Frugal (as in free) TV

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that you did too!
My dear husband went a few weeks ago and bought a digital antenna for $38 from Wal-Mart. It goes outside and is mounted to our fence. It is only about 6 inches by 10 inches or so and is one solid gray piece. With that we were getting 5 channels and were fairly happy. This week we went to Sam's and used the coupon we ordered online to purchase a digital converter box so that when all stations begin broadcasting in digital our TV can receive the signals. That cost us a whopping $4 after the coupon and once installed we now get a ton of channels!
So, for a grand total of $42 we now get 20 channels, with PERFECT reception for $0 per month!
Here is our line-up:
ABC
Nashville Weather
NBC
NBC en espanol
CBS
PBS1
PBS2
FOX1
FOX2
ION
IONLife
Qubo (kids shows - Veggie Tales, 123 Penguins, etc)
Kids Worship
MY30
5 Channels of Christian Programming including JCTV Videos
CW58

We are happy to be enjoying a little bit of TV all for FREE!!!
For other frugal ideas feel free to type the word "frugal" into the box at the top left of this blog.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

SNOW!!!

I love snow. I love everything about snow, the ways it feels, the way it smells, and they way it sounds under my feet.

Last night I forgot all of those things as I made my way home from Franklin in the snow. Normally, it is a 25 minute drive. Last night, 2 and a half hours. TWO AND A HALF HOURS! People were either driving 50 miles an hour on the wrong side of the road or 2 miles an hour causing everyone to stop and go, stop and go. Some people were sliding off the road while others, it appeared, just randomly drove off the road on purpose. There was a lady behind me at a stop sign. I turned right and stopped because all of the traffic in front of me had stopped. All she had to do to turn right was follow my tire tracks in the snow. But no, she decides to make a really sharp right turn immediately after the stop sign (maybe thinking there was a shoulder there?) and she bails off into the ditch. Her car is at a 45 degree angle, in the ditch! I have no idea what some of these people were thinking last night, we only had an INCH and a half of snow!

Anyway, this morning I woke up with a much better attitude and my renewed love of the snow. The girls have been outside already, throwing snowballs, ice skating in the coul-de-sac, making snow angels and a tiny little snowman. We laughed and played and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the snow crunch under my shoes. It is beautiful, the sun is shining on the snow and it is perfect!

Spiced Tea

Today the girls made spiced tea to give as gifts, they also decorated the tops of the jars by hot-gluing beads onto some padded fabric. I think they came out really cute!

Here is the recipe:

1 cup instant tea

1 cup Tang

1 cup lemonade mix (w/sugar already added)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

Add 2 spoons of mix to a coffee cup of hot water & enjoy!

Birthday

Monday was Casey's 11th Birthday and it was a really good day! We had cake and ice cream and she received gifts that she absolutely loved! A digital planner, a Nerf Target game, $50, a gift card to Target, and a gift card to Marble Slab.
What more could an eleven year old want? (Other than a cell phone which is not happening quite yet!).
I am excited to see her grow and mature, she is such a cool kid! And I am a little sad to see her grow up so fast, she is already looking forward to driving and college - slow down a little!
Most of all we thank God for giving her to us and all of the special times we get to spend with her.
Happy Birthday Casey!

New Ornaments!

One of the girls' favorite Christmas traditions is getting to pick out a new ornament each year. They tend to choose ornaments that reflect their interests or activities for the current year. Casey's have gone from frogs to soccer to photography. Cody's have gone from princesses to Rudolph.

I love having that history of their interests hanging on our tree each year, even more so this year as we hear our dear friends talk about losing every ornament they owned in a fire. They lost every keepsake and each child's hand-made ornaments. Our homeschool group rallied together and got them a tree and each family placed a special ornament on it so that they would not have a bare tree this year. It was a really neat idea.

This year Casey chose a silver picture frame with 2008 on it since she loves photography. Cody chose a Rudolph ornament that lights up, she absolutely loves it! It will be neat for them to have lots of ornaments to hang on their own trees at some point in the future, I may need to start buying doubles so that I can hang onto those treaured memories when that day comes!

We also made the wonderful smelling cinnamon ornaments last week, you can see how they turned out!

On The First Day of Christmas!

As you may have read on an earlier posting, the girls and I are trying to do a different Christmas activity each day this month. We actually started early and evidently I did not pick out enough stuff for them to do because they keep asking, "What are we doing next!?"

So far we have made Cinnamon Ornaments, decorated the tree, made a Christmas Town out of boxes we would normally recycle, and made our own (frugal) decorative soap! For the soap all we did was grate a bar of soap - please use caution as I almost grated the tip of my finger off! :( Then we added 1/4 of water, stirred it well and pressed the mixture, tightly, into cookie cutters. Oh yeah, be sure to do this on waxed paper or cling wrap. It is not too messy and cleans up with water, it already has soap.

We are looking forward to many more activities and hope to add "Playing in the Snow" to our list as it is flurrying right now!

Today we will be letting the girls each pick out an ornament to buy. Casey wants one with a camera or at least a Christmas photo frame since she is so into photography this year. Only Cody knows which one she will choose this year!

Looking forward to posting new pictures tomorrow!

Thanksgiving With Old Friends & New

This Thanksgiving was a little different for us. We usually either have family in town, go to visit family, or have a family over for Thanksgiving dinner. This year some new friends invited us over to their house. We have known them for a while but have just become "good friends" over the past several months. We went to their house for snacks and then we all piled into our cars and went to the lawn of a local plantation to take family photos of each other's families. We had SO much fun goofing around outside together. We headed back to their house and ate, and ate, and ate! We had such a great time with our new friends!

Friday we went to a nearby park to meet up with one of my old high school friends from Texas and his family who were in town visiting his grandmother for Thanksgiving. He found me on Classmates.com a few months ago and then we realized that they would be less than an hour away from us this week. The kids all ran and played and we got to visit for a little while. It was neat to reconnect after 20 years!

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful, we were able to talk to our families on the phone and spend time with friends. We are thankful for our God, family, friends and our freedom.

Heavy Metal Funder (yes, funder)

Last night we went to a homeschool Thanksgiving Feast and Talent Show. I was amazed at all of the super talented kids (and parents) we saw last night. From a 2 year old little girl quoting Scripture to kids doing skits and playing instruments.
Cody is like me in that she does not really like to speak in front of large groups. She had decided ahead of time that since her talent is art, that she would show one of her paintings and describe it. I figured I would have to carry her to the stage and describe the painting while she held it in front of her face.
So the show begins and several kids go up and "do their thing". Then a little boy named Max hits the stage. Now, Max is 5 years old and ADORABLE! He takes the microphone and the background music starts to play, just the music, no words. This little guys sings Born To Be Wild, in it's entirety, with pure Rockstar quality. I wish I had the video because he was too cute, especially the part that evidently says, "heavy metal funder". In the middle of his "concert" I lean over to Joe and whisper that I bet Cody will have to follow Max. As he ends the song, on his knees with both arms over his head, all of the kids clap and hoot and holler for him.
The MC announces the next child..... Cody. Well, she walks up to the stage, takes the mic and proceeds to describe, in great detail, but without fist pumping excitement, her beautiful painting. As she finished the kids in the audience gave her as much applause and yelling as they did for little Max. It was so touching and sweet.
When it was Casey's turn to play The First Noel on the piano there was a small technical difficulty. Someone had accidentally removed the piano bench from the small (as in low to the ground) electric piano. The piano was behind a half wall so we could not see exactly what was going on. But Casey, never one to cause a scene played the entire song consisting of 2 verses and the chorus twice, standing, stooped over the piano playing and using the foot pedal. When she finished everyone clapped and she sat down. Then, the guy running sound (who is also a keyboard player) walked up the aisle and announced that everyone should be extra impressed because she played standing up, bent over, which is twice as hard, so she got another round of applause.
Overall it was a pretty great night! I so enjoy our homeschool group!

Stalker

(This is dedicated to KSue, but you can read it too!)
So, I am at Target yesterday and I see this guy, Travis http://www.traviscottrell.com. He is a Christian artist who lives around here somewhere. As it happens, I follow him out the doors and to our cars (parked a few feet away from each other). I pull out of my space and am, again, right behind him. Since I am on my way to take Casey to piano lessons and only know one way to get there from where I am, I end up having no choice but to continue following him. Out of the parking lot, turn left, turn right at the light. Continue down the road, left by the church, right into a neighborhood. I am nervous that he thinks I am stalking him so I turn off and go a slightly different way to piano lessons.
I am not a stalker, I promise. It was kind of weird though.

Cinnamon Ornaments

For those of you who asked, and those of you who didn't, here is the recipe for cinnamon ornaments. They smell SO GOOD! And are SO EASY!

1/2 Cup Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Store Bought Applesauce (homemade may be too watery)

(Or any equal parts of cinnamon and applesuace)

Stir together until dough becomes stiff.
Then use your hands to make a ball of dough.
Put the dough on waxed paper and flatten a little with your fingers.
Put a second sheet of waxed paper on top and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick.
Remove top sheet and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
Remember to put a hole at the top!
Let air dry at least 24 hours.
They look great with a gold or silver ribbon through the hole.

ENJOY!!!

Christmas Activities!

We end our school semester on the last day of November and this year I want to try something a little different for the month of December. I want to come up with at least 1 Christmas project or activity for each day in December!
I NEED YOUR HELP! Below is the list of things we have come up with so far, but we need more ideas! Let me know some things your family or friends have done. Here is what we have so far.

Decorate the tree & house with music playing & hot chocolate
Make a Christmas Town out of our recycling, using boxes, cans, bottles, etc.
Go to the Gaylord Hotel to see the lights
Make cards for families we have "adopted"
Make paper chains with blessings written on each link
Let each of the girls purchase an ornament for this year
Make spiced tea to give as gifts
Read How The Grinch Stole Christmas & do related activities
Christmas Movie Marathon - Elf, The Santa Clause (1,2, &3), The 12 Dogs of Christmas
Make microwave s'mores
Make Gingerbread Houses
Make cinnamon/applesauce ornaments
Pajama Board Game Night
Make Christmas cards for our friends
Wii Competition
Learn the meaning of The 12 Days of Christmas Song
Fondue Party
Make birdfeeders
Make ribbon angels
Drive around and look at Christmas lights
Make and Advent Calendar (use post-it notes and have clues on where to find the treat)


That's only 21! Give me some ideas, PLEASE!!!

Ultra Frugal

As you may know my husband will be looking for a new job to begin around April so we are now trying to save as much money as absolutely possible over the next several months.
I have been "couponing" for a while now and think I am finally getting the hang of it. I only buy what is on sale, buy one get one free, and/or things I have a coupon for. It really works well to use 2 coupons when getting a buy one get one deal! So far in November I have spent $200 on $340 worth of merchandise. Yes, I have brought home $140 worth of FREE STUFF! Now, I am not the expert that my friend is, she paid $3 for $101 worth of groceries the other day!!!
Check out http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ you can get a $1 trial for 8 weeks and she tells you which coupons (and how many) to use for the different grocery store deals in your area (she also includes places like Walgreens & CVS).

We also got rid of cable TV this week. Joe bought a digital antenna thing for $40 and we now get 5 channels. I thought it would be difficult on the girls because we are in such a habit of having it on, but if there is nothing to watch they read, play with play-doh, or make up games to play. They are actually much happier without cable (but I doubt they would ever admit it!).

Prescriptions

As part of our frugal living lifestyle we have recently learned about some great deals from both Wal-Mart and Kroger regarding prescription medications.
They offer LOTS of prescription medications for $4 for a one month supply or $10 for a 3 month supply. It is a much better deal than our company's prescription plan which charges $20 for a 3 month supply. Wish I had known about it sooner! You can check out their lists on their websites.

Cow Hearts

As you may know, both of my daughters are homeschooled.
Yesterday at our homeschool group they got to experience something really cool. In their Zoology class they were able to pet a pig and a goat since they had learned about them that week. They have both milked a goat and fed baby goats with a bottle. Cody learned, through hands-on experience, that pigs have hair and that goat's eyes have rectangular pupils. Goats also chew their cud, or as Cody says - they swallow their food, then spit it back up then swallow it again.
Casey had the chance to dissect a cow's heart in her class. She thought it was awesome. She also thought it was cool that she was not grossed out, but some of the boys were! Evidently, dried cow heart fat looks very similar to Feta cheese. Who knew?
Overall, yesterday was another great day of homeschooling!

Laundry Soap Recipe

I have used my homemade, super frugal, laundry soap in a couple of loads and cannot tell any difference between the loads washed with my store brand and my homemade. So, here is the "recipe":

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Bar Ivory soap
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax 20 Mule Team Powder (laundry aisle at Publix next to the previous item)
A 5 gallon bucket with lid
Saucepan
Empty laundry soap container

- Grate the bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add soapy water, washing soda and Borax. Stir until dissolved.
Fill bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight.
-Stir it up well (it will be "gloppy") and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Even though you use a 5 gallon bucket, it makes 10 gallons because you fill the empty container half full of detergent and fill the rest of the way with water.
The washing soda and borax cost about $5 and I used only a fraction of each. Buckets are about $5 as well from Lowes and can be reused each time. I love homemaking!

Dave, Part 2

So, Joe and I went to hear Dave Ramsey speak last night and really enjoyed what he had to say. He talked about the "economic crisis", the media, mortgages, his faith, and Biblical principles for managing money. He was AWESOME!
One thing that really struck me was that he talked a lot about the spirit of fear and how it can cause people to react with such panic. I am praying that God will keep the spirit of fear away from me and my family and that we will make our decisions according to His will, not out of random, raw emotion.
I would HIGHLY recommend Dave Ramsey's books if you are in debt, or just want to better manage your money.
We were frugal before reading his book, and now we are choosing to be ultra-frugal!

Dave, Part 1

Tonight Joe and I are going to hear Dave Ramsey speak. We are really looking forward to it because Dave helped change our lives. My parents told us about Dave after we had incurred quite a bit of debt. I bought his book, Total Money Makeover, read it, and implemented his strategies. Within about 8 months we became COMPLETELY debt free (other than our home mortgage). It will be exciting to hear what he has to say tonight as we are facing some potentially uncertain times.
We do know that God was the main factor in getting rid of our debt because He really convicted us of the fact that living with debt goes against what He wants for our lives. We feel He uses people like Dave Ramsey to further help us down His path.
I will write again tomorrow and let you know how it went!

HAT TRICK!

Our 5 year old, Cody, is the tiniest girl on her soccer team. She is also generally the smallest girl on the entire field during games. However, she has an advantage she has Super Speed (she will tell you that is her super-power). And she is right. Those little legs can run!

During today's game she scored 3 goals. Not three accidental goals either, these were dribble the ball down the field, around the other teams' players, to the middle, shoot and score goals.

It was fun to watch her go!

October 31

Casey & Cody

Beaver & Snow Princess

Our family walked around the neighborhood last night with a bunch of our neighbors, many we had never met before. The girls had fun and it was cool to get to know people a little more. One neighbor friend of ours was giving away free hot dogs and drinks and their driveway became a great gathering place. That was the point. To get neighbors together to meet each other.

We normally don't "do Halloween", but it was a wonderful opportunity to get out and visit.

Photography

Casey is really into photography. This is a photo she took last Spring in our backyard bluebird box. This photo was one of 10 winners in the Nashville Public Television's Kids photo contest! We were told there were hundreds of entries.

She won a free trip to the zoo to take close up pictures of animals there and received an enlarged copy of her picture.

Below are some pictues she took last week, hope you enjoy them!

Special Offer for Casey

A cool thing happened 2 days ago.
I received a phone call from the girls' choir director at church. She would like for Casey to be in a choir teacher training video. The teacher could only choose 4 kids from a choir of over 100, and she chose our Casey! She is SOOO excited, partly to be chosen, and partly because she will get a little paycheck for participating that day.

A Normal Day!

Even though today is Halloween it appears that it will be a pretty normal day for us.
We will do school, chores, some house cleaning and laundry.
We will be returning some movies to Blockbuster and picking up more, fortunately we will get 3 for FREE by being members of their DVD mail order thing. When we return movies we have received through the mail to the store we get to exchange them for free ones, plus we have a coupon for one free movie. I love finding new ways to be frugal!
Then tonight the girls will go around our coul-de-sac and collect some free candy. Casey will be "an Army person", and Cody will be a Snow Princess.
Hope your day is wonderfully normal as well!

Reptiles

Homeschooling:
Today we went to our weekly homeschooling co-op. The girls are taking Zoology, where today they were able to touch both a corn snake and a bearded dragon. They took two of our pets, a green anole (lizard) and a frog (Freddie, pictured above), and fed the anole a live cricket on front of the class.
They are also taking art, health/PE, US Geography and Casey is on the Yearbook Staff.
It is always fun and the girls learn so much. Plus they get to hang out with their friends.
Casey also went to friend's house today for a party where they made costumes for their Webkinz. Overall a pretty good day!
P.S. Casey made a 97% on her math test yesterday!

Vegetarians

On Being Vegetarian:
Yes, we are vegetarians, or at least my husband, our 10 year old, and I are.
We have been vegetarian for about a year and my husband's cholesterol dropped about 170 points!
It has been much easier than I expected, although if I were to do it again I would have found a "mentor" first. There are so many great resources out there!
And no, we do not eat a lot of salad!

Laundry Soap

Homemaking:
Yesterday we made our own liquid laundry detergent!
It costs approximately $2 for 5 gallons of concentrate that eventually makes 10 gallons!
We will try it soon and let you know it works! Super frugal!
If it works well I will post the "recipe".

Welcome to A Wife of Noble Character!