Making beans in a crock pot

I've been trying to save money the ways I can.  As a stay at home mom, one thing I can really control is how much money we spend on groceries.  Husband has a crazy fast metabolism so I have to make massive quantities of food for every meal for him.  I feel best giving him extra calories in the form of whole grains and beans because they are cheap and also healthy.

Beans are great but they aren't as cheap as they could be if you buy them in a can.  Cooking dry beans is quite easy but it takes a lot of time.  The cheapest and easiest way I have found to cook dry beans is using a slow cooker.  Cooking beans on the stove requires you to check them more often and uses vastly more energy (money!) than a slow cooker.  I've cooked many different kinds of beans and they have all turned out well.  Cooked beans can be frozen and quick defrosted in the microwave so they are extremely convenient!  I keep ziplock bags with pre-measured quantities of beans in my freezer for whatever I may want to use them for.  (Cans of beans normally have about 1 1/3 cups of beans.)

How to make beans in a crock pot:

1) Clean your beans.  Sort through for clumps of dirt and broken beans.

2) Put your beans in your slow cooker with at least two inches of water covering them.  Check back every hour or so to test for doneness.  Beans take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours depending on their type and freshness.  When done, use in recipes or freeze!

Note:  If cooking kidney beans, the FDA recommends that you boil your beans for at least 10 minutes to destroy a potential toxin.

Sleep Training Round 2: Success!

So the first day of sleep training we tried was a total failure.  We caved and Little didn't get to sleep.  A few days later we were ready to try again.  I looked up information on "the sleep lady shuffle" and decided to try that.  Basically, the first three day, you are right next to the crib comforting baby as needed and even taking them out if their crying becomes hysterical.  After those first 3 days you move further away from your baby every three days until you are out of their room.  That sounded more like something we were willing to do.

Night 1: A very mad baby.  Little was extremely mad the first night.  She cried on and off for over an hour and a half.  She was used to falling asleep nursing so she couldn't sleep and I suspect she was a bit mad that I was not offering the breast.  Both Husband and I were pretty sad to see our baby so upset.

Night 2: It gets worse.  Little cried on and off for two and a half hours.  Torture.  She would lay down in the crib and almost fall asleep and then start crying again.  I held her, I rocked her, I rubbed her back, I patted her.  Finally she succumbed to sleep.  It was an exhausting night for all of us.

Night 3: Almost there!  Little fussed for about 10 minutes and then fell asleep.  Twenty minutes later, she did it again.  No big deal.

Night 4: Success!!!!  Little slept through the night!

One note is that Little is waking up around 7:30 in the morning, nursing, and going back to sleep.  Technically, most sleep training programs say that until she is ready to wake up, she doesn't get to eat.  Its not a big deal to feed her at that time and it seems like a really big transition to go from eating every two hours to not eating for 14 hours so I'm willing to feed her in the morning.  Now that she is sleeping through the night, maybe I'll be rested enough to get up and use those hours in the morning for something useful!

I wish that we had sleep trained earlier.  Its great to be able to sleep through the night and I'm noticing that all of us are more well rested.  Even Little.  From everyone I've talked to, the first few nights will be rough but it never takes more than a few days to get your baby (of a reasonable age) sleeping through the night.  Yay!

MOPS and Autumn Crafts

I am not a crafty person. I rarely use a hot glue gun and when I paint, it's always one solid color. That said, I always wish I did crafts but I have neither the time nor the creativity to get far.

With that clear, I am proud to say that at my mom's group (MOPS) today, I finished a craft project that I am quite proud of. It's a wreath for fall made of yarn wrapped around a pool noodle. I feel good. I did something pretty. Something not involving my house or my baby.

My mom's group is a huge blessing to me. It's a chance for me to vent about being a stay at home mom. It's a time to get advice from other moms. It's a time to be me around people who understand the challenges I face. I go to MOPS but there are plenty of moms groups around. I would recommend that all moms find somewhere they can go and talk. It's cheaper than therapy ;)

Night one of sleep training: Torture

I've been missing for a while but sleep training seems like a big enough occasion to come back to the blog. Husband and I bought a house and moving in, keeping it clean, and caring for a now crawling baby has kept me so busy that I haven't found time for blogging.  Not to mention caring for the new chickens and dog!

Well, at her appointment today, the doctor confirmed my fear that we need to sleep train. It's better for babies to sleep through the night but teaching them to do so is very hard on parents.  Little gets up several times a night and only falls back to sleep when she is nursed.  That may be my fault...  Its so easy to let her nurse back to sleep!

I let her nurse herself to sleep and then put her in her crib at 8:30.  By 9:30, she had woken up already.  She put herself to sleep after what seemed like the longest 5 minutes of my life.

2:30 and she was awake again we comforted her but the yelling and crying didn't stop.  This time, Husband and I couldn't stand it.  I brought her to our bed and nursed her to sleep.

I guess its time to do some serious reading.  I have a book on hold at the library....  Its due today and I'm hoping I can get it and read it.  We will need to have our plan ready before we try again.  No more failure for us.  Maybe we'll try again tonight next week?

The Importance of MY Marriage

I was browsing Pinterst and I stumbled upon this image.  I had to click.  It sent me to an awesome blog post.  We are THAT family: 100 ways to make your marriage rock.

This was such a great reminder for me.  God created marriage as something sacred.  A gift for humans.  I want to have an awesome marriage and that takes work but it is worth it.  I want my marriage to rock.  I want to be married for 60, 70, even 80 years.  Check it out, there's a ton of great ideas to keep your marriage healthy!

7 Tips for Road-tripping with a crawling baby

We had a blast on our vacation.  It was a great time for us to do things together as a family.  That said, I wouldn't do everything the same if we took another road trip with a crawling baby.  Here are some tips, some that we did and some that I will do on our next trip!

#1  Do most of your driving during nap times.

#2 Don't plan on driving for more than 4 hours a day.  Its hard to keep an awake baby happy in a car seat for long!

#3  Bring lots of toys and pacifiers.

#4  Know places that you can stop if your baby needs to get out of the car.

#5  Bring some sort of large blanket for your baby to crawl on anywhere you stop.  (We brought an old sheet)

#6  If possible, have another child or an extra adult sit in the back seat with your baby.

#7  Be ready when bedtime comes.  Have camp set up before baby starts getting tired.

If you are prepared, you can have a great trip with a baby!

Summer Vacation

Husband and I just took Little on her first vacation!  We visited Husband's family and the Oregon coast.  It was a great time for all of us to be together.

Here are a few snapshots of our trip!

New Diaper Bag!

I take my diaper bag everywhere with me and it has gotten very beat up.  It was waterproof which sounds awesome right?  Except that the plastic lining rips very easily.  Its a mess.

I was shopping with my mom the other day and I found an awesome diaper bag for cheap!  12 dollars?  Sounds good right?  I love it!

Cute and subtle print.  I love it!

It has pockets for everything!  Everything is in there and its smaller than my old bag.

Whole Wheat Peach Cobbler

I love peach cobbler.  I could eat it all day.  Its a dessert and breakfast.  I make and eat a lot of cobbler during the summer so I try to make it as healthy as possible.  This cobbler has a lot of fruit and not a lot of sugar.  The biscuits are made of whole wheat flour.  Yummy, easy, and healthy.  What more could you ask for?  I used a mix or white and yellow peaches this time.  I've used just white, just yellow, even mixed in blackberries before.  Its always great.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups sliced peaches
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk

Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in a pot.  Mix in half of the peeled and sliced peaches and heat on medium, stirring frequently.  Boil and stir for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Stir in remaining peaches and pour into pan.  (I used a 9x13 but many sizes will work)

Meanwhile, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar.  Cut butter into flour mixture.  Stir in milk.  Drop large spoonfuls onto the peach mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the biscuits are lightly browned.  Serve warm or room temperature.  Its great with vanilla ice cream!

Linked at http://frugallysustainable.com/ and http://www.jillshomeremedies.blogspot.com/ and http://gnowfglins.com/

Chicken Homes

I am planning my flock of chickens.  Only 4 chickens.  Since I have already chose the breeds I would like to get, its time to choose what kind of coop they will live in.  There are many many different kinds of coops available on the market.  I looked around and it looks like I could buy a coop for 4 chickens for close to $300.  The real expense is the shipping.  Since these coops are quite heavy, shipping costs a lot of money.

There are also many different ideas floating around for DIY coops.  I was first considering finding some sort of free structure and modifying it to be a chicken coop.  Although that sounds like a cheap option, as I was looking around, I realized that there are not a plethora of free structures that I could turn into a chicken coop.


I finally decided that I will have to build my own coop (with lots of help from Husband).  I want a chicken coop that won't take too much time or money to build.  The point of chickens is not to spend a lot of money on them but rather to have pets that produce good food for my family.  As I was looking at coops, the idea of a chicken tractor kept catching my eye.  A chicken tractor is a basically a chicken coop and run that can be moved around the yard.

http://ana-white.com/2012/05/plans/frame-chicken-coop

The benefits of moving your chickens around the yard is that they will be able to fertilize a different section of yard every day so they will not kill the grass and they will be able to find bugs and grass rather than living on a piece of bare earth.  I would love for our chickens to be able to free range but for safety, they will probably need to be locked up when we aren't home.

http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-homes-gardens/diy/articles/a/-/5829854/chicken-coop/

The coop design that I have found that seems to fit all of our restrictions is an a-frame coop.  This coop has the coop area with nesting boxes and roosts above and an enclosed run below.  It is light weight so that it can be moved around a yard.  Here are two different plans I have found for an a-frame coop!  The unpainted wood coop seems to be a little bit less complex and therefore cheaper.  The green coop is a bit more complex and also, designed in the metric system.  I'll keep you updated on what I end up building.  Any ideas for the color?


Linked at frugallysustainable.com 

Baby Wipe Solution

I made my own baby wipes a few days ago.  Here's a quick solution to wet them.  I like the simplicity of it and the fact that it is easy to modify to use the soap and oil that you like.

1 cup hot water
2 squirts baby soap
1 teaspoon baby oil

Mix well in a wipes box.  Drop your stack of wipes in and shake to wet all of the wipes.  Keep sealed to prevent them from drying out.  Wash with your cloth diapers!

Need to know how to wash cloth diapers or just washing wipes?

Check out How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #3 Laundry!

Linked at http://frugallysustainable.com/ and http://www.jillshomeremedies.blogspot.com/

A Little Huckleberry Finn

I dressed up Little and realized that she looked like Huckleberry Finn (or Tom Sawyer says grandma).  Either way, she looks super cute.  Everyone keeps guessing that she's a boy.  I love it.

Its tiring being a little scoundrel.  :)

Prunesicles

I keep seeing beautiful popsicles in blog world and on pinterest.  They are beautiful and fun and--my baby is no where near an age where I could hand her a popsicle.

What we are making I'm calling prunesicles.  They are cute.  They are frozen.  They are not fun.

Little has been on a poop strike.  The kind of poop strike where you have to go to the doctor.  We are giving her prune juice every day to try to keep things moving.  The problem is, prune juice comes in quite large cans for an infant.  Enter prunesicles.  I'm freezing teeny cubes of prune juice so we'll have single (baby) portions ready to go.

So those cute popsicles you're making?  I bet they can't beat my prunesicles.  Come try one.  No, really.

Chicken Dreams

So it looks like my chicken dreams are about to become reality.  What chicken dreams?  The dreams I have to raise my own chickens for eggs.

Chickens are pretty cool.  They are pets that also make breakfast for you.  Raising chickens is quite cheap.  Chickens are fun.  I want them!

I would like to raise chickens from day old chicks.  They take a little bit more work that way because chicks require 90 degree heat and frequent care.  They are also more vulnerable to disease when they are teeny.  The reason I would like to get them young is that if chicks are handled frequently, they will grow up to be friendly pets.  I would love it if Little could help to care for the chickens!

I am probably going to be getting our chicks in about a month.  Right now I'm looking into what breeds would be good for us and where we can get them.

Here's the breeds I would like to get.  We can only have four chickens so we would get one of each.

Buff Orpington.  These are large friendly birds.  They lay eggs dependably but occasionally decide to hatch their own (called going broody).  This would be a problem for us since we would not have a rooster.

Australorp.  These are the Australian version of the Orpington.  They are also large friendly birds although they may actually be better layers.

Easter Egger (also called the Ameraucana).  These are sweet birds who lay a whole range of egg colors including blue and green.  I can't wait to get a few weird eggs!  Another bonus of this breed is that they hardly ever go broody.  Awesome.

Barred Plymouth Rock (also called the Barred Rock).  These birds lay prolifically and are known to be extremely sweet birds.  Aren't they pretty too?








Because of the season that I will be getting my chicks, most feed stores won't be selling them so I am looking at buying them online and getting them shipped to me.  Buying chickens through the mail seems so weird but I want them soon so I guess I'll try it!

Do you raise backyard chickens?  What breeds do you like?  Have you bought chickens by mail?

Linked at http://www.iheartnaptime.net/

Homemade Baby Wipes

I use cloth diapers most of the time but until now, I haven't used cloth wipes.  I've been thinking about it but we buy our wipes at Costco and it seems like we never run out.  I was thinking the other day, why does that have to stop me?  I'd like to have some backup disposable wipes anyways so I'm not worried about running out!


Cloth wipes are somewhat expensive to buy and very very easy to make.  Like seriously, if you have never sewn before, this is the project for you to start with.  I used a flannel receiving blanket to make my wipes.  I was thinking it would have been more fun to find a flannel sheet with a cool print at a thrift store.  Of course, that would make a TON of wipes.


I made my wipes about 8x8 inches (some a little bit smaller since the blanket wasn't exactly the right size).  That's a size that fits very well folded in half into a regular wipes box.  I plan on just putting solution in the box with the wipes so using a wipes box will make sure that they don't dry out.

Just cut the blanket (or sheet if you want a lot!) into squares.

A blanket will give you a pretty large stack of wipes.

Zig-zag stitch around all the sides of the wipes.  That's it!

Note:  Another cool thing about my wipes?  Years ago my great grandmother gave me her sewing machine and a bunch of her sewing things.  For this project, I used up most the thread on two of her bobbins.  Notice that there are 12 different colors of thread?  That is just most of the thread from only 2 bobbins!  It seems that she never took the thread off when she filled her bobbin with a new color.  Too cool!

Linked at http://www.iheartnaptime.net/

Baked Rigatoni

I love casseroles and I love pasta.  This is both.  It is delicious and creamy.  There is melty cheese.  Oh, and I didn't have to bake it in the oven.  That is important right now.

I like rigatoni in this recipe.  It is big enough to get sauce inside and it also get a little bit smushed in the casserole.  Yum.

Note:  I didn't actually measure any of these ingredients.  If you want a little more or a little less of something, go for it!

Ingredients
1/2 pound Italian sausage
24 oz pasta sauce
1/4 cup sour cream
8 oz shredded mozzarella
1/2 pound rigatoni

Boil your pasta.  Meanwhile, cook your Italian sausage, breaking it up into smallish pieces.  Mix cooked Italian sausage, pasta sauce, sour cream, and most of the mozzarella in a microwave and oven safe casserole dish.  Stir in the cooked rigatoni.

Microwave for about 5 minutes with the lid on until it is heated through.  Toss the remaining mozzarella on top and broil in the oven for about 5 more minutes with the lid off until the cheese is melted and golden.

Easy Chocolate Ganache

We had a killer night and it has been a long day.  Little started crying at around 3:30 am and would only sleep in my arms with me sitting up from that point on.  This morning I had a pounding headache and very achy neck and shoulders.

By the time the afternoon rolled around, I was worn out.  Little refused to nap so we cleaned the kitchen.  Once the kitchen was looking cleaner, I thought, why not make some cupcakes?  That was clearly an idea inspired by exhaustion.

Well, the cupcakes came out of the oven and Little finally went down for a nap.  I frosted the cupcakes, cleaned the kitchen up again, and decided to make some ganache to make my cupcakes extra special.  (Note: this was my first time piping on the frosting.  I don't make cupcakes often at all and I normally just spread the frosting on with a knife.  Delicious but not nearly as nice looking.)  Ganache can be used for all sorts of things but I love the way it looks on cupcakes and cakes.  So fancy!

Notice Little supervising from her high chair?

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Bring cream to a boil.  Pour over chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes.  Whisk until smooth.  Let cool stirring frequently.  Use immediately.

Linked at http://www.iheartnaptime.net/

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

I hate that cleaning products cost so much.  I hate that cleaning products are so toxic.  I have been seeing a lot of recipes for homemade detergents and I think I'm ready to try some.

I decided to make my own dishwasher detergent first.  It was a simple recipe and it was modified to work with hard water.  We have very hard water here.

I've used this a few times and my dishes come out sparkling clean!  This is especially impressive because I am not one of those people who rinses off dishes really well before I wash them.  I put them in there dirty.  And I often leave the food to dry onto the dishes.  Good job detergent!

Ingredients:
1 cup baking soda
1 cup borax
1/4 cup fruit fresh
1/4 cup salt

Put the baking soda in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  You are turning it into washing soda by doing this.  Alternatively, just use washing soda.

Mix all of the ingredients together.  I put them in a peanut butter jar and shook it up.

To wash your dishes, put 2 tablespoons detergent plus 2-3 drops dish soap in the detergent cup.  Add 1/2 cup vinegar to the dishwasher and run it.  All done!

Linked at http://www.littlenaturalcottage.com/ and frugallysustainable.com

Co-Sleeping

I know this is counter cultural but we co-sleep with Little.  We have had quite a few different co-sleeping arrangements since Little was born and we have never slept with her in a different room than us.

During the first three weeks, Little slept in our bed with us.  It was so wonderful to spend that time bonding with our tiny baby.  At about three weeks, I was feeling like I needed some more time without a baby attached to me.

From that time until Little was four months old, she slept in a custom built cradle right next to our bed.  The cradle was built for my cousin (he's now 14!) by my grandfather.  It was right next to the bed so that I could reach in and touch Little or I could rock it if she needed motion to keep her asleep.  When she was four months old, she was getting too big for the cradle but it was really sad to move her out of it.

Now, Little sleeps in a crib next to our bed.  Occasionally, she still gets to sleep in bed with us if she is fussy.  She loves to nap during the day in our bed between Husband and I.  At night, I can still reach my arms through the bars of her crib to hold her hand or put a pacifier in her mouth.

Sleeping in the same room as our baby and even sometimes in the same bed has never been an issue for us.  Little is a good sleeper.  She generally only wakes up at night when she is hungry.

We have never had to worry about not hearing the baby if she wakes up at night.  We don't use a baby monitor at night.  Co-sleeping in the same room has been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of SIDS.

I love that Little is in our room with us.  Husband is a very light sleeper and he still enjoys having Little in our room with us.  Co-sleeping (but not only in our bed) has been wonderful for us.

Do you co-sleep with your child?  How does that work for your family?

Marion Berry Hand Pies

I went berry picking the other day and I wasn't very successful.  The heat wave we had a couple of days ago must have killed all of the flowers.  Husband loves berry pies and I was hoping to get enough to make one for him.  Well, I didn't get very many and they were small berries at that.  I decided that the tiny berries I picked would be great in hand pies.  Hand pies have been a fascination of mine  What better time than now to try making some?

Husband loved them.  He got home when they were hot out of the oven and very quickly there were only two left.  I thought I would get more pictures of these beauties but they disappeared before I got a chance!

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 1/2 cups marion berries
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold water

Mix sugar and corn starch.  Mix in berries and heat on medium, stirring frequently until mixture thickens and boils.  Boil and stir for one minute.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool as you make the crusts.

I made my own very simple butter crust.  If pie crust seems to difficult you could buy pre-made crust.  (Remember, "easy as pie" makes sense because pie is so easy compared to other baked goods!)  To make my crust, mix the flour and salt together.  Cut in your softened butter into your flour mixture.  You should end up with bits of dough the size of small peas.  Mix in the water a little bit at a time until it all sticks together.

Divide your dough into four pieces.  Roll one piece out into a circle.  Place it on a cookie sheet.  Spoon some berry filling into the center and quickly fold the dough over.

Use a fork to press down on the edges to seal your pie.  Repeat for the remaining pies.  I didn't make perfect circles so I trimmed the edges of my pies with a knife.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until your crusts are golden brown.  Yum!

Linked at http://www.littlenaturalcottage.com/