Free Baby Magazines

I love getting free magazines in the mail! They give me something to flip through, to veg out while reading, and to get ideas.

There are a few baby magazines out there that are available right now.

Sign up to get American Baby for free. You need to be expecting of having a baby to sign up for this one.

 Baby Talk is also available for free. Once again, you need to have or be expecting a child.

If you aren't expecting, maybe sign up a new mom to get this!

Driscoll's Coupons

 

Contact Driscoll's to receive a $1 off any product coupon. I got mine and got some free blackberries. Yum!

Money Saving Mom's Budget Book Review

Money Saving Mom just recently released a book entitled The Money Saving Mom's Budget. I have been very impressed and motivated by her blog over the years. She is a Christian woman who is dedicated to making her money and time be useful for the Lord.

In her new book, she covers the following topics:

• Achieve a complete financial makeover
• Set up a realistic budget
• Never pay retail
• Slash your grocery bill
• Organize your time & your home
• Use coupons wisely
• Pay with cash only
• Live simply
• Become debt free
• Choose contentment
• Make every dollar count

I was given the audio book to listen to and review. I loved being able to do things in the kitchen and to listen to the book while doing them. I was also inspired. Crystal and her husband paid for their first home by paying cash. Wowzers! She talks a lot about goals and how that helped to keep them on track.

What a great investment to listen or read this book. I can't say that I learned a whole lot of new information, but I was motivated to keep doing what I know how to do...or to do those things better.

Also, you can go and listen to Crystal on April 5th.

Celebrate with Crystal by entering her iPad2 Giveaway (a GREAT tool to keep track of your budget!) and RSVPing to the Live Webcast Event on 4/5!

One savvy winner will receive:

• A Brand new iPad2
• The Money Saving Mom®'s Budget by Cyrstal Paine, audio edition

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends 4/4/12. Winner will be announced at The Money Saving Mom's Live Webcast Event on 4/5. Crystal will be hosting an evening of chat, laughter and encouragement - bring your friends! She'll share tips and advice and her husband will be joining her to share how the principles Crystal outlines in her book have dramatically impacted their family life. She'll also be giving away some GREAT prizes: gift certificates, books, and much more!

Free Subscription to Better Homes and Gardens

Sign up for a free subscription for Better Homes and Gardens.

Thanks, MoneySavingMom!

Goals for the week of March 26th

This Week's Goals

1. Get around 2 shower gifts
2. Make our mom's birthday gift...wonder what this is our mommas?
3. Run twice
4. Print resumes
5. Clean up ladybugs in our house
6. Get some plans together for a Dave Ramsey class
7. Make a bracelet

Last Week's Goals

1. Print off birthday postcards
2. Update resume
3. Finish listening to Money Saving Mom's audio book
4. Buy seeds
5. Get around 3 birthday and 2 shower gifts
6. Finish onesies
7. Run twice

What are some goals that you have this week, or what did you accomplish from last week?

Happy Anniversary!

Thirty-two years ago, a beautiful marriage was started!

As a newlywed, I am thankful for the great example that they have set before me of a loving, God fearing marriage. No, they aren't perfect...but wait...are any of us?

But they have committed for the long run. I love them very much and am super thankful for the living example of how a marriage should operate.

I love you both! Happy Anniversary!

God's Beautiful Creation

I have been thinking lately, how can one look at the world that is around them and not learn to appreciate the God of creation?

Seeing the huge bright sun this morning, enjoying the new daffodils, and observing the blooming trees are just a few things that have stood out to me just today.

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

What part of God's creation have you enjoyed recently?

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers! I am just a little late!

Rediscovering the Lost Art of a Handwritten Note

This article was a challenge to me. Who have you written a handwritten note to recently?

DIY: Balloon Flowers

I have a new found love. Making balloon flowers! They are so easy to make, are big decorations, and are super cheap. Talk about a great combo!

We used these flowers along with streamers at our spa day.

• The first step in the process is to make 5 balloons that are about 6 inches big. This will kinda depend on your balloons. You want them all the same size.
• Tie 2 balloons together and then three balloons together.
• Take these two groups and twist them together. They won't lay flat until you add the middle. Just make sure that they are secure.

• Blow up 2 more balloons that are about 4 inches in size. Tie these 2 together.
• You then need to twist these two into the middle of the other flower.

You have to be a little determined at this point...the first one I made didn't look so hot. But they have looked better with time!

ACH Food Companies Coupons

I contacted ACH Food Companies in order to receive coupons. Below is a picture and listing of what they sent me!

• $1 on any mazola product
• $.50 on any tones product (they are spices)
• $1 on any fleischmann's yeast product
• $.50 on any flavor of 16 oz. karo syrup
• $.35 off any weber seasoning, grinder, or marinade
• $.50 on one argo or kingsford's corn starch

The great thing is that all of these have expiration dates from 12/31/12 to 12/31/14.

You can go here to contact them for coupons.

They also told me that I can contact them again in 6 months to request coupons!

Chobani Coupons

Yesterday, I got coupons from Chobani in the mail. They had a cute card with the coupons! I got 3 $.30 off one 6 ounce yogurt. Paired with a sale, this will make for some free or cheap yogurt. We also got this free magnent. Contact Chobani here and request your coupons! 

Goals for the week of March 19th

image from here

So, I have to admit, that I finished a few things today before I would post this entry. Talk about procrastination...

This Week's Goals

1. Print off birthday postcards
2. Update resume
3. Finish listening to Money Saving Mom's audio book
4. Buy seeds
5. Get around 3 birthday and 2 shower gifts
6. Finish onesies
7. Run twice...I will accomplish this one this week...

Last Week's Goals

1. Design and print out a youth group profile form.
2. Run two times- I only accomplished once...
3. Get together all the supplies for the youth group activity
4. Make a camera case
5. Blog about Already Gone
6. Paint toe nails
7. List printer online

Birthdays: Free Starbucks

It is that time of year when I get to think about what I get free for my birthday.

Starbucks gives away a free coffee for your birthday! That is one of my favorites :)

You need to:
Register with Starbucks.
You also need to have a gift card that you can register with your account. I registered my free gift card that I got with swagbucks.

Now to wait for my birthday!

Do you know of any freebies that you can get for birthdays?

Heinz Coupons

Many companies, when contacted, will send you coupons in the mail. I have been contacting a few. When I know if they give out coupons, I will pass that information on to you.

I contacted Heinz the other day and let them know that I like their ketchup. I got 2 coupons in the mail for 50 cents off any size and any variety of Heinz ketchup. They don't expire til 9/14. 

Walgreens- 2 free 8x10 photos

I am thinking that it is time to print off a few wedding pictures!

Head on over to Walgreens and create your own 8x10 photo print (not valid on collages). Use the code 1PRINT or FREEONE to get your free photo. You should be able to use both the codes in different transactions to get 2 for free. Have them shipped to the store to avoid shipping.

Hurry as this offer ends on 3/17.

What will you be printing off pictures of?

Thanks, Hip2Save!

Marion and Mansfield Coupons

My MIL sent me an email today to let me know about a Family Values magazine. This magazine is emailed to you bi-monthly and includes coupons for various retailers in these cities.

I am excited that you can get free yogurt at Groovy Spoon. Of course it is only for 3 ounces, which really isn't much...but would make for a fun date night!

What coupons in here are you looking forward to using?

Swagbucks

Are you searching the internet to make money? Yes, you heard me right. I use swagbucks as a daily search engine in order to get some free money.

You earn swagbucks, or fake money. After you have so many, you can redeem the for many things. My favorite is the amazon gift card which is $5 for 450 swagbucks. My splurge gift card is a $5 starbucks for 635 swagbucks.

What are some ways to earn swagbucks?

1. Use swagbucks as a search engine.

• I have to admit, that this is not the best sear engine, but I use it to go everywhere on the internet. For example, I need to check my email, I search through swagbucks. I want to go to facebook, I search for facebook. I win a few swagbucks through this habit.

2. Take the daily poll to win one swagbuck a day.

• Click on the earn tab on the top and then daily poll.

3. Click through the NOSO (No Obligation Special Offers) to win two swagbucks.

• Click on the earn tab and the NOSO.
• You don't need to sign up for anything, just skip everything. Enter the code at the end.

4. Watch swagbucks tv. Ten videos will give you 3 swagbucks

• Click on the earn tab and go down to swagbucks tv.
• I like to mute my computer and just click through these as I do other things.
• You don't have to watch the whole video, just until the meter goes up another 10 %.

You can go here to sign up.

I am curious if you have any other ways that you win swagbucks?

DIY: Wedding Program

For our wedding, I enjoyed all the touches that made our wedding our own. Our programs were one of those elements.

One thing we decided to do was to make our wedding programs. I loved how they turned out!

We started out by making the signs that we would hold in our picture. We each did our own sign in our own hand writing. Scott tried to bribe me into doing his!

We then headed out to take pictures. We learned that there is no hiding! We went to church that night and were asked what we were doing taking pictures with signs.

One of the comments that we got about this picture was that our heads were cut off. No, not a bad photographer, but the look we were going for.

We then held up a sign with our attendants and parents.

Certain things had to be avoided for pictures, even though we know that everyone poops! And I think that Scott purposely covered his face. Hmm...

Our friend, Krista, oh so graciously helped us to design the invitations in publisher. So far, I have not convinced anyone that I have enough need for publisher for them to buy this program for me. A girl can dream, right? Scott took the programs to the printer and they were ready to go.

Free Download of Adventure in Odyssey

Right now, you can download a 2 part series of Adventures in Odyssey

Thanks, MoneySavingMom!

Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it.

I had heard a lot of good things about this book, and decided that I needed to take some time to read the book. I was reading one of the first chapters and was completely shocked by one of the quotes. You can read about that quote here.

I just want to share with you a few main ideas that stuck out to me in this book. If you are interested in reading this book, you can click through the link above to buy the book. Or if you go to church with me, the library has this book.

The parent's ultimately hold the job to educate the children on the Bible according to Deuteronomy 6:4-10 and Ephesians 6:1-4. Without reinforcement at home, the church will not be able to effectively train children.

"If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things." John 3:12 Where do we learn about the history of the earth? Is the history of the earth being  taught just at school or are these truths also presented at church? The people in the church need to be equipped with what they believe. At the end of this post, there are 15 questions that you should be able to answer, and that we should be teaching the children to answer.

A quote from the book says "if we teach such a compromised position to our children, be prepared for the great possibility they will open the door of compromise wider and get on that all-too-familiar slippery slide of unbelief." If we teach our kids to doubt the literal days in Genesis, is this going to affect their salvation? No. But this will affect their thinking about questioning the validity of the rest of the Bible. Slippery slope.

The authors are calling parents, Christian educators, youth leaders, and pastors to defend the faith and to live the faith. Both of the aspects need to be done by all of these people.

The 15 questions of life

1. Why am I here?
2. Who is God?
3. Who is Jesus and why is He the only path to salvation?
4. Why the Bible and not other holy books?
5. Why should the Bible be the authority in my life when making decisions and moral choices?
6. Why set boundaries on sexuality and marriage?
7. If we are descendents of one man and one woman where did all the different races come from?
8. How does one determine the value of a human life?
9. Dinosaurs and the Bible - how does that work?
10. What is wrong with the world (suffering and death) when God supposedly made everything perfect?
11. How can "what is wrong with the world" be made right?
12. Does "science" disprove or conform history in the Bible?
13. Why does the age of the earth really matter to me and my life today?
14. Why is it important that I believe in a literal 6-day, 24-hour creation?
15. Did we evolve from apes-like creatures?

If you can't answer the questions, be sure to check out the Answers In Genesis website.

Goals for the Week of March 12th

This Week's Goals

1. Design and print out a youth group profile form.
2. Run two times- had to change the wording for my brother
3. Get together all the supplies for the youth group activity
4. Make a camera case
5. Blog about Already Gone
6. Paint toe nails
7. List printer online

Last Week's Goals

1. Vote- yes, I am putting this on here because it involves me waking up early and I don't want to :)
2. Organize the office
3. Make a jar to attempt to get rid of some ladybugs
4. Organize my clothes
5. Make an earring holder
6. Run twice
7. Finish planning the youth group activity- added a few things to this week

7 is the number of perfection!

Do you have any goals for this week? How did you do on your goals for last week?

Roboform

I don't know about you, but I love getting free things in my mailbox. Yesterday, I got a free razor in the mail. I will take it :) Sometimes, I don't sign up for free things because I don't want to take the time to fill out the form. Anyone else been there?

image from here

I have had a free autofill program on my computer for a while. My computer crashed right before our wedding, and I forgot how much of a pain it was to fill in sample forms before having Roboform.

Simply download this program, no need to pay for the advance program. Fill in your information, and you don't need to fill in everything. I just filled in name address and email address (which I use my junk email address for).  When you have a form to fill out...click on your identity in the toolbar and it fills in the form for you. Makes those freebies a little bit better of a deal!

Free Redbox Rental Tomorrow 3/8

Head on over to redbox tomorrow to get a free  movie rental, Just enter the promo code THANKS2U. If you want more details, check out the Redbox facebook page.

Thanks, Hip2Save!

Black Bean Salsa

My SIL introduced me to this recipe, and I absolutely love it. I think the key to this recipe is the cilantro! I love cilantro...

As you can tell from the picture, not all the ingredients were used in this recipe, but that is the versatility of the recipe. Enjoy!

Black Bean Salsa

2 cans (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (15 1/4 oz) whole kernel corn
1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes and green chilies, undrained (Rotella)
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 jar (7 1/2 oz) roasted red pepper, drained and sliced
medium red onion, finely chopped
4 green onions, finely chopped
2/3 cup minced fresh cilantro or parsley
2 garlic cloves chopped
1/3 cup OJ
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. grated orange peel
1/8 t. coarsely ground pepper
 

Small Town USA: Voting

I got another reminder this morning that I live in a small town. I am use to going to vote and not knowing the people that work there. I actually got in the habit of voting before hand or voting absentee.

I got up this morning. Put on my clothes, and walked over to the fire station to vote. Wanted to make sure that I got it in before I left for work as I wouldn't have time afterwards.

I walked into the polling place and was immediately recognized. I handed over my license and one worker said, oh you must be Scott's new bride. She informed me she was kinda our neighbor. One of the poll workers was at our wedding. She had to tell the other lady all about the wedding.

I went home and looked in the mirror and my hair was a mess! Guess I should always be ready to be on display.

You can read about my first trip to the post office.



Goals for the Week of March 5th

What a challenge. I knew that my goals were out there for the world to see, and I had to make some progress on them. Honestly, that kept me from putting these things off to do things that I might have wanted to do a little more :)

Last Weeks Goals

1. Finish Reading Already Gone
2. Run twice
3. Finish Cooper's birthday gift  just need to find a box to put it in
4. Plan a youth group activity- basic planning done, but need to get more in line.
5. Finish the two banners that I have started on
6. Research Ichabod
7. Start brainstorming some garden ideas
8. Make some homemade granola bars Elizabeth, after I find a recipe I like, I will post it :)

This Week's Goals

1. Vote- yes, I am putting this on here because it involves me waking up early and I don't want to :)
2. Organize the office
3. Make a jar to attempt to get rid of some ladybugs
4. Organize my clothes
5. Make an earring holder
6. Run twice
7. Finish planning the youth group activity

7 is the number of perfection!

Do you have any goals for this week? How did you do on your goals for last week?

DIY: Burlap Banner

Back in my college days, we ordered t-shirts for an event in college. They came in a huge size that we did not order, so we took it on our own to make our own shirt. My friend and roomie had the idea of making a stencil and the spray painting the shirt. It worked! Well.

That was the idea that went into making the thank you sign for our wedding thank yous.

Super easy! And you could use any material to make the banner. Bright colors would be fun!

I printed out the letters on card stock and then used an xacto knife to cut out the letters.

This is what it looks like close up.

I cut out what I wanted my pennants to look like. I use scrap paper for a lot of things! Gotta make my grandma proud.

I then took that and cut out my pennants from burlap. Pins would have helped, but I didn't have any handy at the time.

Once the pennants were cut out, I taped all around the outside of the back of my stencil. Make sure that you do this well to help keep it down during spray painting.

Turn it over and center it on the pennant. I will need to make sure this is pushed down better when I paint. Unless you want edges that aren't straight.

I laid them out on cardboard on our front porch. Didn't want to freeze too badly going outside!

I made sure that the letters were pushed down well and started spray painting. Make sure that you don't spray at an angle to try to keep from spraying up underneath the letters.

I then peeled the paper off and stitched through the top to have a way to hang them. The nice thing about burlap is that you can count the holes that you go through to get an even stitch. I used a dull needle with a big eye to make my job a little easier.

Here is an up close view of how the letters turned out.



And here the banner as a whole.

This was the inspiration for our thank yous at our wedding. This sign is currently available on etsy.

Ace Hardware: Free Paint

Ace Hardware is giving away free quarts of paint this Saturday. I wish I lived a little closer to an Ace store.

Print your free paint coupon and take it to the store to score your free paint!

Thanks, Cindy!

To Encourage or To Complain?



image from here

I love how God knows what we need for the day!

We live in a world where it is very easy to complain about the circumstances around us. Isn't is a breath of fresh air when someone around you is encouraging and happy?

So, why is the tendency to be complaining?

David was running for his life when he penned this Psalm.

Ps 34:1-3

 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

I am thankful for those people around me are looking for the positive and who are trying to give God the glory for those things that happen in their life.

What are you thankful for today?