Amazing Amazon: How to See How Much You Have Spent on Amazon.com

We love Amazon. It makes our lives so much easier. We joined officially in 2005, and, in 2008, we set up our Subscribe and Save account for diapers.

Can I tell you how easy and wonderful it is to have diapers delivered to your door monthly?  Life.Saver. Seriously.  No more dashes to the store, no more worries, no more unexpected expenses as you forgot to budget for it.

We use Subscribe and Save for more than just diapers and wipes. It is great for those routine things that you know you will need such as vitamins, air filters, toilet paper, fish food, dish detergent, rinse aid, bulk organic lollipops, and more.

We have these lollipops set for delivery every six months.

But Amazon is more than just Subscribe and Save. We use it for clothing.  Need a skirt to complete your daughter's American Heritage Girl uniform? Check! And I even ordered that while bathing our three year old!  Need a vacuum ASAP because you accidentally ripped the electrical cord out of yours? Check!  Need a really good reflective dog collar because your dog lost hers in the woods (again!)? Check!  Need some wall hanging guitar mounts, a magazine rack, something to organize your aprons, badminton birdies/shuttlecocks that are out of season, masa harina to make corn tortillas? ... You get the idea

We obviously use Amazon a lot.  We would prefer to buy local when possible, but our current phase of life with several small children is just not conducive to making lots of trips to the store.  Imagine comparing brands of a product you are new to like active charcoal and nutritional yeast while your baby becomes fussy and your three older children begin to run out of patience.  With Amazon, we can compare prices and reviews and buy with one-click.

When I heard there is a way to see how much you have spent with Amazon, I jumped right on it to see how much we have spent.  While the total number we have spent there seemed mind blowing, it broke down to about $136 per month since 2005.  When you buy a couple of cases of diapers and a case of baby wipes each month with a few other items, you reach that amount pretty quickly.

Here's how to download your report:

1. Sign in.
2. Go to "Your Account."
3. Select "Download Order Reports" under "Orders."
4. Enter a start date of January 1 for the earliest year in the drop down box.
5. Enter an end date of today's date.
6. Select "Request Report."

When your report is through generating, you can download it from the same page under "Your Reports."  The report will open in a spreadsheet. Sum column "AD" (Item Total) to see how much you have spent.  To add these numbers, click an empty cell, enter =SUM(, highlight all of the cells in column AD except the header cell of "Item Total", enter ), and press enter. That is how much you have spent.

We took it a step further and added the "List Price Per Unit" column in another cell. Then we subtracted the "Item Total" from the "List Price Per Unit."  We "saved" over $6,000 in the past 11 years, not to mention the gas, time, and stress we saved.

Shop Amazon - Give the Gift of Amazon Prime 

Paving a Path

We have been in our home for a little over two years now.  It has been an exciting time, and my parents are joining us in this exciting adventure.  Their home will be across the driveway from ours, and they will move in very soon.

With their big move looming, we decided to jump in and add some concrete to our driveway at their suggestion.  We even took it a few steps farther, adding a sidewalk to join the houses.

Concrete day was an exciting day, and, ultimately, three sidewalks were poured, two driveways, two patios, a carport, and a ramp. Whew!!  It sounds like a lot, and it was a lot.  BUT, through a lot of discussion and collaboration, we were able to create some beautiful winding sidewalks. Each front porch is now connected to its respective drive way, and the path between our homes is functional and very charming.

The kids watched the excitement all day from our back door as the existing rock and 4'x4' step were scraped away.

The kiddos enjoying the items misplaced by the concrete. On the left is one sidewalk, and there is another on the right edge.

After pouring the sidewalks, we realized that we have a long walking track that goes not only between houses but also to the shop that has been built. There is already heavy traffic as the kiddos burn up the walkway with bikes, trikes, scooters, and remote controlled cars.

Baby's First Foods

Baby V. may be our fourth born child, but she is still a baby, and we are particular with her first foods - never mind that we pull the dog toys out of her mouth on a regular basis...

Hide your dog toys from me.

What are good first foods to introduce? Bananas, applesauce, avocados, steamed and blended veggies to name a few. First baby foods are easy to make at home and easy to buy.  This is a great time to get into the kitchen and experiment with flavors, blends, and spices.  Get creative.

Baby food is also easy to buy with many varieties of organic available these days.  I like to make mine, because, in my current stage of life, it is just easier for me.   I can blend up the fresh and frozen foods we have on hand, dole out the amount she needs for the meal, and refrigerate the rest.  If I don't think she will eat a lot, I don't make a lot.  If the blend isn't to her liking, we're not stuck with five jars in the pantry.  I also don't have those dodgy jars in the fridge of unknown date.

My adventures in making baby food began with our second born when I found a Baby Bullet at a consignment sale, still in the box and unused. Score!  I wasn't familiar with the Baby Bullet when I bought it, but I quickly learned how easy it is to use. With two blade options, I keep it on hand in my pantry even when I am not making baby food because it is great for milling grains and pureeing food for other recipes.

For Christmas, I received a new generation pressure cooker, an Instant Pot . It makes cooking fun, and I am learning all sorts of new tricks, like how to cook applesauce in five minutes!

To make applesauce for Baby V., I started with four small, organic apples.

I diced the apples into chunks, placed them in the Instant Pot, and added 1/2 cup of water.

I checked the seal of the  Instant Pot lid to make sure it was in place, closed and locked the lid, set the valve to sealed, and set the time to Manual, High Pressure for 5 minutes.

When the apples were cooked, I took out the liner and let the apples cool.

Once the apples cooled sufficiently, I transferred the apples to the Baby Bullet.  I pureed the apples until smooth, adding filtered water as needed to reach the desired consistency.

I wasn't sure if leaving the apple skins on would leave the apples too chunky, but the Baby Bullet blended the apple chunks completely smooth.

Applesauce in Your Instant Pot

• 3 Medium Apples
• 1/2 cup water
• Cinnamon, optional

1. Wash, core, and dice apples. 
2. Place apples and water into Instant Pot. 
3. Press Manual, and select High Pressure. Set the time to five minutes. 
4. When the cycle is complete, remove the liner to let the apples cool. 
5. Blend the apples smooth after transferring to a Baby Bullet or blender.  You can also use an immersion blender if you have increased the recipe to a larger batch. 
6. Optional: Add cinnamon.

Some of my favorite tools:

        

All A Buzz: Our Introduction to Bees

We are all a buzz at Hall Homestead. Everyone is enamored with the idea of honeybees... well, there are a few hard sells amongst our ranks, but, overall, the buzz is positive.

When we moved to the farm in the fall of 2013, bees were high on the list.  In the fall of 2014, feeling more settled after our move, we planned to add bees AND goats for 2015.  We got a baby sister instead.

So here we are in early 2016 - with an extra child in tow- and the goal of adding bees ahead. Goats will have to wait, but we are excited to be moving forward even in small steps.

To prepare for bees, we have spoken with local beekeepers, read books, and researched supplies.  We are slated to have our first hive this April. We are soaking up all of the bee information we can while we wait.  My current favorite bee book is A Book of Bees and How to Keep Them by Sue Hubbell.

This gentle book relates Sue's vast experience with bees and the country setting in which she ran her commercial operation at the time.  It is the perfect winter read as we prepare our minds and homestead for bees.

When we order our supplies, such as a hive tool, smoker, and jackets, I will update this post with what we have ordered.







This gentle read of Sue'

Beefed Up: Beefy Ravioli Bake

Another fantastic recipe find is Beefy Ravioli Bake.  This recipe has everything you need for a quick, crowd-pleasing, weeknight meal.

1 pound ground beef, crumbled and fully cooked
1 bag frozen cheese ravioli, still frozen
1 - 1.5 jars marinara sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix ground beef, frozen ravioli, some of the mozzarella cheese, and enough marinara sauce to cover the mixture.  Place in a large greased casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese, and bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly/golden.  Serve warm.

IT REALLY IS THAT EASY. Serve it with garlic bread and salad, and you have a super easy weeknight meal.

Beefy Ravioli Bake is something you can always keep on hand by stocking your pantry with jarred sauce, your freezer with frozen ravioli and beef you have already cooked, and your refrigerator with cheese.

There are so many variations on this - Brown your beef with onions, add some chopped spinach to the mix, eliminate the beef to make it vegetarian (and less expensive per serving), try a different style of ravioli, or try a different type of pasta sauce. - to name a few.

Beefy Ravioli Bake is also a great meal to serve to a large crowd or to take to a friend or family who needs a meal.

If you are seeking a simple, budget friendly, hearty, quick, crowd-pleasing, keep-on-hand, and/or make-ahead meal, try this easy recipe.

I actually ate this at a party before going into labor with our second born, and it was SO GOOD.  I couldn't keep it off my mind. So much so that a few days after delivery I had to call the hostess and ask for the recipe right then and there.

Breakfast Yumminess: Sausage Rounds

I picked up this unique recipe from a friend in Dallas years ago.  I had never seen a recipe quite like it before or since.  We have used this hearty recipe for many parties, and it is always a crowd pleaser.

Sausage Rounds

1 can flaky buttermilk biscuits
2 cups grated Monterey Jack or Mexican blend cheese
1 lb sausage, cooked and drained
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, cooked and grated
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease muffin tins. Divide biscuit into thirds by separating the layers of the raw biscuit dough.  Place each third into a muffin cup. Mix remaining ingredients together. Place one heaping tablespoon of mixture into each muffin cup over biscuit dough.  Bake 25 minutes.

Makes 24 Sausage Rounds

My friend says that these freeze well for a quick breakfast - ours never make it as far as the freezer.   I have used reduced fat sausage many times in the recipe, and it definitely seems to keep the rounds from being quite so heavy.

      

Looking for more creative breakfast ideas?  Check out this cookbook which has been a staple in our household for the past 15 years.  The lemon ricotta pancake recipe is amazing!

Mailed It! Eliminating Pests from Your Mailbox

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No Wasps or Roaches in Your Mailbox

This spring/summer we had some unwelcome guests in our mailbox - other than bills.  A family of wasps had decided that our large mailbox was the perfect home.  We did not agree.

Going to check the mail became a bit of an action/horror movie event, filled with suspense.  Would the wasps swarm us as we reached for our junk mail? Would they fly into the open window of our trucks and terrorize the kiddos before we could get everyone out of their car seats and evacuate the car?

We developed interesting techniques for checking the mail. So interesting that if anyone saw us (good thing we live in the woods) they probably would have thought that we had lost.our.minds. Seriously.

After weeks of debate of whether or not to spray the box and then have the mail we brought into the house (and that our kiddos spread around) covered in toxic pesticides, we decided enough was enough.  I looked online for an essential oil remedy that would eliminate wasps without exposing our family to the secondary threat of nasty chemicals.

It was hard to find much information online about wasp repellent made with essential oils. I found one recipe for a kind of similar situation, but I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand.  So I improvised.  I pulled out my peppermint and lemon essential oils and invested in a $1 bag of cotton balls.  I doused each cotton ball heavily in peppermint oil and in lemon oil and tossed the cotton balls into the mailbox. I used three cotton balls.

The next time we checked the mail, the wasps had checked out of 'Hotel de Mailbox' and found a new home elsewhere.  We also had minty fresh smelling mail for a week or two.  Eventually the minty fresh smell subsided, but the wasps have stayed away all summer.  Yay!

A month or so after our success, my parents complained of roaches appearing in their mailbox.  After seeing our success, I quickly took the oils and cotton balls to their house.  My mom was concerned the mail person would think the cotton balls were a bomb (which has actually happened before, but that is another story for another day... okay, it was one of those national weather service balloons that randomly land and whoever finds it has to return it by dropping it in a mailbox).  The other concern was that they would complain about the strong odor.  Well, none of the above happened - no bomb concerns, no complaints over odor.  BUT, what did happen is that the roaches disappeared.

So, in summary, if you want to rid your mailbox or other small area of insect activity without industrial chemicals, try dousing cotton balls in peppermint and lemon essential oils. If you only have peppermint oil, try that by itself.

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No Wasps or Roaches in Your Mailbox