Couponing For A Cause

As most of you know, I am no where near being an extrovert. As much as I wish I were at times, for some reason God has created me as a pretty quiet, reserved, individual. Sometimes in a moment of weakness, I wonder why God hasn't created me differently. Surely he knows that if I were a more socialable person I would use that to serve Him and minister to others in more ways than I feel comfortable with now. Since I'm in my twenties, maybe the Lord will slowly transform me in the future into someone that is a bit more outgoing, but for now, one of the best ways that I have found that I can minister to others is through couponing. Yes, you read that right, through couponing.

Ever since I was in college I have used coupons on some level, but until the past couple of years it was only to shave a few dollars here and there off of the weekly grocery bill. Now, I know that there are online forums, such as A Full Cup, and coupon clipping services, such as The Coupon Clippers and Cents Off that allow you to order coupons for pennies apiece. With these services and a little elbow grease, it is not difficult for me to save 25% or more off of the weekly grocery trip. I know I've mentioned couponing to others (who shall remain nameless) and their reply was, "But there aren't many coupons for things that I typically buy." This may be true. Maybe you like to eat as natural of a diet as possible--you avoid products with high fructose corn syrup, prefer organics and shutter at the sight of meats cured with nitrates--or maybe you prefer to use toiletries that are free of parabens, pthalates and other kinds of toxic yuckies. I'm in the same boat you are. However, my favorite way to coupon is to get items for free that I might not otherwise use (toiletries, medications, non-perishable foods,etc.) and donate them to one of the local foodbanks. Sure it costs me a few dollars for the coupons I order and it takes me a little bit of time to match up deals at my favorite stores, but knowing that I can donate several hundreds of dollars worth of products every few months to people who really need them completely outweighs any hassle that couponing might bring. I absolutely love being able to tell Bruce that I have a load (as in a trunk FULL) of items that needs to be taken to the food bank ,and I know he comes home after delivering them with a deep feeling of satisfaction and contentment.

For example, this past weekend, I was able to purchase all of the items shown in this picture for absolutely nothing... zero...nada...zilch!



Includes 3 toothbrushes, 2 small boxes of toothpaste, 2 cans of shaving gel, 2 bottles of contact solution, 9 various-sized packages of pads/liners, 10 small first aid kits, 7 bottles of aspirin, 6 bars of soap, 2 bottles of lotion, 5 packages of antiacids, 6 boxes of cotton swabs 10 packages of bandages AND one stick of deodorant. Whew!

By watching the weekly ad at my local Rite-Aid Pharmacy and keeping track of a few prices at my local target, I can use coupons to buy merchandise that otherwise wouldn't be in our budget to donate to others who truly need them. Without coupons and the like, I estimate that what I bought this weekend would have a retail value of $125. I don't know about you, but these days my family might have a hard time finding $125--aside from our tithing to the church--in our weekly budget to donate to a local shelter, foodbank or other charitable organization every month, much less every week. Granted, this isn't something that I do every weekend. Some weekends we have family come to visit us, we may have yardwork to do or I simply may not feel like couponing (gasp!). My point of this post is that almost everybody, no matter if your household income is $50,000 or $150,000, can easily donate to others who are in need without breaking the bank and that even if you are the most painfully shy person in the world you can still minister to others.

I'm A Winner!!!

First off, I must mention that for those of you who don't know me very well, I NEVER win anything--nothing at raffles, as door prizes, on lottery tickets or the slots. Infact, because I am well aware of this misfortune I rarely partake in a raffle or the like unless I know the profits are going directly to a good cause.

Well, the past week, my favorite cloth diaper shop, Kelly's Closet was generous enough to hold a raffle called Fluffy Fundraiser for Haiti Relief. All of the proceeds are going directly to The American Red Cross-Haiti Fund. The first prize was what they called The Big Fluffy Pak. (Fluff is actually a code word for cloth diapers. For example: I may mention to Bruce that I am expecting some fluffy mail to arrive this week and he wouldn't have a clue what I was referring to, but any of you other cloth-diapering mommas out there would know exactly what I was talking about...hehehe.) Anyway, this 'Big Fluffy Pak' included 12 (yes 12!) cloth diapers (3 each of 4 different brands) that values at nearly $300!!! The second, third, fourth and fifth place winners will each receive a gift certificate to Kelly's Closet for the amount of $100.

So, this evening Bruce and I were watching our West Wing re-runs that we typically watch in the evenings, and I was using Google Reader to check up on several blogs that I like to read. I thought to myself, "I'll check over at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer (which is the blog for Kelly's Closet and all of its sister stores) to see if they've posted the winners of the Fluffy Fundraiser raffle."--not at all thinking that I would even win one of the five prizes they were giving. When I saw the winners names, I nearly. had. a. stroke. My name and order number were next to the Grand Prize Big Fluffy Pak! I nearly screamed with joy, but I quickly remembered my baby is sleeping just down the hallway so instead I stepped out into the garage and called my mother shortly after midnight to wake her up and tell her the good news. (Sorry again about waking you Mom...I knew only you would understand my excitement.) I'm getting 12 brand-new cloth diapers to add to my (Brinley's) stash. Two of the four brands that I am getting I have never tried so I am particularly excited about receiving those.

Well, I hope you all are having a fantastic weekend. I know I am. We've had beautiful, warm, sunny weather and now I have some fluffy mail on the way to me. God is great!

Oh, and just in case you are interested in seeing the blog post on The Cloth Diaper Whisperer concerning the winnings, I'd be glad to share it with you. Simply click on the graphic below:

Yippee For Video

Now that Christmas is over and behind us, I've spent a good chunk of time this weekend at the computer trying to figure out a new way to get videos that I have taken of Brinley and such and upload them to Blogger to share with all of you. For some reason, for the past few months, Blogger has made it difficult for me to upload the videos from my iPhone that I have saved on the laptop and load directly to my blog. So...after doing a little experimination, I am so happy to share with you that I have found a way to upload videos to my blog by uploading them to youTube first, and then embedding the html code of the video on youTube into the html code of the blog entry at Blogger. The only downside is that it seems to take a good half-hour to upload a 2 minute video. At this point though, that doesn't really matter to me...I'm just thankful that I'm able to share video again. It makes me feel like even though we are several hundred miles away from most of you, you are still able to have a glimpse into our home, our lives and our hearts.

With that said, I have either created new posts or added video to existing posts dated 01.13.2010, 12.24.09, and 10.24.09. If you have a few moments, you may want to scroll through the past few months and make sure you haven't missed anything. Until next time...

"O", "Bye" (translation: Hello, Goodbye)

This afternoon while I was in the kitchen starting to get things together for dinner I heard Brinley babbling away. I knew she was sitting at the kitchen table in one of the 'big chairs' but when I turned around and peeked over the bar I never thought I would find her holding the phone upto her right ear jibbering away. Brinley usually isn't much of a babbler so I had to stop what I was doing for a moment and soak it all in. While this all happening, I got the idea to call Bruce at work from my cell phone and tell him to call our landline. He did, and I let Brinley have one phone and I had the other. By this time, she really didn't have much interest in holding the phone but she still did 'talk' to her daddy. Here is a clip of what I caught on video:



Then, later that evening, as Bruce and I were cleaning up after dinner Brinley decided she wanted to sit at the kitchen table in the 'big chair' again. This time, Bruce was able to witness exactly what I had earlier in the day--she started babbling away. If you listen to the video that I've posted below you will hear her say 'o' (hello) and 'bye'. I think she started to get the hang of saying 'o' at the beginning of her 'conversation and 'bye' at the end.