Having a hard time getting Tommy to go to bed tonight.   I have already layed down with him for 1/2 hour and I am just not ready to go to bed yet.   I did get Tommy's and Erik's summer clothes out and organized.  They both have plenty of shorts.  I bought Tommy some more underwear today since he is wearing them most of the time now.   I will take Erik shopping when he gets here for the summer.  

I bought one book at Half Price Books, called Drowning Ruth.   I have been meaning to read that one.  I am reading the Frugal Living book and should finish that this weekend.  Then I will either start my book for book group in June or will read Drowning Ruth.  I do have a good book about autism that I picked up at the library....too....too many books and not enough time!  

Later!  I  think Tommy is finally asleep...I am going to bed to read!  NIGHT!

Hubby was so nice to me this morning.  I got up at 6:00 with Tommy and then went back to bed once I got him back to sleep.  The next time I woke up it was 10:30!!!   I haven't slept that long in years!  Boy did I need it!  Hopefully that means I can make it through today without a nap.  

We are going to the Half Price Books in St Paul.  It is the largest one in the cities.  I need to find some books and they didn't have them at the one near our house.   The rest of the afternoon will be finishing Erik's room and reorganizing Tom's room.  

SUNDAY

MORNING
Church - OOOPS Hubby Let me sleep in!
Go to Half Price Books in St Paul - DONE

AFTERNOON
Erik's Clothes Put Away - DONE
Tom's Room and Clothes - DONE

EVENING
Missions
Relax/Read

Finally it is quiet at my house...the toy area is destroyed, but I will deal with that tomorrow. I am so tired.  I didn't get a chanc to relax today hardly at all.   I guess I am right now, but I am about ready to go to sleep.   My SIL came to pick up her daughter at 7:30 and stayed to help me go through bins downstairs and look through what clothes we have for Erik.   He is good for Summer!   But we will need a fair amount of clothes for school.   We went through 12 bins of clothes.   I got rid of 2 huge leafe bags of clothes that were either out of style, stained or didn't fit.   I kept three bins of clothes that Erik can grow into, but that was it.  I am not entirely done yet, but will finish up tomorrow after church. 

I need to go through Tommy's dresser and closet tomorrow and get his summer clothes into his drawers.  Hopefully Tommy will take a nap tomorrow so I can do some more work in the basement. 

SATURDAY

MORNING
Laundry - DONE
Library - DONE
Took Tommy to Movie - DONE

AFTERNOON
Erik's Clothes and Bedroom - ALmost DONE

EVENING
Missions
Relax

I am off to bed to read for a bit........have a great night!  Good Night!

Been a nice quiet day.  We went to the movie this morning and took Tommy to Madagascar.   It was ok....not great.  I even fell asleep.  LOL!!   We dropped off stuff at the library and then came home.   Tommy fell asleep on the way home from the library, but wouldn't nap when we got home.  I sure tried since I wanted a nap!   So no one got naps today....bummer!   

I worked on laundry most of the afternoon and made Baked Ziti (SmileNJ's recipe) for supper.   Very Yummy!!!   I am now babysitting my neice until around 8:00 or so.   I need to jsut do a couple of mission in my bedroom and then I will read for the rest of the evening.   I will give Tommy a bath and hopefully he will fall to sleep early since he hasn't had a nap.  

I liked reading all your difinitions of what defines frugal living!!   Be sure that you will be seeing more posts about frugal living.  Summer is here and our daycare expenses jump to nearly $800.00 a month so we have to tighten our belts a bit!!  Not to mention some small vacation, most likely we will only be able to go to my parents this year.  Also the expense of graduation pictures this summer and as always new clothes for school for the boys. 

Later All!!!  Have a  great evening!

What does being Frugal mean to you????  I would say I am frugal, but that doesn't mean my family lives on ramen or is deprived.   Frugal living to me means that our family still dines at nice restaurants on special occassionals - often with a coupon or a special offer.  Definitely we budget for our meals out.  It also means that we watch most movies we want to by waiting to use the discount tickets from my work to actually see the movie in the theatre, (about 3 times a year), or we simply wait for the video rental. 

My three kids dress in fashionable, name brand clothes!   Usually purchased secondhand or from clearance racks at favorite stores, must be marked down twice before I will buy it!   I will say one thing if you have more than one child to clothe, name brand is the way to go.  It tends to be better quality and can make it through more than one child still looking pretty good.  Another great store for teen clothes is Plato's Closet a teen consignment store.   For my little one I go to Once Upon a Child and garage sales.   I hate to shop as anyone that knows me will attest to, but for my children I have to stop in the consignment places off and on to stock up, etc.  It is well worth the time spent looking!

And finally we don't eat ramen.....sometimes we do....the kids like it!  But we eat high-quality, delicious foods at home.  Our meals are lovingly prepared from a predetermined menu from sale items at the grocery store. 

Frugal living to us means going to the library every week for books, CD's, movies and Magazines.   I do buy some books, but only for my bookgroup since I might like to mark in it.

Also living frugal means living within your means and using a budget.    Frugal living means saving up for purchases vs. impulse buying......

Today was a lovely day and I am looking forward to a relaxing and productive weekend.  Xanga was down today so I couldn't check my to do list, but I did everything on my list, but vacuum out the truck.   I did well with my groery budget.  I spent 76.02 and bought 18 pounds of chicken breasts.  I froze five meals of chicken in marinade.  I bought Tommy's birthday present as well.  Hubby and I figured out what to get Erik for his birthday so I will probably buy that in next weeks budget.   I am reading Frugal Living for Dummies, some of it is a refresher, but has great ideas.   I hope to read a bit more of it this weekend.

Hubby and I went out this evening for our anniversary.   We haven't been out since January so it was a nice treat.   Josh, Amy and Kyle babysat for us.  We went out to supper at Buffalo Wild Wings and to the movie.  We saw, Kicking and Screaming with Will Ferrell.   It was pretty funny. 

I jsut finished dishes and now I am going to head to bed.  Have a great night!   

Happy Anniversary!!   Hubby and I have been married 5 years today.   I must say the time has gone very quickly and very happily.  I know I truly married my best friend.  I look forward to our life together very much.

MY HUSBAND

Seems like a perfect time to let everyone, including my hubby know what I love about my hubby. 

Dedicated to Me - hubby has always been very dedicated to me.  I can honestly say many times over, "No one has ever done that for me".  My hubby has.....and more!  I have never doubted his love for me.  Some of the many things he has done for me that no one else has......  He went to a woman's clinic with me when I had to have a mammogram due to some suspicious lumps.  He was the only man in the clinic.   But he is always there for me.   He attended every single prenatal appointment during my pregnancy with Tommy.  And I had alot of appointments since I had to see a nutritionist and endocrinologist due to compilations with my pregnancy.  He would read to me each night from a book about how our baby was growing.  He bought all my maternity clothes and things for the baby by going to garage sales.  He gave me over 200 insulin shots during my pregnancy.  He made me stop counting them....LOL!  I hated the shots!  He was there for the delivery and amazing!  The morning after I gave birth he came back with the largest bouquet of roses. 

The few times I have had serious injury or illness my hubby has always taken over and cared for me and the children wonderfully.   I love him for being at the hospital minutes after the ambulance took me following my car accident.  I love him for visiting me in the ICU when I had a severe asthma trouble and he was sick and Tommy was sick too.  He had his hands full.   He has gone to countless Dr appointments and specialists about my asthma as well.  

He does little things daily to let me know he loves me.  A chocolate on my pillow, always a kiss before he leaves (even if I am sound asleep), says he loves me numerous times a day.   He still holds my hand after all these years........the little things matter!

Great Father - My hubby loves he sons!   He is great with them all.   I love him for attending all their events, helping with homework.  Having life discussions with our children.  He was a stay at home Dad with Tommy for over a year.  I went back to work and my hubby stayed home and cared for our baby.  So let me tell you he has done his fair share of diaper changes and messy clean-ups!   He is an active father who doesn't leave the child rearing all on me.   We are a great team!  I love him for teaching our oldest to drive.  After my car accident I was so scared to be in cars.  He took all the responsibility over.

He always puts our sons first.  If we have limited amount of money and we usually do, my hubby makes sure our children have what they need first and foremost.  Be it preschool, clothes, missions trips...whatever.....our children are first in his mind.   

Dedicated to Family - My hubby is a great son and brother.  My heart always smiles when he talks to his Mom and says "love ya momma!" at the end of each conversation.   He is good to his parents and helps and takes care of them as much as he can.  He is always there for his siblings and would do anything for them and does.  He is great with my family as well and would do anything for them.

Loves God- I love that my hubby is a Christian.  He attends church with us.  So many times I look around the church and I see moms with their children and their hubby is not there.  My hubby is always helping our children's faith to grow and is very active.  I love him for that! 

Hardworking -  When it comes to work, my hubby does his best to provide for us!  He works hard and his bosses always respect and appreciate him.  He is easy to get along with and everyone loves him......

Integrity - My hubby lives life like he preaches....if that makes sense.  I never see him say one thing to the children about how they should do something or not do something and then not live by those words himself.   He is authentic!

Honest/Fair - This is something I admire my hubby for immensely.   He is the fairest and most honest person I know.   I have never wondered if he was lying to me ever.  I have a big thing about lying.  I get really upset about it.   Even in situations where my hubby has been wronged, if he has the chance he will set things right and fair. He would never do something unfair out of spite or being upset.    As he says, "Two wrongs don't make a right!".  He really lives by that!  He will definitely speak his mind, but in resolving conflict he is very fair.   He is very honest too and doesn't even do the lying by omission....well at least I have never experienced it, that I know of *smirk! 

He is a great hubby and father and I hope my sons all grow up to possess all the qualities I love about my hubby!   

I Love you!!  Forever and Always!

Tommy slept in his bed most of the night after I put him back to bed from our bed.   So I sort of feel rested.  Someday I will geta full night sleep again!  YOu can't help but love the little guy.  While I am falling a sleep I hear over and over..."momma, I really really really love you very very very much".   He always tells me he has to sleep in my bed since he loves me so much..LOL!!  How can you deny him that.   It is actually kind of nice...he shares my pillow with me and tells me about his day.  He was telling me last night how he got in trouble at aunties house.  Something about the climbing cube and that he didn't get to watch scooby doo because he was in trouble. 

I am a bit bummed, I can't go to my bookgroup tonight.   Hubby volunteered to teach a class at the college so I have to be home with Tommy since Josh is working.  I actually had the book even read! OH well, I will get some things done around the house. I have alot of stuff I want to get done this weekend. 

With going to three kids for the summer I have to get a bit more organized again.  So I hope to accomplish alot over this weekend.  So I wrote out a tenative plan so I balance work and relaxtion as I am terrible at that.  I tend to work until I drop!

MY SCHEDULE:

FRIDAY

MORNING
Tom to Preschool - DONE
Pay bills/budget - DONE
Call Lori -DONE
Drop off School Registration Forms - DONE
Groc list/Menu - DONE
Vacuum out Truck

AFTERNOON
Tom to daycare - DONE
Errands/Groc. - DONE
Relax - DONE (tried to nap)

EVENING
Out for our anniversary - DONE

SATURDAY

MORNING
Laundry - DONE
Library - DONE
Took Tommy to Movie - DONE

AFTERNOON
Erik's Clothes and Bedroom

EVENING
Missions
Relax

SUNDAY

MORNING
Church

AFTERNOON
Tom's Room and CLothes

EVENING
Missions

MONDAY
MORNING

Laundry Room/Laundry

AFTERNOON
???????

4 to 8 - Go To CIndy and Wills for BBQ

I am not finding many ways to change my budget while reading the everything budget book.   I guess there really isn't anyway to get any tighter.   I did convince hubby to cancel netflix for the summer.   Now if I could just get him to go to basic cable only.   If I lived alone I wouldn't have cable at all.  But I am not a TV watcher.  I am starting to save money now for Josh's grad pics and school clothes shopping for Josh and Erik.     Tommy will go to preschool next year two days a week and has plenty of school clothes, but Erik and Josh will need some.  Erik will need the most I think.  I will do an inventory of that this wekeend too!    Then I have the summer to check clearance racks and hit sales.   I should be able to get alot at Old Navy since I can have Josh use his discount. 

Time to get busy....Have a great day!!  The sun is shining in Minnesota...mark it on the calendar!

Lots going on in our house....always busy with school winding down and getting ready for summer.  I still need to get Erik and Tom's summer clothes out and in their drawers.   I have Tom's out, but haven't put them in since it has been so cold.   I have a 4 day weekend this weekend so I hope to get this stuff all done.  I need to do an inventory of Erik's clothes.   Hubby is sort of picky so if something is stained I have to make sure it doesn't go into his drawer.   I promised Erik when he came we would go shopping for summer sandals and socks, etc. and anything else he needs.  Erik moves in for the summer after going on vacation with his mother and her family.   I think he will be at our house June 12th, so plenty of time to get his clothes out and figure out what we need to buy. 

I really need to update our calendar at home and get organized again.  We have a few things planned already this summer.  We are going to my nephews wedding in Fargo the weekend of June 24th.  And for the July 4th holiday we are going to South Dakota.   I am hoping to do a weekend get away as we always do in August.  This year the kids start school Sept. 1st so we can't do our usual holiday get away.   Our friends have a time share and they were looking into finding us a weekend.  They are the greatest!   They let us go to Breeze Point over the winter...it was alot of fun!  

Well lunch is over....later!

The sun is out for the second day in a row in Minnesota...WOW!  I took part of my lunch break and took a 20 minutes walk.  Unfortunately I walked in my sandals....OUCH!!   I will have to bring a pair of tennis shoes to the office to keep here so I can walk each day over lunch.  I think this is a better solution for me since I don't seem to have the time during the week to walk at home.  I do on the weekend and Friday, but not during the week.   I will walk 4 days a week at the office and ride bike on Friday and the weekend.  That should help with the weight loss, I hope!    Once it gets too hot, I won't be able to walk as much, I will have asthma attacks with the heat.  My office does have a gym in the basement, but i have been too self consious to use it.  Maybe by winter i will be able to do that???  Hmmmmm.... Off to work!