Love Brightly

Now that the girls are older, they anticipate Christmas, specifically the PRESENTS! In attempt to keep the focus of the season not on how and when they receive things, last year I made a poster of activities of Christmastime--things they could look forward to until present-opening-time, and things that keep us focused on Christ's birth and giving to others. We would check off each activity as the days in December rolled by.  This year, I wanted to give even more focus to the different categories of activities and why we do them.  I thought about making my poster say "Christmas JOY" and have each letter of the word JOY be a category with the good ol' acronym: Jesus, Others, Yourself.  But as I've seen more and more entitlement sins grow in my kids (and myself) in our materialistic culture, I didn't want to separate Christ from any of the activities.  I decided to use the word Noel. I always thought Noel meant "Good News" (probably because of the Chri...

I'm not naturally good at financial planning or saving money. I value saving money; I think it's important, and my husband and parents are gifted at this and have helped me stick to a budget (see previous post Saving Money & Other Things I Learned From My Parents ), but by nature, if I have a dollar, I want to spend it. "Burning a whole in my pocket", as my Grandma would say.  What my mom, sister, and others who know me well would say about me is I am a money-STRETCHER. I learned quickly that if I found ways to pay less for things, then I could BUY MORE within my budget. :) I have clipped coupons on and off for years, but last year my friend Kim helped me focus my efforts with a few money saving tips (click on her name and it'll take you to her blog). Last week I saved $68 off my grocery bill by combining coupons from the Sunday paper, web coupons, and store specials.  I learned quickly that the "total saved" doesn't mean much if you end up spe...