Pantry Challenge: Week 5

Yep, I never posted the pantry challenge update last week. I guess time just got away from me as we were getting ready for and then celebrating Christmas. So this is week five and the last week of the month. It's been a good exercise, but I've found it's hard to not stock up on great deals each week. So as a result I think I've spent more on groceries this month than I intended at the beginning, but I guess I'm okay with that. I did still make a noticeable dent in our food supply.

Here's our menu for the week:

Monday

Parmesan potato soup, salad

Tuesday

Corn, ham and noodle casserole, cooked carrots

Wednesday

Meatless burritos, chips and salsa

Thursday

Leftover potato soup, salad

Friday

L- Hash brown quiche, toast, fruit

D- Baked spaghetti, green beans, garlic toast

Saturday

L- sandwiches, chips, carrots and dip

D- Rice medley, apple slices

Sunday

L- White chicken chili, biscuits

D- Meatloaf, baked potatoes, creamed corn

Peekaboo!

Recently we have had several different people on different occasions tell us what a funny kid Clara is, what a great personality she has, and how expressive she is. But the funny thing is that Jeremy and I are both so mellow and calm we're really not sure where she got this from. We do enjoy it though! She keeps us laughing a lot. And she keeps herself laughing a lot too!

This video was taken a few weeks ago. Jeremy had just gotten home from work and Clara couldn't wait until we were done at the dinner table before she started playing with him.

Clara's first artwork

The other day Jeremy and I were working on some things around the house and Clara was just wandering around playing with toys, reading books and generally getting into things. While we weren't looking, she went into the kitchen, reached up on the table and got herself a pencil and then proceeded to think it would be a good idea to scribble on the wall. Why she would think of that I have no idea, other than the simple fact that she's a kid and the wall was available. Thankfully she picked the one wall in our entire house that is unfinished so it really doesn't matter that she scribbled on it. And isn't her artwork pretty?

Amazing!

So we moved into our new house in October. It had been vacant for two years and needed a good cleaning. On the day we moved, a dear friend offered to clean our bathroom. She scrubbed on hands and knees and made that room sparkle for us! However, the shower and tub had a layer of grime on the lower half that just wouldn't come off no matter how hard she worked at it. Then another friend recommended I try the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser because she said she has had good luck with those in the past. I bought the product pictured above and I was so thoroughly impressed with it that I just had to blog about it. It cut through that scum so easily it almost seemed too good to be true. It is by far the best product I have ever used for cleaning the tub. And it even smells good too! So if you ever need to clean a grimy tub, get the Magic Eraser for kitchen and bath. You won't regret it!

Snow!

Yesterday Jeremy went out to shovel our driveway and he decided it would be a good day to introduce Clara to sledding! So I bundled her all up in her snowsuit and we went outside. At first she didn't like the snowsuit, but once we got outside she got over it.

We put her in this little wooden sled that Jeremy's mom used when she was a kid. Our street was packed with snow so Jeremy just pulled her down the street and around the cul de sac. She thought it was fun!

I did take some video of her adventures, but it's taking forever to load on here so maybe I'll try again another day.

Pantry Challenge: Week 3

It's kind of late in the week to post this, but I'm doing it anyway. It's week three of my pantry challenge. Here's our menu:

Monday
Turkey log (I was going to make it last Sunday, but Jeremy wanted homemade pizza instead while we watched football), biscuits, steamed veggies

Tuesday
Cheesy broccoli strata, toast, homemade canned pears

Wednesday
Leftover strata, fruit

Thursday
Steaks, scalloped potatoes, glazed carrots

Friday
Dinner out with a friend

Saturday
Lunch and dinner at my family's Christmas gathering!

Sunday
L- grilled cheese, tomato soup
D- White chicken chili, cornbread

We did stock up on some chicken this week because there was a great sale at Rainbow, along with a couple bags of frozen veggies, but otherwise we already had everything for this week's menu. On to week #4!

Pantry Challenge: Week 2

Our menu for the week:

Monday
Shake & bake chicken, baked potatoes, salad

Tuesday
Pasta w/meatballs, garlic toast, caesar salad

Wednesday
Jambalaya, biscuits, apple slices

Thursday
Going to a Christmas party

Friday
Leftover pasta w/meatballs, steamed veggie

Saturday
L- leftover Jambalaya, biscuits, fruit
D- homemade pizza, salad or carrots w/dip

Sunday
L- omelets, toast, orange slices
D- turkey log (not a very appealing name, but hopefully it tastes good), biscuits, steamed veggie

I did buy a few fresh produce items for this menu, but everything else I already had. So far it doesn't even feel like I've made a dent in our stock of food here. Maybe I can go longer than a month with this challenge! We'll see.

Baby Update

Wow, the second pregnancy goes so much faster than the first! I've been so busy with taking care of Clara and trying to settle in to our new house that I hardly have time to think about this pregnancy. This friday I will be 27 weeks, which marks the start of the third trimester already. I'm feeling pretty well lately, though I definitely am aware that I am pregnant and getting larger all the time. Baby girl is supposed to be about 14" long and weigh about 1 and 2/3 pounds right now. She's a busy little girl who likes to move around a lot, which I am thankful for!

Pantry Challenge

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted! But I have many excuses. Much of October and November the three of us were sick with colds. We moved into our house at the end of October. A week later we had Clara's birthday party. A couple weekends in a row of house guests. And last week we went to Manitowoc to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with Jeremy's family. So am I off the hook for not posting for so long?

This month I've decided to present myself with a pantry challenge. I'm going to attempt to keep the grocery purchases to a minimum and use up as much as I can that we already have on hand. I thought it might be a fun challenge, plus it will encourage me to use up some of those things that have been in the cupboard for a long time, hopefully cut down on my time spent running errands, and leave us with a little extra cash at the end of the month.

So for this week's menu...

Monday
L- turkey sandwiches, coleslaw, cranberries (all were Thanksgiving leftovers)
D- leftover pizza and pasta, applesauce

Tuesday
Turkey hash, biscuits, cranberries

Wednesday
Summer Sausage soup, biscuits, kiwi

Thursday
Chicken enchiladas, apple slices

Friday
Pork chops, baked potatos, salad

Saturday
Dinner out w/friends

Sunday
Dinner at a Christmas party

I did buy the kiwi and the apples today, along with a few other fresh produce items, but otherwise I already had everything I needed for these meals.

Anyone else want to take on a pantry challenge this week/month?

Introducing...

Clara's sister!

That's right...it's another girl for the Hermann's! We had our ultrasound this morning and everything looks great with the baby. We were under the impression that they would be able to look at the baby's esophagus to see if he/she might have the same birth defect that Clara did, but it turns out they aren't able to. All they can really do is look to see if there is fluid in the stomach, which they said is the best indication that everything has developed as it should. They were able to see fluid in this baby's stomach, but they were also able to with Clara so that didn't really provide the assurance to us that we were hoping for. They did, however, look pretty closely at the baby's heart. Clara was born with a small VSD (hole in her heart) which puts any additional children that we have at higher risk for heart defects. They saw nothing abnormal about the baby's heart, but they want us to come back in four weeks to look again when the baby is a little bigger. And since we'll be coming back for that they'll go ahead and look at the stomach again to see if that still looks good.

So we are very pleased with the results of the ultrasound and now we're getting excited thinking about having two girls. I'll probably pull out the baby name book this afternoon and start looking for ideas!

Thank you for your continued prayers for our little baby girl who is perfectly formed yet weighs only about 8 ounces right now. God is so good!

(What you see in the ultrasound picture is the front of the baby's face, with a fist below it. The rest is uterus, placenta, etc.)

Cookin' up some fun!

I've noticed recently that Clara has begun to outgrow the "baby toys" that we've accumulated for her so I've been watching Craig's List for an inexpensive play kitchen. Most of the ones I'd been seeing were still around $60 which wasn't cheap enough for me. Until today. Someone had posted one last night for $25 and it looked cute and in good condition so I jumped on it. We picked it up this afternoon and Clara's first reaction to it was pure delight. I didn't get a great picture of her with it yet because she was constantly on the move checking everything out. It makes noise when you play with the faucet, push buttons on the phone, and turn the pages of the cookbook. And the burners on the stove light up like they're hot. Now we just need to buy some play food and dishes and she'll be set for hours of fun!

18 weeks

Since I've put a few new posts on the blog recently you can probably guess that I'm starting to feel better finally. I'm definitely not 100%, but far better than I was a couple months ago. I've got quite a bit more energy and eating has gotten a lot easier too. I'm 18 weeks now...almost halfway to the end! We have our big ultrasound on Monday morning and we're hoping to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. This will be a level 2 ultrasound, which means it shows more detail. My clinic doesn't routinely do level 2 ultrasounds, but because of the birth defects that Clara had they want to look at this baby more closely. We'll be sure to post results of the ultrasound later on Monday.

Hidden treasure

Clara started walking about two weeks ago. Now she cruises all over our little apartment, exploring all the nooks and crannies, crumbs and fuzzes, cords, cupboards, books, appliances....anything she can possibly reach.



This morning I pulled out my mixing bowls to make up a batch of pancakes and I found this...

The picture turned out a little bright, but that's a pacifier in there. She loves to open this cupboard multiple times a day, but I didn't realize that she had decided it would make a good hiding spot for her treasures. It made me smile!

Big game!

Before the big game:

After the big game:

Well, we don't actually have an "after" picture. When the game ended, Clara was sound asleep in her bed and Jeremy was not a happy camper. Who wants a picture of that? Better luck next time, Packers!

It's been a long time since I've posted much here. Sadly I can't seem to find our camera so this post will be without pictures, but nevertheless I thought an update might be nice.

The past two months have been quite challenging for us since I was hit with all day, every day "morning sickness." I don't know why they call it that when it lasts all day. We've definitely been living in survival mode, meaning I wasn't cooking, cleaning or running any errands. My family has helped us a TON (I would not have survived without them!) and Jeremy has picked up a lot of my slack. Thankfully things are starting to turn around and I'm able to contribute more to the household operations now. I'm not yet feeling as well as I would like, but way better than two months ago.

As for the baby, as far as we can tell everything is great with him/her! I'm almost 16 weeks now so I expect to start feeling this little one moving soon. I felt Clara at 18 weeks, which is right around the corner. Because of Clara's birth defects we will be having a level 2 ultrasound this time so we can check out this baby more closely. As far as we know this baby doesn't have any higher chance of a birth defect like Clara's, but they want to check him/her out more closely just to be sure. That appointment is scheduled for October 12th and we do plan to find out the gender again. I'm too impatient to wait until Spring!

Clara is almost 11 months old now, which I can hardly believe. She is walking all over the apartment holding onto furniture and getting into everything! We expect her to be walking on her own by the time her birthday rolls around. She's getting closer every day it seems. She has eight teeth, and judging by the amount of finger chewing that has been happening for the past several weeks, more teeth are coming soon. She loves to dance to music and wrestle with her daddy. Recently she has become more snuggly, which I love. She'll come up to me and give me a hug, or snuggle her stuffed animals, and one of my favorites is when she lays on a pillow and says "ohhhhhh." So cute! She seems to learn something new every day. We are definitely loving being her parents.

As for the house that we mentioned several months ago, that has been a rollercoaster in and of itself! It's way too long of a story for me to tell here, not to mention I probably wouldn't remember most of it anyway, but the good news is we expect to be closing sometime next week! We are super excited to get in there and start cleaning and painting and getting settled. It's going to be so nice to have more space, and to have a yard and a garage and...oh, I'm so excited! We'll keep you posted on that.

Beyond those things I'm not sure what else to report. With me spending most of the summer feeling sick we didn't get to do many of the fun summer things I had hoped to do this year. And if we do indeed close on the house next week the month of October is going to be crazy busy. I'll try to post some pictures sometime soon, but for now I can't find our camera.

Praying you all are well!

Daddy Daughter Weekend!

Hanging out with Daddy is tiring! It's been a long weekend and there's
so many new things to do that I don't like to slow down to sleep. But
the car got the best of me and out I went.

Our family is growing!

Jeremy and I are expecting another baby! I had my first appointment today and everything looked great. I'm due mid-March so I'm about 7 1/2 weeks right now. We hadn't planned to have babies 17 months apart, but we're definitely excited. Judging by the way Clara responds to her new little cousin, Zion, I think she'll be thrilled to have a baby brother or sister!

I'm definitely not feeling well right now so we've kicked into survival mode, which means I probably won't be blogging a whole lot for the next several weeks. I'm praying the Lord allows this yuckiness to pass quickly, but I know it's for a good cause.

Thanks for your prayers for our new little bean!

Weekly Shopping

Have you noticed I've strayed a bit from the weekly $45 grocery budget recently? I've decided maybe I can vary my weekly budget to stock up on great deals, as long as I still stay within the monthly budget. So today I went to Rainbow and only spent $15.59. It was double coupon day so I scored some awesome deals. Both packs of shredded cheese and both frozen yogurt parfaits were FREE! The baby wash was $.50 and the shaving cream was $.59. I love double coupon day! I spent $15.59 and saved $23.06.

Baby Zion!

My sister (Brook) and her husband just got back home with their new baby, Zion Christopher! We got to see him last night at a little celebration dinner at my parents' house. He is the sweetest sweetie you ever did see!

Nana will take as many grandkids as she can get!

Cousins meeting each other. Clara doesn't really understand "gentle" but she did quite well with Zion, as if maybe she could sense the need to be gentle with him.

Don't you just want to eat him up?

Menu Plan Monday

Here's our menu for the week...

Monday
Dinner at my parents to welcome our new nephew, Zion! (Pictures coming soon)

Tuesday
Pita pizzas, salad

Wednesday
Church picnic

Thursday
Breaded shrimp, baked potatoes, frozen veggies

Friday
Pasta w/meat sauce, green beans

Saturday
BLT sandwiches, tomato soup

Sunday
Egg bake, fruit, toast

We also have some cherries that we need to do something with this week so if you know any good recipes, let me know!

Six-month pics

Clara is over eight months old now, but back in May my sister took some six-month pictures for us. There were so many good ones, but these are some of my favorites.

Put me back on the blanket! I don't like the grass!

Mommy makes it better!

Okay, maybe the grass isn't so bad after all.

Oh, yes it is! The grass is bad! The grass is bad!

Weekly Shopping

Yesterday I got out and did our shopping for the week. I spent $77.33 and saved $48.03 (according to my receipts...I'm assuming they're correct). Items that were free: two scrub sponges, one pork loin, one Velveeta Shells & Cheese cup, one DiGiornio flatbread melt. The Kashi items were also a great deal at Target...$5.24 for two boxes of cereal and two boxes of cereal bars. The Cheerios were $1.26 each after sales and coupons.

And I bought Clara her first box of teething biscuits. She thoroughly enjoyed chomping on that and making a mess of herself. She thought she was big stuff I think!

Menu Plan Monday

I've been slacking on my meal planning and shopping posts the last couple weeks. My mom thought maybe I'm pregnant again, but I'm not. I've just been slacking on my blog.

So here it is...our meal plan for the week.

Monday
Baked spaghetti, salad, homemade french bread

Tuesday
Omelets, toast, mango

Wednesday
Church picnic

Thursday
Delicious Pork & Noodles, frozen veggies

Friday
Golden Potato Soup, homemade biscuits, salad

Saturday
BBQ Pork sandwiches, potato chips, fruit

Sunday
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup

I'd love to do some baking this week...granola cereal, banada bread, and maybe some other things, but I'm not sure if it will happen or not since it's supposed to be a warm week and I really dislike running our noisy air conditioner. We'll see.

Growing up fast!

Clara is working hard at learning to crawl, but she hasn't quite figured it out yet. She's also incredibly interested right now in things that aren't her toys. I'm anticipating needing to teach her what is okay to get into and what isn't when she learns to crawl, but it feels like a big job that I don't want to think about yet. She was very happy the other night when Jeremy let her sit by the coffee table and pull out the newspaper and some magazine clippings. It was cute, but it hit home the reality that pretty soon she will be able to access things like this all by herself!

Helping Mommy with laundry

What? You don't think she was helping me with the laundry? Oh, but she was! She's never been in a laundry basket before so she thought it was pretty cool, which allowed me to put away four loads of laundry without her fussing for attention.

Simple pleasures

Clara was a little fussy the other night, but then she got her hands on this sheet of newspaper that had come in the mail and she entertained herself with that for at least a half hour! It was pretty much destroyed when we finally took it away from her. She had managed to rip it into four or five pieces and totally crumple all of them. Who knew a piece of newspaper could be so fun?!

We love her!

Wow! Celebrating Father's Day wears a girl out!

Menu Plan Monday

Wow, we've really been packing our weekends full lately! Friday night was a Hawaiian-themed birthday party for my niece. My dad made a tiki bar and Jeremy got to be the bartender. We ate kabobs and fruit salad and sipped fancy non-alcoholic drinks with umbrellas in them. It was great! Saturday we bought an inflatable wading pool and put Clara in it. At first she was not a fan, but she quickly warmed to the idea and had a great time playing in there! Yesterday the three of us went out for brunch to celebrate Father's Day. It was a great, full weekend and now we probably need a few days to recover and feel rested again!

Here's our menu plan for this week...

Monday

Baked fish, zucchini and yellow squash, mashed potatoes

Tuesday

Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread

Wednesday

Hamburgers, pasta salad, grapes, carrot sticks

Thursday

Mexican tortilla skillet, applesauce

Friday

BLT sandwiches, honeydew, tator tots

Saturday

Empanadas, chips and salsa

Sunday

African stew w/rice

Weekly shopping, part two

Clara and I headed to Rainbow this morning for Double Coupon Day and got all this for $27.94 and our receipt says we saved $28.89! The greatest deal was the feminine products...four packages for a total of $3.50!

So our total spent this week was $60.81 which means I'll need to reduce our budget next week by about $15. I hope there aren't a bunch of awesome sales next week that I'll miss out on!

Part of our weekly shopping

Jeremy worked from home today, so Clara and I ventured out this afternoon to run errands so Jeremy could have some peace and quiet.

See those three packs of Huggies? At regular price they would cost a total of $29.22 plus tax. I got everything in that picture for a total of $32.87! The boxes of cereal were $.83 each, strawberries were $1, the jar of salsa was free, and the six packs of baby food cost a total of $.12!

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Rainbow for Double Coupon Day! This week I am planning to go over our $45 budget because there are deals I just can't pass up, but I'll make up for it by spending less next week.