Coupon Savings!

I love my newest addiction. It brings me such a high, that I want to shout "Hallelujah!" right out loud at the checkout stand.

This week's fabulous savings:

Ralph's Supermarket.......I bought $141.81 worth of groceries, and paid $30.74! I saved $111.07!

Von's Supermarket........I bought $175.08 worth of groceries, and paid $77.62!!!! I saved $97.46!

This means, that I came home with $316.89 in groceries, that I spent only $108.36 on! Yay!

(Are you so proud of me, Hannah???) And that included "big ticket" items like haircolor, detergent, a good razor, and carpet cleaner.

Hannah is my sister, cake baker/decorator extraordinaire, and coupon Queen of all Queens. She taught me almost everything I know. Lots of you have asked me how I save so much money at the grocery store, and so let me tell you....

....It's called The Grocery Game!! It is SO MUCH FUN! You can go to http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ and get a 4 week trial for only $1, after that, you pay $10/month for the first store, and $5/month for each additional store you want tracked. You enter your zip code, and your local grocery stores come up on the screen. You select the one(s) you want, and you see Teri's List, which matches the Sunday coupons up with the in-store promotions for the week so you can optimize your savings. Coupons are great, sales are great, but combine them both, and look out, baby! The items are color-coded by how high the savings are, with green being FREE, blue being at least 50% off, and black being some savings. The Game is to buy the green and the blue ones (whether you need them or not, so you can accumulate a "stockpile".) You only buy the items in black that you need, and as your stockpile grows, your list of "needs" gets smaller and smaller.

Yes, it does take some time to clip the coupons, and play The Game. It took me about an hour to clip all my coupons today and get my list ready for both stores. But I saved $200, and I don't remember the last time I made $200 in an hour. Well, okay, I had some excellent Mary Kay parties, but this time I had no pantyhose on, no makeup, and my feet weren't killing me! My pantry is becoming stuffed, my freezer is jam-packed, the kids aren't whining for food all the time, and I'm not feeling like a kitchen Nazi, trying to ration everything. I am spending about the same amount a month on groceries ($400-500 for our family of 8), and we have plenty of fresh fruit/veggies and meats too.

So, here's the deal...now that I let you in on this, if you decide to play with me and sign up, please tell them I referred you! Jenna Consolo. Please! Then I get some free weeks on The Grocery Game, and I love FREE!!!

The Rembrandt is Blurry!

Darn, stupid camera. Well, actually, it's darn stupid ME. For some reason, when I turn the flash off, every picture comes out blurry. Time to take out the manual and READ IT.

Last night I took Lyndsay on a YW trip to the Norton Simon Art Museum in Pasadena. So cool. I heart art museums. Maybe it's a remnant of my mother in me, who was an Art History major, who is the most talented artist I know, and who taught me to do anything artistic that I can do. Every time I see a Cassatt, I think of her. Mary Cassatt used the theme of mothers and children prolifically, which is probably why both my mother and I appreciate her work, but I didn't see any Cassatt's last night.

This is the 100th anniversary of Norton Simon's birth. There was a fascinating display highlighting the development of his collection of art, and giving a history of the acquisition of some of the works. I've always been curious about the behind-the-scenes of art acquisition, so I loved this small display. Simon made one of his most important acquisitions on March 19, 1965, when he purchased Rembrandt's Portrait of a Boy, Presumed to be the Artist's Son, Titus, buying it for $2,234,000 in a very controversial and publicized sale at Christie's in London. He had turned down the chance to buy Titus in 1963, but was ready to bid on the painting when it came up for auction in 1965. However, he wanted to remain anonymous, so he devised a plan to allow him to communicate silently with the auctioneer. It was a complicated and complex "code" made up of combinations of sitting, standing, and raising a finger. Unfortunately, the auctioneer mistakenly misread Simon's charades, and thought he had dropped out of the bidding, and the painting was sold to someone else. Simon immediately demanded the bidding be reopened and after five minutes of arguing, it was, and Simon made the final bid. At the time, Titus was the second most expensive work of art sold at auction. And even though he had originally wished to remain anonymous, he appeared with the painting on the cover of Time magazine on June 4, 1965. Norton Simon considered Titus, along with Raphael's Madonna and Child with Book, c. 1502-03, to be his greatest acquisitions. There was an abundance of fascinating stories like this, that brought to life the man behind the collection.

We saw several Renoir's, some Rembrandt portraits, along with a collection of his etchings, some Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Raphael, Van Gogh, and Degas. Lots of Degas. And not only Degas' paintings, but many, many bronzes, of both dancers and horses. Norton Simon purchased an entire collection of seventy modele bronzes, which means they were the bronze master casts taken from Degas' wax originals, and from which all subsequent sets were produced. They were lovely. Lyndsay fell in love with Degas. (Must be the dancer in her.) She has great taste. I bought her a very cool art poster of a Degas ballerina bronze in the museum gift store, which I will give her for Christmas.

So, I've reconfirmed that I really like 16th and 17th century Dutch art, but not so much French of the same era. I like later French artists, though. Maybe this is due to my Dutch ancestors tainting me with a spiritual bias through the veil?

Favorite pieces of the night?

Edgar Degas, Women Ironing c.1884

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait c. 1636-38

Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Boy, Presumed to Be the Artist's Son, Titus c. 1645-50

Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878-81, Bronze

Vincent van Gogh, Mulberry Tree, 1889

Georges Lacombe, Chestnut Gatherers, 1893-94

There were so many, though! What a collection! I wish my art expert friend, Luisa, had been with me to give me a tutorial as we browsed the galleries. I would have learned so much more. I've always felt that the finest existence is one in which one is surrounded by beauty and wisdom in art, literature, music, and nature. Even a simple home, filled with treasures of books, well-chosen art, diverse and uplifting music, some nature inside and a view of nature outside....well, that's just about heaven!

Wish I had better pictures. Dumb, stupid camera.

Bona Fortuna

Good fortune for the past week:

1. After feeling very depressed all summer about the state of my carpets, a friend let me borrow her steam cleaner and now everywhere I look is clean! (as long as I'm looking down) I LOVE clean carpets, almost as much as I love my children. I hope someday Santa can bring me my very own carpet cleaning machine! Bissell ProHeat Advantage=TRUE LOVE.

2. Yesterday I went grocery shopping and thanks to helpful tips from coupon guru Hannah, and careful organization and strategy, I bought $451 of groceries and only paid $229! I love it!

3. I have increased my yogic capacity Beryl Bender Birch style from 14 minutes to 36 minutes, and did not throw up!

4. I have met some very cool, very fun new blogging friends, thanks to a shout out from Josi Kilpack about my "Towering Above the Masses" post, and Candace Salima's LDS Blog Ring, and the very addictive and hip cre8buzz site! There's too many of you to name, but thanks for looking twice, you super-cool gals!

Aidenisms

Aiden: "He got tooken out of the pack of wolves in the jungle."

Mom: "Aiden, 'tooken' isn't correct English."

Aiden: (exasperated) "Sorry! Trrrrooken. Is that better?"

Trooken? what? (sigh)


Later, giving a plot summary of Tomie dePaola's Jamie O'Rourke and the Giant Potato...

Mom: "And so what is the author trying to teach us?"

Aiden: "You should never trust leprechauns."

A good lesson for us all, eh?

And So IT Begins

The new school year! We had such a great family night on Monday, with each of the kids writing down goals in four key areas of their lives: academic, spiritual, physical, and relationships. They came up with some very keen aspirations! Some were: make 3 new friends from the "uncool" kids, learn to read more fluently, say 5 nice things to people each day, earn my Faith in God award, don't complain about wearing Sunday clothes, improve push-ups each month, lose 10 pounds (okay, that one was mine, of course).

We have a tight schedule for piano practice and showers here in the morning, and it ran like clockwork without any help from Mom this morning! I was so warmed to hear the water turn on at 5:50am (Lyndsay), and the piano exercises at 6:10 (Dylan). All of the kids were dressed, beds made, and scriptures on their laps ten minutes EARLY for scripture study! I was so proud, and what a great start to the day! Hearty oatmeal for breakfast, first day of school pictures, and out the door. Well, two of them.

This year I am homeschooling all three of my bigger kids. And re-routing baby Conor constantly. We had warnings and rules before we got started, and they were all raring to go. But lest you think I'm a perfect mother with perfect children, for whom everything runs perfectly....

It wasn't long before meltdown #1. And then meltdown #2 was fast on its heels. And then meltdown #3. And then meltdown #4. That was mine, and it was successful enough that there were no more meltdowns from the crew, thank you very much. I can only take so much! We all have to learn a new routine and find our place in it. The boys have had the last two years in public school, so it's been a while since all of them have been under my inadequate, but willing tutelage. Official students at the Caelum Academy. They did great work though. Dylan is reading Pinocchio, and Lyndsay The Diary of Anne Frank. Aiden is working through a fairly decent retelling of Kipling's The Jungle Book. They all wrote about their reading today, and re-wrote about their reading. They each did a math lesson and some Mind Benders, Lyndsay started Wheelock's Latin, and Aiden learned the difference between common and proper nouns. We took it fairly easy on them. Our grammar, science, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots, along with Dylan's Latin hasn't arrived yet, but stay tuned! It's going to be a great year!

Weakness and Forgiveness

I have this mouth. Sometimes it's wickedly clever and witty. Sometimes it's keenly pointed and poignant. Sometimes it's astute and wise beyond its years. Then still, sometimes it's full of itself and downright mean and cutting. Sometimes it works on auto-pilot and I can't seem to slam on the brakes fast enough, but this is my lesson in life. However, I don't want to shift responsibility to my mouth and stand back victimized, for I am my mouth.

One of the greatest challenges in life is learning to "tame the beast", in whatever form the beast may present itself. Religiously speaking, this is referred to as overcoming the natural man, or bridling one's passions. Metaphysically speaking, it would be evolving or enlightenment. It's all the same. Growth begins when we can claim our weaknesses and then work to conquer them, rather than sit back resigned to a state of "this is just who I am". This is the saddest kind of hopelessness to me.

My mouth is my beast. My mind works fast. It is sharp and sassy and witty and intuitive and a blessing. It can also be opinionated, judgemental, sarcastic, and biting... and a curse. I often forget that I don't need to say everything that comes into my mind, that not everyone cares. I wish the connection from my mind to my mouth would short-circuit a bit more often than it does, but this is my challenge, and I take courage in knowing that I am not alone:

"...I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle..." Psalms 39:1

"He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction." Proverbs 13:3

"And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword..." 1 Nephi 21:2

If this was Nephi's gift, I have no doubt that he struggled to bridle it, as I do. That's the way it works: virtue and vice. Then just yesterday I was reading Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' The Yearling, before my older kids have to read it in homeschool, and I stopped at the following passage:

"You kin tame a 'coon. You kin tame a bear. You kin tame a wildcat and you kin tame a panther." He pondered. His mind went back to his father's sermons. "You can tame arything, son, excusin' the human tongue." (p.79)

Yikes. Almost true. Taming the human tongue is tough, but not impossible. We can overcome all weakness through the Lord. It is in that very act that we are made strong:

"...for my strength is made perfect in weakness..." 2 Corinthians 12:9

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Ether 12:27

It is in the weakness that humility and softening are found. When I was a young mother with two children, I often found myself overwhelmed and running on empty. My fuse was short, as was my temper with my sweet little ones, from whom I expected too much. After scolding my daughter, who was 4 at the time, I was filled with remorse and went to sit on the front porch to weep with my weakness. She came and sat down next to me. I looked into her angelic face, and her eyes looked lovingly into mine, those eyes that have always had an exceptional gift of wisdom, and I said, "Mommy hurts your feelings all the time, don't I?"

She scooted closer to me and wrapped her little arm around my back. "Only sometimes," she answered.

"I'm so sorry, my Lyns," I said. "I shouldn't do that."

"That's okay, Mommy," she said without thought. "I relieve you."

I looked at her. She had meant forgive, but how appropriate and ironic was her mix-up. Isn't that exactly what we do when we forgive, relieve? Relieve from burden or sorrow or guilt? Isn't that what the Savior does for us when he extends his benevolent hand in forgiveness towards us? Out of the mouth of babes.

These two themes, weakness and forgiveness, play such a prevalent part in my life these days. With one, the other is needed. As often as I extend forgiveness, it's true that I need it extended to me with even greater frequency. And there's something divine in the extension, something heavenward, heavenly, heavenbound.

Playing Along

My cute sister-in-law, Sarah, tagged me for the Middle Name Meme, and though I have the same middle name as she, maybe I can come up with something different. Thanks for inviting me, Sarah!

L oud-Mouthed. Hey, I grew up in a very large, Italian family, and one had to be loud to be heard! Actually, this has more to do with learning to discipline my mouth than it does the actual volume of my mouth, but both could use some work. My mouth is both my virtue and my vice.

Y ogi. One who practices yoga. And though I've been on hiatus, I'm back in it, baby! I can barely walk or lift my arms to prove it.

N ympho. My husband said I should put that. It's the one thing we never fight about.

N utritionally Nurturing. I love to help other people get healthier by eating better. I love to teach my own children how to make good food choices, and I love to serve nutritional, nourishing meals. I love to nuture sick people back to health through proper food and herbs, and I love the feeling of eating a "clean" diet. Not perfect at it, but I love it.

Okay, so I have to tag Luisa because she's usually a good sport and because she's great with words, and Annette (have you already played this Meme?) for the same reasons. Thanks, Sarah! Hope I didn't embarrass you! :)