Another overheard at my house...

Grae is passionate about clementines. He eats about 6 of them a day.

Maddie: "Grae, it's breakfast time."
Grae: "No, it's lemontime (clementine)".

We also listen to him talk about paki. We have no idea who or what paki is. One day he's a puppet that lives outside in a paki house and now he's on cookie dough. I wish we knew what on earth Grae is talking about. 2 year olds are sooo fun!

Follow up to Ebates - some deals

So I'm on the couch with a massive sinus head cold. Bri is taking care of the kids (and made dinner), so I've been scouring the net looking for deals. If you signed up with Ebates (via my last post) you know you need to make a purchase in order to get your bonus.

Here are two great (and cheap deals). I'll post the links but you will need to open up Ebates, search for the store and click their link. Then find the item so you will get credit.

First is Neiman Marcus. You can get Ralph Lauren bath & hand towels for $7.99 shipped. You can even have them monogrammed for free! Go to http://www.neimanmarcus.com and click on Sales & Values (all the way on the right hand side, top bar). Type Towels in the Search Sale box at the top of the page. The towels say Ralph Lauren Closeout. When you want to check out type in WINTER in the promotion box for free shipping!

Here is a direct link to the page but don't order from that link. Go to your Ebates account first.

Next is a 5" black and white TV for $5.00 shipped from Office Depot. This is great when your power goes out. Again first go to your Ebates account and find Office Depot. Then search for 5" Black-And-White TV With Radio, add it to your cart. Shipping is free! Here is what it looks like: . Tv here...

Hope this helps

Easy way to save & earn $$$

I try to use Ebates when I make online purchases. Ebates gives you cash back on all your online orders. Sometimes they even offer special coupons you can use.

For example, I just ordered a Britax car seat for Graedon. I went to Ebates first, searched for Baby Universe (the place I wanted to buy the carseat from) and clicked the link. Baby Universe offered 4% back through Ebates. The 4% will show up in my Ebates account and then Ebates will send me a check or paypal.

Anyway, the carseat was originally $299 but was on sale for $224. I then found a coupon for $20.00 off and the seat had free shipping. So total price was $204.00. Baby Universe gave me $9.00 back in my Ebates account. So I actually paid $195 for a $299 carseat! Not bad at all for one of the best carseats out there!

I just found out that Ebates is offering a special holiday bonus sign up. You can get $10.00 in your Ebates account for signing up and then making one purchase through them. Oh and I also get $10.00! Yippee! Oh the offer expires on December 31 so you need to get your purchase in by then.

Here is the super special link:
Click here!!! My email address for the referrer box is amyshearer @ alittlebusy.com (take out the spaces)

Hope this can help you some as you're searching around buying Christmas presents.

Overheard at our house....

Ellie: "Daddy, do you like cream cheese?"
Brian: "On occasion."
Ellie: "No, do you like it on toast?"

See what we've been up too.

Come check out the photo tutorials my daughters have been doing for Journal Modiste's Handmade Holidays!

http://www.journalmodiste.com/index.cfm?page=tutorials.

Also I'm starting a new venture/business: http://www.pbellie.com

Thanksgiving...

Wine Brined Turkey (a la Martha Stewart): $10.00
Homemade cranberry sauce: $3.50
Homemade bread: $2.50
Homemade pumpkin pie: $4.50
Homemade chocolate chip cookies: $2.50
Me staying home due to two sick kids (Grae and Molly): depressing
Having Brian and the 4 girls going to my Grandparents house for Thanksging: priceless

Molly has an ear infection, major congestion and a croupy cough. Grae has major congestion and a cough. We stayed home and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the dog show while Brian took Lauren, Maddie, Ava and Ellie to my Grandparents house. From what I've heard my Grandparents enjoyed it very much. They had plans to go the senior community center because they figured everyone else was busy.

Grae and Molly slept practically the whole time so I ate my turkey dinner alone in front of Country Living magazine and the dog show (which I recorded for the girls). It was surprisingly relaxing ;)

Hope your Thanksgiving was really enjoyable!

Oh my...

Guess what this picture is? I took it at 6:00 pm last night.



It's our oven! I turned the oven off after taking dinner out last night and then a little while later noticed it was still on. Brian tried to turn it off and it just wouldn't. He hit the breaker and unplugged the oven and I got on google to see if there was an easy fix. We'll the easiest would be to buy a new oven ;) but that is not in the budget right now.

We figured out it was the oven panel control thingy. Brian called our local appliance store and they could order a part - at $138 - tomorrow (which is today). We would have it tomorrow (today) afternoon. Except I have to bake all day. So he took the panel thingy off and we disconnected some wires and then reconnected them, plugged it in, turned the breaker back on and it worked! Yeah for small miracles.

So far it's working fine. I have the first pumpkin pie in the oven and then Ava will bake cookies followed by the turkey. Lauren made the cranberry sauce and Maddie is just about ready to make bread. Then we need to do something with green beans. We're doing all of this while taking turns holding Grae and Molly who have their Wednesday-after-attending-church cold of course.

Hope your day is going well!

Still a pirate...

Grae is still obsessed with pirates. Every boat he sees is a pirate ship. Anyone who carries a sword is a pirate. He even knows the term scallywag. Here he is talking to me about Captain Hook and fighting or something.

I'm teaching Ellie and Grae the Westminster Shorter Catechism (kid friendly version) and one question is "Who is God". The correct answer is "God is a Spirit and doesn't have a body like men." Grae answered Captain Hook. Now I'm hoping in his little 2 year old mind that he meant, God is in control and not God is an evil villian who wears a peg leg and a hook.

We also prayed. He was to repeat after me. I start: "Dear Jesus, thank you that I.." He repeats: "Dear Jesus, thank you that eyepatch..." I couldn't even finish I was laughing so hard.

Now pirates aren't the most wholesome thing for Grae to get attached too. We'll gradually try to encourage him to explore acutal heros but for now it's just fun!

The politics of the holidays

We are in the throes of trying to be just and fair where we spend the holidays. It is by far the most stressful undertaking of the year.

Both sides of the family are in the area so that presents the problem of where to spend the day. My side of the family is usually content to celebrate the day or two after a holiday. Well except for Christmas morning and then we all get together bright and early. That morning is so fun and soooo noisy. In addition to my 6 kids, my brother has 4 girls and my sister has 2 boys and one girl. All under the age of 12. Gift wrap is flying everywhere and the air is punctuated by screams of delight.

Anyway, my grandparents are now in the mix. They've always lived a couple of hours away but now they live just 30 minutes away. All of their kids live far away so they are alone on the holidays. I hate the thought of them spending special holiday's alone but how can we be in three places at once?

We have the only kids on Brian's side of the family. The only kids in Oregon. Brian's brother doesn't have any kids. One of his cousins in Idaho has 8 kids, I think, and I would love to meet them.

I really think that when your kids are grown you forget how tiring having little ones can be. My dad gets tired out just watching all of his 13 grandchildren play but he doesn't have to go home with them. ;) I mean Brian and I haven't had a full night sleep in years. We're awake every couple of hours every night. For years now.

We're also not super portable. When we go to a relative's house, we have so much stuff to bring. Lots of toys and busy stuff so Graedon doesn't knock stuff over in his quest to climb higher and higher and then jump off anything that will hold him. ;) Oh and two of the kids take naps - much needed naps - so we factor that in as well.

I really want everyone to be happy and get the most from this holiday season. So how do you balance making everyone happy with keeping your sanity? What does your family do for the holidays and extended family?

Ask and you shall receive

Maddie asked Graedon (2 yrs) what he wanted for lunch, to which he relpied "no."

So Ava made him this:

On being crunchy...

Well I was intending on talking about the wonders of baking soda and apple cider vinegar but our family was attacked by another round of viruses. This time bringing fever & chills and sore throats. Brian and I have pretty much sat on the couch all day only taking turns walking Molly around and doing laundry.

We feel a little better now and hopefully we're on the mend.

So onto baking soda and apple cider vinegar. I now use them to wash my hair. Yep, I'm going no 'poo. (no shampoo). My friend told me she and her daughter were using baking soda to wash their hair and I thought "hmmm, okay.". Jump to a few months later and I thought I would give it a go. Everything I've read said to expect gunky, greasy hair for the first two weeks while your scalp "detoxes" and then you will have beautiful, shiny hair.

So I tried it. I mix up 1 tablespoon baking soda to 1 cup of hot water in a squeezable ketchup bottle (like the kind at the restaurants, you can find them at the grocery store, minus the ketchup). I massage my scalp to loosen the dirt and then squirt the mixture all over. I also massage this in and wait about a minute. Then I rinse it thouroughly. Next I take 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar and dump it on the ends of my hair (not my scalp). I work it in and then rinse it a little. The vinegar makes my hair so soft. The vinegary smell goes away when it's dry.

I did find that the first 2 weeks my hair was a little greasy and my scalp itchy but now my hair and scalp feel so clean. My hair is full and shiny and my wavy hair is back. In fact, one day I hopped in the shower without my mixture and just used regular shampoo. My hair felt so weighted down and greasy the next day.

So there you have it. I'm becoming crunchier everyday. First cloth diapering, now baking soda. Actually now that we cloth diaper we are not only saving money by not having to buy disposables, but we went down one garbage can size. That saves us $15.00 per month. We've also bought a huge pack of microfiber towels at Costco to use instead of the million paper towels we were going through. Brian is building a worm bin in the backyard so we can start composting our leftover veggies, egg shells, tea and coffee grinds.

God created this beautiful world and charged us with taking care of it. I don't buy into all the global warming talk but I do think we can do things that are healthier for our children and the enviroment.

Since so many of you asked, I'll be writing more about cloth diapering. It's really fun and really not that much work.

Friday, friday, friday...

Will the illness never end? Grae and Molly are getting over their colds and now Lauren is in the throes of a fever/sore throat. Brian and I are feeling some head congestion coming on. I haven't been to church in two weeks straight and it looks like we may miss this Sunday too. Can't we all have it at the same time instead of dragging it out for weeks?

It's a beautiful day here so I grabbed my camera and shot things around my home.

First is my latest vintage pyrex find. Brian found it for me at Goodwill and I love it.

Then I recovered a boring white lamp with one of my favorite quilting fabrics. This lamp makes me smile everytime I look at it now.

You can see one of the blue paint swatches in the background. Here's some in the dining room. We decided to go with a nice pear green (none of the swatches pictured.)

My Craigslist chair from the 1920's. This is a very nice and sturdy chair. The lady we bought it from said we're the 3rd owners. It had been recently reupholstered in some really nice (but boring) fabric. We only paid $85 for it which I consider a bargain.

Carnage from the day after Halloween. I ate so much chocolate I swear Molly is drinking chocolate milk today.


I have one more pic to share that involves baking soda and apple cider vinegar but Molly is whining for a nap now so I'll be back.