Full House

Alex and Sarah are both home for a long weekend, as their respective colleges are out for fall break. Bekah, my "adopted" daughter ( Sarah's good friend, whose parents live overseas ) is also here, so we have a full house! The washing machine has been going non-stop since last night, and we've gone through a bag of tortilla chips, 2 gallons of milk, 1 gallon of chocolate ice cream, and a bag of peanut butter chips. I love it!

Fortunately, Lowes Foods ran triple coupons from Wednesday thru today, and I've made 3 trips to the store, with 20 coupons each time ( the limit ). That enabled me to stock up on a few things, although the store was already low or out of several items by the time I got there at 8:00 AM Wednesday morning. I'm trying to be more consistent with my couponing. Some weeks I just don't have time to clip and sort, and then I get behind ~ but it is a great way to save on the grocery bill. The secret is to save your coupons for when an item is on sale ~ then you maximize your savings. Also, if you are blessed like we are to have grocery stores that regularly offer double coupons ( take off double the value of each coupon ) then you can really do well with coupons. When I started using coupons about a year and a half ago, I signed up for The Grocery Game, an online service that tells you which coupons to use at your local store(s) each week for the best buys. Now I am on a yahoogroup for NC called Smartspending, where people share info about deals at the various grocery stores each week. If you don't live in NC, there is also a national Smartspending group.

Jason had another x-ray of his broken arm on Monday. The doctor said it looked fine, but he re-cast the arm because he felt the first cast was too loose. So now Jason is working on filling the new one with signatures. He has to go back in 3 weeks for the next x-ray, and the doctors will decide then whether he can have the cast taken off. It really hasn't slowed him down at all. Yesterday when I went to pick him up from Nathan's house, I arrived just in time to see him getting tackled in a backyard football game with his 2 friends.

The weekend is pretty full. Mark is coaching boys varsity and girls middle school practices tomorrow morning. Then Jason has a soccer game. Sarah and her friends are trying to persuade Alex to go with them to the NC State Fair tomorrow afternoon. The Fair starts today, and we generally take a day off and go every year as a family. But the college kids have to squeeze in their day at the Fair while they can ~ I refuse to battle the weekend crowds!
Tomorrow night we are going to Ken's Korny Corn Maze, in Garner, with several other Lighthouse families. Then Sunday is a day of rest - I HOPE!

We have been studying the books of Exodus and Leviticus these past couple of weeks in our ancient history studies. God was pretty serious about the Sabbath, and I'm getting convicted that we are not honoring that commandment very well, just by going to church and taking a nap. Sunday ( or the Sabbath ) is supposed to be a day set aside, a day to recover and reconnect and rejuvenate, a day to set aside the normal hustle and bustle of our busy lives, a day to focus on family and relationships and fellowship with God and with one another. I don't think I am doing that very well.