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Share a recipe: Boston Butt
This is one of those recipes that is so simple but yet so delicious. Before getting married, I had never had Boston Butt and when my father in law lived with us for 6 month early on, he shared a couple of his simple but oh so tasty recipes. This is the Boston Butt at its best. Ingredients: boston butt worcheshire sauce garlic salt tabasco sauce BBQ sauce I usually buy my Boston Butts when they are on sale for 99c/lb at Kroger but sometimes Aldi sells boneless ones for $1.49 and it is sure worth getting a few then too for the ease of not having to take the…
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2020 Travel Goals
Here were my travel goals and plans as of September. A few things have changed in the past few months to where we might be able to add a few trips and vacations this year if I am careful with saving. Winter break The boys have a short winter break in February, 4 1/2 days long. I am hoping to head to Chattanooga for a couple days with our family. As usual for a vacation that involves a hotel stay, we will use hotel points we have so our expenses will include lunch and dinner as well as any fun activity we plan to enjoy. I am thinking, the children’s…
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Nativity Outfit
I do not typically buy the same piece of clothing in different colors apart from very basic pieces so as tanks, layering tees long and short sleeves. However, when my sister in law gave me two identical dresses in black and in purple, I knew that them being the same was not going to bore me but would give me even more incentive to wear them and style them in different ways. Last week, I wore the black version of this Calvin Klein dress with a red peacoat jacket, a blanket scarf and caramel boots. This past Tuesday, I wore the purple dress but with different toppers and accessories, totally…
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2020 Budget Goals
Each year, at the start of the year I revisit our budget, make adjustments and outline some goals. This year, with a new tool in hand (my Budget by Paycheck workbook, see this post and this post) and a somewhat of a new budget, here are my adjustments and goals. Food budget These 4 boys of mine can eat! While my husband travels out of town 4 days of week, I still go through groceries quickly. Yogurts and snacks disappear quickly and sometimes meals don’t leave any leftovers. So I adjusted my grocery/household budget from $600 to $700. I will still strive from $600 but I will not beat myself…
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Orthodox Nativity
Since we celebrate Nativity, Christ’s birth (Christmas) on January 7th, I wanted to share a peek into our celebration. Since we follow the old church calendar, we are on the same calendar as the Orthodox church in Russia and in the Republic of Georgia. We actually spoke to my father in law on the 25th who is in the Republic of Georgia right now and he was saying the kids were just returning from school. Their school break lasts about a month and starts this week I think. Other Orthodox do follow the new calendar and celebrate on the 25th such as my parents’ church. On a practical side I…
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Sunday’s Best
This Sunday, I was very excited to wear one of my new dresses that my sister in law handed down to me a couple weeks ago. The dress was still new with tags and was a Calvin Klein dress she found at TJmaxx. It skims the body without being too form fitting and the knee length is appropriate for church. I paired it with my Nickel and Suede saffron earrings, an old Target blanket scarf (cut in 2 for less weight and bulk) and my really old caramel boots I just don’t think I can part with yet. I love that the sleeves are 3/4 so the bell shape is…
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2020 Word: Growth!
A couple weeks ago, I started working on my 2020 planner, adding school breaks, potential vacations as well as working on my January budget. I first thought about 2019 and what I was proud of: establishing a weekly game night and spending more quality time with the kids in the evenings great family vacations (2019 might be hard to top!) having regular fun times with my sisters in law starting the blog Next I started to think about areas that I would like to improve: quality time with the hubby, more regularly prayers and reading time with the boys save more money: with increased income comes increased opportunities to save…
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Top Posts of 2019
I started this blogging journey on March 6, 2019. Today I am sharing my top 5 posts and some fun stats. I have 20 blog followers and 186 Instagram followers. I have had 23,171 views (which is different than a visitor: a visitor might visit once and read 3 blog post, and that would show as 3 views). I have 2718 comments and my best day was 254 views. My visitors come from all over the world (thanks to the time I take to link up to other awesome bloggets link ups). An example was that Mondays’ visitors came from the US, Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Serbia and Bulgaria! Pretty…
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2020: Shopping with a purpose
I would lie if I said I would not buy anything new in 2020 apart from thrifting. While I will probably go thrifting every other month, I do have a short list of items that I would like to purchase this coming year. How to decide what I need or want? Since I do not have an overflowing closet and I am constantly reassessing my closet, I have a good idea of what I am lacking or would lack to replace: skirts: I would like to wear skirts more and most of my skirts are maxis. Right now maxis are not calling my name much and while I will keep…
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December Favorites
Since I did not purchase but one article of clothing my favorites for this month are a little different! Kut from the Kloth denim Jacket I have worn this jacket 5 to 6 times already this month: I held true to my no clothes shopping month after this planned purchase on the 1st of the month. The denim is soft and the cut is perfect. I sized up to a medium. The Budget Mom budget by paycheck workbook I shared this workbook last month. If you want to take charge of your finances, see where your money goes and start paying off your debt or do a better job of…