Lindsay
My Secret to Being Super Busy at Home
My Secret to Being Super Busy at Home
Lindsay
Harvest Festival at Dollywood
Harvest Festival at Dollywood
Lindsay
North Chicagoland

First Easter Basket



We received Calvin's first Easter basket in the mail today. Aunt Jan sent it and made it and it is soooo adorable! I am so lucky to have such a talented aunt who can weave baskets! Inside she

had all kinds of cute outfits, socks, a bib, a bunny, a frame, and on and on...so cute and so very much needed. Thanks so much Aunt Jan!

Worse for Wear

Getting ready for bed last night...pictures really make you look at yourself and think, "geesh its like putting lipstick on a pig..." I guess I have just been feeling worse for wear lately, but with two little ones what can you do? Calvin is in one of his outfits from shopping! So super cute. The way that these kids grow it is just incredible. Big thanks to Nick's parents for clothes...and everything else. I have no idea what on earth we would do without them...seriously. They make sure to always take such good care of us and we thank God for such good parents. God is good, all the time.

Price Matching At Wal-Mart-?

I read this article BeCentsAble: Price Matching At Wal-Mart-Your Goldmine and am wondering if anyone else has ever price matched at Walmart? If so please let me know if this is easy or a hassle. Because shopping at one place with all of the deals listed in all of the dumb ads I leaf through sounds heavenly at this moment, especially as gas prices soar (seriously $4.00/gallon by summer? madness!) . So drop me a comment and let me know because if this is doable Walmart could be onto something!

Two Months Old


Calvin is now two months old and I cannot believe how well he is doing. The Prilosec seems to keep him very happy and he is now talking and smiling. He is even rolling over, can you believe it? Last night he only woke up once to eat and then slept, so we are getting close to sleeping through the night! My love for this little boy is growing so immensely each day that often times my heart feels as though it will burst. I am in love!

Such a God Thing


Do you ever have those times in your life when you just know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was all God? I had one of those Sunday and the goosebumps are still evidenced. This past week Nick and I were talking about our relationships with God. I was talking about my views and I said that being a Christian shouldn’t be about a long list of dos and don’ts but it is more of a relationship where you love God so much that your whole life is just infiltrated with him and you want to do everything to please him. I used the example of a marriage. I don’t do laundry and clean and stay faithful and cuddle because those are the rules and what you do when you are married, but I do those things because I love Nick and want to take care of him and make him happy. So yesterday we were in church and what example should the pastor use but the same stinking thing. I know that was like a lightening bolt to me. Because its true. We should love God so much that all we want to do is make him happy. We don’t want to upset him or frustrate him. It shouldn’t seem like a long list of rules of things to do, things to stay away and the such. Loving God just consumes your life and suddenly those things that seemed to hard to avoid and not do before just aren’t that big of a deal. My biggest problem sometimes is gossiping, specifically about people that I work with. I catch myself and think, oh Emma might hear me. But Emma is small and God is immense and can hear my words, and knows the thoughts in my mind, and the troubles on my heart. I desire to make Him happy because I love Him, not because I feel I have to.

I Wish Someone Would Give Me a Pink Slip...

...or a blue slip, or a yellow slip, preferably a white slip, but I would even take a risque black slip at this point. Just in case you were wondering, apparently it is now uncool to wear a slip if you are a little girl. At least that is the only thing I can assume since no one sells slips anymore...anywhere. Except Amish supercenters. But around here I have looked long and hard (okay not everywhere so if you see them anywhere let me know) and cannot find one in sight. I had a sure bet tip to go to Burlington Coat Factory to buy a slip but lo and behold they didn't have them. What is this world coming to when you cannot buy proper undergarments. The sad part is I am sure it would probably be easier to find Emma thong underpants than it would be to find her a slip for Easter. So if you know of somewhere I can find a slip for Emma, please let me know.

Spring Cleaning

Amy Clark, the writer of momadvice.com has a terrific blog up about Spring Cleaning that you should read...it is wonderful to know that I am not the only one getting the Spring Cleaning bug! While you are over there you should peruse the rest of her website...she has an amazing site for busy moms and women. Fridays are my favorite time as they are Amy's Frugal Friday's; on these posts she posts freebies available online that you can sign up for...who doesn't love free stuff? Amy and I live in the same area and she does television spots on WSBT, our local news station. So when she talks about deals at Martin's or the like, I know what she is talking about...just being able to keep up with people's conversations, let alone relate, gives me the warm fuzzies (like hey I'm not an idiot after all!).

Anyway this weekend I have big spring cleaning plans...not sure what those plans are yet, but plans nevertheless. So lets all get our fab rubber gloves on and get cleaning this weekend. You never know what you may find in, around, behind, under the couch. Maybe enough change for a manicure! But now is the time for Spring Cleaning as Spring isn't here enough to be outside but you just want it to be spring soooo bad. This will put you in the mood and then all of the crappy jobs will be out of the way for when the weather is nice enough to be outside. Happy Cleaning everyone!


The Stitches are Gone!

We went today and had the stitches removed in the Doctor's office. Geesh, I thought she screamed when they put them in, but oh how she screamed this time. They had to put her in a papoose thing which was basically a backboard which they velcroed her into...btw she was not too into that. Kitty came along for this ride as well which was oh so cute! So now the little dear is napping, oh how I love the napping.



My First Day Off

So today was my first day off and it has been a lot of fun. Calvin slept last night (albeit in our bed but we will deal with that problem when we have slept). Anyway, we've had a good time playing, relaxing, and actually getting some housework done. When Nick came home for lunch we all were nice and civil and acting like our well-rested selves...yeah!
photo courtesy of allposters.com...thanks!


When the mail came I was delighted to see that I had gotten a card from Jaime...yeah! I was so excited! She sent me a Napoleon Dynamite talking card which made my day. What made my day even more were the wonderful words she wrote...thanks so much! Did I mention that you made my day! I was floating on cloud 9 and still am from that! What made it even more perfect was when Emma pointed at Napoleon and said "Daddy". That's right folks, Emma thinks Nick looks like Napoleon Dynamite...I see a halloween costume forming! But seriously: Jaime thanks for thinking I am great; you are great, so I guess this is why we are family. And you made me almost wet myself as well...we'll keep that one an inside joke. That and "where's my tools?" That one I had to throw in there.
Tonight we (read I) am making Chili with cheddar-pepper cornbread. Yummy! Well yummy to me, not so much to Nicholas as he thinks I make the world's worst chili. Such kind words he says! And just to let you all know, last night at Meijer I saved more than I spent. Can I get a woo-hoo from the crowd please? I spent $43.23 and saved $51.00. Yeah! God is good all of the time, right?

Just Too Busy

Today I am so busy things are just really starting to pile up around here. I don't think that I am actually busy as much as I am completely and utterly exhausted and therefore even the simplest of tasks seem daunting right now. Tonight I am going grocery shopping, an event I usually love, but I am dreading it because of the lack of sleep and I just can't seem to get myself together enough to make a grocery list. I also need to do the vacuuming and laundry done and new sheets put on our bed. Calvin has taken to not sleeping in his own bed. We put him in there and he just cries. Very annoying. Also annoying is the fact that Nick and I are now so tired that we are jumping on one another about everything. Sorry baby, I love you, I forgive you, I know you forgive me and hopefully soon we will be able to sleep. Hopefully I will feel more refreshed tomorrow and I will write more. Hope you all are doing well!

Butter Me Up!


My frugal tip today isn’t so much a tip as it is just plain old boring common sense. My advice to you is to simply look around you while you are shopping at all of the options available to you. You never know what good deals you will find. My fabulous example of this is the butter I bought this past week while grocery shopping that is now neatly lined up in the door of my freezer, like little baby ducks. Cute. As I perused the dairy section of the grocer’s, I spotted a gynormous display of store-brand butter, all marked down to $1.00 a container. This was a savings of $2.10 per container!) The butter had a “sell by date” that was slated for sometime this week. This is simply the final date the inventory can be sold in the store, not the date that the product will spoil by. Plus if you freeze butter it lasts for months. I grabbed five packages supermarket-sweeps style and kicked myself all the way home for not getting more. However freezer space is a precious commodity and we already had 5 packages of butter in the freezer. Now, before you go and think we are huge porkers, I should mention that I love to cook and I have found that braised veggies, sauces, and roux's just don't come out the same with margarine. Have you ever had a margarine sage sauce? Um, let's not go there as it is just not the same. Plus I love baking cookies and in baking, nothing beats butter. So there is the explanation to the year's supply of butter.

So anyway, back to my point, take some time and look around you before you dart out of the store to run your next errand. I know if I had had my blinders on in the grocery store and had just picked up the shredded cheese I was after I would have missed my amazing deal. Take just a couple of moments to soak in you surroundings and see what deals there are. In our grocery store there is always a section of clearance items that often times harbors amazing deals. Things that are seasonal and therefore marked down, that you can still use coupons on. So stop and smell the bargains!