A City Life For Me

Today only, my Kroger store had all Kellogg’s items on sale at 50% off.  In the Red Plum insert I also received $80 of coupons for Kellogg’s products, most of them for $1 off when you buy 2.  Additionally, there is a “Fuel for School” rebate of $10 when you buy 10 Kelloggs products.  I bought 10 products at half off and my subtotal was $15.  I used 5 $1 off coupons making my total $10, and I can submit it for a $10 rebate.  IT WAS ALL FREE!!!   Sorry the picture isn’t the greatest.  I got four Special K cereals, 2 Eggo waffles, 2 Pop Tarts, and 2 Rice Krispy Treats.

Canning Day 1 actually turned into the only canning day.  I decided to go ahead and do up the peach jam while I had all of the pans and supplies out.  It made for what felt like a really long day on my feet.  When the last jars of jam were removed from the canner, and the dishes were washed, I jumped into a nice warm bath to soak my feet.  They were so tired!   We ended up with 11 half pints of less sugar blueberry jam, 4 pints of regular peach jam, and 3 pints of less sugar peach jam.  We also had enough blueberries to freeze for three pies and two batches of pancakes.  Ben should be happy for a while!    I was blessed to be taken out to dinner, spur of the moment, last night.  Ben came home and saw everything I had done and took me to the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday.  I have been craving salad and crushed ice recently!  Then we got a free ice cream at cold stone with his birthday coupon.  What a day!

Ben got off early on Friday, so we headed down to Knott’s Island, NC (about an hour away) to pick peaches at the local orchard.  They were supposed to be ready this week, and I wanted to make a batch of peach jam.  When we arrived around 1pm we were told that a lot of pickers came in the morning, and they were out of peaches!  They had a couple of 10 pound bags already picked that we could purchase.  We bought one, though I am not too thrilled with the quality of the peaches.  Hopefully it will make some good jam.   Having struck out in the peach department, we stopped by the blueberry patch on the way home and hit the jackpot.  They were on sale for $1.76 per pound for pick your own blueberries, and they were ripe & sweet.  We spend about an hour picking and ended up with almost two buckets – I think it’s around 10 pounds.  Ben’s favorite is blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes, and I want to try some jam.    I spent the morni...

Well, this is a little late…but we did celebrate Ben’s birthday on time.  Actually he kind of got a whole week of celebration.  A while back I read about several birthday clubs to sign up for at restaurants.  On your birthday they send you a coupon by email.  So, I entered Ben and me.  The coupons started arriving a week before his birthday, and they didn’t expire until a week after his birthday…which meant we didn’t have to pig out all in one day!  He enjoyed a free Schlotzsky’s deli sandwich one day for lunch.  On Tuesday night we enjoyed a free burger entree at Red Robin.  On Wednesday (his birthday) we had a buy one, get one coupon for Qdoba Mexican grill.  We still have a free Cold Stone and a free shake at Fuddruckers to use.    Since Ben’s birthday was on a Wednesday, it was hard to do very much celebrating.  Usually he runs in the door, grabs a quick shower, we scarf dinner, and we’re out the door to church.  So ...

I just found a great new blog called Baby Good Buys .  To make this find even sweeter, they are giving away two Fuzzi Bunz diapers to one lucky winner.  These are the cloth diaper that I have chosen to use with our baby, in addition to traditional pre-fold diapers.  There is a great review and some more information about Fuzzi Bunz if you would like to check out her site, and enter to win yourself if you have babies at home!  

I realize that my blog does not reach very many people – just a handful of family and friends.  However, I felt I needed to write a post on the actions you can take to stand up against Obamacare, the proposed government take-over of the healthcare industry.  In this matter, Congress and the current Administration have gone too far.  I attended my local Tea Party against taxes on April 15th.  As a result, I get emails from TeaPartyPatriots.org .  They have made several suggestions regarding actions we can take to let our voice be heard against nationalized healthcare.    I feel that if you aren’t going to take the steps necessary to stand up, to let your voice be heard, and to do what you can do, then you have no rights to complain about what happens.  We can make phone calls, send letters/emails, and let our elected officials know what we want in this matter.  They may listen, and they may not, but they can’t listen unless we are talking. ...

If I cast up a confessed, repented, and forsaken sin against another, and allow  my remembrance of that sin to color my thinking and feed my suspicions, then I know nothing of Calvary love . ~Amy Carmichael, missionary to India

Here is a video tour of our new home in two parts (I had camera problems).        There were a few problems that had to be corrected first thing.  The A/C did not shut off (I’m afraid to see that power bill!), the freezer defrosted into the refrigerator, and there was no hot water in the bathtub.  There were minor issues too, which were all corrected today.  A funny thing is that the toilet is installed crooked.    I went today for a move-out inspection on our old place.  We cleaned really well on Sunday.  The inspector barely looked around, but his comment pleased me.  He said, “This is going to be an easy turnover.  It’s really clean.  I can’t wait to be assigned to this one.”    The move was very smooth.  On Friday I worked on moving over the clothes closet and some kitchen items while Ben was at work.  He helped me finish the dishes and the large items.  I was exhausted Friday ni...

I had my first “official” craving last night…according to Ben.  Most of the time when he asks me what I want I say “I don’t know” or “I can’t decide”.  Last night, as we were cleaning up the su pper dishes, I blurted out, “I want chocolate.”  We had just finished off the M&M’s, so there was no chocolate in the house.  Ben was so excited that I had a craving and knew what I wanted that he went out to the store to buy me chocolate.  He even used some of his birthday money!  He came back with two bags of wonderful Dove chocolate – one bag of milk chocolate and one bag of dark chocolate.  His comment was, “Cravings mean we can splurge a little.  But…can you crave something a little more exotic next time?”

K-Mart was running their Super Double Coupon promotion this week in which they double manufacturer coupons up to and including $2.00.  I had quite a few high dollar coupons which allowed me to maximize my savings.  Here is a picture:   I used 19 coupons that totaled $51.66 after being doubled.  There were only four items that I did not have a coupon for – two of them were tomato plants (not pictured).  My before coupon total was $78 and change.  I paid $25.93 for everything pictured above.  20% of that was my Downy wrinkle releaser – which I only purchased because I really need it right now!  This was a great K-Mart shopping trip! (9 items were free or only pennies).

It was a great weekend.  Ben was off on Friday, Saturday, and of course Sunday.  We did nothing, and yet we accomplished a lot.   We enjoyed sleeping in and relaxing.  On Friday we had our medical exam for Life Insurance, we got a new radio installed in the Camry, and we signed the lease on our new apartment.  We enjoyed staying up late watching movies because Ben did not have to leave early on Saturday for the office.   On Saturday we tied up loose ends, played a game of Monopoly, and studied Hebrew.  Well, Ben studied Hebrew.  I did a little bit of packing for the move, and we put together a review game for the Sunday School class.  We just finished a study on the life of Joseph.    Then we went to see fireworks over the ocean .  They set off the fireworks from a boat so that they explode over the water.  We intended to catch the shopper’s shuttle, but it was ahead of schedule and we missed it.  So…we walked....

Today my “big” little brother, Kenneth Michael turns 24!  Happy Birthday Kenny!  He is away from the whole family as he just moved to Newland, NC to work at Emmanuel Baptist Church.   Yesterday, July 1st, was my Mother-in-Law, Sissy Hamilton’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!  (I won’t tell you how old she is…)  And coming up on the 15th is Dad Hamilton’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad!