Harvest

The harvest season is upon us again. The masses are out in the fields. The roads are caked with mud, the air is full of dust and smells like the sugar beet factory - but people are working and happy about it.

This time has been a harvest of sorts for our little family. We have finally gotten correctly set up with the insurance companies at work, and Scott is reaping the benefits for a lot of the hard work he's done over the past few months.

I stopped working a year ago in July. We were essentially unemployed until April of the following year, at which point we started our own business (you can imagine how that goes at first). I've been asked how we've made it. And we have. Money is not a stress in our lives. Maybe a concern, but it's certainly not something we lose a lot of sleep over or argue about. Hopefully without going into too much personal detail, here's how we've made it:

Disclaimer: I'm recording this so I can remember these times in the future, as well as to give hope to those who are struggling with finances. What we do may not work for you, and that's ok - but it really, really has worked for us.

1. We save when times are good so we can live when times are not. No one ever knows when they might lose their job, or when their health may preclude them from working, or when the stock market takes a dive. But, we can prepare for those things. We saved a lot, even when I was just working part time in Texas.
2. We live frugally. We don't eat out much. We rarely buy anything at full price. We don't give our children everything they want. We live by the principle that some of the most caring words you can share with your spouse are, "we can't afford it".
3. We lived with my in-laws for almost a year. This was a sacrifice for us as well as for them. We certainly still had bills to pay, but this allowed us to stay on our feet. We are so grateful to Scott's parents to allow us to live in their home for so long. It was a time of physical difficulty for me as I dealt with a bad burn, nausea, pregnancy, and illness. Staying there was the right thing for our family to do.
4. We have a BUDGET. I'm actually pretty passionate about this. Up until a few years ago, I was anti-budget. I thought it was too restrictive. I've always been pretty careful with my money, but I didn't want a piece of paper to tell me what I can and can't buy. I also thought it had to be the same every month. Some months I had a lot of expenses, and some months I didn't have many. After we got married, I was still strongly anti-budget. Until we went to a little seminar given by a guy we went to church with. He had a degree in accounting and had designed his own budgeting software (see here). We bought it and gave it a try. That budget has saved our backsides many times. It is a zero-based budget that relies on the income you made the previous month. This was perfect for us, and continues to be because we've never been salaried, and thus have a different income every month. So, the money we spend this month is the money we made last month. There are certain things we only have to pay occasionally, like car insurance. We set aside 1/6th of the total amount every month, and it carries over until we actually pay our car insurance bill every 6 months. We also can choose to put a little each month away for things like vacation, or having a baby, or buying a car. We try to prepare so there are no big surprises. We keep money in categories for the dentist, the doctor, and car repairs for this purpose as well. We know we will get sick, we will have cavities occasionally, our car will break down some day. The most important thing about having a budget and setting it each month, is that Scott and I are able to have a conversation about money. We decide together how much we are going to spend on what each month. That has helped money to not be a stress in our marriage - and that's a wonderful thing. Do we stick to our budget 100% perfectly? Of course not. Whatever extra we spend just takes from what we have to work with the next month, or we can pull the money from a category we underused. Our budget also helps us be realistic about how much we spend and what we spend it on, because we record every expenditure into our software. It's a little tedious, but worth it.

Because of these ideas we use in our family, we are fine. We've made it through a tough year. I'm sure it won't be our last, so we will continue to save and prepare.

4 months

4 Months!

The facts: 17 lbs, 26 1/2 inches long

I thought I'd show a couple of comparison pics of these two cute kids. I've always remembered how chubby Madeline was at this age. We called her 'sumo baby'. I think she looks chunkier than Benson in these pictures, but she was actually a little taller and didn't weigh quite as much.

All about Benson:

• When he's awake, his mouth is wide open most of the time. He's either smiling or trying to shove something inside - most likely his fist.
• He's still a really good sleeper during the day, as long as we're at home. Nighttime: not so good. Madeline did the same thing at this age. I don't know it's how my milk supply works, or if they're just more social and want to be with mom. He's up two or three times at night now. It's ok. I'm not as upset about it as I was with my little girlie.
• He's not rolling over yet, but he'll rock from side to side on his back. He also does "crunches" and tries to sit up while he's laying on his back. He still loves to put weight on his legs. He's a pretty strong kid.
• He sits in his bumbo now. We have it sitting on a chair up to our kitchen table so he can join us for meals. He's pretty interested in watching us eat. I haven't decided yet when we'll start rice cereal. We started Madeline at 4 months in hopes that she would sleep better. It didn't work. We've got a whole supply of baby food ready for him. I caught a great clearance on organic baby food at Walmart a couple of months ago. They were on sale for 4 to 25 cents a jar! I bought 132. We've also been pureeing fruits and vegetables we've gotten off of trees or on a good deal at the store. I'm sure we have more food storage for Benson than we do for the rest of us.
• He doesn't hate his carseat so much anymore! He just whines and yells while in it from time to time, but he's not full on crying every time we go for a ride in the car. I'm so happy about it!
• He gives smiles freely, and when he smiles, he smiles with his whole body.

• He laughs. It's my favorite. He laughs when someone else laughs, and he laughs when we play with him.
• He is so loved!

I canned, I canned, and I don't care who knows it!

Canning is one of those highly domestic things I most likely swore as a teenager I would never, ever do. For one thing, I thought it was an elaborate, industrial process. For my family growing up, it was an industrial process that took all day, if not all weekend. The finished product was 100 + quarts of something or other, most often applesauce.

Fast forward to last winter, when I received a little gift from my visiting teacher at church. She gave me three small jars filled with lemon butter, pear jam, and plum jam. They were beautiful, simple, and delicious. My interest was sparked.

I did a little research, and discovered that canning doesn't have to be a long, drawn out process that requires a lot of special equipment that I don't have and don't really want to purchase at this point.

We were given two boxes of sweet, little italian prune plums. I made a tasty crisp out of a few, and we've eaten a few by themselves. But, they are quickly ripening. I decided the time had come to try my hand at canning. I've made freezer jam before, but our freezer is stocked with it already, thanks to my mother-in-law, and I wanted to make something I could give away as gifts.

I found a new kind of pectin at our little local grocery store that requires little or no sugar. You use fruit juice or juice concentrate instead. I opted to use grape juice concentrate with a little extra sugar. It was a good choice. I also decided to blend up the fruit in our vitamix to make a smooth jam instead of a chunky one.

The whole process only took an hour.

I went from this:

To this:
I opened one up the next morning for breakfast. It was silky smooth, thick, and wonderful. I think it's safe to say I will be canning again - maybe even tonight.

Recently

What's been going on with the Serr's lately? Well, I'll tell you.

A week and a half ago the kids and I took a short trip down to see my parents. I didn't have to teach Sunday School at church on Sunday, so we took advantage of the situation and left town. And what visit would be complete without a project? A project that I again underestimated the time and difficulty it would require. In my recent love affair with Pinterest, I discovered some fun DIY projects. The one I attempted to do was turning an adult sweater into a toddler sweater dress. I had a bag of less than fashionable sweaters ready to go to the DI, so I pulled one out and figured I had nothing to lose in cutting it apart.

Unfortunately, the sweater was so thick it wouldn't fit through the sewing machine. I had to sew it very carefully with the presser foot up. The machine wasn't happy about that. Then I had the problem of the collar. It was originally a cowl-neck sweater that would have looked ridiculous on a toddler neck. So, I cut it off. I decided to use the collar of an old fitted t-shirt. The dress is certainly not perfect, but I think it's wearable. Cost of new winter dress = free.

The other thing we've been doing is taking care of sick kids. Madeline spiked a temp on Wednesday morning, and it lasted a couple of days. I finally figured out at the end of the second day that her ears hurt. The next morning she was fever-free, but she couldn't hear well. She's had on and off low-grade fevers since then, she still can't hear, and she's not hungry. Benson started to get really fussy on Saturday evening. When Scott tried to look in his ears (very helpful to have an otoscope at home), he screamed. My baby who usually wants nothing to do with me when he's sleeping, now can't sleep without me.

So, away to the doctor we went yesterday. There isn't an urgent care facility here, so our choices over the weekend were the ER, or wait until Monday. Benson gets to take antibiotics, and Madeline gets to wait it out. She mostly just had fluid in her ears, which is why she can't hear. Apparently they'll drain it if it doesn't go away in a month. The irony in this situation is that I've been trying really hard lately not to raise my voice, and now she can't hear me at all unless I'm yelling at her. I think she must hear herself really loudly in her head, because she's talking more quietly than normal. It makes rides in the car really fun with a child who feels the need to speak her every thought. She can't hear me and I can't hear her. All Scott hears is "What? What? What?" as we drive down the road. Just another bump in our adventure together as a family. One I'm sure we'll laugh about and remember later.

Falling

Hair is falling all around,

On the rooftops, on the ground.

Hair is falling on my nose,

On my head and hands and toes.

What a fun part of post-pregnancy. With the current rate of hair loss, I just might be completely bald in another month. It's amazing all of the changes a mother's body goes through. I'm one year post conception, and am nowhere near back to my regular self. That's ok - there's a season for everything

Nature's seasons are changing as well. Fall has come to Idaho today. We've had temperatures in the 80's for the last few weeks, until a wind storm blew through last night. We boxed up the kids' shorts yesterday, and are gathering warmer clothing now. I'm finally ready for some cooler weather and the coziness it brings. I was glad to have a few extra days of warmth since I feel like I missed out on the beginning of summer being pregnant, sick, and home with a new baby and all. We're embracing the new season with fall soups and lots of squash.