The Nifty Thrifty Mama Blog

Hello, world.

2009-10-16T15:18:00.002-07:00

Apparently, I haven't written a thing since late July. Oops.

Briefly, this is what has been happening: August was a hot, miserable month. It was all I could do most days to get the basics done, I was so uncomfortably, hugely pregnant and boy, was it HOT. I was cranky and whiny, and if I had posted at all my posts would have been huge, steaming piles of self-pity and late-pregnancy hormones.

Our new baby, Audrey Grace, arrived on September 10, and I've been far too busy loving on her to blog at all.

Isn't she lovely? 8 lbs, 5 oz, and 21 inches tall.

I had an uneventful C-section, but my recovery has been rough. It's been five weeks, and I'm still pretty sore and uncomfortable at my incision. I made the mistake of picking Nathanael up yesterday (he was running away from me, I didn't have time to think!), and I am really sore today, but hopefully soon I will be pain free.

Chris took 6 weeks of family leave from work, but he goes back this Saturday, and hopefully once he's back on a "normal" schedule, it will be easier for me to get back to my own "normal" schedule. We all could use some routine again. It's easy for Aliyah, since she has school every day, but Nathanael and I are definitely not thriving on a get-up-and-get-dressed-whenever schedule.

I bought Nathanael some of the Kumon First Steps workbooks, and that is going to be a good portion of what we do for "school" over the next few months, along with some Lauri puzzles/stacking/stringing things, and reading lots of stories aloud together.

So that, in a nutshell, is what has been going on. I hope to get back to posting more regularly soon!

A really good weekend

2009-07-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

This week was my wedding anniversary/birthday week. When we were planning our wedding, I wanted to get married on my birthday itself -- it seemed like an efficient use of special occasions, and only required Chris to remember one date. :-D But July 24, 2005 was a Sunday, and my pastor just didn't want to perform the ceremony on a Sunday, so we did it the day before instead.

Because of Chris's ever-changing work schedule, we don't really get to enjoy holidays and birthdays and things on the days themselves very often; but this year, his already scheduled days off just happened to be our anniversary and my birthday! My mom took the kids for our "weekend," and we got to spend a whole 48 hours alone together. We went out to dinner, went to see a movie that wasn 't animated, and just hung around the house together enjoying the peace and quiet. It was glorious. And, this is a terrible thing to admit to, but the house got messier over our weekend than it has been since we moved in! I really wasn't concerned about cleaning up, I just wanted to enjoy my special days, but I did at least get the kitchen clean before the kids came back on Saturday.

It was so much fun to just chill with my favorite person for two days and not have to worry about anything or anybody but ourselves, just for a little while. We'll have to try and do this again next year!

The End of May, All of June, and Half of July

2009-07-15T08:25:00.009-07:00

Well, it's certainly been a while, hasn't it? To say that life has been chaotic is a massive understatement; I can barely remember what happened yesterday without looking at my calendar. So here, gentle reader, are the highlights of what has happened since I last wrote. I'm sorry to say that I haven't touched my camera since we moved, so this will be woefully lacking in pictures. Sorry!

May 29: Moving Day

We picked up the keys to our new (rental) house and began moving in! Chris's mom and her husband came up and helped, which was a huge blessing since my pregnant self was entirely dedicated to directing the move, and NOT LIFTING ANYTHING. This was our 5th move in four years of marriage, and Pam and Anthony have been there to help with each and everyone, God bless them! We are hoping to stay here for at least two years, which will be a lovely break -- I might actually get everything unpacked for once before we move again!

This move did go very smoothly in some ways; while I was packing, I bought a bunch of different colored rolls of duct tape and assigned one color to each room. Then, as I packed boxes, I used the appropriate color of duct tape for where the box was supposed to end up, and that way everything went to the correct room right away and we haven't had to go digging in the garage for silverware or shaving cream or baby socks. We also learned that our family has graduated from the 17-foot U-Haul truck to (at least) the 24-foot U-Haul truck. Unfortunately, we didn't know this until after we had rented the 17-foot truck. Chris got it home, started loading it, and quickly realized that our boxes would fit in the truck, but where was the furniture going to go?! He and Anthony rapidly loaded the truck, drove it out to the new house, unloaded it like ninjas on amphetamines, drove back to my mom's and repeated the process, and we were able to get the truck back in time to avoid extra rental charges!

June 5: The Last Day of School

Not hugely earth-shattering or eventful, but it was an entire day spent away from the house. And I try to avoid entire days spent away from the house (sadly, these days are a recurring event over the course of June and some of July.) Every year at the school Aliyah attends, the last day of school is spent at a local park and there is always a picnic and a water-fight. This year was very structured, with the kids separated into their usual classes and then directed from one activity to the next. Nathanael had tons of fun with the bouncy house and the water activities; his favorite "water activity" was relocating chunks of ice between the two plastic swimming pools that were being used to keep cold drinks in. Aliyah had fun hanging out with her friends and signing yearbooks. And I had fun trying to stay cool and finding comfortable places to sit (I forgot to bring folding chairs).

June 8: Aliyah's Half-Day

I like to make up holidays, and Chris insists that half-days are very, very made up and that no one in the world except our family observes them. I think he's mistaken, but regardless.... A "half-day" is the observance of the date that you are half-way through your current age, and this year Aliyah turned 11 1/2. Because her birthday is so close to Christmas, we tend to do more presents and things like that on her half-day and celebrate her birthday with a special activity and cake. Since she is going into Jr. High next year, this year for her half-day she was allowed to get a second ear-piercing and start wearing honest-to-goodness-makeup. So we spent most of the day at the mall. She had bangs cut, which I had serious trepidations about at first, but they look great! Her hair seems to get curlier every year and she can't seem to decide whether she loves or hates her curls, but she has been straightening her bangs and leaving the rest of her hair curly, and it is really quite lovely. (But then, she's a pretty girl. :-P) We went to Claire's and got her second piercing and bought some really cute earrings for her to enjoy with her two-holed ears; at her school, girls are not allowed to wear "dangly" earrings until they are in 7th grade, and she will be taking full advantage of her new privilege next year! Then we ran over to WalMart and picked out some eyeshadow, mascara, powder foundation, and lipstick. It was SO much fun to go shopping for that sort of thing with her! My mom was never into makeup and jewelry, but I'm glad that my daughter and I can enjoy those things together.

After shopping, we met up with Chris and Nathanael at the movie theater and went to see Up. Pixar movies never cease to amaze me. They are never what I am expecting, and I always love them. Our favorite character in this one was the dog Dug, whose dialogue was exactly what we are all sure our dog would say if he had a collar that translated his snorging into human speech. Our favorite line? "I hid under your porch because I love you." Yep, that is 100% pure DAWG right there. Nathanael even sat still and paid attention throughout the entire movie, and even though he wasn't exactly quiet, all of his chattering did pertain to the plot. Lots of "Dog!"s and "Bird!"s and, when things got intense, "Oh noes!"s. (And yes, that is what he says. Not "Oh no!" but "Oh noes!" It's adorable.) It was another day spent out of the house, but it was a really wonderful day spent with my family.

June 11: Jury Duty

I have always, always, always wanted to serve on a jury, ever since I knew what one was. Every time I would hear people complain about being summoned for jury duty, I would think "What is the problem?" To me, it is such a cool opportunity to be a part of something bigger than yourself, something that really matters. Jury duty is part of what it means to be an American. It is a privilege and should be viewed as such. Of course, there are hassles and inconveniences that go along with it, and I realize that the $12.00 per day plus mileage doesn't adequately reflect the wages that most working people lose when they spend the day in court rather than at work (or cover babysitting, or even pay for lunch); but... suck it up, folks. It is the price you pay for the right to vote, and that right should not ever be taken lightly.

Anyway, my summons for jury duty was forwarded to our new address and arrived less than a week before the date that I was supposed to appear. I have only ever received one other summons for jury duty and they plead out or something at the last minute, so I didn't have to even go sit through selection that time. However, this time the trial was going through, so at 8am on the 11th I packed the kids off to my mom's house and presented myself as directed at the courthouse.

I live in a small town in a fairly sparsely populated county in a not-so-terribly-crowded state. There were maybe 30 of us total who had been summoned for jury selection, and for this particular type of trial there would only be 6 jurors and an alternate. Hypothetically I had about a 1-in-5 chance of being selected, BUT: being married to a police officer is a really good way to get dismissed immediately. In fact, being next-door neighbors with a police officer, or if your kid's little league coach is a police officer, or if your wife's best-friend's husband is a police officer, you have an excellent chance of being dismissed whether you want to be or not. If you ever want to be dismissed from jury selection -- which you shouldn't be looking for a way to do, Registered Voter -- the magic words are, "My _____________ (brother, son-in-law, neighbor, barber's cousin, whomever) is a police officer and I trust police officers completely." That is almost a 100% guarantee to get you sent to parking validation and on your way back home. But I digress.

We were called into the courtroom shortly after 8:30, the judge gave a brief synopsis of what the trial was going to be about (the defendant was charged with D.U.I., resisting arrest, and aggravated assault), and explained that the trial was expected to last only one day, but it might stretch into two. The court something-or-rather then began calling jurors up to the jury box so that they could begin voir dire. Much to my surprise, I was the second person called into the box, which was exciting because it meant that at least I would be rejected because of voir dire and not because they never got around to talking to me. :-) We were asked our names, our occupations, and our spouses occupations; then, based on our answers, we were asked follow-up questions. When the judge asked me if I felt that I could remain unbiased inspite of being married to a police officer or if I felt that I would automatically give more credence to a police officer's testimony than that of anyone else, I honestly replied that I had known some pretty untrustworthy police officers and that I truly believed that I could remain unbiased. There were twelve or so of us in the box, and after interviewing all 12 of us, replacing a couple almost immediately after they said they couldn't remain unbiased for some reason or another, and then we were dismissed so that they could make the final selection. I sent Chris a text message saying that we had just finished voir dire and that I would text him after they let me go, and waited for half-an-hour or so to be called back into the courtroom.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that I was Juror #2! I never expected to actually be chosen! I was probably the happiest person on the jury, lol. We received our instructions, were sworn in, and then the prosecuter and defense attorney gave their opening statements. It was really interesting; the defense attorney was stereotypically smarmy, and the prosecuter was... well, I don't know exactly how one would stereotype a prosecuter, but she was that. It was really cool for me that it was a D.U.I. case, because D.U.I.s were Chris's passion at his last job; he got as much specialized training as possible and led his department in D.U.I. arrests while he was there, so I knew a lot about how they "worked" from a law enforcement perspective, and it was interesting to hear all of those terms and phrases used in practice and not just from listening to my husband tell me about his day.

When we finally broke for lunch, I called Chris and told him "I'm on the JURY!!!!!!!" He laughed and asked me what the case was about but, taking my juror instructions seriously, I replied, "I'm not allowed to talk about it!!! You have to wait until we give our verdict!!!" My mom and the kids met me downtown for lunch and I told them all about how I couldn't tell them anything; the whole experience really made my day.

The trial continued after lunch and closing statements didn't finish until almost 5pm. We were allowed to decide whether we wanted to stay late and deliberate that evening or reconvene in the morning and start our deliberations then; we all agreed to just get it over with. The alternate was allowed to leave, and the rest of us were escorted to the jury room with strict instructions about what we could and could not consider in our deliberations. We elected the oldest member of the jury to be foreman and went over the charges one by one. We unanimously found the defendant guilty of the first two charges, but when it came to the charge of aggravated assault, both myself and one other juror had that all-important "reasonable doubt." Under Arizona state law, in order for someone to be found guilty of aggravated assault there needs to be intent, and even though we all agreed that the defendant did knock the police officer down (which resulted in his aggravated assault charge), there just wasn't adequate proof of intent for me -- it seemed more like an accident than an attack. Ultimately, we were able to persuade the other jurors to our perspective and, after a whopping 20 minutes of deliberations, we returned to the courtroom to return our verdict.

All in all, it was a really good experience, and I am so glad that I was picked! I probably never will be again, but I will always be able to look back and say, "Well, when *I* was on a jury...." :-)

June 16: Walking Pneumonia

Do you know why they call it "walking" pneumonia? Because you're not actually hospitalized. The only walking that I did for a solid week was from my bed to the bathroom and back again.

I generally get "really" sick about once every two years. Usually just in time for the holidays, and usually it's bronchitis. This time it was June, it was pneumonia, and I was six months pregnant. YOU CAN'T TAKE ANYTHING WHEN YOU'RE SIX MONTHS PREGNANT. Well, that's not entirely true, I was prescribed an anti-biotic. But I couldn't take anything that made me feel any better, or helped me sleep, or really relieved my cough. It was not pleasant.

I have to say, Chris and Aliyah totally stepped up while I was sick and took care of things. Aliyah helped ENORMOUSLY with Nathanael -- admittedly, most of her helping involved watching movies with him, but under the circumstances that was a huge blessing, both to me and to him. The two of them went grocery shopping, cooked meals, and kept the dishes under control and the house generally tidy. My mom came over a couple of times to help out, and we all survived unscathed. I still don't quite feel myself yet... I still get really tired really easily, but a lot of that is being pregnant and still being in the process of moving into our new house and getting all of our stuff out of my mom's house.

July 4: Parade, Park, and Fireworks

Yeah, not alot happened between my getting sick and the 4th of July. Mostly, I just tried to take it easy. But on the 4th, we more than made up for our lack of activity (and yes, I paid for it the next day). Our town has a big rodeo every year that coincides with the 4th of July, and the population in town doubles every year on rodeo weekend. It is INSANE. There is a big parade around the center of downtown and then after the parade, the city hosts a carnival-type-thing in one of the parks and everybody goes down to the park, sets up chairs and blankets (and BBQs and canopies and my mom saw one dude with an inflatable mattress) and just hangs out, enjoying the live band and the over-priced fair food and the rides and everything until the fireworks happen.

I'm really not sure why we didn't end up going to anything last year, but this year we did it all. The kids and I picked up my mom and took her to the parade at 9am sharp; we almost missed it, I thought it started at 10am like the Christmas parade does, but since it lasts an hour longer, they started it an hour earlier this year. We are SO BLESSED to have friends from church who have their business office directly on the parade route. We are allowed to use their private parking lot (which, people sometimes use it without permission, but it feels good to have "legal" rock-star parking!), and access to indoor plumbing, running water, and a refrigerator. They also have a fenced in patio with a latching gate directly in front of the office, which is fantastic for wiggly little boys who want to watch the parade but are too excited to sit still and feel the need for speed every time something new and exciting passes by!

After the parade, we stopped by the house to have lunch, and then went out to the festivities at the park. I hadn't been for... wow, probably 6 years or more, and it has really changed. It is much, much bigger than it used to be, but it somehow still retains a safe and comfortable small-town feeling. Being at the park is free, but they do charge for individual activities, or you can purchase wristbands for a flat fee and then all of the fun stuff is included. We went the wristband route and so the kids got to enjoy bungee jumping, bouncy houses, pony rides, and more. There are water slides and rock-climbing walls and tons of other things to do, and maybe next year we'll get to take better advantage of it all; it was SO HOT out, and I felt like a beached whale, so mostly my mom would take one kid at a time to go do something while I sat down in the shade with the other. We enjoyed some quality "fair food," including the biggest sno cones I've ever seen, and really it was a lot of fun in spite of the heat and the crowds.

I think Nathanael enjoyed the fireworks more than anything else we did that day. He liked the noise and the colors, and he kept seeing patterns in the fireworks that reminded him of the things that are most important to his little heart right now (primarily Blue's Clues and Elmo). Red fireworks would get an excited point and "Momo!" (his word for Elmo) and blue fireworks would get the same point and "A clue, a clue!" Every so often, and I couldn't really figure out what made him say it, but after certain big displays he would say "Oh noes!!!!" in a very worried tone. There are few things as delightful as watching a little person discover new and magical things for the very first time, and his enjoyment of the fireworks was the highlight of my day.

July 15: Today

And now it is today. Nothing terribly exciting is happening today, except: today we finished getting "all" of our stuff out of my mom's house! I know that sounds terribly pathetic... after all, we moved out a month and a half ago, right? But considering that I had been storing things at my mom's house since 1998, and... well, I guess you'd have to have been there, but we had possessions scattered literally all over the house and getting everything out was a big job. There are still a few things mixed in with my mom's stuff, and getting every last lego and bobby pin will probably not happen for another few years, but this is a HUGE step. I can finally really focus on getting OUR house in order before the baby comes.

What is really just crazy to me is that our summer is more or less gone by this point. Aliyah starts back to school in a month, which is really not a whole lot of time. Next week we are going on a one-night vacation with my mom, then it's Chris's and my 4th anniversary, immediately followed by my birthday, so there's half of the week where I won't be getting anything done (worthy reasons not to be unpacking boxes and doing housework, but still!) My goal is to have every box unpacked and every room in the house put in order by August 31, so that I can focus my entire month of September on getting ready for and enjoying our new baby. Goal is the operative word in that sentence, we'll see what happens. :-)

Thrifty Thursday: Shop on eBay.com

2009-05-21T20:06:00.006-07:00

Yes, I'm a bad, bad blogger for neglecting my site for weeks at a time. But let's just gloss right over that for now, shall we?

The amount of money that you can save by looking for things that you want on eBay can really vary, depending on what you are buying. So, ymmv, as they say.

Everybody's heard of eBay, but I think that its awesomeness is grossly underestimated by most people. If you are an eBay-underestimator, I strongly encourage you to give it a chance. You can buy literally anything that is legal to buy on eBay (and probably some things that aren't legal, if you know how and where to look, but I'm Not That Kind Of Girl). From coupons to golf clubs to accordions to RVs. It is insane!

My incredible savings today was on slipcovers. I told Chris months ago that for my birthday present this year I wanted slipcovers for our living room sofa and loveseat, and I had already picked out the ones that I wanted and was planning on ordering them from Walmart a week or two before my birthday. Being uber-excited about our upcoming move (we move next Friday! We got the house we wanted! God is SOOO good!), I was looking at the pretty pretty pictures on Walmart's website, when it occured to me that maybe I could find them cheaper somewhere else. The main reasons that I was going through Walmart in the first place were a) they had the pattern I wanted, and b) free shipping with the Ship-to-Store option. Before taxes, the cost of both slipcovers from Walmart would have come to $149.92, which I think is a pretty reasonable amount to pay for something that will completely change the look of my living room. But! Then I remembered eBay!

Chris always remembers to look on eBay for things; I never remember to look on eBay for things. But today, when I happened to look for my slipcovers on eBay, I found the exact ones that I wanted, brand spankin' new, with 4 hours left on the bidding and not one single bid had been submitted yet. The starting bids were $19.99 and $14.99, so I bid $20.00 and $15.00, and when the auction expired I was still the only bidder. So for a grand total of $35.00 plus shipping (which may be as much as $10.00), both of the desired slipcovers are mine! That's less than one-third of what I would have paid at Walmart. $100.00 less than I would have paid at Walmart! Muwahahahaha!

Ahem.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, remember to look for things on eBay. Sometimes you will lose auctions, and that's disappointing, but sometimes you can find exactly what you're looking for at a substantially reduced price. If you know what you want and are willing to be patient, it will pay off in the end.

Tot School, the Terrible Twos, Baby Boot Camp, and Life in General

2009-05-05T12:43:00.005-07:00

Well, if you found my blog through 1+1+1=1, you may have noticed that I don't have any recent Tot School posts. Right now, we are on hiatus, for a variety of reasons.

First of all, after turning two, Nathanael. Turned. Two. I don't really believe in "the Terrible Twos"... well, let me explain that. I understand and agree that there is a normal and expected developmental stage which usually occurs between the ages of two and three during which a child begins to understand that he is a separate entity unto himself, and that with this developmental stage comes a very strong desire to explore and demonstrate that new found autonomy. This developmental stage can be full of crankiness and fussiness as the child's desire to exercise his own will conflicts with what his parents or other caregivers have planned for him, and will be better or worse based on a multitude of things, including the personality of the child; the personalities, parenting techniques, and expectations of the parents; sleep, exercise, and nutrition; the child's general health; and, of course, all of the unexpected variables that life throws at us. But I do NOT understand or agree with those parents who watch their toddler having a meltdown because he was denied a cookie (for example) and merely shrug their shoulders and say "He's in 'the Terrible Twos'" as if that's an adequate justification for both their child's behavior and their own lack of response. If that type of behavior is ignored and accomodated when they're going through the Terrible Twos, then how are you going to handle it when they're in the Threatening Threes (or the Fearsome Fours, the Formidable Fives, the Screaming Sixes, or worse yet, the Should-have-trained-'em-better-when-they-were-little Sixteens)? I firmly believe that a little one needs to be trained out of his Terrible Two behaviors as soon as possible, before the behaviors become habits and the child becomes That Kind of Kid.

Stepping down off my soapbox now.

Anyway, right now we are working really, really hard on developing habits of obedience, gentleness, and self-control; sadly, the laissez-faire environment that we had for Tot School is not conducive to building those habits at this time, so I either need to figure out a way to make Tot School more structured (which I think robs it of some of its value) or we will just continue to take a break until Nathanael is less "Terrible Two"ish. Right now, I'm trying to make life as structured as possible and eliminate unnecessary choices in his life... instead of Tot School, we're having Baby Boot Camp, LOL.

Also, we are (if God's time-table is the same as ours, which... maybe?) moving out of my mom's house into a place of our own sometime in the next month, and I really need to focus my time and energy on packing and purging. I am feeling SO much better so far in this pregnancy than I did during the last one, but I do find that I am "hitting the wall" earlier and earlier in the evening every day, especially if I've had a rough day with Nathanael, so right now slow steps towards this move should definitely be a priority for me, otherwise I'll find myself with an entire household to move and three days to do it in, which isn't going to work so well for me. :-)

OB/GYN & Ultrasound Day. And the verdict is...

2009-05-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

The End of Innocence

2009-04-23T14:00:00.004-07:00

A little over a year ago, I saw a story online about a 4-year-old boy who got himself stuck in his family's washing machine. And being the blithely ignorant person that I was then, I wondered, "How on earth did that happen?!" At the time, my son was only 10 months old, and barely walking, and I could afford to make smug, "Where were the parents?!" comments.

You see, until two years ago, I was The Mother Of A Girl. And while she has never been what one might call quiet or demure, she is definitely a GIRL. She does... girl things. She doesn't turn every toy that she encounters into a weapon, or treat each new piece of furniture encountered as though it were Mt. Everest and she Sir Edmund Hillary. She is smart and courageous and a whole lot of fun, but she is intrinsically female, and being intrinsically female myself, I know more or less what to expect from her.

This is not what raising a boy is like AT ALL!!!!

In the past two hours, Nathanael has:

learned how to operate both the doorknob and deadbolt on the front door (he couldn't quite reach the deadbolt, but fortunately he knew right where a step-stool was).
climbed on top of the dryer, opened the washing machine lid, and removed the fabric softener receptacle from on top of the agitator.
climbed on top of the dryer again, opened the washing machine lid in the middle of a cycle, and added my clean, red pajama top to the load of mostly khaki clothes. Thankfully, I've had this pajama top for years and years and KNOW that it isn't going to bleed on anything.
removed the lid from the water softener.
climbed inside the kitchen sink so that he could better reach the sharp knives that we keep on a magnetic strip in a "safe" place, HIGH UP OUT OF THE REACH OF SMALL PEOPLE.
turned on the coffee pot after doing his best to fill the water receptacle beforehand.

I am very much "on my toes" with him and have thus far (by God's grace) been able to respond almost instantaneously every time he does something new and exciting, but my gosh he is QUICK! It's getting to the point where I don't dare go to the bathroom for 30 seconds without taking him with me.

The moral of the story is: now when I hear stories like that of the little boy in the washing machine, I no longer wonder "How did that happen," I wonder, "When is it going to happen to me?" Having a boy is tons of fun, but I am exhausted!

Thrifty Thursday: Make Your Own Dog Food

2009-04-23T07:08:00.006-07:00

Weekly Savings: $7.00
Monthly Savings: $22.00
Yearly Savings: $436.00

This is my dog, George.

He is an English bulldog. Absolutely the best dog I have ever had, hands down. Great with kids, very loyal and affectionate, and even though he is a total push-over, he looks threatening enough that people don't want to mess with him.

Unfortunately, English bulldogs don't have a very long life-span. We're looking at 7-10 years, assuming that no major congenital health issues crop up along the way. And after doing a lot of research, we are convinced that by feeding him "real" food instead of pre-packaged dog food, he will be healthier, happier, and hopefully reach the maximum end of his life-span.

My basic home-made dog food recipe with costs is as follows -- I buy the meat in bulk when it's on sale, so this is an average estimate based on our normal sale prices:

5 lbs. ground beef ($7.00)
3 lbs. frozen veggies ($3.00)
1 lb. raw brown rice ($2.00)
2 quarts chicken broth ($2.00)
water if needed (negligible)
Total Cost: $14.00

This basic recipe gets us through a little over 2 weeks. I could probably make it for less if I was really pro-active about stocking up when there are sales. As it is, we're already spending less than half as much as we were on the "good" brand of packaged dry food that we had been using. Now that we're really getting into the swing of things with home-made food, I plan to start branching out from this basic recipe and giving him more variety... maybe some chicken & turkey as well as beef, apples as well as vegetables, and yogurt and cottage cheese occasionally. This may cause his food costs to increase slightly, but I am still expecting it to remain significantly less than the $50.00 a month that we were spending on his bagged food.

An unexpected perk to switching to home-made dog food has been how much better George smells! English bulldogs are gassy beasts, and... oh my, was it ever rank! Now that he is eating the food that I make, without unnecessary grains and fillers that his body can't process, the super-stinky gas is GONE. He also has much sweeter smelling breath than he did before. And we're probably saving another $5 - $10 a month on air fresheners! :-)

In all seriousness, it is well worth the time and effort to really research what you are feeding your pets and make more conscientious decisions about what you put in front of them. We were shocked and horrified by what we learned when we began looking into what goes into most dog foods, and the additional time and effort that it takes to cook for George (which... maybe an hour of hands-on work every two weeks? Not a big deal!) is well worth it, knowing that he is eating food that is really good for him. I've only been making his food at home for two months or so, and we could see benefits almost immediately... certainly after the first week. There are tons of websites and books out there with information about how and what to cook for your pet, so making the switch is really quite easy.

And she can cook!

2009-04-22T21:46:00.003-07:00

I started a recipe blog... primarily because I am more likely to type a recipe out than I am to write it down on a recipe card, and also because I'm a giver! :-)

Anyway, if you're interested, you can find it at http://niftythriftymamacooks.blogspot.com.

Tot School Sunday #4

2009-04-19T13:58:00.003-07:00

Music & Movement Monday
We spend the first half of Monday at Grandma's house in Phoenix, and the second half driving home and unpacking, so formal Tot School was a no-go. Monday is music day, though, and we did have some fun with music; namely, listening to Bob & Larry Sing the '70s in the car on the way home. And, I have to say, if you don't own this CD, go forth and obtain a copy! It is tons of fun, and there's nothing quite like listening to your two year old singing along with "Funkytown."

Being in the car for 3 hours, today wasn't so much with the movement, unless you consider playing with Grandma's dogs before we left her house, in which case, he probably got enough exercise to last the week. :-)

Tot Tub Tuesday
Tot School started early today; almost as soon as he woke up, Thanael saw his daddy making oatmeal for breakfast and got very excited about all of the measuring. He found a measuring cup somewhere (I think he has a secret stash, because my measuring cups keep going missing and), pulled up a chair to the counter and was ready to dig into the oatmeal tub. I quickly got out two large-ish shallow containers, poured some oats into one of them, and set him up at the table with some measuring cups and a toy coffee pot. Very convenient of him to figure out our "Tot Tray" activity for today, since I hadn't decided what we were doing yet.

Segue: It occurs to me that in several of the pictures that I post for Tot School, Nathanael is still in his jammies. People must think that I never get the poor kid dressed, LOL. I promise, he does wear real people clothes, (almost) every single day, and usually has them on before lunch. We just do Tot School when he is ready for it, and that's often fairly early in our day.

He got tired of scooping and pouring after a while, so we had breakfast and got (half) dressed. I was doing my morning chores, when Nathanael rediscovered the oat tubs on the table. He spent a happy twenty minutes or so scooping, pouring, and transferring (and getting oats all over the floor!) while I continued with my work in the kitchen.

At one point, I went to take care of something in the other room, and apparently that's when Nathanael decided he was done, because the next thing I knew I heard a whirring noise. I went back into the kitchen to find out what was going on, and this is what I found:

Mister Tidy-Britches went into the bedroom, got the Dust-Buster down from its charger, and took it upon himself to start cleaning up his mess! He did a pretty good job, too!

We're both still pretty mucousy from this head cold, so we took a nice, hot, sinus-clearing shower after all of the oats were cleaned up and, while we were in there, we played a fun new game for identifying body parts (since we were in the shower, obviously I didn't take pics! :-P). I'm calling it "Hey, Thanael?" and I think it's going to become a normal part of bathtime from now on. It goes like this.

Me: Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, Thanael?
Him: Yeeeesh?
Me: Where is/are your.... hair/eyes/ear/nose/belly/feet/etc.?
Him: (lots of giggles, touches the appropriate part, and does a happy dance)

It was interesting to see where his knowledge gaps are; he knows all the parts of his face except his eyebrows, but he is really sporadic as far as the rest of his body goes.

Workbook Wednesday
We were going to play with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom lapbook today, but then I realized that if we didn't "write" a thank-you card to my sister for Nathanael's birthday present, I would forget all about it, so instead we painted with his dot paints.

We had to put them away when he became more interested than using them on himself than on the paper. :-)

After painting, he wanted to play with the DK "My First Picture Pairs" game that he got for his birthday. Right now they are far more valuable to us as a vocabulary builder than they are for matching. I think that the quantity of cards (27 pairs) is overwhelming to him, but since he knows they all exist, he wants to have them all out at once. So for now I just ask him what the picture is of (he's added 2-3 words each time we've played with them, which is definite progress!), or ask him to find the picture for a word that I already know he knows.

Themeless Thursday
I was really hoping to make it to story hour at the library this week, but we're still getting over being sick, and I didn't want the other moms to freak out about my booger-y son. Also, I'm BEAT!!! Housework has really fallen behind over the past week or so, and I tried to make today a catch-up day, as much as possible. So instead of "sit down" Tot School of any kind, I just had Nathanael help me around the house, which he loves to do. It takes 45 minutes to fold a large load of towels and washcloths when each item has to be handed to you individually by a very short, easily distracted person who keeps taking breaks to climb in the dryer.

Side note: when Aliyah was Nathanael's age, one of her favorite things was to climb in the dryer, pull the door closed (just enough to shut the light off, not so that it was really latched closed), and wait for one of us to say, "Lazarus, come forth!" She would then emerge from the dryer, and we were supposed to be Mary & Martha, overjoyed at our brother's being returned to us. She's eleven now, and will be furious if she finds out that I told the entire internet this story, but... oh, my, it was adorable!

Anyway, he "helped" fold clothes, sweep the floors, and wash dishes. Washing dishes is his new favorite thing to do. Most mornings while I'm making his cocoa, he'll pull up a chair to the sink, climb up on it, turn on the water, and grab a sponge. If there aren't dishes in the sink for him to wash, he'll go find some clean dishes and work on those. If only the rest of the family had the same enthusiasm for washing dishes!

Fun Friday
Knowing that we would be spending about 5 hours in the car today, we took Tot School outside, and played with chalk!

Nathanael had never played with chalk before, and he was much more interested in taking the chalk out of the box and putting it back in than he was in drawing on the concrete. We have a great front yard for playing in, so I just let him wander around and do what he liked.

And that was our week of Tot School!

The Graduate

2009-04-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

Here he is, ladies & gentlemen!

It was a long day, but I'm glad we went. Chris's dad didn't make it (grrrr!), but his mom was there, and she was completely thrilled, so it was all worthwhile.

The Commencement That Almost Wasn't

2009-04-17T07:46:00.005-07:00

For the past year and a half, Chris has been taking online classes through Ottawa University in order to finish his bachelor's degree in Police Science. And tonight, he walks. :-)

It is really a very special thing that he gets to be a part of this commencement; his last classes don't even end for another month, and his degree doesn't actually confer until May somethingth. If it was up to the two of us, we wouldn't have bothered with the ceremony at all -- it's held in Phoenix, and with the driving, and the kids, and work and everything, we would be happy to just receive the degree in the mail and be done with it. But we knew that the fact that Chris is graduating means a LOT to his parents and, especially since his dad was diagnosed with colon cancer, we felt that it was important to try and make it happen. We were expecting commencements to happen in May/June and December, like they do for the state universities around here, but OU's commencements in April and September, and this year's September ceremony coincides very closely with the arrival of our new baby, so it was not a reasonable option. It really looked like commencement was going to be a no-go after all, but then Chris explained our dilemma to his advisor-type-person. This woman, someone that Chris has only ever communicated with via e-mails and phone calls, jumped in and got special permisson for him to walk this April. Very, very cool. *

So this afternoon, thanks to a person we've never met, Chris is going to get to walk across the stage in cap and gown, and make his parents' day (assuming they both show up... which is another blog post entirely).

Now the only problem is why, oh why, did I not realize that I was going to have to keep a toddler happy and busy during the ceremony and what, oh what am I going to bring along to keep him occupied?!?!?!

* The whole Ottawa University experience was really positive -- if you are in the market for an online university, I would definitely recommend looking at them!

Thrifty Thursdays: Cancel Cable

2009-04-16T16:54:00.002-07:00

Weekly Savings: $10.60 + tax
Monthly Savings: $46.00 + tax
Yearly Savings: $552.00 + tax

I love TV. More than I should. Waaaay more than I should, truth be told. And that is one of the reasons that we do not currently have cable. Even before the whole HD switcharoo (did that finally go through? I stopped paying attention since it didn't really apply to me), we weren't able to get the major networks, because we live in (what tries really hard to maintain its reputation as) a small town. Anyway, I haven't had access to immediate television gratification since October of 2007, and although it has definite benefits, sometimes it's kind of a bummer.

BUT!

Did you know that virtually any network TV show, as well as several cable TV shows, that you would ever want to watch (and a whole bunch that you wouldn't ever want to watch, ever, ever, EVER) can be found FREE and LEGALLY on www.hulu.com and/or www.joost.com? Not to mention on the networks' websites themselves. This means that I can watch what I want when I want... it's almost like having TiVo, except that I can't fast-forward through the (really quite brief) commercials and there are usually only the 2-5 most recent episodes of a show up at any given time. Being able to watch my favorite TV shows online has not only helped me to use my time more appropriately (no more stopping everything because a new episode of The Office is airing in 5 minutes and I just HAVE to watch it or I might DIE), plus it means that Chris and I can sit down and watch a show together when it works for both of us (which is no easy feat since he works shifts that change every 3 months!), and last but not least, we are NOT spending $46.00 plus tax every month (aka $552.00 a year) on cable.

It's also worth mentioning that you can get just about any TV show that has been released on DVD via Netflix, several of which are available from their "watch instantly" menu... so for the price of our monthly subscription ($13.99 a month, still $32.00 cheaper than cable), I can catch up on, for example, Battlestar Galactica, and finally watch all of the All Creatures Great and Small episodes that I missed on PBS back in the day. And, as I mentioned before, I can watch when it fits into my life, and don't have to fit my life around my viewing.

I know that there are a lot of people who make do without watching TV at all, and I really respect that. But I will almost certainly never be one of them, LOL. For me, it is important to be pop-culturally literate, as long as I can do that without dishonoring God or neglecting my family. And for me, doing my TV viewing online is good stewardship, not just because of the money that we save, but also because it permits me to be a better steward of my time.

Tot School Sunday #3

2009-04-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

This post was supposed to go up on Sunday, but we were out of town visiting Grandma, so it's a couple of days late. But we can pretend that it's still Sunday. :-)

Monday
Nathanael was Mr. Super Cranky Bottom today... he's cutting some molars, and it is not going well. So all we did was watch an episode of Blue's Clues (figuring out what song Blue wanted to sing), and then he went in the other room and banged around on the piano for a bit, completely off his own volition. I didn't get any pics because in the mood that he is in today, as soon as he noticed the camera we would have a meltdown.

On the "well, that went well!" side, during Blue's Clues he wanted to find his gourd that makes a fun shaking noise (I have no idea what to call it!) so that he could play along with the music. :-)

Tuesday
We did nothing today. Chris came home from work early, and Thanael was still very crabby (I think he's getting sick on top of teething), so we just chilled and snuggled and read stories. Which isn't doing "nothing," I suppose, but it wasn't anything amazing.

Wednesday
Ahhh... this week's tot tub idea was a huge success. It wasn't planned at all; I was sleepy and headache-y and on the spur of the moment just dumped some dried beans, pasta and wheat berries into some small tubs, got out a couple extra tubs for pouring, some ladles and a measuring cup for scooping, a pair of tweezers (for tweezing), and the tray that our beads came in for sorting.

He was really tickled about all the spoons ("Poon?!")

and started transferring beans between containers right away.

It turns out that he doesn't quite have the motor skills yet to successfully use a pair of tweezers, but you have to admit that he gave his all in the attempt.

Fairly quickly he realized that he could pour the contents from one container into another container, and he soon had emptied all of the tubs into the same container and spent a few minutes pouring the mix from one container to another.

Then, being the bizarrely tidy toddler that he occasionally is, he stacked the empty containers inside the large tub, put the full container on the top of the stack, and started scooping from there... onto the table

and then into Mommy's hand.

Next, we had fun with gravity, as he gleefully scooped up a ladleful and then poured it out onto the floor (at least I hadn't swept yet!).

Finally, we got out the vacuum & dustbuster and cleaned up together.

There was no part of this that wasn't fun!

Thursday
This past Christmas, my mom bought us the game of Rumis. All of the big people in the family really enjoy this game... it's challenging, but not too challenging, and it is one of the few games that none of us seem to have any sort of natural-talent-advantage over the others in. Of course, all of the colorful blocks are very intriguing to Nathanael and every time he sees the box, he wants to play with the game. So this morning, that's what we did. :-)

Fun as just throwing the blocks around is, Tot School is about learning, right? So I showed Nathanael some of the matching shapes in the different colors; 4x4 squares, 3x1 bars, and 4x1 bars.

Then I pulled out three "L" shaped pieces; the green, blue, and yellow ones. After I showed him how they were all the same shape, I lined up three different red pieces, one of which was the matching "L" shape, and asked him if he could find the shape that matched the others. And...

he grabbed the right one and started playing with the four matching "L"s together.

He built with the blocks for a quite while, but then he just started to get too rowdy with them, and that meant that it was time to clean up. Learning colors is something that we're kind of focused on right now -- not super intensely, but whenever the opportunity arises, I try to make a point of identifying colors. So putting the blocks away was an excellent opportunity to work on reinforcing red, blue, green, and yellow.

I lined the boxes up for each color, put a few blocks in each box, and then asked him to put the blocks away according to color.

I would hand him (for example) a blue block and say, "Look, Thanael, this block is blue. Can you put it in the box with the other blue blocks?" If he put it in the wrong box, I would explain that it didn't match, and then show him where it did belong; if he put it in the right box, I made a big deal about what a good job he did and reinforced that the block matched the others. At first he was about 50/50 for putting the blocks away, but after we had done half a dozen or so, he started getting them all right... and then he started teasing me with it! He would put a block in the wrong box and give me a happy, "I know that's not right, but let's see what you're going to do about it" look. Then when I said, "No, that block doesn't match!" he would pull it out, giggle, and either put it in the right box or put it in another wrong box and enjoy my reaction again. :-)

Friday
Today's "Fun Friday" was super fun, because what is funner than having a birthday?! Nathanael turned 2 today, and we spent the day opening and playing with presents. His favorite? The Melissa & Doug Band in a Box. He especially enjoyed sharing it with his big sister (she had the day off from school since it was Good Friday... so great to have her home to share her baby brother's birthday!)

He did end up getting sick, like I suspected. And so did I. :-(

Saturday
It snowed!!! In our bizarre-weather-world here in the mountains of Arizona, the weather from March through May fluctuates from blizzards all the way up to the mid-70's, sometimes in the same week. And for some reason, regardless of when Easter falls we almost always get snow Easter weekend. This year was no exception.

After coming in from the snow and taking a warm bath, it was Easter egg dying time! Oh my goodness, this was SO much easier last year, LOL. Nathanael of course wanted to help with everything, and it was about to become disastrous. Fortunately, it was also snack time, so I just popped him into his highchair and let him watch while he ate his snack. He told me which eggs he wanted to put in which color dye, and he mostly enjoyed himself.

We only dropped one egg on the floor, and only spilled one cup of dye (orange... all over mommy... it washed right out, thankfully!). I am looking forward to next year, when he is big enough to be trusted with some actual helping things; I don't mind cleaning up messes, but this year he would have enjoyed making the messes more than dying the eggs. :-)

On a side note, Aliyah mixed her own egg dye this year with food coloring, water, and vinegar. She did a really good job and the eggs came out very nicely.

Happy Birthday, baby!

2009-04-10T21:14:00.005-07:00

Two years ago:

One year ago:

Today:

A sentence!!!

2009-04-07T10:16:00.003-07:00

Nathanael is not a very verbal little man. In fact, compared to what Aliyah was like at this age, he is practically mute. After having one child who was speaking in complete, complex sentences by the time she was 1 1/2, having a kiddo with a vocabulary of less than 50 words at the age of almost-two has been extremely frustrating at times, especially since he gets so frustrated by our inability to understand what he is trying to communicate to us.

BUT!

Today when it was time to get dressed, Mister Strong & Silent said plain as day, "Yes, shirt on da baby." Hooray!

OB/GYN day

2009-04-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

Had my... 3rd? 4th? no, definitely the 3rd... pre-natal appointment today. Very uneventful. My OB has a heck of a time finding where the baby is to listen to its heartbeat; last month she couldn't find it at all and since I was the last appointment of the day, the ultrasound tech had already gone home so we couldn't make sure everything was okay with an ultrasound until the following morning, and it was all very nerve-wracking and unpleasant. But this time my doctor was able to find it after hunting for a minute or two, and everything sounded great. At next month's appointment we should find out what the gender is, if the baby cooperates for the ultrasound. Very exciting!

Tot School Sunday #2

2009-04-05T19:14:00.001-07:00

Whenever I go and look at the "official" Tot School website, I get completely overwhelmed by how many different things we can do! There are dozens of ideas on that site alone, and then looking at the sites that link to it... I wish I could do all of them! But I can't, so I'm having to pick and choose things that work for us; I decided to assign a theme for each day, in the hopes that this will help us have a well-rounded "curriculum" without getting tired of anything. Also, I'm kitschy and neurotic that way.

Music & Movement Mondays
Nathanael loves music... dancing, singing, banging on the piano, anything that involves music makes him a happy boy. We got out a drum, a gourd that rattles when you shake it, Nathanael's train whistle, big sister's recorder, and a water whistle, and played some tunes on the iPod. I was expecting Nathanael to try and make music along with the songs we were listening to, and he did at first, but he was really very sleepy and started zoning out fairly early on.

I couldn't let him go to sleep, since we had somewhere we had to be in an hour, so I put on his Wee Sing Children's Songs and Fingerplays CD. Here he is showing "out came the sun" from the "Eentsy Weentsy Spider" song (we say "Itsy Bitsy" in our house, but the good folks at Wee Sing disagree).

We did a lot of the clapping and finger games, and then got down on the floor for "Head, Shoulder, Knees & Toes" and "Ring Around the Rosy." Wee Sing's "Ring Around the Rosy" has several verses with different activities like "skip around the rosy," "hop around the rosy," and "run around the rosy." As I mentioned earlier, Nathanael was sleepy and by the end of "Ring Around the Rosy"... well, this is how his last "we all fall down!" looked.

The kicker was, he never did take a nap, even though we spent quite a lot of time in the car and that usually puts him out faster than anything.

Tot Tub Tuesdays
We don't have any trays, and I like containers with lids, so instead of "tot trays" we are using plastic tubs.

This Tuesday, we brought out the beading tub. I recently got a really good deal on a Melissa & Doug bead set, with lots of different shapes & colors & alphabet beads. The beads are quite a bit smaller than the beads that Aliyah had to play with at his age, so once again hyper-vigilance on my part was a must. Also given the smaller size, I thought that it would be easier for him to successfully thread them if we used something sturdier than the laces that came with the kit, so I substituted some florist's wire. And instead of the entire box of beads, I only got out 10 pairs of shapes and the letters in Nathanael's name so that I would know exactly how many I had out and could be sure that they all got put away!

Success!

Sliding

Florist's wire is bendy!

After a while, he started noticing the matching pairs of shapes, and began separating the pairs from the rest of the beads. These are the only ones that he wanted to thread; I was impressed by how deftly he got them on the bent wire.

"Ish!"

Workbook Wednesdays
(Not really "workbooks" per se; things like lap books and flash cards and other sit-down bookish things.)

Side note about yesterday's activity: this morning when we were playing in the front yard, Nathanael was trying to thread leaves and pieces of ground cover onto pine needles. So I guess he enjoyed the beading. :-)

I bought these Sesame Street flash cards in the $1.00 section at Target several months ago.
I have another set that is "Shapes, Colors, and Opposites" but it is currently hiding somewhere in the chaos that is my living room, so we didn't get to play with it today.

He can't use the cards "as intended" since he doesn't know his numbers yet, much less can he read any words, so this is what we did with the "first words" cards: first I pulled out 2 cards for each of the Sesame Street characters that I know he knows by name.
I like how even though two cards have the same character on them, the characters are different sizes, or facing a different direction, or are doing something (flying a plane, driving a car) that makes finding that character's card in a group a little bit more work.

Then I lined 5 cards up in front of Nathanael on the table and asked him to find a specific character's card.
Once he found the card, I would set it aside, remove the other cards and lay five more cards down, asking him to find the same character. After he found the 'matching' card we would look at the differences for a little while and then do it again with another character.

With the number cards, I pulled out some cards with both pictures that he would recognize and words he could say.
None of the items repeated on any of the flash cards, so I couldn't do a matching game with these cards. Instead, I'd show him a card and ask him what was on it. Once he correctly identified all of the items, I put all seven of the cards I'd chosen down on the table and asked him to find the different items. When he found the item I had asked for, we would count how many were on the card before moving on to the next one.

After we had done that, I got out all of the counting cards and let him look at them however he wanted. If he was particularly interested in a card, I would name the item on it and then we would count how many of that thing there were. He loves to count things, and can count to three on his own, but he forgets about "one," so counting with him sounds like this: "Doo, doo, dree." It's awfully cute, if I do say so myself. :-)

Themeless Thursdays
Generally speaking, Thursdays are errand days. It's story-hour day at the library and it's the one day that we always have to pick Aliyah up from school, so if the weather is nice we try to go to the zoo before we go and get her. This Thursday, however, I wasn't feeling very well, so we did a whole lot of nothing until it was time to go get Big Sister.

Fun Fridays
Does this look the the face of somebody who is interested in having fun?
Yeah, I don't think so either.

This Friday, I thought that we would do something SUPER FUN and bust out the finger paints for the very first time ever! Sounds like lots of fun, right? Especially for a little boy who "finger paints" with yogurt, oatmeal, refried beans, and any other marginally spreadable foodstuff that is set before him. So finger painting with actual finger paints seemed like an obviously good idea.

Well. We got off to a good start.

But there was an unexpected snag, in that he didn't want to touch the fascinating orange blob on the paper. So I smeared it around for him and then encouraged him to try. Turns out, he didn't much care for the feel of the paint on his fingers, and immediately started trying to clean his hand off by wiping the paint off onto the table.

Then he pointed to the other tubes of finger paint, so I squeezed some green and blue onto the paper, thinking maybe he would like it better with the other colors... not very logical, but he's not-quite-2, so we don't see a lot of logic around here. He did experiment a bit more with the other colors

but he still didn't like getting his hands dirty.

I cleaned his hand off, got out a new sheet of paper, squeezed a blob of each color of paint onto it, and gave Nathanael a plastic fork, thinking that maybe he would enjoy painting if he didn't have to touch the paint. Again, looks like a great idea, yes?

This time he was bothered by how dirty the fork got, tried to wipe the paint off the fork with his fingers, and then got upset because his fingers were dirty again.

Finally we just gave up on finger paints, watched an episode of Blue's Clues, and spent some time playing games on sesamestreet.org. So it turned out to still be a fun Friday, but not the way I was expecting. I think I'll wait a couple of months before trying the finger paints again.

Thrifty Thursdays: Make Your Own Baby Wipes

2009-04-02T12:28:00.003-07:00

Weekly Savings: $1.24
Monthly Savings: $4.96
Yearly Savings: $59.50

Last October I got in a "crunchy" mood, and decided to try making my own baby wipes. I just recently sat down and did the math on whether or not it actually saves us money, and was surprised at what I found. Even though I'm not a money-saving genius, I did use the word 'thrifty' in my blog name, so here is a thrifty tip from me to you: try using cloth wipes! Not only are they less expensive than disposables, but they are super cute (since you can choose whatever fabric you want for them -- ours have froggies and duckies and Curious George on them), and they also clean poppy bottoms more effectively than disposables.

There are lots of websites that can tell you how to make your own wipes, if it's something that you want to try. But this post is about the thrifty side of doing it yourself, so without further ado, here is what it cost me to make a bunch of baby wipes:

1 yard of flannel (made 65 wipes, approximately 5"x6" each) = $2.99

I already had the thread that I used for zig-zagging the edges, so I didn't include that cost.

The cost for making a batch of cleaning solution is as follows:

1 Tbsp. baby shampoo (I use Aveeno or Burt's Bees; 8oz. for ~$5.00 = $0.32/Tbsp.)
1 tsp. mineral oil (16oz. for ~$4.00; $0.04/tsp.)
2 C. water (negligible)
a few drops of essential oil for fragrance (negligible)
Total = $0.36 per batch of cleaning solution

Since I use Nature's Miracle Stain and Odor Solution for both soaking the wipes after use and also in the laundry when I wash them, I am including that in the cost. I use ~1/4C. in the soaking solution and ~1/4 C. in the wash, so that's a total of 1/2 C. per batch of wipes.

Nature's Miracle Stain and Odor Solution (1 gallon bottle for ~$25.00 = $0.78 per 1/2 C.)

Adding up the cost of the wipes ($2.99), the cleaning solution ($0.36), and the additional soaking/washing cost ($0.78), the initial outlay for the first batch of cloth wipes cost me $4.13 cents. That is a cost of approximately 6 1/2 cents per wipe, which is almost twice as much as I was paying per wipe with the disposable brand that I had been using.

BUT!

Those initial 65 wipes that I made will get us through an entire week. So, let's look at the cost of re-using these wipes for an entire month (four weeks). The cost of the wipes remains the same ($2.99), the cost of the cleaning solution is quadrupled ($1.44), as is the cost of the soaking/washing solution ($3.12). Therefore, the first month of using homemade wipes cost me $7.55, or just under 3 cents per wipe. Already cheaper than buying disposables!

Just for fun, six months of cloth wipes costs me $30.35 (almost 2 cents per wipe), and if I use the same flannel wipes for one year, my total outlay is only $57.71, which is under 2 cents per wipe and just under half of what I would have paid for my old brand of disposable wipes over the course of the same year. And these numbers don't take into account the fact that cloth wipes clean better than disposable wipes, so although I can get away with using only 65 wipes per week with my homemade wipes, I would be using probably 100 or more disposable wipes in the same amount of time.

I am really glad that we switched from disposable to reusable wipes. $60 may not seem like that much money over the course of a year, but that $60.00 could pay for an extra date night with my husband, or 25 movie rentals, or a care package for a relative who lives far away, or... who knows? If I found $60.00 in a jacket pocket I'd be thrilled to pieces, so I think it's a worthwhile amount to shave off of my yearly expenses. :-)

Random Ramblings

2009-03-31T18:41:00.003-07:00

- I found a FOUR YEAR OLD frozen roast in my mom's freezer this week. And I'm using it to make dog food. I've never made my own dog food before, I hope the dog likes it! :-)

- A crabby almost-two-year-old-boy's spirits can be improved immeasurably by the simple "privilege" of being allowed to play in the bed of his daddy's parked pick-up truck for half-an-hour.

- I think I'm getting a sinus infection. I hate being sick while I'm pregnant, because Nyquil is off-limits, so I can't just sleep until I'm better. :-(

- Oreo cookies are good.

- I am really enjoying my 11 year old lately. This is a big deal, because for quite a while there we were not enjoying one another at all.

- I desperately need to clean my living room.

Matrimonial Monday

2009-03-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

I don't intend to have a theme for every day of the week, but at least if I did it would give me something to write about, right? Right! And because I am a fan of alliteration, I need a "M" word to go with Monday. Money? No thanks. Moody? That would turn into a weekly pity-party right quick. Mercurial is a fun word to say, but not terribly inspiring. But since I am married, and most other people either are married, will be married, or have been married, marriage seems like a good choice of subject matter! "Matrimonial Monday" sounds much better than "Marriage Monday," so there we are. Problem created and solved in less than 3 minutes.

Now, what would I like to say about matrimony today?

I like being married. I really, really do. We're still shy of the 4 year mark, so I know our happiness in being married to each other is often attributed to still being "newlyweds," but regardless of why we're happy (and it's not just because we haven't had time to learn to hate each other yet), we are HAPPY.

So today's post is just a shout-out to my wonderful husband, who puts up with a LOT -- being married to me can't possibly be all sunshine and puppy dogs like he says it is -- who loves me to pieces, who is always patient, always kind, and almost always knows when to stop tickling before I start to honestly get mad about it. He is also a fantastic father, plays a decent game of Scrabble, and never forgets to put the seat down.

I love you, honey!

Tot School Sunday #1

2009-03-29T09:05:00.005-07:00

This week was kind of crazy, with school programs to attend in the middle of the day, Daddy's work schedule changing, and just life-in-general sorts of things, so we only did one real "sit down" Tot School time this week. But I did get lots of pictures, and we had LOTS of fun!

Nathanael has been very interested by the refrigerator magnets for quite some time, so I thought it would be neat to let him play with some "real" magnets and see what he would do with them. I had wanted to take a picture of all of the supplies that we used, but I can't bring them out without him wanting to play with them, LOL. So instead of a photograph, here is a list:

Obvious caveat -- most if not all of these things are NOT items that small children should EVER have access to without constant, vigilant parental supervision. I made sure that I knew exactly what we had out and that everything was put away properly afterwards.

Magnetix from big sister's collection (two bars of each color and four balls)
a large-ish screw
a large-ish nail
a metal lid from an old cookie tin
a large washer
a bell
a scrap-booking brad
a binder clip
a pair of tweezers
a small wrench
an adapter from a socket wrench
two magnets from our fridge.

It was really fun watching him figure out that the colored magnetix bars were necessary to hold the other pieces together... at first he would get really frustrated when, for example, the tweezers wouldn't stick to the wrench, but then he would figure out that a magnetix bar would hold on to the wrench, and then he could stick the tweezers onto the same bar and make a little stack. So much fun to watch those connections being made!

He became really frustrated by the way like ends of the magnetix bars would repel each other. But after a few attempts to force the bars to attach, he figured out that by turning one bar over and using the other end, they would do what he wanted them to do! So after a bit of trial and error, he was able to use all of the bars and build this tower:

So there it is! Our very first official Tot School post! I'm looking forward to next week... not really sure what we're going to do yet, but I'm sure it will be great!

Tot School

2009-03-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

So.

This weekend, I was aimlessly surfing the internet, minding my own business (more or less), when I stumbled across....

Oh. My. Goodness.

My nerdy little heart went pitter-pat, and I fell in loooooove. I had been thinking that I wanted to do some more focused, intentional play with Nathanael, and this website has so many incredible ideas! The only problem that I have with it is that it makes me want to spend lots of money on things for our own Tot School, LOL. I do have some ideas for things that we already have that I can use, and since the grandparents will (most likely) be spoiling him rotten on this upcoming birthday, I can use his birthday money for "school supplies." :-)

I am so excited!

The Nifty Thrifty Mama Blog Mission Statement

2009-03-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is not a "how to save 50% on your grocery bill" sort of blog. This is not a "never pay full price for anything ever again" sort of blog. Nor is it an "I bought all of my kids' school clothes for less than $20 by shopping garage sales" sort of blog, a"how to shear your own sheep, weave your own yarn, and hand-knit all your own clothing" sort of blog," or even a "we grow and eat all of our (100% organic) produce, and you can too!" sort of blog. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those things, it they're what you're into.

This blog is about one person's desire to learn how to give her family the best home life possible by jumping in and doing things... not making every decision based on how much money it's going to cost, but on how much it's going to benefit our lives in the long term. It's about taking the extra time to learn how to do something myself if that is a practical decision. It's about learning how to be more appreciative for the things that I have and the people I'm surrounded by, and about making more conscientious decisions about how I spend my time, energy, and money. Ultimately, I suppose it is about trying to be better where there is room for improvement, and being gracious when I make mistakes (because I will make mistakes). It's a blog about cooking, cleaning, parenting, shopping, crafting, loving, and living.