Monday, June 14, 2010

And Now We Are 6

Happy Birthday

January 19, 2004



Fall 2004

May 2005


Christmas 2006

Christmas Program 2007

May 2009 with his best buddy

First summer on the dirt bike!!! He has waited FOREVER for this moment!

June 2010
Yesterday, he made his birthday cake. It was from a mix, but he cracked the eggs and put in the water and oil. After it cooled, he iced it as well. Today, he will place a Transformer on top of it with the candles. He is such a big boy.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Another Way We Are Saving Money


This is a neat little gadget that my mother gave my husband for Christmas. Since he is the only coffee drinker in our house, it was the perfect gift. Until the K Cups ran out. We went to purchase more and cannot find them for less than 50 cents per cup. That seems expensive to us since you can brew a whole pot of coffee for less than that. So for a while we used the coffee "tea bags" with it. That worked, but was still a little pricey.

When we are out and about, we will often stop to get a cold drink at some point. It became cost prohibitive when our financial crisis hit at the end of last summer. So we stopped doing that as much. We still did it though (every time we were looking over our shoulders for Dave Ramsey - eek!).

Earlier this spring I found a little cooler at a church rummage sale. Perfect! I started taking drinks with us when we went out. Usually bottled water, but sometimes tea or other drinks that I purchased at the store. It was cheaper than going to a convenience store, but still not cheap.

Then one day, I was looking at my husband's Christmas gift and I thought I'd try to brew iced tea with it. At that moment, I started a new trend in our house.

Now I am brewing the tea we take with us when we go out and about. There are many benefits here. #1 being cost. A tea bag costs pennies compared to the $1.50 to $2 we were spending on drinks at convenience stores.
The side benefit is that I know what is in that bottle now. I don't use corn syrup or artificial sweetners or chemical preservatives. I use tea and honey or raw sugar and sometimes I squeeze lemon juice in. Labeling the bottles is very important. When I brew fruit teas for the kids, it can sometimes be a hard sell if the children don't know what's in the bottle.

I haven't calculated costs, yet. However, I know this is just better.


I brew the tea right in the bottle with the water from our Kreurig machine. When it's finished brewing, I add water to fill the bottle and stick it in the refrigerator. Hubby likes having the individual servings in bottles to grab and go.





Laundry Soap update

The laundry soap that Lucy and I made is working out great. Our clothes are clean and we are paying a fraction of the cost of commercial laundry detergent. I'm thrilled with it.