Top Ten ... no more, no less.

Ah yes, we're ever slowly catching up. :o)

Laundry basket not overflowing. Check.

Clothes and stuffage prepared for consignment. Mostly check.

Finances somewhat caught up. Kind of check.

Kids snuggled. Lots. Triple check.

As is typical, our return from vacation has been a whirlwind. However, things have finally settled enough that I allowed myself a few hours to go through our pictures this evening. What fun! We had a wonderful visit filled with family and fun, and other than missing a few key snapshots (like grandparents with their grandkids or all of the cousins together!), we have a nice collection to remember a great week. (Sorry about those missing photos, Grandma and Grandpa ... guess we'll just have to do it again sometime!!)

Here follows my top ten photos for the week ... the other 60ish or so (selected from the multiple hundreds that were taken) will show up in various forms in upcoming days ...

After many, many hours in a carseat, Matthew loved exploring Grandma and Grandpa's grass!

And he finally warmed up to Great Grandma at our Independence Day family picnic! Peter and Great Grandpa explored tractors together.

We had a fantastic time at SeaBreeze! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Hannah and Peter had a blast with all of the rides designed specially for kids their size. :o)

Hannah thoroughly enjoyed being Post Master at the Children's Museum.

It's always fun watching your team win their game ...And even more so when your cousins can be there with you! :o)

Finally, we enjoyed a long but lovely detour on the Virginia Skyway as we headed home.

And that's ten.

Just enough for tonight.

I am a mommy.

I am a mommy.

A mommy with three wonderfully busy, curious, creative children ...

One of whom is learning to walk ...

And interested in investigating his world ...
And has two older siblings who like creating things ...
Analyzing things ...


Discovering geography with Toby's water ...

("I made the United States, Mommy!!")



Creatively cleaning ...



Making music ...



and flip-flops ...Building "a machine that goes into the woods and kills bad animals and turns them into food" ...or an indoor tent with Daddy ... Reading ...

Learning ...

to write his name!

Designing houses ...Cutting complex shapes ...

and are growing up way too fast!

In the midst of the "ordinary" activities, we've enjoyed fun "summer" activities, like biking ...

Moving dirt ...

and getting wet ...

And then, yes, the little guy again ...

the one with the super sweet personality with a grin to match ... who claps whenever he's excited ...still loves balloons ...

wants to do whatever big brother and sister are doing ...

or be wherever they are ...

and really likes my pantry cupboard.

Yep.

He's the one. :o)

I am a mommy.

And presently in a very busy season of life and enjoying (most) every moment of it.
(Or trying to anyway!)

So, if you wondered if I dropped off the planet, I didn't.

We did drop out of state for a wonderful family vacation which I shall share more about later, but mostly,

I've just been busy enjoying being a mommy.

:o)

This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Ps. 118:24

And my favorite passage as morning dawns ...

"Be blessed with children ...
as thy days, so shall thy strength be."
Deut. 33:24-25

A Big Little Bundle of Love!

We could not possibly be more excited than we are to welcome Uncle Bryan and Aunt Janie's little girl ...

Kathryn Ruth

Born June 21, 2011 at 9:22 a.m.

10 lbs. 4 oz.
22 in.

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.
Psalm 127:3

Praising the Lord for this newest gift.

Our hearts are bursting with love for you little Kate!

Happy Fathers' Day!

Happy Fathers' Day

to
our Daddy,
our Grandpas,
and our Great Grandpas!

We love you, and are so thankful for each one of you!
(And many thanks to Grandma H. for the matching shirts!)

This Moment ~ Vroom!

Matthew discovered remote controlled cars this week ...

And was quite captivated. :o)

Thrifty Thursdays ~ Planning to Save

Saving money at the grocery store takes some planning. (And honestly, the planning is MUCH more important than the coupons.)

1. Plan your menu for the week (or two weeks ... or however long you go between shopping trips.)


2. Identify the ingredients you need to serve the meals you've planned. (Don't forget about breakfast, lunch, and snacks as well.)


3. Check your cupboards to see what you already have in stock.


4. Make a list of the ingredients you need to purchase. (It'll be easier if you at least roughly sort it by section of the store.)


5. Buy the ingredients on your list, your whole list, and nothing but your list at the store that has the lowest prices across the board (... for me, that's Aldi).

If you have not been doing these things already, they are the first steps to reducing your grocery budget.

Once you have those down, start checking the weekly sales at one grocery store. My favorite store is Publix. Why? They're coupon friendly, run great sales, keep the store impeccably clean, and have incredible customer service. Their motto is "Love to Shop Here, Love to Save Here" and they've managed to make it true! We have two other stores in the area, but one is not coupon friendly and the other does not seem particularly clean, and neither of them can touch Publix's customer service, so I generally just stear clear (unless they're selling chicken for $2/lb or something like that.)

SouthernSavers.com is an incredible resource for those in the southeast. Each week she matches store sales with the coupons currently available (including links for printable coupons) and posts a list of the "best price" deals at each store. You can click on the products you want to buy and print a shopping list. It's great! (And easy!) Pull the coupons you need from your organized collection based on the list you printed, put them in an envelope or something else small, and head to the store.

When I see products in the Publix sales flier for less than I would spend at Aldi for the comparable product, I plan to buy as many as we'll use in about 2 months. By doing this, my pantry is well stocked with the ingredients I need to feed my family our standard recipes (i.e. pasta, rice, spaghetti/alfredo sauce, baking supplies, canned tomatoes, canned/frozen veggies, chicken, mayonnaise, peanut butter, olive oil, salad dressings, cereal, M&Ms, etc.) On a weekly basis, I generally buy dairy products, produce, a very few recipe-specific ingredients, and then whatever items happen to be at stock-up price. (Among other things, this week I stocked up on olive oil and spaghetti sauce, last week it was cereal--both weeks I spent about the same amount for produce and pantry items at Publix.)

One final word about Aldi vs. Publix. Aldi's prices are generally about 40-60% less than Publix's prices for comparable products. Which means that if Publix is running a B1G1 sale, it will probably be about the same as Aldi's price on the comparable item. When you add a coupon on top of the sale, it's almost always cheaper than Aldi. So, I buy produce and shop the sales at Publix (along with buying whatever ingredients Aldi doesn't carry.) But shopping at Aldi is already about equivalent to saving 40-60% on my Publix grocery bill.

So, collect your coupons and keep them organized, but planning and shopping at frugal stores in the first place will take you a long way to cutting the grocery bill.

How have you saved money on groceries?

An Excellent Use for Milk Chocolate

In my opinion, it doesn't take much willpower to leave Hershey's milk chocolate bars on the shelf.

However, melted into a smore? Now that's another matter entirely!

Mmmmm!

I do enjoy smores! :o)

(And I'm glad my munchkins and hubby do, too!)