Amazon Warehouse Deals

Just a heads up-  In your spare time check out the Amazon Warehouse Deals.  There are some good buys to be found.  I really LOVE Amazon.  Their customer service is amazing! 
Remember the wonderful deal on Organic Pumpkin?  It was delicious!  Delicious enough that I bought a 2nd case,  unfortunately almost 5 of the 12 cans were dented :-(  I wrote to let them know, and without even questioning, the price was refunded back to my card.  That is great customer service! 
So much of our Christmas shopping was done on Amazon this year.  I'm very thankful for their quick service and fair prices. 

A puppy in the house

We have a puppy at our house.  Oh my!  This is adorable little guy is on loan from my parents.  I say loan because we aren't set on adding a puppy to our family right now.  & my daddy said that if this didn't work out it was okay to give him back.  I ♥ my daddy.
Meet Buddy!  He is a purebred German Shepherd, he's playful and smart!  Very smart.  He's learning to do his business outside, and is following commands well for his age.  Speaking of age, he was born Thanksgiving day so he's about 2 months old. 

The princess loves him, almost too much.  The prince thinks he's great, but doesn't like being chased around constantly.  I'm trying to get used to the idea of having him here, but ultimately I think we just may decided that as much as we love Buddy, it'd be better for everybody if he was a dog we visited at granny & grandpa's house. 

We are busy people, and I have promised myself and my family this year to not take on more than I can handle.  Rather than having "calendar clutter" over various commitments this year (and only being halfheartedly in each one), we're going to just pick some good ones that we enjoy (and enjoy them, wholeheartedly).  It's my hope that then we can spend QUALITY time as a family. 

Kitchen uprgrade: Strainer

For Valentines day I bought myself my husband a new strainer.  AND since I bought it early..... I've already showed him.  I just can't keep a secret. 

We had this plastic blue one, which I have never totally liked.  Mostly because when you put it in the sink and pour your pan of boiling hot water and pasta in it, the water touches the bottom of the sink then rushes back up into your cooked pasta.  YUCK. 

Also because it's plastic.. and your putting hot food into it, we know this is dangerous.

The little princess and I were at Target shopping for craft supplies for MOPS when I ran across this beautiful strainer.  oh, I just loved it!  It's stainless steel, AND it's footed, so no more nasty-bottom-of-the-sink-water touching our cooked food.    It was $8.  An inexpensive upgrade, and one I'm very glad we've made.  Even though I haven't actually used it yet, I already love it. 

Bonus:  It's cute enough that I'm not embarrassed if it's in the sink when company comes over.

What's in your bathroom?

Toxins- freak.me.out. 

They really do.
But not bad enough to totally ditch everything I own. 
I have some favorites, like my cosmetics.  Mostly because I paid a fortune for them while I was selling Mary Kay and would feel totally guilty just throwing them away.

Really though, what's in all those tubes and bottles? TOXINS!
A few months ago I cleaned the bathroom.  Not like washed the sinks & scrubbed the toilets kind of clean (that only happens when my mother comes over & does it for me).  But I just quickly (HA!  okay, it was like 2 hours) went through the cupboards and drawers and took out any lotions, body washes, sprays, etc that I didn't use or just wasn't interested in using. 
The result was fairly clean shelves, and A FULL garbage bag!


So today I decided to clean the bathroom again, this time just washing the mirror & counter top.  While I was in there I thought to myself, what would happen if I were to take out every product that wasn't good for me/my family?  Or at least not terrible for us.

I thought about it for a few minutes and realized my shelves would be empty and I would probably look horrible & stink.

But this is something I want to keep in mind, especially when buying new products.

Oh, we also ditched the bathroom cleaners A LONG time ago, because they made me physically sick (maybe I didn't use them enough, so my body wasn't used to them!).  I found that vinegar and water in a spray bottle works just as good.  And a baking soda/water paste is sufficient for scrubbing (Thanks Jessa for this tip!)

Have you made any big moves in the bathroom for the sake of protecting your family?

Our God is an AWESOME God!

Our God is an AWESOME God! & He's funny too!

Doctors are expensive.  We all know this right?  And maybe that's why we avoid them.  I may be the only one who puts off scheduling an appointment because of the cost, but I can't help it. 

I know that usually you start off with one visit to get established, another to see what is going on, then lab work, and another visit to talk about the lab work, another one to do something about whatever the lab results were, and on and on and on!

All of that adds up to BIG MONEY being spent fast, and usually no solution found, but just "wait it out" or "Call if it happens again". 

I had my appt yesterday, to get established, tell the doctor what I'm experiencing.  That was the first appointment ($$).

I expressed to my husband that we really can't afford to go through with all of this.  In my head I'm thinking, maybe this is all happening because I'm over weight.  A diet surely would be cheaper.  My husband says we'll just take one bill at a time, everything will be okay.

What do you know, we get home from the doctor and I found a $20 check from CRISCO in the mail... HAHAHA!  I won it playing an online sweepstakes.  But really... Crisco of all places!

So that took care of the first co-pay.  God answers prayers, God heals, really He does it all.

Thank you God!