Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving Wishes


We've been so incredibly busy that I really haven't been blogging all that much. And now that the holidays are upon us, I fear that I might be even a little more scarce. Hopefully not. I've got so many things to share and blog about!

However, I wanted to take a moment and share a Thanksgiving blessing and wishes for you and your families for a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We Give Thanks

Our Father in Heaven,
We give thanks for the pleasure
Of gathering together for this occasion.
We give thanks for this food
Prepared by loving hands.
We give thanks for life,
The freedom to enjoy it all
And all other blessings.
As we partake of this food,
We pray for health and strength
To carry on and try to live as You would have us.
This we ask in the name of Christ,
Our Heavenly Father.

--Harry Jewell

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Trial...but not error!

I belong to a group called BzzAgent. It's a word of mouth marketing organization . What does this mean? It means I am invited to try new products from time to time and give my opinion on them. It's great fun!! I signed up about 6 months or so ago and have had the pleasure of trying several new products.

One of the products I'm currently trying is L'oreal Revitalift Deep-Set Wrinkle 24-Hour Eye Repair Duo. I'm about mid-way through an 8 week ttial period and I have to say, I like this product very much! It makes the area around my eyes feel much smoother and softer than before I began the trial.

If you have a chance to try this product, I recommend you do so. I think you'll be happy with the results. I know I am!

Monday, November 09, 2009

Free Lunch?


Okay, so maybe there's no such thing as a free lunch. But how about a thirty-nine cent lunch? Is that close enough?

At the grocery store on Saturday I redeemed a ton of coupons, two of which resulted in lunch for both Kevin and I today. I had coupons for $1.10 off a can of Progresso soup. The soup was on sale on Saturday for $1.25 per can. If my math skills serve me correctly that means I got each can of soup for just 15 cents. Awesome! I also had a great coupon for Pepperidge Farm Baked Naturals; the coupon plust the sale netted a box of snack crackers for just ninety nine cents. Each box of snack crackers equals out to about four servings, so just shy of twenty five cents per serving.

A can of soup and a portion of snack crackers = .39. Not too shabby! But then...I splurged and added a nineteen cent apple bringing my grand total to fifty-eight cents.

Sigh. Guess it's true - there's no such thing as a free lunch. Just a really inexpensive one ;o)

Sunday, November 08, 2009

The Busy Season


I can't believe that it's November 8th ... ALREADY! Is it just me or has this whole year flown by in the blink of an eye? It seems that, since June, this year has picked up speed and cruised right past me. And on top of that, we've entered the absolutely busiest time of the year.

Did you know that it's a mere 47 days until Christmas? How did that happen?!

To try and catch up with everything that's going on, I had a full day yesterday of getting ready for holidays. Kevin was gone all day at an umpire camp. He had to leave by 7:00 a.m. so I had a good long time to work some holiday magic.

First stop: grocery shopping. I planned out our two week menu during the week, consulted the grocery circulars on Friday, gathered together all of my coupons (some really good ones this week!) and hit the grocery store early. I sort of enjoy the act of grocery shopping itself. I think part of it is hunting for the best bargains. However, as much as I enjoy the shopping aspect, I really do NOT enjoy the putting away aspect. But they're sort of a packaged deal I suppose. Anyway, I felt that I did particularly well with yesterday's take. Groceries have gotten so incredibly expensive - it's almost frightening to peek at that final tally. However, once I punched in my code for the loyalty card and handed the checker all of the coupons I'd brought, I ended up saving exactly 50% on groceries this week! Considering the fact that this was a big stock up week (lots of holiday baking supplies on sale!), saving half was a huge accomplishment! The one caveat is then having to tote all of those bags in the house and find places to stash all of the goodies.

Next, I headed to a few places around town to pick up several Christmas gifts. Let me say this: there are some GREAT deals out there!! I pretty much Christmas shop all year round - starting the day after Christmas. I find that this works best for our budget - and my sanity. However, if you're just now beginning to think about shopping for Christmas, you're definitely in luck. I found some amazing deals yesterday! Unfortunately, I really can't share them here because, well...they're a surprise! However, suffice it to say that there are some wonderful gift choices out there, and there are definitely bargains to be had.

When I got home from shopping, I decided to make cookie dough. Every year Deb and I do a Christmas cookie bake-off and it's nice to get a jump on making the dough. I made a double batch of my famous (well, at least in our small circle of family and friends) molasses crinkles. I got them all rolled out, put them on a baking sheet and froze them. This morning we'll be putting the dough balls in a freezer bag and stashing them until early December. I was going to make another batch, but by the time I finished with the first go 'round, I was tired. When Kevin got home, he was happy to find out that I hadn't made the chocolate chip cookie dough yet. He said he really wanted to help with that one -- of course, what he means is that he'd really like to help EAT that one, but that's beside the point, right? ;o)

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Inheritance


Apparently we've inherited a cat. Her name is Daisy and she lived there before Kevin and I moved in. Her family took her with them, but they still live close enough that she can come back to her 'home' -- and that's exactly what she does. In fact, we believe she's decided that we're her new family. Apparently in the cat world if you move in to their home, you must learn to share with them because they're not budging.

She's cute as a button and quite insistent - both that this is her house and when it comes to mealtime.

She and Slippers have a sort of 'tolerant' relationship. Slippers likes Daisy and Daisy tolerates her. Sort of.