Just got back from Dr.

Just got back from Dr. apt. and everything looks good he said. He said it appeared that there was just 1 baby, But that my uterus was tilted up so he would check again in a few months!!! 1 is good, 1 is easy hahahahaah. I am exhausted from the trip so gonna go lay down for a few before fixing dinner. I will post more soon. Michelle

Sunday dinner

Since I am not cooking big meals during the week I made another sunday dinner. I made a family favorite. We call it Pork and stuffing. I also made biscuits but since I don't measure out my biscuit mix it is kinda hard to give a recipe but I will tell you the ingredients. I also made a basic choc. cake with cream cheese frosting.
Pork and stuffing
Pork loin roast ( I used 4 lbs)
3 boxes of stuffing
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
3 cups hot water
4 tablespoons butter
paprika

Pour boxes of stuffing into baking dish leaving room for roast on top. Cut butter and place on top of stuffing mix. Pour hot water over stuffing and butter and mix. In seperate container mix cream of chicken soup and sour cream together. Place the pork roast(s) on top of stuffing mix.( If my pork roasts are extra bulky I have split these) Spoon on the cream of chicken mixture on top of the roast and spread around, Spoon the rest of the mixture in dollops on top of the stuffing mix. Top all with paprika. I did not put an amount of paprika because we like lots, You can add it to taste. Bake 1 hour 30 minutes or until roast is done through. This is super super tasty and filling.
My biscuits we love but like I said I don't have a recipe. The ingredients are self rising flour, salt, milk,6 tablspoons butter and my homemade yogurt. ( My homemade yogurt is made with vanilla but has never affected the flavor of the biscuits as far as making them vanilla flavor)I start with 4 cups of self rising flour,Then I add the butter and cut in, Then I add about 2 teaspoons of salt, a cup and half of milk and a cup and half of yogurt. I mix this up and add more flour as needed to make it easy to knead. I dump this onto the table and knead until mixed through. Then pat down and cut out with the lid from the canning jar. Bake at 400 until brown. I have tried so many biscuit recipes that my family has never liked. To be honest we only like them when they come out like KFC. This is the only biscuit my family will eat and they eat every single one. This mix of ingredients is the only way I can get them to come out like this. Only advice I have is make sure you don't handle the dough too much, Knead only until mixed.
The choc. cake I cheated on, I used a box mix from the stockpile. But I always make my own frosting. Not one of us can stand frosting from a can. And we only eat cream cheese frosting. I just take a block of cream cheese softened add 2 tablespoons of vanilla and 2 tablespoon of milk, mix with mixer and add enough powdered sugar to make a spreadable frosting. Last night I added 1/4 cup of baking choc. powder to make it choc.
Good luck and happy cooking, Michelle

Day 6 of NO SPEND MONTH

We are 6 days in to NO SPEND MONTH. I am not gonna lie, already this is hard!! I went out yesterday to take my daughter something and I pulled into the gas station where I always stop and get a soda when I go out, pulled right back out again when I realized nope no spend. Then I argued with myself on the way to my daughters, it is only $.75!!! But that is the whole point of no spend month, we nickel and dime ourselves to death. I did not get the soda and I lived. By the time I got home I was quite happy that I did not spend the $.75 and I did not drink the soda for health reasons. I sat down last night and made plans for when we travel on the 10th to my ultrasound, we always go to eat out when we travel to bartlesville. Not this time. I packed most of the lunch last night, the non perishables. Then on the morning before we go I will pack the sandwhiches and drinks. I am doing the small amount of grocery shopping I had budgeted in while we are there at Aldi's. I have my list ready for that too, fruits and veggies and stuff I knew I could not stockpile. That is it. We are only taking enough cash for the groceries and the amount we budgeted for gas to fill up there ( gas is $.20-$.30 cheaper a gallon in Oklahoma). There won't be too big of a problem of having extra money with the 10th paycheck because most of it is already allocated to bills, With only our envelopes of cash left.....
Food-$50 ( Our extra fridge died so I can't keep as much milk on hand as I need so I bumped this up from $25)
Gas-$60
Zoo-$10 ( this is our reward at the end of the month for not spending, We have $40 saved in change and If we add $10 per paycheck we will have enough to go to Tulsa to the zoo)
Copays for medicine-$40
Just in case or if not used Savings-$50
That is it, The rest is gone to bills.
We gathered all our bills and went through them all last week. We paid $8,000 in debt last year and hope to double that this year. We have $32,000 left. If we could pay $16,000 this year we could do it one more year and be completely debt free. We would have to pay off around $1600 a month in bills for the next 10 months to hit the $16,000. I am not including the last 2 months that we have paid off. With no house payment I think this attainable. $6,500 of the first $16,000 is the balance of our car, we want to get this paid off this year so we can lower our insurance and interest. Plus we know that in November we will add another $2000 to our medical bills for the C-section copay for this baby, That is if everything goes well. Although we have thought out and written everything down, we are trying not to think too far ahead. Just living in the month. Fact is with 6 kids anything can happen at any time. Someone like last year could freakishly fall of the diningroom table chair, Hit his chin exactly perfectly on the table and split his chin wide open and need stitches ( yes Jacob you being him) sigh. This required us to go to the ER which is sickening on copay. That cost as much as having a baby. Then between my hubby's nasal polyp surgery in Novemeber and the 2 year olds thyroglossal duct surgery in January these two things added another $1800 and $1500 to our debt. There is no way to predict this stuff. But if we are debt free we could easily pay these things with cash when they were to come up.
So as for the first 6 days, Yes it is hard, I tried not to look at the grocery store ads when they come in as not to tempt me. We would never starve, I have stockpiled 3 months worth of food. I have stockpiled 2 months worth of household-paper towels, toilet paper, diapers and anything else we might need. I shopped for 2 years at walgreens with coupons and have 88,000 bottles of shampoo and personal items over the counter medicines in every shape and size, vitamins, foil, etc. I made up (3) 5 gallon buckets of laundry soap. I printed a list from online of substitues in case I ran out of something. I left myself no excuse to run to the store.
I will update NO SPEND MONTH again after we get back on the 10th and let ya know how we did!!!! Happy bill paying and being closer to debt free, Michelle

Sunshine!!!

We have had sunshine for several days now. Big bright sunshine. I was beginning to think sunshine was not real anymore!!! It is still chilly at night but around 50-60 during the day. I took down all the winter drapes and hung up the sheers. This lets in the sun from early morning till sunset and we do not need to run the heaters since it warms up quite nice in here. This saves a ton on kerosene and electric. And I personally like how pretty the sheers look. I need to make some valances for the dining room windows and I will in time. Although still fairly tired the house is wearing on me. I have been cleaning like mad lately, Well as much as possible. I used the great tutorial at www.makedowiththenotsonew.blogspot.com for newspaper pots. I made a few then had my oldest Son make me 25 of them. I planted those 25 and 10 more of the jiffy pots I had. I am hoping that the boys can get the raised beds in next weekend and get them ready to go. I am going to start hardening off some of the plants early next week and hopefully get them planted after they get the beds in. I am really excited about getting my garden growing this year.
I wanted to post a bit on NO SPEND MONTH. We are only 5 days in and doing well. No spending yet, which for us is great!!! I had to budget in a few extra things for the month that were not there when I planned this, like extra money for gas to get to Dr. appointments and the $20 copay for my medication and folic acid. Other than that doing really good. I am pretty stocked up so I don't see any major worries. Happy Sunshine to all!!!! Michelle

Entering new 2 year old stage

With the twins being a little out of control in the morning with the ADHD. Mornings can be quite hectic. I was sitting late one night a few weeks ago thinking how in the world am I gonna manage this with the two of them, the 2 year old another baby. The 2 year old has been my best baby so far. He is a go with the flow kinda guy. But he is still quite demanding for attention. He is a 2 hour nap at 11-1 each day. But I have noticed over the past few weeks he has not been wanting to nap as long, but is a bit grouchy from it. He is still drinking a bottle when he naps and goes to bed. I never felt the need to take this away from any of my children except at a certain time I limit it to only naps and bedtime. I found at around 2 1/2 they give it up no problems. Well for the past few weeks he always asks for his bobby and his pretty (blankie) around 9 each morning, He gets up on the recliner, snuggles pretty and drinks bobby and watches disney channel. Loving trains as much as he does, he loves the new chuggington show. This is going to be very valuable when the new baby gets here to have him with this routine. It will give me an hour after I get the boys calmed down doing something to just spend with the baby. I did the babywearing with the 2 year old and really wish I had stumbled upon the thought with the twins. I really feel like it helped the 2 year old be more independent. He is not like any of my other kids. He is very content entertaining himself and is confident. I will do babywearing with this baby too, Most definetly. Happy child rearing to all, Michelle

Soooo tired!!!

I need some energy foods or vitamins or something. I am just drained beyonf belief. I really felt like I floated through today in a fog. I am just drained and tired. Not edgy but calm if that makes any sense. I have never felt like this during a pregnancy. It could be the anti nausea pills. But I do not like feeling like this at all. I have got stuff to do, ya know!!! So tell me, my wise friends what could I add to my diet or a vitamin that might give me a little extra zip in my step. I must be lacking something. Well just wanted to see what ideas you had. I am going to sleep now, Cause I am tired again, go figure bahahaha. Good night to you, Michelle

History channel

Just wanted to let you all know that this morning on the history channel I watched a really neat documentary. It is called After Armeggedon, It starts again at 2pm today. I am not a doomsdayer at all. I just thought it had some great information on being prepared for anything. This particular one was about a flu pandemic. I thought I was very prepared but quickly learned some new things. I am actually gonna watch it again at 2pm and take some notes on some things I would like to learn more about. This was really well done, I liked how it showed the emotional effects on a person who survived. Anyway just wanted to let ya know I thought it was really neat. Happy watching and learning, Michelle