Tuesday, December 15, 2009

my little man


This sweet little boy constantly amazes me. Not only is he incredibly smart, has a great memory but he's showing how much he loves God.

Today he came into my bedroom while I was printing labels and said "Mommy?"

"Yes Grae."

"I was upstairs in Maddie's bedroom and I saw an iPhone laying on her table and I played with it. I'm sorry."

"Uhhh..."

"And I'm telling the truth."

"Okay, Grae." Then I reached for him to give him a hug but he by the look in his eye, he thought I was going to do something else. He looked relieved when I just squeezed him and told him thank you for telling me and to not play with it again unless he asks first.

"Okay Mommy!"

I then heard him go back up the stairs and tell Ellie, "Mommy said thank you." "No I didn't get a spanking, I told the truth."

So cute and I thank God for my little boy.
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Friday, December 11, 2009

Amazing Amazon deals!

**Check back often as I will add new deals here as I find them!**

I had to share all these deals at Amazon.com. It's even better if you sign up for a free 1 month trial of Amazon Prime which gets you free shipping. Sign up here: Amazon Prime

If you don't want to keep your membership you can set your account to auto-cancel. After you sign up, click on the "Your Account" tab, then click on "Manage Prime Membership" and finally click on "More Order Actions". You should then see a box to check that will NOT upgrade your membership automatically. Perfect!

Here are some deals that I've been seeing for kids. They all qualify for Amazon Prime shipping!
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Friday, December 4, 2009

more free money

I have been so pleased with Swagbucks and have earned $20 in Amazon gift cards in 6 weeks! I am spending them all on Christmas.

Anyway, I thought I would share another money maker, Shop At Home. It is a website with tons of different coupons codes to a lot of different online stores. They also offer cash back for purchases just for shopping through their site. So say like you need to buy something from Old Navy. First go to http://www.shopathome.com and find Old Navy. You will get 10% cash back just for clicking through their link and buying something from Old Navy. I've been finding some really great deals online and I will always go first to SAH to find out if the store is offering any cash back. Then I just click through the link and get the credit. So far I have $26 in money coming back!

They offer a $5.00 bonus for signing up. That's free money! Hope this helps you Christmas shop.
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

this little girl


This little girl who looks all sweet and innocent is going to drive me to the mad house. I decided that after Christmas, when she's 2 1/2 years old, that we would start potty training (or potty learning to the more enlightened). All of her other siblings, except the talented and gifted Ellie who potty trained at 2, used the big kids potty at that age.

But then she started wanting to use the potty and did successfully for a few days. Then she didn't want to. Then she did. Then didn't. Then did. Get my drift. Now it's a resounding "no, I don't want to." So back to my original idea to wait until after Christmas. I bought a really cute training underwear pattern (that snaps off in case of a major accident) so I think I'll make some and give them to her for Christmas. Yes, underwear for Christmas, I know.

Our Thanksgiving was really fun. We were invited to our good friends house who happen to have 10 kids and several of those kids happen to be my kids best friends. We arrived at 2:00 pm and didn't leave until 10:30 pm and would have stayed longer if it wasn't for our little ones being so exhausted. The three older girls stayed the night much to their delight.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. There is nothing like sitting around the table after a good meal and talking about everything and anything. As the evening gets later and you get more tired, the talking turns to silliness and memories and inside jokes are made. So thanks "B" family, we had a great time! And thanks for our new Julian Smith addiction. :)
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Monday, November 30, 2009

impossible

It is almost impossible to get a picture of all 6 kids and have them looking at me AND smiling. I think I got one and am putting it on some Christmas cards but the photos at the top are definitely not card material. Funny - but no.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

cheap

I realized the Christmas is only a few weeks away and I have two presents bought. Yes, two. I know what I want to make/buy for my kids but I haven't been motivated to actually do something about it.

I'm trying to do a very cheap Christmas because, well, we are not going to go into debt to buy presents. I forgot to make a Christmas fund last year so whatever money I can make sewing is our Christmas fund. We like to make presents and I have some yummy bamboo velour to turn into blankets, some great homemade jam, bread, etc for baskets.

I'll have a $10 Amazon gift card soon thanks to Swagbucks. I earned it in only 20 days by really doing nothing except searching and entering Swag Codes when I find them.

What is Swagbucks? It is a search engine powered by Google and Ask. I don't like the search answers so I switch to regular Google if I win a SwagBuck. So what I do is go to Swagbucks (or you can download their toolbar) and type in your search. I also type in the site I want to go to. So if I want to go to ebay, instead of typing ebay in my address bar, I type it in the Swagbucks bar and I could get a point or 2 for using their bar. Swagbucks also release Swagcodes good for a couple of points. Sometimes they just give you the code and sometimes you have to find it but it's pretty easy.

It's rather easy and I earn between 2-5 points a day. It only takes 45 points to earn a $5 Amazon gift card. Anyway, I'm hoping to get at least another $5 Amazon gift card before Christmas and buy the kids a new Wii game free!

If this is something you want to try, here is my referral link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/alittlebusy You will get 3 Swagbucks for just signing up. I get Swagbucks when you find them so if you decide you like Swagbucks, get your friends signed up so you can get gift cards faster.

Anyway, I need to go wake Molly up from her nap. We need to go to Walgreens and get some free Aussie shampoo and hopefully the movie UP. I have a $10 off coupon that expires today.
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Saturday, October 31, 2009

spiderman

Grae has discovered how to climb the wall and wanted me to take a picture of him doing it. Please excuse the quality. It was raining here and I struggled to get enough light in the room without using the flash.







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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

what my daughter made me...


I needed something for my mantle and I like fresh flowers but wow, can that get expensive. My 14 year old taught herself origami flower making so I commissioned her to make me a vase full.

They are lovely and go perfectly with my new old mirror that I will show soon.

(the rocks in the picture were put there by 6 year old Ellie. She really wants them somewhere).
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

our meals this week

We're on a tight budget. We paid off all credit card/vehicle debt two years ago and have not used any credit cards in that time. It was hard at first. I felt like we didn't have any money but now it is so freeing. We don't buy it if we don't have the money - as simple as that. We now have a growing savings account and are adding at least $500 to it a month with my businesses. We finally have enough money saved to buy Brian a used car when our van dies (which will be soon I'm sure).

We can credit our generous God who provides for all our of needs and many of our wants as well as following the Dave Ramsey plan. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to take control of their finances, especially his Total Money Makeover book. Get it at your library.

Anyway, part of living within our budget means we can only spend $750 a month on groceries and household items (laundry, cleaning supplies, toothpaste, shampoo, etc). I'm sure many of you can put me to shame and live on way less and I would welcome your tips. This money feeds all 8 of us comfortably (including my low-carb diet). We make almost all of our food from scratch and don't buy prepackaged meals or snacks and rarely go out to eat.

So I had $100 left over this week for groceries. I wrote out a meal plan for dinners and we went shopping at Winco. I only spent $76 (of which a couple of $$ were for some candy since Grae was with us) so I have some left over to buy milk, eggs and whatnot this week. (we go through 3 dz eggs and 6 gallons of milk a week).

Breakfasts for the kids are usually oatmeal, homemade pancakes or muffins or cereal if I can get it for under $1.00/lb. Lunches for the kids are sandwiches, mac -n-cheese, yogurt with sunflower seeds/fruit, leftovers, etc. I'm a little different in that I low carb. So I eat 2 eggs with ham & veggies for breakfast. Lunch is a low carb tortilla with cheese, avacado, lettuce or just a bowl of cottage cheese. You get the picture.

Dinner tonight:
Low Carb Lasagna (made with roasted zucchini instead of noodles. Yes the kids eat it and like it.) Side salad. Grapes for the kids and blueberries for Brian and I.

Wed:
Bean and Bacon soup with white beans I bought yesterday. I LOVE white beans. *I better get them out so I can soak them tomorrow.* Homemade bread for the family. None for me. Throw some type of veggie in the soup as well. Maybe chopped peppers, broccoli and carrots?

Thurs:
Low carb quiche (just no crust) with sausage, bacon and broccoli. Homemade pancakes or french toast for the family. Low carb bread french toast for me (so good!). Some type of fruit.

Friday:
Leftover bean soup with turkey sandwiches on homemade bread. Lettuce, tomatoes, etc.
Salad?

Saturday:
Leftovers or whatever the kids fix.

Sunday:
Too stuffed from eating a big meal at church. Brian sometimes makes fried potatoes and we have it with cheese and some type of deli meat.

So that's my plan. I didn't have to buy any household items this week. I'm still super stocked up on free toothpaste, shampoo and enough free deodorant to last for another year. Thanks to the Grocery Game (http://www.thegrocerygame.com).

So now that I've typed for like 30 minutes, I actually need to go prep for dinner. I have to roast the zucchini first and let it sit to drain. Oh and need to finish diaper laundry or Molly will have nothing to wear when she wakes up. Oops.
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Saturday, October 24, 2009

furniture feature friday


I love this feature at Miss Mustard Seed's blog. I've recently just found her blog and have spent hours looking through posts. Such inspiration!

I entered my chandelier redo on her feature page. Be sure to check out the other creative projects!
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Friday, October 23, 2009

redo: kitchen

Before our 6th child, Molly, was born we did a quick redo of our kitchen. Here are the posts: "Kitchen". We painted the cabinets, replaced hardware, sink and fixtures. We never finished putting up moulding or painting the existing moulding.

So last Saturday we finally put the finishing touches. I repainted the faux brick to a sea green/blue color, repainted the paneled walls a cream color, we put up and painted all the moulding as well as repainted the ceiling a bright semi gloss white. The kitchen looks so much better now. This is a temporary fix until we can tear the kitchen out and do a proper renovation.

So before:


You can see our crazy floor that I love but I'm convinced the next home owners will rip it out. After:










I found this paint by number bird a few years ago. I picked the wall color without even thinking about this painting and it matches. I really like this color. (proof here: schoolroom)



So overall I'm happy with the way it turned out. I can certainly live with it for a year or two until we save up enough money to redo the kitchen. Next up for the blog: my living room redo and my amazing hallway redo.
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

redo: kids room

Remember this?. This was my office/sewing room before. We decided to turn it into Grae and Molly's room. It has a disgusting carpet, no light fixture and a door that didn't open without brute force.

Here is the now. This is right when you walk in.


This is standing by their beds. Notice the dresser. Brian built a wardrobe on top because there is no closet in the room.


This is Molly's side.


And my first quilt. I even free motion quilted it (my first time!).


Graedon's side:


Grae's robot/rocket ship quilt I made.


I took those cheapy crates from Joann's and painted them school bus yellow. We used the curtain wire from Ikea to hang his pictures. The superhero pictures are the fronts of comic books.


We replaced the door with this fiberglass door. You can't see but the upper half of the door is windows (hence the amazing light pouring in).


And finally, here is the view from the backdoor. The pictures Ava made.


I'm very pleased out how the room turned out. It was hard designing something for both a girl and boy but they both love it.

I'll show you some pictures of our cheap kitchen redo as well as the new living room design in a few days.
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