Still Picking up the Pennies

I have to admit I took yesterday off from blogging so I am a day late. Please forgive me! We had such a wonderful weekend, we hosted a small family BBQ on Sunday, only 38 people attended, and that was just immediate family. My darling husbands family is BIG, and so fun. But the plan for the week is very simple, we are in complete summer mode around here. Monday - was leftovers. Tuesday - Lasagna rolls and veggies. Wednesday - something chicken. Thursday - Meatloaf, potatoes and a veggie. Friday - We are having a picnic at a park near my parents house with $5 hot and ready pizzas. The park is named Chutes and Ladders, the name says it all, and it is so much fun. Saturday and Sunday - I am not sure about. I am working on a post about frugal father's day presents and birthday party prep, so stay tuned in for those. I also want to remind everyone to enter my Sunny Saturday give away that ends June 1 that is TOMORROW :) Good luck everyone! For more yummy menus visit orgju

It was the last day of school, today YAYYYEEE!!! I am so excited about 3 months with my most favorite people in the entire world. If that was not enough fun for a Friday! My 8 year old has been very fasinated with the hammer for the past few days. So, I have put on my thinking cap to find safe fun things for him to hit with the hammer. ICE!!! You need: a hammer, saftey googles and ice, lots and lots of ice. This is Noah very happy to demonstrate. Even the nearly 12 year old got into distroying the ice with the hammer. Noah my hammerer little dude. Each child got this much ice to distroy, let me tell you that next time these bowls will be FULL. You should have heard how hard they worked and giggled. They loved it. Here is another last Friday's frugal adventure: Sight seeing a place that we usually cruise past at least 4 times a month but never stopped. This is right outside Chassell, MI. Not sure what the name of the place is but it is a lookout on to the wet l

Mom Embracing Autism: Rethinking Autism: Autistics Speak : "This is great to see.. an organization/website that wants the attitude about autism that is presented in the media to show more respect and ..."

Good morning everyone. I love getting up early and getting a jump on my week. I have a very busy week planned so it had to start at 6:00 am this morning. I have a load of laundry on the line and one in the machine, I have been to my part time cleaning job. The boys bounced to the bus this morning, this is the LAST week of school. They are so happy and excited about that. So the food plans for the week are : Monday - sandwiches and fruit in the car. On the was to our fish lure making class. I can't wait to post photos of all the great lures and flies the boys have learned to make. Tuesday - pizza rolls. I have to work in preparation of a big fancy dinner all day, the boys are going to after school care. Wednesday - Ravioli and sauce. There is an IEP scheduled for my youngest. The boys have half day of school, the bus driver is taking them for ice cream. Thursday - More work for me. Dinner will be meat loaf, potatoes and veggie. Friday - homemade pizza. Saturday - not

I am going to give a way a necklace and bracelet of my favorite color deep purple on June 1st 2011. Here is a photo of them: I am going to do this the easy way with just one way to enter and only one entry person allowed. Enter by leaving a comment. I will only ship to U.S. addresses only. Thank you for visiting my blog and please consider following me, I return following. Good Luck everyone!!

Today I am joining Thursday's Cup of Joe Blog Hop! :) Thank you goes to my hostesses Yes I Have A Coupon , 3 Prince and a Princess 2 and last but not least The Thrifty Things . I am so happy to have found this blog hop; all of the hostess' blogs relate to things very important to me: fun, frugal family life.

I won 25 free Personalized Greeting Card credits! YIIPPPEEE I love winning things, even little things. It just made my day. If you have not attended a Twitter party hosted by @ResourcefulMom

I have done a lot of thinking about what I am grateful for this past week. While I was having a conversation with my very moody preteen nearly 12 year old darling son, it dawned on me. I am very grateful for God blessing me enough to be the care taker of my sweet family. Whether or not it is my moody preteen, my midlife crisis husband or my button pushing 8 year old, they are my life, blood, sweat and tears. I would trade nothing in the entire world for my three men. If they shed one tear, I shed 1 million, or grin one smile, I grin 1 million smiles. What else would a God loving woman ask for. Thank you to Laura for hosting Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers

This week is going to be crazy busy, especially the first part of the week. We are rolling with simple dinners. Monday - Frozen ravioli with sauce and side salads. Tuesday - Chicken, veggies and noodles. Wednesday - LO frozen sloppy joes with a veggy plate with ranch dip. Thursday - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and roasted zucchini. Friday - Homemade pizza. Saturday - Burgers on the grill with veggies kabobs. Sunday - Spaghetti and meatballs. To see more yummy meal plans go to orgjunkie .

I am going to change things around here a bit. I am going from Welcome to my life for a title to Picking up the Pennies. Also we are going to go from trying to raise a happy healthy family on a tight budget to : Raising a Happy, Healthy on Pennies. I am going to try to come up with a schedule for my blog posting and get some rhyme and rhythm around here. Thank you to my followers for sticking by me.

Viewpoints sent me a sample of Head & Shoulders Itchy Scalp Care Shampoo with Eucalyptus for my use and review. I am a regular user of Head and Shoulders dry scalp two in one. I have a itchy dry scalp, but the 2 in1 product still left my hair dry and frizzy and hard to comb through. So, I was a little reluctant that this Head & Shoulders Itchy Scalp Care Shampoo with Eucalyptus sample that I recieved in the mail today would preform any differently. Much to my pleasent surprise, I had wonderful results with Head & Shoulders Itchy Scalp Care Shampoo with Eucalyptus. First I opened the shampoo sample to notice a very pleasent refreshing scent. The texture in my hand was nice, thick and smooth. As I applied it to my hair the lather was quick and lucious. The rinsing of my hair was quick and simple. Then I opened the condictioner packet and the scent was equaling refreshing and pleasant. It felt thick and easily spread through every strand of my hair. It rinsed very easil

Everyday I go out to gather eggs and I some times have to hunt for them. It sometimes is just like an Easter morning egg hunt. Every day for about a month now I find an egg in a bucket that hangs off the barn door and today I caught the culprit in action. I even was able to run to the house for the camera. Not exactly what Colonial Sanders thought of when he said a bucket of chicken.

This past week, I started selling a few dozen eggs. I made just enough money to purchase the next bag of feed for the chickens. The feed has just recently went up to $17 for a 50 pound bag. I told my DH that when it reached $15 a bag, we can no longer afford to give the eggs away, we had to sell them. Also I read some where on the internet,if you call Purina they will send you 2 $2 off coupons for any type of Tidy Cat Litter. (1-800-7PURINA)You can call every 4-6 weeks to request coupons. I marked the date on my calender. While a shopping trip to Walmart, I found a 10 pound bag of Tidy Cat Litter for $2.12. It is the regular cat litter, but that is what we use. $2 off of $2.12 makes it 12 cents for 10 pounds of litter. So that is my frugal Friday. To see more got to Being Frugal and Making It Work

My chickens are working hard for me. I went out to the coop and found these eggs. I noticed how very large the white egg is! My little Lisa is working over time, this photo shows her normal sized eggs along with the LARGE egg she produced today. Lisa is a California Grey Leghorn and eared herself an extra piece of bread today.

We had such a wonderful weekend. Friday night we went to the circus, I paid $15 for me to get in but the boys were free. They did not ask for any junky toys or rides on the animals, we were content just watching the show and the crowd. Noah loved the acrobats, and Joel enjoyed the dry comedy. On Saturday, the boys took me out to lunch at our favorite restaurant, and it just happened to be a mystery shop. I love eating out and being reimbursed for a majority of the bill. Then we went to visit Dave's mom, we stayed longer then we had planned but every one enjoyed the visit. The sunshine was so warm sitting there. Then to visit my parents. My mom was babysitting her great grand daughter Isabel, my boys just love playing with babies. Sunday we slept in and enjoyed lounging round the house. The plan for the week is a lot less stressful then last week. Monday - Fish sticks with tater tots Tuesday - Ham something Wednesday - soup and dinner rolls Thursday - Brats on buns

I cannot believe it is May3 already. Spring should feel like it is in the air; but I put my boys on the bus this morning with winter hats and jackets. It was 32 degrees! It is suppose to get up to the low 60s and I hope it does. My yard could use some raking. We were worried about one of our hens, she had been gone for about 4 days, no sign in the yard of a struggle. On Monday there she was, acting like nothing was wrong. She looks a bit skinny and was really going after the caramel popcorn I was throwing out for them. Then it dawned on me, she had to have a nest she was sitting on some where. I looked and looked, we finally found her and her four eggs. She had picked a nice warm place, in between the bales of hay but it is not safe. So, my darling husband fixed up the dog kennel in the garage for her. She will be safe there. Maybe in 21 days we will have baby chicks, we are not sure of old Black Jack is doing his job or not. In prior years, we let one of our hens sit on the eggs, th

Today, I woke up feeling glum and blue and guilty for sleeping in being a slug. I seen my boys and darling husband off to school and work, then went back to bed for 3 hours. Yes, I needed the sleep but do not feel rested, so I am going to change that! Every week day, I am going to get out of bed and stay out of bed at 6am when I get the boys up for school. Clutter in my home is literally choking, so I have been working on clearing it out of the living room first. I will attack each room one by one. I also woke up to the wonderful news that Bin Laden is FINALLY dead. I am so proud of each and every American who wore and wears the military uniform. I am also honored to have served right along side them for eight years. Although, it makes me frightened at what retaliation the Americans overseas will be faced with in the near future. http://youtu.be/Oq0t7ZUwzGA So the plan for this week is very simple, as it is going to be a very busy week. Monday - stuffed turkey breast in the cr