Kimber's Navy Family

My husband and I recently adjusted our family budget and we are really sticking to it. I like our open conversations about our finances and how we work together as a team. I just don't like budgets (but who does?). Anyways, we went to Costco today. Our grocery budget is not as flexible as it was with our past family budgets so my husband was tallying our purchases as we added things to our cart. I've written before about our family diet and how we are trying to eat healthier (read " The first step "). We have kicked out a lot of bad ingredients and brought down the ingredient count on each of the items we purchase. I really try to make as much home made foods as I can and narrow down our processed foods. However, I'm not one to spend all day in the kitchen, so we do have some processed foods in our house. (I'm hoping organic cereal with no artificial ingredients is better than GMO artificial cereal-- lol!) So here we are at Costco, shopping the aisles....

Picture taken by TwinBug Photography at twinbugphotography@yahoo.c om If you have read my blog post " 0-2 year old twin must-haves ," you know how I feel about having a housekeeper. However, things have changed for us. We moved from North Carolina to South Carolina (read " PCS to South Carolina ") and our financial situation has changed (student loans!). We moved away from our housekeeper in North Carolina and do not have plan to get one-- yet-- here in South Carolina. My husband and I have had many discussions regarding a housekeeper. While our opinion on having a housekeeper is remarkably similar, I still want to knee him in the... well, you know, whenever he says, "We really don't need a housekeeper. We really can do it just fine " (my emphasis). Who does the housework around here, if not the housekeeper? That's right! Me! ;) Our agreement is basically that we want to let our finances settle from the move, have a chance to adjust our f...

I went to my twin group meeting the other day and there were lots of questions about feeding toddlers, not to mention all the posts on mommy boards and discussions with my girlfriends. We are all asking, "How do you get toddlers to eat?" Short answer: I don't know. Toddlers are fickle. We jokingly call one of my boys a fruitarian, stolen from the movie "Notting Hill." Hugh Grant goes on a series of blind dates and one of the women turns down food because she is a "fuitarian." When Hugh Grant asks what that is, she explains, "We believe that fruits and vegetables have feeling so we think cooking is cruel. We only eat things that have actually fallen off a tree or bush-- that are, in fact, dead already." We think O wants to eat more, but he isn't certain of the origins of his food. Did the milk fall on its own accord from the cow's udder? Did these apples fall willingly off an organic apple tree? So many questions need to be an...

  I told one of my girlfriends when all our troubles started that I was going to cook away my misery. That's been the goal and, I have to say, it has helped. I have enjoyed keeping busy and I've enjoyed the fruits of my labor (good food!). I like talking on the phone to my sister while I chop and saute. I love giving the kids new foods to try and testing out new recipes. I talk to God while I work on my recipes; I like this focus of energy as I pray. I don't understand why I had a molar pregnancy (read my blog " Molar pregnancy "). I really expected to hear that we needed to wait for a cycle and then start trying. Instead we are looking at 6 months... and that is if we don't have any complications. So what recipes have been keeping me busy? Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond's Chicken Pot Pie I'm going to include a link to the recipe online at On My Menu: Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie , however, I recommend buying her cookbook, Pioneer Woman Cooks...

This blog post on our bedtime routine was inspired by a post I read last night on "Mel's 2 Belles" called Bad Habits . Bedtime is probably the most challenging time of day. By the time bedtime rolls around, your mind is wandering to the bottle of wine you have chilling in the fridge and your body longs to collapse on the couch (with chocolate). Here was our old bedtime routine: Dinnertime sometime between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm, depending on when I started cooking. After dinner, playing outdoors with the boys. 7:00 pm: bring the toddlers in for bath and pajama time (pajama to the left, pajama to the right, jamma, jamma, jamma, jamma, P! J!) Toddlers then meltdown through entire pajama routine. 7:15-7:30 pm: Toddlers go to bed early because Momma is done listening to meltdowns. 7:45 pm: Momma hollering outside to Husband and preschooler that it is probably time to possibly think about coming inside, maybe? 8:00 pm: Husband wrestles with preschooler through b...

We have been travelling. "We" being me, the kids, and the dog. Our trip-- seven hours of driving time-- ended up taking just over nine and a half hours, including five stops. Thankfully I was able to feed the one-year olds in the car as we drove, keeping an eye on them with strategically placed baby mirrors. Our stops mostly consisted of diaper changes, stretching legs, and having my four-year old use the restroom. Three of those stops were very short, only one toddler needing a diaper change or being able to quickly get in and out of the rest stop with the kids. Still. It was an adventure . This was also the first time that I stopped with the twins to stay at friends' houses (two separate overnight trips, one with all three kids, one with just the one-year olds). Here are some of my road tripping tips with kids:  1. Thoughtfully pack your snack bag. I had snacks for our four-year old and me and snacks that were great for one-year olds. My plan was to feed the ki...

When I first met Real Simple, I was still exclusive with Vogue. I didn't understand Real Simple. Why were the articles so short? Why was there so much about organizing and cooking? Their fashion sections were brief and so... simple. I bought a few because friends of mine were subscribers, anticipating the arrival of each month's edition. Then the babies were born. Vogue started stacking up on my nightstand. Some editions still sit in my magazine rack wrapped in plastic, never even cracked open. I started looking for Real Simple at the check stands near the end of each month. It started slow. I bought them each month and absent-mindedly flipped through the pages, nodding in agreement with a nifty organizing tip or jotting down the name of a cute item of clothing. Around the time the babies were 6-months old, I started really paying attention to Real Simple's recipes. The variety is fantastic. Who knew a fritatta could be such a fabulous one-dish meal? Or that making your...

I recently read a blog post on Keep Calm and Have a Cosmo about the " Facebook Facade ." Yesterday, as I was madly dashing around the house trying to clean about before our house guest arrived, I realized just how very true that is. Here is how my birthday really went. My husband took the boys to the park while I had my hair done in the morning (it is amazing how those gray hairs just keep coming back and coming back, no matter how unwelcome I make them feel); he ended up leaving after an hour because the babies were too hot and our three-year old was, as he said, "tired." My guest arrived. Shortly after she arrived, I realized we still had no Father's Day presents or cards. I pulled my three-year old to the side and had the following conversation: Me: "We need to go to Target to buy Daddy a surprise for Father's Day." D: "Um, well, how about you go and I stay here?" Me: "You need to pick it out, bud." D: "Ok...

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may have noticed a progression towards our more "natural" family diet . While we have always eaten a diet heavy in fruits and vegetables-- fresh seasonal fruits and veggies a large part of my diet growing up-- other aspects in our family diet were lacking, like the allowance of some hydrogenated oils or convenience foods with low nutritional content. We've cut back on food colorings and many processed foods, though I do not ever see us throwing out our cereal or Annie's Mac'n'Cheese . We love cereal. And we buy the best cereal options we can, recently switching to Mom's Best Naturals  when shopping at Target or just about anything sold at Trader Joe's because, well, that has to be healthy, right? ;) Courtesy of Watchculture I also just re-read one of my favorite "diet approach" books, French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano, a book th...

Three boys holding still for a picture? I don't think so. Maryland May 2012 There are a lot of different blogs and articles out there about how there isn't a "perfect mom." Still, we flood ourselves with expectations, the need to cook visually amazing food that is organic and locally grown (shame on you for buying grocery store strawberries out of season!), homemade baby food with complex ingredients and frozen in BPA-free containers (always mixed with breast milk because of course you are breastfeeding ), amazing little systems around the house to not only make life easier, but also recycles household waste (who doesn't cut toilet paper rolls in half and use them to organize a junk drawer?). On top of having all of the above under control, we are supposed to regularly have girls' nights out, complete with cocktails and dry-clean only dresses. Our husbands brag about what is for dinner that night and always have the best packed lunches and never leave ho...