Who could resist a fun day at the lake? Ryan’s family had a little reunion in Culver, IN and we headed there for the day! Sunburns and freckles all around for our really lily-white crew, but we had an amazing time! My husband took a zillion pictures of me in the water with my kids. Yes, this never happens because I can’t swim, but the shallow water and hot sun lured me in. It was wonderful!
This one just couldn’t go wordless!
We have been trying to accomplish all of the great things off of our summertime list this summer and we had a major event to accomplish… a trip to Chicago’s Field Museum. Last week, they offered a free admission day so we made plans to make our trip that day.
When I say we though, I mean my husband & Ethan. The guys wanted to do this trip alone without any girls ruining all their fun so they headed their together for a full day of fun in the prehistoric world. They took the South Shore train to their destination and enjoyed a guy’s day together.
When Ethan walked in and saw Sue the amazing T-Rex he said, “I have been waiting my whole life for this moment.” Ryan sent me updates via text message about all the fun they were having and he took tons of pictures of all of Ethan’s favorite moments from the museum.
Meanwhile, Emily & I had a wonderful girl’s day. We played outside, I sat at her mini-picnic bench and shared a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with her, we snuggled, we laughed, and we went to my mom’s birthday dinner celebration. We sent dad messages about what we were up to and…well, we couldn’t stop smiling. Every once in awhile, Emily would look at me and say, “Where did Ethan go?” and I would remind her that he & daddy had a special day together.
When my husband got home we both remarked that we need to do that more often. We both felt a bond with each child deepen during that day and it was great to be able to devote our undivided attention to each of them.
Do you do dates with your children? How do you manage to make quality time for each child individually? I would love to get some ideas for things we could do with the kids in the future!
Today’s free code for a Redbox movie is TW87WR. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!
Side Notes:
- If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.
- When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, “Rent with Promo.” Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.
A package came for me in the mail. They had to ring the doorbell and have me sign for it. My sweet postal worker was so excited to hand me a package from Japan. She said, “I’ve been wondering what this is?” as she handed it to me. I had to laugh because this little envelope was full of these…
I ordered my knitting needles through eBay and found that I could get an entire lot of bamboo needles (each size between 0 through 15) for only $20, which included the shipping total! It is hard to do projects when you only have one set of needles so I was so thrilled to finally get them. It took an entire month for them to make their way to my house, but they were in surprisingly good condition. Two of the little tops did come off, but with a little crafting glue, I was able to put them right back together. I started using them as soon as I got them in my hot little hand and I plan to order circular and double-pointed needles through eBay as well.
With the kids playing outside almost every day, I am doing the majority of my knitting outside. The wind was blowing my patterns all over the lawn though so I brought my cookbook stand outside and rested my books and printed patterns in there. Mine has a plastic cover that protects the book and I thought it would be handy to jot down where I left off in my pattern with a dry erase marker. This has made it a lot easier to see my pattern while I am knitting!
My mother-in-law also purchased one of these knitting canisters for me so I could take my knitting on the road. I love it because it keeps my yarn nice and clean if we are outside or in the car. I was planning to make one out of a coffee canister with a hole on the top and she ended up buying me one instead. Much more fashionable than my hobo version!
One of you lovely knitters also recommended that I join ravelry and I finally joined! I absolutely love this site for finding patterns and sharing my work. It took two days for my invitation to join the community came, but it was so worth the wait. I am now able to work through patterns on the site and it motivates me to work towards some new knitting goals. My username on this site is momadvice, just in case you want to look me up and be my first friend!
This has been a summer of washcloths for me and the latest pattern I completed was two double-woven washcloths. I am working on these for Christmas and holiday hostess gifts. The next item to work on will be knitting some slippers because I want to put together spa baskets for some of the great women in my life. Hopefully, I can master increasing (which seems to be difficult for me) so I can start making pairs of these to go with all of these cute washcloths.
As always, a big thanks goes out to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for sharing her list of freebies with us. Heather explains how CellFire can now work with your Kroger shopping. She also shares another week’s worth of printable coupons to maximize your savings at the grocery store. Thanks, Heather, for helping us to save more money!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and Happy Freebie Friday!
Experiment: Can I Green My Sink Routine?
Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 05.29.08
Materials Needed: Please see ohdeedoh for the full instructions on this task. I used the vinegar and a lavender essential oil to make my homemade disinfectant, but you could also use tea tree oil. For extra credit, grab some baking soda and use this to scour the sink before disinfecting.
Results: I will admit that I really used to love bleaching my sink. I am all about cleaning the sink and have been ever since I read Sink Reflections. There was just something so therapeutic about having a fresh clean sink and there is just something so cleansing about that sparkling white sink after a good bleaching. To this day, if I smell Comet cleanser it makes me think of my mom and her sink cleaning days when I was a little girl.
But the times, they are a changin’ and I am trying to incorporate more green living into my life. I have talked a lot about implementing homemade cleaners into your routine, but I was still dragging my feet on cleaning my sink with the green stuff.
I really wanted to try this homemade disinfectant and thought I would give my sink a good scrubbing with baking soda instead this time.
I just sprinkled my sink liberally with baking soda and ran a tiny bit of water. This made it more of a scouring paste and I scrubbed it with a little brush (or whatever else you have on hand). Once I scrubbed it well, I gave the sink a rinse and then wiped it out with a towel. I finished the routine off by spraying my homemade disinfectant and wiping the sink down again.
If you are a bleach user, I wouldn’t say it was exactly the same type of white, but it came very close. It did require a bit of elbow grease and took longer, but it was oh-so-worth-it!
Oh, and did you notice that sweet little dishcloth hanging over my faucet? I made that! It is a gift to myself after all of the gifts I have made. It isn’t even a reject one (which is what I normally give myself). It is the first item that I have knitted for myself since I have learned how. Oh, and it also happens to be green- just like my new sink routine!
I feel like this is something that I can do regularly and am proud that I have finally given the bleach up for good! Thanks ohdeedoh for this great idea!
I need to try making these flower cupcakes (@ My Sweet & Saucy)
I really like this five minute skirt tutorial (@ angry chicken)
I had never heard of BBQ chicken made with a white sauce (@ Serious Eats)
These banana crunch muffins look delicious (@ plumpudding)
If I could sew, I would make one of these fairy dresses (@ Wee Wonders)
I might have to take this baked french toast to our next potluck (@ Baking Bites)
I love these unique ideas for framing (@ Design Mom)
I think I might have to knit some of these ruby slippers (@ Frog in knots)
These paper pinwheels are so pretty (@ ohdeedoh)
This marinated tomatoes with linguine recipe would be great for my summer tomatoes (@ Serious Eats)
I love this tip for getting hair off the kids after a haircut. Can’t wait to try it (@ Parent Hacks)
These light spiced blueberry muffins might be the ticket for a lower fat muffin for me (@ Cheap Healthy Good)
Someone else is overcoming their canning fears & a strawberry jam recipe (@ Paper Palate)
This oven fried chicken would be great for a picnic (@ Mad About Martha)
I love this tip for getting the corn off the cob (@ Simply Recipes)
This visual packing list for kids is genius (@ house on hill road)
Save Now
This farfalle with sausage, tomatoes, & cream would make a great weeknight dish (@ Paper Palate)
This list of summertime ideas is great for the grandparents (@ Grandparents)
Did I catch your attention?
This week on WSBT, I got to sit down and really talk about how to eat healthy on a budget. Since I went to school for nutrition, this is an important topic for me and one that I really enjoy sharing about. I hope that you can catch this segment! You can find me on our local news each Tuesday sharing money-saving tips for moms!
On Frugal Hacks, I share with you my disappointing cleaning habits for the summer. I am wondering if other moms struggle during the summer and what ways you have found to keep you on track. Please join me there for a fun discussion!
This month in our local Michiana Family Magazine, I am sharing how simple writings bring simple pleasures. This is a more personal piece for me and I was excited to share it with families in Michiana.
If you live in the Michiana area and have time, please come to the Michiana Family Expo, sponsored by the Michiana Family Magazine, and stop by to say hi. I will have a booth there and will be demonstrating some fun kid’s crafts and meeting as many people as I can personally. I will be there on August 9th from 10 AM to 9 PM. I hope to meet those of you who have been so supportive of my work and our family. It has been so great to live in a community like this and I would love to thank each of you personally for spreading the word about our site.
Last thing, if anyone is attending the ad tech conference in Chicago, I am honored to be included on a panel on August 6th from 2:15-3:15 about my experience as a mommy blogger. I will be sitting on the panel with CEO Kate Thorp, of Real Girls Media, whom I have had the great honor of being a part of their Advisory Board. I am very excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to share what a wonderful experience blogging has been for me.
Two envelopes came to us this week filled with two things that I had never seen before. No, in my entire life I have never held a title in my hand and I am now the owner of not one, but two old cars. This calls for some celebrating!
Just like our credit card free party, it was time to bring the kids into the celebration and share with them our great news. I decided we would have a Cars Party and hunted in the pantry for what we could fix.
Ethan worked on the centerpiece and picked his favorite cars to display. We put it out on our patio table and started gathering up the food.
No steak for this celebration? I had enough time to throw some hot dogs in the slow cooker and we put out all the hot dog fixings, a big bowl of pretzels, and cheese wedges.
In an incredible twist of good luck, Ryan had a presentation at work so he came home with a projector. I climbed on a patio chair and rigged up that old sheet from this weekend and made a very hillbilly-esque kind of outdoor theater for the kids. Yeah, you know it, they thought I was the coolest mom ever.
What did we watch? Walt Disney’s Cars movie of course! They have seen this movie a ton of times, but it is like the first time every single time for Ethan.
We put our centerpiece to good use and played with our cars on the real and rugged road.
If that road feels too bumpy though, you can always use your legs for the road.
What’s a movie without snacks though? I whipped up a batch of our homemade slushies and we brought the popcorn popper outside and popped a big batch of popcorn to share. Slushie sloshing and popcorn throwing were completely fine at this outdoor event.
If you need to take a nap while watching the show, seating is also available. Ethan pulled his clean blanket off the clothesline and took a little rest while he watched the show.
My liens on cars have been released. With credit cards and car payments behind us, we can start making a dent into those student loans and finally… our mortgage. Each step brings us closer to our goal and each step brings me more peace of mind.
The beauty of it all wore off yesterday as I screeched and clunked my way to stop. My car will be spending this week in the shop for some repairs. My husband’s car is lacking A/C and will need a turn in the shop as well.
They might be a couple of old clunkers, but they are OUR clunkers now.
Boy, am I proud!
