Melissa’s Place

The internet has opened up a whole new world of educational tools and ways of communicating with friends and family all over the world. It doesn’t take long until useful technology is used in ways that can cause harm to our families and the internet is no exception. Even if you don’t go looking for objectionable material it comes up, recently my husband and I were watching historical videos on youtube and accidentally stumbled on a video with content that was objectionable. Now we have a three year old who can navigate around the internet on her own playing educational games and watching videos. Sometimes when she’s on the computer I’m doing house work and I don’t want her to stumble on a website that may show violence or pornography. Even if you shut a pornographic site down as soon as it comes up those websites can often leave serious viruses on your computer.

Two days ago I received Safe Eyes™, a parental control software from internetsafety.com. The software was very quick to install and you can set up different levels of control for each family member. The product is $49.95 a year. For me it is well worth the price. My favourite feature is that it blocks videos with inappropriate content from youtube, facebook, emails and anywhere else you might view videos online. You can also ban website categories and keywords.Even limit each persons internet time including your own - now that can be a useful tool for a lot of people!

You can use a subscription for up to 3 computers, laptops or iphones. To learn more about how this software can protect your family read this internet safety top 10 list.

If you would like to try this product before buying it here is a link for a 15 day free trial.

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Yesterday was a crazy busy day for us. I went grocery shopping, back home for lunch and really short naps for the girls. Then I went to a financial aid meeting to discuss Rebekah’s hospital bills, then back home because I left the address for the Canada Day Party hosts at home. Then I took Sariah and Rebekah to get a much needed haircut at place by BYU that charges only $5 on Wednesdays. Then we picked JJ up at school. He still had half an hour of work left so the kids ran up and down the halls for 30 minutes while we waited.

When we got to the party everyone else was leaving. The time was changed to 5 instead of 7 but I never got the message because they tried calling our old number. Anyways there was plenty of food left and we had a great time with the hosts. I went to church with the family in British Columbia and I babysat for their kids often - now their daughters are old enough to babysit my girls!

As usual Rebekah ate a ton, even stealing some of Sariah’s food when she wasn’t looking. It was so funny because when Sariah saw Rebekah holding the corn on the cob she took from Sariah’s plate Rebekah gave the corn to Sariah and said “I found your corn”. I think Rebekah has my mom’s side of the family’s genes it’s not going to matter how much she eats and how little she exercises she will probably always be skinny - she definitely won’t be one of those girls who worries about what the best diet pill is.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures. I left my camera at our friends house! Having to pick the camera up will be a good excuse to see them again!

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After 6 months of planning to buy new kitchen cabinets and counter top we finally went to Ikea yesterday to buy them since the prices are going up tomorrow. The best part is that after buying our new kitchen we still have $200 left over in our “stuff for the house” budget! JJ wants a drill so he can “feel like a man” and I could think a whole bunch of other things to buy at ikea a couple things I want to buy is this wire basket for dish cloths and a rail for towels to dry our hands. I’ll wait until we finish the kitchen so I know where to put them.

One of the things I really like about Ikea is that they have a lot of great products for small spaces. The only thing they need is affordable exercise equipment for small spaces. The Kettlebell looks like it would be be a great tool for strenght training exerciese but I’ve never been good with those ‘work out infront of the TV’ exercises. Right now I walk with the kids to the playground almost everyday but I’m needing something for the winter months.

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This is going to be a great week - I only had to plan meals for 4 days!

Monday: Eat out at Ikea when we go to buy our new kitchen cabinets!

Tuesday: Chicken Salad and potatoes

Wednesday: Canada Day!!! We are going to a BBQ with some Canadian friends. I’m going to bring cherries.

Thursday: Sweet Potato Spinach Cassarole

Friday: Stirfry - brown rice with pinapples, celery, carrots, garlic, onions with sweet and sour sauce.

Saturday: 4th of July and we are going to spend it with my brother in law and his wife. We still have to figure out what we’re going to bring.

Sunday: Tortilla wraps with black beans, tomatoes, cheese, onions

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When I recieved 2 packages of Bella Sara Royalty trading cards in the mail my first thought was that my 9 year old sister who loves horses would love these cards so I thought I would open the packages to review the contents but my 3 year old and almost 2 year old saw them and wanted to play a game with them. So the two of them have been playing games I don’t understand with the cards ever since.

If your children are old enough to understand rules here are several games your children might enjoy playing with the Bella Sara Cards.  There are also online Bella Sara games. Each package of cards comes with codes that can be used to obtain items for your magical online world. The Bella Sara website has recently added new elements such as jigsaw puzzles and printable activities.

There are also tattoos and stickers in each package. My daughters did not like me putting the tattos on them but like all children they loved the stickers.

The Bella Sara Royalty is the 9th series of the Bella Sara brand which are the most popular trading cards for girls. Each package retails for $2.99 they can be purchased online or in stores such as Target.

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Yesterday I went to Walgreens and today I went to Albertsons, Sunflower Market and Buy Lows. I was annoyed this morning about forgetting to use a $3 off coupon at Albertsons but I’m over it now - I told myself that couponing is supposed to be fun not stressful!

Here is what I bought:

Walgreens

Lysol all purpose cleaner, Lysol mold and mildew cleaner, Speed Stick Xtra dry, Aquafresh toothpaste, 6 pk pediasure (I sent in a mail-in rebate to get the $9.99 back I spent on this! I have another mail in rebate so if you live in my area let me know if you want it!)

Retails at: $28.29
Sales - $6.27
Coupons - $10.50
Total spent: $11.52 (when I receive the cheque for $9.99 I will put that back into my grocery budget!)

Albertsons

2 Airwick i-motion starter kits (this is where I only used one of my coupons and not the other!), Miracle Whip, 4 6 pks of light and fit yougurt, 1 4pk of activia yogurt, deep dish pizzas (JJ’s lunch today) and french bread pizzas.

Retails at: $55.80
Sales - $26.20
Coupons - $20.50
Total spent: $9.10
After completing a survey about my shopping experience today I will get a code for $2 off my next shopping order!

Sunflower Market

2 Pineapples, 2 garlic cloves, 3.5 lbs of boneless chicken breast.

Retails: $16.78
Sales - $9.19
Total Spent: $7.59

Buy Low’s

10 pk flour tortillas, 10 pk wheat pita, 2 lbs carrots, 4.38 lbs pink lady apples, 2 lbs Oranges, 2.67 lbs plums, 8 oz mushrooms, Wheat bread, french bread.

Total spent: $8.48

Grocery budget left for the month - $41.73

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Each Mother’s day and Father’s day I like to have a picture for the special day so we can see how much our little family changes each year.

I woke up at 6:30 on Sunday to make waffles and scrambled eggs (with minced green onions, cheese and tomatoes).  And we also gave JJ his gift of M&M’s and Chef Boyardee Pasta - he has all of them at school for when he gets hungry.

After that we of course went to church where they gave all the dad’s chocolate bars.

I made a southern dinner for him of green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and BBQ chicken. And for dessert I made carrot cake with cream cheese icing. So he was well fed on his special day!

JJ is a wonderful daddy, he teaches the kids to be polite and they love to dance and play games with him.

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Here is what we have planned for dinner this week. Feel free to click on the links for some of my recipes!

Monday - Sweet N’ Sour Stirfry - Brown rice with chicken, celery, onion, carrots and pineapples with homemade sweet and sour sauce.

Tuesday - Crockpot Soup - lentils, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, celery, carrots, onions with homemade bread.

Wednesday - Spaghetti with tossed green salad and french bread.

Thursday - burritios with black beans and onions fried with taco seasoning. Topped with lettuce, tomatoes and chesses. Wrapped in whole wheat tortillas.

Friday - Homemade Pizza - I’ll think of the toppings on friday

Saturday - Potato Salad with baked chicken.

Sunday - JJ will be making his famous vegetarian chili.

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