Peek Into my Frigidaire Freezer

We've been happy to be a Test Drive Family for the new Frigidaire refrigerator the last couple months. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I love being able to have crushed ice at the push of a button! I thought you might like a peek into our freezer today!

The front panel shows me that it keeps a steady temperature of -2 degrees Fahrenheit, which is good because it keeps our boxes and boxes of Popsicles nice and frozen!

This is the top of the freezer. In the top drawer shelf is our collection of ice packs. Whenever a kid around here gets a bump, they get an ice pack. It saves on Tylenol and makes everyone feel better. Yes, even the green turtle is an ice pack -- he has a gel pack built into his tummy.

Above the ice maker you can see another ice pack - but this one is for the cooler - a bunch of ripe bananas that I'll make into banana bread as soon as it's not 117 degrees outside, a container of expensive sorbet that I bought on impulse, and a Hot Pocket.

Moving down the freezer -- you can see that there are plenty of shelves! The door shelf below the ice/water dispenser folds out for easy access. I have a shake drink, an extra pound of butter, and an lemon ice cup in that shelf. Below, there are 2 cans of apple juice and another ice pack. And, finally, Lydia's leftover smoothie.

It's hard to see, but those 2 shelves below the icemaker? Popsicles, Popsicles, Popsicles, more Popsicles, cherry ice cups, ice cream bars and frozen chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I have 2 entire shelves dedicated to frozen treats.

The next 2 shelves are actually drawers that pull out so that it's easy to see what's hiding. I have a couple bags of frozen vegetables, frozen chicken nuggets, homemade spaghetti sauce, and 3 bags of frozen fruit.

As you can see, there is plenty of room for my family of 5 and our freezer needs! There is plenty of room for more, but I do have a 2nd upright freezer in my laundry room where I freeze meats, more vegetables and I think even another box or two of Popsicles. (I buy them on sale.) Since I try to buy in bulk when I find good prices, it's useful to have a second freezer.

Have you visited the Frigidaire site lately? Don't forget to head on over and enter the Daily Dare for a chance to win new appliances!

Friday

It's 1:30AM Friday morning. I went to the grocery store at 10:30 PM so that we'd have milk when the kids woke up (and so I could go without the kids.) I didn't have a very good plan, though, so I will likely be back at the store on Saturday -- but I do have enough to get us through tomorrow.

I'm done teaching for the week, and I don't have a new class to prep for (until next Thursday.) I have a couple writing assignments in the hopper, but no pressing deadlines.

So, tomorrow, (I mean today -- you know, but I'll go to bed soon and then when I get up again) I'm going to enjoy my kids. We're going to have a leisurely breakfast and I will throw in a load of laundry. We'll head out to the library and Colin will fill his bag with books and Nate will seek out audiobooks. Lydia will run around like a crazy child and try to remove all the books from the shelves. After the library, we'll run through the bank and the kids will get lollipops from the teller.

We'll come home and play a little Wii. For lunch, I'll make boxed mac & cheese because it's my oldest son's favorite food (and has been since he first started eating.) I'll do some more laundry.

I will read aloud from Mossflower, because we haven't made enough time for read alouds lately and Nate told me he missed that.

I may check my email, but maybe not. Part of the reason I stayed up so late was to finish up my monthly invoices and get them sent off. A day away from the computer sounds nice right now.

I will make a phone call to make plane reservations for a trip I've been offered at the end of August. And, I'll call a friend to check on her sick toddler. But, other than that, the phone calls can go to voicemail.

When the sun is low in the sky, we'll don our swimsuits and head out to our pool. I'll make up a pitcher of lemonade, fill the ice bucket, and we'll swim the late afternoon away.

When my husband comes home, we'll enjoy pizza for dinner and maybe a movie with the kids. And, after they're in bed, we'll enjoy an adult movie.

August looks like a crazy busy month. So, on this last day of July -- I'm taking it easy!

Tell Me Thursday - Jane

Yesterday I posted this picture of my sister and my daughter for Wordless Wednesday. Those two are thick as thieves. Lydia's middle name is Jane -- and yes, she absolutely was named after my sister.

My sweet sister, who I can always count on to help me, to make me laugh, to be my friend. My sister and I may be 11 years apart in age, but that has never stopped us from being close. In addition to being a great sister, she's a fantastic aunt.

My kids adore her, and my daughter especially will ignore all others in favor of being held, carried, sitting next to her aunt. Even I'm 2nd fiddle when Aunt Bunny is around.

She's the Queen of Distraction, and is able to distract temper tantrums and meltdowns with amazing finesse. Lydia is always looking for the monkeys lurking around in the grocery store, thanks to her aunt.

Her bright smile and easy laughter make her a jewel. I'm grateful every day that she chose to move across the country and settled close to me and my family. There's so much I couldn't do without her help -- including simple things such as grocery shopping some weeks! She supports me in my decisions, and doesn't second-guess or judge the things I do (at least if she does she doesn't tell me! LOL)

I still remember the day she was born, and how excited I was to be a big sister. She's my friend, and my sister, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Did you play Wordless Wednesday yesterday? Don't forget to play Tell Me Thursday today and tell your story!

Wordless Wednesday - Jane

Review: PUR Filter (and GIVEAWAY!)

A while back, I blogged that we have 5 gallon jugs of water delivered to the house because my husband won't drink tap water (with good reason! he got sick when Milwaukee's water supply was contaminated in the 90's and has been leery ever since.)

A lovely PR person for PUR came across that post and contacted me wondering if I'd like to try out the PUR Water Pitcher with LED Indicator. I received it 2 months ago and have been using it steadily ever since. I was prompted to write this review tonight because the blinking red light on the pitcher let me know that the filter needs to be replaced. I'm extremely happy that the filter lasted almost 2 months -- considering that we filled it at least once a day, sometimes more.

The filter gets rid of tons of things -- including nasty cryptospridium. I often threw in a few lemon slices or cucumber slices to flavor the water, and we easily drank a pitcher a day. In our family of 5, we could use a bigger pitcher -- and I see that they do make a larger size (PUR 2-Stage Water Dispenser)

The pitcher we've used holds 55 ounces of filtered water. Each time I re-filled the pitcher, I pressed the small light on the top. When it was green, I knew the filter was still effective -- as soon as it turned red I knew it was time to replace the filter. I really liked this feature, as I could see myself forgetting how long a filter had been used, and not replacing it for months.

The filters run around $20 for 3, which should last my family about 6 months. That is definitely less than the cost of bottled water delivery!

The taste of the water was fresh and crisp. Our tap water doesn't taste bad - but it does have a funny taste most of the time. I didn't notice any funny taste after it was filtered through the pitcher.

My husband was willing to drink it, which meant that our water delivery bill went down in the last 2 months. He did still drink from the large jugs, but was okay with our kids drinking from the PUR filtered water, and would drink from it himself sometimes.

PUR wants to send one of my readers a PUR pitcher to try for themselves! Leave a comment on this post and tell me how much water you try to drink in a day! Comments will be accepted until the end of the day on Sunday, August 2, 2009.

Money Saving Monday #20

Saturday, we visited a local museum and had a lovely day. On the way home, a truck drove by us on the freeway and started pointing at the front of our van. Bo got off at the next exit, and we found one of our front tires quickly going flat.

He filled it with air, but the damage was such that it wouldn't hold air so he had to put the spare tire on. (as an aside -- I'm so glad he was driving when this happened and not me!) Nate was excited because he got to help his dad change the tire.

We took a trip to Wal-Mart, because we had purchased our tires there last, and had the road hazard warranty.

The road hazard warranty is $10/tire and covers road hazards and flats. Wal-Mart will pro-rate the cost of the tire based on remaining tread -- if the damage is not to the sidewall of the tire and is covered under their rules. They will also repair a flat at no charge, if the flat can be repaired.

It turned out that they applied $22 towards the cost of a new tire for the damaged tire and we replaced 2 more tires in addition as long as we were there. The question was -- is the road hazard warranty worth it?

Last time we also purchased 3 tires (no, I'm not exactly sure why we seem to replace 3 at a time -- the van does have 4 tires) and we opted for the road hazard warranty. It cost $30 for the three tires, and we got $22 back.

That doesn't seem worth it, does it? We've almost always purchased the road hazard warranty -- but the last time it didn't apply at all because of side wall damage. We decided to refuse it this time and saved $30. Even if we do have a flat -- the cost of repair is $9.50. That's less than the road hazard warranty! This warranty hasn't been a money-saving offer for us.

A New Bed

A few months before we married, Bo & I bought a new mattress and a suite of bedroom furniture. It wasn't fancy, but we did splurge on the more expensive mattress. We bought a bed frame, a dresser and an armoire of sturdy pine. And a mattress that I was afraid to lay on at first because I didn't want to like it because of what it cost.

As so often happens, my dear husband encouraged me. I laid down and knew that we had to spend the extra money for that mattress.

That was more than 12 years ago. We began our married life in that bed. We conceived all our babies in that bed (sorry if that's TMI). My water broke in November 2000 in that bed. I practically lived in that bed nursing my oldest the first few months after his birth. I went into labor in May of 2002 in that bed -- 4 weeks early. And nursed and co-slept with another babe. I grieved my miscarriage in that bed. And spent the last few weeks on bedrest in April 2009 in that bed before Lydia joined our family. And, once again, I spent many many hours nursing a new babe in that bed.

12 wonderful years of secrets and love and sleep and nursing and tv-watching and snuggling. 12 wonderful years of expectations and new beginnings.

And, last Friday, that mattress headed out my door for donation. A brand new, soft, luxurious, king-sized bed took its place. I hold the memories in my heart, but that bed represented the last 12 years of my life in many ways. I was sad to see it go.

Until I sank into the soft comfort of our new bed. And knew that I was ready for another decade of expectations and new beginnings.

Winners for iTunes!

The winners for this drawing have been drawn!

Thanks to random.org for helping me choose the winning comments. (#7, 13, 21)

How do you know if you won? You'll get an email from me asking for your address.

Thanks to all who entered! Watch my blog next week for another giveaway (something for the kitchen this time.)

Small Successes (Vol 26)

Over at Faith & Family Live, Danielle encourages moms to share three small successes they've enjoyed during the week. It's wonderful to click through and read about the successes of so many moms!

Here are mine for the week:

1. I sent out an email and reached out to the responses for my request for cleaning help. Having help with this task will make other things go much more smoothly, I know (from past experiences!)
2. I made spaghetti sauce in bulk - and froze enough for 4 more meals!
3. I had dinners planned for the 3 days I worked full-time out of the house.

What are your successes for the week? I'd love to read about them, so please post!

Kiwi Magazine

Have you seen Kiwi magazine? I bought a copy at Barnes & Noble 2 years ago and have had a subscription ever since. It's full of healthy, smart, fun articles for families. If you haven't checked it out, you should!

And, I'm not just saying that because they gave my blog a shout-out this week! I pay full-price for exactly one magazine subscription right now -- and it's Kiwi. Lots of fun stuff at their website and on their blog, too!