Bath and Body Works Deal today!

I got to experience 2 of my favorite things today: Shopping at Bath and Body Works and getting an awesome deal!! 


Bath and Body Works had a 4 hour sale to day from 1pm-5pm. I am lucky enough to live 5 blocks from a mall that has a B&BW store in the mall. I was also lucky to have a $10 Gift Card that I earned from online survey taking. The 4hr Fragrance Event deal was Get a FREE Tote* and Full-Size Country Chic Body Lotion w/ any full size Signature Collection Purchase! The location I went to was allowing customers to purchase any sized Signature Collection item. I purchased 3oz bottle of Carried Away body splash for $5. I also purchased a foldable reusable tote for $3 and my son picked out a Pocket Sized Anti-Bac Hand Sanitizer for $1.50. The cashier rang up the tote bag and then deducted the cost from the receipt. My total came to $10.41. I used the $10 GC and then paid .41¢ out of my pocket for everything, including the free tote and Full Size bottle New scent: Country Chic. The total value of all the merchandise is $26! Awesome deal!!


The Country Chic is totally something I would wear and intend on buying some more. My favorite scent always has been Cucumber Melon. I would always get a couple bottles in my stocking every year growing up and I still buy it! 


Pics of my "goodies": 

Joshua, who will be 9 next month, went with me today. He found the men's section and came out smelling very "manly". He even requested a couple of things for his birthday! I know I will make that happen for him! 


I will also get a few of my favorites for summer time. We will be getting our tax refund soon and I usually treat myself to B&BW at Tax Time! 

Bath and Body Works Deal today!

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First "Park Day" of 2011

Woohoo!! We had a beautiful day here in Chicago, although a bit cloudy, the weather was warm enough for a Park Day. We love Park Days and we took full advantage of the 66° weather today!

We began our day by starting to cook about 10lbs of Corn Beef. I make a Corn Beef and Cabbage dinner every year for our family and one for my dad. Harlin did most of the work, while the boys and I did some computer stuff. Both dinners were ready by 1pm. We got everything packaged up. Covered our dinner up and put it in the microwave, so it will stay warm. We headed out to my dad's, who lives near Sox Park. The boys helped my dad with a few small chores at his apartment(took out the garbage, filled the fridge with bottled water and cans of pop, and emptied his money canister in their money jug). We left there around 2:15pm. Came back out to our area and headed to our favorite park, Proksa Park! It was starting to really get cloudy and chilly, but it was still a good day for the park.

Here are some pics from our day:

I actually ran into a friend of mine from High School while at the Park. We only got to chat for a few minutes, but it was cool! My boys were playing with her son!

We let the boys play for an hour and then we headed to the library so I can pick up a couple of books on hold. We got home around 4pm and our dinner was still piping hot!

I am very glad we took advantage of this warm weather because it might the only one for a week or 2. The forecast is calling for rain, snow and cold starting tomorrow.

Looking forward to many more Park Days this Spring and Summer!

First "Park Day" of 2011

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Simple Womans Daybook

Outside my window...  Beautiful Sun Shine and warmer temps! We are going to have a high in the mid 50's today! Tomorrow will be warm and sunny with temps in the high 60's!! YEAH for Spring!

I am thinking...  about the Corn Beef and Cabbage Dinner we will be having tonight at Church dinner! LOVE Corn Beef and Cabbage! 

I am thankful for... being able to do Focus Groups and Taste Tests. It really does help the family budget!

I am wearing... PJ pants and PJ shirt! Going to get ready for the day soon! 

I am remembering... how much I enjoy spring! Looking forward to spending time outside tomorrow!

I am creating...  Some new budget plans, especially for our Tax Refund.

I am going... to church for Mid-Week Activities.

I am reading.... lots of great library books(see right sidebar). Tomorrow is Library Day. I will have to be quick making my list, as it was supposed to be next Tuesday, but we now have other plans for all day Tuesday! I love reading blogs also. 

I am hoping... that our tax refund will be deposited in the next week or so.

On my mind... Hubby's employment. He was fired from his job of 5 months last week due to a training issue. The lack of training on the employers part and they admit it. 

From the learning rooms... Doing our regular studies this week!

Noticing that...  The temps are getting warmer and I hope they stay that way! 

Pondering these words... 

Proverbs 16:3

Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.

I know that my plans are not always God's plan. By committing "my plans" to the Lord he will work out every detail much better then I can. 

From the kitchen...  Here is our Menu Plan for 3/13-3/19

Around the house... Spring Cleaning this week and next. I am cleaning cabinets, closets and all! 

One of my favorite things~ 

I earned a $100 GC for Sears by doing a 3 day online discussion and purchased this coffee pot and Hot water system a month ago. It has quickly become my favorite small appliance. I don't drink coffee, but I love Hot Tea and Hot Cocoa. The Hot Water Reservoir part keeps 56oz of water hot all day long. No more Tea kettle on the stove and no more having to reheat water each time I want tea!! LOVE IT!!

A few plans for the rest of the week:  Today we have Mid-Week Activities at church. Tomorrow is Library Day. Hoping to get out and about to the parks over the weekend, if the weather is nice. 

A picture to share:

A slideshow from Banana Bread Baking Day on Monday!

Are you a blogger? Go on over to the  Simple Woman's Daybook and join the blogging and read what others are doing!

Simple Womans Daybook

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Works for Me Wednesday

I really love Dollar Tree, especially in the Spring when they are stocking all their spring and summer items. We went to Dollar Tree last week and I found something that I had to buy.

We use lots of paper plates in our household for breakfast and lunch, we don't have a dishwasher in our apartment. A couple years ago I had purchased some Straw Paper Plate holders from Wal-Mart. They were OK, but they get dirty, get stuck on clothes, and tear very easily. We ended up throwing them out last summer. We have been "doubling up" on plates since then. I did not like doing this as it "doubles" the expense of paper plates because then we run out twice as fast.

I found some really nice Paper Plate Holders last week at Dollar Tree. They are made of hard, durable plastic, are washable and come in variety of colors. I purchased 3 packs, each pack has 4 holders. I bought the boys "Colors", as we color code things for the boys since they are so close in age.

Here are the pics:

We have been using these daily since Friday and we really like them! It cost me $3 for a total of 12 holders. I am going to go back very soon and get a few more packs. I will save the other packs for summer time picnics and camping. I have learned with Dollar Tree: If you see something you like, buy it in multiples as it might be gone for good the next time you go!!

These Paper Plate Holders WORK for ME!!

For more great hints and tips visit Kristen over at We are THAT Family.

Works for Me Wednesday

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Banana Bread Baking Day

I love Banana Bread and so do my boys. I found an awesome deal on very ripe bananas late last week. A local grocer had single bananas 10/$1. I purchased 20 very ripe bananas just for baking and 15 bananas for eating.

I wanted to try several different recipes since I had so bananas, so I went to some of my favorite recipe sites and found some recipes. I found 4 different recipes and I added them to my  SpringPad  account, so I could access them from my smartphone.

I began yesterday afternoon around 12:30pm with mashing all 20 bananas.  The first recipe I decided to use was for 2 loaves of Banana bread. I made one the loaves plain and to the other I added in Chocolate Chips.

The second recipe we made was for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. Our family loves muffins, so I thought this would be something different and tasty for us! I doubled the Muffin recipe so we can get 24 muffins out of it. I really went "different" with the 3rd recipe which was Banana Pineapple Bread. Let me just say on this one:  "Don't knock it until you try it", "You will be pleasantly surprised". By now it was dinner time and I really wanted to just be done, so I used the 4th recipe BEST Banana Bread or Muffins.  This recipe  rendered us 3 full sized loaves and 6 mini loaves. It was just regular banana bread.

Pics from our baking day:

We tried "samples" from all the recipes and all of them were hits!!  The Banana Pineapple Bread I was not sure about when I read the recipe, but it had rave reviews. The reviews were spot on! It is delish!! The Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are outstanding! Both recipes for regular banana bread are awesome also!!

I don't have a chest freezer YET, so we shared some with my dad and some with a lady from church. We are freezing a couple loaves for us and the rest are going to go to our church for their Food Ministry they have. The Food Ministry provides meals for families in need: Illness, new baby, Grieving and more. I will put them in the freezer at church and they can add them to the meals as a snack bread!

Banana Bread Baking day was a very inexpensive day considering the "haul" we had at the end. The bananas were $2 and I have all the rest of the ingredients on hand. I buy our flour in bulk at Sam's Club for $7 for 25lbs. I am sure the total cost for all the ingredients I used was not more then $15!! That is about .30¢ a piece for what we ended up with! LOVE IT!!

I had so much fun baking banana bread, that I hope to do it again very soon! We will be getting a small chest freezer when we get our tax refund and I can't wait to begin stocking our freezer with goodies!

Banana Bread Baking Day

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Menu Plan Monday

I am so looking forward to Thursday. I am not Irish, but I do cook a Corn Beef and Cabbage Dinner. My boys and I love, love, love Corn Beef and Cabbage. I also cook an entire Corn Beef and Cabbage Dinner for my dad. I will be going grocery shopping later today for all of our weekly groceries, including all the fixings for Thursdays dinner.

Here is our menu plan for this week:
(The words on the document in blue are clickable recipe links)

Weekly Menu Plan 3/13-3/19

For more great recipes and menu plans visit: Organizing Junkie. 

Menu Plan Monday

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The Best $7 I EVER spent!!!

I was a little sad earlier this evening, when I discovered something of mine has a "boo-boo".  My hamper that I have had for 20yrs and is still going strong and sturdy, has a small "crack" on the lid.

I purchased this hamper back in '91 when I was working at Venture Store(it was like a Target or Wal-Mart) It is a Rubbermaid hamper and I only paid $7 for it! It has survived many moves and has been my own hamper for 20yrs! I was folding laundry tonight and noticed a crack on the lid and was pretty shocked!

It is still usable and I hope that the lid doesn't continue to break! I will continue to use it until the main part of the hamper breaks, but that is still going strong! I have purchased other Rubbermaid hampers since this one and those are still holding up and we are still using those, but this one has lasted 20yrs and is like a "part of the family".  LOL!! LOL!!  It is not often that a "plastic" product holds up this long and I am so glad that it has! This has been the best $7 I have EVER spent!!!

The Best $7 I EVER spent!!!

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