Fall

Well, if you could not tell, we are soooo excited for fall to get here...We are sure you can tell my our blog page.. so, no more sweating on the "kid" walks and just wanting to be inside where it is cool. No more getting "eaten alive" by bugs...gosh we really dislike bugs!!!! We have gotten pretty good at this blog thing, well the layout portion of it at least! We are trying to give good input and relevant information, so hopefully you are all enjoying. Again, we love comments and want to hear your input to see if you are enjoying what you are reading. Thanks for visiting!!!! We also take requests, so let us know if you if there is something you want us to look into or talk about!!
Thanks again!!!

Pottery Barn end-of-season

Ok since my sister-in-law shared her "favorite thing" I thought that I would post mine as well; Pottery barn picture frames. Visit http://www.potterybarn.com, they are having an awesome end-of-season sale and their picture frames are fantastic!! Check it out!! Also, don't be afraid to mix the colors..they are fun and colorful and a great accent to any decor`.

Brownie in a Coffee Cup

I was just looking through my favorite blogs and saw this crock pot recipe on the "Year of Crock Potting" blog. This is so neat!! I cannot wait until it is cold and snowy, or we are skiing somewhere, to make this!!! If you have kids, (or not) this is way cool and worth checking out!!!
Be sure to check out this link here.

Favorite Things

I think a "favorite things" posting every now and again will help to explain who I am. The thing I am going to talk about today is one of my very very favorite things! I do not know what I would do without it! It was a gift from my mom (thanks mom and sister!) with a very long story about how I ended up with it..I did though, so we will pick up from there.
It is my Furi Rachael Ray Knife. Now, I do not give in to gimmicks and things like that, but this knife puts my "chef skills" ten fold when I have it in my hand (or at least I think so!) I feel like I can cook anything, chop anything and I feel like I look like Rachael Ray while I do it. (She looks cool, doesn't she?) So, here is one of my most favorite things, I would recommend to anyone who loves to cook!!! If you know a cook, it would make a great gift too!
(it is pictured here with the actual sharpener that goes with it...I love that too..it is not electric, so it is so easy to use and pull out of the drawer!)
Happy Chopping!!!
Please click on comments below and tell us what your favorite things are!!!

Home Grown Tomatoes

My neighbor just brought over a whole batch of homegrown tomatoes. I love the flavor home grown tomatoes give to any sort of sauce. It always seems so much fresher than even store bought, so to me, this was a real treat! Last time, I cooked pasta sauce with fresh rosemary and basil from my garden! Delicious!!
Well, I have lots of peppers in my refrigerator (thanks Kroger, $1 per red, yellow or orange pepper!!!) so, I wanted to utilize both...well, crock pot stuffed peppers! I cut everything up (including the peppers) and threw it in. Added a little garlic, chili powder, cumin, corriander, salt and pepper. I am good to go. I plan on serving it over brown rice. It was so easy. It has all of the ingredients as regular stuffed peppers, just in a different form =). I'll report back on how this turned out, pictures included!!!!

Kraft Foods

If you have young children in your home, you probably have a lot of Kraft products in your pantry and refrigerator. If you don't have young kids, you still probably do! Kraft has a magazine they publish for FREE and you can get their recipes delivered right into your mailbox. I love this magazine! you sign up for free and they send it to your REAL mailbox!!! (If you are like me, things that get sent into your "inbox" are harder to appreciate and read!) The recipes are sooo easy and things you probably already have n your refrigerator. Click here to register for the magazine.
They also have my number one appetizer on their Kraftfoods.com website. I love this website too. When I am having company I always browse around on it to find something simple and delicious to make. Listed below is a sure fire crowd pleaser!!!! So easy too!!!!

1/4 cup olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 loaf (1 lb.) French bread, cut in half lengthwise

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

3 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

2 Tbsp. chopped pitted ripe olives

1 cup chopped plum tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Mix oil and garlic; spread onto cut surfaces of bread. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.

MIX cream cheese and Parmesan cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Stir in olives.

SPREAD toasted bread halves with cream cheese mixture; top with tomatoes. Cut into 24 slices to serve. Sprinkle with basil.

Yummy!!!!

Recipe compliments of Kraft Foods.

Meijer Organics

Meijer's has an awesome line of organic foods. Seems so expensive to go organic, you have to shop at Whole Foods and spend double for something. My children can only drink organic milk. My mother was the first to give my son milk and it happened to be organic. Well, now that is all he can drink. We tried to give him regular and it was something out of the "Exorcist" movie..needless to say we have not tried again!!!! While the price is annoying, all of the things you hear about milk and what they put in it,makes me happy my mother made that decision for us long ago (thanks mom!). So, while it is a little pricy, definitely one of those extras that is worth it!!!
So, I found organic milk at Meijer which is on sale 2/5! That is a great price on milk for me! Listed below are there other deal on their organics line...Sale ends Sat.
Organic Bread 2/$5
Organic yogurt 10/$6
25% off organic cheese and crackers
Organic cereal 2.49
Organic frozen veggies and fruit 3/$6
Organc peanut butter and jelly 2/$5
Organic milk 2/$5 (half gallons)
Organic pasta sauce 1.59
Organic pasta 1.79
Organic apple juice 2.99
Organic mushrooms 4/$5
These are some great prices..haven't tried everything, but I am confident it would be worth a try!!!!

CVS

So, I had my first official CVS experience yesterday. I have to say I think I did well, although I am not thoroughly impressed yet. I had a few coupons, not printed off of the internet, real manufacturer coupons, and the manager had to come out and help. (She was very nice and did get everything to register!) I am not giving up, I am chalking it up to, I tried to do too much, so I will break it down into smaller trips I guess....
BUT...They do have an awesome clearance on summer things...75% off. I got kid lawn chairs, kids hats, flip flops, bubbles, all for very cheap! So it may be worth checking it out for there for sure. I guess I am going to try another CVS or maybe break my trips down....Does anyone have some advice on this? It was kind of weird...My receipt says I saved 60 some dollars, so I know I did somewhat well, but why the headache with the coupons?
Thanks for your advice in advance!

LINKS!!! YEAH

As you may have noticed we figured out the link thing, so if you see something written in red or another color, click on it and it will take you to the page or the information we are talking about...How easy and convenient!!!! It is a bright sunshiny day, now we can really give and show great tips!!!!!

FALL TELEVISION!!!

One of our favorite times of the year...cooler temps, leaves changing colors, different smells and lots of different food, and yes, fall television!!!!!! We appreciate a good warm bowl of homemade soup, chili or a hearty pasta dish. Well, we enjoy it a lot more in front of the television with one of our favorite fall shows (Grey's Anatomy, The Office, Samantha Who, Pushing Daisies, Notes from the Underbelly, Desperate Housewives, and the list goes on and on!) So, i am posting the fall television schedule here. If you love these shows as much as us, join us while we omg and dish on the hottest shows and give our critique of the new shows!!! Check back in periodically and we will alert when the shows are starting and recap he ones we watch the most! JOIN US!!!!

Free PopTarts

All the craze this week is the free PopTarts at Target. They are on sale 4 boxes for $9. If you buy this deal, you get a $5 gift card to Target in return. So, it ends up being only $4 for four boxes. Sweet deal, right? Well check out this post "Common Sense With Money" and it will give you a link to print out more coupons for even bigger savings...They could end up being free!!! Worth a look

Thanks Mercedes!

Red Box Code

I put a link in my side bar for "Redbox". I don't know if you have done it before, but it is so easy. It is one dollar per night, so you put a credit card in and it charges one dollar per day...Simple right? I have a code "DVDONME", and if you are a first time user, put this code in and you will get a movie free for one night. You need to go on their web site to find where a "Redbox" is near you. You can even reserve a movie on-line through their website. They also have free codes periodically for rentals, so sign up for e-mails, etc. It is a good deal and they have the latest movies too...so, you rent for one night, pay for one night! I always rent movies, you pay for 5 nights, watch it on the first and it collects dust for 4 more nights! Then you forget about it and it is late....that's how it goes in my house!
* if you rent and use the code for one free night, if you keep it for 2 nights or more, it will just begin to charge one dollar a day until they receive it back...=)
www.redbox.com

Savings

I have added a few new blogs to my side bar. If you click on them, they will take you to other blogs that focus mainly on being frugal and saving a lot of money. Also, some are about cooking, I love to cook and hopefully we will get it together and start posting our own recipes. We have been cooking a lot, but always forget to take pics!!! Nothing is as good as a great recipe with a picture, so we are working on that....but....in the meantime, check out these blogs. They really help save a lot of money and have some great tips!!! Unless you dislike free stuff, I think everyone will find good stuff there!!!

Where Does the Time Go?

The age is coming....you know the one. the child is getting a little older, wanting to play every sport possible...things you didn't even know existed! So, I am just entering this world. I am really a little lost here. I mean, I want my kids to play everything, why would I say no to anything...right? But, at what point does it get to be too much? I mean, they are coming home from school and you are right out the door to go to this practice or that game. I wouldn't want to deprive them, but I do want some control and family time left. How do you balance it all.
I happen to have a wonderful resource, she has been through it recently, so she always has great tips for me. I think I may follow her advice, tweak it a little for my particular situation, but follow for the most part. She says one activity at a time and that particular activity cannot be more than 3 days a week. She has a child getting a little older who participated in a sport...5 days a week, games on the weekend, etc. How hectic! Wasn't the best experience! SO, I just started my first activity..and we are going to see how it goes! What a journey though and how exciting to see your children "playing on a team" etc. I can not wait!
Some ideas for activities don't even need to be costly..you can find things at your local library, church, gym, community center, local colleges, everywhere! You just have to look a little!
So, my question (click on comment below and let me know) is what is your advice and how do you handle all the hectic running, meanwhile, making it fair for all of the children in the house?

Super Savings

So, with all this "back to school" things going on, I have been having some great gift ideas. I have seen crayons for 22 cents!! This is only the beginning.....folders for .05, glue for free, glue sticks for 1.00, packs of erasers for next to nothing, etc. I am sure if you have small children, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, anyone who may be in school, you have seen these sales. Well, I am going to begin stocking up on these things. What great little "extras" for a young child's birthday. You buy them an gift and then wrap some crayons, folders, glue etc. with it. We all love to get "new" things... Let's remember back...how great was a brand new pack of crayons? So, for next to nothing (especially this time of the year), you can put a little extra smile on a child's face!

Trader Joes Tuesday!

So, Trader Joe's is one of my favorite stores of all time! You can buy such affordable items there for really reasonable prices. I managed to figure out how to put a link in the side bar, so if you see "The Summers ending meal guide" you can click on it and it will take you to their website and give you so many great meal ideas! Definitely worth checking out! Enjoy!
Oh and that strawberry shortcake for 4.99....yummy!!!

Update on Fall Paint Colors

We hope that everyone had a fantastic Labor Day!! The weather was absolutely perfect here...hot, but still perfect for outdoor activities! First just wanted to explain the post below....while researching ways to make our blog have more features..we came across that message on a blog tool website. We thought it was funny...so, hope that it made you laugh..or at least smile..=)

So, for the colors..we now have a link to Sherwin Williams on our page so that you can access and view colors, ideas, tips, etc. Better to have the image to go with the description right??Enjoy!!

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Dose of scripture with your morning coffee

There are many life-related topics covered in each Sunday service at the church which we attend. At a recent service, among those topics was...yes the "dreaded conversation" of MONEY. This is a very relevant topic in part because of the slowing economy and cost of necessities on the rise; but more importantly because there is a "handbook" on how we should view money. That handbook is the Bible, it is there and only there will we find the answers to every single question that we have about money and debt.

The pastor asked a question to the congregation at the closing of last Sunday's service.
"When you meet God and He asks you what you did with the blessings that He gave you, what will you say?"
This question provoked me to ponder on this into deep thought and conversation.
I think that it is an important question that we all need to ask ourselves. It can be a battle in today's world to decipher between careless spending and meeting our needs. With credit card debt among families consistently on the rise, it seems that it is not difficult to lose site of what really matters in life. Loving God, loving our families and friends, and spending time enjoying life and enjoying our loved ones.

I think that it is a good reminder for us to count each blessing, and try (as hard as it is) to not love money. To take each day, one day at a time...and let tomorrow worry about itself.

Please take a few moments to read some scripture posted below...and have a great day!!!


Acts 8:20
But Peter said to him, Destruction overtake your money and you, because you imagined you could obtain the [free] gift of God with money!

1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many [Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.] acute [mental] pangs.

2 Timothy 3:2
For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.

Mathew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

update!!!

So, I have not posted in a few days..gosh, all of this change..kids going back to school, etc. It is really a hard transition to prioritize here. I want to be on top of the game, but want to relax a little too, spend quality time with the kids.. So I am trying to find a happy medium.
I did get the old navy jeans...very hectic, but what a great purchase! They seem really nice too. So I am happy about those.
There is one really good coupon this week.. .50 cents off cottonelle toilet paper. They sell it for .99 at Kroger, so when the coupon doubles, it will be free! yeah!!!
There are a lot of other grocery deals, check out the two frugal blogs listed at the sidebar of this page! Great deals.
Oh, and one last thing, those grapes on sale at Kroger are awesome!!! I froze half, what a great summer treat, and just left the other half in the refrigerator. They are so sweet and wonderful!!!