Back to School & Back to Work...

On Aug. 27th my life changed. A lot. For the first time, in my 15 years as a mother...all my kids are in school.

I now have a good FIVE hours to myself! Woot, woot! I get to do whatever the heck I want during that time.

So far, I have filled my free time with shopping, binging on Netflix (Hell on Wheels, Longmire...) and occasionally throwing a load of laundry in. Such is the life, right?

Except that, doing nothing is not very...fulfilling.

I took a huge long break from blogging and couponing (at least heavily) and enjoyed the break but at the same time, have missed it! I have missed having fun packages arrive on my doorstep to review, the high that comes with getting a great deal, online friendships, and sharing my life.

Now it is time to one again  fill those hours with those things that I have enjoyed. I haven't made the decision of whether to have my coupon blog be separate or not, so I will keep you posted.

I read a blog post about not giving up and just following your dreams. It's time. My time.

School daze

This Wednesday, my kids started school.

High school. Middle school. Elementary school. Preschool starts next week.

I have made lunches. Packed backpacks. Signed enough papers to give myself a hand cramp for a week. I have driven back and forth. I have walked back and forth.

Seminary started. Early morning seminary. My alarm is set for a time that STARTS with a 4. Yes, a 4. Harmony's alarm starts with a 5. Early.

There have been quiet moments to think. There have been quiet moments to just be me. There have been sweet moments with Mason. There have been moments where he has driven me nuts, without older siblings to entertain him.

All of my kids have had a great first few days. They have classes with their friends & favorite teachers. They have made new friends. They have managed to open their lockers. And haul textbooks. And find their classes.

However, after three days, this Mama is worn the heck out. Last night I fell asleep at 8:15. With my contacts in. In my clothes. With Masons shoes at the end of my bed. Dead to the world at 8:15.

This year is going to be busy. And next year. And the next.

My caffeine consumption just may go up. By a lot.

Mail

In the mail today, I got this envelope. From my daughters HIGH SCHOOL

 High school?!  Seriously?! Am I ever going to get used to this? I don't see how...

22 days

Burnout. Serious burn out.

We are sooo ready for school to be out. Today marks one month until school is out. When you don't count weekends, that is only 22 days of school left.

TWENTY TWO!!!!

Yesterday we had a little mini heat wave. My kids came home from school "sweaty hot" and begged to please, please, please go to the pool. Since we had no kid activities going on...I gave in.

I hung out pool side, chatting with my friend while the kids splashed around. Soaking up sun and reading a magazine.

It was a great trial run for the summer. I now have a list of things that I have 22 days to purchase...

*a new rash guard for Ivan (his was almost see through! lol) and for Connor
*new swim trunks for Ivan (he is growing so fast)
*2 new pairs of goggles (major fights over the pairs we have)
*more dive sticks/pool toys (hello $1 store)
*new pool noodles (no idea where ours have gone...)
* a couple of new pairs of flip flops

Are you ready for summer?  I am so excited to not have to buy any swim diapers this year!!!! But other than that  I have my summer list ready. The beach/pool bag is gonna get a great work out this summer!

***No pressure, but I am hosting a 31 party. I have fallen in love with these products. So if you need something to put all your pool/beach gear in, you can check out some awesome products here

Back to School

Today was the day! My kids headed back today. I had zero reservations about my decision. It made life easier.

I spent yesterday prepping their gear, pulling out lunch bags and blowing off the dust, labeling, labeling and labeling. Oh Sharpies, we have a love/hate relationship.

After going walking with a friend, I came home and made muffins before waking up my kiddos.

Of course they were all dressed by 6:01 and than ran around like wild monkeys until it was time to go.

The two older kids are walking to school this year. Sniff, sniff. While it saves me time, I can't believe how old they are. Oh my babies. Now in 8th and 6th.


*8th grade * 13 years old*

*6th grade*11 years old*

Ben and I walked a very excited 2nd and 5th grader down to their school. They both waited very patiently to walk in the gate. Poor Mason wanted to go and play on the playground wasn't allowed. He wasn't a happy camper. He also was not happy to say goodbye to his best friend, Connor.

*5th grade*10 years old*

Then it was time to say goodbye to our 2nd grader. He was very happy to see friends from last year.

*2nd grade* 7 years old*

After saying our last goodbyes, Ben and I walked Mason down to Marie Callenders for a yummy breakfast...which he ate very little of. Oh well. All in all, it was a good start to the new school year!

*not old enough for school, but a cute 3 year old waiting for his pancakes*



 

'Twas the week before...

"Twas the week before school starts and all through the house, Mom is scurrying around like a crazed mouse....

With my recent decision to no longer homeschool, I am now looking at a pretty long list of to do's. It was my choice I know. But this is what I am looking at:

***new tennis shoes for all my school going kids
***one new backpack (the other 3 look pretty good!)
***getting lunchbags & waterbottles out and labeled
***taking a quick inventory of what clothes need to be tossed/replaced
***school supplies that I haven't already purchased
*** making a "lunch making center" that holds my containers, bento picks, lunchbox notes, fun napkins etc

*** organizing calenders, schedules, carpools and everything else that our family is up too

hanging out during a very hot middle school orientation!

The reason why my blog is called Martha WANNABE is because I wanna be organized, not because I am. This is going to be my year. I can just feel it (: What are you doing to get ready/have done to get ready for the upcoming school year?

A look back...

Today my husband woke up early, showered, grabbed a few snacks and his backpack and he was gone. Off to school. Grad school. Cal State Northridge to be exact.

It has brought back so many memories of the last time he was in school. Life for our family is so much different now than it was then. So, so different.

That time in our lives was when I learned so much about saving money. Unfortunatley, it didn't happen with a lot of speed bumps along the way.

 

Here is a little comparison:

Then (1999-2002 approx)

**3 kids
**3 kids all in diapers
** Ben at school from about 8ish to 5ish
**one car (an old blue mini van) still making payments on it
**Ben had to ride the bus, so that I could have the car
** lived in a variety of housing, including: student family housing, managing an apt. complex and later we moved into a low income housing complex.
** qualified and were recieving: food stamps, WIC, the state health plan, and a stipend every month for our utility bill so that we could run the heat w/o worrying about the cost
**lived off of approx. $1000 a month


My hubby will probably kill me for this one (:

Our family then, with some help from both sets of Grandparents

in front of our low income housing






 

Ben graduated from the University of Oregon in June of 2002. We have lived in a few different places, but our life NOW looks like this...

**5 children (ages ranging from 13--->3
**1 child in diapers (although is almost completely potty trained!)
**Ben's hours have not improved much...
** 2 cars (1 SUV that we bought just 2 years ago, brand new and  a 2006 Ford Focus that is paid for)
**We made the choice to live in military housing, it was brand new and renovated, has parks, a pool, gym and we don't have to pay for utilities (other than our phone/internet/cable etc)
** Qualify for absoutely nothing
** Insurance is through the military,  as well as our life insurance.
**We have a variety of savings accounts, (long term, short term etc)
** while I am not going to share how much my husband makes, I will tell you that it is quite a bit more than $1000 a month (:

Turner family now...

 

 

While things have changed, we still try to keep our heads about us when we make choices. We are not perfect. I have been know to make frequent visits to a store that rhymes with Shmarget. I know we have come a long way and I know that we LEARNED lessons that we wouldn't have learned, had we not had to go through what we did. I like where we are at now...ecspecially not having 3 kids in diapers!

back to school

Every Sunday I go and get my papers off the front porch.

I sit and go through them, taking out all of the ads and coupons. Yes, I lead an exciting life.

This past Sunday as I was looking at the ads, I was shocked to see school supplies already. I mean we just celebrated the 4th of July right?

However, I shared on Facebook how I shocked I was, when people started sharing the dates their kids are heading back. Most were headed back in either July or Aug.

Even though as a homeschooling Mom, I get to decide what my school supplies are, I still want to take advantage while the getting is good!

Staples is the closest office supply store to me. They had a coupon good for $5 off a $30 purchase. They also have an offer, where you can buy a Back to School savings pass. It was $10 and will give you 15% off every purchase from now until mid Sept. While I normally refuse to pay for a discount card, I believe I will make my money back on this one. Here is my breakdown:

Transaction 1:
Back to School Savings pass (this had to be on the first transaction, so I could use it towards my 2nd one!) =$10
2 (4oz) Staples glue =.02
2 (24ct) RoseArt crayons=.02
2 (10ct) packs of Bic pens =.02
Total $10.06
**You had to buy a minimum of $5 in order to get the .01 items**

Transaction 2:
4 HP photo paper (50 ct. each) = 9.99 each (.50 each after rebate)
2 Staples brand reams of paper (500 ct) = $2.99 each (.25 each after rebate)
4 pkgs of Expo Dry Erase markers (4ct)= .50 ea for a total of $2
4 pkgs of mechanical pencils (5 ct) = .50 each for a total of $2
2 pkgs of filler paper= $1.00 each for a total of $2
Total $51.94 (before tax)

I am not sure what he took off first, the 15% off coupon or the $5 off coupon but after those were included it brought my total down to $41.73. The reciept printed out and I am getting a check for  $45.58 back. Yeah, that is a profit baby!! Next up, Office Max. Praying no one else got all my deals today!

teacher gift

I was tearing up listening to her say goodbye to the class.

My son had the MOST amazing teacher this year. AMAZING.

He just got out of school on Friday and I sooo wanted to do something fun but that also showed how much I appreciated all she did this year. Trust me, it was a lot!

I saw and idea to fill a water bottle with Crystal Light packets and attatch a note saying, "thank you for quenching ______'s thirst for knowledge this year." It was cute but I wanted something just a little more. I found my inspiration while walking around Target. It is very easy to do isn't it?

After I had all the items, I had to come up with some sort of note to make sense of everything! You know how some things make sense in your head, but then once you have shared it out loud...it doesn't quite sound right? I do that a lot!

When I shared it wth my daughter (12 )and asked what she thought, she shrugged her shoulder and said, "hmmm, it's not as bad as what others do." Nice.

So here we go... ( I didn't write out the whole thing, sorry!)
" I know it took a lot of ENERGY to have Ivan in your class"= V8 Energy drink

"You deserve to relax in STYLE (People style watch magazine

"while SOAKING up some SUN" (beach towel and some Sun chips)

 "You are SIMPLY the best" (Simply brand lemonade)

"we would CHEWS you again for a teacher" (gum)

" You have QUENCHED Ivan's thirst for knowledge" (water bottle)

"Although every day was not a PICNIC (the basket it came in)

"and some days were full of lemons but you turned them into LEMONADE" (individual lemonade drink packets)

"It was such a TREAT for him to be in your class" (Rie Krispy treats)

"We hope you have a wonderful summer BREAK" (ice breakers)

I grabbed some inexpensive ribbon at Michaels and tied it all over the basket handles.

Ivan wanted to do something just from him so we got a Lego City book (he is a Lego maniac)  to donate to her class and put his picture inside of it. We wrote a little note and he wrote his name with the date.

How about you? Did you do anything for teacher gifts this year? Do you do a gift? Card?

Sigh, this also made me cry as she told Ivan how much she loved him and how proud she was of him.

O.M.Gracious!!

Here is the situation:

Take 1 tired Mom and add in 5 kids = Turner family

Then add a trip out of town= Legoland

Add about a billion activities= church, school events, field trips

Add in a broken laptop = kids in big trouble

Add in a non-working wireless connection= annoyance

Add in a new router  = fight with kids at Best Buy about why I wouldn't buy an X-Box, M&M's or a new movie.

Add in a visit from the cable guy= halleluiah

And that is why I haven't blogged. Whew. Today our wireless is working. My new laptop is never going to be touched by my children. All school events are over in T-2hrs and 3 minutes.


I am going to be taking a nice long nap today and then get my house back. Bring on summer!