Blessing: Busy, Busy Spring

We had one of the busiest spring times ever.  It was overwhelming and exhausting all at the same time but as I take time to reflect upon it, I realize we are very fortunate to have had the opportunities we had.  I'm thankful for our health to be able to run and do all of this and SO much more!  Here is a recap of the last 2 months. Sadly, I was too busy being caught up in being busy that I forgot to get my camera out at many of the events.  Lesson learned!

March 19: JR High track started (J and I co-coached boys and girls)

March 28: Close on new house

March  31: Move out of the trailer 
(forgot to take pics--oops!)

April 1: Celebrate my Grandpa's 85th Birthday

             Grandpa with the newest member of our family, cousin Ashley's beautiful girl, Mia

April 5-10th:  Easter break from school, house remodeling/painting (post w/pics on that soon), fun with the kids, Austin's 1st haircut and Easter celebrations.

                      Austin's 1st haircut.  By none other than Grandma Robin. Such a little man!

                    Alexis checking things off of her nature scavenger hunt list--our "spring break fun"

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                    Alexis and Kenley. 7 and 9.  Holding hands headed on the nature scavenger hunt. Aw!

Alexis is SUCH a good big sister.  Pushing her brother on the swing enjoying some beautiful Iowa spring weather.

 Alexis and some of her 1st grade buddies at the NGSC Easter Egg Hunt

 Austin and Daddy hunting for eggs too!

Daddy helping Alexis with the loot

Joshua, Kenley, Alexis, Austin and Saif at Grandma Donna's Easter Egg Hunt.

April 14: Alexis soccer games (every Saturday) started

April 15th-28th:  Track meets, soccer practice/games, prom, + crazy busy at school for both J and I.

(once again, should have taken more pictures!!)

April 28-May 12th:  More soccer, track meets, Justin started baseball, Alexis starts softball, church service project, quick lunch with a friend, Alexis recognized for a writing awards at Quint County Banquet, more painting/remodeling, confirmations, and more.  Phew.

May 13th: Graduation (we were invited to 28 parties--the joys of being teachers) and Mother's Day.

 Kids and Daddy let mommy have some quiet time.  They went squirrel hunting.  Oh joy!

 Kenley and Alexis with Grandma Robin on Mother's Day.  What a great grandma!

Papa and Austin getting ready to do cow chores.  Papa is his FAVORITE and cow chores take a close 2nd.  :)

May 14-18:  Last week of school (and was CRAAAAZY busy), soccer, track award party, baseball, softball, sweet friend Rachel's wedding shower, State Track meet (2 days), end-of-school-year celebration.

 Rachel and Andrew (school friend) at their school wedding shower

 Alexis at the last-day-of-school-celebration!

 The NF girls (+ Coach Davis) who participated/came to watch the Mustang State Track participants

Our first trip as a family to watch State Track

May 19-May 31:  Finishing up loose ends at school, Alexis softball games (we met up with Ashley and Cade at one!), Justin's baseball games, last soccer game, more Grad parties, a trip to Des Moines with the kids AND a trip without, garage sales, bonding with a few dear DSM friends + Brenda's family and Grandpa Cy, Joshua's track meet, Annual Memorial Day Nieland family fishing trip. 

 Little brother doing what he does best at sissy's events.  :)

 Cousins after the last soccer game!

Family time is the BOMB.COM, mom!

 The boys doing their thing

 Alexis choose to fish by Uncle Aron and "Aunt" Crystal all day because they let her cast all on her own.

Before a softball game at a sweet park in Washta, IA.

 She's a good little hitter!  It still overwhelms me to even see her out there.  THANK YOU JESUS!

 Austin and his buddy Cade.  They are one year apart to the day.  Aw!

 The Barbers at Alexis' softball game.

My dear college-friend Ashley and her adorable son, Cade after the softball game.

 What a speedy little thing (even in the pouring rain!!)

Phew!  There you have it and now you know why I haven't updated in 2 months! Let's just say I have leaned on the verse Matthew 11:28 quite a few times.  "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

It's been crazy but I look forward to a little down-time this summer to finish up house renovations and spend some (much needed) quality family time.  We are excited to get our house done but we are not going to let it overtake the priority of family time so stay tuned for house posts....coming soon!

Blessing: A House all of our OWN

Today was a BIG day for us.  We bought and paid for a house.  The bank does not own it.  It's ours.  The closing took 5 minutes. We signed 2 papers as opposed to when we closed on our first house. With a mortgage, you sign (what seemed like) millions of papers.

We are elated.  We have worked hard, made sacrifices and lived below our means for years....all for a moment like this!  THANK YOU God....and Dave Ramsey, of course!

The Cashier's Check we used to pay for our HOUSE.  In the amount of $78,167.00.

This house is not our dream house.  In fact, we have countless projects lined up to do in the next few months.  But, there is something about owning a house and not owing a dime on it.  The peace associated with not owning a dime on it is amazing.  We hope to help other couples learn to do the same thing when we host our first Financial Peace University class this fall. 

Here are a few "before" pictures of the house.  I can't wait to start our projects and share all of the before and after pictures.  Most of my inspiration comes from 2 of my favorite blogs, the famous http://www.younghouselove.com/ and my friend Jenna's Blog, http://domestic-engineer.com/     Ready.....set.....GO!

Living Room other Side

Living Room

Dining Room

Dining Room

Soon-to-be-remodeled-kitchen

Mud Room (love the space!)

More mud room

Entry Hall--Can't wait to get rid of this blue!

Front Entry

Stairway

Alexis' Room--next up after kitchen

Austin's Room

Austin's Room

The Master (BLUE ROOM!)  Bye Bye Blue!

Master other side

Master Closet #1

Master Closet #2

Our Home

Finally, A house of our own in Newell!

Frugal Tuesday Tip: Free Menu Planning Tool

One of the ways I save money is to plan a menu so I know what I want to get at the store instead of wandering and grabbing whatever looks good.  A lot of times, I base my menu off of the weekly loss leaders at the store (items they sell at or just above cost to get you in).  For example, Chicken and broccoli were on sale a couple of weeks ago so most of our meals had chicken and broccoli in them. 

When planning a menu, I get a lot of my recipe ideas off of the internet.  Either at Pinterest, other blogs, allrecipes.com, etc.  There is a sweet FREE tool out on the internet to get all of your planning in one place.

Say MMM .com is a free menu planning tool that lets you link recipes to your daily plans.  The very sweet thing about the free tool is that after you link a recipe, a pop up menu comes up with all of the ingredients in that recipe, allowing you to make a shopping list off of your weekly recipes. 

2 of my favorite things; technology and FREE, all in one place.  Score!  Happy menu planning!

Frugal Tuesday Tip: My Fitness Pal

It seems like a ton of people are on Weight Watchers these days.  I know Weight Watchers is a good program and I know it works.  My sister has lost over 20 pounds on it in 8 weeks (great job sis!!).  I almost thought about joining Weight Watchers when I saw that she has a super sweet App on her phone that tracks all of her "points".  She can scan a product and it will tell her how many points each serving is.  However, the nearest Weight Watchers meeting is 20 minutes away so that alone deters me from wanting to do it.  Not to mention it's about $10 a week.   I figure it would cost me about $60+ a month to do Weight Watchers plus my time driving there and back each week.  I am looking to lose some weight but I'm not interested in an extra monthly expense or time drainer.

Good news.....I have found a frugal alternative.  :)

 It's called My Fitness Pal.   Top 5 Perks of My Fitness Pal include:

1. It is FREE.
2. You can log your food and exercise.
3. You can connect via the web or your phone.
4. The phone app has a SCANNER!!  (Let's you scan your food and enters it for you)
5. You can connect with friends to motivate each other.

I was so excited to find this gem.  I used it about a year ago for a short amount of time but at the time you could only log on using a computer.  I am super excited to be able to track my food and exercise on my phone now because it's quick and can be done anywhere.  If you are in the market to lose some weight, check out My Fitness Pal!