Amazing Deals

I found an online coupon for Office Depot (visit school.com to keep up with any deals they're offering for teachers) that was $10 off of a $25 purchase, so since there are several things I need for the beginning of the year- off my 2 little helpers and I went to Office Depot. I ended up spending $0 and here is what I got:

*22 green folders with brads (these were 5 cents/each with a limit of 5 per person/household/day, but I lucked out & got a REALLY sweet cashier who, without me asking, did 4 transactions so I could get them ALL for 5 cents each!)
*2 packages of large printer labels (these were buy one get one free)
*5 packages of wide ruled loose leaf paper (25 cents each/limit 5 today)
*1 package of 100 clear plastic sheet protectors

I had a $25 gift card that the PTA gave us last year & I hadn't used. The coupon said you couldn't use gift cards with the coupon, but again- REALLY nice cashier who I thanked profusely!

So, I ended up actually using $24.75 of the gift card & then handed the card with 25 cents left to the guy behind me...figured it was good karma!

Big Changes

In May the county I work for laid off all part time teachers, so I found myself for the first time in my life contemplating unemployment- not fun. I almost became a middle school Family & Consumer Science teacher, probably not the best job for someone whose blog is all about what a mess she makes & how she's totally domestically challenged! I have a very domestically inclined mom AND a best friend who is like the Italian Martha Stewart (who would have been in the room next door- big upside & #1 reason I was pursuing the job)- so I figured we'd have lots of "guest speaking" opportunities. In the end, I got re-hired at my previous school and will be teaching KINDERGARTEN again, full-time. I'm thrilled to be going back to Kindergarten, not so sure about how the full time thing is going to go with the kids & responsibilities around the house. We're all going to have to adjust.

For right now the plan is that daddy has the kids in the morning, we have a sitter come to the house from 12-4/3 days, 1:15ish-5/2 days (Pnut will be going to Pre-School 2 days/week!!- more fun changes!!) and I'll be home hopefully earlier than 4/5. I'm feeling pretty good about the arrangement since the kids will still be with daddy all morning, they nap from 2-4 and then I'll be home. I'll really only be missing 2 "awake" hours with them that I had previously. Of course I'll also be missing the 2 hours that they nap where I got stuff done, but we'll just have to figure that out when we get to it!

In preparation for going back to Kindergarten I've been doing a lot of online research & reading K teacher's blogs, so now I'm going to get to post some of the great stuff I've found & want to use on here! I'm seriously cringing a bit when I think about ALL the stuff I gave away when I left K 4 years ago. There are SO many things I have to re-make or re-buy. I spent 2.5 hours the other day writing out some poems for the poetry center- did 24, filled up a whole $7.50 chart tablet (that I'm now going to bring to my mom to have her illustrate- thanks for volunteering mom!!) and realized that I had only made a very small dent in the poetry notebook. Of course all the research has created additional work/$ spending plans to incorporate all the cool ideas I've found...c'est la vie of the full time Kindergarten teacher! Twist my arm...

H is for...

Hands! Today we traced Pnut's hands (we tried tracing Monkey's, but he's too squirmy!) and I cut them out while my helpers put all the scraps in the garbage can. Then Pnut and Monkey painted the hands purple and red. Some of the hands we put in a rectangular tupperware and threw in some glass beads covered in paint, put on the lid and shook. The hands are drying now while the kids nap & then we'll glue them on our "H". Here are some pictures of the kids painting and Pnut (ahem, Abby Cadabby) shaking.

P is for...

...Puppy dog! Pnut made a puppy dog P today. I gave her the cut out letter, she used a Q-tip dipped in glue to put the black spots, ears, tail, and tongue on. The eyes were pre-stuck. We did talk about where body parts should go (eyes on top, tail on the bottom, etc...), but she pretty much managed to get them where they belonged.

After that we did some dot painting and used our new crayola animal stampers that Monkey got for Christmas from my friend Angela's family. They had a great time, but let me tell you- art projects with a 1 AND a 2 year old are a lot like playing whack-a-mole sometimes. I turned away from him for a second to help her and I look back- Monkey has the blue dot paint stick in his mouth. And no, this stuff apparently doesn't wash off easily. Nice. I think he managed to do more painting on his body than on his paper. C'est la vie!

Laughter Lives Tuesday

I've been doing some blog research & came across the MckLinky site- great stuff for the blog by Brent Riggs. Anyway, on his personal family blog he has a feature called "Laughter Lives Tuesday" where you post a funny story so everyone can have a good laugh. I know that today isn't Tuesday, but since I linked my blog on there to practice, I have to share a story.

Funny stuff happens around here all the time, but yesterday I happened to have the camera close at hand. I was helping Pnut get dressed up as Abby Cadabby in the living room and Monkey comes walking out of the playroom, fully dressed, with his diaper stuck to his pajama bottoms. He's 1, so I know he didn't get his pants off & back on by himself. As far as I could see while he was in there, he was in there playing with the Little People. Somehow he managed to get his diaper off and out the leg of his pants. I have to say, he was QUITE pleased with his little achievement & ran away from me squealing when I tried to catch him to put another diaper on him. Apparently our playroom isn't just for playing with toys! Boys!!

Learning to Live Dangerously

Lesson #1- let your child eat chocolate pudding with no bib. I hadn't really even noticed he didn't have a bib on until Jimmy pointed that fact out to me. Ha! Nothing like working without a net! Spray & Wash is supposed to be a "laundry additive", isn't it?

Nothing Says "Fun" Like...

Going to the grocery store with 2 kids in tow. Wonder if bribing them with mac & cheese when we get home will work? First we go have to go to Walmart & then to Kroger. At Walmart there's only one seat in the cart, so Addison gets to walk. This makes everything take twice as long. The upside is that I'm no longer that harried looking woman with a baby strapped to her body screaming his head off from the time we set foot into the store until the time we walked out (for some reason, the overhead lighting perhaps?, Sullivan HATED the grocery store with a passion for his first few months of life). Yes, in those days complete strangers walked up to me & offered to help me with my shopping or my baby. I'm sure mostly to just make. it. stop.

At Kroger there's at least a 2 seat cart, a sample of turkey lunchmeat & a free cookie from the nice bakery lady. Ahhh... Can't wait till we get to Kroger! I've literally spent 2 hours cutting coupons & looking online at the Kroger sale ad. Hopefully I'll save some $ this week!

I guess I should go get the kid who napped when he was supposed to and the kid who played for 2 hours before crashing for 30 minutes. She should be all kinds of fun!

I'm thinking dinner is going to be veggies, applesauce, $3.99 Kroger rotisserie chicken & some of the "bribery" mac & cheese. I'm already exhausted thinking about shopping.

On a bright note today- my sweet husband moved the TV that's been hanging out on our bedroom floor for months downstairs to it's new "holding" place on the dining room table. I'm thinking it'll be much harder for me to get a daily bruise on my thigh from smashing into it in the dark there. :) That's what we do here- move things from one holding place to another (yet another example of why I named this blog Ignore the Mess). I did manage to get rid of 2 bags of clothing from my closet over my vacation & went through the pile of coupons today. Small victories.

**Update: saved $8.34 with coupons. For some reason though not all my coupons doubled at Kroger, so now I have to go back there & find out why. With 2 kids. More fun.