What’s In The Bible 3:Wanderin’ in the Desert~Review

Once again Phil Vischer along with the same  great cast of characters in the first two DVD’s,  is back with the third installment of the What’s In The Bible series.  In this  DVD we meet a new character, Marcy the stage manager. We  learn about Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Part one  of this  video focuses on the rules of the Old Testament. Rules God gave to Israel and why He did so. Do you know the difference between the ritual rules of the Old Testament and the ethical rules of the New Testament that we live by today?  How do we know the Bible is true?    

Part two focuses on the Israelites and why they wondered in the desert for 40 years. Why God put them in “time out” for not trusting that Him. We also learn about the covenant God had with the Israelites and the rules within the covenant.   We also learned what the Pentateuch is? Do you know? I didn’t.  The Pentateuch is  the first five books of the Bible.  There is even a catchy song to help remember what the Pentateuch is.

There is also a bonus feature hosted by Captain Pete! These include a sing along about the Pentateuch, Michael’s Deleted Scene, Show Outtakes and much more.

I have to say that I am really  impressed with these DVD’s. The content and quality are excellent. These stories delve into some very deep subject matter and yet it is done in such a way that young children really learn and understand it easily.

I think The What’s in the Bible series  are an excellent way to teach children about the Bible in a fun and engaging way. There is a lot of humor and wit, fun and catchy songs and great characters.   The stories are not dumbed down as some Bible stories that I have come across have been.  We will be using these to supplement our Bible studies this fall.  Both of my boys have loved watching these. 

You can read my review of the first two What’s in the Bible series here.

Disclosure: I received The What’s In The Bible 3 from Tyndale publishers for review purposes. The reviews and opinions on this blog are strictly my own.

Look at what we found lurking…..

Outside our back door.  The other night Larry and Kaden found this spider. I had to get a picture.  Just so you know I DO NOT like spiders. They frighten me! But I was brave I went and got the camera and started shooting. One thing to remember when you are afraid of a spider and you are looking through the lens and said spider moves, mommy will scream.  Larry thought that was amusing. Not!

The web was so intricate and beautiful. She went to a lot of work to spin it.  As long as the spider is outside and I am inside we’ll get along just fine!

My New Love

Dark Chocolate and sea salt….need I say more? This is a little slice of heaven…….pure bliss! Have your tried it? Why not? You should! You’ll thank me!

This week’s Freebies, back to school deals and where I find my freebies

This week has flown by! It was just the other day I told you I would be posting lots of good stuff here on the blog. That didn’t happen.  We ended up spending a lot of time out of the house this week mostly shopping! The boys and I took two days to go out and shop. One day was mainly for grocery shopping and the second day we hit some back to school sales.   We got a few good deals this week.

First my weekly freebies.

Not a bad week. The Hamburger Helper, All Bran and Fiber one came in the mail. The All Bran even came with a sleeping mask.  The Ritz and Kraft mayo were from free coupons I had.  

Next up Staples:

Total for the above $2.57. I wish I had went ahead and bought 25 bottles of glue instead of 5. The glue was 1 cent each. If you are a teacher and have a Staples Teacher Reward card you can get 25 of each product instead of the limit of 2.  I did not need 25 bottles of glue but could have donated them. The index cards were 25 cent each and the white board was $2. (normally $4) I know I can buy white boards in the $1 store but we like these much better they are much nicer.  Yes more copy paper. We can never have enough copy paper. These were 1 cent each after the rebate.

CVS: Total out of pocket 65 cents. I had a $4.00 ECB I needed to use. Unfortunately they were out of the pretzel M&M’s so I did not get my ECB for that. I may stop in today and see if I can score another one.

 

Target: Four packs of markers, four packs of crayons, four packs of Bic pens $5.40. I had coupons for the Bic pens making them 10 cents a pack.

The lunchbox was $3.99 and had coupons inside as well as a six month subscription to Parents Magazine. You could refuse the magazine and ask for a refund and get back $4.69, so I actually made money buying the lunch box.  My total at Target $4.70.

My Final stop of the day was Walmart.

Colored pencils. These are for our Operation Christmas Child boxes. They were 75 cents each. Don’t forget that back to school time is a great time to get great deals for packing the shoe boxes.

I also picked up three packs of Crystal Light Pure Fitness. They run $2.49 at our Walmart. I had $2 coupons for each one making them .49 cents each.  Total for Walmart was   $2.97

Total for the day:  $10.98 Not bad for 28 items!

Several of you have asked where I find the freebies. My three favorite places are:

Money Saving Mom I have been following Crystal’s blog for a few  years now. She posts lots of great freebies, money saving coupons, advice on saving and much more. She and her dh recently paid CASH for their home! How amazing is that.

Hip to Save Collin has a fabulous blog and posts many awesome freebies, deals, coupons and giveaways.  I have been following her for about a year now and have found some awesome deals and freebies

Coupon Pro I found this blog not long ago and have gotten some great freebies and coupons.

There are a lot of coupon/freebie/money saving sites out there. These are currently my favorites do you have a favorite? I’d love to hear about it if you do!

A baby tree frog

The other day Kaden brought in yet another baby  toad. Or so I thought. Kaden kept telling me the toad was climbing up the side of the bucket.  Upon closer examination we discovered that it was actually a baby tree frog.  We don’t see them very often here but I thought I had heard a tree frog singing the other day and I guess I was right.  We think he (or she) may be Pine Barren’s Tree Frog. Though we are not 100% positive because he was so tiny.  We had a fun time holding and watching him before we let him go.

 

Look at his little feet with those cool suction cups that help him climb and hold on.

He was such a little guy!

He also loved the computer!

  

any guesses as to who was using the computer?

 

We enjoyed having him visit for awhile!

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

 

Last week someone at the FIAR forums posted a great recipe for pepperoni pizza puffs. I was so excited! We very little if any processed foods here anymore. I am always looking for snack/meal ideas that I can make myself.  I have made these several times now and they were a hit!  I will be making them and freezing them to pull out for  snacks for the boys.  (so far none of them have made it to the freezer!) I doubled the batch the last time. One batch makes about 24 puffs)

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
Adapted from Everyday
3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup whole milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
4 ounces pepperoni, cut into small cubes (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup pizza sauce
2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
Microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through, then stir in 1 Tablespoon basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the remaining 1 Tablespoon basil. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

 note: I did not have whole milk on hand so I used skim with no problems. We also have not used pizza sauce or basil. We have eaten them without and they are very good! 

Book Review: Pearl Buck in China

 

Pearl Buck in China: A Journey To The Good Earth. Written and Narrated by Hilary Spurling.  This is my first review for Oasis Audio and I must say this audiobook is excellent first choice.  I have never read anything by or about Miss Buck, although I do know who she is and the titles of some of her books.  I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book.  Hilary Spurling has done an excellent job in capturing Pearl’s story. 

What an extraordinary life Pearl Buck  led as the daughter of a missionary living in China for much of her life. This biography delves deeply into Buck’s family life. It is the story of her growing up mainly in the Chinese culture,  the hardship of living in China and living through some perilous times, The Boxer uprising, and several other wars.  (Pearl lived mostly in China from 1892-1934). The hardships the family endured as a result of her father’s passion to be a missionary at all costs.

This story also talks about the difficulty in living in two cultures and not knowing where she fit in either. From growing up in China and not fitting in because of her fair skin and hair where she stood out from everyone else  to going back to the United States after living much of her life in the Chinese culture and not really fitting in there. 

Pearl Buck won a Pulitzer prize and the Noble Peace prize for her writing of The Good Earth.  She was the mother of two children, was married twice and has written many books. I found it very interesting how Ms. Spurling tells how Pearl wrote about her own family in many of her stories.

This is such an interesting story. I would recommend this book.  I think I now want to read The Good Earth!

Just a word of caution: this book as good as it is is not suitable for young listeners. It does contain some mature content

A couple of more things worthy of note: Pearl S. Buck is also the founder of Welcome House, the first inter-national, inter-racial adoption agency. It was established in 1949 to address the issues of poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries.  Welcome House today is part of  Pearl S. Buck International. 

The Pearl S. Buck House in Bucks County, PA is a national landmark.

I also learned that Ms. Buck’s daughter Carol attended the Vineland Training School, in Vineland NJ. Less than 30 minutes from where I live.  I almost did not catch it as it was pronounced Vinland on the audiobook. This school is for children that educated  developmentally disabled children so they may live independently. The school has undergone several name changes over the years and it still educating children today.

Disclosure: I received this audiobook free of charge in exchange for my review from Oasis Audio. The reviews expressed both in this review and blog are strictly my own. I was not required to write a positive review.

Weekend Ramblings…

Not many posts here the last day or so. I’ve been busy. Yesterday I took the boys to the library for the weekly walk in crafts that they are holding each Friday in July.  No registering no age limit.  You can go from 1-3 and make a craft or two or three. We did not get there until about 2 so Justin made one and Kaden made two. Justin’s was a bit more complicated. He made an American flag out of beads and lanyard and that lanyard was giving me fits. Kaden made a butterfly and flower sun catcher and a butterfly paper holder. We are going to make sure we get there at 1 next Friday so they can make a few more crafts. Have I mentioned how much I love our library!

When  we returned my niece and aunt came over and we went swimming for a couple hours.  The water was fantastic! I don’t know where everyone was but we had an olympic sized pool pretty much to ourselves. 

This morning I had to run errands before Larry went to work. Yeah he works every other Sat which is a bummer but you do what you have to. The boys and I are usually on our own for the afternoon and evening.  It makes for a long day and night.  I hit the library for some books I needed and for a couple of books for me.  Yes I know I was just there yesterday but I did not have time to get the books I needed before we needed to be back to go swimming. Besides sometimes it is fun to get away for a few minutes by myself. lol!

Today I decided to do a major overhaul of one of my kitchen counters and cabinets. I must say it is looking pretty good. It was a major disaster area. I mean major. As in probably 20 inches of clutter piled on the entire counter! Ugh! I have thrown out a trash bag full of junk/trash and still have more to go. I decided to move my printer into the kitchen since I am in the kitchen for the most part with my laptop. We’ll see how I like it there. If I decide not to keep it there I may move it to the other counter.  Eventually we are getting rid of the old computer desk and the non working desk top computer.

So while I am busy working in my kitchen today I thought I’d share what I am excited about! I saw this trailer a couple of weeks ago!  Are you ready for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader? It’s coming in December! I cannot wait! We will be going to the movies to see this one. I will make sure we have a little set aside for us to go!

We have been busy reading the Chronicles of Narnia this summer and we are very excited about the movie! Are you are Narnia fan? 

I’ll be back the first of the week with some new posts, the results of my first freezer cooking week, some recipes and some reviews. I guess I need to start thinking about a bit of school as well. This is the first summer we have not really done school in the summer. We have been enjoying the lazy days of summer!  I hope your summer is going well! See you next week! Now I need to go and figure out something to feed these boys!

Look what I got for .52 cents and this week’s freebies

Last night I stopped in Staples to pick up their 1 cent deals! This week (the sale ran through yesterday) you could pick up pencils and two pocket folders for 1 cent each. There was a limit of 2 each unless you are a teacher with a Staples Teacher Rewards card. Which I am! I was able to get 25 pocket folders and 25 packs of pencils for 1 cent each.

All of my pencils and pocket folders! I paid 50 cents for all of this!

You could also pick up packs of copy paper (limit 2) for 1 cent each after the rebate. I picked up 2 and will get back $9.96 from my rebate, making my total out of pocket for everything 52 cents!!! I love deals like that!

You may be wondering what on earth I am going to do with 200 pencils! We will keep some for the future and we will also be putting several into our Operation Christmas Child boxes.  We shop for OCC year round and get the sales when we can. 

On to this week freebies!

All of the above I got this week! Kotex, a sample of All laundry detergent, cottonelle toilet tissue and wipe samples, Dove shampoo and conditioner, propel and coffee samples, a diaper sample (I bet you’re wondering about that. We will be using it for science), a full size bottle of Suave almond shea butter conditioner, a coupon for another free Digornio pizza and two free McDonald’s gift coupons good for either a four piece chicken nuggets or hamburger and apple dippers~compliments of our library’s summer reading program, a copy of Thriving Family magazine (not pictured) lots of coupons and $15 in Amazon cards from Swagbucks. If you haven’t signed up for swagbucks or you would like to know more about it you can read about it here.

So what have you gotten on sale or free? Are you gearing up for the back to school sales?

My Coupons: Mamma Buzz Review

 As you know I love to save money and find a great deal! My Coupons is an online coupon site established in 1995. It is the oldest coupon, coupon code and shopping forum  site on the internet.

My Coupons has printable coupons, online coupon codes and the even sell discount gift cards!   I decided to check out their back to school section since it is getting to be that time of year when the stores are bringing out their back to school supplies.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Sears $5 off a $50 purchase
• Borders 20% off a single purchase
• Kmart $5 off a $50 purchase
• Oriental Trading 15% off $59 or more

These are just a few coupon codes in the back to school section. There are many coupon codes for many different stores.  I found the website easy to navigate and very user friendly.  You can look up a coupon code by category, store name, alphabetically or popular category. I was very excited to find a category for audio books! The Printable coupons, which are mostly for grocery items, are under a separate tab which makes them easy to find.

Here are some other great features about My Coupons.

 Local Coupons Tab: You can enter your zip code and find deals exclusive to your area. I think that is an awesome resource!

Submit a Coupon: You found a fantastic deal? You can share it by submitting it to the My Coupons site.

Online Community: This is a forum on the site where you can share great deals with other shoppers, find freebies and talk about your deals and savings.

How to use a Coupon Code: If you are not sure how to use a coupon code there is a step by step explanation and a video that you can watch. 

If you are looking for some great deals why not check out My Coupons. It is free you have nothing to loose and a lot to save!

You can also find My Coupons on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to follow them for updates and great deals!

Disclosure: This is a Mamma Buzz review. I was compensated for this review from My Coupons. However the opinions in this review are my own.

Freezer Cooking~My Plan

 

I love to cook and bake. I am always looking up recipes and reading blogs for ideas. My problem is I get tired of cooking every meal every day and then having the clean up. I have no dishwasher, never have and with four of us there is always something in the sink. A few things do not bother me too much but many times it is more than a few things, the sink ends up full. Quickly.  I feel like I am constantly cooking/baking and then washing dishes! I get one load done and turn around and the sink is full. Add that to our tiny home and it makes everything look so cluttered all the time. (well there is currently other clutter but I am working on kicking that out the door as well! That’s a different post!) What’s a mom to do?

My solution?  Freezer cooking! I have done a bit of freezer cooking on and off but nothing too serious. I know what you’re going to say freezer cooking is boring you can only make casseroles and similar type foods for the freezer. Who wants to eat casseroles all the time right? It is summer for crying out loud when we should be grilling outside and not heating up the house. Yeah that is what I thought too until I started reading Jessica’s Life as A Mom blog.  She does some pretty awesome freezer cooking and it is not casseroles and that type of fare.  Jessica makes all sorts of yummy meals and does much of the prep/cooking once a month so she is not spending each and every minute in the kitchen fixing the next meal.  Go check out her blog! She has a bunch of fabulous recipes and tips to share.

This week I have decided to start my freezer cooking. I started yesterday with waffles. I made waffles for breakfast and decided while the waffle iron was out to make another double batch. I used my favorite waffle recipe. This recipe seems to get better each time I make it! If you really beat the egg whites into stiff peaks and then fold them into the batter you get really fluffy waffles.

I ended up with 28 waffles for the freezer. We can just pop them into the toaster for breakfast without all the mess and waiting for them to cook.

I’ll be making up some more recipes this week that include:

• pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
• chocolate chip cookies
• chicken stock (I have several bags of chicken carcasses waiting to be turned into stock)
• granola  (the only thing I change about this is to add about 1/4 of a cup of honey.
• tortillas

and a few more things I have yet to decide. 

Do you freezer cook? What are your favorite things to make?

There’s a NINE year old in the house!

Justin age 2 

Today my baby is 9!!! NINE!  Where did the time go? How can it be possible that Justin is 9!  Where did that chubby little baby boy go. Where did the little boy who toddled around on unsteady legs disappear to? The boy who when he was 2 discovered his love of all things solar system. Who when he saw his very first planet shook all over uncontrollably with excitment! The time goes so quickly. Someone told me when Justin was a baby that this time would go quickly. I did not believe them.  Boy they weren’t kidding! Nine years gone in a blink!

So today we celebrate the baby who is now a boy. Who loves the planets with a passion! (for those that know my planet lovin’ boy he is still going strong loving those planets and just brought me a science catalogue the other day showing me all the planet items he wants me to buy him!) He loves legos too. Especially Star Wars legos. Has a passion to see many places around the country and around the world. He loves God with all his heart and wants to be a Christian scientist/missionary. He loves books and is forever asking questions and wanting to discover and learn new things. He has a love of learning that I pray he never looses.

We had plans to take him to his favorite Chinese resturant later today but it looks like that may not happen because our car broke down and so we will have to postpone that dinner. He has requested eggs and home fries as his birthday breakfast and we are putting together the last minute plans for his party tomorrow!

We love you sweet boy! We are so thankful and blessed that you are part of our family!

Happy 9th birthday, Justy!!

We’ve had our little fire pit for 2 years…..

We finally decided to try out our fire pit. Nothing like waiting for two years to put to use, right?  We had a fun time building a fire and roasting marshmallows! I think we will (finally) get a lot of use out of it!

I ended up having to build the fire after a failed attempt by someone who shall remain nameless. Lets just say apparently he is better out putting out fires than starting them! He is a fire fighter after all! lol (I love you honey) 

The boys had a great time roasting marshmallows!

would you like one?

Freebie Wednesday

 

I send for free samples frequently.  I thought I’d post once a week on the freebies I have received. This helps to stretch our budget a tiny bit.  It really is worth your while to send for those free samples! This is what came last week!

Lots of goodies here. Crystal light, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, Glidden tester paint, chex mix and lots of coupons.

The Purina came with coupons but for some reason they did not make it into the picture!

Frugal Summer Fun~Our Summer Fun List

With summer in full swing I thought I’d share another fun idea I found.  I have seen on several blogs and thought it was a great idea!  We created a summer fun list and hung it up so we could check off our activities as we go.

It is a great visual and a  reminder of all the summer fun that is available (for free or for very little money) around us!  The boys love checking off the activities we have done! I hung our list on our closet door in our living room where we see it each day.  I just used a piece of poster board and some colored sharpie markers.

Here is what is on our list:

• go to the beach
• visit the zoo (we have an excellent free zoo not far from us)
• make homemade bubbles
• catch fire flies
• search for Cape May Diamonds
• go to the pool
• play mini golf
• make popsicles
• make sidewalk paint
• find a tide pool
• watch fireworks
• sign up for the library summer reading program
• go to the 4-H Fair
• make a sail boat
• cooking/baking lessons
• icecream sundae night
• make a banana split
• arts/craft time
• backyard science
• have a water balloon fight
• catch a butterfly
• make a fire in the fire pit
• collect seashells
• visit a new place
• have a cookout
• have a scavenger hunt
• visit a museum
• go to the boardwalk
• go stargazing
• go to cowtown

The possibilities are endless! I think this is something we will do each year! I do not know if we will get to all of the items on our list but we will try and it will be fun to see how many we can check off!

Some 4th of July Pictures

How was your July 4th? To me it was an odd holiday this year. In our area folks could not seem to decide which day to celebrate.  Monday was when the holiday was actually celebrated and yet many things in our area were held on Sat. Confusing if you ask me.  Our holiday was unusual too that this is the first time in many years that we did not go to my aunt and uncle’s 4th of July picnic.  I missed seeing my extended family.  Many that we don’t get to see often and sometimes only at 4th of July.   We really didn’t have a picnic to go to. We stayed home and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs with the boys and spent most of the weekend at the pool!  Saturday morning we went to the 4th of July parade in a nearby town and met up with my parents and our friend Janet.  Larry had to work Saturday night so the boys and I headed for the fireworks.   I did take a few pictures and ironically took no pictures of the kids!

Here are some of my favorite parts of the parade. (click on the photos to enlarge them)

Sally Starr. If you are my age or older and lived in the Philly/NJ area you probably remember Sally Starr, who hosted a children’s television program from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.  She is in the parade each year and each year I snap her photo.  I have fond memories of watching Our Gal Sal on TV when I was growing up.

Tractors! I have always loved tractors. I’d like to own a tractor but where I live I suppose it wouldn’t work out! lol.

The String bands! I love string bands. Their music, their sequined sparkly outfits the whole thing! I love the way they march so close together in perfect rhythm as they play their music!

There were a lot of great floats this year. Lots of creativity and effort were put into them. This one though was my favorite. Have you forgotten? I hope not!

I have to put this picture it. I love fire trucks and this one especially since Larry and my dad are both volunteers in this fire company! Real fire trucks are not red you know. They are yellow!

I also decided to take the camera along to the fireworks. I am not good at taking pictures of fireworks but these came out pretty well.

This red one is my favorite!

 

and finally….I did make a 4th of July treat for us….It was a semi fail since the pink areas you see were supposed to be white. My red jello did not set up as quickly as I would have liked and I was impatient to get this together in time to eat.  I should have waited another hour but sometimes that's how I roll here! They were good though! How was your 4th of July?

Bible in 90 Days Challenge! Round 2

 

You may remember back in the spring I signed up to participate in the Bible in 90 Days Reading Challenge. I didn’t do so well.  So I am back for round 2! Yes I am trying once again! It starts today.  So there is still plenty of time to get on this challenge!   I signed up over at Mom’s Toolbox. You can download the reading schedule and get started along with me!