Lysol No Touch Hand Soap System $10.50

I've trained myself to use a coupon for everything and when, in the rare occasion, I don't, I put myself on a serious guilt trip. Well, here there's a coupon free deal at Amazon for Lysol No Touch Antibacterial Hand Soap System Vanilla Sugar and Spice, 2 Refills & Removable Cover at only $10.50. I was able to find this item by two different sellers at the same price. The Winterberry Sparkle is a holiday edition but both are $10.50 this morning and were originally $38. Anyone who wants to snatch this deal may want to do it quickly because they were going fast and Amazon prices can change in the blink of an eye. I won't be feeling guilty for this purchase.

Easter With Peeps

This Easter we made a bunch of Peep cupcakes. They turned out so cute that I wanted to post them.

The peep cupcakes were pretty easy since I used Betty Crocker yellow cake mix and vanilla frosting. I would have used my own scratch recipe but up against the clock, Betty Crocker won.

It was also the first time that our children boiled eggs and colored them. I usually fill the plastic ones and hide them but this time we set it up so that each older child and their buddy worked on the eggs together. It worked out very nicely, even with our 20 month old. What fun to watch them create. Next...the egg hunt for over 40 colored eggs.

Creating a special egg.

The final product.

The older always help the younger in our home.

Easter is all about the rising of the Son. Although our Easter celebration included some spring activities such as dying eggs and hunting for them, our Easter focus was always on glorifying our Savior. What a joy to be able to celebrate Salvation on another Easter Day!

Freebies to Snatch

Here are a couple of freebies that have surfaced up if you haven't already heard.

If you're near a Sheetz gas station and you have a My Sheetz Card, they're emailing customers with a free Jolly Ranchers candy offers that are good until 4/13 when you present your card. No coupon necessary to redeem this offer.

CVS has reportedly been emailing Extra Care customers with coupons for free candy or soda up to $2. Log in to your CVS Extra Care account to see if you received one.

Martins Foods has Maruchan Yakisoba Noodles 2 for $1. Use the coupon $.50/1 Maruchan Yakisoba from SS 3/11/12 (exp. 5/31/12) and get two packs of noodles for free! Remember that Martins only doubles up to four like coupons in a single transaction so eight of these packs per transaction should be free with one $.50 off coupon.

Fantastik Cleaning Spray With Scrubbing Bubbles Action Only $1

With the cleaning products coupons we're finding, it's a great time to stock up. Dollar General has Fantastik with Scrubbing Bubbles Action for $1.50. With the coupon for $.50 off on coupons.com, I was able to snag it for only $1.00. I also noted that the regular price for the Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom spray was regularly priced at $2.50. This was not for the new foaming action cleanser but for the original spray in the green bottle. So if you missed a 2 for $5 sale. Dollar General has these regularly priced 2 for $5.

Kitchen Creations - Cranberry Feta Salad

The girls and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's where we create moments that we'll remember for the rest of our lives. The girls will always remember the meals we've created, the recipes we've concocted and the things we've shared in our home kitchen. It's something that we enjoy so much that we're working on our first family cookbook.

Last night, we delved into our soul food roots with a bit of a throw back, fried fish. This wasn't just any fried fish. It's Christian's famous fried fish. It's flaky and well seasoned and it just has real flavor. We all enjoyed it very much. Although I can't put the recipe here, it's definitely one we'll have in the cookbook.

We also had Courtney make my favorite salad, Cranberry Feta. You can see it below. It's a very simple salad that I will share the recipe for.

Cranberry Feta Salad

Head of Red Leaf or Romaine Lettuce
Craisins
Feta Cheese Crumbles
Red Onion
Grape Tomatoes
Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette (Ken's)
Garlic Butter Croutons

Toss all together and add the croutons and you have one tasty salad.

Frying fish requires courage. Christian makes it look so easy.

Here it is on the plate with the Cranberry Feta salad.

Free Simple Facial Wipes at Target

I stopped in my Target today and found these Simple facial cleansing wipes on clearance for $1.68. I used my $2 off any one Simple Skincare product from SS 3/25 and took them home as a money maker.

The Start of Our Relaxed Hair Journey

Hair journeys can be really fun and watching the progress can be great. I've just started one with my 14 year old daughter's hair. Her hair type is 4A, a tight curl with an "S" pattern. However, I've just kicked this journey up a notch because I relaxed her hair about two weeks ago. As much as I struggled with this decision, she's really not a child who likes to put much time into her hair and becomes easily frustrated with it. However, now that she has chemically treated hair, we're doing a regimen that will be easy enough for her to do and will give her the achievement she's seeking.

This is going to be a bit challenging because we've moved from having natural hair that was already a bit fragile to having damaged hair in the sense of all chemical hair being technically damaged by the chemical that's in it. So we're now working with an even more fragile hair type that is going to need special attention. I know it sounds like I've added more responsibility to the already easily frustrated child; however, with the relaxer, she's achieved her ability to wear her hair in more versatile flat ironed styles.

So the key with her hair will be to keep it free from breakage while increasing its length. Since her hair is fairly short measuring 3-3/4" in the front, 4-3/4" on the sides, 3-3/4" in the back top and 2-3/4" in the lower back, I'll only allow her to flat iron her hair once weekly. Her other options will include a wrap without heat, a set with minimum heat, and twist outs.

Our hair regimen will include a shampoo spiked with a few drops of rosemary essential oil twice weekly. We are currently using Dr. Bonner's 18 in one Hemp Peppermint Castile Soap (diluted) for our shampoo with Doo Gro Mega Long Deep Conditioner once a week for 15 minutes under the hard dryer. The second shampoo will be conditioned using Aphogee 2 Minute Reconstructor Conditioner, no heat but a plastic cap for five minutes. We will also be using a hot oil treatment as needed. Our moisturizer will be coconut oil since it is easily absorbed by the hair and does not sit on the hair shaft as many oils do. We don't want oily hair but healthy, moisturized hair that shines as a result of its healthiness.

So we're starting our first shampoo today with the keratin conditioner and have noticed that no hot oil treatment is needed. Today we'll also be doing a wrap that we'll tie up with a doo rag and allow to air dry. We want to use as little heat as possible so that we don't encourage breakage, the opposite of our goal. Also because tomorrow we will use our one flat iron day and then we'll continue to wrap with the doo rag until our next shampoo, on Saturday.

I'm excited to see how this works and will post pictures and track measurements as we proceed.