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!