Happy New Year!
I’ll be back to my regular blogging schedule tomorrow (with another one of my Favorite Things posts) but in the meantime, I wanted to make sure I shared our 2017 holiday card with all of you.


As we near the end of December, I can’t help but get excited for a fresh start at the beginning of the New Year — especially since the New Year is often prime time for organizing and decluttering (2 of my favorite hobbies!)
If you don’t share my love for organization and would love a little extra help in this department, the resource I’m sharing today might be just want you need to transform your home and life in just 100 days!



Four years ago, I shared a post about why we didn’t need extra storage for linens — mainly because we didn’t have any extra linens! We had a fabulously minimalistic system that worked well for us for several years. However, 4 years (and 3 more children) later, we have a little bit different system.
We now have 2 sets of sheets per bed — but we still don’t need a linen closet to store the extra set. I’m sharing our super simple sheet storage system today!

Although I make soup regularly throughout the entire year, I definitley make more soup during the long cold winter months. And surprisingly, our kids eat soup really well!
If a nice hot bowl of soup sounds like something you’d like for dinner, then the super simple soup recipes in today’s post should give you plenty of ideas!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — automating our savings and investments has been one of the most important reasons we’ve been able to stick with our lofty financial goals for the past 11+ years.
As we approach another New Year with new goals, I’d encourage you to set up a monthly auto-deposit into a specific savings or investment account. Then commit to leaving that money untouched for as long as you possibly can!!

For the past several years, I’ve displayed fewer and fewer Christmas decorations — partially because our home is naturally “festive” with all the red and white I decorate with year-round, but also because it’s a big pain with little kids!
However, a few weeks ago, I let the kids decorate the tree all on their own (it was crazy) while I put a few more festive decorations up. It’s not magazine worthy, but it’s good enough for us this year!


Over the last 2-3 months, I’ve regularly accomplished all (or almost all) of my daily to-dos, even with a new baby, the busyness of back-to-school, and all the extra holiday activities.
This is not because I’m super woman and it’s not because I work all night long. It’s simply because I’ve gotten very good at making manageable to-do lists… and today I’m sharing one simple tip that helps me do just that!

If you do the majority of your shopping online like I do, you probably get what feels like 10 million emails regarding your various online purchases — when the orders are places, when they are processed, when the products are shipped, when the orders are delivered, etc. etc. etc.
It can feel overwhelming if you don’t have a system. Thankfully, you do NOT need a fancy system to track your digital receipts — I’m sharing my super simple system today!


My children love giving gifts… but since they are so young, it’s often difficult for them to choose something appropriate for the recipient.
Thankfully, I have a REALLY simple system that allows my children to pick the “perfect” gift for their family and friends and still give useful and appropriate items.

As I’ve mentioned before, I really enjoy the whole process of sending out holiday cards — and of course, I love receiving holiday cards from others too. However, there is always the question of what to do with all those cards AFTER the holiday season is over.
If you can relate, I hope today’s post offers a few ideas to help you organize and repurpose your old holiday cards!


I’m back with another reader question… all about Kids + Technology!
I don’t have much perspective on this topic because of the age of my children — however, I KNOW so many of you with older children have great ideas, and I’d love it if you would share those ideas in the comments so we can all benefit from your wisdom!

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