Catchin' Up!

Hey Guys!

It has been a while! I feel like a lot of my posts start out that way! A lot has happened in the last 11 months which was the date of my last post! I love to write and share my stories so I am going to try and keep this up! The biggest news from the last 11 months is that Ryan and I are expecting our first baby!! We found out on Valentine's day and it was the best gift either of us could have received! We were only trying for 1 month and were very surprised when the test came back positive. My due date is October 22nd so I am already over half way there! Here is what I looked like at 12 weeks! I got big really fast and a lot of people thought I was having twins!

The first trimester of my pregnancy I was lucky and only had about 5 weeks of nausea and didn't get sick once! It's been a breeze compared to the stories I have heard from some of the ladies at work. After week 12 I haven't had any sickness. I just felt really tired and still do on and off. I am taking pictures every week of my pregnancy and its fun and exciting seeing me grow in the pictures! Here is one from 16 weeks. :-)

We went to our ultrasound appointment at 19 weeks and found out that we are having a little girl! I was excited from the moment I found out but Ryan was a little nervous about it at first. He quickly became really excited and cannot wait to meet her! 

We had a gender reveal party for all our friends and it was such a blast! I took a lot of ideas off pinterest and we announced it by putting pink balloons into a box. Then Ryan and I opened the box together and let the balloons fly out into the sky! They were all shocked because most of them thought we were going to have a little boy, probably because we are super outdoorsy people. They were all very excited for us and we just had a blast hanging out and celebrating together!

This is just all the baby news we also went to Gatlinburg TN and had so much fun!! This post is getting really long but it has been 11 months soooo I guess that is what I get for not writing in a while! My parents went with us. The trip was to celebrate their 40 years of marriage!!!! AND as a babymoon for Ryan and I. I think everyone should have a babymoon (like a honey moon before the baby gets here). It was nice to just relax and do everything on our time without a crying, pooping baby. :-) Here is a picture of all of us on the deck of our cabin. It was beautiful!

I am all done for today because I think I could write a book since it has been so long. I am going to work hard to keep up with my blog through my pregnancy and hopefully afterwords. Posts to come will be about breastfeeding, being a stay at home mommy, cloth diapers, and the money we have saved by garage saleing and thinking outside of the box! I am excited to share the next couple months with you!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies!

Hey guys!


I went over to my Mom's on Monday like I always do on my day off and came home with a new recipe for GF (gluten free) Peanut Butter Cookie recipe! I love peanut butter cookies so naturally I couldn't wait to try out the recipe! Well I just got done and they are sooooo Yummy! Recipe is as follows:

1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Sugar (if your peanut butter is already sugared, cut this to 3/4 cup)
1 Egg
1 tsp Baking Soda

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Step 2: Combine all ingredients well.
Step 3: Roll 2 Tbls of dough into balls.
Step 4: Press dough down with tines of fork to make criss cross
Step 5: Bake 10 min**

** For dark cookie sheets please reduce to 8 min.

Step 6: ENJOY!

I will say this is an awesome recipe. The cookies come out crumbly but harden once cooled.

Other then cookies my life has been pretty status quo. So with that being said I am going to say goodbye and go enjoy one of my cookies with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk! :-) Yummy!

~ Simple Rose

Time just flies on by

Hello,


So some time has passed and I just felt like I needed a little break from my blog. I will do that from time to time but hopefully I will always come back to it. So I caught up about all the things I had written about previously and I have to say that the gluten free pizza crust was a bust! It turned out like a biscuit and was no bueno (no good). We are going to try a Bob's Red Mill pizza crust later this week and will let you all know how it turns out.

Our garden has been very successful so far this season. We have gotten tons of zucchini and TONS of Matt's tomatoes. I have just finished pulling off the green tops and putting them into a freezer bag and putting them in the freezer. There are about 7-9 cups in the freezer now. Ryan cut up and grilled about 6 of our zucchini and we are going to put them in the freezer after they have cooled on the counter for a little while. We have really enjoyed our garden so far this year and cannot wait to make some additions to it next year. It feels very rewarding knowing that you grew this plant and are reaping the benefits from it. I also like that it saves us money since we buy mainly organic produce and that can be expensive.

The summer so far has been such a blur but very fun. It seems that sometimes we are just starting a week and then in the blink of eye its already Monday all over again. We are both itching to go camping again and take the canoe with us this time. However, we are trying very hard to save money and stick to our financial plan which doesn't leave much extra at the end of the month. I do suppose that we will at least get to go one more time before the end of the season.

I am still wanting to put up a laundry line and Ryan wants to get into hunting this year as well. We have so many wants and dreams to live more simply and frugal but sometimes we find it difficult since the costs for getting it started we cannot afford right now. We agreed that we are going to take it one step at a time because we are no longer using credit cards for anything so it will take us longer but the feeling will be much better knowing that we don't owe anybody for the stuff that we own. :-)

Until next time, Simple Rose ~

MMMM Pancakes! Gluten Free Style!

Hello,

So tonight on my Facebook I said that I was going to try to make some gluten free pancakes and see how they turn out. Well they turned out great! See for yourself....

I used Bisquick pancake and baking mix. Man did they turn out great. I made half a batch which gave us about 7 pancakes the size of the ones in the picture. I couldn't even tell the difference! They aren't as fluffy as regular pancakes but that could be because I split the recipe in half and only used half a cup of pancake mix but there was no way for my to split the egg so I added a whole egg instead of half. I am thinking that was the culprit to why they weren't as fluffy. These were the easiest pancakes I have ever made...Usually I make waffles because I suck at making pancakes...but these all turned out perfect! I am super happy with this baking mix and will be using it to try a pizza crust next! I love my pizza so hopefully that will turn out just as good as the pancakes did. I have not been let down yet from the gluten free diet. I feel better then ever! Also get this, I used to think I was anemic because I would shake if I didn't eat every couple hours or so..I read somewhere that if you are gluten intolerant that it can cause issues with your blood sugar. I haven't had any shakes since I switched! I am hoping the going gluten free is the reason! I am just so thrilled with it and can't wait to try some more recipes!!! As always more to come!!

Simple Rose<3

Savin' Moolah!

Hey All,


Okay this post is going to start with some financial goals! We have moved into the house and spent quite a bit of money and I hate to admit but put a quite a bit on credit as well. We love our house but with me dropping down to part time and moving into a house with a lot of projects we have noticed we are a bit strapped and I hate feeling that way! I have always been a saver since forever! By then time I was out of high school I had saved up a few grand with paying all my own bills, counting the fact that I still lived at home...but I also worked at Taco Bell making only a little over 7 dollars an hour. So needless to say I have been in charge of the budgets and the money for the most part in our household. I love my husband with all my heart...but like most guys (not all guys) he didn't even know what a budget was and as long as he had about 20 bucks in his pocket he was happy. So we were pretty much complete opposites when it came to the financials in our relationship. For the last 3 and a half years I have handled the financial goals and budgets..but for some reason it never really worked for us...it was hard to save and it seemed like we were never really getting anywhere. Well it made sense because it was all one sided. I knew what I wanted and what we had to do to get there but never really included him in it. Or would tell him what I wanted to do but never asked him what he thought. Well in a marriage everything should be together...there can't be a marriage without a partnership and without both people working towards the same goal it's hard for that goal to be achieved. So it was time...to sit down and have the financial goal talk. I not only wanted to talk about it but I wrote everything out that we talked about it in steps and put it on our refrigerator to remind us every time we look at it that it's what we both agreed on.

So we sat down and stared at the blank piece of paper I sat on the table...I struggled with starting because I had never really included Ryan in my plans and he was blank because well I had never included him in any financial planning....So I came up with a question that we both answered individually and came up with our financial plan.

What do we need to do to be where we want to be financially?

So we put down 3 different big things that we need to do and then put bullet points of things we need to do to achieve that goal. It looks something like this...

1. No Reliance on Credit
       a. Stop use & Lock em' up!
       b. Change spending habits
       c. Save back that money that we aren't spending anymore

The first idea seems pretty easy...and for us it shouldn't be too bad since we only have one credit card but for a lot of couples out there this will be the hardest hurdle to jump over. A lot of people play there bills with cash and then use credit to do everything else! This will be okay at first but it will catch up to you and probably push you to bankruptcy, something that Ryan and I don't want to ever have to do together. So instead of getting in deeper into credit card debt we are choosing to change now before it gets too bad. The big way to get yourself out of this rut in my opinion is our second goal we made...

2. Start a Savings Plan
        a. Change spending habits
        b. Write Lists Before Leaving the House
        c. Use Cash (other then bills paid online, groceries, and gas)

Change spending habits came up again...because it's the first thing that all couples must do to achieve financial bliss. One of the things that came up for me was garage saleing and The Goodwill and for Ryan it was vending machines and fishing tackle. I always say..."I can have as many pairs of shoes as I want because I buy them for $3 dollars a pair from The Goodwill." This is a bad thought because even though they are only 3 dollars because I'm thrifty its still an over abundance and sometimes a waste of 3 dollars because some go back to The Goodwill. I say people who thrift shop are awesome and it saves you TONS of money...but ONLY if you are buying things that you would normally need or go to the store for. Otherwise you are just spending money for the sake of spending money. Ryan is bad with vending machines he will go through 20 dollars every week or so in vending machines and gas stations. That is not how I want to spend my hard earned money and I found out that he doesn't want to either! So after venting to my wonderful mother a couple weeks ago she told me that she used to have the same problem with my Dad so she would buy the little packs of chips at home and send them in his lunch. The individual packs of chips are more expensive than a giant bag...but WAY cheaper than 75 cents a bag in the vending machine.

How many times have you walked into Target, Meijer, or Walmart, only needing butter and you walk out with...butter, 2 dvds, a new shirt, 2 bags of chips, and a Slim Jim. The total should have been $4 (we buy organic butter) instead it was $45. A $41 dollar difference...for stuff that you didn't even need! Do that a couple more times a week and you could have racked up well over $100 dollars on stuff that you would have never needed to buy. So hopefully the writing AND most importantly sticking to the list will help us with that little problem we have.

Last for this topic is the CASH factor. A ton of people have done and been very successful with Dave Ramsey the envelope system, this is said because scientifically we think more about cash leaving our hands then sliding a credit or debit card. I love using cash...I think about it more. When we are in a store getting something and all I have is cash, I think well I only have $20 dollars so I have to only get what I need and not all that extra crap I DON'T need. Cash=Good. Credit=Mindless Spending.

ACTUAL SAVINGS PLAN: Any excess money before our next paycheck gets deposited into our account will be put into a savings and we will revisit this plan once we have roughly 2 months of emergency fund built.
We both came up with this plan together and that's is why I truly think that is the reason it will be successful.

3. Change of Spending (Habits)
            a. Group Spending (set amount)
            b. Writing Lists
            c. Both people have to be in agreeance for any purchase above $5.00....yes you read right...$5.00
            d. Any large SPONTANEOUS purchase must wait and be revisited in 24 hours before purchase

The changing of spending habits is so important that it ended up being its own main category for our financial goal. You don't change the way you are spending your money...you won't change the financial situation you are in....bottom line. We went with the group spending because neither of us spend money at work (Ryan won't spend any at the vending machines) and it makes you think..if I pull out 5 dollars to buy something that's not fair to Ryan or that only leaves him a set amount to be able to use. Again writing lists....It's just soooo smart....in for one thing...leave with ONE thing! Next, we went with a $5.00 limit because it will start making us think about every purchase we are making instead of just the big ones...and honestly we are a nickel and dime couple not a big purchase couple. Then every once in a while we go CRAZY and buy some huge unplanned purchase when we went in for something minor...this is BAD really bad...if you don't plan for a big purchase it usually means that you aren't aware of your financial situation and you know you have the money now so you buy it not even stopping for a second to contemplate what it could do to you in the future.

So that is that. We aren't hoping that this will work....We know that it will work because we have a set goal and we are going to support each other when the other is feeling weak.

I believe that money can't buy you happiness but having no money and being broke and in debt doesn't lead to happiness either. So we all have to make a choice. What's yours?



----Simple Rose

TGI Saturday :-)

Hello All,

I am so glad that it's Saturday! Today's post will be a short one since we haven't done anything else with our backyard project and there is not much news. I do however have a couple things. I have been gluten free now for a couple days and I am feeling great! No more tummy issues and there is sooo many things you can get at the grocery that's gluten free I don't even feel deprived! Since I am not actually allergic to gluten or have coeliac disease I tried some spelt bread with my breakfast this morning and haven't have any problems. They say that since spelt bread is made using the ancient wheat grain people that have problems with gluten might be able to handle it. It is extremely nutritious for you. I still won't rely on spelt bread since my main goal is to give up gluten but it is nice to have it in case I want toast or a sandwich. I am just so glad that everything with going gluten free is going good!

Tonight I am hanging with some girlfriends and we are going to a local Mexican restaurant to celebrate one of my friends getting married in two weeks. Ryan was nice and called ahead to make sure that their chips there are corn instead of flour. I am happy to say that they are corn and I will be able to eat them!

Last thing before I go. Ryan and I created a list of everything we need to go camping and we realized that we have a lot of the typical camping gear, what we did notice though is that we were having to pack our utensils and a lot of kitchen stuff from home. A lot of times we were forgetting these things at home that left us feeling disappointed once we were camping. So I made up a list and we were off to the dollar store. I wanted to get most of the stuff on my list for under $30 bucks..and this list was for about 35 things. So i figured I could make my goal if we went to the dollar store. The stuff we will be buying for camping will only be used but a hand full of a times a year and doesn't need to be the sturdy names brand products. We ended up walking out of the dollar store paying only 25 dollars and having everything we need plus a few extras like foam blow dart guns ( haha we are still kids at heart). I am thrilled that we could find all the stuff we needed. I will still keep an eye out at the Goodwill since you can always find cheap utensils and cooking stuff there. We leave for camping on the 7th and we couldn't be more excited. We gave up our trip to South Carolina because we bought a house and even though this isn't anything close to that we are still glad to be getting away, doing something we love for a couple nights.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!


---Simple Rose

p.s. I know I haven't had as much living simple stuff on my blog as much and that's just do to the fact that Ryan and I have been busy! Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can try some new things and get some posts on here. I have been wanting to put up a laundry line...maybe that can be my next adventure!

Bye Bye Gluten!

Hola!

So first off I would just like to say I am sooo glad that this was my Friday since I don't have to work tomorrow. I am excited to announce another project Ryan and I started! I swear you buy a house and you never stop working! I love it. It's easier if I show you the picture and then explain our plans.

So this is something that was here when we moved in the used to have the bird feeder and look something like this...

Well we moved the bird feeder and the solar light decorations to the other plot of dirt mulch in the middle of our yard because the rabbit poop. So before we did the digging we did tonight it basically looked like the second picture minus the decor but with like a billion and a half weeds! I got sick of it looking like crap and even though we are going to be busy the next three weekends, I figured let's start it tonight! haha So the top picture it what we have gotten done so far....which may not look like a lot in the picture but it actually took us a good hour and a half to get that all done and move the dirt to another area of our yard. Once we have another chance to work on it we will be digging down roughly two inches and filling the entire thing with pea gravel and then we are going to put some pavers in the middle to set our fire pit on! I am so excited for the project to be done because it hasn't looked the best for awhile now. I like the idea of pea gravel now because its more cost effective for us right now and someday when our kids come along they will be able to play near it without getting all dirty. :-) More to come on this project as we work on it!

So as you guys read in my last blog I have decided to stop eating gluten. Today was my first full day of doing it. To tell you the truth it wasn't all that bad. Ryan is really loving it right now because I just bought a box of Organic Cherry-Pomegranate Toaster Pastries and I can't eat them anymore! :-( But on a happier note I made stir-fry up and we had andouille sausages over the top of it. It was awesome! I am excited to start trying some gluten free recipes and posting there outcomes on here to share with you all. I am just beyond excited because today was the first day in a long time that I haven't had any problems with my stomach and its been a blessing! My mom has been gluten free now for a number of weeks and she feels that it is benefiting her as well. She has lost her last 7-10 pounds doing so! I am so proud of how healthy she and my Dad have become. It really makes me strive to be a healthier person too. :-)

~~~Simple Rose~~~