God's Handywork

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1

I took Betsy for a walk this morning and saw this beautiful butterfly. I have a watermelon on my plant.

I am so excited. I think it's so cute.

Falling Trees

Today we had 4 huge oak trees cut down because they were dead. The biggest one in the back yard was leaning towards our house. I have to say if anyone needs to have any trees cut down on their property Bert Whitfield is the man to call. He did an awesome job. You can tell he has many years of experience. God was merciful to us and kept everyone and everything safe and we Praise the Lord for that.

Tree #1 Tree #2 Tree #1 and 2 down - Praise the Lord! Tree #3 - the one leaning towards the house Tree #3 down - Praise the Lord! Tree #4 Tree #4 down - Praise the Lord! Betsy watched closely as the trees were coming down. She loved playing with all the pieces that broke off as the trees were falling.

If anyone in GA needs trees cut down here is Mr. Whitfield's info.
I don't know how far he will travel but it's worth a call.

Great Publix Deals

Last night Mike and I had to go pick up our mower that was being repaired. We were going to be near a Publix so I brought all my coupons along. Of course this wasn't my normal Publix so finding things took alittle longer but I got some good deals so I am grateful that were able to stop.

My total savings was $42.50, my out of pocket expense was $6.91

So here is what I got:

• 8 boxes of Barilla pasta (with coupon ended up being 10 cents a box)
• 8 boxes of Zatarain's rice mixes (I don't normally buy this but its good to donate or to use at church functions)
• 4 Sundown vitamin bottles (coupon from magazine in front of store)
• 2 Wishbone salad dressings
• 3 Publix Apple Juice (this was the one cent item although they would only give me 1 for a penny, I had to buy the others to bring my total up to $35 so I could use the $5 coupon I had)
• $5 off $35 coupon

I was in a hurry so I did forget to stop by the frozen isle and get my Lenders bagels... they are on sale buy one get one free and I have a $1 coupon when you buy 2. I may try and take advantage of that tonight since we will be going out to help the Crisis Pregnancy center move to their new location. We shall see how it all works out.

Note to all Publix shoppers: There is a blinkie machine in the sour cream/cottage cheese area of the store for 50 cents off any Friendship product. Regular price of Friendship sour cream is $1.69. The 50 cent coupon will double to $1 so you can get sour cream for 69 cents which is a much better price than even the store brand. Happy Shopping!

Thy word have I hid in mine heart...

...that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11

I have been wanting to print off scripture verses to hang up throughout the house. I thought this would be a great way to read the verses daily and eventually memorize them.

I started in my spare bathroom. I went to Hobby Lobby and picked out some really pretty frames (FYI - Hobby Lobby normally has all their frames 50% off)

Here is one of the four I made. The other 3 have the following verses: Philippians 4:8, Ephesians 2:8-9 and James 1:17.

Birthday Treat

I made a few of these for some friends who had birthdays in June. I hope they liked them.

I got the idea after I finished eating my yummy Wasabi & Soy Sauce Blue Diamond almonds. I washed out the container and thought it would make a great little treat holder that I could decorate. I took some scrapbook design paper, ribbon, stamps, punches, ink and tape and went to work.

Fast and Simple Birthday Cards

Trying to get some cards made for July birthdays. Had some miscellaneous papers that I thought I would use. I made a total of 10 cards, no two turned out exactly alike.

Frugal Friday

I am sure I am not the first one to come up with this idea but I wanted to share it in case I could help others save money.

I am not much for reusing Ziploc bags especially after using them with raw meat. However I realize that Ziploc bags can get expensive if I use them and then throw them out.

A few weeks ago after a trip to Sam's Club we came home with some large packages of ground meat that were reduced for quick sale. I divided them up into 1.5 lb chunks. Instead of using a different bag for each chunk of meat I decided to put them all in one Ziploc bag but keep them separated so that when they freeze I can just take one chunk out at a time.

Hope everyone is having a happy Friday!

Another Publix Trip

Two Publix trips in one week. I can't believe it. After church Wednesday night we needed to get some milk. Since we were already stopping I thought I would go ahead and bring some coupons along for some things I couldn't find on Sunday.

I saved $44.05 and spent out of pocket $11.04

I got:

• 3 cream cheese 8oz tubs (I had coupons to get them for free)
• Gallon of milk
• 2 Friendship Sour Cream (there was a blinkie machine with a coupon)
• 6 bags of Dole salad blends (coupon in magazine on rack in front of store)
• Hebrew National hot dogs (coupon from the Home Depot booklet special)
• 4 Sundown vitamins (coupon in magazine on rack in front of store)

I also had a $5 coupon that was in the Publix ad 2 weeks ago.

Trip to Pennsylvania

Dad, Mom, Michael and I drove up to PA to surprise my Grandmother for her 80th birthday. Philip, Roz and Rachel were already in Maryland for a graduation so we met up with them before getting to PA so we could all arrive together at my grandparents house.
It was a great trip. God gave us safety while we traveled. We had wonderful weather and good clear roads; couldn't have asked for anything more.

Mom loves to read ~ she always amazes me because she can finish a book a day

Rachel putting a puzzle together with Aunt Bev.

Most of the gang playing Sequence
Aunt Judy, Grandpa and Rachel playing Seven Up and Seven Down
Rachel got almost everyone to color.
We had a contest to see who colored the best
Grandma making the dough for her delicious Chicken and Dumplings
Aunt Bev always ends up cutting hair ~ Uncle Skip, Grandpa and Philip all got their hair cut
Roz showing Grandma her photo albums

I have lots of precious memories of spending time with my Grandparents. Praise the Lord that they are both Christians.

Publix Trip

Although I didn't take a picture of everything I purchased I still wanted to blog about some of the good deals I got at Publix.
My total saved was $89.37 and my total out of pocket cost was $29.58. I could have done better but I bought some items not on sale and I bought some items on sale but with no coupon.
So here is what I got:

• 6 Wanchai Ferry Chinese Dinner Kits
• 2 bags of OreIda potatoes (not on sale but I had a coupon)
• 4 bags Dole salad blends
• 8 bottles of Ken's salad dressings
• 4 6-packs of IBC bottled root beer (I love soda in a glass bottle and it was on sale B1G1 so I got some to have for the 4th of July)
• 4 bottles of Glass Plus cleaner
• 1 Shaving Gel
• 2 bags of Milky Way Miniatures
• 4 bags of Ginger Snaps (this was the 1 cent item)

I will try to make next time an even better savings deal :-) That is always my goal and challenge to myself.

80th Birthday Card

My Grandmother (my Mom's Mom) is turning 80 on July 1st. I decided I better make her a special card... so I pulled out some stamps and started looking through the Split Coast Stampers (SCS) website and I found a card I liked so I made one very similar to the one on SCS.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Graduation Card

Mike's daughter Brittany is graduating High School this weekend. Mike will be heading down to Gainesville Florida to celebrate with her.

Brittany is a huge Tennessee Volunteers fan so Mike wanted me to make a graduation card with that theme. Here is what I came up with. Hope she likes it.

Congratulations Brittany!