Snow!

This is what we woke up to this morning! For once, we actually got more than predicted! It was around 6.5 inches this am and has been snowing most of the day! I will try and get some pictures of the HUGE icicles hanging from our house this afternoon. I have a love/hate relationship with snow. It is beautiful to look at: so clean, untouched , pure but it is COLD. I strongly dislike being cold. Even as a child, I didn't spend much time in the snow..too cold. I have told Matt I am so glad to not be a single mom anymore in the snow. The reason is simple..he is the one who can go out and play with the kids in the snow! This year I am staying inside completely with Zach. In the future, I will go out to take pictures of the kids but definitely not stay out long! This is a very weird snow for our area, really fine and dry. Haley, Lily and Kendall all went out exploring this morning! They decided that the best use of the snow was for snow angels!

Month In Review

I like organization and a major part of my organization is lists. So we are really close to the end of the month and since I went ahead and pulled the coupons expiring on the 31st from my book, I thought I would review this month and my goals for this year and see where I stand.

Blogging- I started this blog on 1/7 and currently have 19 post. Not too bad, but I know that several of these post are in the same day but hey I am trying. One of the reason that I started blog was to help me stay out of surviving mood. Looking back I realize that for the first 4-6 months after giving birth my main goal is to survive and to keep up with life. I distinctly remember this last year after Kendall. It was also around the same time I found out that I was pregnant with Zach. So that feeling of now I can start enjoying didn't last long! I did make the major decision to stop working part time and work a little (less than 5 hours a month). I know without a doubt that this was the right decision. Finally almost a year later, I am feeling like I am beginning to establish a routine. I can ENJOY my days at home with the kids and enjoying them as well as keep up with everyday life and not go crazy. By blogging I am also able to go back and remember and keep these memories so that 5 years from now when Zach goes to school, I want to look back and know that I not only was home with the kids but actually accomplished ALOT while doing it!

Financial- Well as I have posted in the past, we have WELL exceeded the monthly grocery budget but I expected as much this month. I am hoping that each month this will go down and by the end of the year I will have reduced the average by 1/4. I am getting into the swing of couponing and learning that I need to ask for rainchecks and save coupons even if I "might" use them!

Preschool- I don't think that I have blogged about this but one of the goals I had for this year is to be more consistent with "preschool" with Lily. She LOVES to learn and is always eager. My goal is to do "preschool" with her at least 3 times a week. We started this again in September and have been luck to get 6 a month in. Well this month has been awesome. Two weeks ago, we had home "preschool" 3 times,last week 4 time and so far this week 4 as well. Lily has already requested that she go to real Preschool in the Fall. I am still undecided. Part of me knows she would LOVE it but I also don't like to have to get out of the house every day to take or pick her up! I am also concerned about the cost of a 2 or 3 day a week preschool. I am hoping that by doing more home preschool she will not be too disappointed if we decide not to enroll her!

Bible reading- I probably have done the worst at this. But even this is an improvement than the past. I have been able to read 20 Psalms so far. I am going to work on improving this next month.

Diet- Matt and I started the Atkins- I have managed to lost 3-4lbs in combination with my cheapness and cheat days!

Cheap + Food + Diet = Impossible for me ?

This is the post that has been in my head since lunch. I debated on posting but since this is an honest blog thought I should go ahead and get it out!

I was very poor as a kid. I am ONLY 38 but I remember things like the first time we got a Polaroid pictures of myself and my brother, a stranger took it and gave it to us at a store, and we actually lived in a rent house without indoor plumbing for the first several month. So living cheaply is something I learned from the best My MOM! I know we were poor now but I can't tell you one time that I didn't have something we needed like food or clothes! Food is the biggest area of expense in our house. I can't stand the thought of throwing away food for any reason. I am famous for my left over nights where we pull out of the fridge and make at least one if not several meals. I have even been known to look up recipes to use the ingredients I have on hand! Since I am now staying at home, leftovers are a staple for lunch. Lily thinks getting a sandwich is a treat! So after Zach's dedication last week, there was an entire baked ziti left untouched. No big deal I thought at the time. I even put it in our weekly menu plan in my head, Thursday! But even the best laid plans are interrupted! On Wednesday, I received in the mail some free items from Atkins and showed them to Matt. He decided Thursday morning to start the diet and asked me to join him. I did with the acknowledge that he would be more successful than me but I wanted to support him! I am actually glad he is starting to attempt to lose weight with the deaths of both his Mother and Sister, I get worried. So of course the Baked Ziti is off the menu. I have actually feed it to the girls 2 days for lunch but 3/4 is left. Today I broke down and had some for lunch because I hate for it to be wasted!

Wednesday

Yesterday I decided at nap-time to leave Haley(school was out)at home with everyone asleep to run to CVS to pick up 2 prescriptions. I figured I would be gone only about 45 minutes tops. We were also waiting on the TW cable guy to come between 1:30 and 3:30 but I again didn't think I would be gone that long. It took an hour and 15 minutes and me making 3 request to finally get his prescription ready. But let me tell you that so far I *think* it has made a HUGE difference. He is spitting up but about 1/4 of what he was and today, he has only spit up when he was being burbed. The first 45 minutes didn't bother me as I was canvasing the store and purchasing more Pepsi products to get my $10 ECB. I did find a FREEBIE; I had a coupon for $2.00 off Loreal eye products and found a tube of mascara marked down 75% to 1.87! I was so excited!! I got FREE make-up! Total spent for 5-12 pack cans, 2 bottles of Gatorade and a tube of mascara for $15.80 total saved 22.05! Between my trips yesterday and Sunday, I have 59% this week which is the highest yet! This is now becoming as Matt called it a "game" with me. I just have to now get organized so I don't buy stuff that is not going to be used in a timely manner and arrange more storage! Although my budget for this month is shot I know that it will drop next month!

Random Thoughts Tuesday

I saw this on a blog I read just for fun so I thought it would be a good way to update mine.

I will update my blog roll to include a list of the blogs I read/stalk just for fun!

Sunday, I was able to go to CVS alone and make a good trip. I spent 40.93 and saved $72.78. I did spend a little,okay $20 more than my original plan but I got alot of stuff!
I plan to hit CVS once more this week to grab some more of the canned drinks and get a couple of RX filled!
The Walgreens is opening soon, so next on my list is to try and learn how to work coupons with them. CVS was easy since I already was used to the store and getting ECB for prescriptions. Harris Teeter was a major learning experience, I am so thankful for Susan who went with me on my first trip. Now I am even going to get a second card to use on "Special" weeks!

I just ordered my second 100 free prints from Artscow.com. Shipping was $5.99 so that worked out to 0.06 a print, not bad. I am hoping to get at least several years of photos printed out using these methods so when we get the room finished and our finances all back in line I can spend some time each week on my scrapbooks.

My second purchase for the day was at the mail order pharmacy. They sent Matt a $10 off your first order yesterday so I used it to purchase vitamins for the little girls. So I spent 0.99 shipped :)

Lily and Haley both had doctor's appointments yesterday. Lilys' was a yearly check-up. She is still underweight but they just suggested we keep using vitamins and she will grow at her own speed. Haley had a medication recheck and the insurance forced us to use the mail order pharmacy so I am anxious to see how this all works out. One of her prescription had to be mailed and the other was faxed.

Finally Matt and I by default started the Atkins Diet last week. He has already lost about 8lbs and I have lost 3lbs but I will admit I have skipped more than he has :)

I received an email today from snapfish You will receive 100 free 4x6 prints with any purchase. In order to receive it you should use the code "printsnew" at check-out. I have been going through pictures today. My plan is to have the rest of the wedding prints, Amanda's colorguard pictures from 2005 and then the beginning of Lily prints. I also have to upload pictures to artscow this week to get my free 100 prints this month from them as well!

I just completed uploading and ordering from Snapfish. The final cost was $0.06 a print not bad.

Oh by the way I need some followers :)

Socks are EVIL!

Yes, you read that right..Socks are EVIL! You should realize by now that I place a high value on sleep. Unfortunately my children don't feel the same. Lily has always woken up several times a night. We FINALLY got her out of our bed just prior to Zach's birth. She still sleeps in our floor 3+ nights a week. Kendall is by far my best sleeper most night she sleeps 12 hours however she has to be in her bed for this to happen and she has the cutest position, butt up in the air and ankles crossed. We discovered on our trip to Illinois that she also does not like her socks on when she sleeps. Unless she is in a one piece sleeper she takes her socks off before going to sleep. As of yesterday Zach has discovered that taking his socks off by pushing is fun as well. SOCKS ARE EVIL!

So last night I was exhausted. I was in bed by 9:30pm. I was woken by this small voice "MOMMY, the sock monster has taken my socks", repeated several times. "Lily go to sleep it will be ok." "NO mommy, I NEED my other socks." After several minutes of crying I get up to hand her another pair of socks. SOCKS are EVIL! I barely got back to bed and I hear Zach crying. I checked and it was 3am so he was hungry. Of course he also had managed to lose both of his socks. So after feeding him, I was forced to turn on the light to find the missing socks for his feet! SOCKS are EVIL! So after finally getting his socks back on I went back to bed. Kendall woke up at 6am this morning crying why? Because her feet were cold.. SOCKS are EVIL!