Then and Now

The first little boy to melt my heart - my nephew Jacob.


Here is the little boy that melts my heart everyday - my precious Noah.

Our Growing Boy

Noah is almost 6 months old. It's so hard for me to believe! Our little boy is growing up. He is now a pro at solid foods. He's had cereal for almost 2 months now and baby food for about one month. He's had green peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, applesauce, pears and peaches. He especially loves squash and carrots but honestly will eat anything. I think he just likes food. We started giving him oatmeal which he loves as well.

Here are some pictures from the first week that we gave him cereal. I love the expressions on his face! Thankfully, it didn't take him long to figure out what to do with the spoon and to decide that he liked this new taste.

Saturday Savings

Here are my Saturday dynomite deals. Rite Aid has a great rebate program where they offer you partial to full rebates on selected items. This past week was my first time to pay attention to the Rite Aid ad. I'm so glad I did! Here are my rebate items:

Gillette Fusion Razor 9.00
Gillette Men Shampoo 4.49
Revlon Nail Polish 2.99
Renu Multiplus Solution (2 pack) 9.99

Total 26.47

Less coupons - 5.00
Less rebates - 22.47

Total overage + 1.00

That's right - I got $26.47 worth of products free plus I actually made money off of this deal because I had some coupons! It's so nice to shop and actually make money. I never knew this world existed!

My other deal for the day was at Walgreens. They offer a program called "Register Rewards." This is similar to CVS's Extra Care Bucks program. For select items, they will give you a certain $ amount of rewards to be used toward your next purchase. It is essentially free money to use at Walgreens. Yesterday, I had my eye on the 4/$10 on Kellog's cereal. I had a coupon for $1 off a purchase of 2 boxes of Special K. This brought the deal to 4/$9. Walgreens offered register rewards of $5 for the purchase. This brought the final total to 4/$4. That's $1 per box! Even Walmart can't beat that. There was a similar deal for the Nutri-Grain bars but they were sold out. That is one lesson I learned last week. If you see a good deal in Sunday's ad, get it that day or the next. Apparently, I'm not the only one who's caught on to these great deals! All in all, it was a very satisfying shopping day.

A Day of Great Deals

Recently, I've been on the quest to cut some of our family spending by using coupons. I was actually introduced to this new world of couponing by a somewhat unlikely source, my big brother Kyle. He told me about this website which is packed full of coupons and great deals. There is also the world of CVS shopping which I will get into in another post. However, on the Money Saving Mom website I found out about a great freebie at TGI Fridays. This isn't actually one of my favorite restaurants. But, if it's eating free food at a restaurant, I'm inclined to check it out (I love eating out!) So, Wes and I went to TGI Fridays and used our 2 free appetizer coupons. They let us use two because we were paying separately. On top of that, each coupon was good for an appetizer valued at $8. It just so happened that we went during happy hour where select appetizers were $4 each. Our waitress actually let us order 2 appetizers per coupon. Therefore, we got to order 4 appetizers for free! Now, I'm not sure that all of the waiters/waitresses would let us do that but God showed us favor! If that weren't enough, we got a "surprise" appetizer just for being members of their Stripes club. We were stuffed when we left and it was all free (not including my drink and the tip.) All in all, we ate the entire meal for $6! As a side note, I've discovered that many restaurants offer a free meal or coupon for signing up on their email list. Usually, the offer must be redeemed within 1-2 weeks so it's good to space them out if possible.

After dinner, we went to Ulta so that I could take advantage of more savings on my makeup. Ulta is running a special this month on my foundation, buy one get one free. The regular price is $24.50 so of course I jumped all over that. When I went to check out at the counter, the clerk gave me $5 off for signing up for 2 free magazine issues. The total for the two foundation compacts was $19.50 or $9.75 per compact. What a steal!! I was so excited. I think I've found a new passion - shopping for deals!

More Mom Funnies

What nobody told me about sleep deprivation..... (statements from new moms, from the May 2008 issue of babytalk)

"I collapse into bed at night thinking that I could sleep through a tornado only to spring up the moment I hear a little sneeze come for the bassinet."

"When my daughter was a couple weeks old, I looked down at her and for the life of me could not remember her name."

"Nobody told me that I'd look at my husband sleeping so peacefully next to our wailing infant daughter -up for the fifth time that night- and be seized with such an urge to smack him silly!"

Mom Funnies

From the May 2008 issue of babytalk magazine:

Sure, Mother's Day presents are great, but why stop at just one day? There are plenty of other "special occasions" in your baby's first year when we think you rate a gift or two.


OCCASION: You produce your tenth quart of breast milk.
PRESENT: A suede jacket (hey, if you're gonna be milked like a dairy cow, you might as well get the snazzy coat.)

OCCASION: You go out for a rare hour of "me" time and accidentally spend it napping on a crosstown bus.
PRESENT: A designer bag (to replace the one stolen during your nap.)

OCCASION: While changing a hazmat-grade diaper on a public park bench, you run out of baby wipes-then realize you have no diapers, either.
PRESENT: Therapy

Preaching the Gospel to Myself

As most people know who read my blog, I have a new career - motherhood. I'm no longer working as a full time accountant but instead stay at home to care for our newborn son, Noah. Motherhood is a blessing - Noah is a blessing. But motherhood is also a calling. The Lord has called me to be a wife and mother (praise Him!) and thus it is his desire and plan to sanctify me and glorify his name through these roles. As with any job, motherhood has its challenges. Everyday is pretty ordinary with a newborn. I feed him, change his diapers, hold him and play with him, try to get him to sleep, and of course try to figure out how to console and satisfy him when he cries. When I was pregnant, I didn't think that these daily tasks would be that difficult. Of course, everything is harder when you've only slept approximately 4 or 5 hours/night for the past 7 weeks and your hormones are still getting back to normal. I sometimes find myself crying when he cries, wondering how I'm going to make it through another day without collapsing from exhaustion. But the Lord is good. He gets me through everyday with the strength (physical and emotional) and patience I need to care for Noah and still be the wife I desire to be for Wes.

Today, I read this verse in Ephesians: "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." I think that I'm going to chew on that verse for a while and pray through it's application in my life, both as a wife and mother. Nothing is more important than the Gospel. Therefore, we must think of it often. In fact, we need to preach it to ourselves. That is what I'm trying to do everyday. We will never outgrow our need for it. I need the Gospel to get up each day and care for Noah. I need the Gospel to help me submit to my husband. I need the Gospel to remind me of the bigger picture when I'm overwhelmed with the little things.

I watched this John Piper video today - The Gospel in 6 Minutes. I think that I could watch it over and over. As he states at the end of the video "Only one strength will be there when you need it - the strength that God gives according to the Gospel." This is the strength that I need, that we all need.