Yay, I'm back!! Trying to eat healthier while using up shtuff I have on hand and also incorporating fall veggies into our dinners. Mmm! I LOVE Autumn!

Sunday- Garlic & Thyme White Bean Soup, Toasted Sourdough Bread, Salad

Monday- Spaghetti Squash w/Pine Nuts, Sage and Romano cheese, Garlic Bread, Salad

Tuesday- Homemade Refried Beans & Cheese Burritos, Corn-on-the-cob, Peaches

Wednesday- Meatballs, Basmati Rice and Orange Baked Sweet Dumpling Squash

Thursday- Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Fresh Green beans in olive oil and garlic

Friday- Pizza (Little Caesars Pizza for now hehe)

Saturday- Leftovers from the week!

Please excuse the mess. I need to redo this place. Been a while and it's going to take me a while.

In the meantime....please check out my previous post as it contains pictures of our newest darling!

Amy

Or it was suppose to be. A trip to the ER last week with my 2 year old (she's ok. she ate a pokeberry and we panicked) resulted in her bringing home a cold virus. Totally awesome. So far the 3 oldest have it, I hope the baby doesn't get it at all. We'll see how the 6 year old is when he gets up and then decide if school is a good idea today.

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Trying to get our spending down even further. I am confident that I am not the only one doing that right now! So glad that I decided to go ahead and cloth diaper again but this time buying my own prefolds and washing them myself. So far it's been super easy and I even splurged and bought a wool soaker and a pair of wool longies. I get them tomorrow. I am stoked. I will take a picture of her in the longie- I am extra excited about that one! As this is our last baby- I can only justify buying one of each. Hope it's enough.

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Being a mom to four is kah-razy! Not hard per se...but very busy. The 6 year old is a pretty good helper though. And enforcing chores and picking up after oneself has become a very apparent MUST. I will no longer respond to the question...So what do YOU do?....with a vague..."oh I am only a stay at home mom". Pshaw! Between homeschooling, caring for four kids 6 and under, being a wife, homemaker, financial manager etc....the word 'only' in front of stay at home mom has got to GO! LOL

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Here's my precious baby girl. She is 2 1/2 weeks old. We are all doing great!

This is the picture I chose to use for announcements. We lub her lots!

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I love this one of her crying. I got a little camera happy. I'll share some of my other children soon!

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Have a blessed week!

Amy

Skye was born September 11, 2008 after an amazing 4 hour non-induced and epidural free labor (I went into labor the day of my induction- God is sooo good!). She was 21 inches long and weighed 9 pounds and 2 ounces. A real cutie! The labor in and of itself was definitely covered by the Lord. All my other labors were awful. Lots of pitocin, adrenaline drugs for my low b/p, vaccum to help baby's head pop out of the canal....oh on and on. I also painfull labor for 2 days until i reach about 4cm and then from there I range from 9 hours all the way to 36 hours plus 1 to 3 hours of pushing. An epidural was not available as the epi-guy (lol) was in a c-section and couldn't get to me. I really thought God had abandoned me- I have never had such a hard fast labor- it was back labor too. some of you mamas will get how awful that was. Shew!

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But we had no idea when I was in my deepest pain that I had transitioned- I sensation I have never felt before. No words to describe it- but let's just say I do not wish to repeat it. rofl She was out in FIVE minutes after I felt that pain moms describe of needing to uhhh go big potty. No one could believe I was ready- especially my husband and I! It was soooo amazing and God may not have allowed an epidural, but he gave me a super fast labor. He definitely showed me that He answers His own way and that it is perfect. Thank you, Lord! I felt so happy that I was able to give my daughter such a great entrance to the world!

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Ok so enough about that. Only some people are interested in labor stories. I mostly shared because I am still in awe of how much God was there. My doula was amazing, my husband was amazing and my doctor was awesome. Even the nursing staff was awesome. It was just a really awesome experience.

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So Skye...our newest little addition. Does she have Down Syndrome?

The answer is...No. She does not.

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Isn't the Lord just....Amazing?

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'Nuff said.

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Thank you for your prayers and well wishes and for keeping up with me! We start my oldest in 2nd grade September 29th and I will be more active 'round here. Not super active, but more than I was. I am excited to begin 2nd grade with him. I feel much more organized this year even though I just had a baby.

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And on that note...please check out my side bar for a picture of Skye and I (me crying hehe) and of Skye sleeping. Enjoy!

Aww thanks so much for the prayers and well wishes! Because of them, I thought I should update a little bit. No baby yet. LOL I am due today and she doesn't appear ready to come out and play yet. Sooo....we have an induction scheduled for Thursday. Since that is her official eviction notice- hopefully she will decide to come out on her own. I hope so! I have been induced before and do not desire to visit that place again! Yipes!

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Hopefully next time you hear from me, Skye is home with us and all is well.

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As a reminder, we still not know if she has Down's yet or some other thing that could cause her to set off red flags with her bloodwork and ultrasound. So prayers for her, a save delivery and that the doctor, my husband and I make all the right decisions that keep her safe!

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Thank you all sooooo much!!

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On a side note....we have been on summer break since Mid-August and school will be back 'in session' September 29. My oldest will be starting 1st grade. My 4 1/2 year old will be doing some more organized activities but not school per se. He has self taught himself to write his own name and show interest in writing a few other words/numbers...so we'll be doing some early phonics stuff so that he can do those things, that he apparently enjoys. Altho he doesn't want to do 'school' so I will disguise the fact that it's 'work'. LOL

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May the Lord bless and keep you and your family!

I am 39 weeks and 1 day. Still waiting for Skye's arrival. Have a feeling she will be overdue as my other three were. Oh well! All in God's timing. My husband will be taking two weeks off after she arrives. One week using vacation pay and the other week, we will 'eat' no wages. We will only know after we have her, if she is alright or if she has special needs. God's hands.

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So...trying to eat as inexpensively BUT as easily as possible- I'm sooo tired! This week I am utilizing my pressure cooker for some steak chili, my crockpot for German Lentil Soup, a night of chicken nuggets & mac n cheese and then leftovers. Woohoo. Exciting week.

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Have a great week!

Monday- T-Bones, Smashed Baby Red Potatoes, Green Beans in Olive Oil/Garlic/Tarragon and Strapplesauce (applesauce with fresh pureed strawberries)

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Tuesday- Whole Wheat French Toast and Orange Juice

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Wednesday- Mexican Pizzas, Grilled Zucchini and Fresh Pineapple

(recipe calls for meat, we will omit meat)

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Thursday- Herb Roasted Chicken, Jasmine Rice, Fried Zucchini and Red Grapes

(I roast 2 chickens, we eat one for supper, make sandwiches with leftovers and shred the other chicken for weekend meals)

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Friday- Homemade Pizza and Ice Cream Cones for dessert!

(dessert not homemade lol)

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Saturday- Garlic & Herb White Bean Soup, Fresh Bread w/butter and a Veg

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Sunday- Chicken Sandwiches on Whole Wheat, Carrot Sticks, and Cantaloupe

Kids will opt for Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches

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We try to have sandwiches on Sundays. Easy on mom and little clean up. I now make all our beans in the pressure cooker. You get the most delectable beans from the pressure cooker. Perfect creamy texture, intact skins and the skins are never chewy. So wonderful! Refried beans-I like to cook pinto beans in the pressure cooker with some onion, garlic and cumin- then drain and mash adding some chicken broth  to thin for my desired consistency and salt for taste. Crazy good - and cheap!

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 I have also found that I like to cook  2 roaster chickens at once in my roaster oven (not my regular oven too hot for that and the roaster makes them so succulent almost like rotisserie). Sometimes I just freeze the other cooked chicken. My family seems to never tire just eating off the bird along with some bread and a veg and they are happy! And it's the cheapest way to buy chicken (.99/lb). I get thighs, wings, breasts...and all the dark meat my little heart desires. *wink* If I need to make a recipe that calls for parts I just hack it up myself- but like I said my family seems to prefer to just eat roasted chicken as it is.

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I also have a small garden going on and it's giving me tons of tomatoes and zucchini. So I haven't been buying much in the way of veggies. Just mostly eating the organic carrots from Costco (enormous bag for $5) and the zucchini. I buy salad fixin's still- well lettuce mostly. Fruit is our big expense I would say, right now. Summer fruit is our dessert- we partake a lot! hehe Watermelon, peaches....plums...pluots and altho it's not really a summer fruit (as it's imprted) we loveeeeee fresh pineapple. We eat it at least 2 times a month! And I have my pineapple and watermelon pickin' skills down to an art! Yum!

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Some non-food ways I have been using to save money are I bought a HUGE bucket of Charlie's Laundry Soap (the best detergent I have ever used), stopped buying fabric softener (don't need it), use baking soda and/or vinegar for nearly ALL my cleaning needs, use microfiber towels around the house to cut down on paper towel usage (I bought mine from Costco in the auto section- they are yellow and awesome and cheap and you can beat them up crazy- do not use fabric softener on them!), use damp  clean microfiber cloth to dust with, use cloth diapers (still have throw aways too!), use bar soap instead of gel (we use natural soap too), we don't go anywhere unless we have to (lol) to save on gas, we have been playing puzzles/tinker toys/wooden blocks/mega bloks/play doh/games/reading books/surfing the net and looking up random bug or animal factoids/lincoln logs/matchbox cars....and seriously...yes I mean WE. We play with the kids and we all have a great time even though we went....no where. Who knew! We also budget $20 monthly for a Blockbuster membership. We get our money's worth there! We rent 3 movies at a time (lotsa family friendly flicks!), walk them into the store and trade them in for 3 movie/game rentals (FREE) and bring them back when done and they send us next 3 movies on our queue. It's the one luxury we 'afford' because all of us going to the movies...is impossible. We can't afford it! So popcorn and movie nights are a good time here!

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(pssst....we'd go outside more but we live in Northern California and the smoke from all the hundreds of fires are so bad here that it is not healthy for lots of outdoor activities with little kids and an already out of breath pregnant woman so please know we do things outside when we can!)

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Many of these things most people already do. But these are things that are working for us. Cost of living is going up but my husband's wages haven't moved in 2 years. And we aren't holding our breath for a raise and we are adding on a new little person. LOL So I might get even more daring with my cutbacks as time goes on! Who knows?! =0)

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Hope everyone is having a fun summer!