Introducing Jackson

No...I did not have a baby.

No, we didn't adopt a pet.

Jackson has been a part of our lives for about a year now, possibly longer, possibly shorter. I really don't remember when he became intertwined with our daily lives.

Jackson is my three year old's friend. She says he is her "boyfriend", but I am not to keen on that.

She's only three and he is a bit unruly. (Don't worry I am fairly confident his parents don't read my blog)

He does everything that I don't want my children to do. He is very fond of saying the word "stupid", a word that is considered bad in our house. He pulls Lexi's hair and sometimes hits her in the face. He is just plain mean.
Not too mention that his mother lets him color his hair green...

with paint.

I know, right?

I know it would be best if she didn't hang out with him, but I feel I do not have a choice.

He is with us ALL. THE. TIME.

He sometimes goes to church with us, but believe it or not his family apparently is pretty active in a church somewhere.

I could make a whole scrapbook of just Lexi and Jackson.

I will give you a glimpse into our daily lives with Jackson..

Here is Lexi and Jackson hanging out at the Great Wolf Lodge on vacation...Yes, he went with us.

Lexi waiting for Jackson to go down the slide at the park..

Lexi and Jackson sleeping at the air show...

Ok so as you can see..or cannot see..Jackson is not real.

To us.

He is very real to my daughter, as is his whole family.

They live at McDonald's. His mom is nice. They are churchgoers, etc.

But that Jackson, he is one little troublemaker, at least according to Lexi..yet she loves him.

And I love her.

Happy Friday all!!

Linking up at Amy's Finer Things for Finer Things Friday.

Love and Discipline

We had a missing assignment.

It wasn't technically missing, it just wasn't done.

The second time this school year.

As promised with the first missing assignment, one week grounding from the TV and the computer.

Thought for sure it would be an ugly week.

Turns out my eleven year old not only understands but accepts the consequence of her actions or in this case her inaction.

This was her first real grounding and while I wish that I could say this would be her only, I know that it probably isn't. However, I am confident that she understands that it is because of our love for her that we discipline her.

We are reminded in Hebrews 12:6-11 that God too chastises those He loves, those He calls His own. When we are in sin, He will chastise us, not to destroy us not even to judge us, but to edify us and to restore us.

That is a finer thing.

Check out more finer things at Amy's Finer Things.



Happy Friday All!!!

Personal Chefs???

Since we are working on being more diligent with our money, we have decided to make eating out a luxery of sorts. Not just because of the money, but healthy eating is hard to come by dining out.

The problem?

I am a sucker for convenience when it comes to food. I like fast food -whether it be at a fast food restaurant or frozen food that I can pop in the oven or microwave. Neither of which are good for you.

I am convinced that my kids could eat pizza for every meal, every day - they love pizza..I, on the other hand, have to be in the mood for it. Having said that my kids know that Little Ceasars pizzas are only $5...see where I am going with this? When they remind me of that all too often, I would give in..geesh it is only $5 and I know they will eat it.

The problem?

It takes more than one pizza to feed my family and you can't have Little Ceasars pizza without Little Ceasars breadsticks and remember I have to be in the mood for pizza, so if pizza it is, then I need Little Ceasars chicken wings. At the end of it all, we have spent more than $5 and we committed the sin of gluttony. Yikes!

The Solution?

Get your own personal chef.

The problem?

A personal chef is not in our budget for sure, but really, we moms are responsible for three meals a day, seven days a week.. that is alot of cooking! Not even counting snacks!

The solution?

My three oldest children - 11, 7 & 5. They are always wanting to help out in the kitchen anyway, so why not utilize that desire to its fullest.

I presented this to them...

One day a week they were in charge of dinner, it could be whatever they wanted within reason. I would be there to supervise, but ultimately it was there job from start to finish, from the main dish on.

They were excited.

We grabbed out my cookbooks and they began their search.

My oldest who actually had her own cookbook to use, decided on something simple, but is a fave for her..that is breakfast for dinner.

My seven year old got her idea from what they have served before at school..it is called a straw hat, basically it is chips with taco meat & cheese. That was her choice, although she broadened it and had all the fixings for tacos.

My 5 year old son, who LOVES to cook, chose lasagna, salad and rolls. I am printing this post out to show his future wife so she can forever be grateful to me that I taught him cooking skills!! Who doesn't love a man that can cook?!

They all did an outstanging job and I am so proud. They have all been thinking about their menu choice for next week, I am anxious to see what their final decision is.

All in all I think that having not 1, not 2, but 3 personal chefs is an absolute finer thing!!

And in case you missed it, we also have our own personal hairdresser too.

Look around you will be surprised at what you really do have!

Check out more finer things at Amy's Finer Things.

And These Are A Few of My Favorite Things....

ok actually I am sharing only two.. but whose counting anyways...

It looks like a cute fashionable purse, doesn't it?






Nope...it's my new coupon organizer my mom got me for me Christmas!!!
Yea me!! No more carrying a binder or index card holder, in fact no one will even know the coupon lady is coming!


and for a more organized year, I made a home management binder using my Cricut that was a gift from my wonderful husband...check it out...

Here is the front..

A pencil holder that I found on clearance for .90! Seriously, I had to add that because I have four "not me's" who are always taking my pens and pencils!!


These are the sections I have so far, I have at least one or two others to add..


The first one is emegency information & Daily Plan (aka our "to do" list) Second is meal planning and recipes.


The first one here are our addresses for our family and friends, the second our budget & finances.

I also added a ledger & a few clear pencil holders to hold receipts, tax info, etc.




So I may going out on a limb, but I am going to say that having my coupons fashionably organized and all I need to know regarding my family at my fingertips..are finer things!!!

Check out some more Finer Things at Amy's Finer Things!


Have a great weekend!

It is Finer Things Friday...

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30

Wow... what a stick it to you verse!!! I honestly had not heard this verse before or if I read it, heard it.. I did not heed it.

Contentment is something that I struggle with at times. It is far too easy to look around and take notice of where everyone else is at in their life's journey, compare it to where you are and fill your heart with discontent. My struggle isn't always with material things, it is with spiritual things, it is with emotional things. Regardless of where the discontent lies, it can easily harden your heart.

I have two things that if I allow myself to ponder on, I can easily fall into a state of dissatisfaction.

The first thing is our house.. bottom line *I* think it is too small. We are a family of six in a three bedroom home that is around 1500 square feet, are you feeling my clausterphobia yet? When I drive around and look at larger homes, go to family or friends whose homes are larger, I could easily fill up with envy IF I allowed it.

The second thing, is not a thing at all and is something that is much harder. It is a person, it is my dad. My dad passed away almost ten years ago. I miss him so much. I have to be careful though, sometimes while thinking about him, I start thinking about how my kids will never know him, at least here on earth. I know that he would have adored them and they him. I think about my mom not getting to grow old with him, that makes me sad for her.. it makes me envy those whose father is still living. It is hard. Our family has been through alot since he has been gone, some great times.. weddings, births, etc. Some sad times.. loss of loved ones, miscarriages. He would have been our family support during the sad times and would have been the one leading us in a prayer of thanksgiving for the happy ones.

I have come to a place of contentment though for both issues..


So our house is small, but it is ours (ok technically it is Wells Fargo). It is a roof over our heads, but most of all it is a safe haven for our family and we call it home. Many families live in much larger houses than ours and still cannot call it a home.


Yes, my dad is not with us. Yes, I totally hate that my kids do not have their grandfather here. But I know that this separation is only temporary. I know that one day we will be reunited and my children will meet their grandpa face to face and will live side by side with him for eternity. I am so thankful for the legacy he left our family. I would never trade his death for more time if it meant that he was any other kind of father than what he was.


Contentment is a choice and as if wanting to keep my bones in tact weren't enough, I choose to be content because anything less robs you of true joy and a place of peace.


Contentment is a finer thing in life!

Check out some more finer things at Amy's Finer Things Friday.

God Is Good

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:26


Whew what a week.... I say with a sigh of relief
Whew what a week!! I say in a praise to the Lord.

We had our first crisis, if you will, since I have been home. This is only my second week home. We were having plumbing problems, now typically Brian is my Mr. Fix It guy, buuuuuut (no pun intended - ok I had to say that!) plumbing is not his thing. I mean he can plunge and even snake, but when you have stuff coming up your bathtub when you do laundry. no not his thing. He did have a pretty good idea of what it was, tree roots. We had this problem a couple of years ago and it ran us about $200-$250 to take care of it. Ugh... not yet, I didn't want to have to use any of our emergency money yet.. I have only been home two weeks!
So we call the same people as before, they send someone out and within thirty minutes he is done. Not the good done, the done where he comes and tells us, he has hit a brick wall, doesn't think it is tree roots, possible pipe collapse, etc.
He goes on to tell us that they will need to send someone out with a camera ($$), that we are possibly looking at needing to dig up our front yard and have pipes replaced (even more $$)... at this point I am thinking..hmmmm wonder if I can get my old job back..
I cannot even imagine how much it would be to get a back hoe or whatever it is they use to dig up your yard, I am just positive it would cost A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY!
Don't worry, since he couldn't fix anything he didn't make us pay the full $194, he only made us pay $124 for the half hour he worked.

Note to self...become a plumber.

He leaves and Brian and I start talking.. Brian didn't have a good feeling about this guy from the beginning, felt like he gave up too soon, didn't seem to put any effort in fixing the problem. So we decided to yellow page it and find us a new plumber on a wing and a prayer..more prayer than anything.
We pick one, no answer, left message.
Call plumber #2, he answers and Brian relays what is going on.
He proceeds to tell us that he often goes behind above plumber to fix what they couldn't or didn't. Given what Brian had told him, he too felt that it was tree roots. We decide to go with him. Within fifteen minutes he was here and within another fifteen minutes he fixed our problem for only $85. No colapsed pipes either!!!!
All good news...except we were a little upset that we paid the previous plumber for nothing. All we could do was cancel the appt. for the camera and let them know that we were disappointed in the service. Brian calls, lets them know what is going on and without even asking, they tell us they are refunding our money!!!! Yeah!!!
So what we originally thought would cost us min. $200-$250 ended up only costing us $85.

God is soooo good!!!

As if that wasn't enough for one week, Ashlyn's glasses broke, she has to have them of course. I took them in to Clarkson EyeCare where we had purchased them. I waited for them to tell me how long it would take for them to be fixed and how much it would cost, praying that it would only be a fraction of the cost of new frames.
Well.... they had an extra frame in stock exactly like the ones she had so they fixed them right then and there and the charge...NO CHARGE!!!!

Say it with me... GOD IS GOOD


Cost to fix daughter's broken glasses: $0
Having tree roots removed from your pipes: $85
Having a Heavenly Father who is always taking care of you: PRICELESS
A Finer Thing!

Visit Amy's Finer Things for more finer things!!

The Mini Eclairs.....

In our other life, the one with two incomes, we treated ourselves to dinner out every Friday evening. It ranged as to where we would go, but even at the cheapest fast food places such as McDonalds or Taco Bell our total would be close to $25. Multiply that by 4 and we have spent $100 in a month on eating out one day a week, add more for those weeks when we went someplace nicer. $100 is almost two weeks of my new grocery budget - yikes!!!

Today as I was waiting to pick up the kids I had pretty much talked myself into letting this tradition continue until I reminded myself that if we are going to make it on one income then some things have to change and this was going to have to be one of those things. We can make the same memories at home eating store bought or homemade food just as well as sitting at a restaurant, actually better, because there will be no memeories of being glared at because your 2 year old is having a hard time sitting still or feeling guilty because as you are leaving you glance down at the floor under where your kids were sitting only to see that all the food that fell to the floor is equivalent to an entree at least... which means that hardly any food made it to the mouth and as soon as we walk in the door there will be cries of hunger. I digress..... I do that alot, don't I?

Kids picked up and off to Aldis we go. I decided this week I was going to do our grocery shopping there since we didn't need a whole lot, mainly fresh fruits and veggies. Wanting to find something easy for us to eat tonight was on the agenda too, since up until then I had thought we would be going out. Kirkwood southern style chicken, fries, mac & cheese and applesauce. Settled - that is what we would have....

Then we passed them, the mini eclairs..

The BEST mini eclairs...

I tried to resist, I promise I did, but something stronger than me made me pick them up...

Then a little voice in my head told me it was alright, no guilt needed. I traded in a $25 meal out for a $5 box of mini eclairs.

Dining out with family.......$25 or more

Southern style chicken, fries, mac & cheese & applesauce.... $7.62 (see, you can eat just as unhealthy at home and for a lot cheaper!!!)

Mini Eclairs with no guilt attached......PRICELESS





That my friend is a finer thing in life!



Visit Amy here for Finer Things Friday!


Happy Friday all!!!