Coming down off of yesterday's soap box...

I have the serious giggles today!

I was getting my daughter ready for bed while Adam brushed my son's teeth and I hear this little voice ask, "Why to you have hair in your nose?" I just about fell over laughing so hard, tears streaming down, through which I hear Adam answer,"That's what happens when you get old." I still can't get it together. Next thing I know this little half naked boy is at my side and says, "Mommy you have gray hair" as he runs back to Daddy. Still, I'm cracking up.

Oh, and apparently I'm going to be a spicy noodle for Halloween. Where does he come up with this stuff, really??

Today's menu, waffles, leftover fish and sweet potatoes, bbq ribs with corn, cucs and tomatoes.

Shame, shame, shame

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Shame on you food industry.

Our journey through elimination diets this year has been rough at times but very enlightening. For awhile we gave up all sweeteners you may or may not remember. And now we mostly only use fruit sweetened or natural sweeteners (honey, REAL maple syrup.) I still have sugar left from a 10 pound bag I bought in January.

No matter because many people I know say, I never use sugar. Oh, yeah...how much of what you eat to you make yourself?? How much sugar is in the instant oatmeal (even organic) that you eat in the morning? The bread on your sandwich (even the sandwich meat) probably has a double whammy of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. My point, it is in everything. I go batty reading labels and then usually just end up making it myself.

The food industry does it on purpose it's simple dollars and sense. If there is sugar in it we eat more of it and they make more money.

I can totally see this when we start to eat more processed foods, we go through more of them. If you didn't catch High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing last week it is well worth the read now! Seriously all sugars are best in (extreme) moderation but how are we supposed to eat them in moderation if they are put in everything we eat?

1/2

We've come 15 days on this 30 days of Nothing experiment and I'm drained. It could have to do with the fact that I'm in the kitchen all day lately. I'm making two more batches of jam tonight.

A friend in one of my pilates classes offered me to come pick raspberries and keep what we picked. As if I needed more work ;). But I couldn't say no to such sweet juicy goodness. Honestly, I had forgotten how much work it is to pick that many but now we've got a bunch to freeze and make yummy jam out of!

Mostly for my own inspiration I'm going to link to some of the many nonprofits I like and would love to have LOTS more money to give too.

Care has been on my sidebar for years now and I really dig what they do for women!

One that probably doesn't need mentioning here is Compassion International. Most of us I'm sure followed Shannon to Uganda last spring and will followMary to the Dominican Republic in a couple months!!

Mercy Corps is one that I found this year and I like really like their philosophy. One of their core values, "We are awed by human resilience, and believe in the ability of all people to thrive, not just exist."

This one I've always thought really cool Medicines Global. It's enough to make me want to take a backpacking trip to Nepal just to bring in needed medical supplies!

We've been eating just nothing great to post about...tonight we had taco's which are just about everyone's favorite.

Oh, and Scribbit is having a September write away contest. I can't wait to read all those entries! I'll need to learn to read faster though...so much to read and so little time!!! Off to my raspberries...

All is going well here, just feeling busy!

Please pray for this family. They are going through a heart wrenching tragedy.

Today in numbers

37 pints of peaches cooling on my counter top, plus three pints of jam.

3 jars broke while being processed (all were wide mouth is this common?)

13 sticky kitchen towels waiting to be washed.

2 soggy sticky potholders waiting to be washed.

Dinners put into the slow cooker this morning - ZERO! (We ate mac and cheese, peaches and frozen yogurt for dinner, LOL!)

60 minutes downstairs without tripping over kids.

Number of naps the baby took today: 1 (really it was quite short for her too.)

95 minutes putting the baby to sleep tonight - shared with hubby.

27 peaches left on my counter to make more jam.

6 layers of peaches in the freezer

Oh, seemingly one hundred times yelling, "Please get along today!"

2 kids that will get alot more of Mommy tomorrow than they did today!

8 sticky feet, 1 sticky floor and one tired Mommy!

Squeezy hugs

Today is one of those days that I can't help but go scoop my kids up and give them hugs and kisses a bit more frequently than usual. We remember while we keep living.

It didn't really help that my son awoke this morning telling about a dream where he was all alone in the house and couldn't find us. Hearing my son say, "I was looking for you Mommy and I couldn't find you anywhere" is just heart wrenching.

Still seven years later I, like a deer caught in on coming headlights, can't turn away. I have to dvr everything I find about it and so, CNN replaces PBS this morning as I clean up from breakfast and get ready to can peaches.

BTW, my friend that I mention in the link above who worked at the WTC is getting married on Saturday. Oh how I wish I were in NY for her special day - not to mention this is my favorite time of year back there!

I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER 9/11/01

Leftovers

Another thing I am learning (something I really already knew) on this 30 days of nothing (comparatively) project is how much our leftovers are getting put to good use. With our small family, most meals leave us with leftovers but we don't always make the most of them.

I have become less wasteful in other areas of my life but it seems like in this arena I still enjoyed leaving leftovers to become a science experiment. Well between not eating out for spontaneous dinners and sending Adam with lunch and snacks everyday it seems a lot less food is getting thrown in the trash. And my friends that is a very good thing!

Yesterday we picked peaches that cost us $25 and they are currently filling my kitchen with a heavenly aroma. The day before my grocery bill was about $25 and I think that should make us another week. Including that first $200 I spent we are at $250 on food even though the peaches will last us all winter once I spend the better part of tomorrow canning and freezing them.

Yesterday's meals: Cereal - it was a lazy morning! Lunch - (you guessed it) levtovers and grapes, Dinner - bbq steak, huge salad, rice. We did have 2 vegetarian dinners in a row and I have one more planned for tomorrow.

On today's menu: Breakfast - oatmeal with cut up peaches, Lunch - leftovers, Dinner - Cornish Game Hen (we skip the bacon), fried rice, and probably some kind of zucchini side and sliced peaches.

On Her Christmas List

Unsorted recycling.

Why do we have a million toys again???

Oh, and the plastic bags have been moved since this photo was taken!

Are we done yet??

With teething??? She only has two teeth and I am ready to be done! Isn't that terrible, I am compassionate, I feel bad that she is hurting but I didn't feel bad leaving her at the gym to be fussy for someone else while I taught pilates today. I'm pretty sure I've seen every hour of the night for the last two.

I am not trying to rush her babyhood away, I know too soon she'll be telling me that I need to call a friend's Mommy to ask if they can come to the park. When I answer that we are just riding bikes for a quick visit to the park and they won't have time to come with us he points out, "Mommy, they have cars."

Today we had muesli and fruit smoothies for breakfast, Adam had leftovers from last nights dinner and we had pb&j's and bananas for lunch. Dinner was veggie lasagna and sweet potatoes.

Before dinner I found myself secretly hoping that Adam would call and say we were going out to dinner tonight. We made it without going. I did go shopping after my class at noon with 2 hungry kids for bananas and grapes and a few other essentials. I deemed canning lids essential since we are going to get peaches and hopefully apples tomorrow. I also deemed some granola bars and it turns out $6 worth of carob chips essential. Looking back, I'm not so sure that was a need...but looking forward, it could be carob/chocolate sometimes keeps a Mom from going over the edge!

And for all of you holding your breath...

Penny is OUT! All is fine! Yippee!

As for this 30 days of nothing project, it has been wonderful and difficult this last week. I feel like I'm getting us back into a routine and it is SO very nice to know what is for dinner when (not that I 100% have stuck to the menu.) I tend to change my mind and rearranged some meals but it is so nice to have two weeks of meals to pick from and all the ingredients for each meal.

It is very nice not to be spending money every day! Since it is Sunday I'm going to share a few verses that are on my heart right now and call it a night! I think we may even watch a movie or something.

"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother." Deuteronomy 15:7 "But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish." Psalm 9:18

Meals:Breakfast- eggs, left over corn bread and plums. Lunch-leftover chili. Dinner- Stir fried veggies, bean threads and cantaloupe. It was so pretty and orange I had to take a picture, which as it turns out would have looked better if the flash was actually on!

A penny for your thoughts

Yesterday, (sigh) honestly, I felt like an incompetent parent but I rose above my feelings of inadequacy, conquered them if you will. Simply, I can only become the Mom I want to be through these moments - the ones where I don't know what the heck I'm supposed to do- these are the times when I am learning and growing into that Mom of my dreams. Right?!

Thursday night at dinner my son told us that while he was up in his room for a time out he "swallowed a coin down into his tummy." At this point he'd already eaten most of his dinner and was acting fine so I figured it was down safely and would just keep going.

My fury (kept tapped) began when I realized that he did this in his room ALONE, what if he had choked on it, he was in there for five minutes alone. At one point in the day I knew he had mentioned putting it in his pocket. Praise God for safe swallowing of said coin. At an after dinner coin line up the penny was picked out as the culprit.

Friday morning I changed my mind after he threw up. Dr said to come in that it could be blocking something. X-ray showed penny in pylorus, (where stomach enters into intestine) she conferred with a gastroenterologist on staff and he thought it would need to come out via a scope (I've seen them take many things out of dogs this way - you'd be amazed what they will eat. One golden retriever puppy kept eating socks so the family stopped wearing them one summer. - another Mom who couldn't get her kids to put the socks where they go!) Back on topic, I'm slightly freaked out about this being done to my son.

Talking with the Dr. she said that she had a call in to a pediatric gastroenterologist downtown and would confer with him. She came back in laughing because he said that in most cases even thought for now it seems like it's blocking it will go through.

My husband is still worried because tonight he was asking everyone we know if their kids have ever done anything like this but I'm convinced (still praying) it will go through.

As for nothing today that will be oh, probably about $200 -we have new insurance and I know we have a HUGE deductible so I think we will have to pay it all out of pocket. Oh, and his Dr wants to have follow up films done in two weeks to double check that it goes. Since we don't want to do that (more $ and more radiation for both of us to be exposed to) we will be watching and waiting for a penny to go kurplunk.

Fun times oh yeah, fun fun times!

Today's meals: Breakfast - oatmeal with blueberries, Lunch - bananas, carrot sticks, leftovers, Dinner - Chili, GF corn bread, zucchini

Spoiled Rotten

Today was the third day in a row I only left the house to take my son on a bike ride or to the park. The weather has been gorgeous so I'm grateful that we have had so many opportunities outdoors. I am excited about getting out to the bank, post office and to teach a pilates class tomorrow - combining errands plus a bit of adult conversation to boot!

Todays Meals

Breakfast:Smoothie and meusli

Lunch:Leftovers from last nights dinner Dinner:Falafels, baked potatoes, cantaloupe, garden salad

Dinner conversation consisted of how spoiled we are to have cravings for different types of food and act on them at will. We thought for a long while about people from other parts of the world, especially the third world where they grow one type of grain and eat it all year long. And that's if they are lucky enough to have grown enough to last the whole year!

It is Wednsesday

Not that's it's wordless but I love having a baby that naps!!!

On the menu today:Breakfast: Gluten freed blueberry waffles and eggs, Lunch:pb&j on waffles and chicken salad, Dinner:BBQ a la hubby, broccoli, fried rice.

Oddly enough this was my first time ever making fried rice and let me tell you it was a big hit. Joy your comment on my dinner notes from yesterday is right on! If I can extend the life of my pantry and not discard leftovers because we are sick of the same old thing my grocery bill will go down and we will be wasting less. Plus the leftover rice we all have been sick of since Saturday is now in our tummies which also satisfied another thing my hubby and I love.

We adore ethnic food. I would say 9 times out of ten when we go out to eat it is for sushi, greek, chinese, thai or some other type of food. I recently started making gyros and falafel but I'm realizing that maybe I need to start finding other ethnic recipes that we like so that by making them ourselves we can decrease those last minute, "I feel like dolmas tonight" or whatever the food of the moment is.

House arrest ;)

Well, yesterday is over and today is going much better. My hubby has today and tomorrow off so it was nice to have a very relaxing day. It's amazing how much less stress there is when I have a menu prepared!

We walked/rode to the park and Adam and I had a nice chat while one kid played and the other slept. We discussed many things but the topic kept coming back to what's the fastest and best way to get rid of our debt and start saving. Everthing from doing nothing and paying it down slowly, to selling my car and selling our house are all viable options. It just depends on how quickly we'd like to be done with it and further discussion will ensure I'm sure.

I really wasn't judging my negatives yesterday, I was mindful about the spending and mistakes are bound to happen, it's just that it was on the very first day! Today, I've hung laundry out on the line, made powdered laundry detergent and we used no gas! Oh, and my husband told me on our walk that we could replace our dishwasher for $159 as they are on sale now. It would be the same not so great model we currently have and I hit him on the arm because that would be a good chunk of the money we could potentially save this month. He said he didn't want to buy it now either I guess it's nice to know just how much I'm saving us by getting dishpan hands every day.

On the menu today was:Breakfast:Fruit and gluten free banana muffins Lunch:leftovers and peanut butter on muffins Dinner: Due to a snafu in my menu and memory (I thought there was a roast in the freezer but I must have used it) roasted red potatoes, leftover pasta mixed with lots of tomatoes and cucs from the garden to make a pasta salad and a large garden salad with leftover zucchini and chicken. It worked and used up all our leftovers.

Positive and Negative

As I sit here, the overwhelming feeling is that we failed today on the 30 day challenge. It's not the best feeling on the first official day! I'll start with the negative and work toward the positive.

I sent my husband with lunch this morning forgetting that he was working a twelve hour day. Usually on these days I pack extra snacks or one and a half sandwiches so he can have a snack at 5 o'clock or so. I didn't even give him any snacks today at all so he spent $8 on a sandwich for dinner - ugh.

I was in the neighborhood of my favorite kids thrift store and they were having a sale. Generally we accept any hand me downs for our kids and I buy what I can used both to save the expense and to reuse perfectly good items. So I spent $11 buying my son 4 sets of pj's for this winter, long underwear and 3 pair of pants. I could have waited until October to do this but it would have cost me probably $4-5 dollars more so it was worth it to me to do it today. I'm counting this as a neutral since it still saved me money. I plan to take some items in the next time I'm in the area and they give cash or store credit for used items so I'll just get the cash, enough hopefully to wash this expense.

I planned two weeks of meals and have a loose idea of the other two so I did a large grocery shop today for $200 and I have just about all of the main dishes we will need for the month. I will probably have to go back for fresh fruits but our garden should provide much of the veggies. Included in the $200 was a $20 vat of olive oil - the cheapest per pint and this will last much longer than just September.

I used up the very last drop of laundry detergent this morning and put that on my list too. Since I have made this before I looked in the cabinet and saw that I have enough ingredients to make another batch which should last us through the month.

The shopping trip seems like a lot since Mary's goal is $200 for a family 3 times the size of ours. For us though I'm aiming for about $300 or so for the month which should be doable.

It seems like I'm over analyzing everything but I think that is the point. As I looked at my cart checking out of the store I realized that there is NO way this experiment is really going to let me know what it feels like to actually live with nothing. It will show me how to live with less, still by the world's standards a bounty!

Breakthough

The weather was cooler today with a nice breeze and after spending the last two afternoons at our local water park this afternoon my son came in asking for a sweatshirt. What a relief to have an afternoon with nothing planned but productivity.

There were those dishes again, laundry, folding all those mountains and then the putting it away and cleaning a bathroom in between. Usually the putting away is my downfall but this afternoon the kids and I played dress up and put away laundry we were cowboys, superheros and prince and princesses. It was great.

There was also lots of singing and craziness and time for me to choreograph an entire dance to my new favorite song Natalie Grant - I Will Not Be Moved. It was so relaxing and wonderful if housework could be considered that.

Somewhere along the day I realized that I used to have way more days like this and somewhere along the way they became more and more scarce. Suddenly, filled with grief I realized that it was nearly two years ago when we lost our pregnancy that less and less days began to let music and laughter fill these walls.

I can be passive aggressive about dealing with life issues and I think it's hard to let go of the grief. Sometimes it's easier to hold on to things even if they are painful than to relinquish them knowing they will not be forgotten but tucked away with love. And that is what I have done.

With the memories tucked away in my heart I then had to fight the urge not to call my hubby and ask if he wanted to go out for sushi. This is the last night before the 30 days of nothing starts and I felt like one last hurrah. But what good would that do?

It's amazing how I'm telling myself we can't do something for a month and the urge to do it greatly overtakes all else. I also wanted to go buy some storage bins yesterday and Adam was like don't you think we have something you can use is it really necessary. This was a first, he's never EVER been the stingy one...so basically we are fighting the urge to have these wonderful luxuries while someone is making $2 a day in China or other parts of the world or even nothing at all. Hmmmm.

I'm determined to get organized

Anyone out there have a good way to utilize the space on the top shelf of our master closet? We need the space to be more usable other than just throwing stuff up there that doesn't get used much so I'm hoping someone more organized than I will have a fabulous idea?!?

Oh, and I wrote about Nothing. yesterday and bloglines didn't pick it up if you want to check it out!

Nothing.

Mary at Owlhaven is giving us something to think about again with the 30 Days of Nothing experiment. Two years ago I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the bloggers participating and we "sort of silently" played along, but it definitely got us talking and thinking. This year we're in and I'll be blogging about our experience.

With our diet constraints I normally don't buy many prepackaged items but lately I have been buying some gluten free granola bars and cereals. My goal is to once again make much more from scratch and use these 30 days to budget better. With my husband out of work for a chunk of this year we are still under that debt which we want to pay down as quickly as possible.

Another goal for the month will be to get in the habit of menu planning as well as having a loose weekly family schedule of activities. With a one and four year old we don't have many, still it is sure make our household run more smoothly if we know which nights Adam is going to workout or when a trip to the library will fit in.

One of my downfalls is forgetting to take something out of the freezer for dinner or procrastinating and we end up going out. There will be NO take out or restaurant meals this month. Adam usually eats out for two lunches so that will be drastically cut down if not eradicated as well. I know how much easier life is with meals planned it's just a matter of doing it - so I am!

I also can't wait to link to some of my favorite non profit organizations. Talking about them during the month will help me focus on the goal of being able to have more money left over to give to others.

Discussing and answering the hard questions, this is the great stuff. As a stay at home mom it is nice to get outside of my little routine and focus on the bigger picture of life. In the end we'll be using some of our extra cash this month for (in some minuscule way) the betterment of humanity as well as paying down our debt more quickly.

You can keep track of the other participants at Owlhaven with me in September.

Dear neighbors,

I have had good intentions (the best really) of weeding my front flower beds this summer. But intentions just don't mean squat when everything else takes priority (the garden in the back that yields food!).

Please accept this simple and sincere apology for our overgrown weedy beds. I have begun to clean them out but give me some time, I have two small kids who need me but I should have the bulk of it done in the next few days. Hopefully next year we'll do better so that the sending of another nasty note from the HOA won't be necessary!

With sincere apologies,

Heidi aka Butterfly Mama

From serious to silly

So I'm going to start with something terrible. These cluster bomb things are absolutely inhumane what part of war is humane actually but anyway. You can sign The Peoples Treaty to help them become a thing of the past, it might not be a bad idea to let your public officials know how you feel as well. Just a thought.

* * * * * * * * * *

We've had a wonderfully spontaneous day today. Remember when I mentioned that sponteneaity was lacking in my Mommy life? Well today after running an errand this morning Adam walks in asking me what I have planned for the day. After me saying laundry, dishes, yadda yadda, he asked if I wanted to take a drive up to the mountains with the kids, do some hiking and just chill. Hello, a yes...

See driving has always just been our thing. It has always been, it started after our very first argument and became something we used to do to get out of the house at night pre kiddos. It was the most fun in his trans am with the T tops down and the heat on in the San Diego winter (if you can call it that!)

We end up talking about stuff that doesn't get brought up at home with many distractions. It was a fun day to eat up a half a tank of gas (cringe) and well worth it.

The proof is in the pictures...

My son insisted on bringing his back pack (oh how I hate to admit he was calling it rescue pack, lest you know just how much Diego we are watching currently!) with his binoculars and other essentials on our little hikes.

* * * * * * * * * *

And now for some silliness, I've started using facebook (not that I really have a clue what I'm doing yet) and really like I needed something else to suck time during the evenings but I immediately found my sister and cousin and some other friends and it seems curious. The thing I find amusing is that facebook is very nosy, he seems to tell me what any of my friends are doing and who they are talking to - it all seems sort of well, at the risk of being redundant amusingly silly. Now to figure out twitter...it seems that I'm just not technical for all these things but so many others find it fun so maybe I'll get on the band wagon too. Maybe.