Muffins are so great for breakfast, snacks, or to go along with dinner, and they’re super easy to make, too!
Ingredients:
¾ cup flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup uncooked oatmeal (traditional slow cooking oats)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup butter or margarine
¾ cup buttermilk
1 egg
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin well and set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, cinnamon and oatmeal in a large bowl. Mix together well. In a separate bowl mix together the butter, buttermilk and egg. Mix well. Gently fold into the dry ingredients. Take care not to over mix. Pour batter into 12 muffin cup tin and bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or until baked through. Best served warm with a little butter and jam.
Tuesday May 29th 2007, 7:13 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
This little sweetie is my friend Maddie that goes to our church. Her mom shared this cute photo of her sporting her cute flower hat that I got for her. I have so much fun buying these hats for my favorite new baby girls! You can check them out here.
Product Name: Bugaboo Cameleon Standard Stroller
Submitted by: Shea Harris, San Angelo, TX
Rating: 9
Where to buy: www.Amazon.com
Description: The Cameleon stroller from Bugaboo is a complete stroller. It includes a DVD with the user kit for parents who may trouble working some of the nuances of the Bugaboo Cameleon.
It features a reversible handlebar so mom or dad can see baby at any time. The seat is also reversible.
It includes a seat and bassinet, both of which can be used separately from the Bugaboo stroller. The seat features a 3 position recline.
The Bugaboo Camaeleon Complete Stroller distinguishes itself through its integrated functionality, streamlined design and unique personality. It is perfect for the trend setting baby. Bugaboo products are known for their functionality and simplicity of use.
Review: Baby products have advanced a lot over the last several years. When investigating today’s baby products, such as strollers, there is little comparison with most past products. While searching for a new stroller I came across the Bugaboo Cameleon. They seemed to have a large variety of options, choices, and flexibility. Bugaboo offers many great strollers but in the end I decided to choose the Cameleon.
It has adjustable handlebars! That is great if you are a little on the tall side like I am. It can be pretty uncomfortable having to lean down while trying to push a stroller. This is the first stroller I have come across with adjustable handlebars and that is the first thing I noticed about the Cameleon.
The Cameleon is very flexible. With just a few adjustments it can go from a bassinet pram to stroller to car seat and back. Very impressive. The stroller is fairly light. At around 20 pounds. So you shouldn’t get too tired if you have to push it around for awhile.
It is also nice that you can buy accessories to provide further function. For example there is a toddler attachment that is basically a trailer that attaches to the back of the stroller for your toddler to stand.
I give the Bugaboo Cameleon stroller my full recommendation. It is of very high quality construction and surprisingly isn’t that hard to assemble. It is a very flexible stroller that can do many things for you and your child, and despite a few flaws this is a great stroller that you can’t go wrong with.
Criticism: This is not an easy stroller to just fold away and store. It takes a little practice if you want to completely store it away. I usually just throw it into the back of my car half folded so that I don’t have to take the time and effort to fully fold it. To fully fold the stroller you must remove and collapse the seat or bassinet and then fold the frame in what takes three more steps. And so on, you get the picture.
The Cameleon has no cup holders. That’s not a huge deal but it would be nice considering other strollers have them. I know I have seen other strollers by Bugaboo that had cup holder so it is disappointing.
Because there are so many options and adjustments you can make to the stroller it can be a little tricky to figure out how to adjust it for the different uses. So it will take you a little time and be sure to have your manual handy!
For those of you with kids that love to color, especially kids in the 7-12 age range, you will love the cool coloring pages from Raising Small Souls. These downloadable pages have intricate patterns and optical illusions. My 11 year old daughter loves stuff like this, but my 7 year old does too.
Click here to go to the opt-in page for the coloring pages. While you’re at it, check out the site. They have a lot of articles for parents there.
An online friend of mine, Tawra Kellam, is having a huge sale on her wonderful, money-saving ebooks. Tawra runs the very helpful site, LivingOnADime.com, and she and her family are having this super sale in order to raise money because they need to move to a different home because of health problems.
This is a great opportunity for all of us to help others while helping ourselves with tons of new ideas on how we can save money in our everyday living!
Need to use up the applesauce before it goes bad? This recipe is a winner!
Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
2 cups apple sauce
3 cups sifted all-purpose unbleached flour
1 ¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup seedless raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a medium sized baking pan and lightly sprinkle with flour. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the applesauce (make sure it’s cold) and 2 ¾ cups flour. Mix well. Fold in the raisins, remaining flour and vanilla extract. Mix well and poured into greased baking pan. Bake approximately 1 to 1 hour and 15 minutes until golden and baked through. Let cool for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Note: You can also add 1 cup chopped walnuts to this bread when you fold in the raisins.
Tuesday May 22nd 2007, 7:49 am
Filed under: Tuesday Tip
Now that spring is here you will be able to tackle lots of chores in the backyard. Perhaps you are even thinking of cleaning out the garage. If so; here are some tips for getting your kids involved in outdoor chores.
With the very harsh weather our country has been experiencing, you may want to begin to clear out your flower beds, prepare a compost pile, and generally prepare your backyard for additional planting such as an herb garden. As soon as the weather gets a bit warmer, there are plenty of chores your entire family can participate in. Make a list of all of the tasks you have to accomplish, and make a list assigning each member of your family to handle one chore.
* Assign an older child to rake the leaves and younger children to put them into a bag. Of course, they will want to stomp on the leaves and jump in them before they put them in the bag! Fun moments like this make outdoor chores more enjoyable for everyone.
* Have another child help you clear out the flower beds or help you pull out weeds.
* Have each member of your family help you spread the mulch.
* Have the kids start a compost pile.
* Maybe dad and son may want to build a new birdhouse or a bat house. (bats are wonderful for eating mosquitoes, so attracting them to your property may be more beneficial than you expected!)
* You may decide to put a rock border around your flower bed.
* One of the children can accompany dad to buy fertilizer.
There are probably more chores you can think of to assign to each family member. Depending upon the weather, of course, working in the backyard or garden allows your kids to not only have fun, but become involved in every aspect of planting. Perhaps your daughter would like to plant some special flowers.
Keeping the chores short, with fun bursts in between, and taking the children’s attention span and interests into consideration will help make things more fun for everyone.
The more you involve your kids, the easier it will be getting your kids involved in outdoor chores. They will not only have the opportunity to see the backyard come to life, but will begin to appreciate nature as well.
Product Name: Jeep Wrangler All Weather Umbrella Stroller
Submitted by: Sarah Grant, Rosamond, CA
Rating: 9
Where to buy: http://www.jeepworld.com
Description: Very affordable single child stroller. It folds up really smooth and easy, has convenient rear wheel locks, a head rest for baby (under 35 lbs), along with a fold out sun shade/umbrella.
Review: I hate lugging huge things around, and I completely fell in love with this very affordable single child stroller. The all terrain wheels really work great too, I’ve taken mine over dirt, gravel, and grass and it keeps going without getting stuck. The fabric wipes clean easily, and mall, the park, the zoo, anywhere you take baby. I’ve even run into the grocery store with it to grab some milk, it’s that quick to set up.
There are two little “saddle-bags” on the side to carry snacks and stuff. The lap belt works smoothly, I can snap or unsnap it with one hand.
I can’t say enough how convenient it is to have such a compact little stroller in the back of the car that I can whip out any moment for strolling in the mall, the park, the zoo, anywhere you take baby. I’ve even run into the grocery store with it to grab some milk, it’s that quick to set up.
Criticism: I wish it had a strap to hold it folded together after I’ve stored it under the seat in the car.
For several years now I’ve dearly loved receiving inspirational and encouraging emails from an online friend, Melissa. She always has a sweet spirit and practical words to help me keep on keepin’ on as I go through the daily ups and downs of being a woman, wife, and mother. Today I would like to share a recent message that Melissa allowed me to use here:
Evening all…
The Lord reminded me of something today that I tend to forget. See, I’m not always too keen on myself and often it shows. I’ll put my own needs way back on the burners. Of course being a mother tends to cause us to do that. We settle our family’s needs before we attend to ours. For the most part, that’s a good thing. We’re supposed to be tenders, the ones who mend hurts and are leaned on. The problem comes when we begin to dislike ourselves. When we’ve become so accustomed to looking away from our own needs, that they become abhorrent to us. And as our appearance might suffer—gaining weight, our clothes showing the wear of motherhood—we think less of our potential.
I told my husband I was going to talk to you all about this. My phrase to him was that I was going to talk about “Loving Myself No Matter What”…and he stopped me right there. He said that by tagging ‘no matter what’ onto that phrase, I’m limiting the love I’ll give myself. Think about it. We should love ourselves PERIOD. But we don’t. We say we will when we get our attitudes in control, or when we can keep the house clean, or when the weight is gone, or when our hair looks better, or when we have mothering down pat, or simply when we think we deserve it. We put stipulations on our affection for ourselves. Wrong.
There are some Christians who will pooh-pooh the idea of self-love, thinking it’s plain old egoism rearing its head. Women will go without adornments, or make-up or scent because it’s calling attention to themselves. They’ll allow the world to enjoy personal treats, but seem to enjoy the role of martyr. Or do they?
The Bible says for us to “Love your neighbor as yourself” but maybe that’s the problem. Maybe if we were more caring for our personal needs, maybe we’d all get along a bit better.
With love, truly—to you.
Melissa
To join Melissa’s email list (you just get her occasional emails, no messages from others in the group) send a blank email to themothershour-join@associate.com .
I found a really great-looking blog and resource today. It’s Pioneer Parenting, the blog of author Mary Demuth. Mary writes about creating a family life that you never had, Christian parenting issues, and more. She has written the books Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God and Building the Christian Family You Never Had. She also has her book Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture coming out this summer. Looks very interesting!
Hey gals!
I found out about this really neat resource from Trish Berg. It’s called Supper Swapping. Basically, she teaches you how to organize a group of other women that would like to work out a co-op deal with their dinners.
Here’s basically how it works:
You, Janice, Sarah, and Beth have a Supper Swapping Co-op.
Monday Janice will bring the other 3 families in her Supper Swapping Co-op a chicken casserole. So, the three other women don’t end up cooking on Monday.
Tuesday Sarah will bring the 3 other families in the group a lasagne.
Wed. Beth would be bringing the 3 other families hamburgers and macaroni and cheese dinner.
Thurs. it would be your turn to take Janice, Sarah, and Beth’s families whatever dinner you prepared.
Basically, each family has to cook less, shop less, and gets more down time to enjoy family life.
With families really struggling these days for time to cook healthy meals or even to sit down together for a meal, I bet there are a lot of you that would benefit from a plan like this.
Probably most moms know that you’re never supposed to go to the grocery store without a list. Yes, it’ll help you spend less money if you’ve got a plan written down. For me, it’s most helpful to have a list so that the stuff I need to remember to get doesn’t fall through the cracks in my collander-brain! (There’s nothing quite so annoying as having shlepped all the way through the grocery store with kids in tow, and getting to the car and realizing that I forgot something that I really, really needed to get….)
This week I have a little freebie for you that will make your grocery shopping easier. It’s a cute little Grocery Shopping List that you can save to your computer and print out as often as you like. I enjoy having one of these lists taped to the front of the refrigerator so that I can write down the things we run out of, and put them directly into the category where I’ll find that item at the store. Waaaaay better than a helter-skelter list of stuff all jumbled together!
Enjoy! And feel free to tell your friends so they can come and get their free shopping list too!
I just love quick breads. Mix and bake–super easy!
Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or make it healthier with whole wheat flour)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder (get the kind without aluminum!)
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 orange (rind and juice)
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a medium sized loaf tin. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
Wash and grate the orange zest into a large bowl. Squeeze the orange juice over the zest. Add 1 cup of boiling water and mix. Add the melted butter or margarine, sugar, beaten egg and vanilla to the bowl and mix together.
Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients and lightly mix (take care not to over mix). Gently fold in the chopped walnuts and transfer to baking pan. Bake at 350F for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour or until baked through.
Tuesday May 15th 2007, 2:47 pm
Filed under: Tuesday Tip
It doesn’t matter if you are a working mom or not, organizing your home can be a daunting challenge. Whether daily or weekend cleaning is your strong suit, it seems the harder you work, the more clutter you find, especially if you have children. Here are some quick tips for an organized home.
1. If your children attend school, prepare their lunches at night. This will save lots of time in the morning rush.
2. Use a magnetic board; place it on your refrigerator, and list the food items you will need for your next shopping trip to the supermarket.
3. Buy some jumbo storage boxes to organize your closet. Add some additional hangers that support more than one piece of clothing. Some of the home shopping clubs offer space saver hangars and storage units which are affordable, and can turn any closet into an efficient space-saving unit.
4. Get rid of the piles of magazines, newspapers, and advertisements which have been accumulating in your home. Keep the current issues, and throw out the rest.
5. Organize your kitchen cabinets, and line them with Con-Tact paper. Your cabinets will be easier to clean by simply using a damp sponge.
6. Throw out anything outdated from your medicine cabinet. If you also have a bathroom cabinet, line it with Con-Tact as well, and re-arrange the items inside.
7. Do you have jewelry scattered on top of your bedroom furniture. Purchase a jewelry box containing several drawers. You’ll never lose that earring again!
8. Encourage your children to clean their rooms. Develop a reward system which will not only give them an incentive, but will teach them to be responsible for their clothes and toys. Buy different colored storage boxes for their toys!
9. Arrange all of your cleaning supplies in a closet or basement. Use hooks to hang brooms, dusters, and mops. If you have a few shelves, place all of your cleaning detergents, light bulbs and other household items on them. This is not only a good organizational method, but you’ll find everything you need in one place.
10. Buy a CD rack and place all of the scattered CDs into one space. Perhaps a unit combining CDs and DVDs would be more suitable.
When your home is organized, you not only feel better but be able to accomplish more, right?
Product Name: Luvs Ultra Leak guard Stretch Diapers
Submitted by: Jeannie Kerns; Colorado Springs, CO
Rating: 10
Where to buy: www.luvs.com and www.amazon.com
Description: Luvs Ultra Leak guard diapers are the kind of diapers you have been waiting for. They are made with a plastic coating instead of the cloth coating that leaves little cotton ball like particles all on the outside, they have tape instead of Velcro like most diapers these days, and the characters that are across the diapers change every few weeks. You can’t go wrong with Luvs Ultra Leakguards.
Review: Well I tell you, I think that I have been able to try almost every diaper out there in the past 20 years. I have gone through the most expensive (like all us new Mommies tend to do) to the least expensive (that is when we realize they’re all the same) diapers.
Well after using Drypers for the longest time, I decided that I would try a new one. Actually a name brand one that was cheaper by a couple of bucks. To my surprise and that is exactly what it was, I loved them.
I bought Luvs Ultra Leak guard thinking I was going to be disappointed like the rest. But I honestly was shocked. They were like the old diapers. And I am talking like 20 years ago when my first daughter was born.
They have the plastic outside, which I love because the cloth outside is terrible, I was sick of seeing pieces of the diaper balled up when my son walked away. That is what they do, they collect and make lint balls all over the diaper and they are terrible.
The pattern: Well let me tell you I honestly do not like Barney, but yes, my son does. And when he saw Barney on his diaper he was in a rush to put them on. Thank goodness too, because any other time he wants them off.
The tape: Well this is a big thing for me. I am so sick of the Velcro, I can’t even begin to start. I don’t know who thought that it was better to do this, but whoever it was needs to be spoken to. All that does is give the child an easier way to take the diaper off. That is exactly what he would do. “Mommy my hiney is showing”, well if the Velcro wasn’t so easy we wouldn’t have had that problem now would we have. Sheesh. But with Luvs, I can be at ease that his diaper will stay on until it is ready to be changed. The tape comes off easy and applies easy as well. No red marks to where the tape cuts into the skin because it is hanging off, no problems at all.
As for quality: Excellent. I have used these for about 4 weeks now, and not once has there been a wet bed. With the others, I was washing sheets and blankets on a daily basis. It is nice not to be the queen of the washing machine for a chance.
Anyways, if you’re planning on buying diapers, buy Luvs. They will not let you down, and you save money as well.
Sunday May 13th 2007, 5:50 am
Filed under: Birth Stories
Many thanks to Awnya, who was kind enough to share the story of the birth of her little boy. He’s just a couple of years old! You can visit Awnya’s felt business here. They have great stuff!
The contractions started at about 3am. These were serious contractions, but a few times before I would be having some pretty good ones and they would just fizzle out after about 3 hours, so I went out to the couch to wait. After about an hour and a half of TV and nothing changing, I decided to take a warm bath. Sitting in the tub was really nice and very soothing…but the contractions started to come a little harder. I decided it was time to go to the hospital.
Without bothering to get dressed, I woke up my husband and let him know it was time. We quickly dressed and scooped up our 2 kids. My husband took them to the neighbors house and I pulled the car around. Let me say, it was not easy to drive and have a contraction! We got to the hospital and the receptionist didn’t believe I was in labor because between contractions I was still able to laugh and be fairly pleasant! When she saw me have a contraction, her eyes got really big and she shouted “We have a live one here” to the other nurses….I was then ushered to a room where the nurse verified that I really was in labor and not only that, I was dilated to an 8 and 100% effaced with bulging water. (This was about 6:15am) Then moved me to my labor room and my Dr. arrived. They gave me a little bit of some kind of drug in my IV because there wasn’t enough time for anything else. The Dr. then broke my water and 3 pushes later my son was born. I had been in the hospital just over an hour when he came. He was perfect in every way and started to pee on the Dr. (as if it was his fault that he was just born!)
Posh Points is a cool new trading site. It works sort of like ebay: you can list items you want to part with, and search for items you want to get. The trick is that everything is for trade, rather than for money!
Thursday May 10th 2007, 7:39 am
Filed under: Tuesday Tip
Unless your kids have been saving their money, they may not be able to afford to buy a gift for Mother’s Day. However, there are many inexpensive ideas for Mother’s Day gifts that they might like. These are great for grandmothers too!
* Set the table for dinner
* Give her a red rose and place it in her favorite vase
* Make her a special breakfast
* Take her to the park for a picnic lunch
* Bake her a cake and sing Happy Mother’s Day To You
* Take her to a movie
* Buy her favorite scented candles
* Offer to do a specific chore for a week such as washing the dishes
* Make a huge Happy Mother’s Day Sign
* Give her a picture of you in a specially decorated frame
* Make a bag of potpourri using dried flowers from the garden
* Put together a scrapbook with her favorite recipes
* Make a jewelry box for her using spring ornaments
* Buy packs of herbs or flower seeds your mom could plant in the garden
* Clear out the flower bed for mom to prepare for spring planting
* Rake the leaves and make a compost pile
* Make mom a bracelet using beads from a craft store
* Make a sign for a t-shirt that says “I love my momâ€
* Wash the car
* Clean your room
There are so many inexpensive ideas for Mother’s Day gifts, all of which will be appreciated no matter how small. The fact that you took the time to make a present or buy something really special says it all. So whatever you decide to do, know that it will be a keepsake mom will treasure forever.
Here’s a simple cookie recipe for times when you want to make a snack but don’t have any fancy ingredients on hand.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter (or you can substitute ½ cup butter, ½ cup margarine)
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together. When light and fluffy add the beaten eggs and beat until well blended. Stir in 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, all the nutmeg, flour and vanilla extract. Stir until mixed through. Shape into a log shape and wrap with cling film. Place in refrigerator for approximately 4 hours until chilled.
Preheat oven to 350F and grease two cookie sheets.
Unwrap the dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Cut into ¼ inch slices and place an inch apart on cookie sheets. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until golden and baked through. Mix the remaining teaspoon of cinnamon and a little sugar and sprinkle over the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Tuesday May 08th 2007, 6:45 am
Filed under: Tuesday Tip
Let’s face it; the closet in your bedroom is a mess, you can’t find anything and you’re ready to scream! Wait! Before you go off, here are some easy bedroom storage ideas that will keep you happy, organized and sane.
Go to the nearest house ware store and purchase some Rubbermaid clothing boxes; a shoe rack; hooks; and a dozen or more hangers. While there, buy an under the bed storage box as well. Once you get home, here is what you can do.
* First, take everything out of your closet.
* Decide what clothes, bags, belts and shoes you want to keep and put the rest in a pile.
* Take the jumbo boxes and place your bags in one; and your summer or winter tops or sweaters in the other.
* Mark the boxes accordingly, and place them on the top shelf of the closet.
* Hang some hooks on the side of the closet for your belts, and everyday bags.
* Put the shoe rack on the floor against the back of the wall.
* Place the shoes on the show rack.
* Using the new hangers, place the clothes back in the closet.
* Place everything you are getting rid of into a large plastic garbage bag and call your local church or Goodwill for pickup in the morning.
Depending upon the size of your closet, and the amount of clothing you own, there may have to be some adjustments made. But for right now, you are set to go. Well, not quite yet. Is your bedroom cluttered? Then the next step is to clear up the mess. Discard any old magazines or newspapers. Place all your jewelry back into the jewelry box. Remember that storage box you purchased? You can use it to store excess items spilling out of your dresser drawers. Yes, you’ll have to go through them as well.
Once you are finished, you will be exhilarated for having taken on the job! More importantly, you will have more space available than you ever thought possible.
Tolerance is a word that conjures up vastly different things for different people. Some love the concept of teaching “tolerance” to our children and practicing it in their lives. Others see “tolerance” as a liberal buzzword with negative connotations. Whatever your initial view, stick with me for a minute here.
Tim Bellavia is a friend of mine and my husband’s from our college days. Tim is a kindhearted soul and gifted artist who has created a beautiful line of books and dolls that help teach children ages 4-8 that we are all the same inside.
Although some children live in parts of the world where they have a lot of exposure to people that look difference, dress different, and so on, many do not. So often when we do not get to know people that are “different” from us we tend to believe stereotypes and become less open to others.
Tim’s work helps children think more about the fact that people are people, no matter how they dress or look. Tim conducts workshops in schools where children get to make their own doll, right down to their skin, eye, and hair color, and designing their outfit.
* Take away any debris such as branches or leaves.
* Get rid of all the dead foliage from your perennials by cutting them back just near ground level.
* Rake the flower bed clean.
* Pile up the debris in a compost pile.
* Remove the mulch off the bed and replace it with a fresh layer of compost.
* Toss the compost with a shovel.
* Rake the compost as you spread it over the flower bed.
* Replace a fresh layer of mulch.
Winter has not been kind to us, in fact, every forecast you listen to describes this winter as the worst in America. Therefore, you may not be able to clear your flower beds just yet, but in case you do – hopefully the spring cleaning of your garden will be a successful one. Clearing your flower beds is a relaxing and enjoyable task. Hopefully, the weather will be as enjoyable.
Friday May 04th 2007, 7:18 am
Filed under: finances
My husband and I have been married for almost 16 years, and I’ve always been the one whose job it is to get all the bills paid. Although my personality is more suited to this task than my husband’s is, sometimes it’s been really hard for me to manage the money successfully. The hardest times for me to keep up on this has been right after I had a baby. It seemed the mail would come into the house and get strewn all over the place, days and weeks would go by and I wouldn’t realize what day it was or that the electric bill was due, etc. Things get mighty stressful once late notices arrive and you realize you don’t know how much money you have in the bank account!
Over the years I’ve accumulated some strategies that have helped me, and I wanted to share them with all of you since I know lots of you are probably just as swamped as I’ve been!
1. Microsoft Money: Keeping track of our account balances on Microsoft Money has been a big help. It took a long session of trying to balance my checkbook by hand to a 5 minutes click-click-click session on the computer. The computer has also saved me from making several mistakes where I entered the same transaction more than once. And it’s great for being able to look back and see where all the money goes, like how much you really spend each month on gas, eating out, groceries, etc. A Big Help when it comes time for budgeting!
2. Duplicate Checks: Yeah, they cost a little more. But if you’re one of those people that doesn’t want to take time to write all your check details into your check register when you’re waiting in line, you need these! Write your check and later you can look back at the copy for accurate info on what you spent and where.
3. Sticky Notes Bill Paying System!: I have a calendar on the wall in my kitchen. I got the small (2″x2″) sticky notes and wrote one bill on each note and then put it onto the calendar on the day it was due or needed to be sent. I fortified the sticky power of my notes with a little poster putty so that I can reuse the same notes every month. When I pay this month’s water bill, I remove it from it’s spot on this month and stick it to next month’s date when it’ll need to be paid. Now when I look at the calendar I can easily see what still needs to be paid and what’s coming up. This has saved me a lot of brain power and stress!
If you don’t want all of the visitors in your house to see how much your mortgage payment is, you may want to either close your calendar when they come by, or use a calendar in a different part of your house. Some people use the inside of a cupboard door to keep things like this handy but private.
4. Open-top file system: I have an open-top file box in my kitchen where I have file folders for all of the everyday type items I would need to file. For instance, I have files for:
-bills to be paid
-things waiting to be filed (items that will move to a less convenient file for safekeeping, such as tax information, warranty items, etc.)
-phone lists (take out menus, church or work phone directories, school phone lists, etc.)
-netflix (I still all our Netflix movies in a file along with the return envelopes so I can always find them)
-stamps and envelopes
-one file per person in our family (for the kids, when they have a special paper from school or something that I want to save for them, it goes into their file. At the end of the school year I put these away in a different spot.)
-one file for things that I need to show to my husband (it might be his mail, things related to his job, or something we need to discuss and I don’t want to forget or lose track of it)
Basically, this file keeps everything together without me having to keep piles of paper all over the place. I try to handle all my papers when I get them, putting them into their file or throwing them away. Now I have a handy place for all of my bills, so I can find them when I’m ready to make payments.
(I have less convenient file space for things like warranties, legal paperwork, birth certificates, etc.)
I hope some of these ideas are a help to you! I know they have been a huge step in the right direction for me.
Have you seen Notes From The Underbelly yet? This new sitcom features six friends (2 married couples and two single friends) as they embark on the adventure of becoming parents. If you like the style of Scrubs, you’ll love this! Lots of funny stuff and over-the-top spoofs of pop parenting issues. Good stuff!
You can watch it Wednesdays at 8:30pm or see all the episodes online here.
This little sweetie is my friend Maddie that goes to our church. Her mom shared this cute photo of her sporting her cute flower hat that I got for her. I have so much fun buying these hats for my favorite new baby girls! You can check them out 
