Burned biscuits

My grandma sent me this forward the other day and I usually don't send forwards but I really liked this story. After what I just posted about the last time, I think this is perfect considering how I'm feeling. Enjoy! :)


"When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed!

Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that ugly burned biscuit. He ate every bite of that thing... never made a face nor uttered a word about it!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my Mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then."

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!"

As I've grown older, I've thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each others faults and choosing to celebrate each others differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."

So, please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burned one will do just fine. Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

Cut from the right cloth

I have decided that some people are born with that innate ability to be a fantastic mom. They are just naturally nurturing, calm and collected. They can be silly on a whim, deal with 4 hours of sleep with poise and grace and can stop a tantrum in it's tracks.

I am not one of those women.

This isn't a pity party, necessarily. I'm not going to sit here and say, oh I'm such a bad mom. Some days I feel like I have failed myself, my husband and both my children and all I want to do is crawl into bed and just hide under the covers until the sun comes up the next morning and I can try again. But I think many mother's have those days.
What I am saying is that I feel like, unlike most mother's, I have make an extra effort to be a "good" mom. You know, like how there are some kids who breeze through school and then there are those who aren't naturally book smart but who have to study really really hard to get straight A's. I'm the sort who has to study really hard.
I was not born with that easy going spirit. My patience meter is really low. I'm not the mom who is able to whip up craft time on a whim. I, selfishly, want to spend way too much time by myself instead of doing activities with them because I feel like I have so much to do...all, the, time. I have 2 children who are terribly picky eaters and I have NO IDEA what to do about it because NOTHING I've done has worked. (sorry...random rant there...)

I wake up every morning with the intention that today will be different. Today I will laugh more, smile more, read more books, do a craft, not raise my voice and not use the T.V. to babysit my children for a couple hours (spread out throughout the day, just to note). This morning I woke up and, because my daughter decided that 5:50am was an appropriate time to wake up for the day, I was frustrated (with her and myself) and in tears before 7am.

I am glad that tomorrow is a new day.

I am glad that God has blessed me with my children because I know so many who would be ever so grateful to deal with this "problem".

I am glad that I must be at least a halfway decent mother because if I wasn't I wouldn't be writing a blog post about how I feel like I wasn't cut out to be a mom.

I'm glad that I had 2 children who went right to bed this evening, with no qualms, so I had peace and quiet for the last 3 hours.

Maybe tomorrow will be the day that really is different...

More Target Deals!!!

I was in town this morning and decided to hit Target before heading off to a birthday party with my kids. We plowed through Target and found some great deals!

Grand total for everything in this photo (yes, this was my whole purchase) - $28.44

Savings $42.83!!

The breakdown:

(TC is Target Coupon and MC is manufacturer coupon)

Bananas - just needed a couple, no sale on those

Ziploc - on sale $2.50 a box (120 count boxes) + $1/2 TC and $1/2 MC = $1.50 each

Storage boxes - 5 pack for $5...not anything outstanding but I had storage boxes on "the list" so I went ahead and bought them.

Cliff Kids Z Bars - No sale price, just regular price of $3.49 + $1 TC and $1 MC = $1.49 for a 6 pack box

Drawing Pads - on sale this week for $1 (normally $1.99 and my kids use this all the time so I stocked up!)

Bic pens - 10 pack on sale for .50 this week + $1/2 TC = FREE

Scotch tape - on sale this week for .50 a roll + .50 TC = FREE

Jeans - I had to go back and buy another pair, $4.98 on clearance + $3 TC = $1.98!

Hopper balls - 70% off summer clearance section (woohoo!) = $1.74 each!

Croquet and Bocce set - 70% off summer clearance = $5.99!

Pillows - this was my 3rd store looking for these pillows! These are just the basic standard pillow that's regularly priced at $2.50 + $2 TC = .50 pillows



Hope you find some great deals too! Happy Shopping!!!

A Sale-ing I Will Go

I love garage sales...you know that by now. I really love garage sale-ing when I can go by myself. Is that selfish? Ok, so maybe not necessarily by myself but without my kids or husband (sorry honey). He doesn't mind looking around sometimes but he really does believe that garage sales are full of a bunch of "crap" and teases me when I go. So it's nice when I can go and take my time looking for treasures. :)

Here's what I found today...

These 2 ride-on, pedal toys I found for $3 each! They are both a little faded and a bit worn but they work (the 2 kids at the house even gave them a spin so I could see)!

I couldn't find this exact tractor, but a new John Deere tractor could cost upwards of $100 (mainly because it says "John Deere" on it). Like I said, this one is faded and some of the stickers are gone (as well as the pretend headlights) but for 3 BUCKS?? Seriously, if it gets played 2 times I'd be happy but I have a feeling it will get more use than that.

The Radio Flyer Steer and Stroll could be upwards of $75 brand new. It didn't come with the handle for me to steer but I don't think we really need that too much anyway. Plus it came with a bell (which I'm sure I'll find greatly annoying in a few mere minutes)! Again, a little faded but otherwise in great shape and only 3 BUCKS!

All these other goodies were just odds and ends of things I found and a few different sales...some books, craft items, decor and even some clothing for .10 and .25 a piece!! 

My grand total today, for everthing you see in both pictures, was $19.70. I love garage sales and I love my cheap "crap". ;)



50 cents or less!!

I haven't done a grocery post lately so I thought I'd do one this week.

You know how I love King Soopers Mega Events. Good thing this one is going on next week too so you have plenty of time to get these great deals. Just hop over to Bargain Blessings and check out the match ups (make sure you read the comments because sometime readers found unadvertised deals or corrections).

I spent $58.72 this week and saved $76.35, saving 57% off my order!!

Here's what I picked up for 50 Cents or Less!

(prices after sale and coupons)
Reach toothbrushes - FREE
Reach Flossers - I MADE $1 on those
M&M's - FREE
Colgate - FREE
Vitamin Water Drinks - I actually bought 5 but drank one on the way home (shopping is tiring work!). They are on sale for .49 with the Mega Event but I had a $1 off 5 coupon that I recieved from King Soopers a while back so that made them only .29 each
Sunny D - .49 each
Easy Mac - .49 each (that's the sale price, I didn't have a coupon for them but they are great filler items because Emmett loves his Mac-n-Cheese)
Pop Secret - .49 each
Aunt Jemima pancakes - .29

Everything in the picture cost me a grand total of.... $4.17!!

I picked up some other great deals on cereal (boxes for .99), Pasta Roni (no coupon but they are .69 on sale), kids vitamins (BOGO free!! and I used 2 $1 off coupons, plus a ecoupon, so they were $2 a box!), and even an 8-count box of Drumsticks for $4.49 (bit of a slurge but check my comment on Jennie's site about it)!

I hope you all find some great deals this week (and next)!!

Target deals!!

Run...

no seriously

RUN to Target this week!

But before you do that, make sure you go over to http://www.target.com/ to print out their store coupons. There are a TON right now!!

All the bloggers have been raving about the sales and freebies this week. I can't decide who to link you to...
Bargain Blessings
Fabulously Frugal
or even hip2save (Collin is CRAZY good if you haven't checked her out)
So I'll let you check out all the deals through them but I'll tell you that I did get some free Sharpies, free Papermate pens and some other really good deals.

In case it isn't mentioned in the other posts: make sure to print out the $3 off denim coupon and the $2 off graphic tee coupon.

I checked the clearance racks and found these:

A pair of Mossimo boot cut jeans on clearance for $4.98!!! Match that with the $3 off denim coupon and that means I picked up brand new jeans for $1.98!!!
The top is Merona, on clearance for $3.74. My $2 off coupon came into play and that made for a t-shirt for $1.74!!

Score!!!

Tell me what you found? I'm heading back to another Target tomorrow with more coupons (you can print out 2 of each but I don't know if they will let you use more than one per transaction) so we'll see what happens!

A Growing We Will Go

I knew when I moved out to our current house that I wanted a garden. I mean, come on, we have 35 acres! Most of that is (currently) a wheat field we rent out but we still have a LOT of land we can do with what we want.

I've always liked the idea of growing some of my own food. It's so much cheaper, you know what was used to grow it and where it came from plus you get the satisfaction of knowing that your hard work paid off and is on your dinner table! We had a garden growing up in NE but I certainly didn't appreciate it back then (it was just work to me then) like I would now.

After our struggle to plant some decent trees and shrubs (and dig holes for fence posts) I knew our ground was pretty tough and it would take some doing to get soil rich enough to grow anything. Last year we placed down some railroad ties that we were given (free, woohoo!) and hauled in some dirt from the wheat field to start a raised garden.
I spent all of this last year throwing fruit and vegetable scraps, as well as coffee grounds and eggshells, into our garden spot to do my own composting. In May Jim used the tractor to till the ground up (and mix in my scraps), add in a few bags of top soil and off we went.

I have a lot of things I'd love to try and plant but I usually have a black thumb when it comes to plants so I was a little cautious about what I was going to try. I also used my mom's suggestion to just plant things that would grow above ground for this year, just in case the ground was still pretty tough.

As of July 10th, here are our crops....

Corn! (I had to go for it, I am a Nebraskan and all)

 Watermelon! (seeds courtesy of my in-laws)

 ...This one's not quite as big...

 My zucchini is rockin!

 Some green beans (and a cute kitty in the background...)

 And my pride and joy...my yellow squash! HOLY MOLY! It's HUGE!!

 It's even sprouting flowers!

We also ended up with an unexpected plant and it's pumpkin!

I went to pick up Emmett from play school one day and was handed a little sprout in a baby food cup. They planted it at school and watched it grow. The teacher laughed saying she wasn't sure if it would do anything but there it is! When I first planted it it wilted pretty fast but it must have just been shock because it's growing!

I did plant 2 other things in my garden that didn't grow at all! I tried green peppers and cucumbers but neither of them came up. :(

I guess that's better than this tomato plant...

It seemed like it was doing really well for a while, growing flowers and even a tiny baby tomato (you can barely see the little green ball in the center of the plant). Unfortunatly my black thumb hit the tomatoes 2 years in a row because it has died. I had this pot because I tried tomatoes last year, before we had our garden. It didn't even get flowers before it died. Since I still had the pot in place I decided to just plant them there again. I think next year I'll actually plant them in the garden and hope that 3rd time's a charm.

So I'll keep you up to date on what we actually end up harvesting. Some people will just laugh at me but I'm so proud of it! It's amazing when something actually grows and reaps a product. It's even more amazing when it comes from my hands, considering how many plants I've killed in my time.

Little Distractions

This evening I was catching up on watching 19 Kids And Counting and was struck by something Michelle Duggar said.
In the episode, they were working on their most recent book A Love That Multiplies. The crew asked Michele how it works when they (her and Jim Bob) are working on the book and keep getting distracted by the kids' interuptions. She said, "The book is the distraction. The kids are my life and the book is my distraction."

That statement really hit home with me.

There are so many times that I'm sitting on my computer, working on my Avon or any other random thing, and the kids will come in the office. I cannot count how many times I have told them to "go play!", "let me finish my work!", or "stop distracting me!"

The kids should not be my distraction.

My children are my life. They should be my life. My husband and I brought them into this world because we wanted them....how did they become an interuption, a distraction, from the other things that I have chosen to do? How did selling Avon products become more important than building blocks with my beautiful 3 1/2 year old girl and my 22 month old boy? How did playing Bejeweled Blitz become more important than storytime?

This evening, as I get around for bed, I know I will be thinking about my priorities and how I hope to make some changes in my attitude and my approach. I have so much to learn...so many things to change about myself and how I live and love.

What the??? Where have I been?

I knew it had been a long time since I had posted but I didn't realize that it's been over a month!!!

Whaaaaaaaaat?

What's funny about it is that I constantly think of things I'd like to talk about in my blog. Money saving stuff, random thoughts, family things...whatever. The sad part is by the time I sit down at my computer all those brilliant thoughts have left my overtaxed brain and I have no idea what to write...or the energy to do it.

I think I'm a little lost as to what to do with my blog. I know I won't be good at charting my family life. I'm just not that consistant.
(**note: while I was typing that last sentence my 22 month old came into my office to tell me he was stinky. He then proceeds to put his hands down his diaper to show me. Ya, great...that's my glamourous life!**)

I go through phases where I think, "Does anyone really care what I'm doing?" Does it really matter to anyone when I post about my grocery store deals or my other random thoughts? That's just my own insecurity talking and I know it shouldn't matter.

Ultimately I should do what I want to do, not what I think people want. But I do wonder...what would you like to see? What interests you in blog-land?