A few things...

1. I ran two 5Ks recently and will run another one on November 21.
2. Chad defends his dissertation on Tuesday, November 9. I'm excited, anxious, and thrilled all at the same time.
3. My "baby" was 17 months old yesterday. It's hard to believe.
4. We think we've found a preschool for next spring/next year (Anna will have her hands full with the twins and Addie so we knew we better have our backup in place. I can't wait to hold those precious miracle babies!)
5. I want to make something pumpkin...a pumpkin cake, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin something. I need to get on that.
6. The first monthly freezer swap went well. It was fun to visit and EXTREMELY fun to get 4 meals that I didn't have to make. I'm already brainstorming about next month. Let me know if you want to participate. There's always room for more!
7. Chad and I did a little more cooking in the nights that followed the freezer swap and now have a stocked freezer again. Sweet relief.
8. I turn 30 next week. Blah. Bleh. Bluh.
9. I have to miss Hockey Day AGAIN this year. How is it that I live in AL and still have to miss it? Well, see number 2. We will be in NC. And, even though I'm SUPER sad, I'm okay with it.
10. I've completed 3 of the 6 fellowship applications for next summer/next year. One more will be finished before we head to NC (if I write it on my blog, it must happen, right?). The other two are due in January and February so I have a little more time to fret with them.

Just a quick update in classic Mandy list form. Hope you are all well.

Music and Lyrics

I know it's kind of a cop out to just post song lyrics as a blog post, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm loving this song by Kyle Matthews right now. If you haven't heard of this guy, you should really give him a listen. I love musicians who have the ability to be real, theologically sound, deep, convicting, and uplifting in their lyrics. He's one of them. On a side note, I once had lunch with him at Moe's. No big deal :-)

A Rhythm to Live By

Left to my own devices
I would lose my way
Quit my job and lie in bed all day
Or I might get so ambitious
I neglect the ones I love
Ignore the world around me
Forget what God has done

I need a rhythm to live by
Time for work and worship, rest and play
I need a rhythm to live by
Time to stop and let the Spirit have its say
Help me find the balance I was made for
From the start
I need a rhythm to live by
So my feet can keep the beat of my heart

There's a pattern to the seasons
Like the dance of day and night
And every living thing makes peace with time
But I struggle in my freedom
Like a drowning man for air
For a mission, a communion
For a Sabbath, and a prayer
{Chorus}

By Kyle Matthews ~ Copyright © 2008 Catalytic Songs, (BMI) ~ All Rights reserved

Cheap Diapers at Rite Aid

I know you guys probably get tired of all of my money saving posts, but I hope that some of these deals are helpful to some of you, anyway. If you need disposable diapers or baby gifts, this is the week to grab them. Rite Aid is offering a $10 rebate (by mail) if you buy 3 Jumbo packs of Huggies at $11/each. Now, that's a pretty good deal, but it gets better. There are coupons floating around for $2/pack of Huggies diapers, or, if you're like me you have a few for $3/pack of Huggies diapers. But, wait, it gets even better, if you go here and watch a Huggies video, you can get another coupon for $2/pack. This is a Rite Aid video so you can use it with your manufacturer's coupons to bring your price per diaper (ppd) even lower. And, if you watch enough videos, you can get a $5/$20 purchase at Rite Aid. There are also some coupons for $5/$25 purchase floating around the internet. As you probably know by now, I'm going to point you over to Southern Savers to get more details and to see some purchasing options.

Here's what I did.

Transaction One:
1 Jumbo pack Huggies Pure and Natural (23ct) @$11
1 Jumbo pack Huggies Little Movers (27 ct) @$11
2 GE Extra Soft White 60 watt light bulbs (4ct) @$2/each

Coupons used: $5/$25, $3/2 GE light bulbs (in Rite Aid sale paper), $2/Huggies (from video), $3/Huggies, $3/Huggies
Total: $12.60

Transaction Two:
1 Jumbo pack Huggies Pure and Natural (23ct) @$11
Sunday newspaper @$1.50
2 tubs of Huggies wipes @$2.50/each
2 bags of peanut M&M's @$.044/each (I needed to get my total over $20 to use my $5/off coupon)

Coupons used: $5/$20, $3/Huggies, $2/Huggies wipes (coupon said off a diaper product), $2/Huggies wipes (same coupon as before, links can be found on Southern Savers)
Total: $8.07

Grand Total: $20.67
Amount I'll get back in rebates: $11 ($10 for diapers and $1 for wipes)
Total after rebates: $9.67

Since I was getting such a great deal, I decided to give the Huggies Pure and Natural a try. Huggies Pure and Natural are made of organic cotton and are fragrance free so it makes me feel a tad better about having to use disposables when Cady goes to MMO. (Side note: I did not realize how blessed we were that our daycare in NC was willing to use cloth diapers on Cady. They saved us so, so, so much money!) Of course, if you got all Snug & Dry (31 in size 4, I think) or Little Movers (27 in size 4), your ppd would be even lower (unless your coupon value is lower, then it might equal out...you can usually find coupons for $3/Pure and Natural). Or, if your baby is in a smaller size your cost per diaper would be lower too.

To figure ppd on this deal, I factored in the coupons I used for the diapers, one of the $5/off coupons, and the $10 rebate. Doing that, my figures look like this:

$11x3 = $33
$33-$11 in diaper coupons = $22-$5 = $17-$10=$7
So, $7 for 3 packs of diapers or $0.095 per diaper!!! Of course, once you factor in Montgomery's 10% sales tax, my numbers go up a little, but not much. And, if I wanted to factor in the other $5/total purchase coupon I used, it would go down even more.

Anyway, let me know if you decide to snag this deal! And, all of you Pampers lovers out there (I use them too, I know they're wonderful), I challenge you to try Huggies again. This is a steal. If you don't like using them, send them to daycare, MMO, or church. I promise you that the daycare providers won't care :-) Let me know if you need help finding coupons. And, if you're local, I have a few that expire soon that I'm willing to share. ENJOY!

Wordless Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Our latest hair-brained scheme

As you read, Anna and I embarked on a once a month cooking adventure last month. I'm pleased to report that it's been a success for both families. We LOVE having (good) food in the freezer. It makes dinner time so, so, so much easier. And, in our case, usually tastier. We're currently tweaking things a little bit as we prepare for our second month of cooking. I'll definitely let you know how that goes when both of our children stay well long enough for us to get together. :-)

In the meantime, I wanted to let everyone in on our latest cooking adventure/craziness. We're going to host a freezer swap in October. What's a freezer swap? Well, I'm glad you asked. I like to think of it as OAMC the easy way. My friend Rachael (that I met through April) sent me the information about the one she participates in in Wake Forest and it sounds FAB-ulous.

Basically, you make one dish, but you make enough recipes for everyone in the group. Say that we have 8 families in our swap. We each submit three dishes that we could make and then everyone votes on what dishes they'd like. If the consensus is for me to make chicken pockets and Anna to do spaghetti sauce, then I'd make 8 recipes of chicken pockets and Anna would make 8 recipes of spaghetti. On the day of the swap, you keep one batch of whatever at home for your family and bring the other 7 batches to the swap. You leave the swap with 7 different meals. Presto: 8 meals in the freezer. Pretty cool, I think.

You (obviously) wouldn't have a month's worth of meals this way, but you'd have 2 meals/week. This seems to be a good option for folks who want to try freezer meals, but don't have a lot of freezer space. Plus, it's a great way to try new recipes. In fact, we could bring copies of each recipe to the swap and swap those too if you wanted. So, what say you blog friends? Are any of you interested in participating with Anna and me? We don't have a definite date for the swap yet, but it will likely be the last week in October or the first week in November.