Bread Pudding

The beginnings of a warm and cozy evening. I decided to make bread pudding. Sniff, sniff...aahhh! I'd gotten some Texas Toast bread free from the discount bakery shop where I buy our family's bread. If you spend $5.00 you get a loaf free. I usually get about 5 loafs of bread for that price plus a smaller item. That's six loafs with my free one. The catch is that the free loaf has expired by the date or is about to expire. I get it anyway and make something like this wonderful dish, or freeze the bread until I need it. Works for me! This picture is what it looked like when I put all the ingredients together and had it ready to go in the oven. This is a super simple recipe for y'all that haven't tried making it. I like to use a thick bread, preferably something that's not pre-sliced...baked as a loaf. Bread Pudding Preheat oven to 350 Ingredients: 8-10 slices of bread or a half loaf cubed 6 eggs 3 cups of milk 1 cup of white sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 tablespoons of butter 1 small box of raisins (optional) In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract. Place cubed bread in a 9x13 baking dish and arrange. Sprinkle raisins on top of bread if desired. Melt butter and pour over the cubed bread. Next, pour half of the egg mixture over the bread. Let it sit for about 2 minutes, then pour the rest of the mixture in. The bread should be almost covered with the mixture. Gently push the bread down into the mixture so that all of the bread is moist. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake on 350 for 45 minutes or until top is golden brown and the bread is a little springy to the touch. The bread pudding should be puffed up when it comes out of the oven, but will settle down once it comes out. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream and your kids will worship the ground you walk on. Here's a look at the final product: And yes, my kiddos are worshipping me even as they sleep...I can just tell;) Blessings~

Emotional Day

Today was a doozy, I could just visualize myself sitting in one of those padded rooms wearing an all white ensemble with multiple buckles. The day started off wonderfully enough. I slept in just because I could, and woke up to a smiling husband. The crap didn't hit the fan until I left outside of my bedroom. As soon as I went down stairs to round-up a little breakfast, my son pulls me to the side to tell me that the cat has been up on the counter-top licking my beautiful pumpkin chocolate chip muffins...( and yes, they were really REALLY good). Of course, I was livid! Instant anger took over my body so I went and got the cat and put him outside. This is where a whole new set of problems start. The cat technically belongs to my daughter, little Miss Sunshyne, but she was anything but sunny after she found out what I had done. She came down stairs just when I was closing the door and saw that I had put the cat out. Then she looks at me with those beautiful, brown eyes in disbelief. There's a pause, then she turns and bolts up the stairs crying. It was exactly like a scene from one of those dramatic "teen vs mom" movies (except my daughter's eight). I couldn't believe it! I went up stairs and explained to my husband what happened and he came down to retrieve the cat. After bringing the cat back into the house, hubby begins to talk to my daughter about letting the cat roam in my kitchen unsupervised. He told her that we may have to adopt the cat out if she is not going to watch over him. Miss Sunshyne immediately gets the cat and storms towards the stairs, turns back looking toward us and says "why don't you just get rid of both of us then!" Afterwhich, she bolts upstairs crying again. As you can see, things weren't going well. It was already time for me to go up to the hospital to feed RJ. I felt so bad that I couldn't get dressed to go. My husband insisted that he would handle it and encouraged me to go to the hospital. Before I left he went in to talk to her but came out emotional himself. He said that he was thinking about what she had said and didn't want her to ever feel like that. I started crying too...I mean, this is my baby and I didn't think my actions would hurt her so much. Hubby thought it best for me to go ahead and go to the hospital and just talk to her when I returned. So I went. I felt sad, helpless, ashamed of my actions, guilty, and any other negative emotion in this category, driving to that hospital. Once I reached the hospital and visited with my son, I felt happy, elated, thankful, joyful...praising God for my stewardship as a mother. However, when I left that same thankfulness and knowing that these children are in my care for me to be the best parent I can, brought on more guilt. I went home and had that talk with my daughter. She was as sweet as pie during our talk. We both apologized and that ended the saga. It feels good to be able to apologize to my child for my mistakes...I think it lets her know that I'm human and that I don't have all the answers. I hope that helps her to have a closer relationship with me as she grows.

Planning Day

Today I started planning for a money saving week. I planned out our menu and cooked a weeks worth of dinners. I made baked ziti, spaghetti and turkey meatballs, chicken fajitas, and chilli. With the leftover fajita meat I'll make sandwiches with soup night, and I'm saving the homemade pizza meal for Friday or Saturday. Now all I need to do is implement a baking day as noted by Money Saving Mom, Crystal. I've always wanted to make homemade bisquits that didn't make dents in the walls if you threw them. Heck, I just want to make them good enough so that no one will want to throw them. The last time I made bisquits from scratch, that is exactly what happened. I'm also thinking about rice pudding or bread pudding, breakfast muffins, and homemade bread.

Also, today I started cutting out my coupons for the Walgreens money savers and beginning to get those organized. I was super excited to receive my copy of Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy in the mail today. I couldn't wait to open it and find ideas. Even though I had a ton of stuff to do, I went over a few chapters anyway. The chapters are short and sweet and that's how I like a book to flow. I'll have more time tomorrow and read a lot more. I'm hoping to find a system for cutting, keeping, and using coupons. The best part is that I got this wonderfully insightful book for .90 cents...I love it!

Sad Sunday

Well, today was a bit of a disappointment for me. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I even slipped in a puddle of water in my bathroom and I think I sprung my knee. All I know is that I heard it pop and it hurt something awful. I hate going to hospitals unless it's life or death, so I didn't go but here we are at least 4 hours later and it still hurts. If it doesn't feel better by the morning, then I'll know where I'll be spending half of the day. To make matters worst, I didn't get to the hospital for baby boy's feeding during first shift. I'm feeling really guilty about that, even though I was able to hobble in for the 2nd shift feeding. The highlight of my day was seeing him and being able to look into his eyes and feel like I have a purpose in this life...being a good mother. He's weighing in at 4lbs 12oz. tonight (quite a jump from the 1lb. 10oz birth weight huh?). I'm proud of him! Yesterday I was so excited that we stayed at the hospital well into this morning, so I didn't get to blog. I was excited because he was moved from the NICU to the Special Care Unit, which is his last stop just before he is able to come home. He's latching on well and begining to feed longer. I'm super excited about that because I never breastfeed any of the other children and vowed that I would if I was blessed to have anymore. It's been a huge struggle to pump throughout the day for the last few months. Many times I just felt like giving up...but I didn't, and now my dream is coming true. Well, it sounds like even though this was a pretty sad Sunday, I have many things to be thankful for. It's good to see how God continues to bless.

Let the Frugality begin!

Today I'm excited! I've been reading an awesome blog called Money Saving Mom, trying to get some tips on using coupons. Ms. Crystal has everything you could ever think of about being frugal on her site and if she doesn't, she links to others that do. I absolutely love her site! She keeps things straight to the point and I like that. Anyway, I've decided to begin my coupon clippin journey this week and I'm giving myself a small budget to work with. I'm going to start with Walgreens and try getting some of the deals that Ms. Crystal outlines on her site. Tomorrow is the final day of the sale, so I may be out of luck on some of the deals but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. I've got the coupons printed and clipped that I'm going to need to maximize my discounts. All I need now is a little courage and my game face. I'm hoping it goes well... wish me luck;)

Also, today I've gotten somewhat of a head start on my plans to slash my families household costs. One of my ideas was to go with a cloth diapering system. It's a greener choice for the environment and I'm hoping that it will keep down on diaper rashes for my little man's delicate skin. I've been checking out the Bum Genius and the Fuzzi Bunz brands...OMGosh, they are so super cute, but expensive! Well, it just so happens that the Green Baby consignment store close by my home put them on sale for 40% off this week. I dropped by to give the diapers a close inspection and bought one, just ONE. The diapers are originally $17.95 which I got for $11.00 with tax. Even though I LOVE this Fuzzi Bunz diaper, I think I'm going to be investigating a much cheaper alternative in the future. But hey, I saved $7.00...right?

Some of the things I've thought of to save money, expecially with the new baby and the new stay at home mom gig: Making homemade bread, babyfood, meals, and preservatives. Also, using coupons, buying everything on sale, taking part in the consignment movement, running errands only once or twice per week, making handmade manipulative for our homeschool, looking for free or dirt cheap field trips and family outing deals, couponing, using Skype instead of cell phone, and handmaking whatever I can...and did I mention COUPONS. We'll see how it goes;)

New Attitude

I've decided to get back to blogging. My old job had me so busy that I could barely find the time to breathe, let alone write. Now I'm home again with the kiddos and doing the homemaker thing so I'd like to get back to a little happiness as well. I've been looking around and reading some other awesome mom blogs and would like to take this blog in a new direction. Give it a whole new look and just talk about life as a mom with a new little one, wife, homeschooler, and frugal domestic engineer. I'd like for this blog to give me a place to be myself and explore my purpose. A place to express who I am as I learn and grow. I hope it's all that I'm praying for.

Science for Preschoolers: Part II

Well now that we've had a few discussions about science, you may agree that it seems a little less intimidating and whole lot more fun! Knowing that your child learns best by engaging in activities that allow some level of independent discovery or observation, asking questions and discovering the answer or maybe having to start over again. One of the most important aspects to remember for science of preschoolers is the following: Please, Please Please follow your preschoolers lead! If you carefully observe what interest your child and provide opportunities for your child to explore it more and find the answers, the more your child will feel confident in his own abilities and the more enthused he will be. You will also find out the different topics that your preschooler is interested in which will carry over into other subjects like reading and math. Allow your preschooler to use real world or household items to explore such as cardboard tubes, rocks, shells, flashlights, small appliances, locks and keys, bugs and magnifying glasses, compasses, whistles, measuring cups, measuring tapes, mirrors, nuts and bolts, screwdriver, seeds and potting soil, cotton balls, aluminum foil, wax paper, sponges and buckets, and old clocks....to name a few. This will provide your child with the "real world" experience and open the door for questions and problem-solving...Hey that's what real scientist's do!