How did you tell you children about.....

I posted this as a status on Google+ but didn't get too many replies, so I thought I would try asking in blog format, with more information.

How did you all tell you kids about Santa Clause? (along with all the others)

My oldest daughter will be 11 in a few days here and is in 5th grade. I was hoping that by now, something would pop up at school, and she would ask me about it, but No. She was acting kind of strange last year. She wasn't asking ANY questions about Santa. Any excuses I gave to her younger sisters about anything, she didn't chime in like usual. So I got the feeling that she knew something. But, I let it go, to see how she would react on Christmas morning. Nothing really stood out.

My parent's voluntarily told me at the age of 9. I was NOT ready to hear it and was pretty angry with my mom about telling me. I would have like the magic to go a little longer.

But now at the age of 11, I think its time I just tell her, so she isn't shocked or "the kid who still believes" if it comes up at school. But at the same time, she can't keep secrets very well.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

How to organize your holiday decorations

Once the Halloween decorations come out, its seems like a never-ending job for the next few months, of pulling out decorations and putting them away. But a tip that can help it go a little easier. Now, this will cost you about $5-$10 per holiday, but it should only be ONCE, for a few years.

BUY BINS!!!!

I know some of you might already have some bins and have a great organization system. If that is you, then feel free to move along. This post is for those who, like me, have just started really getting into the decorating thing, and are investing in new decorations each holiday.

It all started last year, I began to buy more decorations for the smaller holidays that I typically used to ignore. I used to only decorate for Christmas. But then we had a small flood in our basement which ruined a lot of boxes we had. And our decorations were just getting older and the cheap stuff was looking cheaper, so I started from scratch. Also, now that we live in a house, I wanted the decor to change with the seasons.

I bought a small amount, last year,  for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Then when it came time to put them away, I didn't really have anything to put them in, as I never really had Fall decorations before. So I bought a small bin that fit everything. However, I have bought A LOT of Halloween stuff this year, so I will need to get a new/bigger bin before I un-decorate. Then I will have all the Halloween stuff in its own "Halloween" bin. And if you buy these during the season, you can get them in colors to coordinate with the holiday. For example, I am going to buy an orange one for Fall stuff. I bought a few red ones last year for Christmas. I also have a clear smaller one for a few Valentine's Day items.

I prefer the clear ones, so you can see if what is in them, is really what you think is in them, without having to pull it all out and open it, etc. So my red ones, are see through red, so I can see if its lights, or garland, or what-not.

My one last tip -- if you haven't used it in a few years, and it doesn't have family sentimental value, get rid of it. That way you can make room for new more modern items you might want, or new traditions you want to start with your own little family.

Here's to a great 2014 Holiday season!

My Fall Must Haves

It's FFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!   I love love love this time of year. I love it so much that I treat it more like Spring cleaning. I must have change out the clothes, the make up, the decor, and I want everything freshly clean and.....OMG I love it!!! And I wanted to share with you all, the things that I love and MUST HAVE when Fall comes around.

1 - Must change out the aroma's in the house. All of my sprays, wax melts, candles all change to smells like pumpkin, apples, and reminders of walking through the woods.

2 - Decor. Now this happens in 3 spans of time. First is September, which is when I bring out the reds and apple type things (back to school - get it??). October its time for Halloween stuff. November is all about harvest type decor with pumpkins, and browns and oranges, hay and scarecrows.

3 - Darker nail polish. break aware from the bright colors of summer, its time to break out the browns, maroons, and of course Vixen by Revlon.

4 - Darker make up. Yep, break out my mauve eye shadow and lipsticks.

5 - Body spray & body washes. Yes I am one of those who has to change out her perfumes/body sprays that go along with the season as well. Right now my fave for cooler months is Twilight Woods, by Bath and Body works. 

5 - Hair. Bye bye golden highlights, Hello deeper reds. And this is also when I give the cut a freshness as well, since I wear it down more in the cooler months.

6 - Boots!!!!

7 - Sweaters!!!!!!!!!!! Nuff said.

8 - Back to nightly cups of hot tea before bed (and hot chocolate for the kiddies).

Shoprite Weekly Highlights - Oct. 5 - Oct. 11

 

It's that time again, for a quick review of the Shoprite Weekly specials. Again, this circular is local to my area, but most stores I believe have the same sales, minus a few BIG deals/coupons.

*Borden Shredded cheese -- Buy 2/$5 and get once Borden chunk cheese Free    *Campbell's Condenses soup -- 5/$5 -- There are coupons out there to lower the price more *Campbell's cream of chicken or mushroom -- 0.75    *Capri Sun drinks, 10 pk -- 1.99    *Colavita pasta -- 0.59    *Danon and SR yogurt -- 10/$5    *Duncan Hines Cake mix -- 0.99    *Francesco Rinaldi pasta sauce -- 1.00    *Glade classic air freshener sprays -- 0.99    *Glade premium Scents, wax melts, plugs in, etc -- 4/$4.96 -- MUST BUY 4 items - or reg. price will ring up *Greek yogurt, various brands -- 10/$10    *Hall Cough Drops -- 0.99 -- Cpn from paper $1.00 off 2 *Herbal Essence shampoo -- 1.99 -- Cpn out there will drop this price more *Nivea lip care -- 0.99    *Perdue oven roaster whole chicken -- .99/lb.    *Red or Green seedless grapes -- .89/lb    *Smart Ones Classic frozen meals -- 1.88    *SR 2-liter soda -- 4/$3.00    *SR cereal -- 1.49    *Sunny Delights -- 5/$5.00    *Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa -- 0.99

What did I do all day??? Why is the house still a mess???

Do you often look around your house at night and think to yourself  "WHY am I so tired?  The house is still a mess, and there are still things that need to be done. WHAT did I do today????"

As moms we sometimes put pressure on ourselves to be that Super Mom who gets it all done. In an ideal world, we would all go to bed with a perfectly clean & organized house, and no chores to have to do the next day. But life doesn't work like that, unless you have the money for a maid. Even stay at home moms don't always get everything done.

Here is an insight into what my day looked like today. Just so you can see, you are normal, and its OK that everything is not done each day. Its called life!!!

*715am to 9am -- get the girls up and moving. This includes helping 1 out of 3 pick out her clothes. Checking the weather because with it being fall, its still unpredictable.
Keep pushing them to keep getting ready.
Make the coffee.
Check the folders and sign what needs to be sent back.
Take the first one to school, just to rush back and finish pushing the twins to get ready.
Dropping the twins off at school.
Running to the produce place to get veggies for the pot roast, because its a busy night and the oven isn't working either.
Come back with enough time to spare to type up a quick blog post and check some personal emails.

9am to 2:250pm -- Its time for that thing called work. Luckily I can work from home, so I need to log in. Answer emails, and do orders,etc etc. All while, throwing a load of laundry in, doing a small amount of dishes here and there because we don't have a dishwasher, and with a family of 5, its constant battle.make myself something to eat for breakfast then again for lunchtime. Drink more coffee.

2:50pm - 3:15pm - Take my only 30 min lunch break to go pick the twins up from school,  just to rush back so I can log back in and do more work.

3:15pm - 5:30pm -- constantly break up arguments, reminding them to do their HW, pouring the drinks, answering questions, try to listen to the stories about their day they are telling me as I politely give "Uhuh, really?, oh wow", as I am really paying attention to the customers email in front of me where they ask me a question I clearly answered in my last reply. Now time to make threats or promises of they are quiet as a mouse, while I sit on a phone call listening to other people talk, while I await my 5 minutes of fame on the call. Ok, call over, now time to catch up on the work I didn't get a chance to do while on the call, again, while reminding the girls that we have places to go and people to see tonight so they need to get the HW done and clean their faces, etc etc.

OH CRAP - THERE IS STILL LAUNDRY SITTING IN THE WASHER. Run down to correct that issue.

5:30pm - DONE WORKING - log out. But now is where speedy crunch time mom kicks in, especially on Thursday & Friday nights because we have Dance and Acro classes!!  Rush the twins to put on shoes, because we have to go pick up the first child from after-school. Come home to rush around to make dinner plates for those who WILL eat what I made, all while listening to Child #1 tell me stories about her day. "Uhuh, really? oh wow" .  And for those who won't eat what I made, I need to assist them in figuring out what they want because ya know..."there is nothing to eaaaatttt"  (even though I went out at 8:30last night to pick up almost $200 worth of groceries for them to eat). Make sure the child who has class is dressed, and ready.
Ahh, I can sit and eat now -- QUICKLY!!

6:30 - last minute bathroom calls, and push to get shoes back on. (why can't kids just leave their shoes on ALL day like I do????)
6:45 - out the door to head to dance classes. Drop off child with classes, run over to home Depot to pick up spray paint for Halloween craft/ decor. meet sister and one other child at Arby's to exchange items and give each other the 'here is what's going on, here is what is coming up, yada yada.", because neither of us has time to talk on the phone anymore.

8:15 - dance class over, let's go HOME!!!!

Once you get home, its still not done. Now its time to make lunches, try to do more dishes and clean up from dinner earlier, and don't forget to bring up some clean laundry because we all know that the kids would rather go to school in PJs then have to go in the basement to get their clothes the next morning. (and you aren't going to feel like it either at 7:15am)   Try to convince at least 1 out of 3 kids to get in the bath and get done quickly, so there is still hot water for you to take a shower later.

*10PM - BEDTIME!!!  ( I know, my kids have a late bedtime. But trying to get them down any earlier makes them stay up later and they are all A students so....whatever) This is a 15 minute process in itself to get them upstairs and to stop talking to each other, but then......10:20 Daddy comes home from work. DADDYYYYYY KISSESSSSS!!!!!

 *Go back downstairs to give hubby a run down of anything he needs to know, questions I have and what's for dinner.

*Jump in a quick shower (which ends up being 20 minutes), then I can finally go to bed. But of course, NOW I am not tired. Check my phone to help me tire and finally get to fall asleep about 12:15 or so. Only 7 more hours before I start all over again tomorrow!!!

And THAT....is why it looks like we mothers have done NOTHING all day.

Halloween Series #5 - Dollar Tree stuff

Hey, it's me!
Last week, it was brought to my attention that Dollar tree had so much cute stuff out. But I had to wait until pay day - whomp whooomp. However, I finally got to go last night!!! I was so excited because I got so much cute stuff. But of course, now I feel like I STILL don't have enough going on in this house. UGH  (Who else gets that way? You buy tons of stuff and still feel like your house looks empty?)

Color changing votive/fake candle things. They flicker and change color behind the designed screen. Also some goodies for a prize box.

 

Those glitter skull also flicker and change colors, out of the eye sockets. A few more spiders to crawl the walls. I keep seeing these crows - not sure what to do with them yet, but I wanted them. Ava likes to walk around with one on her shoulder. 

Had to get some kitchen stuff. There is a set of 4 fall shade of purple cups, cute Halloween canister, and the decorative hand towels.

 

Two cute little gravestones, black and silver skull garland, witches dessert menu sign, some wall hanging things for decorations, and a toilet seat decal.

Savingstar.com -- no clip coupon savings site & App

With today's technology, there are so many more ways to save money, other then clipping coupons. There are lots of sites out there you can utilize. And some of them even have coordinating apps.

Savingstar.com is a clip less coupon site that also has an app.

First, you create an account, and add all of your store cards, for the local participating stores they have listed.

Then, save all of the offers for products you buy, want to buy, or think you might buy in the near future. (Or just save them ALL list I do)

The way it works, is that you save offers on their site for products that you purchase frequently. It looks like a coupon. But instead of saving offers on your store card, it records offers that you purchased with your store card, and gives you credit for it. Your own little SavingStar savings account.
These savings do not come off, at the time of purchase, when you are checking out. You can use other ecoupons or paper coupons for that. This just gives you the credit amount, on your account.

Once you have reached $5 in your account with them, Savingstar will credit you that $5, by one of the options they have -  Paypal, direct deposit into your checking account, or www.Amazon.com credit.

If  you have the app, you can scan your receipt from participating stores, that do not have store cards like Dollar General, Family Dollar, Sam's Club, Target, Walmart, and more.  This will record any of your saved SavingStar deals, that you purchased on that receipt, and credit your account.

Below is the link for the website, and a direct link to their page that tells How it Works.

I have gotten payouts from this site before, so I can validate that it is legit. I hope you all try it, and it ends up benefiting you. Have fun!



Website:  https://savingstar.com/
How it Works:  https://savingstar.com/how_it_works