How to Recognize a Coupon Girl

This video made me laugh so I had to share...

"My Thing"

This is an "I'm looking for advice" post. So please leave me some advice. I'm trying to look for "my thing." You know, that little extra something that you love to do. Something that enriches your life, helps your family, brings you joy. Something that you look forward to doing, but doesn't take away too much from what you're supposed to be doing.

Here's the deal...I'm the type of person that does lots of "things" and each of those "things" have a special time in my life, but I move on or they just become a natural part of my life and are not things anymore.

Here are a few examples...School was one of my "things" growing up. I was good at it, I excelled, it enriched my life and brought me joy. Eventually I graduated from nursing school, got a real job and became an L&D nurse. And Nursing became my new "thing". Having a real job brought in great money, I helped people, I loved my co workers, I loved my job.

Then I had E, we moved to Texas, and got settled into our house. Right now in my life I can't go back to nursing because of Ry's crazy schedule and I don't want to put my kids in daycare...yada, yada, yada.

Fast Forward to now and recently I've had a few fun "things" that I've been into lately. The past year I've done couponing and that's been a fun "thing" to do. It saves my family tons of money, I love doing it, it keeps my mind quick, and it teaches my children about the importance of saving and not getting everything you want right now.

Well, now couponing has naturally just been added to my everyday life. I don't really consider it a "thing" anymore, it's just part of the normal routine. So then I tried doing the whole half marathon thing. I had my daily running/exercise routine and enjoyed seeing all the progress. I accomplished my goal and then joined a local gym after the race to keep up the great exercise.

I'll have to be honest, I have been at all this week since Max WILL NOT GO to the play place so the jury is still out about that. Anyway...exercise just seems like part of the normal, everyday life. It just doesn't feel like my "thing" anymore.

Moving on, I'm also part of a book club. I love to read and I have a little bit of time when I'm waiting in the car to pick up E to read a few pages or I'll read a little bit before bed, but I don't really consider it worthy of being called "my thing".
Obviously motherhood is my main "thing" right now, but I'm just looking for that little extra something that adds a little bit of color to ordinary life. I don't want something that takes away from my family or is super time consuming. I just want something that I look forward to doing and do well at it. What are some of your "things"? Any advice?

Sad Boy

Max has been such a sad boy today! He has started throwing tantrums and it's not pretty! I found him like this the other day in E's dresser drawer. He was totally stuck in the drawer and couldn't get out. It was kind of funny to see him try to get out, but he just couldn't do it. He didn't get too upset since blankey was nearby, thank goodness for that!

Hard Work!

This post should have happened awhile back, but I'm just now loading the pictures to the computer so it had to wait. About a month ago we really started working on E getting a handle on having a few "jobs" around the house. We had him decorate a special box for his money and he picked something that he wanted to work towards. He chose going to Build-A-Bear to make his own bear. Let me tell you, he worked really hard. He kept his room clean, made his bed, cleaned his toy room even when his brother messed it up, did laundry, cleaned toilets, and he was even hired out by Nanny to do a few jobs for her. Well, after a few weeks he earned enough money to pay his tithing and head off to Build-A-Bear!
He couldn't exactly get any bear he wanted since he was on a budget and only had a certain amount of to spend. He picked out the perfect bear in his budget and started off the bear making process. He got to stuff him and put a little wishing heart inside and gave him a special air bath.The worker was asking E questions about what accessories he wanted to buy for his bear and E told him he only had a certain amount of money to spend and the worker was nice enough to give him a $5 coupon! Now, E, truly knows the value of a coupon and understands that when you shop with coupons you can get a lot more with your money so he was totally excited. Instead of just getting a bear, he was able to get a bear AND a cool basketball outfit! E ended up naming the bear Ethan...whatever. The sweetest thing happened the next day, E gave Max his old bear to play with so they could both have their own bears. What a great brother!

Minor Crisis

What an afternoon! Oh Boy! Where to begin? Well, I had a fun day with friends at an easter egg hunt for the kids, went to the library and to the grocery store. I came home and Max was already asleep so I brought in all the groceries, put him in his crib, and then started to unload. Well, I was starting to put the frozen stuff in my 2nd freezer when I realized that nothing in there was frozen!!! I was puzzled for a minute and then realized that the controls for the freezer are in the fridge and guess who likes to play in there...MAX!!! He turned off the freezer!!! My 2nd freezer is where I keep all my meat so I had all this meat that I couldn't refreeze. Everything was still cold so I had to end up cooking it all. I was seriously in a panic! There was chicken juice all in the bottom of the freezer and I was neck deep in meat. What do you do? I fired up my grilled, called up my friend, and we went to town. (Seriously, shout out to Chesney!) We ended up cooking 5 lbs of chicken, 2 lbs, of turkey, 1 lb of bacon, 3 lbs of sausage, and cleaning up a huge mess. I also have a 7lb turkey that I will be cooking tomorrow for dinner. I told my friend that she just got a crash course in freezer meal preparation. Thank goodness I knew what to do! So who wants to come for dinner?