You Fill My Heart With Gladness

I was extremely excited today to hear the doorbell ring and see my amazon.com box waiting on my tiny front porch with two of these inside:


So excited was I that I promptly (and by promptly I mean after washing them, then feeding myself and precious one lunch and then putting said child down for a nap so I could get to serious business without interruption) tore the recipe off the packaging, whipped out my Pampered Chef mixing bowls and got busy making my very own mini donuts which required no frying in bad-for-me oil (we're focusing on the lack of frying rather than the presence of delicious chocolate goodness topped with glaze). Let's just say the sight of 24 tiny donuts emerging from the oven filled my heart with happiness. So I popped two sugar-coated delights in my mouth and headed happily off to the dentist (seriously).

PS These pans which currently fill me with such joy actually came to me completely free of charge thanks to my amazon gift cards earned through swagbucks.com - so there is further reason to smile!

Party Like a Feline

I discovered something very sad today. I live in a world where products such as a "party mix" for cats actually exists. Because you know, those frisky felines get a little feisty when the chips and punch run out - it's always good to have a little extra party mix on hand. And don't be fenced in by the generic "party", either. Feel free to branch out and party at the beach, at a picnic, by the grill or, yes, even in the wild west. Because we all know that's where the cool cats are.

It honestly makes me sad that the feline world is obviously so much more social than I that they require their own multiple varieties of party food.

The Best Job in the World

I love being a mom. Yes, it is challenging, but I fall more in love with my daughter every day, and just as many before me have stated, it feels like each stage of my baby growing up is even better than the last (no matter how much I wish she could stay this little forever).
These are my favorite things about having a toddler - specifically MY precious toddler - in random order:
- I can tell her to go get her shoes or go to the car and I get a "soos" or "ka" in response as she toddles off in the right direction. Oh the freedom of no longer being permanently attached in order to get her anywhere. Also, hearing her repeat the commands is just darn cute.
- All it takes is a game of peek-a-boo to go from a grumpy, fingers-in-the-mouth glare to an all-out giggle.
- I can ask for a kiss and, if she's feeling generous, I will get a wonderfully wet lip smack.
- Witnessing her random displays of newly gleaned abilities never ceases to amaze me - like when she points to a picture of an ear, says, "Eee" and grabs her own, without any prompting. Simply incredible.
- The requirements of entertaining a toddler are remarkably similar to the skills of doing the same for a puppy. Ball + repeated throwing = endless enjoyment for all.
- There's actually help for picking up her toys at the end of the day - and for doing other household tasks, such as putting away laundry. And this help is so much more eager than that of any adult, albeit a little OVEReager at times.
- Being greeted with a ginormous grin, excited squeal and dash for a hug when picking her up from anywhere - church nursery, baby-sitter, etc. - never gets old.

There are many more things I love about my amazing little girl, but I don't want to bore you. Suffice it to say, unlike much of America right now, I have a lot of job satisfaction.

Look at me, I can price match!

As you may have noticed, I am an avid money-saver. I do the whole bit - coupon binder, searching on-line for coupon match-ups and carefully watching for the supermarket ads. I am certainly a compulsive bargain-hunter. As such, I typically rely on the blogs of other moms who put much more effort than I do into the process and borrow their deal ideas. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a deal this week that was unadvertised on any blog but certainly stoked my frugal embers.

Here's what I did to get Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on Blu-Ray/DVD for the price of the free movie tickets which are included with the movies:

1. I'm a member of Disney Movie Rewards - a free program I highly recommend. If you own Disney movies you most likely have multiple codes laying around inside your movies which are like gold to earn you free stuff - so join! But on top of that, DMR currently allows members who want to upgrade their copies of Toy Story to print coupons to help them with this. Therefore, this deal only works if you have old copies of these movies. If you have them, go to DMR and enter the UPC codes as a "Magic Code" - this won't get you any DMR points, but it will allow you to print a $10 coupon toward an updated copy. You can do this for each movie - two movies, two coupons!

2. Toys R Us has these new releases on sale this week for $16.99 each if you buy both. I had to price match this at Wal-Mart because we have no Toys R Us here. It was my first price-matching experience and I was a little scared. But, with a little effort, it worked!

3. After coupons, each movie cost only $6.99! And, as mentioned, each includes a free ticket to see Toy Story 3 this summer - which would have cost me more than $6.99! (Also they're each worth 125 DMR points!).

Now I understand there has to be a perfect storm of events for this deal to work for others (owning the originals and having a Toys R Us or their ad within proximity) - but if you can work it, do it!

To say that I'm a little proud at having discovered a price-matching deal like this all on my own and having it work out - well, that's an understatement and God and I will deal with my pride in a bit - but even so I wanted to share what I found just in case any of my friends could take advantage. Who am I to deprive others of an awesome deal? ;)

(PS Be aware that because this relies on the sale at Toys R Us, the transaction needs to be done by this Saturday to work for this price. OK - I'll leave you alone now.)

My Little Helper

My little helper, aka, my precious 17-month-old daughter, sure does get the best of me!
She loves to help. Most of the time. If she's in a jolly mood (which, quite frankly, is almost all of the time, seriously), she understands the command, "Put it away." So, when it comes time to scamper off to bed and we utter the inevitable command, blocks are put in their box, books are put on the shelf and most of this is done, with a little help, by tiny little hands.
She has also begun to understand that, applicable not only to play things, "Put it away" simply means put whatever object is currently in your hand in the location from whence it came, or should go (in the case of trash which she miraculously picked up on her own - what a marvel this little angel is). Honestly, we feel like geniuses as she completes her task with robotic accuracy (again, depending on the mood - because I doubt robots choose simply not to follow orders on a given day because he's tired or really likes the pen he's holding and knows he shouldn't be).
Until today.
Today she got me at my own game.
While folding laundry, I carefully prepared stacks of like items next to me on the couch, Little One in my lap as we watched a movie on Hulu. When finished the ubiquitous remainder socks were tossed back in the basket. Little Helper that she is, she wriggled out of my lap, feigning interest in some far away toy, only to return moments later to attempt to help me in my task of folding clothes. Dutifully she pulled one, two, three socks out of the basket and handed them to me. Politely I thanked her but asked her to put them away. Back in the basket they went. My attention was turned back to the cinematic masterpiece of Hulu, but moments later when I checked on my quiet daughter, I noticed three stacks of freshly folded clothes dumped nicely back into the basket. She was "putting them away." Fortunately, they were mostly still assembled, so as I began to straighten the disheveled stacks, I hurried to tell her "No" as she was headed mechanically to her fourth and largest stack of t-shirts.
"Wait, what? These clothes don't belong in the basket? My mistake," were all the thoughts that traveled through her puzzled eyes.
Well, if out of the basket they should be, out of the basket they shall go. And one by one, the mostly still folded shirts became mostly unfolded as she attempted to fix her error. It is at this point that a mother is torn.
She was being so good following commands, but so not doing anything that made my life easier. And while I tried to thank her whilst firmly attempting to get my point across that I would just like her paws off my clothes she began to wander aimlessly - a puppy without a stick. What to do now?! No clothes in the basket, no clothes out of the basket? What has life come to?!
All was resolved later as she was allowed to help put the clothes away - "Take them to Daddy!". And boy can that girl run to get clothes when she has a job to do!
I did have to ask my husband at this point why we have been wasting all of this worker-bee energy on mere toys. It's time to teach her to empty the dishwasher, I say!

Look, I Cleaned! Sort of.

Pregnancy does good things for me. Well, when the morning sickness finally passes, that is, because, let's be honest, morning sickness does good things for no one.

Specifically, pregnancy does good things for my home. Because, when I finally feel as though I can move around, my nesting instincts seem to be the only motivation strong enough to over-ride my typical laziness. Ok, it's either the nesting or yesterday's internet shortage which got my rear off the couch and into my closet whose floor hadn't seen the light of day in, well, longer than I'd care ot admit. In fact, I believe the last time I truly cleaned my closet - or made any kind of motion to pick a single item off the floor - was before my daughter was born.

Let's review. She'll be 17 months next week.

My bathroom sink wasn't lookin' much better and within a matter of hours my closet floor was spotless, my garage sale box was overflowing, and my linen closet was actually getting shelves freed up thanks to the extra space made in our bathroom drawers.

Thank you, Baby!

All that to say, if you come to visit, please close your eyes as you pass through the living room with tax papers and remainder newspaper inserts strewn about; don't worry, I'll warn you when to step over the semi-unpacked suitcase sitting next to the bedroom door and divert your attention from the un-made bed until you finally make into our bathroom, which, hey, looks amazing!

What's for Dinner?

I'm so excited about what we're having for dinner tonight in the face of this quite chilly January weather, I thought I'd share the recipe with you. I created this recipe last year and, quite honestly, was pretty proud of it. So . . . here it is for all to enjoy:

Slow Cooker Vegetable Beef Stew

1-1.5 lb. cubed beef
1 can tomato soup
3 c. water
3 beef bouillon cubes
1/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 bag mixed veggies

Put everything in slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Now, the wonderful thing about this recipe is its versatility - as with most stews. Just put in what you have. I don't think I put in a full pound of beef, but no problem, I supplemented with potatoes, which I did not have in last time but am looking forward to. Also, we were low on frozen veggies that I wanted to put in our stew (although last time I used carrots, green beans, cauliflower and broccoli - yes ANYTHING!), so I used canned green beans from my grandma-in-law's garden, frozen corn and half a yellow onion (the other half was not lookin' so pretty).

So . . . that's what we'll be eating tonight . . . and I am very much looking forward to it - well, that and the wonderful aroma I'll get to enjoy all afternoon. I love slow cookers, although I don't use mine as often as I should.

Anyway, hope you all find your own ways to stay warm tonight! Ciao.