Since we've decided on me being a stay at home mom until after baby number two gets here, I've found myself much more apt to try more recipes and make things at home more often. Half of the reason for that is because I have the time for it, the other half, well, let's just say this time of year helps :)
So I found a recipe on one of the blogs I follow for crockpot applesauce and decided to give it a try. I was surprised how easy it was!
What you need:
6 medium apples, peeled, cored and chunked into pieces
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp - 1 tbsp cinnamon (depending on how you like it)
1 tsp of sugar (again, depending on how you like it and how sweet your apples are)
1/2 tsp of vanilla
Put apples in the crockpot. Mix all other ingredients together and then pour them over the apples. Mix them all so the apples are well coated. Cook on high, stirring occasionally, until apples are soft and 'mashable'. I ended up mashing mine with the wooden spoon I used to stir them.
Not only does it make for a great fall treat, but I know what I'm putting in my family's bodies and it makes my house smell realllly good ;)
Until next time -
a
We get one journey... here's putting into words what is going on in ours.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
12 Dates of Christmas
Right after Aaron and I had Bryton we knew Christmas was just around the corner. I was still in healing mode, our marriage was in adjustment mode, and Bryton was in, well, baby mode. Needless to say we were tired, emotionally and physically, we were frustrated, and we were trying to figure out how to properly budget for our new little 'bundle' of joy.
After a long colicky night one night (that resulted in an ER trip to make sure my little man wasn't dehydrated after refusing a bottle for 14 hours or so) we decided to head on up to the state football game and 'get away' for the first time. Thank God grammy was willing to watch B. It was a nice refreshing, baby free day... much needed at that point, and on our way up and on our way home Aaron and I got to really 'talk' (about anything besides Bryton) for the first time since Bryton was born. In our talking Aaron mentioned a suggestion for our Christmas that year; rather than buying each other expensive gifts and possibly pushing ourselves further than our comfort at that point, he suggested that we instead do 12 'dates' of Christmas. We'd start planning them then (I got to choose 6, he got to choose 6), and the last one would be on Christmas day.
Granted, he fessed that he'd heard the idea on Oprah and that he liked it, but still yet, I was overly impressed that he'd not only humor an idea like this, but he'd suggest it! Sure, I'll agree to something that I know is going to require him to put more thought in my gift than money!
So it was on.
That year we had an amazing Christmas. Not all of our dates were 'out' because who can afford a sitter 12 days in a row, but all of our dates were fun. Aaron chose things like a 'video game night' where we ate snacks (basically for dinner) and played video games together all evening, and another night where we made a meal completely from scratch, with ingredients we'd never heard of, together. We fixed PF Changs lettuce wraps and mongolian beef for supper in our kitchen that night. One night we went to the free musical put on by First Baptist Church Marion. (always a good time) Another night we were at his parent's house and we drove through a maze of Christmas lights in the convertible covered up with a blanket. We went out to eat and Christmas shopping for B one night. I can remember being in Marion at Sam's and Bryton was fussing. We were taking turns carrying him and feeding him through Sams that night. We laughed so hard about that. The memories are so good.
This year will be two years from that Christmas, and last year we didn't do the 12 dates. Life was busy, time was short, Bryton was older so it was harder to take him on some of those dates, or him to be 'home' for those dates and them still seem like 'dates, so we resorted back to just the ho hum of gift giving. (Ahem, okay, I'm not going to lie, I love gift giving. I love the shopping ahead of time, I love the hustle bustle, I love the wrapping presents, and how they look under the tree, I love the surprise of it, I love seeing people's faces when they open a gift from us... I just love it.)
So this year I was thinking about it. Technically we can 'afford' to buy gifts for each other this year, and, like stated above, I like buying gifts for each other. But, I thoroughly enjoyed the 12 dates of Christmas that we did just a couple years back. SO - we've decided to combine the two. Aaron and I are going to buy for each other, but we'll find a way to do it in moderation. This year, well add to the 12 'dates' of Christmas by including Bryton in some of the festivities. Maybe Aaron and I will both choose 6 things each, but we'll include Bryton in four of those (so we don't have to spend a ton on sitters). I'm thinking things like decorating cookies as a family, going to do lights together as a family, of course I'd love to do FBC Marion's Christmas play again, etc. etc. Some things we may be able to do after Bryton goes to bed, like do a movie or video game night, but one way or another, it's a tradition I'd like to keep around as long as kids allow it. I hope it's something that they can look forward to as much as mom and dad do.
Family traditions are very important to me. Even when Aaron and I were dating we'd get the house all dimmed down, put some Christmas music on, and get something sweet or Christmasy smelling the house up and decorate the Christmas tree together. I look forward to that again this year.
I believe some of God's greatest blessings are the times we get to spend with each other, after all, Aaron and Bryton (and baby 2) are gifts given to me by my heavenly father. After all, they both have taught me so much more about Him than I could have ever learned on my own.
That being said, I'm so thoroughly excited to enjoy some memory making this year with my family! Yet another blessing.
-a
After a long colicky night one night (that resulted in an ER trip to make sure my little man wasn't dehydrated after refusing a bottle for 14 hours or so) we decided to head on up to the state football game and 'get away' for the first time. Thank God grammy was willing to watch B. It was a nice refreshing, baby free day... much needed at that point, and on our way up and on our way home Aaron and I got to really 'talk' (about anything besides Bryton) for the first time since Bryton was born. In our talking Aaron mentioned a suggestion for our Christmas that year; rather than buying each other expensive gifts and possibly pushing ourselves further than our comfort at that point, he suggested that we instead do 12 'dates' of Christmas. We'd start planning them then (I got to choose 6, he got to choose 6), and the last one would be on Christmas day.
Granted, he fessed that he'd heard the idea on Oprah and that he liked it, but still yet, I was overly impressed that he'd not only humor an idea like this, but he'd suggest it! Sure, I'll agree to something that I know is going to require him to put more thought in my gift than money!
So it was on.
That year we had an amazing Christmas. Not all of our dates were 'out' because who can afford a sitter 12 days in a row, but all of our dates were fun. Aaron chose things like a 'video game night' where we ate snacks (basically for dinner) and played video games together all evening, and another night where we made a meal completely from scratch, with ingredients we'd never heard of, together. We fixed PF Changs lettuce wraps and mongolian beef for supper in our kitchen that night. One night we went to the free musical put on by First Baptist Church Marion. (always a good time) Another night we were at his parent's house and we drove through a maze of Christmas lights in the convertible covered up with a blanket. We went out to eat and Christmas shopping for B one night. I can remember being in Marion at Sam's and Bryton was fussing. We were taking turns carrying him and feeding him through Sams that night. We laughed so hard about that. The memories are so good.
This year will be two years from that Christmas, and last year we didn't do the 12 dates. Life was busy, time was short, Bryton was older so it was harder to take him on some of those dates, or him to be 'home' for those dates and them still seem like 'dates, so we resorted back to just the ho hum of gift giving. (Ahem, okay, I'm not going to lie, I love gift giving. I love the shopping ahead of time, I love the hustle bustle, I love the wrapping presents, and how they look under the tree, I love the surprise of it, I love seeing people's faces when they open a gift from us... I just love it.)
So this year I was thinking about it. Technically we can 'afford' to buy gifts for each other this year, and, like stated above, I like buying gifts for each other. But, I thoroughly enjoyed the 12 dates of Christmas that we did just a couple years back. SO - we've decided to combine the two. Aaron and I are going to buy for each other, but we'll find a way to do it in moderation. This year, well add to the 12 'dates' of Christmas by including Bryton in some of the festivities. Maybe Aaron and I will both choose 6 things each, but we'll include Bryton in four of those (so we don't have to spend a ton on sitters). I'm thinking things like decorating cookies as a family, going to do lights together as a family, of course I'd love to do FBC Marion's Christmas play again, etc. etc. Some things we may be able to do after Bryton goes to bed, like do a movie or video game night, but one way or another, it's a tradition I'd like to keep around as long as kids allow it. I hope it's something that they can look forward to as much as mom and dad do.
Family traditions are very important to me. Even when Aaron and I were dating we'd get the house all dimmed down, put some Christmas music on, and get something sweet or Christmasy smelling the house up and decorate the Christmas tree together. I look forward to that again this year.
I believe some of God's greatest blessings are the times we get to spend with each other, after all, Aaron and Bryton (and baby 2) are gifts given to me by my heavenly father. After all, they both have taught me so much more about Him than I could have ever learned on my own.
That being said, I'm so thoroughly excited to enjoy some memory making this year with my family! Yet another blessing.
-a
Monday, October 4, 2010
Groupon!
I'm not sure if any of you are already signed up for this site, but if you aren't you should be! I've actually been a member for quite some time, but I've really just started watching the site and buying in on some of the deals.
The 'just' of it is this: If companies know that a lot of people are going to buy something, they can sale the product less expensively because they know they will still make a profit on it. Also, it's exposing their product to a lot of people. The way groupon works is that a company makes 'available' a deal and offers it on the groupon.com site (there are others out there as well). The company requires a certain number of people to 'buy in' to a deal for the deal to be 'on', but as soon as that number is reached the deal becomes effective. Make sure you read all of the print because the groupons do expire, though I've not found any groupon deals that have insanely fast expiration dates. There are also periods that you must wait before being able to use your groupon, but it's usually a processing time period of a day or two. That being said, here are my most recent deals:
The other day there was a groupon for buycostumes.com. (NOTE: Groupon separates their websites by city, so I usually just look at the St. Louis deals, but this one was in Baltimore. If they are online deals, you don't have to be in the 'area' to purchase and use them!) The groupon was $30 towards the website (which couldn't include taxes or shipping), but you paid just $15. I've been struggling on what to make us all for halloween, when I decided with a chance at half off costumes I should go check it out. I'm not going to lie, I looked at kids costumes for like an hour, then womens, then mens... when finally I found a Buddy the Elf costume in the men's category for almost 70% off for that day only! I saw that it was still available and remembered that there was a Happy Holly Days costume in the women's section that I could 'dress up' to look like Jovie during her days in the department store. I quickly bought the groupon, used it, and spent $7 to get those two costumes to our door!
Here is the costume I bought for Aaron (it was just $22 the day I ordered it!). He's safe, no tights. And here is the costume I bought for myself. $10! Granted, I need some tights and a Santa hat to make the costume really what I want it to be, but that's where groupon number 2 comes in!
So, today, I noticed there was a groupon for costumehub.com with the same criteria. $15 for $30 in merchandise, so I decided to head on over to costumehub to see if they had any of the costumes I've been looking at for Bryton to fit our theme (a Santa or a Snowman... though we really wanted to try to find an Elf to make him one of us). So, I'm checking out their website and I find all of these costumes well within the $30 range on their website! In fact, they were all cheap enough that I could add my red tights and my Santa hat and be just at $30, even for the most expensive costume! So, it's looking like Bryton is going to be an Elf just like us!
Lastly, I've been dying to go to some movies lately. Bryton is finally old enough where he can be watched without any fear of getting a phone call (okay, he's been old enough for this for about 15 months now), and I'd say it's time for us to go enjoy some dates at the movie theater. There's a groupon in Jacksonville today that is $20 for 4 movie theater tickets! The cool thing, they don't expire until January 5, you don't have to use them all in the same trip, and the tickets come from fandango or movietickets.com, so 98% of theaters are included! The tickets are ALSO good for imax or 3d showings! You can't beat $5 for a good Christmas 3d movie! I'm so excited I can't hardly wait! So we bought into those too! A good movie is hard to pass up :)
Go check out and sign up for groupon now! Check out this link!
-a
The 'just' of it is this: If companies know that a lot of people are going to buy something, they can sale the product less expensively because they know they will still make a profit on it. Also, it's exposing their product to a lot of people. The way groupon works is that a company makes 'available' a deal and offers it on the groupon.com site (there are others out there as well). The company requires a certain number of people to 'buy in' to a deal for the deal to be 'on', but as soon as that number is reached the deal becomes effective. Make sure you read all of the print because the groupons do expire, though I've not found any groupon deals that have insanely fast expiration dates. There are also periods that you must wait before being able to use your groupon, but it's usually a processing time period of a day or two. That being said, here are my most recent deals:
The other day there was a groupon for buycostumes.com. (NOTE: Groupon separates their websites by city, so I usually just look at the St. Louis deals, but this one was in Baltimore. If they are online deals, you don't have to be in the 'area' to purchase and use them!) The groupon was $30 towards the website (which couldn't include taxes or shipping), but you paid just $15. I've been struggling on what to make us all for halloween, when I decided with a chance at half off costumes I should go check it out. I'm not going to lie, I looked at kids costumes for like an hour, then womens, then mens... when finally I found a Buddy the Elf costume in the men's category for almost 70% off for that day only! I saw that it was still available and remembered that there was a Happy Holly Days costume in the women's section that I could 'dress up' to look like Jovie during her days in the department store. I quickly bought the groupon, used it, and spent $7 to get those two costumes to our door!
Here is the costume I bought for Aaron (it was just $22 the day I ordered it!). He's safe, no tights. And here is the costume I bought for myself. $10! Granted, I need some tights and a Santa hat to make the costume really what I want it to be, but that's where groupon number 2 comes in!
So, today, I noticed there was a groupon for costumehub.com with the same criteria. $15 for $30 in merchandise, so I decided to head on over to costumehub to see if they had any of the costumes I've been looking at for Bryton to fit our theme (a Santa or a Snowman... though we really wanted to try to find an Elf to make him one of us). So, I'm checking out their website and I find all of these costumes well within the $30 range on their website! In fact, they were all cheap enough that I could add my red tights and my Santa hat and be just at $30, even for the most expensive costume! So, it's looking like Bryton is going to be an Elf just like us!
Bryton's Halloween Costume!
If you haven't done your halloween costume shopping yet, I suggest you go check out their website and the groupon which is the side deal on St. Louis' today! Lastly, I've been dying to go to some movies lately. Bryton is finally old enough where he can be watched without any fear of getting a phone call (okay, he's been old enough for this for about 15 months now), and I'd say it's time for us to go enjoy some dates at the movie theater. There's a groupon in Jacksonville today that is $20 for 4 movie theater tickets! The cool thing, they don't expire until January 5, you don't have to use them all in the same trip, and the tickets come from fandango or movietickets.com, so 98% of theaters are included! The tickets are ALSO good for imax or 3d showings! You can't beat $5 for a good Christmas 3d movie! I'm so excited I can't hardly wait! So we bought into those too! A good movie is hard to pass up :)
Go check out and sign up for groupon now! Check out this link!
-a
Now is a Great time to Coupon at kroger!
Mega Events at Kroger are always my kind of thing, and its seemed over the summer it's been really hard to find those great deals in our area. You know, the ones that almost surprise you when you see how much all of that is really going to cost you.
Well: for those of you who have any coupons on hand, and even those of you who don't, this Kroger event is worth your time!
Right now Kroger has a "buy 10 participating items and get $5 off of your overall total" sale, making for some really inexpensive items, especially if paired with coupons. Here's what my shopping consisted of yesterday. (BTW, this completed my menu plan for the next 10 days, minus another trip to buy some fresh produce, namely fruit, in between. So the total you see reflects the cost to feed our family for a week and a half as we are eating a lot of what we already have in cabinets.)
1. Sara Lee Honey Wheat bread (our favorite, just .99 with the deal, normally like 2.17!)
2. 1 Gallon 100% Apple Juice (Kroger brand)
3. - 4. Microwavable Mac n cheese (makes good lunch side dishes.. this is 3 and 4 because I got 2 of them)
5. Turkey Bacon
6. Stouffers Family Sized Frozen Lasagna meal
7. 8. 9. & 10. Green Giant Fresh Valley Steamers Frozen Vegetables
11. Chips Ahoy Reeses Cup Cookies
12. Lemon (for the lemon water I drink constantly)
13. & 14. Two cans of Kroger fruit (in fruit juice, NOT syrup)
15. 1 lb of hamburger
16. 1/2 gallon of Vitamin D Milk
17. 18. 19. 20. 21 - Philadelphia Cream Cheese (I know I know, it's five sticks of cream cheese, but these cost me ZERO out of pocket, and actually they paid me .05 to take them, so I did. We'll be having some taco dip one day, may make Aaron some dip he likes with jalepeno jelly or sweet pepper relish, we'll have cherry delight I'm sure, and I can make heaven. We'll definitely use this before it expires at the end of January!)
22. & 23. 2 containers of Oscar Meyer Deli Fresh meat (ham and turkey)
24. & 25. New York Garlic Bread (Got one garlic bread and one breadstick... these go great as sides with italian food or with a plain seasoned chicken meal with a veggie and fruit as a side)
26. 1 Package Nestle Tollhouse White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
27. Wheat Thins new Honey Wheat Snack Styx
There you have it: 27 items
My out of pocket cost for all of these items (and the food to feed my family + lots of Snack / special occasion food + lots of stockpile items) = $26! I paid less than $1 per item!
I have a few other coupons I'd like to use (including the Nabisco coupon that is on their facebook page today, which will count two items towards another 10 and I'll get one of the chips ahoy cookies for .99 and I'll get the other one free!) so I'll be heading back to Kroger this week to get some jello, 2 more bags of frozen veggies, two more things of cookies to bake, two more things of chips ahoy cookies, probably another loaf of bread, and a couple other things. May as well stock up for next to nothing while I can!
It's a good time to be a Kroger shopper!
-a
Well: for those of you who have any coupons on hand, and even those of you who don't, this Kroger event is worth your time!
Right now Kroger has a "buy 10 participating items and get $5 off of your overall total" sale, making for some really inexpensive items, especially if paired with coupons. Here's what my shopping consisted of yesterday. (BTW, this completed my menu plan for the next 10 days, minus another trip to buy some fresh produce, namely fruit, in between. So the total you see reflects the cost to feed our family for a week and a half as we are eating a lot of what we already have in cabinets.)
1. Sara Lee Honey Wheat bread (our favorite, just .99 with the deal, normally like 2.17!)
2. 1 Gallon 100% Apple Juice (Kroger brand)
3. - 4. Microwavable Mac n cheese (makes good lunch side dishes.. this is 3 and 4 because I got 2 of them)
5. Turkey Bacon
6. Stouffers Family Sized Frozen Lasagna meal
7. 8. 9. & 10. Green Giant Fresh Valley Steamers Frozen Vegetables
11. Chips Ahoy Reeses Cup Cookies
12. Lemon (for the lemon water I drink constantly)
13. & 14. Two cans of Kroger fruit (in fruit juice, NOT syrup)
15. 1 lb of hamburger
16. 1/2 gallon of Vitamin D Milk
17. 18. 19. 20. 21 - Philadelphia Cream Cheese (I know I know, it's five sticks of cream cheese, but these cost me ZERO out of pocket, and actually they paid me .05 to take them, so I did. We'll be having some taco dip one day, may make Aaron some dip he likes with jalepeno jelly or sweet pepper relish, we'll have cherry delight I'm sure, and I can make heaven. We'll definitely use this before it expires at the end of January!)
22. & 23. 2 containers of Oscar Meyer Deli Fresh meat (ham and turkey)
24. & 25. New York Garlic Bread (Got one garlic bread and one breadstick... these go great as sides with italian food or with a plain seasoned chicken meal with a veggie and fruit as a side)
26. 1 Package Nestle Tollhouse White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
27. Wheat Thins new Honey Wheat Snack Styx
There you have it: 27 items
My out of pocket cost for all of these items (and the food to feed my family + lots of Snack / special occasion food + lots of stockpile items) = $26! I paid less than $1 per item!
I have a few other coupons I'd like to use (including the Nabisco coupon that is on their facebook page today, which will count two items towards another 10 and I'll get one of the chips ahoy cookies for .99 and I'll get the other one free!) so I'll be heading back to Kroger this week to get some jello, 2 more bags of frozen veggies, two more things of cookies to bake, two more things of chips ahoy cookies, probably another loaf of bread, and a couple other things. May as well stock up for next to nothing while I can!
It's a good time to be a Kroger shopper!
-a
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