explain it. But to narrow it down further, they are basically fun filled boxes that have safe activities from the age of  toddlers to school aged children. 

What's the point of these? Building a bond with your child is one of them also a sensory box can help develop skills such as:

• Fine Motor (placing small objects into small areas, using tongs or tweezers to pick up objects)
• Transferring (moving objects from one container to another also pouring, scooping)
• Matching (colors, shapes, objects, etc.)
• Patterns (big, small, big, small or flower, butterfly, flower, butterfly, etc.)
• Counting (how many animals, trucks, flowers etc.)
• Sorting and Classifying (into other objects such as ice cube trays, small buckets, egg platters)
• Specific skill recognition & reinforcement (colors, letters, shapes, themes, etc.)

So the next question is where do I start?!

The best thing about this(I think)is that you get to be in touch with your creative side. Although, I am not the most creative person I know that I can pick out a few fun things for my son to play with on a rainy afternoon. The possibilities are endless! Here are just a few bunch that I picked off the internet.

Dried Beans
White Rice
Silk (faux) Dollar Tree Fall Leaves
Shredded Paper
Oatmeal (dry, uncooked)
Fish Tank Gravel (older children)
Small Pebbles/Gravel in Earthtones(older children)
Rainbow Rice (homemade) 
Coffee Grounds (Dry)
Rainbow Pom-Poms
Faux Flowers and Faux Green Leaves (cut off Dollar Tree Vines)
Moon Sand (older children)

Mini animals

Cotton Balls
Birdseed 
Dry Pasta
Un-popped Popcorn

Plastic Eggs

Play Coins(money)

Beaded Necklaces

Buckets

Small cups

Shovels(to scoop with)

and much much more! Use your imagination!

I'll be posting more on the sensory boxes soon, so that you all can maybe get a better idea about this. 

Stay tuned, I can't wait to get in touch with my fun-mom side!

Love, Jess

Happy April Fools Day!

So today, when I looked on my Facebook, I was surprised that nobody pulled the "We are expecting a baby!" joke. =P
Well we were going too, but I'm not to sure how that would turn out. Knowing us, we would do this joke and then we would probably find out that we are preggo in a couple of weeks. So I'm not going to take that chance. I've known about 6 people that did this and found out that they were pregnant in 2-3 weeks.
It would be funny though? Wouldn't it? ;)

Anyway, this was kinda random, but just go with it.