Dog pile.

It seems whenever life gets overwhelming I decide it’s a great time to take on a new venture. This time it’s couponing! I’ve known about couponing for years and have even been to a class about it but could never see myself as a couponer. To me coupons were for those who loved spaghetti and canned veggies or had 10 kids and needed two shopping carts of food per week. A couple weeks ago a coworker was sharing a link with me for a particular baby item that lead to southersavers.com. The site is full of weekly deals and links to other coupons; honestly all a little overwhelming for someone who has no idea was RP or SS is. The main thing that stuck out was their Publix weekly deals article. Just like Publix shows you each week on their website they share the buy one get one deals and things that are on sale except under each “deal” is links to other coupons you can use on top of that. For instance if Publix has buy one get one free bread the manufacturer of the bead could have a coupon for $1 off.

I spent one Monday during lunch and breaks diligently clicking on all the coupon links and carefully planning out my grocery list and meal plan. That night I went to Publix and spent $95 and saved $60. The best part being it was things we eat! It was things that wouldn’t waste space in the panty like boxes of pasta or jarred pickles. It was practical. I walked out of the store elated. One day of putting out effort got us $60 worth of free food. During that week I played around on a few different sites and even score coupons from the Sunday paper all prepping for my next Publix trip. My list wasn’t as organized and my hopes were not as high because who could really save that much again? We walked out of Publix Monday night spending $100 and saving $65! I just couldn’t believe it. And this time if I broke down the $65 savings a lot more that money was because of coupons not in store deals. I’m officially hooked.
I’ve always assumed couponing was something it’s not. Taking a little time and planning has already saved us so much money there is no way I could walk into the store blind again. I won’t be posting pictures of my products with the savings but just know it’s easy and wonderful. My favorite places to look so far are the Sunday paper and southersavers.com and coupons.com. Southern Savers also has links to Smart Source and Red Plum (the inserts that come in the Sunday paper) so if you not ready to venture on the newspaper yet their printables are good. I’m looking forward to building up my pile of coupons and getting a little more organized so as the months go by I can expand to CVS and Walgreens to save even more!
I challenge all of you money conscious people to give it a try!

Bzzzzz.

I’m too busy to blog right now. But if I weren’t so busy I would tell you:

• I flip between mother and wife to college student raising my hand and calling my teacher Mr. because he “demands that respect”.
• I secretly but not so secretly got great news from work today that makes this itty bitty family very happy.
• Hard core budgeting Dave Ramsey style starts October 1st. I went to Starbucks this morning knowing Carmel Macchiatos would come sparse in 8 days.
• I started using dish washing gloves to transfer the diapers from their wet bag into the washing machine after a little speck of leftover dinner got smeared on my finger. No thank you!
• In a text message my Mom abbreviated Praise the Lord as “p t Lord” and I knew exactly what she was meant.
• I tried out my hand in couponing this week and saved a whopping $60 at Publix. I am now convinced taking time browsing the internet, clipping and organizing is worth it! That was just one day of intense planning, I can’t wait to see what happens after I “build my stack” for a couple weeks.
• I had a coming to Jesus with my emotions after going through tubs of old baby clothes and seeing how much Mo’s changed in the last year. I’d be lying to say I didn’t hold the onsies close to my heart and burst inside. I also did a small “cha ching” motion with my arm as I realized we would be set if our next baby was a boy born in the same season as Mo.
• But I’m too busy to blog, so that is all!

Snack Attack!

The boy loves to snack. At first it was Puffs; a few Puffs on the floor while he crawled around the living room, luring him from corner to corner as his skills improved. And then it was yogurt bits and Cheerios. A few on his tray at dinner time made him happy as I warmed up his homemade baby food cubes. Then we moved on to Goldfish and cookies and anything else that could be taken into the playroom and munched on as he ran around and climbed on the couch. During this period we purchased two of the best things ever invented for toddlers, snack cups. They’re small plastic cups with two handles and a specially designed rubbery lip that allows toddler hands to reach in for a snack but avoid any excess falling out in the process. It can be dropped in the isles of Target, stepped on by a 30 pound boy, carried around by a 1 year old, washed, and reused. It’s become a staple item whenever we leave the house. Its favorite things to carry these days is Pirate Booty, multi grain Cheerios, and most recently green grapes. He carries it everywhere he goes and it’s an instant “happy maker”. The picture below sums up Moses’ love for snacks in a nut shell; loves them so much he doesn’t want to stop eating even after he’s fallen asleep.

rush and relief.

Yesterday I went home, kissed my boys, made a Mexican dinner and bought a car! Confused? Let me Tarantino it:

• Almost two months ago our car started acting up and we found out it wasn’t safe anymore.
• We got approved for a loan and started looking for a newer SUV that would be our family car/ my primary car.
• A couple weeks ago we decided we wanted to save more (borrow less) and would just find a older/cheap car to “flip” within the year when we were ready to upgrade.
• Saturday morning (7:30 am to be exact because being outside at any other time of day in Florida is just too.dang.hot!) on our neighborhood walk I spotted a car for sale two houses down.
• Monday afternoon I called to inquire about the car. Good miles, good interior, and good price so we set up a time to walk over and check it out.
• Thankfully my dad has his dealer’s license and does this “flipping” business a lot. He was generous enough to come over and look at everything that was important (you know all that mammer jammer under the hood). Moses and I went back to the house to finish dinner and within the hour hubby walked in the door to tell me it was ours. Not only ours but ours for an even better price advertised!
• It is such a weight lifted off our shoulders; we now have a reliable car we can drive for months until we find the SUV we want.

Update on cloth diapering: it’s going great! They arrived Friday afternoon and I immediately prewashed and dried them so they would be ready Saturday morning. Mo has worn them for three and a half full days with no problems. The first few nights I didn’t “double stuff” the diaper with two liners because I wanted to see if one could do the trick overnight but he peed out in the morning. At least two nights a week he peed out in disposables and I assume it’s because of his cup of milk before bed. Anyways I added an extra liner last night and this morning yielding much better results. Thankfully each diaper came with a regular insert (that vertically lines the entire diaper) and a newborn insert (a smaller version when the diaper is snapped down to its smallest size) so double stuffing doesn’t mess up my wash cycle. We set up a line on the back deck for drying and I’m learning new tricks how to increase drying time every wash cycle. In the initial Cotton Babies purchase I got a hanging Planet Wise wet/dry bag for daycare (large enough for an entire day of clean and dirty diapers) and it was exactly what I was looking for so I purchased the smaller wet bag for running errands. Doing an extra load of laundry every other night is not an annoyance so far and the actual work that goes into the entire process is minimal.

 

the dog days are over.

When to speak and when to be quiet? Lately I feel like life has become a mundane routine and I just live in it. Mondays and Wednesdays are housework, laundry, hanging out; Tuesday and Thursdays are school and then weekends are everything in between. Nothing out of the ordinary seems to be happening and nothing has raised my stress level to unbearable. But there are other things going on. This blog only represents the highlights of what I want to say and how I want it to be conveyed. I struggle sometimes with how I want to sound or if I even want to speak at all. The gift of being quiet, even over the happy things, is hard. What is appropriate to plaster all over the internet? What’s appropriate to hid deep down in the corner of my heart? Often issues arise that will never be spoken on here in fear someday someone might read it which will intern cause feelings to be expressed I never to deal with. Repressed emotions aren’t always sad or lonely. Sometimes it’s the guilty pleasures or not so guilty pleasures in life I want to shout about from the rooftops but figure that would lead to mid day vomiting at your desk or instantaneous blushing every time you see my husband. I write this blog solely to remember but am I leaving too much out? Am I even being honest with myself? I recently read a book passage talking about entertainment versus pleasure. Tangible things like television or movies can entertain me but what about experiencing pleasure? Listen to my baby tell me a story, eat the best home cooked breakfast on a Saturday morning, the joy of living, the “little things in life”. I not only want to experience pleasure but I want to document it. Happiness surpasses tangible entertainment and I want to remember that. When to speak and when to be quiet?

blog title: The Dog Days are Over by Florence + the machine

[eek!]

We are taking the leap into cloth diapering! Ah! Just typing it out brings a flood of emotions. Thanks to the internet a few months ago I started seeing more and more articles about cloth diapering; after researching my eyes where open to a whole new world. I just assumed they were for earthy crunchy moms who occasionally poked their baby’s thighs with huge safety pins while wrestling them to the ground getting a white napkin around their butt. I posted briefly on some of the information I’d obtained but never would have thought we would have been using them this year. Recently a conversation about diapers sparked my research further and ultimately made our decision to cloth diaper Moses. I’m reluctant to even post this because I don’t want our intentions to be diluted with opinions. Not only are we saving a nice chunk of money but they are also great for the environment. I’m not an environmentalist by any means of the word but I love being able to drive down north Florida’s canopy roads or have siesta fiestas in grassy fields and if doing my part to not cause excess waste can intern preserve the land for Moses to enjoy then I’m going to do it. Davy was no where near convinced until I did extensive research on our particular situation and found between Moses and our second baby we would be saving close to $1700. Our initial purchase consist of a wet/dry bag for daycare and the house, extra overnight liners, natural laundry soap and a 12 pack of BumGenius 4.0s. All from CottonBabies.com

The cost of all of this is almost half the price it would cost us to disposable diaper Moses until he is potty trained. The money saving eventually won Davy over and I hope the additional washing is going to be worth it in the end. I have been doing further research almost daily about all the do’s and don’ts, the in’s and out’s and not just patiently waiting for them to arrive in the mail and put them on Moses. I’m excited but nervous and anxious and hopeful. I’m hesitant to even post this in fear of failure; we are partaking on a long journey and the first leap is the scariest! I promise not to blab to everyone who doesn’t care about poop and pee and cleaning and washing but I plan to update every so often to see where the venture has taken us.

If you want to know more about BumGenius or cloth diapers in general check out CottonBabies.com. They are the creators of BumGenius and other great brands but also have a wealth of information on their site.

Growing up.

This is my favorite summer picture of Moses. It was taken this morning on the steps of school to show off his “Red Day” outfit. The color red has been their theme for a couple weeks so to close up the chapter they are all dressing in red, eating red jello, and making red crafts today. It shows off the sweet boy he is.

Red Chucks to top it off!

Moses loves Daddy being his "horsey" and their new favorite activities include running around the house on all fours!

Or playing airplane

Or just acting a fool! (Yes thats Moses' using Davy's nose to hold on!)

Moses has a new found fascination with our camera. He loves to browse the pictures telling you who everyone is and more recently taking the pictures himself. This is a self portorait he's very proud of!

Some days I wish Moses was still a little baby who can wear one peice outfits in public...this was one of those days. Topped with his baseball cap this is pure blackmail in 15 years. I'm sorry.

Taking a cookie and cup break after spending the afternoon in the Florida heat. Four year olds have no desire to smile for the camera, ever.

And I'll leave you with this one again but honestly I can't stop looking at it. Happy Friday!