Being in love

My almost 6 year old just got home from school and declared that she is in love with Colin. I asked her "what does it mean to be in love?" she replied "it's when you see someone in more than one place. I saw Colin at church and at school so now we're in love.

Thank God that's all it means right now! I'm not ready for that drama

Awake...

Thought I would direct you to one of my favorite posts ever by one of the most "enlightened" people I know. I want to be awake!

Paramore brings MTV to Franklin

It's pretty safe to say that Paramore are the biggest rock stars in Franklin, Tennessee, which is why it's rather strange that they can wander its picturesque streets (or ride around them on bikes) without receiving as much as a wayward glance from anyone.

more here

true restfulness...

"...we make restfulness yet another activity, something we do, something we are refreshed by... then we return to normal life. True restfulness, though, is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace, and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough."

from The Shattered Lantern by Ronald Rolheiser


This is something I truly long for...

Dorian Gray

Yes!!!



(HT: Jesus Needs New PR)

Thought for the day: Enjoy

For some reason I have a difficult time enjoying the moment. Little moments, big moments, it doesn't matter. I often find myself worrying about what I need to be doing. Or I find myself feeling guilty for these moments when there are so many who are hurting or in some sort of pain. I know that sounds crazy. It's just what I tend to do.

So this morning I made a commitment to be more intentional about enjoying. It is amazing all of the enjoyable moments I have had just in the past hour!

Here are just a few:

Snuggling with a sweet baby.
Listening to the birds chirp.
Feeling the cool, crisp air.
Watching my daughter get on the school bus.
A warm cup of fresh coffee.
The sound of silence.

Yes, the thoughts and worries have tried to creep in already but I'm taking them captive and throwing them away! I will choose to enjoy this day.

On Friendship...

The greatest gift my friendship can give to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn't that what friendship is all about: giving to each other the gift of our Belovedness?

(From Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World by Henri Nouwen)

Grocery Saving Strategy

I have found myself among the ranks of those who have ventured into the couponing world to save money on grocery and household items. When I first began this adventure I was all in. I quickly realized though that I could not sustain the level of commitment that it took to do what I was doing with 3 kids under 5 under my roof. So, instead of giving up completely, I decided to modify to fit my lifestyle.

I'm writing this post to help others who are in the same position. I simply can not to go to 3 or 4 different grocery and drug stores which is what you have to do to realize the big savings. However, I have been able to trim 150 to 200 a month off of our household budget just using my modified approach. We consider that a substantial savings here at the Slusser house!

So here are a few bullet points for my system that might help you as you come up with your own plan of action.

- Each week I save the coupons booklets found in the Sunday newspaper. I put the date on them and place them by date in a large folder with clear plastic sleeves. I do not clip until time to use. Clipping is overrated. :)

- I shop at ONE STORE ONLY! That store is Publix.

- On Wednesday the nice lady over at Southern Savers posts her weekly list of Publix coupon match-ups and sale items. This list is key!! I copy and paste it into a word doc so that I can delete anything that I dont need and keep the rest for a shopping list. She makes it so easy to match up the coupons to the sales. She also posts a link to printable coupons which I use frequently also. And her service it FREE!

- Stockpiling is another key element of my system. I stockpile my favorite bread, cereals, snacks, sauces, coffee, etc when the prices are the lowest and I NEVER have to pay full price for these items. I cant stress how important this is!!

-I plan ahead and plan my menu around what is on sale that week and what I have in the pantry. This includes meat and vegetables. In-season vegetables are usually the cheapest and they have the best flavor!

Here are some examples for what I pay for certain items using this system:

Bread: 1.80 for Arnold's whole grain which is my favorite bread!
Whole wheat pastas: free to .60 cents
Name brand cereal: usually 1.00 to 1.50 sometimes free
Coffee: 8 o'clock coffee 1.50 to 2.50 each (this is great coffee!)
Spaghetti sauces: never pay over 1.00 and sometimes free for name brand sauces.
Toothpaste: free to .75 cents.

This is the system that has worked for me. It takes me about an hour each week to get everything organized. Hope it helps you as you come up with your own plan! I will be happy to answer any questions you may have in the comment section.

A fun family event

So this is one of those informational only posts. And sorry, but this is for WC residents.

I would highly recommend the Williamson County Fair this year! We went last night and had a blast. The only problem was, I forgot my camera! Our family of 5 got in for just 6 bucks because someone was gracious enough to give us a buy one get one pass. This is because I forgot the one I printed out! We ate before we went and were able to skip the greasy junk food. The kids were having so much fun they didn't even miss the food. The best part is the farm animal exhibit. It is amazing. The have everything from gigantic horses to alpacas. We went straight to the animal exhibit so that the kids would hopefully be getting tired before we got to the rides. It worked! We only did a few rides because each ride cost 4 to 6 bucks for the two kiddos!

You can do the fair on a tight budget. It just requires a little thinking things through before hand and sticking to your guns when the kids start whining. The look on their faces as they rode those rides and saw all of the amazing farm animals was worth every penny spent and more!

Today is the last BOGO day. Here's the link to a coupon.

I'm back!

Hey friends. I'm feeling a strong urge to get back into the blog world again. For a while I was feeling dry. When I tried to blog, nothing would come. I wrestled with why I had a blog and if it had any importance whatsoever.

So, for some reason, I'm feeling the call to get this thing going again! I want to share with you some things that have been going on with me. I'm going to put myself out there and share with you some things that are pretty vulnerable. I know I'm risking alot by doing this. There are people who will judge. There are those who will not understand. But I can't worry about them. I am called to share my heart and this is a way that I can do that right now.

Not every post will be deep. Some will be purely informational or just plain ol fun. Some will be interesting to you, others will probably bore you to death. I will talk about politics, religion, and other loaded topics and you probably wont agree with me about everything. This is my blog so it will be about my perspective on these issues. Hopefully we can keep the discussion real but respectful. And yes, please share your point of view. I want to hear from you in the comments! Dialogue makes the blog world so much more interesting!

Thanks for listening. And please let me know if I have not linked you on my side bar. Link love is greatly appreciated!

Blog Neglect

My friend Jen told me tonight that she is tired of seeing the same picture every time she visits my blog. I know! I've been neglecting my blog and I have no excuses. So, I will attempt to post more frequently.

Since nothing is coming to the forefront of my mind to post about, I will give you a quick baby update.

Little man Henry will be here in 3 to 4 weeks! We are all so excited to meet him. I'm pretty sure he's ready to enter the world because he likes to stretch out alot. He especially likes to stretch out on my bladder and my hips! I also think he might be my first baby with hair because of the massive amount of heartburn I'm experiencing. His ultrasound picture looks alot like his big brother and sister. I'm hoping that he might just look a little like his mama though, unlike his bro and sis! I guess it doesn't really matter because they're all so darn cute!

My parents are graciously watching the precious cherubs this week while Ted and I "get stuff done" around the house. We're calling this our little staycation. I think we really just needed rest though because not much has been done this week.

Promise I'll try really hard to keep you updated on Henry's upcoming arrival!

Our Baby

 

kids...

It's funny how kids can say the sweetest things that make you feel so good in one breath,(see post below) and then in the next, completely send you back down to reality.

Riding home the other day from school, we're talking about how firemen sometimes have to rescue cats from trees. When out of nowhere comes, "Mom, when you die we can get a cat." (I'm allergic to cats)

Thankfully, when I asked her what she would prefer to have, me or a cat, she chose me. :)

My Twin

I got my hair cut last week and my daughter loved it so much she decided to get the same hair cut. Now she tells everyone that we're twins. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

There's no place like Walmart

I was able to get a pedicure while I waited on an oil change today! If I had thought about it, I would have brought my dog for a grooming, too. Now all they need is a kid's play area and a walk in medical clinic, which probably wont be to far away.