First Signs of Spring

Yeah, Daffodils!

I always love seeing my Daffodils come out, it means that spring is just around the corner.

Saving Money at the Grocery Store

Last summer I was looking for a way to same money at the grocery store and I found a great website called pinchingyourpennies.com. Basically, they make lists of what is on sale at the grocery store and match the sale item with current coupons. They also list good internet sales. Now all of the grocery lists are another web site called grocerysmarts.com. (I think they only do grocery lists for Utah and Idaho). Thanks to Grocery Smarts I had my best shopping trip ever. Yesterday I went to Albertson's and I got:

• a pork roast
• 1 package of cheese singles
• 2 loaves of Grandma Sycamore's bread (the best ever)
• 4 cans of Progresso Soup
• 2 cans of olives
• 1 can of Pilsberry cresent rolls
• 1 can of Betty Crocker frosting
• 2 Betty Crocker cake mixes
• 2 Betty Crocker Delux Brownie mixes
• 4 Warm Delights
• 2 cans of Albacore Tuna
• 2 boxes of Chex Mix bars
• 1 box of Nature Valley granola bars
• 2 boxes of fruit snacks
• 1 Macaroni Grill Meal Kit
• 1 box of gallon size freezer bags

My Grand Total: $27.94 (okay, I actually paid $47.94, but I got $20 coupon to use next time)
That is almost a 70%savings. I was so excited I wanted to share it with you. I don't always save this much, I wish I did, but it sure is fun when I do. I encourage all of you who are in Utah to go and check out grocerysmarts.com. And, to those of you not in Utah, sorry.

Craft Challenged

I realized yesterday morning that Jacob needed some valentines to take to his preschool party today. I didn’t want to buy a box of lame grocery store valentines when he only needed two, so I decided we would make some. Besides, I like homemade crafty things, they are free, which is my main reason for making stuff myself, and it is a fun activity to do with the kids. So I found a cute and seemingly easy idea on familyfun.com. The idea was to use a heart shaped carrot stamp (just like a potato stamp, but made with a carrot) to make a caterpillar using acrylic paint. Someone left a comment on the site saying their three year old really liked this project. I thought if a three year old could do it then for sure my kids could do it, I mean, how hard can stamping be? I realized as we set about stamping with our heart shaped carrots that I thought wrong. First of all, what was I thinking using acrylic paint, I already know Jacob can’t be trusted with acrylic paint. He has ruined one too many t-shirts and a pair of pants by wiping paint off his fingers onto his cloths. I gave him a paper towel and kept reminding him not to wipe his hands on his cloths. I think we avoided paint stains this time. We did, however, get paint all over the kitchen counter. Nathan didn’t get the whole stamping concept, he just wanted to smear paint on his cards with his carrot. He also didn’t get the whole stamp in a chain to make a caterpillar concept, some of his finished product have random blotches of paint. Unfortunately the heart stamps I spent a whole 5 minutes making didn’t look like hearts when my kids stamped them on their paper (I tried it and it worked, so it was their technique, not my homemade stamps). And to top it all off, Jacob got tired of the project after three cards, so I am sorry to any cousins who didn’t get a valentine from us this year. This isn’t the first time I have overestimated my kids ability to do a craft project, and I am sure it won’t be the last. I wonder if we did more projects if they would get better, of if they really are just craft challenged.

With the finished product, they turned out cute in the end. I guess we will do it again.

Sleep Problems Solved

My kids have always been very early risers. When Jacob was a baby I had a rule that I didn't get him out of his crib until 6:00 in the morning. I have tried to stick with this rule with all of my kids. I can handle 6:00, barely, but I can't handle anything that starts with a 5. All of my kids share a room and we have a problem with them waking each other up early in the morning. We started getting into a pattern where either Jacob or Nathan would wake up and get out of bed waking the other in the process, then they would both be in our room at 5:30 wanting breakfast. We would send them back to bed, but they, especially my sweet Nathan, have no concept of being quiet and would wake the baby. This led to me being very grouchy. We also started finding kids asleep in our bed with us during the night. We don't normally let them sleep with us, as much as I love to cuddle with my kids, I just can't sleep when I have a kid squished up next to me. This was all becoming a very big problem. Well, one day, in the November issue of Parents Magazine, I found the answer to my problem. It is called the Good Nite Lite (www.goodnitelite.com). It is a night light that looks like the moon at night and turns into the sun when it is time to get up. It has a clock that you can set for when you want the moon to turn on at night, and for when you want the sun to turn on. We have the moon turn on at 7:30 pm, that lets the kids know that it is time to get ready for bed. We started with the sun coming on at 6:15 and have gradually moved it up. A couple of days ago we were finally able to turn it to 7 am. It has worked so well. It was expensive, but for us it was well worth the money. My kids know that they are not allowed to get out of bed until the sun comes up, and usually they are really good about it. We don't even have unwelcomed visitors in our bed anymore. I am so happy, now if only I could get Adam to understand the concept, he is still waking up between 5:30 and 6.