Shameless Plug

Late last month, I decided to become an Independent Consultant for a company called Paparazzi Accessories.  I found them by mistake online, and when I learned more about the company, I was extremely excited to jump on board with them!

Paparazzi Accessories is a jewelry and accessories company that was started in 2008 by two sisters who loved jewelry and sold it at parties.  In 2011, they decided to take on consultants, and that is where I am today.  Paparazzi Accessories are fun, fashionable and most importantly of all...AFFORDABLE!  All jewelry is $5/each for necklace/earring sets, earrings, bracelets and headbands.  They offer a children's line called Starlet Shimmer and those pieces sell for $1.00/each!

I decided to join the Paparazzi Accessories team because I thought this would be a great opportunity for something to do while we are on the road, not to mention to help make up for the recent decrease in my income.  I like jewelry but I rarely ever buy myself anything because I am infamous for losing it!

When I received my starter kit from Paparazzi that included 100 pieces of jewelry, I was amazed at the quality of the product.  Paparazzi is able to sell their product at $5/piece because there is no overhead!  Similar pieces sell at Kohl's for quadruple what Paparazzi charges.  I will admit, some of the jewelry is a bit big and blingy for me, but it looks great on others.

I am writing this post to inform those of you who have never heard about Paparazzi Accessories about the product, and if you are interested, please feel free to contact me about the inventory that I have available!  Right now, I have over 200 pieces of jewelry and over 50 pieces of children's accessories in stock.

If you are interested in keeping up with the new product I have available, please feel free to "like" my FaceBook page, All Occasions Jewelry.  To view photos of the jewelry that came in my starter kit, please click on my photo albums.

Also, this Saturday, April 5th at 7:00PM EST, I am hosting my first FaceBook Party!  To join the party, please click here and select "join."

Silver Linings

The beginning of 2014 has been a tough one in our home.  January 17th, Todd was let go from his job of over 7 years.  He was fortunate enough to find a new position that same week and started his new job a few weeks later.

On Valentine's Day, I was informed that my hours at work would be cut starting the next week, therefore, my pay would be cut...by 25%.  To say that I didnt see this coming would be a lie - the company has been selling less and less with each passing month with February being nearly dead.  Over the past couple of months, I've witnessed a coworker lose 25% of his pay (and maintain his hours), another one let go and yet another who had his hours cut by 25% as well. 

After the shock of learning that my hours have been cut for a job that I have been going to for over 11 years, I quickly realized the silver lining that this provides me (and Todd).  They include:

1. More time in the mornings to spend with my husband and our fur-family. 
2. Time to be able to get out when the sun comes up in the morning with the pups to get exercise in each day: there are no more excuses!
3. Time to get my chores done...before work!
4. Time to focus on starting the business that has been floating around in my head for the past 6 months.
5. No more alarm clocks needed in the mornings since I dont have to leave until 9:30.
6. No more rush hour traffic!
7. Less time away from home and my fur-babies.
8. The realization that we live as we do (watching/minimizing our spending and having an ample emergency fund) for times like these.  

The truth of the matter is that I have not been happy where I am working for many years.  This very well be the push that I need to get out there and find a position closer to home that is more in line with how I best do business (creating and maintaining strong relationships) and an employer who is willing to foster my yearning to learn and grow as a professional. Todd was able to find this in his new position and comes home every day saying, "Why didnt I do this sooner?"

I am thankful to have a husband that supports me in whatever I decide to do: stay with my current employer with the limited hours or find a new position.

What are you grateful for today?

Saving Money: Cell Phone Plans

 It has been over 6 months since Todd and I have switchedfrom a contracted cell phone plan to prepaid.  We had AT&T, and I decided to stay with them because they had the best priced plan for how I use my phone: a lot of texting, few minutes and no data.  I also chose to stay with AT&T because I didn’t want to have to purchase a new phone.  Todd, on the other hand, wanted to try Straight Talk through Walmart.  Due to where we live and whatever service provider they were using, his signal was not the best and his calls were dropped frequently.  Thank goodness it was a month-by-month plan!  He then switched to T-Mobile’s prepaid plan and experienced the same issues.  By the third month, he switched to a Verizon prepaid plan and has been happy ever since! 

Our contracted cell phone plan was costing us $125.00+/month for 3 phones (Todd’s mom had one of the phones so they could talk mobile-to-mobile without burning minutes in our plan: we do not have a land line).  With this plan, we had a set amount of minutes that could be rolled over each month if they went unused, unlimited text and only Todd’s phone had internet access.  Today, with have:

My Plan: 250 minutes/month + unlimited text for $25.00/month

Todd’s Plan: 500 minutes/month + unlimited text + unlimited data use* for $35.00/month

This works perfect for us.

I have yet to use all of my minutes each month though Todd has had to conserve his minutes at the end of each month (I married a talker and a mama’s boy!).

I like that with these cell phone plans, we are paying for only what we really need and use.  By doing so, we are saving over $60/month on our cell phone plans.  Not only that, if for any reason we want to eliminate a cell phone, we can do so without the large penalty!

Do you use your cell phone for fun (social media, games, etc.) or just as a way to communicate with others?  Have you considered a prepaid phone? They sure have come a long way from the TracPhone I had in college for emergencies!

*In order to be part of this plan, they do not allow smart phones.

New Year Aspirations 2014

This year, I am keeping my New Year Aspirations SIMPLE!

I get so discouraged when I don’t meet my goals each and every year.  This year, I am going to accomplish them all.

Read the One Year Bible from start to finish

I have read the Bible in 90 Days a couple of years back and that was tough!  I want to wake up and do my devotions every morning in 2014 before I do anything else to start my day.

Lose 40 pounds

Every year I want to lose weight, but this year it is going to happen.  It HAS to happen. 40 lbs is less than a pound a week which does not sound too far-fetched.  Honestly, I just want to feel good in my own skin and be able to lead an active life.

Pay Off the Mortgage

To date, we owe $24,497.32 on our mortgage.  We were able to pay off ½ of the mortgage last year and we hope to pay off the rest this year to be mortgage-free by October 2014!

These are the aspirations I will be focusing on in 2014.

What are your goals for this year?

2013 Year in Review

It is hard to believe that another year has come and gone.
I decided to take a look back to see what all we have been up to here on the homestead.

January:
At the end of 2012, Todd and I decided to attempt to pay off half of our mortgage balance in 2013.  As of October, we succeeded!  After reading through this post of what our game plan was for the year, I am happy to report that we were able to live on half of our income without really cutting back our lifestyle.  We still completed a home-improvement project (updating the kitchen counters for $125) and we have another one in process as I type (new floor in the living room).

February:
In February, I made my own laundry detergent and to this day, we are still using the product!  We have another 2 1/2 gallons to go until it will be time to make another 5 gallon batch of concentrated detergent.  This recipe is a keeper, and we have all of the supplies needed to whip up another batch in the next few months.

March:
In March, I started to feel like we have way too much "stuff" and that our house is much more than what we need/want.  

April:
The first week of April, we had a family trip to Aruba with my mom and her husband to celebrate their 10 year wedding anniversary.  I could use a trip like this every year.

May:
May is always a special month for us because it is the month we married.  This year, for our 6th year of marriage, we took a short 3-day trip to Columbus, OH and had a blast.

June:
Every year around June, I wonder if I want to keep the blog going or to just let it sit.  This month, there was only one post about my internal battle to decide whether we should hire a housekeeper or if I should just do the housekeeping myself!

July:
July of this year was a busy one!  A yellow lab adopted us, my car turned 7 years old, and we started talking about downsizing our home.

August:
I gave up on gardening in August.  I realized that as much as I love to plan the garden every year and plant the seeds, my priority is not to see the garden through and make it all it could be.

September:
I documented some of the fun things Todd and I did over the summer for very little (or no) money at all.

October:
A new member of the family came to join us in October and I started a new cleaning routine that has been easy for me to keep up with!

November:
The only post in November included pictures of a covered bridge tour we did throughout October.

December:
In December, I now notice that we have come full circle realizing that we are not happy with the big house, all the possessions and all of the consumerism that takes place around us.  In December, we let out a big secret that Todd and I want to purchase an RV and travel the US.  Since deciding to do this back in early October, our plans have been evolving.  It went from selling it all and living on the road full-time to downsizing our home and possibly making it a duplex so that we can be with our families and have a home-base for a few months a year.  I am sure there will be a few posts on this in 2014.

So, there you have the entire year on Sparing-Change.  It has been a fun yet challenging year this year, as every year seems to be.  This year, we are learning that it doesn't take a lot of money (or any at all!) to have fun.  We have enjoyed going on many hikes with the puppies, and we really enjoy being out in nature.

We look forward to taking on whatever 2014 has to offer.

The Only Constant Thing in Life is Change

My aunt once told me that the only constant thing in life is change.  How true that statement is!  Though I try to avoid change as much as possible, Todd and I have been talking a lot lately about what is important to us.  We feel weighed down by our home and possessions and we have come to realize that home ownership is not that important to us. 

While we were traveling one weekend talking about our dreams and what we enjoy doing together, I thought that everything I need in life is in the vehicle with me: my husband and our two dogs.  We were traveling all over northeast Ohio to view the 18 covered bridges that are scattered throughout Ashtabula County.  We were doing what we loved: traveling and exploring with our fur-babies.  I mentioned to Todd how great it would be to do this more often: enjoying great views of landscapes around us as well as great conversation with one another.  It dawned on me: we could do this all the time if we weren’t tied to our home and jobs! 

I told Todd that we should purchase an RV and travel the United States.  Go to one location and see all there is to see in that location for several months until we get sick of it and decide to move on, boondock, use solar panels for electricity, and camp out wherever we choose.  Mind you, I have crazy ideas all the time, and Todd thought this was just another passing crazy idea.  As the day went on and we kept discussing it (Todd was discussing it just to pacify me) he said, “You now have me wanting to do this!”  As soon as we got home, we started looking at our options for RV’s

This may all seem far-fetched, and I will admit, it is!  We decided a few years back that we want to live life now instead of wait until the typical retirement age to explore our surroundings.  These plans to travel will not happen overnight.  It may actually take 12-18 months to accomplish, but this is what we are working toward right now.  

The Game-Plan:

• Pay off the mortgage by October 2014
• Fix up the house to prepare to sell spring 2015
• Save up money to purchase a used Class A (a motor home that looks like a big bus)
• Sell all of our belongings
• Start our journey

If all else fails, we will have a paid off house that we can live in and continue to do what we have been doing for the past 7 years (working and trying to keep up). 

What is a far-fetched “dream” you would like to make reality?

Are you taking any steps to make your dream a reality?

Over the Shoulder Boulder Holder

A month back, Jeni at Ponderings of a Pastor’s Wife  wrote about how she feels like a new woman because she has finally been properly fitted for a new bra!  After reading her post, I thought about my own personal experience being properly fitted for a bra for the first time in my life at the age of 30!  Why did I never share my experience?  If I can help just one woman to treat herself to a bra that fits the way it should, it is worth sharing my experience (in my opinion).

I will start out by stating that I’ve had a large chest for as long as I can remember.  I have always wanted to be part of the itty bitty…well, you know what committee I’m referring to, but that’s just not going to happen unless I have surgery (and that’s not ever going to happen).  I’m not sure how my mom determined my bra size growing up, but I know that in high school after losing some weight I was wearing a 38C.  I am not sure if this was the correct size for me, but I refused to believe my chest was any bigger than that. 

Fast forward 10 years, and I was still attempting to wear 38C’s…unsuccessfully.  I had gained weight in that time but I refused to believe my bust got any bigger.  My bras dug into my shoulders to the point that it left scars, I had a constant muffin top, the clasps rode up my back so high it was uncomfortable and I was always tugging it back down into place where it should have been.  After years of promising my mother I’d get properly fitted, I was invited to a bra party at my step-mom’s workplace.  The company is called Essential Body Wear and I absolutely love their product line!  It is perfect for big-busted women like me.  A consultant takes you into a room and fits you, gets you the size bra you need to try on, and you can either walk out the door with the proper bra size or they can be ordered for you!  The consultant was so happy with my results (I actually DO have a waist! Who knew?), she let me keep the bra I had tried on.  I was amazed at how good I felt with this bra on!  When I looked down, I could only see my cleavage because I had such boost!  Was that where my breasts were supposed to be when I wore a bra? 

Here are a few tips that I learned from the bra lady (as she liked to be called):

The Magic Number: 3

You should be fitted and purchase 3 new bras each and every year (and dispose of the old, worn out, ill-fitting bras you had been wearing).

Alternate Bras

You should never wear the same bra two days in a row.  The bra needs at least 24 hours to return back to its normal shape and elasticity.  If you wear the bra two days in a row, it will become stretched out much quicker than if you were to give it time to re-shape itself. 

Wear the Bra 2-3 Times between Washes

You should wear your bra 2-3 times between washes.  Because 3 is the magic number, this means you only need to wash your bras every week to week and a half.

When Washing: Put in a Garment Bag

I went out and purchased an inexpensive garment bag at the dollar store.  This keeps the bras in a small space which helps to prevent them from stretching.  I generally put the garment bag in the wash when I have a load of work clothes or a small load of towels to be washed.

Never Put Bras in the Dryer

When you wash your bras, hang them to dry.  This is where the 3^rd bra can save the day while waiting for the others to dry.

In Jeni’s experience, she went to Dillard’s and was able to obtain the same results with a professional bra-fitter.  I’m not sure how expensive the bras are at Dillard’s compared to Essential Body Wear, but whatever the cost, it’s worth it!  And only having to purchase 3 a year won’t break the bank!  Even me, the cheapest  most frugal person in the world, can dole out $120 for bras each year.  Especially when they make me feel so good about myself in my own clothes!  It has been a couple of years since I purchased my Essential Body Wear bras (I purchased 8 of them); however, it’s time for me to go get re-fitted.  My bras have become stretched out, one of them has a large rip, and most of them have clasps that are misshapen and hard to hook. 

When was the last time you purchased a new bra?

How do they fit?

Do you get fitted every year?

Celebrating a Make Believe Holiday

When my family moved to Ohio from Buffalo, NY back in 1996, there were two things that were foreign to us: JoJo’s and Sweetest Day.

Here in northeast Ohio, where Hallmark’s headquarters are located and some of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted (Harry London’s in Canton, OH), we have a make believe holiday called Sweetest Day the 3^rd Saturday of every October. 

The origin of Sweetest Day has always been suspect. Most believe it to be a "made up" holiday strictly for big business to reap profits at the expense of perpetrating romance. Of the twelve Cleveland committeemen who planned Cleveland's Sweetest Day (pictured above) eleven directly profited from the sale of greeting cards or candy. Three were on the Board of Directors for Hallmark, four on the boards of various candy companies and four owned card and candy shops in the Cleveland area.  (Source)

It truly is a dumb holiday that I don’t always remember until my husband comes home with a box of chocolates or when I see signs the week before to pick up carnations for your loved one.  Instead of being a fuddy-duddy, I decided to take this day and make it special for me and my love.  We do not like crowds and we are frugal, so battling to get a table at a restaurant was out of the picture.  Instead, we spent the day with one another relaxing, exploring, did some shopping in Amish country and ate a nice meal (at home)!

An old abandoned house we went through.

A second old house we went through.

The loot from Amish Salvage Store: $40.35
That includes a large jug of EVOO ($16.99), 13 boxes of cous cous ($0.49/bx), grits, coconut milk, french onion soup (2), and several other items.  We go twice a year and I am always amazed at the deals we find.

We don’t eat steak very often, but I decided I wanted to have a nice meal with Todd for Sweetest Day.  Steaks, scallops, sweet potato fries and broccoli was the main course and pumpkin pie ice cream was for dessert.  It was delicious!!

Even though it was a make believe holiday, it is nice to splurge once in a while for one another, and truly enjoy each other’s company.

What did you do this past Saturday?

Did you know it was Sweetest Day?

Make it Do

I have a favorite quote that I’ve heard stated two ways:

1.)    “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.”

2.)    “Buy it used, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

I like the second version best and this mantra is always going through my head every time my husband wants to purchase a new item.

As I walk around our home, I am constantly reminded about how we “make it do” from room to room.

For instance, our house needs the electricity rewired.  I cannot run the dishwasher and the bedroom air conditioning at the same time without blowing a circuit.  Nor can I use our small convection oven (I use this in the warmer months so that we don’t heat up the whole kitchen using the oven!) and the microwave at the same time due to this same reason.  We have plans to fix the wiring, but it is not high priority right now.  These are just minor inconveniences in my view.

Todd has wanted a king size bed for a little over a year now as our fur-family has grown.  We share our bed with 150 lbs of dogs and sometimes three 6+lb cats!  Add to that two overweight adults and I will admit it gets a bit cramped.  Please note that all the animals tend to take over my side of the bed – which leaves Todd able to sleep with his legs outstretched as I wake up curled in a ball most mornings trying to dodge animals (if you are contemplating letting an animal sleep in your bed – please keep this visual in mind!)    I keep trying to put off the purchase of a king sized bed because we purchased a nice locally made mattress just 4 ½ years ago.  I really like our sleigh-bed that Todd brought into the marriage and the mattress we have is extremely comfortable!  No matter how many times he shows me California king sized beds on Craigslist and how inexpensive they are, I am not budging on this issue until it is time for us to get a new mattress.

Case in point: Hubby is all sprawled out while I'm in the corner with 2 large dogs on my side of the bed!

We came to a compromise recently when we purchased a {used} ottoman from Craigslist for $35.  The ottoman is 48” long by 27” wide: plenty of room for a pup (or both!) and a few cats if they so choose to snuggle up with the dogs.  We realized within an hour of owning the ottoman that the color choice was not the best (beige) for animals, so we are using a camo throw on top of it to hide black dog hair and dirty paw-prints!  Voila.  Hubby is happy that he gets even more space in bed, and he has his precious Lana right there next to him at all times during the night.  Buddy, on the other hand, still chooses to sprawl out on my side of the bed, but luckily he likes to sleep at the foot of the bed, so it’s not too much of a bother.

I have a laptop that is 3 years old.  It’s big and clunky compared to what is out there in the market (and what everyone else seems to be using right now) but it does what I need it to do.  I asked Todd to do something on it for me (yes, I’m the one with a degree in Computers & Information Systems but I have to ask my husband to fix my computer!) and he said, “I don’t know how you work on that thing! We can go and get you another one.”  No, thank you.  I cannot justify getting a new one until this one dies on us.  Let is also be known that I don’t do well with change and I finally figured out how to use this laptop!

I believe we (mainly me) will always have a “make it do” mentality, but we will definitely be replacing the breaker-box in the near future as well as getting a new bed in the next 5-7 years.  We are strategically putting purchases of little importance off to continue our focus on paying down the mortgage.  Right now, we are on track to have the mortgage paid in full by October 2014!!  This goal helps us to keep our spending in line because we can only imagine the freedom we will have in one short year when we own our home free and clear.

Do you “make it do” around your home?

I’d love to hear about it!

  

I Can Do It Myself

 I am the first to admit that I am selfish.  Always have been - Always will be. 

The problem is that I have used the last 7+ years with my husband to become more selfish and lazy at his expense.  I always thought: “He gets 15 days off a month – he can do this.”

This thought process is not fair.  My poor husband does have 15 days off each month because of his rotating schedule; however, the days he works, he works 12 hour days!  I cannot imagine leaving for work at 4AM and getting home at 6:45 in the evenings.  No wonder he is always so tired.  He needs those “extra” days to re-coop: not for me to create a never-ending honey-do list!

Even though I feel loved most when getting help from my husband (my love language is acts of service), I have been requiring too much from him.  Every week, there was a list on the white-board of things for him to accomplish.  One day, I erased them all.  Clean shower?  I guess I better get to it. (I hate cleaning the shower – I will do toilets, counter-tops and wipe down the walls every day if I have to, just don’t ask me to do the shower!)  Clip puppy nails?  I just started taking over this task about a month ago.  Come to find out, it isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be (Lana’s nails are jet black and there is no telling where the quick is so I cut her nails a little every week to keep them under control.)  Clean upthe house a little every night?  I’m on it!  The dog’s water dish needs refilled?  I’ll take care of it!  Call cell phone company for credit – I got it! (I have more patience with customer service reps than hubby does.) 

It was the menial little tasks I did not feel like doing that I put Todd in charge of.  It never occurred to me he did not enjoy doing them either!

As of late, I have been trying to take over as much of these silly little tasks as possible in an effort to keep Todd’s stress down so he can focus on chores that really need completed (and I prefer not to do) such as: mow the lawn, clean up the garage, install new flooring in the living room and cut wood for winter.

I always told myself that I didn’t need a man – I could do everything I wanted to do by myself.  That is not necessarily true.  It’s nice to have a husband who can do home improvements, cook and even clean! However, it is liberating knowing that I can do many tasks myself without his help.  The problem was that I was just too lazy and selfish to do them myself!

I Want it Now

Every time I think about consumerism, I think about Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  "I dont care how...I want it now!"

Todd and I watched a movie a few weeks back we hadn't heard of when it was out at the theaters entitled the Brass Teapot.  The premise of the movie is about a young broke couple who come upon this brass teapot.  Every time they hurt themselves, the teapot provides them with money.  The whole movie shows how far they would hurt themselves for money.  It gets to a point where they have to hurt themselves to pay for what's owed. (Sound familiar to anyone who is in debt and has to go to work to pay the bills?  *Raising my hand.*)

"Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the 'gotta have it' scale.” - Zig Ziglar

The reviews from the library showed that not many people enjoyed the movie; however, Todd and I both liked it.  Through the entire movie, we were talking about what we would do if we came upon a brass teapot.  Of course, the characters in the movie went overboard, and we swore we would never go to extremes as they had.  The more I thought about it, I thought that maybe we would be {somewhat} as frivolous as the characters in the movie. They paid off bills, bought a really expensive car, purchased a (huge) house, had great parties and threw money away on things that did not matter to them.

I've always said that I am too practical to spend an absurd amount of money; however, once I  truly considered the situation, I can completely see how this could happen to me and Todd if we had a large sum of money.  We would...

1. Pay off the mortgage
2. Tear down the house next door
3. Get new siding and gutters
4. Replace furnace and add air conditioning
5. Get a new (practical: inexpensive and high gas mileage) vehicle
6. Go on a vacation

As you can see, the list can continue on and on.  The "wants" continue to multiply when some of the most basic wants are met.

So for us, we will continue to save the $2 everyone wants us to contribute toward this month's MegaMillions Jackpot and put that money toward things that are important to us (such as the list above).  We are content with working hard to achieve our material* wants ...but in due time.

If you had a brass teapot that spewed out money, what would you do with it?

*I feel like everything on the list is exactly that: material.  We have a (sturdy) roof over our heads, food on the table, one another for support and need for absolutely nothing.  We are so much more fortunate than majority of people around the world.     

Horrible, Terrible, No Good Very Bad Day

(This is a rant on pessimists.  I know that not everyone would agree with me and that’s OK.  These feelings are purely my own.)

My husband is a serial pessimist.  He calls himself a realist.  When something goes wrong first thing in the morning, he is certain the rest of his day is going to be horrible.  I try to cheer him up and ask him to calm down and think positively but he says, “I’m POSITIVE it’s going to be a bad day!”  I have friends on FaceBook and in real life that act like every situation they go through in life could very well be the end of the world.

Unfortunately, I don’t have patience or apathy for serial pessimists.  Believe me, I wish I had just a little bit of apathy for them but I don’t: which makes me seem like an insensitive, heartless witch (with a capital B).  I keep my mouth shut as to not rock the boat, but inside, my thoughts run wild.  I try to ignore the negativity they spew out, but sometimes, I just want to shake them and tell them to open their eyes to all of the blessings around them!

We all have bad days and even bad situations that happen to us; however, I believe that a person chooses the way their day plays out.  If you believe your day is going to continue to be a horrible, terrible, no good very bad day (like the children’s book), then you are seeking all of the negatives that happen throughout the day instead of opening your eyes and heart to all of the greatness the day has to offer.  With every negativity my husband speaks about, I can name two (or more) positive things that have happened to him in the last 24 hours or things he can look forward to throughout the day.  In the whole scheme of things, this situation is but a blip on the radar.  It won’t be remembered a month from now let alone a year from now.  What difference does it make?

I enjoy looking for the little things to brighten my day.  They are simple things like the dogs not fighting me when it’s time to go outside while I go to work, sunshine through the clouds, fuzzy chicken butts, wind whipping through the trees, a dog enjoying the fresh air with it’s head out the window and its ears blowing in the wind, breakfast with my husband, a cat that wants to cuddle, my bi-weekly lunch out with a coworker, a phone conversation with my mom, a letter in the mail from our Compassion child, the sight of a hummingbird enjoying the nectar I put out for it, a conversation with my friend at work, pictures of everyone’s children on FaceBook and the fact that I made it one more day on this beautiful earth!

What are you thankful for today?

Battling Sickness

It feels like Todd has been sick for most of 2013.  Every time he gets better, within two weeks, it’s something else.  To say that he has been miserable is an understatement.  I am not used to being sick (I rarely get the flu or a cold; however, when I get sick, it usually ends up with me in the hospital.) or dealing with someone who is sick for what seems to be all the time.  Admittedly, I am not very empathetic when someone is sick more than twice a year, which is not a good attitude to have especially toward my husband!

This past illness (a trifecta of flu, sinus infection AND spring pollen allergies), I started to think about what I could do to help Todd avoid getting sick so frequently. This is what I am going to be implementing in our family to {hopefully} cut down on the amount of times we get sick each year.**

Food

I honestly believe that we are what we eat.  That being said, I am a big glob of sugar and Todd is a big vat of grease.  Can you tell what foods we enjoy most?  We were doing awesome last year on a Paleo-type diet.  We felt great, didn’t feel deprived, and had more energy than we'd had in a long time.  I think it is time to get back on the Paleo-type eating plan with more vegetables, less meat and fewer cheat days.  I would also like to incorporate more juicing into our diets.  To me, raw fruits and veggies are imperative to health and fighting illness. 

Even though we always have fruits and vegetables in our home, I need to make them more accessible to eat when we are hungry or in a rush.  For instance, right now, I have 3 head of cauliflower (Todd’s favorite vegetable to eat raw) and 2 cantaloupe.  I need to prepare these items to keep in the fridge ready for those evenings when we get hungry or just need a snack.  This way, we can avoid going to get ice cream (my favorite food of all time) or picking up something that we should not be eating.

Exercise

Please note that I am awful when it comes to moving my body.  I need to make a habit of trying to get Todd out of the house before work or after work in the evenings, even if it’s for a short walk around the block with our precious pup.  We have a basketball hoop that has yet to have a single basketball go through its net, we have two bikes, a canoe, and a lot of sticks out in the yard that need to be gathered and burned.  We have plenty of opportunity to exercise…we just need to get off our butts and do it!

Side Note: We have recently decided to take a 485 mile pilgrimage between St. Jean Pied de Port (France) through Santiago de Compostela (Spain) this time next year.  You can read about our journey of preparing for this trip at a new blog I've created here.

Cleanliness

I am not the best housekeeper.  I need to keep up with the dusting and sweeping better than I have been.  I like to see results but I feel so discouraged two days later when I see the dust starting to accumulate again.  This may help with Todd’s allergies and to keep the pet dander at bay.

Essential Oils / Natural Remedies

I have been reading a lot of great information about essential oils and natural remedies.  I am looking into diffusers and what the best brand of essential oils would be for our home to keep sickness away.  If you have any information on essential oils or the diffuser you use, please forward it my way!

A Reliable Family Physician

With the referral from a neighbor, Todd tried a new doctor this past bought of illness and he really liked the doctor.  This doctor takes the time to talk with his patients to get the full background and is not about pushing pills.  Instead, he is all about natural alternatives to those medications!  The older (and more educated) I become about healthcare, medicine, and how prescriptions affect us, the more I am interested in natural ways of healing and staying healthy, so this sounds like the perfect family physician for us.  Todd and I have two different medical plans because we never combined our medical insurance when we married; however, this particular doctor is on both of our plans.

How do you help fight illness in your home?

**DISCLOSURE: I am by no means a doctor.  If you are ill, please seek the assistance of a trained medical professional.  Also, please note that Todd and I have a long way to go to being healthy.  We are both overweight and though I am striving to feed my family healthier foods, getting out more to exercise and doing what we can to stay healthy, we are by no standards even close to perfecting this area in our life.   

Reflection: Bigger Isn’t Always Better

I would like to mention that if we are talking about ice cream sundaes, bigger is most definitely better (in my opinion)!  However, today, I am going to talk about the size of our home.

Back before Todd and I were married, I owned an 1100 sq ft home in the city.  At the time, I thought the home was perfect and I couldn’t see myself ever moving away.  It was the perfect size for me as a single woman, with just one room that wasn’t used (the spare bedroom).  It had a decent sized back yard and a front porch that I loved sitting on in the evenings and weekends reading a book or just watching the neighborhood kids run and play.

Then Todd moved in. Todd moved in with the contents of his 1400+ sq ft home along with my belongings.  We made it work, even though the basement was full with a lot of his “stuff.”  In hindsight, this 1100 sq ft house was the perfect size for us as a couple.  While engaged, I dreamed of starting a family and living on a nice piece of property with a large garden and some animals, so I started looking for homes with a little bit of land (more than a quarter acre).

I found one in our price range (very inexpensive) with a half acre out in a town I had never heard of.  Todd scheduled an appointment with the realtor of the home and went to go take a look while I was at work the next day.  Todd, being the visionary man that he is, was able to look past the flaws of the home and saw what the home could one day be with hard work, sweat and tears.  He called me and said he liked it and thought we should put an offer in on the house.  The realtor put in the offer, and we were informed that the house had just been sent to auction the day before, that we would have to bid for it online.  We did just that.

We ended up getting the home for less than what we were going to offer for it.  But I am getting off-topic.

Back in the day, I dreamed of a larger house for Todd and me, and the pitter-patter of little feet we were hoping to have.  Today, I sit in one of the 4 rooms we use most often and think about how bigger is not always better.

We have an additional 750 sq ft than we had in the house in the city.  Now, instead of just one room going unused, we have 4.  Oh, and did I mention how much I dislike cleaning?  This is 750 more sq ft that has to be cleaned every once in a while. J  It costs us more in utilities to heat and cool this home and the upkeep runs poor Todd ragged most of the year.  We have one acre of land and use about a half of it for animals and gardens. 

I do not regret buying this home and I still pray that one day we will hear the pitter patter of little feet running through the halls (no mom, this isn’t an announcement).  I love our little town and how peaceful it is (most of the time) in our little area of the world.  I even dream of starting our own business and using the rest of the land to its full potential.  Until then, I am working to control my mentality that bigger (and more) is better in all aspects of my life…except for when it comes to ice cream.

A Day in the Life Of...(a Date with the Hubby!)

I just love reading about how other people's days look like.  I did a Day in the Life Of... back in late January, but decided to do one showing what a day on the weekend looks like with Todd.

This past Saturday, Todd and I had no other plans than to spend time with one another.  This is how our Saturday, February 23rd looked like.

I would like to preface this post with the fact that Todd and I both ate 1/2 a cantaloupe (or more) each before going to bed.  Needless to say, I was up at 1:30, 3:45 and 5:45 going to the bathroom!  Note to self: If you are going to eat nearly a whole cantaloupe, do it before 5PM!

That being said, this is what our day looked like:

This is the last picture I took for the day because as we were finishing the movie around 8:30, I had my eyes closed and my ears plugged with my fingers so the movie wouldnt scare me, but I ended up falling asleep!  Oops.  Todd told me the end the next morning.

The reason I listed the amounts we spent is to document how much we spend when we go out on a "date" every month or every other month.  We take pride in how little our "dates" cost.  This date cost us $24.91 total for lunch, movie and ice cream!

So, there you have it.  A day in the life of us when hubby doesnt have to work on a weekend, we go on a date, and we relax the rest of the time.

Organizing the Bedroom Closet

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal of finally paring down my closet after talking and thinking about it for months.   I had a closet-full of clothes that I didn’t necessarily like and most of the items didn’t fit properly.  I purchase a lot of my shirts from the thrift store and because I have a big bust, most of the shirts do not fit properly. (Our thrift store does not have dressing rooms.)

This is what my closet and armoire looked like January 28^th:

 

  

 

 

In my armoire, I kept a mish-mash of clothing including shirts that didn’t wrinkle (and even some that did!), jeans that I have been holding onto thinking that one day I would fit into them again, shorts I haven’t worn in over a year (because I don’t do shorts), and the bottom two drawers were pajamas I’ve accumulated over the past several years.  It was pure chaos, as you can tell from the picture.

After just 20 minutes of going through my clothes, this is what my armoire looked like:

 

Do you see that?!?  There are shelves in my armoire! 

The top shelf has a few books and miscellaneous items.  The middle left shelf has my comfy pants (3 pairs of black yoga capri and 1 pair of yoga pants) whereas the middle shelf right has 4 pairs of shorts, capri jeans and 3 pairs of jeans I wear often. I hesitated on purging the shorts.  My reasoning: Todd and I are going on a family trip to Aruba in a month and a half and even though I don’t like wearing shorts, it is warm in Aruba!  At this time, the shorts do not fit, but I am hoping that if I can lose some weight, I will be able to wear shorts on vacation.  If I am not able to, then they will be donated before we leave for vacation at the end of next month.

The bottom shelf is now housing 5 pairs of pants that I wear to work.  I had nothing else to put on this shelf and I am perfectly happy with that! 

 

In the top drawer that held half of my pajama stash now contains all of my patterned short-sleeved shirts (I wear these alone as well as under cardigans in the winter).  I even found two shirts I used to love (and still do) that got lost in the disarray - they are now part of my weekly rotation of work clothes.  The right side of the top drawer now holds my summer pajamas which consist of two pairs of cotton shorts and a spaghetti-strap cotton nightgown. 

 

The bottom drawer will hold two pairs of my favorite pajamas (one was in the wash this week and the other on a drying rack to dry at the time of this photo.)

The items in the closet weren’t difficult to sort through.  I decided that if I hadn’t worn it in the past 6 months, I donated it.  This is what was left (and a whole lot of empty hangers). 

 

 

I ended up getting rid of 8 - 9 pair of shoes.  Most of them were hand-me-downs or garage sale finds for less than $2.  A couple of them were really pretty shoes but I had to stuff paper in the toes so that they’d fit!  All of the shoes that I wear are now housed in a canvas shoe-rack organizer to the right in my closet with my knee-high boots and high-top sneakers on the floor in front.  The best part of the closet is that I can now fit my laundry basket in it again!

I will admit, I was stressed out thinking about going through my closet.  The project took me less than an hour to complete, and I just love that everything in my armoire and closet are items of clothing that I wear, and wear often.  I have even begun switching up my wardrobe because I know exactly what I’ve got!  It is like I just got done clothes shopping…without having to go to the store! 

As with most things I put off, I don’t know why I waited so long to do this.  It is great being able to get dressed in the morning and choose something that fits without the hassle of trying on more than one outfit.

Two Ways to Get Enough



Source Credit

I found this picture online and I liked it so much that I printed it out and have it hanging on our refrigerator as a constant reminder.

Though my husband and I are definitely not minimalists by any stretch of the imagination (you should see our home: the joke is that we are maximalists!), I am definitely to a point in my life that I desire less: A lot less.

In the past, we have tried accumulating more and more stuff…and that still didn’t seem like “enough.”  Over the past year, we have desired less and we definitely feel like we have more than enough. 

Super Bowl Feast

I am not one to watch or even enjoy football.  However, I know that Todd enjoys football.  Todd mentioned a deal from PizzaHut that he wanted to try.

After telling him that I was going to order this Dinner Box for the Super Bowl, Todd decided it wasnt worth it.  So...I was on a mission to try to make a Super Bowl meal that was comparable.

This is what I bought from the grocery store the day before:

DiGiorno Pizza - $5 (on sale),  Chicken Drumticks $2.53,
and potoatoes (about $0.50 worth)

And this is what we ate for the Super Bowl:

We ate well for just a little over $8...and we had leftovers.
I love that my husband WANTS to eat in instead of going out for fast food.

A Day in the Life of...

This year, I decided to link up with Simply Rebekah for her annual Day in the Life of... series.  I love reading other people's days and thought maybe I could be a little more productive if I did one myself.  Ha!  I should have known better.  And to warn you, I didnt do things in hour increments. I did them as they happened, because I would pretty much have a blank post if I showed you what I did in 1 hour increments.  I tend to do alot within an hour or two and then peter out.

I had a hard time sleeping the night before which resulted in me sleeping on the couch until 3:30 in the morning and then realizing I must have slept wrong because my hip was KILLING ME!  To say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed is an understatement and I was a real grumpopotamus.  It felt like nothing went right.

So, without further explanation, here is my day on Saturday, January 19th...

 

 

At 9:27, I was getting ready to go out and about for the day.  When I went into the bedroom, I noticed our oldest cat, Tuxford (also sick - along with the 3 kittens) puked all over the bedspread.  You can thank me for not taking a picture of that for you.  I put the bedspread into the washing machine while I went out to do some grocery shopping.

 

 

This is where my grumpy day turns into a "can SOMETHING...ANYTHING go right for me today?" type of day.  As soon as I got home, I remembered I had to take some mozzarella cheese out of the freezer (we buy in bulk).  I then realized, we had no cheese left in the freezer.  At 11:20, I was back out the door with the pup to go get a bag of (expensive) shredded cheese from the local IGA.

At this point, I was completely ticked off, so I decided to take a break.  My mom called just as I had walked in the door for the second time, so I talked to her for a few minutes while I ate lunch of clam chowder.  I was giving up on the project, and I went to go sit down and watch a couple of movies in hopes I would feel better.

 

I hung the comforter out on the back porch because our retractable clothesline has gone missing!

*grumble* *grumble*

I got a message from Rebekah on Twitter asking about how my "Day in the Life of..." was going. 
I told her that I was going to give up, but then told her I would take a nap and see how I felt among waking.  I was in bed for almost 45 minutes and I just could not go to sleep.

 

My plans for dinner: Homemade pizza, boneless buffalo chicken and potatoe wedges.

For some reason, the dough wasnt rising like it was supposed to.  But I made it anyways.  And this is what happens when you scream when a kitten tries to jump on a hot oven door.

At this point, I was determined to finish dinner.  There was no calling the local pizza joint and paying $20 for dinner.  Nosiree.  I am going to finish this dinner, and it is going to be great!

At 7:20, hubby finally arrived home.

 

 

 

Shortly after eating dinner, hubby and I had an arguement.  After this photo was taken, I ate and then went to bed.  I left the clean clothes in the washing machine overnight and the dirty dishes in the sink as the animals and I went to bed.

 

After looking back on the day, it really is what my days on the weekend look like for the most part.  What is NOT normal is how grumpy I was and the fact that I couldnt shake it.  As the children's book reads, it was a "Horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day."  The thing is, even though it was a "bad day," I realize that it is so much better than many others have on a daily basis.  I really have nothing to complain about.  

 

This post will be linked to:

On February 1st!