Hi Ho Hi HO off to housework I go!

Today, I refuse to be online for more than 10 minutes! I am determined get my house into tip top shape! I don't have a too many errands to run today so it should be doable. Here is a run down of what I hope...no need to accomplish!

Master room cleaned
Master bathroom cleaned
Other bathrooms cleaned
Kitchen cleaned and fridge cleaned out
Floors mopped
Most importantly.....laundry caught up and put away or in a suitcase!

We are going out of town soon! We will be heading to Gatlinburg TN for a family reunion. We plan to visit the Ripley Aquarium and try our hand at gem mining. We then will head to Ohio and visit the Creation Museum and perhaps the Cincinnati zoo. So yeah...laundry needs to be caught up...or we will be visiting places in our birthday suits! Oh, and don't think for a second that the boys wont be helping..cause they will! However, they have been told by their father that they need to get the yard mowed, so they will be doing a great deal of yard work too. Well, enough typing..I need to get to cleaning!

The Salamander Room

I know I posted only part 1 to our Night of the Moonjellies, but we did finish it up last week and I do not have many pics to share. I was going to wait till after our upcoming vacation to do this book, but Timmy was begging to get started on it. It is a cute story about a little boy wanting to keep a salamander in his bedroom. We came home from church and the boys were bored and bugging me to do school. This includes Justin! Yes, my kids bug me to do school. My husband desires me to take a break from it, but the truth is...the boys seem to find it hard to entertain themselves any other way. I think he found it humerous to hear them today begging for a schoolish project.
So I broke out my folder of printed projects from homeschoolshare on this book. The boys saw the baked salamanders and they wanted to get started. So we read the book as well as more information on Salamanders from our Fun With Nature book...then we headed to the kitchen to create our baked salamanders. Granted, this is technically Timmy's schoolwork...this is one of the many blessings of homeschooling. All the kids learn from one anothers lessons. They all take away something :)
I love this photo of all the boys working on their project from behind. Hard to imagine that someday these will be tall handsome men and not my little boys!


Here is the result of their hard labor! We had enough leftover clay to make a snake and a little worm.


Here is a side view of Timmy's science page

We intend to make a "Salamander room" here within the next few days. We will fill it with other insects that we will study. If I don't get too lost in the fun...I will snap some photos to share!

Just playing in the rain!

We had a pleasant rain yesterday evening and I could not resist taking little Nate out to play in it. I recall the days of being a child and playing in our street, building little rock dams and mud pies...what fun days those were!


When the rain stopped....Nate said "Where'd it go?"

10 things you should never say to a mom of 4 boys

1) I would never wish having 4 boys on anyone.
2) Oh, I see your pregnant, I bet your hoping for a girl!
3) 4 boys! How on earth do you do it!
4) I bet there is nothing but mayhem and bloodshed at your house.
5) So are you going to try for a girl?
6) You tried three times for the girl...didn't you know the odds were against ya!
7) I can handle having girls over at my house but not a bunch of boys.
8) You mean you actually take them out in public all at once.
9) Well, I know little Susy couldn't have made that mess...a boys must have done it.
10) Oh girls are just so much easier. You don't know what you missed.

Don't misunderstand this moment I am having. I love little girls to pieces. I just get sick of hearing from people how much better they are or how much easier they are to raise, etc. My boys are precious to me and I would not trade a one of them. I have had a lot of people lately saying unkind things to me about having a brood of boys. For the record, they have not been misbehaving or anything. They are simply boys and for some reason society has labeled them as awful and deplorable and difficult. It hurts to hear the things above and no one seems to get why..except maybe other mothers of boys out there. So if you are a mother to a precious girl or even a grandmother or not a mother at all...please know that mothers of boys do not find the above things funny or entertaining. They may smile at the moment, but inside you are kicking them and it hurts.

Nate loves to climb on Justin's bed. Justin is known as our family artist and Nate is hot on his heels in becoming one too! Nate loves to draw and I am constantly erasing his drawings off of my walls. I have never had a child so determined to color/draw/paint on everything in site! Justin keeps a sketch book behind his pillow and his drawing pencils in a can next to his bed. He loves to sit at night and sketch. I came in his room and found Nate doodling away not only on Justin's wall, but also on his sketch book! Luckily for Nate, Justin just giggled when he saw what Nate had done. He actually likes the art work behind his bed, so he asked if it could stay. I plan to paint this room next year anyway, so for now it can stay :)

Sweet Mail!

Look at these sweet coupons that came in my mail today! I think I will save these for a date night with my hubby ;) If you see him, tell him I need a date night (wink wink) :)

Kroger deals this week

Kroger has a deal of buy 10 get $3.00 off certain items. I went through my coupons and managed to find 10 match ups...making this a sweet deal. I got all this below for $12.88 plus WV lovely tax of 3%.


I am listing the price you get when you buy 10 participating items and then my coupon price.
Ragu $1.19 - .60 coupon = .59

Cheetos $1.38-a coupon I had from a kroger add for $1.00= .38(about the most I would pay for this food colored junk food)

Hefty kitchen bags 4.69- $1.00 off coupons $3.69! this was probably the best deals. My family gets upset if I buy cheapy trash bags, but it kills me to pay $8-9 a box!

kraft Barbecue- .70 - minus my $1.00 ----hmmm they paid me 30 cents to take it!

1 Large box of poptarts $2.19- .55 coupon- $1.64
2 Purex Detgs- $2.19- $1..00 coupon and the other one minus a .35 cent doubled coupon...I paid 1.19 and 1.49 for the detergents.

Ritz Crackers $2.20--I had a coupon to buy one box of Ritz get a box of wheat thins for free....thus I paid $1.10 for one box of ritz and $1.10 for one box of wheat thins.

2 boxes of popcorn $1.70 - $1.00 coupons = .70 cents a box (this is not the best deal..getting only 3 bags in each box, but it served its purpose of being a filler to reach my 10 items)


I also got some kraft cheese for less than $1.00 a pkg and some Dr. Pepper for .20 cents. I realize these deals look rather sparse compared to some other bloggy moms out there. But here in WV it is a difficult to do much better. The stores do not double more than 50 cent coupons and our local paper gives us a 1/3 of the coupons everyone else gets. I go to a special news store and purchase the Pittsburgh or Cincinnati paper. But since I have to drive to the store and pay full price I only buy it when there are lots of coupon inserts. We also get hit with a food tax of 3% which is lower than what it use to be...a whopping 6%! Yet, despite these issues that make couponing more difficult, I do find it worth it at times :)

How about you?? Do you find it worth it, did you snag some deals at our local stores this week? I am all ears to other finding good deals too!