BUT the good news is that I’m almost 17 weeks, have regained my energy and lost most of the sickness, and am going to attempt to be posting again

That’s the biggest update in my life. Little Miss Charlotte is almost 19 months and is as cute as ever. She’s running all around, coloring on everything, dances whenever she hears music and enjoys making music with her daddy in his studio. She’s also talking a lot and communicating with us so life in that sense has gotten a lot easier.

Hubbie is doing great – working at the same job and going for more certifications. He’s been doing a lot of studio work and is releasing his first full length album in just a few months! In addition he’ll be going back to Ottawa (sans family this time) to play 2 gigs in 1 night So exciting!

With the holidays my couponing seemed to have slowed down but I’m happy to report that the budget wasn’t broken too badly and our family is still completely debt-free, including car payments! We’ve even started saving for Charlotte’s college…something we didn’t know would be possible on 1 income but that’s God for ya! Such an amazing way to live life!

And as for God in our lives, well He’s definitely been working hard picking up the slack that this pregnancy has caused. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that in September I became a Sunday School teacher at my church for the 4-5th graders and love every minute of it. They’re full of ideas and energy but aren’t to the point of being jaded with worldly confusion and opinions…it has really been a wonderful experience. I have 2 high school aged assistants who make my life 10x easier and I’m so blessed to have them in my life (and classroom)!

So I think you’re all caught up on my life. Hope your holidays went well and I hope to be posting a bit more frequently, at least until the new baby arrives in June

Me & Charlotte

Christmas 2011

Dancer: Marquese Scott, Booking: http://xceltalent.com/

Song: Pumped Up Kicks – Foster The People

When we were babies - if you napped around the same time and your moms were friends, you were best friends and saw each other almost every day.
When we were kids - if you liked the same toy or had the same hobby you were best friends and played every day.
When we were teenagers - if you liked the same band or store at the mall you were best friends and hung out almost every day.
When we were single young adults - if you liked the same bars/clubs you were best friends and hung out every weekend.
When we were dating young adults - if you liked the same movies and restaurants you were best friends and hung out every few weeks.
When we were married young adults - if you liked the same board games and take out you were best friends and hung out maybe once a month.
When we were married young adults with children - if your kids got along and napped at the same time and work schedules aligned and there were no family obligations you were best friends and hung out every few months.

I can’t go any further because I’m not at those stages yet but I’m GUESSING until your kids move out of the house, it only gets more and more difficult to keep a best friend. And yet the bible talks about friendships so obviously they’re important…so how do we do it? As an introvert it’s something I’m working on and struggling through every day. I know there are people out there who just go to social gatherings, make a bunch of friends, casually get together with them and are completely happy and satisfied by those type of relationships…but that’s just not me. I’m a 2 good friends type of person. I love being a best friend, not an acquaintance. I hate forgetting people’s names so it’s much easier to only have to remember a few of them. I’m bad at remembering details of people’s lives so I’d rather know everything about 2 people than a little about 10. I like sitting down and talking for hours about everything, not talking about the weather and the kids and whatever else we can find to chat about. I’m getting better at doing it but it’s just not naturally who I am.

So why would God create me to be a certain way if it doesn’t fit in with the stage of life I’m in? I don’t know really. Maybe He’s pushing me to not be SUCH an introvert. Maybe He knows the desires of my heart but also knows that my lifestyle can’t handle such a “needy” friendship. Maybe He knows that there are a lot of people out there who would be great to have influence on my life and all of those traits don’t exist in just 2 people. And maybe there are more than 2 people out there who need something from me.

The thing I am learning is the timeless knowledge that you get what you put in. I have to constantly ask myself “what type of friend do you want?” “Well, then what type of friend do you need to be?” If you want to have a friendship with someone a lot of times you have to take the first step. Make the first move. It’s like dating all over again. Suck it up and ask her to coffee. Or to come over for a playdate. Maybe it’s just saying hi with a smile next time you see her. If we think back to dating and treat friendships the same way (minus the intimacy obviously), I think we’ll all develop some great, meaningful friendships that are a bit less than “best friends” but definitely more than just acquaintances.

I spent years sitting in a cubical staring out at the blue sky and green grass wishing I didn’t work at a M-F 9-5 job so that I would be able to enjoy the summer. I daydreamed of the tan I would have, beach I would frequent, books I would read and ice cream I would eat. But June, July and August would pass and I’d find myself welcoming fall as pale as ever saying “maybe next year.” Well, next year finally came and ya know what, I’m still pale, I went to the beach once (and it was a small lake in the area), I’ve been reading the same book for months and I’m back on a dairy-free diet. The moral of the story? The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

“The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.” ~ Robert Fulghum

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed my summer. I enjoyed not working. I enjoyed seeing every moment of my daughter’s transformation to todderhood. I enjoyed meeting friends at the park. I enjoyed a few non-dairy smoothies. I enjoyed iced tea and reading my Kindle in the sun. I enjoyed weekends outside. And I enjoyed my 1 visit to the “beach” (and I’ll never forget it! I was there when NY got a taste of what an earthquake is). But the truth is, planned life never turns into real life…so you have to learn to enjoy where you are and what you have.

“Water” the grass that you’re standing on instead of wishing it weren’t dry. Make the most of where you’re at. Enjoy this stage in life, even if it’s a hard one. See the cup for what it is – whether it be half full or half empty. Just don’t miss this moment in your life. You’ll never get it back. Every second that passes cannot return so please take a minute, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think about your day. Remember yesterday. Take a glimpse back into last week, last month, last year…notice the different stages of life you’ve gone through. The good fly by and the bad drag on but all stages do pass. Enjoy the grass that your feet are planted on. And if you’re standing on concrete – go find some grass, that’s where all the nutrient-filled soil is!

Thanks I’m Remembering and Everything is Terrible for posting this!

Coupon Blogs I Follow: (there are MANY MANY out there so don’t think these are the only ones!)

In alphabetical order:

So those are blogs I recommend. Now on to MANUFACTURER WEBSITES that I visit for coupons. All I did was spend some time going through my cabinets and fridge and made a list of the brands I buy often. Then I used google to find their website and looked on their site for a coupon page. I also looked at their facebook page and found that many, many manufacturers put out coupons that way. Another thing I’ve begun doing is emailing the company asking for coupons. It’s surprising how many responses I’ve gotten that my coupons will be in the mail!

Now on to COUPON WEBSITES. There are sites out there dedicated to providing you with coupons. Here are some of the ones I visit:

1.  Most people know about Coupons.com. But do you know that Coupons.com feeds into Swagbucks? So you’re still printing the same coupons but for every coupon you use, you earn 10 swagbucks! It’s really awesome. The link below will take you to see what I’m talking about.

2. If you’re not interested in doing Swagbucks, then there is:

Smartsource.com

And the last thing is COUPON SWAPPING. This is pretty new to me but there seem to be a lot of sites out there dedicated to coupon swapping! Does anyone have one they recommend? Currently I’ve been cutting out/printing coupons for friends & family and we’ll exchange but I would love to join a group that has more people or even start a small one here. Is anyone interested? Couponing really is about helping each other out so let me know your thoughts. We could easily keep an eye out for each other and mail out coupons. If you’re interested contact me or comment below.

Youtube won’t let me embed the video so click here to watch it!

Happy Weekend and don’t forget to enter my giveaway that ends tomw morning!

How to Enter:  (each will get you 1 entry into the giveaway)

1. Leave a comment below telling me your favorite hair color (whether it’s real or fake!)

2. “Like” Proverb31 blog on facebook and leave me a comment here telling me you did so (or that you are already a fan).

3. Subscribe to the blog by either email or RSS Feed and leave a comment here telling me you did so (or that you are already a subscriber).

4. Send a friend to this post! Have a friend comment below saying that you sent them here and you’ll both be given an additional entry.

US Residents only. Giveaway closes Saturday 9/24/11 at 11am EST. Please make sure the email address you provide is the one you’ll respond to if you’re the winner!

Good luck!!

Whether you’re a SAHM, SAHD, part-time worker, full-time worker, single parent etc – there ARE ways to save money every time you go to the grocery store. There are ways to save a crazy amount of money if you want to spend HOURS AND HOURS on coupons/shopping and you aren’t particular about what ingredients are in your food but that’s NOT me. As I’ve mentioned before, my husband has to eat gluten-free, I have to eat dairy-free and we eat almost all natural & organic foods. It’s not a cheap lifestyle but it’s what we make work and I want to show you how.

Thanks to following a handful of couponing blogs, visiting the websites of my favorite brands and buying the Sunday paper when necessary, my coupon collection is getting pretty big and it makes shopping prep very easy if you’re collecting coupons as you go rather than all the night before your trip. Tip: Clip and organize in your “free” time. It’s good to print coupons as you see them because some will disappear before you get to them if you wait.

So as to not repeat myself, I’m going to link to previous blogs I’ve posted about saving money and eating healthy:

Finding Coupons, Budgets and Eating Healthy, Easy Money Saving Tips and Special Eating Diets

Yesterday I shopped at 3 stores: ShopRite, Stop & Shop and Nature’s Pantry. All of these stores are regional but you can use the same methods/coupons in most stores (Stop & Shop and Giant are the same company actually).

Store #1: ShopRite. My morning trip/pre-nap time.

Why: I only recently added ShopRite to my shopping routine. It’s about 1 1/2 miles from my house which makes it the perfect “run to” place, they put out store coupons, they participate in their own savings programs as well as Cellfire, they double coupons up to .99, their gluten-free/organic aisle has a great selection, they carry organic produce at decent prices and are often putting items on sale that there are coupons for. At this time I use ShopRite as my mostly snacks/coupons for shopping but it’s possible that it may replace Stop & Shop with time.

Here was my trip:

Store #2: Stop & Shop. My after lunch trip.

Why: I’ve been shopping at Stop & Shop since I went food shopping with my parents as a kid. Then I worked there for almost 3 years in high school so I know the store’s layout with my eyes closed which helps. They have a great gluten-free/organic section which is never crowded, put a lot of food we eat on sale, have their own line of organic & natural foods (and meat), double coupons up to .99, have a program that every dollar spent goes to a discount gas program and put out bonus points in the circular every month (last month Chris used the points and got .50 off per gallon at Shell – that was $5 off!), and have low prices on Applegate products which we buy often. I’ve had recent problems with their organic produce going bad quickly so be careful of that.

Here was my trip:

Store #3: Nature’s Pantry. My late afternoon trip.

Why: Nature’s Pantry is our local alternative grocery store and I’ve lucked out – it’s minutes from my house, the prices are very good, they accept coupons and put out their own, the store is big and organized just like a regular grocery store (many natural stores intimidate me and ultimately cause my anxiety problems haha), the staff is amazingly friendly and helpful, they put items on sale for a month at a time so you can plan easily and the selection is great!

Here was my trip:

Want to watch more videos? Click “Friday” in the tag cloud to the right!