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Save money on a $1.00 off Armor All Air Freshener! Keep that car smelling great! Find this in the automotive section at your local Walmart.

Well this is our 11th Mother’s Day together and after four kiddos it has gotten better after each one! I love you so much. I hope you have a good and relaxing day (and maybe stay off of A Thrifty Mom website for a day and take a break. You deserve it.

After our first – Matthew I thought we were in for one crazy ride. And we were, not relationship wise, although many times in a hardship of a very sick child, many do not make it. We did and never had any marriage issues.

After Mckeely was born it was so much fun. A cute little girl I could hold that reminded me of you! She was and is so special to both of us. And we realized what having a normal child was like with out having to be flown away to distant hospitals.

Then came Maleeya – and she roared into our life. She made her self known with her screaming and crying – when she wasnt eating. Cutest little thing and she would just look at us, until she realized she was hungry and demanded our attention. And she is still just as loud now as she was then.

Now with Maveric – a strong handsome little guy. He has brought so much laughter to us with his cute smile, and happy personality. Know that he is two he is showing us that he is the man of the house, as he climbs to the tallest shelf in the room, and yells ARRRGGHHHH – MMMMMAAAAAA!

And with each of these cuties you have been the main person to teach them, love them, and wipe their tears. You have taught them right from wrong, Yes ma, no sir. And how to thank others. You are their mother, and have been the best wife and mother to my children as I could of ever hoped for. Thank You so much for being who you are. I love you, Matt

As you know we plated our garden a few weeks ago,  but Idaho weather is crazy so we have had days in the 80′s only to have it hail 2 days later with temps in the 40′s for a day time high.  There is always a gamble in planting your garden early, praying  the frost will stay away and your plants will mature quickly for a early but long harvest in the fall.

Matt has been watching the weather like a hawk to protect his plants, he wanted to cover them last Saturday because the temperature was suppose to get down to 36 degrees.  I assured him that the garden would be fine and not to worry…. well I was WRONG.  All of our squash, watermelon, cucumbers, cantaloupe were hit by the frost and we awoke to many of our plants sad and brown.  Luckily it just got the outer leaves and I think the plants will have a set back, but be ok.

Well last night the temperature was suppose to dip down into the mid 30′s again.  Not wanting to take another chance Matt found every bucket, bin, box, tent, blanket  he could to wrap about his plants to keep the frost off at night.  I had to giggle a little bit when I looked out the window to see his handywork.  I feel like we should be part of a comedy act, You Might Be A RedNeck If….

On the bright side many of our seed are growing well, and we even have some strawberries that should be ready to pick early next week. You can read our full Garden Journey 2012, here.

******

Small Gardens and How to Make the Most of Them FREE Kindle Book (was $25.95)

Many of you know I (Matt) would never pass up the chance to get a Jamba Juice. And to save money on it too! Don’t miss you chance to print this Jamba Juice coupon!

Hint – If you do not have a Jamba Juice in your zip code.. use a zip code that has a store nearest you…

With spring here and summer well on it’s way, many of you may be thinking of planting a garden.  If you do not have space in your yard then you may want to think about a container or pot garden.  BUT if you are on a tight budget  those garden pots can be a little pricey. But with a little imagination, and creative thinking you can turn one mans “trash” into a up-cycled garden.

My Mom wanted to plant her tomatoes in a pot this year.  She is kind of like Mary Poppins with a paint brush, and can turn a drab old worn out vacuum canister into a bright and sunny pot to hold this years tomato plants (or grandchildren).   First she sprayed it yellow with spray paint… then she tole painted a happy little garden and sealed it all with clear coat.

Well that is one vacuum canister that will not be in the dump anytime soon!  So while yard selling, or cleaning out your garage … be creative and see what you can up-cycle and use in your garden! What money saving  garden ideas do you have?

Check out more projects from Ashbees Crafts…. or like them on Facebook.

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We have had fun working in the garden the past 2 weeks… The best part is the kids still think it is fun, and not work at all.  I am keeping my fingers crossed we can keep it that way.  I found a few FREE Ebooks today on gardening that I though you might enjoy if you are planting a garden this year.

You can read our full Garden Journey 2012, here.

The Seasons on Henry’s Farm: A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm FREE Kindle book (was $25)

Grow your own food FREE Kindle Book (was $7.95)

Small Gardens and How to Make the Most of Them FREE Kindle Book (was $25.95)

Well we have been waiting for the April Showers to let up and the ground to dry just enough so we could plant.  Friday was a beautiful day. So we headed out to our local mom and pop nursery - Sweetbrier Nursery on 10th ave in Caldwell. Their plants are always so healthy ( and no I am not paid in anyway for my opinion – we just really like them). They are only open for a few short months in the spring.

Well we had so much fun picking and choosing what we thought would make a fun garden! Little Maveric comedered the cart:

He wouldn’t let go for any reason!

Maleeya loved smelling the flowers!

We planted, then planted some more…

• 80 feet of corn (in 2 rows total) (3 kinds of Sweet corn – Honey & Cream, Peaches & Cream, Bantam Hybrid)
• 2 mounds of Butternut Squash
• 2 mounds of Spaghetti Squash
• 2 mounds of Zucchini
• 2 mounds of yellow Squash
• 6 cucumbers
• 1 Celebrity Tomato
• 1 Beefy Boy Tomato
• 1 La Roma II Tomato
• 1 Sweet 100 cherry Tomato
• 1 Lemon Boy Tomato
• 4 Big Boy Tomato
• 4 La Roma Tomato
• 8 Broccoli
• 15 feet row Spinach
• 7 feet row lettuce
• 7 feet row Swiss Chard (white rib)
• 7 feet Finger Carrots
• 7 feet Rainbow Carrots
• 7 feet row Garden Bean
• 7 feet row Sugar Snap Pea
• 3 okra
• 2 artichoke
• 15 Strawberry
• 6 feet pole bean
• 2 pumpkin
• 2 watermellon
• 2 cantelope

Yep – That’s a ton… at least from someone who used to have to raised beds 4ft by 8ft…. Now that we have a larger yard we have room to try out our skills in a large garden! It should be a fun journey to see what happens in our garden this year!

You can read our full Garden Journey 2012, here.

]]> http://athriftymom.com/we-planted-our-garden/feed/ 4 http://athriftymom.com/hunger-games-trilogy-only-15-but-hurry-prices-can-change/ http://athriftymom.com/hunger-games-trilogy-only-15-but-hurry-prices-can-change/#comments Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:10:36 +0000 A Thrifty Mom http://athriftymom.com/?p=106021

The Hunger Games Trilogy right now is only $15.00

With Amazon pricing it can fluctuate so hurry and get yours.

At this price it makes it only $5 a book! You can read this on your

iPhone, Mac, IPad, Windows phone, Android, and even PC with Amazon Kindle Reading App

Thanks Fabulessly Frugal

DIY Bird Feeder by Tiffany – When I was little and in school we made these easy DIY bird feeders. I thought my kiddos ages 3 and 6 were old enough to make them, so we gave it a go. They did a fantastic job and had so much fun making them. After we hung our bird feeders, we sat patiently and watched to see if the birdies would come, and they did! My three year old daughter thought this was the best project EVER! She was even nice enough to bring more empty rolls of toilet paper, wasn’t that sweet?! Yes, she unrolled several rolls before I knew what she was doing. Little stinker!

Supplies Needed:

• Bird Seed
• Creamy Peanut Butter (challenge yourself with the crunchy ..)
• Empty Toilet Paper Rolls
• String, Ribbon or Twine
• Scissors, for cutting ribbon

1. Put the ribbon through the toilet paper tube and make a knot at the top. (This can be done before or after rolling in peanut butter & bird seed. We’ve done it both ways.)

2. Spread peanut butter all over toilet paper tube.

3. Roll peanut butter covered tube in bird seed.
4. Hang in your favorite tree & watch the birdies come.

Thanks Tiffany – hope your lil cutie pie has fun hanging those!

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Don’t pay the super high prices for a specialty pizza like BBQ Chicken Pizza! This is one of our favorite’s, and it’s so easy. All for just a few bucks. Here is the recipe for my –  Matt’s BBQ Chicken Pizza – mmmm!

Ingredients:

• Mozzarella cheese (read here how to make mozzarella cheese your self)
• Chicken breast – plain is fine, or lightly seasoned (great as left overs)
• Red Onion – depending on size of pizza and desire
• Green onions – mainly for color
• BBQ sauce – your favorite works best
• One pound dough – we buy a pre-made dough from WinCo, it’s right next to the mozzarella blocks
• 1/2 cup corn meal – we use this instead of flour because it gives a good flavor to the dough and many pizza places use it

Directions:

Place a “cooking stone” or cast iron cooking plate, or a large flat non-stick oven safe pan/plate in the oven. Pre heat oven to “as hot as you can get the oven with out turning on the broiler. Yes, as hot as you can get it. Why? Every pizza joint cooks their pizzas quick. Traditional pizza ovens are well over 500-700 degrees! That’s how they cook it so fast! Try it – it works!

Depending on your crust thickness preference, we like ours “hand tossed” or “original”, cut the one pound pizza dough in half, gently place one ball of dough to the side. With the first dough ball, gently roll the ball round, then hold the edge of the ball and allow gravity to help pull the dough ball larger. If you know how to spin the dough in the air, or want to “try” now is your chance. The kids think it is so fun! If you start to feel the dough fight you, and not stretch, lay the dough down on a light sanding of corn meal. Dough and the gluten molecules need time to relax.  While it relaxes prepare the toppings.

Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Cut red onion and green onions into cubes. Grate mozzarella cheese depending on preference. For a one pound dough ball it takes about one pound of cheese – as a reference.

Continue spinning, rolling the dough to desire thickness. Don’t worry about roundness, fancy places have irregular shapes too…

Moderately dust a thin metal or wood sheet or cutting board with corn meal. Place dough on it. Place BBQ sauce in middle and spread with the back of a spoon to thickness. With BBQ sauce you will probably like a thin layer, less then normal pizza sauce. So it doesn’t over power the chicken. Gently sprinkle half of the cheese onto sauce. Doing this helps keep toppings locked onto pizza and you will have less fall off. Then evenly spread chicken, red and green onions, and then sprinkle the rest of the cheese to the edge of the dry dough out side of the sauce area. Remember one pound of dough you will use one pound of cheese. The dough balls I used, originally were one pound, and we have already split them in half. So half pound of dough equals half pound of cheese.

Open the pre-heated oven, at least over 450 degrees, carefully slide the rack holding the hot plate or stone further out. With a spatula, carefully slide the pizza off onto the  hot stone or plate. Carefully slide the rack back in. Close door, and do not go that far away.

You heat the stone first because the incredibly hot stone cooks the dough, while the hot oven air simply melts the cheese.

Carefully watch the pizza cook. It only takes about 4-8 mins depending on how hot you were able to get the oven. Once the cheese melts, the delicious lightly browning of the cheese will change in the blink of an eye!

Carefully pull out the pizza when you see it start to brown on the outside edge of the cheese. use a spatula to slide the pizza from the stone or plate onto the original metal or wood board you used to make the pizza. If you leave on the hot stone it will continue to cook even outside of the oven!

Allow the pizza to cool for a min or two, so that when you cut it the cheese will not melt right back together. Enjoy!

The biggest trend in energy conservation is the advancement of LED lights. They only use a fraction of what a traditional incandescent light bulbs use. Even far better then the florescent lights that many of us use now.  Get this four pack for only $12.98 including shipping!

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And if you go through the portal ShopAtHome then you even get cash back on your purchase!  If this is your

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Well today is the day! We borrowed a RotoTiller from our family and are tearing up a section in the back yard! So finally after an unsuccessful attempt last year, we are giving it a full go this year!

Some simple tips for working in the dirt in your yard.

First map out a good location. Think about the area of the country you live in. Where in your yard is the sun at certain times of day. Find out where the shade is and what you plan on planting. Some like direct full day sun, some like just partial sun. Also plan where you want to plant certain plants, like corn grows tall and it will shade shorter plants, vine plants do well in the tall corn, like water melon, or cantaloupe. Also think about the access you will need to get in between and around the plants to weed it, and pick the veggies or fruit!

We picked the back left side of our yard. Why? Well mainly it was dirt to begin with. Second it is shaded by the hottest late afternoon sun, by a tall walnut tree on the other side of our yard.

BEFORE you dig:

First CALL 811 (nation wide) or visit Call 811.com your call will be forwarded to your local call center and they will schedule your local utility services to mark where the buried cables and gas lines are located at. This process takes about 2 days, so always give your self time to have them come mark the ground before you dig or till.

If you borrowed a Tiller like we did, always check the to make sure you know how to work it properly. If you rent one, make sure you understand the operation as well. In both cases and if you own one, always check the fluids, the gas, the oil, and that everything is clean, and topped off. Check tire pressure, and make sure there are no leaks in the tires. These machines have a lot of torque or pulling power and put a lot of stress on the tires. Make sure the rear protective plate near your feet is well lubricated at the hinges. That way it glides over the dirt with out getting stuck up and have rocks and sticks thrown at your feet from under it.

With the spark plug unplugged, make sure the rotating section under the protective cover is clear of any wound up wires, ropes, or roots. Once cleaned out, reattach the spark plug and get ready for a work out. Also walk through the area where you plan on tilling, and clear out anything you can find on the ground, metal, rope, any thing you can visually see. You don’t want any thing extra spinning around in front of you.

Also if you have weeds or grass in the garden area you want, do NOT spray weed/grass killer down. It will kill not only the weeds and grass, but will remain in the soil and kill off your garden as well! Remove the weeds, and grass if they are large patches with a shovel.

While Operating:

Always where protective shoes. All though its warm out and you have been wanting to wear sandals, you really need to protect your feet and toes from debris and protection from the spinning roto tiller while turning and running it. Eye protection is always a good idea. While you are running it, hang on! You never know when it will fit a rock or a root or something and bounce around on you. Luckily our dirt was nice and soft, and it floated like butter…lol.

It is always good to make a couple passes. Up and down the longest path is easier. As trying to lift and turn the machine is quite clumsy.

On the last pass, I will walk on the side of the machine. I like to leave the dirt nice a fluffed up. When you walk behind the weight of your foot print compresses the soil. So I walk on the edge where I plan on tilling next. So there you go. Your garden bed is ready!

Some options depending on your soil: You can take a sample of the dirt to your local nursery or garden store and some will take readings from it. Doing this you can add additives like fertilizer or manure to it to make the soil the best it can be.

Stay tuned weekly as we design rows, paths, weed barrier, planting, and even more through out the summer.

I’m not expert or even a green thumb. I’m just a guy who likes to play in the dirt…lol-  So garden at your own risk lol

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• Log in or sign up with ShopAtHome.com (its FREE)
• Click the SHOP NOW button
• It will take you to the 1Sale-A-Day page in a new window
•  Click the tab on the top to see deals
• Within 30 days your ShopAtHome.com account will be credited 1%,
• If this is your first purchase you will also get a $5 credit to your account.
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Instagram is now on Android phones as well as the iPhones! This is one of the most popular apps in the iPhone market. And after a long awaited time, it is now Free on the Android phones as well! This photo app is one of the best. In some of the blog conferences we have gone to, there have been all day classes just for this app!

So no longer will, us the Android phone users, feel left out of a quality app! Get your free Instagram app now:

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For those who haven’t heard about this fun app – it is a combination of sharing photos, liking friends photos, and following others. You can take photos with the Instagram App, or upload previously saved photos to your album. You can edit, and add effects and so much to each of your photos! Get it now and find your friends, make friends, and enjoy beautiful and fun photos!

So the other day I was sitting on the couch working on my laptop, when my youngest daughter, Maleeya, jumped up and went to get a snack. She ran back in with a bag of carrots, some ranch, and a plate. She was giggling with excitement.  She loves her veggies. In fact our oldest son Matthew loves his broccoli and his brussel sprouts, and his absolute favorite is any kind of salad. Mckeely, our oldest daughter loves broccoli, and our Chicken with Mandarin Orange Salad the other night, she proclaimed was in her top 3 favorite meals.

So how do you get your kids to love eating their vegetables? Maybe we are just blessed to have veggie loving kids, but in the post I will lay out some of my thoughts on how to accomplish a veggie loving family.

First – at a young age we start our babies on pureed or smashed “real food”. We have never been the family to stock up on canned baby food. Mainly because a while ago we did a “Fear Factor” family reunion and used baby food as the event. Have you ever tasted that stuff? Yuck! If an adult wont eat it, why should we put our kids through that. So if we have chicken, potatoes and broccoli for dinner, then that is what the baby will get. Just in smaller portions, and if they are too young then we hold the protein. It’s a wonder what a small blender or a good smashing with a fork can do!

Second – we always have a lot of veggies laying around the house. A large bowl of fruit and veggies – even flowing on to the surrounding counter. Our fridge is stocked with it. Every shelf! Bountiful Baskets helps with the surplus of healthy food in our house.  If it is laying around in reach of the little ones, they will choose it over something out of sight and hard to reach.

Third – Push it early. Don’t wait till you think they need it, or old enough to chew it. Find ways to give it to them early. Pureed as said above, juice it, and most of all eat it your self. If you don’t like it find new ways to make it, that do taste good. Some times the additional extras added to the vegetable side dish might in its self be less healthy, but if you can sneak more healthy food onto their fork then in the long run it is better for them. A little sugar, or bacon added to a dish goes a long way to make it taste better. Check out our Recipe posting for some great tips!

Fourth – Two bite challenge – When ever our kids think they do not like something we challenge them. They know they have to eat two bites. One bite they can sneak around and not eat enough of the side dish to actually get the full flavor. So two bites, gives them a higher chance to experience the full flavor. Any time our kids say they don’t like the dish, before the two bite challenge, about 80% of the time they realize they actually do like it and end up eating every bite.  Just the other day at Sarah’s family get together, a few of the cousins said they didn’t like a dressing Sarah made for the Sweet Shredded Pulled Pork Taco’s she made. Their parents didn’t encourage them to try it, so we challenged them to the two bite challenge! Out of the three that said they didn’t like it in the beginning - Two actually liked it in the end!

The movie event of the decade is about to take place this summer! The Avengers! It is a combination of four different movies.

• Captain America
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man
• Thor

With new hero’s:

• Hawkeye
• Black Widow

The group Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate, or other wise know by S.H.I.E.L.D, brings together the universes best hero’s to defeat the evil Loki and his follower’s.

This is every kid’s dream – either little kid’s or big. I can not wait to see this movie. After watching all of the other Marvel Comic movies, in preparation for this, The Avengers is going to be the biggest hit in movie history!