The winners are:

Andrea Austin – Oaklands Historic House Museum (Good for 2 tour passes plus tea and cakes)

Tami Patterson Blair – BounceU in Murfreesboro (Good for 5 Bounce passes)

April Greene – Maple Hill Sports Center – (Good for 1 Unlimited All-Day Mini Golf, Aeroball, and Batting cage rounds for 2 people)

Shelley Spence – Maple Hill Sports Center – (Good for 1 Unlimited All-Day Mini Golf, Aeroball, and Batting cage rounds for 2 people)

Please feel free to email me @ ladyofthebarn@gmail.com, so that I can get these passes to you.

Not sure how many of you noticed my new page on my site, but if not here is the link – Roundabout Murfreesboro. My page is about all the things you can do with your family this summer in our city and surrounding areas. If you are not from Murfreesboro, then I have a great Link Up for you. This Link Up is for all of us that are not taking a vacation, but are staying at home this summer. Savvy families all over the country are entering the Era of Staycations! Staycations are mini vacations in or close to the area you live. Many cities have plenty of attractions that are free or inexpensive and center around family fun. Although, you can look at it as more than that, it can be used for homeschooling field trips, a list of what to do for when out of town family visits, and most posts are about things that can be done this winter when cabin fever sets in. Listed below are a great many other bloggers that participated in the Staycation Link Up. There are over 75 other cities to choose from.

~if you are from the Murfreesboro area check out my link, Roundabout Murfreesboro and enter the giveaway for 4 local attractions.

The Staycation Link Up 2011

New England

Connecticut – Parenting Miracles
Boston, Massachusetts – ‎ Maven of Savin’
Manchester, New Hampshire – Common Sense with Money
Western Maine – Bubblegum and Lollipops

Mid-Atlantic

Erie, Pennsylvania – Growing Kids Ministry
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – Somewhat Crunchy
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Family Balance Sheet
Buffalo/Niagara Falls, New York – Coupons, Deals and More
New Jersey – Oh! Diane

Midwest

Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Indoor Garden Musings
Mansfield, Ohio – Live the Adventure
Cincinnati, Ohio – Savings Lifestyle~Cincinnati
Mount Vernon, Ohio – Living Better One Day at a Time
Dayton, Ohio – Savings Lifestyle~Dayton
Grand Rapids, Michigan – Kitchen Stewardship
Metro Detroit, Michigan – “Cents”able Momma
Oakland County, Michigan – Bargain Shopper Mom
Warren, Michigan – Saving Dollars and Sense
Grand Forks, North Dakota – Frugal Front Porch
Indianapolis, Indiana – Bargain Briana
South Bend, Indiana – Excuse The Mess
Kansas City, Kansas/Missouri – Kansas City Mamas
St. Louis, Missouri – The Pickledpigsfeet
Branson, Missouri – Getting Freedom from Debt
Springfield, Missouri – I Think I Can
Rochester, Minnesota – Everyday Notions
York, Nebraska – Heavenly Homemakers
Omaha, Nebraska – Mom Endeavours
Madison, Wisconsin – Many Little Blessings
Oshkosh, Wisconsin – A Little Bit of This and That
Chicago, Illinois – Chicagoland Homeschool Network
Champaign, Illinois – Chambanamoms
Black Hills, South Dakota – Little House on the Prairie Living

South Central

Checotah, Oklahoma – Blessed With One Income
Tulsa, Oklahoma – Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures
Gadsden, Alabama – Aint Mimi
Dallas, Texas – Funky Faith Girl
Dallas, Texas – Grocery Shop For FREE
East Dallas, Texas – Surviving The Stores
Fort Worth, Texas – Smockity Frocks
Austin, Texas – Stetted
Houston, Texas – Moms Travel Tales
McKinney, Texas – Wisdom Begun
East Texas – The Full Pantry
Murfreesboro, Tennessee – Life in a Barn
Nashville, Tennessee – The Country Chic Cottage
Mobile, Alabama – A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
Birmingham, Alabama – iGoBOGO
Brunswick & the Golden Isles, Georgia – Teri Lynne Underwood
Alpharetta, Georgia – Cuponeando
Atlanta, Georgia – See Jamie Blog
Augusta, Georgia – Hyperactive Lu
Athens, Georgia and Mississippi – Tractors and Tire Swings
Little Rock, Arkansas – It’s Real Life

South Atlantic

Brunswick & the Golden Isles, Georgia, Teri Lynne Underwood
Ft. Bragg, North Carolina – Military Wives Saving
Charlotte, North Carolina – The Carolina Clipper
Charleston, South Carolina – The Tween & Me
Greensboro, North Carolina – Mrs. Happy Homemaker
Jacksonville, Florida – Saving The Family Money
Adventurez In Child Rearing
Orlando, Florida – Orlando’s Best Deals
Virginia Beach, Virginia – The Singley Fam Blog
Richmond, Virginia – Daily Dwelling
Hampton Roads, Virginia – A Home Made by Kiki
Charlottesville, Virginia – How to Have it All
Blackwater Falls State Park/Davis, West Virginia – Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling
Treasure Coast, Florida – The Cardamom’s Pod
Saint Augustine, Florida – Jypsie Visions
Lake Norman, North Carolina – Stretching Pennies Saving Dollars
Washington, DC – The WiC Project
Baltimore, Maryland – The Happy Housewife

Mountain

Tucson, Arizona – Saving with Pam
Phoenix, Arizona – Sara Wellensiek
Albuquerque, New Mexico – The Chou Life
Kalispell, Montana – Our Family Adventures
Salt Lake City, Utah – Just the 2 of Us
Thermopolis, Wyoming – The McDonald Family
Denver, Colorado – Denver Bargains
Colorado Springs, Colorado – Colorado Springs Bargains

Pacific

San Diego, California – Life As Mom
Yosemite National Park, California -Handbook of Nature Study
Seattle, Washington – Queen Bee Coupons & Savings
Whidbey Island, Washington – Manning the Homefront
Olympia, Washington The Coupon Savant
Portland, Oregon – Frugal Living NW
Willamette Valley, Oregon – An Oregon Cottage

Frugal Vacation Tips

Vacation or Stay-cation: Eating without Busting the Budget – Eat at Home

How much water do you drink a day? I figured up the other day that between nursing a baby, possible kidney failure, and the normal how much everyone needs to drink at my age and size, that I need somewhere around 120 ounces a day. Dang tooting, that is a lot of water! Well, for me anyway. So, to get that much water into my day I thought I would have a certain cup that I kept with me all day and when I finished drinking it I would refill it as the day went on and stop when I had drank the 120 ounces that I needed. Well, that didn’t work for me, because either I would forget to refill or a baby would cry, you know whatever. So, Geek Adonis had this great idea of having ever how many water bottles it would take to get me to 120 ounces a day and fill the them up first thing in the morning and then drink them as the day went on. This works very well for me. It is almost like a checklist. I line them all up in a row on the kitchen table in the morning and know that the last one needs to be empty before I go to bed each night. Now, granted there have been a few times that at 4pm., I still have 3 bottles left to drink.

So, along with drinking this water I decided to try out a few different kinds of bottles.

Here are the three different types I tried. Just in case you are looking for a new water bottle just like I did, I thought I would give my opinion on each one of these.

While in the past, I have always loved Nalgene bottles, especially for their toughness, I honestly dislike this one the most. I have in the past used their big mouth screw on lid bottles for when I go hiking, but for at home and for the ease of it, I decided to try this version bottle. The green circle on the lid is the push button and while it opens easily, it does not close easily and it makes me feel like I am going to break it each time I try to close it.

I have never tried Aladdin bottles before, so I gave it a try. I neither love nor hate it. It works I suppose. The flip top is a tight fit which is good, so it does not open easy or close easy like a push button, but when I say does not open easy, I suppose it is no harder than say opening a refrigerator door.

This one is my absolute favorite! I love the design work on it, it is not just any other bottle, plus it opens and closes like a charm. Oh, and it keeps my water cooler longer than the other two. So, five stars to THERMOS & Threadless for coming together and making one awesome bottle. (as I was editing this post, I realized that I didn’t give you a good shot of the artwork on the bottle, hmm may have to rectify that when the kids are not screaming for my attention)

All of them are dishwasher safe and leakproof!

I am in no way getting paid for this post (although,that would be super cool), I just thought some other water drinkers out there might benefit from my experiences before they run out to there local Target (which is where I bought all of mine) and buy a few water bottles.

Have you ever had lime build up on your dishes in your dishwasher? At first I thought the dishes were just not getting clean or that the dishwasher was throwing grime and remnants back up onto the dishes. So, I went online and searched for how to clean my dishwasher. There were so many different methods, but I ended up trying a vinegar rinse cycle and adding lemon juice to the detergent dispenser. Neither of these helped at all. I was embarrassed for people to come over and see my dishes. It was terrible. I thought well since they are not getting clean in the dishwasher than I will just have to start hand washing them all again. Do you know that lime build up just does not come off easily at all? I soaked those dishes for two days in my sink with bleach and still nothing. I was getting a little irritated and just plain lost as to what else to do. I was afraid that I was going to have to buy all new glasses and throw my old ones away. My last resort was trying Lemi-Shine, and oh my freaking goodness it worked like a charm. I am so not at all affiliated with this company or trying to sell this product in anyway. I just truly love it. So, I wanted to share it with all of you.

The ball jars on the left are my ones that I soaked for two days in bleach and were still coated with lime. The one on the right of the Lemi-Shine is after just one wash of using the Lemi-Shine. It looked exactly like the ones on the left before I used the Lemi-Shine. Thank the Lord for whoever created this product especially for those of us who live on limestone infested ground.

After proof reading this post, I thought, “Wow, how many times can one person use the word Lemi-Shine in one post”?.

Ever wonder what the colors of the tie tags on loaves of bread represent? They’re a code designating the day of the week on which a loaf was baked:

* Blue: Monday
* Green: Tuesday
* Red: Thursday
* White: Friday
* Yellow: Saturday[...]

An easy way to remember it, though, is to simply recall the alphabet. The colors run in alphabetical order, so the earlier they appear in the alphabet, the earlier in the week the bread was baked. And it’s true. Even the ever-cynical Snopes.com backs it up.

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Soups were originally made from leftovers, or so history tells us. So, to go back on old times I came up with a quick, easy, and yummy leftover potato soup. Well, because I had leftovers and today is nasty, rainy, and dreary. Perfect day for pleasurable tummy warming soup.

Look at this soup like a base which in itself is tasty, but that you can improve on.

Ingredients:

Leftover Mashed Potatoes
Leftover Bacon Grease
Leftover Chicken Stock (or store bought)
Shredded Cheese
Salt
Pepper

Preparation Instructions:

Just slightly warm mashed potatoes. If they are cold then mashed potatoes tend to get hard or chunky, so then it is hard to tell how much chicken stock to add. If you add the chicken stock to cold mashed potatoes then you may over add and have very very thin soup. So, warm your mashed potatoes then slowly add chicken stock to desired viscosity (word of the day, must see how often I can add it to a sentence). Or desired thickness of your soup. Next, add bacon grease. I add about 3 to 4 tablespoons for flavor. If you have any of the bacon left from frying the bacon then I would crumble that up and add it too! But, who in their right mind has leftover bacon? (the reason I didn’t add it to the ingredient list) Now, the next part is entirely up to you, because people differ on how they like their cheese. On top or gooey melted inside? I prefer at this point to add my cheese, then stir all of these ingredients together and pop it in the microwave and nuke for about 30 seconds to a minute. If you prefer the on top method, then I would stir all the above ingredients together and nuke them and then sprinkle cheese on top.

Extra yummies to add:
green onions
bacon bits
more cheese
chives
sun dried tomatoes
leftover cheese artichoke spinach dip – yes, I tried this method and it was extremely tasty

How many of you love to get good deals. ME ME ME! I just love sites like Groupon. Actually, Groupon was the first site that I remember ever seeing that was a daily deal site. Now they are popping up everywhere. I just thought since I like them so much, you might too. Here are a few of the daily deal sites that I frequent.

1.Zulily. Deals for Moms, Babies & Kids – up to 70% off!
2.Groupon. Coupons for your local area with savings up to 90%. Plus, make sure to look at other locations for their online deals.
3.Baby Steals. They sell one quality baby or maternity product every day at up to 80% off until it sells out.
4.One Kings Lane. Private sales on home decor, accessories and gifts. Prices are up to 70% off every day.
5.The Clymb. Each week, they bring world-class apparel, footwear and gear to their members at prices as low as 70% off retail.

I have personally bought from Groupon and One Kings Lane. The others I frequent and many times they have great deals and I have missed out because they are sold out or I am out of cash for the month. Boo-hoo! Have fun shopping!

Don’t miss the next homeschool swap. Head on over to “The Homeschool Post”and sign up.

Sign up by February 25th (this Friday), then get your present in the mail by mid-March. Photograph your loot when it arrives and post a thank you on your blog… then email them the link! Their next sign-up won’t be until April 2011. Mark your dates on your calendars!

Okay, when my first son was born we decided to play classical music every night via CD every time he went to bed. My daughter, she couldn’t stand anything playing and it would only keep her awake. For some odd reason for our new baby we picked to put Cinderella the movie on loop to play all night (audio only). So, whenever he gets up to nurse at night I hear Cinderella and I have heard it so much now that I have started analyzing it. This is when you know that you have heard way too much Cinderella. I have done this long enough that I even brought up aspects of it to my husband one night. I definitely think it might be time to switch movies, or at least put a CD of some such on.

So, what do you use if anything for your children?

Thoughts on Cinderella – If Anastasia knew that Cinderella talked to the mice, then she would have no doubt to think that Cinderella put Gus Gus in her tea cup, right?