baby prep

With a third boy on the way a lot of people have been asking me what I need. I've saved everything that is worth saving from my older two boys so luckily my response is not a whole lot. The few things I need are items that typically aren't provided by people outside of family. So like for instance, a lady from church doesn't have any interest in buying us a crib mattress, and I don't blame her one bit! So here are a few things you might find yourself having to purchase when you have your own little one on the way.

Here is the crib mattress I picked out. It's got an average of 4 stars out of 5 from 920 reviewers so I consider that a pretty reliable product. I'm intrigued by the fact that is has spring coils. We've had two other baby mattresses that didn't have coils so I can't wait to see if I notice a difference.

I'm currently loving this bag from Target. With my older two songs I had a shoulder bag that a detachable long strap. It was fine and I loved it at the time, but now that I have more experience I know that a backpack will be so much better in those days when you are carrying a baby everywhere. I especially love the wipes pocket on the side.

The other things we absolutely need before new baby comes is a stroller and car seat combo. We used to have the Chicco Keyfit 30. The car seat part was completely shot and we had to get rid of it. But it lasted for two babies so I feel like we got good use out of it. This time around I've been looking at more economical options. Because I don't need to spend $200 just for a car seat. I found this option at Amazon.


In the past couple weeks I've been in target running errands as you do. On two separate trips I found these items that I absolutely had to have for my babe. That llama lamp provides the perfect amount of soft glowing light for those mid-night feedings and diaper changes. And every baby deserves his/her own soft lovey.

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SUMMER

Tomorrow is going to be 93F in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. For this pregnant lady that is TOO HOT. So we are going for a dip in the pool. I am so ready for the beach vacation that is coming early next month. I wanted to share these cool products I found while I was browsing for new items for my own family.

The first set of images are the towels! I've actually been using my grandparent's old towels for the past several years because they are still usable and I can't justify getting rid of them yet. But I might have to treat myself to that pizza towel because that is everything!

Do you think you know what my favorite color is?

Margaritas are off limits this summer so wouldn't that margarita float be the perfect substitute?!? The answer is yes.

Have you ever noticed how most beach chairs are so low to the ground it can be really difficult or even painful to get out of them if you are older or are pregnant or have bad knees or for any other reason? Well of course I had to do a search online for something better. One of the first chairs I found was this one on Amazon.
 It's got a 300lb weight limit which is much higher than most beach chairs and the seat is 14 inches from the ground (instead of 4 like so many other beach chairs.). If turquoise isn't your color it comes in several others. It's got cup holders and other pouches for items like your phone or magazine. It also has a convenient strap to carry it. The price is more than what you would pay at Walmart, but for the special features it's still not a bad deal. What's not to love? By the way, it's Prime eligible so if you are going to beach or camping or any other outdoor activity this summer you can order it now and still get it in plenty of time for you trip.

two interesting links

two things I found online today that really interest me.... tracking sharks and calculating cost of raising children:



http://www.ocearch.org/  :: this is the shark tracking website. i'm totally gearing up for my beach trip in early july and i will definitely be checking back in with this website to make sure that the tagged sharks are out of the area. too bad not every single shark in the ocean is tagged though...


usda cost of raising a child calculator  :: i found this link in a very out of the way manner. i was reading an article about sacrifices you need to make if you want to retire by 40. and i noticed that all the couples they cited were childless (or is it childfree?). and since we're expecting a third boy i thought i would try to find the most recent numbers for cost of raising children which is how i eventually found this calculator. when this baby comes along we can expect to spend over $25k/year on our sweet boys. although that number includes $616 each for the older boys in clothing and $730 in clothing for the baby. i think maybe i've spent $616 on clothing for my oldest boy total for his whole lifetime. there's no way i'll be spending over $700 for a baby. especially not since it's boy #3. i've got so many boxes of clothing and i've even donated/consigned of a lot it because it was just too much.

preschool gift idea

I'm just stopping in real quick to share an idea that my boys and I put together. It's just a small gift for all my oldest son's preschool classmates. We put it together for less than 30 cents a bag thanks to my frugal shopping habits.

The baggies were made up of one hot cocoa packet, one winter pencil, and 4 small stickers. We also put a little note to let them know who it was from. The bags and pencils I bought last year after Christmas and got them on clearance. They were each less than a $1 for a pack of 36 pencils and 20 bags. Here is a good deal on plain bags that you could use year round. 

Here are the hot cocoa packets we included. They came from Aldi and were either $1.20 or $1.30 for a box of 10, which is a better deal than the ones you can get at the dollar store for a box of 6. The stickers did come from the dollar store and were left over from another gift bag I made for our Sunday School class which is smaller so I was more generous. 

I will have to stock back up on those little goodies for next year for my younger son's preschool class. I hope the kids like them. I know my oldest son liked helping me put them together which I am so pleased about. I want them to understand that giving is good. Christmas isn't all about getting as many toys as you possibly can. 

I also think these would make great teacher gifts by adding in a gift card to Target. 

quick book recommendations

I am just stopping in to write some quick reviews of two books we absolutely love in my house. You can click the picture to buy the book.



The first is a bedtime book called Bedtime for Batman. My 3 yr old and 5 yr old both love this book. It's about a little boy getting ready for bed and how Batman gets ready for his night too. We love how the end of the book has a checklist so you can make sure you did everything you needed to.




The second book is a Christmas story called Jesus, Me, and My Christmas Tree. In this book a little girl goes through the decorations on the tree and how they tell the story of Jesus. It's such a great tool to help bring some of the meaning back into Christmas, especially when these little kids are bombarded with Santa Claus legends all day long.






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Christmas tree 2016

This is my favorite time of the year! So here's our Christmas tree so far. As always, these photos are straight out of the camera, my little Canon Powershot. I am saving up for one like this.

Our house is so small so the tree is squeezed in between the front door and the table at my end of the couch. We've put about a third maybe of our ornaments on and that's really enough.

My oldest son wanted me to take a picture of our tiny batman ornament. That is one that we got last year after the holiday.

My knit snowball ornament. I think I made that in 2011.

This is an ornament I made from a dead nightlight bulb. I covered it in tissue paper and glitter. #thrifty

Reindeer ornament that sadly lost an eyeball between preschool and home. This is my oldest son's first preschool made ornament.

I filled this ornament with Easter grass and the wrote my husband's initial in glue and coated that in colored sand. I did this our first Christmas as a married couple, 2010.

These diamonds are not only one of my favorite sets of ornaments but both my boys love them too. They are plastic, they sparkle. I have them in the red seen here and a bronze color. Here is a clear set. I've also seen them in pink and other colors as well. They've been rearranged on our tree so many times already and our tree has only been up for one day.

Here are some more ornaments that I absolutely love!

Use the arrow button to see them all (there's a lot!).

Thanks for checking it out! Happy Holidays!

Bulletin / Book display

Since my bulletin board displays are the most popular posts on here I thought I'd share this one from my student teaching days. it's my first ever bulletin board!

The words were printed on regular copy paper, cut and laminated. Hence the shiny reflections. But this was done so they could be reused year after year.

Here is the finished project. It was a great idea, I wasn't 100% happy with the finished product. There's a lot of fantasy fiction among the titles listed. And the whole thing is just really busy, but I really like the idea.



Here is a display I did for a FACS (family and consumer sciences) teacher. Check out my extremely clever title: Cooking by the Books!