Christmas traditions absolutely do not have to be filled with stuff to be magical. They don’t even have to be about stuff at all. In the five years since I originally published this post, my feelings on the matter haven’t changed. We still don’t do Santa. We still limit the kiddo’s presents to one “bigger”…
Friday’s Frugal Five (COVID-19 Week 130)
I find that I am still very much attached to this blog, even if these days it's mostly just a diary update of our lives as we continue through the 2020s and everything that entails. There is plenty I would like to write about (unlike when I first started blogging in 2017 and was worried…
The True Cost of Saying Yes (Revisited)
Yesterday, I wrote an outline and the beginnings to a new post to be published today, and I have perhaps another hour left until it would be ready to share. Instead of finishing it up though, I spent my afternoon and evening out in my garden harvesting tomatoes, blueberries, and greens, and tidying up the…
Friday’s Frugal Five (2020 – Week 6)
The kiddo turned FIVE yesterday. He starts t-ball next month and kindergarten this coming fall. Not such a little guy any more, but I'm loving watching his personality grow as he morphs into more of his own person. He's sleeping in his own bed these days (with a ton of stuffies), getting his own snacks…
My 2019 Book List
2019 was my first year tracking the books I read. Ever since I learned to read at just two and a half years old, I rarely stopped. There were a couple of years post college where I read less than normal, but I've since resumed my voracious appetite for written content. That includes blog posts…
Friday’s Frugal Five (2019 – Week 45)
Wednesday was our 10th anniversary. I decided ultimately to write a short blog post about it because I wanted a simple record of the last year like I'd done previously, and I enjoyed going back and looking at the past few years when I'd done the same. We both worked that day, but we managed…
Friday’s Frugal Five (2019 – Week 44)
My sister and brother in law invited us over for high tea at their house on Sunday afternoon. They'd gone to a tea shop in Seattle and had a great time, so they decided to set up something similar at their house. We headed over, along with my husband's parents and his godfather, and we…
Friday’s Frugal Five (2019 – Week 43)
Last Friday was our "would have been" tenth wedding anniversary. My now-husband was active duty in the Marine Corps though, and when he let his command know that we were engaged - and had set a wedding date - they purposefully sent him on a detachment detail to Yuma, Arizona for three months, overlapping with…
Friday’s Frugal Five (2019 – Week 41)
As I recapped on Monday, I spent last weekend at Cents Positive in downtown Seattle. I had a wonderful time, as expected, and would have been happy had it lasted an extra day or two. That said, I so appreciate that the retreat is held over a weekend, as my vacation time is limited and…
Friday’s Frugal Five (2019 – Week 40)
Last Friday morning, the kiddo decided he wanted to have a sleepover with his Grandma and Grandpa (the husband's parents) - and he wanted to have it that night. Apparently they had been talking about the idea for a while, but he woke up that morning ready to go. I asked my mother in law, and…