There is no way in the world I'd get out in the Black Friday crowds, however there were a couple of places I really wanted to get some deal goodies!   Sooooo, today I talked my husband into going to Walgreens and Winn Dixie, where we scored some great savings!  Here is a picture of my Walgreen's trip -- WHOOHOOO!

Walgreen's had 64 oz bottles of Mott's apple juice 2/$3.00, making it $3.00 for a gallon, which is even cheaper than at the Commissary.  There was a limit of 4, so I got 4.  THEN, the biggest deal of all was their AA or AAA 4-pack batteries "Buy 1 get THREE free" -- with Christmas coming up soon and 5 little ones under the age of 6 -- you just know I HAD to get two sets of this deal.  I actually ended up with a bill of $14.58 for all this stuff, and after giving the cashier two $5 Register Rewards, my total bill was $4.58.  The register receipt listed $42.30 as my total savings --- guess that's about 90% savings!!!  Should have gone back in a second time for an identical order, but they only had 2 apple juice's left and 3 packs of the AA batteries.  Oh well, the deal I got was SUPER for me!

When our now 5 year old quadruplet grandbabies were much younger, I made DOZENS of crinkle toys for them.  Small children simply LOVE to play with things that crinkle, jingle or make any kind of noises.

I've put together a pattern  package of the 10 most popular crinkle toys  I've made for the grandchildren AND I've included enough crinkle material to make all 10 toys plus extra.  Here's a picture of three of the toys:

These toys were co-ordinating fabrics from my older grandson's bedroom -- then when the quads were born we used every kind of scrap fabric we could find so everybody could have toys.  We put crinkle material in all of them, but some also had a little bell stuck inside with the quilt batting so it would jingle AND crinkle.

You can read more about the crinkle toys patterns and the crinkle material at SewWithSarah.com .  This is a wonderful way to use up some of your scraps AND make some children very happy.

If you'd like to give the pattern as a gift to someone who sews AND you'd like one for yourself --- if you order by December 10, we'll give you the second pattern FREE - you just pay the shipping for the second pattern.  Give us a call at 1-800-883-2348 and we'll take your order.

I'm really AMAZED at how "busy" our little 5 year old quadruplet grandchildren and their big 6 year old brother want to be!  They LOVE to help and BEG to do stuff for us.  Yesterday when the quads were sleeping Jacob, the 6 year old, pestered me to death about wanting to wash dishes.  Well, I figure the younger you let kids help with things, the sooner they'll actually be able to do stuff on their own.  So I put the breakables into the dish washer and left him with the non-breakable glasses, cereal bowls, some silverware, etc.  He'll wash and wash then rinse them for the dish drainer.  He has never yet quit in the middle of doing the dishes I've set aside for him.

Another thing these kids do is IF they start something before bedtime, they want it left alone so they can "work" on it again in the morning.  They'll wake up, half stumble into the living room then head right to the place where their "work" is so they can get started again.  We have a variety of blocks for them - some cardboard brick looking blocks, other medium size blocks and some that are very tiny that they build with.  Check out this picture of what Jacob and Brandon built -- also check out the jammies they still have on - no time to change before starting to work!



These guys can get pretty creative with their building projects, so I really believe we do have some little engineers here!

Boy Howdy - Christmas is right around the corner!  I just can't believe the year has gone by sooooo FAST!  My daughter starts early in the year and when she finds things that would be suitable for certain people she picks them up, and many times gets great deals on them.  This year I wish I'd been like her -- now I'm certainly NOT a procrastinator, but........... with Christmas coming along so quickly, I realized I'd better be getting in gear and finding some things!

Denise has put together a super awesome list of Christmas gift ideas over at her ShopperStrategy  blog and I'm here to tell you I'm going to be putting that list to good use!  She has gift ideas for nearly every person you'd be getting a gift for ---- here's the direct link to the Holiday Wish List   page - the gift ideas she's put together is great.

She has spent a great deal of time - nearly two weeks putting together "just the right things" for the Holiday Wish List, so if you need a little help deciding what to get for some of your family / friends / co-workers, check out the list and see what all you can come up with.

I really like shopping at Winn Dixie -- they have my husband's favorite baked beans (best in the world he says), and I like the great deals that they have.  This week they had a special deal where you could buy an 18 roll pack of Charmin toilet tissue and get for free ---3 bar pkg zest hand soap, Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, box of Winn Dixie facial tissues, and a canister of clorox disinfecting wipes for $12.99 and have a savings of $9.66.  WELL, with other sale items and BOGO's I actually got $86.69 worth of products for $49.29, a savings of $37.40 or 43%.  Check out my haul:


Winn Dixie brand of peas, green beans & corn were all 50 cents/can, Ajax laundry soap was B1Get 2 free - so $6.99 got me 3 bottles of laundry detergent.  Head lettuce was BOGO, and tomatoes were on sale as well.

A few weeks ago there was a segment on HLN news regarding the "store" brand  of items such as canned vegetables, waxed paper, aluminum foil, etc -- the bottom line was that many of the "store" brands are made in the same factories as the NAME brands, just that today's run is "Name" brand, tomorrow's run is "store" brand, etc.  That tells me that those store brand peas & other veggies are exactly the same as the expensive name brands.

Actually, while we were in the military and stationed in Taiwan, we visited a pants factory, and what I just was talking about was true there!  The day we were there, the factory was making pants for a high class expensive brand of pants and the day before had made pants for one of the discount clothing stores (SAME exact pants just different labels for different days).

With as many mouths as we have to feed, wash clothes for, and BUY toilet tissue for, these savings were awesome!!  If you have a Winn Dixie anywhere close by I'd recommend you grab one of their sales flyers and do some shopping there.

For the past few days I've seen several television news stations talking about McDonald's major marketing dollars intended for our CHILDREN!  They're asking whether or not McDonald's should be going after the young children -- toddlers to boot - with their advertising campaigns, trying to lure the kids into their stores.   They're saying that with the hundreds of "choices" of childrens meals, only 12 are even close to being healthy, which is helping our nation's children get heavier and heavier.

To tell you the truth, I'm on the side of several of those who called into the shows saying "the kids aren't getting to McDonald's on their own - who's taking them?"  PARENTS!  And what's up with parents who apparently are taking those children to McDonalds for FRENCH FRIES, greasy burgers, etc several times a week.  One lady called in with the comment that children are getting sugar cereal for breakfast, minimal healthy food at lunch at school, then parents take them to fast food restaurants for supper -- and we wonder why they're getting fat!

Our daughter with the 5 year old quadruplets and 6 year old son COOK every evening meal.  She is owner of ShopperStrategy , a blog with shopping deals and giveaways as well as information about freezer cooking, and every Monday she gives out her menu plan for the week -- EVERY meal being cooked at home!  About twice a month, as we take the 6 year old home from spending the weekend with us, we'll stop at McDonalds and get supper for them.  I figure a couple times a month on the chicken nuggets and a few french fries, along with juice to drink won't kill them, but I'm apalled at those parents who spend the big dollars on fast food several nights or every night of the week.  Denise's kids LOVE fruits, veggies and will BEG for cantalope or grapes or bananas (cut up in a bowl is their latest craze), and only ONE of the kids will even eat candy at all -- the little candy eater is the chocoholic (like her mother and grandmother), but the others won't even take any kind of candy if it's offered to them.  Or, if they take it, they'll take a lick and lay it down.  These kids also drink milk, juice or water - they never have tea or sodas of any kind.

Well, I'll get off my soap box now, but I can definitely see why more and more aunts, grandmothers and mothers are checking out and buying our PlusSizeChildren's patterns and pattern making classes  because there just aren't clothing garments or patterns in the large sizes that these children require.  If you have overweight children in your family, check out the patterns and classes and at least help these kids look nice with clothing that actually fits them.

I'm normally a Commissary shopper since my husband is retired Air Force, however there are times when the local grocery stores have offers that can't be beat.

This week it's Publix with the super savings and coupons!  I just LOVE using their Green and Yellow Advantage coupon booklets for coupons that can be used with sale items.  The current yellow advantage booklet has a $2.00 coupon on any Contessa MicroSteam or On The Stove Meal - AND their weekly ad has these same Contessa meals BOGO!  

I got $42.48 worth of groceries for $17.12 for a savings of 60%.

  Here's my picture and the details of todays haul:



As you can see we're doubled up on the Contessa meals because my husband graciously agreed to come in with me and check out with part of my order.

Contessa Meals, reg. $7.99 are BOGO, then we each used two of the $2/1 coupons, making the final cost $2.00 per meal bag.
The Spam was on sale 2/$4.00, which is cheaper than the Commissary has right now
Mustard was regular price
One gallon of fat free milk at Publix is $3.25, which is an awesome price compared to the other grocery stores.

We had one of the Contessa meals for supper tonight and it was DELICIOUS -- and we actually had some left over.  My daughter said it's too bad it didn't come with bread and a waiter!  Can't have everything I guess.

This is a pretty odd topic, but I do have a funny story (or two) about grandchildren and bedwetting.  I know some families have problems with bedwetters way up into school years and in some families there is no problem at all.  I really wonder sometimes what makes the difference.  My grandson Jacob went to a "tumbling" and gymnastics class for several months and one mother who had two daughters about 2 years apart had major bedwetting problems with her older daughter (who was 7 at the time - and still wetting the bed) and the younger 5 year old who never wet the bed.  She blamed it on the pull-ups she put on the older daughter which she said never "made" the girl learn control and learn to go to the bathroom when necessary and not just simply be lazy and go in the pullups.  Never heard that before, but she was determined that was the problem.

Well, with our quadruplets (who are just now 5), we haven't had bedwetting problems - however an occasional "accident" is to be expected.  Perhaps the child was sleeping extra hard or maybe had too much to drink before going to bed - who knows.  The funny part is how children REACT to the bedwetting accident.  Here's how it goes:

One morning maybe a year ago, Brandon woke up and came to me in the office to sit on my lap before heading to the living room.  This boy was SOAKED, so we went into the bedroom to check out his bed.  He informed me that he did NOT tee tee in the bed because he ALWAYS goes to the bathroom.  So I just wondered how the bed got all wet and his jammies were wet.  He let me know real quick that because it was raining last night the rain came in the window and went to the light and dropped down on his bed and made him all wet.  He then wanted to move his bed a little bit so no more rain could drop down from the light.  Well, guess what - his bed has never been wet again, so I guess moving it away from the light did the trick.

Sienna on the other hand wet the bed only one time in her life that I know of -- and when it happened she sat in the bed and SCREAMED -- MAMAW!  MAMAW!  And boy howdy at 2 am when somenbody screams like that it takes less than 2 seconds for me to get across the house and down the hall to see what's the problem.   She was having an absolute FIT because her underwear was wet!  After getting her calmed down and getting new underwear and nightgown and a change of sheets she went back to sleep just fine.

Sarah, on the other hand, just about takes the cake!  She is little miss independent and can take care of herself.  A few weeks ago she also had an accident -- and NOBODY knew about it until the next morning when Sienna told on her and said for me to be sure to wash the sheet because Sarah had made it wet.   I asked Sarah about it (who by the way was out sleeping on the couch instead of in the wet bed in the morning) --- she told me she'd gone into the playroom to get new underwear, took her wet underwear to the laundry room then went to sleep on the couch.  All of this was done with NO noise and nobody was aware that she'd had a problem because she'd taken care of it herself.  And while we're on the subject of little Miss Independent -- can you guess what the first words out of her mouth were when the kids were learning to talk -- "I do it MYSELF!"  That's the story about Sarah -- if she can't do something, she WILL figure out a way to get it done.  She rarely asks for help, and if you see her struggling with something like a zipper, etc and attempt to help, she'll turn away in a flash with the same words - "I do it MYSELF!".

So much for the bedwetting topic --- I just found it interesting the way each of the kids handled the situation when it happened.  Oh, and if Zachary ever wets the bed, I'll let you know what he does about the situation!

Can You BELIEVE I got all THIS for $16.39???


I saw a great $10 off a $20 Office Depot coupon over at ShopperStrategy.com  - printed it and headed over to check out their copy paper, and instead found RACKS of deeply discounted school supplies!  They had 30 count box of school glue for $5.00, school scissors for .50 each, hand sanitizer and liquid soap for $1.00 each, boxes of 100 band aids for $1.00 and 4-packs of glue sticks for .50.  They also had back packs for $5.00 each and other assorted duotang binders, etc, but here's my list:

1 box of 30 school glue bottles
11 pair school scissors
6 boxes of 100 ct band aids (for my 5 year old quads and their big 6 year old brother, these should last at least 6 months!)
4 packages of 4 ct glue sticks
5 z bottles of hand sanitizer
2  13-oz bottles of liquid hand soap

My total minus the $10.00 coupon was $15.50 plus .89 tax for the grand total of $16.39!

My plan is to head over there today with another coupon and see if I can stock up on some school supplies to donate to the kids' elementary school - I'm sure they could use some of this stuff!

THANK YOU ShopperStrategy  for passing along this fabulous coupon!

I've seen a LOT of tiny babies lately!  Everywhere I go it seems like there are more and more strollers, babies in their mommy's arms and baby carriages.  I'm wondering how many of these mothers are nursing their little ones!   If the garment industry is the same now as when my daughter was nursing her firstborn, there was NOTHING available in the area of nursing garments that she'd want to wear at home, much less go out in public with!

Being a pattern designer AND a desperate nursing mother looking for attractive nursing garments, she came up with a whole line of nursing tops, dresses and nightgowns.   These nursing garment patterns started selling like hot cakes, which means she was not the only one looking for attractive nursing clothing.

Check out the i-nursing.com  site and see for yourself the patterns that are available, as well as super information on nursing and other resources.  Here are pictures of a couple of the patterns to check out:

       

There are many styles of dresses and tops patterns available -- check them all out at i-nursing.com -  pass this information along to your family and friends that you know are nursing their baby and also looking for comfortable and attractive nursing garments.