Giving Back to the Community- Shopping Style

It is easy to talk about the chance to give back to the community but not always so easy to do.

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Would you like to find an easy way to give back?

Let's face it, everyone has to go grocery shopping. Right? Did you know that you can give back to the community, simply by buying groceries?

Kroger has a program that allows you to pick an organization that you want to give a percentage of the cost of what you buy back to.

I just got a new card, so I had to re-register my card. You can go to the Kroger website to register.

I chose my high school, Wayside Christian School, to be the beneficiary of my grocery shopping.

One you have signed up, you are set for the year. How cool is that!

Let me know if you chose to sign up and also who you chose to receive your profits!

Total at Kroger and Match ups fo 1/30-2/5

If you were following at all my shopping trip to Kroger that I blogged about, the total amount that I spent on the groceries in the picture was $7.55.

If you are interested in trying to get some of the deals, then check out the following match ups that I used. The deals are pretty much the same this week that they were last week. Kroger Match ups January 30th- February 5th. Let me know if you have any questions!

Wedding Thank Yous

My husband and I had seen the idea of doing post cards for our wedding thank yous. We decided that this was something that we wanted to do.
We made a banner that we wanted in our pictures. I had to put the banner on the altar the day before the wedding, so that we would remember to take the picture the day of the wedding.

The banner then got hung over our gift table at the reception.

Notice our very different styles of holding the string. What do they say that opposites attract :)

I have loved all the different comments about people hanging this picture on their hutch or their fridge.

My favorite story is a good friend of mine lives with her parents. I sent them both separate thank yous. Her dad came home one day and asked why there were two pictures of us? Glad we are we loved at their home!

You can check out more wedding pictures here.

Is There a Holocaust in America?

Is human life important? Are we creating our own Holocaust right here in America? '

We watched this video today in church. Intense. Graphic. Challenging.

I know it is 33 minutes long, but I challenge you to take the time to watch the video. I also challenge you to share the video with others. I promise your 33 minutes will be well spent.

My kind of shopping trip!

Up until this point of my life, I have gone to the grocery store mostly just to go coupon shopping. Real life has hit, and I have to actually buy things that might not be free with coupons. Yikes!

The other day, my mom and I went to Kroger to see what kind of good deals we could get. I like shopping this way! Here is a picture of what I was able to pick up.

I am curious to hear what you all think the grand total spent was? Who can get the closest? I will post the total tomorrow, if you want to give it a shot!

I saved $55.69 on all of it. The dip in the picture was completely free. If you go to a potluck that either mom or I are at, you might have a pretty good guess who brought it. The chips and dip are going to work with me on Wednesday.

Homemade vs. Store Bought Taco Seasoning

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The decision was made that tacos sounded good for supper. We have all the needed things, but we didn't have taco seasoning. I like to know what is going into my food, and I am also cheap. I would not go to the store to spend up to a dollar on something that I did not know what it was. Now if it was free...is that bad reasoning?
Where did I turn to, but to pinterest! I knew that there were recipes out there for taco seasonings just a matter of finding one.

The recipe that I tried out was the following from $5 dinners.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Ingredients

• 1 part chili powder
• 1 part ground cumin
• 1 part garlic powder
• 1 part onion powder
• 1/4-1/2 part crushed red pepper

 Mix all the spices together and store in an airtight container.

Had to go home to see what one of these spices I had received for shower and wedding presents. I have enjoyed having spices that I received from a few people! Gotta love the essentials. I did have everything that the recipe called for. Yay! Well,l I used minced onions for the onion powder...

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I got curious as I was making this, what the store taco seasoning had in it. I checked out Old El Paso's list of ingredients, and this is what it had listed. INGREDIENTS:Maltodextrin, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, spice, monosodium glutamate, corn starch, yellow corn flour, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, silicon dioxide (anticaking agent), natural flavor, ethoxyquin (preservative). Any guesses on what part of that is?

The consensus. I thought that the homemade was good, just that I needed to add more than I did. I didn't want it to be overpowering, but will use more next time. I will definitely make the seasoning again!

Have any of you tried your own taco seasoning before? Anybody have any recipes for taco seasoning that you would like to share?

Beginning of Wedding Pictures

I don't know how many of you are like me, but I have been waiting to see pictures from our wedding. We have a few teasers that we have from our photographer, but I want to see them all. My friend Cindy posted some on her blog the other day! I was so glad that my good friend Cindy was able to come up for our wedding. She did a great job announcing at my reception for me. Thanks Cindy!

Here is a picture of Cindy and I at the reception. Cindy inspires me to use my creative juices!

Here are our favors at the reception. Hot chocolate and tea!

My aunt and uncle let us borrow three crates to use at the reception. What a blessing that was! Do you ever get your mind made up that you want something...only to find out there is a good chance it will not happen. My aunt and uncle made this wish come true!

A friend of mine had these tea light candles made for one of my showers and she graciously let me borrow them for the reception. And the nice table runners that my sister-in-law gave me after another shower. What blessings!

We had our parents and grandparents pictures displayed on this mantle. What a fun trip down memory lane.

My in laws made us the awesome sign. They made it from the original front door from out house. This is our guest book that we had made for free, except shipping, because I got my dress from David's Bridal.

Probably one of my favorite memories from the wedding. We were in the receiving line at the wedding, when my friend, who was heading up my reception food, came up to me to tell me that a good chunk of my cheesecake was gone. This was our only one that wasn't presliced and what we were planning on cutting. My favorite part is that it was an orthopedic surgeon who cut the first piece. Now those are the things that we will remember for years!

Glad for a friend and for a husband who both press me to make myself a better person!

Proverbs 27:17

 "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."

Selling Textbooks Online

When I got married, I gained this pile of textbooks. My husband probably wonders about some of the things that I brought into our marriage :)

I enjoy getting to sell stuff that is not needed any more. There is just something about it. So, when my husband said that he would let me sell his stack of textbooks, I took on the challenge. I didn't really want to list them somewhere to have to wait for them to sell, so I turned to Amazon trade-in.

Amazon was very easy to use. You just have to enter the ISBN number and they will tell you how much they will give you for the book. Once you have all the books that you want to sell them, you box up the books. They pay the postage. The only downfall is that you get amazon credit and not actual cash. We are already talking about what we can use our credit for.

Not all the books were worth trade in on Amazon, so I sold a few on Bookbyte. This website works similar to Amazon, but you can either get a check or have the money put in your paypal account. I personally didn't think this website gave as much money, but it accepted a few books that amazon didn't.

The picture above are the boxes of books that I need to take to the post office. You can read about that experience here. The bad thing...that first are books that were not accepted on amazon or bookbyte. I am curious if any of you know of any good places to sell textbooks? 

Free Pictures at Walmart

Walmart is currently offering up 25 free 4x6 pictures. You will need to register for Walmart Photo. They will send you an email with a code that you can use to get 25 free photos that you order online and pick up in store. I printed off the first of my wedding pictures. Not sure they will be the best quality, but for free 4x6 pictures, I can't complain. I love free :)

(thanks hip2save!)

Small Town USA

I have always loved living in a small town. Recently upon getting married, I downsized to a village. A village in Ohio is a town that has under 5,000 residents. It has been a little different from my experience of the big city of 13,000.

The other day, I went to the post office. It is a novel idea to me that we cannot get our mail delivered to our home. We have to have a PO Box. Thankfully, we do not have to pay for the box. I walked inside and the post master looked at me and said, "You must be Lydia." I am thinking, oh man, what have I gotten myself into!

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I go over to see if I can get my PO Box open. I did manage that, but then was a little confused about how to shut the door. I looked at the man behind me and asked him what the trick was. He took the door and slammed it. He then said to me. "It is ok Mrs. McKnight. You will catch on quickly." Sad to say, I had no idea who this man was, just that he is a volunteer firefighter with my husband. Yikes! There will be no hiding for me!

Still would take the small town atmosphere over a big city any day! 

Importance of Sunday School?

What would you think if you were reading along in a book and you read the following:

" Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of our children."

Think about this viewpoint for a little bit. I am curious to know how accurate you think the statement is? What kind of feelings does it produce in you?

More to come on this later.

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Don't Condemn Government Officials

A friend of mine recently was challenged to read through the Bible in a year. She sent out a general challenge on facebook. A group of us girls responded and have been reading through the Bible together. It is great to know that someone is reading through the Bible with you and is keeping you accountable. You can read about all the things that she has learned in her One Year Plan.

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This morning, I was reading through about the Israelites setting up government. I was reading along and this verse jumped off the page.

Exodus 22:28

"Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people."

God was informing the Israelites not to curse their King...translated to now...don't condemn the government officials. How easy is that to do? Whichever side of the line we sit on, we are very tempted to complain about those who rule over us. What a rebuke to me today.