Over the course of our married life, Dave and I have been blessed with very good health. We’ve hardly ever been sick, we usually only visit the doctor for routine checkups, and we’ve hardly had to fill any prescriptions or pay for any medically-related expenses.
This past summer, however, we had several medical expenses… and after talking with my doctor, I found a brilliant and extremely simple way to save BIG on both prescriptions and blood work!
Due to the many questions I get from readers, I’ve recently been thinking about all the ways we try to combat boredom in our house. I’ve seen some clever acronyms floating around the internet — I’ve changed mine up a bit, but still with a similar vibe.
The next time your child complains of being BORED, try using one of these responses.
If there’s something you wish you were better at, something you wish were easier for you, something you wish you enjoyed more, my simple tip for today is PRACTICE IT!
Today I’m sharing how simply practicing various skills over and over again has helped make so many areas of my life feel easier and less stressful. I most likely won’t ever achieve “perfect” but with a little practice, things sure feel a lot easier!
Although I’ve shared many posts about meal planning over the years, it continues to be one of the most requested post topics… so I’m back again with a more detailed look at what exactly we eat and how I plan all our meals each week. I’m even including breakfast and lunches in this post!
If you’ve never tried meal planning before (or if you’ve fallen off the meal planning bandwagon) I think today’s post will help simplify the process and (hopefully) motivate you to give it another try!
A couple weeks ago, I took the older 3 kids to a local Fire Station open house — it was so much fun! The kids enjoyed all the goodies in their grab bags, and I learned quite a bit from reading through the packets of information handed out to parents.
One article in particular caught my attention — about reducing the risk of fire by reducing the clutter in our homes. I’m sharing more in today’s post!
Just over 5 weeks ago, I shared my plan to complete a full-house purge BEFORE the New Year, and since then, I’ve completed 5 rooms in our house.
I’m sharing my progress in today’s post, as well as a little motivation and encouragement for those of you who are following along with my one-room-per-week plan (or for those of you who want to get started).
I’m frequently asked for more “side dish” recipes — and today’s recipe has been a favorite side dish of ours all summer long. The kids eat it really well, which is impressive considering it’s basically all vegetables as I swap out the rice for cauliflower rice.
I guess if there’s enough cheese, kids will eat anything!
For a very long time, I had the underlying impression that “self-care” was a LUXURY or an EXTRAVAGANT INDULGENCE… definitely not something the average person could achieve on any sort of regular basis.
Now, many years later, my thoughts and perceptions have changed, and I practice self-care on a daily basis…. I’m sharing SO much more on this in today’s post!
I don’t know if it’s simply because Dave is a teacher and I know how much time, effort, and energy they put into teaching their students every single day, but I’m much more willing to splurge on one of my children’s teachers than I am on any other non-family member.
I realize teacher gifts aren’t something every parent is so passionate about… but if you’re looking for a few clutter-free teacher gift ideas, I think today’s post will help — hopefully with plenty of time to put something nice together before the holidays!
As a self-proclaimed homebody, you would be shocked to know that our current Fall schedule has our entire family up and out the door every single weekday morning for some activity or another!
Of course, getting Nora on the bus and the other 3 out the door with me can sometimes feel like a mini circus act — however, thanks to a handful of specific steps we take the night before, our mornings rarely ever feel stressful, frazzled, hectic, or too busy. I’m sharing our “secrets” in today’s post!
One of the pieces to my “productivity puzzle” is the fact that I am almost always focused on “done” versus “perfect”. I value quantity over quality (in a good way!), I work quickly and keep moving, I continually “do the next thing”, and I rarely get hung up on little details.
In my opinion, the vast majority of life can be accomplished with a “done is better than perfect” mindset — so let’s just save the perfection for heart surgeons and NASA engineers!
Keeping things because of guilt is a vicious cycle that will not eliminate the presence of guilt in your life — if anything, you might feel MORE guilt for hanging onto things you don’t use, things you don’t have space for, and for the amount of clutter and stuff piling up in your home.
If this sounds like something you can relate to… today’s post is a must-read!
Have you ever felt guilty after reading an article or talking with a friend about how frugal they are in various areas of their life (an amazing deal shopper, someone who never goes out to eat or on vacation, people who buy everything from thrift stores, etc.)?
Well, what you might not be considering is the fact that those frugal people most likely have other areas of their budget where they splurge quite a bit more. I know that’s the case for Dave and myself… which is what I’m sharing more about today!
After sharing our new super-early morning routine a couple weeks ago, I was inundated with questions about how we survived on “only 6-7 hours of sleep”.
Honestly, Dave and I have never considered 6-7 hours to be a lack of sleep — and after reading so many of your emails and comments, it’s apparent that we might literally have more “usable hours” in our day compared to those of you who need 8-10 hours every night!
In a desperate effort to use up even more zucchini, I decided to shred up a bunch and put it into pasta sauce (with a variety of other veggies as well) — the results were SO tasty!
The kids just keep shoveling their beloved pasta into their hungry mouths… and I just keep adding more and more and more veggies. This super simple, quick meal is a win-win in my book!
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