Jackson is going to play soccer this fall through the YMCA - he won’t play any games until he’s 4, but at 3 they have kiddie kickers, where the kids just go out and learn how to kick the ball.  We pass soccer fields by our house all the time, and without fail Jackson says “I want to play soccer”.  Of course Gavin loves this because soccer was his sport growing up.  At a consignment sale last week I found Jackson some soccer cleats for $2, and we got him a ball this week, which he will take to each practice.  So yesterday he went with Gavin to kick the ball around a bit before the real thing starts on Tuesday.

We spend a lot of time with the Wuerslin kids, Hannah and Adam.  Hannah is a full year younger than Jackson, but because Morgan walked so late, she was more ‘his’ friend than Morgan’s, even though they are closer in age.  But now they are starting to play together a bit more, and it’s very cute.  We celebrated Julie’s birthday today with a cook-out at their apartment pool, so the kids had fun walking around together.

Pretty often I look at Morgan and realize she’s not a baby anymore.  She understands very well, and definitely has a mind of her own, which she willingly shares with you. :)  She still loves to cuddle, and nothing can take the place of Mommy when she’s tired or just ‘wanting some lovin’ (as Jackson phrases it), but she is certainly a little toddler.

One of the advantages of having lived in Slovakia was that since I couldn’t buy anything pre-made to eat (including sauces), I had to learn to make everything from scratch (although I’m not sure I called this an ‘advantage’ at the beginning!).  Thankfully, one of my teammates, who is still a dear friend of mine, taught me pretty  much everything I know in the areas of cooking and baking.  She is known in Josiah Venture as an *amazing cook, and known for her incredible cakes.  So for Jackson’s first birthday I decided I really wanted to learn how to bake and decorate cakes.  I spent the afternoon at Kim’s house, and she showed me how to do everything step-by-step, let me use all her pans and decorating tools, and made sure that I was the one who actually did the decorating, so that I could really say that I made the cake myself.  It was SO much fun, and thus birthed a hobby of baking cakes.  Now, I am still very much an amateur, but with good instructions I feel like I can at least attempt a cake design now (pies, or anything that involves rolling out dough, is another story - many failures to report on those!).  Cakes are the special thing that I like to do for my kids on their birthdays - yes, I spend hours in the kitchen making their cake (even for a 1 year old who will just destroy it anyway), but I love doing it - it’s not work for me, it’s a hobby that I don’t get to do often!

A good friend of mine has a birthday today, so my gift to her was making her a cake.  I had not made one in a while, so it was fun to do.  Here is how the final product came out, and we took it over to her this afternoon - Happy Birthday Julie!!

Here are the ‘archives’ of other cakes I have made, beginning with the very first made that day in Kim’s kitchen.

Jackson’s 1st birthday cake, the Martha Stewart Sailboat Cake (March 2006):

My back had gone out right before Jackson’s 2nd birthday, and I could hardly walk, much less spend time in the kitchen, so he just got cupcakes that year. :)  (March 2007)

Gavin’s 32nd birthday cake (March 2007):

Morgan’s 1st birthday cake(s)  (December 2007) - my first time working with fondant, which turned out surprisingly easy to use:

Jackson’s 3rd birthday cake  (March 2008) - my first time making one that required piecing together cake pieces to actually shape an airplane:

And a just-for-fun Easter cake (April 2008):

So my cake resume isn’t that long, but soon we’ll have lots of birthdays in a row with this baby due not long after Morgan’s birthday, and then Jackson and Gavin both in March!

I’m not really sure where my belly is, sometimes I wonder if I’m really 18 weeks along?  Although I did carry the same way with Jackson, and did not show until much later (again convincing myself we’re having a boy!). Gavin got to feel the little kicks for the first time a few days ago, and I feel them pretty consistently when I’m laying down.  Only 2 more weeks and we find out the sex!

Well this week we are only here until Thursday morning, when we leave for China, so a reduced menu this week.

• Breakfasts: cereal, oatmeal, fruit, leftover homemade waffles
• Lunches: sandwiches, chips/pretzels, leftovers, plus bringing homemade muffins to a small group brunch on Monday.
• Dinners:
  • Sunday: Mandarin chicken, rice, and asparagus
  • Monday:  Chick-fi-A - wear a college logo and get free chicken strips - all of us but Morgan have shirts/jerseys with college logos!
  • Tuesday:  Couscous and veggie salad, breadsticks, and any leftovers
  • Wednesday:  Eating on the road as we’ll be driving the kids to TN

Grocery:

Well I ended up making one more trip to Publix last Sunday - the 1 cent item was toilet paper, which we can always use, and I found a few more coupons on items that would be good to get before the weekly sales ended on Wed, particularly on raisins, which we are out of.  So here are the results from last Sunday’s Publix run (I have a Kroger, Publix, CVS and Walgreens all about 1.5 miles from my house).  It was actually the first time that they would not accept one of my coupons because my total coupons exceeded my total number of items (I had both store and mfr coupons for one item).  So I had to chock up the $1 loss :).  Here’s the breakdown:

• Spent:6.16
• Full item value: 23.39
• Saved: 17.23 (74%)

Publix run #2 for this next week:  It was a good week to do a Saturday Publix run, as Walgreens had a $10 off $40 good for Fri and Sat, so I was able to use it at Publix as well.  Stocked up a bit on pasta, and the rest of my groceries were things that we needed for the week, some granola bars to bring to China with us, and then the ingredients to make a birthday cake for a friend.  Had lots of coupons though, so made for a very successful trip:

• Spent: 33.84
• Full price of items: 85.66
• Saved: 51.82 (61%)

Trader Joes - just needed olive oil (TJ is the best place to get quality and inexpensive olive oil), and was already passing by.

• Spent: 8.11
• Full item value: 8.11
• Saved: 0.00

Drugstores-

CVS: All of my extra bucks are going to expire while we will be in China (they last a month), so I needed to spend them on items that generated more extra bucks, so I ended up with some personal products, cereal, and some energy drink thing (not sure exactly what it is, honestly!).  I still need to ’swap’ out 5.79 more in extra bucks before we leave, but I’ll save them for next week’s deals.

• Spent: 1.06 (on gift card), plus 11.00 in Extra Bucks
• Received:  12.48 in Extra Bucks (good until 9/25)
• Full item value: 29.64
• Saved: 29.64 (100%), and MADE: 1.48 in ECB

Walgreens: I just happened to need a Rx filled, so I transferred it to Walgreens and got another $25 gift card to use there with a coupon that came out this week - yeah!  Gotta love free money.  Also this week was the end-of-the-month rebate overlap at Walgreens, which is usually when you get the best deals on the upcoming month’s rebate deals, PLUS they had a $10 off $40 coupon good for Fri and Sat.  So I took advantage of all the deals posted very clearly on MoneySavingMom and used my Rx gift card, plus my regular rebate gift card to get lots of stuff, with $0 out of pocket.

• Spent: 34.16 on gift cards
• Full price of items:  54.16
• Savings: 54.16 (100%) PLUS I will get 52.83 back on my gift card in rebates.  I *made $18.67 on the transaction, plus got $54 worth of items (and they were out of stock of 2 items I wanted, and since my coupons would have given them to me free, this total would have been much higher!)

So, totals for the week (grocery and household):

• Spent (out of pocket):  49.11
• Full price of items:  201.96
• Saved: 152.85 (76%) , PLUS I came away with $20.15 more than I ’spent’ going back on my Walgreens gift card and into CVS ECBs, so essentially saving 173.00 (86%).

One of the more successful weeks I have had!

Quick addition - I mentioned above needing to rollover my ECBs - well I stopped in CVS today to do just that, and ended up with 2 lip glosses and some envelopes for .42 on my gift card, and made an extra .20 in ECBs.  So now all my Extra Bucks go to almost the end of Sept, so I won’t lose anything while I’m gone.  Quick tally: Spent .42 on gift card, total item value of14.73, spent 5.79 in ECBs, and got back 5.99 in ECBs.  I won’t even add this into the total above.

I’ve decided to start posting about the grocery and household items that I’m purchasing each week, and the savings that I’m getting on them.  A number of you were interested in the couponing post I did earlier, so I thought that giving a general idea of what I’m able to get each week may inspire you a bit, and also to show that I’m really buying practical things.  I have decided to go to the grocery store once a week, and to plan out all my meals for the week (I used to do only 3-4 days at a time, and felt like I was always going to the store).  I have also taken our weekly food budget and put it into cash, so what I have I have, and when it’s gone, I’ll have to wait til the next week.  It’s really made me be aware of what I buy, and what we really need.  We set our budget at $75/week - a doable amount, but still definitely a challenge, especially as we have guests over fairly often.  My goal would be eventually to try to get it down to $60, but for now, we’re starting with something reasonable.  Now this budget is just for groceries - it does not include household or kitchen items (like baggies, saran wrap, etc..), nor does it include personal items.  But I still strive to get all those items for free or very discounted, and will also post my CVS and Walgreens deals here as well.

I’m doing this as much for myself as for those of you who are interested in reading - it will be nice to have a record to look back on.  So, all that said, I have done my shopping for the next week, so I’ll post what I was able to buy, my savings, as well as our weekly menu so you know we are not just eating nothing!  (oh, I normally will do my weekly shopping on Sundays to take advantage of the 1 cent item at Publix, but I had a Walgreens coupon for $5 off that was good for today only, and Publix takes competitor coupons.  So I went today instead, and to Target yesterday when I was out).

One more thing… when there are really good sales at places that I can stack with my coupons, I am stocking up on items so that I won’t have to buy them again for a long time, until they are on sale again and I have more coupons.  This week Gavin will be at camp the whole week, so I’m not cooking anything more involved until Friday and Saturday when he is home.  That was able to reduce our grocery bill for the week since I’m making easy, kid-friendly foods, and also allowed me to stock up on juice and snack foods, both of which were on great sales and which we were running low on at home.

So, finally:

My weekly menu:

• Breakfasts: muffins (homemade), yogurt and granola, cold cereal, oatmeal
• Lunches: sandwiches on homemade bread, fruit, grilled cheese, leftovers, chips/pretzels, fruit smoothies
• Snacks for kids: fruit, crackers, raisins, yogurt
• Dinners:
  • Sunday: edamame and ravioli (and maybe some breadsticks if I end up making them)
  • Monday: Chick fil A (the one close to us gives free kids meals on Mondays with an adult combo purchase, and we have small group at 6:30 on Mondays, so it’s a quick and inexpensive meal for us)
  • Tuesday: Quesadillas, Spanish rice, and baby carrots (a friend and her kids will be here with us)
  • Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner - waffles and eggs
  • Thursday: Eating at friend’s house who came over on Tuesday (her husband is gone all week also so we’re sharing meals)
  • Friday (Gavin home!): Chicken Parmesan over spaghetti, salad
  • Saturday: Grilled chicken sausage, homemade fries, roasted acorn squash

Grocery Purchases:
SuperTarget: Great deal on Annie’s natural/organic crackers which the kids love - it’s what got me into Target this week.  Normally 2.29/box, but I got them for .92/box after sales and coupons, so stocked up on 9 boxes. Also got some tortilla chips and grapes.

• Spent: 12.52
• Groceries at full price: 26.19
• Saved: 13.67 (52%)

Publix: The best deal this week was on juice, both Motts and Juicy Juice.  Normally 2.89 and 3.49 each, they were buy one get one (BOGO), and I had coupons, which Publix doubled.  Jackson drinks apple juice in the morning, and Gavin and I make smoothies a few times a week with juice as well.  I was able to get 10 bottles for $11.50, which should last us about 10-12 weeks.  The rest of the items I picked up will be for our meals this week.  I also used a $5 off Walgreens coupon and a $2 off CVS coupon, as my Publix accepts competitor coupons.

• Spent: 40.97
• Groceries at full price: 81.59
• Savings: 40.62 (50%)

Costco: Bag of chips  (I had to go there to pick up 20 lbs of chicken for camp - normally I would not go there just for one item)

• Spent: 4.11
• Groceries at full price: 4.11
• Savings: 0.00

Drug store purchases:

There is a CVS and Walgreens very convenient to where I drop Jackson off for pre-school, so it works out well for me to stop in once or even 2 times/week if I need to in order to grab the good deals, and not go out of my way.  And it means I only have Morgan with me, which makes shopping much quicker and easier!

Also it’s to be noted that I already had a $25 CVS gift card from transferring a prescription.  So any money I have listed as paid, I actually put on the gift card, so nothing came out of pocket.  I only made one CVS run this week, as last week was my jackpot there - spending 6.91 on my gift card, and walking away with $10 more in extra bucks than I started the week with (*making 3.09 for the week), plus coming home with $41 worth of household and personal care items.

CVS:  I needed some facial moisturizer, so purchased one on sale with a coupon, and used my extra bucks that I accumulated last week to pay for it.

• Spent: .58 on gift card and 5.00 in EB (extra bucks)
• Full price items: 10.18
• Saved: 10.18 (100%)

Walgreens:  Got some good deals at Walgreens this week, making use of register rewards and coupons and sales.  Ended up with 2 boxes of Triscuits, 2 boxes of Wheat Thins, 2 boxes of Cheerios, 9 10-packs of page protectors (I’m finally getting my recipe folder organized), and Preparation H (will go into donation box, but I got it cause it was a money maker).  Normally I would have a Walgreens gift card with my rebate on it from the previous month, but haven’t gotten the rebate yet so I had to pay out of pocket.

• Spent: 4.78
• Full price of items: 48.08
• Savings: 43.30 (90%)

That’s it for this week!  Sorry for the long post, but hopefully you only got this far if you are actually interested!  It will be shorter next week now that I’ve given all the explanations about everything.  And, like I said, it’s a good record for me to have personally.

So, totals for this week (grocery and household):

• Spent: 62.38
• Full price of everything: 165.37
• Saved: 102.99 (62%)

Not bad! And it leaves me with some left over for the next good stock-up deals!

Last Monday (August 11), Jackson started a 3 morning/week preschool at a church close by.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday’s he’ll go from 9 to 12:30.  Last week was a success - the first day he was a bit timid, but when he came home he said he wanted to go back, so we were happy to hear that!  His class is almost all boys - there are just a couple girls, so it will be nice for him to be around other boys, since so many of his little friends his age are girls (see previous post about what happens when your friends are all girls!).  Here is our little (big!) boy on his first day of school:

This picture was taken on Aug 6th, at 14 weeks.  A bit of a bump that kind of came and went depending on the day/hour, but always became a lot more pronounced in the evening.

Since this post is coming a bit late, I also felt the first movement on Thursday the 14th, at 15 weeks (I also felt Morgan for the first time at 15 weeks, a big change from Jackson at 22 weeks!).  We were watching Michael Phelps swim for yet another gold medal, and our little one apparently wanted to cheer him on.  Either that, or he enjoyed the Sour Patch Kids that my mom brought down that I was munching on - I’m a sucker for sour gummy candy.

Ok, so I have another new hobby, or whatever you want to call this one.  We have purchased a grain mill (it was my end-of-summer ‘reward’ after surviving camp and saving on grocery money by eating at camp), and I am now using it to grind my own wheat to make bread, muffins and pancakes (those are all I’ve had time to try so far).  Back in April I went to a class at Bread Beckers, a family run company here in Georgia that has done tremendously well with their family-run business of basically teaching people how to eat and cook healthier.

I have a couple friends who have done the Bread Beckers thing, so I have been interested in it for a while, but had to wait til we could get the funds for the start-up costs, meaning the grain mill, and a number of supplies, such as a 45 lb tub of hard red wheat!  I had planned to get the hard white wheat as well, but they were out when I was there, so am instead buying small quantities off of a friend who has a full tub.

So far, I have to say, it’s been really worth it.  I already had a bread machine that I’ve had a few years now, so thankfully didn’t have to include that as part of my start-up - it’s not a requirement, but makes the whole baking your own bread thing infinitely easier - just throw everything in, turn it on, and 4 hours or so later the house smells amazing and you have a fresh loaf of bread.  I love that we are getting all the nutrients that we are supposed to out of our wheat (I have learned that once wheat is ground it loses 90% of its nutrients after 72 hours, and the processing that wheat goes through to become what is on the store shelves for bread basically strips it to nothing), and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I really love the taste.  My bread machine makes strange sized loaves, so I have found that after it cools, if I cut it in half and put half into the freezer, then it will last us almost a week.  The bread starts drying out after about 3 days since there are no preservatives, so by freezing half, it keeps us from wasting any and makes it last a lot longer.

I have also really loved the muffins that I’ve been making - I’ve been using all my recipes from the Bread Beckers basic cookbook, and there is one for banana millet muffins that is just outstanding.  We had pancakes with the milled flour for the first time last week, and they were also quite good - so much so that my mother-in-law declared that she needed to get herself a grain mill!  And a couple days ago I wanted to have some cheese muffins to go with our dinner, and it literally took me less than 10 minutes to mill the wheat, throw together the recipe and get them into the oven.  Homemade certainly doesn’t have to be hard or take a long time!  Oh, I also made a cookie recipe that I had made in the past with some freshly ground soft wheat (the kind to be used for pastries and stuff), and they also turned out great.

So I’m excited about this purchase.  I was used to making everything but the bread from scratch anyway - our pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies, etc - I had to learn how to make them all when living in Slovakia, and told myself that there was no way I would stop when moving back to the US.  So transitioning from buying boxed mixes was not an issue for me.  I have a few things I haven’t tried out yet - I got some dried corn, which I plan to use to make cornbread, or maybe some grits.  I also picked up a few different grains to try out as well.  I’m not saying I won’t ever buy a loaf of bread in the store again, as I’m sure I will, but for the majority of our bread-eating, we’ll be sticking with the homemade kind.  We’re all still trying to get used to all this extra fiber in our diets… enough said about that.

I do have to say that sometimes I wonder if we aren’t a big weird.  We have been back in the US a little over a year now (crazy to believe), and in the meantime I have switched to cloth diapers and started grinding my own wheat.  I don’t have any other major switchover plans for anything else… at least not yet.