Coupon Organziation :)

As I blogged about earlier I had a great shopping trip to Publix last week and did the coupon thing on a small scale. This past Sunday I ventured forth and attempted to organized my coupons and go at in full force. I figured, it's spring break, I'm home, why not? (Aside from a wonderful 2 year old tantrum in Publix, it was quite wonderful!) I purchased an entire cart full of food for $60.84 and saved a total of $72.33! I didn't do quite as much at Target, but not bad nonetheless. I spent $23 and save $28.

So after being stoked about it, I came home and re-organized my already cut out coupons into a nice little system. I even broke out my label maker yesterday during Mason's nap time and was able to get it all filed and set up to make finding my coupons a little easier. I'm still working on organizing my large fliers with the coupons from Sunday's paper. I can't find a cute enough system, but I'll get there.

Yes, it's blue. Mason was shopping with me when I bought it and insisted it be blue. :)

My copy cat

So whichever parent doesn't think their kid is watching them all the time, thing again! My little guy pays a lot of attention to the things I do in my "hobby" time. This morning while he was playing on his own, I went to finish a little diaper sack project to use today and when I turned around to talk to him he climbed into a chair and started taking pictures of the snack bags I finished last night, then took them to the ironing board to iron them and then went over to the sewing machine to finish sewing. His process is a little backwards, but he knows how to mimic mommy. He was so cute, instead of saying "sewing," he kept telling me he was "cleaning." If you haven't guessed yet, I do a lot of that too for him to know the word :) Now if only I could get him to do the work for me!

Starting out spring break!

Busy weekend to kick off spring break! We started the morning at PUMC for an Easter Egg Hunt and festival, came home for a quick lunch and then headed out to Busch Gardens for the afternoon followed by dinner with and old college friend at our favorite college wing hangout. Whew! I'm tried again just from remembering about it. It's been so busy I haven't had a change to post pictures yet. They'll come soon. So loving this week at home!

WhooHoo! Couponing at work.

So excited! For the last few weeks I've been working on trimming our meager family budget even more in hopes of saving money for a few "wants." Part of my plan is to be trimming money on groceries by using coupons. My girlfriend Kara introduced me to SouthernSavers. I read it and started trying to figure it out, much to my frustration. So after a few weeks I was feeling too overwhelmed and frustrated and was ready to give it up.

Then this past weekend I saw some coupons for some baby items, (which I no longer need) but was going to pass on to our tech guy at work whose wife is expecting. So I handed them to him in passing and told him to give them to Courtney.... anyways, he came to my classroom, we started chatting and he brought up the couponing issue. So after explaining my frustration he sat down and showed me how to do it the right way. Turns out my superior organization was biting me in the butt because I was organizing myself the wrong way. So now that I've gotten a better handle on things, and did some more research. I went tonight after Hitched and gave it a try the right way. So when I checked out I paid $12.04 for my groceries and save $33.46! Not bad if I do say so myself. Definitely going to keep going at it.

This is my world

So much in my world was different before Little Man. Especially getting ready for work in the morning. These shots were taken this morning while we were getting ready. 

Apparently baby Moose was thirsty and needed Little Man's milk. They were patiently waiting to leave the house. 

Yes, this is my wine rack in my china cabinet. No, there is no wine, Nana's not here to visit yet. Yes, there is a lot of dust there; one of the obvious differences of having a child. Now I don't have time to dust places like this anymore. Yes, those are all his trains from his train table.

I'm just waiting for the meltdown when he goes to play with his trains and forgets where he put them.

Wouldn't change my world for anything. Better go, there is a 2 year old tantrum happening in my kitchen.

Wee Cycle It!

I've heard about Wee Cycle It! before, and I've never been able to go because the hours always were when I worked, and by the weekend, it never seemed to work out. This last week our Hitched group was skimpy because of everyone's schedules, so we canceled our study and decided to just hang out and goof off. Of course the boys and Leah were engrossed in playing video games so that left Kara and I on our own. Which was great since she had 2 pre-event passes to the sale. 

Mason has a plethora of toys, so I didn't really go in hopes of finding anything at all, I really thought it would just be cool to check out the entire event. Well, of course it would be the time I find some great deals. 

I picked up a Leap Frog Leapster game player, 4 games, and a case for $38. Now granted Mason in no way needs this now, but these suckers are expensive! Even on Black Friday sales you can only get the system for $35 plus the fact that the games are $25 each plus the cost of a case. So to get it all for such a price, and one that works, was in good shape, not dented, broken, etc. I was stoked :) 

It's going into the closet for next year when I'll be able to give it to him, or until needed. I've always told Tim, I'd rather get a good deal today and have some extra cash put away for it, than to have to pay full price later for an item later when we need it. 

So needless to say I was happy about it. Plus I got a small little iron and ironing board for $3. Granted most moms may not buy one for their little boy, but daddy helps out with getting clothes ironed in the morning and Mason sees ours out all the time near my sewing station, so I figured it was okay. Plus it's blue.  Want to see the picture? Click here.

Weekend fun

       So one of the many struggles of being a working  mom is that in the short span of a weekend, I have to accomplish everything I should have doen throughout the week such as laundry, groceries, cleaning the house, paying bills, spending time with friends, family, activities, parties, church, planning for the week ahead, and getting some quality time with my big and little guy. Tall order for most weekends, but I do get some in there that seem to go super well. This weekend was one of those! 

In the span of the last 48 hours I've: 

* Made dinner for an old friend and her girls

* Sewed her a gift, watched the kiddos, cleaned up toys scattered around the house in play, and chatted for hours

* Driven to Ft. Myers for hours at Chuck E. Cheese for a cousin's party

* Hit some stores in the outlet to scout out deals for Mason next winter (love the clearance at Children's Place!)

* Made dinner for my hubby

* Went to church

* Spent some time catching up with the hubby

* Nap (love nap time when it's pouring rain)

* Cuddle time with my little guy, doesn't happen always! (See the story below)

* 5 loads of laundry

* Cleaned almost EVERY dish in my house (yes, they were almost all dirty :( )

* Investigated coupons and deals for the week

* Organized patterns and sewing things

* Hit up Target, Sams, and Publix

* Dinner 

* Updated Mason's blog for Nana 

* Made a pattern for The Woobie Shop

* Blogged a little bit for the store

* Sewed 10 more new snack bags

* Chatted with my mom and filled her in on the goings on here

* Now catching up and chilling out for me

     This has been one busy, yet successful weekend. I'm sure that there are at least a dozen more things I'd like to and should get done before I go back to work tomorrow, but the break is coming up and it will have to wait. 

        So my little love story for the day..... Mason woke up from his nap and snuck into our room, where we were napping and alerted up to his immediate need for juice. So while Daddy went to get juice, he told Mason to lie down and snuggle Mama. If you know anything about my kid, he is not a snuggler, he can't sit still that long. Even in his sleep he moves too much :) But low and behold, Mason laid down next to me, wrapped his arm around my neck and whispered, "Mama, my mama." Sweet little memory I want to make sure and hold on to. So nice to be his mama, even when we have difficult days.

Going too fast

It's been 17 days since my last post and I felt like it was just yesterday. The days keep going faster, lists get longer and and responsibilities get longer. I wish I could just pause and take a break. I've meant several times to write a post about something fun that happened during one day or the next and then something would happen and I'd never get to it. So just a few fun recaps :)

* We got the phone call that we can register Mason for the 3 year old class at the preschool we wanted to get him in next year! Whoo hoo! We go Monday to register him :) Amazing how quickly you want specific things for your children.

* Mason has been jiber and jabbering away the past few weeks. His vocabulary has been growing in leaps and bounds and it's such a joy to hear him communicate. Some things make no sense, but he'll get there.

* Tim got a second job working in the financial business and has been enjoying his classes, so hopefully he'll be able to test for his first license here soon.

* Testing at work is almost over so now I can get into some more creative projects with my kiddos.

* My kiddos in my church pre-school class have seen me enough times now to where we have been having a great time on Sunday's when I'm in there.

* My big sister came down to Tampa and we met her up there for lunch to spend the day. So much fun to visit with her.

* 2 months till our vacation trip to visit Nana!