Progress, how to save a dime and a giveaway!

Progress is putting books away ON A SHELF!
Progress is actually filing papers IN A FOLDER!
Progress is RECYCLING recipes you will never make!
Progress is GETTING RID OF magazines you will never read again (or maybe even the first time)!
We are MAKING PROGRESS!

See? I promised to write about how I am doing with my paper purge week and I am! How cool is that?

Well, it's not like my house was totally overrun with papers, it's just that my dining room table always has piles of various sorts. Whenever we need to use the table, the piles get relocated, but never really dealt with. And sometimes those piles never make it back to the table but somehow new ones grow in their place. It's amazing how fast paper multiplies.
So, I'd say I have half of the stuff off of the table and into proper homes today. I have to confess, I didn't spend the whole day doing this. I was only half-hearted about it really. It was just too nice outside and I rarely have the energy to get out of the house with the twins so today we went to the park. It was a glorious day!
**********************************************************************************
Part 2:
Ok, so how to save a dime, or maybe 3160 of them to be exact. (That's 316 dollars in case you are taking your shoes off right now...)

If you have car insurance and own a home, you should look into contacting one of the online sites that compare insurance quotes for you. I did it through Swagbucks. They have an offers page where you can earn swagbucks for accepting an offer, which in this case, involved entering my information online for Einsurance. I earned a bunch of swagbucks and got A LOT of insurance quotes.

For me, Traveler's came in at the lowest rates, $300 less than my current auto insurance! I was all ready to convert my policy so I called my insurance company to cancel. Just for kicks I had them re-run my information to see if they could get my rate lowered. I didn't tell them what the Traveler's quote came in at. They BEAT IT by $16. That may not seem like much but it meant that I didn't have to switch carriers, fill out a bunch of paper work and set up automatic drafts again. The biggest benefit is that since I have been a customer for a while, I have accident forgiveness.

I don't think $316 is chump change so I am happy about this. It lowers my monthly payment about $30. And since I only "work" 2 days a week, every penny counts.

I actually did this last year and saved money again by calling my insurer and checking the policy rates. I didn't do it on purpose this time, thinking there was no way the rate would be so much lower than it currently is.

So, my question is, why wasn't my rate lower to begin with? Why do I have to shop around and then come back and ask for it to be lowered? My car certainly isn't getting younger or hotter and I haven't been in an accident or gotten a ticket. Shouldn't it go down every year, not up??? I don't get it.

Now I am getting a new policy on my home owners insurance also. The company I have been with for auto insurance came in with a quote that is about $150 less than our home owners inurance and we will also get a discount for having auto insurance with them. I am looking forward to saving around $500 a year total when all is said and done. Checking out Einsurance was certainly worth it for me! And now I have enough swagbucks to get a few Amazon gift certificates!

*************************************************************************************
Part 3:
The giveaway!

Ok, so it's not MY giveaway. (You really don't want what I have any how:)
I am really NOT savy about inserting a link into a blog so try this: Nutrition Class. Did it work? If not, copy and paste www.kitchenstewardship.com and look for the Real Food nutrition ecourse giveaway.

All this week, Katie at Kitchen Stewardship is giving away back-to-school items. Today's giveaway is a Real Food nutrition ecourse produced by the Food Renegade. You can find them both on Facebook also. Great places to find information about REAL FOOD. Like butter. MMMMmmm butter. And bacon. MMMMmmmmm bacon. I am SO into this right now.

If you homeschool or if you just want to learn more about nutition, this course looks like it would be great. You can read a sample chapter of the book it is based on first. There is also a link to a detailed course description. Enter to win a FREE course! Then again, I want to win, which is part of the reason I am posting this. So if YOU win, you have to fill me in on all of the gory details, ok?? Good luck!

So for tonight, I am signing off. God bless you and goodnight!

Let's try this again...

Once every 3 or 4 months isn't bad right? I have no idea how other folks post daily when they are caring for their children and other ventures. I am in awe.

That said....

We are now on the "Real Food" journey. Don't ask me where this started but somewhere along the line I started reading about real food and then I started reading Nourished Kitchen's blog, signed up for an online class (which I am taking the sllllloooowwww way...), picked up a copy of "Nourishing Traditions" and here we are. Gotta love eating fat again! Butter makes everything better, doesn't it? And cream top yogurt? Heaven!

My motivation for this is to provide the girls with the best start nutritionally that I can. They like egg yolks and even ate some of the liver I made for them. They eat the plain full fat yogurt that I buy (haven't gotten to making yogurt yet) and I have started buying raw goat's milk for them as well. They get butter on all their veggies and I have stopped giving them grain cereals except for soaked oats and whatever is in their little snack "puffs"-there are TWO of them you know, and sometimes a mom's gotta do...

I am still trying to figure out what keep s giving Annabeth diaper rash. She eats so many different things (like the stuff that Daddy and Grandma sneak to her and Molly). Annabeth definitely is prone to rashes and breaks out from seemingly phantom contact with things in her environment. This does seem to be somewhat improved with the elimination of "baby" cereal. But she has been this way since birth. I am praying to avoid full-blown eczema.

Molly is still a month or so behind Annabeth in development but she is doing more and more everyday. She is 3-4 pounds lighter but her head circumference and length are within a half inch of Annabeth. Her feet are literally half the size of her sister's. Sometimes it seems as if I have a 3 year old and an infant. They are so different! Having twins is such a joy!

So let's see if I can (finally) keep up with posts. Maybe someone will actually read this!

God bless you!