**Walmart's School Supplies Deals**

Ran to Walmart today for a few things and fell in love with their school supply aisles. :) I knew they had the glue sticks on sale (2-pack for $.25), but I didn't realize how much else they had for sale!! With 2 girls in preschool this coming Fall, I figured I'd grab the glue sticks now for a quarter instead of when they're back over $1.

Well, I also had to grab 2 paints for our church garage sale sign. They were only $1.97 a piece for the big bottles, so I went a little overboard with the school supplies since I had $13 on me! I ended up paying $8.07 (including our crazy 10% tax!) for:

2 pair kid scissors (1 sharp tip, 1 blunt tip) - $.75 each
2 composition notebooks - $.50 each
2 wire notebooks - $.15 each
2 double packs of disappearing purple glue sticks (4 total) - $.25 each
2 packs of 24 ct Crayonart crayons - $.25 each
1 bottle Elmer's School Glue - $.25
2 large bottles of acrylic paint (1 black, 1 red) - $1.97.

I felt good walking out. I didn't use any coupons.....first time in a LOOOOONG time I've done that. But it was a nice reward for us. Ok, so school supplies aren't usually considered a reward. But in a couple years when all 3 of my girls are in school and my oldest is required to bring more than just glue, I'll be glad I picked up a few extra things during the sales!

On a different note, I painted the church garage sale sign today. I'm no artist, and I definitely don't have a steady hand BUT I was happy with how it turned out. I bought the stencils for the lettering but ended up just doing it free hand. The stencils kept moving and I was getting irritated.

Hoping everyone sees the sign from the street and comes to our sale!!!

DiGiorno Deep Dish

DiGiorno sent me another coupon for a free product. This time the coupon was for a Free Deep Dish Pizza. The only come in single-serving boxes (sadly). I chose the Four Cheese Deep Dish Pizza and cooked it in my conventional oven. The directions indicated to bake for 28-32 minutes. I got to 32 minutes and the outer parts were definitely heated and the cheese melted, but the center cheese was still in it's shredded form and not melted. I put my finger through the cheese and noticed the sauce and crust in the middle was just barely warm. I didn't heat it any longer for fear that the outer parts would burn.

The flavor was really good. DiGiorno has surprised me with their flavors. The Four Cheese was very cheesy. And we love cheese in our house, so that worked out well for me. :) I really like DiGiorno pizza crusts. They aren't too dry but they also don't get soggy from the sauce.They're sorta flaky but not to the point of falling apart when you try to eat it. I am not a fan of a lot of sauce, so DiGiorno pizzas are really great on that for me. They put just enough sauce to moisten the top of the crust but not so much that the sauce is pouring out all over after the first bite.

Overall, the pizza was pretty good. I think next time I'd lower the recommended oven temp and cook it for just a little longer to melt the cheese in the middle. And I wish they had a regular size deep dish product, instead of just the individual serving size. Because at $2.50 each (1 per box....and $2.50 on sale!), I don't think I'd purchase them on a regular basis. That's too much for my budget to buy and feed only 1 person!

Click here to go to the nutritional information on the pizza I ate. Thanks!

Summer is slipping away!

I feel like this summer has gotten away from me....yet, we've done so many activities. We recently went camping for 5 days. That was quite an experience! Two summers ago we went, but we only had 2 girls. This time we had all 3 girls and went for a day longer. Thanks to the rain, there were PLENTY of mosquitoes to fight off. We pretty much bathed in bug repellent several times a day. The nature trail at the campground was under water (as it was 2 years ago as well), so that was a bummer. We tent camp, which is always fun for us, but with the 90+ degrees in temperature each day we were there, I was glad to have 2 fans running constantly. :) The girls enjoyed every minute of it, of course. It was really neat to see them enjoy being outdoors all day....and it was enjoyable for us to see them fall to sleep so quickly after a long day in the sun and heat! The campground's name is Duck Creek Campground; it is in Wyocena, WI. The owners, Tom and Judy Buchta, are wonderful and "Miss Judy" will go to great lengths to ensure her campers have a nice time. Click here to see the site if anyone's interested. They do have cabins and pull-through sites as well, so for those not-so-big fans of tents theydo have other options. It's small but a great size for families.

The girls and I also went with friends to a FREE splash pad in Streamwood. It was very nice and fenced in, which helped with keeping the girls in sight but letting them run around and have a little freedom. We enjoyed a picnic lunch there as well before heading home.

My 2 oldest are participating in our library's Summer Reading Program, which ends July 31. They have to read 40 books and are about 7 books away from finishing that up.

I have volunteered to head up our church's garage sale. For those interested, New Hope Community Church in Palatine, IL will be having a garage sale on Saturday, August 7 from 10AM to 4PM. It will be at the church: 1023 E Palatine Rd, Palatine 60074. I have been busy, busy with making lists and advertising and gathering supplies. I still need to get a big sign out front. We have the info on our electronic sign but a big colorful sign would be helpful too. I'm just not that creative, so this will definitely stretch me. :) All leftover items will be donated to the WINGS Resale Shop here in Palatine; it burned down a few weeks ago.

We celebrated my oldest daughter's 4th birthday in June, my birthday in July, and had several cousins' birthdays in between. Summers are FULL of birthdays for our families. It is pretty insane how quiet the winter months are when it comes to birthdays. April to September has all of my parents' grandkids' birthdays. Ridiculous! :)

So, August will be a busy month at the beginning and hopefully quiet toward the end. My oldest goes to 4 yr old Preschoool in September and my second daughter goes to 3 yr old Preschool in October. We are working on her potty training now....I am determined to get her potty trained before she's 3 in September! LOL. We'll see if her plans are in sync with mine. HA!

I trust you all are enjoying your summer and this crazy wet and HOT weather we've had. Record rain, I hear, this summer and for the month of June. Thankfully, we've had no problems with flooding. And most of my vegetables still came up - radishes, tomato (only 1), green beans, and lettuce. My poor zucchini and cucumbers died - zucchini because of the dry hot weather while we were gone (didn't rain once!) and the cucumbers because of too much rain in one night. Oh well, it was a fun experiment and the girls enjoyed checking on them daily as well as scaring away the squirrels trying to steal from us!

I can't complain about my summer; God has been abundantly good....as always! Have a safe and happy August!

Weeds and Thorns

I have been so tired lately. Summer is just wearing me out...and there's still two more months of it!

Today, the girls and I went over to church to water the flowers. I noticed the weeds have really tried taking over since all of the rain from this past month! We decided (ok, I decided) to weed the flowerbeds. Bad idea. I mean, it's a good idea but I just wasn't mentally prepared for the amount of weeds. I didn't bring my gloves, and the girls kept hurting themselves on the playground and just walking! I noticed that all the flowers and plants looked relatively the same size as last week, but the weeds looked super huge! I was trying to think of ways to connect with the weeds spiritually, and I started thinking of how weeds, like sin, seem to suck up all the nutrients and crowd out the plants and flowers. Sin tends to suck up my energy and time and crowd out the good qualities in me.

Then, I came across a weed that had a very pretty flower on the end of it. At first, I couldn't decide if it was indeed a weed or just a different flower I hadn't noticed before. I began inspecting the stem and leaves and then realized it was just like the other, smaller weeds I had plucked up; the only difference was that this one had gotten so huge it was able to produce a flower. I started thinking of the ways Satan tries to deceive us by making sin look pretty and appealing and similar to actual good things. The more we inspect it and really compare, the more we can see that it is really just a huge sin in our lives that we've let go until we cannot recognize it for what it is.

It's amazing, the relationship between sin and weeds. Just like a garden, our lives need to be "weeded" to get rid of the sin that we've let sneak in and suck up our spiritual nutrients and try to just blend in with the rest of our lives.

I can be so judgmental. I usually try to justify it by telling myself that in order to be hanging out with positive and encouraging people, I need to pick apart their lives and habits and actions to know if they're good for my spiritual growth. Now, reading that with a clear heart and head just sounds awful. I don't recall reading anywhere that Jesus sat and judged everyone's actions before deciding to sit and eat with them. Or judging Mary Magdalene's actions before she wiped His feet. He simply accepted them where they were and fellowshipped. And HE IS JESUS!! I think I can handle doing the same, being just sinful old me. I mean, who do I think I am sometimes to go around deciding how good people are?! It's disgusting what I let myself get away with. And I'm ashamed to know that it's habitual for me. I don't even think twice now that I've done it so often.

And now to think that God will still love me. I ask Him for forgiveness and He simply accepts my apology and my sinful self as I am to fellowship again with Him.

How great Thou art. I couldn't have said it better.

Book Review: Friendship for Grownups by Lisa Whelchel

Amazing, Amazing, AMAZING! I have read several books with a similar theme as this, but Friendship for Grownups has surpassed them all. Lisa Whelchel creates such a warm atmosphere through her words; she has the ability to encourage and convict within the same sentence. She paints a clear picture of how God has pricked her heart in the area of adult friendships and has really opened herself to be used by God to do the same to others. Lisa Whelchel describes the ups and downs of a friendship, physically, emotionally and spiritually. She fully understands true friendship and does a magnificent job giving a full description of every avenue friendship takes. I have learned more about myself and what it is to be a true friend in order to find true friends than I ever have before!

No Bread but More Dough

It's a dumb title; I know. I just thought it was clever. I haven't had any bread orders in months, which is completely fine with me. I'm not running around trying to keep my girls occupied while I sweat away in the kitchen kneading and stirring and baking. The only thing I miss is the money. Perhaps this is God's way of telling me to slow down, take some time for my family, and forget about the money for a bit.

On another money-related issue (ha!), I've been careful to watch my grocery spending. I have stockpiled a fair amount of things. I do not like the word stockpile. It sounds too Y2K-ish for me, but I guess it IS what I'm doing. I have 15 cereal boxes in the pantry right now. No, I will not be buying any more for several months! That's a nice thing - being able to cross off one of my weekly purchases. We go through a large amount of cereal each month. Between snacks and actual bowls for breakfast, we consume about a box-worth a week. So, 15 boxes isn't really that much when I start to calculate it all out. I have 5 boxes of cake mix. I love making my own from scratch, but when I can get a box for about $.20 I am definitely grabbing a few. Oh, and yes I did remember to get enough frosting for them. One of my biggest annoyances is going to make a cake mix and finding that I didn't pick up any frosting when I bought it. Seems logical - you buy one, you buy the other - but it's happened several times over the past several years that I've wanted to make a quick cake and frost it to take somewhere or have for dessert that night and I have cake but no frosting. This time, I'm prepared. :)

I went to Meijer today to grab some very cheap and some free items. I have been receiving, by mail, high-value coupons for items and even several FREE item coupons. I forget why I received it, but a box of Kraft goodies came yesterday with some coupons that included 2 for free items. When I write to companies online to thank them or tell them how much we like their items (and I don't lie - I tell them what specifically we like and why and sometimes some things we don't like), they are very appreciative and almost always send coupons by mail as a Thank You. My receipt today said I saved $31 with coupons and another $30 or so with store sales....that's over $60 in savings! I paid $44.08 for a cart full of groceries and was able to get several of some things to stock up. I am extremely thankful for what I've learned lately about grocery shopping, coupons, sales, and purposeful shopping.

Next week, I plan to only buy produce (no milk...I bought 2 today that will last til the next paycheck), so that'll hopefully leave us with leftover budgeted grocery money. My goal is to have $20 left over on the 31st to roll into our camping fund. We are so excited to go camping in July. Iris is the only one that remembers going camping the last time. Lily and Addy will have so much fun. I hope Addy's walking by then; it will be dreadful to have to carry her around all week. Too hot! And I'm hoping she will be weaned by then....selfishly. :) Too hot!

God has entrusted me with so much for my family. It's amazing the responsibility we have as parents - feed, clothe, raise our children, financial planning and budgeting, etc. It is my job to guard my daughters' eyes and ears from things they shouldn't see or hear. TV is my biggest enemy right now. It is so hard to find afternoon cartoons for the girls that don't have "stupid" or "dumb" or "i hate you" in them. My girls repeat everything and when they hear it on TV they think it's ok. I know I let them watch too much TV, so this week it has been my goal to only let them watch a total of 3 hours a day. I know some of you are cringing right now that they are allowed to watch that much a day - believe me, that's a huge cut in hours. I usually let the TV just play all day. Even if no one's watching; it's background noise. But shows and commercials come on that I'm not paying attention to and before I know it my girls are glued to Spongebob or some other older kid show that uses language I don't let my children use. So, as much as I'd like to say I let them watch only educational shows and no more than 2 hours a day....well, we're getting there. No Spongebob anymore; I've said that before and found myself putting it on for them so they'll stop whining while I cook dinner - but not anymore! And no more than 3 hours a day. No TV during breakfast, no kid shows for Iris while the other 2 nap, no TV for lunch or dinner (that's not a huge change, they don't usually watch during those meals), and only shows that I know will not be using bad language. Disney and PBS are pretty good bets for nice language. And I don't allow myself more than an hour of TV during the day. I could get carried away with silly shows during naptime but I have other things I should be doing (what's that Proverbs 31 verse about idleness? whatever it says, that's what I want to be doing).

As my youngest is whining, I'm thinking about how easy it would be right now to let them go downstairs and watch cartoons to keep them quiet for a while. Nope. They've used up their hours today and so have I. So, I am finding other ways to spend our time - catching up on blogging, organizing things we've gotten out throughout the day, and soon I will start dinner. To think of all those hours I've wasted watching unimportant shows during the day when I should have been doing things to bring honor and glory to God - keeping my home orderly, budgeting or planning grocery outings, interacting with my children, or (more importantly!) spending time reading my Bible and praying. I have slacked so much lately with that. I've gotten away from my routine of morning exercise and Bible reading before the girls get up. I need that; I need that time to be quiet and just read and talk to God and ask for His help throughout the day that is starting. I am so frazzled otherwise; I lose my temper too quickly, I snap at the girls, I have zero patience, I am self-centered, I waste money on impulse purchases, I waste time on things I shouldn't be doing. God wants to hear from me; He wants me to ask Him for things. It needs to be a priority - an early morning priority before I get lost in the day. I am no good to my family if I haven't touched base with God first.

Tomorrow is a new day.

The Big Picture

I have to get this blog in before I get the girls bathed and in bed. Tonight, I just want to lie on the couch and zone out watching tv. I have to be careful, though, because my youngest is trying to grab the laptop, and my older 2 are wrestling about 3 feet away from me. What was I thinking?!

This week is the second week of the paycheck, so funds are touch and go this week....for lack of a better description. :) I shopped on Thursday for this week's actual groceries, so I will just be grabbing my CVS, Walgreens, and Target deals/steals/freebies this week until payday on Friday. Then we have my brother's wedding on Saturday, so we'll be out of town Friday and Saturday, and with church on Sunday....looks like those groceries will have to hold us over til next Monday. (crossing my fingers)

This morning, I rushed around during my oldest's 30 minute ballet class and ran over to Walgreens. Here's my shopping detail:

Bought Schick Hydro 5 (sale price of $7.99, and 5 RR's back)
Quilted Northern 12 double rolls (sale price of $5.99 - not great - with no RR's)
Used $5 off coupon for Schick
Used $.50 off coupon Quilted Northern
Had 4 RR's left over from last week's trip (had to buy 2 $.33 caramels at checkout to use my two 2 RR's - stupid Walgreens rules!)
Paid $6.60 out of pocket and got 5 RR's back....not bad!

After naps this afternoon, the girls and I ran to CVS. Of course, their scanner was out of paper, so I couldn't print any extra coupons and the line was too long once they refilled it....I was definitely not going to wait in line with my 3 little ones! So I continued with my purchases, hopefully without missing out on bonus coupons for the 3 items we bought. :)

Bought Jumbo Huggies (sale price of $8.49, and 2 ECB's back)
Gallon of Milk (sale $2.59 and 1 ECB back)
Carefree Liners (sale $1.00 for 22 pack)
Used $2 Huggies coupon - that I got when I submitted a feedback email online to them!
Used $1 off any Carefree item
Used 5 ECB's from last week's trip
Paid $5.09 out of pocket and got 3 ECB's back....again, not bad!

We rushed over to Target, where I transferred my Rx from CVS...and used a coupon to get a $10 gift card with the Rx transfer.
Paid $5 for the Rx, got $10 gift card!!
Bought Scrubbing Bubbles (no longer at $7.99 sale price, but was only $8.69 not on sale)
Used $5 off Scrubbing Bubbles Starter.
Bought construction paper and kid safety scissors
Total was $8.70, paid with gift card.
Used a coupon to get another $5 gift card when I purchase the Scrubbing Bubbles.
Walked out with $1.30 left on the one card and another $5 gift card. Only paid $5 for the Rx!

The girls made "cards" for Dad while I made dinner. What a great deal day! Hoping to get over to Jewel in the morning to pick up a few more Gatorade and Baby Basics diapers (with my $4 off coupon) to use up an expiring $4 Jewel Catalina. And THAT should be the end of shopping for the week.

Now, I just have to find something to wear for the wedding and we'll be all set! I found that it was so easy to find things to wear for nice occasions while I was pregnant - something stretchy and some sandals and I was all set. Now I actually have to put some thought into it! Haha. Regardless of what I wear, it'll be a great time and I'm so excited for my brother and my soon-to-be sister-in-law!

Movie Night

I had movie night tonight with the girls. We had a pizza picnic in the living room while we watched Shrek the Third. Normally, I would NOT let them eat dinner on the floor in the living room, but I figured we could do something fun since we were without Dad tonight and they were slightly bummed about that.

After we ate, my 2 year old came over by me and said "I lub zu mama". I almost cried. I didn't even initiate it, she just came over to tell me. It was the sweetest thing ever.

I am constantly amazed by my children. They can frustrate me to no end some days; then other days they are the most thoughtful and sweet girls. They really know how to push my buttons while we're out running errands, but I really love when they calm down while we relax at home. My oldest is a know-it-all (at 3! I thought for sure that wasn't coming until the teenage years!), but she can say the silliest things sometimes and we laugh so hard! My 2 year old is really coming into her own lately, and she really enjoys conversation instead of just playing. While we drive to the store or wherever, she asks some thought-provoking questions or makes up scenarios for whatever she catches a glimpse at as we drive by. Her creativity overwhelms me, and I just can't wait to see how she'll use that in the next few years in school. My 'baby' who just turned 1 has developed quite a personality and really became a Daddy's girl over the last few weeks. Even though she whines when I'm not around, she has such a joyous and excited expression when Daddy gets home or is playing with the older 2. She really wants to crawl over there and lie on him. It is adorable to see him interact with them....sometimes looking to me for translation of their phrases or stories. :)

For all the worries we have as adults, our kids are so carefree and loving life.....which is exactly how I believe it should be. They love people and animals and everything. They have their moments of crying when they're hurt or upset or angry, but give them 2 minutes and they are back to their amazement of the world. They don't hold grudges, don't care what others think about them or their appearance, don't pay attention to all the dirt and germs that sometimes drive me crazy trying to clean up. They just love life. I hope my children are always loving life and loving everything life has to offer.

Nivea at CVS; Scrubbing Bubbles at Target

CVS has a sale on Nivea body wash and shower gel this week, as well as Nivea lip care. I bought 3 Nivea 16 ounce body washes and 1 Cherry Lip Balm for around $16. I used 3 of the $4 off for each of the body wash and 1 of the $1 off for the lip balm. Because I reached $15 pre-coupons, I got 5 ECB's back. So, I paid $6.39 (for items and tax) and got 5 back! 3 body washes and a lip balm for $1.39....not bad!

Later, I plan to head to Target to buy 2 of the Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bottles that are on sale for $7.99; I will use two $5 off coupons and pay around $7 and get two $5 gift cards back. I plan to use that $10 to get my girls some shorts. Seems we go through them soooo fast....and Mondays are the day Target moves kid clothing to clearance (or already clearance items move up in clearnance percentage - 30% now 50%). Hoping to get a few pairs for my older girls.

Happy Monday!

Time Off

I didn't realize how much of a stickler I am about routine until my husband took some time off this month. Yikes! I liked to think that I was go-with-the-flow and kind of just did whatever we wanted each day, other than on preschool days. I guess I was wrong. I am exactly the opposite - I have a mental schedule that I stick to very strictly and boy am I a grouch when we deviate from that schedule!

For a while I was following the FlyLady (www.flylady.net) with regard to my cleaning and organizing schedules. She has a lot of great information for organization and time management when it comes to keeping the home clean....and by clean I mean SPOTLESS. I became pretty obsessed with cleaning for a little while, until I realized that maybe her schedules didn't fit a family of 5, including a very new newborn. So, I dropped her schedule, though I continue to receive her emails - guess I couldn't completely let go of that addiction. :)

Next, I tried to keep a few tips of FlyLady's and incorporate them into my own schedule. That worked, but then I fell into some sort of funk during the winter months because we were stuck inside a lot due to weather. I felt like I was cleaning the same things every other day....and they weren't even dirty! I gave up on that because it just made me angry.

And now, I keep no cleaning schedule (on paper, anyway). I just clean as needed and do a good deep-clean weekly or when I can get to it. At least, I THOUGHT that's how I was doing it. I guess not.

My husband's first day off last week was laundry day. I thought I was going to blow a fuse because I couldn't get as much done as I normally can on a Monday. I made the mistake, though, of verbalizing that and hurt his feelings. I made it seem like I didn't even want him home! The rest of last week is a blur because I was rushing around buying food and preparing for my youngest's first birthday parties (yes, she had 2 of them. ugh.). I overspent on the food because I was unprepared for the shopping and I was rushing around last minute trying to put together the cakes and packing and cleaning. We ended up in Indiana Thurs-Sat, so I wasn't going to have time to clean before the 2nd party here on Sunday. I didn't plan out my week well, so I spent Thursday morning running around and crying. Yes, crying. My husband probably thought I was nuts. I was crying because Dominick's didn't have peppers on sale, and I spent $6 for 3 peppers. I still think that's a ridiculous amount of money, but I needed them. I was just so frustrated, and the peppers were the last straw. I was able to get it together in time to go and enjoy some time at my parents' house this weekend. I had a mini-meltdown Sunday when the rice just wouldn't cook! Crunchy rice doesn't make for a very nice Arroz con Pollo. I guess that's what I get for trying so hard. Should have stuck with the simple - hot dogs and hamburgers.

Anyway, today he's back at work for a half day then has tomorrow and Friday off before going back to his regular schedule. I am learning much about myself. I am a huge grouch when I can't do what I want to do. Go figure. I suppose my parents could've told me that one. :) I think I will be upset with myself for not enjoying this time off more, but I will also enjoy getting "back to normal." I think we'll have a few months before he has several days off again. And I'm sure by then I'll be griping about having to do everything myself because of his work schedule.

I wish I could just turn off my scheduled self when I needed to, to just enjoy my family and our time together. We did have a lot of fun. Went to the Museum of Science and Industry last Wednesday. The girls got to see and do a lot of things. It was fun to watch them explore and process and just observe all the things out there. I had a great time with both sides of the family for the parties. My Baby is 1 year old now! I can't believe it. I baby her a lot still, but I guess she's really growing up fast.

Now, if I could just get her to sleep in her own bed through the night.....(ya, don't get me started on that one. there might be tears...)