Stop, Drop and Roll

The days are getting warmer and the sun is shining longer which means there is more opportunity to work outside.  Each morning my husband and I exchange lists of our respective obligations for the day.  

Without fail, almost every single day the focus ends up shifting to accomplishing the tasks on his list.  It makes things on our side much more chaotic, but as any elementary-aged child can tell you: when the world is turning into a dumpster fire, the best thing to do is stop, drop and roll. 

Stop everything you're doing.

Drop whatever task you may have been in the middle of accomplishing.

Roll with the punches and things will (probably) work out just fine. 

Last week John really wanted to finish his library book.  The Magic Treehouse series is pretty captivating at his age and reading is something that I don't want to discourage in our children.  I needed to make ear tags and help Wesley work calves so John had to tag along and continue to read aloud about adventures in ancient Rome while I continued my work.  We swapped his magic treehouse for a magic vet shack and he shouted the story to me over the loud hum of the hydraulic chute. 

Stop, drop and roll.

And, because this kid can relax anywhere, he took a few moments to create a rock lounge chair.

The kids love to jump haybales.  If they could do nothing else for recreation I think they'd be just fine.  We had just started to enjoy our afternoon when I got the call that everyone needed to head to a pasture and help gather a set of calves. 

Stop, drop and roll.

The kids are having fun working with all their 4-H calves this year as they are now big enough to do most everything themselves.  We thought it was going to be a productive afternoon of scratching on calves when we got the call and suddenly tracking a bull sale online was more important. 

Stop, drop and roll.

We were interested in bull #10 and bull #110 in the sale order.  The kids did a wonderful job of tracking everything in between and letting us know when they were getting close to our prospects and it allowed us to keep working.

As this busy spring season progresses I have a feeling we're going to stop, drop and roll each and every day. 

Someone Is...

With four kids underfoot, it seems life around here is merely a game of odds, or probability, if you will.  Chances are that someone in our family is doing at least one of these things at any given time.   

Someone is always hungry.  

You simply cannot add enough spicy salsa to this kid's scrambled eggs.
Not possible.

Someone is always in the middle of a growth spurt (thus the hungry part).  

Someone is always drawing blood, getting bruised, being banged up. 

Someone is always needing a shower. (Or a power washer.  Sometimes you have to pull out the big guns.)

Someone is usually reading a book. 

Someone is normally shouting.

Someone is always wrestling.

Someone is normally arguing with a sibling.

Someone probably deserves a swat on the behind.

Mom: Reese, are you supposed to be on the table?
Reese: No! Good girl.
*cue angelic smile*

Someone is wanting to draw. 

Someone is wanting to go fishing. 

Someone is doing something, somewhere, with cattle.

Someone is always needing a nap. 

Someone is singing and/or dancing. 

We constantly listen to the new Cody Johnson CD in the car and everyone jams out. 
And yes, we still listen to 'old school' CDs.

Someone is always exhausted.  (Me.  It is me, the mom.) 

My Least Glamorous Post Ever

I want to preface this post by stating that I get immense satisfaction from weird 'adulting' tasks.  You know, handling shit on my own.  I don't always necissarily enjoy the process, but the end results can be so gratifying.  Case in point, finding health insurance each year for our family.  (I highly recommend looking into your area Farm Bureau health plans if you reside in Kansas.) This year, due to my diligence we should be able to save HUNDREDS each month in health insurance.  Hundreds of dollars, folks, not clam shells.  So exciting.  But I digress...

Finding hew health insurance is just one way that I am able to help my family succeed.  As an uber glamorous stay-at-home mom I am not always able to bring more money in for my family, but I can always find ways to save.  We have the cheapest cable tv package possible, we keep our heater on low in the winter (put on a damn sweater, people!), I make meals from scratch (yes, even when I'm tired and feeling lazy), and my personal favorite: I CLIP COUPONS.  

I've watched the extreme couponing shows and while that is aspirational, I cannot achieve that so I don't even try to purchase $600 worth of canned goods for $4. I would liken this to working out each day thinking I can someday look like a Victoria's Secret model.  These goals are not feasible for me so I try to set reasonable goals and hit them rather consistently.  Therefore, I try to run/walk several miles per week to keep myself healthy and I try to save as much as possible when couponing.  

The following is a rough outline of my couponing system.  On this particular excursion I managed to combine store coupons, Sunday paper coupons and sales in order to save $107 on a $300 shopping trip.  (Okay, technically it was $106.97 but this is my story and I'm rounding up the three cents.) 

I like to shop in the mornings as the stores are much less crowded.  It is worth it to me to get my behind out of bed and get going in order to miss the lunch crowd, the 'we're skipping naptime and that's why my kid is having a meltdown' crowd and all sorts of other various less desirable groups to shop with.  I find that shopping in the mornings usually leaves me surrounded by older men in overalls, and I'm perfectly at home in this environment.  

Shopping in the mornings means that I need to spend time planning my shopping trip sometime the day before.  It doesn't take me long; I just need 30 minutes to get prepared.  I'm not sure how else I can 'make' over $100 in 30 minutes for my family (despite what all those online businesses promise). 

Behold, my shopping list below which is really quite simple.  I list out everything I need.  The asterisk * next to items indicates that I have a coupon.  Two asterisks ** indicates two coupons for that item.  Also, I write a small description next to items that I have a coupon for.  This saves me soooooo much time in the store.  I don't have to search through all my coupons to find out if my cottage cheese needed to be 12 ounces, 20-30 ounces, buy two get one free, etc.  I simply write out briefly next to each item.  

• Soy sauce >55oz. *

(Purchase soy sauce, greater than 55 ounces, use a coupon.)

• Cheese, 24-32oz. **

(Purchase any cheese, 24-32 ounces, I have two coupons so purchase two packages of cheese.)

Also, you may notice that I have soy juice listed on my shopping list.  I do not, nor does anyone in my immediate family, drink this.  We love our dairy!  However, when my sweet little grandma asks me to purchase this I won't say no.  Whew.  Glad that's off my chest. 

After writing out my list I take a moment to sort through my coupons and order them.  I normally accumulate more than one coupon for the same item so I put all my salad coupons into one pile, all the cheese coupons in one pile, etc.  Then I can place them into my coupon divider quite easily.  The coupon divider is a small item that costs approximately $8 and allows me to sort coupons into categories.  One space for: refrigerated groceries, shelf stable groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, baby items, batteries, etc.  You can certainly arrange categories depending upon your personal needs.  

Also, turn your head sideways and view the coupons below.  I often have multiple coupons for the same product.  I place them in chronological order so the coupon expiring the soonest is on the top.  When pulling out coupons from my divider in the store this makes for one less hassle. 

Also of importance - COUPONS DON'T ALWAYS MAKE THINGS CHEAPER!  Behold below.  I really like to use Persil detergent (please consider this a plea to sponsor me, dear Persil executives).  I had a coupon for the Persil tabs.  After reviewing the unit price for each I noticed that the tabs were DOUBLE the price of the liquid detergent.  My $1 coupon was not enough to make up for the price difference.  (Also, I realize that the example below is for cereal.  It was the best picture example I could find on Google.)  

And there you have it folks, my couponing system in a nutshell.  I wasn't lying, this is likely one of my least glamorous posts ever, but perhaps one of the most important ones to my family.  If I can do this with three kiddos in tow I have faith that you can too.  I can't always bring in extra money, but I can always find ways to trim the fat and save for my family!  Now go forth and save!

If I Were A Good Blogger

We're no longer shooting for greatness here, folks.  I no longer harbor any grandiose dreams of becoming a great blogger.  We're aiming slightly lower these days.  If I were a good, decent blogger, you would have read some sort of update from me in the last month.  Here's the quick and dirty...

If I were a good blogger:

• You would have seen more smiles.

• You would know all about little footprints in construction dust and getting ready for the new baby.

• You'd know about Kenyon's new 'big boy' bed that I slightly covet for myself.

• You'd know all about that perfect evening with no wind when we walked down to the silo and watched the hay grinder man with his big machine. 

• You'd know that we had our garden worked and ready for potatoes and onion sets on the 17th. 

• You'd know about the week that Wesley did nothing but work ground and the only time we saw him was the 45 minutes the boys would ride with him in the evenings.  (That week sucked.)

• You'd know that we absolutely love the neighbor men in our life, no matter where we run into them.

• You'd know that I came across this recipe and laughed a little, and then had a little cry because I missed him.  And I didn't have enough boxes of salt for the recipe.

• You'd know that there was one really still Sunday afternoon when we went fishing and didn't even have a nibble.  

• You'd know that little boys are absolute dirt magnets.  Here's our evidence.  If you look closely at the picture below you'll notice a circle that is relatively clean thanks to the nice lady at the grocery store that gave Kenyon a sticker.  The rest of his shirt was filthy compared to that little circle.  I thank the Lord every day for my washing machine.

• You'd see more wrestling matches that just seem to get rougher and rougher each day.  Sometimes I stop them; most of the time I don't. 

• You'd know all about Kenyon riding his grandad's horse and doing big-time, man stuff with him.

If I were a good blogger, you'd know about all these things.