My Husband Rocks (Winner Announced)

Winner

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in my first giveaway! I loved reading all the reasons why your husbands rock.

And the winner is… April!

April says: “My husband rocks because he works so hard to support our family, and is such a wonderful dad to our children, and because he is kind and loving, and makes me laugh! Thanks for this great giveaway opportunity.”

Congratulations April, your $25 gift certificate will be on its way shortly.

For those who didn’t win, you can still shop for something special for you and your spouse. Visit the Union28 website and get 15% off your order for the rest of the month of October. Be sure to use coupon code U28KPB15 to get your discount.

Apple Crisp

Apple crisp has always been one of my favorite desserts! I’m so glad that I can still enjoy this treat despite my food allergies. This recipe is quick and easy, it’s the perfect thing to make for a last minute dessert or for surprise guests.

Start by peeling and slicing about 6 apples. It’s best to use granny smith apples, but any type will work. I often will use a variety for a mix of flavors.

Peeling applesSliced apples

Topping mixture:

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
3/4 tsp cinnamon – I use closer to a tbsp… yum!
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup flour or 1/6 cup arrowroot (optional)

(The original recipe uses flour which I eliminate because of my wheat allergy. It does make the topping a little crispier, but mine turns out just fine without it. Sometimes I’ll substitute arrowroot, but often I’ll just make it without that too.)

Topping

Blend everything except the butter together. Cut in butter until the butter is in pea sized pieces. Spread topping over apple slices.

Ready for oven

Extra tip: Divide topping into thirds and store in the fridge for separate, super quick use. When it’s just me and Jesse, I’ll often use a much smaller dish and use only two apples with a third of the topping. This time was also just me and Jesse, but I had lots of apples to use so I made a whole one… we had no problem finishing it anyways.

Bake at 375 until topping is golden brown and apples are tender, about 30 minutes. Makes about 6 servings.

Apple crisp

Enjoy!

Garage Sale Deals

We were excited to do a little shopping this weekend and get a little closer to our goal of getting our foster care license. We’ve been moving slower than we thought we would, mostly because items we need are a little more expensive than we anticipated. But with a little more saving and a few garage sale deals we’ll get there soon.

We were really hoping to be able to find a crib. Unfortunately, all the cribs we saw were drop-side cribs, which we are not allowed to have because they have been recently banned. However, we did get some good deals on several other items. I’ve had several people ask to see what we got, so I took some pictures of our growing collection of baby items.

First, here are a few items we picked up at a previous garage sale. I never took pictures since we hadn’t yet shared about our foster care decision.

Toy chestStep stool

We got this matching set toy chest, shelves, and step stool. I thought they were cute and very gender neutral, which is a must for us. Plus when I was a kid my sister and I shared a room that was decorated with balloons. We got all four balloon pieces for $20. They are going in our non-nursery room for later on.

Ballon shelf

We also got a stroller, car seat, and two car seat attachments. The lady we bought them from just really wanted to get rid of them, she gave us the whole set for only $25!

Car seat set

Again, I think it’s a cute, gender neutral pattern and it looks almost brand new.

Stroller

Now for the items from Saturday’s garage sale. I bought these three canvas pictures a while back at Target for only $1 each. I figured they were so colorful that they would match with whatever we found in the future.

Animal pictures

Turns out that cute, cartoony animals is a pretty popular look. We had no problem finding things that coordinated pretty well. The first item we found was a swing that looked barely used. It has different speeds and plays music. From my babysitting experience I knew this was an item we needed. We paid only $10 for it.

Swing

We also found a bouncy seat with similar animal designs. It still had the tags on it and we paid only $20 for it. We knew that was a good deal because we had seen them in consignments shops for $50.

Bouncer

Then we got a pack ‘n play for a great deal. I hadn’t really thought about getting one, but for the price we couldn’t pass it up. Especially since it had the fun animals to coordinate with the other items we had bought.

Pack n play

It had a price tag of $15 on it, but without us even asking the lady offered to give it to us for only $10!

Fun animal print

We also got a high chair, the kind that is just a seat that straps on to a regular chair, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work or not. We have a high table and I’m not sure if the seat is quite tall enough. We’ll have to see on that one.

We’re off to a good start. We’ve been watching the sales ads to see a crib or crib set that we like. Once we get that I think we’ll be ready to get our home studies going!