Video!

My husband said I HAD to post this. I'll see if I can figure this out.

This is about homeschooling. Count the kids! :)




Thank you Blogging Basics 101!!

Bloggy Giveaways Carnival - a book

I decided to join in and participate in the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival this time. But what to give away? Admittedly, I'm not the most original person and I'm quite frugal so I'm going to give away a hardcover book I own. If you are the lucky winner, you will receive Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur (read once by me). I thought this was a very good book. Shipping is included for U.S. addresses, would it be possible to mail a book internationally for $5 or less? If you'd like to enter and we could work out shipping charges (if over $5 internationally) then go ahead. (If not, I apologize, please re-read the sentences above (I'm frugal).) :)

Enter giving your e-mail or blog address (if I can link to your blog through your comment that's fine). Only enter once! I'll draw a winner at approximately 11:59 P.M. Sat. Feb. 2 Eastern time.

More info on the book:
Twelve Extraordinary Women: How God Shaped Women of the Bible, and What He Wants to Do with You
Celebrated for their courage, vision, hospitality, and spiritual giftedness, it's no wonder women were so important to God's plan revealed in the Old and New Testaments. It wasn't their natural qualities that made these women extraordinary but the power of the one true God whom they worshipped and served.
In Twelve Extraordinary Women, you'll learn more than fascinating information about these women, you'll discover-perhaps for the first time-the unmistakable chronology of God's redemptive work in history through their lives. These women were not ancillary to His plan, they were at the very heart of it.
Women featured - Eve, Sarah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Mary, Anna, The Samaritan Woman, Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene and Lydia

More giveaways at Bloggy Giveaways. More info/rules here.

Super Savings Saturday

This is my first time to participate in Super Savings Saturday. Sorry I don't have any pictures, maybe later today.

Best deals
Meijer - free Dole salad (.01 overage) price 1.99 buy 1 get 1 free then 2 $1 coupons from here (thank you Money Saving Mom and iMommies). *Updated - there is another B1G1F salad deal again this week (not sure if it's $1.99 though).
Walgreens - free Jane makeup (2 eye shadows and concealer, paid a little for tinted moisturizer), planning to send in the rebate for Purell hand sanitizer

I'll hopefully be getting some stuff at CVS later today.
And hopefully I'll be getting some free wipes (at Rite-Aid I had to get a raincheck for the Lansinoh wipes) sometime soon.
*Updated - I did get to go to CVS, however once again I blundered. I either gave her the wrong card or she scanned the wrong card so I messed up using some of my ECBs. It all worked out but I did spend a little more than I wanted. She wouldn't let me "stack" so that messed me up a little too. On the upside, I had one transaction finish at $.00 OOP and one at $.01 OOP!! :)

Good deal
Kroger - Kraft cheese is $2 but by buying 9 "Game Day essentials" you get $6 off at the register, so $1.34 per package. (Not as good of a deal as $.99 cheese at Walgreen's but I prefer mozzarella, and Walgreen's was out of cheese!) *Updated - this Kraft cheese deal does seem to be going another week.
Meijer - Beechnut baby food 2nd jars are $.33 (thanks to Heather at Freebies 4 Mom and another source I had some extra coupons). Again, not the greatest deal but not bad. A catalina printed for Gerber so that will come in handy. When looking around though I found that Del Monte is only $.32 so I'll be going back when I'm out of Beechnut coupons.

For more or to share your own savings today, please visit Crystal at Money Saving Mom.

Vision Forum giveaway

Biblical Womanhood is holding a giveaway for $100 at Vision Forum. For your participating comment you get one chance and for a blog post you get a second chance. Here's the details:
To enter to win this $100 passport:
:: Visit Vision Forum's website, browse around, and pick out some of your favorite products.
:: Come back here and leave a comment with your name and tell us what you'll buy if you win the $100 passport. (Please make sure to leave a blog address or email so I can get in touch with you if you win!)
:: Bonus Entry! Post about this contest on your blog with a link to this giveaway post and then leave a separate comment below with the link to your blog post mentioning this contest and you will receive two entries into this giveaway!
:: This contest will be open until next Monday (January 28, 2008) at noon. I'll randomly choose and post a winner later on that day.
:: This giveaway is open to any entrant from around the world. One entry per person, except in case of posting it on your blog which allows you two entries per person.

Frugal Friday - eating out for Valentine's Day

Some of you probably have a questioning expression on your face. Can eating out for Valentine's Day be frugal? Well, probably not! But there are a few options. My husband and I have learned that eating out on February 14th is not usually a good choice. The restaurants are crowded (even if you did make a reservation) and service is slow, etc. However I do LOVE to eat out and my husband likes to make me happy so sometimes we'll go out FOR Valentine's Day just not ON Valentine's Day. February 15th is a great day to choose (except this year b/c it's a Friday when traditionally a lot of people eat out) but probably this year Monday February 11 is a good choice (Tuesday nights are kids' night at some of the restaurants we might choose, and date night and kids' night don't mix). Another option if you really want to eat out is to contact some "fancy" restaurants about their Valentine's Day specials. Usually these only run on Valentine's Day and this is still early enough to make a reservation. For example, last year (or the year before or the year before, I can't remember) I called The Melting Pot (a fondue-ish hip place) and though it was still expensive to eat there they did have a Valentine's Day special, usually restaurants will have a special menu and selections just for 2 people and the price includes appetizer/meal/dessert/maybe drink. This might be a good way to eat out on Valentine's Day (if you so choose), remember make your reservations NOW! For a frugal approach, I would suggest looking at Amy's New Year's Eve special dinner at home.
Look at Crystal's other Frugal Fridays here.

Grammar quiz

Okay, my grammar doesn't totally stink!

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

I do pretty well with those type of questions (it's, its, there, their, and they're (the there/their/they're are a pet peeve of mine). Other issues in grammar (lay/lie, etc etc) not so good!

WFMW - check expiration dates

Not exactly new news but good anyway! Check your "use by" and "best by" and any other expiration-type dates. I tend to stockpile groceries when there's a good sale. However this can be a bad thing when you have company over and have to ask your husband to taste the croutons to make sure you're not going to kill anyone with passed the "best by" date croutons they might put on their salad. It is now 2008 (in case you didn't know)! :)

As always, check out Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer for more helpful tips.

Frugal Friday: Dollar Stretcher web site

When I first started looking online for information about saving money and how to stretch our budget I felt lucky to find Dollar Stretcher. Every link is dated so you can easily find out if it's older information or brand new. I will admit I don't visit the site every week like I used to, I do visit Crystal's Money Saving Mom though! I think Dollar Stretcher (now featuring Dave Ramsey) is really useful though, there's lots of reader tips and information about saving money and stretching your dollars! :)

Look at Crystal's other Frugal Fridays here.

WFMW - Backwards edition, Couch questions

It's another WFMW, a Backwards edition. I get to ask you for help/advice.

Our couch is a faux (fake) suede material. We love the look and feel (well, we did when we bought it). But now that we've had several children wipe their snotty noses and other things on it it doesn't look very pretty. Any advice on cleaning this material? Something quick I could use to get little "spots" out? I've thought about using fabric cleaner spray on it but I think I would have to dose the whole thing and it would take days to dry out - not a good option when company is coming in 30 minutes!

Another question - the cushions are always sliding out (especially when the kids are sitting/jumping on them. Any ideas to help with this? I keep pushing the cushions (not the kids) back in but it's really a pain.

As always, thank you for help/suggestions/commiserations! :) See Shannon for more WFMW!

Good reading about "Homemaking" profession vs At-home-mom titles

I thought Elizabeth at A Merry Rose: Blooming as Keeper of My Home wrote a very good post about titles and how you might think of your "career" as homemaker or stay-at-home mom or at-home-mom. Please go read! :)

I commented, "Great writing! I say homemaker when a 'career' is asked, I'll say 'stay-at-home' sometimes adding mom or mother when someone asks (for example at the store when they see my child(ren)). But to myself I probably say at-home-mom because my homemaking skills are greatly lacking!! My mom worked and I wasn't trained for this career. Our home was kinda a mess but adding 4 children in 6 years doesn't help! :) Nothing ever stays in the same place! I'm working on it and my husband thinks I'm doing a GREAT job (so I guess that's what matters the most)."

And this is my first post of 2008! Sorry, I've been a little absent. We hosted a New Year's Eve party for our Sunday School class at our HOUSE! Aaahh! So I've been doing a lot of cleaning and rearranging and some decluttering. We still have lots to work on though! Then we had a family over after church yesterday. Aahh. More cleaning, rearranging and decluttering! During the evening service last night (I had a headache too!), I told my husband, "wow, now I can relax." I don't think I realized how stressed I was. It's so nice to know no one is coming over for a while. EXCEPT it would be good to keep the house in a somewhat ready-for-company mode. We'll see. :)