Save or Make Money Online: Swagbucks

I’ve been using Swag Bucks for a few years now

and I manage to get a $5 amazon gift card

every month or so

$5 a month is not alot of money

but hey,

it is $5 I didn’t have before

and I didn’t have to do much to get it!

All you have to do is search

like you would on google

only you get swagbucks

to redeem for prizes

Simple.

Easy.

Doesn’t take much time

You can do things to get more swagbucks

like take surveys

print coupons

buy things through their site

They have many different opportunites

They often release

a swag code

each day also,

that is worth points

So it doesn’t cost you anything

All you have to do is search

and earn swagbucks for gift cards…

works for me!

So try out Swagbucks!

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Best Hair Clippers

I have been cutting my Husband’s hair

since we were married 13 years ago

It is a money saver

Plus,

I know how to cut it to look good

so we never have that

awkward

“I just got a haircut” look

Over 13 years,

we’ve probably saved about $1800

in his hair cutting expenses

When you add in our 3 boys

That savings multiplies

(I don’t think my daughter would appreciate us using the clippers on her though!)

We’ve had a couple of different sets

Oster, Wahl

They have all done their job

and worked well

Well I saw this

Philips Norelco set of clippers

for a really good price

and a coupon on amazon

and decided to try them

I never thought I would say I love a set of hair clippers

but I love these hair clippers!

The cutting guard is adjustable

so you only have one

and it easily clips on and off the clippers

It is QUIET

I was able to sneak up on my 2 year old

who HATES his hair getting cut

and start cutting his hair without him noticing!

It has a rechargeable battery,

so you are not tied down by a cord

It is small and lightweight

so it fits well in my hand

and easily maneuvers around my boys’ heads.

Right now

there is a $10 coupon to Amazon

making this an AMAZING price!!

So if you want to save some money

both on haircuts and on this set of clippers

you won’t be disappointed!

Korean BBQ beef

Korean Food had become

one of my favorite ethnic foods of late

A local Korean restaurant

is one of my husband and my favorite date night places to go

I have been making this BBQ beef for awhile now

It is is probably one of my top 10 favorite recipes

and it is easy and cheap to boot!

If you haven’t given Korean food a try

you really should

It is delicious

Once I had Japche

I was hooked!

I will have to share our recipe for some

yummy Japche with you

next time we make it.

In the meantime,

enjoy this delicious

Korean BBQ Beef

We make it with London Broil

which is always on sale around here for cheap

(usually $2lb or less)

Serve it with rice,

lettuce leaves,

and our Steam Buns

(stuff the meat in the steam buns… Mmmmm….)

It is also best if you can marinade it overnight.

Once the beef is cut and sat in the marinade

it cooks in minutes!

The leftovers are also DELICIOUS cold,

right out of the fridge!!

Ingredients: (I eyeball all this)

2-3 lbs of Flank Steak or London Broil

1/4 cup Sesame Oil

1 1/2 TBSP Sugar

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce

Fresh ground Pepper

1/8 tsp Red Pepper or Cayenne

2-3 Green onions, cut up (I was out of green onions for this batch I made :P)

Garlic -to taste. 3-5 cloves, minced

Directions:

Slice your beef really thin against the grain (helps it be tender!). This is easier to do if your beef is slightly frozen. We use our electric knife to do it (extremely useful for roasts, turkeys, ham, and they don’t cost much!), but you can use a regular, sharp knife to do it – just cut it thin, like 1/8″ or so (doesn’t need to be exact)

Mix up all the other ingredients in a ziploc bag (or a bowl, whatever you want to marinade it in!) I zip the bag closed and mash it around with my hand to mix it up! Then place your meat in the bag and move it around to make sure all the meat is coated in the marinade. Marinade at least 30 minutes, or even better is overnight!

To cook it, place the meat under your broiler, or on a BBQ, or a griddle, or even a pan if that is all you have (we usually cover our broiler pan in foil, to help with clean-up/mess, and place the meat under our broiler) and the meat should cook up in less than 5 minutes, flipping once during cooking. It is thin and will cook up really fast!

Eat and Enjoy. Serve with rice and lettuce leaves and make a roll-up with them. Or stuff the meat in Steam Buns.

This meat is also DELICIOUS cold. We put the leftovers in the fridge and I will just munch on them cold. Seriously, it might be better cold then warm (if that is possible) so this would work well on a picnic or something also!

Kiva.org

Kiva.org

is one of my favorite organizations

It is a program

where you can LEND $25

to a person in another country

to start or help build their business

and make a living for themselves and their families

Having lived some of my teenage years

in different countries in Latin America

(my Dad worked for the US gov’t)

I saw so much suffering and poverty firsthand

It is something that is always with me

and I will always remember

and makes me realize how blessed I am in my life
It was quite the experience for a teenager
even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time

I love the idea of giving loans

rather than just giving money

brings about the adage

“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day,

Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime”

Ever since reading the books:

“Banker to the Poor“

and

“Creating a World without Poverty“

by Muhammed Yunus

I have been fascinated by the idea of micro-lending

and how if we all did a little

we could change the world

I then discovered Kiva.org

and all the money you lend goes straight

to the person you are lending it to

You get payments over the term

and can re-lend or take your money out

once it had all been repaid

It is an opportunity for me to help someone else out

peer to peer lending

possibly changing the life of someone and their family

in another country

Yes,

it makes me happy

and feels good to lend every month

We have been lending since 2008

(wow 5 years now!!)

and made 74 loans!!

For a limited time

you can lend $25 to someone for FREE!!

So why not give Kiva a try

It costs you nothing

(to try it out)

and you may just help change a life

Punishment

We took videos away

from our 7 year old today

as punishment for bad behavior

We don’t have tv,

but he loves watching Ninjago on YouTube

the last few days

or just about anything on kids Netflix

He is acting like it is the

END of the world

Seriously?

He rarely watches tv

(but because he has been watching Ninjago, he is a bit more invested in this punishment, since it is keeping him from watching the series)

and we didn’t take away

books, video games, toys, legos, etc.

So, there is PLENTY he could be doing

but he is moping around

whining about not being able to watch the videos

Maybe he will remember this the next time he wants to act out

but I find it funny

that he is freaking out

when he could just play a video game

or play with his legos

(which he normally does ALL the time!)

Like when we send them to their rooms

and it is the most HORRIBLE

thing we could do!

Even though their rooms

are full of toys!

Yeah,

I guess they just focus on what you took away

rather than all the stuff they could do instead

because let me tell you

I would LOVE for someone to send me to my room

Heck –

I’ll send myself to my room!

I guess it is good that they don’t realize that though

otherwise,

we will have to be more creative in their punishments 😛

Solar Party

Last night

we had our first Solar Party!!

It was alot of fun!

We invited a bunch of our friends over

I think there were like 22-24 adults

(plus kids!)

and our representative gave a presentation

about the Solar City program

and how it works

and people had LOTS of questions for him!

Then we had some dinner with everyone!

Pizza, sandwiches, veggies, fruit, chips, dip, cheesecake, cupcakes, cookies, caramel tres leches, soda, water bottles!

It was great fun to get together

with all of our friends

chat and catch up

and share this great program with them!

I should have taken pictures of all the food

’cause there was quite the spread!!

The above picture

is some of the swag that Solar City sent

for the party!

Once you are a Solar City customer

you can share the program with your friends

by throwing a party too!

Get together with friends

and hang out

and have some fun!

So what are you waiting for?

Have Solar City Give you your free consultation

and find out how you can lower and lock in your power rates,

use clean, renewable energy,

at NO cost to you!!

Happy Father’s day

Happy Father’s Day

to all those wonderful Father’s out there,

those soon to be father’s,

or those who are father figures to others

The role of a father

is such an important duty, responsibility,

and divine privilege

A good, kind father

makes all the difference in a child’s life

the role of which should be revered

and thought of as the best privilege

one can achieve in their life

Being a Father

has nothing to do with biology

it is all about being there and

loving unconditionally,

I am blessed with a wonderful father

who has always been there for us

cared for us,

provided for us,

and was a great father to us

I am blessed with a wonderful husband

who is seriously the best man

I could have ever asked to be the Father of my children

They adore him

and he adores them

When he is not working to provide for them

he is playing with them,

reading to them,

spending time with them,

Last night

(or would that be this morning?)

I was up with the 2 & 7 year old

until almost 1am

because they wouldn’t go to sleep

(I am sure everyone else’s kids are perfectly wonderful about going to bed :P)

Then I was up with the baby

at 6am

because he was having breathing problems

So I get out of the shower,

and I smell warm Cinnamon Rolls

(Recipe here)

coming out of the oven

He made the cinnamon rolls

(see above picture)

before he left for his own EARLY morning church meetings

on Father’s day!

Yep –

He’s a keeper!

So Happy Father’s Day

to all you Father’s

and all those who are Father’s in your hearts

Oreo Stuffed pancakes

This is what happens

when I send my husband home

after swimming,

to start dinner

while I run to the store for a few things

He starts experimenting!

I walk in the door

and he is like

“Want to try this?”

Me:

“What is it?”

“Oreo in pancake batter”

I give him an odd look

and almost didn’t try it

but I do love Oreos

so I tried it

OH.MY.

It was DELICIOUS!

I think it may just be my new favorite way of

eating Oreos!

The middle gets all melty

the cookie all soft

Mmmmm…

It sounds odd

But it is REALLY good!

Dang Husband and making delicious experiments

I think this could be a new craze..

Go try it out

They are really easy to make

and delicious!

Ingredients:

Your Favorite Pancake Mix – We LOVE Snoqualmie Falls Pancake mix
Oreos – We used my husband’s favorite, the chocolate stuffed ones (he doesn’t like the white filling in oreos, but likes the chocolate filled ones)

Directions

Make your Pancake Mix according to directions. Dip and cover your oreos in the pancake batter. Spray your pan or griddle with cooking spray, put the Oreo pancake in it and cook like you would a pancake. So it is as easy as making a pancake. Just a pancake dipped Oreo 🙂

Go try them – it is easy and I think you will be surprised how good they are!

Pictures of them cooking:

Lifetime 10′ Swing set for bigger kids

Lifetime® 10' Metal Swing Set - Do It Yourself

Our daughter has Autism

She LOVES to swing

We had an awesome

Little Tikes Swing Set
That we ADORED
when the two oldest were little
for MANY years
It was a well loved set!
She was getting to big for that one though
so we gave it to my brother and sister in law
for their little kids to enjoy
(and they are still loving it! It is great quality, and will last a long time)

So we graduated to a wooden swing set
with monkey bars, slide, and clubhouse
However,
after 2 years
she was just too hard on it
She loves to swing
HIGH, HARD, and FAST!
She managed to break one of the wooden
swing bars

My husband was fixing it
but it took about a week to do
(he still had to work!)
and that was a very difficult week
when she did not have her swing!

We quickly realized
that she is getting too big for the wooden swing set as well
and that she still really NEEDS a swing

our options were basically
industrial/commercial size sets
They are EXPENSIVE, big
(We do NOT have a large yard)
and have to be cemented into the ground

However,
we knew it was a need
and decided to get one
However, when looking around for one
we found this
LifeTime 10′ swing set
The reviews for it were great
and it was MUCH more affordable for us,
a better size for our yard,
and didn’t need cemented into the ground!

We thought we would give it a try
It was worth it to see if it would work out!

We get it within a week
Then we realized that some pieces were missing
so we contacted the company
and they sent the right pieces to us
and we had it by the next week

My husband was able to put most of it together in an hour or 2
but then we had to call his brothers to set it up
it is HUGE
and you will need some help setting it up right
but once it was upright
it was done!

We have had it over half a year now
and we love it!
She can swing HIGH and hard
(seriously, people ask us how she manages to swing so freaking high, even at the playground, no one can get as high as she can.. practice I guess!)
and we have no problems
It did jump from the ground at first
but I think it has settled now
and we don’t have that problem

We still have the wooden swing set
for the little kids
(since this one is too big for them!)
and we even added a tire swing to it 🙂
Which all the kids love!

So if you have an older kid that loves to swing
seriously check this swing set out!
Free shipping from amazon even!

If we can’t find my daughter
she is almost always to be found on the swing set
as soon as she is home from school
she is out there swinging
after coming home from just about anywhere
she is on her swingset!

It was worth EVERY penny
and if you have a child with Autism
it really is a NEED!

Crockpot or Stovetop French dip soup

I was almost hesitant

to add this to my summer crockpot challenge

because you don’t really need a crockpot to make it

and you have to caramelize the onions

outside of the crockpot

but since I did use my crockpot to bring it together

I will include it

I will tell you directions for the stove top as well 🙂

We were swimming last night until about 6:00

and then I had Zumba class

so my husband fed the kids while I went to class

I was STARVING by the time I came home

and I chowed down

I realized as I was scooping up my second bowl

that I should take a picture!

It was delicious!

We were using that same batch of sweet onions

we used for the French Onion Sandwich

I could have sat there

and dipped my garlic bread in that soup all night!

Mmmmm….

Ingredients:

4-6 large sweet onions

2-3 TBSP butter

Fresh ground pepper

Garlic – to your liking

6 cups of beef broth

1 lb Roast Beef

Garlic bread/toast

Directions:

Slice up your onions. I used my food processor to do it quickly! Melt the butter in a large pot. Put the onions in there and start to heat. Add the garlic and pepper to your liking. Now, you are going to want fairly high heat, or they will seemingly never caramelize. BUT on the high heat, you MUST watch closely as not to burn them. Add a bit of water if they start to burn before caramelizing. Stir often. For this many onions (I used 4 very LARGE ones) it took me about 20 minutes. Stir often until you start to get that delicious, creamy brown color on the onions. Now you could do this the night before and just put in the fridge to add to the soup in the morning in the crockpot.

If using a crockpot, put the 6 cups of beef stock (I used 1 can beef stock, 4 beef bullion cubes and 4 cups of water) in and then add in the onions. Turn on your crockpot for desired length of time – high for 4-6 hrs or low for 8-10. I mainly just put it in the crockpot to bring the soup together, and to keep it warm while we were out swimming and doing other activities and would be ready to eat when we got home 🙂

If on the stove stop – add in the 6 cups of beef stock to the pot the caramelized onions are in, and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer for as long as you wish – 5-10 minutes or longer if you want. Doesn’t take long.

Place your roast beef in a bowl. Spoon the soup over the beef. Dip your garlic bread in the soup or you can also just place the bread at the bottom of the bowl, put the roast beef on top of it, and then ladle the soup on top – your choice! I personally like to dip the bread in…. YUM!

ENJOY!