Mowing

Yesterday I mowed the yard. I was doing it as an act of love for Levi. He’s been reffing trying to earn some extra money. I didn’t want him to have to come home after reffing in the hot Texas sun for 6 hours to mowing the yard and the neighbor’s yard. Another story in itself…anyway. As I was mowing, I kept thinking the mower wasn’t cutting the grass short enough. At one point, I reached down with one hand to move a lever which didn’t move so I just kept mowing knowing something wasn’t quite right. I mean, it was cutting the tall pieces of grass but it didn’t feel like it was short enough. When Levi got home, he was very appreciative that the grass was mowed. I told him that I thought something wasn’t right. He had mowed our neighbor’s backyard a week ago and her grass was really high. He put the blades up and didn’t lower them. It made perfect sense.
I can see a spiritual correlation here for myself. I work hard, I try to do the right things but come up feeling like something's not exactly right. I try to tweak something but it's still not right. I don't want to live that way. I want to live fully engaged with all blades going. Sometimes I feel that way and I've realized it's a phase and kind of cyclical. I feel that way when I'm tired and need to refresh and renew. I've also realized that I'm pretty independent and strong willed. That carries over for me too. I want to do it in my own strength and that is so not what this spiritual journey is about. I've struggled this last week with reading my Bible. I can really tell a difference in my actions, reactions, and compassion for others when I don't stay connected, not just in reading but also in praying too. I'm going to make an effort this week to be more consistent. We've got a lot going on this week and I'm already tired....I know the week hasn't started.

CVS Deal for Newbies

Here's the CVS news for this week. I got this scenario from Alyssa at Keeping the Kingdom First. This week should be pretty easy for those of you that haven't done it before. You can probably do more but this is what she had on her site and it seems easy enough so I thought I'd share. Let me know if you do it and how it goes:)


Transaction #1
Buy (1) L'Oreal Age Perfect, Revitalift or Skin Genesis Cleanser @ $5.99
Buy (1) Chex Mix @ $1.00
Use $1.00 L'Oreal coupon from 8/10 insert
Use $1.00 Chex Mix printable here

Total After Coupons= $4.99

ECBs Earned= $5.99

Transaction #2
Buy (1) Excedrin Migraine @ $1.99
Buy (1) Purex Laundry detergent @ $2.99 (hidden deal)
Buy (1) Right Guard Extreme or Sport @ $2.99
Buy a $1.50 filler of your choice
Use $2.00 printable Excedrin coupon here
Use $0.50 Purex coupon from 8/10 SS insert (or you may have received a coupon with this sample)
Use $1.00 Right Guard coupon from 8/10 SS insert
Pay with $5.99 ECBs from above

Total after coupons= ZERO OOP (possibly tax, varies regionally)

ECBs Earned= $3.00

Grand Total OOP= $4.99 or very close to it!

Sunday Update

We had a crazy weekend. It was weird. I didn't see Levi very much. He's trying to ref which is good but too much this weekend. We went to our friend's 40th birthday party last night. Today at church, we had 61 people....what??!! I know it was crazy. We were missing about 15 regulars too. It was really encouraging. I'm amazed at what God is doing. I really am. It was so cool to look out at new faces. There seemed to be a lot of kids today which was also awesome....a lot for us at least. I was really encouraged today. I hope you felt that same encouragement when you left your body of believers:)

Preschool Blues

Today was the day that Addy started her preschool. She was so excited. She was ready to get into her class and leave us behind. I had a harder time with it. I got teary as we drove away from her. I am glad she's independent and ready. I just hope those teachers love her like she deserves to be loved. I think that might be my biggest fear about her being away from me is that the other adults that are responsible for her will love her like I do (or close). I don't want her to be an afterthought or pushed aside, mistreated, made fun of, etc etc etc. Am I weird or is that normal? She had a great day. I asked her 20 questions about what she did, who her friends were, etc etc etc. She was so funny answering them. I'm so thankful for her. I've included a picture of us walking into school.

CVS

Okay so I said I was going to get back into couponing. I did this week at CVS. I've been reading a blog where the author does $5 CVS challenges. I took the challenge this week. Basically you are challenged to spend $5 in cash ONLY and see how many transactions you can do without spending anymore. You have to use their ECB (extra care bucks) which are basically gift certificates that print out on your receipt for purchasing qualifying stuff. So, I went to CVS 3 times and here's waht I bought.
Trip #1
3 Suave shampoo products $2 each (buy $6 worth and get $2 ECB)
2 Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste $2.99 each (get $2 back for each tube)

Coupons Used
Suave Buy One Get One Free -$2
Colgate - $1.50
Suave-$1
Colgate- $1

Total - $11.98 (pretax)
Coupons Used - $5.50

Total Out of Pocket - $6.73
ECB's earned- $6

Okay so I went over the $5 limit but I still did good

Trip #2
1 Febreeze Noticeables Kit - $6.99
1 Covergirl Wetslicks Lipstick - $5.99 (Earn $5.99 in ECB)

Coupons Used
Febreeze - $5
Covergirl- $1

Total - $12.98
Coupons Used- $6
ECB's Used - $6

Total out of Pocket- $1.06
ECB's earned- $5.99

Trip #3
3 Suave products $2 each (spend $6 on Suave, get $2 ECBs)
2 Dawn dish soap $0.99 each
1 Febreeze Noticeables Kit $6.99
2 Covergirl Lipsticks (buy one get one free) $9.99
Swedish Fish $0.99
Orbit Gum $1.19 (so I wouldn't have a negative total)

Coupons Used
2 Dawn Coupons ($0.50 each) - $1
Covergirl - $1
Suave- $2
Febreeze- $5
Covergirl- Buy One Get One Free- $9.99
CVS printable coupon- $2

Total- $28.15
Coupons Used- $21.99
ECB's Used - $5.99

Total Out of Pocket - $0.17
ECB's earned - $2

This was actually fun to do this week. I drive by CVS at some point almost everyday so to swing in isn't that big of a deal. So, I went over the $5 challenge. I spent $7.96 but I got $53 worth of stuff and still have 2 ECBs to use. Thought I'd pass it on to see if any of you wanted to join the challenge. The ad papers for CVS come out tomorrow so if you check out that link from above, you can see the deals and just copy them at your CVS. That's what I did. This does require getting the coupons and clipping them. It's worth it. You can also use those ECB's for milk, juice, diapers, etc...more of necessities. Good luck :)

Weird Wednesday

Today is weird. It's overcast but actually feels good which is nice. I think it's around 84 degrees today which is such a nice change. I went to CVS today for my second time this week. The challenge is to spend $5 cash and see how many times you can go back without spending any more money. Well, yesterday I spent $6 but got $6 in ECB's. ECB's are their gift certificates that print on your receipt that are like money. So, today I stopped in and spent $1 but got $6 back. So, I'm up to $7. I'm going again and should spend nothing if I've got my plan right. We'll see if it works. I took the kids to Burger King today. We've been at home all week so it was good to get out and let them play. They had fun playing together and they were so much fun to watch.

Labor Day

We've had a great Labor Day weekend. Last night we just hung out as a family. We actually rode our bikes up to McDonald's for supper and met a neighbor of our good friends. It is such a small world. Today Levi did some yard work and cleaned up inside. We took the kids to get shoes. Addy has to wear closed toe shoes to school. We lucked out at Dillards, they were having 75% off summer stuff. I got Keegan some shorts and shoes and Addy some bathing suits for next year. No luck for Addy with shoes so we went to Payless. We ate lunch at Pei Wei which was pretty good. Our favorite is Rice Boxx. We went to dinner at Xuan and Juan's. We have so much fun with them. We ended our night with heavy hearts. It's so hard to hear when family is hurting. My initial reaction is to fix and figure out how I can handle it for them. I've been praying really hard the last couple of hours that God would draw near and be almost tangible to this loved one.

I've been reading in Acts. Now, it's telling about where Paul traveled and who with and what happened as he was preaching and teaching. It's kind of crazy what he went through. He was stoned, flogged, put in prison, fussed at, parted ways with a friend, and more. It's amazing how strong Paul must have been.