Last Week's Poll Results

Last week, I asked "Where are you planning to go on vacation this year?". The poll is closed and the results are in. Here they are...

Where are you planning to go on vacation this year?

A) Beach
B) Disney World
C) Amusement Park
D) Camping
E) No vacation this year.  :-(

As I figured, the majority of our readers are planning on going to the A) Beach this year. Surprisingly, the second runner up was E) No vacation this year.  :-(

Since so many readers aren't able to go on vacation this year, maybe our blog will be able to entertain you until you are able to go on vacation. If not, maybe it will at least give you an excuse to get some time to yourself for a change. :-)

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"A Day in the Life" Sign-Ups

Every woman has a story. We want to hear yours!

We are going to be featuring a new weekly post soon. It’s going to be called A Day in the Life, and it’s going to be featured once a week. We haven’t decided on a day yet. The purpose is for other moms to see what it’s like to live a day in your shoes. Whether you’re a stay at home mom, a teacher, a grandparent, or you don’t even have children yet, we want to hear from you. The idea is for us to feature a new woman each week. We'd like to feature women from all over the world as well. If you’re interested, we’ll give you all of the details from there.

A Day in the Life post will look similar to this:

“A Day in the Life – Life After College

Heather Loth, 23, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

She landed her first real job at a homeless shelter, as a volunteer coordinator and fund-raising assistant. Her degree is in anthropology, “but if I could have majored in everything, I would have. I wish I could have every job for one day.” Her future is hardly settled…

7:32 am- Alarm clock time. (Real clock time is 7:15 am.) Two text messages. Why do my friends only send me messages when they’re drunk?
          Coordinate movements around tiny bathroom- the kind where the door hits the toilet and you have to move just right to make sure your belly doesn’t get squished between the door and the one shelf that holds all your bathroom things, and inevitably there will be a hair-dryer cord, and you’ll either trip on it or it’ll get stuck in the door. The challenge is to avoid getting frustrated EVERY morning.
          I must say, my roommate and I are quite good at this. Amanda leaves the bathroom upon my arrival at the door. I pee, she gets dressed, I hop in the shower, and she applies makeup. By the time I’m out of the shower, her hair is fixed and I can start on mine. It helps that she has to get to work a half hour earlier than me.

8:02 am- Last minute dance around the house. Cell phone, keys, water bottle, Nutri-Grain bar half in mouth. Say goodbye to my cat, Angie, remind her that she’ll get fed after I get home. I feel guilty because I know I can’t predict when I’ll be home. Today it is hot, so I am worried that I should have turned on the air, but I should have been on the road two minutes ago. She’ll be fine.

8:17 am- Traffic. What is this? I drive out of the city into the suburbs, so in theory I shouldn’t sit in a mess of cars. What kills me is I know that if I would have left literally two minutes earlier, I wouldn’t be stuck in traffic. So now I have to decide if I have time to get a chai. Do I even have $4? No...”

If you’re interested, or you know someone who may be interested, you can either comment here, message us on Facebook, or email us at naturallythriftymoms@gmail.com.

We are very excited about this new Feature of the Week, and hope you are too!

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Clean House Challenge Progress: Day 1 - 3

So, I've discovered a few things in the last three days while cleaning my kitchen.

1) I have entirely too much fabric. In fact, it has taken over my kitchen! We have a very small home, so I use the kitchen table to set up my sewing machine, when we're not eating. Anyway, I think it's about time I get back to sewing up some more reusable snack bags. That way I can use up a bunch of my fabric. So, after talking to Amy about my fabric explosion she suggested that we have a Reusable Snack Bag Giveaway. This will be coming soon, so keep on the lookout for your chance to win!

2) My kitchen is way too crowded. It only has about 10' x 7.5' of usable floor space. I have a round kitchen table with four chairs that takes up about 5' x 5' of that space, a microwave cart (due to no counter space) that takes up 4' of our only open wall, and a highchair that takes up the rest of that wall. The problem is, we bought the table and chairs for our dining room in the townhouse we used to rent. Then we bought this house, lost a dining room, and had no money to buy a new (square or rectangular set). I know a square or rectangular set would fit better, since I could put it up against the wall. Anyway, we don't have the extra money to get a new set, so I'll have to deal with it.

3) I have every single; bottle, sippy cup, nipple, and pacifier you could ever imagine. I guess I saved everything for Jake figuring that if I got rid of it, he'd be picky. So, I guess I'll be getting rid of all of the bottles I have in the next few months. I moved Luke to a sippy cup by his 1st birthday, and I intend to do the same with Jake. The funny thing is, Jake has used the same 5-6 bottles since birth, and never used a pacifier. Why do I still have them? Maybe I'm a hoarder?! Lol...

How is your progress coming? Is your house getting cleaner? Can you see your floors now? Are you de-cluttering for Spring?

Keep up the good work! My progress pictures will be coming soon!

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Spectacular Summer Potato Salad

I call this Delvin's Party Potato Salad, since my husband is the one who showed me how to make this recipe. We always make this for cook outs and birthday parties. It is very filling and definitely feeds a crowd! This goes great with anything made on the BBQ! This recipe may be out there somewhere, but I've honestly never looked for it before. Delvin taught me hoe to make it over 5 years ago, and I've been making it ever since. It's always a big hit at our cook outs, and it's very refreshing in the middle of summer! So, here it is!

Delvin's Party Potato Salad

Prep Time: 30 minutes          Cook Time: 30 minutes          Serves: 6-8

Delvin's Party Potato Salad

Ingredients:
5 lb bag of Russet potatoes
6 large eggs
12 oz package of frozen peas and carrots
Mayonnaise (to taste)

Directions:
1) Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil on high heat.

2) Meanwhile, wash and peel your potatoes. Once they're peeled, rinse with cold water and cut each potato in half, long ways.

3) Once the water has started boiling, put your potato halves in, one at a time so the water doesn't stop boiling. Once all of the potatoes are in the water, add all 6 eggs (you're hard boiling them).

4) Let the potatoes and eggs boil for just about 30 minutes. Check them often. You want them to be soft inside, yet not falling apart.

5) While the potatoes and eggs are boiling, fill a small pot with about 4-6 cups of water. Add your peas and carrots mixture and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, set a timer for 5-7 minutes. Once done, drain the water.

6) Once your potatoes and eggs are done, drain them as well. Remove the eggs and sit them in a bowl of cold water to stop them from cooking anymore. Let the potatoes sit in the drainer for a bit to cool off.

7) Once the potatoes are cooled, cut them into bite-sized pieces (no bigger than 1" x 1"). Put them back into the pot.

8) Remove egg shells, and cut eggs into smaller bite-sized pieces (no bigger than 1/2" x 1/2").

9) Add the egg pieces and peas and carrots to the potatoes in the pot, and stir the mixture.

10) Everything should be cool to the touch by now. If it's not, let it sit longer. Once it's cool, add the mayonnaise. I don't measure this, I just add until there is enough coverage.

This potato salad can be served cold or warm. Either way, it tastes great!

Enjoy! :-)

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Thrifty Carpet Deodorizer

I use a very simple trick to deodorize my carpets. It is thrifty AND natural. :) You will need:


Lavender essential oil
Baking soda (or borax)
Vacuum

I'm sure you have the last two things on the list, Amazon is one of the cheapest places that I have found lavender essential oil. It has many uses (which I will try to do a blog post about) and a 1oz bottle will last a very long time.

Throw a couple of cups of baking soda into a large bowl. Put 20-25 drops of essential oil in the bowl and use a fork to mash it up into the baking soda and mix. Sprinkle the baking soda onto the carpet and leave for about 30 minutes. If you have kids it is best to do this AFTER they go to bed or they will track it everywhere, I learned that the hard way. Vacuum it up and enjoy the smell! You can use any kind of essential oil but I think that lavender smells the best for house cleaning. Any citrus oil would smell nice as well and they are even less expensive. If you want to deodorize without any essential oil baking soda or borax alone works just fine. Enjoy!

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Old Navy Groupon Deal - Today only!

There is a really awesome deal on Groupon today. $10 for $20 worth of stuff from Old Navy! If you need flip flops, cheap shirts, kids clothes etc this is a great deal! I don't usually buy Groupon deals unless they are a significant savings. I did buy the $10 for $20 at Amazon.com also. If you have never used Groupon it is really simple, there is a discounted price because a lot of people are buying the package/product. You can also buy Groupon deals as gifts, so check it out!

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Take-out Style Orange Chicken

Well my attempt at doing anything productive today was pretty much a flop. I take that back, I did write a couple of articles for TextBroker, got some stuff done for starting school next week, did some laundry and made dinner. That's about it. I didn't work out at all but I definitely will tomorrow. I did make some pretty awesome orange chicken in the crockpot, Meagan asked for the recipe so here it is.


I will be the first to admit that I am NOT much of a cook. I have a lot of hobbies/talents and honestly cooking is just not one of them. My grandma used to tell me that I would never get a man unless I learned how to cook. So this is what I did.. I married a man who loves to cook. Guess I showed her. =P Unfortunately my husband makes a gigantic mess whenever he cooks (although the food is delicious) so if I don't feel like cleaning a lot I have to cook. A slow cooker makes that 100x easier. I just bought one (my old one broke) and I am loving it. I got the recipe for orange chicken from this blog. I pretty much followed her recipe but changed it just a little.


3 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces (I used the free-range antibiotic free variety)
flour used for browning chicken
olive oil used for browning chicken (I used organic)
a small amount of salt (can you tell that I hate measurements??)
1/2 can of frozen orange juice concentrate
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup (I used organic)


Coat chicken in flour and brown in a pan with the olive oil. Combine the other ingredients into a sauce and stir with a whisk. I added more sugar and less ketchup than in the original recipe, I also used more than 1/2 a can of OJ but that was an accident.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours. I am pretty sure you aren't supposed to open a crockpot while it's cooking but even on low mine started to burn a little bit after about 4 hours so I suggest that you DO stir it every half hour or so. Maybe my Crockpot just sucks? It's likely. I served this over (organic) brown rice. 


It was pretty good! On the blog it says that pulp free OJ is best because pulp can be bitter and I would have to agree. I couldn't find pulp free but will look harder next time. I will also add more ingredients next time because I felt like it needed something, maybe something to make it a little bit spicy. Kainan wasn't a fan, but lately if it's not a dinosaur shaped chicken nugget he isn't interested.. I hope that is just a phase!

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Clean House Challenge

I'll admit it, I've never been a great housekeeper. Okay, I've never even been a good housekeeper. I envy my mother-in-law whose house is always spotless. We could show up at her house at 11:00 at night and her house is clean as can be. Luke will drop some crumbs and she'll come running out with a broom and dust pan. She's 71 years old by the way! I even went as far as Googling "how to become an obsessive compulsive cleaner". Can you believe there's no information on that topic on the Internet?!? I thought you could find anything online? Apparently not! I wish I was the kind of person that is bothered by clutter and no organization. Unfortunately, it doesn't affect me, but it does affect those around me. So, I'm going to do something about it!

I always seem to find myself rushing to 'clean' the house right before we're planning to have company over. Every single time I wear myself out and feel like crap the day of the get together. I keep telling myself that I'm going to deep clean and organize the house once and for all, yet it never happens! Well, Luke's 3rd birthday party is in 18 days, and I'm determined to get my house in tip-top shape for the party, and for good!

I used to make excuses like; I work all the time, I have two kids (how can I keep up with them?), I don't have enough space, I'm always so tired, etc. But it just dawned on me that... "Hello, your not the only mom that works, has kids, doesn't have their dream home, or is always tired!" Suck it up and deal with it woman! So, I'm dealing with it.

Luke and Jake's Bedroom

Now, in the last week I've made huge progress for myself.

1) I cleaned Luke and Jake's room the other day which probably hasn't gotten any attention from me since February. I know, that's terrible, but every morning when he leaves for school now, I go in there and straighten up and it's stayed spotless for 5 whole days, which is progress in my opinion.

Still clean...

2) My first day back as a stay at home mom, I washed every dirty dish in my house. Probably even some clean ones that had been sitting out so long, I couldn't remember if they were clean or dirty. Now I do the breakfast and lunch dishes when Luke is napping, and I do the rest of the dishes right before I go to bed. I've kept up with this routine for 13 days now!

3) The first day Luke went to school, I didn't know what to do with myself. Jake immediately fell asleep when we got back from the bus stop, and I was so emotional that day. So, I decided to do laundry. I did at least 6 loads just that day. Every day for the passed 11 days I've done at least one load of laundry (normally 2-3 including diapers and baby clothes), and my laundry room almost has a floor again!

Anyway, I only have 18 more days to get my house in order and I'm challenging anyone out there who needs the motivation to clean their house, to join me. I'll be posting before and after pictures with my progress, tips to get motivated, tips to keep things clean and organized, and tricks to declutter.

I have four rooms in my house and 1.5 bathrooms. Master bedroom, Luke and Jake's bedroom, living room, kitchen, master bathroom, half bath, and laundry room (though it's more like a closet).

And here is my time line:

6/1-6/4:
Kitchen

6/5-6/8: 
Living Room

6/9-6/12: 
Master Bedroom

6/13-6/15: 
Luke and Jake's Bedroom

6/16-6/17:
Bathrooms 

I may jump around a bit if I finish a room before my deadline, but this is my goal. I better go get started.

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Getting back into shape - Day 2

I honestly didn't intend to blog about this every day.. but who knows, maybe I will? It gives me motivation to actually work out. I really hope that I can show other moms that you absolutely can MAKE time to work out, even if it's just 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there. Today went fairly well. I did 20 minutes on the Biggest Loser workout game for the Kinect. If you have a Kinect, BUY THIS! You can even use swagbucks since it is sold on Amazon. :) Check out my swagbucks guide here. Anyway I was weighed on a digital scale and it turns out I weigh 135, not 134. :) I go back to this same scale in 2 months so I think my "goal" is to be 120 by then. That is still 5 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight so I think it's doable! So that is my long-term goal, and these are my current every day goals:

Drink more water and less of everything else that I drink. This is hard because I really just don't like water!

Do at least 20 minutes on the Kinect at least 5 days a week. I am starting with 20 minutes at a time for now and will bump it up if I feel okay. I am still only 4 weeks postpartum.

Eat healthier, make more meals from scratch. We have been doing much better at this lately, it was just crazy the first couple of weeks after Mikaela was born.

So that's it. If you are currently trying to tone up/lose weight/get healthier, feel free to post your goals and/or tips!

Tip of the day: Carry around a bottle or jug (reusable of course) of water with you. That way it is handy if you get thirsty. You will end up drinking much more water this way, especially if it's not usually the first thing you reach for when you realize you're thirsty.

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Cloth Diapering a Newborn

Mikaela in a newborn bumGenius AIO

Kainan was almost 20 months old before I started using cloth diapers on him, so I was excited to try cloth on a newborn. Now that Mikaela is a month old I have to say that when I have another baby I probably won't use cloth in the first month or two. Why? Well several reasons. First you are likely to get enough free diapers to last for the first week or two anyway. Between what you can take home from the hospital and gifts from friends/family most parents start out with at least a few disposable diapers. The other reason is that nearly all babies are born with very thin legs making most cloth diapers not fit very well. If you are trying to save money by using one-size diapers from the start, they will likely NOT work unless your baby is very large. Mikaela was 7 1/2 pounds and has grown quickly (over 10 pounds at 4 weeks) but still is just tiny bit too small for her onesize diapers.

The diapers that did fit Mikaela well were the "expensive" AIO diapers (Bumgenius XS) and she is just about too big for those already. I loved them and fortunately bought some smalls before  they stopped selling them. I got really good deals on all of my diapers so I don't think I have lost much money (I will find out for sure when I re-sell them) but it has been somewhat of a pain. You really don't want things to be more complicated right after having a baby! If it weren't for Amazon coupons I would be out quite a bit on my prefolds/covers but thankfully most of them were free or nearly free. I bought tons of prefolds and covers hoping to love them and they didn't work for me at all. I know several moms who they have worked for, and they worked great with my son but for now they just don't work for Mikaela. I sold all but a couple of the covers and use the prefolds as burp clothes.

What about the chemicals in disposable diapers? This is a valid question. There are disposable diapers that are more baby and earth friendly than others, I used a package of 7th generation and they were great. Neither of my kids have ever gotten rashes from Huggies diapers, so when I use disposables that is usually what I get. They have never had any sort of negative reaction to them. Using a disposable diaper is no worse than putting a baby to sleep on a conventional mattress, using conventional bath products or taking a baby outside if you live in a polluted area. If you can avoid all of these things that's great, but it's not realistic for everyone. I use only natural products whenever possible with my babies so maybe that evens out the fact that they wear disposables from time to time. :)

Now that Mikaela is getting bigger and fitting into her size small diapers things are going better. We still have some leaks but not as many. I think I would recommend waiting until the baby is a month or two old, or over 10 lbs (with chunkier legs) to start cloth. At that point you could probably get away with one size diapers or at least a better fit in sized diapers. If you do choose to use cloth diapers from birth I have to recommend bumGenius newborn diapers and Thirsties Duo diapers (size 1.) Different diapers work for different babies, many moms swear by prefolds and covers for newborns.

If you CD have you done it since birth? What did you use?

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