A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family

My friend Mary over at OwlHaven is doing a giveaway of her new book: A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family.  I'm sure it's awesome.  Mary has ten children (six of them adopted) and her passion for her kids shines through her blog.  As the oldest of ten children, I am really interested to see the ideas she has in her book.  I am hoping someday she will come to our side of the country and visit our church - Mary would feel RIGHT at home :)

Check it out!

A Bear of Very Little Brain

Winnie the Pooh.  My son (and I) love Pooh.  The old classic cartoons and the book are just wonderful.  I love the unique, memorable characters and the situations they get themselves into.

For his second birthday Will got a snuggly Pooh blanket and giant plush Pooh from Nana.

Winnie the Pooh is so much fun - how could anyone NOT like him?

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.  "So it is."  "And freezing."  "Is it?"  "Yes," said Eeyore.  "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

~ A.A.Milne

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you."

 ~ A.A.Milne

Join in the fun of Things I Love Thursday over at the Diaper Diaries!

Unexpected Find

Tonight I was making homemade pizza for dinner.  I was scooping out the flour when I noticed something blue in my flour container.  This is what I fished out:

You just never know what (or where!) you'll discover next when you have kids :)

Coupon Organization

  Okay, so I know other people have posted on this same topic, but it's such a vital tip for me that I thought I'd stress the point once again.  Coupons.  They. Are. Worth. It.

I am not an organized person.  I try to be.  Really I do.  But it's just not a natural thing for me.  My mom is the opposite.  She is naturally very organized and planned out.  I want to be more like my mom :)

When I started doing coupons, I was a mess.  In my typical non-organized fashion I would get the occasional printed/in the mail coupon and stick it in a drawer somewhere to be forgotten until after it expired.  After I started seeing how my mom was saving SO much money by using coupons (and having FUN doing it too), I decided I really needed to figure out this whole coupon thing.  So I signed up for our local (biased rag) paper and began receiving LOTS of coupons.  I put them all in a bag, took them to my mother's house and said, "how do I organize these?"  She showed me how she

 keeps a shoebox with categories and just puts the coupon in the correct category.  So I tried

 that.  But there was a problem.  My mom does not usually go shopping with small children.  I do.  I decided I needed a different system after the 3rd or 4th time my box of coupons got dumped (not totally my kids' fault, I dumped it accidentally too).  Do you know how stupid I probably looked grabbing at my own personal confetti shower while trying to keep my kids entertained/contained?

So I started looking around online to see how other people keep themselves organized.  This is what I finally decided on:

As you can see, I got a three-ring binder and a BUNCH of sport card pages (from ebay 4 cheap :-)  I can have all my store cards in the front, along with a pouch for a pad of paper, scissors, pens, calculator, receipts, pacifiers that have fallen on the floor, etc.  Then, when I shop, I just flip to the right category and can see all my coupons clearly laid out.  If I have more than one of the same coupon, they all go into the same pocket.  The pocket in the front of the binder works perfectly for store flyers.  Plus, it doesn't take long for me to clip/file coupons this way!  Bliss!  It saves me time & has already been dropped several times without losing anything out of it.  It took a couple of hours for me to set it up, but now that I have it - it is WONDERFUL!  A coupon binder works great for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips/tricks, head over to We Are That Family.

Sunday Shout Outs

Sunday Shout Outs from my browsing this week:

Jessica asked me this week where I get all my coupons.  For that I must send you to the expert :)

Money Saving Mom - she explains several different strategies for accumulating coupons.

Once you get a nice stash of coupons, you'll want to organize them.  I'll have a post coming up this week on that topic...stay tuned!

I am still hanging onto extra pounds, but have trouble with diets/regular exercise.  I totally LOVED this idea of Losing Weight By Sleeping (found thanks to Rocks in My Dryer).  I read it to my husband and he agreed to try it with me.  So...we will be trying to get to bed at 9pm (*gasp*) every evening.  I'll let you know how it goes :p

Rocks in My Dryer also highlighted Jelly Telly this week.  Started by Phil Vischer the creator of Veggie Tales, Jelly Telly is another way of reaching kids with "Sunday morning values, Saturday morning fun!"

Oh, and going back to coupons again, here are a couple of the blogs I use to stay updated on deals:

Mommy Making Money is local to my area which is really nice deal-wise

Southern Savers is probably of even more use to Jessica than me, since she lives south of me :)

For all you who have noticed the time - my "sleep diet" starts tomorrow, so I don't have to feel guilty about staying up late until then :)  G'night!