Internet Shopping

Usually I am against internet shopping. I find that surfing sales out of boredom is perilous for my credit card balance.

Today is different. I need to shop for two things:
1) A winter coat for my older cub
2) A cardigan or two to layer with my work clothes.

(I am back to teaching, and no longer have a full wardrobe of 'grown-up' clothes. Somehow, I think my Batman t-shirt will be seen as a sign of professionalism.)

I decided to take a long time, find exactly what I like in each case, and then stalk the items until I could find the right price. As of this morning, I am proud to say that it worked!

For my son's winter coat, I decided on a Lands' End Boys' Squall 3-in-1 Waterproof Parka. His last coat was from Lands' End and it still looks new after three winters of hard use, so I suspected that this would do as well.

The only problem is that it's $139.00. Hm.

I kept checking back there about once a week to see if they might run a sale, and today I got a hit!

See that banner at the top? 40% off one item and free shipping? Oh, yeah.

A few credit card digits later and I scored a coat that will last through TWO sons for about $86 after tax.

I was so proud I decided to reward myself.

Through my shopping at Goodwill, I realized that I really like Christopher and Banks clothes (and that I want to hug whoever the woman is who keeps donating them new/nearly new in my size). I decided to stalk their clearance.

It's black (which is slimming) and long (awesome, because I'm tall), and CHEAP!! TEN BUCKS! Okay, after tax and shipping it was about $16, but seriously. I'm not quibbling.

And I didn't even leave the couch.

Meal Stretcher Monday - Pack a Lunch!

I've just returned to teaching after two years of being home with my kids. In addition to a whole lot of education reforms to get used to at work, I have a few new things to get used to at home. The last time I worked, I brought my then two year old son to a wonderful babysitter around the corner from my job. I didn't need to pack him anything, and only rarely bothered to pack a full lunch for myself.

Things have changed.

Now, I am packing two lunches at least.

My first born just started kindergarten and is clearly going for some sort of Picky Eater Award. Every day he needs a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread. This is, in his world, the ONLY acceptable food. I fill out his lunch bag by adding goldfish crackers (which I know he will eat), Wheat Thins (which I suspect he will eat), and some sort of fruit (which he is likely to gag at).

Since being home, I have gotten used to real food and refuse to return to the facsimile available in industrial cafeterias.

This is my lunch for tomorrow. Isn't it beautiful? What you are seeing is a piece of string cheese, two apples, a big container of lettuce and tomato salad, and a delicious banana muffin. This amount of food covers a morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack (possibly with something left over).

This also saves me from paying about $15-20 for low quality I shouldn't be eating anyway.

Now I am one step closer to mastering this whole working mom thing. Only seventy billion left to go.

Glasses Cleaning Kit

My 5-year-old son just got glasses. As it turns out he sees perfectly from one eye, but miserably from the other. The glasses are supposed to train his brain to take information from both eyes.

He was reluctant...until he discovered how handsome he looks.

Doesn't he look stunning eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich? So grown up!

Until he got peanut butter on his glasses. So I cleaned them. Then he got jelly on them. So I cleaned them. Then he got Lord-knows-what on them. So I cleaned them. Ten times in the first hour.

This is going to be difficult.

When we were picking up and paying for these glasses, I wanted to get him a little cleaning kit - something small that he can bring with him in his kindergarten backpack.

The kits in the store were $11.00

Seriously?

Time to make one!

What you see here is a 2 oz fingertip spray bottle from Walmart ($0.99) filled with awesome home made spray cleaner, and a square I cut from a flannel sheet I bought at the Salvation Army. (The whole sheet was $3.00 and I'm slowly cutting it up for things).

Even if I counted the cost of the entire sheet, this cleaning kit would have cost me $4. Let's be honest. I'm not counting the cost of the whole sheet.

Right now these are packed in a sandwich bag. If I see a cute little make-up bag or pencil case that my son can decorate, I'll pack it in that instead.

Now to get him to wear the glasses for more than 3 minutes...

The Posted Price is the Price

I used to work a thankless job in a lovely little retail clothing store. I would ring up customers, handle complaints, answer calls, and change all the sale and price point signs (that part is important).

One day my manager called me over and was displeased. I had forgotten to remove one sale sign with a lower price point than what we were currently offering.

"Oh", I said. "No harm no foul. I'll just fix it now". Wrong. She very patiently and kindly explained to me that since the sign was there, she just had to give the customer who saw it that price. "Couldn't you just explain that it was a mistake?" Nope. Apparently, if you are advertising a price in the store, you HAVE to give the customer that price at the counter, mistake or no.

I was much more conscientious. I never let the mistake happen again - BUT I never forgot it.

Remember the ceiling fan? I wound up getting such a good deal on it because they were still displaying the clearance price at one branch of the store (despite not having any in stock).

Today, this little lesson saved us money again.

While wandering through Macy's as a family (waiting on a pair of Lens Crafter glasses for my son), Husband saw a display of Champion sweatshirts. He loves those. Seeing that they were $17 each, he was pleased, but decided to wait (after all, we were dropping $200 on glasses).

On a nearby display, I noticed a sign that said $9.99. The display was a two-sided shelving unit with t-shirts on one side, and sweatshirts on the other. Both sides of the sign said $9.99. We mentioned this at the register, then showed the cashier. She was really nice about it, gave us the discount at the register, then mercilessly teased the person who was supposed to change the sign.

While I feel bad that the other employee will have to stand a little ribbing from his boss, I bet he'll be a much better bargain shopper in the future.

Sick Day

Yesterday the boys and I were stuck home. All three of us were sick. All three of us had fevers.

I blame the toddler.

Either way, you know how when you're sick all you want to do is sleep? Yeah. My kids apparently don't believe in that. So, how to entertain a 2 year old and a 5 year old while wanting to crawl under my covers and never come out? Hmmm.

We started with a schedule:

I had really hoped that TV time would last an hour or so. It lasted less than half of a cup of hastily chugged coffee. Greeeeaaat.

On to Kindergarten Bars! These were granola bars that I wanted to make in the hopes of interesting my older son in granola bars. That part didn't work, but they are fun to make- especially since you can mix and squish everything together with your hands.

The kids had no interest in mixing them with me. At least I had fun.

Next, we went outside. That was nice. The patio was cool, but the sun was warm, and the kids had fun running barefoot in the dew covered grass.

Then they had fun throwing mud at each other. *sigh*

To get them focused on something more positive, I brought out the cornstarch and water to make MOON MUD!

If you've never done this before, try it! You don't even need kids. It's fun! Pour some cornstarch in a bowl, then add water until it starts acting weird. When this is the right consistency, it will become stiff when you apply more force, and very drippy when you apply less.

Thank God this cleans up with just water. I hosed the table off. Then the kids. It was fun for them, and pretty cathartic for me.

We were a little ahead of schedule, so we took our time cleaning up, then went inside for a little Candy Land and cleanup from the Kindergarten Bars (which were DELICIOUS, in case you were wondering).

A traditional lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, was sadly not followed with napping of any sort.

I knew it was a reach when I put that on the list, but a girl can dream, no?

Our day wrapped up with books, iPad games, and a couple of episodes of WordGirl.

The kids survived, were entertained, were well fed, and were ready to harass Daddy when he came home.

I still need that nap.

Meal Stretcher Monday - Kindergarten Bars

My husband never used to eat during the day at work. He would be so hungry and tired by the end of the day that he would over eat and be crabby. Thankfully, he started at least bringing a light breakfast with him - usually water or juice and a Clif Bar.

I'm glad that he's taking something. I'm glad that it's something with some good ingredients and filling fiber. I'm not overwhelmingly glad that those little buggers are kind of expensive.

So I have been cruising the internet for recipes to make something similar at home. I have discovered that there is a basic formula for most granola bars:

2-2.5 cups of grains/carbs/cereal
1/2 cup nut or seed butter
1/3-1/2 cup sticky syrupy stuff (brown rice syrup, maple syrup, honey, etc)
1/2-1 cup "treats" (nuts, fruit, chocolate chips, marshmallows, etc)
1-2 tsp other flavorings (vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa powder, etc)
2-4 tbsp "healthy powder" (protein powder, flax powder, milk powder, etc)

I called the ones I made today "Kindergarten Bars" in the hopes of interesting my older son, who is about to enter kindergarten. He has Asperger's and is deeply suspicious of foods that are not smooth, or are not white/yellow, or are not Goldfish crackers. My hope is that he would want to help me make them, and might even eat a few. Hope.

Kindergarten Bars
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp flax powder

Mix the dry ingredients.

Add the peanut butter, honey, and vanilla, then SMOOSH IT ALL TOGETHER!

Some recipes call for the nut butter and syrup to be melted together in the microwave or on the stove. I wanted these bars to be kid friendly to make, so I decided we would just mush these all together with our hands instead of cooking anything.

It. Was. Fun.

Shame the kids didn't want to do it with me. Meh. I had a blast.

It's really sticky, so there was no way to take pictures.

At the end it was a bit stiff to work into the pan, so I microwaved the whole bowl for 30 seconds, then used a rubber spatula to mash it down into the pan. After cooling, I meant to cut them into 12 bars, but I had a math problem and cut 16.

These are DELICIOUS. I really hope my husband likes them, but since they may not last until he gets home....who knows?

Homemade Deodorant

Hello, all! I'm so sorry I dropped out of sight for a while. We are trying to get a lot of stuff done over here in preparation for the school year, and my return to teaching.

It's August. It's hot. I really think that the muggy August heat is God's way of making sure we won't be too sad in September when the summer slips away.

I have noticed a problem this August. I have been getting a rash under both arms. Using my Google-Fu, I began to suspect that my deodorant was to blame. I tried switching brands, but the rash was still there, and the new brand didn't actually seem to work as well.

TO THE INTERNET!

Over at Our Homemade Happiness, I came across a really easy homemade deodorant recipe. Not only is the recipe simple (only 3 ingredients), all of the components are supposed to be good for your skin: coconut oil, baking soda, and corn starch. Easy peasy.

Here's the recipe exactly from Our Homemade Happiness:
Homemade Deodorant
5 Tbsp. coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder or corn starch
essential oils (optional)

Mix the ingredients together with a fork until well combined.

It took about a minute to make. Since it was warm in here, the coconut oil was mostly melted and everything blended lickety-split. I put it into a disposable snack container with a snap-on lid. Perfect fit!

But does it work?

Oh, yes. Yes it does.

I tried it that day, having not put any deodorant on yet. It felt nice, and even kept working through a gym workout.

The next day I at a ton of onion laden foods, and my deodorant STILL worked.

The day after, I went to my son's preschool graduation and sat in direct sunlight on a 90 degree afternoon for almost two hours. When I got home, my husband assured me that the deodorant was still working.

Through all of these challenges, I never had to apply the deodorant more than once a day. Yesterday, I applied it very early in the morning, as I was going to work. By the time I woke up this morning, it was STILL working - a full 24 hours later!

It's been the better part of a week, and the rash that had been under my arms for the last month or two is GONE. Also, know how your underarms look sort of gray after you've washed off deodorant? That's gone, too. YAY!

The only drawback is that every time I open the container it smells so wonderfully of coconut oil that I really want a Mounds bar. Possibly an Almond Joy.

Well, at least I smell delicious.