Free Fruitista Freeze at Taco Bell

Print off a coupon for a FREE Fruitista Freeze at Taco Bell with any purchase! They have items on their value menu for less than $1, so this is a great deal, and these are yummy! Remember you can print two per computer. To find this coupon quickly, click on "local coupons" on the left side.

Mailbox Monday

Time for some freebies!

• Be one of the first 1,000 people to sign up for a free BIC Easy Glide pen starting at noon EST. Try every day until 9/3.
• Sign up for a free sample of Post-It Durable Tabs and Label Pads.
• Expectant moms can “Like” I Love My Baby Bump on Facebook and request a free t-shirt.
• Download a free copy of the Back-to-School Gluten-Free ebook. Use coupon code b2s (case sensitive).
• Login or sign up for a PetsPerk account to print a coupon for a free 6oz. pouch of Purina Pro Plan brand Dog or Cat Food at PetSmart.You can print the coupon twice. Coupon expires December 31, 2010.
• Get a free sample of Ola Loa Drinkable vitamins.
• Sign up for a free sample of Miracle Skin Transformer.
• Click on the “Like” button on the SmartforLife Facebook Page and you can request a free sample of underWay beverage and a SmartforLife cookie.
• Sign up to get Free samples of Redken Time Reset shampoo, conditioner, and youth revitalizer on Facebook.
• Get a free download of Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road by Tim Keller from Christian Audio during the month of August. Just use coupon code AUG2010 at checkout and your order will be free.
• Sign up for more free Kotex samples here.
• Get a free sample of Dove Daily Treatment Conditioner!
• Sign up for this free sample of Nature’s Bounty Adult Gummies Vitamins.
• Get a free OB Tampon sample pack when you fill out a short form.
• If you are a member of ShopText, choose one of the following offers and text the code to 467467. Note you may only select one offer per mobile number. *Text LASH for Covergirl Lashblast Length Mascara. *Text SHAVE for a Venus Embrace Razor in Pink. *Text SCRUB for Olay Dual Action Cleanser + Pore Scrub.
• Play the Nature Made Casino D instant win game. All contestants will win a FREE Nature Made Vitamin D travel size sample on the first spin!
• Get a free Smart Food Storage sample from Tomorrow's Harvest.
• BJ's members can request a free sample of Triple Paste Diaper Rash Ointment.

In a Round

Last fall we taught the girls how to sing in a round. Click through to my blog to watch these short videos.

"Frere Jacques"




"Row, Row, Row Your Boat"

*I meant to post this last fall, but it got saved in drafts and never got posted. Oops!

Dora's Birthday Specials

Dora is turning 10! I remember when Dora first came out. I didn't have kids yet, but I was a preschool teacher and thought it was a great educational show. Back then, there weren't other shows like it--educational and interactive in content. Having 5 girls, we watch a fair amount of Dora over here, though they like Diego as well! ;-) Anyway, to celebrate Dora's birthday, here are some events and deals!

On Saturday, August 14th from 11am-4pm, head to Walmart to celebrate Dora's birthday with free party favors and cupcakes! Bring your favorite photo to create a free 5×7 photo card in the photo department. Click here to find a participating store.

Here are some good deals on Dora products at Target, in case you want to shop early for Christmas or birthdays: (Thanks Mercedes!)

Big Birthday Adventure DS Game $29.99
Use $10/1 Dora Game target coupon
Pay $19.99 after coupon

Dora Pirate Adventure DVD $5
Use $3/1 Dora DVD target coupon
Pay $2 after coupon

Dora Dollhouse furniture sets $5.99
Use $3/1 Dora Target mobile coupon
Pay $2.99 after coupon

Colgate Dora the Explorer Toothpaste, $2.19
Use$0.75/1 Target Coupon
Use $0.50/1 Colgate Coupon from 7/25 SmartSource insert
Pay $0.94 after coupon

Colgate Dora the Explorer Toothbrush, $2.19
Use $0.75/1 Target Coupon
Use $0.75/1 Colgate Coupon July All You
Pay $0.69 after coupon

There are also Target coupons for BOGO free Dora paper plates, $0.75/1 Dora foaming hand soap, $1/1 Dora power toothbrush, $1/1 Dora twin sheet sets, and $0.50/1 Dora Band-Aids.

Another Seventh Generation Giveaway!

To celebrate going back to school, I got another opportunity to review some Seventh Generation products through MyBlogSpark, and we're going to do another giveaway as well!

Going off to school can also mean bringing home germs. My kids don't "go" to school, but they do manage to bring home germs because although we homeschool, we do many things away from home as well.

Seventh Generation and MyBlogSpark provided me with the following "back-to-school" kit, with 2 canisters of wipes, one for home and one for school. Since our schoolroom is our living room/playroom, I have been using the wipes to clean everything up as we prepare for school.
On another note, Ted recently did some research and found out that when you throw in a load of laundry, you WILL have e. coli on your hands! Ewww!! I always wash my hands after throwing in laundry (they just feel dirty anyway), but I wasn't always washing out my laundry baskets after every load (only occasionally). Now, after putting the clothes in the washing machine, I put the laundry basket by the dryer and ALWAYS spray it with the Seventh Generation Disinfecting spray and let it air dry while the clothes wash. It kills 99.99% of germs botanically, including e. coli. That makes me feel a lot better! As with my last review of Seventh Generation, Ted still isn't big on the smell. It doesn't bother me, so I just use the products while he is at work. :-)

So how do you keep your household clean and neat through the school year? There are always so many papers coming home (or even in the mail!), so how do you keep on top of them and keep them from turning into giant piles? I seriously want to know, because I have a hard time with this! And what do you do to keep your home and kids healthy? I definitely don't want a repeat of last spring's flu outbreak!

Want to win a gift pack like this for yourself? You have an opportunity to enter this giveaway up to 6 times!

1 AND 2. Leave a comment WITH YOUR EMAIL. Share a tip for keeping your house neat and clean during the school year, or anytime, really! Share a separate comment about how you keep your kids healthy during the school year. How do you keep them from picking up every little germ and bringing it home? If I don't have your email, I can't contact you as the winner!

3. Subscribe via email or RSS reader. Then leave a separate comment that you are a subscriber.

4. Follow my blog with Google Friend Connect. Look for the lovely pictures of others on the right side of my blog, add yours, and then leave a separate comment.

5. Grab my button. Put my button on your blog and leave a comment with your blog's address for another entry! You can find the code to cut and paste on my right sidebar.

6. Blog about this giveaway. Post a link to this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment with the address directly to your blog's entry.

This giveaway will close on Friday, August 20th at midnight and I will select one winner using Random.org. The prize pack will be mailed to the winner directly from Seventh Generation and MyBlogSpark.

Seventh Generation is providing this gift pack and giveaway through MyBlogSpark. I also received a gift pack for my review. All opinions are my own.

Back To School: Schoolroom

This week at Heart of the Matter, the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop topic is the Schoolroom. So come on in and see where we do school!

We don't have a dedicated "schoolroom". Like a lot of homeschooling families, the dining room table started as the center of our schooling. But I wasn't good at putting things away ("we'll be using everything again tomorrow"), so I would pile it on the kitchen counter, or just shove it to the end of the table. I also quickly outgrew the small cupboard space that was available near the dining room for school stuff. So several months ago, we cleaned off an extra table (our old dining room table, before there were so many people in our family!) and Ted had the idea to clean out some space in the "playroom" (our living room) to make a school area.
So this is where we did school last semester, with H and G on either side of the table, and me moving between them. The cabinet on the right used to be my pantry storage, but Ted built me a bigger unit (yay!) so this one now holds my homeschooling books. To the left is our piano, so one girl can practice piano while one starts some homework, and then they switch. The biggest challenge is still keeping the top of the table cleaned off, however!

In addition to H and G doing school (2nd grade and Kindergarten), M will now be home instead of at speech preschool, and F wants to join in as well! :-) So with our homeschooling expanding, I felt our space needed to expand, too. I found these school desks for free and recovered the chairs.

I cleaned the toys off the smaller table and moved it next to the desks (the piano is on the far right) so that F and M have a new space as well. We also do some school huddled together on the couch, which isn't pictured. H and G's desks open up so they can store their books and pencil boxes inside, so hopefully that will help with some of the clutter. The girls are very excited about their "new" school space, so I'm hoping this will work well. We'll try it and see how it goes! I said above that we don't have a dedicated "schoolroom", but the playroom is slowly becoming one!

Wordless Wednesday--Double Coupon Day!

I saw this on MoneySavingMom, and considering today is double doubles at Roundy's I just had to post it! ;-)