The $150 ORC

If you follow any blog, you've probably heard of Calling It Home's One Room Challenge, and you may be aware that their spring challenge starts today. I participated in my first (and only) challenge about a year and a half ago when we redecorated our 90's blue striped bathroom.  I loved the challenge,  it provided a timeline for us, so the room was completed much quicker than if we were doing it on our own.  You can see the before and after shots of our bathroom here.

About two days ago, admittedly after a glass or two of liquid courage, I decided that I wanted to do this challenge again.  A pretty last minute decision, considering most bloggers have been planning this challenge for months, putting together mood boards, and reaching out to companies for collaborations.  Not me.  I just decided on a whim that it's high time to give our guest room a face lift, and here's the kicker, on a $150 budget.  

Going off on a little tangent here, but T and I have been loosely following Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps for several years now, yet we still have student loans and car payments that we're having to put money towards each month.   I love the idea of finally being debt free, but I've had a really hard time making the sacrifices I need to to really shovel money towards our debts each month.  A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to go balls to the wall with it, to knock out our debt and hopefully do so by my 30th birthday.   Fingers crossed. (And more on this later, this deserves a post all on it's own)

So when the thought of doing a ORC entered my mind, I knew I'd have to get creative.   T and I both agreed that we could put $150 net into this room, that's it.  I say $150 net, because I am giving myself the ability to consign anything within the room, and use that money towards the space as well.   And while I'm giving myself that option, I also think it would be pretty freaking awesome to only spend $150 on the space, regardless of the money I make selling things in there.

Here are some before pictures I quickly snapped of the room.  (So quickly I didn't even bother to straighten the bedding before I took them) There's nothing too terrible about the room, no heinous wallpaper, no burgundy accent wall.   But, it's just that, nothing, completely vanilla.  We kept the walls the fleshy pink that they were when we moved in, and then I just dumped some furniture from our old house in there and stuck a light close to the bed.  That's it.   I did manage to get the previous owner's glow in the dark stars off the ceiling and the dream catcher removed from the ceiling vent before I snapped these photos.

And here's the general plan for the room...

• Paint the walls in SW Mega Greige.  We have enough left over from painting our dining room, so I won't have to come out of pocket for the paint.  COST: $0
• Two new bedside tables.  I'll either be finding some used ones to redo, or purchasing two Rasts from IKEA.  COST: Approx $70
• Two lamps for bedside tables.  Hoping to repurpose two lamps I already own. COST: $0
• Hang old windows above the bed.  I'm picking these up from someone tomorrow who was about to throw them away. COST: $0
• Rearrange some furniture and hang artwork above the dresser. COST: $50
• Install new blinds in the room (these have already been custom ordered, so I'm not including them in the budget, they were about $200 if you're curious) and hang some kind of sheers or drapes. COST: $10
• Change out the ceiling fan.  I've had a new one in our attic waiting to switch out, I just need to finally do it.  COST: I'm calling it $0 because I've had it for 2 years just sitting around. 
• Use my remaining $20 for any other decor for the room

I'll be using a lot of things that I already own, repurposing, consigning, possibly dumpster diving, bartering, and up-cycling to make this happen, and I'm pretty freaking excited about it.  While I won't be able to provide convenient shopable links at the bottom of each post for you to be able to buy the exact same things I have, I will be showing you how just a little bit of craftiness and elbow grease can make a pretty big (I hope) impact in a room.  So I hope you'll follow along with me as I either successfully complete the cheapest ORC ever or fail miserably.

Weekend Recap + This Week's Menu

Happy Monday!  Popping in for a short weekend recap and sharing our menu for this coming week.  The weather was perfect this weekend, and we had some great time out on our porch.  We picked up a cheap baby pool from Walmart for Thompson, for $7.88, this gem is worth its weight in gold.

We had dinner at home both nights, Friday night we treated ourselves to sushi from our favorite takeout place, Sushi Masa, and Saturday we went simple with Publix chicken tenders and a quick green bean salad that I made.

Here's what's on the menu for this week:

Monday- Taco Salads
Tuesday- Leftover Taco Salads
Wednesday- Pizza Chicken (chicken breasts topped with marinara, pepperoni, and cheese and baked)  w/ Italian Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Potatoes, and a salad
Thursday- Prosciutto and Artichoke Stuffed Shells


We're getting a little off our no carb dinners this week, because I'm trying to use a few things we already have in our pantry.  Next week I plan to be back on the low/no carb train.


Hope y'all have a great week!

Feeding A 10 Month Old

Once Thompson reached about 8 months, I started introducing a few finger foods for him to eat at snack times and meal times.   At first it was really fun getting him to try new foods, but after a few weeks, I quickly got discouraged.   I felt so bad feeding him the same 5 foods over and over and over.  I wanted to give him variety, but I just couldn't think of any new foods that would be safe enough to eat, nutritious, and filling.  He's just reached 10 months, and I think I finally have a pretty good handle on finger foods for baby.  For lunch and dinner, I will typically first give him a fruit/veggie pouch, and then give him more finger foods.  The pouch should give him the nutrients that he needs, and then the finger foods can give him the calories and carbs to fill him up.  I mentioned in a previous post that I really like these Pouch Toppers.  The toppers allow Thompson to feed himself the pouch, but if he squeezes it too hard it won't come squirting out everywhere.  I also have just transitioned to the Munhckin 360 Trainer Cups, and love them.   It only took me a day to get Thompson transitioned to these cups.  They're great for preventing spills, and easy to clean.

Here are some of my current favorite ideas.

Morning Snacks: 
-Cheerios (regular or honey nut- check with your pediatrician first, but ours said honey nut are okay because the honey is cooked)
-cut up grapes
-berries (cut up to small bite size, he likes strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
-wheat toast (You can give this in bite sized pieces, or in long thin strips so that they can hold it, just depends on what your baby does best with. I also only use wheat bread, don't want him getting used to white)

Lunch Foods: 
- peanut butter toast- (once again, check with your pediatrician first, ours said it was okay to introduce PB after 6 months)
-quesadilla (small flour tortilla, with shredded cheese microwaved for about 20 seconds and cut up into bite-sized pieces,  you can even add finely chopped spinach in)
-scrambled egg (I usually cook this well in coconut oil and sometimes add a little cheese, some doctors recommend only giving babies the egg yolk, but our doc gave us the go ahead on the whole egg)
- hard boiled egg (cut up into small pieces)

Afternoon Snacks: 
-canned corn (I give right out of the can, I usually buy the no salt added)
-canned green beans (you can give them right out of the can, I usually buy the no salt added)
-chopped ripe tomatoes
-chopped ripe avocado
-canned mandarin oranges (give these in small amounts because the citrus can cause diaper rash)
-cucumber (remove the rind, can be given in bite-sized pieces or in thin sticks)

Dinner Foods:
-pasta with butter or marinara (I like 100% whole wheat rotini)
-cheese quesadilla
-cheese (either shredded cheese, or a semi soft cheese cut up into bite-sized pieces)
-black beans (these need to be cooked, not right out of the can)
-cooked zucchini or squash (cut up into bite-sized pieces)
-cooked carrots (cut up into bite sized pieces, make sure you cook these until they're very soft)
-scrambled egg


If you have any other ideas, I'm all ears!  Always looking to introduce more to his diet.

Favorite Dinner Salads

Since I stopped nursing/pumping I have been trying to eat a good bit healthier.  Gone are the days of eating sugary cereals for breakfast, crushing containers of cookies in a few days, and afternoon fast food and milkshakes.   At the risk of sounding incredibly vain, the thing I miss most about nursing was the ability to eat everything in sight and still be at my fighting weight.

During the weeks, T and I try to cut out alcohol for two days, and I've also been trying to cook lighter and lower carb for dinners.  We've really been enjoying trying out new dinner salads lately.  The ones I've been making are hearty enough to fill you up,  and there's also a lot more to them than just lettuce.  Here are some of our favorites so far with links to the recipes.

Black and Bleu Steak Salads- Recipe Here

Skinny Lemon Garlic Shrimp Caesar Salad (I used store bought dressing)- Recipe Here

Grilled Chicken Souvlaki Salad- Recipe Here

Easy Burrito Bowls (I added chicken)- Recipe Here

Honey Mustard Chicken, Avocado + Bacon Salads- Recipe Here

If you have any favorite dinner salad recipes, I'd love to hear them!

Thompson is Nine Months

Thompson is now nine months, and SO much fun.  He now has two teeth, is crawling everywhere, and has just started pulling up on things.  He's a rather big boy, 19.47 lbs (47th %)  and 29.5" (90th %). He's been saying Mama since month eight, and just started to say Dada, too.  Sometimes it comes out as Dada, sometimes Ada. We can't keep him still for more than a few seconds, the progression of the pictures below is the perfect example.  Thankfully my ninja mom skills saved him from toppling off the chair during our nine month photo shoot.

Still in size 3 diapers during the day and size 4's at night.  Wearing a few 9 month clothes, mostly 12 month, and even some 12-18 month things.

Per the Moms On Call schedule, he takes two naps a day.  One from 8:30-10:30 ish and one from 1:00-2:30.  He's taking a bottle when he wakes at 7 am, and a bottle when he goes to bed at 7 pm.   He takes 2-4 oz sippy cups during the day at snack times and meal times.  Still loving the Avent Trainer Cup for all of his snack time milk.  The boy loves a good fruit/veggie puree pouch at meal time, but we've had a lot of fun introducing some more solid foods.   Current favorites are yogurt melts, Cherrios, blueberries, and scrambled egg.  I also gave him some peanut butter toast this week, and he demolished it.  (And hallelujah for no allergies to eggs and peanut butter!)

At first Thompson was super picky about what foods he liked.  If we gave him a food he didn't like, (avocados, pureed green beans, squash, etc)  he'd make a terrible face and then eventually gag until he threw it up.  So, trying new foods was a messy experience for a little while.  Thankfully now when he tries things he doesn't like he'll try one bite, swallow it and then just put his hand up to push away the spoon.  Much easier than projectile vomit.  And I'm finding as he gets older and older he's liking more and more foods.

Another thing that's made meal time much easier is pouch toppers.  I read about these from a commenter on my sister's blog, and went out and bought them the next week.  The toppers go on top of the pouch spout (duh) and prevent kids from being able to squeeze the contents of the pouch all over them.  They can suck the pouch out through the topper, but if they squeeze it, nothing happens.  Genius.  Now I can hand a pouch to Thompson, and he can suck it down all by himself.  Game Changer.   If you don't have these, buy them.  You'll thank me later.

He got the clean bill of health when we went for his 9 month check up, but has been battling cold after cold after cold this winter.  Thankfully he seems to handle them well, and it's never turned into anything but a cold.   I am knocking on wood as I write this, but he's made it past nine months without ever having a fever or having to be on antibiotics.

This month we lowered the mattress on his crib.  He's pulled up a few times in the crib, and the mattress was just a few inches too high for my comfort level.  He also got his second, yes second, haircut.   I think he now has the most high maintenance hair in our household.

Our pediatrician recommended to move him to a larger carseat since he's verging on 20 lbs.   I feel like we just bought his first carseat.  I cannot believe its already time to put him in a new one.  After asking friends and reading review after review after review, we decided to go with the Graco 4Ever All-In-One.  Apparently it will last them 10 years,  converts all the way down to a booster seat, and will fit a child up to 100 lbs.  Not sure if I'll be up for using it in 10 years.  A decade's worth of grime, puffs, and french fries sounds pretty disgusting.  But at least we know it will be good for that long!

Bathtime has become the highlight of Thompson's day, and we've made it a family affair.  T gets home from work,  we each pour ourselves an end of the day drink, and take Thompson up to the bath.   T and I sip on our drinks, talk a little bit about our day, and watch Thompson splash and scream for 30 minutes.  It's a great way for all of us to make it through his witching hour.  After a bonk on the head and lots of crying, we decided to order a bath spout cover for the bathtub.   The Skip Hop Moby cover had great reviews, and we've been really happy with it.

While each month with Thompson has been so great in it's own unique way, I definitely think that month nine has been the most FUN.  More smiles, more giggles, more interaction, and more on the move than ever before.  More bumps and bruises, too, but I guess that's just par for the course!

Baby Mocs

Outlet Covers 

Pouch Toppers

Moby Bath Spout Cover

Boppy High Chair Cover

Graco Car Seat

See previous month updates for Thompson below. 

One Month | Two Months | Three Months | Four Months | Five Months | Six Months | Seven Months | Eight Months

Thompson is Eight Months

Checking in for my monthly blog post (insert monkey covering eyes emoji).  I hate that I have only been posting on a monthly basis, but at least these updates have given me a reason to maintain some kind of presence on this blog.  This post is also coming in about 2 weeks late, but better late than never, right?

Thompson is now 8 months old and just over 19 lbs. This month he's battled cold after cold after cold.   I feel like he's had a stuffy nose and cough for the entire month.   Since it has been going on for so long, I finally took him into the pediatrician the other day to get checked out.  Everything looked good, no ear infection, oxygen levels were at 100%, no fever, etc.  They just advised me to do all the things I had been doing, humidifier at night (this one), saline and suction, and raising his mattress slightly on one side in the crib.  Thankfully it doesn't seem to bother Thompson too much, but I can't wait for the warmer weather to get here so these colds aren't floating around anymore.

He's still wearing size 3 diapers, and has been since October.   The size 3's fit great, but weren't providing enough absorbency throughout the night.  We started putting him in a size 4 at night along with a diaper booster, and it worked like a charm.  If you haven't heard of these, diaper booster pads are the bomb.  They just go in with the diaper and provide an extra absorbent layer throughout the night.

I mentioned in his 7 month update that I thought that month would be the when he started to crawl and got his first tooth, and I was right!  We went the entire month without seeing much progress on either front, but just days before he turned 8 months, he sprouted his first little tooth and mastered the army crawl/scoot.

I'm still pumping and supplementing with formula at this point.  I pump twice a day which yields enough milk for 50% of his bottles, and I supplement the other 50% with formula.   He's also switched to a new schedule through Moms on Call, which slightly reduces his milk intake each day.  He gets one 7 oz bottle in the morning when he wakes up, and one 8 oz bottle when he goes to bed.   And throughout the day he gets sippy cups with 2-4 oz of milk in them.   I use the Avent My Natural Trainer Cup, and he's adjusted really well to it. This cup comes with both a nipple and a sippy cup top, so it's great for transitioning babies from bottles. I usually have to help him with the last little bit of milk in the cup, but he's getting better and better with it each day.  He also now holds his bottles when we give them to him in the morning and at night.

While the 50% supplementation has been working great at this point, I know that month 8 will be my last month of pumping.  I've pretty much reached my limit with it,  so I'll start the weaning process soon.  Since I'm down to two pumps a day I'm hoping it won't be too difficult.

Thompson has also started to eat a few finger foods at snack time.  His absolute favorite snacks are yogurt melts, in any flavor.  If I put yogurt melts and puffs out on his tray together, he'll eat around the puffs and get all of the yogurt melts out.  And then throw the puffs on the floor for George to eat.  

I've gotten him to eat a few pieces of mango and avocado, but the yogurt melts are definitely his favorite.  Hopefully this month he'll start loving another food with a little more nutritional value.  We try something new each week in hopes that I'll discover it soon.

Two of Thompson's favorite toys this month were his wagon and his swing.  We've had several warm days this month,  so we've actually gotten to get outside a bit.  I have a feeling we'll be using both of those on a daily basis once springtime comes.

And that's it for month 8!  I can't believe I'll have a 9 month old in just a few short weeks.   Man this first year is just flying by!

See previous month updates for Thompson below. 

One Month | Two Months | Three Months | Four Months | Five Months | Six Months | Seven Months

Thompson is Seven Months

Thompson is now seven months, and oh what a fun age this is. He's so attentive to what we're doing, laughs when we laugh, and gives me the most heart melting toothless smiles.  He now weighs about 19 lbs, and is wearing 6 and 9 month clothing.

I have a feeling this is the month he will sprout his first tooth, and start crawling.  He's so close to crawling, you can tell just how badly he wants to move.   He wiggles on his tummy, does mini push ups, and has just started getting his knees underneath him.  I'm trying to work with him for a little bit each day on the floor, and every day he gets closer and closer.  He's also drooling like nobody's business, and chewing on everything.

The month of December was just magical with him.  While he won't remember a single bit of it, T and I had fun getting to experience all of the fun kid activities around Christmas.  And, he pretty much stole the show when we went to see Santa.  

In almost every picture where Thompson is smiling,  you'll notice T's arm on his leg.  We've discovered that we can get Thompson to smile and giggle when we squeeze his thighs, so we pull out this trick any time the camera is on him.  Works like a charm.

I'm still supplementing about 25% of Thompson's daily milk with formula, and I can now say this was one of the best things I've done for myself.  I still love knowing he's getting mainly breastmilk, but not having the pressure to pump every single ounce he needed each day was a gigantic weight off my shoulders.  I don't think I realized how much this stressed me out until I started supplementing.  Each day I would stress and worry about not having enough milk pumped for him to eat.  I always kept a freezer stash just in case, but the thought of not pumping enough milk, accidentally leaving a bottle out and having it spoil, or having my supply go down was starting to make me a little crazy.   It consumed my every thought, and now that I can look back on it, it wasn't healthy.  

I've been using Aldi's Gentle formula, which is really similar to Enfamil Gentlease, it's just way cheaper.  He transitioned to it seamlessly, and has never rejected a single bottle I've tried to give him. I also use the Aldi wipes and organic baby food pouches, and have been really pleased with them as well.  

One of the biggest milestones this month was that Thompson is now sturdy enough to sit up in a shopping cart and a high chair.  This was a game changer.  Not having to lug that heavy car seat around with us is such a relief.   I have LOVED my black and white stretchy nursing cover.  I always keep it with me if I need to pump in the car or around other people, but now I can also use it as a cover for shopping carts and high chairs.  This is really helpful right now, because as soon as he's in a shopping cart or high chair he immediately tries to chew on it.  I'm typically not crazy about exposing him to bacteria, but I really don't want him chewing on a restaurant high chair.  

He's still sleeping like a champ, no change there.  He sleeps each night from 7-7 and takes 3 naps a day.  All in all, he typically sleeps for about 17-18 hours a day, which is absolutely amazing.  I think lot of it has to do with the baby, but I also credit the Moms On Call schedule.   His favorite time of the day is bath time.  We give him a bath almost every night, and it is the only thing that can calm him down during his 6:00-7:00 fussy time.  He got some new bath toys for Christmas which he loves, but he still adores the tried and true neti pot.  Yes, that sounds crazy, but I've tried lots of different things for washing a baby off, and a neti pot is seriously the best thing I've found.   It provides enough water pressure in a concentrated area to wash the shampoo out of his hair and is great for getting the fuzz that collects in his double chin.  :)

Products we've loved this month: 

1. Noodle and Boo Lotion

2. Jumperoo

3. Mejale Mocasins

4. Little Tikes Swing (and these hanging straps)

5. Munchkin Spoons

6. Halo Sleep Sack

7. Copper Pearl Nursing/High Chair Cover

8. Nose Frida

9. Nuby Octopus Bath Toy

See previous month updates for Thompson below. 

One Month | Two Months | Three Months | Four Months | Five Months | Six Months