Merry Christmas. Enjoy your family and may your fondest wishes come true.

*Not my photo: Flickr-Melanie Hughes

Our financial situation is causing me to get creative for Christmas. I’m actually enjoying the challenge.  John and I picked up a couple of things on Black Friday, but otherwise, we’re going to be making most of our Christmas gifts.

I am pretty excited about a project I’m working on for Rhys: felt food. I’m inspired by this Japanese site (click on the links and prepare to be amazed by the vast array of felt foods), though I assure you that mine won’t be nearly as fancy or diverse.

I’m also taking some inspiration from this awesome crafster, and this amazing crafter. Okay, now that you’ve seen all the links, you want some felt food for yourself, don’t you? I admit, the thought of playing with all that food is very exciting. I just hope I can pull off a few pieces by Christmas. And that Rhys likes them.

I’ll try and take some pictures of my finished products and showcase them next month. Plus, I have other homemade gifts in the works that are pretty fun as well. I haven’t done any crafting in a while, so this just makes me happy.

I think that in the littlest bird household, we’ve reached the end of our rope. It’s so hard to stay positive when hard things are happening to you, but we’ve managed to stay pretty upbeat given the circumstances. I don’t want to rehash all the things leading up to this post, so just imagine sickness, disease, car accident, multiple family members in the hospital, and the loss of the meager income we relied on. Those are some of the main things, though it doesn’t really scratch the surface.

Yesterday we recieved a miracle. Quite a big one, and I was overwhelmed with gratitude and humility. But then I looked at our bank account today. I’m tired of wondering whether we will survive beyond the next month. I’m tired of spending all my time either worrying or trying to boost my small income while taking care of a one-year-old and failing to keep our house from becoming the aftermath of a tornado. I’m tired of my husband being treated poorly by the people who should appreciate him.

Is any of this going to end? I don’t even know. I try to have faith that “things will work out” and that there’s something to be learned from this. You know what I’ve learned? That NOTHING can be counted on. You might have a good job and a big bank account right now (I don’t know that person, but theoretically), but tomorrow it could be gone. Your family members could be gone tomorrow. All you have is people and time right now.That’s an important thing to learn, I suppose.

But I still hate wondering if we’re going to be homeless next month. I’ve had about enough stress for one year. There don’t seem to be any jobs on the horizon to rescue us, either. I just don’t know what we’re going to do.

If you know me, you don’t need to ask how I’m doing. Because I’ll tell you right now: not good. And I’m tired of pretending otherwise.

I feel very blessed right now and realized that I usually think about the things in my life that bother me. It’s time to focus on what I’m thankful for. So here are the things I feel thankful for today:

• An amazing husband. I can’t take him for granted because I know what it’s like to wonder if the right guy will ever come along. (He did.)
• A loving son. Rhys is so happy and loving. He makes everything in my life better.
• Our own washer and dryer. Seriously. Using the laundry facilities in the dorms at UT Austin has helped me realize how spoiled we are.
• Family! Some of my family is going to be driving for many hours tomorrow to come and see us. We are so excited.
• The fact that God is taking care of us financially. We had some setbacks recently, but I know we’re in good hands.
• Living for a month in downtown Austin. I love taking Rhys for walks on campus and being so close to everything.

And that’s it for today. I’m going to try and pay more attention to the many wonderful things in my life and will report back.

So lately I’ve been trying to train my boy to fall asleep on his own. He is almost 9 months old, and until now, I’ve bounced him to sleep (on an exercise ball) while singing songs. It worked in the past, but now he cries and tries to get away from me. I needed to try something new.

But training him to fall asleep definitely has its obstacles:

• I’m not comfortable letting him cry alone in his crib. I know some people do it, but it’s not cool for me. My son knows I am here for him, and when he cries, there is always a reason.
• When I put him into his crib awake (or even partially awake), he laughs and starts playing. What does he play with? The crib bars, the sheets, his hands, his clothing. In other words, anything.
• He doesn’t use a pacifier, which is generally good, but using one would probably help him soothe himself to sleep.
• He doesn’t use a “lovey” (a special sleeping toy). He really hasn’t taken to anything. And even if he did, he’d just play with it.

So this task is definitely not easy. How am I doing it? I’m very loosely following The No-Cry Sleep Solution, which is a great book for anyone who wants their baby to sleep more without forcing them to cry it out.

Last night was day one. I changed him and fed him for the night. He was nearly asleep but woke right up when I put him in his crib. So I took him out and sang a couple of songs. His current favorites are “This Old Man” and “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” Oh, and he also enjoys “Rainbow Connection” and “What I’ve Been Looking For.”

I put him back into his crib, patted his back as he thrashed around and even started crawling. I had to keep telling him to lie down and go to sleep. He didn’t, of course. So I picked him up again and rocked him for a minute, then back into the crib for more pats on the back, which led to more thrashing.

I could tell he was tired and trying to go to sleep, but it took probably 1/2 hour of me patting him and taking him in and out of the crib. I left him in there as long as he wasn’t crying or trying to stand up. Thankfully, he didn’t cry. But he did try to stand a few times, which is when I would take him out and start the cycle over again. Eventually, he found a comfortable position and went to sleep. Oi.

Let’s hope he gets the drift soon. I feel confident that he will.

Do you remember the days when I used to write several blog posts a week, and I would write about anything that came into my head, whether the thoughts were deep, dark, crazy and too personal? No, you probably don’t. That was several years and blogs ago.

I’m beginning to itch for beauty in my life. I need poetry. I need passion. I need to share my thoughts. Don’t know how I’ll find the time, but maybe I’ll make time somehow.

The above picture is me, but it’s not a self portrait. Maybe I’ll post one soon.

So stay tuned. To any readers I may have, I wish you all the best for a healthy, happy holiday. May your new year start out well. See you then.

• Use sites like Southern Savers and Money Saving Mom to give you ideas each week of what to buy at CVS. They give good scenarios and coupons you can use.
• CVS has monthly deals, weekly deals, and 2-day deals. Make sure to check out all of them.
• There are often CVS coupon booklets when you first walk into the store. Look for it and snag one when you can.
• If CVS doesn’t have one of the sale items you want, tell the cashier. My CVS writes a raincheck, so I can come in another time to get the item. I even get the ECBs that go along with it.
• Save all your receipts! They have your ECBs on them, and they also usually have good coupons on them as well.
• Your ECBs print seperately, not all in one lump sum. So if you earned $14 in ECBs from 3 different items, you’ll get 3 seperate ECBs, like $9, $3, and $2. This comes in handy because then you don’t have to use them all at once.
• If you use a $9 ECB receipt and only buy $5 of stuff, the other $4 is gone, so you’ll want to coordinate it so you don’t waste them.
• ECBs have an expiration date. I think it’s a month.
• You often have to do multiple transactions in order to maximize your free stuff. The first time I did it, I planned out 5 seperate transactions so I could keep using ECBs that printed out to get my next items. I felt dumb, but the cashier acted like it was totally normal. (Example: I have $4 ECBs, and I can buy lipgloss for $4 and get $4 in ECBs. Limit of 3 lipglosses. I would do 3 transactions in order to get them all for free.)
• Sometimes, in order to get the most ECBs, you may be getting free stuff you don’t really need. Some people aren’t comfortable with that. I look at it this way: I can give the stuff to someone I know who needs it or even donate it to a shelter or charity organization. You can still do CVS without getting stuff you don’t need, but you will maximize the deals if you do.
• Plan your transactions in advance, but bring calculator to the store with you. If they’re out of an item you want, it can mess up your whole plan!
• You may make a mistake or two with this. I’ve made several, but they’re still awesome deals, and I figure I’ll get better at it over time.

Feel free to ask me any questions you want to. I was very intimidated by CVS at first, and I’m still no expert by any means, but I’m very happy to share what I know. If you’re nervous, start small and build up to doing more. Though with the awesome deals coming up next week, you may just want to jump right in!

There was more stuff, but my husband drank some of the evidence (another coke and gatorade). But you get the idea. This is $120 worth of stuff, and I paid only $20 for it. (I would have paid even less, but I screwed up a little.)

Anyway, the best part about it is that now that I’ve put some initial money into it, I will keep getting free or nearly free stuff indefinitely because of ‘Extra Care Bucks’, or ‘ECBs’, as the lingo goes.

Basically, CVS has different ECB deals each week, where if you buy an item, you get a certain number of ECBs back. ECBs are essentially the same as cash. So for example, one of their deals this week is contact solution. You pay $8.99 for the solution, and you get $8.99 in ECBs back.

Because I already have ECBs from last time, I simply walk into the store, pick out the contact solution, and give them my $8.99 in ECBs. They give me the same number of ECBs back, and I walk out with contact solution for free, with ECBs to use for next time.

What makes it even better, though, is coupons. You can go here to get a $2 off coupon for the contact solution. So they will ring up the contact solution for $8.99, and I give them the $2 off coupon. I can then use those extra $2 to buy anything I want. I’m planning to buy a Powerade with those 2 extra dollars. Powerade costs $1.59, but I’ll get $1.59 back in ECBs. So in that transaction, I will give CVS $8.99 in ECBs, and get contact solution, a Powerade, and $10.58 back in ECBs to use next time.

The more coupons you have, the better the deals get! If my explanation isn’t making sense, Southern Savers has a great CVS tutorial. Check it out if you’re interested in getting into the CVS thing. And then go to CVS and sign up for their card.

And do it soon! Because on the 21st and 22nd of this month, you will be able to get a crapload of free stuff from CVS. Seriously. Check it out here. Most weeks are NOT this good – most of the time there are just two or three totally free items. The really sad part is that I will probably be miles and miles away from any CVS on those days. So if you can take advantage of it, do! And then tell me how it went in the comments. Because if I can’t do it, I want to know that someone did!