Media Mommy–I am a plugged in Mom. I love my kids, social media–and a good deal!

My Netflix red envelope contained The Last Unicorn this week. This was one of my favorite movies from childhood. Growing up, it was a rare treat to go to the theater to see a movie. This was one of three I can actually remember seeing on the big screen.

I loved it as a girl. My girls loved it, the rest of us thought it was pretty bad. Too bad, I’ve ruined a childhood favorite by watching it as a grownup. Oh well.

I’m not even going to rate it. Yes, it was that bad.

Today my husband and I took another look at the house we’re planning to rent for the next 2+ years. It’s $200 more than what we pay right now. I’m definitely worried about that. But it’s an amazing home. A place like this in Denver, Colorado Springs or even Tucson would certainly be much more.

While we walked around, I thought about the furniture we currently own. It won’t even begin to fill the place. When we left Arizona nearly two years ago, we got rid of so much. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done that. It was all paid for and in truth I really loved some of it, even though I told myself I was “sick of” the style choices.

Oh well.. it’s just stuff anyway.

What I did find in this home was room for more stuff. More than I ever want to have. The homeowners haven’t moved all the way out yet. But they’ve been living in their new place for about six months. My guess is they don’t need even 1% of what they’ve left behind.

I worry about doing the same thing. Filling the house up, just because I can.

Part of living a more frugal life is not having a bunch of “stuff” around.  I told the homeowners they could leave what they don’t want, we’ll use what we’d like and pass on the rest. I wonder how much they’ll leave behind? I kid you not there were 12 baking pans in the basement.

I’ll keep you posted on this one. In the meantime, it’s time for me to start packing up the current home. I wonder how much I’ll leave behind? Well, I won’t actually leave any of it–I’ll be Freecycling it and donating it, but you get what I mean.

What do you think about the amount of stuff in your home?

This past Friday night I was again doing my duty to really use my NetFlix account so I stayed up until all hours after work watching Duplicity, starring Julie Roberts and Clive Owens.

This movie is sexy and cool, but a bit hard to follow. You really have to pay attention to this one (husband fell asleep–geesh!).

Roberts and Owens play Claire and Ray and they just happen to be spies. Who love each other. Who dress in amazing clothing–all the time. Who don’t trust anyone or each other.  I don’t want to give away too much, but I give this one a B+ for style, good writing. A pretty blah ending though.

PG-13 and probably too complex f0r most tweens.

Have you seen this one? Do you have a suggestion for my Netflix Que?

This weekend I finally got a chance to watch Sunshine Cleaning. This is another indy movie–I tend to lean that way when I make my own movie choices.

It stars Amy Adams. I love her in Enchanted and Julie & Julia. She’s one of those actresses I can believe. By that I mean I don’t see Amy Adams on the screen–but the character. I love that.

In this movie Amy plays Rose, the former cheerleader who was dating the star football player in high school. At some point her life took a turn–she ended up a single mother of a sort of strange little boy, cleaning houses for a living.

Her son needs a better school and being the type of mother who will do anything for her kid—she comes up with an idea. She convinces her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) to go into the crime scene cleanup business with her! They call it “Sunshine Cleaning” because Rose believes she is really helping people at the lowest point in their lives. Somebody has to do it–right?

They are not ready to do this–at all. They had no cleaning suit, no masks even. They dump a mattress into a dumpster that’s soaked in blood! But they move ahead, as most Moms will, making it work and eventually getting good at it.

It’s ironic that I watched this movie on Mother’s Day weekend, as the Mom-theme runs deep. The entire story shows the depth of a mothers love as we learn about Rose and Norah’s mothers death. I won’t give too much away about that because you need to learn that late in the movie.

I give this movie an A. Good writing, solid acting. Not for kids in any way–grown up time only.

Did you see this one? Comment to share your review please.

Congratulations to KVasquez, Erich, Lallo, and Lisa-you’ve won gift cards to Netflix!

I’ve talked about Netflix a few times before, it’s a great way for my family to keep up on the latest movie releases without the deadline of returning them to a store. Right now, I’ve had the same two movies for several weeks–so I don’t think I’m getting my moneys worth. But that’s my fault! I haven’t even had a chance to watch them, which means I will probably return them without seeing them and add them to my list again. Oh well.

I digress. Netflix has sent me four gift cards to giveaway for a free month of the service. You can watch online or get DVD’s in the mail like I do. If you’d like to try it out, leave a comment with your email. If I have more than four responses I’ll do a drawing (the old fashioned out of a hat kind). No, I am not getting any kind of compensation for this.

Geez.. this is my first giveaway and my 101st post. Seems like only yesterday….

Again.. I digress. Hope to hear from you! Stef

This fits into the “going green” category and the “saving money” category. If you have a problem that something in your home can solve–you won’t have to buy something new. That’s why I love this site www.altuse.com

Need to fix a scratched CD? Try toothpaste! How about cleaning your glasses with vodka?

According to the site, there are 14 different uses for coffee grounds! I’m hoping to put some of them to use because I brew a lot of coffee around my house!

Do you have anything with an alt use around your house? Comment and let me know!

I’ve never been a big flower person. I do not encourage my husband or kids to buy me flowers on the made up holidays because I think it’s a waste of money. They’ll be dead in a few days right?

Well last weekend it was so pretty outside–I wanted to go out in the yard and do something. My husband was working, so I didn’t feel brave enough to hit a hiking trail with all three kids.

So here’s what we did.

I probably could have just bought some pre-planted containers and spent the same amount. But, I wanted to dig and get my hands dirty. I am notorious for my black thumb. I have in fact not had a plant since my son was born–7 years ago. I’m just too cheap to spend the money on things I might kill.

I’ll let you know how it goes. We had fun doing it. And for me, that makes up for the expense. We could have gone to the movies and spent $50–but this was so much more enjoyable to do together.

Do you have any gardening tips for me? Especially with this Pueblo weather!

If you’ve been following along, I’ve been blogging about the latest round of DVD’s I’ve watched. My family doesn’t go to the movies–that’s a luxury we can’t afford right now.

I also don’t buy very many DVD’s anymore. Another luxury in my opinion. I rent from Netflix, the library, and the “boxes” at grocery stores and Walgreens. We make our own popcorn and enjoy!

The Answer Man

A pleasant indy film staring Parenthood’s Lauren Graham and Jeff Daniels. Daniels plays a man who basically wrote the book on spirituality (it’s called “Me and God”). The problem is–he’s grumpy and wants to live a life of seclusion.

Then he throws his back out in a hilarious way and meets a chiropractor played by Graham. Sparks fly and he tells her his name–Arlen Faber. She has no idea who he is. She might be the only person in the world who doesn’t know.

The rest of the film is like a dance between the two main characters. There is also a sub-character woven in–with a sweet, sad story centered around the bookstore down the street.

Nice film. Reminds me of the days I used to watch Indy films all the time. (Pre-kids)

I give this an A. Good story, good laughs. Bad language though–so sorry–no kids allowed.

Another movie we picked up at one of the handy grocery store DVD boxes:  Michael Jackson’s “This is It.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t even finish it. It’s been too long after the death of the King of Pop. It felt long, and “insider”.  I wish I’d seen this one on the big screen when it came out, I’m sure I would’ve felt more emotionally connected to it. I give this a C-, sorry MJ, I love you–but not this much.

One thing I did find in this movie is the kick-butt guitarist Orianthi.

Wow! Not since Van Halen have I actually been impressed by someone on a guitar. I’m not much of a music buff–but check her out if you get a chance.  Click here for her official website.

So I promised more movie reviews from my DVD watching.

Super Size Me

The saga of filmmaker Morgan Spurlock was much talked about in 2004, even before it hit the big screen.  For some odd reason this man wanted to see what would happen to his body if he ate nothing but McDonald’s meals for every meal, every day for 30 days.

A bonus rule, he had to eat the Super Size meal any time it was suggested to him by the McDonald’s employee.  Warning: do not watch this while eating. Especially do not watch this while eating McDonald’s.

This movie changed the way McDonald’s operated–the company dropped the Super Size option right before it came out.

It was difficult to watch this man go down hill physically. The question is: would anyone really eat McDonald’s this much? According to statistics in the movie–just about. I give this a B+, even though it’s a bit older, its message is still relevant. This movie is PG-13 and not great for kids–mostly because I think they’d be bored.

Did you see this one? What did you think?