Back to School | Catching up | Mom Life Journal

Back to school we go today. We took two weeks off to rest, have some fun and to accomplish some tasks.

We painted the kitchen cabinets and all the trim and wood work as well. 

Thid is a during picture, I'll be sure to make a post with before and after a later on. I'm not too happy with how the color turned out, but the cabinets over all look brand new again. Which was the ultimate goal.

We also went hiking, visited friends, and visited family. 

It's just now occuring to me that we didn't take any pictures when we were visiting our friends and family. Oops. That tends to be how it goes though. We had a wonderful times making memories, I guess we didn't need the pictures. 

We also did some spring cleaning in the house, I boxed up some books to go into storage until we move next year, and we organized the garage. The garage needs a full deep spring cleaning, but I only had time for a quick clean up and organize this time. I will enlist my husband to help with the big clean in a couple weeks. 

We also spent some time planning the flower bed builds that need to happen this year. Alex and I are going to attempt to tackle it ourselves. Pray for us. Alex has been working in landscaping part time for about a year and he has helped us build some things and he feels ready. I'm nervous. There are a lot of big tree roots to deal with on this one. 

A also did something fun for myself. Fun being a relative term, because it hurt and continued to hurt for about a week afterwards. Haha. 

I got my second set of lobe piercings(barely felt it and no real pain after) and a rook piercing. That one hurt, and continued to ache for about a week afterwards. It was still worth it though! I'm looking forward to it being healed and just a normal part of me. 😁 Then I will go back for a couple more. I have an over all look I'm going for, and this was just step one. I have researched these things for years, but always just put it off...we were broke, had babies and life going on all the time. We aren't broke anymore, the babies have grown up and life is never going to just slowdown, so I did it. I'm glad I did. 

We also found some time to do some shopping. Emma, Addison and I did some decor shopping for Spring/Summer, and all three girls and I popped into Kohl's for some clearance shopping. 

I did not accomplish everything I had hoped to on our break. I've been working on relearning algebra so I can help the kids with it. I wanted to be caught up to where Alex is when we started back today, but I'm not quite there. I'll keep working and get to where he is soon though. 

I personally have cut back on reading fiction, took facebook off my phone and had to cut out YouTube. I didn't pick up watching YouTube, until I gave up the fiction books and Facebook. Turns out I'm really good at filling my time with useless hobbies when I'm trying to give them up to focus more on Christ. I think part of the struggle was because we were on break and off of our normal schedules. Today will be better. 

Today also starts a new diet for my husband and myself. We are working to lose some weight. We are both going about it slightly different, but it should show some results for both of us. Of course he's a man and will probably drop fifteen pounds in the first week. I'll still be here two months later trying to drop the rest of mine. He has less to go than I do also. He has 15-20 and I have more like 25 to lose. I'm sure we both will get there. 

Well, I'm off to get life started. It's a fairly full week. School, work, helping out at church and co-op. 

Happy Monday!

~Lyndsay

Secret Sister Gifts | Mom Life Journal

Our new church does a year long secret sister exchange. You get the woman's name in January and you try to keep it a secret the entire year ending with the big reveal at a special dinner in December. 

Well. I have absolutely no idea who my secret sister is, but she is amazing. She gave me gift cards in January and for Valentine's Day she gave me this beautiful orchid! I've never bought an orchid, because I'm afraid I'll kill it. 

I've had it less than a week at this point and it is already looking a little wilted. This picture was taken this morning, I should have taken it the day I got it. It was in perfect full bloom when I got it on Sunday. 

I learned how to keep succulents alive over the last couple of winters, and I really hope I can keep this one alive too. 

If you have any tips for how to keep this thing alive, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Valentine's Date and Eyeliner | Ramblings | Mom Life Journal

Earlier in the month my husband and I attended a Valentine dinner at our church. We had a great time being out together without the kids and spending the evening with our church family.

When I was getting ready to go, I did something I don't always do. I put on eye liner. I used to wear it every single day,(the pencil kind that looks like a colored pencil.) then it started to irritate my eyes. I stopped wearing it a few years ago. I felt like looking special for the occasion, so I dug into the bottom of my make up container and found an old eyeliner. It was so old I figured I would get an eye infection. Surprisingly I didn't. Yay!

My kids asked what was wrong with my eyes and my husband was even surprised I was wearing it. Which prompted a couple of conversations about make up. I asked my family and basically all of them couldn't tell if I had it on or not most days. Hmm. While I'm all for it looking subtle, I kind of figured people could at least tell I had it on. 

Which also prompted the kids asking why my face looks weird and their father telling them that's how a lot of women wear their make up, mom just happens to be different. 

It caused me to think that maybe it wouldn't hurt to wear a little more make up than I currently do. Especially if people literally can't tell if I'm even wearing it. 

If you are still reading this you are probably wondering where I'm going with all of this. 

Well, after wearing that super old eye liner, I didn't have any issues with my eyes. Which then prompted me to buy some new eyeliner that is less likely to give me an eye infection. Haha. 

I grew up in a rather conservative home, and my mother was very strick with make up in particular. So while a lot of girls in their teens were trying out make up, and learning how to use it...I wasn't. I basically missed that whole part of growing up. Now, I'm not saying I especially missed out on anything special with that. However I definitely missed the part where younger teens learn how to do some of these things. 

While shopping for eyeliner, I discovered waterproof liquid liner. Um, liner that doesn't smudge under my eyes and stays put all day? Yes please. 

Turns out there is learning curve with putting on liquid eye line. Lol I'm 35 and I was up late a couple nights last week watching videos on how to put on liquid eye liner. Yep. I did that. 🤷🏼‍♀️ It helped. I can actually put liquid eye liner on really well, on one eye. Haha. I'm still working on the other eye. Yep. I'm 35 and still learning how to be a girlie girl, I guess. 

This little adventure also prompted me to send a handful of random pictures of my eyeballs to my friend Julie, because she is good with make up, and ask her if I was doing it right. At one point I told her I feel like I missed a seminar on this when I was twelve and she promptly replied 'You totally did.' and that is one of the many reasons why I love my friend Julie. 

Well. I guess this rambling has no true reason, besides I went on a date with my husband, I kind of learned how to put on eyeliner and all of this snow is starting to drive me bonkers. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Happy Thursday!

How Much Snow Is Too Much Snow?? | Mom Life Journal

Snow. Snow. Snow. Snow. 

How much snow is too much snow? 

Because I think we might be there. We rarely get snow like we have had recently. This is the third full week of inches on the ground and every few days more seems to keep on coming. We got 8 inches last week, on top of 4-5" that was melted slightly. Then we got  another 6" and they are projecting another 6-9" in the next week. The temps are nowhere near above freezing for the next 10+ days. 

I've really, REALLY been trying to just enjoy the season we are in the last few years. I like winter and snow, and I don't mind the inches of snow hanging around. We really don't get this kind of a winter very often around here. It will probably be one that we talk about for a while. 'You think this is a lot of snow, well in the winter of 2021....' Yep. We will be talking about it for a while. 

I'm doing my best to enjoy this extra snowy winter season, but I do feel the stir crazy setting in a bit for all of us. We have been able to get out when we need to, but the snow is deep enough now that I can't get my 2 wheel drive suv out of the driveway. Today we switched all of our daily use items to the SUV with 4 wheel drive. It's my husband's vehicle. He doesn't drive it daily, so it's nice we can't use it.  I'll be driving it until further notice. I probably could get my SUV out, but I really don't want to risk wrecking it or getting stuck in the snow. I'm thankful for my husband's SUV in times like this. 

I have more pictures and stories to tell, but these are the ones that sum up our life in the last week or so. 

Everyone went to the dentist. No cavities, yay! One kid is ready for braces, one needs a consult for wisdom teeth removal, and one has three loose teeth. 

We are trucking along with school, there's not much else to do with all this snow. You can only play in the snow and shovel for so long. 

 Speaking of shoveling, Alex has shoveled the driveway so many time I think he's about ready to go a little crazy. Up until this point he has just been shoveling walking paths and the spaces in front of the garage. It worked until we got so much snow that it was just way too many inches to get the vehicles on and out easily. We are going to spend some time this weekend shoveling the entire driveway. Then it should be mostly clean for the next couple of storms that are set to come through the Ohio valley. 

Poor Emma is so over winter. She is ready for summer and has already made her bucket list for the year. I'm trying to stay positive about winter and just let it have its moment. It's getting more and more difficult to stay positive about it. 

We have some friends who moved to Michigan this year. One of the bonuses to moving to Michigan is the snow. They love snow. Well, we've had more than then this year. I keep telling her they should have stayed here. Haha. 

We've been passing the time in the evenings watching movies with the kids. Tonight we are watching The Chronicles of Narnia. I was talking to the kids about it, when Dustin said he had never watched it...or ready the books! We obviously had to watch it immediately. 

Tomorrow is co-op. We are excited to get out of the house for a few hours and see other humans! Woohoo!! 

I have to head to work for a while after that and then I plan to come home to clean house. 

How much snow do you have at your home? 

Is it more than normal? 

Happy Thursday! 

Learning Some Things About Myself | Mom Life Journal

Hi!

It's been a week since I sat down to write. I need to work on that. Once a week is better than a year ago, but far from once a day. I figured out what happens when I go dark on the writing/creative side of things, I log onto social media. Yep. I turn on social media and my creative brain shuts down. I know this about myself, but this little writing experiment has made it blaringly obvious. Ouch. 

It is hard to walk away from social media ll together, it just a major part of the world we live in. I have walked away from the social media world before, and it can work for a time. However, I always end up there again for one reason or another. 

When I was writing once a day at the end of 2020, I had logged off of Facebook and or was closely monitoring my time on there. Then I slipped back into being on there more and I all but completely stopped writing and doing other creative things at home.

Essentially, for me personally, when I turn on social media I become a scrolling zombie. Not good. 

It's something I really need to work on. 

On the bright side we loved a lot of life last week and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all! I'll be including it in one (or a few) posts in the next couple of days. 

I logged off of Facebook again, so my productivity should increase again. I had this same issue with Instagram a couple years ago. I do know I created more content for instagram than I ever did on Facebook, but it still sucked my time more than it should have. Same with youtube...I want to create but I end up consuming. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It's something to praying about and work on. 

Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll be back to write more often moving forward. 

~Lyndsay

Snow Day! | Mom Life Journal

 Yesterday we had a lot of fun in the snow we got from winter storm Orlena. 

                                                          

We did school in the morning, then went outside to sled during our lunch break. Then back inside to do school and chores, then a coupe kids went back outside again. 

I finally got around to making a video for the YouTube channel. A few of us have been feeling under the weather, hence the sniffly noses in the video. I'm considering taking up making more videos again. I know for a fact that life is going to be one crazy roller coaster ride this year, and I'd like to have video evidence of it in later years. :) 

Yesterday was one of those days that you really remember later on in the year. The type of day that you dream of having when you think about winter coming to town. Sledding, snowball fights, attempts to make a snowman, hot chocolate, and if you are Alex you body slam snowdrifts. Ha, teenagers!

My legs are sore from climbing hills with the kids yesterday! shew!

 Today the snow is still out there, but slowly starting to melt. It is pretty darn cold out there, but it is sunny and that is nice. I love the sun, too bad it barely feels like the sun this time of year. 

It's all down hill until the time changes now! We are gaining 2 minutes of daylight a day right now. It has been light all the way up until 6pm the last few nights. That brings me serious joy. :)

I'm including some pictures of all of the snow we got, some sun in the snow and the you tube video that I made.

Happy Wednesday!

~Lyndsay

Alex found a new sledding hill. It's fast and you have too bail out of the sled before you slide into the creek!

A woodpecker has been hanging out on the front tree.

A couple inches of ice plus 8+ inches of snow!

Alex did a lot of shoveling!

Poor Pool...the steps almost disappeared.

First Snow Storm of 2021 | Winter Storm Orlena | Mom Life Journal

Today is Monday, we are in the middle of a  storm that started Saturday night. 

We got 2 or so inches of snow, then a ton of rain. It turned it all into a few inches of slush Sunday. We managed to get out and about for church Sunday. It was nice to have a few hours if rain so we could make it to church. There weren't a lot of us there, but it was a good morning of worship non the less. Then home to settle in for some nasty weather. 

It turned back to snow Sunday night and has snowed non stop since then. They keep changing the forecast, and can't seem to make up their mind. 

The temperature dropped throughout the day today and all of that slush is now a solid sheet of ice. We have gotten 2-3 more inches today, when they said we would only get 1. 

They are saying we could get another three inches tonight and one more tomorrow. They original said this would end tonight, but now have pushed it back to Tuesday night. 

Dustin went to work today when the roads were mostly clear, tonight it was pretty slick when he got home. We are currently at a level 2 snow emergency, and I'm crossing my fingers for a level 3. At level 3 you are not allowed to go out on the roads and that means Dustin will have to stay home with us for the day. :) I like when he is home with us. 

  Today was one of those days that the temperature dropped throughout the day. It has been a slow drop and won't reach its lowest until tomorrow evening. It started close to 40 and will end around 16 degrees. I don't know why but I find days that the temps drop like this to be absolutely fascinating! Something about the temperature doing the opposite of what it normal should is just down right entertaining for me. I'm a nerd, I can't help it. 

(I didn't get a picture of Addison. Please note a rare sighting of Alex.)

We skipped school today, because the house needed cleaned and we haven't had a snow day yet this school year. :) The kids played outside in the morning before it got crazy cold, and then we cleaned house, did laundry and worked on projects. I also gave Alex a haircut which was way over due. It looked like someone murdered a chia pet when we were done. Haha. 

I started working out again today. Lifted weights, did squats and crunches. I will probably be sore tomorrow. 

It was a good Monday. I didn't take enough pictures. We will probably pop outside tomorrow after school, and I'll try to take more then. 

It will finally be cold enough tomorrow to do one of my favorite science experiments with the younger girls. Addison has done it before, but Anna is too young to remember. We are going to turn hot water into snow in an instant! It's fun! 

I'm very thankful we have no plans until the end of the week. With these low temps it could take a few days to clean up the roads enough for me to want to go anywhere. I'm not a fan of going out on snowy roads. 

Here's hoping we don't lose electric tonight, the lights have already been flickering today. 

-Lyndsay 

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

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? 

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

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.

It Was A Busy Monday | Mom Life Journal

Is it really only the 28th? 

How is it not already the new year yet?

I thought today was Tuesday half the day and even had to ask someone to try to be sure I had the right day of the week. 

Today Addison and I got our nails done. I keep a full set of acrylics and Addison gets one finger done with acrylic. She has a damaged fingernail from being a sick a few years ago, and we are seeing if the acrylic will help it to hold together and heal correctly. Lots of prayers have been going up for a fingernail that grows correctly. 

After the nail salon, we went to the grocery store for a few items, then we got gas and stopped at mcds for lunch. 

I was home for about an hour and then Alex went with me to take the Macey(our dog) to the vet for her yearly check up. She was due for shots and they won't renew her prescription of thyroid meds without a yearly blood check. 

She cracks us up so much. She barks and barks when people come to visit, but she is truly a big baby at her core. She cried the whole way to the vet's office, because she couldn't be on my lap. We finally park at the vet's office, and she can finally get on my lap. It helped with the crying. Then she would let out a whiny bark when she saw someone and then would hide.

All while wearing her 'I 💜 Cats' sweater. She likes for people to think she is big, brave and ferocious, but she is not.

 After the appointment we stopped at Alex's bosses house to drop off a belated Christmas gift. We had planned to drop it off at on Christmas Eve, but the roads got too slick before we could. 

It was nice spending a little time with Alex. He and I always seem to be busy, moving in opposite directions if each other. I guess that's life with a teenage boy. 

I made pork chops, macaroni and cheese, fried potatoes and three types of vegetable for dinner. I almost went to town to buy dinner, but we did agree to eat at home more. One meal out today was more than enough. 

  Dustin made three trips town today for various things to complete the new hot water heater. Actually I think one trip was to do something at work. He says tomorrow is the day the new hot water heater will be up and running. No more tank! It's supposed to save hundreds of dollars per year. I'm curious to see how much of a difference it makes. 

Well...I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I plan to clean as much of the house as I'm able with all the construction, and I need to start working out again. I took about a week off over Christmas, plus the treadmill was in a strange location because of the construction. I also need to finalize the budget for January tomorrow afternoon.

Today was very busy with a lot of errands. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to being home. 

~Lyndsay

Thoughts About Sunday | Mom Life Journal

  The days with Dustin home are quickly flying by already. Plus we are in the strange time between Christmas and New Years, when every day feels like Saturday. 

  Today I made breakfast, Dustin and I went to Menards to get some items for the remodel, we came home to do church with the kids, I worked on cleaning and organizing while Dustin worked on the utility room, the kids play outside, I made turkey noodle soup for lunch, played games with the girls, Alex set up his punching bag and used it most of the day, I made pizza for dinner and played a round of Scrabble with Dustin.

  We got a new Scrabble set for Christmas. I got it for the kids, but it was truthfully for myself. I love Scrabble! Dustin finally offered to play a round with me this evening. I actually beat him! The final score was 383 to 275. I'm looking forward to playing many more rounds of it with him and the kids. I hope they end up liking it as much as I do, and I also hope they eventually beat me as well. Scrabble is all about learning more for the next round and storing it for later use. 

  I think we all reached our personal limit for junk, sugar and holiday food yesterday. None of us had any interest in it today at all. It's time to steer the healthy eating train back into its tracks again.  We ate a whole head of broccoli and half a head of cauliflower with dinner. 

  It's was also time for us to continue eating the food in the freezer and pantry. I used a soup from the freezer today, revived it with a bit of leftover turkey, mixed vegetables from the freezer, and some noodles from the pantry. The pizza for dinner also came from mostly pantry and freezer items. We had cheese, hawaiian and pepperoni pizza. 

  Dustin has been making jerky the last two days. He picked up 10# of thinly sliced jerky meat and it did 1.5 full dehydrators full. He always makes jerky at Christmas. A tradition he started years ago, I think it was because he got the dehydrator for Christmas. The kids have come to expect it each year and start talking about it at Thanksgiving. One of those odd traditiona that probably doesn't make sense to other people. 

  I read a book today about Cait Flander, she overcame alcoholism, binge eating, learned how to budget and get out of debt and then she spent an entire year not buying unnecessarily things. The year without spending changed her entire life trajectory. It was a good read. It was called 'The Hear of Less'. I found it free on my library app. She also has another book, but it is not free on the app yet. I'm too cheap to buy it new, guess I'll wait for it to be available for free or on eBay. 

  Tomorrow is Monday and Dustin's first official day off work. It's going to be strange having him home all day for the next few weeks. This week is filled with three appointments, normal life, seeing the grandparents and working on the utility room. 

 ~ Lyndsay

Day...not sure I should continue keeping track. It has almost become a habit to write daily now. Maybe I should start to consider putting more guidance behind the content soon? 

Merry Christmas! (2020) | Mom Life Journal

Merry Christmas! 

We had a wonderful Christmas day, spent relaxing, eating, playing in the snow, playing together, napping and enjoying each other's company. 

I can't tell you the last time we got snow on Christmas. It makes for extra special memories for all of us  

The highlights for the day include Anna getting a karaoke machine and everyone singing along, my husband getting a container of 'Tang'(A childhood favorite drink.) And talking about it, and making endless jokes about Tang, Alex and Emma played anew video game (Overcooked) that had all of us rolling with laughter, Addison got her most requested gift an Instax camera, Dustin alsi received a Sling puck game that everyone has enjoyed. The kids gave Dustin and I a massage chair and massage gun. Such useful gifts for all of us! 

The high on Christmas was 19 degrees, and we were basically snowed in. The roads were very icy and the county did not clean them until early the next morning. It was nice to be at snowed in home, with no where to go for Christmas. 

How was your Christmas?

~Lyndsay

Day 11.  I have not been entirely consistent but I'm getting words on a page a lot more often than I was before. It will be easier after Dustin goes back to work and we are back in school.