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Free Crazy Bread

Free Crazy Bread when you buy a Hot-N-Ready pizza at Little Caesars

PRINTABLE COUPON

This is my favorite drive-thru when the kids and I are forced to eat lunch away from home. Where else can I feed everyone something they love for $5? And now, with the addition of free crazy bread, I won't have to make an extra trip through Taco Bell for Mommy's lunch. :)

Ugh!

Ask me how many loads of laundry I've done today.

Okay, I'll tell you...

1. one load of darks
2. one load of blue/green
3. one load of jeans
4. one load of red/yellow
5. one load of towels
6. one load of whites

And just as that sixth load went in the dryer, Matthew walked in carrying his poopy underwear. Apparently, he didn't just poop his pants during his nap, but he managed to smear it all over his sheets. So you can add..

7. one load of sheets

I just had them all strip their beds. It's been a while since we've washed sheets anyway.

And I also got to scrub the mattress. What.A.Fun.Day.

Devilish Easter Eggs

My boys just love coloring Easter eggs... but they're not so much into eating them. I can't blame them. Cold boiled eggs aren't my favorite treat either... especially when competing against Reeses eggs and chocolate bunnies. But with the price of eggs these days, I certainly can't toss them. What's a girl to do with a dozen boiled eggs that usually turn out a pukey shade of brown? Peel off that ugly shell and make them yummy!

For the past eleven years (the age of my oldest egg colorer), I've been in charge of bringing the devilled eggs for Easter dinner. It's only been within the past few months that I stumbled on the easiest, fastest, and BEST TASTING recipe ever. Here's the secret: Marzetti Slaw Dressing. You can even use the lite version. Just smash up the egg yolks, stir in some dressing and nothing else. I usually mix it up with my hand mixer until it's smooth and creamy. Pipe the mixture into the sliced egg whites and you're done. It makes the most amazing eggs. People will comment and beg you for the recipe.

Fast, cheap, easy, and delicious; it works for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday, visit Shannon at rocksinmydryer.net.

Make Your Own Sugar

Start by sowing sugar cane in your backyard... no, no, no, let's jump ahead a few steps!

It's the colored sugar I needed this morning. I was making sugar cookies for church and the only sprinkles I had were orange and black, mixed orange and black, not exactly what I had in mind for my butterfly and umbrella cookies! I could have drug four kids out to the store but that's less appealing than halloween butterflies! So I decided to try a little kitchen chemistry.

Here's what you do: Simply spoon some table sugar into a baggie or bowl. Add a single drop of food coloring. Really, just a teeny tiny bit! Shake or stir (baggie or bowl) until the color coats the sugar. It's that easy. If it's too dark, just add some more sugar. If you've been saving your old spice bottles, like I told you, then you've got a perfect shaker for your new colored sugar. Just be sure the bottle is clean and DRY before you add the sugar. If your sprinklers are as generous and messy as mine are, you'll want to make a big batch! LOL

For more Works For Me Wednesday, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Toddler Time Taker

It seemed like such a simple idea when I read it on someone's blog (sorry, I can't remember where or I'd give you credit!). Simply place a big mixing bowl in the sink, add some water, and give the bored and pesky toddler some spices to mix in his soup. So, when my bored and pesky toddler wouldn't let me fix dinner tonight, I set up a cooking station for him, too. It worked! He was entertained for over a half hour!

Actually, it worked too well. My spice cabinet is not all that well stocked and it didn't take him long to go through the old or unused spices. I can't spare my chili powder or cinnamon! LOL At the rate he'll go through the spices, even buying the cheapie 50c spices will cost more than I'm willing to spend. So here's where my ingenuity comes into play. Salt is cheap and comes in mass quantities. I refilled the empty spice bottles with salt. I had noticed Matthew's fondness for the red paprika so I added a couple drops of food coloring to the salt. Shake it up and the color disperses to the whole bottle. Now we have a rainbow of salt for him to use next time he "cooks." I'm hoping it will smell better than the celery seed, too!

It works for me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday, visit Don't Try This At Home

CVS Deal

I've got the fever! I've been surfing all the blogs boasting of great deals at CVS and I couldn't resist. I've been shopping the Extra Care Bucks for a few weeks now but this week was the first one that resulted in them owing me money. I had to add a pack of gumballs to my order to bring it out of the negatives (the boys loved that). Here's what I got...

• Colgate toothpaste $1.88 - 75c coupon ($1 ECB)


• Fusion Phenom razor $9.99 - $4.oo coupon ($6 ECB)


• 2 Kleenex tissues $2.19 - B1G1 free

I used my $10 ECB from last week's purchases and got a -.45 total! I added a pack of gum balls to bring it to 23c out of pocket AND I have $7 in ECB to use next week.

Plant Rescue

I've got a black thumb. I'm notoriously bad at keeping plants alive. I've killed more than I'd like to admit before I finally gave up on plants. But a couple years ago, my mother-in-law, who also has a black thumb, gave me a couple potted plants. I guess she figured I could kill them just as quickly as she could and she wouldn't have the rotting remains in her house! So why am I offering advice on saving your plants for my very first WFMW?

Because the joke is on MIL this time. While one of the plants did die, the other one is living happily and healthily (is that word?) on top of my refrigerator. It's all about location, baby! That plant is still alive and prospering b/c it sits atop my freezer. Whenever I reach into the freezer to get ice, I just throw an extra cube or two in the plant! There's no need to add plant watering to my "to do" list. It requires absolutely no thought or effort... right up my alley!

What is that you're saying? You don't have a plant with which to practice your new found knowledge? Never fear... Lowe's will give you $10 off the purchase of any house plant if you take in this printable coupon. If you pick something that's less than $10, it's free!

Feeding ice cubes to the plant works for me... and my plant! For more Works for Me Wednesday, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Freebie Friday

Here's a couple of the best freebies I've run across this week. Just click the link to request them for yourself. It's easier to fill out the forms if you use your Windows Auto Fill feature!

Free full size Bottle of Clorox Clean-Up (coupon by mail)

Free full size Bottle of Coffee-Mate (coupon by mail)

Free sample of Quaker Simple Harvest

Free Can of Mighty Dog (short survey required)

Free sample of Aveeno Positively Ageless Lotion (short survey required)

Free Sample of Garnier Fructis 2+1 Shampoo/Conditioner (very short survey)

Wife of the Year

I must be the most wonderful wife in the world. I just copied all of dh's cds onto the computer so he can put them on his mp3 player. Although, I guess if I was really a wonderful wife, I'd buy him some cds from this millenium. LOL Now, if I could only figure out how to get his records saved on the computer... really.

Christmas Decorating on a Budget

We're having two Christmas trees this year. One is a 9ft family tree and the other is my brand new 6.5 ft., pre-lit, white tree, just for me to showcase our collection of White House ornaments. It doesn't sound very frugal, does it? Well, the brand new tree isn't exactly brand new. It's been in my attic for almost a year. I bought it for $7 after Christmas last year! I also bought the red and blue balls last year for 20c per box and the tree topper for 50c. The White House ornaments are an annual gift from Jeff's brother who lives in D.C. and the garland I bought years ago for the big tree but there's not enough. So, for about $8, I have a brand new completely decorated Christmas tree in my living room this year.

We also have brand new stockings, new Christmas cds, and two pair of Christmas socks. I'd forgotten about the socks so that was a happy surprise for me. I love funky socks. Start planning next year's Christmas decorations now, and you can save up to 90% by buying in January!

Don't forget to buy something fun to stick in with the Christmas stuff. You're going to want a happy surprise after dragging all that stuff out of the attic! :)

I don't know how Wednesday night church surprises me every week, but it just seems to sneak up on me. This evening was no exception so we were rushing around trying to get everyone clean before we left. That led to me putting Ryan in my shower while the littles took their baths in the boys' bathroom.


I was in the other bathroom when I heard Ryan moaning and whining in pain, "Owwwww, ohhhhh, this soap hurts." I assumed he'd gotten shampoo in his eyes and I rushed in there to help him rinse it out. That's when I saw the "soap" he was rubbing directly onto his body.

I've told him and told him to use a washcloth!!

Kroger

I do not care how cheap the chicken is at Kroger. I am not going back in there until they do away with those cars screwed on to the front of the shopping carts!! It seems ingenious at first! I really liked the idea. But, like a lot of good ideas, it doesn't actually work in real life.

As soon as we walk in the store, Matthew makes a bee-line for that car. "Oh great," I think, "That'll keep him happy while I stock up on chicken and buy some ridiculously overpriced dog treats." Evan squeezes in the car with Matthew. That's your first clue that this is not going to be a fun trip! LOL

First off, if you've never driven a car/shopping cart, you should know that they're HARD to steer. They're long and the wheels don't turn right. You can NOT make a 90 turn and trying to go around an end cap from one aisle to the next usually results in some display being toppled.

So, while I'm fighting this massive cart, Matthew is fighting with his brother. Evan is crammed in the car like a sardine and Matthew is hitting him. I'm not sure why. I never saw Evan do anything to him but Matthew is not the type of kid to hit without provocation.

I quickly loaded up 20 lbs of boneless chicken tenderloins and rushed to the register. The register aisles are just wide enough to get the car through them. It doesn't work unless you're going straight into the aisle. You can't be angled even a slight little bit. Did I mention that the car carts are long, hard to steer, and not aligned very well?

I'm glad my freezer is full of chicken b/c I'm not going back to Kroger... at least until we run out of chicken and they have another good sale!

Sugar Shock

Wow! There's a lot of candy in my house. We've had church parties and trick-or-treating and we still have another fall party next week. Matthew is especially overwhelmed with the amount of candy. He loves candy so he's miserable that he can't eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I imagine there are a lot of houses overflowing with candy at this time of year. So, here's a few ideas that we've used to get rid of it quick!

1. Share!! We trick or treated in SIL's neighborhood so SIL and her teenage kids were invited to share the wealth. They picked out what they wanted and we had less candy to cart home.
2. Eat! I let the kids eat as much as they could stuff down their greedy little throats when we finished trick or treating. I also let them eat lots the following couple of days. It's just once a year.
3. Hide!!! I instantly picked out all the M&Ms and put them in the freezer. They're yummy when frozen and also make great add-ins when baking cookies. I also took all the Reese's and Chewy Sweettarts for my secret stash.
4. Hoard! (This doesn't actually get rid of the candy, but it does keep the kids from overdosing.) Pick out the stuff you can use for other purposes. We usually have some candy in Christmas stockings so I put up a few things that we can save until then. No sense buying candy later when I have way more than I can use now!
5. Donate!!! It's been four days since trick-or-treat. The kids have eaten more candy than they should have. The rest of it is going to church with me tomorrow. I'll put it my Sunday School classroom and use it to bribe, er, I mean reward the kids for months to come. Your church may appreciate a similar donation or let Dad take a big bag to share at work. You could also put it in with a food pantry donation.

Leftovers

Is it wrong to be anticipating tomorrow's lunch as you clean up tonight's dinner? My favorite lunch of all time is whatever we had for dinner last night. :) Leftovers, they're easy to fix, taste better than sandwiches, healthier than frozen stuff, and very filling!

Here's a great way to fit all those leftovers in the fridge.

If you don't mind fighting with a roll of plastic wrap, it works fine for a single bowl. But we had tacos last night! I had bowls of meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and sauce. The pink bowl on top has a lid. That saves on plastic wrap and makes things easy to stack. But what about all those bowls without lids? I don't want to transfer them to tupperware and have twice the dishes! So I just use a little trick of my Mom's. Plates placed on top of the bowls work as lids to keep the food fresh AND allow you to stack the bowls so they'll all fit in the fridge! You can't do that with plastic wrap!

Abraham or Lot?

Genesis tells us about Abraham and Lot. Both had been blessed so much that they couldn't fit all their stuff together. The herdsmen were arguing. Something had to be done. Abraham offered his nephew a solution. They needed to move apart and Abraham offered Lot his choice of land. Lot looked around and took the best land he could find, The Plain of Jordan. He moved his stuff there and set up housekeeping. Abraham took what was left, the Land of Canann. As Abraham settled in his new digs, God blessed his generosity. God told Abraham to look as far as he could, to the east, west, north, and south. That land would be his and his descendents. He would have so many descendents they would number as much as grains of dust on the whole earth! Lot, on the other hand, took the best land for himself, the land near the wicked city of Sodom. Lot was eventually captured and rescued by Abraham, who held no grudge against his nephew's selfishness.

As Adam, Ryan, and I studied Abraham this morning, we talked about selfishness as a part of human nature. We all vowed to be more like Abraham, and less like Lot. It wasn't even an hour later when Ryan and Evan were arguing over which DVD to watch. I asked Ryan, "Are you going to be like Abraham or like Lot?" It was hard, but Ryan let Evan pick the dvd... and Evan picked one they both could enjoy. The blessings have started already. :)

Lesson Learned

Although it may look clean, if you suspect that milk has been spilled in your cooler, you really should clean it before you put it back into storage.

Oriental Salad

I'm not a big salad eater, or any other vegies either. I'm more of a meat and potatoes kind of gal... or actually, more of a dessert kind of gal! LOL

My sister made me try this salad at a birthday party. YUMMY! I've made it for a couple occasions since then. Everyone that tries it, loves it! It's the perfect combination of sweet and healthy. ;)

Oriental Salad

Salad
1 head finely chopped lettuce
1 bunch chopped green onions
1 tblspn poppy seeds
1 can chow mein noodles
1/3 c sliced almonds

Dressing
1/2c sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/4c cider vinegar
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

Toss salad
Put dressing ingredients in blender
blend until sugar is dissolved
Pour over sald and toss, JUST BEFORE SERVING, the noodles will get soggy if you let it sit!

Easiest Recipe Ever

My kids and husband have been on a huge cinnamon toast kick lately. They eat it for breakfast, for snack, for dessert.... It's the anytime food! And, as far as sweet treats go, it's far more healthy than most other choices.

My mom used to make cinnamon toast in the oven. I hated the way the bottom would stay soft and mushy while the top got too crispy. Plus the oven takes too long, uses too much energy, and heats up the whole house! I decided to try a shortcut and it makes better toast faster

1. Toast bread (in the regular toaster)
2. Spread with butter
3. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture
4. Eat
5. Ask for more

We keep the cinnamon/sugar mix in a salt shaker so it's ready to go and makes less mess than trying to sprinkle with a spoon. It's about half sugar - half cinnamon but you can mix it to your taste.

When you make cinnamon toast, the aroma of warm bread, melting butter, and sweet cinnamon makes your whole house smell like you're baking a fancy dessert.