I want the farm life

I know that I don't write on here enough. My life with my family has been so busy and awesome that I don't take the time to write and jot down my thoughts or whatever else you put in these blogs.

But today I wanted to write because 1.) Josiah is being so good watching Frozen right now and I have an entire hour of doing this and 2.) Eden is sleeping and won't be awake for a few hours yet then 3.) I read a blog that inspired me.

Nearly a year ago we took a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace session with our church. Ben and I learned so much from it and if you are in a financial rut(or not) I highly recommend it!

The very first class there was a question that was asked. It went something along the lines of this...

What would you do with your money after all debt, mortgages, payments were cleared? Even after you have enough saved up and had the ball rollin for retirement.

That was all I remembered what the question was, I probably messed it up in some way I'm sure! ;)

Most people said travel and explore the world among other things that I definitely did not want to do(besides giving to the needy).

I don't like to travel.

I am a researcher, not an explorer. I hate long hours wasted sitting on a plane. So traveling was always out for me. Even if I was flying first class I am not still not excited. Don't get me wrong, I like history but it's not want my heart REALLY desires. In fact I would rather read about the place than go see it. It's all the same to me!

We all had to answer this question so very shyly I answered, "I want a place with lots of land to have a farm and grow food".

Yep, I am a total nerd. 

I felt so silly after that.

I wanted to do more than just have a farm though. I think that if I went too much into detail I would've talked about it all night. 

So I'll talk about it here. ;)

On that large lot of land I want to grow a huge variety of fruits and vegetables. I want to grow chickens for meat and eggs. I want to have goats for milk and grow rabbits. I want a couple of horses that my many children can enjoy riding. I want a couple of dogs for my children to have close companions. 

With all that I want to invite people over to my farm so that their children can learn how to grow food and let them pick and taste ripe fruits and vegetables. Allow them to pick there own eggs from the chicken coop. They can pet the cute rabbits and goats. Get those kids hands dirty and allow them to learn!

I don't care if we sell anything or not, I just want the kids(and adults) to have an experience that you would not see in the city. To see the beauty in nature that our God the Creator has made!

I guess you can call me a farm girl at heart or a nature freak but I don't care. This is what I love. 

I can't wait to have this one day. I know that having a farm like this would be a bunch of work and would scare quite a few people. But I like this type of work. I enjoy being outside and taking care of animals.(Wanted to be a vet as a kid btw)

You all probably think that I am a weirdo now and are wondering where this all came from. This has been on my mind ever since I married my husband. When we had our first child that desire increased and now since a year of having my second little blessing the thoughts of it have never stopped. I hope that sooner than later this will happen. I can't wait to start a life on the farm! ;)

Love, 

Jess

Wonder Bumpers

Josiah totally busted Edens crib. 

It is a very much loved crib so its definitely had it's share of years from Josiah, some of Eden and probably quite a few children before that. 

I have the crib picked out that I want for little miss Eden. 

Now that she is getting a new crib I am looking into bumpers. 

But not the regular bumpers. We already have a set of those. I am looking at these specific ones because they are much safer and easier to wash.

Eden moves around a lot at night. So its either crib bumpers or she is smacking her head against hard wood rails. I don't like the thought of sleepless nights and I also hate the thought of suffocation. 

The ones that I am looking at are called Wonder Bumpers.

 I am trying to figure out if they would be cheaper to make.

Although I love DIY stuff, if it cost more to make it I'd rather not go through the trouble.

Here are the estimates:

For a 38 pack it can be anywhere from $150-$200 depending on the prints, colors and where you buy.

This is the cheapest I can find these adorable bumpers.

http://www.gomamagodesigns.com/

The crib has 40 rails total, but I can work with 38.

To buy separately it's about $10 for a 2-pack.

About $200

To buy pipe insulation, fabric, and mod podge I feel that it would cost more. However, I would have the factor of my pick of fabric and would be used for all my babies cribs in the future and I can say, "Yeah, I made those!"

I am a little confused on the cost of pipe insulation. So maybe that is where my decision goes depending on the price of it. 

Advice? What do you think?

A Time and a Season for Everything

I wanted to write this post to remind myself how much God is working in my life. 

I have been so ungrateful and in a way its hard not to be. I am only human. ;)

Let me explain our situation here at home. Although all these do not sound bad, it really wears on me most the time. I can't help but think how much more comfortable and "happy" I could be if some of these things were just fixed. 

First of all, we have a nice size 2-story 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathroom town home. There is a small patio out by the larger bedroom and the living area upstairs has a fireplace and nice high ceilings to make it feel even larger. We pay a pretty good price to live in this place. better than most places actually. 

When Ben and I first moved in January 2010(before children) it was really quite nice. Even when we had our son Josiah the next year it was nice.

When Eden was born early last year we still were pretty good with the size. Newborns don't take up much room and sleep through just about anything. 

Now my children are older. Eden will be one next month and Josiah three and I have to say that the place is feeling a little cramped. 

Josiah sleeps in his bedroom and Eden sleeps in ours. Unfortunately Eden will not sleep in the room with us. The only way that she will sleep through the night is if she is by herself. I don't know why she wakes up all the time with us in there with her. I think she senses us in there and so results in waking every 1-2 hours. This goes the same for her sleeping in her brothers room with him. She wakes him up and then I have two children up in the middle of the night. Josiah goes back to sleep right away....sometimes.

Because of this Ben and I sleep upstairs. 

It's getting old. 

We have a nice pillow top king-size bed downstairs and we can't even sleep in it.

Sleeping upstairs isn't too bad, but I can't help but miss my something better downstairs. 

God has really been working on me through this. Maybe he is working to make me better, more grateful. There are people that live in much small situations and I am complaining about sleeping upstairs?

Yeah, I need(ed) a heart change. 

I was so fixin to get out of this place that I wasn't concentrating on how it was going to affect us in the long run. If we were to move out to something a little larger, a three bedroom perhaps, that would take us even longer to get out of the debt that we are in. I mean, we really want to buy a house someday and I don't want to be in my 40s buying our first home. 

Ever since Ben got his new job we have been able to make larger payments. Its been nice to get a bill in the mail and see it much lower than the previous bill. Of course just like any other family things set us back. Paying for our cars tires to be fixed and replaced wasn't exactly cheap.

Before having my heart change, I was really looking forward to getting a nice chunk back for taxes and putting most all of it towards debt so that we can move out. We have a couple things we need to take care of before tossing it all towards the money we owe. Like getting Ben's record expunged and we need to get a larger car seat for Eden. 

All i was focused on was getting out of here. It really wasn't all that bad, but in my mind it was bad. Instead of making my house more of a home for my family, I put it aside with my mind thinking that we were going to leave soon anyway. What was the point in organizing, deep cleaning, storing baby clothes and Christmas decor out of site if we were going to move into something bigger? I even put off decorating and painting for the fact that we weren't going to be here long. 

Here is where God was working on my mind and my heart:

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10  

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

These scriptures keep playing over and over again in my head. Reminding me that God is in control and I need to trust Him.

After all this I feel better now. I was talking to my husband in the car yesterday how I don't feel so rushed to move. Maybe it is the right thing to stay where we are at. I need to do my job as a wife to make our house a home. I need to put my creative self to use.

Eden sleeping in our room won't be forever. Eventually she will get older and will be able to sleep in her brothers room. Josiah will get older and be able to sleep through his sisters small random whining through the night. 

We won't always be in debt and if we stay where we are at our debt will be gone much quicker. 

We can save for a down payment to buy house much quicker and won't have debt to hold us down.

**Sigh** To be debt-free?! I really am looking forward to that day!

PS, We also decided to home school Josiah, so now I REALLY need to be creative with my organizing!

Follow me on Instagram jessicamommy22 for updates on organizing, the kids and our life!

  Love, 

Jess

Homeschool: Why?

Yep, you read that right. Ben and I are seriously considering homeschooling our children.

Well, actually...

It's more like,  yes! We are going to start with homeschooling our children!

We have been talking, and praying, a talking some more and researching and we prayed some more. We feel like this may be a real good decision for our family.

We understand the pros and cons of homeschooling. All of which we took into serious thought. 

Ben and I both when to public school!!! So its not anything new to us what goes on!

Also I went to a private school with home school like curriculum for all my high school. So that is nothing new to me. We have the best of both worlds in our family. :) 

One of the biggest things that we have talked about is the social aspect of it all. We definitely did not want our children to have a hard time with talking and connecting with people of their age. Ben is more concerned about it than I am.  I already take the kids out a few times a week to do activities with their friends, go to the library and we recently just started doing Mrs. D's music class together as a family. On top of that, with church on Sundays, I am okay with how much social interaction my kids have. 

The second thing that really concerned me was Josiah and how often he gets sick. Probably once a month during the cold times of the year we take him to the doctor for his breathing. This takes a lot of time and after the visit it takes a few more days after that to get him back to being his awesome boy self. ;)  We barely go outside when he is like this because the cold and running around make it much worse and takes longer for him to get better. 

Can you imagine if he is still struggling and had to go to public school? He would miss so much and I wouldn't doubt that he would fall behind and would have a difficult time keeping up with his classmates. 

At least with homeschooling he can learn at home and if he does get sick a few days of getting better won't hurt his lessons.

Those were the two biggest reasons for us to want to home school.

The way that we are going to go about it is we are going to take it one year at a time. 

Preschool? We will see how it goes! If I am still confident that I can do it when he is finished with his preschool lessons then we will move on to kindergarten. 

Kindergarten? We will see how that goes!

So on and so forth. It will get easier and once I get the hang of homeschooling Eden, it will be a breeze.

There was the discussion on "What if our kids really want to go to public school?"

Well, when they are at that age that they really want to and ask us if they can we will tell them why we chose to home school them. 

We will give them awhile to think about what they asked and if they still want to go to public school we will enroll them into the new school year. I am not going to hold them back from what they really want to do. I just want my children to be strong in their faith and be able to handle the peer pressure that goes along with it. I understand that homeschooling may not be all the way to graduation. I am prepared for changing things up so that my kids excel the best they can in school whether public or at home. 

So far home school seems like something that will work for our family. I am really excited to get started and learn how to be a teacher to my children. 

The home school curriculum that we most likely be starting is the ACE(Accelerated Christian Education) program. It is the same one that I did all through out my high school. I love the scriptures that they put into the booklets(they call them PACEs). I am really comfortable on how the system works and since I am the one going to be teaching our children, I think that I have the say on which program we use. :)

I'll include the link to the program here

I ordered some information from them and they have a quick start kit for just under $20. 

I can't wait to talk about our new home school journey with you all! 

I am so excited!!

Love, Jess

2014 New Years Resolutions

Normally I don't make a New Years resolution. In fact I haven't made one ever since before I have been married. Not unless you count the single one that I made in my head at the beginning of 2013 which was have my daughter Eden! Not an easy task but it was a predictable one!

I just didn't see the point in have a list of goal for the New Year. I always figured that if you are going to make the change then do it! Why wait till the beginning of the year to start?

Well, today I made a list.

What I need to improve on.

What I need to start doing.

What I am doing now that I want to continue because they have been greatly beneficial to our family.

What is going to happen anyway and I wrote it down because I like making lists and I am weird like that. ;)

1.) Move out of our apartment. Not sure when in 2014 this will happen, but I would love to live in a home that has a fenced in yard and has more storage like a garage or shed. We are outgrowing our beloved town home.

2.) Keep up with couponing. I have been clipping and printing useful coupons for the the last several months and we have seriously saved at least a couple hundred dollars. I have been able to keep our food budget at $200 a month for a family of 4.

3.) Lose 10 or more pounds. I have been doing pretty good in the fact that I have already lost 3 pounds before the new year even started. I hope to be at my goal weight before summertime. Breastfeeding and having 2 littles has really helped with the weight loss.

4.) Get Josiah into a big boy bed. Yes, I know, this kid is almost 3 and he is being stubborn about the way his bed is. Technically he is in a toddler bed, but its turned the other way around so that the opened side is against the wall. He still likes the crib feeling. For his birthday we have decided to get him one with a frame and he can pick out his favorite bedding. 

5.) Less TV during the day. In all reality there really isn't anything on during the day. So why do I have the darn thing on? What will I do instead? Probably clean, bake, play with my kids....there is a lot that I can do before the kids go down for their nap. :)

6.) Do something active everyday. I try to do Zumba every morning. Josiah seems to really like dancing with me. When it gets closer to the warmer months we will probably engage more into outside activities.

7.) Do a daily devotional. Something that I want to keep doing. I feel that it really has helped keep my spirits up during the day.

8.) Keep up with the housework. 

9.) Eat less bread(gluten-kinda). We have been slowly cutting back on the breads and pastas. If we do eat them then we try and stick to whole wheat bread and brown rice/vegetable pastas. People are getting really great at coming up with all veggie casseroles that taste wonderful!

10.) Be a better wife, mom, friend, sister and daughter. Because we all need to strive to be better people.

That is it for my New Years resolution! Did any of you make one up for the year 2014? 

I hope that you all have an awesome New Year.

I probably won't be able to stay up till midnight. I think that I would rather go to bed with my husband and start 2014 off like that. 

;) 

Good night all!! See you next year!

Love, Jess

What's for Christmas?

Christmas with a Family of Four

Just a few of our Christmas pictures this year! Enjoy!

Christmas(What we are not going to do)

My son is getting older and he is starting to understand some things. 

This year we wanted to start traditions with our family. We are going to start having Christmas at our house, wake up in the morning. Eat breakfast. Open our stockings and gifts all together with just our little family.

But, we are going to do something a little different. Ben and I talked about it and we decided to not introduce Santa Claus to our children. We want God to be glorified in our giving and receiving, not some make believe character. 

We will still do Christmas lights, we will still do stockings and gifts. We will still decorate cookies and sing carols. This was something that I brought up to my husband. He was not too keen to the idea at first, but once I explained it to him and he talked to a few other men(annoying, isn't it?!) he now is on board with me. 

I personally think that as a Christian family that we should do this. Now, I am not saying that this is for everyone.  I am also not saying that you are a bad person or bad parent for celebrating Christmas with Santa Claus. I don't want anyone to feel guilty either. I grew up believing in Santa as a child, so I don't think that it's bad at all. It's really sweet to think of the idea that one person gives to everyone on one day of the year. 

Isn't that what Jesus did? ;)

I think that I have proved my point. 

We will also be doing this same thing with other holidays as well. We are excited to find alternative ways to celebrate holidays with God as the center of our lives. 

I have included a video below of how our Christmas is going to be this year. Things are definitely going to be different. 

Thank you all for watching/reading. I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas. 

Love, Jess

Here is the link to my video! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0j_bf-2qlA

A Healthy Update on Josiah

Last Monday I talked about Our Small Story.

I just wanted to give you an update on how things are going with Josiah. I'll post on another page about how Eden is doing with her sleeping.

Josiah is doing much much better!
The medicine that we are giving him has been helping him a bunch. We do the daily dosage at night before bed cause it makes him drowsy. Then for emergencies if he seems to need it we do the nebulizer for breathing. Its is working out well. We still bring an inhaler for when we are out and about but so far we have not needed to use it. We went to the pumpkin patch that Wednesday and I was surprised that he didn't start coughing and wheezing. Normally with the hay and animals he would. I am so happy that his symptoms are getting better. I am going to talk to his doctor next week to let him know that everything is going well.
We will probably be doing this treatment till spring, review again, skip summer and then he will have another check up in the fall. When flu and cold season comes around that's when he gets the worse.

I am really thankful that this medication will most likely help him to play the sports that he wants without the conflict of breathing. I want him to have all options available with nothing holding him back. I think that I will be a bit more at ease when he goes to preschool next year. He won't be missing as many days.

He will more than likely grow out of this and we are looking forward to that day. :)
Thank you all for your prayers and concern on this.

-Jess

Fall Consignment Haul 2013

Check out my Fall Consignment Haul here

Although we did not get a ton of stuff. We got what we needed until the Spring!

Josiah's kitchen set was a hit and he loves the lacing beads.

I have videos and pictures on my Instagram jessicamommy22 if you want to see more! Thanks for checking it out!

-Jess

Our Small Story.

Im sleeping upstairs tonight.(hubby too)
Night #3 of doing this.
Why?
I am sleep training my daughter.
Not really my preferred method.  I actually HATE the cry it out (CIO) method. But I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't sleep for only one hour at a time. I felt like it was making me a very mean, short tempered wife and mother during the day.
So here we are. Eden only cried twice last night and both times ended within a matter of just 5 minutes. Its getting better and im happy about it. Another thing is that when I went to get Eden up this morning she was all smiles when she saw me. That little girl still loves me even though I made her soothe herself to sleep. I don't feel as guilty(or as tired) for doing it.
Today was a crazy day, but I still was able to do more than the norm. Besides the slight backache from sleeping on the couch I felt better this morning than I have in awhile.

My children definitely keep me on my toes. We had to take Josiah to an emergency doctor appointment this morning. 

First, let me explain to you about how Josiahs sickness is. Anytime that he gets a cold he most of the time get asthma like symptoms. So resulting in that I give him everything that we have on hand at home, an inhaler, a nebulizer treatment. I try everything possible so that we don't have to go to the doctor. Most of the time it doesn't work that way. So when none of those things work we go to Urgent Care or the ER and they give us the same thing over and over again. They end up giving us steroids for him to breathe better. I hate giving him steroids. It makes him hyper and out of control. This type of thing happens a lot in the early morning. I mean like 3 a.m. in the morning. When you have to to take care of two the next day it makes it hard. Thankfully I have my husband who is so patient an awesome to take Josiah to the ER for me when this happens.

Ive had problems in the past with urgent care and the ER. We get into the room quickly cause with Josiahs sickness he is top priority.  We get what we need done but then we end up waiting 45 minutes to an hour just to be released. 
So I made an appointment this time knowing that will be taken care of by our doctor and we can discuss his problems. We are going a different route this time. I have high hopes that this treatment that we're going to try is going to help tremendously.
After the appointment we went to the pharmacy. I waited in line as usual. Of course, they told me that I have to wait at least an hour to get his medication. Which is really irritating because once they get the order in they're supposed to start on it right away. With his situation he is considered top priority. My poor little boy had the hardest time breathing already and I had to wait an hour with 2 kids. I didn't know what to do. So, I went home and we got some things  taken care of and I was able to go out again to finally get the medication and come home again.

It breaks my heart to see him struggling to breathe. I use to have to take an inhaler and everything he did, so I know exactly how it feels. But to be only 2 years old and not understand what is happening is so sad.

As of right now my house is a mess. My children are sound asleep in their beds. My husband is sound asleep next to me. I'm awake watching Dancing with the Stars. And I just think how blessed I am. I looked at the prescription that the doctor gave to Josiah and I am so happy that insurance is going to be fully covering his treatment. If it were not for this we would have an extra $129 bill to pay for his medication.

Pray that this works for us. This medication will be given to him all through the winter and then we will evaluate with his doctor in the spring to see how its working.

I am not loving the fact that he is getting medication every day. But I am loving that this may be a solution for him and reduce visits to the ER for major steroids.
He may grow out of this.
He may not.

I love my little man and seeing him today be really snuggly and sweet to me when we got home just made my heart melt.
"Thank you mommy."
Smiling I said, "I love you Josiah."
"I love you too."
Even with this stressful day he made me feel so much better.

Thank you God for my strong sweet boy. Thank you for showing me kindness through him and making me want to be a better mommy to him.

Keeping Busy with the Blustery Blues

I love to keep myself extremely busy during the fall and winter months.

Although I absolutely love this season, I start to not feel so happy. 

The dark, rainy days really get to me and when I am in my house with my kids for so long without getting out I start to be a very inpatient mother who ends up being short tempered and mean.

I get lazy, I am okay with laying on the couch all day with some coffee and tea. Good thing my kids keep me super busy through out the day along with the little girl that is Edens age. All three of them keep me on my toes. I probably would be a hermit and 100 pounds overweight if it wasn't for them. 

I try to get out of the house as much as possible with the kids. For sure we go out at least once a week. That would be our Thursday morning bible studies. If we do more then that then I have a book study 2 Fridays a month with some awesome moms. Wednesdays is infant/toddler story time at the library. Mondays are filled with grocery shopping or doctor appointments. The only time that I really don't go out is the days that I am baby sitting. Normally I would babysit Tuesdays and Thursdays but because of the bible study being on Thursdays we have switched it temporarily to Wednesdays.

When Ben comes home we go out of the house after dinner just to get out sometimes.

Thursday nights are our date night, that could be anything from shopping for thing that we need cause I can't do a lot of shopping with the kids being so little still. Or we do a movie with dinner. It depends on what time of the month it is whether we do something big or not. My mother enjoys watching the kiddos so it is really nice for us to spend some time together as husband and wife.

With Ben having set days off we can actually go to the pumpkin patch with the kids. Sundays we have church and in those afternoons we are a lazy family with football or a movie.

I know that getting out with the kids is hard for some, but for me its a must. It makes the cold dark days go faster. My children seem less grumpy. They sleep better at night and eat more dinner. 

Maybe it's because we have a smaller place with not a ton of room with Josiah to play. But getting out is what works for us!

What do you do to keep you and your kids busy?

-Jess

Cotton Booty: "Good Night Sleep Tight" Box

My 3rd box from Cotton Booty and I am loving every one of them! This one is probably my favorite!

So here is my Cotton Booty Box for this month! Enjoy!

Instagram: jessicamommy22

One Size Kawaii Goodnight Heavy Wetter:

Comes with 2 microfiber inserts. I have a Kawaii and I do like them however, my daughter leaks through all pocket diapers at night. The only thing that works for us at night time is a fitted or prefold with extra boosters and a cover to go over it. We will give this one a try for over night though. See if it does the job! :)

Angel Dear Muslin Swaddle: 

100% natural cotton muslin. 

I love the owls. I was planning on getting a muslin swaddle blanket anyway for Eden so this is great! She has outgrown swaddling but I was really wanting one for her to snuggle with. She likes to chew on blankets since she does not take a paci. I don't have to pay $30+ for a muslin blanket now. This blanket is so soft. I can't wait to wash it so that Eden can sleep with it. It'll be great with baby #3 when she outgrows it too!

A sample from Wash with Water

I can't wait to try this. I love trying out new body stuffs for babes.

Love the stuff I got?

Here is a link so that you can get $5 off your first box!

Enter discount code CTBY1001

-Jess

Christmas photos and others

Not even October and I am already planning on getting our Christmas photos taken! I know I am crazy, but for me the earlier the better. We have to think about not only putting money aside for beautiful pictures, but we need to set some aside for some much wanted Christmas cards and I really want to get a nice canvas piece of the 4 of us. It will be our first family shoot with Eden post pregnancy.

Speaking of which, have you seen our Christmas photos before Eden? They are lovely! I'd love to show just a few of them to you wonderful folks.

Gotta love that pregnancy pose. ;)
I was about 7 monthsish pregnant here. I loved how our pictures turned out and we will be using the same photographer for this years photos. Love her! Her watermark is kept visible to show how awesome she is. We have another photographer friend that is also really great at her work, so we have to go back and forth between the two. :) She did Edens newborn photos several months back.

I think that I may be slipping in a few breastfeeding photos with my daughter just to keep for myself. I love a beautiful, modest precious photo of my daughter and I bonding while she is feeding. I think that it will be so pretty!

I have some pins on Pinterest that I have been working on for our upcoming photo shoot. We have not set a date yet(nor have we told her ;)) but it will be very soon! Before it gets too rainy and cold hopefully!

Thanks for sticking with me! I know that I've been gone a lot. Our life has been busy with Ben's new job, I have been babysitting and life with 2 kids has made me a very occupied parent.

-Jess

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

So it took me awhile to find the perfect cookie. With the combination of my oven being difficult and not having the time I am so happy to have found this!!

This recipe is basically taken from Pinterest and tweaked a little bit. I was taken through a couple different blogs to find it and here it is!

This is the post from which I took the recipe from. click here.

Here is my recipe. Obviously it's practically the same from above just without the "Reeses surprise". The soft peanut butter part is what I was going for.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter(softened)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup of M&Ms

Optional: 

Add 1/2 cup of flax seed meal for added omega 3 and fiber

2 tablespoons of brewers yeast for added nutritional value

Omit half the flour for whole wheat flour

Directions:

Heat oven to 350.

Beat butter for 2 minutes. Add sugars and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping sides of bowl halfway through. Add peanut butter and egg and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to sugar mixture until completely combined.

Drop onto ungreased baking sheet. Cook for 8-10 minutes. I had the timer on 8 minutes but saw that they needed just a couple minutes more, so 10 minutes is perfect for mine.

This made 3 dozen cookies exactly with my cookie scoop.

Every ones oven is different.

One day when I was complaining about ours, my wonderful patient husband said to me "You gotta know your oven babe". He is totally right! :) Now I can bake cookies with no problem. 

Enjoy these lovely cookies!

-Jess

It's 5am.

Yep. Not the first time being up and doodling on my phone. Little girl doesn't sleep through the night still. Doing any kind of sleep method is impossible right not without the extra room for her to sleep in. So here I am,  sorta awake from waking up the 3-4 times prior tonight. Hope the sleepless nights end soon. I love my little girl,  but after 6 months it's starting to get rough. Pray for this momma to have strength today as well as future days like this. Gonna go grocery shopping with the 2 kiddos this morning and hoping to have a successful one. I think I'm gonna have a nap today while the babes are sleeping before one of my favorite little tots comes to visit while her mommy has her baby appointment. :) Good morning all and I'll be up in a few hours sipping on some much needed hot coffee.
-Jess aka busy mommy

Loving the Change

I am loving this new job that Ben has. 2 weeks into it and I love having him home every night for dinner. I love being able to plan stuff around or during his work schedule. I love him having Sundays off where we go to church in the morning and have a lazy afternoon at home afterwards.
Pretty soon here he will be quitting his old job and working Saturdays at his new one.
Same pay but he will only be working 2-4 hours. Another thing is that he can go in whenever he wants, morning or afternoon, they really don't care just as long as it gets done.. We love going to the Saturday market and things like it. So we can do that now!

We have been praying for this new job to come to us for a long time and we are so happy with it. God is really doing some awesome things in our lives right now and it's all been amazing!
Next step is to get a chunk of debt paid off so that we can move into something a little larger. I am looking forward to that day. :)

-Jess

An Update on my Two Littles

Both have reached amazing milestones! They are growing up so fast and I can't seem to catch up to them. They both seem to learn something new everyday. Josiah learns a new word or Eden learns a new skill. It's all so very exciting and scary at the same time.

Josiah- He turned 2 1/2 this month! We are officially 6 months away from his 3rd birthday. I am already taking notes from Pinterest and parties on what we are going to be doing.
He is daytime potty trained now. He goes by himself to the potty, he still needs a little help pulling down his pants but he is learning. He is slowly starting to have dry nap time diapers and every once in awhile a dry nighttime diaper.
He knows his "Please", "Thank You" and "Your Welcome". We have started learning colors and more animals this month. He loves to say cow and when he sees them he always moooos at them. So cute!
He jibbers a lot. I know what he is saying most of the time. It takes some translating to some people. He talks to fast and it slurrs together quite a bit still.
He is still sleeping in a crib like environment. It's technically a toddler bed, but I turned it around so that the open side is against the wall. About once a week I try to turn it around to see it he'll sleep in it with the open side. When he screams and we turn it back around. I am not too concerned about it so we are taking our time. I fear if I force it on him he won't sleep in his bed at all. He naps sometimes during the day. We give him a couple of books to read even if he does not nap. Its either a nap or 2 hours of quiet time
He is wanting to snuggle more and is definitely a daddy's boy now. If Ben leaves without Josiah during the day little man cries for him. He just misses him is all.
Josiah favorite show is any thing with Thomas the Train Engine.
He is a really great big brother, always wanted to help with his little sister.


Eden- She turned 6 months yesterday! Again, only 6 months away from her 1st birthday. I have decided to do both birthdays together. Until Josiah can say to me that he wants his own birthday, we will keep doing it this way.
She does not sleep through the night yet and the last few nights have been the worst. But that is because shes got 2 teeth coming in at the bottom. Teething has been fun!(NOT!!) It has not been a problem with breastfeeding so that's good. She wants to chew on everything because of her new found nubs.
She is grabbing at everything we put in front of her. She can roll both ways easily. She shimmy's towards toys. Ben thinks that she may crawl before Josiah did, I agree with him. She kinda crawls around in circles to get to her toys. She is starting to sit up, not super well though because she falls head first still. It is improving every day though!
She falls asleep on her own now. Sometimes she cries for about 5 minutes but falls fast asleep if it is time for her to nap.
She laughs, and smiles so much! A very happy baby girl!
We have started her on solids. We only feed her once at night during dinner time. She has had carrots, beets, applesauce and mushed bananas so far. We do give her a mesh feeder for after her food that has watermelon, cantaloupe, frozen grapes or apple slices. Keeps her occupied while I finish my dinner. Her favorite thing to do is to sit up in her Bumbo and watch me cook. She loves to come in the bathroom while I shower and listen to the sound of the water. She loves baths! Never thought a kid of mine would love water so much as she does. She could play in the bathtub forever if I let her.
She pretty much is a easy baby, its only at night when it's hard. I think that once she gets her own room nighttime will be better.

Having 2 kids has been challenging but I would not trade them for the world. If you are worried about having 2 kids 2 and under, don't be! It may be difficult in the beginning but it does get easier. They start to play together more the older your youngest one gets.
The biggest challenge is going shopping by myself. I have done this a few times, but only if I needed to get a few things. Get a carrier that is comfortable for you to carry your baby so that you can take care of your toddler with free hands. Once you get a routine down its smooth sailing. Get your oldest involved with helping you out. Make sure to give your oldest some one-on-one time either with you or their dad. Josiah loves feeling like the only child again and once he is back with his sister he seems refreshed and in a better mood. Instead of doing housework take a little time out of your day to play with your oldest while the youngest is napping. These are the things that have made a difference throughout my days. On hard days when non of them are cooperating I have Ben watch the kids for an hour so that I can go for a short drive. That helps me a lot on difficult days. Keeps me sane. :) Do you guys have any tips or tricks?

-Jess

I Love Consignment Sales!

I have been a consignor before. 

Let me tell you, there is a lot that goes on in being a cosigner. 

I did fairly well my first time making nearly almost $100! I ended up using almost all of it to pay for my kids summer clothes this year. It was a great feeling to sell and not have to really spend anything for summer clothes. 

Sadly I could not be involved this time for the fall. I had too much going on with my husbands new job and Eden is now almost 6 months. She is learning so many new things. Josiahs potty training is going at great success, but we still have some mess ups. Things that are/were more important keep coming up. With all the weddings, baby showers, bridal showers...I am beat this summer!

I still remember being a consignor back in spring and it was a lot of work. I just had Eden and she was so newborn that she slept all the time still. I really wanted to make some extra cash and help out by purchasing clothes for the kids. We have parents that help us out all the time and they would probably buy an entire wardrobe if I let them. But I like to be thrifty. Its my small way to be a little more earth friendly.

Anyway, when you are a consignor you have to go through all the steps.

Checking all your clothes for rips and stains(they will not accept it otherwise)

Washing all the clothes especially if they have been in storage for awhile.

Pressing a few collars and wrinkles. You want everything to look nice. I know that if I look at an article of clothing I am looking to see how nice it looks. Seeing a wrinkly stale toddler shirt is not eye appealing.

Then you have to go through the process of checking all of your items into the computer system. You price all of your items yourself. That's the part I hate the most.

After that tag all of your things. In my case I had to use safety pins to attach my bar-codes because I have not yet bought a tag gun. Also, you need to have enough hangers to hang all of your clothes. Even the cute little newborn onesies have to be on hangers.

Right before dropping off your things its a good idea to sort them at home. Boy from girl. Sized.

When you get to the place that your items are going to be sold, you have to put all of your things into bins and your clothes sorted out on the clothing racks. After doing all of that work, you sign up for a pick up time. (if you want your items back that is) They go to charity if you don't. If you don't want your check mailed then this is also a good time to pick up your earnings.

Its a lot of work. I can't tell you if its worth it or not. You put hours of work into making sure everything is right for selling and if your things don't sell, then it seems pointless.

But if you have a lot of items that are of great quality and are gently used then this might be for you.

Its a really great system. Working outside my home is something I would rather not do. So this is really great for moms that want to make a few bucks.

On the other side of that, I love to shop consignment! Think of it this way. Moms have babys that grow out of things. Moms want to sell their babys clothes that which they only wore probably a totally of 5xs. So they sometimes sell for really cheap! I have found some really, I mean really great stuff!

It gets harder to find nice things for boys when they are Josiahs age I have found out. 

Boys seem to be so rough on their clothes. I have a tough time finding something tasteful in consignments for him. They don't just sell clothes though! Toys are really great to buy because honestly, moms are always wanting to get rid of toys so those are super cheap.

Little hats and bows for girls are fun. I have even found a pair of baby legs for $2.

Every once in awhile I would find a good pair of shoes. Name brand shoes like Robeez(sp?) are great finds and if in good condition I take those up fast.Even if my kids don't quite fit in them yet I see if its worth the buy to save on the side until they are old enough to fit into them. 

That's what's so great about kids. They grow so fast!

Consignments take time to go through the articles of clothing, the bins of random and the piling heaps of toys on the tables. But just think of the small favor that you are doing another mom. Besides, you might find something really awesome!

Here is a consignment going on in my area this weekend!

click here

Another one to come up soon after that and I would be more than happy to post that one as well for you! :)

-Jess

Bento Lunches

Now that my husband has a new job, I get to pack some yummy healthy lunches for him!

As weird as I am, I love to pack yummy little things here and there for my family. I love to pack for picnics or road trips. Its a small way to bring out my foody, weird creative side. I'm sure that when my kids start going to school I feel like I may be the weird mom who packs food like this, or the cool mom who puts something other than a sandwich and chips in a lunch bag. 

Bento Box: Technically from Japan, a Bento lunch(box) is colorful, nutritious and compact to take anywhere.

^^^Here is an awesome example of a yummy hubby lunch^^^

So I discovered Bento lunches.
I knew about these types of lunches before, but after a fun trip to Tillamook with my mommy friends I was inspired even more. We had lunch at one of my friends, moms house and she provided us lunch which was pretty close to what a Bento lunch might be. Lot of little yummy healthy things to snack on, it was all so wonderful! I observed and I kept mindful notes to myself thinking how I can't wait to this for my own family at home. Josiah and I do mini Bento snacks at home and I would love to start doing them for lunches for all of us. Its a great way to get all the nutrients you need and I love the variety of foods that you get for healthier meal. You should try some of these Bento lunches/snacks with me! They are great and I promise you won't starve with the smaller portions. :)

Pinterest is probably THE BEST way to get awesome ideas for these. I have been pinteresting them up so that someday I would use them and I will soon enough!

You can literally fill these boxes with anything! You can do leftovers, vegetarian, Mexican, Thai, Teriyaki...oh the endless possibilities! You can do fun shapes so that it's even more fun for the kids. 

So what do you think about these Bento lunch boxes? Time to put aside that lame ole sandwich and chips for our family lunches and lets be creative!

Want to know more about Bento lunches? click here

Here is a great board to follow for ideas. click here

Browse through this little Etsy shop to get started on Bento! click here

Now obviously the hearts and the Hello Kitty is a little girly for the hubs, but all the same you get the idea right? I can't wait to let you know about my Bento adventure! I am looking forward to it! 

-Jess