Raising children is hard work.  Days, weeks and months go by and you wonder if you’re doing a “good” job raising them. (I’ve heard that in when they hit the teenage stage, years can go by where you wonder what kind of job you’re doing, but since our oldest is only 7 I can’t comment on that stage!)

Occasionally you witness one of your children do something without being asked or reminded and you think to yourself  “hey, we are doing a decent job!” In the toddler years it could be the first time your child says “thank you” without being reminded! In the preschool years it could be watching them share a toy with another child! As a parent you just beam at these special moments!

I recently experienced such a moment with our oldest son. We recently sold a ton of stuff on ebay and had over 20+ packages being picked up by our mailman in one day! It happen to be cold and raining the day the pick up was scheduled, so when I saw the mailman drive up I put on my coat and went outside to help load up all the boxes. A few minutes later our oldest son comes out WITH HIS COAT ON (he hates putting on his coat so this in itself was a proud moment!) and then helps me and the mailman load up all the packages! I didn’t ask, he saw an opportunity to help and just jumped right in!  I was so proud and I’m still beaming from the moment!

My neighbor recently (okay, actually it’s been a few months but I’m just now getting around to posting the pictures so just play along with me had a new baby boy!  She enjoys walking and I knew it wouldn’t be long before she and the new baby would be out walking in the neighborhood.  I thought a stroller blanket would be nice.  Because I had made the curtains for the new baby’s room, I was able to perfectly match the green she used in the room! A stroller blanket is made longer than a typical baby blanket, but skinner so that it fits better in a stroller.  Here’s out it turned out:

A closer look at the knit pattern:

I know it’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted anything and I have a lot of excuses I could give you but my absence in the blog world has been due mostly to the fact that going back to work part time after being at home with our kids for 7 years has been a big change.  I am enjoying my job as a preschool teacher but finding time to do all those pesky things around the house, like laundry, has meant figuring out a new routine for our family.  It’s been hard to find a time to fit in blogging, but I think our family has mostly adjusted now so I’m going to give blogging a chance again!

As I am coming to the end of my first semester as a preschool teacher, I’ve realized that teachers are really not given enough credit.  I know that we all “say” that teachers aren’t paid enough and deserve more credit for all the work they do; however, I truly didn’t realize how much until I’ve experienced it first hand.  Teachers do so much more than what you see in the class or receive home in your child’s folder.  There are hours and hours and HOURS spent preparing material, researching and making schedules! Oddly enough, I really enjoy the prepping part, it allows me use my administrative skills

I thought you might be interested to see what the hands (or in this case one hand) of a preschool teacher looks like at the end of the day – yes my hands usually look like this at the end of everyday!

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!