Grocery Ads

It's a new week for grocery ads!  Yay!

Here is my plan:
Check Deals to Meals to see which ads are a really great deal.  This means, what items are cheaper than Costco or Sam's.  I will plan my menu around those items and try to get a couple extra for food storage.  My budget is extra low this week, so I will use what I already have as much as possible.  Good thing I stocked up the last couple of weeks!
Second up, I will check Centsable Shoppin.  This site is AWESOME!  If you know anything about Couponsense, this is very similar, except it is all FREE.  I don't get the newspaper either, but tons of the coupons she uses are printable, so I just print them out on my computer and away I go! 
When I go to that site, I usually just click on the Fry's button because they have the best coupon deals.  You can read the site for more tips.  She posts deals constantly, so you can check back once a week or once a day for new deals; whatever you have time for.  Check it out!!

Load up the pantry

Gas is cheaper in Mexico.  The price hasn't gone up in years.  REALLY makes me wonder why it has gone up so much here...
I told DH I wished we could load up on gas there and keep a tank of it here at our house.  Sounds safe enough, yes?  (just kidding!)
Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal called "Load up the pantry".  They point out that it is a lot safer and makes more sense to keep a store of food instead of gas.  I guess so, but still...  ;)

Food Storage

My latest, and possibly the most beneficial, obsession I've had in a while! :)  I'm not sure what is in the air, but I know several friends who are focused on the same thing right now.  And this was even before the Japan earthquake.  (now that I think about it, I think it was prompted by Rhonda's blogging about her food storage...)  :)

I believe that as women we WANT to take care of our families, which (let's face it) means FOOD.  Food brings health, energy, brain power, and comfort.  There is not much better than opening the pantry, seeing lots of good food in there, and being able to fix something great for your family. I know you feel the same on this one.

I have also been doing some couponing in conjunction with food storage, because on a limited budget that is one of the easiest and fastest ways we are going to be able to stock up.  In the past month I have gotten more than 10 cans of pasta sauce FREE and over 20 boxes of pasta FREE!!  Among other free or seriously cheap food.
In fact, if you want to get pasta for free, you still can!  This week at Fry's.  Just print out these coupons:
http://ronzonismarttaste.newworldpasta.com/pasta_coupon.cfm
http://www.itpaystoeatpasta.com/
 (select American Beauty for the Quick Cook version)

At Fry's this week, this pasta is only 49 cents when you buy 10, so use 5 coupons and get 10 boxes of pasta for free!  You can print each coupon twice, so go ahead and get 20 FREE BOXES!!
Here are some FABULOUS websites/blogs I've been reading lately:

Everyday Food Storage  go to the blog for lots of great stuff.  I am LOVING this blog!!!  Tons of videos on how to make stuff from your food storage (even making yogurt from powdered milk!), how to store things...it is just AWESOME!!

Food Storage Made Easy

Deals to Meals  this is so cool-you can try free for 2 weeks, and if you want to subscribe, it is $4.95 a month.  This site tells you which ads are cheaper than Costco and Walmart, so you know what to stock up on at the store.  It does all the local stores, so you can just make your list of what you want from each store and price match it all at Walmart for one-stop shopping.  It also makes your grocery list and gives you a weekly menu from the stuff on sale that week.  Check it out! (only avail in some states)

Let's keep sharing our ideas and motivation, K?  This is an endeavor worthy of helping each other and plugging away at.  Fun, fun!

What a day!

I am feeling good about what I did yesterday.  After standing in the kitchen until 3 pm, pretty much nonstop, here is what I accomplished:

Made 6 loaves or so of bread.  I tried a new recipe and it tastes good, but did not come out beautiful.  I have a hard time making beautiful bread.  It tastes great, good texture and all that, but not lovely.  hmmm  I will keep working at it.

My neighbor friend (a girl I went to high school with, actually!  small world.) was planning to come over and lend me her pressure canner and show me how to can chicken.  (more on food storage to come!)  I wasn't sure when she would get here, so I thought I might as well make the dough for the pizza I had planned to have later this week.  I knew I had to freeze the dough before it rose too much, but my friend showed up just as it was mixing and we had to start the chicken.  Well, the pizza dough rose (hugely!) so by the time the chicken was all in bottles and cooking, I thought I might as well just make the pizzas and have them for dinner.  I didn't get a picture of the pizza before I put it away, but here is a remnant.  haha  Incidentally, I made 2 cheese pizzas with red sauce (the usual), one bbq chicken (my favorite) and an asian style.  Yum!

I made so much dough that I ended up making four pizzas and a slew of bread sticks, too.

For family night I wanted to have some cookies so I made these "healthy cookies" that have no sugar in them.  They were super good!!

I would be feeling like Super Woman, but the kids were slightly neglected through all of this kitchen time.  Dr. D helped some, we played some ball and didn't miss any meals, but there was more TV watching than I would have liked.  Each day holds trade-offs, I guess.  Still feeling great about canning my first meat!  :)  (although canned meat is not beautiful either!)

Back from Mexico

Well, I didn't record much about this week by photo or writing, but thoroughly enjoyed every second of it!!  Except for when my little Tail Gunner was sick.  And the fact that DH couldn't go with us.  But other than that it was exactly how I was hoping/knew it would be:  relaxing, enjoyable, sociable, relationship-building, and every other good thing.  SOOO GOOD!!  I didn't even take my camera, but my kids did so I might be able to post some of their pics.

What did I do that was so great?  In a nutshell, we went to Mexico to visit grandma and grandpa.  The kids were great on the drive, YAY!  The weather was perfect, so there was lots of sitting outside on the porch swing watching the kids play and pushing them on swings, etc.  And having them push me on the swings.  :)  Watching the birds glide on the breeze in huge flocks every day.  I LOVED that!  They were buzzards; ugly up close, but large and cool to watch fly.  Had the usual family cookout on the patio and made some new friends.  Went to the Temple.  Visited with cousins, like this one.  Went to the dentist, who was FABULOUS and we will definitely go back to him.  The kids rode horses, DROVE, played in the dirt, in the ditch, on the playground, with their cousins, with the neighbors, petted dogs, made cookies with grandma...  We listened to the kids say the funniest things!

Here is a funny by Little Miss:  "Mom, I thought Jeff was a pretty boy's name, but now I found out it's actually peanut butter.  I'm not going to use that one on my children anymore."  LOL

We enjoyed becoming good friends with a 17 year old boy that is living with gma and gpa.  Ruben's family is paying the (HUGE) tuition for him to go to school at the Academy in town there, and he is staying with DH's parents.  He was so funny and so nice.  Dr. D wanted to bring him home!! They became fast friends.  Frankly, I wouldn't have minded because he is such a good boy.  I wonder if the kids got a picture of Ruben...  I hope so.

I am so proud of driving home by myself.  I feel like a big girl now. :)  Well, gma and gpa got us to the border and then I drove the rest of the way.  Grandpa had Teeny Bopper drive about 90 miles of the way home.  You know she was loving that!  The kids were very good, and great company for me. 

Ahhhh.  That is my sigh of contentment over Spring Break.  It was relaxing and rejuvenating and our family is closer because of it.  Doesn't get much better than that!  ;)

My new neice!!

This is our family's newest little dolly, E.  Such a fabulous name!  She shares it with an adoring aunt.  :)
We snapped some shots of her today.  She has tubes coming out of her nose because she had a bone blocking both nostrils.  They removed that bone and now she has these tubes until her passages heal. (a couple more weeks)  Such a beautiful princess!!

More family pics

 

Monograms are all the rage, right?  hehe

 

Teeny Bopper had fun posing us.  Although some were DH's idea...

And some were my idea.  :)

Inspiring Quote

Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  

We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"

Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.  It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

How we do yogurt

We are a family of yogurt lovers.  Good yogurt is very good for you, with all that good bacteria and all.  BUT--just buying a yogurt at the store isn't always as good for us as we think.  A regular yogurt can have as much sugar as ice cream.  Isn't that scary!?  And I avoid artificial sweeteners (splenda, aspartame, etc.) like the PLAGUE.  So that rules out sugar free.  And just eating plain...well, let's just say my palate isn't adjusted to that yet.  :)

So, here is a super healthy solution to having your yogurt and eating it too:

 

(picture taken on my phone; not the best)

Plain yogurt (Trader Joe's is my favorite), frozen berries, and real maple syrup (cheapest at Trader Joe's).  Just mix it up in a bowl, and YUM-O!  All the kiddos love it, and I feel so good about feeding it to them.  A winning combination in my book.

Temple Pictures

We had a great Stake Conference this weekend.  One of our church leaders suggested that every child have two things in their room: a picture of the temple, and a picture of Jesus Christ.  We decided to take a walk around the Temple yesterday and take a picture of the Temple with the children who are in the room.  Here are the pics we came up with, and some editing on my part. 
For the boys room:

For the little girls room:

For the big girls room:

Some fun with me and my man:

We also had a few frames to fill on our family wall, so these will be a great addition:
Da boyz:

The girls:

The crew:

 

I guess Dr. D's elbow was tickling Blondie in this one.  :)

I LOVE my family!!

Our Day

Here is an overview of our day today:
Watched a few episodes of Phineas and Ferb, complete with popcorn.  I love Netflix, because you can watch almost three episodes in the time we would have watched one because there are NO COMMERCIALS!!  Which also means no advertising.  LOVE it!!

 

Put together a new-to-us dinosaur puzzle.  They worked together so nicely (with me helping a tiny bit).  Great puzzle minds!

 

Made bread.  It came out really well this time, yay!  Last time it tasted good, but was flat because I killed my yeast and didn't fill the pans high enough.  Much betta:

 

Read books.  It doesn't look like a lot of books, but when you consider we have to read each one at least three times, it feels like a lot.  :)

 

Played cars.  This is what Tail Gunner does EVERY day, most of the day.  He LOVES cars, trucks, airplanes- any vehicle really.  He lies on his tummy on the kitchen floor and plays with them.

Naunee read Tail Gunner his tractor book about a zillion times.  It was so adorable!  If she got distracted at all, he called her attention right back by saying her name "Nau Na!" a few times right by her face.  

 

Blondie found a ponytail holder all curled up just like a treble clef.  We had to document.  :)

 

We did something else too, but I will tell about that later.  :)  Here's a clue:  It involves Barbies and Sharpies...