I have been reading blogs for about 2 years and love to check-in every night and see what people have been up to. I enjoy reading blogs for several reasons. The first is to get tips, ideas and inspiration for keeping up with everything. The second is to know other people are having the same ups and downs I am, and that I am not alone. I read several differnt types of blogs. I read blogs about Homemaking, Parenting, Frugality, and Personal Finance. From the main blogs I read I usually find myself wandering around the Blogosphere, reading comments, following links within posts, and clicking on items like "Blogs I Read" on a blog's sidebar. I have found a tremendous amount of encouragement and information.
I started this blog for several reasons. First, I hope to encourage any followers who can realate to what I write about on a day-to-day basis (parenting, homemaking, frugality). We can get through it together! Second, I have absorbed alot of what I have read on other blogs and applied it to my life- in some cases directly and in other cases I have adapted things to figure out what works best for me. I hope to share some of my "what works for me" in hopes that they may work for someone else. Lastly, I like the idea that this blog would hold me accountable. If I write it here- people read it- therefore I better be following through with it!
Through all of my blogging I hope to keep it all positive, encouraging and fun. I am hoping to have the opportunity to connect to people and make bloggy friends with whom I can swap ideas and along the way hopefully we may save some money too!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Making Your Home A Haven- Day 4
Today's plan was to catch up on ONE CHORE. I had said yesterday I had to tackle the mountian of clean laundry slowly attacking my living room, BUT, I didn't. I did get one load folded and put away, but I hate folding laundry and chose to get all those dishes washed instead. All those dishes began piling up when I decided to put the Christmas tree up after dinner and not load the dishwasher yesterday.
So my day went as follows,
5 Mins of Quiet- Done! (always done, it's my favorite part of the day!)
Morning Rountine- all 5 steps done! (that was the first chunk out of the piles of dishes) **Just to refresh you- MY Morning Routine is coffee, wake Kaitlyn, pack lunches and make breakfast, put a load off laundry in, & load the dishwasher before leaving. **
Planning: 1) Get bags of gifts out of car (they have been "hiding " there, until I could move them with no kids around. - Done! 2) Take Chocolate to SIL, even if not walking the dog. - Done! 3) Bake Brownies tonight- Done! 4) Fold and put away ALL laundry- not done, decided to tackle dishes instead- dishes done!
15 mis of something- check baseball website to reigster for spring baseball but site wouldn't work- emailed sister to see if she could - and she could, and she did- what a lifefsaver!! Spring Baseball Registration- Done!
Positive Attitude- took a dive when the baseball website wouldn't work- but better now!
Great day here, and "realtively" peaceful evening, all kids in bed by 9pm and more quiet time for me. Looking forward to tomorrow- TGIF!!
For our Making Your Home a Haven Challenge- the final day- lets look forward to the weekend. Find something to put on your To Do list that will help get you ready for your weekend. For me this will mean Really, Truely getting the laundry folded! Somewhere in there is my son's freshly washed basketball uniform and his first game is Saturday. Better to get it all folded and put away so we can find it Sat. morning, than to be dumping the laundry baskets all over the living room floor in a mad rush to find all the pieces of the uniform right before game time.
I will check in tomorrow and we can all rejoice that the work-week is over!!
Happy Friday everyone!
So my day went as follows,
5 Mins of Quiet- Done! (always done, it's my favorite part of the day!)
Morning Rountine- all 5 steps done! (that was the first chunk out of the piles of dishes) **Just to refresh you- MY Morning Routine is coffee, wake Kaitlyn, pack lunches and make breakfast, put a load off laundry in, & load the dishwasher before leaving. **
Planning: 1) Get bags of gifts out of car (they have been "hiding " there, until I could move them with no kids around. - Done! 2) Take Chocolate to SIL, even if not walking the dog. - Done! 3) Bake Brownies tonight- Done! 4) Fold and put away ALL laundry- not done, decided to tackle dishes instead- dishes done!
15 mis of something- check baseball website to reigster for spring baseball but site wouldn't work- emailed sister to see if she could - and she could, and she did- what a lifefsaver!! Spring Baseball Registration- Done!
Positive Attitude- took a dive when the baseball website wouldn't work- but better now!
Great day here, and "realtively" peaceful evening, all kids in bed by 9pm and more quiet time for me. Looking forward to tomorrow- TGIF!!
For our Making Your Home a Haven Challenge- the final day- lets look forward to the weekend. Find something to put on your To Do list that will help get you ready for your weekend. For me this will mean Really, Truely getting the laundry folded! Somewhere in there is my son's freshly washed basketball uniform and his first game is Saturday. Better to get it all folded and put away so we can find it Sat. morning, than to be dumping the laundry baskets all over the living room floor in a mad rush to find all the pieces of the uniform right before game time.
I will check in tomorrow and we can all rejoice that the work-week is over!!
Happy Friday everyone!
Making Your Home a Haven- Day 3
Today was much better than yesterday!
5 Mins of Quiet- Done!
Morning Routine- Done, except for loading dishwasher.
Planning/3 ToDos-
1) Find "cookie" sign up sheet for school, and copy ice skater sheet- done
2) Go to bank (deposit check)- not done- stopped at mom's after work to pick up a gift and didn't get to the bank.
3) Get Christmas Tree Up and Decorated. -Done
15 mintes to do something now- did #1 on list above, before leaving for work, glad to have that done and out of the way before the day really started.
Positive Attitude- it's back! Done.
For today I was extremely glad to get my tree up and decorated. I put it up, and the kids and I decorated it while watching the Rockerfeller tree lighting and all the singing that went with it. It was very festive here from 7pm-9pm. But getting the tree up means I have a counter full of the dinner dishes, which never made it to the dishwasher. Tomorrow I had better not skip that "load the dishwasher before leaving the house" on my morning routine. And although I do manage to wash and dry a load of laundry every day.. I now have 4 baskets of laundry waiting to be folded and put away... but, the Tree is UP!!
So for Thursday let's all focus on ONE CHORE that we have fallen behind on. Maybe it's the dishes, or the laundry, or the vacuuming.. whatever it is for you - choose just ONE CHORE and plow through it until it is all caught up. For me I already know tomorrow will be laundry day- folding and putting it all away.. ALL of it!
I'll check in tomorrow and let you know how I did. Please feel free to commnet and let me know how you did.
Happy Homemaking!!
Sneak peek for next week-- I am planning to post a 5-day series on easy ways you can save money.
5 Mins of Quiet- Done!
Morning Routine- Done, except for loading dishwasher.
Planning/3 ToDos-
1) Find "cookie" sign up sheet for school, and copy ice skater sheet- done
2) Go to bank (deposit check)- not done- stopped at mom's after work to pick up a gift and didn't get to the bank.
3) Get Christmas Tree Up and Decorated. -Done
15 mintes to do something now- did #1 on list above, before leaving for work, glad to have that done and out of the way before the day really started.
Positive Attitude- it's back! Done.
For today I was extremely glad to get my tree up and decorated. I put it up, and the kids and I decorated it while watching the Rockerfeller tree lighting and all the singing that went with it. It was very festive here from 7pm-9pm. But getting the tree up means I have a counter full of the dinner dishes, which never made it to the dishwasher. Tomorrow I had better not skip that "load the dishwasher before leaving the house" on my morning routine. And although I do manage to wash and dry a load of laundry every day.. I now have 4 baskets of laundry waiting to be folded and put away... but, the Tree is UP!!
So for Thursday let's all focus on ONE CHORE that we have fallen behind on. Maybe it's the dishes, or the laundry, or the vacuuming.. whatever it is for you - choose just ONE CHORE and plow through it until it is all caught up. For me I already know tomorrow will be laundry day- folding and putting it all away.. ALL of it!
I'll check in tomorrow and let you know how I did. Please feel free to commnet and let me know how you did.
Happy Homemaking!!
Sneak peek for next week-- I am planning to post a 5-day series on easy ways you can save money.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
December Fridays 2008
As I mentioned in a previous post my family has a tradition we call December Fridays. These are all the Fridays from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve. On each Friday night we give the kids a gift. This gift is always something we can do together as a family that night. The original purpose of this tradition was a frugal one, we wanted our kids to receive "family" (as in family-time) not just material stuff at Christmas. Although these nights involve a "gift", these are small gifts and are meant to take alot of the emphasis off of needing to get alot of stuff on Christmas DAY. Instead we hope they look forwards to more of a "holiday season" not just one day.
These gifts are a secret , but since my kids son't read this blog I thought I would share our plans for this year's December Fridays.
Nov. 28 - See Xmas lights& listen to Xmas Music, & talk to each other. We did this in Hershey, since we were there- it just so happened to fall on Friday night (perfect) we went to see the Sweet Lights, where you drive though a 4 mile route that Hershey has set up with millions of lights and you have to count how many Rudolfs you can find. It was fun, but by mid-way they were a bit bored and more interested in "walkie-talking" my parents in the car ahead of us. But it was a very nice family time and the entire ride took about 40 minutes. In Hershey my parents treated us to the $20 Sweet Lights, but had we been at home- this would have been a very cheap, yet fun,night.
Dec. 5th- They will open 2 gifts (for all). One will be a Christmas puzzle- bought at a yard sale for $.50 over the summer, still new in sealed box.The second is Scooby-Doo Trouble, bought at the Christmas Tree Shop a few weeks ago for $6. So a fun night of games for the family and it only cost us $6.50.
Dec. 12th- They will open a gift of a pre-made gingerbread house Kit. Still have to pick this up, but at the local BJ's they were under 10 dollars. We will have fun making our house and people and trees (or whatever the kit comes with), and then take pictures of the kids with their creations. A fun night for about $10.
Dec. 19th- They will open a gift of Hot chocolate mix (with marshmallows of course!), and microwave popcorn with a note that says to go get the movie The Polar Express, which we have on DVD already. We will pop the popcorn, make hot chocolate (if you've seen the movie- you'll know why there has to be hot chcoclate) and snuggle under a blanket, turn off the lights and watch the movie. Another great family event for under $5.
My last frugal way to make sure my kids enjoy "the season" and not just one day, is to buy them the advent calendars that have a tiny chocolate behind each door. I got these for $1 each at The Christmas Tree Shop. They always recieve these on Thanksgiving day, from "The Great Turkey" who starts off the Christmas Season of giving, by giving each child a chocolate turkey, an advent calendar, and a small gift. All wrapped up- so they have the fun of opening "gifts" when they wake up on Thanksgiving morning. This year the Great Turkey got each child a 12 inch tree for their rooms that came with 20 plastic-ball ornamants ($5 ea. at Christmas Tree Shop)
So for our December Friday's we get a ton of family time and the kids get excited to open gifts all month long for less than $22.
For our Great Turkey visit on Thanksgiving, I spent about $30 and that included the items above and a few small gift for each child. 3 advent calendars= $3, 3 Chocolate Turkeys= $2.25, 3 Christmas trees w. ornaments= $15, Snap n' style Christmas outfit for Sophia= $8, snowflake bracket and red & green beaded necklace for Kailtyn=$2, and The White House's Wackiest Pets Book= Free w. scholasitc book points. Total: $30.25
If you are thinking $50, isn't very "frugal". Well it is. Realise I "bought" family time, not "stuff". And this is all leading up to a much smaller than your average Christmas DAY. But the children don't feel it as much because we always talk about all the gifts they get "all season long". So at the end of the month, this $50 created family memories and cost us less than it would have to buy each child one more gift for Christmas morning.
Yea-Frugal!
Oh and all the children I know will be getting lots of books from Scholastic, Free for me, good for Christmas budget! Pays to be a teacher, the job does have some perks. (hehe)
These gifts are a secret , but since my kids son't read this blog I thought I would share our plans for this year's December Fridays.
Nov. 28 - See Xmas lights& listen to Xmas Music, & talk to each other. We did this in Hershey, since we were there- it just so happened to fall on Friday night (perfect) we went to see the Sweet Lights, where you drive though a 4 mile route that Hershey has set up with millions of lights and you have to count how many Rudolfs you can find. It was fun, but by mid-way they were a bit bored and more interested in "walkie-talking" my parents in the car ahead of us. But it was a very nice family time and the entire ride took about 40 minutes. In Hershey my parents treated us to the $20 Sweet Lights, but had we been at home- this would have been a very cheap, yet fun,night.
Dec. 5th- They will open 2 gifts (for all). One will be a Christmas puzzle- bought at a yard sale for $.50 over the summer, still new in sealed box.The second is Scooby-Doo Trouble, bought at the Christmas Tree Shop a few weeks ago for $6. So a fun night of games for the family and it only cost us $6.50.
Dec. 12th- They will open a gift of a pre-made gingerbread house Kit. Still have to pick this up, but at the local BJ's they were under 10 dollars. We will have fun making our house and people and trees (or whatever the kit comes with), and then take pictures of the kids with their creations. A fun night for about $10.
Dec. 19th- They will open a gift of Hot chocolate mix (with marshmallows of course!), and microwave popcorn with a note that says to go get the movie The Polar Express, which we have on DVD already. We will pop the popcorn, make hot chocolate (if you've seen the movie- you'll know why there has to be hot chcoclate) and snuggle under a blanket, turn off the lights and watch the movie. Another great family event for under $5.
My last frugal way to make sure my kids enjoy "the season" and not just one day, is to buy them the advent calendars that have a tiny chocolate behind each door. I got these for $1 each at The Christmas Tree Shop. They always recieve these on Thanksgiving day, from "The Great Turkey" who starts off the Christmas Season of giving, by giving each child a chocolate turkey, an advent calendar, and a small gift. All wrapped up- so they have the fun of opening "gifts" when they wake up on Thanksgiving morning. This year the Great Turkey got each child a 12 inch tree for their rooms that came with 20 plastic-ball ornamants ($5 ea. at Christmas Tree Shop)
So for our December Friday's we get a ton of family time and the kids get excited to open gifts all month long for less than $22.
For our Great Turkey visit on Thanksgiving, I spent about $30 and that included the items above and a few small gift for each child. 3 advent calendars= $3, 3 Chocolate Turkeys= $2.25, 3 Christmas trees w. ornaments= $15, Snap n' style Christmas outfit for Sophia= $8, snowflake bracket and red & green beaded necklace for Kailtyn=$2, and The White House's Wackiest Pets Book= Free w. scholasitc book points. Total: $30.25
If you are thinking $50, isn't very "frugal". Well it is. Realise I "bought" family time, not "stuff". And this is all leading up to a much smaller than your average Christmas DAY. But the children don't feel it as much because we always talk about all the gifts they get "all season long". So at the end of the month, this $50 created family memories and cost us less than it would have to buy each child one more gift for Christmas morning.
Yea-Frugal!
Oh and all the children I know will be getting lots of books from Scholastic, Free for me, good for Christmas budget! Pays to be a teacher, the job does have some perks. (hehe)
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Making Your Home a Haven- Day 2
Oh my was today bad- well at least the morning was.
As for my five steps for Making Your Home a Haven, I scored about 1 out of 5.
5 Minutes of Quiet- done! (and then that was it)
Morning Routine- coffee- check, wake kaitlyn- check, then it was down hill from there. Kaitlyn woke up in a bad mood and was difficult to move and keep moving all morning- so much so, that we missed the bus! Twice! (it goes up our street and about 10 minutes later it comes back down). Nothing else got done until about 10am. Between getting everyone else up and lunches made and everyone to school. Kaitlyn's school is about 15 minutes from our house so when she misses the bus- it eats up about 35 minutes of my morning to drive her into school.
I got home about 9:45am. Tuesday is the one morning I have off from work, and it ususally gives me an extra 2 hours to get stuff done. But with driving Kailtyn to school I was down to about 1.5 hours. Then I tried to print out a google calendar for my class, which I had worked on over the weekend but had trouble printing. (It said I needed the recent updates on Adobe Reader- but then the updates wouldn't load- so I wasn't able to print). I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the updates to download so I could print, but it wouldn't and after 20 minutes I gave up and hand-wrote a calendar for December. It looked awful! And after about 1.5 hours of time (the weekend plus that morning) I had crap to show for it. SO went most of my day... if it could go wrong or take longer than normal it did. So my positive attitude for today was missing along with most parts of my five steps.
Monday night I did take a few minutes and create a To Do list for Tuesday- so I did accomplish the "Planning" step- but only a few of those items were actually completed. I had done this because Tuesday was supposed to be the day to do all those "little things" , so I had pre-planned to make sure I had a solid list and included ALL the little things I needed to get done.
So here was my original Tuesday To Do List: (and what did or did not happen)
As for my five steps for Making Your Home a Haven, I scored about 1 out of 5.
5 Minutes of Quiet- done! (and then that was it)
Morning Routine- coffee- check, wake kaitlyn- check, then it was down hill from there. Kaitlyn woke up in a bad mood and was difficult to move and keep moving all morning- so much so, that we missed the bus! Twice! (it goes up our street and about 10 minutes later it comes back down). Nothing else got done until about 10am. Between getting everyone else up and lunches made and everyone to school. Kaitlyn's school is about 15 minutes from our house so when she misses the bus- it eats up about 35 minutes of my morning to drive her into school.
I got home about 9:45am. Tuesday is the one morning I have off from work, and it ususally gives me an extra 2 hours to get stuff done. But with driving Kailtyn to school I was down to about 1.5 hours. Then I tried to print out a google calendar for my class, which I had worked on over the weekend but had trouble printing. (It said I needed the recent updates on Adobe Reader- but then the updates wouldn't load- so I wasn't able to print). I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the updates to download so I could print, but it wouldn't and after 20 minutes I gave up and hand-wrote a calendar for December. It looked awful! And after about 1.5 hours of time (the weekend plus that morning) I had crap to show for it. SO went most of my day... if it could go wrong or take longer than normal it did. So my positive attitude for today was missing along with most parts of my five steps.
Monday night I did take a few minutes and create a To Do list for Tuesday- so I did accomplish the "Planning" step- but only a few of those items were actually completed. I had done this because Tuesday was supposed to be the day to do all those "little things" , so I had pre-planned to make sure I had a solid list and included ALL the little things I needed to get done.
So here was my original Tuesday To Do List: (and what did or did not happen)
- List two sets of golf balls on ebay - done!
- Take photos of and list purple snowsuit set on ebay-- when looked at closer, it needed to be washed before photos- so it went in the wash, and still has not had photos taken or gotten listed on ebay.
- Email family about 3rd grade concert- done, after work
- Email basketball schedule to family- done, after work
- Call and make payment by phone to my mortgage- not done- will hopefully do Wed
- Fax reimbursement form and reciepts to FSA for reimbursement- not done
- Go online and register for spring baseball- tried once in AM and twice in PM- but site does not seem to be working- there is In-Person registration this Thursday night if iI don't get it done online before that.
- Match up and put away socks and other "whites" from laundry done on Monday- Done
- Print out December's calendar for class- not really done- handwritten after 20 minutes of aggrevation
- Create name cards for class to be laminated so kids can trace them with wipe-off markers- not done (had my assistant do it during class today)- so done, but late and not by me.
- Call and schedule play dates for Friday- not done
- Call Gale and see if she can watch Sophia a few Fridays in December- not done
- Order some Christmas gifts online with free shipping codes I have-- done, after work
- Go to bank and deposit Gary's b-day check- not done
- Look over Joe & Lisa's Wedding photos- not done
Each of these thing should have taken 5-10 minutes each, some less. But with all the delays I only got 3 things done, and 3 more after work. Humph!
And as I sit here I am looing at 3 baskets of clean laundry waiting for me to fold and put away. I am also staring at 5 rubbermaid bins and 2 very large christmas tree boxes in the corner of my living room. I got all the christmas stuff down on Sunday, but none of it has been put up yet! Humph!
So I am looking forward to going to bed tonight and forgetting today and moving onto Wednesday. For Wednesday let's try for a Little Bit Of Christmas! Try to get one thing done that helps you prepare for Christmas. I'll check in tomorrow and let you know how my Wednesday goes.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Quick Post of Various Things
If you like following this blog other you might want to check out
for organizing and time management
http://www.flylady.com/
for homemaking and simple living
http://www.likemerchantships.com/ ** Personal Fav. - I check it daily.
www.biblicalwomanhood.com/blog **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
http://www.thriftyfloridamama.net/ **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
For personal finance or payig down debt
www.paidtwice.com **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
www.gatherlittlebylittle.com **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
for finding great deals
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ (this blog is written by Crystal from biblical womanhood, above)
http://www.simplemom.com/
as for deals I have found:
I am planning to order photo christmas cards this year and they have some good coupons for http://www.kodakgallery.com/
the are advertising 20% off a $30 purchase right on their homepage of their website
I also have a code for 20% off $20 on photo cards- use coupon code: DESIGNS20
this expires 12/31/08, I plan to use this code when I order my cards.
If you order from Current Catalog I just got a coupon code for 25% off your entire purchase. Enter code : CC25 Expires 12/31/08, I don't think this has a minimum.
as always for you can check for coupon codes by typing into google the item you want to buy or the store you want to shop at, followed by the words coupon code, or discount codes. Or check out sites like
http://www.slickdeals.com/
http://www.retailmenot.com/
Happy Deal Hunting!!
for organizing and time management
http://www.flylady.com/
for homemaking and simple living
http://www.likemerchantships.com/ ** Personal Fav. - I check it daily.
www.biblicalwomanhood.com/blog **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
http://www.thriftyfloridamama.net/ **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
For personal finance or payig down debt
www.paidtwice.com **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
www.gatherlittlebylittle.com **Personal Fav.- I check it daily.
for finding great deals
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ (this blog is written by Crystal from biblical womanhood, above)
http://www.simplemom.com/
as for deals I have found:
I am planning to order photo christmas cards this year and they have some good coupons for http://www.kodakgallery.com/
the are advertising 20% off a $30 purchase right on their homepage of their website
I also have a code for 20% off $20 on photo cards- use coupon code: DESIGNS20
this expires 12/31/08, I plan to use this code when I order my cards.
If you order from Current Catalog I just got a coupon code for 25% off your entire purchase. Enter code : CC25 Expires 12/31/08, I don't think this has a minimum.
as always for you can check for coupon codes by typing into google the item you want to buy or the store you want to shop at, followed by the words coupon code, or discount codes. Or check out sites like
http://www.slickdeals.com/
http://www.retailmenot.com/
Happy Deal Hunting!!
Making Your Home A Haven - Day 1
Ok, so how did my day go? Very well. I followed my Making Your Home a Haven Routine and the only thing I didn't get done was to load the dishwasher before leaving the house in the morning.
Here's how it all went today:
5 Mins of Quiet- Done
Morning Routine- Done, except dishwasher
Planning- 3 To Do's : 1) mail out 5 Ebay boxes 2) go food shopping 3) finish downloading Herhsey park pictures- All are Done!
15-20 mMinutes to Start Something- I did a "quick clean of house" before leaving- opened blinds, wiped up bathroom counters, picked up any laundry on floors, straightened beds, & straightened up the living room.--Done!
Positive Attitude- Done!
I even got a few extra To Dos done. This evening I did 3 loads of laundry and folded them, and listed 3 more items on Ebay for auctions ending Friday. Whoo Hoo!
It was a great day, and now to keep it up.. into Tuesday!
For Tuesday lets focus on "all the little things". My To Do list for Tuesday will probably have about 10 things on it, but they will all be LITTLE things, so I plan to "just do it!" and plow through all those little things. I will check-in tomorrow to let you know how it goes.
Happy Homemaking!
Here's how it all went today:
5 Mins of Quiet- Done
Morning Routine- Done, except dishwasher
Planning- 3 To Do's : 1) mail out 5 Ebay boxes 2) go food shopping 3) finish downloading Herhsey park pictures- All are Done!
15-20 mMinutes to Start Something- I did a "quick clean of house" before leaving- opened blinds, wiped up bathroom counters, picked up any laundry on floors, straightened beds, & straightened up the living room.--Done!
Positive Attitude- Done!
I even got a few extra To Dos done. This evening I did 3 loads of laundry and folded them, and listed 3 more items on Ebay for auctions ending Friday. Whoo Hoo!
It was a great day, and now to keep it up.. into Tuesday!
For Tuesday lets focus on "all the little things". My To Do list for Tuesday will probably have about 10 things on it, but they will all be LITTLE things, so I plan to "just do it!" and plow through all those little things. I will check-in tomorrow to let you know how it goes.
Happy Homemaking!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
