Sunday Preggo Post time!!!! I am officially 35 1/2 weeks pregnant!!! A month to go..well I hope...
My venture this week, dealing with the idea of being a "stay at home" mommy. Money is so tight right now so the idea of me giving up my full time job as a bakery manager is really scary but staying home is very important to both of us. Thank goodness for Monkey Beanz or we would be in a lot more trouble. So here are a few money saving techniques my husband and I are doing...

1. Cloth Diapers: As I posted before we are going to be using cloth diapers
2. Breast Feeding
3. My husband and I have become bulk shoppers (this is hard for us, we are very much "foodies")
4. We will continue to have just one car
5. We have netflix so we can watch the instant view instead of renting or going to the movies
6. Using the library instead of buying the books we want to read
7. Only getting clothing at thrift stores (thank you to my friends for all of the hand me downs we have been recieving for Spencer/Lily
8. We started making our own cleaning products a long time ago, I love it!!!

I have faith in us!!!! I am open to any other money saving tips... bring it on ladies!!!

Oh and we finished our nursery finally!!!!

Have a great week everyone

Peace love and turtles

Nyki

Pregnant during the holidays!!!

Hello it is time for my Sunday Preggo Post (that is what I am calling it these days).
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! I had a fabulous time with the Family!!! After Thanksgiving comes Christmas.. I will be 2 weeks away from my due date during Christmas so I am getting everything ready now. I obviously have all of the children in my life covered with Fair Trade gifts from Monkey Beanz. There goes this months check!!!

For the adults in my life I am giving out baskets filled with homemade goodies. I have started to prepare now since I am sure I will not be in the mood in a few weeks. Here is some of the things our baskets will consist of...

1. My special pumpkin bread in a jar dessert (sorry I don't have a picture to share)
    You can use any pumpkin bread recipe you can find. This is my favorite http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Downeast-Maine-Pumpkin-Bread/Detail.aspx i just add a handfull or 2 of chocolate chips.
The next step is to put about a 1/2 of the mix into a jar, I like to use 12 oz jars. Put them on a cookie sheet and carefully put them in the oven.. (that is 350 degrees) I would love to give you an exact bake time but honestly I usually just throw them in and keep my eye on them, I believe it is around 15 Minutes. When they come out put the lid on and it will seal shut. I am putting this in the basket with these intrustions
" Heat up in microwave for 30 seconds. Put a scoop of Vanilla ice cream in the jar then drizzle with Caramel and sprinkle with pecans.. ENJOY"

2. Another really cool thing we are putting in the basket is hot drink mixes. I found some christmas themed bags to use for this. In the baggie I make up different combos that will make yummy hot drinks. Here is one of my favorites.
Chocolate Mint Coffee Mix
In the bag put 2 T. plus 2 tsp. sugar
2 T. Instant coffee granules
2 T. Powdered coffee creamer
2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa
1 peppermint candy, crushed into fine pieces
Then attach a gift tag with these directions:
To make one serving
1 1/2 T of mix
6 oz. boiling water
Whipped cream (optional)
Place the mix in a mug. pour boiling water over the mix until dissolved. Garnish with whipped cream.

Those are just a few things that we are putting in our baskets. It will feel so good to put so much love into each thing we make for our friends and family. Here is to a stress free holiday!!!
Peace love and cookies
NyKi

Cloth Diapers

SO as always I will start out my post with mentioning that I am now 34 weeks!! 6 Weeks to go. My complaints this week .. Heartburn!!! I never knew heartburn could possibly feel this bad. Otherwise I am pretty happy besides a quick battle with the flu last week.

I have been getting everything ready for when our little cutie arrives. This including our cloth diapers, I am actually really looking forward to this venture. I get a lot of doubt from my friends and family which I find quite odd, I have never been someone who gives up on anything but I will use their doubt as encouragement!! It is important to me because of many reasons.
Here are a few facts that I have found (http://www.rpi.edu/~cummia3/Portfolio/SaniSolar_3_files/SaniSolar%20Poster.pdf)

1.The US uses apx. 27.4 billion disposable diapers per year.
2.100,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of
wood pulp, amounting to 250,000 trees, are
wasted in the production of the annual 27.4 billion
disposable diapers.
3. An average baby uses 5,000 diapers before potty training, almost all of which end
up in a landfill making up 3.4 million tons of waste
4. It is estimated to take 250-500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose (GROSS!!)
5.It costs Americans on average $350 million annually to dispose of single-use diapers
in landfills.
6. The average family spends $800 per year on disposable diapers. (This is also a huge reason for my husband and I to use cloth diapers)

So here are some things that I found to make using cloth diapers easier.
Use a 5 gallon bucket with a cover, this way you can keep it contained until it is wash time. I also plan on keeping a little bit soapy water in the bucket, this is something that was personally suggested to me. For number ones you can just throw the wet diaper into the bucket.
For number twos it is suggested that you clean it off as much as possible, this can be done by using the toilet to shake off the as I like to call it doo doo.
When it is time to do a load of laundry you can run them through the wash just like any other piece of clothing. (You may want to use a detergent that is less harsh than what you use on your clothing) You can use a mesh bag as a liner in the bucket which you can just pull out the liner and throw it all together in the washer.
BIG TIP: USE COLD WATER!!! This will prevent stains.

Now really does that seem that hard!

Ten Things I Love About My Thai Hubby (and, for you skeptics, no I don’t have any hubbies of other ethnicities!)

1) that he knows lots of little tricks like toothpaste being the perfect way to soothe a burn

2) his kind Buddhist heart  (I know, cliche, but it is true)

3) that he will not stop tickling our daughters until they say, “Stop, Daddy!” in Thai

4) that he is the main chef of the house and cooks us amazing Thai food

5) his superb mango cutting skills (seriously, you’ve never seen a mango cut like this - no mess, no juice ... he makes it look so easy!)

6) that I can go to the local temples in Thailand to offer up thanks without feeling like a western wannabe Buddhist

7) that, within a year of living in the US, he had more friends than I did here even though it is my native language, culture and he had never left Thailand before

8) that he is the perfect go-with-the-flow complement to my oh-my-the-world-is-ending personality and that some of these are actually rubbing off on each other

9) that our daughters are officially part of the BuJew community

10) that he thinks of any meal without rice as not real food and feels like I am doing our kids a disservice when I bust out the mac n cheese and fish sticks on nights he’s not home for dinner (come on, they’re organic!)