a simple tip: price matching made simpler

Ella's birthday is in a few day. We always have a family party the Sunday before the big day. Ella decided she wanted ice cream for her special treat, so we'll be setting up a hot fudge sundae bar with my amazing homemade hot fudge sauce. I recently found a great big ice cream dish, and she's pretty excited she'll be the first to use it.

Breyers is by far our family's favorite store-bought ice cream. At $4 a half gallon, it can be a little pricey to feed my crew. I price matched at Walmart today and got if for Ream's price, $2.49 a half gallon instead. Love that! At that price, I stocked up.

simple solution: teaching kids to set the table

Question: If the silverware had a fight, who would win?

"Bite" silverware designed by Mark Reigelman.

Each Sunday after church, our married kids and their families (and Annabelle the dog) come over for dinner. It's pretty casual, but we always sit down at the table to eat together. We also have horrible special traditions like making a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough after dinner, and devouring the entire thing. And Ella always challenges her big brothers to a game of Mario Cart. (And usually wins--seriously. Luckily, they're good sports.) It's a day I look forward to each week because it means I get to see my grandlittles and catch up with my bigs.

Recently Ella has become more interested in helping out with the prep before everyone arrives. I think she believes they'll get here faster if everything is done. So, I've been teaching her to set the table.

simple solutions: Deals to Meals

It happened again. I was in the checkout line at Walmart and the cashier totaled my transaction. He looked at the register and motioned to the person in charge. As she walked up, the cashier said two words, "price matching." The PIC smiled and used her key to "unlock" the transaction (or whatever they do), so we could finish up.

simple solutions: Easy Lunchboxes

You know I love anything that can simplify my life.

Our little Ella is the pickiest eater on. the. planet. The other day she told me, "I think by the time I'm 32, I will try a vegetable." Ughhh! But she lives on Grape Nuts. It's the "go-to" meal when she doesn't like what we're eating. And she'll even eat plain yogurt--with Grape Nuts. Go figure.

Needless to say, I was a little concerned about her eating lunch at school now that she's in first grade. Not only is she a picky eater, she's also a grazer, preferring little snacks throughout the day instead of full meals.

I was intrigued by all the Bento Boxes around and looked into different options. I decided to try these Easy Lunchboxes because they were one piece instead of a bunch of smaller pieces that fit inside a larger box. I couldn't be happier with them.

I love them because they're easy (and even fun) to pack. They come in a package of four, so I can put them together for the week on Sunday night and stack them in the fridge. Ella eats school lunch on Friday (pizza day--cheese only :)), so it works out perfectly. The drink looks frosty because I freeze them and they keep the rest of the meal cold until lunch.