Kroger Mega Event

Every so often there is a great event at Kroger where you can buy 10 items (mix and match from a long list) and get 5 bucks off your total instantly. It's an awesome sale. And you know how much I am loving clipping my coupons. I took some time to go through the Kroger flier and my coupon book (a 3 inch binder full of baseball card holders stocked full of coupons) and I put together what I thought would be pretty successful trip. I took my family along this evening and I think things turned out pretty well. Here's a list of what I got and what I ended up spending on each item (after sales and coupons):

6 Pillsbury Toaster Strudel (1.10 each)

4 bags Wonka gummies (all FREE)

Milk (2.48)

Jumbo eggs (.99)

Sunny Delight (1.00)

Nature Valley Granola bars (.60)

2 Special K Fruit Crisps (2.00)

2 Martha White Muffin Mixes (.90)

Pillsbury frosting (1.29)

2 Dole Pineapple tidbits (.18)

6 Kraft Natural Cheese products (9.00)

2 I Can't believe it's not butter products (1.00)

2 Nestle tollhouse sugar cookie doughs (4.00)

International delights creamer (FREE)

New York Pizza sticks (1.00)

Weight Watchers Fudge bars (2.00)

2 goldfish crackers (.50)

Oscar Meyer turkey sub (1.00)

Bread (.78)

Hot dog buns (1.00)

My total with tax and all was $39.43

My savings were 59.57

That means I saved 62% on my groceries tonight!

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

V-day

No. I am not speaking of a date historic to the nation we call home. I am referring to a date historic to my own household. It was the day we praised God for 3 beautiful healthy children. It was the day we decided that we were perfectly happy to have those wonderfully healthy children...and no more. It was the day Rayden had a vasectomy. It was last Wednesday.

I have ALWAYS said (well, at least since I was old enough to have actual thoughts about childbirth and parenting) that I would be done have kids by the time I was 30. I got married when I was 20, so I thought....if we want 10 kids that's fine...we'll just have to stack them back to back to back to back....well, you get the point.

We had our first child 2.8 years into marriage. Our second child came 9 months and 24 days after the first one. After that we decided to wait a while....good lord.....I needed to catch my breath! We waffled back and forth about whether or not we would stop after two kids. There are 2 children in Rayden's family and he felt that having an even number worked out great. no one is let out when you play games or ride roller coasters. But, still, in my mind I wasn't ready to call it quits. In the deep recesses of my heart I believed that God may want to give us a little girl. And...ahem....I was right. We decided to start trying for a third baby in November of 2006. I stopped taking the pill and we anticipated really "working" at conceiving in January 2007. That, however, was not necessary. I got pregnant in November 2006 and little Aubri Jane joined our family via C-section in August of 2007.

I had numerous complications after her birth. i was in and out of the hospital for a month. In these tiresome and painful moments I first began to believe our family was complete. But, we knew we couldn't make any decision in the midst of such chaos and disaster. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Rayden made a consultation appointment for this procedure when Aubri was a year old. He came home and told me he was ready. I proceeded to tell him that I was indeed NOT ready. How on earth can I make the decision to not invite another baby into our family. I knew it would be more stressful in lots of ways....financial, time, etc. But I also knew our love would grow exponentially.

Then...about 6 months later I was 3 days late. Yes....with my period. Talk about freaking out! I was in full on panic mode. I was in fact NOT pregnant, but it was a terrifying couple of days for me. I was a mess. I was scared and overwhelmed. Then, 3 months after that I was late again. FREAKING OUT HERE! Then one more time 2 months ago. Only this time I let Rayden ride the rollercoaster with me (those other incidents I didn't tell him anything until they were already over). He lovingly looked into my eyes and held me as I tried not to show how terrified I was and he said, "Sarah, if you are freaking out this much at the possibility of being pregnant, don't you think it's time we rally do something about it?" Hmmmm. Yes. Yes we should.

We made the appointment. We followed through. And now....there is relief. Yes. If I would have gotten pregnant again I would have been thrilled. I would have loved, prayed for, nurtured, and adored a fourth child. But, praise be to Jesus, there won't be a fourth child. At least not by us conceiving one. I will not have to endure pregnancy again an get all fat and horribly uncomfortable. I will not have to have surgery again and suffer any complications from a misplaced epidural. That is all behind me. The deed has been done.

Now, if you will excuse me...I am going to sneak in to each of my 3 babies rooms while they sleep and give them night-night kisses. I will whisper in their ears that I love them. And I will whisper in my heart how amazingly grateful I am that God is sharing them with me.

Aiming to win

They say that if you shoot at nothing you will hit it every time. I fear that my life is all too summed up by that quote. I have not been that great at setting goals, so I have not been real pleased with how things are going in certain areas of my life. So, I am setting some February goals for me and my family (although mostly just me!).

February goals:
1. Lose 4 pounds (that's a pound a week)- I have been a member of Weight watchers for about 20 weeks and although I started off great I am sad to say that I have gained almost half of it back. BOO! Anyway, I am recommitting to tracking my daily points and would love to hit this benchmark. If I lose this amount of weight then I will hit my 16 pound total (which is 10% of my starting weight.)

2. Make and menu...AND STICK TO IT! Making the menu is not the hard part for me....my problem is in the follow through portion of this deal. So, I want to make realistic menus and stick to them. I am hoping that my first baking day will help out with them and I intend to do another baking day as well (see goal number 3).

3. Host Baking Day #2. I have really enjoyed the fruit of the labor that was baking day #1. It's been great to have premade muffins to thaw out for breakfast on the go. It's awesome to just thaw and heat things....sure beats slaving away in the kitchen every single day. This time I would like to do some snack options, lunchbox options, and maybe even try some weight watchers meals in order to piggyback off of goal number 1.

4. Read an ENTIRE book. Once again....I am a great book starter. Not so great with the finishing, however. But, the other day I was at Lifeway (side note....I absolutely love that store!) and I saw a book that was simply begging to come home with me. It's by John Ortberg and it's called, "The Me I Want To Be." Intriguing, right? Just listen to this...."What I really want is to be fully alive inside." And this, "The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become." Or maybe this will speak to you, "no human being in your life gets the final word on who God made you to be." Sounds awesome, doesn't it. I read the first 2 chapters (34 pages) last night. Only 224 more to go. Totally doable.

5. Work with Nathan at least 2 times a week on reading. My little Nathan is a smarty pants. He has an amazing vocabulary and a real thirst to learn. The kid asks about a billion (or at least that's what it feels like most days) questions a day! I know he'll do great in Kindergarten next year, but I also think he's ready for more already. I want to spend some time intentionally helping him learn.

I'm sure there are more. But, I want to commit to these 5 things. I don't want to be overly ambitious and then get disappointed when it's too difficult to follow through. It'll be nice to aim at something instead of nothing for a change. HA! What are you aiming at this month?