Summer Plans...

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Summer vacation is here.

My first feeling is excitement- I don't have to drag the kids out of the house three days a week to drop off/pick up my son from school.

My second feeling is dread- no more school means my son and daughter have more time to fight with each other and drive me crazy.

This summer will be pretty laid back, as in I'm not going to be jumping through hoops to do lots of away from home activities with the kids. Maybe we'll go to the zoo and some other random things but I'm not a glutton for punishment and taking the three kids to big places by myself is not so much fun. Plus, I'm just not the type of mom who feels the need to constantly be taking my kids places. We have a nice yard with a swing set, a huge sandbox, lots of outdoor toys, a bounce house (one of those small little tykes ones) and even a ghetto above ground pool and various sizes of kiddie pools. We also live on a dead end street that the kids can ride their bikes and scooters on and have neighbor kids across the street who are my kids' ages. Sounds like perfection to me and like I should get a big fat honking pass to not have to leave the vicinity of my house much this summer.

As I am not a completely lazy mom, I do want to make it a priority to spend more quality time with the kids. I spend literally all of my time with them but I don't spend enough quality mommy time with them- and here I am talking about the older kids because the baby leaves me no option but to spend tons of time with her. I see us playing board games (their favorite is Candy Land), doing arts and crafts, going for walks, playing games in the backyard and reading together.

I also really want to spend time each day with Ty-Guy working on his letters, numbers and other miscellaneous stuff that five year old kids are expected to know when they enter Kindergarten. Nothing too intensive, maybe just fifteen minutes a day during weekdays. I am going to try on find some resources on the internet on fun things to do that  will prepare him for September.

And maybe, just maybe, we'll be brave and the whole family will go on a little vacation to Story Land. The idea of two adults and three children, including a baby, sharing a hotel room for a few days kind of scares me though.

Rain Makes Me Lazy...

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It is pouring rain here which wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that my son has school today so I have to drag the three kids out of the house to bring him to school and then I have to drag everyone out to pick him up. Alli loves the rain because she gets to wear her rain boots and splash in the puddles- me, not so much.

But you know what rainy days mean? It means that I give myself a pass and let the kids watch way too much television. And maybe I'll let them play with Play-Doh for a bit so I don't feel like a completely useless and lazy mother. And maybe I'll even have myself a cocktail... just kidding about that last part but I can dream, can't I?

Ticket Back From La-La Land...

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Since the birth of Jilly Billy I have been in a sort of la-la land of not caring about such silly things as budgets and saving money. Living in la-la land is fun, that is, until you exit la-la land and get a serious dose of reality smacking you in the face.

After the rude, yet necessary, awakening I received after updating my budget spreadsheet with various credit card balances I have decided that while my trip to la-la land afforded me less stress to deal with while caring for a new baby and two other children, my vacay is over. Goodbye throwing whatever crap I want into my shopping cart and hopping on every deal at Slickdeals and hello coupon queen who only buys what we really need. Boring, boring, boring but I suppose being a grownup can't be all fun and games.

Here is my belt tightening plan:

-My grocery and household stuff budget is going to be lowered to $75 a week (this week it's $50 due to poor financial planning on my part- good thing I'm not getting paid to handle my family's finances because I would be so fired) which means that I am going to have to *gasp* make shopping lists and stick to them. Luckily I have a $50 Whole Foods gift card my mom got me for Easter and a $20 Whole Foods gift card that I got for free from an Amex deal to supplement my meat purchases.

-I am going to hop back into the drugstore game after a six month hiatus and have a $20 CVS e-gift card that I bought for $10 to help make the transition easier. Right now I have enough toilet paper and paper towels to last at least a couple of months so I won't be needing to buy those money hogs and my dog has enough dog food to last way longer than that which is good because his food costs way more than one should spend on an animal that enjoys licking his own butt. I am also set for diapers for awhile because my mom went on a diaper deals binge before Jilly Billy was born and I am still reaping the benefits of her couponing.

-I will get back on the rebate train. I just sent out two Kelloggs rebates for $10 gas cards (thank you unhealthy obsession with Crispix cereal), a $5 Scrubbing Bubbles rebate, $2.99 Reynolds rebate and $150 in rebates from our electric company for purchasing new Energy Star appliances (because when you don't have a huge cash flow what you do is buy new appliances). I am also going to keep an eye out for any no beer purchase required rebates on Ebay.

-I am finally going to list all of my son's outgrown spring/summer clothes on Ebay (I pulled the bin out of the closet a few weeks ago and it was collecting dust). I washed all of them yesterday and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to take pictures and then list them at night when the kids are in bed. I was going to take them to the consignment shop near my house but I think I'll do better selling on my own. Anything that is not up to par I am going to donate

-We are going to forgo takeout for awhile. I was astonished at the amount of money we were spending on takeout and coffee, though about 75% of the money was spent by my husband on coffee (he is on a budget now- will he stick to it? who knows). Good thing I hate coffee.

-I will not be buying the kids anymore clothing for the near future. I went through everything they have and they seem to be set for the summer, though they may need sandals but I'll hold out for a deal since it's not totally imperative right now (they each have new Crocs). I do have a $50 Children's Place gift card that my mom got for one of the kids for Christmas so I can use that to buy anything that comes up (I don't remember who she gave it to so it's up to my discretion who gets the bounty from it). This will be hard not buying clothes because when I find an awesome deal for cute stuff I compulsively have to buy it; I might as well block the Gap and 77 Kids from my computer to avoid temptation. My husband is also set for clothing for now and me, well I suppose I'm set too (insert sad face here).

Wasting money is fun for a bit but what's even more fun is saving it! (I figure if I keep saying this to myself that eventually I'll believe it.)

More Potty Talk...

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I jumped back on the potty training bandwagon last week and it is going surprisingly well.

My daughter, whom I affectionately call Alli Poo Poo, is going to be three in June and up until recently I thought she would be wearing diapers when she graduates from high school (maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing as it would most likely keep boys far away from her). One day I said screw it, I'm going to stop being lazy and put some darn underwear on her- if she pees all over the floor then I'll just have to clean it up.

Well, she has been doing really well with only minimal floor peeing. We went to the zoo on Tuesday and she insisted on wearing underwear. I was very nervous about the situation but she did not have one accident; I do have to say though that waiting in line for the restroom with a four year old boy, a two year old girl and a baby is not exactly fun and getting everyone plus a stroller into a bathroom stall requires a certain finesse that I do not posses.

Pooping is not going so well, as in she just lets it rip in her underwear. The rule in this house is if the poop is super messy the underwear gets thrown away and if it's not then mommy will wash the underwear. Every time Alli poops the first thing she says to me is don't throw my underwear away to which I reply stop pooping in your underwear and you won't have to worry about them getting thrown away (yes this makes sense to us adults but to a two year old I may as well be speaking gibberish). I did make a new deal with her today because I'm sick of dealing with poopy underwear- I told her that if she tells me when she has to poop that I'll put a diaper on her to poop in. I figure maybe when she tells me she has to poop that I can try to convince her to go on the toilet with bribes of candy and toys and if not then at least she'll do it in a diaper that I don't have to clean.

The worst thing about potty training Alli is that I know I'll have to go through the whole shebang again with Jilly Billy. I'm hoping that since she's the third child she'll just teach herself but that's not how it really works, is it?

I'm a Flake...

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So it is Thursday and I haven't posted for awhile. As you can tell, I'm a total flake and have issues with time management which means that blogging sometimes (a lot of the times) falls to the wayside.

Nothing too major has happened around here. Well, our guinea pig died. He was a nice little guy and we were sad to see him go but at the same time it wasn't a life shattering moment like when we had one of our dogs put down. I told the kids that he was in guinea pig heaven and my two year old daughter asked if he was in the toilet (that is how the dead fish get to fishy heaven). Now we are down to one dog and a tank full of fish and snails.

As for the rest of my life, the kids are still driving me crazy and I am still blowing my grocery budget out of the water.

Three Kids and Two Miles...

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Today I walked two miles with a fifteen pound baby strapped to my chest while pulling a wagon with about 70 lbs of children in it.

My son needed a haircut for his school pictures tomorrow so last night I tried to take him to get it cut but 99% of haircutting places are closed on Mondays. We went to Super Cuts and they had a 45 minute wait- I'm sorry but there was no way I was going to wait for 45 minutes at 4:30 in the afternoon for a Super Cuts haircut (I'm not bashing them- I have been know to get my hair cut there).

My husband was bringing back the loaner car to the dealership today and picking up our new vehicle (long story, I'm not going to get into it because it is just borderline insanity) so I was car-less. I decided that the barbershop wasn't that far away and the kids and I could haul our butts up there the eco-friendly way.

When we got home I felt like my legs were going to fall off and I was dripping sweat. What a workout, though it is one that I hope to never have to do again. I know there are people who do these things everyday but I am glad that I am not one of them. I am far too lazy and dependent on my vehicle for such silly things as walking to get errands done.

I do feel proud of myself though that I was able to accomplish the task, especially since here in Massachusetts it was 75 degrees out. But now what I feel like doing is curling up with a frozen margarita and drinking the sore muscles away (I'll have to settle for a soda because I doubt my nursing daughter would be cool with contaminated breast milk).

Mommy Is Going To Lose It...

Yesterday morning was one of those mornings that was so annoying that I look back on it and shake my head.

My son had school so we had to be out of the house by 8:20 am which is not super early in the real world but when you have three kids it is torture.

I gave the older kids their breakfast which on this particular day consisted of wheat toast, milk and yogurt (yep, no fruit- the terrible mother that I am was running late and had no time to cut up fruit). Then I went upstairs to gather their clothing for the day and then I ironed their clothing for the day- I may be a sack of crap mom sometimes but I draw the line at my kids leaving the house looking like they are homeless. I went back into the kitchen and my son had not touched any of his food which really annoyed me. Every school morning he sits at the table and does not eat his food until I yell at him. When he saw my face this morning he grabbed his Go-Gurt and ate it but I grabbed his plate and threw his toast in the trash which of course he didn't even care about. I told him that maybe next time he would eat what I made him- most likely not but man, am I sick of having to make him eat his breakfast.

I went back upstairs to grab my clothing and flushed the toilet in the upstairs bathroom to rid it of any late night pee. Apparently my son had gone number two before he came downstairs for breakfast (or should I say sit at the table and not eat anything time) and had used baby wipes to wipe his bum. He must have used a ton because the toilet overflowed all over the floor. After I yelled down the stairs to "politely" explain to him that he must never put baby wipes in the toilet I grabbed a bunch of towels and sopped up the blue toilet water. Then I made a mental note to steam mop the floor when I got a chance later in the day while also feeling a piece of me die on the inside because I now had even more laundry to do.

As I got downstairs my daughter just happened to drop her yogurt cup on the floor which proceeded to splatter everywhere. Who knew that yogurt was so aerodynamic? I just stared at it for a minute in disbelief and then did a piss poor job cleaning that up as we were really running behind. I made yet another mental note to hit up the mess later in the day when I had time all the while I kept saying "Alli, are you kidding me- don't fool around at the kitchen table".

At this point the baby was screaming because she was hungry (I had fed her an hour before so she wasn't starving) so I popped in the pacifier to keep her from hyperventilating. I got the kids dressed which in itself was a test to my patience- for some reason when it is time to dress the kids they become squirming, complaining monsters. I threw the baby in her car seat and we were out the door, a little late but alas we were on our way. The baby did get fed in the school parking lot after I dragged everyone into school to drop my son off. That is the good thing about breastfeeding- my boobs are always ready to feed; no need to take time to prep a bottle.

I really hate school mornings because it seems like everyday is just a frantic race out the door. Stuff always comes up that throws me off and the kids always decide to not cooperate, especially my daughter who cries about everything imaginable when we are trying to get ready for school (she no longer wears socks because of this and I have recently given up on getting her to wear a coat). And then there is the baby who cries when I put her in her car seat- she hates being cooped up in it and is not shy about letting me know it. No matter how early I get up we are always rushing around. I really wish sometimes that I could be the type of mom who just wears her pajamas to school drop off but that would crush my soul- putting on real clothing is my last grasp at being a human being and not just a mom.

Honestly, if my husband and I weren't paying so much to send my son to pre-school there would be a lot of mornings where I would say screw it, we're staying home and you monster children are going to sit in your rooms all day so mommy won't lose it and need to check herself into a psychiatric hospital. I can only console myself with that fact that I should enjoy this year because next year will really suck- my son is going to Kindergarten five half days a week (I won't find out if he is in the morning or afternoon program until the middle of the summer) and my daughter is starting nursery school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We live too close to the elementary school so no buses for us, just me either walking to school or on days where the weather is awful I will be driving and contending with all of the other frantic moms in their various minivans and SUV's.

To everyone out there who says "someday when the kids are grown up you will miss all of this", can you please cart my children around for me?

Countdown to Vacation...

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Tomorrow is Friday. Friday means my son has school and the girls and I will run to Target to buy groceries after we drop him off. It means take out for dinner and pumping breastmilk for the baby so I can go to work on Saturday.

It also means that school vacation starts wen I pick my son up from school at 11 am.

I really am hoping that this coming week will somewhat relaxing, which it inherently will be because I don't have to transport my son to school three days of the week (I loath loading the kids up in the car). Other reasons my week may be somewhat good are that my husband has Monday off from work (help with the kids, yeah!) and my son is having a sleepover at my mom's on Tuesday (this means that my daughter will not have anyone to fight with while he is gone therefore cutting down on headaches for me).

Yeah for Friday and school vacation! I can't wait for summer vacation so I can be even more super lazy!

$10 for a $20 CVS Gift Card at Living Social

Today at Living Social you can get a $20 CVS gift card for only $10.

I bought one because maybe it will be the kick in the butt I need to get back into the drugstore game. The gift card doesn't expire so at least if I continue to be super lazy I can use it someday (maybe when the kids all move out and I at last have time to myself).

Thanks Slickdeals!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Something Has Got to Give...

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Sometimes I feel like a mommy prisoner...

Between taking care of the kids, breastfeeding, cleaning the house, laundry, grocery shopping and being a wife I am always tethered to someone and always doing something for everyone else. I am not blaming anyone for this- it is just how it is right now.

So, something has got to give. This week that thing is the grocery shopping- getting to the grocery store is a pain in the donkey butt plus I am going through a I-hate-going-to-the-grocery-store and a I-hate-using-tons-of-coupons stage. The perfect solution to this conundrum is Peapod!

I got a coupon in the mail awhile ago for $15 off of my first order so I decided to use it tonight. I got some really good deals and my order will be delivered on Sunday (I'll post details when I receive it).

Who knows- maybe I'll turn into a groceries getting delivered to my house junkie. I am a total control freak though so we'll just have to see if the Peapod people do a good job picking out my produce and making sure that the expiration date on the bread is at least a week away...

If you want to be lazy like me you can get $10 off of your first order. The delivery fee is $6.95 for an order less than $100 and $9.95 for an order over $100. You can also save $5 plus an additional $1 for signing up to pay by check (each order thereafter you save $1). If you really want to be cheap (like me) you can choose one of their "greener" delivery times and save between $1 to $2. You can also use coupons on your order by handing them to the delivery driver in a sealed envelope- the amount, if it's over $1 will be refunded to your form of payment.

Disclaimer: This post contains my affiliate link.

Lazy Cleaning...

sorry for the awful picture- we just bought a really nice
camera but I have no idea how to use it nor due I have
the inclination to learn

In an effort to keep up on my household chores, such as cleaning, I am trying to think of ways to make things easier for me.

The real easy thing would be to hire someone to clean the house but that wouldn't work for two reasons: I am too cheap and I am a control freak.

So, it is all back to me (my husband does help clean when he can but he gets to escape to this place "work" for forty plus hours a week).

One area of the house that gets neglected is the second floor, mostly because we're only up there when we sleep so it doesn't get particularly messy and lets face it- out of sight, out of mind. For some reason though, dust loves the second floor. I try to keep up on the dusting but other stuff comes up and it gets forgotten.

That is where my bright, yet somewhat lazy and non-frugal, idea came in. I bought Swiffer Dusters on Amazon and will keep one duster upstairs where I can grab it to quickly dust when I have a nanosecond.  I like these because they lock the dust into them instead of spreading it all over the floor and they don't require chemicals so I can leave them upstairs knowing that the kids won't be guzzling down cleaning solution.

As for actually polishing the furniture, that won't be happening for awhile- not with the amount of time I spend refereeing my three kids. Maybe when the youngest is ten I'll be able to bust out the Pledge...

Our Tree

Here it is- our Christmas tree. My husband and son did all of the decorating and I think it came out looking nice.It would look nicer if there were presents under it but that would require me actually wrapping gifts and so far that just hasn't panned out.

My husband put up lights outside Tuesday night and we put wreaths up on our front door and light post the other day. As for the inside of the house, it is semi-decorated. I can really only decorate the rooms that my two year old daughter doesn't have access to because she has sticky fingers when it comes to Christmas decorations. This means I can put stuff out in the dining room and the den (the den is being gated off to protect the Christmas tree from being plundered).

To tell you the truth, I haven't even been in the decorating mood. Maybe it's the lack of sleep from having a newborn baby or maybe it's the seemingly never ending recovery from a c-section. Whatever the reason I've been blah about Christmas. Knowing me and my tendencies towards procrastination, my Christmas spirit will most likely return the week of the big day and I'll be running around like crazy trying to get my you know what together.

Gotta love the holiday season...

Back to Normal Life...

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Tomorrow is the first day that I will be driving my son to school since going from a mom of two little monster children to a mom of two little monster children and a sweet (yet slightly needy) newborn. I'm not nervous or anything but I keep going over the battle plan for tomorrow morning.

• wake up at 5 am (my husband will wake me up if I'm not already up with the aforementioned needy newborn)
• take a shower (newborn baby- please cooperate and let me put you down for fifteen minutes so I can clean myself)
• iron every one's clothing (I hate wrinkled clothing)
• feed the kids breakfast and nurse the baby
• get everyone dressed
• brush every one's teeth
• load everyone into the car
• get to school before everyone else so I can get the closest parking spot (I technically shouldn't be carrying the baby's car seat this soon after the c-section but sometimes life happens- hopefully my internal organs can deal with it)
• drag all children into school to drop my son off along with the fifty cookies I baked for a teacher's husband's National Guard Unit
• load daughter and baby back into the car and drive home only to have to pick up my son in 2 1/2 hours

As long as I get my lazy butt up at 5 am everything will be fine. This will be my morning three days a week until summer vacation comes- I really miss the days when the kids were younger and we didn't have to be anywhere. 

Potty Training- Epic Fail Edition

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My plan was to have my daughter fully potty trained by the time the baby arrived and well, I have failed. I thought that I would be more upset but instead I am just saying oh well.

She knows how to go pee on the potty but just decides that it is not worth it to interrupt her play time to do it. Bribing her with M&M's and chocolate doesn't work because she could really care less about those things (my kids are not easily bribed). I told her that if she poops on the potty she will get a toy out of the toy closet and a lollipop- she never gets to have lollipops so she really loves them but guess what? She does not want to poop on the potty.

I know that I could put her in underwear and let her pee and poop all over herself and my floors but I am not up to cleaning the floor and I refuse to clean poop out of underwear. I did enough poop cleaning with my son and at this point in my life no way, no how am I doing it anymore.

At least I know that my daughter is capable of using the toilet but at this point I have realized that there is no use in forcing potty training on a two year old who doesn't feel like doing it. My kids are stubborn little monsters and if I want to keep just a shred of my sanity I need to pick my battles. As long as my daughter decides using the potty is cool enough for her to do before she starts nursery school next September, I'll be happy.

And yeah, maybe I am lowering my expectations so that I can feel like I am not totally sucking or being lazy about potty training but so what? I'm the one changing the diapers and if I want to be somewhat delusional about it then good for me. Sometimes us moms have to be a bit delusional to make it through the day (or drink copious amounts of wine).

My Day

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-The house is a mess (thanks to the kids). I need to clean it.
-I have a mountain of laundry to do (there is always tons of laundry to do on Mondays but add to that the fact that my daughter threw up all over her bed last night and that I am washing all of the baby's 0-3 month and 3-6 month clothing).
-According to my cleaning schedule the kitchen needs to be cleaned (partially done) and the floors need to be vacuumed and mopped.
-I have to make my shopping lists for tomorrow because I will be kid free.
-My head hurts and my feet hurt and I just want to lay on the couch and watch television.
-I have to make dinner. Today is the kind of day that I am dreading making dinner.

I will not get up off of my lazy butt and accomplish the above things all while under my breath cursing the fact that I don't have a maid to do it all for me. What will keep me going is dreaming of when the kids go to bed and I can lazily sit on the couch rotting my brain watching television.

My Day Will Suck...

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My mom is taking the kids for the day because I have a doctor's appointment so I sat up late making my battle plan.

First, I will drop off the monsters and wish my mom luck. I will burn rubber out of her driveway before she has a chance to take back her offer of watching the kids all day.

I will then go to my appointment which includes the dumb blood glucose test. I have never had gestational diabetes and really doubt I have it now. I will drink the gross drink and sit for an hour all the while reading a book and staring at my watch. Once done, my day really begins.

On my agenda are the following things:
-return pants I ordered online to The Children's Place
-go to BJ's for random stuff we need
-go to Target for random food that we need plus maybe I'll sneak in some deals
-find a comforter or quilt for my daughter's new bed
-maybe hit up Joann fabrics (if I find a comforter I like) to buy fabric for bed/crib skirts, curtains and pillow covers

I will eat lunch somewhere in there (most likely something really unhealthy but really yummy)...

Then, before I know it, it will be time to pick up the kids who will most certainly be hopped up on sugar.  Once I force them into their car seats I will be subjected to snoring from my son and screaming from my daughter the whole way home all the while counting down until bedtime.

Looking back on the day I will kick myself for not just taking a nap instead of running around like a crazy person.

Not having the kids for the day is more stressful than having them all day... go figure.

Buying a Mattress On-Line

Last week I wrote about my frustration with trying to figure out what way would be best to buy a mattress. After weighing the options of going to an actual store and buying one online I chose the path that would not require me to drag my little monsters to a store.

Now, I know that it seems crazy to purchase a mattress without trying it but this mattress is for my two year old daughter who would most likely not be giving me any meaningful feedback on whether she prefers a pillow top or regular mattress. I basically chose a mattress that had good reviews, that was of good quality and was in our budget (between $500 and $700 dollars).

I went to every mattress site possible to see all of the options and boy, was I overwhelmed. Once I whittled everything down to a few different mattresses based on my parameters (price within our budget, brand, quality, size) I showed my husband the three or four mattresses that were left. He chose the one he thought would be best out of the ones I liked and then I sat and wondered how I would compare prices between all of the websites as every store has different names for the same mattress (talk about price comparison headache time).

I took down the mattress's specifications such as the padding used, coil count, coil gauge, etc. and then went on every online mattress store's site and also the sites of the local furniture stores. To find the mattress I was looking for I looked for the brand I was buying and then looked in the price range it was in. Then I looked up the specifications and compared them to what I had written down (if you can't find this information, many sites have live chat where you can ask a customer service agent or you can call). Doing this I was able to see who had the best deal. I kept a list of the stores, their price, their delivery charges (and whether they leave the mattress at your front door or bring it in and set it up), whether they charged tax or not and if there were any online coupon codes. Also, please keep in mind that the cheapest store may not be the best- make sure you Google them to see what customers have to say about their service.

We ended up getting a Sealy Posterpedic pillow top mattress from US Mattress for $500 with free shipping and no tax. We opted to pay through Bill Me Later for six months at 0% financing because even though we had the money in savings to pay for the mattress I would rather pay over a couple of months so we can keep the most money in saving possible. We also bought a Sealy crib mattress at the same time because the prices were the same as we would have paid at a store plus there was no tax (and I now don't have to go to a store- yeah for being lazy).

I know that stores try to push the warranty on you when you buy a mattress but you know what? We bought the very expensive extra warranty on my son's mattress which included a mattress cover and I regret it. Especially now, since I found a very nice (and nicely reviewed) mattress cover on Amazon for $50- way cheaper than buying a warranty and half the cost of buying a mattress cover from one of the online mattress stores. If you really think about it, if you buy a high quality mattress cover nothing should be able to make it to your mattress to wreck it in the first place (I'm talking about you bed wetting accidents) and most mattresses already come with a manufacturer's warranty.

All in all, buying a mattress online was a bit of a headache but going to the store would have been far worse. I didn't have to deal with annoying kids running around, a pushy sales person standing over me and getting so tired of looking that I didn't care how much I ended up paying. I was able to do things my way and take my time to make sure I was getting a bang for my buck.

My daughter's mattress is being delivered this week and I can't wait to see how excited she'll be to move into her big girl bed. Now I just need to find her a comforter and make her a bed skirt (which will match the crib skirt, curtains and pillow covers I am also going to be making).

How did anyone do anything before there was the Internet?

Just Get the Damn Porsche and Be Quiet...

I have been giving in a lot lately.

When my kids pitch a total fit, sometimes (maybe more than sometimes) instead of sticking to my guns I give in and give them what they want. Goldfish Crackers at the checkout at Target- sure! You want to watch the Hot Wheels movie again- hey, why not? You don't want to go to time out- you know what, how about you can skip it this time but the next time you misbehave you're definitely going (empty threats are my thing now). As far as potty training my daughter- well she doesn't feel like peeing in the potty and I don't feel like making her.

And my husband has been taking advantage of my mental laziness also. Our laptop broke and you want to buy me a mac book- ok. Best Buy has a great package deal on a new 3-D tv- just get it and stop bugging me about it. He said he was going to the Porsche dealership next- I really hope he was kidding.

I cannot wait until November when I have this baby so I can go from being mentally and physically tired to my old self where I say no and don't give in. If only my bank account can hold out until then...

Maybe in the meantime I'll change the name of my blog from "Just Call Me Cheap" to "Just Call Me Do What Ever You Want As Long As You Leave Me Alone".

Whatever Happened to a Grocery Budget?

As anyone who reads this blog can see, I have been spending way more on groceries this year than last year. I have been wondering why that is- am I just being lazy or are there other reasons?

Well, laziness does have a small part in it but maybe the lazy word is being a bit too harsh. At this moment in my life I have a four year old, a two year old and I am five months pregnant with our third child. My energy levels, while getting a little better, are not what they were pre-pregnancy. Add that to the fact that my two year old daughter is in a stage now where she is asserting her independence, meaning that she does not want to sit in a shopping cart at the store and wants to explore when we go shopping. I no longer have the energy to go to two different grocery stores, the drugstores and Target every week- nor do I want to because it just takes time away from my family.

Another reason I feel that I have been spending way more is just simply that we are eating more as a family. I have been eating a bit more because of my pregnancy and my kids are both at ages where they eat a lot- and eat a lot of food that is not cheap and that there are rarely coupons or awesome deals for. Fresh fruit, yogurt, string cheese and whole wheat bread (the good stuff) and milk add up to a lot each week. These are things that are necessary in my house and that we must have on hand at all times. I think we may drink about three gallons of milk each week between all of us (I have a cup with my Carnation Instant Breakfast every morning, my husband uses milk for his Autocrat coffee milk syrup every day instead of buying an iced coffee and my kids drink milk with their cereal every morning and have it with every meal) which alone is about $16 a week. I know we could cut down on milk but why- I mean it is good for us and I am not going to cut food out of our diet that is healthy to just save money. As a side note, I have tons of chicken in my freezer that I got really cheap but since I have been pregnant I have had an aversion to eating poultry so all of that cheap meat is a no go in our meals- this has raised my spending because I have had to buy more red meat.

Another big reason why I believe that I have been spending way more on food is that the awesome deals the stores used to have are just not there anymore. No more Catalina deals at Shaws where I used to be able to stock up on free cereal and yogurt- boy do I miss those! I used to be able to feed my family of $50 a week when my son was a baby and that was with buying a lot of organic food, including milk. Now, forget about $50- even the $75 budget I set seems to be hard to stick to lately (I no longer buy organic because I don't believe that it is worth the extra money- I stopped drinking the organic Kool-Aid).

So yeah, I suppose it was inevitable that our grocery bill has slowly gone up over the past year but it is not something that I really even feel bad about. We are not struggling to pay our bills so if more money has to go towards feeding ourselves good food that we enjoy then so be it. I used to be in competition to try and have the lowest possible grocery budget for my family but now it just as if putting a low ball number on how much I should spend is crazy. We have the money to spend to buy good food and gosh darn it that is what I am going to do. This doesn't mean that I am going to start to spend hundreds of dollars a week on lobster and filet mignon but it does mean that I am going to cut myself some slack and not feel bad for not being a total cheap ass. Plus geez, isn't a stay at home mom's sanity worth something in this world?

See You Later, Dang Pacifier

So I know I wrote a post awhile ago saying that I was going to take my daughter's beloved pacifier away but I caved and let her keep it. I completely blame it on the fact that I was pregnant and tired with zero patience but truthfully I was being a lazy mom and taking the easy way out.

Today, I put my big girl pants on and really took away her pacifier. I figured if I waited until I wasn't so tired and until I had more patience she would be graduating high school with a pacifier in her mouth. Plus, a two year old with a pacifier just looks plain wrong to me.

She only asked for it a few times this morning and I gave her a present from the pacifier fairy (a set of play pots and pans from the toy closet). I told her that the pacifier fairy took all of her pacifiers (almost all- there is one that is missing that I am sure my daughter will find it before me) and left her a big girl toy in return.

Nap time was a real doozy to deal with though. I was feeling so worn down from taking the kids outside in the morning and sitting in the heat that the only thing I had energy for was taking a nap but my poor little baby had other plans. After I tucked her in she was crying for her pacifier for awhile so I went back into her room to calm her down. She cried some more and then was quiet so I crashed on the couch with my son and took a nap but then was awakened by my daughter screaming thirty minutes later. Honestly, I was too tired to care (I knew that there was nothing wrong with her except for some extreme pacifier withdrawals) and after twenty minutes of crying and complaining she fell back asleep for two hours. I on the other hand could not fall back asleep and dragged my butt off of the couch and cleaned up the house before my husband got home from work.

Bed time went very smoothly- she looked on the side of her bed to see if there was a hidden pacifier, didn't find one and didn't even ask me to get her one. I read her a few books and she literally fell right asleep. So far she hasn't woken up so (knock on wood) I think we may be good for the night.

I am proud of myself for finally taking the dang pacifier away (though I should have done it way, way, way sooner) and proud of her for not totally freaking out and screaming about it all day. Once we make it through this challenge it will be onto the dreaded potty training.