Crazy Mommy Moment

Okay so tonight I had one of those crazy mommy moments.... I told the kids that they had till tonight bedtime to pick up their toys in the playroom and whatever is left will be given away. Well of course they only picked up a few and so I just took out what was left on the floor. Including ones I had made them for Christmas last year that I stayed up til early morning making and buildabears that cost more then any stuffed animal should. I put in a baseball mit that one of them got from Uncle Bob and I told them that whos ever that was will not play softball this year because I will not buy another one to replace it. I am really frustrated, mad and hurt that they care so little about these things but even more I am mad at myself for buying things for them instead of paying bills, paying back my parents and tithing!!! What kind of example have I set for them! Even if they don't know the details of it.

Well as of tonight it has all changed! Dave and I have started getting serious about our budget and what we are going to spend or not spend our money on. And useless toys are below the line as Dave Ramsey says. I am sick of feeling like a bad mother and wife because my house is always a mess because of all of the stuff cluttering it up. The stuff can go so that we can have inner peace.

Emily's birthday dolls

Every birthday the kids have we give each child a present. It's one of our traditions. For Emily's birthday I decided to make them each a doll. The pattern is from A bit of whimsey.

I will not forget but I will forgive. It has been 10 years and I am ready to let go and forgive. God can do more to them then I ever could and so I will forgive!!

(Romans 12:19-21) 19 Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.” 21 Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Our driveway

We have had many stray and lost animals come down our driveway but today's animal was the most interesting by far!!

Emily playing church

Faith Anne playing church

The Babies

A little over a year ago Rachel, Holly, Nancy and I were all very pregnant and took some pictures together.

Me (Dena), Nancy, Rachel & Holly

Just this weekend was Reagan's (Rachel's baby) Birthday and we were all together again.

Holly & Bryson, Rachel & Reagan, Nancy & David and Me & Adelynn

My Mornings

Life is full of many choices. One I have made through the promting of the Lord is to wake up at 5:30am. To some that may not seem very early, however to a night owl like myself I have never enjoyed waking up! Until this week that is. I love my mornings and the person I am for my family due to my early morning routine!

I wake up, make an iced coffee, sit down with my prayer calendars for my children and husband and then read my bible reading for the day from the Lutheran book of worship. I am able to do this all before the two little ones wake up and is just what I was needing but just didn't know it. I encourage you to head over to Inspired To Action and get the resourses and motivation you need to the person you have always wanted to be. I pray that God blesses you amazingly through this resourse just has He is for me!

In Christ,

Dena

Easter

One of our churches Easter traditions is to decorate at cross with flowers after the Sunrise Service and Breakfast. We didn't make it to the sunrise service but we did make it to the breakfast and for the flowers. It was really neat watching the cross come to life.

Adelynn's first taste of flowers. I'm sure it won't be her last.

Sierra, ?, Breanna, Tyler, ?, Faith Anne & Emily

I made the girls dresses :)

Adelynn was sleeping, and you know what they say about not waking a baby so she didn't make it in our pictures. And Dave was working days so he didn't get to be there.

Easter Egg Hunt

The Vanderplas' had everyone from church over for an Easter Egg hunt. We all had so much fun. These are some of the children our kids are in Sunday School with.

Park Day

Tyler's First Love

The Eastin's have a foriegn exchange student this year. When Tyler met her he said "Mommy, I love (then turning around and pointing to Nomin) her." Fast Forward a few months and Nomin is going to Prom. I was blessed to be able to do her make up and hair. That was a lot of fun. Before she left I had to get pictures of Tyler and Nomin together.

Adelynn Playing

Belly Time

Our Lil Cowboy - Tyler 3 years

Our close friend makes these awesome guns and Tyler loves playing with them. Apparently playing guns was his idea of quiet time and quiet time won :)

Adelynn Playing Some More - 6 Months

Adelynn Playing - 6 Months

She is our first toe sucker. It is so cute!!!

Emily Reading

My precious Emily is in Kindergarten and reading here out of the 1st Abeka phonics book. In the past couple of months emily has gone from only knowing a few letters to this. I am just elated at her progress. She too is reading for Grandmommy here.

Faith Anne Reading

My sweet Faith Anne reading one of her Abeka phonics reader books for her Grandmommy :) BTW...Faith Anne has trouble with b and d, so when I say no it is because she is about to read it the opposite way :)

What's for dinner????

Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Serves: 4-6 Ready in: 30min

I am posting this late in the day for tonights dinner idea, however, you have to try this soon. I was on Facebook today and saw a post on a friends page for this.
The ingredients are

• Any rice you have on hand. (I used Mahatma classic rice pilaf)
• sauteed bell peppers (can add or substitute for diced tomatoes or carrots and peas or even mexican corn)
• 4 - 6 seasoned chicken tenders , cooked in frying pan (I used chicken seasoning but you can use any you like)
• 1/2 - 1 cup shredded mozzerela (can use chedder or pepper jack or any favorite cheese)

Once all ingredents are cooked, mix them together in the frying pan you cooked the chicken in and top with cheese. Cover with a lid for about 2 min. to melt the cheese. Then serve. Oh yummy. I think Wednesday we will have it with the mexican corn.

This is a low fat, healthy meal that doesn't taste like it at all.

Enjoy !

February Couponing

Now that Febuary has pretty much come to an end ( can you believe we are already down 2 months this year!!!!) I wanted to see how well I did in my coupon expenditures. The outcome.....Total we should have spent - $1013 and the total we actually spent was - $415. That is a savings of 59%. Or an average of $103 a week. Plus I still have 5 - $3.00 Dayton coupons for Fry's to redeem in March. Not bad for a family of six. Especially since I am still learning the ins and outs of this whole coupon thing.

My goals for March is to stick to stockpiling Free to 80% savings. To use what we have unless we Need something. To try to keep from impulse coupon buying. To only have spent $250 and to have tithed our full 10%. We only Tithed $250 this month and should have Tithed $300ish. And this was a low income month for us.

Extreme Couponing

So I have been super busy so far this year. One of my main thrills has been coupon shopping. I have dabbled a little in it before but this year I have gotten serious with it. One of my bad habbits is compulsively shopping and now that I have been couponing and have realized how many things you can get for free or close to it I feel like I am having my cake and eating it too. What I mean by that is now I am able to go shopping and get A LOT of stuff that I want and normally wouldn't buy for me because of the price but spend very little. I am also learning to plan ahead (something I have always been horrible at). I am lucky that my husband's mother was an extreme couponer too so he is used to this way of thinking and is very patient with me about it.

Okay so here is my latest shopping trip. I went to Safeway tonight and stocked up on

• 8 - 2 month bounce dryer bars (16 months worth) @ $2.99 each - reg $6.99
• 2 gain dryer sheets and 8 Gain liquid fabric softener (at least another years worth) @ $ .49 each - reg. $5.49 ,
• 5 blistex chap stick (if the kids don't loose them a year worth) @ FREE - reg. $1.59,
• 21 - 4 ct pudding cups ( a total of 84 cups of pudding but I have no idea how long those will last in a family of 3 kids :) ) @ $.67 each - reg. $ 1.39
• 5 boxes of granola bars ( a total of 25 bars and again who knows how long those will last) @ $ .50 each - reg. $3.99
• 6 - 64oz Sunny D juice @ $ .29 each - reg. $1.99
• 8 Loreal kids shampoo ( these should last us about a year) @ $ .89 each - reg. $ 3.79
• 16 pasta sides and rice sides @ $ .38 each - reg. $ 1.89
• 8 - 16 oz Whiskas cat food @ $ .75 - reg. 2.49

I also got some other items but those were my "stocking up" items and the ones I saved the most on. So the grand total that I spent was $118. 88 and my grand total savings was $212.76 . So I should have spent $331.64 but instead I saved 64% on my total order. That makes me happy. Now as you can see I am not one of those people that can go buy $400 worth of groceries and only spen $3.00. I don't know how they do that but I am quite happy with the money I have saved my family. So I like to look at it as I just brought home $212.76 because this is my other job.

I can't wait to see how much we are able to save by the end of this year!!!!