Easter news and pics

On Good Friday, after much debate with myself, I decided to ditch my somewhat sick kids and off-for-the-day husband in the afternoon and attended a 20 year college chorale reunion which involved a short rehearsal, dinner together, singing as a reunion choir for the last Bible Conference service, and a reception. Brian's mom came to watch the kids so that Brian could join me for the reception and it also happened to be my 10 year college reunion that night too, so we popped in on that as well. I'm so glad that I went to the chorale reunion. Being in that choir was my favorite part of college, and I love the director. He is a wonderful choral conductor and kind, personable teacher. It was so nice to see and talk with him again.

First thing Easter morning, Ethan created a couple of dioramas - I love this one!

Isn't Mom's Easter table pretty?

Brian and his grandma

The artist as one can usually find him

They missed the Saturday egg hunt, because, despite the cute pics, they were feeling really crummy.

So even thought I'd planned on skipping the Easter afternoon egg hunt, they begged for it.

So I swiped a dozen eggs from Gran and the candy from their favors and hid them - they were quite pleased!

Rosie got swapped out in Photoshop by my brilliant husband, and I think that it turned out rather well.

Our day-after-Easter-50% off- baskets and bunnies. It really was a great concept, but those toys redefined cheap. Ethan couldn't even use his - they have to be returned, and the others aren't far behind. I think we'll skip Walmart and see if K-Mart or Target have better quality next year.

Of Deals and Discouragement...and Hope

The Lord poured out blessings in my shopping this week.

It began on Thursday night when we passed by Steve and Barry's, a store I'd never noticed (it was near the mall, and I avoid the mall) to find that everything in the store was on sale for $8.95! I got a great denim jacket, a pair of pants, and camouflage pants for Ethan.

On Friday, I was reading Money Saving Mom, and realized that a reader she linked to lived near me. She mentioned a store that I shop at, and said that they had a sidewalk sale every few weeks where you could fill a banana box with groceries for $6. I had no idea. I go there once or twice a month for meat and produce deals.

Then, without my having mentioned all of this, Brian came home from a friend's house Friday night telling me about the same sale, and that they were having one tomorrow! Well, I'm not as dense as I look, so I picked up on the fact that I'd better plan to be there bright and early. Here is what I got for just $12 (two banana boxes):

This stash includes 13 boxes of organic cereal and granola, most of which are gluten free, 5 bags of gluten free pancake mix (those are about $4.50 a piece usually), gluten free bread mix, 3 cartons of chai tea base, 4 boxes of oatmeal, and a ton more.

I'd seen a yard sale on the way to the grocery store, so I stopped on the way back. Here's what I found:

For the past two summers, my children have begged me to get an ice cream maker. This one had only been used once or twice and had the instructions. The stoneware set was unused. The four lighthouse ornaments have price tags on them of $7.99 each, Don't you think the backpacks' cute? Ethan's been wanting a snake like that for a long time, I 've been picking up Magnetix and any other building sets wherever I find them, and this is how I have a large video library that my family and friends enjoy. Total cost? $13.

I was on a roll and decided that this was definitely the day to hit the thrift store that is only open on Thursday and Saturday mornings. They only take cash, and I walked in their door with $8 left in my pocket...to find a sign saying that it was $5/bag day for clothes and shoes. Unreal. Here's what $5 bought:

Ethan needed the most, and certainly got the most with four pairs of pants, 5 shirts, and a sweater, some for now, and some for next year. The rest is girl clothes, with the exception of the cute shoes. They're mine. I've been kind of a mess in the shoe department this year. I rarely spend more than $15 on a pair of shoes, and virtually never buy more than a pair or two a season. I'd found a pair of brown flats this fall, but my black shoes were a couple of years old, so these are perfect. Especially for my jeans that are a bit too long. :^)

Back on the homefront, Brian's been miserable for weeks. A lot of pain and extreme fatigue. He did so well in November, but that's long gone. It gets discouraging, not knowing what makes him go from better to awful again. Today was a rough day for him, and for the children that want to play with him, and for a wife that feels helpless and in the dark as to why this is happening to our lives.

But all I have to do is look at what He just provided for us today, and see the little details God brought together for me to be in all these places at just the right times, and it's obvious that He is in control of and "working together" things so small that we sometimes miss Him. I think that we often feel Him far away when He is, indeed, very near.

Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,because His compassions fail
not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “ The LORD is my
portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” The LORD is good to those who
wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and
wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

This is where I'm at tonight. Clinging to the goodness of God.

God is good all the time.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Some stuff I've been wondering:

1. Is there any intelligent possibility that a pro-war Republican candidate can win the general election when 65% of Americans oppose the war?
2. For that matter, does anyone really believe that even if we did stay John McCain's one hundred years, we would turn Iraq into a peaceful democracy?
3. Will I ever be able to learn to do Crystal's crazy-wonderful CVS deals so that I can get half my groceries for free? What I really wonder is how does it not take her all day long to figure this stuff out???
4. What will it take for homeschoolers and Christians in general to get off the Huckabee bandwagon? I'm sorry if he's your guy, but he bothers me. He bothers Spunky Homeschool, Mary Pride, and David Thompson too.
5. What is going to have to happen to our economy before Americans stop trusting the government for everything and demand real change?
6. Why did that mouse that just got caught in my trap have to still be alive and squeaking?
7. Why does God love me so much that he gave me a very brave and kind neighbor that is willing to rescue me from half-dead mice?

Just wondering...

Budget American Girl fun

Okay, I seem to be on a roll here so why stop? This might make a good stocking stuffer, or just a fun project. I've loved American Girl dolls since they started. Last year, we read the Felicity series together after my kids watched the movie and loved it. Then we read the Kirsten series. Last night we finally saw the Samantha movie and loved that too. We initially made paper dolls of Felicity and Elisabeth for Anna Kate to use with out toy horse collection, and we've added to them. Just mount the pictures of the dolls you like on thin cardbaord, such as a cereal box, cut them out , then laminate them. They are played with often at our house!

these are just a few - the others, having been played with recently, are scattered.

Simple Toddler gift

My mother made this photo album picture book for Anna Kate last year. Anna liked it, but Rose loves it, then and now. There are favorite characters from Disney princesses to Nick Jr. pals, foods, animals, letters - anything likely to peak a toddlers interest is game. She used a stack of old Family Fun magazines.

Budget Christmas gifts

So many people sweat out how they are going to pay for gifts for so many members of their family. I'm thankful that my extended family does not go way overboard for gifts. I'm sure there are plenty of you all that spend less, but, in general we spend $25-50 for each kid, $10-25 on each other (Brian and I), $15-20 on each of our parents, about $5-10 for each grandparent, and as close to $5 as possible for my six siblings and their spouses (Brian is an only child). This calls for creativity to find things on sale, used (which no one in my family minds), homemade, or just something new and different. This year at Thanksgiving I got one sister a Christmas nightshirt at Walmart, which she gleefully began wearing right away, and the other a pair of the cutest Christmas slippers. Sisters are easy - I just buy them whatever I wish I were buying for myself - but it's even more fun to get it for them (they're the best!). My brothers will be getting some great books from Amazon's "used and new" sellers. You can often get great books in new or like new condition for a dollar or two plus $4 shipping. This year I got my two grandmothers and Brian's great aunt a Gl*de flameless candle. Something none of them would likely buy for themselves, but a great gift for them. I got several of the Gl*de light show fresheners with coupons and rebates last year. Good gifts for kids, teens, or someone in the hospital. And before I had a chance to post this, I ran across Crystal's post telling you how to get a great deal on the Gl*de Flameless Starter Kits at Target this week.

On another note, you can often be rescued from expensive gift exchanges outside of your family by suggesting a white elephant exchange. Everyone else will be relieved too.

Date Night and Best Buy Rewards

Thursdays are our date night. I have an angelic mother in law that not only watches my kids that night, but also keeps them overnight and even does schoolwork with them ( and loves it all).

With Brian feeling better lately, we've been doing more again instead of just renting a DVD and crashing at home. Last night was great! We had a $25 gift card to Chili's from my mother, so after ordering two drinks (splurge), two salads, and splitting an entree consisting of two half racks of baby back ribs (yum) and two sides of mashed potatoes, we came out paying only about $2 for our food and a $6 tip. Then...I had a Best Buy rewards coupon good for $5-5000. We were nearby, so we figured it could be fun finding out what we could get with just $5 (which is, of course, what it turned out to be worth). Now I know. Magnetic photo frames. Or maybe a couple of batteries. But then genius struck and we headed for the candy at the front. And with our reward cash we scored a bag of Ghirardelli assorted chocolate squares and a Cherry Coke. Free chocolate. I love Best Buy!

We ended our date wwith a 20 minute stroll around the mall to see the decorations (Brian's idea). Neither of us could remember the last time we'd been to the mall. I remember being there a year ago... Anyway, it's really beautiful - they've remodeled. And....we got his mom's Christmas present. Splurged a bit from our eensy weensy budget, but she's gonna love it.



And I'm still lovin' the chocolate.

Never underestimate the power of the dollar store

Some Christmas treasures from the Dollar Tree where everything's a dollar :

1. A set of five tools - a hammer, phillips and regular screwdriver, pliers, wrench, and hammer to replace the plastic tools in Ethan's toolbox, so he can really help Dad - $4
2. A few "decorate it yourself" travel coffee mugs. One for Pa maybe, and Daddy, and one to surprise Ethan with his own. My kids all love coffee. Even the two year old.
3. "build a bear" size outfits
4. 2 plastic mermaids to replace the broken ones in the under the sea castle playset that Rosie loves - $1
5. 12 inch doll outfits
6. dress up accessories such as Ninja weapons and a pirate set with earring, hook glove, and patch, for the stocking (they take up lots of space for the money!)
7. glow bracelets in red and green for Christmas travel or evening parades - glow bracelets can save your life when you're travelling at night, but before bedtime.
8. Christmas tights
9. a "learn-to-make balloon shapes"kit with a mini pump, long balloons, and instructions for several things - $1
10. A set of Santa's-sleigh-size jingle bells for Polar Express ornaments - $1
11. paint-your-own ornaments craft sets
12. a miniature silver tree, 20 colored lights (yes, from China, got to go donate!), a mini garland and star, and twelve little colored drum ornaments - $4. The delight my children took in decorating it, plugging it in in the playroom, and giving a stout rendition of "O Christmas Tree" in the tradition of Charlie Brown - priceless. Oh, and the silver branches with the colored lights make it look like a rainbow tree. It really looks lovely - much better than expected.

Update: I know that most of us don't have a ton of extra money left over for donations, but donating $1 to VOM for a Christmas Care Pack to China per string of Christmas lights you buy is really quite painless ( I just did it for the lights I bought yesterday) - and you may be helping the family of a Christian prisoner that made those very lights! Go here and donate now!!

I love Goodwill

We had errands to run today. To a book warehouse out in in the middle of nowhere for Ethan's first grade math books and to the dump to properly dispose of the old computor monitor. But to get there we had to go past the Goodwill nearest to a rather well to do population. I'd yet to find my Easter dress. I was out last night and finally found a store that had several I liked, but they were $35-40 each! Way too much in my tightwad book. SO - I decided to give Goodwill a try. For the $35 I would have spent on one dress, I got my Easter dress (on the left) as well as three everyday dresses AND 6 videos.

Sometimes you just have to get your money back!

Okay, nothing happened to me today, but I was inspired by Mary's post. Since I consider myself to be pretty good at this (and humble too), I thought I'd share.

I'm the one my friends and family know can talk people into giving me my money back for stuff. I really think that most people just don't try. But money doesn't grow on trees, and I refuse to be burnt by someone's bad products or service. On the other hand, I'm also far more likely than most people I know to go out of my way to thank people for good products or service. It's just good business. The business of running a home.

For example, a part went out on my dryer one month after the warranty expired, and I was nine months pregnant. They wanted to tell me that this was just too bad, but they were not going to get off that easily. Through eliminiation (dryers really don't have that many parts), it was obvious that a major part had gone bad. A part that, by their own admission, should not have gone bad for around ten years. Simple deduction: the part was defective. And they thought that I should be responsible for paying their technician for a new part to be installed. I DON"T THINK SO. Just because it didn't break a month ago, didn't mean it wasn't bad. What if I had had six kids already? It surely would have given up within that year then, right? Eventually I paid a $40 service fee and they covered the rest and gave me an additional 1 year warranty. The dryer's been great ever since. And do you know what? I would buy their dryer again next time now.

Toys are another big area in which you can lose a lot of money. My son took his birthday money and bought two similar toys at $15 a piece. He was thrilled with them. Until the first one broke and the second one wouldn't stay together one week later. I probably could have returned them to Walmart, but I hate to do that when it's not Walmart's fault. I have found that most major toy companies aim to please, and Hasbro absolutely outdid themselves. They sent me a prepaid label to ship them back for evaluation, asked if I would like to have them replaced with the same thing or something of equal value, and actually told me that I could write the item numbers for substitute choices on the return slip. It ended up that we wrote several items down with a note that this one particular Star Wars toy was what he had really wanted for his birthday, but it was completely sold out even before Christmas (his birthday is at the beginning of January). I mean this toy was gone from the market except fot a few collectors sites that had it for $200 instead of the original $30. Well, we got a package back from them expecting Hungry, Hungry Hippos, but it was instead, you guessed it - the Millenium Falcon!

Even bills can be helped by a polite conversation with a customer service rep. I always pay our credit card in full, but one month, I got online a day (really just a couple of hours) late. I was sick to my stomach. Late fee, interest.... I had nothing to lose. And the customer service lady just adjusted the date for me as sweetly as could be, and I was fine again.

So don't just give up on stuff. You can be polite, but persistent. Here are some tips. Some I've learned on my own, some from my brother (who actually goes way beyond what I would ever ask for, but has me laughing hysterically and scolding him at the same time. And he does get what he asks for).

1. Ask for the person's name, write it down for future reference, and call the person by name when you're talking to them. If you are getting a serious run around (like the five month run around my mother-in-law got from a furniture company whose furniture she had under extended warranty, but they wouldn't replace) you can let the person know that you will let the next guy up know if they were helpful or not.
2. Work your way up. There are a lot of things a customer service rep "just can't do" for you, but her manger or his manager most certainly can.
3. Always be calm and polite. You can get a lot farther by kindly explaining that you need their help than you do by issuing threats. (Although, my brother once actually threatened to take out newspaper ads in the company's home town, and swears it was effective - but I wouldn't recommend it! :^)
4. Don't assume that it's too late. If you feel that you've gotten a bad product, most companies will work with you. They want to keep their good name and your business. Try saying, "isn't it your goal to have satisfied customers? (yes) I am not a satisfied customer!" I had an infant toy that was used with Ethan for about a month or two, then packed away for two years until Anna Kate was ready to use it. But it would no longer keep it's shape and hold the little toys up; I was going to have to replace it. I decided to give Fisher Price a call (they are the best company to work with!). They couldn't replace it fully, but they did prorate it, which gave me back around 70% of what I paid - and I bought another Fisher Price toy.
5. Don't forget to call about the good things too. I often call food companies, in particular, to thank them for a great product. They sometimes just stutter in shock and amazement, but sometimes they actually send me coupons or sign me up for a newletter. And I'll hold a long time just to let someone's superior know that they really went out of their way to help me out, even after someone else had told me that they couldn't do anything.

Frugal Friday Double

Okay, two Christmas tricks for all of my frugal friends.

First, I discovered a few years ago that a round, plastic, felt bottom tablecloth makes a great tree skirt. If you have an open floor plan, you can match it to your tablecloth, and if you change your color scheme, you can find a very inexpensive replacement. Simply cut a line to the middle and wrap around the tree, no sewing required. It can be wiped clean and pine needles will be a snap to clean up.

The second I discovered this year. Our artificial Christmas tree warped where the screws go in and we had to replace it. I hate to throw away anything that could prove useful, and I quickly realized that I could use the branches as greenery anywhere that the metal ends could be hidden. And I stuck the top part (a perfect mini tree) in a planter and strung it with lights outside.

For more tips head to Biblical Womanhood.

The best place to shop for Christmas toys...

is our local thrift store. On Friday I got a nearly new fisher price dollhouse for $.50, a boy's bike for $7.50, a huge Rescue Heroes plane in perfect condition for $.50, a bunch of new Christian books, some pillows for the play corner I'm making for the girls for Christmas, and more! My second run on Saturday produced a working Little Touch Leappad for $.50 and a beautiful Moses basket complete with yellow gingham bedding for $8 (future baby shower gift- usually $70-100). I'm on a roll--gotta go back today.

Ramblings of a Guilty Mind

I've just set a new record for spending money on clothes in one day.

And it blows my mind.

Because I'm pretty much a tightwad. I like to get really cute clothes - at the Salvation army - for $3. But the situation was getting desperate. You know the drill. You have a baby and you think, "this will get better, I'll lose more weight soon, I don't want to spend money on clothes that won't fit next year..." But next year is here. And, unfortunately, they would have fit after all.

But Walmart had nothing. And Burlington Coat Factory had nothing. And the thrift stores I used to find things at aren't open in the evenings for child-free-hours-in-the-dressing-room-to-find-one-thing-that-fits.

So I had a closet of a few mostly fits, several almost fits, and a couple of actually fits and looks nice. But all of those were in the laundry. And it was Sunday morning. And that's when the straw broke the camel's back.

After some desperate searching and trying on of outfits, I said to Brian, "if you can find anything to match either of these two remaining tops in my closet, I'll be going to church, otherwise... " Well, he found the same outfit I'd had on a few minutes ago. The sweater I've had since high school (or was it junior high) and a very nice khaki skirt that was given to me and makes me look like a whale. A combination I usually wouldn't want to go out of the house in. (Do I sound as shallow, as I think I do?) And then, of course, I didn't have any tights or shoes that went with it. So I went to church in 50 degree weather in a sweater, khaki skirt, and birkenstock-type sandals hoping I didn't look as bad as I thought I did.

So sweet Brian took me shopping, and encouraged me to keep buying things, and tried to take such complete responsibility for it that I wouldn't even feel guilty. But I do anyway. I told my mother that I thought maybe I shouldn't wash them yet, because surely I should return some of them.

She told me not to. She said that sometimes mothers have to actually buy clothes for themselves.

And I did get some great deals at T.J. Maxx and they were having a huge sale at J.C.Penney's (yes, I actually went to the mall, it was that bad).
The upside is I don't think I'll have another day (at least before spring) when I'll say "I don't have anything to wear." And thanks to all the basics that I found, I think I'll be able to redeem virtually all of the matchless orphans in my closet.

And I still feel like I should take something back. But it's too late. I've washed them.