Book #1: From Jesus to Christianity

I have finished my first book of the year. I thought I would keep track here just for fun.

The book I read was From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith by L. Michael White. I thought it was well written and balanced. He took the time to present several different beliefs from Bible scholars on some of the controversial topics. He doesn't make his bias obvious he just presents what is known. Sometimes that is not very much! There was so much information presented in this book that it took me awhile to read it.

It was very exciting to learn more about what the world was like leading up to the time of Jesus and for the first few hundred years. I learned more about the culture than I knew previously. I enjoyed learning more about Paul and his writings and the forgeries. It is also fascinating to see the likely order in which the gospels were written. The author is able to show what types of beliefs and other writings that helped shape what we now call the New Testament.

This is a great book for Bible scholars, historians, students of religion or anyone who wants to learn more about one of the world's largest religions.

Random Thrifty Thoughts & Cheap Family Night

Tonight my family went out together to hang out. We had $11.75 left on a gift card that had started to lose money that we needed to spend.

So we went to Whole Foods to spend it because that is where we determined we could get the biggest bang for our buck.

We got:

*3 Free kid club HUGE bakery cookies
*some bulk cinnamon sticks 1oz $0.40
*new lid/cap for my SIGG bottle $2.49--got charges $3.99!!!
*Annies Bunnie Cereal ($1 coupon) $2
*Organic Ice Cream 1.5 qt $5.99

Okay, so I'm kinda ticked that our night would have been FREE if they hadn't overcharged me. I was too busy playing with my kids to notice.

Anyway, while I was there I looked at the Vanilla Beans to see if they sold them in bulk. HAHAHA! No.
Whole Foods brand sells ONE bean in a GLASS JAR the size of a regular spice jar. It cost $4.xx!!! Or Frontier sells 2 beans in a tube for $11.99!!!

No thank you!

When I got home I looked at Amazon thinking about my Swagbucks. I have been able to "purchase" some Amazon Gift Cards with my Swagbucks.

The best deal on vanilla beans is 1/4 Frontier "certified organic" for $35 (no free shipping) or 1/2 pound of premium for $24.99 (no free s/h).

Then, I went to eBay since that was the last place I bought them. GREAT DEALS!!! I can get 1/2 lb of extract grade beans for about $15 shipped. I will be purchasing these to make my vanilla extract for Christmas gifts this year. I need to buy soon so the extract can do its thing all year.

See how much money can be saved by research?!? It amazes me! Plus, this means I can save my Amazon GC's for a better deal in the future.

Thank you for reading my random thrifty thoughts. I'd love to hear yours!

We Did It! Unplugged Week is Over

We made it a whole 9 days without watching TV! In many ways it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

My oldest did perfectly! So did my husband, baby and I.

My 4 year old was out of preschool for the whole week. She watched about 2 hours of movies on Wednesday. So she made it 4 days before that and 4 days after that.

I still count us as successful!

Denver Botanic Gardens

Today we went to the Denver Botanic Gardens with our playgroup friends. It was a FREE day which is awesome. We haven't missed TV at all this week. Activities like this make it easy.
There were a ton of people and we had to park several blocks away, but it was not a big deal. Lots of strollers and wheelchairs everywhere.
The kids enjoyed playing in a sandbox, rolling down a hill and walking through a tropical rain forest.

National TV Unplug Week!

My family is participating in National TV Unplug Week this week. I am very excited about it and I've been looking forward to it for a few weeks now.
We already have been doing TV free weekends since February with great success. We get a lot more done and enjoy doing things together more.
As part of this unplugged week I will be spending far less time online. I could do without TV just fine, but the Internet is my weakness.
We put together a schedule of activities and things to accomplish this week. We are lucky that the weather is supposed to be nice so we can go to the park and take walks when boredom hits.
Here are some of the things we plan to do:
*Library
*Botanic Gardens-Free day!
*Pirate Ship Pool (community center)
*Chuck E Cheese (just play, free tokens and coupon)
*Yard work
*Grocery store
*Michaels-free crafts on Saturday + buy a few crafts for home
*Cub scouts-Pack meeting

Have you ever done a TV free week? Are you unplugging your family this week? What are some free or cheap entertainment ideas you have done together?