I read an interesting post yesterday about the process of a coupon.  If you’re interested in finding out more  about the actual life cycle of a coupon, as well as how they should be used go HERE.  It’s a little confusing, but helpful for anyone who questions how coupons should and can be used.

Yesterday was such a pretty, warm day that I decided to go ahead and do my garden starts.  It was the perfect activity for the kids to help with…and since it was so nice outside, we worked on the deck, which meant that all the dirt stayed outside.  (As opposed to last year.)  I’ve been reading some blogs on gardening, so I decided to try one of the ideas I’d read about using toilet paper rolls, cutting them in circles and planting seeds inside of them…this way, once the seed grows, you can just put the whole thing into the ground and the paper will disintegrate- cool, huh? 

Here’s all our starting materials.

All the kids got a cup that they filled with dirt to fill the circles…

The girls were very serious about their job.

And yes, I do realize that two out of five of my children were still in pajamas….it’s Spring Break!!  =)

So here’s our “finished” product.  We planted beans, carrots and cucumber seeds.   The egg cartons were an idea that I got last year…but the idea with them is the same…when the seeds grow, I can just cut them apart and plant the whole thing since they will also disintegrate into the soil.  I actually planted my peas  a couple weeks ago and they are finally starting to poke their heads up!  Today I’m going to plant some broccoli seeds and when I can find them I want to do some sweet onions.  Oh how I love sweet onions!  After we got all the seeds onto that table and watered them, I then wrapped the table in saran wrap to make a homemade green house….it seemed to be working well yesterday.   We just don’t have the space, nor the sunlight indoors to do seed starts.  But the deck is nice and sunny.  I’ll let you know how it works!

This morning (Saturday) I was laying in bed, having some  deep theological thoughts.  This is not something I do a lot.  But it’s Saturday and the kids are still sleeping and there’s no big hurry to get up and out of bed.  So I started thinking about a conversation that I read recently; Person A: “Am I a failure?” Person B: “No! Of course you’ve made some mistakes, we all have…but that doesn’t make you a failure.”  That was the gist of it anyway.  For some reason the answer bothered me.  I know it’s a fairly standard answer to that question so I wanted to figure out why.  I think maybe it bothered me because it’s not honest.  Isn’t screwing up, making bad choices and sinning the definition of the word, “failure”?  Doesn’t that make us ALL failures?

Hmm.

The Bible tells us that we have ALL sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.  That means ALL.  Not just the people that see it.  Not just the people that murder or steal.  All of us.  Even the ones that the worst thing that we will ever do in our lives it to tell a lie.  Or to spread a gossip.  That means that no matter what we do, how good we try to be, how many times we do things “right” we will NEVER measure up to the goodness of God.  Never.  It means that no matter how hard we try, we essentially will always be a failure.  Sure there might be some days in our lives where we feel a measure of success…but when you really think about that, we feel success not when we compare ourselves to God, but when we compare ourselves to other people.  Always, always when comparing yourself to God, you will come up significantly short.  Kind of sobering isn’t it?  Why is that so sobering?  Why does that sound so harsh to be labeled as a failure?  No one wants to be a failure.  Why?  Because it means that we’re not good at anything.  That we’re never going to be good enough.  That we don’t measure up.  We think it  means that we’re not worth anything. 

Ew.  Does that make you feel yucky?  It kinda does me.  Until I consider the good side of being a failure.

While I wallow in my feelings of being a failure, in my inadequacy, in my inability to EVER get it right, or to measure up to God- that’s when He came for me.  Our world, our society tells us that everything good about us is definied by what we do.  Or by what we contribute.  Or by how good we are at parenting, or cooking, or how many clients we have at our job.  You name it and there is always some sort of preformance-based worth that is always hanging over our heads.  My worth is not in what I can do.  It is not in how many diapers I’ve changed, or how many ministries I’ve started or any of that.  My worth is cemented in the knowledge that I was so valuable to God that He gave everything up to come rescue me.  God puts value on me.  I don’t earn value…I can’t.  I just AM valuable.  Cause God says so.  You could strip everything away from me that I have right now.  You could take away my kids, my husband, my house, my car, my gifts, my talents.  Everything I have that defines me- everything that gives me an “identity”.  And I would still have just as much value to God as I do now.  Because that’s not what it’s about.  It’s not about what I can do….it’s about what He did.

So… Are you a failure?  Am I?  Yep.

I truly believe that in this life there are just some questions that are unanswerable.  We can have our theories, our own answers- but in the end, we just have to trust sometimes that God is in control and has a handle on the big picture…When we get to heaven, I hope we can ask Him some of these questions.

This photo, for example, inspires many of those unanswerable questions.

Today I was out running errands and I decided to swing by Rite Aid to get some free make up!  The match up was simple: Rite Aid this week has all the Cover Girl make up on sale Buy One Get One free.  There was a coupon in the P&G insert in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago for Buy a Cover Girl face product, Get a Cover Girl face product free.  When you use a store B1G1 free sale, plus a manufacturer coupon for  B1G1 free (on the same product), they cancel each other out- making EACH item FREE!!!  Don’t believe me?  Check out the Rite Aid coupon policy HERE.

I had a total of 11 coupons, so I was able to choose 11 sets of 2 products each. One of each set rung up free due to the Rite Aid promotion, and the coupon took off the amount of the one I “paid” for.  The result?  $202.24 of FREE MAKEUP!!  I think if you click on this photo, you will be able to see the total at the bottom…Hmm…I wonder how much I earned per hour putting THIS deal together??

I am going to be starting a series of couponing 101 on my blog.  I’ve taught 2 classes now on this (I still find that hard to believe) and I’m going to be doing a series of posts about how to start couponing.  This would be a great interactive time as well…so if you have any questions, especially on a 101 post, PLEASE ASK!!  You can either comment on this blog, another blog or on facebook.  I’d love to help answer questions for you.  If I don’t know the answer, I have some “experts” I can ask!

Today we celebrated birthday #7 for my second-born son!  Holy cow, where has the time gone?  Can somebody make it stop please?

The day started off with a bang!  Not in auditory fashion, but in adrenaline (for me anyway). I slept in until about 7 am (which is about normal for sleep-in time) and then I got up to start the cake(s) for Jayden.  He told me weeks ago that he wanted a chocolate and vanilla swirl cake.  So I made a chocolate cake mix and a vanilla cake mix and swirled them together…I did the same with the frosting on top and it turned out cute. 

While the cakes were in the oven and I sat down to check my email and saw that I had an email sent at 5:45am from the women’s ministry leader at my church.  They were having a big women’s event at church today complete with workshops and booths. The lady who was supposed to be teaching the workshop on couponing was sick…so she was asking me if I could fill in and teach the class!  Hmm…the event was from 10-2 and Jayden’s birthday party was at 1.  I didn’t know if I could swing it. 

To top it all off, Josh was in Gresham picking me up a new upright freezer.  (YEAH!!!  Time to stockpile frozen foods, I think!)

I was able to fill in and teach the class.  Needless to say it was a busy morning!  But everything totally went off without a hitch.  It even seemed to me like the cake cooled extra fast so that I could frost it…I don’t know if that was really the case, but it seemed that way! 

So here’s how our morning went: Josh left early for a meeting at church. I woke up at 7- made coffee and mixed up the cake. Baked the cake, checked email, made some phone calls. Removed the cake, inserted the cupcakes. Made some more phone calls. Showered, dressed, makeup. Remove cupcakes. Grabbed coffee. Pulled out the girls’ clothes. Frosted the cake. Boys got girls out of their room and got them cereal. Girls eat, boys frost cupcakes. Help get girls dressed. Ellyanna kicks my still-full cup of coffee over. Clean up the coffee. Fix girls’ hair. Brush girls’ teeth. Boys pack for overnight at grandma’s. Clean out 5 sets of ears. (my kids have earwax issues). Josh comes home. Unloads the freezer to the driveway. Puts seats back into car. Load the car up with kids, camera, video camera, coupons, coupon worksheets I made up for my first class, and everything else we need for the party. Drive to church. Drop me off. Josh takes kids to BurgerKing- don’t judge. =) And runs to the store to get paper products for the party that I didn’t even consider needing until that morning. I run around at church for a while, say hi to people figure out what I’m doing, where I’m going, get copies of my worksheet and get set up for my class. 11:45 teach my class talking as fast as I possibly can to get through information that took me 2 hours the first time in 45 minutes. (I was successful). Finish up, talk to some people, run out the door and get in the car and head to the bowling ally for Jayden’s party.  =)  After the party, the boys are spending the night at grandma’s house, so Josh and I and the girls stopped at Albertsons where I purchased 10 cans of juice, 48 cups of yogurt, 5 cans of Pam non-stick spray, 9 cans of refried beans, 5 boxes of fruit snacks and 4 boxes of cocoa for $11.  =) (I would have done even better if they hadn’t been out of most of the kinds of yogurt I needed.) Then we came home, lugged our new freezer into the outbuilding, plugged it in, waited for it to get cold and then organized the freezer. Then I made dinner and we put the girls to bed.

I’m tired.

But anyway, the point of this post is to wish my youngest son a very, very happy birthday. Jayden, you bring so much joy to both me and your dad! You make us laugh at your silliness every day. You have a great sense of humor. You are charming, everybody who knows you loves you. You came out knowing how to be kind to people and how to put others above yourself. What a great gift to have! You are such a treasure to me and a blessing to our family. I love you so much! Happy Birthday!