Three Sisters A Shop

Have I ever told you how many cousins Jack has?  He has 8 cousins.  This may seem like a standard amount of cousins to grow up with, or it may even seem like very few to you.  But to me, it seems like a lot.  Until I was in high school, I had 2 cousins.  TWO! And they were about 16 years older than me.    Then, 20 years ago, my youngest cousin was born, and I now have a total of 3 first cousins.  That made for very small family gatherings growing up. 

Jack will grow up with different family dynamics.  Thanks to my sister, he has two cousins on my side of the family.  And thanks to my husband’s sister and brother, he has 6 cousins and counting.  Our family gatherings with Rick’s side of the family are much bigger (and louder) than my side.  Here is a look at all the cousins on that side:

 

Aren’t they beautiful?  (pardon the littlest girl’s skin…she had fun putting ‘makeup’ on that day with some markers she found) Thanks to our newest member, the boys aren’t so out numbered like they used to be!  It’s going to be fun watching those boys grow up together.

The three oldest girls are possibly the most creative girls I know.  They are also the most talented girls.  They write, draw, paint, take pictures, knit, crochet, and who knows what else?!  The oldest has a passion for all things British.  She is planning to study in England someday (hopefully at the end of this year). That isn’t cheap, as we all know, so she and 2 of her sisters have created an Etsy shop to sell their creative wares. This will help her (and any of the others if they can someday) get to England to study and work.

Want to see what they make? Here’s a sample:

Look at how cute these little dolls are!  Aren’t they adorable?

And these little animals.  So sweet!

 

They also make paper crafts like these flower  balls. They’re bright and fun!

These notecards are all personally hand drawn by the youngest of the three sisters.

Head on over to Three Sisters A Shop on Etsy to check out everything they have to offer.  I’m so proud to be their aunt, and I couldn’t be happier to advertise for them here.  I can’t wait to hear all about her trip to England…we’ll be able to swap stories then!

Homemade Cereal Bars

I’ve been experimenting a lot with making every day food from scratch.  I’ve made pasta, bread, hamburger buns and pizza dough to name just a few.  It’s my new fun thing to do.  I’m finding that I love to cook – not only because it’s a huge money saver!

My latest adventure was homemade cereal bars.  I found a simple recipe online, and went with that.  I’m sure there are a ton of recipes out there, some healthier than others, so please don’t feel that this is the end all, be all recipe for cereal bars.   While I made these bars, I channeled The Pioneer Woman and took pictures along the way.  Enjoy my point and click/no touch up photos!

First, start with oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and baking soda. 

 

Then cut in a stick and a half of butter (this isn’t the healthiest recipe out there, I’m sure)

When your pastry cutter doesn’t work, use your hands, then a fork, then the pastry cutter, and then a fork again to cut in the butter.  After about ten minutes, it should all be combined nicely. *sigh*

 

Press half of the mix into the bottom of a pan, size unknown.  I went with a medium sized pan, and it was TOO SMALL.  I had leftovers.  I would imagine this would fit in a regular, large baking dish.

 

Spread your sister’s HOMEMADE BLACKBRERY JAM on the first layer.  YUM!  Talk about completely homemade!  It was a little tricky getting the jam spread to the edges, but I managed pretty well.

Spread the remaining mix over the jam.  Make sure everything is covered.  Bake for 30 min at 350.

Make a powdered sugar and cinnamon glaze (RICH!), and drizzle that over the bars when they are still warm.  Let cool, then cut into bars.

 

If you have extra mix, because you didn’t know what size pan to use, make a mini batch in a small baking dish.  But don’t use your sister’s homemade strawberry jam, because it wasn’t completely set up and ended up making a mushy mess.  A YUMMY mushy mess, but still a spoonable, mushy mess.

So, there you have it.  Pretty easy.  Jack LOVED the strawberry mess.  It’s pretty sweet with that glaze drizzled on top.  I stored the bars in the refrigerator, and am eating it for a mid-morning snack this week.  You know, the post breakfast, pre lunch meal.  Everyone has those, right??

What other everyday convenient food can I make from scratch?

Becoming Thrifty

Since I’ve become a SAHM, and since we’ve gone from two really good incomes to one pretty good income, I’ve done a lot of things to try and save our family money.  It’s been a ‘baby-steps’ process for me, but it’s coming along, if I do say so myself.  I was inspired by this post by a woman who’s blog I’ve read for a year or so now.  She listed how her grocery list has become shorter (and therefore cheaper) because of all the food she’s making from scratch now.   Here are just a few things that I do to save us money.

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  We use cloth diapers.  I LOVE them, and I could go on and on about how adorable, easy, and practical they are,  but I’ll spare you my spiel.  After just a year, we’ve already saved money on diapers. 
• 
  
  I am starting to make my own bread now.  I have gone through spurts of making bread, but they never seem to last.  I usually get discouraged, because we eat the bread so quickly, that I end up making bread every other day. It seems the time I save from having to make it every other day is worth the cost of the healthy bread from the store.  But really it isn’t.  Bread without high fructose corn syrup is expensive!  Organic anything is expensive!  So, if I make it myself, we get the healthy bread for a fraction of the cost.  Hopefully I’ll stick with it this time.
• 
  
  I’ve finally figured out how to make yummy garlic bread on my own.  It may be a no-brainer, but it took me a bit of experimenting to figure it out.  I add a couple cloves of minced garlic and some Italian seasoning to melted butter, brush it on my bread, then broil it until toasted.  SO SIMPLE!  But I couldn’t get it figured out for a long time.  Garlic powder just doesn’t work the same.  I imagine it would be even better if I roasted my garlic, but who has the time for that?
• 
  
  My newest adventure is making my own pasta.  I’m not there yet.  I have only tried it once, and it needs some work.  But I can tell that this could become a good thing for us.  It’s fun to make it, super fast and easy, and I’m hoping worth the effort.  We’ll see.  I may have to get back to you on this one.
• 
  
  Rick has always made his own cocoa mix.  He uses cocoa powder and sugar.  Imagine that.  It really is simple, and he makes it by the glass, so I don’t have to worry about storing it.  It’s a small thing, but in the winter time, it saves us a bit of change.
• 
  
  I make my own pancake mix.  I’ve found a yummy Buttermilk Pancake recipe mix that I love.  I suppose it’s not all that healthy, but it’s homemade, so it saves us money.  I should make a whole wheat recipe, but that’s going to take a little time.  Saving money is my first priority, then eating healthy is the second. (at least when it comes to yummy pancakes!)
• 
  
  One big thing I try to do is not eat out at all.  Dinners are easy enough for me.  I meal plan and have a good dinner every night.  But lunches are another thing.  Jack and I go out almost every day, and it’s such a temptation for me to stop at a drive thru and get something quick to eat.  I take it one month at a time.  I don’t stop for anything for a month, reward myself with a fast food lunch, then do it again for another month.  I know, it’s a little corny, but it works for me.

This list seems simple enough, but I think it’s helping us in the long run.  Rick said we came in under budget for the month of January!  Now, I could go through another list, just as long of how I’m NOT saving us money –like every time I return something to Walmart I spend even more money on other things.  But let’s not focus on the negative, and stay proud of the positive. We may switch to cloth napkins someday and even stop (or cut WAY back on) using paper towels.  That’d save us money, right?

What else can I do to save us money?  Any suggestions?

If you read this entire post, you should be rewarded…so here are two pictures from Jack playing (really he just stood there) in the snow yesterday.