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There are so many wonderful snack choices at Aldi so I plan to highlight some of my faves this month. The first thing you should know about me is I have a serious sweet tooth! I have found this to be even more true while breastfeeding my daughter. I crave anything sweet! But as we all know sweets can be pretty terrible for you. Thankfully, Aldi has some awesome choices for healthier sweet snacks.

It’s true – Aldi sells quite a few organic items under their Simply Nature line.

These are just a few of my favorites!

Organic pasta sauce, salsa and chicken broth are a few of my favorite items. I also found this “seeds of change” packet the other day, certified organic. I have also tried their organic milk, pasta, salad dressing, coffee, honey, and beef (more on the beef later).

I’m not a foodie by any means but everything I have tried tastes great! Aldi is constantly adding new organic items to their Simply Nature line. You will pay a bit more than if you were to just buy the non-organic items. But if you follow a strictly organic diet at least you know you can find certified organic items for less at Aldi!

Just an FYI on this series – Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays will typically be short and sweet. I don’t usually blog on the weekends but I’m going to give you short posts about some of my favorite Aldi finds. YAY!

Since it’s Friday (holla!) it seems only natural to discuss wine. Because TGIF and this mama needs a drink.

Actually, I’m not a big drinker at all. I know there are some real serious wine drinkers out there. They know their stuff and know like the names of the specific grapes and the specifics of the dirt that is best to make them grow. That’s not me. If I’m going to drink wine it’s usually on a Friday night and only a couple glasses because three glasses is when I start to text friends and tell them how much I love them. That’s called drunk texting. I don’t recommend it. Moving right along . . .

I’m not the best planner. There are so many times I haven’t prepared to shop beforehand and of course, end up forgetting half the things I need. Aldi makes it super simple to prepare for your shopping trip. There are a couple ways to do this.

These days almost everybody has a smartphone. If you do you can download the free Aldi app (yep, they have an app!) for iphone and android users.

If you haven’t read my post on the 31 Days Writing Challenge, no worries, you can catch up. I’ll be writing about Aldi every day in October.

Find out if you have an Aldi near you before we get started.

Aldi isn’t like every other grocery store. They are special in so many ways. But first, let’s discuss Aldi basics, shall we?

The Carts <—–

Get your quarters ready! The carts are located outside the store. You put your quarter in and it “releases” the cart for you. Then after you shop you have to put the cart back and voila! You get your quarter back. Does that seem weird? Maybe at first. But it’s actually awesome. Because unlike every other store parking lot there are not random grocery carts haphazardly blocking you from getting the spot you want (that’s happened to you too, right?). Another nifty thing that this brings about is friendliness. Yes! Someone who needs a cart will often give you their quarter and take your empty cart from you when you’re done so you don’t have to walk to take it back. Then you say “thank you so much” with a smile and you realize you’ve just had a positive human interaction! Amazing!

List of all my posts for this series:

Day 1 —> The Basics

Day 2 —> Prepare to Shop

Day 3 —> The Wine Selection

Day 4 –> BREAK

Day 5 –> BREAK

Day 6 –> Organic Items

Day 7 –> Healthier Sweet Snacks

Day 8 –> I kinda suck at this 31 days thing, don’t I?

Day 9 –> Double Guarantee

You guys I’m having a love affair . . . with a grocery store. I know, right? Who even am I?! Well, I’ll tell you who I am. I’m a 35-year-old mom of three children who is trying to save money for her family. Because these people I live with? They eat a lot of food. I mean, they are stealing it off my plate!

Congratulations, friends! We made it to the end of the week! TGIF!

It may not seem like a huge deal to get through five days. But sometimes when it’s Monday, you look at the week you have in front of you and all that’s still left to do – then yes – five days seems like a Herculean task!

I’ve got three kids – one in kindergarten, one in pre-kindergarten and one who still requires my body to be a food source.

Let’s face it – kids are expensive. As parents we don’t like to see our children as dollar signs (obviously) but there are times when we can’t help but think to ourselves, DANG, why does it cost so much money to raise these kiddos?!

As a mom of three kids one of our biggest expenses is clothing. Yes, you have to dress these tiny people after you bring them into the world. Most moms I know don’t stop at just dressing them – they also want their kids to wear quality, name brand clothing that costs a pretty penny when you buy it new.

Know what one of my worst fears is?

You might think of spiders. Well, yes. I’m terrified of spiders.

Or you might think of flying. Yes, that too. I have a really bad fear of flying.

But more than that? I’m scared of losing all my photos. I take a lot of them. Sometimes fifty a day! I’ve thought a lot about it and our family photos are probably my most prized possession (besides the actual people in my family). So it makes sense that I would do anything to protect them. We did buy an external hard drive to back up our computers. But that was still not quite enough to calm my fears. I would lay in bed at night thinking of if I would have time to grab both the hard drive and my children in case of an emergency. Anxiety. I have it. So, when it comes to our beautiful and precious photos I need to be sure they are safe.

In an earlier post I discussed that my anxiety had been growing because Sawyer seemed somewhat “floppy.” This was something that I noticed early on. When I held her at two months I noticed that she had very little head control still. She also wasn’t putting any weight on her legs at all. They were completely limp. This caused me great worry.

Part of me was thinking back to when Landon and Brigham were infants. Both of them were very strong right from the beginning. They were holding their little heads up like champs and their legs were holding weight from the first week. They were sitting up unassisted by four months, pulling up to stand by six months and Brigham even took his first steps at eight months! I know that that’s not the norm. But it was hard not to compare Sawyer to the boys’ development since that is what I had already experienced.

I love being able to breastfeed my girl. But there is one thing I do not love about it . . . pumping. I really, truly hate it. But as a working mama it is a necessity for me to pump while I am away from her. I am so grateful for my amazing pump. It allows me the chance to provide Sawyer with what she needs to grow while not having to compromise our breastfeeding relationship!

When we came home from the hospital with Sawyer my heart was so happy I felt like it could burst at any moment. I sat on the sofa, my newborn daughter nestled into my breast and I could have cried from the bliss of it all. I watched as my two strong, healthy sons wrestled with each other in front of me, sending fits of laughter into the air. I need only look down to see our new addition and how perfectly she fit into my arms and into our family. As sleep-deprived as I was – I couldn’t stop smiling. Life had just hit an all-time high for me.