Coupons & Tigers & Bears, oh MY!

After watching a marathon of TLC's newest hit, Extreme Couponing, I felt compelled to start using coupons again. I used to always get the Sunday paper and cut a few and would manage to save a few bucks here and there. I think my biggest total was once about $11.00 saved! After watching the women (and men) on that show SPEND only $11.00 or less on hundreds of dollars worth of stuff...I began to wonder what I could do to cut some money out of my weekly food budget.
When I began to look around some, I quickly discovered there is literally a whole couponing world out there on the internet. I found so many blogs that my head soon began to spin, websites that told you everything on sale (with matching coupons) at your favorite store - complete with your own clickable shopping list. I also found websites where you pre-order weekly coupons already cut and shipped to your home each week!! Are you kidding me????
Needless to say, I have ventured in...I now have a binder with a few coupons (for products and services that we will actually USE), several bookmarked websites/blogs that I now check daily, and have actually gone on a few shopping trips - one to Walgreen's where I spent less than $20 and came home with $34 dollars worth of stuff we needed, and another to Target where I saved 30% off my total bill! Not too shabby for a beginner...I will keep you posted as I progress.

                                      Love my new hair...a big thanks to my girl Brittany!

17 - Ugh!

My daughter and most of her friends are 17. I don't feel that old and yet so much seems to be different from being 17 in the 80's and being 17 today. Alora is seemingly under so much pressure for college that it has become difficult to not let it consume the rest of us as well. Class schedules, AP exams, SAT's, GPA's, college visits, mounds of letters and packets in the mailbox everyday...ugh! I really have a different set of memories from my junior year of high school. I remember having fun. It has been difficult watching her (and her friends) struggle with all the choices. Do I load up senior year or take it easy? Do I have time for a job? How many clubs and after school activities are enough? 

I keep reminding her - and myself - that, as Christians, we need to believe that God already knows where both of my kids are going to college. He already has a snapshot of them at their graduation from that college in His mind. As long as we focus on that understanding and keep praying, He will reveal to Alora - and to us - which school that is. She will know it, love it, and get accepted! 

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." We have all heard this verse...many of us probably have it memorized. However, I like the next two verses even more. "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."

Credit Where Credit is Due

this lovely picture was taken by a beautiful friend of mine, Brittany Sisk

Sister Wives

I really have no idea why I like this show so much. I am fundamentally against the idea of polygamy...but if I'm being honest, that's only because I wouldn't want to "share" my husband. The other aspects, however, intrigue me. Maybe it's because as a stay-at-home Mom, I have to fight off loneliness and think it would be nice to have someone who I could share all those mundane tasks with. After all, everyone knows it's more fun to do dishes or laundry when you have someone else to do it with! Though I have a husband who is a fantastic father, he can't know what it feels like to me a Mom and have a mother's heart towards our kids, so it would be nice to have that sounding board for all those tough decisions that Mom's have to make and to understand what it feels like when you make a Mommy mistake. Finally, when I think of how much fun I have spending time with my sister and those few close friends whom I really "let in," I think to myself, yeah, I could live with them. I could share my life with them. I could CERTAINLY share my chores and child-rearing with them...but I am keeping Brian all to myself. Have a great day - you never know what's in store!