Scarlet fever

Okay I just got done saying in a comment to the last post about the baby, He has had this low grade fever since Thursday, I attributed it to teeth or just fighting something. He never slowed down. Then on Saturday he started not eating very well, But he is 2 he has days where he just throws everything cause it is more fun. Then Saturday night he got this "cold" sore thing. Then Sunday he got another "cold" sore thing. Then today he woke up from his nap covered and I mean covered in this rash. It kinda freaked me out, So we called the DR. , He wanted us to come in asap, and to come in the back entrance. What in the world!!! I said okay. We get there, Dr. comes in looks at the rash, looks at his throat, and says hmmmm has he been eating well. I said well no. She says his throat and the inside of his mouth is covered in blisters. He has scarlet fever. I did not know people still got scarlet fever. I was horrified. Then she said how contagious it is, Then I thought Oh no, My oldest has been sick with sore throat for 2 days, We took her in, Yep scarlet fever!!! You have to take augmentin for 24 hours at least before going back to work or school or out until you are not contagious anymore. She works at the public library, The administrator of course did not want her to come back in until Thursday. I honest to god, Never ever ever would have thought scarlet fever, I would have been less shocked if you hit me with a brick. Apparently it runs quite ramped in hospitals, And they can only assume that he picked it up at the hospital 8 days ago when he had his thyroglossal duct surgery. Scarlet fever is a Strep infection, It is Strep on steroids. Have any of you heard of or known anyone to have scarlet fever in the past 100 years, haha. Anyway he will be fine as long as he drinks, If he gets dehydrated he will have to go to the hospital and that is no problem for him, he is drinking and eating Popsicles like mad. The rash just looks horrible. The only thing is the contagiousness of it, I am watching everyone cause there is a good chance as far into this as we are, Everyone may get it. I also have to wash everything in the house down with bleach water, wipe on, Don't rinse. I asked about vinegar, But I guess that this is one of several viruses vinegar does not kill. I did get out of pain killers or anything for the throat as far as medicine, She totally agreed with the salt water, gargle or swallow little bits. Or sipping on , Hot water mixed with apple cider vinegar and some honey. She also said that yogurt and even better my homemade yogurt is awesome for cleaning out the virus in the stomach, intestines and other organs, The probiotics are good for all that. YEAHHHH Those two things cut out two prescriptions for him, and allowed us to go natural, That made me very happy. Unfortunately I understand he needs the antibiotic for the scarlet fever itself.

I was going to post on something else tonight, But will save it for tomorrow night.

I wanted to share this with everyone so they know this is still going around, Incase they were uninformed as I was. I am also posting a picture of the baby, So you can see what scarlet fever looks like on him. He had no rash going into his 1 hour nap and woke up with it, So it appears fast, Mostly on the face and torso, And like marbelizing on the extremeties.

Scarlet fever left untreated can cause liver failure, kidney failure, heart problems, deafness, and death. Scarlet fever may be a high temp, But often is just a low grade temp that lasts for several days erupting into the rash, The rash is just a symptom, a later symptom. God bless to all tonight, Michelle

Organic

I stumbled upon this video the other night, I was searching the documentaries on netflix, I love documentaries!!! I saw this one called Food Inc. I watched it, And I was horrified. I have been contemplating organic for some time, The price always set me back. I was watching the kids play a little bit after watching the movie, And I started thinking about all the ways we all waste money every month, I have been thinking about this anyway hence the NO SPEND next month. We waste alot on stupid frivolous things. I went to walmart last night. I took my grocery money for the two weeks, $200. I spent $150 of it. It was hard to find organic fruits and veggies mainly because I learned from the movie it is just not natural to have fresh fruits and veggies during the winter. Which is why a canner is on my list for this summer, So I can can our garden this year. Back to the organic. I did find milk, cauliflower, broccoli, juices etc. I definitely found less and got way less in my cart then a coupon/sales trip, But I felt better then a regular grocery trip. Alot better. I felt like buying organic could really help the twins and their adhd, What if buying organic helped to get them off their horrible medications?? This alone would be worth it. I found some places online to purchase organic stuff in bulk at fairly decent prices. I would most definitely need to take trips down to Tulsa, Ok to Whole Foods maybe every two months. I have found a few organic farms down by Tulsa also, Where I can get grass fed beef, and other organics. Since reducing what we eat in the past couple of years I think that this is doable, Financially. We have cut our eating in half. Just cutting in half has helped all of us lose weight. All of us except the 3 little ones are overweight, But losing as we eat better and less. I am going to purchase organic seeds next shopping trip. I have some organic seeds, But most are just cheapy ones, $1 a package, And organic seeds are $2 a package. If you don't have netflix you can watch Food Inc. on www.youtube.com . Happy organic eating!! Michelle

Loveseat redo!!

This is the after picture of the love seat/hidabed. The plaid pillows are from the couch, Which is the exact same as the pillows. This blue matches perfectly plus will hold up better to the children. The ottoman fabric color I think looks good with it, So I did not recover it, But it does need to come off and be cleaned, The kids loveeee the ottoman.

This was the before picture of the love seat/hidabed. It was my first try at recovering. It was okay, I loved the fabric until I put it on, Then I did not like it and it matched nothing. But there were holes in the couch before this, And I did not have the money for new heavy duty fabric, So this did in a pinch.

I have made part of my "Keep busy list" during next month's "NO SPENDING". Here is what I have so far.....

1. Plant more seeds

2. Start getting lumber etc. for the raised beds.

3. Call extension office to do soil test.

4. Treat soil, rototiller, Put in raised beds.

5. Paint living room a coffee color.

6. Make new drapes for living room with material bought at walmart closeout sale.

7. Deep clean and oil old wood floors downstairs

8. Paint the stairs. ( I saw this in a magazine and loved it, Would never have considered painting inside stairs).

9. finish up boys room, Painting and decorating.

10. Work on 14 year olds room , redecorating and painting.

11. Repaint our room.

12. Repaint 17 year olds room.

13. Get sheers out for dining room windows, Wash and iron for spring and summer.

14. Last week of march, Get all kids spring clothes washed up and ready to go in drawers.

15. Pull our fridge clean and dust.

16. Cut everyone's hair ( I do this once a month anyway)

17. Clean out my ugly place, haha, My printer sits on a microwave cart underneath is a cupboard I refer to this as my ugly place, Every piece of paper I do not want to deal with has gone there!!!

18. Get all the outside toys cleaned up and ready for spring.

19. Order new tires for the little ones wagon. ( This is one of those step 2 wagons, My husband uses this to take the 3 little ones all over town in the spring and summer)

20. Clean oven.

That is my list so far, I hope to be very very very busy. I have already started gathering and purchasing some of the things needed for all this. Most I already have. Just have a few more items to get. I had to plan down to the last nail. I do not want to spend one dime!!!! Wish me luck, Michelle

Yeast Correction in pizza recipe

Thank you to Shaunta for catching my mistake. I had one eye on the baby with his fever last night and one eye on the blog. The recipe should read 2 TEASPOONS of yeast or one packet. I use 2 Tablespoons of yeast in my bread dough recipe, And that was in my head. Of course you don't want your pizza recipe like a loaf of bread, although I think my family would still eat it!!!! But I would not haha. Also the baby is doing fine, Fever gone. I think it may have been teeth, He has been chewing and wanting to bite things lately haha. Thank you again Shaunta!!! Michelle

Flat tire,pizza jar mix,fever, and decluttering/rearranging

What a Friday!!!!! The baby has a fever today and I am not sure why, He does not seem sick, But none the less it worries me, only a week after surgery. He is napping right next to me, So I can keep an eye on him.
My oldest took my car today since I would not be using it, She took her lunch break to pick up some groceries at walmart, Went out to leave and flat tire. We knew the tires were bad, We are replacing them one a month because the tires cost $170 each. That was not an expense I was looking forward to this week, But what are ya gonna do, Fix it.
This morning I made pizza mixes up, In canning jars of course since they are my new favorite things. This family loves pizza and I mean loves it, But making it never appealed much to me, It seemed so time consuming, I don't know why I thought this. So I broke down last night and found a yeast recipe online and made it up. It made 2 12 inch pizzas and it was soooo easy. I thought holy cow I can make this even easier. So I made up 4 jars full of the dry mix, I can grab this in the morning, mix it up, knead it for 5 minutes, slap it in a bowl to rise. When done I will roll it out, top it, and put it in the fridge for dinner time. This sounds so easy to me I am going to dedicate one night a week to homemade pizza. WHeeeeeeeee easy easy dinner!!!!!
I also could not stand my living room anymore, I spent the last few nights, spackling the area underneath the DVD shelf that we put up, Where the unusable fireplace is. I have decided I want to paint my living room a burnt orange type color. So I am getting it ready to paint. So I rearranged the furniture around today and cleaned places that had not seen a broom for awhile. Tonight after the kids go to bed, I am recovering our hide a bed that we use as a love seat. I purchased some heavy duty fabric at a local walmart that is discontinuing their fabric dept. I got 15 yards of this fabric for $8.22. I will take before and after pics and post them tomorrow. I recovered it a few months ago, But I just used some scrap fabric and the fabric is really thin, It turned out nice, But with 6 kids it did not hold up well. This fabric will match my existing furniture really well too, It is dark blue so will hold up to dirty hands too.
It was also the monthly time to declutter and organize my two home school/bookshelves. That was quite a task. I can
t believe how much clutter gets piled up in one month. All in all today was productive.
The last thing I did was make my list for next month. Next month we are having our first NO SPEND month. I am going to post twice per week next month, dedicated to just this NO SPEND. My to do lists to keep busy, Meals and recipes using our stockpile etc. We have alot of debt. We do not want to file bankruptcy, Because it is our debt and we want to pay it. So we started last year, We did not make our goal by this January of having as much paid off as we wanted to, So we are gonna do this NO SPEND month in march and hopefully again in May to get back on track and actually get a bit ahead. I want to keep myself really busy and the kids really busy next month, So we don't even think about going out!!!! Then hopefully toward the end of the month we have a nicer day and for a reward for our no spending, I am going to plan a huge picnic at the park/zoo (free) for the entire day. Everyone is really excited about that. Gotta run and check on the baby, Happy Friday, Michelle

Pizza recipe
In bowl mix
2 3/4 cup bread flour
2 Tablespoons yeast or 1 packet
1 teaspoon salt
Mix this up and store in jars, This mix will make 2-12inch pizza's.

To dry mix, add 1 cup warm water and 2 tablespoons oil, I have used veg. and olive and sunflower, all work well. Mix this up until ball forms. Turn onto floured surface knead 5 minutes, put in floured bowl to rise, 2-3 hours. Roll out dough to fit pans, Poke holes in the dough with fork to keep bubbles from forming. Spread on sauce, We have used spaghetti sauce, homemade sauce, pizza sauce from the store etc. anything works. Add your toppings, Whatever you like. Bake 25-45 minutes until done. ENJOY!!!!

Our pizza sauce
3 large cans tomato sauce
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon chili seasoning mix

Put all in a glass jar or canning jar, shake shake shake, Use what you need for your pizzas according to how much sauce you like. Store rest in fridge for up to 2 weeks, Use as needed for pizzas.

Not frugal

I read some things that people do that are completely not frugal at all. Most everyone has them I am sure. My hubby is a cokeaholic. This is not negotiable with him. I do get it with coupons and use mycokerewards.com, But it is still a non frugal expense. I do play games on down time at pogo.com, They have a place to play for free, But I use mycokerewards.com to play the pay side except I use free month codes from mycokerewards so I don't have to pay anything, So I do stretch that coke out alot. We also recycle the cans, although you have to have alot to get a buck!!! When I can't get coke on sale , I will buy the generic, Or I will buy Pepsi etc. This week I got 15 packs of Pepsi/mountain dew, 3 bags of Doritos and 2 bags of baked lays chips for $30 after register rewards. This amount will last a long time.
Our car is not frugal in any way shape or form. I loveeeeeeee my car. We did buy it used. We have a 2001 fully loaded YukonXL. We bought it a year ago. It was a great price, It was the dealerships owners car. It was in perfect condition. It is the first vehicle we have owned that fits all of us at one time. We did not pay cash, But will have it paid off in 3 years total, so 2 more to go. It takes alot for gas, But we don't leave town that much. I would defend this purchase to my death hahahaha I love this car!!!!! And by taking care of it, we plan on having it for a long long time.
By doing the frugal things I do, I can do a few non frugal , things we like things, This works for me. Most of what we do is frugal. And we give up things that other's never would. We don't do vacations, Only vacation we have ever done is when we moved from California to Kansas, We planned a little something in each place we stayed, But all were free or donation museums etc.
We never go to the movie theaters with the exception of a few times when I get tickets for free, But that is rare. We don't miss these things. Don't even think about them.
I thought for a few years my kids were wishing we were different, But I learned that was not the case. My oldest who moved out on her own at 18 ( 1 year ago), Uses coupons, buys clearance, calls me to tell me where this or that is on clearance or when something is an amazing price somewhere!!!! She dumpster dives for furniture then cleans and polishes it up. Her latest frugalness that made me smile was.....She purchased a couch she really liked for $5 at the thrift store, But hated the material and the holes in it. She went to walmart who is getting rid of their fabric department (makes me sad) she purchased enough material to recover the couch for $10 including the price of the couch. It looks awesome!!!! Along with her dumpster recovered coffee table all polished up, and her thrift store decor, The room looks great!! She loves loves loves clothes, Although she buys all her clothes on sale, She likes new clothes. She has learned that if she does frugal things she can afford the clothes she wants.
My 17 year old son has been a dumpster diver since he was old enough to haul things home. I think he has gotten me more of my furnishings then we have. He has an eye for good stuff. He has self taught himself to fix computers. He has run a little business out of our house since he was 14, People from around town bring their computers to him. He lovessssss computers. By learning how to fix computers and update them etc. He has made enough money to have a brand new computer, purchase all the upgrades he likes using eBay for parts, and purchase his own laptop. He has learned to do something he loves to get the things he wants.
My 14 year old shows the most resistance but she is learning.
My twins are the cutest to date, They ask if there is a coupon for everything!!! The love my coupons, They find coupons everywhere, They can smell em. On packages, in stores, everywhere. They love the used stores. Jacob loves clothes. He will walk into a used store and come up with a complete outfit including sweater and shoes!!! He has been doing this since he was 3. At five years old, They have already learned that they can save and be frugal too.
They are our can savers. We purchased one of those can smashers and that is their job. They get to keep the money and spend it. They get completely bent out of shape when someone throws a can away.
This makes me very proud of my kids. They don't waste stuff. They are trying to be green and save money. They all want to own their own houses with no house payment, or a piece of land (my 17 year old). My daughter is going to look this year for a house. She just started her new job yesterday, She is our town's newest librarian. She has worked at walmart for the last 2 years. She is so excited about this new job, She loved it yesterday. She was making $7 an hour at walmart getting only about 30 hours per week. With the librarian job she makes $25,000 a year, with medical and dental insurance. The library is one block from her apartment, so she can walk. She is 19 years old, I think she is doing very well. The administrator said there were 91 applicants, She beat them all out, Mainly because of the two managers at walmart who gave her stellar references, Although they did tell the library they did not want them taking her away from them!!!! hahaha.
She has reaffirmed to me that what I am doing is good, It is right. Happy child rearing, Michelle

Life insurance, car insurance,contents insurance.

Today we are getting the last of the health checks for our life insurance. We have never had life insurance before, We are also switching our car insurance and getting contents for our house insurance. Our house can't be insured because of the roof, So we are doing $100,000 content insurance. Anyway we always meant to get life insurance, with 6 kids this is needed I believe. We had some good friends, Mark and Diane Cadigan, They had no health insurance, no insurance at all. Diane died from complications due to diabetes, And Mark died 2 weeks later from a heart attack. They had 8 kids, The oldest was 19 the youngest was 4. The kids did go on extreme home makeover and got the family house completely redone and some money for college for the kids, But the oldest kids had to hold down jobs to take care of the little ones. I don't want my kids to have to do this. We are getting 1 million on hubby and $500,000 on me. If something were to happen to both of us, My older kids would have no problems taking care of the little ones with that. With my husband almost 42 and I am turning 39 this month, This insurance will give me a little peace of mind. You never know what could happen, And I can't stand the thought of my oldest daughter struggling to raise my children. She would, And has said no ifs ands or buts, She would raise them, But how nice if she did not have to worry at all about money. I have seen my friends children once since they died, They live in California we live in Kansas, They are doing well but struggle. I would encourage anyone with children, Don't wait, Get insurance!!!! Gotta run the nurse is here to take blood!!!! Happy Tuesday Michelle