Numbers

As some of you know, I've been starting a brand new music program at my charter school. It got off to a rough start, given that student schedules were set long before the district knew that they were hiring a music teacher. I started off with 4 kids in band, and NO instruments. I've lost 2 of those kids due to family moves, so my numbers have been pretty small. Two students does not a band make.

As of yesterday, I have 13 kids who have signed up for high school band, and 3 who would like to be in the middle school band! So, I'm a little excited for this upcoming year! I plan on those numbers growing, because it doesn't count any new enrollments.

::does a little happy dance::

~Amy

Groupon- $5 Ticket to African Safari Wildlife Park

If you go to the Cincinnati Groupon page, they have tickets to the African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton, Ohio. Might be nice for a family trip! You can buy up to 6 tickets! I've had friends go to this, and they've said it's really neat!

TV Fasting update

So far, surviving with no TV for a week! (minus the 2 hours I was stuck in Tire Discounters this week, but there were no other chairs other than right in front of the TV...but I really wasn't paying attention to "Days of Our Lives" anyway!) Here's a list of all of the things I've accomplished this week, and all tv-free!

Sunday:
Tore out the "vine bush" that was in the side garden (It was evil, and trying to take over the holly bushes)
Put up the new mailbox! The post is now 3-feet deep in the ground, and is a treated 4x4 with a heavy-duty mailbox. I'd like to see the snow plow TRY to take it out this year! We have to laugh, because between snow plows and major rains, we're the ONLY house on the street with a straight mailbox. :-)

Monday:
MAJOR gardening overhaul! We redid the existing brickwork around the lilac tree, transplanted some flowers from where evil vine-bush was to around the lilac tree. Weeded around the entire back of the house and lined the whole garden portion with bricks. Dug up the dead rose bush and cultivated a good portion back by the porch to eventually put in an herb garden. The other bonus of the day...MAJOR sunburn on my shoulders and back!

Tuesday:
Chiropractor appointment (WAY overdue)
Had new tires put on the Honda (which took 2 hours). My car no longer shakes when I go over 50 mph!
Since I was down in the area, I picked up Indian food at the place that Nate and I took our 2nd date, and brought a (late, due to the 2 hour tire replacement) lunch to Nate at his work. Enjoyed a spiffy lunch with the most awesome hubby in the world.
Laundry
LOTS of ironing...I am SO far behind!
Did a major scrub-down of the master bathroom. This doesn't get cleaned NEAR as much as it should, since we tend to focus major cleaning jobs on the rooms that will be seen by my music students during lessons. :-p
Grocery run to Meijer- bought a ham, and we're going to try cooking and slicing this, since it's FAR cheaper per pound than lunchmeat!

Wednesday:
Cleaned/ironed at home while my car was being repaired. It was recalled! Apparently something in the engine could shut down and cause the car to lose power. Lucky me! :-p
Nate picked me up, took me to the Dentist. Need to have a soon-to-be-cavity filled. :-(
Aldi and Kroger stop on my way to a drum lesson.
Final run-through of the Easter Cantata!!

Thursday:
3-hour nap. In my defense, it was only supposed to be an hour. However, it appears that I just managed to change the clock time, rather than set the alarm itself. My error seems to have made the dog and the baby kitty very happy, because I had snuggle-buddies the whole time. :-)
Not a whole lot accomplished today. Massively long naps tend to throw off one's plans.

While I am antsy to get caught up on a few shows that I'm missing this week, I really have enjoyed the tv-free time this week. I've been making up for my need for noise by listening to a back-log of crown.org podcasts instead. :-)

Activities To Do While On a TV Fast

Nate and I have decided to take on the challenge offered by our pastor this week, and we are fasting from television during Holy Week. For us, this will be a challenge, since much of our evening social time revolves around catching up on the DVR list or enjoying our Netflix subscription. For me, especially, this will be hard, as I am the kind of person who enjoys having the TV on, if just for the background noise it provides. One week...no television! (and for us personally, no DVD's, no video games)

If you are also taking the TV Fasting challenge, or are just looking for some ideas for local family activities, I've put together a list of lots of things you can do to fill that time (or to keep the children otherwise entertained)!

1. Read a book! Stop by the Wilmington Library and borrow a book (or Book on Tape/CD), or go on Wednesday for their Toddler or Preschool Storytime. If you prefer electronic books, Amazon.com has a huge collection of free ebooks that you can download. If you don't have a Kindle or other e-reader, they have a "Kindle for PC" application that you can download for free to read the books on your computer.

2. Check out one of the Wilmington Parks! You can go feed the ducks, take a walk, or have a picnic! Take a Frisbee, and hope that the weather cooperates.

3. Go Geocaching! If you have a GPS or GPS-enabled device, you can go on a high-tech treasure hunt! There are several locations locally! Be sure to take a little trinket to leave behind when you find your hidden location!

4. Start a home garden! Even if you don't have a large yard, plant some container-friendly vegetables (like tomatoes or peppers) and enjoy some tasty home-grown veggies this summer. Or plant some flowers around your yard! Need some help starting a garden? Go to http://www.homefarming.com/

5. Do some family activities! Make your own instruments, enjoy the outdoors, or build something together.

6. Cook a meal together! Need some ideas? Pillsbury and Betty Crocker are great resources to see what you can make with the items you already have in your pantry. You can also use the extra time to plan and make some freezer meals. (I do the freezer meals a LOT! It takes so much of the guesswork out of trying to figure out what is for dinner. Give the meal the entire day to thaw in the fridge, and dinner comes about much faster when you don't have to chop/prep that night!)

7. Play a board game or do a puzzle! Dust off those games you haven't played in weeks or years! On a personal note, I remember many a childhood thunderstorm when the power would go out, and we would play Monopoly by candlelight, so this is a great tv-free task!

8. Do some spring cleaning and get organized! Nate and I have been following the Get Organized Wizard blog's 30-Day Organize-athon, and she breaks down different organizational tasks into 5-minute assignments. Use this time to clean out your closets, organize your garage, and set aside things to be donated (or for the church garage sale that will be later this year).

9. Go on a romantic date! Take a walk, go out to dinner, or make a romantic candlelight dinner at home!

10. Come by the church (200 A Street, Wilmington) for all of the activities going on this week! Maundy Thursday service on Thursday at 6pm. Help fill Easter eggs with candy on Friday at 4. Invite a friend and their kids to join us for the Easter Egg hunt on Saturday at 11am. Be a part of the Easter Sunday activities, with the Resurrection service at 9am, breakfast at 9:30, and the Morning Service at 10:30!

Discount Green Beans make a tasty side dish!

Every Tuesday, I hit up the "local" Meijer (it's local to work, no local Meijer by home) and check out their discounted produce rack. Sometimes it's hit and miss, unless your a big lemon/lime fan, but this week they had green beans for half the normal price! Given the cost that green beans can reach during the off-season, and knowing it's not quite warm enough to plant mine in the ground, I picked up two 4.5-lb bags. Some of them were cleaned up and put directly into the freezer, some went directly into a crock pot for a batch of Green Beans & Sausage (a family favorite, and a summer favorite of the hubby).

Some of the ones that were left made it into Sunday's lunch! My Mom and Dad came over this afternoon to bring us my little brother's old bunk bed (his old room is being turned into a guest room with a slightly larger bed), and they brought many tasty things to eat. My Mom is an incredible cook, and I always say that I've learned from the best. :-)

So, I tried out a new recipe, courtesy of Betty Crocker's website. Head over there for a really simple Spicy Green Beans with Caramelized Onions. While it does have a smidgin of a heat to it, it's not horribly spicy. The sweetness of the caramelized onions really balances out the red pepper flakes, and you could probably even leave those out if you don't want the spiciness. These were REALLY tasty, and were nice and crisp!

Getting green beans this week is really making me itch to get the garden plowed under. Here's hoping for warmer weather this week!

Groupon- $15 for $30 at Relish Modern Tapas in Mason

Groupon has a deal on right now for $15 for a $30 certificate for food at Relish Modern Tapas in Mason, OH. If you live in the Cincinnati vicinity and haven't been here, the food is INCREDIBLE!! We discovered Relish about a year ago, and the food was phenomenal! It's a part of the Deerfield Towne Center, so use this to end a nice day of shopping, or make it dinner and a movie at the Regal Cinemas.

Thought I'd forward on a deal that would make your "dinner date" fund stretch a little further!

Free e-book: American Frugal Housewife

Amazon.com currently has The American Frugal Housewife available for download for $0.00! It's designed for Kindle, but if you don't have an e-reader, it will give you an option to download to your PC (PC reader download is also free).

Note: This price could change at any time, so double-check before you buy!

Shoe Carnival- Surprise coupons

Shoe Carnival has a surprise coupon that will save you $5, $10, or $15 off a purchase of $29.99 or more. If you get the $15 coupon, that's half-off your purchase!

Free e-book: A Thinking Love

Simply Charlotte Mason has a free e-book, "A Thinking Love" available for download!

MyCokeRewards.com- Macaroni Grill $5 Gift Card

If you are like me, and are a habitual soda-drinker (yes, I say "soda), then check out the gift cards section of My Coke Rewards. They now have $5 Romano's Macaroni Grill for 140 points each! There doesn't appear to be a limit as to how many you can get, so cash in your points and enjoy a nice dinner out courtesy of your daily caffeine fix!

Pampers Gifts to Grow: 10 points

Join Pampers Gifts to Grow and earn points towards rewards!

Add this code for 10 points:

500000Pampers10

Awesome wives....

...make chocolate covered strawberries!

These were made even more awesome by the fact that I made them at 10:00 at night! I had chocolate chips leftover from making Christmas cookies, and got a coupon from Driscoll's for 50-cents off of a berry purchase. Double that coupon at Kroger, and I got a carton of strawberries for $1 last weekend!

I do have to confess, however, that I "licked" the chocolate bowl clean with one of the chocolate-less strawberries that was left over. Mmm...

Free audiobook download

ChristianAudio.com has a monthly free downloadable audio book. I will confess, I'm saving my audio books for this summer when I'm going to baking and canning, so these will help to keep me company in the kitchen! No credit card needed!

$1 Groupon for 3 Redbox rentals

Groupon has a deal up for $1 for 3 Redbox 1-day movie rentals! Given that rentals are usually $1 each, this is a buy one-get two free deal! I read the fine print, and you can use these codes over multiple visits! Rentals expire June 1st!

$10 Maggianos Coupon

Sign up for the Maggiano's email list, and get a coupon for $10 off your next visit! Be thrifty about your dinner selections, and this could make for a moderately-priced date night!

Late night freezer cooking

So this is 2 days late, thanks to parent-teacher conferences yesterday and doing my freezer-bake at 10 PM the night before. **Disclaimer: I do NOT recommending 10 PM freezer-bake sessions! You'll see why in the rest of my post.

Last week, I stopped by Meijer after my grad class since it's close, and they clearance their produce that day. I picked up a bag of 12 Cubanelle peppers for $2, and my Mom (and my cooking muse) sent me my Aunt Marcia's recipe for stuffed peppers.

So, in looking at the recipe, it calls for 12 peppers. So, awesome! I have everything I need to double the recipe, so we'll go ahead and double the recipe and freeze the rest, right?.... Needless to say, I failed to notice that the recipe was for stuffing green peppers, and that my Cubanelle peppers were MUCH smaller than a regular green pepper.

So I went ahead and stuffed the 12 peppers I had:

You sprinkle cheese on them towards the end of the baking process...mmm, cheese! These were absolutely delicious! We had them last night, and the leftovers were packed in my lunch today by my wonderful hubby!

And yet, I still wound up with twice as much stuffing as I needed! So, decided to be creative, and had some frozen bell pepper strips from a previous clearanced produce purchase. I diced up a couple of peppers-worth, mixed it in, and decided to make...

"Stuffed Pepper" Casserole! (Are we noticing a cheese affinity in my cooking?)

Just as a note, freezing casseroles has really helped in making drastic strides in reducing our grocery budget. I've gotten a lot better about cooking from our pantry as much as possible. Once every week or two, I take an hour (or two) to destroy my kitchen. For just the two of us, being able to take a regular recipe and split it into smaller casserole dishes, or to double a recipe and freeze several pans takes away that excuse of not wanting to cook when I get home after my hour-long drive home from school.

Since the hubby gets home before me, I write baking instructions on the foil, and he can put the casserole in the oven timed to be ready when I get home! And honestly, ladies, isn't it wonderful to have dinner waiting for us when we get home? :-D

Heads up for all you "Canners"!

The Meijer stores in our area have clearanced out a lot of their canning supplies, and if you plan to have a garden or will be visiting a u-pick farm this summer, this would be a great time to snag some supplies!

Our store had the Original and Sugar-Free Pectin for $0.75 each (half off!), and all of their pickle mixes and spices were marked to half off as well ($1.29 each for the pickle mix). We made bread n' butter pickles last summer with some cucumbers we were given, and I hope to plant cucumbers in my own garden this summer. Nothing tops off an awesome sandwich like a dill pickle spear on the side. I remember growing up, and splitting one of those HUGE dill pickles (the ones in the big jar) with my Dad.

Hopefully your Meijer is doing the same!

Giveaway at Just 1 Step- The Daniadown Sherpini Throw

My friend Kara over at Just 1 Step is giving away a Daniadown Sherpini Throw! She's giving away multiple entries for sharing her link!

Head over and check out her blog and giveaway!

Mmm...Ribs!

So I misread the label on what I thought was a pork loin. I wound up with Ribs! Needless to say, no objection to the mishap from the hubby, who I think was more excited at the prospect of ribs than to the pork loin!

Pork Ribs with Molasses-Mustard Sauce Had to do a little searching, but Pillsbury.com had the perfect recipe, and I had the rest of the ingredients in the pantry!

I would have taken a picture, but I couldn't find the camera, and they didn't last long enough to find it! Verdict: This recipe is a keeper!

Snow day shopping trip!

Hubby was in need of a prescription refill, and since a lot of the markdowns happen around here on Tuesday, I went ahead and took care of the grocery shopping! Lots of really good deals this week!


Made a stop at Meijer first, hoping to catch the markdowns:

Pork loin: marked down to $6.00
10 green peppers discounted to $3.73
24-packs of Coke Zero and Diet Mountain Dew (not in the picture): 2 for $10
Bob Evans sausage: marked down to @$2.23, plus a .50 coupon (doubled to $1) = $1.23
Blueberry doughnut holes: marked down to $1.97 (hoping for another snow day so I can have a spiffy breakfast with the Hubby!)
Green giant frozen veggies: $1.00 each, plus 4 $.50-off coupons = free!

Non-coupon savings: $11.23
Coupon savings: $5.00
Total savings: $16.23
Total spent: $23.58



Kroger was the big score of the evening!
Stuff in the Mega-event:
2 Tidy cats litter: 1.99, plus 2 $1-off coupons = .99 (.49 each with ME)
All laundry detergent: 3.49, plus $1 coupon = $2.49 (1.99 with ME)
2 bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo: $3.00 plus 2 $1 coupons = $2 each (1.50 with ME)
4 bags of Chex Mix: 1.99 each, plus 2 .50/2 (doubled) coupons = $1.49 each (.99 with ME)
2 Finish dish packs: $3.49, plus a $2.25 off and a $1 off coupon = $1.86 each (1.36 with ME)
Advil congestion: $4.49, plus $2 coupon = $2.49 (1.99 with ME)
3 Kraft Cheese singles: $1.99, plus 3 $1 coupons = .99 (.49 with ME)
4 Philly Cream Cheese: $1.48 plus 2 $1/2 coupons = .99 (.49 with ME)
Uncle Ben's Brown Rice: $1.49 plus .75 (doubled to $1) coupon = .49 (free with ME)
Beggin Strips: $2.99 plus $1 coupon = $1.99 (1.49 with ME)
ICBINB tub: $1.79 plus .60 (doubled to $1) coupon = .79 (.29 with ME)
Non-event deals:
5 boxes of Kelloggs Special K: $3.24 each, stacked with 4 B1G1 coupons = .64 each
8 pork chops: marked down to $7.23
3 packages of Perdue ground chicken: marked down to $1.09 each
2 jars of Ragu: $1.93 each, with .50/2 coupon (doubled) plus a $1/2 e-coupon = .93 each
2 Activia 4-packs: 1.88 each plus 2 $1 coupons = .88 each
Gallon of milk: $2.55, plus coupon for free gallon with $100 purchase = free!
Frigo string cheese: $5.49 plus $.55 (doubled to $1) coupon = $4.49
Ham: $3.99 plus .55 (doubled to $1) = $2.99
Loofa: $1 (ours is falling apart!)
4 Butterfinger candies: 2/$1, plus $1/2 coupons = free!
Yoplait yogurt cup: .60 plus FREE coupon = free!


Coupon savings: $45.76
Store coupon & Kroger plus savings: 41.93
Total savings: $87.69
Total spent: $66.80 (57% savings)

And as I was writing the blog post, I got the email cancellation of school tomorrow! Looks like I'll get to make that pork loin into something tasty!