We are continuing to focus on our electric usage. There are certain things that are beyond our control such as needing to connect the camper to the house when someone is staying it in. And the need to keep a heater in the greenhouse in order to prevent the plants from freezing and of course our usage will be greater with Christmas lights. We also have discovered ways to save electricity in small ways. Unplugging the camper even during the daylight decreases our usage and we are beginning to experiment with the temperature we must keep the greenhouse at. Turning off lights and using the dishwasher and dryer at night continue to save us.
I have realized that a year can change things completely. This year which has been our best year ever financially has also brought more changes and twist than are even imaginable. Matt is currently unemployed but yet the goal is to end the year with our only debit being the house and Tahoe payment.
Our final project of the year is going re-organizing and re-arranging our master closet. We have started making some simple changes which already make it feel much lighter and more open. We will be installing a new closet organizer on one side and continuing to sort through clothes which will finish this project. I am projecting that the entire project will end up costing less than $200.
We have several count downs going on in the house right now. First up is our first “camping” experience in Asheville right before Christmas, followed by Christmas and New Year then our January trip to Mrytle Beach which will be for 4 days instead of 2 and a longer drive. Finally our Disney trip in April. It has been an entire year since we have been to Disney! Plus this will be our first real experience camping at Disney.
I am starting to look ahead at some major home improvement projects for next year. These will be expense that we will pay out of promised money. We will likely end up spending around $20k on these so I want to make sure they will be exactly what we want and of top quality.
Wow how things change yet they remain the same. Last Thanksgiving, Matt and I both had COVID-19. At least we were on the recovery side but still it was not fun. We missed Thanksgiving almost completely. This year we celebrated at my brothers for a big family lunch. Haley and her crew spent the night at our house. Today, we find out that Braxton’s father has COVID so Amanda and Braxton will be spending the next 7 days with us.
I wanted to decorate outside this year. Zach has complained for the past two years that we leave his window dark. We spent a couple hours on Wednesday and finished up yesterday. I saw or heard the idea of using tomato cages for Christmas trees so we now have 4 small trees on our front yard as well. I am planning to get some pictures to post this week.
Lily really enjoys decorating especially trees. So I let her do most of the tree decorating and fluffing. We have 2 large trees along with each kid has a smaller tree in their room.
I really did not do any Black Friday shopping this year. I did order from Bath and Body Works on Thanksgiving and a white shirt for Zach from Amazon today.
I have spent a good hour this morning reading over past Christmas post. I am so grateful to have this blog to help recall our crazy life. Interesting things I re-discovered by reading that I had forgotten was Kendall got her glass at 14 months. She did not walk until 18 months and was not potty trained until 2 and 1/2. Next is that Zach has always had stomach issues. He would randomly throw up. I am beginning to realize that this is most likely due to food intolerance/ allergies.
Now back to where I started Christmas Day. Haley is still in Florida with her boyfriend and his family. She did call last night while we were eating at Mom’s and again this morning. Amanda is working today, so we will open gifts with her on Saturday. I prepared sausage crescent rolls, cream cheese crescent rolls and a Cracker Barrel hash brown casserole on Christmas Eve. They went straight in the oven between Santa presents and opening parent presents. We added scramble eggs, 2 kinds of link sausage, orange cinnamon rolls and bacon to complete the breakfast. For lunch, we had left-overs and added a yogurt bar. Dinner was left-overs and bagel bar.
We all stayed in jammies and enjoyed a quiet day. Lily even said she likes a smaller number of gifts but better items! Santa brought a echo dot and smart plug for each. Kendall got a fit bit watch. Zach a remote control Lego set and Lily 2 pair of Nike shorts. Each received a Disney pin for trading.
I have been missing in action for the past two weeks. More details to follow (hopefully) but we just returned from a Disney trip so pictures are a must!
I am full and over the top full in Guam. I am currently serving 15 schools in Guam and attempting to attend all OT related IEP meetings. What this means is 10-12 hours a week currently. I have been told that i should be able to reduce my hours by January. I am waiting to decide if this is something I want to do or just continue at the rate I am at. Currently, I am able to handle most of it but my leisure time and blog posting will be very limited for the next month.
Lily, Kendall and Zach are spending the weekend in Durham with Haley. This is the first time in YEARS that Matt and i have had a free weekend. Last night we went on a date to Applebee’s Today we are going to attempt to update the front door.
We are definitively in Fall. My goal is to go without heat until November 1st. Our October electric bill was significantly higher than usual due to the summer heat lasting well in September. So far so good as the house is currently sitting at 70 and the outside temperature is 47.
I did a fair amount of shopping on Amazon prime day. Since we are updating our front door including a new keyless entry, we decided to go ahead and start moving toward a smart home. I purchased several echo dots which came with a couple of smart plugs and smart light bulbs and 2 echo flexs (one in my office and one in the kitchen). So far we are enjoying the novelty of them. I also purchased several Christmas gifts and cheap ear buds.
Our December trip will include Braxton, Haley, her boyfriend David and his kids! We are currently at 60 days!
We spent around 3 hours outside today working in both our flower beds and our garden! The saving part comes in that we did not pay someone to come and do this. A second way we are saving is that by cleaning up the garden we are able to extend the growing season and continue to save on our grocery bill. I had to take pictures just so that I could remember the differences.
Before
Mom and I made a trip to the Dollar Tree today. I was able to purchase new items for my sign for a total of $5. I am so happy with the way they turned out!
Zach wanted Taco Bell for his birthday. I decide to download the app in order to save time and headache for me placing such a large order. It actually worked the way it was suppose to and we have already earned two extra tacos for Free!
We had decided several month ago to have a much less than usual Christmas this year in order to be able to afford our trips to Disney. I have started working on purchasing gift for the kids and I have decided that I am going to limit it to 3 gifts from Matt and I. The little ones at home will also get a Santa Claus gift but that is all! Now to stick to this!
This first deal is probably one of the best of the year. I headed to CVS to use some of the Extra Care Bucks that I have been rolling since Black Friday. Unfortunately, I let 3 ECB expire so I was very sad. I grabbed a tube of concealer and mascara used two $1 off coupons printed from Swagbucks and Extra Care Bucks. I spent fourteen cent out of pocket, received $7 ECB back and should earn 50 Swagbucks (fifty cent).
Yesterday (Friday) Mom, 4 out of 5 kids and I went after Christmas shopping. We found the best deals at Walmart.
Was 19.98 on sale for 9.99Regular price $19.99 on sale for $9.99. I also purchased a small Ree figure carrying a pie for $1.98
I found a 6 foot unlit pine artificial tree for $11.00 and stocked up on tissue paper and gift boxes for next year.
At Lowes I purchased a tree topper for $4.01 you can see in the background of the picture above.
My favorite find of the day was vegetable seeds for twenty-five cent each at Dollar Tree.
I finished the day by purchasing more make up at Ulta, a gift box with eye shadow, blush and brushes for $16.01.
I have finally managed to do it! This year, I successfully reduced both the number of gifts and the amount of money that we spent on Christmas. The result has been even better than I anticipated! We have spent the entire Christmas day, enjoying some quiet time and new activities. The kids are not fighting and even more surprising is the fact that I have not heard one single time “I’m bored or Is this all we are getting for Christmas.”
The big girls got 6 presents under the tree!
The little kids got 5 gifts under the tree and one big gift from Santa
