Pay it forward

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade (or possibly store-bought) gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch though...Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!

Coupons and Budgets

This weekend I bagged my Excel budget sheet for BudgetPulse. We've been using it for the last few years to track our budget - Kevin made up a really good budget tracker about 10 years ago, but there comes a time when you outgrow it (either program some more or find something else! we probably outgrew it a while back, but I just haven't taken the time out to do research). And no, I don't have time to program.

Anyways, I came across BudgetPulse.com recently and decided to make the switch from Excel last Friday. I think my top reasons for using this online financial management tool are that 1) it's FREE 2) it does not connect to our bank accounts - some do that (quicken and money) but we prefer the high security of not giving out our account numbers and having automatic downloads and 3) the interface is fairly easy to use and easy on the eyes, but it has some quirks that hopefully the developers will fix in the next scheduled update/release (or so they say). It is just in its beta-testing stages, but did its job nicely.

So, to my (and especially Mr. Kevin's) satisfaction, I am able to pull up a summary of our categorized and sub-categorized expenses on demand (all accounts combined!), and see how much we're saving (or not saving :)) or how much is left in the budget, print out by month or by quarter, etc. Lots of great features. I love it!

Anyways I also did my last grocery shopping trip for the month of February! I have been busy couponing (started last year) and loving the savings (just under $700 since January!) and more food storage! Some really good deals I've come across: 16 4-pack rolls of toilet paper (64 rolls), bread, eggs, and ham for FREE, biscuits and other things for practically nothing. Seeing the savings from the coupons has made me want to see how much more my grocery bill can go down. I beat my last month's grocery bill by $120, so we'll see how much less it will be in March. I wish I would have started both BudgetPulse and couponing a lot sooner!

Read the Scriptures!

I found another neat way to read the scriptures, that is, if you're like me and check your email a few times each day or check email before you go to bed, or blog, take the time out to read a friend's blog, etc., you get the idea. There is a website called Read The Scriptures (http://www.readthescriptures.com/) (maybe they need to pay me for blogging about them??) . I found it while reading my LDS Living Online magazine. So I thought I'd give it a try.

The site lets you pick a book of scripture (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, D&C) that you want to read, create a custom schedule (e.g. mine is to read the Book of Mormon in 250 days) and then it emails you your reading everyday. Once you complete your reading you click on the "Completed" button at the bottom of the email and then it automatically records your progress. If you miss your reading or not click on the completed button, it will send you a reminder that tells you YOU ARE BEHIND! You can read ahead, then feel good since it'll tell you that YOU ARE AHEAD of SCHEDULE! I know, whoever thought about this whole concept is awesome. So far I love it.

Other things that I found that were great:

1. They give you a link to listen to the audio version of the chapter (provided by our Church website lds.org). The link is found in the email so it is very easy to do!

2. When you click on the "Completed" button it shows you your progress, and then a neat quote by Church leaders appears at the bottom. Today I got one by Joseph Smith.

3. If you like to mark scriptures, it will let you mark your online scriptures (you have to sign in to your account to do this) but it will keep your markings until you are done reading the book of scriptures. Color choices: 12! and you can make notes too, and search those notes later. I will have to check to see if I can print my scripture notes and highlighted pages after I'm done with them. That would be perfect.

4. You can read in teams (perfect for families - keep tabs on each other).

5. Aside from the Standard Works, you can even do a schedule for Scripture Stories (our picture book scriptures for kids).

Cons:

1. Although the emailed reading is the same as the official online version, they omitted the cross-reference links and footnotes but you can find those on the official online version on lds.org.

2. No chapter headings, however if you click on the audio version (provided by lds.org), you will be able to hear it.

I guess if I can spend time looking at and reading a friend's blog or check my email a few times a day, I can read my scriptures too. No more excuses!

Service Auction

Our ward is doing a Service Auction for Enrichment. I am doing this (click on the image to view larger version):

Our Family Valentines

Early on Saturday I woke up to Allie and Kevin's hush-hush voices downstairs. Then Allie came up and told me to come down to see my "valentines from Dad". This year we exchanged letters instead of the usual cards -- I think this is a good tradition. I had the idea of either doing love letters (too mushy for Kev), or list of reasons why we love each other (this was better). I made a list of the top 50 reasons (rule is also that we can't repeat ourselves for next year's) and Mr. Harris decided he was going to be really creative and gave me the ABC's instead - concise, cute and definitely a keeper! I think he beat me this time (I know, we're a little competitive).

We got Pei Wei's for dinner (but I wasn't feeling too good so I couldn't even smell the food!) and then we spent the rest of the day with the kids at home. Somewhere in Time was on TV so we watched that too (well, mostly me that got into the movie). Not typical but definitely fun for all of us. Allie wrote a little something on our school room board that I found before I went to bed that went like this: "I love Valentine's because we get Valentines and candy (Fun Dip!) ...blah...blah...blah, but most of all I love Valentine's Day because I get to spend time with my family.

Happy Valentine's!

Today was a busy day. We had our preschool valentine party this morning. The boys decorated their own Valentine bag, exchanged valentines, and enjoyed a Valentine's lunch courtesy of everyone's moms. We had yummy heart sandwiches, heart sugar cookies, fruit, brownies, crackers and juice. Collin was so excited to give out the valentines he made last night.

It was also early out day for Allie, Saxon Math after school, homework, dinner, etc. And because tomorrow is Allie's class party, we made a big pan of brownies for her to take to school. I told Allie maybe she should just take a few boxes of crackers/cookies, she said, "no, we signed up to bring brownies and Ms. Griffith will be so excited, she might even do a special thank you on our newsletter." (FYI that wasn't even on the list, we just thought they would taste really good). I laughed. She thinks up really good reasons. So she whipped up a big pan of triple chocolate chunk brownies and I helped her finish her Valentine robot. I was thinking more in the lines of a valentine box -- but being the creative brain she is, she decided a pink and shiny robot would fit the bill a lot better. It turned out pretty cute! I wonder what she will come up with next year.


Not like I was already busy enough -- I decided to get the kids to do a little valentine shoot with me before the baking and painting. Impromptu, so no fancy hairdos. Collin was excited since I explained it was mostly for Kevin, so he was game for it. Maddie was good, but she was more interested in the passing cars, walking around, picking up rocks, etc. -- she wouldn't look at me! Allie was not happy because she couldn't find the little ipod looking craft she made at Activity days that she called "iLove". She didn't want anything to do with the camera. I finally got her to do just 2 minutes. Maddie took about 1 minute and Collin took 3 minutes. I figured whatever I got was as good as it was going to get. Then I spent about half an hour to do this and the new blog header.

Hope everyone has a happy V-day!

There She Goes...

Maddie walks everywhere now, which makes it very hard to get a decent shot. She is loving being able to go anywhere she wants! She took her first steps right after Christmas, but didn't really take off until a week ago. She has also taught herself how to get down the stairs - she sits down and holds on to the railing as she slides down each step. She is now officially a toddler!