A little over a year ago one of my neighbors visited our home to take a look at our newly finished basement. She was pregnant with her first child, while we were well established with our three boys. And our basement well reflected our status as parents of several young children. There were toys and books everywhere, and you could tell by the look on her face that she was flabbergasted by our mess. The reason I recognized the look so well was that I used to wear it quite frequently before I had children of my own.

 Before I had children…I swore my house would be neat. We would only have a few toys, age appropriate of course. The boxes would be neatly stored and my kids would play quietly at the table. They would never fuss and we would be in tune with one another. I would never turn on the TV and my children would speak a second language, fluently, by age 5.

Then reality hit. Family members gave the boys tons of toys, often things I would never have dreamed of. And I loved to buy them those little trinkets that would put smiles on their sweet little faces. How could I deny them? When my oldest was diagnosed with autism I realized learning Spanish or Chinese was going to take a backseat to just learning to talk. Every time our therapist suggested a toy or object to help him progress I was the first in line to find it. Our collection of “things” just grew and grew. After baby number 3, I was just happy if the bathrooms were OK for visitors and the boys had on clean clothes. Making sure we made it to therapy was much more important than keeping a straight house. I didn’t worry so much about keeping the toys in their boxes or the books on their shelves, although sometimes I regret the chaos. Teaching a child to hold a conversation just seemed so much more important than keeping his toys neat.

 A few months ago I stopped by my neighbor’s house. Her daughter is a year old now. She made a few apologies for the mess, then turned to me and said, “I don’t know how you do it with 3 boys!” I’m pretty sure that look will not cross her face again anytime soon, even though she swore her house would never look like this.

A product was received for review. I was not paid in any form of cash for this posting. The opinions expressed are my own and were NOT influenced in any way.

Do you ever think you're not a typical female? I do but that's because I don't like shopping. I think I can actually say I detest shopping. It's not the act of spending money that bothers me because I can spend it with the best of them, I don't like going to a mall, fighting the crowds and walking from one end to the other just to get to that ONE store that has what I want. I much prefer strip malls where you park, go in one store then get back in your car and drive to the next. No crowds to push your way through, no food courts beckoning me, no 1/2 off sale signs to lure me in. Just one store for my one purchase and I'm on my way home.


 I wasn't always this way. When I was younger I would often marathon shop and I loved it. Get to the mall when it opened and not leave until it closed. I'd even eat my meals there, all 3 of them. My days off were spent at the mall. Any get together with friends would be spent at the mall and living in Chicago I had many to choose from. My favorites though were the ones with Nordstrom and Bloomingdales.

 I often wonder if my dislike of crowds is why I jumped a the chance to relocate to a small town in the southeast. Our town is so small we have one store and it's a mini mart attached to the towns only gas station. Yes, we're that small but the good part is we live 2 miles from a bigger town and 6 miles from the mall which I've only been to 4 times in 9 years and I usually parked outside JC Penny, run in and back out. Would that be called "stealth shopping?" I also find that shopping online can be convenient, it’s another way for me to avoid the crowds. It can be a lot cheaper and the great thing is when you find a deal that you like which includes free shipping, meaning no added costs.

Of course I can always go Windows Shopping. (Get it, PC, Windows...oh forget it, that sounded funnier in my head). 

"I love our house" is a phrase one of both of use says at least once a week.   It's true, we both love our house. Don't get me wrong, there are things we could do that would make it the perfect but even without any changes or improvements we still "love our house".

Right after we moved in we both said we'd like to take the kitchen window out and replace it with French doors or sliders to the back yard. Right now the back door is through the garage and having an exit to the back from inside the house would be so much easier with the dogs. Then we play the "if we had the money" or "if we win the lottery" game. You know the one where you can buy all your wishes and dreams. First off we'd add on to the house all across the back so there would be a family room off the kitchen with doors leading outside from there. Of course that would only take half the addition, the other half would allow us to enlarge the master bedroom and bath. Of course that type of home improvement takes money and a LOT of it.


In thinking about what we could do on a much smaller and economical scale I moved my thoughts to the outside. The buzz word when watching those house hunting shows is curb appeal and landscaping and I love flowers so a garden would be perfect. I can see me now sitting on a bench, surrounded by beautiful flower beds and landscaping. Maybe a small pond with some Koi swimming in and out of water plants or a dry creek bed with a little foot bridge. The only problem with that vision, we live in the south where it's extremely hot in the summer and the ground is very dry. I'm not the type of person to stand out and water a garden or even move a sprinkler around not to mention the amount of water it would take and the cost. That's when it hit me, I could make a water sprinkler or drip irrigation system. Both don't seem that hard to do and the materials are easy on the pocketbook.


The first thing I'd need to do is buy PVC pipe. I just love PVC, it's lightweight, easy to work with, easy to drill holes and it can be bent with just a little bit of heating. Another plus, it's not subject to corrosion and rusting. I'd also have to buy some schedule 40 fittings. These are great for connecting the pipe at angles, of course a few T shaped fittings would allow me to have several rows of the sprinkler or irrigation system. The last thing I'd need are butterfly valves. These I'd use to shut off the water to certain areas of the garden since some plants need more water than others.



The best thing about this project, I'm positive it's something I could tackle myself and complete in an afternoon. The garden, that's a different story as I'm sure it would take me a little longer to convince Don to dig up the yard and plant the flowers. What? You didn't think I'd get my hands dirty did you?

Yesterday I told you about a discount voucher site for the UK. Since I'm in the U.S. I feel we need equal billing and I love this site. Coupon Codes USA.

At Coupon Codes USA you can find codes and discounts for your favorite stores like The Gap, Boot Barn (just to name a few). You can even get codes for discount glasses and outlet stores. How's that for savings, a discount for a discount store. I love it.

For those that are addicted to shopping or have any other problems counseling. Well, in looking over the site they seemed to have experts on a variety of topics such as health, spirituality, business and of course counseling. I just love the internet.

What's even better than saving money when shopping? Saving money on travel and vacations. I saw discount codes for air travel, car rentals and hotels/resorts. How about a code for $50 off a room or a free room upgrade? Why wasn't this around when I was young, single and traveled a few times a year. I know, because that was in the "Olden Days" before the internet or at least before home PC's were popular.

 How I'd use Coupon Codes USA

I go to one website Coupon Codes USA and I can get a deal on counseling to set up my business so I can make more money. Then I can get a discount on a great vacation and THEN go shopping using discounts to purchase a new wardrobe for that vacation.  

How's this for a vacation destination?