Thrifty Nifty

Today’s post is is brought to you by these thrifty parents right here!

Notice our judgey lil man

Lately, Husband and I have been on a  bigger-than-usual thrift kick.  We’ve been selling stuff we have just lying around that we never use, eating better and cheaper, and saving, saving, saving! We take so much joy out of getting rid of things we think we “need” and being able to put more money away, especially for our little man’s education trust and our retirement accounts.

Here are some of the ways we’ve been particularly thrifty and have fun at the same time!

Husband’s Finds

We buy our Huggies wipes and diapers from Costco. Bulk, baby! Well, on each package inside are these little tags with codes on them, if you go to the Huggies website you can enter each code and earn points. With those points you can get toys or baby gear. It’s a tedious process and takes time but my awesome Husband has been putting them in and gathering them diligently. And here is what he earned for our little man, free of charge!

An adorable tool box, with hammer, wrench, and screw driver, and lots of screws and nails! Eco friendly wood too 🙂
And this super cute froggy bubble holder, complete with three wands, bubbles, and a handy handle!

I’m so proud of Husband! Our little man loves these treasures too 🙂

 

My Finds

I don’t have any pictures of my finds, well, because they are not finished yet. I am making our little man a felt board! I got a bunch of felt on sale and am able to make everything else I need from supplies I already had, so this whole big board will be only about four dollars! I am so excited about it. It is going to be a farm scene. So far, I have the pigs, cows, chickens, a barn, sun and clouds all cut out and waiting to be glued together. I am being held back by needing a a hot glue gun (which I will borrow), so till then, no pictures! Felt boards have a fond place in my heart since I grew up with one that my mom loving made, I hope my little man likes his too.

So, that’s all for now! I’m really sad about he lack of pictures I have since our camera has been missing for some time (the pictures above are from my iPod Touch, another present Husband won! He’s so enterprising!). We suspect our little Brownie has run off with our camera, but it’s been missing so long that we think it is long gone 🙁 we are in the market for a new one. But still, I am really bummed since we’ve not had our last one long, and it was a birthday present from Husband. Oh well! Letting go of material things one baby at a time I guess 🙂

 

Father’s Day

Sunday was husband’s second Father’s Day. I totally slacked on the celebration and I feel like a shmuck for it. Normally we do breakfast in bed for occasions like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day and birthdays and I didn’t do that. Chris woke up and played with Caidoc and I…slept. I know. I am a lazy loser! BUT, I did make him a yummy dinner the night before (I know, its no excuse…). We had bacon wrapped asparagus and a de-lish strawberry salad with balsamic vinegar dressing.

Bacon wrapped asparagus drizzled with a caramelized onion sauce

It was yummy.

Sunday was really fun though, and Chris got some gifts that he needed, because I am unfailingly practical. He was very kind and claimed he was pleased, but let’s be honest…I got him socks and underwear (to defend myself that is what he asked for, but still I couldn’t make it a little more exciting?!). So, I really slacked this Father’s Day but I swear I’m gonna pick it up next year (if you are reading this hubs, you can totally hold me to it!).

Can I just say what an amazing father Chris is though? You really have no idea. I can’t even explain his patience, love, and just all around AMAZINGNESS that he shows every day. I’ve never seen him lose his temper or get angry. He is always trying to teach Caidoc new things and interact with him and do what is absolutely best for Caidoc no matter how exhausted he might be from work. I’ve never seen or heard of a father who does as much as he does. For crying out loud, he just spent the past hour wading through our neighborhood dumpster looking for the three shoes Caidoc threw into the diaper pail. Did I mention he OFFERED to do so on his own volition? So yeah, Chris was literally wading through poop for his son (and for me since I almost killed Caidoc once I discovered where the shoes might be).

Caidoc and I, we are pretty freakin’ lucky.

 

 

 

The End of "The Chase"

I’m sitting on my, well, our bed eating my lemon sorbet, which is one of my favorite treats EVER and it always put me in a good mood. Tonight, the sorbet just adds to the good mood I’ve had all week. One thing makes the top of the list though…

My dearest friend Emily got engaged recently! I couldn’t be happier for her or more thrilled. What’s better than two people in love? Those two people getting married of course! Because, let’s face it, a celebration of love is quite possibly the most wonderful kind of celebration there is. I’ve known Emily a long time and she is my very best friend, which I think made hearing the news all that more exciting. This is the girl I spent many a hour with talking about boys and weddings and love while eating frosting in our dark dorm room in the middle of the night. That’s how all deep conversations happen don’t ya know 😉

So, the chase is over guys! Sorry! She’s one fabulously TAKEN woman! YAY!

We are pretty fabulous (this picture is older than I care admit)

My lemon sorbet is melting quickly, so I’ll finish the point I meant to make by this post.

Emily’s awesome news got me thinking back to when I got engaged, and what that meant for me.

Relationships always have a degree of superficiality to them. Come on, admit it, you are not totally, completely one hundred percent yourself around anyone. Some little part of you is always acting a little differently, a little not quite you all the time. This espcially applies during “The Chase” when a guy is after a girl and the dating commences. When you’re dating someone you are almost ALWAYS putting on a show of some sort. You’re either always wearing makeup, or always put on deodorant, or always sitting up straighter or laughing a certain way, something is always not quite genuine. I’m not saying that’s bad! It’s nature! You act that way because there is some tiny part of uncertainty, some tiny part of you that knows that that relationship could end unless you play the charade. I’ve felt that way many times.

But that changed when I got engaged, specifically, the exact moment when Chris got down on one knee and I suddenly was struck to the bone with an intense feeling I’d never felt before.

Peace. I’ve always had a turbulent dating life, but that wasn’t what made this feeling happen. It was in that moment that I had an opportunity to have a relationship that meant no end. I was being offered a opportunity to willing decide that none of the charade mattered between us, and that he would love me even if I wasn’t wearing make up or if I spent too much money, or if I snorted when I laughed, or if I gained ten pounds.

That’s what getting engaged meant to me. It meant no uncertainty. It meant permanence, and in that, peace.

 

 

And So Begins the Summer

It’s here! Summer! At least, for Seattle it sure feels like it. This week clocked in around the low 80’s for us. My poor husband’s allergies are in full swing, making him fairly miserable. And, now my poor Caidoc has seasonal allergies as well. We were warned this would probably occur since he is predisposed to it by his food allergies and Chris’s genes. Never-the-less, it’s HORRIBLE. I grew up watching most of my siblings have terrible seasonal allergies so I know how hard it is, well, sorta.

Caidoc is pretty much a zombie if he’s not on meds. I recently purge cleaned the house with a eucalyptus oil cleaner I made in order to eradicate any pollen residue (I think I read a Pin on it, it’s where all my fabulous ideas come from 😉 ). He’ also just started taking goat’s milk (as long as it’s in a big boy cup with a straw, no bottles for him, no sir!) I think that has really helped as well.

I’m pretty sure I was given a high energy boy for a reason. One, I grew up with brothers, I’d like to think I kinda know how they work. Two, I need to be kept busy, and I mean, really busy. Three, I like to work out, and constantly moving after a toddler gives me a low impact work out all day long. Four, he is so busy and needs constant interaction which keeps me from getting too absorbed in myself. Okay, so that’s more than one reason…

He likes to start off his mornings playing in his fort in his bathrobe. He’s a pretty fly baby.

Ignore his messy room. I’m in the process of re-doing it.

We have a fun little schedule we got down for each day of the week, it keeps us both happy, outside, and MOST importantly tires Caidoc out really well. His playgroup is keeping him very social, he’s definitely the MOST social child of the bunch and loves play with whatever toy any other kid is playing with. He is currently learning that although Mommy let’s him play with her hair, it’s not okay to play with OTHER little girls hair. The also LOVES going to Panera Bread some mornings because there are a lot of elderly people there who just dote on him, to say he loves attention would be an understatement…must get that from his father… 🙂

Downtown Kent has the BEST places for him to play. I really love it.

I have to update pictures of him playing at the Splash Pad and running around making new friends! But, currently the camera is MIA (husband said he put it somewhere…). I’ll keep you updated. I’m so excited summer is here! Yay! Have a great weekend!

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