Back Home Now! Competition is over!

Well we made it back and had such a great time.  Camden did well on her competition.  I learned alot and was amazed at what she really can do.  I have never really seen her do her routine, so as a grandma I was very, very proud of her.  She would always show me a few flips and things out side, but I was not expecting what I saw!

She is seven years old and this is her first year at a competition.  She had to do a routine on the balance beam, on the floor, on the vault and on the parallel bars.  She did not place on the first three, but she came in forth on the parallel bars.  She received a 9.125 out of a possible 10 score.  She competed with many teams and some were there from out of the country.  This was very exciting.  It was in a big Olympic stadium and had some very strick judges.  She competed in the 6 through 9 age group. 

I tried to take some videos with my little cannon snapshot camera and they are not the greatest, but if you would like to see her in action, you can follow this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVMoDxvcNmc

Florida Bound to a Gymnastics Competition!!

I am going to Florida for a few days with Tara, my oldest daughter and two of her girls.  My granddaughter, who is seven, is competing in a gymnastic competition.  She takes lessons and is on a gym team.  They practice three hours every night after school.  She just loves it!!  It is amazing what she has learned and can do!! 

I have not flown for years and not sure even what I can take or not take.  I am on the Internet trying to see if I can find a list.  I just looked at the weather and it is suppose to snow on Thursday and that is when we are leaving.  Oh gosh, I hope this won't be a problem.

I have been trying to figure out some things to cook for my husband to eat while I am gone.  I made spaghetti yesterday and I made up three plates for him and froze them so he can just pop them in the microwave.  Tonight I made a yummy soup and I filled three bowls up and I am sticking them in the freezer.  Tomorrow morning I will take them out of the freezer and remove them from the bowls by setting them in a bowl of water.   They loosen up very quickly and then I just wrap them up.  Then all he has to do is pull one out of the freezer and put it into a bowl and stick it in the microwave.

My husband said, I am making things to easy for him.  He said, he would appreciate me more if he had to fend for himself.  Sooo, I guess I am not going to worry any more about him.  He needs to miss me a little!!
Here are some pictures of the soup that I made and how I wrapped them up.  This is a great way to save leftovers for a rainy day, or a day when you are just to busy to cook.

Now I had to get very specific with Dave that he needs to put the frozen soup back in a bowl.  I could just see him microwaving the package and soup all over in my microwave.

  One time I had to go away and I had my pressure cooker cooking on the stove.  I asked Dave if he could turn this off when the timer rang and he said sure.  Well the timer rang and he did exactly what I told him to do, he turned the timer off.  When I got home, my pressure cooker was still cooking.  Luckily I had soup in it, but there sure wasn't much left, it all cooked away!  This is one thing you don't want to do with a pressure cooker, it could of exploded!!

He aways says he did just what I told him to do!  Now you know why I need to be more specific!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekly Schedule Calendar!!

Good Morning Everyone, I am up bright and early, as usual, and I saw this really cool calendar to hang up.  I copied it for my refrigerator.  As you know I watch my grandchildren and with seven my calendar is always full with basketball games, birthdays, girl scouts, gymnastic meets, etc.  I also have to keep track of when I am babysitting because it varies from week to week.


This is really nice and big also, so it holds all of the information that I need for the upcoming week.
I thought surely someone else could use this.  Kids and families are just so busy these days!  Enjoy with the link below!!



Over The Moon is offering this calendar and it does come in different sizes!
http://overthebigmoon.blogspot.com/2012/01/12x36-weekly-schedule-free-printable.html
Thank you Over The Moon!!

Make A Coupon Notebook!

You know me, I was just searching around on the internet and I found a page where you could print out a new calendar for your day planner.  I have had an old day planner laying around here for years.  I thought to myself how nice it would be to have a calendar and my coupons and my list all together when it is time to go to the grocery.

Here is the link for the calendar:  http://moneysavingmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2012-Calendar-Half-Letter-1.pdf

I have been a couponer (Is that a word?) for years.  Way back when my children were little, I had several large tables set up in my basement.  I would cut out every box top and UPC code and keep them all very organized.  It use to be more on rebating than couponing back then.  You would send in your UPC codes on a rebate form and they would send you a check.

Now I just handle coupons.  Well I decided to take that old day planner and make a book cover for it and I found some zip sleeves at Office Max.  That took many trips to every office supply store I could find.  I now have my notebook finished and I love it.  I have all my coupons sorted, I have a notepad for my grocery list, I have a calendar with all the important dates added and every ones address and phone number in it and especially a place for my pen.  I am ready to go shopping!  I shopped over the weekend and someone already stopped me and asked where I got my coupon book!  Here are a couple of pictures.

My oldest daughter Tara, has five children.  She started a simple blog about three years ago on couponing and it has turned into a family business for them.  When she first started, she didn't even tell her husband she created it until about a month after she started it.  One day Walmart called her and set her up as on of 11 Coupon Moms that they promote and her blog just took off.  When Walmart first called, she thought it was a joke.  Now her husband Luke, quit his plumbing job and stays home to help with the kids.  He does all the running and she works on her site.  She also does extensive traveling, teaching her tricks and techniques on saving money.  It has been a true blessing for their family.  I can only imagine what it costs these days to raise five children.  If anyone is interested in couponing and would like to visit her site you can visit it at:  http://www.dealseekingmom.com/

She also has written a book with the help of another blogger and it just came out January 3rd.  I walked into Barnes and Noble and there it was.  I just could not believe it, my baby wrote a book!!  I just wanted to shout in the store, MY BABY WROTE THIS BOOK!!!!!  You can see this on her website also.  She also has a little video about it.  I am just a proud Mama!




 
O.K. back to my coupon book, if anyone wants directions I can give those to you, but it was pretty simple.  I just used some material that has been laying around, and now I wish I would of used something prettier, but maybe I will make a new one.  I just embroidered my name in the center of some material cut larger than what would go around the book.  I made a quilt sandwich with the coupon material, some batting and some muslin underneath and quilted the fabric together for some padding.  Then I just cut it the size that I wanted and added more muslin on top of the quilt sandwich and sewed it all the way around leaving one side open for turning it right side out.   Wrapped it around the book and hand sewed it like a book cover.  Does anyone remember when we covered all our books with brown paper sacks?  Oh how I loved to decorate those!!  I hope this sparks some interest in someone else to make this!

Knitted Dishcloths, So Easy, So Nice!!

I have been looking for some nice dishcloths because mine are looking bad.  I have bleached them to death and they are starting to look ratty!!  I checked at Walmart and the dishcloths they have are just so thin.  I didn't see anything I liked at Target, so I started looking around on the Internet.  I found a pattern to make your own dishcloth.  It said their mother makes them and they just beg for them, so I thought I would give it a try.  Now that I finished my husbands scarf, I kind of miss not having something to work on.  It also helps me not to snack in the evening when I have something to keep my hands busy. 

The pattern is a very simple knit stitch.  The only other stitch involved is a yarn over which is just to easy!  I have made three of them now.  After I made the first one, I tried it out and you know what?  I do love it!  I can see why the mother has to make them for her children. 

I picked up my yarn at Walmart.  It is a Sugar and Cream skein and it is 100% cotton.  It comes in variegated and solid colors.  It was $1.79 a skein.  I was able to get two dishcloths per skein.  I did change one thing in the pattern.  I used a size 8 knitting needle.  It just makes it a tiny bit bigger and I like this size.  The first one I made, I used the size 6 needles.  The pattern recommends 6 or 7.  It was a little bit small and I didn't have size seven, so I tried my eights and loved this size. 

Give this a try, I think you will be happy.  I am going to give you the website where I got my pattern.  I like to give credit where it is due!!  Let me know if you need help or how you like them!

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/knitting/dishcloth.shtml  Thank you Jane Lake!

Organization!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and also Happy New Year to everyone!  I had a wonderful Christmas with everyone at my house on Christmas Eve.  Lots of good food and loved having the family over.  The kids always have presents to open so they are always sooo excited.

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday here in Mansfield, Ohio.  I put on my coat and decided to walk around the yard and I could not believe my eyes.  My flowers are all starting to poke through the ground.  Even my rose bushes had new shoots and leaves on them.  This usually does not happen until April, so I am a little bit concerned.  We have had some pretty mild weather and just had our first real snow on Tuesday.  I hope this does not hurt my flowers.

I have been putting away all of my Christmas decorations.  Eveything is down and packed away for another year. When Christmas is over, I am ready to get the mess cleaned up and put away.   Now I just have to clean again and straighten everything back up.  I have a lot of tubs that I pack everthing into.  My husband told me one year that I just have way to much stuff, so I bought all these tubs to keep everything organized.  He really has no idea what I have.  hehe!!!  Here is a picture now that I have it put away.  It just takes up one small end of the wash room.  It is all nice and neat and he is happy.  I know it looks like a lot, but there are other holidays besides Christmas!  I decorate for Easter, Valentines Day, Halloween, and Thansgiving also!!  All my tubs are marked and I just very sweetly ask my husband if he would bring up the tubs for what ever holiday I need.  He usually doesn't grumble to much!  Does anyone else have any organization tips that they use?

Well, I need to go get the rest of the cleaning finished so I can finally sit down for a change.  I have my usual two grandchildren all day today, so probably won't get much done!  I just wanted to let you know that soon I will be back to sewing!! Yeah!!  Cindy

Fun Shaped Crayons

Look what I found this morning made from old crayons.  They are so cute and how much fun they would be to make.  I have boxes of old crayons just laying around. I am going to try this.  I wonder if I could put a little hole in the top and use Christmas molds and hang them with ribbon on my home made tree.  I set up one tree that has nothing but home made ornaments.  I think these would be really cute!  I bet my grandchildren would also love to color with a kaleidoscope crayon!


Whatcha Need:

■Crayons

■Silicone Molds




For complete instructions visit:  http://itsgravybaby.com/2011/11/diy-crayons/

Thank you "It's Gravy Baby" for such a cute idea!!