Earth Day!

So... I was going to write this great lil ditty about how we do our part to protect Mother Earth... but.. then I got lost in Laundryland. It's a terrible place I tell you! If you can avoid going there, I suggest that you do... at all costs! Tho, visiting Laundryland does make it considerably easier to not smell... and not be sunburnt! ;-)

I do want to take a bit to comment on ways that we do try to do our part to help the Earth.

• We turn off lights when we aren't in the room.
• We turn off the AC/heater when it's not needed.
• We try to buy produce that is locally grown when we can.
• We're starting a garden, and already have fruit trees and will be planting grapes and blueberries this weekend.
• We recycle everything that we can.
• We compost our kitchen scraps.
• Sam has a hybrid car.
• I don't drive unless I need to.
• We donate clothes to local thrift stores, or resell them so they can be reused.
• We don't use paper towels.
• I shred and use our "junk mail" as packing for our candle company.

Those are the ones that I can think of right now. I'm sure that we do more, but, I just can't think of them right now. I'm sure had I done this post when I had it on my mind, it would have been a more informative post! 

What do you do to help Mother Earth?

Schools almost out!

Well, the kids have 14 days of school left this year, and then will be out of school until late August. Ten weeks of bliss for the kids, or so they think! This summer is going to be a little different. As most of my readers know, Monkey is dyslexic, and cannot read very well. He has brought his reading level up during this school year, but, he is still a couple grade levels behind. This summer we are going "back to basics."

I had a friend of mine that home schools her children help me with some sites that I can print off worksheets to have a summer school of my own. I have signed both of the kids up for the summer reading program. We've got flashcards galore for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division! We've got "summer workbooks" from previous years. I have educational "field trips" planned. This summer is going to be all about catching up! I know that we can do it!!

This weekend, we were a bit low on funds, and so we took time to go to Lowes to take part in their Build & Grow program. The kids absolutely love going to these! Monkey has been doing it for some time, but Bug just recently decided that she wants to be a construction worker. This week they made small catapults! It was quite the site to see Bug in her pink dress with goggles and a hammer! We spent in total about 2 hours at Lowes. We were daydreaming of what we would buy when we win the lottery. Bug has big plans for her bedroom and bathroom. She wants an antique looking bathtub with the little hand held shower sprayer. She also wants a corner shower with a frosted sliding glass door, oh, and marble counter tops! She wants her bedroom to be pink (who would have thunk it?!). Monkey says that he wants an all in one shower, but he wants it to be more modern. He wants to have a bedroom that looks like a jungle with a bed that's "in a tree." Sam and I and a large whirlpool bath and a walk in shower in our bathroom, and of course, marble counter tops. We also looked at some back yard furniture. We settled on a really nice outdoor wicker set that was actually quite comfortable! They had really neat outdoor fire places as well, tho we would want something more of a fire pit to be able to roast marshmallows and hot dogs on occasion. Outside, we spied enough trees to make our own fruit orchard! Everything from apples and pears to bananas! Along with wonderful water features, they had some gorgeous roses! If I had it my way, our whole yard would be full of roses! Finally we had enough day dreaming, and headed home.

While we were at Lowes, we also passed out some flyers for my best friends' fund raiser for her mission trip to Spain. We, unfortunately, we not able to attend because of the low cash flow. We will be donating some things to her yard sale tho! I'm sure that we have alot of things laying around that we can donate to a good cause. Of course, if we win the lottery by then, we will just donate whatever she needs, possibly what everyone needs, to be able to go.

Of course, another friend and I have decided that the aquatic snail business is where we want to be, so, we would just have to build additions to our homes to set up tanks for breeding snails and selling them! They are quite cute, and have lovely personalities! I told Sam that I would want to buy everyones house, and sell it back to them for $1. We would also donate our current home to a family that is in need. Also buy more books for the kids school, so each child can have a book, and be able to bring it home. That was one of the things that we noticed was strange about school this year. The only book Monkey every brought home was his math book! Apparently the schools just don't have the funding to be able to buy every child a book, so they share. For kids like Monkey, that just doesn't work.

See! We really deserve to win the lottery! We want to help other people, not just ourselves! I guess we will just have to continue day dreaming for now. I've got to pull myself back to reality, the buzzer on the dryer went off, and the maid hasn't materialized yet, so, I guess I should go fold clothes!

Merry Christmas... and all that happy jazz.

So, Christmas was here and gone. We had a pretty good Christmas. Living with only one income in the house has been kind of hard! I did find a new job, and I start on the 29th! (Hooray!) We set a pretty strict budget this year, and came in just barely over! I achieved that by using online coupons whenever possible. Sams' birthday was on the 18th, we had Christmas on the 25th, our anniversary is on the 29th, and Monkey's birthday is on the 31st!  We have a pretty busy December!
The kids were really pleased with their Christmas bounty. They both got DSi's. If you don't know anything about Nintendo DSi's, oh man! I would suggest getting one! They have 2 cameras on them, so you can take pictures of yourself, or outside your DSi. The ones that the kids got came preloaded with a few games and such. Now that we have 4 Nintendo DS/DSi's in the house, we can all play our own games, or, we can use the chat feature and chat with each other. (Yes, I know this is the lazy mans way! *hehe*) They also got some new clothes and some toys. They also got a gift card each, which was promptly spent getting toys and other various things that they deemed as necessities after the holidays. My best friend got us a portrait package from Sears. We're pretty happy about that, the kids would rather have the presents tho.
Sam got himself a very nice guitar for his birthday/Christmas/anniversary present. It's black Fender and it's an acoustic/electric guitar. Maybe next year I will get him an amp! For my Christmas/anniversary present, I got a sewing machine! It's been a very long time since I've used one, and so we just simply bought an inexpensive one. Hopefully, someday, I can be as good as my mom. She used to make things for us all the time. I remember her making me a pilgrim costume for Halloween one time, complete with the white bonnet and apron! More recently, she made a clown costume (which is REALLY awesome, by the way) and a vampire cape! I'm sure she has made other things as well, but, I just don't know about them.
I have already found some really neat things that I want to try to make. Hopefully, I don't screw them up. I have my eye on a couple books that I would like to get. Both the kids would like to learn how to sew as well. This gave me quite the surprise from Monkey. He is begging to have a Sock Monkey kit for his birthday. I would say that we may just have to oblige him that request. My mom made him a Sock Monkey a very long time ago, but, Lilly, his dog, tore it up.
Other than that, things have been going pretty well here. Sam is still working on getting out of the Marine Corps. That seems like a never ending project itself! It seems like it has taken forever for things to work themselves out, but, we have been assured that we're close to the end. We're figuring that it will be at least another 6 months before he gets out. In a way, that's the hardest part, not knowing. We don't know when he's going to get out, so he can't look for a job. Nobody will even consider him unless he's 90 days from getting out. We're in the process of trying to save up a years worth of expenses right now. We refinanced the house and his car, both with a better payment. Unfortunately, we didn't win the Powerball last night either. Congrats to the lucky winner in KY. We sure could have used that $128,600,000! I'm sure alot of people could have.
Anyways, It's Sunday Funday here, and I'm behind on laundry and dishes, so it's time to get back to that! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas, and from my family to yours, Happy New Year!

ThriftyGrl Giveaway!

So, as most of you know, I try to be as thrifty as possible. As most of you know, living the life of a military wife is not that easy, and it isn't any easier being a military child. Old Navy is one of my favorite places on Earth to shop! Well, there is a nice young lady that is giving away a $50 off of $100 at Old Navy coupon and I REALLY want it! As part of the contest to win this coupon, I said that I would blog about it, and add her to my blog roll. Well, the more that I started looking around, the more that I like the site! I am pleased to announce the addition of ThrifyGrl to my blog roll! Go check her out, and enter to win the coupon!