Compacting week 2

We continued compacting this week. Shawn and I did go out to dinner w/ friends, but we had excluded birthdays from compacting and as it was a friends's birthday we were celebrating, we felt okay about it. We chose not to go see Inkheart but are reading the book aloud instead. The girls love the story and love being read to so it's nice to read together. We also rented movies this weekend but used a gift card from a friend. We received many gift cards this Christmas and should continue to be able to do some activities/purchases for free.
So far the best strategy for us is to simply stay out of the stores. When we feel like slipping Lily keeps us on our toes. I had to convince her that it's okay to buy groceries as she wants to save ALL of our money for our trip this summer. There's no eating out/frivilous purchases with Lily in tow.

You get PAID to do that?

Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am. I spent this morning sledding and making snow angels, having a rootbeer float and reading stories, finger painting and dancing/singing (no, my singing is still bad). I did all of this in a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers (or boots, snow pants and a coat) with 16 little smiling faces who were having a ball. I can't imagine a better job then being a preschool teacher. I get every day off my kids have (including snow days :) ) and I get to play all morning, I'm (usually) home by 12:30 AND, I get treated like a rock star whenever my kids run into me at the store/library/park. I know you all probably love your jobs as well, but except for being a parent, I just can't imagine that your job is as great as mine.
Special thanks to Dawn who told me about the job and encouraged me to apply and Dawn, Nessa, Merilee and Renee for sharing your kids/grandkids with me. They're so much fun and they really brighten my day.

1st week of Compacting

Well it's been harder this time around, probably because I know we have "extra" money in our account. all that money needs to be for our trip to Boston this summer so I am being good. My biggest problem is with all the cold we still have activities and I just don't want to cook. Still, we ignored my desire to take the kids to McDonald's Wednesday night between their cooking class and Charlie's youth group and actually made them mac and cheese- a great idea since Charlie wasn't very hungry after making pizza. Tonight they still have dance class (even though it's still about 20 below) and i REALLY don't feel like cooking. It's also "family fun night" so I'm making homemade pizza and we're playing games. Hopefully it will be a lot of fun and is totally free.

I hope you all are having a great week!

I'm Grateful

Yesterday afternoon Charlie had an orthodontist appointment. Since it was still about 35 below with a wind chill, I decided to drop her off and run a few errands so that the car would actually warm up. As I was returning to get Charlie, I saw a huge fire in our down town area. At the time I couldn't tell where it was coming from but I knew it was not far from where I'd just been. It turns out that it was an out of control fire that was taking up most of the block where the girls go to dance class. The fire started at a clothing store and burned down the block towards the dance studio. Had it happened today instead of yesterday, it would have been during Lily's dance class and She, Emily and I all would have been in the building. Our car is often parked right in front of the clothing store or one of the other stores that burned down. Chances are that we would not have been able to get back to our car with all the onlookers and fire trucks. We would have been stuck downtown until Shawn could have come and gotten us from one of the stores across the street. Had I somehow not noticed the fire, Emily would have been there without a parent, and i would be frantically trying to find her.

I'm grateful that this incident occured when the block was relatively empty and that no one was hurt. I'm grateful to our fire department and the fire departments of the surounding towns who came in and worked through the night in frigidly cold temps to save what they could. The buildings lost are a great loss to our town, but this loss has reminded me how grateful I am for my family and friends and for the first responders who work on our behalf

Little House on the Prairie

When we first made the decision to move to Minnesota, I was a little nervous. The only things I

really knew about Minnesota was from watching Little House on the Prairie, which I knew was actually filmed in Califonia. I had read the books as a kid, but I didn't remember much. I decided to read them again after we moved here, and was struck in fear by the one called The Long Cold Winter. After living here for 6 years, I decided that we really do have some global warmimg issues and those kind of frigid winters are gone. After several days witrh standing temps well below freezing for the high, -20 or more for the lows and wind chills putting us at 40 below or worse, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be our long cold winter. I hope that it warms up soon!

Twenty-five pairs of what?????

I can totally understand a 3 year old who is potty training having 25 pairs of underwear, or the child whose washing machine eats socks having 25 pairs of socks, but really, no 3 year old needs 25 pairs of foot wear! Only 18 pairs our shown in this picture. Missing are 2 pairs of boots, 2 pairs of ballet slippers, a pair of tap shoes, a pair of black Sunday shoes (exactly like the black shoes shown), a pair of fuzzy pink princess slippers and another pair of ratty sneakers. This is simply too much for any child, though Carrie Bradshaw would be proud. Our only defense is that we only bought 7 pairs of shoes- including the slipped and dance shoes. The rest were gifts from her friend Claire, who knows the value of having good shoes. And, if you think Claire's shoe gifts are excessive, you should check out Lily's clothes- since Emily and Charlie wore out size three, Lily's great wardrobe comes from Claire.

From there to here????

As we looked at Charlie tonight- braces on her teeth, hightlights in her hair, painting her nails, it's hard to believe that she too started out as a little girl playing with her kitchen set. The 9 years between Lily and Charlie seem so huge, but they've gone by so quickly. Before we know it, Charlie will be all grown up and off at college and Lily will be sitting at the table painting her nails.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Ours was fabulous as it was the 1st time that we all had the week off- ever. We spent Christmas Eve at our cousins' (many times removed) home having a great party and followed that with our traditional Christmas Eve drive to look at lights. The girls were excited to do so in new PJ's that Grandma Camp had made for the whole family. Emily found the special Christmas pickle ornament on Christmas Morning and we had a fabulous time opening presents. We had a friend over for a huge Christmas breakfast and followed that with sledding with another friend. We finished Christmas with a fabulous dinner at our cousins again. It was the best Christmas that any of us remember. The rest of the week was just as wonderful. We played games, went to the movies, went ice skating and sledding and just hung out for a whole week. We absolutely loved it!

Simple ways to Save (which may or may not be fun)

Please share your simple ways to save money on this post. Any trick you have that is not illegal or immoral would be appreciated. Here are a few of my ideas:
*Set a budget before you go shopping and then take your budgetted amount in cash and leave all other payment methods at home. This actually terrifies me so much that I almost always come in well under budget, but a couple times I was really worried I was going to have to put something back at the grocery store. For me, this is not easy or fun to do, but absolutely works.
*Shop at Home First. This is from Cindy's porch and it is a great idea. Look around your home and use what you have before you buy new. A basket that's now too small to hold Lily's toys is now holding our wii remotes/ etc. A Planter that held flowers when Emily was born (9 years ago today) now holds all of our loose change. Thinks about what you need and then look to see if you always have it.
*Be proud to support our enviroment. Our cars are an 89 and a 94. They aren't sitting in a landfill somewhere taking up space and we aren't saddled with a car payment. They are paid off and practically free. Reuse gift bags. A great group of friends never signs the little cards attached to gift bags. We'll see the same bags at every birthday for a year or more. We're saving the landfills from bags and our wallets from wrappings. It's a ton of fun.
* Free cycle- believe in the karma- what goes around comes around. We have given away all of the following since we moved into our home: a couch, 2 entertainment centers, 2 vacuums, a stereo case, a crib and mattress, a gas grill and tank, tons of baby clothes, and so much more. We've mostly marked items free and put them on our curb and they are gone, usually in less than an hour. We've done this because in most cases, we're replacing the outgoing item with a newer one that someone else has given us. My girls can play the piano because friends gave us their old one, our basement couch is fabulous for the same reason, and Lily dresses so well because another friend has given us all of their daughter's clothes. If giving your item away is a possibility, then think about doing it rather than selling it. It feels fabulous to watch the joy on someone's face when they get something they need for free.
These are all of my current idea. PLEASE add yours!

Share your ideas for Free/Cheap fun

Ann's last post got me thinking. what kind of fun things can we do that's either cheap or free. If you have any ideas or hear about a free/cheap activity in our community, or a free cheap idea that we can implement here (or anywhere) please share it, because we can all do with a little cheap and easy fun- and David, not the kind that gets you in trouble!

And so it begins......

Today our family starts compacting. We did this a couple of years ago and it worked out quite nicely. Compacting takes it's name from the Mayflower Compact, the document the pilgrims came up with to govern themselves when they chose to land in MA instead of further south in Virginia. Compacting today has to do with being very conscious about any spending you do. For us, we promise not to eat out, go to movies, or purchase any item that is not needed to replace an item. (So a new loaf of bread, major appliance, medication are all covered. A new dvd, shirt, or junk food is not.) Each family that is compacting makes up their own rules. For us, we're still taking the girls ice sketing again, throwing Em a birthday party and doing stuff for Valentine's Day and our Anniversay. But everything else is on hold. We'll compact until we get ready to leave for our trip back East this summer. When one of our stops will be- Plymouth, where we'll visit Plymouth Rock and Plimouth Plantation- where actors show you what living with the real Mayflower compact was really like.

So, feel free to join us with your own compact or to help us with ours- we'd love to borrow movies, book and games from friends and feel free to ask if the stuff in our carts are REALLY needed when you run into us at the store.

Please DON'T Share

Well we have had a fabulous Christmas and break. We'll get all the great pictures up this week. For now, however, we are simply waiting to see how many of our friends shared with us over the holidays. We spent Christmas Eve with a fabulous group of friends. At this point, 4 of the families have reported that they have had the stomache flu. If we had only seen these families on Christmas Eve it would be less scary. We have, however seen them all over the break. So, while one family used the title "We Share so Well" as their title for the stomache flu post, mine is Please DON'T share, because so far (knock on wood) none of us has gotten it......yet