Recently I have been burdened with the feeling of being wasteful. Last year my husband and I decided to try and "live like our grandparents" meaning, not to be wasteful in our living. We changed to cloth napkins, cloth diapers, reusable sandwich bags, and tupperware containers instead of plastic bags. I feel like that went really well this year. So why not take it a step further in 2012!?
If you have followed my blog you have seen some projects that I have been working, like the cloth wipes and making our own laundry soap. Those are just some of the ways we are making changes in our daily life. Today I stumbled upon a blog called Frugally Sustainable. She is issuing a 23 day challenge to live frugally. I took the pledge, and you can as well. I will link to her blog where you can sign up along side over 500 others from around the world!! This is so exciting for me because this is close to my heart to not just live frugally for the sake of saving money but also to be responsible in taking care of our world that God has blessed us with!
For this year my goal is to make as many cleaning products as I can to save some money and not have the toxins brought into my house. I also plan to reuse as much as I can and not be wasteful.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Eight Days... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!???
I can not believe that Christmas is only 8 days away!! REALLY!!??? I have realized how slow I have been this year at getting the "regular" Christmas things done. First is the decorations...since we were out of town the weekend after Thanksgiving (which is the normal time we put up our decorations) they didn't get done until the weekend after. Even then all I really felt like doing was putting up the tree, all of my other decorations pretty much stayed in their storage bins. Then I realized that we needed to get our stockings out, so that prompted me to get out a few other decorations, not many though! As for the outside lights and decorations, they are not going to make an appearance this year!
Next was the Christmas cookies, which I also normally do the first week in December. I finally got some baked the second week in December and then just had to make some more for a cookie exchange today at my MOPS meeting!
We also buy the kids ornaments every year, this year we were a little late in getting those (as in we just went tonight and got them!). Of course they didn't' have the ones our kids wanted and the ones they did want were CRAZY expensive!! So they decided they wanted to share one this year, we will see how that goes over in the future! We did find a cute one for Baby Z though.
Then there is the buying and wrapping of the gifts! The shopping we did get done with the first weekend in December but I still haven't' started wrapping anything!! 8 days, REALLY!!??? I think I better get a move on it!! I also still need to do a deep cleaning on my house because of people coming over for Christmas Day!!
So not only do we have Christmas stuff to get done we also have a birthday on January 1st to get ready for! I feel so sorry for my poor Little N because every year I tend to "forget" its his birthday, because of all the hoopla that goes with Christmas. I usually end up pulling together a "party" during the 5 days between December 26th and December 31st. This year we do actually have his present bought and we think we know what kind of party he wants.
To finish this up, I think I am finally ready for Christmas, well at least when the presents are wrapped! That will hopefully be a tonight and this weekend thing. I will feel so much better once all of that is finished!
Next was the Christmas cookies, which I also normally do the first week in December. I finally got some baked the second week in December and then just had to make some more for a cookie exchange today at my MOPS meeting!
We also buy the kids ornaments every year, this year we were a little late in getting those (as in we just went tonight and got them!). Of course they didn't' have the ones our kids wanted and the ones they did want were CRAZY expensive!! So they decided they wanted to share one this year, we will see how that goes over in the future! We did find a cute one for Baby Z though.
Then there is the buying and wrapping of the gifts! The shopping we did get done with the first weekend in December but I still haven't' started wrapping anything!! 8 days, REALLY!!??? I think I better get a move on it!! I also still need to do a deep cleaning on my house because of people coming over for Christmas Day!!
So not only do we have Christmas stuff to get done we also have a birthday on January 1st to get ready for! I feel so sorry for my poor Little N because every year I tend to "forget" its his birthday, because of all the hoopla that goes with Christmas. I usually end up pulling together a "party" during the 5 days between December 26th and December 31st. This year we do actually have his present bought and we think we know what kind of party he wants.
To finish this up, I think I am finally ready for Christmas, well at least when the presents are wrapped! That will hopefully be a tonight and this weekend thing. I will feel so much better once all of that is finished!
Friday, December 9, 2011
A road trip, family, Thanksgiving and Christmas, all in one weekend!
WOW!! We have had such a crazy few weeks!! First we were preparing for a quick trip our east to visit my brother and his family for Thanksgiving. Then we were busy unpacking and trying to get back into the swing of things again after the trip. Finally I have a few minutes to do some blogging about what's been going on!
First about this "quick" trip we took. This is the first long car trip we have taken with our kids, we have been places that are 3 hours away from our home but no further! So this 15 hour trip was quite daunting to think about. The planning and packing and preparing was so exhausting that I was tired before we even left our house!! Some great tips I learned from this trip though was that driving during the night is the best way to travel with small children! Although I did feel bad that they were missing out on a lot of scenery, it kept me and my husband sane! I also learned that thinking ahead about the times you will be in the car will help you pack! We planned on eating lunch in the car but were never in the car during lunch time, so the bread, peanut butter and jelly were not necessary! On the other hand we brought breakfast food and that was great to have in the hotel room so the kids could eat breakfast while my husband and I got ready for the day. We also over prepared for the kids car activities, we brought coloring books, books, crayons, color wonder markers and books, matchbox cars, etc. When in reality it was dark for 90% of our drive both ways (because we drove at night!) and all they wanted to do was watch movies! So the DVD player and movies was probably all we needed to bring with us!
This was the first Thanksgiving in probably 5 years that my whole family has been together! It was so much fun and a great time to share together. I have two older brother, so with my family of 5, there was a total of 14 kids, and 8 adults (including my parents!) We are praising the Lord that He blessed us with a beautiful weekend! The temperatures were in the high 60's which meant that 14 kids could play outside and not in the house!! While at my brothers house we celebrated Christmas since we were not going to be together this year for Christmas. We did a homemade Christmas, where the presents had to be homemade and we all drew names. The kids drew names among themselves and the adults among themselves. It was so much fun, this is the second year for my family to do this!
I didn't get very good pictures of the gifts my kids received, but Big E got a picture frame, and Little N received a number memory game. Such cute ideas! We didn't include the babies this year because they are both so small!
The last lesson I learned on this "quick" trip is that Little N gets car sick!! Thankfully we learned this lesson when we were about an hour from home on our way back!! The poor kid was so upset! So along rain, and wind we had to try and clean up a sick little boy and the car! It was all over his car seat and the van seat! Thankfully he was able to use his big brothers booster seat and big brother was able to just sit in the seat. Probably not legally but when you are in a pinch you do what you have to do!!
First about this "quick" trip we took. This is the first long car trip we have taken with our kids, we have been places that are 3 hours away from our home but no further! So this 15 hour trip was quite daunting to think about. The planning and packing and preparing was so exhausting that I was tired before we even left our house!! Some great tips I learned from this trip though was that driving during the night is the best way to travel with small children! Although I did feel bad that they were missing out on a lot of scenery, it kept me and my husband sane! I also learned that thinking ahead about the times you will be in the car will help you pack! We planned on eating lunch in the car but were never in the car during lunch time, so the bread, peanut butter and jelly were not necessary! On the other hand we brought breakfast food and that was great to have in the hotel room so the kids could eat breakfast while my husband and I got ready for the day. We also over prepared for the kids car activities, we brought coloring books, books, crayons, color wonder markers and books, matchbox cars, etc. When in reality it was dark for 90% of our drive both ways (because we drove at night!) and all they wanted to do was watch movies! So the DVD player and movies was probably all we needed to bring with us!
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| My nieces at Thanksgiving dinner! |
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| Big E and Little N |
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| More nieces dinner! |
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| Little N helping Papa change the oil in his truck. |
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| The babies wearing their sweaters that Nana made for them! |
This was the first Thanksgiving in probably 5 years that my whole family has been together! It was so much fun and a great time to share together. I have two older brother, so with my family of 5, there was a total of 14 kids, and 8 adults (including my parents!) We are praising the Lord that He blessed us with a beautiful weekend! The temperatures were in the high 60's which meant that 14 kids could play outside and not in the house!! While at my brothers house we celebrated Christmas since we were not going to be together this year for Christmas. We did a homemade Christmas, where the presents had to be homemade and we all drew names. The kids drew names among themselves and the adults among themselves. It was so much fun, this is the second year for my family to do this!
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| My mom had my name and made me a duct tape coupon book! Love it!! |
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| My dad had my husbands name and made him a duct tape sudoku puzzle book! He loves it!! |
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| I had my sister in laws name and made her a shopping bag! |
The last lesson I learned on this "quick" trip is that Little N gets car sick!! Thankfully we learned this lesson when we were about an hour from home on our way back!! The poor kid was so upset! So along rain, and wind we had to try and clean up a sick little boy and the car! It was all over his car seat and the van seat! Thankfully he was able to use his big brothers booster seat and big brother was able to just sit in the seat. Probably not legally but when you are in a pinch you do what you have to do!!
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| We went to the shore and there was this cute Christmas store where we got to talk to Santa! |
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| Little N playing at the Shore! |
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| Big E and little N at the shore |
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| We got to go to a Lego Store, I think the highlight for my boys! |
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| The aftermath of the LONG drive!! This is the car seat after the car sickness! We had no where else to put it! |
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