Today we went to a park we've never visited before, and I think we've found a new favorite park. It's completely fenced in and was perfect for Kevin's age. There's even a chicken coop in someone's yard on the other side of the fence. Our friends the McBrides were there. Kevin and their daughter Lexi play really well together, so that was really great.

I just got frustrated when a ton of other kids arrived for a birthday party. Kevin tried to play with some kids who had brought some shovels and pails to play in the sand, but they were reluctant to share their shovels and Kevin ended up throwing sand in a little boy's face. As I pulled him away, telling him not to throw sand, the kids were saying, "That kid's being mean." I don't know why it hurt me so much to hear that. Kevin isn't a mean kid, he's just an active 2-year-old boy who is still learning how to play with other kids. So it hurt to see other children labeling Kevin like that. Later on we went back to try again, and the kids were getting frustrated with Kevin because he kept messing up their little projects. Their mom was telling Kevin to use his words and ask if he could play with them. I know Kevin looks like a four-year-old, but he's not. He can't say something as complicated as "Hi, my name is Kevin. Can I play with you? Can I help you make a chocolate chip cake in the sand?" I'm just getting really tired of dealing with all of these social interaction issues. I know it's just hard because Kevin is still learning, but he just doesn't get it, and it's frustrating. And I admit that part of it is that I'm afraid it reflects badly on me. I'm not sitting here at home fine-tuning Kevin's hitting and pushing techniques, you know. I'm doing my best to teach him to be nice.

lessons learned from couponing (and giving it up)

Lessons I Learned from Couponing

• Have an idea of what your maximum price is for items. I quickly realized that not all deals were good deals with a coupon. I started keeping a mental note of what I considered to be a good price for certain things, and when a good sale came up I would buy a lot of that item. That way when I wanted or needed it, I had it in my pantry and I didn't have to pay full price for it. It saved us money because even though we were mostly using the same items, we were paying less to buy those things. 
• Match sales and coupons. Most coupons by themselves weren't very good deals, but if I waited for a good sale and used the coupons then, the prices could be quite good.
• Check your receipts. Sometimes items don't ring up at the right price, and sometimes the checker punches in the wrong price per pound for produce. Sometimes customer service has given me the item for free because of the mistake. Other times it's a few dollars. But that adds up! However, I will admit that sometimes by the time I've loaded the kids and all the food into the car and realized there was a mistake, it's not worth it to me to go back in just for 50 cents.
• Grocery shopping goes much faster if you make a list. I keep a running grocery list on my fridge and add to it throughout the week as I run low on things. Then stick to the list. It really helps me to have a list because I don't feel as tempted to buy things that aren't on the list. If I just go without a list then I am very susceptible to buying things I wasn't planning to buy and that I don't really need. I do keep an open mind in case there are Manager's Specials.
• A lot of grocery stores will mark down items that were slightly damaged in shipping or that they ordered too much of. There are certain places in the store where they tend to put those items. Know the hot spots and briefly check them when you go to the store. A good time to get good deals on candy is right after Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, or Christmas when the store is trying to get rid of the extra holiday candy.
• If you want to avoid expensive splurges on treats, don't go grocery shopping hungry, and don't bring your kids if you know they'll try to get you to buy them a treat.
• Go grocery shopping once a week. Plan your weekly menu before you go so that you can make sure to buy everything you need, and base your menu on what you already have or what is on sale that week. Even if you don't use coupons, you can save money by watching the sales ads.
• Avoid making frequent trips for just one item. Every time you go to the store increases your chances of splurging on something--and you lose all that time spent driving to and from the store. (This one actually isn't that hard for me because for some reason grocery shopping always seems like such an ordeal that I avoid going for as long as I can.)

Lessons I Learned from Quitting Couponing

• My time is valuable. One of the main reasons I stopped getting the Sunday paper was because I always dreaded clipping my coupons because it took so much time--even with the help of The Grocery Game. I know there are some things that I could still save a lot of money on using coupons, especially cereal, but I also value my time, and I'd rather have that time to do things that are more important to me. There was also always the stress of making sure I remembered all my coupons, keeping a tight hold on them throughout the shopping trip, and making sure they scanned right. I may start using coupons again after I'm done with school, but if I do I'm going to have to come up with a better system that doesn't take so much time. For now I still look at the weekly ad for the grocery store and add good deals to my grocery lists. It really only takes me about five minutes to do that.
• Did I mention my time is valuable? On a similar vein, I realized that going to extremes to save money isn't always worth it to me. For a while I was washing ziploc bags and setting them out to dry so that I could reuse them. It was a mess. The piles of plastic bags were driving me nuts, and I couldn't keep track of them. I know it works for some people, but I have a hard enough time keeping up with the dishes. Adding plastic bags just didn't work for me. So, yes, maybe I could save some money by washing plastic bags, but that ten cents isn't worth the stress for me. I do have a lot of plastic glad containers that go in the dishwasher just fine, so I use those instead of plastic bags whenever I can.
• I need to come up with a more organized system for organizing our food, at least some of it. After I quit couponing I went through our pantry and realized that I had gone way overboard stocking up on salad dressing (and other items too). I had a mindset that every time salad dressing went on sale for a certain price, I would buy a couple of bottles. So when I went through the pantry I realized several of the bottles were past their expiration dates. My thought is that I need to keep a spreadsheet or list that tells how much of certain things I need to keep in stock--i.e. four bottles of salad dressing, three bottles of oil, eight boxes of Cheerios, and so on. If I already have enough of that item, then I don't need to buy five more when they're on sale.
• On a similar vein, I've come to realize that food storage can be clutter. I do try to keep a pretty good supply of food, but at the same time stepping around food storage stresses me out. In a different season of our lives, we will be able to store more food.
• It's easy to get a lot of unhealthy food with coupons. I had quite a bit of self-discipline in that area, but after I quit couponing I did feel like we had a lot of processed food to work our way through. I guess part of the problem was that it would be on sale for cheap, so I would buy it, but then we would never eat it because I don't cook that stuff very much. If I were to start couponing again I would have to figure out a way to moderate how much of that we get. I do like to keep a few boxes of hamburger helper or some cans of soup on hand for dinner emergencies (which, by the way, aren't happening as much lately since I've been using my menu!), but I don't need to keep very much--and to be honest, a lot of the time it takes just as much time to make food from scratch as it does to make the pre-packaged version. I do feel that couponing can still be helpful even if you do mostly homemade foods. I was able to get things like cereal, pasta, canned fruit and vegetables, frozen vegetables, and also non-food items like shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, and toothbrushes for good prices and save a lot of money with coupons.

playing in the closet

random thoughts

I think subconsciously I'm thinking that if I could just get organized enough then the house would clean itself.

I think the internet is making people stupider while tricking them into thinking they are more informed.

We are swimming in chairs. Six chairs that belong to our table, two more that we acquired before getting the table, one high chair, and one rocking chair.

Actually, we're just swimming in stuff. I don't understand why we have so much stuff. When we moved here we were awed at the amount of space we now had.

Last Sunday when we were talking to Ryan's parents, Ryan told them we were slowly digging our way out of the drifts. I was afraid he was talking about how messy the house was. Thank goodness he was actually talking about the pollen. "Drifts" is right. But the flowers are lovely.

Our neighbor, who is from Jordan (the country), told me, "I think you have lose weight from your body." It made my day.

There was a pair of jeans that I bought without trying them on. At home I realized they were too small. But then I never got around to taking them back, and I decided to try them on again, and now they fit. That was exciting. They're skinny jeans, too. I swore I would never wear skinny jeans, and now I am.

Sometimes I'm secretly grateful when Kevin breaks things that I was already thinking about getting rid of. It's nice to have the decision taken care of.

I'm grateful I am not Muslim. We Latter-Day Saints may mistake our culture for doctrine sometimes, but from my history class I am learning that in many Islamic cultures that is done to a much greater degree. In particular, women are repressed and people justify it by saying it's backed by the Qu'ran, which is debatable.

some more things Kevin's been saying

"Come here." (while beckoning to Heidi)

"Funny!"

"Um, Ryan?"

"Ryan, dinner ready!"

One morning while I was busy doing something else, Kevin was pushing Heidi's high chair over to the front door and standing on the chair to unbolt the door. I was just a few feet away in the kitchen, so when I heard him get off the high chair I would just go over and rebolt the door so he couldn't run off somewhere. He got progressively angrier with me each time I did it, and each time he unbolted the door he would say to me, "Okay. Don't touch it!" One time after I bolted the door again he said, "Okay, a-listen. Pie-oup!" (Okay, you didn't listen. Time out!) Then he grabbed my legs to take me to time out.

"Oh, a-got!" (Oh, I forgot!)

" 'Member?" (Remember?)

"Ah-yeah? Ah-yeah!" (Oh, yeah.)

"I want it this."

He has been singing Away in a Manger, I am a Child of God, The Wheels on the Bus, and the ABCs. We have had some lovely moments this week playing the piano and singing primary songs. I'm glad that he's starting to learn some primary songs.

"DON'T SCREAM!!"

He likes to call "Bangka" (Grandpa Tanner).

He's been talking about baptism a lot lately. Nursery lesson?

Here's a video where he was talking about Jesus being baptized (inspired by the picture on the Preach My Gospel book).



I couldn't understand everything he was saying, but here's what I could understand: "Jesus crying. Happy. Jesus crying. Oh, no. Oh, no. All wet. Is Jesus sad? He's sad. He's happy. Where's Jesus?"

He's been asking to watch movies of spiders a lot lately. I'm glad he wants to watch something somewhat educational, but it's making me a little paranoid about Brown Recluses and Black Widows. Ryan is redirecting him to BBC Life videos.

If he wants to go see something, he says he wants to say hi to it, as in "say hi lawnmower," or "say hi Lexi."

He has this funny new laugh. It has a forced sound and goes, "Uh uh uh!"

"Piece . . . of . . . bread?" "Eggs for lunch? I want to break it." He also likes to make his own toast and scrambled eggs, with help--or rather, he thinks he can do it by himself, but I help him because he isn't actually allowed to use the stove and cut slices of bread. You know, safety and all that stuff.

"Two hands?"

"BAH-na-na?" That's how he pronounces banana. He likes to peel them. The problem is that he doesn't eat them.

Heidi at 9 months

Heidi is nine months old now!

She is 27 inches and about 16 pounds, which is 25th percentile for both.

Heidi can stand by herself for several seconds--if she wants to.

Heidi hits her head all the time.

Heidi likes to climb. She likes to climb into her stroller and stand in the seat. There's a big tote full of blankets that is next to Kevin's bed and the window, and she likes to push things over to the tote and use them to climb in. Then she can look out the window or climb through the bunk bed ladder to play on Kevin's bed. I think she's pretty smart!

(People who read my blog by email, please come to this post if you want to watch the videos!)



I'm concerned Heidi won't make it to her first birthday if she doesn't figure out how to walk and slide backwards off of things after she's climbed on them. I do my best to keep her safe, but she gets herself into the craziest predicaments and has no problem diving off of things.

She's so clingy lately and gets really upset when strangers try to hold her. A lot of the time she cries even if I put her down on the floor so I can to do something. I think sometimes it's boredom.

I'm really trying to increase the amount of people food she eats. I know an underlying reason for her clinginess is often that she's hungry for something more substantial. It's just another thing I have to fit into the routine, so I have to make it into a habit. I'm working on giving her breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same time as Kevin. Heidi loves to feed herself and knocks the spoon out of my hands if I try to feed her with one. I would say she gets about 75-80% of finger food into her mouth successfully. She's really good at picking things up with her pointer finger and thumb. I'm grateful that she'll eat bananas, because they're cheap and healthy. Kevin can't stand them.

Heidi says Mama, Dada, and Baba, and she will often copy you if you say one of those to her, or if you blow raspberries.

She recently figured out how to clap, and is so delighted with this new and valuable skill.





She likes to press keys on our computers. She also enjoys getting into the fridge, the garbage, and the bathroom. Kevin is training her well. Sigh.

Heidi is become rather wild. She no longer sits quietly in someone's lap. I keep commenting to Ryan that changing her diaper or dressing her is like dressing a cat--claws and all. She loves to move and wiggle and grab things. One of her new favorite pastimes is opening drawers and throwing all their contents onto the floor. It's kind of frustrating, but at the same time she is so fun to be around, and she is so enjoying all the new things that she can do.

Kevin and I have to read books up on his bed so that Heidi doesn't interfere. It's not that we don't want her around, it's just that she likes to crawl all over the books and rip and grab the pages, and Kevin gets frustrated because he likes to read books for a long time. I'm starting to try to read more books to Heidi, though. We read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel the other day, and she thought it was fun.

hot glue strings

I've had a little bit of spare time to try some of the sewing/craft projects that I've pinned on Pinterest. (Click the links to see the tutorials I used.)

A month or two ago I used some scraps leftover from the changing pads to make a grocery bag holder. It's been nice to have all those grocery bags in a smaller space and more accessible. It also gives me an idea of when I need to stop collecting grocery bags. I usually use reusable bags, but I do like to have some around--they're useful as little trash bags, for putting stinky disposable diapers in before I throw them away, or for holding cloth diapers I changed away from home. I think this would be a very good project for someone who is learning to sew, because it's lots of straight lines and then elastic (in a casing) at the top and bottom.

Felt flower. (Still cute, but not my favorite. I'm going to try it again with something other than felt so it's not so bulky.) I also made another one using this tutorial. I haven't decided what to do with it. I might use it to pin to my own shirts

Baby shoes. (Way too small for Heidi--I'm going to have to try to mess with the pattern so I can make some that fit her. But they were a cute present for a friend who's having a baby soon!)

Silk flower. I was so pleased with how this one turned out!

All of these projects were very cheap because they didn't require very much fabric. I bought a huge package of assorted buttons too. Many thanks to my mom for the hot glue gun, which made most of these projects possible!