DIY Laundry Soap

One of the things that I've been wanting to try is to make my own laundry soap.  This is another idea that I got off of Pinterest.  That fun sight where you pin all these things that you think you'll do but never get to.  Well, my goal this summer has been to do a few of these projects.

While I wish that I could say one of my main reasons for making my own laundry soap is to be more environmentally savvy, that really isn't the reason at all.  When I started to stay home full time, this summer I decided that I wanted to be creative in finding ways to cut our budget and save money on things that I could save money on.  This was one of them.  I'm still very early in the process, and I will see if this has actually saved me money, but I thought it was at least worth a try.  The original post of how to make your own laundry soap is here.  But I thought I'd show you what I did.

DIY Homemade Laundry Soap

Ingredients:
You will need the following items below.  I got all of these at my local Dillons.

1 large box Borax
1 box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
3 bars of Fels Naptha soap
1 large box or 2 small boxes of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
1-2 containers of Oxy Clean (I like it b/c my family needs the extra stain fighting power, but it's optional)

 

 

 

 

The next things you will need to do is to grate the Fels Naptha soap.  You can use a cheese grater, or potato peeler, or even a knife.  Whatever works to get the soap shaved into tiny pieces.  My daughter was fascinated with this part, and kept wanting to help.  She didn't understand why I was grating soap.  I ended up grating all 3 bars into a Tupperware bowl shown below.

 

 





Next, I decided to do things a little different from the original recipe and mixed everything into a Rubbermaid, or plastic container with a lid.  The original recipe says to mix in a 5 gallon bucket, but I just could not find one at our house that didn't have paint in it.  So I used the largest plastic container I could find and a very large spoon to stir everything with.  You can see what I did below.

 

 

 

This part will really start to smell good!!!  Once I had everything pretty well mixed, I used the scoop from the Oxy Clean container as my measuring spoon and started to do my laundry.  You only need to use 1 scoop on smaller loads and 2 scoops on larger loads.  I've been using it now for almost a month and I notice that my clothes don't have a very much smell to them, but they come out clean and soft.

 

 

I also like that this laundry soap is very friendly for people who have sensitive skin.  My daughter had really sensitive skin when she was born and I had to buy the special soaps with no dyes, perfumes, or any of the chemicals added.  I ended up using that for all of us so that I wasn't buying two different kinds of detergent.  This has not bothered her at all.

 

 

So I'm going to see how long this lasts and if it is really saving me money in the long run.  I paid about $20 for all the materials to make this soap, and I will update you as to how long it lasts before I need to make another batch.  For spending about an hour making it I think it has worked pretty well for us.

 

Oh and just a side note.  Because I was making my own laundry detergent, my handy husband decided that I need a place to put my new creation.  So he made me a shelf just above the washing machine to store the rather large container.  How thoughtful!!!  I guess he thought that since I was doing what I could to save money, he would do something nice for me too.

 

 

 

 

 

the Ehrlich's 

Our Summer So Far ...

So, here's what our summer has looked like so far.  We have had lots of projects going, getting ready for a new baby, garage sale, job change, my Thirty-One business, changing an office/guest room into Jaycee's new bedroom, working on the house, church activities, holidays, summer list, anniversary, date nights, and just plain living life.

Anniversary
Let's start with our anniversary, since it comes at the very beginning of June, we sometimes miss celebrating it until later in the summer.  This year however, we have had some amazing new friends in our small group volunteer to swap date nights with us a couple of times this month.  This year we celebrated 12 years of being married.  I can't hardly believe it.  Those two young kids didn't know what they were in for with the challenges that lay ahead.  I honestly can say that some of the challenges we have faced, I would not have made it without Tom helping me to see God in everything that happens and doing my best to accept the things I can't change and to look ahead to what God wants from me through it all.  I have almost been with him for half of my life.  To say that doesn't even seem possible, but life with him has been nothing what I expected, and everything that I expected all at the same time.

Garage Sale
Our neighborhood has their 2nd Annual garage sales.  This was one thing that I really had to get organized for.  With being pregnant, it takes me a little longer to get things done, and I wanted to sort through our stuff and be a little better about pricing things than what we did last year.  Tom helped me move everything into one side of our garage, and I worked on getting things put onto tables so that all we had to do when it started was to put the tables out in the driveway and then sit and wait.  I will say that getting things ready ahead of time saved me a whole lot of hassle the days of the garage sale.  We decided to have our sale on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Thursday was by far the best day for us.  No bargainers, or people trying to talk us down on prices.  Friday, we had to close up a little early b/c Tom was by himself and had to run to meet someone about a job opportunity.  Saturday was fun, b/c a friend came and brought her stuff and we got to chat for a bit.  But Saturday was not the best garage sale day.  Too many people wanted to bargain, and I think that we were a little too generous in allowing people to bargain with us.  I think next year, I won't do a Saturday sale.  Not sure yet, but I did get rid of a lot of Jaycee's old clothes, and was able to get some things for the new baby that we didn't have yet.

Job Change
This came completely out of the blue.  I don't know if you remembered, but Tom has been wanting a new job for a couple of years now.  He loves teaching, but has wanted something new and different.  There are several other reasons that he wanted to make a change, but I won't get into those details.  He has just been really sensing a lack of enthusiasm for the school that he was at.  He even contemplated doing something completely different from teaching all together.  He briefly pursued that option and realized that was not where God was directing him.  Change is hard!!!!  So for the past couple of years, we've been praying for a new opportunity to come across Tom's path.  I've even enlisted some of my Bible study friends to pray too.  Tom has had many opportunities and interview over the last 3 years that seemed promising and he was really excited about those opportunities only to have them tell him they were going in another direction.  Every time was so disappointing for the both of us.  It really took a toll on him and took away some of his confidence.  Most of the job possibilities would have required a move of some sort, and maybe that is not what God wanted for our family at the time, but we had no way of knowing that.

So a couple of weeks before our garage sale, Tom got a call from a guy he knows who services technology labs in various school districts in Kansas that he knew of a position that was open near us.  Tom went ahead and applied and never heard anything back.  We decided that we weren't going to let this effect our lives and went ahead with whatever plans we had at the time.  The day before our garage sale was to start, Tom got a call from the HR person that they wanted to interview him.  We were both grateful, but not too terribly excited.  We have been down this road before and Tom decided that he was going to just go and interview without giving it too much more thought.  He came home from the interview and told me that he didn't know how well it went, and I thought that was that.  Later on that night, we took Jaycee to my parents house for an overnighter.  Tom got a call from the principal that he wanted to visit with him more about the job.  So Tom went back in for a less formal second interview and they offered him the job right then and there.  We were completely blind-sided by this.  No where in our plans was a new job in the future for us.  With this job came some really great perks that Tom felt like he just couldn't pass up and decided to resign from his current position and move forward with this new path.  The timing is a little strange, as it means that Tom will go back to work a little earlier than expected, which may leave me home by myself with 2 kiddos.  I'm sure it will be fine, but I am a wimp at recovering from having a baby.  I don't do it well, or it isn't easy for me.  But, this is how God has planned it out for us, and it may just give me the chance to lean on friends and family that have offered to help.  I may need to just take them up on their offers and allow them to help me.  It is so hard for me to do, but I will just have to swallow my pride.  So excited for Tom's new job!!!!


Thirty-One
Back in January, I started a new venture of selling Thirty-One Gifts products.  If you don't know about Thirty-One, I'd be glad to share it with you.  I started as a way to pay off some extra debt and meet new people.  What I've really gotten out of it is that I'm having so much fun meeting new people, which is hard for a quiet girl like me.  I love how the company celebrates, encourages, and rewards women just for doing the things they do daily.  The mission of Thirty-One is based from the Proverbs 31 Woman.  She takes care of her family, friends, and community, and puts the needs of others ahead of herself.  Most of us women would say that we do that from time to time. 

So I have a friend that also sells Thirty-One.  She asked me if I'd be interested in participating in a vendor event at a hotel by the airport.  This event was a conference for paralegals and secretaries, and also there was a Southern Baptist conference as well.  I thought it would be a fun thing to do and a nice time to visit with my new friend.  We both got a lot of orders and I was able to get some items for our baby with his name on them.  That will be fun to see.

My business has been slow at times, but June has been a great month for me.  I am really getting passionate about it again, and want to really help women with their needs, whether it is organizing (my favorite), purses, wallets, bags, or gift ideas.  I'm just glad to help out and make a little extra income to help my family on the side.  I do have several goals for my business, but I don't want to push anyone into anything either.  I have a few loyal customers that I want to really thank b/c they have helped me get started.  As I continue to grow in my business, I hope to share more about my visions and goals and to help meet any organizing needs.

Room Switcheroo
Since we already had a neutral bedding set and room décor for the nursery, we decided that the new baby would fit quite nicely into Jaycee's current room.  But that means that our spare bedroom/ computer room office would have to go.  Finding a place for the computer was a challenge, but I think we have it finally figured out.  We decided that we would transform this room into Jaycee's new room and make it to fit her personality.  I want it completely done before she sleeps in it, but I also know that it probably won't be completely done before we get her in there.  So I have to let that go and tell myself that it's a work in progress. 

So what have we done so far?  Well, her grandma got her some new bedding.  It is lime green, hot pink, and black with owls on it.  It is super cute and one that she can have for quite a while at least for several years.  I also decided that I would find some cheap wooden letters, spray paint them, and put them on the wall above her bed.  We inherited a dresser from Tom's dad and I would really like to paint it, but that will have to wait for another time.  Right now it is in her closet and she has a black cubicle shelf for some books, toys, stuffed animals, etc.  I also plan to make some curtains to match her bedding, and stencil some pink and lime green owls on the walls to add some color.  I also want to put all 3 kids black and white baby pictures on her other wall along with some other special accessories like maybe a clock.  You can check out what is done so far, but I will make another post about it when we are completely finished with it.

Jaycee spent her first nap and night in her bed today.  This is all I have so far with pictures.  I will post more pictures when her room is a little more finished.
 

House
It seems like every summer there is some big project to do on the house.  Last year, we Tom worked diligently on finishing our basement.  That has been awesome for us.  I feel like things were starting to get overcrowded with toys, and I had no more places to put them.  The basement has been a great place for Jaycee to store her toys and also has helped her with cleaning up too.  We are still working on having a better attitude about cleaning up, but that will come in time I hope. 

This year, we had a really bad hail storm with golf ball size hail for at least a half hour.  It was pretty bad and took a toll on one side of our house.  It also damaged our roof.  We had our insurance guy come out and check things out and basically totaled our roof to get a new one.  We recently had it replaced when Jaycee was born, so it wasn't that old, but will need a full replacement.  We have had a lot of people come by giving estimates and we are pretty sure who to go with, but don't want to commit to anything until our insurance money comes.  That has been kind of a hassle, but as I've heard from other friends, that is just how it goes sometimes.  We know how much insurance will cover, it's just a matter of getting the check with the appropriate names on it.  Will update you on that as it happens.


Summer List
A couple of summers ago, we started creating a summer list to be more intentional with our time at home for the summer.  We also used it as a way to keep track of the things we put off until the summer but didn't want to forget.  So here is what we have so far.  I think that since I took this picture, I've added and crossed off a few things, but it has been a great way to not let the summer go by feeling like we did nothing.  It also has been fun to do some things with just Jaycee before the new baby comes.  I don't really think any of us know how life is going to change with a new little one here, but we will adjust and pray often for a smooth transition.

Church
In January, Tom and I joined a Life Group/ Small Group at church.  When I started working in the nursery at church, I worked with a girl named Kristen.  We became really close, and found out that our daughters are a lot alike.  They are actually best friends and if I show up without Jaycee, she asks me tons of questions about her.  I have really been blessed to meet her.  Well, her and her husband are leaders of a small group and she invited us to come and check it out.  We had wanted to clear back in November, but when Tom's dad was having so many health problems, it just wasn't a good time.  So when the new year started, we decided to go. 

This group of people have become almost like family for us.  They do a lot of Guy's Night out things, and Ladies Night out activities every couple of months.  We have really been able to relate to most people in the group and I feel like I can be myself.  They even threw me a surprise baby shower on one of our Ladies Night Out times.  I had no idea what was going on, but had some suspicions b/c my friend kept texting me if I was coming or not.  This group has really blessed us and have even offered to be on call for us when we need to go have this baby to take Jaycee for us.  God has really amazed me with this group and with how he led us to Central Christian in the first place.



Date Nights
The same couple that leads our small group, we've also been able to swap kids with for date nights.  We watched their kids for a night while they went out to do whatever they wanted, and then they did the same for us.  I must say it has been a while since we've gone on a real date without Jaycee in tow.  We went to the downtown Warren Theatres where we could order from our seats and saw the new Star Trek movie and ate some really yummy food!!!  Right now, all food is yummy to me.  I'm hungry all the time.  Then they took Jaycee another time and we got the see Man of Steel.  That was an awesome movie and I would really recommend it.


Mostly, we've just been trying to prepare as much as possible for this new little one to arrive.  I have forgotten what I need and am getting reacquainted with the baby stuff again.  Hopefully in the next month you will get to meet him.

the Ehrlich's

A Few Things ...

Our lives have been a little random these days.  It has consisted of basically living life and preparing for the summer.  This summer has a lot in store for us, and we are trying to prepare for it, while not getting too much ahead of ourselves.  I have a hard time preparing for things for fear that it will all be for nothing, but then I start to remember that God is in control and that hope helps me see that He has a plan for whatever is in store for my future whether it is how I want it to go or not.  So I just need to keep praying and trust in God's plans for me and my family, whatever that may be.

Here are a few random things that we managed to take pictures of in the last couple of weeks.  Enjoy!!!


Tom started to put together a portfolio of projects that he has worked on over the years.  He has several reasons for this, but it was fun to see these things he's made over the 15 years we've been together.  I can't believe that we've been together that long, but 15 years ago this month was when we went on our first date. 

Originally a make up desk he made for me when I was still in college.
He also made the jewelry box on top.
 

 

 

A bench that sits at the foot of our bed.  We store blankets and extra pillows underneath and put our shoes on while we sit on this bench.  My dad let us use some extra leather he had in his shop.

Small bookshelf.  Now it holds all of the books that Jaycee has received over the years.

Entertainment Center.  He made this a year after we were married.  It is custom made and fit our TV we had at the time, but now it is storage for DVDs and Jaycee's toys.
 

Coffee table that Tom made for his dad.  While he was cleaning out his dad's house he found this that he made many years ago.  It has now made it's way back to him.

Corner shelf.  We have two of these for pictures and other stuff.  This has been great to have.

End table.  For a long time we used this to hold a small TV, but now we have some plants on it and phone books that we don't really use anymore, it also has a place for storage underneath.

Tall bookshelf.  This has a lot of books that I read. 

I was playing downstairs in the basement with Jaycee when she wanted to play with some sock puppets we had made a while ago.  She also pulled out some lacing animals that I bought at the dollar store a long time ago.  I originally thought they'd be good for helping with lacing and fine motor activities.  I got the idea to attach a popsicle stick to the back of each one and then use them as puppets too.  It was a very cheap and easy puppet that I could make with stuff I had around the house.  Here are the results of our puppet show from the other day.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Lacing animals that I found at the dollar store and popsicle sticks attached to the back with tape make good puppets.

 

 

Of course the cars have to be included in the puppet show.

Posing for the picture. She loves the camera.

the Ehrlich's

 

Basement

The basement has been quite the project for us, or rather Tom, but he is pretty much finished.  The last little thing left to do is to put the rest of the trim/ baseboards on.  He has been working vigoruously at this most of the summer in between softball games, vacations, and spending time with family and friends.  Once school started, it has been hard for him to get as much done and usually after dinner we don't see him anymore until it is time to go to bed.

 

Below are some pictures of the project as it progressed and in another post I will show you the finished project.  I am so proud to have a husband who knows how to do these kinds of home improvement projects.  I learned so much from him through finishing the basement, and it was a lot less expensive since he did virtually all of the work himself. 

 

Basement walls are done.  Now he is putting in the electrical outlets and getting ready to put the doors on.  We have a door that leads to the unfinished laundry room and to a closet.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 Here is the carpet that Tom put in himself.  We had fun getting it home in our jeep, but it's a good thing the store is only a couple of miles away.

 

There are more updates to come later maybe just pictures. 

 

 

 

the Ehrlichs

Six Layer Rainbow Cake

In my last post, I told you about a Rainbow Cake that I made for Jaycee's 2nd birthday.  We had a lot of fun getting ready for that day.  I had a few themes in mind to do for her birthday, but when it was all said and done, I decided that the best idea for me and the least excitable for Jaycee would be to have a rainbow theme.  I love all the little girl themes that there are out there, but for right now, I kind of want to keep things pretty neutral until we see what kind of girl Jaycee is going to be.  A lot of the ideas that I have seen also would be so much more fun when she is older and can remember things and enjoy it more.

So, here is my post about Jaycee's Rainbow Party.  It was actually pretty easy, just a lot of prep work before hand, but once it was done, I really didn't have to do anything the day of her party.

First we'll start with the cake. 

I used 3 boxes of white cake mix.  Then I used my stand mixer and mixed them thoroughly until everything was nice and smooth.  I did this for about 5-10 minutes.

Then I got 6 bowls and divided the cake batter evenly into each bowl.  You may just have to eyeball this part.  It doesn't have to be exact.  They all end up about the same anyway.

I then used gel paste food coloring and put several drops of each color into each bowl.  Then I stirred vigorously until all the color was mixed in.  I added more food coloring as needed. 

Here is the gel paste food coloring that I got from a place called Cake Stuff.  This is a great place to go if you are making any kind of cake or even decorated cookies.  However, I ran out of red food coloring, and didn't want to drive clear across town, so I stopped by Hobby Lobby which is a lot closer to my house and found that they had it too for a little cheaper. 

These are the bowls after I finished mixing the colors together.  After mixing the colors together, I placed them in 8 inch round pans and baked them as the directions on the box said.  This took a while, but I was able to get lots of other things done while they were baking.  The reason this took a while is because I only had two 8 inch cake pans, and could only do 2 colors at a time. 

Once the first set cooled, I took them out and wrapped them in foil and then stuck them in the freezer so that they would harder before I was ready to frost them.  Then I washed out the pans and started with the next color.  It was a pretty easy process, but you need to make sure that you spray the bottoms of your pans so that the cakes will come out pretty clean.  (Hint:  Here is something the I have found that keeps the cakes really moist.  I take them out about 3-5 minutes before the directions say to and stick them in the freezer fairly quickly so that they hold their moisture.)

Once all the cakes were cooled and had been in the freezer for a few hours, I decided to take on the task of frosting them.  This is where the fun begins.  I first decided which color I wanted on the bottom and them layed it down on my platter or plate.  The cakes were sliced in hald so that there was a little more evenness to them.  After I had the first color done, then I frosted just a thin layer of frosting (you can use any store bought kind that you want or look online for some favorite recipes)  I used store bought and I also mixed a large carton of cool whip with it to make it a little creamier.  I repeated this until I had all the layers stacked together.

Here was what the cake looked like with all the layers stacked together.  Then I started to frost the outside of the cake.  This part gets pretty messy, so be sure to have a rag and paper towels close by. 

Here is the cake after I was finished.  I left it in the fridge overnight and until I was ready to serve it.  I also added skittles to the bottom for a more rainbowish effect.  I didn't do much to the top because I knew we would have candles on it.  For this type of cake you would need to use the long candles. 

Another view of the fabulous rainbow cake.  Behind it are water bottles filled with rainbow Koolaid.  That was fun to do.  Just buy a 24 pack of bottled water.  I had a free coupon for the store so I paid nothing for them.  Then get different flavors of Koolaid that you want and mix it up and pour back into the bottles.  It makes a really cool effect and added so much to the table.

Here I am cutting the cake.  The peices ended up being really big, and we had a lot of leftovers for people to take home.  My neighbor is helping me so that it doesn't fall over.  I realized later that I could have put rods in the middle of it so that it would hold it shape more, but I am not a professional at this.  Something to keep in mind for next time.

About half of the cake was eaten and then sent home with others.  Here was a pretty great picture of all the rainbow of colors.

This was a really fun idea that I wish I could claim as my own, but I got it off of my new found addiction.  There is this site that has just about everything that you can think of on it called Pinterest.  Basically you can use it to keep track of you interests and things that you may want to use or do someday.  This is helpful for me, b/c I usually spend hours writing things down in notebooks only to lose or not remember where I put it.  So to have all of my ideas in one place is great.  My awesome job-share partner got me started on this b/c she was finding some great ideas for classroom projects there and I looked and started my own boards too.  For someone who forgets things unless they are written down, this works great for me.  You can do everything from home stuff to kids to cooking ideas to recipes.  The possibitities are endless.  If you are a crafty or Do It Yourself kind of person, you will love this.

More of my projects are coming soon.  But if you are in need of an idea for a fun party you can definitely try a rainbow party with a Six Layer Rainbow Cake!!!

Sunglasses, Menards, & A Turtle

This post is really what our lives have been like for the past couple of weeks.  I had on my summer list to blog more often, and then of course I get ideas and projects in my head and forget to blog for a while, but here I am trying to blog more and keep updated on our summer.  I know that the title is kind of random, but really that is what we have been doing.  Seriously!!!

Sunglasses
I recently got my probably millionth pair of new sunglasses.  I tend to lose pretty much every pair that I get by the end of the summer.  It is probably a good thing that I don't spend much on them.  Surely you would think by now that I would learn.  Well, Jaycee has discovered my sunglasses and gets her little fingerprints all over them and when I put them on while I'm driving I wonder why everything looks so cloudy.  So I decided that she could use a pair of her own.  I really thought that I could find some really cheap at the dollar store, so just in case something happened to them at least it wouldn't be a big investment.  Well, I found this really cute pair at Target in the dollar section by the front door.  Gotta love the dollar section!!!  This was a great fit for her.  She doesn't keep them on long, but they sure are cute when she does.

Menards
This is a place that is getting to know us really well.  We decided that this summer we would give our house a good coat of paint.  When I say paint the house, I mean the outside.  What were we thinking?  Summer, paint, Kansas, hot!!!  Mostly, Tom has been tackling this project.  His goal is to be done by July 4th, so we can reward ourselves for all of his hardwork by taking a vacation.  Well, I think that we were a little over confident in what it really took to paint the outside of a house.  July 4th is only a couple days away, and there is still much to be done.  More on that later.  Well, Menards just opened up this past spring, really close to us (about 5 miles).  This is good because of this project and the stuff that we keep needing, it's super easy to hop on over there and get it.  But it can also be bad for us to just hop on over there all the time.  We have made many trips there for paint, brushes, paint, drop cloths, sprayer, more paint, and pretty much anything else you need to paint a house.  With the store being so new, we weren't quite sure what to expect, but their prices are good, and we already had success with our paito door, so why not with painting.  Here you see Jaycee riding along in one of those racecar shopping carts on yet another trip to Menards.

"Wow!!!  This is cool!!!" 

"Let's leave this store already." 

Turtle

Besides being totally up to our eyeballs in paint, we have had a visitor try to bury himself/herself (not sure) in our yard.  This turtle made its way into our yard a few weeks ago and had buried itself into a hole in our yard.  Our dog, was going crazy and was about to drive me crazy when I looked out the window and saw this.  Tom took it to a little creek at the back of our housing addition & let it go there.

Well, a couple of weeks later.  He/She's back!!!  Mollie was barking so loud, that I thought she was going to wake everyone up in our culdesac.  I was about to put her in her crate, when Tom shouts at me to come outside.  And wouldn't you know it, this is what I saw.

Now, Jaycee has a book called Miles and Miles of Reptiles that she is totally obsessed with.  Sometimes I want to hide it so I don't have to read it AGAIN, but in there it talks about turtles and how they lay eggs and remember where they laid them and come back to that place.  I sure hope that this is the last we have seen of this turtle.  This time I took the turtle out to this alley where there is a lot of brush and bushes in the back of our addition.  I was a little scared of it, b/c I have heard that turtles bite.  And while I was taking it back, it peed all over my shovel.  It kinda grossed me out.

What an amazing summer we are having so far.

Meal Swap

Well, this is a post that I wanted to originally do in December.  Well 2 months later I am finally getting to post some things that I have done that were fun and were things for me.  A lot of times I get so caught up in being a mom and wife, that I forget to do things for myself sometimes. 

One thing that has really been a challenge for me this year is getting meals together so that we can eat together as a family at a reasonable time.  Since I started working afternoons, I have found that my time gets away from me and I have to go way sooner than I would like. But I have found that there are a lot of things I really enjoy about my schedule.  For example, I really love that I don't have to get up so early if I don't want to.  That part can get me into trouble sometimes, because I know that I have to be up and ready to go before Tom leaves for work or else I won't be able to get ready if Jaycee is up.  It is a little overwhelming, but I have been able to manage when I have to do it.  I also love that I don't have to get dressed right away either.  If I want to stay in my pjs until I leave for work I can especially on these cold, chilly, and snowy days we have had lately.  I can also take some time for myself and read my Bible, which I just don't do as often as I would like to.  I have found that the best times for me to read my Bible and get a lot out of it are when Jaycee and Tom and still asleep.  I can have a concentrated time and really dig in and explore what God is trying to teach me with the verses that I read.  Please don't think that I do this regularly.  I strive for this, but sometimes the busyness of life gets in the way and I don't have quite the concentration that I would like.  Another thing that I love is that I get to have breakfast with Jaycee.  When I worked in the mornings, Tom usually gave her breakfast while I finished getting ready.  Now I get to have some real quality time and help show her how to feed herself (She is wanting to do that more and more these days).

While there are so many great things about my schedule, there are also some disadvantages of my schedule.  I am looking at the time regularly to make sure that I am staying on track with what I need to do before I have to drop Jaycee off at the babysitter's.  I also find that since the morning is when Jaycee is the most alert, I don't get quite as much housework done.(More on that in another post)  I also have a hard time getting dinner ready for that evening.  That is the hardest thing for me to get used to.

Usually I can just make up something ahead of time and then heat it up when I get home, but if it isn't something that I can just heat up, I have to do a lot of extra planning and preparations for meals in the evenings.  So I was really glad when a girl from work invited me to join in a meal swap with her.  There were 4 of us who decided to the swap.  We chose our favorite meal that could be frozen later if necessary and made 4 of that particular main dish.  Then we brought them to school and we handed out our main dishes to each other.  When I left that day I had 4 main dish meals that I could freeze until I was ready to use them. 

Here is the entree that I made, it is what I call my signature dish that I always take to people, Chicken Enchiladas.  I received 4 other meals that were absolutely delicious, Ham Potato Casserole, Beef & Noodles, and BBQ Meatballs.  Maybe some time I will get the chance to do a meal swap again.  I sure helped right around Christmas not having to think too hard about what to have for dinner.

Here are the chicken enchilidas that I made.  

They are one of my favorite recipes, that I got right after we got married. 

 Of course I couldn't forget the cheese.  The top of the entree is loaded with cheese!!!  Yum!!!



 Here is my packed freezer after I got the other entrees from work.

 And here is my kitchen sink after I was done making all those entrees.

I guess it was a good thing there were only four of us this time.

Well, if you are ever in need for some new entrees or you are just bored with what you make all the time, you might think about doing a meal swap with some people you know.  I am hoping I can do this again after this wintery season is over.

It's Been A While

It has been a while since I last blogged.  I haven't really had much to blog about.  Our lives are pretty boring sometimes.  But I have been working on something very exciting.  In 4 days, Jaycee will be turning 1!!!!  I can hardly believe it.  The time has absolutely flown by.  I can't even believe that a year ago, I was still pregnant with her and really anticipating her arrival.  She has blessed our lives tremendously. 

I have been working on her birthday party that is this Sunday.  I never really knew what it took to plan a kids birthday.  I am trying to make things as simple as possible, but still have a sense of fun and hopefully Jaycee's personality.  We decided to go with a monkey girl theme.  Since our little monkey likes to climb and crawl and walk all over the place and is into everything if we let her, I thought that was pretty fitting for her.  I have been to a couple of friends' kids' birthday parties, and got some great ideas from them.  Thanks guys!!!

So I decided that I am going to make her birthday cake into the shape on a monkey face and make the party invitations.  We ordered some lime green and pink balloons and table settings, and our housing addition has a small park that we reserved for the occasion.  Right now everything is just sitting on a table in our front room and is waiting for us to put it out where it is supposed to be.  This has been a lot of fun for me and is really giving me a chance to use the creative side of my brain.  It also gives me a project to do.  You know how much I love my projects.  I only wish that I could finish the ones that I start.  Oh well, I know this definitely has an ending date. 

Hopefully in my next post, you will see how much fun we had. 

Here is some of the stuff that is ready for us to put it together. 

 I'm so glad that we have most of the weekend for this.

Here is the little monkey girl that I am going to try to turn into a cake.

Jaycee has discovered that she can "cheese it up" when the camera is out.

This is new since last week. What a ham. 

Watch out world, I think we have a comedian on our hands!!!

This was tonight after dinner.  She rubbed it all over her face and I knew it was a photo worthy moment.