Target trip 6/18/09 *UPDATE*

Update: I called Target corporate guest relations and they were great! They were happy to hear that I liked the store, and they also said that the coupons should have been accepted. They are sending both the compliment and the complaint to the store manager. In the meantime, they are sending me a $3 corporate issued coupon which I can use on my next trip there.

I almost never shop at Target, but this week's grocery deals were uncommonly good. I wonder if Target is trying to branch out and reach more people with their grocery section? If that is their goal, I think it might be working. Shopping in their grocery section was simply a pleasure. Everything was clearly marked, the arrangement of the aisles made sense, and the store was clean and bright. Not only that, even though I was shopping at 9pm, I had no trouble finding an employee to answer a question, and checking out was quick even though there were a lot of other shoppers in line.

The clerk was friendly and didn't mind that I had a pile of coupons for her to scan. I did run into a problem using Target coupons (printed from the Target website) - they didn't scan, and the clerk and manager both said they were sorry, but there was nothing they could do about that. They gave me the number for Target corporate, and I think I'll call them today. I have lots of nice things to say about their store, and I think they'd like to hear those as well as about the coupon problem I encountered.

All in all, I'll probably pay more attention to Target fliers in the future, and may end up shopping there more frequently.

What I bought:
3 Huggies (buy 3, get a $5 GC promotion)
6 ice creams (buy 5, get a $5 GC promotion)
4 pkgs Oscar Mayer lunch meat
2 pkgs Kraft cheese slices (buy meat and cheese, get meat free promotion)
2 pkgs organic tortilla chips
1 jar salsa (buy 2 chips, get free salsa promotion)
1 Skippy pb
1 Welch's jelly
1 Oroweat bread (buy pb and jelly, get bread free promotion)
1 jar Pace salsa
1 jar A-1 sauce
1 pkg napkins

Coupons used:
$1.50/1 huggies (3)
$1/2 breyers (2)
$1/2 oscar mayer (2)
$1/2 kraft (1)
$.55/1 welch's (1)
$1/1 pace (1)
$2/1 A-1 (1)

Tried to use target coupons:
$1/1 chips (2)
$.50/1 pace (1)

Total paid:
$48.36

El Pollo Loco - free grilled chicken!

El Pollo Loco and KFC are duking it out over grilled chicken. Why KFC is even in the running, I'm not sure - we took advantage of their free grilled chicken meal awhile back and frankly found it to be not very good at all. But El Pollo Loco, now that is another story! We really enjoy their food, as well as their friendly manager.

There is a funny video from EPL regarding KFC's "beefy chicken", and after you check that out, print this coupon for a free 2 piece meal when you purchase a 2, 3, or 4 piece meal.

One coupon per customer per visit. Expires 6/30/09.

Enjoy!

Day 3: Family

One of the best things about visiting my family is that it is very comfortable. We never feel rushed, or pressured, or stressed in any way. When we were in the planning stages, one of Gabe's comments about staying with my parents was something to the effect of "we'll have a good chance to relax there." The kids have lots of space to play and relatives who want to play with them, and it isn't unheard of for the lucky parents to get a chance to sit and just read a book! It is a great place to vacation. :)

Throughout my childhood, we ate dinner together around the table. So this picture just says "ok, I'm home now" to me. That's family, folks.



Jonathan had a blast with Granddad, and I think that Granddad got a kick out of J, too.



My parents have a dog, a good sized black lab mix, named Maggie. Thomas was terrified of her:



But Josiah, we have discovered, loves big animals. The bigger the better, actually. He thought Maggie was great!




We spent Sunday evening with my Susan and Gary, Grandmommy and Granddaddy, Matt and Amber and their three kids. I forgot my camera, which is unfortunate because you should have seen the DIRT the children accumulated! All four of the older children disappeared the minute we arrived, showed up for food, and then took off again. It was really neat to see the cousins having so much fun together, and we thoroughly enjoyed the time and space to catch up with the other grown-ups. Even when we don't see them very often, extended family is a great blessing.

Have you EVER seen anything so cute?

Cloth diapered bottoms are just adorable. :) I got tired of paying for disposable diapers for 2.5 children - even buying at rock bottom sale/coupon prices it was really adding up. So back to cloth we went (for the littlest one). I really do like it better. Must remember that!

Josiah has entered a "no, let me feed MYSELF" stage. He's handling much bigger pieces of table food and loving all the fresh fruits and veggies we've been having. Today I was feeding him sweet potato and left it a little too close to him while in the kitchen getting milk for the other boys. What a result! He was enjoying himself so much, and the damage was well and truly done, so I let him play...and he fed himself the whole bowl!

Coupon WINNER

Gee, I really thought that a coupon giveaway would generate more interest. Only two entries! I forgot to set a deadline for entering, but it has been up for nearly a week and I don't want to get too close to the coupon expiration dates. So I have now used the trusty random number generator at random.org and...

the winner is...


Ax Lady! (I have to ask, why the name??)

Please send your snail mail address to puznee[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll get the coupons in the mail for you!

Farmer's Market

We discovered a Farmer's Market in Brea (Tuesdays, 4-8pm) and boy are we going to enjoy it this summer! Last Tuesday was our first excursion. There was a good variety of produce as well as other items like cage free eggs, handmade tamales, and homemade Italian pasta (sold by a real Italian who spoke his own language to the boys - how fun is that???) We bought pasta from him (expensive, but too much fun to pass up), and also baby red potatoes, yams, lettuce, beets, radishes, corn, nectarines, apricots, a whole bag of grapefruits, yellow peppers, avocados, green beans, and tomatoes. A feast!! We've had really healthy meals this week and as an added benefit, I've been so excited about cooking again!

Wednesday: chicken (one breast among all of us), creamed peas and new potatoes, a lovely salad, and nectarines
Thursday: Crock pot "roasted" chicken, beets, grean beans, and yams (colorful!!)
Friday: Caesar salad (with leftover chicken), corn on the cob, homemade bread
Saturday: Chicken cheesebake (again, with leftover chicken!), green beans, nectarines
Sunday: Leftover cheesebake, carrots
Monday: Burritos (whole wheat tortillas, crock pot beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes)

As you can see, I started running out of veggies toward the end of the week. I'll have a better idea of what we'll actually eat when I go again tomorrow. It was so nice to have really good, appealing, healthy snacks available all week! I find it MUCH easier to eat properly if the "good for you" food is more appealing than other things!

I highly recommend trying a farmer's market this summer if there is one available near you. Fun for the whole family, supportive of real farmers, and organic, healthy food at prices that are remarkably affordable. If you're near Brea, maybe we'll see you there tomorrow!

Day 2: the town nobody visits

I'd like to say that we headed out bright and early on day two of our trip, but I would be lying. We actually made it away from the hotel sometime close to 10am, and then spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find that Starbucks we knew we'd seen on the way to hotel last night...

Sometimes an idea just sounds like too much fun to give up on. And we did find it!

By the time we were really on the road, Thomas was tired again. :)



Remember how on day 1, we didn't have any cash in the car? Well, we still didn't. And look what is in front of us:



Tolls. Cash only. We exited, planning to find a gas station and use a debit card. Only, there weren't any gas stations. We drove a long way through nowhere without seeing much of anything. Well, we did see one big Shell sign which got our hopes up, but it was a refinery.

So we just kept driving, because what else could we do? Can't get back on the freeway without cash! Eventually we got to the little town of Martinez.



It is actually quite pretty.





Though perhaps not the safest place to be in the event of an earthquake.



We parked in front of a McDonalds. Hurray! Cash! Food! Bathrooms!



Closed???



Folks, this is a little tiny town. Apparently no one gets out on the weekends.

Thankfully, we found an ATM and got our cash.



And we also found a cute little art gallery that wasn't technically open but did have some people working in it. They were very kind and let us use their bathrooms.



According to one of the ladies there, "Martinez isn't the sort of town people visit - they only come here for a reason."

Like needing cash for the toll road. Its only a little out of the way.

Older every day

Thomas on a "big boy swing" for the first time:



Jonathan's drawings are becoming ever more accurate. This is his latest rendition of a train. See the tracks, the wheels, the cab?



And Siah doesn't stay where I put him anymore. As evidenced by the vast distance between himself and his toys. He's so pleased with himself!

Coupon giveaway! ($146 value)

I'm cleaning out my coupon folder and thought I'd host my first coupon giveaway instead of throwing them away. These are already clipped coupons, no inserts.

Included categories and value:

Baby $29.25

Grocery $16.90

Organics $16.30 + one free item

Ralphs store $4.70

Misc. $78.90

To enter, just leave a comment. Easy!

The fine print: if you win, I ask that you sort through the coupons, and then host a giveaway of your own with the ones you don't want and any additional coupons you want to add from your own stash. It's all about helping each other out. :)

Bugaboo stroller recall

Just in case one of my readers has a Bugaboo stroller! And if you know someone who does, let them know about this recall.


Bugaboo Recalls Strollers Due to Risk of Brake Failure

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Bugaboo Bee Strollers

Units: About 22,500

Distributor: Bugaboo North America Inc., of Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Manufacturer: Bugaboo Design & Sales, B.V., of the Netherlands

Hazard: One or both sides of the brakes can fail, causing a stroller to unexpectedly roll away on an incline. This can pose a risk of injury to the child occupant.

Incidents/Injuries: Bugaboo has received 121 reports of the stroller's brakes failing. No injuries have been reported.

Description: Bugaboo Bee strollers have item code 580210 on a label on the back of the seat and item code 50100 on a label on the plastic support under the seat. The strollers were sold in blue, dark khaki, pink, red, yellow, and black. "bugaboo(r) bee" is printed on the left side of the seat.

Sold at: Juvenile product retailers nationwide and on various Web sites from August 2007 through April 2009 for about $530.

Manufactured in: Taiwan

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the strollers immediately and contact Bugaboo to receive a free repair kit. To order the bracket kit, go to www.bugaboo.com and fill in the special order form or contact Bugaboo customer service.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Bugaboo at (800) 460-2922 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, visit the firm's Web site at www.bugaboo.com, or email the firm at bugaboobee-service@bugaboo.com

Not crawling yet...

but might as well be. This morning I left Josiah asleep in the center of our queen size bed, a pillow on either side of him. Fed the older boys breakfast and was washing dishes when I heard Josiah screaming. I'm not sure how he did it, but he most decidedly threw himself off the bed.

Time for the crib, I think. :)

Day 1: In which we visit the super-cool Marshalls

We left just before 9am on Friday morning. Here are the kids all settled in the car. They had brand new work machines and sticker books to play with, so they were much too engrossed to smile for the camera.



My handsome husband was more cooperative. :)



We spent the day driving. You wouldn't think it would take all day to drive from So Cal to San Jose, but it did. Every potty break took about 45 minutes, and there were so many potty breaks! Thomas is just starting to train, too, so although he was wearing diapers we were trying to be sensitive to his requests for the "pobby" as well. And almost invariably, as soon as we got back on the road after pottying, Josiah would decide to wake up and want to nurse.

Good times. :)

We were driving the final stretch in the late afternoon. There were fresh fruit and nut stands everywhere and we had not one dollar in our car. So disappointing, because we knew we weren't going to come back that way!

Disappointment disappeared, however, when we got to the Marshall's house. They have a DOG!!! Poor Tonks was terrified of our noisy kidlings.



We picked up unbelievably delicious food at a mexican/fusion/super-organic/green-friendly restaurant. Did you know that you can get "plastic" forks made out of potatoes? You can! Then we took it to a local park and let the kids run around and play while we ate and talked.

Linds and Nate are the awesome sort of people who, while not currently having children themselves, are fantastic with ours. And we've been friends long enough that even though we see them very infrequently, we can just sort of pick back up where we left off when we do get together.

Thomas really enjoyed Nate:



And both boys thought Lindsay was a stellar playmate.



The evening was too short. Linds and Nate, we love you guys and hope to see you again SOON!

We're home!

Days ignoring our regular life: 10
Days I expected Josiah to finally figure out crawling: 10 (he still hasn't!)
Final mileage: 1,947.5
(includes approximately 100 miles of dirt roads - our poor Sienna!)


View Larger Map

I'll be blogging highlights from the trip over the next few days. Stay tuned!

On vacation

No posts for awhile, folks! I'll be back in June. In the meantime:

try some amazing recipes with a side of brand new baby at Delish,

kiss those babies and enjoy Dy's special humor and sweet family anecdotes at Classic Adventures,

and leave comments bugging Elena to post more often. :)

Stealing my joy

I think Satan enjoyed reading my last post. He’s been whispering a lot of lies in my ear lately and he must have appreciated seeing their results.

Satan would have me believe that the work I do is drudgery, unimportant, beneath me, worthless. He would have me think that I am ill-used and unappreciated.

He overstepped himself, though, and I finally caught it. You know what? It is utterly unreasonable to feel ill-used because I am making dinner while my husband takes care of the kids. (I know, you’re probably thinking – it took THAT to make her recognize the lies? I know. Sometimes I’m really slow.)

Jesus never said life would be easy. I will have difficult days. But I can still call the lies what they are: LIES, and refuse to let Satan decide how I’m going to feel about my life.

Time alone and time away is a gift, and I need to recognize and appreciate it as such. It is a very good gift, and one that I would like to receive frequently, but like my friend Jessica reminded me, you can’t rely on gifts!

So I am repenting. I am asking Jesus to help me reclaim joy. And peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Parenting requires ALL of those. All the time.) And since the Holy Spirit lives in me, I believe that by His grace I can work toward this new perspective.

Grumpy

I've been grumpy and overwhelmed and tired and irritable and GRUMPY lately. I keep thinking "if I could just have a couple of days off..." Of course, I'm grumpy enough at the moment to follow that up with the thought: "but then I'd have to come back and nothing will have changed..."

Like I said, grumpy.

I think that some of it is frustration and sadness over the state of our church, and worry worry worry about what we (my husband and I) will do about it.

Some of it is the fact that Josiah is teething, I think (?) and nurses better at night than during the day. Which means I'm frustrated during the day trying to get a screaming angry baby to nurse even though he doesn't seem to want to, and frustrated at night trying to get some sleep with a child who'd like to nurse three times in four hours.

And I'm just a smidge afraid that I'm pregnant. Not that there is any good reason why I should be, just that I've never NOT been pregnant for this long between children before, and I have just enough possible symptoms (that could also simply be due to the not sleeping happening around here) to wreak havoc with my head.

Also, the book that I'm trying to read? That stupid author keeps killing my favorite characters. How much worse can it get? ;)

Underneath all of that is the fact of my three children, who I love so very much and who I often wish would just. be. quiet. Even quiet time and bedtime aren't particularly quiet right now because we're allowing the boys to get up to use the potty (Thomas is just starting training, mostly on his own initiative) which means that I have to get up and help them, and it is a ten minute production every time.

Two days ago the chaos of screaming baby, crying toddler, and angry preschooler reduced me to tears in the middle of floor. Which didn't help, of course.

Today I'm just kind of sick of it all. Even things I usually like to do seem dull and gray and unappealing.

I know, somewhere in my head, that this IS all in my head. And that it will get better. But I'm having a very hard time believing it with the rest of me - which is the part that has to keep changing diapers and coloring pictures and doing laundry and reading stories. So I think I need some encouragement and some ideas to pull myself our of this slough of despond. Comments, please?

Copycat

I'm not sure exactly why they wanted to do this particular pose, but this picture is a good example of the copying that goes on in our house right now. Thomas wants to BE his big brother. :)

Rosetta Stone Latin giveaway

Gabe and I have often tossed around the idea of teaching our kids Latin. Only we don't know Latin. I've heard great things about Rosetta Stone for language learning, though, so I'm really excited about this giveaway!

Here is the information:

Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!

Free chocolate

Well, the chance for it anyway! Mars chocolate is running a promotion called the Real Chocolate Relief Act. Every Friday (through 9/25/09) they are giving out 250,000 coupons for your choice of one single-sized package one of their brands of chocolate. (Participating candies are M&M'S, MILKY WAY, SNICKERS, 3 MUSKETEERS, TWIX and DOVE.) All you have to do is sign up!

Science experiment

Jonathan and I have been reading a book this past week called Gus and Grandpa and Show-and-Tell by Claudia Mills. I think the Gus and Grandpa books are quite good, and this one was no exception. One of the show-and-tell projects mentioned was a science experiment: creating a gas out of vinegar and baking soda and blowing up a balloon. Jonathan was fascinated and I realized that I had those very simple ingredients on hand and could do it with him!









It didn't exactly blow up the balloon, but it filled up with enough gas to make it stand up straight and feel firm when squeezed. The boys thought it was extremely awesome, although they weren't all that interested in the science of gases! Well, that will come when they're older. For now, I'm glad we can do "science projects" with such joyous reactions!

To re-create the experiment, you'll need:
a balloon
a narrow-neck bottle
1 t. baking soda
2 T. vinegar

Put the soda inside the bottle. Add the vinegar and cover the bottle top with the balloon as quickly as you can.

Be advised that if you try using extra soda and vinegar in an attempt to get more gas, you will probably end up with foaming bubbles all over your table and hands. Not that I would know from experience or anything, of course.

Saying "thank you"

It was high time to write thank you notes for Jonathan's birthday gifts, and the boys wanted to do it themselves. So we busted out the watercolors (Thomas for the very first time!) and went to town. They had a great time and so did I; it was such fun to see their creativity. This one (see the pointing finger below) was entirely Jonathan's idea. He asked what letter made the sound "th", and when I explained, he promptly started painting "TH"!



Thomas wanted to use lots of different colors, and was surprisingly careful about not mixing them on his brush.



The boys stuffed, sealed, and stamped their own letters.





Ready for the postman!



Family, watch your mailboxes. :)

Free strawberries at Vons!

Vons currently has a coupon available for FREE strawberries when you purchase $10 in produce. The link takes you to the main Vons coupon page - you may have to click through a few pages to find it. Remember that you can print it twice! It doesn't expire until May 31st.

(Photo credit: Pinch My Salt)

Summer bedtimes

Remember summer bedtimes when you were a kid? Going to bed when it was still entirely light outside, and lying there wondering what you were missing and wishing you were older?

I remember. It is sort of strange to now find myself in the position of "grown up", making my own child go to bed when he wants so badly to stay out.

This evening's comment made me laugh, though.

"Daddy, I want to be a grown-up and stay up late. I’m so older, I’m so bigger than Thomas, I’m almost YOUR age!"

Gardening

We've been doing a lot of gardening around here the past few weeks. The biggest project was getting this bed (see below) ready for planting again. Last summer (while about 8 months pregnant) I conceded the battle with the crabgrass. So this spring the entire bed needed to be pulled, dug up, and re-started. I saved some of the strawberry plants in the hopes that they would re-root, but I'm not sure. In any case, they weren't going to produce well while choked with crabgrass, so it was a known loss vs. a possible loss!

In any case, here is the bed all ready for planting again.



My two gardening helpers:



All planted! We laid newspapers down and planted everything through slits, in the hope that the crabgrass would be stymied for awhile. :)



My other gardening helper. Doesn't he have the best smile?



Marigolds:



Green beans:



Tomatoes:



Sweet William:



And my lovely roses which, thankfully, are now aphid free! (That was the other battle I'd been fighting, and I think I've won that one!)





I love the results of gardening. And I usually like the work, too. But boy howdy, does it ever take a long time to do it right! Hopefully, now that we've done the hard getting ready work, it will be easier to sustain it all summer.

Because he's just so cute. :)