Embracing Him

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

At this moment, there are 14 bottles of laundry detergent, 12 one gallon water bottles, 10 jars of pasta sauce, 9 boxes of cake mix, 8 containers of canola/olive/vegetable oil, 8 boxes of pasta, 7 containers of oatmeal, 6 bottles of barbecue sauce, 5 packages of bacon, at least 4 half gallons of ice cream, and about 150 rolls of toilet paper tucked away neatly in our pantry and basement chest freezer. I’m a well organized homemaker who doesn’t like to run out of anything EVER and HATES to pay full price for anything at all!

My stockpiling habit used to leave JT thinking I was battling an obsessive compulsive disorder until he started to see the savings we were enjoying. Each week, I study (and I do mean study) the sales circulars from all our local supermarkets and drugstores. When the things we use go on sale, I stockpile. The savings increase even further because I’m usually able to pull many, many corresponding coupons from my coupon organizer.

This stockpiling philosophy has worked well for us. First, I’m able to make the grocery store sales work to our family’s advantage. A few weeks ago ricotta cheese was on sale, so I purchased several containers. I used the cheese to make stuffed shells for dinner that night and also made enough stuffed shells to keep in the chest freezer. Now I have several ready made meals that just need to be heated in the oven.

Second, our stockpiles allow us to bless others we know who are in need. My mother is recovering from knee surgery and a good friend and her family are going through a rough time. We have been able to provide meals for them both just from our stockpile alone.

If you’ve got the room to do so, I highly recommend stocking up. It’s a great way to keep your pantry full and save a ton of money! If you’d like to learn more about stockpiling, check out this fantastic article: Stockpiling Groceries.

Photo: Courtesy of babaghan

She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. (Proverbs 31:27)

One of the simple pleasures in the lives of Sugar Plum and Sweet Pea is Kandoo Foaming Hand Soap. For them, there’s just something irresistible, intriguing, and fun about foaming soap that squirts from a colorful frog pump. If I let them, they’d pump a sink full of foam each time they were asked to wash their hands!

Though I am thrilled that they are eager to keep their hands germ free, personally I’m sickened by the soap’s nauseating faux fruit scents and neon colors. Consequently, I was quite happy the morning the girls approached the pump only to find that the foam was finished.

I attempted to reintroduce the girls to the regular soap pump but to no avail. This did not satisfy either of them as liquid soap does not foam and simply smells like soap (gasp!) and not like Magic Melon or Jungle Fruits.

Later that day, as I was refilling my Pampered Chef Suds Pump I realized that I could take the directions listed for refilling the Pampered Chef Pump and apply them to girls’ beloved Kandoo soap pump. Since the Kandoo pump was already equipped with the special foaming mechanism, I was nearly certain it would work. I filled the pump one quarter of the way with liquid soap and filled the rest with water. I primed the pump a few times and was excited to see foaming soap emerge!

This soap trick has made us all happy. For Mommy and Daddy, it’s a real money saver. We don’t need to buy expensive new pumps each time the soap runs out and because we’re filling the pump only a quarter of the way, it makes the liquid soap last much, much, much longer. Sugar Plum and Sweet Pea are just as happy because they can still enjoy foaming hand soap.

Photo: Courtesy of cmdrfletcher