Be Thankful For Monday

On my drive to work this morning, it was dark (thanks time change), rainy, and windy.  But instead of complaining, I thought the better thing to do would to be thankful for the wonderful weekend we had.  It was sunny and reached the mid 60's on Sunday.  We were able to open the windows and let the fresh air into our house, the kids played outside and met some new friends, the baby got her first touches of grass, we all soaked up some much needed Vitamin D, my husband washed and waxed the cars, we took 2 family walks (3 kids and 2 dogs in tow), my 7 year old got to ride his new bike he got for his birthday (and his little brother got to ride his "new" hand me down bike), grilled out chicken and potatoes, and ended the weekend with being able to cut the boys hair outside instead of getting hair all over the bathroom!  We are so blessed and there are so many things to be thankful for in our lives!

Going From Two Incomes to One (An Update)

I cannot believe it has been over three years, since we made the plunge to go from two incomes to one.  You can read my complete series I wrote in 2010 here!  Since the change things have changed a lot in our household and I thought I would provide an update.

We now have 3 beautiful children.  Our daughter was born last July.  She has been a complete blessing to our family.  She has provided some personal healing for myself and my Mom as well as made our family complete!  Plus she is hilarious and I cannot get enough of her.  When I had her I was able to take off 4 months of maternity leave which was amazing for me. 

A lot has changed with my husband also.  He was able to finish his MBA while he was staying home with our kids in January of 2012.  He was also enjoying volunteering at my son's school as a playground guard.  The kids actually got a kick out of it to see a Dad there because usually it is all Moms.

With his advanced degree in place, his dream job was to teach college level business courses.  After months of pursuing his dream, he landed his first college teaching job in June of 2012.  Since then it has completely "snowballed" (to his surprise) where he actually had to turn down teaching 2 classes this semester because it was getting to be too much.  He is right now teaching 4 classes.  He is teaching 2 evenings a week and 2 mornings a week.

Our parents are graciously helping with the morning childcare for us and I am able to be with the kids in the evenings.  My husband and I are both able to put our son on the bus in the morning and my husband is home in the afternoon to get him off the bus.  This is our new normal and it is working out great for us.  This is the first time in our marriage that I have seen my husband happy and fulfilled in his job.  Maybe someday he can turn this into a full-time career for him.

So technically we are not a "One Income" family anymore.  However, we do solely still live off of my income.  His income goes directly to paying off his student loans.  So for right now, he is working to pay off his loans, but it will be so nice when we are free of these student loans.

I truly believe each stage of life will need to force a change in how we currently care for our children.  It is nice to know the decisions we have made always seem to "work-out" for us and we are proud of them!

Total All Purpose Bath & Kitchen Cleanser - A Review, Giveaway, and Contest!

UPDATE:  The winners are vmorgan456@, lilypaddj3@, and Laurasu82@.  Please e-mail me your mailing address at spendless2savemore@gmail.com to claim your prize!

New Soft Scrub Total All Purpose Bath & Kitchen Cleanser is tough on stains, yet gentle on
surfaces.  The new and improved formula has more whitening powder and less residue, for better rinsing.  That means better cleaning and faster rinsing for your tile, grout, sinks, and tubs.

The all-new bottle and cap design improve dispensing, preventing spills and making for a more efficient cleaning experience.  From sinks to showers to bathtubs and faucets, this cleanser will blow you away with its versatility and fresh, lemon scent. 

I had a lot of surfaces to try new Soft Scrub Total All Purpose Bath & Kitchen Cleanser.  I have tile floors with light colored grout, a white bathtub and sinks and finally a kitchen table with marker on it!  I was pleased with the results.  It cleaned the grout lines up very well and made my white surfaces shine.  As always, it took the marker right off my marble table top and was easy to rinse.  My husband's favorite way to use Soft Scrub is on tires and rims when he is washing and detailing cars.  It does an amazing job!

The Soft Scrub® Total All Purpose Sweepstakes Is LIVE!  Soft Scrub® is proud to introduce the One Surface at A Time® Sweepstakes featuring Soft Scrub® Total All Purpose!

One lucky grand prize winner will receive $1,000 and a year's supply of Soft Scrub, while 250 second place winners will receive free Soft Scrub.  Go here to enter!

Spend Less 2 Save More Contest  3 lucky Spend Less 2 Save More readers will receive a coupon for a FREE bottle of Soft Scrub To enter:

1. (Mandatory) Like Spend Less 2 Save More on Facebook and leave a comment on this post!
2. (Bonus) Enter the Sweepstakes here and come back to this post and leave a comment that you did!


Contest will end on March 10, 2013 at midnight EST. Winners will be posted at the top of this post and must e-mail spendless2savemore@gmail.com with address to claim prize. Contest is open to US residents 18 and over only.

Purex and Soft Scrub provided a free sample so I could review them. However, all of the opinions expressed here are my own as always!

March 2 - Read Across America Day

Read Across America Day is held each year around the birthday of Dr. Seuss.  We all need to encourage our kids to read and show them by example how much we as parents enjoying reading!  So gather up your Horton, The Sneetches, and other Dr. Suess favorites.  Snuggle up with your kiddos before bedtime and enjoy some good books!  My kids LOVE The Sneetches, me not so much, I get
so tongue tied reading it!

Kickin The Winter Blues $1000 Cash Giveaway

Welcome to the Kickin The Winter Blues Giveaway

Hosted by Jenn’s Blah Blah Blog and Pink Ninja Media
 

One of the easiest ways I find to coupon is how I organize my coupons! I have found leaving the inserts whole every week and saving them in a file cabinet. I simply write the coupon insert date on the front. When I am researching coupon deals online and it indicates, 3/11 Smart Source, I can go right to that insert and clip the coupon! It also saves time up front clipping coupons you may not need as well a having all the coupons, just in case you need one you may have not clipped!    
           

About our Sponsor: Rather Be Shopping Have you heard of the best place to save money, find online coupons, search coupon codes, and find coupon codes that are updated daily? You might have heard it mentioned on TodayShow.com, L.A. Daily News, MSNBC, Woman’s World, and Readers Digest to name a few. If you haven’t been there yet and love to save money! You should visit Rather Be Shopping. Kyle from Rather Be Shopping is awesome and takes pride in saving money, and it shows. He keeps Rather Be Shopping updated daily with the best online coupon codes, printable coupons, savings, bargains, and for those new to online shopping learn “How Coupons Work.” Don’t forget to get geared up and save on the go with the FREE Rather Be Shopping Coupon App for your iPhone. About the Giveaway: We are super excited to bring FIVE lucky people the chance to win some serious cash! The 1st prize winner will receive $500 Visa Gift Card! How exciting is that! Check out how the break down will work.

• 1st Prize: $500 Visa Gift Card
• 2nd Prize $200 Visa Gift Card
• 3rd Prize $150 Visa Gift Card
• 4th Prize: $100 Visa Gift Card
• 5th Prize: $50 Visa Gift Card

Giveaway will run from 02/27/2013 at 12:00am EST - 03/28/2013 at 12:00am EST, open WORLDWIDE! To enter you must be at least 18 years of age, and use the Rafflecopter below. Remember you do not have to complete all entries on the Rafflecopter, but by doing so you are gaining more entries into the giveaway and increasing your chances on winning. There is plenty of time to enter this giveaway as it will run for 4 weeks. Those of you who wish to take advantage of daily entries be sure to visit daily and grab those extra entries

Special thanks to our fabulous Co-Hosts:

Pink Ninja Blogger, Simply Shawn N Jenn, My Four Littles, Moms Vacation Spots, My Simply Walk, Adventures of a Military Family of 8, PrewChatterly, One Proud Momma, Coupon Gator Mommy, and Happy Home and Family

Thank you for making this event so much fun! Maybe you will be one of the FIVE lucky readers will receive cash! Good Luck!

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Disclosure: This blog was not compensated for being part of the event, nor are we responsible for shipping the prize to the winner. This event is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google or any other social media network. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning email. The winning email will come from jennsblahblahblog@hotmail.com. Be sure and add it to your safe list. We sure would hate to have to redraw another winner. If you have any questions about the giveaway you can contact Jenn from Jenn's Blah Blah Blog at jennsblahblahblog@hotmail.com. Good Luck.

A Donkey Kong Cake

 

For my son's 7th birthday, we did a Donkey Kong cake!  I had to go to a special candy store to get the candy bananas.  To make the sides look like a barrell, I used Kit Kats.  Top it off with Donkey Kong!

A Spiderman Cake

 

For my son's 4th birthday we celebrated with a Spiderman cake!