Cooking Light

I LOVE this magazine. I've picked up used copies at the library for 25 cents. At first I was leery thinking it would probably be a lot of low fat cream of mushroom soup type stuff. I decided to risk the quarter and get it anyway.

Its not at all what I thought. Most of it is whole foods type recipes or can be easily converted. There are a few sugary desserts, but not many. Most of it is truly healthy. I've pulled out about 15 new recipes to try this month. I'll be posting the good ones....

A New Month

I was doing so good on my grocery budget for April. Then I fell flat on my face at the finish line. I came in at $827, which is only $41 less than March.

But now is a new month! My new price to beat is $827.

I went shopping today with Mayfee and Bird. Whenever I put something in the cart, he'd ask "Is it free?" No Buddy, no freebies today.

$501 later we have a full pantry/fridge/freezer. That should do for awhile...until next week anyway.

Pumpkin Muffins

These are quite moist and tasty. I like making them for breakfast or tea time.

3 C. ww flour

1/2 C. wheat germ

3/4 C. sucanat or brown sugar

1/2 t. salt

5 t. baking powder

2 3/4 t. cinnamon

2 1/2 t. nutmeg

Mix in big bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in wet ingredients.

1 1/2 c. pumpkin

2 t. vanilla

4 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. olive oil

Mix all together. I also threw in a handful of chocolate chips. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

April Pay Load

It's official. I'm a nerd. I've become the person I used to make fun of. Here I am taking pictures of my groceries when I said I never would.

But I am doing it for 2 reasons:

1) To show you that it really does work. I was sure only super-moms could pull it off.
2) Because I'm really excited about it all.

So here goes...

This is my favorite freebie. It's 2 Hallmark cards. Easy to do...just go here.
Samples in my mailbox are a nice change from the usual bills and junk mail.

I LOVE this! This was my big cereal sale of the week. I ended up getting 20 boxes of cereal and 10 boxes of granola bars for $12.50. What will we do with all of this? Save it for the Wing visit! With 17 of us eating it it'll be gone in no time. Plus I'll have more time out of the kitchen and visiting with our friends.
My very very favorite. All this stuff was FREE. As in free free. Not B1G1 free....cause I don't think it's really free if you have to buy something first. Most of this came from Walgreens or Rite Aid. The cereal was from Walmart combined with a sale and coupons.

It was so much fun to find the bargains and watch them accumulate. All of this was for the whole month of April. Now I'm starting over for May. I am well under budget for this month with only 2 days left to go. I think I'll make it!

This Weekend

These guys are all gone today... Doing this.....

And this...In a town called Greely.

While they were gone, I took these guys to the park.

Fun time.

Today

~Honey rode his bike to work. Nice.

~Story time! A new librarian and it was shorter than usual. I got a new cooking magazine to peruse. They raised the price to a quarter! The nerve. No story time for the whole month of May. Whatever will we do? I guess I'll come to AR. ;-)

~We hit the sales at KingSoopers. With my coupons I got 4 boxes of cereal and 4 boxes of granola bars for .5o each. I spent $10 and got 5 bags of food.

~School went pretty fast with no tears.

~Left overs for lunch.

~#1 made brownies for Bible Study.

~My 10yo daughter helped me work on the clothes exchange today. What a huge job. With everyone's help, it's going pretty smoothly.

~I took a nap. Haven't needed to do that for awhile.

~Beautiful weather. aaahhhh.....I love hearing boys play outside. They even broke out the water guns. A little premature I think but they had fun.

~Soccer practice and the boys left their room a mess. We'll visit about that later.

~We're almost finished painting our room! Doors and window sills left.

~Bible study tonight.

~One more sleep until Friday! I got Beauty and the Beast to watch after pizza.

Prenatal Vitamins Make Me Cry

Because I have no reason to take them. I'm not pregnant and Babyest is finished nursing as of today. It's been over 7 1/2 years. :(

Date Night

So I'm looking through pages and pages of pix to find just the right one...or any one really...of my Honey and me to put at the top of this post. This is it. Pathetic huh? We take lots of pictures of the kids but not so many of us. Honey we gotta do something about that!! (Guess which one is me)

On to my blabbings...

Last night was one of my favorite date nights.

~We had a B1G1 coupon to Chipotles and actually went *out*. We almost always spend date night at home..which is very cozy I think...but this time we went somewhere.

~After dinner we drove home, sat in the driveway (pretended that we were still gone) and talked and talked and talked. Ok well I talked and Honey listened. He's a good listener. We talked about church, the neighbors, our future re-model, and our friends at home.

~We spied on the kids b/c the blinds were cracked and watched them be silly. They finally saw the car and waved.

~We watched the moon rise. I've seen a sunrise but I don't think I've ever seen a moonrise until last night. It was full and bright and beautiful.

Sunday night has been date night for as long as I remember...even when we only had little kids. I look forward to it all week. It's a nice ending to a week full of busyness.

My Latest Deals

On the way to soccer tonight, Sticks and I made a quick trip to get some bargains. Little by little I am learning this whole sale/coupon/rebate game. It's quite the fun and my son loves helping me figure it all out. Today we took the calculator..a first for me..b/c I wasn't real sure about the Aveeno deal.

Here's how it went:
Walgreens

20% Aveeno + buy 4 get $10 back
So I found the smallest lotion (which I'll use for my purse) and bought four. I had coupons totalling $3.50. It came to $7 and I got $10 back. That is a $3 profit which I used to buy 2 dish soaps that were on sale and I really needed. So it all came out free with a .40 profit.

We then headed down the street to Rite Aid.
I got a free toothbrush after rebate
A free bag of chocolate after rebate
2 more toothbrushes for .25
2 Dawn dish soaps for .50 each

It was a good trip. I came home to find 3 more samples in my mailbox. I love my samples!

My total grocery bill this month is up to $705. I'm keeping my eye on it since I still have over a week to go and company coming over for dinner on Saturday. Considering we've had 3 birthdays this month, maybe it's not so bad though. Plus I haven't added up my rebates. Those will be fun to get in the mail!

My Latest Faves

Sweet!

My Right Arm

Mally looking all model-like

Deafing the ants. See Honey's blog??

Oompa laughing at the silly Frog

Mommy and Mally

Soccer Saturday

My son's soccer coach gave us 7 Rapids tickets for tonight! Fun Fun Fun!! Thank you Coach Dan!

3 Soccer games today = 2 wins and 1 tie. All my boys scored at least once in their game. My oldest son got an assist then tied up his game with a header goal! I cannot possibly come up with words to describe the excitement. It almost makes me cry when I re-play the noise of lots of people screaming for my son. Header goals are very hard to come by. He's been playing soccer for 8 years and this was his first header goal in a game. We celebrated with ice cream.

Sports can be so emotional. I did not grow up watching or liking sports. I never understood the hype. Now that I have a son that plays competitively, I do. It's either a ton of fun, or it is sad and frustrating. Rarely is it anything in the middle. It is never "just a game". There is always something more.

I bring it to the Lord every week. Just about every day. 3 boys playing soccer equals 6 practices a week and at least 3 games. That means the Lord and I have a lot to talk about!

I Did It Again!

2 days in a row! Honey didn't even believe me at first when I called him to bring keys. I am such a goof ball.

This time was more fun though cause we were at Dick's Sporting Goods getting new soccer balls for little boys. Dick's has an escalator! Oh yes, as much fun as a roller coaster but at a much better price.

The first couple of times up the boys were pretty nervous. By the 3rd time, they were pros. The ride down was a different story. Very scary! They would hold on to my hand then step on like they were catching a wave. Arms out for balance, swaying back and forth. Laughing the whole way down! By about the 9th time around they were a little more stable and it was more fun on each ride.

Honey showed up with more keys. He was the picture of grace with just a smirk on his face. I think I'll be hearing about this for years to come....

Where'd It Go?

I go to Sams. Right before I get out of the car I remember that I need to have my Sams card so I dig it out of my wallet. I show it to the lady and put it in the front part of my purse so it'll be easy to get to when I check out. The front part of my purse where I keep my keys. But wait a minute...my keys aren't there!! My keys aren't there! Lip gloss, but NO KEYS!!

I look all through my purse....in vain. I go back to the car and there they are right in the cup holder! Just right there...but so out of reach.

What to do? I could call Honey but I know he has a busy day at work. I call but he doesn't answer. Maybe cause I have his blackberry in the car too. Hmmm....I leave a generic message not willing to confess just yet. I know he'd feel an obligation to do something and I don't want to mess up his day. Also I'm on a tight schedule and need to get home for soccer practice and Bible study. Oh man! My mind is spinning. I guess I need a lock smith. Surely they don't cost too much.....

I go to the customer service to ask for a phone book. The lady says:

"Can I help you?"
"Probably not."
"What's wrong?"
"I locked my keys in my car.......And I'm trying not to cry."
"Don't cry. This has happened before."

This lady saves the day. She calls the Ford dealership and asked what could be done. He guy tells me to copy down my vin# and walk on over. The shuttle bus guy is out.

Lucky for me it's only about 3 blocks away and it's not snowing (wonder of wonders!). They cut me a new key for only $4. They shuttle guy is back and takes me to my car.

The key works! Yipee!! The shuttle guy gives me the thumbs up and is on his way. Now to get those keys. Wait....those aren't my keys! Those are some kind of keys my husband uses for work. If those aren't my keys, then where are my keys???

They aren't in my pockets. I scrounge through my purse looking in every little zipper part and pocket, pulling out things and really starting to panic.

Then, lo and behold there they were in the BACK zipper part! I know what you're thinking....BUT I LOOKED!!

Big sigh of relief.

Now where is that Sams card??

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

It's Kitchen Tip Tuesday on Tammy's blog and I thought I'd try to post my own.

I've been saving different food bags and using them for messy jobs instead of ziploc bags. Breading chicken can be done in a brown sugar bag and saving bones to cook for broth can be done in a bread bag. Since you have to throw away those yucky ones, it's nice to use a free one.

One Year Ago Today

The most beautiful baby was born.

Mommy and Daddy loved him.

His brothers were crazy about him

and his sisters thought he was beautiful.
He slept and ate and brought much joy to his family.

He grew and grew.
He smiled and laughed and did all sorts of sweet little baby things.

And now he is ONE!

He practices walking.

He likes to eat.

He is good at blanket time.

He doesn't talk much...the strong silent type.

He laughs and smiles and does all sorts of little "big boy" things.

He is a joy to his family.

He likes cake!

He's good at making a mess.

He is now the cutest little toddler babe that you've ever seen.

Happy Birthday Baby-est!!

Birthdays Again!

Scroll down a bit to see my new 4yo!

My Friend

"You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasure at your right hand." Ps 16:11

Joy is how I feel right now after talking to my friend whose house was destroyed. I wish I could describe the cheerfulness and thanksgiving in her voice. Sweet.

So many people have been blessed to have been able to serve them this week. Lots of opportunities to share about the Lord...and let me tell you, she used every one of them to its fullest! Seeing her faith through this tragedy has made me appreciate and love her even more.

I've been blessed to see how the Lord has worked through our church and homeschool group to provide for everything. Everything! And even though I can't be there, I'm enjoying watching our Friend help our friends.

Spending Accountability

See the new thingy on the left of my blog? I saw this on another blog and thought it was a good idea.

I have a grocery budget of $900/mo for 11 of us. We came in at $868 for March and I'm trying to beat that for April. So far I think we're doing ok at $469 b/c we have a lot of food. But I do need to buy wheat and I know that will definitely hurt the budget. We'll see....

I've enjoyed bargain shopping so much. I'm finally learning how it works and it's been fun to see the deals add up. A friend asked me last night if I thought it was helping. Right now I have to say no b/c everything I've gotten free or on sale has been stuff I don't need right now. For instance, I don't need toothpaste but I've gotten 2 free ones this month. However, as time goes on and the bargains add up I think we'll certainly see the benefits. In the meantime I love showing my family what I find and they are a good audience to "oooohhh and awwwww" for me.

Guess Who's Four??

This guy!! Here he is on his first birthday.

Mayfee had a good day. G'ma and G'pa were here so of course it was a fun day! It snowed again so he stayed in and played. We went out for lunch with some friends from church. We invited the cousins over for dinner but they couldn't make it b/c of snow. Here's the meals he picked:

Breakfast...cake

Lunch........cake

Dinner.......cake

I modified the menu a bit but we did have cake for dessert. Here's what it looked like:

Here's some funny things about my boy:

~He hates long sleeves, long pants, and socks that are not skin tight. (Thanks G'pa and Nana for the small socks!)

~He has the most hilarious eye brows. Every emotion he has is expressed above those brown eyes. He's like a cartoon character...he can make them go down in a "V" when he's angry, raise one in a quizzical way, or almost take them right off his head when he's happy...just like on cartoons.

~He hates chocolate cake but never remembers it.

~He is his own little man. He does not follow the crowd or even his big brothers if it's not what he wants to do.

~He enjoys crying.

~He likes shoes that slip on. He's excited about getting summer sandals and hanging up the tennis shoes.

~He sleeps with his Spiderman blanket and likes me to "whoosh" it over his head.

~He likes sleeping somewhere else on Fridays....his sister's bed, the floor, under the coffee table, in the bathtub, wherever.

~He's jammin' to Bingo Was His Name O on his new music player.

~He's finally big enough to have chips! Family rule: no chips, nuts, or popcorn until you're four. We bought him special chips for his birthday.

And here he is now!

Mixed Emotions

I have this huge goofy smile all over my face.

Honey says, "What's so funny?"
I say, "You know."
He says, "Are you going to walk around like that till June 4th?"
I say, "Oh yeah!!"

Why????

Because THE WINGS ARE COMING!!!!!!

BUT...
I HATE not being in AR right now to help my friends. It has been sweet to hear how everyone is gathering around to help in every way. How I wish it could be ME! I wish I could just hug her neck and do her laundry or watch her baby or clean up the mess or something!

They were a great help to us during our move and now I can't help them.