Chica has a flair about her and surprises me that at 5 has such an interest in making her hair look "pretty & cool". This morning she asked if she could curl her hair so I told her to take a shower first. Next thing I knew she had bathed, and put curlers in her hair. This is the styling job she did while I was in the kitchen making snack! ISn't she just beautiful???

I got all this for.... $5.21! The cashier was very surprised by my total, so she insisted on ringing up the order over again. She found a .08 difference when she rerang the order, for items that were .o2 or .04 less than the coupon off price. Just another step towards getting our grocery budget down drastically.

As you may notice, I added a new button to my sidebar.  I am giving Cash 4 Books a try this week as I tackle the basement bookshelves.  Eleven books which have been read and have been taking up space and collecting dust have netted me $25.00!  I love the look of the shelves as we continue to empty the basement.  Hopefully soon it will be empty and ready for the Lord to use as He wills!

If you have books you want to declutter and pass on, please click on my button and take a look.  If you sign up and complete a book sale through my link, I get a little $$ bonus to add to my financial decluttering :)

I have been so blessed by discovering Crystal's Frugal Lifestyle Blog,  moneysavingmom.com

Today, after checking out the entries for this week, I tried to print the $1.00 coupon for All.  The site allowed me to go back, refresh and print 17 $1 off coupons.  That's where I stopped, I am not sure how long it would have let me do that.

After swim lessons we headed to Target becuase I heard that there were All detergent travel sizes for, you guessed it, $1.00     We threw 17 into the cart, grabbed a tube of toothpaste and that very funny named "butt paste" for a baby gift basket.

Our Total????  $1.43 for sales tax!

The All is so exciting to me becuase I have thrown it in a ziploc and during our 3 week road trip, I won't have to buy any laundry detergent!  And at the end of the trip, whatever is left, I can leave with Ben and he won't have to buy any for a while either.  A small thing, but a blessing none the less!

Last Saturday I had to go out to the east side of town so I signed the girls up for the Lowes Build It Clinic.  They had a lot of fun building these little memory boxes and talking about how they'll store the letters from Daddy in them.

It's so hard having him gone, and taking them to build something seemed brighten the moods for all 4 of us.  Afterwards we headed over to JoAnns to get the tulle and satin I needed to make the special sleeve to cover Petal Rose's cast for her dance recital.

Petal Rose has been a bit nervous about the recital and her cast, how it will look, that she will be different from the other girls.  So with the suggestion from Aunt Vickie, I went to work.  We showed the dance teacher today and she liked it, so now Petal Rose will have that hot pink very signed cast all covered in satin and tulle.   I hope she can enjoy the moment and forget for a few minutes about that big clunky thing.

I'll post pictues of all that dancin' after tomorrow's dress rehearsal.

By the way, I chose the fuzzy option for the slideshow becuase it illustrates how I felt that morning in the little classroom with all those hammers flying!   

If you get a chance please consider watching the video in my sidebar.  The Lord has been speaking to Ben and I and revealing a narrowing path to us that looks to me like LIFE.  The sermon in this video really spoke to me, like a continuation of this conversation going on between the 3 of us.  

I would love to discuss this message with anyone who is interested in doing so.  Let me know if you are.

Petal Rose fell off a slide on Thursday.  She says her foot got stuck and she flipped right off the slide, about a 5 foot fall, head first.  

We had popped home from our quilting class for a bite to eat before we headed to the orthodontist.

When Chica came to tell me that Petal Rose had fallen, I felt like my legs had lead.  As I neared, I could hear her wails before I could see her.  The immediate relief I felt was tremendous.  She was alert and crying.  As I reached her I looked her over and once I determined that it was safe to, I picked her up, cradled her and brought her in the house.

My mind was racing, what to attend to first, was she okay enough for the needed dash to get her sister to the orthodontist (she had been hit in the face while playing with a friend the day before and the appliance in her mouth was not fitting correctly)

So I got her shirt off, examined her face and the scrapes on her shoulder and down her back.  All the while I am most concerned with her head/face/shoulder and she is crying about her arm.  So I get through at the pediatrician's office and amazingly was able to talk to a nurse immediately. 

During this Mae has a cold cloth for her sister's head, gets a clean set of clothes for Petal Rose, makes a sling, keeps a cool helpful head about her the whole time.   What a blessing Mae was during this time of assessment, comfort and desire to get Mae to the ortho to relieve the irritation in her little mouth.

We determined that she was banged up, it appeared that it was the arm that was injured and needed to be seen, but the felt that it could wait until the docs returned from lunch.   So we loaded up with motrin, boo boo bear, cool cloths and a sling.

Finally it is time to see the doc, by this time there are little smiles and less tears.  He sent us for xrays, and sure enough, Petal Rose has the first broken limb in our family for 13 years.

How did I see God's hand in all this?  There is no neck, head or shoulder injury.  Big sis and lil sis were beyond amazing in how they kept their heads about them with tender compassion and care.  And this marme, who has struggled with fear and panicking, DIDN'T. 

The Lord's presence and help was very near.

Thank you Abba Father.

With all the fun coupons I've gotten via the internet lately, my girls have had a wonderful selection of cereal that has cost me next to nothing. Well recently I was in Walmart and saw the Kashi cereals were 2 for $4 and the Honey Bunches of Oats with Chocolate Cluster were $1.98. Well I had several $2 off Kashi & HBO w/CC coupons, plus aonther coupon for any Kashi product, so I got some marme treats as well, Dark Chocolate Chip with Black Cherry Granola Bars....

 2 Boxes of Kashi Go Lean ~ $2 each

1 Box Honey Bunches of Oats with Chocolate Clusters ~ $1.98

1 Boxes of the forementioned granola bars ~ $2.69

Total ~ $8.67   MINUS $7 in coupon for an OOP Total of $1.67!

Here are the links for those coupons if you are interested. Honey Bunches of Oats

http://www.kraftfoods.com/honeybunchesofoats/offers.html?tqnm=rappcsr85099723&o=51752&c=KF&p=4TkwXr2V&cl=&cp=&eb=&ci=&bq=&r=&lang=&cista=50&r=

Kashi

 http://www.kashi.com/account/new

Now, off to have a little snack.

Ben's birthday is today and so I am posting this slide show of the day last week when we celebrated his birthday.  It was so very hard today to not be able to give him a birthday kiss, and then, his job was so busy we had to wait until he called us this evening to sing to him.   This is going to be a long seven months....

Anyway, last week we took the girls swimming, something that Ben and his little ladies greatly enjoy.  Then we headed home for steak & shrimp, and cheesecake with strawberries & cool whip AND peach bubbly for dessert.

We have been a part of a wonderful Keepers group this year. This was the final unit we worked on, Cake Decorating.  What a surprise and thrill it was to see that all of the girls, right down to the youngest 5yo was able to decorate a beautiful cake!

Mae has been growing her hair all year so she can make a donation for Locks of Love.  After doing a bit of research I decided that Pantene's Beautiful Lengths was a better fit for us.  So yesterday big sis was in town and made the cut.  We had to wait until Mae ballet performances were over for the year.  She has until September to be able to get her hair back into a bun, but this is a perfect cut for summer and swimming!  It's good thing that her hair grows FAST!