Category Archives: Christmas

Seven Things Saturday

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  1. I had every intention to post a five things Friday yesterday but it just did not happen.  So I decided to change it up and post seven things today.  One of the reason that I was not able to post was that Kendall and I spent the entire afternoon at Catawba College where she was interviewed for a full ride scholarship. Although we will not know about the scholarship until March this visit helped to solidify her decision that she would like to attend Catawba next fall.
  2. We are preparing for a major ice storm and some really cold weather over the next couple of days. The current temperature is 25 at 5pm, feels like 14.The temperature is not expected to be above 40 until a week from Monday. We are predicted to reach between 1/4 and an inch of ice. The overall hope is that we do not lose electricity and get to stay nice and warm. Or the kids hope for all snow to play in.
  3. Because of the weather, our church has already cancelled activities for tomorrow. Both the school districts have sent home remote activities. If the weather remains close to the predictions, we all may be home for the next week together.
  4. We have done some things to prepare without going overboard. I took Mom to the grocery store on Wednesday night as we had a swim meet on Friday. We have created an access point at the front of the house which would allow us to run a generator to run space heaters for keeping at least part of the house warm. Chickens have been fed heavily with good bedding and water is full. We will keep a check on the water for the next couple of days.  All warm items and flashlights have been assembled. We have spent lots of time charging things.  Lots of things have talked about and planned. And we currently have load number 5 in the washer. My plan is to wash a sixth load tonight and wash probably 2 additional loads tomorrow. The worst thing that could happen is that we have all clothes clean.
  5. One of our garden beds broke with the bottom falling to the ground. Unfortunately, this was the bed that I planted garlic in. Matt and I braved the cold and moved 21 garlic bulbs. I hope this will mean we get some garlic in the summer but who knows.
  6. I did have a chance to go through my seeds.  I am actually not planning to buy any seeds this spring. I am going to buy some basil plants and some flowers but that should be it.   I will have to buy more dirt as we are adding a green stalk planter. The other big expense will be a watering system to go over the top and connect to the sprinkler.
  7. Food is always  a big deal, I made a huge breakfast bowl for lunch, Lily made sushi bowls for dinner and I have made breadsticks and Chicken gnocchi soup for dinner.

Christmas Reflections

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This Christmas has definitely had a different feel.  Some things are positive and some are negative and some I just know but can’t give a name.

One of the things that has been on my mind is the fact that my “littles” are not going to be at home for many more Christmas celebration. I wanted to soak in every minute and just enjoy this season of life. We started by visiting Disney at the beginning of December. It was awesome and many core memories were made.  I really enjoyed hanging out with the kids with less distractions!  Christmas Day was really laid back for us as all three kids had a cold/virus.

We lost a member of our church to a tragic accident the Saturday before Christmas, this was very unexpected and hard for everyone. I can not even begin to imagine the grief felt by his wife and three kids.

We had to replace our HVAC system, the Friday before Christmas which has some financial implications.  One of which is that we have been eating at home for the past two Sundays.  This has saved us money but we have enjoyed spending time with friends during home meals.

I am excited about the new storage areas that we have and I can’t wait to pack up Christmas in a more organized manner and get things back together in the house.

We are definitely preparing for our pantry challenge. I was able to get an additional casserole in the freezer on Friday. I also canned 5 quarts and 17 pints of turkey broth.  I also got one extra meal of soup in the freezer as well.  We need to finish up a ton of left-overs this week as well.

There is a very personal situation going on that  has “stolen my joy”.

Christmas 2025 was different.

5 Things Friday

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1. Today is the official start of the Christmas pajama pants season.  I have two weeks to be able to enjoy wearing these. If you see me in public, I will be festive and warm! So mind your business
2.  I have not eaten breakfast out/grab on the way to work for the past two weeks. This may seem small but it is a big deal for me!  In reality I will have saved probably $20-$40 this month alone.
3. We have our annual Christmas dinner planned for December 27th. I have already started some of the preparations in hopes that it will not be as exhausting and I can enjoy more of the fun parts of it!
4. Our new HVAC system is installed. Here is me looking forward to warmth and lower bills!
5.  On Sunday, we will enjoy a “Birthday Party for Jesus”, lunch with Friends and Carols and Candles at church.  This is a festive as it gets and I am looking forward to each of these!

Financial Changes- Life Happens

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I feel like I had finally decided on a course/plan of action for next year in regards to Finances and was actually going to make a post and state some goals.  Good thing is that I did not get quite that far… because life happens!  This time it is in the form of our HVAC unit.
Let’s start with the background:  I noticed in November that the house just did not seem warm so I ended up increasing the temperature for a couple of days without much thought.  The day after Veteran’s Day, I noticed that our energy consumption was the second highest I had ever seen. We called and got it checked out the next week.
Here is a picture of what we saw…
We had to run the fan over it for 24 hours to discover that a “reversing value” was bad. The anticipated cost was $1500 so we went ahead and had the part ordered. A part arrived this past week and on Wednesday they came to install it.  Unfortunately a freon leak was discovered.  After another hour of trying to find the leak and realizing that we were shipped the wrong part.  We were given the decision to make as we continue with the repair knowing it would add another $1000 to find and repair the leak or purchase a new system.  Several factors were presented including our system is currently 18 years old with a life expectancy of 15 years.  Another consideration was that there was no warranty or guarantee with the repair.  In fact we were told that it was very likely that the repair would not fix the problem and in the best possible case we may get another year out of the system as old as it is.
New systems are not cheap to the tune of $8700!  This was a very tough decision to make.  I am not  one to purchase a new anything in case. After thought and prayer. We decided to go with a new system.
After the decision was made, I did some additional research and discovered that we have spent less than $500 on our system since installation.  Matt also discovered that the new system is supposed to be much more energy efficient as well. The new system will come with a 10 year warranty that will be monitored and covered by the same company we have used since the beginning.
The system is actually supposed to be installed on Friday!
Next came determining how to pay for this expense.  I talked about refinancing the house in this post.  During this process we had decided to put some money back in our Money Market account for future expenses.   The bulk of the cost will come from there. The remaining amount is going to be from our budgeted expenses. My plan was to attempt to pay off several credit cards in 2026. This has now changed, we are going to cover this expense and attempt to pay off the interest free account before it expires.    This will be a stretch but one I am going to face head on and attempt to meet.
In reality this means that for the short run we are going to make only minimum payment on all the credit cards (OUCH).  I am going to focus on also reducing our monthly expenses as well, especially in regards to food and other non essential  spending.
   I am planning a couple of posts in the next two weeks with concrete numbers and ideas. Hang around for the journey!

5 Things Friday

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  1. This is the first week in the entire school year that I feel like I am finally able to balance work and life.  Work is still super busy and next week is going to be wrong and even today I have more to do than i am able but I feel like I can handle it or rather God is going to provide peace and security for me.
  2. The Central Davidson varsity football team are the conference champions, first time since 1946.  Zach has started on JV most of the season. And he was pulled up to varsity for the play offs. There is a slim chance that he will actually get to play but we are all going to the game just in case it happens. Kendall is likely going to watch another player but so is life.
  3. My snow village and the new “Disney” village have both been completed this week. I am planning to make a full blog post on them for next week
  4. We are headed to Florida for Thanksgiving!  I am not responsible for any cooking! On black Friday, we are all headed to Disney. David and Haley and the kids are coming up with us. Lily and Braxton are flying in as well!  The kids and I will miss an extra week of school. I am super excited!
  5. I am going to assume that probably 2 of the 4 new chickens we purchased at the end of the summer have started laying. We went the entire month of October without a single egg. I actually purchased 6 dozen eggs from a coworker. This past week we started getting 1 and 2 large brown eggs!   Even more exciting is the fact that we also got 1 green egg this week which means at least one of the older chickens probably the white one is laying as well.

Missing In Action

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I just checked and the last blog was dated October 4.  That is over three full weeks ago.  I did not realize it had been so long. Work has been hard and busy so far this year. I feel like I am just doing the minimum and that is all. I can’t seem to find my groove.  I took a quick trip to Disney on October 9th with Andrea and Nancy. We flew out on Thursday evening.  Attended the Halloween party on Friday and then flew home on Sunday.
Haley flew in for Braxton’s birthday party on the 17th.  I am going to try and put in some pictures from his party on Wednesday.
On the 19th, I went to Urgent care with a stye starting on my eye. I was given an antibiotic. That did not seem to help this time so on Tuesday, I was back at the doctor’s.  They think it may actually be shingles.  I was given an antiviral medication which started to make improvements within 24 hours.   They did not do a blood test to confirm shingles as medication needed to be started within 72 hours and I was pushing the limit as it was.
All the sudden we are in the last week of October, the weather is cold and rainy. The only good news/thing I can share right this moment is that we have finally finished redoing the building to the point where I can start moving things into it in preparation for Christmas decorating!
Lots of things are changing during the next two weeks and my goal is to get my self back on track and get ready for fun!

Thursday Thoughts

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Lots of things are happening. Wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

  1. Our trip to Florida was different this time.  First, we drove my car instead of the Tahoe.  We chose this because of the holiday travel. I did not want to be pulling a camper on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  By driving the car, we were able to stop for gas less, make better time, eat at a drive thru and overall spent about half the amount on gas as we normally do. Next, we purchased lighten lanes to use at Disney- This was a true luxury.  We were able to watch 3 shows, ride all the rides we wanted except 1 (Rise of the Resistance) in a shorter day at Hollywood Studios.  I am not convinced that we will need this in the future but they did make things much easier and quicker.  Finally we enjoyed staying at hotels but even Zach said he preferred the campground and staying in the camper to a hotel room.  I really missed the extra luggage space as well.
  2. Both kids are on the swim teams which means 3 days a week practice with one usually a morning one. We have two meets before Christmas Zach has also started baseball workouts which are also three days a week.
  3. The weather has made a massive change with snow and wind which means extreme cold, and I DISLIKE the cold. The benefit is that we are having lots of soup this week!
  4. My friend Nancy and I are planning a Christmas Dinner party. I am excited and really do enjoy cooking when I don’t have to hurry or worry about it.  I am hopefully to have some time to sit and plan and hopefully even share how I am planning and preparing for it.
  5. Because of the party, I would like to have our house clean and super clean. I had a house cleaner come this week on Monday and another cleaning scheduled for 3 days before the party.   I also am making a short list of extra chores that just need to be done ahead of time.
  6. In preparation for the party, I want to try out a dinner roll recipe and see if I can get decent results.  I hope to accomplish this on Saturday along with making Reindeer Crack.
  7. Most of the Christmas decorating is complete.  I decided to only put up a Disney Village and one LARGE tree.  I did add a couple of decorations to the kitchen but legitimately about half of the regular decorations.  We have not decorated the outside except for Matt who has installed permanent lights.  Another Saturday goal is to pull out and get the outside decorations done.
  8.  I currently have purchased and wrapped all Christmas presents!  I am super excited and proud of this accomplishment.
  9. My work continues to be stressful.  This school year has been one of the hardest for me.
  10. My mother’s surgery is scheduled for next week. This is to finally get her heart back in a normal rhythm.  I am praying this get her back some energy.
  11. We are headed back to Florida on the Saturday after Christmas. This trip has two purposes: celebrate Christmas with Haley and David  and bring Lily home!
  12. I am in total agreement that December is just as busy if more busy than the month of May!