Playing Catch Up

I thought I should probably take a little time to catch up on what has been going on around here...

Saturday, April 25th was the PROM...Becca went with a friend from school, Clayton. We met friends at Corporate Park for pictures then they were off to dinner at Satterfields.

Monday, April 27th was the OMMS track and field banquet. It was a fun BBQ dinner, a slide show and ribbons and awards given by the coach. Here is my slide show of the season.

The middle of the week was pretty routine except for an occasional trip to Heardmont Park for John to get in some running...OMHS XC time trial are May 7th and he wants to make a good showing.

Saturday, May 2nd, J.R. hung some curtain rods so that I could put up curtains in the Family Room. What do you think?

Before: This was before new tile floors, furniture & rug, oh and by the way the dolls on the mantel were not part of the decor just a place to rest while I had them listed on ebay.

After: Still need a large end table and lamp to go at the corner of the sofa and recliner

On Saturday, I downloaded a new budgeting program recommended by a friend called..."You Need A Budget". It looks like it will eliminate a few steps for me in my quest to manage our money. I will keep you posted on how it is working out.

Sunday, May 3rd was Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church's 20th Anniversary celebration, we have been in the church 19 years. It was great to see so many faces from the past. Most of all it was awesome to have everyone in one service worshiping together.

Finally, my bargain of the week. Well, J.R. bought his Mt. Dew at Walgreens last week, they had the best price plus $3 RR, so when the new adds came out yesterday I had $6 RR to use and John needed a 12 pack of soft drinks to take to school today...since a variety of soft drinks were $11/3 and I would get $5 RR back, I headed to Walgreens. This is how things turned out...as you will see I learned some lessons along the way...

Store #1

12 pk Sunkist

12 pk CD Gingerale

12 pk Dr. Pepper

paid: $11.55 register would not print RR

Manger...I will void this and try again, let me ring up your other stuff first...

how it was suppose to go...would have spent only $1.48+tax

Bic Soleil Razors

$5.99 - $2 coupon = $3.99 - $3 RR = $0.99 (not realizing I wouldn't earn my $2 RR)

Shout Wipes

$3.49 - $3 RR = $0.49

how it turned out...spent $4.48+tax (still saved $5)

Bic Soleil Razors

$5.99 - $2 coupon = $3.99 (would not accept $3 RR and did not print new $2 RR)

Shout Wipes

$3.49 - $3 RR = $0.49

What did I learn...divide items into 2 groups those that I will earn RR on and those I will not. Pay for items earning RR first then use the just earned RR on the remaining items. The total bill must be over the amount of RR I want to use.

Now remember the soft drinks...well the manger refunded me and rang up the order again still no RR...his response was I am going to have to call corporate would you like a refund...HECK YEA!...my response I will just go to the other Walgreens. Get refund of $11.55.

Arrive at Store #2

how it turned out...spent $12.46 saved $8

12 pk Sunkist

12 pk CD Gingerale

12 pk Dr. Pepper

$11/3 = $11.55 (earned $5 RR)

Clorox Wand Refill

$4.49

4 Zone Perfect Protein Bars (was only charged for 3 - I will have to take care of that)

3/$3

used $5 RR + $3 RR

Walgreens total spent $17.41 saved $13...I'll take it!

Are You Participating in the Recession?

Meal Planning & A Grocery Budget

I don't know about you but for myself meal planning while trying to maintain a grocery budget is not fun at all. I would say I can do pretty well half of the month which works out for us to be about half of each week. The other days it is a lot of leftovers and scraping up what ever you can find. I am having to admit to myself that we make awful choices of what we eat when I do not consistently plan our meals, so...I am going back to something I used a while back and we will be eating well and I will not have to plan it.

You may be wondering what I am talking about...it is E-MEALZ !!! I ran across an article in Southern Living in 2007 about this meal planning service and gave it a try. It was wonderful and I used it for almost a year. I am not sure now why I stopped because it is the best and easiest meal planning service around...well, I am renewing my subscription and I won't be leaving.

Here are the benefits of this service, as I see it:

• it keeps me on budget, because the meals are planned based on weekly sales at the grocery
  
• the recipes are simple
  
• each weeks menu contains a good variety
  
• it is easy to edit the shopping list if decide not to use one of the meals for that week
  
• it is reasonably priced ($1.25 a week)
  

This is how I use the service. I like shopping at Publix so I purchase the family meal plan for Publix. Each week (on Wednesdays for Publix) I just sign in to my account at www.e-mealz.com and print my menu for the week and my grocery list. Next, I check my pantry and refrigerator for anything I may already have on hand. Then I take my shopping list and pull coupons to match the items I will be buying this week. Just that simply I am ready to stock my kitchen for the upcoming week.

If you want to give your meal planning to someone else give E-MEALZ a try. You can check out the website by clicking below. By the way, there are sample menus you can check out on the website. Give it a try, you won't be sorry.

Mosaics

I just love mosaics. This is a tile my daughter, Becca, made in her craft class at school. Crafts is a class reserved for seniors at our high school. Abby took it as well. They do all kinds of projects in this class...basketry, paint floor mats, pottery, drawing, silk painting and paint a piece of furniture.

Thank You, Becca, I love it & I Love You, too.

Easter

We had a lovely Easter Sunday. After church we had my parents and some friends over for lunch and an egg hunt for the kids. Our menu was deviled eggs, spinach dip w/ triscuts, ham, asparagus, potato salad, strawberry and mandarin orange jello salad, rolls, brownies, butter cake w/ orange glaze and pastel frosted cupcakes. The egg hunt was hilarious our children range from 13-20 years old. My husband bought some plastic eggs and stuffed them with various things like rubber bands, small marshmallows, cough drops and some candy. It was also nice to have Monday off from school so the whole day was very relaxing an allowed time to reflect on Jesus.

Good Friday

I can't believe it has been a week since I last posted. It has been a good week and a Good Friday. Our week started with a special Palm Sunday music celebration at our church. I love the way Jason, our worship leader, does these special services we have a few time a year. All of the words are on the screen and we sing along when we like. It is very worshipful rather than a performance. Jason also intersperses some video clips throughout. One that was especially meaningful gave a look at sin and forgiveness. I am so thankful for God's forgiveness, love and the grace he shows me each day. You can view this clip here on Jason's blog:

 http://www.jasonsears.com/2009/04/video-from-sunday.html

The remainder of the week was filled with task in preparation for our Easter Celebration on Sunday with friends and family. Although I was quite busy with all of the things I wanted to accomplish this week the Lord was gracious to remind me several times through out the week of his unconditional love. It is such a great feeling to know that I can not do anything to deserve or earn God's love. Because if it were all up to me I would be in trouble. One of my favorite hymns sums it all up...

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; 

There is no shadow of turning with Thee; 

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; 

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be. 

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, 

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above 

Join with all nature in manifold witness 

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. 

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth 

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; 

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, 

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness! 

Great is Thy faithfulness! 

Morning by morning new mercies I see. 

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided; 

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! 

Phlox

I just love phlox. This beautiful little patch was started from a few sprigs I pulled from another patch a few years ago. I love the way it is overflowing. I plan to start a few other patches here and there.

Linen Closet

Well, the time has come and I cannot put it off any longer...I must tackle the linen closet today. With all of my couponing I have begun to build a pretty good stockpile, but since the linen closet is not organized I have resorted to putting bags on the floor in the hallway. So, I decided no CVS this week. Instead, I will work on organizing the linen closet...where I plan to store my toiletries stockpile. By the end of today I hope this closet will look much different. I will let you know how it goes. It is 10:50 AM...I will check back in later with an update.

It is 5:00 PM and the linen closet is now empty and painted...just finishing the last shelf. I plan to stock the closet tonight and I should be able to completely finish it tomorrow after a quick errand to pick up a basket to replace the nice grocery bag hanging on the door.

It is 12 noon on Wednesday and I believe this is much better…still have to add the towels…they are all dirty :( but I am very happy with how it turned out. Also, I didn’t spend a dime. Ended up finding the little basket purse in my bedroom waiting for a job and all of the plastic baskets were here in the house…I just went on a scavenger hunt until I had located all of them.

The only things left to do are hang the vacuum hose and I need some more of those little sticky 3M things for my plastic hooks.

Couponing...

that is what I have been doing this week. About a month or so ago I started getting serious about this couponing thing, but still just doing my own thing combined with some internet research and I was doing pretty good...saving $60-$70 each week at Publix. They started having couponing seminars at my church (www.ompc.org)...thanks to Holly Wheeler (blog to come) for teaching these. I didn't go to the first one because I was afraid I would get overwhelmed and stop. In the mean time I added a drugstore to my venture...Rite Aid...and got some good deals there too. But I kept hearing about these girls spending $5 for $45 worth of goods, then this week I had the opportunity to go to the 2nd seminar at church...Cent$ible Shoppers...and my neighbor had a friend from her church share about her savings...April Hensley...thanks you as well. These ladies both did a great job of explaining the ways they have learned to save large amounts of money on their groceries and toiletries. After taking processing all of this information...I now have my coupons organized where I can easily use them & I have a method for deciding on the deals each week.

Let the savings begin...this weeks savings:

CVS - Spent $7.43 Saved $6.68 Earned $3.49 EB

4 pkg Kleenex Tissue - $4.28

1 tube Crest Pro Health Toothpaste -made $1

Raincheck for Schick Quatro Razor w/ Blades - will purchase next week for $1.99

Bruno's - triple coupons (29th-31st) Spent - $10 Saved $19.07

10 small cans - cresent rolls, cinnamon rolls & biscuits - $5.01

2 boxes New York - Texas Toast - $3.50

Small bag Chex Mix - $1.49

2 (4 pk) Fiber 1 Yogurt - FREE

I also stumbled upon some sweet savings at a local nursery (http://www.hannasgardenshop.com/) on Saturday. I went in to use a 25% off coupon before it expired on 3/30 and they were having 15% off of everything sale. I bought a bag of fertilizer/weed treatment, 2 honeysuckle vines for our arbor & a pink bleeding heart. Savings $10

I wonder, how much I will save this next week?

Fall Creek Falls - Spring Break '09

We had the most wonderful Spring Break. We were very blessed to have our whole family together for some time away. Since this is Becca's senior year she helped plan where we would vacation. She didn't want to go to a big city and she didn't want to be really busy...so we settled on a cabin at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee.

We left on Sunday morning and had a fun drive. We travel in 2 cars now...a girls car & a guys car. We girls listened to country music the whole way and had a great time chit-chatting. It was great getting caught up on Abby's life. Abby is finishing her 2nd year of college and working at a coffee shop so we don't see her very often.

Sunday was travel time, grocery shopping and moving in the cabin. Speaking of the cabin...I would definitely recommend staying in a villas instead of the fisherman cabins. The camp chairs we brought with us were more comfortable than the sofa.

Monday we woke to rain but it was over by the early afternoon and we began what would be two and a half days of beautiful weather. We had some laundry to do...since our dryer was not cooperating on Saturday. So we went to the little village...it had a Laundromat, general store, gift shop (with "life is good" & Vera Bradley merchandise), a Rec Hall (that was not open but the kids found a way in and entertained themselves on the stage), the also found a rock wall to climb. We had ice cream from the gift shop & relaxed on the patio. Once the laundry was finished we drove over to one of the falls. Abby & John hiked to the bottom of the falls. All of the rain made for a fun time of getting wet. Becca, J.R. & I watched from the overlook.

Tuesday we did more hiking and visited the nature center. The kids hiked the cable trail and played behind a water fall. We also visited the boat dock...to check on renting canoes.

Wednesday we all hiked to the bottom of the falls that Abby & John went to on Monday. We also took a drive to Piney Falls trails and hiked to an overlook rock and to a swinging bridge. The kids again found a great place to play around under the bridge.

Thursday....we woke to clouds and colder temperatures. After a leisurely morning in the cabin the guys decided to rent a canoe and take a tour of the lake. Oh, did I mention that our cabin was built over the lake. J.R. and John also enjoyed fishing off the porch. You can see in the pictures that J.R. didn't enjoy the canoeing. It was cold and windy. Us girls stayed in knitting & watching Pride and Prejudice. Becca had just finished reading the book. After a late lunch we decide to head back to Birmingham. We were all ready to sleep in our own beds and we didn't have to rush back on Friday.

Spring Break & Muffins

I don't have much today...other than to say it is SPRING BREAK !!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!

I have been doing laundry, scheduling bill payments, planning menus for our spring break adventure. I am so excited for the break of daily life and having our family all together for a few days.

I will return after a while, but for now I will share this recipe for muffins I made recently. I found it on www.bettycrocker.com. Enjoy!

Banana-Blueberry Muffins

2/3 C milk

1/4 C vegetable oil

1/2 C mashed very ripe banana (1 medium)

1 egg

2 C self-rising flour (my substitute)

2/3 C sugar

1/4 t ground nutmeg

1 C fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed & well drained)

Heat oven to 400F. Grease bottoms only of 12 regular-size muffin cup or line with paper baking cups. Beat milk, oil, banana & eggs in large bowl with fork. Stir in remaining ingredients except blueberries just until flour is moistened. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (cups will be almost full). Sprinkle w/ sugar if desired. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan.

Good News from the Doctor

We had good news yesterday from our sports medicine doctor...Dr. Tracy Ray w/ The Andrews Center. A little background first...after Johns started warming up at his meet on Tuesday @ Mtn. Brook...he came to me and said, "my knee is stiff, I can't stretch this one the same as the other one." John was not in pain so I told him to ask the coach what to do. Coach let him run the 1600...he ran a 5:41 just 5 seconds off his best time, but there was some swelling and John was a little frustrated because he couldn't run at maximum speed. Still no pain...so he ran the 800 (time 2:37, again just 5 seconds off his PR). Coach decided John would not run the 4x400 relay and ask that I get John's knee checked. So, that is what we did, and were so relieved that Dr. Ray did not see any damage to John's knee. Due to Spring Break (woo hoo!) we have 2 weeks until the next meet so that give us time to rest the knee. We are so thankful that the swelling was not an indication of an injury.

Out My Backdoor

This is the beautiful red bud tree in my back yard. We transplanted this about 15 years ago from J.R.'s parent's yard. It was only 2 feet tall. It is one of my favorite things about Spring. Since red bud trees only live about 15 years we are losing a few limbs each year. We sure will miss this sight when she is gone.

Worship

Lead Me to the Cross

Savior I come

Quiet my soul remember

Redemptions hill

Where Your blood was spilled

For my ransom

Everything I once held dear

I count it all as lost

Lead me to the cross

Where Your love poured out

Bring me to my knees

Lord I lay me down

Rid me of myself

I belong to You

Lead me, lead me to the cross

You were as I

Tempted and trialed

You are

Te word became flesh

Bore my sin and death

Now you're risen

To your heart

To your heart

Lead me to your heart

Lead me to your heart

Come Ye Sinners

Come ye sinners, poor and needy

Weak and wounded, sick and sore

Jesus ready stands to save you

Full of pity, love and power

Come ye thirsty, come and welcome

God's free bounty glorify

True belief and true repentance

Every grace that brings you nigh

Chorus:

I will arise and go to Jesus

He will embrace me in His arms

In the arms of my dear Savior

Oh, there are ten thousand charms

Come ye weary, heavy-laden

Lost and ruined by the fall

If you tarry until you're better

You will never come at all

Track & Field - Hoover Middle School Open

Track and Field season has started and John is having a grand ole time. He did very good in the meet on Friday. He ran in the 1600, 800 & 4x400 relay.



Johns stats for this meet were:


1600 - came in 21st with a time of 5:36.34
800 - came in 11th with a time of 2:32.03
4x400 relay - his team came in 8th with a time of 4:25.14

Knitting

Abby taught me how to knit last summer, but I didn't get started on a project until January. I wanted to show you one of the projects I have going on right now. This is an afghan for our family room. I am using Vanna's Choice yarn by Lion Brand. The colors are linen, honey, pea green, taupe & dusty blue. 

The inspiration for the color choices are from the fabric on a new club chair we bought this past fall. All part of a family room update. I will have to show some before and after pics later.

I am using a pattern from this book. The pattern is simply called "knit RIPPLE afghan".

You may not know that Vanna White is a long time knitter, she does a lot of charity knitting and this book is a collection of some of the items she has knitted for cancer patients. I am in the beginnings of some charity knitting myself. I have been approached by a friend to do some knitting for a local crisis pregnancy center. I will be knitting baby booties.

Monday...Tuesday...Wednesday...

Monday...meant errands...Restoration Hardware to buy a travel checkers/chess set and I also bought a travel backgammon set. I found the checkers set while searching online for a Newton's Cradle for John's group science project. Believe it or not it was on clearance at RH as well. I also stopped at Target, Michael's (for my weekly knitting item), the bank, Academy Sports, Publix.

Tuesday...meant John's 1st track meet of the season (Sorry, no pics this time). He ran the 800 and 300 hurdles. It was very cold which became a problem since all of his events were towards the end of the meet. He did good in the 800, but his legs did not cooperate for the 300 hurdles. He didn't fall or even hit a hurdle but it wasn't pretty. I felt for him. John was not happy, but realized he didn't have control over the temperatures. He was suppose to run in a 4x400 relay right after the hurdles, but the coach could tell he was struggling and pulled him from that event. His next meet is Friday the low is in the 50s, so it ought to be a much better meet.

Wednesday...meant taking John to the dentist and running an errand for Abby. I didn't accomplish much else other than getting caught up on some blog reading. Even though most of the blogs I currently read are women much younger than me they minister me so much. I laugh, cry, mourn, rejoice, identify with them all.

What a Wonderful Snowy Day

We had a wonderful surprise when we woke up for church this morning. This time it had really snowed during the night and the ground was almost covered. It continued to snow until about noon here in Birmingham. It was a beautiful snow and so much fun for the kids.

It was John's (13) first really good snow to play in and he had a great time. He kept the young boys next door entertained for several hours. I am sure there parents were glad about that. John took this picture of our house.

It was a great day for reading, knitting, pulling coupons for this weeks deals at Rite Aid, then dinner at our favorite local mexican restaurant. It was yummy. There was a bit of stress to the day...Abby (20) had gone to Atlanta for the weekend and we had to make driving decisions for getting her back to Tuscaloosa without really knowing how bad the weather was between here and there. She made her journey fine and I sure was glad when she was back in Tuscaloosa safe and sound.

Here is a little slide show of some of our pictures of the day...enjoy!

Sleeping In & Good Bye to February

I have the sweetest husband, he surprised me this morning by letting me sleep in. I did get John up at 5:30am for his E-day trip to Auburn, but promptly went back to bed. Then J.R. got up at 6:00 and took John to school, came home and woke Becca up and made her lunch and saw her off to school. He quietly dressed for work & left me to slumber. It was so nice, I slept until 10 o'clock when the storms started rolling in.

Once I was awake, I remembered the task at hand for today...the linen closet and laundry area. Then I remember Abby was coming home and I was going with her to get the oil changed in her car before she headed to Atlanta for the weekend. So I had to punt my cleaning and organizing plans...maybe tomorrow. Abby didn't get here until Becca was home from school so we all piled in the car and had a good time visiting at Express Oil Change. I will be sure to post pictures of the linen closet and laundry area once the job is complete.

As February comes to a close I wanted to share a picture of a tablecloth I bought at HomeGoods. It was in their Valentine's stuff but I thought it would also be pretty for a baby shower.

It's the weekend! Woo Hoo! Have a good one.

Fresh Haircut

Don't you just love a fresh haircut, even if it is just a trim. I have been growing my hair and let's just say it had been a while. The girl that cuts my hair works in her dad's barber shop and you just stop in and get in line. Well, I decided when I left to run errands if her car was in the parking lot (& not to many other cars) I would get a much needed trim and a little layering around the face. I was so happy to see Brandi's car and only one other car and my hair feels and looks so much better.

Then I was off to...

the library to return the last book in Karen Kingsbury's 14 book series about the Baxter Family, checked out a few books on knitting, a novel by Francine Rivers called Leota's Garden and my first reading on menopause, I turned 48 in January and the hot flashes have begun.

Blockbuster (just a return)

Bruno's for deals on toilet paper, Honey Nut Cheerios 3 (12.25 oz boxes) for $5 w/ my coupon & a price on Carnation Instant Breakfast (my kids love it before school)

Michael's to use my 40% off on some knitting needles

Ulta for some new makeup...and back home for some time with Becca before she left to babysit.

Now, for a preview of tomorrow. My laundry closet and linen closet are upstairs in my house. They are at each end of a wide hallway, that I used for my laundry hampers. This whole area is a bit messy and tomorrow it is getting cleaned up and organized. A great project for a rainy day. I may even finish the laundry while I am sorting and organizing.

Here are the before pictures:

Welcome to my World

I have been contemplating this adventure for a few weeks and just decided what the heck...go for it!

I began blog stalking (as some call it) recently and have been so encouraged by the stories I have read. Stories of faith in God,  love of family, strong (& some broken) marriages, raising children, decorating homes, interest in the economic and political direction of our country, crafts, cooking, organizing....all things that interest me.

So it may take me a little while to get with all the pictures and snazzy stuff, but I look forward to learning and sharing.