Gonna get my Sh!t together...

 Today I signed up to Sarah Robinson's "28 Days to Getting Your Sh*t Together" http://bit.ly/28DaysBlogSeries

This is going to take place in the month of February. When the month is out, I hope to have my sh-tuff together. I tend to be a bit (oh,okay alot!) scatterbrained when it comes to getting things done. Formulating ideas I'm great at. Getting started with said ideas, no problem. Sticking with it through the tough points, uh not so much...

If I can write it down and schedule it out, I will do a lot better. I can get sidetracked doing the simplest of things. Forget about the tough stuff. I always seem to have an excuse. Usually its a time factor that I have a problem with. You know the standard excuse? It'll take too long so I start later. Usually, I find that it takes less than half the time that I've anticipated.

A good example of this is dressing well and putting makeup on. Now that I do this more or less regularly, I know that it doesn't take much time at all. Maybe 5 minutes? What was the big deal?

Since this is my year to renew and re-invent, I'm looking forward to many more changes in my life. All of it starts with one small step after another. Will you join me in Sarah's "28 Days to Getting Your Sh*t Together"?

I'm looking forward to it!

How I feed my family of 9 on the cheap

My food budget for our large family used to be outrageous. I'm sure you can imagine. The USDA says that a thrifty family of my size should spend $1241 every four weeks just for food! That is soo much money! And that is their thrifty plan! Can you imagine what Their liberal plan would be? I don't even want to calculate that! I tried to keep it under $200 a week but it was a challenge. That is still $800 a month just for food. Wow!

I started using Angel Food Ministries about 6 months ago. They are great! I buy 4 of the Bountiful Blessings Boxes.

What a great deal! I spend $164 on four boxes and then I only have to supplement this with bread, milk and fixings like seasonings, and a few other things.My budget is actually closer to $400 a month for a family of 9. Yes only $400!!!

Angel Food is not just for poor or needy either. Think of it more like a food co-op. The more people that buy from them, the better discounts that they get from their suppliers. That, in turn, leads to more and better quality of foods that they can provide in the boxes. Definitely a win-win for everyone!

Of course, I do spend a little more than that some months, especially if we order pizza or something like that. I do use a lot of coupons as well. My favorite coupon site is  A Full Cup. I love being able to match coupon and sales with such ease. I have saved literally thousands in the 18 months that I have using couponing sites.


I hope some of these ideas help you to reduce your monthly grocery bill too. I'll post more ideas whenever I think of them.

The miracle of YouTube videos!

Wow! You can literally find a video on anything via YouTube. I posted last week about how badly I have let my personal image slide. Well, after spending the evening looking at videos, I found some new ideas on sculpting my once wayward eyebrows. I look like a girl again! No more Abe Vigoda in the mirror. I am still trying to deal with the extremely dark circles under my eyes. Nothing has ever worked to conceal them. I choose to wear glasses instead of contacts just to help hide how dark they are.

How dark are they, you ask? Well, when I was a teen, my younger sister got into my makeup. She drew lines under her eyes with mascara because she thought that is where it went. Uh no, it doesn't go there, sis.

I want to try the new Hard Candy Glamoflauge Heavy Duty Concealer to see if it will help. I saw a review for this on Nouveau Cheap's Blog. Looks like it may help at least a little. I'll let you know next week.

I also spent the week doing some online shopping. Gotta love the convenience of the modern world. I admit to being an impulse shopper at 2 am. I ordered a pair of those slimming jeans from JcPenney. They are Lee Slender Secrets. Being short and plus size, it can be hard for me to find jeans that fit. These say that they are plus size petite. I wonder if they will be petite enough? Ordered a lot of other things too. I love to shop from JcPenney, Sephora, and Kohl's.

It's definitely worth the little extra effort to feel like a girl again. Just because I'm a mom of many, it's no excuse to be a bag lady. (not that being a bag lady is bad, mind you) Now I need to think shoes. Any suggestions?

Thoughts from the Garden

Here in Florida, it's entirely possible to garden almost year round. Except for the few day of freeze that we have, there really isn't a dormant period. I love to get the seed catalogs in the mail so that I can dream up the perfect garden. My family can tell you that I'm far from perfect, however.

My new favorite catalog is from Garden's Alive. It comes with a $25 gift certificate to use on your first purchase. Nothing like free to get your garden growing.

I will be getting some tomato seeds from Tomato Bob's as well as some various vegetable seeds from Heirloom Seeds. I love the planning stages of gardening, it's the actual doing that I sometimes have trouble with.

I've already picked up a couple of grape vines from Walmart. They were only $5 each. Of course, the kids want to know when they can have grapes fresh from the vine. I had to tell them that it may take a few years before there are any substantial amounts of grapes growing. They weren't too happy about that.

The rototiller is ready... The day is approaching.. Wish me luck!

Time for a new camera

Well it finally happened. Yet another camera has decided it will no longer be subjected to the torment that is my family. Cameras don't last long in my family. They just tend to quit. Don't know why...Too much for them to take after a while, I guess.

My last camera was a KODAK Easy Share C813 8.2 mp and 5x zoom.

It worked wonderfully for a few years but then just wouldn't power up any more. Maybe it's all the sand ,who knows? Took good pics though.


I think this time I want something with at least 14 mp. Maybe 7x zoom?  I would like something that is easy to upload to Facebook and YouTube with as well.  I've seen a few that are waterproof as well. That may be a good idea. I will be researching more this week and decide by next Wednesday. I'll let you know...

Lazy Saturday afternoon.

 I've been busy all day doing nothing. Six of the kids went to their grandparents house for the weekend, leaving just Jim, my husband, Sean, my 16 year old and me, home. I had planned on a run to the laundromat to get some of the laundry overflow done but I was too lazy I guess. Being a family of nine, laundry is never done. About once a month or so, I take the excess to wash all at once.



I need a set of 2 of these to help get through Mount Washmore...Definitely in my Vision Book. Page 2, right after the hired help to actually do the laundry.. 


For today though, I will ignore the wash that needs done and continue to enjoy the quiet that is my lazy Saturday afternoon.

Who is that in the mirror?!? Abe Vigoda?!?

It seems like once we become moms, we learn the fine art of making excuses for ourselves. Being the mom of 7, I have become an expert at it. Using the kids as an excuse is in and of itself unexcusable. Time for ourselves is as important if not more important than time for the kids. After all, if we don't take care of ourselves, eventually we won't be able to take care of them either.

I had a total wake up call this week with the discovery of Audrey at www.momgenerations.com My sense of style, what little there was, died a little more with the birth of each child. By now, I wear my husbands old t-shirts and the same type of pants that my mom has been wearing since the 70's. The only difference between my mom's pants and mine is the hers are still polyester and mine are cotton. My pants may feel better but hers definitely look better. Can you say wrinkles?

Shoes? I only wear a pair of those exercise shoes. You know the ones with the funny looking heels? Supposed to lift and tone? Uh not really doin' much for me... and can you say ugly? Haven't worn heels in years. No place to wear them. Occasionally I will wear flats but again that hasn't happened in at least 6 months.

Stopped plucking my eyebrows too. Why bother? No longer working a “real” job so I don't have to see many people in a day. Looked in the mirror earlier this week and saw Abe Vigoda staring back at me! Huge bushy eyebrows and no makeup at all. Can't remember the last time I bothered with makeup either. Why? Lazy? Tired? No time? All BS excuses! I no longer feel good about myself so therefore I let myself go. Because I let myself go, I no longer feel good about myself...See the catch 22 forming?

I finally decided to get my hair out of the perpetual ponytail and into a style yesterday. Thought about getting the old lady mom-style hair cut. You know the one? Short no muss no fuss? No style either! Gonna leave it long and style it the way that I've seen done on videos online.

Got my teeth fixed finally last July. I put that off for years. I hate getting dental work done. Still need some more things done this year but I can now smile without feeling like hiding my teeth. I have hated getting pictures taken of me because of the way my teeth looked. Now I don't mind the teeth, it's the rest of me that needs fixed!

Here's to renewing and reinventing my image this year!