My husband likes to use a green scouring pad when he does the dishes. I am not the biggest fan of scouring pads because keeping them clean is troublesome. I don’t feel like I can get them completely clean when I hand wash them and when I put them in the washing machine they becomeRead More

Last night I watched the premiere of No Ordinary Family on ABC.com and I was reminded of how the internet came through for me when my super powers failed. Two summers ago while my husband was deployed our washing machine broke. Without thinking I tried using my super powers to find a solution. No, IRead More

This is a reprint of a previously published post. It seems appropriate to share it today as we are headed off to the lake and I may be using this tip soon. It is summer and in our house that means mildew. Somebody forgets a wet towel in a hot car or bunches it upRead More

This morning when I woke up, I found that my husband had made all of the preparations for a family hike. We spent the late morning/early afternoon enjoying a pleasant hike around the Mount Rose Meadows. My kids were exhausted when we came home, so the teens and I watched the last episode of EurekaRead More

So often I hear people almost apologize as they admit they are renters. Perhaps that is because they know most people hear the word renter and visualize this:I refuse to apologize; I am a proud renter! But perhaps that is because I know rentals can look like this:If we bought our house when we movedRead More

I am reprinting this post I wrote about my son’s third birthday as part of the Birthday Cake Round-Up at Life As Mom. For some reason, one of the hardest thing for me to reconcile with our bonus baby is what to do with the toys from the first batch. When children are born aRead More

For the month of June, I am participating in the Food Stamp Challenge hosted by Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate. Our challenge is to try to spend less on groceries than what our family would receive if we were to receive food stamps. The average family receives $101 per person. I also have a 3Read More

I do not subscribe to the local paper; I prefer to read the news online, but I do occasionally buy the Sunday paper for the coupon inserts. I used to buy the paper every Sunday, but was sometimes disappointed that the coupons were not ones that I could use and sometimes the paper did notRead More

Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate is hosting a Food Stamp Challenge this month. So what is involved in the challenge? Try to spend less on groceries than what our family would receive if we were to receive food stamps. The average family receives $101 per person, so our budget for the month is $505. IRead More

My friend, Rebecca at Turned Loose, has been running a series called Intentional Summer. If you have not visited yet, you will want to do so. In this 15 part series, Rebecca  reviews “an idea, method, or motivation toward making your time off from school intentionally valuable”. She warns that “the 80 days of summerRead More