The Half-Way Point. Gear up.

Well here we are, the humidity in the Midwest is higher than the Eiffel Tower and the clouds of smoke have drifted from the lighting of fireworks. (wait, scratch that...the teenagers down the street just shot off some more firecrackers....anyway...) We've made it to July. It's no longer June-the point during the summer when you feel like time is laid out before you and all your plans and lists are just waiting for your abundant time and good weather to allow them to be crossed off, instead It's July, June has been replaced with the panic that there's only roughly four weeks left of dreadful humid, sticky, sweaty heat in which to accomplish all the goals, buy all the school supplies, cram in a last minute vacation to see family and resume the busyness of fall. Oh July.

July also happens to be midway through the year. Midway through No-spend year to be exact. It's time to let you all know how its REALLY been going. Oh.....did you forget? Here we are over here STILL not spending extra. Did we really make it this long? Well....I'll clue you in on a little secret. So far during No-Spend year our master bathroom shower AND toilet started leaking at the exact same time (conveniently) prompting a bathroom renovation that was supposed to be the very last thing we did to the house...because after all, if you're going to replace the toilet, you might as well do the floor while you've got the toilet up, and if you're doing the floor, you might as well expand the shower like you've been planning on, so the shower needs re-tiled as well...and you get the idea. We are keeping the existing vanity and counter tops to line up with No-spend year as much as possible. So be proud.

 On top of the impromptu bathroom reno, spring brought the day when my husband laced up his grimy, dirty tennis shoes, put on his sweat stained baseball cap and went out to the shed for the inaugural, manly ritual known as the first mow of the season. He came stomping back in 45 minutes later declaring his riding lawn mower wouldn't start. He'd tried everything. He then marched his grimy shoes and baseball cap right back outside to succumb to the dreaded task of mowing our 1/2 acre lot with the push mower. But oh boy, did the cap come off and the sweat poured down his defeated face when he announced the push mower also had something wrong with it. WHAT????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? no, he wasn't kidding. There was absolutely no laughing involved. BOTH....I repeat, we have two mowers and neither one was functioning. A call was made and the repairman is swamped and his quote was at least 4 weeks out before we would have either mower back. Well, I don't know if you're familiar with how much rain we've had this season, but rain makes grass grow and the grass will not stop growing because the repair man is swamped. SO, I drove my obedient wife-behind to Wal-Mart...yes....I know....don't even say it....to buy the absolute cheapest, saddest looking, box so small I could lift it by myself into the back of my expedition lawn mower to hold us over for at least four weeks. Guys, we still don't have our mowers back....we'll probably see them at Christmas. It will be my husband's Christmas gift. He will get his self-propelled push mower and his ginormous riding mower back in time to pull them with a sled into the shed, have the freezing temperatures damage whatever it is that takes four months to fix on an old lawn mower and we'll send them back to the shop in the spring. This will be our new bit, supporting the lawn mower repairman's summer vacation. You're welcome, sir, for the trip to the lake...it's on us and our mechanical bill.

So in case you're keeping track, we're down a shower, a toilet, all the tile necessary for a bathroom renovation OH and wait, did you know there's cement board and mud and grout and a million other things that add up to spending way too much at Lowes on Saturday mornings. They entice you with nice dreams of fixer upper results, you get your family together, you drive in the pick-up to the store, its a fun family outing and then BAM a tub of mud costs $50 but you'll actually need one full tub and exactly three scoops out of the second tub to finish your job. You know, to do it properly.
Okay I'm really starting to get off topic now...back to the count, a shower, a toilet, tile for the bathroom and now a riding lawn mower and a push mower. But wait, lets back up...did you read what I loaded the lawn mower into....that's right...the second car we weren't going to use this year. WELL as this year has decided to be the year of expensive surprises instead of No-spend, I took a second job to work for the summer and so, we needed a second car so I could go to work and Micah would have a vehicle to use with the kids if he would need it. So, enter repair costs, insurance costs, license costs and oh yea...just for fun, my car needed a new battery.

Mentioning work reminds me that I woke up one day with a serious toothache. Like the worst kind that radiates through your jaw and up to your head. I knew exactly what it was. I still had all four wisdom teeth. I had been told many times to have them removed. The most memorable time was twelve years ago as I was visiting the dentist for the last time while still on my parent's insurance. I was getting married soon and he assured me I should get them out now, while I was young and they weren't bothering me (and I wasn't paying for it) but did twenty year old me have time for mouth surgery??? Certainly not. Why, I was attending college and planning a wedding and oh yea, working full time. But you know what....I want to go back and grab twenty year old me by the shoulders and shake her really hard and bend down into her face (because apparently I've grown taller in the last twelve years???) And I want to tell her I will never have more time for myself then I have right now. Things will never be less complicated, and more straightforward and I will never EVER EVER have as much time as she has now. But you know what....twenty year old me wouldn't listen to 32 year old me, I'm almost positive. So instead, what happened was, I juggled three kids, taking sick days off work, finding a sub, figuring out transportation for my kids to and from school, paid for the surgery myself and oh yea just for fun, my DD (designated driver for the impaired, high on pain killing laughing gas me) got called out to a SWAT call because some guy decided to hold someone hostage in an apartment on the same day my surgery was scheduled. But yea, I was too busy attending community college and playing wedding planner at twenty. It needed to wait.

So, just in case you've lost track, no spend year has cost us licensing fees, repair fees, new battery fee and insurance cost on a second car, a new toilet, a new shower, the tile for the bathroom, wisdom teeth removal surgery, not one but TWO lawn mower repairs and don't worry...we're only to February.

The last two months haven't been any kinder to our budget. In May I lost control in a bad rain storm on the interstate and crashed our truck into a guard rail going roughly 70mph. The air bags didn't go off, and everyone was okay. But it was a deductible cost on repairs for the truck. Another costly surprise.

The final surprise came in June when our air conditioner stopped keeping up. The repair men (we've had three estimates) say it cannot be salvaged and so we're looking at the cost of a new unit. That is a BIG unplanned expense to say the least.

Final count for No-Spend year in July: two lawn mowers, a bathroom renovation, multiple car expenses, mouth surgery, accident repairs on the truck and an air conditioning unit. This is depressing.

D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G.

But, maybe not. Was the goal of No-Spend year money driven? Yes and No. We needed a financial overhaul and No-spend year was how we chose to attack it. But No-spend year was about establishing a mind set. An understanding. A contentment. Does it matter how much money you have, if your air conditioner breaks...its' unexpected. If you get in an accident and wreck your car....it's unexpected. Nobody plans for these things. That's why they're called surprises. But our mind set has also helped us to keep going during all of these things.

I truly have found a contentment unknown to me before. the bag of hand me down clothes means everything to me now. The gift of a candle, is excess and I feel spoiled now. The fact we have two working vehicles for when the battery doesn't start in one, or when I got in an accident with the other, is a luxury now. That we had car insurance to keep the deductible low, that I have dental insurance to be able to get my tooth pain fixed, that we have family who helps loan us small air conditioner units while we figure out what to do about a new one. And lets not forget, when you WIN A VACATION when you didn't think you would get one at all. All of that, is extra. It's all not necessary. Its all humbling to realize how much I have when I feel like I've lost so much and the bricks are piled high making a wall bigger and bigger attempting to stop us from gaining the full potential of accomplishing this goal. But it seems, when you're content, when you're optimistic, when you have your best friend for your life partner and you have God giving you blessings, you look at that wall and you see a rock climbing date and gear up.

What’s Mine or Theirs?

When did you first get Facebook???? Do you remember? How old were you? What were you going through in life at the time? What propelled you to taking the first plunge into social media? I suppose my social media journey started back with Xenga pages and MySpace. My goodness, my teen years spent chatting with friends through aol messenger are hilarious in contrast to today’s use of texting. But boy did it feel like a grown up thing, to put something out there for the world to read. To design a page with all my favorite things and wrap my life into one tidy package presenting exactly how I wanted to be viewed by the world. Facebook came along my first year in college, back when it was actually designed for kids in college. It was, coincidentally, the method my future husband used to contact me and we met in person after chatting one afternoon through Facebook messenger.

Facebook has come a long way since those days in 2006 and not only Facebook in the picture but multiple other social media sites I’m not even a part of because well, I’m holding out and standing my ground as long as possible and not jumping on the Instagram or twitter wagon. (Are twitter days over? I don’t hear much of that one anymore) anyway..... I’ve been pondering something lately, and want to bring it up and spark a discussion. Food for thought....something to think on.

Are the photos we post online of our kids our property, or theirs? And when does the distinction change? At what age do they get a say in what we post? Have you thought about this as a family? Had this discussion with your own kids?

If I had Facebook when it was first starting in college, and now my generation is having kids and posting baby photos and toddler photos and elementary photos galore, then it brings to mind we are the first. We are the first generation of parents who have children who are growing up having their whole lives on Facebook, out in front of the world. We as parents are the first generation raising children who quite possibly have thousands of photos of themselves out on the web before turning 13. Or 16. Or 18. Or whatever age we’re going to call the magic number of when they themselves get their own Facebook.

My oldest daughter is turning 10 this year. That means within 5 years she will have her own Facebook account. She’ll have her own name and her own decision to make about what she posts and doesn’t post. Here’s the thing, if I had pictures of her in the bathtub with siblings, or drooling while eating a popsicle, or tripping down the stairs, or saying something silly....these would all be connected to her Facebook she gets as a 13 year old. When she applies for her first job, her boss could search her name and come across pictures from her childhood. Her birthday, month, day and year would all be accessible to whoever wishes to see because of elaborate birthday posts I’ve made over the years. Her friend (and rivals) in middle school will have full access to use, edit and distribute any of these child hood photos they wish to get their hands on.

The only place in the world to go to find a childhood photo of myself is my parents house. You would have to literally drive there in a car, find a photo album and search it through to come across a photo of the curly headed blonde 4year old I once was. The coworkers at my job, the administrators at my college, the teachers of my high school  have no access to any of that. These days, a simple search by any one of these people can gain access to dozens of photos, daily activities, vacations, likes/dislikes. Strangers have the same access as great aunt Edith.

I get it. I mean, you’ve sat and watched as your friends posted their engagement photos,  wedding
Pictures, gender reveal announcement and now newborn photos and you want your turn! Of course you do! Is there anything necessarily wrong with little Cindy’s baby photo being seen by his boss someday? No, not really. But does Cindy get to choose? Or do you?

My daughter already says things like “mom, don’t put that on Facebook.” And I don’t even post my kids’ faces on social media. She already is concerned about what’s out there of her. Which I’m actually really glad and think is healthy.

I wonder, if we just put some more intentional thought into what we posted of our children. I wonder if we were just more careful to think about the fact that each photo you post will be on the internet forever. Of course uncle Dan from across the country wants to keep up with your family....so text him pictures. Of course it’s fun to share photos of your kids on their best days, but the video of them throwing a tantrum will also be available when they’re 22 and dating, or 35 and own their business.

Here’s the thing, the whole purpose of parenting is to prepare our children to grow up to be adults who hopefully can function in society and not live in our basement forever, we want them to be successful and happy and contributing members of society. We have to remember that our use of social media needs to prepare them for adulthood too and if we use our accounts with the expectation our children will be adults someday, I wonder if what we post would change.

Listen, I get it. We’re just so darn proud of our beautiful little babies, our sassy three year olds and our wise and thoughtful big kids. So, so proud. We want to share that, we want validation as parents, we want the recognition for our kiddos. But, at what cost? I’ll just leave you with this, we are the first. The first generation who is deciding how this will play out. How does it look to have a child grow up with their entire lives broadcasted to the world? How does that impact their middle school years, teenage life or  adult life? Will they grow up and ask you to delete pictures of themselves from the internet? Would you?

Thrifty, Practical Decorating

One of my favorite things I’ve made a priority in my home is what I’ve decided to call “practical decorating”. I’ve been doing it for years without really giving it a name, but after thinking it over and looking around my home for something worthy of adorning the pages of this blog, I began to see a theme throughout each room. Everything has a purpose. Everything is useful AND beautiful (to me at least). Here are some of my favorite examples of practical decorating from my own home:

We inherited some beautiful aprons from my husband's grandmother and I really wanted them to be visible as well as accessible because we use them almost daily. So, I hung them right on open hooks in the kitchen. They’re easily accessible, and add a beautiful pop of color to my kitchen! With aprons as vibrant as these, there is simply no reason to stash them away in a drawer or behind a pantry door. 

I actually first saw this idea in the IKEA showroom, but I love how it translates to my kitchen. My cookbooks sit on open shelves on the walls. They serve dual purpose as decor and once again, are easily accessible for every day use. Cookbooks for me, are much more than a practical tool but also sentimental. Gifts given to me by my grandmother and mother, and I love how I'm reminded of these things as I glance around the most common room in the house. 

Here’s another one of my favorites. I found a mail holder at a thrift shop, washed it, and hung it in my kitchen and use it to store produce. It’s once again, super convenient and adds the perfect pop of color! Plus, as a bonus, it frees up counter space since now all my fruit and veggies hang on the wall! 

Another one of my favorite things to display is art work from my very own littles. These are pieces my two oldest did in Preschool and Kindergarten. They each created their own versions of Van Gogh’s “Vase of 15 sunflowers”. I absolutely adore these pieces and they also adorn the walls of my kitchen! I love when the pieces on my wall have a good story to go behind them!

Jumping over to the master bath-I needed a simple storage idea for our wash rags. I found this adorable basket last year, and right away had the idea to hang it on the wall. Practical, and adorable! 

Another option I use a lot, is I decorate with pictures of my family. I have these three photos of my babies, all in mismatched frames, hung at the end of our hallway to our bedrooms. There’s nothing more important to me than my family, so it’s the perfect choice to look at and remember their younger years every time I walk down the hall! I've also never had professional pictures of our family taken. Ever. So, don't be scared off if you feel like you don't have "good enough" pictures to display. Some of the best pictures are those candid's that really express the love between your family! 

Back to the kitchen- I found these old cooking magazines at a garage sale a couple years ago, ripped out a page I found to be nostalgic and complimentary to my kitchen. I framed the magazine page and hung it next to the big windows in my kitchen. This is a super cheap option and so unique! 

When decorating, one of the first things I think about is purpose. I want it to work well with every day life. I also don't want a bunch of items sitting around getting in the way. Simplicity and practicality are probably the best ways to describe my style. Of course with a pop of color here and there! ;) Let me know your favorite ways to decorate with functionality! 

Libraries change Lives

Game changer you guys. Game changer. Utilize your library. If you aren’t a regular at your local library, you are missing out. Having an online account with my library where I can order things and put things on hold has been fantastic. Literally I can search for books by genre, by things my kids are interested in, or just search what’s new. I place a hold on the item I want, and as soon as it’s ready, I get an email. I can then use the DRIVE THROUGH yes, drive through to pick up my items.

We haven’t used redbox, we’ve been checking out old favorites and waiting patiently for our turn to view new movies for FREE! Recent examples  have been Spider-Man into the universe, Ralph breaks the Internet, and classics like Sound of Music and Andre. Here’s a tip-I literally check the “new movies” section every day or two. Even then, by the time I place a hold I’m usually 150th-300th or so in line. But our local branches are all connected and they have several copies so it usually moves fairly quickly. 

I’ve loved being able to look up science books and get several and then keep the ones my kids like for longer, and just return the ones that weren’t quite the right fit. It also is kind of helping them feel like a “surprise” is waiting for them at home. It’s also helping curb my habit of picking up treats or trinkets for them while I’m out and about because I’ve thought about them, searched for something, found it and brought it home, it helps curb my gift giving habit. Instead of buying them something, I’m pouring energy into finding something I know they will love for free from the library! 

There are also countless event and program opportunities through the library. There are classes and seminars on how to learn to do something, homework help, lego groups, storytimes for toddlers and lets not forget the summer reading program that will be coming up soon where your kids  earn free books and a t-shirt! They also have an adult summer reading program now!!!! 

Our library also has a resource where you can live stream some movies and audio books! What???? Yes! Move over Netflix. 

I typically have a revolving relationship with the library and as a result have around 15-30 items checked out at all times usually with different due dates, so here’s how I keep track of it all:

There’s a basket dedicated to library materials in my living room. Everything goes in there as soon as we get home. When we are finished reading a particular book or we’ve watched the movie, it goes into a specific bag that hangs in the front coat closet ready for me to grab whenever I’m going back to the library to pick up more holds. I usually stop one way or the other once a week at the library for returns or to get more items or both. 

I also love that I get an email reminding me when items are due back. I get an email 3 days before items are due. This helps me remember to either make sure to read or watch the item OR to get online and renew it. 

This system has worked pretty well for us so far. Everybody knows everything from the library stays in the living room and we really pay minimal fines and have never lost a library book because of this. (Somebody reach over and knock on your wood desk right now for me) 

Bottom line-for this penny pinching family-the Library has been a lifeline. We LOVE that we have such a fantastic reaource that literally costs us nothing yet makes us feel so spoiled! What do YOU love about the Library???? 

Happy At Home

I always knew I wanted to be a mom and always knew I wanted to stay home with them. I had visions of happily teaching my future children everything they would ever need to know with smiles on our faces and laughter filling the house. I imagined matching bows in the girls’ perfectly combed hair and little boys who said “yes ma’am” and helped me take out the trash while skipping merrily down the driveway. 

You don’t even have to have your own kids to realize this dream would never be reality. We didn’t have to wait long after marriage because by the time we’d been married for a year I was 7 months pregnant with our first bundle of joy. A bright and bouncy baby girl made her way into our world and with her came my first dose of the reality of parenthood. 

There were smiles and laughter and giggles and even the occasional matching bow but there were also tears, so many tears. There were ruined outfits due to messy diapers and spit up and tired eyes and exhaustion. There was confusion and doubt and fear. So much fear. How was I ever going to manage to raise this human without completely ruining her? 

I had the privilege of staying home with my first baby, and then my second and eventually my third. I made this work by always baby sitting for one family at a time on a full time basis in addition to homeschooling my own children. 

Some days it felt perfect, it felt right. It felt like I was meant to be a mom and teaching them at home and like we would always have fun together, side by side as we discovered the world and each other. But, some days it was overwhelming. I felt like I was drowning in housework and homework and like I would never find myself again. I was busy all the time and felt like I had no time for myself. 

I knew I had to find a way to make it work. A way to salvage some joy in the mounting chaos that was life.. I realized I needed to figure out how to be happy at home. 

At first I thought I needed to redecorate and paint and love my environment. This produced more discontentment and so rather than being satisfied and fulfilled I was left feeling frustrated with not only my situation but every little thing started to bother me. And I mean EVERY LITTLE THING. Like the mail being laid on the counter in the wrong place, my husbands shoes kicked off next to the chair in the bedroom, the old couch  we still had from a yard sale when we were first married. I was going the wrong direction. I was growing more and more frustrated with everything and not finding any lasting peace or joy at all.

Eventually through a study I launched myself into through the Bible’s definition of the word “peace” I started to reevaluate what I had understood the word “peace” to mean. 

I thought that once everything was right in my environment, situation and other people changed enough, I could then be allowed to experience peace. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I noticed that in the Bible the word “peace” is actually described as something to strive for, to work for, to maintain. All of these are action words. Peace requires work, striving, and effort to accomplish. 

Peace needs to be achieved internally before it can be achieved externally. For me, internal peace is very much tied to my external environment. I feel the need to accomplish all my work before I allow myself to relax. The problem with this of course, is we all know the work is never really done. I was pushing myself to exhaustion and not finding any joy in all the in-between moments. I needed balance. Big time. 

I’ve been working hard on this for the past year. About taking a deep breath and sometimes letting the mess rest till morning. Sometimes the dishes sit in the sink. Sometimes the floor is just dirty. Sometimes the clothes sit in the laundry basket folded (or maybe not) waiting to be put away for a few extra days. I’m trying to learn to focus on one or two small things to help me relax and find some joy and peace despite not having everything all in order.  

The first one is that our house is constantly filled with music. If someone isn’t playing an instrument, then the other is singing. And if everyone is busy, we are definitely listening to music. Our favorite way is by using this speaker hooked up to Alexa. My husband got me this for Christmas and we all have been loving  it. We love to listen to music to get us going in the morning, to encourage dancing while we clean, or to calm us down after a rough day of school or work. Music is life in this house. 

I have a problem. A candle problem. I love, love, love the coziness that a candle can bring to a room. I also love the freshness a good scent can fill the room with. It literally centers me when I have a candle lit. Give me a cup of coffee, music playing and a candle lit and I can let any amount of chaos take over my life. Lol 

This one is a fun one. We have no “fancy” dishes in this house. I love to use what we have and not save anything for special occasions. A Tuesday afternoon is a perfectly good reason to serve snacks in beautiful dishes wouldn’t you agree? The kids probably don’t care, but mommy Is happy when a pretty table is set. Even if it’s just family and just a Wednesday night. Anything to brighten up our table, is welcome at my house. Because it can’t help but brighten your mood to eat off of beautiful dishes, right? 

Maybe you don’t care at all about how your table looks, or if you ever light a candle in your house again. What small things do you do in your life to brighten up your day? 

Waste Not Want Not

One simple thing that has stood the test of time and been proven to save money, is the practice of using what you have, first. Always. Our great, great, great grandparents would roll over in their graves if they knew how we waste and replace these days. We have lost an appreciation for the art of making things last. It’s so easy to toss and buy again that we don’t often have a real reason to work hard to salvage something. However, this was one thing I intentionally set out to be better at this year. I knew this would be one that would impact our budget and our life more than anticipated. When I thought I needed to go to the store and buy something, my challenge was going to be to look high and low and use some creative thinking to make whatever I could, work. 

This has manifested itself in a myriad of ways over the course of the last two and a half months. On day 8 or something like that my child brought me a white-out cartridge in literally a tangled web of white sticky string, and I immediately began walking toward the trash can. But just before tossing the valuable office tool into the white bag of decaying nastiness, I paused, looked at the disaster in my hand and sighed a heavy “this isn’t really what I meant” guilty sigh. It took me over ten minutes to sort, untangle, tie and restring that red plastic white-out dispenser. But I tell you what, I’ve never been so proud of my diligence. It worked, I no longer NEEDED anything again. I had solved the problem, solved the need and my list for the store remained at a balance. 

The same idea has come into play countless times in the last ten weeks. We think we NEED  to buy shirts for the upcoming parties at school, but I used materials we already had in the craft room and they came together beautifully and kept our hands busy on a snow day. Using this practice once or twice doesn’t add up to very big savings, but a habit of considering all options BEFORE purchasing something new, will lend itself to a surprising amount of money left in your pocket! 

Even though I’ve been meal planning, and we aren’t eating out, there are still days where things don’t go as planned and still times when the refrigerator has a random assortment of food left and it’s taken some major creativity to create a decent meal. Last week, this looked like baking chicken breasts in a bath of marinara sauce, shredding some mozzarella and spreading it on the top and naming the conoction “pizza chicken”. It wasn’t too bad, actually. This weekend however, it looked like making one of my absolute favorite things ever, overnight oats! I had some strawberries and raspberries on their last few days. Slightly soft, and ready to turn. I thought about just tossing them, and then I remembered this awesome make-ahead breakfast or snack! You just put the oats in the bottom of some glass jars or plastic containers, (about 1/3 cup) pour 3Tbsp milk onto the oats. Top with a couple spoonfuls of yogurt, sprinkle of berries and a drizzle of honey. Let sit overnight and enjoy! These are so great! My son and I love these and will take for lunch even sometimes. Also, bonus, they’re just so beautiful! It was the perfect way to use up some slightly mushy fruit and make use of every dollar I had spent at the grocery store! 

What We're Reading This Week

Round two of "What we're reading this week" is upon us. I thought I would include what we're reading during our family devotion time in the evenings. This book is incredible. It's devotions based on science and how absolutely remarkable God's creation is. We've been doing this nightly since the summer and everyone loves it. We're almost to the end, but I'm keeping this one to go back through again in a year or two. 

You guys!!!! I had this book when I was little and I came across it at a thrift store sometime last year. I pulled it out and the kids are getting a real kick out of it. They love reading one or two of these silly poems after our devotion every night. Seriously-this is a good one to introduce your littles to poetry and rhyming. 

Lily's been working her way through Nancy Drew graphic novels this week. I think this is her second one since we left the Library yesterday. hehe She's decided she really likes mysteries and will continue to pursue this genre! I love when they find something they really like to read! 

This is my read this week. Its a tough one guys, I'm not going to lie. It's full of triggers so if you're prone to set backs, this might not be your book. I was studying psychology when I met my husband in college and I am truly fascinated about what makes people who they are. I'm curious about how others live, feel, and think. I want to know what makes people, at their core, who they are. Because of this, this book caught my eye. I never imagined I would relate to it as much as I have though. It's been tough to read at times, but also really made me think. This is a well written, fast paced book. I would highly recommend it to people who are confident it won't set them back in their own psychological health. 

Weston is a reader. Through and through. He read these top three books today during his snow day. This is a series he found at the library yesterday and they're an easy read and apparently funny. 

 This is the other series Weston has been really loving. I've been requesting them from the library and he will finish one in about 30 minutes as soon as I bring it home! He laughs out loud to these books and Lily usually reads them as well and they walk around quoting funny bits from them like you would quote a line from a movie! Love it!

Norah discovered Winnie the Pooh recently and we've been working our way through these stories. I'm amazed how still she will sit and really study the pictures and listen intently while I read. You can't go wrong with a good old classic like Winnie the Pooh! 

Crumbs

As I prepared for company to come over this past week, it always brings to the front of my mind the ongoing to-do list that comes with owning a fixer-upper. Of course, maybe that to-do list exists with home ownership of any kind. Anyway, when I host company, I truly enjoy it. I love entertaining and I love sharing our home with friends. I love hosting dinners and having an excuse to make lavish meals. I do find however, that I can let my joy be diminished by the small things I notice around the house. The bare foot prints all over my freshly mopped floor, the doggy nose marks on my clean windows, the fact that every closet I open seems to contain a surprise of some sort placed there by one child or another. I used to dedicate the day of company coming to a full on cleaning spree. However, now that I work outside the home, I try to spread the cleaning out over the course of the week so I don't feel overwhelmed all in one day with the cleaning and the cooking that needs to happen. But, here's the real deal. Life happens in this house every day. Every day spills, every day the dog goes outside and back in again, every day my three kids run around bare foot on my wood floors because heaven forbid socks stay on their feet for longer than 30 seconds after entry. Every day we eat, and get crumbs inevitably all over the kitchen and dining room. Every night we sleep and wrinkle our beds, every day we add to the bathroom contamination. Every. Single. Day.

Here's what else happens....Years ago, I used to be able to clean the house during nap time. In one fell swoop I could run around and tidy most rooms in the house while toddlers slept peacefully tucked in their little beds and unable to disturb anything. That cannot happen anymore and it leaves me in a bit of a conundrum. While I clean these days, the kids are walking, running, jumping through every other room in the house. They're building forts, they're playing with their toys, they're reading books, and in order to do the latter each and every book must be removed from the book basket, of course. We all have the same obstacles in our way, right?

And...here's what else. My children aren't just older and no longer nap, they're older and more independent and want to pour their milk, they want to get themselves a snack, they want to find it, reach it, open it, ALL BY THEMSELVES. And these are things I want them to learn. These are things they need to learn. But in order for three children to be adequately prepared for the adulthood necessity of pouring milk, they must also be responsible for learning how to clean up after said mess, are you with me?

This brings me to my realization as I scrambled around the house last week grabbing this and that and tidying and wiping and straightening, that I suddenly stopped. I stopped right there in front of the linen closet, took a deep breath as I looked at the crumpled sheets shoved onto the shelf and realized that it was okay. It was okay that the shelves weren't orderly and straight like I would have done it. Whichever kid had been tasked with putting the folded sheets away, had done it the best they could. It's okay that my windows had a few marks where my daughter had wiped them in her attempt to clean. It's okay that there are mysterious marks on my couch, and the chairs at the kitchen island and crumbs under my table where my son didn't quite reach while he swept.

It's okay, because we're all learning in this house every single day. We're learning as we spill and as we clean, we're learning as we dance around in our bare feet on the wood floor making all kinds of marks. We're learning as we cook, eat and share a meal and then proceed to clean it up. We're learning how to do life. The kids are learning how to pour, measure, cook and clean and I'm learning how to have patience, how to explain things, how to love them. I'm learning how to be a mom who recognizes what really matters. So come on over to our fixer upper-come on over and enjoy the marks and the spills and the crumbs and all the fun that learning through this life brings!

Unique, Frugal Valentine Ideas!

I love coming up with unique valentine gift ideas for the kids to give out at school. This year was no different. Even though we're not spending on extras, we found a way to come up with some cute valentine gifts for the kids' friends. I saw this idea originally on Pinterest, and it proved to be just as simple as it looked online! We found some paint sample sheets at Menards and bought some matching ribbon. We then used decorative hole punches we already owned to cut stars for the boys and hearts for the girls in my daughter's class. We cut them in half, saving the hole punched side to both cut off the names of the paint colors as well as make it a better size to be utilized as a bookmark!

We paired the book marks with some valentine candy and there we go! Cute, personal valentines that are adorable, fun and cheap! 

I also found this free candy huggable printable online and printed these on regular paper, cut them out, had my younger daughter sign her name to the back and taped on some chocolate hearts. They turned out completely adorable! So simple, so cheap and yet so personal! Love how these turned out! 

What We're Reading This Week

I thought I would start a fun little mini-series within this blog about our favorite picks to read. We're doing a lot of reading these days because for one-we all love books. For two-it's FREE to request a book from the library and sink into a comfy chair and sail off on an adventure!

My husband and I have always been avid readers. I have fond memories of visiting my grandparent's home and simply hanging out in my grandmother's library. Something about the feeling of being in the library surrounded by all those books just put me at ease. She had shelves and shelves full of books and on more than one occasion I walked through the room letting my finger trace the titles of each book. Imagining and wondering what exciting new lives were trapped inside those paperback or  hardback covers just waiting to be explored. My husband was the same way. Growing up he was always reading. The bookshelves in his childhood bedroom are still full of books worn from the multiple times they were read.
When we got married and bought our first fixer-upper home...way back in 2008 when it wasn't the trendy thing to do. There was no Chip and Jo style, buying a fixer upper was just necessity because we were poor, young 20 year old's who decided to graduate college and get married in the same year. It was a spacious house though, and there was a den off of the master bedroom that we aptly named "The Library". It was a very studious library filled with leather chairs (I mean, one rickety computer chair), had lofty hickory bookshelves that soared to the ceiling (well, more like composite put-together-yourself bookshelves), but you get the idea. It was our library and we were proud of that thing. When it was time for us to move, we decided to "trim down" our book collection to a mere 7 tubs. SEVEN plastic tubs of the most essential books in our collection that we absolutely and one hundred percent needed to lug across the state to our new home.

The point is, we read. We love to read and here is a little bit of what we're reading this week:

Lily's class at school was reading this for their read aloud time. I got it from the library and read along so we could talk about it at home. It actually was a super cute book and inspired some great discussions. I would highly recommend this one with your 3rd-5th grader. It's fun!

This is Norah's pick this week. I think Weston actually found this one on our library trip last week, but it is CUTE and Norah has probably requested this book be read to her no less than 573 times. No joke. It's a good one! 

It has been years since I've read a good romance book. This one is cute, its easy to read and I'm interested to know more about Ree Drummond. I'm finding it a bit long and repetitive, but it's reminding me of the beginning days with my hunky man and fond memories that inspire love are never a bad idea.  

Here's Weston's pick. He's read literally about four other chapter books this week, but right now he is working on this one. It's capturing his attention and he loves it. It's a graphic novel and he loves to read those! 

Micah's working his way through this one. As you can see, It's a bargain of a book that my grandma (fancy library woman herself) gifted to my husband I think after our car accident in 2012. I think he's read it once before and is reading through again as a refresher. He has good things to say about this one! 

What are you all reading lately? Any good suggestions for anyone in my household? Go cozy up and grab a good book! 

Backpack Washing Day

Being frugal doesn't mean being cheap.  I've long lived by this phrase. I'm always up for getting things at a discount-but I don't necessarily buy something because it's cheap or on sale. Here are some examples of things I only buy the name brand of; 

• Cheerios-Honey Nut Cheerios taste better than the off brand. They just do.
•  Q-tips -No other brand is as strong, or better quality and let me tell you with the amount of ear wax my kiddos manufacture, we need strong AND sturdy. 
• Blue Bonnet butter for our air popped popcorn. Nothing else will quite achieve the glorious buttery/salty combination. 
• While my mind is on food, we only buy Marzeti's ranch dressing. Free of preservatives and most importantly- gluten free. We've fallen in love with the taste and you can't make me go back. 

But here is the one I want to talk about today-I only buy Pottery Barn Kids backpacks. And let me tell you why: 

First of all, it's what we started with. When my oldest daughter was heading off into the world on her own- to half day pre-k. We went on a special shopping trip to PBK and she picked out a purple backpack with horses on it. Adorable. She wore that thing every day for her pre-k year. She wore it through the rain and through the snow and she used it for vacations and road trips and for carrying the essential snacks and water bottles required for playing in the back yard. This thing got use. But it also stayed in great shape. So much so, that she continued using that thing until half way through her second grade year when she decided she was all at once too grown up for horses on her backpack. To which we attempted another back pack shopping trip and ended up bringing home a ridiculously overpriced, bow adorned JOJO SIWA backpack. It literally broke within the first week of use. I'm not EVEN kidding you. The zipper broke. And I was furious for that $39.00 gone to a pre-teen dancing sensation while my daughter suddenly needed another backpack. I was taking no chances this time. Online to PBK we went and when we didn't find a style she liked there (she's much too grown up for kitty cats and mermaids and sparkles of course) we headed to Pottery Barn Teen and she found the perfect backpack and it was on sale! So I ordered that sucker and we've been so pleased with it. She's on her second year of using it and I'm so thoroughly enjoying the quality of these bags. Both of my other children now have PBK backpacks and I'm going to tell you a secret-you can wash them! Like, inside your washer on a gentle cycle and these things hold together fantastically! 

We're in the middle of flu season. The middle of winter, the middle of the school year and I ran their coats and hats and mittens through the washer to forbid any germs determined to infiltrate my family home with their no good schemes -and I decided to wash their book bags as well. After all-heaven knows those bags see it all. Moldy mandarin leftover from last week's snack-check. Exactly 436 cough drop wrappers crinkled in the bottom of the front compartment-check. 6 broken erasers, 3 crinkled bookmarks and 4 crumpled gum wrappers-check, check, check. These bags are on the floor at school, on the bus, and in the car. They are literally dropped where we walk, where we step, and flung onto our children's backs for all the germs to triumphantly enter proclaiming their victory. Well, I have news for those germs-I WIN! 

I washed these bags in my $1.99 laundry detergent and I have never felt more accomplished looking at three clean, glowing, practically shining backpacks as they dried letting their clean-laundry scent fill the room. 

You guys-buy your bags at PBK. The quality is unbeatable, the price is actually reasonable and there are so many cute designs! I'm happy with this frugal purchase because these kids are basically going to be wearing these bags to college. Just saying. 

What are some items you only buy name-brand? 

Extreme Measures

So far throughout this No-Spend journey, I've contemplated several "extreme" swaps. I've looked for extreme ways of saving money like using coupons to turn our guest room downstairs into my "stock pile" and audition for Extreme Couponing (is that still a thing????) My friend has a sister who doesn't use trash bags. Like apparently she carries the smelly, stinky, oozing bin out to the outdoor can and dumps it, then rinses it and brings it back inside to fill up again? We literally fill our full size 13 gallon trash bag once a day. That's a lot of trash-can baths I would rather not give. So, that one got vetoed....I'll have to make my contribution to saving the planet another way. Alas, I have continued to buy plastic baggies and plastic forks to aid in convenience for my children's school lunches. But one thing I went to buy, and then thought twice about was.....cat litter. Yes, the material I clean and scoop and refill just so my pet happily relieves itself on a daily basis. 

So, this switch-out, is the first one that I would consider extreme. Not washing my car once a week, a close second. But this, this is saving me about $26.00/month. I know that doesn't sound like much, but this whole experiment was based on the idea of discovering how much money could be saved by not simply accepting a "want" as a "need" and not mindlessly spending money. I plan to be completely jaw-dropped by the amount of money saved by not spending the small amounts here and there....because lets face it, all those $1 diet cokes add up. 

Anyway, back to cat litter. So, when we adopted our cat in 2016, I found this fantastic cat litter from Pets Mart. A cat litter made from recycled newspaper. It's in little pellets so it doesn't fling all over your floor when your cat does his thing. Perfect. It was costing me about $13.00/bag and I would buy two every month. 

Just as the calendar switched to "January", I was reminded of what our vet had suggested we do several years ago after our first cat had his front paws declawed. The vet had suggest we use shredded paper as cat litter so the little grains of regular cat litter wouldn't get stuck in his wounds. Made sense. My mother-in-law had brought home garbage bags full of shredded paper from her office and that provided us enough litter to last till our poor little feline was completely healed. A little lightbulb went off in my head and I thought "if it was good enough then, what's wrong with using it now?" 

Well, I put it to the test. Literally the papers that come home from school (granted I save a few for their books from each grade) but lets face it we get A LOT of papers home from school on a daily basis, right? Well, I declared one particularly sturdy box the "RECYCLED PAPER" box and all returned homework, unwanted artwork, junk mail, ripped envelopes, and ads go into this box. I take a stack downstairs to the paper shredder, spend about 2 minutes shredding and voila! I have a full pan of cat litter. 

I have a full pan of cat litter that cost me NOTHING. It was completely free. FREE! Which, I mean it should be, considering it's sole purpose is to collect unmentionables. 

Now, I have had to be very consistent and change his litter more often than needed before. It also cannot be scooped out, and must be completely changed each time (I do every day or every other right now) because all the paper soaks up all the liquid, but there is no odor stopping power with plain old paper. 

My cat had literally zero issues switching from regular litter to this paper. He's a champ at no-spend year as well and should be included in the award speeches. 

So, my verdict on absolutely free, cost-me-nothing cat litter is that we are sticking with this extreme switch. What extreme things do you do to save money??? Share with me, because I plan to be testing several more options out soon! 

Awww....Here's my precious baby boy! He's worth all the work! 

The Why

It's been twenty days. 2-0. TWENTY. Twenty days since I've had restaurant food. Twenty days since I've stopped through the drive-through. Twenty days since my kids have captured the coveted happy meal toy only to lose interest by the time we hit the car. Twenty days since we've grabbed a Sonic happy hour drink. Twenty days since I've been inside Target. (gasp! yes, for real) Twenty days.

On the one hand, its not been difficult at all. We spend our weekends doing the normal weekend things like catching up on laundry, playing games together, doing the grocery shopping, trying to survive snow-apocalypse and snow-apocalypse the second. You get the idea. There isn't near as much temptation on the weekends as I thought there would be. The week though, that's another story. We're in the thick of it during the week. There's the meetings and the unexpected things that come up. There's the exhaustion that the work week brings. There's homework and activities and volunteer sign up lists and more meetings and somewhere in there, oh yea, we all have to eat. I almost did it. I almost caved. I was rushing from work to a meeting with one of my kids' teachers after school. This meeting lasted until twenty minutes before my next meeting, 10 miles away. I drove like Mario (abiding every safety law of course) to drop my kiddos off at home all the while knowing the easiest, best, fastest thing to do would be to stop by those blessed golden arches and grab myself some greasy french fries which were sure to make me calm down and be ultra productive at my next meeting. But, I didn't. I drove the kids home, my husband prepared them leftovers and I grabbed an apple and was on my way. I'm sure the entire room could hear my stomach complaining. Calling out to me in all its no-spend agony that it NEEDED those French fries I had avoided earlier. It needed the convenience and the accessibility. It needed the panic. It fed on the feeling of chaos. But, that's the thing. There doesn't have to be the panic and the chaos. Yes, there will certainly be the exhaustion, the unexpected, but I'm learning to deal with it differently. I'm learning to continue wise decision making in spite of unplanned events. I'm learning to not let circumstances control my life. There it is. The big "WHY". I'm in control, of the things I can control. I'm not in control of the length of meetings, or how many places I will be expected at during the week. I'm not in control of how much homework the kids will have or their mood when they arrive home. I'm not in control of how late my husband will work, or if he'll be called out in the middle of the night. I'm not in control of any of it. But I am in control of me, my actions, my decisions, what I put in my mouth, what I spend my money on. I'm in control of that. So, I'm learning to make better decisions with what I can control.

This whole journey. This long-365 day journey is not an experiment in deprivation. I have yet to give up diet coke. Just saying. It is an experiment in better decision making. There are SO many activities we have inside our house that encourage family time. We don't need to be seeking family time entertainment elsewhere. We just don't. There are SO many wonderful, flavorful meals to be made at home. Laughing together around the Island, while we all belt out the lyrics to our favorite songs and working together to make dinner. We don't need Minskey's pizza to have family dinner. (I know, its shocking and I'm still trying to convince myself of this one) We have a closet full of board games, bookshelves packed full of books, we have Amazon Prime and Vudu filled with options to watch for family movie night. We have a school room/art room literally spilling with items to make crafts and cards and color while talking about our days. We have so much filling this house that I was purposeful in picking out. So many items within these walls that were purchased to encourage family time, so it's time to spend this year intentionally taking that family time and utilizing it as much as possible. Instead of filling my calendar with to-do's and then sitting back and wondering why we didn't have time for family games or reading this week, why the seven days sped past like a bullet train without me playing with the three precious humans I created. Instead of standing in the middle of the room watching life spin past me in a blur of feeling like I'm being pushed and pulled this way and that by the circumstances, I'm yelling out at the top of my lungs "STOP!" Desperately crying out to the blur to pause. Grasping at my kids, holding their faces between my hands and promising with every ounce of my being to be present. To be here. To be aware, to be WITH them. To be in control of what I can control. To teach them to slow down. To teach them to be in control, of their time, of their money, of their emotions. To create as part of their memories, family time, cooking dinner together, game nights, movie nights, coloring around the table chatting about anything and everything. I guess you could say our no-spend year has turned into a spend-everything year. No-spend on material things. No-spend money. No-spend on items we really don't need. But Spend my time. Spend my energy, spend my intentionality. Spend it all on them. Spend it on investing into my children. It will now forever be known as our Spend-all year.

STOP RIGHT NOW! Don't throw away your Christmas cards until you read this!

If you're like me, you received so many beautiful Christmas cards from friends and family.  We all know ordering and sending Christmas cards, especially with photos included are not cheap. Either we've gone through the whole ordeal ourselves or we've evaluated the cost and decided to invest in some other aspect of the holiday madness. Still, we all know how much time and money went into these cards. 

A few years ago while taking down my holiday decorations I was really saddened to throw all these gorgeous little mementos away, so I came up with an idea: 

Every year when we take down the Christmas decorations, I gather up all of the Christmas cards from their spot on this hanging wire, and make a little prayer book. We turn over a new card, one each day. We then pray for that person or family who sent us that card during our family devotion. You also could use it to be your inspiration and turn over a new card on a weekly basis and mail that person/family a real snail mail letter or encouraging card. The possibilities are endless!

It's super simple to make and it's something we've really enjoyed making each year with the new cards we receive. 

So, here's how to make yours:

Step one is to make two holes in your card along the folded edge using a hole punch. 

Next, you'll lay your first card on top of all the others and mark your holes to punch in the next card using a marker. Follow up with punching the holes you've marked on the rest of your Christmas cards. 

Next, using two loose leaf rings, you're going to feed one side of all the cards through the ring, hook the ring and then feed the other side of all the cards through the second ring. 

You can find some rings for pretty cheap on Amazon.

That's it! You're done! You've made a sweet little book of all your Christmas cards! 

How I Cut My Grocery Bill in HALF without using Coupons

The temptations begin.....

 First of all, we had family in town for Christmas until the 3rd of January. So, in the wake of starting back to work and school, in the wake of hard goodbyes, and piles of laundry spilling out of every hamper in the house, we entered no spend year. YAY.  The house looked like a Christmas and New Year Food Network show had been filmed in my kitchen. We had holiday food galore, and no real food to be found. It was Friday. I just had to make it through one normal day before I had the chance to get groceries....I literally poured out curdled milk onto my son's cheerios that very morning. The poor kid had to eat dry cereal and half a bottle of Gaterade for breakfast. That was all that was to be found. I sent him to school with pumpkin bread and yogurt for lunch. Of course, a sugar cookie with sprinkles thrown in there as well. So, my first Friday night exhausted mistake was deciding we had no food and we just had no other choice but to grab something easy out for dinner while we grocery shopped. My husband shot this down. "It will be fine," he said. "I'll grab milk on my way home from work so we have some for breakfast and we can go to the store tomorrow." 

"oh.....that will work". 

So we did just that, I came up with some leftover chicken wings cut up onto lettuce to make some salads, and more sugar cookies for dinner and we managed with our one leftover egg and more cheerios for breakfast. We entered Saturday in a much better position for  good decision making while grocery shopping. 

I looked over the sale ads for all the local grocery stores, which I had honestly not ever done before (ain't nobody got time for that!) but it was really interesting. Between the half a bag of leftover baking potatoes from Christmas and the ads, I was actually able to put together some decent meal ideas for the week. I wrote out all the items I found at a killer deal, what store they were located at and we were off. I started with Aldi. I compared their prices to the deals I had written down from HyVee, Sprouts and Price Chopper. I ended up scratching a few items off that were cheaper at Aldi than the competitors sale ads, but decided I would still go to HyVee and Price chopper for a few things. I ended up spending a total of $145.00 on Saturday. This is insane. I would typically spend about $120.00/week at Aldi alone, somewhere between $75.00-$100.00 at Target on "essentials". Followed by filling the truck up with gas, getting a car wash, grabbing lunch somewhere etc. A normal Saturday of errands could cost me around $400-500. Without even really feeling like I splurged on anything. I had felt like I was doing a fairly good job at being frugal. WELL.....
Saturday I spent $43.00 at Aldi on regular weekly grocery items, coffee creamer, some fruit, veggies, orange juice, school lunch items, etc. I spent $13.00 at HyVee buying yogurt that was on sale for .29 cents a container, instant oatmeal on sale for .99cents/box and laundry detergent on sale for $1.99/bottle. I then filled up with gas at HyVee and was able to fill the truck for $40.00. What????
Then I skipped the car wash....this one is REALLLY bugging me. Like, every day when I walk to my truck. I'm one of those people who wash the truck usually once a week. Well, I used to be. Now I'll be known as the lady with the filthy Dodge. That's catchy.  Next I went to Walmart to get baby wipes, and medicine. Honestly this did me in. I would have been so much better off on my spending this week if every single family member didn't have a cold. So, $15.00 in medicine later, I was limping to the cash register trying to decide whether my husband really needed the Nyquil (or you know the off brand because we are saving money after all). But, since I love the man, we bought the meds and the kids' meds and the cough drops, and everyone is feeling much better today, so it was worth it! Anyway, Walmart cost a bit more because of medicine, but hey, that's real life. Got out of Walmart for $32.00 and followed it up with Price Chopper because lunch meat was on a killer sale. So I spent $15.00 at Price chopper on lunch meat for the week and some extra for next and my husbands crazy expensive gluten free bread. (but again, I love the man, so you know).

This is such an exciting revelation. I didn't have to use a bunch of coupons, I didn't have to download a bunch of apps and scan a bunch of things at checkout. I simply looked at the ads that are mailed to my house every dang week anyway and used some creativity to build my menu off of the ads. That was all it took to literally take the grocery part of my spending this week to $62.00. Instead of $120+ I seriously cannot get over how easy this was and how ridiculous it is that its taken me 10 years of cooking dinner to figure this out. I cut my grocery bill in HALF you guys. By not just walking through the store and grabbing the same stuff every week, or buying everything convenient. I let the sales tell me what we would eat this week and the results are unbelievable!!!!

Who's going to try this next week????

For those that are curious....here's what we ate this week to pull this off:

Friday Night: We cut leftover chicken wings up, peeled off the chicken and put it on salads and enjoyed some chips with it for an easy quick dinner.

Saturday Lunch: Used leftover tortillas from Tacos the week before to make cheese quesadillas. We ate them with chips and salsa and taco fixings also leftover.

Saturday night: We LOVE movie night at our house. We pop a big bowl of air popped popcorn, cut up about 4-5 apples and sometimes we enjoy summer sausage and cheese with it. We literally eat this for dinner. Its perfect! Easy, simple and cheap!

Sunday lunch: We made ham and swiss panini inspired sandwiches using tortillas.

Sunday dinner: Breakfast for dinner, egg sandwiches, leftover bacon from the holidays and oranges.

Kids lunches this week have been:
ham and swiss spinach tortilla wraps, instant mac and cheese packed in a thermos, hot dogs in a thermos, sun butter and jelly sandwich and one repeat. All of these are packed with the .29cent yogurt, carrot sticks, oranges, blueberries, chips, etc as sides.

Monday dinner: Monday's are family nights, so my brother and sister who live in town come over and enjoy dinner and the evening with us. This is one of the highlights of our week. I made chicken enchiladas for dinner this week. All the ingredients came from my Aldi grocery budget. Except I had the flour tortillas leftover. I also made a delicious chocolate chip cookie cake to have for dessert! Maybe I should do a recipe share post soon?

Tuesday dinner: easy philly cheesesteak sandwiches, chips and apple slices. (I used the roast beef I got on sale at Price Chopper)

Wednesday night: shrimp, leftover asparagus and rice.

Thursday dinner: Loaded baked potatoes (again leftover baked potatoes from last week)

Friday dinner: a pot roast from the freezer with the leftover potatoes and some carrots

Saturday dinner: leftover roast made into beef and noodles.