Stopping in really quickly today to post a picture of my "stash/stockpile" of cleaning/personal items. Mostly because I have been couponing for a while and I don't think that I am anywhere close to an extreme couponer but our little stash is so perfect for our big little family of six. Our stockpile has been chipped away at a lot the last couple of weeks because we have been cleaning two places basically. And of course that means that my stash of 16packs of papertowels are now 9 (not including the 3 open packs- 1 in the kitchen,1 in the master bathroom, and 1 for the other two baths).


Well here it is...

This storage is in our very small laundry room. I am not at all complaining but just letting you know that our laundry room is small. Especially compared to the one that we had in MN. But honestly that is just what I need. Smaller space= less room to have dirty laundry collect=laundry being done daily. And with 6 people you basically have to do a couple of loads a day or you will get buried in laundry and be washing all day one day a week. And I prefer a couple of loads a day cause there is very little chance that something stains. Plus I got these two shelves for $20 off Craigslist and they are from IKEA and cost $50 each. I knew that I needed 2 shelves but that they couldn't really take of too much square footage cause I was only working with 48 inches from the washing machine and dryer to the wall.

I wanted this table/kitchen island

but it wouldn't fit and allow me to have storage for my stockpile. So I sort clean clothes and fold on the dryer.


Also this photo doesn't show my massive stockpile of washing powder, stain remover, personal items, deodorant for Vele and I. Those things are really hard to get a good photo of but there is a lot of it. LOL We have over 21 bottles of liquid washing detergent and 4 boxes of powder.


I know I know all this talk about stockpiles such a different topic but its something that I was asked to share from a thread that I read each and everyday on a couponing site. I don't have nearly the amount of some people's stashes but I am just so happy to not have to purchase toilet paper, papertowels or even washing powder. I haven't purchased any since the Staples $3 coupon which was around the second week of June. To me that's an accomplishment cause I usually have to purchase papertowels, toilet paper, and hand soap every week. Which gives me more $$ to spend on groceries! Which is always a plus when you have four kiddos to feed.

So speaking of feeding those little ones I got a recipe from another couponing site that I altered it a little to include pepperoni. And I have made it a couple of times and the family loves it. So here is a photo, sorry I don't have a recipe for it but you could check it out on krazycouponlady.com and get the one that she offers, I just added a couple of other items in mine. YUMMY!

Hello everybody, I just wanted to get on here while I had a moment to update my blog. I am so glad that I can get on the internet. Yesterday I spent four hours working on my internet connection after we got our new services installed. I just don't know if the new service is something that I will love but maybe I can grow to love it. We ended up running to Walmart to pick up a new wireless router and setting that up and getting it all set up with our three family computers. And just as soon as I was so happy about completing that, our wireless printer wouldn't connect to the computer for anything so I had to uninstall and re-install it and then go from there. And honestly that wouldn't have been a bad thing if I had actually been able to locate the printer disc but I didn't. But all is well and its all completed.

I really don't have anything to share just yet, well other than we are doing whatever we can to get the house organized and everyone settled into their own spaces. It truly does feel amazing cause the kids all have their own spaces and it seems as though having their own space has made them a little closer. I love it cause the last couple of days the boys have volunteered to read to the girls at night. I love it cause it gives me a chance to get all the things that I need to get done at night and also a little time to talk to my hubby before he goes to sleep. I just realized that school is coming really soon and that I have to get the kids registered and that is my next set of things to get done. I am considering letting our 4 yr old head off to head start so that I can have some one on one time with the little one. She would love to be able to go to school and since she is learning her letters and writing her name it would be nice to have her in a school environment. But I also think that I want to homeschool her too but I just don't know yet.

But on another note our front yard is finished. I love how it looks but I can't wait to get our backyard started/finished...But here is a photo of the front yard....

Well I called to get the kids enrolled into school and that will be a challenge again. Since DS#1 is heading into his Freshman year of highschool, we just realized that we will most likely have to work to get him into 11th grade math (I am not sure what that is here--pre-cal, maybe) because of the way that schools are set up here.

In MN when you go to an accredited school/public school, you don't have to prove that you are able to handle the work if you have a transcript that reflects that you took the previous class and passed. I mean really an A+ in Geometry on a transcript means that you have to test him to see if you can allow him to have the next level. Oh well, whatever, we will make sure that he gets the testing done. The sad part is that we did the same exact thing last year, but because he is now entering highschool they won't it done again. Never mind is state testing shows he is above the 99%, nope. We still have to prove it. So we will and I won't fuss to much about it and it will all work out or at least that is what I believe.

DS#2 is entering 4th grade and although I am fine with him going to public school I keep missing homeschooling him. It wasn't easy with two other little ones at home, but we loved the one on one and he was able to keep moving on books and all that. Now although he is in the 4th grade, we had testing done for him last year and he was able to have several 4th grade classes so this year he will be in the 4th grade doing 5th grade stuff. I just am going to make sure that he is learning something and being challenged cause for several assignments last yr I felt like really this is 4th grade work, we could so do more than that. I in fact, made he do several other things for a report that the teacher told he had only to write one sheet on. Really one sheet.

But I hope that everyone is

Hello blogger friends, how are all of you doing out there in blogland? Well I am doing ok although I am sitting here debating if I am about to head to the ER cause my finger is cut really bad. But I am ok I guess cause if I weren't then I would have left by now or would I? But I am hoping that it will stop bleeding and then it should be ok.

We are all moved in and for the last couple of days I have been cleaning our old rental. It was really hard work too. But I really think that it just seemed so hard because I was there cleaning without any central air. I had called and had it transfered and never thought about what I would need when it came to cleaning.

I love the summer but it can get really hot here, in fact it was 110 on the day we moved, 112 the day I decided to clean the rental and today it is 100. But I am nice and cool. I have been slowly but consistantly unpacking boxes. I am glad to finally be able to see each room coming to a point where I can say I like how it looks. I just don't know why but clutter, lots of boxes really make me feel as though we are messy so I had to get that started cause it was driving me nuts. There are alot of things that I have written down that I want to do and a lot of window shopping online to see what there is out there to get. But I am not going to put us into debt trying to get them all right away. I am going to take my time and get things slowly.

But here is a photo of the kitchen as it right now. My disclaimer...I have only lived in our new house for a week and I am unpacking and organizing 6 people. LOL. So its not even close to being done or decorated but its coming along.

Our new kitchen table should be delivered tomorrow. Well we hope because if it isn't we will have to wait until next Wednesday. It seats 10 without a leaf ( cause it is a pretty big table) and there isn't a way to add a leaf either. Which I love. I have a few more things to spray paint (mostly frames) to add to the walls and a huge metal sign that sames home cooking.

Here is a picture from a few days ago of our front yard being installed. It is all done now and it is beautiful. I just haven't found my camera cord just yet so I can add the photo yet. But it will be coming shortly.

So in my window shopping I came across an amazing bed that seems to be almost what I want for our master suite retreat. I like it but the posts are alot smaller than I wanted them to be so I have that one bookmarked and I am still searching for the perfect one. Hopefully I can find it.

I hope that everyone stays safe and have an awesome evening! I am so glad that it's almost Friday!!

Hello everyone, I am so glad that I have internet access again! It has been really hard being off the computer for the last two weeks while moving and all that. We have moved! I am so excited to share that news, well actually we aren't really completely done with moving but we plan to be this week since this is the last few days of our lease.

But our new house is amazing! We love love love everything about it. The kids are busy giving more suggestions of what they want their rooms decorated like. But I haven't even thought of starting any of that just yet. But I don't have any decent photos of the inside of the house just yet because we have been so busy shopping for blinds and ceiling fans (which are needed 100% now that we have had well over 100 for the temp that last week), but here is a photo of the view from the hallway (kids' bedrooms hallway) and you can actually see the buffet/dresser that I recently refinished so that it can go in the kitchen underneath the island. I haven't done any real decorating yet but had been putting together the ideas and notes for a while.

This is the before and after (well not a full view but you can see it)...

I love because it actually extends our kitchen island and its not allowing our space to walk around the island to be cut off at all or interfere with any of the entrances. Well hopefully between the packing and setting up the new crafting space/office I will have my chance to get some crafting done, but if not....until next time.