Sweet Home Alabama

We live in the south, in Enterprise, Alabama. It's a small military town in lower Alabama (or LA as the northerners like to put it). We are right next to Ft. Rucker, the home of army aviation, so we get this wonderful mix of local culture and the transient aspects of a military town.

Being a helicopter pilot is the norm around here. Young guys and families will come here for their military Helicopter flight training. They start out in the TH-67 (military version of the Bell 206), which is what Ben flew/will fly with them. Then they move on to fly either Blackhawks or Chinooks (said like "shin-book" without the "b"). We actually live right under the Blackhawk training path so they fly over all the time. Occasionally we get to see the Chinooks overhead too which I think look so cool.

 After these pilots are gone for a few years, they often come back for re-currency training, which makes it fun to see the lives of so many friends interweave and reunite. A lot of them, when they leave the military, retire here with civilian jobs, so we get the transient as well as the planted roots feel. 
Enterprise is a unique little place. The town honors the boll weevil.... So gross! It's this tiny bug that eats cotton. Roads are named after it, songs are sung and there's even a statue of one in the middle of town. I was really confused until I learned the back story, and now I admire the humility of the town because of it. You can read all about it HERE but basically, the boll weevil came in, ruined the cotton crops and forced the farmers to switch to planting peanuts, which did VERY well and saved the economy. Kind of sweet, and creepy, all at the same time ;) 

Photo from Wikipedia

So, thanks to the Boll Weevil, this area became the Peanut Capitol of the World. Sessions peanut plant is downtown and on the warm spring nights, if you drive down main it smells deliciously of roasted peanuts. At the farmers market on a Saturday morning you can buy cups of freshly boiled peanuts... a flavor all it's own, which I kind of like ;)

Enterprise may be small, but you can't beat the close location to the Beach! Less than a  2 hour drive and you're in Panama City Beach or Destin, Florida. Clear blue water, white sand, and perfect for kids. We have loved our overnight or day trips down there where we can swim and see stingrays and collect shells. I'm still trying to figure out the tricks to leaving the sand at the beach where it belongs and NOT all through my car and house :)

The south has a culture all it's own... The accents are so sweet and the manners so friendly. At school the kids are required to respond to their teachers with "Yes Sir" and "Yes Ma'am" and I love it when my friends children refer to me as "Miss Angela".

And it wouldn't be a complete post about Alabama if I didn't mention football. Oh my goodness, I thought the BYU vs Utah rivalry was bad but this is crazy. Even before we moved here we were told we needed to pick sides: Alabama or Auburn. They each have their own slogans... Alabama is "Roll Tide" and Auburn is "War Eagle". One day at the store someone said "roll tide" and then I heard echos throughout the store... High voices, low voices, all repeating "roll tide". So hilarious! After last years game if we have to pick, we're rooting for Auburn... because as my brother said, it's better to be lucky than good ;)

Image from http://www.oddsshark.com

I hope you've enjoyed a slice of our part of the south and if you wanna check it out for yourselves, our doors are open. Bye y'all, and remember, Jesus loves you!

The Best Money Decisions We've Made

I am still NO money expert, but I sure WANT to be. So as I learn things I want to try and share them with you ;) When Ben started flight school and I realized that his instructors were brand new pilots themselves I thought it was CRAZY, but what better way to learn more deeply than to teach, right?!

So here are my top 5 Best Things We've Done for our Finances

1. Pay TITHING FIRST and a generous FAST offering. Last weekend a speaker said "You can't give the Lord a slice of bread without Him giving you a loaf in return." I truly believe this from occasions over and over and over again. Sacrifice truly brings blessings!

2. Have an EMERGENCY FUND. As we were first figuring money out, we really struggled with whether to pay down debt or save money. It was Suze Orman that taught me that we needed an emergency fund FIRST, so we didn't have to go into MORE debt when an emergency came up. (We found $1000 covered most emergencies or at least softened the blow.)

3. Make SAVINGS AUTOMATIC; treat it like a bill and don't wait to save whatever is "left over" at the end of the month. We have a separate savings account that is linked to our checking and have the bank AUTOMATICALLY transfer a certain amount each month. Even $25 a month starts to add up!  You can always pull it out if you need it, but it's a good habit to get into. (We also put $5 a month into a savings account for each of the kids.)

4. Pay your bills a MONTH AHEAD. I was told this by my Sales Manager at Bassett Furniture years ago. This is especially helpful when your income varies month-to-month, but even if you are on a flat rate, it brings worlds of peace. Build up your savings until you can pay for a whole month's expenses or do like us, and use your tax return to get ahead. No more stress about bill timing, no more overdraft, no more credit cards to save you, just PEACE!

5. YOU NEED A BUDGET software! You need to tell your money where to go before it's all gone. Having a plan and a good way to follow through with it is essential. This software is AWESOME and does everything I wanted and needed. It really makes budgeting FUN and SUCCESSFUL. It implements a great philosophy, encourages savings and is FLEXIBLE! It cloud syncs to your PHONE and your HUSBAND'S phone, so you can BOTH be on the same financial page. Here's a link to a 3rd party video overview and HERE'S a LINK to their FREE trial and a discount if you LOVE it like I do!

We don't have much and we still have a long way to go financially, but these 5 things have brought us so much peace, allowed us to survive the bumps of life, and occasionally, help others along the way. What have you done good for your finances today?

Saving Money on Food

One of the first things I focused on when trying to tighten the budget was FOOD. When I think about food and saving money it's all about KEEPING it SIMPLE and MAKING A PLAN!

I've tried a number of different things...

I did the whole crazy couponing thing for a while... it was fun to get a box of Cheez-It's for 25 cents and seeing my receipt show that I saved double what I spent, BUT it was a LOT of work, and I ended up with a LOT of food my family really SHOULDN'T be eating anyway.

I tried the freezer meals for a month thing... again, a lot of work, a lot of buying and I don't think it saved me any money.

The thing that I find works the BEST for me is MEAL PLANNING! I did an old post (HERE) on our Illiteration Menu (i.e. Macaroni Monday) that I've used for the past couple of years to spur my meal ideas, but really, we do a lot of repeats. It's easier keeping the pantry stocked that way and we've been able to fine tune it to where I get less complaints about "What disgusting dinner are we having tonight?" Yes, that's actually what my 7-year old says to me before dinner :S (How did I get such picky eaters?!?)

I plan my Meals ONE WEEK at a TIME. I "shop" from my pantry first for meal ideas, then buy whatever else I need. I do NOT plan lunches, only dinner, and we do rotate through different breakfasts, but they all take the same ingredients, so I just keep us stocked on eggs, milk, flour and syrup ingredients.

Here's a page that I got some good ideas from and she also did this handy Monthly Meal Plan. You don't need to fill it out for the whole month, just ONE WEEK at a time, that way you can make sure you're not repeating too frequently. I usually keep my plan after the month is over to spur ideas for 

the next month.

 

Having a plan brings peace of mind and just remember to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid ;) 

Favorite Things: Lists and Apps

I'm a fan of lists.... I like making goals and checking off my progress. I also LOVE paper. I've had such a hard time switching to any sort of digital lists, I just don't feel the same sense of accomplishment, BUT paper is easy to lose and to forget. So I wanted to share with you one of my most-used Apps: WUNDERLIST! It's free and it's great... you can customize as many lists as you want and CHECK THEM OFF AS YOU GO! I love it.... once checked it grays out and goes to the bottom.

Now my SHOPPING list and KIDS CLOTHING SIZES and LIBRARY BOOK IDEAS and DAILY TO-DO's are right with me all the time, and as long as I don't leave my I-pod at home, my grocery list is always handy. 

Stop Motion Videos for Kids

My son is in this cool class at school where he gets to do extra projects that he loves and last night he put together a Stop Motion Video to present in class today. It was so much fun, and easy enough that I could help him with so I decided to share. This would be a GREAT summer activity!

What you need:

• Camera (either a web cam or a camera with a tripod)
• Computer
• Monkey Jam (free dowloand)
• Paper/legos/clay to photograph

It's pretty basic, you take pictures of your cool stuff and only move them slightly between shots. Once you have all your images you may need to convert them to a smaller size like we had to. I used this handy program (FastStone Photo Resizer) that was able to resize and change the brightness/etc that was super easy to install and use.

After the images are ready you open Monkey Jam and follow these steps:

• Click "File" then "New Xps" (A window pops up and you click "OK")
• Click the "10" icon at the top to add 2x as many frames as you have images (each time you click it adds 10 frames)
• Import your images by clicking "File" then "Import" then "Images"
• A window will pop up and on the left you select your images then press the "Add Files" and you choose to "Copy" those.
• Now your images should be listed in the box on the right.
• Click "Import" when it's loaded them, make sure all your images appear in the right order
• Click the TV icon to see a preview of your film
• If it's going too fast or too slow adjust the frames per second by clicking "Settings" then "FPS" and then selecting a preset number or your own custom one
• Click the TV icon again to check
• Once it's going the speed you want, click the FILM strip icon to export it to .avi (which is a video format) 
• A window will pop up where you tell it where to save and make up the name 
• Click "Save Movie" and it will do its' work and you're done
• Enjoy the show!

My first attempts were not working, then with some testing I realized the problem was my image files were too large. Once I converted them with FastStone (link above) I didn't have any problems.

Ben was able to load it easily on a flash drive and off to school he went :)

Confessions

Have you ever gotten Blog Depression? Or more likely Pinterest Depression? It's that feeling you get when you see how beautiful and crafty and talented all these other women are and look around and feel like that is MILES away from how you are?! I think I went through a few months of that before :) Well, this post is to make sure you don't get that from me... LOL (as if that were possible)!

This is ME ;) 

This is my usual morning attire... at least til I throw on some sweats to take the kids to school, then clean the house, maybe exercise (I hate exercising) and possibly shower around 1pm, at which point in time I may or may not do my hair or makeup.

In REALITY:

• I do about 50% of what I should
• I spend way too much time on the computer
• I hide from life in projects
• I yell at my kids on a nearly daily basis
• My kids fight ALL the time lately
• Our house is REALLY noisy (probably why I'm a screamer)
• I am too judgmental, too full of pride 
• I desire an extraordinary amount of attention
• I don't give my children nearly ENOUGH attention
• The list could go on.....

This is what our house USUALLY looks like:

That being said, this blog is NOT about all the things I do and have done wrong, it's about all the things I'm TRYING to do right. I am loving the stage of life we are in... we have our bumps, but I love my family and my role as a wife, mother and home-maker.

My GOALS with this blog are to:

• Keep in touch with friends and family
• Share ideas that have helped me
• Post more consistent and relevant content
• Experiment in marketing and promotion
• Get more writing experience 

 I have been so FORTUNATE to cross paths with SO many wonderful people who have become my friends and it's your comments that drive most of what I decide to write about. So if you're reading this, make a comment below about what you'd like to hear/see more of. I'm feeling a little exposed right now, but it makes me feel more love for you too, so I guess that's a good thing!

Love,
Ang

Our SIMPLE Laundry System

One thing I've been asked is HOW we do our laundry with all these kids?!?

This makes me kind of chuckle, because I FIGHT structure and systems, but with 7 kids I've really been FORCED to get into some simple routines merely to SURVIVE! This is why I say having a lot of kids forces me to be a better mom... ONLY out of NECESSITY :)

So I am by nature a BINGE and PURGE type of a person... I will let things pile up, like laundry, until I have a GIGANTIC mountain and spend 2 whole days just WASHING, SORTING, FOLDING... and maybe putting away :) That's IF I don't get distracted and forget to switch a load of wet, then they get stinky and I have to wash them like 3 times to make them smell normal again. (Which, by the way, I've found that if I dump in a little baking soda and vinegar I can knock out the smell in one wash.)

So, I don't like spending 2 whole days doing laundry... so I finally resorted to the whole LOAD-A-DAY school of thought, and here's how we do it, and it seems to work.

For the KIDS LAUNDRY:

1. Every ROOM has it's own BASKET for dirty clothes. My kids all share rooms so between 2 or 3 kids, they fill up their basket about once a week. They get washed together and when done, they end up back in the same room, so less sorting needing to be done.

2. I DO NOT sort LIGHTS and DARKS for the kids clothes. (Occasionally I will pull out something really white and do it seperately, or if I have new darks, I'll wash them alone, but otherwise they ALL go in together.) I wash in COLD and really haven't had a problem.

3. I run a LOAD-A-DAY, roughly speaking. I follow loosely the FlyLady routines where you ask yourself morning and night, "Where's my Laundry?" Start a batch in the morning, switch it sometime during the day, and sort it... sometime.

4. I DO NOT FOLD or HANG UP the kids clothes. Each child has 2 drawers.... one that holds SOCKS, UNDERWEAR and PJ's; the other holds SHIRTS, PANTS, SKIRTS, PLAYDRESSES. (Sunday clothes do get hung up in the closet.) Sometimes we put PICTURE LABELS taped on the drawers so the littler ones know where to find things.

5. My KIDS have to help out, the amount is based on their age. The OLDER ones can wash, switch to dry, sort, fold, put away... you know, they do it all, and then they can decide how they want them put away (folded, rolled, piled). The YOUNGER ones can HELP loading the machines, HELP sort the clean, and then THEY put them in the drawers themselves. Sometimes when I want to speed up the process I only make them PUT it away.

Sometimes their clean laundry will wait in their room in a basket until they are in the MOOD to put it away, but they don't get their CHORE CHECK until it's done.

The ADULT LAUNDRY is fairly simple too.... 2 baskets in my closet, LIGHTS and DARKS... as the clothes come off they get sorted. Once the basket is FULL I wash it and make GREAT efforts to DRY, SORT, FOLD/HANG it all that same day.

Once you've got this down, it's easy to throw in that extra batch of TOWELS or BEDDING and our house runs smoothly. 

Despite what I USED to think, doing a LITTLE each day really does work well, keeps us supplied with clean clothes, and makes me happy!