Can’t sleep..

Good evening everyone,
I have officially hit the stage of pregnancy where I’m uncomfortable about 90% of the time.
All I want to do is sleep, I can’t believe the exhaustion I’ve experienced this time around, that typically resolved itself after my first trimesters in previous pregnancies. I’m so tired in fact, I have close to no motivation to do anything, when things don’t get done (like laundry) it piles up (I know most of you can relate to that!), it’s an extra chore for the following day. I keep telling myself each day “tomorrow you will get a second wind, you won’t be so tired so you can play catch up” well guess what?! many tomorrows have come and gone and I’m not feeling relief from exhaustion.
Hip pain is another thing I really struggle with during pregnancy and it seems that the pain comes earlier and gets more severe each pregnancy. Unfortunately the pain is so bad this time it wakes me at night and keeps me from getting the sleep I need. Then I look around, see I have nothing done that I should and get panicked, calm myself down and start all over again the next day. It’s a vicious cycle each and every day for the past few weeks. I know the pain won’t get better till baby Girl gets here, I know I’m going to be just as exhausted when she’s here as I am now but somehow once the baby arrives it all feels worth it somehow. I’m getting anxious to meet our previous girl. The miracle of life is just astounding, I love babies so much and admiring their perfect tiny features that God so delicately put together. I still have about 7 weeks so hopefully they come quick cause I’m ready 💜

I’m working on a bible study on my you version app, anyone who does not have this app needs this app immediately. 😊 the study is called Live Your Calling:What On Earth Am I Here For? The past few days have been spot on what I needed to read to give me the extra push or motivation to complete the day.  The following verse has always been one of my favorites as anxiety is no stranger to me, I constantly remind myself to cast my anxieties on him because he cares what I’m dealing with, he cares about me my inner most self and doesn’t leave me to struggle alone.

  

There’s so much comfort knowing I’m not facing my anxiety alone. So much comfort in knowing almighty God goes through every part of life with me. He knows my struggles better than anyone else including myself. He created me after all and has a plan for my life. In my study, Rick Warren explains Gods plan for your life like this “life is not a series of random freak accidents. Life is not totally unplanned. Life is not without meaning. God knows what’s going on. He’s weaving the tapestry of your life and it has light and dark threads -happy and sad times- to give richness and texture and color to your life.”

Wow, right?! 

I’ve always known God has a plan for our lives but sometimes it takes a pretty analogy for my simple human brain to be reminded of the amazing-ness of God. 

The author goes on to explain God does not cause pain and suffering but does allow it because it has a purpose. I can’t pretend I know God’s purposes for my pain or know what his plan is for your pain and sufferings I can’t even promise you will know today or tomorrow or next year what the plan was for the pain and suffering but I do believe when we get to heaven we will see the purpose God had for us. Sometimes even in this life, as my dad explained to me, “we see little pieces of the puzzle in Gods plan, sometimes not even a whole piece of a puzzle is revealed, but those little pieces of the puzzle that he allows us to see are mind blowing!”  For now, I speculate how I think my struggules can be used for good. I believe, as people, we like to be understood. It’s nice to go through life with someone who understands what you’re going through. That’s why I share my struggles on this blog. If I can help one person not feel like they’re the only ones going through anxiety and they receive comfort from my sharing that’s a good thing! If a first time Mom has extreme hip pain and none of her friends have experienced that but she comes across this blog and gets some kind of encouragement, that’s a good thing! I truly do love people and if words help you or you need a listening ear I’m your girl.

I do enjoy people and sharing with others how God has worked and continues to work in my life even if it reaches just one person I’d say it’s worth it. 

 

Creamy Garlic Noodles

Hello!!
I hope everyone has had a great Monday, welcome to another week!
I am sharing one of my families favorite side dishes with you all.
I’m 33 weeks pregnant now and definitely feeling exhausted with little to no motivation to meal plan, which is kind of sad because as a stay at home mom meal planning and cooking is one of my favorite jobs!
I’ve started asking my 5 year old, B, for specific requests that I can incorporate into the week.
Yesterday B asked for a baked breaded chicken with her favorite noodles and a side salad with her favorite dressing. Easy enough and she doesn’t normally request an entire meal she will usually say either a main course or a side but this girl had a full dinner in mind so I decided to make exactly what she asked for.
These noodles are a big hit in my house including with my 23 month old who is my picky eater, she had 2 helpings tonight!

Anyways, one of Bs favorites (and mine) is Alfredo but we both agree these noodles are better, these noodles are light, not heavy like Alfredo but packed with delicious flavors.
One of my favorie things about this dish is it's a one pot and done you don’t even drain the noodles! So great! (Especially with a non working dishwasher for 5 weeks now!!! Grrr😡)

To start, I put 4 tablespoons of butter into a pot. I don’t recommend a saucepan, I’ll explain why later.
Place the pot on medium low heat so it starts to melt while you get 3-4 cloves of garlic minced. I like making my garlic super small because I don’t like biting into a huge chunk of garlic. If you don’t mind big chunks then by all means go for it! I’m all about taking recipes and making it your own. 😊

I thought this was one HUGE clove of garlic, so I took a picture of it next to my butter knife for scale... BUT it turned out it was 3 🤣

Chopping up my garlic cloves 

                                         Here’s my garlic cooking in my butter, smells so yummy!

While my Garlic simmers in the butter I get my chicken stock ready, you can use whatever kind of broth you want. You need 3 cups, if you’ve read my previous recipes you know I prefer using bullion and water instead of a carton. Just my own preference, either is fine though.
In this particular recipe I’ve used both a carton of chicken broth and using bullion and water and it truly tastes better making it with bullion.
So keep the butter and garlic on a low to medium low heat watch it carefully, DO NOT let the garlic brown!
I took 1.5 cups of water in my microwave safe bowl, and added 3 cubes of bullion.
 I then put the bowl into the microwave on the beverage 8oz setting. This doesn’t quite dissolve the cubes but softens them.
Once that’s done I use a fork to break up the cubes a bit and pour it into the pot with an extra 1.5 cup of water.
*note: 1 cube per cup of water is typically the ratio I use for chicken broth*

I then turn the heat to medium high, once the water is boiling add 1/2 pound of spaghetti or angel hair. This equates to about half a box.
 I break my noodles in half to make it easier on my 23 month old otherwise I prefer leaving them long.
You want the noodles to stay boiling at a slow boil, this is why a saucepan isn’t ideal as it’s too crowded and will boil over.
I cook mine for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally so the noodles don’t stick together.
After 15 minutes most the broth will be absorbed into the noodles.
DO NOT DRAIN!
I then add about 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese into the pot and stir until melted, this also thickens up what’s left of the broth into a sauce.
I also added a splash of milk (a literal splash, if I had to guess 1/8 cup)

Sprinkle some parsley and parm if you’d like to and voila! Easy DELICIOUS side item 😊

Here’s my picky 23 month old K enjoying her noodles 

  

She’s figuring out how to slurp noodles and loves to practice her skill 🤣

I hope you all enjoy this recipe, feel feee to comment any questions or suggestions! Thank you all so much for reading and following 💜

Ingredients: 

4 tablespoons of butter

3 cloves of garlic

3 cups of chicken broth

1/2 lb (1/2 package of spaghetti or angel hair pasta) 

Directions:

In a large pot melt butter over medium low heat, add minced garlic cloves and keep a close eye on the garlic so it doesn’t brown. 

While garlic and butter simmer together for about 2-4 minutes get 3 cups of chicken broth ready. Since I use bullion cubes this is where I heat 1.5 cups water in microwave with the 3 bullion cubes. 

Add you chicken broth (and in my case remaining 1.5 cups water) 

Bring to a boil

Once boiling add pasta

Keep pasta at a gentle boil stirring occasionally for 15 minutes 

Once cooked there will be broth remaining DO NOT DRAIN! 

Remove from heat 

Add 1/4 cup shedded Parmesan stir till melted 

Add splash of milk or cream

Top With sprinkle of parm and parsley

Serve right away

Life this week...broken dishwasher rant

It's my favorite time of the year, the weather is finally cooling down in the West Phoenix area, and this year I am NOT exaggerating when I say "FINALLY". We've been in the Phoenix area for 3 years now, but we've only been in the area we are in now for 1 year as of November. I've come to find that everyone seems to argue about whether it was this warm last year, this cold, this dry, did it take this long to cool down?! etc...
When you're new to an area though things tend to stick out more from previous years.
For example, I remember when we moved the middle of November last year, within a couple weeks it was raining and storming and cold. I distinctly remember trying to find our winter clothes and remember pulling winter bins out to put away in closets first. I also remember discussing with my husband on whether or not we should turn the heater on for the cold nights.
So I believe I have leverage in these arguments because, naturally, I'm correct ;)


These next two photos were from last year.... we were FREEZING and that was end of November. We are now in December and are just staring to get  cold, I promise 😁

See?! Matching winter boots!!!

Ok, I’ve said my piece and provided photographic evidence 😂


Anyways, most people say that December is the busiest time of year. While I typically agree with that, I've noticed I haven't crammed us packed with the usual festive activities. I just looked at our calendar and thought "huh, that's pretty empty for December". I think I'm just tired and lack the motivation to make too many plans because honestly, I'd rather sleep.
Most of you know we are expecting baby number 3 in January, this pregnancy has by far made me the most tired, most depressed and most sore than the others. I've also found that here in my last 8 weeks for pregnancy I'm feeling much like I did in the first trimester, I have excessive nausea, I'm so tired, achy, and moody. I feel a bit disconnected and that's my own fault!
For anyone who's dealt with this you know what I mean, I've secluded myself and it's silly! I do think it helps once I become aware that I've secluded myself, It happens so fast that I don't always realize it's happening until I feel the dreadful depression. Once I become aware, I can start helping myself get out of the depressed state thankfully. I love blogging to keep me busy and honestly last minute plans to get together with friends has been very welcome this week 😊

Even with a semi-empty calendar we still seem so busy. B always has something going on with school, K's naps have been all over the place as far as when she's going to sleep and how long she sleeps for. Possible what makes us seem busiest of all is that our dishwasher has been broken for a month. Yes, A MONTH! This dishwasher is under warranty, so it's been serviced every week sometimes twice a week and the technician keeps getting "defective parts". It's SO ridiculous! Today he serviced the dishwasher again and again had a defective part so still AGAIN our dishwasher is not working. Our technician is does not seem to be at fault, he suggested speaking with customer service and ask that they replace the machine altogether. So I guess that's our next step which I'm going to have to do tomorrow. SO for 5 weeks I've been dealing with the warranty company, been on the phone for what feels like hours each week, I have to clear my schedule each day they decide they're going to come and service the machine and then repeat again the next week. It's become rather exhausting and very frustrating. It will be so nice having a working dishwasher again, if it ever works again that is! Just an example of how bad my hormones are I have cried last week and this week over the darn dishwasher!

I miss you dishwasher 😩

Melted Crayon Ornament....FAIL!

Today I'm showing you a DIY Christmas ornament FAIL :(
Most the time I do a craft or DIY project and I'm super proud of it and impressed at how well/easy/quick etc. it worked. Yesterday, I posted about my super successful felt tree for my girls. Make sure you check that out if you have little ones.

So, I have used clear ornaments in the past to make super fun glittery ornaments or painted ones. And I have ALWAYS had great luck with the clear bulbs and love how diverse you  can make them.
I will do a tutorial on that soon as my current clear Christmas ornament project was a flop, but first, the flop!

So I read a post somewhere about melting crayons in a clear Christmas ornament to give it a marbled look. I didn't look up a tutorial as it looked easy enough, maybe that's why this wasn't a success...hmm

I thought this would be a super fun project to do with my 5 year old B. She's super crafty and loves doing projects with momma, so we decided to give it a try while K napped one day. The previous day I had B look EVERYWHERE for crayons that were wither broken, not with an art set or current Crayola box. I gave her a Tupperware container and she hunted for mix-matched, broken crayons.

Once the crayons were collected we got to work peeling off each and every wrapper.
By the way, if you haven't unwrapped crayons in the last couple years, these are not as easy to peel off as they were when I was in school.
You used to be able to press on one end of the crayon and the wrapper would eventually slide up and off the crayon... yeah, not anymore! These suckers are GLUED on now! It still wasn't too "HARD" peeling them off, but it definitely took time, and was hard for B to do on her own. So I would find the seam, and slide my nail under it to break the seal then let her unwrap. Otherwise there were tons of teeny tiny paper rips everywhere from her attempts.
Here's what the finished container of unwrapped crayons looked like

We planned on making each of her good friends their very own ornament, so I asked her who she wanted to make one for first and what colors she wanted to use. The first friend she chose was a little girl and she wanted to use pink and purple in her ornament. I took one pink and one purple crayon, and with a chefs knife cut them in half. I then began chopping the crayons as fine as I could. 

This process was extremely messy, I used a cutting board but little shard of wax were flying everywhere! Anyways, I chopped up half the pink and half the purple, then put the shards (as best as possible) into the clear ornament. 

I KNOW I took pictures of this messy process but now they aren't on my phone... so? KIDS? that's easy to blame them ;)

Next came the blow drying.

Guys, I have natural curls, I RARELY use a hairdryer, and when I do it's on low heat. My blowdryer does not have the capability of getting as hot as most do, but blowdrying the ornaments was HOT. I was burning my hands, hence the oven mitt. B and I tried really hard to work together but she ended up not being able to do much. 

When you put the shards of crayon into the bulb, obviously it's all pulled to the bottom, cause, gravity :)

So I mostly blow dried the bottom of the bulbs and GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?!

THE TOP of the bulb melted!!!! 

I'm still baffled at how this happened when the heat was pointed at the BOTTOM of the ornament!

Once this happened I was done, I quit!

it was a lot of work, a lot of mess just for my bulb to melt!

Now, I know what you're thinking "hello, GLASS ornament, not Plastic...?!"

I chose plastic because my 5 year old was going to be holding and assisting and she would've been heart broken if she dropped one and it shattered. I'm sure had I used glass it would not have melted BUT glass gets HOT too! 

It was very hard to hold the round, smooth, Hot ornament. it would not have been easier holding glass... 

Here you can see my melted ornament :( 

The colors all melted and marbled together looks pretty but it just wasn't work the hassle in my honest opinion

Here's the ornament she was going to make for a little boy she's friends with but...I haven't been in the mood to even attempt this one :(

We will DEFINITELY be using the leftover bulbs to make painted ornaments, I think I will be able to get those a marbled effect so stay tuned, that post will definitely be up by this weekend!!

Thank you to all my readers so far! I'm loving seeing more new followers each day. 

ALWAYS feel free to comment suggestions!

Felt tree

Hi everyone!
I have been working on some projects and ideas to share with you.
I’m so excited for this post!
We got our tree put up and decorated the day after thanksgiving, it would have been up sooner but I haven’t won the argument with my husband...yet! But I’m working on it. You’d think by now I’d know not to ask first and just start slowly decorating here and there. ANYWAYS, we got out annual Hallmark Christmas ornaments. James and I started a tradition when we were engaged to buy a special ornament every year. So we all go to the hallmark store and choose an ornament.
K got to really choose for herself this year, it was so cute seeing her little face light up as she said “wow!” To each ornament and then lovingly squeezed the Finding Dory ornament we brought home.
B chose an Elsa ornament it took her FOREVER to choose, and she is way past the Frozen obsession stage. I think she chose Elsa because the cape is cloth and not plastic like the rest of the ornament. Haha she cares way more about “fashion” than Frozen and she thought that cape was super fashionable. Silly girl
Once the tree was decorated sweet K decided she wanted to keep taking ornaments off and replace them elsewhere. This was never an issue with B, who was content just looking and not touching the tree, but that is not the way of our sweet K.
Years ago, I saw the idea of making a tree for toddlers to decorate and redecorate so they wouldn’t break the fragile ornaments on the real tree. I thought it was so cute but never did that when Brielle was a toddler. Seeing K have a hard time leaving our tree ornaments alone I decided to make her and Brielle a felt Christmas tree to play with as they wish.

I bought 1 yard of green felt to be the tree, I had my sweet husband cut it out for me so I could get to work on tracing the ornament shapes.

For the ornaments I used cookie cutters and a couple random shapes from Ks toys to trace the shape on the small sheets of felt I had. I figured this is a good way to work on our shapes and colors with K.
 So I wanted familiar shapes along with the “christmasy ones”.

I’m not the best at cutting, it pretty embarrassing how terrible I am at it. As I was cutting the ornaments I realized keeping a black outline on the ornaments actually looked better than trying to make a clean cut.

I think you can see in this picture how much better the shape looks with a little outline verses without one. And I couldn’t resist drawing in on the snowmen. They’re so CUTE!


Once I had everything cut out it was time to hang up our tree. I used command strips to hang ours. I thought I bought the Velcro ones but I mistakenly bought the sticky ones 😞
I tried the sticky ones anyways which only lasted about a week before losing the stick. You know, from the felt sticking to the stick and not the whole felt tree... so I recommend not using the sticky command hooks. Hoping the Velcro works better! If it doesn’t I will definitely let everyone know.

Here’s what it looks like all done!

Super easy to make and the girls love it! The only thing I may change/ add is lighter colored ornaments. You can’t really tell the difference in this picture but there are pink and red  ornaments. They’re just too close in shade so I may pick up some more lighter colored felt to add to our tree. For now the girls love this one. I’ll have to post a pic of K with the tree another day. She refused to wear anything but a diaper on this particular day and I’d prefer her fully clothed for blog posts 🤣