Review - The Curiosity Files: Blue Footed Booby

In my quest to become part of the Homeschool Crew over at The Old Schoolhouse, I was asked to provide a sample review of the ebook, The Curiosity Files: Blue Footed Booby, from The Old Schoolhouse.


I quickly downloaded all 100 pages of this ebook, and was glad to see that while several outside sources are suggested for further study, they are not necessary in order to use the materials. The product description says this is a "FUN unit study for kids ages 8 to13 and up." Based on what I saw, that sounds about right to me. While kids that are tween and up might find the Professor Ana Lyze character a little too cutesy, I think they will still find the rest of the materials to be engaging. Many of the activities have two skill levels - elementary, and jr./sr. high, as well as activities for further enrichment. There is even an activity included for preschoolers and children with special needs. Subjects covered include: Bible, math, history, geography, literature, writing, spelling/vocabulary, copy work, science, and arts & crafts/hands-on activities.

I do not usually do unit studies, however, since we are getting ready to move next week, I thought it was a good time to try something a little different from our "norm". I liked that, being an ebook, I could easily browse the PDF file and choose what I wanted to use. My children are both at a 5th grade level, so I chose to use the following with them:

• "Everything You Never Wanted To Know About The Blue Footed Booby" and the quiz that followed
• the Bible study "In The Beginning"
• "Blue Footed Booby Age Problems"
• "Blue Footed Booby Word Problems"
• the elementary level spelling and vocabulary activities
• "In The Lab - Anatomy"

My son thought the professor character resembled the teacher from The Magic School Bus, which he likes a lot. Both kids seemed to enjoy the different activities, and easily completed most of the work I gave them. They had a bit of trouble with the last few age problems - but even I couldn't figure them out on my own after a minute or two. The biggest "con" of these materials, I thought, was that while it is absolutely filled with beautiful color photos and illustrations on every single page, this also means that printing out the entire book would use lots of ink. I chose to only print the pages I wanted to use, and to print them in black and white, except for two pages which I printed in full color so the children could see the birds in detail. I suppose one way a person could get around this is to have your child sit at the computer and read the ebook on the screen, while recording their answers on a piece of paper.

I really like this ebook, and feel that it is a very flexible choice - I only used it for a couple of days, but easily could have made it last a week or more. It all depends on how in-depth you want to get, and how many subjects you want to cover. I love that it includes a Bible study, and am still planning to use the writing activities with the kids at some point in the future, as they look excellent! We also still have the "mad libs" and measuring activities to complete - I saved those to do together. I feel like this ebook is definitely worth the retail price of $6.95. Other topics available in The Curiosity Files line are: Cicada-Killing Wasp, Blue Diamond, Dung Beetle, MRSA, Platypus, Puffer Fish, Quicksand, Red Tide, Zombie Fire Ants, and Snow Rollers & Other Snow Phenomena. You can find all of these titles, including Blue Footed Booby, at www.theoldschoolhousestore.com. I don't know about my daughter, but these are all topics my son would LOVE, and I look forward to using them in the future as a break from our "usual"!

**I was provided this ebook for free from The Old Schoolhouse, however, all opinions are my own. I was not required to provide a positive review, and I received no other compensation other than the free ebook.

Pamper Some Body!

I have been browsing through my bookmarks, and realized I have quite a few DIY bath and body recipes saved. With Mother's Day coming up, I thought it might be nice to compile some of them into one place. These recipes would be good for any gal in your life (yourself included!), or even just everyday use for your family. I haven't tried any of them yet, but I'm working on gathering the ingredients and can't wait to make some of them and replace some of the conventional products in my bathroom!

• First up are 9 recipes from Total Beauty. Recipes included are: an egg mask, carrot buttermilk mask, lettuce cleansing lotion (this one sounds interesting!), rose toner, body wash, flower petal steam facial, travel facial towels (I plan to make these with witch hazel and cloth wipes, instead of vodka and paper towels), sesame body butter, and gardener's hand cream.
• Make-Stuff has a post with a basic shampoo recipe, variations for oily and dry hair, conditioner, dry shampoo, and even hair gel! I'm not sure I could get Mr. Man to try homemade hair gel. Maybe if I didn't tell him...
• A Sonoma Garden has a lot of homemaking how-tos down the left side of the blog, including homemade deodorant, lotion, and chapstick. There are also printable labels down the right side!
• The gals at Gooseberry Patch have a recipe for vanilla brown sugar scrub, complete with a cute printable label, too!
• I'm really excited about this one! Stacy at Delighting In The Days has a bunch of great bath and body recipes, including belly butter and a homemade vapor rub! I can't wait to make that one!
• Leslie over at Crunchy Betty has a plethora of natural beauty recipes! I'm especially interested in her post about using soap nuts, and cinnamon as an alternative for bronzer. One word of warning, though - the image on her blog header is a 1940s pin-up girl, and I know some of you may not care for that. I thought I'd let you know ahead of time!
• There is another deodorant recipe at Journey to "Green".
• Lastly, have you heard of Made-On hard lotion? Well, they tell you how to make your own on their site! Just scroll down beneath the video for the instructions.

If you have a favorite bath and body recipe, be sure to leave a comment and share it!

Weekly Deals 4-17: Part Two

I made two more trips to CVS so far, another trip to Walgreens, and a trip to Kohls.

I made one trip to CVS, then got home to discover that the new one they've been working on in town has opened, and they sent me a bunch of good coupons that are only good at that location. One of them was a $10 off $20 purchase! These are my purchases combined: 4 boxes of Cinnamon Cheerios, 2 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, a box of Huggies, a 2-liter of Pepsi, 2 water bottles and a 2-pack of small sports bottles (for Easter baskets), 2 bottles of Marvel gummy vitamins, John Freida heat protection spray and shine spray, 2 packages of Thermacare back/hip pads, a notebook (for my bloggy endeavors), a bottle of CVS hair detangler, a bag of CVS caramel cremes, a Physician's Formula mascara and blush, a bottle of Advil, a package of birthday candles, and 2 packages of Orbit gum. I also got two more mascaras for a friend of mine who lives overseas. The gum, detangler, caramels and Pepsi were all free with the coupons from the new store.

I paid $56.04 for all of the above, which CVS says was worth $172.42, which means I saved about 68%. I still have $3 ECB left, too, as well as a coupon for free photo prints.

I received a $10 off coupon from Kohls, which is always exciting! There is no minimum purchase requirement, so you can get a $10 item for free! These shirts are for Super Girl's birthday this week. They were on sale, 50% off $18.99, making them about $4 each after the coupon.

My second Walgreens trip was this morning, since I needed more frosting for Super Girl's cake. I picked up 2 more packages of King's Hawaiian rolls, 3 boxes of Betty Crocker brownies and a box of cake mix, 2 tubes of Aquafresh training toothpaste, 2 boxes of Always Infinity pads, 2 packages of Yes To Cucumbers face towellettes, 2 Yes To Carrots lip balms, a Wet 'N' Wild nail polish, and a tub of Betty Crocker frosting.

I got my total down to $20.94 from $54.24, a savings of 62%.

I also made a trip to my local grocery store, and was able to save about 60% there, too.

Do you play the "drugstore game"? I get all my deals from two places: Hip2Save (she has a great customizable, printable list), and MoneySavingMom. These two gals save me a LOT of time! You can go there to check out this week's deals. I hope I inspired you to save some money!

Made By Me Monday & Pattern Review

Today I'm going to share the nightgown I made for Super Girl for Christmas, since I haven't done so yet! I intended to make pajamas for all three kids. I got 1 1/2 sets done. There is a partially finished fleece footie sleeper in my packed-up sewing stuff - thankfully it's neutral, so I can finish it for this new little guy!

I started with a flannel I found at Walmart. When I saw it, it SCREAMED Super Girl at me! She loves these colors, peace signs, and doodles/graffiti. I went ahead and bought some, stashing it away for this project.

Next, I looked at the pajama patterns I have, and chose McCall's Easy Endless Options #5744, which is now out-of-print. I decided on View C, a long-sleeved, knee length night gown. Once I had my fabric washed and started cutting, I realized I didn't have enough to do the entire gown from the flannel. [That's what I get for not choosing the pattern FIRST!] I dug a small piece of black jersey out of my stash, which I'd picked up at a thrift store, and made a layered-style sleeve. After I got it put together, I realized that Super Girl would feel like the neckline was a little too low, so I added a triangle of jersey to the neckline to give a little more coverage. It kind of adds to the layered look, too.

Please ignore my door knob, and the slightly crumpled flannel.

I found the description of "easy" to be true to this pattern. There were not many pieces to cut, and it went together quickly. The instructions were good, and it came out looking like the drawing (aside from my alteration of the sleeve). The hardest part was trying to edge the sleeve hems with bias tape, which didn't work, and I quickly removed. The original pattern did not call for this, I just thought it might be easier than hemming the sleeves. I was wrong! I will definitely keep this pattern in my stash and use it again, as the largest size still fits Super Girl, for now. Since the pattern I bought goes from size 7 to 14, I can use it several times for Little Miss in the future, if I want to.

Note: I am not affiliated with McCall's or Walmart in any way. I bought my fabric and my pattern - though I did get the pattern during one of JoAnn Fabrics' 99¢ sales! I am not affiliated with JoAnn Fabrics, either. ;)

Weekly Deals 4-17: Part One

This is only part one, because there were some deals I need to go back for. After I got to CVS, I realized the new cinnamon Cheerios are included in this week's sale, for which I have a bunch of 75¢ coupons. With the sale and coupons, they will be only $1.25 a box! I also intend to get a few more of the Physician's Formula products (with the $5 coupon I have, it makes the ORGANIC mascara 88¢ each after the sale!), and I'd forgotten my Arizona Tea coupons. This is the reason I really should bring my coupon binder with me every time - something I already know, but have gotten lazy about!

First up, CVS:

From CVS, I ended up with: 4 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, 2 boxes of Chocolate Cheerios, a gallon of whole and a gallon of 2% milk, a bag of paper Easter grass, 4 bottles of kids gummy vitamins, a bottle of Osteo Bi-Flex (for my momma!**), a can of Edge shave gel, 2 tubes of Aquafresh kids toothpaste (for my Operation Christmas Child stash), a Schick Intuition razor, a package of Ivory soap (also for Operation Christmas Child), 2 Reach flosses, and 2 Physician's Formula organic mascaras.

I paid $35.08 for $127.87 worth of goods - 73% savings.

Next up, my bigger challenge, Walgreens:

From Walgreens, I brought home: 2 packages of King's Hawaiian rolls, 2 tubes of Luster toothpaste, 3 rolls of Scotch tape, 2 packages of Yes To Cucumbers towelettes, 1 Betty Crocker cake mix, 1 tub of Betty Crocker frosting, 2 Reach flosses, a tube of Colgate, 1 Colgate toothbrush, 2 Yes To Carrots lip balms, and 5 Wet 'N' Wild nail polishes (fillers). There were several more things I wanted, but I was working with the cash in my wallet and ran out. I'm sure someone else would have been able to get a lot more with the cash and coupons I had, but I did the best I could! I'm hoping that when I go back, they'll have more of the rolls - we like these a lot, and I freeze them when I find them for a good price. I also forgot a few coupons, again - ANOTHER reminder to bring my binder!!!

I ended up spending $14.98 for $67.13 worth of merchandise - 78% savings. Much better than last week!

**I mentioned last week that I got the Flex-A-Min for my mom, and I picked up Osteo Bi-Flex for her this week. My mom has Rheumatoid Arthritis, and takes joint support products to help with it. She does not have a spending plan with her health insurance, and since these products are over-the-counter, they are not covered. If I can help her out by getting these products (which normally run about $20 a bottle) for $5 or less, I'm happy to do it! My parents have helped us out plenty, and a little here and there is not going to hurt us at all. There are often products like this that can be gotten for very little compared to the regular price, or even the generic - when you use a coupon combined with a sale. Do you know someone who would benefit from the gift of herbal supplements or over-the-counter medicines? I encourage you to go ahead and help them out! Whether or not you want them to reimburse you - that's up to you to work out, but I bet you could find a few dollars in your budget for it!

Do you play the "drugstore game"? I get all my deals from two places: Hip2Save (she has a great customizable, printable list), and MoneySavingMom. These two gals save me a LOT of time! You can go there to check out this week's deals. I hope I inspired you to save some money!

Weekly Deals

We've been having an interesting week, so I'm getting these posted a little later than I wanted to. I do my drug store shopping on Sundays, because if I don't, I am unlikely to be able to get the ones I want. So, I've had these pictures sitting in my camera since Sunday night.

CVS deals:

At CVS, I got the following: 3 12-packs of diet Mt. Dew, 2 boxes of Rice Krispies, 2 boxes of Raisin Bran, 2 boxes of Apple Jacks, 6 bottles of Honest Tea (I drank one), a bottle of Super Bubbles, a Russel Stover chocolate bunny, 2 bottles of Your Life gummy vitamins, 2 Revlon lip glosses, 2 tubs of Sunsweet bite-size prunes, 2 bottles of Flex-a-min, 8 packs of "5" gum, and 2 different sets of hair "pretties". I also got a 12-pack of Scott toilet paper, but it wouldn't fit on my counter with everything else. The Mt. Dew was on a rain check, the Flex-a-min has already found a new home with my mom, I got the Revlon lip glosses for $1.50 each after coupons (I really like them), and Super Girl needed more hair elastics with this warm weather - the Scunci brand happened to be BOGO 1/2 off, so I also got clips for Little Miss.

After coupons and ECBs, I spent $47.27 for $172.09 worth of items. I saved 73% - not as good as last week (91%!). I don't have any ECBs for next week, but I now have plenty of UPCs to turn in for the Kellogg's cereal rebate. In fact, since you can do this rebate 5 times, I'm on my way to having enough for a second submission. The Raisin Bran is all gone, by the way. I guess that's what happens when you're pregnant and cereal is especially appealing!


Walgreens deals:

At Walgreens, I got 2 bags of Kettle chips (the sea salt and black pepper flavor was pretty good!), 2 bottles of Heinz vinegar, 2 bottles of All laundry detergent, a package of Lansinoh nursing pads, a package of Lansinoh milk storage bags, 2 tubes of Biore face scrubs, 2 boxes of Biore pore strips, 4 packs of Glade scented oil candles, 4 boxes of Garnier HerbaShine hair color, 4 packs of Stride gum, a tube of Lansinoh lanolin, 2 Revlon nail polishes, 3 bottles of Fiber Gummies (I give these to Little Miss), 2 packs of Carefree panty liners, and 7 Snickers eggs. In addition to those items, I also picked up some things for Super Girl's birthday later this month, and Easter - a Crayola notebook with a color changing pen, a book of Lisa Frank stickers, a fashion designer pad with stencils, 2 Littlest Pet Shop sets, and 2 Bakugon sets I found on the clearance shelf (for Wonder Boy). The rest of the gifts were full price, and I don't usually shop for gifts at Walgreens, but these were items I'd not seen anywhere else, and really stuck in my mind for Super Girl. The Lansinoh items had a coupon in the monthly book, and I also had a manufacturer's coupon for each, so I got them for my "after baby" stash.

After coupons and RRs, I spent $109.57 for $227.43 worth of merchandise. WAY more than I usually spend at Walgreens, but I still saved 52%. Not as good as last week's 72%, though.


Lastly, my mom and brother were here Sunday night, so on Monday we went thrift store hopping. I scored big on maternity clothes at our local charity shop: 4 pairs of jeans, a pair of shorts, a skirt, 3 tops, and a light cotton sweater (perfect for summer!). I also picked up a ducky for Little Miss (she loves them!), an enamel skillet and mugs, a small roasting pan, and a Video Now Jr. The video player included a case and 6 discs of full-length preschool shows! I let Little Miss play with it a little when I got it home, but am going to keep it put away for longer trips. It happened to be 1/2 off day, and I got all these things for $34! I was so happy, because I only had two pairs of maternity pants that fit me, and not many more lighter weight tops, either.

Do you play the "drugstore game"? I get all my deals from two places: Hip2Save (she has a great customizable, printable list), and MoneySavingMom. These two gals save me a LOT of time! You can go there to check out this week's deals. I hope I inspired you to save some money!

Tasty Tuesday - Magic Stew

Welcome! If you're here from the Ultimate Blog Party, please see my party post!


Today I'm sharing a dish based on a recipe in the book Beyond Macaroni and Cheese, by Mary Beth Lagerborg and Karen Parks.** I was fortunate enough to pick this book up several years ago at a moms group - they had a table where you could leave things you didn't want, and pick up things you did. Someone was getting rid of a copy, so I grabbed it. I've used it quite a bit, and would be sad to lose it!

The recipe I'm basing this off of is called "Magic Stew". I have tried to make stew in the past, and have just never been happy with the results. I hate coating the meat with flour and browning it, and then the meat always seems very tough when the stew is done. When I came across this recipe which didn't require browning the meat first, I thought I'd give it one more try. I thought there would be left-overs, but we devoured every last bit! It was really good, and the meat was TENDER! I've made it several times since then, and still have not had left-overs.


Step 1: Layer your cubed meat in the bottom of a casserole dish. I'm using my beloved Pampered Chef pan that I picked up BRAND NEW for $3 at a yard sale!!! I don't know what I'd do without it! Anyhow, I'm using venison as my meat, since it's what I was blessed with, and I'm trying to use up what's in my freezer before our move. The recipe calls for a pound of meat, if I recall, but I'm using about 2 pounds (still aiming for left-overs!).


Step 2: Cut your veggies into chunks, and layer over the meat. I used 4 carrots, 3 large red potatoes, an onion, and a package of sliced mushrooms. The original recipe does not call for mushrooms, and possibly not onions, either (my book is already packed, and I'm going from memory!). It does call for celery, which I have used, and is ok.


Step 3: Pour in your liquid. The recipe uses tomato juice, but I never buy tomato juice. This time, I'm using a can of tomato soup and about 2 cups of broth left over from some Italian beef. I'm using more liquid than it calls for, because I've basically doubled the recipe.


Step 4: Sprinkle a packet of onion soup mix over top - DO NOT STIR! I can't remember if this is in the recipe or not, but I think it is. I know I have done this step every time.

Step 5: Cover with foil, and bake at 350 300 degrees for 4 hours. [I baked it at 350 this time, which turned out to be a little too high. The meat was still good, but a little overcooked, and it would have been nice to have had a little more gravy in it.] DO NOT peek at it or check on it while it's doing its thing! I like to serve this with biscuits - my daughter makes great cheese ones!.


**This post DOES contain an affiliate link. However, the opinions posted are all mine. A copy of the book was NOT provided to me for this review - I already owned it.

The Drugstore Game

Welcome! If you are here from the Ultimate Blog Party, you can find my party post here!


I haven't posted about drugstore deals in a long time, but here's my haul for this week!

First stop, CVS:

I ended up with two boxes of Crispix cereal, two bottles of Crest Pro Health mouth rinse, two Oral-B tooth brushes (for my Operation Christmas Child stash), a bottle of Complete contact solution, a bottle of got2b flat iron spray, two packages of GUM flossers, a Physician's Formula mascara (on raincheck from last week), six bags of Robin Eggs candy, and two bags of M&Ms. I was pretty excited about all of this - the mouth rinse and flossers are for my kids (they actually USE them!!!), the cereal is for making puppy chow and also for this rebate, and I will be seeing if our pastor's wife wants some of the candy.

After all my coupons and ECBs, I spent a total of $7.95 for $86.28 worth of merchandise! And, I still have $5 of ECB left! On a sad note, I have discovered that there are NO CVS stores in our future hometown! The nearest one is an hour away, in the town my parents live in, ironically! So, I guess I will only be doing CVS deals when I happen to go down there for a visit, probably about once a month. This pains me, because I STRONGLY prefer CVS over Walgreens!

Speaking of Walgreens...:

I got two boxes of Rice Krispies (also for the cereal rebate above), a package of shredded cheese, a bottle of bbq sauce, two bottles of Coke (yes, one is missing), three bottles of Purex laundry soap, three tubes of Luster tooth paste, two packages of Always pads, two tubes of Colgate tooth paste, two packages of Olay bar soap, two bags of Brach's jelly beans, two Wonka chocolate bars, four pads of stickers (not pictured), and three bags of Planters almonds. The cheese and bbq sauce was for dinner. The Colgate and Olay are also going in my Operation Christmas Child stash, and the stickers were for a friend. I got the Cokes and Planters nuts because of a coupon I actually picked up at CVS, but used at Walgreens because the nuts were on sale, and since it was a manufacturer's coupon, I didn't have to use it at CVS. I think I can say that with the candy I've picked up in the past few weeks, along with what I got this week, that my kids will have PLENTY of candy on Easter!

I didn't do as well at Walgreens, as far as what I spent. But, then, I rarely feel like I do as well at Walgreens. My total, after coupons and RRs, was $26.83 for $94.53 worth of goodies. I didn't end up with any RRs left over.

Do you play the "drugstore game"? I get all my deals from two places: Hip2Save (she has a great customizable, printable list), and MoneySavingMom. These two gals save me a LOT of time! You can go there to check out this week's deals. I hope I inspired you to save some money!

Are You Here For The Party?

If you are here from the Ultimate Blog Party, then welcome to my own part of this little shin-dig! You can read my profile up there to the right. A few things you might find interesting, but are just random:

• I like pickles, but not cucumbers.
• My eyes are green.
• I have lived all over the U.S., and went to enough different schools that I could have gone to a new one every year.

Here are some of my favorite posts - some of them may actually tell you more about me!

• Get Some Air
• New Obsession
• HAPPY New Year
• The Year of Jubilee

I'm glad you stopped by, and look forward to your comments! Feel free to subscribe to my posts or follow me via Google Friend Connect - you can find both under my profile!