Dave Ramsey makes me emotional

Ed and I have set out on our journey to financial freedom via Dave Ramsey. We got the cd's from the Financial Peace University from some friends and have been listening to them. I've limited myself to one a day because of the range of emotions that I experience while I listen.
First, I felt angry at my parents for not teaching me more than savings and for helping me get that first credit card. Then I felt regret that Ed and I hadn't started this sooner. We've been married for almost 8 years and we were making boat loads (to us) of money when we first married. Then I heard a very sad story about a guy and I just bawled through the end of it. That pretty much sent me off the emotional deep end for the rest of the day (and I had listened to it on my way to work in the morning). Now, if you know me, you know that I'm pretty even keeled emotionally so this is kind of new territory for me.

I'm grateful that Ed and I are taking this step, but I know it's going to be hard and that I'll have to really think about every dollar I spend. It's going to be quite the emotional ride around here for a few months.

Punishment at the grocery store

Last week I was looking for some dairy free ice cream alternatives at the grocery store. Ed had given the girls some sherbet while I was out of town not knowing that it's first ingredient is MILK! AUGH! So, I head over to the healthy food freezer section and find the ice cream...much to my dismay....even though there is dairy free ice cream, it's all horribly expensive!! Does anyone else think that $6 a pint is okay? I mean, you can get a whole gallon of Blue Bell for that price.

I hate that people who choose to eat these foods for health or moral reasons or people who have special food needs (the allergy people) seem to be punished financially. And yes, I do know that there is this little thing called "supply and demand" that causes the price to go up. It just frustrates me that my poor kiddo who can't consume dairy is going to miss out on one of her favorites because I can't bring myself to spend that kind of money on food for her. Someday I will buy an ice cream maker and make all the dairy free ice cream that her little tummy can handle! Until then, we have to figure out some other "su-prises" for my girl.

Flexi-Vegan-atarian

I know, it's a weird title...but here's the deal. We delayed giving K peanuts until she was almost three because she has a cousin with a peanut allergy (and that was the advice we'd read). Turns out she's allergic to peanuts, almonds, and Brazil nuts.

Over the last year, Ed and I have been on a journey to figure out some healthier ways to feed our family. I made all of L's baby food, then started to make yogurt. now I also make all of our bread. It was all about getting rid of the "junk" that's in food. We eat fruit at almost every meal (because we don't eat a lot of veggies and fruit is easy). In all of this, Ed has lost about 30 lbs (so proud of him)...some due to eating, but also working out almost daily.

Anyway, this year after some research I began thinking that K's nasal "stuffy-runnies" were due to a food allergy. Also she has pretty severe excema. I'd been reading that milk is a huge contributor to excema so after vacay I asked the pedi to test her for any other allergies. It came back that she was allergic to everything in our backyard (dogs, oak, bermuda grass) as well as milk and eggs. About a week later, we eliminated all dairy from her diet and replaced it with non dairy products as much as possible. Her skin cleared up and she's not all stuff/runny all the time!! This made me so happy. Now we did have a relapse last weekend when we had two parties in a row where K ate copious amounts of dairy. :( She was almost immediately back to where we started before getting rid of that in her diet. Bad momma!

So what is Flexa-vegan-atarian? Well, we learned about flexitarianism (mainly vegetarian diet with some lean meats added in) earlier this year and really like it. It's basically what we follow now. She needs to eat vegan for the dairy free aspects (although not for the cruelty to animals aspect, and she does eat meat). So tonight, after some research, I made up my own new word for the way we eat (which really equates to dairy-free, nut free....but I prefer to use my term).

We see the pedi again this week so we'll see what he says about her skin and nasal conditions after being off all of the dairy for about a month...I'm looking forward to learning more about healthier eating, but not looking forward to the higher grocery bill that comes with dairy free eating. Oh well, it's worth it to keep my baby girl from suffering so much.

Milk Lids

We have been saving up milk lids for a learning project that I wanted to do. I'd seen several of them on http://totschool.shannons.org/ so today we finally had 26 lids and so K and I put ABC letters on all of them. I wrote her name on a piece of paper and she started to match up the lids with the letters on the paper. Then next thing I knew, she had made a huge flower. I thought it was quite funny! The girl has a great imagination!

Party Weekend

This weekend was our party weekend. We had K's friend party at the house on Saturday. We had a great turnout. The kids all played on the water toys out in the backyard. Then we had sandwiches, chips, and fruit for lunch. A ladybug cake and strawberry ice cream was the dessert.

Then on Sunday, we had the family party. We went to Aunt D's house for the family party. We swam and ate some more sandwiches and chips. I was sad when we left because we forgot our dip and I live for left over dip from the family parties. :( Plain chips just aren't the same without it.

In other news, K is doing great with the removal of dairy from her diet. She doesn't eat a lot of food these days, but that's not a big change for her. She's always been a little picky. We are encouraging her to try more foods though and occasionally she humors us and takes a tiny bite.

Playdough and Crayons

Yesterday, K and I set out to make some crayons and play dough to give in the goody bags for her b-day party this weekend. I did a little Internet research and we started on the crayons first. I read a good tip to soak the crayons beforehand so the paper would come off easily...it worked great! I used mini muffin tins and I didn't really like how they came out. Some of the colors didn't melt quite enough and there was also a weird layer of non colored wax on the top. I think it was cheap crayons....
Then we started on the play dough. I used this recipe: http://deannasstuff.blogspot.com/2008/07/glitter-playdough.html
I halved the recipe and did end up having to add a little more flour to get it more like play dough. K had a great time stirring and kneading the dough...then we bagged it all up for the goody bags. I hope all our friends like it tomorrow!

#2 did me in

Well, seeing how the last time I wrote was 2 years ago, I guess that I would say having a second baby did me in. We had Baby L in February and she's now 18 months old. GASP! She's not so much a baby these day, but rather a barbarian. She climbs things, dives off things, and speaks her own language. I love her with all my heart even though she makes me feel like a first time parent all over again.

Baby girl #1 just turned 4...yes, that's right! She's the big 0-4! I can hardly believe it myself. K acts like she's about to turn 12. She's ever so sassy in both her chatter and her ways.

Life is good in our house in spite of my two year absence.