Psalter 400

What's Cookin'

Mon~Chicken Alfredo (freezer), cauliflower
Tues~Worcestshire chicken, potatoes, corn
Wed~Grilled chicken salad with buttermilk ranch dressing, bread
Thurs~Bbcued pork ribs, mashed potatoes, green beans
Fri~Boys get mac n cheese with babysitter
Sat~Frozen pizza, salad
Sun~Creamy chicken noodle soup (This is fabulous, although I didn't exactly follow the recipe.  I didn't add any milk and I only used 1 can of cr of chicken soup.), bread or rolls


Lots of chicken in upcoming menus.  I just bought 40 lbs of chicken from Zaycon Foods.

Heads up for Aldi next week

Saw these deals on Sarah's Deals for Aldi next week:


Broccoli-89 cents


Cream cheese-89 cents (Excellent price!)


10 lb Russet Potatoes- $1.59

It's what's for dinner tonight...

Just me and Aaron tonight.

With some chunks of pineapple, onion and green pepper thrown in with the chicken. Yum!

Life on earth

“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.”

Marjorie Pay Hinckley (Marjorie was married to a leader in the LDS church.  She died in 2004.)

I'm not advocating works religion here, but if Christ lives in our hearts, some of our greatest pleasures on earth will come from serving others, and when we serve others, we serve our King.


Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Matthew 25:40

Some Fall Decor

I bought some mini pumpkins a few weeks ago for 50 cents a piece.  I have a few autumn decor items I usually set out but I haven't had the energy to dig them out of the basement closet.  Maybe Saturday.  Or maybe I'll just wait until next fall.  :-)  Anyway, here's what I did with one of the pumpkins.

I hollowed out one of them and stuck a votive snugly inside the hole.  I love lighting candles!

Meijer Deals

Meijer deals this week~Everything in the above pic cost me 78 cents!  The tea was free (facebook coupon), the Cool Whip was 50 cents for all three (facebook coupons and Meijer mealbox) and the ginger ale was 28 cents (Mperks coupon)

Bone Weary

Yesterday the boys and I decided to go to the library and to Meijer.  We didn't end up leaving until 10:45 so it was 12:30 before we got home.  Aaron has been skipping his morning naps and was so exhausted after he ate his sandwich, he fell asleep in the high chair.  I even washed his face before he woke up!

From October 26, 2011

What's Cookin'

Mon~Sun-dried tomatoes and chicken pasta (freezer), carrots, Bread sticks
Tues~PW's beef stew with dumplings
Wed~Bbcued pork, mashed potatoes, corn
Thurs~Spaghetti, cauliflower
Fri~Pizza, cold veggies
Sat~Grilled hamburgers, cold veggies

Close Cousins

Fun and fruit snacks (and closed eyes!)

Giveaway!

I love Saving Addiction!

Head here to enter a giveaway for $100!

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Have you ever wanted the deliciousness of frosted cinnamon rolls without all the time and work?  Let me introduce you to my new favorite cake, the Cinnamon Roll Cake.  Absolutely delicious.

Source: cookinupnorth.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Meijer Deals

Here's what I see at Meijer:
(Check out savingaddiction.com for the specific coupon matches.)


*Barilla pasta~24 cents a piece 


*PF Changs Frozen Meal for 2~ $3.49 each ( I have $3 off coupons)


*Tyson frozen chix nuggets~$2.99


I KNOW this looks like a lot of junk (um, I guess it IS a lot of junk), but I'm planning on going to Aldi for some produce.  Cauliflower is 99 cents ahead and red skin potatoes are on sale (can't recall the price).  So we will not be surviving on frozen Chinese and chicken nuggets, I promise.  :-)

What's Cookin'

Mon~Chicken Enchiladas (freezer), rice, chips n salsa
Tues~Mac n cheese for kids (Daddy is going out with his siblings after they give blood and Mommy has a baby shower.)
Wed~Chicken bundles (freezer), mashed redskins, cauliflower
Thurs~PW's beef stew with dumplings
Fri~???  Andrew, Noah, and I are coming home from Lansing around 5 and Daddy is talking about taking Andrew camping so we will see!
Sat~Frozen pizza, cold veggies
Sun~French stew (freezer), noodles, corn

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Found this on Pinterest.  It is awesome.  Made two and stuck one in the freezer.

Source: alittlebitcrunchyalittlebitrock.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

(Click on the source for the recipe.)

Chili's and On the Border Gift Card

Daily deal site Savemore.com is offering a $10 gift card to Chili's and On the Border for $5 today!  Look for the deal on the right side of the page.

Boys Group Pics~October 2011

Chris and I took the boys to a pond down the road last night.  Here are our heroic photographic efforts:

Daddy wanted us to be silly!

I think this is one of my favorites.

Sir Noah!

Do ya think this is staged??

I love fall pics!

The best of the bunch.

Honey boy

I think there's too much light.

They were pretty much done by this point.

When kids hit age 4, its automatically cheesy smiles every time the camera comes out.

Almost natural.

Easiest boy to photograph.

He'd rather play in the leaves than get his photo taken.

Fall Fun with Cousins

Meijer deals~Oct 9-15

Some pretty decent deals at Meijer this week. 

Digiorno frozen pizza~On sale for $3.99- $2 coupon from facebook.  I bought 2 pizzas and received a dollar off my next order.
Rotel tomatoes with green chiles~ These are part of the buy 10, get the 11th item free sale, plus I had a 55 cents/2 coupon.
Gold Peak iced tea-FREE!  $1/1 coupon on coupons.com.


For direct coupon links, check out Saving Addiction.


Also part of the buy 10, get the 11th item free sale:
Stouffers Animal Crackers
Meijer Pretzels
Thomas English Muffins (buy the whole grain variety!)
(these are things that I like to stock up on)


The cash register also spit out a $5/$50 gift card coupon so I will purchase that next time I'm at Meijer and use the gift card for groceries.  Also, according to the Saving Addiction ladies, mperks will release a 5% off your groceries coupon for this coming Saturday.

Guest Post: Saving Time with the Breadmaker

I make-up the dry ingredients for bread and pizza dough.  I put them in bags and then put all blue twisties on the bread and yellow on the pizza bags (and/or label them with B or P) and put them in the freezer.  At night we can just grab a bag, throw it in the breadmaker, add the wet ingredients and put it on time bake.  Smells SO good to wake up to!  It saves lots of time and is SO convenient. 


Thanks, Alice!  I will have to try this.

What's Cookin'

Mon~Continental Beef (freezer), mashed potatoes, corn
Tues~Pork Carnitas, black beans, chips n salsa
Wed~Church potluck-salad and bread
Thurs~Lasagne, cauliflower, Red Lobster biscuits
Fri~Pizza
Sat~Hamburgers, cold veggies
Sun~Vegetable Beef soup, bread

A Tip for Shopping at the Mall (if you must!)

 I was headed to the mall this morning so I checked out this post here.  I saved about $30 with the coupons I printed off!

Aaron was all tuckered out from shopping!

Winning at Walgreens

2 12 pk of Cottonelle Ultra

2 Great Grains cereal

4 Nature Valley Granola bars

Total OOP $8.54 and I have $5 RR to spend next time

No Meijer deals this week (for me anyway!).

Art Time: Neon paint

Went and got some washable paint for the boys today. They had a great time with it.

Little Boys and BIG Marshmallows!

Chris told Joel to give Aaron a bit of marshmallow but Joel decided to give Aaron his own. 

I think Aaron likes it!

I was trying to get just Aaron in this pic but someone's head kept getting in the way!

I wonder how many marshmallows Aaron could fit in his mouth if he played, "I'm a chubby bunny"?

Yup, Mom, the sugar's starting to kick in!  Nevermind that its 10 PM!

Artprize 2011

3rd year of Artprize and we finally made it downtown to see some art.  We had a great time, but it would have been a lot better if we hadn't lost Joel for 5 minutes right at the beginning of the evening.  Talk about sheer panic.  We had been looking at some displays in front of the Gerald Ford Museum and walked around the water feature in the front.  We were kind of separated because it was pretty busy and Chris and I must have each assumed that the other had Joel.  We went inside the museum to look around and I checked to see where all the kids were and noticed Joel was not in the stroller.  Chris ran out of the museum and ran all around the water feature in front and there was Joel playing with two policemen and a lady.  He was a bit shook up and Chris and I both felt horrible.  Such a helpless feeling not knowing where your child is.  I know I sent up a frantic prayer, but its hard to even think when you're in the situation.  So thankful that it turned out fine.  Joel held pretty tight to my hand the rest of the night.

After the tremors died down, we had a pretty great night wandering around downtown.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and it was kind of neat seeing so many people milling around.  

 Bears in the water fountain!  This exhibit made it into the top ten.

 Here is where we lost Joel.  When we left, there was a big crowd around it.  Chris thinks that when he veered around the group of people, Joel got distracted watching something and didn't follow and somehow we didn't notice right away.

 After we found Joel.  He was sticking pretty close to us.

 Joel thought this one was neat, he likes trucks.

 Monkeys hanging from the walking bridge.  

 Some monkeys hanging around the tiger!

 Stuck in the stroller but very happy!

 Rusty also made it into the top ten.

 First family pic in probably over a year.  At least mom and dad are smiling!

 The boys thought the whale skeleton in the museum was neat.  We should have gone here first since we got into the museum free and we could have looked all around.

Some funny art outside the YMCA.