mom
Life as a mom of 4
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November Budget Diary
I felt like titling this post: November Budget Diary, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly! I started the month strong with all of these lofty goals and then I succumbed to some spending, mostly good deals but still… Here is a look at my month day by day! Nov. 1 Free carwash Changed car/house insurance (estimate yearly savings -we were adding a new driver and current insurance was outrageous- $1800) Closed out October budget and added flexible spending categories Planned out November budget Nov. 2 Haircut J (savings $20) Nov. 3 Canceled Amazon prime music: $8.99 monthly savings Nov. 4 90c off gallon at Kroger: filled up tank! Nov.…
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Month in Review
September is always a busy month for us but this month was even busier than ever! Here is my month in review! 20th Anniversary Date My husband surprised me by coming home a day early from his work trip and we went out on a nice date. I was spoiled with a new wedding band (mine had to be caught off at the fire station last year as I couldn’t take my rings off after trying for years and it started to pain my finger) and a message in a bottle. Here is my quick look for our date dinner. Our big celebration starts today (I will share next week…
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May Favorites: Things that Make me Smile
We are heading on a vacation to New Orleans tomorrow and I only have a post scheduled for Monday. I will be back to my regular schedule starting with the Sunday Showcase on June 5. Today I wanted to end this month by sharing a few things that have brought me joy this past month. Lavender I have always loved the scent of lavender and kept some lavender my friend and I picked 25 years ago till just recently. I have been trying to grow lavender and my first plant is the only one that has done well and survived. This is a picture of some of the blooms. I…
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Lean Budget Month: March Goals and Tips
Last week, I enjoyed reading KellyAnn’s post entitled Closet Confessions. I have been wanting to do something similar for myself this year to help me get an idea of what I am buying, whether I am wearing it and if it was a good buy and also to help me decide when I should have what I can a lean month. A lean month is when I halt my clothes shopping for the month and work on preparing more budget friendly meals. Before sharing my tips for this month, I wanted to share my clothes spending for January and February. Please remember that everyone’s budget is different, what one might…
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Weekend: Key Ingredients to My Perfect Weekend
There are Sunday nights where I just exhale a soft sigh of happiness and contentment for having had a wonderful weekend. Today I am sharing which things I consider key to having a satisfying fulfilling weekend. Of course, this will look different for each person as we all have different likes and dislikes, families and schedules. Saturday Morning Run For the past few weeks, I have been running with a group of ladies (in their 40s to 60s) for 6 miles at 6 AM. It is an easy pace, we do different routes and we get to see the sunrise! It’s a great way to start the weekend! Breakfast and…
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How to Create Habits that Will Stick
We all start a new year thinking about the things we want to work on and improve whether we call them resolutions, goals or habits. Most of my habits are similar from year to year as I get lazy or forget about some of them throughout the year. However I have learned through trial and error what helps me create a habit so that it becomes part of my routine and this year I have done much better because I know what makes me tick for each habit. I am sharing these because some of my triggers or buttons might be yours too and you might get ideas or encouragement…
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Another Disc Golf Adventure
Last Sunday, we had a little bit of time in the afternoon before my son’s birthday dinner and he asked us to go play disc golf at a new to us course less than 15 minutes from the house. It is located at a day use area so it has a $5 parking fee which really was not bad for such a fun area. There is the disc golf course, the river, picnic areas, a soccer field and volleyball net and several other areas where you can enjoy nature. It also has several hiking trails that we will need to explore. What made this course a lot of fun was…
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Enjoy the Now
Often times after a couple of months into a season, we start looking forward to the next one and forget to enjoy the now and the present season (this can be meant literally and figuratively). It’s winter and we want it to be spring with flowers and warmer temperatures, it’s spring and we want it to be summer and bathing suit season… The same as a parent or sometimes in a job: when my children are potty trained, when they go to school, when they… One of my goals this year is to enjoy the now and really live in the now as much as possible. Of course, I look…
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January Favorites: Running and French Treats
I don’t post favorites every month but sometimes I like to think about things that have brought be joy or that I have enjoyed during the month. After trying to run a 2 miles 8 days in a row I figured that while I enjoy running leasurely with others, I only like to run faster when I do a 5K. So at running club, depending on my mood I run with the slower ladies or the faster ones. I also am not forcing myself to run every day but just a few times a week and walking other days. I love the outdoors and while we get cold weather, we…
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A Few New Organizing Updates at Home
This year, I am focusing on making small changes at home to make some little improvements to toy organization as well as closet organization. I want to streamline a few things, reduce the clutter and the number of things we have laying around the house. I started as soon as the year started and I am sure we continue to declutter throughout the year as we can always do with less. The boys had 3 tubs under their bunkbeds with legos and really didn’t play with the legos unless those tubs were out. I had the boys help me greatly reduced the number of legos we kept and we sold…