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Monday Mommy Confession #20

Every mommy will tell you that there is a point where they have reached their mommy max and need some child free adult time. The other day I realized that I had reached that point. I knew I’d reached my mommy max today when I was working away and think to myself what hubby might think of something, but instead of thinking “Joel will be happy…” I thought to myself “Daddy will be happy…” I wasn’t “done” with my kids by any means, but thinking to yourself in kid speak is a sure indicator (for me at least) that I need lengthy adult conversations that don’t involve kids in order to keep me sane. Call it a pre-emptive strike or preventative medicine if you will. It made me laugh to myself and I went about my work.

So, have you reached your mommy max recently? What is a sign that you need some adult time?

Monday Mommy Confession #19

 

      Being a pregnant mommy of two has its challenges and frustrations. Not that I didn’t know it would be, it just always finds new ways of expression that were totally unexpected. I’m not going to go into all the details of just how my girls have pushed me to my limit. After all, this is “Mommy Confessions” not “Kiddo Confession” (though that does sound kind of catchy!) No this is me sharing with you that on more than one occasion I have handled my trials less then gracefully. Let’s just say that when it comes to extended sickness I can morph into one cranky mommy with a very short annoyance fuse. It would seem this time around that even sounds can make me nauseas (oh goodie!)

      I’m trying to spend extra quality time with the girls so that they know they are loved and precious to me. I’m giving lots of kisses, hugs and I love you’s. I’m sitting and reading book after book to them even though talking often makes me feel like I’m going to gag and with every page I feel sicker and sicker.

      They are worth it though. And this tiny little life growing in me is worth it as well. If this pregnancy goes the same as the last two, the sickness will pass in three to four more weeks and we will be on to new challenges. Until then I will rejoice in the fact that I still fit into my size 12 jeans and that I haven’t gained any weight (yet)!

Do you have any fun pregnancy stories to share with us? I could use a good laugh or smile!

Come Out, Come Out Where Ever You Are!

Hi, it’s me. I bet you were wondering where I went. I wasn’t avoiding I promise. I’ve barely cracked open my laptop over the last two weeks! You see the whole morning sickness thing has hit me pretty hard over the last two weeks. And of those two weeks I had a week of stomach flu. Today is the first day I have felt semi normal. Right now I am taking it one day at a time. I will try and get back into the swing of things as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

Monday Mommy Confession #18

 

Last week I shared about some of the things that Emma says that are cute. This week it’s not so cute, actually it can be quite annoying. It’s my fault though. You see we don’t want Emma saying “oh my gosh” because it sound too much like the real thing so we tell her to say “oh my goodness”. It took a few weeks of correcting her and her correcting herself but she got it. The problem is who she learned it from, which would be me and Joel. So now she corrects US every time we say the wrong thing “Not oh my gosh, oh my goodness”. Sometimes it’s so much harder practicing what you preach.

Have you had any slip of the tongues that your children have quickly pounced upon?

The County Fair

Our County Fair was actually a few weeks ago but I’ve been sick for weeks with a sinus and ear infection. Add to the fact that during that time I found out I was pregnant. No wonder I was so exhausted! I think I finally have the infection behind me so I thought I’d do a little catching up. I went to the doctor a couple of days before we went to the fair but I was still very tired. I had the brilliant idea of heading into Fremont for dinner so I didn’t have to make it and stopping by the fair on the way home. The nice thing about our county fair is that it’s small and you only have to pay for food and rides everything else is free. So we took the girls to see all the 4-H animals and then booked it out of there.

They had fans going everywhere. Ever since Emma had her double ear infection she’s been very sensitive to loud sounds.

Sammie on the other hand had no problem with the noise and had a great time.

One of the few times she had her hands off her ears.

One of the guys brought out a goat for the kids to pet. It was so nice of him.

When we were walking back to the car I saw our shadows. It was so cool I had to take a picture.

We had a really fun time. I’m hoping next year Emma will be past the loud noise thing and really enjoy the animals. It’s the simple things that make the lasting impressions and bring the most joy!

Canning and Other Such Things

 

I want so badly to start canning. I had big plans this year of all the different things I was going to can. But as I shared here, the garden didn’t go as planned. I do plan to do some canning this fall. I make tons of apple sauce in the fall and it gets consumed within the first few months. Usually I freeze it but this year I want to try canning some of it too. I need to at least double what I bought last year (which was three bushels!) so that I have enough for the whole year. Plus I want to make some apple butter and can that as well as some apple pie filling. Maybe some tomatoes if I happen to find someone with an over abundance of tomatoes that they’re trying to off load. We’ll see.

I’ve been looking for canning jars at garage sales but the only ones I’ve found were antiques that A. they wanted $2 a piece for (which is a very fare price for antique canning jars but when you can buy them new in the store for under $1 a jar it’s not such a good price) and B. you don’t actually want to can with them, they really are for show. Enter my aunt J. She had been following my sorry garden attempts via Facebook and my blog and thought I might be interested in some of the canning jars and paraphernalia that she was no longer using. Oh boy was I!

Yesterday I loaded up the girls and headed over to her house. She had three full shelves of canning supplies and I could have whatever I wanted. I got jars that were my grandmothers and jars that were my great grandmothers. I haven’t even taken the time to count how many I got, but got quite a few in all shapes and sizes. She also gave me her small and large pressure cookers as well as the large pot for warm bathes (those that are high acidity and don’t need to be pressure cooked). What a huge blessing! Just the jars alone would have easily been $50 new from the store and I won’t even get into how much it would have cost me for the pots.

Growing up, aunt J. was the aunt who made her own bread, grew her own garden and canned what she harvested to feed her six kids (four of which were very hungry boys) and knew practically every plant and it’s use in the surrounding forest. Visiting her house was a blast regardless of the fact that I was always out numbered 6 to 1 (her 4 oldest boys and my 2 brothers). I aspire to be as self sufficient as she is!

I left that day with the open offer that if I needed more jars I knew where they were and I was welcome to them. And since I don’ think I even took half of them there are plenty more should I actually get good at this gardening and canning thing and find myself running out. Though I probably won’t get very much canned this year, I am excited to practice this year and hopefully be a pro by next year!

I’m linking to:

Monday Mommy Confession #17

Kids say the darnedest things right? Emma has lots of funny phrases that we’ve taught her like “I’m frustrated”, or “how was your day mommy?” Here is a video of a few of the things she says. Some of the details are a little mixed up but she gets all the important stuff right.

 

Yes the last part is true, and it took us an entire evening to get her to say the whole thing right. But once she got it she was repeating it all over the house.

Monday Mommy Confession #16

    

      We as moms try our darnedest to be good examples for our children. It is my heart’s desire to love my children with Christ’s love and not act out of my flesh. But sometimes, often times, it doesn’t work out that way. Earlier this week, right before bed time, Emma came into my room with raisins in her mouth. Dinner was done and she had not been given permission to have a snack. I assumed she had gotten into the bag of raisins in the den and had helped herself. I gave her a spanking and told her that she had to ask permission to have a snack, then daddy sent her to sit on her bed. It wasn’t really too upsetting to her until daddy said “go sit on your bed”. Soon after I found her cup from the day before that had leftover raisins in it. She had not opened the bag and helped herself; she had eaten the raisins that she knew to be hers. I felt terrible.

      A dear friend of mine is teaching me what it looks like and how important it is to apologize to your children. I have always believed this to be true, but more applicable when the girls are a little bit older. What I am learning now is that though they really don’t get it and won’t for a few more years, it is important for me to see my sin against them and act accordingly regardless if they understand. By doing this now I am training myself to do it later when it really does matter to them. So in I went to ask her to forgive me. She sobbed awhile longer while clinging to me, but eventually she calmed down and we finished our evening.

     Parents aren’t above their kids when it comes to sin. Adults and children alike are on the same playing field. If I have a bad attitude towards my children it is the same as having one towards my husband, co-worker, brother, etc.

So how about you, have you found yourself in need of seeking forgiveness from your children lately?

Great Grocery Deals-August 10th-16th

Here are the best deals advertised this week. There are no coupon match-ups, just what I think are the best deals.

Baker’s

Pepsi Products 2lt $1

Cottonelle Bathroom Tissue 12 double rolls $5.99

Kroger Cheese Shredded, block or sliced $1.79

Driscoll Strawberries $2.50

Organic Grapes $2.29/lb

Hy-Vee

Hy-Vee Fruit-Peaches, Pears, Apricot Halves, Mixed Fruit or Fruit Cocktail 15-15.25oz

Midwest Country Fare Brown or Powdered Sugar 2lbs $1.38

Doritos or Kettle Cooked Chips 8.5-11.5oz $2.50

Ripe’n Ready Nectarines $.97/lb

Friday & Saturday Only

Columbine Green Seedless Grapes $.88/lb

Palermo’s Classics Pizza 12.7-13.7oz $1.67

Buy 10 Items Save $5 with in-ad coupon (prices reflect savings)

Pillsbury Cresent or Cinnamon Rolls $1.49

Betty Crocker Dessert, Premium Brownie, Cookie or Muffin Mix $1.89

Pillsbury Sweet Moments $1.99

Bag ‘N’ Save

Sweet Dreams or White Flesh Peaches $.99/lb

Starkist Chunk Light Tuna $.59

Macaroni & Cheese $.57 (with in-ad Coupon)

Our Family Storage and Freezer Bags 15-20ct Gallon Size $1.39

Buy 10 Save $3 with in-ad Coupon (prices reflect savings)

Old El Paso Taco Seasoning $.49

Old El Paso Shells 80-11ct $.99

Cheerios 10-14oz $1.47

Pillsbury Crescent or Cinnamon Rolls 8-13ct $1.69

No Frill’s Super Markets


Save $3 when you buy 10 with in-ad coupon (prices reflect savings)

Ro*tel Tomatoes $.68

Hunt’s Snack Pack Pudding $.68

Hunts Spaghetti Sauce 26-26.5oz $.68

Hunt’s Ketchup 24oz $.68

Orville Redenbacher’s Popcorn 3-4ct $.98

Hunt’s BBQ Sauce 21.6oz $.68

Van Camp’s Pork and Beans 15oz $.18

Fareway

Strawberries $1.48/lb

Green Beans $.99/lb

Celery $.99/lb

Fuji Apples $.99/lb

Sun Chips 10.5oz bags $1.99

Whole Foods Markets

Organic Yellow Nectarines $1.99/lb

Boulder Canyon Kettle Baked Chips $2.50

Monday Mommy Confessions #15

Last week I shared that I am NOT a morning person. This week I thought I would share with you my very special, very one of a kind alarm clock. You may have something similar, but nothing quite as unique as mine.

Emma comes peeking in my door every morning and then thump, thump, thumps her way across the floor to my side of the bed as quick as she can. Sometimes I get a quiet “mommy, I awake!” Other days, like today she snuck in quietly and stood at my bed staring at me without a word until I pried my eyes open when she then whispered “Hi!”

Next she retrieves my glasses for me and opens them so that I can put them on. She then squeals “You’re awake!” Next she tries to turn on the lamp that sits on the stand beside my bed which I quickly squelch with a “No Emma, mommy’s not THAT awake yet.”

Yes this means I don’t even think about getting up before the kiddos. If Sammie is still asleep I often Scoop Emma up into bed with me for some snuggle time.

Do you have a one of a kind alarm clock?