Family Fun Days...

Egg toss!
Kevin on the last part of the obstacle course. It was run as a race.

Caleb and Dad running the obstacle course. They just climbed over the bales and are heading for the tire treads.

Jordan and Shanna running it together. This is the last stretch. The other team is ahead right now. They had to hold hands until this point.

Rebekah running the race.

We had a great weekend camping! A family hosted Family Fun Days at their house and had all kinds of games and food and fellowship planned. All the food was provided by this family! One time I counted 175 people! There was an obstacle course, egg toss, tug of war, apple dunking, volleyball, bead stringing, sand art, tractor rides, and more. We met a lot of great people and spent time with some we already knew. We had two worship times together; singing and sharing verses and other things the Lord was doing in our lives.

To come home...

To come home to your own house after cleaning someone else's is a bit of a downer. I left a very neat and tidy house with very clean bathrooms I might add to come home to, well, my house. It doesn't feel clean! Em and I went and cleaned 4 more hours. Jordan and I cleaned there 7 hours on Saturday. I guess we are in the cleaning business. We have two customers, one which is a once in awhile job and this new one should be every other week. I am hoping to put away the money to paint the house, but we will see. Other things always seem to crop up.

I am off to weed in the gardens! Oh boy, are they bad! One week you feel on top of it and the next week the weeds take over. We are eating lettuce everyday still and snow pea pods are ready now. Mmmm. They were really tasty last night. The green beans are flowering so it shouldn't be long until we get the canner out! Anyone else at the end of the season in your canning room. I have 4 jars green beans, 12 stewed tomatoes, 12 corn, 5 pears and then lots of peaches and some applesauce left. By the time you can buy peaches and get apples they should be gone too or nearly gone.

Face lift...

Our chicken coop got a face lift this weekend. The first picture was the only picture I could find of what it looked like before. It's only a partial picture of it but you can see the need for some improvement. I wish it was all the way done before I showed it, with trim painted and landscaping done but here is our latest project. (but you know, I'm not sure all that will get done with the way we do projects around here) The plants were left overs from the perennial garden. The second picture with the door in place looked a lot like The Little House on the Prairie House. We still have two sides to do before winter. We did the south side 4 years ago so this has been waiting a long time. Siding is so expensive. We bought a five gallon can of red paint 4 years ago and it was lumpy. We used it anyway and it worked.

My life...

The kids helped me today. We weeded this garden. This is now our "main" garden. It was pretty fun. You really have to learn to deal with kids who "don't do anything!" Gideon likes to walk around, make tracks in the dirt, pretend he's doing something but really not. Moriah can't weed if you are talking which we talk most of the time. Isaac told us all about how horse flies lay eggs on horses or humans, particularly in a sore. This news made Rebekah nearly quit weeding because I kept getting bit by horse flies and she was becoming terrified they would lay eggs on her. We had just seen a toad with a large sore infested with worms of some sort, very disgusting!

This is the first year I used a string to plant my rows. Looks pretty straight!

Over 600 onion bulbs. This is what needed the most weeding. To the left are potatoes and watermelon in the plastic area between the two rows of potatoes. To the right are beets and then cabbage. I read that watermelon does well planted with potatoes if the potatoes are mulched well. Tomorrow I hope to put the straw down now that it is all weeded.

Here the boys are helping with the tallest weeds in our raspberry patch. These are fall-bearing so we won't see fruit until Sept-Oct. I really need my tiller part to come sooner than June 22nd. Some weeds were nearly as tall as the raspberries.

I planted my tomatoes using red plastic. Gurney's claims they do better. My Carrots Love Tomatoes book says they do well with asparagus so that's what the plants are between the red mulch. If you don't pick the asparagus right away they grow tall and spindly and you are supposed to leave them like that until next year. They are growing roots deep down. We didn't get a good crop of asparagus this year. We did better last year. The wheels are decoration. I once planted morning glories on them. Last year it was pole beans and this year I have tomatoes planted in front and back so as they grow I'll tie them to the wheels.

A new twist to coupons...

Ok, so I look at that picture of my last post of my "deals" and think, "those things aren't worth $10" but then I look at it again and see 11 of the items were completely free. A friend asked what I had to buy to get those things. Well, nothing. None of them required another purchase to get them free. I discovered a new twist to coupons tonight. I was playing around looking up things on ebay while the family had movie night (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and discovered you can buy coupons on ebay. I am bidding on 20 coupons for those same croutons. It is actually $20 in coupons since they double up to $1 each at most grocery stores. This time I'm going to wait until the croutons are on sale at the grocery store and get them less than $0.55 each. It will only cost me $1.43 to buy them online. Of course, I'll only buy coupons for items I'll really use and only if I can get them under $2 for 20. Wow! Some people were up to $10 on Pampers baby wipes coupons. I could not imagine spending that much on coupons!!!!

We sure like those croutons on our salads. We eat salad (from the garden) for every lunch and supper and it is nice to dress it up a different way each time. My favorite salad toppings are croutons, shredded carrot, and shredded cheese with homemade ranch buttermilk dressing. I'm hoping the salad lasts until the cucumbers and cherry tomatoes come ripe.

More couponing...

This all cost me $10.13 (without coupons it would have been over $39)

The girls had dentist appointments today. Ouch! for Jordan with two cavities in the back. It was a little hard coming out of the pain killers. Emily did have a small cavity. We thought there was only one person who had one. We did a little shopping after and got some more deals. Why do I show these? I'm not sure? To inspire others to coupon? To show-off my good deals? To encourage frugal living? If one of these fits you then there you go...

Today, I went to the Family Dollar store across from the Dentist and purchased 4 bags of Werther's caramels and got them all for free. They were on sale for $1 a bag and I had a coupon for $1 off each one! I would not normally buy these but for free I make an exception because I will find someone who will like them or Kevin will take them to work. It keeps him from spending money on a quick snack here and there. In the pic is also A freezee pop maker for $1. Then we went to Jubilee where they had Reser's salads on sale for $0.98 each. I had two $0.55 off and $1 off two. I spent $1.82 on 4 potato, noodle and cole slaw salads that will last several lunches. We headed over to Econo where I got three Old Orchard juices free! ($0.50 off coupons that double to a $1 off, juice was on sale for $1), 5 bags of croutons (we are eating a lot of salad from the garden right now) ($0.50 off, doubled to a $1 off for $0.55 a bag), Marcel toilet paper (on sale for $1 and had a coupon for $1 off, free!!!!!), Bar S hotdogs (I know, yuk for some of you, but kids like to cook them over a campfire, $1 a package with $1 off when you buy 2, $0.50 each), Sara Lee ham (on sale for $1.50, used $1 off coupon), Wacky Mac noodles ($1.39 regular price, coupon for $0.50 doubled to $1 off). Onto Wal-mart because they had Nestle cookie dough for $2.16 and I had a coupon for $1 off. 12 large cookies for $1.16 isn't a bad deal. (A treat since we don't eat cookies very often). At Wal-mart I checked out their razors and I had 3-$3 off Bic something or other and they only cost $2.96 each so they were all three packages free!

If you are like some of my friends and think "There is no way I can spend that much time couponing!" Here is a little tip, check out coupons.com and target.com and go to Target's coupon section and start printing coupons for things you use. Check out their ad and try to match up coupon deals. Check out especially when Target is offering $5 gift cards. I have gotten so many gift cards from Target that end up making the item I bought free. I just split my order in two and use the gift cards for the rest of my purchase. If anyone knows anyone who buys diapers (especially Huggies), coupons.com seems to always have $3 off a package. Right now Target has a $3.50 off coupon for one Huggies $8.99 and one wipes $5.99. I also had a coupon for $3 off the Huggies and $2 off 2 packages of wipes. I bought a $2.24 wipes to add to the deal and got $8.50 off the whole thing. I can't even imagine paying full price again for diapers or wipes. I stock up too so I can last until the next really good deal.

This post is so long but I have to tell you my favorite part and maybe I've mentioned it before. Giving away coupons! My friend Val calls me obsessive-compulsive about it but if I see someone with something I have a coupon for I ask if they would like it. I don't believe I've been turned down. Even my friend who thinks I obsess about this took several coupons from me that saved her nearly $10 on what was already in her cart! OK, so the obsessive-compulsive part might just be that I have a few hundred coupons in my bag and if you are walking by me I can spot something that I have a coupon for within seconds because I know my coupons in my bag very well! :) :) :)