Today I finally have my voice back. I think it was about nine days that I could barely speak. The kiddos didn’t mind though, they couldn’t hear me when I asked them to clean up their toys.
Since I’ve been a little lax on posts lately, I was thinking about writing up a Q&A post. So ask away, and I’ll hopefully be better about posting this week.
There are only a few more days of preschool left before the Christmas break, and both of the kids have parties… Thade’s class is having a board game party, and we got Connect Four to donate to the classroom. I love the idea of the board game party, the games stay in the classroom and the kids can use them when there are snow days and they aren’t able to go out and play.
Dylan’s class has a big party on the 19th, and he can’t wait. We needed to send 22 little gifts early, and I decided on treat bags filled with holiday M&M’s. I had a coupon for them too, so they were a great deal.
The little treats turned out super cute.
Guess who else loves these holiday candies…
She only had a few, but holy-moly she loved them.
I have really missed crafting… Lately I’ve been getting back into the habit. When the boys are in school and Agnes is napping, I’ve been working on little Christmas crafts.
I decorated a window in our dining room with little paper snowflakes. I thought this would be a quick project. I cut them all by hand, and it ended up taking me two hours to get them all done.
They do look pretty when dusk rolls around.
Today I started working on gift tags for Christmas presents, and for Dylan’s preschool presents. He needs 22 small-little-bitty Christmas gifts for their party, and I think I’m going to go with candy gifts. What preschooler doesn’t love M&M’s
The tags turned out super cute, and now I want to make Christmas cards too.
It was fun getting to craft again.
It is cold and crappy out there, and I want a nap too. Lucky cat…
I said that in a really squeaky voice. I was feeling better, and then I got laryngitis, and I haven’t had a voice since last Friday…
So I haven’t been up to that much. I’m keeping pretty close to home, and keeping up with the day to day.
The little mess makers keep me plenty busy though.
She has been grumpy too. She had a bit of a cough, and some sniffles, and I though oh no, here’s another cold… Turns out it’s a molar, and I hope it stops bugging her soon.
The big kid had Pajama Day at school, so I let the little ones wear pajamas everywhere too. They loved it, Dylan had a blast running errands in pj’s.
Thade got his Yellow-belt last week at Tae Kwon Do, and he was so excited. He has been working hard to earn that belt. He has just a few classes left before the Winter break.
Last weekend I took the kiddos for a little road trip,and I finally got the house stocked up for December. If the weather holds out, I’ll try to do this again in January. I also bought myself an early Christmas present, we ran to get the She & Him Christmas album, but it was sold out, so I got She & Him Volume Two, and it is so lovely. The kids like it too, ah, hipster goodness…
But for now, I’m off to not say anything…
And how I wish I could snuggle up and take a nap like the lucky cat.
I’ve come to the end of my obsessive math experiment of Coupons vs. Frugal Shopping. Finally in November frugality had a win. I had planned on making a big stockpile trip to Aldi, but the month got away from me, so I used just about everything from my stockpile. When I totaled it all up. I was $30.00 less per week than in August. I also had 9 fewer shopping trips.
Since I wasn’t able to shop out of town I utilized my local discount shops. That has helped the grocery budget a lot. A few of my favorites are Dollar General for milk, laundry supplies, and paper products. I’ve found bulk-buy paper towels, and toilet paper that are always at a great price. Family Dollar is the best place locally to stock up on tissues, trash bags, and they always have great deals on cleaning products too.
I have tried my best to keep my trips very limited at Wal-Mart, this one is tough. They are the lowest locally when it comes to groceries, but the over-abundance of Christmas crowds has me making fewer outings out there. I try to avoid Wal-Mart on the weekends altogether, and I like to go when the oldest kids are at school.
I’m happy that my experiment has come to an end, it was fun, but my head hurts from the obsessive tracking. I’m going to take December off, and try to keep up with the frugal shopping, and making as much as possible from scratch.