A weekend with no rapture...

Thankfully, the world didn't end on Saturday so I get to continue blogging (I feel sort of bad for people who placed their faith in that prediction and now have to come back to normal life without having been "raptured."  I hope they will be ok).

Since we weren't translated, we had a crazy and fully stuffed weekend, but in a good way.  We got a lot done, and had some fun too.  I'll share some of the highlights (don't worry, I'll leave out the errands and spring cleaning and yardwork).

Thanks to a my mom we got this AMAZING deal on boxed pasta.  We printed a bunch of coupons from the "It Pays to Eat Pasta" site then combined them with a great deal at Smith's grocery store.  We ended up getting 76 boxes of pasta for $4.56 (and we'd have done better if I bought 80 boxes -- deals for every 10 --but apparently I can't count).

I am not a huge couponer, not that I have anything against it, I just don't have the time (or the patience) to really get into it.  I use coupons from time to time when I have them and I love it.  I do price match and do the best I can to get the best deal possible (feeding a family of eight on a school teacher's salary is not always simple).  

My mom and my sisters-in-law also bought the pasta (my mom ended up being paid $5 to take 100 boxes of pasta from the store).  Mom rented a canning machine and we spent Friday canning loads of pasta so we don't lose our amazing deal to weevil or some other nastiness.   

 After canning all that pasta, we decided we should eat some.  So we made the kid's favorite pasta dinner, spaghetti.

Logan and Ellie helped me dice up the mushrooms to add to the sauce.  I love that they want to help (even if their help sometimes means things take a little bit longer than usual).

After a beautiful day Saturday (which was great so we could work in the yard and just enjoy the sunshine a bit), it rained on Sunday.  I love rain.  It is my favorite kind of weather, especially when the clouds are really dark and ominous.  I'm not sure there is anything better than curling up on the couch in the front window to watch a lightning storm, and it only gets better if the power goes out.  I love that.

Anyway, we played in the rain (no worries, there was no lightning).  I took the kids out and we splashed in puddles and got soaked and loved every soggy minute of it.

 My new little garden plants loved all the rain as well.  How much fun is it to see something that you planted start poking it's nose up through the dirt?  The kids go out and count our sprouts every day.  Gardens are wonderful things.

So are families.  There is nothing like watching them grow.