Grocery Shopping

I did my main "payday" grocery shopping yesterday and found several really good deals. I haven't been budgeting, couponing, ad-watching and deal finding as well as I should have been over the last year and I intend to change that. I have been inspired by a great blog call Money Saving Mom. I encourage anyone that is looking for budgeting help to check it out.

In total I spent $117 for $158 in groceries. I could have done better I am sure, but mega buying usually takes a month or 2 before supplies in the pantry are high enough to only be able to by the GREAT deals. I look forward to that time coming. When I worked really hard at my deal-watching and coupon clipping before I almost never spent more than $50 on groceries each week and that included all household items, dog food, tolietries and diapers. I would love to hit that mark again.

Family Dollar
We made a special trip to this store for 1 item. Normally I probably wouldn't have done this, but it was on the way and you will understand why in a minute. We needed Snausages (a dog treat) for Sadie (we didn't need them, but she loves them). They are $3-4 at Walmart and Kroger for 1 bag. They are a $1 a bag at Family Dollar and I had a $1 off coupon so we paid $.07 for her dog treats. I think that made it well worth the 5 minutes that it took to stop there.

Walgreens
I really think that Walgreens is the best store to shop at when you are deal shopping. I bought a 16 pack of Kotex pads for $3.19. I used a $1 off store coupon and a $2 off manufacturers coupon so I paid $0.19 for them. I bought a 20 count bottle of Advil PM for $3, minus the $2 manufacturers coupon for that, so I paid $1 for that. I also bought a fancy toothbrush for full price ($3.99) but I will get a full rebate on that. So I paid $5.50 and received $2 in register rebates, a $1 coupon for another bottle of Advil PM and I will get $3.99 rebated later. So, they actually paid me about $1 to shop at their store :) Cool huh???

Walmart
Here is what I bought for $78.02. I used a $1.50 coupon for diapers and $1 coupon for cereal.
10 lbs. ground beef
2 boxes of margarine
1 tub of margarine
44 lb bag of dog food
2 24pks of water
1 gallon of milk
1 small bag of cough drops
1 bag of Honey Nut Scooters (small one)
1 jumbo bag of newborn Pampers
1 flannel pj set for my hospital bag

Kroger
Here is what I bought for $34.75. I used a coupon for the Tyson Chicken Breasts. I saved $25.02 by shopping for only sale items.

5 cans Grands biscuits (98 cents each)
10 Banquet dinners (59 cents each)
6 2 liter bottles of Pepsi ($1 each)
Tyson chickens breasts ($1.77 lb)
10 bags of Lipton rice or noodles ($1 each)
3 lbs of red seedless grapes ($1.28 a lb)

I hope that this encourages someone else to work and lower their grocery budget as much as possible. Lowering your grocery budget doesn't mean that you have to eat beans and rice or that you have to make everything from scratch. I love to buy our favorite convenience foods at a greatly reduced price so that we can enjoy our busy lives :)

Blessings and have a great weekend!
Carie

33 Week Checkup and Other News

I had my 33 week appointment yesterday morning. Baby looks good, is head down and head a nice heartbeat. At my next appt., in 2 weeks, I will have my group B strep test and another ultrasound done. Then I will have weekly appts. until the end. It is almost here!!!

I have been very emotional lately. My optimal goal in life for today would be to lay in bed and cry all day. For no apparent reason. But I have decided that would be no way to live so today I am going to try to:

unload and reload the dishwasher
finish making my grocery list and categorizing coupons
show Greg the basics of learning to knit (he has been begging for months)

Not a very ambitious list, but if I can manage that at least I will have accomplished something. Maybe tomorrow I will be more "together".

We have taekwondo tonight so maybe being around other people will help.

I hope that everyone has a great day!
Blessings,
Carie

Whats going on around here

Good afternoon!

I have been online for over an hour searching/seeking/perusing dress patterns. The sewing bug has bitten me again. I am definately needing some new dresses. I am having a "creative attack"....I am feeling a great desire to create something. Maybe with payday coming soon I will have some money to order a couple new patterns and purchase some material. I could use a new dress or 2 that has nursing accesses. I was looking at the patterns HERE. The patterns are soooo very cute. I am just begging to sew up a few from various patterns.

I think that I will go knit something this afternoon. I have 1 sock of a pattern done and I really need to finish the other :) 1 sock takes me about 6 hours I think, but course, I never have 6 continuous hours.....I usually finish one in a week if I apply myself. I also have a Christmas gift started that I really should finish before baby comes.

Gregory has a hat that needs a stitch put in to fix the back band so I will try to get that done as well.

Sadie (the cute little black cocker spaniel) is laying at my feet snoring. She had a busy, tiring day today. She went to the soccer games with us this morning. It is a lot of work sitting next to mom getting petted by all the kids that think she is "soooooo cute" :) LOL So now she is resting. It is a lot of work being cute I guess. It definately gives her a big head :)

I have a chicken that I cooked in the crock-pot this a.m. that I need to pick off the bones and 2 loads of laundry to fold. Then I need to prep my lesson for youth group tomorrow night. It is still very hot here, but at least today the wind is blowing. Mr. Weather Guy says that it should cool off next week, unless he has changed his mind :) I am looking forward to some more cool fall weather. The boys painted 2 little pumpkins today so I guess that it is officially fall. I am going to find the kitchen table and use them as centerpieces :)

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Fall

I am so glad that the fall season is finally here. This year fall means different things to me than usual, with the upcoming arrival of baby, but fall still has to be my favorite time of year. I enjoy the beautiful days and crisp cool nights, football games (our team won last night!), cookouts and hayrides, pumpkins, apple cider (I bought my 1st gallon today), soccer and the seasonal slowdown that seems to occur as everything gets ready for a winter rest.

This year, fall means that baby will be here in a very short time. Fall this year is a new beginning for our family as God blesses us with a new member. God is gracious and God is always good. We are very thankful for his many provisions!

I urge you to take a minute and think about the things that you are so very thankful for this year. Have a wonderful fall weekend!

Blessings,
Carie

Our New Black Belt

Gregory successfully completed his requirements to test for his 1st degree black belt in taekwondo and successfully completed his testing last night at Master Newberry's Black Belt Academy in Champaign IL. We are so very, very proud of him and all that he has accomplished! Now I am the very proud momma of 2 1st degree black belts :)

We are proud of you Greg! Keep up the good work!

Friday To-Do List

Today the boys and I are going on a special end of summer outing. We didn't take much time this year to do the fun simple stuff that we used to do during the summer so I thought that this evening would be the perfect time to do that.

Today I need to:
Shower and dress
do Bible study
pay bills
do at least 1 load of laundry
school
lunch prep/lunch/lunch clean-up
library
park to play
football game at high school

Have a great weekend!

Thursday To-Do List

Here is my list of things to do today:

Shower and get dressed
Bible study
school
lunch prep/lunch/lunch cleanup
work on baby bib if there is time
Gregory has his 1st degree black belt testing in Champaign tonight so we will have to leave plenty early to get there in time for that. Good luck Gregory!!!!!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Doctor's Appointments

Yesterday was my 31 week check-up. On the way into town I commented to dh that my doctor had never had to deliver a baby during any of my appointmets.....he was always there, on time and ready. I spoke too soon!!!! We got back into the exam room and were the next up and we could hear him in the hall giving instructions. He had to go do an emergency c-section! So I got to see the physician's assistant. She is a very nice lady. Baby is head down, but transverse at this point. Gregory was transverse when I went into labor with him and the nurses manually turned him straight down. I don't want a repeat of that procedure....it is very painful. So hopefully the little tyke will settle fully head down sometime in the next few weeks.

Norman also had an appointment. The doctor is scheduling an MRI to see if they can find the source for the back pain he has been sufferering with all summer.

Otherwise we are both healthy as horses :)

Wednesday To-Do List

It looks like I accomplished everything on yesterday's list. I did cut out one of the pieces for the diaper bag. I think that it will be easy to sew together, but I hate cutting out the pieces and then I will have to find the sewing machine......it tends to get buried with lack of use :) The UPS man brought some books that I had ordered from Rainbow Resource so I was easily sidetracked. Lee is having some trouble with Spelling. We have been using Spelling Power and Greg may continue with that, but Lee needed something different so I ordered A Reason for Spelling. From looking at the book, I think that it will be a perfect fit! I ordered book B but I am sure that we will zip through it pretty quick and begin work on book C sometime in the spring. I am going to give Greg the option of switching over or staying with Spelling Power. He would also be using Book B, but probably at the normal pace. I also ordered some math workbooks from Mindware. The title were Addition Adventures, Subtraction Adventures, Multiplication Mosaics and More Multliplication Mosaics. Greg already did one of the activites. They are going to be a hit too. I didn't work on the baby bib. I was watching TV in bed and fell asleep sometime after 8. I guess that I was tired. Today is a busy day with doctor's appointments and all that so I don't imagine I will get any housework done today. I am so thankful that I had the energy to do a lot of it earlier this week.

Showered and dressed (done)
Bible study (done)
Take TV to repair shop
My doctor's appt.
Norman's doctor's appt.
Spend the afternoon at mil's house
taekwondo

Have a wonderful day!!!!

Blessings,
Carie

Tuesday's To-Do List

I am so very pleased with myself cause even though I was suffering through a major case of the grumpies I accomplished everything on yesterday's list PLUS I vaccumed the living room and master bedroom :) I also wanted to mention that Dh and I (mainly dh) put together the new crib Thursday afternoon, so the master bedroom is completely ready for the baby :) I am very excited and relieved about that. On Tuesday's I don't HAVE to go anywhere so I am hoping to accomplish more homemaking and handworking :)

Get showered and dressed (after I get done here)
Bible study
School
Laundry (probably 2 loads)
lunch prep/lunch/lunch clean-up (I don't know yet what is on the menu)
finish decluttering living room (I have dh's end table left - it is the worst)
declutter the master bath and sweep in there
work on diaper bag (I am adapting a purse pattern for a diaper bag, we will see how it goes)
work on baby bib (if there is time)
supper prep/supper/clean-up (probably sandwiches again)

I think that is all that I will have time for. I hope to get all of this accomplished and then my list will be down by almost half :) YEAH!!!!! Course I am already thinking of new things for a new list, but that's alright. I am taking it one day at a time. I have a doctor's appt. in the morning so I probably won't post a list or update. I will do that on Thursday. Have a great, blessed, Lord-filled day!

Blessings,
Carie

Monday's to-do list

I tend to feel overwhelmed on Monday's. The nesting instinict is in full force and my house is a disaster so that isn't helping things. Here are the things that I hope to accomplish today:

Bible study (done)
School (working on it- they are reading right now)
laundry (one load on the line, one in the washer)
sweep and pick-up the kitchen
declutter living room (this may take a few times)
dust master bedroom
lunch (some kind of steak with some kind of potatoes)
lunch cleanup
fold and put away laundry
supper and clean-up (usually sandwiches on the run)
taekwondo

I will try to post in the morning so that I can be accountable for how I did and also to post tomorrow's list. I have several projects that need to be done before baby gets here and I am hoping that the accountability will help get the projects done!

Blessings,
Carie

What we have been up to lately

I feel badly for my few readers cause most of my blog posts have been about the baby or baby related items. I am sure that most of you are sick of hearing about it. I will admit that since conception this baby has been an all-consuming passion of mine. I have been over-preparing ever since LOL. I don't know what I will do with myself once he finally gets here.

Anyway, there is life going on here that doesn't really have anything to do with the baby. Although I will say that I am getting fat and he is getting heavy.....all of a sudden my belly popped and he is all out front LOL

School is going nicely. I get the boys up at 8 and they eat breakfast while I read from the New testament and Old Testament (Sonlight scheduled readings). Then we work on character studies that I took from the Plants Grown Up Book from Doorposts. The boys are required to work on 1 memory verse and 1 "project" at a time. Lee is really wanting to do the memory work and no projects but I am refusing to let him select a new verse until he does a project :) I am a horribly mean mother, I know. We are also memorizing Psalm 8 together and I am working on Proverbs 31:10-31 personally. Then they go brush teeth, get dressed and pick up their bedrooms. "School" starts at 9. They are allowed to work on subjects in whatever order they please and it varies every day. More often then not, Lee chooses to read first and that really warms my "Mommy heart". Until this year he hated to read. I confess that I am paying them $1 for every 100 pages that they read independently, but whatever it takes right??? We stop for lunch at 11. Greg is almost always done. Lee is almost never done. He really is a dawdler....we are working on that. At 1:30 Norman goes to work and we do science, history and read alouds (Sonlight again). That usually takes until around 3 and then sometimes I require that Lee finish up his assignments depending on the amount of dawdling involved in the delay that day. The routine is working well for us and I am so glad that I choose Sonlight this year. I am convinced that if I was putting stuff together on my own again that I would be a basket-case by now.

Norman bought a trampoline and a 51 inch TV. So far this summer he has bought 2 dirt bikes (for the boys) and the corresponding paraphenalia (helmets, goggles and gloves). Now the trampoline and this huge TV that is taking up half of my front living room wall. I will admit that it is impressive even if it is HUGE and kinda tacky looking. That's alright. He is very pleased with himself and I know that he (and probably the boys) will get much enjoyment out of it. I am watching the History Channel right now.....the cars and people's heads are very large on this TV. My little dog is afraid of it LOL

So now the living room is in shambles until Norman has some time to help me rearrange furniture. I could probably move it myself but I can hear everyone I know throwing a fit when they find out that I did it......especially Norman......man would I be in trouble. We will see how long I can stand it like this.......

I am working on cleaning carpet spots made by my little dog Sadie. Sometimes we over-estimate the amount of time we can leave her home alone :) I got some great cleaner from Walmart that seems to be taking up the "set-in" stains and I am sure that if I keep it on hand for "when it happens" then things will be a lot easier.

I am working on a bib for the baby.......sorry, this isn't a post about the baby is it? Anyway, it is almost done. I decided that I wasn't going to knit a baby blanket cause I have already recieved one (from Norman's grandmother) and I know that my mom is making one.....probably my grandmother too. I made some little knitted hats this spring and some cotton/flannel receiving blankets and now the bib so I can be content that he isn't being neglected by his mother.

My bedroom is also in shambles cause the old TV and entertainment center is going in there. I guess that it is good that we don't have the crib up yet :) I am hoping to get it soon though.

In the evenings the boys and I have been doing Bible speed drills. I call out a verse and they see who can look it up the fastest. Lee is faster, but he lets Greg win sometimes which keeps everyone happy. I am thrilled that they thought this up themselves. It is wonderful to have this activity to end our days together.

Taekwondo is going good. We had several classes off for Labor Day and that was wonderful. I sometimes forget how nice it is to stay at home in the evenings :)

I guess that is all that is going on around here. If you want to know what is up with my spiritually see my post below. I can't promise that the next few posts won't be about baby but I will try to do better in the future :)

Blessings,
Carie

Implementing Romans 12

Our Sunday morning speaker presented a message that was taken from Romans 5 and Romans 12. It was a wonderful message about the Holy Spirit and the hope that he brings to our lives through Jesus. While scanning the rest of the Romans 12 text I decided to study further this week.

I took 3 pages of notes yesterday while reading/studying. I don't intend to share them because I am sure that they don't make sense to anyone but me :) I will however share some ways that I am going to try to implement Romans 12 in my life. These are convictions that I feel God has placed on me, after much prayer. I encourage you to study Romans 12 and see what plans God has for you!

1. My body is a living sacrifice
A. I need to eat nutritious foods in moderation
B. I need to exercise or at least stretch out daily

2. Be not conformed to this world
A. Study topics that I need clarified (partial list: modesty, prophecy, laziness and gossip)
B. form my own beliefs about those studied topics
C. follow those beliefs
****Stay in God's word everyday****

3. Pray about and follow God's leading regarding my gifts (I am sharing what I believe my gifts to be at this point.....I am open to following God's leading in this area though)
A. encouragement (send at least 1 card to someone that God places on my heart each week)
B. teaching (develop my 5 fat files, starting with the above mentioned studies)
C. singing (prepare 1 song a month and SING it at worship services)

4. Work on laziness (at home and elsewhere) - keep my eyes open to ways I can serve God's kingdom

5. Pray constantly

6. Be willing to open my home to others - to do this I must be prepared! I don't expect my home to be spotless or a showplace, but it needs to be moderately clean and I need to be prepared at a moments notice for guests. This also returns to my need to overcome my laziness!

7. Avoid arguing at all cost - be humble in all situations

This is what I am learning. I will probably reread Romans 12 at least once this week. I am praying that God will continue to work on me and in my life. I know that there is much to do - this is just a starting point!!!!!