Things coming up.

Tomorrow we will be attending a sewing expo.  The kids are entering their outfits for judging and they will be participating in the fashion show.  I hope we have fun and find lots of things to do there all day.  I will post some pictures when I have time. 

Then on Sun we are traveling to my parents house to see them.  I can't wait to be there.  I just hate the drive. Hopefully I will have lots of pictures of that too.

I really hope when we return that spring will have sprung.  I am really tired of cold weather!  Yes I am complaining!!!! 

I am exhausted today from laundry and packing and getting ready for the expo. 

Good night.

Sorry it has been awhile...

I guess I should post something.  Things have been busy around here. I need to take pictures and document things but life is getting in the way.  We have been trying to lose weight...which seems like a full time job.  We are also working on the basement...(still), laundry is piling up and I am finally getting to it today.  We have been dealing with school bullies ( of the girl persuasion) and general stress of life.  Plus Steve has been a couponing king...so we have been doing lots of stocking up on bargains.

I need to get my camera out and get going...I know...I know...

The sun is shining today even though it is cold...it is suppose to get in the 40's today I think.  I can't wait for the furnace to go off for good.  Warm weather and sunshine.  I need sunlight!!!

So I guess you could say I have the end of winter blahs and am just surviving until Spring gets here.

Have a great day!

Read Your Labels

We were buying soda. (oh I forgot I am in Ohio now) We were buying pop at the store.  We needed to buy so much to get money back at CVS.  There wasn't much left.  We grabbed some diet pop and some other kinds, and the last we grabbed was this.  We figured it was diet so, OK.  Well the "MAX" means it has way more caffeine than Mt. Dew.  I read the label after the kids downed a bunch of them and they all weren't tired to go to bed.  Hmmmmm.  Next time I will look harder at the label.

Tree redecorating...

Does anyone else see all the little elves in a clump in the center front of the tree?..I think the tree has been redecorated.

Stuff that has been happening around here.

Jacob turned 14 this year.  I can't believe it!  That is a lot of candles on that cake.  He is looking so much older and truly isn't a little kid anymore.  Amazing.

It was also Maggie's 9th birthday this year.  Oh my.  This is her all dressed up for a family wedding.  She had a great time dancing the night away!

Doug being Doug...

Miss Lucy the dog.  This is the face everytime I am eating anything.  She is there looking at me...waiting for a bite to eat too.  You would think I would lose weight always having to share.

This last few weeks we traveled to Virginia for Thanksgiving and for early Christmas.  That was fun.  We got to see everyone and eat too much.  We have been celebrating birthdays.  Curt's is coming up soon.  We are still working on Christmas shopping.  The tree is up, the nativity is up and I am really not feeling like doing to much more decorating.  The kids seem satisfied and so why make myself crazy.  I am trying to clean out stuff...making donations to Goodwill...coats and things that we have grown out of.  Curt has his first talk at church on Sunday.  We still have to write that.  He will have to practice a lot.  He tends to mumble and get really quiet when he is nervous.  I hope he does fine.  Steve had me go to the store and buy primer for the basement walls.  I hope we can finish the basement soon.  That would be a great Christmas gift. 

Helping????

I was very stressed yesterday about all the things I had to accomplish that have deadlines.  Deadlines that are coming up very fast...things I am totally responsible for accomplishing.  I voiced my stress to Steve.  He said he would stay home and do the laundry and pick up the house.  Great!!!  That helps soooo much to take some of the stress away.  I love him so much but sometimes I don't know if I should laugh or cry ... He did the laundry....I think he may have left out a few steps.

                                                                     They are all clean.  uuuuggggghhhhh!

My exciting day.

Today I treated myself to all sorts of fun and wonderful things.  Let me just say that your attitude dictates how you feel about things.  Here is two stories of how my day went...

Version 1:
In the morning I had an appointment at the tooth spa.  It was lovely.  I read magazines and got to relax in a chair while people attended to me.  They thought I was so pretty they took pictures of me.  They loved my winning smile. Then I decided to treat myself to an elegant lunch.  I had fun chatting with a friend on the phone and making plans.  Then I decided to go shopping.  I was looking for something specific.  I couldn't find what I was looking for so I visited a few stores.  I enjoyed walking around and getting some exercise.  Then I got in the car for a nice ride home.  It was peaceful and lovely.

Version 2:
Had to go to the dentist.  Blah.  I hate waiting in the waiting room...so what if I was 1/2 hour early.  I read horrible magazines about marriage problems and how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days.  They are nice at my dentist, but they always bring up my wisdom teeth and how "they might need to come out"  Stressful!  They asked me if I was pregnant and then gave me xrays.  I hate those little wing things you have to bite down on. 
I took myself to McDonald's.  I usually eat in the car but decided to go in to eat.  The only place to sit was by someone who looked like a scary homeless man.  The other half of the McDonald's was full of 1st graders on a field trip.  I had to call my doctor's office to change my appointment.  Call,  busy. call, busy, call, busy, call, we are on lunch break until 1:00, call, busy, call...get through and change appointment.  They are sweet there too.  Then I went shopping and couldn't find anything I was looking for.  Annoying and time consuming.  Got in the car to drive home and got behind someone going 10 mph below the speed limit.  I am not a lead foot but I do like going the speed limit.  Made it home a half hour before the kids.

Attitude is everything...

The Frugal Christmas

I am going to renew my efforts for the frugal Christmas.  Things have been getting tighter and tighter around here.  Car repairs, unexpected financial boo boo's, just plain ol ignoring things.  Steve and I both had surgery in the past 12 months.  We do have insurance but when the one bread winner isn't working it is tough.  So here we are again with Christmas approaching and a meager budget to work with this year. 

I am going to try and get over the guilt of the impending sighing of the children.  It will be ok.  It really really will.  The older boys lists are crazy anyway and even if I had all the money in the world I wouldn't get them smart phones, or $300 ipods or hand held ps3's (I don't even really know what that is?)  So who cares what they think.  I won't be able ever to get them their dream Christmas.  Sorry. (PS. they know I won't get them things like that anyway...but every kid can try right.  They aren't the bratty types but boy if we won the lotto they would totally love to have those things)

The smaller kids I will have more of a chance pleasing.  After all Curtis asked for an apple peeler for Christmas.  The kind that hooks to the counter top.  That is a frugal and practical 6 year old if I do say so myself.  Maggie would be pleased with books and little trinkets/stuffed animals.  ( I hope )

I am going to be doing thrift store searching for cool and unique gifts.  I also plan on some homemade gifts this year.  I have been searching the internet for ideas and the only criteria is so soo soooo simple, and cheap.  I am not a crafty person and I have very little patience for details.  Sorry but it is true.

Some ideas I might try:
Journal's covered in material with cool pen
Tea cups for Maggie's dolls
Stationary
Craft supplies (for future fun)
Nail polish kit (obivously for the girl)
Pretty / cool boxes for keepsakes
Soaps with little toys in them.
Lip balm
Sewing simple jammie bottoms or a few skirts for Maggie...

Oh by the way, I have to remember not to let them read this post.  Shhhhh don't tell.


I also want to plan more family time.  I AM NOT RUSHING THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS LIKE A CHICKEN WITH MY HEAD CUT OFF.

I hope to have some quiet bonding time with the kids and invite the Spirit into our home.

I know the Spirit of the Lord will fill in the gaps of the home made gifts, practical gifts and my frugal Christmas.  It always does.

Wishes...

I wish I had something exciting to write about.  I wish I had a funny story to tell.  I don't.  Tonight was fun, we went to the library for some books, and to the taco bell for dinner.  Maggie met a new friend at the library.  They talked like they have been friends for years.  Avid readers unite!  The girls went back and forth suggesting books they had read.  They ended up exchanging addresses so they could be pen pals and maybe make some library dates.  Where it goes from here nobody knows.

The boys are more anti social.  Oh well.  I didn't get the chance to get any books since I was trying to keep people together...and keep an eye on everyone.  Not that the library is a scary place or anything...I just like keeping track of my kids. 

Parent/teacher conferences are coming up soon.  I love going to Maggie's...straight A's!  I however get scared going to Curt's...I just never know...

The primary program is next Sunday.  I am a bit nervous about the whole thing.  I think it will be fine.  The kids are great and they have no fear about singing or speaking.  I love that about our church...everyone is so used to being in front of a large group. 

For some reason there is no school on Friday.  I haven't figured that one out yet. 

The older boys came home and said they watched some news show that they have on at school for school kids and they were talking about Christopher Columbus as being a terrible person because he brought plagues and slavery to America...uh ok...revising history is one of my biggest pet peeves, even if it is truth...that doesn't negate everything else he has done.  It makes me really hate public school.


What else? Hmmm. Let's see...we picked squash today to put away for winter.  We saw a bunch of moles living in the garden.  We need to put the garden to bed so to speak before it gets cold outside.  Steve saw a wooly bear with a big brown stripe in the middle...read on someones blog what that meant...I can't remember...now I have to go looking for that post.

Some wishes expressed at dinner...I wish we could go to Disney World.  I wish we could go to Cedar Point.  I wish we could go to Antartica.  I wish you named me Mark. 

Couponing...my new passion...

I have tried to cut coupons in the past.  I would end up with a wad of little papers and go to the store.  I would say nine times out of ten it was still cheaper to buy the store brand.  So I would leave the little coupon by the product and sigh.  I was cutting coupons for other people.  It seemed like a huge waste of time...plus it made grocery shopping so much longer!  I really do not like to grocery shop.  Buying food is just as boring as cooking dinner.  I hate them both.  Side note...the best invention ever is the "Super Store" I leave my husband (who loves to grocery shop) and I go look at other things, anything other than canned goods.

Back to couponing.  I attended a basic couponing class.  Did you know that you can buy coupons?  They already come clipped and ready to go.  It seems to defeat the purpose of saving money but stay with me...When I feel I had a really good deal going (when paired up with store sales) I go and buy coupons and then go and stock up on the product.  Soups seem to be big this month around here.

I never though of couponing as working on food storage...Light bulb moment.

I am not fantastic at it (yet)...made some mistakes so far...(learning) but it has been fun.  I am not so grumpy about grocery shopping. Steve is happy cause I am not so grumpy about grocery shopping and he loves to get things cheap.  Yes I said cheap and not "inexpensive"...If you are cheap...embrace it!!!

Some things we got completely free...Toothpaste and toothbrushes. (laugh but we have run out of both before)  we stocked up as much as we could.  Still need more for a year supply, but we have only "couponed" for 2 weeks.

Mostly shopping at one store which does double coupons we have saved...

In one week we saved...$86.83

Weekly Special Savings...(you know using that store card before checkout)

$121.42

So all said and done...$188.25 saved.

Yippee!  

Just so you know our "grocery budget" is to try and stay under $150 for 2 weeks. (feeding 6 people)  I would dare say usually we go a bit over.  So saving or getting almost $87 is huge for us.

Some things we stocked up on:

Soups, cereals, toothpaste, toothbrushes, bleach, string cheese, frozen veggies,clorox wipes, yogurt, Boxed potatoes, Cocoa, Cheese slices and chocolate.

Oh and by the way still canning too.  Grape juice for the year...

and last but not least...Curtis...who is so excited cause he got a free batman toothbrush! 

I have tons more to learn...like how to navigate those drug store sales...that apparently you can actually make money on buying products there.  I haven't wrapped my brain around that one yet.  I'll get there though.

If you have tried couponing before, maybe you should give it another try.

Not even one lesson!

Tid Bits and whatnot...

Entries for the fair...

Maggie's Doll collection

Curt's shell collection

tomatoes yum

green beans

My Birthday Flowers!!!

First Day of school picture.

A day at the Fair

Here are three of my cuties at the fair.  Jacob wouldn't stick his head through the holes for his picture..mubbling something about it not getting on facebook...oh to be 13...

Some bad pictures of the rides. 

And last but not least Jacob with his huge plate of curly fries with Bacon and cheese....mmmmmm

Sorry it's sideways.  No time to fix it...Goodnight.

Girl vs. Boys

When it comes to being tidy my boys are lacking some sort of gene.  Maggie has her moments but overall is light years ahead of the boys in the cleaning department.  She dragged me upstairs to show me she refolded her clothes and organized her closet (for fun) .  So of course I had to take a picture and then for fun and without warning (not that they would care) we took pictures of the boys closets. 

Maggie's closet.

Curt's closet.

Doug's closet. 

Jacob's closet.

Apparently there is some sort of substance on the shelves of their closets that makes all the clothes slip off and fall into big piles on the floor.  How many times do you think I have washed clean clothes?  I tell them to clean up the room and all the sudden I have 40 loads of laundry. 

update...

Steve did great yesterday.  He is feeling fine and has had no pain at all. 

...Water softener second opinion...they fixed it for $80. 

Now on to the car situation...waiting for it all to work out.  Van fixed for $300.  Not too bad so far.

Things are working out fine.

Our Crazy Life...

This week has been crazy.  Well lets start out with a few weeks ago we found out Steve's car would cost about $700 to fix.  Since it is only worth way less than that we were formulating other plans...so he began driving the van to work.  Last Fri the van broke down on the side of the road.  Still waiting to here if it is worth fixing...Then the water softener broke that softens the water for the whole house.  Our water is terrible and this is not something one can live without for long.  They could fix it for about$600 but didn't recommend we do that as other things could go wrong since the system is about 20 years old.  They recommend a new system...I keep blanking out what they said that would cost...a couple thousand.  Steve is having surgery on his foot tomorrow and will be out of work for about a month.  Not only are they going to use all his vacation for his recovery but then he gets disability at 60% of his pay.  It is going to be a tight month to say the least.  Still trying to figure out what to do...where to spend or not spend the money...We thought we would be ok with the surgery because we have some tax return left...now it looks as if it will all disappear quickly.   For whatever reason we haven't been able to make any decisions right now.  I think denial is where we are at right now.    My plan is to get Steve through the surgery and then maybe we will be able to make some  other decisions.  It isn't like me to be so calm about this kind of stuff or to not jump in and make a decision about what we should do first and how.  I have been doing a lot of praying about it and hoping his weird calm is because the Lord is going to open up a way to accomplish all the things that need to be done. Trying to be patient that I will get some answers soon.

Clothing Manna from Heaven

This week has been a clothing God send.  Yesterday after Jacob's Dr appt  we ran into the Walmart for one thing.  Passing the boys clothing section.  This outfit for $3.  Boys sweatpants and sweatshirts $1 each.  I got two $3 outfits (they only had 2 styles) that Curtis desperately needed, and some $1 sweatpants and sweatshirts for Curt and Doug.  Passing the girls dept.  I got this dress for $1.  The tights were a splurg for $5.  I bought her two new dresses.  So for less than $20 I got 3 outfits for Curtis, one for Doug, and 2 outfits for Maggie.  Why didn't I buy one for Jacob...well cause he was being a 13 year old poopy head!!!

The best of all.  Last week on Mon (I think) Doug came downstairs with high waters on.  He had spurted out of all his jeans. Now at least an inch too short.  Way too short!  I sighed and thought of having to drag everyone clothes shopping...the whinning...the money...the frustration!!!  Wed night a dear sister from church left a bag of clothes in our car.  We got home and low and behold!!!!  6 pairs of Jeans that fit Doug perfectly!  Perfectly!!!!  Plus enough stuff to get us through summer too. 

We have been given clothing from Heaven!  Definately.

Today (might) be the Day

Today I see the surgeon again.  Hopefully today is the day I get to drive again...and hopefully today is the day I get to burn this corset/belt thingy I have been wearing for 3 weeks...and hopefully today is the day I can bend over...

Although I am looking forward to a doctors excuse not to do laundry for another year or so...


Update:  I can drive again...get to keep the corset/belt thingy for a few more weeks...and gentle bending...no twisting.  Everything looks fine.  Return appointment in March.

New Glasses Arrive

Doug first glasses ever.  He only has to wear them about an hour a day to help his eyes work better together. 

Maggie's new "pink" glasses.  I think they are cute but she has had purple glasses everytime.  I have to get used to them.  Her eyes are getting better and now one lens is clear.  Yippee!

And last but not least....drumroll please....Jacob in his new contacts!  He is probably happiest of all.

Back to Normal...and normal is good.

Today is the first day the kids are back at school.  It is quiet again.  Steve has a project going upstairs...it is snowing and I finally get to use my new mixer to make chocolate chip cookies. 

Steve is working on the boys closet.  Making it bigger and more efficient.  LOVE THAT!  He also painted the foyer/entry way this week.  It is nice that he has to be here for this and that because of my operation.  Not being able to drive has really put a crimp in him going to work.  Oh well. Hopefully only a few more days and I will have wheels again. (and a new closet :) )  I love when he is home and a bit stir crazy...things get started that he has been meaning to do for a while. 

We are mostly doing doctors appointments the next two weeks...Dermotology appt today, Eye appt thurs, ortho appt monday, dr appt tues and eye appt tues, and finally Dr. Musser (surgeon) on Fri. next week.  Then I hope to start physical therapy and get my WHEELS Back!

I will post some pictures when the closet comes along more. 

I am so excited about it being done.