Showing some Southern Savers Love

Yet another reason to visit my latest favorite site. Southern Savers help me save money so I can spend more (just kidding about the last part… okay, not really).

In the spirit of Christmas they are doing a giveaway a day – go… run… check it out!

www.southernsavers.com

Yikes! Another reminder to watch my words!

Madeleine was playing with her toys, and all the sudden I hear, “Come on dude!” – my new G-rated version to talk to all my fellow drivers on the road. However, coming out of the mouth of a 2 year old, it doesn’t sound as squeaky clean as I imagined.

For my fellow procrastinators…

Would you like a nice family picture – one that you feel you’d be happy to display in your home, or finally have a decent picture to send in your Christmas cards? Well…

Yes, after countless hours of work I’m happy to finally have my website go live – www.honeysuckledew.com. So check it out!

Top of my “To Do List”

I love the decorations of the holiday season, the constant crafting that seems to go on, the yummy smells of dishes that are usually only made this time of year, and the joyous sounds of Christmas music making everything so merry and bright.

As I was forming my to do list today of all the things I need to get accomplished, my spirited two year old is sitting beside me being an absolute crack up that she is known to be. I decided I needed to stop for a moment and catch up on her.

I meant to post about her birthday (that happened back in August). I meant to mention how perfect a day it was. For Maine it was beautiful and warm, in the mid 70s, quite the contrast from my 60 degree-rainy-and-foggy birthday just 5 days before.

I made Abby Cadabby Cupckaes for her birthday. It was Phoebe’s birthday too so I made party hats for the both of them.

Mindy made her yummy pizza.

We even saw a bald eagle at lunch-time.

Madeleine got to open her presents.

 

I love the joy of finding out her present was a new baby doll.

She was cracking everyone up with how every tear of the paper she would hand to me to throw it away – Grandpa Opp would be soooo proud!

Happy birthday beautiful girl. We are so grateful for the craziness you bring our lives everyday.  

Just keeping it real

This has been a hard week. My precious child has become the most mischievous two year old.

 
(yes, that is a leaf stuck in her hair)

I could handle the dipping my deodorant into the toilet, the painting of the bathroom with my concealer, the mixing up the DVDs for the umpteenth time, getting in and using up my favorite perfume, and even the constant destruction of newspaper ads all over the house. Then Sunday came. We ran late making it to church, but I will say she looked adorable in one of her seasonal dresses. I dropped her off at nursery and she went right in (big sigh of relief there), and I went to my meetings until it was time to pick her up so that we could head into Sacrament Meeting (we have Relief Society, Sunday School and then Sacrament last – sorry, Mormon lingo). Sacrament is the most reverent of our meetings. It doesn’t help my plight that I know our Bishop is making a big push for reverence (and he should, but people understand 2 year olds, right?). She has to be one of the absolute worst behaved in that meeting. It’s like the light switches and you see the Dr. Jekyll come out. She knows how to be quiet. She can do it just fine at home, but there she loves to talk as loud as she can and when I try to get her to be quiet she starts screaming and flailing around. I know it will help when Andrew gets home and we can have a tag team. She must sense my fear (of her bad behavior) and plays on it. I think she also knows she has me cornered in the meeting – sooooo hard! So today, I just couldn’t take it. I left after the Sacrament and didn’t stay for the rest of the meeting. While we were going outside to get into the car someone was getting out of a car next to mine. I let go of her hand for a second and she takes off. Those who know where my church is, you know it sits off quite the busy road – well, she starts running straight towards it – only she’s in the grassy/pine straw area and I’m in high heels running after her (not too easy, let me tell you and she is FAST!!!). I finally got her to turn in the other direction (so not heading towards the oncoming traffic) and somehow managed to get her into the car. By this time I am angry, upset, embarrassed (did it have to happen right in front of the foyer so anyone could see – not to mention so all the drivers on the busy road see this crazy momma running after a two year old Lightning McQueen), and tired so needless to say I started to do the ugly cry and I felt a little better (especially after I was able to talk to my mom and Andrew). Days like today I just don’t even want to make the effort to go to church.

Next Sunday I’m going to go to church with my parents so I can get some much needed assistance. But to all the mothers out there that are so much better than me – how do you do it? I thought I was well armed and prepared – I have snacks and water, a magna doodle, and a small bag full of books including church books. I have tried to talk to her in whispers and ask her to use her quiet voice. I have tried to talk to her about Jesus and how He wants us to listen and how that makes Him happy. I don’t want to get into the habit of taking her out of the meeting because I don’t want her to use that when she wants to go, but I don’t want to cause irreverence in the Chapel either. I’ve even threatened that I will tell Santa Claus. So far nothing is working. I know a small part has to be because she misses her daddy (so do I!), but she was progressively getting worse even while we were in Maine and luckily there everyone thought she was so endearing because she was the only child in the branch.

So HELP! Do you have any wonderful advice on how to get my child to behave so I can enjoy going to a much needed spiritual rejuvenation?

A thankful post

Now that I’ve gotten home and have gotten the groceries put away, I’m starting to begin my Thanksgiving preparations. This will be a stinky Thanksgiving since Andrew is still in Maine. Poor guy will be working most of the day tomorrow trying to get as much done before our drywall guy flies up next week. He’s been working without a day off for so long I know he’ll be so happy to be home – hopefully right before Christmas.

Back to my preparations, I’m making a pound cake (special family recipe), loaded cornbread casserole, Nestle Tollhouse Pie, my good friend June’s Pretzel Jello Salad, and for my sister’s birthday and special request a pumpkin cheesecake – I’m going to use pecan meal instead of almond meal for the crust since I already have some on hand. I do love Thanksgiving – probably more than Christmas because the pressures of gift-giving is absent, plus I love the gathering around food and a chance to reflect on what we are thankful for.

This year I am thankful:

1. That I’m not in Maine (feel a teensy bit guilty about this one!)
2. That I had the opportunity to live in Maine for a short period of time. I met some wonderful people up there and got to see so many beautiful parts of our world that I never knew existed. I’m grateful for the Deans kindness to our family and how incredibly welcoming they were to us.
3. That I have a beautiful little girl that makes the most incredible messes. Her coming to our family was a miracle to me in my darkest hour, but I know it did not happen by chance.
4. Kind of with #2 but I’m grateful for Madeleine’s birth family, for their love and support and for the amazing people they are. I know Heavenly Father has a special place in His heart for those who are able to make this most difficult sacrifice.
5. That my kitchen was finally able to be remodeled right before we left for Maine. I feel so happy when I’m in there.
6. That  Andrew installed the most ginormous sink in my newly remodeled kitchen. I can wash my full baking sheets with ease without crazy contortionist moves on my part. Pure joy in seeing that sink everyday.
7. That my husband is a hard worker and will do just about anything to provide for our family, even when it’s difficult and grueling. He takes care of so much so that I don’t have to worry about it. I think about that a lot now since he’s so far away and now I have to pump my own gas.
8. That there are so many conveniences in life I enjoy and take for granted like my dishwasher, washer & dryer, garbage disposal, clean water, sewer (not septic!), and electricity (live in a poorly solar-powered house for a little bit and you’ll know what I mean).
9. For my friends and family. To lump them together, I’m so grateful for the phone calls, e-mails, or visits. It’s been a hard year with the back and forth to Maine and I felt like I drew from this strength more than ever.
10. For the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m grateful that I can pull from that strength when things are tough I can take my problems to the Lord because I know He hears and answers prayers. I know my Heavenly Father loves me and He loves you too. I can’t imagine having to go though my life without the blessings of the Gospel. I know that no matter what the Lord is mindful of me and knows my struggles and wants me to be happy. I’m thankful for parents who taught, not so much by their words, but by there actions how Christ would want us to live, and for that  I will be forever grateful.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and to my sister-in-law, Becky and to my sister, Kayleen I wish the most happiest birthday!

I’ve got bitten by the bug

My dad has it, my sisters all have it, my brother has it, my mom’s been touched by it and I feel the coupon fever coming on.

I went to Publix (grocery store) today; my total bill came to $141.85 and I spent only $46.97 (I saved $94.88 – almost 70% off my grocery bill)!!! I am not one to use coupons just for the sake of using coupons, but let me just give you a quick synopsis of what I got: eggs, cake flour, Jello, frozen veggies, 10 boxes of Chex cereal, batteries, shredded cheese, canned pineapples, cream cheese, butter, ice cream and so much more.

What a rush! My sister, Cassidie, found the most amazing site: www.southernsavers.com that tells you exactly how to get the best deals, even so much as showing you which coupons are out there and how to maximize your savings, like I never knew you could use a store coupon plus a manufacturers coupon which will make things a lot of times free. I will tell you  it still takes time (probably because I’m just getting started and don’t have a full system in swing), but being able to save so much money and put things away for my food storage makes it totally worth it! At least that’s what I kept telling myself as I was trying to concentrate and in the meantime Madeleine had: gotten into my makeup for the 3rd time this week (I keep out of reach, but she is determined and I might add, she’s getting pretty good at applying her lipstick for a 2 year old), ripped the pages out of one of her books, got into my dental floss and pulled it all out, got into the dvds and scattered them all throughout the house, found some way to make it look like a tornado has hit just about every room, and still found time to find a pen and color all over my pillows – did I mention she was 2?