How can I volunteer with two little ones?

I've had the itch to volunteer/help out in some way since one Sunday this past spring. At the time I was teaching 4th grade and being a mom before and after school hours. At the time the easiest way to help was to open up my check book.

My volunteer efforts.

 Now that I'm staying home with my boys and we're living off of one income, the last thing I want to do is write out a check! I haven't found a way to take my boys with me to volunteer, so I needed to find something that I could do at home and I came up with baking. Our church has a cookie & coffee time between the two services each Sunday morning and goes through a lot of cookies.



I signed up to bring five dozen cookies and made a batch of Ginger Crinkles and Snickerdoodles earlier this week. Then I spotted the above cookie dough mix at Target. Of course, I had a coupon for $1 off of 2 bags and each bag was priced $1.79. So for $2.58, plus two eggs and two sticks of butter, I was able to make almost four dozen cookies.



I'll be experiementing with volunteering outside of the home with my boys on Friday, December 2nd. We'll be ringing a bell at one of our local Hy Vee grocery stores on the behalf of  The Salvation Army and the local food pantry our church supports. At least 60 families in my community are fed at this pantry every single day. This statistic opened my eyes and my heart to look at the little red kettle a in a different way. I never thought I'd be volunteering with The Salvation Army, especially not with a 4 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. It should be interesting!

I had 80 cookies and then my sweet boy asked for one. How could I resist?

Free shipping from Amazon!

Have you taken advantage of the "Amazon Mom" program at Amazon.com? A dear friend told me about this program earlier this year and I'm so glad she did. If you typically purchase items like diapers, wipes, vitamins, and such from Amazon, you can enroll in the "Amazon Mom" program and for every $25 you spend on qualifying items, you can earn free shipping for a month. This has been really helpful when I've needed a birthday present or other item and didn't want to have to pay shipping. Go here to read more. Please be sure to read the fine print!

When in doubt, always ask!

I recently ordered this coat from Land's End. I stepped out of my comfort zone and ordered "Berry" instead of "Black". Well, it came in the mail and unfortunately it just didn't work. So I had to decide whether to pay for shipping it back or go to the nearest store, which is about an hour from where I live.

Can you guess which I chose?

An opportunity came up for me to have most of a day to myself, so I opted to return it at the store and I'm so glad I did. My oldest just happened to need a new winter coat, so that was part of why I was able to rationalize spending the gas money to drive that far. Plus, how often does a mama get a day to herself to shop on her own???

Henry loves his new coat!

Monday must have been my lucky day because not only did the kind sales clerk at the Sears Land End store exchange my coat for the same price (40% off!), I also spotted signs for 30% off outerwear. Henry's coat rang up at full price and I asked if it was supposed to be on sale. Guess what? It was. Yay for saving money!

During my transaction I also noticed hanging signs for "$20 off a $75 purchase". Well, I had more than two coats in my pile. Three long-sleeved t's, a turtle neck, a hat, gloves, a fleece pullover and a vest made into my arms, so yes, I was past the $75.

I asked the sales clerk about this deal and she was more than happy to tell me it was $20 off every $75 I spent. Woot woot!! So next time you're out and about shopping, make sure to ask when you aren't sure about a sale. It never hurts!

Organizing school papers on the fridge

Halloween is over, but if you'd like a good scare, just take a look at the outside of my fridge.

It's covered, head to toe, with Henry's preschool papers, pictures and magnets.

The bulletian board isn't looking much better.

So what's a mama to do with all of the preschool papers and artwork?

 Well, I took out my handy dandy teacher stamp and stamped each item with the month & year.

Then I sorted everything into three piles; Henry, Jack and other. My piles will go upstairs to the containters I save papers in.

Now the fridge and bulletian board are ready for November's papers.

Halloween sale!

I love Halloween, but I think I look forward to the day-after-Halloween-sale even more! Jack and I made it to our local Target around 9:00 this morning and the parking lot was already hopping.

I had my coupons all ready to go.

I was happy to find the Halloween merchandise marked down 30 to 50%. The soap was half off and I just happened to have a coupon, too! Woo hoo! I love when that happens!

Next, I found some non-Halloween Pez dispensers. Great little stocking stuffers and less than a dollar a piece!

I know a certain 4 1/2 year-old who would love to find this in his stocking this Christmas!

$2.49 for next year's Halloween frame! I'll just add a 2012 sticker and no one will ever know!

The Halloween/fall books and Play Doh were a splurge, but how could I resist when they were all half off?

Yep, I had fun this morning!!

One of my best finds was a 30 pack supply of mini pretzels, great for throwing in my purse for when the boys or I need a snack. Yep, 30 individually packaged treats for $2.49. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Leftover Halloween Treats

My little ones had a great time trick-or-treating, but now Halloween is over and we have a bunch of sweets in our house. What to do, what to do? I usually just keep the treats for a few days and then pitch them when they aren't as fresh. Hmm.... What about the freezer? I have more room now...

My mom made cupcakes.

My mother-in-law made sugar cookies.

I bagged the cookies up and decided to put them in the freezer.

The cupcakes went into smaller containers.

All the goodies are in my freezer, so we can enjoy just a few at a time!

Organizing Toys

From this distance it doesn't look that bad, right? The toy organizer was a fabulous gift that has allowed the boys to find a toy quite easily. Well, they were able to find farm toys in the "farm" tub or animals in the "animals" tub, until Jack went and dumped every single tub.

Yep, every single tub. Like this one, which now contains all of the "guys", characters, Happy Meal toys, etc.

And this one. The "farm" tub.

Don't forget about all of our "Little People".

The before and after shots look pretty similar, but up close, it's so much better!

My little helpers, Henry & Jack.