Burlap Wreath

I love coming across easy to do crafts. I recently found this burlap wreath here, courteously of MomAdvice. I made two, the one pictured and another I gave to a friend for a Christmas gift. The one picture is hanging in my dining room and I absolutely love how it came out. I used burlap that I had left over from covering shrubs for the winter. I purchased burlap from Joann's for the wreath I made for my friend. I think I like mine better but I hope my friend likes hers! She suggested I make more from old burlap feedbags. I think that would look cool. Get me some feed bags Jen!

Sunflower craft

I found this great idea to make sunflowers out of burlap and canvas here. It took me awhile to get around to making them but I think they turned out quite nicely. I had planned giving them to a friend for a late Christmas gift but she informed me she "hates sunflowers" recently. As she obviously didn't know my plan, I am not offended - she will just get another homemade craft I made from burlap and a wire clothes hanger (more on that craft later). The kids were actually able to help me with this craft - my youngest and oldest helped sponge paint the canvas, my youngest also helped stuff the flowers and he also helped find sticks for the stems. It was a very low cost project - about $2 for the canvas, the burlap was about $3 and I had the stuffing, paint and sponges. Not bad for $5!

Comparison Shopping

Target has some nice deals this week, so does CVS, as well as Price Chopper!

I took a few minutes this afternoon to compare which stores have the best prices on the same items.

• Target and PC have Progresso Soups on sale this week.

Target - $1.40
PC 2/$3
That's no brainer on which is better.

• They both have Bounty Paper Towels Giant 8 Roll on sale.

Target - $9.99
PC - $10
A penny difference but you get credit towards gas if you purchase the paper towels at PC. Don't forget the the $1.00 off coupon from this Sunday's paper!

• Again, both have Yoplait yogurt on sale.

Target - 10/$5
PC - 10/$5
Once again, PC gives credit towards gas.

I try to spend some time going through the PC, Hannaford, Target, and CVS Sunday ads. I could include Rite Aid too but I feel four stores are more than enough for me. I have found that the Hannaford I typically shop at does not accept Internet coupons so I usually only shop there for a few items, maybe not even every week. PC and Target tend to be my favorites along with Walmart. I have found Walmart usually has lower every day prices on a lot of items. I will make a Target run for the soups as well as Fiber One Bars which are on sale for $2.33. Go here and get a .40 off Fiber One Bars and $1.10 off 3 Progresso soups.

Working Moms

Working moms verse stay at home moms...a debate you never want to get into with either side. I have the best and worst of both worlds - 10 months of the year I am a working mom, 2 months I get to stay home. There are definitely ups and downs to each and I find the decision to work or stay home to be very personal. Each person is different and each person has to make the decision that is best for their family. Some mothers have to work outside the home but wish they could stay home. Some mothers stay home with the children but yearn to be back in the working world. There are some days I wish I could stay home and many a summer day that I wish I was at work. There are going to be good and bad days regardless if you stay home or work outside the home. After having read through many awesome blogs, I noticed that there aren't a lot, that I found, geared towards working moms. Since I am a working mom who is trying to be frugal and eco-friendly, I am going to start blogging about what I know. Each Monday I am going to be posting various tips, strategies, and advice to help those mamas who work outside of the home. If you aren't working outside the home, don't worry, many of these post can still work for you. So join me each Monday for Working Mama Mondays!

A day in the life of....ME

Working outside of the home is very hard. You not only have a lot of responsibilities at work, you still need to try and balance the family life. Many people choose to have one parent stay at home, while other families, mine included, just can't afford that option. There are days when I feel I will not make it through one more day and other days where I just love having two jobs, work and home! As a teacher, I do get to experience the best of both worlds and couldn't pull off the school year without the assistance of my husband. But until those lazy days of summer are here, I run my butt off. So - just to give people an idea of what my day is like, I have decided to give everyone a peak into the craziness that is my day to day life. (Just in case you are curious)

• 5:30 - Wake up to the annoying alarm clock to realize my husband and I are not alone in the bed. We have been joined by 2 of our 3 boys at some point during the night. My youngest is actually completely naked! (He had wet his bed during the night. Being the very thoughtful child that he is, he stripped off all of his clothes and climbed into bed with us. He didn't even wake us up!)
• 6:30 - out the door with my youngest carrying at least 4 bags and whatever toys my son feels he can't live without.
• 7:10 - Drop off youngest at babysitter's - race to get to work
• 7:30 - 3:00 work - out out at lunch to run some errands, must eat lunch in hurried bites between classes
• 3:00 - leave work right on time
• 3:15 pick up youngest at babysitter's and go get older two at their school which is 25 minutes away
• 3:45- drag youngest into the older kids' school and pick up older two and race to get to doctor's which is 15 minutes away, give kids animal crackers in the car so they won't be cranky
• 415 - Miracle - we get to the doctor's office on time AND get in to see him on time!
• 4:45 - finish with doctor's appointment - head for home
• 5:30 - get dinner on the table (children hate dinner and begin to complain) Daddy home!
• At some point the complaining has stopped, some kids choose to eat, others will have to wait until breakfast! - time to get older 2 boys working on homework, maybe start some Valentine's cards?
• Dad is in charge of finishing homework, play time, clean up kitchen and bedtime - I leave to run errands; return library books, pick up prescription at one store, grocery shopping at another(turns out to be quite relaxing and QUIET!)
• 8:00 - errands done -go home and unpack groceries (youngest 2 make their way downstairs and chat with me while I put the last few groceries away)
• Back to bed - find Husband and oldest son passed out in our bed.
• 8:30 - everyone in bed, including Daddy - downstairs straighten up kitchen (not really needed since Daddy did this), pack lunches and bags for next day, spend some time on computer
• 8:45 - Youngest comes downstairs to tell me he needs to use the bathroom - send him to the bathroom but he did not get there in time - send him upstairs to wake up Daddy and have Daddy help him get new pjs
• Get clothes ready for next day(this could comprises of checking to see what is least dirty and wrinkled, depending on energy level!) Tonight, I iron a pair of pants.
• 9:00 - youngest downstairs AGAIN to tell me he needs me - take him back upstairs, threaten to close his door if he gets out of bed again.
• 9:15 - Check on oldest two - one asleep - oldest playing his DS. Give lecture to oldest the he is not allowed to play the DS in bed on a school night. Lecture, apparently not appreciated, oldest gets ticked.
• 9:20 Finish up downstairs, take dog out one last time
• 9:45 - Night time bathroom routine
• 10:00 - Fall into bed, asleep in with minutes (and I use to have insomnia!)

Exciting isn't it! Exhausting more like it but it is our life for now.

Unexpected Expenses

Finally we are getting ahead with our finances. Or so I thought! January has been the bad car karma month for us. It started when my husband took his car in for an inspection and oil change. That little trip cost us $800. Two days later the car wouldn't start for him. Fuel pump problems and we spent $700 more. Another few days later, an engine light came on. HE stopped at the mechanics and turned out to be an oil leak. Cha-ching.... $200. Well, not to be outdone, I took my car in for an inspection and oil change and came out with 4 new tires and $700 poorer. I also got the bad news that the front and rear end break pads will need to be replaced in the next 8,000 - 10,000 miles. WOW! That was an expensive car month! We had hoped to buy a used car for my husband this spring but after putting that much money into his car, we are going to put that purchase off until next spring. It is frustrating to have had to spend so much money all in one month but we can't not have cars. Hopefully February will be kinder and gentler on our wallets.

Decluttering Update

So I have been trying to declutter my house one small tiny baby step at a time. This weekend, my husband's t-shirt drawer was the target. I didn't do the actual decluttering, I was just on the sidelines, cheering him on! He has two large drawers devoted to t-shirts. These drawers were overflowing to the point where not one more shirt was going to fit in them. I had even had to start piling shirts on top of the dresser! My husband was a trooper and got through both drawers in no time flat. He tried on many shirts to see if they still fit and was able to discard many which were way too big(he recently lost a bit of weight, 30 pounds and counting!) He discarded many shirts I absolutely hate and shirts that fit but just didn't look good. He even kept 2 or 3 that he wasn't thrilled with but I love on him! I now have a nice pile of shirts to cut into rags and he has 2 neat and not filled to the brim drawers! Not too bad for 10 minutes.

Decluttering accomplishments to-date:

• Linen cupboard
• Under bathroom sink
• My sock drawer
• Husband's t-shirt drawers
• Kids' rooms
• Toy/craft closet
• Family room toy box(sort of cleaned out but there were too many kids around to really get rid of stuff!)