It's a New Year

Grace. I give myself grace to not start the new year until after the Christmas company leaves. I'm wanting to start some new resolutions, but I will not be defeated so early in the year because of the exhaustion that comes with hosting family and guests. As the saying goes, All are welcome - some by coming and some by leaving. :) But at any rate, the new resolutions can wait until Monday. I will be kind and sweet to myself, just like I would to anyone else, and give myself grace.

Clean Slate

A blank page. Full of potential. I'm afraid of messing it up. I have thoughts to be put into words, but I sit here thinking them and never giving them tangible space because of the perfection of the white page. I type out a complete paragraph. Then erase it all. It doesn't make sense. Or express what I was thinking. It's a hard job, you know, to condense thoughts, shapes, colors and pictures into words. Time is slipping away. Precious time that I've carved out of my day. Now I'll have less sleep tonight, and I'll have a blank page to show for it. But really, the quiet hour gives voice to my thoughts, and I'm able to hear them. Maybe soon, I'll be able to put them into words.

Harris Teeter Super Doubles

I love Super Doubles! I spent a grand total of $3.19 for the following:
2 pkg. Idaho mashed potatoes
6 cans Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg. Beechnut twin-pack baby food
1 box Celestial Seasonings tea
2 pkg. Wholly guacamole
2 pkg. Rhodes frozen dinner rolls
1 pkg. El Monterey tornados
2 pkg. Nestle refrigerated cookie dough
3 containers Oikos Greek yogurt
2 containers Bailey's coffee creamer
1 8th continent soy milk
Not bad, huh?

And then I spent $5.82 on Wrigley's bubblegum. I didn't have any coupons for that, and Chris needed it for the birthday cards he sends out from church.

Hey, wassup?

What do you say when it's been well over a year since the last post?

My mom tells me I need to write a book. I have no lack of material, since there's always something going on around here; but there is a serious lack of time and energy. Maybe one day when I'm old and decrepit I'll get to it...

Monday's Song

Wordless Wednesday

Caption this....

Memory Lane

Here I am on my very first day of kindergarten at Holy Family of Nazareth Catholic School in Irving, Texas. I remember being so excited to wear that red dress. Ain't I cute?! I also had a brand new pencil box with pictures of America on it. My teacher, Mrs. Randall, was the loveliest lady I had ever seen. She had high heeled black shoes with no straps in the back so they made a satisfying clicky sound as she walked. She had long curly black hair and she was very nice. My best friend in kindergarten was Mary Garza. I also played a lot with Ryan Sitton. We would go Daddy Long Leg hunting together. Bo and Heidi were also good friends.

My mom taught me how to read and write. I have a long name for a kid to learn how to spell. She would write out my name E L I S A B E T H and then draw little lines underneath each letter so that I could copy my name out. But I thought she was mixing the letters up and wanted me to unscramble them. I would get so frustrated because I didn't know which letter would come next. I think she would get frustrated with me because she didn't understand why I wouldn't just write the letters down. It's funny now.

I loved kindergarten. We learned Spanish; learned to count; learned our addresses and phone numbers; went to the park and fed the ducks; had Halloween, Christmas and Valentine parties; played on the merry-go-round; listened to stories; made crafts.

I wish I was back in kindergarten.

Just kidding!

Frugal Friday

I think most everyone knows I love to use coupons. This is a picture of my little coupon organizer that I bought at the Dollar Tree six years ago. It originally had a foldover flappy thing and an elastic band to keep it all together. Now, though, it is showing its old age not very gracefully. Basically, it's ready to be retired... A few weeks ago, I started visiting all the Dollar Trees in our area (there are quite a few) to find a replacement, but it turns out "couponing" is much more popular now than it was six years ago, and these coupon organizers are very elusive and hard to find...





All that to say, that for my birthday, a very sweet lady in our church gave me this (pretend you hear a chorus of heavenly voices singing "taaadaaaa"):

Can you believe it???!!! I am THRILLED to have such a really cool place to organize all my coupons. Notice the handy dandy pink zipper thing that I can keep a highlighter, scissors and a calculator in. And also the very valuable "free" coupons. That way I won't forget I have them. There are divider tabs which provide separation between the different categories. And there's a funky folder in the back so I can put copies of coupon policies or sale ads there for reference.

It's been so much fun to sort my coupons and stick them in the little spots. I realized that this is a natural hobby for me. It combines shopping and sorting and saving- three of my very best skills and talents. (Also notice the alliteration in the previous sentence. "shopping, sorting, saving" - Man, I'm good. I should be married to a preacher. Oh yeah, I am.)

And this week, we are right in the middle of Harris Teeter triples. That means that HT will triple the value on any coupon up to 99 cents. Now, I've never seen a 99 cent coupon; the highest I've seen before you hit the dollar mark is 75 cents. That means I get $2.25 off if I use a .75 coupon. Limit of 20 coupons per day.

I'll spare you the sordid details of each transaction, but let it be known that with the help of this really sweet brand new coupon notebook from a good friend, I have purchased the following for the grand total of $36.44:

2 boxes Kix; Trix; Cheerios, 2 boxes Lipton tea bags; 3 boxes bouillion cubes; 9 cans pork&beans; 2 boxes Uncle Ben's rice; 2 bottles barbecue sauce; Lady Speed Stick; Head&Shoulders shampoo; 11 pounds chicken leg quarters; 4 bottles Sunny D; gallon milk; Chex Mix; 6 bars Dial soap; 1 pkg. Ziploc containers; microwave popcorn; 1 roll Bounty; Mentos gum; Spot Shot; hot buffalo wing pretzels; pkg of pretzel snack packs; 2 Zone bars; 2 Colgate toothpastes; 2 flosses; 4 pounds ground chuck; wheat Italian bread; 4 pack of yogurt; 2 pkgs. pepperoni; 3 2-pound bags of corn bread mix; Italian dressing; 2 boxes jello; 3 Weber spices; shaving cream; Sure deodorant; 2 loaves wheat bread; Starbucks ice cream; 2 Purell hand sanitizers; and a single serve of Minute Maid frozen lemonade.

Of course, this is not a typical week at the grocery store. That's why I get so excited when I'm able to do this. I do spend some time getting my coupons ready before I go to HT - on their website, they have where you can do online shopping and then go pick up your order at the little drive-thru place at the store. I go onto the online shopping section of their website and look up prices. That way I can know what's a good deal and what's not. I always inwardly chuckle whenever the cashier tells me, "You saved __ dollars!" Because, really, I didn't "save" it - if it was full price, I never would have bought it in the first place.

But that's the fun of couponing. You never know what you'll end up with in the cart! I can't be brand loyal; although I have my brand preferences (Duke's is the best mayonnaise, Heinz is the best ketchup, Grandma Mildred's is the best bbq - but you can't buy that in the store). And it's good scissors practice for the kids. They practically beg to cut the coupons out...

Wordless Wednesday

Caption this...

That's The Way It Is

Chris is always telling me I need to go blog. But a lot of times I don't know what to say, and thinking of something requires way too much brain energy. No smart-aleck comments allowed. So I've decided to think up a weekly plan that would guide me in my posts, so that it would require only minimal brain power and maximum fun and creativity. It is on purpose that the day that goes with the topic starts with the same letter. That helps me to remember on any given day what I'm going to write about without me having to think real hard. Heh, heh. You may think it's lame, but even lamer is having a blog and never posting. So there. If I miss a day, I forgive myself. And I might even be lucky enough to have extra posts on a day if I have something really interesting going on, such as yesterday with Autumn learning how to climb out of her walker. That was indeed a blog-worthy feat!

Monday - Memory Lane
Tuesday - Told Ya So/That's the way it is/That's what I think (Basically, I get to say whatever I want about whatever I want)
Wednesday - Wordless Wednesday - I post a picture and you get to think up a caption
Thursday - Thoughtful Thursday
Friday - Frugal Friday
Saturday -
Sunday - Song and Verse

Unfortunately, I can't remember the "S" word for Saturday. And my list is ... somewhere. So I'll have to figure that out, but I still have a few days before I have to worry about it.

That's the way it is.



Hmmm, now I wonder, was it Silly Saturday, Saturday Snack, Saturday's Surprise, Sneaky Saturday,...

Autumn's Escape

Monday's Memory Lane

My mom was here last week visiting. My kids call her "Grandma Julie". When I was growing up, we called our grandparents "Grandma" and "Grandpa". All of them. Yeah, I know. It was very confusing. So confusing, that in fact we kids resorted to calling them the "Big Ones" and the Little Ones". Not to their face, but just when we were talking about them to each other. Obviously in this picture, this is the "Little Grandma" since she was very short. The other Grandma was the "Big Grandma" since she was much taller (although she was not nearly as plump) than this one pictured. I was nine years old in this picture. This was taken on one of our annual pilgrimages to Michigan to visit the Grandmas and Grandpas. Of particular note in this photo is my baby brother who is screaming his head off. Very cute, John.

This is Roseanna and Lawrence, my dad's parents. They raised 5 boys, so Grandma was a "tough cookie". I remember that several years before this picture, she had a heart attack. That's when she quit smoking. She used to tell us about how when all her boys were at home and she made cookies, she had to hide the cookies in a special hiding spot so that they wouldn't eat them all at once. I begged her to tell me where she used to hide them; she finally told me, but only after we got all alone in the kitchen and she whispered the secret into my ear. Whenever we would leave at the end of our yearly visit, she always handed a goody bag over to my mom for us kids. It was filled with miniature candy bars, jars of hot fudge, jelly rings and gumdrops. Grandpa was a brick mason. He thought nothing about running around the top of smokestacks at factories, or riding a motorcycle while standing. He even rode his first rollercoaster in his late 80's. He told the best stories about living through the Great Depression. I can still hear his voice in my mind as he would laugh and tell jokes and say things like, "You can say that again!" or "...Go a ways down the pike..." or "You must have a hole in your glass, you need a refill of root beer!" At least once during each visit, he would take us grandkids on a walk up to town and we'd get a donut at the grocery store. I don't know what was more fun - that donut and chocolate milk or playing with the cattails near the pond on the way to town.

Sunday's Song and Verse

These are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name. John 20:31

Bits and Pieces From My Childhood

Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Twas the 18th of April in 79, hardly a man is still alive who remembers that famous day and year. One if by land and two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore shall be, ready and waiting to spread the alarm to every Middlesex village and farm...

In fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

I have to live with myself and so
I want to be fit for myself to know
I want to be able as the days go by
To look myself right in the eye...

Make new friends but keep the old
One is silver and the other gold.

Once I was a tadpole grubbing in the mire
Till I became ambitious and started to aspire
I rubbed my tail so vigorously against a sunken log
It disappeared completely and I found myself...a frog!...


Righty tighty lefty loosey.

The Goops they lick their fingers
The Goops they lick their knives
They wipe their mouths on the tablecloths
They lead disgusting lives...

When in the course of human events, it becomes ...

Four score and seven years ago...

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Be sure your sin will find you out.

Be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.

Every Good Boy Does Fine

A penny saved is more than a penny earned.

Cookie Time

The Cruke

A warm breeze washes over my body as the waves softly lap at the side of the boat. The boat I am on strangely resembles the cruise ship we were on a couple of months ago. I listen to the sales pitch of the ten-year old surfer boy who's missing a leg. He is touting a blow-up killer whale decoy who is also missing a leg. The stump of the plastic whale is shaped like a chicken leg. The surfer boy explains that he lost his leg last summer swimming with the killer whales, but oh, the fun to be had... it was worth it...

(...hoarse crying sounds...)

I open my eyes to the sound of Savannah sobbing, standing next to my bed, her face inches away from my face. She gives a throaty cough. I jerk my head back and glance at the bright red numbers on the clock. 4:26 am. "Calm down, Savannah. Why are you crying?" She gives a couple of heavy breaths then gasps, "I've got the cruke!"


*Cruke = croup. A coupla months ago, Savannah did have the croup. Two nights ago, Autumn had the croup. Savannah woke up last night coughing and worked herself up into a dither thinking she had the croup. She maybe had a slight touch of it, but nothing major. Colds are going around the house. Me and Seth are the only ones not touched by it... (knock on wood).

Old Fogey

This morning as we were eating our breakfast of (what else) frosted mini-wheats, Jacob was reading the milk jug label. "Hunter Farms... is that the name of the farm this milk came from?"
I said, "That would be my guess."
Then ensued a discussion between Jacob, Savannah and Eli about how farmers milk cows - Jacob said, "City farmers use a machine that hook onto the ..."
Savannah interrupts, "the milk thingies!" as she points to her belly.
"Udders, Savannah," I correct.
Jacob continues, "Yeah, they hook on there and it milks the cow. Country farmers milk the cow the old fashioned way."
Eli giggles, "But the fahmahs have to be vewy gentle. Or the cows might kick like on That's So Raven."
Jacob goes for the first hand experience, "Mommy, what does it feel like to milk a cow?"
"I don't know, Jacob, I've never milked a cow before."
Disbelief around the table.
"What do you mean, you've never milked a cow?! I thought you grew up in the old days...you know, like in the 90's. Hey, Eli, back then the cars didn't have any curves like our cars do. Cars back then had all corners. I'll draw you a picture after breakfast so you can know what they looked like."

I hate to admit it, but yes, if the 90's are the old days, I am an old fogey.

Command & Conquer 2

I'm so excited about the deal that‘s coming this weekend at Texas Speedway, and since Elisabeth’s eyes glaze over when I share my stats with her, I have to get this out of my system here... :)

Mark Martin at intermediate tracks
221 - the number of top ten finishes he has
139 - the number of top five finishes he has
18 - the number of wins he has

The last two weeks
6th at Bristol
7th at Martinsville
7 - the number of spots he has gained in the points
27th - where he currently is in the standings
He’s on a roll!

TOTAL wins in his career = 35
plus 48 wins in Nationwide and 7 in the truck series

So all together he has 90 wins!

And now I get to prepare for Texas...

Mark Martin - at Texas
8 - the number of top ten finishes he has
5 - the number of top five finishes he has
1 - the number of wins he has

Plus he has won 5 IROC races, come in 2nd in points 4 times, and has the experience of driving in NASCAR since 1981.

I will definitely be eating cereal to support his sponsor - no fear there. Even if I didn't like frosted mini wheats, I would still do this to support Mark Martin (#5 driving for Kelloggs). Anyway I look at this, he’ll come out the winner!!!

Guest post by Chris

Command & Conquer

I'm so excited about the deal I got this morning at Harris Teeter, and since Chris' eyes glaze over when I recount my exploits to him, I have to get this out of my system here... :)

1st transaction -
8 boxes frosted mini wheats
1 box honeycomb cereal
worcestershire sauce
frank's red hot sauce
mentos gum
airheads candy (6 pk)
cracked wheat italian bread (which I got sliced to make sandwiches with)
rhodes frozen dinner rolls
6 cans pillsbury grands biscuits
1 bag reduced apples
1 bag reduced nectarines
TOTAL I paid = $5.38
plus 3 coupons for free milk and a mail-in form for $10 from Kelloggs

So now I had to go use my free coupons for milk...

2nd transaction -
8 boxes frosted mini wheats
3 gallons organic milk
TOTAL I paid = $6.15
plus 3 more coupons for free milk and a mail-in form for $10 from Kelloggs

Plus I can cut out 5 tokens from my mini wheats boxes and send in for a free DVD.

So all together I paid $11.53 for everything!

We will definitely eat all this cereal - no fear there. Even if we didn't like frosted mini wheats, I would still do this to make the money ($20 back from Kelloggs) and I could donate the cereal. Anyway I look at this, I come out the winner!!!

Center of the Universe

Just in case you didn't know, I am the center of the universe.

Now you're mad at me because you think I'm wrong, but I'm telling you, I am the center of the universe.

Okay, so maybe I'm not really the center of the universe, but I know someone who does think so:

To Autumn, I am the center of the universe. I realized that the other day. It's funny and sweet how her moods change depending on whether I'm paying attention to her, holding her, talking to her, feeding her, or just being in the same room as her. And when I'm not doing any of those things, then she lets me know of her displeasure. Which, in reality, shows that she is the center of the universe. So as far as she's concerned, it's all about her which means it's all about me. Thinking this through is starting to hurt my brain. But it does reinforce my personal opinion and belief that all humans are at the core very selfish beings.

I mean, really, most of what I do or think is based on selfishness. Why do I buy ice cream? Because I want it. Why do I get mad at other drivers? Because they're not driving the way I think they should. Why do I make the kids go to bed early? Because I am tired. Why do I expect certain behavior from others? Because I think I deserve it/that's the way it should be done (according to whom?-me)/I want things to be fair (the way I see it).

And when I don't get my way, I do like Autumn does. I pitch a fit. Figuratively speaking (most of the time). What is pitching a fit? Complaining, whining, ignoring, grumbling, yelling, crying, pounding fists and feet, silent treatment, making so much "noise" that I get my way. Lots of grown-ups do this. It's just hard to admit, or even see. Haven't you ever felt like suing someone because you didn't think you were done right? Well, guess what? Life ain't fair. Ain't no amount of fits gonna make it fair. I'm not the center of the universe. You're not the center of the universe. And it's an awful hard thing to have to tell Autumn, but she's not the center of the universe, either.

God is the real, true, and only center of the universe. Dadgummit, He's the One who created the universe that needed a center. And since He created the universe, I reckon He's the only one big enough to fill the center of it. So really, it's a matter of perception vs. reality. I may feel like and think that I'm the one it's all about. But I'm not. God is. I need to re-align my thinking to the truth. God is the center of the universe. And God wants me to accept Him as the center of my universe. It's up to me whether I accept or not, but that doesn't change the fact that He is. I can choose to be in harmony with Him, or I can choose to "pitch a fit" and fight against Him.

I am so thankful that God is the center of my universe. I hope that one day Autumn will acknowledge the truth of her Creator. And I pray that you, too, have your center calibrated with the true Center of the universe.