Waiting is NOT my favorite activity… and patience is still a virtue I’m working on! So these last 2 weeks have not been particularly easy for me… and yes, I’m STILL waiting {not so patiently though} for this baby to arrive!
So I feel like I can justify the list of the little projects I gave myself last week… to help me stay busy until this baby comes! I’ve been having a great time “getting stuff done” while I wait… and wait… and wait!
I am NOT a financial expert — just a really cheap Dutch woman! And while I am 100% against credit card debt, I’m not 100% against any debt at all.
There is some debt that can be considered good debt… at least that’s what I’ve been told.
Come see what I have to say about good debt, and feel free to share your thoughts too!
Dave and I {and our two international students} all love soup and we all love anything Mexican. So the other night, when I made this Spicy Refried Bean Soup — you can probably imagine it was a big hit.
Everyone had seconds and there was still plenty left over for lunches — and I even put a large container in the freezer!
Oh, and did I mention it only took about 30 minutes to make!
Every year, as I’m making my Christmas list and searching for great bargins on creative Christmas gifts, I always start thinking about all the DIFFERENT ways people handle the issue of “gift giving”.
I know every family and group has different gift-giving traditions, so I thought I would first share a few of the different ways my family and extended family handles Christmas gifts… but then I’d love to know how you do it too!
Based on my past experiences, it’s quite difficult to take any amount of time off from my business {especially since I’m a one-woman operation} but it’s also 100% worth it every time I do. Even taking a few days off seems to give me a fresh perspective and even more energy to get back to work when I return home.
So as we enter another very busy holiday season — and as I enter a period of maternity leave — here are a few of my thoughts about how I plan to continue generating a decent income, keep my business running, and prevent possible issues {all while being as “hands-off” as possible}.
I know a lot of people are intimidated by painting anything… let alone furniture. But I want to assure you that you can do this!
I didn’t know the first thing about painting or distressing furniture when I got started… and now my house is filled with fantastic looking furniture at a fraction of the price!
Since I work from home almost all the time, and Dave spends many evening hours grading papers and planning lessons for the week, we BOTH really wanted a place to store and organize all of my business things, his school things, and everything else we use to run our home. So a home office we very high on our “what we want in our next house” list.
And even though I love our home office, I just can’t stop drooling over all the amazing home offices around the web. Here are a few of my favorites!
I love hot chocolate and can be “forced” to drink it in almost any climate — even if I’m not cold! However, I don’t love paying top dollar for it at fancy coffee places and restaurants. I also don’t really like the “cheaper tasting” watered down hot chocolate packets from the store.
So thankfully, my mom always made her own homemade hot chocolate mix… and shared her really easy recipe with me {it only has 4 ingredients}!
Even though our farmhouse has SO many features we absolutely wanted and needed in a house; the one thing it doesn’t have is a mudroom… or any type of front closet or back closet.
And although I would absolutely LOVE a nice big area to dump all our winter gear, I’ve had to get creative and come up with alternate solutions… especially now that winter is right around the corner.
See how I transformed a $20 armoire into our new “mudroom”!
Several months ago, when I first broke the news that we were pregnant, I talked about Having a Baby on a Budget.
Since then, I have stayed true to my frugal nature and with the help of Craigslist, my mom’s garage-sale addiction, lots of borrowing, and generous gifts from family and friends — I’m super excited that we’ve spent LESS than $300 on our baby so far!
Want to see how I did it?
Dave is a high school teacher…which means he can’t just pick up his cell phone to answer my call or send me a text message at a moment’s notice {especially since students aren’t allowed to used cell phones in class!}
Because of our crazy schedules, we’ve had to come up with alternate methods to communicate with each other throughout the day… mostly so I don’t go insane keeping everything inside 🙂
Obviously, I can’t be sure… but I’m really, REALLY thinking {and hoping} that my baby is coming this week! So I have another relatively simple weekly menu planned… with lots of quick meals that could be shoved in the freezer if necessary! However, since I have everything planned, that will be a good reason for the baby NOT to come… right??
If you don’t currently have a method for meal planning, feel free to follow our weekly menu, and make sure to check out some of my free meal planning resources at the bottom of this post!
This post has been a long time coming — and even though I’m still waiting on ONE more piece of furniture, I’m so excited to take you on a tour of our “brand new” Farmhouse Nursery!
We basically gutted the entire room and completely started over from scratch {you’ll understand why once you see the before pictures!} I’m simply ecstatic with the end results — practical, functional, and pretty darn cute — and I’m positive our baby girl will LOVE her new room… whenever she decides to make her big debut!
Christmas is just over 7 weeks away — are you getting excited yet?
As I set out to prepare for the upcoming festivities, one thing I almost always do is declutter my home to make room for all the extra “stuff” that seems to accompany this time of year!
No matter how ruthless you are about bringing things into your home, I can almost guarantee you’ll end up with more stuff and less space after the festivities are over… see what I’m doing to plan ahead and declutter this year!
The holiday season is here!! And for those of you haven’t even started thinking about holiday gifts, I’ve come to your rescue with my all-time favorite clutter-free food gifts that are sure to please even the pickiest person on your list.
I challenge you to skip the busy stores, skip the clutter, skip the over-prices gadgets, and make {or buy} food gifts for everyone on your list this year!!
I really like the idea of a Bucket List — or a list of things, events, activities, experiences, goals, etc. that you would like to accomplish by a certain point in your life.
Dave and I have a few different Bucket Lists; but even before we got married, we had the “how many kids do you want” conversation as well as the “when do you want kids” conversation — and we made a Before Baby Bucket List.
And with only a few days left before our baby arrives, we’ve crossed nearly everything off our list!
One of the main reasons I wanted to start my own business is so that I could have some control over my schedule and be able take time off when I wanted to. Sometimes this works, other times it doesn’t, but if I’m not careful and if I don’t make a conscious effort to run MY business, over time, my business might just start to run my life instead! {can anyone relate!}
We have a jam-packed schedule this week and our quick, simple dinner menu definitely reflects that… but I figure I’m allowed an easy week since I am 8 1/2 months pregnant 🙂
If you don’t currently have a method for meal planning, feel free to follow our weekly menu {below}, and make sure to check out some of my free meal planning resources at the bottom of this post!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
