Almost "Normal"

     On the brink of New Year's Eve our house is barely slowed down. There are still boxes to be packed away and our little tree looks so sad with all it's ornaments already packed away for next year. This was a crafty year for me. I made most of the gifts we gave away and of course made some to keep at home too. I made Scrabble Tile name plates for most of my friends that have children. I thought they were too cute not to share with them.  

 

 

     These were really fun to make.  It was also a joke to see who had the highest point value in their name.  Of course my name was the smallest value.  If we had used full names for Alex and Samie I think they would had won the value. 

     I also made glass ornaments.  I made the cutest little Santa belts with paper swirls and a snowy type scene one.  I tried to give everyone at least one of each.  I made a tone and ended up with a few of each left over.  Maybe next year if we get a bigger tree and I can at least have a pair of each on the tree. 

 

     This is a picture of the first set I made.  The second set I made the black belt a little wider so it was more obvious that it was a belt and not just a black stripe.  I topped it off with a pretty little silvery and white bow. 

 

     I have already been looking at some wooden ornaments for next year.  I'll have to keep you guys up to date on the progress of those.  It's not like I don't have time to do them before next Christmas.  I have a link for them if you want to check them out.  I copied it from google docs https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3EpnW9erHBoVFJfZHFyS25rU2s/edit so I hope this works. 

 

 

     Anyway, I better get the kids to bed and I wish all my friends a Happy New Year and I hope to see you all then!

We Survived!!!

What a crazy week it's been. And I'm not even talking about the weather here in "sunny" Florida. It's 61 degrees outside right now! The kids haven't even been out a full week yet and I'm already counting down the days until they go back. All the moms can probably agree with me there! Plus, being broke after the holidays completely stinks because I can't take them anywhere to get us all out of the house. GRrRrR!

     Other than that small issue it has been an okay week with Christmas and all. It was lean here at the house, but no one really complained because grandma went all out and made up for it! The kids got Build-a-Bears, a few different board games, clothes, legos and barbies. I got a really pretty bracelet that has glass beads on it and my name in blocks. Mike got his usual bathroom reader and was happy for that. We all got tons of gift cards to toy stores and Wal-Mart. Looks like we'll have grocery money after all, hehe.
   

You know you love our Florida fireplace!!

     Oh, I was going through some of the old files on my computer and came across an old Word document about how to save money. Well with five people on one income I thought this would be something worth reading. It had some pretty cool ideas. And of course it had some that I don't think would work for our family at all. Anyhoo, I thought I would start this week and try to take this through the new year. Maybe some of these suggestions will work for you. Or if you have ideas about them leave a comment below and share your opinion.

     1. Pay attention to where your money is going. Carry a little memo pad around and keep track of everything you spend. Like magic, the simple act of writing stuff down will actually help you to not spend. It also helps you to look at where your money is going and allows you to make informed decisions about how much to spend to live the life you really want to.

     2. Make a simple spending plan. You wouldn't think of setting off on a long trip without a map would you? A spending plan is simply a map to help guide you to where you want to go financially. It allows you to set goals and evaluate your progress.There's no successful company that doesn't plan their cash outlays. Why don't you?

Good Intentions

     I really gotta get better at keeping up with my blog.  It's not that I forget to sit down and type out stuff either.  I am constantly thinking about thinks to write about about how I would word it when I did finally sit down.  I guess I keep myself so busy that when I do get slowed down a bit I completely shut down and just veg out or something.  Well, here I am and I may even make myself a calendar so I have to sit down a few times a week and pound something out on here. 

     Now that we finally moved I need to get back into my couponing and try to save us some money.  I may even try to make some money if I can keep up with the blogging.  I went to Publix this morning before church to get my four newspapers.  Luckily the cashier knew exactly why I was doing it and quickly informed me that there were no inserts this week.  Talk about wasting money while trying to save it!  I felt kinda dumb and blessed at the same time if you can follow that train of thought.  Anyway, when I got home I quickly jumped onto my favorite couponing site and checked out the "insert calendar".  Sure enough there were no inserts today or next Sunday for that matter.  For those who need to see it in black and white here is the site I use http://truecouponing.com/2012-coupon-insert-schedule/ .  She should be posting the new 2013 yearly schedule very soon.  I really like this site since it's so easy to navigate and she has really good Christian values about no being greedy and giving back to the community. 

     Well, I think that's about all I post about for today.  I need to get some laundry down and unpack a few more boxes if I can before I start dinner.  A mom's work is never done...especially with 3 kids!!