take a look

While I'm taking a brief blogging hiatus... which should really start within the next hour or so after Jon gets off work... feel free to browse this website, Lindsay Lane.

A friend of mine from college has her own line of stationary, invitations, announcements, etc. They are super original and she has a great selection!

Enjoy!

hitting the trail

I've invented the best trail mix ever! Before I go tooting my own horn too much... I must admit it was completely an accident.

We recently did Sav Mor where I stocked up on tons of dark chocolate chips and craisins. Then Jon has ended up with lots of odd packages of snack foods through his work. I felt like some trail mix so I used what we had:

Craisins

Dark chocolate chips

Pretzels

Peanuts

Sunflower seeds

Addictive! I'm eating some right now actually.

This new recipe is especially timely as we're hitting the trail for vacation tomorrow. Don't expect too many posts this week!

wfmw- 10 minutes.... or 15

I had heardof this before but never tried it. Today I did and it is amazing... it WORKS!!

Recently I've taken up smocking, my first project is Baby Girl's Easter dress. And I really wanted to smock this morning... but there were lots of little things that needed to be done.

So I set my kitchen timer for 10 minutes and got quickly to work. It is amazing what you can do in 10 minutes when you set your mind to it!

1. Fed my bread starter.

2. Washed a few dishes.

3. Wiped out the sink.

4. Folded a load of laundry.

THEN.... I was so motivated by what I got done I set the timer for another 5 minutes and I...

5. Put away the folded laundry.

6. Stuck a few things in the suitcases for our upcoming trip.

7. Emptied the bathroom trash.

8. Went to the bathroom (sorry if tmi)

9. Dried the dishes... well... I had two things left when the timer went off... so it took more like 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

10. While I was running back and forth doing all this I did some general pick up of a few things that were lying around.

WOW! I am so impressed with myself! Now I can happily sit down and smock without feeling guilty for leaving things undone around the house.

I think I could become quite competitive with myself.

What works for you? Check out Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family for more great tips and to post your own ideas!

just ask

Here's my latest and greatest frugal knowledge to pass on.

Ask.... just ask.

I will give you two scenarios to illustrate.

#1- I was buying a bag of coffee beans at Dunkin Donuts. As the cashier rang up the bag I jokingly said, "Hey, want to a throw a free donut in with that?" She said, "Sure what kind do you want." Free donut... so yummy!

#2- Jon threw away the charger for his bluetooth... yes I did say threw away. He asked me to call about getting a new one. When the operator asked what happened to the charger and I told him it had been thrown away, he didn't even hesitate, "One moment and I'll get your address to send you a new one." This sounded like a scam to me, "How much is that going to cost?" I queried. "It's free of charge, this time only." (in other words don't throw away useful electronic pieces in the future) Free charger... Jon is so happy!

I'm not saying we should try to mooch off of people all the time and beg for free stuff, but sometimes just asking can help you save.

For more Frugal Friday tips head over to Biblical Womanhood.

wfmw- pretty packages

This is for the Greatest Tip Edition of Works for Me Wednesdays, hosted by We Are THAT Family.

I don't know that this is my greatest tip ever... but my greatest tips are things like....

- Don't spend what you don't have.

- Make your own chicken stock.

- Homemade laundry detergent.

These are the sort of things that everyone does. I'm hoping while this isn't the greatest, it's at least different and sort of great.

I always struggle when sending a gift in the mail.

Do I wrap in cute paper and then wrap in brown paper?

That seems like so much extra packaging and sort of blah...

Here's my new thing.

I took a large leftover gift bag from when Baby Girl was born (we have oodles of cute bags) and I cut off the bottom and the top edge with the handles. This left me with a large rectangular piece of bag. I folded the bag in half and used a zigzag stitch on my machine to sew up three sides, including the end that was folded in half.

I addressed the envelope while flat, put the gifts inside and then taped up the other end. If it wasn't too full I probably would have tried to sew the 4th side just to make it look cuter, but it worked out just fine.

To me this is a festive way to reuse old gift bags and send something fun in the mail!

monday menu

Here is this week's plan:

Monday- Refrigerator Magic (Jon has class this night so I usually aim for leftovers here)

Tuesday- Turkey burgers and baked beans (beans are in the freezer)

Wednesday- jambalaya with sausage and corn muffins (the jambalaya is from the Sav Mor sale last weekend!!!!)

Thursday- Refrigerator Magic (another class night!)

Friday- Fellowship Dinner- we're taking homemade italian bread with olive oil for dipping and a dessert... maybe a pound cake with blueberry sauce if I'm up to it

Saturday- homemade pizza and carrot sticks

Sunday- oatmeal pancakes and bacon

Head over to Organizing Junkie for more menus!

bowl shower caps

Upon opening my stocking this past Christmas I saw some plastic things with elastic. "Ohh, a shower cap?!" I said. (I actually sort of needed one of those for those days when there is no time to wash my hair.) My mom laughed.... not a shower cap, these were reusable bowl covers. "Ahh," I said, "interesting..."

Despite my initial skepticism...

These things rock!

They come in a set of 6 different sizes and work just like... well... just like a shower cap.

I literally use them at least once a day and it has been great not to fall back to saran wrap every time I turn around. The picture shows my veggies and broth which I prepped early in the day for chicken pot pie covered in their cute "caps" and ready to go.

For other thrifty green tips check out the Green Baby Guide's Thrifty Green Thursday.

we did Sav Mor

I finally did it! There was a Sav Mor sidewalk sale this past weekend and I made it up to Greenville to go with my sister Rebekah. Our Mom and Dad were in town spending the night with her so they came along for the exicitement and to help out.

It was an overwhelming experience.

The sign on the way in warning that Sav Mor was not responsible for any injuries incurred definitely set the tone.

We arrived at 8:30am and were already late. There were rows upon rows of boxes of food and people were already two and three deep all the way around waiting. We grabbed our banana boxes and scouted out a good place to wait.

While we waited I listened. Lots of people were talking strategy, "Are you going for that box of granola bars?" "No?, okay great, thanks" and "You go and grab that box and bring it to the side and we'll sort through." It was intense.

At 9:00am instructions were given and a whistle was blown.

I felt like a chicken with my head cut off! There were people running everywhere! I managed to get a lot in my box and made it to the side where I left my box with my mom, sorted through the box my dad had gotten and then I headed back into the fray for more goods.

I paid $7 on the way out and was back in the car on my way out of the parking lot by 9:15am. That was fast.

Rebekah and I headed to her house where we unloaded the food. (the picture is of both of our boxes) We sorted and divided things up. It definitely helped to go with someone so that we each got multiples of items and then were able to share with each other.

I think I'm most excited about the Hershey's dark chocolate chips which I more than likely will just eat plain when I need a chocolate fix.

I'll definitely try this again, though every other week would make my pantry explode!

the poop is real

Solid foods change everything!

A little while back I wrote a glowing review of my love for cloth diapers and how they work so well for us and I skipped and sang and wrote poetry about my wonderful bumGenius friends.....

Then Baby Girl tried carrots. "It" was orange. The she tried sweet potatoes, and avocado and peas and "it" got worse.

There have been a couple of diaper changes where I have literally said out loud, "What was I thinking?!?!"

A friend had mentioned using Viva paper towels (they're so soft they're almost clothlike) as a liner in the diaper and then flushing the residual "stuff." Last night (while watching LOST) I cut a whole roll in half and now have a neat stack of liners.

We'll see if this changes anything. Right now I am tempted to breastfeed exclusively until she is potty trained.

I might spend some time swagbucking some info on what to do about this unfortunate turn of events. Though I should probably just be thankful that everything is still moving on through.

I've posted this on the Thrifty Green Thursday carnival over at Green Baby Guide because I need help from some other cloth diapering mamas!! Any tips?!?!

this is super helpful!

Look what I just found HERE!

It's the schedule of coupon inserts for the whole year! For those of us that buy Sunday papers from the little metal boxes this is really helpful.

Maybe you've seen this already, but it was new to me.

If only I had found this out before buying this past Sunday's paper which had no inserts. *sigh*

roasted cauliflower recipe

A friend recently gave me this recipe and we tried it the other night.

I loved it! Jon wasn't so sure about it going into it, "I don't know that I prefer cauliflower..." were his exact words, but he ended up giving me the go ahead to make it again (which is good b/c I think one head of cauliflower will last the two of us 3 more meals!)

Here it is:

Preheat oven to 425.

Paint a jelly roll pan with olive oil. Slice cauliflower in 1/4 inch thick slices and place on pan in single layer.

Drizzle with remainder of 1 Tbsp. of olive oil (if you're only doing part of a head of cauliflower you won't need this much oil).

Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. of salt (we used ground sea salt) and 1/4 tep. of fresh ground pepper.

Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes. (I think ours went 20 minutes but our oven cooks a little hot).

This was a great new/different side dish for us that is healthy to boot!

baby girl's new playpen- wfmw

My daughter is 6 months old and she is not quite sitting up totally on her own yet. I mean... she sits on her own but then she will randomly decide to arch her back and throw her head backwards. That's Challenge #1. She spends a lot of time on the floor surrounded by the boppy or pillows.

Enter Challenge #2... any toys I put on the floor for her to play with she inevitably pushes away from herself and then falls over trying to get to them.

I accidentally stumbled across this fantastic idea.

Nice, huh? It keeps her sitting up and keeps her toys right within her reach! It won't last for much longer but it works for me right now.

Caution: I have now learned that if she's barefoot her toes can kind of get caught in the holes so a blanket over the holes is helpful in that situation.

For more tips check out Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in my Dryer.

My 2009 Book List

I have been inspired by Passionate Homemaking to plan out what books I hope to read this year in an effort to hold myself accountable to getting this done! (I've also stolen a few books from her list which sounded excellent.) In no particular order, here is my list:

Non-fiction

The Hidden Art of Homemaking- Edith Schaeffer

Homeschooling: The Early Years- Linda Dobson (yes I know my daughter is only 6 months old, this is something we're considering and I'm curious!)

Teach them Diligently- Louis Priolo

The Prodigal God- Tim Keller

The Reason for God- Tim Keller

Serve God, Save the Planet- Matthew Sleeth

Total Money Makeover- Dave Ramsey (I've been meaning to read this for months, now that it's on the list I guess I have to do it!)

Fiction

Eragon- Christopher Paolini

The Octavian Nothing Books I and II- M.T. Anderson

The Jane Austen Book Club- Karen Fowler

Possibly a few Laura Ingalls Wilder or L.M. Montgomery books

(If you can't tell I love kids/young adult fiction... I realized that other day that a lot of the fiction books I have gotten recently are things I either read for the first time in middle school or should have read around that age: The Hatchet books, Narnia series, Dark is Rising series, Holes, etc....)

I'll try to post a review as I finish each book.

First up.... The Reason for God.

monday menu: short week

Jon is off to a conference and Baby Girl and I are headed to my parents' house later this week so this is a short week of meals. Here goes:

Monday- sloppy joes and leftover cabbage/ramen salad- this is a big deal for me... I have hardly eaten any tomatoe based foods since I realized it made Baby Girl spit up more. But she's 6 months old now and we're just going to give it a whirl and she how she handles it. I am praying she does well... for her sake... and b/c not cooking with tomatoes cuts out a lot of possible foods!!

Tuesday- Whatever Soup and homemade bread... literally... whatever I throw in it is what we'll eat.

Wednesday- Refrigerator Magic- aka clean out the fridge

Thursday- I'm out of town and Jon will do further Refrigerator Magic or eat whatever he scrounges up... I know, I know, I'm a horrible wife to not leave him a well-balanced meal in the freezer to eat while I'm gone... but seriously... this man LOVES Refrigerator Magic and tells me so EVERYtime we clean out the fridge. If you know him in real life you understand this completely!

Friday- we're both out of town

Saturday- still gone

Sunday- as we'll just be getting back we'll probably have egg sandwiches and grits for dinner.

Sorry for the boring week! I promise more excitement next week!

baby gift tutorial

I noticed that Baby Girl liked to play with the tags on toys, often more than the toys themselves. I mentioned this and my Aunt Kay (who is herself a super crafty and frugal gourmet) said she had seen ribbons sewed and looped around a bit of fleece and how cute it was.

Using some remnants of fleece, scraps of ribbon (and scavenging some ribbon scraps from my mom as well) and some advice from my mom (as I have very limited sewing experience)... this is what we came up with. I made one for Baby Girl and then wrote this tutorial as I made the second one for a gift.

I love that this is a personal gift that is creative and that (potentially) is free if you have the fabric and ribbon on hand.

Step 1: Cut out two pieces of fleece. Mine was about 10"x13" (it doesn't have to be any exact size)

Step 2: Select some bits of ribbon that you like. About a dozen is what I used. Cut them all to roughly 6 inches in length. (again this is not exact)

Step 3: Lay one piece of fleece right side up. Lay your ribbons out where you want them then pin them with the loop facing to the inside. Then go back and baste the ribbons in place.

Step 4: Lay the other piece of fleece on top (right side down) and pin the two together.

Step 5: Sew around the edges being sure to leave a space of 4-5 inches open so that you can turn it right side out. Since my space was over one of the ribbons I sewed the ribbon to one side only so that it would stay in place when I flipped it. After sewing, trim all the loose ends of ribbon, the edges and cut the corners at an angle.


Step 6: Flip it right side out. Pull the corners out. Use a needle and thread to close up the opening. I just whip stitched it closed (thankfully fleece is kind of fluffy so it's very forgiving if your stitches aren't pretty- like mine!).


Step 7: Sew once again around the edge of the blankie to give it a finished look and so it will lay flat.
That's it! Told you it was easy.

Any ideas for names for this little creation?

If you have a machine or want to put some money into this it would be cute to get one piece of fleece monogrammed before piecing this together and would look very professional.

For more frugal ideas check out Frugal Friday over at Biblical Womanhood!

the wylie home: my kitchen rug

Welcome Back to my home!

Here is something else about my home that I really love and appreciate... my kitchen rug.

We bought this rug at Tuesday Morning about... 3 years ago. When we bought it, it wasn't anything special, just a neutral color rug to go in front of our kitchen sink.

You can't really tell from the picture, but it's made of a loopy cotton thick yarn type of stuff. Right when it comes out of the dryer I could honestly stand on this rug and wash dishes all day (shh... don't tell!).

It really is the little things that we can be thankful for that bring comfort every day.

monday menu

Here we go... This is my menu plan for the week.

I also have to give a shout-out to a meal we made this past week (that I didn't post the plan for)- turkey burgers. They were fantastic, Jon couldn't get over the fact that there was hardly any fat in the pan after we fried them. It's nice to feel healthy while eating a burger!

Monday- unfried chinese rice, homemade bread, celery sticks with peanut butter. This was a hit from a couple weeks ago, so we'll try it again!

Tuesday- out to dinner with a gift card! Hooray! Mom is in town to watch Baby Girl :o)

Wednesday- I'm almost scared to admit this... we're having fried chicken piece things... ugh... I'm not looking forward to this actually. We bought an Angel Food Ministries Food Box a while back, mainly to see if the food was worth the money- it wasn't. It included breaded dark meat chicken chunks that are supposed to be deep fried. I can't figure out if it's safe to bake them or not!!! But we're not about to let food go to waste... so we'll see....

Thursday- egyptian rice and lentils, homemade bread and green peas

Friday- potluck with friends from church- it's a Mexican theme and we're taking taco salad

Saturday- leftovers

Sunday- this is still TBD... we're having another potluck for lunch with our Sunday School class. The way those usually go we may just have a bowl of cereal for dinner!

Check out orgjunkie for more menu plans!

exercising at home

After Baby Girl was born (almost 6 months ago) I kept thinking about getting back into exercising... thinking is the operative word there. We walked a good bit, but then it got cold and one or both of us would have the sniffles and the timing just wasn't right... can you tell I'm good at coming up with excuses?

The gym on-campus is actually very reasonable, but that's just not a luxury we're willing to pay for right now.

My solution has been fitness DVDs.

I checked a few out from the library, I dug out a pilates one from a drawer, I borrowed from friends.

Here is what I like about this exercise option:

1. The variety keeps things interesting and has helped me figure out what I do and don't enjoy.

2. I can exercise in my pj's.

3. My living room is never crowded with people trying to use different machines.

4. Baby Girl can nap or play in the exersaucer while I get fit.

5. Occasionally one might be able to convince one's husband to participate in something like Fit Pregnancy: Get your body back after baby, if one's husband is a very good sport and very sure in his manhood.

6. It's cheap! I have yet to buy a DVD (save the pilates one I bought several years ago).

For other frugal tips check out Frugal Friday over at Biblical Womanhood.

politics...

I'm not much of a political type person at all... I mean AT ALL. I just get really frustrated and cynical about the whole process: the hateful ads on both sides, the empty rhetoric, the enormous amounts of money that are spent on ridiculous things, and the way the pendulum swings back and forth... no one is ever happy.

However, given yesterday's events I feel that I can't go without commenting.

First off let me say clearly that I did NOT vote for Barack Obama, I will never support a candidate that is pro-abortion (check this blog post out- by Randy Alcorn, an author I really like).

Yesterday though, was an historic event. I count it a blessing that we live in a country where the transfer of power happens so smoothly and democracy is so clearly evident. I think it's wonderful that we now have an African-American president (though I would have preferred someone a bit more... conservative).

Here's my problem:

To many, to most perhaps, the chanting crowds yesterday in Washington were inspiring. To me... they were terrifying. I have never so clearly seen a people, a nation, so evidently hanging all their hopes on the shoulders of one man... and he is that... a mere man.

What will happen when he fails?... and fail he will... we all do.

What will happen when the economy continues to suffer?

What will happen when dreams aren't fully realized?

My only hope and prayer is that this hope that is now so misplaced will turn to the only One who is worthy of a nation's hope and trust.

"O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption." Psalm 130:7

cheap nasal decongestant

So I've been sick lately... ugh...

Medicine costs can really add up which makes being sick costly, on top of feeling bad!

Yesterday though, I made a discovery... Aldi sells medicine. I usually skip that aisle in Aldi because I get most toiletries for free at CVS, but yesterday was a different story.

I found the nasal decongestant... "compare to Sudafed PE, 18 tablets, active ingredient: 10 mg of phenyl blah blah" Yep... this was the same stuff that I had bought at Bi-Lo several days before and paid $4.19 for their generic. But no price was listed here at Aldi... I wondered how it would compare.

At the register I had the check-out lady check the price for me... $1.79... WHAT?!?!

I will never buy medicine anywhere else... AMAZING!

Check out Biblical Womanhood for more Frugal Friday tips.