Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the start of Lent, the 40 days before Easter. (Can you believe Easter is only 40 days away!)
Growing up I loved the Ash Wednesday service at church. You leave with an ash cross on your forehead, but it was cool. The season of Lent is symbolic of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness (I think) and you are traditional supposed to give up or sacrifice something. I have given up things in the past (Cokes, Fast Food, etc) but this year I am going to start "doing" something. At the end of the 40 days I want to have made a change in my life and the world around me, not just start drinking Cokes again. So this year, I stole my idea from my mom (HI MOM!) and am going to do an intentional random act of kindness everyday. It can be something simple to letting someone pull out in traffic in front of me to something a little more grand.
Stay tuned for updates on how I'm doing.

Coupon Savings Report #1

So Sunday I armed myself with my master grocery list and coupons and sale fliers and off I went. I asked/made Nick go with me cause he is a math wiz and can figure out the best deals on products while I fumble around with the calculator on my phone. We make quite a team!
We went to Kroger and Publix because some of the things I needed were only on sale at one or the other store and I have coupons.
I saved almost 35% on my grocery bill! I spent $220 and saved over $75!
I was soooooo pleased with myself! I can't wait till next Sunday's ads and coupons!

Dancing with the Stars

My favorite dancer from So You Think You Can Dance last season was Chelsie Hightower. That "Bleeding Love" piece with Mark was A.MAZING. Well, good news folks, she is on Dancing with the Stars this season. I can't wait. Too bad she is paired with Ty Murray (Jewel's hubby). He's just a good ole boy and I don't think he's got it.
I am very excited about Julianne Hough and her real life man, Chuck Wicks. And, Lil'Kim and Derek Hough. And the pair that I'm saying will be most entertaining but don't have a shot are Steve-O and Lacey.

Crockpot 1-2-3

So I have tried three crockpot recipes off the Crockpot365 site and I must say, they are all keepers.

Night one: Candied Chicken
Notes: Smelled funny when cooking. Casey and I both made this the same night and hers smelled funny too! I was really afraid it would be my first "dinner isn't eatable, order pizza" night. It was actually good. Although it said cook for low 6-8 hours and I used HUGE frozen chicken breast and it was WAY over cooked. Next time I'll cook on low for like 4 hours.

Night Two: Buffalo Wing Soup
Notes: GREAT! But again cooked too long. The chicken is already cooked (boiled) when you make it, so I would only cook on low for 4 hours. We love hot wings, and this was a fantastic twist on them!

Night Three: Pizza Soup
Notes: Perfect. I'd make this every week. We aren't tomato eaters, so I'd leave those out next time. And, I don't think I bought the right Italian Sausage. Mine was ground sausage, but it worked just fine.

I still have a list of other recipes to try, so I'll keep you posted.

New Bible Verse

I know, I'm a few days late. Sorry to my 3 faithful readers.
I got a new Bible yesterday! I had to go to Lifeway to get the Beth Moore Esther guide for a study I'm starting next week and I had a coupon good for yesterday (see, couponing!) I have been wanting a Hollomon Bible. It's kinda a mix between The Message Bible (which I recently got and like, but not for everything) and the NIV (which is my go to version). They had a hardback Hollomon Student Bible for $10! Now I'm pretty picky about my Bibles, I like "pretty" pages and the pages need to be thick, I'm not a fan of that tissue paper stuff. Anyways, LOVE this BIBLE! I'm so excited about it. So I knew I wanted to use this version for my verse this week- just had NO clue what verse I wanted to use. I have all these verses I like, but I want it to be the ONE verse for my two weeks. Well, found it. It's a side bar on my friend Katie's blog and I love it.

He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
-Job 8:21

Happy Heart Day!

Valentine's isn't my favorite holiday, by far. It's not even in the top ten. I like flowers and chocolate just like everyone else, but I married a very Non-Romantic guy, so romancing just ain't his thing.
But happy heart day to everyone!

Crockpotting (I like taking nouns and making them verbs)

I got 7 crockpots for wedding gifts. It because this running joke about my crockpots and I even took a picture of all of them in their glory when we finally moved in our first house and unpacked all the wedding gifts. Just so you know, I only kept two, a big one and a small one.

I LOVE cooking in my crockpot! It makes me so happy to come home after work and dinner be READY. Not to mention it makes my house smell happy too.

Marty had mentioned to me a blog a lady did with 365 crockpot recipes. She made a new year resolution to cook with her crockpot everyday of 2008. I googled her site and found more crockpot recipes than a little girl could ever want.
In case you want it too, I'll save you the google trouble.
www.crockpot365.blogspot.com

I spent an hour or so this morning reading though the post and printing some recipes I want to try. I have a list of recipes and after Sunday armed with my coupons, I'll be crockpotting like a mad woman. I'll post my fav recipes.

coupon update

I spent the morning get myself together for my new task of couponing. I headed to Kroger to do my pricing, since I never really paid attention to what things cost.
They had ground turkey on sale for $.99 a pack! It's normally $3.49! I saved $2.50 a package!
We don't use ground turkey much. I'm just a ground beef girl. I don't mind ground turkey, you can't taste the difference, it just looks different. But for $.99- sold- I bought 4 packs and will probably go back and get more to freeze.
I know I wasn't couponing, but I saved over $16 today and only spent $10! I'm so proud of myself.

Couponing

Yesterday I watched Oprah. I never watch Oprah; I don't agree with her and what she does or does not stand for (but that's a topic for another day, another time).
The whole show was on the Economy and budgeting and such. I really enjoyed it. They have the thriftiest family in America on. They survive (and save) on an income of $58,000 for a family of 5. Holy cow! But what really interested me was Coupon Mom. She was incredible.
I have tried to coupon (is that a verb?) a couple of times. I get so overwhelmed with clipping and then filing and then I can't remember what I have and when it expires. Oh, it's awful. Not to mention I end up spending more money cause I buy more than I would simply because I have a $.25 coupon.
I told Nick if someone would just set up the system I would do it. I just can't figure out how to make it work. Well, my new BFF Coupon Mom has the system in place. You just print out the handbook and start saving!
But today, faithful readers, I'm turning over a new leaf.

So starting today, I'm on the coupon bandwagon! All aboard....

Books, books, and more books

I LOVE to read. About 10 years, heck, even 5 years ago, I never would have said that about myself. I have this complusion now- once I start reading a book, it's almost impossible to put down. I mean I seriously finish a book in one sitting. I'm a fast reader, well actually I scan, not read- but whatever. Anyway, so I have a problem...
I don't know what to read next.
I just finished Twilight Series and I'm book two of the Mark of Lion Series (which is a hard read) but today I wandered around Barnes and Nobles for an hour. I don't know what I was expecting, something to just jump off the shelf at me or what. I ended up buying a puzzle (hello, I'm a grandma!).
So help, what are some good reads...
I'm off to do my puzzle and watch talk shows!