My couponing trip today

It has been awhile since I posted some of my couponing deals.  It is really hard to coupon in the summer with three kids in tow but now that they are back in school it is much easier.
However, I have been struggling with the conflict between getting good deals and feeding my kids healthier.  A lot of the really great deals are junk.  While I do buy some junk (I love ice cream and poptarts!) I try to limit it for my kids. 
So while I am trying to still find great deals, I am trying to incorporate healthy foods into them.  Right now Safeway has a buy 8 save .50 per item which with paired with coupons can make for some pretty good deals.  They have a lot of stuff throughout the store that they don't even have listed in their ads.  I am pretty sure I will be doing more of these deals over the next week.
Here is what I got today:

So if you ignore the ice cream cones and cheetos, I think I did pretty good.  The gum was buy one get one free and I had (2) $1/3 coupons that doubled making them $1.17 for 6 packs.  Trident is sugar free but doesn't have aspartame which I don't like, so I don't mind my kids chewing it.

The spinach and green leaf lettuces were $1 each and the jalapeno was .99c (I am making salsa this week!)  The cream cheese was buy one get one free so 2/$2.99.

The instant potatoes were free with a catalina (I know it's processed but my daughter will only eat instant garlic potatoes so sometimes I get them)

I think everything else was part of the buy 8 promo. These are the coupons I had:

 (2) $1/1 coupons for the artisan tortillas making them .49c each,

 .55c/1 dairy farmers making the cheese .74c with the doubler (so wish I had had another of those coupons!)

 the broth was 1.99 each (no coupon but it's good broth and it's organic!)

My total was $16.50 for all of that.  Not too bad considering I didn't have coupons for everything I bought.

Then I went to Rite Aid:

My total there after coupons was 7.61, I used $6 in UPs and received $10.38 back in UPs rewards.  They were running a spend $25 get a $5 UP for the past month and today was the last day to do it.  I had to spend just over $9 to get my total over $25 (I hit 25.83!)  The toothbrushes were on sale for 2.69 each and you got a 2.69 UP back plus I had a .75c off and a $1 off coupon so I really ended up making $1.75 on toothbrushes!  The mouthwash was on sale for $4 and I had a $1/1 coupon plus it put me over the 25 so I was good with that.

The tuna was buy one get one free and I had (2) $1/2 coupons so that made them .25c each!

Next week I will have over $12 in UPs to spend so I might not even have any out of pocket there.  I just love Rite Aid!!

There you go.  My big couponing for the week.  It's a good thing it was a good week b/c my grocery cash envelope only has $2 in it.  Yay for a new month starting saturday!  

Meals

I know I should just make my meal week tuesday through monday but I still have hopes of being organized enough on a sunday to write my plan out.
I will say though that having breakfast and lunches mostly planned out has been a huge relief for me.  It really does make my days easier.
I am going to write the past 2 days even though they are over, just in case anyone needs ideas.
Sunday:
B: pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs
L: leftover tacos
D: BBQ, zucchine with rotini noodles, salad

Monday:
B: at sitters
L: quesadillas
D: leftover chicken/noodles

Tuesday:
B: scrambled eggs and toast
L: noodles
D: chicken fried steak, long grain/wild rice, green beans

Wednesday
B: scones
L: sandwiches
D: pizza at a birthday party

Thursday
B: pancakes
L: bagel/cream cheese
D: crockpot chicken, noodle roni (my MIL is picking the kids up, taking son to soccer and doing dinner, so am trying to make it easy on her-hence the noodle roni)

Friday
B: at sitters
L: kids are getting hot lunch
D: leftovers

Saturday
B: cereal, yogurt
L: not sure
D: BBQ (while we can), potatoes of some sort

I clearly need to work on some details and I am going to try making some breakfast cookies and see how that goes over.  Now that I have a little order to breakfast and lunches for the main dish, I need to work on the sides and figure out a routine for my dinners.  But I am slowly working on it and it is definitely going better than it has in the past.

Meal Plan

Once again I cannot seem to get my meal plan listed on Sunday.

It has been really nice to have meal plans for all my meals.  I have really been trying to make the kids a good breakfast and while it is taking some getting used to, I am very grateful when they aren't telling me they are hungry 30 minutes after eating.

Also, I usually try to have the kids eat fruit at most meals but I offer them choices, so I might not always list what specific fruit we have.  Fortunately they all like a wide variety of fruits.  Veggies not so much, you will see a lot of carrots and salad listed.

I am going to go ahead and back track to Sunday and what we ate:
Sunday:
     B: simple soaked pancakes from Heavenly Homemakers (it's an adjustment eating whole wheat pancakes but a few chocolate chips sprinkled in really helped!)
     L: hot dogs, baked french fries, carrots, fruit
     D: beef vegetable soup/chicken noodle for the kids, fruit
Monday
     B: at sitter's
     L: quesadillas, carrots,
     D: leftover pizza, salad, fruit
Tuesday
     B: scrambled eggs, toast   
     L: noodles, carrots, applesauce
     D:spaghetti and meatballs, green beans, salad, watermelon/blueberries


Wednesday
     B: pancakes
     L: ham or turkey sandwiches, carrots, cantaloupe
     D: leftover beef soup
Thursday
     B: cereal, whole wheat banana bread
     L: ham/turkey sandwiches, carrots, fruit
     D: chicken/broccoli over brown rice
Friday
     B: at sitters
     L: sandwiches, carrots, fruit
     D: leftover spaghetti and meatballs
Saturday
     B: kids choice
     L: having a garage sale and the boys will be at a Ducks game so not sure
     D: BBQ hamburgers/hot dogs, baked beans, roasted potatoes

I am clearly in a rut with lunches for the kids, they are going to get so bored with sandwiches, this is something I really need to work on in the next few weeks!

Strong Tower

Towers.  Twin Towers.  North Tower.  South Tower.  Funny how before 9/11 happened, I didn't think about those words at all.  I had been to New York City.  I had not been in the Towers but in one of the other World Trade Center buildings where my brother worked and looked out the window at the Towers.  To be honest, other than being really tall, they didn't leave an impression on me.

But then 2 planes were flown into them and it changed my perception forever.  The phrase "Twin Towers" now means so much more to those of us who witnessed it.  I will never forget the feeling of wondering if my brother was at work that day.  Such a scary thought that for me only lasted a minute before I remembered he was on vacation.  I was lucky my story had that happy ending.  So many people lost loved ones that day, and so many since....

I am grateful that the 10 year anniversary landed on a Sunday.  And I am lucky that my pastor has such a gift for turning our hearts to God.  His sermon today refreshed my soul and reminded me that this earth is passing.  That we truly never know what is going to happen in any given day.  It might not be as big as a plane landing into a building but it could be a heart attach, a diagnosis of cancer, a car accident....all of those things change your life forever but the one constant in this life is God.

Psalm 61 which has been turned into one of my favorite songs says "for you have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy" (vs. 3)  What I didn't know is that David wrote this song after his son died.  And even though I have heard the song from this reference over and over again, the significance of God being referred to as the strong tower never really struck me.  But when I stop and think about the word tower, I think of Eiffel Tower, Tower of Babel, Twin Towers.... all things that are big and things that people probably thought would stand the test of time.  While things on this earth can be destroyed, our towers that we build as humans are not eternal. 

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe"  Proverbs 18:10. 

It's amazing how you can read a passage in the Bible over and over and not get it.  A simple passage.    One that fits so perfectly, so completely in our present day situation.  What an amazing God we have that words written so long ago, are so appropos today. 

I am not sure I will think about the word tower in the same sense ever again.  When I think of 9/11 and what it did to our country, and I think of those towers falling to the ground, I will forever remember Proverbs 18:10 and Psalm 61.  He is our tower of strength, something we never need fear, our God who will always stand strong and true and magnificent.

Too much on my plate?

My husband told me this week (as I was stressing about some stuff) that I have too much on my plate. 

Well, I guess I should have said "of course I do, I'm a mom!" 

I mean, I really don't know how to avoid it.  I have things I "have" to do and things I "want" to do.  If I simply deal with the stuff I had to do, I could probably handle it all somewhat realistically.  But how would I feel if all I ever did was clean, do laundry, carpool kids around, cook, grocery shop, help with homework, oh and throw 3 days of working into the mix? 

Isn't there more to life than that?  Should there be?  Or should I be content with that as a Christian mom and wife? 

When I go through the list in my head of things I want to do, most if revolves around my family.  It's not like my list includes shoe shopping or sitting on the couch watching soap operas and eating chocolate.  My list includes things I want to do to make my family healthier and happier plus a few small things in there for me.

Here are a few of the things on my want to do list:
finish son's room - including making afghan and putting up a couple of star wars pictures
organize my recipes - they are a mess!
crochet - I just bought a book on hats and want to make a winter hat for my girls, and maybe some extra to
     some day start an etsy shop
research ways to feed my family better - including switching over to more organic foods, baking more from
     scratch, maybe even get my own wheat grinder
get rid of my piles
get my garage sale stuff ready (I have one week for that)
organize pictures on my computer
read "The Help"
read my Bible daily
exercise several times a week
make meals for people who might need it (I love doing this for friends!)

So you see, the list isn't crazy.  But some of it is time consuming and right now, I am barely accomplishing the tasks I need to accomplish.

Not sure what I am going to do about it all but I am hoping that with the kids in school, I will be able to get into some sort of routine and get ahead on some of these things. 

What do you do to cross off things of your to-do list?

Meal plan

I have no idea where this weekend went but am 2 days late posting my meal plan.  And am not sure it is totally complete but will get me through this week.

Tuesday
B: french toast, milk
L: each kid got to pick their lunch today for the first day of school so that included salami sandwiches, macncheese, chicken nuggets, plus carrot sticks, fruit
D: chicken and noodles, corn

Wednesday
B: eggs and toast, juice
L: turkey sandwiches, carrot sticks, fruit
D: leftover chicken and noodles, salad

Thursday:
B: pancakes, smoothie
L: not sure
D: chicken and broccoli over brown rice

Friday:
B: at sitters
L: not sure:-(
D: leftovers maybe

Saturday:
B: oatmeal or cold cereal
L: BBQ with family
D: maybe something light like cheese/crackers, popcorn, veggies

Lunch is what I really need to work on to be creative.  My goal is to have a system where breakfast and lunches are the same for that day of the week so for example every tuesday have eggs and toast, wednesday pancakes....that kind of thing.  That way it's set and hopefully makes things easier. 
The first day of school has gone well so far, my preschooler did great on her first day which is a huge relief.  She was my first kid not to cry on their first day of preschool and that made it so much easier on this momma.  But I found when I picked her up that I missed her.  Glad we have this afternoon to spend together!

Giveaway from Heavenly Homemakers

I love the Heavenly Homemakers site.  I have been following her sometime in the hopes of being inspired as I switch over to making healthier foods for my family.  She is having a giveaway for a Nutrimill to grind flour.  I have really been considering getting one of these and entered myself.  But if you are interested in entering as well, here is the link:
 http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/nutrimill-giveaway-from-paulas-bread/comment-page-3#comment-107927

September Goal

This summer, I have not really made any big goals except to just get through the summer intact.  As I have been thinking about what I wanted to do with the kids going back to school, I knew I wanted a couple of things.  To make my life easier with the craziness that comes with school, homework, soccer, etc.  And to try to get back to feeding my family better.

So my September goal is to......meal plan.  Yes, I know this has been my goal before.   When I have done this before though, I always just did it for dinner.  But breakfast and lunchtime are just as difficult for me.
I really want to send my kids off to school with a nutritious meal, ready to face the day.  And with 2 kids needing school lunches, one of whom is super picky, I am going to need to be very creative and very organized.

The meal planning is important because my other goal is to start feeding my family healthier more whole foods.  I have made a few changes over the last year but I really want to jump in big.  And in order to do that, I need to be organized.  This summer, having a CSA has really reminded me of how good fresh whole foods are.  So much better than prepackaged foods.  Plus, we have already been limited in what kinds of packaged foods we can have due to my son's peanut allergy. Now I want to incorporate even more homemade foods, using more nutritious ingredients.

That being said, I have no idea what we are having for the next few ideas, leftovers tonight, big salad tomorrow night maybe, BBQ with friends saturday night and eating out sunday night (kids are at Nana's!)  I don't have breakfasts' and lunches figured out.  See why I need this so badly?!

My hope is to have a routine with breakfasts and lunches to make it a lot easier.  Say eggs and cereal on tuesdays, pancakes on wednesdays, homemade zucchini or banana bread and smoothie on thursdays.... that will stay consistent week to week and make my life much easier.  Over the next couple of days, I am going to sit down with my kids and makes lists of things they want to have and set up a schedule.

If I have anything amazing recipe to post, I will be sure and share it with you.  If you have any great suggestions, let me know.  I am sure I can use all the help I can get!