Weekend get-a-way...

Rebekah and Moriah under the mushroom of water.

Rebekah coming down the water slide. The water park at our hotel.

We went to an Encouragement for the Home School Family Conference. We stayed at a hotel with a water park and the kids had a great time. We got there early Friday so they could swim and it was a good thing we got there when we did. We planned to stay two nights but there was a misunderstanding when I made the reservations. I thought we were getting a two room suite for a certain price and when we got there they had two two-room suites reserved for us because you are only allowed 6 people per 2 room suite. I have to say it was ridiculous. The room was huge!!!! We would have easily fit in the one suite but they would not bend and we had to pay for both but they did allow us to cancel the other night. It was a big disappointment because I made food for all our meals (crock pot meals) and had planned to spend last night swimming and just having a good time for two days.

The water slides were quite large and my kids just climbed the ladder and came down. I was amazed at how Gideon, Moriah and Rebekah went down them over and over. I was especially amazed after I went down the yellow one. I was terrified and do not plan to ever go down a water slide like that again!!!!!

The conference was wonderful and a huge encouragement to us all. Isaac said he wished he would have taken notes at the sessions he went to for young men. I pray my kids and husband and me remember what we learned and implement some changes to help our family become less "me" centered and more "Christ" centered. Check out their website at www.Titus2.com. They have some great materials. Kevin purchased some for our family to enjoy so as we finish each book or CD we could give a review of what we learned from it.

Swimsuit search...

We started the swimsuit search about a month ago. Jordan and Emily both needed a new one. So, we narrowed it down to two choices that the girls would even consider and this is what they have. You might think that THAT isn't a swimsuit, but it is a swimsuit. I bought the pattern from a company in Canada, and the material from ebay. The material is 4-way stretch lycra made especially for swimsuits. They feel like swimsuits. I started cutting out the patterns Monday night and Jordan started sewing Emily's yesterday and finished it today plus started her own today and finished about 10:30 tonight. She made the leggings for them too out of black lycra swimsuit material. I think they are beautiful. Jordan is so talented. She sews so well for someone who has a mother who cannot sew a thing! I'm in awe of her talent. This was her first sewing project following a pattern. She's always made up the pattern for her other projects. I picked out a blue pattern identical to Jordan's suit for myself. We may try to get it sewed up tomorrow. We have need of swimsuits Friday night so it's nice the girls have something now. I don't usually swim when we go somewhere because I haven't had a suit for a few years now. It might be fun if I got to jump in with the kids and I won't be worried about my swimsuit looking low or showing too much flab in one of these! They were so cost effective especially since we bought the pattern. I bought 2 patterns: one size XS, S, M, L, and XL all in one and one for girls size 8,10,12,14. I plan to have Jordan make Riah and Bekah suits too. The older girls suits were about $70-80 cheaper each than buying the suit already made from the website! We saved a lot making them ourselves and buying the material on ebay.

Last concert...

Sigh... I wish it weren't over. Symphony has been very enjoyable for me. The concert today was so good! I'm going to miss the concerts. (A big apology to my parents; I thought I had told them the date of the concert, well, I did in a Jan. email but I really thought I had mentioned it since.) Life is sometimes so busy!!!! This week was an especially busy one in school and in activities. And then Thursday I crunched my head getting in the van to put Lena in her seat and I spent Friday in quite a lot of pain. It crunched my neck real good. I couldn't get into a chiropractor so have had to live with it. I won't be in town until Thurs. I can't wait to get some relief!!!!! Needless to say, I'm not that great on communicating with people. I tend to put it off until later and then I remember at 11 p.m. or later! Can anyone relate? I'm notorious for waiting until the last minute. I sure wish I would have called to check if they had it written down. I made a big assumption! I added some pictures of the girls together and Jordan and her conductor and Emily sitting with her stand partner before the concert. Jordan does have her chamber concert April 14th at noon. She is in a trio and then another larger group. It will be so neat to see her play. She sat in the back this year and while the concerts are enjoyable we don't actually see Jordan playing the songs. April 14th for any who are interested. All I know is that it is at Sanford Health. We don't know where exactly yet but she has one practice before then so we'll find out then.

Coupon madness...

Well, not madness but it might look like that to some. I did some ebay shopping for coupons and found some great ones for Muir Glen Tomatoes ($1 off), Tom's of Maine ($2 off), Seventh Generation ($1 off) and Jimmy Dean Sausages ($1.50 off 2).

Forgive me for boring you. I am a detail person. Now, Newman's Own does have an organic line. These are not part of that. I emailed them and found out what is in each of their sauces looking for MSG and other additives. I couldn't find anything I didn't like except soybean oil (we avoid soybean oil, except for mayo right now). If you go to the website for Newman's own you can find some $0.50 off coupons for any product. I chose to buy the spaghetti sauce because we have been without it for so long. In one Walmart it is $1.88 and in another it is $2.97. I bought 7. It made it a little more affordable to have spaghetti. We ate it for supper last night and for lunch. The tea is only $2.28 a box but with my $1 off each one it makes it a real good deal. My kids really like to drink a cup of tea before bed or when they wake up.

This is my best deal I guess. There aren't many coupons for tomatoes out there so when I got a $1 off in my weekly papers I checked online and found some for sale on ebay. These cans are $1.38 each at Walmart. With the cost of coupons I spent $0.69 on each can. I bought 40 cans yesterday. About 2 weeks ago we used up our last jar of home canned stewed tomatoes so this was good timing. I use 4 quarts of tomatoes to make up chili so I will have to use 8 cans for one pot of chili. Again, my grocery budget doesn't allow for me to buy some things like this very often. I didn't get many tomatoes in my garden last year or else I wouldn't be buying them at all.

I bought 16 packages of Jimmy Dean natural sausage made without MSG or other additives. A local grocery store must have bought these and they didn't sell because they have had them for $2.99 each for several weeks now. I noticed the expiration date is use or freeze by Feb. 2011. Good news for me. I was able to secure 20 ($1.50) off 2 coupons for just $1.25 on ebay hoping to find these All-Natural ones. I was not able to find them in any other store. So, when I went to Econo last night for a package of hamburger I was pleasantly surprised to find them still in stock. I only used 8 coupons because you have to buy 2 for each coupon. I have 12 coupons left. It makes them $2.25 each and the regular sausage is over $4 for one!!!! Crazy! If they continue to have them each week I may buy a few more but I thought 16 was enough for now. My plan is to have them on hand for egg bake since we have chickens now that actually lay eggs :) With our family size we do have to make up two packages each time. It is a special treat because I cannot afford to make two pans of egg bake when it starts out over $8 just for the sausage. I also picked up some little smokies (all-beef, and no MSG). I am planning a cook-for-a-month in a day soon so needed these for a recipe for that. Plus, I had a coupon $1 off the Earthbound Organic lettuce that I got online somewhere!

Tom's of Maine stuff was $2 off each item. I stopped at Swanson's (local vitamin/nutritional store) and found floss for $2.39 (I got three, one already is in my room), 2 deodorants that were on sale (aluminum free), and fluoride free toothpaste. The toothpaste wasn't my first choice in flavor and other ingredients but it was cheap with the $2 off and fluoride free which is a big must for me. The bandaids were only 50 cents off but Target had them on sale for $1.88 and the razors were $2.94 at Walmart for 10 and $2.59 at Target. I got my feet wet buying one at Walmart and found them cheaper at Target. I had a coupon for $2 off each!!! Not a bad deal! The Seventh Generation products which Target carries were $1 off each with a bonus Target coupon for $1 more off. I like to stock up on these when I can get them for so cheap. I also got a fingernail clipper and a tweezer for free at Target again and when I paid the machine spit out two more coupons for $5 off two Revlon products. We'll see how many times I can get that coupon. See, fingernail clippers are only $2.24 and so was the tweezer so I made $0.54 on buying them.

In all yesterday, I spent about $139.00. I saved $92 in coupons which was more like $72 in savings since I had to buy some of the coupons. I did purchase a package of hamburger, two baby wipes containers, copy paper and plastic protector sheets, two packs of notecards, M&M's and crackers plus everything in the pictures. It took several trips to the van to carry it all in! Couponing for us seems to be a necessity. With the debt we incurred when Isaac was sick over 2 years we have to try to cut back so that we don't have to cut back! Does that make sense? We still want to live life. Someday we will be free from that debt-load and I pray our somewhat frugal living will be part of the reason why.

Still hanging on...

We still have little things (illness things) hanging on to a few of the kids. Mostly we have the whole sickness beat and on the mend. We had our first real meal together last night since the illness started when we were eating in shifts it seemed, everyone eating something different. We had shepherd's pie. Mm mm. Everyone raved about it again. Kevin was especially pleased! Poor guy hasn't had a decent meal in a few days because of the chaos of sickness here. He likes to eat whether he is sick or not. Good news for us is that I have one kid that finished their math for the year!!!! Lots of jumping up and down here. I have 3 more kids that are a few days from reaching that goal. Getting math over with this soon will really free us up to do some other things. We started school early in August and haven't missed too many days. Even the day one of the kids was throwing up they still managed to do their school. That person said they have a goal date to finish and want to keep on top of it! :) More stamina than I'd have had when I was in school. Although I have to say I don't often get sick and that was true back in high school especially. I rarely missed. Have a good day!

Another sickness...

We don't seem to get sick much this year but here we are again with a virus. For a couple people in our house it has lasted nearly a week. Thursday night 2 kids came up the stairs and had to throw up and didn't make it to the bathroom. Gideon got sick later that day and did make the pail and then last night Bekah was sleeping on the couch because her stomach hurt and she threw up nice and neat on the blanket in front of her. While I went to get a rag to wash her hand off she laid back down and threw up all over her hair, the pillow, the sheet and the couch!!! Yuck! Kevin got up and cleaned all that while I helped her take a shower. She had thrown up down the inside of her shirt! Double, triple, yuck, yuck, yuck. Everyone feels pretty good right now. Movies, video games and books on tape are our fare for these last two days. I haven't had much for meal prep. Lena's had a fever though through it all and did throw up once yesterday. She wakes up several times in the night for a drink and for us to sleep next to her. We have not gotten much sleep. Looking forward to well children and a good night's sleep. If I had some blackberry brandy I would be taking some tonight.