Stuff of the Day

Today has been a hard day. I have been struggling with aches and pains which mimic the flu for a few years now. Their cause is yet unknown, though the most likely culprit is fibromyalgia. On days like these when all I want to do is curl up in a ball and not do anything, I purpose myself to being productive on the computer. I did get somethings done today though, I sewed 1 wrap carrier with matching hat and bag today. I even dropped it off at the shop, The Kidz Corner in Oakhurst. Here is a link to my photo album on facebook containing a few pictures of the goods I sell in the store: Crystal's Crafts on Facebook

When I was done being productive/ was in too much pain to do much else I sat down and started reading my blogs I love. After reading up I found some yummy looking recipes I am going to try:

This Summer
We will be making homemade freezer pops. The recipe here looks refreshing and yummy : Citrus Ice Pops . I especially like the frozen yogurt layer in them, yum!

This Autumn
we will be jarring home made and grown pumpkin pie in a jar, God willing, and the extra puree will get made into pumpkin bread. A recipe that looks yummy to me for this is here: Pumpkin Bread with of course the alteration of using freshly pureed pumpkin rather than canned. If you haven't had freshly pureed pumpkin pie, you need to try it. Comment and I may put you on our Christmas list that we will be giving out jars of pumpkin pie mix to :P

This Winter
We will be making homemade marshmallows following the recipe here: Homemade Marshmallows with a twist, I will be adding crushed peppermint sticks and/ or peppermint extract. We will have these with a delicious cup of hot cocoa on those cold winter nights here. :)

That's all for today, thank you for reading!

~C

The Blessing of Children

Hi all,

I am set with an internal struggle right now. I am praying about this to try to determine whether this is the Lords leading or my own thoughts on the subject. Here is my dilemma:

Since I was a little girl I have always wanted to have a big family. My ideal was to have 4 kids when I got married. We all figured that I'd either have all girls because I am 1 of 4 girls, or all boys because my husband is 1 of 6 boys. When I had my son we all thought, OK so I'll have all boys. 2 years later we were blessed with my sweet little baby girl.

Since having had 1 boy and 1 girl I feel no need to have more children. I am not sure if this is because our family just feels right as it is, if its traumatic avoidance because honestly labor is enough to make anyone think twice about going through it again, or because we are constantly bombarded with the message, "You have the perfect family, stop now!"

Recently I received a revelation from the Lord, a renewed point of view on the subject of parenting in prospective of raising Christian children. It occurred to me that if the Lord chooses to bless us with more children, He'd be doing so in order for us to raise them in the ways of the Lord. To create more messengers of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I feel like He is saying to me, " I saved you to bring light to those around you through your children as well as through you!".

I am torn. I want to be obedient to the Lord, surrendering my body and life to His purposes. raising children to become strong soldiers for  Christ. At the same time I honestly don't know where I'd put another right now. As it is we only have 2 bedrooms, which works for us as we are, but if we were to add another child to the mix we'd have to change something drastically. And it seems that life is geared toward a 4 person family.

Any comments would be welcome.
Thanks

Discovered some good deals today

Hi all,

I discovered that you can get whisk laundry detergent for just over $2 a bottle at CVS this week. We were blessed with extra coupon inserts and were able to buy 4 for our home and got 4 for my in laws. Here is the breakdown:

CVS Sale : Buy 1 Whisk Laundry Detergent, Get One Free (8.39-8.99(he))
Buy 2 Bottles of Whisk 8.39 / 8.99
Use 2 $2/1 Whisk Coupons
Net Price = 4.39 / 4.99 for 2
Price for Each = 2.19 /2.50 each

Other deals I found today included:

Vons Sale: Sure deodorant $.99 each
Buy 1 Sure Deodorant
Use $1/1 Sure Deodorant Coupon from the 5/15 Smartsource
Net Price = Free

Vons Sale: Weber Grilling Spices Buy 1 Get 1 Free (4.99)
Buy 2 Spices for 4.99
Use 2 $1/1 Weber Grilling Spices Coupons (6/26 i think)
Net Price = $1.50 each

Pantene has been giving away coupons for a free bottle of Shampoo or Conditioner on Facebook. Today I was lucky enough to get in my request before they ran out which was awesome! That coupon should be on its way soon.

I also emailed some of the companies who manufacture the products that I like to use like Johnson and Johnsons. Many of them will be sending me packets of coupons in the mail.

I also talked with some ladies at my church and I think we will be using our newly acquired couponing skills to stock the church pantry which is bare. They have a community pantry that they've been trying to stock with donations from the members but it is completely empty due to so many people requesting aid with food. We will be donating items like toothpaste and toothbrushes that we can get for pennies or free. I am really excited about this new ministry we are starting :)

Coupons for Christ

Lately Jason and I have started collecting coupons to use in purchasing and establishing a stockpile for emergencies and disaster relief. Our grand idea is to use these coupons to buy items like toothpaste and such for rock bottom prices, if not free, and stockpile them so that we can send a suitcase filled with these items with people from our church who are going on disaster relief trips.

We have just started this operation and prayers are definitely appreciated. I am still figuring out an effective storage and organization system for the coupons. I am considering the method with binders and baseball card organizers. Currently my household couponing is supported by two small flex file coupon holders but I don't foresee these being effective on large scale, any comments or suggestions would be helpful :)

I am praying that this ministry that Jason and I are embarking on helps to spread the word of Christ and that through our hard work that God the Father be glorified. We are looking forward to this new adventure and as always Jason can't stop talking about it. Gotta love that man, when he gets on a roll on something he just can't stop. He eat, breathes and drinks the subject for months, he will wake up in the middle of the night to tell me a new aspect or idea. He is so cool :)
Crystal

Household Organization

Hi all,

Today I took a look on the net at the ways that some others have successfully organized and kept up their households. My favorite method so far, and I have yet to put it into practice, is one I found on moneysavingmom.com . It utilizes charts with todo lists and keeps everything in an organized fashion. I have a hard time remembering what needs to be done and this is going to eliminate the "what next" phenomena I often times suffer from.
What I like the most about this method is that everything is clearly organized and layed out so that each day, at each time of day you know what you should be doing to maintain a clean and organized home. I have tailored mine to fit our families needs. I found somethings unecessary such as load and unload the dishwasher since I am the dish washer in this home :P So I took those off the lists and added other things like unload the dish drainer... etc.
I rearranged my living room yesterday and finally got all of the stuff put away that had been lingering and in need of organization. My task for next week is to tackle the desk **gasp** and then my bedroom, which has become the storage dumping ground for all the things that we dont use right now but will need, i.e. camping gear, baby clothes in the next size up, winter gear like snow jackets and boots, and other things that simply are too expensive to get rid of now and get new next season. I am hoping to invest in a rubbermaid storage shed from Costco in the near future so that my house can get to a manageable fullness without all the extra storage of things inside of it that I cant get rid of but don't necessarily want in my house taking up space.
Tomorrow is church and coupon day so I am excited, off to bed with me. A well rested mamma is much better prepared to handle the days adventures, especially when they include all day excursions to the city :)
Good night and God Bless!

Coupon Clipping Mamma

Hi all,

I recently got in on the buzz that is extreme couponing, or in my case not so extreme though it is still really amusing. I started learning the process after watching the show "Extreme Couponing" and got into a few really useful blogs. My favorites right now include:
- dealseekingmom.com
- moneysavingmom.com
So far I have learned how to effectively use Extra Care Bucks at CVS to rake in great deals on stuff. Most personal care things can be bought by only paying for the tax with the ECB rolling technique I learned on the sites above. It is envigorating to go into a store, buy $30 worth of products and only spend $3 on tax for it all.
I will post my recent adventure to CVS in the near future, for now I am signing off.