The Sensible Mom

Legoland Fun

October 29, 2010 by Sandra 2 Comments

We were able to purchase tickets for Legoland for about 75% off from a local Radio Station in our area. Since we were able to get them so cheap and we’d never been there before, we decided to take the kids last Saturday. We learned two things. One, you can build some amazing things with legos like lifesize giraffes and tigers. And two, do not go to Legoland on a Saturday.

Here’s a peek at our fun day.

The best part, I think, was a 4-D movie that we watched. It was about 20 minutes long and sooo cooool. It was like the Lego movie characters were right in front of you, and when the wind blew in the movie, we’d also feel “wind” (aka fans blowing) or when water sprayed….we also felt water. Not quite like the movie, though. The movie character was spraying a fireman’s waterhose at us; I felt a couple drips on my forehead as a result, but I’m not complaining! 🙂

Friday Freebies

October 29, 2010 by Sandra Leave a Comment

This is a good one. Burger King is offering FREE coffee every Friday in November. You get a 12 oz. cup of Seattle’s Best Coffee for free during Breakfast hours. No purchase necessary. No coupon needed. These are the Friday dates you can stop by for your coffee:

Nov. 5th
Nov. 12
Nov. 19
Nov. 26 (You may need this one since this day is Black Friday!)

I’ll see you next month sweet coffee…

Thrifty Thursday: Frugal halloween tracts

October 28, 2010 by Sandra 6 Comments

Halloween. What to do with it as a Christian? Well…there are differing opinions. Some Christians would say that even though halloween has satanic roots, it is harmless today if you’re simply dressing your child up and walking them up and down the neighborhood to load up on candy.

Others opt not to celebrate it at all and turn off their lights on that day in the hopes that Jason or Freddie Kruegger don’t show up on their doorstep.

Where do we stand? Somewhere in the middle. We don’t celebrate halloween in our family. (And for anyone who is wondering, my children will not be scarred for life because of it.) My husband and I personally don’t demonize the day because every day belongs to the Lord. We have simply let our children know that we don’t celebrate this day and why.

And actually, I think the retail stores may be doing a better job of us at instilling the idea in our children that halloween isn’t something to be celebrated with their 5 foot moving tarantulas, goblins, and bloody masks. They don’t find those things to be friendly or humorous.

No, we’ll stay home on halloween, but we will keep our lights ON. We will welcome trick or treaters, and we will give them GOOD candy. And by “good candy” I don’t mean healthy, of course, but instead I mean the “good kind.” That means there will be no small baggies filled with candy corn passed out here! 🙂

We know we have to give out the good stuff because we are passing it out along with a tract lovingly homemade by Breanna, our eight year old daughter. Take a look.

It’s simple, free, and it comes with something of more value than gold in this life. God’s Word.

I decided to put only two verses inside of our pumpkins in the hopes that they’ll actually be read and reminded that Jesus loves them and died for them and if they receive Christ as their Savior, they will have their sins forgiven and eternal life with Him.

We are giving these out with good candy because well….it’s the same as when you leave a tract at a restaurant with the tip tucked inside, you want to leave a good tip with the tract in order to leave a fragrant aroma of who Christians are. Only Jesus can open eyes and save, but we can “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” by leaving a proper tip and giving out the good stuff on halloween. 😉

What does your family do for halloween?

For more Thrifty Thursday ideas, please visit the Coupon Teacher!

Works for Me Wednesday: Simple Dinners

October 27, 2010 by Sandra 1 Comment

Lately, with everything going on in our family, we have had to make some changes in order to simplify our life and utilize our time in the best way possible. So, we have simplified dinnertime. Instead of spending an hour cooking a meal, we’ve opted for simpler ways to feed our children that keeps them satisfied and us out of the kitchen for two hours every evening cooking and cleaning up afterwards.

The kids eat a normal breakfast of cereal or toast and then Ruben usually outdoes himself and cooks a meal for lunch that does require kitchen time but not too much. He’ll make something like hamburgers, conchitas or fideo (mexican sort of pasta soup dishes that are easy to make), pork chops, hot dogs, steaks, etc….. But he cooks around helping the two older kids with their schoolwork and trying to keep the two younger kids from doing something too dangerous (our boys are the picture of wild sometimes). I’ve actually been really impressed that he’s been doing this since we started school. He even cleans up afterwards! And has food ready for me when I get home!

So for the most part, Ruben handles lunch during the week.

Dinnertime is another story. Ruben and I normally have hours of work to do in the afternoons. Many times, Ruben has to start on homework shortly after I get home from school and before he leaves for his night class. I, in turn, try to start on homework about 2-3 hours after I get home from school and have had time with the kids. This means I don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen so dinner is usually something like leftovers from lunch, something easy to make like spaghetti, or something I can just throw in the oven like a frozen pizza. It’s simple, easy, and it works for the season of life we are in.

I cook with each of the three older kids once a week too, and we’ve made that super easy yet still enjoyable for them as well. Before we’d follow a recipe and make some elaborate thing like monkey bread that takes a ridiculous amount of time and effort to make from scratch…..now we put premade pillsbury cookie dough on a baking sheet and throw it in the oven. They’re still happy! And I’m happy! It works. 🙂

For more WFMW tips and ideas, please visit We are THAT Family!

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