C'mon Spring!!

Is it still February?? For a month that is so short, it sure is taking a long time to pass! Move out February!!  I'm tired of the cold and I long for warmer days. I'm tired of cold toes and fingers, and surely, my husband is tired of me warming my cold toes and fingers on him!

You know what one of the worst things about Facebook is? It's people from the warmer areas posting pictures of warm-weather activities and people are wearing shorts and flip-flops, t-shirts and they're complaining how hot it is! Hot!? In February!!  I see those photos and it makes me dread going outside in 20-25 degree weather, bundled up in my big, bulky coat, the cold wind whipping at my face and rushing in the holes of my pants' leg openings.

I have a friend that recently moved to Hawaii and she is posting near daily photos of herself at the beach or doing some warm-weather activity and it's almost enough to make me want to unfriend her at this point!! Ohhh! Warm weather, how I miss you so!

I wonder if that's partly why this winter has been so rough for me.. not just the fact that it's cold, but because I am constantly being exposed to images of warm weather.  It's different from a travel agency touting beach pictures because those are meant to be a getaway vacation from the cold and you know after your time is up, you have to return to the cold-- bummer!  But these are personal images from people that live year-round in warmer climes and they have no thought of being cold and so continue their lifestyles without worry of snow or sleet or having to bundle up in twenty layers of clothing just to stay warm. Meanwhile, here I am, sitting in a slightly chilled house (we keep it fairly cool in here and dress extra warmly) and cupping my hands around a big steaming mug of hot chocolate spiked with coffee, wearing a sweater and socks to ward away the chill. Oh Spring! Hurry up!!!

Doesn't help when the stores are also starting swimsuit sales and pushing gardening things. My pool has a 6-inch layer of ice on the top of it and my ground is still frozen solid. Imagine my shovel hitting the ground and making this sound-- thunk-thunk! If this were a cartoon, my shovel would twang and shiver and then make me twang and shiver!!

There's hope yet, though. It warmed up a little bit today, to a cool low 50's and I actually went outside without having to put my coat on! I'm dreaming of the garden and looking forward to starting a few cold-weather loving plants for the first time this year. I have hope that in 3 weeks or so, I can break a small patch of ground in the garden and get some seeds planted!

I know that because of our location, some seasons are harsher than others, and I'm alright with it. I know that Spring is coming and Old Man Winter will be getting the boot pretty soon.  Just getting a little anxious for those warmer days and it's going to feel so good shedding all those layers and feeling the warm sun on my skin again!

Post-Valentine

We don't make a big deal of Valentine's Day around here.  I'm not a flowers kind of girl, which I made clear to Andrew way back when we first started dating. My favorite flower is a Daisy, but I'd much rather see them growing in a field rather than cut into a bouquet where they'll die within the week.

I guess we're just simple folk and we make cards for each other and perhaps a nice, special dinner.

The kids spent a couple of days making cards with construction paper and markers and they came up with some really thoughtful cards.  I really enjoy seeing their thought processes now and they tried to come up with cards that had meaning to the person the card was for.

 Knowing they put their hearts into making cards for everyone, I decided to make Valentine's Day a little bit more special for them and made these woven heart paper baskets. I remember making these at school when I was little, 6 years old, and I amazed myself when I still remembered how to make them! 

I whipped up some homemade chocolate nonpareils candy and added in some play tattoos and a mini-Lego figure for each of the kids inside the basket. 

We went into town yesterday for errands and ate at the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet and it was a pretty nice day. Simple and sweet, and I can't ask for anything better!

A Day In The Life... 1/26

 We had some leftover potatoes piling up from several meals and on this cold, wintry Saturday morning, Andrew cooked them up for breakfast. We tag-team big breakfasts, with him making the potatoes and me coming from behind and making the eggs and toast.  I was in the mood for biscuits this morning, so made that, while Andrew went out to get the newspaper for me.

I like to use a flower cookie cutter to cut out the biscuits. I think the edges bake up nice and crispy that way. Plus, I like flowers!

Yum! A double-batch ensures everyone gets seconds and there's leftovers for snacking. Since no one snacked on these today, I'm thinking sausage gravy over these biscuits for breakfast tomorrow! 

Chicken thawing in the background for dinner tonight.  Usually when making one meal, there's components for other meals happening at the same time. 

 Peter was being a pesky little brother while his sisters were trying to build a Lego town, so I brought out the plain wooden birdhouse he got for Christmas from an Aunt for him to paint. Kept him out of their hair for awhile, and then we settled on the couch to watch his choice of movie-- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! Quality time with the kiddo! Besides the Indiana Jones movies, Peter also loves watching the original King Kong black and white movie! I was surprised at how much he likes that movie! So whenever he asks for the "monkey movie", he's talking about King Kong, not Curious George! 

 It has been so cold, I don't think the temperature has risen above 25 this week. We got snow yesterday and a little bit today, so here's the man of the house shoveling the white stuff. Looking nice and toasty in the hat I made him last Christmas. As a matter of fact, it's so cold, he wears the hat indoors, too!

Ever so grateful for the new roof! How wonderful it is not to worry about leaks anymore. There were two really bad sections that leaked and we had to keep a bucket underneath them, and it's such a load off our shoulders not to fret and worry about that now. Especially with the snow sticking around up there!

At this point, the only thing I like about the snow right now, is it makes the evenings seem not so dark, with it reflecting off the light. The chickens are usually in bed by 4 pm, but on these nights, with the evening a little brighter, they were still out and about at 5 pm.

Dinner has been made-- that chicken that was thawing was turned into breaded chicken, baked in the oven, with wild rice and broccoli on the side. The kids are cleaning up their messes, jammies on, and soon, it'll be Andrew and I snuggled on the couch watching a movie. Not a bad day at all! 

Over It!

I've moved on and I'm over the loss of my old coupon binder.

 I got a new binder and pages and set up shop the other day.  I cut out all the coupons I had at home and, like a madwoman, I also printed out a ton of coupons off the internet. I spent several hours cutting and organizing and making divider pages. It's filling up nicely!

It occurred to me the other day, that while I may have lost my coupon binder, I did not lose my knowledge on how to get more coupons and how to use them to their maximum potential. Upon realizing this, I instantly felt better about losing the old coupon binder. While it still hurts, financially, to have lost all the store credit and gift cards, I can easily start over and eventually, I'll build up my store credit and gift cards again. It took me several months to learn how to coupon to the extent that I do-- the tricks and the secret of using store and manufacturer's coupons at the same time. Now that I have that knowledge, I can never lose it. What a difference that made, in helping me get past the loss.

The other good thing is the papers have coupons every week so it's comforting knowing that. Speaking of newspapers, this Sunday's paper is supposed to be loaded with coupons, so if there are any couponers that read this, plan on getting at least two papers. I'll probably get two of each paper for a total of four. We have a local paper that only gets about half of the coupons the big paper gets, but the value of the coupons are often different. It's a regional issue, but sometimes the values in the smaller, cheaper paper are better than the bigger, more costly paper. I have been known to buy up to 8 copies of the smaller paper, just for a certain coupon!

In any case, this will be the last post I write about my lost binder. It's not the only thing I think about anymore and I'm moving on to other things. Like, snow! And the cold! Brrr! 18 degrees today with about 3 inches of snow so far out there! The way it's coming down, I wouldn't be surprised if we get at least 5 inches or more. Stay warm!

Starting Over...

I had a very upsetting thing happen to me the other day. I lost my big coupon binder. I am a big coupon user, often getting my purchases down to very low or free and it has been the biggest way we have managed to live on our small income. We can make $100 stretch with me using my coupons the way I do, and so I organized all my coupons into a big 3-ring zippered binder.  It was my shopping bible.  I am devastated that I lost it!

 I have no explanation for why I lost it except I wasn't feeling well, I had all the family with me, and I was in a hurry-- a big triple combination for disaster, I suppose. I never even realized I had lost it until we received a phone call late at night asking if I had lost my WIC folder (a supplement program for low income families for children's health for up to the age of 5).  What?  No, it's in my coupon book!  I go and look for it and it's not where I usually put it! Maybe I left it in the car, nope, nothing! Panic sets in!! I lost my book?!? We arrange a meeting with the caller and Andrew comes back home with just a few papers that were inside my coupon binder. No coupons, no binder, nothing, just a few pieces of scrap paper, my WIC folder, and some random items I had in there.

I cried. I felt disgusted with myself for losing it in the first place. I was horrified thinking about someone pawing through it and finding such a valuable money-saving tool. I got upset when I did the math and realized I had over $100 in store gift cards and credit in there, all gone! All my hard work cutting out and organizing those coupons! Then I started to think about what else I had in there with personal information on it! Oh no! Do I have to worry about identity theft now? Do I need to call the bank? Will someone do harm to my family now that they have my address? What a roller coaster of emotions!

After a night of tossing and turning, I woke up with a very stiff neck. We called the bank to see if there was anything to be concerned about and they put a notice up on our account for any suspicious activity, just in case. We called the store where I lost it to see if anyone turned in a big binder-- nothing. When Andrew met with the person that found some of my papers, he went back to the parking lot to look around, check the trash bins, but didn't find anything.

What can I do? I did my crying.  I vented my grief and frustration to friends and on Facebook. And now?  I just have to start over. I'm pretty sure I'll never get it back. No amount of tears and anger at the person that found it and kept it will not bring it back. Kicking myself in the butt will not bring it back and just leave me with a sore behind. So, I'll start again.

I need to buy a new binder. I'll need to get new baseball card pages. And then I'll start cutting out coupons again. No use crying over the good ones I had, I'll get more good ones. Losing all those gift cards and store credit slips really hurts, though. I had been saving some of them to buy a big ticket item, and the others were being saved for different gifts I planned to buy when I had enough credit saved up. Nothing else to do but move on. Get past losing the old one and start working on making the new one better.

I'll definitely find a new spot for the receipts I had in there--next time I'll pull them out and save them in a folder I leave at home. The gift cards will be kept somewhere else, too, not in my wallet because it's tiny and cannot hold 20 gift cards. Not sure where I'll keep them, but I will figure something out.

My children were so sweet, they all came and hugged me and tried their best to console me after they saw me crying and found out I lost my coupon book.  Evelyn made me a small paper folder and wrote, "My Mom's Coupon Folder" on it and then in small print below it, "Don't lose it now!" She also included a hand made coupon for a FREE HUG that never expires. Bless their hearts. I told them that it was sad that I lost my book, but the more important thing is that we have each other and that we are all alright and full of love for each other. I'm trying to keep my chin up for them, to let them see that it's ok to be sad about something and then it's time to move past it and keep going.

I'm not 100% over it, but I will be. Once I get my new binder, I'll have something to do with the new coupons I'll get in tomorrow's Sunday paper. The possibilities will open up and I'll find new deals and bargains. Starting over...

Gretchen is 9

It never gets easier whenever your child has another birthday.

Today Gretchen turned 9. She'll never be 8 again, except in my memories and photos.

 We took her and her siblings to the toy store today, so they could spend birthday money that was burning a hole in their pockets. The girls all picked out new Monster High dolls and Peter was just happy with a free balloon! If we could all just be content with simple pleasures like he is!

 Her birthday menu was omelets for breakfast, and since we were out for the day, Taco Bell for lunch, and then French-style food for dinner, which consisted of french bread, grapes, cheese, deli meats and a special request of Mama's deviled eggs. Yum!

 Instead of a cake, she opted for brownies with ice cream, caramel sauce and sprinkles! 

She blew out those candles so fast, I never got a chance to get a picture of her blowing them out!  A good set of lungs on her!

Happy Birthday my beautiful, funny, smart girl. 

Don't grow up too fast!!

We love you!!

xoxoxo

Leggo my Lego!

We love us some Legos in this house so when I found this set at the thrift shop for a mere .59 cents, I did the happy dance!

Both sets were in pieces and are from the Life on Mars series back in 2001. They were both inside of one box, the Alien's Red Planet Cruiser, and still had the instruction booklet. I had no idea, before I finished putting together the cruiser, that there was a second set which is the astronaut and his Mono Jet. Thanks to the instruction booklet's last page, which had pictures of other Life on Mars sets, I realized that the pieces leftover looked just like the Mono Jet! No instructions to follow, but a quick search online found me some instructions to put this together. Only 3 pieces total from both sets were missing, which were easily replaced with pieces we had at home, and I'm happy to say that the mini-figures were both there and complete.

Sorry, I must sound totally geeky, but I'm just nuts over this set and happy that whoever donated it, kept it in the original box and none of the pieces were lost once set on the shelves. It wasn't even taped shut!! I'm always on the look-out for more Lego pieces at the thrift stores, since buying new sets are pricey and between 4 kids (and me!) it can get expensive real quick! There are so many really awesome Lego sets out there and if I could, I buy each and every one of them!! Have you seen the Monster sets?? Love!!  But until I strike oil or find gold, I like the luck I've been having at the yard sales and thrift shops lately. It's even cooler when the sets are vintage and not available to buy in the stores anymore. 

By the way, do you think I'll get in trouble for that title??  :o)