Starting this month, I’ll be taking 6 months of classes for my Accounting Clerk Certificate to see if I can do online schooling full-time.  If it works well, I’ll be pursuing my Accounting degree and moving on from there.

And because I’m never one to shy from a challenge, I also started selling Scentsy. I was buying enough of it to supply a small village with the lovely smelling wax for a year, so it only made sense that I get the benefits for it!

If you’re interested in purchasing Scentsy, you can contact me or visit my website: https://cdoane.scentsy.us/

And because no post is complete without a photo or three…

Instead, she decided that (as part of a mid-life crisis, I’d assume) she needed a younger man in her life. A protector. A sturdy, confident dog. A 14-month old lab with enough energy to share with the entire family and still have some left over.

Oy.

Luckily Shadowfax’s cuteness makes up for his exuberance.

Oh and Sassy absolutely adores him.

Ok, we adore him too. He’s awfully sweet.

Typical me.

Violet has been nothing but amazing over the past 11 months. Her toothless smile lights up the room and she has everyone (especially her 5 year old sister) wrapped tightly around her finger.

She is constantly the center of attention, even when I try to shift focus to the big girls. Harper and Ariana love to dote on her, showering her with hugs, kisses and snuggles whenever they get a chance

We’re now gearing up for a 2 week vacation to visit family, followed quickly by Vi’s 1st birthday and Harper’s 4th birthday (and I realize now that Harper’s 3rd birthday was skipped in my blog hiatus, so now I’ll owe her a double post!).

And now (since Violet is taking one of her extremely rare naps in her own bed), I’ll leave with some photos.

:o)

Our sweet princess, Violet, decided to make an early arrival on April 6th, much to our surprise and delight.  I’ll post a bit of the birth story when I have the entire thing typed (which at this rate, may be close to Violet’s first birthday!), but I wanted to at least post something about the baby before her birth month has passed us by ;o)

And of course, what’s a baby announcement without a photo or two?  :o)

Time seems to have sped up during this pregnancy.  I feel like we just confirmed the pregnancy last week when in reality, it was back in the fall.  Baby’s first kick seems like it was only last month, even though it happened months ago.  Now I have to sit with my laptop pushed near my knees since my belly is taking over the first inches that make up my lap.

Want to see something crazy?

If you can’t read the text, those pictures are from 20, 29 and 35.5 weeks- for some reason, I’m not able to get a good recent picture of my belly lately, but it is a little bigger than the 3rd picture looks!  I will admit, I’m still pretty small (which is nice!) and can still fit in my pre-pregnancy jeans and shirts.  I have a few maternity clothing items given to me by a friend, but it feels nice to know that I don’t *have* to wear them :o)

Since this pregnancy is winding down, it’s gotten to the time where I need to prepare for baby’s arrival.

Here’s my to-do list:

*Prep diapers and wipes- diapers are all washed and ready to go; wipes are being mailed to me, hopefully this week :o)

*Pack baby’s bag- diapers, wipes, onesies, socks, long-sleeved shirt, leg-warmers (much easier to change diapers than if baby is in pants!), blankets (receiving and for car), hat.  All of this is packed except for wipes!

* Pack my + Terry’s bag- extra set of clothes for Terry, two extra sets of clothing for me, nursing supplies, basic toiletries.  None of this is packed, though we’ve pulled out some things and set them on the rocking chair in the bedroom.

*Set up bassinet and rocker-  wrap bassinet mattress in receiving blanket and put bassinet sheet on (this mattress is over 40 years old since it was used for my girls + me + all my siblings, so it needs the extra softness), get bassinet set up on stand, pick blankets for back of rocker (much more comfy for night feedings than leaning on the wooden “slats”).  This is one of those to-do items that can easily be done after baby comes home, so it’s not high on my priorities.

*Wash baby clothes- everything needs to be washed, folded and put away.

*Clean out baby’s “dresser”- we got a used two-drawer plastic shelving unit this weekend that needs to be wiped and set up in our closet for baby’s clothing storage, which is currently making its home on my closet floor.

*Pack mini-bags for girls- an extra dress/ change of clothes, a few books and small toys, iPad and charger so they can watch movies (the girls may or may not be coming with us to the birthing center that I’ll be delivering at- it depends on the time of day we go up there!).

*Plan/ make freezer meals- this is partly done (i.e. I’ve picked meals and made up the shopping list), but we need a stash of meals to make the first few days/ weeks home easier.  We will have visitors to help us out, but I’d rather have some ready-to-bake/ reheat things in the chest freezer to fill in the gaps!

*Enjoy a 4-day weekend together- this is the most difficult thing on the list, surprisingly!  Terry took time off work, but we still have a few obligations on some of his days off.  The weekend together is definitely needed and much-anticipated :o)

On a totally unrelated note: Happy April Fools Day :o)

Pregnancy has been fairly kind on me this time around and as I approach 37 weeks (I still wonder what happened to the past 36 weeks!), I am hoping to enjoy a warm and sunny month with my princesses before we become a family of five.

The girls love bringing their toys outside, running all over the yard, checking out the wildflowers, and helping me water our strawberry plant.

I realized that I’m terrible about bringing the camera out to snap pictures of the girls playing, but I have an excuse: I’m too busy enjoying the play time and the sun!  I have caught a few moments using Instagram on my phone, but for the most part, I’d rather soak up all the fun moments 8-)

Are you loving Spring like we are? :o)

I peel, core, and slice about 3 pounds of apples (about 16 medium apples) and put them in the crockpot.  My hands are always a bit tired after this since I use a paring knife for all of it, so if you have a faster method, go for it!

Generously sprinkle cinnamon over the apples.  I would guess I use about 3-4 tablespoons worth, but I’ve never measured.

Add 3-4 tablespoons of brown sugar to the apples.  You can change this depending on how tart/ sweet your apples are (I usually use less since I use sweeter apples).

Finally, add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice to the crockpot.  Gently and thoroughly stir the apples to get cinnamon, brown sugar, and lemon juice  on all the apple slices.

Put the lid on the crockpot and cook on low 6-7 hours, stirring as often as you remember.  We enjoy chunky applesauce, but you can blend the chunks out (after the sauce has cooled) if desired.  Delicious.  I have no idea how long this lasts in the fridge, but we typically eat our mixed with yogurt and it lasts about 4-5 days.

 Original, unadapted recipe:
*8 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced.
*cinnamon, to taste
*5-6t brown sugar
*1t lemon juice

Add all ingredients to crockpot, stir.  Place lid on crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours, stirring occasionally.

**Regarding the original recipe, I felt like the amounts of brown sugar and lemon juice were way too low.

On another food-related note, I discovered that my girls love tuna salad.  I rarely made it for them, since they’ve never been big on the idea.  But, in the spirit of constantly keeping me on my toes, they saw my tuna salad and were quickly asking for a taste.

I’m betting it was the grapes that attracted their attention…

On a final food note, this is one of my favorite breakfasts of all time: yogurt, dried cranberries, raisins, shredded coconut, walnuts, cinnamon, fresh bananas (or strawberries, which are my favorite fruit!)…

Yummy!  On that note, I think I’m going to start prepping for an early lunch ;o)

Ariana and Harper have enjoyed covering our driveway and garage with chalk drawings, playing with over-sized bouncy balls in the back yard, and best of all, we’ve been able to walk to the park a lot!

The sun streams in our windows most mornings and we’ve been ready to head right out for some fun.

As my pregnancy progresses, it’s been harder to get out and about for any length of time without rest.  Luckily, my princesses have been very patient with me :o)

I’ve also enjoyed doing some online shopping for baby and for some around-the-house things we’ve been wanting.  The new favorite toy is easily our Royal Berkey water filter system!

I had no idea that our Brita filter wasn’t very effective until I took my first sip of water fresh from the Berkey.  Mmm.  The girls like it because the water is room temperature when I fill their non-insulated Klean Kanteens, meaning the outside of the Kanteens aren’t cold to the touch (which was the downfall to the Brita stored in the fridge).

Oh, and I’m not a Berkey affiliate, I won’t get anything if you check it out, but I purchased our Berkey from www.goberkey.com.  They had great customer service (i.e. changing my mailing address after PayPal gave them my old one!), the Berkey was shipped quickly and we are thrilled.  If you’re looking for a new water filter system, I can’t recommend this one enough!

Happy Friday, hope the weather is warm where you are :o)

In this case, I was meant to have strawberries.

A lot of strawberries.

At one point, I had 12 containers of strawberries in my fridge.  For $1.50 a container, how could I pass it up?  They are my favorite fruit after all.  Ariana and Harper (and baby!) love them almost as much as I do.

But what to do with dozens upon dozens of strawberries?  Freeze some sliced berries (for use in oatmeal) + make jam of course!

This is my pectin-free freezer jam method… I’m sure there are dozens of better recipes, but I am pretty darn happy with my way.

1.  Buy a bunch of strawberries (it honestly doesn’t matter how many containers-worth you have).

2. If you’re saving some for other uses, sort the berries into two bowls- one for good berries, one for slightly mushy/ ugly berries.  I use basically all berries unless they are moldy.

3.  Thoroughly wash berries and remove caps.

4. If desired, slice berries into smaller chunks.  In the above picture, the bowl on the left are my berries-to-freeze.  The bowl on the right is my soon-to-be-jam berries.

5. Sugar those jam berries!  I sprinkle some sugar on (maybe 1/4 of a cup), stir carefully, then re-sugar (another 1/4c), stir and if needed, I add a little more.

6.  Stick the bowl of berries in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight to let the sugar absorb and let the juices start to release from the berries.  I don’t bother covering them, but you can I’m sure.

7.  Pull the berries out of the fridge and toss em in a saucepan or stockpot.  I use a stock pot because I think it’s easier.  If you like really sweet jam, add another 1/4c sugar now (I didn’t for this batch because the berries were sweet to begin with).

8. Cook, cook, cook the berries!  I turned the burner on medium heat and let the berries cook, stirring often, until they boiled a little.  Then I turned the burner down and cooked them (stirring occasionally) for 20 minutes or so.  I like chunky jam, but if you’d like, you can mash the berries down as they cook.  When the berries thicken to your liking, they are pretty much done!

9.  Ladle into ramekins or other freezer-safe containers (I’m too cheap frugal to buy real freezer jars), leaving 1/2 to 1/4 inch head space.  Let cool on the counter, uncovered, for a few hours.  Transfer to fridge to cool completely, then move into freezer.  Voila!

Mmm.

And on homemade bagels with a little cream cheese?  Ohh yes.  Check out those berries!

And of course, they are taste-tester approved!

The girls both got sweet little gifts from both sets of grandparents (stuffed bears, candy and the now-beloved Hello Kitty drawing paper), but when I tried to explain the holiday behind the presents, they didn’t quite understand.  Luckily, they haven’t asked many questions beyond “is it time for chocolate?” :o)

I will say, each year, I do make my husband a card, not necessarily because it’s Valentine’s day, but because it’s an excuse to remind him how much he is loved and appreciated… plus I just like making cards and this is the only time of year I can get away with an extremely sappy cards ;o)

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?