About a year ago, I finally figured out a way to eat AND enjoy kale… all thanks to this delicious “Loaded Kale Salad” (as I call it!)
If you want to like kale but haven’t found a favorite recipe, give this delicious salad a try!
Blog
How We Paid Off Our Mortgage 24 Years Early
Many years ago, I shared how Dave and I agreed (before we were married) to live off 50% of our income… which eventually helped us reach our goal of paying off our mortgage in roughly 6 years!
Today (after many requests) I’m sharing a few things that helped us pay off our mortgage faster… and I have a couple fun money jokes, courtesy of Nora’s joke books!
A Peek Into Our Spring Break Staycation
How I Store, Organize, and Track our Gift Cards
Dave and I always have several gift cards to various places around town… some of which we buy ourselves during the special holiday gift card sales and promotions!
I have a super simple method to keep track of all our cards, which I’m sharing today. It’s a method I’ve been using for about 15 years and I’ve never ONCE lost or misplaced or forgot about a gift card!
Monster Cookies
Our family loves almost any type of cookie, but Monster Cookies are our all-time favorites — probably because they combine all our favorite things into one cookie (chocolate chips, M&M’s, peanut butter, and oatmeal!)
This recipe makes 12 dozen LARGE cookies — it’s a biggie, one might even say it’s a “monstrous batch” of cookies! 🙂
6 Reasons We Buy Used
How to Thoroughly Declutter Your Closet in 5 Simple Steps
A Few Of My Favorite Things {April 2019}
Our family has enjoyed having everyone home for Spring Break these last few days… I feel like all I’ve been doing is cooking and baking (something I enjoy doing more of when Dave is home to help “hold down the fort”)!
I’ll share more about all my spring break cooking and baking next week… in the meantime, it just seems fitting that all my favorites for this month are kitchen-related!
My Year-Round Approach to Home Management
Last fall, I shared a my personal plan to purge every single space in my home before the New Year. My little “project” went so well that I decided to continue it year-round!
However, I also added in a few new components which have allowed me to slowly deep-clean, purge, and organize my way through our entire home 3 times every year (with very little extra effort)!!! I can’t wait to share the details with you!
Our Current Weekday Routine (Spring 2019 edition)
Hearty Whole Grain Oat Pancakes
Pancakes were the very first food I made Dave, the morning after our wedding — they have been a favorite food of ours ever since.
I’ve “healthified” my pancake recipes quite a bit over the last several years; most recently with the addition of freshly ground grains! Today, I’m sharing our family’s top favorite — whole grain oat pancakes (and no, you don’t need to grind your own grain to make them!)
How Our Simple Lifestyle Facilitates Frugality
I’ve always been a very frugal person — faithfully clipping coupons, shopping thrift stores and Craigslist, cooking from scratch, and more — all in an effort to save more on the things we need and want to buy.
However, SAVING money on the items we buy is really only half the battle in living a frugal debt-free life… today, I’m sharing the other huge factor in frugal living as it relates to our family’s ability to live well below our means.
An Update on My Calendar + Planner System
Back in November, I shared my new Calendar + Planner approach to the New Year.
I honestly wasn’t exactly sure how well this Calendar + Planner system would (or wouldn’t) work for me, my family, my routine, etc. but I knew I wanted to give it a shot! Now, 3 months after using this system on a daily (sometimes hourly!) basis, I have a short list of pros and cons to share!
My Quickest ‘Quick-Tip’ to DeClutter Your Inbox
Although I rarely do massive amounts of deep cleaning, I do find that around this time every year, I get fed up with ALL paper clutter (photos, files, piles, books, magazines, emails, etc.)
I am always especially ruthless with email clutter — and today, I’m sharing one quick-tip that has greatly reduced the time I spend checking emails!
Homemade BBQ sauce
Peek Into Our Week (SPRING!)
3 Reasons We Hire Professional Carpet Cleaners
A Different Perspective (That Time My Child Out-Organized Me!)
Many of my pervious in-home organizing clients told me that the most helpful part of working with a professional was having a different perspective to help them “see” simple storage solutions that were literally right in front of them… but yet not “visible” for whatever reason.
I understood what they were saying (and I know it’s true) but I honestly never experienced it in my own life until a recent situation when Nora out-organized me!!