Monthly Archives: November 2012

November in Review

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Blogging:  This makes the 13th post of the month. I did not blog even once on our trip so that is the reason that I am 2 post short of for the month. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and with Lily’s birthday also I should be able to meet my goal in December.

Goal: 15 per month

Devotions: Staying on track!  Now to decide on a plan for next year. GOAL MET!

Goal is 3 a week.

Groceries: Because of the traveling we did this month I reduced the budget to 500. I am still way under budget at $240 for the month! I am so excited!  Our average per month spending is $712. I am planning to reduce this to $600 starting in January! 5th month for GOAL MET!

Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially:God answered prayer. We have learned that Matt will be receiving a pension payment December 1st. This will place us in a much more stable financial position as well as allow us to pay off several credit cards. I will share what we are able to accomplish with this after it happens.  I will post more after this is complete but for the month of November we stayed on track.!

Goal: To be Debt free except for mortgage by the end of the year. This was established prior to our learning of the significant financial changes that are occurring so I am trusting God to provide direction in this area. Currently we are focused on meeting budget each month!

Weight: I have continued to exercise at least 1x a week. UGGHHHH

Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.

November was a good month overall and travelling and staying on budget definitely made it better.

 

Travelling Budget

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I hope you have enjoyed the past few days of pictures from our trip to Michigan, because now it is time to talk numbers. I was very excited this trip to stay under budget! The extra money we ended up using for Christmas gifts and clothing so that will help our overall budget as well.

One of the ways that we managed to stay under budget was by finding a hotel that offered a nice breakfast each morning. We ending up eating all 5 breakfast at the hotel and took cups of juice for snacks as well. I did learn that most times you can get a better deal when you book and deal with a hotel directly. This particular hotel, we found a better deal online.  We also enjoyed the heated pool which provide free entertainment each day for us as well.

Gas was a huge expense. My budget was for $500. By using gas buddy on my phone and also filling up at Costco, we ended up spending only $419 for gas!

Food was the final area of the budget. I talked earlier about bring snacks for travelling as well as drinks.  One afternoon we found ourselves far from the hotel with no drinks so we stopped at Burger King, ending up spending over $10 just on drinks for everyone. This was our only extra expense, otherwise we ended up saving around $150 from our inital budget of $100 per day. Several things that really helped up besides having lots of snacks was using a gift card I won in the basket from Lily’s school. We ended up eating 4 meals in our hotel room, which allowed us to use our own drinks. Finally, we purchased 2 meals at Costco, these were the ones we ate in our hotel room. The kids loved the food and we didn’t have to brave a restaurant and it wait to enjoy a meal together. The third meal in our room were pizza, the resturant was in the hotel parking lot, the kids loved walking to get the pizza. The pizza itself was awesome!

Visit with Santa

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We were excited to visit with Santa at Bronner’s as well. The system that they used was so nice and made the day much easier. First, an adult, regristered each child that wanted to see Santa. Next they were provided with a name tag, each tag had a different symbol. Ours was a gingerbread cookie, others included a santa hat and holly. We continued to shop Bronner’s until the overhead page announcing that Santa was now seeing kids with the gingerbread cookie was heard, approximately 45 minutes after we regristered.  Next we stood in a very short line for approximately 5 minute before seeing Santa. Lily had already been questioning me if this was the “real” Santa and Zach even checked his beard to make sure. Santa spent lots of time talking with the kids and even shared a secret about Rundolph. Here are a couple of pictures.

Bronners 2012

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Most people know that Matt introduced me to this awesome store on our first trip to Michigian, 9 years ago. I still love wandering through it today as much as I did that very first time. I am also so very impressed with their customer service! Enjoy a couple of other pictures from Bronner’s today and check back tommorow for our awesome visit with Santa.

Huge Santa outside. This is becoming a traditional shot for us each time we visit

 

 

Thanksgiving 2012

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I am thankful for many different things, for a little something different this year, I am going to list things that I am thankful for during this trip.

  1. The Suburban we have the privilege of driving.  It is large enough for our family, and has some really neat features like wireless headphones, and heated seats.
  2. Family that is awake late at night!
  3. King size beds that let as many as 4 people sleep comfortable in them.
  4. Heated Pool- this has been our favorite hang out spot, and a great place for the kids to use up some of their energy.
  5. Haley- She has been a great help and enjoys being here!

This is a really short list because I have so much to be thankful for but this is a snap shot of our trip so far as well.

Tips for Travelling with a Larger Family

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I actually really like to travel and most of my adult life I have travelled at Thanksgiving, which also means I have my fair share of experience travelling with children of all ages. So today I thought I would share some of the tips I have learned over the years.

  • Plan ahead this includes where you are staying as well as preparing for the trip. This year, I have even gone a step further. During the past week, each day we have tried to get one thing off our travel list. For example on Thursday, I organized and packed our food, today I am working on packing clothes. By spreading out the list it has gone much smoother and I am not stressed yet.
  • Set a realistic budget. Without a budget it is so easy to over spend and then you are faced with that awful feeling when you get home. As well as trying to figure out where the extra money is coming from. Our budget this year includes $500 for gas and $100 a day for eating out. The hotel we are staying at provides breakfast each morning  and we will be eating with family some but I know that eating out for our family of 6 will be expensive.
  • Bring your own snacks and drinks. My family likes to snack, just because we are travelling does not mean this changes. A drink at a hotel or a gas station  is around $1.50 add another 1.50 for a snack that equal $18 for just one snack for my family. Even at just one snack a day that would add up to $100 over the 5 days of our trip.
  • Pack for the younger children using slider gallon bags. I am able to fit an entire outfit in one bag. I try to include matching hair bows and socks for the girls. This has worked awesome over the years. First of all the kids then get a choice of what they are wearing that day but I am controlling which items go together. It also helps me not to forget underwear or socks for each day. At the hotel the kids can unpack in a drawer and then they feel like they are so independent picking out and dressing themselves. The added benefit is that I never have to go looking for a sock or pair of underwear.
  • Pack a small travel bag with new crayons and activity books for the kids to use. One of the biggest hits at our house has been dry erase boards and markers.
  • Rent or borrow from the library DVDs to enjoy on the trip, this way they have a new movie to entertain them.

Finally,  make list…….. I currently have 2 going right now; one of items that still need to be packed. The second is of all the last-minute things that need to be done before leaving. I really like this list so we mark off things as we go and don’t have to worry about forgetting something like taking out trash before we leave.

Do you have any helpful tips?

Snow Village 2012

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I LOVE CHRISTMAS!    It is my absolute favorite time of the year.  One of the reasons for this is my Snow Village. I have been collecting these pieces since before Amanda!  We building our addition, one of the main things I wanted was a place to store the pieces and I have it!

This year, I moved the village from the living room to our bedroom, I am very excited to have all the pieces up and now have the room to add some additional pieces!

The top corner or Mountain scene~

The Farm- sits below our TV

The Ice Skating Pond

The Main Village- several different views…

 

Random Thoughts Tuesday November 13th

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  1. This weekend 3 out of 4 kids developed strep throat, only Kendall remains healthy. Zach also had an ear infection and Lily has a major eczema flare up.
  2. I have started working on assembling my Snow Village, I am putting it in my bedroom this year so the layout will be total new. I plan to have it finished before leaving for Michigan.
  3. We leave in a week. I still need to make reservations for Tuesday night. I am trying to accomplish one thing a day so that we don’t get overwhelmed this weekend. So far so good. I have gotten all the presents wrapped and the food is packed for the trip.
  4. Work is really slow this week but I am actually excited to have the extra time to spend on organizing for the trip and on my Snow Village.
  5. Lily got her first report card for 2nd grade last week, she has only one 2 on the whole thing the rest were 3.
  6. This coming Sunday at church, I am in charge of a Spaghetti dinner.
  7. I don’t really  have a seventh comment but thought it was a cool number to end on.

 

 

The End of an Era

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Today is a day of excitement and delight in our house, it is also an occasion that I wonder would ever come.  What is it?

The removal of all baby items from our daily use! We have been struggling for about 6 months now with how to get rid of Zach’s pacifiers.  I finally decided about 2 weeks ago that I was not chase those stupid things all the way to Michigan. So I knew we had to take action now. On Tuesday, I cut the tip-off one paci and Matt cut the  end of the second one. Zach immediately said “This one is broken and threw it away.”  So we wait for a couple of days and this morning I cut the remaining paci tip again. At nap time, he took it in his mouth, pulled it out and said “It has a crack it in so I throw it away.”  That is the end. I am hoping that tonight is fairly easy or at worst by Sunday, he is used to going without them. Next on the baby item removal list was the small potty. Zach is completely potty trained, except for a pull up at night, but he continued to use the small potty over half the time.  This potty has been in the house for 5 years and no matter how much we clean it, still not shiny and new. So we decided to toss it! It currently is in the garbage bin at the street. This did not even draw attention. Finally, is the booster seat that we purchased for Zach, he has been complaining about it for several weeks not that he is a big boy and doesn’t want to sit in it. I have been telling him that when he really was a big boy with no paci, I would put it away.  I was good to my word and after cleaning his seat with a vacuum and wipes, Zach is truly a “big Boy.”

We have left babies and toddlers behind. I really like the idea of seasons of life, so now I am going to enjoy the season of Haley’s senior year along with having young children who are learning everyday without the hassle of pacifiers and little potties!