Ways to Spice Up Your Easter Party

Add some spring to your step and kick up your upcoming Easter get-together with extended family and friends.  The following fun-filled activities are designed to supplement traditional egg hunts without breaking the bank or forcing you to your breaking point: Craft Stations:  Before the annual Easter egg hunt gets underway have kids partake in some craft making.  This can be done by setting up various stations in your home.  Not only do these project centers keep kids busy while the adults mingle, but they also ensure your youngest guests have something to take home besides a bunch of chocolate.  An … Continue reading

Four Ways to Reduce Your Heating Bill

If the weather INSIDE is frightful because you are afraid of home heating bills, you won’t spend a very pleasant winter. A better solution is to stay warm by finding multiple ways of reducing your heating bill and then combine these strategies to reduce your heating bill to the lowest cost possible. Selective Heating Only heat the rooms you are actually using. Are there any rooms that can be closed off temporarily during the coldest part of the year? Even if your home isn’t zoned, you can make it warmer in the rest of the house by isolated unused rooms. … Continue reading

Your Presence is the Best Present

Forget about the fancy triple chocolate cookie pops, the pricey heart covered Build-a-Bear, and the massive red and white mylar balloon bouquet you were planning to gift your child with this Valentine’s Day.  Save your money and present your son or daughter with your presence on February 14th and in the days, weeks and months that follow. While candy, stuffed animals and shiny inflatables typically rank high on a child’s Valentine’s Day gift wish list, most kids would likely trade in the treats for one-on-one time with mom and dad. Life is hard enough for youngsters, so knowing that they … Continue reading

Free Websites that Teach Your Kids about Money

Teaching kids about money, where it comes from, how to make it grow and how to use it responsibly is one of those things that many of us mean to get around to doing, but don’t often seem to complete. In fact, money lessons should never really come to an end. As society, the economy and technology changes, it is important for us all to keep up, and pass on the skills, knowledge and advice to our children. Fortunately, we don’t have to do this alone. There are a few really good websites out there that will help us teach … Continue reading

Would You Marry Yourself?

Would you want to marry yourself?  Most of us probably don’t think about this but you might want to if you have teenagers. Why?  They are getting closer and closer to that time of making a lifetime commitment.  And the chances are pretty high they will choose someone similar to their same-sex parent. It’s an interesting thing to consider.  Although my 18-year-old son is nowhere near ready to get married, he does talk about the traits he would like in a wife.  Many of them are similar to mine. Hopefully he will bypass the negative one in me when it … Continue reading

Building Healthy Habits To Set A Good Example

Earlier this week I had a couple of days where I did not quite feel like myself. My patience was wearing thin, I was grouchy and irritable, and I was generally not all that fun to be around. I believe that the underlying cause of my acute case of the crankies is that for the past eleven days, I have been following a rather strict nutritional program called the Whole30. The Whole30 is a nutritional program designed by the folks at Whole9 that lasts for 30 days, as the name would imply. It is designed to help people reset their … Continue reading

Setting Goals That Work

While owning and operating a home – based business is a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself, it is helpful to set goals for your home – based business so that you can gauge your progress. Setting goals is also a good way to stay motivated. On the other hand, if you always find yourself setting goals and never reaching them, goals can leave you feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. The good news is that if you find yourself in the position of not being able to reach the goals that you have set for your home – based business, the … Continue reading

FHE with Small Children-Setting Goals

Have you ever thought about teaching your little ones about setting goals? I don’t think I ever really learned the value of goal setting until I became a missionary. I’m sure in my life up until that point, I had set goals and achieved them, but until my mission, I didn’t appreciate how setting goals can be life changing. We decided to have a family home evening with our little ones on how to set goals. It was a VERY simple lesson. We have been working with our oldest daughter, who is almost 6, on encouraging her to stop sucking … Continue reading

Setting Measurable Goals with Deadlines

When it comes to housekeeping, having no plan is what usually causes disarray, disorder and uncleanness. Too many of us rely on what we “hope” to get to, what we would “like” to accomplish. But this doesn’t really get us anywhere. I have talked in the past about this but I want to remind you that when it comes to setting goals, they have to be measurable. General goals such as, “I want a clean house” won’t work. You can’t really measure a clean house because your idea of clean and my idea of clean could be completely different. So … Continue reading

What Your Habits Teach Your Kids

I’m filling in for Sara for a few days and I have to say, I’m a little nervous. What do I know about money that I can share with you? Since most of my life is consumed with raising my daughter to be a good person, and that includes someone who is fiscally responsible, I’ll start with what we are teaching our kids about money, and what we should be teaching them. Are your bills in a pile on the counter? A pile that keeps getting bigger and bigger while you ignore it? Are your credit cards maxed out? Do … Continue reading