Budgeting

I've been doing a lot of research on trying to figure out ways to eliminate bills from our budget. So far I have found two things to to help our family. First is with our gym membership. We have a family YMCA membership and recently I found you can use your HSA and FSA account for gym memberships as long as you have a note from your doctor! I of course would verify with your own HR department and your individual flex/HSA account. Another thing that I've used is the safelink wireless phone plan. You can opt to bring your own device (as long as it's a phone payed off/unlocked). It's a little bit of a process, first you apply

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enrollment/Safelink/en/NewPublic/index.html

Them you need to wait about three business days to be enrolled and get your SIM card.
Once you have your SIM card chat here

https://www.tracfone.com/contactus

And provide the agent with your SIM card number, phone IMED number and account info from your current provider. They will request to change your phone number over them for you and once that completes you just enter the SIM card and you are done! The entire process took about a week from applying to actually entering the SIM card in and using the benifits. I spent a LOT of time with their online chat making sure the port went through and feel that if I didn’t want to keep the same number it would have been a quicker and easier process. Over all though if you qualify it’s something to look into! Only one recipient per household.

DIY

Today was my DIY day, getting all our soaps and cleaning supplies ready for the week. I started with DIY soaps and cleaners after going to a essential oil meeting and learning about all the harsh chemicals that we typically use on a basis. I would strongly recommend doing some research about the chemicals used in our laundry and dish soap or even research why “tear free” soap is tear free. Pretty scary stuff out there that I was exposing my family to without even knowing. Everyone has their own reason for getting into essential oils and so far, for me, my interest has been in DIY. Another great thing about going DIY is how much money we have been saving. I typically buy 3 things monthly and 2 things yearly for my DIY soaps.

Monthly Shopping: 

Zote soap 

Laundry washing soda 

Borax 

Apple Cidar Vinager 

6month/ Yearly: 

Castile Soap 

Theives Houshold Cleaner 

Monthly it only costs me 10-15 dollars total. Not bad when it’s rooviding my hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, Bosh wash, conditioner and shampoo! The theives household cleaner is a little

More pricey but is totally worth it and lasts a LONG time (I’m still on my 1st bottle and anticipate it lasting me at least a year). The household cleaner solution is nice because it’s so versitile. You mix 1-2 cap fulls in a spray bottle and fill if with water and you have a cleaner that can be used on counter tops, windows, stove tops, sinks, etc, the works! Put 1/2 a cap in for mopping the floor, the options on what to use it for with cleaning are endless. 

Here are the receipts that I use, let me know how they work for you. 

2017 in review

For my first post of 2018 I thought it would be a good idea to do a recap and reflection of 2017.

January-We started the year by seeing the movie “Sing” in theater with my parents. Mackenzie was also recognized for her good behavior at school so we treated her with ice cream and a trip to the FDL children’s museum.

February-Everyone was obsessed with April the giraffe and being 8/9 months pregnant I found it rather amusing. Kenzie made a Giraffe out of cardboard. We didn’t to much since I was so pregnant and uncomfortable we mainly spent the month getting ready for the new baby.

March- We welcomes baby Abraham March 7th :)

April- We experienced our first outing to Mackenzie’s Spring concert. We also celebrated Easter st my parents.

May- I ended my maternity leave and went back to work and John started his new job as a stay at home Dad. The weather also started to become nicer so we started a few trips to the park. We also enjoyed a trip to a Milwaukee Brewers Game.

June-We took the kids to a Wisconsin Timbler Rattlers game along with a trip to Badgers Sport Park. The kids were rewarded this from the school for a reading incentive. We also did a family trip to Wisconsin Dells to celebrate John and Juniors birthday.

July- A lot happened in July and was by far one of our busiest months. We had Abraham’s Baptism, a trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum and a kids from WI performance, the FDL county fair and a boat trip. We also spent time at Lakeside Park.

August- We had a lot of fun in August as well going to Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Bookworm Garden in Sheboygan, and various park/beach time in West Bend and Oshkosh.

September- September things calmed down as school started up. We did do a trip Waldvogals farm, got apples from our neighbors tree and did a drive through the Horicon Marsh. We also had a going away party for Uncle Chris getting deployed in the Army.

October- We carved pumpkins, dressed up as pirates for trick or treating, did a second trip to Waldvogals farm and went to the EAA to celebrate my birthday.

November-We didn’t do to much but celebrated thanksgiving with my parents and with John’s. Abraham sure loved his turkey. We also celebrated a close high school friend having her third child.

December-We went to the EEA Christmas fly in where we wrote letters to Santa. We baked cookies, got our pictures taken, went to the FDL light show, and celebrated with family. A great way to end the year!

MIA

So from October until January things get extreamly busy. Here is a run down of how it usually goes

My birthday October 25th 

Halloween 

Mackenzie’s Birthday November 16th 

Thanksgiving 

Saint Nicks Day at the start of December 

Fathers family Christmas party 

My family Christmas 

Johns family Christmas 

New Years 

So needless to say the blog has been put on hold for a little bit. I will try and get back in the swing of things and do more blogs in 2018. In the mean time, from our family to yours I hope you are all having a great holiday season, Merry Christmas and a Great new year! 

Anxiety

According to Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 18% of adults have anxiety (https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics). I am one of the 40 million Americans they are talking about. For me, anxiety means having various therapy appointments throughout the month, being on two different kinds of medicine and having an anxiety packet I keep with me to help me unwind and calm down. One thing that I have learned in therapy is that with my anxiety I tend to grasp on irrational thoughts and tend to feed into them instead of recognizing them as an irrational thought.

                                   
 Even writing this blog I am having a hard time of figuring out what “irrational” fears I may hate because they all seem rational to me. I am constantly trying to use the Wise Mind teqnique to talk myself out of my over emotional mind. It does get easier though in the moment stopping and using my therapy techniques along with using my various items in my anxiety bag. Now I by no means am a doctor or a therapist, I am just sharing what works for me and what I have learned in MY journey, everybody has a different journey and different things that work for them. 

This is my anxiety bag, as. You can see I have my medicine in it along with a sensory bottle that I made with my kids (baby oil, glitter, and a travel size bottle to mix it all up in). I also have various things to keep my hands busy like a fidget spinner, deck of cards, dice, and stress ball. Lastly would be my essential oils that the really help with unwinding and relaxation. My therapist informed me it’s good to have something for all the sense, smell, touch, visual, taste, etc. 

Halloween 2017

this weekend was a pretty busy weekend celebrating Halloween. John and I try and give our children all the typical childhood memories of going to a pumpkin farm, carving pumpkins, and trick or treating. Honestly, it was an exhausting but worth it seeing them happy. Here are some pictures from our weekend.  

Sleep Apnea

So back in March of 2015 I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. According to National Heart and Lung Instittuion “Sleep apnea (AP-ne-ah) is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep” and in my case I averaged 68 pauses an hour which requires me to wear a CPAP machine https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sleepapnea/.

I will be honest dealing with sleep apnea is rough. I’m greatful that this chronic disease at least has a successful treatment option HOWEVER using a CPAP machine nightly is hard to do. There are a lot of times it’s just impossible to fall asleep with the mask on, the mask moves out of place or looses connection etc. Sometimes it may have just been a long day and you just want to crawl into bed without needing to do an entire night time routine. I’m working on getting better at using my machine, and I’m finding that the more I talk about what is going on with me and sharing my story the more I can be held accountable for taking care of my health and staying on track. 

According to the American Sleep Apnea Association there are a lot of side effects that can be caused by sleep apnea, the most major being various heart conditions (leading up to heart attack) and stroke http://www.apneatreatmentcenter.com/what-is-sleep-apnea/. The main day to day effects that I deal with personally include cronique fatigue, depression/anxiety and memory loss. When I first heard about sleep apnea I was in middle school when my Dad was diagnosed. I honestly didn’t know much about it, and when my family kept pushing me to get tested I thought I must just be tired from having kids, sleep apnea is something middle age men get not a female in her 20s. I’m glad my family
pushed me to get tested though because knowing the diagnosis, researching and following along with my CPAP machine I am able to have more “normal” days then I have ever had before.

My CPAP machine set up 

My Essential Oil set up, along with my heating pad and my pillow for sitting up when I watch tv or read. My doctor says it’s good sleep hygiene to be in a different position when you are awake and watching tv/reading then when you go to sleep 

The set up