"there are people who come into my life, people who sometimes don't even know I'm watching them, that floor me. And there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why I admire them. Sometimes they have been through hard times and come out stronger and better. Sometimes they are in the middle of hard times and are willing to show their pain. And sometimes they make a comment that exhibits a depth of character that I didn't know was there. Sometimes it's their mind. They talk about things on a different level and invite me to come along. They challenge me to be more; and I want to. Sometimes it's in their voice. They speak with tenderness and a reverence that reminds me that I am from a higher place. That there are angels with me. Sometimes it's their smile. It's not just a beautiful smile. It's warm and inviting. It's like hot chocolate. Some people have a hot chocolate smile that they share with those they meet in this cold winter world. Sometimes it's in their handshake, as they look deep into your eyes and their eyes say that you are wonderful. They've seen your soul and wholeheartedly approve. Sometimes it's in their hug. A hug that gives and receives at the same time. It makes you feel powerful. It makes you feel humble. It makes you feel you are more than before. It's amazing what you can learn about a person just by watching them."
My friend Robin wrote a beautiful blog post and it puts my feelings for so many people into words. So I'm just going to quote her. I love you all for so many reasons! Happy Valentines Month :) And Chad, thanks for being my hot chocolate! eye less than 3 you!
I have been couponing (is that a word?) for about a month now. I spend an hour and a half cutting out the coupons from my 5 papers Sunday night. I have a 2" zipper binder full of coupons in baseball card holders that I carry around with me to the store. I plan my shopping list for about an hour and I go to 3 to 5 stores. Crazy right?
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
My sweet baby boy turned 4. I hope that means that the real terrible year is over, but I'm not holding my breath. Just kidding, kind of, those of you with 3 year olds know what I'm talking about. But moving on....
[caption id="attachment_637" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="1 years old"]
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[caption id="attachment_638" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2 years old"]
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[caption id="attachment_639" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="3 years old"]
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[caption id="attachment_640" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="4th birthday"]
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[caption id="attachment_641" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="whew... what a day, I'm tired!"]
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The first words to describe Patrick were, "He's huge!" But since that day he has grown and now he is most often described as lovable and social. I'm crazy about that kid! He is so forgiving and loving and I will always be grateful that he our oldest. I often feel so bad for him because I have no idea what I'm doing with him. My poor experiment child, but he takes it well. On Sunday he answered a question in sharing time. He said, "Because Jesus loves me." I teared up. I guess I can't be doing to bad of a job if he knows that. I think he might have been fed that answer, but still, I know he knows it is true.
For his birthday we took him and 3 other friends sledding. We dropped off the two smaller ones because they don't enjoy snow. If I was a better mom, I would have remembered the camera, but I didn't. We had fun on a little hill, even Chad and I got to go once or twice.
then on Monday we had pizza and cake with Grandma and Grandpa, Harris and Shayna, Michael and Clarissa, and Candace. We celebrated Clarissa's and Candace's birthdays too, but only the 4 year old got presents. It was a ton of fun! Thank you everyone who donated kids to our sledding and came down for the weekend, we had a great time. Thanks for all the presents, he should be set until next Christmas.
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[caption id="attachment_638" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2 years old"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_639" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="3 years old"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_640" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="4th birthday"][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_641" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="whew... what a day, I'm tired!"][/caption]
The first words to describe Patrick were, "He's huge!" But since that day he has grown and now he is most often described as lovable and social. I'm crazy about that kid! He is so forgiving and loving and I will always be grateful that he our oldest. I often feel so bad for him because I have no idea what I'm doing with him. My poor experiment child, but he takes it well. On Sunday he answered a question in sharing time. He said, "Because Jesus loves me." I teared up. I guess I can't be doing to bad of a job if he knows that. I think he might have been fed that answer, but still, I know he knows it is true.
For his birthday we took him and 3 other friends sledding. We dropped off the two smaller ones because they don't enjoy snow. If I was a better mom, I would have remembered the camera, but I didn't. We had fun on a little hill, even Chad and I got to go once or twice.
then on Monday we had pizza and cake with Grandma and Grandpa, Harris and Shayna, Michael and Clarissa, and Candace. We celebrated Clarissa's and Candace's birthdays too, but only the 4 year old got presents. It was a ton of fun! Thank you everyone who donated kids to our sledding and came down for the weekend, we had a great time. Thanks for all the presents, he should be set until next Christmas.
Here is a video of Auretta being funny and being herself.
I had the webcams display on the monitor and she noticed that she was on the screen. This was her response.
[youtube jgyxFG6ii40]
For Christmas I made the kids a card table tent. I used a tunnel toy we have to make an igloo type of thing. Turned out pretty cute and they like it, but it is a lot more work than I expected.
