New Blog Name and More Lessons Learned

In the spirit of my new creative self I decided to rename my blog. I was going to have a contest and give the winner a box of girl scout cookies, but instead I'll sit here and eat the cookies myself!

Also, an update for those who were worried about the emotional scarring of my 11 month old in her crazy big jacket, just an update. I tried on her Boden jacket for next year (yes, true testament to my crazy self, she has 3 "winter" jackets in size 2T/3T and no none of them were Olivia's. Anyways, this jacket is softer so I can roll the sleeves better and she looks a little more normal. I won't post a pic of the Gymboree jacket but maybe she'll pose in the other one tomorrow, I'll have to see how she's feeling.

Now, for the continuation of my lessons learned during my no spend challenge...

4. Some things can't be done for free aka-sometimes you miss out.

I had an awesome time this past month, and the family did a lot of really fun and interesting things. There were times however, that I had to pass up outings or say no to buying something. The times I felt the most guilty about this was when it was an activity for the kids. For instance, I have been somewhat of a hermit for many of the past 11 months. This is mainly due to the bone crushing weariness that comes along with having a baby who never sleeps for more than 2 hours at a time and the fact that her 2 naps a day were coveted and cherished as time that I also got to sleep. Yes, dear readers, I slept when my baby slept. Still do as a matter of fact and it's still the only way I stay sane. Anyways, I digress, which I do a lot but you obviously still love me!

Well, the past few weeks Clara dropped a nap and I was actually free to go out and mingle among normal people. There was a meetup for one of the groups I'm in at a bounce house. My kids were awake, fed, and happy. I thought to myself, what a great day for a drive to Bremen and some bouncing. But then it hit me. No Spending. It was a dilemma. I wanted to go to allow Olivia to have some fun doing something different. Was I being selfish not taking her because of my challenge? Luckily I didn't mention the meetup to her beforehand, and she was oblivious. We stayed home and had a nice quiet afternoon together. Would she have had fun in Bremen? Probably. Did we miss out? Maybe. But it reminded me too that I don't have to say yes to everything.

5. Of course the follow up to that is, sometimes you can do things for free, and have a great time too.

Mike was a Lego fanatic as a child. He has tons of Lego sets that his parents boxed up and sent out to us years ago. Of course, the Legos never made it out of their boxes. Instead they sat untouched in the basement. Mike and Olivia talked about getting them out, but there never seemed to be time. Well, due to the fact that our social calendar was greatly freed up, they had the time to get out the sets. I have really never seen Olivia so happy. Even now that the challenge is over, she rushes through dinner and a bath so she and daddy can play Legos. They are still building the sets, which will take a while, but they also take the time to play make believe with the Lego people. I'm sure the princess has never been saved as many times as she has now.

An early end to no spend

Yes, you are reading correctly. I’m calling an end to my no spend challenge. I made it 22 days, and of that I’m pretty proud. I wish I could have said I made it to the first of March, but I didn’t, and I don’t like to be deceitful, even in an online blog (I think it’s my strict German upbringing. Think Dwight on the office). Even though I did not make the full 28 days, I’m happy with how the month went, and here are the first 3 of the top 7 things I learned. Look for the rest in a future post.

1.Being creative with resources can actually increase and improve your quality time with family.

I have said over and over again that I am not a crafty person. I might have to amend that a little now. Although I don’t do crafts often, and when I do my efforts look more kindergarten then Martha Stewart, I realized that I can be “crafty.” Taking the time to plan activities and implement them allowed me to do a lot of fun stuff with my daughter, things I would have said I couldn’t do before.
I cannot believe how excited Olivia was about these special moments, and how proud she was of our finished products. I hope to take this lesson into the rest of the year and remember it’s not about the “stuff” we buy together, but instead the time we have. It’s a truth I thought I knew but actually needed reminding of.

2.There will always be another sale

As my friends and readers, you know I have a small weakness for a certain children’s clothing store. My hardest moments this month came when said store sent me rewards, coupons, and emails regarding their sale. I was tempted. So tempted. I had a merchandise credit, and I tried to rationalize that it wouldn’t count if I spent that and not cash. In the end, I held off, and guess what? The next week I got another sale notice and coupon, and the next week, and the next. I learned that I don’t need to buy something at every sale, and if I miss one, or three, my kids will still be well dressed.

3.Sometimes, you will look ridiculous.

Yes, it’s true, I and my children had some pretty silly moments this month. Sometimes no one saw me. Like when I had a catastrophic vacuum hose failure and used duct tape to get through until March. Sometimes, it felt like everyone saw me, like when Clara outgrew her winter coat and I had the bright idea to pull out next year’s coat. Only problem? It’s 2T/3T, and she needs a 2T even. The arms were so long I couldn’t even roll them high enough to see her arms! Of course, the positive of that is that she didn’t need gloves :) In actuality, I probably felt sillier then I needed to. I’m pretty sure people don’t notice, or if they do don’t care too much when your kids coat is long, etc. And you know what? I still think it’s ridiculous to spend money on a coat for 1 month, so we’ll make do with layers until the spring hits.

Fun in the Mail (and how you can get free money too!)

My Ebates "Big Fat Check" which doesn't want to be controlled into a horizontal position!

http:// http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=iavZoaPromtjAXUpbOmaig%3D%3D

Pull Ups House Party Goodies

Tryology Secret Deoderant

We made it halfway through the week! Yeah for Wednesday night! Tomorrow I have my MOPS meeting, which I love. The topic this week is going green, and there’s a rumor we’ll be making our own cleaning products out of water, tea tree oil, and something else. Yes, the something else is mighty important, as I don’t know how great a water/tea tree oil mix would go over.
Our table’s bringing food this week so I am a bit of a stress ball. Comes from being a Deeter. Yes, it is genetically hardwired into me to think that if people don’t have enough to eat it is somehow my fault. I take it as a reflection on my hostess skills. It’s so bad, that even the weeks we don’t have food, I feel guilty if the spread is small.

The weather was beautiful today, and it motivated me to walk to the mailbox instead of driving up and sticking my arm out. What a great day to take a walk! My mailbox and front door were chock full of goodies.

First, and probably the best, was my Ebates “big fat check.” If you don’t use ebates, you should. Basically, go somewhere online to shop, make your cart, and then log into ebates. If they partner with the site you’re buying from, you might get a discount, but you always get some percent of your purchase price back. This is at no cost to you whatsoever, so FREE MONEY. They send the checks out I believe each quarter. So far, just buying from places I would normally buy, I’ve made $118.71. The hardest part is remembering to check ebates before you check out. If you’re interested in ebates, you can sign up under my referral link http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=iavZoaPromtjAXUpbOmaig%3D%3D
I think you get a $5 gift card just for signing up, but it might be after your first purchase.

My second box came from house party. I’m hosting a Pull Ups house party and I got my party pack. Not the most amazing party pack I’ve ever received, but I still think the party will be fun. I took a picture of the items they included. There are enough of those for all of my 15 guests. I hope the kids like the dance mats especially :)

The last box came from Tryology. If you remember, the last thing I got to try was an HP printer. Today I opened my box to find 2 full size samples of Secret’s new deodorant. I’m excited to try it out, I love Secret anyways and I love that I get to see how their new product works for me. I’ll be uploading my video by March 2nd. I’ll post a link here if you promise not to make fun of how dorky I look on camera!

Valentine's

Our Boring Pre Valentine's Table

Amazing ;)

An extra pic....the final results of our superbowl cake


What what all my Valentine's Day People!!! Yes, I admit it, I love Valentine's day. I am not one of those people that complain it's a Hallmark holiday, yada, yada, yada. In fact, I actually like a chance to remind my family how much I love them. Oh yes, and I like getting gifts. I usually get some pretty great ones too, since the Valentine's Day of 2001 debacle. You know, the one where I said I didn't need anything for Valentine's day, so I got nothing, and proceeded to be hurt for about 2 weeks. Please remember I was only 20 at the time, but let's just say that one years suffering has reaped numerous years rewards.

This year was all about homemade Valentines. Oh yes, and girlscout cookies. You remember the ones that tripped me up around Feb 1? Olivia and I spent the weekend working on crafts and cards. Today I set our table up and we had an awesome homemade Valentine's dinner. No fighting crowds and waiting forever for badly cooked food. Just the four of us, some great steak, rice pilaf, and salads.

I included some before and after pics of the table. It may be gaudy, but 4 year olds love gaudy darn it!

I also included some pics of the coupon book I made for Olivia. This idea has been done so much in the past few years, but not by me and not to my girlie. I tried to think of things O always asks me to do with her, and made the coupons for those things. I also made Mike a coupon book, but picking up his toys was definitely not in there.

I tried to be crafty and take an old bottle, peel the label, fill it partly with m&ms and put my Valentine card in there. It mostly worked, however the bottle didn't fully dry after I washed it, so the m&ms got a little "melty" Mike said he liked the way they looked better that way, but I'm pretty sure he was just being nice to me for Valentine's day.

Short & Sweet

We just finished dinner tonight and Olivia asked her daddy if he'd like to watch a ballet dance before bath time. He of course says yes, and she says, "I need someone handsome to dance with." I love my little girl! You know, there are times when she drives me completely crazy, and then she goes and says something so sweet.

She proceeded to dance with her daddy, she said for the finale he had to lift her over his head like the "real" dancers do. It was somewhat accomplished, and she was one happy little girl.

Valentine's day is tomorrow, and I am so blessed to have my two little girls and one wonderful husband to love...

(Coming tomorrow, Ashley attempts Valentine's Crafts, lol!)

TGIF (okay, now it's TGIS!)

A Little of the Chocolate Goodness. This was after taste testing about 14 different types of chocolate

Wow, what a week. Let me just say that I love, love, love my husband. So much so that I never want him to leave on travel again. As you can probably guess, he went out of town this week. All I had to do was care for 2 small children for three days. We didn't have to go anywhere or do anything, except for Wednesday when I was supposed to work. And this one tiny stretch of 3 days kicked...my...butt.

Normally when Mike travels we have some fun. We eat out every night, and I let Olivia pick where we go. She always picks places Mike hates but I secretly love, like CiCi's Pizza or Chick Fil A. Due to my No Spend Challenge, we did not eat out this time. We had frozen food and chicken soup, and it was not nearly as fun! I'm glad to say that Mike does not have to travel again until April.

Another thing that complicated our week was the health of the girls. Clara was a little under the weather last week. She got one of those nasty colds that just hang around and make it impossible for little ones to sleep. Unless of course they are being held/cuddled in just the right configuration. Going into Monday I was already pretty sleep deprived, and then Monday night, at about 3am, Olivia comes in complaining of a tummy ache. I get her back to sleep, and Clara wakes up for a 2 hour marathon of crying and being held.

Needless to say, we stayed home and in our jammies Tuesday. Wednesday Olivia still wasn't better, so off to the doctor. What I thought would be a quick appointment turned into a 2 hour marathon. Have you ever tried to get a 4 year old to pee in a cup? We were sent for xrays, tests, etc, and....nothing. Just a bug. Later I started thinking Olivia was really feeling better but was faking since she saw she got out of school on Tuesday. Suspicion confirmed Thursday morning when she was sick but magically got well when it was time to break out the marshmellow cereal. No flames, we don't do marshmellow cereal on a regular, or even semiregular basis, but it was one of those weeks.

Finally Mike returned home and there was much rejoicing (for you MP lovers, yea....). He did make it home in time for me to attend an awesome mom's night out. I headed to Suzi's for a chocolate tasting party. I had a great time, we ate chocolate (amazing!), played games, and drank licour from chocolate cups. Ahhhh....bliss.

I came home from my night out excited to see how my ebay auctions ended. I was pretty happy with the final results, the work I put in turned out to be worth it, so I'm going to try it again with our fall/winter clothes come July. (Yes, I realize that sounds incredibly weird!). I shipped out a bunch of clothes on Friday, and a few more this morning. The picture is of a few stragglers since I forgot to snap a pic of the big pile.

It was a long week, but we made it through. Both girls are feeling much better, and I'm excited to start my Saturday fun!

Frugal, Free, Fun!!!

What a fun day we had today. Keeping with the no spend challenge, I made sure everything we did fit within my budget (ie-free).

First, I drug myself out of bed at 8 am (yes, but it's Saturday, my sleep in day!) and got ready for public consumption. Olivia and I headed out of the house and went to Home Depot to make a special Valentine's surprise for Daddy. They have these great kid's workshops on certain Saturdays, and you get the kit and everything for free. You can then spend money to buy paint and paint it, or you can go with the natural look. Today's craft was a heart shelf. It turned out really cute, and afterwards Olivia said she'd like Daddy to have it every other Valentine's Day, but otherwise it would be for Bitty Baby. I guess it's a joint custody agreement.

We headed home and picked up Mike and Clara to go to the next meetup, which was at Coldstone. Now, when I first starting thinking about this meetup, I figured I'd have to skip it. Either that or wash the floors in exchange for some ice cream, and come on, have you seen the floors in ice cream places? But then I was hit with my *brillant idea*. Yes, it deserves stars. Opening my wallet I found my Coldstone punch card, which was full of punches. I read the card twice to be sure, and yes, I did not have to spend any money and could get a free love it creation. Joy! A love it was perfect for all four of us. We had a great time just hanging out with some strollerfriends and chowing down.

Olivia and I then spent the rest of the day working on some snacks for the superbowl. We're making our own football cake (remember people, I am NOT CRAFTY, so please keep this in mind when you see the finished product). We drew out a design, picked colors, got our decorating tips ready, and baked the cake. Normally, I'd buy something at the store and open the box. Having to be creative actually allowed me to spend some nice quality time with my daughter. Not to be sappy but I loved it, and am excited to have the chance to do it.

No spend EPIC FAIL!!!

Starting with some before pictures of my freezer, pantry, and cereal ;) I have a weakness for cereal! Also, the $2.50 box of wipes that I paid for in January but arrived in Feb.



So last night I'm sitting on the floor playing memory go fish with Olivia. We had just eaten our dinner of bratwurst, potatoes, and brussel sprouts. I was feeling pretty good since I had finally used a bag of brussel sprouts before they went bad, and we all enjoyed them. Well, Olivia's enjoyment included some gagging and coughing, but she did say she'd eat another one the next time I make them.

The door bell rings and I think, "who trudged through the blizzard like conditions and unshoveled walkways to ring my door bell at 7:30 at night? I answered the door, and it hit me. The girl scouts!!!! Now, I usually love the girl scouts, but not last night. When the girl scouts rang my bell in January I thought, "what a great cause!" So I bought cookies from not one, but two scouts. The only thing that stopped me from going for 3 was that a third didn't ring the bell. I wasn't thinking about my challenge when I ordered, or the fact that I would have to pay for teh cookies in February. So I have to fess up, I wrote a check to the scout, since I don't think they have a payroll loan merit badge, and I'll be writing another check when I see Barb and Sarah next. The good news is, I still didn't go looking to spend money, and although I was forcibly pushed off the wagon by a little girl in knee socks, I am jumping right back on, and I'm not letting this derail my month.

The good news for my family is that they'll have GS cookies for Valentine's Day along with my not so crafty crafts. Of course I hope they like both equally as much!

***And tonight's dinner was soup & grilled cheese in case anyone's following that***

Just a cute pic of Miss Olivia for you to enjoy!

The no spend challenge is off to a great start! Helped by an impending blizzard and frigid temperatures, I didn’t even want to go out shopping anywhere today, lol  I was also eased in by fact that items I bought before the month started showed up at my house today. Case in point, my $2.50 shipped box of 720 wipes. I’ll have to add a pic later, but that’s a lot of wipes, a much bigger box then I was expecting.
For dinner last night I wanted to use up some extra fried chicken from the weekend. I don’t normally eat fried chicken; usually I buy it once a year to remind myself why I only buy it once a year. We had trivia, and I planned to bring pizza and chicken. My wonderful, fabulous, amazing husband went to the grocery store with both girls all by himself, since I had some other errands I had to do at the same time. I asked him to grab the pizza and chicken. Apparently, they don’t have cooked pizza at the store he went to, so he doubled up the chicken. 2 16count buckets of chicken. That’s a lot of chicken, anyway you look at it. Add to that the fact that 2 people on our trivia team had just come from Essenhaus, two were trying to eat healthy, one hates chicken on a bone, and yep, we came home with almost all the chicken.
For a few days we ate it for lunch, but I think we were all getting sick of that, so I sat down and goggled “recipes for left over fried chicken.” Apparently, this is an issue many people have faced, as I had a multitude of sites to choose from. One site suggested making chicken tacos, and that’s what we did. I included some pictures of the process and the finished result. Except for some tragedy with a can of supposed mild chili peppers, everything turned out pretty yummy, and I all the items I used came from our pantry.


Still to come....pictures of my pantry and freezer. These are the before shots, we'll check out how they look at the end of the challange!