Goings On

I have not been on here in forever!  Please forgive me for my vaca.  It has been a very busy, sick month.

-Our first face of braces has happened.  Brennan was attacked last week and while he's whiny, it's fun to see his face/mouth change.  Jared and I do not have dental/orthodontic insurance and are so thankful to Bulliegh Orthodontics for being so incredibly flexible and helpful.  It means a lot to me that we show love in this way to our kids.  While it's definitely not a necessity, I always wished I had had better dental care and I don't want them to have the same insecurities. 

Cannot believe how fast he's becoming a man

-I have been making my own laundry soap for a while now, something I swore I would never do.  I have always made the liquid form.  It's crazy cheap and effective, very important with the shear amount of laundry we do.  I have found, thank you Alisa, a recipe that I far prefer.  It's dry, only takes a tablespoon and $20 last 9/10 months.  You read that right!  We got the recipe from over at How Does She.  The first batch I made I did not include the scented crystals.  I really kinda miss the Gain scent that I was obsessed with so I decided to go ahead and throw them in this go round.  OH MY WORD!!!  I love love love it.  My whole house smells amazing and it works wonders on stinky boy clothes.  I used some bar soap that I happened to have on hand and I am just in love with the smell combo.

I highly recommend following How Does She's recipe and use this bar soap and these crystals.  It's awesome!!  Also I highly recommend dumping all the ingredients into a large trash bag to mix.  There's a lot of fine powder that wafts around the room otherwise.

-It snowed.  A lot.  Then it snowed some more.  I am the snow grinch.  While I love it and think it's pretty, I would rather drink bleach than let my kids go out in it.  The clean up is soo not worth it when they refuse to be out there more than 3 minutes.  The other day Brennan and Tanner were out front shoveling the drive so I went out back with the younger three and the dogs.  It's shocking how much longer they are willing to be out there when Brennan is not "accidentally hurting" them (seriously a blog worthy topic on it's own).  They played for over a hour!  Our kids love Funniest Home Videos and we watch it every week, that's why I asked Anneliese to introduce the host.

-We have been blessed with "Baby Gage" This week.  He is a doll and keeps us giggling.  He parrots everything you say.  We've had him saying, "Hey babe!  Okie Dokie Smokie, Hellllooooo Boyz!!!!!"  He thinks I'm hilarious, who doesn't love that?!  He tells me constantly that I'm "so funny!"  You cannot deny this kids' adorable factor.

-With all this sickness I acquired my very first sinus infection.  To those of you who have dealt with these on any kind of regular basis my heart breaks for you.  The misery is unmatched.  I seriously would rather go through labor and delivery again drug free than have another sinus infection.  The days and days of inescapable pain matched with fatigue, yet the inability to sleep, is just cruel and unusual punishment.  I am 4 days in with an antibiotic.  While I am not 100% just yet, I am so much better that I don't mind the lingering nasal congestion.  I have at least one nostril clear and functioning, that's like Christmas! 

Lockdown

Lockdown-according to the Altic Family Dictionary; a lockdown is when the leader of the family declares no superfluous money will be spent for a particular period of time.  This can last a day, a  week or a month or longer depending on the reason for the lockdown.  The definition of "superfluous spending" changes depending on the severity of said lockdown.

Jared and I purchased an older suburban the first of January.  We had a special family reach out to us and offer us this great truck for a great price.  It was really a God thing.  We had decided to keep the vehicles we had since we found and fixed the problems with our Dodge.  Then we received a phone call from the owner about the truck and prayed about it.  We decided not to act on it until January (they called in Nov).  When the owner offered to hold onto the truck for us until Jan. we decided to try and sell the Kia.  It literally sold in a day for exactly what we needed out of it.  There's a lot more to this story and about the generosity of the family that owned the truck.  They were just wonderful and we are so thankful.


When we went to tag the suburban we decided not to roll the tags and taxes into the loan in order to pay it off sooner.  In order to do this, we had to enter a lockdown of epic proportions.  It's the longest and strictest lockdown in the history of the Altic clan.

It has been a month since we accessed our checking account for anything other than bills.  We have used any money that I have brought in (hair cuts/color, carpet shampooing, babysitting) for gas and groceries.  Last pay period I spent $57 on groceries and a total of $100 for the entire month.

While I'm giddy we are mere days away from the end, I am really thankful for this time.  We have worked through the bulk of the storage in our pantry.  We've eaten things that were stashed in there and ignored for who knows how long.

I've come across a few articles that suggest a No Spend Month in order to jump start a savings.  For us, it saved us 5 months of extra car payments and extra interest for that debt.  More importantly, it reset what we felt we had to have in order to function.  Jared and I are encouraged that we can do with so much less and save so much more.  One tight month in order to save 5 months payments?!  That's a great trade off.

It's been a blessing for the kids.  We used to frequent Happy Hour at Sonic.  We haven't been in a month and Saturday I took the kids and got them the smallest drinks after a free outing at the park.  I spent less than $4 total and they were thrilled.  It was the "best treat ever!!"  according to my boys.  They were so very grateful and there wasn't a single complaint.

In the end, we are better off and we have a great truck that fits our family.  Meet the Altic School Bus:

Sanctity of Life

Today is the March for Life in Washington DC.

It is also the 40th anniversary of Roe V Wade. 

In the words of the creator of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger:

"The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."
Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race
(Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923) 

Jared and I watched the movie, October Baby.  It is about a girl who finds out she was birthed at 24 weeks after a botched abortion and then abandoned at a hospital.  It is a difficult, but essential watch.  Here's an article stating why you must see this movie. 

After watching it I laid in my bed and mourned the loss of millions.  It's just so very overwhelming to think about the atrocities, these tiny innocent lives being torn apart in the womb.  

This has to stop.  We need to be on our knees in prayer and supporting our local Crisis pregnancy centers.  Sonya, my sis in law, is the director of Hands of Hope in Platte City. 

I want to challenge you to contact her, contact Hands of Hope.  Make a donation, offer to volunteer, do what you can in order to put up a fight.  If not the church then who?

I am so thankful for our Catholic friends and the stand they have taken.  

 

I am thankful for Hobby Lobby and the stand they have taken against the abortion inducing drugs our government is trying to force them to offer.  

It's time to love on these women who are scared and alone.  This isn't about forcing a woman to keep a baby she doesn't want.  It's about offering love and support to women who feel they have no choice. 

Best Tacos Ev-ah

I have become more and more creative as my gluten free life continues.  I am so thankful for the internet and other people's ideas to help me along.  I came across the most awesome home made taco seasoning.  I found it over at One Good Thing.  I made a triple batch and it was a huge hit with the kids.  I just boiled 4 chicken breasts in water and a ton of the seasoning.  When it was tender I threw it into my Kitchenaid and used the paddle to shred the chicken (yet another genius idea via blog world).  The kids and I ate and ate and ate.  Even the skinny ones asked for thirds.

Here's Jillee's recipe:

"Homemade Taco Seasoning
by
Whole New Mom

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t oregano
1 t paprika
1 Tbsp cumin
2 1/2 t salt (I used Kosher Salt)
2 t pepper
OK…here are the instructions…don’t blink…you might miss them!
1.  Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.  2. Mix well. 3. Store in a tightly closed container.   haha!  I told you!"

Absolutely divine and gluten free!

Pinterest In A Blogshell

I couldn't help but take a screen shot. 

A specimen of physical perfection and a recipe for gooey cookies in the same shot.

This is Pinterest.

Unachievable "goal" images paired with the very cookie recipes that will keep you from it.

Hilarious,

Efficiency

Jared and I just finished paying 3 months of ridiculous energy bills trying to make up for the summer months.  We got behind due to $500 plus electric bills.  We didn't even keep the house at an insane temp.  This summer it was 75 at night and 80 during the day.

Now that it's turned cold our house is frigid.  I assume the windows that were installed were "builder's grade."  They are drafty and seem to need at least some attention if not replacement.  That is ridiculous in a 6 year old home.

I've been reading online about how to make our home more efficient.

The first thing I did was flip the tiny switch on our ceiling fans to the winter setting.  Winter setting means it turns clockwise.  This alone can save you as much as 10% on your heating bills.  It simply pushes the warm air back down since warm air rises.

The next step was winterizing our drafty windows.  Several websites suggested plastic sheeting to seal the windows.  I purchased two of these at Wal-mart for $7 each.

 I started off downstairs in Graham and Elijah's room.  I had enough to do the coldest rooms but I will need one more package to finish.  The total spent will be $21 and I anticipate saving triple that on one month's bill.  The difference is dramatic and instant.

The sheeting goes on easily with clear double stick tape.  At first it looks like this:

 But wait!  Take out a blow dryer and slowly attack those wrinkles and in no time you can not tell it's there!  I was so impressed!!  I was worried it would be obvious from outside.  It is very discrete and the house is already remarkably warmer!  So thankful!!

Window on left has sheeting, window on right does not

Fun With NeNe

My mom moved to Topeka back in October.  We were used to seeing her at least once a week, but since she moved she's been getting settled, working, and watching my nephews.  She's been updating her house and spending a lot of time and energy making it home.

Today mom came to celebrate Christmas with the kids.  We had Christmas music playing and spent the day working on my Pinterest gifts for both sides of the family.  We chatted, drank coffee and watched the KU game. 

It was a lot of fun and a blessing to the kids and I.  The best part had to be Anneliese and Mom watching the KU game.  It's an understatement to say my mom is vocal during the games.  It was hilarious seeing Anneliese's response.  Too funny.

Merry Christmas NeNe!  We love you.