Faith and the Grocery Store App

After weeks of not being able to attend church service, we finally made it this morning, and oh how wonderful it was – I was just asking God to draw me in somehow, to pull me closer to Him. I had that longing, that thirst, and this morning during praise and worship, tears of joy and thankfulness flowed as we sang. Phew, it was kind of a great experience for me. I seriously am so thankful for everything in my life right now – every thing that has led me to this place. And there’s something about worshipping God in a large group every now and then. I can listen to Christian radio every day, and I love it, but singing those same songs in a group setting, you can just feel the Spirit of God in those times.




Shifting gears to the awesome app I loaded to my iPhone this morning. Wes has been asking me for weeks to do something to keep inventory on our food. See, I have about 25 different salad dressings, marinades, sauces, etc in our fridge. I have a condiment problem. I just never know what we have, so when I see something at the store, I buy it and then come home to find out we already have it. Enter the Tap Grocer app. You can enter every staple item into the app, and then there’s a button that says “Stocked” or “Out”. If you select “Out” it automatically adds it to your grocery list, which is a part of the App. And you can categorize just like you do your normal grocery list. So my categories are produce, meat, health and beauty, groceries, canned goods, dairy, household, frozen foods, and beverages. This is the order I do my typical grocery list also. Then you just add the items that you like to keep at home. So for example, under dairy, I have eggs, milk, sour cream, yogurt, creamer, and cheese. So today will be my first trip to the store using this app. I hope it begins to save me money and helps me to stick to my list and only buy things we need. I will say one of my other problems lately is just buying snacks and stuff for the kids to eat, because they don’t always eat what we eat. So chicken nuggets, hot dogs, spaghetti-os and those kinds of things are also always on my list, and those kinds of foods can get expensive. If any of you have suggestions for how you save money, especially when buying for little ones, I’d love to hear them!!

Sweet.Baby.Boy

I’m inspired by MckMama today to give you an update on our “little” 16 month old, and 25 pounder, Henry. What a handsome little lover he is. There is something about little boys, everyone told me this. Well they were right. He is so cuddly when he wants to be, and this Mama loves it. He is also rough, and can pull hair, bite and hit like no other. But mostly, he is a lover.


He talks up a storm. Truly he does. Now we can’t understand every word he says, but a lot of them. His new favorite phrase is “Bye-bye Daddy”. Except he says it to everyone, not just Daddy. He loves Elmo. He loves my iPhone. He loves watching Elmo on my iPhone. He loves loves loves his sister. Like when he wakes up and she’s still sleeping, he is looking upstairs for her and saying “Abbie” over and over. He likes to try to put his shoes on. He loves to be outside. He points out to the porch and says “Yesh!!” Every time he sees water he says "Turtle". He loves Brandy. He eats a ton, and he is the reason we are seriously considering a membership to a wholesale warehouse. He likes balls, cars, and is a flirt too. If I walk out of the room, he is yelling “Mammy, Mammy” and chasing me around the house. He loves to be carried around, and I can honestly say my arms are in better shape now than they’ve been in a long time.



So thank you Henry, for making my arms look better, but much more importantly, for bringing us lots of smiles and being the sweetest brown-eyed little boy I know. MOM

I HEART Hilton Head Island

I really, really do. When we found out last week that our trip to Key West was not going to happen because of Hurricane Isaac, I was bummed. But then my MIL found us a place in Hilton Head instead. And I was so so happy. Even more excited to go there than the Keys. Turns out our trip did not disappoint. This was our fourth time there, and my favorite by far. The kids had a blast, which can be proved by their little tans, blisters on their toes from the pool, and sand in every crevice of their bodies. There were hardly any bathes taken, teeth brushed, or bed times enforced, but it was fabulous. We even got to see our cousins who happened to be there the same time as us. We biked, played golf, spent tons of time at the pool, went to the beach, ate crab legs. If you haven’t been there, I highly recommend it. It’s a great place for families, golfers, beach lovers, seafood eaters, etc. I can’t say enough good things about it. I might even want to retire there one day : )