Bluebonnets To Peaches

We are at home today because all the schools in our area are closed due to all the flooding! I know I should be using this time to clean out a closet or something, but instead I’m catching up on laundry and reading my favorite blogs!

Laura over at I’m an Organizing Junkie, is hosting a contest for a chance to win the Taste of Homes Slow Cooker Meals cookbook for everybody that posts their weekly menu plan!  I would LOVE to win this cookbook!  I love using my slow cooker and I’m in need of more recipes for it since I’ve began working again!

Here is our menu plan for this week:

Monday: Pick your own night (I try to do this once a week – everybody can choose what they like as long as it is easy to prepare, i.e. leftovers, sandwich, chicken nuggets . . . )

Tuesday: Baked Ravioli

Wednesday: Tacos

Thursday: Crock Pot Chicken with rice

Friday: Pizza night

Saturday: Heavenly chicken lasagna

Sunday: Roast Sticky Chicken

My neice, who is a very talented seamtress, saw the aprons that I had made for my mom and myself and decided that she wanted one too!  Her sister asked me if I could make one for her for her birthday.  It’s always a little nerve racking sewing for someone else that also sews!  She loves butterflies so I wanted to find some butterfly fabric to use.  It was difficult finding fabrics with butterflies on them that didn’t look childish.  I finally found this pink/black print at JoAnn’s.  I think it turned out cute and my neice was happy to receive it!

I didn’t take any before pictures, but I thought y’all might like to see some of the decorations in my preschool room!

This is our “circle time” bulletin board.  The area on the right of the board is green felt.  All of the shapes stick to the board so that the kids can rearrange them and match the shapes up.  It took the children a few days to realize that they could touch the board but they love playing with the shapes!

This is our reading nook.  There is a bookcase to the left of the chairs.  Of course I had to find a way to bring some fabric into my classroom!

This is another bullentin board in the room.  The little hands will actually hold artwork made by the kids!

I’ll try to take a few more pictures soon to show you more!

I needed some spray paint for a project I will show you next week and I had a 50% off coupon at Michael’s so I loaded up the boys and we headed to Michael’s.  In the back of the store they had a HUGE bin marked 80% off everything!!!!  I was able to pick up some great stuff for my preschool class.  Here’s what I scored:

• Foam Safari Hat .79
• Package of Bells (all sizes) $1.99
• Package of Basic Craft Supplies (pom-poms, pipe cleaners . . . ) $1.99
• 3 balls of twine .39/ea
• 2 Foam Animal Visors (I let the boys pick these out since they were being so patient .39/ea
• Large bottle of Bubbles .59
• Bubble shooter .99
• Box of craft sticks .80

Total Spent $9.10

Total Saved $36.00

I have accepted a position at my kids school teaching 3 year olds in the preschool!  I am very excited about this new position and I have a million ideas floating around in my head about all the stuff I want to do with my class! 

It’s no secret that teachers spend A LOT of their own personal money on supplies for their classroom.  The school I am teaching at has expanded it’s preschool program for this year, so this is the first year we have had a 3 year old class.  That means lots of new supplies were needed and although the school has done a great job supplying my room, I want to be able to pick up things when I spot a good deal and start building my own preschool teaching collection.  I have been prayerful about spending personal funds and trying to remind myself that I’m suppose to be bringing a paycheck home, not spending it all on “cute” supplies!

God is so faithful!  A few weeks ago I received a letter in the mail from Chase bank with a special offer.  I have a checking account with Washington Mutual, which has now become Chase bank.  This is not our primary checking account, in fact it is an account I haven’t touched in quite awhile and there is a very low balance in the account.  The offer from Chase stated that they would deposit $125.00 into my account if I used my debit card in 5 transactions in the next 60 days.  The $125 of FREE money caught my attention but I wanted to see what the “catch” was!  I read the letter several times and all of the fine print.  There was no minimum amount for the debit card purchases, I just have to make 5 separate transactions within 60 days and I have to leave the account open for the next 6 months.  No problem there, I can do that and $125 would buy some awesome things for my room!

I headed down to my local Chase branch to sign up for the offer and get a debit card (I said I didn’t use the account very often, I didn’t even have a debit card)!  They were happy to assist me and my new debit card arrived in the mail within the week!  I have one more transaction to make using my card and then I should receive my “free” money!

I made a large purchase at Publix this weekend that I split into 2 transactions to make filing for the 2 different rebates a bit easier!  I went $20 over our $50 weekly budget, but I will be earning $20 back in rebates!

My first transaction was to qualify for the Kellogg’s/Dell Rebate “Fuel for School.”  To qualify for the rebate you had to purchase 10 kellogg’s products to receive a $10 rebate check and a $70 coupon code from Dell.  I don’t plan on buying a Dell anytime soon, so I won’t be using the Dell coupon code, but I will gladly take the $10 rebate check and the 10 boxes of Kellogg’s products for .60!  Here’s the breakdown of my transaction:

• 2 Frosted Flakes BOGOF, less $1 coupon = $1.50 each
• 2 Corn Pops BOGOF, less $1 coupon = $1.49 each
• 6 Boxes of Pop Tarts BOGOF, less 3 $1 coupons = .70 each

Transaction #1 Details:

Total Purchased $30.70

Total Spent $10.60

Total Saved $20.10

Total Rebate Submitted $10.00

My second transaction was a lot bigger to qualify for a $10 Publix gift card.  The requirements were to buy a minimum of $50 worth of purchases from Publix, including 4 different participating KRAFT products in a single transaction.  The rebate form did not state if the $50 spent at Publix was before or after coupons, so to play it safe I made sure my total was above $50 after coupons.  I’ve highlighted my qualifying KRAFT purchases at the bottom of the breakdown, I actually purchased 5 items instead of 4 and spent a total of $8 on those 5 items, earning myself a $10 Publix giftcard!

Here’s the breakdown:

• 3 Louana Veg oil BOGOF = $1.70 each
• Publix sour cream = .89
• 2 Milk $4.50
• Sun Maid Raisins (part of “buy theirs get ours free”) = $3.69
• Publix Raisins (part of “buy theirs get ours free”) = FREE
• 2 Fruity Cheerios BOGOF, less $1 coupon = $1.50 each
• Ritz Crackers BOGOF = $1.75
• Tostitos Chips BOGOF = $3
• 2 Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, less .50 coupon, doubled = .80 each
• Mandarin Oranges (no coupon, but needed for dinner this week) = $1.15
• 3 Mueller Pastas BOGOF, less $1 coupon = .31 each
• Green Onions $.50
• Spring Mix Salad $2
• Cranberry Sauce (needed for cobbler this week) = $1.45
• 5 lb. Potatoes $3.99
• Red Onion $.68
• 5 lbs. Red potatoes $3.99
• Grapes $3.92
• Pecans $3.49
• Strawberries 32 oz. $4.99
• Publix lemon/lime 2 liter $.50
• Eastern Peaches $1.94
• Publix 6pk water (this weeks penny item) .01
• Cascade Rinse, less $2.39 coupon (my coupon was for a “free” bottle, but I didn’t catch that the coupon only rang up at $2.39 until I got home) = $1.10
• Oscar Mayer Bacon $3
• 2 Kraft Velveeta Mac & Cheese BOGOF, less $1.50 coupon = .25 each
• 2 Kraft Deluxe Mac & Cheese BOGOF = $1 each
• Kraft Mircale Whip BOGOF = $2.50
• Kraft Honey BBQ BOGOF, less peelie on box of mac & cheese for a free bottle = FREE
• Used $5/$30 purchase at Publix coupon

Transaction #2

Total Purchased $103.21

Total Spent $60.61

Total Saved $42.60

Total Rebate Submitted $10

Our garden has been doing really well, especially for our first try at it!  I think the bell peppers have done the best, we have harvested 3 bell peppers so far and they were delicious!  Sorry, but I didn’t get a picture of them before we added them to our kabobs for dinner!  But they were delicious!

Here’s a picture of our not so great onions:

The onion stems were looking so good while they were growing, but I think I didn’t plant them deep enough.  Most of the onions were sticking out above ground and looked like they were done growing (the stems had all turned) so I pulled them all.  I’m going to cook them up to see how they taste, but I wish they were a bit bigger.

We thought our cucumbers were doing GREAT and just getting really big, but we discovered that they were actually overripe!  They must have riped while we were gone on vacation and by the time we got back they were overripe and we just thought they were getting huge!  I’m hoping we’ll be able to harvest at least a couple of cucumbers so we can try them!

The carrots are looking great, but not ready yet!

A friend of a friend asked me to make a shower curtain and matching towels for her children’s bathroom.  She came over one day and showed me the full size flat sheet that she had bought and asked if I could turn it into a shower curtain.  She had also purchased a matching pillowcase and 2 towels and wanted to see what I could do with those.

Here’s the result:

The full size flat sheet was actually the perfect size to work with! However, if you want to try this idea yourself, I would advise you to make sure that the sheet is squared off and the that the pattern is not off printed.  Most sheets are not squared and you may have to cut too much off trying to square it up.  I added 3/4″ grommets to the top and used the liner to make sure they were lined up.

Here are the towels:

I cut out the fish from the pillowcase and used “wonder under” to adhere them to the towels.  Although you can’t see it in the picture, I stitched around the fish in red thread.  I think they make a nice addition to the shower curtain!

This is an easy and inexpensive way to update a bathroom!

One year ago today we arrived in Georgia!  In some ways I can’t believe it’s already been a year but yet when I remember “living” in a small hotel room for the first 8 weeks while we looked for a home it feels like that experience was forever ago!

Although I feel blessed to have had a place to stay while we looked for a home and didn’t feel rushed to buy the first house we looked at, I still have no desire to see the inside of another hotel room for quite awhile!  However, when you stay at one hotel for 2 months, you do acquire A LOT of hotel points to use towards free stays!

After our first year here in Georgia I’ve discovered a few things:

• Georgia is really very pretty.  There are A LOT of trees. When we first arrived I was a little irritated with all the trees because I couldn’t see where anything was!  In Texas you can drive down the freeway and see all of the restaurants or stores and decide where you want to go and just drive towards the store.  In Georgia you have to know where you are going, or actually pay attention to the blue signs on the highway that tell you which exits have food!  Now that I’ve learned my way around I’ve also learned to enjoy the scenery and take it all in!
• The people in Georgia are VERY friendly!  Within a couple weeks of moving into our new home, we had met all of our neighbors!  The friendliness also spills over into the way people drive here in Georgia.  I think that people here drive VERY fast; however, I’ve never had a problem merging into traffic, Georgians are courteous drivers. (Just for the record, Texans are also some of the friendliest people around!)
• The climate in Georgia is really nice.  I know many people refer to it as “Hotlanta” but hubby and I both just laugh when people here complain of the heat! Yes it can be humid, but 85 and humid does not equal 105 degree heat! And besides it gets humid because it rains here . . . during the summer!  In Texas it might not rain for weeks and weeks . . . and weeks during the summer!  This is also why there are not as many trees in North Texas!  I did get cold during the winter, but it gave us a good reason to use our fireplace!
• I was shocked to discover that Georgians do not drink an abundance of sweet tea!  When you visit a restaurant you are offered sweet or non-sweet tea, but I always envisioned Georgians sitting on their front porches with big glasses of sweet tea.  The first time I hosted my book study group at our home here in Georgia I made 2 pitchers of sweet tea because I didn’t want to run out!  To my surprise NOBODY drank the sweet tea, everyone had just plain water!
• Tennis is a very big deal here!  Most neighborhoods have tennis courts and neighborhood teams. 
• Women wear bikinis to the swimming pool . . . as in women that have had children and they look good in the bikinis!  I’m assuming this is because they all play tennis . . . and to make myself feel better I’m also assuming that none of them had 9 pound babies

Overall, I like it here in Georgia. It’s not Texas, but then again there is nowhere like Texas!  I do miss our family back home and I do miss the awesome tex-mex but I think we are adjusting fairly well to our new state!

Here are my Pulbix deals this week, sorry there is no picture, but I had to get the Blue Bell in the freezer before it all melted! Since Sunday was the last day of the month, I was able to use up some coupons that were going to expire and stocked up on some sugar   I also scored a few things for free . . . actually Publix paid me to take them off their shelves!

• 3 Blue Bell Ice Cream BOGOF, less $1 coupon = $3.66 each
• French’s Mustard BOGOF .70, less .50 coupon doubled = (.30) YES, Publix paid me .30 to buy mustard!
• Chips AHoy Cookies BOGOF $1.63, less $2 coupon = (.37) YES, Publix paid me .37 to buy cookies!
• 3 McCormick Pie Spice (I found these on the clearance table!!) $1 each, less 2, $1 coupons = .33 each!
• McCormick Black Pepper BOGOF $1.80, less .75 coupon = $1.05
• Publix Chocolate Chips $1.79
• 3 Capri Sun B2G1F = $1.79 each
• Jar of Yeast $4.90, less .40 coupon, doubled = $4.10
• Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes $1.99
• Cap n’ Crunch BOGOF $2.25
• Dixie 5 lb. Sugar, less .30 coupon doubled = $1.49
• Dixie 2 lb. Brown Sugar, less .30 coupon doubled = $1.29
• Domino 5 lb Sugar $2.49, less .35 coupon doubled = $1.79
• 2 Domino brown sugar (2 lb total), less .50 coupon doubled = .49 each
• French’s fried Onions $3.69, less .50 coupon doubled = $2.69
• Sargento Shredded Cheese $2 (not a great deal, but needed for dinner this week)
• Daisy Sour Cream $1.29, less .50 coupon, doubled = .29
• 6 Yoplait Gogurt (the kids have been going through these like crazy) BOGOF, less .75 coupon = $1.27 each
• Milk $2.79

Total Purchased $99.60

Total Spent $51.27

Total Saved $48.33