Things that make my day to day life easier

There are  few things that i have learned as i have become a wife and mother...

one of the things that has helped has been to menu plan.

in the years past i've always done a weekly menu plan and then gorcery shopped to that plan.

 

oh the agonizing through my cookbooks, magazines, online blogs, and most recently pinterest...

everything that looks just amazing! and my mouth salivates with every turn of the page or click of the button...nom nom nom....

 

within the last year we varied our weekly menu to themes, every dinner had a different theme. for example, monday is a pasta dish, tuesday beans and or rice... ect.

 

now, with our craziness of homeschooling, one car, multiple baby dr apts, and the heat... oh my the heat... (side note, we've lived in the south for the last 7 years, but the humidity and heat, well i'm not sure it ever gets any easier to bear... even at the bottom of florida.)

 

well i just can't take all the time and energy every week to decide what's for dinner anymore.

now i have a "friend" to help :)

meet my meal planning notebook :)

I discovered this about a year ago on pinterest and finally printed it out... i've tweaked it some though.

I've decided on a monthly meal plan. and it takes just about the same time for the whole month as it did for just one week.

 

here's our month for september:

Mondays: Pasta

Tuesdays: Beans &/or Rice

Wednesdays: Salad/Soup/Potatoes

Thursdays: Breakfast

Friday: Pizza

Saturday and Sunday: these are filled with leftovers and

 a yummy meat dish that is a little more fancy

On each day I have written the dinner in for each day as well as where I can find the recipe if I own the book, or magazine.  If I have found it online I print it off and I have a folder insert that i keep the monthly calander in, and then I put it in the pocket behind the calendar.  I also write the date that I plan to use if for on the top.

(is this making any sense?)

 

This is just the back of the binder...

 

After the folder with the calander and the recipes, i have the weekly meals printed out (found on pinterest)

 

we plan out breakfasts much like our dinners:

Muffin Mondays

and Waffle Wednesdays (we actually do pancakes since we no

longer have a walffle maker sniff sniff)

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are cereal or oatmeal

saturdays and sundays we do a little something more since

we now have 11:00 services.

every morning we have yogurt protein smoothies as well...

(a recipe I use from Green Smoothie Girl, her's is kefir, but we use greek yogurt and almond milk)

 

For simplicity our lunches everyday are the same,

Green Smoothies, peanut butter and jelly/honey sandwiches or salad.

 

Well then after I have figured out all the dinners, i just transfer it over and on the right hand side make my grocery list :) all the lists are written and plans are made at one time and then i just have to shop :) which in and of itself is one major feat as well... i haven't quite gotten that one down.

 

and just for fun here is the blank slate for october! I can't wait to fill it in with all the fun and yummy halloween dinners:)

 

Am I the only one who gets excited about food???? well, besides the MWBFF ;)

I'm not saying we're perfect... some nights don't go as planned but eh, we can only do so much :)

but without a plan we don't get very far...

hopefully this can help you too or at least give ideas or motivation :)

fun in pennsylvania with the neves :)

So bear with me as I try and catch this silly blog up so all 2 of you who check on us occasionally will know what we've been up to :)

We decided (and when I say "we" i really mean "I, or me") that it was about time for me to get my MWBFF fix.  So that meant we needed to head up to PA for some time with the neves.

The week right after the kids got out of school I headed off to girls camp (separate post to come...) and then the monday after that we headed up to maryland to see some other much needed friends (again, another post) and for brad to have a campus visit with the University of Maryland (and again, another post included with the maryland friends :)

So, after we got to the neves, we had to go check out ben's campus where he works in York, PA.

 (can you see kempton in the back???) we have Jamison, TJ, Natalie, and Sarahbeth

Ben showing the kids around some more... and how to go down the steps the proper way :)

There was a little creek/stream that the kids got to play in... cause it sure was hot!

Joseph chillin' in the ride...

 trying his hand at whistling with the grass

 annalie getting some sick/tired baby j love

 We also checked out Browns, an awesome farmers market type place where they grow pretty much everything there and it's super delish!

 We also headed over to a dairy farm where the kids got to pet the new calves and ben even let us sample some of his special ice cream he bought :) mmmmmmmm.

 Most of the time we just did what we do best, hang out and enjoy each other :)

ben reading to kempton and natalie

 i just love how he sleeps :)

except that night before he didn't...

 brad and i took turns holding him and bouncing with him all night... 

it was a very sleepless night and we felt so bad for our hosts...

 kids chilling while we were packing things up...

 The kids got along like they hadn't ever been apart... which was nice :)

and i know mine can't wait to see jamison and natalie again!

They had fun catching all the fireflies too... and we had a bbq one night when we got to catch up with the palmers too... but i guess we forgot to take pictures.  But it was like a little tuscalooosa reunion :)

a very very fun time :)

Hospital vs Birthing Center

Sorry for not having kept everyone up to date, but when things happened they happened fast, (I will blog about that eventually...) and i just now feel like our family is calming down and getting on a routine... for the next 3 months at least, then that will all go out the window when our newest baby arrives, sometime around thanksgiving and tj's birthday :)

which brings me to the topic of this post.  this new baby :)

For the last 6 years (and 2 babies) we have lived in states that have not allowed midwives to practice, so it was hospital birthing with the traditional ob/gyn.  which was fine with me.  we'd done that with sb and tj, in the hospital, with pitocin, and epidurals, and with kempton too... however after kempton i had really become more interested in hypnobirthing.  I have several friends who had used this method and was really intrigued. I used it, or what i could of it having just the book, and really had a great experience (as i blogged about with joseph's birth.) however, now, living in sunny florida, there are midwives galore!

At first I thought, my ideal would be a hospital water-birth using hypnobirthing with a midwife.  I went to check out the local hospital, just down the street from the library and only a few miles from our apt.  It was originally built to be a resort, because they didn't know if they would need another hospital in the area... turns out they did so when you walk in there's all this greenery and water features and glass elevators and all the floors open up around the lobby (they call it the atrium).

And while midwives having attending privileges at the hospital, water birthing does not :( they do have Jacuzzi tubs however :) While searching for the recommended ob offices with midwives i happened upon the local birthing center here... just a few miles the other way from us.  I took a little jaunt over to the website and have almost fallen completely in love with it... but i still don't know if this is the way i want to go... it took a little bit to get brad ok with it but now he's on board with whatever i feel most comfortable with.

a friend just posted about her helpful usage of the infamous pros and cons list, which i think i will do here, as well as ask y'all for your input on anything i might have missed for either list :)

Hospital Pros:

1.  has a neonatal unit right there in the hospital... no transfers needed if something were wrong
2.  when you walk in the doors for the maternity ward are titled "Birthday Suite" which is super cute... and the triage nurse i met with was really friendly. (but i know that shifts end and unfriendly ones can come on at any time...
3. 2 days of all about me and baby? i don't have to cook, or clean up, or help with other children?
4. it's a comfort zone... i've done it 4 other times, i know what to expect...
5. having extra days in the hospital with other hands helping, there were a few issues with kempton that it was nice having nurses right there to make sure all was well.

Birthing center pros

1. They actually promote and encourage a combination of hypno AND water birthing and have uber awesome tubs for this.
2. stay to have our baby and recovery, then SLEEP in our own bed at night!
3. the midwife comes to our home 2 days later to check on everyone...
4. this office has it's own chiropractor!
5. I can take my kids to the center for my appointments, they have a tv and toy area! (this is nice since brad's schedule most likely won't allow for him to get off to watch the kids, and we haven't quite made the connections or good enough friends here yet for me to say, hey will ya watch my 4 kids while i go to an apt for a while?)
6. Won't have to find anyone to watch the kids overnight so brad can stay with me, (because if i feel awkward even asking someone to watch all 4 for a couple hours, uhm asking for an overnight seems 100 times more awkward.) ... even though my mom IS planning on coming out for thanksgiving... babies sometimes keep to their own schedule...
7. the center is super close to another hospital should anything go wrong, not the children's one so if something was SUPER wrong there would be yet another transfer, but that goes on the cons list...
8. actual face/talk time during my appointments, not rushing between people trying to rememeber who i am and what we talked about last time...
9. someone actually understanding what I want!
10. cost???

Hospital Cons

1. the beds.... I can't believe that used to be my favorite part about having a baby (besides the obvious having the baby ;) with joseph i couldn't get comfortable... the plastic mattress just smelled...
2. iv's! i hate iv's.... so restrictive. and then so easy for them to put stuff in you without you knowing... oh they tell you alright, but while i'm in the middle of laboring i'm not really paying too much attention to what you're saying... 
3. the nurses i've been told do a lot of behind your back talking about you...
4. the dr... you don't always deliver with your dr... (happened to us with joseph...wasn't horrible, just would have preferred dr myers...love her still!)
5. this hospital you labor, deliver and have your recovery in one room and then move to another for the rest of your stay... i'd rather stay in one place and be done... sb's was done this way too, again, not a deal breaker, but not on my pros list.
6. hospital food... hmmmm. the last hospital was pretty decent....but i don't know about here.
7. Having to continually remind the nurses no gunky stuff for the eyes and no shots yet! (i'm not entirely against vaccines, but I hold them off, with joseph i didn't plan to start till 9 months but he kept getting sick and then we found out he was allergic to everything INCLUDING eggs, which plays a big part in developing the vaccines... thank goodness i'm learning how to be an assertive mom!)

Birthing Center Cons

1. unknowns...never used one before... like i said our comfort zone...
2. i know it's on the pros list, but it also could be a con, having to recover at home... it's kinda nice to have just baby and mom/dad time without the other kids being right there and on top of everything...you know, have them come in a little here and a little there...
3.  cost??? ( i write this here because our insurance doesn't kick in until september 1st and we don't have all the details of maternity costs yet...)

I'm sure there are more for each list... but as it is so late i'm just going round and round in my head.

If you're at all interested the website fore the birth center is here.  let me know what ya think!

and because every post needs some pics ;)

26 weeks and the most recent of the kids

tomorrow...

Joseph will be 11 months.  The next day He and I fly out together to visit my mom and try and be of some help or cheer while she is going through her radiation treatments.  just after we get back marks a one year anniversary of our pure chaos summer from last year beginning with the tornado and almost delivering a baby that same day, worrying over friends and how to help them,  to whirlwind interviews and campus visits with a job offer and house hunt, renter-finding and moving with a newborn...

We still haven't fully settled in here at the house we are renting... partially due to the fact that the lease ends in less than 90 days, and mostly due that it has a few issues that i just haven't been able to come to terms with.  either way, chaos still abounds here, and i just can't seem to get a handle on it.  We're still in job hunt mode and moving mode, this time with a 1 year old... which is MOST DEFINITELY harder than with a newborn.  We're back into renter finder mode or house selling mode, and once again trying to deal with emotions of coming to terms with leaving a wonderful area that has become home to us with friends that have become family.  I keep thinking back to the part in the steve martin movie Parenthood where the grandma talks about roller coasters vs merry go rounds... i feel like we are on a never ending roller coaster, and just for a brief moment would really like a merry go round ride...Oh well... I'm just grateful that despite everything we still have a tomorrow.

Dix

I know it's been forever and a day since I've posted and I'm sorry... We have just been super busy with life! Which seems to be happening super fast!

Joseph turned 10 months this past Sunday and while I'm sure no one is even reading this blog anymore I wanted to do some kind of record keeping since I never finished binding the baby book I made for Joseph :( so sorry baby # 4...

Anyways, as if yesterday He has two bottom teeth and the top middle two jut broke through the the two on the side of those have the blisters...

He finally started sitting by himself... Allowing himself to actually bend... At the beginning of nine months! He was pulling himself up and walking around the furniture by eight months and has been doing this "worm" scoot thing since five months and then progresses to a bear crawl around 9 months and just recently mastered the traditional crawl...as long as he's on a soft surface :)

He is all bottles now, he was done nursing by 7-7 1/2 months due to some of my own health issues... He LOVES bananas, sweet potatoes and avocados...

He finally sleeps through the night from about 7-8 at night till about 5:30/6 in the morning with 2 2-hour naps throughout the day, one starting around 9 and the other starting around 2...

He also babbles a LOT! And the one constant "word" he uses is AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! He squeals... Soooo high pitched that you can literally feel the hairs in your ear vibrate and it hurts! He uses that for every eeee mmmoooo shun he has...
Happy
Sad
Angry
Bored
Wants to get attention
Wants something you have
Wants something you don't have
......
Yikes that is one I can't wait for home to outgrow!

But he is the happiest go lucky baby ever! At church I serve in the youth program and he just get passed around between all the kids and they just love him! As do his brothers and sister!

He and Kempton share a room and often I will go in and either Kempton will be in the crib playing with him, or Kempton has gotten him out of the crib himself or Joseph will be standing in his crib and jumping with a huge smile on his face playing with Kempton ...

What a sweet family I have been blessed with!