Gevalia House Party

            House Party is a super fun company that sends you awesome products to host parties in your home. People all across the country host parties the same day with the same products. It is a great way for companies to get people familiar with their product. Word of Mouth advertising. I only discovered House Party last month, and was super excited to get picked to host a party already. Especially a coffee party. I love coffee.
         When your application is approved to host a party, you invite 10-12 friends through emails via the House Party website. Then they send you a box with your party supplies. Your party should be held on the day they tell you when you first apply, although if something comes up you can reschedule.
            I was picked to host a Gevalia coffee. My party pack included a bag of Gevalia House Blend, 13 stainless steel coffee mugs, 13 coffee scoops, and coupons for all the guest and myself.

I really love the Gevalia coffee. It is very smooth with great flavor. My kids made cookies to serve to our guest with the coffee. My little princess made chocolate chip pecan cookies and my son made Scottish shortbread. 

Unfortunetly a lot of the people I invited could not make it. Most of my friends are either teachers or parents, or both. May is a hard month for us all to have free time, at the same time. With the school year wrapping up and graduation, schedules get out hectic. 

I had a great time with the people that could make it. 

I am going to try to through another one after school is out, when (hopefully) schedules settle down a bit. I really wanted to try the Chocolate Mocha flavor, but the store was sold out. I will have to get it for next time. Thank you Gevalia and House Party for a great day.    

Teacher Appreciation

                         Teachers don't teach to have a job. It is a very low paying, emotional exhausting career with long hours. It is not a thankless job, because the moment that you see the lesson you are teaching click with a child, that is your thanks.
                         Teacher Appreciation Week is the first full week in May.When I was teaching in a Kindergarten classroom, as an Instruction Assistant, I always felt very loved during Teacher Appreciation week. I was lucky that the PTO of the school where I worked promoted it. They came up with fun themed days that made it easy for families to show their appreciation to the teachers. For example bring a flower for your teacher, and by the end of the day you had a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Or bring a fruit for your teacher, and teachers would have a nice fruit basket by the end of the day. They also had school supplies day, sweets day, make a card for you teacher day, etc. The best gifts were always the ones that were handmade. Over the years I received a cross-stitched Christmas ornament, child decorated planters, vases, refrigerator magnets, candles, coffee mugs, and many other things. One of the best gifts I ever received was a beautiful handmade lanyard that a student's grandmother made for me. I was heart broken when I broke it over the summer, but the next year she made me another one when she found out. Even though her granddaughter was no longer in my class.  I still have every gift I ever got from my students that wasn't perishable.
                     I always try to do something nice for my kids teachers, because I know the sacrifice that it is to be a teacher. The school they are in now doesn't promote it the way their old school did, so I wanted to be extra sure to do something nice for them. I don't have a lot of money to spend and the older they get the more teachers they have each year. This year my son is in middle school so he has 7 teachers. My daughter is only in 5th grade, but she still has 4 teachers (classroom, choir, band, and a student teacher). So I have to get creative in showing my appreciation of the time they spend with my child.
                    Sometimes I make baked goods for everyone. I bought a mini loaf pan a couple years ago just for this purpose. With it one batch of bread can make 9 mini loaves of bread. We usually give these to all the teachers at Christmas time.
                   This year I saw a really fun gift idea on Pinterest. It is called a Teacher's Survival Kit. It is a basket full of many everyday items with a note enclosed that relates them to teaching. The one on Pinterest had a full pack of each item in the basket, but times 11 teachers would have been out of my budget. So I got a pack or two of everything and split it between the baskets. This is what the list looks like:


 

 

It isn't much, but I know that it will show the teachers that I appreciate their hard work.

 

What I Have Learned About Coupons

I am not a coupon expert. What I know I have learned in the last few months, but I have discovered a few tricks.

 

Coupon Stacking: using both a store and manufacturer on the same item. For example Downey is $4.00. I had a Target $1.00 off coupon and a manufacturer $1.00 off coupon. So I paid $2.00 for it.

 

Three at a Time: Most places will allow you to use 3 like coupons. Meaning if you have three coupons for 25 cents off a toothbrush, you can purchase three toothbrushes during the same visit.

 

Rewards cards: Most grocery stores have rewards cards,that they will scan at the register for savings. Many of them also have websites that you can load digital coupons to your rewards card. The savings come off automatically when you card is scanned.

 

Double Coupons: Some stores offer double and triple coupons. Some of them only offer this during special promotions. Check with your store to see what their policy is. Fry's (the local Kroger chain) makes all paper coupons under $1.00 valued at a $1.00 Example, coupon for 25 cents off of paper towels is $1.00 off. This is great for when things are on sale for a dollar. I often walk out with free items.

 

Stores can change their policies at any time, so be sure to stay up to date on them.

Stretching the Grocery Budget

      I am always trying to make the grocery budget go further. With a husband who is a big guy, a teenage son, a super active preteen daughter, my in-home daycare center, and entertaining at least once a week we go through a lot of food.
      One of the best ways I have found to do that is Bountiful Baskets. Especially bulk add ones. Last week I purchased 50 pounds of tomatoes to freeze.  I will use them in pasta sauce, soups, and casseroles. Freezing them is super easy, but time consuming. Just drop them in boiling water for 60 seconds, and then ice water for 60 seconds, then peel and dice. Put in freezable containers with a an inch of head space.

 

Bountiful Basket always has two bread add on options. This week we got the assorted bread pack. It contained 2 loaves of nine grain bread, 2 loaves of English muffin bread, and a baguette. It is always fresh and the taste is amazing. They also have a pack of five loaves of the 9 grain, it is all organic. Sometimes we get it and put a couple loaves in the freezer. The cost of the bread add on is usually about $12.

One of the other things I have started doing is buying meat in bulk from the butcher instead of the grocery store. At Dickman's Meat and Deli I am able to purchase a 86 pounds of meat for $284. This works out to $3.03 a pound. The bundle includes chicken, pork chops and roast, and beef cuts including ground beef, roast, stew meat, and steaks. It also contains breakfast sausage, bacon, and ham.  Sure sometimes you can find it on sale in the grocery store for less than $3.00 a pound, but this is an everyday price with out having to go all over town to get the sales. Plus the quality of the meat from a butcher is so much better than the grocery store.

Of course there is a general theme of freezing to all of these tips. We purchased a chest deep freezer from a used appliance store 13 years ago for $90, but they have them everywhere now. Even the brand new ones are not very much anymore, although they do tend to be smaller than the older ones. I could not live without mine. 

 

 

Addicted to Bountiful Basket

 

I love Bountiful Basket for so many reasons. Bountiful Basket is a food co-op located across the country. To participate in Bountiful Basket you make a contribution on Monday and Tuesday of each week. They then take that money and purchase as much produce as they can for what they received that week. On Saturday the produce is delivered to the pick up site in cases. Volunteers then sort the produce into baskets that are used each week. You bring your own containers to take your produce home in. Each basket is $15. Typically you receive 4-6 fruits and 4-6 vegetables. There is an organic option for $10 more. There are also extras that you can contribute for like bread, granola, and whole cases of fruits or veggies sometimes.

 

This week I contributed for two baskets and granola for a total of $41.50, with the processing fee. Counting both baskets I received:

19 clementines

25 apples

10 bananas

2 packs of blueberries

12 tomatoes

5 red bell peppers

15 Anaheim peppers

6 avocados

2 cucumbers

2 packs of mushrooms

2 heads of romaine lettuce

2 bunches of spinach

Not bad for $30

 

This week we also got the Cherry Pecan Granola. This is the first time that we have tried the granola. It is good and I like that there are no preservatives, but I am not sure that it is worth the $10 I paid for it.

 

One of the most important things to remember about Bountiful Basket is that it is a co-op. No one is paid, it is all ran by volunteers. Everyone that participates is asked to volunteer every so often. If fact some pick up sites have had to shut down due to lack of help. I try to volunteer at least every other time I participate.

 

Not only is Bountiful Basket a great deal, it challenges you to try new things. Everything in this weeks basket was pretty traditional, but in the past I have gotten things I have never had like persimmons, salad savoy, and oroblancos. We love fruits and vegetables in our home and things rarely go bad before we can use them in some way.

 

Zoo membership is a deal for animal lovers

              I am an animal lover! My kids have no problem talking me into new pets. At one point we had 11 (2 dogs, a cat, a snake, 2 turtles, 2 parakeets, 2 hermit crabs, and a rat). Over the years we also had a couple chickens and a rabbit. We moved almost a year ago, and re-homed a lot of them. Now we only have 6 (dogs, 2 cats, and 2 ferrets). My kids and I also rescue every stray and injured animal we find. Once we found a lost homing pigeon and made calls for 2 days until we tracked him to an owner in Phoenix. He gave the kids a $20 reward for taking care of him for a week until he could come get him. We called him Compass (like on Curious George). Last week we stopped because we saw a goat by the street, so we drove to the back of the riding stable to tell someone so they could go get it. 

           So our love for animals takes us to the zoo often. We decided to buy a membership for the zoo. It is a super great deal, and anyone with kids should take advantage of it. At our local zoo, Reid Park Zoo, for about the same price as one or two trips to the zoo you can get a yearly pass. You have to name two adults and are allowed to add up to 8 children without naming them, so you can take your nieces and nephews or your kids friends. On our pass, myself and a friend of mine are named, between us we only have 5 kids, but we usually end up taking 8 with us when we go. You also have the option of adding "guest passes". That way if you have adults you want to take they are included too. So for $98, we got a family pass (2 named adults and 8 kids), plus 3 guest passes. The price has went up a little since I purchased mine, but not much.
https://www.tucsonzoo.org/store/become-a-member/

          Plus you get discounts for the snack bar and gift shops. I always purchase the souvenir cups in the snack bar with my discount, and then we get $1.00 refills on drinks all year, as long as we have the cups. They also offer member discount on events like Zoo Lights and the Hallzooween. We went to the zoo lights last year on members only night, where it was free for members.
           
           They have lots of great things that you can do with your kiddos that don't cost much, and make it a little more fun and memorable. A zoo key can be purchased for $2.50. It is used at the voice boxes near each animal habitat, to tell you a little about the animals. The zoo key can be used every time you go back.There are 3 penny grinder stations throughout the zoo with 12 different designs. They cost 51 cents each. I let my daughter get a couple each time we go. At the information booth, near the entrance of the zoo, you can purchase coloring posters for 25 cents each. When we were there last they had 7 different designs to choose from. Once a day on weekdays and twice a day on weekends you can feed the giraffes for $2. They also have a train just outside of the zoo that you can take a ride on around the park pond.

Garnier Fructis Miracle Dry Oil

            As you all know by know I am a BzzAgent. I love being a BzzAgent! I get to try lots of brand new products right as they come out for free! All I have to do is tell people about it, what could be easier!
           Last month I got to try the new Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Miracle Dry Oil. It is called triple nutrition because you can use it your hair, face, and body; and because it has olive, avocado, and shea oils. I was super excited to try it.
           When I first got it, I tried it on my hair right away! And I didn't like it at all! I also tried it on my body after a shower, it was much better as a body spray than for hair. My kids started using it on their hair. They both liked it, and were getting good results with it. So I decided to give it another try. After a few more times on my hair, I started to notice a difference. You know how when it doesn't rain for a long time and the ground gets so dry that it can't absorb the water when the rain does finally come. It was like that. My hair was so dry that it couldn't absorb the oils. But after repeated use I started to see softer hair.
          I am sure many of you remember a famous Avon product that was very popular years ago. My mom and grandma used Skin-so-Soft for EVERYTHING. Well I discovered that this Miracle Dry Oil is just like it. There are something like 101 uses for Skin-so-Soft, and I did not try them all out, but every one I did try worked great. For example, one night my daughter had friends over, one of the girls, somehow ( I learned not to ask), got gum all over her own hands, my daughters arm, and my daughters shirt. A couple sprays of miracle oil, a paper towel, and a couple minutes of rubbing and it came right off, of everything.
       The great thing about it is that you can get it at Wal-Mart or Target, and it only cost about $6.


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Glade Expessions

         I love my latest BzzAgent campaign. I got to try the new Oil Diffuser and Fragrance Mist from Glade for free. The diffuser is by far my favorite air freshener of all time. I choose the Pineapple Mangosteen scent, and I love it. I also really like the fact that it is cute to look at. Some of the other air fresheners are eye sores, and draw so much attention to themselves. The bamboo design is very nice, and it was easy to assemble. When I first brought it home and set it up my daughter was napping. When she woke she asked me if I was cooking something, and I wasn't. She said, "Then want smells so good?" It was my new air freshener! I can't wait to try the other refill scents.
       I also love the Fragrance Mist. So far we have tried the Starlite Evening and the Cotton and Italian Mandarin scents. Both are great. We have six pets in our home (2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 ferrets). It is nice to be able to freshen up the rooms that they are in with the Fragrance Mist.
       Overall we simply love these products. Everyone that has been to our home since we've started using them has commented on the great smell! The coupons that came to hand along to friends make them a really great deal, and everyone has been excited to receive one.

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Neutrogena hand cream

                   My first BzzAgent campaign. I was so excited to be picked for this campaign! As a part of this campaign I received a full size (2oz) bottle of Neutrogena Norwegian hand cream for myself to try, plus six. .5 oz bottles to share with friends and family. All for free!
                 My daughter has severe  allergies and winter is the worst. She gets very dry, cracked skin that is so uncomfortable for her. Many of the product that we have tried on her just aggravate the situation, due to perfumes and flower oils. We have been so impressed with the Neutrogena hand cream. Her hand are so soft after just two weeks of using this product. She only has to apply the lotion twice a day, to keep her hand looking and feeling better. Everyone that I have given samples out to have been thrilled to receive them. Many of them were already familiar with the product, but were still happy to have a free sample. I can not praise this hand cream enough. It is by far the best product we have ever used for dry and irritated skin.
             I thought it was fun to learn that this hand cream was first made for fisherman that fished off the coast of Norway. The cold weather and ocean air would dry their skin out, and this product helped heal years worth of damage that had been done to their skin. That was over 40 years ago.

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BzzAgent

                   I recently joined this super fun agency called BzzAgent. BzzAgent is a company that gets new product to distbribute, usually for free or in the from of greatly discounted coupons, from the companies that make them. They send them to their "Agents" to try and tell people about. These are product that you can go buy in the stores now, but to create a "Bzz" about them, BzzAgents get to try them for free. I only discovered BzzAgent in November, through a blog I follow called Arizona Families. When you first join you have to fill out a bunch of surveys, bacause each company has a demeographic they want to target, and those are the people who will recieve those products. If you want more info, you can go to their page bzzagent.com

Intro

                       So I am fairly new to blogging, but I have this idea for the type of blog I want to do. I tried once before, it didn't come out the way I wanted it, so I am starting over. The most important thing about me is that I am a mom. I love being a mom. I have two kids. A boy, Sam, that is 13 and finishing up Jr. High this semester, and a girl, Hannah, who is 10 and in 5th grade. I don't plan to share much about them on this blog, because they are at the age where their privacy is important to them and I want to respect that.
                       I also run a child care business out of my home. I love kids and it is the perfect job for me. I like being able to take care of little ones and see them experience things for the first time. That is what I miss the most about my own kids being small. Plus I like to make their parents be able to go to work or school knowing that their child is in good hands. However, it is not the best paying occupation.
                      I have to be very creative to make sure ends meet and my kids, both my own and my little "clients", have experiences that will make them value life. I hope I don't sound arrogant when I say I am a good mom, but I am. People always tell me how well behaved my children are. Since they were infants I could take them any where and not have to worry about their behavior. I am also Girl Scout leader for my daughter troop, and helped run my son's Cub Scout troop for 5 years. I used to work at a school as a Kindergarten Instruction Assistant, but I got sick of the politics of it. I decided I could do more good on a smaller scale. So now I focus on making sure my clients are going to be prepared to enter the school system. While working at the school, I was always amazed that some children had never been handed a pencil and taught to write their name, or crayons to color, or how to count to 10. A lot of people are surprised to learn that children graduating form Kindergarten are expected to be able to count to 100, add and subtract single digit numbers, read basic sentences, identify all coins and shapes including cube, cylinder, rhombus, and parallelogram. I don't know many adult that can do that outside of my teacher friends.
                Anyway,  people often ask me how I do it? Be a good mom? Make sure the kids are well behaved, and keep up with homework, sport, band, etc? Be patient will a 4 year old tells you the longest story EVER, that has no point? And still smile at the end of the day and be happy with my life? Well, there are lots of things I have learned along the way that make it easier, and I want to share them here. To help other moms.