Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside...

We sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness" last night in church, and I remembered how much I love that song. I really enjoy all the contemporary praise and worship music that's out on radio now, but there's something about the old hymns that still touch my heart like other music can. While we were singing it, I got to the verse that says:

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside!

I began to think of all the blessings God has graciously given me, and how unworthy I am of them. Ava and Sam are by far and away the sweetest children I could have asked for. Yes, there are times when I get tired, frustrated, ill, and mad. I think all parents have those days. But they can always make me smile, calm me down after a bad day, and make me happier than I ever thought I'd be with children. I knew I'd love them, but I don't think I realized the depth of that love before I had them. I think it's a kind of love that you don't know exists until you become a parent. I thank God for them and that He's entrusted me with them while here--it's a job that I'm truly not worthy of. He's blessed me far more than I could have hoped for or even imagined.

CVS fun

Okay, I think I'm starting to figure this CVS thing out.

The women in my family have really gotten in to coupons the past few months--I never knew you could save so much money! My best deals to date:
Publix--I paid ~$4.00 and saved ~$64.00
Bloom--I paid $4.81 and saved $76.43
Bloom was a triple coupon day, but Publix is normally the best place to save money with coupons.

It's a wierd kind of high you feel when the cashier rings up everything, and starts scanning your coupons, and you watch what you owe go lower and lower.

I've read that CVS is a great way to saved on daily essentials. I went yesterday and did 3 transactions. I spent $23.00 and here's what I got:

Resolve Carpet Cleaner
2 Lysol Disinfectant Sprays
2 boxes of Electrasol Dishwashing Geltabs
Pantene Mousse
Pantene Root Lifter
Blink Teardrops
2 1 subject notebooks
1 big eraser
1 Jumbo pack of Pamper's size 2 diapers
1 Jumbo pack of Pamper's Easy Ups
1 CVS Brand Cocoa Butter Lotion
1 Softsoap Nutriserum Bodywash

And get this---I got back $10.00 in Extracare Bucks. So really, it's like I spent $13.00 for all of that because they gave me some money back. 1 pack of diapers is $11.29! The Extracare Bucks are a great deal, and really help us save money, because we'll use everything I bought-especially the cleaning supplies and diapers.

I did 3 transactions to get back extracare bucks to use on the next transaction. I could've bought everything at once, paid more money, but then had tons of ECB for next week's deals, but I'd rather not pay all that out of pocket at one time. I also did it this way so I didn't have to pay but $5.00 out of pocket on the diaper transcation. These were my transactions:

#1
Softsoap Bodywash
Blink Tears
I had coupons for both and received $11.00 in ECB to use on #2

#2
2 Lysol
Resolve
2 Electrasol
I had coupons for everything, I used my ECB to pay for it and received $10.00 in ECB to use on #3

#3
2 Notebooks
1 Eraser
1 Lotion
2 packs of diapers
I had coupons for the diapers, I used my ECB to pay for it, plus on #2 transcation I received a coupon on my receipt for $5 off of $25 and a coupon for a free CVS lotion. I received $10.00 ECB for next week.

Quay has a CVS card, too, so I'm going to do it again today with his card to get more diapers!