"You Guys Are Living On the Edge!"

"You're REALLY living on the edge..."

This was the reply I got when I told an individual that we are letting God plan the size of our family and not doing anything to limit the number of children He gives us. For the time being, at least, I believe in trusting God's grace and that He will not give us more than we can handle. In, the future, if our health or financial situation dictates, we will consider NFP for a time.

The very, very few times I have disclosed this to people, they look at me as if I have taken leave of my senses. My statement that we follow the Church's teaching on the use of contraceptives and spacing of births is met with shock or even people being threatened by our stance. Assumptions are then made that we will change our mind, or we will end up having ten children. Well, after almost six years of marriage, we have only two. It will probably be a while before another is on the way, due to the fact that Gabe still nurses ALOT, which surpresses my fertility even more than usual.

I didn't realize I was being so subversive! Children are a blessing, not a liabiltiy.

Happy Father's Day, Honey!

I just want to wish my husband a happy father's day. You are the best dad to our boys, and I love you for it!

Happy Name Day to Elijah and Gabriel!

Today is the Feast Day of St. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels.

I obviously named Gabriel for the angel who appeared to our Blessed Mother. Elijah's middle name is Michael, and since Elijah was an Old Testament prophet and doesn't appear on the Catholic calendar of Saints, this is his name day as well.

Amazing Diaper Deal from Amazon!

I scored an awsome deal for diapers for Gabe today. This is probably my best yet! I had two coupon codes for 20% off of my Amazon diaper order that I had taken from Parents and Parenting magazine. I joined AmazonMom and did the subscribe and save feature offered on Amazon. As a result, I was able to get 140 Size 3 Seventh Generation diapers for a whopping 11.99. This comes out to about eight cents a diaper. If I paid full price in retail they would run almost thirty cents each. Not too shabby!

My Rather Pathetic Blog Update....

Ok, I've been saying for over a year now that I was going to stay on top of my blog. I have failed miserably at this! I have been following blog of other mom who have more children than me and they are able to post several times a week with pictures, video and everything. I wish I knew how they do it. With work, the babies, and trying to manage the house, I never seen to keep up with my own blog.

Well, here are the updates of the happenings in my family's life since the last time I posted:

*Last summer, we found out we were expecting baby #2! We were so thrilled!

*Gabriel Glenn Bolduan was born on February 5, 2010 via emergency c-section. He weighed in at seven pounds, three ounces, and was twenty inches long.

*Elijah turned three on June 8, 2010. He is very talkative, creative, and very, very busy. This means that he is quite a handful for Mommy at times!

*I am taking a break from teaching Religious Education this year, after being a catechist for five years. I am at a season in my life where I really need to focus mainly on my children and my home, since this is my vocation.

*I still am into couponing and searching for the best deals out there! I will post some of my latest finds soon!

My Baby Isn't a Baby Anymore!

Elijah seems to grow more every day. He just had his two year well-child check up. It's kind of sad they don't call them well-baby check ups anymore. He not really considered to be a baby, but he is to me and will be for a long time yet! At this appointment, he weighed in at 27 pounds, was 34 inches tall and had a head circumference of 19 inches.

Some More Great Deals I've Scored Lately

I have had a couple of great finds while shopping in the last couple of days.

During a recent trip to ShopKo, I scored a pretty good diaper deal. They had Huggies on sale for 8.99 a pack. Plus they were also do a 1.00 rebate for their Super Combo Rebate program for each package of diapers. I also used a 1.50/1 coupon for each package I bought.

So it worked out thus: 8.99-1.50 coupon-1.00 rebate= 6.49 per pack of diapers that normally retail for 10.99!

I went to Walgreens today and did a deal I found on moneysavingmom.com. I purchased 10 Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, which were on sale for 2/5.00. I used 5 B1/G1 coupons from last weeks Sunday paper. I paid 12.50 for them and got $6 in Register Rewards. Each box came out to .65.

Awesome Deals At Walgreens Today!

I was a little sad that Walgreens ended their EasySaver program. But every cloud has a silver lining! They now have more items that are free after Register Rewards. Here is my shopping trip today...

Transaction #1:
1 Nivea Body wash- 4.99
1 Rembrandt Mouthwash- 5.99
Spent $11 + tax out of pocket and got $11 in Register Rewards

Transaction #2
2 Boxes Kleenex with lotion 80 Ct.- 2/2.19
3 AirWick IMotion Air Fresheners- 4.99 ea.-3 $4/1 Qs.
General Mills Cereals- 3/$7-$1/3 Q.
I used my RR and ended up paying a little over 13.00 out of pocket for both transactions! Not too shabby!

Busy, Busy, Lent!

Again, it's been forever since I posted. Maybe I should have made keeping up with my blog a Lenten goal. Anyhow, I have been doing pretty good with scouting for deals and couponing lately...I am totally stocked up on diapers, wipes, shampoo, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, etc. to last for at least three months. Some of these items I have enough of to last for a year (possibly).

The following is a list of goals I have for Lent this year, as well as my progress.

Purchase items to put in the food shelf donation bin each time I shop at the grocery store:
I have done this during the last three weekly trips, I plan to keep it up even after Lent is over.

Abstain from all alcolholic beverages:
Those who know me best know one of my favorite ways to relax in the evenings after putting Elijah to bed is to enjoy a beer or a glass of wine. This has been going OK, except I messed up last week on Thursday and Friday nights. After this slip-up however, I am going strong.

Continue to improve and enrich my prayer life:
I try to say one Hail Mary at the very least every day. I am also starting to teach Elijah the Rosary. I let him hold his own set of beads, and we try to make it through a decade, with him listening, me praying aloud. This has been going great! He actually will sit very still and listen to me recite the prayers, all the while running his set of beads through his fingers. I can't wait for him to get older and recite along with me.

Awesome Deals Today

Today I made a run to Wal-Mart for a few groceries and scored some awesome deals. Here is what I purchased:

*Four bags of Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers frozen veggies: $1.08, I used a $1/1 Q for each and paid .08 per bag.

*Four small boxes of Arm & Hammer baking soda: .46 ea. I had two Qs for $1/2. They were free plus overage.

*Three bars of Johnson's Buddies soap: .97 ea. I had a Q for $3/3 Johnsons products. Again free plus overage.

*Four cans of Red Gold diced tomatoes: .87 ea. I had a Q for $1/4. They were .62 ea.

I also had to pick up a few other things as well, got some on sale...my total bill for my Wal-Mart trip this go round was $7.91 for nearly $20 worth of stuff.