Free christmas cards!!

www.freebies4mom.com has a link to fuji films they are giving away 50 free photo cards. Her site list the promo and details for the offer. However the offer expires this SATURDAY! Please make note of this, because the date has changed.

I was so excited, and a little worried that for some reason this would not work, however I got on line, designed my christmas card, uploaded my photos, and ordered- I input the promo code and up came my total- free!!!!

I received an email from the website the very next day! Letting me know that my cards had been printed and have been shipped- they have not arrived yet, but the should some time later this week. If you have not taken advantage of this deal you should before it is gone!

couponing

I love to save money.....especially on those items that you have to buy and are disposable ..like food. However at times I get busy and lazy and forget to do the coupon dance, of cutting, filing, and searching. However I have recently found a new way of couponing (as I like to call it). Thanks to my friend Jayna she told me about this blog www.moneysavingmom.com.

Wow! I probably am the last person to find this blog, but if you have not heard of it, GO THERE!!! It matches up coupons and sales each week for Walgreens, CVS, Target, and tells you "print here" or what "date" (key part here) that the coupon was in the Sunday paper. So no more cutting and filing by alphabetically order -killing yourself and zapping your time. You just write Sunday Nov 15th and drop those coupons from the Sunday paper and when you need to find a coupon you just look behind the date in the file. Simple! and such a time saver!!!!! As well as money saving!

Money saving mom's blog also list other great deals found on the web so you do not have to spend your computer time searching.

I have found a few other great money saving blogs: www.couponingtodisney.blogspot.com
http://savingcentstogether.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy, and save time while saving money!

time management.....help mom advice needed

Crafting, decorating, couponing, reading, dancing, exercising, facebooking, blogging,cooking, bible study,...these are a few of my favorite things. However I have learned that even though all my children are in school full time, I still only have so much time for me. As a stay at home mom I still need to do the laundry, make the meals, do the dishes and bless my family by having a clean home for them to come home to. There fore I am learning time management. I can do all things that I enjoy but I have to make time for them, and learn how to balance them. That can be tricky!!! So I am turning to all the moms that I respect at in blog land and I am asking how do you do it?

How do you other moms in blog land schedule or manage your time where you have a balance life and still make time to do the little extras you enjoy???? I would love any tips that you have- I feel I can do several things well, but not all at the same time. Help......!!!!!! Please share any advice or tips you have.

Friends - Celebrating with one another!

You know I love my family, and my friends! I currently live in a small town where a group of us mom's have gotten together and made a "mom group". The only requirement of belonging is that you have a child attending the school in our small town. Well you can guess how very different we all are then!!! Some of us are nurses, stay at home mom's, some had a child graduate from High school this last year, two of us are currently pregnant, some are stay at home mom's, some are neat freaks, some don't know how to pronounce let alone use that contraption called an "Iron". However we all celebrate with each other all the small things, big things, I had to post a few pictures of us girls on a late night raid "decorating" a girlfriends yard who was turning 40! Woo Hoo!!! She is 18 with 22 years experience!!!

So here are some of my partners in crime -as we decorate trees with crepe paper in our friends favorite color "red"
We use our craftiness and lovingly "decorate" the yards of all our Young friends when the celebrate "milestone" birthdays such as 20, or if any of us every reach the age of 30/40 (don't you love living in the land of denial, if you have not tried it -you really should!)

To Modge Podging and beyond!!!

I warned all of you girls that I have gone off the deep end when it came to Modge Podging. Well while redoing my middle daughter's bedroom, she has built in bookcases that frame her bed. They were white! Yes, that bland color that any funky 9 year is not impressed with. So what is a mom to do...

Well this tight wad mom was at Target and found some wrapping paper on clearance for $1.84 a roll. So I bought 2 rolls and came home cleared off her shelves, and started to modge podge the wrapping paper on. It is not perfect- the paper is too thin to lift and smooth - but I liked the funkiness of the imperfection as it covered. Once dried I went back over the wrapping paper modge podged shelves with Varnish - I put 2 coats of clear varnish on. Now these book shelves are an original -just like my daughter, Paige! (Below is a picture of the bookshelves from a distance-sorry that you can not see the print as well as in the picture above)

I'm back to Modge Podging!

I know my family wishes that I had never found this amazing stuff!!! I simply can not decorate any area in my house without whipping out a jar of Modge Podge. (Between you and me I have started to water down Elmer's glue with a little water, and add a little varnish and off I go!)

The dresser from my middle daughter's room- had no "Personality" so I had to do something about it! After all my middle daughter had been paying attention while I madeover her sister's room in Zebra (see older post). So I started with a plain white dresser (see picture at bottom of post) I painted the top and sides of all the drawers and dresser "Hot Pink!" Well if that does not have personality I'm not sure what does.
Then I modge podged my beach fabric onto the dresser drawer fronts. I had read somewhere to fuse them to wonder under before modge poding. I so So wish that I had not done that step!!! It made it harder to modge podge!!! (The desk was much easier to do because I skipped this step) I just trimmed the fabric and modge podged on. Then added the dresser drawer knobs of my choice.
The middle daughter loves her "new" coordinated furniture! I ofcourse love the price (fabric $15.00 sheet from Target, Dresser drawer knobs $9.99 Target, self made modge podge from Elmer's glue that I bought during back to school shopping for .20 cents a bottle - I used 2 bottles, with some left over. So total price to coordinate a desk, a dresser, and a tv stand $26.00) Now that is my kinda of decorating.

What is better than a good time with friends?

I love an evening with good friends it really does not matter to me what we do- meet for dinner at a restaurant, meet for a chick flick movie, or spend the evening at one of my dear friends house. I think I just enjoy the connection of spending time, laughing and trading stories with dear friends who in some cases are similar to me, and in other ways very different from me. I have laughed so hard, I have cried, at other times as good friend have shared a struggle or something deeply sad -but a friendship is forged.

The only thing that I enjoy more than an evening with friends is a reminder of the evening such as a "party favor". Party favors are not necessary, but isn't it fun to see an item, or use an item given to you and reflect back on the good time you shared! My very favorite "party favor" is from Amy over at "Simply Amy"
She made each of us "Mom's" a Cd, with fun songs from SheDaisy "God bless the American housewife" to some fun songs from some movie we had seen together. Amy labeled all the CD with a cute cover and saying: "A good friend is better than therapy!" (Can I get an Amen!)

I went home listening to the CD thinking about all my good girlfriends, I have since then added it to my Ipod, and every time I play that play list I reminded how blessed my life really is!!!

oldest daughter starts middle school - say what?

Well I have been off the grid lately (for about 2 weeks, I had to have last minute fun with the girls before school started, get 3 girls ready to start school, and then get caught up on everything I had put off - sorry! I am back!)

Well my oldest daughter Kaylee started Middle school last week - ahhh!!!! I don't know how this happened. I honestly don't. It seems like it was just yesterday that Hubby and me marveled at this amazing creature that God had brought into this earth and were scared to death that we were responsible for raising this precious bundle of joy. Well I guess a lot has happened in the last 11 years, the problem is that I still feel very young. So let's stay in the land of denial. Ok. Now that we have all agreed on this. Kaylee went to school, and came home with a homework assignment for moi'. Yes, you heard right I have homework. I am to write about my precious oldest daughter (did I mention that she started middle school) ok with just a little bit of attitude. So I thought that would be a perfect blog back. So thank you for indulging me.

Kaylee is my oldest daughter of 3 girls. Kaylee is at times a classic first born, she is a perfectionist, an over achiever (we shall see if this trend continues thru adolescence), organized, responsible, and believe it or not after all those down to earth qualities she is a dancer, a good creative writer, and an amazing cook.

Kaylee loves to cook, and to try new food. Kaylee and I recently watched the movie Julie/Julia she was fascinated about cooking schools, and Julia Child's having a cooking show. It is funny to try to describe how Big Julia Child's really was to someone who is growing up with the food network, and such stars as Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, and other fab. chefs that are household names.

Kaylee is a typical (I think) tween- her friends are becoming a much more important part of her life. Kaylee can text at amazing speed, she has a facebook page. Kaylee loves middle school life. The variety of kids in each class is fun, and she loves having an assortment of different teachers who all teach in different ways with different personalities.

Our family stresses the importance of education. Kaylee so far has pushed herself to succeed, Kaylee's personality seems to be challenged by competition. I would go as far as to say she thrives in competitive setting to challenge herself. I however do worry that at times she is to hard on herself. I think at times this is a side effect of her being such a perfectionist. I remember when she was in kindergarten I had to buy 2 boxes of valentine's day card so that she could perfectly center her name, and the receiver's name on each card. (I really did try to tell her "it's ok, it does not have to be perfect" but laid back is not a word I would use to describe this amazing girl)

Kaylee can usually tell you who sang any song that she is familiar with. Kaylee also is one of the youngest in her grade, her birthday is August 17th. So Kaylee turns what age everybody else is the week school starts. (some kids we have found are 2 years older than Kaylee if they had a growth year) Kaylee is somewhat short or tiny for her age. My mother is 5 feet, and Kaylee takes after her in a lot of ways. However my father is 6'3" and her sisters take after him. So Kaylee and our 3rd grade daughter are almost the same size.

I think she is a wonderful girl! I love being around her, and hearing her views of life. I am so excited to see her grow and mature in wisdom and beauty this year. Kaylee is our first born, so in a lot of ways we are learning how to be parents with her. So far she does not seem worse for wear. However we are probably more strict, and less lenient than some of her friends parents. However a lot of her friends are the baby in their family and she is our oldest, and we are still learning.

I hope you enjoy having Kaylee in your class this year! I also hope this has helped you get to know her, or at least understand how we see our daughter.