Appreciating the Little Blessings

I know I haven't posted in a little over two weeks, so I need to catch up.  I just wanted to reflect on the little ways God has blessed me lately.  Often times we are thankful for the big things He gives us, but we neglect to see how many small ways He shows us He cares.

For instance, today I was turning into Aldi's grocery store parking lot and realized that I didn't have a quarter for a shopping cart.  I was dreading having to take my youngest child inside and probably wait through a long line to get change before I even started shopping.   Just as I was about to pull into a parking space, I noticed an empty shopping cart right beside my parking space.  Even in the little things, God provides!

A couple of days ago I was bent over the tub scrubbing out a couple of icing buckets that I had gotten from a local bakery to use for storing bulk baking supplies.  My youngest daughter, Amelia, had followed me in there and decided to stick a finger in the sticky bucket that I hadn't washed yet.  It only took her a couple of seconds to put her finger in her mouth and discover how sweet the stuff was that I was trying to get rid of.  I watched her eyes light up as she tried her best to reach in again even though I had slid the bucket just out of her reach.  Watching her excitement over a new discovery at only 13 months is a blessing that only a mother (or I guess a father, too) can truly understand.

I also see His blessings everyday when one of my children climbs into my lap to cuddle or crawls into my bed in the morning just before time to get up.  I'm so thankful for each one of my children and for each moment that he gives me with them.

Thinking through these moments made me come up with a new-to-me verse to the song "God is So Good":

He's blessed me so.
He's blessed me so.
He's blessed me so.  He's so good to me!


Do you fail to see God's blessings in the little things?  I know all too often I'm guilty of it.  How has He blessed you this week? month? year?


PS - The picture at the top is a few months old.  She's grown a lot since I took it, but it's still one of my favorite pictures of her.

Eliminating HFCS and Artificial Dyes for ADHD

About 2 months ago, our younger son, Levi, was diagnosed with ADHD, early signs of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Sensory Integration Disorder, and speech articulation problems.  We are just finally coming off the waiting list and starting speech therapy and occupational therapy which will hopefully improve speech and help with some of the sensory issues.  The doctor encouraged us to try medication, and we did for a short period of time.  It wasn't really an idea I was comfortable with, and the side effects (mostly occasional grogginess) weren't worth the minimal change we were seeing.  We decided to take him off the medication and try a more natural approach.  This is where we are just starting now.

Many people have seen success in treating their child's ADHD by eliminating certain foods from their diets.  Two of the common and very unhealthy ingredients to eliminate are high fructose corn syrup (or corn sugar) and artificial dyes (especially red dye #40).  It amazes me how many food contain one or both of these ingredients!  I just cleared out almost everything in my well-stocked pantry that contained either.  The few exceptions that I kept were teriaki sauce, cake sprinkles, jelly until I can buy replacements and the box of cake mix and icing that I ended up not needing for my daughters' birthdays back in December.  I filled a whole box of unopened stuff to get rid of and gave it to a friend.  Anything opened or expired went in the trash.  Now the fun part begins...changing my grocery shopping habits and reading every label!  I found out that the Prego Pasta sauce I had was fine, but the Hunts sauce I had stocked up on was loaded with HFCS.  Most peanut butter brands have HFCS, but Smucker's Natural and most of the other more natural brands do not.  I'm also looking for an alternative for tomato soup or a good recipe for it since soups are a staple around here in the winter.  Nothing beats grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup on a cold winter day.  

I guess this is just the beginning of our journey to healthier eating and lifestyle.  There are some other ingredients that I would like to completely eliminate like hydrogenated oils and MSG, but that will be done gradually since I can't really afford to just throw out everything in my pantry and replace it all at once.  I'll share updates, improvements, and replacements and recipes as I try them.

PB&J With A Twist (or maybe a wrap?)!

Are you looking for a way to change up your child's every day request for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?  I have a simple solution - tortillas!

Today we just simple did a basic PB&J, but there are several variations that have been a hit my my four.  I just start with a whole wheat tortilla spread with a thin layer of peanut butter.  Be sure to cover the whole shell.  Creamy works better than crunchy because the nuts may tear through the shell.  Spread with jelly, chopped/sliced bananas, raisins, a drizzle of honey or anything else that you like with peanut butter and roll carefully.  I usually slice them in half so they can pick them up easier.  As usual, today my kids gobbled them up and begged for more!

What else would you add to a peanut butter wrap besides what I suggested?

Swagbucks and Mypoints

I love earning gift cards and other free stuff, and these are two of my favorite sites to do so.

First, with Swagbucks you can earn points just by using them as your default search engine.  They also have surveys, printable coupons, SwagTV, and many other ways to earn points.  I usually save my points up for Amazon gift cards to use for a few splurges (now mostly music for my MP3 player).  So far I've earned $45 in gift cards, and I'm not even good at using it on a daily basis.  Anyone who signs up under your name will give you referral points, too.  There's no limit to number of points or number of gift cards and prizes you can earn.  Give it a try today!

Probably my favorite site for eaning gift cards is MyPoints.  I don't know what my total in gift cards earned is, but I know it's even more than with swagbucks.  You get points for clicking on emails, printing and redeeming coupons, taking surveys, shopping through their links, and using their search engine.  I even got a ton of points by using their link to sign up for my home phone and internet service with AT&T when we moved.  There is also no limit to the number of points you can earn, but most points do take 30 days to fully post to your account.  Right now, I'm almost up to another $50 gift card.  I haven't decided for sure where to, yet, but I'm thinking Kohl's so I can use it for summer clothes for myself and the kids.

Cloth Diapering

I mentioned before that we are back to cloth diapers after a short break.  By short, I mean a little over 6 months while we were having some stressful times, and adjusting to a lot of changes including a move to a new house.  Before the break, I had cloth diapered 3 children for a total of about 3 years.  I had a huge stash of pockets (mostly Fuzzi Bunz), tons of prefolds, and way too many covers in every brand and size.  During our "break" I gave up and sold off or gave away everything I had except a few small wetbags that worked well for other things besides diapers.  Now, I'm trying to slowly rebuild my stash mostly with the basics and with very little money.  Amelia (1yr) is in cloth diapers full-time, and Ryleigh (3yrs) still needs them at night.  I made 32 serged wipes from flannel I already had on hand, a couple of fleece and flannel pockets, and a pair of fleece longies.  Now I also have 1 Bummis Diaper Tote, 6 Econobum covers and 24 Econobum prefolds from placing several small orders as I've had the extra money.  I LOVE the Cotton Babies site because they offer free economy shipping on every order.  That means if I only have $6 to spare that week, I can order a set of 3 prefolds at a time.   Even with the economy shipping, my orders have arrived quickly.  I currently have another order of 2 Econobum covers and 2 prefolds on the way from the Cotton Babies seconds sale earlier this week.  I also have a few Sunbaby pocket diapers on the way that I'm hoping to test out mostly for my 3 yr old to use at night.  I'll post a review once I get those and have tried them for a few days.

Overall, I've made the decision that this time there won't be any extravagant and overpriced diaper purchases.  Other than the really good deal on the Sunbaby diapers, everything I buy will be just the basics.  I've found that I love prefolds and covers just as much as the other options, anyway!

Giving this a shot

I've been wanting to start a blog for quite some time now, but things are just so busy it hasn't been top priority lately.  First, I guess I should tell you a little about myself and my family.  I'm Heather from Lincolnton, North Carolina.  Just a small town in the western piedmont of NC...not too far from the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway and the mountains and not too far from our beautiful beaches and all they have to offer.  I'm a wife and helpmeet to my amazing, hardworking country-boy Adam and a stay-at-home mom to my 4 blessings - Wyatt (6), Levi (4), Ryleigh (3), and Amelia (1).  We're conservative Christians who strive daily to improve and strengthen our walk with God, but we have a long ways to go.  We are now homeschooling after a not-so-great experience with the public school system here, but I'll talk more about that in another post.  After a few months break, we're also now back to cloth diapers and trying to live a little greener and more frugally each day.  I'm planning to share a little bit of everything of our homeschool journey, of us trying to be more eco-friendly, and of trying to be more frugal.  I look forward to working on my many blog posts to come.