Amazon sales from my kids wishlists :)

I figured out an easy way to monitor the toys and items that I care about on amazon.com  I created a special wishlist for those items.  Obviously I care about toys and such for my kids so they are on there.  The lists are a work in progress.  I need to add a new carseat to the girl's list for instance. 

To the left you see the Radio Flyer my 1st Scooter in pink.  $29 is a great price for that.  It retails for something like $50.

Fisher-Price Infant To Toddler Swing in Red is normally $49.99 but is $24.99 on sale.
Complete Sand & Water Beach Play Set: Includes Toys, Watering Can, Bucket, Shovel and more! regularly $19.95 is $12.09

Step2 Naturally Playful Sand & Water Center regular price: 99.99 - on sale $67.54


Disclosure: These links ARE affiliate links but these are items from my kids wish lists and are items I am seriously considering buying towards my Christmas stash :)

How do I have Christmas on a Budget?

With the economy worse than it's been in literally decades many folks are unsure exactly how to celebrate Christmas at their house this year because now they have a budget whereas before they could just "do it up" bigger and bigger.

Well I will share with you tricks that I use :) so hopefully I can help some of you who have never had to worry about this before see that it's not really a worry!

Santa Pictures:

Look at this great Santa Picture!! Aren't those boys adorable? They are my friend Faedra's children. So Sweet!! Thank you Faedra for letting me use your picture!! (I don't have mine

back yet!)

Having pictures taken with Santa can REALLY destroy your budget... So seek out the free deals...

Bass Pro Shops has an avalanche of freebies! You can Go here to learn about their Winter Wonderland that lasts through December 24th.

Some things they are offering include:

*Free 4x6 Photo with Santa.
*Free Craft every weekend till 12-20

*Free Games & Activities

*Local Hero night 12-13!

Christmas Decor - If you just don't have any Christmas decorations - maybe you lost yours due to horrible circumstances. I am so sorry if that is the case.

You can still decorate for Christmas :) You just have to be creative and think outside of the box....

*Go Old fashioned - Hang oranges and apples on the tree along with popcorn garland (maybe some cranberry garland too or use childrens cereal like trix or cheerios or fruit loops!!) Use candy canes on the tree...You could make paper mache ornaments and paint them (or if you make them with strips of colored paper you dont' have to paint them :) )

Do you see Barbies little mini tree to the left? That was my dad's Christmas tree for a few years. You can put it on the mantle and sit your presents by the mantle. I think the thing cost $3.00 at Big Lots or something. It is fiber optic and even has lights. Or buy it now then give it to your kids after Christmas as a toy - This tree would maybe make a good tree to play with with action figures...(if my child were not 2!)

If one of your kids toy sets has a Christmas tree you could borrow it and make up a story for your kids...

for example:

We have to use your little Christmas Tree because this year Santa sent a
letter to Mommy and Daddy telling us that he is training a Mouse this year how to be Santa Claus for the mice!!! That way all the little mice families in the world can have
good Christmases too. Santa needed an extra-special child to have a mouse
sized tree so that Santa Mouse won't be scaredwhen he delivers their gifts!! Santa picked you!!

Follow your little story up with the cookies and milk and CHEESE for the mouse. :) So cute!!

Go Green and get your kids involved!! - Most kids if you tell them "We are doing this to save the environment" are all kinds of gung ho about stuff. OR if you tell them you are doing something because you want to help the birds the kids will be more than happy to help you. Pick a tree in the front yard and decorate it instead this year. Put popcorn garland around the tree, You could probably string day-old bread shapes up on string (cut them with a cookie cutter) and the Birds would gladly peck at them!!! Toast them first for more stability

Find pinecones or other natural objects in the yard (Sticks would work!) and coat them with a substance like peanut butter then roll them in birdseed and hang those also. Follow up with a paper tree on the wall in the house to put your gifts under!!

Gifts

Gifts are my downfall every year. When I have money I am tempted to spend all the cash I have on Christmas gifts for people.

This isn't going to be beautiful but I hope it will be useful.

Gift Ideas:

Dig through your stockpile and give beautiful baskets or gift bags of stuff people love. I know someone who LOVES Clam Chowder. I probably have 10 cans of clam chowder upstairs. I dont' like it. I can put those cans of chowder in a bag (or even just 7 of them) and get some oyster crackers to top the bag off and give it with a note.

Make Homemade Marshmallows and give with a jar of homemade cocoa mix or go my route - snatch hot chocolate up when it's BOGO and you'll pay roughly $1.00 a box...then give some beautifully packaged homemade marshmallows with storebought cocoa. I'm not perfect ;)

Give some gifts in a jar.

Some of my favorite "gifts in a jar"

Candy Cane bath salts

Orange Creamsicle cookies in a jar (Got a favorite UT Fan? I do - but he'd never make the cookies)

Adult's journal prompts in a jar (pair with a cute blank book and you have a gift!!) Or...you could call them "Tasty Thoughts" and give these with your homemade marshmallows and cocoa and maybe bake some cookies.

You could really go all out and throw some Candy Cane bath salts in there so your giftee could run a hot bath and throw in some salts and have some hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows and eat a cookie while thinking about how much you love them!!

Free photo with Santa this weekend at Walmart

Walmart is having a special this saturday from 10am - 2pm where you can stop by walmart for a free picture with santa. There is no guarantee that ALL locations are participating so please call your location to verify before dressing up to go!! :)

Thanks Michelle!!!

Holiday Cookie Swap: The ULTIMATE Chocolate chip & Oatmeal cookie recipe

My friend Amanda over at A Few Shortcuts who always brings us amazing recipes like the Pomagranate and citrus glazed pork chops i've been salivating over since I made them is bringing us an online cookie swap!!!

Have you ever had a cookie swap? I have actually never physically participated in a cookie swap! The first time I had ever heard of a cookie swap was when my bloggy friend JoJo mentioned that she was going to a cookie swap at her cousins house and had to make six dozen cookies and I was floored. She explained in her blog what a cookie swap was when several of us had questions....

A holiday cookie swap can be a great way to get a variety of sweets with very little effort. You can then turn around with your sweets that you have and use them to serve at another party (for instance if you are going to (or hosting) a cookie swap on Friday and having an ornament exchange on saturday you could use the cookies from the swap at that party!!

Or you can do what I would do and hoarde the cookies jealously and eat them all in the weekend then look at the container like "Oh wow....there must be a giant cookie thieving mouse that lives in this house....bet he has opposable thumbs too!! ;)"

So I've decided to participate in her cookie swap. Please feel free to participate with her!!! if you don't have a blog you could always start one free with blogger or wordpress or even livejournal. If you want to participate but don't want to create a blog and don't have one feel free to email me your recipe at nosunshyne at gmail dot com and I will post it for you and link it up all for you :)

I do recommend reading her post as she has some totally fab suggestions for hosting your own cookie swap. Some gems from over there include this:

*Give your guests lots of notice (like a month)
*How to avoid getting 5 types of Ginger Snaps
*How to ensure fresh cookies at the cookie swap

Let's not forget that because you are only baking one type of cookie you have to buy a smaller variety of ingredients and therefore spend a smaller amount of cash ;)

Here is my cookie recipe which I have renamed to:

The ULTIMATE Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie
I renamed this recipe from "Housepoet's Famous Lactation Boosting Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip & Flaxseed cookies." Originally posted on livejournal in the breastfeeding community I have fed these cookies to several people and they all agree they are delicious. I tell you the original name of the cookies just to make the point that if you know a new mother who is trying to establish a good nursing relationship with her baby - these cookies can help her produce more milk!!!!

Or if you'd just really like some delicious cookies - these are totally for you!!

Ingredients :

1 cup butter or margerine
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal*
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats, thick cut if you can get them
1 cup or more chocolate chips
2 tablespoons of brewers yeast* (be generous)

*I have made these cookies and omitted both of these ingredients without ill effects. The flaxseed meal and brewers yeast you should be able to find at whole foods if you are interested in making the cookies for lactation boosting!

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
*Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.
*Cream (beat well) margarine and sugar.
*Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
*Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the margarine mix.
*Beat until blended.
*Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and chips.
*Add to margarine mixture.
*Stir in oats then chips.
*Scoop or drop onto baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment or silpat.
*The dough is a little crumbly, so it helps to use a scoop.

Bake 8-12 minutes, depending on size of cookies.

Makes: 6 dozen cookies

Preparation time: 15 minutes

**The first few times I made these cookies I did so for lactation boosting purposes. After that I made them for the deliciousness!!

I feel it important to note that you can freeze the dough or refrigerate it and bake just a few cookies at a time if that is your intended purpose (Then they are always warm and deliciously fresh!!!)
The Flaxseed Meal is really quite healthy - I would really recommend including it. You can't taste it in the cookies and check out the health benefits here.
The Brewers Yeast is also really quite healthy. It is high in B vitamins and you could include it if you like. Here is some health benefit information.

Free Music download from Amazon.com

Go Here and click the "Enter Your Code" button there and enter the code MP34FREE Then Browse amazon.com for some music and click buy - your code will automatically be applied to your purchase. You must redeem your code by midnight tonight and use the $3 by november 30th

Did you know that Amazon started their Black Friday Deals last night at Midnight???

Here are a few of their countdown to Black Friday Deals:

CHEAP Vera Bradley

Okay - so are you a handbag addict? I Know at least one of you who is reading this is...*cough-Brandy-cough* My baby sister has a pretty serious addiction to purses/handbags/accessories (AND SHOES!) Anyone who knows her can tell you that i'm being truthful here :) Well if you are similarly afflicted (Or need to buy for someone on your Christmas list who is....) I found a deal for you :)

Verabradley.com is selling the SUPER CUTE Hannah bag for $12.00... There is also a 10% off coupon code: 10offsale

So you can get this purse for $10.80!!! plus shipping (Shipping is kinda expensive at $8.00 but you can get multiple bags shipped at that price so if you and your enabler or other handbag addicted friend want to order at the same time and split the cost of shipping then you could end up with a SUPER sweet deal on a Vera Bradley purse :)

Here is the link for the handbags and remember the coupon code to get it for $10.80 is 10offsale

This is a small purse...but lots of girls are carrying purses small these days...or it might be a cute makeup bag...... the dimensions are: 6 ½" x 7 ½" x 2 ½" with a 6 ½" strap drop

How to have Christmas on a zero budget

Is your budget absolutely strapped this year or are you just looking to cut back?

This post was pretty interesting. It is how to have a Christmas on a zero budget.

I may incorporate some of these things into my Christmas this year as I don't have a very large budget but I want to make Christmas very special for my babies.

I have a sick 2 year old which explains what i'm doing up at 3am!!!! so Thursday could be full of posts or more likely I could be strangely absent. I will respond to questions and emails as fast as I can though....I have a few new features i'd like to get up and it looks like I might be able to if she stays asleep long enough this time :/ My poor girl :(

CUTE STOCKING STUFFER!!!!

Okay So how many of you love being your kids hero in general? I LOVE IT!!! I love being able to make things magical for my children. Fortunately my little girl makes me feel 10 feet tall and bullet proof. I took dinner out of the oven the other day and she was standing there and screamed "OH WOW!!!!!! WOW MAMA WOW!!!!" and applauded then sang out "EAT, EAT, WOW MAMA, EAT!" Who felt like Rachel Ray???? This girl did!!! :)

Well have I got a deal for Super Mom & Super Dad!!!! Take a look at my pal Mr. Potato Head!!!

I think he is super cute!!!! and he would look rather handsome sticking out of the top of your little ones stocking this year for the price of 99¢!!!

YES You read that right. If you scrounge on the ground and manage to find like 116 pennies you are sure (as long as your tax is less than 16%) to be able to snatch one of these puppies up at target!! :)

There are printable TOY COUPONS here. They expire sometime in January so go ahead and print some and save them for a sale or something :) Or don't print them but make sure you print the coupon for the Spud Buds toy!!!! (Double check before printing that your coupon is -$5.00 and says "Spud Bud" on it!!! There is a $2.00 off Mr. Potato Head coupon also!)

Then visit Target and pick up the $5.99 Christmas version of this cutie Patootie and wait to light up your little ones life in a little over a month.

Don't have kids? Don't have a kid who would appreciate Mr. Potato Head??? That's fine! I think you should pick one up anyway and donate it to an angel tree somewhere, or if you know a family in need - donate it anonymously to the parents (pre-gift wrapped) with a little note listing what it is. Angel Tree Programs would take these and so would just about any sort of Christmas/kids/charity program you could imagine. I bet even homeless shelters would take them to give to homeless children on Christmas eve and in TN with our 9% tax - $1.07 can seem like a lot of cash when you have no income (Believe me. I know!) but look at the power of that $1.07!!

Thanks Couponing To Disney For the heads up!!!

SUPER AWESOME INCREDIBLE TARGET DEAL!!!

So I was just looking through Michelle at I heart Saving Money's blog grabbing out drug store posts when I was stopped cold in my tracks. Almost to the point of snatching up my kids as is and going to target NOW. (and we'd be super cute since we are all 3 still gussied up in our pajamas!!!

As you know my daughter had a birthday last week (October 25th specifically!)

One of the toys she got is the Leap Frog Tag Junior system and 5 books to go with it.

I love my baby girl - she just turned 2!!! She got the tag junior system ON her actual birthday from her father. Well... You can connect the toy to the internet (In fact you have to connect it in order to download the audio for the books that your child is going to play with.) When you connect the tag jr it uploads information to the connect software. It tells the computer how long your child spent playing with each book, what his/her favorite page was and it tells you the skills your child has been working on.

Things Lila has learned and begun talking about since we got this system 8 days ago:
Shapes: Triangle, Circle, square, rectangle, star, balloon (Oval LOL)
Colors: Blue, Green, Yellow (She was working on these before...but is MUCH More vocal about them now)
Fruit names: banana, lime, pineapple

She has LEARNED More than that but those are things that I almost can't get her to shut up about. (not that i'd want her to!) Her favorite color seems to be blue - if she sees it she informs you it is BLUE!

Little Brother won't be 2 for a while...but I know of lots of other kids out there who may be interested in this item....it might be nice to have 1 in my toy cabinet.

These typically retail for $34.99

Check out what you can do at Target:
Leap Frog Tag Junior System $28.99
-$10 off LeapFrog Tag Reading System (Target Toys Booklet)*Coupon does not excluded Tag Junior* (I MUST find this booklet - I think it's at customer service but can't swear to it!)
-$5 Tag Junior system PRINT
Using both coupons you pay $13.99

The Walmart ad for November 8th shows a Rollback on two tag jr books. They show Tag Jr Cars and Ni Hao Kai Lan books being rolled back to $8.00 each (They were $13.97)

If you are a leapfrog connect member and sign up for the learning path membership (it's free) then you become eligible for an automatic discount FROM Leapfrog of 20% off and free shipping.

After you sign up you can click through and get a coupon code that gets you 20% off plus free shipping at leapfrog.com!

Prices from Leapfrog.com:
Tag Jr ABC Animal Orchestra book - $9.99 - 20% = $8.00
All Other books: $10.99 - 20% = $8.79 each

The Tag Jr for Girls gift pack which is the leapfrog jr plus Dora 1-2-3 and Ni Hao Kai Lan is $50.99 on sale

$13.99 tag jr from target
$8.00 Ni Hao Kai Lan from Walmart next week (or price match at target!!!)
$8.79 Dora 1-2-3 from Leapfrog.com
$30.78 total

That is a pretty incredible deal if you asked me :) Which you didn't!

Virtually FREE Snow White DVD

Now...you know that I have a princess-OBSESSED One year old whose birthday is 1 month away (ACK!) and Christmas is 3 months away from tomorrow!!! So I'd really like to get a headstart on my Christmas Shopping.

I was super duper happy when I read on Southern Savers about this sweet deal.

You can get the New Diamond Edition of Disney's Snow White for around 95¢ starting Oct. 6th (if you have the older version).

Go here to get the scoop. PS If you have trouble - I think you should read the comments - I think it will help you :)!!

Make a Difference Monday Part 1:: Christmas in August!!

Even though it's still hitting the 100's daily....I have been thinking about Christmas for several weeks. If we aren't careful about time it will speed past us and then, we will turn around and that old fat man will be "Ho ho ho" ing all over the place!!! Money will be tight and time will be tighter.

In 1977 I was 25 months old at Christmas. . . The day I met with Santa that year, I must have been hungry. I only asked Santa for two things. Ice Cream & Hotdogs. Christmas morning under my tree I found....why...that jolly old elf had been so nice to this little girl!!! There was a rocking horse and Hotdogs and Icecream. Children have such simple wishes, don't they?
Our wishes get much less simple as we age. In 1993 I was a teenager and at the height of a very self-centered streak...(almost all teenagers are self-centered to some extent..it's part of growing up!) Our first period class chose to sponsor a large family of 6 at Christmas. For some reason, our teacher had another student and myself drop the items off. When I took the items to the family's trailer to drop them off I dropped off a giant ham and all the trimmings for a very NICE Christmas dinner, roughly $100.00 in Gift Certificates from Kroger for future groceries, a coat for each person, an outfit for each person and a toy or two per child.

I don't remember why I was elected to play elf-girl but I'm glad that I was. That really affected me. How awesome was it for those parents to be able to give their children a Christmas because of the kindness of others?

I feel burdened...as I said yesterday...God has been speaking to me, so I am challenging myself and I want to share my challenge with you: Encourage a group you are a part of to adopt a family for Christmas and really do it up for the family. In this area I understand an organization called HUGS handles that and I have looked for a link for them for days, hopefully someone "in the know" will comment or email and let me know contact information so that people involved in other churches can participate too if they are looking for a program like this

Imagine how much stuff you would be able to stock up for Christmas giving if you start using coupons & shopping sales now. The challenge is not to just stock up random items but try to stock as many of the "Essentials" as possible before Christmas time giving gets underway.

I think I may just save my items and give them to the church to choose distribution to fill in holes depending on what the church chooses as their goal.


What a Glory to God it will be when that family receives a gift basket from the church that contains not only a BUNCH of food but also toothpaste, mouth wash, dental floss, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, body wash/soap, etc. and then because you were able to stretch your charity budget that much farther just using coupons, maybe there will be an extra toy or so in there for their babies.

Looking for a way to adopt a family? Gladeville Baptist Church does this every Christmas & Thanksgiving. Please feel free to contact the church at (615) 444 - 9550 to see about donating and helping meet the needs of people within this community!


Not from this community? Check with your local churches & Department of Human Services to locate an organization that may offer the same thing. I don't know about you folks, but I am super excited about this Holiday Season!!!


Please find a way to bless a teacher this week. It doesn't have to be anything big, but please take the time to write a note or buy a .49 pack of pens during the back to school sales and send them to a teacher.