In an effort to reduce my grocery bill from $700+ a month to under $400 a month and to get my family to eat healthier, I have started to cook from scratch instead of buying “mixes” and processed food. I’ve made it a week so far and it seems that everyone likes what I’m making.

Some of my favorites include:
Black Bean Soup – I added a cup of frozen corn.
Brown Sugar – Oatmeal Pancakes
Chili Chicken Casserole
Dirty Rice – We like to use dirty rice as a filling for tacos.

So we’ll see how it works out. Since I’m home all day, I have time to experiment and cook, so I might as well do it.

The cloth diapering is working out wonderfully! I have a couple Fuzzi Bunz for Gracie and Jacob and a couple BumGenius 2.0 One Sized diapers for Jacob and a few Swaddlebees for Gracie. So far we haven’t had any problems with leaks or with staining and their skin is much happier too. The doctor said the cloth is worth a try, especially on Jacob since he has eczema and the chemicals in the disposable diapers may be causing it to flare up. He has a bacterial infection right now because his eczema flared up and the skin cracks and since it’s sitting in a wet diaper, bacteria is introduced. So he’s back on the Bactrim. Yay fun.

The Fire Continued

They are still working on putting the fire out, almost 2 days after it started. 10 fire departments have assisted and they have been working around the clock. They knocked down the big brick part of the building to the second floor, I guess to try to battle the fire. I’ll have to get more pics of how it looks now. I took these pics last night.

The Fire

Here are the pics I took. I only had a few minutes to go up there before Jason had to leave to pick Austin up from baseball practice and take him to CCD.

Ryan requested this picture:

The crowd that has gathered to watch the building smolder:

Ryan and his fake smile:

Me being artistic:

I’m not crunchy…

I am going to give cloth diapers a try. Jacob has a constant diaper rash and I think cloth diapers will be much better for his sensitive skin. There is a store in Ann Arbor that sells Fuzzi Bunz and I’m going to pick a couple up to try. If I like them, I’ll pick up more. They are $17.95 each so I don’t want to get a ton of them if I don’t like them. The good thing is that they sell on eBay very well, even used. An online friend of mine said that she bought 18 size small and paid about $280 for them. Her son wore them for 5 months and then she sold them on eBay for $250. That’s a pretty good deal to only have to spend $30 plus the cost of washing them for 5 months. Jason’s not looking forward to cloth, but since I change the majority of the diapers around here, I get the final say

Looks like the Old Clinton Woollen Mill is burning down. We woke up this morning with no water and about 1/2 hour later, we got it back, but with about 3/4 of the normal water pressure we have. I was watching the Today show on channel 4 and saw something scroll across the bottom of the screen about it. When I took Ry to school, I tried to drive by it, but they had all the roads closed around there so I couldn’t get a good look. That solves the mystery of why we didn’t have water. I’ll either try to drive by there later or walk by and take some pics for the former Clinton residents who read this blog. I know you’re super excited, but this is big news.

I ran

I’ve been dying to run and since I went out and bought new running shoes yesterday, I had no excuse not to do it. I started by walking to the high school track and then I ran 1/4 mile, walked 1/8 mile, ran 1/4 mile, etc. I ended up walking/running 1 1/2 miles (running 3/4 mile). Not too shabby considering I just had a baby 4 weeks ago and haven’t run in a couple of years. I’m planning on running at least 3 days a week, doing a modified couch to 5K program.

It felt really good to run.

In other news, Jason’s birthday was on Friday. The kids and I went up to see him at work and then we all went to Moe’s for dinner. After Moe’s, we headed downtown to walk around and shop. Ryan was hiding in the doorway of some of the stores and then he would jump out and scare Jacob, making him laugh. Jacob was loving it, but then Ryan turned to run to the next doorway and wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and ran head first into the corner where two windows came together. The impact knocked him on his butt and left a huge goose egg right in the middle of his forehead. It barely broke the skin, but it turned a nasty shade of purple and looked really bad. Luckily, we were right in front of a restaurant, so I went in and got a bag of ice and that helped with the swelling. The pic was taken a few hours after it happened and it looked a lot better.

We’re proud of Austin

Austin came home from school on Monday with a letter that said he had been nominated to be a Great Lakes Scholar. Basically, he was nominated by his teacher because of his grades, community involvement, involvement with church and sports, and his attitude. He will be recognized in a book much like the “Who’s Who” books for high school kids, with a bio and a picture. He will also be able to participate in an on-field ceremony at a Tiger’s game this summer. He’s super excited about the whole thing, but especially the Tiger’s game. He’s hoping to meet the players.

I almost cried when I read the letter. I’m so proud of him.

Also, it’s been just over 2 weeks since we changed some eating habits around here. The kids have been more active and eating a lot better than they used to. It helps since there are movies like Super Size Me and TV shows like Honey, We’re Killing The Kids for them to watch. Austin weighed himself this morning and is down to 85 pounds. He was 96 pounds not too long ago. We’re trying to educate him on healthy eating habits and exercise instead of forcing it on him. He has gotten a little chunky over the past couple of years and we hope that this will keep him healthy and help him slim down a little. I know how hard kids can have it if they are a little overwieght in school and I’d like to spare him that misery. He’s still planning on running (walking) the 5K with Jason and I in June…

So far I have to say that Jacob and Gracie are pretty easy. I haven’t had any meltdown moments wondering what I have gotten myself into and haven’t pulled any of my hair out. She’s only 18 days old though, so there’s still time for that.

We had a good Easter. Austin and Ry went to church this morning with us and then we took them back to their dad’s house so they could have dinner with his family. Jason, Jacob, Gracie, and I went to Jason’s sister’s house. We had great food and good company. The kids were excited to play with Jacob but he was a little apprehensive at first. He’s used to being around kids at playgroup but the kids there don’t pay much attention to him. Matthew really wanted to play and Jacob wasn’t used to his “in your face” way of playing. It took him a little while, but soon he was playing with the same attitude.

Denise made Gracie a really cute pair of baby legs, but her legs are a little too small right now to fit into them. She uses fancy knee socks to make them and they turned out really great.

I had the surprise of my life tonight. I went to put Jacob to bed at 8:15 after weeks of him being up until 10:30 or 11:00. He was up early and we had a busy day so I thought I’d give it a try. I usually have to sit in the dark and watch TV on the couch with him to get him to fall asleep. Well, I thought I’d try laying in bed with him until he fell asleep and he just kept sitting up and babbling and poking at my face. So finally after 30 minutes of him driving me crazy and not going to bed, I got mad and put him in his crib and walked out of the room. He cried for literally 15 seconds and promptly fell asleep. Who knew it would be that easy? I’m going to have to do that from now on since it makes my life a heck of a lot easier.

Tomorrow is my first day in the real world since I actually have to take the kids to school and pick them up. It’s going to be a busy day. I have to take Austin to school and a couple of hours later I have to take Ry to school and a couple of hours later I have to go back and pick both of them up. Between that and feeding Jacob lunch and getting him a nap and breastfeeding Gracie every few hours, I’m not going to have much time to get anything done. I got the kitchen cleaned up tonight and did some laundry. I’m going to make lunches and lay out clothes to save some time in the morning.

Well, Gracie is kind of stinky so I gotta go!

Day one

I made it! It was actually pretty easy being on my own with all of the kids today. I even managed to take a little nap on the couch with Jacob and Gracie while the kids played on the big pile of dirt next door. I got a couple loads of laundry done and vacuumed and picked up the main floor of the house.

The only challenge was getting a shower with Jacob being awake. He can climb out of his pack n play so I thought I’d just let him play in the bathroom while I was in the shower. He kept climbing up on the toilet and I was afraid he’d fall so I brought him in the shower with me. He hated that because he doesn’t like the water raining down on him. So I took a 3 minute shower so he would quit screaming. I think I’m going to have to wake up before Jason leaves for work and get a shower then.

I was thinking I was going to have to take Jacob and Grace to the doctor today because they had both been sick over the weekend. They woke up this morning feeling much better so I saved myself $30 worth of copays and a trip to Ann Arbor with all 4 kids.

It’s spring break this week for the older boys and I think today is going to be the only nice day. It’s supposed to be warm tomorrow, but rain all day and then winter returns for the rest of the week. The kids and I went for a walk today and then they played outside until about 8:00 with the other kids in the neighborhood. It’s nice that they have kids their age to play with and something to do outside. They usually end up playing with army guys on the dirt hill and come home completely filthy, but at least they’re outside playing.

Here are a couple of pics of the two youngest. I think Grace looks like me. Well, I see a lot of my dad in her and I look like my dad, so she must look like me…

Jacob attacking his sister

My baby girl

Jason Jr.

I can’t believe that Gracie will be two weeks old on Tuesday! Jason is going back to work tomorrow and I’m a little nervous. So far having 4 kids has been pretty easy, even though Jacob and Gracie are less than 13 months apart. Tomorrow we’ll see just how easy I think it is when I don’t have Jason there to help. Yikes!

Gracie is doing well, but I think she caught the cold that Jacob and I have. I’m going to take her and Jacob to the doctor tomorrow. I think he may have an ear infection too. One of these days we’ll all be healthy.

With the exception of the cold I have, I’ve been feeling great. I’ve been walking more and can’t wait to start running again. I have lost the 12 pounds I gained while pregnant and another 8 pounds on top of that. Tonight Austin, Ryan and I walked across the street to the high school track to walk. We got around 3 times before it started to sprinkle. It’s my goal to make sure they have 30 minutes of activity/exercise a day. We also are cutting out fast food and foods/drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup. Jason and I watched Supersize Me last night and were totally disgusted. We added it to our Blockbuster list so we can make sure the kids watch it.

There’s not a whole lot going on right now, but now that things are settled more, I’ll try to update more often. I promise.