Still Picking up the Pennies

Help, I need an idea for a craft for my 4H meeting tonight. I plaster molds I poured yesterday morning are not going to be dry enough to paint at the meeting tonight. I am thinking of these flowers from Crissy's Crafts. I need water bottles. If you have a great craft idea for a group of kids please let me know.

Monday was errand day and I received one my favorite type of coupons in the mail from JC Penny $10 off a $10 or more purchase. While running here and there with the kiddos in tow, I noticed how short my son's jeans were. He had just gotten them for Christmas, a smart person would have money in the clothing budget, but we don't. So after running a few more errands I had a great idea, to use my JC Penny coupon on jeans. I found a pair of jeans in size 14, I thought they'd be big. But they were normally $24.99 on sale for $14.99 and with my coupon I paid $5.20 including sales tax. That is like paying 10% WORKS FOR ME!!! BTW they fit perfectly.

I can not believe that April is nearly over!! Although we were lucky enough to enjoy very wonderfully warm weather today. The kids and I with Grandma went to the park and had a wonderful time. The boys and I had such a busy day today but we did sneak in some fun. But Noah had his eyes checked. A doctors appointment, she said she thinks he has aspergers instead of the autism that this school thinks he has, so the ride with that is not over. Joel had a dental appointment. I did a mystery shopping. It is my step-dad's birthday today so the boys and I brought subs and cupcakes over to eat with my parents. After we had the 68 miles drive home, the boys rode the mini-bike and four-wheeler around the yard. In the house just in time for showers and bed time for school in the morning. So if I sound like I am out of breath that is why, I am. But we had a wonderfully productive day. The meal plan for this week is Monday - sandwiches Tuesday - Ham and potatoes Wednesday - Burgers T...

I wanted to take a few minutes out of this wonderful day to wish everyone a blessed and happy Easter!

Today I spent the better part of my day at the VA Hospital. While I grumbled about having to spend my entire day there. I am very lucky and fortunate to have a clean bill of health. I had my womanly yearly examination, a mammogram, blood work done, I even talked to a dietitian. I have a slightly high LDL and my doctor prescribed a B complex vitamin for that. I have lost 6 ponds and 2 inches around the waste in the past 6 months. So good health is what I am grateful for today. Thank you for hosting Gratituesday Laura!!

This is going to be a busy week around here, I have doctor appointments and hour away on Tuesday. Thursday I will be working, Friday there is no school due to Good Friday. There are a ton of extra church services all week that I would like to attend. So here is the plan Monday - Baked chicken legs and noodles. Tuesday - leftover spaghetti Wednesday - Chicken Alfredo Thursday - meat loaf Friday - homemade pizza. There it is. For more menus visit orgjunkie

Thanks to Shespeaks I was lucky enough to try and review Hormel® Compleats® Kids Microwave Meals. I recived 4 meals in different flavors - * • Hormel® Compleats® Kids Beef Ravioli * • Hormel® Compleats® Kids Pasta & Chicken * • Hormel® Compleats® Kids Macaroni and Beef * • Hormel® Compleats® Kids Spaghetti and Meatballs And 2 buy one get on free coupons to share withe friends. My two boys each tried one the other day, the reviews are in. Joel loved the Hormel® Compleats® Kids Pasta & Chicken. Noah loved the Hormel® Compleats® Kids Macaroni and Beef. Then each of them had one tonight. Niether cared for the Hormel® Compleats® Kids Beef Ravioli or the Hormel® Compleats® Kids Spaghetti and Meatballs. In fact they did not even want to finish them. I love the fact that I can get simple healthy meals for my boys that are ready in 45 seconds. I will be purchasing the two flavors they enjoyed. In the spirit of full-disclosure, Hormel Foods provided sampl...

So today was just a normal sort of day, until the boys got off the bus. That is when Noah announced that he received all stars through out the day and was even picked Student Of the Week!!! YIIPPEE!!! I am so proud of my youngest little ball of energy. As a special reward, he will be featured on the bulletin board at school, leader in line ALL week and he gets to read a special story to the principal. He is so proud of himself and this is a HUGE step for my little ball of energy so we are playing up as much as we can. We went to get ice cream of choice from the corner store as a snack. We had pizza for dinner and tv fest on netflix and a slumber party in the living room all in celebration.

Today is Gratituesday and to day I am so happy for the warm weather and the promise that spring is really on it's way even to the UP of Michigan. I have two loads of laundry on the line, drying by the blessing of the warm sun. Also today was the spring music concert at the elementary school my boys attend. The kids all sang their little hearts out. They had such bright cheerful smiles, you could not help but to smile just seeing them. Today I am so thankful spring and music in the air and in my soul. For more Gratituesdays go over to Laura's blog heavenlyhomemakers

These weeks just seem to be flying by, we have only 31 more days until summer vacation here in the northland. My kids and I are both counting down the days. We have a busy week this week as usual as of late. Monday - Stuffed turkey breast in the crockpot, bag steamed veggies served with Cheesy Dill Biscuits (BEST biscuits ever!!!) Tuesday - We have a 4H meeting were we eat dinner: Hotdogs and chips are on the menu. Wednesday - Sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. Thursday - Spaghetti and ribs served with Texas toast. Friday - Is always homemade pizza night. Saturday - Burgers, with corn on the cob and maybe watermelon. Sunday - Is to be announced. That is our week, to see loads more menus hop over to orgjunkie.com

Here is a cake I worked on tonight, the birthday girl is 6.

Over the spring break I gave myself a budget of $50 for a bit of 'extra' fun with the boys. Come Thursday I did not spent a cent of the $50 and decided we needed a change of pace, I called around to local hotels. I found a decent one with a indoor pool for $45.35, so we stayed there Friday night. We got to lounge around in the hot tub and the boys LOVED swimming and I stayed with in my budget. I just love when I can see big bright smiles like this on my familys' faces and stay in budget.

Swag code alert first - It is on the blog good for 5 Swagbucks and good until 6:00pm PDT! Fitness challenge day #1 was a complete success :)

I feel so refreshed after this weekend/spring vacation, after all I got to spend my time with my three favorite guys, which always does my soul good. We took a night away from the rest of the world on Friday. I booked a room at a local resort - hotel casino about 20 miles from here. We swam and sat in the hot tub for hours. I put $50 in our spring break vacation fund. By Thursday night I had not spend one dollar, and I knew the hotel had a special going on. So for $46.35 we got our room, and each adult got a casino package($5 cash to play the slots, and a free drink coupon). We all enjoyed the pool and hot tub. But as a special bonus - DH and I had a "free little date!" After the littlest was fast asleep, we had Joel practice calling the cell phone from the room, just in-case he needed us. We turned the TV on for him. DH and I went to play our $5 each in the slots and had a drink together. It has been years since we were able to do such a simple thing, but we sure enjoye...

Slim Down for Summer - Fitness Challenge hosted by Michelle at Fun on a Dime starts in the morning :) I can not wait. I promised to take a photo of my starting weight - warning it is not pretty! But I want you all help keep my accountable, which is why I posted the nasty photo. I think it is nasty because the number is too big and my feet are ugly( I have a foot phobia!) The challenge is simple enough with 6 categories: Water 64+ oz; Exercise 30 minutes; No Sugar; 6 Hours Sleep a day; 8pm food curfew and Bonus points. The only ones that should really be a struggle will be the food curfew, exercising and no sugar. The others should come pretty easy to me. I plan to update daily, I hope.

Purex with Zout Coupon Giveway is now closed and we have our winners. I had my two boys each pick a number from a hat ranging from 1 to 5. They pulled out #1 and #4. So our winners are Beth, and katychick. I have emailed you both, please send me your addresses. I will get the coupon in the mail to you. Thank you to everyone who entered my first give a way. I have learned a lot from this give a way and hope the next one to have ironed out the bugs I have learned about. Have a wonderful weekend every one. We are taking the weekend off the computer and will see you back here come Monday morning.