Morning sickness is currently kicking my hiney and my inspiration, so I am reblogging this travel post, since this is definitely useful for the holiday season just as much as it is during the summer. 🙂
With summer dawning, alot of folks are hitting the road for family vacation or visiting relatives. Since most of us are on a budget, I thought I’d share a few of the little things I do to save big when we travel.
We like our caffeine when we’re on road trips, so instead of stopping everywhere for drinks, I make a big jug of sweet tea ahead of time and put it in mason jars in the cooler. It’s extremely inexpensive, and easily poured from jar to travel cup. We also pack jars of milk and juice for the kiddos, as well as water if we’re going somewhere with questionable water quality.
This week my daughter wanted to do something to surprise her daddy when he came home, so I helped her make a “just because” card. I like to let her tell me what to write in her cards, and for Father’s Day I just asked her what she thought of and wrote whatever she said as her inside messages on the cards I printed off the internet for her to color for them. Because she just wanted to make her daddy happy, I wrote on the front of her card “I Am Thankful For My Daddy Because…” and let her tell me the great things she was thankful for about him. It was very precious and heartfelt, and absolutely made his day.
You’ve already seen the front of the card, but below is what she had me write inside. The decorations are all her own. 🙂
Who would you make your thankful card on the cheap for?
For our preschool the other day I decided to make it all about Thanksgiving.
First, I told my daughter the 4 year old comprehensible version of the first Thanksgiving and we had a discussion about the things we are thankful for.
She was especially thankful for her mommy, daddy, baby brudder, all her animals and food. 🙂
Next, I sent her into the yard to gather leaves while I got together craft supplies for her project of the day!
I like re-using random items in our crafts, so I grabbed part of a thing cardboard insert I’d been saving from a box of drinks (an old cereal box would work) and cut pieces to make a turkey body and head, cut a slit in the neck and chest to be able to stick them together, trimmed an old Reeses’ candy eggs box, then laid them out with her crayons and markers so that she could decorate her turkey however she wanted, and got some googly eyes to glue on when she was finished decorating. She had a blast! When she was through, I couldn’t find any clear tape, so I just used masking tape to tape the cardboard pieces around the box “stand”, put the head on and helped her tape the leaf tail on the backside. It would’ve been prettier with clear, obviously, but Princess Peach is pleased as punch, and that’s what counts. 🙂
Thanks for Turkey?
Once the turkey was proudly perched on our windowsill, I wrote out THANKS and TURKEY on two pages, had her point out all of the letters and we talked about the words. Then she did her best to copy the words out. She also made a picture with her two hands traced and the word THANKS at the top later that day, because she enjoyed her Thanksgiving theme so much and didn’t want to be finished with it. 🙂
I am so excited to tell y’all about a points reward program for earning free books online called My Reader Rewards (part of Tyndale Publishing)!
I was able to order a book using 90 points I racked up on my first day actually utilizing the site! I was given 25 points right away for following a referral link. The first day I was active on the site, I earned points doing the following: A survey about bibles gave me 15 points, and a short survey about E-readers earned 10 points. Signing up for a newsletter got me 10 points. Signing up to get a free gift through the birthday club earned me 15 points. I also joined their Focus Group, for 25 points now and 25 points for each survey I participate in. This took hardly any time at all, and I’d already earned enough points to get a free book!! 🙂 You can also earn points through referrals, sharing links, asking questions and doing reviews.
This is a super easy way to earn some wonderful free books for your family!
I’ve ordered several books from them so far, and have never been disappointed. The most recent book I received is the one pictured, and will be a beautiful Christmas present for one of my children. I have been pleasantly surprised at the simplicity of the program, and the quality of the books available to buy with my points. I definitely recommend this program for anyone with readers in the household (which I’m guessing includes most folks who read blogs…LOL).
Can you guess what that blessing is? Yep, you guessed it! We are expecting our third little pumpkin…errr…baby!!! 🙂
Tiebreaker!
As you can see, blessings #1 and #2 are quite excited about the eventual arrival of another little cutie patootie! Now the competition starts…who will win the tiebreaker? 😉 Our five year old is rooting for a girl, if you couldn’t guess that. Our two and a half year old isn’t old enough to know to have a preference. He just wants a “baaaaby”. Mommy & Daddy are with him on that.
I am just hoping this pregnancy goes much smoother than either of my first two, and have lots of hope that it will. I may just have to post about that later, but I’m not ready to go there yet. For now, I’m just happy about the expected blessing and riding the waves of nausea and rollercoaster energy levels.
I usually avoid doing re-blogs so close together, but I wanted to share the Veteran’s Day Freebies again! Be sure to make sure they are still valid when attempting to redeem these deals. The majority recur every year, but some may not. Enjoy, and share!! 🙂
In honor and appreciation of all former and current military and their families on Veteran’s Day, I thought I’d share a few of the well deserved freebies & discounts available just for the vets in celebration of their sacrifice and service. Please note that most will require a military ID or proof of former military service in order to be given, so have it ready when you go to claim your goodies. Some will give it to anyone wearing their uniform. I’d suggest that you call your local restaurant or store to see what proof of service they need before going. Share with your friends & family in the military, even if you can’t benefit from these deals. They deserve it! 🙂
Food:
Chilis- November 11- Free meal from select menu on November 11.
Golden Corral- November 11 only from 4-9pm, free drink and buffet for anyone who has ever served…
I’m reposting my Swagbucks post with some updates, including a FREE e-book that can be used on Kindle! Check it out, and join the prudent penny pinching!! 🙂
The mask & cape were gifts purchased with Mommy’s rewards programs
This post has been updated to add some tricks I’ve learned since I originally posted this last year. I hope that you will enjoy Swagbucks as much as I do! Please follow my referral code at the end to join and reap the benefits of this awesome program!
I want to share one of my very favorite points earning programs with y’all! Swagbucks is easy to use, and the points add up very quickly. I actually paid for most of my daughter’s 4th birthday presents using Amazon gift cards that I earned through Swagbucks and SavingStar by doing things that I would do with or without rewards programs!! I got over $35 worth of adorable gifts for my daughter from Amazon, with only $6 out of pocket expenses after using the gift cards I’d saved up from those two programs! Talk…
We were given a few of the best Halloween books from my mother in law’s expansive collection of all things autumn.
Halloween was her favorite holiday, by far. We lost her recently, so even though I don’t generally go all out for this particular holiday, I decided to do a Halloween themed story time with my munchkins in her honor, complete with a craft, game and treat. She also loved all things crafty, and was a retired Head Start teacher, so I know that she would have enjoyed it.
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It’s quite the cute little book, and not the least bit scary. My little girl is strongly opposed to all things “creeeeepyyyyy”, as she says, so that was a must. 🙂 This book and activity would be fun any time of the year, but especially for fall and Halloween. I love that it fits the season without being too scary for little kids.
Pipe cleaner arms and legs
First on our agenda are ghost and monster puppets!
To make these, you just need craft sticks like Loew Cornell 1021254 Woodsies Craft Sticks, 1000-Piece (or popsicle sticks), Crayola Construction Paper, Assorted Colors, 240 Sheet (99-3200)or cardstock, pipe cleaners like these Creativity Street Stetems/Pipe Cleaners 12″ X 4mm 100-Piece Assorted Colors, tape and something to color with. I sketched the requested outlines for their ghosts and monsters, but if you don’t have a knack for drawing, just print or trace the outlines. While I let my five and two year olds loose to decorate their respective puppets, I grabbed a couple of pipe cleaners and snipped them into four pieces each for the monsters’ legs and arms. You need one pipe cleaner per monster. I just twisted loops at one end of each to make hands and feet. Once they were finished coloring, I cut out their creepy (bahaha!) creations and helped them tape the arms and legs on the monsters and the craft sticks on all of the puppets. See? Super simple, easy peasy!! As I mentioned, even my two year old could participate in this activity.
If you don’t want to bother making your own puppets, this set of teeny tiny finger puppets is super inexpensive and awfully cute Monster Finger Puppets – Collect all 8!
Halloween Monster Back
Below you see my munchkins proudly displaying their one-of-a-kind ghosties and monsters. Quite the colorful creatures, aren’t they? 🙂 They get all the credit, since Mommy literally left them to it while she finished the legs and arms and worked on dishes.
Monster and Ghost Puppets
Now for the next part of our freaky fall fun fest!! Halloween storytime, with a game!
I settled them down in our oversized chair, and instructed them to hold up their ghost puppets when they heard the word “ghost” and their monster puppets when they heard the word “monster”. As you can see, they had to concentrate to hear those key words, but they did really well and thought it was the neatest way to read a book together.
Halloween Game
We weren’t ready to be finished with that, so the kiddos put on a Halloween puppet show for me using their new monster puppets.
While I won’t pretend that the script was riveting, they were pretty doggone cute in their attempts at a story line. My two year old really didn’t get it, and wound up watching his sister’s puppets more than doing anything with his own, but they had a blast, anyway. Puppet time is great for creative children!
Monster and Ghost Puppet Show
For the grand finale, I brought out their trick or treat buckets from the fall festivals we attended the other day and let them both pick out a sweet treat. As you can see, they were quite pleased with that finish! 🙂
Do your little ones enjoy books and puppets? What are your favorite books for autumn? For a fun pumpkin activity to do with your little ones, try No Carving Pumpkin Family!
You love food, I love food, we all love food! I mean, who can help it? We’ve all gotta eat! October 24th is an extra special day in the world of food. It’s not only the official celebration of Food Day, but also the birthday of one of my all-time favorite food lovers- my dear ol’ Dad! It’s only fitting that he was born on the day we celebrate one of his most beloved things (other than his darling children, of course! 😉 ). He sure loves himself some good vittles! Love you and a big happy birthday holler, Daddy!
Food Day isn’t just about any food. It’s about making an effort to eat real, healthy food and about the people who work hard to make sure these choices are readily available. It’s about encouraging families to choose more natural and less processed. According to http://www.foodday.org : In 2014, Food Day will have a special focus on food access and justice for food and farm workers.
Jalapeno Poppers
I just finally got my late autumn garden of kale, broccoli and butter lettuce planted a couple of days ago to give us a continued supply of some fresh healthy green veggies for a couple more months while produce is getting more and more expensive. I wanted to plant spinach, too, but I waited too long to start the seeds and couldn’t find the plants anywhere locally. I’d love to have more in, but life interfered with my larger plans for this year. The only thing still producing well from my summer garden is the jalapenos you see pictured. They are doing amazingly well! 🙂 If you want to know how I made those yummy unfried poppers in the picture, just click the photo for instructions.
What are you doing to make healthy food choices for your family? How knowledgeable do you think you are about things related to the growth and production of the food we eat? Take this quiz, and let me know how you did! http://www.foodday.org/food_literacy_quiz I took it, and got 12 out of 15 right. A couple of my wrong answers surprised me! Can you outdo me?
The friendly face of Food Day. Happy birthday, Dad! 🙂
“Dinner for a dollar?!?” they exclaim, “It can’t be done!!”.
Let me tell ya, honey, it most certainly can! Tonight I made this delicious pasta dish for less than a dollar. It fed my five year old, two year old and me with leftovers…and we all ate seconds!
I am challenging myself to stretch our grocery money as far as possible, and cook from the pantry as much as I can to help with a money crunch while my husband is taking a career furthering class for several weeks and missing a lot of work to do so. I haven’t been shopping in about a week and a half, so I am doing pretty well with it thus far.
I found some pasta with no crazy ingredients, just semolina and durum flour, marked down for 25 cents each when I was shopping a couple of weeks ago, so I grabbed several packages. I used half a pack of those noodles for this dish, plus a can of Italian diced tomatoes (66 cents), a sprinkling of parmesan, a handful of mozzarella cheese and the last few slices of ham lunchmeat we had in the pack before we go grocery shopping tomorrow.
Dinner For a Dollar? It’s Doable!!
I mixed the cooked pasta with the tomatoes, let my oldest sprinkle on the cheese and the shredded lunchmeat and warmed it in the oven for about five minutes. TADA!!!!A super cheap and yummy supper created in less than 10 minutes! 🙂
While this cost me less than a dollar, with more average prices it might cost closer to two dollars. Even still, it’s a budget friendly and speedily prepared meal for the penny pinching parent who is crunched for time.
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Cheap travel Tips 
by Kay Winters for our fun Halloween themed activity time.
or cardstock, pipe cleaners like these 
, tape and something to color with. I sketched the requested outlines for their ghosts and monsters, but if you don’t have a knack for drawing, just print or trace the outlines. While I let my five and two year olds loose to decorate their respective puppets, I grabbed a couple of pipe cleaners and snipped them into four pieces each for the monsters’ legs and arms. You need one pipe cleaner per monster. I just twisted loops at one end of each to make hands and feet. Once they were finished coloring, I cut out their creepy (bahaha!) creations and helped them tape the arms and legs on the monsters and the craft sticks on all of the puppets. See? Super simple, easy peasy!! As I mentioned, even my two year old could participate in this activity.
, as low as free!
Penny Pinching Peach 