Even better than free!

Today was a great shopping day. Once I get my rebates back I will have made $3 for buying all of this. I also stopped at Target, Michaels & Kmart to use a few coupons there as well. But I actually had to spend money at those stores. I've decided it is a great hobby. It does take time but it saves us money and I've lost 5 lbs in the last 2 weeks because my mind has something to focus on besides food.

Crazy Couponing

Rite Aid - Total spent after coupons, Single Check Rebate and 2 stamps for the rebates I have to mail = $3.58

Walgreens : Total spent $1.82 (I messed this transaction up - I should have made .18 cents)

There is a huge learning curve when it comes to couponing. I'm slowly getting better. I only messed up on one transaction today and that was only $2. The only problem is it takes a lot of time! I'm having a lot of fun finding deals! It's my new hobby.

I also went to Michaels, Target & Smiths and got great deals there but nothing close to these deals.

Tie Me In A Ball

This is something my kids love to do. Usually it is just one of them tied up in a blanket and they roll around on the floor. Today 3 of them wanted to be tied up together. Cheap enertainement.

Booking Through Thursday

What’s the saddest book you’ve read recently?
I can't remember feeling sad while reading a book lately. I'm reading Follow the River and I'd have to say there is some sad stuff in that book. Horrid details from an Indian attack. I tend to like happy ending kind of books so if I know a book has a unhappy ending I skip it. Many books I've read have sad moments in them but over all they are not sad books.

I've not finished any books this week. I've given up on the goal of 150 books this year and I'm just about to break 100 Books so I'm not longer driven to read. I think I'll stick with 100 books a year from here on out. I was on track to hit 150 but it's just too much for me right now. So this week I'll finish Follow the River and Children of the Mind.

Great Deals with Coupons

I've gone slightly crazy couponing lately. I blame Andi and her couponing class at enrichment last month.
The internet is amazing! I've found coupons for so many things and got tons of free or nearly free things. I've found some great sites with links to coupon match ups, freebies and free samples. I don't even currently subscribe to the newspaper and yet I've found coupons for almost everything online.
My trip to Albertson's today included 30 boxes of cereal & 20 boxes of assorted cookies, crackers, nutrigrain bars & special K bars plus some bananas for $41. I had coupons for everything even the bananas!
I've lived here 5 years and been to Walgreens once and never been to Rite Aid. I'm still not a fan of Rite Aid but Walgreens will probably be added to my list of weekly stops because they have lots of great and often free deals with their register rewards. I've spent a lot of time the past 2 weeks learning where to find all the good deals but now that I've figured things out it should take a limited amount of time from here on out.

So here are a couple of my favorite sites:
www.grocerysmarts.com Utah's code is g84rcm - If you live somewhere other than Utah you can do a search for the passport for your area. This is a great site for finding out what's on sale each week at local grocery stores. It is also good for matching up what is on sale with newspaper coupons. However it's not fabulous at match ups for internet printable coupons. There are tons of internet printable coupons that are not linked to on this site.

There are dozens of sites out there but it's pointless to visit all of them because they tend to have the same items listed.
Here are a few sites I have found helpful:
http://www.abundantfoodsavings.com/
http://www.faithfulprovisions.com/
http://freebies4mom.blogspot.com/
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/
http://www.coupongeek.net/

What sites do you use to find great deals?

Tackle It Tuesday

Today I'm trying to tackle a few things off my endless To Do List:
Payroll
Pay Bills
Mail Rebates
Library renewals
Organize coupons
Plan something for activity days (it is this afternoon)

Then I need to get my house clean so I can have activity days here today. I'm being over run by clutter & laundry. I've spent way too much time couponing lately and not enough time cleaning, exercising and reading. Why is it so hard to juggle and balance everything?

Celebrate

My birthday was on Sunday but we opted to celebrate on Saturday so we could go out to eat. The kids started the day by making me breakfast in bed with no help from Brian. 4 of the kids had earned free happy meals from Applebees from school so we went there for lunch.

We then did some shopping and went to the Rodeo parade and then went out to dinner at In N Out.

Sunday Brian made me a cake & fettucine alfredo.

Happy 37th birthday to me. I'm getting OLD!

Thanks!

Happy Early Birthday to Me.
When I was asked what I wanted for my birthday I said I just wanted the kids to help me get the house clean without whining or complaining and then I wanted to take the kids to Applebees for lunch.
Brian told me he was heading to work this morning and we were going to pick him up at noon to go to lunch but he didn't actually leave. I found him downstairs organizing our food storage room. I've been finding amazing deals on food lately through couponing and I've been stocking up on tons of stuff. However I never seem to get it all organized and put away. Thanks for giving me something I really wanted.

Booking Through Thursday

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers)
Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? frivolous
Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? hardcovers
Fiction? Or Nonfiction? Fiction
Poetry? Or Prose? Prose
Biographies? Or Autobiographies? Biographies
History? Or Historical Fiction? Historical Fiction
Series? Or Stand-alones? Stand-alones
Classics? Or best-sellers? best-sellers
Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? straight-forward, basic prose
Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? plots
Long books? Or Short? short
Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? illustrated
Borrowed? Or Owned? borrowed
New? Or Used? used

3 books this past week:

The Solace of Leaving Early - recommended by my cousin Amy. A little slow to start but I ended up really enjoying this one.
The Great Gatsby - for my list of classics. Better than I had thought it would be.
Don't you Marry the Mormon Boys - typical mormon fiction. I enjoyed the first half, however there are a lot of other lds fiction books I would recommend before this one.

Kathy's book montage

Kathy's favorite books »

This week I'm listening to Children of the Mind and reading Follow the River. Brian & I are listening to Ender's Shadow. When I make it through Follow the River I'll start Dreamquake. I may yet get the Old Testament finished...my goal is to have it done before the end of the year so I better get reading a little more often.

Kathy's currently-reading book montage

Kathy's favorite books »

Slow as Molasses

It is so not worth spending time on the internet when it is being so slow. Yesterday our internet wouldn't work at all. I got a new modem set up and now the internet is working but it is so slow. Not sure what the problem is now but it is so not worth the time or frustration of waiting for a page to load.

Do Over?

Can't we please just start today over again? I'm sure I could have a much more productive day if I was just waking up at 6:15 this morning instead of finally getting a shower at 3:15 after accomplishing nothing today.
So what do you say? Can I have a do over today? I could get up, read my scriptures, workout, get the laundry going, do the dishes, clean the house...all the things that happen on a productive day which is not what today has been.

I guess some days are like this... Even in Australia!

When It Rains It Pours

Bryce called from school saying he was getting another migraine. I ran to school and gave him some ibuprofen and told him to see if he could make it to the end of the day. He made an attempt but 15 minutes later he was back in the office because he couldn't think clearly enough to do his work and his hands were going numb. He knew he was looking at a grid but he said he kept thinking grip and couldn't answer the questions because he couldn't get the words right. So I brought him home and put him to bed. A couple hours later he woke up crying in pain from his headache. I was trying to soothe him when the doctor called back and was asking me questions and giving me advice on what to do. While talking to the doctor Kim called to say Bradley had crashed on his bike on the way home. So the conversation with the doctor had to come to an abrupt end while I raced to pick Bradley up. Thankfully Kim's friend Kylee was walking home and had a cell phone with her and thankfully Bradley was not hurt too badly. Just a little road rash with the worst of it being on his knee.
From the doctor I learned that if the headaches continue to occur as often as they are (4 times in 2 weeks) he'll refer Bryce to a neurologist.
Time for a big deep breath. Now back to life as scheduled: homework, chores and if I'm lucky I may yet make it into the shower before dinnertime. I haven't found time to workout today yet either and it's not looking promising. Perhaps I'll get a walk in tonight with Brian once the kids are in bed.

Sometimes you just have to stop and feed the ducks

After an hour long grocery shopping trip Kylie came home and got a heal from a loaf of bread and insisted we needed to feed the ducks because they were hungry. She searched the kitchen and found 4 hot dog buns that never got eaten and was ready to go. I thought why not and grabbed a loaf of slightly freezer burned bread and we headed off to the duck pond. While she threw bread at the ducks I cleaned out the Suburban.
The only flowers we have around here to stop and smell are dandelions and they don't smell to great. Since we can't stop and smell the flowers I guess we'll stop and feed the ducks once in a while.

I love a great deal

I love great deals. A couple weeks ago we had an enrichment class on couponing. I'm at best a sporatic couponer. It takes a lot of time and organization (not my strong points). However I've been trying to make a whole hearted attempt at keeping our grocery costs under control. I can easily spend $1000 a month feeding this family of 7 and I always shop the sales & markdowns and buy the cheapest things I can. You'll never find me paying more than a dollar or two for cereal, we don't eat a lot of meat, I cook mainly from scratch, we don't eat out more then once a week and then only somewhere I can feed everyone for less than $20. Trying to keep these growing children fed with at least partly nutricious food at a reasonable price is a struggle. If I buy 4 lbs of strawberries at Costco for $5.49 my kids will eat the entire thing in one afternoon. A dozen apples typically last a day around here, 2 days if I'm lucky. Brett can eat nearly an entire box of cereal in one sitting. It's crazy how much food we go through.
Today I got up early to shop Albertson's sales. 43 boxes of cereal, 64 cans of soup, 10 boxes of granola bars, 16 Yoplait yogurts all of which I had coupons for. I also got a ham & some day old donuts & fruit = $121 spent $226 saved. Although I honestly don't know who would ever pay $4.69 for a box of Kelloggs cereal? So for this trip couponing was definitely worth it. My kids will be thrilled to have chicken noodle soup & cereal for snacks after school. Time to stock up on milk too!
If you are new to couponing check out the site Grocerysmarts.com - You need a passport to access it. I only know the Utah passport but you can find other states by googling "grocery smarts passport" plus the state you live in. Check it out and stock up on the 5 star items.

I love Sundays!

Seriously Sunday is the best day of the week. No friends, no video games, no regular TV, naps, quiet, kids playing together, reading, church movies...


Today we watched Veggie Tales: The Lord of the Beans. Since we like the Lord of the Rings if was really funny to watch this spoof. I love the humor:



Instead of Bilbo saying: I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

Billyboy says: I'm twice as tall as half of you and half as short as twice of you.

Instead of Orcs there are Sporks:
Unnatural creatures forged by Scaryman himself. Half spoon, half fork.
Sporks. They are his utensils. And they do his bidding.

You can't help but laugh. Ok maybe you can watch it without laughing but we couldn't. I highly recommend it for any Lord of the Rings fans who have kids.

Another Migraine!

Bryce started getting another Migraine headache today. It started right before school got out and he was miserable by the time he got home. Thankfully the doctor's advice worked: a dose of ibuprofen and then I made him drink a bunch of water and put him to bed. After a 3 hour nap he woke up feeling much better. Thank goodness we dodged that one. I'm not sure either of us were ready for hours of him in pain again.

Booking Through Thursday

What’s the most informative book you’ve read recently?
Informative? I'm really more of a novel kind of girl. I've recently started some informational books: How to Have a 48 Hour Day, It's Here Somewhere, & The Spectrum but I haven't made it through any of them. So I'd have to go to some church type books I read at the start of summer: Behind Every Good Man, Mary Martha & Me, Walking into a Hug and Too Much to Carry Alone.

This past week I finished 2 books:

Animal Farm & Dreamhunter

Dreamhunter is a fun read and I'll start it's sequel Dreamquake shortly. I've put it on hold at the library and am just waiting for it to come in. It's an interesting fantasy about The Place where dreamcatchers catch dreams and then share them with others as a form of entertainment, healing and other purposes I'm not give away.

Animal Farm takes care of one more book on my list of classics:
1984 by George Orwell
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov - probably skipping this one due to it's subject matter
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac - attempted but there is no point to this book so I quit after making it 1/4 of the way through
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald - just started

I actually enjoyed Animal Farm which was surprising. I have such low expectations for this list of classics! They are just not the kinds of books I love to read.

The next classic I'm tackling is The Great Gatsby. I know I saw a movie of this book but I can't remember the story.
I'm also reading The Solace of Leaving Early for an online book club my cousin started and Follow The River for the book club in my ward.

Work It Wednesday

I'm off to a slow start today. I just finished my workout and it is already 10:45. Yesterday was a crazy busy day and I feel like I'm recovering from it today. Plus I woke up with a pain in my neck after having slept wrong. It's so hard to be motivated with a nagging pain in my neck. I'd love to curl up with a book and read for a few hours but that's not going to happen.
Todays tasks:
Grocery lists & coupons printed
Pay bills
Kitchen cleaned
Bathrooms cleaned
I probably should add a few more things but those are the priorities for today and by the time I shower, get Kylie lunch and off to playgroup and finally get started I'll only have a couple hours before the kids start coming home from school.

Lava Tubes in Snow Canyon

This morning we went out to Snow Canyon to do a short hike. The hike isn't too long and leads to a couple of lava tubes/caves.

Coming out of the biggest cave. We're glad we went early and we're back to the car by 10:30. It was a nice morning but it would have been too hot if we had waited until later. Then it was off to Wendy's for lunch on grandpa. He's headed home tonight and we'll miss having him around.

Here I go again

I'm starting 6 weeks of no sugar, no white refined foods, no junk food. I'm such an all or nothing person. I stink at moderation and I'm a stress eater who is addicted to sugar. It's time to go cold turkey again. Last year I went off sugar & white refined foods for 10 weeks. Then I went back to eating how I used to eat and put all the weight I'd lost back on. Time to take it off again. I'm in a challenge with a few friends where we'll track daily points based on eating, exercise, water, vitamins, etc. I'll be posting most of my healthy living related posts on my healthy living blog.
I just enjoyed a delicious piece of strawberry shortcake. The last of such treats for at least 6 weeks.

It's always fun when Grandpa comes

We love having grandpa come to visit. He drove up Friday for the long weekend and will go home tomorrow. We took the boat out to Sand Hollow yesterday for some tubing and cliff jumping. Yesterday afternoon we went to see Ice Age 3.

We love having company

Tim & Kristen & Amelia came through on their way back from California. We always love having company come visit. After a breakfast of aebleskiver we headed over to Little Valley park to play before they got on the road to head home.

Booking Through Thursday

What's the biggest book you've read recently?
I'm attempting to read the Old Testament cover to cover. I've been at it for nearly 4 years. It's slow going. 200 pages left. I will get through it.

Other big books I've read this year include The Sweet Far Thing - 819 pages & Brisingr - 763 pages.

I'm currently working on my list of classics. These are the ones I've attempted to read in the last few weeks.

1984 by George Orwell - Did I love it? No. Was it worth reading? Yes.

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell - Started this one today. So far it's quite entertaining . I'm sure I'll be at a total loss as to all the deep meaning and symbolism in this book since my knowledge of history is severely lacking.

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac - I made a good attempt. I got about 1/4 of the way through and then gave up. There is no plot to this book. Beautiful writing but I really don't care about Sal's travels back and forth across the country, how many girls he & his friends sleep with or what stupid things he does along the way.

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury - The one I've enjoyed most so far. This one is worth reading.

As far as other books I've read this past month:
Love in the Time of Cholera - Awful. Beautiful writing but terrible story. I kept thinking it would get better but it didn't.

Graceling - Loved this book!

Xenocide - Another one I really enjoyed.

Ella Enchanted - Great for the whole family. Kim & I both liked it.

I Just Got a Letter From Allyson Pringle - A typical LDS teenage fiction book. Entertaining but predictable.

I track and review everything I'm reading on Goodreads. Love the site!

Tackle It Tuesday Completed

At least it now looks better. Too bad all those boxes are full of unsorted, unorganized, unlabeled pictures. It's not going to be fun to go through all of this and sort, scan, simplify, throw out & organize it all. I did find some fun things as I was sorting through things, old newspaper articles, stuff from high school, old pictures and things I had forgotten about.

Tackle It Tuesday

I have to laugh at a comment someone made to me the other day. A friend told me that someone who reads my blog said I must have a really clean house because according to my blog I am always cleaning. Boy do I wish that was the case. In reality I'm always cleaning because my house is always messy. It never seems to stay clean for long. Sunday night it was totally clean when my brother & sister in law arrived but then I got nothing done yesterday. My workout was interrupted by a call from Bryce to pick him up from school. Then it was a trip to the doctor and another trip out to pick up a prescription. By the time all that was done I was wiped out and ready for a nap. We were all tired so the afternoon was spent by all of us doing nothing but watching PBS kids and laying arouond.

However since my house was all clean on Sunday night it shouldn't be too hard to get my house back in shape today.

I'm going to spend the morning cleaning up the messes of yesterday: mainly dishes, laundry and school clutter.

Then I'm going to tackle this mess:

I quit scrapbooking about 7 years ago. We went digital 4 years ago and have printed nothing since then. So this closet would be everything that has never been scrapbooked, copies of things that have been scrapbooked and generally just a big disorganized mess. We just got a scanner so Saturday night I began to pull stuff out of this closet and started scanning and organizing stuff. So for tackle it Tuesday I'm going to spend at least an hour this afternoon tackling the mess in this closet.

Sick Kid

Bryce called me from school yesterday saying he was sick. When I picked him up it was obvious he was not well. After being home for a few minutes I decided we needed a trip to the Dr. I thought perhaps he had a migraine headache but wasn't sure. The Dr. did the examine and thought the same thing that it was probably just a migraine because there were no symptoms of anything else (no fever, no cough, no congestion, no sore throat). Just to be sure they ran some lab work to check for strep, mono or the flu. Bryce ended up having strep & 2 strains of the flu.
So he's now on an antibiotic for the strep and after a priesthood blessing and a day in bed he is doing much better today. Still out of school since he's still contagious today and still a little weak but wow what a difference a day makes. Sure makes me appreciate the fact that my kids are almost always healthy.
Hopefully the rest of us won't get it. Last night everyone got treated to large doses of Vitamin D & Drinkable fruits & vegetables in an effort to boost their immune systems.