One of my kids' favorite things about Thanksgiving....

....is, believe it or not, sweet potatoes :) Not just any sweet potatoes, but the sweet potato casserole that I only make at Thanksgiving. And it is REALLY REALLY good, even for ones like me who are not big sweet potato fans. About 6 or 7 years ago, my friend Shannon brought this to a Sunday School Christmas party, and it was so good that I got the recipe. Every year since, I've been making the recipe at Thanksgiving, and the kids start asking several months before if I'm going to make it again.

So, I thought I would share the magic with you :) Here's the recipe...it's not a super quick one, but not too hard and definitely worth the effort!

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:
- 4 cups sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 t. nutmeg
- 1 t. cinnamon
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows

Topping Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups crushed cornflakes
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 3/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

1) Wash sweet potatoes (skin on) and poke a few holes in them with a fork. Cover potato with oil, and wrap in aluminum foil. Cook potatoes at 375 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until very soft.

2) In large bowl, mash sweet potatoes (without skin). Mix together sugar, eggs, 3/4 cup butter, evaporated milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, and marshmallows. Scoop mixture into greased 9X13 baking dish.

3) Bake 20 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven.

4) While baking, mix together in a small bowl the crushed cornflakes, brown sugar, pecans, and remaining 3/4 cup melted butter.

5) After baking casserole for 20 minutes, remove from oven and spread the topping over the casserole.

6) Return to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes.


This recipe works well if you want to put it together (without the topping) the night before and pop it in the oven on Thanksgiving day. Hope your family enjoys it as much as mine!

My cool new toy

So my hubby and I have been looking at cell phones for a few months now. Our 2 years on our contract was up and we could upgrade our phones in September, but James really wanted to wait until the new phones came out for the holiday season. I had already decided that I wanted the new HTC TouchPro 2 that came out online a few weeks ago. They don't actually have it in the Verizon stores yet, but we went to another carrier and tried out their version, and it was pretty cool. It's been out of stock online though pretty much since it's been released, so I hadn't gotten one yet.

Well, in the meantime, Verizon launched a new phone, the Motorola Droid, that runs on Google's new operating system (I guess that's what you call it....I'm really not too tech savvy about stuff like that) Android. I wasn't looking at anything new, but in looking for himself, James read about the Motorola Droid and told me I ought to check it out.

I am so glad I did, because it is SO cool! Now, I realize that I could live without all the bells and whistles, but all those bells and whistles are SO fun (and many are useful). It's a touch screen phone with a slide out keyboard. An actual keyboard was one of my requirements and this one works well. The touch screen is really easy to use as well and works so much better than my last phone (the technology has improved SO much in 2 years). My favorite part is that there are TONS of free apps that you can download....and they are so cool.

One app that I really like is the Bible. Now, you've got several choices of Bible apps, but in most you can search, browse, bookmark, and take notes all with about 20 different versions of the Bible. Very cool!

I also love the Facebook app as well as the Pandora Radio, where you can tell it your favorite artist or song and it will put together a playlist of similar songs and artists. I typed in "Todd Agnew" and pretty much liked all the music that came up.

It also comes with Google Maps and it's navigation system. You can actually get the street view as you are driving, but I'm thinking I should watch the actual road instead of the road on my phone :) I has verbal driving direction too, so not to worry.

My FAVORITE app, however, is the barcode scanner. It uses the phone's camera and you aim it the barcode on a product and it scans it and locates the product. You actually use this in all sorts of other cool apps. I have definitely played with this one the most :) ShopSavvy is this really cool program that lets you scan a product barcode and using the GPS feature, it searches for the best price on the product locally as well as online. This will be a really handy feature when Christmas shopping! I also found this really cool app that lets you make a meal plan and keeps track of all your nutritional info for the day. You just scan the barcode of the ingredients you use or on the food that you eat and it automatically calculates it. You can also look it up in it's extensive database of foods and restaurants. It's probably not an app that I will use, but it's very helpful none the less. THE VERY COOLEST thing that I found was a little app called Key Ring. You know all those little cards for stores' loyalty programs that you carry on your keychain? You use the barcode scanner and scan them in your phone. It stores them, each with the store's logo, and you just hit a button and it pops on the screen. You hand that to the cashier to scan, instead of having to carry all those little cards. Since I've already lost my Kroger card and my others are getting pretty beat-up, I can't WAIT to use this!

I know there are tons of other things that I will discover about the phone, but I just thought I would take few minutes away from playing with the thing, and tell you about it. Seriously, it's a pretty cool phone :) I know that the iPhones have been around for a while and do many of the same things, but this was my first "smart phone", and I'm just loving it!

Another WOW recipe!

....and I wasn't expecting to like it that much either, but boy was I wrong! Tonight I made another recipe from E-Mealz, Crustless Spinach Quiche and it was SO good! The kids (except for the usual suspect) loved it too. I'm not a huge spinach or quiche fan either (I'll eat it in stuff, but it's not my favorite), but this was the exception. And it was really easy to make too. I will definitely be making this again!

Here's the recipe:

10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
8 oz shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup cream
1/3 cup prepared pesto (this is next to the pasta sauces....it was hiding way up on the top shelf at Kroger)
5 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Reserve 1/2 cup of cheese, and mix remaining ingredients. Pour in greased pie plate and cook for 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese and heat until melted. Serve with spaghetti sauce or marinara for dipping.

Thrifty to the extreme....

So I know several people who make their own laundry detergent, but as thrifty as I am, I have never gone there.......until yesterday :)


It all started a couple of weeks ago when 2 ladies in the laundry aisle at Kroger were carrying on about something that one of them had found.....


Lady #1: Did you find it?
Lady #2: YES! I should probably buy all they have!
Lady #1: That's great....I'm glad that we finally found it.


Then there was giggling and muffled conversation (I'm not THAT nosey that I tried to pick up the intimate conversation that they were having over this mystery product), and I decided that I would mosey on over the the spot where Lady #2 had found her prized product. What I found was Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap.
It said it was great for pre-treating stains, and since my favorite pre-treater has been discontinued, I've been on the search for a replacement. It was $1.19, so I thought I would give it a try. I took it home, tried it out, and it seems to work pretty well. I read a little online about it, and it seems that it is a great remedy for poison ivy too. Not that I've ever HAD poison ivy, but if I did, that's good to know. I also found several recipes for homemade laundry detergent that used Fels-Naptha, but I just really didn't want to go there. I have a hard enough time cooking dinner, and I wasn't interested in cooking laundry detergent.


So, a few days ago my cousin Stacie sent me a message on Facebook and asked if I had any recipes for laundry detergent that I had tried. She shared hers (which didn't use Fel-Naptha, but another laundry soap called ZOTE). I was still resistant to the whole idea, no matter HOW much money you save because 1) you have to cook the stuff 2) the recipes are for large batches that have to be stored somewhere and 3) the descriptions I've read of them say they are "goopy" and it sounds like a HUGE MESS waiting to happen when the kids do their laundry! I like to save money as much as the next person (probably more), but I have my limits :) Besides, I LIKE my laundry detergent!


However, she made me curious. So I looked and found a recipe for POWDERED homemade laundry detergent that sounded simple enough. Still, I didn't rush out and get the supplies because my Purex 2-in-1 laundry sheets are really simple to use and work well.


When I was at the store yesterday, I happened to be on the laundry aisle and low and behold, they had all of the ingredients for fairly cheap, so I decided what the heck, I would give it a try.


Basically, the recipe is 1 cup grated Fels-Naptha soap. I used a Pampered Chef grater and it took about 5 minutes to grate the whole bar (which yields 3 cups, so I tripled the recipe). Add to that 1/2 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax and 1/2 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not BAKING soda, it's different stuff). You just mix it in your container and use 2-3 tablespoons per load. Very simple to make!



I still wasn't prepared to like it, but I tried it out on quite a few loads of laundry yesterday, and it actually works well! I used it in cold water and in warm water, and it did an equally good job in both. The only thing I haven't tried it on yet is towels and sheets, but those are on the agenda for today. I really like the fragrance of my other laundry detergent and this has NO SMELL to it at all. I guess I'll have to just go back to using Downy to get my fragrance, but that's OK. I like my April Fresh Downy! The good thing though is that the clothes did smell CLEAN. It got out all the odors of the laundry....and believe me, clothes from a day's work at Chick-fil-A smell really funky :) Even clothes that were nasty sweaty were odorless when they came out. That's a good thing!


The detergent doesn't get sudsy in the wash, and when I opened the washer mid-load, the water had a gray appearance (but none of the ingredients are gray). I'm not sure if that was the dirt from our clothes or what, but it was a little disturbing :) Oh well, what goes on behind closed washing machine lids needs to stay behind closed washing machine lids :)


While I didn't go through measuring out exactly how many loads I can do with the supplies I bought, I will say that the ingredients cost $1.19 for the Fels-Naptha, $3.59 for the borax, and $2.69 for the washing soda, for a grand total of $7.47. The Fels-Naptha will make 3 of the recipes above, but the boxes of borax and washing soda will make MANY MANY more than 3. I'm guessing that I spent around $1.50 for the tripled recipe that I made and it will wash around 32 loads (if you use 3 tablespoons per load) which is about 4 and a half cents a load. My current laundry detergent is around $6 for 20 loads or 30 cents a load. Not that I was going to switch simply because it was cheaper, but that's one added benefit!


If anyone has tried any other laundry soap bars that are a little bit fragranced, please share what kind you used and where you got it. That is my next goal, since I like a little fragrance to my laundry, to find a fragranced laundry soap bar (as long as it cleans well).

Yummy, yummy soup!

I just wanted to share a recipe for Wild Rice Soup that we had for dinner tonight because it is SO good! It is an E-Mealz recipe and one that I've made before. It actually wasn't on this week's list, but I substituted it in because (as I've said before), I love it!

It is a potato based soup that has wild rice and cheese in it. I don't even care for wild rice that much, but it works in this recipe. We had it along with wheat rolls and cantaloupe for a crowd pleasing meal (well, except for Dakota who doesn't like ANYTHING!)

Here's the recipe:

1 box Uncle Ben's Wild Rice
2 cans cream of potato soup
1 small onion - chopped (I used frozen chopped onions instead)
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 lb Velveeta

Cook the rice per the directions (this takes 25 minutes....just so you know ahead of time. The rest of the soup is very quick to make)

Mix soup, onion, milk, and butter in large saucepan. When heated, add Velveeta in small chunks and stir until smooth. When soup is smooth, add cooked rice.

That's all there is to it. We add crumbled bacon to the top for an extra special treat!

Culinary delights from across the pond

OK....I had a little more fun in the grocery store :) As I was wandering down the aisle, I ran across a curious little section of food...the British foods. I took some pictures to share with you....


Product #1: Pinhead Oatmeal - so is being a pinhead a requirement for eating this or does eating it make you a pinhead?


Product #2: Digestives Milk Chocolate - sounds YUMMY (and like a laxative)!




Product #3 Robinson's Barley Water - is this like the precursor to beer? Orange and lemon flavored? Another big YUM!

Product #4 - I have no words for this......

Yes....I know that we have our own "delicacies" like Sloppy Joes that wouldn't sound too good if you didn't know what they were (and they might not even sound that good even if you DO know what they are). I'm curious what some of our American foods sound like to those in other countries :)

Pulled an all-nighter (almost)

Have you ever read one of those books you just couldn't put down? I have.....actually, a lot of books are like that for me, so I usually try to only start books when I know that I will have time to read them. If a book is good, lots of things go undone until it is finished. Thankfully, I'm a fast reader, so it doesn't usually take many days for me to finish a book.

Well, we went to the library on Saturday to let the kids get some books. Our library doesn't have a large "Inspirational Fiction" (aka Christian Fiction) section, but they have a few books. I normally request things from other libraries in Harris County, but I hadn't done it for this trip, so I just had to go with what was on the shelf. I actually found some books that looked interesting (A.D. Chronicles series by Brodie and Brock Thoene....let me know what you think if you've read them), but it was a series and they didn't have book #1, so I decided that I would just have to request it later. I decided to go with authors that I had heard of (although I do venture out occasionally with ones I don't know), and I picked out one book by Kristen Heitzmann. I love her books that I've read, but this is one of her older books and the cover makes it out to be a somewhat cheesy historical Old West romance book, which aren't my favorite. But, I know... you shouldn't "judge a book by it's cover", and I absolutely adore everything else I've read of hers, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The other book I picked up was "A Moment of Weakness" by Karen Kingsbury. I think I've read one of her books a while back, and I had definitely heard of her, and this book looked like it would have an interesting plot, so I gave it a go too. My mistake was starting to read it at 10pm on Saturday night :) I was really tired, and I thought a little reading would help me go to sleep. Well, at 4am I was just finishing the book. By then I was REALLY REALLY tired, but it was so good I couldn't put it down!

I am not going to give you a summary of the book, because I honestly wish that I hadn't even read the cover and just gone for it. I felt like I knew too far in advance where the story was heading. It was still a page turner anyway. Suffice it to say, it is a story about fighting for religious freedoms wrapped around a core story of making mistakes and forgiveness. It was told in three parts and was a very creatively told story. A really, really good read that I highly recommend. I will definitely be reading more from this author....does anyone have any suggestions of her other books?

What were they thinking?

I don't always enjoy grocery shopping, but I am fairly good at getting a good deal, and I just ADORE getting a good deal :) Thanks to The Grocery Game, some great sales at the stores, and especially that Super Doubles Coupon event that Kroger had a few weeks ago (spent $30 on $130 worth of groceries....gotta love it!), I've gotten a really good supply of back-to-school lunch items (as well as a good stock-pile of other things). But, during my shopping trip this morning, I ran across this:





OK.....I think I'll pass. I mean, who thinks to themselves, "Yum....Buttered Popcorn flavored Jelly Belly flavored PUDDING. People will love it! We need to get that on the grocery store shelves!"? Could you possibly dream up a less appetizing flavor of pudding?!?!

So, anyone want to try it and give a review? Sorry, I just couldn't bring myself to pay even $1.59 for something so weirdly disgusting sounding.

I have decided though that my new form of entertainment at the grocery store will be finding all the weird stuff and getting pictures of it. I know, I'm easily entertained :) I'll let you know what I find.....

My Favorite Sites

I love the Internet....I can find all sorts of information, and as you may know, I'm kind of an information junkie. I thought I would share some of my favorite websites. This list is by no means complete, and I'm sure I will forget something, but here goes:

1) Facebook - OK...this is my only daily site. I may not check it daily, but it's pretty close. I've gotten back in touch with several people from my past, and keep up with all that's going on in the life and times of family and friends, even ones on the other side of the world.

2) Kingwood Underground - This is a local message board I joined several years back. It has been very helpful with local news and happenings, as well as product/service reviews, general advice, and just plain goofing off. It's gotten pretty political lately and some really rude people have joined up in the last year, so I don't visit it as frequently as I used to, but I still go check it out every once in a while.

3) Slickdeals - This is a site that compiles all the best deals on the web. I check it pretty often, and it's a great tool around the holiday season for finding some awesome deals on gifts. If you are looking for a coupon code, this is a great place to look!

4) Allrecipes - This is my standby for finding a recipe. You can find multiple versions of pretty much any recipe you are looking for. I especially love the reviews of each recipe by users. It really helps seeing what others have said about a recipe that you've never used before :)

5) Plugged In Online - I use this site for checking out the family-friendliness of movies, but it has Christian reviews of movies, TV shows, music, and games.

6) Biblios.com - This is a great site for looking up all things related to Scripture. There are all sorts of translations, as well as commentaries, atlases, and all sorts of Bible study tools!

Of course, for shopping I LOVE Amazon and Ebay, but those are ones that don't need much explanation :)

So, what are your favorite sites? I'd love to hear!!!!!!!

Tribute to my friend :)

I just got back from a day at the pool, but it wasn't just any old trip to the pool......we met my friend Tracy and her girls there. Tracy moved to Iowa just a little over a year ago, and this is the first time we've gotten to see each other since. Of course my girls were excited as her daughters were some of their best friends, but secretly, I think I was more excited!

Tracy and I have known each other for a little over 8 years. She was one of the first to really make me feel welcome here in Houston, and of all people, it was probably hardest for her to do. But she did, and I love her for it. I won't go into all the details, but she was best friends with my husband's first wife who passed away shortly before I met him. She was only beginning the grieving process when I pop into the scene, and so you can only imagine what COULD have happened. But she is an amazing person and I'm so glad that I have had the chance to know her too. I miss her a ton, but I know that she is where God wants her. I was just so glad that I got to see her today (and tonight, and tomorrow, and Saturday, and Sunday, and Monday) :D

Thanks for letting me share....I doubt she'll ever read this, but at least you all got to hear a little about a cool chick named Tracy :)

Review by Request

My dear cousin Melissa requested that I try and review the new Tide Stain Release, so while at the store this morning I picked up a bottle. I decided to go with the liquid as opposed to the drop in "Duo Pacs" because I wanted to have the option of using it directly on clothes as a pre-treater as well. It also comes in a powder, but my Kroger did not carry the powder version. The regular price is $5.88 for a 32 oz bottle or 10 ct "duo pac" bag. I did get it for $3.63 after a store sale, .75 paper coupon, and a .50 electronic coupon.

The liquid comes in a 32 oz bottle this an interesting shaped lid that (like many laundry products), you use as the measuring cup. First off, it has kind of a small opening and it wouldn't be really conducive to kids using it (esp boys, if they are like mine) or you would waste a lot due to spilling. Also, the amount needed is deceivingly a large amount. I actually poured it into a measuring cup, and it was right at 4 oz. Now the bottle is only 32 oz, so basically you get 9 loads out of it if you don't use any as pre-treater (or you don't spill any). It seems REALLY expensive for 9 loads of laundry, especially since we go through that many loads in just a few days at our house. Not that I would use it in every load, but still, it's a bit pricey. I was hoping that it would be the laundry miracle product, in which case, worth the expense.

I brought it home and started the laundry. I washed kids clothes and also James' Tae Kwon Do uniform (because it gets kind of nasty, and I usually use color safe bleach or Oxy Clean to wash it). I also pretreated a stain on a shirt, but for the rest of the clothes I just added it to the wash. It kind of foamed up like a few other pre-treaters that I have used. It also has a pleasant, but not overwhelming scent. The key things I was looking for were improvement in 1) the stain on the shirt, 2) James' uniform, and 3) the bottoms of the boys' socks. I am disappointed to say that I couldn't see much of a difference at all in any of them. I get FAR superior results from color-safe bleach or Oxy Clean. So, my final conclusion would be that even if it wasn't as expensive as it is, I still wouln't repurchase this.

A second endorsement

OK....I know that I blogged about e-mealz just a few days ago, but I hadn't actually tested it yet. I had just subscribed and printed off the first weeks of meal plans. Now I've actually test driven it, and I'm a HUGE fan!

I printed off the copy of the week's menu, sat down and, in about 15 minutes, decided the order that I wanted for the meals, any changes I wanted to make, and crossed off everything on the shopping list that I already had on hand. I went shopping on Sunday afternoon for all the ingredients for the week's recipes, and I only spent $36 and about 20 minutes! That's for 6 complete dinner meals! I figured that it would have been around $55-60 if you included everything I already had, but that's STILL a great total, and WAY cheaper than eating out like we've been doing.

So, Monday I made the first meal in the plan...Chicken Tortilla Casserole and a Salad. It was good, the kids enjoyed it, and there were plenty of leftovers for our "leftover night" that I added in (instead of making one of the meals one night). I wasn't so sure about the recipe for Tuesday night....Christi's Wild Rice Soup because I don't really like wild rice. BUT, it was SO SO good! James even ate twice (once at meal time and once later in the evening) and he is not big on soups. It was coupled with homemade pita chips and sliced cantaloupe. Another family-pleasing meal! The recipes were easy too, and prep time took no longer than 30 mins (for the soup....the casserole's prep was more like 10 minutes)

So, all this to say that I think I've quickly become the biggest fan of e-mealz! Not since The Grocery Game have I endorsed and shared a website/business this strongly. I truly believe this is a great tool for helping families save money, moms (or dads or even singles) save time and frustration, and families to spend more time together over a home-cooked meal.

Youth camp: a blast from the past

Well, I just sent my oldest two off to youth camp this morning (however, I am in denial that I have two kids old enough for youth camp). I'm not so worried about my daughter, who's going into 6th grade, because she is pretty organized and doesn't really "go crazy" without the parents around. Now my son, who's going into 7th grade is a different story. Not that he really "goes crazy" without us around. He will pretty much act the same, but without us there to guide him along. :) I don't mean to say that he's a bad kid....he really is a GOOD kid. And it's not really any major behavior problems that I am concerned about. It's things like taking a shower, combing the hair, brushing his teeth, wearing clean underwear, eating the vegetables (or at least not living on candy and soda all week), ect that I am concerned about. He's also very ADHD, and I would really like him to return home with at least half of what he left with :) I did try and make it a little easier for him. Each day's clothes were put into a separate gallon Ziploc bag and labeled. That way he'll at least know if something in his suitcase is dirty or not, but I'm sure that it won't make much difference. Oh, well......it's just one week. AND, I have complete confidence in our youth ministers and leaders, and I know that the kids will have a lot of spiritual growth this week. And that's what it's all about, right?

Getting them ready made me start thinking about all my youth camp memories from my junior high (yes, that's what they called it back then) and high school days. I'm sure any PPBC youth will have plenty of memories too. Here's some of mine:

• Pep rally, talent show, and the coveted spirit stick......and all the hours of prep work that was put into them. I was always relegated to the "no dance/easy dance" group for talent show and it always used to bug me....but I really wasn't a good dancer :)
• How one missed hair could ruin your chances of getting the clean cabin award....I find it odd that I never once did that level of cleaning of my own room or bathroom, but I found it highly important that I did it at camp.
• Mail call at dinner.....Clifton was always sure to embarrass us with the goofy poems, but we all loved to get them :)
• Sadie Hawkins.....don't remember a single person that I tagged, but I remember what a big deal it was. And then there was Kangaroo Court that evening with Wally Banks :)
• Anyone remember "Ghostbusters"? I think it was my first year at camp, when all the 11th/12th grade boys kept saying "Beware of Ghostbusters" the whole week, and then the last night we were woken up and taken to the field. There were big bags of flour and barrels of water and everyone was handed a cup. I distinctly remember hiding out with Salena Johnson in the cafeteria because we didn't want to get all messy :)
• I have fond memories of the year my cousin Melissa got to come to camp for the first time and surprised me :) And my senior year when 4 of my high school friends got to come with me!
• I'll never forget the year that my brother David came to camp for the first time. I don't remember the theme that year (I think it was TV shows and they were the Beverly Hillbillies), but they wore those stupid overalls around every day all week. David was so little that there weren't any to fit him, so he had these huge ones on. Everyone talked about cute he was, and I though he just looked stupid :)

Gosh, there are tons more memories.....anyone else want to share some of their faves?

Trying to be something I'm not.....

I have been on a life-long (or at least as long as I've had kids) quest to be organized. Sometimes I'm better than other times, but I have never really gotten the hang of it. I have tried numerous things to keep my world orderly, but I usually wind up with a rather chaotic environment a lot of the time. Now, I know your thinking, "She's got 5 kids...she MUST be organized.", but those who know me best know that I do a reasonably good job of faking it, and neat and orderly would never be words to describe me. I also have good friends like Karen G who is very organized and always knows when and where things are happening and she keeps me informed :)

There are a few things (and only a few) that I am a little OCD about, like the clothes in my closet. Granted, there is no order at all to anything else in my closet except my hanging clothes, but there is definitely a specific way I like my clothes hung. I've got all my tops separated by sleeve length and fabric type (knit or woven). All my capris and jeans are in one spot, my skirts in another, and then my dresses in another. And I have a separate spot for sweatshirts and jackets. And ALL of the clothes MUST be on the hanger with the little hook to the left. Yes, James thinks I'm strange, but he gave up trying to break me of it a long time ago. :) You see, it's one very small area of my life that I have organized, and I think I just over-emphasize it :)

For life outside the closet, I've tried all sorts of tools to stay neat and organized. I once tried flylady.com and was quickly overwhelmed! The lady that runs the site sends out countless emails during the day, so all you end up doing is reading emails instead of cleaning and organizing! I've done Once-a-Month freezer cooking, and while I really like the idea of it, I never seemed to get the things thawed out in time to bake them for dinner. It is probably something I will do again, but in smaller quantities (I haven't totally abandoned this one). I've tried lists, charts, ect of all types, but I have decided that I always get caught up in the process and never get things done. So, my tools need to be simple, and I have actually found a few that help (but I've resigned myself to be who I am and work around my disorganized nature).

The first tool that I have been using with some success it the Mom's Plan-It calendar. It has 5 lines that you can write a name on on the left side, so for each day, my kids have a line for their own activities. It also has a pocket on the bottom for invitations, notes, ect, and a strong magnet on the top so it will hang on the refrigerator. It even has cute little stickers with things like "first day of school", "party", "meeting", ect. I also have the smaller spiral-bound Mom's Plan-It agenda for my purse. I wish it were a tiny bit smaller, but I love the weekly format. I have tried getting everything in my phone, but I am a very kinetic person and I just need to actually write things in a calendar I think.



I also use a few websites, one that I've used for years and one that is new to me. The first is The Grocery Game. I've been a subscriber to this for over 4 years now and it is something that I just love. It basically helps you use coupons efficiently and save tons of money doing it. Before The Grocery Game, I was a big store brand shopper, and while I still buy some occasionally, my pantry is full of all sorts of name brand products that I got at a fraction of the cost of the store brands. And it's not only food.....I get toiletries, paper goods, cleaners, medicines, ect at rock-bottom prices and many times for free after the coupons. I will dedicate another post strictly to The Grocery Game later, but suffice it to say that it saves me a lot of time and money and keeps my home stocked with all the necessities.

The next website that I've discovered is E-MEALZ for Busy and Frugal Families. It is a meal planning website that is endorsed by Dave Ramsey. It has a small subscription fee (like the Grocery Game), but in the long run I do believe it will save us far more than the price. You basically get a one page weekly meal plan/recipe sheet and a one page shopping list each week. The recipes are fairly normal stuff too and have serving sizes that will fit my family (although you can get meal plans that feed 2 as well if you don't need as much). They have several options for meal plans based around the sale items at a few grocery stores in Tennessee and Alabama, a list based on Wal-mart sales, and one for any store (which I chose because I don't shop at Wal-mart for groceries). They also have a low-fat plan, a vegetarian plan, a low-carb plan, and a plan based on the WW point system for each of those store options too. It seems to be very complete. I've gotten two meal plans already and I really think that this will work for me....it's simple and everything is laid out, but there is room for flexibility too (which is good for me). BONUS: if you use the coupon code: DAVE you will get a 3 month subscription for only $12.50. Not too bad, and especially if it keeps us from eating out so much! I'll keep you updated with how things are going after I've used it a little longer.

So, if you have any tips or advice for the organizationally challenged like myself, I'd love to hear them!

All things ordinary....

So I thought I would try my hand at a new blog about all the seemingly ordinary stuff that makes up my day to day life. I know, I know...who wants to read about boring, ordinary stuff. Well, maybe no one, but I'm still going to blog about it :)

I thought for my first post, I would review some of the new products that I've tried in the last few months. So, here goes...

Purex Complete 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets in Tropical Escape

OK...I am not typically a big fan of Purex (and I'm a pretty die hard All Small & Mighty user), but when these hit the market a month or so ago, I thought I'd give them a try. I had a really high $ coupon (a lot of "new" products do when they first come out), so it was only a few dollars when combined with a sale at Kroger. There are 20 sheets in a package, so you don't get as many loads as you do with All S&M IF you use the All as directed, however, when my kids do the laundry they tend to put more detergent in than needed. These are GREAT for kids doing laundry! All you do is drop one sheet in the wash, and then transfer it with the load to the dryer. It seems to wash clothes well, and the scent lingers for several days on the washed clothes. I've used other scent Spring Oasis, but prefer the Tropical Escape Scent. These are definitely a keeper.

Noxzema Shave Minimizing Gel

Now, I realize that this has been around for a while, but I picked some up a few months ago for the first time. I'm in love! I never used shaving cream much, but I have legs that have to be shaved everyday...that (and the sale) is what first caught my eye with this. I wasn't really expecting it to do much, but boy was I wrong. It really does make it so that I shave a little less, and more so than that, it keeps my newly-shaven legs from getting stubble so quickly, esp when I get goosebumps (yes...the hair on my leg grows when I get goosebumps) :) I was a bit suprised when I first used this because it kind of reminds me of neon green boogers, but I got over that really quickly. It makes a thick cream and has a cucumber melon scent. It's fairly inexpensive, esp when you get it on sale (although I've never seen a coupon...bummer). My only complaint it that it is somewhat hard to find. You can get it at both Kroger and Randalls, but Target and Walmart don't carry it. I ran out while we were on vacation and I was out of luck since there was no Kroger or Randalls around. :(

Nutella Chocolaty Hazelnut Spread

Yes, I know that this has been around forever, but it is new to me. You see, when I went to Taiwan in March we had this thick peanut butter toast every day for breakfast and at the airport on the way home, I discovered the chocolate version. It was YUMMY! So when I saw this on the shelf at Kroger, I decided to see if I could get close to the Taiwan version. I bought a loaf of Texas toast (the closest thing to the bread in Taiwan, but it's just not the same as the steamed bread) and tried it in the toaster oven. It wasn't the same, but it was still good! And now I've found a new breakfast and snack....chocolate Texas toast with Nutella. If you've never tried it, it's really good!