HURRY!!!

Hurry over and get your ticket, Dayton Moms! You won't want to miss this fun event put on by Dealsfordayton.com and Savvylittlewomen. The link to get your ticket is on both their sites so go quickly. I know the tickets won't last long!

My binder

I have noticed that lately my couponing and sale shopping has looked a little different. Now with freezer cooking I am doing a lot less shopping each week. Sales and coupon match ups are not (in my opinion) what they used to be. Plus, we have been eating a lot more produce and a lot less snacky type foods (or at least we try to). All that to say, a lot of my pretty little coupons are sitting unused in my very unattended binder.

This poor binder is so out of control and unorganized. I have found that I just don't spend as much time on shopping and saving as I used to. So, we needed a little restructuring. Today, I had a little time to sit and "fix" my system. 

I went ahead and pulled out all my baseball card holders and just left in the page protectors. I was finding I didn't like having to put each coupon in it's slot. The time wasn't reaping enough benefit. ( I still love the idea and think it is a lot easier to find the coupons in a pinch.) So, each category has a page protector. I am just clipping coupons I am pretty sure I will use. Then I keep the inserts in a page protector in the back so if an awesome get it for free deal comes along I have it. 

In front I still have my scissors and a post it pad to label the dates of the inserts. This is not as hard core as my old system, but it is low maintenance. Which is very appealing these days.

My Hero!

Oh, Asher! This guy is quite the character. If there was ever a kid who liked to fight a bad guy (or be one if allowed) my Asher is him. Every morning he makes a bee line for the dress up bin. Seriously we have a huge bin full of costumes that get worn almost every day.

Well, last night we went to a super hero party. My friend made tons of these felt capes. Asher love his. Today he put his on and then started singing his own little theme song. AWESOMENESS! He cracks me up. Anyhow, I just thought I'd share some cuteness with you all. Just cuz I know you can't get enough pictures of my kids. :)

Oh, happy day!

Oh, it is my favorite unofficial holiday. Cow appreciation day is here. Seriously I love this day. I dress my whole crew up and we RUN in for a free meal. Woo Hoo! All you have to do is dress like a cow and BOOM free Chick Fil A meal. This is coming up on July 8 and any of my other mommy CFA fans who want to join me I will be there with bells on (literally) at 11! I'm so excited. Who's in?

This is national I believe so if you aren't in Dayton you can catch a free meal at your local Chick Fil A. As always call ahead to make sure they are participating.

Mott's for Tots coupon

Mott's is offering a coupon through Vocal Point right now. I love vocal point for all the fun freebies I get to try. If you have any one at your house who likes some apple juice be sure to grab this coupon quick.

23 years ago

I have a ton of memories of child hood. I have two huge things that happened to me when I was four. The first was that I gave my life to Jesus at a VBS. The second happened 23 years ago today. The four and a half years up until that point I was an only child. But on the first day of summer my baby sister was born.

I remember my dad carrying me to the neighbors in the middle of the night. (It may have only been like 10pm, but I had been asleep so go with it.) I woke up the next morning and my neighbor Mary let me have a doughnut for breakfast. Then she took me across the street to my friend Todd's house. He wasn't up yet, but his mom told me that my dad would be there soon to pick me up. She asked if I was excited to be a big sister. And I was.

My dad came to get me soon after. All of my excitement spilled over and I went running down the sidewalk to get to the car. Unfortunately, I have never been graceful. In my running I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and skinned my face all up. I'm not so sure what it really looked like, but I know that there were many tears shed and several bandaids needed before we could get to the hospital to see my sister.

I don't actually remember meeting her for the first time, but I have seen pictures. I vividly remember the face plant I did before hand, though. Plus, I have many many memories between then and now. I know I loved her and was thrilled to have MY baby. I know I took my job very seriously as a big sister. I still do.

Happy Birthday, sissy. I hope you had a wonderful day. I love you lots and lots. You'll always be my baby. (Chime in Mariah Carey)

Cheap movie tickets

I love going to the movies, but it is crazy expensive...But today's living social deal is two tickets for only $9! Check out all the details here. Around here that is like B1G1. Not sure if I will use this for a date with my hubby or taking my sis out for her Bday. Either way, I'm happy.

Summer school

Summer is here and we are excited about it. We have been playing outside, going to the park, and loving the library. School is looking a little different these days. We are still going to do some school throughout the summer, but our routine is a little different. We will be sticking with some basics. Reading, handwriting and math. I usually hammer those out while the younger boys are napping. Asher is doing "school" as he feels so led. Mostly doing a letter sheet each day while Isaac finishes up his seat work.


Today we signed up for the summer reading club at the Dayton Metro Library.  We love reading and our weekly trip to the library is a big favorite for our kids. My friend Amy, over at DealsforDayton.com has a list of many of the local reading clubs if you are interested.

How about you? What are you doing this summer? Any one else doing some school?

Loving my G-ma

My Grandma is getting to where she has a hard time moving around a lot. So I decided it would be a good idea to take a few freezer meals to her when I go visit this weekend. I bought the mini loaf pans for $0.97 for 5 and got to making some mini meals. It took me less than 2 hours to knock out 10 meals.

This got me to thinking. I know a lot of people don't think freezer cooking is a good fit for them because they don't have kids. Well, this was an easy way to make smaller portions and still enjoy the frugality and convenience of freezer cooking.

In less than 2 hours I knocked out:
3 cornbread casseroles
2 meatloafs
1 tater tot mini casserole
1 Chicken and veggie casserole
1 marinated chicken breast
1 taco and black bean casserole
1 shepherd's pie

This was honestly just going through what I had on hand. I did buy some extra meat, but other than that most of the ingredients were in my stockpile. I'd say that this easily cost less than $15. 

When I go out to see my family in AZ I will be doing a cook for my parents and also with my sister. This size will be a much better fit for them since there are only two people in each house. Pair any of these meals with a yummy salad and dinner is on .

Menu plan Monday

Here is what we will be eating this week...
Monday- Tacos/taco salad
Tuesday- Breakfast Casserole
Wednesday- Spaghetti pie, salad, bread
Thursday- Grilled chicken
Friday- dinner out
Saturday- roasted Chicken

Laundry soap cost break down

Last night I finally got around to making my laundry soap. While I am not a huge Walmart fan, they did have all the ingredients in one spot. Here is a break down of what each item cost.

Borax- $2.97
Washing soda- $2.77
Fels Naptha soap- $0.97

I bought 2 bars of soap because I wasn't sure how much it would make grated. One bar grated was about 4 cups. I doubled the recipe and have a TON of stuff left. If my calculations are right (which they may not be...) I should get around 256 loads out of what I bought with plenty of washing soda and borax left over. Everything cost right around $8. So, cost wise this is way cheaper. I have only used it on a load of towels which weren't stained so I can't speak much for that so far, but it smells fresh.

I did add some Tide stain release powder that I had on hand just as a booster. We'll see when we run a load of the boys clothes if it does a good job. So far I am happy though with the amount for the cost.

Freezer cooking

Yesterday, my friend Tami and I embarked on yet another freezer cook. Here is a picture of some of the ingredients that we used. Most of our food was stuffed in my fridge. This time was a little more interesting since we worked through a weekday with all four kiddos. Plus we attempted some baking in there. So here is a list of our food.


Mexican Cornbread Casserole
Olive Garden Meat Marinara sauce
Creamy Pot pie (recipe off of Philly cooking cream)
Orange Chicken
Angel Chicken
Tater Tot casserole
Chicken and Rice
marinated Chicken (mostly just dump salad dressing on chicken in a bag)
Taco meat
Pumpkin Chocolate chip muffins
Pizza dough
Waffles

Tami working on the sauce.

Look at all the mess. 

At the end of the day we got everything except the pizza dough done. Tami had to leave by 3:30 so we really got a lot done considering we had to take care of kiddos in that time. Yay, for a full freezer. I think we are set through the summer now. Makes me happy.

Laundry Soap

I know I have posted this at different points before, but I am finally getting around to making my own laundry soap. I have had so much in my stockpile I haven't needed to make any yet. The time has come and it is on my project radar. I bought a few of the ingredients today. I will let you know what I think after I make it. Here is the recipe I am using.

2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated)
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax

• Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
• Use 2 tablespoons per full load.

I will be making the powder version to save space. This will make a ton of soap. I hope I like it. :)

Book It

Did you have Book It when you were a kid. We did. I loved reading to get free pizza. (Even then I loved free stuff). Did you know that as a homeschooler you can enroll in Book It too. I was so excited about this. Just go to this site and enroll. It only takes a minute and you are all ready to go. Hurry, and sign up soon though because it takes a few weeks to get to you.

Tag cards

I happened to come across these National Geographic cards. I am so excited about them. I have a few animal lovers and thanks to Diego we know quite a bit about some interesting animals. I have a feeling these will be a big hit. I bought one set for an upcoming trip. If they are as big a hit as I think they will be we may put the other set on our Christmas list.

Leapfrog Tag National Geographic Kids: Activity Cards - Land AnimalsLeapfrog Tag National Geographic Kids: Activity Cards - Birds and Sea Animals

Free Math program

If you are looking for some enrichment for the summer Moneysavingmom.com has a post on how to get Funnix math for free. Hurry since this deal only lasts through June 24.