Shopping Trip

I see now why I need to go shopping every week. I have been telling myself that it is okay not to get the deals every week. Well the time that I do go shopping I can't help myself but get ALL the deals. So I did okay for this week...I could have done a lot better, but I still can't figure out the scenerios where I get Register Rewards and spend less. But this is learning experience for all of you. I still got a lot of items for not spending much. You can't come out of Wags, CVS and Target every week spending $5.00 or less:)
Target:

I spent:

1.98 2 dozen eggs, +.06 2 Buddy soaps (2 $1/1 Q), 4.98 Flinstone Vitamins (on clearance for 5.98 - 1 $1MQ), 1.19 Johnson's and Johnson's Soap (boys needed shampoo), +.01 Kids Crest Toothpaste (Stacked $1 TQ with .50 MQ and the price was 1.49 to start with), $4.50 for 3 Ore Ida Potatos ($1/2 Q B2G1 Free), Pinapple 2.50

TOTAL: 15.08 plus tax :)

I got all these in this picture from Walgreens in three transactions (still could have done better) for 16.72 (including tax).

Water and Weather

Tonight the boys were so excited to play outside. They were MORE than wound up. My grandparents called on their way back from Minnesota and asked about supper. I had made a chicken in the crockpot and offered it to them, but they said they needed to get going. They were going to stop by though...okay...I will make cookies. I get out the package and begin to make them. No eggs. Called Yoshi, our neighbor that is similiar to the Dennis the Mennis and Mr. Wilson's relationship. She lives two doors down with no street to cross so the boys go over there all the time to say hi and oh get about 5 suckers. I called and asked if we could have an egg. Kenner was so excited to go run an errand for me. The errand was successful. He returned with a whole egg...no cracks.



I put the cookies in the oven and went about my business. I checked on the boys outside. Redirected them from throwing balls at the windows, redirected them from throwing the balls at the cars, and urged Patton to put his shirt back on. I went in to get a camera to document how cute (although arnry (sp)) Patton looked. As I walked into the kitchen I hear the water running. I immedieately thought, "Hmm I didn't turn on the dish washer." Then I hear a rush of water in the basement. AHHHHHHH I rushed down the stairs to find a gush of water pouring from around the water heater. Beside the water heater is our shut off valve. In the split seconds, I thought I will be burned if I go over there. I scream, "Help" as if anyone is going to hear me or help me...Casey is not home by this point. I felt a splash on me and it was freezing water.

It was okay to "dive" in and wade over to the shut off valve. Then I thought, "I really wish Casey would have shown me which one it was. So I turn one valve...wrong one - I got drenched with the drain for the sprinkler system. Then I discovered that my two monkeys had turned on the water outside. They were thinking it was summer and they needed to get a drink of water from outside. After trying one other valve, I dashed upstairs out the door and of course I am screaming..."NO WATER, NO WATER." I turned off the water and it was done.

Water everywhere, one soaked mommy and two boys just having the time of their life in the nice spring weather. Ahh the joys of being a mom! I am glad that my mom was obsessed with rubbermaid tubs...because everything was in one and nothing was ruined.
I got my basement floors cleaned:) and we also discovered that our sprinkler's froze this winter. It could have been a lot worse. It could be a month from now and I just turn on the water from outside and let it run for a while only to find out later that the water was not only going on my plants but all over my basement while we were outside playing. It could always be worse:)

Grocery Cart Challenge

You have to go and subscribe to the Grocery Cart Challenge. She is a woman of faith that completely inspires me. A few weeks ago she had home made cleaners on her blog. I made her shower cleaner (2 cups vinegar, 2 tsp jet dry) and it has worked wonders. It has sparked me to make more of my home made cleaners.

The vinegar can make a person crazy (or a particular husband:) so I went out and bought Tea Tree Oil and Lavender. The Lavender works...but the Tea Tree oil I haven't figured out about it yet.

Any other household cleaners you use at home?

Vinegar, baking soda are my two top choices at the moment.

Meal Planning Monday

I am super glad that I planned two weeks of meals last week...or we might be in trouble this week. I have a great friend who has brought some new light to saving money on groceries. She uses the philosophy that the Grocery Cart Challenge uses...only buy what you need that week. THis way you don't have a lot "money" sitting on your shelves in your house but in your pocket.

I do agree with this and find myself always bargain hunting...but if I would stop hunting for a minute and look at my cupboards I would find that we could life off the "wild" of my cupboards and I can take a break from hunting. I came to a huge realization when we recently received a 1/4 of a beef. We have not gotten a beef for a couple years (I stretched a 1/2 a beef into two years:)), so it was time for me to clean out the freezer. I have found that I have bargain hunted with lots of meat that were just sitting and waiting for me to use them. I have decided to try the Eat out of my Pantry Challenge (like in January) for the month of April. I do feel that I won't have many groceries except milk and fresh produce. We will see how I do.

To start me off I decided to eat from my pantry this week as well:

Monday: Whole Chicken in the Crockpot with asparagus
Tuesday: Beef and Noodles (freezer cooking meal)
Wednesday: Homemade spaghetti (frozen sauce found in freezer)
Thursday: Ham and Scalloped potatoes...or taking any Ham recipes. I have 1/2 a ham to do something with...any suggestions?
Friday: Lunch - mac and cheese Dinner: Soup at a friend's
Saturday-Sunday-Monday: At Elge's
Monday night: Left overs/canned soup or something

Have a great week!

Meal Planning Monday

I am SO excited for this weekend...we get to spend the entire weekend with my sister's at their house in Omaha. For that we have a short week of meals this week.

Monday - Chicken Tortilla Bake - recipe I got from a Congra coupon booklet
Tuesday - Bacon Wrapped Turkey burger - trying out the ground turkey I got on sale:)
Wednesday - No Awana, so we will have a treat of Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and spaghetti
Thursday - Philly cheese Steak Sandwiches and asparagus
Friday to Sunday at Aunt Becca's house in Omaha.

Homemade laundry soap

Thanks to my friend over at Blessed Beyond Belief, she has encouraged me to make my own laundry soap. I finally found Fels Naptha and Washing Soda at HyVee on 40th. I was able to make a 5 gallon bucket of laundry soap in 45 minutes (and waiting a day) for $2.00.

You should try it too. Thanks to the Duggar family's recipe http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html

Kitchen

Of course you can never get the correct angle or great light...but I had my kitchen clean so I thought I would show you what our kitchen looks like now with the tile. I am so thankful for a very handy husband!

New Big Boy Bed

We had a minor incident with Kenner's old bed a month ago...so we changed the crib into a big bed. I went to bed last night and found Kenner sleeping with his tiger and couldn't resist taking a picture of him loving on his tiger:) We are waiting for Aunt Becca's bedding (bed skirt). She and I are switching the bedding once I finish her wedding quilt:)

New Living room

This week or last weeks have been absolutely crazy! I am posting some pictures of the big project that did not take any nailing, plastering, or painting...just redecorating. With the help and guidance of my mom and my friend Heather, also the help of resources through my Aunt Jane, I was able to redecorate...or shall I say FINALLY decorate the front room in our house. As you can see from the before to after pictures...it finally feels and LOOKS like a room!

Dining room

Living room with two panels beside each other and no slip covers on the chairs.

Living room curtains but no slip cover

Ahh! Living room with slip covers and "make shift" pillows on the chairs. Also one panel...what do you think? Yes mom, the carpet is going in April. Can you see the small square of carpet by the door? That is the color we are going to go with.

Mini story about a muffin

Below is a picture of a simle and delicious banana muffin brought to us by Grandma Kelly. This morning (Sunday after day light savings time), I got up, went to Crete, did swallowing therapy with a gentleman, came back home, caught up with my coupons while Casey got the boys up and ready for church. While the boys were eating breakfast, I thought I would forgo a sitting down breakfast and eat a muffin on the way to church. I worked on picking up the house while the boys were occupied eating breakfast. It is a breathe of fresh air to come home refreshed from church and to enter a clean or I should say picked up house.

I had several things to carry to car so I thought it would be a mindless and harmless job for Kenner to carry my muffin to the car. I glanced a few times throughout the process of going to the car and loading up for church. At one moment, Kenner was holding the muffin then it switched hands to Patton. Harmless...right?
After making my third trip back from the car, I loaded Patton into the car while Casey was loading Kenner. I glanced at Kenner and said in shock and mild anger, "Where is my muffin Kenner?" "Ugh" and he peers down at his coat pocket. "IT IS IN YOUR POCKET?" maybe a bit more anger coming through. Casey chimes in, "Quite resourceful Kenner." I laugh and lose the anger part. Kenner pulls the muffin from within his coat and says, "It is broken Mommy." "It is okay Kenner." I replied and climbed into the front seat. I am starving to I proceed to take the wrapper off and begin to eat. Patton chimes in from the back seat as I am putting the first bite into my mouth, "It is broken because we dropped it Mommy." "Oh" "...BUT we stopped it before it rolled into the street and the mud, Mommy." "Yum and thank you for stopping it before it rolled into the street...because muffins in the street are not good."

If anyone knows what our sidewalks and driveways look like post snow melt...you would be gagging at the fact that I happily ate the entire muffin.

Funny times!

St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

The boys and I (or should I say...just me) had a lot of fun making rainbow cupcakes. I got the idea from here on Family Fun First I started with dividing two recipes of cake batter into 6 different bowls and colored them. After thought, I wish I would have used a purple or deeper color...but they were still yummy and fun. Then I took my small scoop from Pampered Chef and put a single color in at a time.

They turned out yummy and fun all at the same time.

Can you taste the rainbow?

Fun at Birthday and Hyvee

Kenner had his 2nd birthday party to attend on Saturday. It was at Crete ATA. He learned a simple lesson on martial arts. It was fun. His dad was excited to see him standing at ATTENTION:)

We GOT THE COUPON lady at HyVee today. She was great. She even used odd coupons and saved me even $1.55 more than I had thought! THANK YOU! Her name was Barbara. Such a blessing today...she even gave us two coins to use on the machines that are normally "broke" according to mom:)

Crazy Fun

Friday was such a treat to have Casey's family here after Lucy's violin lessons. As you can see we had a lot of crazy fun! So much fun in fact that I even made the blog...credit goes to photographer Kenner.

New Shop for Boys

The boys were blessed with an amazing gift on Friday. Grandpa Dennis had thought about making the boys their own "shop" for Christmas. Just like anything that Grandpa Dennis does...they are well thought out, perfect craftmanship, and many loving touches. The boys LOVE them! We even spent all Saturday morning organzing the toys in the basement to make room for their new shops. Now they only need machinery to fill those shops...just like any farmer - can't be happy with just one tractor:) Thanks Grandpa Dennis! They are awesome!
We love you - The General's

Meal Planning Monday (or Sunday...)

This week or shall I say next month will be crazy...but if it isn't crazy it isn't life:)

Monday - Smoked pork loin and asparagus
Tuesday - Pizza at School with 4-h group that is helping us with the carnival
Wednesday - Awana night so Frozen pizza
Thursday - Chicken Tortilla Bake (got it from the Con Agra coupon booklet)
Friday - TWIG - Pot luck Cheesy Pizza Casserole
Saturday - L: Wild Rice Soup D: Our friend Lane's Bday party
Sunday: L: out to eat D: leftovers

Hope you all have a great week. You should see what I am making for PEO on Monday night...I will post later with the steps so you too can make St. Patrick's Day a fun one:) Warning Sprague residents...you will soon be getting two little knocks on your door delivering late Valentine's/early St. Pat's desserts:)

Rhi

Meal Planning Monday

I was able to exchange some meals for freezer cooking last week, which meant I got to pick my friend Carla's brain for a few minutes. She is a complete inspiration to me. She is a POSITIVE mom, great wife, and great friend (even to me which I know her through other people). I could only wish to be her:) She and I have talked frugalness this past year. She has lived like the lady on the "Grocery Cart Challenge." I have lived the shop CVS, Walgreens, and free world. Carla has spent less on groceries, while I have not spent any more than previous years but I have a TON more in my house. She brought up a good point, "Money in my pocket is better money spent sitting on my shelves." Hmm! So in honor of this great point, I am going to continue to shop my cupboards before making my meal plan. I did a great job of this last year in the beginning of the year, but then got sucked into all the great deals. I will still hit the great deals, but with a maximum I can spend each month. When my "envelope" is empty for groceries...so too is my desire for the great deals:)



I am also needing to defrost my freezer...so we are eating out of our cupboards and freezer the next month:)



Monday - Roast and carrots (crock pot)

Tuesday - Spaghetti (simple Hunt's sauce and no meat) and corn

Wednesday - Either smoked pork (yes we just got a smoker:) YUM!) or frozen pizza

Thursday - out to eat with Gma and Gpa:) We love it when they come to town!

Friday - Tuna and noodles

Saturday - L: Heather's house (I have plenty of hot dogs to share:)) D: Pork tacos with black beans**

Sunday - Lunch Bunch at Church D: Chicken and green beans



**I was inspired to make my own beans. I bought a bag from Super Saver, soaked the black beans for two days on my counter (waited to see the white sprouting from the middle), put them in my crockpot on low over night. I bagged them and now will use them on Saturday night.

Tile GALORE!

My mom graciously took the boys (and Rylan) home this weekend, so Casey and I could work like mad on our house:) I would say we have worked like mad:) and not even had a fight...how is that for a project with no arguments:)
Kitchen Before: Kitchen before grout.

Kitchen before:

Kitchen before grout.

Bathroom with the vanity and the light.

Bathroom

Here is an update of our bathroom. I hope the paint wasn't too green...what do you think? Casey is pretty amazing at all that he can do. We had a friend come over from our church and help Casey with the tile. The guy wrestled my dad in state wrestling when they were in high school. Small world!

This is a picture of Dr. Seuss's birthday today of my friend, Teresa. She has a heart of gold. These are the people that I will miss seeing everyday! Too bad the sun was glaring in the picture...but it still shows what a great friend I have!

what would you do without me...

Kenner and Patton are growing up before my eyes. Kenner is such a big helper and Patton, well, is Patton (aka Annie). They are really desiring to be at home more...me too, but the time will come in May that I can stay home two days a week more:)

Tonight I did my Motivated Mom planner and I asked the boys to help me. Patton, of course, went about his own business NOT helping. Kenner was at my side before I could say, "Come help me." Kenner is my cleaner of the cupboards. I love having my dark cupboards, but they show dirt alot! He loves doing it and does it well. As he was cleaning the cupboards and I was cleaning the floor, he looked at me and said, "What would you do without me, Mom?" I replied, "I don't know Kenner. I am so proud of you and all that you help me with."

How sweet is that?

Another funny comment today from Kenner. Note: today was Dr. Seuss's birthday and they were going to have a birthday party at preschool. Kenner got out of the car (at daycare), glanced over to school and said, "I know that they are going to have balloons at our birthday party" in a very sure voice. He looked at me and I tried to keep in the laughter knowing that they probably weren't going to have balloons and said, "Yeah." Then he looked at me with a puzzled look, "They have balloons at all birthday parties, don't they?" "Yes they do." Then I proceeded to go to school and call his teacher and tell her this story. When I went into the room, they had hung balloons from the ceiling. Kenner was so excited:) Kenner has an amazing preschool teacher in Miss Anne!

Meal Planning Monday

Monday - Beef and Noodles - Extra special with canned meat from my Grandma Jackie. YUM!

Tuesday - Cream of Chix and Biscuits (leftover chicken from my freezer)

Wednesday - Ham and Eggs (leftover ham from a ham a made a week ago)

Thursday - Roast...still deciding but Roast will be main ingredient. Any suggestions?

Friday - Homemade Pizza

SAturday
L: Mac and Cheese and Hot dogs (I have SEVERAL free Fairbury brand hotdogs from Super SAver and this is Patton's favorite)
D: Chix and Wild Rice Soup

Sunday:
L: Out to eat
D: Left overs or mom's choice:)