New Posts on the New Blog

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Blog moving!

It seems that Im moving my writing to my Other Blog. Come check out what's going on!

Once A Month Meals

Im talking about my experience with Once a Month Meals over on my other blog MyLifesDelight. Come check it out!

Swagbucks

Im a fan of Swagbucks. I dont know if you've heard about it by now but its a great way to earn free money. Here's how it works:

Sign up for an account

Search the web using swagbucks.com (search results come from google and ask)

Swagbucks are awarded periodically as you search

Redeem your bucks for cool things like amazon gift cards or other products.

Its simple! Try it today!

I Feel Like BLAH

We are at home and finally settled in ... sort of. We dont have very many things in the house yet and havent had a solid income as of yet. That part really sucks. Its one thing to move without anything, knowing that you'll have something waiting for you when you get there (ie money to buy the things you need or the stuff you need in storage) but its another thing all together when you move and dont have those things available to you.

We've had a little bit of money here and there, so it hasnt been extremely hard, but it's still hard. I think the worst part is the fact that we should have had money coming in by now. The hubs was supposed to start working the monday after we arrived but because of paperwork being delayed, he didnt actually start until last week. So we've been without a steady paycheck for almost a month now and dont get his regular paycheck until the 9th.

So here's the part where I feel like BLAH ... I cant do anything! I cant even go into town to take the boys to the park because I dont want to use up all my gas before we get payed. I cant go to my bible study, or to the grocery store, or to friends houses. It's so frustrating just sitting here at home with nothing to do but wash dishes because that's the only thing in the house. I cant even wash our laundry because we dont have a washing machine and its driving me NUTS!

Im just hoping that things go quickly the next two weeks. We are very lucky on the one hand tho, to have our house still. God is very gracious in the fact that he didnt allow our house to sell. Also the people who rented our house were not able to keep up with the payments and so we had to evict them on short notice (which was still a decent amount of time). This worked to our advantage because we had to be back on short notice (or so we thought).

So, after all the rushing to pack stuff up and to get here, I am now sitting idle. Dont get me wrong, Im extremely happy to be back. I feel like I am finally home. However, I hate to just be sitting here not able to do anything. Got any ideas? Maybe you can help me cure my boredom. Let me know if you do.

Two Days Left!

We have two days left before we hit the highway out of town. We should be back in Arkansas before anyone can say "Bobs your uncle". Truly, I miss my home. I miss the green, my house, the fact that I can pay my bills every month *ON TIME!*, even the humidity in the summer. I cant stand the dry heat of California, and never really have to be honest with you.

It was nice to be able to come back and be with our families for the amount of time we were here, but its time to go home now. There were a lot of reasons we moved in the first place, and it turns out that some of those things are still there. As a family, we just dont fit in to the views and ways of the people here in California. Our ideals and beliefs dont mesh with those around us. Even those who believe in the same things we do.

Im curious to see how things have changed in Arkansas over these last few months. Its strange how things can change so quickly in such a short time. I hope that this has been a move for the better, even tho it has cost us a bundle. Sometimes God has to move you PHYSICALLY out of the way for him to do the work he needs to do. Its almost like how I have to put my little boys in a separate room completely so I can vacuume the one Im in. Its a good thing in the end because I get the cleaning done and the boys get to use a fresh room to play in once Im done.

And Back Again

Not back to blogging just yet, but back to Arkansas. It turns out that even with a transfer within the same company, California is just WAY too expensive for us. We can't support our family on the same budget as we could in Arkansas (as if that wasn't obvious). We would literally have to double our income in order to live in California, and that's just not an option right now.

I wish in a lot of ways that we had not moved to begin with, but it was something that needed to happen. Sometimes in life, you have to take a step away from things for them to change. Im almost positive that this was the case for us. Altho it is a very costly move, we are willing to pay the price. That's not saying that we have the funds availible right now but that will come. We will be making a very simple move right now and we will come back for the remainder of our things when we've accumulated enough money to get a uhaul to move the rest of our belongings. This move however will be our final long distance move for a long time I believe. Unless the Lord calls us to move in another direction, I believe that Arkansas will be our permanent home.

The benefit to that is that Arkansas is much cheeper on almost everything. Sure they have a 9% sales tax on food, but at least I can afford to buy food there! The price of registering my vehicle wont be astronomical, my mortgage is super cheep, gas is cheeper, and college is cheeper. When I can pay ALL of my bills in Arkansas for the same price that I would be paying for RENT in California, I know Im doing well.

It might be a while yet before I get a chance to post again, but know that I love you all and I look foreward to blogging again when things settle down. Who knows, I might even have a more productive blog once we get back. ;)

This Blog is on Hold

This blog is on hold until life events pan out.

Once a Year Shopping

Over on Frugal Hacks they posted an article about Shopping Once a Year. I wanted to give my thoughts about it. I had read the article that DL had read. It was about a couple that shopped only once a year for things that they could store. They didnt buy perishables in bulk of course but the idea is to stay out of the grocery stores and to save money by not spending it on the items that are impulse purchases. They started out slow and worked their way up to a year's worth of food.

My husband and I looked at the article and actually thought about trying it. We got so far as to write out the list of things that we use on a regular basis to see how much it would cost if we were to buy enough for the year. It would have been a little more than $1000, and it would have taken us a few months to gather the cash to buy all those things. I had also looked at the possibility of working our way up to the big once a year shopping trip. Shopping for one month at a time for three months, then for three months at a time, then six months, and then for one year.

We also looked at the fact that because we were still young, things would change drastically in a year. We only had one child at the time. There was always the possibility that we would have another child. There was always the possibility of our jobs not working out or having to move and having to start over again. Now granted this idea would work if it was just the job, but what would happen if we had to move to a smaller home (or across the country, as our hometown was 2000 miles away)? Then we would have been stuck with a lot of food and no where to put it.

Things like spices, canned goods, and cleaning supplies are good to have on hand, but I think that you could do just as well with coupons and get the things you need. People have been known to get a lot of items (enough to store for the year) for either very cheap or free by using coupons at the drugstores. It's just a matter of preference.

Personally, I like to buy a few items in bulk (because I have a large family now) to last a few months so Im not constantly in the store trying to get those items. Its not very fun to have to buy a box of pancake mix every time you want to make pancakes. So instead of buying that at the grocery store, I buy it at Sams Club and get a large bag of the mix to last me a month. (We really like pancakes here!)

What's your thoughts on Shopping Once a Year?

Homesick

Im feeling just a wee bit homesick this week. I keep seeing pictures of my home and the town I lived in. Six years really is a long time to live somewhere. Essentially, I have lived one third of my life there. My sons have lived all their lives there. It was quite daunting to move back after such a long time away from my hometown. Im glad to be back and to have more people around me, but I long for the lush green of my Arkansas Summers.

I got just a glimpse of the beautiful color before we moved and was able to get a few pictures of it. So, inspired by this post by KimC, here are a few pictures for you. These pictures are off my front porch and they were taken at the end of April before it bloomed completely.

Menu Plan Monday

In my attempt to work the Weight Watchers plan, Im going to be posting my weekly menu here. Along with about half of the blogosphere! Im not the greatest at it yet but give a newbie a chance. :) So here it is:

Monday: Breakfast - Oatmeal and bananas, Dinner - Roast (crock pot) with veggies
Tuesday: Breakfast - Cereal and peaches, Dinner - Spaghetti with salad and bread
Wednesday: Breakfast - Oatmeal and fruit, Dinner - Sweet and Sour Chicken with veggies and rice
Thursday: Breakfast - Pancakes with applesauce and raisins, Dinner - Stew and homemade bread
Friday: Breakfast - Cereal and fruit, Dinner - Hamburgers with baked beans and salad

Im not including the weekend because it is never a solid schedule and I dont usually know what is happening until we are there.

Visit Orgjunkie for more menu's.

29 Points

Thats how many I've got. I've decided to get on the bandwagon and start losing some weight. I've lost about 5lbs since we moved but that's only because I've been up moving around more. My sis-in-law had lost about 60lbs using weight watchers and so, having seen the success with my eyes, I am going to start as well. This is going to be an interesting journey. I hope that you will be my accountability. I will put up a ticker to show my progress each week, and hope that you will remind me when I get off track or encourage me when I'm doing good! Right now Im at about 210lbs (Isn't that scary!), and my goal is to lose 80lbs.

Told You So ...

I had mentioned before that I might open up an Etsy Shop. I've had it open for a while, as evidenced by the notation in my sidebar. However, I never really had anything in there until recently. Now that Im settled in the new place, I wanted to get my shop up and running. So I now have items in the shop with more to come. I have a better sidebar gadget so you can see what I have and possibly even click over to buy something (hint hint).

FINALLY!!

We are finally moved in and settled in our new home. Sorry it took so long to get back to blogging. We were in limbo for about a month and a half and didnt have solid access to the internet. But we have it now and I hope to be blogging a bit more often. Hopefully even get back to a regular schedule. Im just happy to be settled. Its been a really crazy couple of months that's for sure. Soon, I will have the details of our move and what happened after it.

Almost there!!

We are almost ready to leave Arkansas! Im sorry for not posting more, but we've been so weighed down with projects that needed to be finished before we could leave. We finally decided to rent the house instead of selling it. Its the market. Unfortunately we would not have been able to get anything from the house had we sold it. But that's ok. We found a nice family to rent it from us.

I have to admit, if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be doing the things I am, I would never have believed you. Here's a general recap of the last ten years of my life: 1999 I graduated high school, 2000 I had a job and got my own apartment, 2001 I got together with my hubby, 2002 I married him and had a baby, 2003 we moved to Arkansas from California, 2006 still in Arkansas and having baby #2, 2007 baby #3 and bought a house .. in Arkansas, and now 2009 moving back to California and renting out the house in Arkansas. That makes me officially a landlord. Who'd a thunk?

I cant say so much for some of the people we knew in high school. I've heard of a lot of them having troubles in life. Some are in jail, some are back with their parents, some are still with their parents, some have kids and are barely making it. But then there's some that are doing well for themselves. Those typically are the ones that you never hear from until something catastrophic happens. We've been lucky to have done so well. We arent necessarily at the top of the rungs but by and large we are doing well.

So back to our regularly scheduled program ... well, not yet. We have about a week until we are in California. Then we need to get settled in. So it might be a little while before you hear from me again. Hopefully the next time you hear from me, I will be settled in with my new home. I might drop in to let you know that I've made it there ok.

See you soon!!

Packing for the Move

We are pretty close to being done packing all our things! Thus the reason I havent posted in a while. We only have a few weeks left and its getting a little exciting! Packing is such a big task!

Preparing the Little Ones for our BIG Move

Moving is a really BIG deal for small children. They dont truly understand the whole thing while its happening. It may take some quite a while to truly understand that you arent in the same place and wont be seeing the same people once you are settled into your new place.


My oldest has had a few questions for us that have been a little difficult to answer. Difficult in the aspect of it being hard on him to understand the answer. Things like, will we be able to go to a certain friends house, or will we still be going to the same church, or will so-and-so be there too? The answer is always no.


So what have we been doing to prepare him (and the other two) is to talk about all the people he knows where we are going. All our family is in the area that we are moving to. We had the wonderful opportunity to have his cousin with us for a day the last time we visited. It was the county fair and they absolutely had a blast! (I did too!) He remembers her, his grandparents, and his aunts and uncles. The middle boy remembers a few of them as well. Sadly the little one doesnt remember any of them, but he will have a great opportunity to get to know them.


We've been talking about some of the things that they will get to do there in the town we will be in, like going to parks, the lake, tractor shows (yes, we really like tractors we even have a few of them, but thats a story for another day), the fair, fishing, all the fun stuff that we like to do as a family but dont do much of here because of the distance to everything.


One good thing that works to our benefit is the fact that the boys have already taken a trip there by car so they know that its going to take a while. Hopefully there will be a lot of stops for them to get out and stretch!

What ways do you prepare your little ones for a BIG move?

Its Official!

We have finally decided on an actual move date! It has been decided that we will be moving the first week in May. YAY! Now I can truly get serious about packing things up!

Children and Long Trips

As we get closer to moving, I have to start focusing on how we are going to get there. As you should know by now (if you've been following along for any length of time), we have three little boys. They are six years, three years, and almost two (at the end of April). This makes for some interesting dynamics for traveling across the country. Lucky for me they all love traveling. We did a trip to California last August and they all did beautifully the entire way. Thank you Dodge for having a built in TV in my van!

We will be taking longer to travel this time however, making a couple of stops along the way instead of trying to just shoot through in the shortest time possible. This means that we have to find ways to entertain the boys other than movies. So I wanted to go over some things we will be doing to occupy them and ourselves for the trip.

Backpacks! I have backpacks for each of the boys that I will be filling with toys and stuffed animals so they don’t have any way to complain that they are bored or don’t have anything to do. This is especially handy when you are in a hotel and all they want to do is play but you just want to sleep!

Toys: Most kids have at least one toy or type of toy that they really like to play with. For us that is cars. Thankfully we have plenty of them around that even if we left one at a hotel, it would never be missed! Another thing that works wonders for us is the dollar toys that don’t mean much. You can find the generic brand of magnadoodles at Wal-Mart and the kids absolutely love them. They are good for hours and hours of fun.

Movies: I mentioned the fact that we have a built in TV in the van. Wonderful invention I think. This makes for much easier driving. Before we had one I thought that it would be distracting to the driver, but really its not. It’s just distracting to the driver behind you! Seriously though, its not that bad. It breaks up the monotony of having to either find a radio station or putting in a music CD, and it keeps the kids occupied for a couple of hours at a time.

Comfort Items: Pillows and blankets are great things to have on a road trip, but I didn’t have to tell you that! :) My guys also like to have a stuffed animal to hang on to. They like the soft fuzzy feeling of their little friend.

Food: Coolers are wonderful things, but there's only so much you can put in them. I try to have a dry cooler and a cold cooler. The dry cooler is for things like snacks, bread, fruit, condiments that don’t need to be cooled, and drinks that don’t need to be cooled. The cold cooler is for things like sandwich meat, cheese, and cooling off sodas. I like to bring along things like string cheese, grapes, apples, oranges, granola, jerky, chex snacks, peanut butter, jelly, bread, and deli meats.

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Drinks: I separated this because it is a subject in itself. Having the proper hydration is a good thing on a long trip. Sodas are great for a pick me up but it shouldn’t be your only fluids for a trip. Keeping a couple of water bottles in the vehicle is a good thing. You don’t have to have a huge box of them, but having at least enough for the trip. Or better yet you can fill a large jug of water and get refillable bottles. For the kids I like to get Capri Sun for their flavored drink. It has less sugar than the other types and its real juice instead of fake flavoring. They need water too, don’t forget. You might want to get them a sports bottle to make it easier for them in the vehicle.


Take a break! It’s a long way from Arkansas to California. A loaded down truck and trailer plus a handful of kids dictates that there will be plenty of opportunities to stop along the way. Bathroom breaks are a great time to check the trailer for any issues, but its also a great time to check out the town you stop in. Find a park and let the kids run around a bit and stretch your own legs.

Act like a tourist! Since we will be taking our time on this move, we can actually stop and see some of the sights. I like being a tourist. I've driven past the Grand Canyon three times now and have not yet stopped to see the sights. I intend to do so this time.

This is the first in a series on moving long distance. Look for future installments on the subject of packing and preparing little ones for the big move.

Rubbermaid Tubs Work for Me!

When we moved from California we had limited space to bring things with us. We had our Jeep Cherokee and a small trailer. So we had to find the best way to bring things with us without leaving the important things behind. Lucky for me, Hubs is very good at packing things so that you can fit the most in a small space. In order to maximize our space usage we bought a bunch of 18gal Rubbermaid tubs (they sit together much better than some of the other brands) to put our things in. We were able to stack about 20 tubs on our small trailer. What didn't fit in the tubs was put in the Jeep. We had another car at the time as well so we could fit everything that was necessary in the Jeep without worrying about sitting room. The best thing is that the tubs were waterproof. It came in handy since we hit really bad rain in Texas! You can bet that when we are headed back to California we will be using the same method. We have a few more things to drag with us this time but we also have a lot more room to put things. So that's what Works for Me!

What's been going on

The house is getting cleaner and more clutter free. Bonus for me, I can finally see the floor in my room! I swear that we have WAY too many clothes!! I think that I'm going to start getting rid of the things that either don't fit or we don't use anymore. Its no use having them around if we don't use them right? I'm slowly getting rid of things around here. It's so freeing not having so many items around the house. I want to keep up with that. I think I will have a strict policy of not bringing in too many things when we don't really need them. There's a few things that I really want to have for the boys and for the Hubs and I but aside from those things there's no reason to go overboard.

I'm not sure what's going on as far as the move is concerned. We are in a holding pattern right now. Waiting for the job to show its face. To be completely honest with you, I really want to get this move over with. It seems like the longer we wait, the harder its going to be. Its already going to be really hard as it is. We've made a lot of friends here. Every time I see a friend, I hear the comment that they wish that we didn't have to go, or "That's so sad!" with a big frown added for emphasis. I think that part is the worst in this whole thing. As if I need another thing to bring me down on this whole issue. *sigh*

I have some pictures of the truck and trailer for you. I'm a little excited about them because I think that we did really good in getting them. What a great deal don't you think? And we've sold enough stuff to pay for three quarters of the price of the trailer! God is great! Now we have that money to put into the truck to make it better than it was before.

The Bull!

The tag along!

So there you have it folks! Proof that we are actually going to do this. I'm still anxious but I know that my God has me covered. I just pray that he gives me a spirit of thankfulness and obedience. Ive gotten so comfortable here that I don't really want to leave. However, I know that he has something special planned for me and my family so I wont complain. It'll be nice to have family and friends surrounding us and maybe even helping us out.

Musings

As we get closer to the time of moving (Im not calling it a move date until we know the actual date), I wanted to talk about some of the things that we are doing to prepare for the move and other thoughts rattling around in my head. Since we have children I thought it would be a good thing to post about moving with children across the country. We also dont have a lot of money to invest in this move so a lot of our solutions for things will be quite frugal. We wont just be hiring a mover to take our stuff to California (thus the truck and trailer). So be looking foreward to more posts in the very near future.

Homebound

I thought I would share a few pictures of my soon to be (used to be?) home.

This is the old hotel downtown. Its technically a historic landmark but its still used as a hotel.

The old Nevada Theater. I've heard rumor that Mark Twain used to watch plays in this theater. It's still in use today as well.


This is a classic example of all the old covered bridges around the area. It truly is a historic area. I enjoyed much of this as a kid and I delight in the wealth of history and information there is even now as I am homeschooling my children. I can see a lot of great lessons in the future.

Tell me, is there a place that you love because of the history? Where is it?

A Truck and a Trailer

Why, you might ask?



The answer: Because we are planning a move. Where? To California. When? Ummm .. I guess you can say that it is TBA.



Here's the scoop. The Hubs and I have made the *Very Difficult* decision to move back home to the wiles of California. This is an extremely difficult decision for us because of so many factors. While we are comfortable here in our bubble of Arkansas, the Lord has put it on our hearts to make this move. As you are aware by now, we have 3 little's. That makes things here a bit difficult since we don't have any family close. Matter of fact they are all 2000 miles away from here in, you guessed it, California! So that is a major factor for us. The ability to drop the kiddos off at the grandparents house and actually have a DATE!!!! Oh its such a wonderful thing.



Another wonderful thing about moving to California is that because we are homeschooling, we have many more outlets to teach culture and history. Unfortunately, we don't have too much of that here in our bubble. We would have to drive a few hours in order to get culture and history. Its a sad fact of how this area grew so fast that it didn't have time to gain the history and culture of a slower growing area. There is a little bit of it but not enough to keep you going for long. As for science and math ... that can be taught anywhere. :P



There's so much here that I am going to miss and so much there that I am looking forward to. Its hard to put words to it all. Needless to say I have had a lot of anxiety about the whole thing. I think for the entire first week after we decided that we are actually going to do this thing, I was so nervous my stomach was in knots. (It still kind of is.) I really wish I had a lot more time to plan and prepare. But as it is we are thinking sometime between now and May. So much to do and so little time!



So that brings us back to the truck and trailer. (You thought I forgot about that didn't you!) This last week we received our tax return. I was very thankful to actually get one because I wasn't sure we would. So with that return we have purchased a used truck at a really good price and a trailer also at a really good price. Its so hard to find either one of those priced well even in this economy, but we did it!



The truck is a 1994 Ford F-150 4x4. Its in good shape for its age, but still needs a good tuneup. The trailer is a 16' tandem axle with brakes in really good shape. The Lord truly blessed us with these because I have been looking for a while and the cheapest I could find a trailer of the same sort that we bought minus the brakes was more than 1000 with another almost 200 for the brakes. I was not prepared to pay that much for the trailer. Especially since that was almost as much as we paid for the truck! So we are prepared for rain now. I think! I hope! You know how when it rains, it pours ... Knowing that, I'm preparing for a downpour!



If you think about it, please, pray for me. Pray that I don't go completely mad in this endeavor. Pray that things will go smooth and easy. Most of all, Pray that we are able to do God's work wherever we go. Because its ultimately about furthering the Kingdom.

A Fun New Recipe I Made Up

Up until recently I figured that the rice cooker was only for rice. Well not anymore! I've been experementing with it and trying to make this single use item not so single use anymore. Its working too. About a week ago I had bought a big bag of frozen ravioli's from Sams Club. These are the type of ravioli's that dont have any sauce and that's a good thing. So here's the recipe.

BBQ Ravioli's
20 ravioli's (aproximate depending on the size. Mine are fairly large)
1 cup BBQ sauce
2 cups water

Put all ingredients in rice cooker and turn it on. You might want to stir it a little while its cooking to mix the sauce.

Serves aproximately 4 (we have three small kids so it served 5 for us)

Etsy!

I have officially opened an etsy shop! My first item up for sale is ... of all things ... Birdseed Toss Wedding Roses. They are fabric roses with birdeseed (or whatever you chose) stuffed inside to toss at the bride and groom as they leave the wedding. Pretty cool I thought! They were ones that were made with the intention of being used at a friends wedding but there was a discrepancy about the lace that we used. I guess the bride didnt want lace to be anywhere near her wedding.

Personally, I dont blame her! Im not much for lace either. Something about lace reminds me of the 80's. Maybe it was the gloves that Madonna wore ... who knows. But these are pretty none the less. I might have more too. Some that dont have lace on them. They would be the extras from the actual bunch that made it to the friends wedding. I like these ones. Especially the red ones. There were five colors for these roses. Red, blue, green, yellow, and brown. The ones with the lace were just flat colors with the lace over them. (see pic) Not bad, the red ones were I think the best. They were really bright. But I like the ones without the lace better because they arent flat colors. There are patterns on the fabric and like I said before, I really like the red ones. They had a rose pattern on them. Really bright and very pretty. But I guess that's one woman's opinion. :)

Goals vs. Resolutions

I've seen this statement all too often this year. "I prefer to set goals, not resolutions, for the new year." So I wanted to delve into that thought just a little. What is a goal and what is a resolution?

Goal - according to Merriam-Websters Dictionary a goal is "the end toward which effort is directed".

Resolution - the word resolution is a form of the word resolve. Resolve means "fixity of purpose" and "an official determination" according to Merriam-Webster.

People have the belief that a goal is better than a resolution. I beg to differ. A goal is the effect of a resolution. If you believe what the dictionary says about what the two words mean, then you have to believe that in order to set a goal, you have to make a resolution. Lets take an example: "I resolve to lose weight this year". (isn't that everyones new years resolution?) Now lets break that down. This person has a fixed purpose and has officially determined that they will lose weight during the year ahead. The next step would be to make a goal of how much by when they want to lose the weight. This is the end in which the effort of their resolution is going. Its cause and effect here people! The resolution causes the goal.

So I guess I just wanted to say that people need to pay more attention to what it means to make their resolutions. I honestly think that most people dont make a resolution because they are so tired of making them and failing. The problem is that they confuse what it is and take for granted that you have to work to make those things happen. I did make resolutions this year. I intend to keep them by making goals that help me fulfill what I wanted to do this year.