Putting Things Into Perspective

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Philippians 4:6 (NLT)

Thank y'all for the prayers and well wishes! I won't know the results of the CT scan until I meet with the otolaryngologist (whew! that's a mouthful LOL! the ear, nose and throat guy) next week. But the scan itself only took a couple of minutes. Literally, 2 minutes. And completely painless of course.

Yesterday, I received some news about one of my dear, sweet friends on my Mommy board. She just learned she has breast cancer. She has two young boys, her oldest Clayton's age and her youngest probably around Reedy's age. And now she's facing one of the toughest battles any woman could face. Hearing that ugly word no one ever wants to hear.

Hearing this devastating news made me realize just how much I worry and fret over absolutely small things. The amount of emotional energy it expends, the stress it creates. What a waste that I would worry myself over what I know to be a painless, simple procedure, when this Momma is now living with the reality of cancer. Looking at the beautiful faces of her boys while dealing with such uncertainty and fear. I have many things to be thankful for. Why spend time worrying when I could be spending time giving thanks?

My thoughts and prayers go out to you Suzy. You can beat this!

It's My Turn

As a Mom, trips to the doctor are commonplace. If I'm not making appointments with the pediatrician for the kids, I'm scheduling appointments for my own Mom or reminding Dave to go in for his. It's not very often I look after my own care. In fact, I usually only go to the doctor if I'm pregnant or in need of antibiotics for a sinus infection.

But after years of dealing with ongoing sinus headaches and infections, I decided to see a specialist. In reality, it was probably overdue. I've used about every OTC and prescription medicine there is for sinus problems. But after my latest sinus infection a few weeks ago, I finally got sick of being sick and tired. As I told Dave, it's gone from being a medical issue to a quality of life issue. I hate being stuck in bed all day and missing out on time with the kids. With working full-time, I consider our family time precious. I can't lose that because of a sinus headache!

So, I'm going in tomorrow for a CT scan of my sinuses. For some reason, I find myself quite nervous about the whole thing. Luckily Dave will be able to go with me to lend support. I keep reminding myself that I've had three babies and epidurals with all three. If I can sit still long enough to have someone push a needle into a microscopic space in my spine while I'm having contractions, then I can deal with being still during a painless procedure. But of course, there's the "what if". What if they find something else wrong in the process of scanning my sinuses. I really shouldn't let my mind go there. But I have a tendency to do that. Dave always gets on me about worrying over things BEFORE I even have something to worry about.

Wish me luck!

Our First Harvest!

Remember our little baby 'mater growing in our container garden? Well, he grew up into a delicious little sweet red delight! I'm not much on raw tomatoes unless they're in salad, on tacos or in salsa. And with the recent salmonella scare, I haven't bought a fresh tomato from the grocery store in months. But this...was just soooo good! So sweet and flavorful! If tomatoes out of the grocery store tasted as good as our little one did, I would probably like tomatoes LOL! Even the kids loved it. I think it really does make a difference when they are involved in the growing and care of their food.

Now that our first tomato has been picked, there's another small patio tomato coming in. It's almost as if the plant can only focus on growing one tomato at a time LOL! We also have two roma tomatoes coming in as well! The peppers...still not looking good :( Oh well, maybe next year on the peppers. I've been talking with Dave and next year, we're thinking about using part of the space near the house to plant veggies instead of flowers or bushes. Then I'll reuse my containers for growing herbs. Because one small pot of sweet basil is just not enough!

Menu Plan Monday - July 28th

Good morning y'all! I feel like I'm going slow this morning still trying to get back into the groove of things. Still recovering a bit from all the triple coupon fun at Harris Teeter last week. I saved $97 and got lots of freebies!

Here's this week's menu. You'll see some repeats from last week as the sales were only so-so. We did try quinoa for the first time last night! It's suppose to be a really good source of protein. It was good! I can't wait to try it in more dishes. Ashleigh & Clayton weren't too fond of it, but Reedy loved it! He's such a good eater. Makes a Momma smile to see her baby eating spinach and other healthy foods. Here's hoping it lasts into toddlerhood LOL!

For more meal plan ideas, visit Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Breakfast & Lunch - Items already on hand

Dinner:

Saturday - Crockpot Potato Chowder

Sunday - Crockpot Chicken & Quinoa (from The Nourishing Gourmet)

Monday - Smoked Sausage, Green Beans & Potatoes

Tuesday - Taco Style Lentils & Rice served in warmed, hard taco shells with sour cream, lettuce, shredded cheese & salsa

Wednesday - BBQ Turkey Meatballs with brown rice & steamed veggies

Thursday - Caribbean Jerk Chicken Breasts with Pineapple salsa (subbing chicken breast for pork chops and using salsa recipe)

Friday - Breakfast for Dinner!

Super Savings Saturday - HT Triples!

Items purchased during the first shop!

This Thursday thru Saturday, our Harris Teeter ran their triple coupon promotion!!! This is an exciting event for us couponers. We have great doubles here, but with triple coupons it rocks! During triples, Harris Teeter will triple the value of any coupon .99 or less. For example, a .75 off coupon during regular doubles is worth $1.50 off. But for triples, it's worth $2.25 off! And when you combine that with a sale, it means FREE!

Here's my scores from triples:

3 Honey Nut Chex cereals -- .74 ea after Q

3 Chocolate Chex cereals -- .74 ea

3 Windex -- FREE!

2-5lb bag White Lily flour -- 1.44

3 Smart Balance popcorns -- FREE!

3 Wishbone Bountiful salad dressings -- .74 ea (will get $2 off meat for these!)

1 Domino light brown sugar -- FREE!

4 Clif Kids Organic snack bars -- FREE!

3 Kotex pantiliners 20ct -- FREE!

8 Daisy sour creams 8oz -- FREE!

6 Mott's Plus applesauce 4pks -- 1.93 for 2-4pks

2 cans Dole Mandarin oranges 11oz -- .93 ea

3 Lipton tea bags 16ct -- FREE!

3 Right Guard deos -- .25 ea

3 Suave body washes -- .49 ea

1 Chex Chocolate cereal -- FREE! (on sale at other HT location)

3 Fleischmann's yeast strips 3ct -- .64ea

1 French's Worcestershire sauce -- .74

3 Powerade 32oz -- FREE!

3 Beech Nut yogurt juice blends -- FREE!

Other HT deals:

1-5lb bag of potatoes (sale 3.50)

2-16 oz fresh strawberries (sale BOGO)

2 Kraft cheese singles (sale 2.00 - 1/2 Q)

2 Philadelphia cream cheese (sale 2.50 - 1/2 Q)

3 gallons Organic Valley milk (5.99 -1/1 Q)

Total oop: $42.71

Total savings: $97.09!!!

Frugal Friday - Right On Target!

I just love Target! I get the warm fuzzies just being there LOL! We have about 5 Targets in reasonable driving distance from us. Of every shape and size - Super Target, Target Greatlands, Targets with Starbucks, Targets without. One of my favorite things to do at Target, is to scout out their clearances looking for super cheap gems!

The baby & toddler clothing department is my absolute favorite clearance spot. There's always a 30%-50% off rack. But if you stay on the lookout, you'll find those $1 or less items. The toddler boys Circo camo shorts pictured above were just .98 each! I also scored a pair of cargo shorts for Clayton and two pairs of solid colored shorts for Ashleigh (one for this summer and the size up for next summer) for .98 as well!

Another fav are the holiday clearance items. When it comes to the after holiday stuff, I'm usually on the lookout for clothes and toys. Would you believe the "cutie pie" shirt above is a 4th of July shirt? Because it was apart of the Target 4th of July items, I was able to pick it up for 90% off -- just .40! When it comes to the holiday clothing, I look for items that aren't too holiday-ish, so they can be worn at anytime. I found some similarly discounted shirts for Ash after Valentine's Day. The shirts do have hearts on them, but little girls and hearts go together anytime of the year not just Valentine's Day.

Of course everyone knows about the after Christmas toy clearance. But did you know that's not the only time to pick up good deals on toys? During the after Easter clearance sale, I picked up a Transformer Mr. Potato Head for $2.49 for Clayton and a Disney Princess cloth Easter basket for Ashleigh for the same price. The Princess Easter basket will be repurposed as a gift basket for Christmas. And I'm sure Ashleigh will find it filled with Disney Princess dolls and accessories this year under the Christmas tree ;) Earlier this month with the summer clearance items, I found a cute baseball mitt and ball set for Clay. It's not an honest to goodness baseball glove, but for a 3yo with a budding interest in baseball, I think he'll be happy to find it under the Christmas tree. And don't forget Halloween! Last year after Halloween, I scored a bunch of Cars die cast for Clayton and a couple of My Little Ponies for Ashleigh. And clearance costumes make great dress up outfits!

One last note - food. If your Target carries food, be sure to check out the endcaps or displays at the end of the aisle. You'll find some great markdowns on food items. The other day, I spotted cans of baking soda marked down to .79 each! And with my Targets, I've been able to use coupons on clearanced food or HBA items for even more savings!

One Down, One to Go!

Sitting in our driveway is now a paid for minivan! Dave & I decided to launch an early snowball last week to finally pay off the van. He checked this morning with the financing company, and everything cleared! It's now ours and we're back to having two paid for vehicles! To think before Dave Ramsey, we would have just keep mindlessly making car payments every month for another 3 years!?!

Now we're down to our last Baby Step 2 debt - our HELOC. With the money from the car payment added onto our snowball, we should be able to have the HELOC paid off by the end of the year. How great will it be to start the New Year debt free except for our house!