LONG Time, No See

For those of you who are still checking in from time to time, it's been awhile.  I have tons of excuses reasons for not blogging lately, so here goes:

1. My mom and sister surprised me last week by visiting from Colorado!  They were here for almost a week, and it was the BEST surprise I've ever had!   The kids and I were just sitting on the couch and there's a knock at the door.  My mom and sis drove 1100 miles to come see us, and it was wonderful.  We just hung out but it was so nice to have family here.

2. I have finished the boys' beds and started on another couple of projects.  Here are some pics of the beds in the newly painted room (my sister helped me paint!):

I took these mattresses off their bunk bed so there aren't any box springs yet, which is why the mattresses look low...

I thought they came out very well, and I'm so pleased!  I now need to build the dressers for the boys and headboards for the girls.  Oh, and a nighstand for my oldest boy, and an entry console table, and a.....

3. I broke down and had to reorganize all my "overage boxes".  I had a little coupon crisis and stopped shopping altogether for a bit.  I was SWIMMING in razors, canned goods, boxed crackers, cereal, and so on, so I figured I'd better put the brakes on for a bit.  I reorganized all these boxes:

I have a total of FIFTEEN, 18-gallon buckets filled with all sorts of non-perishable items, most of which I got for free or almost free.  You may wonder why I have all this - I have the belief that if something is free I should go ahead and grab it.  I donate alot of items to food banks and  ministries, plus I share quite a bit with my friends and family.  Why not?  As I was organizing these boxes I realized I had a few feminine products:

Oh well, those were free too!

4. I've been doing small sessions of freezer cooking.  I found boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.69 a pound a few weeks ago so I bought 40 pounds.  I trimmed, cubed, and cooked about 10 pounds one afternoon, plus baked four boxes of brownies in little muffin pans (no cutting - they're already pre-portioned!):

I also made about 50 vietnamese eggrolls last weekend and cooked half and froze the rest.  This a family favorite, but I don't make them very often because it takes a LONG time!

5. My kids are now out of school so we've been spending time playing cards and games and swimming at the neighborhood pool.  I'm trying SO hard to just relax a little!  This is much harder than it sounds - I'm one of those people that just goes crazy when I'm not doing something.  I can't even watch TV without something in my hands!

I've had some of you email me and ask what happened, and could I please just post a few deals.  I'll do my very best to get some deals up here!  I've been in my own little world lately and got very discouraged when I noticed my readership wasn't increasing very much.  Some of you may know but many of you don't know how time consuming a blog can be.  I had been spending countless hours each day finding deals, matching them with coupons, and typing it out.  I realized I was missing out on time with my family, not to mention I had little time to do what I needed to do around the house. 

Soooo, I have failed you all in the long run and I apologize.  I will post some local deals, but I wanted to give you all a resource: my absolute FAVORITE money saving blog is moneysavingmom.com - she has a team of people helping her round up the best deals to be found, and the information is always wonderful!  Check her out every day to see what deals you can find in your area.

I am restructuring over here and won't be posting much (obviously).  I am determined to build a blog that is informative and fun to read, but I just have to find my "niche".  I love to write, craft, save money, play with my kids, and I'm just a friendly person, so interaction is awesome for me.  If you feel like it or have time, shoot me a comment or two - I need some help over here deciding what to do!

Have a great day everyone!