I Am Thankful

I am thankful that when things happen that we don't expect, God is faithful in ways that we don't expect.

And I'm thankful that we can't see what's coming, either.

God is good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cabinet Locks

When we first got these cabinets, our two oldest kids were toddlers.  They knew not to get into things that were off-limits, but we have two identical cabinets.  One is used for adult things (like electronics that we'd rather not have to look at every day) and the other holds kids' things (like puzzles).  It was very confusing for two little girls when the forbidden cabinet looked so much like the accessible one.  Our simple solution was an elastic ponytail band wrapped twice around the handles of the forbidden cabinet.  They couldn't get it open even if they tried!

We recently (hmm, about 18 months ago) returned to using this "lock".  The difference is that now both cabinets are locked -- one with those same electronics, and the other is now full of big kid puzzles, with all those fascinating, brightly colored pieces of cardboard.  The girls are all capable of opening these simple locks, and it takes very little effort to replace them when they're done doing puzzles.  

We've only had two only issues with these locks.  On occasion, I have been summoned to open a cabinet door...for my husband, who couldn't get the elastic band off by himself!  The other issue is that when Mr. Adorable, who is 18 months old, finds one of his sisters' ponytail bands laying around the house, he brings it to one of us and wants us to put it on a cabinet handle.  

Those kinds of issues I can deal with.  :)

Cheap Haircut

Before

After

I cut my own hair for the first time!  :)  I cut my girls' hair a few months ago, and it was SO easy that I thought, Hey, why not try cutting my own?  I looked up some different methods online, and found three that I wanted to try, so I started long and worked up.  (And no, I didn't change the color.  It's all lighting and a different camera.)

1st method:  After washing my hair, I combed it all straight up and put a ponytail in at the top (center) of my head.  I combed the ponytail straight up, grabbed it as high as I could reach and cut about 8 inches off.  I took out the ponytail and combed out my hair again, but didn't like it.  It was layered, just like the "how-to" article said it would be, but the longest layer looked like I hadn't cut anything off.  So I tried the second method.

2nd method:  I flipped my hair upside-down and combed it all out, then cut straight across.  I combed it all out (right-side-up again) and it was shorter, but still not right.  On to the third method!  (Good thing I started with REALLY long hair!)

3rd method:  I parted my hair straight down the middle, going all the way down the back of my head, and pulled all the hair to the front.  I cut some more length off to make it easier to manage, then cut both sides evenly at the length I wanted and made sure the two sides matched.  I then pulled the top layer (all the hair above my ears) up out of the way and combed out the underneath layer.  I cut it about 1/2 inch shorter, and combed everything down together.  Done!  And I like it!  :)

Color-full Cans

Crayons never stay "nice and neat" in their boxes in this house, nor do they ever stay in one piece.  My solution is the Crayon Can, a huge old coffee can, washed and re-used for over 6 years now.  

Colored pencils used to at least make it INTO their box, but they were always getting broken in the process, until I introduced this cheap storage solution -- the Toddler Puffs can.  And I'm not admitting how long I've had THIS one!  :)

Behind Cupboard Doors

I have these wonderful sturdy shelves in my cupboards, but they are SO deep that any food that I store on them gets lost in the back of the cupboard.  So I spent about $7 on 6 ice cube storage bins at Walmart, labeled them with masking tape and a Sharpie, and now I have customized, easy to use organizers for my canned goods.  I keep my sushi supplies, canned soups, and my "I-don't-feel-like-cooking" staples in them, and I can tell at a glance if I am running low on anything.  More importantly, I can get to them easily without re-arranging the entire shelf!  It may not be pretty :), but that's why we have cupboard doors!

(Have you discovered Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by TammysRecipes.com yet?!?  Go visit!)

Accidental Air Freshener

Today we discovered yet another side-benefit of letting the kids put things away when we get back from the grocery store.  Earlier in the week, I asked one of the girls to put the box of dryer sheets on top of the new box of laundry soap in the laundry room, which she did.  Yesterday as I was working on laundry, my littlest helper (18 months) knocked it off, and since my hands were full, I left it where it fell and forgot about it.  This morning, after the heater had come on a few times in the night, the entire downstairs smelled wonderful...like fresh flowers.  The scent was strongest in the laundry room, and I finally found the box of dryer sheets where it had fallen -- back down in a corner, on top of one of the heating vents.  And I'm thinking about leaving it there!

Don't Fold That Towel!

We have quite a collection of hooded towels for the kids.  Instead of spending hours a week folding towels, I just stuff the clean kids' towels in this hamper.  I got the hamper for a dollar at a garage sale, cleaned it up, and lined it with a spare Army-issue laundry bag.  :)

Fill 'er Up!

With two adults and four kids in the house, I do a LOT of laundry.  If I stay caught up, (which rarely happens, of course) I do an average of 2-3 loads a day.  Which means that I go through a LOT of dryer sheets.  I save the used ones in an old gift bag hanging in my laundry room, and when it gets full, I transfer them to a bean bag cover.  This bean bag cover (pictured) is completely filled with them, which makes it pretty heavy to drag around, but it is SO comfortable, and it smells great too!

My Not-So-Secret Stash

I keep what used to be a secret stash of cash hidden in my closet.  It wasn't too secret, since my mom and my neighbor know where it is, but my husband didn't know it even existed, and that's how I wanted it.  :)

I collected $20 bills until I had at least $200 in my stash, and I'd add more if I had it.  I didn't tell my husband about it because he gets his own cash out of our account when he needs it.  It was essential, however, that my mom and my neighbor know where it is and how much is in it, because my secret stash exists for the sole purpose of replacing car seats for all four kids in an emergency.

When my husband is away, I am IT.  So, for back-up, our neighbors have temporary Power of Attorney Guardianship and Medical Guardianship paperwork for our kids, and my parents (who live thousands of miles away) have a similar set of paperwork for permanent Guardianship.  That way, if something were to happen to me while my husband is unavailable, the kids would go to someone that we know and trust (and they LOVE!) until either my parents could get here, or my husband could be brought home to take over.  

What does that have to do with replacing car seats?  Imagine that "something happening to me" involves our car, with all four car seats in it, and they are rendered unusable.  Car seats are not cheap to replace, especially when you have to do it four at a time!  I keep that stash of cash on hand so that whoever takes care of my kids will have one less thing to worry about.  In exchange for the huge responsibility and sacrifice they would undertake in a worst case scenario...it's the least I can do!

Oh, and that not-so-secret stash?  It got raided once for groceries this past week before our replacement credit and debit cards arrived.  So, now that my husband knows where it is (yes, I CAUGHT him raiding it a second time!), I gotta think of a new hiding place!  :)

$153.83

I like to re-use things whenever I can, and these old peanut butter containers have worked really well as change jars!  They're plastic, so I don't have to worry about them breaking if they get dropped, and they don't get unmanageably heavy when they're filled with coins, either.  

These particular change jars came in very handy a few weeks ago when we began to run low on cash.  I took them in and converted all of our coins into "paper money" (as our kids call it), and we had $153.83 worth of coins!  I know people who throw away pennies instead of going to the trouble of storing them.  The coin counting machine told us that we had 1563 pennies -- which is well worth the trouble of storing them, if you ask me!

A Lost Wallet

We didn't have much when we got married 12 years ago.  Our living room furniture was borrowed from a friend, and those last few days before each payday...well, you'd usually find us eating with my parents.  My favorite Bible verses in those early days were Proverbs 30:7-9:  "Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die:  Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."  My husband and I both worked full-time, didn't have kids, drove an old Honda, and rented a little duplex.  And we were happy and content!

Fast forward 12 years to where we are now.  We are now a single-income military family, and I homeschool our four kids (ages 7 and under).  We have two cars, and we own our own home.  We are still happy and content, but I have also learned a lot along the way!

I love to organize, and I am constantly going through our house de-cluttering and getting rid of things that we don't really need.  I also love to bargain shop, and I especially love the challenge of seeing how much I can shave off of the weekly grocery bill.  I thought I had a pretty good system going, until my husband lost his wallet a few weeks ago.  We had a limited amount of cash on hand while we waited for our credit and debit cards to be replaced, and I learned a lot more about being thrifty while we waited!

I read through a lot of blogs over the past few weeks, and collected quite a few ideas for saving money and living more simply.  Some I had already implemented in my own household, and some were new to me, but they all helped to inspire me to start this blog...my own little collection of money and time saving ideas.