Convention and a Birthday

Last weekend was the FPEA Homeschool Convention and my birthday! I just love convention - being around so many people of like mindedness about raising our children, the sessions, the vendors, the lack of sleep! No, really, I look forward to it every year with anticipation to be re-inspired, re-encouraged and re-juvenated. It is a full and exciting 3 days in my life each year and it always falls around my birthday, so it's like all of Florida is there to have a big party for me! Not really, but you know what I mean! I love spending my birthday there and I usually get to see all of my best friends that day which makes it even more special. Out of nowhere, someone will inevitably run up shouting HAPPY BIRTHDAY and give me a great big hug! I love it! So, here was the weekend:

Thursday was Leader's Day and I learned a lot about co-oping that I can't wait to share with my group. We had a wonderful catered lunch where I met new people, heard about updates on Florida Homeschooling and then a Ladies Tea with a hilarious speaker to keep up from being too serious. She reminded us of a verse in Deuteronomy 8:3 that she shares with her family when they ask for dinner: "The Lord humbled you and allowed you to hunger!!" Thursday night, I spent 4 hours in the vendor hall perusing every type of curriculum you can imagine and left feeling tired yet ready to review my notes, sort through brochures and tackle the rest of the weekend.

Friday was my birthday and the kids and I met up with Mark early after he left work to all go to convention together. I got to spend the whole day with all of them! We went to a lot of sessions that were just incredible. This year, it was so hard to chose which session to go to because so many were good. But, we did our best at picking the right ones and felt like we made good choices for our family. We heard an excellent talk on the power of our words and how we effect our children by what we say and how they can have a positive or negative impact on each other. It could have been a church service! He even used scripture! One of the best sessions I have ever gone to was titled Overcoming Your Goliath's and it was just powerful. We spent more time in the exhibit hall showing the children the things we are considering for next year to feel them out on what will work best. So many decisions to make in such a short time, but we never did make them all! There is always E-bay! Anyway, normally on Friday, my friends and I all go out to dinner (my choice) for my bday and to share what we did that day. Unfortunately, this year, several were unable to be there and we decided to postpone it to include everyone, but Mark and the kids still took me out (Mimi's Cafe - one of my favorites!) and we had a nice evening as a family.

Saturday came way too early, but the girls and I were up and at it early to hear the 9:00 session called "I'm Spread so Thin, You can See Through Me" - can you imagine why I felt like I needed to be in there for that one?? Mark and Caleb decided to hang out together here on Saturday and catch up on some guys time. So, really more of the same on Saturday - lots of sessions and shopping (window shopping!). By late afternoon, we were ready for some well earned rest. And boy did we need it to prepare for Brother Wayne Frances preaching Sunday morning! It was such a great weekend and I am reinspired and full of ideas for the new year. Holly, amazingly, begins High School this year, so we begin a new chapter of our Homeschool Book that I call "DeVore Life!" The journey is exciting if we learn to enjoy each step and not be worried about pushing for the end result. I will leave you with two quotes that inspired me from the Ladies Tea and hopefully they will bless you, too. "Plan like it really matter, because it does. But if plans fail, let it go like it doesn't matter, because in the end, it really doesn't." And... "Work like it all depends on you, but pray like it all depends on God, because it really does!"

BLUEBERRIES!

Tuesday, our family received an awesome opportunity and blessing. A friend of a friend has a blueberry farm and their harvest season was over, with their pickers getting all they needed (I gues??) - I found it hard to believe because there were still so many awesome berries on those bushes. So, we went to the farm and picked blueberries for about 3 hours. The "fruit of our labor" was about 40 pounds of blueberries for my family! YUMMY! And these are the best blueberries that I have ever tasted. So that was the opportunity - the blessing was that we didn't have to pay for them! Their season is over and they are able to prune their bushes - anything still on them will be wasted. It was so hard to leave that day knowing that there were still so many good berries on the bushes that were not going to be able to be used. I wanted to pick them all! HOWEVER, coming home and taking care of our 40 lbs. made me reevaluate that thought! So, we will be making blueberry cobler and blueberry pie and blueberry parfait and blueberry smoothies and blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins... If you have a great blueberry recipe, feel free to share it with us! We have already made some muffins and pancakes as well as just popping them constantly in our mouth! They are sooooo good!!!! MMMMMMMMM, MMMMMM!!!! Am I making you hungry???? HeeHee! Well, if you see us soon and we look a little blue tinted, now you know why! Here's some pictures of our day:

The Boys (Jonathan, Devin, Colin, Caleb and Braden)

The Girls (MaKenna, Priscilla, Megan, Caitlin, Katie, Holly and Amber)

A Few Updates!

Well, I realize that I haven't posted in a while and have some catching up to do, so here are some updates!

*Caleb had a change in his brackets for his braces - a heavier one to get his teeth to move since they are being stubborn! It will be even heavier next time and this one is just a transition. He was only supposed to be in braces for about 6 months and it has now been 9 and we are still not done.

*Mother's Day was wonderful. Holly and MaKenna made me breakfast - one of my favorite muffins (cinnamon ripple, mmmmmmm!!!) and coffee along with cards from all of the kids and tulips - one of my favorite flowers. Here is a funny pic from before church:

*On the 12th, Mark and I celebrated 17 years of our happily ever after! We did nothing special except stay home and be together. We have a date night planned for June!


*We had a very different weekend for our family this past weekend - I had Caleb in Gainesville for a quiz tournament, the girls were in Belleview for their tournament and Mark worked all day. It was odd to be so scattered and not together as we usually are, but we all had a good weekend and lots to share when we got home. I love that we all get so excited to tell about everything that happened while we are apart - it is so special to me to have that kind of open relationship with all of them and I pray that it never ends! After the girl's tournament, Darrick and Manisha treated them to The Cheesecake Factory - without me!!!! =( I am truly thankful for people like them who invest themselves in my children!) These are from lunch:

and one from their tournament. Holly and MaKenna placed first and Holly was the highest scorer and MaKenna the second highest scorer! So far this year, they have memorized the books of Galatians and Ephesians and part of Phillipians!

My Nephew!

I am an aunt again! My "baby" sister Paris and her husband David had a baby yesterday (May 6). His name is James Joseph Mallon, he was 7 lbs .4 oz and he was 20" long. I am so happy for them and pray God's blessings on them and their new little one!

Saving Money

I have been wanting to post this for a while now and life just gets away sometimes, but I have to share this great info with all of you so you can take advantage of it, too! The past couple of months, for many reasons, I have been looking for ways to become more frugal than ever. Whether it was just staying home, planning my errands strategically to not make too many unnecessary trips or just not buying things. In the midst of all of that, I wanted to make better use of coupons to save more money at the grocery store. Being the intense bargain hunter that I am, this became the hunt to end all hunts! In my searching, I came across a website (I am also adding it to my links on the side) about getting the best deals at places like CVS and Walgreens, but with people sharing ideas about stores all over the US. So, here is how it has worked for me. The first time I went to CVS, I didn't really know what I was doing, so I could have probably done it better, but it is working in the long run, so it's OK. I went to the store with the flyer in hand of all their deals for the week along with all the coupons that I had on any deals going. I did not buy anything that I would not normally buy - shampoo, hairspray, gel, body wash, etc. 19 items total. If I had bought them regular price it would have been about 65 dollars in product. With their sales and my coupons, I spent $35. BUT, the best deal is that I also got CVS Extra Care Bucks (ECB's) worth $25 for my next trip. This is where is gets good. The next week, I went back and got:

2 packs of feminine product - on sale 2/10 and a 2.00 coupon
1 Bic Soleil razor - 5.99 and a 2.00 coupon
2 Altoids (for Mark) 2/2
3 loofah sponges 1.99 each
2 tubes of Colgate Total toothpaste 2/2.59
1 Bic Soleil razor refills 5.99 and a 2.00 coupon
1 Johnsons Easy grip soap .99 and a 1.00 coupon

After all of my coupons and using my ECB's from last week, I got all of the above and spent $3.59 out of pocket AND, I got 30 more dollars in ECB's for this week! I can't wait to go back! Now, some people have said, what is the catch? Well, I have invested a lot of time into researching how to get the best deals, where to find coupons, printing coupons from home, and putting it all together. The ECB's don't expire for about a month, so you have time to use them and there is nothing special about what you can or can't use them on. If you go to the site above, she has links like "CVS 101" to help you learn how to get the best deals. By keeping up with her site, I have also found out about great deals at Walmart, Target, Walgreens, etc. I have gotten cans of Organic tomatoes for .16 a can and cereal for .25 a box! I think I may be addicted to saving money! =D I pray that this will bless your family in some way and that you find ways to put the money that you have to the best use and be good stewards of all that God has blessed us with! If you have any great deals come your way, please share them with me! I can't wait to hear how you do!