helping where i can

since i am not really working outside the house, i feel i need to be extremely vigilant about my spending. I am pretty good at not really spending money these days, since i am mostly home anyhow. it isn't like i need to eat out or need clothes. Since it is holiday season soon, i do get to start buying Christmas presents, which definitely helps...since i really do enjoy shopping!
The one place where i will always get to shop.....the grocery store! This isn't my favorite thing to do and i had started to go to the grocery store....alot. To pick up what we needed for just the next couple days, getting some groceries when i went with gramma, or just grabbing some things after soccer practice. This was not a great practice for our checkbook, not terrible, but not fantastic.
so i decided to overhaul my grocery shopping process.
my first experiment was to try and shop only two times per month. my theory was two paydays a month=two grocery trips. This went okay. I had a hard time thinking that far ahead as far as Katelyn's lunches, and we ran out of milk; I bought way too much american cheese, but i did remember to buy some bread and put it in the freezer. We lasted just short of two weeks but i definitely was not loving this process.
my second experiment was to actually do the coupon thing. I had long shied away from serious couponing, with the idea that some generic brands were cheaper or that i would be buying things not needed just because i had a coupon. Well. I have really gotten on the coupon bandwagon. it takes alot of "planning"...scouring the Sunday ads and adding coupons on top of those sales. It does take a bit more effort. I felt like i was walking back and forth through the grocery store a bit more than usual, and spent alot of time calculating whether or not the coupon made it cheaper than other brands, or other brands on sale. i ended up saving a whopping $54.00 (more than 33% of my total). I was pretty proud of myself and if nothing else, it encouraged me to continue on with my newest plan, since at this point in my life i do have the time to save money in this fashion.

parent visitation day

Last Thursday was parent visitation day at Katelyn's school….and it was so fun!
When I went, obviously I didn’t really know what to expect…kind of like the first day of school! There were two sessions. A 9am-11am and 1pm-3pm session. I went to both. In the morning, they do their calender, complete with day, date, month, season, year, number of days they’ve been in school, and weather. They had station time. Katelyn's station was whisper reading. It consisted of Katelyn reading into a pvc phone. It was a 4 inch pvc pipe, with two small 90% angle pvc pipes, so when she read into the bottom part, it was “read” to her through the ear piece. There were five different stations going. The teacher was “supposed” to be with Katelyn's reading group the most…I think. Well, the lady who was supposed to be running the one station didn’t make it there on time and the computers for the computer station were majorly acting up. So on a normal day, without parents who are visiting, how in the world does one teacher do it all?! That’s nuts!
I came back after lunch, they had gym class, where they were hitting balls of different sizes and shapes with a plastic paddle. After that they read a book called Hold the Anchovies! Then cut out and decorated their own pizzas. After that we had music class, which was tons of fun, the kids got to play a two tone beat on the xylophone. Then the parents got to perform for the kids. Our two tone beat was much more coordinated, but not nearly as adorable as them!
I came away from parent day with a newer appreciation for Katelyn's wonderful teacher. I cant imagine having to take charge of 16 five year olds for an entire day. Also I figured that the teacher probably had about a million projects that she did with the kids each day, just to keep them busy. This is not the case. It is more of a slow and steady atmosphere.
I thoroughly enjoyed being in Katelyn's class room with her, it was really great to see her in HER element, interacting with her friends and teacher.

tonight we were kitties

every night before katelyn goes to bed, we crawl to her room with her on my back. we pick what animal we are. some nights we are camels, dogs, some night maybe we'll be snakes...that would be interesting, right?
well tonight, katelyn plopped down in our usual starting place with the cutest/orneriest face ever....in MY position. so i played along and "sat" on her back. (my thighs burn) we kept it up all the way to her bed where she was more than pleased with herself that she was being the mommy cat. you probably "had to be there" in order to truely appreciate the hilarity, but it sure was fun!

Book-It!

book-it makes me teary.
apparently the book it program has been around for about 20 years, which is obviously accurate, because i remember doing it when i was in first grade. when i was a kid, i read everything i could get my hands on, and i am pretty sure that i was reading above my grade level too. anyhow, the point of that is that i never had any problem meeting my quota, in order to get the free pizza from Pizza Hut. and this pizza was a big deal. we never had money to eat out, so this was quite a prize. my biological mom and i would walk to pizza hut (i have no idea how far that was) and proudly carry back our tiny pizza=D i think they might have given out certificates too. i have no idea if i shared it with my mom or not, but my guess is that she probably let me eat it all. i was always so proud of myself for being able to "provide food"....such as it was, especially by doing something that came natural to me, reading.
yesterday in Katelyn's take home folder, there was a book-it form, honestly i didn't even realize they still had that program. Katelyn also, loves to be read to and is making huge progress with her own reading skills. needless to say, like her mommy, she wont have any problem meeting the monthly quota of ten books, she'll be just as proud of herself for earning that pizza, and no, her mom wont let her share her pizza either =D

the last of the mass blogging

i leave today with two questions....
1. we are reading pippi longstocking at bedtime...any idea how to explain to a 5 year old what a cannibal is, without giving her nightmares?!
2.what mother lets a kindergartner where a bra, a kid bra? a few of Katelyn's friends do, and of course she wants one(wont get one) and apparently it isn't an undershirt. that also was a fun explanation of when she could wear a bra. bizzare.

obviously i am not a fan of alarm clocks

since school has started, i have had to set my alarm clock every day since aug 26th. this is new for us, since previously, we have just woke up, when we woke up. with school, soccer, and church, we've had to be somewhere in the morning every day. last saturday our soccer game was cancelled, so obviously i didnt set the alarm.
that night i woke up in the middle of the night and as i was.....in the bathroom i started praying " dear God, thank you for waking me up since i forgot to set the alarm for school tomorrow, that would have been a disaster, etc" well a few seconds later, i realized that i was crazy and didnt set the alarm on purpose since in fact the next day was not a school day. if God ever thinks people are crazy...i definatly got his vote that night!

katelyn loves......

Katelyn loves kindergarten! she never complains about going and often doesnt seem ready to leave. She's made friends with the girls in her class and is learning so much. she loves to tell me everything that is going on with her friends, and what she is learning (any chance she will keep that up through 12th grade)
her biggest love is writing. the whole way home from school she is writing words, names, anything she can sound out or get me to spell. she takes her notebook and pencil just about everywhere. last week at soccer practice, before i noticed, she even had it on the field trying to write everyones names! she is also making leaps and bounds with reading. mostly words like to, on, my, me, like, book, will, etc. she reads a book to me everynight and then when we are reading together she often interupts by pointing out words in the book, last night she picked out "teacher".
i am so proud of her, she is learning so much so fast. did i mention tat i was proud of her.... =D
when i show up at her school on volunteer days, like picture day...it is always so nice to see her, because i do miss her so much throughout the day. But i can also rest easy knowing that she is completely happy being in schol.

going green

people who know me know that i like to save energy, recycle like its me job, take care of the world, be thrifty, etc....
well. this last week i FAILED miserably. and katelyn passed with straight A's! usually i unplug unused appliances, like our microwave, unless we are using it, only use lights if it is darkish and we are in the room. I've gotten pretty good at this.
so for the first time since school started we were driving home in the dark, from bible study and as we got to our house i realized that our basement lights were on. this is bad enough but these lights had been on for days! gross.
the day before though, when we were grocery shopping i let katelyn pick out a cereal. usually she picks something like lucky charms and then i grab the generic brand. well, she walked over to me with the generic brand of fruit loops and i was so proud.
i know it might seem silly, but these little things do end up mattering in the long run.

the golden egg

so the only part of our morning routine that doesnt go too smoothly on a regular basis is breakfast. the first day of school she ate part of a banana and string cheese. (another mother thought this was terrible, but isnt it better than handing her a poptart?) anyhow, she tends to eat like a bird in the mornings and it drives me nuts cause her behavior is greatly affected when she is hungry. somedays all i can cram down her is a tiny piece of toast. but last thurday and friday she ate cereal so well. i figured maybe we were on the way towards her eating normally. well the news is that its only gotten better. she woke up sat morning and wanted an egg sandwich. and she has eaten that for the last couple of days. i am so glad that she is eating better, that way i dont have to worry about her being hungry in the morning....when she gets out of school she is starving though =D