Multi-Purpose Closet Organization

When our home was first being built, my husband and I visited the site multiple times a week to check on the progress.  We were walking through one day during the framing phase and noticed what looked like a closet where we weren't expecting one.  This was really exciting for us because you can never have enough closets!

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How To Host a Successful Yard Sale

Each summer, my mom would hand us boxes or bags and tell us to go through our room and get rid of the things we no longer liked or used.  She also had us help with going through other rooms in the house.  Then we'd price the items we wanted to sell so we could put them in our yard sale.  We had to get up early on the day of the yard sale and help set up, try and sell things to our friends and then take it all down and give away anything that didn't sell.  For as long as I can remember, we did this every single summer.  Even after I moved away to college, I could count on my mom holding a yard sale.  I learned how to let go of unwanted/unused items, how to price to sell, how to count change and many other skills.

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Craft Room Organization {Using Chalkboard Labels}

When my husband and I started to work on finishing the basement, my only request was: "Can I please have a craft room?"  Knowing how much craft stuff I have, and how much my husband dislikes when I spread it all over the kitchen counters, he made sure that I had a space dedicated to my craftiness.  (He still likes to call it an office, but we both know it's really my craft room.)

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9 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Going to Disneyland the First Time

In a previous post, I talked about what I learned as I planned our family's first vacation to Disneyland.  We went and had so much fun and now that we are back, I have more tips to share that will make your experience at the park even more magical and stress-free.

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7 Things I Learned Planning Our First Family Trip to Disneyland

We recently went on our first family vacation to Disneyland.  The last time I went to Disneyland was about 15 years ago when I was in junior high so I didn't do much planning (besides finding ways to make money to spend).  In addition to this being our first vacation to Disneyland, it was also our first big family vacation with our kids.  While trying to figure it all out, I didn't really know where to start, so I turned to Facebook and asked my friends for their best Disneyland vacation planning tips.  Then I went to my Disney Pinterest board to look through my saved pins.  I was working within a short time frame (less than 2 weeks to plan it all out) so I needed to get as much information as possible as quickly as possible.

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Meal Planning: How Do I Stick with It? (Part 2)

Last week I posted about how to get started with meal planning.  I got a good response so I decided to do a little follow up post about how to stick with it once you've started.

Like with many good intentions, we start out strong.  But after a while, we can fall into the trap of complacency.  Life happens.  Other things take priority.  I totally get it!  However, I think it's easier to stick with something when we think about our "why" or our reason for doing it in the first place.  Maybe your "why" for meal planning is to put healthier meals on the table.  Or maybe it's that you want/need to stick within a budget.  Whatever it is, if it's important to you, then you can remind yourself of your "why" when it comes time to do your meal planning each week (or however often you do it).

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Meal Planning: Where Do I Start? (Part 1)

When my husband and I first got married, I didn't know much about meal planning.  I was used to cooking meals for myself and sometimes my sister, who was also my roommate.  What I made totally depended on what I happened to have on hand that week and more often than not it was a can of soup, pancakes (or some other breakfast food) or maybe a casserole if I was feeling ambitious and needing leftovers for a couple days.  It's not that I didn't know how to cook, but when you're cooking for one, it's just not super motivating to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Fast forward to 2016.  I've been cooking for my family of two, then three and now four for the last 7.5 years and it wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I finally decided that I needed to start meal planning.  My reasons were simple: 1) I wanted to make sure my family was eating well, 2) I hated hitting 4:00 or 4:30pm and realizing I had no idea what I was making for dinner that night and then rushing to figure it out, and 3) I wanted to save money.  I decided that I have enough things on my plate as a mom, wife and adult, that if I could make my life a little simpler by planning out our meals for the week then I should do it.

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