What's Been Happening in Last Month

Life has been hectic for us with still settling into the apartment and getting used to AGirl going to kindergarten and being a stay at home mom.

We have become used to the heat a little now and also, it's started to get a little colder now in Arizona where we live to the point we need a jacket in the morning to drop AGirl at school. But in the afternoon it gets really warm again.

My parents left and so it's been an adjustment to try and handle the change, especially in the mornings when I'm trying to get the kids ready to go out and getting ready myself.

We made a road trip over the Labor day weekend to visit Sedona and Flagstaff, AZ for a couple of days. We visited the red rocks on the way to Flagstaff and spent the night at Flagstaff. We visited the Lowell observatory over there and saw the Moon and Saturn through the telescopes over there. That was pretty exciting! The next day, we stopped at Montezuma Castle National Monument and that was awesome. I loved the way those Native American buildings are tucked into the cliffs and made me wonder how they lived there.

View from the Church of the Holy Cross

Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock

The biggest beetle I have ever seen in my life

Montezuma Castle National Monument

Make My Ganesha Event!

Since moving to Arizona, we found out about an event in the local Indian community here and decided to go to it.

It's associated with the Maha Ganapati Temple near Phoenix and the local Tamil Sangam was running a Make My Ganesha event for kids to use clay to make their own Ganesha.

In the religion of Hinduism, Ganesha or Ganapati is one of the most popular Gods and he is the God known for removing obstacles and is worshipped at the start of most rituals. He is also known for his wisdom. He can be recognized distinctly by his elephant head and lots of interesting stories are associated with him.

At the event, we were given molds and clay to put in the mold and the result is below.

It was a very well organized event and only cost $5. We also got to meet a lot of people in the area and AGirl had a blast.

Moved to Arizona!

So we moved to Arizona over the last few days. It's been super hectic and I have been trying to settle the kids down and find all our stuff. Luckily, my parents are visiting us to help me out with setting up the house and helping with the kids.

My older daughter AGirl started Kindergarten in our local public school and it has been a big adjustment. It has been a big learning experience for me as well as I never went to public school in the US. I grew up in India. With homework from the first day of school and AGirl's issues with change, it's been quite challenging.

Once I settle down and get into a routine, I hope to start blogging more.

What I've Been Reading - Jul 7 Edition

Mommy On the Go: 4 Tips for Easy Outings with Kids - Creative Home Keeper - This has some good ideas. Mostly about having 2 diaper bags - one for quick outings and one for longer ones. Also, parking near the cart return area.

9 Times Mint Had No Chill | MintLife Blog - This made me laugh out loud. I've thought those exact same things so many times. Seriously, though, I love mint. It helps keep track of my spending.

How to Choose the Best Over-the-Air Antenna for Free HDTV - We use Sling TV for watching news mostly and have stopped cable or satellite for some time now. But Sling does not have ABC or CW and I do miss watching those channels. One of the options I've been considering is getting an Over-the-air Antenna for getting these channels for free. I will let you know how that goes.

Crying It Out was the best thing I did

Cry It Out or the Ferber method for sleep training a baby is one of the most controversial ones out there. I read about the positive aspects of it and the negative aspects of it. Scientifically, it can't be proven one way or the other.

Both my kids were Ferberized, as it is called. I tried everything else to get them to sleep for more than an hour at a time and eventually got too exhausted and had to try CIO. My older dau
The first few days of sleep training are excruciating. This is what I did -

1. I bought a video baby monitor. The thought of my baby in a room alone with no way for me to see her was too scary for me.
2. Follow a bedtime routine. It doesn't have to be elaborate. With m y older one, I had a long bedtime routine but with my younger one, I didn't have the time.
   1. Long Bath, Lotion, Put on PJs, Read 2-3 books, Sing 3-4 songs, Rock her for 10 mins, then put her in crib and leave the room
   2. Short bath, Lotion, Put on PJs, Sing Songs, Rock her for 1 minute and then put her in crib and leave the room
3. After putting them down, they would scream and cry. Check on them every 2, 5, 10, 15 minutes. I modified this according to how bad the screaming was and the situation.
4. My older daughter ended up sleeping sitting up for the first few days. So did my younger one.
5. After a week, my older daughter had started sleeping through the night. It took my younger daughter longer to sleep through the night, about 10 days - 2 weeks.
6. It took longer to sleep train them for naps but eventually the night training kicked in during the day as well.

At the end of it, I was glad I had done it so we could all get some sleep. I still get only 6 hours of sleep every day and I have a video monitor next to me at night so I can always keep an eye on her.

The hardest part of CIO was listening to them cry all night for so long. And each time I would go to check on them, seeing the tears on their eyes would make me cry. But I had to stay firm and my husband really supported me at that time.

Both my kids slept better and deeper after they had been sleep trained. I don't regret it at all. This may not be appropriate for all kids and I'm not suggesting you do it for your kids but it worked for me and my family. I only did it after I had tried everything else for both kids.

Am back!

I've disappeared from this blog for quite some time and have been trying to find my way back. My life has also been changing quite a bit in the last few months and in the last few weeks, took a big turn.

I will be moving to Arizona in the next few days. This is going to be a huge change for my family. I also quit my job and will be a stay-at-home mom for the next year till we settle down.

Once we settle down, I hope to have more free time and will blog more. More on that to come!!

Saving money on groceries

Recently, we had some family visiting for a few months and as a result, our grocery bills shot through the roof. It's back to being just us again and I'm trying to reduce our grocery expenses.

One of the reasons our grocery bill gets so high is we buy a lot of groceries at the local indian grocery store and it tends to be the biggest part of our grocery budget.

1. Use a discount grocer or warehouse club - options for me are Trader Joe's, Market Basket, Costco, ALDI's and Sam's Club
2. Choose your primary store and learn its layout
3. Watch the store flyer each week
4. Make a meal plan and grocery list
5. Stock up big on sale-priced non perishables
6. Listen to uptempo music while you shop
7. Figure out the price per unit when buying a specific non perishable item
8. Shop your pantry - meal plan around the items in stock in your pantry

So I'm going to start meal planning soon and use the rest of these tips to reduce our grocery costs every month. I will keep updating on how that's going.

Eight Discount Grocery Strategies