A dinner with friends tonight and the thought of a entire weekend to do nothing but chill and watch movies with my niece is keeping me motivated today for sure!

I had another list of things to do today to get things in shape and ready for tonight and its a slow going process for sure. My head is feeling like its gonna explode at the moment with an allergy headache. I just want to crawl into bed.....

But I must get it done... motivated! As my dryer beeps at me this very moment saying " I'm DONE!"

Still have bread to make, bathroom to scrub down, floors to mop, and other things to do.

It will be worth it to have a nice clean spotless house once I'm done and that's what I keep telling myself!

Anyways.... off to finish and maybe I will have time for a nap later if I get everything done. I need a mega shot of express right now... sigh

What a WEEKEND!
We had a full and great weekend and I'm feeling the affects of it now trying to get my house back in order for sure. We had an early Thanksgiving get together for our bible study groups at church this Saturday. A very big turn out that was great food and fellowship!!! It also ended with a prank call to our beloved leader who moved to Ca. back this summer. (We drove their car to CA for them this summer!) It was to awesome and I was in tears from laughing! We love you guys!!!

Anyways, back into the swing of things today trying to get a few things accomplished for this week! My niece is staying with us for a few days as her parents are going out of town for their Anniv. so I wanna make sure we do fun stuff instead of get caught up having to clean while shes here! We have dinner guests coming over mid week so that makes you want to super clean your house! And just a full week ahead of me!!!

So today I finally dragged myself to get started on my list of things to do!!! It seemed like a slow going Monday for SURE!

But I have finally got alot done and just a few more things to do and get hubs some dinner started and then I'm off to meet my sisnlaw I think to hang out.

So for the moment I'm propping my feet up and eating a cup of ice cream my dear hubby brought home the other day when I sent him to the store for potato's, but that's another story to tell another day, then off to finish and get ready to head out!
Hope you had a wonderful Monday!!!

CVS $0.00!
Total Retail $30.92
-$2/$10 oral care coupon CRT
-$5.00 in coupons
Total =$23.92
Used $23.92 in Ecb's
=$0.00 oop
Got back $17.96
and $3.49 back on Gift card
Returned 1 toothpaste, thought it was limit 5 but it was limit 4 so she gladly let me return it!



Walgreens $0.00!
Retail $112.30
After sales $91.44
-$66.03 in coupons
Total =$25.41
-$16.oo in RR
-$9.41 on gift card
OOP=$0.00
Getting Back $29.68 after 10%!!! Made $4.27


Super Target $14.84
Total Retail =$25.49
-$10.65 in coupon

Are you voting!!!! :-) We are about to head out the door to put in our vote! Hopefully their wont be long lines..... but if there are that means good turn out so I don't mind!

After voting I'm going to meet a friend for some of that free "I voted" coffee at Starbucks and fabric shopping. Can't beat that!

Thankfully I was home all yesterday and my house is spickspan clean! I love a clean house. After a crazy weekend with my nieces my house needed some major cleaning. All I have left is to fold a mountain of laundry since I got it all washed yesterday!!!

Happy Voting day!!!

I'm trying my hand at Homemade Yogurt. And I found a great easy recipe over at A Year of Crockpotting (love the site BTW). I use my crockpot 1/2 the week!!!!!!!

I started it sometime around lunch time and it is now on the rest phase for 3 hours. I am excited to see if it turns out right. I love yorgurt and as she does the math at the end of the post IT ADDS UP $$$!

Recipe from A Year of Crockpotting :
~ 8 cups (half-gallon) of whole milk
~1/2 cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)
~frozen/fresh fruit for flavoring
~thick bath towel

~Plug in your crockpot and turn to low.
~Add an entire half gallon of milk.
~Cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.
~Unplug your crockpot.
~Leave the cover on, and let it sit for 3 hours.
~When 3 hours have passed, scoop out 2 cups of the warmish milk and put it in a bowl.
~Whisk in 1/2 cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Then dump the bowl contents back into the crockpot.
~Stir to combine.
~Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation.
~Go to bed, or let it sit for 8 hours.
~In the morning, the yogurt will have thickened---it's not as thick as store-bought yogurt, but has the consistency of low-fat plain yogurt.
~Save 1/2 cup as a starter to make a new batch.
~Blend in batches with your favorite fruit.
~Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator.
~Your fresh yogurt will last 7-10 days.



I will update you on how it goes! :-)

Update 7:30 pm:
My yorgurt all wrapped up for the night!



Update 8:00 am next morning:
This morning I slowly pulled the towel off, took off the lid, squinted at it, took a spoon and stirred it, and SQUEALED with joy! IT WORKED! I had MADE YOGURT!!!! And it was SO EASY!



I'm so excited!

I pulled some out before I added the fruit for the starter for future batches.

And now Im eating my morning yogurt. NUM!

I will "Missing in Action" over the next few days as we are having a yard sale at my husbands grandma's house!

The weather looks find and dandy and COOL so that is AWESOME for us! I dislike hot sweaty yard sale days. LOL (In fact I still have the windows open this evening and its sooo wonderful! I'm loving this weather for SURE!)

Pray we got LOTS OF PEOPLE who want to buy ALL the stuff!

And clear alot out..... :-D

Hope you all have a great weekend!

CVS Spent $0.21 on Gift Card
Retail Total $30.25
Swiffer Sweeper = $7.99
Swiffer Duster -$6.99 - Free with Sweeper purchase
Mens Christo =$2.22 (clearance) -$5.00/3 CRT
3 Newspapers =$4.50
1 Tissue =$0.50
=$22.20
-$11.99 in coupons
=$10.21
-$10.00 in ECB's
=$0.21 on gift card!
Got back $5.00 ECB's

(Missing in Pic 3 newspapers!)

Super Target $21.30
Retail was $69.89


Walgreens $4.33 on gift card
Retail Total $10.91


Whole Foods $24.80
I have been wanting to buy bulk good grains for
bread making and fresh fruits and veggies from there
and it was GREAT this week as they put out a $5/$25
coupon!
Retail total $30.55
Did you know they took off .10 cents per bag you bring yourself!
COOL! :-)
I also got a good deal on honey from this area which is suppose
to REALLY help allergies! I need all the help I can get for allergy
relief. I definitely will be going back at least once a month for
my grains and honey!


Retail of this week was $141.60
Spent total $46.10 total for 2 weeks grocery's!
I saved a total of 67%!!!!
Yahoo! And that's with organic stuff at Whole Foods!
I am excited about that!!!

Today I got up and running my Grocery Tracking Spreadsheet so I'm super excited about that! I have had so many people ask me how I keep so detailed tracking information on what I spend at each store and such! Well now you have it!

Tomorrow morning I need to get up bright and early to get dinner started in the crock pot and get ready to go to my husbands grandma's house. We are having another Yard Sale this weekend so its time again to clean more things out for it! Yah!!! We have ALOT to do but its right up my ally of decluttering and getting rid of stuff... yes, if you know me very well you know that I don't like clutter AT ALL! lol :-D Hey, cause um yah then I would have to clean it! And we would NOT want to do that. I'm all for having less to clean.

This comic cracked me up! LOL



So, I will be off for a day full of sweating, going thru boxes, finding interesting items of old, and good fun with my momnlaw and grandmanlaw! :-D Yippee!

Oye! See I drool over organization pictures like these! :-D

Today I made 5 loaves of this delicious bread. As usual when you bake something the house smelt so good! This recipe is very simple and good. I actually followed the EXACT recipe for once! I know not a norm for me but its a good one so why change it? :-D

I am really loving baking day and am on the search for some great recipes for items to make ahead to freeze to save money and time during the holidays!

Homemade food makes great gifts that people LOVE and they are a fast item to take to a get together so no stress involved in trying to get stuff together to take! Just take it out of the freezer and defrost, re wrap in a pretty colored saran wrap with a ribbon and you have a wonderfully packaged gift!

Here's the link to the recipe I used.

Zucchini Bread (I made 4 batches to make 5 loaves! )

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I used fresh!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
Stir the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. When cominbed, mix in the oats. Make a well in the center of the ingredients. Whisk the eggs, oil, and vanilla together in a small bowl and pour the mixture into the well. Combine lightly, then stir in the zucchini. Do not overmix.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, mounding it up in the center. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar if you wish. Bake for 60 or 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack covered with a clean dish towel to prevent indentations. Let the bread cool at least 10 minutes longer before slicing. The bread can be served warm or at room temperature. It keeps well and makes good toast, too.
Variation: Brown-Sugar Carrot Bread
Replace the zucchini with 2 cups grated carrot. Because the carrots are a little starchier, reduce the oats to 3/4 cup.

To freeze wrap well with plastic and then tinfoil and put in Freezer bags and Make a note on bag what it is and date made!