Of Birthdays and Beanstalks: Reaping What We Have Sown

The birthday bean debacle, it turned out later, was a mitigated (as opposed to unmitigated) disaster. While not fun at the time, those beans showed me something. They humbled me, like the mother in the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, or the naysaying parents in Crockett Johnson’s book, The Carrot Seed. “Will the beans grow?” No, was my arrogant reply to my five-year-old daughter’s hopeful query. About a week later guess who was the first to notice and identify the clusters of bean seedlings that had sprung up in the lawn?















We transplanted a handful of bean seedlings to areas of the yard that would not be mowed, including the sparsely planted garden box. Despite my husband’s plan to mow the bean plants down, fate intervened. The task of mowing (which I actually enjoy) fell to me. I mowed most, but not all of the remaining bean plants, chopping them to smithereens. Three plants I spared, leaving them standing in the middle of the lawn. A few more seeds have sprouted since.















Another lesson for me. Parsley reminded me that hardship and perseverance can yield growth (see the earlier post from November 2008). These beans evoked the parable of the sower that Jesus told, with the final results still unknown. And they also admonished me: I was too quick to quash the curious hopes of a child’s optimism. And I had to admit to my daughter that I was wrong.

Backyard Birthday Party: Ideals vs. Realities

The glorious event I envisioned for my daughter's fourth birthday did not take place. We still managed to have a good time anyway. Including our family, there were 12 kids and 6 parents who came to celebrate.

The Vision

I planned to have my daughters set up stations for games and activities in the back yard hours ahead of time. I had numerous dishes and desserts planned to feed the party goers. I hoped to make more party treat bags,like this eco-friendly gift bag, from cardboard boxes and Sunday comics, for each of the kids who came.


The Reality

In case rain forced us from the backyard into our tiny, not-so-spotless house, I made a birthday sign. I taped it on a wall in our house to cover over pre-existing "artwork." The good news was that it didn't rain and we could stay outside. But then the time and effort on the birthday sign was made irrelevant. No one even saw it.

There was plenty of food, even without the additional variety of foods I had thought of serving, Predictably popular was the crock pot full of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We also served hot dogs in a blanket, grilled chicken, bean and corn salad, and strawberries. I had to put off my plan to garnish dessert with chocolate dipped strawberries for another day.

Treat bags? Time was running out and I realized that making 12 eco-friendly bags would take too much time. So I found printable bags and customized them for our party. They turned out well, but making a dozen took quite a while. Coloring the designs was a fun activity for my daughters.

The pinata was fun to make and the kids enjoyed filling it before the party. I did take about 3 hours to create it (I have since developed a quicker 2-hour version, seen here). We used an empty frozen pizza box and newspaper, which we covered with fringed tissue strips. The kids did enjoy breaking the pinata, however, which was gratifying.



Other games and activities were not prepared before the guests arrived. So we had a couple of random game attempts after the meal, which involved beans and paper plates. The beans were a conflict-filled disaster never to be repeated. Paper plate frisbees proved slightly more amusing.

The kids were eager to sing "Happy Birthday" and taste the ice cream cone cupcakes we had made (which I had hastily frosted while my daughter was freaking out during the bean game). My four year old finally came back to join the party on about the fourth round of the "Happy Birthday" song. Thankfully the celebratory spirit of her friends helped get the party back on track.

The Upshot

Will we do another party at home? Certainly. While I recognize the allure of hosting a party elsewhere, we think it is valuable to extend hospitality at our home. It is not easy with young children, but worthwhile. Next time we just need to start preparing further ahead of time. This was the second time for me to make a pinata, and I wasn't sure it was worth the time. But it could be a special tradition in our family, so perhaps we'll decide to continue doing the pinata at our backyard parties. With three kids, plenty of opportunities to improve our party planning and management are still to come!

Cutting the Cost of Coupon Printing

I have been and always will be, I think, a coupon fanatic. In addition to the Sunday paper option, I appreciate high value coupons that I can print at home. But what I don’t like is the expense of the ink and paper I have to use for printable coupons. So I try to cut costs and conserve natural resources in several ways:

1. I select my printable coupons carefully.

If there’s less than a 50% chance I will use the coupon, I avoid printing it. I can always print it out later if I find a killer deal. Moneysavingmom.com is a great resource for discovering amazing deals with coupons. As an example, that website showed me how to get a box Kashi waffles for 29 cents.

2. I use my paper twice.

That is, I print on the back side of single-sided printed pages. If I am careful, I can turn the page around and get a third print, but this can backfire if one or more of the coupons get printed over on the next run. I then lose the coupons where I have reached the print limit, which is a shame.

3. I print in black and white when possible.

My husband’s home office has a black and white laser printer. The cost-per-page to print off such a printer is almost always cheaper than using my Canon color inkjet. I have not been able to switch my printer to black and white mode when printing coupons, so I opt for the laser printer if it is available.

4. I have my printer cartridges refilled.

For my Canon printer, Cartridge World is the best place for local ink refills that I have found. Other people like to have their cartridges cheaply refilled by online vendors or at office supply stores.

Using these four printing strategies, I am able to save much more money using printable coupons, while cutting the printing costs. It irks me when I can’t use a coupon that I’ve spent the time and ink to print. So I also have to limit how much time I spend scouting and printing out coupons. That is why I have found the tips at money saving websites so useful. The coupon tips help save me time and money!

My favorite money saving website:

MoneySavingMom

Additional perspectives on cutting coupon printing costs can be found here.