Whew! Still Got It!

We haven't couponed in a while for a variety of reasons including it takes a decent amount of prep work, our printer's been broken, shopping with kids and a plan doesn't go together well, and I've run out of extra "food" room!  But we're down to 6 boxed of cereal (which we actually don't eat that often!) and Gabe was getting nervous ;-)  So, I saw an "ok" deal on cereal at Albies and thought I'd give it a go.  Then I saw in their ad that they were rounding coupons up to $1, and thought "Let's do this!"  (I hate all those little "$.40 off 4" and such coupons, but make it $1?  YES MA'AM!) 

So we went last night after karate- and did fairly well!  Gabe was happy, even though I only added 6 boxes of cereal to the stash.  I found lots of other good deals (though prices have really gone up since my last trip!  $2.19 for a can of cream of chicken soup?  Yikes! But I got it for .75, so I'm breathing again ;-)

I'll try to get back to blogging- life is just amazing lately, but along with the fun stuff comes a lack of down time... and what down time I have I use for Knitting!  Yay!

Third Year's the Charm...

Finally, I successfully grew peppers.  I am happy.  :-)

I Totally Made Their Day...

Total I swung the cereal deal at Top Foods (read all about it here!) and picked up 11 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix and Lucky Charms for $6.15, plus another 4 Cinnamon Burst Cheerios at Safeway for $.98! It would have been even better, but I messed up a transaction :-) Oops!

But boy, when the kids saw all the cereal (Gabe was awesome and let me go shopping without them!)- their faces were the best ever! Both Melia and Kiera had open jaw syndrome, and Isaac started laughing and rolling around on the floor! I only bought 4 total of the Lucky Charms and Trix... mostly cheerios, but everybody had their day made! :-)

Another amazing deal at Top... Old Orchard frozen Juice blends (100%) for $.24 each!

I SO Appreciate My Husband..

I was reading today about a really good deal on boneless, skinless chicken at $1.59/lb. You have to purchase a 40 lb box, and you have to pick it up at one of the drop places. Unfortunately, the closest drop points are in Ellensburg and Moses Lake. I seriously considering it, but thought I should absolutely ask Gabe first.


I explained it to him, and he responded with "Well, what you'll save on the meat you'll spend on gas getting there..." I totally hadn't calculated that in! And when I did, I would have spent more on gas traveling than I had saved!


If any of you who are close to a drop point, this would be a GREAT deal. You can read more about it here, and a review of it here.

BTW, if you want it soon, today is the last day, and while the review says $1.48/lb, it's now $1.59/lb. :-)

Look what I made!

I made skirts for Kiera and I out of jeans that had worn out spots on them. Nifty huh? :-)

It amuses me (kind of) that every time I get out my sewing machine, I need my resident mechanical mind, aka Gabe, to help me relearn how to use it....

Fundraiser for our Homeschool Co-op: Deadline NOV 3

We do a gift card fundraiser to help cover our insurance and rent at our little co-op.

How it works:
1. You order your gift cards.
2. You send me a check along with the ending printout page of what you ordered.
3. The co-op purchases these cards at a discounted rate, allowing them to keep the difference.

I hope you will consider what purchases you will be making this holiday season and consider pre-purchasing gift cards to cover that expense. There is a huge variety of brands available- go to shopwithscrip.com to take a gander! Visa is also included; it's located under "specialty retailers."

To enroll/order:
Go to shopwithscrip.com and click on the green box on the left hand side that says "Family Sign Up!"
Enter your information.
On the next page, enter our enrollment code "C3936L9223618"
Go through the ordering process. Print out the ending page with your total and send it to me along with a check for the total amount.

November 3rd is our deadline, so as long as you order by the end of that day (Wednesday) and let me know that your check is in the mail, I'll include your order. I'd really appreciate all the help we can get! Thank you!!

***Another way you can support us is to enroll with your Safeway club card at escrip.com. Our organization name is Columbia Christian Homeschool Co-op. It's very easy, and all you have to do is use your club card when you shop! Thanks!

Good Deal on Aveen Baby at Costco

If any of you love Aveeno Baby products, right now at our East Wenatchee Costco the bath set (2 large bottle of wash, 1 tube lotion) is on clearance for $7.97. :-)

Opinion on Current (the catalog company)

I recently placed an order through Current. All of the items I received were fine, but one little coupon organizer was waayyy too small. (Gabe says I'm just not the average couponer...)

Anyway, I called to get a refund authorization like I'm supposed to before I send it back... The gal on the phone was friendly enough, but spoke awfully fast :-) The impressive thing was that she told me to give the one that I'd ordered "to my favorite charity," while they would send out the one I wanted to exchange it for. (a bit bigger... more my size)

I thought this was pretty neat- that instead of sending it back, they just wanted me to donate it and they'd send out the new one. And coincidentally, I just happen to know of a nice Spring Clean Giveaway coming to a Valley Community Church near you on May 8th!

(By the way, if you have items you like to donate, our church's Spring Clean Giveaway is a great place to do it. All items are free- it's our blessing to our community. Please only donate things which are in good working order and would be a Christ-honoring gift. Drop-offs can occur anytime between May 2nd, after church, until Friday.)

Breakfast burritos

Because I suggested it recently on another blog, I thought I would share my breakfast burritos cooking process. I used 12 eggs, half an onion (chopped and sauted), and 6 turkey sausage links we had leftover from a previous breakfast.Chop the sausage, and add to egg mixture, along with some milk. (I follow precise directions, can't you tell?) Add mixture to pan in which you just sauted the onions. Cook them up!While the eggs are cooking, microwave 10-12 tortillas until soft. Count out same number of paper towels and foil squares. (On a whim, we bought the precut foil sheets from Costco- boy have we loved them! So convenient!) Spoon desired amount of cooked eggs onto tortilla, and roll it up. Then roll it up in paper towel. Then roll it up in foil. Stack them off to the side until you are done, then put them back in your tortilla bag and label it right above the zipper. (I forgot cheese this time, but it's easy to add the cheese before rolling up the tortilla.) Then, put your bag in the freezer!When you want to cook one, microwave for about 45 seconds (NOT in the foil!) and then remove paper towel. Microwave for another 45-60 seconds. Let cool slightly, and enjoy!

I only had one casualty this time. But it didn't go to waste!!

Chicken Saturday: Part Three

If you're just joining us, you really need to read this in order. Click for PART ONE and PART TWO.
And, again. It is possible you will be grossed out. If this concerns you, don't read it!


...All the while, as I'm sitting at the girls little picnic table trying to figure out this bird, Leo is standing *right there* just waiting to help me out. Looking back, I feel bad I didn't think to toss him anything. I threw the carcass in the garbage after I was done- poor guy. He thought he had an easy meal coming!

I finally got the breast and one drumstick cut out, and after peeking through the ribs (?) at the liver, trying to see anything else cool, I called it quits. After all, I still had to decide how to cook this. If I even could! I bleach-wiped their table, tossed the carcass, and headed inside.

Initially I just rinsed the meat really good and put it on a plate in the fridge. I couldn't really handle much more at that point, standing over the sink with a heavy nausea setting in. I needed to refresh myself! So the kids and I went for my loop walk, racing to get back home after the sun went down! I made the girls walk, and it's 1.5 miles (I think-I may be wrong here.) Kiera made it about 1/4 of the way before she started whining :-) Her problem was that she was jogging the whole time. She couldn't just walk, she had to jog. But, we pushed on. Once we got down to the trail, I let the girls run along side the trail on these litte dirt paths people had made. This was much more adventurous than just walking on the trail, so it quieted the whining for the most part. At one point Melia took off, leaving her sister behind, but after we discussed it a bit she stayed together much better. One of my favorite mommy memories will be watching those little legs running as fast as they can go :-) Nothing cuter!

And... back to dinner. I rinsed the meat again because there were teenie tiny feathers everywhere. It's like doing venison and finding a hair. After a while you get used to it, but you'd rather it still not be there! After I was sure it was clean, I cut it up into strips and browned it in a pan, then added it to a pot of "teriyaki sides." (easy package of noodle sides that we put chicken in to make a meal). I browned the drumstick and put it in the oven to roast for Melia. This may seem boring compared to the rest of the story, but imagine being emotionally drained because you just murdered a bird and cut it's muscles off. Yeah- you could say I was brain-dead by this point. Let's skip ahead to the trying-to-eat-it part.

Oh wait. Insert another Melia comment... she comes in and sit down in front of my gardening book... "Well you did it wrong Mommy! Look here, this says you're supposed to take the feathers off it first..."

Melia bounced in her chair as I set her plate of drumstick and noodles before her. She lifts the treasured portion to her mouth, bites down,... bites down... bites down... and release. "Mommy! This drumstick is HARD!" Try as she might, she could not bite through that meat! She metamorphs into a little dinosaur, biting and tearing to get a tiny piece off, thoroughly enjoying the battle with all sorts of "yums" and lip smacking. That is, until she turns her back for a moment and Cocoa takes off with a fierce snarl and so starts a race through the house of Rose chasing him, me chasing both of them, and Melia behind me shouting "Cocoa stole my drumstick! Bad Cocoa!!!"

(Kiera's in bed at this point. She did not want her dinner. Apparently teriyaki chicken wasn't her cup of tea and he chose to go to bed after just a few bites...that walk really did the trick! She was out like a light...)

I ate one piece, for posterity. (Is that right? Is posterity why you would at least eat a bite of something you killed for dinner?) It was like rubber... very very tough. Then I cooked up a yummy dish of roasted baby reds... one of my favoritest foods right now. And then I made cookies. Oatmeal cranberry. Because I needed to make something with lots of sugar and flavor, and no body parts.

Later Gabe asked the guy who gave us those chickens how old they were. I thought they were just 2-3.... Try at least 7 or 8 years old! No wonder!
Thank you for all your comments- I was cracking up that my traumatic afternoon's events were cracking all of you up! (Or some of you anyway. I'm sure others were utilizing their computer garbage can!)

Saturday: Part Two

Again: WARNING!!! Graphic descriptions of death and butchering! Consider yourself warned!!!

...I held it up and finished cutting the head off, then let what little blood drain that I could. (not much came out...) Then I tried pulling the feathers out, starting at the legs. But the skin kept ripping. So I started at the breast- but it ripped there too. I remembered a friend saying that they just skinned 'em to start with, to avoid plucking, so I thought I would just do that. But the skin is fairly attached in places... and unknown to me, I didn't have the sharpest knife in the block :-) So I was having trouble. And the feathers were everywhere!

I got the breast open, and skinned one of the legs. I was able to break the knees and cut the feet off. Melia wanted to give them to Ziva, but I just couldn't handle that, especially the thought that she might bring them in the house. I was trying to remove more skin, but couldn't figure out how to get around the wings. By this point, I was almost totally emotionally drained and had no idea what to do... So I called Gabe.

"Hi... I just wanted you to be proud of me.. (gulp) I killed the rooster. And now I don't know what to do..." He laughed at me and told his co-workers. I don't know if I'm a silly wife or a gutsy wife, but I know I was a wife at home trying to make a dinner out of this feathery, bloody, heap of chicken body parts that won't come apart!

Oh, and did you know their fat is yellow? That kinda grossed me out. Along with all the membranes and "warm meat" feeling. I can do cold meat with almost no problem. Warm meat is weird. My problem was that my gardening book says to cut the neck down low... cut around the anus (!) and pull the guts out. Problem is, that's all after plucking the thing. I can't even find the neck, and I don't want to touch anywhere near the anus!

Gabe said just to "breast it out" and cut what meat I could see out and call it good. What I REALLY wanted to do was see all the guts. (surprised? I know- I'm sure you didn't see that coming.) I enjoyed dissection in school- I find it all fascinating... once I get away from "this was recently a living creature" emotional attachment. But I couldn't get inside the bones to see anything except the liver. Oh, and I cut the throat (gullet?) open and saw the food inside. Blech. Ew ew ewwww.

There. That's a good note to end on. :-) You're welcome! Just kidding.

What I didn't expect was how ENTHUSED the girls would be! Kiera's running around saying "we killed the chicken. we killed the chicken. we killed...." you get the picture. Petting feathers. Looking at the parts they could see. "High five Mommy!" "Great Job Mommy!" Thrilled to pieces. And when I showed Melia the drumstick (her favorite part) I practically could have mixed her drool together with the blood on the table. Ew- that was a great mental picture for you wasn't it? :-) heh heh... Seriously, she said things like this "Oh yummy, mommy, can I have that one? Yumm. I love drumsticks. Mmmmm I can't wait to EAT it!"

Oh my.
Still to be continued... Nope. I'm not done yet! :-)

Let me share my Saturday: Part One

Or at least the highlight. Or the lowlight. WARNING: Graphic experience descriptions - not for the faint of heart. Or me actually. But hey- here we go! And since so few of you seem to be there... I'll do this for myself. To remember my first experience personally killing a chicken.

Background. We've had these chickens. Then Gabe's co-worker gave us four more. Who eat eggs. So we've been feeding these chickens for months with maybe 1 or 2 eggs the whole time. One by one, they get out and disappear (neighbor dogs/coyotes)(yes, I've seen with my own eyes, coyotes). So we're down to three of our hens, one of our roosters, and a rooster/hen combo that came from someone else.

I'm tired of no eggs. We eat a LOT of eggs, so that was supposed to be a supplement to our diet- fresh eggs :-) YUM! We keep talking about killing the second rooster and then maybe that hen to see if it produces any results. But it just hasn't happened. Yesterday, I thought- "Hey, I don't have any plans other than needing to buy chicken food, so let's just do it."

We'd also talked about what a good experience it would be for the girls- to see where food came from. (Believe me, I had NO IDEA what a "GOOD" experience it would be...) We thought they didn't need to see the actual killing part, since the flopping is so disturbing.

One note: In all of my planning, the whole point was that Gabe was at work, and wouldn't he be proud of his little wifey killing a chicken for dinner. (I didn't anticipate the laughter... ;-)

So I got the chicken. Such a pretty chicken. And not mean at all. But he eats MY eggs. So he had to go. And I need to be tough. I took a knife out with me, since I didn't know where the axe was. I'd tried to do a little research, asking those with experience, remembering what others had told me, and watching a few YouTube videos :-) I remember with FFA, they poked their little brains and then let them bleed out... So I thought I'd knife it under the beak. Nope. I couldn't push hard enough to make it quick.

(Insert Melia comment: It's ok mommy, you don't have to be scared. Just poke it with the knife!")

Then I tried my gardening book method- breaking the neck with my hands. Of all the stupid ideas! It's like trying to break a rope! So then I tried to go the other way! Same thing. I knew I was wholly unable to whip the chicken around and break his neck.... So I got desperate. I was commited at this point. I asked Melia to run and get me the loppers. I pinned it's neck down on the ground, stepped on his feet, and asked the girls to run in the front yard for a minute. My thoughts at this point: "Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out..." Not even kidding. Then 1-2-3! Chop! The flopping is SO disturbing. I was afraid I didn't actually kill it, until I saw the head. Yep, it was dead.

Insert Melia comment- from the front yard when she could hear one of the other chickens sounding the alarm: "Mommy! What?! What is that noise? Is the chicken dead?" (she thought the dead chicken was making the noise :-)

to be continued....

Weird Feeling

Tonight, the kids and I made a final run to Albertsons to take one more advantage of their current (at least for 2 more hours) catalina promo... And take advantage we did. Not more than usual, but somewhat...

As the cashier is ringing us up, she asks if I am attempting to do something, I didn't exactly understand her. I said, "the catalina deal? yes, we are." She explained that apparently, today, the catalina's weren't printing, so she would just take the $15 off my order, if that was alright... Well sure! That's just fine, same difference, right? We finish ringing up, she takes off the $15, then my coupons, then my doublers... Then my total is $9.44. I have $15 already in catalinas. I hand her two $5 catalinas, and it kicks out $.56 for me. "Have a good night!" And behind me in line I hear a "whoa...." I paid $0 for $56.78 worth of groceries, plus got change!

Now, this is not usual. But it's not wrong either. Had it been working, I would have paid the $9.44 and gotten $15 back again... It just felt really weird to not have to pay anything in cash for the groceries, even just a little bit... *grin*...

Back to Life...

Things just never slow down! Now that the jam-packed weekend is over, we are back to trying to get the rental finished up and ready for new tenants.

Good news- Yesterday Melia and I went to the Dr to get her hearing checked and stuttering considered. They think she is just fine, although because of her "easily distracted" personality, we may get her rechecked in 6-12 months.

After the appointment, since it took much less time that I had planned, Melia and I made a quick run to Albies to utitilize the doublers that came in this weekend's paper :-) We did amazingly well- In three transactions, we spent $33.45 oop, got back $8 in catalinas, and will receive back $30 in rebates! So, we basically got all this food and more for free! (The cold stuff was already put away when Gabe decided to make a tower...Yes, it ended up being 17 boxes of cereal!!!)

Oh, and don't tell them, but the sugary cereal is for mom and dad! They love their frosted shredded wheat!

Finally, Back in the Grocery Game...

That took a while! But six weeks post-baby, I got out shopping today with only Isaac, and we did good! Better than I'd hoped! I had $50 in my envelope, so I was hoping to stay under that :-) The Pre-Preferred Card subtotal was over $80 so I wasn't sure I was gonna make it, but my total ended up being $33! The receipt said I'd saved $49 :-)

Woo Hoo! It feels good to be gettin' the deals again!

And by the way, I saw a small sign on one frozen popsicle item that indicated you could get free Ice Age 3 movie tickets with a $15 purchase of participating frozen food items... Anybody else see anything in the sale papers or online about that? That's one we would try to catch, especially for free! (depending on what those "participating" items are...!)

Safeway's Living Well Feeling Great Catalina Promo

While I am not super shopping like I have been (too tired), I still have my coupons so when something comes up at Safeway, Fred Meyer, or Albertson's, I am able to take advantage of it. Tonight Kiera and I visited Safeway to try out the Living Well Feeling Great promo, and we think it worked pretty good. I spent $35.01 oop, received $10 back, after using $10.60 in coupons and one left over $10 cat from the frozen food promo (Thanks Grandpa!). Total, spent $35, got $10 back, saved $56.84. Now I just need to catch up with my clipping and get in there again. (If I had planned this trip, I would have saved a lot more. But I realized that the cat I had expired tomorrow, so I needed to use it up. We just wandered the aisles and sorted through coupons to find what we had to work with tonight. I saw many things that I will plan on buying the next time through, once I've gathered all the new coupons together.)

For a list of best deals, see Moneywisemoms for many shared scenarios. This will also help you get started if you haven't tried to do a promo before.

Note: I know this is different from buying "what you need," or what is on your menu. It's these kind of deals that build up your stock pile, so when you are tired or low on cash, you still have lots of options :-) (Or when a baby comes...) It takes a while to "get it," but once you do, you'll get better at buying things that you know you will need and use in the future, instead of a bunch of junk food! Good luck!~

Edited to add: These totals included about $20 worth of items that we needed that were not part of the promo... frozen chicken breasts, lipton tea (good deal) and bagels... So that you get a better view of what I spent.

Good Deal...

I know, I haven't been on much. I have lots to share, but wanted to let my local friends/family in quick on a good clearance deal at Costco.

If you like the Glad Press'n'Seal wrap, Costco is clearing theirs out-- it's a 3 x 140 sq ft box unit for $6.97-- It will last for years ;-)

This is for the East Wenatchee Costco- you can check your local ones, but no guarantees...

My Mind is Gone... And cooking for the freezer...

I just took pictures of five different topics that I've been meaning to post on, and can't decide which one to do first.... concentration/focus is absent from my abilities, so I will do my best. I keep thinking I'm going to have a baking day/OAMC, but with my lack of brain power, at this point I'm doing good to do a little here and a little there.
A few nights ago, I had Gabe pick up a rotisserie chicken and we ate that for dinner and I saved the rest for enchiladas the next night. Let me tell you- oh, yummy! The chicken was still so moist and tender- fantastic! (And for those of you wondering, yes I burned the nachos...)Anyway, back to my point: I had enough to make three extras, so I thought I would give this method a try.

I read this idea a while ago, probably linked from Tammy's, so I am not taking any credit! You line the pan with Saran Wrap and place your food on top. When complete, wrap any extra wrap over the top tightly and freeze.

This is what happens: You can remove the food from the pan, therefore not tying up your pan while it sits in the freezer waiting to be used. You can wrap it again in wrap, to try to avoid freezer burn, or just do a layer in foil, like I did. It was pretty well covered anyway.Then label it well, including what pan to thaw and cook it in. Simple, isn't it? I am happy with the results.

And, just to add in another picture, check out my new find, and our old favorite.

The bottom one we have been buying for a while- Gabe makes this fabulous rice dish from it that I just can't copy... But it's so good! I can only find this mix at Safeway, so normally sale price is about $2 each. On Wednesday, I found the top one at Fred Meyer, on sale $1.67/bag! I just about jumped for joy (thanking the Lord for His provision!) because around here, sale prices on peppers are 2/$4, sometimes 2/$3. Grocery Outlet is cheaper, but across town, so not worth the trip just for peppers. But this is a fantastic deal, plus no wasted soft moldy pepper sitting in the fridge! I was so excited, and they tasted delicious in the enchiladas! WOO HOO ;-)

So, is my writing as babblish as my thought patterns?

Braeburns: $.38/lb

Almost forgot, today Food Pavilions here in Wenatchee have their one day produce sale, and they have Braeburns for $.38/lb. :-) Just in case you're needing apples this week!

Finished!

I can't believe I finally got it done, especially after how I was feeling this afternoon- exhausted!

Just to update you, Melia picked out some legos and a motorcycle. Good enough? Happy five year old? She really wanted to buy him some horses, but I tried my best to steer her towards the "boy" aisle. She loves this little guy- he's her "way way nice friend." We're expecting the betrothal papers soon! ;-) lol

But after shopping (where I ended up at Albie's w/ $90 groceries for $.14! after $30 in catalinas...) I was completely drained, plus my patience was out the window. Thank the LORD Gabe was home to help with the girls, because Kiera was being a constant challenge. And after dinner and resting on the couch, I felt better. Better enough to ask him to move the final thing so I could finish the first coat, and put a quick second on to finalize it! I'm just so tired of the mess! Here's a pic of yesterday- you can see the couches pulled away and STUFF just piled on top!

I do love the color though- it looks so nice behind the couches and with the windows! Now, for putting everything back!