mom
Life as a mom of 4
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Stockpiling do’s and don’ts
Have you ever watched one of those tv shows that were popular for a while like “Extreme Couponing”? I was always amazed with the deals people would come across and impressed with their stock pile. However, the question is how much toothpaste do you actually go through in a year? Many of those deals were for toiletry and household items that either took lots of space or would last for a long while. These couponers also spent a lot of hours daily or weekly couponing. The following way is the way that I stockpile and my stockpile lasts about 2 months at the most. I do not stockpile on household…
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Budget friendly snacks
One of the easiest ways for me to trim my grocery budget is by making snacks instead of buying snacks. While I am stockpiling for the first couple months of school by buying store snacks (such as granola bars, fruit pouches, chips) as I come accross sales, I have turned to making snacks sereral times a week these past 2 months. The boys are home and the boys are hungry! When home in the summer, the boys have 2 snack times during the day, around 10 am and around 2 pm. These are the choices they typically have and I encourage them to limit themselves to two snacks: dairy: yogurt…
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Marietta Farmers Market outing
Last Saturday, our family took a quick drive to the Marietta Farmers Market. After our fun experience in France visiting a village outdoor market, I wanted to capture a little of that feeling (nothing can compare to a French outdoor market in my opinion but you can get close!). Our little town’s market is tiny and I heard good things about the Marietta’s market so away we went. Since summer in Georgia is always hot and humid I wore my breezy floral skirt with a tank top. It was perfect for the outing and even matched my bouquet! The skirt is on clearance for $14 at the time I am…
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Vacationing with extended family
While I do not typically consider visiting family a real vacation, going on vacation with some extended family can have many advantages. Our vacations typically only include ourselves and our children, but over the past last year or so, we have taken a couple of vacations with some extended family and I have changed my mind about not liking to spend my husband and our vacation time with others. I thought it would be interesting to look at the pros and cons of going on vacation with other members of your family. Pros: budget: sharing the cost of the rent and the food might allow you to afford a vacation…
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What self care looks like for this mom of 4
I love my children but in order to stay sane and have the patience required to be a good mom, I need to take care of myself. My 3 oldest go to school during the day and my youngest at 18 month old stays home with me. My husband travels out of town usually 4 days a week and my mom in law lives with us. So the way I take care of myself and recharge is by having some me time! Exercising At the beginning of the year, my husband visited several gyms in town and choose a membership to one close by. It is about a 5 minute…
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Summer Bucket List
With 2 months of summer time ahead of us the boys and I sat down to make a list of ideas of activities/places they would like to do. Of course, they came up with a list that could be quite hard on the budget so we will not do everything on their list but will try to hit one activity for each child. To save money we will use the Atlanta City pass because the zoo and the GA aquarium are included in it and we can visit the World of Coca Cola and maybe one more thing to get our money’s worth out of the pass. Our summer bucket…
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Blog update
So I have been writing this blog for 2 and 1/2 months now and wanted to share what I have learned and experienced so far. Writing I have truly enjoyed the writing process and coming up with post topics to share with my readers. I do like writing about our travels the most but we are not always on the go since we do have to save up for these trips. So I am learning to enjoy writing about other topics too. Fashion is probably the easiest to share about because I have always enjoyed clothes and buying them so taking pictures of what I typically wear or finding new…
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Spring and summer decor
About a month ago, my husband received a giftcard from a customer and I put that giftcard right to work. I headed to Ross and updated my non existent Spring decor. The first thing I wanted were some new throw pillows for the couch. I selected two gray ones that will work for other seasons and chose a large yellow throw pillow too. I had found another smaller yellow pillow on clearance at Walmart earlier that week so it was perfect! Next I needed a few things to add to the mantle and table behind the couch: I like the sunshiny color of these fake tulips and the little sign…
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How to make budgeting work for you
Different families have different circumstances, budgets and priorities. While my husband works full time, my main job right now is to makes our household run smoothly, take care of our 4 children and stay on budget. In the past 10+ years since working full time, I have helped bring income in by working part time as a preschool teacher, babysat my old coworker and friend’s children and neighbor’s child and tutored Spanish. With a 18 month old, my focus has been to get him on a schedule and I will probably return to tutoring in the evenings this fall. While the following tips and ideas are not by any means…
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April Sentence a Day
4/1 We went shopping downtown (I found a scarf and two purses), had lunch then went hiking with my sister in law and her 2 children. 4/2 We planted some sunflower seeds, a couple tomato plants and some zinnias. 4/3 Had fun at Lakepoint station with the boys. 4/4 and 4/5 Sleepover at one of my best friend’s house. My oldest son has been friends with her son since they were 4. We went on a mural hunt in Athens, GA. 4/6 Nearing the end of our spring break. We walked around downtown for our little town’s BBQ and Brews festival. The boys had Kona Ice and their faces painted.…