Snail Pace Transformations

Day 15 of The Clutter Busting Challenge

May 21, 2013 by Victoria Leave a Comment

Today’s picture is not at all impressive.

7 used envelopes, that I have kept for a while thinking I could reuse them some how. In the meantime I have picked them up off the floor several times when they have fallen off the shelf I had them on.

Am I the only one who struggles with throwing items away that seem to take up precious space in the landfill and could be used at least once again yet……truly….they are more of a pain to keep around than to simply toss.

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Filed Under: Housekeeping

Creating A Summer Fun To Go Kit

May 21, 2013 by Victoria Leave a Comment

What I like about summer is the time it allows for spontaneous fun.

I have been know to jump into swimming ponds clothes and all with my children when the mood strikes. We have even once driven just over our states board….just because.

In order to enjoy these events without regret (driving home in wet clothes after jumping in a pond is not fun) I create a summer to go kit to keep in the back of my SUV all summer long.

My Summer Fun Kit Includes

A Blanket

For spontaneous picnics to wrapping up wet moms after they jump in the pond.

A Towel

For drying off feet that have dipped in the lake to entire bodies that have jumped in them.

Extra clothes

I try to have packed an extra top and shorts for every member of the family, although now that we are almost all the same size just two extra outfits usually suffice (it is not often we all jump in the pond together).

These outfits usually consist of inexpensive yard sale finds, and are not the prettiest but they do in a pinch.

Extra Flip Flops

My daughter breaks flip flops faster than most people can buy a pair, and it never fails that she does it at the beginning of a day long outing. I learned quick the best way to avoid her walking around shoeless is to pack an extra pair in the vehicle.

Money

Not much but a couple of bucks for a round of Md’s ice-cream cones or gas station slushes can really make my children’s day.

Sunscreen

Burns are not summer fun.

A collapsible chair or two

Watching children play at the park is much more relaxing when you have somewhere comfortable to sit.

A good book

Now that my children are past the age where I have to watch them every second in case they wander off or drown I like to make sure I have a book in the back of the car in case we stop for them to explore and I feel like hanging back and reading.

A large sports umbrella

Summer showers do happen but if they don’t a sports umbrella also makes a good shade cover.

Socks

I don’t keep these in my kit anymore but when my children were little enough to play in fast food indoor play areas I use to make sure each summer that I had enough pairs of socks to go around should we stop off to enjoy some fun in the cool of air conditioning with their friends.

Sand Toys

A pail and a shovel and a sand sifter are all that is needed for hours of fun with little ones during a last minute decision to take the road to the lake.

Swim Suits

My daughter is not willing to jump in the lake clothes and all like her crazy mom. For her I pack whatever inexpensive swimsuit I can find to keep in the car for summer. My boys are okay swimming in just their shorts, since they tend to dry quick.

What would you add to my summer to go kit list?

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Filed Under: This and That

Ebook Bundle Of The Week: Kitchen Stewardship

May 20, 2013 by Victoria Leave a Comment

This weeks ebook bundle contains 5 titles by Katie Kimball of Kitchen Stewardship. If you have been desiring to switch your family over to a lifestyle of healthy eating this weeks Kitchen Stewardship bundle is exactly what you need to help you obtain that goal.

You will save 80% when you purchase these titles as a bundle.

Titles included in the bundle are:

Healthy Snacks to Go (2nd Edition) by Katie Kimball
With over 45 healthy snack recipes and ideas including traditional granola bars, iron-packed Popeye bars, and a dozen “larabar” style variations, Healthy Snacks To Go is the resource you need for healthy snack ideas. Complete with time-saving tips, frugal options and allergy notes, plus diaper-bag friendly snacks that are toddler-approved, this will become your “go-to” cookbook to keep your cupboards filled with nourishing yet quick choices.

The Everything Beans Book by Katie Kimball
This comprehensive resource explaining everything you want to know about beans and legumes. In The Everything Beans Book, you’ll find recipes for homemade beans and rice, refried beans, wraps, Mexican fare, soups, pasta dishes, and even a dessert, plus frugal tips and substitution ideas! Beyond recipes, this ebook also offers over 20 pages of information to facilitate your new love of beans and make sure you can cook with dry beans without any stress.

Smart Sweets by Katie Kimball
Katie’s goal with Smart Sweets: 30 Desserts to Indulge Your Sweet Tooth is to give you options that are way better for you than you’ll find in the grocery store, usually better for you than another homemade version, and sometimes downright good for you. You’ll find less sugar, healthier sweeteners, whole grains, soaked and sprouted grains, no grains, probiotics and even some vegetables in these desserts recipes, without sacrificing taste or enjoyment!

Is Your Flour Wet? by Katie Kimball
In Is Your Flour Wet? Soaked, Sprouted, or Soured: Grains Recipes from Our Kitchens to Yours, Katie offers a basic introduction to soaking, sprouting and sourdough, plenty of how-to tutorials and more than 45 recipes from a variety of real food bloggers, including breads, snacks, pancakes and waffles, oatmeal, cakes and more!

The Family Camping Handbook by Katie Kimball
If you’ve always wanted to try camping as a frugal family vacation but are nervous because you have little ones, The Family Camping Handbook will show you how to survive and even thrive out in the woods with young children. You’ll find an overview to help you get started camping, packing and to-do lists and, of course, real food adaptations to standard camping fare. This ebook includes a total of 36 camping recipes and techniques, including paleo/primal/grain-free adaptations.

Plus, purchasers will receive a special coupon code to purchase Katie’s latest ebook, Better Than a Box, at just 50%!

The Kitchen Stewardship bundle is only available through 8am EST on Monday, 5/27.

Click Here To Order Yours

Filed Under: Sunday Reads

Day 14 Of The Clutter Busting Challenge

May 20, 2013 by Victoria Leave a Comment

21 things today! 7 from Saturday, 7 from Sunday and 7 from today.

I told you Friday that I am getting very weary of cleaning up paper piles that I should have thrown out long ago and that I knew I would be receiving some at the local homeschooling convention I was attending over the weekend and was determined to throw away those papers I did not need right away.

Sure enough I found 6 catalogs and several pieces of paper in the goodie bag they gave each participant that I did not need. In fact I recycled everything in the goodie bag keeping only the pen.

Other tossed items include two beach bags. I went up to Fort Wayne early Friday to enjoy a bit of me time before the evening seminars began. While shopping I found two beach bags already marked down to $5 a piece that I could not resist since our current ones drive me crazy (the handles are hard to hold).

Instead of simply adding them to the bag bin in our mudroom area I first dug out the two bags they are meant to replace and tossed them in the give bag. While I was there I remembered my husband received a free cooler bag for nurse’s week at work, so I threw out an old one that had a hole in one corner.

I am mighty pleased at myself for following the one in one out rule with my finds.

To bring the total up to 21 things I then went in to the bathroom and attacked the “just in case” pile of razor handles gotten free with coupons over the years. I keep the handles thinking I will need them if I get free blades, but that does not happen. I threw all 10 in the garbage, keeping only those currently in use.

What did you toss today?

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Filed Under: Housekeeping

3 Snail Paced Goals For The Week: May 20 to 26

May 20, 2013 by Victoria 1 Comment

Even though one of the goals is done in my head but yet to be printed on paper I am considering last week a 3 for 3 week.

Last Week’s Goals

Goal 1: Complete: Courtney helped me plant my Mother’s Day flowers Tuesday afternoon once the cold spell was over. I am loving looking at them each morning as I eat my breakfast on the front porch.

Goal 2: Complete: I kept up with Money Saving Mom’s Clutter Busting Challenge all week long and now have 140 less items in my home.

Tree we saw on our hike yesterday

Goal 3: Complete (sort of): The hubby and I went for a hike yesterday and talked about each others expectations for the children’s schooling over the summer. By the end of the hike we had a firm plan of how long (2 hrs a day) and what would be learned and who would teach it. The younger children will be watching Drive Thru History and doing apps. on the iPad. Our older son will be studying for PSAT and getting a bit ahead in his My Father’s World work.

I say the plan is sort of complete because I need to now type out a daily plan for the children to follow.

This Week’s Goals

1. Continue to participate in Money Saving Mom’s Clutter Busting Challenge

2. See the bottom of the laundry pile: Sadly I think the last time I ended a day with no more laundry to wash was well over a month ago. I know laundry seems like a odd goal but it is really irking me to be this far behind and until I catch up I don’t really know if my son’s inability to find clean shorts each morning is a laundry problem or a true lack of shorts problem.

3. Get back to crafting one hour a night:Lately I have been reading all evening out on the swing chair enjoying the return of warm weather. Nothing is wrong with this except come winter when my regular customers start asking me how many dish cloths and scrubbies and locker hooked trivets I have to sell, I am going to come up short.

3 Things We Did This Week

1. This week on the blog I am having a Summer Family Fun Series. One way to insure family fun is to create a summer bucket list. On Sunday our family sat down and made ours. Several visits to various water parks are on it as well as a camping. The two activities I did not expect, one child really wants to go caving, and another wants to go to Chicago. My husband and I think both might be do able depending on his over time hours and my ability to make some cash selling things we no longer use.

2. I finally got my daughter to be brave enough to come out on the open road with me. Up until now she has only wanted to bike on trails. She took a bad tumble off her bike at the end of bike ride season last year and has been very fearful of biking ever since. She is still going much more slowly than she needs too but I am assuming that will improve as she slowly gets her confidence back. She had such a smile on her face when she reached the local park.

3. It is finally warm enough for my lungs again to join the running group I love for an early morning run. I always get excited as I turn the road towards the parking lot where we all meet and see a row of headlights awaiting me. Sometimes our group takes up an entire row of the parking lot.

On Going Goals

1. Exercise 5 days a week (did it and also fit in a walk and a hike with the hubby and a bike ride with my daughter )

2. Spend 20 hrs a week working on the blog (gearing down to 15 hours starting last week to make room for summer fun)

3. Spend the last hour of every day screen free (6 out of 7 nights )

Did you set goals this week? How did you do?

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linked to Money Saving Mom’s Ten Goals For This Week

Filed Under: Goal setting

Summer Family Fun Series

May 20, 2013 by Victoria Leave a Comment

Summer break is almost here, and that means summer family fun in the sun.

All week long I am going to be talking about ways to have fun with your children this summer.

This post will act as a landing page, containing all the links to the one week series. As each post goes live the links titles will turn blue becoming links taking you directly to that post.

Pin it to your Pinterest boards and have a complete guide to summer fun at your finger tips.

Summer Family Fun Series

Creating A Summer Fun To Go Kit

4 Ways To Make Room In The Budget For Summer Fun

Creating A Summer Fun Backyard

10 Ways Thrifty People Have Fun In The Sun

Camping with Children and Sanity

Summer Fun Ideas From Around The Web

I hope you join in the fun all week long.

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Weekend Surfing

May 19, 2013 by Victoria 1 Comment

Sunday Surfing has now become Weekend Surfing as I streamline my blog a little to better suit my home life hours. Normally this post will be released Saturday, but this weekend I attended a homeschooling convention.

Weekend Surfing is where I share with my readers interesting articles that I have found around the web. Each and every morning I spend 30 minutes and sometimes as much as an hour hopping from blog to blog reading, pinning, sharing on Facebook and Twitter while I drink my morning cup of green tea.

Here is the highlights of what I found the last 2 weeks of surfing.

1. 10 Ways to Ensure Homeschool Burnout by the Holistic Homeschooler . Yep been there and done them all in my 11 years of homeschooling. In time I wised up.

2. Three Small Things Can Add Up To A Changed Life by Money Saving Mom . If you have been reading my blog for blog for long or have read my about page you know that I am a strong believer that small changes can add up to big goals obtained.

3. For When You’re Taking Your Work Too Seriously by Chatting At The Sky. My favorite quote from this article “Meaningful work flows out of an artist working from acceptance, not a technician working for acceptance.” I need to hear that and let it wash over me several times a week.

4. It’s Time To Get Outside by Life As Mom. This post contains 30 links to different ideas of how to get the children outside and loving it.

5. Bracing For Financial Change at Northern Cheapskate. Contains 5 ways to prepare your family for a change in income.

These posts and more can be found on my Homeschooling, I love it! Blog Reads and Money Management boards on Pinterest. I also try to share one of my finds every morning on my Facebook page. I would love to have you join along.

What have you been reading and enjoying on the web recently?

I would love to have you join me this week for my Family Fun Series. Starts Monday.

Filed Under: Sunday Surfing

Day 13 of The Clutter Busting Challenge

May 17, 2013 by Victoria 1 Comment

I went back to that same out of the way cupboard today as I did yesterday and rid it of the last remaining 6 homeschool catalogs from 2011 and then went on to find a huge stack of old 2011 coupons clipped right before I switched our family over to homemade cleaners and natural beauty treatments. My coupon collection is much smaller now.

What struck me today as I was decluttering was all the paper I have been getting rid of. From old magazines to catalogs to coupons day after day during this challenge I have been taking stacks of paper to the recycling bin.

What makes it worse is that most of these items that are heading to the recycling bin I have not needed in years. Who needs a 2 years old homeschooling catalogs?

I need to start dealing with paper right away the minute I am done with it. I need to make the effort to take it right to the recycling bin instead of letting it stick around in a pile thinking “I don’t want to walk all the way over to the recycling right now”.

Um….I run marathons...bike miles..take kickfit classes… and yet I can’t seem to convince myself to walk the maximum 50 steps give or take a flight of stairs to toss something in a recycling bin rather then toss it on the floor or table nearest me. Now that is a slap my forehead and scream “DUH” moment.

Yep even fitness fanatics can be lazy. It is time to change my ways starting with this weekend. I am attending a neighboring cities homeschooling convention and I know that the goody bag will come filled with papers, and that I will be handed even more papers at the lectures I attend.

This year I am dealing with those papers right away instead of shoving them in cupboard to deal with them later. Monday morning you are going to see a picture of all those papers that I know I will not use in my clutter busting post, along with the photo of what items I actually did keep.

Do you struggle with paper clutter? If not please help me with tips on how to avoid it.

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Filed Under: Housekeeping

Day 12 Clutter Busting Challenge

May 16, 2013 by Victoria 1 Comment

Today was one of those decluttering days where I wandered around trying to figure out what area to attack next. I tried my workout dresser and found just two pairs of pants. I looked on our book shelves but I had just decluttered those not that long ago.

So I started opening cupboards that we don’t use often and sure enough in seconds I found a huge stack of homeschooling catalogs from 2011.

Which made me think. If I emptied my barely used cupboards of stuff we no longer use, would I be able to refill them with stuff that is lying around in piles driving me crazy!

For instance I have trays and cookie cutters that I use just a few times a year in a convenient cupboard that could be used to store the small appliances that I use almost daily instead of having them pile up on the counter. If I put these trays and cookie cutters away in the less convenient cupboards instead of things that no longer have any value to me it seems like I might have a more efficient storage system saving me time and stress.

Right now I am concentrating on removing clutter, but when the clutter is gone it seems like better organizing what is left is the answer to my pile problem.

Perhaps the next challenge needs to be…organizing 15 minutes a day every day for a month. But….it is summer..the weather is nice and I want to be outside..so it can wait until fall (but should it..hmm..food for thought)

Do you find that poor organization is sometimes as much a problem for you as clutter?

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The Face of the Earth: By Deborah Raney

May 15, 2013 by Victoria Leave a Comment

The Face of the Earth by Deborah Raney is one of those stores where the reader gets plunked into the thick of the action from page one. In fact the book never does slow down until the final page.

Still I enjoyed ever page of it. I cried along with the main characters as well as laughed with them, and when the book was done I was left with wanting to know how their future worked out.

I related to the characters so well that I found myself wondering, if what happened to Jill happened to me who would my husband turn to? Or if I were in Shelley’s shoes would I share the same feelings of connection to Mitch?

For more information about The Face of the Earth or the author Deborah Raney visit the book tour landing page at Litfuse Publicity group

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(I was given a copy of this book for purpose of review but thoughts are 100% mine)

Filed Under: Sunday Reads