Snuggly

Where has the last week gone to? I have a crawler, don't tell him that though, he is trying to walk. He moves and wiggles all over the place and gets into EVERYTHING. Baby proofing never had to happen with my older two boys, I told them no once, ok ok maybe twice, but still, they didn't get into it. C, lol, he is my little fire sign and he just laughs when mommy tells him no, then screams when I move him away from it to distract him. He has been SO clingy to me all week, including only napping if I hold him, that I haven't gotten anything accomplished in our home all week. I have a sling, two actually, but he wiggles and squirms and crawls his way right out of them. I want an Ergo, maybe with the birthday money I have saved I can get just that, if I can find a used one. Today we have discovered a new game, he cries when I set him down and giggles as soon as I pick him up, little stinker, he knows just how to tug mommy's heart strings.

So, organizing, well. . .we have worked on it, and it is coming along, just not as fast as I would have liked to see. If you remember from my last post I talked about wanting to work on a helper schedule, and I came up with a good one. Each boy has one different chore each night of the week, except for Sunday. Two chores if one is little, but no more than that. However, it has been a bit much to swallow, so we've come down to one thing. LAUNDRY. I have set specific days for laundry, so that we know what is done what day and no one is overwhelmed. J and D each have their own day to do laundry, one day is for C and myself, one for Sam, one for blankets, sheets and towels.  It has been working well so far, except I can't get MY laundry put away right now, but that is ok, I'll take the trade off of my snuggly little man, because I know very well that they don't stay like this for long.

Today, well today we're going to just snuggle and watch the snow fall.

Shades of Autumn Photo Challenge - Week Three

Orange. . . My favorite color of all!

Organization - My Twelve Step Program - Step One

For the month of October I have decided that our biggest challenge in our home is laundry. We tried to do all chores the first month. Mistake. So we've started with LAUNDRY. It piles up. . . everywhere. Dirty laundry, clean laundry, socks. . .we have so many clothes I have started to go through them and make boxes for our local women's shelter and for our local consignment store. We NEED to get rid of some of these clothes, especially since my older boys wear uniforms to school, and pretty much the same 3 outfits after school over the course of the week and on weekends. I'm pretty sure on a weekly basis, I rewash clean laundry that is still folded, at least once per child.

So here is the laundry schedule I have set up. Lets hope that we can all stick to it.

Laundry Schedule

Monday - Diapers, C & Mom’s clothes

Tuesday - Sam's clothes

Wednesday - D’s clothes & sheets

Thursday - J’ clothes & sheets

Friday - Diapers

Saturday - Blankets, Sheets & Towels

Sunday - REST


Wish us luck. . . :-)

Shades of Autumn Photo Challenge - Week Two

This week at Project Alicia the photo challenge is Yellow. This afternoon Sam and I got the kiddos out of the house for some MUCH needed fresh air time at the park, C and I walked (well, he crawled) around, explored and got out some of his Aries energy while the older boys played and Sam napped in the grass. I love Autumn!

Pumpkin Chip Cookies

All of my life my greatest memories involve family and food, those two things generally being combined.

Four years ago, when we were diagnosed with multiple food allergies depression set it. I didn't know what to do, in one visit with our naturalist we were told to stay away from gluten, animal dairy, corn, soy, potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, cane sugar and artificial colors and flavors (and eggs for J). BIG shock to the system. . .and a week before my D's birthday. The cake and ice cream we had in the freezer had to be given away, we had no ideas on how to handle his birthday, or the upcoming holidays. That first year was HARD.

The last few years we have gone through a lot of changes and we are constantly being introduced to new. New foods, new companies, new ways to bake and cook for holidays and seasons.

Autumn is my favorite season, hands down. The sights, the smells, pumpkin patches, hay rides, corn mazes, hot apple cider, and pumpkin chip cookies! I got an amazing cookie recipe from an old neighbor years ago, one that many of my friends have either begged me for, or begged me to make. After some tweaking and swapping to make everything allergy friendly, here is the recipe. I hope you enjoy!



Ingredients

2/3 c. brown rice flour
1/3 c. millet flour
1/2 c. sorghum flour
1/2 c. tapioca starch
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan or guar gum

Mix together dry ingredients, then add in:

1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 tsp almond milk
1 c. fresh, creamed or canned pumpkin
1/2 c. light olive oil
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. molasses
1c. carob or chocolate chips
pecans for top (if you like them)


Your mix is going to be very sticky, coat your hands in some of the same oil you used in the batter and roll your dough into small balls. If using pecans, press one pecan into the top of each cookie. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 - 15 minutes depending on your oven.

Organization - My Twelve Step Program

I made a resolution for my 30th birthday, I've never been one to make resolutions, the whole New Years thing just seemed kinda cheesy to me, but here I am. Trying to figure out new ways to make my life a little better, a little less messy and a little easier for everyone in my life to understand.

I feel like one of the worst traits of me as a mother is my lack of being organized, the kids have an 'ish' schedule, their bed times are around 9 and 10 'ish', dinner time is 7 'ish', wake up time is 6:45 'ish'. Laundry is washed when we run out of clean clothes, and then it sits in neatly folded piles until it is worn again. The vacuuming is done much more often now that C is mobile, but I find myself doing all the work, and it still isn't done nearly enough. The boys rooms continuously look like they were hit by a hurricane, my house is full of 'good intention' half finished projects that I would LOVE to see done,  homework gets done the night before (and sometimes night after) it's due. . . the list goes on. I can't help but sit here and acknowledge that their lack of focus and organization is all.my.fault. 

C coming into our lives has changed quite a bit, while I was able to have both J and D on my 'ish' schedule and it worked great for all of us, C does not like an 'ish' schedule, in fact from day one this little boy has set his own schedule. He is up at 7am, his first nap is from 8:45-10:30, his second nap is from 12:30-1:45 and then his third nap is from 4:30-6. Bath time is at 7pm and bed time is 8:30. That is how it has been for his entire six months, C LIVES by his schedule, and if for some reason we are out running errands or spending time with friends or family it throws him off, and he is off and cranky for the next 2 days.

I am hoping that by taking small steps to become more organized, and having a more set schedule for myself, and my two older boys, then we can meet C somewhere in the middle on his schedule.

So I am wanting to work on one step over the next month, then if I can get this perfected myself and everyone on board, I will add in another step, thus aiming to have completed twelve steps to organization over the next twelve months. Yay for my own 12 step program. Cross your fingers for me.

Step One - Chores

For October I am putting together a helper chart for all of us, that way things like what day each person washes their clothes or who does dishes what night are in order and I can have a purpose to drive me that day. I think this will take some of the pressure off of Sam as well, as he is not used to living in 'controlled chaos'. He is more of a schedule person, he likes to know what is coming and what is expected of him, and maybe my kids do to, I guess we'll find out!

Shades of Autumn Photo Challenge - Week One

Project Alicia is having a photo challenge for Autumn and the theme this week is Green.I thought this photograph was a very fitting way to describe Autumn in Colorado!

Enjoy others views of green over at Project Alicia.

30

Today is the last day of being in my 20's. Everyone keeps asking me how I feel about turning 30, I'm really not sure how to respond to this question. Turning 30 does not bother me nor does it make me feel "old", quite to the contrary actually, I am excited about the adventure of being 30. I am blessed that God gave me 30 wonderful years and I can only hope and pray that I can have at least 30 more.Besides, being in my 30's means I can finally get that snowflake sweater my niece keeps telling me I'm not old enough for! HA!

At first, my wish for my 30th birthday was to have a masquerade ball, however I sure didn't put much effort over the last year into planning that (or taking dance lessons), so maybe that will have to be for my 40th.
Then my next wish was to go camping with family and close friends in Moab. I thought Moab would be a good place since it is still fairly warm, right in the middle of all my family and it's beautiful. However, not very many people could make it, so I called that off.
Then I thought maybe going to a pumpkin patch here locally, spending time with my husband and boys, hay rides, corn mazes, hot apple cider, and picking our own pumpkins sounded like an amazing way to spend the day. Well, due to financial reasons (pumpkin patches in Denver are NOT cheap) we're not able to do that this year.  Someday (hopefully VERY soon) we will be out of this slump and on to bigger and better things, but for whatever reason, right now, we need to be humbled.
So for now, it is SNOWING!! :) God loves me, He blesses me with snow and rain the day before my birthday. I am SO ok with this!

Today, while the boys and I were spending time just being together, I corralled everyone into the kitchen to make cookies, we had SO MUCH FUN, and even C got to help!

 

and got some wonderful gluten free / dairy free pumpkin cookies out of it! Who could ask for more? (Recipe to come later)

Now it's time to enjoy the rest of my 20's, I think snuggling up watching the snow fall and eating homemade chicken soup is just what I need. I just wish our family was here to celebrate with us!




*Sorry about the quality of the pictures, my mirror broke off of my 5D, so while I'm waiting for it to be replaced I am forced to use my backup which is a XTI and it takes crappy pictures indoors! 

You Capture ~ Green

This weeks You Capture @ I Should Be Folding Laundry, is all about "green".

This week we also decided to start sprouting our own seed, the store employee I asked told me that seed is easier to sprout than grain and I would like to sprout our own gluten free grains to start making breads, so here's hoping that this process goes well!  I'll keep you updated.