Tired of staring at your kitchen cupboards every night and trying to figure out what to cook? Me too! That’s why I started planning our family meals out in advance with this easy to use meal planner. Evenings got a lot simpler when I could wake up in the morning, know what needed to be dethawed or prepared and then go about my merry way without the hassle of that evening ‘What do you want for dinner?’ questionnaire. Family meal planners are not a new thing, but I could never find one that suited my needs exactly. They were all close but not quite whatRead More →

emergency preparation for famlies

  Being prepared for an emergency isn’t just for preppers in today’s world. Everything in our lives is so convenient that it is easy to forget how quickly one small thing could make it all very troublesome. My family and I were recently reminded of this when the local water tank exploded due to a faulty pressure valve. The entire neighborhood was without water from 8 pm one night until nearly 10 pm the next night. A day without water might not register as a full-blown emergency but it certainly made our lives somewhat difficult, I was melting ice cubes from the freezer to waterRead More →

Some of you might have read my post about Couponing a while back and I am certainly an avid Couponer. I love coupons, but sometimes the sales don’t match up with what my family needs, or my family just doesn’t enjoy the items I happen to have coupons for. When that happens its good to have other methods of saving money at the grocery stores. Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve learned for those non-coupon shopping trips. 1: Stick to the outside of the store – Produce, Meat & Dairy are generally the departments that ring the outside of the grocery store, theyRead More →

About once a year our local farmer’s market has flats of strawberries for sale at a very good price, last weekend we found flats for 12.99 which works out to be about $1 a pint. I was tempted to get two but since Strawberries have a relatively short shelf life I settled for one. Here are my Top 5 strawberry recipes to use them all up before they go bad. Top 5 Strawberry Recipes Strawberry & White Chocolate Granola Bars My children love granola bars but the prepackaged ones are expensive and it can be difficult to find a variety that my children enjoy. ToRead More →

How Star wars changed my life

I still remember the first time I saw A New Hope. I must have been around 10 or 11 and my father popped it into the VCR, I remember that I didn’t really want to watch it, at that time I was far more into cartoons than live action movies. But within a few minutes, all of that changed. From that moment I was a Star Wars fan for life. I remember begging him to watch all three movies in one night, I didn’t care that it was a school night I needed to know what happened! But he was adamant, we would watch oneRead More →

A few years ago I got inspired by the growing Backyard Chicken movement and decided I wanted to try raising baby chicks. It seemed like a great idea – raise my own eggs and teach my children a little bit about where their food comes from. Of course, I was completely clueless about how to raise or even get chickens, but, I figured if so many people were doing it then it couldn’t be all that hard. Raising Baby Chicks This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase after following one of my links I may receive a smallRead More →

Everyone knows about couponing. We have all seen ‘Extreme Couponing’ and the pictures of people coming home with huge hauls of free or super cheap food. While these shows and pictures are inspiring, it’s probably not realistic for most families. Coupons can, however, be very useful when you are trying to save money or live on a tight paycheck. Here is how I coupon realistically. Getting deals for my family without sacrificing all of my time trying to find them. This post may contain affiliate or referral links. This means if you sign up or make a purchase after clicking one of my links IRead More →

Getting kids to read can be a challenge. When my oldest started school she wanted nothing to do with it. I wasn’t sure why, both her father and I are big readers.  From the time she was an infant her room was filled with kid’s books. Books that were religiously read to her every night at bedtime. She seemed to enjoy it, often asking for just one more before bed. But, when it came time for her to learn how to read on her own there was no interest. At least not until Video Games helped my child discover the joy of reading. Here’s howRead More →

I mentioned in an earlier post (Making Money as a Stay at Home Mom) that CashCrate is one of the sites I use to make extra cash for the family. Cashcrate is the easiest and least time-consuming site I take part in – and I probably don’t use it enough,  I could probably make a lot more money on CashCrate then I currently do. However, I like to spread out my earnings – both to reduce boredom and because it offers the chance to switch to another site when I have a bad luck day on one of them. This page contains affiliate links. IfRead More →

When I was a little girl my mother taught me this recipe, of course, we called them Chocolate Mud Pies but I’m calling this alteration Birds Nest Cookies. These cookies are fairly simple to make and easily customizable, I’ve thrown in almonds, mini marshmallows, and dried fruit in the past, changing them up to fit whatever event or season I’m making them for. Birds Nest Cookies Ingredients 2 Cups of Sugar 2/3 Cup of Milk 1/2 Cup of Butter or Margarine 2/3 Cup of Cocoa Powder 1 Pinch of Salt 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract 3 Cups Rolled Oats 2 Cups Coconut Flakes 1 bag MiniRead More →