100.00 holiday updates

It's time for another update on my 100.00 holiday.  I can't believe it's been another month already.  Wow.

So this month I bought the books for the children.  I got all four books for 9.00 shipped from another mama.  I'm very excited about it.  They are great books and it's one less thing I have to think about.  I need to find two more decent DVD sales for the Santa gifts still.

I buy for:

Squirrel:
Something to read:  Little Bear book
Something to wear: I spy quilt - I'm making these, already have most of the supplies and they are more than half done.
Something you need:
Something to share: doll and people house - this will be a group gift.  I hope to find a used bookshelf at a yard sale this summer and decorate it with different colors of paint and wall paper samples to look like different rooms in a house.  The boys love to play with the little people toys we have so this will be great for them and Princess will grow into it over time. UPDATE: I found a bookshelf at a yard sale last weekend for 2.00.  I will switch it out for one we already have that is made of real wood.  I will remake the one we already have into the "doll and people house".
Something you want/for fun:
santa: All about Dvd 2.00

Howler:

Something to read:  Little Bear book
Something to wear: I spy quilt
Something you need:
Something to share: doll and people house
Something you want/for fun:
Santa: All About dvd 2.00

Spider:

Something to read: The Sunflower parable
Something to wear: I spy quilt
Something you need:
Something to share: doll and people house
Something you want/for fun:
Santa:

Princess
Something to read:  The parable of the Lily
Something to wear: a dress and matching bow - I will make the dress, might try my hand at the bow too.
Something you need: winter coat and hat - bought on clearance at the end of last winter
Something to share: doll and people house

Something you want/for fun: Little tykes doll high chair. Like this only the tray is a much brighter (and cooler IMO) pink -1.00

Santa:

KOJ: Not a CLUE!  Open to ideas and suggestions. I have a plan here but on the off chance that KOJ comes and reads this I'm not posting what it is. lol

SIL: groupon deal*

Sis 1 and BIL: Have a plan here

Sis 2 and BIL: Have a plan here

Mom: groupon deal*

Dad and Mom2: groupon deal*

FIL: groupon deal*

*groupon deal 35.00 for 100.00 at a certain website.  Great deal.

100.00
-4.00 (All About dvd's)
-35.00 groupon deal
________
61.00
-2.00 (bookshelf)
-1.00 (doll high chair)
________
58.00 left as of June 21, 2011
-9.00 (books for all four kids)
________
49.00 left as of July 20, 2011


Now for extra income I had 25.00 in amazon gift cards saved up but I'm going to use them for Princess' birthday gift this coming month.  I will have one 5.00 card still saved up after that and should be able to save up another five 5.00 giftcards before crunch time in November.  Which should still give me another 30.00 in giftcards.  I did not end up using my gift cards for Sierra's gift.  I made her a dress and bought her a few flower clips from a wahm friend.  So I still currently have 25.00 in amazon cards.  I'm a few days away from another gift card and plan to get there before August first.  I haven't been going at it quite as hard as I was because the kids and I have been out and about more.  So I'm going to estimate 3 more gift cards earned before the holiday shopping crunch.

So my outside income looks like this:

Amazon gift cards: estimated 45.00
Inboxdollars: currently 19.16 - I need a 30.00 earned balance in order to cash out so that's what I'm aiming for.
Mturks on amazon - a new thing I'm trying.  We'll see where it goes and I'll update more about it next month. I did a few tasks on this and it took several days at least to see the credits and I kinda forgot to keep checking back.  I looked just now and I got the credits and made .15.  Woot. lol  I might try to give this another go now that I know I'll earn the money.  I can't find anywhere on the site that lists a minimum amount before "cashing out" and I can have the money transferred to either an amazon gift card or to my bank account.  LOVE that option.

Now go check out the site that this challenge originated on and see all of her great ideas!  The Saved Quarter She has some other great posts too about being frugal and what not.

Re-organizing things

The weekend before Princess' party and a week long VBS at our church I just HAD to declutter my dining room and playroom and reorganize them.  I'm happy I did though.  It was a lot of work and the house looked worse before it looked better but now it looks great.  Wanna see?

It looked like that.  See that corner in the left?  School stuff.  LOTS and LOTS of it.  In no particular order.  It just kept multiplying.  I'd had enough.  It gave me a headache to see it there.  So I posted on one of the forums I frequent and the super great organizer girls threw out all sorts of ideas at me.  Once I settled on something I thought would work for us I went with it.  Part of the debate was whether to even keep school in the dining room.  I decided to have separate "Centers"  the dining room is now our "Art class" all of our crafts supplies are still there.  The three R school is in the playroom now.  And after our yard sale next month we'll have a nature center in the laundry room for the kids to collect rocks and other nature things (no bugs or animals though).

So without further ado this was the end result of the dining room:

Soo much better right?  I can breath.  There aren't things all over the place.  It's so nice.  I also put up a bulletin board to the right there.  I haven't started really using it yet but I'm gonna.

Now for our main school area in the playroom.

Don't mind the mess.  This was on a day that the kids played.  hahahahaha  I totally crack myself up.  It looks like this nearly every day.  It's a mess.  It doesn't look like this in the after pictures though.  And I'm telling you that EVERY stinking toy in that room has a place that it belongs.  So we moved the kids' bookshelf into the living room next to the couch.  Because that is where we read so our reading center is in the living room.  That truly leaves this room for circle time and math, writing, phonics work.  Which is GREAT!  Oh and that table in the top before picture wasn't always there.  I moved it in here in prep to move school in here before I snapped the pics.

And after (Ignore the things on the table - I haven't quite gotten all the kinks worked out in here).

I'm weighing the idea of using workboxes this year.  I haven't made a decision about that yet.  If I decided to I'd get two more shelf units like the one in the first picture (in the corner there, see?) and put them one on each side of the table but like I said I haven't decided yet.  I don't think I need them but I can always re-evaluate as the school year progresses.

So what do you think?  I personally love it.  I'm very happy with it and I'm glad I took the plunge.  I LOVE having my dining room look like a dining room with some kid stuff in it instead of a kid room that we're intruding on to eat. lol   And I think it's worth mentioning that I did this re-do on a budget of no money.  I did end up purchasing the stools that are under the table in the school room.  I got them for 5.00 each at goodwill.  I would have had to purchase seating one way or another.  I need one more seat for the little guy but I'm keeping my eyes open for two more stools.  I guess I can't expect the kids to stand and do school. We already had everything else I used on hand and I just moved things around and re-purposed.

31 days to clean Day 1

I'm beginning the original book of challenges today.  I'm very excited about it.  Now that VBS and Sierra's party have been done and over I can get back into keeping my home and having more relaxed fun with the kids.

Today's Mary challenge is to create a Mission Statement for myself.  WHY?  Why do I want to have a clean home?  What are my priorities in doing so?

I want to have a clean home:

so that the kids and I can have a peaceful place to play and learn

so that projects with the kids - whether art or baking or board games - can be done on a whim because the tables and counters are cleaned off regularly

so that I don't have to feel guilty about taking an impromptu trip out to the park or the fountains or the library

having a clean house - esp kitchen makes it easier for me to get home cooked meals on the table every night

so that I can more freely invite friends over for fellowship

so that the kids (as they are getting older now) can invite friends over for playing

so that I can feel at peace in my heart that I worked hard and did my job each day

so that I can teach my children HOW to keep a home themselves one day

so that my family will feel loved.  

If I only clean because company is coming over WHAT does that tell my family?????  GAH!  No more of that.  

I really enjoyed the routine challenges.  Getting into a routine really helped me feel less overwhelmed and more in control.  I will continue with that basic routine.  The Martha challenges in the original book are more of a deep cleaning/decluttering set of challenges.  So each morning I will start with my routines.  Then sometime during the day (probably late afternoon most days) I will do the Martha challenge of the day.  I will read and do the Mary challenge of the day in the mornings.  I hope to update each Monday on my progress in both the Mary and the Martha challenges.

The Martha challenge today is to create a list of supplies I will need to complete all of the Martha challenges.  I will just look ahead at this weeks challenges and see what I need for the week and do that each week.  I will NOT be doing a challenge on Sunday.  Sunday is my day off.  

I'm pleased that the challenges are of a simple nature today because Princess and Howler have well checks this afternoon at the peds.  I'm praying that the ped will be able to tell me why my daughter hasn't been sleeping the past few nights (I suspect an ear infection or her 1yr molars or maybe both - whatever it is I hope it stops soon because I'm a zombie over here.)

Blessed

We were blessed to have friends and family celebrate our princess' 1st birthday with us yesterday.

Blessed that the cakes and favors turned out how I had hoped.

 

 And blessed to be the mama of

the fairest of them all.

Thanks to all the friends and family who celebrated our little darling Princess with us.  We really appreciate the love and support we have here.

 

Frugal Friday birthday week

So Princess turned one yesterday and her party is tomorrow.  Being a family of six and me staying home with the kids means that frugality MUST be queen in our jungle.  You saw on Wednesday that I was able to make a few colorful party decorations that will hang around the pavilion from the rafters.

Secondly we chose a pavilion that doesn't have a registration fee/rental fee - I just have to be the first one there to claim it for the day.  I plan to do that. 

Third - more decor and party favors.  Someone suggested I make cookies on a stick for party favors so I'm going to.  Each one will be decorated with a pink crown outline in the middle and have a printed thank you tag.  Those are going to double as part of the center pieces during the party.  See?

First I found these cute silver pails on sale for 50% off a few months ago.

I bought ten.  They were 1.47 at regular price so for ten of them I paid $7.37  What's great is that I'll keep and re-purpose these (I'll probably post about it later) so the cost is super minimal for that factor.  Then I went and got one package of this:

That one package cost 2.00 at the local walmart.  I cut each block into quarters and had two pieces left over.

Then I put the pink easter grass that I also got at the 50% off Easter clearance at walmart in on top of the green and jabbed the cookie sticks in to create a fun little arrangement.  I bought three bags of the Easter grass for a total of 2.00 for the Easter grass. 

I am 100% sure that they will look great with cookies baked on them. hahaha  I love how the pink grass ties it into the whole pink princess theme.  So in review these center pieces/party favors/future school supply holders cost: just penies under 20.00.  So each center piece is 2.00 or each favor is .50.  Not too shabby.  Totally cute and frugal too.  The queen of the jungle is rocking this party.

The day the baby came

This week is the Princess' birthday.  She is one year old today!  It's amazing to me even still.  I typed out her birth story shortly after she was born but it's fun to think about it in retrospect now a year later.

Now I was the mama of three little monkeys and when we got pregnant with baby number four I totally expected another baby monkey.  But soon after getting the positive pregnancy test I knew in my gut she was a girl.  I've only known with two of the kids which gender they are and with the other two I wanted a specific gender so badly that it clouded any kind of mama instinct I might have even had.  I knew one hundred percent that Howler was a boy.  100% positive.  Never wavered in that belief my whole pregnancy and there wasn't a twinge of shock when he was born a boy.  And with Princess I knew she was a girl.  I was afraid to believe the instinct and feel disappointed but I knew it in my heart.  Funny enough these two are so much alike it kills me.  They have very similar personalities.  They are my good nappers.  They both suck two of their fingers on their left hands.  And they look almost identical at 1yr of age.

Aunty Lynn and Howler

 

Howler and Squirrel

And they are both equally adorable in my Dad's arms:

I so totally got off on a tangent here.  Sorry.  The day Princess came was very hot and I was miserable and I just wanted to have this kid out but my scheduled section was still a few days away.  The night before she came I had some twinges that were the same as twinges I experienced during Spider monkey's and it worried me because when I finally had my c-section with Spider the Dr. told me I had a partial rupture and I felt that's what this twinge was.  Then I went hours without feeling the baby move and I spent a lot of time worried and praying.  So then I was having some contractions and I thought my water broke so KOJ and I headed up to the hospital in the early afternoon of Wed, July 14th.  My water hadn't broken but I was having regular contractions.  So they decided to go ahead and bring my baby into the world.  I still remember very vividly having to make myself go to sleep about an hour before the scheduled time because I was internally freaking out.  My other c-sections had gone fine but I still felt super anxious about going in and having the spinal and the whole nine yards.  So we got into the OR and they had a really hard time getting the spinal in.  We tried this and that position and finally I heard them say that if they didn't get it in this last try that we'd have to go general and I was crying and praying.  If they had to use general they wouldn't allow KOJ into the OR and then we'd BOTH miss her birth.  But God had an angel in that OR with us that night.  His name was Hector.  He made a suggestion for a position we hadn't tried.  It worked!  I was so thankful that a year later I still tear up in thankfulness.  He was one of the BEST nurses ever.  A short time later my baby girl came into this world crying up a storm.  A giant 10lbs 6oz and lots of dark dark hair with her bright blue eyes.

 We could not have been happier.  She was amazing.  And she was the spitting image of me when I was a baby.  It was like I gave birth to my clone and it was kinda creepy but that mama love was totally taking over.

Howler with Princess

Even from the very start they have been buddies.  She has been adored by her brothers the entirety of her little life and I get so much pleasure watching them all together each day.

Happy Birthday sweet Princess girl!  I adore you still!  Who wouldn't?  Look at her!

Party decorations.... a tutorial

How to mess up er make party decorations.

First buy lots of extra pink tissue paper in the half off after Easter sales.  Making each package (which makes one pom pom) .50.

Second find the online tutorial for the tissue paper pom poms that looked cute and easy.

Third half glance at the tutorial directions and then sit down to get started.  You need 8-9 sheets of tissue paper.  And the tutorial I looked at called for a boning tool but I don't have one so I used a tongue depressor instead.

For this project you also need floral wire to wrap around the middle.  See?  You wrap it around tightly once you've finished the accordion folding.

Fourth forget a step, mess up another by not pulling gently enough.

Fifth - use it anyway, heh, she's only one she'll never notice the mistakes. lol

Six try again and this time follow all of the directions as closely as humanly possible and hope for better results.

 This was the step I missed the first time.  Trim the ends to a rounded shape (or you could make them pointed I suppose).  I like the HUGE difference it makes.  Also I did not use the boning tool on each fold either with the first one and that really made a difference with the new ones.

These ones turned out very nicely and I can't wait to hang them in the pavilion to add some color on Saturday.  This entire project for three pom poms cost less than 2.50.  Amazing!  Check back Friday for a glimpse at our thrifty center pieces that double as the party favors.