Just one of those days...

Actually, make that, just one of thos weeks (picture me rolling my eyes). I'm really struggling with keeping up with everything. Nicole of course is a sweet little girl, but oye! She's really pushing me on some issues (as in nap time right this very moment!!!) She hasn't been a great listener and just when I'm getting frutrated with her, she does something really cute or sweet and it make my frutrations go away. Which sometimes makes me even more frustrated...does that make any sense at all? hahaha. I feel like I can't catch up on anything. My house feels never picked up. There are always dishes in the sink (and drying on the counter), there's play-doh on the floor, stepped on cheerios in the play area, dried up milk under the table, dirty clothes in the bathroom, clean clothes in a heaping pile in the girls' room, drying clothes on the clothes line, dirty clothes...well at least there where they should be, in the clothes hamper. Jeremy is so great at constantly reminding me why we have chosen for me to stay home and teach and train the girls, but sometimes I still lose my focus. OK, to be honest...almost all the time I lose my focus. It's not even that I need more help...I just feel like I can't be GREAT at all things. I can be GREAT at one thing, and so-so in everything else. I can have a super clean house, but then the girls don't get as much attention. I can play with the girls all day, but then my house is a disaster, dinner doesn't get cooked and more cherrios get smashed into my already dirty floors. I long to be a wonderful wife, wonderful mother, wonderful friend, wonderful homemaker, wonderful teacher, all at the same time! Why can't I be all at once? I feel like my husband and my daughters deserve this. (Ok, this is not a pity party...I know I'm a good mommy and a good wife...I just want to be better, which I don't think is a bad thing) I don't always understand why God takes so long to change a person. We are so used to instant gratificiation, instant results in our fast paced culture (think about it...instant rice, faster internet, disposable diapers, dinner in a bag you microwave for 4 minutes, diet pills to make you loose weight in a week, or better yet....surgery to make you thinner, you lips fater and your eyes less saggy....everything is done fast!). It's so hard to be patient and allow God to work in my life...to change my heart and mind. I want a mind like His...I want to be used by Him, to Glorify Him with my life...especially where I'm at right now, in my home as Jeremy's wife and Nicole and Hannah's mother. But, I struggle to know how He can be glorified in me as I constantly struggle with the same sins every day.

Jeremy and I were reading an article last night that reminded me of God's Sovereignty. Why do I constantly put my trust in others...even in myself when others and myself always fail. Why is it so hard to put my trust in Him...the creator, not only of the universe, but of me. He is really the only one I can fully trust and stand on. He will never fail. But I seem to always struggle with this...somehow I think I know best. What foolishness! Nicole and I were reading this morning about Noah and "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." Gen 6:5 and "...because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from chidhood." Gen 8:21 (just a portion of it). Without the Soverign Grace of God, every inclination of my heart is evil. But, now...since I have the Holy Spirit...I don't have to satisfy the desires of my sinful flesh....but I can live by the Spirit. This really is where the battle lies. Every choice I make throughout the day is a choice of responding and gratifying the flesh (acting out in anger, frustration, pride, etc) or of resonding and living by the Spirit, (It's fruit being love, joy, patience, kindness...etc). God promises that if I "live by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (Gal 5:16). He even says they are in conflict with one another (Gal 5:17). So...this is it then...what will I do today? Will I live by the Spirit, or will I gratify the desires of my sinful nature. It is much better to live in the Spirit.

Now, for news on the girls...um...really no news. We went to the park today, a different one than normal. It was a lot of fun. We had lunch and chased ducks away from our food. Hannah of course spit up all over me and herself. Nicole likes to swing (high of course). Pretty normal right now. Nicole's new phrase is "all by myself" (although it sounds like she's saying "applesauce" haha)She not only says it when there's something she wants to do all by herself, but also when she seems something done with no help. For instance, we were in an elevator this weekend and the door close "all by myself". So...that's really cute.

Wow...this post went everywhere! hahaha. It was good for though to have a little Bible study...thanks for joining me:-)

Jeremy's birthday & of course....CVS!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband and sweet daddy to my girls! Jeremy is finally my age...no more "almost 30" jokes for 3 more months! His birthday started off with me taking a shopping trip to CVS (see below). Of course I came home with Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We then played outside for a little while and finished the morning by going to the park. This wasn't a usual park outing though. We went to the soccer fields, kicked around a kick ball and ate lunch on blankets. It is BEAUTIFUL outside today. Oh...just wonderful! The sun is warm enough to keep your skin warm, and the breeze is cool enough to keep your cool. It's a perfect day! Now Jeremy is golfing with some friends. I'm so happy he can have such a nice and relaxing birthday:-) I hope he's had a great day!

Here are a few pics from the park (well the first one is Jeremy teaching Nicole to play softball the other day at home).

Hannah wouldn't let her feet touch the prickly grass:-)







CVS


This was the big morning I've been looking forward to. CVS had some great deals.

I bought
~4 bags of Pull-ups
~2bags of Brach's candy corn
~5 packages of 2 toothbrushes
~1 tube of toothpaste
~1 Powerade
~1 bottle of excedrin
~1 Just for men (I'll explain)

I spent $2.28!!!! Can I get a woot woot??? hahaha

Baby items had a deal, buy $30 worth and get 10 ECB (Extra care bucks). I bought the Excedrin for $1.99 but I had a $2.00off coupon, so it was free. Everything else, I got the same dollar amount in extra care bucks that I spent, so it was like getting it for free. Plus, the Just for men has a $7.00 mail in rebate. This doesn't seem fair does it? I know! But, the manager was the one to check us out today and we were talking to him about the program. It's just crazy. I'm so happy that I can buy items for our family without spending a lot of money. What a blessing.

OK in the past 2 weeks...I've bought $126.67 worth of merchandise, I've used $50.74 in coupons, I've spent $71.44 in ECB, I've earned $76.45 in ECB and my total Out of pocket expense (cash I've paid) is $5.34!!!!! Amazing.


Now I'm off to make my shopping list for Publix. No huge sales blaring at me right now, but I'll let you know if I find something good.

PS...sorry about the format today. I'm having issues getting pictures and text lined up.

Lots of fun eating

I put together another little video with three clips. These are sort of fun for me to do and it requires less uploading. Anyway....here's an introductions.

The first segment is of Hannah eating. It's just adorable because of the faces she makes in between. The second segment is Nicole feeding Hannah. She asked to do this, which was sweet. I just happened to have a camera near by. It's a bit hard to tell on camera, but there was actually very little food on the spoon, which was sort of fun. The last segment is cute. Nicole loves to help me in the kitchen. Tuesday night we were making enchiladas and she was in charge of the cheese. I wasn't paying a lot of attention at first, but it's pretty funny what she was doing. I'll let you watch:-)

We are doing great. Nicole is sometimes insanely jealous of Hannah and other times just a wonderful helpful big sister. This morning I was putting Nicole's hair in a pony tail, she was sitting on the floor. She looked over and say Hannah sitting next to her. Nicole squeaked and giggle and said, "Oh, (insert giggle) hi Harrah (she doesn't say Hannah yet). It was adorable and made my heart happy:-)

We are looking forward to going out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner tonight to celebrate Jeremy's birthday (a bit early) with his parents. Well...gotta go and let his video upload. Enjoy!

Girl Talk

We had a fun morning playing with Ashlynd (1 week younger than Nicole) and Aleya (I hope I spelled that right...and she's a couple months younger than Hannah). We painted, played in the pool and outside house, they swung on the swing set and we ate lunch. It was good...however this means I am behind today.

I just wanted to share a great website/blog that I frequent. It's called Girl Talk. It is written by 4 women. I can always find encouragement there when I feel like I'm struggling as a wife or mother. It's been a great source to me, and I thought maybe it would be to you also. They have been writting on Proverbs 31 for the past week or two. Good food for thought:-) It's now in my links to the right. So...go check it out for a few minutes:-)

Coupon update

I only have a few minutes today (because sweet baby girls don't want to sleep at the same time today:-) But, I had to share what I did today. All of these ideas came from my friend Teri, so I can't claim it yet...but I'm getting better.

I went to CVS today. The Nature's Bound vitamins and minerals were on sale BOGO. I also had two coupons, both of which were $2.00 off of any one Nature's Bound supplements. So, I found the cheapest Nature's Bound supplements (Potassium) They were $4.38 each. I got two (because one was free) then I got to apply my 2 $2.00off coupons...so I bought both supplements for $.38 total! I also got $2.00 back in extra Care Bucks, and a coupon for $5.00 off of $25.00 which I will use next week to buy diapers (Pull-ups) Next week is a BIG week. I'm excited! Oh the check out lady at CVS knew what I was doing and she was excited for me. She said "Isn't this fun! What are you going to spend your Extra Care Bucks one?" She was cheering me on.

I also went to Publix. Classico sauce was BOGO. I believe they are $2.08 a piece regular price. I had 12 coupons that said $1.00 off of 2 jars of Classico sauce. So, I bought 24 jars (12 were free because of BOGO offer) and I got $1.00 off of each pair of sauces. I bought 24 jars of sauce for about $12.00 ($.50 a piece!). I also bought 4 boxes of Barbar stuffed chicken. They are $4.99 a box, however Publix has them BOGO. I also had 4 coupons for $1.00 off of 1 box. So, I got each box for $1.50. I bought 4 boxes for just over the regular price of 1!!! Each box has 2 chickens, so dinner that night will be $.75 a plate plus a veggie:-) Woohoo!!!! I was pretty excited. While in the store, my shopping cart was full of Classico sauces. Someone came up to my cart and started picking through them because she thought my cart was a display! hahaha. anyway...I had to share my fun finds.

Oh...last thing. We went to Once Upon a Child in Bonita, a children's consignment store. OK...GREAT store! I will never pay full price for a large baby item again (although I think I already have everything I need:-( Anyway, we got some cute little outfits, a Halloween costume for Hannah (she's going to be a clown...can't you just see that?) a few little toys and something special for my nephew Seth. It was fun:-)

OK...2 girls are finally napping. I need to go hang my clothes, and pick up the house. I have a cute video from feeding Hannah this morning. I'll try to upload that in the next day or two .

FYI

Real quick because nap time is almost over (and I was pretty busy during naps today so I couldn't post anything)...I am realizing that some of you are commenting on my posts and I don't know it because you comment several days (or weeks) after it's posted. So...I changed my settings a bit. If a post is more than 2 days old and you make a comment (Please do!!!!), it will tell you that the comment is being sent to me for my approval. All this is doing is letting me know that you commented so I see it:-) I love reading when people post comments and I don't want to miss anything.

I just didn't want this to freak any of you out who don't use the computer to much. So...to restate. If you write a comment on a post that is older than two days, a notice will appear on your screen and saying something along the lines of "this comment has been sent to michele for approval". This is ok....I set it up to say that because I want to read what you have to say:-)

Thanks for loving our family and wanting to see what's going on in our world:-) OK...gotta go sneak in a few more chores:-)

Weekend update

Ah....we had so much fun yesterday morning. We took the girls to the park. Both of my girls LOVE the swing! Nicole has always been crazy about swinging...looks like Hannah is well on her way to loving the swing too. Nicole now swings on "the big girl swing". We've been practicing at home on our small swing set. I put together 3 little videos we took on our camera into one. The first segment is Nicole swinging high. The second segment is hysterical. If you don't pee your pants laughing, I don't know what wrong with you. OK...maybe that's a bit extreme...but you should at least crack a smile:-) There are these spinning toys at the play ground, which of course we had Nicole sit on. I only got the last few seconds of her spinning, but let me say...she went around and around and around for at least 30 seconds. So...this video is of her after she got all done spinning. The last segment is of Hannah trying to take the cup from Jeremy. She has been doing this for probably 2 months. She especially likes these cups with bright colored polka dots on them. She gets really excited when I get one out of the cupboard! hahaha.

I also had to show a few pictures. Isn't Hannah cool in her (too big) hat and shades?

This is a cool picture of Nicole swinging

And another one of Hannah smiling for the camera Saturday morning.

Money Saving Mondays

I'll try to post for you how I do with my coupons for the weekend on Mondays.

As for my coupon savings this week...they're just ok right now. I did my shopping this morning and I needed some pricey items (toilet paper and paper towel) and I didn't have coupons for them...and there weren't any great deals:-( I had to bite the dust and buy them anyway. I had $21 total savings...only $5.oo from coupons. However, I was able to match up my $1.00 off for 2 Progresso bread crumbs with the Buy One Get One Free offer from Publix. So, I got four boxes of breadcrumbs for $.50 each:-) Tomorrow I should get a bunch of coupons in the mail for Classico pasta sauce ($1 off of 2 and Publix has them BOGO) so they'll be about $.50 a jar and also coupons for a few different types of frozen chicken dinners. We don't normally do frozen dinners, but they are good to have on hand just in case. Anyway....I hope as I build up my coupon stash I'll begin to have coupons for things when I need them (like today's toilet paper and paper towels) I'll have to talk to my friend Teri because I don't see any great deals at CVS this week...but maybe I'm missing something:-)

Well, thanks for reading. Have a great day!

Coupons and Candy Land

Nicole and I like to play Candy Land together. I say play, but she really doesn't follow the rules at all. When she turns over a card, let's say it's blue, she finds a blue space, places her blue card on the blue space, then places the blue ginerbread man on the blue card. I'm letting her get away with it...but if you know me or have every played a game with me, you know I don't like it when we don't go by the rules. I guess she's breaking me of that.

COUPONS!!!!!

Last night my friend Teri took me and another friend, Jennifer, out to CVS and Publix to elp us how to use our coupons and earn CVS Extra Care Bucks efficiently. Teri is amazing!!!! She's only been doing this for 2 months, but boy does she have a system down! I'm not going to try and redescribe how we did this because I'm pretty sure I'll get it wrong. We used coupons (manufacturer and store coupons) and then CVS gives you Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) on certain items each week/month. This is money you can use in their store.

Here's my picture

I bought a soleil razor (with replacement cartridges), 2 gatorades, 2 boxes of always pads, 2 tubes of toothpaste, 1 glucose monitor (i'll donate this), vitamin D, 1 vitamin water and paid $2.41!!!! Crazy...I know. But totally legit. I like shopping and not paying a lot of money.

Then we went to Publix where they had lots of great stuff Buy one get one free (BOGO). Well....surprise...you can use coupons even on BOGO items! She bought 14 jars of Classico Alfredo sauce, 6 jars of mayo, 2 boxes of breadcrumbs, I believe 8-10 boxes of frozen dinners (egg rolls and stuffed chicken). She saved approx $60 and spent $29!!!! Awesome right? I can't wait to try this again by myself and see how I do this week. I was pretty excited though..it was fun.

Nicole has a new hobby. She LOVES LOVES to help me with dishes now (really that means playing in the water)

Hannah is great. She's sleeping well during naps. Still wakes early in the morning, but that's fine. she's up with the rest of us. Oh...she's in crazy spitting up stage right now. I mean ALL the time...yuck!!

By Wisdom...

The new verse up on my chalk board wall behind my sink is...

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. Proverbs 24 3-4

I think this one will stay up there for a while. I don't have anything insightful to say about this proverb except that I have to figure out what it means! haha. The three big words...Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge and three big verbs, built, established and filled. And, I'm guessing the rare and beautiful treasures aren't just alluding to my rare and beautiful little girls:-)

I have some things to share from a book I'm reading called Idols of the Heart, Learning to Long for God Alone by Elyse Fitzpatrick (I bought it from Grace and Truth books...see my link to the right). But, the girls decided not to sleep at the same time today, so my thoughts will have to wait for another day.

Until then...reflect on the verse above. What do you think? How can wisdom build my house, understanding establish it and knowledge fill it's rooms with rare and beautiful treasures? How do we implement this in our lives and homes?

Is there a verse that is speaking to you today?

Special Delivery from Aunt Julie

Nicole was so excited today to get some of her very own mail today. It came all the way from Ohio. Her Aunt Julie sent her some cute magnets with scripture written on them. Here's a pic.

Thank you Aunt Julie...I liked my note and my magnets!