Crazy town

Well the bus to Crazy Town is scheduled to pass my house and we've decided to hop on. Yes I know I am crazy. I've actually planned this trip to The Town. Two months ago I looked forward to this trip. As departure time approaches, I am starting to get VERY nervous. Where am I going you ask?? I am going to home school. Why, you ask? I have no idea right now. I am too nervous to remember why. We home schooled back when I only had a preschooler and a Kindergartner. Even that overwhelmed me a bit. Now after 2 years in school, they are coming back home. I have a 3rd grader, 2nd grader, kindergartner, and a toddler. So I imagine this will be a bit different then last time.
I have a file cabinet full of curriculum that I have no idea what to do with and 3 semi-angelic faces staring at me, ready to learn. Really it is not the teaching part that freaks me out, it is more the organization and discipline that homeschooling requires that brings me to nausea. There is no rhyme or reason to my day. There never has been. But now there must be both rhyme and reason. Kind of like, " hey watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" And I am no magician. So pray for me. Encourage me. And all of you veteran home schoolers out there, HELP ME!!!!!
Lord love a duck!!!

I love a great deal!!!

Ok So I must admit. I am not the greatest at using coupons. I find them to be a bit difficult and confusing. I have found a resource to simplify this for me. My extremely savvy friend has decided to start a blog posting all of the great deals she gets and tell us, less savvy people, how to do it. I was skeptical at first whether it would be as easy as she said so I tried it. I went to walgreens yesterday to get diapers. The walgreens brand were buy one, get on 50% off. That is 7.99 for the first pack and 3.99 for the second. Not a bad price in my book. But it can be better. Using the instructions on Clair's blog I went to the front of the store and grabbed a coupon book. In it I found a coupon for $5.00 off 2 packs of walgreens brand diapers. I then went to the pharmacy and asked for a book of the prescription coupons. In there I found a coupon for $2.00 off each pack of walgreens diapers. That is a grand total of $9.00 off!!! The diapers were only $12.00 before the discounts so I got 2 jumbo packs of diapers for $3.00!!! $1.50 EACH!!! I was so excited when I left walgreens I called every one I know who has one in diapers!! She is posting a few times a day because she has so many deals to tell us about. So check out Clairs blog and let me know what deals you try!!!

OH YES

Well I am now on week 3 of my e-mealz plan and it is still A-MAZING!!! All of the food has been so good to eat and so easy to make. One of the recipes was a chili, not such a big hit with the boys, but everything else they have loved! If you haven't checked it out yet click on the link in the post below. I have even stayed 30-50 dollars under their estimated total! By shopping at aldi, keeping an eye on sales at other stores, and following the helpful coupon hints on the emealz website I am saving so much money. What I am saving money? Yes time for a pedicure!!!!

This is it!!!

I have found a website that will revolutionize my life!! Yes this is it!! It is called e-mealz and it is amazing!! Dinner is one of my biggest obstacles each day. I never know what to make, and I am so sick of saying, "do you want spaghetti, tacos, or sloppy joes?" Then repeat that sentence the next day. This website gives you a weekly FAMILY FRIENDLY meal plan along with a corresponding grocery list. The bonus to this is that you can choose your grocery store and they will coordinate your meals with what is on sale!! Your meal plan is complete with recipes and your grocery list is broken down by AISLE and lets you know what items are for which meal. So if you want to skip meal 2, you can skip all of the ingredients with a 2 next to them. PERFECTLY BRAINLESS!!!! They also give you options of low-fat, low-carb, or points. I don't even know what points is:)

I have already printed 2 weeks worth, yes they are printable so you can save them to reuse, and each of the 14 meals are things my family will eat. The highest cost of the 2 is $77. That is only if I have to buy all of the things, some of them I have on hand, and if I only go to the store I chose. I could just as easily take that list to aldi and get what I can there and probably save quite a bit. I already spend more then $100 just on dinner stuff for us each week. This is also the meal plan for a family of 6 so smaller families would definitely cost less. I am so excited about this. If you want to check it out click here E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

I said I would NEVER do it!

I have one very important rule, one that I broke last week. "Thou shalt never bring 4 boys into anyone's place of business by myself." It is the 11th commandment, and I have sinned against it! I took all of my boys into the store and let me just tell you the wages of sin really is DEATH!!

I was heading to a weekend long conference at my church, and on the way to taking the kids to my parents, I had to run into CVS. It is not a big store, very few toys and such, so I justified my rule breaking. They actually did pretty well at first. We charged through the store, quickly, grabbing exactly what we needed. Diapers for the baby. I hightail it up to the counter and a very nice 12 year old boy begins to check me out. Halfway through the transaction, the computer freezes!! Ok I decide to remain calm. He looks dumbfounded, not exactly sure how to handle this problem. I suggest calling a manager or trying another register. His first life-saving maneuver was acting promptly on both of my suggestions. Manager arrives just as he is attempting to re ring me, there is no drawer in the register. The manager calls to the "back"(I can't imagine where that could be the whole store is about 500sq ft!) to get a drawer for the new register. I say don't even worry about it I will use a credit card then we have no need for cash. Apparently the register won't work without the drawer so it doesn't matter how I pay. Right next to the register is one of those "can't find the price, find it here" things. Here starts the fun stuff for my boys. While I wait, Camden is crying because his is sitting in the reason why we needed diapers so desperately and my bigger boys are roaming the store to find the coolest stuff to scan! After a 15 minute wait, they finally have the register situation worked out, the counter is full of random items they now need to reshelf. By the way, coolest item scanned that day, Dr. Scholls corn removers. Don't ask me why, the tribe has spoken.
After paying for my diapers, I head to the car. As we approach the automatic doors, Sam slams right into them. They would not open! Many people had come and gone while I waited, but when we tried to leave they wouldn't work!! We were trapped!! In what might be my own personal hell! I am starting to sweat and all of the walls are closing in on me. That store never seemed so small! After another 10 MINUTES, they get the doors working and I burst out to the free world. I was only moments from dropping to my knees, tears flowing down my face and kissing the sidewalk. I have never felt such sweet freedom! I had an overwhelming need all of the sudden for a GRANDE white chocolate mocha. Which I got, but this time I used the drive-thru!! PRAISE GOD FOR DRIVE-THRU'S!!!!!!

Don't eat the big white mint!

Apparently this applies to more in life than just urinals. Yesterday afternoon, my children were enjoying a swim in our pool/over sized bathtub. I could hear them playing and laughing and just plain having a wonderful time. As I watched out my kitchen window, I took a minute to thank God that they get along so well, how they love and protect one another, and what a blessing it is to have brothers. Fast forward 5, only 5, minutes. I ran to the laundry room to switch the loads of laundry when I hear, " MOM, HURRY!!!!!" I bolt up the stairs, breaking a toe on a rescue hero, to find one of my brilliant children puking in the backyard. I rush to his side to find out what the problem is when what to my wondering ears should I hear. The uninvolved brother was quick to report that brilliant child A was dared by brilliant child B to eat the chlorine tablet!!! I paused for only a moment in utter amazement before dashing in the house to grab my cell phone. Thankfully with four boys, poison control is on speed dial in my phone. I call and a much calmer person answered the phone. Child A is still puking and crying that his throat and tongue is on fire. I am borderline hysterical at this point so calm poison control guy is just another blessing. He is happy to hear that I have a yard full of vomit and instructs me to have him wash his mouth out with water. Then have him try drinking some milk. He will call me back in 1 hour to see how he is. Once the vomiting subsided, we all calmed down and after about 10 minutes he was able to drink something. His throat was still burning most of the night, but calm poison control guy told me that would happen, as long as he could swallow he was going to be fine. How wonderful of God to create us with a quick gag reflex. Never actually thought I would find myself so grateful for it, but hey with each new day comes new stupidity. Needless to say, child B BIG TROUBLE, child A probably punished enough by the natural consequences of trying to impress everyone. Good times, good times!!

Updates and Blessings

I know you are all wondering how I can go from multiple posts in one week to no posts in well a long time. I felt that we all needed to linger on Farve's greatness for just a bit longer. That and it has been crazy busy around here lately. Camden has begun to travel. He began with a type of army crawl some months ago, quickly progressing to a full on crawl. With in days of the crawl, he started pulling up and walking around furniture. He is now 9 months and will let go and stand alone and just yesterday he climbed up the stairs. Well only 2 before falling backwards. So needless to say he is keeping me on my toes!! Aside from all of this mobility, he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth! With three big brothers, keeping all of the chokables off the floor is a full time job. He is still as sweet as can be and he is loving being outside. We can put him in his walker in the driveway and he just laughs as he watches his brothers play. It is too cute!!!
The rest of the brood is doing great. Jacob and Tyler have 25 days of school left, and I couldn't be more excited to have them home again. The are both doing EXCELLENT in school but I love when they are home. So does Sam. He is so bored without his brothers. All day long he asks me when they will be home. I will not miss that question!! Sam and I have been enjoying our spring weather with lots of trips to the park and lately lots of garage sales. We love those!
Speaking of garage sales, I am having a massive one tomorrow. That is if the weather cooperates! I have so much stuff it is sick. 18 bins of boy clothes, 5 strollers, 4 swings, 3 car seats, 2 bouncy seats, a bassinet and too much other stuff to even try to list. On top of that my cousin is joining me with ALL of her stuff too. It has been a lot of work to put this together so we are praying for a decent day so I can get rid of as much as possible!!!!

Today is a great day. Today I have been married to the love of my life for 9 years! I can't believe it has been that long. I love him more today than the day I married him, and 9 years ago I didn't think that was possible. He is an amazing husband and father. He works so hard for us and then comes home and loves us all with every ounce he has. I can't imagine my life without him. We had a very rough first couple of years, so each anniversary I get the privilege of looking back on the goodness of God in our lives. It is ONLY because of his grace that we made it this far. And only his grace that will see us through the rest. I am so thankful that the Lord gave me Jay and I can't wait to see all that awaits us. Each day has been an adventure, one that I would DEFINITELY do again. I love you Jay! Thank you for all that you do and all that you are!