Next year we look forward to potty training (wish us luck), another pregnancy, a sweet newborn, my oldest going to school, and Chad finishing classes. Wow, I’m tired already. But also filled with joy. Just picture me with drowsy eyes and a big smile.

The book we are reading right now is Tess of the D’Urbervilles It is the hardest book I have read for a book club. Normally I would quit, but I keep going because my friend named her first born Tessa after it. I wanted to know why, so I kept reading. And behind the really confusing language is an amazing woman and a timeless lesson.

That is what this blog is really about. A timeless lesson.

Her husband is judging her for past deeds, that is all you really need to know for my favorite quote. Ready, here it comes, drum roll please….

“In considering what Tess was not, he overlooked what she was, and forgot that the defective can be more than the entire.”

And I just want to testify that is true. Do not discount the defective, whatever that may be. Homeless, alcoholic, whatever. Small thing, big thing, past, present. The Lord can and has worked miracles in people from day one. He can and He will do it again.  We don’t know what is in another’s heart. And we don’t know what the Lord can and will do in another’s heart. So remember, “the defective can be more that the entire.”

But I am saving quit a bit. My friend Heather introduced me to the idea a few months back and it seemed pretty smart to me. She went to a class and I just watched the tutorial videos on on-line at SavvyShopperDeals.com. Basically, just match a coupon to a sale. If you are interested go to the site and watch the professional.

I felt pretty discouraged at first because I was spending a ton of time on it but didn’t feel like I was saving that much. But then I checked out our budget and our storage room downstairs, turns out I am saving. I have almost doubled our food storage in a month and spent the same amount on groceries as before.

But I have to warn you, it takes a ton of time! I’ve been looking at different options to help the family out financially for a while and there is no smart way for me to go to work. I wouldn’t make enough in my profession to cover daycare. So I look at this as my part time job. I’m hoping to get our grocery bill down to $50 a week. It also cuts the cost of personal hygiene, cleaners and medicine.

If you are thinking about doing it here a few tips from someone who doesn’t know very much about it:

• go ahead and buy the 3″ binder, you will use all of it! And get straps, trust me, you will want them. I ended up sewing some on mine and that was a pain in the butt!
• Chad got  100 baseball card holders on amazon.com for $10 plus $5 shipping, I’ve also heard they are at hobby stores, Roberts and Target (Target being the cheapest)
• take a friend after a while and talk to her about the savings, it made me feel really good and I realized how awesome it is
• find a single friend to go with. She can watch the kids and use your coupons herself. I will be going with my cousin Julie on Tuesday and Friday, pretty excited about that
• the best way to learn is to just start

Thank you Heather for helping me out and the advice!

It is a dvd program that teaches babies to read. I’ve heard some about it but hadn’t actually seen anything on it. But it basically teaches babies how to read as early as 15 mo. Not paragraphs, but individually words. Around 2 or so they can start to read books.

We got it this week and here is what I think about it. It really can work if used correctly. You have the baby watch the dvd which shows the word, says it, and then has your baby do some action to it while showing the thing. For example, it puts up “elephant”, says elephant, then shows and an elephant and asks you to make a long nose with your arm. Your suppose to have your baby watch it twice a day.  then they have flash cards they want you to use 3 or so times a day and a book to go with it. And do that for a month or two until your kid knows the words. That is showing the kid the word 30 or so times a day for a month! Of course they will recognize it. But that is a lot of dedication on the parents part.

Anyways, it cost over $200 and I think that is pretty pricey for what it is. So I made my own book. I printed 20 words or so that I would like my kids to know and put a picture with them. It cost me maybe $5. We look at it a couple of times a day and Auretta is already saying some new words.

So here is my opinion on the this new big fad. It can work, but you don’t need to buy the fancy stuff to do it. Make your own dvd, book, flash cards. That way you save money and your kids learn words that you want them to learn. Great concept, but too expensive.

By the way, it doesn’t seem to do Patrick much good. Even the real dvd was too boring for him. We will have to do things the old fashion way with him. Letters and phonics. It really is a program for babies.