and how could I forget?

My beloved toasted pine nut cous cous is on sale at Giant for $1.49. This is UNPRECIDENTED, people! Never have I seen it this low. Stocking up like mad at this price!

the bullet points have it again

What I'm loving right now:

• The fact that Laundry Mountain is eroding. I've not had much time home in the past few weeks and a sad byproduct of that was a growing pile of laundry that I gave no attention to. Right now I am listening to the sweet sound of a washer and dryer...washing and drying!
  
• My plants. I'm amassing a small collection and so far I'm loving it. I think I may have squealed loudly this morning when I realized one of them bloomed overnight. I've managed to water and sun most of them in such a way that they thrive, and they make me smile. I've come close to naming them but thought better of it. It would be a slippery slope from there to becoming a cat woman, and since I hate cats, I'm steering clear of that.
  
• Sharing my home with folks I love. Since moving in, I've been able to have people over one by one for a lunch, dinner, or coffee here or there -- maybe once a week. I've loved it. This weekend I managed to host two events here and most of those in attendance had either never been, or hadn't been since I moved in. I had a baby shower for BFF and then my extended family had a housewarming for me. Lots of wonderful people all around, it was fantastic. Had fun showering Kel, and being showered the next day with lots of love and great gifts for my home!
• My grandmother's reaction to the first decorations I put up on the wall. She'd given me these two serving trays a year or two ago when she was doing a big cleaning and sorting. They were wedding presents to her and Grandad and were simple but gorgeous. She asked if I wanted them and I said yes. I never used them in my last house for serving anything, but then I had a vision of hanging them on the wall in my kitchen. They look splendid, and are one of the first things you see when you walk in. I love how they look, and I love how happy it made Nanny to see them there.
• Triple coupons at Bloom this past weekend. Not gonna lie...there's something exciting about making five cents buying scalloped potato mix. And yes, I know that sentence along with the whole "I almost named my plants" comment are not really helping my "I'm not a dork" cause.
  

What I'm not loving right now:

• People I love going through horribly painful things. Obvi not going to elaborate here, but there is much hurt and sadness going on and it is so difficult to watch/experience. Definitely not loving it.
  

CVS week 1 and 2

Delving into coupon world and the land of CVS-ing, I'm learning, is going to take some organization and a little extra time. I've spent more money than budgeted for groceries, to get certain things stocked up. My house is still in the getting set up stages, and I'm continually finding I don't have certain things.

I plan on keeping a running tally of my CVS-ing here. I am by no means as good as anyone whose blog I've seen that does this, but I'm loving the getting something for nothing situation! One thing I plan to remember is that unless what I buy is something that I, or friends or family, can use I will not buy it. I don't need to fill my house with crap...or at least any MORE crap! I'm also not planning on itemizing cost/coupons used (and where I got them) like some other folks do. I just want a record of all the stuff I am getting along the way.

So:

Trip #1 - bought:

3 boxes of cereal (Cin. Toast Crunch/Honey Nut Cheerios, Fiber One)
2 bottles of palmolive
1 shick quatro razor
1 colgate max toothpaste

After coupons (manufacturer and a $4 welcome to CVS one) = $20

I got $15 in Extra Care Bucks from that purchase.


Trip #2 - bought:

1 Irish Spring body wash
1 bic razor w/refills
1 set of 4 refills

After coupons and ECBs = $.13

I got $11 in ECB back from the purchase.


Clearly I need a little work on this, since I "lost" 4 bucks in the mix. If I had felt super committed to it, I would have snagged another $2 coupon for the razor refills from a friend or something, but I didn't feel like putting the effort into it. I will work on making up the difference with coupons in the next few weeks.

The tally right now is $43 worth of products for $20.13

on my mind - the good, the bad, the random

Thoughts I'm thinking

• Cancer sucks. Got word this week of another young family starting a battle with this nasty disease. Please pray for this wife/mother of 8 and her family (very close knit extended family as well) as they begin this fight.
  
• I'm glad I got my house when I did. I still check the listings (habit). Nothing this good really seems to have come up since I bought. God totally had a hand in this. So grateful.
• The teens I work with are pretty awesome. Sometimes their joy and imagination catches me off guard and brings such a smile to my face.
• This whole couponing adventure will be interesting...it is such a game to see what great prices you can get. Loving it.
• While it was so odd to have a snow day and wear shorts in the same week, I loved last week. My feet are rejoicing when they are reacquainted with their BFF, flip flops
• I'm going to Sarasota in May and I cannot wait. I got a great fare and can't wait for my week in the sun. It is later in the year than usual, due to exciting stuff like Kel's baby and Tiff's wedding, but I know it will come at the perfect time.
• Not having cable/any digital reception is much easier than I thought. DVDs (from friends, fam, and RedBox), Hulu, and networks showing online have made it fairly painless.
• Daylight savings time is not helpful to the already insomniatic.
  

a beautiful day in the neighborhood

As March begins, we finally got the snow people had been hoping for. We hadn't had any to speak of, really, since the day I closed on the house (1/28). The prediction of snow yesterday allowed me a more relaxed afternoon since we called off our evening meeting at work. After Mass and errands, I picked up my four year old niece for a few hours of hangout time at my house. We made muffins which is our favorite project to do together. I get the kind that uses just water which a) makes it easy to fix them and b) makes it safe for her to do what she'd do anyhow...dip her finger into the bowl to taste the batter. While they were baking we drank hot cocoa and then watched a little Dora. Love it! When I took her home I hung out with Michelle and fam for a few hours and enjoyed a chili dinner with them. Good times.

Actually, the reason I wanted to write today had nothing to do with yesterday. The snow ended up falling last night and started sticking at some point after midnight. When I woke up this morning and looked outside, I realized that the front sidewalk had been shoveled. It is a small effort (the snow is powdery and the amount of sidewalk that is "mine" is tiny) but I think it is a huge gesture. It says to me that the person who did it -- my neighbors to the right or the left, not sure -- isn't just out to do what they need to do for themselves. They took an extra effort to do something for the good of others. I may be reading into it but what it does tell me is that they weren't being selfish -- and that's a rarity in Northern VA! When I went out to shovel my front walk and clear off my car, the neighbor from the house diagonal from me who I'd met before, walked over to chat. She chastised me for not having hat and gloves on; I did explain I'd just been walking out to turn on the car and was going back in to put those on. Before we were done talking, she wanted to make sure I had a shovel and salt/de-icer. Again, a small gesture, but the concern and desire to help was touching. My sweet elderly next door neighbor to the right stopped to talk as I was shoveling, and through his broken English told me that he thinks that snow days are a lot of work. Which is true, but I also think that snow days show you what kind of people your neighbors are. And today I learned that mine are good, and that makes me very happy.