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A Day Filled with Hearts

Because Valentine’s Day falls on a Thursday this year, my husband and I decided that we would celebrate it together this weekend. Tonight we will have fun and do something special with the kids.

I decided to a bit overboard and decorated the entire house last night before I went to bed. When the girls got up this morning they were surprised by all if the heart balloons in the living room and play room. I also scattered hearts in a variety of sizes throughout the rest of the house. There were window clings on the bathroom mirrors and the sliding glass door that leads to the back yard.  I had laid out a few heart shaped pages for the girls to paint later in the playroom too.

To make the day even more memorable for the girls, I made them heart shaped pancakes with little heart shaped banana slices. I used a teeny tiny cookie cutter I got from the craft store to cut out the bananas. And even though it’s not really healthy I sprinkled a few heart sprinkles on top of their pancakes to make them extra special. We enjoyed watching the girls light up this morning. I can’t wait to see their faces when they see what we have planned for them tonight.

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Time for the Girl Scout Cookies

samoas
I ordered my Girl Scout cookies a long time ago. I’m pretty sure they said I would have my cookies delivered around Valentine’s Day. I’m really looking forward to getting the cookies. This year I ordered by Thin Mints and Samoas. I actually found a recipe online for a similar Samoa cookie. If my cookies don’t come soon I might be tempted to make up a batch of the copycat Samoa cookies.

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Breakfast with the Family on the Patio

Breakfast with the family is one of my favorite times of the day. Yesterday we had breakfast outside on the patio. I made blueberry scones, scrambled cheesy eggs, and a fresh fruit salad. My husband and I sipped our coffee as the kids gobbled up their breakfast. The scones turned out great. It was a new recipe that I got from a gal at work. It’s definitely a keeper.

When the kids finished eating they played in the back and we kept an eye on them from the patio.  The girls ran around in the grass and kicked a soccer around. I noticed the lawn needed to be mowed and politely mentioned it to my husband. He promised to mow it before lunch and made good on that promise with a smile on his face.  I told him I would pick up a few planters for some peppers and tomatoes as a thank you the nex time I went to the garden center.

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Time to Redo the Flooring

This morning when I got up the sun was beaming in through my window. I forgo to close he blinds before I went to bed last night. I usually one of the last things I do as a part of my wind down routine. I was on the phone with my sister last night and was a bit distracted so a few things were left undone.

After I got past the beaming light in my eyes I made my way to the bathroom. Wouldn’t you know it… I stubbed my toe on a piece of flooring that was sticking out between my bedroom and the bathroom. The bathroom floor is an old linoleum. It was that little metal piece that covers the seam between the carpet and the other flooring that I caught my big toe nail on. I rinsed my toe under the faucet in the tub and then put a little ice on it to prevent any swelling.

I think it’s about time for us to renovate our bathroom and maybe even our bedroom.  Getting injured due to old flooring is not my idea of a nice and friendly wake up call.  I would really like to get some pretty tile in the bathroom and maybe hard wood in the bedroom. I’ll have to do some number crunching and shopping to see what we can really afford.

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Crazy Wardrobe Choices People Make

The show What Not To Wear is one of my favorites.  Sometimes I think seriously, are they really wearing that out in public.  People wear some of the craziest things.  Why on Earth would some one think it’s appropriate to wear short, stretchy pants, with holes in them, with a crop top, probably from the 80s, that shows their entire flabby stomach off, is just beyond me.  I saw someone wear this grocery shopping.  Crazy!  I was baffled that anyone had pieces like these left in their wardrobe.

I know fashion isn’t everyone’s strong suit but somethings really should be common sense.  I always ask myself if my grandma would be ashamed to be see me in whatever I am wearing.  If the answer is yes, then 9 times out of 10 I should change my clothes.  My grandma is pretty liberal too, but I consider her a great judge when it comes to things like this.

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Cutest Puppy Ever Stole My Heart

While walking through the mall today, I stopped by the pet store.  I normally go in just to look at all of the animals.  Today I saw the cutest puppy ever.  It was a baby golden retriever with the prettiest little brown eyes you could ever see.  This little guy smiled at me and I just had to hold him.  Puppy dog eyes get me every time.

I played with him for about 20 minutes before I realized I was getting really attached… almost too attached.  I had the store clerk put him back even though I could have played with him for hours.  He looked soo sad when he left my arms and headed back to the little cage he was in.  It broke my heart to see him stare back at me as though he was saying, “Why don’t you want me?”

I really wanted to take him home, but I couldn’t bring myself to make a purchase like that without the entire family with me.  Well, that and I don’t really want to have to deal with dog fur on everything we own.

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Renovating the Yard

This winter our yard looks kind of pathetic.  I hate seeing the grass look so dreary and dull. I wish the grass would stay green all year long.  I’ve heard of some products that keep your lawn looking great all year long but haven’t ever purchased anything special myself.

Even though we don’t really have to mow the lawn in the winter, it still needs to be taken care of.  I’m trying to convince my husband to consider maybe getting some kind of artificial grass.  We would have to make a pretty big investment to renovate the entire yard, but then it would always looks nice and would never have to be mowed.  Maybe we could sell our nice lawn mower and other lawn care tools to help fund something like AstroTurf.

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How I Plan to Save Money This Year

This year I really need to work on saving some money.   I started using a new website to track all of my spending.  It shows me exactly where all of our money is going.  I was a little shocked to see how much money we really spend going out to eat or on fast food.  I’m setting a budget for everything.  I know we can’t cut everything off cold turkey so I’m going to have us do a step down method for our spending habits.

Right now we spend about $500 a month of groceries.  I would like to get that down closer to $300 or less but I know we need to work towards that.  To start I’m setting  a budget of $400 a month or roughly $100 a week on groceries.  I think we can manage to cut back by $25 a week to start with easily, especially if I really work to use up what we have in our pantry.  The following month I’ll move it to $75 a week.  If we do really well with that I might even be able to move it down a little further but I’m not going to go crazy.

We’re taking a closer look at television and cable services along with movie rentals.  We purchased a few pay per view movies on demand this month.  This is really silly considering we pay almost $20 a month for Netflix, we just need to send back our current DVD  to get the next one on our list.  My husband and I are thinking about turning off our cable television because just about everything we watch is available online and we do have Netflix.  We pay about $100 a month for cable so that’s more money we could save every month.

I know groceries and entertainment aren’t the only way we can save but at least it’s a start.  I was able to easily identify these ways to save and will do some digging into other ways to save that I might not be soo obvious to me.

 

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Toy Organization

This weekend is going to be all about getting the kids’ toys organized. I found these great organizers that have three levels and multiple bins to sort and organize all of the toys the kids have.  The bins are multiple colors too so they match the decor in the kids’ rooms.

I’m tired of stepping on toys when I go in there so I’m having the kids help me sort out all of their toys. This might take all day, but it needs to be done.

Whatever does not fit in the organizers will be donated.  At the end of each night they have to make sure all of their toys are put up. No more messy rooms!

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Protective Phone Case Saves the Day

Clumsy has got to be my middle name with a big capital C.  I drop everything and run into things all of the time.  

I can’t even count the times I say ouch in one day.  I was coming down the stairs this morning and dropped my phone.  It fell down all of the stairs and beat me to the bottom.  I’m sure it would have been dead if it were not in the fancy, protective, silicone case I got for it.

I’m sooo grateful I spent the extra money on that case.  If I didn’t have it I bet I would be at the store right now paying to replace my phone.