Dog Days of Summer

We're having a blast here in the McCormick house! Summer and the GA heat are in full swing. We spend most of our time these days playing on our new playset that Chad and his dad built for M and C, thanks to Nana and Papa.

M and C basically live in their swimsuits everyday. The playset gets the morning and early afternoon sun, so they are exposed all day. We keep the kiddie pool and play table full of water to splash around. They are so accustomed to putting sunscreen on, that yesterday M told me, "Now, don't forget to put me some sunscreen on, ok?" They both are tanning despite the cover up. Oh well. Playing outside makes the day go by fast. M has been playing with our neighbor next door. I joke and say he's only using her for her playset, but actually they played together before. Now, they just play more at our house. She really enjoys his company and C tries to keep up with them.

M and C have no fear with the playset. They climb up the slide and hang like monkeys all over it. We got C a baby swing and taught M to walk back toward the house to avoid getting pile-driven, but she forgot and got whacked in the face with C going full speed. Just her pride was hurt. She's been doing great about swinging like a big girl. She's learning how to pump her legs to go faster. Today I was pushing her and the slippery dress she had on caused her to slip off. More than pride was hurt this time. She smacked the hard, hard ground and slide a little too. The right side of her face is a little scratched up. I hope it doesn't bruise. :( Needless to say, that was the end of our outdoors play this afternoon.

Miss Priss is still butting heads with me in the behavior department. Love and Logic isn't going as well as I had hoped. I'm not giving up though, because there are several things that are working. Naptime is a breeze, potty-training is done, and choices work best for ALL situations. Our problem is her relationship with C and following directions the FIRST time she's asked!!!

Although, they are really starting to play together and enjoy each other's company. I know siblings fight over the smallest thing and do things to drive each other crazy. Can anyone offer any advice for me on how to handle that? They're nearly 3 and 1 1/2. I have a LONG road ahead of me if it is already driving me crazy!!

This sweet, sweet boy turned 15 months old Sunday. Time keeps on ticking and moving so fast! (Side note, M will be 3 in September! WOW!!) He had his checkup with his wonderful pediatrician. I love her and wish she were my doctor! LOL His weight was 21 and a half pounds. He's still in the 10-25%. Height was 31 inches, 25-50%, but she said it was closer to 50%. He's meeting all of his milestones and looks perfect! He's been a sponge lately. I was trying to count the number of words he says, and I stopped at 22. Marlee didn't have half that number at this age. I guess listening to M and I talk all day is rubbing off on him. I've always tried really hard to not use "baby talk" with either of my kids. I don't talk to them like an adult or anything, but I think hearing correctly spoken words from the get-go pays off. If you don't believe me, call me and ask to speak to Marlee. She'll talk your ear off. LOL

Someone learned to take their dirty diaper off and needed a quick rinse in the sink! He's become so aware of his surroundings lately. He and M chatter the WHOLE time we're in the car, unless the kids' music CD is on. Then we're all quiet as M sings along with every song, singing every word she hears. I totally think she has a future in entertainment, especially music.

C watches cars out the window and names them all truck or school bus. School bus is by far his favorite word right now. Most big trucks we see, he calls a school bus. He distinguishes between hot and cold when he's eating and follows directions pretty well. He also has a very good memory like M. I don't think they forget anything.

Oddly enough, he doesn't like meat very much, including chicken. I don't cook a lot of beef or pork because Chad doesn't like either of them and also because of my gallbladder issues. So, chicken or ground turkey tends to be our meaty meals. He loves peanut butter and honey sandwiches and scrambled eggs, so I'm not too worried about his protein. He most favorite thing to eat is cheese! He goes running to the fridge and points and says cheese. He also loves yogurt, as does M. Fresh fruit and some veggies make up most of our meals these days.

Enough rambling for today. We hope you all are enjoying these Dog Days of Summer!

Link Away

I came across these websites and thought they might be useful and interesting to read.

Organic Grocery Shopping on a Budget

Organic Tips

Organic Meat and Poultry

Should and Shouldn't Buy Organic

Neat Blogger Mom

Nature Loving Mom

Wordless Wednesday

Success

Here's the picture of my organic grocery trip for this week. I felt it was a successful one at that! I shopped exclusively at Publix this week. They seemed to have more on sale that matched up with my coupons.

The biggest scores in my opinion were the Nature's Own Whole Wheat Bread. It was BOGO and to top it off the organic was included! I got 2 loaves of organic bread for $3.49. Also, I had a coupon for Ragu pasta sauce, which was BOGO, but the organic wasn't on sale, but I did save $0.50 a jar. So I paid $2.79 each.

M and C eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches just about everyday for lunch and we eat "Ants on a Log" (peanut butter and raisins on celery) a lot for snack during the week. So we can put down some PB. Skippy Natural was on sale for $1.89 each and I had a 40 cent coupon that was doubled. I got 4 jars at $1.69 each!

The organic strawberries were on sale 2/5. They were sold out of Mott's Organic, but I got the natural BOGO. Kashi had granola 2/5. I saved $2 on the squash and zucchini and 40 cents on the recycled paper towels. I also saved $1.50 on the Organic Valley milk and $2.43 on the Green Wise Organic Chicken Breasts. Oh, Publix had their Kettle Chips on sale 2/5 (last week Kroger had the 2/6 and I saw Whole Foods had them on sale 2/7).

So the only things organic that I bought that weren't on sale were the cookies, apples, C's whole milk, M's organic chocolate milk and the ground chuck.

My total spent this week was around $72, and I saved around $20. I was very pleased with this week's trip!

Show Us Where You Live Friday~ Bathrooms

Welcome to another edition of Show Us Where You Live Friday. I didn't participate last week because our office is in our bedroom and nothing fancy, but I did enjoy looking at other rooms. This week over at Kelly's Korner she's showcasing bathrooms. I love (almost) all of our bathrooms.

MasterBath:

I love our master bathroom! It is so spacious and roomy. We got our inspiration from Color Splash on HGTV. They did a bathroom with similar colors. We already had the walls painted but had wainscoting along the bottom. We stripped that and painted the rest. Chad built out the frames over the mirror and we painted them chocolate. We had bought new lights, but the glass piece won't fit with the frame on. So we still have the lovely Hollywood lights. At least they warm me up in the winter! HA HA

The rug is from Kohl's. The other rugs pull out the tan in the big rug. I'm thinking to changing them to chocolate to match the cabinets. What do you think?
The iron piece over the tub was a wedding gift as well as the candles. The left of the shower is the toilet. I'll spare you pictures of it. Looks like any other. Looking into the bathroom from the bedroom. The green iron shelf was a hand me down. The small table clock, frame, and towels were all wedding gifts. The 8x10 picture is my favorite of M at 9 months. On the bottom are pictures of my parents and me at the beach several years ago. Then behind the mirror is our nice-sized and messy master closet. The color of the walls is Rosemary by Valspar at Lowe's, and the cabinets are Dark Fig. We had a color on before that was a little more grey in tones called Ocean, also from Lowe's.

Kid's Bath/Guest Bath:
I showed this when I showed their rooms but decided to show them again for giggles!


This is the same fixture we bought for the master, and it matches the one in the downstairs bath, too.



Downstairs Bath:
Luckily our guest bath downstairs is also a full bath. It is right off of the kids' playroom. This is the same color as the kids' bath and is in the family of the rest of the colors in the house.


Looking into the bath. Not crazy about the white curtain and rugs, but I don't want anything really loud, so white seemed to work. The only problem is it is right off the garage too. So the white toilet rug gets washed frequently. Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little Late, but There's Still Time

Do you like to shop at Walgreen's? Here's a $5 off coupon with a purchase of $25 or more. You can use it in store and online. I just checked my email and saw it. I thought I would share with you savvy shoppers out there! It is for today and tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday

Before you ask, No, I have no idea what she's doing in this picture!

Grocery Shopping~Organic Style

Well here are the costs of my organic grocery shopping. The first picture is my trip to Publix. This was all that I bought there. It is cheaper to get the Greenwise Whole Milk for Cooper than it is to buy 2 1/2 gallons of other brands. M only drinks chocolate milk and Publix carries the Organic Valley Low Fat version. They were 2/$7, plus I had a 1 dollar off coupon and was able to get some milk for myself and Marlee to eat in our cereal and pancakes. The Amy's brand of frozen products are pretty good, and the pizza was on sale 2/$10. The celery and carrots were also on sale at a $1.99 each.
I spent $27.17 and saved $4.47. I know not a lot of savings, but it puts me well of my way.


Here are my organic purchases from Kroger's. The Private Selection Organic Eggs were cheaper than Eggland's Best at $3.69. The Kettle "Natural" Chips were 2/$6. I had a 50 cent coupon for the yogurt, so I paid $3.49 for it. The whole wheat pasta was on sale for $2 a box, plus I had an online $1 off coupon, so I bought 2 boxes. We like to eat pasta. The sauce was also on sale for $1 off @ $4.49. One of the blogs I read talks alot about rolled oats and steel cut oats being better than instant oatmeal. We eat oatmeal for breakfast at least once a week, so I bought a bag of rolled oats. I chose them over the steel cut oats because there was more for a lower price.

Side note, although Arnold Mill bread isn't organic, the 100% Whole Wheat bread is BOGO this week at Kroger. We eat sandwiches everyday, so that is a bargain for me!

So how did I fare in the pocketbook? Well, I spent $33.94 on these organic groceries and saved $5.25.


It's hard for me to take the kids to the local farmer's market during the day, so I plan on making my first trip there this Saturday. I hope to score lots of good fruits and veggies because I looked at the squash, cucumbers, apples, grapes, and blueberries at the grocery stores and about fell out on the floor. ONE organic squash was $1.97! YEAH RIGHT!!!!

I wish I had done this earlier

I first got turned onto this idea when I babysat 2 wonderful children several years ago. Then when I got pregnant with Marlee I dabbled a little. And did the same when she got older. I tried to better at it when I was pregnant with Cooper.

Now that I have time to really focus on this, I am eager to get started. Although, it does take more money and probably more time. I say there's no time like the present!

So do have you any idea what I'm talking about? Well I want to Go Green and Eat (more) Organic.

I've been buying organic eggs and milk for a long time, but now I really want to use as much as I can in what we eat daily. I want to do it more for M and C than anything. The problem is the price tag associated with buying organic.

So I am going to spend the next month or so shopping around and comparing prices at different stores. I will be shopping at Publix, Kroger, Target, and Whole Foods. I am going to try and buy the same things at each store so I can see who has the cheaper prices. I think P, K, and T all have store brand organic items. Now, I know Whole Foods is expensive, but if you go to their website, they have a weekly Sale Flyer for some savings.

I don't know too much outside of the big name brands, but I am willing to learn. We're already turned onto fresh fruits and veggies, so I am going to take advantage of local farmers who grow organic. Their low prices should help offset the higher store bought items.

This past week I've been on a coupon craze search for organic coupons. There are not as many out there as regular food, but I feel like I am off to a good start. I thought I would share the links I've found with you if you're interested in them too.

Horizon's Milk ~ http://www.horizonorganic.com/
Earth's Best Organic ~ http://www.earthsbest.com/promos/index.php
Organic Valley ~ http://www.organicvalley.coop/coupons/
Stonyfield Farm ~ http://www.stonyfield.com/coupons/new_coupon3.cfm

Here's the link for Harry's Whole Foods. See if there is one close to you.

And of course, check your weekly flyers for items on sale.

Want to know where local farmers are in your area? Click here to find them. You can also use this list of websites for living organic ideas.

I'm going to start phasing out household cleaning items and upgrading our light bulbs for a greener living. I go a lot of ideas from this post about the cleaning products and am going to try my hand at homemade laundry detergent too.

Chad is onboard for this whole process. He's also willing to try these recipes at least once. And if you know Chad or have heard me talk about his tastebuds, then you know this is a HUGE step for him! HA HA

Do you have any ideas to share? Tips for me as I shop?

Wordless Wednesday

Yummy Donuts!