Mandatory New Year’s Resolution Post

I am actually a fan of the New Year's Resolution blog post. However, I am not a fan of New Year's Resolutions in general. They tend to be far-reaching. Where I thought I would be now at this time last year is very different from where I actually am. So, in observance of the general tradition and in the spirit of not making things terribly difficult for myself, I offer the following 2011 Resolutions:

1. Buy our first house. This shouldn't be terribly difficult as we put an offer in on Jan. 1^st and may close as early as Jan. 31^st. But the endeavor is not a small one, and we are looking forward to the excitement and stress and I am in particular looking forward to sewing curtains and buying our son his big boy bed.
2. Keep the kid in his crib as long as possible. No, seriously.
3. More handmade. Not all handmade, not mostly handmade. Just more. I can do that.
4. Buy more organic, natural, and healthy food and household products for my family. This is an on-going goal that never really changes.
5. Bake most of our bread. This was something I intended to perfect this year, but our current circumstances have made that difficult to say the least. I look forward to having my own space, my own kitchen, and a more adequately baby-proofed house in order to make this feasible.

I would add something like, "Be a better blogger," but let's face it. I have time when I have time and if I'm going to do all that, I may not have a lot of time. Or I may. We'll see.
Happy 2011!

Being Green v. Saving Green (A Christmas Story)

I struggle a bit as a first time mom with the idea of used baby gear. Most of the used items I have purchased I have loved, and what has held me back from buying almost everything used is safety combined with the wear and tear I see on items at consignment sales. But I was confident that I could buy Jack's Christmas presents (or at least some of them) used this year.

One thing I knew I wanted for him, but was willing to be flexible about, was a Little People set. I wanted to farm, but would have gone with a good quality used set with another theme if it had the pieces and wasn't too banged up. The price had to be right, too, of course.

I was hoping to save both money and a tiny little bit of space in a landfill, eventually.

However, I was unable to find such a set. In fact, I found tons of Little People sets at consignment shops and sales but not one came with the pieces. What is the point of a Little People play set with no Little People? I had to assume the sellers had bagged them and tagged them separately, hoping to make an extra dollar or two on the sale. But it appears that buyers are happily buying the pieces but not the sets.

So when the Little People farm set with extra bonus pieces went on sale for $29 at Target, I snagged it. The best deal I had seen used was half that for just the farm.

His other major gift is toy pots and pans and dishes and felt food I made, along with some wooden food toys we bought and a set of mama-made spices, salt and pepper, and a bottle of hot sauce (he loves hot sauce). I did look for used kitchen toys but the only ones I found were the cheap plastic kind that come with a bunch of cheaply made cardboard food boxes, usually in a really poorly made plastic shopping cart with wheels that don't work… Although I did find a few pieces that go with a kitchen that makes sounds when you put the pans on the stove or something along those lines (the seller wrote this on the tag). I was not thrilled with these options. I had been sure there would be hordes of eco-minded parents out there selling their much loved wooden play food that had made it through 4 kids and still looked just fine. But I was evidently setting myself up for disappointment.

So once again, I kept my eyes open for a good deal and even up saving a lot of green by buying new. The Green Toys cookware and dish set went down to about $20 on Amazon, where I had a gift card on file, and I snagged it for him. I know he will get lots of use out of it, and I imagine his siblings will as well (when he has them…eventually). The best part? Even though it's new, it's kind of green because it's made from recycled milk jugs. It's also gender-neutral – something of an issue when you are looking for a toy for your son that is sold in the aisle next to the barbies.

I've also been looking for a good set of wooden blocks for Jack and have failed to find them used for more than about $5 less than the price for a new set, and usually the used set is somewhat dirty and missing pieces. To me, it's worth $5 to have a clean, new set, especially since we are talking about wood, not plastic.

Have you been able to score some good deals on used toys? Or do you prefer to get a great deal on something new?

Making Holiday Spending a Non-Issue

In years past, we have not done much planning for Holiday spending and that tends to lead to some headaches. This year, we decided to do things differently. My husband had inquired about Christmas accounts at our bank and they didn't offer them and for a while, it never occurred to us that we could do it ourselves. Then one day I realized that we don't have to keep our money in the bank. So every week we put a set amount of cold, hard cash into an envelope marked "Christmas".
Before we started, we determined how much we expected to spend on every person on our list, using the higher amount of the price range we usually aim for, and added everything together. We assumed, for example, that we would spend $100 or less on our son, since he is only 18 months old. He is also the only grandchild for my parents, the youngest by 10+ years on my husband's side, and the newest great-grand child by a similar margin all over. This means that he will typically be spoiled rotten by just about everyone, so there's no reason for us to spend even that much.
We then added all the amounts together and divided by 50, assuming that we would need to be done shopping by mid-December. The number was shockingly low. We don't have a huge number of family members and friends to buy for, so we were able to put that money aside without missing it at all. We expect to be able to do this in 2011, even with our coming mortgage payments, without any issues.
In mid-November, we assigned envelopes to each person, noting the amount we intended to put in each envelope, and started filling them. The idea here is the same as with any budgeting system that relies on envelopes – when the money is gone, it's gone. You can't over spend. You also don't forget anyone. We also had an additional envelope to cover holiday portraits and frames, which were gifts in addition to whatever else we give.
I cannot tell you how liberating it is!
We had never had trouble paying for holiday gifts (although we are still not at a stage where we are tempted to buy an expensive "it" toy for our son…) and have never used credit cards so we haven't had to face a big bill in the mail in January, but we did have certain anxieties about holiday spending. We tended to buy as we went, holding out for another paycheck when needed to finish shopping. Sometimes we spent more than we intended because we shopped impulsively. And I always hated when I discovered the last few days before Christmas that I forgot to get something for someone and had to go to Target and pick from the leftover gift baskets, which I generally find kind of boring and impersonal.
So this year, we finished shopping early, were under budget, and haven't forgotten anyone, thanks to our envelope system. We also were actually able to shave several weeks off and combined with what we had already put aside, we bought new laptops as our gifts for each other and don't feel the pain of the expense.
I'm planning to add birthday envelopes and do more year-round shopping in 2011!
How do you simplify your holiday shopping?

Staying organized with Boogie's meals

I stay organized, making sure Boogie gets at least most of what he needs day to day with a simple dry erase board my mom bought on clearance at an office supply store a few months ago.
 
I took some Sharpie markers and created a "chart" listing the main food groups and how many servings he needs per day, and then added a box for each serving.  I use a dry erase marker to check them off after meals.  I also have a blank at the top for what day it is so that if my darling husband gets up with Boogie on Saturday morning so I can sleep in some, I know later whether he has started a new day or forgotten, and then I can ask him what he had for breakfast.

It's also nice because some mornings when Boogie and I get downstairs, said darling husband has written in the new day with something cute like yesterday's, "show your tongue off day!", to which he added in between the other food groups, "show your tongue 50-100/day," and several boxes to check off.

Recently, my father taught Boogie to stick out his tongue when someone asks, "Where's your tongue?"  It's a lovely habit I look forward to trying to break.  He LOVES to show off his tongue!  We are trying to teach him to point to his nose in response to, "Where's your nose?" but so far he just sticks his tongue out, proving that he is really not aware that the thing he is sticking out is called a tongue.  But he's getting there :)

Typically, Boogie gets a serving of baby  porridge for breakfast and 1-2 servings of fruit, sometimes mixed in but usually separate.  Lunch is 3-4 oz of plain whole milk yogurt with another serving of fruit, a piece of toast, and some veggies.  Some days he doesn't eat that much, though!  Dinner is generally veggie-loaded with 2-3 servings (depending on how much he has had earlier), some whole wheat pasta, more cereal, or a whole grain that hasn't been pureed prior to cooking (like quinoa or rice), or some whole wheat bread or pita.  Some days he gets chicken either in "meatball" form or just cooked bits.  The other day I put a bit of sweet curry powder on the chicken and he loved it!

Boogie also gets an egg 3 times a week, usually scrambled, for breakfast.  He also enjoys tofu, beans, and now hummus.  I try to go easy on meat-based proteins because I think its good to not get him used to meat every day, or even several times a day, while he is young.  He also loves bits of cheese, but who doesn't love cheese??

UPDATE - My darling husband reminded me that if you draw over over the sharpie marks with the dry erase marker, it will remove the sharpie marks.  So if you want to try this, make sure you make the boxes big enough to draw an "x" inside without touching the lines.

Also, when it inevitable gets skuzzy looking, use rubbing alcohol to remove the old sharpie marks instead of buying the pricey white board cleaner.



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