This is our day here too... I'm so sorry you've been dealing with this. I'm at the end of my rope as well. :grouphug:

DH & I just watched this clip about an hour ago. We really like her. She's humble, yet incredibly talented. I hope she remains so. I love listening to DS6 sing her songs. :)

Finding Nemo and Cars Mary Poppins The Sound of Music The Neverending Story Goonies Shrek movies The Last Unicorn

A 12" non-stick jumbo skillet with a cover A couple of cookbooks for frugal cooking/living A nice covered casserole dish Dishcloths for my kitchen Books, although I'm still sorting through which titles I want (my list of books can be never-ending!)... one of them will be The Help. Pajamas and a pair of slippers

You've already received some great ideas. I'm following them carefully too as we're about to knock off some debt and we're "finding" money in our budget to do it. Thank you for asking this question! A great couponing site if you don't already know about it is www.afullcup.com. It has store lists under the Tools tab that allow you see which coupons match up to the current sales flier at that store, including doubles and triples. You can often print coupons straight from this site too. Good luck!

Saying prayers! :grouphug:

DS loves his knights set. I managed to find the rock castle for $10 at a consignment sale. It was missing the knights, but had a bunch of those already. He plays with it all the time. He also loves his pirates, police, and is asking for all the ocean expedition stuff for Christmas. He's already declared next Christmas will be for the Egyptians. :)

After my second son, a friend of ours brought over a pork tenderloin, green beans, roasted potatoes, and dessert. It was so nice to receive something that wasn't a casserole since we were inundated with them. Another great thing was a sandwich platter from our local deli with a huge side order of potato salad. We ate off that platter for days!

I just voted! She sounds fun... I like her quirky sense of humor during her pear story. :)

Thank you ladies! I'm pretty good with the coupon/grocery savings sites using these two the most often: www.afullcup.com and www.southernsavers.com I appreciate the other sites that talk about general frugal living in all aspects. We're really trying to simplify everything. We've just started reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, so the suggestion for one of his sites is especially relevant to us right now. Thanks again!

DH and I are working harder than ever to become more frugal and to take our money further than before. I'd love to hear your thoughts on your favorite frugal websites or forums that you can't live without. Thanks so much!

I'm with all the other posters and the Playmobil suggestion. You can't go wrong with Playmobil! :) Playmobil has a great hospital line to cover her desire to be a doctor some day.

DS6 was a great white shark - my talented sister made his costume DS2 was Thomas the Train, or in his words "Tom-Tom Choo-Choo" :)

Saying prayers. Please keep us posted.

I completely understand. It's SO easy to want to buy everything in the name of education for your kids because there are multitudes of amazing resources out there! I started falling into this, and I've found selling the unnecessary items to help some. Of course, I'm not able to reap all of what I shelled out to buy them in the first place, but bringing in a little money makes me feel less bad. I'm finding that I have to self-talk myself out of many things because I could buy educational materials/supplies daily! My best advice is to not beat yourself up over it since it's done and can't be changed - unless you are still within the allotted return times for some items? Try to sell the things you are not using, and then work on changing your mindset surrounding curriculum purchases. Another thing that really helped me was to truly analyze my child's learning style and force myself to only buy things within his style. This way I don't buy things just because they look amazing to *me* although he'd never like them. The book Discover Your Child's Learning Style opened my eyes in this area. HTH! :grouphug:

I love days like this! You must have felt so content, despite the mess she was making! My favorite one so far happened recently when my 6yo was wrapped in a blanket, and his 2yo brother was trying to unwrap him. DS6 shouts out, "Look, Mom! I'm a mummy and N is a tomb robber!" We had just learned about the Old Kingdom of Egypt in SOTW. I remember beaming and thinking, "Yes! He's getting it!" We're so blessed to be able to watch these learning connections firsthand!

This is my childhood as well.

We've already read this twice to DS... he absolutely adores it! Others are The Littles series The Secret Garden Swiss Family Robinson Heidi The Enormous Egg

Fast, fun reads for me lately! Something Borrowed - Emily Griffith Something Blue - Emily Griffith Blink of an Eye - Ted Dekkar

Not rude at all. It's your choice to participate. We have many houses in my neighborhood whose lights are off, but clearly someone is home. Some people do not believe in Halloween, or maybe their children are sick... there are a number of reasons why they are not giving out candy, but I can't judge. I just tell my son that we can only go to the houses with porch lights that are on.

:iagree:Your mom and my mom are cut from the same cloth. I know everything you are feeling right now. My mother is due to visit in 3 weeks, and she will be here for 2. I love my mother very much; however, I know my life will have to stop when she arrives (or I will need to prep her before she comes if I can't change a set of plans - I've done this for one event that has been planned for months). My mother is extremely jealous of others in her kids' lives. Instead of wanting us to be happy and see us thrive, she has always been defensive of our success, especially in the close friendships we may share with others. Purely by fact that she is our "mother", she feels she should be most important... sometimes superceding our husbands. That is unacceptable to me, and I've had to maintain my boundaries many times with her, and I plan to continue this. She is one of the reasons why Dh & I moved 1000 miles away. We were suffocating, and my relationship with her was affecting our marriage. I am not disrespectful when I deal with her, yet I do make sure to explain that my life is mine. In many ways, I have to be the adult, while she acts like a spoiled child. My consistent, loving "demand" for my boundaries is paying off, but it takes a lot of patience and mental effort from me because she does not see that her behavior is inconsiderate and inappropriate at times (ie. in front of the kids). When she is visiting, I back off on my time with friends because I've learned that she is never going to understand how some of my friends are like family to me. Instead of wanting me to have close relationships and security since I'm so far from her, she is jealous. So, I tread carefully here out of respect. I endure the time she is visiting knowing that we only see her a few times a year. If she begins to cross the line though, I will stand firm and remind her that she is my guest, and I do have a life that I am living before she arrives and then after she leaves. I hope to not be like her when my sons are grown... Wishing you all the best and sending lots of :grouphug:

THANK YOU!

SO very sad... that is one of my biggest fears whenever Dh and I go out without the boys. I'm saying many prayers for the girls and everyone affected.

HUGE Congratulations!!!!! So happy for you!!!!

I don't mind snakes, but I DO mind that these snakes are not being controlled and thus wreaking havoc on our ecosystems when they shouldn't be here in the first place. Now spiders... that's a whole different story!!! They scare me!!!