So…On the Frugal Living facebook page today she had a link to a recipe from Smitten Kitchen for homemade poptarts.  Did you get that?  HOMEMADE POPTARTS.  I had to try them…it wasn’t even a choice.  And I have to say…they don’t taste anything like poptarts…they’re WAY better.  They are more like little square pies with heaven in the middle.  Serious.  So I had to share the recipe  link with you all.  Because after all, they’re homemade poptarts.

Smitten Kitchen: Homemade Pop Tarts

I will say that I did one thing different.  I used 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour in place of the flour…and for some reason that made the dough extra sticky…I think that there’s a difference with whole wheat pastry flour and even white flour in the amounts that you need to use…but I added 1 cup of white flour and then it was fine.  And my filling?  I used about 1 TB of mini chocolate chips and then drizzled some marshmallow ice cream topping inside.  Do you all know about marshmallow ice cream topping?  It is one of the best things ever invented.  We used to get it when I was a kid and my entire adult life I’ve been looking for it and I thought they’d discontinued it.  I happened to spot it the other day inside Safeway.  I paid full price for it and everything.  But I was jumping up and down I was so excited to find it.  And yes, I will let my kids eat this (occasionally) but I made the pop tarts with whole wheat flour.  Don’t judge.

In just about 2 1/2 weeks I will be hitting the big three-one.  I know…not really THAT old.  But I feel like this last year has been one filled with the biggest changes that I’ve ever had.  Not life changes such as adding children…that would have to have been the year the girls were born.  But the biggest changes I’ve ever seen within myself.  At the risk of sounding less than humble, I feel like I’ve “grown up” this year.  Josh commented the other day that he’s seen a great deal of maturity in me in recent weeks.  And it’s true!  I feel it.  I feel more “grounded” than I ever have before.  It’s definitely true what it says in James 1 about considering it “pure joy” when you face trials of many kinds-  because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  And perseverance must finish it’s work so that you may be mature and complete.  I’m paraphrasing a bit. 

 This year has been filled with the most conflict that I can ever remember in my whole life.  Conflict within our marriage, against our marriage, with friends, with church members, with business associates.  You name it and we’ve probably faced some sort of conflict about it this year.  Conflict is exhausting and stressful.  I learned that when confronted with conflict and stress, I get so worked up that I throw up.  I didn’t know that until this year.  But conflict is a trial…and like the verse says, trials cause you to grow.  Fast.

At any rate, that’s not really what I meant for this post to be about…but I have been doing some contemplating in the last days about this past year and what I’ve learned and experienced and I’d like to share some of my hard earned wisdom- in case will help someone else. 

First, I’ll share my favorite and least-favorite thing about being in my 30′s. 

Least favorite:  That everything I eat now has a direct and IMMEDIATE effect on how I feel.  I can tell the minute I’ve had too much sugar, or too many carbs because I balloon up and feel like crap.  And as I get older, the more I expect that to happen…but this is new…I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted and have no worries.  But no more.  BIG bummer.

Favorite:  This year, not only have I learned better WHO I am, but I have also learned WHY I am.  And because of that I have been able to ground myself in Biblical truths that I always ‘believed’ before…but now I know.  Because I have experience them personally, which makes them more real.  Or maybe it’s the other way around.  I’m not sure.  But at any rate, I have learned who I am, and why I am and I’m okay with it.  I don’t need to apologize to anyone for who I am, or try to be one way with one person and another way with someone else.  I just am who I am.  And I’m okay with that.

So, hold on while I step onto my soapbox….There.

The big revelation that I’ve had in recent weeks is this.  It is okay (and necessary) to have strong opinions and convictions when it comes to very black and white issues.  Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sins…and I WILL fight for that fact.  That’s a life or death issue.  And there are definite black and white issues of morality and truth that stem from this.  These are things that are worth fighting for.  And dying for if necessary.

However. While acceptable and okay to have opinions in grey areas (such as parenting, homeschooling, whether or not to run away to a secluded farm and raise all your own food, etc)  I don’t believe it’s okay to be willing to “die” on those hills.  For example, there’s this whole “baby wearing” movement happening in the last few years.  Personally, I know that there are benefits to it, but I never did it.  I chose not to, because frankly, after carrying around that baby for 9 months, I just wanted to be able to put them down.  It didn’t work for me.  But I’m not going to fight with someone about how “my” parenting style is “better” than that baby wearer.  It’s not better- it’s different.  And if you want to wear your baby around the house all day, then fine.  Do it!  If it works for you and your family then do it.  Just as long as it doesn’t cross the line to damaging your marriage in any way.  Because at that point, it DOES become a sin issue and that’s a whole different story…and at that point I may share my thoughts, because it’s crossed the line from “my opinion” to Truth.  And we’re supposed to say the Truth in love.

I guess the bottom line that I’m trying to get to is, when we bulldoze our opinions over others because we believe something, unless it’s a Truth or a sin issue, it does so much more harm than good.  For one, our opinions and philosophies can become idols to us- or they can become Truth to us.  Both of which are damaging to us AND sinful.  And it then makes us feel like we have to “convert” everyone else to our own opinions…and if they don’t “convert” then they’re sinning (in our minds).  And this is SO harmful!  To ourselves as well as to all the people around us.  I have decided that whatever the hotly debated grey-area issue is, whether it be parenting, recycling, sex or politics, I am going to research both sides and make an effort to land somewhere in the middle.  Because I so don’t want my opinions to get in the way of Truth.  Either for me or for those around me.  I think it’s healthier to land in the middle.  My opinion isn’t God and I shouldn’t hold people to my standard.

So please take my advice.  Keep your opinions your opinions…and don’t make them Truth.  Because they’re not.  And if you treat them like they ARE Truth, then you are truly missing the boat.  You will be distracted from what is important…and you will be a distraction to others and likely keep them (and yourself) from seeing actual Truth and grace.  Which we all need so desperately.

I will now remove myself from my soapbox.  Thank you.

One of the blogs I regularly read is called Passionate Homemaking.  She does a lot of post on “natural” living as well as posts about being a godly wife and mother.  Anyway, she has a post today about our homes and what the focus of them should be from a Biblical perspective.  I thought it was so good that I wanted to link to it so you all could read it.  Check it out HERE.

What do you think?

So, I was all set today to sit down and look through our Easter photos and do a blog about Easter.  I mentioned on facebook over the course of the previous weeks that I was making the girls their dresses for Easter.  So many people asked for pictures of the girls in their dresses so I was waiting to look at the pictures before I blogged.  And guess what??  There are NO good pictures of the girls in their dresses!  In all the busy-ness of the day, we completely overlooked getting pictures of the kids.  Oops.  The good news is, they still own the dresses… so we’ll have to put them on and stage some “Easter” pictures for everyone.  =)

So what am I blogging about then today?  Well, coupons of course!  Ha!  Just kidding…sort of.  One of the questions I get asked fairly regularly is, “Are you going to use all that food before the expiration date?”  Today I was getting ready to make some peanut butter cookies and went to the pantry for peanut butter and realized that we’re down to our last 2 small jars.  So I thought I would use that example as a practical answer to that question.  Do you remember this photo?

What I see in this photo is 18 jars of peanut butter that I spent like $4.20 on.  No, I didn’t remember that off the top of my head, I looked it up.  I posted a blog with this photo on January 12.  And now that I am remembering back, I already had a stockpile of peanut butter that I added these jars to.  Maybe 10 or more.  Granted, I did donate about 5 of these jars to our Backpack Blessing ministry at some point… because I COULD.  Which means, that in our family, we went through *at least* 25-30  jars of peanut butter in 3 months.  So now I can take that figure and make sure that the next time I am able to get a rock bottom price on peanut butter, I’ll have an idea of how much I need to buy to get through to the next sale.  I am praying for another really good deal on peanut butter in the next week or so!

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!