Well... | Mom Life Journal

Here I am after making a commitment to write and it has been six days since I last wrote. Yep. I failed. Oops. It's a good thing I didn't set parameters to all this, right? 

In my defense, I was sick most of last week and a lot of the time when things are quiet here online there's actually a lot going on in my real life. 

We started back to school last week, and I managed to power through not feeling so hot and we got it all done. We kept the house clean most of the week and stayed on top of laundry. Yay! 

We had a new employee start at work, and I had to go set that up. We also had to make some big decisions regarding the business, which took a lot of number crunching and prayer. 

Like I said, it was quiet around here, but it wasn't quiet in real life. 

We were supposed to start back to co-op last Friday, but it got postponed because of a funeral. Postponing was a small blessing for our family, because last week was full. Speaking of back to co-op, I'm teaching a middle school literature class...and the book list was already chosen before I got the class. I haven't heard of or read a single one of the books. Which is ironic because I read a LOT of books every single year, and my kids do too. You'd think we have had heard of these books before. 📚 I'm looking forward to teaching the class and plan to have some fun with it. I haven't really taught middle school at co-op yet, so this should be interesting. I used to always teach under third grade and then I taught mainly high school. Wish me luck! 

Speaking of books, a friend told me about a book challenge group she joined with another friend. They are doing an alphabetical book challenge. You read a book that the title starts with each letter of the alphabet. Um, I find this kind of cool. It would be good to help you get out of a book rut. My friend said she also joined a challenge with a friend to read 80 books a year. Knowing my friend, this will be no challenge for her. She and I got to discussing it and we ended up doing a quick count of the books we had already read this year...I'm up to 15, not including books of the Bible I've been reading. I told you I read a lot.

I'm half tempted to keep a yearly count of the books I read this year. Maybe I will, although I have a feeling I'd lose track eventually. But it would be nice to know my total count for the year. Hmmm. I'll have to think on that one. 

Church was amazing on Sunday. It had been a couple weeks since we got to go, and and we definitely missed it. I snapped the above picture of anna while she was praying at the beginning of church on Sunday. Let me tell you, this little girl has been blessed with a heart for prayer. One of the elder women in the church stopped me a couple months ago and said she was surprised to hear Anna truly praying while she was at the alter on Sunday mornings. I'm also surprised how much she pours out for the Lord in her moments of prayer. Such a blessing to witness the Lord at work in my childrens lives. It's only been two days and I'm already ready for next week's service. Why can't everyday feel like Sunday?

 Today I went to get my hair cut and dyed, I didn't take a single picture of the process like I normally do. I need to take more pictures of daily life again. I get swamped in actually living life and forget to take pictures of it.

Tonight was carnitas rice bowl night for dinner. 

Something kind of sad happened yesterday. My friend has been inviting me to join her at a women's conference hosted by her church for years now. I've always wanted to go, but it never seemed to work out. This year it finally worked out for me to go, and I logged on to sign up. It was sold out, when an hour before it had openings. :( They placed me on the wait list but said they were taking half the women than last year because of new virus restrictions. What a bummer. I really kind of hope someone cancels so I can go, but I'm also aware of the fact if I don't get to go then I must be because someone else needed to go and hear the word more than I did. I'd love to go but will understand if it isn't the Lord's will for me to go. 

Dustin and I are planning to attend our churches Valentine's dinner early in February. I'm excited about it. They said they play their own version of the newlywed game, and it's their favorite night of the year. I'm really looking forward to attending. 

Well, that pretty much catches everyone up on life at our house. I'll try me best to write more later this week. We have plans every single day this week. We aren't used to our weeks being this full anymore. It's an adjustment for sure.

I'm also realizing that even though we went on vacation in January, it didn't keep us from getting the January blues. All of us are a little sad and really hoping for some sunshine soon. Springtime, hurry up! 

Happy Tuesday!

~Lyndsay

Tips to Streamline Candy Land | Mom Life Hacks

  Ah yes, little kids and board games. They love them, especially Candy Land. 

  Board games are great for kids, they help teach many new skills and promote problem solving, strategy, hand eye coordination and increase brain growth. 

 

  Yep, all of that from playing games with a sibling or parent. :)

  However, with all of that positive stuff to gain from playing board games with our little ones, it can be hard to remember all of that on the tenth time through Candy Land on a rainy afternoon. 

  I discovered early on that there was a way to make the game go a little faster and more smoothly when you have negotiated for 'just one round' before bed or naptime. 

1. Take out all of the single color cards.

  Yep, take them out. They slow the game down, and are annoying. That leaves you with only the double colors, the game moves much faster after that. 

2. Take out any of the special cards before the the peanut. 

  You heard me, Gum drop, Candy Cane and the dreaded Gingerbread can all take a hike for the speedy version of this game. 

  Has anyone else had a tired preschooler be three spaces from the end and pull a Gingerbread card. The meltdowns are fierce sometimes. Yes, I'm all for learning how to lose graciously, but sometimes Mama just needs the game to be over and done with so naptime can happen. There are other days times to learn those lessons. 

3. Stack the Deck.

 You bet I just said that!

 Tell your kiddo you are shuffling the deck and put those special cards at the top. Imagine the light in their eyes when they pull the infamous Lollipop card on the second turn. It great, and you are done in no time. 

  These tips also help when you are first teaching a little one how the game works. I start all of my kiddos out with this modified version of the game, and add other cards in as they age. 

  

  This really does make the game go a lot faster. Give it a try and share these tips with another mom in the tranches. 

You can thank me later! 

~Lyndsay

P.S. Since we are on this topic, I'd like to know how many kids you have and how many sets of this game you have gone through? 

I'm on my fourth kid and probably the fifth set of the game. No matter how hard we try to take care of it the board tears and the cards just don't hold up. If I was more organized I would laminate the cards or something. 

Those of you that only had one set of this game throughout all of your children, please tell me your secrets to life. Because I'm clearly doing something wrong. 

Back to normal life | Mom Life Journal

We got home from our little adventure on a Monday and still had one more week before returning to work and school.

Dustin worked on the utility room, while the kids and I worked on some organizing and cleaning. We also found time to fit in some movies, games and rest.

The utility room did not get finished. We knew it probably wouldn't be finished when we decided to take our little adventure. 

That's ok, that's how life is sometimes. As much as I wanted it to be finished, it is a lot better than it was. The stacked washer and dryer, new freezer, one of the walls, ceiling and flooring are installed. The tankless water heating is working great and Dustin reworked the intake for our furnace to have an easier way to replace the filter. The new furnace intake took a lot of metal bending and framing, it took the whole day. He also had to rework part of the floor, because the main plumbing drain clean out is in the floor of that room as well.

A lot of these tasks are time consuming and don't seem to change the appearance of the room all that much, but each little job gets us that much closer to it finishing. Once all of these small jobs are finished the room will go quickly. 

The very last day before he returned to work he build the cabinet parts of two of the cabinets that will be in the room. One it larger for bulk appliances and laundry sorting, one is smaller for a pantry unit. It holds canned goods and bottles etc. These new shelves made for the ability to put some things back into the room where they belonged, which opened up some space in the rest of the house. 

We were able to go back to work and start back to school with our house feeling mostly normal again. It is a good feeling. 

We will continue to work on the utility room every weekend until it is complete. 

I'm looking forward to it being finished in the near future. 

It would have been nice to finish the room before our time off ended, but I wouldn't trade the memories we made for a dozen utility room remodels. 

Today is Tuesday, we are on day two of normal life being in full swing again. It is going well, and I think we all were ready for school to begin again. 

I have bread in the bread maker, it's bedding wash day, Anna is watching a Veggie Tales movie for quiet time, and the older three are finishing their school work. Then it will be time to send people outside for a few minutes and chores. We are probably having cheeseburgers and fries for dinner and I need to try to do some sewing this evening.

Happy Tuesday!

~Lyndsay

January Vacation 2021 | Day 3-7

 Once we reached Tennessee and our cabin, it was a much more laid back vacation. 

There was a lot of games of pool, board games, hot tub lounging, naps, and yummy food. Dustin got a Door Dash pass and we had a lot of fun trying the local restaurants. We also went out to eat a few times. We spent the morning of our last day in Tennessee at the Titanic Museum in Sevierville. 

Loved this cross!

They called for an unexpected major snow storm to hit the area while we were there. While sitting in the hot tub watching the snow fall is something I have always wanted to experience, being snowed in in Tennessee is not a person dream of mine. We made an extra trip to the grocery store to make sure we had provisions incase we truly got snowed in like they were predicting. Thankfully the storm shifted more to the south and we only got a dusting of snow with a couple days of flurries. We did get to sit in the hot tub and watch the snow fall around us. A winter mountain vacation is something we have always talked about experiencing and we are so thankful we were able to make it happen this year. 

Proof of our crazy couple of days. 

Our cabin was crazy high off the ground. It was over two stories down from the deck.

Teenarger in their natural habitat

We had Joe's Crab Shack for lunch one day. It was Anna's first time eating it in the restaurant. It was so delicious. 

One night the guys had BBQ delivered and the gals had a sushi feast. 

Emma and Alex are becoming pool sharks like their Dad. 

The only pic from the Titanic Museum. Pictures were forbidden.

Anna loved napping in this recliner.

Girls only hot tub hang out. 

We were supposed to stay another, but we had had enough of our cabin by the time we left a day early. We actually almost left two nights early. Here's why...we have dubbed this cabin the 'Half Broken Cabin', haha. While this was a nice cabin, and it was comfortable and beautiful, it had some issues. There wasn't enough blankets and sheets, one of the toilets was broken, the plumbing gurgled, and lots of things were nice, but half broken. Such as, we tried to move the pool table slightly to be able to open a pull out couch, and one of the legs fell off! All of this probably explains why this particular cabin was $20-30 cheaper per night than all of the others we found available in the area.  But...the main reason we left early is because of the permanent residents who were not happy to have visitors.  There were some raccoons who lived in the area who were not happy about us visiting. They showed up the second night we were there there, they woke Alex up by tapping and scratching to try to get in the window by his head. Then the next night they were on the roof above the hot tub while we were in it, and they were not happy we were there. We got out fairly quickly before they got anymore upset. The third night we were there we started hearing scratching and chewing inside the cabin walls late at night. 

The final evening we were there we were all in the hot tub relaxing and having a lively conversation. We thought all of the noise would keep them away.  We heard a couple noises, but nothing alarming. Then, all of a sudden we heard a high pitched growl/hissing right next to the hot tub on the outside near the railing. I have never in my life seen people bail out of a hot tub so fast! 

By the time we had that run in with the racoons we were more than ready to head back to the comfort and safety of our own home. 

All of that craziness aside, which I feel happens with every vacation no matter who you are, we had a wonderful vacation. We really needed to get away and have some family time, and to have a minute to think and reflex on life. Dustin and I find that we are better able to think about the big life choices we need to make when we are away from home and work for a little while. It was a good vacation. :)

We ran into some beautiful snow on the drive through the mountains on the way home!

All in all we had a great winter adventure vacation, and we ready to come home and prepare for life to resume again. We took an entire month off from school and our business was closed for over three weeks. It was a wonderful break and so worth the loss of income and little bit of time from school. With some life events coming up we are not sure when we will be able to go on vacation again. We were able to experience a lot of firsts and we made so many wonderful family memories to carry with us forever. 

We don't know what the next few days, month and even years may hold but we know that a few things will always be true. God is in control, family should always come first and the snow always comes up in the morning. 

Blessings!

~Lyndsay

Now that I have finished updating everyone on our January adventures, it will be back to normal posts from me starting tomorrow. I have been thinking and realized I have been semi consistent with posting for a little over a month now. How exciting is that? Hopefully I will continue to be consistent. I have some post ideas for recommendations and tips for life and homeschooling to make in the near future. I will work to try to make those happen in a timely manner. 

January Vacation 2021 | Day 2

 Day 2 of vacation we had a delicious buffet breakfast at Great Wolf Lodge, loaded up into the car and headed back over the river to Kentucky. It was a little over an hours drive to the Ark Encounter.

Our family had never been to the Ark, but we have all always wanted to go. It was so worth the wait! It was so amazing. Half way through the exhibits I was hit with the urge to consume the Bible at a more rapid pace. We all learned so much while we were there. Dustin is very interested in wood working and he stood for a very long time at Noah's wood shop, just taking it all in. I think I enjoyed the exhibit with the families living quarter the most. I love learning history about how other people went about their daily lives.

 

Everyone enjoyed the Ark, Addison did well with reading all of the signage and even Anna was a real trooper. There is a lot of reading and things to see, but a younger childs' patience can grow thin at this type of a museum, that being said Anna did wonderfully. Although we did stop for a snack and she accidentally dumped more than half of a bottle of water all over my lap and the floor. Oops!

At the end of the Ark tour we visited the gift shop and headed back to our car to head towards Tennessee!

We rented a cabin near Gatlinburg, so we spent another four hours in the car after leaving the Ark. It was a pleasant drive and we enjoyed the scenery. We stopped once along the way for lunch at Skyline. 

Once we arrived at our cabin we unloaded and then headed out for diner at Cracker Barrel. I can not ever remember eating at a Cracker Barrel and had been wanting to try it. Turns out, it's not my new favorite place. Go figure. 

 Also, real life moment, at the end of our meal I certain five year old who had been struggling with constipation informed me she 'had to go'. We were in that bathroom forever, she literally said she figured we would just have to stay there until she found a way to go. Seriously people, this is my first child to struggle with this and it certainly has been a learning curve. I was finally able to convince her to get up and leave the bathroom after about half an hour of not being able to go. 

 We went to the grocery store next to get some snacks and drinks to keep at the cabin. 

After getting back to the cabin we settled in and tried out the cabin...

January Vacation 2021 | Day 1

We left Ohio around 9am, and headed to Kentucky to visit the Newport Aquarium. We haven't been there since Anna turned one, and she is five now. Everyone was old enough to remember it, yay! 

Everyone crossed the shark bridge, it was a big deal! It's really nice having kids who aren't tiny anymore. No more strollers, no more naps, no more diaper bags, etc. We are enjoying it. 

After the aquarium, we walked by the waterfront, it was snowing slightly and very chilly. Then we meandered into a candy store for some fudge to snack on as a bedtime snack. 

    

Crossing the shark bridge.

We got back into the car, crossed back over the river to Ohio, had a late lunch at Outback and had an early check in to Great Wolfe Lodge. 

This was our first time staying at Great Wolfe, and we loved it! It has something for all the age groups, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that Anna could ride some of the bigger tube slides. That means we don't have to split up most of the time to accommodate all of the ages. It helps that the younger two are thrill seekers, who are always up for a crazy rude, slide or adventure. Teenagers are a blast to hang out with, it's even better when the whole family can participate. 

After we swam, we changed clothes and went to the arcade. I'm impressed with the arcade. Actually I'm impressed with most of Great Wolf. After the arcade we ordered in some pizza and wings (Salad for me), took showers, ate fudge and got ready for day two of our adventure vacation. We are hitting a lot of different places, and most of them are new for us. 

Onto the next adventure.....

Time for an Adventure! | January Vacation 2021

We decided at 3pm on Monday(1/4/2021) to load up the car for a spontaneous family road trip/vacation. It's the first time we have ever just up and decided to take off. We've always talked about it, but never just jumped all in. 

It's a little nerve wracking, but also kind of exciting! We only told a few people we were going and only one person has our itinerary. 

It's now Tuesday and we are in the car on our way to Kentucky!

We will be state hopping for a few days and will eventually settle in somewhere for about a week. 

I'll be sure to update as we go, but you won't be reading this until we are already safely back at home. :)

Here's to an adventure! 

~Lyndsay

Thoughts about my personal Bible time | Mom Life Journal

I try to read my Bible everyday, but I do struggle with getting it done sometimes. I try to go it first thing in the morning, although life happens sometimes and it's 9pm before I know it. 

I have found I will read a chapter or two in the morning, but if I find time to read in the evening I read quite a bit more than that. I've slowly been cutting back on tv the better part of the last year. I used to always have it on for noise, and spent way too many hours watching just to watch. Now I spend more time reading, and could spend even more time reading the Bible. I need to work on that. 

When do you prefer to read your Bible? 

A Small Utility Room Update

We finally have the laundry back up and running! Thank goodness, because the laundry situation was getting a little sketchy there at the end. Mainly the towels. The new washer is so amazing, it is fast and the clothes come out almost dry from the spin cycle. 

The ceiling, one wall and part of the floor is complete. Dustin had meetings on Monday, and I had a kiddo with an appointment, and not much got done yesterday. We decided to have a little fun in the evening and we took the kids out to dinner at the new Mexican restaurant in town. I think Dustin might be getting a little tired after all the work he's been doing. Maybe he will take a few days off before we finish things up. 

~Lyndsay

Hiding in my bedroom | Mom Life Journal

 Ok. I'm not really hiding in my bedroom, but I am hanging out in here for a bit. I'm watching a movie on Pureflix, trying out some new oils from Hopewell, and filling all of you in on life in our little part of the world today. 

 Addison is cleaning her room, Alex is unloading shiplap from the truck for the remodel, Emma and Anna are working on a craft project and Dustin is in the utility room with everything tarped off spraying insulation into the walls and ceiling in a few of the places that it needs to be a little thicker.

  Dustin finished the duct work last night and the electric today. I actually got to turn on the lights with a light switch today. That may sound like no big deal , but it is for me with this room. It has been a long time coming. We have spent the last seven years turning a heat lamp(with a regular bulb) on and off in there for light. It was never very bright and didn't always work correctly. Although, it did get the job done, so it was fine. :) Being able to walk into the utility room and flick on the light has been something I have all but dreamed about for a while now. 

 It really hit home for me today that after this room is finished the entire house will be completed. It has been seven years this month since we started, and it will be completed. Every single room. It is a dream come true. Our 100% debt free home. It is really truly finally hitting me that we will have completely finished this project. Our labor of love. Our reset button for a better life. It wasn't always easy, but it was always worth it. 

 Emma and I ran to Sam's club for a few items, and I am proud to say I almost completely stuck to my list. The few items I did pick up were items we actually did need, but I forgot to write it down. No impulse or unnecessary items. No spend month is off to a good start. Yay! After Sam's we stopped at the car wash, yes it was in the budget, and came home to make lunch.  I grilled some hotdogs and cheeseburgers for lunch. We are planning to have prime rib, grilled chicken, salad, mashed potatoes and rolls for dinner tonight. I also have cream cheese set out to make a  cherry cheesecake for dessert. 

 Tomorrow is Sunday and we are going back to church. It has been a few weeks since we went, and we are all more than ready to worship. 

 I will need to start painting the utility room tomorrow afternoon. The original plan was to get the prefinished shiplap to avoid endless hours of painting. They don't have enough of the prefinished in stock, so we went with primed shiplap instead. Primed is better than unfinished in my opinion. I need to paint the ceiling tomorrow and then one wall before we can move the washer in. It has been a few days without washing clothes, and laundry adds up fast in a large family. We have been conservative with our clothes wearing, and towels, but the towels still add up fast...when you cook and clean daily. 

 Well, I have probably held up in my room long enough, and that cheesecake isn't going to make itself. I'm going to pause my movie and get some things done around here. 

Have a blessed day!

~Lyndsay

January 2021 Budget | No Spend Month

Happy January! 

 I can't believe it is January again. I feel like we were just here. 

Dustin is still off work and working on the utility room. However, it iced this morning and has switched over to pouring rain for most of the day. He needs to haul the shiplap home from the hardware store and can't until the rain lets up. He is basically stuck cleaning and working on a few small things while we wait for the rain to head out. 

  I am working on our January budget, and decided last week to make it a no spend month. Despite the obvious purchases for the remodel, it will be a month of only purchasing what we absolutely need. Although I might do a grocery stock up toward the end of the month, like I mentioned in other posts. 

  I am so thankful for how our debt free journey has changed our lives. We never imagined our lives would be how they are now. However, sometimes I worry that the lack of struggling will affect us in some negative ways eventually. I don't Dustin and I or the kids to never forget what it is like to struggle or to grow complacent over time or even become spoiled or expectant of things that they 'deserve'. I'm not saying we have become that way completely, but I will admit that I occasionally struggle with the thought popping into my head that I 'deserve' something. That kind of self talk can be unhealthy. I want to make sure we strive to make responsible financial choices, and that we are modeling it for our children.

  In the last year, our budget got a little out of balance. It was mainly because grocery prices fluctuated uncontrollable and it was just a matter of paying what you had to pay. Some of it was unexpected purchases, and some of it was me just not being as conscious of what I was spending at times. It was a crazy year, and that's not a good enough excuse...but it is the truth. I let it happen. 

 

  Did it get completely our of hand? No

  Did we go into debt? No

  Did we spend more than we made? No

But...

  We did eat out more than we should have.

  We spent more on impulse than we should have.

  I did not keep track of things as closely as I should have.

  We did buy way more Starbucks than we needed to for our budget and our health.

  I did shop at some stores out of convenience and not at some stores to save money when I could have.

We/I could have done so much better on the financial department last year. My plan is to bring it back into line this year, starting with this month. 

This 'No Spend Month' is not a challenge to see how little we can live on. It is a practice to get back in the habit of watching what we spend more closely, and curbing the small impulse buys that sneak in. 

I will also admit that I am trying to cut back on the amount of food we are keeping on hand. I am all for being prepared and always have been. Although in the past few months I have kept more in the house than needed out of fear of not having enough. That is not a healthy way to live. We still live in the land of plenty, and have never gone without. At least never in the true sense of the word. I am praying about this and working to decide how much is truly enough to keep on hand. This is something to find a balance of between me and the Lord. I will always be someone who likes to be prepared and who will combine and condense trips to the store for groceries, but I never want to become someone who hoards excess food out of fear. Given the past year, I can see how I started to fall into this way of feeling and thinking. I have spoken to a few friends who have dealt with the same thing. It was a strange year. It shocked the balance of life for most people in our country and all across the world. I plan to write more about this later, but for now, I'm working to make sure that we have enough, but not too much. 

 I use a paper and a budgeting app each month. I am old school with my budget and can comprehend it better with a paper budget. I do like the Every Dollar app for on the go, and to keep long term track of our budget. Plus I usually lose the paper budget halfway through the month. Yep. I just admitted that. Ha!

 Depending on how I feel about this post later, I might continue to share my budget each month. I also might come back and update how the 'No Spend Month' goes. Although I already had to stop myself from buying something this morning. Can we say impulse buy? Ouch. Wish me luck! 

Have you made your budget for January?

~Lyndsay

Happy New Year! Here Comes 2021! | Mom Life Journal

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 We made it through 2020. What a year that was. I hold no illusions that this year is going to magically be better than last year. In all honesty, while 2020 was a rough year, our family, business and general life was ok. 

  Yes, we took a financial hit, like most businesses, but not nearly as bad as some. 

  Yes, we had to change a lot of our plans and didn't get to do a lot of what we normally would, but we have four healthy and generally happy growing children. 

  Yes, school was crazy and hard to focus on during all of the chaos of the ever changing life of last year, but we were already homeschooling for years before this all happened, we did not have to learn how to homeschool during a pandemic. 

  Yes, the stores were empty for a while, some items were hard to find, curriculums were out of stock, and everything screeched to a halt, but our family never went without, we never went hungry, we were always able to work around anything that was thrown at us. 

  Yes, many crazy things happened last year, but so many good things happen last year as well. Some were things we never expected to happen, and some were long awaited things...I finally got a diagnosis for my illness and started a treatment plan that is working! We upgraded the family vehicle, to my dream SUV, with cash. We built the kids their ultimate playset in the yard. We may not have been able to travel or visit the park, so we built a park in our own yard. :) We used the money we would have spent on vacation for it. It was quite epic. All of us had our own small and big challenges, as well as small and big victories. 

  Some unexpected things were revealed to us at our past church, and the Lord guided us to a new church. Which is exactly where we were meant to be. 

  We are 99% sure that we had COVID in February/March. It was not pleasant in the least, but we made it through and are healthy. 

  We grew closer to our neighbors, family and friends than ever before.  

  We had some very hard conversations with our kids, and it ultimately helped all of us to grow. It is hard enough to comprehend the world around you spiraling out of control as an adult, let alone as a child or teen. Our kids struggled like most children would, but seem to have found their footing and come out the other side stronger and with a deeper faith in the Lord. 

  We are thankful for the last year and God's ultimate hand in guiding us through. He has to complete and total control over all things in our lives and world. We have to learn to trust him more. 

Blessings,

~Lyndsay

  I did not plan to sit down here and write about the last year. I sat down to share my January budget with you. I guess that will have to wait for the next post.