As the whirlwind of my life seems to be calming down a little, oh how I find I miss blogging! I’m back, but sage is going to be a different place. Less reposting deals from other sites, more ‘Holy crap how do I deal with this economy with six mouths to feed?’, less round-up of crafts I want to do, and more what I’m actually doing. (Read: more mommyblogging) Please join me!

What have I been up to for the last three months?

• Physical therapy for the little guys, who aren’t quite walking yet but will be soon. They’ll be 15 months tomorrow.
• Lots of projects and cooking with the big brother.
• Mostly, marriage repair, a category I’ve never excelled at but that we desperately need after 12 intense years, two cross country moves, countless job changes, and four kids.
• Uncabling! We are an AppleTV and DVDs from the library household now, and couldn’t be happier.
• Trying to budget, finally, after living for years like just hunting for bargains would be enough.
• Tons of cooking, especially the once-fearful whole chickens.

I don’t know how often I’ll blog. I don’t know if I’ll always be on topic. But I really miss writing, so write I will.

I wrote the sage reads below a few days ago, and in the interceding time have come to realize that while I love blogging and this blog was such a great friend when my babies were little and I had lots of free time in the house during naps and limited contact otherwise with the outside world, I need to focus back in on my family full of almost-toddlers, a stellar preschooler, and a husband who I love to pieces but has always (and unfairly) had to compete for my attention in all of this.

I’m going to continue to write at BeCentsAble every other week and to tweet when I can. Thanks for reading!

crafting

What I love about the Apartment Therapy family of blogs (including re-nest and ohdeeoh) is the focus on making something useful, chic, fresh, and functional out of something else you already have, extolling the values of both design and of reuse. A perfect example is How to: Make Shades Out of Mini Blinds. I can’t even tell you how many sets of mini blinds I’ve thrown away in various homes, let alone the custom roman shades we spent weeks making in our old condo, doing all of these steps by scratch. Never again!

Craft: inspires me similarly with the maternity top –> wrap tee. I have a few shirts I haven’t been able to sell on Craigslist (and one I didn’t really want to part with, anyhow) that are going to get this treatment now.

Craft: links I’ve also had open forever and are really helpful how-tos for some persistent problems in my life:

• How to sew your own bedding (too much twin bedding for P, who now sleeps on a full/double bottom bunk)
  
• How to sew a blind hem (I’m looking at you, gray wool pants!)
• How to darn (and possibly resurrect my favorite, favorite sweater-coat-wrap-thing)

What an awesome rainy day activity, the yarn bowl! I remember making something like this but with paper mache. This looks at least slightly neater.

eating

Lemon bread and other yummy things are featured in the recipe box post at i have to say… Lemony baked goods always fit the bill right at the start of spring. Almost time to dust off my Passover Lemon Squares recipe!

If I were feeling more birthday-crafty this week, I’d definitely be making this cute dot cake for my triplets. Definitely saving the frosting trick for future reference though, especially the idea of using stencils to make letters. And these dot cookies would make such cute matching favors! (Crafty Crow also links to a how to on making stencils out of plastic lids, helping me to imagine actually decorating a cake someday, something I’ve always been rather challenged at.)

resources

Tiny Choices hosts the Green Moms Carnival and they’re talking spring cleaning. Lots of great ideas for eco-friendly cleaning, organizing, and more. And $5 Dinners has more homemade cleaning products recipes, one of which I’m going to try out as soon as a Dawn coupon I’m expecting in a trade arrives in my mailbox.

While you’re making your own, Crafting a Green World has links to some DIY beauty supplies.

Re-nest shares a list of plants good for xeriscaping, meaning they would be drought-tollerant and save money and resources since they require less watering, in general. As our yard emerges from the last clumps of snow, I am definitely giving this list more than a quick glance, since we have some persistently weedy areas that I would like to fill with perennials and then forget about.

Also outdoors, I have a rusty-but-cute mailbox that is screaming for some of this lower-VOC spray paint. I’m thinking of doing the porch light fixtures, too. Color suggestions to match a cream brick exterior?

The parents of our good friend down the street have an organic chicken farm and we are getting our first delivery of 6 frozen birds today (at the wholesale price of $2/lb!). I’ve always been a boneless/skinless breast and thigh girl myself, until recently when I started getting rotisserie chickens at Whole Foods and using the meat as well as bones. This is a whole other ballgame, though. I have no idea how to deal with an entire frozen chicken, from butchering to cooking and beyond. It’s clearly time to learn.

Anyone have an tips or ideas for me?

Re-nest has a great Weekend Green Guide out, featuring some notable sales on linens and housewares, including:

THIS WEEK
• The Company Store Organic Bedding Sale
• Structured Green Floor Sample Sale
• Amenity Home Linen Pillows Sale
• EConscious Market Sale
• Velocity Sale
• West Elm Sale
• Branch Home Sale
• VivaTerra Sale
• Shirts of Bamboo Sale
• Eden Home Sale
• Stray Dog Designs Sale
• Pottery Barn Organic Bedding Sale

Baby Cheapskate has a line into gDiapers again this week:

Gaiam has the gDiaper Starter kit plus an extra pair of gPants and three extra liners (for a total of 6 liners) for $34.99. That’s a great deal, but it gets better, if you go through Mr. Rebates, you get 10% back. There is also the coupon code AFSHP3 to get free shipping as long as you spend $25 or more. Another coupon code is for 15% off, which is A315. If you are only buying one starter kit, then it is better to get the free shipping. If you’re buying two, then 15% off is better.

I do need starter kits! However, I don’t need them now. I wonder if never buying disosables even for outings again would be enough to convinve Mr Sage that we ought to take advantage of this deal. I don’t love the starter kit covers, so maybe I’ll try my luck on eBay instead.

Can you bear to see anymore crush-inducing pillows? Check out these cute etsy vintage fabric whales, via ohdeeoh!

An absolute steal for $18 each at Kate Durkin.

I’m writing this on Monday because on Wednesday, I’ll be busy: MY BABIES ARE ONE! What a sweet and wonderful year it’s been, although I have to admit, I’m glad it’s over

parenting

I absolutely love this idea from Tiny Decor for turning larger pieces of art into different silhouettes. Very Eric Carle!

Mommy Making Money has a great run down of inexpensive art supplies, including the always-popular colored pasta for necklaces and other projects.

crafting

Craft: shares the must-do lengthening of a kids’ t-shirt. What a great idea for a sentimental favorite or great thrift store find. I wonder if I could get anymore mileage out of our now-outgrown 9-12m “Former Wombmates” shirts that I love so much!

The spring rains are reminding me we have a broken umbrella in our Prius, a nice one at that. Just in time for Craft: to come through again with a patterns for some bags from a recycled umbrella.

eating

lifehacker discovers newer versions of cookbooks have recipes with 40% more calories! All the more reason to stick with the family heirlooms and used book store classics, right?

$5 dinner mom breaks down the mystery behind bone-in chicken breasts. I admit I’ve been too leery of butchering to try this myself, until now when we have a source for organic whole chickens at wholesale prices. Too many puns about being chicken and needing to bone up abound

resources

Thinking about starting some seeds? GiveThemRoots has some tips on a store-bought kit, although I’m wondering how feasible the eggshell version truly is! Absolutely the ultimate in waste-free reuse from instructables.

Hmm, I lost the original source of this link since this site is new to me, but 3 recipes for making your own shampoo. Fun!

A couple of very nice special offers and freebies right now, enough to merit a special (or just belated?) sage finds on a Tuesday.

Earthbound Organic Farm is giving away free packets of organic lettuce seeds. I’ve never tried growing lettuce, so I’m excited to give it a shot.

Coupon Cravings has the details on how Target is practically giving away applesauce this week:

Head on over to Target to get a 4-pack of Mott’s Applesauce for $.30 or less. Print out this $1/1 Target printable coupon and pair with this $.55/1 printable coupon from the Mott’s site. The everyday price on this applesauce at Target ranges between $1.55-$1.85 depending on where you live.

Cookie Magazine’s nesting blog has a coupon code for 20% off organic natural fiber pillows from print*pattern*paper. At $65 for 3 pillows, the price then becomes $52 for 3, or about $17 each. Makes me want to do some spring redecorating. (Maybe especially because our kitchen and family room have that exact color on the walls?)

My big plan for when the trio start daycare in the fall is to send them in gDiapers. Until then, I’m collecting information and maybe looking to buy some on sale or with coupons. I was thrilled to see Baby Cheapskate mention them:

Collect and send in 10 UPCs from gDiapers items through the end of 2009 and receive your choice of a free pair of Little gPants, a package of refills, or $16 worth of gDiapers coupons. You can also choose an equivalent donation to Healthy Child Healthy World. Download more info (.pdf). You can learn more about gDiapers here, and check out our review of them here.

I was struck by this weekly round up of deals at Baby Cheapskate:

Formula, Milk and Food
Cans of Enfamil and Similac are $22.99 at CVS. Earth’s Best organic formula is cheap again at Amazon. Under $22 for the big can, shipped. Two-packs of Gerber 1st foods are .89 at Target. Kroger has 6 oz. jars of Gerber baby food for .67.

So right now, Earth’s Best is $22 for 25.7 ounces and Enfamil and Similac are $23 for 23.2 ounces or whatever random size those new tubs are. If you are thinking about making the switch to organic formula, now is the time!

Just when I think I’ve had the most tabs open in my browser possible, I outdo myself with 20 more. Here are 2+ weeks of things that caught my eye…

parenting

Ohdeeoh has a great end of season project, turning gloves into little stuffed animals. I have 3 or 4 right now and can imagine a fun “Make a Monster” project with P and a friend where we pick buttons, yarn, and other trim to apply faces and then stuff and sew them. We did this on a larger scale at a community event and making a full-sized stuffed animal was a little too complicated for the 4-6 year olds, but this is just the right size.

Another project that a preschooler could do with just a little help: creating a puzzle from a cereal box and magazine picture.

crafting

A hanging book display from some fabric and wooden dowels. Simple and wonderful. This definitely goes in the queue for P’s room.

We have oddly shaped cubbies under our sectional in the family room (very deep, pretty long, but only 8″ high) so I think this is custom cloth solution. Now I just need to figure out what great fabric to use!

I’ve been going to yoga again most weeks, but I almost always forget my mat, even though it lives in the backseat of my car. Maybe if I made this cute mat holder from a pants leg, I would want to show it off a little more?

resources

I absolutely loved Green Bean’s detailed run down off all of the ways to consume more consciously at the Green Phone Booth.

Eco Child’s Play writes up a household cleaner and home remedy I never gave much thought to, but has great possibilities — apple cider vinegar. Can’t wait to try it out. And house+made has 39 uses for baking soda, some I’ve never seen before, and I definitely need some nontoxic deicer in these parts!

Re-nest shares 10 ways to reuse tights or pantyhose, reminding me to hold on to a recently departed pair for my tomato plants this summer, and 10 ideas for pillowcases. The skirt and cafe curtain patterns are definitely in my future.

Treehugger has a guide for the green stuff the stimulus bill will help you buy. Too bad there aren’t any hybrid minivans on the market yet! (Eco Childs Play also discusses how the Prius is the perfect family car, which I completely agree with unless, like us, you happen to have 4 kids. Now, the Prius is our perfect 2nd car.)

We have so many people flying in to see us for the 1st and 4th birthday weekend at the end of the month that I think we need to buy some carbon offsets. At least the majority of them are taking the same flight, I imagine cosmically that makes some sort of difference, right?

It is so hard to stay within our budget and values for these events. What I’ve wound up doing is trying to stay green for each party element for at least one party, if not both.

Both party venues provide and clean up paper and plastic utensils, plates, and cups. We’ll have to decide if bringing our party plates to one is an option, or just too much of a headache when also shuttling 8 out-of- town guests and managing a half-dozen preschoolers. We can also bring along the mountains of plastic cups and utensils left from a potluck BBQ last summer, so that at least we’re decluttering our house a little in the process.

One party provides goody bags, which I think is mostly promotional material for the gymnastics center. I want to put something from us in the bags, I think, but have no idea what. We don’t really have a theme, but the cake has an edible Lego Star Wars design (all sugar and reusable Legos, so no waste!).

I do want to provide a favor for the little boys’ party, which has a pea pod theme. I’ve ordered several yards of this ribbon:

and am either making some treat bags with green and yellow m&ms (easy) or some seed packets with heirloom snap pea seeds (not so easy).

I made the invitations on picnik.com but did have them printed at a local print shop. For P’s party, we just made a facebook event since all of his friend’s parents are our friends, too. I designed a Lego minifig that looked like him holding some balloons, if that makes it all sound a little more festive.

I’m going to be making some more things, like some felt party hats (kind of like these from Skip to My Lou) and buying some plain bibs to applique. I had to buy interfacing for both projects, but I needed some anyhow. I’ll post pictures once/if I actually make anything!

Look, it’s me! Hi! Let’s see what post I can squeeze out before the end of nap time…

Earth’s Best baby food is on sale through tomorrow at Amazon. All of the sale details for up to 30% off are spelled out at the site. I know my price-per-jar very well, and this works out to be about comprable to the best price I’ve seen on the shelves when also combined with a $1/10 jars coupon. The savings then comes in the form of your time, since you don’t have to go to the store!

My friends at BeCentsAble share a coupon for $20 off a visit to the vet for your pet. If this is something you’ve been putting off for awhile, what a great financial incentive to do it.

Baby Cheapskate details the ultra-modern and totally affordable line of baby furniture 2nds at Overstock. Fantastic price, practically free shipping, and more…

Right now you can pick up the modern Netto Cub Crib and Changing Station for just $199.95 and $149.95 respectively. Unbeatable. Except when you take $10 off orders of $250 or more by clicking this link (exp 2/28).

Both the crib and changing station are made from sustainably harvested wood. Both are non toxic and non VOC emitting. Both are also “slight seconds,” meaning that “there are very small imperfections to the finish.” You should also know that they’re non-returnable. Overstock says that the safety features of the crib are “in no way compromised.”

If you don’t have an IKEA near you, this is by far the best deal you’re going to find for an unfussy and eco-conscious nursery!

There have been lots of free food deals lately, including the coupon for a free Kashi frozen entre. Grab one while you can!