$1.85!!

I am so excited about my shopping trip to Target. Here is what I bought:

1 Cheez It Whole grain $2. 99 $.75 coupon off Total: $2.24
5-8 count of poptarts $1.52 a box $.75 off coupons (I printed 5) Total per box: $.77
4 boxes of Raisin Bran $2.19 a box $1.50 off 2 boxes coupon Total per box: $1.44

Total Bill: $19.35
Coupon Total: $7.50
Final Payment: $11.85
Mail in rebate: $10.00
In the end, total paid: $1.85

Needless to say, you don't have to ask what's for breakfast :)

P&G esaver

This only works for Kroger and Tom Thumb. Sign up here. Choose the coupons you want and voila! It's automatically loaded onto your preferred customer card!

Kellogg's Buy 10 get $10

I have done the dirty work to the best of my ability to get you the fastest way to $10! I go tomorrow to see how it pans it out but until then, here is what I have done.

Kellogg's is doing a Fuel for School where you buy any 10 Kellogg's product, and get a $10 rebate. Go here to get your rebate. It's on the bottom right. Click on it, and it prints your rebate and list of qualifying purchases.

How about some coupons?
This is one of the best places for coupons. A Full Cup. You need to sign up. Once you do, on the home page, there is a tab on the right: Target Coupon Generator. This will pull up any coupons for Target at this time. Best part is, you can type in how many of each coupon you want. So I chose the poptarts to get $.75 off and I had it print me 5!!
On a side note, on the website click on the tab at the top Coupons, choose printable coupons, and you get about 38 pages of coupons and there are tons of ways to search for what you are looking for!

Raisin Bran is on sale at Target for $2.19. Here is a coupon for $1.50 off 2 boxes. Make them $1.44 a box!

Cheez It for $.75 off Whole Grain only. (Scroll through this link for other coupons including Kellogg's)

The 100 Calorie coupon has reached its limit. Sorry.

You can also go to google and type in the search what you are looking for such as: Cheez It coupon. This will help out tons. But again, A Full Cup so far is the best!

I will write tomorrow how the deal goes!

Sinned Against

I can say in my life that I can't recall a time that I have been sinned against where I didn't contribute to the situation. Until this week. I can't explain the pain my soul felt and the tears that were shed. It was something that I hope you never feel, but if you do or have, we can rejoice that we are suffering like Jesus. This pales in comparison to what he felt on the cross when the weight of sin was on his sinless shoulders.
I find the timing a bit ironic since Beau, the campus pastor, was teaching out of Philemon where Paul urges Philemon to receive Onesimus back as a brother and to forgive this runaway slave who stole from him. Corresponding to the prodigal son where each of us were runaways and have been received by the father. Here are two things I have learned in the past couple days.

1. Atonement: Christ paid the debt. The end. It is not my job to make this person pay for their sin. Christ did it on the cross and for me to "make them pay for this" defeats the purpose of the sacrifice. I think it would be a slap in God's face for me to try to take the place of Jesus.

2. Forgiveness: Just like Philemon was urged to forgive, God tells us to forgive our brothers so that we might be forgiven. If I don't forgive, I am not forgiven. I must never forget that I have been received into the hands of God and am under his authority now. I must believe and apply the gospel of forgiveness with his help as to avoid bitterness, anger, self righteous pride and so on.

This was not an easy process but was quick I must say. I went straight to the throne and asked God to help me and I poured over the bible as to how I was to respond to the situation. Amazing how when you press into Jesus, you can truly forgive, no bitterness, no anger, no remorse, no sorrow, no guilt, no more pain, replaced by acceptance, joy, peace, grace, and mercy. This is not me who accomplished this process, but only the work of Jesus who was able to mend my heart and bring glory to him. Romans 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Even when we are sinned against.

Pain and Suffering

Sometimes I just get a breath of how painful life is. I sit back and know that God is control and wonder how he chooses to intervene or not. I read emails about our friends whose son is trying to recuperate from a heart transplant to a family in Ohio (I am assuming) whose in the hospital with their baby boy and the doctors are telling the family, "it doesn't look good."
I gripe and complain that my house is a mess, there is yet another load of laundry to do, another meal to cook, but my kids are healthy. They are safe.
My heart goes out to the these parents who deal on a constant basis with hospital visits and life changing decisions that must be made. I can't even imagine what it feels like to do kangaroo care with your baby in hopes that he might have his temperature rise. Is there any length that you wouldn't go to?
Oh how that is the heart of Christ. That he sees our pain and suffering, and as a gentle parent he wants to kangaroo with us, to draw us to hear his heartbeat alone, to rest in his arms and to trust him. Really trust him in all circumstances that the God who spoke the world and put in motion, took time to create us in his image, knows our hearts and minds, and pain and suffering is used for our sanctification and his glory. On this side of heaven we may never know why God chooses as he does, but we must rest in the unchangeable, unwavering, always consistent God of the universe.

Rare Day

Today was a rare day for me. I took the girls to go hang with Courtnee then went grocery shopping. I came home and cleaned the house, worked, worked out, and then was done. With a couple of hours to spare. That is a rarity for me! I decided to go get my sweet tea at McAlister's since it was free and got a BLT minus the T and ate there. By myself. Now, there would have been a day I would not have been caught dead eating lunch out by myself. I am super self conscious and the whole time I would have been wondering what others were thinking or saying about me when in reality, they probably didn't realize I even existed. Not today, I sat down, sighed, and just enjoyed. Then heard the screaming kids next to me which made me glad I was alone! Is that what kids do to you? Make you come out of your comfort zone and relish the quiet moments anywhere you can find them even if it means eating by yourself? For that, thanks girls for helping this momma very slowly learn how to not care what others think and just enjoy.

Well...

Last night Brian came out to the conference to have dinner with me and hear the speaker all which was good. Then we I showed him my room and I began to get sad because I would have to stay there by myself without him or the girls around. After 30 minutes of debate, pros/cons, I came home to sleep in my house, my bed, with my family. So, I just can't be away from my loved ones. Maybe one day. Just not today.
I will head back to the conference this afternoon to finish it up. Until then, I get to be with my family.

Conference Time

Tomorrow I will leave and head out to Ft. Worth for a conference for my company. Now, I have NEVER been to a real conference before where you go and stay, even in all my 7 years of teaching. So, there are questions that I have that are pretty dumb like, do they foot the hotel bill? If not, I'm sleeping in the car and taking bath in the pool. Well, I will more than likely come home instead, however, the other might prove to be more cost effective. Also, do I have a room? If so, do I share? How do I feel about sharing a room with a stranger? Now, I poke fun, but really, I have no clue what to expect, what is going on, and I don't know anyone. Except Courtnee. And I think she might be busy working.
To top it off, I have to leave my family. I love my family so much that it would be an idol for me. (I am working the steps folks, just takes time). Not that Brian won't do a great job and have tons of fun, but because I might miss out on something and I don't like being left out. Kinda like that one episode on In the Motherhood. Ever seen that show? I like our times together as a family. I relish them.
I have also come to sense a bit of guilt for my hidden excitement to get out of the house and be real adult around other real adults. The only problem is that I don't have any kids to blame the food stain on my shirt on.

New Heart

Our friends precious boy (age 11) had a heart transplant on Friday night that they have been waiting on. He is doing good now but not out of the woods. I can't imagine as a parent what that must feel like to go through that. The other night he coded and was out gone for 15 minutes before the heart started again. I am not sure if there is anything more helpless than knowing there is absolutely nothing you can do but trust in the sovereign Lord that his way is best.
I began to think of how something like this is what God desires for each of us. New hearts. Where we take out the old that is broken, beat up, and not functioning to full capacity, and he wants to sew his heart within us that brings about the fullness of life that he intended. I can't help but be reminded of what Ezekiel 36:25-27 says:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.


Just as Austin received a new heart physically, the Lord desires to give us a new heart spiritually. I continue to pray for Austin, his parents, and the doctors but more than that, that lives would be transformed by the power of prayer and the worship of believers that God can transform the old into the new.