Sunday Can

A couple weeks ago for FHE (Family Home Evening, you can learn more about it here) we talked about the Sabbath Day and how important it was. Lessons in our home are short for Train Lover to stay focused the whole time. For this lesson, we created a Sunday Can. It's a can filled with strips of paper that have different ideas of things you can do on Sunday to keep it a holy day. The list can be found here. Some of the ideas included writing letters to family or missionaries, reading about an ancestor, visiting a neighbor, and drawing a picture of what you did for the day.

Each Sunday we choose a strip of paper out of the jar and do the activity. We know he is young, and he doesn't understand what he is doing right now, but that doesn't stop us from teaching. Parents need to teach while their kids are young. As Alma 37:35 says, "O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God."

Today's activity from the can was to write in our journal. Two year old's can't write, but I knew he could help me do something. I talked to him about his day and asked what he remembered. Then I wrote down what he told me and had him color the paper after.

Here is his first journal page:

I know that it is by "small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6). I'm grateful for the chance I have to teach my little guy good values here in the home.

Gospel ABC Book

I've been wanting to make a little quiet book of ABC's for our Sunday church bag for awhile, and I finally got around to it and completed it today. I found a great website that had a template of the ABC's and all you had to do was add your own pictures. It was just what I was looking for! You can find the link to the template here.

You open the template in any photo editing program. I used the LibreOffice Draw program (the same one I made our Christmas newsletter on). I love LibreOffice! It's similar to Microsoft Office but it's free. There are a lot of features on it that I love a lot more than Microsoft's programs. If you don't have Microsoft Office, download LibreOffice here and you won't be sad you did.

Add the photo you want for each letter, place it behind the wording, and adjust the size so it's at least 4" by 6". All my pictures were bigger than that. I then added a border around the words to know where the picture would be once I cut it from the sheet of paper. Print the pictures on paper (or real photos from Walgreens) and add it to a 4" by 6" photo album. I got mine at Dollar General for $1. That's it! It's really simple and looks great. I'm excited to see Train Lover's reaction to it tomorrow when he pulls it out of his bag.

Here are some of the completed pages:

$5.57 for 9 products at Target! + Rebate Apps

Another great buy at Target tonight. My favorite store!

Oci Clean Baby was on clearance for $6.45 instead of $7.59. I also had a $2 off manufacturer coupon bringing the price to $4.45.

Ricola was on clearance for $1.14 instead of $2.29. We bought 8 packages bringing the total to $9.12. The Snap by Groupon app had a rebate offer of $1 off Ricola with no limit. I snapped pics of the receipt, sent it in with the total packages I had purchased, and within 15 minutes I received confirmation that I earned back $8!

So my grand total for all 9 products was $5.57, saving me over $20!

If you have a smart phone, download these free rebate apps right now:

Cartwheel

Checkout 51

Ibotta

Snap by Groupon

Jingit

BerryCart

Shopmium

Savings Catcher (if you for some reason still shop at Wal-Mart!)

Shopkick (not a rebate app, but you earn giftcards just for walking into stores like Target and Wal-Mart and scanning items if you want more 'kicks')

All these apps work a little differently. Check them out and see what you like. They each offer different offers, but sometimes they have the same offer so you can have double or triple the savings, and use a coupon! I've been using them less than a month and have already saved over $42 in my groceries, just from these apps alone! My favorite apps are cartwheel (seriously, Target is the BEST!), Checkout 51, Ibotta, Jingit, and Snap.

Once you've downloaded them you just take pics of the receipt from the store showing proof you purchased the item and let the app know which items you're cashing in for. Read the rules to understand each app, but that's how most of them work.

I hope you all download them and use them. I look at them before I go grocery shopping and I usually have at least one item I can redeem cash back for by the time I get home. So go out there and start saving tons!

Couponing at Hyvee + 97¢ for 3 products!

I've been obsessing over rebate apps for smart phones the last few weeks. I have to say - they are amazing! I'll share some pointers throughout the next few weeks but I wanted to share my sweet shopping experience tonight.

Hy-Vee is where I do my grocery shopping here in Iowa. I love it because of their prices, the cleanliness of their store, their weekly sales, and the helpful customer service I receive. I also love to get 'fuel saver' rewards for certain products I buy. Certain items give you 1¢ to 50¢ off of each gallon of gas you buy (up to 20 gallons). There have been times where I have saved $1 and more per gallon of gas at the pump. That's a lot of savings when you drive a van. And I get the rewards for buying things I use anyway! I'm getting off track now. I just love Hy-Vee!

Through Hy-Vee's website, or using their app through your smartphone, you can add digital coupons to your fuel saver card. There are hundreds of coupons you can add to your card that are sent digitally to your specific barcode (similar to Target's cartwheel app). After reviewing Hy-Vee's coupon policy, and verifying with an employee at the store, I found out I could use a Hy-Vee digital coupon along with a manufacturer coupon. What's even better is that most coupons that Hy-Vee provides are the same coupon found from the website coupons.com. That means DOUBLE savings for the same item!

Here's what I bought tonight:

Excedrin is $3.99 originally for a 24 count bottle. I had a digital coupon for $1.50 off, plus a manufacturer coupon for $1.50 off. My final cost was 99¢.

Men's Speed Stick Deodorant was on sale for $3 instead of almost $4. I had a digital coupon for $2 off, plus a manufacturer coupon for $2 off. That means I EARNED $1 for buying that. So it paid for my Excedrin.

Olay Body Wash was $3.97. I had a digital coupon for $1 off, plus a manufacturer coupon for $1 off. I also had another $1 off by submitting my receipt on the Ibotta rebate app. So it was 97¢ for the body wash.

So for all 3 products that would have cost me $10.96 originally (since the deodorant was on sale), I paid only 97¢!

Baby prep + Bathroom cleanup

I have a few friends that are pregnant and due around the same time as me, or after. Lately they've been posting a lot on Facebook about getting ready for the baby: baby registries, washing baby clothes, arranging furniture, and so on. I haven't done a single thing for this baby yet. I don't know if it's because it's the second one and I'm not too worried, or because I just haven't thought about what I need to be doing. But I realized that the next 3 months are going to fly by and I do have things to do. Last night while watching Lady and the Tramp with the family I made a list of all the things I want to get done around here before the baby comes.

Bathroom

• clean and organize closet
• make inventory list of items we have

Kitchen

• clean and organize the pantry
• clean and organize the cupboards
• prepare 72 hours kits for all family members

Bedroom

• go through closet and get rid of clothes
• organize paperwork
• create office in walk-in closet
• arrange room for baby

Train lover's bedroom

• arrange room for baby #2
• sanitize all toys
• remove books from bookshelf that aren't age appropriate

Living Room

• sell and donate books/organize bookshelf
• arrange room to become playroom

Van

• wash inside and outside
• clean and empty out the inside
• set up carseat
• prepare emergency supplies and kits

Today I tackled the bathroom closet. Here's what it looked like before (sorry for the bad angles).

Here it is after!

• I labeled all the containers on the outside so we now know what's inside. 
• I also created an inventory list of all the items we have. Now I know I need to buy shampoo and deodorant before our current stuff runs out!

 

• The medicine and first aid supplies are now separated. 

 

• I moved a few things under the sink that belonged there, like hand soap refills. 
• I threw away expired things. 
• I took all the towels out of the closet and moved them to our bedroom closet. We never use those towels because we love our Norwex body towels too much!
• I also got a big pile together of things I know we won't use and posted pictures of the items online to sell. I should get about $50 for all the items I posted! 

Best thing about cleaning the closet was figuring out the things we need and making $50!

I also organized Train Lover's bookshelf. It was jam packed with books before. Now all the books on the shelf are perfect for his age. No more red, black, and white books and no more chapter books. Maybe seeing the books he has will get him more interested in reading :)

All the books I took off his shelf. A lot, right?

I tackled 3 things from my list today and it only took a couple hours to do. Going slow and steady each day for the next 3 months should make my list a piece of cake to achieve!

'Better'-ings for a Better Me

I was inspired by Crystal Paine's blog post "Why I Bombed My 2014 Goals". It made me look at my past goals, just as I did last year (I blogged about it here). I couldn't agree more with what she had to say.

This year is going to be busy in just a couple months when we add Baby #2 to the mix. I know it's going to be a challenge adjusting to two children and I'm going to be frazzled and frumpy for a time. But I want to make it a great year nonetheless!

So here is to me trying to better myself and my life this 2015 year!

Marriage Goals:

• Put Brent and our relationship first
• Go on a date at least once a month
• Read 6 marriage books

Mothering Goals:

• Stop yelling at my child(ren)
• Read 1 book a day with kids
• Monthly one-on-one time with my Train Master (little one #1)

Personal Goals:

• Read 3 books every month
• 10 minutes of Facebook per day TOPS
• Get back to pre-pregnancy weight

Spiritual Goals:

• Be prepared for Sunday School and Relief Society lessons each week
• Visit teach all my sisters each month
• Go to the temple at least 4 times
• FHE every week

I'm excited about these goals. I have a plan of action to accomplish all of these and I really hope believe I can do it. I'm grateful I got a planner for Christmas. I've already stamped in spots to mark of some goals and glued in some monthly and weekly FHE charts. Maybe I'll blog about my planner another time. Right now I need to get to work though! The day is almost through and I still need to do some of these things.

Share some of your goals with me down below!

Messy Solution

With school loans being gone for the summer, Brent and I were left to our own devices to pay rent and bills. It feels great to work and make money and pay for things on our own without help from the government (in the form of loans and debt). I can't wait for school to be over so we can fend for ourselves and live without collecting more debt.

We were both lucky to find jobs with different schedules so one of us is always with the little one. I work at a local cafe, and am enjoying the work there, in the mornings and afternoons a few times a week. Brent works at a call center on campus in the evenings. We also buy and sell things on the side and are doing pretty well on eBay right now. And the plasma center is still enjoying Brent's service there twice a week.

We're both enjoying time with the little one (LO). He is not so little anymore. He's getting big, going down the slides at the playground on his own, working on saying words everyday (today's new word is 'bubble'), and just as happy as ever. Where did my baby go?

Since we've been so busy, the house was getting into disarray often. With Brent's strong encouragement, I came up with a cleaning schedule for us. Here it is:

We've been using it a couple weeks now and it's going pretty well. I love having something to refer to each day. It helps me break down all the mess around me and see what needs to get done that day. There are days that we don't get everything done on the list that we should, but it's still a help to get some done and see our accomplishments.

I thought I would share it with all of you because it might be something you could use yourself (modified) in your own circumstances. Do any of you do something similar? What are your strategies to keeping your home clean?