Coupon mania.... what next??

As you heard in my last post, I'm getting more and more excited about coupon-ing, especially since I've discovered a bunch of other folks online that tell me what to buy, where, and with what coupon to save beaucoup bucks.

With that major coupon excitement, I'm clipping more coupons and my tiny little coupon-holder is doing me no good. :( A friend was with me at WalMart yesterday and that's the only reason I could do it all ~ pawing through all those coupons with two ducklings in tow takes WAAAY too long. On the way home, I commented to said friend that I had to start researching other frugal mommies' methods for coupon keeping. And now, I may even be able to win a coupon management system FOR FREE! But I'm not the only one. If you're getting excited about coupon management ;) and want to enter to win, join me over at Tales From the Road Less Traveled. If you win, you'll receive every coupon insert that comes out in the AJC Sunday edition for the next four weeks, already labeled and ready to go in Momma’s Coupon Management System.

So go register to win!! :D

Coupon mania

I've been really inspired by Freebies4Mom, MoneySavingMom, The Centsible Sawyer, Deal Seeking Mom.... Anyway I took a little trip to Walmart today and guess what I got?

Two Powerade 32 oz bottles: $.70 each including CRV
with one $.75 coupon and one $1.00 off coupon: I made $.35!

CleanTeam flushable kid wipes: $1.64 each
THREE coupons for $3 off/2
SIX packages at $.07 each!

Scrubbing Bubbles starter kit $4.92
With rebate: FREE!

Two bottles of Pert Plus $4.34 each
Two coupons for a total of $5 off
$5 mail-in rebate
I'll make $3.32

Also, they had this huge display of Clean & Clear face wash for $3.48. It rang up at $4.77 so I went over to customer service, and after some hemming and hawing they gave me the "advertised" price (and promptly changed the advertised price). With a $1 off coupon, It was only $2.48 for a product that is normally $4.77! yay!

A bunch of the other deals mentioned on those mom blogs weren't for sale, or the prices at my WalMart were so high that it still wasn't a very good deal for me to buy the stuff even WITH my coupons. Sadness. :(

This is the problem with living in an urban area. Often I get a great coupon or read about a great deal, but my local Safeway, WalMart or Target stores are so small that they don't carry the product. Lame! Time to move to the burbs!

While we're on the topic, let me rant about Walgreens. I went in to get some of their "free" products last week (free w/ rebate) ~ well guess what? THEY AREN'T FREE! The max amount on the rebate is less than the actual sale price at the store. Uh.... no thanks!

So.... at the end of my WalMart shopping trip (and my rebate!), I will have spent $2.40 for 15 items! I'm so excited!

Another funny

"Mommy, my peepee wasn't working so I did the brown stuff instead. See?"

Yes, only a mother would love and blog about something like this.

ouch

I. Have. Insomnia.

I'm sad, and it feels dumb

I just found out -- shockingly -- that my "regular" Starbucks is closing. (Not that there is actually any regularity to it, which, come to think of it, may be why it's closing.) I had looked over all the lists and saw that none of my usual suspects are closing. So imagine my surprise when I read a fellow blogger's post that said MY location is closing. Obviously this was operator error (me being the operator) and it wasn't the full, 600-store list that I looked at originally. So that's what made it shocking. I thought I was "safe" but alas.... I'm not. There are three stores within walking distance from my house, but this one was the nicest one; in the nicest area, in the direction I almost always go... Anyway, I'll just go to Peet's a few blocks away, now, instead of the complete other direction to stay with Starbucks. It's just so wrong! The other ones are always infested with the weirdest, smelliest people; too crowded for me and my double stroller AND all those weirdos.

Goodbye, Starbucks.

More from my three year old

[after I gave my daughter a pen to scribble with, my son says:]
Mommy, my sister can't use a pen. Pens are only for adults! Babies like her use crayons and big kids like me use paints. But only adults use pens!

Public Service Announcement

This Public Service Announcement brought to you by The Voice Of Experience:

Clean poop (including the dog kind) off your shoes immediately. Do not wait until it is dry and think it will flake off. It will not.

This concludes our Public Service Announcement for today.

More on my three year old

This morning I went in the kids' room to get my son up out of bed. He said "Last night, my skin got all pokey!"

"How did that happen?"

"It was on my elbow, but I scratched it. Wanna see?"

hmm... "Pokey" .....

Did I just sell my soul? Or my blog at least?

I guess I'm a sucker for the possibility of free stuff. You could be too! WonderBrains is offering you the chance to win a $50 gift certificate if you spread the love and advertise for them. So I did it. Look at the cute button over on the side of my blog. And it was a good excuse to figure out how to customize my blog. woot woot. Go check it out here: http://www.wonderbrains.com

Why I love my three year old (continued)

3 yo: Mommy, Daddy is asleep!
me: OK
3 yo: You can't open the door while Daddy is asleep because it's dangerous!
me: What do you mean? Why is it dangerous?
3 yo: If you open the door while Daddy is sleeping he might fall out of his bed...
me: Ok, I'm not sure that will happen actually, but I'll be very careful.

Why I love three year olds (a quote)

"Look at my poo poo, Mommy! It's gi-GAN-tic!"

heart melts

Today I had a meltdown in front of my two kids. My daughter was on my lap and I'm sure it's the first time she's seen me cry. She just starts laughing. That made me smile. "You're crying? The show will go on!" It was cute.

The better part was that my son brought me his favorite toy "Here Mommy! Here Mommy! Here!" while I was still on the phone crying and then he started "washing the dishes" for me. He's never done that before, never even mentioned it so it was completely out of the blue. It was even more sweet because, of course, he is too tall to really see and reach into the sink; there were no dishes in the sink, and he was just rubbing the inside of the sink with the long-handled sponge brush, saying "Mommy, look, I'm washing the dishes for you! Look, Mommy, Look!" He was so proud of himself.

Now that's priceless.

giggle

I cut up a whole pineapple yesterday. yum. I had just done the initial trim when my 3 yr 8 mo son says....

Son: Mommy, you can't eat that with the polka dots on it!
(I knew exactly what he meant. The "eyes" of the pineapple were still on the edges, since I hadn't completely trimmed it yet.)
Me: Why not, sweetie?
Son: They'll polk you!

That gave me a good laugh, I hope it gives you one too.

happiness is...

looking at these pictures.


And then baby girl had her first double pigtails later that day


This one, of course, just makes me laugh.


And this is the airplane injury. Sigh. It is looking better. Notice the glue on the face. yuck.

You know you're a mother when....

You use your own saliva to clean your child's face.

You have time to shave only one leg at a time.

Your kid throws up and you catch it.

Someone else's kid throws up at a party. You keep eating.

You've mastered the art of placing large quantities of pancakes and eggs on a plate without anything touching.

Your child insists that you read "Once Upon a Potty" out loud in the lobby of Grand Central Station and you do it.

You cling to the high moral ground on toy weapons; your child chews his toast into the shape of a gun.

You always go to the bathroom with a "friend"

You hope ketchup is a vegetable, since it's the only one your child eats.

You can't bear the thought of your son's first girlfriend.

You hate the thought of his wife even more.

You find yourself cutting your husband's sandwiches into cute shapes.

You can't bear to give away baby clothes - it's so final.

You hear your mother's voice coming out of your mouth when you say, "NOT in your good clothes!"

You count the sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they're equal.

You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.

You donate to charities in the hope that your child won't get that disease.

You hire a sitter because you haven't been out with your husband in ages, then spend half the night checking on the kids.

You hide in the bathroom to be alone.

You say at least once a day, "I'm not cut out for this job", but you know you wouldn't trade it for anything.

taken from www.kidsgrowth.com

I'm rich

I was in a focus group for LeapFrog today. I'm $100 richer! yes!

idolatry

I went to check out a new church this morning. I'd wanted to go for a while but felt like it was a little too far from our house to make me want to go there every Sunday. I'd also heard some things I wasn't too excited about to have in a church. However, I had received a good recommendation from a friend (with a 2 1/2 year old, so it actually held weight for me) and we went over to check it out.

Cons:

• 9am start time
• a little far
• not sure about the whole singing-worship part of the morning
• not sure about the kid program for my older kiddo

Pros:

• it's a church
• i can dump both my kids off somewhere for the entire 1 1/2 hours ~ what a dream
• today's sermon was pretty good, hopefully this is a pattern
• i already know a few people that go there
• it seems more multi-dimensional than some of the other places i've visited

This morning the sermon was from Isaiah 2. I have a really hard time paying attention these days to most sermons, and besides I missed the first part of it because my boy needed some assistance... but when he started talking about The Day of The Lord and especially the part about idolatry (verses 6 and following), I couldn't take notes fast enough (writing seems to be the only way I process anything these days). Here are some of my notes. I'm still processing.

• Idolatry: worshipping what I make
• It is the root of most sins; most of my other messes I make for myself (aka sins) are fruits of the sin of idolatry
• I am made to worship God; this gives Him great glory and me great joy
• HOWEVER I am a sinner and a worshiper, which often means I worship the creation rather than the Creator (see Romans 1)
• Opposite of Christianity is not atheism, it is Idolatry (Ps. 115)
  
• We become enslaved to what we love

Now this is the part that really got me thinking:

• I worship my idol that "saves" me from my self-described hell
• examples of this (there were many given):
  
• singleness is your "self-described hell" so you worship marriage
• childlessness is your "self-described hell" so you worship children
• you get the idea.....
• How can you determine what you worship? Think about these questions:
• What's my greatest fear?
• What do I long for the most? What motivates me the most?
• What do I run to when I've had a bad day?
• What frustrates me the most?
• What makes me mad?
• Someone cuts you off on the freeway and you flip them off because you have been disrespected... do you idolize being respected?
  
• What makes me the happiest?
• How do I explain myself and who I am?
• "I live in this neighborhood so I'm special and you're not because you don't live here"
• What am I mad at God about?
• What do I want to have more than anything else?
• If I could change one thing in my life, what would it be?
• Whose approval am I seeking?

We take blessings from God and elevate them to "Savior" status, worshiping creation, not the Creator. This leaves us disappointed, jaded, and depressed, so we create "RELIGION." But it's not religion that will save us, it's Jesus. Hope in Jesus breaks me free from the grip of sin...

God will redeem our idols if we give them to Him; He desires that we live life fully and abundantly. This is what happens when idols are removed from our lives and returned to their proper place.

Ok, this is a kind of lame post meant mostly to help me remember this stuff... but I wanted to think through this all a second time. I immediately had some idols come to mind this morning and although I recognize them, it's hard to move forward through them. I realized that I am comfortable with them and how they fit in my life; how they help me manage and "deal" with my life. I'm not an alcoholic or a drug addict but I might as well be. If I am to remove them to their rightful place (with the help of God, surely I cannot do it on my own), what would replace them? I think that is the difficult part for me. I fear the unknown.

cold, hard, [sucky] facts

You may have guessed from the title there that this is going to be more of a downer post. Just giving you fair warning to click away, fair reader.

"It all" gathered up steam recently over a situation with my baby calla lilies. I love calla lilies. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a look.



These are definitely my favorite flowers. Completely unscientifically, I believe that of all flowers, these have the highest percentage of consistently perfect flowers. They aren't perfect when the bugs eat them or they are dying (no surprises here) but otherwise... perfect. Anyhow. My point is, I like them.

I obtained some free calla bulbs. I have a few pots outside, so I planted them to see what would happen. One day I noticed the very small beginning of something like this (you know I'm stealing all these photos from the internet):



I was extremely happy. Wow! I couldn't believe any of those things were actually growing! There were two tiny little green things poking out their shy little heads from the black, moist dirt and I couldn't have been happier.

Four or five days later I came home, laden with bags and all sorts of junk which should be illegal to haul around just because you are a Pack Mule Mom, and two kids (yes, the two that belong to me). While I was detained by a pack of three outside my door requiring the usual unpleasantries and attention, my Baby Monster Girl ripped off the two tiny budding leaves from that beautiful moist soil. She left the jagged stem and torn leaves for me. How nice.

At that moment I wasn't even mad; I was overtaken by a grief-filled resignation. Not crying grief, but the this-is-my-life grief. I felt like it was a (admittedly negative) representation of my life as a wife and mom. Kids are beautiful, sweet, smelly, and messy... Your life and some of your favorite things are turned upside down and ripped apart when you have kids and yet you smile and carry on. I'm just not so sure about this. It hit me even more when I was reading a younger, unmarried friends' facebook page today. Her section on future goals included these:

write a book.
go to Israel.
backpack through the wilderness.
own a grand piano.
live in another country.
have an art studio.
teach English in a foreign country.
tour the world on a yacht.
speak another language fluently.
live in the middle of a big city.
own a car with a sunroof.
live in a house with a porch swing.
to see the Taj Mahal.

Do I have any goals left in me? I'm happy if I show up somewhere bathed and on time these days. All that I knew to be "me" is no longer and it really makes me wonder about these other moms out there. How can you be so flippin' happy to make three organic, home cooked meals from scratch every day; play with your precious babies; do the laundry; and be you? I'm a do-er, a go-er. I've already corrupted my 3 1/2 year old. If he doesn't ask me before bed about the next day, he asks me the minute I come in for him in the morning -- before he's even out of bed "Mommy where are we going now?" Is the best I have the promise of yet another trip to the zoo? Another job sweeping the porch or moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer? Another walk to the grocery store?

I hear you saying I'm molding and shaping these precious little lives to be productive contributors to society. I find it more humorous the farther along I get in this whole child-raising thing that I'm supposed to be doing the very thing from which I am almost completely removed because I am raising children. What's wrong with this picture?

Yes, childrearing is most likely for a short, short season in the scheme of things. But I don't want to spend years starting from scratch when my kids are grown and gone.

Motherhood=delayed gratification training.

hope

I keep up with some random people's xangas whom I have never met but who are often really encouraging to read. I just read this entry; here it is copied in it's entirety:

HOPE

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

Ephesians 4:14

Yup, that's it, the whole post was just one simple verse. This is fitting, given that I spent three hours at the hospital for Baby Girl (19 months old) on Saturday for a multi-day 104 degree fever. Turns out she had an infection and needed antibiotics. She's on the mend. Today, we spent a little over an hour there for My Boy (3.5 years old) to get the 3/4 inch gash on his face glued back together.

Neither one of those are exactly "My Fault" but as a mom I sure feel like it. (Especially that facial wound. Ouch.) Is there hope for me? :) I think so. God says so. It must be true.

websites

I was just recommended this website: McGruff.org

I totally remember McGruff and he's come into the information age. Printable "safety" stuff, quizzes, downloadable blippityblops (sorry, can't think of a better thing to call it ~ it's not a widget, is it? ~ it is almost midnight) anyway...... Not sure I'm into the downloadable thingys but the rest of the site might be helpful. I'm already trying to think of how to explain the difference between politeness, friendliness, and disdain for strangers to my 3.5 year old. Ugh. Maybe this site will help. Let me know what you think.