Stepping away from the coupons for an update

I find it funny that my blogging friends are also the same friends who have climbed aboard the couponing bandwagon (I jumped on too!), and suddenly, I see them far more frequently in the grocery stores than in their blogs. The same has obviously happened to me. But now that another triples week has come to a close, I'm going to try to do better with my blogging. Though as a sidenote I should say that at one point last week, after about three grocery trips, I had essentially been paid (through "save $X on your next shopping trip" coupons) $0.48 to take $110.53 of groceries from Harris Teeter. Yes, I EARNED more than I spent. And in the end, I'm on track this month with my goal of spending no more than $50 a week on groceries...and our refrigerator, pantry and house are more full of food than they have ever been. I'm averaging saving about 65% for the month. So HURRAY for couponing...I'm just sorry it has come at the expense of blogging!

So back to what this blog is about... the boys! They are doing great. I don't have a ton of recent pictures, but thought I'd share a few of the ones I do have. Parker is really getting into books. He loudly says something that sounds like "Deed! Deed! Deed!" while handing me a book and he wants to crawl into my lap and read. Sometimes when I am cleaning up or something, he will pick a book out by himself and crawl up in the big chair in the corner and read aloud to himself. It's too cute:


He loves it most though when he can get someone else to read to him...as I see he did when his Aunt Beth came over to watch the game last weekend (I enjoyed a rare night "out" and went to see the game in Columbia with my brother):

He may not look happy there, but I'm sure he was! He was probably annoyed that his Daddy interrupted his reading for a picture. :)

The best part of life around here lately is watching the boys become more of friends. They really are starting to play (and conspire!) more with each other and it's so much fun to see. If I take my eyes off of them for a moment, frequently things will get quiet. I'll peek around the corner to find them chatting away together (as much as that is possible) in some little hideout they have found. The other day it was under the kitchen table.


I think Thomas probably crawled under there to steal Parker's snack from him, but they were playing together too. :)


Thomas is having a great time at school. Every time I go to pick him up he asks when he will be going back. He started his weekly gymnastics class a couple weeks ago (he has it on Wednesday right after his morning class is over...it lasts for about 45 minutes) and I think he is really enjoying that too. I've unfortunately learned to accept that Thomas is just going to be that child who always gets whatever is going around. I think his nose has not stopped running since he started school...but such is life. He did have his first ever experience with discipline at school last week. The teacher said she had to put him in timeout (for 30 seconds!) for throwing a toy. She thought he was doing it playfully with the other children, but said he threw it hard and she had to put him in timeout. Apparently he was quite traumatized by that (she said she thinks it shocked him and straightened him right up!) and he has been a perfect angel in school ever since.

It's sad when things happen and I realize how quickly they are growing. Today they were playing in their little playhouse on the porch and Thomas had to duck to get in the door. I sat there wondering, "When did that happen?" Surely he hasn't always had to duck. I looked at Parker standing in the doorway (of the house) not looking as small as he once did and wondering when he'd have to start ducking, too. I took them both to get their feet measured today as Trey had been insisting that Parker's shoes were too small. Turns out Daddy was right (apparently that does happen!). Poor Parker has been wearing size 5 shoes when he quite clearly measured a definite size 6. Oops. I bought him his first pair of red Keds and found a couple pairs of Thomas' old shoes that are the perfect size, too.

So all in all, life is good. The boys are good, we stay pretty busy and they are very patient (on the whole) with my couponing madness. The good thing about couponing is that it requires that I am extremely organized for my shopping trips and that makes shopping with children much easier anyway. I'll try to do better with blogging...and I'll try to get some new pictures soon too!