Stretching His Blessings

Free Music from Matt Maher, Out Of Eden and Satellites & Sirens

2009-10-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Head on over to Itickets this week for a free download of Matt Maher's "Alive Again" and Out of Eden's "Rolling Stone". They are also offering a free music video download from Satellites and Sirens courtesy of VideoRocket.

Enjoy!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

What God Says About Money - Proverbs 22:7

2009-10-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

"Just as the rich rule over the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender."

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

Free Worship, Praise and Christian Music

2009-10-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

"Sing out your thanks to the LORD; sing praises to our God, accompanied by harps." Psalm 147:7

I LOVE music - especially the kind that lifts up praise to our LORD. Here is a listing of sites online that offer up free (and legal) worship and contemporary Christian music. Sometimes the downloads are from talented, but lesser known artists that are trying to get established and wanting to bless the world with their sound and other times they are from well known artists offering a sneak peek into a particular album. In either case, I have found that these free downloads are a great way to discover new sounds and add to your music collection. I will be adding fresh sites to this list as I can, so check back often.

Christian MP Free
Excellent listing of Indie Christian music (Indie simply means "independent", as in independent from any music label). As this site says, these artists are free from a larger, controlling unit (music execs and record label) and the music they turn out is generally driven by passion above money (not that major recording artists are not also driven by passion). In any event, the artists listed at this site have made some of their songs available at no cost in order to call attention to their work. I have found a couple of real gems on this sight.

Check out After the Chase's We Wait. I fell in love the first time I heard it and The Steves' Can You Imagine It - kind of Beatles-esque in its sweet simplicity. You'll also find a song off of Jars of Clay's Closer CD (not a fav of mine - I think they have much better -but very Jars of Clay, none the less).

Forerunner Media Group
A division of the International House of Prayer, this site offers some powerful music from the ministry's worship leaders and songwriters. As the website says, the artists represented by the Forerunner label are IHOP–KC worship leaders who express the message of abandonment to Jesus and love for Him through song, as King David did.

Through out the past 2 years or so, I have been tremendously blessed by the deeply soul stirring sounds of IHOP worship leader Misty Edwards. She is a MUST in my MP3 player. You'll find three of her songs offered up as freebie downloads, but I'd recommend investing in every one of her albums - she's just that good. I know this post is all about FREE music, but I'm just saying : ).

Anyway, at this writing, there are 18 songs that you can download for free available at this site. Getting your free download does require registration, but the songs you get in return are well worth it. Check out Justin Rizzo's Glory Will Cover The Earth and Matt Gilman & Cory Asbury's Holy - they are both simply beautiful. Julie Meyer's Alabaster Box and Audra Lynn's Without You are also well worth listening to.

If you are worried about registering - I registered and downloaded songs months ago and have never received spam from them.

The Secret Place
Ray Watson describes his music as an intimate, spontaneous and prophetic worship experience. I found many of his songs to be relaxing, contemplative and quite simply - soothing - making them a good choice for biblical meditation, quiet prayer time or just to leave on in the background to promote an atmosphere of calm and peace. Visit his ministry's website for 5 free downloads (you do have to provide an email address). There are also song samples to listen to at the site and he's offering a download of 43 songs from 6 albums for ANY donation amount.

Soaking.net
This site features free downloads of "music selected to facilitate genuine intimacy with God" through the practice of soaking. If you are not familiar with the term "soaking" don't let it intimidate you. As this site says - soaking is simply a word used to describe the action of "showing up" and being silent before God, letting Him pour His affection over you, letting Him reveal your heart and learning to become more familiar with His language. It is laying down before God with no other agenda than to meet with Him. It is whispering, "Father, I am here to be with you, I let go, I give you, I will do, work in me, heal, save, restore...".

You'll find an ecclectic mix of contemporary, instrumental, folk, blues, prophetic, and spontaneous prayer music. Really, there is something for most musical tastes and you do not need to practice soaking in order to enjoy the worship. I've personally been blessed to discover the music of Sean Dietrich , Derek Loux, the Hendrickson Family and Joshua & Jennifer Wymore at this site and listen to them both in and out of my prayer closet. Check it out and see what gems might be there for you.

Itickets
The Christian music concert promotion and ticket site invites registered users to stop by the site every week to receive free music downloads from today's top Christian artists. There are usually a few songs to choose from and they will send you an email whenever a new song is posted. Pretty cool.

Enjoy!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

Free Sample - Betty Crocker Potatoes

2009-09-22T21:47:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to pass along another free sample. Betty Crocker will send you your choice of either an AuGratin or a Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes sample just for signing up to receive their Dinner Made Easy newsletter via email.

Visit this link to the Better Crocker website to get your free sample! And don't forget to check out some of the other offers, coupons and give aways Betty Crocker has posted. Here's a direct link to their promotions page. There's actually quite a bit there.

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

Free Samples - Feminine Stuff

2009-09-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

Ok ladies, Always and Tampax are giving away free samples at their BeingGirl website. I requested mine a couple of weeks ago and got it today. Inside was 2 pantyliners, 1 pad, 1 feminine wipe and 3 Tampax Pearl tampons. But, the real bonus in this sample box was the coupon - good for 1 free 18 count pack of Always Infinity Pads. So, if you haven't already - hop on over and grab yourself a freebie.

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

Second Hand Find & A Buying Resale Tip - My Rice Bowls

2009-09-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here's my second hand find of the month. Aren't they cute? I picked up a set of four of these at a local garage sale. Guess what they cost? 25 cents. For all four of them! That's just a little over a nickel a piece.

If you don't already, I encourage you to get out there and browse those garage and yard sales. You just never know what little (inexpensive) treasure you might find. And buying used is a great way to stretch those dollars while at the same time keeping less stuff from finding its way to the landfill.

Just a little tip when shopping those yard sales - go near the end of the sale. I bought these right when the previous owner was about to close her sale down. She just wanted them gone and so she offered them to me for a quarter. See Mom... sometimes the late bird does get the worm. : )

Stretching His Blessings!
Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

Math Freebie - Online Addition Flash Cards 0-10

2009-09-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a tool I found and have used from the Study Stack website.

NOTE: For some reason, I can't get this to load properly on the blog. Visit the Study Stack website directly by clicking on the link and you can try out the full running version of these cards.

More flashcards, word search, and hangman provided by StudyStack.com

There are also a few other free practice tools at this site that you may find helpful. I've used these as a way to add variety to the practice and memorization of those basic math facts. Enjoy!

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

FREEBIE!!! Free Movie Rental at Redbox

2009-09-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Get a promo code for a one night free movie rental from Redbox. Simply go to Redbox.com and sign up with your valid email address. The link is right at the top of the home page. I did and within a half hour I'd received my promo code, drove to my closest Redbox, rented a movie and was back home making popcorn. Pretty cool!

Redbox is a pretty neat idea. Rentals are only $1.00 a day and you get all the way until 9:00 pm the next evening to return them. Technically, there are no “late fees”. You just pay $1.00 for every day that you keep the movie.

Ways to get even more Redbox free rental codes:

1. Sign up at the company's website to get special news, offers and codes emailed to you.

2. Sign up at the company's website to get a code texted to you on the first Monday of every month.

3. Watch for special offers at the Redbox machine itself. After I rented my movie, the screen informed me of a Catalina checkout coupon that would print with the purchase of two boxes of a certain type of cereal.

4. Check on line. Some loyal Redbox users regularly post and share new codes. One such website is called insideredbox .

A dollar movie is sweet, but a FREE one... ahhhh... so much sweeter!

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

What God Says About Money - Proverbs 31:18

2009-09-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

There is a list of qualities that are used to describe what has come to be known as the Proverbs 31 Wife.

One of them is...

She watches for bargains (Proverbs 31:18a).

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

Coupon TIP #1 - Combine Them With Sales

2009-09-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

A coupon will save you some money, a sale will save you some money... but a coupon and a sale used together? Now, that's where the real savings comes from!

One of the most important tricks to getting the biggest bang for your coupon buck is to buy an item that's on sale and then use a coupon to get an even deeper discount.

Let me illustrate:

Suppose you have a 35 cents off coupon that you want to use to purchase a thingamajig that regularly costs $1.49. Here's how the savings breaks down:

Regular Cost: 1.49
Coupon: .35
Final Cost: 1.14

Total Savings: .35 or about 23%

Not bad.... now let's suppose that you use that same coupon... BUT this time you use it when the thingamajig is on sale. Here's how the savings breaks down:

Regular Cost: 1.49
Sale Cost: .99
Coupon: .35
Final Cost: .64

Total Savings: .85 or about 57%

Much Better! This is what is called strategic shopping and its one of the best ways to use coupons.

How I Got Free Mints

Let me share a recent example of this from my own shopping experience - Lifesavers Wint-O-Green Mints – love em! And for the past few months I have been getting bags of them for free using this "strategic shopping" method. Yes – I said FREE.

You see, Lifesavers is running a promotion where on the inside of each specially marked bag is a coupon for $1.00 off. The bags regularly sell for around 2.19 or so a bag, but in recent months every few weeks my local Kroger has been putting these on sale for a buck each.

So... the long short of it is that I can buy a bag during the sale, use my $1.00 off coupon and get it for free. FREE. But one of the unique bonuses to this whole deal is that inside my FREE bag is another coupon for $1.00 off that I can use to get ANOTHER free bag. One night I went through the checkout with 4 bags of mints and 4 coupons and paid something like 4 cents (tax). Truly magical. Major score for my wallet, not so much for my teeth :)

But think about it, had I not waited for the sale I would have paid something like $4.76 for those 4 bags of mints by using my coupons alone. Which while that isn't bad.... I'd rather pay 4 cents. :)

So – combine your coupons with sales and watch the savings skyrocket!

Stretching His Blessings,

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!

Free $25.00 Target Gift Card Offer for Chicago Tribune Subscribers

2009-09-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Stock.Xchng Svilen001

I just got this promo offer in the mail today and thought I'd pass it on. I subscribe to the Chicago Tribune Sunday edition (mainly for the coupons :)) and they sent me an offer today that I can't refuse.

Basically, if you're a current subscriber you can get a free $25.00 target gift card just for switching your billing / payment option over to their Easy Pay auto debit. Easy Pay is just your standard auto debit payment program (no stamps, no checks, no fees). It's free to join and your subscription gets automatically charged to your credit card, debit card or checking account each billing period.

From what I understand - the offer is limited to new Easy Pay subscribers only and expires October 2, 2009 or until supplies last.

So, if you are a current subscriber that wants to switch over to Easy Pay give them a call and see if your account qualifies for the gift card. I just did and I'll get an extra $25 to spend at Target in the next few weeks. Sweet!

1-800-TRIBUNE
Offer code #59

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

UPDATE: 10/08/09. I got my Target gift card in the mail yesterday. Sweet! Although this particular promotion has expired, be sure to check with the Trib to see if they have other promotions running.

Coupons. Can You Really Save That Much?

2009-09-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've seen or heard about these super coupon gurus that go into the grocery store and knock a $150.00 grocery bill down to $2.50 simply by handing over a pile of clipped coupons. And I'm sure you've wondered if what you were seeing was real.

So what do you think? Is it real? Can you really save that much?

The answer is - yes and no – yes, you really can save a lot. But, no you probably won't be able to cut your weekly bill down to pennies on the dollar. You see, whenever they challenge a coupon guru for a news story she will usually only purchase items in which she has a coupon for and you'll notice a hodge podge of different items in her cart. The point of the news story is to demonstrate the potential of coupons, not to show an average mom using coupons to feed her family for the week.

Realistically, you'll probably never have a coupon for EVERY item you need to buy and probably not even for most of them. The majority of food coupons are for packaged goods so if your cart tends to be heavy on the fresh produce, meat and bulk dry goods you'll probably not have enough coupons to get the results those gurus do.

But, don't let this chase you away from coupons. There is a real savings potential here. I have personally saved $100's of dollars just in this past year alone by using them. I've benefited from them so much that it is honestly hard to spend money on an item without first checking to see if I have a coupon for it.

There are a few tips and “tricks” that should be learned to maximize savings (and I'll be writing more about them in the weeks ahead), but really it's pretty simple. Buy an item, hand over a coupon... $AVE! Pretty cool.

Stretching His Blessings,

Cristine

Freezing Fresh Corn

2009-09-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

So last week I got a pretty sweet deal on corn on the cob from Highlander (aka - Krogers). At 19 cents a piece, I grabbed a few bucks worth. The hubby made some for dinner (they were delish) and I prepped the rest for the freezer.

If you have never frozen fresh corn before, I encourage you to try it. With a few simple kitchen tools and a bit of time you can take advantage of in season corn prices and stock up your freezer with healthy, fresh veggies.

So how do you go about freezing corn? Some people freeze it straight up, without much prep... but all my research confirms this as a big no-no. I guess corn - like all veggies - contains enzymes that help it as it grows. But these enzymes, while great for growing, are bad for storing. Left unchecked, they eventually cause color, texture, flavor and vitamin loss which kind of defeats the purpose of freezing. And no – the freezing cold temps of the freezer alone won't kill them.

And so what do we do to ensure that the frozen corn we eat 3 months from now more closely resembles the fresh corn we start with today? We blanch.

Blanching simply means to scald in boiling water. And I mean boiling... like an angry, hissing, pot shaking kind of boil. Yep, that's what it takes to stop or at the very least slow down those pesky enzymes. Make sense?

Ok... so here's how I prepared my super fresh sweet corn for the long, cold deep freeze and how you can too.

Things You'll Need

Several ears of fresh corn on the cob
2 Large bowls, one filled with cold ice water
1 Large pot of boiling water
1 pair of kitchen tongs
1 knife
Ice
Strainer
Freezer storage bags

Steps You'll Take

Clean and Prep
Blanch
Shock
Dry and Cut
Pack and Freeze

Clean and Prep
Start with fresh corn. The fresher the better. Freezing doesn't improve the quality, so make sure to start off well to end well.

Prepare the corn by removing the husks and the silk. I usually leave the cob ends on so that I have something to grab onto when cutting the kernels off later. You can too if you'd like and if your pot is wide enough to accommodate. Otherwise, just cut them off.

Rinse each ear in cool running water and if necessary lightly scrub the corn with a soft bristle vegetable brush to remove any left over husk and/or silk. Use a vegetable wash if you'd like.

Blanch
Fill a large pot ¾ full with water. Heat until you get that enzyme killing, full rolling, angry boil I was talking about earlier. Have the lid ready for later.

Fill one of the large bowls with ice and water. The water has to be super cold to stop the corn from cooking once it comes out of the hot water – so don't skip the ice. You can also fill a sink with ice water and skip dirtying an extra bowl.

Place a few of the ears of corn into the boiling water. You want the water to continue to boil or return to a boil quickly as you add the corn – so go slow and don't add too many ears at once. If the water should stop boiling for a prolonged period of time, you have probably added too many ears and will need to remove a couple.

Cover the pot and begin timing once the water has returned to a rolling boil (hopefully less than one minute). Set your timer for 8 – 11 minutes. Blanch small ears for 7 minutes and medium for 9 minutes and large ears for 11 minutes. Pay close attention to the amount of time you blanch. Too much time will overcook the corn creating a mushy texture and flavor loss. Too little time can encourage enzyme activity and result in flavor, color, texture and vitamin loss.

Shock
Remove the corn from the pot once 7 - 11 minutes has elapsed and plunge immediately into the bowl of ice water. Leave them for 16 – 22 minutes or double the blanching time. This will stop the corn from cooking, which is vital to maintain the texture, flavor, color and vitamins.

Dry and Cut
Remove from the ice water and drain well. Remember that any extra water left on the corn will form ice crystals once the corn is frozen and damage the kernels – so get it good and dry. I let the corn rest in a strainer for a few minutes and then pat dry with a paper towel.

Trim the corn for end use. You basically have three options here - leave as a whole cob, cut cob in half to create mini cobs or strip the cob with a sharp knife or corn cob cutter to create nibblets. I usually just use a sharp knife, but have heard some good things about the Kuhn Rikon corn zipper.

Pack and Freeze
Once your corn is cut up just the way you like – FREEZE! The corn, that is. I know... bad joke. Anyway, place the corn in freezer quality plastic bags and remove as much air as possible...

But wait... before you do that... let's talk about flash freezing. Flash freezing allows you to use one big bag to hold several portions. Because each piece is individually frozen prior to storage, you minimize the chances of several pieces of corn freezing together into one huge frozen clump of corn (YUK). When you're ready to use, you just open the bag, pour out what you need and return the rest to the freezer. To flash freeze simply spread out the pieces of corn, single layer on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer until just solid. This usually takes 30 minutes to an hour or so... just keep checking in on it. Once frozen, place in the freezer bag.

Or... you can skip the flash freezing and freeze the corn in single meal serving sizes. In this case it doesn't really matter if there is some clumping because it will all get worked out once the corn is cooked.

Before you freeze, remember - the primary enemy to any type of food storage is air... so be sure to get as much of it out as you can. Personally, I love using my Reynolds Handi Vac.It was pretty cheap when I bought it, it's convenient, space saving and has held up really well. I once kept a refrigerated head of lettuce for about 5 months (YIKES!) freshly sealed in a Reynold's freezer bag using my Handi Vac.

Your frozen corn can be kept for up to 12 months. To cook, simply microwave or boil from frozen. Do not thaw.

So that's that... fresh summer corn today... frozen summer corn tomorrow. I just want to take a minute to thank You Lord, for sweet corn.

Stretching His Blessings,

Cristine

As a side note: I have learned that Ziploc's vacuum freezer bags will work just as well with the Reynold's Handi Vac. Which was good to know since many of my local stores have discontinued selling the Reynold's bags for some reason. Wah!

A Frugally Green Score – Contractor Cleanup Bags at Menards

2009-09-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

De-cluttering has been a goal of mine for quite some time now. Putting an end to my procrastination...yet another goal. Let's just say that up until recently the de-cluttering goal has fallen victim to my failure to meet the procrastination goal. : )

And so today I decided to do something... anything... to dig in and start de-cluttering. Not that I was really ready to roll up my sleeves and get busy on a sunny day like today, but in the spirit of taking one small step toward the bigger goal... I decided to at least purchase a box of contractor cleanup bags for when I am ready to go for it.

I just love using contractor bags for cleaning things out. They're big and they're tough and they can hold TONS of stuff without stretching or splitting apart. They are exactly what one needs to get lots of stuff down a couple of flights of stairs, into and out of the trunk of a car and safely into the Goodwill collection box.

I don't think Menards is a nationwide chain, but they are a pretty big home improvement store here in northern Illinois and that is where I went to grab some bags.

So here's my great score... Resolution Super Tough Contractor Bags. A box of 20 was originally priced at $6.99, but marked down to $4.99 AND came with a $2.00 merchandise mail in rebate... making the total cost $2.99. And here's the other awesome thing – the bags are 100% degradable, made with 65% recycled plastic and come in a 100% recycled paperboard box. Now, I'm not sure if that's green overkill or not, but I'm thrilled anytime I can go green and save green at the same time.

Now - I just have to pray that the LORD grants me the strength to actually use those bags....

Stretching His Blessings!

Cristine

*If you have a Menards near you and are in need of these bags – the rebate is valid on up to 2 boxes purchased through September 7, 2009.

What is Stretching His Blessings all About?

2009-08-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

Frugal: economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful

Stretching His Blessings is a blog about living a frugal life that stretches the blessing and provision we have been given by and through the Lord. I hope this will be a fun, yet practical place where we Christian Moms can learn from one another about everyday ways to "stretch" and make the most of the resources the Lord has given us to take care of our families, our homes, our communities and our selves. From saving money to preparing wholesome meals to living more natural, contented lives - the Stretching His Blessings blog is sure to have something for everyone. I hope you'll stop by often and see what God has in store for us.

In the meantime...

Thank you for visiting and God bless you!

Cristine

God provides. You are blessed.... make the most of it!