Frugal Fun: Yogurt Containers

So my friend Kjerste does these Frugal Friday posts on her blog and I've tried quite a few of them and I really enjoy her tricks and secrets to keeping things, well, frugal. Today, I have a tip of my own to add. It's simple, really, and not even photo worthy.

Let me first ask a question.

Do you eat yogurt? Out of those big containers? And then throw them away?!

STOP!!!

Save the containers and use them to freeze soups, stews, chili and, well, you get the idea. It's the perfect portion for 2 people and then you're not stuck staining your Tupperware or using your Tupperware when you really need it for immediate leftovers!

I got the idea from a seasoned mom and I about kicked myself for not thinking of it first! So go and rummage through your trash and get the yogurt container you threw away this morning and stick it in the dishwasher. It'll clean up like new and you'll have perfect portioned soups saved up for those nights when you just aren't feeling the cooking thing.

Heart Warming

Last night after dinner, we played "High and Low", a game if you will where we relate our high of the day and our low of the day. Scot was actually home, so he got to 'play' too. When it came to be Evan's turn (we just have him say his 'high'), his answer was "Daddy!". Scot didn't believe him but I did. His typical answer is "Go park" or "Play Colin" or recently the answer was "Target" (that was my high for that day, too, I think). So to prove Scot wrong I asked Evan, "Your favorite part of the day was daddy?"

His reply: "Yes! Daddy home!"

Ahh...it just warmed our hearts. Scot's especially.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch today because when Evan woke up from his nap it wasn't raining, and I have no idea when it's supposed to be sunny again, so I took hold of the opportunity and got the boys into the car and drove down beautiful fall colored lanes to this little fruit farm that also happened to have a pumpkin patch. It was just what I was looking for and I was able to get some great shots. The rest of the shots are here(you'll have to go to the last of the pictures in the album), but just as a teaser, I'll give you my top 3. Needless to say -- we had a blast!

Oh my!

Has it really been over a week since my last post?! And I'm not out of state?! Oops!

For starters, I just have to share a cute and touching conversation that Evan I had on Monday.

Me: (right after asking him his catechism questions) Ok. What else did God make besides you?
E: Boys.
Me: Yes! God made boys. And girls. And Adam! (me quickly remembering his Sunday School lesson on Adam and Eve)
E: God sad.
Me: God was sad? (very confused)
E: God sad Adam.
Me: Oh yes, God was sad at Adam and Eve, wasn't He? They disobeyed God didn't they?
E: Spanking. (looking very distraught)
Me: No, God didn't give them a spanking, but He did kick them out of the garden for disobeying, didn't He?
E: God sad. Spanking.

It's just so neat to see him putting things together like that. I love it!

I have discovered, quite by accident mind you, that Drew can eat bread, and cheerios, and strawberries, and actually does quite a good job of gumming them to death. Thank you older brother Evan for being such a good sharer!

I am really looking forward to starting to consistently post on the food blog again! I've found quite a few new recipes I'm excited to try out. Especially the pumpkin ones! Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin/apple bread, Amish pumpkin cake...oh yes, I love pumpkin!

We're getting out last park days in before the weather really keeps us in for good. Today we went to a fabulous park ( that will be really scary when I have 2 mobile children!) that is essentially a sprawling little child sized village with tons of stuff to climb on, a few different little play grounds, a sand pit, lots of "walk ways", and of course slides (which had water on them today!). Joining us were friends from church and we all had a blast.

A little glimpse of only part of the village...see what I mean about being scared with 2 mobile children?!


Swinging with Miss Emma


Oh yes, water at the end of the slide. You know what that means!


Yup! A wet butt!


Drew was pretty set in the Baby "Yorn" (as Evan calls it)


Emma, Evan, and Blaire - quite the little bunch!

"Tell a Story" Tuesday

Every once in a while I'll be doing these little blog posts along with "Top Ten Tuesday", "Wordless Wednesday", and "Thankful Thursday".

Why?

Well, just because it's fun!

Prince Evan in the Kitchen

Once upon a time, the Queen of the kitchen came into her domain to find a small intruder. Her son. Prince Evan had managed to get into her drawer of magical tools and was pocketing them for his own pleasure.

When the Queen of the kitchen asked Prince Evan if he would like to use the magical tools properly, he smiled and gladly assented.


The magical tools left him a little dusty - as did the process of mixing the flour.

He helped the Queen of the kitchen roll out some dough for her scrumptious pie crust.

And when it came time to make the cake, he wanted to try some of the special white granular substance, "Please?" he asked.

With a yes, he dug his hand into the sugar bowl before I - I mean the Queen of the Kitchen - could stop him.

Prince Evan then stuck both his white coated fingers into his mouth to enjoy a small reward for his hard work.

But then the Queen of the kitchen let the little Prince lick the beaters from the cake they had just made together. He was in kitchen heaven!

A pie crust and a cake mean a lot of dirty dishes. The hired help was out that night, so Prince Evan had to give the Queen of the kitchen a helping hand. Which he's good at. (Please know that he got those gloves on all by himself!)

The End.

Chagrin Falls, OH

I've had a pretty hard time enjoying the Cleveland area. I'm trying to be more positive about it all, seeing the stars and not the mud. The autumns here are spectacular. I miss the yellowing Aspens, but the reds, oranges, and yellows put the Aspens to shame. Doesn't quite compare with the Aspens on mountains, but...

Today we decided to take a trip to Chagrin Falls, about 30 minutes from here. I convinced Scot to study on Friday night instead of taking his hour or so with us, and to study Saturday night instead of hanging with us, all in exchange for an entire Saturday morning, spent like a "typical" family.

Thankfully, he took my bargain.

We headed out this morning with a picnic lunch packed and a beautiful day ahead of us. Blue skies with no humidity (yay!), changing leaves, and the entire family together. We walked into quaint shops, fed some geese, played at a little park, had a picnic and made a stop at our favorite ice cream shop. All in all, a fantastic morning out!!

(Since he wouldn't look in the family photo, we had to get one of just his little face)

Playing Together

Ever since we found out we were pregnant, and then when we found out Drew was a boy, Scot and I have had grand dreams of the boys playing together. Building forts, going on treasure hunts, racing cars (the Hotwheels kind) and in general, just being best buds. We know full well they will have their moments and days, but we pray that they will, above all, be a friend to the other one.

Until the other day, Drew was just too little to play with Evan. Evan would try, poor guy, to play with Drew, but it just never worked out.

Until Wednesday.

Drew has fully conquered sitting within the last month and his new favorite toy is the little Playskool Piano. I can sit him in front of it and he'll just bang away for quite some time. On Wednesday, though, Evan decided to 'play along'. And then, sing along, too. Drew loved having his brother play with him, and Evan loved not being shooed away, and not making his brother cry (therefore spoiling his play). I didn't have the video camera handing, but I did, thankfully, have the camera.

6 Months!

Yes, it's that time again!! Drew-boy is now 6 months old! Along with shots from the doctor, we received these numbers: 17.5 lbs (50th) and 27 in (75th). Seems he's slowing down just a tad on the weight gain (thank goodness!) but continuing on in the height department!

His newest favorites are army crawling to whatever Evan is playing with and sitting banging along on the little playskool piano I have (pictures later!) for them. He laughs at the slightest thing and is loving being on solids.

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, go here!

Tid Bits

I've been anxiously anticipating this day. The day when Evan came up to me with Sunday School papers, a memory verse to work on, and an art project. The 2 & 3's are going over Gen 1:1 and learning about all the things the Lord made. This is Evan's art work showing some of these things.


My little Mr. Imagination. He came up to me yesterday saying "Monkey play toy! Monkey play toy!" So I had him sit down and show Monkey how to take a nice picture with their prospective toys. You can kind of see Monkey's little orange dog toy.


This morning Evan pulled his pants up. Way up! It was too funny.


Our friends Jack and Jamie told us about this Fall Funfest that we all went this past weekend. We all had fun and us moms took a nice little drive to the zoo with our wonderful tour guides, Colin and Evan!

Other verbal tid bits:

While driving on the freeway home from church:

E: Go fast, mommy, go fast!
Me: Yes, buddy, we are going fast, aren't we?
E: MOOOORE fast, mommy! Go MOOOORE fast!!

***

In this world where we are constantly surrounded by instant gratification (a soap box I like to sometimes stand on), I try my hardest to instill in the boys a sense of patience. Recently the phrase in the house has been "wait your turn -- be patient."

So on Saturday afternoon I just had to run to the local market to get two - yes, two - items. SO there I am after taking four minutes to get the two items, and all eleven lines are full. With at least seven people each. And there I was, two kids, two items, and no one was letting me through to the front like I have done countless times. (Can you tell I'm a little frustrated? Still.) Obviously, maybe, Evan picked up the frustration and with his sweet little face and big eyes looked up at me from his place in the front of the cart, and said, "Wait turn, mommy?"

Yes Evan (and God), I'm working on being patient, too.

***

Evan is learning about what the colors on the traffic lights mean. He'll be heard saying "Green. Go!" (typically with 'fast somewhere in there, too) Or. "Red, Stop!" I was making a right on red the other day and his freaked out little voice pipes up from the back: "RED STOP!! RED STOP! NO GO, MOMMY!!"

***

Drew is at the age where Evan can make a face and he'll laugh hysterically at it. This happened for the first time the other day in the car and it was a pure delight to hear my boys laughing at each other from their car seats. It put a smile on my face and in my heart.

Our New Additions!

Still the same boy, but what he's sitting in is the newbie! Since our kitchen is so narrow (galley) and this is where we eat most of our meals (Scot's only made it home for dinner a handful of times since he started residency and it seems silly to use the dining room for just the boys and me), I was having some difficulty figuring out how we were going to feed Drew without strapping the booster/highchair to a dining room chair and bringing it into the kitchen for every meal. It obviously didn't fit on the bench. The Bumbo worked for a while, but the little guy can arch his way out it -- really, since when is feeding your kid in a Bumbo on a table really safe?

So I hopped on Craigslist.

I mean, really, what other choice did I have? I wasn't going to hold him and feed each time he needed food. That's 3 times a day now, too! And I wasn't about to go pay mega bucks on a solution.

After I hopped on, I found this clip on chair and was hooked -- no pun intended. (I got the idea from a friend's house, so I knew what I was looking for). Brand new, still in the box, for half the price. We love it! Not only will we be able to take it places, but it makes feeding at the table sooo much easier now. The bonus? Drew loves it and is content to just sit and play if I need him to!




Curtain set #1 - a lighter brown fabric (sateen, although you can't tell) with a brown/cream/green/red paisley design for the ruffle. These are in the main/big room -- living room, really -- and above the fireplace.

I made them. Yes I did indeed. It was a lot of planning and prep, but I did it. And the house now feels more like a home. It gave it that much needed finishing touch.

Scot and I are still trying to live quite meagerly - thank you, loans - and when I started thinking about curtains (and researching the prices for insulated ones) I just knew I could make something that looked descent and would save us a ton of money.

So I thought and I thought and then I called my ever so crafty mother to get her take on things. Genius that she is she had a solution to my problem. You see, I wanted insulated curtains since the windows in this house are older than I am and do nothing for keeping the house warm/cold when you need it to be. (I have a lot of other tricks up my sleeve besides just the curtains, don't worry! Maybe that'll be a whole blog post in itself...) So we figured out that the best way to buy fabric was to actually buy higher thread count sheets (400-500) and use heavy duty shower curtains for the liners! So that's what I'm doing. Did.

I found both the sheets and the shower curtains on sale. With the ruffle fabric and other odds and ends thrown in, the entire project is costing less than $100! It's just a lot of time. But for 9 windows (5 normal, 2 large, 2 small) to be insulated - it's totally worth it!

And yes. That means that you are looking at redesigned sheets. I kind of felt like Marie in The Sound of Music when she takes the curtains and makes them into clothes. Just not as talented since I wouldn't know the first thing about taking bolts of fabric and actually making something wearable out of them.

And no. I haven't put the 'insulation' on them yet (hence the reason why you can see the light). I wanted to make sure they hung right and such so I could do any necessary fixes before I added that all in.

This is curtain set #2. They are for the dining room and kitchen area. A darker fabric, but still the same ruffle! They match my redone seat cushions, too! I'm also working on tie-backs for them.



An elliptical! Scot and I both enjoy working out. He actually enjoys running where I would much rather walk or...get on one of these things. The truth is, though, that with his schedule he either has time to get ready to go for a run, or go for a run, but not both. And with 2 little boys and the snows I've only heard about, we don't quite have the money for a new wardrobe if I stop exercising. And a gym membership is out of the question for us. Not only the money, but the time to drive there and back, get kids situated with a sitter or in the gym sitter-center (if they're not sick) and all that hassle...and for what? For me to get on an elliptical, that's what.

So we figured that it was actually better in the long run to get an elliptical up front and have it to use for the nasty cold weather (that's already starting and will last until May!) than it was to waste a gym membership and still have to buy a new wardrobe.

So again. I hopped on craigslist. I've actually been looking for a while. I found this practically brand new (bought at the beginning of summer and was never used) elliptical for over half off the original price. The best part is that it's exactly what I was looking for! Seriously. Not the brand necessarily (although it's a good one), but the fact that it has handles that move and a pair that don't. It's not a stair stepper kind. It has different settings and resistance.

Ahh...skinny jeans that I just almost fit into -- here I come!!



So those are the new additions to our home.

Now to not spend any more 'extra' money for a few months...