"Motherly" Advice

I've learned a few things over the years, since becoming a mother, that I think you would like and benefit from...My need to "save a nickel" has really gotten worse the older I get, and also with the more babies I deliver...And you'd be surprised to know that even if your financially stable or "okay", everyone still needs to save today, given our economy,,,esp... mothers...So, here are a few suggestions, as a mother of course, to help you save a few pennies....

1.Place a paper towel in your salad bowl to use the next day, the paper towel soaks up the moisture from the lettuce, so it stays crisp.
2.For a bee/wasp sting, rub a paste of baking soda/water on it...takes the sting away.
3.When using your coupons at your store, wait til the item is on sale or buy one/get one free, not only will you get better savings, you might get 2 items..
4.For mothers with babies, save your baby wipe boxes, I use them for my sons cars,blocks,Audreys polly pockets,cotton balls,qtips,etc.
5.Im not really advertising, but Food City does the fuel bucks program, where if you buy so many Food Club items, you get fuel bucks,worth a $1 to use at their gas pumps...you'd be surprised how much you save by getting generic items PLUS free gas...once I spent less than $100 on groceries (for 5 of us,including diapers), and still got $10 in free fuel bucks! Its worth it..
6.Buy block cheese, instead of shredded...not only are they cheaper, but you can use them other ways, like sliced for grilled cheese...
7.Having a garage sale once a year puts money in your pocket, and junk out of your garage, so my my hubby says..
8.Instead of buying the fresh chicken, buy the bigger bag of frozen chicken...you can take out as much as you need, and sometimes I can get 3 meals out of it..thats about $2 per chicken meal...
9.When having dinner guests over, plan your 3 course meal to include one or two of the same ingredients, so its more useful in your dishes, and you dont feel like your buying a big tub of bread crumbs to use once, and the rest to sit in your pantry.
10.Last but not least,,,,(and this one is comical, but hey, it saves $$)..If you have a baby and a potty training age child, buy only one big pack of diapers..when the baby gets to a certain age, they will be in the same size as the toddler so they can use the diapers too for "nightime" potty training, and your not having to buy pullups!!!!

The Tooth Fairy was very busy............

Well, it was that time again for the semi-monthly visit from the Tooth Fairy at our house....Audrey had this one tooth on the front, the big ones, that we tried and tried and tried to get out for almost 2 mos now...thats how long that sucker had been hanging on for!!! anyway, the night before last, Audrey had her little ziploc bag w/her tooth and a note for the tooth fairy that read, "Deer Tooth Fairy, here is my tooth , I hope you like it, I work really hard to get it out.I Love you, Love Audrey"....She had it placed, ever so neatly , under her pillow that AFTERNOON,and was ready for her when she swooped in from "fairyland" to give Audrey the 5 dollars she was soooo longing for...Yeah.......did I mention WHEN she put the tooth under her pillow?...It wasnt until the next morning that I had to see and hear the worst heartbreaking phrase I believe I've ever had to deal with out of one of my children...With a glazed look over her eyes and the ziploc bag in her hands, she muttered the words, "The tooth fairy forgot about me"........................okay, I know,,,,bad mom and dad award....my heart sank right w/her...So I made up this story about how Santa Clause has a sleigh and can visit all the children of the world in one night, but the tooth fairy has lots of kids to visit on a daily basis, so she didnt forget, she was very busy and would be back tonight---with a vengeance---..needless to say, Audrey was happy w/that response and this morning Im looking forward to seeing the joy on her face when she finds the 5 dollar bills the tooth fairy left for her.....

Happy 1st Birthday Emma Grace !!!

This past weekend, on Friday morning at 7:18am to be exact, my baby girl turned one yr old...WOW,, time really flies by...I made a comment recently that when Audrey's 1st birthday was approaching, I was ready for it...I really had a whole year to enjoy her, and it felt like it lasted that long!! I still remember her 1st rollover, 1st sitting up,1st crawling, 1st walking (late-14 mos)...everything seemed so cherished...I wrote EVERYTHING down...and pretty much the same went for Jake, except I had a 3 yr old helper in the mix....back to Emma Grace, as she is the "queen" of this post today...I feel like the last yr was a blur, but nontheless we had a wonderful time on Friday night, we took her to Chucky Cheese for the 1st time...She was terrified, from the "chucky" puppets, to the rides, to the actual Chucky himself coming out to grace the kids...(we have the fearful pic to prove it)....It was fun though...Sunday---party day---also happened to be my b-day, but we wont get into that..I said from now on, I have an excuse to celebrate someone elses bday...anyway, we had about 30 people over for BBQ, beans, and all the fixins..followed by a rented dalmatian bounce house and slip-n-slide......EG had all kinds of wonderful gifts...Thanks everyone!! all in all it was a wonderful day!!