Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day

I am going to post something very short tonight. Happy Valentine's Day!

My husband is making me Coq au Vin for dinner to celebrate. What a guy!! We normally go out on Saturday nights. But, we did not feel compelled to pay a premium for a Valentine's dinner out. Not to mention, our free babysitter, Alec, is babysitting for another family. Needless to say, they are paying him. I did not feel right telling him that he had to watch his siblings for free when another family was willing to pay him. I guess this may be the end of our weekly date night. We will go out when he is able to babysit, but, I am not going squash his entrepreneurial drive to make his own money. Given that his favorite hobby is snowboarding, he will need to make some money to fund what is becoming a normal thing for him.

Well, I am off for now. Happy Valentine's Day.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Bookclub

I am starting a mother/daughter book club with my 11 year old daughter. This is a venture that I have been wanting to do for a long time. It never seemed like the right time, but now that she is 11, it seems perfect.

Our first book is Anne of Green Gables. I checked out the one and only copy from our local library and told her to start reading so that I can have it. It was Hannah who suggested that I read it to her. At first I was apprehensive. I read faster in my head, I always get a dry throat, blah, blah, blah. But, I decided that this is her book club to and we will give it a try. So tonight on this cold Wisconsin night, we curled up under a warm blanket on my bed and read the first 2 chapters together. It was wonderful! It was 45 minutes of alone time with my daughter. Uninterrupted and quiet. Thank you Hannah for such a wonderful idea.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Today's Great Deal

So, I really needed a new pair of jeans. Sigh.....Oh how I hate trying on jeans. I happened to walk by Eddie Bauer and saw one of my favorite things advertised in the window, 70% Off! To make a short story even shorter, I bought a pair of $60.00 jeans for $15.00. How I love end of season sales. Happy shopping.

Simple Kids Give Away

Take a look at the website simplekids.net. The editor of this site is the author of one of my favorite blogs. The site is offering a free give away right now when you check it out:


You can find the Rockin Granola site on the blogs I follow section of my blog.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Frugal Acts - 2/1/10-2/9/10

Here is a list of frugal things my family and have done in the last 10 days:

1. Made homemade salad dressing

2. Family movie night using Netflix movies

3. Used library for book club books and videos

4. Leftovers. I can't say this enough, have a leftover night

5. Brought my own lunch to work

6. Husband worked from home one day, saving on gas

7. Paid cash for a major home repair, we got a discount for that

8. Let the last of my magazine subscriptions end

9. Had some meatless meals

10. Used cold water in all my loads of laundry, even those at the laundry mat

Tonight my kids really wanted dessert. I found that all I had in the freezer was about 2 scoops of ice cream. I like to let my kids have dessert, I think it actually helps in over eating and eating too much junk food. I felt that I needed to find a solution. Next to the ice cream was an old bag of mixed berries. It came to me, milk shakes! So, I used the remainder of the ice cream, the rest of the berries, added a splash of milk to the blender. VOILA! Mixed berry milk shakes. They were a hit, healthy and fulfilled their craving for something sweet.