I have a confession to make. About 7 years ago, I was a member of a Christian women's forum. It was a great place to meet friends with like-minds and to discuss our faith. As anyone who has been a forum member may know...there tend to be pet peeves or minor irritations...personality conflicts, faith and belief clashes, etc. My biggest...let's say pet peeve was the moms that I considered "crunchy granola." These were the co-sleepers, the ones who nursed until their kids were 3 or 4, who made everything from scratch, couldn't imagine working outside the home and who, as a rule, also home schooled their children. As a working mom of four, I scoffed at that way of life. **clearing throat** So imagine my chagrin to see how wrong I was. Admittedly, if I were going to have another baby, I don't think co-sleeping or nursing so long is for me, and I don't feel qualified to home school but making everything from scratch? Not working outside of the home? Guilty as charged...and loving every second of it!
This shelf is the beginning of my obsession with homemade beauty products. The jar on the left is my nightly face scrub. I got the recipe here and I love the way my face feels after I wash it. The bottle next to it holds my facial toner and this I use twice a day. It costs me so little to make both of these items and they work just as well as anything I've ever bought in the store. The jar on right is my body butter which is just coconut butter that I've whipped and added some essential oils to. I also have homemade face wash that I use every morning when I shower. It is a bit more runny than I would prefer but I'll keep searching until I find the right recipe. In addition, my baby girl & I do a homemade spa night every few weekends. We use herbs like mint & eucalyptus for steam treatments and then give ourselves a mask that is made of 2 tablespoons of my homemade yogurt, one tablespoon of honey and one teaspoon of lemon juice. Thanks to Pinterest, I have a ton of recipes to choose from in my hunt to become somewhat crunchy.
It seems like ages since I've posted anything about how we're doing on our grocery budget in conjunction with going more homemade. My original goal was to grocery shop once a month and get our budget down to $400 for the whole month. The monthly shopping hasn't really worked out for us, mainly because we go through so much milk and eggs that I was still going to the store every other week no matter what. Plus, I get tired out very easily and a full month worth of shopping at once is exhausting to me. So we're back to the bi-weekly shopping and we're doing pretty good at keeping to the budget.
The past few months have been trial and error on homemade items. Some are actually more expensive to make than to buy, while others have been great savers for us. Some of the flops include homemade shells & cheese, taco seasoning and fabric softener. My biggest money saver is the homemade laundry detergent. It costs me approximately $0.35 for a gallon and it does a great job cleaning our clothes. The recipe for it is here. Other big savers are pizza dough, pancake mix, homemade granola & granola bars, instant oatmeal, English muffin bread, and pasta & pizza sauce. I also extend our milk spending by buying 1% and when each gallon is half empty, filling the rest up with powdered milk. We normally drink 1/2% here so no one ever notices a taste difference.
I am constantly on the look out for new recipes and things to try in order to add to our homemade life. I picked up this great book up on my Nook from our library called The Homemade Pantry. It has some great recipes and has inspired me to attempt to do my own pickles and cheese. We'll see how those work out as I tackle them in the future.
One of the most nerve wracking aspects of Sjogren's Syndrome is that there is no predicting when the symptoms will strike and how bad they will be. I woke up in the middle of the night last night shivering and feeling horrible. I had a fever, my head was pounding and my neck hurt. I was still able to bend my chin to my chest but it was painful. Hubby hopped right out of bed and made a mad dash for the medicine cabinet (which is quite well stocked in our house) to get me the Prednisone. This has definitely been my worst "attack" since I was hospitalized in April and my poor husband is a wreck. I woke up feeling a bit better this morning (the joys of steroids) and my temperature is back to normal but I am completely wiped out. Purely exhausted and there is no energy or motivation to be had. This makes me so thankful that I am able to stay at home. No boss to get angry if I call in sick...the worst that will happen is that the daily cleaning & laundry may not get done. I am so blessed to have a supportive husband and great kids who will pitch in and help out when I'm laid low by my SJS.
Now on to updates on monthly grocery shopping and the homemade journey. On Monday I attempted to make a few loaves of bread for use in French toast and sandwiches. The texture was wonderful but I'm going to have to get used to the fact that the homemade stuff isn't going to be the same size & shape as the store bought stuff. Does anyone have any suggestions on getting it to turn out more like the store bought stuff?
The rest of this week will be relatively easy on the homemade front. Today I will whip up my first batch of homemade laundry detergent. Tomorrow I need to make some buns for the hearty Italian sandwiches I will be making for dinner. Friday I will do the next week's desserts...I'm thinking homemade Thin Mint cookies. Num!
Here are a few of the crafty projects I've undertaken recently.
Mason Jar Mummy
This was a super easy project that simply required Modge Podge, a mason jar, sterile medical gauze and googly eyes. I have a LED tea light in the jar.
Thankful pumpkins
I still think these would have looked better with white pumpkins but I couldn't find darker letters.
And finally, Aidan's winter scarf for this year
Oh and a grocery shopping update: I didn't plan well enough in regards to shredded cheese & peppers so when I make my run tomorrow for milk and eggs (in the last week & a half we've gone through 4 1/2 gallons of milk and almost 34 eggs!) I will have to pick some up. It'll be another $30 added to my grocery bill for the month but still much better than the $600 I would have normally spent in the past!
For those of you who don't know me or are just joining me on my blogging journey, I get meningitis. Too much. Well actually, once is more than enough don't you think? Anyway, it started in early December of last year when I spent four days off work, at home and miserably sick. Fevers, vomiting, and piercing headaches. My doctor's PA said it couldn't be meningitis because I was still able to bend my neck. Of course, she didn't realize how atypical I am...a medical oddity if you will. Less than two weeks later, I was rushed to the hospital via ambulance due to a high fever, vomiting, blinding headache and "shigors" (extreme shaking rigors from the fever). At that point, I most definitely could not bend my neck. Within hours, I lost all capability of speech and eventually I lost consciousness and didn't regain it until two days later. All of the tests turned up negative (see above comment on medical oddities) and I was sent home on ten days of very strong antibiotics. I was hospitalized again two days later for three days and then a few days after that for another seven due to complications of the illness/treatment/tests. Finally, all seemed clear. Until January 22nd that is when the fever, vomiting, shigors and headache started up again. Another week in the hospital with a whole bunch of nothing on the test results. Thankfully I saw my Rheumatologist for a regular check up in February and once he heard about my odd cases of meningitis, he realized that I was experiencing a very rare symptom of my disease, Sjogren's Syndrome (SJS). Apparently meningitis without infection can plague people suffering from SJS but it is extremely rare and therefore none of the doctors treating me at the hospital recognized it. My Rheumy put me on a new medication that was meant to keep the SJS in remission and lower the symptoms (in addition to the meningitis, I have very dry eyes and mouth along with parotid glands that swell and shooting pains in my nerves due to neuropathy). Minus the side effects of the drugs, all seemed well until April 1st when I landed back in ICU with another bout of meningitis. He put me on a new medication. An anti-rejection drug that organ transplant patients use in order to trick their body into not rejecting the new organ. In my case, it's supposed to suppress my immune system so that it stops attacking my body which is what causes all of my fun symptoms. Since I've been on the Cellcept, I have had at least four occasions where the meningitis symptoms have started. Thankfully, I have a standing steroid prescription and within 24 hours of taking them, the symptoms begin to go away. That being said, no one likes taking steroids. Especially not in the doses I have to take them in, as well the fact that I have to take them for long periods of time to wean my body off of them.
I went in to see my Rheumy yesterday for my check up (these have been every month to two months since my SJS symptoms have gotten out of control) and he has increased my Cellcept dosage to 2000 mg (I am currently on 1000 mg) a day. Ugh...lovely side effects are coming my way! I have a standing order for blood work because of course, drugs like steroids and Cellcept can wreak havoc on your body. Due to my SJS, my white blood cell count (and therefore my immune system) is already naturally lower than a normal persons. Right now it's hovering at 3.75 but if it hits 2.5 we are in the danger zone. This increase in Cellcept will likely lower it even more. If this dosage doesn't work, he will move me to Imuran which is another drug similar to Cellcept. I have only two more oral medication options before we move to an IV drug that is similar to chemo (on the bright side, that would give me the excuse to shave my head again!).
There are days where I don't think about my medical ailments at all. There are times where I freely enjoy life without any symptoms hindering me. But then there are times where I will have tooth pain, or limited vision due to my dry eyes, or swollen & painful joints and I will think....WHY ME? This morning, my devotional was spot on though and it is something I will write down to keep in mind always. "God can remove our illnesses and change our circumstances in an instant-the moment they are no longer needed for His divine purposes. Until then, or until He takes us home, we can rest in the fact that our illnesses are part of His good purpose for our lives. God truly uses all things." AMEN! He uses our health and our circumstances, whether good or bad, for His glory. Who am I to argue with that?
Enough of my medical drama....on to the homemade stuff! Yesterday I attempted to make homemade yogurt in my slow cooker. I also made cinnamon toast crunch cupcakes. When you have been on a roll of a lot of new recipes turning out great, it's always such a downer to have a few flops. Or learning opportunities..... The cupcakes turned out great...but when it came time to decorate them, the frustration began. It was suggested that the frosting be piped on. I have zero artistic skill and have never attempted to use decorating bags and tips. The first cupcake turned out ok:
But after that point, the frosting wouldn't come out of the bag. I've come to the conclusion that the crushed pieces of cereal clogged the tip and I ended up frosting the rest in the plain old fashioned way I normally frost items.
As for the yogurt....once it was done it was definitely yogurt and thick enough, until I added maple & vanilla to the batch. It started to thin and got even thinner when I blended some with strawberry for hubby's lunch. I'm going to research other recipes today and see if I can find a work around to this. No one in my house will eat plain yogurt..it only gets used for cooking. So I definitely need to be able to create vanilla and a few other flavors of yogurt that does NOT have the consistency of milk. Any suggestions????
Kidism for the day: Hubby & I recently talked to the kids about finances. We explained that since I am no longer working, our budget would look and feel very different than before. We asked them to be understanding as well as helpful in coming up with money saving ideas. Later that evening, I found our letters notebook (see this post about a notebook my daughter & I use to write letters to each other) under my pillow. My baby girl had tucked in $2 with a note that said "I have been saving this money for us. Please don't give it back, you need it more than I do." It can be said that I will cry at the drop of the hat, so it should be no surprise that Ani's little note brought me to tears. My daughter is so generous and giving. This is a memory I will forever cherish.
Yep, that's what my BFF (and yes, I still call her that..or bestie...how old am I?) has started calling me. She is convinced that I have gone over to the domestic dark side. Don't think she won't use this domesticity to her advantage though. She has issued a challenge that I just had to accept to create baby chicks out of deviled eggs like so....
It is highly coincidental (nudge nudge) that my nephew's birthday party is this coming weekend and said nephew just happens to adore deviled eggs. Yep uh huh....
Enough of that...I will post pictures (if it turns out!) once I create the baby chicks.
Life has been busy here in the Chase home. We had our full family together this weekend which always involves lots of cooking and dishes as well as laughs and good times. I took all the kids to see Finding Nemo in 3D. We all love that movie and most of us can quote it by heart("I will call him Squishy and he shall be mine. He shall be my Squishy.") It was neat seeing it on the big screen but it definitely was not worth the 3D ticket prices for 3D. After that, we all watched Snow White and the Huntsman which is one of my new faves.
In my homemade adventures I made my own taco seasoning, baked some delicious and ridiculously easy crusty bread (recipe here), and made my husband some peppermint mocha coffee creamer (he is addicted to the York creamer). This week is also our first attempt at doing our grocery shopping only once a month in order to be better stewards of God's money. It feels like I spent all morning shopping and I still have two more stops to make tomorrow. On the other hand, it'll be great to not to have to go to the store two or three times a week. I will still need to get milk but only once a week or so. We tend to go through about three gallons here a week and it would be impossible to store it for an entire month. I will share tomorrow about all my finds and how close I stayed to my budget.
And on a completely unrelated note.....Aidan & I had a conversation about college today. On our way to his PT session, we saw a city bus dropping off several students at one of the downtown campuses for GVSU. Aidan asked me if it would make me happy to have him go to a local college. Of course!!!!! He then proceeded to ask how far away GVSU was because he wanted to make sure it wasn't too far of a drive for me to drop him off at class everyday! LOL I find it absolutely adorable that my pre-teen boy thinks I will be driving him to class when he's in college.
My Monday started out way too early as my boy had a physical therapy evaluation scheduled for 7:30. That appointment only served to further busy my week by adding twice weekly PT sessions for Aidan for the time being. From there it was dropping the boy off to school and seeing the hubby off to work. I spent my morning cleaning and working towards my goal of a homemade pantry, and spent my early afternoon painting our deck.
My first steps toward stocking a more homemade pantry were a pancake mix, homemade instant cinnamon roll oatmeal, sprinkle muffins & pumpkin muffins (a good substitute to Hostess cupcakes in kids lunches!).
My ingredients:
The pancake mix that should hopefully last me at least a month:
I found the recipe for the pancake mix here
The rest of my goodies from this morning:
I bagged hubby's cinnamon roll oatmeal in portions in snack baggies, that way he doesn't have to worry about measuring things out in the mornings.
I was just forewarned that Aidan's buddy J & his lil bro are planning on joining us again for dinner so I'm off to make sure there is enough food for everyone!
In the past week or so, I've read a few different blog posts about how these two families do amazing things with their grocery budgets. One family, with six members, only spends $200 a month on groceries! HA! I had to read her "how to" blog twice to make sure I read it right. We have a family of four + two (one weekend a month, a week at Christmas, February, Spring break and two weeks a month in the summer) and we spend way more than that. Try $350-$400 more a month. Seriously. Now I must admit, part of that is my own fault. I make a budget but it's pretty......fluid...if you know what I mean.
That being said, hubby & I have talked and agreed to try to cut our grocery budget. One of the things our Pastor talked about this morning at church was stewardship of the gifts God gives us. I am a far cry from the horrible spender I was in my early 20's, but I'm far from where I should be in my stewardship. It's time to change that and I know it can be done. "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13
Some of the tips I picked up in my recent blog surfing makes me want to slap my forehead in a big "DUH!" moment. Things such as the "quick runs" to the store to pick up "one or two" items costs you far more than you planned. So true. One blogger literally only goes to the grocery store ONCE a month-amazing! I actually went back and looked at what I spent solely at Meijer in August and it was over $800! I went there at least 15 times in one month. That also doesn't count my stops at Target or Aldi's. I technically have a meal plan that allows me to shop once every two weeks but I am going to try to stretch that.
Another tip that is sooooo deceptively simple is grocery shopping with cash only. I never really thought about it but I've always set a grocery budget but when I use my debit card, I don't mind going over because the money is in the account. That most definitely adds up. Some weeks I may budget $50 at Meijer but I spend $70 or $80. I know most of the prices of our every day items so it shouldn't be hard to estimate how much cash to bring with.
A familiar theme in these brilliant budgeting blogs is....wait for it......homemade! Theoretically I've always known that if you could make several of the items you stock in your pantry regularly, you would save money...but I never had the time or inclination to put it into practice. Seriously though, if I buy hubby's favorite cinnamon roll oatmeal I will spend $3.00 for 10 small packets. If I make it, I will spend $2.20 on a big container of quick oats and the rest of the items are already in my pantry. Do you have any idea how many servings that will make? I don't.....but I will! I plan on making a premixed pancake/waffle mix, ranch dressing, taco seasoning, bread, hot dog & hamburger buns, oatmeal and a lot of treat items like fruit snacks (100% real fruit!) and muffins. I'm even contemplating making my own laundry detergent and household cleaners.
So over the next few weeks I plan on stocking up on pantry staples and making some basics. I'm hoping to make my next grocery trip last me 3 weeks instead of 2 with no store stops in between. I'll post my progress as it goes along.
On a completely unrelated note...I spent Saturday afternoon hitting craft stores with my baby girl. She's as addicted to Michael's and Hobby Lobby as her mama.
Here is what we made yesterday:
It's a Thankful Tree. On the backs of the patterned paper, everyone can write down things that we are thankful for. It's currently geared towards fall but this is not the only season to be thankful in so I think I will transition it to reflect each season as they come.
