Taking Off The Mask.

It is okay to not be okay. It does not make you weak. It does not mean you lack faith. It means that you have a lack of control over your mood and thoughts that you spend countless hours wishing you did have control over them. It is knowing that your thoughts aren't completely rational. It is wanting to live without fear. Or sadness. Or however it affects you because no 2 people are the same!

I had 2 children and never experienced anything I would classify as postpartum depression. After a miscarriage I realized I was suffering from it. That is understandable. We got pregnant again. Guess what. It hit again. I recognized it this time!

There is nothing wrong with me. It is normal. It takes work each and every day though. I have recently taken off the mask! I can be real. I can say I'm not okay. I can ask for prayer. I can let someone know the fear and blues are creeping close. I am so lucky that I have reached this point. It has helped tremendously to know I am not alone. To know that there are people that say "I am praying for you." There are people who call me out when they can tell I'm getting in a funk and I try to put the mask back on. And most importantly, there are folks who say "I needed to hear this. It makes me realize I'm not alone in the fight." 

I have begun speaking up more regarding this because I feel that God is leading me to for some reason. Because HE knows who will read this and who needs this. So I leave you with this:

Most Merciful Father, YOU know who needs these words. YOU know who struggles with the mask. I lift them up to you Lord! May they feel YOUR peace and comfort in knowing they are not alone in this battle. YOU carry each and every one of us when we need it. There are people out there who can relate that they might not even know. And right now at this very moment, they are being lifted up. Father give them the peace of mind they need and seek. All this is asked in your most precious and Holy name. Amen

"God please place your arm over my shoulder and your hand over my mouth."

My children have been trying lately. I'll be blunt about it. I have been trying to grant grace like God shows me, you, and everyone. I have tried to think my words thru before I speak them. I have read many times that it is easier to build up a child than repair an adult. How true these words are! 

God has blessed me with the precious children and it is only for a short time. But it is a huge task! I am held accountable for the adults they become! No, I don't feel any pressure! But they don't come with instruction manuals!!!!! *GASP* 

So what do I do when they want to constantly push buttons? Mine. Each others. Take your pick! Augh! 

But then I have to remind myself that when things happen, it is typically for a reason. God is trying to show me something. Like maybe I should not have looked at the children throwing a fit at a store and mentally cheered that it wasn't mine. Admit it, you have done the same. Or maybe I keep telling God that I am going to do something and I keep procrastinating and getting sidetracked. Kind of like homework time with my 2nd grader. Or even more so, I need reminding that they are CHILDREN! They are siblings! IT IS WHAT THEY DO!!! Or it is all of the above.

Eating Healthy While Pinching Pennies

So often you stop and wonder why it is so costly to eat healthy. Yet at the same time, places like NY want to ban Supersized sodas. Well the logically thing would be to make the Supersized sodas the cost of a bag of organic apples and make the apples 99 cents! Raise the prices of Pringles, Easy Mac, and Tombstone Pizza! Drop the prices of chicken breast! I don't see that happening in the near future, so here is how you can pinch pennies and eat healthy!!
This is a subject that is very important to me. We are a family of 5. 2 of them threaten to eat us out of house and home some weeks. Those of you that actually know me, know I am slightly OCD. I am especially this way when it comes to menu planning and grocery shopping. I don't coupon. I tried it. It wasn't for me. All the coupons for food, 99% of the time, were for things we don't purchase or actually eat. I do like my coupons for products though!
I tend to plan menus for a month at a time. I just find that this works easiest for ME. I understand completely that some people are struggling to plan and stick with a week. No big deal. I use my Home Management Binder to help with this. I printed all the pages off of links I found on Pinterest. Each month has a divider. In each section I have a freezer inventory list. That way I know how many container of soup or what not I have on hand.
This is just a list of how I personally run menu planning and grocery shopping while eating healthy on a budget. You can pick and choose what works best for you.
1) In my Home Management Binder I have a list of sides, main courses, crock pot meals, soups, etc. That way when I have one of those planning sessions and I am having trouble coming up with meal ideas, I can refer to it for help. ALWAYS have a few quick back up meals that you can fall back on. My children love Chicken Noodle Soup and Tacos. Not together! They are just a couple of my fallback meals.
2) Use what is in your freezer!! I often times make larger batches of stuff like Veggie Soup, etc. I will put one container in the freezer and write it down on my Freezer Inventory List. If I cook a whole chicken, I often times use half of it for one meal and then have the other half in the freezer for later that week or the following week.
3) Make a menu and STICK TO IT! Formulate your shopping list from this obviously.
4) I shop Aldi. I know a lot of places don't have an Aldi. If you are one of them, I am so sorry. The next closest place in our town that has similar prices is Wal-Mart.
5) Stick to your list when you are there!!!!!!  And don't go while hungry!!!! We all know how hard it is to resist even the most random things at the grocery store when we are hungry!
6) You know the saying "Out of sight, out of mind." Well this proves true. Your family isn't going to starve if you don't buy that bag of Doritos or the pack of cookies. I PROMISE! I have heard people say, "well my child won't eat if it isn't ..." If they get hungry enough, they WILL eat. Instead of chips, I buy popcorn. And not the scary microwave stuff. I buy the kind you have to make in the popcorn maker. I do this for a few reasons.
a) It is healthier!
b) It is cheaper!
c) It taste MUCH better than the microwave stuff!
d) My children find it fun to make.
I buy pretzels too. They are cheaper than chips. I shop at Aldi because their produce is pocket friendly too. We eat A LOT of produce. Cucumbers, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, oranges, apples, berries, etc. If it isn't in season, it tends to be more costly. I don't typically buy strawberries and blueberries out of season. They are more expensive then.
7) FOOD PREP! FOOD PREP! FOOD PREP! If you have hungry children in the car as you are coming home from dance class or whatever and you know that you still have to go home and COOK (gasp! with screaming children), you are more likely to pull in and grab a $5 pizza! I am not saying that we don't do $5 pizzas. WE DO! We ARE normal! But I know that I can take time out over the weekend, or whatever fits your schedule, and prepare the ground turkey I need for that week, or the chicken that I need, sauces, etc, then dinner time goes MUCH faster. If it is something I can't prep anything until that day, I may put it in the oven early afternoon so I can just reheat it after we get home. I also plan my meals around our evening schedules. If I know that we are going to be at gymnastics until 6:30, dinner is something typically that can be cooked in the crock pot. That way, when I get home, it is done and I don't have to worry about it as my older 2 are having melt downs and my youngest is wanting a bottle.
8) Don't knock discounted meats! I have one Food Lion that I frequent because they have a natural line of chicken. Often times it is marked down some. .I plan on cooking  it when I get home or placing it right into the freezer to use that week. A lot of times it is cheaper to get chicken breast tenders than chicken breast. I will purchase these.
As I said, these are just the things I personally follow. I would love to hear some of the things YOU do!

Where Did An Entire Year Go?!

I just realized my last post was Jan. 31 of LAST year! Well since my last post, we never sold our home, pulled   It off the market, found out right after my last post that we were expecting our 3rd child, closed our business, started homeschooling one child with intentions of her going to public school next year, got hooked on homeschool and decided our oldest will be homeschooled next school year, welcomed our son into the world, and saw 2013 out and 2014 in. Whew! What a whirlwind!

It is now a 3:1 ratio when I go grocery shopping. It is a 3:2 ratio even when my husband is with us. We are officially outnumbered! And I wouldn't trade it for anything!!! 

Our daughter who is in the middle sneaks into our bed almost nightly. We have a crib in our room due to the fact that we have a 3 bedroom home. Our kitchen is doubling as a classroom and I have learned to fit our sight words into the decor. I have a den that has an entire WWE setup and a Loving Family home, not to mention, LEGOs and typically a fort, making it hard to navigate to the couch. The couch! We won't even get into what children can do to a tan couch! Haha. 

Had you told me last year when I wrote that post on Jan. 31st that this is where our lives would be less than a year from now, I would have told you that you are crazy! Oh how things have changed and I wouldn't have it any other way! Welcome 2014! Now let's see if I can post again BEFORE Jan of 2015!!

Take the Feb. Challenge With Me!

As I mentioned yesterday, I am taking a personal challenge for the month of Feb. I am not spending extra. No eating out on Sat. night just because I don't feel like cooking. That even means the $5 pizza! We have a couple of things that need to be done in order to help our home sell, so I have factored those few extra cost on into my Feb. cost.
This is going to be a tough challenge for me. I will run through the McDonald's drive thru without thinking much about it. I have to be aware of the extra expenses that I often times spend without really realize it. So who's with me? Let me know if you are joining in, and how it is going!

Taking A New Direction.

I am going to head in a bit different direction with my blog. My post in the past have been chit chatty. No problem. I enjoying telling you about my family and myself! It's one of my favorite topics. I belive that it is time to start getting a bit more informitive with some of my blogs. I have such a variety of interest. God, Family, Fitness, Frugality, Cooking, Reading, etc. So I am going to start making my post a bit more informative. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment on anything and share your insight, recipes, fitness tips, saving tips, etc! We'd love to hear them.
I didn't say that I was going to start with THIS post though. That was for a note that I am going to attempt a different approach. Mainly so I don't write about my PREGNANCY for the next 35 weeks!! We are blessed to be expecting again! I do ask that you pray that everything goes well. As you have read in past post, you know that I miscarried last time. I just keep telling myself that I have birthed 2 healthy children prior to that with no issues and that last time was just a fluke. So please pray with us. And hopefully at the end of summer, we welcome baby G #3 into Team Gaskins!
Yes, we refer to our family as Team Gaskins. I strive to teach my children a basic concept of how similar a family ad a sports team are. As a parent, I am the "coach" and it is my job and my husband's job to coach and cheer our children on, while teaching them that you have to work hard and you don't just get a participation trophy. You cannot go through life as a benchwarmer. Sometimes this takes tough love just as coaches use. Then there is the second aspect. One team member CANNOT carry to WHOLE team. If you are playing right forward, you can't be the goalie at the same time. Everyone has their part to do to make the team work together as a whole. You don't try to take the ball someone on your team, but you are there to assist them in a common goal.
But back to where I was planning on going before I felt the need to explain. I found a new product that I LOVE!! Purex Crystals. I found them at Dollar General for $4. I originally purchased it to make my own laundry powder. I used to make it but I stopped due to the fact that it didn't seem to work as well. I recently came across this "recipe" so to speak, that calls for the Purex Crystals. Well I haven't made the laundry powder yet, but when I do, I'll let you know how it turned out. I did, on the other hand, find another use for the Purex Crystals though. Previously, I would make my own "febreeze" with hot water, baking soda, and clean rain conditioner. This would leave my curtains stiff oftentimes. The Purex Crystals dissolve nicely in hot water. Then just add your baking soda! It smells wonderful and doesn't leave the curtains stiff!! Total cost-pennies!! You can make as little or as much as you want/need!
So here is to change! I'll see you tomorrow for the Feb. Challenge!!!! Hmmm...that may be a great idea too. A challenge for each month! What do you think?

Happy 2013

Well 2013 is officially here! Well it has been for 7 days actually. I LOVE the feeling of fresh possibility the New Year brings!
Yesterday at church, the Pastor made a joke about how someone he knows told him they were going to wear more deodorant and do less laundry. This put a thought in my mind that is how I am going to handle "resolutions" this year. I'm not going to diet. I am going to eat MORE! But it will be more healthier choices. And I am not going to say I'm going to eat less junk. I am going to work out more often. See how it works?! You don't feel the deprivation if you reverse it. The same concepts but a different mindset. So I will check back in soon and let you know how the reverse psychology works.