This post contains affiliate links. Shortly after Christmas, a reader wrote to me about a shopaholic relative who decided to spend $1500 on one of her children right after Christmas. This relative lives on a fixed income and the reader knew that the relative was unable to afford the purchases (she was charging everything). She…
Over the past decade, there have been many years where I debated every penny of expense. Our income was so tight that even “free” things were evaluated for the cost that they had. An outing to see something still cost gas money to get there, when we didn’t have that money to spare, was definitely…
I hosted a baby shower last week for a soon to be first-time mom who is a huge Harry Potter fan. Since I seem to have a Harry Potter birthday party for at least one of my children every year (and have for the last few years) this meant I already had several items that…
I love art. As a child, I remember spending time outside with finger paints. I remember my fourth grade teacher teaching the class how to draw a tree without leaves by taking us outside to draw. When I was a little older, I took oil painting classes and painted waterfalls. I took high school art classes…
I cut lilies and herbs from the garden for my entry table. My husband and son cut up a mesquite tree for someone, and we got to keep the wood. Monday was cooler as a storm went by. I opened up the house during the day and turned off the air conditioner. A…
New Recipe: Apricot Honey Popsicles Feel free to change them out for any other fruit; I made them the last two weeks with peaches instead of apricots. Afternoon snacks that are cold are well-appreciated this time of year. My popsicle molds are starting to wear out. I’ve had a lot of questions before…
In between trips to the library and the swimming pool, and all of the other fun things you have planned for your children’s summer, there is a lot of time at home. Whether your children have summer off school, school through the summer (like mine) and have afternoons off, or it’s winter where you…
We headed back to BYU the next day. Our first stop was the BYU Paleontology Museum. The museum is free, and it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. It was just the right length for the children, and we saw several things that we had never even heard of before! …
The next day of our trip, we headed to Salt Lake City. We went to the Beehive House first. The garden was so pretty! We then bought a loaf of bread across the street, and had lunch (sandwiches, apples, pickles, and chocolate chip cookies) at a park across the street. We were delighted with the…
The reason we decided to leave in the fall was so that our children could see the changing leaves. Where we live, it doesn’t get cold enough for a big color change; the leaves usually turn brown and fall in December. A drive into the mountains would show them the beautiful mountains and the changing…
After our last trip (to California), my husband and I started discussing the possibility of another trip. We know that going to see something would mean a long drive, since Las Vegas is so far from anything. One of the closest drives that we could see (in a different direction from Southern California) is to…
My brother was married in California in July. This meant that we needed to make a trip to California and stay one night. The drive is about 5 1/2 hours each way. We decided to make the most of our time by leaving early the day of the wedding (the wedding was set for 4…