So Much "LIFE"

Where do I even begin?? I know it's been a long time since I've posted any updates....isn't it funny how life happens sometimes?

There are so many things that have happened, that each would need its own blog post. I can give a brief rundown though.

It's been a little over 2 years since Gail had her open heart surgery. It's amazing to see how she's thriving and growing now! I'm amazed with each and every passing day. She just finished kindergarten, and is preparing for First grade. Thanks to lovely Imelda, and the flooding that ensued (and also Covid), her kindergarten year was definitely not average.

So what's happened since my last post?

• Gail's open heart surgery, which went very smoothly.
• I re-entered the workforce (This is the primary reason I haven't updated in so long).
• My husband suffered from a work injury.
• Imelda came through and flooded our home (Which we're still very slowly repairing).
• My husband was hospitalized this past January, and was diagnosed with End Stage Liver Disease (It's been a rough road with this one).
• COVID.....Need I say more?? This lead to the juggling of working to support our family, and playing "teacher" when I wasn't at work. I still have no clue how this upcoming school year will play out...we're all just sort of winging it right now.
• There's another big development, but the details aren't finalized just yet, so I will post about this one once everything is said and done...but it will be a goal I've been working towards for a while that my family will truly benefit from!

I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that I'm optimistic about what lies ahead for myself and my family. I've learned that life gets rough sometimes, but you just have to take things as they come, and you have to keep on keeping positive....no matter what. 

Prepping for Summer

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Life has been crazy busy lately! I believe my last post was back in March.

With everything that's coming within the next few months (as well as everything that's happened over the past few months), I've been actively taking steps to be as stress free as possible. This is why you haven't seen any of the Sunday Coupon posts in recent months.

Last month, we got the call that we've been waiting for. The surgical department at Texas Children's called us with the official date for Gail's open heart surgery. We've known the call was coming since back in December, and we'd met with the surgeon back in February or March (It's all sort of been a blur).

Gail's surgery is scheduled for July 13, which just so happens to be her daddy's birthday!

As part of the process on getting her ready for surgery, we had to get her dental clearance. So, we got that done on the 16th over at Texas Children's. Because of Gail's heart, she needed to have her dental work done in the hospital where they could have the CV anesthesia specialist in the OR with her.

All in all? She did very well! She was also happy to wake up and find that she had silver teeth, ha!

Aside from getting things ready for Gail's surgery, we're also getting ready for Maddie and Kay's summer vacation. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by!! We're in the midst of all those "end of the year" activities. We've had book fairs, field trips, STAAR testing...and we're gearing up for Field Day, and more field trips! Did I mention that Maddie and Kay also have birthdays coming up in June!?!?

Life has been a whirlwind, but I'm learning to roll with the flow. I know it won't always be so crazy, so I'm remembering to just breathe and enjoy the moments!

Tools4Wisdom Yearly Planner

So for a while now, I've been telling myself that I really need to get a planner to keep things more organized. I have 3 kids, and so schedules tend to get very busy! We have ADHD checkups every 3 months for my older 2 daughters, dental checkups every 6 months for all of the girls, and checkups with many specialists for my youngest (she sees several specialists due to congenital heart defects and Heterotaxy Syndrome). Let's not forget all of the important dates for different school functions, field trips, etc.! With all of the girls' things, as well as my own and my husband's, it really was time to finally break down and get a planner so that I can properly keep up with everything.

Needless to say, I was very happy for the opportunity to try this Tools4Wisdom planner for a discounted rate! I love the inspirational quote on its cover, and that it's hardcover and sturdy. As you'll see in the pictures below, there is plenty of writing space in this planner, which greatly helps for everyday reminders as well as with setting daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. It even comes with two pages of stickers to help with marking those important dates and goals that are reached.

I really do love the design for this planner (which you can get here). I can't wait to see what other inspirational designs are up ahead for future planners from Tools4Wisdom, and I certainly hope they keep the effective layout! I'm kicking myself for not knowing about their planners sooner!

Just A Little Sunday Morning Update

It seems it's been a while since I've posted anything, so I figured that now's as good a time as any! I, honest to goodness, woke up at 3 a.m. this morning, and have been patiently waiting on the Sunday paper to arrive (which it hasn't yet).

My absence has been due to a few things. For starters? There was a 2-3 week period there where I hadn't received the paper at all. I live in a rural area, so it's not always a guarantee that there will be someone available to deliver the paper!

Alas....the paper was delivered last weekend, but life happens. Last Friday, I had a wisdom tooth and another tooth extracted. I won't lie when I say that the pain felt afterwards lasted much longer than expected! I was still very much in a deep recovery mode when Sunday morning rolled around! Honestly, the pain stayed in a crippling state until Wednesday morning. Y'all have no idea how happy I am to be a functioning human being again after that experience!

There are, of course, more updates to give. I figure I'll post those throughout the coming week. There are some pretty big things happening for our family right now, and we're in a busy season.

For now? I'm hopping off to down some more coffee. Here's to hoping you all have a wonderful and blessed Sunday!

My Sincere Apologies

I am truly sorry that I have not posted the Houston Chronicle's inserts. This is the second week in a row that the newspaper has not been delivered to my home. As soon as they start delivering again, I will be back to posting the inserts.

Here's to hoping you all have a lovely Sunday!

My Bath & Body Works Haul!!

Eeeek!!! I'm so happy right now!! Okay, so...part of how I'm able to afford to stay home with my kids is by taking surveys. I'm an active member of somewhere between 6-10 panels. Over time, I've received "Recruit" surveys, which are surveys that recruit you to online discussion communities where you have the chance to earn additional incentives for actively participating. Well, last week I won a $50 gift card from one of these communities for being named the September Expert of the Month. I chose the Bath & Body Works gift card because it's not often that I get to splurge on myself (I have this bad habit of always shopping for the kids, and never for myself).

In true frugal fashion, I actively made a point to make that $50 stretch, and to get the most for my money. I really scored!!! 😊 My goodies just showed up today, and I couldn't be happier!

I knew before I even got to the Bath & Bod Works website that I was ready to stock up on some delicious Fall fragrances. It's been a while since I've actually bought anything from them, so I wasn't exactly up to date on the different scents that they offer now. I was very pleasantly surprised!!

First, the mists and body creams were on sale for Buy 3, Get 2 FREE. For the body creams, I chose Salted Caramel Apricot, and Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte (I've already applied some Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte, and it smells truly DELICIOUS!!). For the body mists, I chose the Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte, Pumpkin Cupcake, and Warm Vanilla Sugar (This last one has always been my favorite).

Second, the lotions [Retired scents] were on sale for $5 each. I chose Brown Sugar & Fig, and French Lavender & Honey.

On top of the already great deals up above, there was a code for $10 off $30 on the day I placed my order. This brought my total down to $51.89 before I used my gift card. I only paid $1.89 out of pocket, plus I used Ebates to earn an additional $0.42 cash back on my purchase, so I really only spent $1.47!!

Great Deals Still Happening Right Now!!

• All 3-Wick candles are $10 off
• All Body Care is Buy 3, Get 3 FREE
• Hand Soaps are 6 for $25 or 4 for $20
• Retired Fragrances are Buy 3, Get 3 FREE
• Aromatherapy Body Care is Buy 3, Get 3 FREE
• Travel Body Care is 3 for $12.50
• Wallflowers Fragrance Refills are 5 for $23
• Scentportable Refills are 4 for $10
• Fragrance Melts are 5 for $15 or 3 for $12
• Concentrated Room Spray is 2 for $12
• Specialty Hand Soaps are 2 for $10
• PocketBac Bundles are $6 and up

Whether you need to restock on your own collection, or are ready to start on the Christmas shopping (My mail carrier told me she's using the sale for the Christmas shopping), now is the perfect time to catch some really great deals at Bath & Body Works!!

Returning to a Normal Routine

It has been a while since I've really had time to sit down and write a good post! Life's been crazy busy. First? There was summer vacation. I don't think it needs to be said about just how busy it can be with 3 kids home all at the same time! Second? We did go through an extended summer vacation, thanks to the flooding effects from Hurricane Harvey.

Things are starting to resemble "normal" again, which I'm so thankful for! My older 2 daughters finally started back to school on September 18. My 2nd grader is really having fun! She's really soared with her reading skills, and is loving the challenge of racking up AR points! She's also having fun with math 😊

My 4th grader still loves reading and math, but she's starting to realize how much extra time she needs to devote to her studies. I'd warned her that 4th grade would be a little harder than K-3, and she's seeing that now.

Before they officially started back to school, we made a point of having a nice, peaceful, day of fishing.

The girls had been bugging us all summer for it, so we took them during their last weekend of vacation. We didn't catch any fish, but we still had a great time! We got to make some fun memories, and the kids got to swim!

I really love that Gail is finally old enough to be able to enjoy these activities with her older sisters. She had a fishing pole in her hand right along with the other two (though not in this particular picture). It was so great to just be able to sit back and relax after everything our community went through!

I'm still an active Avon representative, even though I haven't posted any of those deals lately. I sort of took a break when Harvey came rolling through, but I'm ready to get back in the game!

While my division is technically in Campaign 22 already, the deals in the flyer here are still active! I love that Avon supports these causes. My husband thinks I don't need anymore makeup bags....but what he doesn't know won't hurt, right?? Haha! Actually, he's learned at this point to not fight me on my beauty and jewelry products 😉

If you like to support either of these causes, you can click here to shop for Avon's Breast Cancer Crusade items, and here to shop for their Speak Out Against Domestic Violence items. They're both great causes!

My goal from here forward is to make a point of making at least ONE (possibly more) weekly post about my family's adventures. With the school year here again, I'm hoping that will make it easy to squash the Writer's Block that tends to hit me a lot! I can say, however, that there will be a book fair and some reading adventures to write about soon, so I'm super excited for that!! 😊

I also bought my older two daughters a "Learn to Cook" cookbook shortly before Harvey swept through. They're both capable of reading it themselves and following the directions, so I'm going to let them try their hands at some of the cooking around here. I will be sure to share some of those adventures with y'all as well!

Here's to hoping you all have a wonderful week! 😀