Review of “Adventures in Odyssey Meal time Devotions”

 

I grew up a huge fan, and still am, of Adventures in Odyssey by Focus on the Family. When Tyndale house publishing offered my blog a chance to review this book I was thrilled! Meal time devotion is a great way for families on the go to connect at meals. It has a very short and interactive devotion that brings in the food, environment, and God’s love all presented to the children in a casual setting.

By singing songs and playing games as well as holiday fun, this book will add spice to any table. It is great for younger children as the questions tend to be simple, and the songs catchy as well as the devotions short.

Some of the themes include: Eat your veggies, What time is it?, Don’t go solo, Are you nuts, surprise inspection, and Drink you milk. All valuable filled information that will help the kid’s spiritual growth!

Valentine’s day Calendar

I finally found a way to surprise my hubby: Just don’t think of it until the night before. Then everyone gets surprised!

Well, the night before Valentine’s day I thought of making Joel a new large wall calendar.

His work one we made him many years back was growing a bit old and was on the small size.

(No he isn’t into math like crazy, those are one of our workers who used to be a math teacher!)

For a while we had used electrical tape we’d cut down for the lines but about a year ago he took those off…I know, yuck.

I had checked into boards like these, but they run around $50.

No. Thank. You

By chance I heard my hubby tell our bro in law last Saturday that one can get a wall covering that is a white erase board.

So using this as inspiration:

And this one where a lady painted the whole wall in her narrow hallway:

I found the board the hubby had talked about at Lowes.It was really cheap ($11) for a huge sheet of White/Gloss Hardboard Wall Panel. I took a marker with me to make sure it would work as white board. In hind sight that could have turned out really bad if it hadn’t worked!!! Lol!

The guy who came to my aid at Lowes instantly regretted it when I told him I needed 36 squares. It was 7:30 in the morning. Maybe he was still waking up and I misunderstood his look.

He cut a great 8x8 squares for me and then I dug through the garage for tools to drill holes. I finally found drill bit that worked and drilled away! My idea was to make a calendar that the day’s could easily be removed and written on then hung back up. So the nail holes needed to be large enough to not get caught up.

I got a circle punch from Hobby Lobby and used a coupon so it cost only $9. I punched black circles out and then cut the numbers out of white paper. Then I laminated them by hand using clear laminate. then stuck them on with sticky tack.

I use this stuff all the time. It works for labels and covering books. It is the best!

 

I used it to cover the days of the week as well.

Finally, my creation complete!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thrifting for the family

 

“You find such GREAT deals!”

I hear this a lot. Do you? When pointing out my $6 kid rug ($30 at Target), or $5 Roman curtains (who knows how much at wherever!)…and I have to agree. But it is work. To find the deals you have to look. Over and over and over. Luckly I have eBay to sustain me between good deal for myself!

Today’s find was this:

For $3.99 I got a microwavable $35.95 Pop corn popper. Which apparently is super healthy and organic and small enough to fit over my fridge!

And I love the way it looks! Beats the one my folks had while I was growing up:

Oddly enough I had just decided that popcorn would be a great snack for the kids. I wanted to have a snack bin for all those “I’m hungry” times. We don’t do store bought snacks in our family and this will be a way to ‘splurge’. So on the way home I stopped by the grocery and purchased a pound of popcorn for $1.47.

And the popper worked perfectly!!! This is 1/3 cup of popcorn!

 

When I finished bagging the popcorn I stuck all the kernels on the bottom back in the microwave.

Waste not, want not!

So I now have a nice snack stash for my 3 youngins’!

Oh, and I popped the corn plain for now, but it does come with a lid for melting butter in it.

I’m just not sure how the metal will do in the microwave…still doing research on why they made this with a metal lid, now they use all silicone lids.

So that is my thrifty find for the family! How did you do?

Ugly Christmas sweaters!

Somehow I ran across a blog that told how this eBayer sold ugly Christmas sweaters and made $300 from $30.

Now, I don’t usually jump aboard a boat unless I can test it but I did start picking up Christmas sweaters for 45 cents and 99 cents.

When Thanksgiving drew to a close I figured it was time to see if this was for real!

Most of the sweaters, actually vest, were XL or 2XL. I thought that might hurt my chances but most of mine were bought by men and so the larger sized helped!!

Any and all seem to sell! Except a Christmas actual sweater I have for sale. No bites yet.

So far I’ve sold 7 and collected $148.44!

The real numbers aren’t so fun. I’ve made about $70 after fees and shipping. But that pays for more than our Christmas tree and I’m not even done yet!!!! Whoopie!

Just sold my first Ugly Christmas sweater!!

 

I spent a large part of yesterday listing ugly Christmas sweaters.

 

I listed them from $9.99-$29.99 not really thinking anyone would pay high dollar for a used Christmas sweater…I mean come on! Are company parties really that important?

That they are.

I just sold this wonderful “Bubble” Snowman sweater for $29.99. Buy it Now!

It only cost me 99 cents & it comes complete with a snowman on the back and various snowmen on the front!

The guy already asked me when I’m going to ship it. He’s in a hurry! He bought it after it had been posted for about 1 hour. Needless to say, I was thrilled! This more than pays for the 13 sweaters I’ve collected over the year, some for $.45 and some for $.99.

Hopefully the sales will keep up!

A more Random Find

 

I purchased this phone for about $1 at a garage sale. I’m not sure how much it really was cuz I got a bunch of stuff for $6 instead of the asking price of about $20! So I think this was around $1 or 2.

I just sold it for a total of $24.49.

Ok, so nothing huge but after looking it up and realizing it might go for as little as 99 cents I was one happy camper!!!

Just something to brag to the hubby about…. Hehehe…

Shipping was $8.39 so my total in pocket after fees was a little over $12. My kids LOVED this phone while they had it to play with. They didn’t really know what it was but they got a few weeks of a toy (that I could set on the bed stand in the evenings for a classic look for guest instead of throwing in the toy box), and then I made money off it. Have I said how much I love my life?! It is good.

Sales Round up!

 

These are some of my slow sales.

I can’t even remember when I purchased these jeans. Maybe the beginning of summer. But for $16 I’d rather sell them then toss em!

 

I thought it was too late to post swim tops, but you never know when someone might be going on a cruise. Exactly what this lady was doing!

 

This collar I found in a trash can. The zipper was broken but I figured someone would find the value in it. From free to $10!

 

This skirt I had for ages. I finally relisted it this fall. It sold rather quickly after relisting. $15

 

I don’t know that LL Bean sells that well unless it is shoes. But Plaid patchwork does! Listed this about 2 times before someone purchased it!

This shirt is from last year. No one bought it so I finally listed it one last time before tossing it. Like, I’m pretty sure it was in the consignment pile and I had to pull it out when this bid came in! $9!

 

This dress I wasn’t sure about, but since it was Lands End I figured I would take a gamble, and of course it was only a 99 cent gamble! Turned out just fine. Sold at first listing!

 

These shirts, on the other hand were a Sllllloooowwww sale. I thought by listing them together I might get more attention. So hard for me to pass up good maternity clothing! I mean, these are two shirts that someone could be so happy with! Someone is, and for only $9 a shirt!

 

This was another slow sell. Bought this in the spring and thought it would be a quick turn over. WRONG! Had to get cold before anyone looked at it! Crazy people! Only $11 but glad I don’t have to store it anymore!

 

This was a very nice wool jacket for only $.99. I thought about keeping it but Jackets aren’t in my mommy closet just yet! Someone got a great deal on this for $20. I think it was on my 3rd listing week.

 

These slacks also were from spring time. Slow sell but I know someone it happy with the price they got them for!

 

Name Brand exersize pants seem to be slow but surely sale! I’m still buying them! $12.50

 

I don’t wear heels. SO I never understood why the ANKLE was on Gap slacks until I gave a friend a pair of slacks like these. She was so excited cuz she could wear them without heels. Ahhh, the life of a girl…the part I’m missing. Give me flats or give me …um, probably a lot of pain!

 

My hubby saw these shorts and got really excited. These are the kind of shorts he works in and loves!

But no, they weren’t for him. Wrong size. These had a lot of interest but no one bid until I moved them to my EBAY FOR NEXT SPRING box. Then, of course, they sold. Gooooo figure! But no complaining after pocketing $25!