Freebies, Coupon Awesomeness and a Naughty Napper!

Hey Y'all! So my house is still a work in progress...my 9 month old decided he wants to try walking so mommy is chasing after him every second making sure he doesn't hurt himself. This kid needs a helmet!! I decided that the house can wait and I've been spending time working on some freebies for y'all and some teaching materials for friends of mine.

I began an "All About Me" writing packet. This is a basic writing activity for 1-3 graders to do at the beginning of the year. It's a great way for the kids to get to know each other and for you to assess beginning of the year writing levels. Today I'm posting the brainstorming sheet. You can pick it up here. I created two versions a blank one and one with simple sentence stems. Tomorrow I'll post the publishing page, so come back tomorrow and grab it! 

If you read my last posts, you know that I am not going back into the classroom next year, I'm staying home with my baby boy Jackson. It was a very hard decision to make, but it's one that I knew I had to do. My mom never got to stay home with us and I always swore I would do that for my kids, no matter the sacrifices I would have to make. It's going to be rough in this economy, but my husband and I are going to live frugally! I've been surfing the web looking for ways to save money and become a "Coupon Mom." I found this awesome website: www.fabulesslyfrugal.com. It's awesome!! I'm learning how to save money at grocery and drug stores. The ladies who started this site are incredible! It takes time to figure out how to save the most money but I think it's totally worth it. So far I've saved about $70 off my normal grocery bill for the month. Here's a shopping trip I took to CVS yesterday:

I got all of this for $10. One bottle of mouthwash, two tubes of toothpaste, two packs of Huggies Wipes and a CVS pack of hand and face wipes. The mouthwash itself is usually $7. I'm proud of myself, I never knew how women saved so much money using coupons, it's kinda fun! I've found I'm shopping more but I'm spending less. Crazy huh?

Between couponing, creating and chasing after this little guy I've been very busy. I get a lot done when Jackson naps, but unfortunately that is not very often. He HATES naps. He will nap at most 2 hours in a day. He sleeps all night but will wake up every now and then. Any ladies out there with kiddos who have nap skills? I rock him and put him in the crib when he's sleepy but he wakes up quickly and just cries. I've done "cry it out" and it doesn't seem to work, he just gets more worked up and cries louder and louder and never sleeps. He's had recurrent ear infections so my doctor has advised to try and keep crying to a minimum so as to not irritate his already sensitive ears. I'm at a loss! I need him to nap so I can work (and regain some sanity) but he just doesn't want to. Unless, of course, I hold him the whole time. Which would be nice, but I just can't do that...any suggestions lades?! 

Ok gotta get dinner started, make sure to come back tomorrow for another freebie!!