August Already :\

Here we are a couple of days into a new month. Big shopping is done. Food prep and freezing is finished. I ended up with too much this time, so I'm making a batch of spaghetti sauce for my MIL. I made banana bread, and a cheesy beefy spiral pasta dish for lunch. Starting tomorrow it's laundry and cleaning time. Our family made a few changes for this month. The first we started clipping coupons. I already shopped the flyer, but I figured coupons couldn't hurt either. I'll get the Sunday paper every week and save the ones for products we use, then next time I go shopping I'll have between a month to two months worth of coupons saved up. My goal? is to save us half of our grocery bill by shopping the flyer and coupons. This time I saved us a little over 20% on our groceries. Not too bad, for a first time coupon clipper. The second thing we've changed for this month is we started cloth diapering Kaylee. After going on vacation with my family and going through over 60 diapers in 9 days, I decided that was too much money to just throw away. She is currently still wearing a disposable at night (a cloth solution for nights is in the works). The only other time we put her in a disposable is when we go somewhere knowing we won't have time to change her. For instance I went food shopping with her, to avoid a possible leak through she wore a disposable. We've only had two leak throughs since starting her on cloth diapers, and I chalk both up to inexperience. As with learning anything new, there is a period of adjustment, but it seems to be working for us so far.

We had an awesome time on vacation, was happy to be home, but sad it was over. Everyone had so much fun. I can't wait for the kids birthday party in a couple weeks, so I can see my family once again.

I still struggle with my patience sometimes with the older two. Part of this is because they have taken a liking to arguing when they are told to do something. I'm not sure where they got the idea they can negotiate when they are told to do something, but it weren't from me. Also we have a rule here, that they don't eat in the living-room or walk around in the kitchen while eating. This saves on messes, or at least keeps the mess in one general location. So we've had to struggle with the enforcement of that rule lately, to the point we've caught them sneaking food into the living-room. I know that pushing the boundaries is a normal part of being a kid. I learned in my parenting class in college that kids do it to make sure they are still safe, because kids need and want rules. I totally understand this, but enough is enough already. It also could be their emergence into the pre-teen years, also something I am not exactly looking forward to.

We keep on keeping on. Jon is working a lot these days with his second and third jobs. I sure am glad he likes what he does or he'd be crazy with all the work he takes on. Kaylee is working on learning to walk, a milestone I'm in no hurry for her to reach. The other two are enjoying being kids, and taking pride in pushing my buttons. As the summer presses on, it comes to my attention how quickly this summer has flown by. Soon it will be packing lunches and backpacks and back to school they will go. Then it's back to school for me as well.

So we'll enjoy the 3 weeks and change we have left, and be thankful when it's not raining or snowing.