Kapla Planks/Blocks

 In my last post I showed you that my son got the Kapla 200 Blocks Set for his birthday. I have to admit that we haven't had these long but the are amazing! (I didn't pay that much for them)

Everyone sat around the table for HOURS building. The Kapla 200 Blocks Set are extremely simple. they are basically pine planks from France, but they are weighted. Lots of science museums have them set out for kids/adults to build with. You can build extraordinary things due to how they are weighted.

 

Daddy building

The birthday boy building

My husband had to stop building this tower because he ran out of space at the ceiling. That in itself is amazing , but look at what all of that was supported by:

That's all! just those 4 little planks!

Honestly, how many things do you have around your home that can draw the attention of such a diverse age group? Even the 2 year olds got in on the action. The planks are $$$. We plan to buy sets of 200 at a time until we have 1,000. They are sold out right now on amazon, but the price should come down on amazon. I didn't pay $70.  

P.s. I do receive a small amount when you purchase something through one of my links to amazon. The amount is extremely minimal, and I would never recommend something that we didn't totally love.

Happy 5th Birthday Son!

 My son's 5th birthday was just a couple of days ago, and I can hardly believe that he is already 5! He asked for spaghetti for dinner, so I made spaghetti in my gorgeous new pot that I got for Christmas.

 Birthday prayer!

 Here he is opening his present from us (he'll get more presents at his party).

 Blowing out the candles. He asked for a confetti cake with the icing that has the rainbow sprinkles in it.

 Gotta lick the candles!

His present from Nana and Papa

C,

You are the most amazing boy that I know. Just like your physical strength astounds me so does the strength of your heart. I have never known someone to give so selflessly of themselves. This year for Christmas you gave your Snuggie (the animal you've had since you were born) to Andy as his present. It made me cry. It's your favorite thing in the world, but yet you gave it up without another thought because you wanted to make someone else happy. Your love for your sisters astonishes me. You take such care with them, and love to see them laugh. You bring so much joy to our home! You're the "funny kid". You're always making everyone around you laugh. You just love to see people smile.

Thank you God for the blessing of my son. I love you!

Around our home...

This is my idea of the perfect meal. : ) Everyone has those comfort foods that they love. Well, this is mine. Some fabulous chicken n' dumplins and a glass bottle coke. Yum. It doesn't get much better than that. This year I added something called better than boullion to my soup and it was so yummy. I've used the same recipe for years and it's always been delicous, but this took it up a notch. I've been eating leftovers for days now. : )

Here's a picture of some superheroes that have been wreaking havoc in the neighborhood:

12/23/10 Safeway

I didn't do any major stockpiling grocery shopping trips last week, but I did make a run to Safeway to spend some Catalinas that were about to expire. For those of you that don't know what Catalinas are they are coupons that print off at the register. The specific ones that I am referring to are coupons for a certain dollar amount to spend on your next shopping trip. Basically cash to spend at their store. They're pretty sweet. They do usually expire quickly, though. So, I went to Safeway to get a few things. Here's what I got:

This was $5.96 but I used a $4 catalina so I only paid $1.96 for everything above. The Wheat Thins were supposed to be free instead of $1 each but unfortunately sometimes things don't work the same way regionally here. $1 isn't bad, though. If I had gotten them for free everything that you see above would have been $0. I just would have had to have paid tax. $1.96 is good, though.

I wanted to share something else REALLY cool with you. Today, Krazy Coupon Lady had a really smokin' deal from Wal-Mart on their website. I purchase 2!!! of these:

And I only paid .44 each. Yep. That's 44 cents each. PLUS there was $8 worth of coupons in each one. This is the best deal that I've got since I started couponing. Here's how I purchased these for .44 each:

Wal-Mart marked these down to $4.44 each (originally $8.88 they are Christmas 1/2 off)

Then, I used a $4 off 1 coupon from the newspaper yesterday making them .44 each.

Each kit had a full size deodorant, a Gillette razor, body wash (big, but not sure if it's full size) cooling lotion, and coupons. Here's what all of the stuff looks like outside of the box:

This is definately the best deal I've gotten since I started coupons. I also started on my Christmas shopping for next year today. Yep. You read that right. I'm tired of paying outrageous prices for things when I wait until Christmas. So, I got my sis a sweet presents today for a smokin' deal! I'm not tellin' what it is. : )

Post #96 Post #100 will have a GIVEAWAY

Uhhhh....really?

So, the other day my son's cousin came for a visit. They were playing superheroes and disappeared to play downstairs. At one point in time the boys came upstairs asking for masks for their costumes. We didn't have any masks so I sent them back downstairs to play. After awhile I went downstairs to check on one of my other children and noticed the cousins playing behind the couch. Playing behind the couch didn't seem out of the ordinary to me with their pretending superheroes game they were playing. I thought nothing more of it ...until....  I asked them to come upstairs and they didn't want to....then...I was even more suspicous when the boys came upstairs wearing coverings over their heads. Yep. You betcha. Apparently, they had wanted masks so badly that they decided to makes them themselves..... scroll down to get the full affect.

They had also colored the INSIDES of their ears and their toenails. Don't ask me why they did their toenails. :) Boys will be boys. Won't they?

Albertsons 12-16-10

Here's what I purchased this week at Albertsons. I was planning on going back with my double Albertsons coupons for some really cheap cheese, but when I got home I realized someone had accidently thrown my double coupons away! :( I can't find them anywhere, so that's what must have happened to them. I'm still happy, though. I have TONS of pasta and aluminum foil now. I easily have enough pasta for 6 month-1year. I'm probably going to donate some of it, though.

Total before coupons, etc.: $92.48
Total after savings: $36.04
Plus, I got two catalinas for my next trip with: $4.50
My savings excluding the catalinas was: 61%

Not bad. Not bad at all. I still want to get my savings up to about 65%, but I'll get there. Unfortunately, I haven't been at this long enough to have all of the stuff that I need for meals stockpiled so I'm still having to pay full price for tons of stuff. Also, I don't have groceries purchased for my husband's birthday on Wed. or our Christmas meal on Fri. which means I'll be spending a rather large chunk of change this week on those meals.

P.S. This is post #94 post #100 will have a great GIVEAWAY! Don't miss it.

All About Spelling

I haven't posted about All About Spelling in quite awhile.If you aren't yet aware of the online community for AAS please take a visit now. It's really an awesome place to come and ask questions, share your thoughts, etc. If you are considering AAS and still have questions come on over and get your questions answered. Mary and other seasoned AAS users are available to answer all of your AAS questions.



We use both AAS and SWR. My oldest does more SWR and my son uses AAS mostly. He will probably learn to read with All About Reading. He's just much more tactile AND his fine motor is still lacking. Honestly, he just really isn't interested in writing right now, and I'm not going to push him.

A ton of people have been asking lately about how I use both SWR and AAS. I'm probably a horrible person to answer that question. Basically, for my oldest I use SWR but I use the AAS phonograms, AAS Readers, and the AAS tiles. :)

If you aren't yet aware of the online community for AAS please take a visit now. It's really an awesome place to come and ask questions, share your thoughts, etc. If you are considering AAS and still have questions come on over and get your questions answered. Mary and other seasoned AAS users are available to answer all of your AAS questions.
Here's a FAQ that includes the differences between SWR/AAS.


This is post #93. Post #100 will include a great GIVEAWAY!


P.S. I'm an AAS affilliate. I like to be upfront about those things, but please know that the amount made is very minimal, and I would NEVER suggest purchasing something that we didn't use and love.

GIVEAWAY coming!!!

I've decided to have my first GIVEAWAY here at Simple Stuff. This is my 92nd post, and for my 100th post I'll be posting a very cool GIVEAWAY!!! Not much longer to go. Stick around....

I heart containers....

I completely forgot to post this picture the other day when I did my post about stuff that is obviously not laundry being in the hamper. This is my new gorgeous container for my homemade laundry detergent. I love it. I love pretty containers. By the way, I'm still looooving my homemade laudry detergent. Not to mention loving the $ it saves me.

Safeway Grocery Trip 12/10/10

Here's a little update on my weekly grocery budget. I went grocery shopping today with my Sis... coupons in hand. I'm excited about how much I saved! Here's a picture of what I brought home:

I paid: $36.66
I saved: $53.00
Plus: $4.00 catalina for my next trip

That's a savings of 59% plus the catalina. I needed milk and it wasn't on sale, so that brings my savings percentage down a little bit. Not bad for my first real coupon trip, huh? I'm hoping to have my savings somewhere around 70% in the future.

Now, if I was able to save even 50% weekly and be able to cut our grocery budget by that same 50% that would be a huge savings over the course of a month. For us, that would be the equivalent of me taking on 1 daycare child full-time. It would bring in that much money for us. Isn't that awesome? Plus, it only takes me a couple of hours per week or less TOTAL including cutting coupons, researching, and the actual shopping trip.

How does this happen?

Seriously! It drives me crazy when I'm doing laundry and I find all sorts of things that are NOT laundry in the hamper. Look! This is all just from 1 load of laundry:

Grrrr.. Do your kids do this?



Haiti Nativity Scene

I wanted to share with you my favorite nativity scene that I have. A couple of years ago I started collecting nativity scences from other countries, so when my fabulous husband took a trip to Haiti in early 2010 he purchased this set below for me without me even suggesting it. It's stored in this bag:

When you take it out of the bag it's packed very well like this:

Each piece is wrapped in either corn husks or bananna leaves (not sure):

The pieces are made out of some sort of hard clay and hand painted:

Here's what it looks like all set up:

Don't you love it? What an awesome hubsband, huh?

I wanna show you something...

This is what happens when my children are turned loose and allowed to explore on their own. I love it when my children get bored enough to start creating, imagining, and discovering all on their own.

 This creating time quickly turned into a discussion about Sitting Bull. A couple of weeks ago we read a book about Sitting Bull, because my children are really into Native Americans. I was surprised in our discussion by how much they had retained from reading that book!

Another discussion that came up during this creative time was about blood and bones. My son was drawing blood and bones and was surprised to learn that our ears (outer) aren't bones, but cartilage. Science and history come easily with children when you allow them to follow their interests. And guess what? They remember what I tell them! Most of the time, anyways. :) Another successful day at school!

Eating from the Pantry

Money seems to be a little tight around our house lately. Not because we don't have any money, but because our family only has a certain amount to live on during the winter due to the nature of my husband's work (landscaping) and that money stockpile seems to be flying out the door or window or wherever it is that money flys out of. We are also in the middle of an unexpected bathroom remodel due to black mold and a wonderful leak. :) Let's not forget the holidays. We all know how money seems to disappear around the holidays.

So, I have decided to try to cut back my monthly grocery bill as much as possible. To begin that daunting task I have purchased 3 subscritions to the Sunday newspaper for $1 each. This will enable me to do some couponning. I'm also trying to clear out our pantry to have room for a stockpile. I'm also hoping to save some cash this week and next week from our grocery budget so that I can stock up on some of those great deals to save $ in the future.

I hope to keep this up for the whole month of December, but I already know that I am super low on meats and dairy. That means that is where the majority of my cash flow will go. Let's not forget all of those Christmas parties and baking days that come along with the Christmas season.

I hope to chronicle my grocery purchases here to get some idea of what I am spending weekly on groceries. I've never had a grocery budget before, so this is all new to me. Keep in mind I'm not trying to show you how much it would cost you, because you might not have on hand the items that I already own. I'm just trying to figure out how much I'm saving/spending. Here's where I'm at so far:

Dec. 1st-  Donuts from Papa- $0
                Beans in the crockpot with corbread- $0 everything in pantry
              
Dec. 2nd- Cereal for breakfast-$0
                Sandwiches for lunch- $0
                Beans leftover add in cajun seasoning and bacon $0

Dec. 3rd- Oatmeal, bagel/cream cheese $0
                Tomato soup, chicken noodle soup (can) and crackers $0
                Tonight we're having waffles from scratch and sausage that we have in the freezer $0

As good as it look to not have had to go to the store, yet, I'm sure that it's going to get much more difficult from here on out. We happened to have these things on hand, but there's not a whole lot left in there. Very little meat. Very little cheese.

Look at our "Gingerbread" House!

I found this really cool Rice Krispie Treat "Gingerbread" House Kit at our local Smith's grocery store last week. The kids and I really enjoyed putting it together. Now, it may not look like the picture on the box (ha!) but we enjoyed making it. That's what counts, right?

 The kit came with everything that we needed to make the house and decorate it with the exception of butter. Pretty cool, huh? I love it when everything is provided for me!

 Eating treats is hard work!

The finished product. Hey, I never promised that it would look pretty.

There's a ton of giveaways going on all week over at ...

GO CHECK IT OUT! They have some extremely cool prizes. 5 prizes each day this week will be awarded THIS Saturday! Wowza!

Our Learning Philosophy

I wanted to share with you a list of who/what has influenced our Learning Philosophy:

Simply Charlotte Mason

A Baker's Dozen

FIMBY

Simple Homeschool

The Moores

Yarns of the Heart

BFSU

This Lady on the WTM Forums

Harmony Art Mom

Loving Our Kids On Purpose - HUGE ONE

Beef Stew...yum!

I made some super yummy stew tonight. I thought that I'd share the recipe with you:

1/2 a large onion
2 lbs. of stew meat
1/2 bottle of zesty itallian dressing
4-6 medium carrots chopped
around 2 lbs. of potatoes peeled and chopped into inch or so chunks
Oregano, basil , garlic powder to taste- just a bit of each. I prefer a decent amount of garlic
4 bay leaves
2 cans of beef broth
2 cans of stewed tomatoes

Place stew meat in a zipper bag with the dressing- put in fridge. I left it in the fridge overnight. You can leave it for as little as 30 mins in the fridge. Cook the onions until translucent. Add stew meat and discard all marinade. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low simmering for several hours. I let mine simmer all day until dinner and it was SO tender. I also added a little thickening just before serving. I'm glad that I did. I prefer it nice and thick. We made cornbread to compliment. SO yummy!

Homemade Laundry Detergent..WOW! Why didn't I try this earlier?

 I tried my hand at making my own laundry soap for the very first time. Now that I've done it I really don't know why I haven't been doing this for years. It smells so fresh and clean, it's such a huge savings financially, and it's so quick! Quicker than having to run to the store even. The picture above is all that I used minus the bowl and spoon. The items include a grater (I bought 1 specifically for this job), gloves, Borax, Ivory soap BARS, and Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. I found everything except for the Super Washing Soda at my Wal-Mart. I had to go to Smith's/Kroger to find it, but others have found it at Wal-Mart, too.

 We started by grating the soap bars on the littlest holes. Soap is much easier to grate than even cheese. 3 bars

 Before putting the borax in I put on my gloves, and I did NOT have my daughter do this part or the next part. I'm sure it would have been fine, but I like to be safe. I don't even know if you need the gloves, but I used them. 3 Cups

 Last ingredient. 3 Cups

 

Stir and stir. You're done!

Recipe:

3 Bars of Ivory Soap- normal- no added scents, etc.

3 Cups of Borax

3 Cups of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

I use 1 heaping Tablespoon per load for normal soil. For heavy soil I would add a couple of Tablesoons. I expect to save between 50-75% vs. the laundry soap I was purchasing. You can add vinegar in a downy ball of in the fabric softener cup if you like your clothes super soft. If your clothes come out stiff you have used too much. detergent. :) I'm using mine in a front loader HE washer.

P.S. My husband asked me to only use this for the kid's wash. Apparently. he was skeptical. However, after he smelled the detergent he changed his mind. LOL Now I wash all of our clothes in the detergent.

I should also add that I didn't come up with this recipe all on my own. It's a pretty common one floating around on the WWW.

Thanksgiving 2010

This was honestly the best thanksgiving that I have ever had. It was simply perfect. I thought that I would share some pictures from our turkey day. This is how the day began:

And a little bit of this:

 (My bread maker)

 Table set for snacking throughtout the day while waiting on our evening Thanksgiving meal.

Cousins help Papa put up the Christmas tree

Add in some:

Fort building with the cousins

And:

A nap with Papa

Thanksgving Story

Then, we're finally ready for:

Round out the day with:

And that makes for the best Thanksgiving EVER. :)