PJ

I wasn't always a superhero, I didn't actually realize that I would know as much about superheroes as I do now until I met my hubby. And to be quite honest, my kids probably know more about superheroes than I do, and that's totally ok. I love the balance we have in our household with me being the techie, math, computer, and database loving mommy, and my hubby being the superhero, music, history, and financial savvy daddy. We first and foremost love Jesus and know we would not be where we are today if it weren't for His Grace and Mercy. And, I am a former Mombie. I don't know how some moms get it all done. I work full time, and have 3 kids 5 and under, and man I was exhausted. Until I found out about this crazy thing called gut health, and this cool thing called our microbiome. Now, I've got energy to get it all done, and am feeling so much healthier. I've also got a nice little side business where I actually get paid to help people feel better. What a concept, right?

Mom’s Mexican Hot Chocolate

by

For as long as I can remember, my mom always baked cookies and made a pot of Mexican Hot Chocolate every year as a treat for us to have while decorating our Christmas tree. I think my Dad and I would actually start out making the chocolate chip cookies, but after we’d had enough of the raw cookie dough, we we would let my mom bake the rest. 🙂

Here’s my mom’s recipe:

Fill a large pot a little over halfway with water, add a cinnamon stick and bring to a boil

After water is boiling, scoop 1 cup of the boiling water into a glass measuring cup and add in 2.5 Tablespoons of Baking Cocoa Powder (she uses Hershey’s) and stir so that you have a chocolate liquid.

Add chocolate liquid back into the pot of boiling water, and lower the temperature to Medium, and let it boil for 5 minutes, keep stirring.

Add 1.5 cups of granulated sugar, let it boil for 5 more minutes, keep stirring

Add a can of evaporated milk, and 1 or 2 cans of fresh milk, then let simmer for 2 minutes

Turn off the fire, stir, then use a hand mixer to whip it up (I used my immersion blender with the whisk attachment).

We like to add marshmallows or whipped cream!

Mosquito Bites

by

Mosquitoes used to eat me alive. And I was allergic to them so they would swell huge, get a fever, and hurt for days. If a mosquito bit my forehead my eye would swell shut. And… I love tropical vacations. The only bad thing is that there are tons of mosquitoes.

We left from our wedding, straight to the airport, and overnighted to Tahiti. When we landed in Tahiti, we thought we were going to jump on a flight over to Moorea, only to discover they had updated our itinerary… and our flight wouldn’t leave for 8 hours. We were exhausted, and I still had tons of hairspray in my hair, and tons of makeup… so we decided to take a bus to the boat shuttle,

then another bus shuttle to get to our hotel earlier. When we got to the hotel, our room wasn’t ready….

But… they offered shower rooms in the lobby and said we could use those. So, we took our bags in, turned on the hot water, got undressed… and waited…. and waited… and waited. After 5 minutes of cold water, Ryan got dressed and went back out to the lobby to ask for help. One of the workers came in and felt the water and said it should have been hot by now. 🙁

So they had a wing of the hotel that was under construction, so they weren’t putting guests there, but one of the rooms was actually ready to go, so they said we could use the room until our Garden Bungalow was ready.

I’m sure you know what we did next… booked a massage for a couple hours later, took a shower, and took a nap.

After our massages we got to move into our Garden Bungalow and decided to take the hotel shuttle to a restaurant on the water for dinner. After we unpacked everything, we realized that the 2 containers of Off Spray I went out to buy on the morning of my wedding were nowhere to be found. But… we were just going out to dinner, so no big D.

Until they sat us at our table on the lagoon with long white tablecloths and gave us our menus and went to get us some glasses of water. I was trying to look at the menu when my legs started burning… and itching. I couldn’t figure out why. But… being close to the water, and wearing a dress, and having a long tablecloth meant that mosquitoes were able to get to my legs without me even realizing it. I got bit on both legs for a total of, I think it was… 18 bites. So, I said we needed to leave. The hotel shuttle had just left to go back, so we had to wait for him to return to pick us up and drop us off at the grocery store. Of course, everything was in French, so we ended up picking this up… it looked right. Then we walked back to the hotel. On our way back, we met a very sweet lady who said we could use lemon on the bites, and she showed us where her little Pearl Shack was that she owned, and said her son owned the ATV shop next store and he takes people on tours of the island.

So, back at our room, we ordered room service that came with… Lemon, and my hubby put lemon on my bites. It didn’t make the allergic reaction any less severe, I still had to spend the entire honeymoon with huge welts, with fever, and looking bruised and feeling super heavy.

That’s what I had to deal with… for years and years and years. I had no idea that my bodies reaction to bites could or would ever change… until I learned about gut health and started researching more natural options. Oh my goodness, you definitely need to learn about this stuff, it’s so crazy how so much of your health is tied to your gut! And I didn’t even learn about gut health until I was diagnosed with Cold urticaria, an allergy to the cold, yes, it’s a real thing. I thought it was something fake that the girl on The Bachelor made up to try to get more attention from the bachelor. But it was only a few months later that I learned it was real, and I had it, and they wanted to try to mask my symptoms by putting me on Lupus medication, even though I don’t have Lupus.

Anyway, that’s what got me started on this more natural path. My skin no longer has crazy reactions to the cold, my bites are much fewer (did you know the mosquitoes are actually attracted to the bacteria on your skin??? I thought it was my blood type, but when I would meet fellow mosquito attractive people they never shared my blood type), and when I do get bit, I say it looks like a normal person’s mosquito bite. In the last couple weeks I’ve been getting bitten again, and if you are like me, it drives me crazy when it’s time for bed and all I can think about is how itchy that bite is. This mama needs sleep, I work 30 hours a week from home as a data analyst and I also watch my almost 2 year old, and almost 4 year old, and have to pick up my almost 6 year old from the bus stop every day. I sleep like a log, now, and wake up super rested and ready to start my day, but… nobody likes to be woken up to itchy skin.

So… of course I went to google to find natural remedies for mosquito bites and one listed, that I know I have a bottle of was peppermint oil. I am not an oily mama, so I don’t know all the correct terms, but I put some oil straight onto the bite, rubbed it in and was good until morning!

So, if you have bites and have essential oils on hand, try it out. And if you don’t have peppermint alone, do what I do, and find one that has it as an ingredient. It can’t hurt to try it.

Also, if you plan to go to Tahiti, learn some of the language before you go, it’s so cool to see people light up when they know you can speak a little of their language.

https://www.tripsavvy.com/common-tahitian-words-and-phrases-1532902

 

Eureka!

by

I forgot how much I loved this thing!

We definitely want a new vacuum for the house, and I found a list that shows the best vacuums for wooden floors, with Shark Navigator Lift-away Professional being listed as #1, and I actually found it on sale at Costco this week… But I didn’t buy it yet, because I hadn’t read reviews from real people. It’s $50 cheaper at Costco in Visalia, right now, than it is on Amazon if you are in the market for a new vacuum.

Actually… As I did more digging, I found out that even though it’s called the Professional… It’s a different model than the one sold at Costco. The one at Costco doesn’t have as many features, so it doesn’t cost as much. It’s probably still a really good vaccum, but we’ll likely stick to Amazon to order the right model based on the reviews for wooden floors usage.

But…. If you are just looking for a small vaccum, I’d say hands down, this Eureka Blaze is amazing for the price! I’ve been sweeping with my microfiber floor mop lately and this vacuum saved me so much time. We’ve had the vacuum attachment off for so long that I was thinking I had to use the mini attachment, which takes too long when cleaning up hundreds of kids crumbs, but with the rolling attachment it just took a few minutes.

Homemade Yogurt… and smoothies!

by

So I kept seeing the recipes for Yogurt in your Instant Pot, but… I didn’t have everything I needed, and the instructions looked way too complicated, so I never tried it.

Then… I saw one that said I only needed Milk and a yogurt starter (and that meant I could totally use one of the store bought yogurts in my fridge, because it just needs to have live and active cultures). So… I set out to Costco (my grocery store of choice) and was happy to pick up a 2 Gallons box of milk, because the recipe called for a gallon, but… I decided to just do half the recipe.

When we used to buy milk from the Costco in Oxnard, it would last FOREVER. They had 3 of the 1/2 Gallon Cartons in a box and they were Organic Horizon 2%, so we would get 2 or 3 boxes at a time and it would last us for months. When we moved to Visalia, they only sold a box of 2 Gallons in it, and it wasn’t Horizon, and they actually just switched Producers in the last few weeks, and it would be expiring in like a week. My kids don’t drink milk nearly as fast as they used to, and when the best buy date is like tomorrow, and we still have a spare gallon in the outside fridge, we have to buy a huge box of cereal, so my hubby can have cereal with milk for every meal, so we don’t have to throw milk away.

So, I was very excited to try the recipe so we could use half of the first gallon of milk on yogurt, and I wouldn’t have to also buy yogurt, or smoothies… I was thinking ahead. Plus, the Producers milk would be good for like 2 weeks from the date I purchased, it so I was also happy I’d have a little extra time if I didn’t get to making my yogurt right away.

So, I decided to make it on a Friday, completely forgetting we would be having an Ohm Hour that evening…

Here’s the recipe, then I’ll tell you my experience after…

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 gallon of milk (I used whole milk, but you can use whichever milk you prefer) Just a tip, 1/2 gallon is actually 8 cups
  • Yogurt starter, I used 1/8 cup of a storebought yogurt with live and active cultures, or you could use 1/8 cup from a previous batch you made at home

Instructions

  1. Sterilize your Instant Pot (IP) by adding 2 cups of water to your IP, make sure the steam release handle is closed, press the steam button, then set the timer for 1 minute. After a few minutes, your IP will come to pressure and will steam the water for one minute. After it beeps, do a quick release (I put a towel over my release handle and twist it open so the steam can escape into the towel and not get water everywhere). After all the steam is out, open the lid and dump the water out.
  2. Pour your half gallon (8 cups) of milk into your IP. Turn the steam release handle to sealed. Press the Yogurt button, then press the Adjust button until the displays says “boil.” The IP will now boil your milk. This will take around 45 minutes, but may take a little shorter or longer., depending on how long it takes to build pressure. After the milk has boiled, your IP will beep and the display will read “yogt.”
  3. This next step is the step that requires the most attention. After the display reads “yogt”, you need to remove the metal pot from your IP and set it on the counter, with a liquid thermometer inside so that you can see when it cools to 110 degrees F. You can speed up the cooling process by adding ice packs around the pot, and stirring your milk, but I just let it sit for an hour and it was slightly over 110 degrees so I checked 10 minutes later and it was ready.
  4. Once your milk has cooled to about 110 degrees, you can add your yogurt starter. Slowly add your yogurt starter as you are continuously stirring, so that your starter is mixed evenly throughout your milk.
  5. After it’s all mixed up, put your metal pot back into your IP and put the lid back on. Press the yogurt button again, then press the adjust button until it displays a number. This number is the number of hours that your yogurt will culture. You can use the “+” and “-” buttons to adjust how long you want your yogurt to culture. I planned to let mine go for 8 hours since we aren’t lactose intolerant, but you should let it culture for around 24 hours if you do have lactose issues.
  6. After you’ve selected the number of hours, your IP will beep and then display 0:00 as that is how long it as been culturing. This timer counts up, so you’ll see how many minutes or hours it has been culturing.
  7. When your yogurt is done culturing, your IP will beep a final time and then display “yogt.” You can now transfer your yogurt to your preferred storage containers. I put mine in meal prep containers. Store your finished yogurt in the fridge. It should keep for several weeks.

So… that’s how it should be done…. this is actually how my version looked…

I sterilized my IP, added my milk,

set my milk to boil

and walked away. I came back around an hour later and it was ready for the next step. I pulled the pot out, put in the thermometer, which actually happened to be my mother-in-loves, and I’ve only ever used it when trying to make her English Toffee… which reminds me, we should try to make it this year, and as I was trying to lean it against the side of the pot, it fell in….

so I scooped it out with a spaghetti spoon… I did get it hooked to the side,

then covered the pot with a towel while I went outside with the kids to play.

After an hour, I checked on it, and it was still a little warm, so I had Alexa set another timer for 10 more minutes. After she alerted me that my 10 minutes was up, I left the kids playing on the trampoline, listening to Grim Grinning Ghosts and ran in to get my yogurt to add to my boiled milk. I used a whisk to make sure my yogurt was completely mixed in (I used blueberry, I thought it was just plain yogurt on top, since the fruit was on the bottom, but the yogurt did come out a little blue.. oh well), then I set my IP for 8 hours. I was 5 hours later that I realized we had an Ohm hour starting in 10 minutes.

I didn’t know if I should stop the IP, and potentially ruin my first batch of yogurt, or let it run, and potentially risk my ohm hour streak… so I let the Yogurt keep culturing. I still don’t know if we ruined our streak, but we would have just been completing our 3rd hour in a row since I ruined the streak a few weeks ago when I didn’t realized our Eco mode on our Nest thermostat upstairs was set wrong…. oops! Before bed, I decided to check on the yogurt, it did look pretty creamy, but as I was scooping it into meal prep containers, it was still kinda watery…. So I did what I thought I should do… stirred it up and set it to culture overnight.

In the morning it was still looking like a hot mess, just like it did when I left it the night before. I scooped it into containers anyway and stuck it in the fridge. A couple hours later when I shook the container, it was firm. So, definitely not as watery as it was in the warm pot, but the consistency still looks a little off.

I did, however, ask the kids if they wanted to try a smoothie. I usually buy them the little drink smoothies, that they love, but this time I got to make it myself, so I knew exactly what was it in, and they LOVED them! I added some of my chunky yogurt… a whole banana (that I broke into pieces), a big strawberry, a little milk, and a couple drops of strawberry stevia, then I used my immersion blender to get it into the smoothie texture that they are used to. I poured it into little Tupperware Snack cups, that I had no idea actually could use sippee top lids on them, and gave them to the kids. They all asked for seconds, so I had to make another batch.

I can definitely get used to making my own yogurt, and getting to make whichever flavors we want by adding our own fruit or ingredients. I may mix up some honey in it tomorrow for them.

Next time, I’ll start earlier, and definitely not during an ohm hour day.

Couch vs the Marker

by

So… Remember that time I was glad that Alexandria only got the marker on her skin and the kids chairs, and was really happy she didn’t get it on the new couch 🛋?

Until my hubby noticed a few days later that she actually did get it on the side of the couch 🤦‍♀️

My friend Kendra mentioned that she cleans her couches with alcohol and water. So… I gave it a go.

It seemed to work, it just doesn’t smell the best. Then, I remembered my Theives cleaner that gets stains out of the carpet and it smells good too!

I’m happy to report that I was able to get the marker off the couch 🛋 🙌

And I even got most of the marker off of Bobby’s chair

Work from home with Userfeel.com

by

One of my friends on Facebook posted in one of the local Mom’s play groups about this website that had work from home jobs. One of those jobs that I saw, that looked really cool was Userfeel.com I had seen a page like this before, but when I tried to apply for the job, it said they weren’t hiring in my area… which I thought was a little weird, since it’s a remote job, and I’m not sure why they wouldn’t hire in my “area”. They didn’t specify which “area” I was in either, but maybe they just don’t hire people in California. Something to note is that they aren’t actually hiring you as an employee, they are hiring  you are an independent contractor, so you do need to save for tax time on your own.

However, Userfeel.com did not have this “area” notice when I went to their website. So, I was pretty excited that I could get signed up. After you submit your information, they send you a confirmation email to verify your email address. After you verify your email address, they send you another email for the next step, to take the qualification test. The qualification test is to make sure you can do the job.

So, what’s the job? It is right up my alley! You have to have a computer with a microphone because you open up their recording software that records your screen and your microphone and they give you a set of tasks so that you can “test” out websites and give your honest feedback. I am a data analyst by day, and I personally love testing things to make sure they work right. When they don’t, I like to figure out what could be wrong, then pass the information back to the developers so they can fix it and get it back to me for testing. With Userfeel you go to the website they direct you to, and follow the instructions. My test was actually looking at Enterprise, the rental car company, and trying to schedule a car rental. As you are going through the tasks, you also speak out loud your thoughts on the process, the website, anything that you notice. As you complete the tasks, you mark it as complete and go onto the next task, until you are done and it uploads the video with your voice back to Userfeel and they can pass it along to their clients for feedback, so they can make sure they are providing the best user experience to their own customers.

The cool thing… you actually get paid to do this!

And you can do it when you have free time. You, of course, need to find a quiet spot in your home, so that you can focus, and they can hear your voice clearly in the recording, but… you can pick and choose when you want to work. I, personally, just passed my certification test, so I haven’t done any real tests yet, and haven’t gotten paid yet. But, I am looking forward to getting my first email with a real test so I can give this a go.

We have definitely been tightening our budget at home, so it will be nice to be able to add some extra income without having to leave the house to do it. I do work 30 hours a week as a data analyst, and also take care of my almost 2 and almost 4 year old, while my hubby is at work, and my oldest is at school, so… it doesn’t leave for a lot of free time, but that’s the nice thing about this, you do it on YOUR time, and you don’t have to get dressed and head out of your home to do it.

Boulder Organic Beef Bolognese

by

Saw this during our visit to Costco last week and it was a decent price, especially considering it was organic and grass fed beef.

So… I bought it.

Then Ryan checked the “best by date” today, that’s what he does 🤷‍♀️ he makes sure we try to eat food before it goes bad, but if it does happen to pass the date, he takes it upon himself to finish it, so that food does not go to waste in The Superhero Family house.

It was best by 2 days ago 🤔 so I’m guessing you know what we had for dinner tonight. 🍝

The kids ate it without complaining. I however have had better tasting pasta sauce. It wasn’t horrible, but it just wasn’t what I was looking forward to.

Will I but it again? No. Do I know how to make my own pasta sauce from scratch? No. Am I able to critique pasta sauce? Being 1/4 Italian, I believe I can.

I do hope to learn to make my own sauce from scratch someday, but for now, I’ll probably stick to the Kirkland Signature Organic Marinara sauce as I do love the flavor.

Did you know, that I didn’t know, until I was in high school, that I am 1/4 Italian? It finally made sense why Italian food is my favorite, and how I could eat lasagna for an entire week straight. 🇮🇹 And I also didn’t know that most people make their lasagna with ricotta cheese but I grew up with it being made with cottage cheese, so that’s what I use… And I am pretty sure it’s cheaper too.

In N Out

by

While on our trip down to Fallbrook for the night, to visit our family that will doing the 5k with us tomorrow morning (PurpleStride), we of course had to make several pit stops.

Bathroom breaks, food breaks, filling up the superheromobile with gas breaks, breastfeeding our youngest breaks.

We do have 3 kids, an almost two year old girl, who is not ready to give up the boob yet, an almost 4 year old boy, who is mostly potty trained, but still has accidents here and there and is wearing a pull up for this 5 hour car trip that will actually take us 9 hours (he said he pooped a rattlesnake 2 bathroom stops ago🐍), and a 5.5 year old girl, who just said she has to go potty again… we’ve been back on the road maybe 15 minutes since our last bathroom break 🤷‍♀️ and once we pulled over for her… she admitted she didn’t really have to go, she just wanted to get out of her seat 🤦‍♀️

While the older two kids used the bathroom at In N Out in Arcadia, I changed our youngest diaper and nursed her.

Did you know I love In N Out? When I was pregnant with each of the kids, I could easily eat a Double Double Animal style with medium well fries and a large Dr Pepper every single week… and my first meal after each of my 3 c-sections was…In N Out 🍔🍟thanks to my hubby’s good friend Zahur who always came through… and brought a hat too!

The In N Out in Arcadia is one of those that’s a drive through, or eat outside only type. And… true story, my hubby used to work at the In N Out in Camarillo prior to it being reconstructed to have indoor seating.

In N Out will always be a special place for The Superhero Family! And even though we have one in our new hometown of Visalia (which is actually where I grew up), we actually haven’t been to one, to eat, since we moved back in February because the line in Visalia is soooo long… and we don’t eat out nearly as much as we used to.

If you’ve never been to an In N Out and you ever see one… I highly recommend you give it a try! 😉

Fitbit Blaze not charging

by

I can definitely say that my memory used to be better prior to having kids..

But… I was pretty sure I charged my Fitbit Blaze on Sunday, and on Monday I saw the low battery indicator, but my phone didn’t alert me (via notification from the Fitbit app or getting an email reminder) that my battery was low. I put my Fitbit on the charger, and thought I was good to go.

But on Tuesday it was low battery again… I know for SURE I charged it on Monday because our painter was here and moved my charger (I LOVE my new charger, you don’t have to pop your Fitbit out of your band to charge it) to another plug while he painted the butler pantry area. So I charged it yet again… and was bummed since I was doing a lot of house cleaning and missed out on all those steps, but remembered when I was pushing the kids and didn’t know what time it was, so I ran in to get it and it was a full battery.

So today is Wednesday and my battery is almost dead again and it hasn’t even been 24 hours… I had to push the kids on the swings today without tracking my arm workout… pushing kids on a swing, especially when they want to be pushed everytime they swing backwards is a workout for sure. Oh and if you are like me and don’t really dig the silicone bands on your Fitbit Blaze, you can always buy a replacement, I love the flower one I bought, and I’m not getting the irritation on my wrist anymore that I used to get with the silicone bands. It’s pretty and it is nicer to my skin. Win win!

This time I did a search and found one lady said she figured out why her battery was dying so soon, once she realized she had switched phones the week prior. So I opened my app and sure enough it last synced 9/23, which was 10 days ago… So, I’m assuming mine is having the same problem hers was having and has been trying to connect to my phone and isn’t able to connect, so it’s draining the battery. I charged my Fitbit this morning. I’m still trying to figure out why it can’t sync (though, that’s right about the time I ordered this new bluetooth headset to make it easier for me to be hands free while on the go with the kids all the time, so… maybe I have too many things connected to my bluetooth on my phone…).

I love my Fitbit, especially when it’s actually synced up to my phone and I can see texts coming in, or a phone call when I forgot my phone in the other room. You can’t respond to texts or take calls on your Fitbit Blaze, but just knowing I have a call or text coming in, so I can find my phone and respond to people, especially when I’m trying to keep up with my kids and my job is definitely a nice thing to have.

Oh and if your Fitbit isn’t tracking your steps accurately, make sure your check your wrist placement setting☝️

I was finally able to sync my Fitbit to my phone today, and it got me all caught up on the last 10 days of sleep. I guess I haven’t been checking how well I’ve been sleeping. Also, if you have ever wondered why you are getting basic sleep details, instead of the sleep stages, it’s probably because you had a low battery so it can’t track as well.

The Greatest Mom in the World

by

I just threw together some protein balls for the kids that just earned myself the title of “The Greatest Mom in the World” from Bobby… Complete 180 from when he told me I should go live with another family a few weeks ago… and when I walked out the front door, he was not a happy boy.

I’ll be making these more often.

I was making my protein shake for lunch and I like to throw in some peanut butter powder, shredded coconut, and some cinnamon powder. Alexandria asked for some of the coconut, so I put some in her mouth, she loved it. Bobby wanted some too, so I gave him some. Then they wanted more…

So I put some in a bowl and was feeding them with a spoon. Then Alexandria took the bowl over so she could feed herself. I decided to make it a little less messy, so I added some creamy peanut butter, so it would all stick together. Then, after she finished that and wanted more, I decided to just make some protein balls so that they could pick them up and make less of a mess.

I just threw this together without measuring. Oats, Peanut Butter, Honey, Protein Shake, and Shredded Coconut (this is the one we use), and rolled them into balls, and Alexandria and Bobby loved it!