Thrift Store Finds

I am a bargin shopper. I blame/thank my mom for this trait. I cannot in good conscience buy something at full price. Now this is always a good thing until I find an absolutly wonderful pair of knee high leather boots with a sexy heel and great proportioned toe area. Then my thrifty ness sucks. Why, because I can not buy the boots. I know they look amazing on me, I know Dean will want to kiss my calves because they are so tempting and beautiful when molded in leather (and lets face it, it wont stop with the calves if we get that far), and I know that I will wear them till my dying day. However I can not grab my debit card and punch in those 4 little numbers because the boots arent on sale. .....SIGH.... It breaks my heart, really. And so I have tried on nearly all pairs of above mentioned boots at all the nearby shops and even some out of town and yet I do not own a pair. Really it is one of the low points in my thus far fanastic life.

Okay so maybe some of that was a little over the top but ya got to feel passionate about something right. Shoes speak to me. Anyway before I start talking about cute littl high heels or sling backs I better get to the point of this post. Thrift stores. I love them, adore them, sigh over them. They are great. I cam across some really great deals this weekend. I hit the payday on books for the kiddos. I got nearly 50 books that have been on my "every child must read list" for......$20 bucks. Nice right? Oh yeah it was sweet. And I found all of them local here in my little one horse town. Even better. I love the smell of sweet success. Ahhh.

The only thing that would have been better is they had been free. Hey a girl can dream right?

So overall the goals for this month went pretty good. Really we got a lot more accomplished than I planned. We bought more stuff than usual but this was all used and will be put to great use here in the future (come on chant with me....add on....add on....add on). The eating out goal as I said totally sucked but couldnt be totally helped. So over all all goals were met and are in place. Now that is sweet!

Next month I am simplifying my housekeeping stuff. I will most likely shock some of you with what I am going to pull out of my hat this time. I know you will be thinking "Oh this Kim is so entertaining but really are there a few screws look in the ole' noggin? Is she a few cards short of a deck? A few crumbs short of a cookie? I assure you I am quite sane (well right now anyway) and while you may think I am a total weirdo, everyone needs a weird friend. Dont worry you dont have to take me out in public and if you do just say "she's from out of town" everyone will understand. :D
So anyway my point is you may want to check back later, get the scoop on some housekeeping recipes, thoughts, plans and if you are lucky (and I am on the ball) some little worksheet helps if you are into the whole organization thing. I am, its fun being a list maker. Come on join group.

Later.

Thrift Store Finds

I am a bargin shopper. I blame/thank my mom for this trait. I cannot in good conscience buy something at full price. Now this is always a good thing until I find an absolutly wonderful pair of knee high leather boots with a sexy heel and great proportioned toe area. Then my thrifty ness sucks. Why, because I can not buy the boots. I know they look amazing on me, I know Dean will want to kiss my calves because they are so tempting and beautiful when molded in leather (and lets face it, it wont stop with the calves if we get that far), and I know that I will wear them till my dying day. However I can not grab my debit card and punch in those 4 little numbers because the boots arent on sale. .....SIGH.... It breaks my heart, really. And so I have tried on nearly all pairs of above mentioned boots at all the nearby shops and even some out of town and yet I do not own a pair. Really it is one of the low points in my thus far fanastic life.

Okay so maybe some of that was a little over the top but ya got to feel passionate about something right. Shoes speak to me. Anyway before I start talking about cute littl high heels or sling backs I better get to the point of this post. Thrift stores. I love them, adore them, sigh over them. They are great. I cam across some really great deals this weekend. I hit the payday on books for the kiddos. I got nearly 50 books that have been on my "every child must read list" for......$20 bucks. Nice right? Oh yeah it was sweet. And I found all of them local here in my little one horse town. Even better. I love the smell of sweet success. Ahhh.

The only thing that would have been better is they had been free. Hey a girl can dream right?

So overall the goals for this month went pretty good. Really we got a lot more accomplished than I planned. We bought more stuff than usual but this was all used and will be put to great use here in the future (come on chant with me....add on....add on....add on). The eating out goal as I said totally sucked but couldnt be totally helped. So over all all goals were met and are in place. Now that is sweet!

Next month I am simplifying my housekeeping stuff. I will most likely shock some of you with what I am going to pull out of my hat this time. I know you will be thinking "Oh this Kim is so entertaining but really are there a few screws look in the ole' noggin? Is she a few cards short of a deck? A few crumbs short of a cookie? I assure you I am quite sane (well right now anyway) and while you may think I am a total weirdo, everyone needs a weird friend. Dont worry you dont have to take me out in public and if you do just say "she's from out of town" everyone will understand. :D
So anyway my point is you may want to check back later, get the scoop on some housekeeping recipes, thoughts, plans and if you are lucky (and I am on the ball) some little worksheet helps if you are into the whole organization thing. I am, its fun being a list maker. Come on join group.

Later.

Videos for the day

Videos for the day

Money and Heating

So right off the bat this was probably the worst month to do finance simplifying. Really it has been nearly pointless to have some of those goals. Like eating out. Normally we dont do a whole lot of this anyway because really everything is so nasty and unhealthy, but this month we have gone out more than we have in probably the last 6 months!! We have had an abnormally busy month that has included things that we couldnt plan for. So that goal will head on over to Marchs goals.

We have done really great on spending though (not that we spend a lot to begin with). I got all the kids books for school this coming year and the garden seeds, bushes and trees. We have stumbled onto some really awesome deals. It has saved us a lot of money and I am so thankful for it.

So to anyone wondering if a woodstove is a good purchase I will tell you right now it is! We have LOVED it this year. We have to figure out how much wood we have used for next year. The great thing is though, we have save A TON of money on our electric bill (our heater is electric). Last year our average electric bill this time of year was nearly $200. (Our insulation stinks if you cant tell!) This year we are much less at under $80. The investment has been very worthwhile. We have already gotten all our money back that we put out. Do you want a woodstove? Go get one. Now. They are great.

Money and Heating

So right off the bat this was probably the worst month to do finance simplifying. Really it has been nearly pointless to have some of those goals. Like eating out. Normally we dont do a whole lot of this anyway because really everything is so nasty and unhealthy, but this month we have gone out more than we have in probably the last 6 months!! We have had an abnormally busy month that has included things that we couldnt plan for. So that goal will head on over to Marchs goals.

We have done really great on spending though (not that we spend a lot to begin with). I got all the kids books for school this coming year and the garden seeds, bushes and trees. We have stumbled onto some really awesome deals. It has saved us a lot of money and I am so thankful for it.

So to anyone wondering if a woodstove is a good purchase I will tell you right now it is! We have LOVED it this year. We have to figure out how much wood we have used for next year. The great thing is though, we have save A TON of money on our electric bill (our heater is electric). Last year our average electric bill this time of year was nearly $200. (Our insulation stinks if you cant tell!) This year we are much less at under $80. The investment has been very worthwhile. We have already gotten all our money back that we put out. Do you want a woodstove? Go get one. Now. They are great.

A post in pics

My new haircut. I hate it. Everyone else likes it. I am glad my hair grows fast, very fast. I am waiting for the next month. I hate it, did I mention that.

The garden. Oh my sweet wonderful garden. The snow is slowly melting and I am plotting and planning away in here. I cant wait to get outside and work with the soil. Ahhhhh come spring and warmth and fresh little veggie sprouts.

My valentines flowers. Ahhh Dean is such an awesome husband. My favorites are both here, tulips and lillies. Cant beat that. They are wonderful , smell divine, and make me smile everytime I pass them.

The new wall charts. I got a killer deal on this bad boys and already they are a big help and teaching tool. Love them!

Caitlins little body, and I do mean little. The girl is a toothpick. Its so sweet and sad at the same time. Nothin sticks to her and she keeps getting taller. Anyway this here is a pic of her body that we are doing for science. So far we have done the respiritory, cardiovascular, and skeletal systems. We covered the nervous system today but havent gotten a brain glued up there yet. :) She has all the parts labled. We will work on this project for a few more weeks before we head into plants.

The front yard. Out there under the snow drift are some cute little fruit trees. Someday I will have fruit on them, someday when my kids are grown and gone I am sure of it.

Miss Laurens cute little crawling bum. She is almost walking but slips on these floors. (I still love the wood though!)

My silly boy. That sums it up.

An equally silly girl but who posseses a bit more spunk and sass. Gotta love it, she's like her mamma.

And last but not least the sweetheart in the family. Poor girl is destined to be the peace maker. After all she only has to look at one of us when we are freaking out, smile and say some baby noise and we all melt and give her kisses. Really it happens all the time.

Have a great week everyone.

A post in pics

My new haircut. I hate it. Everyone else likes it. I am glad my hair grows fast, very fast. I am waiting for the next month. I hate it, did I mention that.

The garden. Oh my sweet wonderful garden. The snow is slowly melting and I am plotting and planning away in here. I cant wait to get outside and work with the soil. Ahhhhh come spring and warmth and fresh little veggie sprouts.

My valentines flowers. Ahhh Dean is such an awesome husband. My favorites are both here, tulips and lillies. Cant beat that. They are wonderful , smell divine, and make me smile everytime I pass them.

The new wall charts. I got a killer deal on this bad boys and already they are a big help and teaching tool. Love them!

Caitlins little body, and I do mean little. The girl is a toothpick. Its so sweet and sad at the same time. Nothin sticks to her and she keeps getting taller. Anyway this here is a pic of her body that we are doing for science. So far we have done the respiritory, cardiovascular, and skeletal systems. We covered the nervous system today but havent gotten a brain glued up there yet. :) She has all the parts labled. We will work on this project for a few more weeks before we head into plants.

The front yard. Out there under the snow drift are some cute little fruit trees. Someday I will have fruit on them, someday when my kids are grown and gone I am sure of it.

Miss Laurens cute little crawling bum. She is almost walking but slips on these floors. (I still love the wood though!)

My silly boy. That sums it up.

An equally silly girl but who posseses a bit more spunk and sass. Gotta love it, she's like her mamma.

And last but not least the sweetheart in the family. Poor girl is destined to be the peace maker. After all she only has to look at one of us when we are freaking out, smile and say some baby noise and we all melt and give her kisses. Really it happens all the time.

Have a great week everyone.

Tax Returns are Beautiful

We got our return back today. Boy that was nice to check the bank account this morning! Anyway we originally planned on using the money to add onto our home. Lets face it with 3 little ones and a house this small we are busting out the seams. We dont own a lot at all and keep things pretty simple. The fact is our home is about the same size as an apartment (at least the ones we lived in) Anyway we worked the numbers and talked about our wants and needs for the new space. We did a TON of pricing and in the end we have put the addition on hold until a little later in the summer (it is coming this summer though, no doubt about it!). With our tax return we paid off all debt other than our home and student loans. Thats it, thats all we have left! :D You have no idea how happy this makes us. Really. We had a very small amount of usless debt (as I call it) especially compared to the national average of $8562 (credit card debt alone) but still it was there and I hated it. So now we are that much closer to being totally done with debt.

We bought the book Debt Free on Any Income today and we will be reading that and implementing their stratagies. Our plan next is to pay off our second mortgage with its outrageous interest rate of 12%. It is an interest only loan so for the last 4 years we have lived her we have paid 4 cents off the principle balance. (Yes I know its horrible. We are a good example of why you should read ALL the info you sign at least TWICE, and not always belive your financer.....thats a whole other post though). Anyway the balance on that is just over 15K but that will free up a nice amount each month.

Right now though the focus is saving for the addition. We have the plans drawn up and ready to go. We have the trusses ready for us to say go. In keeping with our February finance goals we even spent last weekend collecting items for the addition, all from used or recycled sorces. We priced all that we bought last weekend through Lowes and it came to nearly $1200! Our price you wonder, was less than half of the lowes price! That includes the woodflooring for the masterbed, 2 doors, 3 windows, roofing sheathing, roof underlayment, 12 recessed lights, house wrap, and more that is escaping me now. Not to shabby if I may say so. We got everything off of craigslist and most of it from a contractor that was liquidating.

So you wanna see what our house will look like........

We will be adding a new upstairs just like this. It will have a masterbed and bath and a HUGE family room that will double/triple as the school room and craft room. It will add roughly 600 sqft to our 1100 sqft home. That is all we need for our growing family and it costs much less than we anticipated. Over the course of the next 6 months we will search yard sales, estate sales, slavage yards (we found a terrific one last weekend) and craigslist to gather as many materials as we can for as little as we can. If we continue with the trend we will save lots and lots of $$$.

Tax Returns are Beautiful

We got our return back today. Boy that was nice to check the bank account this morning! Anyway we originally planned on using the money to add onto our home. Lets face it with 3 little ones and a house this small we are busting out the seams. We dont own a lot at all and keep things pretty simple. The fact is our home is about the same size as an apartment (at least the ones we lived in) Anyway we worked the numbers and talked about our wants and needs for the new space. We did a TON of pricing and in the end we have put the addition on hold until a little later in the summer (it is coming this summer though, no doubt about it!). With our tax return we paid off all debt other than our home and student loans. Thats it, thats all we have left! :D You have no idea how happy this makes us. Really. We had a very small amount of usless debt (as I call it) especially compared to the national average of $8562 (credit card debt alone) but still it was there and I hated it. So now we are that much closer to being totally done with debt.

We bought the book Debt Free on Any Income today and we will be reading that and implementing their stratagies. Our plan next is to pay off our second mortgage with its outrageous interest rate of 12%. It is an interest only loan so for the last 4 years we have lived her we have paid 4 cents off the principle balance. (Yes I know its horrible. We are a good example of why you should read ALL the info you sign at least TWICE, and not always belive your financer.....thats a whole other post though). Anyway the balance on that is just over 15K but that will free up a nice amount each month.

Right now though the focus is saving for the addition. We have the plans drawn up and ready to go. We have the trusses ready for us to say go. In keeping with our February finance goals we even spent last weekend collecting items for the addition, all from used or recycled sorces. We priced all that we bought last weekend through Lowes and it came to nearly $1200! Our price you wonder, was less than half of the lowes price! That includes the woodflooring for the masterbed, 2 doors, 3 windows, roofing sheathing, roof underlayment, 12 recessed lights, house wrap, and more that is escaping me now. Not to shabby if I may say so. We got everything off of craigslist and most of it from a contractor that was liquidating.

So you wanna see what our house will look like........

We will be adding a new upstairs just like this. It will have a masterbed and bath and a HUGE family room that will double/triple as the school room and craft room. It will add roughly 600 sqft to our 1100 sqft home. That is all we need for our growing family and it costs much less than we anticipated. Over the course of the next 6 months we will search yard sales, estate sales, slavage yards (we found a terrific one last weekend) and craigslist to gather as many materials as we can for as little as we can. If we continue with the trend we will save lots and lots of $$$.

Laurens first word

Things have been smooth lately. Probably shouldnt have typed that one huh? A friend shared some gardening catalouges with me, and well since I am a sucker for that stuff, my list is now as long as my arm. Sadly I will have to trim it down, alot. The goal this year is fruit trees and bushes. I want raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, oh my! Anything sweet delicious and beautiful is welcome in my garden. Now lets hope I dont kill them all. :D

Lauren said her first word yesterday...twice....the word you wonder? Fan. Yes thats right, not mama, dada, or even ball. No the sweet girl points to the ceiling fan and clear as day says "Fan".

Ian likes to take apart everything he can get his hands on. I was walking through the house this morning trying to find him for a picture. This is exactly how I found him. He smiled and said "Oh hi mom." "What are you doing buddy?" "Oh nothing, I was just playing." "Uh huh um whats your hand in the lamp for?" "Oh I was just checking things. The lamp told me its light didnt work and that I should make sure the light wasnt sick." Where does the kid get this stuff? :)Through this entire exchange he dosent loose that smile, it never even falters. Nor does his hand move from the light bulb.

oh oh oh, how could I forget. We bought a bright shiny new camera. It is wonderful. I could hold it all day and never tire of it.

Caitlin is flying right through her math. She loves it and is constantly counting and measuring, adding and subtracting.

The kids are loving school lately. Ian has started writing, just a little here and there but he is doing well. The above pictures are in crayon drawn on sandpaper. (The top drawings are the before) You draw whatever you want and then put them in the oven on 225 for 30 seconds. The crayon melts into the grit and gets brighter and more vivid. You cant tell all that much in the pictures becuase of my shadow. You like Caitlins sailboat? She is quite proud of herself. She went from drawing basic stick figures or scribbles to drawing boats, houses, families, etc so quickly that I wondered is she traced something. Nope she has just been on a huge growth kick lately. Her fine motor skills have always had a hard time catching up to the rest of her, but boy when they do they kick it into gear! Her writing has improved tremendously too.

Laurens first word

Things have been smooth lately. Probably shouldnt have typed that one huh? A friend shared some gardening catalouges with me, and well since I am a sucker for that stuff, my list is now as long as my arm. Sadly I will have to trim it down, alot. The goal this year is fruit trees and bushes. I want raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, oh my! Anything sweet delicious and beautiful is welcome in my garden. Now lets hope I dont kill them all. :D

Lauren said her first word yesterday...twice....the word you wonder? Fan. Yes thats right, not mama, dada, or even ball. No the sweet girl points to the ceiling fan and clear as day says "Fan".

Ian likes to take apart everything he can get his hands on. I was walking through the house this morning trying to find him for a picture. This is exactly how I found him. He smiled and said "Oh hi mom." "What are you doing buddy?" "Oh nothing, I was just playing." "Uh huh um whats your hand in the lamp for?" "Oh I was just checking things. The lamp told me its light didnt work and that I should make sure the light wasnt sick." Where does the kid get this stuff? :)Through this entire exchange he dosent loose that smile, it never even falters. Nor does his hand move from the light bulb.

oh oh oh, how could I forget. We bought a bright shiny new camera. It is wonderful. I could hold it all day and never tire of it.

Caitlin is flying right through her math. She loves it and is constantly counting and measuring, adding and subtracting.

The kids are loving school lately. Ian has started writing, just a little here and there but he is doing well. The above pictures are in crayon drawn on sandpaper. (The top drawings are the before) You draw whatever you want and then put them in the oven on 225 for 30 seconds. The crayon melts into the grit and gets brighter and more vivid. You cant tell all that much in the pictures becuase of my shadow. You like Caitlins sailboat? She is quite proud of herself. She went from drawing basic stick figures or scribbles to drawing boats, houses, families, etc so quickly that I wondered is she traced something. Nope she has just been on a huge growth kick lately. Her fine motor skills have always had a hard time catching up to the rest of her, but boy when they do they kick it into gear! Her writing has improved tremendously too.

Thankful list

I am naturally kind of an ornery person. Okay that isnt totally true but sometimes I am one of those who cant see the forest through the trees if ya know what I mean. There are so many times that a day will come to a close and I think to myself "Holy cow I was an ornery cuss and we had no fun today!" I working on it, belive me it is a major goal I have this year. To be better. Anyway in hopes to remind myself of the goodness that surrounds me each and everyday, wether the clothes are folded, bills paid, dishes washed etc, I have started a list in the left hand column. I will add more as they come about, as I notice them. Because this year I want to notice all the sweet things that I am blessed with that sometimes I just dont see.

Goodness surrounds me all the time and I just have to see it.

Thankful list

I am naturally kind of an ornery person. Okay that isnt totally true but sometimes I am one of those who cant see the forest through the trees if ya know what I mean. There are so many times that a day will come to a close and I think to myself "Holy cow I was an ornery cuss and we had no fun today!" I working on it, belive me it is a major goal I have this year. To be better. Anyway in hopes to remind myself of the goodness that surrounds me each and everyday, wether the clothes are folded, bills paid, dishes washed etc, I have started a list in the left hand column. I will add more as they come about, as I notice them. Because this year I want to notice all the sweet things that I am blessed with that sometimes I just dont see.

Goodness surrounds me all the time and I just have to see it.